Private The Wild Youth

[Sibylla Abrantes]

​

High Republic Prison
Interacting with: Acier Moonbound
Items: x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x

The quiet tap of approaching footsteps broke the silence long before the figure herself appeared.

Word had reached Sibylla through the grapevine after Dominique quietly informed her that Acier Moonbound had surrendered himself to the Republic. The moment she had heard, duty had come first. Messages to Adelle with a secure call to Aether as soon as she could. Careful conversations about jurisdiction, diplomacy, and how to prevent another incident from becoming yet another fracture between governments already stretched dangerously thin.

And while the duty was that of an Ambassador -- the woman standing here now was simply Sibylla... and the friend.

The Force dampeners blanketed the secure Naboo detention facility, denying Ace even the faintest brush of her familiar presence. There would be no warning beyond the soft rhythm of polished heels across marble before she finally stepped into view beyond the pale blue shimmer of the security barrier.

For a long moment, Sibylla simply looked at him.

So much had happened since the Trinity. Since the arguments. Since the choice he had made despite every plea she had offered. Since the blood spilled escaping the very office where Knight Reingard had tried to stop him.

Time had passed...but the hurt had not.

Hazel eyes searched Ace's face, finding it older somehow. Wearier. The silence stretched between them, carrying seemingly a lifetime's worth of unfinished words until Sibylla drew a slow breath.

"...Hello, Ace." Her soft voice seemed steady, but the slight treble in it carried an unmistakable ache beneath its composure. A faint, bittersweet smile flickered across her lips before disappearing almost as quickly as it came. There were so many things she could say, but the deep breath she took and the slight nod that she delivered after was honest with the relief she felt.

"...I am relieved I no longer have to wonder whether you are alive. I thank Shiraya for that."

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Republic Space - [REDACTED]

Equipment:
Inmate Jumpsuit | Cybernetic Arm

The quiet rhythm of approaching footsteps echoed through the detention block. Ace barely acknowledged them. He assumed it was another visitor. A politician wanting answers he'd already given. A Jedi hoping to find some hidden justification buried beneath months of confessions. They all asked different questions that somehow circled back to the same thing.

Why?

He was tired of answering. His gaze remained fixed on the polished floor beyond the energy barrier, shoulders slumped against the wall of his cell. The Force dampeners wrapped around his senses like suffocating static, leaving only the silence and the weight of his own thoughts for company.

Then he heard the visitor's voice, and his breath caught. The voice reached him long before his mind accepted it. Slowly, almost afraid the sound would vanish if he moved too quickly, he lifted his head.

"Sibylla..."

The name escaped him little more than a whisper. For a moment, he simply stared. It had been months since he'd seen her... since the Trinity, when he'd finally surrendered to everything she'd spent so long trying to stop. Since he'd chosen the Covenant over her warnings. Since he'd looked her in the eyes and walked willingly into the darkness.

He'd never imagined their next meeting would be here. Or that they'd ever meet again. His eyes drifted across her face almost involuntarily before stopping.

The scars. Three pale marks crossed her features now, softened with time but impossible to miss. Remowa's work. Permanent reminders of the Chiss assassin who had nearly killed her.

Ace felt something cold settle in his chest. Remowa was dead now. He should probably have regretted the satisfaction that knowledge still brought him. But he didn't, not after what she'd done to Sibylla. Or Rattatak. Or Kuar.

His own left shoulder ached faintly beneath the prison clothing, phantom nerves remembering the Force Tempest that had coursed through his cybernetic arm and burned branching scars across his chest, shoulder, and back. Damage that would never truly heal.

They'd both walked away from Remowa. Neither had walked away unchanged.

His gaze fell to the floor. He couldn't keep looking at her. Not because he didn't want to... he couldn't bear what he saw reflected back at him. The shame settled over him heavier than the binders ever could.

She had warned him. She had pleaded with him. She had believed in him long after he had stopped deserving it. And he'd repaid that faith by becoming everything she'd feared.

"...I'm surprised you did." His voice was quiet, stripped of the certainty it once carried. "Was sure you were done with me after what you said on the Trinity..." A humorless breath escaped through his nose. "...and I wouldn't have blamed you."

His fingers laced together loosely in his lap as he kept his eyes fixed anywhere but on her.

Sibylla Abrantes​

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

​

High Republic Prison
Interacting with: Acier Moonbound
Items: x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x

The silence between them was equal parts uncomfortable and fragile. Sibylla's eyes followed Ace's rich brown ones only a heartbeat, registering their color in comparison to how they had been before on the Trinity, before they dropped to the floor as well, unable to ignore how naturally guilt had stolen the space where confidence had once lived. It hurt in ways she hadn't anticipated. She had imagined anger, frustration, perhaps even indignation. Instead, she found someone who looked tired.

"...I was," she admitted softly, her voice carrying none of the accusation he seemed prepared to accept. She had seemingly been done chasing after someone who had already decided where he wished to go.

But there was always more to it, wasn't there? That bit of her inside that hung hope on a string like slow spinning redemption.

After a moment, a small breath escaped her almost a laugh, though there was no humor in it.

"I was angry, Ace." The remembrance of the time sent a surge of conflicting emotions through her, prompting the necessity to fold her fingers together before her to keep them from floundering in gestures. "Not because you disagreed with me... nor because you chose a path I could not follow."

Hazel eyes lifted to him again, gentle despite the lingering sorrow they carried.

"I was angry because you kept denying the changes and how the Darkside of the Force was affecting you... while you slipped further and further away from the person I knew. I could not stand by and pretend I did not see that those same choices were slowly consuming you, turning you into someone who would one day no longer recognize himself." The words lingered in the air between them, and Sibylla swallowed hard, that knot that had been growing in her throat making her chin tremble a bit before she took a deep breath.

"I spent so long wondering if there was something else I could have said. Something else I could have done. Whether, if I had simply found the right words..." She knew now how dangerous that line of thought was. It had visited her countless nights since the Trinity, always arriving with the same quiet cruelty. Her lips pressed together before she gave the smallest shake of her head. "...perhaps you would have reconsidered..."

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Republic Space - [REDACTED]

Equipment:
Inmate Jumpsuit | Cybernetic Arm

She had been angry. She'd given up on him. None of it surprised Ace. His eyes remained lowered, fixed somewhere between his clasped hands and the polished floor. After everything he'd become... after everything he'd done... he'd never expected anything else.

But as Sibylla continued, the weight of her words settled deeper than he expected. She hadn't been angry because he'd disagreed with her, she'd been angry because she'd watched him disappear.

Ace closed his eyes for a brief moment. After the Trinity he had become a Sith Knight, killed more people, seized control of the Vergeworks by force. Every compromise had birthed another. Every line he'd crossed became easier to step over the next time. The things he'd once condemned slowly became things he defended.

Until one day he'd looked back and barely recognized the person making those choices.

Sibylla hadn't simply been right. She'd predicted his trajectory almost exactly. Even back on Rishi, when he'd first confided in her about infiltrating the Covenant, she'd seen the danger he was too arrogant to acknowledge.

Slowly, he lifted his head. For the first time since she'd arrived, he met her eyes. There was no defiance left in his own or stubborn certainty. Only sorrow, exhaustion, and regret.

He saw the slight tremble in her chin, how she was doing her best to keep her composure.

"Don't." The word came gently, almost instinctively. "Don't do that. Don't do that thing you do where you find some way to torture yourself over something you couldn't control."

A quiet breath escaped him as his gaze drifted toward the polished wall beside the energy barrier.

"The only person at fault here is me." His voice remained calm, stripped bare of excuses. "I was arrogant... and I was stupid. I made compromise after compromise. Justification after justification." His eyes remained fixed ahead. "All because it was easier than admitting what I was becoming. Kept telling myself it was for a better galaxy. That everything I did would mean something in the end."

A hollow laugh escaped him.

"They were just cold comforts."

His fingers unconsciously tightened around one another. Then slowly, he turned his head back toward her.

"You couldn't have stopped me. At that point..." He held her gaze. "...nothing was going to."

His expression softened with quiet sadness.

"So don't put that on yourself, Bylla."

Sibylla Abrantes ​

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

​

High Republic Prison
Interacting with: Acier Moonbound
Items: x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x

Bylla.

It had been so long since she'd heard it that, for the briefest moment, the detention block seemed to fade away. It carried with it memories of a different time, before impossible choices had divided them.

A bittersweet smile touched her lips before disappearing.

"You are right. Aurelian says the same." She exhaled quietly, thinking back to the times Aurelian had told her it wasn't her responsibility to worry herself sick. He had done his best to respect her relationship with Ace, and how she had defended him even as Aurelian still held simmering beliefs about all Force users and their ability to easily cause destruction. To harm. Sibylla had faced that herself on Corellia with that Imperial Elite who had marked her face and murdered the Corellian delegation. With a slow exhale, Sibylla's fingers slowly unfurled from where they had been clasped together. For a moment, she simply looked at him. Truly looked at him.

The defiance was gone. The certainty that had once driven every argument between them had been replaced by sorrow, exhaustion, and regret. He wasn't trying to justify what he'd done anymore -- but it left one question.

"What changed?" Sibylla finally asked softly. There was no accusation in the words, just quiet curiosity, the dark delicate line of her brow knitting ever so slightly as she searched his face.

"The last time we spoke..." Her voice trailed for a moment, swallowing hard as she thought back to the day. "You believed so completely in what you were doing in the Covenant. In the path you had chosen."

She took a tentative step closer to the shimmering barrier, hazel eyes never leaving his.

"And now you're here and you have turned yourself in." The words were scarcely above a whisper as though speaking them too loudly might somehow unravel them.

"I do not need every detail today," she said gently. "But I find myself wondering..." Her head tilted ever so slightly. "...where are you now, Ace?"

Not physically, no it wasn't about that. Sibylla hoped he understood that.

"What happened between then and now that made you decide to stop running?"

There was no expectation in her expression, no demand for absolution. Only the quiet hope that, somewhere along the road between the Trinity and this detention cell, the friend she had mourned had finally found his way back to himself.

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Republic Space - [REDACTED]

Equipment:
Inmate Jumpsuit | Cybernetic Arm

The mention of Aurelian stirred something old and unpleasant in the pit of Ace's stomach, but it wasn't jealousy.

His mind drifted back to their first meeting on Parrlay. Trespassing on the man's property hadn't exactly been the ideal introduction, he could admit that much. Even so, something about Aurelian had always grated on him. The way he carried himself. The way he spoke to Ace. The quiet, almost obsessive, protectiveness he showed around Sibylla.

At the time, Ace had dismissed it as needless suspicion. Now... he supposed Aurelian had simply seen something in him that Ace himself had refused to.

His gaze had fallen somewhere into the middle distance before he realized Sibylla had spoken again. What changed? He looked back up, only then noticing she had stepped closer to the shimmering energy barrier. Instinctively, his eyes flicked toward the space between them before settling on her once more. He didn't move.

"It's not simple. It wasn't like... some big revelation that made me stop."

He let the words hang for a moment, searching for a way to explain months of slow collapse.

"It was more like..." He exhaled softly. "...the galaxy's longest realization. A lot of things just... kept adding to it. You. Lorn. Aether." His brow furrowed faintly. "Realizing I kept escalating things instead of fixing them." His lips parted again. "Fati--"

The name died before it fully escaped. He looked away for a moment before continuing.

"I even killed the Dark Side Elite who did..." He lifted a hand slightly, gesturing toward the pale scars crossing her face. "...that to you. I don't regret it either, but..."

He frowned, visibly struggling to untangle thoughts he'd spent months carrying alone.

"I don't know... I kept asking myself if it was worth losing all of you... if it meant I could keep you safe." He shook his head. "I already knew the answer. I just..."

His voice faltered for the first time.

"...didn't want to admit it. Because if I stopped...I'd have still lost all of you, and..." He swallowed. "...it would've all been for nothing."

He lowered his head, holding the back of his head with both hands.

"The messed up thing is that Arris Windrun of all people ended up being the straw that broke the eopie's back." The irony still sounded absurd spoken aloud. "She saw right through all my banthashit, and instead of killing me... she convinced me to leave."

His eyes finally returned to Sibylla's.

"She told me... that I still had people worth coming home to."

He held her gaze. He didn't need to explain who she meant. One of them was standing on the other side of the barrier.

Sibylla Abrantes​

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

​

Interacting with: Acier Moonbound
Items: x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x

Sibylla was quiet for a long moment as she let Ace;s words settle around her instead of rushing to fill the silence, letting them find their place alongside months of questions that had never found answers. When he spoke of losing everyone, she couldn't help how her expression softened. It reminded her again, a sliver of him from when he had confessed his actions to her on Taris.

The Ace he used to be.

But he wasn't that Ace anymore. He was more. And that was the question now. What will he be now. What was he to become?

"I'm glad someone finally found the words that reached you," Sibylla began quietly, taking a steady breath that slowly lifted her shoulders as she mused on what was to come next. There wasn't an ounce of resentment in her voice that it hadn't been her. Only relief that someone had.

The name he had mentioned Arris did make her pause. Hadn't that been one of the Triumverate leaders? SOmething more to consider, especially if it had been her words that had Ace reconsider his stance with everything. In the next few moments, Sibylla's hazel eyes lingered on him, seeing not the man who had walked away on the Trinity, but the one who had chosen, however painfully, to turn back.

"I'm glad... you are here." The words were simple, yet carried all the weight of what 'here' truly meant. After another quiet pause, she tilted her head ever so slightly.

"So... what comes next?" She offered a faint, encouraging smile.

"I don't mean the Republic, the hearings, or the consequences." She gave a small shake of her head because she knew that was what was to come, but something she would try her best to see how it would all settle. "Those will come, regardless."

But what was next was important, so much so that Sibylla searched Ace's eyes.

"I mean you. What do you want now, Ace?"

It was the first time since she'd entered the detention block that she wasn't asking about the man he had been.

She was asking about the man he hoped to become.

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Republic Space - [REDACTED]

Equipment:
Inmate Jumpsuit | Cybernetic Arm

Hope. That had always been Sibylla's greatest strength. No matter how badly the galaxy fractured around her, no matter how many wars she witnessed or impossible choices she was forced to make, she somehow held onto the belief that tomorrow could still be better than today. It wasn't naïveté, nor was it ignorance of the suffering around her. She simply refused to let despair dictate who she was.

Even now, after everything he had put her through, she was asking him about the future instead of dwelling on the past. Ace hated that he was about to give her no reason to keep hoping.

His gaze drifted away from her once again, settling on the wall just in front of him. The sorrow that had briefly softened his expression faded into something far emptier. His features became still, almost lifeless, as though he were reading the sentence that had already been passed in his own mind.

"What I want..." He repeated quietly, allowing the words to linger while he searched for an answer that felt honest.

When he finally spoke again, his voice carried no anger or resentment. It was simply tired.

"What I want is for the Republic to lock me in a cell, keep me away from everyone, and let me rot." He paused briefly before continuing, never once turning back toward her. "Or better yet... execute me for my crimes."

The words were delivered with the same calm acceptance as everything else he had confessed that day. There was no attempt to provoke sympathy, no dramatic flourish. It was simply the conclusion he had reached after weeks alone with his own conscience.

"Throw the entire book at me for the machine I helped create."

His hands remained clasped together, tightening almost imperceptibly as he continued to stare ahead.

"The galaxy needs to see that the Republic is still capable. Strong. Lot of people, including me, stopped believing you'll actually do what needs to be done."

His jaw tightened slightly before he added the final admission. Another quiet breath escaped him.

"So prove me-- them wrong." His voice remained steady, though stripped of any remaining hope for himself. "Show the galaxy that you're willing to do something about the Sith. Show them that no one is above answering for what they've done."

Only then did he allow the silence to settle over the detention block once more. He remained facing the wall, unable to bring himself to look at Sibylla again after giving her his answer.

Sibylla Abrantes​

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

​

Interacting with: Acier Moonbound
Items: x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x

For several long seconds, Sibylla said nothing.

She took it all in, drawing a deep breath through her nose that lifted her shoulders and chest. She swallowed hard.

Then she began to pace. The act alone was no small thing really, because for Sibylla it betrayed the turbulence of her thoughts more than trembling hands ever could. She had perfected keeping her composure for years, but when it came to circumstances and people she truly cared about, even the cracks began to show. Every slow step marked a slow path across the marble as she tried to reason through everything he had placed before her.

Because, inconveniently, some part of her understood him. She knew what happened when people stopped believing those entrusted with protecting them were capable of doing so.

And Ace had hurt people. He had killed Republic guards and who knows what else he had done out there in the guise of destroying the Covenant.

Whatever affection remained between them could not erase that.

"You are right about one thing," Sibylla added still pacing. "You must answer for what you have done. For what you are responsible for."

Her inference was clear -- that Ace was not the one responsible for all the acts the Covenant had done. That and his own actions were not the same. The brunette slowly turned at the edge of the barrier, fingers folding tightly together.

"But I cannot tell you what that answer ought to be or how it would look like... but consideration of the circumstance revolving your undercover mission and your assistance in providing the Republic intelligence... that could be used in your favor." another breath and her fingers tightened together. She could gather Dominique and Aurelian to assist her with providing testimony -- and while she was certain Aurelian wouldn't be keen on the matter, the fact that Ace had provided intelligence up until the Trinity was fact.

"However, for what came after the Trinity, I cannot stand here as your friend and pretend none of it matters or how the Force affected you in that outcome. Nor can I stand here as the Voice of Naboo and declare that no one is above answering for what they have done and see you thrown at the mercy of the Republic's courts just to make a show of the Republic's stance against Sith tyranny and their actions."

Her jaw tightened and she straightened her shoulders, giving a slow nod as if coming to an understanding.

"So no, Ace. I do not know what justice looks like for you. Imprisonment. Restitution. Perhaps there are things for which forgiveness will never be offered.... certainly the Sith need to be made accountable for what they have done...But you were never a Sith. You cared about injustice. About how there was something wrong in the galaxy and it needed to be fixed. Do I believe you went too far... yes. I do. And how that is resolved is a matter for not only you to determine but the courts in a fair and just trial. " she added as her steps slowed, thinking back to how Ace had thought his acts on Dathomir had been unforgivable.

What did that mean for what he had done now?

"...but do not mistake wanting to die for accepting responsibility. " The words came firmer than she intended, but she did not take them back, and this time, Sibylla came to a stop directly before him, separated only by the pale blue shimmer of the barrier.

"You came back because someone reminded you there were people worth coming home to." It was then that Sibylla's voice softened, and there was no mistaking the way her hazel eyes held his with that quiet, poignant intensity that needed no further explanation.

"Do not make those same people another reason to disappear."

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Republic Space - [REDACTED]

Equipment:
Inmate Jumpsuit | Cybernetic Arm

There she went again. Sibylla turned away from him, her measured footsteps carrying her slowly across the polished marble floor. Ace watched in silence from the edge of his cot, following each pass without really meaning to. She always did this when something mattered. The tighter her thoughts became, the more she seemed to need movement to untangle them.

Then she began talking about courts. Testimony. Intelligence he'd provided while undercover. About how it could work in his favor.

Ace clicked his tongue sharply against his teeth. "Oh, come on with that banthashit, Bylla."

The frustration escaped before he could stop it, quieter than a shout but no less genuine. He didn't interrupt again. Instead, he let her continue, his jaw tightening as she carefully worked through every angle. Every possibility. Every legal distinction. It was the politician in her now, weighing evidence, considering precedent, trying to find the shape of justice through procedure. Ace let out a slow breath and lowered his head, rubbing a hand across his face before dragging it back through his ashen locs.

Then she said he was never a Sith. Ace let out a quiet, disbelieving laugh and shook his head. He looked up at her again, his expression hardening for the first time since she'd entered the detention block.

"No. Don't stand there telling me the Sith need to answer for what they've done while pretending I wasn't one of them." His voice wasn't angry. It was tired. "You're right about why I joined them. I didn't do it because I believed in domination or power for power's sake. I did want to fix things."

His expression hardened, not with anger, but with painful honesty.

"In the end, it didn't matter. I still wore their colors. Fought their battles. killed in their name. And somewhere along the way... it stopped being an act. There were moments where I looked at the galaxy exactly the way they did. Moments where I agreed with them. Convinced myself strength justified itself... that fear could build peace."

He gave the smallest shake of his head.

"So don't tell me I was never Sith. Because if we're going to talk about accountability..." His jaw tightened. "...then don't make excuses for me just because you still care."

By the time Sibylla finished, silence settled between them once more. Ace remained seated for several long seconds, absorbing every word she'd spoken. Dying wasn't responsibility. He came back because he was reminded he had people to come home to.

Then he drew in a slow breath and stood. Crossing the cell, he stopped just short of the pale blue shimmer separating them. His dark eyes met hers without wavering.

"Wanting to die isn't accepting responsibility?" His voice stayed level, though the hurt beneath it was impossible to hide. "Then why does the death penalty even exist, Ambassador?"

His jaw flexed as he bit down on the inside of his cheek, the pressure carving shallow dimples into his face. He heard what she'd said about the people worth coming home to. About disappearing. He just... couldn't answer it. Not yet.

Eventually he let out a long breath. "There's a lot you said that I can't agree with." There wasn't any anger in it now, just exhaustion. "But I don't want to sit here arguing and debating my future all day."

His eyes finally left hers. Turning away from the barrier, he wandered several paces back into the cell before stopping with both hands planted on his hips. His head tipped back toward the ceiling, shoulders rising and falling with a slow breath.

After a long pause, he spoke again. "...How's my droid?"

Sibylla Abrantes
​

​

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

​

Interacting with: Acier Moonbound
Items: x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x

Sibylla froze.

It was the sharp lash of Ace's curse that cut through her pacing, and for one suspended moment she simply stood there with her back half-turned toward him.

Banthashit.

Her jaw tightened as it clenched, chest rising under the intricate embroidery of the violet gown as he kept going, each word finding its mark with an almost surgical precision, peeling apart every distinction she had been trying to make between the man who had entered the Covenant and the Sith he had eventually become -- because the worst of it was that he was right.

She had stepped away at the Trinity precisely because she could no longer excuse what was happening to him. She had drawn that line because there came a point where understanding why someone committed terrible acts could not absolve them of committing them. Yet now that he stood before her again, she was searching for those distinctions all over again.

"Then what would you have me do, Ace?" The words came out harsher than she intended, Sibylla whirling to face Ace again. It was his remark on the death penalty that finally snapped something loose in her, what was left of her composure cracking under the frustration written plainly across her heart-shaped face.

"Stand aside? Say nothing? Nod politely while you decide that the only suitable conclusion to your life is an execution chamber?" She demanded, her arms rising in emphasis before falling helplessly to her sides.

"Yes, you became Sith. Yes, you killed for them. Yes, there were choices you made that I cannot defend." Her voice tightened. "I know that. I knew it on the Trinity. It was why I walked away."

She took a deep breath and began to pace again, the frustration bleeding out of her.

"But this is not only about you and me anymore." she added, turning back, the thick fabric of her shirts swaying as her heels clipped a loud beat on the floor.

"There are Senators who would have every darksider branded irredeemably evil and made an example of. There are Jedi who would agree with them. And then there is the Charter of Unity, which recognizes that people can be coerced, manipulated, radicalized, or simply led so terribly astray that finding their way back becomes nearly impossible... and Jedi and others alike who believe that there is always a path for redemption -- Lorn had told you he would wait for you on the Trinity."

She shot back, reminding him of what Lorn had told Ace before attempting to lock him inside her office... and then the violence that occurred after.

"None of this is black and white, Ace. Shiraya knows I sometimes wish it were." She breathed out, her voice faltering for a moment before strengthening again.

"And yes, damn you, I care what happens to you."

There it was.

"Every decision made here will have consequences beyond this cell. For the Republic. For the Jedi. For every person who comes after you and asks whether redemption is actually possible, or merely something we speak prettily about until granting it becomes inconvenient."

Sibylla's chest rose sharply beneath another breath.

"If you want repentance and justice, then repent and seek that justice. I will do everything within my authority to ensure you receive a fair trial. Every crime, every circumstance, every piece of intelligence you provided, every life you harmed and every life you helped save should be weighed."

Sibylla stopped before the barrier again.

"But do not expect me to stand aside while you insist they throw the entire book at you without bothering to read every page."

Breathing hard, she finally came to a stop.

"Live with what you have done, Ace. But live." Hazel eyes bore into his beyond the cells detention shield.

"Do better." and as she felt her throat draw tight, she added, "Help me do better."

Because perhaps that was the only way any of it would ever begin making sense.

Silence returned with her heavy breathing. Sibylla finally lifted a hand and raked it over the braids woven through her hair, taking several restless steps away. At least until his quiet question registered.

How's my droid?

Of all the things he might have asked... The thought made her release a breath with a quiet whoosh, her shoulders leveling.

"Tic misses you terribly." The admission was quieter now. She turned back toward him, the fire having drained into something tender and tired.

"I wanted to tell him you were here. I even considered bringing him with me, but I had him stay back on the shuttle with Corde." Her lips pressed together briefly. "But I did not know whether it was the right time."

She swallowed, studying Ace for a moment.

"But I can bring him. If you want me to."

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Republic Space - [REDACTED]

Equipment:
Inmate Jumpsuit | Cybernetic Arm

For the first time since Sibylla had stepped into the detention block, Ace thought he'd actually gotten through to her. Not won, this wasn't something he particularly wanted to "win".

But something in his answer had forced Sibylla to stop searching for a clean distinction between what he'd intended to become and what he'd eventually become. Forced her to confront the same uncomfortable truth Ace already had.

So he stood there and listened. He listened as frustration cracked through her composure, as duty tangled with friendship and whatever responsibility she felt toward him. Ace understood how difficult that line had to be to walk. Sibylla had a position to uphold, a Republic to represent, laws she couldn't simply bend because the person standing behind the detention shield happened to matter to her. He didn't blame her for struggling with it.

As Sibylla continued, Ace found himself reducing everything she said to its simplest point. This wasn't black and white.

He knew that. He'd known it before she'd walked into the room. There were circumstances surrounding what he'd done, choices made before and after the Trinity, intelligence he'd provided, people he'd hurt and others he'd helped. None of that was lost on him. Ace simply wasn't convinced any of it needed to change the outcome.

Sibylla was. She wanted all of it weighed together before anyone decided what justice looked like for him. The crimes. The circumstances. The people he'd hurt. The people he'd helped. Everything that had brought him from Rishi to the Covenant and, eventually, into this cell.

"Live with what you have done, Ace. But live."

Ace didn't move. Something about those words slipped past every defense he'd put up. His expression remained carefully still, but his gaze lowered slightly from hers.

Live with it. He'd thought about punishment. Prison. Execution. Whatever sentence the Republic decided was appropriate. He hadn't spent much time thinking about what came afterward if they allowed him to have an afterward.

"Do better. Help me do better."

His eyes lifted, Ace looked directly at Sibylla then. He didn't answer her, but something shifted behind his eyes. A quiet consideration where there had previously been resignation. Maybe she would recognize it.

The conversation mercifully moved somewhere smaller. Tic. Ace wasn't surprised by her answer. He'd known the little BD-unit wouldn't understand why he'd suddenly disappeared. Still, hearing that Tic missed him pulled the faintest smile from him, but it didn't last long.

"No. No, it's okay." His gaze dropped toward the floor between them. "I miss him too, just..." Ace paused, jaw working slightly before he finished. "I don't want him to see me. In here."

Silence settled between them again. Ace remained where he was for several seconds, Sibylla's words refusing to leave him alone.

His brow drew together. "You told me to live." There was something different in his voice now. Quieter than before with none of the stubborn certainty he'd carried through their argument.

"What if I can't...?"

He left the rest unfinished. What if he couldn't live with what he'd done? What if there was no sentence the Republic could give him worse than waking up every morning as Acier Moonbound?

Sibylla Abrantes​

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

Acier Moonbound ​

Sibylla gave a nod of understanding when Ace mentioned that it was okay about Tic, and that he didn't want the little BD-Unit to see him like this.

"Just let me know if you change your mind. He is doing well though, I assure you."

But it was the way Ace asked that quiet question that stole whatever argument Sibylla might have still possessed, and the expression over her heart-shaped face softened immediately.

What if I can't...

For a moment, she simply looked at him through the pale blue barrier. There were a lot of things she could have said. And in that moment, Ace reminded her of the young man who had confessed what he had done back on Taris. The pang in her heart twisted again.

Sibylla swallowed hard. How to answer? She could not promise him forgiveness. She could not promise that someday he would wake and no longer feel the weight of what he had done. After everything they had just said, offering him such easy assurances would have been almost insulting... So she did not.

"Then you learn." Sibylla finally replied quietly, then, after a moment, straightened her posture and took a deep breath.

"Perhaps badly at first. Perhaps one day at a time...." Sibylla continued as she stepped closer to the barrier, hazel eyes searching the posture that he sat in.

"I cannot tell you how to forgive yourself, Ace. I am not even certain that is what you should be asking of yourself yet." a small breath left her in a soft whoosh, shoulders lowering as her chest fell.

"But living with what you have done does not mean pretending it never happened. I told you that back at Taris -- what it means is deciding what you are going to do because it happened."

Sibylla's hazel eyes locked upon Ace's with an unflinching certainty.

"And if there are days when you cannot quite remember how to do that..." The faintest, bittersweet smile touched her lips. "Then perhaps you allow the people who insisted you come home to remind you."

That was the important bit.

"You do not have to figure out the rest of your life tonight."

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Republic Space - [REDACTED]

Equipment:
Inmate Jumpsuit | Cybernetic Arm

Sibylla answered his doubts simply enough. Learn. That, Ace understood.

His entire life had conditioned him toward solving problems. Growing up in the Vergeworks, he'd learned that systems had causes, faults could be traced, and broken machinery could be understood if you were patient enough to pull it apart and figure out what had gone wrong. Sometimes the fix was obvious. Sometimes it took hours of staring at the same mess of wiring before something finally clicked.

Whether Sibylla knew it or not, she was speaking a language he understood all too well. Learning to live with himself. He could at least understand the shape of that.

Forgiving himself was something else entirely. The thought hadn't even crossed his mind. Ace knew himself well enough to know that he might never forgive himself for what he'd done. A part of him believed he shouldn't. Forgiveness felt dangerously close to letting himself off the hook, and he'd spent too long finding ways to justify his choices already.

Ace wandered back toward the bed and lowered himself onto its edge, his forearms settling loosely against his thighs.

"You know I can't do that, Bylla. Pretending it never happened." His gaze remained somewhere near the floor. "If I did, I may as well have never left the Covenant."

Because that had been the point, hadn't it? He'd stopped lying to himself. About what he'd done, what he'd become, and how much of it had been his choice. Whatever came next couldn't begin with another lie.

When Ace finally looked up, Sibylla's hazel eyes met his with that same unflinching certainty. He held her gaze this time. There was no argument or excuse waiting behind his teeth. He just listened.

"Then perhaps you allow the people who insisted you come home to remind you."

His eyes lowered again. Home. Ace wasn't sure he knew how to do that anymore. Somewhere along the way, he'd become very good at leaving. Leaving places. People. Disappearing whenever staying became too difficult, too dangerous, or too painful. Letting somebody else remind him why he should stay required a kind of trust he wasn't certain he had left in him. But maybe that didn't mean he never would.

His brown eyes lifted toward her again. "Maybe. One day."

It wasn't dismissal. There was no bitterness behind it, nor the hard certainty with which he'd rejected her assurances earlier. Just honesty. He wasn't ready. Maybe he'd forgotten how.

Ace exhaled slowly through his nose, shoulders sinking as some of the tension finally bled out of them.

"Feels like all we ever do is talk about..." He gestured vaguely between them with his flesh hand, searching for a word that apparently didn't exist.

The Covenant. His mistakes. Her worries. People they'd lost. Whatever fresh catastrophe the galaxy had decided to throw at them.

"...I don't know."

The corner of his mouth twitched faintly, almost apologetically. He did know one thing, though. Most of the reason their conversations had become so heavy lately was sitting on this side of the barrier.

Sibylla Abrantes​

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

​

Acier Moonbound

"Maybe one day," Sibylla's voice echoed Ace's quietly. After a moment, she drew a deep breath and gave a nod. She could accept that. And after everything they had just dragged into the light between them, demanding anything more would have felt terribly unfair.

When Ace gestured vaguely between them, however, Sibylla followed the motion with a slight arch of her brow.

"You do not know?" There was the faintest hint of the old Sibylla in it. Not quite teasing, but near enough to soften the weight that had occupied the room for far too long.

"I believe the word you are searching for is disasters." A small smile tugged at her lips. "Occasionally politics... frequently concerns over the others well being." The brunette's head tilted thoughtfully. "And, apparently....an alarming number of terrible decisions."

That last one earned a quiet exhale that almost resembled a laugh -- Perhaps that was the tragedy of it. That somewhere between the Trinity, the Covenant, Corellia, and everything else the galaxy had hurled at them, their friendship had become something that was measured almost entirely by crises.

Sibylla glanced toward the blue humming illuminated barrier before turning her attention back at him.

"We did not always speak like this, you know." The expression over her heart-shaped face softened as she thought back to when they first met, planting tree seedlings in that sacred wood.

"I seem to remember we were once capable of having conversations that did not involve war, Sith, trials, or debating which one of us was making the more catastrophically poor life choice." There was a pause, and perhaps a bit of humorless, dry commentary:

"Admittedly, you made that last one rather competitive." There, a little warmth returned to her hazel eyes. Then, quieter: "I miss that."

She let the admission rest without making anything more of it.

"So..." Sibylla pressed her hands together before her, visibly attempting to set aside Ambassador Abrantes along with everything waiting beyond this detention block. "For whatever remains of this visit, perhaps we might try something terribly ambitious."

A dark, delicate brow gave a quizzical, daring arch.

"A normal conversation."

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Republic Space - [REDACTED]

Equipment:
Inmate Jumpsuit | Cybernetic Arm

Yeah. Disasters sounded about right.

Ace gave a small, resigned nod. "Yeah."

When Sibylla spoke again, though, recalling a time when their conversations hadn't always revolved around war, Sith, politics, or whatever fresh catastrophe had found them, Ace glanced back toward her.

"I remember."

There was something unexpectedly fond in the way he said it. He remembered more than he probably let on. The quieter conversations. The easier silences. The moments where neither of them had been trying to save the galaxy, save each other, or Sibylla trying to stop one another from making some spectacularly terrible decision.

His lip twitched when she mentioned that last part.

"I think I'm always going to have you beat on that one."

The admission came lighter than most of what he'd said since she'd arrived. Not quite a joke, but close enough to one that the difference barely mattered.

Then Sibylla suggested something ambitious... a normal conversation. Ace's expression softened. For a moment, he didn't see the Voice of Naboo standing on the other side of the barrier. He didn't see the diplomat, the politician, or the young woman carrying far too much responsibility for someone their age.

He just saw Bylla. His friend. Best friend in the entire galaxy, actually... other than Tic.

"Yeah." A faint smile touched his face. "Would be a nice change of pace compared to all the banthashit I've had to listen to in here."

The detention block settled into silence after that. Not the uncomfortable kind they'd shared earlier. This one felt different. Lighter, somehow. As though neither of them knew what a normal conversation was supposed to look like anymore and had decided not to rush figuring it out.

Ace looked down at his hands for a while, flesh and metal resting loosely between his knees. Then something old surfaced.

His head lifted again. "Hey."

He waited until Sibylla met his gaze.

"Remember that day we had on Naboo?" His brow creased slightly as he searched backward through everything that had happened since. "Last year, I think. It was after we saw each other again on Mandalore."

It had been around the dawn of the Great Core War. Back when he was still just some Hidden Path scoundrel stumbling his way across the galaxy, trying to figure out what he was supposed to be doing with himself.

Before the Covenant. Before Tapani. Before everything had become so complicated.

It had only been a year. That was the strange part. Ace stared at her for a moment, almost amused by the absurdity of it. Somehow, the distance between then and now felt less like twelve months and more like a decade. Maybe several. They had both changed that much.

His gaze drifted briefly toward the floor before returning to hers.

"I wish we did more of that."

Sibylla Abrantes​

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

​

Acier Moonbound

I wish we did more of that.

There was something about the simplicity of it that caught her. Perhaps because she missed it as well. With all the chaos, somewhere between Mandalore, the Covenant, politics, wars, and all their respective disasters, they had somehow stopped simply being friends.

Beyond the intelligence reports and worries about his safety, Sibylla still didn't really know what was going on with him.

"Well..." she began tentatively, taking a deep breath as she began quietly, "Why do we not do that now?" She shifted a little closer to the barrier, watching Ace as the blue light of the shield shone off the freckles of his dark face.

"Catch me up."

Yet before he could misunderstand, Sibylla shook her head and held up a hand.

"Not about the Covenant or about what happened or what you did there. We have spent quite enough time talking about that." Her hazel eyes settled on him, wanting that sense of normalcy back. She needed that. A bit to show that the Ace she knew was still there despite all the warnings and doubts that others had tossed her way about Sith, the Darkside, and what it could do.

"I mean you, Ace." it was an olive branch. At attempt at normality. "I miss our chats through comm messages, but I just miss talking to you."

Slowly the faint encouraging smile Ace would fine bittersweetly familiar curved over Sibylla's lips.

"We can start there."

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Republic Space - [REDACTED]

Equipment:
Inmate Jumpsuit | Cybernetic Arm

Ace let out a breath that sounded almost like a laugh. He appreciated what Sibylla was trying to do. Talking about something that wasn't the Covenant, the Republic, or the increasingly catastrophic state of the galaxy sounded wonderful.

The problem was...

What exactly was he supposed to tell her? Ace lowered his head, staring at his hands again. For most of his time with the Covenant, there hadn't really been anything else. He'd become so consumed by what he was doing that everything outside of it had gradually fallen away. Every day had been another mission, another problem, another objective he convinced himself needed solving. By the end, there hadn't been much of a life left outside of it.

And now? He was sitting in a cell. There wasn't exactly much to catch her up on there either. Rumination. Spiraling. Visits from Jedi, politicians and... others.

Ace's brow furrowed. Actually. His head lifted slightly. Maybe saying there had been nothing else wasn't entirely true. There had been Fatine.

Ace glanced toward Sibylla. Nobody really knew about her. Not properly, at least. He'd kept that part of his life as private as he possibly could. Partly because anyone discovering how much Fatine meant to him would've painted a target across her back. But if Ace was being honest, there had been something selfish in it too. He'd wanted those moments with her for himself.

But this was Sibylla. One of the few people in the galaxy he trusted more than almost anyone. There was some irony in that, considering there'd once been a time when his feelings toward her had wandered somewhere beyond friendship. That felt like another lifetime now.

Besides, he hadn't really spoken to anyone about what happened with Fatine. Cora, once. If that conversation could even be called talking. Ace sighed, resignation settling over his features.

"I..." He hesitated. "I met someone. She wasn't Sith or anything." A short laugh escaped him at the absurdity of needing to clarify that. "She's..." His eyes dropped. "She's Cora's and Lysander's sister." He wasn't sure why he mentioned Cora. Didn't even know if Sibylla knew her.

Ace's expression gradually fell, gaze slipping somewhere beyond Sibylla and the humming blue barrier separating them.

"When I decided I was going to turn myself in, I..." His jaw tightened slightly. "I ended things..."

He could still remember the message he'd sent her. Everything he'd wanted to say and everything he hadn't been brave enough to say face-to-face. Then she'd found him anyway. Somehow Fatine had gotten all the way into his cell, furious and heartbroken, forcing him to look at the consequences of another decision he'd made for someone else without ever asking what they wanted. And eventually they'd closed the door on whatever they'd been. For good.

Ace didn't realize how long he'd gone quiet until the hum of the containment barrier seemed unusually loud. He blinked, returning to the detention block.

"Sorry."

Apparently they'd lasted all of a few minutes before he'd managed to make the normal conversation depressing too.

Sibylla Abrantes​

 

[Sibylla Abrantes]

​

Acier Moonbound

Sibylla's initial reaction was to give a slow blink.

"You... met someone?" Of everything Sibylla had expected when suggesting a normal conversation, that had not been among the possibilities. Certainly, since he had first admitted almost over a year ago that he had fallen for her and that was why he had cut off contact with her, Sibylla had wished that Ace would find someone who would see just how wonderful Ace was -- well, before the who quest to burn down the Sith Covenant took over his life. Of all the news he could have revealed, this one surprised her, but it was a pleasant surprise. Although it was soon followed by bemused incredulity as Ace continued.

She is Cora's and Lysander's sister.

There was no missing how Sibylla's brows rose at that bit of information; the double take made the brunette shake her head gently as he revealed he had ended things when he decided to turn himself in.

The perplexity that crossed over her heart-shaped face, as well as the subtle hand gestures, clearly indicated her utter bemusement.

"Wait." She began, her hand lifting palm outward as though physically requesting the conversation slow down.

"You have managed in approximately thirty seconds to inform me that you fell for someone, that she is apparently Cora and Lysander's sister, and that you subsequently ended matters with her before turning yourself in." even Sibylla had to take a few seconds to process all that. Because naturally Ace could not have fallen for someone uncomplicated.

Was this a holonet drama script? It had to be. The Galaxy couldn't possibly be that small.

For a few seconds, Sibylla simply stared at Ace. Then after another second, she drew a breath and gathered what remained of her composure. With a hand gesture that relayed that he should continue, Sibylla asked:

"Alright... let us start from the beginning. How did this happen?"

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Republic Space - [REDACTED]

Equipment:
Inmate Jumpsuit | Cybernetic Arm

Sibylla's reaction wasn't particularly surprising. It was funny, though. Making Sibylla Abrantes genuinely lose track of what to say wasn't exactly an easy feat, and Ace couldn't help the quiet snicker that escaped through his nose as she painstakingly recounted everything he'd apparently managed to drop on her within the span of thirty seconds.

"Yeah." That was all he offered.

Apparently, though, he hadn't killed the mood as thoroughly as he'd thought. Sibylla wasn't awkwardly searching for another subject or trying to steer them toward something lighter. She actually wanted to know more.

Ace raised a brow at her, then shook his head with faint amusement when she instructed him to start from the beginning.

"Start from the beginning..." He repeated.

His eyes wandered toward the ceiling as he tried to figure out where the beginning actually was. So much had happened since then that the memory felt strangely distant, even if it really hadn't been that long ago.

"I met her a few months before I even infiltrated the Covenant. On Ukatis." He paused, mentally placing everything where it belonged. "Few months after I lost my arm and..."

Ace's gaze lowered toward Sibylla and an apologetic look crossed his face.

"...after our fight."

That certainly narrowed things down. His expression turned pensive again as he looked away, piecing together memories he hadn't expected to be talking about when Sibylla walked into his detention block.

"I stepped in when some guy was harassing her." The corner of his mouth twitched. "Then she took me to some café as thanks. And somehow I ended up teaching her how to shoot in some scrapyard."

There was an unmistakable fondness in his voice now. It sounded ridiculous when he compressed the entire day like that. Then again, Ace remembered thinking the whole thing was a little ridiculous while it was happening. One minute he'd been getting involved in someone else's problem, and the next he'd somehow lost most of his day wandering around Ukatis with a woman he'd only just met. He hadn't minded.

"We kept in contact after that. Even after I joined the Coven--"

Ace stopped, eyes narrowing slightly. There was suddenly an uncomfortable realization that Sibylla's request to start from the beginning apparently meant she expected him to recount the entire thing.

His shoulders slumped. "Do I really have to tell you everything?" He sighed, already looking mildly aggrieved by the prospect. "You know I hate talking talking."

Sibylla Abrantes ​