Midnite Tempest - Awakening

You know what I think of whenever I see you? I think of the first time we met. I've never seen anyone so possessed of themself, so sure of who they are, as you were that day. You were beautiful.

Another distant, familiar voice drifted into her prison.

I always thought that you were the one who really lived. The way you seemed to embrace life, even after what happened in Australia - it seemed like you could do anything, because if nothing else, you knew exactly who you were.

Raene wondered if she was finally snapping, and in something like desparation to finally get the inevitable over with, she responded, knowing it was more like talking to herself than anything else. 'For some of us, embracing life is about running away from the past, I guess.'

I suppose that - even after you told me about Rheinallt - I somehow thought that you thought you were more, but I can see now that maybe...just maybe you thought that it was your guilt that defined you. When you told me that you owed it to him to live, you thought it was because you'd somehow cheated death at the price of...well, his life.

'You need a psychiatric degree to arrive at that conclusion?'

Sabrina told me that he saved you. When your life is defined so much by the kind of survivor's guilt that yours was, I'd imagine that it shook you to the core.

'Shut up.'

The thing is, Raene, is that now that obligation to live, it's not over. It's doubled, tripled even. You have no right to give up just because it wasn't your fault that you lived. Rheinallt gave you a gift. He wanted you to survive. He wanted you to be whole, and he knew what it was like to be whole when he was with you, so that could only be accomplished by giving you a piece of himself.

'Shut the hell--' Something tugged at her. Pulled hard like a sudden jolt.

And now, I need you...more than ever. I need you, because you're family.

Bright, blinding light dispelled the darkness, and Raene recoiled reflexively at the warmth, but the tugging sensation continued, and she was ripped away from the self-imposed prison by the one thing - the one person - who knew the powers that created it.

I need my sister.