Chapter Text
Robin found out too late. She could feel it in her bones. When she saw an empty room and an opened window with Bloodhounds gasping behind her in shock, it was all the confirmation she needed.
Even after finding Sunday's journal, she still had not given up despite her limited access from the Hounds in her quest to know of Sunday's fate. She wasn't deaf to any rumors she had picked up from other Family members, after falling with her brother to survive together after refusing to kill him and yet never seeing him again while hearing no official news about Sunday's fate. He might be injured since Penacony's sweet dreams no longer guarantee people to wake up alright after relinquishing Order's grasp but she knew her brother was made of stronger stuff. She had to believe it so, because she did not want their last meeting to truly be the last.
Back to the rumours, it was said that he was captured by the Bloodhounds while investigators from the Family and even the IPC alike combed through the rest of the Family to interrogate members about remaming Order remnants that had tried to usurp the Harmony which was a heinous act of betrayal especially surprising for the Dreammaster who had unified the five Families and from the Oak family that was the 'unofficial' leader under the Dreammaster's wing even when the Harmony is unified equally under THEIR light.
Thinking it like that, Robin could only find hypocrisy especially with how some Family members chose to speak ill against the 'villains' and even thinking about how their own Family like the Alfafas could start 'leading' the Family instead of the Oaks. Robin was honestly not amused, but she had bigger fish to fry.
Even as a sister, she had been denied any knowledge about Sunday's whereabouts, let alone a visit to where she just wanted a chance to talk to her brother, to ask him to open up to his little sister for once, to get an explanation and talk it out and maybe even apologize to what they had been both blind to. Robin knew that her brother had the kindest intentions, idealistic despite his pessimism even after the Trailblazer recounted what Sunday had said and done to the Nameless when Robin was MIA. He was pursuing the paradise in their dreams, with only one option as misguided as it was and with the final results before them.
Robin still wonders why. Robin was still unsure what had happened all these years for Sunday to take a path that could never cross her own, when he should have known the implications. When he should have known that all the promises and deals they made, wishing under stars and growing up together as the only real family members to each other among the Family...
Even now, Robin was sure that Sunday was as much her big brother as she was his little sister. She was sure he had never forgotten their promises and dreams as much as she had. She had seen it for herself when her brother incapacitated her and Welt within his own consciousness, allowing glimpses of his true self lied bare just like that.
She and Welt had been separated in the prison of his mindscape, with Robin understanding the tuning process enough to understand what had happened. It was unfortunate her brother was somehow better at the tuning process, more knowledgable to close any loopholes and thus escape until her own brother freed her. But because he trapped her in his own mindscape, it meant that he was opening up to her, to explain while he was planning some grand scheme about the Order when her brother might have known that she would be hurt by what felt like betrayal.
Sunday could not hide anything from Robin within the mindscape, with their childhood most prevalent when finding a hint of an escape. The emotions easily felt, so strong and deeply rooted that she understood Sunday never had his ideals swayed, always cherished the dreams that they sowed so young. It was just that his ideals had been taken towards a different direction, with many events that birth a pessimism always prevalent in her brother that formed his cautious nature into growing to something closer to paranoia. The Charmony Dove, his time as the Bronze Melodia and...
Robin never knew that her brother even knew she was shot while on tour. She never said, because she didn't want to worry her brother who always shouldered so many responsibilities and supported her that she didn't want to burden him now that she was going out to fulfill as many dreams as possible. Now, she had thought about what if she had been more forthright, and maybe instead of leaving each other in their own silence, they could have continued working together just like in their childhood.
They could have been more forthright with each other, with the truth, with the entangled agenda in today's Penacony that hadn't really been wrapped up neatly yet and they could have found some way together to continue the same path instead of going their opposite ways.
Destiny was just cruel like that, like how it was cruel now when Robin stepped into the empty room before any of the Hounds could stop her and lamented that it might be a long time yet that she could once again meet her brother. It was in the same way with how she felt in Dreamflux Reef and her intuition was one that would not be triffled with.
"Hey, stop standing around here! He mustn't have gotten very far," a Hound barked orders towards the rest, including Robin who had disguised herself as a new Hound recruit that was now trusted enough to at least be let in about the top traitor's whereabouts.
She had been disguising herself while going for reconaissance both in reality and outside of a dream away from the prying Hounds' eyes who claimed that they were protecting Robin when in fact they were restraining her away from finding out the truth of her brother's fate. Whether it be because the IPC was still at large and could use what the Family was calling the 'Sunday Incident' to their advantage or because the Family was still hiding things with more traitors within and simply cutting Sunday off, the Hounds held Sunday's whereabouts close to their chests. Even then, Robin had suspected that while she had heard the Family had been capturing traitors, Sunday might still have escaped somewhere in the dream and simply trying to achieve their dream... ideal thoughts they may be.
It was only now that Robin had been able to uncover where Sunday had been when she observed the Hounds' through various disguises and gotten brownie points as a secret Hound to butter the rest up for any inkling about Sunday's whereabouts and finally be allowed to help on Sunday's interrogation, at least finally confirming that he is indeed alive and somewhat alright if he could be interrogated. And now, just when she was ready, to know where Sunday was and meet him again later, this had to happen.
Robin was thankful to be in disguise, allowing her around this latest crime scene for any hint of her brother's whereabouts. It was easy to infer that he made an escape from the opened windows but even if Sunday could fly through the window, the Hounds must have known about that kind of escape route and guarded it in a way that would dismiss such an idea in the first place. The Hounds could not have been that careless to let a high profile traitor escape that easily and yet here is the evidence, or lack thereof that showcases a clean exit.
Maybe someone helped Sunday escape, but who and why? Robin naturally went close to the window while the rest of the Hounds fanned out for any hint of where Sunday could have gone to. Her eyes roamed around the place, until she spotted ash around the window. Looking further, it didn't seem like anything really burned so where would something like this even come from?
She looked out from the window briefly, seeing a galaxy outside the hotel but nothing of note to pinpoint Sunday's escape route or possible accomplice. On the windowsill, she had seen more of ash but was surprised by what it spelled out:
'Dreamflux Reef'
She rubbed her eyes again, but the words remained the same. Looking at the other Hounds, she secretly wiped away those words as she leaned in towards the window, wondering whether she can reach out for her brother, who might be in a dream or far away from her homeland. Her halo vibrated above her head but did not sense any other, especially one most familar among her surroundings.
Before anyone else could suspect her of anything, she had turned away from the window and continued investigating, even when she was given a good clue she did not want the other Hounds to be privy of.
It was not in her brother's handwriting, but the ashes and it was written in a hurry but it was something. It was likely that someone helped her brother escape, for their own agenda and maybe not necesarrily in good hands. Once again, Sunday's fate was left unknown even when she was this close to meeting him again.
Yet the accomplice left a clue that anyone could find and might be unintelligable for anyone who does not know about Dreamflux Reef, but it was good fortune that Robin found it and she was not one to waste it. She had also noticed that although she found something from the accomplice, there were no traces of her own brother.
Briefly, she remembered the time they free-falled, even after the silence and the comfort of a hug before they reached to the ground, to plummet instead of fly. She remembered when Sunday asked to finish him, when they were supposed to fly together. And Robin refused, leaving them to crash as Robin woke up to find her brother no more. It was something she would take her grave, telling no one and not even to the Trailblazer she found herself trusting to help find clues of her brother.
She wondered whether her own brother thought she might be better off without him. Robin clenched her fists, trying not to outwardly show the emotions she was now feeling lest she get caught by the Hounds. Digging up new resolve, she knows that she cannot change her past but for the future...
'I will find you brother, and this time, for all my regrets... you will hear from me and we will talk. And then, no matter what happens to the both of us, you will truly know that I am still your little sister. I will never be better off without you,' Robin silently promised to herself.
She could only wish that a certain someone was here, if only to answer, 'It's a deal.'