Chapter Twenty-Four
Hyperion had forgotten what a dump Bandomeer was. A mining community, there was a reason most people only came to this world to gather minerals and then leave. It was a lawless, worldwide mining community with the only enforcement of Republic law being sleepless droids since they couldn't be bribed. Hyperion knew he'd blend in here, having killed many such criminals before and such murders being a matter of public record.
In fact, when he landed he could've sworn he was still remembered from the last time he'd been on Bandomeer where he had been responsible for the death of twenty-six local gang members. He'd left the bodies of twelve of them for the authorities to find but smelted the others into gold statues he had his connection sell for some money. Now, however, that connection was lost to him since he was gunned down for selling fakes to over half the population. Even so, transports weren't very costly and for good reason: more people left Bandomeer on a daily basis than stayed on a yearly one. By and large, the only people who stayed were those who were on the run from the law, had slates to clean by serving prison sentences, or were born here and knew nothing else to name the three primary reasons.
Corruption was rampant and politicians did little to bring change when change would dethrone them from their gilded thrones. It was one of the few Republic systems that was essentially allowed to do whatever they wanted, provided they kept the ore coming in. But when the miners saw Hyperion, saw the lightsaber dangling from his belt, it was easy to see that they recognized a killer on his face and backed away. He was largely unopposed except for the occasional harlot looking to score some credits in return for a mere night's pleasure.
But beyond that, he was unmolested by the greater Bandomeeri community. He found a transport to his liking, one that was transporting people of all species en masse. Bothans, Ithorians, Cathars, even a Wookiee and Whiphid were making their way off world. Disembarking in overwhelming numbers were humans, many of whom wore chains to symbolize their criminality. It didn't take a genius to recognize what was happening and why they were being brought in such overwhelming numbers as they were.
The harlots will have their hands full in entertaining these ones. Hopefully, their pimps have ways to get them some good money or this is going to get ugly before too much longer he observed quietly. Already, several of the women who originally tried to hook him up were approaching several of the prisoners and law enforcement. "Quite a sight isn't it?" said an Ugnaught that caught Hyperion watching the disembarkation.
"It doesn't get better every time I see it. The Sith may be gone but corruption is still rampant in the Republic," Hyperion said aloud.
"That's a dangerous statement to be making kid. Reckon the Republic don't prefer critical thinkers very much since most such minds belong to the Jedi. Betcha the Chancellor don't scratch his ass without permission from the Council," said the Ugnaught.
"How was that any less dangerous than the words I spoke? It would seem like slandering the Chancellor is a tad more significant than pointing out that the entirety of the Republic being corrupt at some level" Hyperion asked. The Ugnaught laughed a sharp laugh that then was followed with a horrific cough. When he recovered from the coughing, he answered Hyperion's question rather bluntly.
"It ain't if you don't count the fact that the Chancellor is the Republic or so the saying goes. Rumor has it the man's a Grandmaster on the kriffing Jedi Council too, making him in charge of everything in Republic Space and maybe beyond. I'm Klaus by the way," said the Ugnaught.
"Hyperion," he said. The Ugnaught Klaus recoiled as if in recognition of the name from a past misdeed that he might have performed. Granted, the former Sith warrior wouldn't have been surprised but in truth he was a little suspicious about the Ugnaught's conduct. When he disappeared, Hyperion knew better than to stall for his return and tried to board the ship before anything could happen.
Moments later, the yellow lightsaber blade of the Echani warrior Agni materialized along with the man wielding it. He swiped at Hyperion with his blade then followed with several slashes that were reminiscent of the former grace he once commanded in wielding his favored forms. But Hyperion had seen enough broken Jedi to know exactly how to end this kind of confrontation before it gained anymore steam than it had already gathered around it. When the Echani missed, Hyperion turned and swiped over his right shoulder with the blade parallel to his left foot when the strike was finished, the Jedi barely countering with a sufficient defense.
Hyperion made a good twirl and managed to turn his blade so that the point was facing the transport before he then absorbed another blow from Agni. When this was completed, he shut off his blade, extended himself forward with the yellow blade mere inches from his chest thanks to a sidestep he took. Then he ignited the blade when the hilt was just under the forearms of his foe, swiping upward to take the Jedi Knight's arms off and deactivate the blade faster than he could think. When he realized what had happened to him, he cried out but Hyperion quickly threw his blade hand over his left shoulder then swiped back across to take off the man's head.
His strike was timed so that he could then turn around and slice across the eyes of Polydeuces, who'd materialized while Agni was being destroyed. Then Hyperion swiped underhand at an angle to try and see if he could slice a gash across Polydeuces' thigh. As Polydeuces cyan-blue blade hummed with the life of a Jedi's weapon before him, Hyperion then spun and struck underhand again. But when he performed this one, he extended a hand out before Polydeuces could react and used a Force push upon him.
In successfully performing a Pushing Slash from Form VI, Hyperion freed himself up to leave and just in time. Havoc Squad was getting ready to pelt him with lasers and while he could deflect them now that he'd seen them coming, he knew better than to fight on such crowded ground. He also knew the Special Forces squad would never fire upon a crowd of the magnitude that'd gathered around Hyperion and the Jedi before he was able to enter the transport. So he took advantage of the chaos to make his escape, paying enough in the way of credits that the transport driver actually accepted him.
He escaped, having deactivated his lightsaber and having successfully made his getaway. Which meant that Inoy had likely called in another favor lest Republic law stopped him from escaping with his life or his freedom. Curious, he entered his name into a databank to see what could be found, knowing the answer from his own days incarcerated in maximum security prisons. In the off chance he ever escaped, he learned the record he had by the time he was twenty-five by heart so that he would know what to announce when he was dying.
But when he went to see his record, he could only find those instances where he had been a nuisance or a direct enemy to the Jedi. Only his attempts on Dantius' life were available for the public records along with any other time that he killed other Jedi. What in the...? Hyperion began silently. But then, Hyperion figured out why it was that he was only seeing these instances in his public record. Inoy had somehow used the information on Clyde to bargain for Hyperion's legal expungement from all Republic law enforcement records.
You sleazy son of a Kath hound, you actually did it. The information on Clyde was juicy so you lied and told Republic law that I had gone into the fortress in return for total expungement. I'd be impressed if I wasn't so disappointed that it now means I won't be chased by Special Forces anymore Hyperion thought to himself silently. He couldn't believe his luck, couldn't believe that Inoy would perform this kind deed for a Sith warrior who'd killed more than his fair share of the Nautolan's fellow Jedi.
But there was a strategic benefit to all that he had done, a tactical victory for Hyperion that he now realized he benefited from. In doing this, Inoy knew that the Havoc Squad would be forced to reassign elsewhere in the galaxy where their talents would likely be of better use. Most likely, they would be assigned to settle skirmishes in Hutt Space like Nar Shaddaa or rebels in Mandalore. He would have just Polydeuces to deal with or any non-Republic enemies like Patricia's sister on Taris. It was a clever tactic and evened the playing field a little more than he originally believed was possible.
He just hoped that while Inoy was having fun, he was also getting busy taking Menelaus to Dathomir so that his mother's ashes could be disbursed. Because in having do this, in having Menelaus complete the journey under Inoy's protection, he was providing his son something he himself could never have. He was providing him closure on a part of his life that he had been haunted by behind forevermore. And as a father, he was not only providing his child closure, he was also providing him a better home than he himself could ever hope to give him.
Away from sorrow, away from want, away even from the conflicts of the Jedi and the Sith. But most importantly, away from Hyperion and the legacy that the man had forged for himself in the deeds of his youth. Deeds that, since donning on his armor and clipping his lightsaber to his belt once more, seemed no longer to haunt him. As if he had finally found the closure that he needed for himself from the evils he had committed when he was a younger and more insipid man. Pondering his future a while longer, he found a blanket, rolled up, and slept.
Chapter Twenty-Five
The trip to Dathomir was a physically easier one since the planet was less than a single parsec away from Bandomeer. But for Menelaus, it had been a generally emotionally unsettling one and with good reason. On one hand, he was completing the objective that had originally brought him and his foster father out of Ando Prime. But on the other, Hyperion wasn't here to witness the fulfillment of his mother's wish that her ashes be disbursed on the highest peak in Dathomir.
He saw that Hyperion had left a recording behind and the boy had finally decided to play it before entering Dathomir's surface. It hadn't taken Inoy long to find the highest peak in the planet nor that much longer to settle down near a flat enough point for there still to be a journey. He had also observed several unnatural structures that led him to believe that they would be seeing a site of some historical significance where they landed. But as Menelaus played the recording, he found himself even more sullen than he was before.
"Menelaus, if you're playing this, it means I have returned to the Sith warrior I once was before. I knew you were aware this form existed within me from the first time you caught me practicing my kata technique exercises when you were four years old but that isn't why I've done as I have. See, in saving and protecting you, I realized that it wasn't the fact I held a lightsaber that made me inhuman but how I used it that made me a monster. Admittedly, when I met you, I very nearly left you to the elements with your mother but not because I didn't care. Rather I was so blinded by the idea of vengeance at any cost that I didn't want to let such emotions show even to a dying woman begging me to raise her son.
"You're probably wondering why I ever did take you in, I bet. You wonder why I even bothered to raise you when it would've been all too easy to leave you to die with your mother. Well, that's precisely it, kid: it would've been to damned easy to leave you there to freeze and die. All I had to do was keep trudging on even as you cried louder and louder for food and warmth from anyone at all. But in taking you in, for selfish reasons or so I once believed, I knew I had a better chance of gaining the one thing I lost when I was four years younger than you are now... in saving you I hoped I regain my soul," Hyperion began.
Inoy had opened the hatch to Menelaus' room, having hope to tell him that they had arrived. But when he saw the hologram of Hyperion, he stayed silent and listened to what his former ally had to say. "I made a deal of servitude to my grandfather that cost me my soul, my humanity when I was seven years old. Many who were deserving died at my blade and many who were not perished under my heel but... But I'd like to believe I faced my sins, saving the lives of the two people who have ever mattered to me more than my own worthless existence.
"You, of course, and then the Jedi Inoy under whose company you should be under if all has gone to plan. I know that you can be the good man that I never was if you go with him, listen to his instructions, and pay your respect to the family who adopts you. Treasure them as I have treasured you for eleven years as through that respect, they will give you everything that I never could with even all my power. Warmth, safety, and the guarantee you would want for nothing for all the days of your life. Until you are fully grown, capable of independent space travel, and have the credits, please do not pursue me for both our sakes. Please do not look for me while you have a childhood to live out in case I should be killed by the blade of a Jedi and carry your mother's ashes to that mountain peak on Dathomir when you arrive.
"Your destiny is to fulfill her wish and then live a meaningful life with people who will know to love you as I did. As I... as I still do. I love you as the son I never had and the child I never knew, may the Force bless your life where it has only saw fit to curse mine," Hyperion's hologram said. Then it faded out of existence, Inoy as moved as Menelaus though his emotions were less obvious for reasons of his Jedi training. All he did was instead, place a comforting hand on the young Zabrak's shoulders when he threw the recording hard enough to smash it into several pieces across the wall in his room.
"That may be the hardest decision I've ever seen Hyperion make. If you think you are fuming, know it probably killed him inside to know he couldn't protect you the way you needed to be," Inoy told him.
"Why is he afraid he can't protect me? He's a fully trained Sith, he's slain Jedi Knights more powerful than even you before!" Menelaus snapped, giving in and letting the tears flow.
"Hyperion can do almost anything a Sith can possibly put their mind to. He can kill without a second thought to the consequences, torture without regret to who he was tormenting, but I don't think he performed any greater act of courage than raising and protecting you. Deciding that you would be better protected deep in Republic Space must have been like cutting out a chamber of his heart without anesthesia and handing it to you. Come, don't hate him for what he has done: take inspiration that your journey is almost complete and that Hyperion's managed to do the one thing most parents can only dream of," Inoy told him. Menelaus tried his best to put aside the tears and rise to the occasion, Inoy producing the sash with the ashes of the boy's mother.
"Carry her, Hyperion wouldn't have wanted anything else if he were here now. And wipe that frown off your face, something tells me we're about to do a lot more than simply disburse some ashes," Inoy assured him. When they disembarked, Inoy immediately began to regret the words he had said to Menelaus about doing more than simply disbursing some ashes. On the right side of them, there was a panel of stone with paintings that Inoy recognized as a primitive form of hieroglyphic writing.
Unfortunately, he also recognized the writing on the wall as Sith which meant that this related to the Empire. In the drawings was a purple-skinned Zabrak of Dathomiri origin, the only such person that Inoy had heard of being the one called Verrin. He watched the panel and recognized what it was all at once... it was the story of Menelaus, a child of Darth Verrin by an Iridonian concubine. "What is this?" Menelaus asked.
"Your story, Inoy. This is... this is the story of your birth and how you came to be with Hyperion," Inoy answered at once. Menelaus' skin paled in epiphany, the sudden knowledge that he was looking at the story of his birth at once galvanizing him and terrorizing him at the same time. He recognized the purple-skinned Dathomiri as his father in those moments and recognized what the panel came to mean.
"Your father was the Sith Lord Darth Verrin. One of the members of the Dark Council when the Empire was deposed from the galaxy. Your mother wanted you to come here because of this project, this story your father left behind for you if you ever came," Inoy told him. They scaled the mountain slowly while reading what the panel had to say. Inoy could tell that Verrin had grown to love Menelaus' mother and together, they'd conceived him in an act of passion. But when Menelaus was born, a void was cast around him according to the panel, making Verrin want to study him more for some reason.
That said, when Menelaus' mother realized what was going to happen to her son, it appeared she stole him while Verrin slept. The Sith Lord had been drugged or else his sleep would have been interrupted when she entered to steal their son away. Pursuing her across the stars, the panel ended when the ship that had brought Menelaus to Ando Prime had been shot down. "I don't understand, what was with that black fire around me? Was I some kind of abomination when I was born?" Menelaus asked.
"No, the Sith have accepted plenty of abominations into their ranks. I'll admit that my Sith alphabet is a tad poor, since Jedi are usually taught to stay away from anything related to them except times like when they unite against the Zakuul empire. The only thing that truly besets me is your name in these characters. For some reason, your father refers to you as Surik," Inoy said.
"Surik?" Menelaus inquired. Inoy then decided to ask him a question that seemed only fair, given the circumstances.
"How familiar are you with the legends of the Jedi Order? How much did Hyperion teach you about the people it calls its greatest heroes?" Inoy asked.
"I know about Revan and about Awdrysta Pina in the First Great Schism. I've also been made aware of the exploits of Satele Shan since the more recent war with the Sith started. Why do you ask?" Menelaus admitted. Then he doesn't know about Meetra Surik, the wound in the Force who could drain the life essence to sustain herself. Could I be looking at someone born with the same power and that's why he never manifested any sign of the Force? Inoy thought grimly.
"A question for another time. Come, your mother's ashes aren't going to disburse themselves you know," Inoy said. They climbed to the summit, where Menelaus came to the edge of the mountain so that his mother's ashes could fly upon the wind. While he did this, Inoy backed up to give him privacy for a family ceremony as well as to look over the hieroglyphs once more. By the time, Inoy believed he had reasonably figured out the story that this monument to Verrin's family told him with what limited ability to read the ancient Sith tongue that he possessed. He had to warn the Council, this much was certain, when they began their journey back to Dantooine and before Menelaus was given to the home Inoy had spoken of.
