For everything you gain, you lose something else.
Bant's new padawan braid, beads attached to a headdress that wrapped around her skull, swung cheerfully as she and Obi-Wan took the turbolift up to the refectory. She was very pleased with it, her one eye independently looking over at it every so often.
Obi-Wan's comm beeped. He pulled it out and felt his eyebrows rise. "It's Bruck," he said.
"What does he want?" Bant asked.
"Bant," Obi-Wan chided, opening the message. Bant still didn't like Bruck, even though he'd stopped bothering Obi-Wan and the younger Initiates. She didn't forgive him for the torments he'd put Obi-Wan through throughout their childhood.
"Just because you've made him your project doesn't mean I have to trust him," Bant said. "What does he want?"
"To meet me in one of the lower level classrooms," Obi-Wan said with a frown. "He says it's an emergency."
"You're not going?" Bant asked.
"Of course I am," Obi-Wan said, pressing the button that would take them to the correct floor. "I can meet up with you for lunch later."
"Oh, I'm coming with you," Bant said. "What does he want, anyway?"
"I don't know," Obi-Wan said. "The message is vague." Very vague, and very brusque, even for Bruck, Obi-Wan mused.
The turbolift doors slid open— an automatic stop off on the floor above the one they'd meant to go to, probably someone pushing the button but having to turn around at the last moment. Obi-Wan caught a flash of white hair down the hallway.
He slammed a hand into the open doorway, and the automatic sensors bounced the door completely open again with a complaining beep.
"Bruck?" Obi-Wan called, leaning his head out the door.
Bruck was almost around the corner— he had to skid a little and back up to be in view of the elevator again. "Oafy-Wan," he said. "Holding up the turbolift so the other Jedi can't use it? More dastardly than I thought you were."
"I have a bad feeling about this," Obi-Wan said, almost to himself. "Bruck, did you just comm me?"
Bruck blinked, and finally gave up and walked towards them. "No. Why?"
"Liar," Bant accused.
Bruck bristled. "I'm not lying!" he said. "I didn't call you."
"I believe you," Obi-Wan said. "But the fact remains that I did just get a message from you. So the question is now, who sent it, and why?"
The turbolift dinged again.
"Get in," Obi-Wan said. Bruck did.
The turbolift went down. "Look," Bruck protested, showing his commlink to Bant. "Nothing sent."
Bant looked at it and folded her arms, acquiescing. "Well then, who's trying to bring you down there, Obi?"
The door opened. "Let's go find out."
The three younglings went down the hallway. All the classrooms were abandoned at this time of day; most of the students off at different practices or eating lunch.
"This is the classroom the message said to meet you in," Obi-Wan said. He knew the door; a lecture theater he'd had several of his classes in. It would have been strange to meet Bruck there, but not unthinkable, especially if Bruck needed help on an assignment or something. He might have gone in without thinking anything of it.
Bant moved to open it. Obi-Wan stopped her with an arm across her chest.
"Wait," he murmured.
"You see something?" Bruck asked.
"Yes," Obi-Wan said. Bruck had meant to ask if Obi-Wan had any kind of vision about what was going to happen next— but Obi-Wan was seeing something else entirely. Something he hadn't seen since the Clone Wars. An explosive wire, tracked across the door. "Who—" Obi-Wan said.
There was an explosion.
It wasn't from the trip wire.
It was somewhere below them, big enough that the whole Temple shook beneath their feet. Big enough that Obi-Wan, Bant, and Bruck tripped over each other— right into the door.
"Not good," Obi-Wan said.
He heard the metallic noise of the tripwire snapping, and reacted on instinct, pushing with the Force and rocketing all three of them fully through the door and into the classroom just as the wire finished tripping.
The bomb exploded with a distinctly detonite smell, splintering the doorframe and much of the floor around it. Obi-Wan curled his body around Bant and Bruck as they flew across the room, pushed by the shockwave, sheltering them the best he could with the Force. A wave of heat flashed up and over them as Obi-Wan pushed it away, and they hit the wall.
It hurt.
For several moments there was nothing but ringing, the taste of blood and plaster dust in his mouth, and distant aches. It was the aftermath of an explosion— Obi-Wan knew it well— but there was no further fire; no clones shooting back at enemies, no stormtroopers pressing an attack, no sounds of lightsabers or fistfighting. Obi-Wan decided he could lay there quietly for a moment longer and remember how to breathe.
That ear-piercing shrill tone was still bouncing around his eardrums, reminding him that he really ought to stop getting so close to explosions. Other sounds returned slowly, muffled.
Two people were arguing, a boy and a girl. Another operation gone wrong, then, Obi-Wan noted wryly. As usual when you got their lineage together.
Someone was shaking him.
"Wake up! If he's dead and this is your fault, I'm going to kill you!"
"I didn't do anything and you know it! Obi-Wan, wake up!"
Obi-Wan opened his eyes blearily. There was an orange hand, resting on his arm, another gently patting his face. "'m all right, Ahsoka," he said. "Just a little knock…"
The Force pulsed with alarm.
"You're not… whenever," said the boy, voice forcibly steady. "Whatever you're seeing. You're here. In the Temple with us."
Obi-Wan's eyes focused. Right. Not Anakin and Ahsoka. Bruck and Bant.
"Oh," he said. "Ow." He lifted a hand to his head, and was unsurprised to feel blood trickling down his hairline. "Are you two all right?"
"You shielded us, mostly," Bant said anxiously. She was fumbling in her pockets. "We hit the wall too. I think that explosion was just designed to take out one person who opened the door— so it didn't spread that far." Eventually she found what she was looking for and pulled out a little penlight. She shone it directly in Obi-Wan's eyes.
"Ow! Karabast, Bant, stop," Obi-Wan said, batting it away.
"I think you could have a concussion," Bant said. "I think I have some bacta spray, here…"
"Designed to kill me," Obi-Wan thought aloud, catching up. "Who in the hells wants to kill me already?"
"I didn't do it, Obi-Wan, I promise," Bruck said urgently. He was filthy from head to toe, covered in dust and ash from the detonite explosive. There was a little cut along his cheekbone, and by the way he moved his ribs were sore, but he looked fine. Bant was much the same, her tunic torn along the sleeve and a couple small scratches oozing greenish blood. "I know that maybe it seems like I… but I didn't."
"You didn't Fall," Obi-Wan agreed gently. "I know that, Bruck. I trust you."
Bruck looked very young, and very relieved.
Bant sprayed bacta spray at Obi-Wan's face with aggressive eagerness.
"Bant!" he sputtered. But it was an improvement— it had just been a first aid spray, which meant it had clotted the blood and started stitching up the deepest of the wound, but they'd have to wait for a real medbay for anything more. His head was clearer, though, and his ears finally stopped ringing completely.
"Better?" Bant asked.
"Better," Obi-Wan agreed. "Thanks."
"What happened?" Bruck asked.
"That," Obi-Wan said, "Is a very good question."
"This is serious," Bant said. "We should go tell somebody."
Obi-Wan frowned. He stood up— they protested but he waved them away. "Why isn't anyone here to check out the explosion already?" he asked, perturbed. "Wait— the other explosion. The one that knocked us into the door. What was it?"
"I don't know," Bruck said. "But it didn't sound good. I think it was bigger."
"Let's go," Obi-Wan said. "We need to find someone who knows what's going on." Failing that, they could always find Qui-Gon Jinn.
The Temple was in lockdown by the time they made it up to the residential level. Everyone was rushing around in a controlled state of chaos, and hardly gave the three dishevelled teenagers a glance. Something big had happened.
Obi-Wan could sense his Master, unharmed, behind the door to their quarters before he even opened it, which went quite a ways to calming his growing panic.
Of course, he'd forgotten what he himself looked like, which meant that when they entered the quarters they inspired quite a bit of alarm. It looked like Qui-Gon had been pacing, a habit of his when he was frustrated, and Tahl was sitting on the couch with her feet under her.
"By the Force," Tahl breathed when she saw them. "What happened to you?"
"We're all right, Master Tahl," Obi-Wan said.
At the same time, Bant said, "We got blown up!"
Tahl sprang to her feet and checked her apprentice over, as Qui-Gon strode to Obi-Wan in two long steps and started fussing with the cut on his head.
"You all right, Chun?" Qui-Gon asked, checking Obi-Wan's pupils and sparing a glance over at Bruck.
"Fine, sir."
"You were in the detention levels?" Qui-Gon asked.
"No," Obi-Wan said slowly. "What happened in the detention levels?"
"The explosion," Qui-Gon said. "How in the galaxy did you manage to get blown up by a separate explosion at the same time as another one?"
"That's just my luck," Obi-Wan said mournfully. "What blew up in the holding cells?"
"I don't know. The Council is sequestered away with some of the more senior Masters, panicking. No one will tell us what's going on," Qui-Gon said.
That bad feeling was really starting to rise, in the back of Obi-Wan's throat, like bile. This shouldn't have happened. The Temple was supposed to be safe, for another few years yet. What did Obi-Wan do?
"It's got to be connected to whoever just tried to assassinate me," Obi-Wan said. "I need a datapad."
"Assassinate?" Qui-Gon asked with alarm.
There was a datapad across the room— Obi-Wan summoned it to his hand and clicked it on.
"First aid kit?" Tahl asked, and Obi-Wan pointed it out without looking up.
"Hey!" Qui-Gon said, looking over Obi-Wan's shoulder. "Those are Council codes!"
"Whoops," Obi-Wan said, dispassionately. "Here it is— surveillance from the detention levels."
Bant and Bruck crowded over so they could see the screen too. The footage loaded. There was only one prisoner in the cells, as Obi-Wan had feared. Xanatos du Crion.
Obi-Wan guessed at the time, just a little after he'd gotten Bruck's message, and found the surveillance video from what would be just before the explosion.
From the looks of things Xanatos was laying upside-down in his bed, reading one of the holonovels Obi-Wan had lent him. Xanatos looked up, seeing something out of frame, a second before the cameras shook.
The explosion. An exterior wall, not connected to any of the holding cells, of course, blew inwards, and someone stepped off an airspeeder hovering just outside the new hole. Whoever it was stepped towards the cell.
Then she took off her hood.
It was Master Sey— the teacher. The one Obi-Wan had accidentally cursed with knowledge of the future, the one who had seen the fall of the Order. Obi-Wan felt himself pale visibly.
When she turned, her eyes were yellow.
There was no sound on the feed. Sey said something to Xanatos, her lips moving. Xanatos tilted his head. Then he smiled, said something, and nodded.
She let him out.
When the forcefield on the door shut off, Xanatos stepped out and followed Master Sey— ex Master Sey— through the hole in the wall and out onto the speeder.
Obi-Wan stopped the feed with a shaking hand.
"That's not good," Bruck said mildly.
"Dank farrik," Obi-Wan said, and tossed the datapad onto the couch so hard it bounced. He ran a hand through his hair, tugged at his braid. "This is my fault. Master Sifo-Dyas was right."
"Obi-Wan, calm down," Qui-Gon said.
"This shouldn't happen," Obi-Wan said, almost close to tears. "It's what I get for changing things so much. I brought Xanatos in instead of letting him die, and I made Master Sey Fall years before that should have even been an option, and who knows what they're going to do—"
Qui-Gon looked alarmed. "Xanatos was supposed to die?"
"Obi-Wan," Tahl said, so sternly that Obi-Wan snapped to attention despite himself. "Breathe. You did not make these people's decisions. As much as you might want to be, you are not all-knowing. You didn't know this was going to happen. You're all right, Obi-Wan."
Obi-Wan breathed. In, out. He hoisted his shields up again, and smoothed them out. "Okay, I'm fine," he said after a moment. He gave Tahl a grateful, embarrassed smile. "Any chance you're willing to trade padawans?"
"Bant would be a lot less trouble than you," Qui-Gon said, but the very next moment he crushed Obi-Wan into a vigorous sideways hug, gentle and smelling of soft earth. "But I'd never trade. Tahl would have to fight me for you."
"I'd win," Tahl said.
Qui-Gon's comm beeped. He answered it with a sigh.
"Master Jinn." It was Mace. "There's a Senator here to see you."
Obi-Wan stiffened— Qui-Gon, at such close proximity, felt it. "We're a little bit busy," he said.
"You think the Council's not?" Mace said. "He asked specifically for Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon— in that order. His name's Bail Organa."
Bail was waiting with his arms behind his back in one of the visitor's halls, very obviously trying not to gawk at the various Jedi arts and mosaics.
Tahl had been able to clean and bandage Obi-Wan's head wound properly, which at least meant he wouldn't be scaring the poor man. He'd also quickly changed into less blown-up clothes while Bail was being escorted into the Temple.
He turned when he heard Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon entering. "Master Jedi," he said, with a friendly smile. "I'm sorry to intrude without prior warning."
Qui-Gon had finally recognized him. "You're the young man who helped us at the Senate," he said. "I don't think I properly thanked you."
Bail waved it away. "Of course I tried to assist you— it was only what anyone would do." It was not, which was why Bail was one of the very few politicians who Obi-Wan actually respected. He looked at Obi-Wan. "I hope your recovery was smooth?"
"I'm fine, thank you, Senator," Obi-Wan said. "If you don't mind me asking—?"
"Why am I here? I can understand your confusion," Bail said. He suddenly looked a little shy— one of the only hints that Obi-Wan's old friend was still young yet. "I knew the two of you were Jedi. If the clothes didn't give it away, the way that it was actually physically hard to focus on you hinted at the 'magic powers' thing."
Qui-Gon gave Obi-Wan an exasperated look.
"Sorry," Obi-Wan said.
Bail smiled. "Well, it got me thinking. The way you reacted to Senator Sheev Palpatine, in the Senate…" Obi-Wan, carefully, did not blink. "I know that Jedi have abilities that normal people don't understand. And, well, you knew my name without me having told you."
"He does that," Qui-Gon said, raising a hand to the spot between his eyebrows but still more fond than annoyed.
"I wondered, what else does he know? So I checked up on Palpatine."
"Oh, Force," Obi-Wan said.
"It turns out he's been involved in a lot of very shady business doings," Bail said, pulling out a datapad to show them a full scroll of reports and statistics. "Back-door alliances with businesses, bribes passed around, political and personal rivals suddenly disappearing or being framed for some crime or another… As it turns out, the man is not a friend of the Senate at all."
Obi-Wan couldn't hold it back. He laughed. "You caught Palpatine for political maneuvering?"
"Well, yes," Bail said. "Did he do something else?"
Obi-Wan snickered, kind of hysterically.
"Well, the Queen of Naboo was not pleased to find this out, as you might expect. She's revoked his Senatorial powers and agreed to his arrest in the Republic courts," Bail said. "There's only one problem, which is, to be honest, why I came to you. Somehow, Palpatine escaped."
Obi-Wan put a hand over his eyes.
"We believe he's taking refuge on Cato Neimoidia, under the protection of the Trade Federation," Bail said. "But the Federation is refusing to cooperate. We can't send anyone to get him— why are you laughing?"
"He got hit on the head really hard today," Qui-Gon said tiredly. "Obi-Wan?"
"Palpatine is a dark lord of the Sith," Obi-Wan said, still giggling a little. "And he got caught because a Senator was kind." He took his hand off his face and looked at Qui-Gon and Bail. "Would it help, perhaps, if I had been compiling a list for almost a year of all the various crimes and misdeeds of the Banking Clan and the Trade Federation?"
"Huh," Bail said. "Yes. That would help."
"I thought so," Obi-Wan said.
This was where things were going to get interesting. Obi-Wan didn't need to see the future to know that.
But it certainly helped.
Tahl had managed to get Bant and Bruck in to see the Council, by means of, Obi-Wan guessed, yelling at them a lot.
That's where they were when Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon returned from their meeting with Bail. Bail had taken the datadrive of evidence Obi-Wan had given him, looking slightly overwhelmed at the volume of it.
"I'll have to get some people to analyze this," he'd said. "I'll… call you back."
Obi-Wan had given him his most serene, innocent look back. Bail had only met him the twice now, but already he looked unconvinced by the act. Smart man.
"You're sure we can trust that Senator?" Qui-Gon asked, as they approached the Council chamber.
"Yes," Obi-Wan said. "One hundred percent."
"That's a ringing endorsement, coming from you," Qui-Gon said.
"If the queen of Alderaan trusts him enough to make him her husband, I think we can trust him too," Obi-Wan said.
"I don't think the queen of Alderaan is married," Qui-Gon said.
"Oh," Obi-Wan said, with a smile. "Right."
The padawan guarding the Council doors let them in immediately, which meant that Tahl probably really had been yelling at them, enough that they needed a reprieve.
"—tried to kill children," Tahl said, as the door opened. "Our children. If you don't think Kadrian Sey is a Sith, you're wildly delusional. You heard the younglings' report. It is a miracle of the Force that they were not killed."
Qui-Gon stepped forward to join her in the circle made by the Council chairs, while Obi-Wan slipped into the shadows by Bant and Bruck, who both looked awed and slightly frightened.
"What did I miss?" Obi-Wan asked.
"Turns out there's footage of Master Sey planting the bomb in the classroom before she went to break out her friend," Bant said. "So now Master Tahl is trying to convince the Council to let her go after her."
The Council was full today, all twelve chairs and a few more senior Jedi Masters lining the walls, listening gravely. Dooku was there too. He looked increasingly thoughtful.
"We've been brought new news by a senator contact of ours," Qui-Gon said, interrupting the bickering. "Obi-Wan?"
Obi-Wan stepped forward. "I have reason to believe that the Sith have indeed returned; and that Master Sey is only the apprentice of the pair."
Murmurs and stirrings of louder conversation broke out all over the room.
"Come to this conclusion, how have you?" Yoda asked.
"My visions, Master," Obi-Wan said. He could be the picture of the perfect padawan in front of the Council, standing ramrod-straight with his hands behind his back. "I have seen it."
"Senator Palpatine, of Naboo, according to our contact," Qui-Gon said. "He's a criminal, at the very least. If he is indeed a Sith, and Master Sey as well, we must act now."
More outbursts.
Sifo-Dyas held up a hand, staring at Obi-Wan. The room quieted. "I have foreseen a great darkness, spreading over the galaxy," he said. "More so in recent years. That this Darkness belongs to the Sith… yes. It makes sense."
The other Council members stirred, rattled, at the confirmation.
"This Senator… it rings of truth," Sifo-Dyas said.
"Why do you bring this to us now?" Mace asked, not exactly unfriendly but holding that tension in his shoulders that wartime had brought. Obi-Wan was sorry to see it.
"Because," Obi-Wan said. "We think we know where he is. And where he is, his apprentice can't be far behind."
The Council called on Qui-Gon to explain what it was that Bail had told them, as well as Obi-Wan's "suspicions" about Palpatine. Tahl chimed in— she believed Obi-Wan, if the yellow hue of Sey's eyes alone weren't enough to convince them.
There was deliberating, among the Councillors. Obi-Wan and his friends watched from the shadows. Tahl and Qui-Gon joined them after a while of fruitless arguing.
Obi-Wan could feel the currents of the room; simple shifts of the Force, as well as his long and personal experience with the Council. "They're not going to send us after them," he said quietly.
They had refused to believe last time too, until it was too late.
Obi-Wan glanced back at the doors, considering. He could make it; no one would expect little thirteen-year-old Obi-Wan to steal a starship, much less know how to pilot one, and getting to Cato Neimodia would be little problem, not in this world before the war. But he wasn't Anakin— he preferred not to run off half-cocked.
There was a difference between a creative plan and one that would just get you killed. And Obi-Wan didn't think he could fight off two Sith, a dark Jedi, and whatever else the Trade Federation decided to throw at him at the same time.
Yoda looked troubled, his ears drooping. Finally they called to order.
"This news is very troubling," Mace said, steepling his hands. "We will have to meditate on these new developments— as well as receive formal leave to pursue from the Senate. In the meantime, we will send a scout to assess the situation."
"We are not bound to the Senate," Obi-Wan said. "We are bound to the galaxy."
"That may be so, youngling," said Plo Koon. "But the fact remains that this is a very complicated situation."
"One scout against a Master of the Sith will die, and that is a guarantee," Obi-Wan said, which garnered him a few more perturbed whispers. Some people believed him, this he could see. But not everyone. There was a reason Obi-Wan hadn't told anyone about Palpatine before this.
"You should have more patience," said Sasee Tiin. "The scout will not engage with the adversaries— and once we know what is happening, we can act safely."
Obi-Wan opened his mouth to protest— and caught Dooku's eye. It was almost a look he recognized; just before Dooku pulled something fiendishly clever on the battlefield. Dooku looked steadily back at him.
So Obi-Wan just bowed. "Of course, Masters," he said. "I'm sorry for doubting your judgement."
That earned him a couple suspicious looks, mostly from his friends and the cannier members of the Council. But no one could ever take issue with any part of Obi-Wan's ability to perfectly follow the rules of custom. When it so suited him.
They were ushered out quickly after that, to the further sounds of arguments rising up behind them, muffled when the door shut.
"Short-sighted fools," Tahl muttered, then looked at Obi-Wan, Bant, and Bruck. "Don't repeat that," she said. "I didn't say that."
Bruck looked at Obi-Wan sidelong. "How come you're not throwing a fit?" he asked.
"I go where the Force leads me," Obi-Wan said serenely. Right now the Force was leading him to a small alcove off the Council chambers, where he could sense Dooku's presence, though hidden to most eyes.
He went near the alcove and stopped. The younglings jumped when Dooku melted out of the shadows there, but Tahl and Qui-Gon were too well-trained for such a tell. Dooku did look disappointed at being discovered so quickly though— no doubt he had been hoping for a suitably dramatic entrance at a pivotal point in their conversation.
"Master," Qui-Gon said, warily.
"Padawan," Dooku said. "That was quite the show, all of you."
"We aim to please," Obi-Wan said dryly.
"There are Sith out there, right at the heart of the Senate," Qui-Gon said. "We can't stand by and do nothing."
"And I, at least, am not," Dooku said. "I don't know what you're doing."
"What?" Tahl asked.
"You're the scout," Obi-Wan said, to Dooku. "The one the Council decided to send."
"Indeed," Dooku said. "And if we want to leave before they realize I've taken you with me, we're going to have to leave quickly."
Chapter header from 2X09 Grievous Intrigue
