Things are Better?
Darth Sidious gazed out into Coruscant's night sky accompanied by his apprentice, whatching the ships and satellites the substitued for the stars blotted out by the planet-wide city's lights.
"Garm Bel Iblis." Sidious was calm as he spoke his newest enemy's name. "How troublesome."
"Shall I dispatch an assassin?" Darth Tyranus asked blandly.
"That will be quite unnecessary. Killing Iblis and his cohorts now would only sow further interest. Better to redirect their attention...
elsewhere."
Sidious's answer did not surprise Tyranus. Being a political actor himself, such was the conclusion he had reached himself, and in politics he had no doubts his master outstripped him in skill. Yet, there was a rythm to these things. He was the apprentice and as the apprentice it as much his duty to display subservience as it was to show loyalty.
"What is your plan my lord?"
"Our friend from Corellia wishes to discover where these weapons have disappeared to? Then he shall be given everything he needs to do so." Sidious's mouth broke into a toothy grin. It was not a kind expression. "We shall grant him the authority to direct the Judicial Forces as they conduct inspections of the armories and bankrolls of worlds that the Senate deem suspicious."
Tyranus chuckled. "I am certain the Galactic Senate will be thoughtful in designating which worlds are to be inspected."
"You must be prepared to woo these worlds Tyranus. Garm Bel Iblis has handed us an immense opportunity. We must not waste it."
"Of course my master," Tyranus said with a bow. "I may have something which may help further muddy the waters."
The Count of Serenno pulled from his cloak a holoprojector and clicked it on. On it appeared a young woman with shoulder length hair and dressed in rough clothes. Were it not for the lightsaber held within her hand neither man would have guessed her to be a Jedi.
"This is Jedi Knight Lorana Jinzler sending a distress call to any who would listen. My master, Jorus C'baoth has..." The woman paused, visibly struggling with the words she was about to say. "...has fallen. The colony he helped found has become a twisted reflection of the Jedi Order. A council of force users rules with he at its head. Children are taken from their parents and taught to look down upon those without the gift of the Force. Dissent is dealt with harshly. At first he had people imprisoned but when others spoke up and refused to stand down he..." The Jedi stared at her lightsaber.
Tyranus paused the message there. "She continues on to say that she is leading a resistance against C'baoth and his followers and that she hopes that anyone that hears the message will relay it to the authorities."
"Ah, Jorus." Sidious's eyes twinkled with delight "The hate he exuded after he was denied his precious Outbound Flight by the Senate and his Council was delicious. His colony succeeded then?"
"For a definition of a success as you can see from the message." Tyranus returned the holoprojector to his cloak.
"Quite. Has the message been picked up by anyone else?"
"No my lord. My agents only discovered it because they were specifically there to monitor C'baoth. The master did well in finding a world distant from prying eyes."
Sidious 'hmmed'.
"Revealing the depths to which a Jedi Master like C'baoth has fallen to the rest of the galaxy would be most advantageous," Tyranus continued. "Imagine the trust the Order would lose."
"And the division it would sow within the Jedi's own ranks." Sidious smiled at Tyranus "Well done, my apprentice. Well done indeed. This is much more than I could ever hoped for had I simply allowed the Outbound Flight to occur. At most that would led to a dozen dead Jedi, but this..." Sidious let out an echoing laugh. "This will strike at the very soul of the Jedi!"
"Then, do I have your permission to spread this message?"
"It is granted. Make certain it is heard far and wide." After a moment Sidious mused aloud, "I wonder how many Jedi will die trying to restrain their wayward master."
"C'baoth is strong with the Force. If he has indeed fallen to the Dark Side then he will be an even more formidable foe. I suspect many Jedi sent to bring him to heel will be slaughtered."
"Good. Good. What of this Lorana Jinzler, will she be a problem?"
"No, she is an average example of a Jedi Knight. She is no one of concern to us."
"Very well, you are dismissed Darth Tyranus."
Count Dooku bowed. "Yes, my lord."
There you go, an omake of our two Sith lords dealing with Garm's curveball. Whether it'll pan out in their favor is something we'll have to see.
The big change from OTL is that there was no Outbound Flight here. Thanks to the push to increase funding for the Judicials I mentioned in Satine and Siri's omake the Outbound Flight got the axe and when Palpatine saw how that was pushing C'baoth over to the other side he decided to only have the Jedi Master trailed rather than killed when C'baoth settled for creating a colony in the Outer Rim.
