Chapter Text
Asajj was not a nice person. She was well aware of this, and almost proud of that fact.
It meant that there were few that would dare cross her – and as long as she stayed off the Empire’s radar, she could essentially live her life as she wanted, because Sidious appeared as if he could care less about her, and his new pet Vader had been running around across the galaxy hunting any Jedi that had survived Order 66.
Fifteen years was a long time to be on the run from an Empire that had little interest in tracking her down, but she didn’t dare let her guard down. Life had been too cruel to her for her to trust differently than that the moment she stopped expecting a knife in the back, she would get one.
It had kept her alive throughout her ‘apprenticeship’ with Dooku, and through the Clone Wars. It had kept her alive since.
Her number one rule was putting number one first, and to take no unnecessary risk in ensuring her own survival. The only exception she’d made had been when she’d struck out on her own against Dooku, and that had nearly cost her life.
If Skywalker hadn’t killed him, she would have died trying.
Her one major exception had led to another, and amongst chaos, she’d allied with the enemy of her enemy and helped Skywalker’s baby Jedi, escape Mandalore when the Republic had died, and the Jedi had become a hunted breed and any Force-user was just as likely to be killed just for existing. Their escape had been mutually beneficial, if a pain due to the Togruta’s refusal to leave behind the clones with her.
It had been a major pain, but nothing compared to the long-lasting effects of her choice to work with her.
Because, for all that the baby Jedi had grown up into a fearsome woman, one she almost respected, if her part in the woman’s survival was found out, she would be a much higher priority for the Empire.
Which was constantly a risk, as the Togruta persisted in keeping in contact.
It annoyed her a great deal that no matter how many times she ditched things, started up anew as one bounty hunter or another, that the most time that had gone between the Togruta’s one-sided communications was that first few years. Otherwise, two months and the woman managed to get back in contact one way or another.
It annoyed her even more that the woman would occasionally send her information about a job she’d taken, or when someone figured out who she was and decided she was worth turning into the Empire for a reward, she would get a warning. It meant that she owed the Togruta, and she did not like owing anyone anything.
But the damn woman would not ask for anything. She’d be pleased when occasionally, rarely, Asajj passed some information back, but the woman did not ask.
Which made the fact that fifteen years on, the Togruta was asking for a favor, rather unusual.
And of course, it wasn’t just a ‘favor’ like kill some politician or steal some sensitive information which would have been easy.
Instead, the favor was to go to Ilum, pick up a stow-away there, and drop him off at Lothal, where someone else would pick him up to take him the rest of the way to the Togruta. If it wasn’t for how over the years, she’d come to owe the Togruta more than the Togruta owed her, having saved her skin a good dozen times – once or twice from the likes of the Inquisitor and Vader himself – Asajj would have refused out of hand. But she did.
So here she was, on this polar ice cap of a planet, very unhappy as the wind tried to strip the flesh from her bones and freeze her blood in her veins.
She grumbled and swore as she stomped her way through the snow to the cave the Togruta had given her directions to. Only to swear some more when she saw that the only way into the cave was to use the Force to shift a giant boulder aside.
Something that was risky to attempt in the current political climate – Vader was a bit of a blood-hound when it came to finding any Force-sensitives if he was on the planet, but if he knew a Force signature, he could recognize it from just being in the same system. And he knew her signature well after how many times she’d been pitted against non-Sith-him’s Master.
It was a risk she had to take though, the Togruta had mentioned that she had a narrow window to get in and out before someone tracked down this person and killed them. At a bit of prodding, the Togruta had elaborated that a source in the Empire had informed a friend of hers about this hit, and she’d determined it was worth the risk to interfere.
Then, after she stomped her way into the dark cave and been blinded moments later by all the Kyber crystal singing and calling and wailing around her, as a thin, almost emancipated Kiffar man with long dark dreadlocks slipped out of the shadows to ignite a green lightsaber, she’d cursed every member of the Togruta’s lineage a thousand back.
The man met her eyes defiantly, then frowned as he recognized her, “Ventress.”
She sneered, “Jedi. I’m surprised you’re still alive, but then again, so is Kenobi last I heard. You guys are a bit like cockroaches apparently and just keep popping out of the woodwork.”
The man perked up, letting his ‘saber relax some, “Obi-Wan?” – before he began to mutter to himself as he darted off about as fast as his frame would let him with much of his muscle mass gone – “I thought his presence was still around. Our pair-bond hadn’t broken, but it’s been so silent and he’s hard to notice in the Force. So very hard to even register as alive, but not yet one with the Force like so many others.”
Asajj just leaned back and watched him grab things and toss it in an old, worn-out kit, “Vader is still hunting for him, but fifteen years he’d managed to stay hidden without a trace. He’s not why I’m here though.”
The man waved her off, “If you were aiming to kill me, you would have. If you were aiming to capture me, you would have made a move by now. So why are you here?”
She glanced back into the snow, trying to get a sense of any incoming but the Force was as muddled as it had been since the rise of the Empire, “I was contracted to escort you to a friend. You remember Kenobi’s grand-padawan?”
He stared at her for a moment, a desperate sort of hope in his dark eyes, “Lil’ Ahsoka is still alive?”
She shrugged, “Somehow. She managed to be away from any of the clone troopers when the order went out and was able to slip away in the chaos. Dunno how she’s managed to stay alive so long with Vader looking for her almost as badly as he is for Kenobi.”
He smiled, “Ahsoka was always a scrapper. Smart and resourceful. Good with people. Her whole line is full of survivors.”
Asajj looked away when the cave seemed to ring with his unspoken just like you.
She was saved from responding to that by a sudden jarring twist in the Force that felt like sandpaper.
They both jolted, and Asajj didn’t hesitate to grab the Jedi’s things, “We need to leave. Now!” – before grabbing him by the arm and dragging him a few steps before he got his feet beneath him.
Asajj turned, raising one hand to seal the cave behind them just as they saw for just a moment, a man in a dark hard body-suit breathe heavily through his helmet, followed by ten stormtroopers.
The man was panting in moments as he led the way deeper into the caves, “Follow me. The caves will confuse him and give us time to get to the secondary exit I spent far too long scrapping out since my exile here.”
Asajj sneered at the way his step was unsteady and his breathes were gasping, “Did you not also bother to keep yourself in shape, Jedi?”
He returned the sneer, “It was a secondary concern considering how little there is to eat here. It’s not exactly Coruscant with food able to be found any ten feet if you looked.”
She didn’t respond to that as she pushed him to jog faster, hearing stone grind and shift before a raspy voice echoed darkly, “Find them.”
They didn’t speak as he led them deeper and deeper into the caves.