Chapter 25: Alarm

It turned out Ventress' plan was to just walk in the front doors.

Or at least, it was for him to walk through the secondary, less grand front door, his robe concealing his armour, hood up to fool any facial recognition scanners that might be pointed his way, his skill in disguising his signature in the Force tested to its limit by projecting a signature suitable to a Padawan. That, Ventress had snickered, would be backed up by "that baby face of yours".

Ruefully running a hand over his smooth chin, he had to admit she was right. It was, after all, the reason he'd grown his beard in the first place. And why he'd known that shaving it would cause him to be far less recognisable.

Still, he was in his late thirties. And a Jedi Master, even if the Order wasn't currently recognising him as such. Being able to pass for a Padawan was…well, slightly embarrassing.

(He supposed he should be glad that his hair wasn't long, and so didn't have to endure them giving him a fake Padawan braid. Because they would have, he was sure of it.)

It had its advantages. Like now. He still found it hard to believe he'd been able to get in, with a Corellian accent that explained without words why this particular Padawan had never been seen before and a subtle current in the force saying trust me, I'm harmless around him. Jedi were trained to resist mind tricks, but that wasn't one, just a nudge in the direction he wanted it to go. He rather suspected the Force had been helping him.

"Where's your master? I'm sure you heard the warnings about leaving the Temple alone."

A faltering expression, his Force signature tinging with grief. "He - he's dead."

Sympathy. "I'm sorry. I suppose you left by some other door?"

"Yes."

Terrifyingly easy. The Force must have helped: there was no way they would have let him through if it had given them a warning that he wasn't supposed to be there.

He was hurrying through the less used back ways of the Temple, heading towards one of the side doorways. There were many of them, though most beings that visited the Temple only knew about the main entrance, a few of the other major entrances, and the hangers. Not running: that would stand out, and he couldn't just vanish in the Force in case someone noticed, but hurrying.

This one, as he last knew, was guarded by two Temple Sentinels. They won't be all that on guard at the apparent approach of a Padawan, and a police car would get past the open space surrounding the Temple without the snipers hurling their lightsabers at it. And those snipers won't be able to see the door itself.

He had to stop his heart from pounding and giving him away as a pair of Jedi approached, coming down the corridor in the other direction. He couldn't run, or avoid them. That would look suspicious. And they'd notice suspicious, and notice him and his flimsy, flimsy disguise would be torn away. They turned the corner, talking quietly to each other, and he continued past the two, attempting to infuse his body language with I need some space or something of the sort. Not too much though, or they'd stop and ask what was wrong, and they might be a pair of newish knights, not ones he really knew, but in anything other than passing he was taking a huge risk of being recognised. And he stopped his heart hammering, but he didn't have the attention to spare on stopping his palms from sweating or any of the other little things that could give him away, because he was not practiced at holding a false Force signature, and he was having to focus intently to keep it up.

They passed without incident, and he let out a slow breath once they were safely around the next corner.

He could feel the guards, now, almost muffled because of the false signature that was acting as a shield between him and them, but enough that he could tell there were more than he had anticipated. Had they increased the numbers somehow? Adding those not as well trained or those who should be resting?

He reached through the fragile not-quite-bond he had with Ahsoka, and sent a feeling of affirmation, then shed his robe and opened the door to the room between the doors where the sentinel guards would be waiting.

There was one already approaching to open the door for the seemingly innocuous Force signature, and Obi-Wan tossed him with an unarmed throw even as the other's step faltered, realizing who he was up against. The impact of the wall left him stunned, and Obi-Wan crouched down and found the right nerve clusters, knocking him out.

A moment later he straightened, and opened the door with a thought even as he sprang, pushed off the wall opposite the outside door, and flipped in the air, passing through it as it opened and smashing feet first into a startled sentinel guard, knocking her to the ground with what were quite possibly several broken ribs and grabbing her lightsaber pike to prevent telekinetic retaliation. He rolled to his feet and ignited it (faster than unhooking and igniting the one he was carrying on his belt,) barely in time to block the beam of light that would have severed his head from his shoulders at the hands of the third.

He'd taken his turn with the guarding of the Temple, like everyone else, though not in recent years. He was - had been - too famous a figure to go missing for a couple of months to take his turn, too valuable on the front lines and to public morale to take from the public eye. Still, he, like everyone, had had training on the theory of handling a lightsaber pike.

Most didn't practice with the weapon except when on assignment as a Temple Guard. The pike's ceremonial significance was the reason for its use, (that and the fact that if the Temple Guard were to use their normal lightsabers they might be recognised, which would rather defeat the point of submersing themselves in anonymous service). Unlike most, when he picked one up for the first time sometime after his Knighting, he had already been familiar with double bladed lightsabers. And he'd put a lot of time into training with it, not wanting to let unfamiliarity with the strengths and weaknesses of double bladed weapons catch him off guard again. (And to face and release the memories, which had jumped to the forefront of his mind, despite the time between that and Qui-Gon Jinn's death.) And unlike most, he had still done so when his rotation was over, if irregularly.

That training had helped him. Since then, he had faced many opponents with weapons (not necessarily lightsabers, like the energy staffs of some of the more specialized separatist droids, but weapons that could stand up to lightsabers) with double ends. He knew how they worked in combat, how to defend against one and how to use one, though had had little need for the latter. Until now.

All that gave him an edge over his opponent. He was still not particularly good with the weapon - his strikes were clumsy, unpractised and far more imprecise than his usual standard - but neither was his opponent, and Obi-Wan was raining blows down, not slowing down to unhook and ignite the lightsaber on his belt, driving them on the defensive so they didn't have time to think, didn't have time to send out a warning, not with them having to use a relatively unfamiliar weapon in what must appear to them to be deadly combat-

His opponent attempted to go on the offensive, but Obi-Wan refused to let them, and the police car drew up. He felt the spark of relief in the being's signature, and felt it morph into horror when they saw who emerged. That moment of distraction was all Obi-Wan needed to slice their weapon in half without the possibility that he might hit his opponent with the blade, then as the two halves of the pike fell from their hands, Obi-Wan swung the now deactivated hilt of his own pike at the guard's head.

They crumpled. Obi-Wan checked that they weren't too badly injured – yes, he'd have a headache when he woke, but it wouldn't be permanent. Force sensitivity was a boon in the health department - the Force would have healed it too completely for lasting damage, as long as he got a healing trance soon. Obi-wan took a moment to push him into one, then did the same for the sentinel with broken ribs. He straightened as Ahsoka and Ventress moved towards the fallen sentinels, stepping back to allow them access, ignoring the slightly scornful look Ventress gave him as she pulled the lightsaber pike from his hand with the Force. He raise an eyebrow mildly in return as it flew across and slapped into her hand, and saw Ahsoka snort slightly at the byplay. Ventress just shook her head, nose wrinkling as though she'd just smelled something nasty. "Stick to normal lightsabers," she advised. "That" the word was almost spat, "was painful to watch."

Obi-Wan winced slightly, pressing his lips together to avoid retorting. He might not be anywhere near her proficiency with the weapon type and, granted, he'd never made contingencies for fighting another of the same weapon with a pike, but he wasn't that bad wi-

It was only the glint he caught out of the corner of his eye that saved him.

War trained reflexes threw him to the ground, rolling away from the trajectory of the spinning lightsaber, fractions of a second before it would have impaled him. His lightsaber leapt from his belt to his hand without conscious thought, activating and slicing through the hilt before its owner could pick it up telekinetically and attack him again, or worse, one of his companions.

The blue light winked out, and Obi-Wan mentally apologized for the destruction even as he scanned the skyline. Nothing.

He rolled to his feet and ran inside, slamming the door behind them. The two were already pulling the robes they had stripped off the unconscious bodies of the less injured guards over their normal attire. Too large, but passable. Hopefully. Ventress activated the pike and gave it an experimental twirl. "I thought you said this way they wouldn't be able to see the door so close to the wall?" she sneered the words at him.

"They must have moved the snipers," was his terse reply, just as the wailing alarm he never thought he'd hear used for real went off.

Seriously? "Intruder" I could have coped with, but "Sith invasion"?

Shaking off the surreal sense of amusement - alarming the Council like this was not a good thing - he pulled on his robe again and headed down the hall. Ahsoka was glancing jumpily around as she followed, the hood slightly tight over her horns. "So much for stealth," she muttered.

"Oh, cheer up," Ventress snarled back almost amicably. "At least now they won't find a pair of Sentinels running through the halls odd."

"I'll shadow," Obi-Wan offered, waiting a moment as they started to run in the direction he could feel the Force tugging them, then dashing after the pair. Three people together with their face's concealed would be a bit obvious.

Force, let us get there in time…

A.N. Apologies for the delay in posting. My internet connection was playing up.

On another note, seriously, cool-looking guards of the Jedi Temple that carry lightsaber pikes and never get in a battle? And starwars dot com, which names them the Jedi Temple Guard, describes them as "plucked from the ranks of the Jedi as part of a Knight's ongoing commitment to the Order," so I've concluded that the reason they never use the lightsaber pikes is that they haven't trained with them as much as they would have with their normal lightsabers, and so aren't as good with them, or as confident. The explanation amuses me, if nothing else. ;)

Next Chapter: Three POV's. (Barriss, Mace and Ahsoka.) And the answer to whether the bomb will go off or not.