They thought they had found everyone who had memories of a dark future after the force surged. It was pretty obvious with Master Windu suddenly shaving his head, Master Qui-gon asking other Masters to help train his Padawan, and Master Tahl collecting bright paintings. They honestly thought they did until Padawan Xanatos enters the creche, and Initiate Kenobi screams.
It had all started with a huge disturbance in the Force that had left Master Yoda with a major headache and an ill feeling in his stomach. It was followed by a vision, a terrible vision of darkness, death and despair. Those who had seen the vision, only a hand full of people, knew it to be the future, they knew that it had happened. So they had done the only logical thing, they had searched each other out.
Master Yoda, Yan Dooku and Sifo Dyas had been the first. Over the time a couple of more were revealed, namely Master Yaddle and Plo Koon. After that, they had thought that they had found everyone, who could remember, who had SEEN the dark times ahead of him. For a time, everything was normal again and the five Masters pretended not to be different. It did work, to a certain degree. A couple of other decisions had been made, but nothing major. They had agreed to only interfere, were they had too. Dooku had not approved of that idea and his reason was quite clear. His former Padawan was still in danger of Xanatos falling. That event, though no one had realized it back then, had been the beginning of it all. With Xanatos’ fall, Qui-Gon had changed. It had been the reason, why he had not waited for Obi-Wan to join him in his battle against the Sith Apprentice.
It was truly astonishing how such a small and seemingly insignificant detail, can change the whole outcome of the galaxy. The five Masters knew that too, which is why they did not want to act rashly. It would have been easier, had they known about the future sooner, then they would have been able to stop Qui-Gon Jinn from taking on Xanatos in the first place. But things were as the Force had willed it and at least the five Masters agreed on this, the Force would guide them. Just as it had guided Yan Dooku and Sifo Dyas back into the light, as it had guided Yoda, Yaddle and Plo Koon to trust them, despite what they had done in the dark future. The Force truly moved in mysterious ways.
But then, everything went different. It had started with Mace Windu shaving his head, which he had done to a much later point in his life. In the dark future, Mace had done so to honor his origins. But at this point in the timeline, he shouldn’t know about the ritual. It was curious, but the Masters pushed it aside for now. Perhaps one of them, had said a word too much and changed a little detail, which had caused Mace Windu to shave his head. And it was not like it was a dramatic change that would change the whole galaxy, right?
It didn’t stop there though. It was after Master Tahl had begun collecting bright paintings and staring at them for hours, as if she wanted to burn them into her mind and after Qui-Gon was asking other Masters for guidance and help with his Padawan, that the five Masters became truly suspicious. At first, Dooku had been a suspect, but the brown haired man with the beginning of grey hair in his proud mane, had denied having spoken to Qui-Gon. They believed him. Yet, they still didn’t act. They had no real prove, not yet. Something was still missing.
And the missing piece of the puzzle came, when the news of a major incident in the creche reached their ears. The whole Council had been on the run, the creche was a sacred place, and what the five Masters saw, disturbed them. There was a very distraught Obi-Wan Kenobi, he had barely outgrown the title of Crecheling, who was in Master Qui-Gon’s arms. The young boy wouldn’t let go and neither would the tall Jedi Master, no matter what the creche Master said or tried. They were not the only one there. Xanatos DuCrion was standing a few feet away from his Master and the Initiate, who was sending him scared looks. The raven haired boy in question, was completely confused.
It took a moment for the commotion to calm down again and even longer for little Obi-Wan to calm down again. He remained in Qui-Gon’s arms, who held on with the same determination. Apparently the young ginger haired boy had started screaming and crying, when the raven haired Padawan had entered and instead of letting one of the creche Masters near him, he had run straight to Qui-Gon, who had automatically picked him up.
Xanatos had sworn that he had done nothing to the boy, that he had not even seen him before this visit and while the five Masters new that to be true, the rest of the Council was sceptical. Such a reaction was not normal, everyone agreed on that. He hadn’t done anything to Obi-Wan, YET and ‘yet’ was the keyword.
But there was no prove that Xanatos had done anything to the boy and so he had not been punished. The five Masters however, had looked deep into each others’ eyes, silently holding a whole conversation. It was time to meet up again and this time, they needed a couple of more chairs, for it seemed that their little circle of people who knew about the dark future, had just grown.
