In the End {1}

vi: The Pact

A/N: Sorry in advance. You'll see why when you get there ;) Read on!

The next day, Ahsoka couldn't stop thinking about Nyx. As she mindlessly repaired the speeders in the shop, her thoughts dwelled on the night before. He would've kissed her for sure if she didn't say anything. Was that something she wanted? After Lux, she wasn't sure she'd be ready for something serious for a long time, but maybe Nyx would prove her wrong.

She heard the bell at the front door as the door opened. Sighing heavily, she wiped the sweat from her forehead and stood up. It was still to early to be Nyx, and she knew she was doing a terrible job hiding her disappointment.

She walked briskly to the front desk and slid in to her chair. Without looking up, she turned on the datapad in front of her and began pulling up the menu screen.

"Hi, welcome in, how can I help you?" She said quickly.

"I need to talk to you," a rough feminine voice replied.

Ahsoka snapped her head up when she recognized that it was in fact Ventress standing in front of her.

Her hands flew to her belt where her lightsabers used to be as she stood up and pushed the chair out of the way. "Ventress!"

Ahsoka wasn't really sure what to think of Ventress. She had been a sworn enemy, but now, she was doing her own thing, whatever that meant. During Ahsoka's trial, Ventress had helped her, but Ahsoka was captured after a duel with Barriss who had dressed as Ventress to fool Ahsoka. Now, she didn't know where she and Ventress stood.

"What do you want?"

"I knew the other girl that worked here. Past business," she said without malice in her voice. "I heard about what happened to her. I had no idea you would be here."

"Oh," Ahsoka said.

There was an awkward silence. Was Ahsoka supposed to hate Ventress? She had been a Separatist war criminal, after all. But then Ventress had helped her when she really needed someone to stand by her. From what she could tell, Ventress was thinking the same thing.

"So what does that make us?" Ahsoka asked.

"You haven't given me a reason to kill you, so I won't," Ventress replied.

That was the nicest thing she'd ever heard Ventress say. "Okay. I guess the same applies to you too then." There was another long, awkward pause before Ahsoka spoke again. "So you said you were here about Maggie?"

"Yes. I've been tracking these murders for a while now. It started in the lower levels, and the killer has a pattern."

"They only go after force-sensitives," Ahsoka finished.

Ventress nodded. "I have no doubt it's a statement against the Jedi. It's no secret that I have no affiliation with the Jedi Order whatsoever, but I don't want to be next."

"Me neither."

"Tell you what," Ventress started, "if we work together on this, we're a whole lot more likely to catch this guy. I'm sure that they'll put a bounty on his head soon once they have more information, but if we get him, we can split the cash and go our separate ways. Deal?"