Title: Out of the Shadow of the Valley Author GoddessofBirth Series: Dross-verse Disclaimer: Nothing except the original parts

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The captain sat in the pilot's chair and stared out at the war ravaged landscape. The years had done little to heal it's wounds. His feet rested on the darkened console of the ship; she had not seen the sky in weeks. Behind him, the ship's corridors sat still, empty except for the echoing ghosts of the past, her family long having abandoned her and the captain to their fates.

The woman left first. He had desperately wanted her to stay, but when the time came, the words caught in his throat and she walked away without looking back. He watched her leave, and carefully bricked over the weakness she had created in his heart.

Next had been the son and daughter, driven to escape, stealing away in darkness and disappearing off world by morning's light.

The captain dropped his face into his hands. So many mistakes he had never learned how to repair.

The warrior had slipped away then, gone to rest at her husband's feet, the ship having become more of a tomb than her lover's grave.

Finally, all that remained were the doctor and the mechanic. The doctor worked feverishly, having lost half his heart the moment the daughter had gone, and the mechanic laboring just as hard to keep beating the other half she now held.

No matter how hard she travailed, the memories were too great and he slowly began to fade. Avenues exhausted, she made the final sacrifice to save him. The day they walked off the ship, no one acknowledged that she left half of her own heart behind the minute she hit dirt. They simply hoped their two halves would be enough to sustain the whole.

Alone and lost, the captain had brought the ship to rest here, at the place of her namesake, the cradle of his rebirth. Here he hoped to find the path, and if he couldn't, here he would stay. It was fitting, as he had never truly left.

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The woman stood on the scorched earth and stared at the ship, it's airlock open to expose it's darkness. She had searched for months after hearing tales of the ghost ship flying, before she had found it here, where she should have known to look first.

A rare expression of sorrow marred her flawless features. The ship had always been ragged, but in the way that a dear friend's unattractiveness only thinly covered the beauty inside. Now the heart was gone, leaving only the ugliness.

She had started this. She would end it. Someone must bend before all was lost forever. Resolutely, she stepped into the maw of the ship, even her light steps echoing across the emptiness. She didn't question how she knew where to find him, she just followed his path to the bridge.

When she entered the room, he didn't turn; he had no need. He knew it was her, had felt the jasmine and sandalwood settle into his bones as they always did when she entered his sphere.

She placed her hand on his shoulder, and after a long moment he lifted his hand and rested it on hers. As his hand tightened around hers, she finally spoke.

'It's time to bring them home.'

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Across the 'verse, on a ship resting in orbit, the girl bolted upright with eyes wide, causing the man to have a gun drawn and cocked before her hand on his arm gentled him. She lay back down, head on his chest, and smiled.

'Time to pack. Mother and Father are coming to gather the whelps.'