SWRC: Gaining Trust. (Book 1)

Chapter 37 Confessions.

The name 'Anika' used in this chapter is pronounced 'Ah-knee-ka'. It only just occurred to me that people may be getting that wrong, so that's the pronunciation.
A way to remember it for Star Wars fans could be 'Ah' from 'Ahsoka', 'Knee' for your knee, and 'Ka' from the phrase; 'I think we've extablished that 'Ka Ka' and 'Tooki Tooki', don't work'.
Tell me what you think.

"Anika?" asked Zach as he hesitantly peered into Neeran's room in their home.

He heard Neeran exhale deeply before saying, "What do you want?"
"To apologise."

"I'm not sure you can," replied Neeran, standing up and facing him. "You practically destroyed all the trust I had left in you with both this incident and the one with Ezra on Jex all those years ago that you never told me about until long afterwards."

"I'm sorry about that incident with Ezra on Jex and about earlier, it just came out," explained Zach. "Ezra wanted to go rescue you from the Imperials and I wanted to try and convince him not to but he ran away with everyone else."

"Ezra on Jex," said Neeran. "You knew about him for years. You knew about him and you didn't tell me so that I could save him from those tortures he had to endure. It almost makes me wonder who is more of a monster between the two of us."

"I know I should have told you but something was stopping me from telling you," said Zach. "I don't know what but it felt-"

"Shakkuri."

Zach stopped trying to explain to Neeran his reason. She hadn't called him that in over 1,500 years.

"You remember, don't you?" said Neeran, a trace of remembrance from times gone by in her voice. "It was the name you adopted back then. I became Neeran from Anika and you became Shakkuri from Zach. And then you re-adopted your birth name after the Battle of Ruusan. Do you remember why?"

"Yes," replied Zach, handing his head slightly. "Yes I do. Because of that Battle at Ruusan, when that Battalion died. There names were to be lost forever, just as our original ones had been in the course of history."

"That's right," replied Neeran nodding. "And that's why I'm going to tell them."

"Anika," asked Zach. "Are you sure you should tell them? You remember what happened last time we did that, don't you?"

"Yes," replied Neeran, pushing past him and leaving the room. "They all need to know now.

"Neeran, are you okay?" asked Mira, once Neeran had arrived at the common room.

"I've been better," replied Neeran truthfully, glancing over her shoulder at Zach. "Having your trust betrayed quite frequently does tend to leave a mark."

The eleven kids and six adults in the room had noticed the exchange between Neeran and Zach.

"Neeran? What's wrong?" asked Ezra walking over to her.
Neeran looked down at Ezra and a memory from when she'd first met him crossed her mind.

<Read Chapter 3 to see where this exert comes from...>
...Walking over to the boy Neeran asked, "You know, you never told me your name kid, so what is it?"
The boy gave her a stunned look.
"N-No one's ever asked me that before," replied the boy, sheepishly running his fingers across the ribbon on the blankets and looking at the floor.
"Well, let me be the first," replied Neeran, taking a seat beside the bed, grabbing a tool sitting on the bench and working on the manacle locks.
The boy was silent as Neeran worked the locks. After removing the manacles on his wrists, the boy said quietly, "My name is Ezra."
Neeran stopped working on the locks for a moment as she listened to the boy named Ezra. After a moment's hesitation, Neeran went back to the locks. The locks finally clicked and Neeran picked up the manacles, stood up and put them in a nearby cupboard.
"What's your name?" asked Ezra from the bed.
Neeran halted for a moment, Ezra's voice causing Neeran to feel as though he should know her real name.
Walking back, Neeran sat down beside the bed, looked at Ezra and said,
"I've been called and known by many names, but no one's asked me my true name in a long time either. My real name is Neeran, Ezra."
Ezra seemed a bit taken aback by Neeran's reply, probably because he'd expected a different answer.
"What do I call you then?" asked Ezra.
"Just Neeran," replied Neeran. "Unless told otherwise."
<End of the exert...>

"I should tell you my real past," sighed Neeran. "You did ask me back when we first met and I didn't tell you the whole truth."

Everyone gathered around Neeran as she sat down on the couch with Zach on the back rest, to listen to her potentially long story.

"My story begins when I was 13 years old on the planet Earth, nearly 26,000 years ago..."