AN :
Here is your extra chapter, you guys deserve it ;)
if we hit 200 power stones in 24h I will release and extra chapter
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The arrival of the prophesied Chosen One was the last thing Yoda, or any of the Jedi Council really wanted to deal with. They were trying to preserve peace, not ready themselves for a final war against a resurgent Sith Empire!
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After the two had delivered their report, silence filled the room, and Yoda felt all eyes turn to him, waiting for him to speak first. "Well done, Padawan Kenobi." Yoda had said, after silence lingered too long. "Go rest. Dismissed, you are."
"Thank you Master." Obi-Wan bowed respectfully to the Master of the Order, before leaving the room.
Only Qui-Gon remained to address the Council. At first Yoda was tempted to dismiss him, but could see there was more that needed to be discussed, and perhaps Qui-Gon would have something useful to contribute.
Mace Windu finally spoke. "If this Zabrak was a Night Brother that would give weight to Sifo's theory, regarding Dathomir."
"Speculate, we will not, until the facts, we have." Yoda said firmly. He knew it was probably true, he hoped it wasn't, but he believed in the Force and not coincidences.
"And Anakin?" Qui-Gon asked.
"Test him, we will. Discuss this, we will." The Grandmaster promised. "But wait for Knight Vos, please."
No one in the Council had moved or said anything further until Quinlan arrived. He came into the chamber, dressed as disrespectfully as he usually was. Normally Yoda would have been bemused by his displays of defiance towards the Council, but then he had been too focused on the matter at hand to even give it a second thought.
Mace Windu leaned forward, offering the Sith's saberstaff to Vos.
Wordlessly, Vos accepted the weapon, and held it away from himself for a moment. He glanced about the room at the other Jedi Masters, before closing his eyes. The moment that he had he opened them again. "This is a Sith's weapon."
Yoda nodded. "What else do you see?"
Lowering his head again, Vos closed his eyes and focused. What he saw shocked him, but he remained upright. After a few more minutes he was finished, and opened his eyes. He turned a disbelieving gaze towards Qui-Gon. "That's a bloody good padawan you've trained, Jin."
"How much did you see?"
Vos considered his words carefully. "Five Jedi have been killed by this Lightsaber. I didn't recognise all of them, but I did see former Master Siolo Ur Manka, Master Anoon Bondara, and Master Sifo Dyas."
Yoda clenched his eyes shut, leaning back in his chair as his worst fears were confirmed.
Vos went on to explain the extensive history of the weapon, from what he could see. The assassin had claimed the lives of multiple force users outside the Jedi Order, half a dozen Black Sun Vigos, and countless others in between that Vos couldn't identify.
"And he didn't work alone." Vos finished with. "This assassin was trained by… someone else, someone much more powerful. He held the lightsaber only briefly, and all I could feel was bottomless hatred, for… everything. Everyone, the Galaxy, even."
Of course. Two, there always were. "Knight Vos, go to the archives, and look into open cases. Find out who these other slain Jedi are."
Without any defiance at all for once, Vos bowed and went to leave, then hesitated. He turned to address the chamber again. "This assassin. Do we have a picture of him?"
Mace Windu raised his datapad, and sent the footage collected from the Naboo cruiser to Vos's holopad.
After looking at it for a moment, Vos looked up at the Masters. "This guy was a Dathomiri?"
"Aware of this, the Council is." Yoda answered him. "Discuss this later, we will. Once we have learned all we can."
Vos nodded after a pause, then left the chambers.
He didn't have to say it, the entire Council was thinking it, Yoda was sure. A powerful Nightbrother trained as a Sith, sent to assassinate the Jedi Master who had long theorized the cult of Dathomir could be the recruiting base for a new generation of Sith.
After that they sent Qui-Gon to wait outside while they tested the boy, Anakin Skywalker. Part of Yoda had hoped that the Qui-Gon had been mistaken, that this wasn't the Chosen One, and the Jedi Council would not have to seriously consider the possibility of another galactic war, but the child was as strong as promised.
Just considering his connection to the Force, young Skywalker was simply the strongest force user Yoda had ever seen in his eight hundred years. Before this moment, the only being Yoda had met who he could consider a match to his own power was young Tan'ya. She was also the subject of prophecy and yet to fully develop her connection to the Force, but young Annakin surpassed even her.
The two of them both being alive at the same time left Yoda with a sense of dread that he would need to meditate away later. One child was destined to reveal the Dark Side, and the other would defeat it. In the meantime, Sifo's prophecy promised fire and hunger for the whole Galaxy.
A brief interview with the child showed that he was a less than ideal candidate for Jedi training. Strongly attached to his mother, proud of himself despite his nervousness, and still with a slave chip implanted in his neck. There was too much fear in him. Tatooine had left its scars on the poor boy, in his mind and on his body. Yoda felt a deep sympathy for the boy, but to train him as a Jedi would pose such an incredible risk…
Bathed in the orange hues of Coruscant's setting sun, the Jedi Council sat in what felt like an eternal session. Yoda felt every second of his eight hundred years as they finally neared the end of what felt like the longest day in his entire tenure as Grandmaster.
"Friends, your thoughts, please." Yoda asked the other Councilors.
"I think we should train him here." Yaddle added. "I understand that he's too old, but we can make an exception for the Chosen One, which it seems he is."
There was a moment's silence, before Plo Koon spoke up. "The boy is already using the Force. If we send him back out into the world, he won't forget and grow out of his powers. He may be more likely to fall to the Dark Side."
Even the most orthodox Masters had to see his point, but that didn't mean they were ready to take him in as a padawan.
"I think you're forgetting something." Ki-Adi-Mundi pointed out. "If we don't train him here on Coruscant, then Master Jinn is just going to take him to Indinor. This isn't a choice between him being trained or not, but whether we will be the ones who train him."
Yarael Poof pointed out. "I think Dooku would greatly appreciate having Qui-Gon at the New Temple. He's short of Masters already."
There were some nods of agreement, until Depa Billaba spoke up. "Dooku already has one prophesied child, do we really want to send him another?"
Ki-Adi raised an eyebrow at her. "You don't trust Dooku? You voted to allow his New Temple in the first place."
"I did." Billaba agreed. "And I still trust Dooku, but he's not exactly acting as a subordinate to the Jedi Council, is he? He has own vision of how things should be done, and he hates the Senate. I'm worried about what kind of worldview he might imprint on young Skywalker."
That drew more nods from the assembled Masters.
Finally Mace spoke up, addressing Yoda. "I believe the safest hands for the Chosen One are our own. Especially now that Vos has confirmed there is another Sith Lord out there, who is no doubt looking for an apprentice, and seizing any opportunity he can to kill jedi."
Yoda shut his eyes and leaned back in his chair, thinking for a moment. Training the boy was dangerous, very dangerous. But to let him go?
Dooku might claim he wasn't recreating the Jedi Lords, but that was what it looked like he was doing for all the Galaxy to see. The small handful of Outer Rim worlds that were enjoying the personal protection of a Jedi Knight assigned by Dooku were flourishing. With security came peace and prosperity, but also dependence. It was still very small, but Dooku was creating something that was coming to look like a kingdom of his own, with trade arrangements, a growing fleet, and a growing political presence.
If young Skywalker went into Dooku's order, he would grow into a servant of that kingdom, and not to the people of the Republic to whom the Jedi were truly called to protect.
Worse still, with a Sith being out there, even sending the boy away might be feeding him and his great potential to the Dark Side.
"Very well." Yoda finally spoke up. "The Council is in agreement. Young Skywalker will be trained here, as a Jedi."
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Asleep in a dingy little room below ground, Aurra Sing was awoken by the sound of her holocom buzzing. Opening bleary eyes, she glanced over at where her device was plugged into the wall outlet, charging. She blinked once, twice before recognising the caller.
Sitting up, she quickly pulled a shirt over her head, and changed the device to only show her head and shoulders, before answering.
"You have a job for me?"
"Yeees." The creepy old man answered, his eyes covered by the hood of his hologram projector. "One of my other agents has failed me, and is in need of… repair. For now, you must go back to Naboo and finish what he started."
"A job on short notice like this is going to be expensive." Aurra warned him. "Who's the target?"
"Queen Amidala of Naboo. Kill anyone who gets in your way. She will be protected by the Jedi."
"Gonna be even more expensive." Aurra Sing grinned. "But I know you're good for it."
"She's on her way to Naboo now." He warned. "Succeed in this, or die trying, Sing."
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