Chapter Twelve

Two weeks passed before Hyperion and Menelaus truly needed to get a move on but the latter had decided to get on the road about three days after absorbing the specter. Aside from wanting to surprise Inoy and the other Jedi by being gone, it was also going to be a long walk across open fields where the gunship would hold advantage. The closer to town they were by the time that Inoy figured out that he and the others had been duped, the more likely they'd have to land the gunship in order to have a chance of effectively stopping the duo. To make time, the two resolved to travel in all the coldest hours and rest only during the warmest parts of the day. That gave them sixteen standard hours of travel time and eight in which they could set up camp, rest out of the wind, then travel again through the open fields.

Since the warmest hours were also the most windy, it made sense not to travel during them and instead move when the breeze was steadier. Plus, the friction of their movement (thanks to the planet's gravitational field) would allow them to regulate their own temperature. Menelaus, lacking a connection to the Force, needed more layers where Hyperion could use Force Temperance to keep no more than a light jacket on at all times. He also dropped it long enough to use Force Sight to make sure they were headed on the right path. Sure enough, two weeks of this brought them fairly close to the nearest town by the time there was any sign of the gunship coming.

On the bright side, the city that they were approaching the capital city of Ando Prime known as Elesa. It had a spaceport and it also had a safe that Hyperion had made payments for to last a lifetime on almost every remaining credit he'd had. Inside was his old armor and lightsaber which he'd hidden away about a year or so into his stay on Ando Prime, hoping he would never have to use any of them again. Even so, he had a lifetime guarantee to get his credits refunded if he ever changed his mind about using those items from his old life. Of course, the fact he'd shown up with unmarked credits meant that he might have been suspected of treason at the time.

Now, however, unmarked was the only form of currency besides Republic credits and thus not unusual to find. It was also a universal currency that could be marked for Republic use if need be. More important than that, it was generally marked only for the amount you intended to use during your stay in Republic space. They could also be marked with the local stamp of any planetary system outside the Republic that had any kind of advancement. Of course, Hyperion had always kept a trust fund that he could use to travel offworld if he ever needed to.

Give or take, he reckoned he had several hundred thousand credits in that fund now in addition to the payment he made on the safe for his old armor and lightsaber. He also had a few connections he could call upon whenever he needed to, especially on occasions like this. Most fortunate of all was the fact that even with a slight increase of several thousand visiting as a result of the Podraces, Elesa had never really changed since Hyperion first came. Even several of the people remained as hardy and loose-tongued as they ever did even if he doubted he'd be recognized by very many of them.

Aside from his connections, he probably appeared to be a long-bearded, scruffy, middle-aged nerfherder with a Zabrak son. Weaving his way through the mild traffic in the city, he came to a restaurant where Menelaus would be able to eat to his heart's delight while Hyperion discussed business with the owner. "Welcome to the restaurant, what can I get for you?" asked the first waiter to greet them.

"Get me your boss, tell him Code Red is asking for a blood sundae," Hyperion answered. The waiter shrugged and opened a door beside the grill which allowed him to visit the restaurant's inner workings. Within moments, a small and filthy looking Bothan emerged from the room to see if it was truly possible that Hyperion had returned.

"Well I'll be a son of a bantha! It's you... shit, you managed to get uglier too!" said the little man.

"And you've gotten fatter in my absence, Tyro. Tell me, you still think your farts count as a fragrance the ladies like? It'd explain why I saw a tauntaun out back," Hyperion retorted right back. Tyro's belly was sucked in and out so strongly that Hyperion knew he'd looked like he lost and gained thirty pounds with each laugh.

"You still got it after all these years. And you got a kid with you too! You teaching him to be every bit the badass you are?" Tyro asked.

"Only when I can get him awake long enough. I need a favor of you, old friend," Hyperion said.

"Now you know favors cost a bit of money, old buddy. Can't make no exception even for good pals like you," Tyro said.

"Save it, I haven't used my trust fund savings in eleven years. And I had a thousand unmarked credits in there when I came here. Besides, the favor I wanna ask isn't much: I need a fast, dependable ship with fuel to hit Dathomir and come back without the Republic's scrutiny. I think some old demons have finally caught up with me," Hyperion told him. Tyro looked around, making sure no customers were nearby to hear what he was going to say next.

"Why don't you and your kid step in my office? He can take his food in with him, don't worry," Tyro offered quickly.

"No way, last time I went back there I ended up spending a week cleaning out my clothes for eight hours a day. You find us a table or something similar and speak out here otherwise you speak here and now," Hyperion snapped. Tyro snickered then leaned in close before speaking to Hyperion about the ships he had.

"I tell you, I got a Corvette that just came in. Cleaner than a Human baby's butthole, never even been in it. Unblemished as a holy girl's pussy, you want it? I want ten thousand up front: your trust fund's probably yielded a hundred times that much since you left here all this time," Tyro said. Corvette ships, in his defense, were usually a little more expensive and Dathomir was quite a ways away.

It wasn't an unreasonable price but Hyperion couldn't be sure he wanted to pay it just yet. "Let me check my trust fund if you have a clean datapad to spare and I'll let you know if that price works. Come on, it's not like I'm gonna whip out a weapon while I'm looking for the trust fund information!" Hyperion replied. Tyro nodded and offered him one for use that was clean enough to use: admittedly, Hyperion's fingers were tainted with soot from years of fires as well.

As he checked his trust fund, he realized he nearly had half a million credits in reserve, making a ten thousand credit payment such as this seem like child's play. So Hyperion went ahead and made an offer that he couldn't refuse as far as the credits went. "I'll give you triple that offer in case I accidentally get the ship destroyed or something similar. Forty thousand if I can keep it for my own use, later on: I've got plenty more where that came from and it's likely to remain in pristine condition for longer with me than you anyway," Hyperion offered. Tyro leapt at the deal at once and offered to shake a hand but Hyperion pranked him at the last moment by yanking his hand and stroking his beard with it.

"You still got it after all this time, the little man is learning from the best with that attitude. Glad to meet you, mister..." Tyro said.

"Sparky, I was named that because I liked to play with fire when I was a toddler. Pop figured it easier to do that," Menelaus said, lying about his name. Tyro laughed it off with a wave and went to order the ship be ready for Hyperion and Menelaus to use. When they were far enough away, Hyperion began to lay into his son for what he had said about himself.

"Why did you give him a false name? He was a contact of mine that's always come through!" Hyperion whispered with a growl.

"Simple, if you die and I should escape, your killers will be looking for 'Sparky' instead of 'Menelaus'. Or any other alias I'd use with anyone else, relax pop. I'm just abiding by what you taught me," Menelaus said, fistbumping his father's forearm. Now that he mentions it, I did teach him that... clever boy! Hyperion thought silently.

"Good job, you remembered what we talked of before with names. But he is a trusted contact, I've used the Sight to see that in every encounter," Hyperion told him. They arrived to their ship, moments later and it was indeed a truly beautiful thing that seemed Alderaanian in design. Or else it was based of Alderaanian ships but either way, it'd have more than enough room for their supply needs. While Menelaus explored the ship, his first ever, Hyperion stashed their supplies in the hull and looked over the cockpit.

It was the first time he ever piloted a ship since he was originally dumped on Ando Prime then left for dead by the Jedi. Briefly, he swiped a finger over the controls realizing how he had been in his element whenever he'd flown among the stars. And even as he listened to the tutoring holograms, he briefly considered reacquiring his old armor and lightsaber, his more forbidden items. But he shook his head, vowing their legacy would die with him if anything happened on the way to Dathomir. The journey would be long regardless but he didn't think it would be so dangerous that he would need his old artifacts.

And even if he did, he knew better than to believe he would use them ever again. If he was to do this, he was going to do this as a man for Menelaus' sake. Not as the monster he had once been for the sake of those whose voices rose up now. And silenced when the ship launched.

Chapter Thirteen

Inoy had to hand it to Hyperion, even after eleven years of inactivity as a Sith, he could still be deceitful even to a Jedi. "He can't be anywhere in the mountain range and there's no trace of the specter's presence! Whatever happened to that cold-ass bitch, it's connected to why we haven't found Hyperion or his kid!" Polydeuces fumed.

"There is no emotion, there is peace. Never forget that oh hot-tempered companion of mine. Besides, I told you before that Hyperion knew the land and warned you that he would be a crafty old dog. If he can avoid fighting us, he will: he knows that we two Jedi and Havoc Squad combined would outmatch him on our own terms so he'll keep running until we walk onto his. Whenever a good strategist is in doubt about his enemy's prowess, he always lures them into an area where he has experience defeating his enemies, like in the war," Inoy said.

It felt odd to be barely twenty-five and coaching a Jedi only and advising a Jedi only six years his junior to calm down. Even so, Polydeuces was the type who probably should have remained under Dantius' tutelage a little while longer than he did. Otherwise, he wouldn't have had such a prideful disposition about destroying Sith Lords or former Sith Warriors like Hyperion. "Polydeuces, I myself am only twenty-five going on twenty-six years of age, you're five years my junior, and Hyperion is more than ten years my senior. He's been dodging Jedi and local authorities alike probably for longer than either one of us has been alive. We should expect someone of superior experience avoiding capture than our experience catching, young man," Inoy told him.

"I just don't understand why he would make such a big deal out of going to the mountains and then turn back when we were on the other side of the range. Did he see us coming before we knew he was there, how could he have known?" Polydeuces asked. It was a legitimate question for sure and was one that Inoy had been pondering as his Human counterpart though more quietly. Unless Hyperion wanted only to make us believe he was headed to the mountains which makes sense. And if the specter knowingly helped him, it makes all the more sense that he would fool us so Inoy thought silently.

"It's possible that the specter knew he was arriving when we interrogated her. She said the things she said in a deliberate attempt to deflect our attention away from Hyperion. This way, he could somehow collect her for his usage and then go from there. It's not impossible, especially since that spirit had reason to believe that we Jedi somehow wronged her," he said aloud.

"You don't actually believe that witch, do you!?" Polydeuces asked.

"No but we can't rule out the possibility that she was right to blame us. Much as I hate to admit it, the Jedi have made more enemies than they've destroyed in their quest for justice and peace. And that always give breeding grounds for Dark Side users like her and the Sith Empire to rise in. Or else their numbers wouldn't come back so resoundingly as they always do when we've faced them," Inoy answered.

"Like who? If I may ask?" Polydeuces asked. This man really hasn't really seen too much outside of the galaxy and wherever he was deployed with Dantius for combat against the Sith, huh? Can't say I am surprised, he came into Dantius' life the same moment that the Sith were weakened by the battles with the Zakuul Empire and the Eternal Alliance. The Republic came out of it strong enough to fight the Sith down but only barely Inoy silently mused.

"Well, for one thing, there are still business tycoons such as the former smuggler Clyde Rev. The Hutt Cartel and Black Sun are also an ever-present threat to the peace and stability that the Jedi have worked hard to create for the Republic. Much as I hate being the one to say it, I agree with Dantius that the way we handled the Sith's destruction has created a Hydra with too many heads to be readily vanquished. The only way we can slay it for certain now is remove the financial incentive for corporations and stockbrokers to conduct criminal activity with strong laws that can be policed by common security as well as Jedi. But that isn't the point: what is the point is that we should expect to be tricked a few times before we get Hyperion's pattern or else it wouldn't be a chase," Inoy told him.

"You care about him, don't you? Still holding a torch from the time he saved your life in Nar Shaddaa, all those years ago huh?" Polydeuces demanded.

"If there's a way I could repay the debt without it coming to conflict with my duty as a Jedi Knight then I most certainly would try to save him. But no, I learned what kind of man he was when he led us to safety from various crime syndicates like the Pykes and even Black Sun. The leader of the Pykes even put a bounty on the three of us and that's why we worked together to survive in the streets of Hutt Space. You don't come out of a scrap with that man without learning a few things about the demeanor of the man that you can use later. Plus, I was the only one to get any good to come up to the surface for Hyperion during our time... Seth began to think I'd made him go soft," Inoy said.

As their ship approached Elesa, Inoy was called to the front of the ship. When he arrived, he noticed a ship taking off that wasn't officially registered to the Republic or with any organization that could be immediately recognized. Worse still, playing back a recording of the transmission revealed what sounded like the voice of Hyperion, confirmed by him saying he was a Human male on a field trip out of Ando Prime with his son. The hologram had shown a Zabrak boy which matched the pair to a tee as far as appearance went and Inoy knew at once that they needed to stop the ship. Inoy ordered the pilot to step on it and he ordered a gunner to begin firing shots in order to bring him down but unfortunately, the ship had too much of a headstart on them.

So Inoy made the next order and demanded that ion shots be launched to try and get the ship grounded before it could take to hyperspace. That noted, however, the shot missed and landed harmlessly on a rooftop. Its potency had been long dissolved by the time it had arrived so no one was affected by it. Fortunate too, as the shot would've landed on the city power plant and knocked out power for all if it had any ability to affect the electricity. A dogfight then ensued with shots firing back and forth between Hyperion's ship and Inoy's gunship.

But when they broke atmosphere, Hyperion's ships locked in coordinates for the first of many stops to its destination and jumped to lightspeed. Adding to the misfortune was the fact that Inoy's pilot didn't get a lock on the coordinates before it took off. Now, Inoy and his team were back where they were when they started this search for Hyperion and his child. They had no idea where they would be in the galaxy and no idea of how to attain hold of them again. "Great! We've lost them!" Polydeuces shouted.

"Yes, we have but we've learned something here. Hyperion has something to gain from leaving that compelled him to take shots at us. We know what the specter looks like so it's a matter of plugging those details into the Jedi Archives to see if we have any matches there. If we can find out how the specter came to Ando Prime, how it could be released, and what Hyperion would have to gain from it, we'll have an idea of where he's going next. Plus, we're the ones in the better position to beat him there or anywhere else he might go with our ship when we find out," Inoy explained.

"So we're just gonna quit, go back to the Temple and read the Archives? We may as well give him victory in this instance and report the mission a failure," Polydeuces said.

"You can if you want, you're not coming with me even if I find something out. If this trip has taught me anything about you it's that you're too quick to temper, you are rash, and will become insubordinate and out of control if you're kept on this. I see no choice but to recommend you being demoted back to Padawan learner status and being kept with Dantius for the next little while so you can learn some manners," the Nautolan snapped back.

"So you're gonna take him by yourself? You'll die!" Polydeuces said. There's a reason we have operatives on the outside and it's precisely for scenarios like this. Do not fear for my safety Inoy thought.

Aloud, he said, "I have a better chance of coaxing Hyperion out of hiding if I come alone with Havoc Squad there to make sure he doesn't escape then I would having just you around. You're a skilled lightsaber hand, no one denies that but you are still mentally unprepared for the kind of strategy and patience it will take to beat Hyperion. Despite your sword arm, you have none of those things. But I know people who have a good sword arm and the qualities I need for this mission. I will say no more on this matter than I already have, we're headed to Dantooine and I will be doing the research I need."

The hyperspace trip back to Dantooine didn't take as long as wherever Hyperion was going. I've got a bad feeling about this. Let us hope the will of the Force keeps us all alive until I can get to the bottom of this dilemma with Hyperion and Polydeuces Inoy thought to himself silently. The plunge into lightspeed didn't take more than a simple lurch but the ship would have to make a stop at a nearby Republic system in order to make the rest of the way home. It simply wouldn't have the fuel for the kind of long trip back to Dantooine and there was a cruiser there with a shuttle to take them back anyway. A shuttle ride back to the Temple might give time for Polydeuces to cool down while Havoc Squad waited to resume the mission to capture or destroy Hyperion with renewed vigor.