Mace Windu couldn't recall a visit to the Supreme Chancellor's chambers in the Senate Office Building when his attention hadn't been drawn to Palpatine's curious and somehow unsettling collection of quasi-religious statuary. On one occasion, picking up on Mace's interest, Palpatine had offered lengthy and enthusiastic accounts of when and how he had come by some of the pieces. Acquired at an auction on Commenor; procured after many years and at great expense from a Corellian dealer in antiquities; salvaged from an ancient temple discovered on a moon of the gas giant Yavin; a gift from the Theed Council of Naboo; another gift from that world's Gungans...

Just now Mace's eyes were on a small bronzium statue Palpatine had once identified as Wapoe, the mythical artisan demigod of disguise.

"I'm relieved that you contacted me, Master Jedi," the Supreme Chancellor was saying from the far side of his expansive desk. "As I was about to contact you on a matter of some gravity."

"Then speak of your matter first, we will," Yoda said. He was seated for a change, atop a cushioned chair that made him appear even smaller than he was. Mace was at Yoda's left hand, sitting with legs widely spread, forearms resting on his knees.

Palpatine touched his steepled fingers to his lower lip, then inhaled and sat back in his throne of a chair. "This is rather awkward, Master Yoda, but I suspect that the matter I have in mind is the very one that brought you and Master Windu here. By that I mean Belderone.

Yoda compressed his lips. "Fail you, your intuition doesn't. About Belderone, much to say, we have."

Palpatine smiled without showing his teeth.

"Well, then, suppose I begin by saying that I was most pleased to learn of our recent victory there. I only wish I had been informed of your plans before the fact."

"We had no time to corroborate the intelligence we received," Mace said without hesitation. "We thought it best to commit as few Republic ships as could be spared. It was essentially a Jedi operation."

"A Jedi operation," Palpatine said slowly. "And by all accounts you, that is, the Jedi, were successful in routing General Grievous's forces."

"A rout it was not," Yoda said. "To hyperspace Grievous fled. But protecting the Separatist leaders, he was."

"I see. And now?"

Mace leaned forward. "Wait for him to resurface, and strike again."

Palpatine regarded him.

"Might I be informed of your intelligence next time? Didn't you and I have this discussion after Master Yoda was thought to have been killed at Ithor?" Before Mace could respond, he continued: "You see, the problem here is one of appearances. While I can appreciate the need to keep secret some intelligence, many in the Senate do not. In the instance of Belderone, and largely because it constituted a Republic victory, I was able to allay the fear of certain Senators that the Jedi are taking the war into their own hands, and are no longer accountable for their actions."

Mace's nostrils flared. "We can't allow the Senate to go on dictating the course of the war."

Yoda nodded, sagely. "Miring the Jedi in uncertainty, some of the senate's decisions have. Vulnerable, we are, if our duty is questioned." He looked askance at Palpatine. "A matter of appearances, this is."

Mace made it emphatic. "We're not rogues."

Palpatine spread his hands in a gesture of appeasement.

"Of course you're not. I wouldn't dream of letting the senate challenge your authority. Nothing could be farther from the truth. But, as I say... Well, if nothing else, the Senate at least needs to believe that it is being kept informed, particularly in light of the extraordinary powers it has granted this office."

He sat straighter in the chair.

"Not a day passes that I am not subjected to suspicion, accusations, suggestions of ulterior motive. And, I will tell you, the suspicions do not end here, in this office. They extend to the role of the Jedi in the war. Master Jedi, we cannot, under any circumstances, be perceived as being in collusion."

Yoda frowned. "If victory is our goal, in collusion we must be."

Palpatine smiled tolerantly. "Master Yoda, far be it from me to lecture someone of your vast experience on the nature of politics. But the truth of the matter is that with the war now exiled to the Outer Rim, we must be judicious about the campaigns we undertake, and about the targets to which we assign our forces. If a lasting peace is ever to be achieved when this madness concludes, each and every act from this point forward must be handled with utmost delicacy."

He shook his head. "Many worlds, loyal to the Republic, that joined the Separatists out of necessity may wish to return to the Republic. These aren't matters with which I wish to burden the Jedi. But they are the province of this office, and I need to place them first and foremost."

"The lessons learned from a thousand years of serving the Republic aren't entirely lost on us," Mace said strongly. "The Jedi Council is fully aware of such concerns."

Palpatine took the rebuke in stride. "Excellent. Then we can move on to other matters."

Mace and Yoda waited, glancing at one another for only a moment.

"May I inquire as to how the Jedi learned of Grievous's plan to attack Belderone?"

"A hyperwave transceiver that belonged to Viceroy Gunray was seized at Cato Neimoidia," Mace explained. "The device allowed Intelligence to decipher the Separatist code. A message transmitted by General Grievous to Viceroy Gunray regarding Belderone was monitored, and we acted on it."

Palpatine was staring at him in disbelief. "We have the ability to listen in on Separatist transmissions?"

"Unlikely," Yoda said. "After Belderone, lost the advantage we did."

Palpatine considered it for a fraction of a second, then frowned. "For Belderone you forfeited the ability to continue monitoring the Separatists." He took a breath, and the frown ebbed. "Had I been included in this matter, I would have made the same choice. But I must add, Master Jedi, that I am greatly displeased about having been circumvented. Why wasn't I told? Am I to infer from this that you no longer trust me?"

"No," Yoda almost barked. "But into this office, come and go many. Our own counsel we kept."

Palpatine's face took on sudden color. "And yet you continue to place full trust in those around you? Do you realize how some might respond to that, when many of your Order have deliberately absented themselves from the war, and some have even gone over to the Separatist side?"

"A decade old, such reproaches are, Supreme Chancellor."

"I fear you delude yourself in this instance, Master Yoda, if you believe that the passage of time makes those reproaches' any less valid to your critics."

This is getting out of control, Mace thought. He calmed himself before speaking as Palpatine and Yoda stared into one another.

"There's a more important reason for your not being informed about the transceiver."

Now Palpatine waited, raising an eyebrow.

"It contained a stored message, a message transmitted to Viceroy Gunray from Darth Sidious."

Palpatine's broad forehead wrinkled in uncertainty. "Sidious. I know the name…"

"Dooku's Sith Master, Sidious is. Learned of him on Geonosis, Master Kenobi did. But eluded us, evidence has."

"Now I recall," Palpatine said. "Obi-Wan was told that this Sidious had somehow infiltrated the Senate."

"Dismissed that, we have. But lying about Sidious, Dooku wasn't."

Palpatine swiveled his chair toward the room's immense curved window, the panorama of Coruscant. "Another Sith."

Turning back to Yoda, he said: "Forgive me, but why is this of such great concern?"

"This war has been carefully balanced. Republic victories, Separatist victories… Prolonging this conflict, the Sith are."

Again, Palpatine paused to consider Yoda's words. "I think I begin to understand the reasons for your secrecy. The Jedi are attempting to expose Sidious."

"In pursuit of clues, we are."

Palpatine grinned at Yoda's assertion. "Might the capture of Sidious end the war?"

"Hasten the end," Mace corrected.

Palpatine nodded in finality. "Then I trust that you will accept my apologies. Do whatever you must to hunt Sidious down. The fate of the galaxy may very well depend on it."

Emerging from hyperspace, a single Consular-class cruiser designed with a patchwork of dull red and gray found itself flying into an overlay of space rocks that floated just around a large asteroid facility. The twin-piloted ship had been an antique twenty years earlier, but its sublight and hyperdrive engines were reliable, and with vessels deployed on so many fronts Obi-Wan and Anakin couldn't be choosy. The cruiser's once emblematic crimson color was obscured under the newer coloration that defined the newest models as a result of the war, laser cannons were carefully tucked on the ventral hull as well as the dorsal surface hull. A defenseless cruiser was asking to get destroyed by starfighter patrols alone, not including the turbolasers that might have been unleashed upon it by larger vessels.

As the cockpit opened, Plo Koon and Quinlan Vos looked at the field of asteroids ahead of them. Vos seemed more amused about the situation that Anakin was flying towards the asteroid base without concern for what asteroids might collide with the ship during approach.

Nor did Anakin seem interested in how he might be received by those inhabiting Escarte.

"When Dyne said Escarte was an asteroid mining operation, I wasn't picturing an actual asteroid." Obi Wan spoke up from the copilot's seat.

"What did you expect? A floating drill?" Vos grinned with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, TeeCee-Sixteen was who told us that" Anakin acknowledged. "Maybe something lost in translation."

"More like lost in intelligence" Vos grimaced.

The protocol droid had been sent to Coruscant for further debriefing by Republic Intelligence; R2-D2 was on Belderone, where technicians were seeing to damages he had sustained during the battle there. Obi-Wan and Anakin had the militarized consular ship to themselves, and had exchanged their Jedi robes for outfits more suitable to itinerant spacers. Obi Wan advised them from experience that Jedi attire was fairly obvious when trying to hide your identity.

Named for the asteroid belt in which it was prominent, the Escarte Commerce Guild facility orbited between massive, multimooned gas giants in an otherwise uninhabited star system two hyperspace jumps from Belderone, on the Rimward side of the Perlemian Trade Route. Oblate when mining operations had commenced twenty years earlier, Escarte was now a concave hemisphere, heavily cratered by the forces of nature and the gargantuan labor droids of the Commerce Guild. Satisfied that every bit of ore had been extracted from Escarte, the guild had converted the asteroid's consequent quarries, tunnels, and shafts into processing centers and field offices. State-of-the-art tractor beam technology allowed the guild to capture small asteroids and draw them directly into the facility, rather than have to use tugs or engage in on-site mining. In many ways Escarte was the ore-mining equivalent of the Tibanna gas mining facilities that floated in the dense atmosphere of Bespin, far across the stars.

Unfriendly space, the belt was defended by Commerce Guild corvettes and fleet patrol craft modeled on the Geonosian starfighter. While the Nantex-class starfighters were used early on the Clone Wars before being phased out, some forces used what they could to defend themselves from Republic invasions. Regardless, Republic Intelligence had managed to insert one of its agents onto Escarte. Obi-Wan and Anakin hadn't been told when or even if they were going to make contact with the agent, but moments before leaving Belderone they had been informed by Captain Dyne that Thal K'sar, the Bith artisan who allegedly designed the mechnochair and created the hyperwave transceiver and holoprojector needed for it, was missing.

An alert chime sounded from the cruiser's instrument console.

"Escarte," Anakin said. "Demanding that we identify ourselves and state our intent."

"We're freelance merchants in search of work," Plo Koon reminded him.

"Say that we come from Corellia" Obi Wan added. Anakin activated the comm and said as much into the microphone.

"Corellian cruiser," a husky voice returned, "negative on your request to dock. Escarte has no job openings. Suggest you try Ansion or Ord Mantell."

Obi-Wan's gaze drifted to the viewport. Off to starboard, a corvette was coming about. The gap between the two starships was narrowing a bit too quickly.

"Intercept vector," Anakin said. "Any last-minute suggestions?"

"We could always shoot them" Vos proposed to the dismay of the other Jedi. Anakin had to do everything he could to suppress a laugh.

"Are you insane?" Obi Wan demanded. "We can't open fire!"

"Why not? It's a sure way to get us arrested."

"And what if they should kill us by accident?" Plo Koon grimaced. "They might get the wrong idea."

Vos rolled his eyes and looked to the viewport. "You could have just said no."

"Just stick to the plan, it's our best chance to reach our contact" Obi Wan sighed. "Anakin, if you please."

Grinning, Anakin took manual control of the cruiser. "Hang on everyone."

Obi-Wan already was, and so was able to remain more or less upright in the chair as Anakin firewalled the thrusters and threw the cruiser into a hard turn, not away from the corvette, but aimed directly toward it. Quinlan Vos and Plo Koon were not as fortunate and had to brace themselves against the walls of the cockpit to avoid falling, all as the console chimed another alert.

"They're warning us away, Anakin." Obi Wan called out.

Anakin kept the cruiser on course. "Quick flyby. Our way of saying we're not happy about being turned away."

"Are we sure we can't shoot them?" Vos interrupted.

"No lasers!" Plo Koon replied coldly.

"Don't worry, we're just going to scare em." Anakin spoke up.

The Jedi watched as the corvette grew larger in the viewport. The console continued to chime in escalating alerts that warned of impending impact. An instant later, Anakin veered the ship away, only narrowly avoiding the hull of opposing ship. These stunts made Obi Wan feel as if his stomach was rolling into his chest.

"I don't think they're amused." Obi Wan glared.

"We'll just have to try harder" Anakin replied.

"You get this excitement often?" Quinlan Vos spoke up, reading a data screen informing him that so far the ship has yet to suffer any serious hull trauma.

"In my experience, where Skywalker is found excitement seems to follow" Plo Koon answered.

"Oh, you have no idea" Obi Wan added to Anakin's bemusement.

Dropping the cruiser's nose, Anakin increased speed. He seemed bent on maneuvering directly under the corvette, but at the last moment he pulled back on the control yoke, taking the cruiser through a spiraling, high-boost climb. A fusillade from the corvette's forward batteries narrowly missed clipping the ship's tail.

"Enough, Anakin" Obi Wan said. "Level out and signal we're complying?"

"Wait a minute-" Vos protested, not pleased that such an action might leave the ship completely exposed to turbolaser volleys.

"Master," Anakin began, seemingly recognizing Vos' concerned expression "I don't know if you understand the gravity of this situation. If we make this too easy, they'll suspect that we're up to something."

"As much as I may not approve, Skywalker has a point" Plo Koon interjected with a glance to Obi Wan as he braced himself in his seat. "If we give up now they might decide to kill us out of principle. They need reason to capture us."

Obi-Wan saw that two patrol craft were rushing in to join the pursuit. With flashes of scarlet light racing alongside, Anakin whipped the cruiser through a teeth-rattling bank and shot for the thick of the asteroid belt. If it weren't for Plo Koon and Vos implying that he should trust Anakin's instincts, instincts that were not flawless, the Jedi master was sure he would be losing his nerve about now.

"One way or another, I'm not convinced it's safer to be your wingmate instead of your passenger."

Anakin had the ship tipped to one side, intent on weaving it through a cluster of rocks, when a laser bolt struck the closest asteroid. Rubble from the explosion peppered the cruiser's shields, but the console displays confirmed Obi-Wan's hunch that no damage had been done. However, Anakin was also flying straight towards a large cluster of imposing space rocks, several of which were big enough to be the size of the bridge.

"Hey, Masters" Anakin began. "Now, is the time to use lasers."

"I'll get to work" Vos answered with a grin, rushing out of the bridge with a bit too much enthusiasm to be ignored.

Anakin took a firm grip on the control yoke and yanked the cruiser into a turn. The patrol craft clung doggedly, angling to outflank the larger ship, but Anakin kept cheating the turn tighter and tighter, forcing the fighters to break off. The asteroids that threatened to collide with the cruiser were blasted into particles of superheated gas thanks to well placed shots by a certain Jedi gunner. No sooner had the cruiser realigned itself then it gave a sudden lurch, snapping Obi-Wan and Anakin back into their seats, then forward into the console. Anakin reached over his head to make adjustments, and the cruiser raced forward once more, only to freeze, then tremble.

Obi Wan and Plo Koon scanned the displays as the ship shook wildly in place. "Are we hit?" the Kel Dor asked, activating his comlink. "Vos?"

"What gave it away?" Vos spoke with sarcasm. "I saw the asteroid and felt sorry for it."

Interjecting before Vos could continue in his sarcastic response, Anakin clarified the situation. "It wasn't an asteroid. And before you ask, if the starfighters hit us we probably would have shaken it off. We're caught in a tracker beam."

"From Escarte?" Obi Wan asked. "We're a bit far away. That seems...implausible."

"We're in an asteroid field! That should be impossible!" Vos spoke up with indignance on his comlink.

"That's what I thought," Anakin answered as his hands flew across the instruments, shutting down some systems and activating others. "If you really want to test if this ship is gonna get ripped in half or not we can try to fight it but even I think that's suicide."

"I'd rather not get sucked into outer space" Obi Wan pointed out. "It's obvious we have to surrender as this ship won't be resilient enough to hold together."

A deep shudder from the bowels of the cruiser reinforced his words. Anakin clenched his jaw, then let his hands fall to his sides as he guided the ship to follow the directives that the tractor beams were using on the ships. Now they were gliding through space towards their captors.

"Look at it this way," Obi-Wan said, as the cruiser was being drawn toward the distant facility. "At least you made them work for it."

"Well done, Skywalker" Plo Koon commended with support. "At this rate we'll be invited as royalty."

Gentle with the cruiser, the tractor beam had deposited it in a guild-made crater that was now a docking bay. Ordered out of the ship, the Jedi stood at the foot of the boarding ramp with their hands clamped on top of their heads. Uniformed Neimoidians and Gossams surrounded the cruiser, and a security team comprising humans, Geonosians, and battle droids was marching toward them.

"Not exactly like royalty, Master Plo, but they do seem quite friendly" Obi Wan grinned.

Anakin nodded slightly. "I'm almost nostalgic for Geonosis. At least we were treated as special guests."

"Keep your hands where we can see them!" the human chief of the security detail shouted as he stepped onto the landing platform. "Make no sudden moves!"

"Very dramatic," Vos said.

"Don't provoke them" Plo Koon cautioned.

The light-complected, blond security officer was as tall as Anakin and wider in the shoulders. A Commerce Guild badge affixed to the collar of his gray uniform showed him to be a captain in the Escarte Guard. He brought the security detail to a halt when everyone was still three meters from the boarding ramp. At his signal, the Geonosians spread out to both sides, brandishing wide-muzzled sonic blasters.

The captain looked Obi-Wan and Anakin up and down, then circled them once, hands clasped behind his back. Staring closely at Plo Koon's facemask, he looked away from Quinlan Vos with a look of disgust. Eyeing the ship, he said, "I haven't seen one of these in a while. But judging by the retrofitted cannons, I'd have to guess you're not ambassadors of goodwill."

"If we could prove otherwise we would" Plo Koon suggested.

"Let's just say we've been forced to adapt to the times," Obi-Wan said.

The captain scowled at him. "What's your business in this sector?"

"We were hoping to find freelance work," Anakin said.

"You were informed otherwise. Why create problems for yourselves by harassing one of our corvettes?"

"We felt that you'd been impolite" Anakin answered swiftly.

"We just wanted to say hello" Vos added with a grin.

The captain almost laughed. "Then this has all been a misunderstanding?"

"Exactly," Obi-Wan said. "You'd be surprised how much it has happened lately."

The captain shook his head in amusement. "In that case we'd be glad to show you around, starting with the detention level!" He swung to two other humans in the detail. "Stun-cuff these comedians and search them for concealed weapons."

"Can't we simply pay a fine and be on our way?" Obi-Wan asked as the magnetic cuffs snapped into place around his wrists.

"Can't we just buy you a drink or something?" Vos suggested himself as cuffs were attached to all the Jedi present.

"Tell it to the judiciary" the captain growled.

Frisks completed, the armed guards stepped away. "They're clean."

The captain nodded. "That's one thing in their favor. Search the ship and impound anything of value. And alert detention that I have four for containment. Put em all together if you have to." Drawing a blaster from his hip holster, he motioned the Jedi toward the turbolifts.

The crater docking bay was accessed by several corridors, some unchanged since the days they had served as mining tunnels, others reinforced by plasteel girders and dressed up with ferrocrete panels. It was apparent also that some of the turbolifts were housed in former mine shafts.

The captain indicated an unoccupied lift and followed the Jedi inside. When two Gossams hurried for the same lift, he waved them away. As soon as the door closed, he lowered his weapon and spoke with a sudden urgency.

"We have to make this quick."

"Does this mean we can buy you a drink and move on with our lives?" Vos interjected before Obi Wan continued to converse with the now benevolent captain.

"You're our contact," Obi-Wan said. "We're looking for the designer of-"

"I know what you're looking for" the captain interrupted. "Call me Travale. Things have gotten more complicated with the Bith. He's slated for execution."

Anakin's eyebrows met in a V. "Bith? I thought we were looking for a Xi Charrian?"

"That thing?" the captain sneered. "That thing was only an assistant at best. Worked on a few smaller jobs for the Bith but nothing more."

"Well, where is the Xi Charrian?" Anakin pressed. "What happened to it?"

The captain barked back "The Xi Charrian is dead. It was found decayed and beaten years ago before it was thrown into an incinerator. The only survivor who worked on the chair is a Bith who himself is in serious danger."

"What did he do, murder someone?" Vos spoke up with a bit of visible confusion.

"Some sort of accounting error."

"Execution seems a rather harsh penalty," Plo Koon said.

"Escarte Judiciary claims it wants to make an example of him. But it's clear the charges were trumped up." Travale paused. "Could have something to do with your being here to see him."

"If he's expecting to die, he may not feel inclined to talk to us" Plo Koon added.

"My thought, too," Travale said. "But maybe if you could break him out…"

"You could arrange that?" Anakin said.

"I can try. Do you Jedi believe in luck?" The turbolift car came to a rest and the door slid open.

"Welcome to the detention level," Travale said, back in character, and shoving Obi-Wan out into the anteroom beyond. Behind a semicircle of consoles stood five surly nonhumans, tusked and bald-domed Quara Aqualish, wearing Commerce Guild uniforms and sporting heavy sidearms.

"Show our guests to cell four-eight-one-six," Travale told the sergeant among them.

The sergeant looked to the others before replying "I don't mean to object but won't that be a bit cramped, captain? K'sar is already in there."

"Misery loves company," Travale said with an air of menace.

Executing a crisp about-face, he returned to the turbolift. Emerged from the enclosure of display screens, a four-eyed Aqualish led the Jedi into a narrow corridor lined with detention cells. Thirty meters along he stopped to enter a code into a wall-mounted touch pad, and the bloodstained door to 4816 slid open.

Square and squalid, it contained neither cots nor refresher. The smell of waste was almost overpowering. Thal K'sar was slumped in a corner, his long-fingered hands cuffed in front of him. Slender even for a Bith, he was well dressed and seemingly unharmed. Obi-Wan recalled that he had been arrested only the previous day.

K'sar glanced up, but didn't return Obi Wan's nod of greeting.

"Some fix," Anakin said loudly when the cell sealed. "Good job back there."

"Do they expect us to stand for all eternity?" Vos criticized.

"I don't think our guests expect us to do anything" Plo Koon answered. He ambled his way towards where K'sar was huddled.

"Why are you here?" he asked.

Though surprised to hear his own language spoken by the Kel Dor, K'sar kept silent. When he made a second attempt, the Bith said in Basic, "It's none of your concern. Please leave me alone."

Anakin shrugged and joined Obi-Wan on the far side of the room.

"Patience," Obi-Wan said quietly.

Backs pressed to the filthy wall, the two of them sank down onto their haunches as Plo Koon and Vos stood over the Bith. Eventually, the remaining Jedi leaned against the other side of the cell block before forming the best sitting positions they could. Smalltalk was exchanged to pass the time before the Jedi resigned to meditation when the Bith wouldn't open himself up to their "probing" as he described it.

Less than a standard hour had passed when they heard voices in the corridor. The door grated open, revealing Travale and two Aqualish security officers. Without a word, the aliens standing to either side of Travale grabbed him by the arms and hurled him headlong into the cell.

Obi Wan caught him before he hit the floor. Now the room which could barely house two prisoners now contained six.

"Another unexpected development?"

Travale was cuffed, and rattled. "My cover's blown," he said quietly. "Don't know how, or by whom."

Anakin glanced at Obi-Wan. "No coincidence."

"Someone is onto us." Obi-Wan left it at that.

"Now what?" Vos spoke up, watching the events unfold in their cramped cell block.

"Were you able to arrange anything?" Plo Koon asked Travale. He nodded.

"Power failure. Brief, but more than enough time for you to get out of here."

"Us," Anakin amended. "You're coming along."

"I appreciate that." He frowned in uncertainty. "Hope I wasn't wrong in figuring that you two will be able to open the door… manually, I mean."

"Oh don't worry. We're quite adept at escaping from the clutches of the enemy," Obi-Wan assured him.

"How long before the power fails?" Anakin asked. Vos looked at Travale

"An hour from now." Travale answered.

"That means we are stuck with each other for the time being" Vos commented as Travale glanced at K'sar.

"What about him?"

Anakin stood up and stared at the Bith. "I know you're not interested in small talk, but we think we may have a way out of here. Does that interest you?"

The Bith's lidless black eyes grew considerably larger. "Yes. Yes! Thank you."

"Just be ready" Plo Koon answered, extending an arm onto his shoulder.

"Take the tunnel to the left of the guard station," Travale was telling Obi-Wan as Anakin returned to a sitting position. "Keep taking lefts until you reach a stairway, then follow that to the docking level."

"You're going a different way?" Anakin said.

"Someone has to deactivate the tractor beam, or your ship's not leaving. Two levels below this one there's a power coupling station. I know just enough to disable it temporarily."

"You're not going alone," Obi-Wan said. "Master Plo and I can provide any support you may need."

Anakin grinned at his former master. "Well then, I guess me and Vos can deal with our new friend" referring to the Bith who was picking himself up.

Obi-Wan didn't argue. "Don't allow him out of your sight, Anakin. Either of you."

Travale nodded toward the cell block corridor. "We'll still have the guards to deal with."

"Don't worry about them," Anakin said. Spreading his hands, he snapped the cuffs from his wrists. Obi-Wan did the same, then snapped Travale's open. Turning around, Vos and Plo Koon took the same measures to free themselves.

Travale smiled broadly. "I love a good plan."