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.

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

​

Cassian Abrantes

You look strong.

Honestly, the words nearly made Sibylla laugh through her tears. Oh, if Cassian only knew. So much had happened while he had been gone. Between Naboo, Corellia, the Sith and the Republic, there had been so many moments when Sibylla had felt anything but strong, and more than once she had desperately wished her older brother had been there.

"We have so much to catch up on," she agreed, another watery laugh escaping as she finally drew back enough to look at him. She let her hands linger on his arms, fingers flexing over them as if she was not quite ready to stop touching him yet.

"They are all right," Sibylla assured him quickly, knowing exactly why he asked. "Mother, Father, Elian.." Granted, around the time that Cassian had disappeared was when Elian had gone through his own rough journey with the experience with his schoolmates, losing his arm, and the physical therapy thereafter. But that could wait for later.

"They have been worried sick about you, Cassian," she admitted, breathing deeply as she tried to rein in her emotions. After a moment, considering the chaos that surrounded them, Sibylla gave a nod.

"We all have." Her hand rose to his cheek. "But you are coming home now."

If there was nothing more for him here, she wanted to get him home to Dee'ja Peak at Naboo as soon as possible.

 

[Cassian Abrantes]

Sibylla Abrantes
​

He looked into her eyes, as if he was searching for answers, and he got them, his hands tightened around her arms, gently, as a means to hold on. He finally heard the words, that they were okay.

"They have been worried sick about you, Cassian,"

He nodded, almost frantically, as if he was on the verge of losing himself. "I know...." He felt a knot in his throat for a moment. "I'm......."

"But you are coming home now."

He took a deep breath as her hand on his cheek steadied him for a moment.

"That's the best news I've heard all day." Cassian voiced as he glanced around, taking in the sight of the prison and what was left of it. It was as if he had been part of a ten-year siege, and he was just now being allowed to go home. The bodies hanging from the makeshift gallows swung lightly in the wind. He could hear pleas, screams, and then there was silence.

He looked over to Tecton, who simply nodded his head and showed him the smallest of smiles. Cassian moved forward, extending his arm toward him, and the two, brothers bound by fate, embraced.

"It's over, Cassian. This war, find your way out of this my friend."

Cassian simply nodded his head, unable to smile at this very moment. "I'll try my best."

The embrace broke, and Cassian placed his hand on Tecton's shoulder. "You too. Don't linger here too long. You know how to get ahold of me."

Cassian turned around to face Sibylla, moving toward her and placing his arm around her shoulder as they moved toward the shuttle to leave this place. Forever? Probably not, but for now...that's what it looked like.

The trip was short, at least to him. He remembered staring out the viewport for the longest time, waving off medical personnel as they tried to tend to him. But he wasn't having any of it. For a year, he had been ordered about in the worst ways. Torture, manipulation, identity displacement, fear conditioning, everything. He knew that once he got home, though, things were going to play out differently.

The reunion with his parents and Elian was rough. They met him at the spaceport. There were tears and joy that he was alive and finally back on Naboo. There was no denying either of his parents as they all took him to the medical facility straightaway. And that's where it all began again.

Cassian lay on the medical bed as the scanner ran along his body. He ignored the whispers from the doctors as they discussed what was being uncovered. There were several fractures across his body, some still present and others that had healed, but not properly. The sight of his back was enough to make anyone sick.

Scar tissue covered almost sixty percent of it, with long streaks running across his skin. It was unlike anything they had seen before. There was head trauma, along with several other injuries that they quietly discussed with his family.

Cassian sat himself up before standing and looking out the window.

"We highly recommend that he stay here for a few days."

"I'm not staying here. I'm going home." Cassian spoke up, giving them the worst look a person could give them. He had just left one prison only to come to another?

"I'm going home..." He spoke again, looking to his family, there wasn't anyway they were going to convince him otherwise. He raised his hand to his forehead, rubbing it lightly. He looked up, and through the side door, he could see Damos standing there.

Cassian's lower lip trembled lightly as he gave him a small nod, looking down for a moment. He shut his eyes tightly, finding every way, every thing he was ever taught, to not just completely lose it. He looked up towards them, eyes red, teary. "I'm going home...."