Chapter 74: In the Shadows

"You are weak," Ventress snapped, retracting her lightsaber and crossing her arms as she looked down at the panting, beaten Quinlan Vos. This was the latest of several training sessions they had since their meeting on Level 1313, and it wouldn't be the last. True to her word, Ventress had found Vos every single place he went, and he had to grudgingly admit that while she wasn't at his level of expertise, she was a damn fine tracker.

She was also kicking his ass.

"You know," he gasped, rising to his feet, "Dooku is an old man. He isn't going to fight like you."

"You're right, he isn't." She smiled at him gently as he grinned, and then viciously lashed out with her hand and smacked him on the back of his head. Quinlan groaned in irritation, rubbing the spot she had hit. "Dooku is better than me. He always has been! And besides, he isn't the problem." She crossed her arms and glared at the Jedi. "Your problem is his support. Your problem is General Grievous and Obi-Wan Kenobi."

"...aw, shit."

"Did you honestly think it would be as easy as just walking in, killing him, and walking out?"

"N-no, but-"

She pushed him back on to the stump of a fallen tree. Qalydon was remote world, covered in forests and small settlements, though many of the forests had been thinned by a recent clash between Republic and Separatist forces. Asajj didn't understand why they were fighting on a world that held literally no galactic importance, but there were always things she didn't see. It may have had something to do with the abundance of pirates. The Sertar Sector was notoriously lawless and had become more so when a band of local pirates had suddenly expanded their territory. Asajj paid them no mind, just as she paid the Republic and the Confederacy no mind either. It wasn't her business, and so long as she kept to her business, they would leave her alone as well.

"But nothing," she growled. "I know you have defeated Grievous before, but Obi-Wan is stronger than you, faster than you, and smarter than you, idiot."

Quinlan grinned brightly. "Hey! The last time you called me an idiot was over three hours ago!" He leaned in closer to her, but she held her ground. "I must be warming up to you..."

She patted his head like he were some big, stupid pet. "It's adorable that you think that, idiot." She stepped back and shrugged. "It's pointless getting attached when the Sith are just going to kill you."

Quinlan scoffed and crossed his arms, his eyes closed and his breath calm and even. Ventress looked him over, felt the Force within him, sensed the touch of the Dark Side stark upon his soul, dark and angry, but far from grasping him in its hold. It was good that he was not consumed, but his restraint was keeping him from grabbing hold of power. He needed something else. Ventress didn't know what drove him to darkness, what kept him falling into the shadows of the Force, but it wasn't enough. Dooku's death was keeping him motivated, but most Jedi were driven. Quinlan Vos needed to be more.

"I saw what you did to Grievous," she said softly. "I was there on Kamino. He was torn apart. I have never seen him like that. He is no stranger to losing limbs, he can afford to be reckless because he can just replace them, but he was afraid." The Jedi looked away, and Ventress grabbed his chin and forced him to look at her. "What did you do? How did you do it?"

"...he was going to kill my Padawan," he said softly. "I couldn't stand to lose her, and Obi-Wan-" He froze, his voice catching in his throat for a moment before he swallowed and continued. "We had talked about power before. And the Dark Side, and how the infinite fury of the Force is right at the fingertips of anyone with sensitivity to it. So I took hold of it and-"

"And you used the Dark Side to save her." Vos nodded. "That's good. Your emotions give you strength. You feel deeply, Vos, and that does not speak of non-attachment."

Quinlan smiled slightly. "I've never been the best Jedi."

"And that's what makes you right for this task." Ventress frowned. "But it isn't good enough." She pointed to one of the long, fallen trees that lay upon the ground through the cut trail of the droid artillery tanks. "I need you to move that from here..." She swept her finger across the deep scar in the woods, and stopped when she pointed to a large hill looming in the distance. "To up there." With a smirk, Quinlan rubbed his hands together, the Force surging around him, but he stopped when Ventress lay a firm hand on his shoulder. "Without the Force."

"What?" The Kiffar laughed, but it quickly died away when he saw how serious the woman was. "...you're serious? Why! Why would I do that when I could just use the Force."

"Because while you're being lazy and taking shortcuts, Obi-Wan has been training, not just his mind, not just his Force talents, and not just his lightsaber skills, but his body as well." She crossed her arms and glared at him, taking in every little detail about him and as before, she found him lacking. Pleasing to look at, perhaps, but lacking. "You cannot afford to allow Obi-Wan to hold any advantage over you. You're bigger than he is, which is good. It will allow you to be physically stronger, if you're diligent in your training. Remember, you don't need to beat him. You just need to get past him."

"This is why I need a partner..." he grumbled, and Ventress just laughed.

"A sacrifice, is more like. It would be a fair distraction, yes, if it works, but whoever you send against him will not survive."

"It will if it's Master Yoda."

Ventress shot him a look of disbelief. "And you think your Jedi Master will condone what you are doing?"

"...no..."

She put a hand on his back and pushed him forward. "Then get moving. I need that on the top of the hill." With a displeased, unamused look on his tattooed face, Quinlan grabbed hold of the massive trunk and slowly began to maneuver it toward the hill. In the short time they had been working together, Vos had made improvements. Large ones. He was stronger, faster, could more effortlessly harness his frustrations and stir them into anger if needed. He gripped the Dark Side more easily now, pulled at it in his anger and, as she had taught him, could quickly let go afterwards so that the darkness never had the time to sink its poisonous touch within him. For smaller things, it was serving him well. His talent and speed with a lightsaber increased in its ferocity, and he was proving to be a quick and able student, so much so that Ventress was enjoying working with him. The first week, they had met once. Twice the next week. Four times the week after that, and this week, Ventress had worked with him every single day. She wasn't attached. This Jedi was going to die, but she found the company an amusing diversion from her own thoughts.

For a while, she even believed that perhaps Vos could do it. He was dedicated and driven, single-minded in his belief that Dooku had to die, but it was driven from a place of compassion, not rage, which is what he would need to harness the power he needed, to drive the softness from his heart that would keep him from hesitating when the moment came. Murder had been easy for Asajj to embrace, but this was a Jedi Master. He lived his whole life in the Temple, had been raised to hold all life sacred, trained not to kill out of anger if he had to kill at all. But against a Sith Lord, this just wasn't an option. Dooku could only be killed by someone with hatred in their heart, of this she was certain, and while Quinlan had a great deal of anger, pure, unbound hatred wasn't something that rested within him. Not yet.

"You can get past Grievous," she said, walking behind him as the Jedi grunted in strained effort as he began to roll the massive log up the hill. "You have done it before, and while he is dangerous, it isn't anything you can't handle. The Force isn't with him like it is with you. Obi-Wan is going to be your greater difficulty."

"Can't I just hope he's not there?" he said between teeth clenched tight as he forced his weight behind the heavy log.

"You can, and you will die for it. You may think that he will not kill you because he hasn't in the past, but never forget what he is. He is Sith, and he was chosen for a reason. You must be stronger than him. Faster than him. Smarter than him. I have seen how he trains. I have seen the single-mindedness his Master has driven in to him. Every moment you are not training, every second you waste being drunk or carousing, know that your opponent is training. He is tireless, and he will never stop."

"You are so encouraging..."

She watched as the strong muscles in his back and arms tensed and shook, an intense focus behind him that drove him past his physical limitations. He was stubborn. She liked that in a person. "Your friendship with him won't make him hesitate. If he believes you are somehow against him or the Sith, it won't matter how close you are, it won't matter how strong your friendship is, because he will turn on you in an instant like he did with-" She stopped herself suddenly and bit down on her tongue, the familiar feelings of hurt and pain and sadness and rage beginning to fill her. With a final push and a growl of effort, Vos pushed the log up onto the hill's plateau. Ventress looked out on the expanse of the woods around him, saw the deep scars of battle on the forest, saw the lights of the Republic encampment in the distance.

"But Obi-Wan gave me the idea..." the Jedi wheezed, sitting on the log and hands on his knees as he caught his breath, sweat rolling off his face and dripping into the soft dirt at his feet. "Yeah, he said he'd fight against me, but-"

"He knows you're coming, that's all this means," Ventress said dismissively. She looked at the Jedi, and almost took a step away from him when she found his dark brown eyes looking at her expectantly, sympathetically, and she had to slam the door shut on her emotions when she felt herself tremble. She was not attached to this man, but his likeabilty was infectious, so like Kenobi. She could see why they got along. In many ways, they were opposites. Over the days she had gotten to know Quinlan, she had found him to be disorganized to Kenobi's meticulous nature, laid back to the Sith's uptight, impulsive to Obi-Wan's careful planning. And yet, she could see how they would get along, how it would have been so easy for them to become close, and perhaps because of this, she was drawn to Quinlan Vos, the ease in which he approached her so reminiscent of Obi-Wan, and despite her reluctance to admit it, she did ache for her lost friend.

Just as Quinlan did.

"What did he do to you?" Vos asked quietly, but it rang in Ventress ears, and she couldn't look away from those dark, compassionate eyes. But she could steel herself against it. There was no room for compassion in what it was Vos was trying to do. If he wanted to live, he would need to burn it out of him.

"Your sympathy is a weakness," she managed to snarl, stepping away from him and looking at him with disgust. "Your understanding will lead you to hesitate when you will need to act. Harden yourself, Vos, or Kenobi will drag you with him into the Dark Side and you will never return."

The Jedi scoffed. "Of course that's easy for you, you were raised in darkness."

"Oh?" she asked, her lips twisting into a cruel, amused smirk. "I was train by a Jedi, just as you were, idiot."

Quinlan almost fell off the log he sat on, but quickly gripped the rough, flaking bark and held on. "You?!" he gasped breathlessly, and Asajj felt herself burn with old pain, long past but never quite healed. Hatred had a way of keeping wounds gaping, bleeding and open, and the Dark Side ensured that they never healed quite right.

"Yes..." she hissed slowly, taking a few steps away from the Jedi and sitting cross-legged in the dirt. Vos followed suit, sliding off the log and leaning back against it. He wanted to be closer, she could see, driven by deep sympathy for what he assumed was terrible pain to make her choose the path she did, but he kept a respectful distance. "I was taken as a slave when I was very young, and when my Master was killed, a Jedi discovered my Force talents and took me to train."

"Who?" Quinlan asked, leaning forward as if she was telling him some great secret. "Why weren't you taken back to the Temple?"

"Master Ky Narec," she whispered, and Quinlan slowly scooted forward to hear better. "And he was stranded on the planet. I never understood why, but the Jedi never came for him. He didn't seem to mind. Rattatak was crawling with injustice, and he was intent to right it all. And I was with him." She smiled sadly as the all too familiar pain washed through her. It seemed like such a small thing, now that her people had all been executed, but the Sith had taught her that even the smallest pain could be fatal. "Ten years, he served as my Master."

"Ten years!" Vos said in disbelief. He could feel his respect for the woman growing by the second, which he didn't think was possible, not because she was a thing he could not respect, but because he respected her a great deal already. She was strong, fierce, a true warrior, and one that had the strength to turn away from the Dark Side. It was everything he needed to be. "That's long enough for a Padawan to become a Knight. Asajj, you were a Jedi." He laughed and ran a hand through his hair. "I had no idea."

"I was," she said darkly. "My Master was killed, and it was over for me then. Rage consumed me, and I destroyed the pirates responsible for his death, but even that wasn't enough. Without his killers, my wrath turned to the Jedi that abandoned him. I hated them. If your Order saw it fit to come to get him, he wouldn't have died so far away from home."

Quinlan said nothing. There was nothing he could say. He understood, he really did. He had seen Obi-Wan's fall, both in his visions and in person, and it was marked time and time again by betrayals and failures of the Jedi. Even he was angry with the Council for their lack of vision, their pathetically slow response at dealing with the Sith threat, their reluctance to do what needed to be done, their failure at seeing darkness when it was standing right beside them. Like Dooku. Like Obi-Wan. Like the enthralled Eeth Koth. Like...himself. He swallowed hard and cleared the ides from his mind. What he was doing was different. He was seeing the bigger picture, making a sacrifice for the well-being of everyone, just like Jedi were supposed to do. He'd be forgiven for what he was going to do. He wasn't falling, he was just venturing closer to the edge.

"Dooku found me then," she continued softly, and Vos thought she sounded almost defeated. "He wanted an apprentice that was like him, and I served him well. He showed me how to focus and harness my rage into power, and Kenobi taught me how to refine it. And then the Sith betrayed me."

"They usually do."

She nodded. "I returned home to Dathomir, and the Nightsisters welcomed me back with open arms, and twice, with them at my side, I sought revenge on Dooku. Twice, I failed." She growled in anger, her hand clenching into a fist, and Vos could feel the Dark Side, strong and hungry, fly to her. "And then the Sith struck back. The details are unimportant, but Dooku sent an army to annihilate us, and Kenobi led the charge."

"All of them?" Vos choked. He couldn't believe it. A massacre on Dathomir? He and Obi-Wan had been to Dathomir, met with the clan's mother, she had helped aid them in their search for the Sith. There were hundreds of women living in their subterranean temple in harmony with the nature around them. Yes, the nature was of the Dark Side, but it was still beautiful. It was difficult to imagine all of them slaughtered by Sith evil. It was even harder to imagine Obi-Wan doing it. But worst of all was thinking about the pain and the suffering that Asajj Ventress felt, and without thinking, Quinlan reached out and grabbed her hand.

"I am so sorry..." he gasped, feeling her pain in his chest, and for a long moment, Ventress didn't move. She just looked at him, blue eyes filled with pain and disbelief, like even she could not believe that it had been real. A moment later and she pulled her hand away, her pale skin flushing slightly as she turned from him.

"Don't be," Ventress said, her voice cracking with emotion, and she growled deeply, her hands balling into the dirt. She brought Vos here to teach him of the Dark Side, to make him strong enough to face Dooku, not so he could comfort her like some mewling babe. Why had she even told him about all this? It was irrelevant to his training. Her heart ached none the less. It was the first time she had spoken aloud what had happened, but she couldn't understand what compelled her to do so. "Never turn from your pain, Vos. Never hide it or brush it away. Always face it head on, take it inside you, let yourself focus on fear and anger and hatred, and the Dark Side will be drawn to your presence."

The Jedi started to protest, but quickly stopped himself and shook his head. "I understand," he said slowly. "I can't imagine what it's like to lose what you have lost, but I know well what it's like to lose a Master."

Sudden realization struck her, in its brilliance and malice, and she felt her skin begin to crawl. Before she could stop herself, she said, "Master Tholme."

Ventress winced as brown eyes dark with anger whipped up to stare at her "You were there..." he said, his voice without any warmth or expression that she had come to expect from this carefree Jedi, from this kind-hearted man that was far too caring to kill anything. This was his passage to the Dark Side. This was how he would have the strength to murder Dooku, but it would all be for nothing if he learned the truth. She had killed him, and it was Obi-Wan that had sent her to do it. How long had Kenobi been planning the fall of this Jedi?

She could fix this. "No," she lied, surprised at how easily it had come to her. "But I heard about it. It was early in the war, Dooku bragged about it to Kenobi, said he'd never be able to kill a Jedi. Dooku killed your Master."

Vos' shoulders slumped, and he stared almost lifeless at the ground in front of him, but Ventress could feel it. Darkness filled him, cold and grim and vicious as he was gripped with a burning need for vengeance for the Master he had loved and lost. "I never knew..." he said in a bitter growl. "I always thought that I could have saved him if I was there, I should have been with him, I wanted to be with him, but I was sent somewhere else..."

The lie had worked better than she thought. This wasn't a Jedi. Quinlan Vos was attached and emotional, hedonistic and free-spirited with a disregard for rules, something he saw as made to be broken. And now, confronted with an explanation for his Master's death, something that had obviously been denied to him, he accepted Ventress' explanation at face value, blinded by emotion that he was not used to feeling in such intensity. She had not only managed to give him a personal motivation for seeking Dooku's death, but it seemed as though she had somehow managed to ignite resentment toward the Jedi. She had sensed dissatisfaction from him before that ran much deeper than this, but now, it was at the forefront.

"Let this anger guide you, Quinlan," Ventress said softly, laying a hand on his knee, and she felt him flinch, the Dark Side rearing up in rage that quickly gave way to...something. She couldn't look at it. It was pulling her in, making her feel the same way too. "Your anger over the death of your Master will give you strength and focus. Keep it close, use these emotions."

"I was trained not to use those emotions..." he said, his voice hollow and distant, and Ventress lay a long fingered, pale hand on his cheek and forced him to look at her.

"When you were a Jedi, that may have been true, but this thing cannot be done the Jedi way, and you haven't been a Jedi for a long time."

"No, w-wait, I-"

"I found you in a bar so drunk you could barely stand, and for what?" Ventress scoffed. "To stop thinking about those who die while Dooku lives. A Jedi doesn't drink to dull the pain, Quinlan Vos."

"...I am a Jedi," Quinlan said softly. "This is for the good of everyone. I have always walked the edge. I have always kept to the shadows of the Force, but I am not dark. If I was committed to the Dark Side, if this is something I wanted, I'd be with Obi-Wan right now, not you. He wants me to fall, I know that. He has said as much." He took her hand in his, clutching it hard at first, and then running a gentle finger across her palm. "I need you...everyone agrees that this assassination is a thing of the Dark Side, that Dooku cannot be killed by anything less, and I believe it. I will kill him, and you're going to teach me how to come back from the darkness."

Ventress sighed heavily and looked away from him. "You really are an idiot, aren't you?" He was resolved, she saw, and there could be no doubt that he was doing this for the Jedi, despite his frustrations. This wasn't a man that sought power like Obi-Wan, or influence like Dooku. Quinlan Vos turned to the Dark Side for peace. And perhaps that was enough. "You're still going to have to kill," she reminded him, and he grimly nodded. "Your training cannot continue until you do."

"...I know." The last time they tried, it had ended in rather embarrassing failure. Ventress had coaxed a small amphibious creature to her and killed it with the Dark Side, and Vos' attempt to follow her lead ended in him getting bit by a dozen small, sharp teeth as the creature escaped. He was reluctant to try again. The animal was innocent, the killing senseless, and he was too soft-hearted to follow through. His hesitation had cost him the kill, and such reluctance, even for a moment, would see him die by Dooku's hand.

"Just remember that your emotions give you strength. We have found your way to grasp the Dark Side." She leaned in close to him, her hand on his wrist feeling the pulse of his heart quicken. "Use it."

"...I'll try."

"Trying will only lead you to failure. Just do it."

Quinlan laughed nervously, leaning back to put some distance between them, but she was far too close, and his heart was beating far too fast. This never happened to him. "I am not accustomed to using emotions like this, the Jedi-"

"The Jedi taught you about many emotions you are not supposed to use," she said, her voice low and husky, and she found herself leaning closer to him, despite the warnings in her mind. This was a Jedi, and not only that, but one that would soon be fighting Dooku. She didn't want revenge, she wanted to be far, far away from the Sith, as far away as possible, and here it looked as though she were training another assassin. She wouldn't do it. She couldn't do it, not again. Not when she had learned that being alone was for the best...

But she could feel it in him from the first day they met. Vos was carnal, no stranger to pleasure and passion, and Obi-Wan had often spoken of his exploits, of how often missions went wrong because some girl had told her father about what the rogue had done to her. And he was appealing, in many ways. She laid a hand over his heart and could feel it pounding, the Force swirling with desire. "Do you deny those emotions too?" she asked, knowing full well what the answer was.

He whimpered, a sound born from both desire and anguish, and to Ventress, it sounded as if something had broken inside of him. He grabbed her, pulled her close, and kissed her.

Neither was a stranger to physical passion, clearly, and Ventress had the benefit of a Sith education under Obi-Wan Kenobi, who was as much about sexual delight as he was about inflicting cruel suffering on others, and she had reaped the benefits of both as he dragged her between Mustafar and Mandalore. But this was different. This was...something. Ventress didn't know what it was, but two months suffering over the fate of her sisters had weighed on her, perhaps weakened her resolve, and she would be damned if the Sith would have the last word. She had been left alive to suffer, to live with the knowledge that, at any time, the Sith could destroy all she held dear. The Dark Side would not define her. Not anymore.

They only pulled away when Quinlan's comlink began to beep, jumping when they had heard it, and they frantically untangled themselves as if they had been caught doing something that was expressly forbidden. It felt that way, at least.

"Master!" came the young, flustered voice over the com, and Vos' chest puffed with pride. His Padawan. Ventress scooted away from the Jedi to give the man room to breathe. "Where are you! You weren't drinking with the clones like usual!"

"Well," he drawled, "I met this girl from the village and-"

"No, stop! Don't tell me again, please!" the Padawan cried, and Quinlan snickered wickedly. "You're going to need to leave her wanting, Master, we got an emergency call from Coruscant!"

The got the Jedi's attention. In a moment, he was on his feet and striding down the hill with Ventress following curiously behind. "What happened?"

"We're being sent to Florrum since we're so close to the system. We're going to meet Adi Gallia and Even Piell there for an assault on the planet." He could almost hear the Togruta grinning. "They found him, Master. They found Darth Maul."