Disclaimer: I don't own the Bloodlines Series.
A/N: So, my newest story: After Re-Education. This is the long summary:
Adrian was never able to find Sydney and save her from re-education. This is set four years after and Sydney has been released from re-education. She is getting married to Ian, despite the fact that she doesn't actually love him. She is messed up after re-education and can't remember much about what happened before that and how she got sent there. Zoe is filled with guilt about what she did and her new, secret relationship. Adrian on the other hand, still loves Sydney, but his parents force him into a marriage with Nina. He doesn't love her, but her thinks that he will never find Sydney. Jill, knowing his pain, tries to help him but she has problems of her own. But does Sydney get married to Ian? Does Adrian get married to Nina? Will they meet again and regret their choices?
Sydney Sage sat at the dressing table as Zoe put bobby pins in her hair. She had no idea where Zoe had learned to do such elaborate hairstyles, but they were beautiful. As Zoe's hands left her head, she twisted side to side admiring her hair. Her dark blonde tendrils had been curled and somehow twisted up into a bun with strands hanging around her face, framing it. It seemed impossible to Sydney, but then gain she never really never had any interest in fashionable hairstyles. Physics were always more of her thing... and architecture.
No Sydney! A voice scolded her inside her head. You are not allowed to think of that. It's pointless and stupid. Only a unreachable dream, that brushed your fingertips but you never quite reached it. Or was that just your imagination? Were you never close to it all?
She shook the voice from her head. Alchemy was what she was born for. Not architecture and certainly not mechanics.
What did I tell you! The voice seemed to scream. Stop it! You are stupid to think about things like that. Forget them, they are pointless. How are they going to help you if you were ever faced with a, a, a vampire!
Sydney shuddered in her seat. That word. It sent shivers up her spine. Vampires. Surely they weren't all that bad...
See there you go again! You don't deserve to be an Alchemist. You should be sent to re-education again, but this time you should stay in there forever and ever! The voice shrieked, refusing to be ignored.
The voice is right, Sydney thought. I'm betraying my group by these thoughts. And I don't want to go back to re-education. She felt terror run through her as she imagined the uncomprehendable pain and darkness of the cleansing of your soul. The first time she had tried to resist in futile but never, never again. They had only tried to help her, and she had refused it. She saw that now.
Good girl, the voice praised gently.
"Sydney? Are you okay?" Zoe's worried voice broke Sydney from her thoughts. Her and Zoe were proper sisters now again afterwards. Zoe was disgusted at first but when she saw that her sister was indeed healed, she relented. Zoe was the successful one in the family now though. She had been sent on a mission shortly after they had reconciled though, with one of the dhampirs that had been on Sydney's last mission. The big one... in... Palm... Springs? The information came slow and heavy. It was tiring trying to remember it. Now she was confined to office work though. She didn't mind, it was a fair punishment. Maybe, just maybe, one day she'd be sent back to field work. It would be nice.
"Huh?" Sydney had slipped back into her thoughts before she could answer Zoe's question.
"I asked if you were alright?" Zoe repeated. Zoe was worried about her sister. Ever since she came out of re-education, Sydney wasn't her normal self. She had lost all her personality. She wasn't... Sydney. It was the first time Zoe felt regret about working against Sydney and bringing her to re-education. She understood what Sydney was going through now. She was filled with guilt at the memories of her current post. She worked with Neil, the dhampir from Palm Springs. And they... she was instantly filled with guilt. She should be sent to re-education herself for her sins.
"Oh... yeah." Sydney shot Zoe a small smile. "Thanks for my hair, it's really beautiful. Where did you learn to do it?"
"Umm... Mom taught me, ages ago when we were kids." It was a lie, but obviously Zoe couldn't admit that her passion was to become a hair stylist. That her decision to become an Alchemist had been out of pettiness for her father. She had only realised that on her seventeenth birthday when she realised all the things that she missed out on. She never had friends or a boyfriend. Never had fun family days or went to a proper party. Never talked to a person her own age about something considered normal. Never read a magazine.
"Really? Cool." Sydney took the lie.
That was another thing. Sydney. The first thing she had talked to Sydney about after she had been released from re-education, Sydney had admitted that the only reason that she had become an Alchemist was so that Zoe could have a somewhat normal life, like Carly, even though Sydney herself wanted to become an Architect. That was when she was somewhat normal, before she completely lost it. She had spotted Keith a few days afterwards and she had attempted to strangle him, screaming that he had raped Carly. Of course nobody had believed her. Keith had been pretty much the same as Sydney; emotionally unstable. Except he had been able to control it better.
Sydney had been sent back to re-education for the second time. When she came back this time she was practically lifeless. She gradually gotten better over time but she didn't resemble her sister. That's when she began to really regret the decision. So much that she wanted to cry every single time she thought about her stupid mistake. She had betrayed her sister, for what? The hope of praise? No, instead she was pushed away... again.
"Do you like the dress? I helped pick it." Sydney smiled into the mirror. She remembered picking it. She knew exactly what her sister would like. It wasn't unusual for nineteen year olds to want a beautiful dress, especially one like this. And Zoe deserved it more than most nineteen year olds.
"It's gorgeous." Zoe told her as she fiddled with the hem of the skirt.
"Not too short I hope."
"Nope." The hem reached the bottom of her knees, the shortest that she had dared to ask for. It was a lovely dress. It was tight at the top, illuminating Zoe's slim figure... perhaps maybe too slim. The skirt went out though. It was a pale purple with matching heels and flowers adorned in her hair. The flowers were artificial of course.
"I'm glad you like it." Sydney whispered, catching Zoe's eye in the mirror. "They bring out your eyes, you know." She turned from the mirror completely to face Zoe. "Do you know if Carly and Mom are coming in?" She looked eagerly towards the door.
"No, they said that they didn't want to bother you and that they'll see you afterwards, in the reception." Even Zoe knew that it was a lie. Her mother would never not show up for her daughter's wedding but she had been ashamed of what her father had done, angry was a better word. And she was worried that if she went too near Sydney that she might just murder Jared Sage.
"Oh..." Sydney was disappointed. She turned the chair around to face the mirror again. Zoe could clearly see the tears welling up in both of their eyes. She blinked hers way just as Sydney let hers fall.
"Syd..." Zoe sighed, she wrapped a arm around her sister's shoulder.
"Why don't they love me anymore?" Sydney voice quivered. She was still emotionally unstable, more so depression than anger now.
"They do, they do, they do," Zoe attempted to comfort her. "I can go get them if you want."
"No," Sydney shook her head and took a deep breath. "They don't want to come, we have to respect that." She took the tissue Zoe offered and dabbed at her eyes. "Lucky that we didn't put on my make-up yet, right?" She joked. "I would have mascara all over my dress, then what would we do?" She gave a weak little laugh.
"Yeah..." Zoe sighed. "Let's get started on that make-up.
As Zoe applied various sticks of make-up all over Sydney's face. Why was she getting married to Ian of all people? She didn't love him or care about him. It was all one-sided really. Then the voice reminded her. To make your father proud that you were getting married to a respectable man and not a, a, a vampire. She shuddered nervously again.
"Sydney stop squirming or you'll get lip gloss all over your face!"Zoe sighed exasperatedly.
"Sorry..." She mumbled.
"Finished." Sydney could hear the smile in Zoe's voice. "You look gorgeous."
"Thanks." Sydney peaked at herself in the mirror. She looked very different... she could only ever remember looking like this once before... before re-education... in Palm Springs... she was dressed in... a red Greek dress... with...
Ugh! She screamed mentally. Why can't I remember! Why is it so hard to remember! She felt like screaming and crying and thrashing the room in frustration but that would do no good except ruin her big day and probably get herself sent to re-education for a third time... and she really did not like that horrendous voice, the voice in her head was bad enough.
"Need a hand getting up?" Zoe asked. "Dad will be here in, about twenty minutes." Zoe said the words like their father was any other person, she held no praise or awe for him now. Now, she thought of him as a despicable man who deserved to die and rot in hell for what he had made her do to her sister, to her family, to her life. She felt foolish for ever thinking he was God's gift to the world.
"Yes please." Sydney said as she took Zoe's outstretched hand. Her dress was simple, she hadn't wanted anything else. Despite what everybody say, she didn't want to get married to Ian. He was more like a friend than a soon to be husband to her. At least it was better than getting married to someone she hated, like for example... Keith.
As she stood up, her dress was revealed in full. She had put it on first, ignoring Zoe's tormented sighs about how in should go on last to prevent anything from happening to it. She had refused to listen though, or it Zoe's case 'see sense'. The dress was the only thing that she liked about this occasion. The only thing she had looked forward to. Also, ignoring Zoe had been a small act of defiance and that made Sydney feel more like what she imagined her old self to felt like. Free.
The dress was pretty though. It clung to Sydney's body - but not it a bad way. Sydney was also very thin, so thin that she may as well have an eating disorder. She had never been able to stomach much food or gain extra pounds after she left from re-education. It had lace sleeves but that was the only decoration on the dress. She had picked ivory, because the white washed her skin colour out too much... well, the ivory did too but the make-up helped with that. The only ornament she wore was a simple gold cross. It was one that Ian had bought her awhile ago. She had had a prettier one, but they had discarded it in re-education when they discovered that it had some meaning to her past... she couldn't exactly place what that meaning was but she knew that it had meant a lot to her.
It didn't mean anything... The voice whispered in her head. Nothing at all, your just imagining things again.
Sydney didn't have the will to answer back. She wanted to believe it meant something. She didn't want to believe the voice. She hated the voice.
That's not nice Sydney, the voice chastised. Well it's true, she argued back.
It was safe to say that she, Sydney Sage, was crazy and she really just wanted to die...
"Are you excited?" Zoe asked Sydney the question when she realised the look on Sydney's face. The one that made Zoe want to kneel down and confess all the things she'd done wrong and then throw herself of a cliff. She was in the same position that Sydney had been it before she had been sent to re-education except with a... dhampir. When she looked at Sydney, she felt sick. If anyone ever found out, that's what she would be like. No will to live.
"No." Sydney said monotonously. She decided not to lie. It was only Zoe, her sister would understand... she only ever tried to help Sydney, maybe she could help now.
"Why not?" Zoe asked confused. She thought Sydney was happy with Ian. In love with him.
"I don't love Ian like that." Sydney let out a small, sad sigh. "I love someone else."
"Who do you love?" Zoe asked quietly. Sydney didn't have that many admirers did she?
"I don't know. I can't remember. All I know is that I love someone else, not Ian." Sydney sighed, her eyes misty. She was trying to remember but nothing was coming through. Why not?
You're not allowed to remember, the voice explained. So much for answers.
"Do you know who he is?" Sydney looked at Zoe, her eyes shining with hope.
"I-I," Of course Zoe knew who he was. But would she tell Sydney? "I do." She decided to say, she owed Sydney that much.
"Can you tell me who he is? Do you have a picture?" Sydney was excited now. She wanted to know so, so badly. And Zoe had the information.
"I - I can." Zoe gulped. If anyone found out what she was doing she would be killed, nevermind re-education.
"Really?"
"Yes, but only if you are sure that you don't want to get married to Ian."
"I'm sure." Sydney was sure. She felt the most sure that she had been in a long time.
"We have to go then," Zoe's heart was racing but her mouth was dry and her throat was dry. "Away from here. Back to my apartment until I get us flights to somewhere else."
"We're running away?" Sydney asked.
"No, we're reuniting you with old friends."
