Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars
I read the Wookiepedia entry on Asajj's death and have already acquired the first, way too thin, comic book Star Wars: Obsession. This is just some thoughts and feelings I thought Asajj or Kenobi would have had at this point in time. Enjoy! ^^
Warning: first fan fiction!
Asajj Ventress had never planned to die. Nobody ever did, except those not strong enough to deal with their own difficulties, in her opinion. If she had ever contemplated the idea, she would have imagined herself going out with a blaze of glory, maybe taking a few Jedi masters or a planet with her. But never anything so pathetic or anti-climactic as this!
Yet, in its own way, comforting, and if she was going to die broken and bloody in any man's arms, it would be this one's. She understood more about him then she had ever intended to. You couldn't try to track someone down and kill them without learning at least something about the individual. She knew about the Jedi knight, Siri Tachi, and what she had meant to him. She knew about his troubles with his former Padawan, and how he was a good little Jedi, completely subservient to the Council and The Republic. He was exactly the kind of man that would have marooned Ky Narec on Rattatak. Or, at least, that was what she had thought.
Now, she was unsure of all her previous preconceptions. She had sustained irreparable damage. Without prosthetic replacement, Asajj would have been maimed for life. Something about that bothered her. She had woken from her bacta trance to find the two people she had least expected, or wanted, to see. And worse, her master had betrayed her. That one, she had almost expected. Asajj had failed too many times. Of course, she had prepared for it, mentally. But the idea of a master, her master, turning on her, was somehow wrong. Ky would never have done it, but then, Ky was no Sith. He was Jedi. Like the man holding her now.
"Kenobi" She choked through a mouth full of blood. Rivulets ran down her cheeks, she disregarded it; her death would come soon anyway. "Pro… protect Coruscant."
It was all she could give him. Hopefully, hopefully, he would understand. Asajj didn't know herself why she wanted to tell him about secrets that had been carefully kept, until now. Perhaps it was a jibe back at her master, her former, master. One last spike of hate before she gave it up forever, but for some inexplicable reason, or maybe too explicable, she did not think that was the only reason. He was honorable, like Ky. Maybe that was it, but again, she felt she was only allowing herself half the truth. Asajj got the feeling that if she was to know the other half, it would make her death, or what she would think to be the death of Asajj Ventress, indescribably hard.
"What do you mean?" He asked, bending closer, still cradling her in his arms. But she couldn't get any words passed the salty, tangy fluid pooling in the back of her throat. "From whom? Dooku?"
Asajj nodded her head weakly. Yes. From Dooku, and whomever was his master. She was not privy to the majority of the CIS's plans. But, she was aware of the mysterious shadowy presence behind its existence. If she had more time before the end, she would have given him all her considerable deductions as to the whereabouts and identity of said person. It would be revenge in a way. They left her to die; she might as well ruin their plans. However, when it came down to it, she felt no great rage toward anyone, really, only a blissful calm as her life drained from her body.
"I'm sorry." he said quietly, an expression on his face akin to one that would be worn at the ending of a world. Her world. "I'm sorry I couldn't save you."
Asajj shook her head barely to the right and left, tightening her grip on a loose fold of his robe. Her eyelids felt incredibly heavy and taking a breath had become an intense struggle. If she did not act soon, it would be really and truly too late for her.
She reached for the Force. It flowed through her. For a startled moment Asajj doubted her own mind. The energy field she was connecting to was completely different from the one she was familiar with. She recoiled from it, scared at the bliss and….contentment. What was wrong? That wasn't the Force she knew.
Fear raced through Asajj's broken body. Without access to the Force she would not be able to escape death. Trying very hard not to panic, she hesitantly reached out to the Force again, hoping to make contact with that well-known, passion-filled Energy. For a single moment she felt the light, but as the panic welled within her, it went dark.
Asajj resurfaced from her trace-like mediation. She glanced up for a single moment with glazed, tormented eyes, wanting one more look at the world as Asajj Ventress, dark assassin, Sith apprentice, Jedi killer….. murderer. Her last sight before she sunk herself in to the Force was the troubled eyes of the Jedi. Then, Asajj Ventress died.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Obi-wan Kenobi gently lowered Ventress's limp body to the permacrete floor. Taking off his blackened outer robe, he settled it over her figure, covering her oddly peaceful face. He could not recall ever seeing her wear such an expression in life. But that did not stop the guilt.
He had not always believed that she was redeemable. And their first encounter on the Gungan inhabited moon, Ohma-D'un, had definitely not made a good impression. The swamp gas she had release there had decimated the colony on the now lifeless globe. As the war pressed on he saw her do horrendous things, Queyta was one such example. She truly seemed lost to the dark side. Then he learned about Ky Narec.
Ky Narec was long thought dead before his true demise at the hand of the twelve warlords of Rattatak. The Jedi Council had had no knowledge of his whereabouts until Obi-wan had found his lightsaber on the war-torn planet. He had believed at that time that Ventress had killed the Jedi knight and taken his weapon. But, as he had fit the puzzle pieces of her life together, Obi-wan found hope for the dark assassin. Her misplaced rage towards the Council had been on her previous master's behalf. Ventress had thought that the Jedi had abandoned Narec on Rattatak. And that meant that if she was to understand, perhaps the dark side's hold on her would be lessened, and she would be free to walk into the light.
If only he had been swifter! Found the clues to her survival after her fight with Anakin on Coruscant faster. Not delayed here and there, afraid that he was wrong, that she really was dead. And now, she truly was. He had been too late.
"Obi-wan?" Anakin sounded shaken. "I didn't… she was going to kill you… I… I'm sorry…"
Obi-wan shook his head. "No," he said sadly, staring down at the seemingly fragile body of Asajj Ventres, "I don't think she was….Call down a medical shuttle and our Delta- twelve's."
Anakin raised an eyebrow. "A medical shuttle? Is someone hurt?"
"No." Obi-wan said still looking at the cloth covered corpse. "We will bring Ventress's body back for cremation on Coruscant."
"What?" Anakin spluttered. He would have said more, but his former master raised a hand.
"No arguing." Obi-wan said with finality.
Obi-wan drew comfort from Ventress' last moments. He had felt her aura light up for a single moment with the light side of the Force, then slowly fade in to oblivion.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Asajj Ventress floated in the darkness of the Sith mediation trance, apparently dead to the world, except for a fragment of speech or a faint feeling.
"I don't think she…."
"No arguing."
There seemed to be a long silence after that, with no snippets from the outside world. Then she felt the slightest rise like she was being picked up. She heard voices, unfamiliar ones in and out like a badly tuned comm-link.
"-it-"
"-dical shuttle Bright Flight here gen-"
"-traditional Jedi ceremony for their de-"
Then she felt, as though from afar, her body being set down on a soft surface.
"Goodbye." whispered a remembered voice. "I'm sorry."
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Asajj opened her eyes and then closed them again, disorientated. She was no longer on Boz Pity but on a shuttle, a Republic shuttle. She felt the similar yet distinctive minds of the clones in the cockpit. It did not really matter, Republic or Separatists.
She sat up, feeling rough fabric slide off her face as she did so. Pain ripped through her back, and she gritted her teeth to stop from making a sound. 'That kriffing Skywalker brat!' The cold air of the medbay stung against the raw lightsaber burn spanning the length of her back. Asajj gathered the fabric that had been used as her own shroud around her like a large blanket. It offered some protection from the chill of outer space.
The corridors of the ship were deserted. Even if they had not been, she wouldn't have bothered to hide herself; she was tired of subterfuge and hiding in the shadows.
The doors to the cockpit whooshed open and Asajj stepped through. The clones looked up with mild curiosity that morphed into fear as they realized who it was. One reached for the DC-17 blaster resting on a control panel. Before his hand touched it, it was flying across the small room and into her outstretched hand. Both clones froze.
She was balancing on a blade edge, on one side yawned the familiar darkness that she had let claim her after her Jedi master's death. She knew were that path led. She had walked it for the majority of her life and barely escaped the final end to that dark trail. On the other side was an unknown, this mysterious 'light side' that she could no longer remember touching as a youngling. It was the same light that the Jedi served, as did Ky, the Council, Kenobi…..
Asajj slowly lowered the blaster. The choice was made. She dropped the weapon to the floor.
"Set a different destination. I don't care where…as long as it's far away from the core, the Separatists, Dooku, the Republic, the Jedi….. the war."
Asajj watched as the two clones exchanged looks. It was as though they could read each other's minds; something that went past the ability of Force users. Maybe it was a bond that built over time over countless battles. Asajj did not know.
When the clones looked back at her, she could see the weariness etched deep into their young faces. They, too, were tired of war.
"Okay, Kite, set hyperspace coordinates for…. somewhere far away." One clone said.
Asajj turned her attention to the view port as the clones busied themselves with the nav computer. It showed a small section of the space surrounding Boz Pity. The star, Cama Coll, shone in the upper left corner with its stark yellow light. She shivered and drew the brown robe tighter around her. It was a vast galaxy. She would hide. No, not hide, leave, leave all that she was here, behind, on Boz Pity. Starting all over again, healing old wounds.
"The nav computer is ready." One of the clones reported.
"Make the jump."
Perhaps Kenobi had been right about her; she no longer had a heart for revenge, anger or war. The stars stretched into lines and the Bright Flight disappeared into hyperspace.
Authors' note: thanks for reading! When I first set out to write this fic I was aiming for a really mushy romantic 'ending' for Asajj. But as I started to really get into it, I found that that was just….. not in character? And plus, I just can't write romance. When I write, I usually am very heavy on the description of the character's surroundings, but for this one I tried to describe the inner landscape of feelings, thoughts and emotions.
Please review! ^^ that would be awesome!