The Sword Falls

Part II

"Both of my brothers died at Myrkr," Jaina replied to Jacen's taunt. "I just didn't know about you until now."

Jacen bit back a response to this response, slowly walking his way around the room, never taking his eyes off of Jaina. Just a few weeks previously, he had been disowned by his own father, a man that was too weak to realize that sometimes the ends did justify the means.

Jaina pivoted in her position, continuing to hold the defensive stance that she had adopted just a few seconds ago, the violet light of her lightsaber slightly illuminating the simple jumpsuit that she wore. She had meant what she had just said about the disastrous Myrkr mission that happened around the midway point of the Yuuzhan Vong War, for she had seen it with her own eyes. Her younger brother Anakin had died physically at the hands of numerous Yuuzhan Vong. Jacen, on the other hand, had been spirited away by Vergere, a Fosh that called herself a Jedi of the Old Republic and had been twisted into what he had now become. She only wished that she would have seen the changes in him before it was too late. Or had she? She thought. Had she seen the gradual slide and chose to ignore it?

Jaina knew that if she were to survive this fight—even if Jacen could be subdued instead of killed—that this question would haunt her for the rest of her life.

She didn't have time to think very much after that, as Jacen finally made the first move in the battle. Utilizing the Force, he crossed the few meters between them in a quick leap, his green blade slightly blurring in the air. Jaina rolled out of the way of the overhead slash, bringing her own lightsaber around towards him. With a crackle of energy, the two blades met for the first time.

"You'll have to do better," Jacen chided her, exerting himself in an attempt to sink the two blades into the flesh of his sister. Jaina struggled against the slightly superior strength of her opponent, every centimeter that she gained was soon lost as Jacen pressed whatever advantage he could find.

The stalemate didn't last long. Both combatants pushed against each other, using the moment to retreat. The brief respite didn't last long, however, as Jacen brought his lightsaber down into a diagonal slash.

Jaina easily blocked this attack, backing away from Jacen as he continued to attack her. While it was true that Jacen was far more skilled in lightsaber combat than Jaina, she wasn't a bad duelist by any definition of the word.

The two had fought before, years ago inside of the Shadow Academy. Back then, their true identities had been masked by holographic projectors. They had been evenly matched then. They were evenly matched now. Jacen had the technique. Jaina had the motivation.

After a few minutes of dueling in which none of the combatants held the advantage, it was Jacen that drew the figurative first blood. Jaina had been temporarily backed against the wall by him, and the burning brand of his lightsaber opened up a small cut on her left arm. She cried out in pain and backed away from her brother as far as she could as a streak of fire ran under her skin.

Jacen let loose a sadistic smirk—an evil mirror of the famous lopsided grins that the Solos were known for—as he closed the short gap between them, his lightsaber blazing. Seeing Jaina wounded had put part of his twisted mind at ease, for he had already wounded her. Killing her wouldn't be that large of step afterwards…

Jaina reached out with her wounded arm towards Jacen, a small pain shooting out from her wound as the arm extended. The twirling green mass of Jacen's lightsaber blade came dangerously close to her fingers before being violently torn away from the immediate area as Jacen was thrown across the room, hitting the floor several meters away. She focused on her slight wound for a second, letting the Force lessen the pain in it, enabling her to wield her lightsaber doubled-handed again. She stepped away from the wall, slowly walking towards her brother.

"Give up, Jacen," she said, trying once more to get him to yield. She watched as her brother easily stood up from his position.

"I've seen what that will do to the galaxy," he replied, picking himself off of his hand and knees. He let his left hand drift towards her, drawing all of his fear, anger, and hatred, through it. All of those negative emotions emerged from his fingertips in electric-white sparks. They flew through the air, soaring towards Jaina in a barely controlled arc, the tendrils of electricity filling the air with a slight stench.

She reacted to this attack, instinctively bringing her lightsaber up to block the dark side created lightning. The ends of the attack hit her lightsaber hard, driving it back a few centimeters before Jaina regained control over her weapon.

Jacen concentrated harder on his attack as the standstill continued, manipulating the dark side nexus that he was on into increasing the intensity of the storm that was swarming around the lightsaber of his enemy. It was of no use, however. She stood firm amidst the lightning that arced around her, seemingly immune to it all. He growled in frustration as he ended his attack, clutching his fist tightly as he stood up. How could this be! He thought. He knew that he was always stronger than her, he had been trained not only by the Jedi, but by countless other Force users before finally accepting tutelage from the Sith Lady Lumiya. He had been the one to achieve untold of power at the end of the Yuuzhan Vong War, not her!

"Very good," he had no choice but to compliment her as he retrieved his fallen lightsaber. "But not good enough!" he yelled as he ignited his blade, charging towards her. He could feel the dark side being twisted by his own will, feeding his muscles with enough energy to both increase his own strength as well as quicken his reaction time. Every attack maddened him, however, as his opponent somehow found a way to evade them with ease.

It wasn't as easy as it looked, however. Jaina knew this for a fact as she ducked and parried the angry strikes that lashed out at her. She spun away from Jacen, the Force guiding her lightsaber behind her back to block a weak slash. The counterattack was equally swift, but far more damaging, opening up a decent sized gash in Jacen's right side.

She watched as Jacen gave a cry of pain and then backed away from her. One of his hands clutched at the wound—which, although painful, wasn't mortal—leaving only one of his hands on his lightsaber. His fiery eyes shot angry looks at her, chilling her to the bone. There was no way that her brother would have ever glared at her with such malice, such hate. It only served to remind her that it was only her brother's likeness that she was fighting; the good person that had been Jacen Solo had died years before.

He winced in pain as he slowly removed his hand from the wound, exposing a small amount of blood that hadn't been cauterized instantly from the heat of lightsaber blade. Jaina briefly considered attacking him in this weakened state, but the feeling of unease still clung to her. The thought of asking him to surrender one more time flashed through her mind, but his eyes told her that that possibility would never happen. It was then that she finally realized that only one of them would be leaving this place alive.

Jacen painfully returned to a complete fighting stance, using the pain that coursed through his body to "focus" himself upon his objective: the complete destruction of his sister. He had undergone worse pain before, he had been Embraced by it years previously, he had learned to control it and "befriend" it. Besides, he had survived Lomi Plo's attack nearly five years previously, and this new wound would definitely not require any cloned organs.

Ignoring the flames that shot up his side as he moved, Jacen brought his lightsaber up in a diagonal slash that Jaina was barely able to block. Anger clouding his mind, he continued striking at her. With every parried attack he was left wishing that he could once again tap into that well of power that he had used to defeat the true Supreme Overlord. He also realized that he wasn't attacking her out of necessity now, the need to prevent her from stopping him was replaced with a bloodlust. He wanted to kill her now.

He finally was able to score an almost equal blow a minute later, his own blade slicing deeply into her side, possibly a worse wound than the one he had. She stumbled for a second, her own actions mimicking those that he had gone through. Yet she didn't have the fine control of pain that he had learned over the years. The fight had been relatively even until that moment, and as Jaina sunk to her knees in pain, Jacen stepped towards her, ready to end the battle then. His blade hummed as he rose it, ready to decapitate her on the spot. Then the warning blared through the Force, forcing him to raise his bloodied hand towards her, channeling his power out through it. Like they had done during a duel on Mustafar decades previously, the two Force pushes met between the two combatants, each opponent pouring as much energy as he or she could into it. They both struggled to overpower the other, the invisible ball of energy shifting towards Jacen for a few centimeters, then shifting dangerously close to Jaina, and then to the other opponent. The struggle continued on for what seemed like hours, the two siblings pouring every bit of power that they could spare into their attack.

Then, with an explosion of Force power, it was over. The two pushes overpowered the two that sought to control it, sending them across the room. Jacen hit the ground, the quick jarring motion sending sharp jolts of pain from his wounded side as he violently landed. Jaina, was slightly more fortunate as her upper body slammed into the corpse of Lumiya; the mixture of metal prosthetics and flesh slightly cushioning her fall. The two lightsabers, jarred loose from the impact, rolled across the floor.

Bodies aching from the wounds received in battle, the two siblings slowly got to their feet. Both of them knew that the next attack would be the end of the battle, each of them picturing themselves still standing at the end of it. Using the Force, each of them called their lightsabers back into their hand, igniting the colored blades.

The two stared at each other, studying every single move that the other made. Jaina hesitantly raised her lightsaber in a salute to Jacen as she readied herself for the attack. The room was silent, save for the sounds of the lightsabers humming. It was dark, save for the faint illumination that hung several meters above the ceiling.

Then, the two combatants—the Sword of the Jedi and the future of the Sith Order—raced towards each other, lightsabers held close to their bodies, ready to strike. Their footsteps echoed throughout the room, providing a slight change in audible scenery.

Their lightsabers flashed as the two passed each other, one of the combatants feeling the slight resistance of a lightsaber meeting flesh as he or she passed their opponent. The other felt nothing. The two passed each other, not stopping until they were three meters away from each other.

Both stood for what seemed like ages, standing perfectly still like actors in an old Holofilm. The lightsaber of the one struck then hit the ground, deactivating in midair. Then, its owner collapsed onto the cold floor of the asteroid.