by Cavan Scott
VENTRESS: (NARRATION)
I’m beside the desk, wrinkling my nose at the odor. Dooku hasn’t washed for days.
KY NAREC:
Listen to him.
DOOKU:
(MUTTERING) So much to do. So much to do. Why don’t they listen? Why don’t they cooperate? Don’t they realize I’m doing all this for them?
VENTRESS: (NARRATION)
He sweeps out an arm, knocking the papers and readers from the desk. Glass shatters, casings break, and Dooku yells into the darkness of the empty room.
DOOKU:
(SHOUTING) Why won’t anyone listen? Why won’t anyone help?
KY NAREC:
Is this the man who so commands you? Is this your future?
VENTRESS:
(UNSURE) I…
We hear an ironic slow clap from across the room as someone approaches.
KY NAREC:
What?
VENTRESS:
Ky looks as shocked as I am as another figure crosses the hall toward us.
DOOKU:
I’m impressed. Ky Narec. Back from the grave.
KY NAREC:
I—I don’t understand.
VENTRESS: (NARRATION)
It is another Dooku. My Dooku. As he was in Fellidrone’s quarters. As he was when we first met.
DOOKU:
You were always a disappointment. Even as a youngling. If I had my way, you would never have even made Jedi Knight.
VENTRESS:
Stop it.
DOOKU:
And when you did, what exactly did you do? You made mistake after mistake.
VENTRESS:
Leave him alone.
DOOKU:
People died because of you, Ky.
KY NAREC:
That’s not true.
DOOKU:
And when the Council called for your return, you fled rather than face the consequences. Exiled yourself on a dustball, convincing yourself it was a crusade. And this is the man you have chosen as your conscience, my assassin? This is your hope? Are you like him, Ventress? Will you run?
VENTRESS:
I don’t know what you mean!
DOOKU:
(BELLOWING) Will you run?
SCENE 134. EXT. VISION. THE GROUNDS OF CASTLE SERENNO.
We hear Ventress running through the night, pushing past branches, slipping on mud.
She’s breathing heavily beneath the narration, the soundscape becoming increasingly more nightmarish.
VENTRESS: (NARRATION)
And that’s what I’m doing, racing through the forest, my feet slipping on the mud. Castle Serenno looms above me, silhouetted against Mantero’s gleaming disk.
KY NAREC: (GHOST)
That’s it, little one. You can still make a choice. Run as far as you can.
VENTRESS: (NARRATION)
Ky’s voice is everywhere. In the wind. In the trees. But it isn’t alone.
DOOKU: (GHOST)
There is no choice. Not for you.
KY NAREC: (GHOST)
Don’t listen to him, Ventress.
DOOKU: (GHOST)
Listen to yourself.
KY NAREC: (GHOST)
You need to be strong. Like me.
DOOKU: (GHOST)
You are mine. He is nothing.
VENTRESS:
He rescued me!
DOOKU: (GHOST)
(LAUGHS) Rescued you? From slavery? From the Siniteens? You have no idea what he did to you!
VENTRESS: (NARRATION)
A root snags my foot and I fall…
VENTRESS:
(CRIES OUT)
SCENE 135. EXT. VISION. HAL’STED’S BASE.
Ventress lands in sand. There is blasterfire nearby, vultures calling from high above, their cries distorted, maddening.
VENTRESS: (NARRATION)
…and land in coarse sand. The castle is gone. The forest, gone. A swollen sun burns high above, strike-vultures wheeling through a shimmering sky.
Ventress scrabbles up.
VENTRESS:
It’s Rattatak. I’m back on Rattatak.
KY NAREC: (GHOST)
No.
DOOKU: (GHOST)
Yes. The day Hal’Sted died.
YOUNG VENTRESS:
(CALLING OUT) Master.
DOOKU: (GHOST)
The day he was killed.
HAL’STED:
(CALLING) Ventress!
VENTRESS: (NARRATION)
That’s him. That’s Hal’Sted. The pirate who took me from Dathomir. The Siniteen who brought me up as his own.
KY NAREC: (GHOST)
A daughter in chains.
Hal’Sted runs over.
HAL’STED:
Spince. Have you seen Ventress?
VENTRESS:
I’m right here.
DOOKU: (GHOST)
He can’t hear you, remember? There’s no way to warn him.
VENTRESS:
Warn him?
HAL’STED:
We need to get her away from here. Go.
The lackey runs off.
HAL’STED:
Ventress! Ventress. Where are you?
A figure jumps down behind the pirate. Hal’Sted whirls around.
KY NAREC:
She’ll be safe soon enough, slaver.
HAL’STED:
Jedi scum!
Hal’Sted fires. Ky ignites his lightsaber, deflecting the shots.
KY NAREC:
You’ll never use her again.
Ky runs Hal’Sted through.
KY NAREC:
Never again.
HAL’STED:
(SCREAMS)
The slaver collapses to the ground, dead.
VENTRESS:
No!
DOOKU: (GHOST)
You never checked the wound. Sloppy. Not that you would have known the difference between a blaster shot…and a lightsaber.
VENTRESS:
It’s not true.
DOOKU: (GHOST)
How do you know?
VENTRESS:
He said it was pirates.
DOOKU: (GHOST)
And you believed him?
VENTRESS:
Ky?
DOOKU: (GHOST)
He’s not real, Ventress. You know that. He died on Rattatak. You cremated his corpse yourself. No one comes back from the dead. No one.
Thunder rolls above.
VENTRESS: (NARRATION)
The sky turns black, lightning lancing across dark clouds, the same lightning I have felt across my back. His lightning.
A crack of lightning.
DOOKU: (GHOST)
He used you, Ventress. A salve for his loneliness. His failure. They all used you. The Nightsister. The slaver. The Jedi. They define you, because you let them. Because you refuse to be free.
VENTRESS:
No!
The storm intensifies, rain lashing down, the sound distorted.
DOOKU: (GHOST)
Have you learned nothing, child? From the holos. From the journal.
VENTRESS:
The journal?
DOOKU: (GHOST)
You think you found it by chance?
VENTRESS:
The Force guided me.
DOOKU: (GHOST)
I guided you. Everything you have seen. Everything you have heard. Was it for nothing? The past does not define you,
Ventress. The future does not define you. I define you.
KY NAREC: (GHOST)
Asajj.
DOOKU: (GHOST)
He is not real, Ventress. I am. Who do you choose? Who do you choose?
Thunder bursts overhead, the sound warping as we are thrown out of the vision.
SCENE 136. INT. HIDDEN ROOM.
VENTRESS: (NARRATION)
It’s all gone. The storm. Rattatak. Hal’Sted. I’m back with Dooku and Jenza. (WITH HATRED) And him, still sniveling in my head.
KY NAREC: (GHOST)
Asajj. Don’t listen to him. It’s lies. All of it.
DOOKU:
Ventress?
VENTRESS: (NARRATION)
Dooku peers at me, the rat in his maze. I think he’s going to speak, but everything has been said. He turns to his sister, her eyes brimming with hope. She has no idea.
DOOKU:
You say you wanted to help me, Jenza.
JENZA:
Yes. More than anything.
DOOKU:
By attempting to betray me to the Jedi. By revealing my plans.
JENZA:
I don’t know anything about any plans. And I don’t want to know. They’re wrong, Dooku. Can’t you see that? You said you were going to save Serenno.
DOOKU:
And I have. Serenno will be the beating heart of a new Empire.
JENZA:
An Empire I want no part of. I don’t recognize you anymore. You’re not my brother.
DOOKU:
I am. Which is why I must release you. Ventress…
VENTRESS:
You said you wanted her found.
DOOKU:
A task you performed admirably, but you are an assassin. My assassin.
JENZA:
No.
Ventress walks toward her.
JENZA:
Please. You don’t have to do this. It isn’t you. I know it isn’t. I can see it in your eyes.
KY NAREC: (GHOST)
She’s right, Asajj.
VENTRESS:
You’re not real.
JENZA:
Of course I am.
KY NAREC: (GHOST)
(IN UNISON) Of course I’m not. But I could be. I’m a part of you, Ventress. I always will be. The best part of you.
VENTRESS:
I’m sorry.
The lightsaber ignites, the blade buried in Jenza’s chest.
JENZA:
(GASPS IN PAIN) Brother.
We hold on the sound of the lightsaber burning for a moment longer before it cuts off.
JENZA
(DIES)
Jenza’s body slumps to the floor.
DOOKU:
You have done well.
VENTRESS:
(QUIETLY) Your will is mine.
DOOKU:
There must be no evidence.
VENTRESS: (NARRATION)
He turns and sweeps from the room, his sister cooling at my feet. I am alone.
VENTRESS:
Ky?
(BEAT)
VENTRESS:
(BREATHES OUT)
VENTRESS:
I have a job to do. I look around, spotting a blaster clipped to a dead agent’s belt. I recover the weapon, cranking the power pack. I’ll have to be quick. It won’t take long to overload.
A piercing whine starts to build as she places the weapon carefully into the seeping fuel.
VENTRESS:
I try not to breathe in the fumes as I place the whining blaster in the pool of paralene. The fuel stings my eyes, tears pricking. It’s fuel. Nothing more.
I won’t have time to make it to the door. I head back to the window, the catch still smashed from when I broke in.
The window slides open. We can hear the sounds of the street outside.
VENTRESS: (NARRATION)
There’s no sign of Dooku, and then I look up and see a shadow in the clouds above. The Windrunner, slipping silently home. I wonder how many of Dooku’s faithful subjects will see it and smile. The champion of Serenno, protecting his people. I reach into my pocket, drawing out his journal, feeling the cracked leather beneath my fingers.
I throw it back into the paralene.
It lands in the fuel.
VENTRESS:
Time to go.
Ventress jumps down to the street, her feet splashing on the wet sidewalk.
It’s stopped raining now. We hear her walking away from the building, the distant whine of the blaster building to a crescendo behind her.
VENTRESS: (NARRATION)
I hate it here.
I hate the lies and the deceit and the fear and the hatred. I hate him and what he’s made me do. What he’s made me.
But where else can I go?
This is where I belong. This is who I am.
I am free.
A massive explosion tears the building apart.
For Christopher Lee
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Who do I thank first? Well, I have a great debt to Elizabeth Schaefer for asking me to cast a light on Dooku’s past, and to Michael Siglain for both championing my Star Wars career and sending me Universal Horror action figures just when I need them. Thanks also to Jennifer Heddle, Pablo Hidalgo, Matt Martin, Kelsey Sharpe, and Emily Shkoukani for their challenging but oh-so-essential notes, Jason Fry for his encyclopedic knowledge of Star Wars lore, Alex Davis for guiding the script book into production, and my assistant, Sarah Simpson-Weiss, for keeping my life in order.
Then there is Nick Martorelli, our wonderful producer, and Penguin Random House Audio’s amazing publicity manager Nicole Morano, who shared the Dooku love far and wide. Thanks also to our incredible cast for breathing life into these words. Having a script performed for the first time is equal parts nerve-racking and thrilling, but now, as I reread the script, I hear each and every one of their voices.
Mention needs to be made of Claudia Gray and George Mann, who both kept me sane through a rather frenzied writing period, as did my Project Luminous co-conspirators Daniel José Older, Justina Ireland, and Charles Soule. Claudia, in particular, was a great help as we wrestled with Jedi traditions and new Padawans together.
As always, the largest support came from my darling Clare, who was the first person to read the script and who also kept the Scott house ticking when I burned the midnight oil to hit the deadline. Thank you so much, sweetheart. I couldn’t do any of this without you.
But the final thanks should go to Sir Christopher Lee, for first bringing Dooku of Serenno to life (and for terrifying me repeatedly when I was a kid), and Corey Burton, who expanded the count so brilliantly in The Clone Wars.
Gentlemen, I raise a glass of Mantero funeral wine to you both.
BY CAVAN SCOTT
Star Wars: Dooku: Jedi Lost
Star Wars: Adventures in Wild Space—The Escape
Star Wars: Adventures in Wild Space—The Snare
Star Wars: Adventures in Wild Space—The Steal
Star Wars: Adventures in Wild Space—The Cold
Star Wars: Choose Your Destiny—A Han & Chewie Adventure
Star Wars: Choose Your Destiny—A Luke & Leia Adventure
Star Wars: Choose Your Destiny—An Obi-Wan & Anakin Adventure
Star Wars: Choose Your Destiny—A Finn & Poe Adventure
Sherlock Holmes: The Patchwork Devil
Sherlock Holmes: Cry of the Innocents
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Author and comic book writer CAVAN SCOTT is a UK number one bestseller who has written for such popular worlds as Star Wars, Doctor Who, Star Trek, Vikings
, Judge Dredd, Pacific Rim, and Sherlock Holmes. He is the author of The Patchwork Devil, and Cry of the Innocents, and is part of Lucasfilm’s Project Luminous publishing initiative. He has written comics for IDW, Dark Horse, Vertigo, Titan, Legendary, 2000 AD, and The Beano.
A former magazine editor, Cavan lives in Bristol with his wife and daughters. His lifelong passions include classic scary movies, folklore, audio drama, the music of David Bowie, and walking. He owns far too many action figures.
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