Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Star Wars characters. I just made up the plot and Umber.
Jaina struggled in the arms of two troopers, dragging her into a small chamber. Her arm that had been struck blazed with pain. Umber followed behind, quietly.
"Put me down! Stop it!"
A trooper whacked the back of her head with the butt of his blaster, and Jaina, struggling not to lose consciousness, gave up her resistance.
The room, she saw, was a torture chamber, designed for pain and agony. The troopers threw her onto a metal table, tilted at forty-five degrees. They strapped her on and tightened the restraints around her arms, wrists, legs, ankles, torso, and neck. Jaina tested her strength against the metal restraints. No way out. They were on too tight.
A face came into view. Umber. How could she have ever thought his face was empty? It was full of evil. Full of the darkness that Jaina was learning to fight and triumph over. She wanted to close her eyes, block out the face of evil. But that would be to admit defeat. She kept her eyelids open, trembling. She'd heard stories about torture, and had faced the brainwashing power of the Empire. But she had never given in. Never. And she never would.
She prepared her body for the worst, not knowing what pain they would inflict upon her. She would have to use all of her Jedi strength to override the pain. But she could, and she would. They would not win. Light over dark. Always. Right?
Jacen sat in the control room of the ship, alone. He had chosen to stay in this cold room instead of with the adults who were so disappointed in him. But he had done the right thing. He knew it.
Jaina! His mind cried out achingly. But all that was there was a void. He could not sense her. It was like his ties to the everything he knew and believed in, to the Force, it was as if they had been severed completely, and Jacen was left hanging in the middle of space, without an oxygen tank.
Uncle Luke had tried to stop Jacen on his way to the control room, but Jacen didn't want to talk. He didn't want a reprimand from his uncle on top of one from his father. Uncle Luke wouldn't understand. He didn't know what it felt like to be stranded, separated from his twin, not just physically, but mentally.
Every once in a while, Jacen could catch a drift of conversation from the cockpit. They were having trouble figuring out just where to go, and Leia and Han were arguing about what to do with the Falcon and Jacen when they got there. Luke's voice was not heard.
"Jacen?" Jacen spun around to see his uncle drop into a cross-legged position in front of the door.
"Please, I don't want to talk."
"But talk you must." Luke's eyes looked through Jacen, but couldn't connect with anything solid.
"I don't understand," Jacen said. "What do you want? I'm sorry, okay?"
"No, you aren't," Luke corrected, amused. "Jaina would've done the same thing for you, huh?"
"Dad didn't buy it," Jacen looked at the gritty floor.
"No, but he doesn't understand. You and Jaina are twins, like Leia and myself. There is a connection between you."
"Was," Jacen muttered.
"Excuse me?" Luke asked.
"I can't sense her anymore." Jacen raised his eyes to meet his uncle's troubled blue ones.
"I don't understand it," Luke murmured. "When you were in the smuggling compartment, I couldn't sense you at all. When you left the room, I couldn't catch your attention mentally. It's like a void. As though you've been cut off from the Force."
"And Jaina."
"Yes," Luke amended. "And Jaina."
"This is creepy." Jacen shivered.
"A Sith…"
"Huh?" Jacen couldn't catch his uncle's mumblings.
"A Sith," Luke said more clearly. "A Dark Jedi. It's like a Sith is controlling this. But there haven't been any Sith since—Darth Vader was…converted."
Jacen looked at Luke's face. It was pained, and Luke looked down at his artificial hand, a remnant of his father's anger.
"Jacen," Luke looked directly at his nephew, full in the face. "Promise me, as my Jedi student, as my nephew, promise me you will obey myself and your parents. Jacen, this is very serious. This journey is very dangerous for you. Whatever one of us tells you to do, you must instantly obey. Promise?"
"Uncle Luke," Jacen began.
"Do you promise me?"
Jacen was taken aback. He had never heard Luke sound so intense. Luke's eyes bore into Jacen, but still couldn't connect. He had to trust Jacen's answer.
"I promise," Jacen responded, unsure of how he felt truthfully about this.