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Part II

Ben remembered going to the Command Headquarters, which were in the Senate Building, where he confronted his cousin. Ben had known at the time that confronting Jacen was probably a suicide mission. His own father and mother couldn't take him on, what made him think he could do it alone. Ben still believed that he only survived because the Force had willed it. Because that was how things were meant to be.

He shifted and rolled to his side to look out the transparasteel window that looked out over the congested sky lanes of Coruscant. He took a deep breath that really wasn't that deep and coughed again. Yes, the end was near, he could feel it.

He then let his mind drift back to the battle that would define who he would become as much as the woman who loved him for nearly 65 years.

Ben moved warily through the Senate Building as he headed to the Command Center. He never let his eyes wonder or his thoughts. He was all stern determination. He refused to let his doubts cloud his mind as he came off the lift at the top floor where Jacen's office was. Ben saw the Mon Calamari Chief of State leave the Commander's office and Ben thought she looked ragged, drawn. She never noticed him; she was too engrossed in her own thoughts, worries. So, she's learning that she isn't really the one in control, Ben thought. That's a hard lesson to learn.

He waited until she was safely in her office at the other end of the corridor before he moved toward Jacen's. He knew that the Sith Lord knew that he was coming. He had probably known the moment he and Jysella abandoned their mission to regain control of Jabiim.

Ben took a deep calming breath and closed his eyes, pulling the Force, the Light Side, around him. He felt Jysella's love and encouragement and he felt the same from his mother. He took those feelings and wrapped them around his heart, strengthening his resolve. As he opened his eyes, he thought, Dad, if you can hear me, know that I'm sorry. I love you.

Feeling that he was as ready for this as he ever would be, he ignited his lightsaber, the snap-hiss echoing in the empty corridor; he then opened the door. He entered the office of his once beloved cousin, his mentor, his Master and he knew whatever the outcome, there would only be one of them leaving.

Jacen looked older than his thirty-six years. His hair was peppered with grey and his face had lines around his cold orange-brown eyes that weren't there before, that shouldn't be there considering his age. The Sith Lord looked upon Ben with no emotion at all as he said, "Back so soon from the Outer Rim? I don't remember authorizing a discontinuation of your mission, Captain Skywalker."

Ben swallowed all of his sudden fear and the feeling of being intimidated by Jacen. He was done with being intimidated by him. "I decided that Jabiim wasn't a real threat, Admiral." He could play the game too. They both knew why he was standing there. "I decided there was a more pressing threat to the security of the Alliance right here." Ben fixed Jacen with a glare and raised his saber, the blue blade a blazing beacon. "And I'm here to take care of it."

Jacen chuckled as he sat back in his massive chair, a chair he had claimed he didn't want at one time, "Oh, my Apprentice, you are mistaken. I can not be easily removed. Your parents discovered that the hard way."

Ben didn't take the bait, and instead said deadpan, "My father had a tendency to be too trusting. It served him well when he redeemed our grandfather. But you are beyond redemption, I think. I've been taught not to really trust anyone but myself."

Jacen slowly uncoiled, he stood to his full height and Ben was glad that he was as tall as his cousin, maybe even a tad bit taller. Jacen then moved from around the desk and pulled his own saber. Its red blade a startling contrast to Ben's blue. Ben moved with Jacen as he circled him, in a tone more suited to a friendly conversation than a fight to the death, he inquired, "So, you tire of the green blade?"

Jacen shrugged and grinned lopsidedly, but it held none of the quiet levity, that Solo charm, that it used to. "Lumiya thought it was a time for a change."

Ben nearly forgot about her. As he moved his blade in a defensive pattern trying to determine Jacen's first strike, he asked, "So, what is the grandmaster of the Sith up to these days?"

Jacen chuckled, but it held no mirth, "She is away finding a new home. Since you failed to save her asteroid from the Insurrectionists."

Jacen then took the opportunity to lunge; his blade came against Ben's in a clean parry. Ben twisted away from him and caught another strike. Ben grinned, "You know, I was wondering about that, Cousin." Not Master, never Master again. "I was under the impression that to become a Sith Master the Apprentice had to kill the Master. Isn't that how the Rule of Two works?"

This time Ben took the advantage his jibe caused and lunged, Jacen easily deflected it in a chorus of sparks and hisses. Then he said, "That was how it was done, yes. I've decided that is a waste of resources. Lumiya hasn't denied my Mastery and I may still have a use for her. However, I believe I will need to find a new Apprentice. She was gravely incorrect when she thought the other grandson of Anakin Skywalker would prove to be an asset. You are too much like your father. You greatly disappoint me Ben." He raised his eyebrow and added, "And now I will destroy you as I did your sire. Funny don't you think? I killed my first Master and now I will kill my first Apprentice."

Ben parried another attack and twisted away from him. "I wish I was sorry for your disappointment, Jace, but oddly, I'm not." He struck again, this time Jacen's parry seemed not as smooth, controlled. Ben's confidence and determination was affecting Jacen. "And I wouldn't be so sure about who will be killing who." Ben allowed a smile and lunged again, Jacen parried and spun away.

There was no more talk after that. As both of them became more and more absorbed in the Force—Ben in the Light, finding calmness as he released his anger and fear, Jacen in the Dark, using his anger and fear to make him stronger—they found themselves locked in a battle that would determine the fate of the galaxy.

Ben knew that Jacen would try to use Force lightning and was ready for it when it happened. He deflected it back to him and pushed Jacen into a corner. Jacen retaliated by pulling a light fixture from the wall and hurtling it at Ben. He ducked and countered the object with his own Force shove, sending it to the floor in a loud crash.

Jacen tried something else, a chair this time but Ben's lightsaber made kindling of it. The office soon became a vortex of flying objects and Force lightning but Ben found the strength and the insight needed to counter it all. He could feel the frustration rising in JacenGood, Ben thought, that will be his downfall

"You are nothing!" Jacen bellowed as he hurtled a shelving unit at Ben. Ben simply leapt up and onto the massive desk, the unit falling in a crumpled heap on the floor. "You cannot defeat me."

Ben didn't say a word; he just lunged knowing he needed to end this. Ben didn't quite know what to think as his saber found purchase in the Sith Lord's chest. It wasn't until Jacen met his gaze and he saw the stunned expression that Ben realized he had indeed brought and end to the fight. The wound should have been fatal.

Ben's only response was to deactivate his blade to allow Jacen to fall onto the carpeted floor, clutching his chest and a look of utter cold-hearted hatred in his now orange eyes. Ben knew he wasn't dead as he left him, but he also knew he couldn't live long. Ben's saber had burned through Jacen's lung and maybe even touched his heart. No one could survive that. So, he left him to die and walked out of the office.

A crowd had formed outside the office, no doubt due to the sounds that had emanated from it. Ben thought he saw a woman that he should have recognized in the back of crowd who was pushing her way forward, but he didn't concern himself with figuring out who it was. She was just another blurred face of many in the mass. Senate Security along with the CSF rushed off the turbolift as he was about to embark. However, none of them stopped him. They instead rushed toward the Admiral's grand office.

All that mattered at that moment to him was getting back to the Temple to see Jysella—and his mother. He needed to fix his relationship with her before he tried to fix the galaxy the way it needed to be fixed—the correct way, the Jedi way.

Ben signed as he remembered the ride back to the Temple from the Senate Building. He had reached out and tried to touch Jacen but felt nothing; although, that didn't really reassure him. He had then wondered, as he still did today nearly seventy years later, if he should have made sure he was dead before leaving him. They never did find his body and the HNE assumed that he had "become one with the Force" just as Luke Skywalker had done; but Ben, as well as the rest of the Jedi, knew that wasn't possible. Sith didn't become one with the Force in the calm way a Jedi did, by simply fading from existence. A Sith, especially a powerful one as Jacen had been, would have exploded in a torrent of Dark energy that would have take out half of his office wall and ceiling.

Ben swallowed and got his memories back on track to where he had left them. He wryly thought, My mind's beginning to wonder, I must be getting old.

He then looked out the window again but he didn't see the congested afternoon traffic, instead he was landing his air speeder on the same landing pad he had lifted up from two hours before his confrontation with Jacen.

As he popped the hatch to exit, his eyes fell upon her. She was wearing her usual dark jumpsuit, her black hair pulled in a messy, no fuss braid, and her green eyes burned as they met his. He thought she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Jysella never cried, in fact, Ben had never seen her actually shed tears even when she looked as if she would during the war and in the years after that day he had only seen her cry a sparse handful of times. However, as Jysella Horn threw herself at Ben, she let the dam break and cried her tears of relief, of fear, of pain and sorrow, while Ben held her so tight she could barely breathe.

He stroked her hair as she buried her face into his neck. He whispered into her ear the words that really didn't need spoken but somehow by doing so made them seem more real.

"Jysella, I love you."

She turned her head to look up at him, and he used his thumb to wipe away her tears. She smiled the most beautiful smile and opened herself completely to him. He felt her love, her fear, her hope and her dreams. In that timeless moment nothing else existed and Ben let his senses open to her. He wrapped himself around her as much as she was him. In that moment, they bonded and become one presence in the Force.

Ben didn't even notice the presences that were appearing on the landing pad, all that existed was her.

"I love you too, Ben," she whispered for the same reason he had. Then their lips came together in a kiss that was full of passion, hope and undeniable love.

As they came apart, Ben heard a deep masculine voice say, "Skywalker, I can't believe you just pulled that off and lived to tell about it."

Jysella turned within Ben's arms to stand beside him, but she didn't move away. "Hello, Dad."

Ben would never forget the look in Corran Horn's green eyes as he stared at Ben. However, Ben neither saw nor felt any resentment toward him from the older man. The only thing he really felt was admiration and a wry amusement. Even so, Ben still was trying to puzzle out the Jedi Master's meaning. Was he surprised that Ben survived Jacen, or was it more personal, surprise that Ben would kiss his daughter in front of him. Ben finally swallowed and said, "Master Horn."

Ben, though, never had the chance to ask because his mother moved from behind Corran to stand before Ben. Jysella graciously untangled her arms from around his waist and he embraced a tearful Mara. He sniffed at the emotion he felt and whispered into her still stunningly red hair, "I'm so sorry, Mom. I'm so sorry."

She pulled away and wiped the tears away with the back of her hands. Finally, getting control of her emotions and taking a deep breath, she looked back at him and smiled. "Ben, all that matters is that you're home where you belong. Your father would have been proud of you. I'm proud of you."

Ben hadn't cried since he was thirteen but in that moment he let his own floodgates open and the tears flowed. They were the bitter tears of regret and loss, but they were also the tears of joy and of hopefulness. Ben had never felt such a feeling of relief and release. He was truly happy.

Six months later Jedi Healer Jysella Horn and Jedi Knight Ben Skywalker were married in a simple ceremony co-officiated by his mother and her father. They were surrounded by their friends and their remaining family. Ben still today thought back on who had been missing from the well wishers—his father, her mother, who had been killed by Imperialists while working the old information circuit, his aunt and uncle, and his cousin Jaina.

He sighed and thought about her. Jaina had married the newly proclaimed Emperor Jagged Fel only three months before Ben's wedding and immediately after the peace accord had been signed. It was announced that the Jedi who had defected to the Empire would no longer be known as Jedi, they were now the Imperial Knights. Under the tutelage of Masters Kyp Durron, Kyle Katarn, Zekk and the Empress the order would grow into an almost mirror image of the Jedi Order. Ben never again saw his cousin in person. He never had the chance to tell Jaina that he was sorry. He often wished he had.

Ben shifted again on his bed. He couldn't lay too long on one side. His chest was beginning to hurt. He rolled back over and he coughed. After regaining his breath, he closed his eyes again and remembered Jysella on their wedding day.

Jysella had been beautiful dressed in a simple white robe, her hair left loose and adored with white Hapan violets. She looked like a goddess with the striking contrast between the black of her hair and the white of her dress. He couldn't keep his eyes off her. They said their simple vows of marriage in the ancient Jedi Union rite that made her Jysella Horn Skywalker.

Nine months later and only seventeen days after his twentieth lifeday, Jysella gave birth to their first of three children, their son Jak.

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