"Make yourself useful, and crush that into splinters no bigger than one of your chips" he ordered the droid. Once the bubble canopy began to retract, he turned to the small droid beside him.
"No mistakes today, Todo, or it's the scrap-market for you."
...
Launching himself over the still racing aircar's left side, he felt the thrust of his jet-boots kick in before he'd dropped three meters. Ignoring the droid's whining complaints, he surged forward with all the acceleration the jets could provide. Already, he could see huge commercial and government vid screens going dead in the distance, while more important machinery merely went dark for a few moments, then came back on as auxiliary power feeds became active. Explosions continued to echo distantly, and not so distantly as he neared the portion of the Temple's upper level eave the schematics indicated was in a blind spot. Telling the experienced operator that more than one plan was in motion this afternoon.
"Hurry up and get us inside, Todo" he snapped from his crouched position. Keeping one eye on the droid as it worked, and the other on the beginning of the CSF response to the blasts, Bane was nervous. He'd die before admitting as much, but the thought this operation might be merely another distraction with which to divert the attention of the Jedi had recurred often enough to make him uneasy.
"I've got it, sir" Todo piped up. A shimmering ovoid gap appearing in the greenish security field. The bounty hunter kept his movements fluid and sure as he darted through the temporary aperture, but there was no time wasted as he moved.
"I'm in, Cato. Send me the nav-info for the ducts I need." His tone was cool and self-assured as he acknowledged receipt of the ensuing transmission a moment later, then plunged into the Temple's innards.
The Holocron wasn't going to steal itself, after all.
...
Jedi Temple Hangar (Same Time)
While I ran through pre-flight checks that Seraph's primarily organic nature made little more than a formality, I was still thinking about my conversation with Plo Koon.
Initially, I'd been more than a little surprised to discover he was completely supportive of my decision to take Ahsoka as my Padawan, but as the conversation wore on, I began to have the distinct feeling there was more to the Jedi Master's unqualified acceptance in this matter than any judgment on his part as to my worthiness as a prospective mentor and teacher.
It smelled of a "quiet word" from our illustrious Grandmaster, and I didn't know how I felt about that. On the one hand, it wasn't like Yoda hadn't steered Ahsoka into my tragic alternate's life as well, and it was nice surprise to discover I hadn't antagonized the Jedi Master by taking on his protege. On the other hand, I was beginning to feel like Yoda always had one eye on me.
Always. Intellectually, I knew that Yoda kept an eye on every Jedi who might do something to upend the proverbial apple-cart at some point, but in my case, I was beginning to wonder just how much of what he learned from the Crystal pertained to me.
I could have chased that line of thinking around and around until my head spun, but fortunately, I had other people present to keep my attention grounded in the present.
"You have the look of a man trying to feel his way through a maze" Padme observed from the co-pilot's seat to my right.
Ahsoka was seated almost directly behind me in one of the two seats at the rear of the compartment, but I didn't need to see her to sense the sharpening of her interest as she heard the Senator's remark.
Conscious that I was in the presence of two women known for their perceptiveness, I chose my words with care, but replied honestly nevertheless.
"Dark Woman sensed something dangerous approaching before we made our escape from Cato Neimoidia. I think that Master Koth and Master Poof, maybe the entire High Council, sensed it as well, because it's extremely unusual for multiple Councilors to take on field assignments simultaneously.
The Yinchorri Uprising that began in 2:3 was the last time it happened, if that gives you an idea of what I mean."
My answer covered the essential facts, but Padme's response made it clear she already had a much clearer picture of me than I would have expected at this point.
"You aren't accustomed to your Master facing danger without your being there with her, in the thick of things. Intellectually, you know she was off saving the galaxy decades before you were even born, so you know she's quite capable of facing down mortal peril without you, but it doesn't feel that way, does it, Anakin?"
Her almost painfully accurate assessment, plus the resulting question held an initially dreamy quality, but the final two words and my name were said with the sort of stark sharpness of someone suddenly awakened from a deep sleep unexpectedly.
The shift in tone caused me to look sharply to my right, as I felt the rise of a diffuse sort of uneasiness in the Togruta listening quietly to our exchange.
My new apprentice had been quite subdued since seeing IG-1 prowl aboard in near silence with a predatory grace and economy of motion the people of this era simply weren't accustomed to seeing in droids of his size, but she'd detected the eerie note in Padme's voice as easily as I had.
Lacking the appropriate priors, there was no way for her to guess the source of the beautiful politician's insight, but she trusted her intuition enough to know that something distinctly odd had just occurred.
Knowing I could likely spoof said teen's intuition with distractingly interesting information, I replied "You're right, of course, Padme, but Dark Woman left me a message concerning this turn of events.
The delivery of which she explicitly delayed, and in said message, she ordered me not to follow her. My Master told me I should continue protecting you, and to get us all off-world as soon as possible.
She even predicted Ahsoka agreeing to become my Padawan learner, despite my never having mentioned Ahsoka to her, as well as my last-minute decision to bring her along on this trip. I'm just trying to determine whether there's more to the situation than even my Master knows.
I've had a bad feeling ever since my debriefing by the Council, and there have been entirely too many Shatterpoints in evidence the last twenty-four hours. Events of significance are in motion, with the outcomes very much in doubt."
That got the attention of both women, but I fell silent as I received clearance to depart from the hangar master and powered up the thrusters in preparation for our departure from it's confines.
Seraph's forward motion was smooth as glass, but we hadn't moved halfway across the hangar when a number of security warnings flashed across the simple holo-comm unit inset to the right of the piloting controls.
None of them were addressed to us specifically, but they included a CSF request for assistance from the Temple, as well as a system security alert on the Jedi starfighter corps channel.
Bringing that one up with a finger-tap, I scrolled to discover an outlying squadron of Judicial Forces picket-vessels was ordering a pair of refurbished Thranta-class Corvettes to heave to after both ships had ignored several challenges.
JF vessels too numerous to mention were converging to corral the pair of ships that exactly matched the profile and methodology of the R.A.F, but no one seemed in a hurry to open fire on the suspected terrorists.
I could appreciate restraint, but we were talking about suspected terrorists here. Many of the pre-Crisis JF cutters were equipped with ion cannons for precisely this kind of work, so why was no one up there reducing the intruders to shorted out hulks, and what in the name of the Ashla did they think the Order's Aces were going to do about it?
"Master, I think you should take a closer look at the CSF's request for assistance.
It says here that there have been numerous explosions in or near important infrastructure, and reports indicating groups of guardian-droids with non-regulation weaponry are roaming about and entering restricted areas. The droids are refusing to respond to orders, and.." Ahsoka pointed out from her seat at the communications console.
I heard the sharp intake of breath that brought her commentary to an end, and knew it for the bad sign it was.
"What are those droids doing now, Ahsoka?" I inquired in a calm and level tone meant to convey confidence, but privately, I recognized all these seemingly disparate troubles couldn't be happening simultaneously by mere happenstance.
It was all rather maddening, because under other circumstances, I would turn the ship I was even now piloting toward orbit around, and see what help I could provide down there.
Dark Woman's words came back to me, and for the first time, I wondered if her insistence I take us all off-world was less about our avoiding danger, and more about being where we were really needed.
My conclusion might have seemed a stretch to some, but those people didn't know my mentor. She'd never coddled me, or protected me from anything she felt I could cope with, and that had been when I was an apprentice. Why should she start now?
...
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