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Now, on to the chapter!

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“Two weeks,” Ultron clicked his tongue. A small part of his will reached out and shifted the very surface of the world. “He returned exactly two weeks after his disappearance…”

 

A flex of the city shifted huge segments away from Dan-EL’s path. A great maw irised open, a clear line between the depths of the world and the surface. Doom and the others were already bundled up and carted to safety, with only Etrigan to keep the enraged Sith company.

 

“I still haven’t found the source of the wave that teleported him away,” The A.I. sighed. Whatever it was, it rivalled the other ancient technologies they had already uncovered. “It followed an irregular path, impossible to track before it entered the galaxy.”

 

The last of the population was delivered to safety. Ultron turned his attention to the skies. His master’s abilities were a surprise. The data he’d obtained from Jor-EL showed Dan-EL was far above the curve. A speck of light, matter that pushed at the edge of the FTL barrier, streaked toward the planet like an errant comet.

 

“His travels have spurred his growth…” Ultron snorted and shook his head. “No matter… all life has a weakness,” The incoming flare pulsed, pushed past the speed of light in a blur that brought it to the atmosphere in a blink. “Raw power is useless without intelligent direction…”

 

---

 

 

“Faster…” Dan pulled his biofield tight, in preparation for his re-entry. He wanted to limit the destruction to the area closest to his body, as well as avoid shattering any atoms… at least not until he closed on his target. “I can still go faster!”

 

Space bent around him, a twist of physics that shifted him beyond the speed limit of the universe. Colour vanished, even his kryptonian vision was reduced to black and white. Only the vague sense of Ki in his mind's eye retained its blue glow. 

 

The knuckles of his fists touched the atmosphere, a huge pressure he let his biofield push to the side. Dan slipped through the air, then buildings, a knife aimed at Sidious’ heart. He entered the chamber, almost too quickly for his mind to follow. 

 

The old Sith had already shifted more than five hundred metres, body still in motion. Dan raised his eyebrows as he altered his course. The fact Sidious wasn’t frozen in time sent chills down his spine. The old man pressed his elderly frame to near light speeds, with only the power of the force.

 

‘Sorry, but it doesn’t matter…’ Dan released his fine control and let his biofield impact against the air between him and Sidious. Countess atoms shattered open, unfolded into a brilliant flash that vaporised a square mile of abandoned city. A blue toned spike, pointed into orbit.

 

Fire flared out, even as he ground to a halt. The area around him was emptied of matter, replaced by radiation so dense it itched at his eyes. Nothing remained of Sidious, not even a whisper of despoiled ki.

 

“He is not dead… his flesh is no longer the source of his life,” Etrigan’s voice sounded from his back, a shadow that moved in time with his own speed. “Until his soul has been returned to the black, he will find a host and spread yet more strife.”

 

“You’re pretty messed up…” Dan squinted at the Demon’s fractured skin. Dozens of deep cracks wept foul blood, open to the air. “We need to get Merlyn into a healing pod!”

 

Dan shifted his focus, until he heard Doom’s deep tones. The man had beaten him to the punch. Ultron had shifted Doom’s entire office across the planet, and Merlyn was currently a few metres from one of Doom’s recovery chambers. A sigh of relief passed his lips as the system notice vanished. The Wizard’s life was out of danger. He turned back to Etrigan.

 

“If Sidious isn’t dead from that, I’m not sure I have the power to kill him right now…” Dan looked at his fists. Eventually, his power would reach a level beyond absurdity. For now, he  couldn’t reach out and crush a soul in his hands.

 

“I am injured, or I would have prevented his escape,” Etrigan shrugged, black eyes touched with a hint of hunger. “I will hunt the galaxy for his back heart, as soon as I’m back in shape.”

 

Dan rubbed at his temples. Palpatine’s escape was destined to come back and bite him. The Sith had returned in the canon as well, seated at the head of a new Dark Empire. He doubted Etrigan would find the Sith. Not before Sidious was ready to try his luck against them for a second time.

 

“You can look around, I’ll send you a list of planets that I know he has, or will, use as a base,” Dan frowned. Emergency response vehicles were on their way to this location. “Let’s go, before anyone puts it together, that I created this explosion…”

 

---

 

 

“I told you… you weren’t prepared to face him,” Maul eased his mandalorian helm from his head and released a wave of blood. If it wasn’t for this suit of armour, his body would have fallen apart under Etrigan’s blows. “What the hell was that, the thing in black that ripped off Sidious’ arm?”

 

“That…” Doom winced as a drone snapped several ribs back into place, eyes on the unconscious Meryn. “That is the Master I serve… the one you wanted an equal voice with, if you truly take on the role of Mandalore.”

 

Maul snorted. Doom’s ‘master’ glowed in the force like a beacon. Not as a force sensitive would. It was an extreme concentration of lifeforce that brought both joy and fear to the living force. Doom also had a hint of this strange energy, but nothing like the shadowed man.

 

“We’ll see after I meet him again,” Maul’s memories of the boy from five years ago did not match that freak of nature he’d just witnessed. “If he’s as soft as you claim, he’ll probably give me what I want to try and gain my loyalty…”

 

“That does sound like something I would do,” A bulky, muscled form drifted through the med-bay doors. A stylized ‘S’ decorated his obsidian skin like a tattoo, while his toothed face grinned at Maul. “Doom, fill me in on what went wrong, how did Merlyn get injured…

 

---

 

“DAN!!!” May crashed into his body like a cannonball, eyes on the edge of tears. She sized him up, a mix of relief and annoyance on her face. “You’re more than two inches taller… and your hair is a lot longer…”

 

“Arrf-arrf!” Bear interrupted her observations and tipped them both to the side. He assaulted Dan’s face with his tongue, joyful tail locked in a hurricane spin. Stormy lept from the ground and wrapped himself around his master’s shoulders, claws dug deep into Venom’s inky flesh.

 

“I missed you guys too…” Dan laughed. He let his eyes settle onto May’s as he pulled her into a tighter hug. “I missed you all…”