Talk to Me

[Scherezade deWinter]

Madalena's spirits had much been improved thanks to the visit she'd received by Alwine Lechner. While she couldn't say that she was overly happy again, the distraction had served its purpose and she was no longer wallowing in misery in her bed after the events of the night before. She was still checking her comdevice frequently though, hoping that he call from Brayden would soon arrive, or at least a message of any sorts. He'd said he would contact her today… But with his strange behavior lately, she wasn't entirely sure he actually would.

Once Alwine had left, Madalena took Baal out for a run, letting him stretch his legs while she did the same with hers. Geonosis was less than ideal for such things considering the arid climate, but it was breathable enough. It was better than sitting at home and turning into a potato, anyway, and Baal did love his runs. He was still not using words to communicate with her. Considering Dia had told her that her own Loth pup had spoken to her… Madalena couldn't help but wonder if there was something she was doing wrong with him, or she just had a quiet pup. She loved him still, and would continue to do so if he never even barked at her, but she just wished there was a way for her to know for sure that everything was fine and she wasn't screwing anything up with him.

A quick shower and some lunch later, the Sithling decided to skip a training session for the day, grabbing her paints instead and bringing a small chair to seat herself by one of the last few walls on the ship that were still bare. She wanted to paint, though she didn't know what yet.

But moments later, her fingers worked on their own, bringing paint up and down, and images began to form, as realistic looking as the rest of her murals.

[member="Brayden Antares"]

 

[Brayden Antares]

Brayden and [member="Faye Malvern"] had arrived on Geonosis a little over an hour ago. Reluctantly, the Endelaan native had said a not-so-easy goodbye to the Serenno beauty. The Prince was...both excited and nervous about the trip to come. He absolutely wanted to share every part of his life with the woman, but there were...several things she needed to know first, to experience. Life on Endelaan was very obviously different than it was in most other areas of the galaxy. As his relationship with Faye deepened, so too would his responsibility to the Endelaan system. In fact, he knew full well that it would involve commitments to Endelaan's sister planet...mostly thanks to his Uncle Caid.

First things first though, Faye needed the time to pack. Brayden was perfectly fine with her spending the entirety of the trip in a towel or less, but he consented to the reality it would be less-than-appropriate outside the relative privacy of his vessel. Then there was the issue of Madalena. In truth, Brayden had no real qualms about ultimately dismissing the woman last night. Everything she thought they shared was a lie, a fabrication of a false personality. No, he hadn't mentioned Faye to Madalena simply because, well, Madalena was not really his sister, his family.

However, until he really knew how to fix what had happened to [member="Scherezade deWinter"], Brayden did need to keep the relationship alive, intact. Exhaling softly, the Sith Lord grabbed his black and silver cloak. Silence settled over his form as he slid on to his swoop bike and proceeded towards the Obsidian Citadel.

Within a few minutes, Brayden arrived outside the woman's ship. As the swoop came to a slow halt, the Endelaan native came to his feet and exhaled softly. Silver-green eyes scanned the exterior of the ship as Brayden kept his presence tightly restrained. Stepping forward, the Prince called casually from the bottom of the extended loading ramp. "Madalena."

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

She had been entirely lost in her paintings. The first color that had threatened to take over was red, and for a moment, Madalena feared that because of her feelings from last night, it would be an image of blood and loss that would emerge. Yet as time progressed and more colors joined the fold, she realized bit by bit that that was not to be.

It could have been minutes. It could have been hours. But by the time Madalena Antares was done, she realized that what had come from her that day was a sunset; the sun spreading various shades of reds and pinks and even a few purples over the forests and jungles of her and Brayden's Endelaan. The rays couldbe picked apart and put together again with the blink of an eye, casting their softs lights on… Madalena blinked. She hadn't recalled painting a building. It was not the Forbidden Temple, that was on another wall, but then… Where had that building popped from?

But now would not be the time to ponder that. She heard her name, and her brother's presence flooded through her. She wanted to smile and to cry at the same time, hug him and smack him at the same time as well.

Covered in paint splatters, her hair wild and pointing in almost every direction, Madalena walked out of her ship to greet her brother. Her eyes darted around, looking for the lady love he had the night before, but no… He was here alone. Unlike the previous times she saw him, she did not fling herself at him with hugs and kisses.

"If I try to hug you will be less of a butthole than you were yesterday?" she asked, not bothering with trying to mask her hurt from the events of the night before. Alwine had told her of the love potion and what it had done to people. It was not an excuse. She already knew that by the time she'd come across her brother and the woman he was with, they were both free of the spell.

[member="Brayden Antares"]

 

[Brayden Antares]

Brayden arched a curious eyebrow as he reached up to casually pull back the hood of his cloak. "Excuse me?" It was rather clear that Brayden was just...out of energy to play any type of game with Madalena regardless of what had transpired. "I'm pretty sure I did not inhibit your affections yesterday, either." The statement was accurate, he'd allowed Madalena to approach as she desired. He was unaware that created a contract wherein he had to act the same as her.

"It was a long night, and I needed time to myself. I would have thought that to be plainly obvious." Waving a dismissive hand, Brayden took a single step closer to the woman. "You appear well, however. You did not drink anything there, did you?"

Brayden rather quickly realized the answer to the question did not matter. She was not latched onto anybody presently, so obviously she was currently free of any effects. "And what is it you wished to speak about?" The request, after all, for a call had come from her.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Madalena snorted. 'Time to himself'. They both knew that was not what he had wanted or needed last night. She was more than willing to wager that he had not spent the night by himself at all. And that was perfectly fine. She was not about to try to boss her brother around and tell who he could or couldn't be with and when. Not only would it be futile, it wasn't something she wanted in the first place.

What she wanted…

"I had nothing to drink, no thanks to you," she answered, "you just told me not to drink and left. You didn't say there was a potion inside the drinks." She'd been so angry with him after that. She'd wanted to drink. It was only when she realized that she was completely and utterly alone that she had gone home instead, hoping she got out of the place quickly enough for no one to notice she was about to start crying.

And now he was asking what she wished to speak about. So formal. So distant. She wanted to pummel that face of his. Baal peeked his head out from behind her, taking a look first at her and then at Brayden, before realizing this was not his place to be, and went back inside.

"You know, I was counting the days until our twenty first birthday," she said, folding her arms across her chest, "I thought we would be happy when we were united again. And then you came back early and I thought I was gonna explode with joy because we weren't separated anymore. But all you've been doing since is being weird. You're distant. You feel like you're trying to avoid me. You're giving me cold shoulders whenever possible. You think I don't notice that you let me hug you and never initiate something like that on your own? What the krak is going on, Brayden?! I know it's not Faye so don't try to blame that woman for anything. What is going on with you?! What is wrong that you're behaving like this?"

[member="Brayden Antares"]

 

[Brayden Antares]

Brayden arched a curious brow as he briefly eyeshifted. "Uhh...yeah. You're welcome." Clearly what Madalena meant to say was 'thank you'. The fact that he hadn't really explained why she shouldn't have anything to drink didn't exactly enter his mind. Brayden would never purposefully lead Madalena astray, not whilst she inhabited his sister's body.

As the conversation progressed, Brayden gave Madalena his complete attention, save a brief smile at Baal as the Loth Wolf retreated. Everything that Madalena was saying only demonstrated why he needed to get Scherezade back. How could he explain what was really happening to her...or what had happened to him? She wouldn't even understand on a conceptual level. When Madalena had finally finished, Brayden snapped back an immediate response. "I don't blame Faye for anything. I do not blame anyone, really. I have merely been busy." The lie was easy to tell mostly because it was not a complete lie.

"How do you think I even met Faye? I've been doing a great deal of work for Exarch Malvern. She was staying with him until recently. I've barely even seen her in the last month." That was...well...mostly a lie. "It's constant. When I return from this trip I am about to take, I have to go straight on another assignment. However, I promise we will carve out some brother-sister time immediately thereafter."

Brayden just hoped it would be to bring his actual sister back.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

"I don't care how you met Faye!" she almost snapped at him. She could detect some insincerity in his words through the Force, but she couldn't tell where or more importantly, why. "I don't care about your missions! Do you think I have a plethora of down time myself? I'm constantly running from one to another too!"

Turning around, she motioned for him to join her inside. Oh, they were fighting all right. She still wanted to beat the krak out of his stupid butt. But he was still her brother, and they were still going to talk it out. Even if at least one of them needed a bacta tank when the discussions were over.

"You wouldn't even be here at all if I hadn't asked," Madalena said, "you don't call. Which is fine, I don't call either because I'd rather see you face to face anyway. But when we run into each other you do whatever you can to make it as brief as possible. You really think I haven't noticed? Your schedule is just a comfortable excuse. It feels like you're trying to run away from me, like I'm some sort of inconvenient presence in your life that you'd rather do without."

Anger, pain. She wouldn't cry. It wasn't that easy to make her cry after she'd spent enough of the night and the morning doing so. But she still wasn't going to try to mask it away from him. He was hurting her, and she couldn't for the life of her figure out why.

"Why can't things be how they used to?" she finally turned to look at him, her voice almost breaking. She wanted her brother back, she wanted them to be close as they had been. Missions would never be able to get in the way of that. But then what could?

"And while we're on the subject of you being a butthole," she continued, "you need to talk to Alwine. What you did to her last night was inexcusable."

[member="Brayden Antares"]

 

[Brayden Antares]

Brayden's ability to remain calm and detached was being challenged by not-sister. It was being challenged aggressively, and she most certainly was not going to enjoy what resulted. However, for the time being he remained standing, rooted in his present position, allowing Madalena to have her little pity party.

Once more when she'd finished, Brayden offered very direct replies. "I do not owe Alwine Lechner any explanation, and it's certainly not your place to even voice an opinion on the matter. You weren't present for any of the actual interaction." A brief roll of his eyes indicated how done Brayden was with that particular topic.

"You may not care about Faye, how I met her, or my responsibilities to the galaxy, but I do. In fact, I'm not even asking you to care. I'm only stating facts. Nothing about this galaxy rotates around you, Madalena. Things cannot be the way they used to be...because we are not children anymore."

Having not moved one inch from the base of the loading ramp, Brayden inhaled steadily. Was he fan of Madalena? No, not in the slightest, but it wasn't because he hated her. In fact, Brayden didn't care enough about the fake-woman enough one way or the other to hate her. However, what he did need in the moment...was for her to think that he did. He needed Madalena to believe that, for some reason, her beloved twin brother disapproved of her. Why? Because Brayden needed Madalena to cling to the personal relationships she maintained, to people that he had or would convince to assist him in extracting the persona entirely.

It was an even trade in his eyes. They would still get their precious Madalena and could run off to do whatever, Brayden merely wanted his sister. The process would not be completed quickly. Brayden still did not even know how to break the spell, but he needed things to be ready once he did.

"If that's a problem for you, I don't know what to say."

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

"Oh, yes you do, mister!" she shot right back at him, "spell or no spell, you do not leave a woman on the floor like that after she tells you she wants to have babies with you! You tell her that there is a spell happening before you run off and leave her like that!"

Brayden did not want to get into her ship. It was so stupid, what did he think she was going to do, fly off with him on board?! Madalena turned around and took the few steps immediately back to him. No, it was true. She was not going to backpedal. She did not care about what he had going on with Faye, not while they were having problems. Knowing about what was going on between her brother and a woman could wait until they fixed matters between them.

It had nothing to do with anything revolving around her. She was upset because things were wrong with them and she didn't understand why.

When Brayden said things could not go back to the way they were because they were no longer children though… That caused her to stop in her movements, look at him as though he'd just smacked her cross the face.

"Of course it's a problem for me," she whispered, her chin quivering, unknowing how much she looked like their mother at that point, "Brayden, we were the invincible twins. Us against the galaxy. We were so close it could easily make other people jealous."

Madalena took a few steps towards him. She wanted to hold his hand. She wanted to curl her fingers around his thumb as they had so often done through their entire lives.

"We've only been apart for half a year, Brayden," she said with tears in her eyes, "only half a year. Of course things change in that span of time… But not our closeness. I love you, Brayden. Please… Please let's just fix this…"

[member="Brayden Antares"]

 

[Brayden Antares]

It didn't resonate with him. Regardless of how much Madalena looked like he had imagined Scherezade would look, or how much she looked like their mother, Brayden wasn't going to be swayed by any amount of emotion. However, that wasn't to say his resistance was simple, effortless. Despite the fact that Madalena was not his sister, he could feel traces of her sister within her. In fact, that was probably the only thing that truly kept him from trying to sever the woman's head.

For a moment, the Sith Lord clenched his teeth. Briefly, Brayden closed his eyes. When the Endelaan native opened them again, his eyes were bright and his gaze hardened. Un-clenching his teeth, the Prince offered Madalena the reply she did not want to hear. "A lot can happen in half of a standard year. I have to be going, Madalena. I will reach out to you when I can."

There really wasn't anything else to say. This was something Madalena simply needed to go through. Well, she didn't have to go through this situation necessarily, but he needed Madalena off-balance, distraught. Turning, Brayden began to proceed back in the direction he had come from.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

"That's not good enough!" Madalena pleaded with Brayden. She ran, coming to a stop in front of him, blocking the direction he was going in. She couldn't let him go like that. She couldn't imagine leaving it hanging there, pretending everything was fine while she fretted until he came back. She couldn't! He was her brother!

"What happened, Brayden? What?" she cried, "please, please tell me. If there's anything wrong, I can help. I can call on people if I's beyond what I can directly do. Please, Brayden, don't leave like this."

She didn't just want to. Now she took his hand. Unless he pushed her away, she would wrap her fingers around his thumb. Like when they were children. Like how they spent countless nights under the blankets, either she holding his thumb like that or him holding hers, telling their stories, just talking with each other.

"Please, Brayden," she pleaded again, "I don't have another brother. You don't have another sister. I don't want you to leave like this. I can't stand it. There's no one else, Brayden, there's just us, and I love you, and I don't want things to be the poodoo pile they are, please, just talk to me!"

[member="Brayden Antares"]

 

[Brayden Antares]

Brayden was completely intent on pushing past Madalena and continuing on his way. Her words were falling on deaf ears. However, when she grabbed his thumb, Brayden's mind was launched into the past. Memories came flooding forth, memories of time spent with Scherezade, his actual sister.

Bright eyes dropped immediately, staring at her fingers around his thumb as if he were in a trance. Everything that Madalena said in that moment went in one ear and out the other. The entirety of his emotions over his sister quickly began boiling to the surface of his skin. He thought about the time he'd lost with his sister, the feeling of losing her, the feeling of her presence being ripped away. It was a great deal to handle on top of everything that just happened at the freaking party.

Brayden didn't want to deal with this. He didn't want to deal with Madalena, Alwine, or anything in between. He wanted, he needed to just be alone with Faye and forget about literally everything else. The rest of his life struggles could wait, and that certainly included Madalena. In a matter of minutes, the look of serenity on his face was quickly replaced by rage as he ripped his thumb away from Madalena. "I cannot do this with you, Madalena. Everyone needs time, mine is now. Go be with your friends, live your life. I will reach out to you when I figure things out."

Determined, Brayden stepped around Madalena once more. If she tried to stop him again, he didn't even know what he would do.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

He let her. He let her. He let her hold his thumb! Madalena broke into a smile through her tears and through her anguish. Maybe… Maybe if he let her do that, maybe there was hope. Maybe it meant he would stay, just a little longer, just a wee bit more, talk things out, they could fix it, she knew they could! Even if she didn't know what was wrong, she was sure they could overcome it. They were Brayden and Madalena, them against the 'verse!

She gave his thumb the tiniest of squeezes, using her free hand to wipe some of her tears off her face. They just stood there then, quiet, alone. It was as if the rest of Geonosis stopped existing around them, and they were wrapped in their own little bubble, their own cocoon of safety in which they were just themselves. Madalena knew she should have rejoiced in it, find complete and utter happiness, but she was terrified at the same time. Terrified that any moment now the illusion would shatter, that Brayden would-

He did.

The pained expression on her face returned as soon as he ripped his thumb away from her. And then… He just stepped around her.

Madalena ran to block his way again, this time not even giving him a chance before she flung her arms around him, holding him tightly in an embrace.

"I love you, Brayden," she whispered, her voice breaking again, "I will always love you. You are my brother. And if you take too long, I'm coming to kill whatever it is that is keeping you from me. You will always come before any friends, before any life living and all of that crap. I love you."

She didn't want to feel him yanking thumbs away again. Madalena released him quickly, and stepped to the side. She was still crying, her face and eyes swelling, turning red. She was not happy about this, about any of this. To let him go like that… It shattered her insides, made her want to throw up. She wanted to whale and scream and kick something.

It was probably sheer luck that only let her cry now, shield away from Brayden's eyes just how much she was cracking and breaking on the inside.

The screaming would come later.


[member="Brayden Antares"]