Chapter 292
**Dagon POV**
The twin suns of Tatooine bled crimson across the horizon as the last light of day painted the rocky plateau in long, bloody shadows. The air had turned cooler, carrying the dry bite of desert night, but the tension made everything feel heavier.
Saa Qalu was a male Yuuzhan Vong of the warrior caste — one of the chosen elite known as Hunters. Tall, heavily scarred beneath the stolen human-like skin suit he wore as camouflage, he moved with the predatory grace of something that had never known mercy. Dooku had convinced him this galaxy was filled with weak mortals ripe for conquest. Saa Qalu played along for now, hating every moment of alliance with these "blasphemers" who relied on machines instead of the living gods. Soon, he would kill them all and report back to the main caste: a galaxy ready for invasion.
*Damn. Damn it.* My internal thoughts raced. *A Hunter. A Yuuzhan Vong. How does Dooku not know? Oh, of course… thanks to the mind prison and Nox training, I can detect these while everyone else is blind to them.*
Quinlan Vos chuckled softly, clearly trying to throw me off balance. He had sensed the decoy — the large force I sent back with Puck and Lucky. He knew someone alive was still in the backpack carrier on my back. Rotta. Such tricks would deceive lesser minds, but not a Kiffar Shadow like Vos.
However, his words of greeting were wasted.
I took the long-hilted lightsaber from my belt — deliberately throwing my hand to the side — and activated the blade. It ignited with a deep, crackling hiss, the edge glowing an unnatural bluish-white that shifted into bleeding crimson at the core.
"Traitor!" I literally spat the word at him.
Zule stiffened beside me, her red-orange skin flushing darker with alarm. Through our bond I sent a single, urgent look, my eyes already turning blood-red with the surge of power I was drawing.
*Zule,* I projected directly into her mind, the words heavy with finality. *You are a loyal padawan, and in the short time since I've known you, I came to love you like the other girls — Ahsoka, Visenya, Kayla, Flare, Stella. It was nice knowing them all.*
"Wait, Master, I don't understand—"
I didn't give her time to argue.
With a sharp gesture, I tore open a temporary portal through the Force — a swirling rift of violet and silver energy. Before Zule could protest, I shoved her and the carrier containing the sleeping Huttlet through it, sending them both far back toward the rest of the squad and the crash site, safely distant from this confrontation.
*Wait, Master—!*
The portal snapped shut the instant they passed through. I sealed it completely, knowing my fate was now sealed with it. No retreat. No backup. Just me and them.
I turned my full attention to the two figures before me.
"I know who you are, Vong," I said coldly, voice carrying across the plateau. "Stop hiding behind that fake skin."
Quinlan Vos blinked, confusion flashing across his face. "Wait — what is a Vong?"
The answer came instantly.
Saa Qalu's disguise rippled and tore away like wet paper. The stolen human skin suit sloughed off in strips, revealing the true horror beneath — heavily tattooed, scarred flesh embedded with living armor, amphistaff coiled at his side, eyes burning with religious zeal and hatred for all things Force-related.
In one fluid motion, the Yuuzhan Vong Hunter struck.
His amphistaff whipped forward in a vicious arc. Quinlan Vos barely had time to widen his eyes before the living weapon sliced him cleanly in two equal pieces straight down the middle. The Kiffar Shadow's body fell apart in a spray of blood and sand, his lightsaber clattering uselessly to the ground.
Saa Qalu straightened, amphistaff hissing as it reshaped into a rigid spear. A cruel, triumphant smile split his scarred face.
"So… a worthy challenge appears."
The plateau fell deathly silent except for the whisper of wind over stone and the distant howl of a krayt dragon somewhere far away.
I stood alone now, bleeding lightsaber humming in my grip, eyes glowing blood-red with the dark power I no longer bothered to hide. The Yuuzhan Vong Hunter regarded me with genuine interest for the first time — no longer seeing another blasphemer, but something closer to an equal.
The night was falling fast over Tatooine. Two predators faced each other on the rocky summit while, miles away, Zule and the squad would soon realize what I had done.
The Huttlet was safe for now.
But I was not.