The terror was real. It had been for a long time. Whenever Charley Shepard closed her eyes, visions of what happened on Mindoir would plague her. Most nights, she didn't even sleep. After everything that had happened with her merc group, with Zaeed's death and non-death, and finding out that the twin she thought was dead for nearly ten years was, in fact, alive and well and the commander of an Alliance ship, sleeping was impossible.
Running her hands over her face, Charley let the exhaustion take her. Thane Krios was dead. His sickness had finally caught up to him and the blood he'd lost during his encounter with that Cerberus bastard, Kai Leng, had been too much for his body to handle. She was grateful that she'd managed to see him one last time, even if their breakup hadn't been the most amicable. He had been the first person she'd ever loved beyond her family. His death hurt her more than she'd expected.
Tears wet her cheeks, the warmth surprising her. She hadn't cried since Mindoir. That horrible day when she'd thought she had been the only surviving member of her family. Yet here she was, crying at the death of someone she shouldn't even care for anymore.
Charley didn't even hear the hiss of the door as it slid open. Her mind was elsewhere, on days long past, on memories that haunted her, on pain that consumed her. The soft steps of another approached and it was a few moments before a voice came.
"Are you going to be alright?"
Wiping the tears from her face, Charley glanced up. Her ochre eyes recognized the wavy red hair, pale skin, and freckles of her sister, the Commander of the very spaceship she sat within. Rys was leaning against the wall opposite her, her arms crossed over her chest, her Alliance uniform pressed perfectly. That was Rys, all right, Charley thought to herself as she looked into eyes the same color as hers. Perfection from head to toe while Charley looked like hell itself.
"I'll get over it." Charley said, her voice rough from the overwhelming emotion she felt but refused to acknowledge. "I always do."
"Hey, I'm with you, ok?" Rys said, dropping her arms to her sides and approaching the bed where her sister sat. "Always."
The sentiment nearly choked her. It had been too long since someone had cared that much for her. "I know, Rys, I-"
When Charley didn't finish her sentence, Rys sat beside her before taking her hand. With a smile, one that was comforting, her sister nodded, an understanding only twins could have passing between their gazes. "You don't have to be strong around me, Lottie."
Charley tried to fight it, but she lost the battle. A smile, small but still apparent, appeared on her face amidst the tears.
"Have I entered an alternate universe or did you really just crack a smile for me?" Rys teased, bumping her shoulder into Charley's.
The latter rolled her eyes, but the smile didn't leave her. "Take a picture. It'll last longer."
"I'll get another out of you one day. That's a promise."
Charley let out the breath she hadn't even noticed she'd been holding. She laid her head against Rys' shoulder and took comfort that no matter what happened in this fucked up universe, she had her sister by her side.