Private Exile's Return

[Cassian Abrantes]

Hypori
Early Morning
Sibylla Abrantes Damos Rennar
​

About a week had gone by since the message was sent. More deaths and much more had followed. After getting his bath and a decent amount of food in him, his mind had sharpened, just a bit. Still, the old, seemingly hollow soul remained, sitting outside the makeshift command center.

Much had happened within the week. Escapes, hangings, firing squads. In the distance, makeshift gallows could be seen, with bodies left to hang beneath the sun.

"There were more escapes in the night." Tecton, the essential leader of those who remained, had come to sit next to Cassian, pulling up a chair. He extended his hand, offering Cassian a glass of whiskey. "Found it in the warden's quarters. Corellian."

Cassian allowed himself a smirk, taking the glass and stirring it around before raising it to his lips. He took a small sip, letting out a satisfied sigh.

"So, let them escape. If they all leave while we aren't looking, so be it. There's been enough hangings, enough deaths." Cassian stared into the glass for a moment. "I wanted to escape. I wanted to kill them all after what they had done. But even now, seeing it..." He shook his head slightly. "I've seen war, but this was something different. Honor is in my bones, yet I somehow feel ashamed, even though I know I shouldn't."

Tecton narrowed his eyes at Cassian for a moment.

"Cassian, that's not on you. Yes, you knew what this was going to be. You knew eventually how this would end. Thousands of people in here were destroyed. Families were destroyed. This was always going to be intimate and ugly. No one, me, you, not your honor, or anything else was going to stop them from getting their vengeance."

Tecton leaned back in his chair, looking toward the distant remains of the prison.

"It's over now, and we're free. Our prison is burned to the ground, and now it's time for us to get back to our lives, wherever they are. And if they aren't there anymore, then we have to find new ones."

Cassian looked over at him and gave a small nod. He raised the glass to his lips and took another small drink.

"I understand. Don't think I don't. It still feels..." Cassian couldn't find the right words to say.

Tecton stared at him for several seconds before his expression changed. Looking to change the subject completely. "You need to shave...." Cassian smirked, and a chuckle escaped him, the first genuine one since he had escaped.

They were both approached by several runners. "Tecton, there's a ship inbound."

Cassian looked over to Tecton for a moment before he jerked his head to the side. There had been so many ships and shuttles inbound and out over the last week. One of those, he was hoping was for him.

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

​

Cassian Abrantes Damos Rennar

Sibylla had spent the better part of a week wondering if she would ever see her brother again.

The moment Cassian's message had reached her, everything else had become secondary. There had been arrangements, permissions, coordinates, questions she had scarcely possessed the patience to answer. She had needed only to know where he was and how quickly she could get there.

Yet nothing had prepared her for what waited below.

Sibylla stood silently beside the viewport as the shuttle descended, one hand pressed against the glass. What remained of the prison sprawled beneath them... and then she saw the gallows. Ice ran down her spine and her breath caught. It was hard to swallow as that knot in her throat grew.

"Shiraya..."

Bodies still hung from them and for several long seconds, Sibylla couldn't help but stare, her face blanched of all color. Whatever she had imagined from Cassian's message, whatever horrors she had prepared herself to hear from him, the reality was something else entirely.

Their father had to assure their mother that they would be picking up Casisan and that House Abrantes was at the fore of bringing a ship directly to get him home. News had been sent to Elian Abrantes as well, and Sibylla had informed Aurelian. And while she knew the latter didn't have the best of relationships with her brother because of their history, he was grateful that, for Sibylla's sake, the news had been that Cassian had been found.

Even if he did keep his more sour commentary to himself -- a feat that clearly wisdom and his love for Sibylla made him more aware of just what not to say in Sibylla's presence.

SO it wasn't long until the shuttle touched down. The ramp had scarcely finished lowering before Sibylla descended it, the thick braid of her hair swinging at her back as her hazel eyes swept urgently across the sea of grimy unfamiliar faces.

Until she found him.

Cassian looked thinner, exhausted, with enough hair on his face that under any other circumstances she might have immediately informed him that he looked positively dreadful. Yet instead, the stark utter relief struck so hard that her expression simply crumpled and the sting in her eyes grew.

"Cassian!" she cried, and without a second to spare, Sibylla shot forward to close the remaining distance toward her brother.

 

[Cassian Abrantes]

Sibylla Abrantes Damos Rennar
​

Cassian moved through the small group gathering a ways from the landing vessel. The sight of the gallows had left him feeling indifferent, just as he had spoken to Tecton about. The eldest Abrantes pushed through the gathering until he had a good sight of the vessel, the landing ramp lowering. The feeling that ran through him, the wave of emotions that hit him when he saw his sister. Sibylla Abrantes, true, just, and kind. He heard his name. He didn't smile. In truth, he was in shock. For all he had thought about for a little under a year was getting back to his family. And now she was arriving, almost as if her saying his name was breathing life back into him. A life of honor, commitment, duty, strength, and courage.

He wanted to smile, truly smile. Perhaps he had forgotten how, or maybe if he smiled, it would make it seem like all the pain and anguish he had been put through were at an end. And the rebuilding was going to begin, but gods, things were so much more than that.

"Cassian!" she cried,

"Sibylla...." Cassian voiced breathlessly, he stood before her for a moment, before closing the distance, taking her in his arms. He breathed, truly breathed again. "Is this really you?"

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

​

Cassian Abrantes

That was all it took.

The moment Cassian's arms closed around her, Sibylla broke. For nearly a year she had lived with the absence of her brother. Not knowing where he slept. Whether he was hungry. Whether he was hurt. Whether someone was hurting him. Wondering whenever another report crossed her desk if his name might suddenly be there among the dead.

There had been moments when she had almost reached for him without thinking. Things she wanted to tell him. Questions she knew only Cassian would understand. Family dinners where his absence had seemed to occupy its own chair. And through everything else that had happened, Sibylla had carried that terrible private question with her.

What if I never see my brother again?

Now he was here, and Sibylla couldn't help but wrap both of her arms tightly around him and bury her face against his shoulder and cry. She didn't even bother hiding it, not with the way her fingers were clutching desperately into the back of his clothes as her shoulders shook, months of fear and helplessness finally spilling out against him.

"Yes," she managed brokenly. "Yes, it is me." Sibylla held him even tighter, almost as though some frightened part of her still believed he might disappear if she loosened her arms.

"I am so glad you are alive." The words came small and painfully simple. For once, Sibylla did not care who saw her cry -- her brother was alive, and she could finally hold him again.

 

[Cassian Abrantes]

Sibylla Abrantes ​

The tightness with which she was holding him, squeezing him, drew an almost breathless, quiet sob from him. As she cried into his shoulder, she spoke the words that she was indeed here and real. And he knew that there wasn't anything, no war, republic, king, queen, nor the notion of something being impossible, that would keep him from his family ever again.

"I can't express... what it means to see you again." Truthfully, there was nothing that he could say. There wasn't any word in this galaxy that could describe the happiness he felt in this moment, that his sister was here, that he was able to see her.

Alive, well...

"You look... strong." Cassian voiced honestly, despite the tears. Tears and crying weren't weakness. They were a sign that you truly cared, as long as the tears were true. And they were, there was no mistaking it.

"Sibylla..." Cassian said with another sob, as he almost choked on his words. "We have a lot of catching up to do." he said, a small smile forming on his face.

"Is everyone okay?" He asked, His parents, Elian, Naboo, all of them.