(B) You Could've Told Me

[Alex Lynd]

It had been a day since he had seen his brother Marched into the Temple looking as a tame as broken dewback. He had no idea what to feel, what to think, or even how to act. His best course was to keep his distance and he did just that. He was leaving for a mission in a couple of days anyway and the less time he had to spend around Adrian the better. He had however heard whispers of Luka's role in the whole situation and that the older Jedi was in essence being punished for being so reckless, not that it was public information so to speak, but Luka leading Adrian into the temple coupled with him immediately being assigned to Naboo for training did not take a stretch of the imagination to figure out just exactly what had happened.

It was for this reason that Alex made his way into the hangar early in the day. He stood at the entrance for a long moment and watched his older half brother packing his belongings into the cargo hold of a ship. There was an air of frustration about the half Sephi healer that Alex had not felt before, his body language was different, there was a spattering of anger in his aura, clearly controlled, but it was there. Everything about Luka felt different and he had not yet noticed it until this moment, but once he did he realized simply that had been there for the bulk of the last three years.

The seventeen year old Padawan, his spikey black hair and sky blue eyes approached his brother and friend and stood there for a long moment staring at him. He watched Luka turn to look at him as the older Padawan noticed his presence, Alex nodded at him and the two stared at each other for a long moment.

"So that's it then?"

Luka tilted his head to the side slightly and scratched his chin. The young man was in no mood for his younger brother's indirect question. He should be grateful, in fact so should Master Li. The risk that he had taken on, the amount of himself that he had given up to save another was nothing short of heroic and he knew it.

"Alex, I don't have time for you if you're not going to say what you're thinking. I have to get to Naboo, I have been assigned there for some reason."

Alex crossed his arms and nodded patiently to the elder Jedi. A half smirk formed on his face.

"I've known you almost my whole life Luka. You were here the day I came to the Citadel, you were the first new person I met. I have looked up to you as an older brother and a friend since that day, but as I look at you now, I see you your body language and feel your aura, I have no idea who I am talking to."

Luka rolled his eyes and carelessly through his medical bag up the ramp and into the transport. He exhaled loudly and looked at his younger brother intently, he wanted to shove him, he wanted to grab him by the braid and throw him to the ground. He didn't understand and clearly no one did.

"So you're upset that I saved my brother's life? Is that it? Just like Master Li, you have the audacity to come in here and tell me I am being nothing but true to myself as a Jedi and as a man by risking everything to save someone else? You simply do not understand Alex and neither does Master Li. If she did, I'd not be going to Naboo, and you simply would not be standing there judging me. I have sacrificed a portion of myself and lost something I will never get back to save him and I am being treated like a child because of it. When I simply did what others could not, what you could not. Would you prefer him dead? If so then you are no better than your father. You're so human....all of you."

Alex took a calming breath in before he took steps towards Luka, Alex let his arms fall by his sides and for a moment took off his Jedi Persona.

"Adrian is my brother too and you could have damn well told me what you were doing. Don't forget Luka, we have the same father. We are both born out of the same immature, reckless, and delinquent behavior. I thought we both had risen above that, but here you are whining about being held accountable for your choices. I'm not arguing that you did well, I am not arguing the risk you undertook or whether it was worth it, it was. I am however wondering just how much of yourself you lost in the process if you can't even trust me with it. You're different Luka, you showed your Lynd half more than you know and despite how much you might hate being told that, it is exactly what saved Adrian, so maybe your human half isn't so bad after all. But you lied to me, you lied to your Master, and you lied to Master Li. In the process you took the risk you knew you were taking, but I imagine you took ones that you didn't know you were taking. You let your HUMAN arrogance blind you Luka and dare I say, you danced closer with darkness than I'd ever care to."

Luka crossed his arms and stared at Alex for a long time, he wanted to react, he wanted to say or do something and more than once he bit his tongue before he said something he'd regret. He knew Alex was right in some sense, but he'd never seen him this upset before either. How much of his soul did he sell? He wasn't sure he'd ever have the answer. He thought of the day with Adrian's girlfriend and he scrunched his eyes, that was a memory he'd just assume forget, but it did prove Alex's point.

"Look. You and Master Li had your chance and you both failed. Miserably. I did what no one else could do and I alone have to live with the things that I did to achieve it. No one died, no one but me even got hurt. So I am simply not going to argue with you or anyone else, I know what I did, I knew the risks and yes, I knew the consequences of those risks. I weighed them carefully and I made decisions, I had success and failures and yes...I absolutely danced with the dark side more intimately than I care to admit and you can glean from that what you will. However, at the end of the day I was right and I did the work of a Jedi. I will not apologize for it, nor do I need your approval. I simply did not tell you because you had no right to know. You would have told Svo'k and it could have ruined everything. Absolutely everything. I had to do what I had to do and I did it in secrecy for a reason Alex. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to be late."

Luka turned his back on Alex and marched up the ramp without so much as a farewell.

Alex backed away and crossed his arms once more, had one brother been saved and the other lost? He had a lot to meditate on. Sooner or later he'd need to confront Adrian, but today was most certainly not the day for it.