REY

Ya know,I don't really know how I imagined him. I used to picture him as this strong...sturdy,really muscular bulky guy. Big brother was nothing like that when I saw him in person. Without a doubt he was handsome. I didn't doubt that. Half the girls of the North drooled over him, so I always assumed he was quite the looker. I knew he would look like me,what with us being twins and all but I never...Never knew he'd look this much like me.

It was almost as if I was staring into a reflection. I knew why mom confused us. It pained me to lie to her. It hurt...ate away at my soul. But I didn't know how to tell her that I was alive. Seeing the shocked look on my brother's eye's was all I needed to confirm my suspicions as well. He couldn't believe it. I'm sure he had a lot of questions. Surely enough,he did.

Nova led me to his room,which was spacious enough. He told me to keep my hood on, to avoid anyone speaking or seeing my face. When I stepped inside,we both sat on his bed.

He stared at me, not once taking his eye's away from my own. He wasn't excited...his expression almost seemed...dead. But again...I already knew he was.

"Is it really you...Rey?"

"Yeah. You know I never pictured you to look exactly like m-"

Nova pulled me into a tight hug,so tight I struggled to breathe for a few moments before I finally settled in his arms.

"Hey man,calm down. We can bro out later yeah?"

He didn't let go.

"Nova,strugglin to breathe here buddy."

I had to forcefully push him away.

"I...I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..."

"It's alright Nova,don't sweat it."

Silence ensued. I reached into my travel satchel and pulled out a piece of meat which was wrapped in a cloth. "Want some? It's liver."

"I...can't eat liver. I only consume the larynx and trachea."

So he has a different diet huh? Shit...was hoping we'd eat the same thing...

I shrugged and took a bite,the delectable taste filling my mouth. I licked my lips clean of the blood,licking my lips as well afterward.

"Where'd you get that?"

"The liver? Bandits on the road. You'd be suprised how stupid people are,trying to attack a Revenant."

"They can't tell us apart from humans..."

"I know,but you'd think they'd notice somethings up when you're tossing their friends around like they aren't shit."

I kept finding things about Nova that made me curious about him. I'd always heard that twins shared almost everything in common,but Nova shared nothing in common with me. His hair was longer than my own, and it gently fell over a part of his eye's hindering them to an extent. He wore black where I wore white, and he rarely ever smiled. I assumed a sibling would embrace another when they saw them, laugh and say something like "I can't believe you're alive!" Or...something...anything except stay silent.

The old lady at the orphanage...she said Nova was anti-social...does he have trouble socialising?maybe that's why he's having trouble talking to me? Or smiling?

"Hey, you know you can be comfortable around me big bro, crack a smile or two?"

"I...I can't smile."

"You can't smile?"

"I don't remember how. The only person who makes me smile is-"

Nova stopped, closing his mouth for a few moments.

"She isn't here right now. I actually need to get back to her soon."

"Shit am I keeping you? I'll go and we can catch up some other time?"

"No...no she can wait."

"So it's a she eh?" I asked Nova,smirking as I raised my eyebrow. "This girl special?"

"No,she's just a recruit."

His voice was so monotonous, so dead...as if he never had a single emotion in him. His face was blank, his eye's were low...he was nothing like me...

"She ain't anyone special?"

"She's definitley specia- I mean! She isn't! She's just...just a friend."

So he does have emotions...he's blushing...he's flustered...he just doesn't show it...

"So?" I asked.

"So what?"

"Tell me about yourself! I've been looking forward to this for the past twelve years! I've been searching for you for the past twelve years and I finally find you and this is what I get. A dark,brooding, cold-hearted,handsome, stranger. Thought you'd be more like me."

"Happy?"

"Well...yeah! There's so much in life that you need to be happy for."

Nova's eye's fell downward,looking away.

"What happened to you?" He asked.

"What do you mean?"

"When you died. You have to die to be a Revenant...but something has to happen to make you want to fight to stay in this world. A strong emotion or purpose. What happened to you?"

I gave Nova the biggest smile I could as I crossed my legs on the bed. "Might wanna get comfortable big brother cos I'm about to tell you an amazing story filled with adventure! Action! Love! Romance! And!-"

"Get to the beginning of the story then."

I giggled awkwardly.

He's a real hard-ass isn't he? This guy really my elder brother?

Regardless of whether he was the real deal or some phony, I took a breath and began telling him my story.

"As you know,Mom miscarried me when I died. I guess dad threw me away, because the woman I knew as my own mother found me when I was writhing in dirt,crying. When she found me, I was human looking,but she'd found me about five weeks after dad threw me in a ditch."

"How do you know dad did it?"

"I'm gettin there big brother,sheesh,calm down."

"Sorry."

"Anyway,so this woman finds me, but she finds me after five weeks of me practically being dead. My right arm and left leg had already decomposed and were half rotted away,filled with maggots and worms. The woman helped me, carrying me to her home,where she cleaned me up, and raised me as her own. She got me these prosthetics when I was  maybe five years old. She had the prosthetics specially designed to grow as I did,which was great,but she paid up the ass for it.  I grew up with her daughter Kayla. She was a sweet girl, and since we knew each other as siblings, that was all we ever felt toward one another. But I felt off. I felt out of place. You see the woman who took me in, her name was Xenovia. Every time I looked at her,she seemed so different than I did. She had flowing brown hair, and mine was black. She looked nothing like me,which made me wonder why I looked nothing like her. All the friends I had at school looked at least somewhat like their parents-"

"You went to school?"

"Yeah? You didn't?"

"No I went to school..."

"As I was sayi-"

"You said you had friends at school."

"I...I mean sure yeah you could say I had friends."

"How many?"

"Everyone? Why are you asking me Nova?"

Nova said nothing and just shook his head.

"Oookay, as I was saying, so I realised all my friends looked at least somewhat similar to the parents right,same hair or the same eye's. Something was there. They had something in common with their parents. I didn't have anything. I may have only been like six,but I wasn't stupid. Suprisingley enough, Xenovia took me aside one day and told she'd found me in the street one day, and that I'd been cast aside. I already had a feeling that she wasn't my real parent,but once it was confirmed,I had so many questions. She never knew my real parents, or what they looked like. Her husband was kind too,but he was rarely around. On the days when he was,he was always playful with me and Kayla. I spent almost all my time at home with my adopted sister, playing cards,board games,but I always felt like I was missing something. The curiosity of not knowing my parents was far too much for me. I had to know. So I asked Xenovia's husband, Gwayne, to help me. He was a mage, a special type of mage known as a dream strider. He showed me how to dream through sheer willpower. I needed a motive,something powerful that I could imagine, but something real at the same time. I never knew what my parents looked like,but if I was determined enough and the motive to find them was powerful enough,my mind could create a perfect replica of what they really looked like. I found Mom and dad,but when I dreamed,I saw them fighting, often. I'd always see them at odds,screaming at one another,time and time again. When I awoke,he said the dream would give me a sense of direction. Despite the chaos within it,I was drawn to the Imperial city,which was a whole country away from where I was. When I had first arrived here,I found our house,but I didn't know how to approach. I was nervous. The large manor stood in front of me like a large boulder blocking my path to being happy. I was just about to knock on the door when I heard a crash. I made my way around the west side of the house, and stood on my tip toes to see the origin of the sound. That was when I first saw you. Back then,you looked nothing like me...you were small, and your cheeks were swollen and chubby. Nothing like you appear now. But the first time I saw you...I saw you hanging. Your neck was twisted so horribly...I dropped to my knee's and heard mom enter the room,screaming your name. That was the first time I heard my brothers name. The day he died. I wanted to hold mother so badly. To tell her I loved her. But I knew well what I was. I knew I wasn't human. I knew she thought I was dead and showing myself to her at that moment when she was so vulnerable...it wouldn't be right. So I made my way back home,broken and sad. I never spoke to anyone for a few days before Kayla cheered me up. I was confused. I didn't know what suicide was back then, or why you would do such a thing to yourself. I still don't. But about a year later,rumours about an extremely young Commander began circulating around my town. I shrugged it off at first,but as soon as I heard your name,I knew in an instant that it had to be you. So once again I asked Gwayne to help me get to the city, yet when we got there, and I asked around for you, you were already moving to the next battlefield.

I spent the next few years trying to find you, tracking you through each of your battlefields,but you'd move far too quickly for me to keep up. I'd sometimes be forced to stay in some continents for lack of gold to take me back. And so the cycle would continue. I would either lose my opportunity because you'd leave before I could find you, or you'd stay behind when I would believe you'd left so I would leave,thinking you moved somewhere else."

I'd told him all there was to know about me, now I wanted to know about him.

"So tell me about yourself...tell me why you did it."

"You're fucking lucky you know that?"

Nova's fists were clenched,the white of his knuckles showing despite his pale skin.

"I would kill to have had grown up like that...you want to know about our parents? Fine,I'll tell you. Our dads a child rapist,abuser, molester,beat our mom till she couldn't see, beat me until I couldn't stand. Called me weak,useless, I had no friends at school, people called me ugly, weird, freak, threw my gifts away,laughed at me,beat me up in the bathrooms,threw me into trash cans and forced me to stay in until they gathered a crowd to watch me climb out. You want to know why I offed myself? There you have it. Unlike you,I never had some guardian angel pick me up off the ground. I had to live with our shit show of a father,bust my ass for our sick,cancerous mother, and barely scrape by until I finally did something good. I became a Commander,trained people to kill,fell in love with a general, then she died as well...I feel like I've lost everything."

I hated the look in my brothers eye's. That pain...Xenovia had raised me to treat everyone with kindness. I'd never been bullied before. Never hated myself...

I hated that we were so different...I expected us to have at least something in common...but we were polar opposites,not even having the same diet...

I wanted to give Nova a hug...but I didn't know how to approach him. I didn't expect this...

"Mom...she has cancer?"

"Yeah...she's getting worse every day but she's a fighter..."

"So she's dying then..."

His eye's fell away from my own.

"Hey...I may not have been there before...but I'm here now? I want to help. I've always wanted to help damnit...let me."

Nova was silent,scratching his head for a few moments before he spoke. "You wanna meet Eskarina?"

"Who?"

"Someone special..."

"Your girlfriend?"

Nova's face went red. "What?! No! Fuck no!"

"You're flustered." I said with a smirk.

"Shut up! Do you wanna meet her or not?"

"It's okay if she is. I have someone special too."

"You do?"

"Yeah, so if she's your someone special,that's great man."

"She's not."

"Really? Well lemme meet her then. Take me to her."

Nova led me out of his room,through the interweaving hallways of the barracks.

You might not openly admit it brother...but I have a feeling you have a soft spot for this...Eskarina girl.

Heh. Big brother had a crush.