Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Writer's note: It has been awhile since I have read the book 'Invincible' and thus have forgotten many facts about it, but since I altered the ending anyway I hope that doesn't prove important to this story. As an avid YJK fan Jacen Solo was always a dear favorite of mine, along with most all of the cast. Jaina Solo was always my most favorite character and I feel her character will be incomplete with out Jacen. This is what led to the writing of this story. (I still wish LotF would have had a different outcome and certainly which it had a different theme all together. :p Sorry, but I had to say it.) On to the story, hope you enjoy.
Good Bye, Brother
"For all her toughness, she's also fragile." Leia Organa Solo speaking of Jaina Solo.
Jaina Solo leaned forward to flip the controls that would power down the engine of the old T-23 Skyhopper she had managed to board and pilot before the Anakin Solo had met its final demise. It was a very familiar modeled ship for her. Even as she had flown the craft over the treetops of the Hapan Cluster planet, Virgill, to locate a clearing to land she was reminded of the days she, her brother, and Tenel Ka would all cram into the back of Lowbacca's T-23 back on Yavin Four. The most vivid memory of such rides, which even now dominated her mind, was the one Lowbacca had taken the twins on just a day after Jacen had accidentally cut off Tenel Ka's arm. The Wookiee had said then that the ride was for therapeutic reasons, which it had been. Jaina just wished that this ride could have made her feel better about what she had just done, but instead it only served to strengthen the burden she had to carry now.
The young woman sat back in the pilot's seat briefly and whisked away a strand of her still mildly damp brown hair that had fallen into her face. Taking a deep breath she turned to face the two, all too familiar, cramped as ever, passenger seats located just below the cockpit. On top of those seats also laid the now lifeless body of her twin brother, Jacen Solo.
Jaina managed to maneuver her way back to kneel next to her brother. This was the second and final time she would be returning from a battle with one of her slain brothers in tow. Only this time there would be no honorable funeral given. No, this time Jaina couldn't run and try to hide from what had just happened. Jacen would be her responsibility and hers alone. There was no need to disgrace her family or hurt her parents further by bringing Jacen's body back to the Core to be at the disposal of, of, well, whoever would be in charge of the Galactic Alliance now. If there was even a GA left.
Just as she had done while visiting Anakin Solo's lifeless body for the final time on the flight back to Coruscant from the fateful Myrkr mission Jaina reached up and coaxed a hand through her fallen brother's tousled brown hair. She forced away the many thoughts that tried to pour into her mind at that moment. They would have to wait until later. Inhaling deeply she stood up and prepared herself for the task that would be carrying her brother to his final resting place.
About a standard hour later Jaina stood below the pyre she had built for her twin. She gazed briefly up at the stars. One of those stars was the planet Hapes. She smiled mirthlessly to herself as she recalled her first visit to the home planet of the Hapan Royal Family. Tenel Ka's lightsaber accident had been what had brought Jaina, Jacen, and Lowbacca to the planet. Despite how horrible Jacen had felt about what he had done, and despite the shock of just learning for the first time that his long time friend was of Hapan Royal blood, the first things the young boy had asked Tenel Ka was if she wanted to hear a joke. That was Jacen Solo's true nature. Not the cold heartless being he had become as Dark Caedus, but a fun loving, kind hearted human being who would do anything to make someone laugh, especially Tenel Ka.
Jaina lifted the fire-ridden torch she would use to light the funeral pyre. The flame reminded her of the passion Anakin Solo had always lived each moment of his young life with. For the first time since his death she felt as if he were there with her and perhaps he was. She wondered what he would have done in her place. In the last moment of Jacen's life Jaina had felt him, not Caedus in the Force and also in their twin bond they had shared since before they were born. Anakin did not share that bond with his brother, but he had always been so strong in the Force and had learned far more about it than Jaina knew herself even now. Jaina even questioned if anyone would learn of the facts about the Force that her younger brother once had. Perhaps Anakin could have prevented Jacen from going down this path to begin with. Perhaps he, with his strength and amazing talent of using the Force, would have found away to prevent killing Jacen in the end. Jaina would never know though, and neither would anyone else.
"I'm sorry, Jacen," Jaina whispered as she lifted the torch to ignite the pyre. She knew now that she should have taken a more active role as a Jedi. Anakin wielded a great strength in the Force, but so did she and Jacen. For too long she had stood back and watched her two brothers debate over the rights and wrongs of the use of the Force and where the Jedi's moralities should lie. Jaina, for the most part, had stayed out of those arguments. She had thought she was already doing her part in the war against the Yuuzhan Vong as a pilot. She had contributed much to the battle, but along the way she now felt like she had temporarily lost sight of her role as a Jedi and all for reasons every Jedi should be ashamed of, as they were selfish reasons. Jaina had become so consumed in not wanting to lose any more of her friends and family after Anakin's death that she had even kept Jacen at arms' length upon his return from captivity. She had become so cold then that she hadn't even been able to see how her twin had changed at the time. If she had put her selfishness aside then perhaps she could have prevented Jacen from going down this dark path. After all she had been down it once herself.
"No one you love really ever has to die-not if you don't want them to… All you have to do is hold a place for them in your heart," these words were spoken by Jacen Solo himself to Jaina. She had just lost her first wing mate and good friend, Anni Capstan, in a battle. Jaina was taking the loss hard, and Jacen, being able to feel everything Jaina felt through their twin bond, was the one to come to her and comfort her. Those words were comforting then, but now, Jaina found it difficult to fill the void in her heart that had once been so dominantly held by Jacen. He had kept himself cut off from the Force for so many years she had thought she could no longer feel him, but now she knew differently. He had remained there all along, and now she knew what it was truly like to lose him. It was the worst pain she had ever felt in her life.
As Jaina looked up at her brother's body, now engulfed in flames, she discovered that hot tears were now flowing unabatedly down her face. She had known she had to be the one to kill Darth Caedus. She knew it would hurt her to fight the image of her brother, but she wasn't expecting to actually feel Jacen before striking the ending blow. Just as vividly as she would have years ago when the two were near inseparable teenagers being forced to fight each other at the Shadow Academy Jaina felt her lightsaber pierce her brother's heart. No lesson she had received from Boba Fett and certainly no technique she had been using in the Force up to this time could have prepared her for that moment. The numbness she had felt in her heart following that moment was now giving way to heaviness. It felt as if the entire universe now was crashing down upon her chest.
Jaina soon felt a hand on her shoulder and felt two familiar presences standing next to her. After watching the pyre burn completely to the ground, which would have taken several hours but almost felt like years to her, she finally turned around accepted her father and mother's sympathetic and loving embrace.