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Mother Talzin is helping Savage Oppress.
Of course she is.
Asajj isn’t entirely surprised. After all, everyone leaves her. Perhaps, if she hadn’t overheard this conversation, then they might have died for her, or some other thing might have happened that would have left her, once again, alone. As it is, however, she has to leave.
She refuses to wait for Talzin to openly stab her in the back.
“Where are you going, Asajj?”
Asajj spins around at the voice, fearing that she’s been caught. Instead, she finds her friend. Naloh had quickly become a close friend, and they had formed a Bond. Not a week or invasive sort of bond like a Jedi or a Sith would have, no, but a… different kind, similar to both and yet not like either.
And, well, it makes her trust the Nightsister enough to tell the truth… mostly.
“Mother Talzin has lied,” she says, “I… I will not risk waiting until those lies have become too great.”
(They already are, though.)
It takes Naloh all of a second to figure out her meaning.
“Then you are leaving.”
“Yes.”
“And I cannot stop you.”
“No.”
“But… if the sisters were in danger… would you come?” Naloh asks, and that… well, here, she’d felt a belonging. It isn’t even a question.
“It was not all of you who have lied. If you call, then I will come.”
Naloh smiles.
“Then good luck, Sister.”
“I’m not-”
“You are to me.”
Asajj is understandably worried when she gets the not-quite-worded cry for help from Naloh, and she entirely blames that for why she calls Tano. (To be fair, Tano does answer without hesitation, does come the moment she can, and it’s occurrence as unexplainable as the reason the Jedi had left her number in the first place, as unexplainable as why Asajj had kept it.)
“Ventress?” the girl asks, the surprise evident in her voice, and making Asajj hesitant for a moment.
“You said I could call,” she says, hoping that her voice doesn’t betray her hesitation or her worry.
Tano blinks.
“Yes,” she says, “Yes, I did, but… sorry, things are crazy and I’ve been on the front for more than two months, not to mention, well…”
Tano trails off, but Asajj is pretty sure that she can guess her next thought. Skywalker. She’s happy for the togruta, she’d always seemed too young and innocent to be fighting, and Asajj remembered what it had felt like when the bond with her own Master had snapped too quickly for him to fully dissolve it, and Tano didn’t deserve that.
“Skywalker is strong,” she finds herself saying, “I’m sure that nothing my former master could do can keep him down for long.”
Tano sighs.
“I know, and he’s so much better than I’d feared, but… this isn’t the type of thing that he can just… push to the side and think that I won’t notice, and I…” the teen laughed, “I have no idea why I’m telling you this. Why did you call me?”
Asajj internally sighs. She’d been deflecting. Great.
“I… don’t actually know,” she says, “But a close friend has cried for my help, and, going in with no knowledge, I’d rather not go alone.”
Not when there were people who she cared about on the line.
Tano hmms.
“Where and how soon,” she asks.
(Asajj thanks the Force that Tano says yes, especially because the Force seems to agree.)
“Dathomir, and as soon as possible,” Asajj says, “I’ll send send you the coordinates, and please, for the love of Chaos, come alone.”
The girl nods.
“I’ll meet you there in 48 hours at most,” she says, “We’re on our way back to Coruscant anyways. I can ask to drop out of hyperspace to get there sooner, but I might have to wait until we get to Coruscant to head your way.”
And, with that, their conversation is at an end.
(Asajj wonders how that conversation will go down with Skywalker. He’d probably
It’s Dooku. Asajj knows it from the moment she drops out of hyperspace. Dooku’s sent droids out for revenge… for her revenge… huh. Well, she supposes that, if nothing else, it is a bit ironic. Now, more than ever, she’s in a rush to get down.
Sure enough, she sees a heavily-fortified temporary stronghold in the distance and more dead bodies and broken droid parts than she wants to count.
“Naloh?” she asks through the bond, “I am here, as promised, are you and the others safe?”
Silence, for a moment, and even though she has not felt the loss of a bond it still worries her.
“Naloh?”
“I am here, Sister.”
Asajj breathes a sigh of relief.
“Are you alright?” She asks.
“We have lost much…” Naloh replies, trailing off, “But I feel as though it could have been worse, from your stories.”
And, well… Grievous and herself had been the two most capable commanders of the Separatists, so…
“I am grateful,” Asajj says, “I will be there in a moment, and an ally is on her way. Perhaps my leaving also lessened the blow.”
“I’ll alert Mother…” Naloh trails off, so Asajj finishes for her.
“Alert Mother Talzin if you must,” she says, “My loyalty lies with the Nightsisters even if hers does not lie with me.”
“We should strike Dooku himself,” Asajj hears a sister say behind her, Luce she thinks. She finds herself rolling her eyes.
“As much as I want to kill him, to allow him death now would be a mercy he doesn’t deserve,” she says, blocking a stray blaster strike, “His own Master threatened both of us punishment if we killed or tried to kill a Jedi named Skywalker, and my former Master left Skywalker for dead not long ago.”
Another Sister huffs.
“I doubt this Sith Master’s technique could possibly match ours when Dooku can still send his forces to attack us here,” she mutters.
But Asajj knows more about the Sith than her Sisters do. Dooku may very well have had to grovel to get Sidious to allow him even this much control of his own troops.
Asajj makes sure to call Tano about the small Separatist fleet. She lands and, with a supreme act of convenient timing, another wave of droids start coming. The others are, understandably, tired and battle worn. She finds herself naturally in tune with her sisters, and even Mother Talzin.
And, because Tano is part of the most obnoxious line of Jedi, her presence is announced as the Separatist command ship blows up because a cruiser crashed into it. Because that only could have been either Tano, Skywalker, Kenobi, or Yoda.
Or even their clones, probably.
…Still, Asajj just scowls when Tano calls a moment later, crouching behind a tree to answer the call.
“Was that really necessary, Tano?” she asks, but Tano just laughs.
“You’ve met my Master, right?” she says sarcastically, “Yes, it was necessary, especially when they caught my ship in a tractor beam. I sent a holo with a banthakark threat of actual Republic intervention if the fleet didn’t clear out, too, so that helped. It seems a lot of people know me as ‘Skywalker’s brat’.”
Asajj laugh internally, but outwardly just rolls her eyes.
“We do.”
Tano laughs.
“I know,” she says, “I’m on my way down, so please don’t shoot me.”
The fleet does, in fact, leave. Asajj had practically forgotten how scared many of the Separatist leaders got when the word Skywalker-and-Kenobi got tossed around. Honestly, the fact that Dooku hadn’t already been forced to surrender was impressive, and, with the help of Tano and her sisters, and even the kriffing zombies , strange as they are now that the danger is passing and she can focus more of her mind on things not related to the still-ongoing battle.
The remaining Separatist forces are destroyed in barely over a week.
And it’s around there that Asajj finds herself face to face with Talzin.
“Thank you for your help, Sister,” Talzin says, “But tell me, why did you leave us?”
“You lied to me,” Asajj says simply. Talzin cocks her head.
“Did I ever say that I wasn’t?” Talzin asks, and, hm…
“I’m still not staying.”
“I didn’t expect you to,” Talzin says calmly, “But, before you go, please stay for the reconstructions and celebrations.”
“…Very well.”
It’s yet another day later that Tano gets the call.
“Commander,” the clone says, “Where are you?”
Tano turns to her, but Asajj just shrugs.
“Somewhere safe,” Tano says, “Rex, what’s going on?”
The clone sighs.
“General Skywalker’s doing something crazy,” he says, “I’m doing damage control. Are any of my brothers nearby?”
“No—”
“Good,” the clone says, interrupting Tano mid-sentence, “If you see any, stay away.”
“But—”
“I’ll explain when it’s safe.”
And, with that, the call ended. Not long after, a wave of something… not light, but… good passes through Dathomir in the Force. Not that Asajj can notice it much with an armful of crying teenage Jedi.
“Don’t worry,” she says once Tano has calmed down, “I’m sure they’ll be fine. They’ve fought without you before.”
Tano sighs.
“I know that,” she says, “It’s just… I… thank you, Ventress.”
“Asajj” Asajj finds herself saying, “Call me Asajj.”
Tano smiles awkwardly.
“Then you can call me Ahsoka.”
A day later, the clone calls back, this time a conversation Asajj isn’t privy to. Ahsoka leave less than an hour later.
Somehow, Asajj doesn’t think of this as the end, though. It… it feels more like a new beginning.