Chapter 2: Council
Several hours later, Padawan Obi-Wan stood before the Jedi council with Master Qui-Gon. They had been questioning him endlessly for the past half-hour. He was tired. He had only just returned from a training mission on Tatooine and had barely gotten to sleep when he was awoken by Jessican's screams. Now, here he was, not even having kissed a girl, and he'd already delivered a baby. What a way to start his Jedi career.
Moments after the boy had fled, several senior Jedi had appeared on the scene, including Master Qui-Gon. Seeing his Padawan sitting in another female apprentice's room, seeing her naked on the floor, and him holding a bloody crying baby had nearly sent him into hysterics. He asked one of the other masters to immediately take the child to the infirmary to get cleaned up and diagnosed to ensure it was healthy. He then took Obi-Wan by the forearm and walked him down the hall towards the turbolift to the Council room. The Council had been up late discussing the growing threat of the Trade Federation.
"Obi-Wan, what in the Force happened in there?" Qui-Gon asked, his confusion showing through his normally placid and calm face.
"Master...I..." Obi-Wan struggled to find the words to explain what happened. 5 minutes later, he had been standing in front of the Council, all eyes staring intently at him after Master Qui-Gon explained what had happened. Now, many questions later, he was tired and sick of their questions. He just wanted to go to bed and worry about it tomorrow.
"So after the baby was born and you severed the umbilical cord, the boy fled?" Master Windu asked him.
Obi-Wan nodded. "Yes sir. No one saw where he came in from, nor where he left. He left me holding the child."
"Very well," Master Windu said. "That will be all, Padawan. Master Qui-Gon, you and your apprentice are dismissed. The Council shall discuss this matter in regards as to what to do with the child."
Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan nodded, and exited the room.
Master Mace Windu, lines showing under his dark eyes from the late hours, looked over at Master Yoda. "What shall we do with the child? I doubt the Padawan has survived, and his father has fled."
Yoda sank into thought for a few moments, then said, "Born of a Jedi, the child was. The Force, he can control. Train him, we shall."
"All of the Masters have apprentices already," Master Windu said. "You know a Master can never have more than one Padawan at a time."
"Your last Padawan died at the hands of the Sith, did he not?" Master Ki-Adi-Mundi interjected. "Why not allow Master Windu to train the child?"
Master Windu opened his mouth to object, but Yoda waved his wrinkled green hand to silence him. "A Jedi he was born. A Jedi, he shall be." Yoda turned toward Mace Windu. "Train him, you shall."
Mace Windu sank into thought for a few moments, then nodded. "Very well. If that is the Council's decision, I shall train the child." The rest of the Council nodded its agreement. Sighing, Master Windu stood up and walked to the center of the room. "I shall go prepare my things for departure to the Academy." He bowed once to the Council, and left the room.
Yoda nodded, then rested his head on his small hands, closing his eyes. After a few minutes, Master Ki-Adi-Mundi turned toward Yoda. "Is something wrong, Master Yoda?" he asked, his white ponytail and elongated head appearing very strange in the morning light, as the sun rose through the window behind him.
"I sense much power in this child," Yoda murmured. "The Chosen One, he may be."
The rest of the Council turned inward towards each other, deliberating excitedly about the effects this may have on the balance of the war against the Sith. The Chosen One, born in the very hall in which he shall be trained!
Yoda turned back to his inner thoughts. Despite what he had just said, he didn't think this child was the Chosen One. True, the child had great power dormant within him, but it was a different kind of power; malevolent, and uncaring. There was a shroud of mystery surrounding this child, a shroud even Yoda's intimate knowledge of the Force could not pierce.
"Observe this child, I shall," Yoda murmured to himself. "What he may become...I fear."
The sun rose over the towering cities of Coruscant, shining its bright and life-giving light through the windows of the Tower of the Jedi. The day had finally arrived. The Child of Darkness had come.