I have received mixed reviews for Star/Rylynn's name! Some of my reviewers like the new reveal, while others prefer the tried and true name. Let's give it some time to sink in, and see where that takes us.

Onwards and upwards!

Daryl stared at his companion, who was nervously watching his face for any signs of a reaction.

Star. Star Rose.

But of course her name was Star.

"Star," he repeated back to her, gazing fondly at her. She blushed and let out a sigh of relief, then nodded.

"Yep. That's me."

He tried picturing her with her hippie family, blonde hair being braided by a mother in long, flowing skirts. He tried to see her family home, probably filled with potted plants and recycled pieces of art. But the more he tried, the more he realized that he had little to no idea of what a normal family looked like, let alone a bohemian version.

"What are you thinking about?" she prodded, lazily tracing a finger in circles around his shoulder.

"Tryin' to picture you before all this," he replied honestly. She let out a short laugh.

"Why?"

He shrugged as best as he could propped up on his elbows. "Dunno."

She sat up, cross-legged, to better trace the bit of his tattoo peeking out from under his shirt. She had been afraid that revealing her name would have brought sorrow and loss flooding back into her life, but instead it seemed to carry a sense of relief. She was glad that someone knew about the past version of her, and bringing that version into the present had been much less challenging than she had anticipated.

"What do you want to know?" she asked him. He had begun to nod off, her light fingertips pulling him into a relaxed trance, but the rare invitation to explore her past was more tempting. He chewed over where to start, and decided on her recent revelation.

"Why'd yer parents name ya Star?"

She moved closer to him, running her hands along the back of his neck, abandoning her attempt to trace the image. "Instinct, I suppose. My dad, Adam, was incredible at reading people, and my mother, Jade, had a similar talent with what she called 'energy'. They sort of combined those abilities when naming us. Always the progressive couple, they kept from naming us until we were each, like, four or five months old. But it seemed to work."

A glowing smile appeared on her face as she delved into each of the family members. "Skye, my brother, was the oldest. Most people named Skye are after a Scottish isle, but Skye was named for the sky. He was an open person, and very emotional. He was so in tune to everything and everyone around him and he reacted to the smallest changes. My mother referenced to his sudden anger as 'sudden thunderheads' and his sadness as 'spring showers'."

The anger metaphor reminded Daryl very much of Merle, but he never had imagined Merle as anything close to being empathetic to the point of tears.

"What about Echo?" he asked, trying to refocus on her family.

"Echo was just like her name, too. She never lost energy- she bounced instead of walked, seemed to be as light as air. Everything she carried with her was based on where she came from- Jade. She and my mother were two kindred spirits like I have never seen again. They finished each other's sentences; they could have entire conversations with just a single look."

"And you?" he asked, wanting to get to the objective of his quest. She blushed, feeling awkward talking about herself.

"Adam said that they had a hard time naming me. Jade, Skye, and he tried for months. He said that it wasn't that my energy was hard to pin down, or that they didn't know who I was as a person, but that they couldn't find anything earthy to compare it to. They tried Sage, because I was calm and assertive, but that didn't seem right. Muse seemed too 'transparent', whatever that means. Rain was unpredictable…the list went on and on. I guess Skye was getting frustrated by my parents' attention being focused on me, because, according to Jade, one day he snapped and said, "If there's no Earth name for her, then she's probably an alien."

She laughed, shaking her head. "Doesn't it figure? My name came from Skye's young attempt at an insult. What he said stuck with Adam, and finally he and Jade realized that they felt I was many elements of Earth that were found in all things. And the only thing that has that quality is…star dust."

Daryl felt like he could imagine them all better now. Skye was the volatile, emotional storm, keeping everyone on their toes and aware of the world. Echo was the flitting around, bringing breath to the room. Adam was the introverted, observant, thoughtful rock. Jade was the bright-eyed, adventurous spirit with a dose of child-like wonder. And Star was the energy that illuminated them all, her power and confidence creating a foundation on which the others led their lives.

"What about you?" she asked, withdrawing her hand from his skin and almost earning a word of protest from him. "What was your family like?"

"Not like that," was his immediate response. "Nothin' even close."

He was clearly trying to end the conversation, but she squinted at him.

"Daryl, tell me. Please? Start with your brother."

"Merle. He is…was…my older brother. Only sibling I got…had."

"What's Merle like?"

"An asshole," was Daryl's immediate response, and Star snorted.

"Please do tell."

"He was… racist. Dumbass who always shot off his mouth. Couldn't keep outta trouble, always startin' shit. . Hated pretty much everyone, 'cept me."

"Why do you say that?"

"'Cuz it's just how it was. He ran into th' family- one I got now- an' started shit with T-Dog. Rick ended up havin' to cuff 'im to a roof to get 'im under control. We tried to go back for 'im, but the sonofabitch sawed off his own hand to get away."

"Seriously? Holy crap!"

"Yeah. We wrote him off as dead, 'till he turned up in Woodbury with this psycho dude, called himself the Governor. He fixed Merle up and gave 'im a blade for a hand, whole deal. Their group and ours had run-ins, turned into a war. Merle came over to us when the Governor tried to kill Merle and me, but before that Merle had beat the shit outta Glenn."

"Oh God…how did that work out?"

"Not well. I mean, I got it, both sides, ya know? But Merle wanted t' prove himself, went to kill th' Governor. Plan went south, ended up getting' killed by the bastard and I had to put him down."

He looked up to her for reassurance. Her eyes were filled with anger and sadness, but she was reaching for his hand all the same. He sat up across from her, and while he didn't reach out for her, he allowed her to place her hand over his and wrap her fingers around his palm.

"Please tell me the bastard is dead," she whispered. He nodded in response. She squeezed his hand.

"He did the right thing, in the end," she reminded him. He nodded again.

"Merle was the only family I ever had," he confessed. "Our parents…we wasn't even sure we had the same dad. But after we lost Merle in Atlanta, I was travelling' with this group, Rick's group, and I saw what it was like. Folks helpin' each other out, protectin' each other, even when it was more dangerous than just getting' out alone. Rick…he trusted me with his kids, with food and huntin' for the group, even with who got to join. We all got separated after the prison was taken, and when I found Rick and Michonne and Carl again, I'd joined a group o' bad men. They weren't brothers…they were just animals in a pack. We got away, and Rick called me his brother."

Star smiled. "What happened to lead to that? You must've done something amazing to earn outright recognition like that."

"Wasn't nothin' like that. It was my fault they was there in the first place. I watched 'em kill a man just for not followin' their rules. I let it happen because it wasn't me that was gettin' killed. The next day, they tried…they tried to do things to Carl…"

Star lifted a hand to her mouth to silence her gasp. She knew that people had lost a lot of their social morals, but she hadn't expected them to lose their humanity so easily. It was more than she could comprehend, that someone would do something so vile for sport to a child.

"Please tell me they are dead, too. Or else I swear to you, I will find them and make them suffer," she almost growled. He looked up at her in shock.

"They're dead," he promised. The fire died in her eyes, but only slightly. "I told them to kill me instead. They didn't. Seemed to be even more fun t' them when they knew I knew 'em. Rick got ahold of one of 'em, went right through his eyes…Michonne took another out. I got the shit beat outta me."

His haunted eye never left hers. "I owe Rick. I couldn't stop those guys, and he still calls me brother."

Star lifted a hand to caress his face. "Daryl, listen to me. Those men are not your responsibility. There was nothing different anyone could do, no matter how much love exists between them. You are Rick's brother for all the good you have done, not the evil you couldn't prevent."

She relaxed her body, letting her hand fall away from his face, only to have her body crushed against his. She realized that he had grabbed her and pulled her to him, her face landing on his shoulder. She uncrossed her legs to sit back against him, her back securely fitted against his chest.

"It's ok, Angel," she soothed. "You did everything right. It's ok."

"The world'd gonna go to shit again, and this time we got more to protect," he confided. "I dunno if we can."

"You can, Angel. But you're not alone, you know. You'll have more to protect, but you'll have more who can protect as well," she reminded him. "I'm not some damn damsel in distress, need I remind you."

Wrapped around her, his nose nestled in her hair, he recognized that she was right. If her parents had been right about her name, than nothing about her needed protecting. Stars twinkled and looked tiny from afar, but up close, they were burning orbs of energy unrivaled in their ferocity and intensity. A star had no protective barriers or shells because it needed none.

Just like the ones in the night sky, he thought, this one brought him a guiding light in otherwise utter darkness.

Thank you all for your continued support and feedback! I know we have been a bit short on the action, and I promise that it will pick up in the next chapter. Home renovations are leaving me little time to write, and I want to be able to devote the proper mental resources to the action-packed final episode that we were left with!