Part 11

Caedus walked toward Zekk, each step of the Sith Lord's boot deliberate, deafening. Zekk was radiating fear, and Caedus not only knew it, he was practically feeding off it. Jacen's smirk grew.

Zekk turned toward another corner of the room's roof. He pleaded. "Jaina?"

Jacen nodded knowingly, obscenely. "She's gone, Jedi."

Caedus' words echoed in the space left where the guiding voice had been. Focusing on that accepting section of his mind, that third ear, the Sith's words hit home immediately.

"It was just another test, Jace," Jaina pleaded.

Jaina sped her steps, trying to catch up to Jacen. Their collective steps echoed in the stone halls. Zekk knew that to follow them would be foolish and only involve him in complicated family matters. He stepped around the hall and followed cautiously. Watching the twins with silent curiosity, he took a quick step back and slipped into another room's entry hall as Jacen finally stopped and turned to face his sister.

"Of course it was a test!" Jacen's composure was nearly gone, his hands solid fists. "You think I don't blasted know?"

The two stood nearly still for seconds, watching one another. Jacen looked away, his eyes following the lines of the large stones making up the wall. He took a breath and turned back to Jaina.

"Sis, think about what we have. We can move buildings, rewrite memories, stop a blaster bolt before it's fired." Jacen stepped towards his sister, his right arm punctuating his points. "Then Luke stands there and talks about patience and understanding for fools that line up in squads and blast families. Men. Women." Jacen looked away, breathed quickly through his teeth. "Children. AT-ATs and battle Rancors..."

Zekk could immediately tell that Jacen was slipping into past fears, memories. He also caught Jaina picking up on the same thing. She wasn't crying, she wasn't stepping in to hug her brother. Her eyes remained stern.

"You know this is how the galaxy works," she said. "If these people choose to fight for what they feel is right, their feelings must be grounded in something inte-"

"Crap!" Jacen shouted. "They fight for something, plenty of folk die, and we're worse off than when we woke up that morning. We can be stop all that!"

Jaina shook her head. Zekk heard Jacen choking back rushing breaths. Jaina raised her head and remained stately.

"If we restrict their freedoms, we are no better than Palpatine. An alliance means choice, and we are the guardians of that choice."

Jacen stared at his sister, blinking. His arms shook, stopped, then shook again. "No," he whispered. "We are the guardians of life."

Jaina froze, her brow rising. "What?"

"We are the guardians of life." Jacen stopped, looking around. He turned back to his sister, saw that she was listening completely. "We guard life. The Jedi are here to ensure that no one stops life from growing."

"Right, sure," Jaina admitted, still not sure where her brother was going.

"But humanoids are the biggest threat!" Jacen persisted as he began to pace around the hall. "They, we, build bigger weapons and make new rules against one another." Jacen finally focused his view on his sister. "It's the cycle that has killed thousands of us for generations."

Jaina paused. "Us? Humanoids? You must mean millions, not thousands."

"No," Jacen insisted, "Us, Jedi. Thousands."

Jaina's eyes twitched. "Jedi are still people, we aren't something separate."

Jacen stopped in his approach, watching the floor for several seconds before turning back up toward Jaina. "We can save this galaxy from itself."

Jaina squinted, her shoulders twitching toward a natural fighting stance.

"We are here to allow the galaxy to do what it will."

Jacen, now almost shaking with rage, started to respond. Something stopped him, be it the Force or simple lack of argument, and Jacen stepped back. Zekk didn't even need to focus to feel the uncertain wake of Force following Jacen as he rushed from the hall.

Zekk turned to face what was left of Jacen Solo. He knew it was a small fraction. Zekk considered the years of the Vong war, Jaina's brother's years gone, and knew exactly what Jacen had become. To Zekk, the Sith Lord was no longer an amorphous shape of strength and rage.

His fear began to subside, his nerves settled gradually. Caedus sensed this immediately, and his smirk was quickly replaced with concentration. Something wasn't right. The man's smarter half was bleeding out on the floor, his forces had long-since jumped system, and nearly his entire right pant leg was red. Why wasn't he retreating? Why the hell was he calmer than before?

It infuriated Caedus. He could step out of a building, and an entire week's worth of murders and rapes would be pushed to the Minor Notices sections of the HoloNews. Merely lifting his hand could bring Coruscantians to their knees and fill Corellians' pants with urine. An open palm and a lazy thought, and he could topple a building blocks away.

So why the hell was this confused, woman-whipped Jedi moving into a fighting stance again?

Zekk had surprised Caedus, and the younger Lord finally allowed himself to admit that enough was enough. It wasn't much of a choice. The constant snubbing and ignorance of what he was doing and sacrificing to save the Galaxy from itself, the sheer adolescence of people he had once held dear, had finally toppled the bridge above his constant, undeniable rage.

He freely fell into the red river below. A single spark appeared from the front of Caedus' shoulder. It hopped its way down his bicep, leapt onto the top of forearm, continued bouncing, and landed softly upon Darth Cadeus' lightsaber's emitter. The red blade erupted into a fluctuating and fiery red ether.