In the Council Chamber at the top of the tower of the Jedi Temple, Grand Master Yoda was sitting alone in his chair, without any of the other councillors in attendance so he could have some time to himself and so he could meditate over the events in the galaxy before the rest of the council and two other Jedi arrived on schedule.

The Council were used to Yoda's quirk, where he would call for a meeting and then arrive much earlier to give himself the time and the opportunity to meditate on the matters at the forefront of his mind, or just to gain some awareness of what was happening, and then come up with a plan according to the will of the Force.

Senator Amidala didn't know it, but Yoda, Mace Windu and the rest of the Jedi Council and a few other Masters were in attendance during the Senatorial meeting that had taken place. Yoda had been in partial meditation during the entire meeting, and he had not liked what he had sensed, from any of the senators, and he had sensed keenly how Senator Amidala had felt.

Yoda had sensed her sadness, her anguish at the loss of another of her friends, her disgust and dismay towards the Senate for not only delaying the all-important votes which would stop the Military Creation Act, the same act someone was using to kill her over. But most of all, he had sensed her rage and her growing fear.

Ordinarily, Yoda would be wary of someone exhibiting those emotions, as they both led to suffering, but he knew Senator Amidala was furious because of the senseless way she was being hunted down and threatened, and how she was terrified of what the consequences would be if the war with the Separatists did break out. Personally, Yoda had no doubt Palpatine would fail in his negotiations despite his words and the Separatists would launch a full-scale galactic war. The idea horrified Yoda. He knew as the Grand Master of the Jedi Order, he would be forced to pledge the Order and its resources to the fight, but as Master Windu said in Palpatine's office earlier today, there were just not enough Jedi to fight back, and they were keepers of the peace and not soldiers.

The Jedi hadn't needed to fight a war for 1,000 years. Thanks to the Republic, the Army of Light had disbanded long ago, and the Jedi had largely diminished in power; some of the most aggressive fighting styles had not been taught by Jedi Masters for centuries, and those styles were meant to evenly match a Jedi against a Sith, and Yoda doubted many in the Order would have the skill or cunning to evenly fight off against the Separatists.

Yoda came out of his meditation when he sensed the approaching councillors, and he looked up as Depa Billaba, Oppo Rancis, Mace Windu, Plo Koon, Agen Kolar, Saesee Tinn, Ki-Adi Mundi, Adi Gallia, Shaak Ti, Coleman Trebor, followed by Obi-Wan Kenobi and Kit Fisto.

Yoda took a moment to study Obi-Wan. It had been only a matter of weeks since the disappearance of his padawan, Anakin Skywalker, who had just vanished in the dead of night, with no clue as to his whereabouts. For some of the council, it was proof he was not the Chosen One, but Yoda had kept silent about it. Anakin's disappearance had hit Obi-Wan harder than the Knight was willing to admit to anyone, even close friends. It was there in his body language.

It was rare for Yoda to resent someone, but he resented Palpatine for suggesting Obi-Wan become Senator Amidala's bodyguard since the young woman had met Skywalker at around the same time she had met Obi-Wan.

"Bring this Council meeting to session, I do," Yoda's aged voice rang out through the room. "Returned recently, members of the council did from Chancellor Palpatine's office. During that time, looked into the future I tried, but failed to see the immediate future, so I did. However, saw glimpses of a horrifying future, I did."

"What did you see?" Adi Gallia asked.

Yoda sighed, turning sad eyes towards every single Jedi in the chamber before turning to Obi-Wan. "Saw a future, young Skywalker turned to the Dark side, I did."

"What?" Obi-Wan gasped in horror.

"I knew it," Windu said. "I knew he shouldn't have been trained, this has proven it."

Yoda stopped anyone from speaking. "Plenty of blame there was; yes, Anakin disobeyed the code in the visions I saw. Married, Senator Amidala, he did. But groomed he was and has been, by the Sith Master, the same Sith Master who trained the Sith warrior who killed Master Qui-Gon."

Obi-Wan's jaw dropped in horror, trying to assimilate everything he had just heard and learnt about the marriage to a senator. "Anakin's been groomed?" He whispered in horror, feeling more than a stirring of loathing aimed squarely at himself for not even seeing it.

Yoda nodded gravely. "Yes," the old Grand Master replied.

"If that's true, there is only one thing we should do, we should track him down and kill him before he becomes a threat," Adi Gallia interrupted.

Yoda interrupted before anyone else could say anything, or say they agreed with her. "No. When in Palpatine's office, saw I did, someone had looked deeply into the future through the Force. It must have been Skywalker, but I want to know more."

"Master, seeing into the future is dangerous," Oppo said, pointing out what they knew already.

"Know that, I am aware, Master Rancis. But important, this is. Suggest I do, enter a shared meditation, all of us in this room," Yoda looked around the room, his authority bearing them down, and they nodded in acceptance before he turned to Obi-Wan and Fisto, "Please, help us, Obi-Wan, Master Fisto."

Obi-Wan quickly entered the meditation trance with his fellow Jedi, secretly desperate to uncover what happened to his apprentice and discover who was grooming him. He closed his eyes, following the lead of Yoda and the others of the council. To say he was mortified when he saw in his mind's eye, the image of Anakin waking up from one of his nightmares of his mother dying, and suffering was an understatement. At first, he was annoyed Anakin hadn't let go of his mother at all, but then his annoyance transmuted into horror when he saw for himself the vivid images of his apprentices' mother being beaten, and tortured, her screams filling his mind so loudly he thought his very ears would burst.

Obi-Wan felt a mixture of annoyance and sympathy from the Jedi Masters; the Masters who were annoyed were more annoyed Anakin disobeyed the code and refused to let go, but others felt empathy and sympathy at Shmi Skywalker's treatment, chief among them Yoda and Shaak Ti.

But all of the Jedi watched in horror as a ghostly image of Anakin, if he had remained as a Jedi, went to Tatooine and found his mother on the cusp of death, she had kept herself going…just to see her child once more, but something horrified the watching Jedi; it was like a black cloud, wreathed in menace reached out to Anakin, and simply pulled on his sanity. The end result was he lashed out, slaughtering the Tuskens without mercy. When it was over, Anakin clearly regretted what he had done, but they saw he would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

The scene changed again, miraculously for Obi-Wan's sanity, but not for long; it showed Anakin, Obi-Wan, and many other Jedi, including members of the council, fighting against a huge army of battle droids. There were others there, too, one of them was Dooku, calling for surrender; when Master Windu refused, Dooku didn't accept it as a Jedi Master would have done. Instead, he gave the orders to the droids to continue fighting.

The council masters watched as Anakin and the rest of their Order fought a long, gruelling, bloody war, facing legions of droids and other monstrosities, and Obi-Wan was both amazed and proud when he saw how his apprentice trained an apprentice of his own, a Togruta girl, and he felt pride and wonder in Master Plo Koon. But that faded when they watched her being accused of a terrible crime, and she was thrown out of the Order before resigning on her own.

They witnessed other events, such as Anakin being confirmed by the Chosen One by three powerful, godlike beings, the destruction of the Jedi Order, and Anakin's fall to the Dark Side after being promised the power to save his wife, Padme. Obi-Wan mentally rolled his eyes at Anakin's blatant disobedience and contempt for the Jedi Code since it was so utterly typical of him, but it made him happy.

The war had gone on, and Obi-Wan was stunned and horrified by the utter violence and the overwhelming feeling no matter what happened, everything would be going straight to hell. Other parts of the vision came to light; Anakin being driven to near madness as his mother's nightmares before looking into the future and throwing out more rules to see what he could do, becoming a Sith apprentice and then being turned to a cyborg after Obi-Wan himself sliced off 3 out of 4 of his limbs and he was left to burn to death on a planet of lava, the sight and the sounds of Anakin's screams of pain would forever haunt Obi-Wan to his deathbed.

As a cyborg, Anakin was practically gone….for 20 years. Obi-Wan watched in curiosity as a familiar world appeared in his mind; Alderaan…only for it to be blown up by a powerful beam. For so long, Anakin was a slave to the Sith Lord….until he was redeemed. Obi-Wan watched in shock as Anakin, in his cybernetic form, fought his own son, a boy trained in the Jedi arts; granted, the boy wasn't that well trained, but it gave him a better chance, and Anakin was then beaten, and the Sith Lord tried to coerce the younger Skywalker to take his father's place…

But the boy refused, something Anakin hadn't done, and the boy was tortured by the furious Sith Lord…until Anakin returned and saved his son, sacrificing himself. Obi-Wan watched sadly as Anakin died in front of the boy, and then he watched as the Anakin he knew snapped out of the trance, horrified and distraught at what a future version of himself would do, before he left with the blessing of the ghost of Obi-Wan's old master. The sight of his old master was a shock for Obi-Wan and for the Jedi Masters. But one thing was clear.

Anakin had left the Order to save himself and others, but whether it would do any good…Obi-Wan didn't know.