Comfort Zone

Three

Asajj felt the blood pump through her arteries like her life depended on it, adrenaline swiftly making its way throughout her nimble body. Her heartbeat drummed in her ears as she kicked her legs forward, a brisk line towards her target. With a breath that felt like fire entering her lungs, she leapt into the air and clashed sabers with the being, snarling violently.

"Come to spend a getaway vacation, Jedi?!" She gritted, using every ounce of strength in her body to remain upright in their battle for dominance. All was not lost, for she could see the Kiffar slightly quivering underneath her onslaught.

"N-not exactly-!" The dark-skinned man shut his eyes momentarily, and before Ventress knew it, she was thrown a meter away from him into the wet sand of the shore. She moaned in pain, which was cut off by a large wave swallowing her body whole. With her mouth wide open, bitter water rushed through her esophagus, her vision becoming blotchy.

Quinlan Vos was, as Skywalker would say, royally fucked.

The call he felt in his veins had led him to the beach for a reason, and he assumed that reason was the bounty hunter. What he didn't know that this bounty hunter had a Sith lightsaber.

His mind raced. Where was Boba Fett, the child she kidnapped? Where was her ship? Why was he called to her?

Vos shook his head exasperatedly and made a beeline towards the water, throwing his weight into the waves. He felt for her body, letting the Force guide him once more, less elegantly than before.

Vos suddenly felt a mass within the murky water and gripped tight, pulling both him and the submerged bounty hunter from the water. Coughing sporadically, he set the woman onto the sand beneath him and rolled onto his back, heaving and shaking while looking at the sky, slowly starting to turn a light shade of orange.

Before he could admire the sky any longer, the woman beside him staggered upwards, gasping and stuttering.

"G-Get the fuck away from m-me," She breathed, limping slightly as she backed away. Vos felt a pang of guilt hit his chest. He hadn't meant to mess her up that badly, right? From the icey look in her bloodshot eyes, however, it seems she didn't quite understand what Vos's motives were.

He didn't blame her.

"Where's the boy?" Vos asked slowly, clicking his lightsaber back into its holster on his belt. The last thing he wanted was for her to run off, and Vos was in no shape to do so at the moment.

"Why? S-so you can turn him in to your precious Council for imprisonment?" Ventress spat, clenching her empty fists. Her lightsaber was lost in the water, but hadn't noticed yet, not with an enemy in front of her.

Quinlan furrowed his brow. "He has to pay for his crimes. The assassination attempt on Do-"

"He is a child!" Asajj interrupted, "Besides, isn't Dooku the type of person you'd rather have dead?" Her neck muscles tightened, Vos notices Ventress run her tongue over her lips multiple times in their encounter. Has she not taken care of herself?

"You're thirsty," Vos said statically.

Ventress quirked at him, confused by the sudden change of subject. "What's it to you?"

Vos's eyes twitched. He didn't know what he expected, really. He wasn't sure if she was capable of compassion at all. But then again, she had defended Boba Fett...

"We have water. I can take you to our settlement to hea-"

"We? Who's we?"

Shit.