Title: Escape the Past

Author: Jenn

Rating: G

A/N: This takes place on seefra after we find out that Rhade had three daughters. It's before they find out about Beka and what Drago did to her.

1As Rhade left the bar Beka followed him. He walked to the edge of town then looked up into the sky. "Either join me or leave me alone," he called to her.

She decided to join him. "So you're what. . .just looking at the stars?"

Rhade was drunk enough to be talkative, and answered. "Persephone, my oldest daughter, used to beg to stay up late. She and I would go outside and look up at the stars. She knew all the constellations we could see from Terazed. Sometimes when I do this I can pretend, just for a moment, that she is beside me, and that if I looked down I'd see her."

"You said you had three children . . . "

"Persephone and the twins. Ares and Athena," Rhade answered, picturing them in his mind as he said their names.

"The God of War and Goddess of Wisdom if I remember right." During her month drifting on the Maru she'd read up on ancient Earth myths. "What about your wife?"

A slight smile twisted Rhade's lips as he pictured his wife. "Helen. And like the woman of legend she was beautiful. The most beautiful woman on Terazed."

That news didn't surprise Beka. "What happened to them?"

At the thought of their deaths Rhade felt a wave of sadness wash over him, but he answered her anyway. He knew about her mother, so it was only fair that he tell her about his family. "A bomb meant to kill me killed them. After their funeral I resigned from the Home Guard and left Terazed to join the High Guard. I couldn't stay on Terazed with all my memories."

"We all seem to be running from our pasts," she noted. Thinking mostly of herself, Rhade and Harper.

"Yes. Running from the past, but unable to escape it."

"Even on this Hell hole," Beka said in a wry tone.

"Even in this Hell hole, " Rhade agreed.

They spent the next several minutes silently watching the stars together before walking back into the town.