Afterwards McGee could never say with any certainty how long the silence lasted. Maybe thirty seconds, maybe a minute was his guess afterwards, but at the time it seemed like a long, long time. He could see Gibbs' mind reeling as he looked at everything – the dead demon, the lightsabre in McGee's hand and the shattered floorboards with the ruins of the summoning circle. The good thing was that he had his sidearm down and pointing at the floor. The bad thing was the glare. The Gibbs glare could melt lead.

Finally Gibbs opened his mouth. "McGee?"

"Yes boss?"

"What the hell… what is that thing?" Gibbs asked, waving his left hand at the demon.

"It's a demon," McGee replied as he calmly hooked his lightsabre to his belt. "When Tony shook his bleeding finger next to that summoning portal he got some blood on it and the damn thing activated."

"Portal?" Gibbs looked as if he was about to explode into a million pieces and his voice sounded as if his brain was busy interrogating his eyes thoroughly due to the insane reports that were coming back from them. The glare intensified still further as he holstered his gun. "McGee, what the hell is going on here?"

McGee pondered for a moment about the best way to answer this and was opening his mouth to respond when he was suddenly interrupted by the sound of packing cases being shoved to one side as Tony DiNozzo stood up hesitantly. He was clutching his head and his eyes were crossed.

"What… the hell… was that?" DiNozzo slurred as he took a step towards them. "Argh, my head… sorry boss. That guy in that fancy dress… costume… caught me… by…." His voice wound down as his eyes uncrossed and he processed the scene in front of him. "Ok, what the hell is that thing and why is it in several pieces?" Then he seemed to notice McGee. "Whoa. When did you get here McTardy?"

"I was here the whole time Tony," McGee replied quietly. "I had to intervene when you summoned that thing by mistake."

DiNozzo blinked. "What? I did what again?"

McGee sighed – and then Gibbs exploded again. "McGee. Explanation. NOW. And you can start with answering my question – what is that… thing?"

"A demon, Gibbs." The words were not McGees. Instead they came from a very shaken Ziva David, who had put her own weapon away and who was looking at the corpse with fascinated dread. "I am not that familiar with them, but I have heard tales of things like this from my father. Mossad has a special division devoted to fighting such things. They are rare, but they do exist."

This was a curveball that no-one had seen coming and McGee looked at Ziva with quiet respect.

"A demon." DiZozzo clutched at his head again. "OK, I'm going to fall over now, because I'm concussed and this conversation is getting too freaky even for me. Plus I think that concussion must be infectious or something, because I could have sworn that I heard a lightsabre, just like that witness said. Are those paramedics gone yet?"

McGee sighed. "You did hear a lightsabre Tony. My lightsabre. I had to use it to kill this thing before it disembowelled the boss."

DiNozzo peered at him and then laughed. The laugh had a slight note of hysteria in it. "Oh come on, McSkywalker! A lightsabre? Really? Have you got a blaster too? Is the Death Star parked behind the Moon as well?"

McGee looked at DiNozzo levelly, before reaching to his belt and pulling out his lightsabre. Then he thumbed the activation switch, letting the yellow blade spring into life. He kept it on for about ten seconds, watching with quiet satisfaction as DiNozzo's jaw dropped open, and then he deactivated it and returned it to his belt. And he smiled at the other NCIS agent, before turning back to Gibbs. "Boss, there's a very simple explanation for all this. I'm a Jedi Knight."

Gibbs blinked. Ziva raised her eyebrows. And Tony DiNozzo fainted.

McGee winced as he hit the floor and then rapidly strode over to him and embraced the Force, reaching out with it to probe at his friend's skull. "Damn," he muttered, "He must have hit harder than I thought when that demon smacked him about. He's got concussion." He knelt down next to him, placed his right hand over DiNozzo's forehead and concentrated. "Boss, I'm putting him into a healing trance, but we might want to have him checked out by someone. The paramedics have gone, but Ducky should be able to take a look at him when we get back to the office."

Gibbs tilted his head to one side and then gave him that special look that said that the world had finally and irrevocably gone crazy. "Is he going to be ok?"

"He should be."

There was a pause. "And you're a Jedi."

"Yup."

"Since when?"

"Since I took that holiday in California. Trained with some people there. Good people – you'd like them."

Gibbs looked around the warehouse, at the body of the demon, at the splintered floorboards and then at the rafters. Then he glanced at Ziva, who pursed her lips and shrugged. "Fine," he said eventually. "But when we get back to the office you and me and going to have a little talk about what the hell happened here."