Private Chasing Speedercars

[Sibylla Abrantes]

​

Tracyn Island
R I S H I
Acier Moonbound

Sibylla stood on the narrow overlook, a quiet perch above the Mandalorian encampment. Below, firelight flickered over armor and tents, the whole camp moving with a steady certainty that made her feel strangely untethered.

She wore simple clothes, nothing to hint at her title or station. Just a young woman trying not to twist herself into knots.

It was her hair however that gave her away. The intricate braids pulled tight along her crown were the kind she only made when anxiety had her by the throat. Each careful twist felt like a lifeline, something she could control when her thoughts refused to settle.

She drew in a deep breath, breathing in the salt and tropical wind and humidity, letting it push against her ribs. Corde would find her in an hour, maybe less, but she needed these minutes, needed some quiet before everything became loud again.

In her mind, Sibylla had replayed every interaction, every word, every look with Ace until she felt sick with it. All the ways he might see right through her, accuse her again of politicking, of using emotion to guide and manipulate.

It still hurt...more than she wanted to admit.

And while she didn't regret loving Aurelian...it didn't mean she wanted Ace to feel discarded. Or betrayed. He had once been a steadying point in her orbit, someone who had reached out to befriend her and, in the wake of that genuineness, built a budding friendship in which Ace had trusted her with his most vulnerable side. And it was that absence of a friendship that had left an ache within Sibylla that she hadn't figured out how to work through yet.

She didn't want this to turn out like with Lysander. Not again. But where to even begin?

And why did it seem she only ever wounded the people closest to her?

The camp below roared with a burst of laughter, warm and uncomplicated. Shiraya, how she envied that ease.

Another flutter of anxiety and she brought her fingers up, checking a braid she had already checked twice. The wind tugged loose a few strands, softening the sharp lines she had built.

But still, she waited.

For Ace. For courage. For the right words.

For the hope that she hadn't broken something she could never repair.

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Rishi - Tracyn Island

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes| Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Weeks inside the Academy's halls had reshaped him, not into something darker, but into something tighter, honed. He carried himself with the controlled gravity of someone who'd finally earned enough goodwill to slip in and out of Desevro's Academy without every apprentice tracking his shadow.

Focus. Purpose. Discipline. That was the rhythm he'd lived by since Genarius. He had to, or blow his cover as consequence.

Then he saw her. Sibylla stood framed against the wind, braids coiled tight like she was holding herself together by threads. The firelight from the camp below brushed her in gold, softening every edge she'd tried to sharpen.

And something in Ace... something he thought he'd locked down weeks ago... loosened. It wasn't the old ache. Not the raw hurt from Roon. Not romantic longing, not confusion, not the tangled mess he'd once drowned in.

Just… love. Clean, steady, familiar love for someone who had once been a safe place to land. Someone whose presence had mattered more than he'd let himself realize until now.

The breath he drew came deeper than he meant it to, but he didn't call her name. He stepped forward, closed the distance in a handful of quiet strides, and when close enough, he reached for her wrist and twisted her around.

Ace wrapped his arms around her shoulders and upper back, pulling her firmly into his chest. His chin dipped slightly over her shoulder, breath slow and even, the kind of control that came from weeks of living among blades. Yet there was a warmth in it, a human weight he hadn't allowed himself to feel since Desevro.

"I'm sorry about everything. What I said on Roon..." His voice was soft but firm. After a beat, he continued. "... I missed you, Sib."

Sibylla Abrantes​

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

​

Tracyn Island
R I S H I
Acier Moonbound

One moment Sibylla was staring at the camp below, bracing herself for every version of Ace she feared might appear. The next, she was spun around so quickly, taken up in a tight embrace of warmth, solid muscle, and the tickle of his dreadlocks by her temple. Sibylla felt her breath hitch, caught somewhere between surprise and a quiet, aching relief she didn't dare name.

So just for a moment, Sibylla just froze.

Not because she feared him. Or because she was upset. Or even because she was surprised. But because she half wasn't sure how to react, if she should. Terrified, really, of what he would say if she did without bracing for the edge of someone's disappointment.

So her hands hovered uselessly at her sides before slowly, cautiously, they rose to rest against his forearms as if testing whether the moment was real.

But when she felt the warmth of Ace's breath by her ear, when she heard his firm but genuine apology. When she heard he missed her, a distinct, soft trembling took her willowy figure, leaving her lower lip quivering and her eyes prick.

I'm sorry about everything. What I said on Roon.

The sting of those words lived somewhere deep in her chest, wrapped in bruised memory. And while it throbbed, it no longer held the same sharp jab as before. Not with anger. Just with the tired grief of something long carried.

I missed you.

All at once, her breath left her in a soft whosh.

"Ace…" she whispered, the name catching in her throat. She swallowed hard again, trying her best to gather herself against the thrum of emotion rising in her throat. Slowly, she angled her head just enough to speak without breaking the hold he'd given her.

"You didn't have to apologize. I… I understood why you were hurt...and you had every right to be."

"And I missed you too," she murmured quietly, before drawing in another breath, holding it for a beat, then squeezing him in a tighter hug as she let the truth tumble free before she could second-guess herself.

"And I'm sorry as well. For the ways I hurt you. For stumbling through what friendship should have been. For realizing things too late and not knowing how to handle any of it. For…"

The words caught in her throat again, even as her eyes continued to sting and her vision began to blur, lost to the tightness in her throat.

"I'm sorry. I'm so very very sorry."

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Rishi - Tracyn Island

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes | Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Ace didn't flinch at the tremble in her voice, or the way her hands finally settled against his arms, or even when her breath stuttered against him. He held the embrace exactly as it was - firm, steady, anchoring - letting her shake, letting her speak, letting her spill out everything she'd clearly been carrying alone.

When her apologies tangled together and broke in her throat, that was when he finally moved. Not away. Just enough. His hands moved from her back to her arms, steadying her as he eased her a half-step back. Her eyes were glossy, breath unsteady, and for a moment the words clearly wouldn't come.

That was when he lifted one hand. He brought his palm to the side of her face, a firm, grounding touch. The heel of his hand steadied her cheekbone, fingers resting near her temple, anchoring her trembling the way he'd anchor a panicked ally in the field. Measured. Controlled. Human.

"Stop." He said, carrying the same gentleness. His lips twitched into a faint smile, "You have nothing to apologize for."

Then he lowered his hand, back on to her arm, smile unwavering.

"I was going through a lot. My mother, the Death Star, heartbreak." He paused after that last word, letting it settle. "I had no right to say the things I said. None of it was on you."

For a moment, his gaze flickered, not away from her emotions but over her to silhouette. This wasn't the Sibylla he'd last seen in flowing Naboo silks or tailored court attire. She was dressed for movement, for travel, for work. Reinforced fabrics, a field belt, gloves, boots built for terrain instead of ballroom floors.

There was a quiet shift in him, a clean understanding that she wasn't living only in the gilded world he'd once associated with her. She'd stepped onto ground closer to his… and she wore it naturally. He hadn't realized how much he'd still been picturing her as the girl from Theed until the woman in front of him refused to fit that image.

"You look good." He confessed, smile shifting into that familiar boyish smirk. "You don't look like you're made of glass anymore."

His demeanor had shifted to an uncharacteristic playfulness. Ace figured they'd both need to be comfortable before breaking the news as to what he was really here for.

Sibylla Abrantes ​

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

​

Tracyn Island
R I S H I
Acier Moonbound

Stop. You have nothing to apologize for.

Easier said than believed.

Even with his hand warm against her cheek, calming in its steadiness, Sibylla felt the old tremor still coil through her ribs. His callouses surprised her. Fresh ones. A quiet sign of how hard he'd been working physically wherever he'd been for the past month.

However, it was what he said next that pushed every observation aside. He spoke of his mother, the Academy, heartbreak, and the weight he'd carried. And of how none of it had been her fault.

But was it truly?

Sibylla took a breath, her hands coming down to run along the length of Ace's arms until they held both of his hands. She held them for a moment, the delicate arc of her brows furrowing together in half anxiety and half concern.

The compliment he cast over her was met with a slight upward twitch at the corner of her mouth, her hazel eyes lifting up once more to settle upon the deep brown of his own.

It was then that she looked at him -- really, really looked at him. And though he might claim that she was doing what she did, observing him with keen eyes, she noticed something in his expression, in his posture and frame that told her something in him had changed... not drastically, but undeniably.

"Well, I should hope I am not quite so fragile," she murmured, a sliver of humor threading through her voice. The moment needed that levity. They both did.

She shifted slightly, her tone gentler when she continued, "Your brother assigned Warden Renn Vizsla to train me. Properly, this time. Self defense, battlefield survival... all of it. And @Adelle Bastile has taken me for a few rounds to test my mettle."

The half-huff of a laugh at that admission hung between them for a heartbeat. Then Sibylla inhaled, gathering her courage before speaking again, her voice softening into something painfully earnest that she had practiced trying to convey ever since he sent her the message requesting to meet.

"You may insist it is not my fault, Ace… but it still feels as though it rests with me. I've already lost someone dear because I hesitated, because I wasn't honest when I should have been, because I avoided the conversations that mattered most. I cannot bear the thought of repeating that mistake with you."

It was one thing to endure all that hurt with Lysander, and though she still wondered how he fared, she knew that what happened between them had been shaped, in no small part, by her own missteps.

So Sibylla's fingers tightened faintly around his.

"I do not want to lose you as well."