#asajjpost

She'd tried to stop herself from falling. Desperately reached out with the Force to slow her descent. Someone with her training could take a considerable fall without injury, but Skywalker had been determined to send her to her doom. She had no estimate of how far she'd fallen, but she knew it could have killed her, perhaps if she'd reacted even a moment later.

It took a while for the pain to come. At first, it was only dizziness as she opened her eyes. She drew in a breath, and her senses started to return, starting with a sharp pain in her chest that made her choke. She coughed reflexively, which only made the pain worse. Once she managed to regain control and switch to taking short, shallow breaths, she realized she was lying on her side.

Asajj couldn't summon the strength to lift her head, so she tried to move her legs gingerly instead. She was quick to regret this when whatever injuries she'd sustained in the fall made themselves known with a pain that could tastefully be described as "like a barrage of superheated needles". She nearly choked again.

At the least, being able to feel the damage meant she hadn't been paralyzed by the impact. A small victory. Realizing she wouldn't be able to get herself out of the gorge she'd been cast into, Asajj thought of the holoprojector she'd kept on her person to receive messages from Dooku. She had to send out a distress call, and could only hope the device hadn't broken upon impact the way quite a few of her bones certainly had.

She considered reaching for it, but it didn't take long for her to realize her arms had also been quite damaged. So, she focused and tried to drag it out with the Force. As difficult as focusing was under circumstances in which even breathing required effort, she managed to drag the handheld holoprojector out from the folds of her clothing and close enough to her face.

Hoping it still worked, Asajj managed to move one of her fingers just enough to activate the device. The fact that it came back online at all was practically a miracle.

"Need immediate evac...," she hissed. "Yavin 4...beneath the temple..."

Meanwhile, in Separatist space...

"Sir," called a battle droid from its post. "There's a message from Count Dooku."

General Grievous stalked over to the droid's post, and watched with a slight resting glare as the blue-tinted image of Count Dooku appeared before him.

"General," he began. "I have just received a distress call from one of our new operatives. Asajj Ventress claims she is located on Yavin 4, and requires emergency evacuation."

"...I assume you are telling me this for a good reason," Grievous said blankly.

"Quite right," Dooku replied. "Though she has apparently failed to do away with her target, I believe she may still be of use. Go to Yavin 4 and recover her below the temple, in whatever state she may be. See that she does not perish just yet."

It was not the sort of assignment Grievous was accustomed to. He was a killer above all else, sent to rid the galaxy of his master's enemies. Rescuing anyone, even a comrade-in-arms, was unknown to him. And Ventress...he remembered that name. She had been one of the warriors Dooku had sent him to battle. To prove himself, to test their own worthiness. It was her defeat that had earned him the position he now held.

And yet, it also wasn't like him to disobey his master. At least, not to his face. Or rather, a live projection of his face.

And so, Grievous took a small squadron of droids on a ship to Yavin 4. He stepped out onto ground made soft by recent rain. It didn't take long to find traces of Ventress. Dead Clones scattered about in the jungle, some with lightsaber wounds, others simply with twisted necks or bodies shattered by impact against the great trees.

Following the trail of lightsaber burns, Grievous stalked further into the jungle, and eventually out of it, to a wide field and a ruined temple. Assuming this was the very temple described in the message Dooku had received, Grievous made his way toward the canyon below the temple.

Far below, a body was lying sprawled on its side atop some rubble. Grievous turned around and began crawling down the side of the canyon. He retrieved two lightsabers from his waist and stabbed them into the canyon wall, then quickly slid down the wall while holding onto the sabers' hilts.

Landing upon the canyon floor, Grievous returned the sabers to his waist and approached the body. After standing above the body for a moment, he knelt down to inspect it.

Ventress groaned and feebly raised her head. "...You spared me once...," she muttered. "Are you here to finish me off this time?"

"No," he replied. "My orders are to return you to Dooku alive."

"So...now you're saving my life?" she inquired.

For a moment, the resting glare became a scowl. "I did not spare your life then by choice, and I do not rescue you by my own choice now. Were I in command, I would leave you to your failure. But as much as your weakness disgusts me, I have my orders."

"I am not...weak," Ventress hissed. "I will prove myself yet..."

"When you have recovered, perhaps," Grievous replied, the edge of anger having faded from his voice. "But I doubt our master will grant you further chances. If you hope to remain at his side, you must not make him regret ordering your rescue."

"I...won't," Ventress said.

Grievous stared wordlessly for a moment, then reached out to her with two of his four arms. "Now--don't squirm. You'll only make it worse."

"You're going to carry me?" she replied skeptically.

"Would you rather wait for the droids to lower a stretcher down here?"

"...Fine," she muttered. She gritted her teeth as Grievous slid his arms underneath her body and pulled her closer to his chest with a gentleness she hadn’t thought his mechanical body capable of.

Walking back over to the canyon wall, Grievous used his unburdened arms to claw his way back up. Once at the top, he began stalking back toward the ship. The droids that had accompanied him to the planet hurried off ahead after seeing their leader carrying his wounded comrade.

"Perhaps I should train you," Grievous remarked as he walked.

Ventress turned her head slightly, wincing a bit as she did so, and muttered, "What?"

"Clearly, whatever our master is teaching you is not enough," he elaborated. "When you have recovered, come see me. I will show you how to kill a Jedi."