Jaina Solo removed her helmet almost immediately upon landing on the asteroid base that her target had landed on, placing it in the empty copilot's seat of the Hapan-made passenger cruiser. The ship, which was normally supposed to be crewed by two sentients, had been a part of Jaina's life since she was around 15. It had seen frequent adventures by a group of young Jedi Knights that included herself, Zekk, the rare Wookiee Jedi Lowbacca, the aristocratic and now horribly scarred—both mentally and physically—Raynar Thul… Her train of thought slowed down as she began to think of the other two members of that group. Tenel Ka. Jacen.
It was those two people that she thought of last that brought her here to this barren planetoid in the middle of nowhere. Her head sunk into the glove covering her right hand, wishing that the events that had transpired in the past twelve years hadn't brought her to this place at this time. She wished that she didn't have to do what she would more than likely be forced to do.
She would—if she were forced to—kill her own brother.
The road to this decision had not been an easy one to take, but now it seemed to be the only one that she could travel. Tenel Ka, the other member of her group of friends that she had difficulty thinking about, was now lying in the emergency care unit of a Hapan hospital at the moment, her little daughter by her side. It was Jaina's own brother that had been responsible for the attack. Jacen had tried to murder Tenel Ka. The woman that he had fallen in love with from the very beginning was comatose by his hand. There were others as well: Aliyn Vel, the bounty hunter daughter of Boba Fett who had been brutally beaten to death by Jacen during a lengthy interrogation; a segment of the Corellian population on Coruscant, whose freedom had been taken away from them as they sat in internment camps; and the crew of the freighter that Jacen had ordered her to fire upon at the beginning of the Corellian Blockade. Jaina had refused to fire upon the defenseless ship, and then Jacen had done the evil deed himself.
She stood up from the pilot's chair of the Rock Dragon, finally ready to leave the vessel and go into the heart of the asteroid and face the one man that she had never expected to face in combat. She removed the gloves from her hands before placing them beside the helmet in the copilot's seat. She checked her lightsaber, ensuring that the weapon was in its proper position upon her belt. She pressed a button next to the door, hearing a slight hiss as the air pressure quickly equalized when the entranceway opened.
As soon as she stepped out of the ship the overwhelming aura of the dark side hit her, putting her slightly off balance for a second as she struggled to adjust to it. For the briefest of moments her concentration was totally shattered, rendering her ability to use the Force hampered for that small amount of time. It finally returned as her will exerted itself to overcome the power of the Dark Side. With this major obstacle gone for the moment, she was prepared as she would ever be for the challenge ahead.
It didn't take her long to find Jacen inside of the asteroid complex as soon as she started looking. She could sense him—or whatever he had turned into—almost instantly after managing to break through the massive interference that the corruption inside of the asteroid. He was no longer the innocent boy that had been fond of both telling horrendous jokes and animals that she knew from her childhood. Instead she sensed a deep pool of dark side energy, a fountain that sprayed hatred and—perhaps most disturbing—a sense of unwavering purpose and dark will. Despite the biological relationship between them, it was not her brother.
He was standing over a body as she entered the room that contained him, his position and the distance between them made it difficult for Jaina to see his latest victim. He was clad in his black Galactic Alliance Guard uniform, a stark contrast to what he was known to wear in the past. It was an ideal uniform for a dark sider, she thought as she watched, trying to determine whom he had just killed.
"So, they sent you to kill me," Jacen finally spoke, his back still turned to Jaina. "Out of all the people in the Order, it's you."
"I don't want to kill you, Jacen," Jaina replied, hoping that her attempts would work. "Come back to Ossus with me, we can get you help there."
"They won't understand why I've done all of this!" Jacen exclaimed. "Everything that I've done is for the good of the galaxy, for peace."
"So says the man that started two wars," Jaina replied. Four years previously, Jacen had been the leader of a Jedi squadron that included herself that had attacked a Chiss supply depot. That action had led to the Chiss military response to wipe out the Killiks. The second war that Jacen had started was still waging, a war of secession that pitted the Corellians against the Galactic Alliance.
"It was all to stop the things that would come to pass," Jacen answered, finally turning around to face her.
Jaina gasped as she finally saw the outline of the body. Red hair flowed onto the floor, obscuring the face of Jacen's victim. Aunt Mara? Jaina thought as she first spied the body, wondering how her aunt had flown in to this place from Coruscant with enough time to fight Jacen and then be killed by him before she arrived. It had to be someone else that looked like her aunt that had died earlier.
It was then that the physical signs of the dark side had begun to manifest themselves onto her brother. His once brown eyes now glowed with a supernatural flame. She had seen this look before, but never from her own brother.
"You plan to stop me, don't you?" Jacen asked, his voice a mixture of sadness and anger. "I can't let that happen. I beg you, leave this place now. I don't want to kill you." Just like I couldn't kill Allana, he mentally added.
The mental image of Tenel Ka's young daughter flashed into Jaina's mind as Jacen finished his half-hearted plea for her to leave the asteroid lair. She wondered why that image would come to her now for a few seconds before finally figuring out why. Allana was Jacen's daughter! The thought stunned her for a second, made her wonder why Jacen and Tenel Ka had kept the secret hidden for so long. And then she thought that Allana wasn't using "Aunt Jaina" to mean a trusted family friend inside of the Hapan medical center.
"I won't leave, Jacen," she replied. "Not without you leaving here with me."
"I warned you Jaina," Jacen icily said as he reached for his lightsaber. He thumbed the weapon on, sending an electric green blade springing into existence. "Yet you wouldn't listen. This is the way it has to be…"
Jaina Solo regretfully removed her own lightsaber from her belt. She had tried to solve this peacefully, yet Jacen had quickly shot every suggestion down with ease. She ignited her own violet blade.
Jacen chuckled as he saw his sister assume a defensive position, himself pacing around the area near the fallen corpse of his Sith Master. "Now, now, Jaina," he taunted as he slipped into a fighting stance that heavily favored aggressive moves, "you wouldn't kill your own brother, would you?"
"Both of my brothers died at Myrkr," she replied. "I just didn't know about my twin falling there until now."
The two combatants circled each other for a while, studying each other's moves and stance, trying to find a weakness. Then, the battle began.
