Asajj Ventress (Powerstaark)

Asajj Ventress was a female Rattataki and the most dangerous of Count Dooku's Dark Acolytes, with the possible exception of Sora Bulq. Ventress was trained by a Jedi named Ky Narec but after Ky was killed by Rattataki warlords she slew the warlords and in the process turned to the dark side of the Force. Ventress was a Separatist Commander and an infamous Jedi killer.

Early life
Asajj Ventress hailed from the barbaric planet of Rattatak. Her parents were local warlords who had been assembling a large army on Rattatak's southern hemisphere to challenge another warlord, Osika Kirske, when Ventress was a child. They were defeated and killed by a coalition of other warlords under Kirske. Ventress, alone on a harsh, unforgiving world, would have died had it not been for the timely arrival of a Jedi Knight named Ky Narec. Narec had become stranded upon Rattatak, and sensed Ventress's strong connection to the Force. Although Narec was cut off from the rest of the Jedi Order, he decided to train Ventress as his Padawan.

The two Jedi quickly became favored by the people, except for those who feared the power the two Jedi wielded. Tragically, Narec was killed by Osika Kirske before Ventress could learn mastery over her emotions. Ventress soon became a force of authority on her lawless home world, defeating most of the remaining twelve Rattataki warlords and getting her revenge on Kirske. This is where her turn to the dark side of the Force began.

When Narec died, she had tattooed her hairless head and left her girlhood behind. Her skull was striped with twelve marks, one for each of the twelve warlords she had killed after swearing their deaths. Ventress, now in control of the land once held by the warlords who had murdered her Master, had a castle built on Rattatak, from where she controlled her new kingdom. Ventress kept Narec's lightsaber as a memento of the good times with her mentor, and developed a hatred of the Jedi, who she believed had abandoned Narec. Her bitterness and lust for revenge sent Ventress spiraling down the path of the dark side.

Initiation on Rattatak
Ventress was still in command on Rattatak when the Clone Wars began with the Battle of Geonosis. After Echuu Shen-Jon, the former Padawan of Mace Windu, killed Sev'rance Tann on Krant, one month into the Clone Wars, Count Dooku, aka Darth Tyranus, went in search of a new acolyte to serve as a commander in the Confederacy of Independent Systems. He traveled to Rattatak two weeks after Tann's death, where he was met by a waiting humanoid co-conspirator. As he sat beside the Count in a nearby observation chamber, this robed individual was silently and swiftly dispatched by a dark, cloaked figure who then took his seat. Dooku noted the presence of the killer, but initially voiced doubt about her combat abilities—until Ventress threw herself into a gladiatorial pit fight in the Cauldron and easily annihilated such foes as Blorga, Granda Dolma, Nilo, L8-L9, Flalios, Jasper McKnives, Krutch, Anchor Blue, Swyy'm-Ee, and finally Giant Flog mainly through telekinesis but also with her lightsabers.

Dooku applauded Ventress's talents, but she then went too far by declaring herself a Sith, and claimed that Dooku knew nothing of the dark side. Dooku decided to "enlighten" her. After rendering her unconscious with a blast of Force lightning and later defeating her in a duel, Dooku presented her to Darth Sidious, who approved his choice, and ordered her to kill a certain Jedi—Anakin Skywalker. After her departure, Sidious told Tyranus that it was irrelevant whether or not Ventress succeeded saying that she was merely an instrument. Little did Tyranus know that he too was merely an instrument.

Before sending her on her way, Dooku gifted Ventress with the twin red blades of his former Padawan, Komari Vosa. The twin blades could be wielded separately or joined together to form a saberstaff, one more difficult to handle than the traditional design, given the curved nature of the handles. Dooku, having taken the blades from Vosa after her fatal fight with the late bounty hunter Jango Fett, now intended that Ventress should use them—much as Komari Vosa had—to be a bane to the forces of the light.

Duel on Yavin IV
Ventress traveled to Muunilinst, which was currently under siege, to carry out her command; kill Anakin Skywalker. Flying her Fanblade starfighter, Ventress attacked Skywalker over Muunilinst and then lured him to the jungle moon of Yavin IV. Ventress displayed great talent at flying a space craft and was able to have a dogfight with Skywalker, who was considered one of the finest pilots in the Galaxy, without getting shot down.

On Yavin IV, she killed the clone squad sent by Obi-Wan Kenobi to assist Anakin, including Clone Captain Frodo, who was then replaced by Captain Rex, then battled the young Jedi through the moon's jungle. She once again displayed her skill with telekinesis hurling logs and stones at Anakin and her lightsaber skills were the equal of Skywalkers and neither was able to gain advantage over the other. Anakin chased Ventress through the jungle and finally they arrived at one of the ancient Sith Massassi Temples eventually fighting their way up to the peak.

The duel finally ended when Ventress slashed Anakin across his right eye and while the Padawan was momentarily immobilised from pain she disarmed him. She tried to finish him off but the Jedi grabbed both her wrists and gave in to his rage both from the pain in his eye and the frustration of fighting such a formidable opponent. He squeezed Ventress's left wrist with his metal hand and grabbed one of her lightsabers. Skywalker then pounded away on Ventress' defenses and knocked her off pinnacle of the Temple. Skywalker escaped in his fighter, leaving Ventress wounded but alive on the planet.

Ventress found her way back to where she'd left her own fighter and flew away to rejoin Count Dooku.

Battle of Ohma D'un
Two weeks later Ventress encountered Anakin Skywaker a second time, this time alongside Obi-Wan Kenobi on Ohma D'un, a moon near Naboo. The Republic had lost contact with a Gungan colony on the moon which had been slaughtered by Ventress and the mysterious Bounty Hunter Rum Sleg along with their battle droids. The Separatist's were planning to build a Separatist base and from there they intended to attack Naboo.

Kenobi, Skywalker, Jedi Knight Glaive and his Padawan Zule Xiss arrived on Ohma-D'un and went into the swamps where they were ambushed by Ventress, Sleg and a group of Super Battle droids. Ventress sneaked up on Glaive and beheaded him before he even knew she was there, while Sleg stabbed his Padawan in the back with a vibroblade badly wounding her. Most of the clones where killed by the droids but one of the survivors was Captain Rex who wounded Sleg with a shot to the leg. The Bounty Hunter attempted to shoot the clone Captain but another trooper, Denal smashed his rifle onto the back of Sleg's head knocking him unconscious.

Ventress meanwhile engaged Skywalker and Kenobi knocking Skywalker into a tree with a Force push and stunning him. Ventress duelled Kenobi until Skywalker recovered and got back into the fight. Even with both of them together Ventress was a formidable opponent and Kenobi even noted - though not out loud - that she was the third most skilled opponent he'd ever faced (he was referring to Count Dooku and Darth Maul). Ultimately though they managed to drive her away. Sleg who had recovered from being knocked out, used his jetpack to fly away since Rex's blaster shot prevented him from walking.

The Republic won the battle forcing the Separatists to abandon their plan to attack Naboo.

Mission to Ruul
One month later Ventress, along with fellow Dark Acolyte Sora Bulq went to Ruul to arrange a trap for Jedi Master Mace Windu. Ventress engaged Bulq in a mock duel and during the fight she killed Bulq's former Padawan Mira. When Mace, K'Kruhk, Rhad Tarn and Sian Jeisel arrived Ventress pretended she was Windu's ally and retreated.

Ventress returned later and duelled Tarn, taunting him and driving him into a rage. Then she offered him a chance to join her noting that he had potential and he accepted.

Jeisel and K'Kruhk arrived shortly afterwards and pleaded with Tarn not to join Ventress but Tarn attacked Jeisel while Ventress dealt with K'Krunk. K'Kruhk held his own against Ventress long enough for Jeisel to slay Tarn but Ventress was more than a match for them even when they attacked her at the same time.

Meanwhile Master Windu had uncovered Bulq's treachery and defeated the Dark Acolyte in a duel. He then arrived to help K'Kruhk and Jeisel both of whom had been wounded. Mace attacked Ventress who clipped her lightsabers together trying to overpower the Jedi Master with her saberstaff but realised that she was no match for his skill so she decided to retreat.

Kenobi's capture
A month later, Ventress became one of the Separatist commanders in the Battle of Jabiim, aiding Alto Stratus, leader of the Jabiimi Loyalists, in an effort to have Jabiim break from the Republic. Eventually, they had succeeded.

When Obi-Wan was caught in the explosion of a fallen All Terrain Armored Transport, Ventress managed to capture the Jedi, and transported him to her castle on Rattatak for interrogation and torture. While there, she placed a Sith torture mask on Kenobi and lied to him that Skywalker had died on Jabiim with the rest of the Padawan Pack, in order to break him and, she hoped, show Dooku how worthless the Jedi Knight was. Then, she would at last be accepted as Darth Tyranus's official Sith apprentice and a Dark Lord of the Sith.

However, one day, after Obi-Wan refused to tell Ventress the location of the Republic medical foundries under interrogation, she promised him a slow death and went to spar with a couple of Bugnaughts. While at that, she was aware that Kenobi and Osika Kirske had caused a prison break and caught up with them. Though she managed to avenge her parents' deaths by slaying Kirshe, Kenobi managed to retrieve his lightsaber and briefly duelled the Dark Acolyte before escaping in the Ventress' own starfighter, leaving the furious Ventress on the landing platform. This was where Ventress' obsession with Obi-Wan Kenobi began to form.

Mission to Ord Cestus
Two weeks after Kenobi's capture Ventress encountered the Jedi Master a third time on Ord Cestus along with Jedi Master Kit Fisto. Anakin had been promoted to Jedi Knight only a week earlier and was engaged elsewhere but Ventress was pleased enough that she'd get a chance to kill Obi-Wan.

Ventress was sent in secret to Ord Cestus by Dooku to ensure that the JK-13 security droids, known as "Jedi Killers," were to be kept in production under the Five Families of Cestus Cybernetics for their part in the Separatist cause. The Five Families were sent news by Dooku of sending a representative, but he never said who or when, which gave Ventress the opportunity to sneak in. In truth, however, Dooku planned to use the JK droid presence was used to have the Republic investigate the Five Families' business, expose their control on Cestus and Separatist allegiance, and force them to bombard the planet as example to seceding worlds, which would cause other systems to join the Separatist cause. Then, the Separatists would clone the tissue of Dashta eels for many JKs in the droid army and would no longer need Cestus.

As Ventress arrived at the Tolmea Mountains, which held the secret base of X'Ting gang leader Trillot, she was lead to him by his brother, Fizzik. She presented Trillot a gift from Dooku himself: salt, water, and windsnakes. As Trillot accepted the honor, his bodyguard Remlout, hearing that Ventress never turned down a challenge, offered her one of hand-to-hand combat. She accepted and promised Trillot that she would spare Remlout's life, since it was "hard to find a good bodyguard these days."

Though Remlout was said to be Trillot's best bodyguard, he could not lay a finger on Ventress as she leaped from his every charge and, through the Force, rendered him unconscious.

As Remlout was taken to a medic, Ventress and Trillot discussed the business at hand. However, once Trillot mentioned that Obi-Wan Kenobi had come to Cestus to negotiate with Regent G'Mai Duris, Ventress saw a chance to put an end to Kenobi. She knew right away that Kenobi would try to stop the JK production line, so she claimed that she would first take him down, then speak with the Families.

Master Kit Fisto, a member of the Jedi Council, devised a plan to expose the Five Families-Separatist alignment. He captured the Five Families members, disguised as a Dark Acolyte named Nemonus sent by Dooku to "execute" them. Kenobi confronted him and in an orchestrated duel, Kenobi sends Fisto to run away and thus, with this, it appeared that Ord Cestus would shift its attention away from the Separatists. Unfortunately, they were unaware that Ventress had placed a hidden holocam in Kenobi and Fisto's "fight". Ventress then delivered the camera footage to Caiza Quill, one of the Five Families members and a cousin of Regent Duris. When Quill presented this footage to Duris, the deal with the Republic was called off, thus forcing Kenobi and Barrister Snoil to seemingly leave together.

However, Ventress knew that Kenobi would stay on Cestus and send Barrister Snoil to show evidence of the Five Families' counterfeiting as part of Cestus' economy, so she sent a drone fighter of probe droids to destroy the Republic Consular-class cruiser, with Snoil in it. However, Snoil managed flee on an escape pod to the planet's surface, while Fisto's secret strike team mixed of a clone trooper squad, the Desert Wind anarchist movement, and Cestian miners prepared to wage a rebellion against the Five Families after the diplomacy options failed.

Ventress met with the Five Families at their most private base in ChikatLit. She brought assurance that if the JK droids were used in conduct fair trade, the Five Families would be rewarded. She also warned them that any attempt to use as mere commerce would result to their execution. Further on, she discussed the matter of the Cestian resistance's three recent attacks and asked for Cestus' map data so she could find the resistance's hideout through the Force.

Once she has found that the resistance were hiding at Desert Wind's base in the Dashta Mountains, Ventress ordered that the specially-made plastoid infiltration droids designed and ordered by Dooku to be tested and later sent them, with the JKs, after the Jedi and their allies. The resistance's casualties were low, but among them was Barrister Snoil, who gave his life to save Kenobi.

Shortly after, Ventress met with Regent Duris in person. She explained that if the the information of Cestus Cybernetics' fraud were to be brought to the Senate, the consequences would be very simple, but severe: the Republic would bombard the planet to stop the droid foundries; the Hive Council would suffer dearly; and Duris would "personally bear the full brunt of Count Dooku's wrath." Then, before the Rattataki assured Duris that if Cestus ever needed help, Dooku and the droid leader General Grievous would "provide" them with resources.

Kenobi and Fisto traveled at Trillot's base, where they came to buy the Baktoid suit Trillot "promised" to supply earlier. When Trillot lured the two Jedi to a huge hive cavern beneath ChikatLik, Ventress sprung her trap as she activated a Xythan force shield to trap her opponents. Following her wake were a pair of young male X'Ting loyal to the Hive. She then ordered Trillot to leave and said that she would use the gang leader's protocol droid to translate her orders to the thugs.

After Ventress revealed Dooku's plan to the Jedi, she ordered the X'Ting thugs to attack them so that she may have enough time to study their movements before engaging them in combat. The two Jedi knew they couldn't slaughter the X'Ting for their loyalty to the Hive, so they fought them without their lightsabers. But even when unarmed, it did no good from preventing Ventress from learning their lightsaber technique.

Fisto was able to break away from the pack, activated his lightsaber, and pursued Ventress. Fisto's mastery of Shii-Cho allowed him to hold his own against Ventress for a while but Ventress eventually managed to wound Fisto in the arm. As she came in for the kill, Fisto rolled off a dock and into an underground river.

Meanwhile, Kenobi broke free and told Ventress to tell the young X'Ting to leave, but she demanded to know why. Then, something in Kenobi's answer struck a nerve in Ventress that forced her to have the droid translate the X'Ting's order to leave.

As he fought Ventress, Kenobi gained leverage initially. He blocked all the strikes, and pinned her lightsabers down. She freed her right hand nearly decapitated Kenobi. As he moved to the left, Ventress's spin-kick caught him and knocked him onto the dock. Sensing, through the Force, that Kenobi was in trouble, Fisto summed up some strength and severed the dock. It collapsed, sending Kenobi and Ventress into the river. Fisto then lost consciousness.

Kenobi fitted a rebreather into his mouth, but since Ventress held two lightsabers, she could not. Obi-Wan pressed the sudden advantage until she dropped one of her lightsabers temporarily to grab her rebreather. In the murky water, Kenobi struck a blow against her ribs. Ventress headbutted Kenobi, causing them both to drop their rebreathers. Fighting underwater with no air, they realized that the first one to go up for air would be vulnerable. Seeing that she was stuck, Ventress released a black ink from her belt, and escaped.

After the deaths of the Five Families and ARC trooper A-98, who sacrificed himself by giving the supercruiser Nexu the location of their hideout to bombard, Ventress resurfaced from the water and confronted Trillot at her bedchambers. She raised one of her lightsabers and executed the X'Ting gang leader not just for failing her, but for accidentally seeing her dreams of death and destruction. Then, she had broken two of Trillot's guards close to her ship when she prepared to leave Cestus to rendezvous with Dooku and General Grievous.

Battle of Christophsis

 * "Ventress! And here I thought this mission would be unpleasant."
 * "The pleasure's all mine my dear Obi-Wan. I've missed you."
 * ―Obi-Wan Kenobi and Asajj Ventress

Six weeks later on the planet of Christophsis, Ventress led Separatist efforts to claim the important planet for the Confederacy. The Dark Jedi recruited the clone sergeant, Slick, to the Separatist cause and through him learned vital information regarding the Republic's defense of the planet. Asajj used this information and had her forces conduct a surprise attack on the secret location of Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi and his troops; however, the timely intervention of Anakin Skywalker ensured that Kenobi and a portion of the clones with him escaped.

Realizing that there was a traitor amongst their men, Kenobi and Skywalker traveled to the Separatist headquarters on the planet to learn if they could discover the spy's identity. En route, the Jedi became aware of numerous droids noting their position, and doing nothing to stop them. Their fears that they were falling into a trap were confirmed when they arrived at the Separatist stronghold, there being no guards or resistance. Within, Ventress confronted the pair, meeting Obi-Wan for the first time, and engaged them in a violent duel.

The two Jedi constantly kept her on the defensive, forcing her to retreat. However, Asajj's main goal had truly been to delay the Jedi, so that Slick could safely destroy the weapons depot at their base; and while he succeeded at this, he was captured. Following the duel, Ventress ordered General Whorm Loathsom to march on the Republic forces, before leaving the planet to involve herself in Dooku's plan to ally with the Hutt clans.

Personality and traits
As a child, Asajj Ventress was likely a very caring, compassionate individual, but the slaughter of her parents left her grief-stricken and angry. While her apprenticeship under Ky Narec allowed her to at least partially recover, his death caused her to spiral into darkness. Again grief-stricken, Ventress deteriorated into rage and vengeance, abandoning Jedi philosophy and pursuing power and retribution, becoming a vicious warlord. Taking over her homeworld in a flurry of bloodshed and left with no further enemies to satisfy her bloodlust, Ventress focused her hatred outward, coming to obsessively blame the Jedi for, from her point of view, abandoning her master.

Recruited by Dooku, Ventress became a Sith aspirant and embarked on a vicious killing spree against the Jedi as a Separatist commander during the Clone Wars. Though it is unknown exactly how many Jedi she killed it is presumed it was quite a few but despite this she remained angry and pained, coming to resent Dooku for not allowing her to join the Sith.

In addition to being an extremely angered and pained individual, Ventress was very prideful. She had a great deal of faith in her own abilities and accomplishments, such that whenever they understated or criticized, Ventress would often viciously punish whomever did so, sometimes turning on her own side just because they said something wrong.

Powers and abilities
With the possible exception of Sora Bulq, Asajj Ventress was the most deadly of Count Dooku's Dark Acolytes. Before turning to the dark side she was trained as a Jedi Guardian by Ky Narec. After Narec's death Asajj trained herself in Jar'Kai and eventually became a master of it. She combined her dual lightsaber technique with Juyo, Ataru and Makashi making her a deadly opponent. Ventress' mastery of Jar'Kai allowed her to hold her own against Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi both together. She also managed to at least temporarily hold her ground against Mace Windu but realised that she was no match for Windu's mastery of Vaapad and decided to retreat. y In addition to her mastery of Jar'Kai, Ventress displayed impressive skill with a saberstaff and her lightsabers could clip together to form the weapon. Ventress' abilities with a lightsaber advanced to a level that allowed her to defeat, or at least hold her own against, some of the Jedi Orders most powerful Jedi.

However, despite her skills, she was not without her weaknesses. During the early stages of the Clone Wars, she lacked the major levels of physical strength to compensate for the inherent weaknesses of Jar'Kai; her blows lacked power, as shown by Dooku's casual defensive moves during their bout on Rattatak; and she was left vulnerable to power attacks, as shown by her retreat before Anakin Skywalker's offensive frenzy during their duel on Yavin IV. However, she developed the strength necessary to compensate for this weakness, demonstrating the ability to hold up simultaneous bladelocks with both Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano. Ventress was also heavily reliant on her second blade, and was left at a disadvantage if deprived of it.

Though Ventress focused mainly on her duelling skills she was also a powerful user of the Force and was able to move with incredible speed and jump huge distances. She displayed impressive skill with Telekinesis on Rattatak bringing parts of the ceiling down upon the opponents she fought in the arena and later used it against Anakin Skywalker on Yavin IV. Ventress was also capable of using the Force to enhance her strength being able to push away Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano on Teth by using the Force to give herself more physical power.

Ventress was also able to use Force Choke and Mind Tricks which she used on Captain Rex during the battle of Teth. However Rex appeared to partially resist the Mind Trick and warned Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano about Ventress' presence by calling Anakin by his first name instead of his usual 'General Skywalker'. This might suggest that Ventress was less skilled at Mind Tricks than most Force users but it could also suggest that Rex was more strong willed than most clones.

During the Battle of Muunilinst Asajj proved herself to be an impressively skilled pilot, able to shoot down several clone ships and survive a dogfight with Anakin Skywalker, who was considered to be the finest pilot in the Jedi Order.