There had been plenty of time to rest and recuperate following the defeat of the Nightmare King (crew arguing on the omnicomms aside), but Nanoha was never one to let herself relax for too long. Even if there wasn't anything immediate that needed dealing with, she was back in her office in the Jedi Temple to review the events to try and better understand them.

But her thoughts kept returning to the cryptic comm conversation she'd had with Rein. Why had the cheerful little Unison Device suddenly acted so formal? She couldn't shake the feeling something was wrong.

In Aang's estimation, no one is ever, ever supposed to have this much hair. Except girls. Like Katara. Katara's long hair is pretty, but no Airbender is ever supposed to have this much hair.

Unless they have a beard--that's where all the hair is supposed to go. Speaking of which, his facial hair is definitely new, but he's managed to shave it with his shaving stone.

The hair on his head? Much more difficult. His shaving stone only works if it's already stubble and he has no way of cutting all the long locks off and he's been so busy talking and catching up with the others (and getting his hair petted by Katara while he still has it) that they'd never gotten around to giving him a haircut. He also hates the sucky things in the bathrooms that do it. Right now, he's sitting with his legs folded on the floor of the Medbay, with a bowl of water Stacy provided him and a mirror propped up against a table, trying to work out exactly what to do with it all.

Characters: Russel and Fletcher Tringham, OPEN
Location: Sensoriums

( A pleasant, pastoral setting )

[set after Tycho's conversation with Asuka in the hanger]

Tycho's steps were slow and weary as he made his way back towards the room he now shared with Wedge. He felt exhausted, worn down deep in his bones, like he'd had to face an entire squadron of interceptors on his own, with no sleep. Whoever said managing personnel from safely behind a desk was easier than being a pilot clearly had no idea what the kriff they were talking about he thought to himself. He'd been a commanding officer for quite a while now- this was certainly far from his first attempt at bantha herding, but still. Whether it was the timing or the circumstances, something about his conversation with Asuka had been extra wearing on the Colonel.

He swiped his key card at the door and entered slowly. He was glad to see that Wedge was there, and he flashed his friend a tired smile before flopping down onto his bed like a ton of duracreet. "Guess who I talked to in the hanger after you and Jaina left," Tycho asked.

_{[[Takes place after this log.]]}

Asuka had decided that she hated the ship again. As if the nightmares weren't bad enough, then she'd had to put up with that idiot Clechu telling her she wasn't ready to be a pilot. That she wasn't good enough. It hurt. It tore at her self-image and it made her feel worthless. He was wrong. She knew he was. She'd be the best pilot in the squadron and then everyone would see her and they'd have to acknowledge her.

She'd retreated to a place of relative sanctuary, curled up on the shoulder of her Eva, feeling the smooth armored plate beneath her. It was comforting in a way. Something familiarfrom home. The only thing from home. No Misato. No Shinji. No Ayanami. Just her and her Eva. Were they in the pods? She scoffed at herself. Why did she care? It wasn't like any of them had been worth anything. They were just competition. Bad competition, but still competition. It wasn't like they'd ever tried to help her when she'd lived with them.

Or anyone on this stupid ship either. Celchu said he wanted to help, but he was really just trying to tear her down. Leave her alone and unrecognized, unnoticed. Nothing. Alone. She shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself, remembering the nightmare. It still came back to her. It wasn't nearly as strong anymore, but it still made her wake up in a cold sweat from time to time.

There was Arha, but thinking about accepting her help made her feel sick inside. She shouldn't have to. She would live on her own, without anyone to prop her up. She'd be independent. She hated herself for giving in to Arha, but she enjoyed the attention, the support. The support she didn't need.

She'd just sit here a while longer.

Sherry had roused slightly, but hardly remembered being carried back to her room to sleep. She certainly didn't remember when her little wounds and goose egg had been attended to.

She'd buried her face in her pillow and exhaled, slowly waking up. One hand patted the space beside her bed where Bandit had been occupying (she hadn't dreamed that, right?), the other went to push her hair out of her face and just stayed there.

"Come on," she urged herself, the words muffled around her hand. "Get up, Me." She needed to go ascertain that her dad was really okay and sleeping, find her mom.

She just needed five more minutes. "Come on..."

Out of all the locations on the ship, the sensoriums were quite possibly one of Gwen's favorite locations. While the hanger bay and vehicle garage were nice it was the only spot that could take a person away from the harsh realities of what was going on around them be it from nightmares to just awakening on the ship. Plus the fact that the woman had all but dragged a certain Colonel along behind her after he had dragged her to medical seemed to help it being a safe haven. While most people could deal with doctors and all the shiny things they used, Gwen was of the sort that had a moment of flail at the simple mention of medical. Thank her time as a POW for that one which meant there was only a slight chance that, eventually, the woman would forgive Tycho for it. Slim, slim chance to a small degree.

With her hands shoved deep in to the pockets of her brown coat she gave the older man a little frown of a pout once inside of the empty room. "You are so incorrigible you know. That was th' most creepyfinin' thing I've been through in my entire life. Next time you get t' be the guinea pig." Of course a smile was soon creeping back across the red head's face before she took back to walking the space around them. "So where to first? Sunny beaches of some distant planet? Floatin' down a river on a couple old tire tubes?"

There had been a promise of showing off homeworlds, well, at least in Tycho's 'verse that was. She didn't mind showing him Verbena if he wanted to see something from her 'verse or even show him somewhere else. Not a single world where she came from was alike having been built from scratch. "And no more visits t' any medical bays in here mind. Might have t' teach you thing or two about a good old fashioned whoopin'."

Stacy's drives made managed to come back online, and they had been on the move again. Though, on their journey to whatever destination they were going to next, the ship came to a halt at what would be a very brief pit stop...

...at the edge of a supermassive black hole.

In Stacy's hangar, Leon was finishing up programming the autopilot of a shuttlecraft to fly dead center into that black hole. No, he wasn't the least bit suicidal, and he wasn't staying for the flight. But the shuttle's cargo, the stone that held the Nightmare King, that was something Leon never wanted to see again.

He wanted to toss the Yeerk on there as well, but he agreed to uphold a jury decision. Thus, that thing still remained in indefinite stasis. (And, yes, he had checked personally to make sure it was still there)

The shuttle was easy to program, as it responded to verbal commands. The whole thing only took a few moments before Leon left the shuttle, and it departed, taking the Nightmare King to a prison that no living thing would ever be able to free it from.

As he watched the shuttle sped into the Event Horizon, Leon started going over his To Do list mentally. He had reports to write, and dozens more to read, he had to find out from Gauron which areas of the city were too damaged for occupancy and needed to blocked off so they could be demolished, arrange for Aang and Haku to be evaluated for release, keep the crew from killing each other, and about a thousand other things.

But as the shuttle got swallowed up by the darkness, he let out a breath and relaxed a bit.

"At least there's one less thing to worry about." Maybe he could finally take a break before tackling the rest of that list. Lord knows he needed one.

He’d been asleep for far too long.

There wasn’t much he could do, after Aang woke up and started breaking everything—structure-wise and organism-wise actually—he was only one alien against an angry human god badly harmed by yet another, not to mention a seriously injured alien already recovering from a nightmare of his own. It was no surprise that he’d collapsed on the way to the med bay. It was more of a surprise that he’d made it so far with several more injured humans in tow.

In any case, he was here, right back where he’d started several days ago, or however long it’d been, the poor fellow had lost track during all of this. Would someone tell him? His nap ran a touch long and his anesthetics were beginning to wear off, and seriously, how did he get here again? Where was ‘here’ exactly? And what of Katara’s partner, the one who went crazy and he was unable to—

With a sudden sucking of air through the slits atop his muzzle, Aeneas’s eyes flashed open and he bolted upright in his cot, torso stiff, webbed hands clenched against the sides. He sat there, every muscle tensed, fur matted with nervous perspiration, for several horrifying moments.

"KATARA I FOUND HIM BUT HE HAS SUFFERED SOME SORT OF MENTAL TRAUMA AND ATTACKED THE OTHERS I WILL LEAD YOU TO HIM ONCE I BRING THE INJURED FEW TO—"