Author's Note: Here's to let you all know that I made several changes to the Prelude at the beginning of the story. Not just editorial changes, but a change to the story line and character name. But don't worry, it doesn't mess up with what you're reading now. It mainly effects what I'll be writing in the future. I just finished writing Episode VIII and will begin IX later on today. Plus I'm in the planning stages of X, XI, and XII right now. While planning X, there were two elements I wanted to change in the Prelude that tie in with that episode. A Dramatis Personae of Episode I was also added to Chapter 2, and some geographical information about Tatooine was added to the beginning of Chapter 3. Chapter 4 and 5 were also edited. Many of you might wonder why I do so much editing to my story. Well, that's just the way I am. I'm always striving to get better and better, but I see no reason to edit it again after the editorial I'm doing now.

Readers of the novel will recognize this chapter, though it has a few slight changes to it.

Responses to Chapter 54's reviews:

G-Anakin 13-Thank you, I try to make it as realistic as possible.

Sica Meni-Thanks and here you go!

Twisted Words-You don't have to review every chapter. This one's much longer and interesting.

David Fishwick-I didn't quite get your question, 'Does that she becomes Lord Vader's wife something?' I assume you're talking about Arica? Either leave another review or ask me directly from my profile page. I'll gladly answer the question; I just need to understand it clearly. Welcome to the story and I'm glad you like it.

The Lure of the Dark Side: Chronicle 1-The Turning of an Era

Episode V: Revenge of the Sith

Chapter 10: Masters

Obi-Wan sat beside Mace Windu while they watched Yoda scan the report. Here in Yoda's simple living space within the Jedi Temple, every softly curved pod chair and knurled organiform table hummed with gentle, comforting power: the same warm strength that Obi-Wan remembered enfolding him even as an infant. These chambers had been Yoda's home for more than eight hundred years. Everything within them echoed with the harmonic resonance of Yoda's calm wisdom, tuned through centuries of his touch. To sit within Yoda's chambers was to inhale serenity; to Obi-Wan, this was a great gift in these troubled times.

But when Yoda looked at them through the translucent shimmer of the holoprojected report on the contents of the latest amendment to the Security Act, his eyes were anything but calm: they had gone narrow and cold, and his ears had flattened back along his skull.

"This report-from where does it come?"

"The Jedi still have friends in the Senate," Mace Windu replied in his grim monotone, "for now."

"When presented this amendment is, passed it will be?"

Mace nodded. "My source expects passage by acclamation. Overwhelming passage. Perhaps as early as this afternoon."

"The Chancellor's goal in this, unclear to me it is," Yoda said slowly. "Through nominally in command of the Council, the Senate may place him, the Jedi he cannot control. Moral, our authority has been; much more than merely legal. Simply follow orders, Jedi do not!"

"I don't think he intends to control the Jedi," Mace said. "By placing the Jedi Council under the control of the Office of the Supreme Chancellor, this amendment will give him the constitutional authority to disband the Order itself."

"Surely you cannot believe this is his intention."

"His intention?" Mace said darkly. "Perhaps not. But his intentions are irrelevant; all that matters now is the intent of the Sith Lord who has our government in his grip. And the Jedi Order may be all that stands between him and galactic domination. What do you think he will do?"

"Authority to disband the Jedi, the Senate would never grant."

"The Senate will vote to grant exactly that. This afternoon."

"The implications of this, they must not comprehend!"

"It no longer matters what they comprehend," Mace said. "They know where the power is."

"But even disbanded, even without legal authority, still Jedi we would be. Jedi Knights served the Force long before there was a Galactic Republic, and serve it we will when this Republic is but dust."

"Master Yoda, that day may be coming sooner than any of us think. That day may be today." Mace shot a frustrated look at Obi-Wan, who picked up his cue smoothly.

"We don't know what the Sith Lord's plans may be," Obi-Wan said, "but we can be certain that Palpatine is not to be trusted. Not anymore. This draft resolution is not the product of some overzealous Senator; we may be sure Palpatine wrote it himself and passed it along to someone he controls-to make it look like the Senate is once more 'forcing him to reluctantly accept extra powers in the name of security.' We are afraid that they will continue to do so until one day he's 'forced to reluctantly accept dictatorship for life."

"I am convinced this is the next step in a plot aimed directly at the heart of the Jedi," Mace said. "This is a move toward our destruction. The dark side of the Force surrounds the Chancellor."

Obi-Wan added, "As it has surrounded and cloaked the Separatists since even before the war began. If the Chancellor is being influenced through the dark side, this whole war may have been, from the beginning, a plot by the Sith to destroy the Jedi Order."

"Speculation!" Yoda thumped the floor with his gimmer stick, making his hover chair bob gently. "On theories such as these we cannot rely. Proof we need. Proof!"

"Proof may be a luxury we cannot afford." A dangerous light had entered Mace Windu's eyes. "We must be ready to act."

"Act?" Obi-Wan asked mildly.

"He cannot be allowed to move against the Order. He cannot be allowed to prolong the war needlessly. Too many Jedi have died already. He is dismantling the Republic itself! I have seen life outside the Republic; so have you Obi-Wan. Slavery. Torture. Endless war."

Mace's face darkened with the same distant, haunted shadow Obi-Wan had seen him wear the day before. "I have seen it in Nar Shaddaa, and I saw it on Haruun Kal. I saw what it did to Depa, and to Sora Bulq. Whatever its flaws, the Republic is our sole hope for justice, and for peace. It is our only defense against the dark. Palpatine may be about to do what the Separatists cannot: bring down the Republic. If he tries, he must be removed from office."

"Removed?" Obi-Wan asked. "You mean, arrested?"

"The Republic is civilization. It's the only one we have." Mace looked deeply into Yoda's eyes and into Obi-Wan's, and Obi-Wan could feel the heat in the Korun Master's gaze. "We must be prepared for radical action. It is our duty."

"But," Obi-Wan protested numbly, "you're talking about treason…"

"I'm not afraid of words, Obi-Wan! If it's treason than so be it. I would do this right now, if I had the Council's support. The real treason," Mace said, "would be failure to act."

"Such an act, destroy the Jedi Order it could," Yoda said. "Lost the trust of the public, we have already-"

"No disrespect Master Yoda," Mace interrupted, "but that's a politician's argument. We can't let public opinion stop us from doing what's right."

"Convinced it is right, I am not," Yoda said severely. "Working behind the scenes we should be, to uncover Lord Sidious! To move against Palpatine while the Sith still exist-this may be part of the Sith plan itself, to turn the Senate and the public against the Jedi! So that we are not only disbanded, but outlawed."

Mace was halfway out of his pod. "To wait gives this Sith the advantage-"

"Have the advantage already, they do!" Yoda jabbed at him with his gimmer stick. "Increase their advantage we will, if in haste we act!"

"Masters, Masters, please," Obi-Wan said. He looked from one to the other and inclined his head respectfully. "Perhaps there is a middle way."

"Ah of course: Kenobi the Negotiator." Mace Windu settled back into his sitting pod. "I should have guessed. This is why you asked for this meeting isn't it? To meditate our differences. If you can."

"So sure of your skills you are?" Yoda folded his fists around the head of his stick. "Easy to negotiate, this matter is not!"

Obi-Wan kept his head down. "It seems to me," he said carefully, "that Palpatine himself has given us an opening. He has said-both to you, Master Windu, and in the HoloNet address he gave following his rescue-that General Grievous is the true obstacle to peace. Let us forget about the rest of the Separatist leadership, for now. Let Nute Gunray and San Hill and the rest run wherever they like, while we put available Jedi and all our agents-the whole Republic Intelligence, if we can-to work on locating Grievous herself. This will force the hand of the Sith Lord; he will know that Grievous cannot elude our full efforts for long, once we devote ourselves exclusively to her capture. It will draw Sidious out; he will have to make some sort of move, if he wishes the war to continue."

"If?" Mace said. "The war has been a Sith operation from the beginning, with Dooku on one side and Sidious on the other-it has been a plot aimed at us. At the Jedi. To bleed us dry of our youngest and best. To make us into something we were never intended to be."

He shook his head bitterly. "I had the truth in my hands years ago-back on Haruun Kal, in the first months of the war. I had it, but I did not understand how right I was."

"Seen glimpses of this truth, we all have," Yoda said sadly. "Our arrogance it is, which has stopped us from fully opening our eyes."

"Until now," Obi-Wan put in gently. "We understand now the goal of the Sith Lord, we know his tactics, and we know where to look for him. His actions will reveal him. He cannot escape us. He will not escape us."

Yoda and Mace frowned at each other for a long moment then both of them turned to Obi-Wan and inclined their heads in the mirrors of his respectful bow.

"Seen to the heart of the matter, young Kenobi has."

Mace nodded. "Yoda and I will remain on Coruscant, monitoring Palpatine's advisors and lackeys; we'll move against Sidious the instant he is revealed. But who will capture Grievous? She is more than a match for most Jedi."

"We'll worry about that once we find her," Obi-Wan said. A slight, wistful smile crept over his face. "If I listen hard enough, I can almost hear Qui-Gon reminding me that 'until the possible becomes actual, it is only a distraction.'"