Part 4- The Final Conflict

The night was a long one as Asajj Ventress did not sleep. The day had come where she would strike against Count Dooku for what he had done to her. A spy had come to her and told her that he was currently situated in his palace on his home planet of Serenno. She had spent the night coming up with how she would infiltrate the palace. She concluded that the troops provided by Jabba would simply be used to take out his defences while she made her way to his throne room where their training sessions had once taken place. Those days indeed seemed so long ago. Her lightsaber lay on the table beside the bed. She lifted it and examined it. She remembered when Dooku had given her those two precious sabers. How happy she was to finally have a purpose after her former master's death and her fall from the Jedi order. She finally had a master again, she had, a friend. But he took that away from her. He used her and once he believed he had found someone better than her, he tossed her aside without a care. She held the lightsaber close to her chest. It felt cold. She knew this was the weapon she was going to plunge into Dooku's heart. She set the saber down. The two suns were rising in the distance and Ventress began to put on her newly acquired leather armour.

Her warriors were waiting for her outside the cantina with a strange looking man; his hair was black with a white stripe. His name was Bildo Kwerve.
"Ms Ventress! The great and powerful Jabba has sent me to inform you that these are the mercenaries who will be helping you!" he gestured to the group of roughly twenty.
"I guessed that" Ventress said impatiently. "Anything else?"
"Yes!" Kwerve exclaimed. "Your ship awaits you in the Mos Eisley space port!"
"How surprising" they stood in silence for a moment. "Go" she ordered. Kwerve walked off. She walked to the direction of the Mos Eisley space port with her hired goons.

Dooku sat on his throne in the grand throne room of his palace. General Grievous entered the chamber and bowed before Dooku.
"My master!" he said.
"Yes?" Dooku asked curiously.
"Gilramos Libkath is dead sir" he told the Count.
"He did not deserve to live!"
"I agree, my lord, but there were security cameras showing, your old apprentice!" Grievous clearly did not want Dooku to have this information but also knew it was for the best that he had it. Dooku leaned back on his throne.
"Then perhaps you will have the chance to redeem your past failures Grievous" he said to the droid General. "Avenge your failure in the arena and claim your completed prize!" he gestured at the lightsaber which once belonged to Ventress on the Droid's belt.
"I will do what I can my master!" the droid general bowed and left the throne room.

The ship landed down on the landing platform and Ventress and her squad emerged from it. She turned to a man in brown metal armour and a headdress.
"You will lead the squad into the palace through the main entrance" she told him.
"And what about you?" he asked angrily.
"There is a small ventilation shaft which leads to Dooku's throne room!" she explained.
"So what we're live bait?" asked the mercenary.
"I prefer distraction!" Ventress told him. The mercenary groaned.
"Fine!" he grunted.
"Inform the others of the plan!"
"Plan?" the mercenary repeated. "We are storming into the palace like barbarians! This is not a plan!" she handed him a large pouch.
"This contains thermal detonators; use them whenever you find it appropriate!" Ventress told him and she walked off in the direction of the entrance to the ventilation shaft.

Dengar observed the detonators he had just be handed by that crazy dark Jedi. He approached his fellow goons.
"We're goin' in the front!" he told them.
"What?" said a strange droid. "But surly that is suicide!"
"The 'boss' says we're here for distraction!"
"Screw her!" growled a reptilian bounty hunter.
"Look, if she don't get her job done, we don't get paid! Now come on!" he walked with the mercenaries to the large front gate.
"I've got this!" said the strange droid, he pointed his arm (which Dengar only now noticed was a rocket launcher) and blew the large double door off it's hinges.
"Nice work!" Dengar said coughing. "You sure know how to be a distraction!" the smoke cleared and Dengar saw another weird looking battle droid. This one wore a cloak and resembled a metallic version of a Kaleesh Dengar had fought once. At either side of him was a MagnaGuard.
"Where is Ventress?" demanded the droid in the centre. The mercenaries pointed their variety of guns at him. The droid laughed. "I have no time for this!" he turned to one of the MagnaGuards. "Deal with them!" the droid marched back into the palace and the guards activated their staffs. One jumped into the air and the other charged at the reptilian bounty hunter. The one in the air came crashing down into the ground, slamming it's staff into it, knocking several mercenaries back, a few of them fell off the bridge to their deaths. Dengar curled a fist and punched the closest guard in the face. Breaking one of its eyes. It began to swing the staff, hitting a small Twi'lek. Dengar fell to the ground and rolled closer to the doorway. He pointed his blaster at the guard and shot it in the head. It fell to the ground. The reptile ripped off the other one's head with one of his three fingered hands. Now there was only a handful of the original team left.
"More for us I suppose!" Dengar said as he observed his team.

The vents were larger than Ventress had expected, she had a clear view of much of the rooms when the vents overlooked them so she knew she'd find the throne room (which she was sure Dooku was in) soon enough. She heard a strange banging behind her, then a saber being turned on. Suddenly a flash of green went through the vent she was in, sending it and Ventress crashing to the ground. Ventress rolled out of the wreckage and looked up to see Grievous. A clawed foot attached to the vent. He fell down and landed on his feet.
"I hoped we'd meet again" he said to her. Ventress' eyes saw the gleaming hilt of her second saber on Grievous' belt. She held out her hand and her saber returned to her. Grievous brought two sabers of his own down onto Ventress; she blocked them with her sabers and managed to kick Grievous back, allowing her to stand. He swung his sabers and ended up getting them stuck in the wall, Ventress began to move back. Grievous pulled out the sabers and began walking towards her, swinging his sabers furiously as he approached. He was becoming more and more difficult to block, it seems in the short time that Ventress was gone, Grievous had grown stronger. She reached into her pocket and removed her own thermal detonator. She used the force to push Grievous back and then threw the detonator into the room and left. The explosion destroyed most of the wall and sent the door crashing through another wall. It was safe to assume that Grievous did not survive. She ran down the long corridor and moved through two double doors. She had made it to the throne room, and there was Dooku, sitting casually on his throne.
"Asajj! You've returned!" he said calmly.
"I've come to finish this Dooku!" Ventress said angrily, holding her sabers tighter than ever. Dooku did not do anything.
"I commend your valiant efforts, recruiting a band of henchmen to try and distract my forces while you would sneak into my palace and attack me head on!" Dooku smiled. "You acted as though I did not know you Asajj! As if I had not taught you!"
"Why did you betray me?" Ventress asked him.
"My Master willed it!" Dooku answered.
"I forgot! You are just another puppet for the Sith!" Dooku grinned again and raised his hand. Ventress readied herself. But she was not strong enough to resist begin force pushed into the wall. She cried out as he crashed into the wall. Dooku stood up from his throne. He lifted several objects around him with the force and began throwing them at her. She moved quickly and sliced through most of the objects and avoided the rest until she got to Dooku. He kicked her back and she toppled down the stairs which led to the throne.
"You were never prepared to face me!" Dooku laughed. Lighting came from his finger tips and began to shock Ventress; she screamed and dropped her sabers a shot was fired, breaking Dooku's concentration. Ventress looked up and saw the man she placed in charge of the Mercenaries.
"Sorry Count, but I can't let you do that!" he said with a grin. "Five hundred thousand credits is a lot of money!" Dooku sighed and pressed a button on his throne. Two droidekas rolled out from another section of the room and began blasting at the mercenaries. This distraction gave Ventress enough time to regain her strength. She looked up and used the force to push Dooku out the circular window above his throne, onto the platform outside. Ventress jumped through the now smashed window and landed on the grey balcony, Dooku was standing, waiting.
"Well played my young friend! You are indeed skilled in the force!" he drew his curved lightsaber. "But there is only one true way to decide this!" the crimson saber emerged from the hilt and Dooku took to his usual battle stance which Ventress remembered from her training. She threw a saber at him and he blocked it, while distracted she ran at him and tried to slice his stomach, but he blocked her attack easily. She caught her second saber and began engaging the Sith in battle.
"You are weak Ventress!" he taunted. "You do not possibly have the skills to slay me!" he blocked every move with so much elegance that it appeared as though he did not even care about this battle.
"You underestimate what I am capable of!" Ventress growled.
"No my dear! You overestimate yourself!" Dooku sent her crashing into the door of the throne room and she knocked into the platform where the throne rested, breaking one of her ribs. She could hear her allies fighting the droidekas. Dooku was walking towards her. She let go of one of her lightsabers and used the force to raise the smashed glass from the window she'd thrown Dooku through only moments ago. She used force push to send the glass flying towards Dooku. He blocked it as best he could but sharp pieces of broken glass got through. Cutting at his skin and tearing his cloak. He held up his hand and Ventress could hear something braking. The platform was about to crush her. She caught it with difficulty and threw it back at Dooku; it crashed into him and knocked him down. Ventress was now tired, her stamina draining. She walked, with a slight limp towards Dooku who was lying on the ground; he appeared to be gravely injured.
"I told you!" Ventress wheezed. "I am more powerful than you!" Dooku laughed.
"You insolent little girl" he coughed. He stood up. "You will never defeat me!" he sent her back with she went over the edge of the platform. She barely managed to hold on. She heard Dooku laugh as she tried to pull herself up.
"You were becoming stronger yes!" he said with clear admiration is his voice. "But you cared too much for your former master to ever truly be considered Sith!" Ventress forced herself up and jumped through the air. She landed down in front of Dooku, they were both covered in wounds and their clothing was torn. Neither of them was going to last much longer. She made a few feeble attempts to strike against Dooku and again he needed little effort to block them. She realised now that in her training, he was always holding back, as he anticipated this moment.
"Before I took you in you were taught by a weak minded fool!" Dooku told her, he sounded as though he had regained some of his strength.
"Master Narec was a better man than you will ever be!" she yelled. She began crashing down hard on Dooku's saber with her own, her rage controlling her, she broke through his defence and he fell to the ground. She screamed and raised him up into the air and began to choke him with her force choke. The moment had finally come! Dooku would be dead soon, she would have had her revenge and could leave this war behind her. Dooku fell to the ground hard. Ventress gasped. She looked down to see the green saber blade through her body. It was pulled out of her and she stumbled back. Her lightsaber fell and she collapsed onto her knees. She looked up and saw the droid general. He body was now charred and damaged; half of his helmet was missing revealing the dark skinned remains of his former Kaleesh self.
"You should have finished me when you had the chance!" Grievous laughed and he approached Ventress his sabers now back on his belt. He looked down at her tear filled eyes and in a matter of seconds he'd broken her neck. Ventress' limp body fell to the ground. Grievous approached his master and helped him up.
"She was strong!" Dooku coughed. "But at heart she would always have remained a Jedi!" he looked at Grievous. "Claim your reward!" Grievous happily marched towards Ventress' body and picked up her lightsaber.
"What about her?" Grievous asked Dooku.
"Burn her remains!" he said. "Rid the galaxy of her memory!"

Dengar used the final thermal detonator to destroy the last remaining droideka. It was only himself and the reptile left. He looked out to where he saw Ventress fighting and saw the Kaleesh like droid standing over her dead body. He was filled with grief as well as disappointment.
"We have to get out of here!" he told his fellow bounty hunter. "She's dead!" they both ran out of the throne room and returned to the ship. They said nothing to each other and took off leaving Serenno and Asajj Ventress behind to become nothing more than a name lost in the impact of a war which would spawn the First Galactic Empire!