Reward

"Thirty-five thousand, your eminence?" Asajj said. "I humbly beg a portion of your wisdom. In my foolishness I assumed I would be paid the amount offered for Aurra Sing's death."

Jabba the Hutt began speaking, but Asajj ignored him. Neither she nor Tano understood a word of Huttese. Jabba's self-important valet would translate the Huttese into Rylothi, and then an ill-repaired protocol droid would finally translate into basic. The whole ordeal would be merely an annoyance, except that the droid knew Huttese and both the others could speak Basic if they weren't so damnably proud.

"Take the thirty-five," Tano stood outside the hologram's scanner so the gangster wouldn't see her. "You don't need the money. And you don't want the Hutts as enemies."

Asajj didn't answer. Any perceived rudeness could cost them more than just the bounty. The Hutts were indeed dangerous enemies.

The protocol droid finally began speaking, "Mighty Jabba derides you as the lowest kind of scum, and says it is only fitting that you should serve one as idiotic as Graballa. Graballa cannot pay your bounty. But that fool is kin to Jabba, and for this reason you shall be paid the 50,000 you have been promised, if you are short-sighted enough to demand it. However, the bounty hunter Aurra Sing had found favor with Jabba. She was "his kind of scum," and served him well on several occasions. For this reason, he demands a tribute of 15,000 credits. Failure to provide such a gift of goodwill will prompt Jabba to find other ways for you to compensate him."

Asajj bristled at the overgrown slug's insults. She opened her mouth to demand the full fifty-thousand and dare him to send his best bounty hunters so she could pass along her "tribute," but then she stopped. Fury emanated from behind her eyes, and power flowed down her limbs. The temptation to just try crushing the twi'lek's larynx was potent.

The sensation should have been familiar, comfortable even. An ecstasy of furyand power. But something was off. The emotion didn't feel…natural. Asajj wasn't accustomed to analyzing her feelings; Dooku had taught her early to revel in her pain and rage and hatred. Examining emotion kills it. But the degree of her anger towards Jabba simply didn't make sense. The Hutt covered for his cousin to cover his own reputation. He insulted her. He demanded a fraction of the bounty back so his other bounty-hunters-on-staff wouldn't revolt.

And then it clicked. Tano. Asajj looked away from the hologram for half a second. Hatred clouded the togruta's face, loathing born of righteous wrath. Asajj was forcibly reminded of her companion's former mentor.

Asajj hated ignoring her emotions. Felt unnatural, like a Jedi, but she managed to say, "Your words are wise and appreciated, mighty Jabba. We shall of course extend a gift of twenty thousand credits to your eminence for your time. I need not waste any more of it."

Asajj cut the hologram. She rounded on Tano, "What was that?"

Tano still looked furious, "That was you handing a slaver and a drug lord five thousand more credits than was needed to keep us safe."

"That was me avoiding a debt," Asajj said. "Bounties from crime lord's aren't like bounties from governments. But I was talking about this. You. I've never seen you like this before. Why?"

Tano's eyes narrowed. "You got your money. That's enough for today." She turned towards her bedroom.

Asajj forced the door shut from across the room. "Your anger was intense enough to almost make me pick a fight with the most brutal gangster in the galaxy. We can't afford something like that happening again. Talk. That's what partners do, isn't it?"

"Maybe you'd be better off with a different 'partner' then," Tano said, wrenching the door open manually.

"What, you want to leave now? You're the one that wanted to come with me in the first place!"Asajj said, following Tano out of the cockpit.

"Yeah, well, things aren't working out the way they were supposed to." Tano said.

"How? You've approved of everything we've done so far. You can't care this much about five thousand credits. What is actually going on?"

"I killed a woman yesterday! One who wasn't trying to kill me and who we definitely could have taken alive."

"You were trying to save me—"

"I wasn't trying to do anything! I listened to the Force, which has never led to people dying before. I was supposed to be leading you back to the light, you weren't supposed to drag me into the dark. I don't want to be you."

"I've never agreed with you more. I'd do anything to not be me." Asajj spat. Tano's infectious anger melded with her own. "Traitor to the Separatists. War criminal to the Republic. You are wasting your time with me. Because I'm destined to be exactly the scum Jabba said I am. Bounty hunter. Assassin. I can try to be noble about it, but once the alcohol isn't enough to help me forget Rattatak and Dathomir, I'll turn to death sticks or worse." This was more than Ventress had meant to say, but she didn't stop. "And then it won't matter what jobs I take, as long as it pays enough for the next hit. Damn…I need a drink. Something hard. And I'd wager you do to. Come on, I saw a cantina down the way."

Asajj was certain Tano followed her silently off the ship and down the street, but wasn't brave enough to look her partner in the face.