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a-artist-a · 2 days ago

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There is nothing quite like digging through things you've already written and discovering that all your favourites are just. about siblings. like this is because i've chosen to lean into it but oh my GOD. anyway revisiting Caibos and finally touching on Vyme for more than an intro post! because you know what's better than reuniting with your long-lost brother when one doesn't recognise the other because he was too young when they separated and the other doesn't recognise the one because he looks too old to be his baby brother. it's fine. i'm so normal about them.

At first Caibos thought the cave was empty.

“There,” Zenith said sharply. Caibos looked where he was looking as a shape stepped out of the shadows. He barely kept himself from grimacing. He should have noticed the Sith there.

“I take it you feared this was a trap,” said the Sith. He carefully removed his mask and hood, revealing a Sith with minimal ridges and a few fleshy tendrils hanging from his chin. The Sith smoothed a hand over his neatly gelled hair and surveyed Caibos and his friends critically.

“I mean Caibos no harm,” the Sith said gently. His eyes lingered on Caibos for a second with a flicker of confusion, but he kept searching.

“You expect me to believe that?” Caibos said.

The Sith looked back at Caibos with a cold frown.

“My news is for him,” he said sharply. “So where is he?”

“Right here,” Nadia snapped, putting a supportive hand on Caibos’ shoulder. He almost smiled, but the motion was lost in the confusion swirling inside him. Why wouldn’t the Sith believe him? He was clearly a Jedi, and everyone knew by now the Barsen’thor had Sith blood.

“I am the Barsen’thor,” Caibos said, gently nudging Nadia back with a look. They needed to project confidence and age here. “Whatever you have for me, they’ll hear anyway.”

“Don’t you dare pull this game on me,” the Sith snapped. It was as if a switch had flipped. The gentle, soft look in his eyes as he’d tried to persuade them changed in a second to blazing fury. Lightning played at the Sith’s fingertips, and he raised his hand. “Where is he?”

Caibos pulled his lightsabre, holding it defensively in front of his people.

“Right here,” he said again.

“Caibos is seventeen,” the Sith hissed. The lightning blasted from his hand, and Caibos barely managed to direct it to the ground between them. When the light dissipated, they both stood panting, glaring at each other.

“Eighteen, actually,” Caibos said. Maybe some of the electricity had gotten through, because he felt strangely giddy as he added, “Vyme.”

He had guessed right. Vyme stagged back, clutching his hands to his chest.

“No,” he said, looking from face to face as if for confirmation.

“You know him?” Felix said in an undertone. Zenith kept his blaster raised, aimed between Vyme’s eyes, but Caibos could tell Zenith was hanging on his response.

“Not really,” Caibos admitted softly. It wasn’t soft enough; Vyme flinched again.

“What happened?” he demanded. If Caibos had to guess, he was scrabbling for anger to cover his hurt. Callie was the same way.

“Nothing,” Caibos said.

“Are you kidding? You’ve got –“ Vyme took a step closer, then stopped as Zenith jerked his blaster demonstratively.

“Zenith,” Caibos murmured. Zenith’s jaw tightened.

“Maybe you know who he is, but that doesn’t mean we ought to trust him,” he said.

“Maybe if we finally get to hear why we’re here?” Felix suggested. His voice was casual, but he was no less tense than Zenith.

Caibos swallowed, pulling himself together. Confidence. Surety. They needed him to be the Barsen’thor. He didn’t dare glance back at Nadia; he didn’t know how she’d feel about his Sith brother. He didn’t know how he felt about it.

“Why did you ask to see me?” Caibos said. He knew what Callie would want. She’d want to hear that Vyme had come back for them. Caibos knew better than to believe it.

“Caloma,” Vyme said. “She’s in trouble.”

Caibos knew it was true. He’d known it since his birthday. That didn’t stop the bottom from dropping out of his stomach.

“Where is she?” he asked. “How do you know?”

“Because I saw her,” Vyme said. “On the Emperor’s ship.”

“The Sith Emperor?” Nadia repeated incredulously.

“He’s done something to her head,” Vyme said. “She was herself, but twisted. Obedient to him.”

“Where is his ship?” Caibos said.

Vyme opened his mouth, then hesitated.

“What will you do if I tell you what I know?”

“Why? Are you more worried about your precious Emperor than Caloma?” Caibos snapped. Felix gave him a sideways glance, and Nadia tried to reach for his hand, but he shook her off. They didn’t know Vyme. “Why did you really come here? After all this time, you’ve discovered you care after all? And of course, it’s not for me.”

He covered his mouth. He hadn’t meant to say that.

“What are you talking about?”

“You know what I’m talking about,” Caibos said, words spilling out of him faster than he could plan. He’d thought he’d lost his Imperial accent a long time ago, but now it came out in fits and starts, egged on by a voice he thought was no longer familiar. “You stayed behind and you left us. You chose the certainty of your awful little world over your brother –“

“Is that what Caloma told you?”

Vyme sounded strange. Empty, maybe. Perhaps Caibos had sucked up all the rage in the room and left him with nothing to respond with.

“No,” Caibos said. “She’s always making excuses for you. I learned to stop asking.”

“They almost caught us, Caibos,” Vyme said. “So I drew them away. I let them catch me alone.”

“No,” Caibos said. “No, I remember –“

“You were five,” Vyme said. “Do you remember begging me not to go? I do. Do you remember that it was in a cave, not the slave camp? That mother was nowhere near, and it was just you, me, and Caloma?”

“Sith lie,” Caibos said. It was a weak response and they both knew it. Vyme’s face softened fondly, and he stepped forward until he could reach for Caibos’ face. Zenith kept his blaster trained on Vyme, but he didn’t fire.

“I thought we would match when they punished me,” Vyme said, gently tapping his thumb to Caibos’ scar. “All three of us. And you’d be with me. I got this instead.”

He turned his head, letting Caibos get a good look at the network of thin, almost surgical scars across one side of his face. Caibos couldn’t think of anything to say. Vyme smiled and stepped back.

“Thirteen years and you’ve hated me all this time?”

“Jedi don’t hate,” Caibos said automatically.

“Ah,” Vyme said. “Then it must be the Sith blood in you.”

Caibos rolled his shoulders back, trying to summon the presence that always convinced people he was older.

“What happened to Caloma?” he asked firmly. Vyme sighed and nodded.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I only saw what I told you, and briefly. She was being watched by the Emperor’s Wrath himself.”

“Where is she, then? Where is the ship?”

Vyme frowned at him sternly, and he looked so much like Caloma that Caibos’ heart clenched.

“I’ll tell you what I know, but you cannot go off on your own,” he said. Caibos began to protest, and Vyme held up his hands. “Do as you please to the Emperor. But not alone. Will you take it to the Jedi? Promise me you won’t be a fool?”

“Master,” Nadia said. “He’s probably right.”

“If we can trust him,” Zenith said. “Which I highly doubt.”

“If this were a trap,” Vyme said. “I had ample time to spring it. You think a Sith Lord would bother sending you to the Emperor when killing the Barsen’thor myself could gain a lot of favour? I want Caloma safe. I want Caibos safe, too, though I’m smart enough to know when someone is working against me in that.”

The look he gave Caibos told him that Caibos was the ‘someone’ in question. Considering how coolly Vyme had just discussed killing him, Caibos felt justified in ignoring him.

“I still don’t like it,” Zenith said.

“And yet, you haven’t shot me,” Vyme said cheerfully. He lifted his arms. “Go on. Fire.”

“No,” Caibos said immediately, though even Zenith didn’t move. “I mean – you could come to Tython. Tell the Council what you know. You don’t have to stay with the Empire anymore. You can leave now.”

Come with me, he wasn’t brave enough to say.

Vyme laughed softly under his breath.

“You are… more than I ever hoped you would become,” he said. “And I’m afraid I am not as brave as I was. I value my skin a little too much to betray the Emperor openly. Not when I have other Sith already coming for me. And –“

He sucked in a sharp breath, pressing his hand to his heart.

“It seems overtaxing ourselves is a family trait,” Vyme said. “I’m not long for this world, Caibos. Better to do what I can do where I still have some power.”

“Ironic,” Caibos said. He meant to say why, to twist the verbal knife so Vyme would know just how much his words stung, but his voice failed him. Vyme just smiled bitterly.

“Oh, little brother, I know,” he said. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, the voices in my head are mocking me for caring about a Jedi, so I’d like to go back to my ship and dunk myself in cold water until I’m numb.”

“Caibos?” Felix said quietly. “Orders?”

“Let him go,” Caibos said. Vyme sealed his mask back on and pulled up his hood, but Caibos could still picture that wry, sad smile in his mind. It was the clearest image he’d had of Vyme since he left the Empire. “We have to help Caloma.”

“I don’t like it,” Zenith said, though he followed Caibos as he said it. “Just because he’s your brother –“

“Hey, Zenith? Let it go,” Felix said. “You ok, kid?”

“I’m fine,” Caibos said. Nadia had been hanging back, ever since he brushed her off. He reached his hand out, twitching his fingers in a gentle invitation. She smiled back at him and took his hand. He knew they were all watching him closely, waiting for a reaction or an explanation, but it felt a little less terrifying now.

“You heard the story,” he said quietly. “Which I assume is why you’re all looking at me like that. I can tell it when we’re on the ship, so Qyzen and Tharan can hear. I’d… rather not let the Senators know.”

“To be fair, they do already know you’ve got Sith family,” Felix said. When Caibos didn’t laugh, he coughed.

“Sorry,” he said.

“No, it’s fine. It should be funny.”

“Nothing’s funny when you get hit with something like that,” Felix said. “Thirteen years, huh?”

“I would prefer not to discuss it,” Caibos said rigidly. He pretended not to see the looks Felix and Nadia exchanged.

On the ship, ignoring the curiosity of the Rift Alliance, Caibos gathered his crew into the engine room. The thrum of it usually put him ill at-ease, but today nothing could unsettle him more than Vyme had.

“I… It’s no secret,” Caibos said uneasily. “That I am… of Sith heritage. My mother was a human slave. My father wanted nothing to do with us, and hoped we would not prove Force sensitive so he could continue to ignore us. I don’t – remember him. Caloma does. She was my brother’s best friend.”

None of his friends spoke, though Tharan and Qyzen were visibly confused.

“I did not realise my brother was the one who contacted me,” Caibos said. “I went expecting any other Sith. I thought – To tell the truth, I have thought very little about him. I haven’t seen him since I was five. I suppose the only reason I’ve seen him now is that he still cares for Caloma’s well-being.”

“If what he said is true,” Zenith said.

“She’s missing,” Caibos said. He took pity on Qyzen and Tharan and hastily explained what Vyme had told them about Caloma.

“Surely if she was to cross paths with the Emperor himself, the Jedi would know about it?” Tharan said.

“I intend to ask,” Caibos said. “I – I am sorry I’ve kept this from you. I thought it would never matter.”

“It still doesn’t,” Nadia said. “You don’t know him. We all know where you’re from. All we have to worry about is how we’ll help your sister.”

Caibos smiled weakly.

“Thank you,” he said. “All of you.”

#swtor #interesting

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