Chapter Thirty-Six

Hyperion couldn't blame Inoy for not recognizing the subtle nuances of the saberstaff and the lightsaber pike. Apart from his obvious inexperience in facing either weapon, most Jedi were never trained in its basics beyond what was already required to learn Niman. But Hyperion already knew the trick of extending the hilt to ridiculous lengths at intervals meant to trip an opponent off balance. He also already knew that where one blade landed, the other would follow in the opposite direction, making the saberstaff exceedingly predictable after a time.

In his early training, he had been taught that the precognition of both Jedi and Sith was hindered further by the options available to their blades. Those who chose to wield exotic weapons like the saberstaff or the lightwhip gave the illusion of more options in their choice of blades but were truthfully more limited than their traditionalist counterparts. Jar'Kai was similarly hampered for a similar reason as there was only so much one could do, even with a background of Makashi training included in their resume. Plus, Jar'Kai couldn't defend against power blows as Seth had been barely forced to observe.

So Hyperion already knew that he was going to make short work of Polydeuces' trickery before the younger Knight knew what had hit him. "Why... why do you even care about Inoy? You could've just walked away when you were done with Seth and saved yourself!" Polydeuces demanded. It was a fair question for someone who didn't know the kind of friend Inoy was to Hyperion and still remained even now. Hyperion didn't answer at first, preferring to answer one jab from one of Polydeuces' blades with only one of his own blades then defending with the other.

Then when he saw an opportunity to defeat his opponent, he didn't waste any time on the formal chattery of the duel. He merely looked at his opponent and told him, "The cycle of treason ends here. Dantius should've trained you better than this." Then he exploited the opportunity by first intercepting a jab made for his right eye by the young Jedi. Once he'd done this, he turned a hundred and eighty degrees so that his back face the young Jedi and shut off his yellow blade.

He knew what was going to happen next even before it could happen with the Jedi Knight trying to slice him in two with one blade only to be intercepted by Hyperion's newest weapon. As Polydeuces prepared to take off his leg by sweeping across with the other blade, Hyperion turned the blade end of his inactive hilt backwards then held it parallel to his thigh. He ignited it just in time to intercept Polydeuces' other blade with enough blade length leftover to gut him. Polydeuces' back arched over once before Hyperion deactivated his yellow blade first then pushed the boy away from him with his left arm.

The Jedi's blades went forever silent right as he hit the snow with a hard thud from his back and Hyperion's purple blade shut off at that point. Inoy rushed over, having sufficiently recovered at that point that he could attempt to soften Polydeuces' landing. "You... you did it. When I thought it was going to require the two of us, you managed to beat Seth and kill Polydeuces," Inoy said as he held the Human's head to his thigh. No amount of healing, they both knew, wouldn't save Polydeuces from such a wound as this without advanced technology.

Hyperion had seen to that himself by aiming his strike so that it also severed mobility in Polydeuces from the chest down by incinerating a vertebrate with its heat. "This is what my training has allowed me to do for most of my life, Inoy. I know you will be intimidated by it, perhaps even tempted to go back on your vow to help me in order to stop me. But know that I haven't yet used the Force Rage ability that usually gave me an edge in duels of this sort," Hyperion told him.

"I'm not intent on fighting you, Hyperion. Not unless I am again assigned to stop you as I have been this time round. But know that if I am again assigned to face you, I cannot give you anymore help than I have. I cannot let you go or find you another criminal to absolve you of your sins with... this is the end of the line for what I can legally do for you," Inoy said. Hyperion understood what his words meant for their relationship, understood that the next time they met, there had better be a damn good reason it couldn't be as enemies.

"Then know that you've already done more than your duty demanded you do. You placed my boy in the care of someone who will be kind to him, helped him deliver his mother's ashes to Dathomir. With the information I dug up for Clyde Rev's dirt, you had my record legally expunged by the Republic and persuaded the Council to pardon my crimes against the Order for the discovery of a Sith Remnant on Dathomir. You have been a truer friend and truer Jedi than I could've ever had the honor of knowing," Hyperion told him. Then Inoy surprised him with an offer that he viewed as flattering but suspected wouldn't work for him at all.

"Come with me, introduce yourself to the Council and face up to your sins in person. They might be inclined to let you live among them as a Blademaster as you already know Form VII by virtue of your training. I can endorse you and see that you are accepted among the ranks of the Order," Inoy begged. Oh how Hyperion wished he could say yes, just jump at the offer, and jump ship with Inoy to the Dantooine temple and become a Jedi. But he already knew the answer to the offer because he'd pondered what his life as a Jedi might have been like long before this chase began.

"Where there is even the slimmest chance that I can see Menelaus before he is of age again, I cannot be. I gave all I could so that he could find a good home without him being encouraged to run away in pursuit of me. Not when I'm part of a society of chaste Force users who wouldn't even allow me to see him again unless it aided a mission anyway. And I never was one for being kind and compassionate to the extent the Jedi require but I am also not one for the unbridled passions of the Sith. I am doomed to forever swing the pendulum between both Light and Dark for all the days of my life... but I thank you for the offer," Hyperion told him.

Inoy knew he was right and clipped Polydeuces' lightsaber to his own belt so that he might take everything back with him. Including the body of the Human Jedi which he carried over his shoulders like a sandbag. "Then this is the end for us, Hyperion. Dantius will have sensed his former Padawan's death across the stars. There's no telling if he will take over the mission for me or not, seeing as he is your brother," Inoy said. Hyperion nodded and Inoy set off on the journey to bring Polydeuces home and explain everything that happened.

In his brother's eyes, he was likely still the bad guy that he remembered from their final confrontation. But as long as Inoy knew better, Hyperion could rest easy at night even when Dantius inevitably returned for him. However, before the Nautolan was out of earshot, he issued a final warning that Hyperion knew to be all too true. "You can't stay here anymore. If you value your life, you must become nomadic again!" he said before he disappeared with the body.

Though he grumbled non-verbally, Hyperion knew that his old friend was right about staying on Ando Prime. If he stayed and Dantius was set after him, it wouldn't take long for the Jedi to find him and put an end to their rivalry forever. Hyperion knew Dantius could probably do it because he was technically the one who had the bigger portion of Force power. He had merely lacked the confidence to utilize it in every single duel Hyperion had ever had with him.

By and large, their rivalry had consisted of Hyperion setting some trap that was personal to his brother, luring him in, trading saber blows, then Dantius either running away or forcing Hyperion to do it. There had never been the kind of decisive victory that would forever end the rivalry between them and settle who was the best in the family. Now, he knew Dantius would not only overcome that lack of confidence but he would also be a lot stronger in the Force than he'd been even in their final confrontation. Worse, he would no longer believe his brother was beyond redemption whether or not Inoy presented evidence to the contrary.

And even if he did hold that belief, he had had enough experience with killing Sith that disposing of Hyperion would not be the same problem it once was. There was a lot to contemplate, Hyperion knew this to be true even as he watched his daughter's ship depart from Ando Prime. Odds were that he hadn't seen the last of her but that she had recognized the need to retreat and reevaluate her plan for beating her father. It was what he would've done if he were in her shoes and he knew it because he'd done it with Dantius more than once. He also saw Inoy's ship take off along his way back to the place he'd called home since promising to raise Menelaus when his mother perished.

He knew that a good meal and some sleep would mean that he could ponder better the next day. So when he got back to his cabin, he fetched some of the meat he'd had frozen and stuck a skewer into it before lighting a fire to cook it. As he rotated the meat when it needed to be and then served it to himself, he ate his fill until he had no need for it. Then he closed the door, unfolded the covers with the Force, and slipped into his bed to sleep.

It'd been a long journey and Menelaus wasn't home to take his bed as he usually did during their time together. Sleep didn't come easily, even with the food he had ingested mere moments before. But when it came, it came so hard that he would likely have never noticed any predators that were snooping around if he hadn't had the Force or an early alarm system. For more than five hours, only the void of darkness seen in sleep was all Hyperion could perceive.

All the while, the galaxy was continuing to change around him as he and the Jedi would soon discover. It was going to be a long night and probably an even longer decade, perhaps even more, ahead of him.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Though her men were reeling at the setback caused by Seth being injured and the forty soldiers being killed, Morgause kept her head high and mighty. In fact, when Seth arrived, Morgause's first order of business was to have him finished off for failing his mistress. Then he was left where he fell without hope of burial or any funeral rites of any kind. "It would seem my father still has more fight left within him than I originally expected. No worries, this will just make this all the more fun for us than it originally was going to be," Morgause assured her remaining colleagues.

"How do you intend to recover from this damage, milady? You've had fifty mercenaries on your payroll and you just lost forty of them in a single go," said one mercenary.

"And we don't even have the equipment to survive going toe to toe with one such as him. How are we going to recover from that kind of loss?" said another. I needed to clean out my payroll anyway, those forty dead will allow for more opportunities to expand my assets a little bit more. Too bad the lot of you will never find out how expendable you really were to me Morgause thought quietly. Aloud, however, she assured them that she already had a plan set in motion for fighting Hyperion once more.

"I have some contacts on Mustafar who could use the challenge. They have similar equipment to what your colleagues wielded but have a lot more experience than you. Killed Jedi and Sith alike in their prime time and will love the challenge," Morgause replied. At first, the mercs around her wondered what it was that she could be talking about. Mercenaries, Mustafar, then the pieces clicked and they paled all at once with fright.

"You're not seriously considering recruiting the Devils of Mustafar! Those people are savages who are just as apt to kill you as to kill whoever you pay them to attack," said the Captain of her remaining mercenaries. Morgause nodded, admitting that it was possible but she had a counter ready for just that.

"I know of the Devils' reputation and made the offer almost as soon as the forty soldiers set out. When they were destroyed, I got a response to the offer and they're interested in helping us. Their liaison is interested in meeting me to make sure that the money is cleaner than the pistols of his warriors," Morgause told them.

"And where do you intend to meet this liaison, milady?" asked the Captain of her remaining mercenaries. Morgause chuckled briefly and then replied to what it was that she had been asked by her Captain.

"I'm meeting him on Eriadu to discuss payment and make sure the credits are good to go. The Devils prefer unmarked credits since they tend to traverse across Republic and Hutt Space numerous times on their missions. Once we've settled a deal, the Devils will chase Hyperion across the galaxy and bring him to me alive for a greater pay than if he was dead," Morgause explained. The Captain scoffed at the idea that the liaison would accept such a payment out of hand and with good reason too. In making this deal, Morgause was approaching the most disreputable mercenaries in the galaxy whose only arguable mark of effectiveness was that once they took a job, they were thorough in getting it done.

Once, long before, the Devils had had a contract put out on Morgause's aunt Morgana and had very nearly succeeded. But when she managed to destroy the client, they disappeared into the unknown until she found need of them. Their abilities against Force-sensitives had not gone unnoticed by her and she even hired them for a few similar enemies of her own. She also taught her niece the value of keeping the likes of them in the back of her mind in case she had need of them. "It's always important to keep powerful groups like that in mind to understand why the Jedi are flawed in their approach to keeping peace and justice intact," Morgana had once told her niece.

Now, as her ship took off, she pondered whether or not she wanted anything done about that Jedi who'd aided Hyperion. Did she waste time and resources calling out a hit on him for his aid or did she let him live in the hopes that another ally of hers might kill him instead? Her network ran deep and she found herself admittedly debating whether to put a separate contract out on the Nautolan for his interference as well. Perhaps another ally of hers within the Republic could deal with him on her behalf as well and she knew plenty of assassins and bounty hunters who chose to operate there. And some of them were looking for work in any case which meant she'd have plenty more opportunities to take revenge against the Nautolan when she was ready to take it.

"Then may the Force save our souls when the Devils of Mustafar take more casualties than they need to for killing Hyperion. That's gonna be a truly costly day for all of us when they do it," said the Captain. Morgause knew what he was talking about but paid it no mind, the Devils needed only do their job and she would take care of costs. Once they had Hyperion or could confirm that he was dead, they'd have their deposit and then she would wait until another time to call upon them again.

Eriadu was as close to a midpoint between Mustafar and Ando as she could get without having to worry about fuel. It was also largely a straight shot back home from there where she could wait until the job was done as well. Duro was a good world to her and since Eriadu was along the route, it was largely a smooth ride back home even if it would be long. More, the Devils of Mustafar would have no interference in travel from her when they used the trade routes to try and find their quarry.

The Captain who spoke of collateral was referring, however, to the fact that whenever the Devils took a mission they usually tended not to care who they destroyed along the way. Women, children, it didn't matter as long as it meant they would get to their targets faster than they would if they spared them. They also tended to bring down entire buildings without regard to whether there were people still inside of them or not. This made it dangerous for client and target alike to hire them and usually marked the client as insanely desperate to be attempting such a feat.

But Morgause was like the Devils in that she didn't care about collateral either as long as she got what she ultimately wanted out of them. In this case, it meant either the successful capture or death of her father for the rape which resulted in Morgause existing today. It meant making him know the pain he caused her when she killed herself and the pain that he caused Morgause for making her an orphan. She would destroy half the galaxy if it meant succeeding in that mission and besides, most of the galaxy was rubbish anyway. Those who scrounged and scraped for food would not be missed when they were gone and most certainly weren't missed now by people of substance such as herself.

The Jedi pretended to care for their misfortune, pretended that they were there to better their lives and waved their lightsabers around at anyone who opposed that view. But in the end, the fact they were bound to Republic law meant they couldn't wrench the bulk of credits out of the wealthy such as Morgause and truly save those more decrepit souls they sought to help. Would letting them be killed by the Devils of Mustafar along the way to finding Hyperion truly be murder or would it be charity that the Jedi couldn't give? Least of all when it would be a permanent end to their wretched lives where the Jedi would have them perpetuate and procreate, dooming their spawn to the same cyclical existence as their predecessors.

As she plugged in the coordinates for the first of several jumps she would need to reach Eriadu, she thought carefully to her situation. She had barely more than her crew, operating her transport now and that meant the possibility that she may have to look into hiring the Devils more indefinitely. Whether or not they accepted her offer was entirely up to their liaison but she was convinced that if she could smooth talk him with the money she intended to offer, she could earn their alliance. Besides, by the same legalities that had allowed her to employ the previous batch of mercenaries, a cut out of all jobs the Devils did from there on would have to go to her and her funds weren't infinite.

Granted she still had more than she could ever need in this lifetime but it was not impossible for that scenario to change. She had, after all, liquidated all of Morgana's assets when she died and took their worth to combine it with her parents and her mother's. As long as she had only the well she created in doing it, the risk was there even if it was minimal that she would lose everything. She also invested in stocks with high risks which meant that even if the profits were greater than the losses, the losses would still pack enough punch over time.

Or rather, she should correct herself, it had the potential to pack enough punch to where she could lose everything. She had to wrap up this business with her father quickly and decisively in order to gain the freedom she needed to pursue her other enterprises with impunity. Once she was done with him, she'd also need to sell all the gear she had obtained for such purposes as she had in mind for him when he was captured. This way, she could cover her tracks and claim innocence even if a Jedi came to investigate the scene of any crimes she was alleged to commit.

All in all, she seemed like a genius but she was realizing the holes in her plans now more than ever before. Worst of all, she realized time was running out to either complete her plans or fix the loopholes in it. But what did it matter as long as the risk was worth it in the end and she had her revenge? That thought comforted her as they made the journey across the stars to her destination of Eriadu.

Epilogue

Hyperion could tell that the dream he was seeing before him was a vision of the future. Apart from being in a temperate forest he didn't recognize from Ando Prime, he'd also experienced precognition before. So he was able to recognize the signs when the visions came flashing before him like puffs of smoke from a dying engine. He also didn't see his cabin anywhere near him which was the dead giveaway that he wasn't on Ando Prime.

The last giveaway was the fact there was rain and thunder, telling him the world was warm enough for that sort of thing. As he scanned the field of his vision, he ran when he saw a Jedi starfighter come closing in on him, shooting at him from afar. It was a two-seater from what he could see, one for the pilot and one for the Jedi Knight that was awaiting him. He was able to survive it all and persevere with both his lightsabers at the ready, yellow and purple blades ignited simultaneously.

When he completed this transaction, he saw the Jedi Knight that was probably pursuing him land several meters in front of him and begin to gaze him down when he stood upright again. He was taller than Hyperion though only by about an inch or two, a single lightsaber dangling from his right waist and what skin Hyperion could see was olive-tanned. This Jedi also had a shaggy black beard that covered more than half his face, similar to how Hyperion's brown beard covered his own. But the most distinct feature were the lime green eyes which seemed to glow in contrast to the darkness around the two of them.

The rain came, falling down to create gully washers around them as Hyperion rose up and readied to face his adversary. "Who are you!?" he demanded, though some part of him already suspected he knew the identity of his would-be attacker. The oddest part of this vision was the fact that he was seeing himself from a disembodied perspective, watching himself adopt a ready stance with both his blades and ask the question. This perspective took him behind the bulky Jedi Knight until only the brown cloak could be seen and none of the other features unless this foe extended an arm or a hand a certain fashion.

But in the moments following Hyperion's inquiry, a hand did extend only to unclip the lightsaber and point it toward the ground at his flank. He ignited the blade, revealing a blade as lime green as his eyes and the hilt seemed vaguely familiar to him. It was when he recognized the scars on the dorsal side of the human man's hands that he recognized who this was and likely knew what he was doing on this same world as Hyperion. In the moments before the fallen Sith warrior awoke to greet the present galaxy, he knew that he was standing face to face with his brother Dantius once more and that Dantius now had the gleam in his eye of destruction.

That all-too-familiar gleam that told Hyperion that this time, Dantius would allow no room for mercy beyond what his Code demanded, no more humanity than the Jedi dictated. Then he awoke with a sudden jolt likely that of fear at what he had just foreseen. He was soaked in sweat that would later cake his sheets with their salt and his breaths were heavy with panic. When he calmed down, he put it to his mind's rear and prepared to travel to worlds beyond his own.