A/N: The T rating is for non-graphic violence and torture.
.oOo.
Lightning crackles from her fingertips, and Jaina cannot stop herself from smiling as she administers her own, cruel justice. He deserves this for being a pirate and a traitor. The universe deserves this for stealing her brothers from her. It is with glee that she watches as the man writhes beneath the torrent of lightning in pure, undiluted agony.
Agony. He thought he knew its meaning, but now Jacen discovers pain worlds beyond anything he has ever known. Currents of electricity rack through his body, and his tight bonds limit his convulsions. Together, the lightning and his restraints teach him of one shade of pain. The dripping acid that burns his skin illustrates another. But he knows that there is far more left to discover, for he has seen the very edge of the spectrum. Above him, hundreds of glimmering eyestalks hover, and knowing that beyond those silent wardens are his brother's murderers teaches him the most painful shade of all.
She can feel the eyes of her friends upon her, each more concerned than the last. Jaina squares her shoulders and brushes away their worries. Zekk and Tenel Ka should save their pity for someone who needs it. And there will be. She will make them pay for what they did to her brothers.
But beneath that woman lies a scared, confused child. Before Myrkr, she had always been one half of a unified whole. No matter if he was with her or not, she carried a piece of Jacen with her, just as he held some of her inside him. But now, her twin is gone, never to return, and for the first time, she must constitute a whole by herself. Every time she peers inside, though, something is missing. The girl who realizes this wants to shatter, and the stronger woman tries to smother her into silence.
His throat is too raw to scream, and his muscles have been pulled and twisted for too many minutes or weeks or years to fight back when his captors force him into a new position, each more painful than the last. Jacen wants nothing more than to slip away, to flee the Embrace in the only way he can.
But his master is even more patient than it is cruel, and it allows him to slip to the floor. Too exhausted to move, he allows the creatures to crawl over him, to repair the damage their creators have done, to inject the nutrients his body needs to keep breathing. His teacher assures him that he is not alive, and Jacen takes some comfort in knowing that someday he will die. She speaks to him of other things as well, of shadowmoths and gardeners, but mostly, they talk about pain.
Jacen now considers himself an expert on that particular subject.
Her mother pulls her into a tight embrace the instant she steps off the ship. Jaina wishes that she was still young, that a mother's kiss could fix anything. But if the war has taught her anything, it is that there is no use in wishing for impossibilities.
All too soon, the Embrace pulls him back. It has new kinds of pain to demonstrate for him.
Her teacher smiles at her, cold, reptilian. Jaina sits back and waits. She knows the former Queen Mother intends to mold her into something terrible. All the same, she smiles back. Perhaps she will become the monster Ta'a Chume dreams of creating. She will do anything to make the Vong pay for what they've done to her.
He knows, now, of what Vergere has spoken to him for so long. Or perhaps it has not been long at all; after all, time holds no meaning for the dead. Jacen no longer merely accepts the pain. Instead, he uses it, lets it wash over him and strengthen him. Uncle Luke once told him that the ache in his muscles after lightsaber practice meant he was growing stronger, that the pain helped him grow. Jacen wonders if he realized then just how wise his words were.
The next time the Embrace releases him, Vergere comes. "Come, Jacen," she says, and she leads him to a Nursery, a place for children to learn and play with their toys. Of course, he will not allow himself to be shaped the way the other slaves do. Instead, he makes a friend.
Her brother's body, which she had risked so much to save, lies on its funeral pyre. She longs to stop her uncle as he lights Anakin ablaze, but as she stands next to her crying parents, she knows it would do no good.
The Nursery is lit with the light of a hundred raging fires. Jacen cuts through Yuuzhan Vong and slave alike, intent on his goal. Though the masters of this ship do not yet realize it, he has become their god, creating and enacting his own prophecy. They will create their world in his image, for that is what this god demands. He is a gardener, and they are all weeds.
The man shivers in the cold, cell-like room, but Jaina does not offer him a jacket like the one wrapped around her shoulders. Her master waits in the other room, sickened, as she and the scientists do what must be done. She wonders if he can hear their prisoner's screams.
When he awakes again, it is on a world so alien that it must be home. He stares, dazed, at a bridge in the heavens. Violets, blues, and reds shine down from above, and Jacen knows that the Vong have done to him what they did to the moon. Broken him, cracked him into thousands or millions of splinters, then reformed him into something new and beautiful. Vergere perches beside him, and as always, she has only questions and lies. In short, she is more truthful than any other has ever been.
Together, they walk back into the world of the living. For weeks they hike through the teeming life that covers what was once Coruscant. He has only one destination in mind, but it is not what he finds first.
Her teacher calls her lovely, takes more and more interest in her by the day. An attack on her father. A few drops of poison in the Queen Mother's wineglass. The pieces of a plan slowly fall into place around her. Jaina will allow no one to decide her destiny. Ta'a Chume may think her a dejarik piece, easily moved with a push of a manicured finger, but she will soon know better.
She stands proudly before the prince, and her teacher smiles as her son moves to crown his new queen. But with a glance and a wink at the last minute, the tiara is placed on a copper head instead. Ta'a Chume gasps as Jaina beams and embraces Queen Mother Tenel Ka.
His fall has an audience of thousands, but Jacen chooses to make them participants as well. The dark swallows him as lightning blasts from his fingers. They have taught him much about pain; now, he returns the favor. The world is engulfed in black as the foundation cracks under the force of his rage. Jacen smiles at their suffering. After all, they have created him in their own image.
Trickster.
Slayer.
.oOo.
A/N: Thanks for reading! Obviously, I own neither Traitor nor Dark Journey, and owning Star Wars itself is even more of a pipe dream. I'd love to hear what you thought of the story!