Still not entirely pleased with this one. Too serious. Oh well. ((I'm not feeling the greatest right now so I have no muse to fix it. Curse you, cold season! Although I have been inspired to write a "Ventress vs disease" type chapter, so watch for that in a week or so. Maybe more.))

"This was HER room, and she was going to sleep in it!" is a modified version of "This is MY book, and I'm gonna read it!", which is borrowed from, again, MLP: FiM, because they have such lovely lines.

The rest of the day was spent primarily in helping decorate, once the ever-important roll of tape was found. It was overall quite pleasant, even though a few of the Jedi were still giving her dirty looks. Aayla chatted with her, as well as Adi and Kit, and of course Obi-wan, who still blushed madly when he saw her, but retained every other aspect of his composure.

After dinner, she retreated back to her room for some well-needed sleep. After changing, again in the fresher, she crawled into her bed, determined that this time, she'd sleep for real, in her own bed, and without waking Obi-wan. Ghosts or no ghosts, this was her room, and she was going to sleep in it!

She was able to lay peacefully in bed for some amount of time between twenty-seven seconds and two minutes before she heard it again. Thump. Thump. Thump. Siri must be throwing something at the wall. Ventress flicked on the light. There was no sign of the blonde ghost, but that didn't mean she wasn't around.

Asajj clambered out of bed and knelt down by the wall. There was nothing there to throw; no miscellaneous objects were lying on the floor. There it came again: thump. Thump. It was coming from the other side of the wall. That was it. She was going next door and finding out the cause of this noise.

The new Padawan stormed down the hallway and knocked on the door next to hers. There was no response. Probably Siri and an empty room, amusing herself. Without any further bother, she opened the door and marched in.

Bad idea. Bad, bad, idea.

There was no Siri. Rather, there was Anakin Skywalker, sitting on his bed, shirtless, and bouncing a rubber ball off the wall. "What the…? What are you doing here?" he snapped.

"Heh, long story. I just wanted to know why you're doing that."

"Bored. Can't sleep. It's fun."

"Could you maybe bounce it off another wall? I'm trying to sleep over here."

"I always bounce it off this wall." Anakin protested. "You slept through it fine last night."

"Last night I had to go sleep in my master's room. Your master's room. Our master."

"Obi-wan?"

No, a dancing elf. "Yes, Obi-wan. Do you have another master that I don't know about?"

"Sheesh, ask a simple question." Anakin threw the ball again. It thumped off the wall, rebounded on the floor, and returned neatly to his hand. "I suppose I could do the other wall."

"Thank you." she turned to leave, but his voice stopped her.

"Ventress?"

"Hmm?"

"When did you turn dark?" She hadn't been expecting such a deep question, but thought of her answer anyway.

"I don't know, I guess when my Master died. I killed his murderer."

"But that wasn't really dark, was it? You weren't using your hatred as a weapon."

"I guess not. It was part self-defense, partly revenge, partly that I didn't want him to kill anymore. It was Dooku who thaught me about hate. May I ask why you ask?"

"No reason." It was an obvious fib. He threw the ball again. "I was worried."

"That I'll go back to darkness?"

"No. That I will." He replied softly.

"Why on earth would-"

"A… friend of mine has been teaching me some new fighting methods. I don't know, they're really effective, but…"

"Well, in my experience, there are usually three things involved in a fall to darkness. Fear or anger, loss, and the influence of someone dark."

Anakin was quiet for once. "Maybe you'll fit in here after all."

She grinned. "Thanks. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to bed."

"Ventress?"

"Yeah?"

"You said you slept in Obi-wan's room? Why, scared of a little thumping noise?"

"No. Just… noisy." Anakin gave her a one-eyebrow-raised look that he'd clearly learned from Obi-wan. "Like you never went running to Obi-wan with any of your troubles."

"Alright, so maybe I did." he admitted. "Goodnight, Ventress."

"Goodnight."

Finally, she was curled back up in her bed, trying to sleep, when she heard another voice. Not Siri's, but a man's voice. "Asajj Ventress."

"Who now?" she practically snapped, pulling the covers over her head.

"So you're the one in my old room."

She poked her head back out from under her blanket. "Qui-gon?"

"Yes, that's me." the voice responded. There was no one in the room, no shadowy figures, just this voice. "I thought I'd drop in and say hello to my Padawan's new Padawan."

"Oh. With all due respect, Master, do you think your friendly 'hello's could wait until a time when it's not eleven at night?"

"Yes, young one." He chuckled. His voice reminded her a little of Obi-wan's, warm and friendly, with a hint of amusement. "But what you said to Anakin is quite true, you know. You're smarter than you give yourself credit for." With these words, there was a swirl of light in her room, and Qui-gon was gone.

The Temple was a strange, strange place, Ventress reflected as she laid her head back down. But she rather liked it.

Asajj Ventress: 1
Things that go bump in the night (AKA Anakin Skywalker): 0
Ghosts (AKA Qui-gon): 1

The next chapter will be about the Senate Christmas Ball! Which the Jedi, being generals, are now invited to. Asajj Ventress does not know how to ballroom dance. Expect choas, en masse. Oh, and maybe a bit of Obi/Asajj trying to waltz. Keyword being "trying".