Themed Drabbles Set 17

Nothing

Sweat drips in Jacen’s reptilian eyes. The stifling heat chokes him, the smoke that twines its way around the Fountain Palace’s landing field grabs at his breath. The hiss of his saber sounds like a nest of angry hornets.

He stares at the shade standing across the platform from him. The dark robes which are a mirror image of his own.

He yells at the shade, his voice sounds dry, raspy. “It doesn’t matter anymore! Nothing matters anymore!”

A part of his brain notes that it sounds as broken as he feels.

Jacen tenses his muscles, and prepares to strike.

---

Everything

Jacen darts forward, his blade slicing in, hard and fast. The shade just slips away. Out of the path. Jacen lands, his lungs screaming at the exertion, at the need for more, cleaner oxygen.

He ignores the pain and strikes again.

This time the shade ignites his own blade. A purple light which catches Jacen’s green blade.

Ice-cold eyes stare out at him from the depths of the cowl; a voice which haunts his dreams speaks to him.

“Everything always matters, Jace. That’s what you never figured out. It always matters. And it matters most, when we think it doesn’t.”

---

Now

Everything Jacen has fought for this past decade, longer, boils down to this single moment - a fulcrum of possibilities and potentials. He faces the shade of his brother, who is somehow, inconceivably, back from the dead.

Their blades meet, and Jacen pulls on the Force. Grabs and pulls that power to him, twisting it around him, as he himself has become twisted by it.

Energy, dark and terrible, erupts from his fingers, hurtling towards Anakin.

The Shade just raises his blade, and catches the lightning. His calm, cool demeanor angers Jacen even more.

The lightning fades and Jacen attacks.

---

Forever

It seems like forever.

Forever have they fought this battle.

Forever has he missed his little brother.

Forever has he wanted to hug him once again.

Forever he has wanted to tell him that he is sorry.

Forever has he wanted to be told the Anakin forgave him.

Yet Jacen ignores all of that.

For him, forever is just a point of view.

He gives himself back to the battle, letting the Force guide his blade, seeking an opening in his little brother’s defenses.

He hears a small voice in the back of his head. Must it be this way?

---

Fate

Call it fate, destiny, happenstance. It doesn’t matter. Just whatever force or power directs things, has lead everyone, everything, to this point. To this battle.

Light versus Dark. Brother against brother.

They are both scions of the Chosen One. Each an aspect of Anakin Skywalker’s choice. They battle one another, as his conscious battled itself so many years ago.

Neither able to stop, neither certain of they should continue.

Anakin grabs Jacen’s neck, as Jacen’s blade slides through him. Anakin grins, and shows the primed thermal detonator.

“I win, Jace. I could live or die, so long as you’re stopped.”