"War is never pretty, and even as children we knew that something awful was going on."
Preemptively the Verraad Clan attacked the Woest clan under Daxton's orders. He had convinced his people that joining the Dramid Alliance was a path to oppression and ruin.
"Our father was gone for an entire two months without us seeing him again after that. And when he came back, I'll never forget the despair in his eyes." Kaiden said, his hands clenched together so tightly that his knuckles had turned white.
It was obvious that recounting the fall of his clan was difficult.
Kasandra likewise was paler than normal. She was having to lay bare all of her past trauma.
"Okay, I think that I've got enough of an understanding. You don't have to relive the entire war."
Avery just wanted to know who the people after the two of them were, and what their motives were.
As for the reason that Fahad had been sent after them, Kasandra and Kaiden's best guess was to preemptively put a stop to them returning and rallying the remains of their clan behind them.
The entire Woest clan had not been wiped out. Most of their people had been subjugated by the Verraad Clan and Omstander Clan, which joined Daxton in the later parts of the war after having remained neutral for years.
The fall of the Woest clan had occurred around ten years ago from the current date, and that was when Kasandra and Kaiden had taken an emergency escape vessel that their father had prepared for them and left the planet.
"We had other half-siblings as well since our father had multiple wives, but we were the youngest, and most of our brothers and sisters joined the fight when they came of age. We don't know if any of them survived. There's a good chance that we're the last of Woest Clan's chief's lineage." Kasandra said, wiping a few tears from her eyes.
Taking all of this in, Avery could not even fathom how hard their pasts had been. He at least now knew why they had both been so cold when they first met. Honestly, it was a miracle that Kasandra was able to open up to anyone at all.
Avery had seen her smile, joke around, and act jovially with him and Jasmine. He knew that her love for him was genuine. That was obvious by how protective she was of him and how eagerly she sought him out.
However, he also realized now why she had called him her ideal man.
Being a mercenary was not just a job for Kasandra and Kaiden. It was their attempt to take back their home.
Most likely, they wanted to raise enough loyal forces to go back and crush Daxton.
Avery remembered that they tried recruiting him once he started to gain some notoriety. Likely they had felt they had gotten strong enough to start building their forces at that point.
Yet when Kasandra lost her ship, she decided to join Avery instead. Perhaps she recognized that she and her brother lacked the charisma to bring people to their side on their own.
When he confronted Kasandra with this hypothesis, she meekly nodded her head in acknowledgement.
"But that doesn't mean that my feelings for you were ever fake. I really was moved when you risked your life to save me. And every day I fall for you more. At this point I'd rather be with you than anything else."
Kasandra's words were filled with passion, and the tears she had been trying to stifle had started to flow freely. Just imagining Avery casting her aside because he was disgusted by her calculating move was enough to make her heart hurt.
Easily Avery recognized the turmoil her emotions were in and what she was thinking. No matter what, people were always going to have doubts.
Avery had said time and time again that he would never abandon either Jasmien or Kasandra and shown his resolve through his actions.
Yet, there was still a bit of fear in Kasandra's heart that he might become disillusioned with her because she was too much trouble.
"Enough of that. This doesn't change anything. I resolved to accept you and whatever your past may be a long time ago." Avery said, getting up from his seat and pulling Kasandra over to him.
Kaiden scowled as he watched Avery comforting his sister in an intimate way, but he did not say anything. He had already come to terms with their relationship even if he did not like watching it.
Once Kasandra had calmed back down and had taken a seat next to Avery this time, Kaiden said his piece.
"Whatever my sister feels, I'm not going to stop until I've killed that bastard Daxton and liberated the Woest Clan. Even if that means I have to break off from this team and go it alone."
This was the response that Avery had been expecting.
While Kasandra may have found some new solace and was happy enough with the relationships she had built and would rather preserve them over retaking her home, the same was not the same for Kaiden.
His only goal was to grow strong enough to crush the Verraad and Omstander Clans.
'This must be the reason why he chose a heavily armed corvette as his new ship.' Avery thought, recognizing Kaiden's motives now.
He needed to become a leader that people would follow if he wanted any chance of taking back his home.
That meant breaking out of his comfort zone and forcing himself to be the captain of a ship that needed at least a few additional crew members.
No doubt he was thinking about breaking away from Avery's team if he showed resistance to getting involved.
'There's just one thing that I don't understand though. Why was Fahad trying to take them both alive. If his boss just wants to avoid them coming back to lead the Woest Clan, killing them makes more senses. I guess forcing Kasandra into a marriage like he said might have some benefit, but there's no reason to keep Kaiden around.'
In the past, Avery might have missed these conflicting details, but his bionic augmentations had enhanced his memory and ability to analyze information.
He felt that there must have been something else motivating the search for Kasandra and Kaiden.
They were the youngest children of their father, and after all this time, they probably did not present that much of a threat to Daxton. Truthfully, the Dramid Alliance getting closer should have been a far more pressing issue.
Unfortunately, neither Kasandra nor Kaiden knew of any other reason that Fahad and his squad would have been sent after them.
"I suppose we'll just have to wait until we can question the man himself. We'll get the answers that we need then." Avery said assuredly.
The implications of Avery's words were not lost on Kasandra and Kaiden.
"Are you sure? You don't have to get involved in this. I'll deal with it myself and you can just keep my sister safe."
"That's not going to fly, I'm afraid. Those guys attacked my team and are after my fiancée and her brother. I consider that more than enough reason to crush them."