Tarka Gerth swept her blue saber around in a glowing arc, deflecting two bolts aimed at her retinue of clones, then the half-dozen clone troopers nearest the front of the column fired a fusillade of blaster bolts and shredded the battle droids.

"All right, watch out for trouble," the delphidian said. "There's no way it could be this easy."

"You are correct, Jedi," a distorted voice agreed, and Tarka flinched before turning to the left and bringing her saber up into guard position.

General Grievous stalked out of the shadows, two of his special guards with him, and more than a dozen droids levelled their blasters.

"Grievous," Tarka declared, trying to keep the tremble out of her voice.

"A padawan," Grievous replied. "Without their master… an easy target. And a foolish Jedi."

He chuckled, which turned into a cough until he shook his cyber-augmented head irritably. "Your lightsaber will make a fine addition to my collection… no, I correct myself!"

Grievous sounded actually amused. "A padawan who practices the art of dual wielding, no less – what you call jar'kai in your Jedi arts! I appreciate your contribution!"

"Instructions, general?" one of the clones asked.

"Hold on," Tarka replied. "I think… yes."

She nodded sharply. "If I give you the lightsabers, will you let us leave?"

"What an interesting suggestion!" Grievous said, sounding highly amused. "Hand them over, and I will consider it!"

Tarka deactivated her lightsaber, and unclipped the other one from her belt as well. Then she put them both on the ground, and stepped back.

Grievous stepped forwards, taking both sabers, then chuckled.

"I have made my decision," he said. "No."

Clones tensed, blasters ready, then the second lightsaber activated – revealing a brilliant yellow blade.

The blade flashed out at least a foot from Grievous, and he looked at Tarka with amusement. "Really? A Jedi trick-"

Then the lightsaber spun around in a blur, slashing at Grievous and cutting two of his mechanical fingers off.

The kaleesh warlord stepped back, shocked, then split his arms and drew three sabers from his collection in his surviving three hands. Two of them crossed in a defensive move to block the yellow saber, and Tarka waved her hand to pull her own lightsaber back into her hand.

"Get to cover," she told the clones, blocking attacks and retreating, and a firefight broke out as Grievous tried to work out what the karking hell was going on.

"Unfortunately, he escaped," Tarka reported, about thirty minutes later. "Master Parakan did all he could, but Grievous sacrificed his guards to cover his escape."

"That's still a useful outcome," Master Kenobi said, from the other end of the holographic link. "The confirmation that Grievous is present is useful to us, at least until he moves elsewhere."

"What's your opinion of Grievous's skill, Knight Parakan?" Master Windu asked.

"He's very good for someone who can't use the Force," Tarka's master replied, at the top of his lungs.

Since he was a mole-flea from the planet Kowak, this was necessary for the audio unit of the holoprojector to pick him up at all.

"There's some parts of the katas which unavoidably use the Force, and he stumbles a bit there, but he's highly talented," Parakan went on. "He seems to be especially good at multi-tasking, so he can use two or three sabers as well as one. I'm not sure how he would do with four."

Parakan shrugged, not that anyone else could notice. "I also don't know if he noticed me. I didn't say anything, but he could have figured it out."

"Take care, Tarka, Parakan," Master Kenobi advised. "Grievous may try to excuse his defeat."

"Next time I'll try insulting him," Parakan decided. "It might give him a hint that would let him figure it out faster, but it might also throw him off balance."

He bounced on his lightsaber. "What do you think of calling him a four-armed quarter-wit?"

"Passable," Master Kenobi mused.

AN:

Another in the Odd Jedi series.