The Final Act of Brothers (Vega)

[Blade Bacquin]

It had started so long ago now that the image was now faded and cloudy. He had looked up at the council and renounced his first master spitting on the ground at the mention of his name. He then looked at the crowd of possible master's so many to choose between but one stuck out above the rest. The man had a wild aspect to him and had pride for himself that could fill the whole room.

Blade peered into the man's eyes knowing then that this man was his brother. Not Brother by blood but brother in the force a brother he would sacrifice himself for, a brother who would teach him, and a brother who he would someday be equal to in the force.

Walls Crumble the future can be change by a single event. Then you find yourself at odds with your brother. That day had come when he spoke to the council spiting on the empire. He didn't notice his brother Blade from behind a pillar fall to his knees and break down. He had ripped a family apart he didn't know he had created. Blade expected death for his weakness but Vega never brought such a fate to his brother. Blade was tortured, twisted, and now bent on revenge. They played their games but all feuds must die and this is the final act of Brothers.
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Ord Mantle the home of the ruined Sith Empire. Once its walls had shielded the most dominate force in the galaxy now here it sat nothing more then rubble at Blade Ice’s feet. He stood with in what use to be council hall where the sith masters watched over the underling sith. How dominate they had been in there glory days only to find the inevitable destruction. Blade still didn’t know what had destroyed them nor did he care anymore since he was exiled from their ranks. Yet this was his first real home the place he had learned the meaning of love and brotherhood.

He chose this place to confront the one he looked up to as an older brother. He hoped it would be the last time as he looked for a place to sit down. He came across a half pillar, a pillar he remembered all to well it was the last place he ever cried. That day had been the worst day of the TSE Bad boy Blade Ice but it was an important one. He sat on top of the pillar and began to play with a sith dagger he had gotten from Dalethria. The one he had gotten from his brother Vega had been returned to him in Blade’s attempt to shed himself of the lupine. It had not worked though they had faced off so many times since then and never once had it ended in Blade’s favor.

Maybe he was weak maybe all and all Vega had shed himself of Blade knowing his weakness. Yet, Blade now the Chaos Lord of the SOC sat an equal to Vega in the force. He wondered why things had gone the way they had and why now did he feel the urge to fix things with Vega.

His thought drifted for a moment onto Dalethria, why did he tell her he loved her. He knew nothing could come of it. Maybe he had hoped someone could love him back but that was foolish he knew he was alone in life. He continued in thought as he waited for his brother to answer the call he had sent him.

[Vega Van-Derveld]

It wasn’t long before the summons was answered. The first signs of a storm, tiny forks of lightning, illuminated the dark night sky, betraying the arrival of a small vessel. The ship banked downwards, descending towards the plateau where once the Council of Sith had held court. Elsewhere, Castle Sha, home to the nomad Prince Trace, stood desolate and silent. The shadows of the Sith Empire stretched long and far across the junkyard planet. The Sith had always been parasitic in nature. They had made quick work of raping the land for all it was worth, leaving behind no more than the black husk that now remained.

The sight before him was neither humbling nor evocative. Any love that Vega had once bore for the Sith Empire, any memories that he’d carried with him, had been long since buried. If the sight of the ruined Council room inspired any feeling in him, then it was pride. Vividly, he could recall the last time he had strode into those so-called sacred halls. He had sworn allegiance to Vjun and the Black Hand, and from that moment onward nothing had been the same for the Sith.

Though he did not accredit himself for the collapse of the group, his departure had been the first of many. Piece by piece the foundations of the Empire began to crumble, until the whole faction imploded. Some had seen the errors of their ways before it was too late, but many were so embroiled in their own self-importance that they rode their sinking ship all the way to the bottom of the ocean. Standing in the same place he had stood all those years ago, the Lupine could not help but smile.

“Empires rise and empires fall… some things never change.”

[Blade Bacquin]

“Empires rise and empires fall… some things never change.”

Blade looked up and saw him standing near the edge of the hall. He didn't say anything just watched in awe a bit as if he was a young sith again seeing Vega for the first time. His pride could still fill a room but most of the wild aspect was gone.

Blade looked up at the clouded sky, how he had wished he could see the stars for this could be his last time. He wasn't afraid of his possible death but he was more on a trip down memory lane wanting to see faces and visuals of his past. Allot of tem where dead and gone now much like this planet.

He still sat on his pillar and played with his dagger looking up at the sky. He was looking for the words to speak to the lupine. Somewhere in his jumbled mind he had to full forth, the effort to speak to the man had molded him somewhat.

"I wish I could see the stars from this planet one last time Vega. Like the old days back when I was still ignorant and unaware of what these walls where really like. Back when you had a little respect for me as your apprentice and I looked up to you as an older brother teaching me the secrets of the family. Yet those days crashed down upon themselves so long ago."

[Vega Van-Derveld]

“Everything happens for a reason.”

Throughout his life, Vega had toyed with the idea of fate. Sometimes he had sworn by it, others he had sworn against it. He had once heard someone say that there was no such thing as luck, only the Force. Chance and coincidence seemed to fall into the same niche. While each being of the galaxy was free they were also, ultimately, bound to some greater designer. Whether or not they believed it, or liked it, was insignificant. The winds of fate would carry them on, regardless.

“Which brings me to my first question… what is the reason for my being here?”

[Blade Bacquin]

"I suppose everything does happen for a reason."

There came the question that was still weighing on his mind "what is the reason for my being here?". He again looked up at the clouded sky where a storm was slowly brewing. He then began to scan what was left of the council hall there in the rubble was seat of a council member still intact.

"Do you remember the day you left this place?"

He figured he would answer Vega in time first he need to find out a few things for himself. Things that had left him hanging and broken back in the day. He felt a bit nostalgic for some reason, the curiosity that had first brought him to this place was back. The sith lord felt like an apprentice again.

[Vega Van-Derveld]

“My place is no longer here, but with the Black Hand. I will not explain my reasons for my departure, quite simply because I do not have to. My time here has been fruitful, and I thank each one of you who has benefited to my cause, but I no longer wish to call you comrades. All of you, that is, but one…” Ironic, he thought, that he had expressed similar sentiments to the collective on Vjun, at the time of the great schism that had split the group in two.

“Of course,” he smiled thinly. “How could I forget?”

[Blade Bacquin]

"I have lived a long time Vega, yet that day was the single worst day of my life it is forever etched into my mind. All I want was to die that night when I finally went to sleep. Yet if there is a God he had a sense of irony I awakened the next day with zena asleep beside and for the two weeks that followed I did nothing but pray for death."

Blade's eyes had sadness in them when he thought about Zena. The first woman he could ever remember loving and the only one he knew for sure loved him back. He still thought about her from time to time wondering if she survived, if she ever thought about him, and always what if she would have stayed by his side.

"I pushed her away over those two weeks of hell. When those two weeks ended my fate was sealed, I was branded a traitor to the empire and exiled. I saw it coming I could have stopped it but I didn't want to I wanted someone to blame. I brought you to the place where it all began. Do you know why I blamed you Vega?"

[Vega Van-Derveld]

Though he had no knowledge of the particulars involved in Blade’s expulsion, Vega had to wonder if it had been his association with the errant Lupine that had warranted his blacklisting. A mass exodus had, at that time, occurred not long after Van-Dervelds departure, marking him as a sure catalyst, something which he was particularly proud of. Regardless of his few theories, he shook his head. “No. Tell me.”

[Blade Bacquin]

"Well when it all came down to it I remembered the day you left. I remembered what Jenobi said to you, it was almost exactly the same thing I felt. Yet Jenobi was able to say straight out you where like family to him."

Blade still had the sad look in his face; his thoughts had drifted from the conversation. He wasn't thinking about Zena anymore or even his old friend Jenobi. He wasn't even thinking about the hate he had harbored for Vega for such a long time. He was thinking about her wondering if she was thinking about this conversation, he was having with Vega.

"Unlike Jenobi I don't remember my family or if I ever had one. You had everything Vega; people liked you some even looked up to you. You had a family weather it was dysfunctional or not that didn't matter to me. I wanted to be part of that, you can call it jealousy or admiration it really doesn't matter."

Blade gulped back a lump in his throat he hadn't thought this would be so hard. He figured Vega would have attacked him by now and ended it. Yet, the man he had hated for years was listening hoping to learn something or maybe just to use it against Blade later on.

"All I wanted was to be excepted. To me you where my older brother and you shunned me like the rest of my family here at TSE. I wanted to destroy everything you had or at least make it my own. So now that I have told you this I should tell you why I asked you here?"

[Vega Van-Derveld]

Envy was a powerful emotion. On many an occasion Vega, too, had felt it. He had longed for things that were far beyond his reach, yet still he had chased them with all the fervour and vigour he could muster. From this, he had learned a valuable lesson or two. While aspiring to be another’s equal was fine and well, aspiring to be another was not. You had to make a name for yourself, not try and live through another’s.

Where all of this was going, Vega still wasn’t sure. It seemed, quite surprisingly, that Blade meant to make peace with him – but that made no sense. After all, if Blade had carried his grudge for his former Master beyond even death, then why now would he call a truce? It did not make sense. Then again, life rarely did.

“Please, do.”

[Blade Bacquin]

"Well Vega this is where is all started and I find it a fitting place for it all to end."

He let his vague answer linger in silence for a minute. As he gathered his thoughts to focus on the here and now instead of the past. A part of him wanted to pull his saber from his belt and attach the off guard Van-Derveld. The other part though knew better Vega would expect such a feat from Blade Ice.

"I never saw myself here doing this but here I am. In the past only, a select few knew Blades weaknesses and you are among them. I always thought I was invincible beyond that of a normal human. Love, hate, anger, rage and my loneliness where all things that fueled me and made me stronger. The emotions themselves had no real part of my life other then that.

Zena was the first to show me I had a weakness when it came to love. You where the second you triggered them all I loved you as a brother, I hated you for your arrogance, you angered me when you left me to realize I was alone in the universe, and that triggered my rage for revenge. The only other person just recently saw my weakness it was again in the form of love a love I fought off for a long time. Dalethria now knows I'm weak and that I love her. So here I am contemplating being alone realizing I'm insignificant in this universe. I just want it all to end and the only way for that to happen is for me to die. I called you here not to kill me but so I could apologize to you and ask you a favor?"

[Vega Van-Derveld]

For a brief moment, Vega had tensed, anticipating an attack, but none had come. He found himself surprised, to say the least, at what Blade had to say. That he had been called here to grant, perhaps, the last wish of a man bent on his own death was more than unexpected. “What favor would you have me do?”

[Blade Bacquin]

"There are two favor's the first is a favor of peace between me and you."

Blade pulled forth one of his daggers and stared at it meneceling. Again, a part of him told him to jab into Vega’s beating heart but the other side still held firm. He put the dagger in his left hand and began to cut his right hand from thumb to pinky just enough to draw blood. He then held the dagger out to Vega prompting him to take and do the same.

"My first favor is more of an offer an offer of being brothers. Brothers in the force that is, if you take the offer I will never again hunt you or have ill will towards you. In return, I get the one man I also wanted as a brother. It's up to you Vega, If you don't take it we will still go are separate ways me leaving you with my last favor that is even harder then this one."

[Vega Van-Derveld]

It was uncertain at first whether Vega would even accept the danger. He stared at it a long while, remembering when he last he had been made an offer like this. He had bound himself by blood to a woman named Eve Siren, who had fallen into the abyss that had consumed much of the Sith Empire. Whether she was alive or dead now, he did not know, but one thing was certain – even a tie in blood was not enough to sustain loyalty. Vega had slain his own kin without remorse, and would do so again if necessary.

In this respect, the gesture of becoming brothers with Blade seemed trivial, but on the other hand, it would have its merits. Together the pair could accomplish much more than they would as enemies. Perhaps old wounds could be mended over time, Vega thought, nodding to himself as he took the blade into hand. The tip cut his flesh, spilling a trickle of red across his palm. With a smirk at the irony of his words, he offered his hand to Blade and said: “Peace, brother.”

[Blade Bacquin]

"Peace!"

Blade reached out his hand and grabbed his brother's hand. There blood and force energy's began to mingle the energies that had fought each other for so long now. After the hands began to pull away, ease came over blade. The side of him bent on revenge and the death of Vega died. He knew it was only the first step but it was a good first step.

"My brother, the only person I ever wanted as brother this is just the first step. I know there is still a long road to travel to fix are rift but at least it has begun."

Blade had forgotten about his second favor for a few seconds but it had slowly leaked back into his cleared head. He didn't want to ask it for two reasons. One he wasn’t sure he could bear what it entailed and two he wasn't sure if Vega wanted to carry the weight of its heavy load.

"My second favor carries a heavy load with it one I don’t know if either of us are willing to carry."

[Vega Van-Derveld]

A challenge! A sense of irresponsible excitement set upon Vega. He had always been susceptible to the goading of others, pushing himself as far as possible to out do them, and thus could never resist a trial, of any kind.

“Are we not able to share the load?”

[Blade Bacquin]

"We will both have to carry separate pieces of the load."

Blade thought on his words for minute devising the best way to put things. The favor was a hard one to ask because he both wanted it and didn't at the same time. Yet he knew he need to shed his weakness from his skin.

"I need you to tell Dalethria you slayed me here today. That I didn't come here to make peace only war once again. I need her to believe I'm dead. Yet I do not want her to lash out at you for killing me."

[Vega Van-Derveld]

There was no need for Vega to think on his reply, it came instantly.

“Why would you have her think you dead?”

[Blade Bacquin]

"Because no good can come of what I have told her. She will always know the fake face I put on in front of her and know what is beneath it. She is a master in the force and what lies beneath can be used against me. I don't think she would use it but it could be used as an obediance curve. Use it make me aid her with undieing loyalty breaking my freedom, crushing who I am.

I do not want to be some slave or tool for someone to pull the strings on. I love her yes and i know it is a weakness one that needs to die but for that to happen I must sever my conection to her. When i told her I could feel a sense of saddness both in what had said to her and for the fact she still loves ogre wether he is dead or still in hiding. I hold no place in her heart wich would make me an easy target to be her tool. It is easier for me to be dead to here then for me to serve her knowing that at any moment I could <smallfont color={hovercolor}>-Censored-</smallfont> her off and she could make me her puppet."

[Vega Van-Derveld]

Love dies, Vega thought, quickly. At this moment in time, Blade might have been sure that he would forever been enraptured with Dalethria, but the feelings would pass. What’s more, if he was so certain that she would toy with him, it would be better for him to cut his ties with her honestly rather than risking angering her by lying. Brow furrowed, Vega shook his head. “I won’t lie to her.”

[Blade Bacquin]

"Since when did you become loyal and honorable Vega Van-Derveld? It's not a lie at any rate I'm already dead inside its only matter of time before the rest of me goes."

Blade looked on Vega with a bit of desperation. He couldn't see himself facing Dalethria again. He himself knew the real reason, he loved her but she didn't feel the same. It pained him too much to even envision her in his mind. He once again wanted something he couldn't have and it was slowly killing him.

[Vega Van-Derveld]

“Nonsense.” Vega shook his head, looking on the man whom he had just sworn as his brother with a mixture of pity and anger. “Take your leave of her, of us all, for a time… and come back when you are strong again. Even if it isn’t to Dalethrias side, don’t let your emotions consume you. It would be such a waste.”

[Blade Bacquin]

"Fine then don't tell her. Soon enough she will be hearing it from other's lips. Blade Ice is fading quick and in wake another will rise to destroy all that Blade has built for himself."

Blade turned away and began to walk away towards where his ship was. He didn't look back at Vega he just stopped at one point to speak his last words to his brother.

"Farewell my Brother. Have a feeling this is the last time we will ever see each other."