Christa Reborn - The Saga's Final Goodbye

[Gildarts]

“I see you still have mommy's necklace," Katia observed, and then looked left, across the room, at a far off figure in the corner who was communicating with a man in an almost ‘invisible’ uniform. No sour expression creased her brow, but a deep sorrow weighed on her eyes. Now they looked the same as her sister's, but Katia was wise enough, and strong enough, to be open with the pain.

"Of course, you know I never found out what this trinket actually did," Christa played with the obscure shape on the end of the gold chain, which usually hung inside her shirt for protection, and to escape the curiosity of straying eyes.

"Something's changed about you." Katia said, bluntly, but without discernment.

“A lot has changed about me,” Christa paused before quickly offering, "Well of course, my aim has gotten better."

Katia blinked, looked at Christa's pistol that was held by an unobtrusive strap around her waist. "That doesn't surprise me, Chrissie, then again, you've always been lucky when it comes to that sort of thing."

Christa smiled, even sometimes she had to admit there was something beyond skill that guided her bullet to it's target, and "luck" was the only ever word she could find to define it. Before the leader could think any further, Katia’s face grew grim.

“How long.”

The dreaded question.

“How long has it been?”

That dreaded question.

She had expected to have had more time before having to explain all that had happened, but kids always found themselves asking curious questions. Meanwhile her sister’s tone was careful and innocent, but that didn’t take away from the sting the words left.

Christa paused a moment, pulled her presence and awareness from every corner of the room and her full attention fell on the beady eyes of her sister. The woman crouched down and placed her hand on Kat’s head.

“Long enough.”

...




Christa's eyes fell on the last ending she had to close.

"Abner, will you walk me to the gate?" Christa asked. Come to think of it, she wondered if it was the first thing she had asked of him. Certainly, or rather hopefully, it wouldn’t be the last.

A bit of time passed and the two had walked in silence, while Christa's young sister puttered along, trailing as much as she could get away with without Christa's light motivation to "stick close."

As if the young girl needed any incentive after what she had witnessed a moment ago.

Still, an eye remained at the corner of Christa's vision, until she tested the waters,"Costa Del Sol has the best chocolate ice cream," Christa had said quite blatantly, a little louder than her following words, which were soft and cautious, this time directed at her companion. Abner quickly picked up on 'chocolate ice cream' being the safe word for her sister, and noticed the infinite sparks of care in Christa's blue, ever-concerned eyes.

She wouldn't shut it out any longer. There was no reason not to say to Abner what she had not during their first meeting and the months thereafter. As if by prompt, he began.

"I remember the first time I saw you, I can personally say that you undeniably swept me off my feet." Abner seemed as though his words held something, but the two both shared a reminiscent smile as they reflected on their close-call in the temple. A second later, and she would have never known him. Nor would she have ever learned to care.

"You never left me behind." She added, her fearless confidence once displayed in front of the group was still there, but in this moment it resided within her and not on display with everything on the line, or risk the possibility of losing the group at all. It was less as the focal point of the conversation they were sharing, almost as though she were letting him lead the moment. While even she wondered why.

"A lot of time has passed since the beginning. I never told you why I didn't like you when I first met you," she pushed a smile, and it crippled her strength so the pain she was concealing tweaked at the edges of her expression. She reflected for a derisive moment, "I was ... A bit cruel. There is no excuse for that. But I want you to know..." her eyes fell away from his while her voice hesitated for the first time.

"My parents... They were killed by storm troopers when I was very young, back home, back to my home, the Empire, they ripped us from our home and forced us to watch." There was resolution in her voice now, and in the same way her pain had changed the air, it was now blown away by a wordlessness that her avowal had revealed about the truth, and about her own weakness.

Abner's eyes seemed to accept it, she saw no outward flinch. And, needing no words, they both let the past go.

"Hm," he noted, almost to himself, "Your hair has gotten longer." A gentle smile emerged from his expression – an outward triumph of their battle, and victory – all while hidden in the opaque shadow of his at-ease charisma. His hand reached to grasp the soft tips of her hair, which now rolled far below her shoulders.

His warm gaze was now upon her. She felt her throat suddenly clench with a bittersweet hold. Yet, a heat she was mostly unfamiliar with crested the edges of her ears and rushed to her cheeks. She wondered if he could read her, now that she had flushed with a new and very different wave of overwhelmed emotion.

The room changed. Subtle footsteps in the distance became echoes, lost in the wind. Any smears crossing the white room soon faded into the background, losing their color. Christa was held hostage by his eyes. Her thoughts had tumbled into a jumble until it all went silent. The only sound she heard, was the careful tenderness in his eyes.

Everything else, it all fell away.