I Can Live Without It

Jaina Solo stumbles under the branch as she twists and turns, trying to find a safe way through the woods, a safe haven, or even better a path that would lead her back to her ship. She reaches down and touches the burn on her leg, a gift from the Sith following her.

In the distance she can hear his saber, and his mocking taunts hurled at her. He truly loves reminding her that she was named the sword of the Jedi. He takes great pleasure in that.

She stumbles again, her breath hitching in her chest as she falls into a low hanging branch. She rests there for a moment, allowing the Force to revitalize her, even as her thoughts cast back to just a few hours ago.

She walked into his castle, his throne room, expecting to find him. Yet what she found was beyond belief. His familiar features twisted by the Dark Side, his voice, un-haunted by the deprivations he had visited upon the Jedi, upon her.

She strides towards him, her saber gripped lightly in her hand as she stares at him.

He calmly stares back, his yellow eyes glistening with his amusement, even as his voice drips with contempt.

“So the Jedi has sent their sword to me,” he looks her over once or twice. “I have no need of you, you’re a dull blade.”

Anger flares in her chest as she ignites her blade.

His voice draws her mind out of the past and into the here and now.

“You’re weak.”

Her eyes narrow slightly, as she struggles to stand.

“You’re one to talk, Sith.”

He laughs. A sound once filled with life and goodness and hope, but now sends shivers and despair skittering down her back. It is a sound which seems to sap the strength from her. She leans back further into the tree, her body sagging slightly as she lowers her head, no longer willing or wanting to look at him.

He grabs her chin and brusquely pulls her face back towards his, lifting it so he can look into her eyes.

“You’re a disappointment to me Jaina. A poor excuse for a Jedi, and useless to me personally.”

He drops her chin, and lifts his saber, its green blade shining in the soft light of the woods. She lifts her head at the motion, her eyes narrowing slightly, as defiance erupts in her.

“I hate you.”
He grins, and shoves his blade into her stomach, quickly pulling it out. She gasps, as she crumples to her knees. Her hands find the saber wound, instinctively clutching at it, as tears slide down her face. He takes a step back from her, his grin twisting into a full-fledged smile.

He gestures idly with one hand. “At least your life will have some meaning; your rotting corpse will feed some carrion eater here in my woods.”

She allows herself a single sob. Wishing she had gotten to see Jag one last time. She curls around her stomach, as despair washes through her.

She probes her wound in the Force, feeling its depth, and severity. She lets out a near silent breath, as her body tells her that it is a ruptured intestine, maybe a nicked kidney, but he missed her womb. Internally she frowns at that, she had never really given her womb much thought before. She focuses the Force again, and feels it this time. A slight hardening, a tiny cluster of cells that are her, but at the same time, are not her.

Her eyes widen in surprise as understanding ignites within her. She is pregnant.

She looks up at the Sith, her eyes narrowing. “I’m not going to die here today.”

He laughs at her again. “You’re already dead; you’ve just not lain down yet.”

She reaches down to her belt, and unhooks her saber, even as she struggles to her feet. The Sith sneers at her. “You expect to win, you can barely stand. Plus I’ve always been the better swordsman.”

Jaina coughs, bright red blood flicking from her lips as she does. “I’m not going to die here today.”

With a snap-hiss her blade ignites. She lifts it into a mid guard and stands ready for his attack. He growls in outrage at her defiance, raising his own blade into an attack position.

Then he strikes, and she stumbles back, raising her blade in a weak defense. His blow knocks her blade wide and she struggles to get out of the reach of his return strike.

Coughing again, she steps forward, her blade swinging in at his left shoulder. He laughs and steps forward, stopping her attack, by placing his arm against her wrist. She tucks herself to the right, narrowly being missed by his saber.

Then with her free hand she strikes out, and slams her small fist into his throat.

He gags and takes a step back away from her. His face is a mask of outrage and hate. “You, you schutta!”

Her laughter is interrupted by another body-wracking cough. As she straightens, she feels the Force being pulled towards him, and as he waves his hand she is knocked up and away from him. She slams into one of the trees, and wraps her arms and the Force around her stomach, as she falls to the ground.

When she lands, she lets out another cry of pain, and struggles to her feet. Before she gains them, her opponent is there and tossing her away from him again.

She lands and slides a few meters on the leaves, coming to a rest in a small glade. Opening her eyes, she glances around and sees a tree log. Grinning, she reaches with the Force and yanks it from the ground, sending it flying towards him.

It strikes a Force wall, shattering into splinters as Jaina struggles to stand once more.

He walks into the glade, his head tilted to the side slightly.

“Why do you struggle? You’re beaten. Don’t make this harder than it already is.”

She calls her saber back to her hand where it had fallen when she landed in the glade, and turns a look of disgust upon the Sith Lord.

“I’m not beaten. As long as I draw breath, I am a Jedi. I protect life. You just serve yourself.”

He snarls and stretches out his hand, wrapping her in a crushing Force embrace, lifting her off of her feet and raising her a meter into the air. “Then I’ll just have to make sure you stop drawing breath.”

She struggles to break free of his Force grip. She pushes out with her considerable might and strength in the Force.

He laughs.

As he speaks he walks closer to her. “You’re weak Jaina! Don’t you understand that by now? I have more power than you. I’m stronger than you.” He stops less than a meter away from her. “You’re nothing Jaina. A speck. Useless. Unloved.”

“No!” Her voice rings out clearly, and his Force grip shatters. Released from it, she falls to the ground, and once more wearily stands up. She reignites her saber, and once more starts stalking towards him.

He looks at her, confusion flickering over his face. “Where did you get that power? What are you hiding from me?”

He reaches out with the Force once again, battering away her mental shields, probing her mind and her body. She feels the oily sensation of his Force presence, and throws an even stronger shield around her womb, protecting the life there from him. She feels his probe batter at her shield, feels it waver, and then screams when it breaks past it.

His Force presence pulls back in surprise, as a grin twists his face again. “A baby. Maybe your child won’t be the disappointment you are.”

“You won’t be here to find out!” Then she is there near him, her saber flying downwards in attack. He smiles, and his fist flies out, the armored gauntlet connecting solidly to the middle of her arm. The crack of the bone sounds loud in the still forest, and she drops her saber once more.

She looks up at him, tears once more slicking her face. “Why Jacen?”

He shakes his head. “That name has no meaning for me anymore.”

“Why?!”

He shrugs. “It was my destiny.” Then he grins once more. “As it will be yours.”

He leans down close to her, even as he can feel her pulling the Force to herself.

“I’m going to fry your brain, the same way I did Ta’Chume’s. Then I’ll keep you alive until you give birth to your child. Then I’m going to kill you, and raise your daughter as my apprentice.”

He places his hands on either side of her head. “When you do finally die, be sure to say ‘hello’ to Uncle Luke for me.”

He grins and pulls the Force to him, noticing her unbroken arm reaching up and touching his temple. She lifts her eyes towards him. “I still breathe.”

Then she pushes against his shields, slipping past them through their twin bond, and finding his connection to the Force.

As his yell of outrage and surprise reaches her ears, she pulls that connection, severing it. Severing him from the Force. His hands drops away from her head, and he starts to back away from her. He drops to his buttocks, and pushes back with his legs and hands, scrambling away in his confusion. She crawls after him, still able to feel him in the Force. She reaches him, and places both her hands on his head, blasting past the few weak shields he had managed to cobble together, and trying to burn away his lingering ability to touch the Force.

Yet she still feels him in it.

She closes her eyes, tracing the feeling, down through their twin bond, and into her. He chuckles slightly, his voice raspy and ragged. “That’s right Jaina, as long as you have the Force, so do I.”

She takes a step back, and places her hands against the side of her head. Her lips twitch in a grin. “I can live without it.”