Ventress was about to deal the final blow when a lightsaber ignition could be heard behind her.
Saasha used Ventress's slight moment of distraction and reached out with the force to locate her lightsaber.
She called it towards her good hand and Ventress flipped out of the way to avoid being impaled by the flying sabre.
Anakin jumped down from the roof above and landed beside Saasha. Both their lightsabers ignited, ready to strike.
Ventress held her two up in defence as Anakin was the first to charge. Anakin and sometimes Saasha both exchanged blows on Ventress which put her mostly on defence.
After every second it became more obvious that Ventress was not going to win this fight and the battle kept shifting out of the alley and onto the streets.
Saasha subconsciously used both hands to strike at Ventress, which meant both arms. She instantly felt more stitches tear and quickly switched back to only using her one arm. The adrenaline thankfully took care of some of the pain but it still hurt as you can probably imagine.
People were running from the scene, some staying to watch the battle from a distance and see who would win the deadly duel.
Ventress was backed up near the edge of a platform that held them from falling into the traffic below. She suddenly distinguished her lightsabers and jumped into the chaos under them. There were so many speeders they quickly lost a visual on the Assassin.
Saasha leaned back and slid down a concrete pillar while fastening her lightsaber to her belt. The sudden aching and pain from moving the injury and ripping the stitches returned. She leaned her head back and closed her eyes. She wasn't going to pass out or anything, she just needed a moment to catch her breath and sort out her arm.
Normally blaster shots aren't that big of a deal if it's only a flesh wound, but when you go into combat against a Sith not too long after you get stitches in, it still hurts.
"You okay?" Anakin asked as he reached out his hand to help her.
She took a couple more breathes before replying, "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks." she said as she grabbed onto Anakin's outstretched hand using her good arm, pulling herself to her feet.
Ashton appeared from the alley running, relief pasted on his face.
"Thank goodness you're okay," he said putting his hand on her good shoulder.
"Let's get back to the temple," Anakin said while looking around to ensure there was no more danger.
"Agreed," Saasha sighed and discreetly looked down at her arm as she and Ashton followed him to a parked speeder.
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"This has gotten out of hand!" Sideous spoke, anger and frustration evident in his voice. "It is most unfortunate that your Assassin was beaten by a padawan, Count." he spat.
"I, as well, am disappointed by my Assassin's failure."
"It has become clear that your resources can not be trusted for such a crucial task. We will wait, as another attempt on her life will be expected now and will most likely fail again, which I can not afford." Sideous said before the transmission faded to nothing.
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They had dropped Ashton at a transport to take him back to his home on Taanab. He promised he would come and visit again sometime soon. She wished he could stay but she knew he had a job and had to provide for himself. If he was here he might also be in danger with all that is going on with her and the attacks.
She and Anakin were walking down temple halls on their way back to their quarters. The temple was quiet, it always was. She liked the serenity that surrounded her home, it was always nice and refreshing, especially when returning from a mission.
Her arm hurt no less than when she tore her stitches. She tried not to move it as they walked but that didn't really prevent the aching. She looked down on her injury and noticed there were red marks bleeding through the bandages on her shoulder and forearm, exactly where her wounds were. It honestly didn't surprise her because she knew she pulled more than just one stitch.
"Anakin, um, I think we should go to the-" Saasha started but Anakin cut her off.
"Saasha, your bleeding." Anakin noticed as he looked down at her injured arm. The sling had vanished and the scarlet liquid was starting to seep through the white bandage.
"I know. I was going to say we should go to the medbay." she winced as she forced her good arm to put pressure on one of the wounds as she had once been taught.
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I've never actually had stitches *knock on wood* so I don't know if they can tear and stuff but let's pretend for the sake of my story 😂.
Sounds about right 😂.