It was a name that she knew, but by REPUTATION and nothing more. Dooku may be the public face of the Separatist movement, but Asajj was one of the few that knew he was not it’s MASTERMIND. Not truly. Sidious was the man that gave her Master orders from the shadows. Asajj couldn’t even know for sure if Dooku even knew his Dark Lord’s true identity… but, she thought, it also seemed foolish to believe he didn’t.
Asajj turned this new information over in her head. Sidious? Afraid of her? The thought was almost LAUGHABLE. Still, her face stayed screwed into a scowl. “So to save your own neck you sacrificed mine. Typical.” It made sense, but did little to sate the FURY stirring in her gut. “Sidious has you on such a short leash that you’d kill even those who served you best if he ordered it?” A cruel LAUGH bubbled up in her throat. “I never pegged you as being so spineless, Dooku. I suppose only betrayal can truly bring out a person’s true colors.”
She regarded him BITTERLY once more. “To think I once held you in such high regards…” Asajj scoffed as if the very idea sickened her. “But I am wiser now than I was then. I can see how WEAK you truly are. And I will not let you escape me again.”
At first, he had no intention of rising to the bait she was stupidly reeling out towards him. Cowardice was something he had been accused of many times. It was a weak attack employed by those of limited vision, who were blind to the great plan he was a part of, or those who knew they had lost and thought that they could gain some small victory by getting in the last word before he ended their lives. That victory meant nothing to the dead, but the one he claimed by removing another threat? It only proved that they had beenwrong.
But then she said something that echoed a truth Dooku had known practically all his life. Now his hand, curled into a fist, was shaking. Betrayal was inevitable in any sort of relationship formed through one’s life. Once, he had been the victim of it. Then he had resolved to either be the one to carry out the act, or wreak terrible vengeance on those who sought to deceive and cheat him. But as he listened to his former apprentice echo the onething that had always been clear to him for all his years, another truth became evident. Hadthey had more time, Asajj would have been the exception. He could have trained her,moulded her, continued raising her to have undying loyalty to him and him alone. Perhapseven in the event of an act of treachery. That act, however, had come too early. Ideally, there would have been no need for him to do something like it. And he would have no reason to fear anything similar being performed by her. But now they stood here, each wishing deathupon the other, with little possibility of that changing. For a moment, all Dooku could do was close his eyes in an attempt to still the shaking in his fist and the building rage in his heart. Rage at this woman, this child, for wasting the potential she had even as she learned theonly lesson that mattered.
“You have no idea,” he spoke softly before opening his eyes to gaze at her again. The control, the balance of the situation was slipping out from under him. She needed to be reminded of who was in control, who she once answered to. Who she still answered to. So, almost casually, the Count took his time in stepping away from her blades to stand at the window behind his desk, turning his back to her as he gazed out through the glass. “If you were truly wiser, you would not have come here. And I have no need to attempt an escape. Nor do I have any intention of allowing you to leave this place. Alive, that is.” A smirk curled his lips, then, as he looked over his cape-clad shoulder to the Nightsister. Already he was feeling more at ease, and while she knew him well, he knew her better. “And if you had any intention of ending my life, you would have done so by now. I have given you your answer. My attempt on your life was regrettable, but if my Master deemed it necessary, then it was so. A great shame, to lose a pupil so talented.” It was the truth. But there was nothing he could do about it now, despite the flights of fancy he had had when it happened… “Now you know. Yet still you hesitate. What is it that you truly want, Asajj? Death and revenge were always second nature to you, but surely I am worth more than your typical pettiness?”