The Harbinger’s corridors were already filled with the dead, Republic soldiers cast to the ground like meat. Dan shook his head as he made a leisurely path toward Sion’s location. He’d built up quite the following, more than a dozen Sith Assassins that believed themselves undetected.
These little fish could be ignored, until they decided to hunt outside their strike zone. He wasn’t interested in these mass produced killers, HK’s drones would be just as effective if he ever needed someone killed from the shadows. Halfway to Sion’s position, one of the assassins made their move.
A silent blade passed through the air, only to vanish in a wash of heat. The black-garbed fellow had doomed himself and his friends to a quick death. Dan let a low powered, diffused heat vision fill the hall around him, until the walls glowed a radiant orange. Free of his entourage, Dan continued on his way through the ship.
“There are so many of these little fellows…” Dan paused as five new shadows gathered at his back, eyes focused on a detail he’d genuinely forgotten. “That assassin droid, HK-50, is onboard… I should scoop him up for HK to analyse.”
A rapid burst of speed left the cloaked Sith behind and brought him face to face with the startled machine. Before a word could escape the assassin’s vocabulator, Dan speared a hand into its chest and clamped his fingers around a small, explosive charge.
“Sorry, no self-destructing for you,” Dan compressed the metallic charge until a small burst of heat tickled his palm. Satisfied, he swept his hand through the droid's neck and severed its head. “Also, no monologuing…”
He left the assassin droid in a crumpled pile and carried on his way, until he stood before a ravaged, undead version of a human. Darth Sion had his lightsaber driven deep into a reinforced door, no doubt sealed by Kreia as she hunted for a path off this doom ship.
“Need a hand with that?” Dan’s voice drove the Sith into a rapid spin, red sabre positioned between them in a flash. He ignored the blade and flashed the Sith a shallow smile. “I’ve already disabled all the possible escapes, so we have lots of time to chat before we catch up with your master.”
“Who are you?” Sion’s half-mad eyes burned as they took in Dan’s sudden appearance. His disjointed, unkillable body trembled. “What do you know of my Master… did she send you to die and buy the Jedi time to escape?”
“I’m afraid not,” Dan shook his head and took a step forward, until the lightsaber pressed against his chest, just above his heart. The blade sparked and sputtered, unable to breach his skin. “Kreia and I have yet to meet, but we’ll get to her in a minute…” Dan squinted around the crimson glow, past the surface of Sion’s skin. “Your insides are a real mess, you know? I don’t think you have a single functional organ among the whole bunch.”
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“YOU DARE!” Sion bellowed as he leveraged all his strength and pressed, an attempt to drive his sabre home. Dan twitched his shoulder and the Sith rebounded, pressed flat against the door with the sound of a bell. “...what are you?”
“We’ll see if you’re worth telling in a minute,” Dan punched a hole into the Sith’s chest, straight through the man’s rotted heart. A few, lifeless moments later, Sion gasped as his breath returned. “Strange… you don’t really heal at all, you just refill the gaps and carry on…”
The space that Sion’s heart had once occupied was filled with a random growth of cells, yet somehow it was enough for the man to carry on. Dan shrugged, this result was expected. Now, it was time for a real test. He let his biofield extend around them, a shield to protect the ship, as he pulled back a fist.
“Wait!” Sion’s dead eyes widened, body strained as he tried to pull free of Dan’s grasp. Too late, as a hypersonic fist shattered his body to ruins.
“Hmmm…” Dan poked at the messy soup that slowly pulled itself from the floors and walls. Even turned to a near liquid, Sion was still alive. “Congratulations, you’re interesting enough that I’m going to hold off on tossing you into a star!”
Sion’s technique was worth studying. If Dan or May could refine it, it would make for a valuable backup. A regenerative spell this effective could save the lives of many Kryptonians. Few things existed that could truly injure them in the universes they called home, but a wider omniverse existed.
“Let’s go find your Master and get off this ship,” Dan swept Sion’s mushy remains into a sphere, wrapped in his biofield and held on his palm. A glance showed that Kreia had reached the docking bay, occupied as she struggled to repair a vessel and flee with the Exile. “After she’s made her choice, there will only be one Sith left to deal with in this time period.”
Darth Nihilus, the man lost to hunger. Dan shook his head and drifted through the corridors at a good clip. Visas Marr was also with the Lord of Hunger, the last companion of the Exile that he needed to collect personally. Nihilus was perhaps the greatest threat to Dan in this time period. His ability to drain life force on a massive scale matched poorly with a Kryptonian’s abundance of that same energy.
“The Exile’s force-wound managed to render Nihlus relatively powerless, but I don’t have that advantage,” Dan forced open the docking bay access door and came face to face with an astonished Kreia. Sion’s half-formed lump vibrated at the sight of his former Master, but Dan slammed him against the ground and reset his regeneration. “Hello, Darth Traya…”
Dan gave the blind, old woman a short bow, before he turned his gaze to the unconscious Exile. His magical senses were less refined than May’s, but even he could sense the void inside Meetra Surik. A hole gaped in the core of her being, a silence that reminded him of Etrigan’s eyes.
“What are you…” Kreia stepped between Surik and Dan, a vibrosword raised in a practised guard. She looked Dan up and down, her blind eyes wide. “You’re veiled by a force ability, but beneath the curtain is a sun…”
“Catch,” Dan tossed her Sion’s lightsaber and slipped past to hover over the Exile. “You might as well use that, if you’re thinking about attacking me… but it didn’t do Sion any good.”
Dan slammed Darth Sion’s liquid form against the ground once more and Kreia finally turned her gaze to what remained of her apprentice. The old woman’s brow furrowed, one hand extended toward the captured Sith to confirm his identity through the force.
“Who I am only matters if you decide to come with me, but I’ll be taking Surik no matter your decision,” Dan placed a hand over the unconscious Exile and released a symbiote clone. It burrowed under her skin and vanished from sight. “She might be a path to the goal you desire, but the death of the force will only leave this galaxy exposed.”
Kreia’s face remained expressionless, but she lowered her sword and left Sion’s blade inactive. Her true desire was to see the death of the force and its will, but without it all life in this galaxy would fall. The threats that lurked beyond the galactic hyperspace wall couldn’t be met without it, unless someone like Dan stood in their place.
“I will join you, for now…” the ancient woman stepped closer and examined Dan’s symbiote covered form, unsurprised when he exposed his true face for her eyes. “But you are wrong, the Force is the true danger… the Midi-clorians lit a beacon, one that cannot be ignored by the darkness beyond the void…”