38. reunion - velcinta :)))
The planet of Erjj loomed large in the Star Runner's viewport.
Eight years ago, Vel Sartha woke up to the news that she was the last surviving member of the Aldhani garrison heist. When she had accepted this mission — the retrieval of stolen artefacts from Imperials heading out of the Beski system — she had made a promise. This heist would be a success. Everyone would get out alive.
The crew, Rinko, Miri, Zekeeii, had had to drag Shocker, a kid barely past the age of 15, away from the controls. They had what they needed, but it had come with a cost. The Sun Runner, a barely held-together freighter under Imperial control, had taken too much damage. Its engines and the majority of its controls fried, and with an explosion imminent, there were only two options. The first, abandon the ship and let the freighter crash into the planet. Or, the second, steer it into the great beyond and wait it out.
Now, a white-knuckle grip on the freighter's stabilizer, Vel eased the frigate up and away from the planet, arm shaking with the effort of keeping the lever steady even as the ship's lights flashed red and its alarms blared.
Sweat pooled at her forehead. Vel pressed her face against her knuckles and closed her eyes, counted down from ten, and pushed out a shaky breath.
When she next opened them, Cinta was there.
Cinta has never left her, not really. Her dreams were full of a thousand lights in the sky, two gleaming silver moons, and the weight of a warm hand in her own.
When Cinta comes to Vel now, she is sitting in the co-pilot seat, wearing the white and brown poncho she wore on Aldhani. The one that, after a particularly miserable night, she had pulled from herself to wrap around Vel instead. Her hair, however, was styled as it had been on Ferrix: long, wavy, and thick.
She is so beautiful that Vel can't speak. It's as if her heart has crawled up from her rib cage, desperate to intertwine with the one that it's been longing for.
Cinta's big brown eyes met hers. She smiled, sweet and tender, and shook her head.
Vel's breath rattled in her chest like a chit in a jukebox. She even sounded the same.
When air finally pushed past her lips, it came out as a deep, wet laugh. "Guilty."
Cinta touched her hand. It was solid and warm and impossible.
"You're a memory." Even as she said it, Vel felt that it wasn't entirely true. She had never strayed too close to anything related to the Force, not even at Bix's urging that it might be good for her to see a shaman, but this...
This felt different. It was like kicking off your boots at the threshold and stepping inside. It was like coming home.
Cinta rubbed a thumb over her knuckles. "I'm here."
Underneath their hands, the Sun Runner's lever continued to shake. The ship had grown warmer, its engines teetering on the edge of implosion. It didn't matter. Looking into Cinta's eyes, the entire galaxy could rip itself in two, and Vel would have been none the wiser.
After Ghorman, Vel had thought Cinta lost. Now, with Cinta here, achingly in reach, the realization is as stark as the blood that had poured from her wounds on Hoth.
