As he entered his private area, the Droids flanking him stopped and moved to the side to guard the entrance with two other droids that were already present and who didn't so much as twitch at his passing.
The door shut behind him as he stepped into his actual private quarters. Dooku didn't let the droids into his private quarters, or meditation area. The only time he let them in his personal space was in the workout room when he wanted a workout to dueling.
He took one step into his inner quarters, when his lightsaber was suddenly in his hand and ignited with a snap-hiss.
The red beam surged to life just in time to catch two red lightsabers that had also ignited at the same time and were in mid-swipe to bisect him.
"Ah, Ventress, I was wondering when you were going to announce yourself," Count Dooku stated, almost pleasantly as if a fatal attack hadn't just been launched on him with no warning.
"Surprised, Dooku?" the bald-headed woman hissed. She pushed forward with as much physical strength, augmented by the Force as she could muster, trying to force Dooku's lightsaber back against him.
"Hardly," Dooku replied conversationally. "I was expecting you to turn up."
Despite
her
efforts,
Dooku
kept
both lightsabers locked with his own and held against her anger and Force supplemented push, not seeming to be straining at all. Her eyes widened after a moment and then narrowed. She spun away from the exchange and tried to swipe backward with first one saber then the other, each slash a lethal strike.
Dooku calmly parried both swipes before spinning backward out of arm's reach of his would-be assassin. One arm went behind his back in a classic dueling stance as he continued to move.
"Your skill is improving," he observed casually, as a teacher would towards one who posed no threat to him.
"So this was a trap to get me to come to you?" Ventress kept back out of range as she practically snarled in anger. Her eyes were darting around the quarters. She had been here for nearly half an hour hiding her presence, having snuck in through a small window that would have been inaccessible to anyone without her abilities. She had seen no evidence of troops ready to spring.
"A trap?" Dooku asked, looking surprised, though his lips quirked in amusement.
"You're not going to imprison me!" Ventress snapped back at him, eyes already flicking around for the best way to escape
"Imprison you?" Dooku echoed her words a second time, amusement showing on his face clearly. "Not at all, you are free to leave without any harassment from myself or anyone else." At her disbelieving look he stepped aside and moved away from her, shutting his lightsaber down once he had stepped away from any sort of convenient striking distance.
Ventress looked between him and the door her eyes flicking quickly.
Dooku still seemed amused, and reattached his lightsaber to his belt. Though that didn't fool Ventress, it was only slightly less accessible there than it was in his hand and he was more than fast enough to parry anything she launched at him, now that they were several meters apart.
"I'm pleased to see you overcame the trials I set for you." Dooku said, the smug amusement still in his tone. "Trials? Ventress echoed in disbelief. "You tried to have me killed."
"Please." Dooku replied scornfully. "I'll admit that my Master ordered you killed, over my objections, I might add. But I simply arranged for an attempt."
"You destroyed the ship I was on!" Ventress accused in disbelief, pointing one of her still activated lightsabers at him.
"I did." Dooku stated plainly.
She looked at him, surprised that he had outright admitted it or didn't have some sort of excuse for it. Once more Dooku's tone was scornful. "If the Jedi were resourceful enough to survive the ship's destruction then I knew you would be able to as well. If not, than my own estimation of your abilities would have been grossly exaggerated, and you would not have been worthy of the Sith, much less of being my apprentice."
She blinked at that logic but Dooku pressed on. "Who do you think arranged for the Raider to be in the vicinity?"
Ventress frowned at the mention of the pirates on the scavenger ship that refused to take her to Dathomir.
"You are aware, that when they wouldn't do what I wanted, I killed them." She replied shortly. "I am well aware,." Dooku replied with an amused smile. "It was money I didn't have to spend paying them. You are nothing if not thorough."
"But it served its purpose as it drew out the majority of the remaining witches of Dathomir and let us rid ourselves of their influence." Dooku said.
Ventress' grip on her lightsabers tightened as he so casually spoke of killing the Nightsisters.
"Given your string of failures I felt it necessary to push you. The experience on Dathomir and with the Nightsisters did precisely that." Dooku paused a moment to pour himself some wine from a pitcher sitting on a stand in the room. "The experience with the poison was quite the trial for me. But I've overcome far more than that."
He paused to look at her gesturing to a glass, clearly offering her a drink. When she shook her head he shrugged and took a drink of the glass he poured for himself.
"And then the bounty on Ahsoka Tano… I didn't even have to point you in that direction and you served your purpose well in that affair." Dooku smiled beatifically, "You are too smart not to know you were set up, and I knew it would only be a matter of time before you came back to confront me."
Ventress stared at him for over a minute, and he met her stare unflinchingly. She looked uncertain as she stared at his calm confident demeanor. "What do you expect to happen now?"
"Now, what happens is up to you my dear. As you have past the trials I set for you, you may reclaim your place at my side and continue to grow in the ways of the Force, and one day actually achieve the goal of killing me." He met her eyes, well aware that was how it worked in the Sith hierarchy. "Or you may leave. As I said. You won't even have to sneak out of here in a shuttle."
Assajj stared at him again as he waited patiently. She was unable to deny he had a point she wasn't strong enough to kill him. Not yet, but she was getting stronger. Finally she powered down her lightsabers and slowly clipped them to her belt.
She hesitated and then bowed her head slightly. "Then what do you wish of me, Master?" The way she said it let him know there would be no trusting him.
He smiled and nodded slightly inwardly pleased as it was the outcome he had predicted from the start. "As it happens, I do have a task for you. I have someone, a nuisance on Nar Shaddaa, and I want them eliminated."
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