Obi-Wan had but a moment to snatch his rebreather and jam it into
his mouth, and in the next instant realized that Ventress couldn’t! She
clutched a lightsaber in each of her lethal hands!
He went at her savagely, never giving her a moment to sheathe
one lightsaber, to slip in her own rebreather.
The Jedi Knight could move in three dimensions, attacking from
under the water and from all angles, and Ventress’s desperate defense
forced her to gulp air when her head cleared the water.
Nearing panic, Ventress dropped one of her lightsabers, and
lunged at Obi-Wan, surprising him. She flipped back away, taking that
moment to don her own rebreather.
Then, eyes burning with hatred, she came at him.
The two circled each other like some kind of aquatic predators,
but both were out of their elements. The question was which would
adapt most swiftly.
Lure her. Leave an opening for a stroke in the upper left. I will
block more slowly, as she expects. Then I will flinch, as I did with the
X’Ting, and she will think she’s aggravated an injury, and that I will
back up. She saw me do it twice.
The water was murky, and he realized that he was wrong to trust
his eyes. Stop. Defocus. Feel the water pressure as she makes her
moves. Trust the Force.
Obi-Wan felt the water surge at him, and he let that surge carry
him in its natural arc. His lightsaber flashed in, and for the first time,
he cut her.
The wound was low on the ribs on her right side, and her eyes
widened in pain and sudden fear.
Instead of moving back, Obi-Wan moved in. She butted him in
the mouth, ripping out his rebreather. But the movement stunned her,
and he tore hers out in the same instant.
So. There they were, the two of them, beneath the water. The first
to bolt for the surface would be exposed and vulnerable. The first one
to break loses.
Well, then, Ventress. Which of us can hold our breath longer?
This would be as good a place as any to die. If this was his end,
how better than to take a creature like Ventress with him?
And she saw his face. Yes. Like Duris. I’m ready to die here and
now, and for these reasons. I’m willing to die to kill you. Can you say
the same?
In the same instant, Obi-Wan threw caution to the winds, and
went at her. His blade was here, there, at all angles, and her wound
slowed her…
She wielded her single remaining blade, eyes wide and staring.
Then something broke inside Ventress. She shrieked a mouthful
of bubbles, and triggered something at her belt. The water around her
churned into an expanding onyx cloud, as if she had emptied an inksack
into it.
And in a flurry of bubbles and blackness, Asajj Ventress was
gone.