Chapter Twenty-Nine

"You must be Menelaus, the Zabrak that Inoy was telling me about. It is such a delight to meet you, why don't I show you around my house and let you see where your room is?" offered Asya. Menelaus was much too taken aback by the sights of Coruscant to really debate her, though he was thankful he had visited Dantooine first and seen the cities there before he came here. Inoy followed behind and it wasn't long before Asya figured out that he wanted to talk to her about some serious business related to the Order.

"Okay, your friend has some business with me so how about I just introduce you to the main hall and the dining room. Then I'll take you up to your room and you can get settled in while he and I discuss whatever's on his mind," Asya offered after a moment. Menelaus couldn't wait to see anything and everything there was to see in this residence, having never been around so much luxury in his life before. He really is from an ice world to be so excited at all this material wealth I've accumulated from my inheritance Asya observed grimly. After about another hour or so, she showed him to his quarters and then stepped into a private chamber where Inoy waited for her.

She extended him a cup of saltwater which he gladly took, having deprived himself since leaving Dantooine. "You got something on your mind, old friend?" Asya asked as she sat down with a cup of tea as well.

"Yes, it is about the boy I'm entrusting into your care. Before I begin, how much did your husband tell you about Revan and the one known to history as the Jedi Exile?" Inoy asked to start things off. Asya thought about it carefully as she finished the cup of tea in her hands before replying to his question. Setting down the cup and the saucer, she then looked at the Nautolan and made her most honest reply.

"Mathes used to prattle on and on about Revan, his admiration for the man, and the stratagems he used to win battles," she admitted.

"Did he ever speak of the woman who became known to the public records as the Jedi Exile and her exploits against the Sith Triumvirate? Or was that something he never knew about when he was one of Revan's lieutenants in his old life?" Inoy asked. Mathes had actually been born in the decades before the Mandalorian Wars to a family of prestige but had been frozen in carbonite by a Dark Jedi enemy of his that he managed to mortally wound beforehand. Unthawed in another century, Mathes had adjusted as best he could and offered his insights about anything and everything of context to the life of Revan.

Fortunately for Inoy, as he was about to find out, this did include more than a mouthful or so about the Jedi Exile known then as Meetra Surik. "He did mention that she always shadowed Revan that she felt whole whenever she was with him. It wasn't a romantic love she felt for him, more like an older brother letting his sister take part in something grander than both of them. I know that when he left, she had been cut off from the Force and exiled for a time before it was revealed her power actually manifested as a wound in the Force. But that is all I can really tell you about the one that history calls the Jedi Exile," Asya admitted to him.

"I ask you this question because I have reason to believe that Menelaus may have been born a wound in the Force, like the kind she was. You and the Grandmaster of the Jedi Order will be the only ones to know and the information cannot be mass distributed until I know for sure. But when we went to Dathomir, before I fought the Sith acolytes that attacked us, there was a painting on the wall where I saw what looked like Darth Verrin's concubine giving birth to a void in the Force itself. Knowing the nature of such power, it's possible that the reason Menelaus' potential has never been discovered is because he has never been given a chance to feed off the Force itself," Inoy said.

"But Meetra never consciously fed on it where Nihilus needed to do it to survive, Mathes told me as much. Both were wounds in the Force that could siphon the energy of living things to survive or grow strong but Meetra was never dependent on it as Nihilus was," Asya pointed out.

"If the Force be willing, Menelaus will turn out to be the same way but it is possible that this connection is why Verrin so adamantly pursued his son. He didn't cast him out or anything similar but rather, intended to turn his son into the same kind of weapon that Nihilus had been. That or learn the power for himself so that he could defeat the Jedi Order and live forever, only further study of the mural I found could reveal the answer. I'll also need to return to the Jedi Temple to request an alphabet of the ancient Sith language so deciphering can be made possible. So if I should return to take the boy to the temple in the next little while, that will be why I have come, just wanted you to understand," Inoy said.

Asya let her head fall in thought, on the one hand glad she might actually have a Force-sensitive in tow. But on the other, the fact he was potentially a wound in the Force meant that catastrophic results awaited the galaxy if he was made aware of his gift prematurely. "Let's say that your suspicion is correct, wouldn't Verrin have tried to stop his mother when she fled with him? For that matter, do you think she might have been on her way to turn him over to the Jedi when she died?" Asya inquired.

"It's not unlikely. In fact, it's my primary suspicion for why Verrin shot down her ship: he figured a weapon falling into enemy hands such as that was a weapon best destroyed. The only thing I can't understand about it is how Menelaus' powers couldn't manifest if he is one," Inoy said.

"Unless the energy he did siphon as a baby was how he survived long enough for Hyperion to find him," Asya suggested. Inoy nodded, believing that to be the most sensible possibility when he thought about it a bit more. Then he thanked her for her time, made sure Menelaus would never hear about what he possibly was before it was known for sure, then left. He had much to think about before he returned to Dantooine, presumably to deliver the same speech to the Grandmaster that he had given to Asya.

The Nautolan also had to ponder what to do if Verrin came for him because if Inoy suspected this much, odds were the Sith Lord would begin to think so as well if he still remained in this plane of existence. Something also told him that he hadn't heard the last of the Sith disciples like the ones who'd attacked him and Menelaus. It was when he thought about the attack that he wondered if Menelaus had to be told his power to draw upon dead Force-sensitives. Was it possible that his power only manifested with knowledge of its existence which would explain how Inoy hadn't sensed him using the ability of Force drain?

He also had to make a call to Polydeuces, informing him that he had been officially recommended for return to Padawan status. Since the two of them had separated, he hadn't been able to get a hold of him with Polydeuces fuming about being left out of the mission. Havoc Squad was also somewhat livid but they knew the legalities of the system they worked for and knew better than to contend with the wishes of their own superiors. He would also need to capture him if he had continued to search for Hyperion even with being recommended to return to Dantius' apprenticeship.

Worst of all, it might be necessary to trade lightsaber blows with him in order to bring him down, should he be so entranced with this mission that he can't otherwise be stopped. But his first order of business was to first return to Dantooine and inform the Grandmaster of his revelation about Menelaus' power. He needed to persuade him to let him study the writing of the Sith so that he could decipher the message on the walls he saw so that he could confirm what he suspected in the illustrations. Because he knew that if he could persuade the Grandmaster of the magnitude of having someone born a wound in the Force, he knew the Jedi might have the greatest weapon for eliminating the Sith that they'd ever found.

If he could be trained to use his power against the wielders of the Dark Side, they also had an intimidation method for discouraging pursuit into the Dark Side. Though he hated the idea of Menelaus being used for this fashion, there were some things the Council had already ordered done which were far more questionable than his own ideas. If Menelaus truly was a wound, all Inoy wanted was for him to be the reason the Jedi could bargain with the Sith from a position of strength. There was, of course, just one problem with his plan if it turned out that Menelaus could wield the Force in like fashion.

The very moment Menelaus' ability was used for the first time, Verrin would more than likely sense it. How in the universe was he going to protect Menelaus once Verrin knew that his biological son had manifested powers? On top of that, wouldn't Hyperion also sense it and decide to do something about it, given that he raised Menelaus for eleven years? So many questions and not quite enough time to find out the answers to all of them, not even the ones about whether or not Menelaus was truly a wound in the Force.

And there was something else, when Meetra Surik was alive, the Council had been fortunate that she was willing to look for another chance when her connection returned. Had she been interested in revenge, she would've been little better than Darth Nihilus himself. What was to stop Menelaus from becoming another Nihilus when he realized his power? And why did Inoy sense now that the Prison Ring no longer held a specter within it? Too many questions and not enough time to start answering them before the answers would destroy the Jedi Order.