Chapter 100

I had been to many places in this galaxy by now, fought on the battlefields of numerous worlds, commanded starships and fleets. Seen ships consumed in exotic energies and fire. Fought a Dark side version myself and a Celestial outside the universe in Mortis. A list that was getting fairly extensive at this point.

Yet, when the red lightsaber blade of Count Dooku was surging its way to slash straight into the small gap of my armor around my neck that wasn't made of beskar, it somehow brought a new level of awareness to my mortality.

I couldn't dodge too early or Dooku would simply compensate and hit me anyway. In the same vein I couldn't dodge late.

For all that it was happening so fast, my perceptions of prescience combined with battle precog, meant I was forced to just stand there and watch that red blade come toward me.

Facing death was something of an old hat to me, yet there was no truly getting used to it. You can train your body and mind, but there will always be that little part of you that stubbornly clings to that fear. That just wants you to run, cower and hide until the bad thing goes away.

I was not a frightful animal.

Fear was something that I conquered and sent it back to the little corner where it belonged. It served a function, but it would never dominate or control.

The red blade was close now, barely a few inches away now and a few milliseconds before it cut into that weak spot in my armor.

The Force sang through every fiber of my being.

In a blurring movement, my upper body tilted right a few inches.

It was so fast that even Dooku couldn't recover from the error I had just forced on him. There would be no twist or flick of wrist in that damn Makashi style of his that could correct.

His blade sparked and bounced off my pauldron, my left blade twirled.

It caught Dooku's on the reverse side and forced it away to my left.

The Darksaber lunged forward as I attacked Dooku's left side.

I heard and felt the dark blade scrape against his dark brown tunic, leaving a smoking trail but he was not some inexperienced padawan.

He stepped out of the way, flicked away my blade lock and threw another brief burst of Force Lightning to keep me busy and on the defensive.

Anakin rushed in and unleashed a furious offensive.

Slashing deep into Dooku's guard with constantly shifting angles; left diagonal, right diagonal, horizontal, overhead vertical and lower lunge.

Dooku retreated, deflecting and blocking each incoming strike.

I shot forward, angling in for an attack on his left again.

He now riposted an attack from Anakin, steering him once again into my path.

'Master, low bridge.'

Far from stopping me, I just kept speeding up.

At the last moment, Anakin sent a powerful slash to Dooku, pushing his blade out the way, before he ducked low, going to one knee.

I jumped, stepping briefly on Anakin's back.

He surged upward, giving me a boost into the air and slashing sideways at Dooku, forcing the Count to retreat.

Moving him into the perfect position for my own dual bladed Falling Avalanche to slam down, with gravity and telekinetic force on my side.

Dooku took a page out of my book, not even trying to contest or block.

He used his own enhanced speed to dodge back at the last second.

My blades stabbed into the floor with a high pitched, singing scream, whilst the telekinetic assault slammed down around me, wrecking and mangling the very nice carpet before the force hit the duracrete and steel below. It rang the structure of the room like a bell.

Anakin kept up the pressure.

Rolling over my back with his own, blurring forward to again engage Dooku, attacking low, then shifting to high slashes.

I pulled my blades out of the floor and really wished we were outside, then I could do a bit of battlefield control without worrying about the structure of the building coming down around us.

That didn't mean I was without options though.

Time to be a Consular.

My will reached out to the balconies of the hall, specifically the railings.

They tore easily out of their mountings and shaped themselves, turning themselves into spears.

Twelve durasteel spears hovered above my head and I sent three forward like they were shot out of an air cannon.

Dooku blocked a hit from Anakin, then had to twirl his blade at the last moment to fend off my kinetic attack.

He cut the spears in half and in the same moment nulled out my control and their momentum.

Anakin's attacks called his attention back, but he managed to quickly send a Force Push on the remnants of my spears to send them straight back to me.

My hand raised and I stopped them immediately, to fall at my feet.

Their fight continued, green and red blades blurring to the normal eye.

Anakin managed to bring Dooku around, for the briefest of moments it was him in control of the flow of the battle, herding the Sith to his left.

I was ready for the moment and five spears shot forward.

I aimed for Dooku's head, neck, shoulder, hip and lower leg.

This only succeeded to herd him further away from Anakin as he dodged. Then he took control of my spears and hurled them at my master.

Anakin barely acknowledged the redirected kinetic attack, releasing a Force Push immediately that sent the projectiles scattering in many directions.

My control reasserted and I pulled all the projectiles back.

Neatly preventing the probability line where Dooku used one to attack Anakin in the back.

All the spears and half-spears hovered above my head and I bent them into rough durasteel balls.

Anakin then deflected Dooku's blade, going into an abrupt riposte that was almost straight out of Makashi, creating an angle, using my blade in a way that had to mean he was also partially controlling it with telekinesis.

The surprise on Dooku's face was totally worth it as he suffered a slash that just about clipped his upper left leg.

The margin of vulnerability was so close, that my green lightsaber in Anakin's hand had effectively given Dooku a 2nd degree burn.

I felt Dooku's anger, pain and scalded pride from across the room.

My will sent forth every steel projectile I had shooting towards him.

Dooku furiously slashed at Anakin, then I felt his power snap outward into the ceiling above us.

This again? Either the Count knew that he could do this without bringing down his mansion on top of us all or he was so furious that he didn't care.

Dooku blurred with speed to avoid all my projectiles, creating distance between himself and Anakin, whilst he reached up with his left hand.

He tried to break a large section of the ceiling to fall on top of me, but found my own control of the physical matter there waiting for his attempt.

If this fight had just been me and him, he would've had the strength and focus to possibly beat me, but he also had Anakin Skywalker to worry about.

He had no choice but to quickly abandon the battle for control over the ceiling as he defended himself from another flurry of strikes by Anakin.

"No originality, Dooku," I said, my words carried by the Force and my focus falling into a brief battle meditation, pushing down on the count's morale and spirit. "Do you truly think that this will end with you winning? That the CIS will exist as you envision it?"

"You speak of things you couldn't possibly understand, child," Dooku grunted as he shifted his blade left and right to counter Anakin's rapid slashes.

"Perhaps, but I wonder what Qui-gon would say now if he could see you here, fighting us. He was Obi-Wan's master, Anakin was Obi-wan's and I am Anakin's."

"Your appeal to those connections are pointless, they do not exist." Dooku growled, sending a brief burst of Lightning to force Anakin back on the defensive, opening up some room.

"Liar, they exist and your denial of them doesn't change that fact. You are strong in the Dark Side, Dooku. The only way you could've gotten there is by casting off those same connections."

He snarled as Anakin finished dissipating the lightning, blurred forward and started to hammer his guard. The sizzle, hums and crackling of the blades echoed through the space rapidly.

"You think you have destroyed everything that you loved or had attachments to Dooku, but you're just deluding yourself."

"Silence!"

It said something about the level of Dooku's mastery that even engaged in a full duel with Anakin, that he managed to reach out through the Force and attempt to choke me.

I solidified my personal control of the Force in me and surrounding me, completely shutting down Dooku's attempt.

"Nice try, Dooku. Your attempts to use me as a distraction for my master, to create worry and fear will not work. Keep trying though, it'll just tire you out faster and make your capture an inevitability."

Dooku began laughing, the initiative had shifted, his blade now probing Anakin's defenses in a seemingly continuous loop. "Child, you haven't the faintest idea of the Dark Side or my power. Your attempts to use Dun Möch on me is pathetic."

"Dun Möch?" I asked in surprise. "Please, Dooku. If I was using that skill, you'd know. No, this is me just talking, using knowledge, common sense and the Force so my words can reach you over the sound of lightsabers crashing into each other continuously. I suppose you want me to rejoin the fight, blades in hand. No, thank you. As you've demonstrated, you can turn our advantage into a disadvantage."

Of course, I wasn't going to mention that I was using battle meditation to figuratively stomp my feet on his fighting spirit. That was still a work in progress and needed more time. There was also the little matter of the greater goal of all this. This was not a deception just aimed at Dooku, but his master as well.

My will reached out to the crude durasteel projectiles I had used, which were now scattered near the far end of the hall.

A Force Pull had all of them shooting toward me, their flight path neatly intersecting where Dooku was at that moment.

Anakin took advantage and attacked Dooku with a massive Force Push.

This left Darth Tyranus with a rather bad choice.

Counter my kinetic attack or Anakin's or use the very costly Force Scream again.

His choice was to slice his lightsaber through the air in Anakin's direction, precisely countering just enough of that Push, so it created a null zone, effectively cutting the Push in two.

I am so stealing that, I thought eagerly. It was so obvious in retrospect, why waste concentration and energy in nulling out the entire Push.

My projectiles arrived a moment later and Dooku grit his teeth as he accepted numerous hard body blows, Fortifying himself to them.

"Wow, that is some anger you've got there," I said, purposefully sounding impressed. "You so dearly want to come over to me and beat me down, destroy me with lightning or even chop my head off."

Dooku was pissed and the Force began shifting in the room, becoming laced and heavy as he began to gather more of the Dark Side, his eyes shifting back to a corrupted yellow.

"But you can't, I'm too far away, the focus and attention you'd need would leave you vulnerable to my master."

It wouldn't be long now.

Anakin proved my point when he was right back within Dooku's guard and hammering him with Djem So's strongest offensive slashes and lunges.

Then our enemy began faltering.

His attacks and defense began moving that fraction slower, the Force settled down into a simmer, his gathered power diffused as he fought for control and to rid himself of the corruption. Anakin gained the upper hand, starting to push Dooku towards the massive window of the hall.

I began a slow walk towards the fight, as if I was expecting Anakin to emerge triumphant now, projecting overconfidence.

Dooku began breathing hard, the length of the fight was not doing him any favors.

He raised his blade for an overhead strike and his personal Fortification faltered for just a single moment.

Anakin blasted him with a Force Push that managed to catch and send Dooku flying backward to collide hard with the transparisteel.

"Argh!"

The brief shout of pain escaped from his lips and he slid down the glass, his lightsaber falling out of his hand and extinguishing itself automatically as an inherent safety feature.

Even as he sat there, leaning against the giant window, he reached out to will his lightsaber back into his hand.

Anakin approached and a brief Force Push slapped Dooku's curved hilt away to the left side of the hall.

"It's over, Dooku," Anakin said grimly as I came to a stop next to him. Both of us raised our blades to point the tips just a few centimeters away from Dooku's chin. "Time has caught up with you."

I raised my gauntlet to fire the sedative that would put him to sleep.

The Force exploded.

That was the only word I could use to describe what happened next.

I knew Dooku would pull out some sort of overwhelming trump card. I had prepared for a Force Scream of stupendous power, a Force Storm, even though that one was highly unlikely and even Force Choke, Wound or even Kill; a Dark Side power that let you reach directly into someone to damage or destroy vital organs.

What hit both of us had to be a Force Wave that Dooku had been building for all the time he had been feigning weakness.

The Force was so chaotic, it was a struggle to mold it for Fortifying my own body.

I just about managed, when my back hit the ceiling of the hall with a speed that felt like a car had smashed into me.

My arms spilled outward and I hastily willed my lightsabers to shut down, because Anakin was right next to me, also pinned against the ceiling and fighting his own battle for survival.

Dooku stood up below us, his hands outstretched and flexing, a contemptuous snarl on his face.

"Now you both die!"

Iron hard invisible bands of Force wrapped around us and began squeezing.

Fear tried to worm its way in my mind; fear of death, failure, the stupid nagging doubt that I wasn't strong enough to see this through.

Fuck that.

Fear had no hold over me.

I opened my eyes, not even knowing when I had closed them. My mind reached across the Bond with Anakin…

The Force exploded again.

We pushed our hands down, between myself and Anakin's stupendous strength in the Force, Dooku's attempted Crush of our bodies was halted.

Our fight was not without consequences for the environment around us.

The entire hall seemed to resonate as errant kinetic energies through the Force flexed and spilled over. The structure began audibly groaning, shaking, then the solid durasteel walls dented. The ceiling around us especially began taking the brunt of the effects - as great rents were torn in paneling and load bearing supports alike.

If this continued, this entire section of the mansion wouldn't remain standing.

'Master!' I warned.

'I see it, Snips. Hang on!'

'Can't do much else!'

Anakin kept both hands in Dooku's direction to not telegraph what he was about to do.

Another massive indirect Force Push erupted to the right, then to the left.

Five meter holes were torn open in the ceiling of the hall, then beyond that, another floor and finally to the true outer roof of the mansion.

Ah, I saw where Anakin was going with this.

Then he pulled back and threw his own Force Wave down to Dooku.

"Go!"

Our respective armor's flight systems activated and in the wake of the neutral void of kinetic energies, we flew down a few meters, adjusted our body positions and accelerated through the holes above us.

Within moments we were out and shooting into the moonlit skies of Stenos.

I barely remembered to secure my lightsabers before settling my body into a streamlined position for sustained flight.

M8 already had our ideal flight path to our speeder's position highlighted in our HUDs.

"Give me a rear view, M8."

"Yes, mistress."

A small window in my HUD popped open. Behind us I saw the mansion shudder and as if a sinkhole had just opened up from nowhere, a large portion of it collapsed. Debris and shattered transparisteel rained down from the mountain with a great cacophony.

"You think he's still alive, Snips?" Anakin asked sarcastically.

"He was holding onto so much of the Dark Side, that the mansion and a fair bit of the mountain would've been obliterated if he died at that point, Skyguy," I answered, remembering the effect another future Palpatine would have as he tumbled down that shaft on the Death Star, Force Lightning still crackling from his fingers. "No, he managed to get to the escape slide."

"Good, you think our performance was good enough?"

I gave a quick look at the probability lines and smiled.

"Oh yes."

She opened her eyes, coming back to herself from the meditation.

The green ichor that represented the very essence of Dathomir, changed and manifested according to the will of countless generations of Nightsisters retreated from her body as a gaseous haze and sank back into the condensed fluid version of ichor that surrounded the small meditation plinth she sat on.

Asajj Ventress breathed in and out slowly, restoring her own equilibrium in the greater Force.

It had been the greatest challenge of her training under Mother Talzin to reconcile the techniques she was used to and those of the Nightsisters. Yet finally, after months of constant toil, training and work, she could finally say that she had achieved a form of balance. It was still a work in progress and would take many years more to gain an acceptable mastery to her own sensibilities.

Before, if she had tried any Nightsister technique away from Dathomir, it would've failed hopelessly. Now at last, she could work the energies no matter where she was in the galaxy. It would naturally not be as potent, but it would at least do the job. She was at least at a point where Talzin considered her to be beyond a novitiate in the Nightsister arts. It had been very difficult unlearning some ingrained habits she had developed during her sporadic Jedi training as a young girl, but 'Captain Mizal' had also helped her there.

Even now, just thinking about it, Asajj struggled to reconcile that the infuriating Jedi that had saved her life was not in fact a crazy togrutan who ran around in just her skin and a gun belt - but in fact a kaminoan who was so old, she had seen and fought against the old Sith Empire!

Asajj could understand why Kina Ha had adopted a persona like that and used her prodigious abilities to hide in plain sight, but it rankled something fierce to think that her mind had been manipulated constantly to see 'Captain Mizal'. She could just imagine how Dooku would've reacted to the existence of a Kaminoan Jedi that old and powerful.

She wrenched her thoughts away from that topic and rose from her meditation position, gathering and smoothing out her blood red robes before easily jumping over the flow of ichor that surrounded the plinth.

It was the walk of a few minutes through the small underground city to her quarters, nodding at the occasional sister passing by in greeting.

Asajj had been generally welcomed back with open arms by most of the Sisterhood, especially with Mother Talzin's blessing to help smooth things over. Not to mention a general version of her life story had quickly spread through the entire city at the speed of gossip. There were a few hardline Nightsisters who shunned her because she had not grown up amongst them, but their number were few and they were easy to avoid for the most part.

She opened the door to her relatively modest quarters in one of the housing spires that was carved out of the giant pillars of rock in the underground city. Like everything else that the Nightsisters touched, it had been built using ichor and the Force, turning rock into flowing matter that was then returned to solidity in new shapes or forms.

Her own place had slowly gained a more lived in feel, moving away from the sterile bare stone it had been. Mostly thanks to the donations from a number of artisans among the Nightsisters, gifting her furniture, artworks and even on occasion asking if she wanted something made.

That was how she had a painting of her old Jedi Master hanging on her wall - his memory and image transferred directly to the mind of the artisan, who then swiftly began her work.

There were also a few tapestries, preserved nydak skins on the floor and the very snug bed.

She had grown used to luxury in her time with Dooku, so it was difficult to return to the lifestyle more akin to what she had in her own childhood. The only difference was that she at least always had a full belly among the Sisterhood. There was little to no need for commerce in the city. Dathomir provided, the Nightsisters had adapted, the only money was held by Mother Talzin and distributed as needed for their offworld mercenary activities.

The pace of life was slow and it had been very difficult to get used to.

There were times when she caught herself even forgetting that the galaxy was at war and even at one point, she realized she didn't even know anymore what day of the week it was.

Her eyes turned to her work desk and the scattered pieces of what had been her last surviving link to her old life.

Disassembling her only functioning lightsaber had been the hardest internal challenge she had ever overcome, due to what it represented. It left her feeling naked and unarmed in a very dangerous galaxy. It had taken both training with Kina and Talzin to make her realize that the lightsaber was just a tool and not the central focus of either a Jedi or Nightsister's life. To the sufficiently skilled, it was almost an unnecessary vanity.

Yet she still felt called to carry a lightsaber and doing so out of the ashes of the previous one just seemed fitting.

The only part she would not touch again was the angry red kyber crystal and it was now out of her reach, taken by Mother Talzin and stored somewhere in the city.

Kina Ha had also later come to her with a veritable collection of kyber to choose from. Carrying a large bundle that she had unfurled, with dozens of varieties of crystal housed each in their own pouch. How the kaminoan had obtained them she would not say, but Asajj had immediately felt the connection to one particular crystal and just like that… the Jedi handed it over to her.

It was a krayt dragon pearl roughly as big as her thumb - kyber ingested by a krayt as it ate rocks to aid its digestion, then refined over centuries in its stomach, turning it into a perfect sphere. It was the most sought after jewel on Tatooine and that side of the galaxy, venerated by Sand People and Jawas both.

Asajj stepped forward and placed a finger on the pearl, immediately feeling the nascent, slowly growing connection with the kyber energy inside. It was almost ready.

She felt a familiar presence approach the door to her quarters and knock politely.

"Come in."

Wearing the traditional red robes and tunic of a Nightsister novitiate, was a thirteen year old dathomirian girl. Her white skin had fresh traditional gray tattoos drawing angular lines under her brown eyes and snaking up her forehead.

"Merrin, congratulations on passing your first trials," Asajj smiled.

"Thank you, sister," Merrin said, a hint of nerves obvious in her body language. The girl had been among the small cohort of nightsisters that Asajj had joined in foundational training. It had been rather galling being assigned to learn with children, but in terms of the Nightsister arts, that is what she actually was. "It's just a relief for it to be over."

Asajj nodded in agreement with the sentiment, "Beware though, if there's one thing my old Jedi Master taught me and from my experience in the galaxy… that trials never truly end."

Merrin frowned in a cute way that made her feel the irrational motherly urge to hug the young nightsister tightly. Blast it, she thought, viciously suppressing it.

"You mean Mother Talzin and the other elders don't stop the tests?"

"That is one way to look at it, yes. Just because you passed formally into the Sisterhood means you will be judged on a continuous basis from now on. In a broader sense, life itself is one continuous trial."

"Oh, I'll definitely have to think about that. Anyway, I'm here to summon you, Sister Ventress on behalf of Mother Talzin. Apparently that holo droid has reactivated."

Asajj felt herself stiffen slightly as the realization of what that meant thundered through her mind.

"Let's go."

She hurried out of her quarters and waited for Merrin to exit before closing the door.

Her feet seemingly couldn't help their quick pace and the girl had to jog to keep up. The distance made her wish she was proficient in the Nightsister teleportation, but that was an art that would be years of work more, if she even had the talent, which was not a sure thing.

They left the housing spire and stepped on the well worn paths among the rivers of primordial ichor.

Mother Talzin herself generally resided in another housing spire, living amongst the sisters as if she was one of them, despite her elevated status as leader of the united clans.

That was another little fact that she learned in her training. History was taught mainly in oral fashion but there was an Archive that dated back to the founding of the Nightsisters. It was mainly in physical form with only the occasional modern data storage technique used.

The current Nightsisters was a forced unification under the power of Mother Talzin. Before, there had been dozens of petty matriarchal clans who clashed and feuded over banalities of doctrine and how to treat their males.

Now a generation of uninterrupted rule had brought stability and ascended the Sisterhood into the stars.

Asajj took everything in with a skeptical eye and mind. There were convenient gaps in the Archive that smacked of editing and careful purging of certain events and truths.

At this time of day, Talzin was usually to be found in the so-called Primary Fountain of Life.

It was the largest upswell of ichor in the city and had been covered with a large cone shaped building. Asajj's mind wanted to call it a temple, but the Nightsisters would have disagreed on that point of view. It was just Talzin's primary place for ichor manipulation and ritual. There was no sacred aspect to the place or any veneration of the structure as a symbol.

She paused at the large wooden doors, that despite looking ancient with age, was just as strong as if it had just been built, thanks to the empowerment of the Force rich ichor laced into the very structure.

She placed her hand on it and sent a pulse in the Force through it.

It took a few moments, in which Marrin caught up, her breathing slightly heavy.

"You've been neglecting your physical exercise," Asajj observed critically.

"I know," she acknowledged with a chastened expression. "There's just so much to learn-"

The door parted and creaked open, swinging inward until they thumped on the inner walls.

Inside the only lighting came from torches and the green ichor flowing through the carefully carved channels in the floor.

It was just a brief walk through a narrow hallway until it opened up to a large stepped auditorium where hundreds of nightsisters could sit and either take part in ritual or simply listen to Talzin speak.

In the center of the massive space, a large pool of ichor bubbled and writhed.

Mother Talzin stood next to it and conversed with a figure that looked supremely out of place in the setting.

It was a Mandalorian?

The armor certainly fit the style, but the helmet was far larger than what a human would have and molded to a togruta head. As she walked closer she saw they were female as well and the puzzle pieces began to fit together. A careful look through the Force confirmed it.

Asajj dearly wished her own lightsaber wasn't in pieces.

She had no intention of trying to cross blades with Ahsoka Tano again, but being unarmed in the presence of a former enemy left her feeling deeply uneasy. Even if that enemy was technically only here through a proxy droid.

"Ah, Asajj, come child," Talzin spoke, her multi-voice echoing eerily with the pulse of Dathomir and countless Nightsisters from beyond the grave. "Thank you Merrin, you may go."

"Yes, Mother," Merrin bowed her head quickly.

Tano's head tilted in curiosity and watched the young trainee Nightsister hurry away. Asajj could sense a brief feeling of surprise before it was smothered. The presence of the Jedi in the Force became a well trained smooth edifice that it had been moments before.

It still amazed Asajj that anyone could project themselves so completely through mere technology.

"No introductions are necessary here, I see," Talzin chuckled eerily. "Your former conflicts are written on your souls like words on parchment."

"That they are, Mother Talzin," Tano agreed. Her voice was distorted through the vocorder of the helmet, but it was unmistakably that of Ahsoka Tano. She was much taller than at their last meeting and Asajj could sense that her age was somehow far in advance of what it should be. "Ventress," she bowed her head shortly in Jedi fashion.

"Tano," she returned, folding her arms. "Nice armor."

"It is, isn't it. It's a very long story, but I ended up becoming a Mandalorian. If we ever get friendly enough for a chat over some beer, I'll even tell you the story."

Asajj couldn't help the snort of derision, "Something I doubt will ever happen. Why are you here?"

"Keeping in touch with Mother Talzin, updating her on events in the galaxy that I think she needs to know, that she won't get over the Holonet and one other urgent matter that could definitely use your input."

"Oh, and what could I do to possibly help you, Tano? Why would I even want to?"

Tano's T-shaped visor seemed to glint eerily in the light of the green ichor and Asajj sensed a hint of amusement from the togrutan. "Dooku is on his way to Dathomir."

Asajj felt like someone was tugging on her spine to pull it through the floor. She struggled to keep her anger in check and had to admit to herself that a great deal of that came from fear. Fear of Dooku, of what that man could unleash, not just on herself… but also on Dathomir. There was a time when she wouldn't have given a rancor's droppings about what happened to anyone but herself. That was the old, selfish Asajj, who had been mired in the deceptive trappings of the Dark Side.

Now, her fear conjured an image of Merrin, body broken and riddled with blaster fire from soulless droids, another image of her other sisters, their bodies burning after Durge had used his flamethrower on them.

Was this weakness?

The sheer dread and the anger these thoughts inspired.

Asajj clenched her fists, wrenching her mind away from it and finding her center, then asked the first question that seemed reasonable.

"How do you know, Tano?"

"We're following him in a cloaked ship after my master and I tried to capture him on Stenos. He has also contacted Mother Talzin to call in a favor."

Asajj blinked in brief astonishment. "You failed and you're still alive? I must admit, I'm impressed, Tano."

The togrutan shrugged, "I'll say thank you for the compliment, but what's more important now is what needs to happen next if we're to save Dathomir. He's three days from arriving and will be approaching Mother Talzin to ask for a new Force sensitive apprentice he can train. His master will discover it eventually, but he'll allow it because Dooku will present it as simply finding a replacement for you and Sidious will humor him."

Asajj had only ever seen the memories of Darth Sidious from Talzin, but that alone was enough to convince her of the Dark Lord's power and that there was only one sane option when facing him. She also couldn't help but chuckle with pleasure, "Ah ha, so he's feeling vulnerable in the wake of your attack and now wants to recruit someone that he's sure would help him."

"Precisely, which is why we need to make sure that Dooku ends up recruiting the right person from among the Dathomiri. Someone who will become a double-agent that will actually be working for Mother Talzin. A spy that can ferret out more secrets in time and eventually about Sidious himself."

Asajj considered the idea, it had merit but there was an issue. "If this spy is too strong, the same thing that happened to me will happen to them."

Tano nodded, "There is a delicate balance to strike here. The recruit needs to be strong enough to impress Dooku, but not so strong that Sidious will feel threatened. They also need to be clever and sufficiently deceptive to keep playing their role without discovery. Do you have someone like that, Mother Talzin?"

"There is no nightsister at the moment besides Asajj and myself who has the strength in the Force that would be required," Talzin answered thoughtfully. "We would have to look to the nightbrothers, but there is none who I would also entrust with the responsibility of a spy. If he is discovered then it could bring doom upon Dathomir." The Mother walked to the edge of the ichor pool and seemed to contemplate it for a moment. "However, we have the power to imbue many traits upon others and create what is needed. We just need a suitable basis to work from. Asajj, take the Jedi to a suitable nightbrother village. I'm sure between the both of you, a proper candidate can be discovered."

"At once, Mother Talzin."

Asajj redressed in suitable combat attire; warm leather boots and leggings that reached to her mid-thigh, snug baneback spider silk tunic and shorts that left her legs free for a full range of motion.

She took a speeder from storage and met with Tano outside the main entrance to the hollowed mountain. The Jedi was studying one of the statue pillars that had inscribed ancient dathomirian glyphs and reliefs, following the text as if she was actually reading it.

"Do you even understand that, Tano?" She asked as she brought the speeder to a halt.

"Partially, do remember that this is just a droid shell," she gestured to herself. "I also have an archeological scout droid with me on my ship, who is helping."

"Get on," she jerked her head to the single side-passenger module that this speeder had.

The Jedi snorted and smoothly jumped in, "How old is this thing?"

"A century, I believe, but its internal workings have been updated within the last decade. It'll get us there."

Asajj gripped the control yoke and pushed forward on the throttle.

The speeder's repulsors whined briefly before the engines engaged and they shot forward.

She would die before she would admit it to Tano, but it was nice to finally get out of the mountain and see the orange skies, moons and sun again. It was also great to just do something actually exciting, like flying the speeder at upwards of 160 kmh, using her combat precog to effortlessly glide through the forests of grave thorn trees. There was also the matter of avoiding any chyrodactyls, rancors and other beasts, but it was child's play to sense those at great distance through the Force and her own internal ichor.

"How far is the nightbrother settlement?"

The Jedi's words snaked into her ears through the Force.

"There are numerous scattered nightbrother settlements across Dathomir, we are going to the largest, which is 1300 kilometers south-west of the mountain."

"I see, so when a nightsister wants to get pregnant you just pick a settlement and go?"

Asajj wanted to snarl at Tano for picking this line of conversation. Thinking about… that… was the last thing she wanted to do now. She had years of training she had missed out on to learn and those desires had no place at the moment.

"Essentially, yes."

"So then after the deed is done, she's hopefully pregnant, then gives birth and if it's a girl, swell, she becomes a nightsister. If it's a boy, then he's delivered to a nightbrother settlement?"

"If it's a boy, then she'll be lucky to live!" snapped Asajj.

"Ah, the horns, I didn't think they'd be prominent enough to be a problem at birth."

"They're small, but it's still enough to injure and in most cases, cause internal bleeding. This is not Iridonia. There are no hospitals, doctors or medical technology that allows for the pre-natal blunting of the horns."

"I see, so that's the reason that Talzin has relented on isolationism and pushed the Nightsisters into mercenary work. She aims to raise enough credits to outright purchase that pre-natal technology."

Asajj sneered, "Congratulations Tano, you figured it out. Do you want a prize?"

"No, can you believe that I'm just making conversation with you on this very long speeder ride. I could disconnect from the droid, but then I'd just be faced with another boring hyperspace ride. There's nothing to really talk about with my master at the moment and he's just busy with some bureaucratic shovel work for the Army."

"I'm not here to relieve your boredom, Tano!"

"All right, then let's talk about your training… can you teleport yet?"

Asajj felt her shoulders just sag as the realization that she couldn't really do anything to the Jedi, she would just be hurting the droid she was puppeting. "No, I can't."

"Pity, it's one of my own ambitions as well. I was hoping for some pointers. I mean who wouldn't want that ability, think of the time you could save or when fighting against an enemy; pop, slice, end of battle."

"Yes, I admit, the thought had occurred to me," Asajj grumbled.

"What about raising the dead? When I first landed here, oh boy, Talzin threw a few of those at me."

"Yes, I can do that," she confirmed with annoyance.

"That's awesome."

Asajj turned her head and stared incredulously at the Jedi padawan. "You think reaching into the spirit realm of the Force and animating a corpse of a dead nightsister is… awesome?"

"Sure," she shrugged. "Really helps when you're outnumbered. I've researched and strategized having to fight alongside the nightsisters one day and having an army of zombies that can just absorb blaster fire, keep going and overwhelm the enemy is nothing to sneeze at."

"Zombies," Asajj tested the new word, which she guessed was Tano's name for reanimated bodies empowered by ichor and the spirit realm. She had to admit, it had a certain punch and was easier to say.

"Zombies," Tano nodded and she could sense the Jedi was grinning.

"And you really think that we'd ever fight alongside each other?"

"Of course, if we both had a common enemy, I see no reason I would do otherwise. And you know we both have such an enemy."

"So if Dathomir was ever under attack, you'd ride to our rescue with an entire legion of clones?"

Tano laughed, "If Dathomir was under Separatist attack, it would mean they were attempting to flank our front line battlespace at Hijado and Botajef, using the Celanon Spur. The GAR would respond simply to prevent that from happening."

Asajj cast her mind to her knowledge of local hyperspace lanes and if that was where the front lines were now… then Tano was actually telling the truth.

"Besides, Dathomir is in the neighboring sector to the Mandalorian sector, which is now my adopted home. And we Mandalorians would have a vested interest in not seeing the CIS gain any foothold on our neighbors."

Asajj accepted that, even as she was now dying to know just how the tiny Jedi padawan she had known and fought against, had turned into the very dangerous visage of a Mandalorian Jedi sitting next her. She hadn't even imagined it was possible for those two words to coexist, let alone in the same person.

Somehow, for the first time in months, she felt… safe?

For a long time she had worried and imagined the droid army of the CIS pouring down out of the skies and simply overwhelming the scattered population of Dathomir, which barely numbered a few hundred thousand dathomiri zabrak. Their weapons were all suited for stealth and assassination on a personal scale. There wasn't a single proper artillery piece or heavy gun worth a damn on the planet. The power of the Nightsisters and the Army of the Dead could do much to delay things, but Asajj knew the CIS forces very well. Sheer numbers and overwhelming firepower combined with air superiority would win the day.

A few well coordinated Hyena squadrons could obliterate the Army of the Dead in a few runs.

Illusions were useless against unfeeling droids who could be ordered to just forge on regardless of what they saw or didn't see.

"Have… have you spoken to Kina Ha lately?"

She sensed Tano's smile, "A few weeks ago, in fact. She's had some interesting things to say about you, Ventress."

"Did she now?" Asajj pulled on the yoke to avoid a flock of veeka birds.

"Relax, Ventress. If Kina is disappointed in you, you would know."

Asajj could agree on that point. The kaminoan had technically been her new master in the Jedi arts, helping her find balance and to stay away from the corrosive aspects of the Dark Side. She wasn't one to mince words. The Nightsister arts brushed up against the darkness in many respects, but the ichor served as a mechanism to keep it at arms length mostly.

"Now tell me, I've always wondered, what do Nightsisters do for fun?"

She inwardly groaned, this was going to be a long trip.

It was nearly local night time when we finally arrived at the nightbrother settlement, after almost nine hours of constant travel. I'd had to disconnect from the proxy droid only once to settle my actual body's needs, before reconnecting.

It was a fairly large fortified town to my sensibilities, nestled among mountains at a fairly high altitude. The place had just recently experienced a fairly heavy bout of snowfall and a fair number of nightbrothers were outside, shoveling it in the narrow streets.

Our approach had been noticed and a large bell was tolling from the tallest building in the place. Most of the construction was from the native woods and painstakingly carved stone. I saw interior lighting, stove chimneys poking out of houses and buildings, working plumbing and the architecture was quite advanced given the construction materials available. It definitely showed that the dathomiri zabrak, despite being in isolation for hundreds of years until recently, still retained some technology from before that time.

The town walls were high and I even spotted large mounted versions of the traditional energy bow weapon that nightsisters used. These ones were clearly meant to ward off or kill any chirodactyls or rancors that tried to attack the town.

Asajj had reduced speed to a mild 30 kph and we were naturally the immediate center of attention for any nightbrother who wasn't busy with some task. It was like I had suddenly walked into a town full of Darth Mauls.

"What stops the nightbrothers from simply rushing us or rebellion against the status quo in general?" I asked, though I had a fairly good idea already.

"Mostly culture," Asajj answered, giving no heed to any nightbrother we passed. "Practical reality of survival means that unfettered procreation would quickly lead to so many female deaths that the population would become unsustainable and collapse. Before technology solved the problem for the zabrak species in general, the other subspecies also practiced what you see here on Dathomir."

"But there's more to it than that," I pointed out.

"Of course, only nightsisters have the training to utilize the ichor and the Force. We retain the monopoly on that power. No nightsister who can't at least utilize illusion would ever be allowed to go to a nightbrother settlement. Any brother who raises a hand against a sister would be swiftly killed by his fellows. If they didn't, a properly trained sister could massacre the entire town and they wouldn't be able to stop her."

The speeder turned a corner before flying into a large central town square.

Here there were easily over two hundred dathomirian zabrak spread out in groups.

Despite the cold weather, all of them were shirtless and clearly practicing some form of wrestling combined with martial arts. Some were even in practice bouts using a variety of elaborate bladed weapons; barbed maces, flails and something that even reminded me of a Japanese kusarigama.

In any other situation, seeing that amount of muscles, abs and pecs on display would've been a feast for the eyes. However, the male zabrak physiology and the patterns of tattoos they used was really stopping my libido. It just didn't jive with me, much like the stenax hadn't. For all that the galaxy could be a melting pot of culture and certain races who could inter-breed, there were a lot who stood out and were just too 'alien' to each other.

The speeder stopped in front to the entrance of a 'town hall' or I assumed it was such, since the bell being rung was mounted in a tower jutting out of the tallest building of prominence in the square.

The closest nightbrothers stopped their training and calisthenics to watch curiously. I sensed how eagerly they drank in the sight of Asajj and even me, since I was also clearly a female alien to them. Something most of them hadn't seen in their lifetimes.

Asajj hopped out of the speeder and I followed her lead.

Another interesting fact I sensed now, was that there were a fair number of Force sensitives among the brothers in this square. They were raw, untrained, leaking their emotions and thoughts all over the place.

The large doors of the town hall opened and a nightbrother emerged, fully clothed with a white stylized formal tunic over his torso, whilst his trousers and shoes matched the raw weathered appearance of his fellows. His horns were the most prominent I had seen so far. He was also an untrained Force sensitive and so it was painfully easy to sense even without his appearance that he was the local leader of town.

"Welcome sister," he bowed his head. "You bring a stranger into our midst."

"She is a guest of the nightsisters and is to be treated as such," Asajj said sternly with a tone of dire warning.

"Of course, sister," he acquiesced easily, then turned to me with a bow. "Welcome honored guest. I am Dhogu Rizos, chief of this town of nightbrothers."

I suppressed the instinct to bow in turn, sensing that it would be a local faux pas for a female to bow to a male.

"Well met, Chief Rizos."

"We are here for the Choosing," Asajj got down to business immediately.

"Yes, yes of course," Rizos nodded and he turned to shout. "Heads of tribes, line up!"

His shout sent a wave of shock and excitement throughout the square. The majority of the brothers scattered to the immediate sidelines, whilst fifteen others hurried forward to stand in a spaced square formation.

It was almost as if they were on a military parade inspection, which wasn't far from the truth.

"They don't think you're here for mating?" I asked subtly, carrying my voice through the Force so only she heard.

"Of course not," Asajj hissed in annoyance. "I'd have asked directly for that. The Choosing is for the selection of a nightbrother to become a nightwarrior. Where we train and empower a singular brother for a specific purpose as needed. Usually, it's for the slaying of a troublesome beast that the sisters find annoying or rancor population control. The men who survive and return, usually end up attracting a following and may establish their own settlement of brothers. It is a high honor among them and yes, they also have the highest prospects for mating with a sister at some point." She glared at me. "Now stop playing tourist and help me look for someone suitable."

I gestured at the gathered males, "After you, Ventress."

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