Chapter Nine

Dantius had managed to land battalions of the Silver Hands onto Dathomir with Ashlynn to lead them, deciding that he would use the mercenaries first. Aside from Dathomir having what seemed like the larger portion of forces, Dantius figured that draining his mercenary pool first would leave the Sith at an unexpected disadvantage when they didn't see them. By now, he knew that they would most likely have learned about the mercenaries and would anticipate Dantius hiring more mercenaries as opposed to facing their mortal enemy. Knowing this, they would be surprised when they saw the banner of the Republic and at best, might provide the kind of token resistance that would ensure the Empire's days didn't end on a whimper. He also had yet to request reinforcements from the Chancellor and would have preferred to keep it that way until he reached Nogatan.

Realizing that Inoy and Ashlynn would be more than capable of a successful expedition when the former's aquatic force landed, Dantius decided to comm them with a change of plan. "Ashlynn, if you and Inoy have Dathomir covered, Jace and I will be taking Republic forces to Balmorra. Meet us at Nogatan when you're done here and I'll keep Jace on standby to ring up the reinforcements from there standby, ten parsecs from Nogatan's planetary system," Dantius said.

"Hold on, Danny boy. I'm rejoining you: Colonel Silver is insistent that he lead his forces here on the ground and Inoy's assured me he's got everything covered here. Why doesn't Jace stay here to coordinate the space attack here then they can regroup at Nogatan with the reinforcements?" Ashlynn offered. Before Jace spoke, Dantius countered in the manner more typical of Jedi Knights.

"To her credit, your battles with the Sith began in space on a station above Korriban. How about leading one of the last space battles in the history of this Sith Empire instead of being the grunt? Don't worry, you'll be there when they're destroyed for good at Nogatan," Dantius assured him. Jace nodded and requested a shuttle back to his personal cruiser from which he'd departed to have a private conference with the three Jedi in his company before the invasion of Dathomir. In return, Ashlynn disembarked from the shuttle and joined Dantius in the hyperspace jump to Balmorra with all the Republic's fleet except for those troops that Inoy had taken with him and the extraction craft necessary to get them to Nogatan afterwards, including Jace's ship.

As soon as they arrived at Balmorra, however, they were met with even less resistance then anticipated. A minor scuffle with no casualties marked a prompt surrender of Dathomir to the Jedi which Dantius was not expecting. "If Crassus is almost ready to begin the ceremony that could explain why Balmorra was surrendered so quickly. I think I'll wait on calling reinforcements until I see the full scope of what I'm up against on Nogatan. Meantime Ashlynn, send a holo transmission to Inoy and Jace, tell them to join us at Nogatan as soon as they've destroyed resistance on Dathomir," Dantius said.

Ashlynn nodded and did as her former lover bade, returning with news that Inoy's underwater forces were about to engage the Dathomir temple. More, the Silver Hands had begun their engagement on the temple's front about half a standard day ahead of schedule. Dantius smiled and nodded, knowing that any little advantage helped and thus gave the go-ahead for Inoy's aquatic force to launch their own attack on the temple's vulnerable flank. Meanwhile, he and Ashlynn put a Republic beacon on Balmorra, making sure that the Chancellor could confirm that Balmorra was safely in Republic fold and would be sending a separate fleet to protect it. Though both the politician and the Jedi knew that an incursion to reclaim Balmorra or Dathomir was unlikely, it didn't hurt to secure them in the off chance others might wish to seize the opportunities the Sith never allowed them to exploit.

"There's a great swelling of pulsing Dark Side energy the closer we get to Nogatan. Either the planet has a strong signature of the Dark Side and Crassus has merely added to it with his power and priceless Sith artifacts or he has begun the ritual already. How far off are we from the planet?" Dantius asked Ashlynn.

"We're coming up on the planet within the hour. I had the deceleration process start three hours ago and we should be coming to the end of the jump in forty-five standard minutes. We'll arrive at the planet's surface about ten minutes or so after," Ashlynn replied. At first, Knight Thorin was somewhat reluctant to concede to her former consort in this fashion but she could see his excitement and knew from having made love to him before that there was no dissuading him. Not when he had told her before about how his grandfather just wouldn't kriffing die, no matter how many times he was defeated by his enemies.

"Good, I want to get in the action and this forever once we get off the jump. I'm calling the reinforcements, with or without major resistance. Better to make sure they're wiped away from the face of the galaxy and that grandpa fails than give him even the slightest bit of hope," Dantius ordered. Ashlynn relayed the orders to the fleet and had the frequency for reinforcements on standby in case he decided he would go ahead and call them, regardless of army size.

And it was fortunate he had come to the decision because the resistance they met was four and a half times the size of the standard fleet size and was made of largely elite ships that seemed to hold the populace of Nogatan hostage for the purpose of the ceremony. Dantius was even willing to bet there there was a ground force of messengers and enforcers, warning the people not to try and escape. And of course, these would be relocated once their task was done on the planet to a place Crassus would want them to go unless they couldn't break through the space battle. But that wasn't all, in fact even the deal with Balmorra had not quite been completed yet, due to the news that Inoy would soon relay when he had arrived there within mere hours of finalizing the Sith's defeat on Dathomir. Searching among those abandoned, he found a girl trained as a Sith Sorceress beside an older, comatose man who was much to haggard in appearance to be her lover. It was when Inoy recognized him as Hyperion and reported it that Dantius had become confused.

How had Hyperion gotten himself comatose and who was the girl that had been by his side when he was recovered? Did she know of Hyperion's original mission to help the Republic bring down the Sith Empire forever? Or would she be hearing it for the first time when Inoy briefed her on it, considering she surrendered without a fight? These questions were all answered when Inoy revealed that the girl had named herself Morgause Brilliante, the niece of Morgana who had been known to the Sith as Darth Minshuto before her death at Hyperion's hands. Suddenly, Dantius began to put the pieces into place, understanding exactly who this woman was and what had likely happened.

Morgana never had children, despite having a voracious sexual appetite in her youth, likely as a result of accepting her inability to conceive. Hyperion, on the other hand, had raped a perfectly quaint and socially quiet sister of Morgana's and Dantius' former lover by the name of Patricia. The unholy union had produced a daughter that Patricia had proceeded to abandon when she threw herself to her death from the top of one of Taris' highest towers. After she committed suicide, her parents were killed whilst on the way to pick up the infant from daycare that they could barely afford, an accident the police suspected was staged by someone with a motive. Custody of the child had fallen to Morgana and no one had heard from the baby since, not even her name at the time of her birth.

So the spawn of Hyperion's loins has finally revealed herself and she's in cahoots with her father? Why? There's no way Morgana would've raised her that way with her vendetta against Hyperion and there's no way the child would have resisted her words, being dependent on her for many years! Dantius thought to himself angrily. He finally had a chance to meet his niece and she had also been a Sith though likely not armed with the same mission as Hyperion at the start of her tenure. So many questions and so little time to get them answered at the moment which encouraged Dantius to have Hyperion relocated to the medical bay and the girl relocated to a holding room if she was willing to cooperate and give her father some rest.

And on further thinking of it, Dantius wasn't surprised that the child's name would be Morgause, least of all in the hands of Morgana in her infancy. "Begin the attack, start with a wedge formation of missiles from the cruisers then follow up with two standard defensive lines. We're going to break through them and get down to my grandfather if it's the last thing we do in our entire lives. And somebody get on waking up my brother so he can join us in stopping the Sith forever," Dantius declared. Then he called on reinforcements to join from the northeast flank of the battle so that they could hope to take the fleet by surprise.

He also wanted to see what intel he could recover out of Hyperion about Crassus' plan and why he had been thrown into a coma. More, he wanted to meet his long lost niece at long last, curious to see how powerful she was with the Force. To his credit, if she were sufficiently gifted, it would appear that Hyperion had a knack for finding gifted children to raise whether by producing them from his seed or adopting them of his own accord. The discoveries he had made with Menelaus before the incursion with the Sith had begun would certainly have indicated as much to Hyperion himself and they indicated themselves that way to Dantius now.

Chapter Ten

Hyperion was still fighting the ethereal battle with Morgana when his physical shell was finally picked up by forces led by his brother. But in the realm where time seemed not to exist, he didn't even feel himself being lifted onto the stretcher. He didn't even know that the Jedi had somehow breached Balmorra and gotten to him, let alone that Dathomir had fallen. Were it not for the fact that he had already heard the reports of Dathomir being attacked, he wouldn't have even been able to guess how such a battle would turn out. Having completed two of Morgana's tests, he also noticed that he no longer had the pitch black skin that he had started with.

He still had the gauntlet of his youth and his present set of armor but beyond that, still wielded his original Sith lightsaber instead of his present blades. Marching onward, he looked back to see that the path he took was now enshrouded in the darkness from whence he had come. It was as if the steps he'd taken to free himself from the darkness enshrouded the path behind him in the process, persuading him that he should only focus on going ahead. When his path came to an abrupt stop, due to a ledge that led into an even deeper abyss than the one he traversed, he stopped and took a pause. The white torch which had guided him this way then plummeted once his eyes had set themselves upon it, indicating to him that the only way out was down.

"The Dark Side of the Force has discarded me," said an echoing voice that sounded like Hyperion's more youthful form. Except he didn't remember saying it when the words had first manifested: about a month after he discovered Menelaus, he remembered merely thinking them. All around him, the darkness was consuming everything that could've seen him walking along, encouraging him to go forth despite there being no ground left to walk on. So he grabbed the hilt of his lightsaber and brought the blade hand next to his chest before stepping forward. As he did so, he heard his younger voice say, "Now I know no..."

As he fell, he remembered having said that he had then known no hope left, a thought that in hindsight was as insipid as it had been desperate. While falling, he also decided to ignite the lightsaber, its crimson blade rising forth as if a great beast were at last awakening. He didn't know how long he fell, didn't know how long it would be, or what would be awaiting him when he reached the bottom. All he knew was that when he finally saw something materialize that looked like the bottom, he used the Force to slow himself down just enough that he could survive the landing without any broken bones. When he did, he saw that he had landed on the only patch of solid rock in a infernal river of lava, whose other rock matter was shattering like clay and breaking apart to allow more breathing space for the magma.

"Behold, Hyperion! The hatred, fear, anger, lust, and betrayal that you have wrought with your actions. All the heat of all the emotions of everyone you have ever wronged embodied in the ultimate river of destruction that lays waste to all it touches. How do you feel, standing before the fires of the torment you caused others? To stand before their despair and feel it wafting in waves of heat before you as they surely must be doing now?" Morgana asked him.

All around him, he could hear the voices of those he had wronged, in particular their profanities, shouts, screams, and weepings culminating into a cacophony of sorrow. An epic composition of horror, sadness, grief, and torment rose from within the lava to swallow even Morgana's voice. He heard the voices of many figures he had long since forgotten, people whose lives had meant so little to him at the time but now rose up to have greater meaning for him. "Do you know what you've done, Hyperion?!" cried out his father.

"You've taken everything from me!" said an anguished old man he vaguely remembered. In his early days as a blade for hire, he'd been asked to assassinate an influential aristocrat who'd been so cocky, she willed her assets to be liquidated and the finance awarded the one who killed her. Hyperion had taken the job as a favor to a Dark Lord who had everything to gain from her death, including her position in accordance with her will and Imperial dictates. But there was one other voice he thought he wouldn't hear again after he destroyed Clyde Rev and his last stronghold.

"I will have my revenge on you, Hyperion! You will not long escape me as the smuggler did!" shouted Drak. After this, the lava even began to form arms and teeth that scratched and bit away at his solid peninsula. He looked around for a way to escape, some way he could perhaps avoid the destruction of his lifeboat and his plummet into the lava of his sins below him. Then he heard a voice that called to him, a voice that urged him to rise above what was happening around him.

"I love you, Daddy! I need you!" Morgause was calling. But she wasn't calling with just her voice: he could hear Menelaus begging for his father as well. And as the lava around him intensified, swallowing up more of the peninsula, he found a new fire welling up within him as well.

"Where are my children, Morgana?" he demanded at once. His voice shook everything around him and kept the hands of the long dead from scratching at more of his peninsula. He said it with such assertion and authority that he could even see some of these old hands putting pieces back onto his little island.

"You are in the realm of the soul, Hyperion. Your children are nowhere to be found and they wouldn't help you even if they could be brought here," Morgana said. He detected a slight tremor in her voice as she spoke, the echoes distorting any sense of direction as to where it might be coming from. But Hyperion didn't back down, promised himself he wouldn't back down, and continued onward.

"Lead me to my children Morgana or by the Force, I swear I will tear every organ out of your body and make sure you stay awake long enough to feel it!" Hyperion promised. From anyone else's perspective, the white flame Hyperion had once been gazing on was now starting to burn out his eyes and extinguish the darkness of his past with every declaration he made. Morgana tried to stop him from escaping the lava which was slowly beginning to cool down and harden all around him as his own intensity strengthened.

"You will never see Menelaus or Morgause again, I will destroy you and take your place in the corporeal realm! I will exact my revenge on my ungrateful niece first then track Menelaus down and kill him slowly. Perhaps even let a criminal fiend have their way with him once or twice before I end his pitiful existence as you once had your way with Patricia! You are a monster Hyperion and I swore to put you down!" she replied. Meanwhile, the white flame in Hyperion only burned brighter as he made his next commandments.

"You will do no such thing, Morgana! Come, face me now and end this long feud once and for all!" Hyperion said. He turned over to the hand with his lightsaber and noticed that the blade had changed. Rather than the red blade of his youth, it now had a black core and a fiery white flame where the light of the blade would've been. So he reversed the grip on his blade and plunged it into the rock beneath him, causing an explosion of white flame to rip through the entire inferno, blanketing everything with the white except for him.

Even the flame that had covered his eyes departed to help him wipe away the voices that also included that of Patricia, whose screams he recognized from when he raped her. All around him now, there was nothing but white and even his blade reflected a deactivated lightsaber rather than a weapon of destruction. At first, he thought he had passed all his tests and would now be allowed to go back into the corporeal shell. I should be so lucky he thought to himself quietly.

And just then, the outlines of three dimensional shapes began to form as if in response to his thoughts. Color soon returned and filled them until he finally recognized the place he was in with dawning horror. "Do you remember this place, Hyperion? The location of your greatest sin, the sin that made me Darth Minshuto? Perhaps you have what it takes to reverse the deeds of the past," Morgana mocked.

The room was empty except for Hyperion himself and he knew why that was the case. Part of the reason that Hyperion had had his way with Patricia was because she had been in the shower and come to answer him only with a towel that he had ripped away when he assaulted her. He didn't say anything but instead ignited his blade which didn't have the red this time but had the purple of Seth's blade as if symbolizing his purification from his sins. Smirking, he prepared himself for what was to come even as he saw it unveil before him.

"Hyperion, what are you doing in my room?" Patricia asked, the question she would've been asking a little later on when Hyperion had come in during that night. But he knew this wasn't real, merely the last test and he had a feeling he knew what he was going to do the very minute that he heard the knocking he remembered making to enter. Before Patricia could answer, he swung his lightsaber out in front of her to stop her from answering the door, shaking his head at her as she made to ask him what the hell he was doing. That was why he wasn't surprised when he heard the figure of his younger self begin breaking down the door to get himself into commit the crime.

But the Hyperion of the present day prepared for him, fully expecting to have a lightsaber confrontation with his more insipid, younger form. When the door finally broke, Morgana didn't disappoint, presenting him not with one but hundreds of young Hyperion spectre copies.