Chapter 66: Savage
"You made me a target?!"
Obi-Wan rolled his eyes. Dooku was, to put it mildly, foaming at the mouth with rage. His deep, sonorous voice was at least two octaves higher, his dark brown eyes turning to Sith pale yellow as the Dark Side gripped him in its claws. Obi-Wan didn't understand what the fuss was. "Oh, please, you aren't in any danger. You're a Lord of the Sith, no Jedi is going to be able to kill you."
"But this isn't a Jedi, is it?!"
"Not if I have anything to say about it." Kenobi felt the sudden grip of the Dark Side around his throat, strong and crushing, and his golden eyes shown with amusement as his chest burned.
"Is this your way of getting back at me for my new apprentice? Does he threaten you, Kenobi?" He rose Obi-Wan into the air, the captive Sith Lord still and calm, and despite the pain surging through him, he showed no indication that he felt it at all. "You are a vain, spiteful, petulant child! Do you not think I see through what you are doing? As much as you believe your visions, Savage isn't Maul."
Agony ripped through the Count, and he felt his powers diminish as the Force rushed to Kenobi's aid, the younger man gently released from Dooku's grasp and breathing deep as he filled his deprived lungs with oxygen. Cold, golden eyes watched as Dooku dropped to the ground, a shaking hand clutching his chest as if he were trying to keep his heart within him. It felt as though the Force had a hold of it, the crushing pressure making it beat in fast, shallow contractions.
"I'm sorry..." Kenobi said carelessly. "Are we done hurting each other now?" Dooku nodded, and a moment later, the grip was released, the elder Sith sucking in deep breaths to regulate the brutal pounding in his chest. He sat back on his heels, eyes closed as he calmed his nerves, and he heard Obi-Wan lower himself before him, shuffling as he crossed his legs.
"Explain this to me again," the Count said softly.
"Quinlan Vos falls to the Dark Side. He'll come to try and take your life, and he won't be even close to ready for such a thing. You know how it is in the beginning. You feel so powerful, but it's nothing." The Count opened his eyes, the dark brown hue returned to them. The Sith opposite him was calm, collected, and...friendly. If Kenobi had planned on killing him with this Jedi, than he wouldn't have told him. This wasn't a threat, it was an attempt at partnership. As they had planned. Dooku sighed and shook his head as reason reasserted itself. Their last meeting had ended with a great deal of suspicion and mistrust between them. It seemed as though Obi-Wan was simply trying to repair the alliance in the best way he knew how, but the independent decisions they made seemed to never sit well with the other. This wasn't at all unlike his own taking of Savage as his apprentice.
"Obviously, you do not want to kill this Jedi," Dooku said, his deep tone even and unaffected with anger as it had been before.
"No. Quinlan Vos is a Jedi Master and has been flirting with the Dark Side for a very long time. I want him to fall, I want him to choose this."
"And if he doesn't?"
"Then he will die with the rest of them, won't he?"
Dooku stroked his beard thoughtfully. "What help do you suppose he will bring?" Kenobi shrugged.
"Who knows? It won't even matter. He can't bring a Jedi, any of the Masters would stop him before he even left, and his connection to the Dark Side will keep him from anyone that could even be considered dangerous to you." The Sith smirked and laid a hand on his chest. "And I'll be there."
"And if you aren't." Dooku's face was cold and cautious, his hands gripping his knees tightly, but Obi-Wan just laughed and waved off the idea.
"You're a Lord of the Sith. I don't worry about you. And besides, you have an apprentice, don't you?" He grumbled, crossing his arms and looking away when a superior expression graced Dooku's patrician face. "Even if I don't trust that lumbering beast..."
"What are your plans for this Jedi?" Dooku asked, and the other Sith looked back to him and sat up straight.
"By the time he comes for you, he should be entrenched in the Dark Side. We capture him, we find a way to make him not just use it, but embrace it, and we will have a new ally."
"A new apprentice?" Dooku asked, his eyebrow arched, and for a moment, Kenobi's eyes widened, then narrowed in thought.
"I hadn't considered that," he mused, stroking his beard.
"You must have at some point. You cannot simply create Dark Jedi and allow them to run about, not before the Empire. They would be as much a threat to us as they would be to the Jedi."
"I always imagined my child as my first apprentice, I would be ready to teach by then, but Quinlan..." He closed his eyes. Quinlan. They were fast friends, even now, and would be even more so when he joined Kenobi on the Dark Side. Could he be both Master and friend? He didn't suspect he could, but with the Rule of Two breaking bit by bit each day, with the rules changing to accommodate the domination of the dark over the light, there were more possibilities with what could be done between like-minded Sith, as he and Dooku were doing now. "Quinlan and I have always been equals. Partners."
"Perhaps when you were Jedi," Dooku stated. "But no longer. You are Sith. By that virtue alone, you are superior. Not all who fall will be Sith, Obi-Wan. They must be made to suffer, to see if they can harness the power of the Dark Side. Very few will be true Sith."
Kenobi nodded. Dooku was right in this, at least. "We'll figure it out when he's in our custody. He can be our project." Obi-Wan smirked wickedly. "After all, Quin's got an advantage. He already wants to kill you." Dooku stared at him for a moment, than laughed heartily, the tension between the two disappearing in an instant. Kenobi had a unique talent at putting those around him at ease. Perhaps this alliance would work after all.
The Force suddenly shifted, and Kenobi's joviality was replaced with cold disgust as Savage Opress jogged into the room, carelessly tossed a creature at his Master's feet, and silently knelt. For a long while, nobody moved, and a slight grin on Kenobi's face grew increasingly wider as the Force grew thick and angry with Dooku's rage. Between the two Sith Lords lay Katuunko, the King of Toydaria, his gray skin becoming pale, his body becoming cold and ridged as death settled upon him. Dooku had been bitter about the strategic failure to secure an alliance with Toydaria earlier in the war, a task Kenobi never got around to completing when fracturing the Jedi Order became his priority. He had sent his new apprentice to bring the King back so they could...renegotiate his alliance with the Separatists. Obi-Wan had offered to do it, but Dooku declined. He wanted the job done now, not whenever the Negotiator deemed it worthy of his time.
"You know..." Obi-Wan said softly, though his voice seemed loud in the deafening silence. "I did offer to do this for you."
"You ignorant beast!" Dooku snarled, leaping to his feet with the athleticism of a much younger man. "I told you, I wanted him alive!" His hand extended, and thick, dark blue bolts of electricity lashed out and struck the Nightbrother, his body going rigid and convulsing in pain as the enraged Sith continued to torture his apprentice. With a satisfied sigh, Kenobi rose as well, reached out with the Force to grab hold of the heavy chair behind Dooku's desk, and lifted it to the platform where he stood and placed it behind him. He fell back into the comfortable chair, leaning back and crossing his ankles one over the other and folding his hands behind his head.
"Hey, Tyranus, do you mind if I watch?" the younger Sith asked, raising his voice to be heard over the crackle of the lightning and the anguished screams of the apprentice. "It's been a while since I've watched one of these. Not since our Master tortured you after that mess in the Ruby Nebula before the war."
"Be my guest, Lumis..." The lightning stopped, and the apprentice shuddered, residual arcs of static leaping across his body as he clutched his head, his elongated cranial horns protruding between his fingers.
"F-forgive me, my Master..." Savage groaned in a deep, rasping voice, and Kenobi laughed out loud as he felt the Force thicken in Dooku's anger. Of all the things he could have said, that was perhaps the worst. Obi-Wan learned that early in his training, as all Sith did.
"That is not the way of the Dark Side," was Dooku's cold, vicious reply, and lighting flew from his extended hands once again, more vibrant and intense than before. To Savage's credit, the Nightbrother managed to stand, despite the severe pain that the lightning inflicted, but to his discredit, the creature turned and tried to run, his cowardice rewarded by the Force's choking grasp on his neck as he was wrenched into the air and carelessly thrown across the room. He fell in a smoking heap, gasping for breath and crawling to his knees, his large muscles randomly contracting as his body remembered the Force's violent touch. Dooku's gaze tore away from his apprentice and fixed on the door as it hissed opened, and his eyes widened at the figure that casually strode into the room and stopped mere feet from Savage.
"Now..." the husky, hate-filled voice drawled slowly, her pale eyes narrowing at the Count, and Kenobi leaned forward in his chair, his hands gripping the seat so tightly his knuckles turned white and he reached into the Force, touched the Dark Side, and quietly blended in with the shadows around him. "That's no way to treat your apprentice..."
"Ventress," the Count growled, his hand extended and calling his lightsaber to it, and it flew into his palm, igniting when he grasped it. "Savage, you can make amends for your mistake by destroying this witch!" he snarled, pointing at Ventress, and the woman laughed with cruel amusement. She was alive, as Kenobi had said, and Dooku felt a pressure deep in his chest as he realized that Obi-Wan may have been right this whole time. This was a mistake, a trap, and he had walked blindly, willingly into it.
"I don't think that will be happening," Ventress said as she sauntered in, amusement and confidence in both her stride and her words, and with a groan, the Nightbrother rose, a dazed look in his yellow eyes as Ventress tapped a long finger to his forehead. "Will it, Savage? Remember where your true loyalties lie."
The Nightbrother's body shuddered then suddenly tensed, his eyes rolling so far back in his head that they showed only white. His eyelids fluttered, and he blinked past the haze, gripping his lightsaber tightly in his hands and igniting the hefty, double bladed weapon. "With you, Mistress," he said mindlessly, his enthralled state leaving his mind cleared of everything but Ventress' will. Dooku lifted his lightsaber as the Nightsister ignited both of hers, and with that, Kenobi had seen enough. He rose, his grasp on the darkness breaking, and he stepped out of the shadows, Ventress pale eyes darting toward the sudden movement, and he could feel her entire presence freeze up, her wrathful focus shattering for a moment, and Savage seemed to slump for a moment before quickly righting himself when Ventress had recovered.
"Obi-Wan," she managed to growl, but her voice cracked with a flood of emotion. "You weren't supposed to be here."
"Asajj," Kenobi said softly, not unkindly, and the Nightsister took a step back. "You're alive, I knew you were." He laughed in excitement, quickly running down the stairs to stand at a tense, irritated Dooku's side. "Why didn't you come home?"
"I did go home!" she snarled. "To Dathomir, to my sisters!"
Obi-Wan scoffed dismissively, and he could feel the Nightsister boil as she growled in rage. "Your family. What have the Nightsisters ever done for you besides give you away to slavers, hmm? They are as much your family as the poor fools that spawned me and gave me up to the Jedi Order are mine."
"They welcomed me back after Dooku betrayed me!" she shouted, her temper flaring and with it came the unhinged fury of the Dark Side, a raging blaze around her, but Obi-Wan simply waved it off and took a few long steps toward her, stopping only when her monster pointed the huge, glowing red weapon at him. "The Sith have betrayed me!"
"Fine, yes, Dooku betrayed you, but I never did, Asajj. You never came to me, you should have come to me! I would have helped you, you know that."
"Helped me do what," she growled. "Helped bring me back into control? Helped bring me back as a servant to the Sith?" Her pale eyes narrowed, and she pointed a blazing red blade at Dooku. "Or would you have helped me kill him."
Kenobi put his hands up as a means to sooth her, and he projected calm through the Force, but the raging torrent around her was so furious, so thick that even Obi-Wan's influence couldn't get through. Her rage blinded her as the Dark Side consumed the Nightsister, and that made her exceptionally dangerous. "Asajj, you have been betrayed, I understand. I've been betrayed as well..."
"Not like this!"
"Just like this!" he snapped at the woman, his own considerable ire rising, and she recoiled slightly when she felt the Dark Side shifting around the young Sith. "The Jedi sent me to die against Dooku. They even prepared me for it, they taught me how to keep my wits about me as I died so I could use the last of my strength to strike down my enemy. So yes, Asajj, I understand."
Ventress was silent for a moment, looking away from the Sith Lords and the point of her saber wavered as she trembled. Dooku stepped closer to Kenobi, nudging his arm gently and glaring at the Dathomirians, but Obi-Wan held up his hand to call for his patience. The elder Sith nodded, taking the moment of quiet to center himself in the Force and prepare for the fight that may be coming.
Ventress took a deep breath and looked Obi-Wan right in the eye. "If you understand, you will help me kill Dooku. I must have my revenge."
"...I won't help you do that, Asajj."
The pale eyes narrowed in rage, her mouth turning up into a vicious sneer. "That's because you are Sith, and you Sith are all the same. Savage!" With a raging snarl, the Nightbrother brought his weapon up, deftly spinning it over his head before he held it fast in front of him.
"You take your apprentice, I'll handle Asajj," Kenobi quietly commanded, and the Count nodded.
"Gladly."
The two Dathomirians rushed forward, and Obi-Wan ran to meet them, drawing his own red blade as lightning from Dooku's extended hand shot past him and struck Savage in the chest, and the apprentice dropped screaming to the ground. Ventress howled in rage as her support collapsed, and she tried to jump over Kenobi, only to find herself grabbed by the Force and thrown across the room far away from Dooku. She only just managed to bring her blades crossed up before her to stop the swift downward strike of the Sith's lightsaber.
"Asajj, stop this," Kenobi snarled, putting his full strength down on his lightsaber, and Ventress' arms shook as she struggled to keep the wicked blade from her. "You cannot win here."
"I can," she snarled. "I will!" With a surge of the Force, Ventress pushed off the wall behind her, her blades sparking as they slid underneath Kenobi's and shot straight for his throat. He quickly stepped out of the way, her weapon singing the hairs of his beard as she rushed past him and ran for Dooku as he engaged a furious Savage. She was fast, faster than Obi-Wan as she allowed the Dark Side not just to rage within her, but to consume her to fuel its power. In this moment, she was far faster, far stronger, far more powerful than she had ever been, and she had been strong enough before to attract the attention and anger of Darth Sidious. She was no Sith, but Kenobi recognized how dangerous she was.
Kenobi raised his hand and shot his own torrent of lightning at Ventress, but the woman sensed the barrage and swiftly turned, her lightsabers crossed before her as she effortlessly blocked the attack. Kenobi ran forward, his hand raised and keeping the pressure on the furious woman, and he felt the Dark Side swell around her, roaring with outrage and betrayal. The intent was to get her attention, and Obi-Wan had it. With a savage shout, she ran toward him, keeping her blades raised to continue to absorb the lightning, and when she was close enough, she jumped to the side, rolling behind him and slashing her blades upwards as she rose, and Obi-Wan only just managed to bring his lightsaber up over his head, angling it down behind him to catch the Nightsister's strike.
He spun, drawing the darksaber from his belt as he did so and ignited it as he whipped around, the black blade lashing out as it extended toward her face, and Ventress leaned back to avoid it, but she miscalculated the full length of the weapon and the tip caught her, slashing a thin, burning line across her cheek and the side of her nose. The pain was searing, enough to make the Nightsister hiss and retreat, new caution and hesitation settling over her as the Dark Side reeled and raged.
"You would kill me, Obi-Wan?" she said in a mixture of shock, betrayal and anger, and the Sith Lord laughed harshly.
"You started it, my dear. Don't forget that."
"No, he started it!" she shrieked, her blade pointing at Dooku as he deftly fought the monster she controlled. "And you did as well when you sided with him!" Electricity again crackled in the air, and a moment later, Savage Opress skidded to a stop beside them, his armor bearing electric burns and smoking as the Zabrak groaned in pain. A flash of Kenobi's golden eyes and the brutal cold snap in the Force alerted Ventress to his intent, and she brought one of her blades sweeping up from the floor to intercept Kenobi's as he lashed out toward the prone Savage.
"You cannot win!" Kenobi snarled, his usual smooth, accented drawl suddenly rough with rage, and Ventress felt herself hesitate when she sensed betrayal in Kenobi as well. "Your apprentice is sloppy and unrefined! He has no technique. Did you really think a mindless beast would aid you in your fight against a Sith Lord?"
She felt movement behind her, and whirled her blade around to block a strike from Dooku, the elder Sith having decided that Savage was no threat at all and turned his attention to focus on the true problem. Her arms shook as she struggled to hold off both Dooku and Kenobi's blades, but she was not strong enough. With a strangled cry, she dropped, spinning underneath the Sith Lords' weapons as they clashed against each other and, in perfect unison, brought them swiftly down toward her. Ventress pushed off the ground with her hands and only just managed to evade the fatal blows, the red plasma burning into the ground where a moment ago she had crouched.
"Get up, Savage!" she shouted at the struggling Nightbrother. "Get up and kill him!" The Zabrak rose, reignited his lightsaber, and charged at Dooku, but the Sith simply extended his hand, and without even giving the Nightbrother a look, struck him in the chest with Force lightning, and he was sent sprawling back to the ground.
"I can't," Savage said through grit teeth and pain, watching helplessly as Ventress deftly avoided the swift, precise elegance of Dooku's blade work and the sinister pull of the Force that Kenobi exerted that she was only just able to resist. "He's too powerful!"
"Your weakness will not be our downfall!" She renewed her efforts, drew deeply of the Force and renewed her focus and rushed at Dooku once again, the Count retreating as he defended against the flurry, which ended abruptly when Kenobi flanked her and divided her attention. Dooku chuckled deeply when he watched her face fill with anger and panic.
"A failed apprentice makes for a foolish Master," Dooku chided, a smile on his lips, and Ventress exploded in new rage, darting out of the way of the Sith, trying desperately to keep them from flanking her, but to no avail. When Savage rose and once again attacked, she thought there may be a chance of dividing the Sith Lords' focus, but her hopes were quickly dashed. As Obi-Wan had said, Savage was brutal, yes, but unrefined, with no technique to speak of, and it made for a poor asset, one that got in the way as much as not. The Dathomirians were not a team, and the Sith Lords were perfectly united, a powerful connection through the Force between them, and they moved with one mind, alternating their attack and defense to best suit the furious attacks that were launched at them.
Ventress' frustration with her ally peaked when Kenobi disengaged from her and sent his own barrage of lightning at Savage when his wide, brutal cleaves were becoming a hindrance. They were not difficult to predict or avoid, but the unrefined swipes and chops were interfering with the careful grace of the Sith's movements, and the long, double sided blade made it particularly dangerous to get close to the beast. Ventress shouted her rage at the creature, the Nightbrother sitting up in a daze, shaking his head as if to clear a fog from his mind, and his pale yellow eyes seemed to glow as the Force gathered around him.
Kenobi quickly stopped his rush toward the Nightbrother, caution taking hold as the Force warned him of the change within Savage. Reaching into the depths of hate and pain and rage, the Zabrak found the Dark Side willing and waiting for him, and with the embrace of that power, something had broken within Savage as the Force set him free of all that bound him. His subservience to Dooku and the Sith, his slavery to Ventress and the Nightsisters, all of it ended in an instant, and Obi-Wan watched as the Zabrak's will was made manifest for perhaps the first time in his life. Kenobi dodged out of the way just in time, rolling and skidding to a halt on his feet as he brought the Force around him to shield himself from the explosive fury of Savage Opress. He looked up to see both Dooku and Ventress, focused on each other and not at the danger stirring in the Zabrak, and former Master and apprentice ceased their vicious duel as they were lifted into the air by their throats, the Nightbrother effortlessly breaking past any defense they may have held as he began to strangle the two beings that had enslaved him and made him suffer.
It was his only chance. With the full fury of the Dark Side filling the Nightbrother, the focus of his wrath held high in the air, Obi-Wan rushed at the liberated beast, his lightsaber leaving a bleeding trail of red in the air behind him. He reached Savage just as the Nightbrother had expelled the Force outward with explosive power, sending Dooku and Ventress to crash hard against the furthest walls of the room, the blast pushing Kenobi back as well. In a flash, the Nightbrother was off, bolting across the room with his saber raised as he screamed his fury, attacking both the Nightsister and the Sith, the two former Masters of Savage fending off the angry blade in a hazy rush as they staggered to their feet, the room swimming from the hard impact.
Reaching deep into the Force, Obi-Wan reached out, navigating the Dark Side with the expertise of one who was born to live in the storm, and he found Savage's consciousness and pulled at it, sending the Nightbrother flying back just as he had kicked Dooku's saber out of his hand and was about to bring the blade down on the Sith Lord. The Nightbrother was pulled toward Kenobi, and with his blade raised, the Sith arched the saber around with the intention to remove the tattooed head from his massive shoulders, but Savage got his bearings at the last moment and ducked down, the red blade neatly searing off four of his elongated cranial horns, but missing the green skull. The Nightbrother paid it no mind, his rage with Dooku and Ventress forcing him into unrelenting focus, and he rushed for them again, but this time, Obi-Wan was prepared for it.
He extended his hand, lightning sparking from his fingertips and striking the Nightbrother in the back as he rushed for Ventress, the woman on her feet and furious. Just as Obi-Wan was about to bring the blade down on the prone Savage, the Nightsister reached out with the culmination of all her fury and pushed, the Force she commanded a tempest as it picked up Savage and hurled him backwards just as Kenobi's lightsaber slashed against the ground. The loud sound of glass shattering filled the room as the force of the push sent Savage through the window and tumbling down the sheer drop of the cliff the palace sat upon. Obi-Wan snarled in frustration, his anger peaking as interference from the other combatants constantly got in his way, and he slowly advanced on Ventress, and for the first time since she arrived, fear filled her as she looked into the blazing glow of golden eyes.
"I had him," Kenobi snarled in a voice that was not his own, and Ventress backed away, stopping when she heard Dooku's lightsaber ignite behind her. The Count was back on his feet, and he was none too happy. She turned to run, but the Force surrounded her, grasping her in its frigid clutches and raising her up into the air. Immediately, Ventress' blood began to boil within her, and she could feel Kenobi's dark touch deep within her mind, sifting through her emotions, her thoughts, her memories as if he were looking for something, searching relentlessly for an unspecified piece of information as he carelessly tore through everything else. It was painful, unspeakably so, and Asajj would have simply shown him exactly what he wanted if she only knew what it was if it would stop the pain.
It felt like an eternity to Ventress, but it only took a few seconds for Kenobi to lift her, rip through her consciousness, and then for Dooku to strike her with lightning, the overwhelming power of it sending the Nightsister flying through the air and flung carelessly out the broken window and over the cliff, down toward the bottom that could not be seen through the darkness of night. Obi-Wan immediately ran to the window, his boots crunching over bits of broken glass, and he closed his eyes and sunk deep into the Force in search of the life pulse of the two Dathomirians.
He hissed in frustration when he reeled away from the window and stalked toward Dooku. "They're alive," he said softly, the darkness reigned in, and Dooku sensed not just anger from the young Sith, but relief as well. Ventress was his friend, after all, and had been for several years, and furthermore, he understood her plight, was pleased by her safety, and certainly didn't want her dead. Attachments were...messy.
"Should we pursue?" Dooku asked, and Kenobi shook his head.
"We lose the advantage the second we leave the palace. And by the time we get down, they will already be gone. Get the droids on it."
Dooku immediately activated the comlink on his desk and ordered the droids to elevate the security and to search the surrounding area for the two Dathomirians. Any unregistered ship they found was to be immediately destroyed, and no ship was to take off or land until the Count gave the word. The quick affirmative was received, the comlink deactivated, and Dooku shuffled wearily to sit beside Obi-Wan on the steps.
There was silence for a long while as Dooku calmed his ragged breath, as Kenobi soothed the nearly untamable Dark Side, as the Sith slowly untangled the flow of thoughts and feelings between them that they established during the heat of battle, and slowly, the intensity of their bond subsided. "I'm sorry..." Dooku said softly, his deep voice heavy and tired, and Kenobi ever so slightly inclined his head.
"I know." He placed his hands behind him and leaned back, breathing deep as he closed his eyes. "I could have killed her. I could have killed him. If Ventress didn't push him when she did, if you didn't hit her when you did..."
"Should I apologize?"
"...no." He slowly opened his eyes, his entire body settling into weariness as the Force calmed and the adrenaline subsided. Fighting other Dark Side practitioners, even if they weren't Sith, even if they were simply failed apprentices, was no easy task, and Ventress had the advantage of being trained by him and Dooku for a prolonged period of time, and Savage was...well, he was a beast. Unrefined, but with great potential, and Obi-Wan knew too well that even an animal could be dangerous when cornered. The comlink on the desk beeped, and Dooku answered it remotely. They had found the escaping Dathomirians in different places, and both caused an as yet to be calculated amount of damage before they escaped. With a snarl of fury, Dooku ended the transmission and laid back, running his hands over his face, and Obi-Wan could feel that he was weary as well.
"I'm getting old," Dooku muttered under his breath, and Kenobi chuckled softly.
"You know, your old Master Yoda would say, 'Age matters not'," he said in a raspy imitation of the Jedi Grandmaster, and Dooku laughed deeply.
"He would say such, yes, but the opinion of one who can live a thousand years is hardly valid in this case."
Kenobi propped himself up on his elbows and looked the Count over and quietly gave voice to what they were both thinking. "What now?"
"There is only one thing to do," Dooku said slowly, his tone even and measured. "You were right about it all. This is Talzin's work. This will continue to happen unless we purge Dathomir of those vile witches."
Kenobi nodded. "Not just them. The Nightbrothers as well."
"Savage and Ventress will certainly return home. We must attack before they can escape."
Kenobi looked around the room, the walls scorched with lightning burns, the floor covered in deep, molten scars from lightsabers. It was a mess, and it would continue. "The Force isn't done with them..." he whispered, groaning as he rose to his feet and helping Dooku up as well. "Call for Grievous. I'll go with him to make sure the Nightsisters and the Nightbrothers are all executed." Dooku smirked.
"Not going to take these for your experiments, Kenobi?"
"No. They're too dangerous, and I want to send a message to Asajj and that beast of hers about what it means to attack the Sith."
Dooku frowned deeply at Kenobi's implication. "You do not think we will kill Savage and Ventress?"
"I think by the time we mobilize Grievous and his elite, they will be long gone. And we need his best. I think we can agree that Talzin isn't one to be taken lightly."
"I agree completely."
Kenobi scoffed. "Yes, now, after that apprentice mistake." Dooku simply looked away from the other Sith. There was nothing else to be said on the matter. "Speaking of..." Obi-Wan slowly drawled, and Dooku looked back at him suspiciously. "I have a...peace offering, if you will. Something I picked up on Umbara." He smiled brightly. "Just for you."
Dooku narrowed his eyes as he tried to get a sense of what the younger Sith was up to, but he was unreadable. "What is it..."
Smiling, Obi-Wan rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet. "How do you feel about a new apprentice?"