Hey readers! I'm posting this in celebration of my completion of all my assessment for my course this trimester; I'm now free until classes start up for next tri!

Anywho! This is offically the shortest chapter of this story being only 948 words long. The reason this is; I want this confrontation to remain unadulterated by any other story plotlines. Lythia and Jade are finally facing who they are and what has happened - hence this confrontation being only singled out into one chapter.

I shan't post any chapter notes at the end of this chapter. There isn't any to post and it would spoil the emotion. Please enjoy!


Facing Reality

The sun was setting, causing a purple light to wash around the two as they stood, next to one of the great waterfalls. Silence sat uncomfortably between the two. Lythia closed her eyes, waiting for Jade to speak, but the silence extended until it was clear to Lythia that it wouldn't be broken anytime soon.

"Whatever you want to say Jade, say it now," Lythia commanded softly, keeping her eyes closed so that she wouldn't see the expression on her brother's face. "I shan't wait forever."


"Brother! I've been practicing my artes, the ones you helped me create!"

"Have you Lythia? Alright then, show me your power."

"O light of the heavens, guide my hand… Smite!"

"Good, Lythia, good. What about your other arte?"

"Of course Jade. O heavenly hearth, fall to earth… Holy Fire!"

"Perfect, little sister, keep practicing and you'll be able to master all your artes."

"Hehehe~ I love you Jade!"

It had truly been a long time since Lythia had cast her old artes, but in this moment, she was seriously considering sending a Smite at Jade to shock him out of the silence that seemed to plague him. Thankfully he spoke before she could make up her mind on the matter.

"Lythia Balfour is dead," he said, surprising Lythia. "No one can be her; because there was no way that she survived a cold night in snow wilds of the north."

With a sigh, Lythia pulled her sleeve up, revealing the scar on her arm, tracing the old lines.

"Must we go through this Jade?" she asked. "Must I repeat the words I've tried so hard to forget?"

"Yes."

Silence fell over them once again, as Lythia considered what she wanted to say in that moment.

"I said those exact words, you know," she murmured after a few moments. "'Lythia Balfour is dead.' I said them in Keterburg over two months ago. Nephry scolded me for it. Heh. 'Lythia Balfour is dead', 'Jade Balfour is dead.' I said that and yet Nephry never once told me off for saying you were dead. Perhaps Jade Balfour is dead."

Jade remained silent, annoying Lythia. She let out a sharp sigh. Opening her eyes, she stared at the great waterfall that they were near.

"Jade… if I died… would you replicate me as if it were nothing?" she asked, pitching her voice so that it was childlike and sounded like her nine year old self. She ignored the strangled intake of breath from her brother as she continued speaking.

"Of course I would Lythia, because it is nothing and you wouldn't be dead anymore."

That Lythia said without any changed tone, not bothering to try and imitate her brother.

"I thought that I meant more to you than that, Jade… Perhaps I was wrong… again…" she continued in her childish voice, before once again returning her voice to normal. "Lythia? What are you talking about? Hey! Where are you going?"

Lythia finally turned to face her brother, as she finished reciting the conversation with a cold tone.

"Away."

She almost swore she saw Jade flinch at the singular word as she bit it out. Lythia saw his face, the way it fought hard to remain expressionless, and she was overcome with doubt.

"Why couldn't you love me, Jade?" She asked in a voice that dripped with nearly twenty four years worth of resentment, pain and sorrow. "Why couldn't I ever impress you enough? Why was I never important enough for your attention? Why was Saphir always better than me?"

The questions tumbled out of Lythia's mouth as years of keeping her feelings locked up broke free. She ignored the tears that freely fell down her face as her questions became more desperate.

"Why couldn't you care enough about me? Why didn't you care that I ran away? Why didn't you bother trying to prove I was alive? Did Saphir convince you that I was unimportant? Did you tell Nephry that there was no hope that I'd come back? Why? Why didn't you?"

Lythia stopped, interrupted by her own sobs, she buried her face in her hands. She didn't notice when Jade approached her carefully, and she vaguely registered him drawing her into his embrace. Jade's hand pressed her head against his chest, the way he had done when they were children.

"Forgive me Lythia," he murmured. "I have no right to ask you that after everything I have said that has hurt you, as both Lythia and Lillian, but I beg for it anyway."

Lythia continued sobbing, weakly hitting her fists against her brother.

"I hate you," she sobbed. "I hate you so much. I hate you for saying that you'd replicate me if I died. I hate everything about you. I hate you so much. I hate how much you ignored me. I hate that you pushed me away. I hate you for doing all that. I hate that you looked at Lillian like she was poison. I hate that I understood why you did. I hate that I forgave you."

She had stopped hitting at her brother's chest, now just crying in his arms as she ended her diatribe in with a whisper.

"And I hate that I was such a coward."

The two of them stood there in silence, the sun long since set, the only sound coming from the pair being the occasional muffled sob from Lythia as she clung to her older brother almost desperately, as if she didn't quite believe that he was there. Though the man didn't know, if anyone had been watching the pair they would have seen tears slowly slide down his cheeks.


...

Please R&R

~Icetail of WindClan - Meta-If~