The Trinity Affair: Objective One
Interacting with:
Lorn Reingard
Acier Moonbound
Open to TSC characters to interrupt at any time!
For a moment, Sibylla simply stood there.
Ace's words fell into the corridor one after another, like a long chain of foolish, idiotic, blind excuses, that made something inside her chest twist painfully tight. She had watched him speak without interruption, her hazel eyes fixed upon him with a steely scrutiny that might have seemed like composure to anyone who did not know her well. Even Knight Reingard's words and presence seemed to fade, the chaos that surrounded them and the danger in the ship.
Because inside Sibylla's mind, her memory had already begun to unravel.
She remembered
Roon.
The first time she had met him there, when the galaxy had still seemed simpler in the way that only distant problems ever do. He had been sharp-tongued then too, guarded and difficult, but there had been something beneath it -- something restless and wounded that had made her believe there was still a man there trying very hard not to lose himself.
Then
Tandem III.
Dust, fire, impossible odds, and the strange beginnings of trust that had grown between them in the spaces where neither of them had quite intended it to.
Then
Naboo.
Where for a brief moment, she had allowed herself to think that perhaps the galaxy did not always have to break people who tried to do the right thing.
Then
Taris.
And the things he had confessed to her about Dathomir. The regret. The quiet horror in his voice when he spoke about the choices he had made there. The shame that had clung to him and how he had
hated what he had done.
She had believed that
mattered.
The memory lurched forward again.
Roon again.
When he had lashed out at her. When he had told her to leave. When she had walked away, believing that perhaps space was what he needed to remember who he wanted to be.
Then
Rishi.
When they had found each other again at the edge of the galaxy, standing beneath foreign stars and the promise of something that almost felt like understanding.
And the words he had spoken there clear as day.
Like I said… I've already felt what it's like to cross a line and hate myself for it. I don't ever want to live there again. If I start slipping… you'll see it.
And I'll listen.
Sibylla's jaw tightened and her eyes never left him.
"So another lie then? That you knew what it felt like to cross a line and hate yourself for it."
Her gaze hardened.
"That you didn't want to live there again."
Her voice dropped further.
"That you would listen when I saw you slipping."
A breath left her slowly, though the tremor beneath it betrayed the anger coiling tightly in her chest.
"That I would not lose you."
Sibylla's eyes searched his face, though part of her already knew what she would find.
"Do you remember that part, Ace?"
The corridor seemed very quiet.
"You told me I would not have to chase you down."
Her lips curved faintly, but it wasn't in amusement.
No, it was in recognition.
"And yet here I am."
The words were soft, but the weight behind them was unmistakable.
"The fool. Chasing."
For a moment, she simply looked at him. Then something colder settled behind her eyes. A hardening of awareness.
"I suppose you were right after all," she said.
"How can I lose someone… who I already lost?"
The comparison rose and she did not stop it. Ironic really, how it had come to this. Why did it always seem to come to this?
"You are no different than Lysander."
The name hung between them edged with tension as much as grief.
"Only this time," Sibylla continued, her voice steady again
, "you are quite correct about one thing."
That hazel gaze did not waver.
"I will not blame myself for it."
Her chest rose as she took a quiet breath.
"No.... this one is entirely yours." the edge of her voice grew with uncanny sharpness in her bluntness,
"You made the choice."
She studied him for another moment and then the memory surfaced again where he had confessed murdering those who had killed his mother..
"You once told me," Sibylla said, her tone quieter now,
"that what frightened you most about Dathomir was not what you had done…"
Her hazel eyes locked onto his.
"But that you felt nothing while doing it." Her voice barely rose above a whisper.
"That you feared becoming a slave to your emotions....a monster."
Silence stretched between them.
"Well," Sibylla said softly, her gaze unflinching,
"There is your answer... because instead of choosing differently…You are choosing to become exactly that. To be a slave to your emotions."
She slowly shook her head once.
"I suppose that was my folly." The words came with a quiet resignation now.
"Believing you were more than what you showed yourself to be."
Despite everything she had seen. Despite everything he had told her. Despite everything she had believed.
"Yes," she murmured.
"That was my folly."
And with that, Sibylla stepped forward. Not toward him, but past him.
She did not look back.
"Thank you, Ace," she said calmly as she moved down the corridor, her voice carrying faintly through the dim emergency lights.
"You are a most excellent teacher."
Her footsteps continued down the passage.
"I admit I can be slow. Stubborn." A faint pause
. "But I do learn."
A nerve along her jaw twitched and a pang of disappointment, frustration, exasperation, but most of all, heartache, clashed within her. Determination rose next, aware that there were other lives at stake here. She couldn't keep trying to fight over someone who refused to see the growing rot in front of him because of his pride and foolishness.
"You have your methods." The corridor opened ahead.
"I have mine."
And with that, the Voice of Naboo disappeared down the darkened hall with purposeful stride. There were still people aboard the Trinity who needed saving.
And Sibylla would not waste another moment chasing ghosts.
Zaiya Ceti
