Hello, Master. . . It's been a long time.

Or something to that effect. I finally had the right idea for the follow-up to the last two chapters! :)


Commander Fox strode briskly down the long, gleaming white hall of the Senate building and paused beside the security lift. Jek and Rys weren't late yet, but they would be in approximately thirty seconds.

He stood at attention, a little ways back from the door on the off-chance that others would be using the lift, and counted down the seconds in his head.

Jek and Rys reached the end of the safety margin, became officially late, and went into overtime.

A door hissed open and shut at the end of the hall. Someone moved away at a quick rate – a female, judging by the faint click of heels and the light swishing of fabric.

What was taking Jek and Rys so long? They were over two minutes late. The footsteps faded away. No one else was around.

"A boring day, this is," complained a raspy, somewhat high-pitched voice.

Fox turned so swiftly that he nearly tripped over his own feet. "General Yoda!"

"At ease, be, Commander Fox," sighed the grandmaster, peering mournfully upward. "Looking at you, a stiff neck I get, yes."

Fox assumed an easier posture. "Can I assist you, sir?"

"Assist me, you can." With a burst of surprising strength, the short little general hopped high into the air and whacked at the lift controls with his gimer stick.

"Sir, this is a security lift," Fox informed him. "It doesn't stop on any of the main floors you'd want to go to."

"Tell me my business, you should not." The doors sprang open, and Yoda hobbled inside, his short robe flapping sadly. "On the main floors, to hide, impossible, it is."

Hide! Fox's mind went into overdrive, and he moved quickly to stop the doors from closing. "Sir, please inform me if there is a threat to your safety."

"Evil, that senator is." The little green alien's ears quivered, and he glanced back at the hall.

"Evil, sir?" The doors started to close, and Fox pushed them back again.

"Close to the dark side, she is not, but full of stupidity, she is."

Fox thought for a moment. "Sir, I'm afraid I don't understand."

"Understand, you need not." Yoda sighed heavily. "Because explain, I cannot. Too confusing, she is."

Jek and Rys were three minutes late by now.

Yoda tapped his stick impatiently against the floor. "Well, Commander!"

"Yes, sir."

"Get in, or get out. One or the other, you must choose."

Fox didn't know what Yoda had been talking about, but one thing was clear. The grandmaster, for some unknown reason, felt threatened by a particular senator. "Give me one moment, sir, and I'll escort you."

He held the doors open with one hand and hit his comm with the other. "Thire."

"Right here. What's up, Fox?"

"Where are Jek and Rys?"

"Got sidelined by a Wookiee."

". . . What."

"Apparently, a Wookiee stopped them and is trying to get directions."

Right, because someone had decided that the Wookies needed to visit the capital of the Republic before officially joining them. But Fox was sure that Yoda had been showing King Tarfful about, since the Wookiees were much more comfortable talking with the Jedi.

And on that note, Master Yoda was humming to himself, looking highly pleased about something.

Fox cleared his throat. "Thire? Tell them to carry on. I'll escort General Yoda, and meet with them later."

"Right away, Commander."

Fox stepped silently into the lift as Yoda observed the controls through half-closed eyes, then pressed the button for the fortieth floor.

Before Fox could properly phrase his questions about the 'evil' senator, the threat to Yoda, or the Wookiee, his datapad beeped twice – a high-priority transmission. With a glanced apology toward Yoda, Fox unclipped it from his belt and opened it.

File received from CC-2224.

Cody always filed reports and requests through Command, so what in the galaxy could this be?

He opened the message. A recorded audio transmission. How strange.

"Pardon me, General." he asked. "This is marked high-priority."

"Feel free, you should, to carry on."

"Thank you, sir." He opened the file, which played through his helmet comm.

First came Cody's voice, sounding furious and amused all at once. "Wolffe!"

Then a slightly high-pitched voice with a Coruscant accent. "Commander Fox? I recently spoke with him, some years back! Do you know, he stunned Senator Twill. I was quite shocked."

Fox paused the file. General Kenobi had been there, of course, when Fox had finally lost his cool and stunned Senator Twill . . . but he'd also spent the entire mission pretending not to have noticed Fox's action. Why would he bring it up now?

Yoda hummed merrily away to himself in the corner of the lift.

Feeling wary, Fox allowed the recording to resume.

"Wolffe."

"Dear me, Cody, you're not being very friendly . . ."

Fox resisted a smirk.

"Wolffe didn't shoot Twill, Fox did. And besides, Twill deserved it."

"Really, sir?" Wolffe spoke with a level of innocent interest that was completely faked. The innocent part was faked, anyway; the interest was probably true enough.

Something cracked in the recording, or was hit hard. Fox wondered whether Cody or Wolffe had hit the other, and why General Kenobi didn't seem to notice.

"Yes. . ." The muffled voice indicated that Kenobi had adopted his signature pose, namely, resting one elbow in his hand while tugging at his beard in thought. "Fox would know more about it. I just know that Twill deserved it. He was risking something important."

Wolffe replied with his usual tone of sarcasm. "Fox's sanity?"

Fox thought that perhaps he should bash Wolffe a good one, next time he saw him.

"Sanity? Fox says that the latest bill the Senate passed is insane. I haven't had time to look into it, but –"

Fox felt his professionally calm demeanor falter. How could the general possibly have known that? He'd been alone when he let out that snappish remark about the latest 'do nothing' bill . . . hadn't he?

"Trust Fox to have opinions on politics," Wolffe's voice growled. "The idiot is going to get himself –"

A dull thumping noise followed, cut off halfway as Fox paused the recording again.

The sound indicated that someone was pounding his head against the wall. Fox knew this from experience. Stone had a bad habit of letting his head thunk repeatedly back against the wall, when he was so mind-numbingly tired that he had the energy for nothing except, apparently, annoying the living daylights out of his fellow commanders. . .

Fox checked the 'high-priority' message again. There was no explanation as to why Cody had sent this, and so far there had been nothing to explain the priority ranking. He should finish the recording, though; there were only a few seconds left.

The thumping sound resumed.

"It seems to me that he knew what he's talking about." Kenobi spoke again. "He's head of the Coruscant Guard, you know. Even though he thought he was talking to himself at the time. I suspect he was unaware that I was in the ventilator shaft."

"How the –" Fox burst out. He choked the rest of his sentence back, but it was too late. General Yoda was looking at him. He wore a placid expression, and his slightly luminous eyes were sharp with interest.

"Surprising news, you have received?" he asked.

"Sorry, General." Fox glanced impatiently at the indicator on the lift. How long could it take to get from the second floor to the fortieth?

. . . And why was the indicator frozen at twenty-five?

"An apology, I owe you, perhaps." Yoda seated himself in a meditative posture, grunting and wheezing as though he were an ancient, arthritic human. "Found, I do not wish to be."

Fox's mind, not quite recovered from the startling revelation that apparently General Kenobi, the Great Negotiator, had been crawling around in the Senate's ventilation shafts last week, looked blankly at him. "Sir?"

"One of the Jedi, the message was about, yes." Yoda gazed off into the distance.

"Sir." Fox blinked twice, willed his mind to reset, and said, "The message was from Commander Cody."

"Master Kenobi it is, then." Yoda looked passively mournful. "Always causing trouble, young Obi-Wan is."

Fox pressed a different lift control.

Yoda hopped up. "To the top floor, you are taking us, Commander Fox?"

"Yes, sir. No one will find you up there."

"Know this, do you?" Yoda hunched over his cane, the picture of decrepit old age, and hobbled to the door. "Trust your judgment, I will – perhaps."

"Sir?"

The lift slowed to a halt, and the door slid open.

Yoda moved stiffly out of the lift. "Voicing opinions about the Senate, a good career move, it is not."

Fox followed the old Jedi, just surprised enough to maintain his composure effortlessly. "Sir, how did you hear that?"

Yoda gazed benevolently up at him, his large ears twitching.

On second thought, maybe it was obvious. Fox withheld a sigh.

"To safety, I must go," said Yoda. "To Commander Cody, perhaps, a message you wish to send."

Fox's mind snapped back into work mode. "Sir, you still haven't told me about the threat this senator poses to your safety."

"A threat to my safety, she is not. A threat to my pride, she is."

"I – see . . ." Fox thought fast, struggling to work out the meaning of Yoda's words.

"See, you do not," argued Yoda.

Fox raised a practiced eyebrow behind the safety of his helmet. "Sorry, General Yoda, please explain."

"Interested in the Jedi, this girl is. To communicate with me, speak backwards, she thinks she must."

Fox gazed at him, stone-faced, and tried not to imagine how that conversation must have sounded.

"Amusing, you find this . . . justified, you might be." Yoda sounded disgruntled as he surveyed the room.

Fox didn't affirm either of his statements. "This room is used by the Coruscant Guard for briefings," he explained, gesturing at the holotable set in the center of the large room. Jek and Rys were supposed to meet me up here to run scenarios on the holotable, but that's out for the moment, so you should be safe. Unless –"

He paused at the thought of Jek and Rys – and probably Thire – dealing with a confused Wookiee.

The grandmaster gazed politely at him, waiting for him to finish his sentence.

Fox smirked openly. "Unless King Tarfful or his aides come to find you.

Yoda huffed peevishly and whacked at Fox's shins with his gimer stick. Fox sidestepped neatly, for the sake of the grandmaster's constant prop – clone armor wasn't kind to that type of stick.

The Jedi Master huffed again and wobbled away, grumbling complaints to himself.

Fox found himself struggling to hold back another smirk.

Over the course of the year, Master Yoda had already broken two of his gimer sticks, once because Jek had been laughing at him, and once because General Kenobi had lunged, unheeding of Yoda's order, into the flurry of lasers being shot by the bounty hunter group that had come after Senator Bail Organa.

Fox assumed that Yoda had forgotten, just after the battle, that General Kenobi wore the same boots the clone troopers did. "Foolish, that was," Yoda had barked at the unrepentant Negotiator. "Listen to me, you should have."

When Obi-Wan blinked innocently and uncomprehendingly at him, the grandmaster had whacked him across the shins, splitting his gimer stick neatly in half. . .

Fox cleared his throat soundlessly. Once he'd straightened his expression into something more resembling detached professionalism, he removed his helmet and went to the holotable.

Yoda sat on the floor near one of the wide windows, gazing out at the long lines of hurrying traffic and, to all appearances, unaware of anything around him.

Fox eyed him suspiciously for a moment, then composed a message to Cody and Wolffe, the idiots.

He flagged it top security, made it viewable only by CC-2224 and CC-3636, and wondered how likely it was that all the commanders had sliced into each other's less professional conversations already.

Granted, when true 'top security' messages were sent out, they were immediately viewable by all the commander-class troopers. If only a single commander needed to be informed of something, each of them had his own private comm channel through which to receive those particular messages. Fox could use those, but so far the commanders had sent only real alerts through them.

No need to alarm Cody and Wolffe needlessly, though they probably deserved it.

As for the other commanders, though, and their ability to read each other's messages – well, currently, Fox and Thorn were being amused by Monnk and Ponds' bitter debate over armor patterns. Monnk claimed the Four Forty-Second had the absolute best armor painting in the GAR. Ponds disagreed and said that Monnk had no sense of style.

It had disintegrated from there into inventive name-calling and unlikely threats.

Judging by one of the side conversations going on, ostensibly between Neyo and Bacara but with the random inserted comment by Gree, those two were watching Ponds and Monnk's fight as well.

Overall, it was likely that the message he had just written to Cody and Wolffe would be viewed by the others. He didn't particularly care about that, except that he had made that little comment about the Senate's latest bill.

And he'd be asked for an explanation as to how Cody and Wolffe had found out about it, and they'd happily report that General Kenobi had overheard him . . .

Really, talking to himself in the middle of an empty hallway was not an image the head of the Coruscant Guard wished to project.

If he didn't reply, though . . . Fox had never taken a challenge lying down, and he didn't intend to start now. The chief problem was that he was almost certain that Thorn, Thire, and Stone could see his messages.

Then again, Fox thought to himself with a faint smile, all the commanders being able to see each other's messages was, most likely, an open secret anyway.

He erased all traces of the recording Cody had sent him – no need to have that floating around, thanks all the same – and read over his message once more.

Wolffe, Cody. Thanks for that file. I'm surprised you had time to record it, though, what with being so busy and all.

Or was that just a trick, Wolffe, to get out of checking the damage report, which, by the way, I'm sending to you again? Get it reviewed. It was the 104th's fault and you know it.

And Cody – technically, that recording qualifies as a security risk. Breaking protocol during active duty, Marshal Commander?

He nodded to himself, satisfied. That was sufficiently scathing, and he hadn't let on how much the recording had startled him, although . . .

After a moment's thought, he added one more thing.

What's with the ventilator shafts?

He sent it. Allowing for time differences and probable duties, there should still be a reply within a few moments.

In the meantime, he commed Thire.

"Thire? How are things going?"

Yoda suddenly came to life, turning around from his serene pose.

"Commander!" Thire sounded stressed. "Have you seen General Yoda?"

"Yes," said Fox, blatantly ignoring Yoda's sudden headshake. "He's up in the briefing room with me."

"What in the galaxy is he doing up there? Tarfful's been demanding to know where the 'Jedi Chieftain' is."

Yoda got slowly to his feet, looking highly displeased. "On my way, I am."

Fox nodded smoothly. "Thire, Master Yoda's on his way."

"Agh, FINALLY."

Fox raised an eyebrow at Thire's unusual tone.

Yoda hopped onto the closest chair, putting his head on level with Fox's raised wrist-comm. "NOT POLITE, THAT WAS, LIEUTENANT!" he screeched.

"It's 'commander' now, General," Thire said after a moment, over the loud grumbling of a couple of Wookiees in the background. "And I think you told me on Rugosa that 'not polite, to be late, it is'?"

"Late, I am not. Absent, I am." Yoda chortled, pleased with himself.

Thire groaned. "Then get unabsent, General, please. Tarfful and his guard got mixed up about . . . something. Not sure what, but Tarfful's walking around with Rys under one arm."

Yoda blinked twice, visibly surprised.

"Why?" asked Fox dutifully.

"Something about a hostage and General Yoda? I don't know sir, the protocol droid can't keep up with the Wookiee, and Senator Amidala's standing here laughing."

"You're in her office?"

"Yes." There was a crash from the background, and Thire signed off abruptly.

"I'm coming with you," Fox said.

Yoda, suddenly looking sober again, nodded. "Agree, I do."

They hurried to the lift in grim silence. Yoda had just pressed the control when Fox's datapad, which he still held in one hand, beeped again. He glanced down at it. Of course it was a high-priority message from Wolffe.

Casting a sideways look at Master Yoda, Fox opened the message.

You're delusional, Fox. Those explosions weren't the Wolfpack's fault. Talk to Stone about it, he was there. I'll take the blame, though, because I'm tired of dealing with it. No need to thank me.

Fox rolled his eyes. He had spoken to Stone. In fact, he'd gotten video footage from him, which was how he knew what had happened. It was absolutely the Wolfpack's fault.

The Coruscant Guard may have been present, because they charged in once they heard the first explosion, but Stone and his buddies ducking behind the wall as Wolffe's boys set off explosives for 'testing purposes' – well, it wasn't hard to tell who was guilty and who wasn't.

Besides, Fox's men knew better than to cause unnecessary paperwork. That kind of reckless behavior usually resulted in blood, tears, and death. Or so the shinies were told upon their transferal to the Guard. . . Usually by Thorn.

And Fox couldn't, in all honesty, say that he discouraged those rumors.

The lift doors opened. Fox followed Master Yoda down the long, hallway towards Senator Amidala's office.

His datapad beeped – Cody, this time.

Wolffe, Stone had a recording device in his helmet. Give it up.

Fox gazed contemplatively up at the ceiling. Cody was cunning, he'd always known that, but this was a new level of craftiness. Cody hadn't been in the system, much less on the planet or in the barracks.

Then again, Fox never made accusations without solid evidence. Therefore, Cody must have reasoned that Fox had solid evidence and then connected Stone with said evidence.

Cody was also avoiding the question.

Wolffe wrote again. It was your idea to send it to Fox.

Betrayal for betrayal, Fox supposed.

Yes, Cody said then. And you took the recording of General Kenobi in the first place, and Fox made that comment about the Senate's bill.

Fox tapped out another message. And the point of this is . . . ?

Wolffe started to reply, but a high-priority alert from Thire cut in. Stop yakking with the commanders and get in here Fox right now.

No punctuation – Thire was either upset or running for his life. Also, this proved Fox's theory about Thire definitely having access to his chats.

Yoda opened the door to Senator Amidala's office.

Fox stepped in. He couldn't be absolutely certain, but it certainly looked as though Thire was running for his life.

Senator Amidala perched gracefully on her huge, ornate desk, while Senator Organa was flattened in one corner and her protocol droid, the one Wolffe hated, lurched unsteadily around the room, calling out, "Oh! Oh dear!"

Tarfful, the huge and fearsome warrior, had one long, furry arm around Rys' neck, and the other arm around Jek's, while the Wookiee guard tore around the room after Thire, who was typing desperately on his datapad, in the middle of composing what Fox supposed to be another plea for assistance.

Yoda hopped onto the desk beside Senator Amidala, who was sitting properly, ankles crossed and hands folded in her lap.

Fox's datapad beeped.

Bail Organa put his hands to his mouth and shouted, at a volume never before used in the history of his career, "YODA'S RIGHT THERE!"

Thire turned, tripped over his own feet, and went sprawling. The Wookiee behind him also stopped, surprisingly fast, and turned, growling something. Tarfful growled back, glared at Fox, and released Jek and Rys so suddenly that they went staggering in opposite directions.

Fox's datapad beeped again, but he ignored it for the moment. As the senators, Yoda, and the Wookiees congregated with the protocol droid, Fox went around the room, collecting his troopers.

He pushed them all out of the room and hit the control to close the door. "Someone please tell me what just went on in there."

Thire, still trying to catch his breath, composed himself quickly. "I told Tarfful that you were escorting Yoda . . ."

Fox nodded. "I was, yes."

"Yeah," Jek grumbled. "But that idiotic gold-plated excuse for a chronometer somehow used the wrong translation."

Rhys brushed attentively at a new scratch in his armor. "From what I could gather, instead of saying 'military escort', the droid made it sound like you had imprisoned General Yoda."

"Ah." Fox's datapad beeped again.

Thire glanced at it. "What I don't get is, why'd General Yoda leave in the first place?"

"How should I know?" Rys shrugged. "There's no figuring a Jedi master."

"He was probably meditating, like last time," Jek added thoughtfully.

"You three are dismissed," Fox said, not bothering to inform them that Yoda had indeed been meditating – at least outwardly. "I'll handle it from here."

"Thank you, sir," said Thire fervently, and the three of them beat a quick retreat back to the security lift.

Fox glanced at his messages.

First, there was a cut-off one from Thire on the channel used by the Coruscant Guard commanders: Fox so help me get in here anhjm;lhh

Presumably, that last little bit had been because Thire was frantically slapping at the keys in his attempt to send the message. Fox deleted it and moved on.

Wolffe had commented on Thire's first message. What in blazes is going on over there, Fox? And the point of Cody's statement is that this entire situation is your fault.

To that, Cody had written: Actually, I was saying that we were all equally guilty. To your question, Fox, General Kenobi was in the ventilator shafts because the Jedi wanted to ensure that Cad Bane hadn't gotten into the Senate the same way he got into the Temple – which was through the ventilation shafts.

Fox considered. But why was he talking about Senator Twill like that?

Long story, Cody wrote back. In the meantime, General Kenobi is under sedation, and I've got to write up the mission report.

Good luck, Fox wrote. I assume you're writing an edited version. I will expect to hear the unedited version once you or Wolffe are back on Coruscant.

Cody signed off after replying, Roger that.

Was Cody right about Stone getting video? Wolffe asked.

Yes. I have the records.

Very well. I'll get that damage report reviewed and submitted.

You'd better, Fox replied. I'd hate to draft you to help with CG paperwork.

You wouldn't.

Fox smirked, signed off, and clipped his datapad to his belt, then tapped on Senator Amidala's door.

It opened, and he stepped inside, pretending not to notice Tarfful's suspicious look.

"Yes, Commander?" Yoda asked, once again the self-contained, thoughtful, almost pensive Jedi Master that most of the galaxy saw.

"The situation has been explained to me," Fox reported crisply. "A regrettable misunderstanding, sir, but it seems that you and the senators have explanations well in hand. I'll leave you to it, sir."

Senator Amidala bestowed a gracious little smile upon him, while Senator Organa looked warily at Tarfful. Yoda glanced sideways at the Wookiees and opened his mouth as though he wished to say something.

Fox stepped smoothly back through the door and hit the controls at the same instant. The door glided shut, and Fox turned on his heel to head back to the Guard headquarters.

He had just reached the lift when a fluttery female voice spoke. "Commander! Oh, Commander!"

Fox tilted his head, then turned to the speaker. A thin, pink female in lavender robes was tripping towards him, her high heels clicking lightly against the tiles. "Yes, ma'am?"

"Will you be so kind as to tell me where Master Yoda is? We were in the middle of the most interesting conversation when he suddenly left."

"He was speaking with King Tarfful," Fox began.

"I know, I was introduced! Isn't it wonderful that the Jedi command the respect of so many races and species?"

"Yes," said Fox, truthfully enough. It was wonderful, considering how many disasters they managed to get into all the time. "Do you know where Senator Amidala's office is?"