Notes: Well, I think one look at the title is all you'll need to know what happens in this vig. This is Prime Time Coverage (500+ words of action, adventure, or excitement with your chosen character as the star), and though this title has appeared in several SW novels, it originated in Walter Jon Williams' The New Jedi Order: Destiny's Way.

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III. "Sword of the Jedi" | 43 ABY | Prime Time Coverage

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Ben stands on the bridge of the Anakin Solo, lightsaber held to the throat of the stubbornest junior officer in the entire Galactic Alliance.

"Order them back," he says, jaw tight as he tries to influence the man's mind to cooperate.

The communications officer is silent in his defiance, eyes straight ahead as he sits completely still at his station. The men and women around him are motionless as well.

Ben growls, unable to contain his frustration. He thinks of all the Jedi who should be here instead of him, Jedi who would be able to handle this situation far better than he is. Jedi who wouldn't be tempted to punch this stupidly loyal idiot in the face…

"Ben," Valin calls down into the crew pit. "Come here."

He exhales slowly, trying to control the tremor in his hands, wondering why the hum of his saber is so deafening. "What is it?"

"They're pulling out."

He blinks, wondering if he's heard wrong. "What do you mean, they're pulling out? Who?"

Valin leans over the edge of the crew pit and motions for Ben to join him at the viewport. "The Sith. They're leaving."

A strange dread fills him as he lowers his saber and vaults out of the pit, jogging to Valin's side. They stare out at the Sith warships, now beginning to turn toward open space. But there are two destroyers that are still spitting fire at their enemies, the two closest to Jacen's flagship; and in that moment, Ben remembers something he heard once while he hung in the Embrace of Pain…

Treachery, Jacen had informed him, is the way of the Sith.

"Valin," he says, grabbing the other man's arm. "We have to get off this ship, now."

He's reaching for his comlink to warn the others, to warn Jaina, when the first salvo hits. The ship shudders, its shields strained to the breaking point already, and he knows that the next round will demolish them. The crew pit roars to life again, officers relaying orders at the top of their lungs, completely ignoring the team of Jedi that had held them hostage seconds ago.

Ben turns and runs, Valin close on his heels. He waves frantically at the rest of their strike team, urging them away.

"Back to the shuttle!" he shouts above the klaxon that has begun to sound. "This ship is going down!"

They stagger down the corridor as another salvo tears through the shields and strikes durasteel. The power flickers, then fails entirely, and emergency lights switch on. At this point, he's not even sure if they're going in the right direction or if their tiny shuttle will still be waiting for them. He can't focus on that, though. There are too many variables to plan for, and right now, they need to get as far from those Sith turbolasers as possible.

Suddenly the corridor tilts, and Ben is thrown against the wall. He tries to keep going, but everything is sideways, and it takes him a few seconds to realize why.

"Must've hit one of the antigrav generators!" Valin shouts, giving voice to Ben's thoughts. That explains the shifting gravity field that is making his feet want to run along the wall of the corridor instead of the floor. The Jedi steady and reorient themselves before continuing toward the Star Destroyer's hangar bays.

The closer they get to the hangar, the more chaos they encounter: sections of ceiling caved in, fires raging in adjacent hallways, crew members scrambling to abandon ship. They don't even seem to notice the Jedi as they race for the escape pods. Ben wonders if he and his companions will have to take those same pods.

"Valin, Ben," Tahiri's voice cuts in over the comlink. "We're at the shuttle. No damage; we're prepping for takeoff. How far out are you?"

Ben growls under his breath. He's not even sure anymore; the featureless gray corridors of the destroyer are even more indistinguishable now that they're sideways.

Valin answers for them. "Less than a minute out, we're going as fast as we can."

Ben is about to say something, when he feels Jaina's unmistakable light flaring in the Force. It's so luminous, he wonders that he didn't notice it this whole time. And he realizes she's too far from the shuttle, that she's under stress, that she's…

He grits his teeth. He should have known it wouldn't be that easy, that she wouldn't be able to beat Jacen so quickly. How could he have allowed himself to hope? And even though he can't feel his former master in the Force, he knows – somehow, he knows – Jacen is still alive and still fighting.

Behind him, the other Jedi slow ever so slightly, perhaps perceiving what Ben has, that even as the ship breaks apart around them, something is building to a boil deep within its belly – a battle not between dark and light, or shield and sword, or even the slayer and the trickster. No, the battle is between Jacen and Jaina, and though it's a small distinction, Ben can feel the truth of it clearly.

He senses her, then, her speed and wild abandon tempered by laser sharp focus and determination. And then – painfully, unthinkably, impossibly – he senses Jacen, too, his cold fire sparking against Jaina's heat as they clash over and over, each of them desperate to end this, or maybe to convince the other to stop, so they won't have to kill their other half—

Ben gasps, and his vision goes white around the edges. He realizes Valin is pulling him toward the shuttle – when did they reach the hangar? – and Tahiri gathers him into her arms for a moment before pushing him up the ramp – does she sense what's happening? – and the shuttle blasts out of the dying Anakin Solo as fire rains down around them.

For one fleeting instant, Ben remembers the look on Jaina's face three months ago, when he entered the medbay and saw her holding her newborn sons in her arms. The joy and pride and relief and heartbreak she couldn't contain. She'd known this was coming, hadn't she? The Sword of the Jedi, with one last battle to fight.

It happens just seconds before the final volley. One minute she's there, and the next she's just… gone. And in a flash of insight, he sees them both lying there, crumpled on the deck; and he refuses to believe the impossible anguish and rage that assaults him in her wake, because Jacen doesn't love anyone, Jacen doesn't feel loss or suffering, Jacen definitely isn't cradling his sister in his arms as fire sweeps in to consume them both…

The Star Destroyer breaks apart, turbolasers reducing parts of it to atoms as the rest drifts aimlessly among the wreckage of the battle. Ben stares out the viewport, reaching into the black hole of misery and death that swirls in the Force around him, and he senses nothing from them, nothing at all. They're gone. They're gone.

Jaina and Jacen Solo are dead.