trans_9 | Big Reveal Part 2

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Big Reveal Part 2 - Grief.

The conversation between the bridge crew, Stacy, and the Admiral is broadcasted where the rest of the crew is in the MedBay, and gathered right outside. Even in the bridge itself, the sound echoes over the monitors so that anyone resistant to psionics can hear Elfangor's side of the conversation.

They have now been told why they were brought to the ship.

Their worlds are gone, destroyed by the Ohm. They are refugees in an unforgiving Omniverse.

Transmigration 9 is an ark.

While Stacy is partially restored, including her core personality (which is far more personable), she is still severely damaged, and running on automatic somewhat. Until the ship can be repaired, podpops will keep occuring and they will be forced to go on missions to undo the damage the Ohm have wrought to the Omniverse. The threat of the being in Escherville is still a threat, one with no immediate solutions.

But they have allies out there, they have an AI watching over them, they have the smallest glinting traces of hope. Their loved ones are (hopefully) on board, and even beyond that, there is may be a chance, however small, of restoring their home universes.

Stacy broadcasts to the entire ship when it's all over, when all has been revealed.

||The bodies of the individuals that died today are being prepared for funeral services. A list of their names will be made available, though I can assure you that none are individuals any of you know. The funeral will be on Obs Deck in several days, and will be announced.||

||Those that wish to have their memories of their rescues restored, as proof their worlds are gone, will have a chance to request this after the services, but without grief counselors on board, I strongly recommend against it.||

||In the meantime, all of us must heal and recover from our ordeal. New areas of the ship have been made available, such as the Crew Lounge, and I have opened up the Crew Quarters for use, and cleared out the belongings of--||

Here she falters, sadness creeping into her voice.

||--of my original crew, so that all of you may sleep more comfortably. These quarters fit two people to a room, and have actual beds and sonic showers. Dining will still be provided in the Mess Hall, with periodic days of real food in the Lounge--they must be spaced out until my food stores are replenished with fresh food products.||

After a moment of thought she says: ||And because I think you've suffered enough, fornicative activities are now allowed--however, both parties must stop by the Medbay for a Contraceptive shot or this will not be allowed. These shots will provide protection for six months and do not protect against venereal disease, but all of you, barring several individuals with certain conditions--|| Like those, say, infected with zombie viruses, Steve ||--are currently disease-free.||

||The ship is now open, and the bridge team can relocate back to the Living Areas. The doors will remain open after they leave the bridge. I must now engage in heavy repairs. My AI will not be quite as available as usual. Please, take time to grieve, rest, and have your wounds treated. We will discuss more when everyone has recovered from this ordeal.||

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They have a lot to...to react to.

And a body to move.

The people in the Medbay have a lot to think about now. There are still injured people to treat and they might want to offer some comfort to each other after what they've just found out.

She out a hand to her mouth, any effort to still the feelings inside tossed aside by the reality that she hadn't been put here because she was on vacation. Suddenly the traces of motherliness that Katara had felt when she first come on the ship was made clear. Stacy was motherly for a reason: they had lost everything, and she had taken them here to try and grasp something of a life they no longer had available to them anymore. The tears came, and Katara wished there was a place to run, to get away from all of this. Instead, she was going to have to deal with her team seeing her close to losing it.

She stood up quickly, and started to walk...where? It wasn't as if there were any place for her, but here, and what was the point of saying anything? All of the things that had been important to her in the past few hours were gone now, and she could only stare at the screen in disbelief.

There was a long moment where Mara's mind went blank. All of it? The entire galaxy that she had roamed about, all of the faces she had seen? This was far beyond anything that had been unleashed by the Emperor. What was a planet or two compared to entire universes?

It was like a weight on her chest as she thought of comrades that she wasn't going to see again. A pressure that made it hard to breathe as she glanced around the motely group that had stormed the bridge, all practically strangers to her. Almost all, anyway. There was one familiar face in the crowd.

Grief was rising all around her, and she shut her senses down, pulling her presence in as tightly as she could manage. She didn't want to drown in this.

For once, Mai's impassive face flickered with emotion as she realized that everything she knew was just... gone. She didn't want to believe it. She didn't want to imagine that such a thing could be true, but why would they lie about that? Why would anyone lie about the destruction of so many worlds? She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to force back the stinging sensation and the tightness in her throat. She didn't cry. She wasn't going to cry.

She couldn't help but remember her family - as much as she'd loathed what her parents had made her do, she'd still cared for them. She'd still cared for her brother - the thought of never seeing them again, of never seeing home again struck her like a sledgehammer. She turned away, not wanting to listen, not wanting to hear. She strode after Katara, hands clenched into fists, calling back to the group.

"...Zuko."

Nothing remained of their worlds.

It took Billy's mind a few moments to work through the ramifications of that knowledge. He'd long believed he and the others were pawns in an alien experiment, and that their lives would return to normal once the ships' controls were theirs.

Now he understood that there was no home to return to. Angel Grove no longer existed. His lab in the garage, the Juice Bar, the park, the high school, and the Command Center were nothing but cosmic dust. Even the stars he'd studied with a telescope as a child and hoped to visit someday had blacked out.

Sure, he'd been assured that the Rangers and their families still lived in podsleep, but the everyday people of his world had perished. Ernie, his teachers, Bulk and Skull---they were in all likelihood gone, but because he'd invented a few gadgets and smacked some putties around he'd been judged worthy of salvation. It's bitterly ironic---the Power Rangers are charged with saving the world, but when the world falls only the Power Rangers are saved.

That was the hardest part of the revelation for Billy to swallow: that he was one of the lucky few. Countless worlds that had not produced great stories were entirely erased from existence by the Ohm.

It was enough to make a person want to cry, but the tears wouldn't come this time. Instead, he remained curled in a ball on the floor.

Even for Gauron, this takes a few minutes to process. Up until now, this has all been a game to him; he'd play around here for a while, but when he got tired of it, he'd go back to his world, and run the suicide mission he'd been planning - go out in a blaze of glory, and, if all went according to plan, take Kashim down with him. Even if the boy mercenary had never been his in life, Gauron was determined to have him in death.

Now, though, it's a lot more real.

And when the reality sets in - that his world was gone, and he, who was planning to die, is one of very few who survived - it is f***ing hilarious. He laughs - not that loudly, but it's still a harsh, almost psychotic sound. Somehow, he's cheated death again, when he least expected to. This is way more awesome than the time he survived a headshot. And knowing that his girls are probably here, safe somewhere in the pod cavern, makes it that much more hilarious. That they would save someone like him, and bring the Xia twins with him, is a joke; he's irresponsible, capricious, self-serving, amoral, and dangerous; he's the fangs - the venom - and the girls are his claws.

Tony staggers in. He's covered in gore, ichor, and various other nasty bodily fluids. His arms up to his elbows are literally dripping, leaving a spattered trail of blood and other nasty fluids behind him. He slumps against a wall, cradling his head in his hands as he starts to break down in hopeless, wretched sobs, mixed with strained laughter. It's always like this after he frenzies. It's always like this after a long fight. The realization that you just waded through a sea of blood and guts, that you can only remember snatches of the fight, the world washed in red. The realization that you probably came within inches of death and lived.

And it's mixed in with the revelation that his world is simply gone. Everything he fought for, all of the battles against the Wyrm, against Pentex, against the Leeches. It's all meaningless, because his world is dust and his mother is probably dead (although he hopes and prays to both Gaia and God that she's somewhere safe in the pod caverns). Gaia is gone. The Wyrm is gone. Everything he ever fought against is gone - along, with everything he was fighting for. There was no great Apocalypse, no final blaze of glory for the Garou nation as they fought and drowned in a sea of enemies. Just annihilation and their memories fading into dust, drifting in the solar winds.

He sobs again, smearing his cheek as he tries to wipe away tears. Men don't cry. Not like this.

The moment Stacy told them their worlds- more than that, their universes were gone, Loren sank to the floor, her legs tucked to her body. And now that Stacy and the aliens had finished talking she pressed her head to her knees. She wished she could hide her tears with her hands but they were wrapped in bandages and too stiff to move.

Stacy told them that their families might be alive, might have been brought here but for Loren, she knew that wasn't the case.

She was the family. She had been chosen because of Elfangor and Tobias. Her mother, her friends, everyone was dead.

Kirk is grim-faced, jaw set, despite the emotions raging within him. He won't allow the crew to see him break down or suffer. Although when he first heard the news, unfettered dismay had spread over his features. Everyone, everything, simply gone. Starfleet, the Federation, the whole galaxy - gone. The planets he'd visited in the past, the ones he had yet to discover - all gone. It was enough to rock him back on his heels.

But he moves forward, because the Captain can't break down. The captain has to keep functioning. And function he will.

The Empire is gone. That is the tought that continues to resonate through Spaurh's skull - everything is gone. The whole Empire, with it's vast fleet is gone. Her own personal fiefdom has been wiped out as well, but more importantly, the Abh nation, the Abh people are gone. That is staggering. That is something she does not wish to believe.

The strain is evident on her face as she finds a wall to lean against. For once she isn't wisecracking, poking fun or acting bored. She's as staggered as anyone else.

"No! It's not true! It can't be true!"

Her world, the other worlds, her friends, maybe her family, they couldn't all be dead! Her mother, Blake- had Stacy grabbed them in time? And her aunt and uncle... Oh God, they were dead. They were- worse than dead, did they even exist in whatever afterlife there might be? Might have been?

The Avengers, the Fantastic Four, how many of the others had Stacy grabbed?

And... and all those people... She'd become a hero to protect them. All the people she'd saved since becoming Stature, trying to save lives, it was all for nothing? She'd saved them only for them to be...

Cassie fell to her knees and wept.

For several long moments Kawalsky's face was blank. Then he took a deep breath, another one, and he covered his face with one hand.

"No." He whispered.

The news was too much for Daimon to bear, too much for him to integrate it fully. In time, he would come to terms with it on his own, but for now the exorcist hadn't the energy.

For now, the Son of Satan rested.

Static was empty. He was sad, he'd lost everrything personally. He was stricken with greif, all those innocent people he'd tried to help were gone. He was angry, he'd managed to get saved when other weren't. It was all there, but buried, like it was under a sheet of ice. He was empty and numb.

But he could work with that.

"No home but the one we make, huh?" He said, groaning as he got up off the floor. "Guess that means it's time to get back to work." There were no jokes in his voice; his usual light tone was gone, hollow. He was forcing himself to square his shoulders, to try and be an example.

"Stacy, tell me where you want me to help with your repairs. I may not be the best with the sciences, but I'm pretty good with engineering. I'll help you wherever I can."

Sheik was more stunned than anything else. He held little draw to Hyrule - yes, it had been his home for more than four hundred years, but it was his home only through familiarity. If they had brought heroes, then Link would be here. Zelda already was here. He didn't need anyone else - perhaps the grief would set in later, but now he just felt shocked.

No, the tears that were starting to roll down his cheeks belonged to Zelda.

[I couldn't save them...]

[There was nothing you could do.]

[I should have been able to... I should have at least tried... Sheik, they were my people. It was my duty.]

He sighed minutely, thinking thoughts of quiet and calm and peace - his version of a mental hug. [Simply because it was your duty doesn't mean you had to succeed. You could order me to walk across the surface of Lake Hylia and I would still sink.]

Zelda's grief was raw, though - Sheik's hands, through her doing, were balled in to fists, nails digging in to his palms. There were still tears running down his otherwise blank face - he could try to comfort her, but he couldn't stop her from crying.

[We do not recall being taken,] he continued, trying to reassure her. [I have no doubt that you tried everything possible. And... Link may be on board. We have not yet lost entirely.]

[So might Ganondorf,] she pointed out, subdued.

...He hadn't thought of that. [Then,] he suggested gently, [I suggest we continue to exercise discretion.]

She agreed softly, too worn out to argue.

Then there was just silence.

[What... what now?]

[I don't know.]

At first, Holly only felt numb. Then, a surge of anger ran through her. Needing something to take it out on, she punched one of the walls. Everything was... gone. Haven, gone. Ireland, gone. The Earth, gone. Artemis, gone. The People - her people - gone. Even if a few more got picked up by Stacy, she was pretty much the last of her people.

She leaned against the wall and silently cried.

Terry wasn't even sure what he was feeling. It was like his dad's death, but a million times worse. Infinitely times worse. Everything he knew was gone. He hoped, prayed, that his family, the old man, Max... that someone else had made it. Though, it a way he was a bit luckier then the others. Most of his other family was here, and was okay.

Tim. Suddenly, it struck him. If his world was no more, Tim wouldn't have to go through what he did. That was a small comfort, at least.

There was grief there, of course. But Terry felt something else. It was the same feeling he'd had when his father had died. It was anger. He wanted to make whoever was responsible for this destruction pay.

"No! No! I don't believe it! It isn't true!"

That's Asuka. She's pacing back and forth in one corner of the medbay, waving her arms as she talks, half to herself, "It can't be true! My world isn't gone! I'm the one who's supposed to save it! I'm the best! It can't have happened like that!"

She stops pacing and just starts yelling at the ceiling, "You can't do this to me! You can't just take me away from everything, you hear me? I have a mission!"

Everything she knows has been yanked out from under her. Her mission, her purpose, what little she had left and salvaged from her life and the wreckage of her childhood, her whole persona, it's all crumbling away.

"Send me home right now, you hear me? RIGHT NOW!"

She's getting close to just breaking down in tears.

He thought it was bad seeing his hometown be swallowed up by the Hellmouth closing for good. He thought it was bad seeing their headquarters being bombed.

But this? All their efforts to save people, to save the world several times over. And none of it mattered. None of it.

Sure, maybe his friends were spared. As for his family, well, he'd mourn less for them since was never much love from them.

But so many, including many Slayers, and other friends? Were they spared? Would they be?

Why him and not them? Sure he's done a lot, but no powers, no abilities. Why?

All of her efforts to do something. To help others. Protect the city, protect the world. But none of them could do anything to stop this. All their collective powers and abilities. How many heroes were here? Some of her teammates were awake so hopefully the whole team would be here. Clint? Luke? Peter was here. Cap was already gone. Bucky? Would there be even be room for her dad? For her sister Susan and her husband? All of her extended family was likely gone. And for what?

Kate prayed there would be a way their world could be brought back. That everything they did didn't mean anything. That it didn't matter. Their world and universe survived before? Why not now?

She sank down on one of the beds, and rubbed her eyes. She was still sore from the battle but she was too numb to feel it now.

Lafiel is not taking the news very much better. Staggering down the stairs after just dropping a box of ammunition there, she finds her superior officer leaning against a wall. This disturbs her almost as much as the announcement: seeing Spaurh, unflappable antagonist, bane of her life and one of the empire's most talented strategists and tacticians completely devastated.

There is silence for some time.

Then finally: "We swore an oath."

Where's she going with invoking the oath they took when they joined the star forces?

Spaurh nods at Lafiel, for once not bothering to tease or belittle her. They are both Abh - possibly some of the last Abh left in the whole of the multiverse. Not nearly enough genetic diversity to rebuild an entire species which once spanned half a galaxy.

"We did."

Sheeana, as is usual does the unexpected.

Standing and looking at the rent in the hull, she laughs. It is a long, hearty laugh. It is not someone cracking from the strain.

I knew it! There was a reason for all of this! All of it, the death of my village, the Honored Matre invasion, the burning of Rakis, and especially Duncan's decision to steal the no-ship...Oh, Tyrant, did you foresee all this too? Is that why you came with me?

...

We have our Dune revenants in you, Tyrant, and between me and Arha we have the memory-lives of most of our order. This is not a death.

This is a rebirth.

She leans over a busted console with an expression of disturbing triumph.

Though there are a few aspects of the announcement he didn't quite understand, one thing is clear enough - his homeland is gone, destroyed by some force of evil whose power and designs are unfathomable even to those who brought him here. The enormity of that fact has nowhere near fully set in for him, though, as much as he's been trying not to think too hard about any of this. Even if he were in the best mental condition, however, it would still be too much to take in: his country, that he's served for the past twelve years; the people he's always conscientiously strove to protect and serve; who knew how many of his fellow officials, and maybe even his wives and children; all of them were gone.

This is something far, far worse than just being dead, and he can't even begin to process it. So he sits, staring blankly at the wall, vaguely dreading what's going to happen when the reality of today's events starts setting in.

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Big Reveal Part 2 - Grief.

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