"So, the rumors are true," the Seventh Sister noted. "Darth Maul lives."

"Formerly Darth," he corrected, "now just Maul."

Anakin resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the dramatics, which was saying a lot, coming from him. From the side, Kanan ordered, "Ezra, step away from him!"

"Kanan, I swear he's on our side!"

"Perhaps my actions will speak louder than words," Maul suggested, stepping between the master and apprentice. He pulled out his lightsaber from his staff and began attacking the Inquisitors, all three of them.

The Jedi stood back and watched. "What are we waiting for?" Ezra asked, but Anakin knew exactly what he was waiting for. He was waiting to see if this little alliance was a trick or not. Despite having never met the ex-Sith, he knew plenty about him.

After a minute or so of dueling, the Seventh Sister locked sabers with him. "Why would you come here?" she asked, but her brother had a guess.

"He knows of the artifact!" the Fifth Brother called out, running forward to attack. Anakin locked sabers with him, and Kanan soon did the same with the Eighth Brother. They were all at a standstill, all except for Ezra.

"The holocron," the Eighth Brother asked. "Do you have it?"

"You will find out soon enough," Maul answered him, which raised the hairs on Anakin's neck. He knew it wasn't chance that both the Inquisitors and Maul were here: it made sense that they were after the same thing.

Pushing Maul off of her, the Seventh Sister called out, "Fall back!" The three jumped and activated their spinning sabers, lifting like helicopters away from the Jedi and Maul.

Only when they were out of sight did anyone relax, though not very much. Anakin glared at the ex-Sith. "You know, I was hoping you had died in the past sixteen years. It was the least the Empire could do if it's going to hunt down Jedi as well."

"What, you think these little puppets could kill me?"

"I was hoping."

Maul laughed absurdly. "You put too much faith in hope, Skywalker, although perhaps it will serve you well today."

Right, because that wasn't concerning at all. "What do you mean? Why are you here?"

"For the same reason you are, I assume," Maul answered. "I am the enemy of your enemy now, and I have my own reasons for wanting the Empire to fall. But we have little time," he warned, inhaling sharply. "The one they call Jadis will be here soon."

"How do you know this?" Kanan asked.

Turning away from the ledge, he answered, "Her dogs will tell her where we are. Three Jedi? She won't be able to resist the opportunity. I must say, you truly have grown into your reputation," Maul went on, speaking to Anakin. "The last time I saw you, you were little more than a child."

"Wait... really?" Kanan asked, and Ezra looked intrigued as well. They both looked to Master Skywalker.

He gave Maul a look before sighing and explaining. "Before he died and brought himself back to life with the Dark Side, Darth Maul was sent by his master to force Naboo into signing a deal with the Trade Federation. Master Qui-Gon Jinn, along with his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi, found me and took me to the Jedi temple. We briefly interacted when Maul almost ran me over with a speeder."

Though the story rather disturbed the other two Jedi, Maul laughed. "Ah, good times, good times. And here we are, over thirty years later. How time flies."

"Okay, hold on," interrupted Kanan. "There is no 'we.' Dealing with Inquisitors is one thing. Jadis is another. And I'm not convinced we're all on the same side anyway."

"Kanan, we should trust him," Ezra insisted, holding a holocron out to his master. "Look! He and I took this from the temple together! This is why we came here, right? To find out about the Sith. To find a way to beat them."

Anakin, personally, fully doubted the integrity of this entire commission from Yoda. That certainly wasn't Anakin's plan, but it sounded like something Yoda would send them to do. He glanced at Kanan, who seemed about as convinced as he did.

"Master Skywalker, you said we came here for knowledge," he went on.

"Jedi cannot open Sith holocrons," he stated, guarding his inner thoughts.

Maul, of course, butted into the conversation. "But you may unlock the temple itself," he suggested.

Ezra was sold. "How? Tell me how." Despite doubting Maul's intentions, Anakin listened. The more information he had, the more prepared he would be later.

"At the top of the temple is a chamber," he explained, pointing up to the pyramid that stood above them. "Connect the holocron to the obelisk within, and you can unlock the ancient knowledge of the Sith."

"It sounds like you want us to stick around," Anakin pointed out, crossing his arms.

Maul walked away from the group so none of them could see his face. "I have had a suspicion about Darth Jadis for many years now. If it is true, I need assurance that I will speak with her. If it is false, I cannot defeat her alone."

A moment of silence passed, then Ezra spoke up. "I say we stay with him."

"Yeah? Well, I say we go, so that settles it."

"Are you such cowards that you would run from this chance to defeat your enemies?" Maul asked, confronting them. "Who slaughter your friends?

Anakin saw Ezra considering it. For some reason, the Padawan believed Maul, but he wasn't sure if it was because it was worth it to trust Maul or if it was another trick. Personally, Anakin knew which one he thought it was. Ezra turned to his master. "Kanan?"

He didn't speak, but after a moment, he turned to Anakin. Anakin turned to Maul, staring him down. No movement, no words, just the Jedi Master watching the renegade Sith intently.

Maul's 'suspicion' about Jadis had to be related to the connection with Barriss, that much was certain to Anakin. He didn't doubt Maul's desire to do what he was saying, nor did he disbelieve that he hated the Empire. He knew about the ongoing rivalry between Tyrannus and Maul. It was what wasn't being said that concerned him. How was he twisting the truth? What parts were being left out? What did it mean for the Jedi at the end of the day?

And then there was the Balance to consider. If they killed all three Inquisitors and Jadis, or even just one of them, what repercussions would they suffer for it? It was Anakin's destiny to restore balance to the Force. Did that mean that he was supposed to intervene right now with the knowledge he possessed? Was he supposed to forget about the Balance and act how he would otherwise? Should he go and facilitate or leave before things got out of hand?

Yet he knew the Balance was not in balance. It was still heavy on the Dark Side, and hypothetically, killing a few Dark users would even it out a little bit, but he didn't know how much.

He gave Maul one last good look, and the ex-Sith began to realize that he had underestimated Skywalker. The Jedi knew much more than he had anticipated, and they were both well aware that Maul wasn't fooling him. This was not some naive child; this was not a Knight who still had much to learn, but an experienced Master who was wise and powerful. Skywalker did not trust Maul, and Maul suddenly wondered if he ought to fear the Chosen One that Sidious had coveted so much.

In the end, Skywalker turned to Kanan and Ezra. "We'll make our decision together. If you'll excuse us," he told Maul, walking away from the Zabrak and motioning for the other two to follow him.

The three walked silently far away out of the earshot of Maul. Anakin kept his senses open to his surroundings, hoping that he would realize in time if Maul tried to eavesdrop. When he was satisfied with the distance between them, he turned to Ezra first. "What do you think?"

"About what?"

"Any of it and all of it. Tell me what you think I should know."

Ezra looked down at the holocron in his hand before answering. "He really wants to get into that temple. He's telling the truth. It would help us so much against the Empire."

He nodded, but he wanted more specifics. "Help us what?"

"Beat them! Isn't that what we've been trying to do this whole time?"

"And how is a Sith temple going to help us do that?"

"Maul said it had knowledge inside. It might help us defeat the Sith!"

Anakin was really starting to form a strong dislike for Maul. What else had he told Ezra? "How would knowledge help us defeat them? What kind of knowledge would be in that temple that could help us do that?"

He was about to answer the first question until he stumbled on the second one. Ezra's mouth opened, but no sound came out for a little bit. "Well...you have to understand your enemies to defeat them, right?"

"The Inquisitors are looking for this temple too, which means Dooku and Jadis haven't been here before. How do you know the knowledge in the temple is going to be about them?"

Kanan looked at Master Skywalker with a new sense of respect. He wasn't shutting Ezra down, but he was forcing himself to examine what he did know a little more critically, a little more analytically. He wasn't telling Ezra what he should do. He was guiding Ezra into telling himself what he should do. It was the same thing Skywalker had done when Kanan had asked to hunt down Jadis. He decided he would ask Master Skywalker for a step-by-step tutorial to do the same later, assuming they made it out alive.

It was working. Ezra was at a loss for words and wasn't looking at the holocron with as much optimism as before. Anakin glanced back in Maul's direction before going on. "Whatever is in that temple has probably been sitting there for a thousand years, probably longer. It may have some knowledge about the Sith, but assuming we can even access it, the knowledge won't have anything about the Empire. For Jedi like us who know nothing about the history of the Sith or Sith temples, it may not do us any good to go."

"Not us," Ezra repeated, "but Maul and the Inquisitors are all here. They aren't Sith, but they are Dark Side users. What happens if they get their hands on it?"

"That is slightly more concerning to me," Anakin pointed out, crossing his arms. "So, what do you think?"

Glancing one more time at the holocron in his hand, he lowered it and put it back in his pocket. The simple motion made Kanan do a victory dance in his head. With Anakin's advice in mind, Ezra made a different statement than before. "We're the ones with the best chance of stopping any of them from getting in the temple. If we leave now, who knows what they'll do?"

Now that was a point Anakin could get behind. He turned to Kanan next. "And you?"

"If I'm completely honest, I don't trust Maul at all."

"How so? His words or his motives?"

"Just him in general," Kanan explained. "We don't exactly have a good history with weird-looking people with red lightsabers. Maybe he's not a Sith now, but just because he's against the Empire doesn't mean he wants to help the Rebellion."

Ezra looked around them. "Who else's side is he going to be on, then?"

He did a double-take at his apprentice before gesturing up at the 'sky.' "His own? Lots of people look out for themselves and no one else. What if he's lying to get what he wants from us?"

"What could we possibly have that he might want?"

"You have his holocron, don't you?"

He made a face when he realized Kanan was right and cursed under his breath. His master ignored it and turned back to Master Skywalker. "Just because he wants us to stay, I want to leave. Whatever he really has planned isn't going to be fun for anyone else."

Again, Anakin saw the logic behind it. He had met his fair share of freelancers and knew their selfish tendencies. It wasn't improbable that Maul was the same way. Despite Maul's friendly show, this was a three-way game.

"What about you?" Kanan asked, noticing he hadn't put his own opinion out for the trio.

"Two people I've fought beside have encountered Maul before," he began, remembering the stories from both of them. "Ever since he's left the Sith, he's wanted to destroy them for abandoning him and destroy the Jedi for causing his fall in the first place. He's willing to ally with either party for the sake of his own goals, but as soon as their goals come into conflict, he's been very quick to betray them."

Anakin made eye contact with Ezra as he went on. "I believe Maul. That holocron will allow us to access whatever is in the temple, but I also believe there is more he isn't saying. Whatever his personal agenda is, he hasn't told us, other than the bit about Jadis. Even in that, I don't like the idea of being the bait to draw Jadis in. We've already attracted the attention of the Inquisitors."

Kanan remembered what Maul had said earlier. "Jadis is probably already on the way. As a real Sith, who knows what will happen when she gets in that temple."

"Well...nothing, as long as we have this holocron," Ezra pointed out.

"We'll be targets as long as we have it," reminded Anakin, thinking.

"So we destroy it?"

Ezra brought it back out and set it on the ground, activating his lightsaber. If the holocron was the key and the temple was the lock, it made sense to get rid of it. He brought the blue blade down on the artifact, but the holocron seemed to have a mind of its own. A pulse of energy radiated from the kyber crystal inside, throwing Ezra back.

"Ezra!" Kanan called, rushing to his side. He helped his apprentice sit up, making sure he hadn't been seriously hurt.

Upon seeing that he was okay, Anakin turned back to the holocron on the ground. He knelt to pick it up, examining it as best as he could. There wasn't much to see, though, not when he was a Jedi. I could really use you, Sister, he thought, referring to Ahsoka's alter ego. Any thoughts on what to do with this?

"Okay, so we can't destroy it," Ezra noted, crawling back up to his feet with Kanan's assistance. "Should we hide it?"

"The kyber crystal inside will call to the others," Anakin explained, shaking his head. "There's nowhere on Malachor we could leave it safely, and I get the feeling no one here is about to let us just escape with it."

That limited their options. Though it hadn't been decided what they would do, it was clear what they wouldn't do. Defeatedly, Kanan sighed and spoke into his comlink. "Chopper, we're staying for a while." The droid grunted back in response. "Yeah, I know it's a bad idea. Just scan for incoming ships and keep the Phantom out of sight."

Ezra seemed about as excited as his master. "So we can't destroy it, we can't hide it, we can't let the others get to it, and we can't leave. So..."

Both he and Kanan turned to Anakin. He had their trust now, more so now than ever. The two of them were out of ideas, so it was time to let the Master make a decision.

Anakin, standing back up, looked at the Sith holocron. They couldn't change the indestructibility of the artifact, nor could they affect the song that alerted the Inquisitors and Maul to its presence. Keeping it away from them was more of a goal, as was leaving. If they were going to leave Malachor with it, they had to render all four of their opponents unable to stop them. They had to fight.

So did they go after the Inquisitors or Maul first? Maul seemed like a greater threat, but he also seemed very adept at manipulating Ezra. The longer Anakin and Kanan could keep the two of them apart, the better. He wasn't sure Ezra would be all for fighting the ex-Sith anyway, but he probably wouldn't have reserves about incapacitating a few Inquisitors. Maybe by the time they got around to Maul, Jadis would arrive and the two of them could distract each other long enough for an escape.

"Let's take a walk," he suggested, handing the holocron back to Ezra without mentioning it aloud. Looking back up at the temple, he noted, "I've heard Sith architecture is rather impressive."