Brothers By Blood

[Xavier Vi'dreya]

With Dranok vanished, Nina a distant memory, and the true Kara dead, Xavier had felt overwhelmed with loneliness when word of Isley Verd's death reached him. His last blood relative was gone, his brother was gone. He hadn't known what to do with himself, accept take some contract on the Outer Rim and not think about it. Not the most effective of strategies, but it worked at the time. Though recently, he'd felt something that alarmed him, something familiar, yet cold. He'd gone to investigate right away.

With the force as his guide he'd arrived at a station near the Lok system, Confederacy space. Aside from a Czerka Fighting Knife, he'd come unarmed aside from his strength in the force. As he stepped off the ramp into the hanger of the seemingly empty space station, The Vi'dreya began to wonder if leaving before his spear had been completed had been a bad idea. Somewhere inside, there was another person, one who radiated power and darkness in equal measure. Once upon a time, that was all he ever wanted to be, a powerful warrior with strength steeped in the Dark Side of the Force. But one was not a powerful warrior if some minor warlord who happened to have been a Jedi at one point destroyed their saber and nearly killed them. As for the dark side, he wasn't sure if he'd lost interest in it, or it in him, but his strength no longer came from his negative emotions alone.

Xavier knew who he sensed within the structure, but it didn't make sense. The Netherworld had stopped spewing out pretenders like 'Kara' so far as he knew, but all the same, he sensed the presence of Isley Verd, no matter how much he doubted it. If it was Isley, by some miracle, or perhaps the opposite, would he really have even recognized him? The boy had grown into a man, his hair had lightened and his skin had paled, he looked more like his sister than he ever had when Isley had last seen him, his Umbaran heritage winning out over his human one in the long run.

He cursed himself for even wondering, this was a trick, and a cruel one at that. Or, perhaps it was a trap, draw out the last holder of the name Vi'dreya and end the name before it could ever spread again. No matter the intent of whomever lurked in this station, one thing was certain; it was not Isley Verd. It couldn't be.

Right?

[member="Darth Metus"]​

 

[Malok]

Darth Metus had business to attend to.

And for once, subjugation wasn't on the menu. This day, the Sith Lord had descended upon a small station just outside of Confederate borders. Formerly untouched, the numerous conflicts had turned the behemoth into a Haven of sorts. Refugees now fled to and made homes out of these structures, spending what little they had to refurbish centuries of disrepair. Today, Darth Metus came to observe them. He was not garbed in the regalia of his position, nor did he betray his Darkness through ominous clothing. He dressed simply, with the only "outstanding" measure being the crimson poncho gifted by the Twi'lek natives.

He counted.

He watched.

He got a feel for what these people would need.

Golbah City surely could not accommodate them at this time...but the Sith would figure out a solution. They could shuffle around resources, maybe even make a new station above Islyrr II. They had options. They ha- what? A chill raced along the Sith's spine, tearing his attention away from the masses. His sulfuric gaze swept across the station, dancing from face to face until he found a mass of silver hair. That sensation...it was almost as if Kara herself were within arm's reach. Yet the presence was ever so slightly different. The subtle superiority of his sister was not present...because it was not her.

It was a him.

"Well I'll be damned." he muttered.

And with bold strides through the crowd did Darth Metus approach his long lost sibling.

[member="Xavier Vi'dreya"]

 

[Xavier Vi'dreya]

He felt him closing in long before he saw the crimson, he turned his head as he waded through the sea of faces and saw him there. Plain as day. Alive. None of it made sense, yet all of it did. For once in a very long time, his mind didn't beckon him to go for the knife across the small of his back. The time where a man who's eyes burned hot red to his icy blue, and radiated immense power came towards him was the first time he didn't feel the slightest bit threatened. Why would he though?

Somehow, some way, his brother was here in the flesh. Not some doppelganger from another world, but his true brother. Half-brother, granted, but he was his brother all the same. Turning to face the man he simply stood still among the masses, a part of himself not believing he was the slightest bit taller than the man in red now. Times had changed as had the world, but he wondered what else had.

"I thought you were dead." Xavier stated, unsure of what else to say. The two hadn't seen one another in years, almost a decade if not a complete one, they'd lost a sister, and one of them had supposedly died. All that seemed like plenty to talk about, but the five words he'd managed to utter seemed to be all he could think to say. Perhaps his blood would have something more conversational to say.

[member="Darth Metus"]

 

[Malok]

Five words.

The voice of [member="Xavier Vi'dreya"] invaded the ears of the Sith Lord. They told a story of the passage of time: of years where they had been oceans apart. Xavier was but a boy when last the brothers spoke. And Metus was but a budding Alchemist. Times were simpler then; absent of the pains and scars that would characterize them evermore. "I was." the Sith admitted, rendering a half-nod in response to the statement. "A duo of people I trusted caused Mandalore to explode...and I was consumed by the fire."

Darth Metus briefly averted his gaze.

He remembered the taste of ash upon his tongue.

"But. I am far too stubborn for my own good. So here I am, in the flesh." His eyes met those of his brother, amusement dancing upon his expression. "And you...I thought you would be a runt for life. Look at you. Look at you." He placed his hands on Xavier's arms, chuckling. "You shot up like a string bean...sure as chit are built like one too. Need more meat on your bones, brother."

A harmless jest, of course.

"Where have you been all this time? It's been far too long."

[member="Xavier Vi'dreya"]

 

[Xavier Vi'dreya]

It was a lot to take in, betrayal, supposed resurrection, and a joke.

Xavier cracked a smile for the first time in a very long time. While questions danced across his mind about those who'd betrayed his brother, how he'd came back, and how his sister had truly died, all that seemed to be drowned out for a time. He wasn't as alone as he'd thought, and that much felt good. "I've been many places." He mused, his minding flipping through memories good and bad as he developed an appropriate response.

"I wandered for a time, took up arms with idealists," Xavier began, the screams of the dying still echoing in his ears long after he'd been in far more harrowing battles. "When that fell to pieces I became a mercenary in the outer rim, made my profit where I could and avoided getting involved in the grand scheme of things." He said with a shrug, remembering how he'd stayed well clear of the numerous wars, and the rise and fall of Empires in the time since he'd last laid eyes on his brother. As much as he'd denied it to himself though, he regretted not being there. He didn't know what side he'd have taken, and deep down Xavier knew it no longer truly mattered.

"I should've been there, for you." He said, his voice now somber.

"For her."

"I'm sorry." He apologized, meeting his brother's blazing gaze with his own icy one. The words themselves felt foreign, in the rim apologies had meant little, and often were hollow and meaningless, so he'd never bothered with them in the first place, but this was different. His brother had died, his sister had died, and while the former was standing before him now the fact remained he hadn't been there to protect or avenge them. And that burned.

[member="Darth Metus"]