Jedi Master Yoda toddled through the corridors, his mind not thinking about his destination. He'd walked this route for hundreds of years and his mind knew it better than anything else in the galaxy. The Council chambers was his favourite room – except, perhaps, the room of a thousand fountains – with its marvellous views of the city rolling in waves beneath it. He remembered being a Padawan – so many centuries ago, now – and finding the room to be the epitome of achievement. He remembered thinking that he wanted to be on the Council, to be as respected as some of the Masters already sitting on it. He'd known then, as he does now, that those thoughts were entirely unbecoming for a Jedi but he knew that it was so. He was going to be on the Jedi Council, not through arrogance but because he had seen it.

He remembered the conversation he'd had with his Master about the things he had seen in his dreams, about the people and places and he remembered how his Master had simply smiled as he lay a hand on his shoulder replying with,

"Yoda, you're more powerful than we know."

He'd smiled modestly – and somewhat bashfully – at the compliment. But he knew that it was true. By the time he was one hundred, he'd been greatly efficient in all of the lightsaber forms and decided that he liked Form IV the best. He loved the name – Ataru –, he had loved how it sounded in his Masters voice. It was a form that he knew he would still be able to actually do when he reached his current age.

His mind wandered to another powerful young Jedi who was very gifted in all ways of the Force and he mentally shook his head ruefully, his physical step faltering slightly. Had young Skywalker been born within the Republic, he would have been noticed as a baby and brought to the Temple to be properly trained. However, as fate – or, perhaps the Force – would have it, the boy was not. He had come to the Temple already in double figures. It was unheard of. As soon as his eyes set upon the boys, he saw them not as the blue they were but as a Sith-ly yellow. But the child had grown and had become very accomplished in the few years he had been in the Temple, surpassing all of the Padawans of his age, and even older. Was this perhaps evidence that he was indeed the Chosen One?

Yoda had always sensed that it would be a woman.

And Anakin Skywalker was definitely not one of those.

He reached the Council chambers just as Ki-Adi Mundi did and they bowed respectfully towards one another, before exchanging pleasantries. Yoda's only friend within the Council was Master Mace Windu. That wasn't to say, however, that he did not get along with the others, but he simply had no time to stop and chat. The two of them were too alike sometimes and after Yoda had confided in Windu about why he didn't want Anakin to join the Order, Windu had suddenly become very suspicious of Anakin.

In Mace's eyes, the boy was too powerful and too unpredictable.

But to Yoda, he only saw what he himself could have been. He had tried to take Skywalker under his wing, knowing how confused he would be about certain things that were happening to him, things that only Yoda had experienced. Yoda only hoped that that would stand him in good stead for the turbulent future that lay ahead for the entire galaxy.

He closed his eyes and tried to seek out Skywalker's Force signature once again. He reached deep into the Force. He could see a faint white light from somewhere and he did not recognise the signature. He concentrated on it, could feel it pulling him in. He reached out to it and it turned black and wrapped around him. He tried to fight it off but it was so strong. Stronger than anything he had ever felt.

There was a sharp pain in his head before he lost all sense of direction and his tiny world went blank.

--

Siri Tachi sighed. She'd been hung up on an electrical prison, hovering above the ground, her wrists and feet bound by electrical energy for far too long. Her wrists were starting to cramp and she couldn't even move them to try and urge her blood to keep circulating. She knew that Ferus was fine, she could sense him through the Force but there was another signature, one that she knew she should be able to recognise but for the life of her she just could not

She'd searched for Obi-Wan but she couldn't find his signature anywhere. Not even distantly. She was so sure she would have found him on Geonosis but that seemed highly unlikely now. Her mind floated once again and she thought of the ship that had taken off from Kamino: had it only been a rouse to keep any prying eyes from finding out where it really went, where it had really taken Obi-Wan? It had been too many months since she had last spoken with Obi-Wan properly. They had struck up a deep friendship after their failed attempt at romance and she was glad. Her life as a Jedi had forced her to stop her evolving emotions for Obi-Wan. But it was too late. She knew what she could have had and it didn't help at all knowing that the Jedi were the ones holding her back. She knew that it was for the best interests of the Order but sometimes she wondered if the Order would stay as archaic as it was.

Couldn't they see that it the strict rules and regulations that had to be followed that forced people to the Dark Side?

She could hear footsteps moving closer to her prison and she closed her eyes, attempting to lull herself into meditation but she couldn't. There was a tremor in the Force and it was disrupting her concentration. She opened her eyes when she heard the door open and she gasped audibly at the person who walked in.

"Count Dooku," she murmured as he came to a halt in front of her.

"Siri Tachi, I am surprised to find you here." And he did look genuinely surprised, she noticed. "I thought you and your Padawan were stationed on Coruscant?" She frowned at him but refused to say anything. "Saying nothing will not help you get your friend back," he leered and Siri shook her head.

"Traitor!"

She watched him shake his head.

"They have gone too far. He's gone mad!"

Siri wondered what he was talking about. She would never ask but she wondered. Who had gone mad? Was this all just a show? She hoped it was.

"I thought you were the leader here, Count?" She asked instead and felt a tingling sensation at the back of her mind. Was Dooku trying to invade her mind? She slammed up a mental barrier and glared at him but he too looked just as confused as she did.

"No," he said eventually, his deep voice bounding off the walls around the room. While he had been a Knight in the Temple, Siri had always thought he looked very regal with his straight as a beam posture, his slick white hair and strange black eyebrows. He'd had an air about him that spoke of arrogance and determination and she wondered how the council could not have known he would betray them. "What would you say if I told you that the Senate was under the control of a Sith Lord?"

She let out a cynical laugh at that.

"I'd say you were a liar," she spat back and glared at him once more.

"Because your Master Yoda can't sense it?" He chuckled and shook his head. "My dear girl, Master Yoda is just as much under his control as the rest of the galaxy."

She laughed but inside her mind was reeling. He had to be lying! The council would know if a Sith Lord was in control of the Senate, surely. The dark side hadn't clouded their judgement that much, had it? Or perhaps it had and the Jedi were not even aware of it. But why was Dooku telling her this? Was he helping his old Order out or did he not care because he was going to kill her anyway?

"Where's Obi-Wan?"

Dooku looked up at her and frowned confusedly at the sudden change in coversation before shaking his head.

"He's not here."

She rolled her eyes and glared down at him again.

"Really? I didn't notice that," she retorted with acid in her voice. "Now tell me where he is!"

Dooku laughed loudly at that.

"Or you will do what? You are in no position to be making demands, my dear."

"What about the boy? Do you have him as well?"

He chuckled once more and Siri wanted nothing more in that moment than to take her lightsaber and stick it in his neck. She started at her own thoughts. What?

"Ah, you're precious Chosen One," he smirked and she closed her eyes, trying to quell the untameable anger inside of her. "Well, as much as we would like to take credit for his disappearance, we can't unfortunately."

Siri sighed. She knew he was telling the truth. Anakin Skywalker had simply disappeared and had left a big gaping hole in the Force. She had felt it only partly, she was sure and she wondered how Obi-Wan had managed to cope with that emptiness that his disappearance caused. And then Obi-Wan's disappearance and had left a gap (though not as big as Anakin's but still just as frightening) and she had wondered again how anyone could live with that emptiness all their lives. It was ridiculous to think that a Master and a Padawan would simply disappear and no one would know where they were. She shook her head and concentrated on the Force around her, hoping to sense something that would help her get out of her restraints.

She heard a deep suction of air and she didn't know whether it came from her or from Dooku but she knew she would have stumbled and fallen to her knees like Dooku had if she hadn't been tied up. She searched frantically through her mind, through the Force but there was nothing, no sign of him and… and she couldn't breathe. She felt tears well in her eyes unbidden and she gasped for breath. No.

No!

She opened her eyes and saw Dooku looking up at her through her teary vision and she knew in that instance that her thoughts, what she knew and felt was correct.

The Force was weeping for his its greatest child.

Master Yoda was gone.