Chapter Fifteen
Hyperion approached Morgana cautiously, waiting for the chatter of the Council to die down (especially where the funeral of Mortis was concerned) before he made himself known. "May I speak with the new Councilwoman for a moment? I believe that as the Emperor's Wrath it is my duty to congratulate her and confer with her on matters of relevance to us both?" Hyperion asked. The Council looked to each other and when Morgana nodded her approval, the Council adjourned to let the Wrath and "Lady Minshuto" confer in peace.
"You are acknowledged Wrath, already your reputation precedes you yet you've been only here scarcely a week more than I have. However do you do it?" Morgana asked him.
"I was trained in the ways of the Sith when I was a child and went rogue for more than a decade. So rising back up to a place of prominence once I returned wasn't difficult: rising to the prominence of Emperor's Wrath was unexpected. But I suspect that this is not the only reason you seemed interested in speaking with me," Hyperion replied. If Morgana felt chastised by the remark, she hid it rather well from his immediate sight as well as the sight of the Force. Meantime, she continued without any emotion readily visible, except perhaps for slight exertion at the task of killing Mortis.
"You're right, it isn't all that I have come with," Morgana told him promptly. Hyperion felt Crassus rising forth, as if to swat her like a gnat beneath the back of his ethereal hand. When Hyperion asked him what was with him, telepathically, Crassus startled him with the reply.
Doesn't she look like that woman you raped, the one called Patricia? Crassus asked.
Have you been rooting around my memories? Hyperion snapped.
Doesn't she!? Crassus demanded. Upon a closer glance, he realized she did and the epiphany must've been visible because Morgana worked a cunning smile on her face. The only differences Hyperion could readily perceive between this one and Patricia was that Patricia had had dirt blond hair when Hyperion forced himself on her while this one had pitch-black. Also, Patricia had had beautiful, crystal blue eyes while Morgana was plagued with heterochromia iridum: she had a brown and blue eye.
"You're realizing it, aren't you? Doubtless, you remember my sister Patricia, remember what you did to her. And how she probably mentioned having a sister named Morgana, gifted with the Force?" insisted the younger woman. Hyperion knew at once where this was going but let her speak, both to fight off Crassus' desire to rise up and to hear what she had to say.
"Before my time is done, I vow to make you suffer. I vowed to search the ends of the Unknown Regions in order to find you if that's what it took and now that I've found you? Now that I've found you, you can be sure that for what you did to my sister and victims like her, you're life is going to be a living hell for all it's remaining days. You will suffer torment after torment, you will see your power base stripped from you, and you will see all you have created here destroyed before your very eyes!
"Only when every last shred of hope has been spent and you have been thoroughly humiliated in the Force and lightsaber combat will I end your pitiful life. When my sister made contact with that hard concrete and perished, Morgana died and Darth Minshuto rose from the ash, so that is the enemy you will face from this day forward. Am I understood, Wrath?" said the woman.
"You are understood, loud and clear, Lady Minshuto. While trying to destroy me, you may call me Lord Algethiius, the name I chose for myself in honor of my homeworld. I trust this will be a fun game of lions pitting their will against one another... shall we declare a Kaggath or are you not yet ready for that?" Hyperion asked. He wasn't going to try and reason with Morgana, not when she had spent so many years chasing him across the cosmos for revenge on her sister's behalf. There wasn't anyway that he could call upon his repeated failures to kill his brother to inform her of how futile the pursuit of vengeance was if she had come this far for him.
Instead, it was far better to beat her at her intended game of choice then come to her with the revelations when she was broken. However, she surprised him with the laugh she emitted from her throat as well as her calm reply when she finished her brief laugh. "The Kaggath is a playground game, as Lord Ravage once said, murder has no rules. Still, I find merit in entertaining my prey before I kill them and the Kaggath is as entertaining as it gets when my prey is you.
"I will size you up, learn the extent of the power base you've established here, then systematically sweep you away with all I have as a member of the Dark Council in a formal declaration of the Kaggath. I am waiting and, when I am ready, you will know and you will suffer," Morgana promised.
"Then we are agreed that we are enemies when we have nothing of legality or enforcement to discuss. And since I foresee no such things happening in the future, given your department is more civilian in nature while my work is more military, there is no further point to this discussion until one of us is near defeat. Is there?" Hyperion asked, at which point Morgana turned and left without another word.
Hyperion agreed with Crassus on what his grandfather said next: this woman was dangerous and she wouldn't simply state her intentions to Hyperion unless she was confident she could still outwit, ambush, and destroy him in Sith tradition. A cunning soul such as her seldom made mistakes like that when their goal seemed intangible, only to surrender to indulgent egotism at the final moment. And with the trappings of a Dark Council member, taking all Mortis' limited resources and half of Nox's in forming her seat, she was more dangerous than ever before. She could attack him physically, politically, emotionally, and mentally, composing assassinations that would test Hyperion's every nerve and resolution to survive.
But as the Emperor's Wrath, Hyperion was not entirely helpless himself. The bill that allowed him, the Voice, and the Hands to be independent of the Emperor's bidding if challenged to a Kaggath also allowed for the Wrath, Voice, and the Hands to exercise self-sufficiency if they were challenged. More, their portions of resources would be similar to those of the Dark Council (if not slightly greater in quantity for positions like the Voice and the Wrath). This meant that if Jadus trained Hyperion in more complex military and political maneuverings in the time it took Lady Minshuto to declare her challenge, he would be ready for her without forfeiting the contest.
It would just be a matter of avoiding the usage of Jadus as a resource once the Kaggath started, if Hyperion wanted the best chance of winning. He would have to talk with the Voice of the Emperor, perhaps even join his pupils in the classes Jadus would be hosting for them in his new position. Perhaps even declare that if Jadus did this for him, any debts he felt he owed Hyperion for helping him get the position would be absolved if Jadus felt he had any. After all, Morgana was expecting Hyperion to be arrogant, self-absorbed, and self-obsessed, unwilling to acquisition help if the fact she only knew him through her dead sister was indication. You think on how the sister has limited Morgana's perception of you yet you show remorse for what you did? Crassus inquired, sensing his sentiments.
I am neither proud of the deed nor do I relive any pleasure from the act of sexual gratification I had obtained in taking her. That was a different man who raped Patricia and as long as Morgana thinks that man hasn't changed, even though he has, we will have an edge over her. So forgive me for putting on only a sophisticated facade of remorselessness that she wanted to buy rather than be truthful with her from the start. Was I not that unreasonable when I was consumed by vengeance for the embarrassments Dantius let me endure after my imprisonment at his hand? Vengeance is a sucker's game even when the odds are stacked in that sucker's favor and Lady Minshuto has yet to learn that Hyperion said.
You know the name she was given at birth, why do you call her by her Sith name? Crassus demanded.
Because we are Sith, through and through. We're treacherous, cunning, we're rivals who want each other dead, and we each have subordinates beneath us as a result of our unassailable strengths. More, we rely on the heat of our passions and emotions when we fight, letting it fuel our connection to the Force so that we may break down all that stand in our way. How are we not Sith in our public expressions, whether or not we act that way privately? Hyperion snapped back.
You will need the kinds of fleets that Jadus used when attempting to induce his vision of pure terror across the galaxy. Those among your Sith who are stealthy, slippery as a snake, and patient will be your best allies in gathering intel on this new woman. The Juggernauts in your crew will be good for destroying the greatest number of her soldiers that can be destroyed in a single joust so that you lessen your own casualties. You will also need more rapid firing technology so that even when you trade destructive capacity before bolt, you can shower enough on her to compensate Crassus began.
"At the moment, I don't need the full list, grandfather. Plus I think I know where I can acquire some of that muscle already, killing two or three birds with one stone in a given time. A way to prove to the Emperor that my training regimen benefited his sons, give them a chance to show their worth in combat, and weaken Morgana's power base," Hyperion replied, thinking carefully now.
Chapter Sixteen
The next several weeks in the Sith's improvised Academy went quietly unabated as Hyperion continued to train the Emperor's sons in the ways of the Sith. Since Jadus' nomination to the position of Emperor's Voice, Lord Verrin had become relatively reclusive. Comparable to Lord Vitiate in this regard, the Dark Council already began to grow suspicious of Jadus' declarations. So when Jadus suggested that the Emperor send out written memos of what Lord Jadus was allowed to discuss before them, Verrin reluctantly agreed. Though it meant more time out of a schedule that included regulating the training of his sons, it seemed to temporarily pacify the ambitions of the Dark Council members more eager to make a mark.
Ladies Minshuto (Morgana's new name) and Nox were the most ambitious along with the Pau'an Sith Lord Imperius. But elder, more conservative Sith Lords like Ravage and Vowrawn curbed their tastes for greater power until an opportunity to win with impunity came to them. They'd survived Vitiate, Malgus, Trajan, Cideon, Marr, Acina, and the Eternal Alliance without being killed which taught them more than a few things in patience. Meanwhile, Nox and Minshuto began to plot even as Hyperion trained the heirs to Emperor Verrin in their heritage.
"Were you born a big fat pile of poodoo, Prince Blob? Or did you have to kriffing work on it?" Hyperion said at one point in the training. They were learning not simply the lightsaber basics with training blades, already covered at the Academy but working on specific styles. He had names for all the princes, names meant to degrade and antagonize them so that they learned how to use their hatred and vengeance as a weapon of greater power. The big one he was speaking to was Prince Blob as he was more fat than muscle as well as about two meters even in height.
He also had Prince Jester, Prince Small-Fry, Prince Glass (because of his fragile ego), Prince Bantha (for his slow pace), Prince Dandy (for his dresses), Prince Slinky (for his stealth), and Prince Blind (he didn't seem to see what he was doing). Today, Prince Blob had made a mistake in his Form V usage, the only form he seemed to be capable of doing right, that he wanted the kid to correct. "Don't throw your kriffing blade out so far unless you wanna kriffing die before you even get a strike in you piece of bantha fodder!" Hyperion shouted to him. Earlier, he'd taunted him for not being able to "give him one pull-up" earlier which had been fascinating because Prince Small-Fry, Slinky, and Glass seemed to give him what he needed. Slinky and Small-Fry tried the hardest to please him which, consequently, meant they learned more from him.
Slinky seemed to be an expert at Soresu, Makashi, Niman, and Jar'Kai with saberstaff and pike. Meanwhile, Small-Fry seemed a master of Juyo, Ataru, and Shien with expertise in Soresu and saberstaff. He'd even worked on a variant of Soresu that was plausible with short-bladed saberstaffs and was particular to his height and skills. When they trained in Force powers, Slinky displayed an aptitude for stealth abilities such as camouflage, Force Concealment, and even learned how to cast minor illusions. Small-Fry was a master of Force Lightning and Choke (which he tested against several slaves) and held the potential to master several minor, if arcane powers.
Blob, on the other hand, would be a Berserker if he had just understood the intent of Hyperion's mocking and verbal torments. He seemed too simple to comprehend the ways of the Sith, not unlike Menelaus, yet another one of Verrin's children. But this day, Blob seemed to finally registered and performed a successful Falling Avalanche. "Finally! That's what I'm talking about, Blob: keep that up or are you too much of a piece of fodder?!" Hyperion replied.
Hyperion smiled when Blob kept at it, finally seeming to grasp what it was that he was teaching him. Blob, Blind, Bantha, and Glass were easily the worst four of the eight while Small-Fry, Slinky, Dandy, and Jester were easily the best in that order. Slinky and Small-Fry took turns being the best on certain days, especially where the powers of the Force itself were concerned. In the peak of the Empire, they would've made for great Sith Inquisitors with Blob and similar brothers perhaps making for great Warriors.
But as it was, Hyperion didn't think there was all that much time left for them or for the Empire, his infiltration and intended betrayal notwithstanding. Even if he hadn't come to serve as a double-agent, with authorization to act like a Sith in his role, he suspected that their discovery on Dathomir was only the beginning of what would've come anyway. Odds were that if not for his role, it would've only taken about a century at the very most before the Jedi would've routed them out and destroyed them. Inoy's discovery was the catalyst to something Hyperion only accelerated but couldn't have been responsible for if he had said no to his brother's offer.
And it didn't help that Hyperion was demonizing the Republic so effectively that every single prince of Verrin's bloodline would likely be killed if ever faced a Jedi Knight like Inoy or Dantius. Slinky and Small-Fry already wanted to pit themselves against the likes of them but there was one slight problem with their calculations of prowess. If they couldn't beat their own teacher, as Hyperion pointed out after training spars frequently, then they would stand no chance against a Jedi Knight as highly trained as Dantius, Inoy or any of their friends. Worst of all, Hyperion never needed to use his lightsaber in order to beat them, he just needed one of the training blades they used to that end. He appreciated their ambition and sometimes thought they tested themselves against him like that to make sure he was still was the superior.
But his happiness at their success would come to an end, every time he found Lady Minshuto watching him at work. One such visit left him particularly agitated and when a student noticed her, acknowledging as much verbally, Hyperion briefly wondered about sending them against her. But there were several problems, not the least of which would be that because their training wasn't complete, she could either kill them or humiliate them thoroughly. If the latter, she could then brainwash them against him, telling him the story of what he did to her sister so that they could be incited to take revenge on her behalf. There were too many ways that could go wrong even if he knew he would like someone who could act on his behalf to keep Morgana on her toes.
Vowrawn must have sensed his agitation at Morgana's operations because he approached Hyperion after training one day with a proposition. "Morgana is moving in on my operations as well, perhaps hoping to undermine me with the resources that were dispersed among us after Jadus' nomination. Seeing as I already have more than I ever need, how would you like my portion of Jadus' former resources under your thumb?" Vowrawn suggested.
"Why do you advocate for me as heavily as you do? I haven't been in the Sith nearly as long as any of your colleagues yet you show more respect to me than you do them," Hyperion asked.
"Because you are more the model Sith in your intentions for the Empire than any of them. Verrin and my colleagues would keep the status quo if it were up to them but you recognize the need for dynamic change and radical reform in the Empire. Had we been introduced to you when Lord Malgus laid claim to the Emperor's throne, we would've had the kind of reforms he sought to introduce with someone to temper his appetites for power. So, I ask again, does my offer interest you?" Vowrawn explained. Hyperion thought carefully, trying to assess what the slippery Lord Vowrawn had to gain from making that kind of offer to him.
He is tricky but he has a point: simply being the Emperor's Wrath doesn't guarantee you a fleet or legions to command unless you take it for yourself. We will need the resources he is offering if we are to stand against Morgana in a Kaggath, you know. This man is offering the kind of forces he doesn't need to defend himself but you have the chance to revolutionize the forces he gives you for the purposes of destroying her Crassus persuaded her. Hyperion ultimately nodded and accepted Vowrawn's offer but added a stipulation of his own.
"I will accept your offer provided I see the total number of ships, weapons, soldiers, and other supplies I'd be getting before you send them to my command. If I am not allowed to see the kinds of firepower I can expect, then we will have no bargain," Hyperion warned him. Vowrawn nodded his agreement and gestured for him to follow him to a place where they knew they would have privacy as Vowrawn went over the schematics Hyperion would have. He provided hologram after hologram of capital dreadnaughts, starfighters known for their maneuverability, and blaster rifles known for their fast reload and rapid fire times. Hyperion was even showed shields that the warriors of Zakuul wielded in the height of their success.
Even better than that, there were droid warriors who wielded both the shields and some of the best rifles after be criminalized by Republic law. Slugthrowers, rapid fire rifles, and even some pistols which were made illegal could be seen in these droids hands. More, they had jets attached to their backs and feet that could accelerate how rapidly they reached a destination. They could even collapse their heads into the chest and see through an eye their shield came built with, connecting to it once their heads were in their chest. In all, even Crassus was pleased with what Vowrawn was offering and combined with Hyperion's tactical training they could be formidable indeed.
"Lord Vowrawn, I accept your offer, if somewhat reluctantly. Morgana won't know what hit her if she thinks to cross me again," Hyperion said. Least, he hoped that was the case now.
