Saga A Lack of Vision (Clone Wars, Asajj Ventress, Republic General (OC))

Title: A Lack of Vision
Author: _JM_
Timeframe: Clone Wars
Characters: Asajj Ventress, Republic General (OC)
Genre:
Keywords:
Summary: Asajj Ventress attempts to assassinate a Republic General and is made an intriguing offer on how to better serve her master Count Dooku.
Notes: I am assuming Supreme Chancellor Palpatine equals Darth Sideous for this, which means either this story is wrong or my earlier one, where they were not always the same person but Palpatine?s soul was displaced by Sideous and replaced by his own, is wrong.

This started off as a silly ?Macho Challenge? idea with a General so tough he can even defeat Asajj -Jedi Killer- Ventress. However as I continued walking along and thinking the idea for the twist ending came along as did ideas on how to make it less silly.

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Moonlight and the night time city-glow of Coruscant stippled the floor of the bedchamber through tiny gaps in the blinds and picked a highlight off the curve of the hip of the female figure moving silently towards the bed. The high-security surrounding this room had been as little obstacle to her as the patches of light on the floor and had been just as easily bypassed. Remaining in the shadows to remain unseen she moved closer towards the sleeping man. Her master wanted this General dead and her only regret was that it was going to be so easy, so little of a challenge to her skills.

One hand flowed up, and then descended again in one quick fluid motion, a blazing red blade igniting as she brought the lightsaber down to slice through her target. To her surprise the General?s eyes snapped open as he awoke and rolled frantically out of bed and out of the way. The tang of burned flesh arose as the tip of the lightsaber just managed to score a shallow line on his upper arm before he managed to escape, temporarily at least.

Even as one lightsaber bit into the mattress her other had already hummed to life and she swept it around in a horizontal arc. The General had managed to land on his hands and knees, as if he was going to give a bantha-ride to a small child, and was starting to rise. With the same unusual reactions though he dropped back down again so the blade passed harmlessly above him rather than striking his head from his shoulders.

Asajj Ventress smiled as she watched the General scrabble away from her like a coward and as she saw recognition dawn in his eyes. She crossed her lightsabers beneath her chin and let their red light bathe her face from below, and light her killers smile with sinister effect. Asajj stretched like an Acklay, both in preparation and intimidation, and tensed to spring forward for a final attack. There was nowhere for the General to go and no way for him to escape.

There was the merest twinge of warning and then an invisible fist hit her through the Force like a punch to the chin. Asajj staggered slightly, it had only been a very weak Force-push but it had thrown her slightly off balance and the surprise had been immense. She focussed and easily deflected and absorbed the follow up blows, but however ineffective they were as an attack they proved more effective as a distraction. For a moment the General?s blaster wobbled and then it leapt towards his waiting hand.

Asajj leapt forward, taking the view that it didn?t matter if the blaster reached the General if her right hand?s lightsaber blade reached him a split-second later. The General dropped from his kneeling position onto one hip, the path of his gun changing subtly to compensate. As his blaster smacked into his grip he skidded himself sideways with the Force and a moment later fired. The stunshot wasted itself against a lightsaber blade as Asajj turned her left hand to bring that between herself and the General.

Despite her success in deflecting a shot coming from an unexpected angle and while in mid-leap Asajj had just enough time for annoyance before she landed, the momentum of the aborted attack causing her right hand?s blade to slice across where the General had been as she turned. Had she realised the blaste

 

Darth Sideous leaned back into his throne like chair, which he planned to replace with a real throne as soon as possible. He had felt the ripple in the force he had been waiting for, although the delay had given him some minor concern. It had been pitifully obvious to him, despite the General?s efforts, both that the General had some power in the Force and that the General had sensed they were both hiding their power. Rather than considering this a threat, or even a problem, Sideous had decided to see it as a chance for amusement.

This was really creepy because I think you've captured the manipulative nature of Palpatine very well here!

 

Glad you enjoyed the Epilogue and liked the treatment of Palpatine. Wheels within wheels, schemes within schemes, lies within lies, an enemy?s strength becomes a weakness, an opponent an asset, a Republic an Empire.

 

Ooh nice little story here, quite dark and the action was excellent. Very good work.

 

Glad that you enjoyed the action and I hope that ?quite dark? was dark enough for your tastes. I wanted to have a nice happy ending...for Palpatine.

 

Nice angle! And a perfect Asajj, who is quickly becoming one of my favorite characters in the EU. I hope there are many more good fanfics like this one to capture her essence for years to come. Well done.

 

I read this earlier and didn't get to leave a comment. But I made sure to come back later to tell you that I loved this! I just watched the Clone Wars DVD today and caught the episodes I missed. Fantastic job with Asajj, and I'm looking forward to more!

 

Hooray, 4 replies. Means this is more popular than the previous story I posted.

JediMindTrick000- I am glad that you think my treatment of Asajj was perfect. She was not someone whose characterisation I had given much thought about up until I read The Cestus Deception and (especially) Dark Rendezvous.

VaderLVR64- Thanks for returning to make the comment, something I need to ensure I do more consistently myself. Not going to be more of this particular setup though I do have another Clone Wars era vignette/short story planned.

 

Hey JM - sorry I missed this one earlier! Its a shame I did, because I really liked it. A great twist ending. Its always great to see Palpatine have his victories. He must have had some, after all Asajj is a character I didnt know much about, but I'm so intrigued now that I'll do some research

Great short story! Good to see Palpatine at his manipulative and conniving best

 

Great viggie. I loved the idea of seeing a General who was hiding his abilities with the Force. I wonder, given his conversation with Ventress, if he knew about Ani's marriage to Padme somehow, or perhaps Nejaa Halcyon's marital status.

And as others have pointed out, your treatment of Palpatine was spot-on. He probably would be growing bored of manipulation, though the greatest opportunity hasn't fully presented itself yet.

Once more, great job!


Force be with you,

Tych_sel

 

MjSullivan- I?d say Palpatine had some victories, becoming Supreme Chancellor for a decade and Emperor for two decades more is not bad going even if you do end up being shafted. Glad you enjoyed his victory.

Tych_sel- In the plan I had him saying ?the Corellian Jedi have the right idea? as there have been stories based on the idea that rather than Nejaa Halycon having a secret marriage that Corellian Jedi had a distinct unique tradition, more like the NJO. I wasn?t thinking of the General having any knowledge of Anakin or Nejaa, more just the idea that once upon a time (200-300 years previously) a mother and father realised their baby was strong in the force and knew the Jedi would want to take and train it.

So they kept this a secret and managed to avoid discovery until the child was old enough to understand that he/she needed to control the powers and not allow anyone to know. This child grew up and so did its brothers and sisters, some with power in the force and others without. The older force-strong children were able to help by suppressing each new force-strong baby?s power until it could conceal this itself so although each new potential-Jedi was another chance for them to be exposed the more potential-Jedi were part of the family the more they could work together to minimise the risks.

Eventually the children started to leave home and start families of their own. At each birth one of the force-strong family members was present (an uncle or a grandparent if both the mother and the father lacked the ability) to hide the baby?s power if needed and if wanted. Sometimes the family-member decided that they would allow the Jedi to recruit their child if it was force-strong.

But the secret remained and the family grew. In some branches of the family the strength in the force died out, in others it flourished as the family members married descendants of siblings of Jedi and the children inherited the potential to be born force-strong on both sides. Generation after generation were ?allowed to marry and have children and raise them and nurture their growth in the Force as their parents had done for them? and generation after generation was raised to regard the Jedi with suspicion as the only people who could expose their hidden gifts.