Chapter Twenty-Six

In finally disbursing his mother's ashes, Menelaus remembered to do it with the hand that held the Prison Ring, awakening the specter to her homecoming. "Specter of the Ring, I hereby name you Talzin and release you from your prison. Rise free and powerful from the ashes of my mother to be born anew," he said. Several moments later, a green mist materialized and formed on the ashes of Menelaus' dead mother.

Whenever he threw some ashes across the sky, the green mist levitated above the ground as the ashes were carried across the air. "Thank you, my boy, for releasing me from my prison. Allow me then to reveal your story and the plan that your mother had concocted for this day," Talzin told him. Then Menelaus' perspective melted from the present day, showing him an eye he knew originated within his mind and allowed him to look into the past.

Menelaus saw a figure he recognized as his pregnant mother walking to the cave where the specter had been imprisoned. "Great spirit of the mountain, tell me what my child is so that I may please my lord," she asked.

"There is a price for such knowledge," said the specter.

"No price is too great, please tell me!" she begged.

"If you but instruct that your ashes be disbursed on Dathomir when you are dead, I will take care of the rest. Swear an inviolable oath that you will lend your ashes to my cause and I will tell you what you need to know about your child," the specter told her. Menelaus' mother swore a blood oath that she would offer her ashes to whatever cause the specter needed of them. The vision then skipped over to Menelaus' birth and the eyes of his father bearing down upon him as if in recognition of something about him before he was even born.

Then a flash and his mother was fleeing his father with baby Menelaus in tow, the ship crashing and Hyperion collecting him when she was dead. Everything was adding up nicely as to how he even ended up in Hyperion's care but not why he was called Surik. It sounded like the Jedi knew something but he continued to contemplate what the hell the hieroglyphs meant to anyone. He finished dispensing his mother's ashes among the currents when the vision parted, the specter being thanked for what it had given him before it disappeared upon the wind.

On the one hand, Menelaus was glad that she would be free but on the other he was going to miss the power she clearly had at her disposal. He cast the sack which had carried his mother's ashes over the edge of the mountain, his business done on Dathomir. After all, he knew about his birth, who his father was, and had a rough guess as to why he had been brought to Ando Prime. There was just one thing left and that was to mull over what the specter could've revealed to his mother that made her take flight from Verrin when she recovered from the act of childbirth.

The Jedi seemed to know something and when Menelaus came back, he asked if he had made any headway in deciphering them. "I'll have to come back with a team of archaeologists in order to know anything for certain. But I'm confident I have correctly interpreted what they mean to the best of my abilities. I can't tell you anything until I know for certain lest I cause premature fright in you or something similar," Inoy confessed to him. Clearly, he was hiding something but Menelaus knew better to push it, not when Inoy was sensing approaching entities.

The ignition of red lightsaber blades confirmed that they were trained Sith Lords and Inoy had his T7 ready for the ship for a quick getaway. Then he turned on a holocam he had to record the Sith that were about to attack himself and Menelaus. Igniting his own blade, he greeted them with the characteristic opening stance of Form III Soresu. "Jedi, you are trespassing on Imperial Sith grounds and are therefore in violation of intergalactic ordinance. State your name and your business in this part of Dathomir or we'll enjoy chopping you and your Padawan asunder," said one, a Cathar with a saberstaff.

"My name is my own business and this boy is not my Padawan. Merely a guest from a dear friend of mine who will be needing a place of his own soon," Inoy told them. The Cathar then smiled before leaping in, closing the space between them with a Force-imbued forward jump. Inoy intercepted the first strike of her blade long before she had a chance to slice his throat with it then intercepted the other end just before it could lacerate his right thigh.

When she tried to bash her hilt into him, he countered by feinting then slicing in a diagonal motion to cut her blade in half but he'd also sliced her throat in similar fashion. She was dead before she had even hit the ground while her Bothan friend made a run for Inoy with his traditional blade. Since he was several dozen meters away from the Cathar even before she made the leap, he had hoped to leap above Inoy and strike down to cut the duo in two. Instead, Inoy sliced his blade arm with his lightsaber then horizontally bisected him at the waist, leaving him for dead when his upper torso rolled to his right and nearly over the edge of the cliffside.

The lower half of the Bothan was sent flying over the cliff before Inoy had even registered that he'd killed his first two Sith lords since before the war ended. They reached the ship in time for Inoy to sense a much darker void like presence that made even Menelaus double over in nausea. There was only one Dark Lord that Inoy could think of who would have such a revolting presence, one of the last people he ever hoped to see in the galaxy. "Punch it, T7, we're getting out of here and headed Ord Cestus and then Dantooine from there!" Inoy ordered.

The droid wasted no time in arguing and catapulted them into the atmosphere before there was any chance of the Sith Master stopping them. However, they were pursued by Sith buzzards until they broke the atmosphere of the planet, Inoy taking to arms to shoot down one or two just before the void of space greeted them. Then hyperspace took over, transporting them back to Bandomeer where they would then return to the Hydian Way. He knew that once they were there the Sith wouldn't dare follow for fear of revealing their existence to the Republic.

But the fact that Inoy already had all the proof the Council could need that the Sith were still alive meant that they were found anyway. The reason he had chosen Ord Cestus for his next destination was a simple strategic one as well as geographical one. As well as being the nearest one at the angle of exit that his ship had chosen, it was also along the Celanon Spur which could then transport them back to Dantooine without a hitch. From there, he could then return to Dantooine, talk to the Council about his discoveries, then see to a course for Coruscant plotted for Menelaus' new home at the K'tani residence.

His ship was plotted for Ord Cestus as his first destination and he plotted about four or five other words. Agamar, Garqi, Mygeeto, and then Dantooine or so was the plan when he had arrived in Ord Cestus. Unfortunately, the Sith lord he had run from, the one Sith he hoped never to face again, already knew excellent where Inoy was going. It didn't take much for Inoy to realize that and it didn't take him much for him to realize that he was probably going to send someone after them.

When Lord Verrin heard about a Jedi Knight intruding upon the monument to his lost love with a Zabrak child, he was livid. He knew that now the Jedi would relay the existence of the Sith back to the Council and then Dathomir would no longer be safe for the Empire. Already, they'd risked losing Balmorra and now this preposterous incompetence on the part of two of his acolytes. When he saw the ship take off, he had half a mind to rip it out of the sky with the Force and bring everything crashing down.

But when he reached out with the Force, he saw something familiar and not because he knew the Jedi. Could it be that there was someone he knew on that ship, the boy perhaps? But how could he have known who it was if he had never even looked on the face of the boy before? "Master, something wrong?" interjected an acolyte. Verrin shook his head to return his mind to the present and turned to the acolyte speaking to him on the matter.

"Are there any coordinates derived from that ship that left?" Verrin asked.

"Yes, for Ord Cestus. Likely to get back onto a trade route and return to Dantooine, shall I provide you with them?" asked the acolyte.

"No, plug them into my apprentice's ship. Instruct him to hunt down that ship, find the boy accompanying Jedi Knight Inoy Llimetch and bring him to me alive. No exceptions," Verrin ordered. The acolyte nodded and marched off to deliver the instructions that Lord Verrin had conjured for his apprentice, Darth Khonsu.

Contemplating what could be awaiting him in sending his apprentice, he turned to the panel he had been constructing for his concubine and his son. He looked specifically at the panel with the birth of his son and the void that had been painted around his child. The Zabrak Sith Lord raised a curious eyebrow in the direction of the depiction of his son being taken by his love. Could it be that the boy was Surik, his long lost son returned to him at last?

If so, why had he come after all this time and why was it that he was in the company of a Jedi Knight? He respected Inoy, one of the few Jedi he could actually say that about, but he wasn't sure how the Nautolan could've found the kid. There were questions aplenty awaiting if the boy could somehow be captured and brought in for interrogation. But he knew his apprentice alone would not be enough to bring him in, he needed secondary resources that he could expend to bringing him back. So the first order of business was simple: get a physical description than impose a bounty for his safe delivery back to Dathomir if Darth Khonsu failed in his assigned mission.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

While Hyperion was beginning the slow and arduous journey home, Polydeuces was reevaluating what to do. He had been barely told that because Hyperion's record was expunged, Havoc Squad could no longer stay with him. Therefore, he wouldn't be commanding the same firepower he'd had throughout the entirety of the mission.

Combine that with the death of the Jedi Sentinel Brothers Bane, Agni and Rudra, he was essentially alone unless Inoy regrouped with him. But he wasn't going to wait for that overcautious Nautolan who acted more like he was in league with Hyperion than fighting against him. He was essentially alone which meant it was wise of him to have taken Agni's lightsaber even if he couldn't immediately retrieve his body. Apart from Jar'Kai usually being one of his best styles, it would also do him some good to think about the strategic advantages he'd need to beat Hyperion.

He would also need a more carefully selected choice of planets at which to make his attack, away from heavy crowds if he could. But one thing was for certain, every advantage he could gain over Hyperion was an increased chance that he could win the duel. Hyperion had displayed trickery with that execution of the Pushing Slash as well as diversity in how many forms he could fight with. He was also going to have a talk with Inoy about his conduct after he was done with Hyperion, specifically as it pertained to providing legal aid to Hyperion. There were only a few worlds he could think of that were along the path Hyperion would have to go for smoothest travel.

Knowing the crude bastard, he was probably going to take the same path back home that he used to reach Bandomeer if he could and for good reason. From Bandomeer, he could stop for restocking of food in Taris or if the transport provided food on the trip, stretch his legs at Brentaal. The latter destination was at the start of the Hydian Way which would take Hyperion straight back to Denon where he'd first faced Agni and Rudra. He would also need to get on the Corellian Run once he'd arrived there which was almost a straight shot home from that point on.

Mon Gazza would be another world where he could intercept Hyperion if he was in doubt as Hyperion would inevitably have to go that way if he wanted the quickest route home. Beyond that, he'd have to use the Perlemian Trade Route and the Great Kashyyyk Branch as well as the Gamor Run to name a few routes. Plus, Mon Gazza was the kind of world where bodies could be hidden and never found, perhaps even erased so that they were beyond chance of recovery. And then there was actually going to Ando Prime and awaiting him where the journey began. What more fitting place, he wondered, could there be to end the feud between the two of them than where it had originally begun?

Inoy wouldn't have enough time to follow him there and once he arrived, Hyperion wouldn't be wanting to go anywhere. It was either conquer him and hope the Jedi didn't renew their pursuits with his death or perish by his blade lest he felt like being merciful. If Dantius wanted Hyperion brought in, Polydeuces would most certainly consider trying but he wasn't going to promise anything to his former master.

More, Polydeuces had killed Sith warriors in the heat of battle before which meant he could mention that again as a possibility for why he couldn't have spared Hyperion. Combine that with the fact that Dantius, as far as Polydeuces was aware of, didn't know how much his brother had changed such a story was even more plausible. So he decided he would head to Ando Prime and put an end to the journey where it had once begun in order to get the best chance of destroying Hyperion. Little did he know, however, that forces of the type he couldn't control were already conspiring against him.

When Inoy arrived to the Dantooine Jedi temple, he had Menelaus wait in his quarters while he spoke with the Council. Grandmaster Eidolon was still in power but even with his mind fully intact, he could barely hold on physically. Still, he was a towering pillar of wisdom and light that could be turned to in times of crisis as had been the case when the Sith still existed. "You have proof that the Sith still have some dominion in this galaxy?" asked the Grandmaster.

"In the form of an indisputable video," Inoy said. He produced the device that had recorded his encounter on Dathomir with. There, he showed the Cathar apprentice and the Bothan acolyte who attacked him, each wearing the banner of the Sith and the symbol of Darth Verrin.

"So he is truly not dead and where he lives, Darth Atrox and the like also endure. This is an unfortunate situation for the Republic. We're just now recovering from the economic turmoil caused by inheriting the debts of Zakuul and the Sith. The Force has thankfully granted us the means to clear up the worst of it with the Intergalactic Banking Clan and build a sustainable economy across the stars once more. Now you say there is a remnant of the Empire still intact on Dathomir and provide proof," the Grandmaster declared solemnly.

"If I may suggest one course to start with, it was the former rogue Sith Hyperion who had originally started the journey to Dathomir with the boy that now travels in my company. Thus, I'd like to ask if it would be possible for the Council to pardon or even expunge his former travesties against the Order as a token of appreciation in this matter," Inoy said.

"Hyperion Algethii? Dantius' older brother, may I ask why?" interjected Ashlynn, a Council member now who had once loved Dantius in their youth. To be fair, she did still hold somewhat of a flame for him but for the good of the Order, she kept those feelings aside until she was alone. She had also fought against Hyperion before and nearly died by his blade so it made sense for her to be a tad reluctant to vote in favor of Inoy's request.

"Because he fought hard to rescue the boy, raised him without any help from anyone for eleven years on Ando Prime, and even asked me to find him a new home in the Republic. Just to name a few of his more recent deeds and he did twice save my life before I came to the Dantooine temple, years ago. There is good in him and I believe he could make that climb more easily if he knew he didn't have a record on him at all," Inoy explained aloud, articulating his reasons clearly and intelligently. The Grandmaster mulled it over as did his more supportive members of the Jedi Council.

"Was he the one who also produced the files on Clyde Rev? The one with the dirt that Republic law is still decrypting?" asked the old Human after a moment. Inoy nodded and the Grandmaster further mulled over the possibility of granting amnesty to Hyperion for his crimes.

"Well, the Empire is still in existence and Hyperion was a rogue even when they were powerful. We have bigger fish to fry than him and for that reason, I see no harm in granting him the amnesty you wish as long as it is the will of the Council," said Grandmaster Eidolon. Enough heads nodded that the decision was made but Inoy stood his ground to indicate he had more to say, beyond bowing in thanks. The Grandmaster looked at him quizzically and asked him what more he could have to offer.

"As many of you know, Polydeuces did not conduct himself with the full graces and tact of a true Jedi Knight during this mission. It is my belief that in combination to him still pursuing Hyperion without a plan, he should never have been Knighted. I push to recommend that he be placed back into the apprenticeship of his former Master until he can exempt more of the characters we expect in our Knights. If he should continue to pursue the mission against Hyperion upon your approval to reassign him, it might be possible to consider expelling him from the Order," Inoy said. Before the Council could speak up, the Grandmaster raised two hands to ask for them to remain calm and collected.

"In your defense, we have seen the footage of Polydeuces' conduct especially the footage where you are present. You are tactical, patient, precise, and you knew the enemy you were going to fight. Polydeuces was hot-headed and too sure of himself due to the few experiences he had with fighting Sith at the tail end of the war. We will consider your recommendation and then call for you once more when we have made our decision. Just one last thing, where do you intend to take the boy if we let you assign him to a foster home?" said the Grandmaster.

"To Ms. Asya K'tani, former consort of the fallen Jedi Mathes Colunga and daughter of known Sith warrior Felony Serano. Apart from her daughter being dead and the father being nowhere to be found, she'll also need a pair of hands she can care for and train around the house. And she is a trusted associate of the Jedi who has come through on everything we've ever asked of her in the past though I would like to talk to you privately about him later, if you don't mind," Inoy said. The Grandmaster nodded and bade him dismissed unless he had anything he cared to add onto the comments that he had already made at this summit which revealed the existence of the Sith Remnant. Inoy Llimetch bowed his head and parted to pick up Menelaus and inform him of the Council's approval to send him to Asya K'tani for residence until further notice on the part of the Jedi Order itself.