Betrayed

As he held her chin in his hands and looked into those beautiful tear filled eyes, he felt a tremor run through his entire body and knew what he had to do. Lowering his hands, he wrapped one arm around her, and the other unsheathed his vibroblade. As he slid the vibroblade between her ribs and piercing her heart, he considers everything that has happened to bring them to this point.

A single tear escapes from him as she gasps and draws her final breath, the life quickly leaking out of her.

He silently curses the Force, fate, destiny, whatever powers that be, which have required that he be the one to end her life. He loved her. They were soul mates. There were predestined to be together for all time. Why would she then go and betray him in such a way? He just cannot understand or maybe he merely refuses to do so, but it could very well be that something inside of him, bent and broken by the trials and tribulations of the Dark Side, of War, of duty, that elusive something we call sanity, finally just stopped working for him.

He just doesn’t know, and she is now beyond answering his questions. In acting on the choice to extract the payment for betrayal, he has made it such that he can never know the answer to why. Slowly, carefully, he lifts her body and places it on the bed. Why could they not be happy? Why? Due to her betrayal the blood of many now stains his hands.

He is a Jedi, he knows better than this and he is better than this.

He is a man, he knows how to loves, and he knows how to live.

He is an animal, he knows how to hate and he knows how to kill.

All those betrayals, the fighter pilot, the street urchin, who knows how many others there were, how many other times did she betray him, betray all they meant to each other. It hurts to think about it. He wishes he did not have to think about it, but as he stares at her thin form, lying on the bed in repose, he cannot but help to do so.

Even now, he loves her and wants her by his side, where she should have always been. Looking down at his hands, he sees the blood that covers them, her blood, and wonders for the thousandth time why it had to be this way. Why could she not see reason, and understand that she only needed him, that all the others where unworthy of her, a blasphemy on their destiny.

He remembers them being happy once, before the war and during the war, and for a time even after the war. He knew even then that she was betraying him with the others. Of course back then he was able to overlook the drawbacks and faults, because she listened to him, she trusted him, ultimately she understood him. He never knew how much he needed that, until she took it away. That was the final betrayal in her long list of them, the fact that she would not see and understand.

If she had only seen and understood, then her blood would not be on his hands.

If she had only seen and understood, then Jag’s blood would not be on his hands.

If she had only seen and understood, then Zekk’s blood would not be on his hands.

He bends down, and kisses the lifeless body on the forehead. It would have been a sweet kiss, a chaste kiss, even a loving kiss, had his hands not been covered in her blood.

“Good bye Jaya” Is the simple statement he makes, as yet another tear escapes from his strong emotional control.

Ah the cruel tricks and trials of fate. He finally understands that we truly do hurt the ones we love. The more we love them, the more we hurt them, and ultimately the more we hurt ourselves. What is tragic in this, is that we love and hurt family above all others.

“Oh, Jaya, why couldn’t you have listened to me? We could have ruled as brother and sister.” With that said and his emotions held firmly in check, Jacen Solo walks out of the room, not bothering to look back.