Siblings Unite

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

[member="Rykev Shel'tah"]

I'm alone. You left me. Why? I don't understand what I did wrong brother. I need you. Please, come home. Mother and father miss you, I miss you. I can't take this anymore! Sera woke from her dream, or nightmare. She's had the same dream now for so long she couldn't really tell if it was a nightmare anymore, now that she could predict the outcome from the moment it began. It was as if she was watching a moment in her life unfolding in some distant future. She hated that dream. Always waking the moment she yelled at Rykev.

Covered in sweat, her eyes had welled up this time. That was an unusual symptom, but at this point nothing really surprised her. He haunted her dreams on a regular basis. Some dark entity hiding out in her deep subconscious, waiting for her to sleep simply to torment her once more. Her destiny was restless sleep for what seemed like years, and she was growing tired of its relentless assault on her very being.

Where the hell are you, Rykev?

Sera stepped out of bed, wandering to the window of her hotel room, glancing down to the street below as the rain tapped its rhythm gently against the glass. A few souls walked by as she observed, and the sound of sirens could be heard off in the distance. She looked up to the evening sky, lit by a collage of stars before her attention was once again tugged to the street below. She looked. The girl gasped. Her eyes focused as if she were a machine, transfixed on this one being as it meandered through the street. Under what looked to be makeshift bounty hunter equipment she noticed the unmistakeable markings. It's him. IT'S HIM. Without thinking she rushed down the stairs to the front door and out to the street.

Sera stood in the rain, her hand held up slightly, as if reaching for him, before shouting, [member="Rykev Shel'tah"] !

 

[Not Ordo]

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]

The weight of his sister's shadow had long weighed on his shoulders. He had loved her dearly, their time together playing, learning, growing; it had been his happiest time. He shook his head as he walked along the dimly lit street with the evening rain pelting his head. His lekku wrapped over his shoulders as he walked and thought again of the byzantine girl that had been sent off to be a Jedi while he had been left to be forever reminded that he would never be his sister.

He paused for but a moment, light reflecting off his red eyes as he looked skyward. His throat tightened as if a slave collar was enclosing around his neck. He could almost feel her, it was odd how sad the thought made him. He had missed her for so long that the thought felt like phantom pains from a lost limb. He disregarded it. It wasn't the first time after all that he had felt that way and he was sure that in her greatness she likely never thought of him at all.

He rounded a corner his thick boots splashing in the rain water as it pooled on the sidewalk. The grey duracrete the only creature that cared or noticed his passing. He wpuld be leaving this world now his business done. Only a trip to a cantina remained and he...

That voice, his name!

He stopped in his tracts as if some phantom had just cried out in the darkness and ran a bone chilling finger across his soul. Should he look? Did he dare? He slowly turned eyes squinting as he raised a hand to his forhead to block the rain from his face. There, he couldn't mistake her even now as a mix of pleasure and pain filled his heart. It was her. His dear sister was there just ahead. With wide eyes he swallowed hard and stared unsure of ehat he was seeing.

"Seraphina?" He said uncertain that he was even awake. "Seraphina Shel'tah?"

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

[member="Rykev Shel'tah"]

Am I dreaming? Is this simply a new addition to the continuation of what I've been dreaming for years now? Or is this really happening?

A moderate level of panic began to set in, tremors rose in Sera's hands as she stood, her breathing rapidly increasing. The rain splashed across her face as her eyes welled with tears. She had focused for so many years on simply finding him, that she had never planned on what to say if she ever did. And now, there he was, not more than 10 meters away, and all she could do was have a panic attack? Some master plan this is, Sera. Way to go.

"Ry-" She sobbed trying to force his name out again as he looked at her. "Rykev..." Sera had no idea what else to say. There was so many things, so much unaccounted time, so much in her life she so badly wanted back, and all she could do, was say his name again. "Rykev!" He had become something of a myth to her. He had been gone for so long without any trace of contact she wasn't even sure if he lived. Finding him simply by the purist act of chance, looking out of a hotel room window, made her wonder just how many other times they could have passed one another in other star systems, without even knowing.

The thought ate away at her, emotions overran her mind, she had nothing to say, and so much to say all at once. The girl let out a wimper, reaching for him, before falling to her knees in the middle of the street, the surrounding water begrudgingly circling around the new obstacle in its path to escape into the nearby drain. Her head remained fixed on the ground, her hands covering her face, she didn't even know if he wanted to see her again. Maybe he hated her and that's why he finally left. She had no idea what to expect anymore.

 

[Not Ordo]

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]

He blinked away rain as she said his name again. He had thought so long of surpassing her, proving he was her equal or better that he had almost turned her into a myth. The great jedi that held the love of their parents so fully. He stepped toward her, his hand out stretched toward her as she fell to the street.

"Sera!" He said as he ran to her soaked huddled form. The rain beading and turning into rivulets on his red skin as he moved a knelt beside her. He was torn. He had formed her into an infallible hero to be surpassed and yet here she was overcome with emotion. Perhaps the jedi had not done her justice after all. His strong arms opened and he reached to embrace her. It was like a strange dream from the depths of his psyche.

"Sera. Its me." He said as he took her in his arms and held her sobbing form. If the jedi had not made her strong then they didn't deserve his sister. He'd have to save her somehow. "Don't cry Sera. I'm here now."

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

[member="Rykev Shel'tah"]

Overwhelmed with emotion as Rykev placed his arms around her, his younger sibling began a hyperventilating sob in his arms, her own wrapping around his waist as she laid her head on his lap, eyes welling with an abundance of anxious, panicking, and yet joyful tears. There was so much she wanted to say, to ask, to do, however her body simply refused to acknowledge her wishes and instruction. Instead, she simply laid there in his arms, crying as if she were but a child again. His words were comforting, though his voice alone was enough for her. She longed to simply hear him again. "I...I've missed you so much." Five words. Five words was all her body permitted her.

So she sat there, coddled in his arms, crying underneath the evening rain. It felt good, to simply be with him again. Nothing could ruin this moment for her. For that moment, the galaxy was right. There was no Sith vs Jedi, there was no war, there was no death. She had found happiness, and she did not want to let it slip through her hands again. Her mind was quiet, the world was quiet. There was only the warmth of his embrace.

 

[Not Ordo]

Rain came like the tears on the young woman's cheeks. Her smaller body pressed against him like a long sought treasure as they knelt by the street. He felt a chill breifly and was reminded that they were sitting in the rain and washed around them like a river circling around stones.

"Come on." He said as he scooped the young woman up in his arms. The jedi had not done her justice, but she was safe now. "Lets get you dry."

He stood and carried her in his arms the two more blocks to his starscape-class yacht. The silver and grey ship sat like a friend with open arms as he unlocked the hatch and lowered the boarding ramp with a touch. He carried her aboard and sat her on a small bench then removed a blanket from a small service closet near her before sending a droid to bring her hot tea. He didn't speak to her just sat and put his arm around her shoulders as they waited. He could take her with him now and they could run the space lanes as brother and sister. With their combined strength they could do what ever they chose. It was the start of a bright future.

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

[member="Rykev Shel'tah"]

The girl's eyes widened as she was brought to the magnificent vessel. Something of this stature would have been an expensive investment. Whatever it was he had been doing since he left Cambria was paying off, but she wasn't entirely sure how. Once aboard she sat with him, trying to calm herself down to at least be able to formulate sentences without choking up on three quarters of the words. His droid returned after a short time with the tea and she thanked him graciously. She had no idea where to start, what to ask or say, or even how to bring up anything she wanted to say.

"This is a very nice ship, incredible even." She looked over at him, leaning her head lightly on his shoulder. "How have you been? It has been so long, Ry." She figured it best to not jump directly into interrogating why he left and where he has been. After four years an argument ten minutes after being reunited was the last thing she wanted.

 

[Not Ordo]

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]

He accepted his tea and sat with her his emotions a stir of things that he could hardly hope to identify much less express. His crimson arm encircled her as he slipped into his roll as the elder brother as if he had not been gone for so long.

"It was my...mentor's ship." He said careful to frame the reply properly. He didn't know what the jedi had filled his sister's head with and to say his master would have immediately put her on edge or ao he believed. "I've worked hard made a name for myself. I'm sure you didn't have time to miss me, Sera. You had your masters to please."

He took a sip of his tea and hugged her closely. His resentment and love for her causing his mind and heart to long for clarity.

"So, what brings you here?" He said, " Jedi bisiness?"

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

As she sipped on the hot drink her chest calmed, the tremors of anxiety subsiding back from where they came. "Your mentor? Mentor of what?" She asked the question curiously, she could feel the hesitation in his words, not through the Force or anything, but because it was her brother. She could feel his emotion and hesitation when he spoke through their sibling bond. "I'm happy that you've done well, but..." Here it came...She tried to formulate her words as politely as she could, for all the pain he had caused her in abandoning her.

"What brings me here?" She looked at him, her eyes partway closed, as if in shock that he would ask. Her mouth hung open for a moment. "No. Not Jedi business. You! You are the reason I'm here! I didn't have time to miss you? You are all I ever think about! And you left me! You left me and ran off to whatever.....whatever THIS is! I didn't choose to become a Jedi Ry! I was forced to go! Mother and father sent me away! You...You left and never said a word! I've looked for you for four years! FOUR years!" Her hand lifted and slapped him on the chest, her eyes welling up once again.

[member="Rykev Shel'tah"]