"Jacen if you think that pacing around muttering obscene curses under your breath to Jagged Fel is gonna help Jaina out…" Han eyed his son warily as he flipped some more switches, preparing the ship to come out of lightspeed.

Jacen wringed his hands together, not stopping the pacing part, but he had finally run out of curse words in every language that he could think of. He blew out a frustrated sigh, sending his raggedy hair into a frenzied mess, and looked towards his father. Han caught Jacen's eye and gave him a halfhearted smile.

"Don't sweat it kid. It takes more than a couple of Vong to take out a Solo." Han punched him lightly on the arm and swiveled his chair back around, looking harder into the computer system, trying to get the right coordinates where they had planned to land.

"But she's on that planet dad…"

Han's eyes flashed around to meet his son's catching in the seriousness of his voice.

"She's there right now, Jag's not with her. She's alone, she's afraid…she's…." Han saw a few tears come into Jacen's eyes before the he sat down and hung his head in his hands. Han heard his soft whimpers as Jacen began to cry.

As uncommon it was for one of his boys to cry, a matter at which Han usually laughed and teased at, feeling the seriousness of the situation, he reached up and patted Jacen's back, urging him to continue.

"You still feel her?" Han asked. A strange question for him really. Han Solo wasn't know for his interest in the force, he didn't mind it, but he usually left it to other people, being as how he had no sense of it whatsoever.

With tear filled eyes, Jacen looked up towards his father and nodded.

"I sense her. I've been trying to shut our bond but I just don't have the hear to do it to her…it hurt me so much before…"

"Jacen…do you know where she is?" Han stared hard into the eyes of his son. A boy who had become a man through the hard lessons of torturer, betrayal and pain.

After a few moments of silence, Jacen hung his head and spoke.

"She's right where I was…embracing pain to it's fullest…"



Jag felt clumsy as he waved the purple sword about, his old lessons of archery and fencing trying to force their way back into his head. It wasn't all that bad. After he took the first few Vong down, it became easier with each one. Kicking back two more with a roundhouse kick, he slashed one in half with the point of the blade, swishing out back fast to bisect another's head. Wincing at the gruesome stench of ground combat, which Jag had not experienced for some time, he continued to run for the nearest shelter.

About 100 Vong were already dead, thanks to Jaina's lightsaber and Jag's old combat lessons, and only about 5 were left still running after him.

"What I would give for a blaster right now…" Jag said under his breath.

He stopped short as something fell right before his feet, and a loud laugh rose over the sounds of the Vong's cries. Looking down first, and with no hesitation, Jag scooped up the blaster from the rubble that it fell into and turning around with speed that only a Fel and Antilles could have, he shot down the rest of the Vong. Breathing heavily, the laugher still going strong in his ears, Jag looked up and around, amazed by what he saw.

Jacen Solo carefully jumped down from the nearby rubble, followed closely by his father, Han Solo. Jacen was still laughing, almost an evil laugh and Jag was not in the mood right now for another death and torturer lesson from the Solo's.

"I should have let them shoot you Jag…" Jacen said, still laughing as he slung an arm around Jag's tense shoulders. "But Jaina can whip my butt any day and she would have hurt me pretty bad if I did anything to you, yet."

Jag hung his head down a little ways, feeling defeated. Why did Jaina have to have a younger brother? Why couldn't he be older so that Jag wouldn't have to feel so stupid every time he was shown that brotherly over protectiveness.

"You're mighty cheerful for an only child Jacen…" Jag said under his breath, but Jacen caught the words.

"You think she's gone do you?" Jacen looked mightily into the eyes of the older boy, daring him to say otherwise.

"I'm saying that there's no way they would have let her live this long. Not with the considerable enemies she's been making."

"Vong don't thrive on death Jag, it's not a big thing to them…" Jag's eyes wandered over to where the older Solo stood, his strong arms crossed in front of his chest, wearing and expression that could melt through Hoth, pointed right at Jag. Gulping Jag turned his attention back to Jacen.

"Jag?"

"What?"

"I said that they don't thrive on death. They like pain…" He accented the word, sending a thrill down Jag's spine. All at once Jag heard Jaina's screams in his head, her anguish, her torturer and her willingness to give up. The force sent Jag to his knees and squeezed tears out of his eyes.

Daring to look up into Jacen's eyes, Jag saw Jaina lying in a pool of blood, her raw skin burning under the constant surveillance of enemies and pain devices. Her lips formed only one word. Jag…

"Jaina!" Jag fell onto all fours, his heart stopped beating for a moments and he felt Jaina one last time before the rush left him and he was left all alone again, the two men standing above him, peering at his form.

Grimly wiping him mouth clean, he pushed off of the ground, coming once more, face to face with Jacen Solo. Their eyes met in a clod stare.

"That's what I'm feeling," Jacen said quietly. "What about you?"

"I love her Jacen. Don't think I've given up on her yet."

"You remember what I said Fel, before you left?" Jag remembered it vividly…

If anything happens to her, you are a dead man…

"Yea Jacen? You remember what I said?"…

"What would you like me to say? That I love your sister? That I will do anything to protect her? That I would rather give my life than to see her in pain? Consider it said."

"I'll hold up my end of the bargain, Fel…"

"There's no need to worry about mine." Jag said firmly, no amount of sarcasm in his eyes. He drew out Jaina's lightsaber from his belt. "I found this, lying next to me when I came to." He looked to Jacen for some help. "What do you think she would say?"

Jacen looked over towards his dad, who had surprisingly been quite during the conversation, much to Jag's delight.

"She'd want you to use it…for now. But when we find her, I'm sure she'll want it back."