[ What are you even talking about. People don't talk to him like he's a person, Ezra. That's not a thing that happens. Not without a reason. ] What are you asking me for? It's your plan, not mine.

[ He's learning. Sort of, a little bit. The temptation to go off the handle and monologue about manipulation and whatever whatever was there, though. It had been a consideration. This, again, takes some time for him to reply to. He remembered, by the way. His promise to remain honest. To try to remain honest.

Finally: ] Nothing that should concern you.

Don't patronize me, Master Bridger.

[ He doesn't want to talk about it but was that because he just didn't want to talk about it or because it felt weak if he did; that someone would see him, like many already had, see his weaknesses. That he'd admitted something to Cobb and it backfired and now it felt raw because he hadn't fully thought on the truth of what he'd said to the man until that moment. And it was wasting away because. He just could not.

He wants to trust you, Ezra. He really does. ]

It is what you want, though. Isn't it? To become a Master? [ Just going to ignore the patient kindness here for a sec if its all the same to you. ]

Mind well what you teach, Ezra. It was not that the Sith hadn't existed for those thousands of years in so called called peace. They very much did. Intelligent as Sidious is he would not have been able to do all that he had done were not the Order so blind.

[ Well, yes. The vast majority of his understanding of things had been twisted by Sidious. Not all of it was lies but as they had already addressed: good manipulation starts with the truth. But really what Maul was doing was biding time. Trying to weigh the various possibilities and outcomes of what might happen if he was honest about the whole what's wrong thing. And so the Zabrak goes silent again. Consider him bored with whatever this conversation was going to become.

It was a resounding five hours later that he spoke again. Very quietly. ] He forgave me.

[ Lucky you are, Ezra. For you are correct. ] Yes.

[ Balanced, though. Oddly. He took his time to find some kind of center. Well, as much as he could. He wanted to trust Ezra; he did back then, too. He just. You know. Did what he always did. ] Besides the infuriating notion that even after everything he could still be the better man? [ Heavy sarcasm in those last two words yet it also came with an amused chuckle. ] I wonder if he did it to spite me.

[ He's quiet again. The type of silence that lingered as if he had more to say but couldn't yet. No, Maul knew that wasn't it and perhaps that was the frustrating part. One of many. ]

[ He could only hope that there was a tiny piece of that man who chose forgiveness in part to resist everything that Maul had come to stand for even as he died; and he could die with just a bit of his claw in one of those many wounds that he'd made. Because that's just the person he was. And so, with great tone of entertainment: ] One could hope.

[ And then a moment, and one more moment longer. ] But I asked. I— asked for it, Ezra. It meant something different then, I think. When death was so near. Now its harder to discern.

No. [ Immediate and certain. He— ah. Mm... not yet ready to talk about it, maybe. Conflict. Too common a feeling these days. ]

[ That was it. That notion. It was easier for him to die than for him to change and something about what Cobb said struck right into this. His words were heated, full of grit, but not unhinged.] It's not about easy. I— [ He sighed. Oh, but it was. Was not his life hard enough? Could he not be spared this once? No. Clearly not. ]

[ That wretched stone the young Kenobi gave him. He couldn't carry it with him. No, he couldn't. Not yet. Though it was near and. Mh. ] You have felt the darkside, haven't you?

[ There was a point to this. Not, surprisingly, to do the whole you should join us blah blah blah thing. Tempting as that was. Maul truly believed that Ezra belonged not as a Jedi but this wasn't where he was going with it. Not right now, at least. ]

Pity to them. [ A bit amused. He's not going to be upset that lives who likely deserved to be ended were ended. Not when so many Jedi did the same but claimed they didn't. Not the point, this wasn't the point. Alright, to the point. ] And when you did, how did that feel, Ezra? [ Surprising amount of honest curiosity in his voice. ] Compared to what you knew before; what you felt before.