Lost and Longing.

The subhuman's reaction after the trial had even helped him. She had refused re-entry into the Jedi Order, leaving her vulnerable. Not that it would have mattered, he had planned to have her killed no matter what. Eliminating another positive influence in Anakin's life was necessary. If she had still been there she might have been an anchor for him to not give into his darker impulses. Unlikely... but still possible.

That she had voluntarily removed herself from his sphere of influence pleased Darth Sidious more than he could put into words. It made Anakin far more vulnerable and the Dark Lord planned to make use of that fact.

Anakin had privately confided his excitement in his padawan to Palpatine on numerous occasions. He believed she was close to being ready for the trials. When she became a Jedi he would have passed the final test and be named a Jedi Master, just like he had promised Qui-Gon Jinn, a Jedi Master, Sidious' own former apprentice had killed during the Battle of Naboo.

It was a point of pride for Anakin that he would be one of, if not the, youngest to achieve that rank in history.

Now with Ahsoka leaving the Order, he would be denied that honor, possibly for years if not longer, before he got another padawan and trained them up. While Palpatine was well aware that Anakin missed his former padawan, he knew in the back of the young man's mind he resented the lost opportunity for himself as well.

Palpatine had already plotted on how best to exploit that. He planned to act on it shortly. He would appoint Anakin to the High Council as his personal representative. It was one of those situations where there were no way to lose.

If the council gave Anakin that honor, and allowed him to join, the young man would be further indebted to Palpatine personally. If the young man asked it would be because he not only trusted him, and believed in him, but had shown himself far more competent than he believed many of the current Master's to be.

If they refused to allow him on the Council, then they would be setting up another public relations disaster. Palpatine would see that it leaked to the public that the Jedi Council was refusing to allow a Chancellor's representative, therefore the 'people's representative' on the council. Further they would be more upset when they learned it was Anakin, the Hero-Without-Fear who was being denied this great honor. Finally, if they allowed him on because they were suspicious of the Chancellor, then they would hope to use Anakin to spy on him, a laughable idea. The boy couldn't act to save his life. He would be easily manipulated, but Palpatine also guessed that meant that they wouldn't give Anakin the title of Master. Something that would just be petty and insulting and further drive a wedge between the young man and the Order.

He had initially planned to wait until after a full out assault on Coruscant to do that, but after the recent failure of the slave raid on Kashyyyk, Palpatine had decided to move up his timetable and do that soon.

Not that he had any intention of telling his current apprentice that. Dooku could hardly know that Palpatine already had his successor, and likely executioner, chosen.

His attention turned back to the transmission before him, "After Ahsoka Tano escaped from Coruscant, she showed up on Nar Shaddaa. She was followed to the Hutt moon by that... Twi'lek Jedi."

The disgust for non-humans was completely unhidden in Palpatine's voice. "Their actions there upset a great many people. Powerful people."

"Oh?" Count Dooku asked, this was news to him.

"Yes, smuggler and slaver ships alike disappeared, complete with crew. Most of them were believed to be chasing the former Jedi that was just on trial. There's now quite the bounty on her head, placed by a great many individuals with no connection to our operations." Palpatine explained.

He left unsaid the constant frustration that a place like Nar Shaddaa presented to their information gathering network. All information had a price there, so little was shared freely. So many niggling problems were there, and so many people went there to disappear or remain inconspicuous or unnoticed.

Palpatine shook off those thoughts and smiled almost beatifically, "Almost every smuggler and slaver cartel out there has long been discontent with the Jedi Order. Frustrations are now at a boiling point. I want you to use this incident encourage things to boil over." Count Dooku frowned, not quite following, and not ashamed to admit that he wasn't in this case. "Master?"

"There are several bounties out there on Ahsoka Tano and Aayla Secura, as well as Kenobi, Skywalker and several others. There are even more out there for dozens of lesser Jedi," Palpatine explained, not something he often had to do, but in this case Dooku needed the information to be the most effective possible tool.

"Encourage this. I want as many cartels, organizations, Hutts, or anyone else who has some resentment towards the Jedi Order to be encouraged to post bounties, go hunting or both. I want it to be risky for Jedi to be anywhere outside of direct Republic control." He didn't mention that it just benefited him to focus on any Jedi with a close relationship with Skywalker. Palpatine wanted his ties to be burned. He knew that by mentioning those three specifically, Dooku would likely take his own initiative to focus the hunts on them. He was so terrifyingly efficient.

Count Dooku finally caught on. "So the Jedi are going to be hunted by hunters, smugglers and all sorts of assorted scum. Some of them will be good enough to capture or kill Jedi for the bounties. And a few others are bound to get lucky. Further reducing their ranks."

Palpatine shook his head slightly. "Yes, but those deaths are almost incidental. If you do this right, this way they are hunted everywhere they go. Any neutral, unaligned and even allied spaceports that are under local control becomes a possible death trap. Places where anyone could turn and try to capture themselves a bounty. Except places controlled by the Republic Military."

Realization dawned for Dooku, "So when we make our move against the Jedi, they will have already put themselves at our mercy. By their own choice, through no action of ours."

Realization dawned for Dooku, "So when we make our move against the Jedi, they will have already put themselves at our mercy. By their own choice, through no action of ours."

Palpatine nodded, "If necessary, put high bounties on them yourself, if various interests with grudges see that there is already a bounty out there, they will be encouraged to focus their efforts on hunting, or to put their own bounties up, only to make it higher."

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