Obi-Wan momentarily squinted at the control readout in his fighter, made slightly more difficult to see through the holographic image of Mace Windu, who had called an emergency meeting of the council. Those not present on Coruscant, such as himself (and Master Yoda, now on Kashyyk), were attending the meeting virtually. He still had an hour until he reached his hyperspace exit point near Utapau; plenty of time for the meeting to take place, he hoped. But he ensured that the audio warning was toggled on just in case he became so engrossed in what Master Windu had to report that he lost all track of time.

Windu began the meeting ominously by asking Obi-Wan to recount Virginia's odd request to meet with him and the circumstances surrounding it, which he did, adding a few additional facts when he finished at the council head's request. Then Mace Windu himself took up the story, explaining how and why he had taken Obi-Wan's place at the meeting, and ending with Virginia's flight and his assessment of the man with her.

"Where are they now?" Ki-Adi-Mundi asked. "If they activated the emergency system in the taxi, then they would have been taken to the nearest hospital."

"We did try to intercept them there, however they never arrived. Apparently they were able to override the emergency system," Mace informed them. "The taxi itself was found, and their exit point discovered, but they had already left the scene."

"Have alerts been issued to the police force?" Plo Koon asked.

"It was thought safer to remain quiet, at least until this meeting had concluded," Eeth Koth told him. "If he is a Sith, he would be able to sense that the police were looking for him, even if they did not approach, and he might turn overtly violent. We didn't want to unnecessarily endanger the population."

"If he is working through the chancellor, he will undoubtedly stay in the area of the city near the rotunda," Mace told them, evidently anxious to move the meeting beyond criticism of what had already taken place. "We need to form a plan to mitigate the situation. The chancellor has already manipulated the republic into giving him far more power than he should have, power that will go directly to this Sith Lord when he feels the time is right."

"If the chancellor does not give up his emergency powers after the destruction of Grievous," Ki-Adi-Mundi said, "Then he must be removed from office."

"The Jedi Council would have to take control of the Senate in order to ensure a peaceful transition," Mace told them.

Master Yoda had been quiet until this point, but spoke up firmly now.

"To a dark place this line of thought will lead us," he warned. "Grave care must we take."

"I agree, Master Yoda," put in Obi-Wan at this point, horrified by what he was hearing. "You do realize you're essentially talking about a military coup?"

"We are open to any suggestions you might have, Master Kenobi," Ki-Adi-Mundi told him. "But clearly something needs to be done."

Obi-Wan looked at each of them in turn, trying to gauge their feelings on the matter. He stopped when he realized someone was missing from the council - someone he felt should have been present for a discussion of directly combating a Sith Lord.

"Where is Anakin?" he asked abruptly.

"He's with the chancellor," Mace told him. "We thought it best to call this meeting without him. If Palpatine knew a special meeting of the Jedi Council was taking place, he would undoubtedly want a report on its content."

Obi-Wan frowned. He couldn't fault the logic of their reasoning - calling Anakin away from the chancellor would be certain to pique the man's curiosity, and his friend would be forced to either inform him of the reason the meeting was called or lie. But to his mind, this was the one meeting Anakin should have attended - even were he not a member of the council.

"I understand, Master Windu," he told him. "However, under the circumstances, I would suggest that Anakin be informed of what transpires here at the earliest opportunity. He is the Chosen One of the prophecy, is he not?"

To his great surprise, not only Master Windu, but Yoda as well, looked away.

"The prophecy misread could have been," Yoda told him quietly.

Whatever Mace had to say, he kept to himself, at least for the moment, but it was clear he agreed with the aged master.

Obi-Wan wanted to ask how long ago they had come to this conclusion, and what egregious error (or errors) on Anakin's part had prompted it, but he knew the meeting concerned what to do about the Sith Lord, not Anakin's transgressions, so he forced himself to be silent; he could always ask when he returned from Utapau. But still, the discussion bothered him on its own merit, so instead, he said, "As I understand it, there is no direct evidence that Virginia's companion is a Sith Lord other than his eye color. Or that it was ever entirely confirmed that the chancellor - or someone working to promote him - sent her. So it is still possible that we are simply chasing a shadow."

"The dark side of the Force surrounds the chancellor," Mace argued. "It seems reasonable to postulate that Palpatine may be in league with the Sith."

"I suggest we wait until Grievous has been destroyed," Ki-Adi-Mundi said. "And then see whether Palpatine is willing to relinquish his emergency powers."

His proposal went around to each member of the council, and, by simple majority, passed.

------

"Wolf, did you hear anything I said?" Virginia repeated, thinking, Why didn't I think to ask if Coruscant had a moon before we came?

"Of course I heard you," he snapped. "I'm not deaf!"

She sat down heavily on the bed in the hotel room and closed her eyes. It made her tired just to watch him pace up and down the room in front of her.

"Then let's go," she repeated yet again.

"We haven't finished!" he snarled.

"We've done everything we could and it hasn't worked," she said yet again. "There's nothing else we can do."

"It would have worked if you had just told Obi-Wan when you had the chance!" he shouted.

She stood up and planted herself in his path in front of him, staring him squarely in the face.

"That would not have worked and you know it!" she shouted back.

He stared at her defiantly a moment more and then backed down.

"I'm sorry, Virginia," he moaned. "But I just keep thinking of them destroying their lives over something that should never have happened."

"I know, Wolf," she agreed. "But the timetable for everything isn't the same as we thought it was. If we don't hurry, we're going to get caught here when Order 66 begins, and then that mirror in Palpatine's office is going to be a lot harder to get to. We need to leave now."

"Just one more chance, Virginia," he begged. "Pleeeeeeeeeeaaaaasssse?"

"What?" she demanded, sitting down again. "What else can we do? We certainly can't just march back out to the Jedi temple or into the Naboo embassy - we're probably already wanted criminals. We were lucky I was able to talk that taxi out of taking us to the hospital, or we'd be sitting in a jail cell right now, " (if not an insane asylum, she mentally added). "Why can't you accept that there just isn't anything else we can do?"

For a moment he didn't answer her and she watched him stare in silence out the 200th floor window at the rapidly darkening sky, his hands clenching and unclenching. Then he turned and she saw the glint of yellow light in his eyes that the full moon always brought.

"Because it isn't," he growled at her.

"Wolf ..."

"WHAT?" he demanded, crossing the room to stand at the foot of the bed. "WHAT IS IT NOW?"

"There's no wild place left on this planet," she said quietly. "Nowhere for you to hunt. Let's go home."

His eyes narrowed and he regarded her speculatively.

"It's too late for that," he told her, and abruptly rushed out the door.

Blindsided by his quick getaway, it took her a moment to follow. But when she looked out into the hallway, he was nowhere to be seen.