Even in the midst of the pain that had literally brought him to his knees, Jacen still had the presence of mind to whip out his lightsaber from his belt and activate it so that, with one hand, he brought it up into a horizontal arc above his head in less than a second. The green blade blocked off Jaina's red one before Jacen looked back up at his sister, his eyes drying up as rage quickly replaced the grief that he felt for Lowbacca's passing.
His sight now clear, Jacen could see that not only was Jaina's skin pale, but her eyes were glowing an orange-yellow that was all too indicative of her allegiance to the dark side of the Force (or at least with her own inner darkness, as Jacen still believed). Combined with the hateful smirk on her face, and all Jacen could see as he forced himself back to his feet, his other hand now helping him to push back against Jaina's blade, was some grotesque, twisted parody of the sister he once knew and loved.
Once they stood face-to-face, Jacen pushed Jaina through the use of their blades, prompting her to flip backwards by several meters. Upon her landing, she immediately backpedaled away from him as he, who had caught up with her, began clashing blades with her.
Jaina stayed on the defensive until they were both outside the Well of the World Brain. When they were out in the plaza, it was there that she decided to stand her ground by catching one of Jacen's strikes in a circular defense before she elbowed him right in the nose. He staggered back from the attack, but he still managed to block off an impaling strike from her before he took his turn to stand his ground.
Back and forth, the Solo twins dueled, neither of them budging an inch from their spots as they constantly switched up techniques to try to counter the other's defenses. But for over a minute, it seemed like all they would do was tire out before they killed each other.
That was until Jaina swiped Jacen's blade down and leaped up so that her left knee collided against his jaw. Again, he staggered back, but instead of blocking the next strike, Jacen leaped off to the right and tried to score a strike at Jaina's side. However, she blocked that attack expertly before she fully turned to face him and used her free hand to blast him back with the Force.
Jacen flew back several meters so that he ended up sliding back along the platform upon which he and Jaina dueled. A few seconds later, he flipped over the ledge but grabbed onto it with his free hand before he would have fallen the several dozen storeys to his death in the Vongformed underworld below. But once he heard the hum of Jaina's lightsaber hurrying toward him, Jacen used the Force to fling himself back upon the platform so that when he blocked off Jaina's next strike, he was able to kick her straight in the chest.
She collapsed to the ground but rolled out of the way just before Jacen made a furrow upon where she was. Once she was on her knees, Jaina used the Force again to attack Jacen's legs, resulting in him falling prone to the platform's surface. But right when Jaina was back on her feet, Jacen used his free hand to Force-fling her back several meters back toward the Well's entrance.
However, Jaina landed on her feet like a cat and was ready for Jacen just as he started running back towards her. Then, when he was halfway to his sister, she unleashed a torrent of Force-lightning upon him. He blocked it off with his blade, though his progress towards her was hampered by only a few seconds, before he stopped a meter from her and dropped to his haunches to sweep her legs out from under her with one of his own.
The attack worked and Jaina was on her back again. But instead of rolling out of the way this time, she brought her own blade up in a horizontal arc, just as Jacen did at the beginning of the duel, before kicking at his right kneecap. With an audible groan, he collapsed upon that knee, which allowed Jaina to sweep his lightsaber off to the side before she launched her other booted foot right upon his mouth.
Jacen flipped back and landed on his front just as Jaina leaped back to her feet and swiped her blade for a decapitating strike. But Jacen used the Force to stay Jaina's lightsaber-wielding hand, if only for two seconds, before he quickly pushed himself back up so that he could slash down upon her wrist. However, Jaina used her free hand to envelop Jacen in another torrent of Force-lightning, which he was unable to block off with his lightsaber.
With a malicious grin as she watched her brother writhe in agony that he couldn't turn into strength, Jaina shouted over the torrent, "How did it feel, Jacen?! To forget that we were siblings?! To want to kill me?! It felt good, didn't it?! It felt good to wanna avenge that Vong thing, eh? Well! That's how I feel now when I killed it! And it's how I'm feeling as I kill you!"
By this point, in spite of his Force-resistance, Jacen was brought down to his knees as his lightsaber clattered away from his hand, and it wasn't long after that until he was on all fours like a dog. Then, a few seconds later, he was on his back, his view now an upside down angle of the sister who was working to end his life.
Yet, even through all of that pain, all of that suffering, when Jacen looked back at the evil distortion of a person that Jaina had become, he couldn't help but be reminded of all the times that they had together, exploring Yavin 4 with their friends, fighting alongside her against the Yuuzhan Vong with their dead brother Anakin, and even the last meal they shared before he departed for his sojourn across the galaxy.
If that was to be his last thought, it would be better than the pain, both physical and emotional, of Jaina's betrayal.
C'mon, Jacen, don't quit now!
Above the crackling of the electricity that wracked his body, Jacen heard his Aunt Mara's voice calling out to him from worlds away. And with her voice, he could feel an extra surge of strength enter his body, courtesy of her Force-presence, so that he could have a chance to repel Jaina's torrent.
But instead of doing the obvious thing, which would have been to use the Force to blow Jaina back from her place, Jacen adopted a White Current illusion upon his face.
When Jaina's torrent of lightning ceased, he knew that the sight of Zekk's face on his had given her pause.
And only then did he use the Force to blast her back so that her body collided with a section of wall above the Well of the World Brain's threshold. She then fell straight back upon the platform, a loud grunt escaping from her before she began to push herself back to her feet.
"Stay down, Jaina!" Jacen commanded as he used the Force with one hand to pin her into place. By now, the illusion of Zekk's face on his own had completely faded away as his other hand had his lightsaber returned to him via telekinesis.
Jaina growled angrily as she looked back up at Jacen, and the orange-yellow of her eyes flared into a dark red before a much more powerful torrent of lightning escaped from all of her fingertips. They streamed toward Jacen, who had brought his lightsaber up into a two-handed grip, but even then, he was overwhelmed and blasted well away so that he cleared the platform's edge.
As he fell, Jacen used the Force to slow his rapid descent so that he could practically swim through the air toward the window of a nearby dilapidated building. He was just barely able to bring up an invisible shield around his body before he crashed through the glass and bounded along the creaking floor of the abandoned apartment unit inside.
At this point, Jacen started to feel as if something in his body was broken. Carefully, he used the nearby sofa to pick himself back up even as he felt Jaina's darkened presence heading for him. He turned and activated his lightsaber again just before she rolled inside through the same window; they traded a few parries before she used her free hand to a deliver a solid smack across Jacen's face. He rolled back along the sofa before he hit the floor; however, he was still able to bring his lightsaber up for a defensive strike.
That strike, unfortunately, gave Jaina an opening to kick him in the chest, like he did to her earlier, and when he hit the floor on his back, the creaking gave way so that he fell through into the apartment unit below. Jaina dropped down to deliver an impaling strike upon Jacen, only for him to use the Force to fling a smaller sofa than the one above right at Jaina.
She slashed her way through the intended projectile, but that was all Jacen needed to roll out of the way and try to strike her down from her right. Nonetheless, Jaina performed a cartwheel that kicked out against his lightsaber-wielding wrist, stunning him for a moment, before his sister returned to her feet and slashed out at him.
After blocking that, the next several seconds was just him backpedaling from a flurry of fast attacks from her red blade. At the end of those seconds, Jacen's back hit a wall behind him, but he was able to catch Jaina's blade in a downward parry that furrowed the floor between them, which allowed him to headbutt her right in her nose.
This time, she was the one to stagger back, but like him, she was able to block off a stabbing strike meant for her gut before renewing her storm of vicious strikes against him. That prompted Jacen to pivot out of the way so that Jaina's blade slashed down along the wall from which he had been backed up against, causing her to lose her footing for just a second.
Jacen took that as an opening to elbow Jaina across the cheek before kneeing her in her pelvis. But before he could run her through with his lightsaber, Jaina tackled him and brought him down upon his back.
From their new position, they each used their free hands to grab at each other's lightsaber-wielding wrists, and from there, they rolled around on the floor until they reached yet another weak spot that gave way. They fell down into the refresher of the apartment unit below, from which they got separated by the ledge of a bathtub; while Jacen landed in the tub itself, Jaina landed just outside it with her free arm sustaining a fracture from the landing.
Now they both felt as if they were aching on the inside, though more from the physical pain of the wounds and bruises they sustained than from whatever feeling of betrayal they each had toward the other. Thus, it took them well over thirty seconds for them to pick themselves up and face each other, their blades once again active.
They both swayed in place before Jaina rushed in; with nowhere to go, Jacen had no choice but to stand his ground, though with his sister's wounded arm, her one-handed attacks weren't as difficult to block as before.
Unfortunately for him, he was only able to defend himself for less than half a minute before one of Jaina's parries allowed her an opportunity to overcome the pain in her arm and slap him hard across the face. With that attack stunning him, Jaina had no problem removing his lightsaber-wielding arm by the elbow.
White light that he hadn't felt since he was in the Embrace of Pain during the Yuuzhan Vong War overcame Jacen's vision as he collapsed to his haunches in the bathtub. When his vision cleared, he saw Jaina once again bearing down upon him with that malicious grin from before.
At this point, there was nothing he could do but clutch painfully on the cauterized stump of his truncated arm.
"That was dirty, you know," she growled. "Using Zekk on me. How dare you."
Jacen emitted a bitter wheezing laugh before he looked back up at Jaina. "You make it sound... like I killed him... instead of you."
Her sneer deepened. "You were too weak to help him, or help me, back then. Just like you couldn't help Tekli, Lowie, Alema, Tesar, or Tahiri." She then stepped forward and bent down to him. "Or Anakin," she added spitefully.
When she stepped back, she raised her lightsaber-wielding arm to strike him down, just as she intended before the duel began.
"Goodbye, Jacen."
No! Mara's voice cried out in Jacen's head.
With a renewed surge from her Force-presence, Jacen's remaining arm tore itself away from his cauterized stump and unleashed a wave of Force-lightning—not Electric Judgment as befitted a Jedi, but Force-lightning as befitted a Sith or Dark Jedi—upon Jaina.
She was barely able to absorb the electricity through her lightsaber, which she could only wield in her one hand as she stepped back from the onslaught. As the seconds passed, Jacen managed to pick himself back up to his feet—at the moment, he didn't know if it was his own inner strength or another pick-me-up from Mara through the Force—and step over the bathtub's threshold to approach Jaina. His torrent of Force-lightning only intensified as he got closer to her, inch by inch.
When he was less than a meter away from her, the Force-lightning completely knocked her back through the closed refresher door. From there, she continued flying back against her will through the apartment unit's living area until she crashed through the glass of one of the windows there. She then fell out of sight into the Vongformed underworld.
Once Jaina was out of sight, only then did Jacen's torrent of Force-lightning cease before he collapsed upon the floor. With his energy spent, he could feel the shock of having lost his arm begin to overcome him.
It's not over, Jacen, Mara's voice said to him. It's not over.
And just before he passed out, he felt his mother's Force-presence enter the Coruscant system.
. . .
Jaina had barely been able to break her fall by using the Force to decelerate the rate of her descent to the ground. But even so, when she landed on her feet, the impact was bone-jarring; and with her balance focused in her left foot, she felt as if she had just suffered a sprain, if not an outright fracture there like with her arm.
Nevertheless, she kept herself on her feet as she began to limp her way over to where she had parked her X-wing. She wasn't in the best shape to finish Jacen off in person now, but she figured she might as well get in her fighter and blow him away from a distance to end it all with him; she had said all that she wanted and needed to say to him, she thought.
"No."
Jaina almost lost her balance at the sudden sound of Lumiya's voice from behind. She turned to find the Dark Lady of the Sith, once again projecting her illusory form from the asteroid base known as the Home, staring back at her.
"Your parents are here," Lumiya explained. "Cloak your presence before they find you, and then leave. And besides, when you kill Jacen, you must do so in-person; no easy way out here, Jaina."
Reluctantly, she nodded. Jaina would have argued, but right now, she wasn't in the mood. So she cloaked her presence, as Jacen had taught her before the fateful events at Hlest over a year ago, and then began stumbling back to her X-wing. She hoped that she would get lucky and find a working turbolift instead of having to climb all the way back to where she had set her fighter near the Well of the World Brain.
But then, at this point, she knew she couldn't count on the old Solo luck if she wanted this thing between her and Jacen to end.
"It's not over, Jaina," she heard Lumiya say from behind her. "It's not over."
