The Clone Wars

by Lou Anders

  She was so enthralled with the fight that she only heard Dengar’s cry as he was falling off the tram. Protecting the rear was up to her now. The Kage were using a massive centipede-like animal to catch up to them. She caught a glimpse over the railing: a long beast hidden in the shadows. Whatever it was, it moved with great speed and carried the Kage on its back. They jumped up high. Some bypassed the platform and ran across the top of the tram.

  “Is that all?” she asked dryly.

  She ascended to the roof, slashing her lightsabers and kicking her opponents away. She envisioned the Kage as the droids that had descended on Dathomir. Her lightsabers cleft their pitiful blades. One lunged at her and she jumped, wrapping her long legs around his neck and twisting. She envisioned Count Dooku as she leaned back to avoid a blade. For once, her anger made her falter because thinking of him was a bruise she didn’t want to feel. That split second of hesitation made it possible for the Kage to get into her defenses. Her first mentor, a Jedi Master of all people, had taught her not to let her guard down that way. The Kage flanked her. She felt a kick on her back, another on her front. The breath left her, but she thought quickly. Reaching deep down, she leapt high and Force-pushed every one of them off the train. She inhaled her own sweat and the cool mineral air of the planet.

  Ventress’s victory was short-lived. There were still more of them.

  She activated her comm. “They’re boarding from the rear. I could use a hand back here.”

  Two more Kage were at her back, and Ventress whirled just in time to deflect one of their electric blades.

  “Bossk, get to the back and help the rookie!” Boba said into the comm. There was the sound of blaster fire and shattering windows as Bossk responded, “I’m on it.”

  Ventress homed in on her power. She could fight, but she couldn’t contain the Kage in such numbers. They were like tidal waves that kept crashing and crashing.

  That was when she recognized the beast the Kage were riding. A milodon—an insect with giant glowing eyes and pincers on its face. Its hundred legs moved fast enough to keep up with the tram. In its saddle was another Kage, this one with distinctive golden patterns across his leather clothes. Was he the leader?

  Ventress spun to block another attack. Where was Bossk? She had to assume that he was in trouble. They all were. She had to retreat before she was even more outnumbered.

  Running into the tram she could sense something was wrong. It was too quiet. Major Rigosso was unconscious on the floor. As she stepped over his body, the door to the compartment hissed open.

  The gold Kage warrior was there, embracing a Kage girl with glowing pink eyes. Her yellow hair was tied into intricate knots. She had been in the box the entire time.

  “Well, well, well, what do we have here?” Ventress asked.

  “Stay back!” the boy spit.

  “That little girl is worth a lot of money to me. Now step aside.” She ignited her lightsabers. She saw the girl hide behind the tall boy.

  All at once, Ventress realized, they weren’t protecting the girl from the Kage. The Kage were protecting the girl from them.

  It shouldn’t matter.

  They were a crew of bounty hunters. That made the girl bounty.

  Before Ventress could fight, the Kage boy detonated a smoke bomb. Smoke billowed all around her. She could only see by the red glow of her lightsabers. But the rest of her used the Force. Even as they hid, she could feel the girl’s fear and the boy’s defiance.

  Ventress prowled down the aisles of seats. The smoke cleared and purple Quarzite light filtered through the windows.

  Then she saw him laying across a stretch of seats. The Kage boy was faster than she’d anticipated. He knocked one of her lightsabers away. She punched, but he grabbed her other hand and twisted her wrist. The red light of the saber went out. He kicked high, then swept a leg over her head. If he hadn’t been trying to take her bounty, she would almost admire his skill. But she was tired of games. She shoved him down.

  “Stop it!” the girl cried.

  But the boy wouldn’t stay on the ground. His momentum let him get in too close. She drew on the Force. For so many days there had been different voices in her mind. Each voice was louder than her own. Doubt. Fear. Failure. They sounded like her past. In this moment, she only heard herself. Survive. She guided the Force around the boy’s throat and raised him up. The weight of his life was in her grasp. And yet, she didn’t want him dead. She wanted him out of her way. Ventress shoved the Kage leader across the tram car to come to rest at the girl’s feet.

  “Krismo!” the girl called. There was so much pain in her voice.

  Ventress remembered calling out her own sister’s name. Karis.

  It was then that she noticed her boss was there, too. Boba sat up from where he’d been knocked unconscious. He quickly walked toward Ventress. “That girl’s crazy! We’re protecting her?”

  Ventress wanted to laugh. The boy was showing his age. “Try not to be such a novice. Open your eyes. She’s on their side.”

  Boba shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. Tie them down and let’s finish this job.”

  As much as she hated to admit it, Boba was right. The job was to deliver the box. She needed the credits. She needed a new start. This job—this girl—was it.

  As Boba left, Ventress dragged the Kage boy to a seat and locked him in binders across from the bound girl.

  “Is this really necessary?” the girl asked. There was a defiance in the girl’s gemlike eyes that Ventress didn’t expect. Even though she wasn’t fighting back, Ventress felt her judgment.

  “None of this was my choice,” the girl said. “I never asked to be ripped away from my home. From my family. You’ll never know what it’s like.”

  Ventress stared out the window at the pulsing landscape. Of course Ventress knew. She knew better than anyone. Ventress had lost every family she’d ever had. She always ended up alone. Wasn’t it better? That way no one and nothing could hurt her again.

  “I wish I didn’t, but I do,” she said.

  “You’re just doing this for the money. It’s just another job to you. You don’t even care what’s going to happen to us once it’s over.”

  Ventress wasn’t paid to care. She’d held hundreds of lives in her grasp. She’d felt them end. She hadn’t cared then. So why was this time different?

  The tram doors opened.

  “Hey, rookie! I need you in the back.”

  Ventress looked at Boba. Then she turned to the girl on the ground. She thought of Karis telling her that she was proud to call Ventress her sister. Mother Talzin telling Ventress a new life was waiting for her. “You’re right. You are just another job that I couldn’t care less about,” she told the girl. Then lower, she added, “Don’t move.”

  She stalked off to join Boba.

  “We’re almost to the drop-off point,” he said. “Soon I’ll be delivering that brat to the warlord and collecting a handsome bounty, which you will get your share of.”

  “Share of?” Ventress said. “There’s only two of us left. I get half.”

  “Half? Please. You just got to the game.”

  It occurred to her that he hadn’t asked after the others. Did he even know if the rest of Krayt’s Claw was alive or dead? This wasn’t a leader.

  “Boy, don’t test me. I will be delivering the cargo and collecting the bounty. No one of true importance would lower themselves to a trade with a mere boy.”

  At the word, Boba spun around. He clutched his helmet. Who was he without it? “Boy? You have no idea who you’re talking to. I have been in charge of this whole operation—”

  She raised her hand to silence him, choking him with the Force. “No. You have no idea who you are talking to.”

  Ventress squeezed until he dropped his helmet. She dragged him back into the car with her other hostages. The Kage boy and girl watched as Ventress pulled open the trunk lid. The girl whimpered and began to struggle.

  “Pluma, no!” Kr
ismo shouted.

  “I’d listen to your brother if I were you,” Ventress said.

  Ventress prepared the box for delivery. She shut the lid and pushed the box in front of the door. As the tram slowed, Ventress watched from the window. At the heart of Quarzite were thousands of crystal clusters lighting up the station.

  Waiting for her was Otua Blank himself, flanked by a retinue of guards. Otua was less imposing than his holo. Warlords usually were.

  “Welcome!” he chimed eagerly. “Ah, finally, my bride.”

  Ventress pressed her hand on the lid of the box. “Bride?” That girl?

  When a guard tried to open the box, Ventress kept it shut. “Uh-uh. Bounty first.”

  Otua made a guttural sound, urging the guard forward. The guard opened up the parcel with payment. “Your unmarked credits, as promised.”

  With her payment in hand, she boarded the tram. As the doors closed, she said, “Enjoy.”

  She wished she could see Otua Blank’s face when he opened the box and found not his intended bride but Boba instead.

  “Why did you do that?” Pluma asked when Ventress returned to them. Her voice was soft. Innocent.

  There were no innocents in the galaxy. Ventress had to remember that. Why should this girl have her pity and her mercy when her own sisters were not afforded the same?

  Ventress looked at Krismo. “You’re free to go. As soon as you pay me for, what did you call her? Pluma. Pluma’s release.”

  Pluma shook her head. “But—”

  “Deal,” Krismo snarled. She could feel Pluma’s fear and Krismo’s simmering hatred toward her. Let them fear her. Let them hate her.

  Ventress let him go. She had no reason to think that they would renege on their deal. They’d sacrificed dozens of people to get Pluma back. Part of Ventress was envious that there was someone willing to fight so hard for this girl. What made her so special? What made her worth—

  No. She couldn’t think that way. This girl’s worth didn’t diminish her own. Ventress retrieved her lightsabers. She let Krismo walk ahead of them while she trained the weapon on Pluma.

  “Why did you do it?” Pluma asked softly as they walked. “You never answered me.”

  Ventress made a purring sound. “Double the payday, naturally.”

  “Still, it’s a big risk. Even for the credits. You don’t know what they’re capable of.”

  Ventress felt the wind lap around her. She breathed in deep. A spark built in her chest. One she hadn’t felt since the day she was reborn a Nightsister. “Little girl, they don’t know what I am capable of.”

  That finally silenced Pluma.

  Krismo whistled sharply and the milodon crawled along the jagged side of a cave. On its back were several Kage warriors. The beast crept up on the rear of the tram. Krismo turned around and leveled his gaze at Ventress.

  “How do I know you won’t take the credits and then hand us over?”

  “You don’t,” she said.

  Krismo gave the signal, and then a bundle of credits was tossed into her hands. She turned off her lightsaber and released the girl.

  “Run along now,” Ventress said.

  Pluma hurried, but when she turned to look back, she said in a small voice: “Thank you.”

  Ventress didn’t want thanks. What she needed was to get off-planet.

  She made her way back to the pressurized elevator and up to the orbiting space station. She thought she’d find the Hound’s Tooth for the taking. Instead, she found the Krayt’s Claw crew. Ventress wasn’t sure who was more surprised, she or them.

  “You made it?” Dengar said. His voice was more impressed than disappointed. “I don’t believe it.”

  “Here’s the payment. I already subtracted my share. Boba’s is in there, too.” She thought of the angry boy she’d probably made angrier. She hoped this payoff would square them. “Make sure he gets it.”

  “Where is he?” Bossk asked.

  She smirked. “He’ll turn up.”

  “You certainly turned out to be quite the member of the team, didn’t you?” Latts said.

  “I’m not part of any team.”

  “You’re too good for us now, is that it?” Bossk asked.

  “No. Once I was just like you, but I’m not that person anymore. Now I have a future.”

  This time, when she heard Mother Talzin, her words didn’t come with the same hurt. Your destiny will always be linked with ours. But you have your own path to follow now.

  Ventress walked away, farther down the station. Millions of stars dotted the sky. There was always a ship she could steal. She thought about Pluma returning to her family. She thought of the possibility that waited for her out there. The truth was, she’d always had a path. She’d only lost it for some time. Ventress had been so many things. Slave. Jedi. Sith. Nightsister. Survivor. Bounty hunter. She had never been nothing. She had never been no one.

  She was Asajj Ventress, and the galaxy was waiting.

  The True Story of Darth Maul and His Revenge Against the Jedi Known as Obi-Wan Kenobi

  TELL ME, CHILD, DO YOU KNOW WHO I am? Do they whisper my name in the classrooms of your academy, down the winding halls of your space station, in the hollows and fields of your farming planet, or across the dunes of your desert home? If they do, what do they say of me? That I was once a great Sith Lord, apprenticed to the most powerful being in the galaxy? That I killed the legendary Jedi named Qui-Gon Jinn at the Battle of Naboo? Do they remember my glory? My distinctive black-and-red skin and horns? My unmatched skill with the double-bladed lightsaber? Or do they just remember how I died?

  Ah, I can see your confusion. Dead? If I am dead, then how am I here, telling you this tale? You are perceptive, a good listener. You would have made a promising Sith apprentice.

  You are right, of course. I am not dead. I did not die that day when, after I had defeated Qui-Gon Jinn, his selfish and murderous apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi, struck me down. Kenobi was maddened with rage, and in his rage he severed me in half, cut my legs from under me!

  I know it is a gruesome image to contemplate, young friend, and I apologize if you are squeamish. But it is best you understand now what the Jedi are capable of. You have likely been lied to all your life about their nature, their goodness, but the truth is that…No, no, not yet. I get ahead of myself. We will come to the true nature of the Jedi soon enough. All you need to know is that I lived. I prefer to say only that I survived because it was not much of a life. I survived in darkness, lost to madness, discarded and forgotten…until my brother found me and set me on my path of revenge.

  I do not remember how I came to be on the junk planet Lotho Minor. I must assume that after the Battle of Naboo my body was dumped there like so much trash. Through sheer will and driven by my hate of Obi-Wan Kenobi, I survived down in the darkest depths of the planet. I fashioned for myself out of discarded metal a lower body that resembled the abdomen and legs of a spider. It suited my circumstances. Creeping, creeping, small and broken, always waiting, I was. Until the most unlikely day.

  I found someone else in my cave. A man, as I used to be. With markings like mine and horns, bearing a lightsaber. At first I thought him a vision, a symptom of my madness, but then he called me brother!

  What could it mean? A…brother? Come to find me, to save me? You must understand that my mind was very broken. I had lived alone in the darkness for so long, years and years I could not remember, lost in my pain and grief, thinking only of what had been taken from me. And now to be found? To be given another chance at life? Well, I am ashamed to say that at first I could not comprehend it. I fought him. Tried to kill him. But he was too strong and drove me back. He said his name was Savage Opress, but his name meant nothing to me. I could not even remember my own.

  Only one name did I remember between my mutterings and rantings and screaming howls, and I said it then to him.

  Kenobi, Kenobi, Kenobi.

  Savage Opress did not recognize the Jedi’s name, but he knew
I needed help. So he lured me to his ship and took me back to our home planet Dathomir. Again, I do not remember much of our journey. My mind, so broken. So lost…

  But I remember what came next.

  Mother Talzin was a witch, the most powerful of the Nightsisters. She wielded great magicks and all the Dathomirians respected her as our leader. She was there to greet our ship and take me to her altar. There, she commanded me to sleep. I lay back on the cold stone and let her work.

  First came the green smoke. It enveloped me, entering my eyes and ears and mouth, filling my senses. At the same time, she drew out the darkness that had infested my brain, a black miasma of pain and confusion. And slowly, as she worked her magicks on me, my mind began to return. First my name. And then my brother’s name. Then my planet, and my past as a Sith Lord, and all the details of my life came rushing back. Especially Kenobi.

  I was whole in mind but was still attached to my spider body. I can see now that it was a grotesquerie, but it had served me well on Lotho Minor. Nevertheless, Mother Talzin knew it would not do. She tore it from my flesh and fashioned me powerful mechanical legs from the wreckage of droids, and armored bracers for my arms, and a plated collar for my neck. It was agony and I screamed out, but I had suffered so much already, had known suffering like you will never know, my young friend, and I endured.

  And in the end. I was whole.

  “Brother,” Savage said, and this time I could answer him.

  I sat up, grabbing his jaw. I pulled his face to mine to stare into his eyes. The same golden eyes as mine. The eyes of the man who had saved me.

  “Brother,” I growled.

  I released him and began to test my new legs. My feet were three-pronged claws. They looked sturdy, and I imagined they would move me swiftly across the ground. I tried to stand but immediately fell to my knees. It did not hurt, but I had to use the stone altar to drag myself up to standing. I could see that it would take some practice to master my new appendages.

  On my second attempt to stand, I was able to walk, and then I was running. Oh, it felt wonderful to be whole again, to be Darth Maul. Savage followed after me as we ran across a desolate landscape. I looked around. I hadn’t noticed before, being too lost to my madness, but Dathomir was a wasteland. There was nothing but wreckage and red dirt and a lingering crimson fog. What had happened to my home?