How Anakin Skywalker joined the Dark Side – take 1

Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, but belong to Lucasfilm™.

Note: This story contains spoilers from SW: CW official storyline.

When Anakin Skywalker burst-in on count Dooku's latest hide-out, they were too late: Dooku was already battling someone else, one so Darth Maul-like in his appearance, that Kenobi, who'd been none-too-stable since he saw the holovid version of him, promptly went into a neural breakdown and curled on the floor, leaving Anakin on his own to observe, how the new Sith (if that's who it was) charged Dooku time and again, only to be whacked (or stunned) by Dooku's Sith lightning bolts.

"A heart-rending spectacle, is it not?" a painfully familiar voice spoke from Skywalker's right. "I've trained Savej myself, yet he's just pathetic."

"Assajj," Anakin glared at his least favoured Dark Jedi assassin (Dooku was Anakin's least favoured Sith mastermind instead), "aren't you going to attack me – us?" he glared down at Kenobi who was still babbling about master Jinn instead of anything coherent.

"No," Assajj shook his head. "Dooku fired me, leaving me for the dead on the last battlefield. So why should I prevent you from interrupting him playing 'whack an Irridonian'?"

"You mean 'whack a Zabrak'," Skywalker corrected her, as Dooku zapped Savej down once again.

"No, we're Irridonians – the Zabraks are one of our races," Assajj said in a smug, know-it-all sort of voice. "I'm an Irridonian and I don't have horns."

"Why not?" Anakin couldn't help but ask.

"So that I wouldn't be mistaken for a female Zabrak," Assajj shook her head, dispelling some haunting memories of her own and asked in her turn. "So, why aren't you attacking?"

"Eh, Dooku's got to get tired...eventually," Anakin explained helpfully, observing how Dooku began to whack the male Irridonian with his Sith telekinesis powers instead, before turning back to Assajj, "then I'll strike, most certainly, and perhaps Obi-Wan will be back to something resembling coherence, even vaguely. He's been haunted by his initial short coming of failing to save Que-Gon Jinn, you know, and I haven't been exactly helpful with him regarding that lately..."

"Hmm. You want to join the Dark side instead?" Assajj asked suddenly, startling Skywalker:

"Say what?"

"Come on, with me and Dooku on the outs, there's an opening on our side, and Savej isn't exactly impressing anyone with his stellar performance," Assajj said wryly, pointing out how Dooku was now chasing the male Irridonian around the room, hitting the latter both with his light sabre and his lightning bolts. "So, what do you think?"

"I don't know," Anakin tried to edge his bets. "I mean, what's so special about the Dark side? The Light side is just as fine, as far as I am concerned."

"We've got a better family insurance policy," Assajj said after giving this thought some consideration. "I'm sure that you and your bit on the side will be happy to hear this."

"Hey! Padme is no bit!" Anakin snapped before he could think about this properly.

"Padme? As in the Naboo senator Padme Amidala?" Assajj curved one well-groomed eyebrow in disbelief. "And here I thought that your minion – I mean, padawan or whatever you Jedi call them – was giving you some, instead?"

Anakin just stared.

"What? I'm a woman. I can sense when a man is getting some, and when he doesn't," Assajj said nonchalantly. "Your friend here isn't, let me tell you know."

"Well, duh, it's against the Jedi code," Anakin said crossly. "It's not against the Sith code, is it?"

"Of course not!" and Darth Sidious' movable holocron appeared on the scene. "Ventress. I see that you're still alive – and just what is Dooku doing?"

"He's chasing a younger man around?" Assajj said wryly. "Is that new?"

"No," Darth Sidious admitted flatly, before turning his attention to Anakin. "So, you want to join the Dark side?"

"Maybe," Anakin said, slightly hesitantly. "How that would work?"

"Just defeat Dooku and deliver him to chancellor Palpatine, and you're set," Darth Sidious said grandly.

"And the chancellor will do what with Dooku?" Anakin said carefully. "He doesn't strike me the type that collects the evil Sith masterminds."

"This shows that appearances aren't everything!" Darth Sidious cackled. "Do we have a deal?"

"Sure," Anakin shrugged and approached Dooku, who had finally exhausted him by hitting Savej with everything he had. "Dooku?"

"What?" Dooku muttered absent-mindedly, before Anakin knocked him out with one good punch of his prosthetic hand (he was still sore with Dooku about that). The fact that Dooku was exhausted didn't hinder Anakin either: Dooku fell down like a log.

"Done," Anakin turned to face Darth Sidious, only to see Assajj drop Savej with a kick-punch combination onto Kenobi, who just stiffened, like a corpse in the morgue.

"Ditto," she grimaced and stuck her tongue at Anakin.

"Good," Darth Sidious said nonchalantly. "Now don't forget – drop Dooku off at chancellor Palpatine's, then we'll talk." With these words his holograph winked out.

"You know," Anakin said thoughtfully, "if this doesn't work out, you want to try to be redeemed at the Jedi temple?"

"Why not," Assajj shrugged. "Want to assist me dragging Dooku?"

"Please do!" Anakin said cheerfully, and together the odd couple left Dooku's old quarters.

End