AN: Everyone thank the awesome beta Functionality for their great work. This is the long awaited and asked after Sith react. I did my best, but I'm not a sociopath so guessing at Sidious' thought process is… yuck. I tried my best. This is what I came up with. I'm going to run with it.

{}{}{}{} Count Dooku

Coming down the shuttle ramp after another successful off world venture to Mr. Carson's professionally neutral face was in many ways the best indicator that I was well and truly home.

It was not, necessarily, a good thing. Reaching out with the Force to get a feel for the man's mood solidified the thought. Mr. Carson was a consummate professional at all times, but something had him rattled. Not afraid, or angry, merely off balance.

"Mr. Carson, dare I hope that you are only here to welcome me home?"

"I'm afraid not, m'Lord. It would appear that Mr. Branson's hobby of trawling through the forums has finally turned up something you'll wish to know about."

That was unlikely. While the boy imagined himself as a political activist, I kept a number of trained analysts on staff. That he would discover something they missed was unlikely in the extreme.

"Oh, do tell? Rumblings of dissent among the lower classes? Some scandalous bit of trivia to do with the love affairs of one of my contemporaries perhaps?"

Carson cleared his throat which was as close as his self control would allow him to fidgeting in place like a child.

"Actually, m'Lord, this seems to be more along the lines of Jedi business."

"I beg your pardon?" How the young man could possibly have discovered anything I might find relevant about the order I couldn't imagine. Never mind impressing Carson enough to actually bring it to my attention.

"It'll be easier to show you, m'Lord. Your office might be best. I've kept it away from the rest of the staff so far. Wasn't sure what your opinion might be."

Now thoroughly confused and more that a bit curious, I nodded my assent and headed into the mansion.

{}{}{}{}

As the final video ended, I leaned back in my chair and eyed the screen thoughtfully.

The audacity of it. The sheer disregard for the inevitable consequences the utter mad simplicity of the idea.

I could no longer hold it in. I laughed.

"M'Lord?" Carson asked cautiously.

"That, that boy has the kind of nerve needed to steal from a Hutt." I shook my head. "His reasons for leaving the order are not particularly in line with my own. And yet I can't help but to wonder if this chaos won't force some of the changes I tried to push for, by sheer happenstance. It's certainly going to force the Jedi to change. They won't have any choice."

"Sir, aren't you concerned? Surely this will have repercussions?"

"More than you or I can possibly imagine, Mr. Carson. We could see just a trickle of new Force users and the Galaxy might have time to mostly adapt. We could see a flood of them that will overwhelm governments from one end of the galaxy to the other and see an age of turmoil unprecedented since the days of the Sith Wars of old. We could see criminal organizations bolstered with Force abilities make war against planetary security until every planet is forced to turn all their attention inward. Most likely we will see some mad combination of all these possibilities and more besides."

"Then, why laugh, m'Lord?"

I chuckled again for a moment before answering.

"Mr. Carson. In the coming months and years, I will no doubt find myself cursing this, Captain Kesel to no end. But for all that, I can't help but laugh when I imagine just how much worse it must be for my former contemporaries in the Jedi order."

Carson's lips twitched upward for a brief moment acknowledging my point.

"Well then, m'Lord. Much as I hate to spoil your good mood… I may have the first instance where you'll feel compelled to curse the lad already waiting." Oh, well that didn't bode well. "Mr. Branson has been practicing these lessons for going on three weeks now. So far, he hasn't reported any success, but he has been diligent."

"Ah… Let Mr. Branson be for the moment, Mr. Carson. I'm afraid I'll have to give the matter far more thought before I set any household policy on the topic."

"Very good, Sir. Will there be anything else, m'Lord?"

"No, not at this time. I'm afraid I need to make several calls and I must insist that I not be disturbed. If I don't make it down in time for dinner tell the chefs to set it aside and I'll eat when I finish."

"Very good, sir." Mr. Carson bowed and left the room.

Now then. This wasn't the sort of information I could delay sharing with my Master, and I doubted he would receive things in such good humor as I had. And while I might find this amusing in the abstract the real long term implication for all of this would no doubt be staggering. We would need a strategy for how we might best turn this to our advantage.

{}{}{}{}

Sidious watched the videos in silence, only small tells in his expression giving any hint to his feelings as he watched the videos. Though I admittedly only glanced up occasionally to observe him as I started on my own research.

Surprise, anger, disgust, amusement at times, but all in all he stayed true to his core being and mostly radiated unending fury. When the final video ended, he took near three minutes to compose himself fully before speaking.

"This should not have gone on for nearly so long without being brought to my attention."

I opened my mouth to remind my Master that I had only just learned of it myself, but he waved me to silence.

"I have sources of information within the order. Granted, I've been kept unusually busy the past few months with a number of topics, but…" His words trailed off into muttered imprecations as he began searching through digital files. It took several minutes to find what he was searching for and slammed a fist angrily on the top of his desk.

"Damn it! It was reported, but the sorting algorithms were never programmed to pick up on something like this!"

Unfortunate, but it did make a certain amount of sense that he wouldn't trust a living person to go through such sensitive data. And there were limits on how free thinking a program could be.

Sidious cursed quietly and sulphurously. As his eyes skimmed document after document.

"The Jedi are in turmoil." He finally spoke clearly. "They know they need to act but are divided on how to act."

"Unsurprising." I knew this game well. My master was assimilating all the new information and soon he would be plotting. Trying to feel through the Force how each plan might affect the greater plan which we were only a few years from implementing.

"How wide spread is the knowledge? Obviously, it's too late to fully contain the spread…"

I had been looking into that and several other topics as he watched the videos.

"I've only just begun to search, but I've already found copies on several other video sharing sites, and at least three message boards or similar things where informal groups are discussing their minimal successes. So far that is minimal, but if the Captain's claims about this martial art style are to believed, those numbers will grow with time."

"Any signs of official news coverage?"

"I've yet to find any, so likely nothing which has made it to the galactic networks. Though I'm sure it's appeared on smaller local agencies somewhere. That won't last though. Not after Yoda has lent it his credibility."

"True." My master's fingers drummed a rapid beat on his table top scowling at nothing.

I waited in silence, but not for long.

"The information cannot be stopped at this point. This should not prevent the Grand Plan from progressing… But it will sow chaos beyond anyone's ability to predict. We will have to be vigilant, and adapt as things change." Sidious scowled. "Which was never going to be simple, but this will only make things more difficult."

"The question then," Sidious mused, "is if killing the boy would reduce the chaos appreciably… or if it would be more valuable to see what information we might be able to take from these lessons and improve."

"Master?"

"This trick of his, conjuring fire. It should be simple enough to reproduce and weaponize. The question is what if anything else he may have rediscovered or invented."

That was… hmm.

"It may also bear consideration that even if the masses of the galaxy are incompetent in the extreme… an army of idiots experimenting with abilities beyond their understanding may just invent something valuable by sheer number backed probability." I offered.

Sidious face twisted as if he had bitten into something unspeakably foul.

"He is certainly setting the groundwork for the masses to fall to the Dark Side. It would make finding disposable tools simpler, however… it would be essentially impossible to track them all… I don't like the idea of allowing potential rivals to gain strength in obscurity. The rule of two has served our order for a thousand years, but some fool with delusions of grandeur will doubtless declare himself the leader of a new sith order." Sidious hissed like an offended feline.

"Doubtless, Master. And likely more than one."

"… Perhaps then the solution is not fighting to maintain the status quo, but instead changing to match the reality we must face…"

"Master?"

"If we must face a galaxy where any ambitious fool with delusions of adequacy might claim the title of Sith… Perhaps it would be for the best that we put them to work, rather than let them run loose. They would certainly prove useful in countering whatever self taught fools might have delusions of heroism when we begin to move in earnest."

My eyebrows shot into my hairline.

"That is… a bold strategy, Master. And when things come to a head neither of us will have much time to spare for teaching."

"But we have some time now. You more than I." Sidious mused. "Did you not recently acquire a potential disciple of your own?"

Ah. I'd not thought he would be aware of her yet. I'd hoped to have a bit more time to work on her before he became aware of her existence. How had he learned of her existence?

"She shows potential." I admitted.

"Push her, impress on her that she will be trained beyond the rabble, and that she will be expected to bring others to a minimum level of competence. Even pathetic, half trained Sith acolytes could be useful."

"Hmm, and so long as they are only half trained, they will never be strong enough to pose any true threat."

"Indeed."

"And what of the source of this chaos, Captain Kesel?"

"For now… For now, he may live. If only for the damage his actions are causing to the Jedi order. However, when he has outlived his usefulness… Well, such a major disruption of our plans deserves a response." Sidious' smirk was a thing to behold, but not for the faint of heart.

"As you wish, my Master." I bowed to the holoprojector.

"That still leaves the matter of the Senate." Sidious mused. "Once this reaches galactic news it will spread like wildfire. It would be prudent to have some sort of stance in place beforehand. The fools in the Senate are most easily swayed when I can present them a plan to follow."

"You could outlaw the practice." I suggested. "It would likely dissuade some of those that would follow in the footsteps of the Jedi."

"It would… but I doubt such a measure would ever make it through the Senate. I can think of a few dozen planets and species that would reject such a push on religious or spiritual grounds. A number of warrior and militant cultures will want this as a form of self improvement, and governing bodies. And once this spreads to the criminal elements of the galaxy…" Sidious shook his head.

"No. Much as it galls me to say this, unless we want to spend all of our time personally disciplining criminal groups of Force users, planetary security groups will need to be capable of handling some of the fools."

Sensible, and annoying.

"Perhaps, the Jedi could be distracted dealing with major cartels, and criminal empires for a time? Throwing them against seasoned fighters with a modicum of power and skill might at least thin their numbers, and keep them distracted."

"A good thought." Sidious admitted. "Perhaps…"

Sidious's face shifted to a mocking exaggeration of how he presented himself to the galaxy as a whole and when he spoke his voice lost its customary sharpness in favor of his kindly old man tone.

"In this unprecedented time of change, and uncontrolled transition, we the people of the galaxy must lean on our long time protectors, as never before. The Jedi order have long served as a force for peace and stability in the galaxy and now we must place our faith in them to help guide us through the coming turmoil. We must go forward, united as we face the coming trials." Sidious cackled and dropped the facade.

"Good, good. Not a bad start at all. I'll need to find some strings to pull behind the scenes, but with Kesel's lessons acting as a counterpoint to the Jedi there should be no end of fools falling to the Dark Side. Yes, we can make this work to our advantage."

"Then by your leave, my Master. I believe I have things to begin putting into motion." Starting with Ventress, and perhaps paying a visit to Mr. Branson.

"Yes, we both have tasks to be about. Keep me apprised, particularly about this apprentice of yours. If she is not up to the task, we may need to find you another."

"As you wish, my Master." With a final bow I ended the call. Now then, dinner first. And then on to business.