The Creed

Asajj woke early. Tano did not. This gave the bald bounty hunter plenty of time to wonder what happened after she started drinking.

Damn it all to hell, she was supposed to be proving that she wasn't a hopeless cause, not showing off the worst parts of herself.

Well, not the worst. At least the girl didn't know about Savage.

Well, if the girl did leave, that would simplify things. Ventress could buy a comfortable life for herself and—

Asajj didn't bother finishing the lie. Whether she was even capable of a peaceful life or not, she didn't want Tano to leave. The girl could be condescending, preachy, naïve, and she built straight lightsabers, but she also listened to Asajj, looked out for her, called her "partner." Even Ky Narec, kindest of her masters, had never seen Asajj as more than a hand holding a lightsaber.

Asajj stood. Moping solved nothing. Tano left Coruscant to help Asajj make reparation for her supposed war crimes. Not much to be done there, but she could make up for last night.

Asajj checked the girl's bunk again. Tano was still asleep, an open bottle of…something vile on her cabinet.

Probably her first time drinking. She'd need a hangover cure. Asajj grabbed her helmet and lightsaber set out to acquire the appropriate ingredients.

Asajj was stepping out of the grocery store when she sensed danger. Murderous intent. Apparently Tano woke with a headache.

Asajj set her jaw and began her trek back to the Banshee.

"I'll have to talk her down," Asajj thought to herself as she passed a Duros male and a Zabrak female having a hushed argument, "From what I remember, I never even asked her to come along, so how angry can she really be?"

"What you remember doesn't include most of last night," a quiet cold voice reminded Asajj from the back of her mind. "Who knows what she's actually angry about."

A Trandoshan eyed her in a way Asajj didn't like at all. She slipped into an adjacent alley to avoid him.

"Reason probably isn't a priority for her," Asajj mused, emerging onto a mostly empty street. "How do you apologize when you don't know what—"

The street right behind Asajj exploded.

Asajj was lifted bodily by the shockwave, and her head cracked against the street stones.

"You are still weak." Count Dooku's voice expanded in her head, pushing against the inside of her skull. "A failure in all you attempt."

He couldn't be here.

"Shortsighted. Purposeless. And for that you will die."

Wait, he couldn't be here. This was a core world, and Dooku wouldn't leave the war effort just to track her down.

"What?"

Asajj blinked her eyes against the intense pain in the back of her head. She realized she was lying face down on the cobbled street. Her helmet was missing. Her hands and feet were bound together behind her back. She strained her neck in an effort to see who was speaking. The face of a young clone trooper swam into view above her.

"I said, we are executing you, for the crime of claiming the bounty of a fellow hunter."

His words reverberated against the back of her eye sockets. But pain could be managed. Asajj took her eyes off the trooper and checked the rest of her surroundings. The Zabrak woman she'd seen earlier had a blaster rifle trained on her. The Duros stood nearby, casually fondling the grips of his blaster pistols. The Trandoshan was leaning against a nearby building, looking bored more than anything.

Asajj felt her bindings suddenly tighten. Ignoring the fresh wave of pain as her joints were stretched to the breaking point, she swung her head around. Despair threatened to overwhelm her as she saw still more bodies staring down at her. A scarred man with a turban was fiddling with the ropes tying her place. An enormous Kyuzo with a circular metal hat kneeled next to his hound. A nervous Rodian kept peeking glances at the hound. A pink theelin stood on a nearby rooftop, watching the scene play out below her.

And a droid…no, not just a droid. Asajj recognized that one. Highsinger, from the train job. A bounty hunter. The identities of some of the others clicked into place as her brain began to recover. Dengar, Latts Razzi, and Bossk she'd met. She didn't recognize the Zabrak or the Rodian, but if these were all bounty hunters, those two must be Embo and Cad Bane. And the clone…not many sets of armor like that ever left Mandalore.

Asajj had no idea how she could get out of this one. Even if she could summon the concentration to tap into the force—and the pounding in her head was still deafening—there were just too many of them. And whatever Dengar did with the ropes seemed to be holding. No chance of rescue either; even if Ahsoka might want to, she was probably still dead to the world. Asajj cursed herself for dismissing the warning the Force had given her.

"Since when are there rules for who can claim what bounty?" Asajj asked desperately.

"The Bounty Hunter's Creed is ancient and must be obeyed," Boba Fett said. "No hunter shall harm another hunter, nor interfere with their hunt." He pointed Asajj's borrowed lightsaber at the back of Asajj's head. "Any last requests?"

"Don't act like this is business for you," Cad Bane said. "You're a child twice orphaned looking for revenge. Ain't nobody who's cared about the Creed in a millennia, besides Bossk."

The reptile hissed.

"We agreed I was taking point on this mission, Bane." Boba said through gritted teeth.

"And you've really impressed me," Bane quipped. "A thermal detonator in the middle of a city. You're damn lucky Dengar has friends in the security around here, and luckier still that Miss-Nameless-Hunter here wasn't paying attention. And now you're holding onto that saber like it's some kind of trophy."

"Enough!" Fett raised the saber over his head and ignited it. "Any last words?"

Asajj could think of nothing, but noticed that Razzi had disappeared from her rooftop post.

"She'sss a hunter," Bossk said. "She has earned points. Tell her why she mussst die."

Bane looked annoyed, "You killed Aurra Sing. Boba liked her, invoked the code. But I reckon most of this lot just wants the reward. Aurra Sing set things up so her whole fortune would be placed as a bounty on the head of anyone who killed her. Me though, I got bigger plans in mind. Republic says they had a jailbreak, some big names with bigger bounties up for grab. But I could use a crew for one guy in particular."

"Not now." Boba said, "Now it's time for her to die."

The lightsaber dropped six inches before stopping in place.

"What the—?" Boba placed his whole weight on the saber, trying to force it the last foot down into Asajj's flesh.

"That isn't going to happen." Ahsoka Tano spoke from the center of the road, one hand holding her yellow saber in a defensive position, other hand outstretched, holding her green saber in place.

"Ahsoka?" The Zabrak woman who had been so careful to keep Asajj in the crosshairs of her blaster was distracted.

"Bad timing girl," Bane said. "Dooku has a bounty on every Jedi head."

"I'm no Jedi," Ahsoka said. She charged.

An impressive entrance, and Asajj was grateful for the gesture, but even if she'd managed to quietly take down Razzi, nine against one was suicidal odds. Bane, Dengar, Bossk, and Highsinger already had her on the defensive under their combined fire.

So Asajj made her move, pathetic though she knew it to be. She made the smallest of force pushes, aiming and squeezing the trigger to the distracted Rodian's blaster.

The bolt meant for Embo went astray, striking the ground at his hound's feet. So instead of quietly taking down one of the hunting party's strongest, Asajj watched as Embo knocked the Rodian out with a brutal smash of his heavy headgear.

But Asajj's ploy hadn't gone unnoticed, "No more games," Boba said. He abandoned the floating lightsaber and hoisted his rifle.

He shot Asajj in the back.

Dooku had taught her pain. She knew what to expect when her every nerve was alight with an electricity composed of cold fury and burning disdain. That pain was intense, but it always left Ventress as strong as she had ever been. That she could cope with.

But when she suddenly realized half her lungs were physically burning, within her chest, she had nothing but panic. Her mind was a torrent of chaos and agony, and a sound tore from her throat which she never would have thought she could make.

And then Boba squeezed the trigger again.

And again.