trans_9 | The Battle That Ended The Century

Any anger and bitterness Sofia felt for Julian submerged for the moment and she came closer, reaching out and almost touching Julians' back. A soft tut escaped her lips. "What happened?" She murmured. She looked to Katara, who seemed to have more experience at this. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"You should do as she says." Sheeana added with a subtle bit of Voice. This rain was making her Fremen instincts go haywire, telling her to gather it up, all of it, right now. She watched the girl approach the fallen figure. Some affection there, evidently.

"You as well, Katara. I have no word from Tess or Arha, but Duncan is safe."

Julian glared flatly at Katara, more annoyed than angry at her. Though that looked changed into an eyeroll at Sheeana. He had spent the better part of the last two years around telepaths, his current roommate was one, even. If you want to put a thought or an opinion in his head that isn't his own, it'll take a hell of a lot more than subtlety.

Still, he didn't fight Katara, largely because he didn't have the strength or energy to at the moment. But he did not want to be at rest.

"I need to find Nori."

Katara understood completely, and had an idea that, with someone like Jean Grey, Julian might not be affected by the Voice. Still, the eye roll was unnecessary. Sheeana was her teacher after all, though she didn't think the Voice was needed here. She was sure Julian would accept (if reluctantly) the healing.

Katara shook her head at Sofia. "I'm almost done, and anyway, the water does most of the work. I just happen to heal through it. Thanks for asking though." Really, this outpouring of water was a blessing. She nodded in Sheeana's direction: she knew Sheeana would want her focused. Tess and Arha were strong.

Here though, she turned to Julian. "Then that makes the two of us that need to find someone. But you already knew that, right?"

Nori. Of course, she shouldn't expect him to be concerned over her. The rational part of her brain fought to excuse that thought but it remained.

Katara didn't need her and Julian certainly didn't need her.

"I will look for Nori. And Jay and Sooraya." She said, turning away. Even if they weren't technically her friends, they had been another Sofia's friends. And they were the closest thing she had to a family.

Well that was a bad idea. I should have known not to try that on a psychic. Live and learn, Sheeana. Now she knew it wouldn't work.

The other girl was readying to go walk into the rain. A powerful thing to deny the human impulse to seek shelter with your fellows. Admirable.

"You're likely to get shot in the crossfires, assuming those sounds are real." She meant the periodic low popping of gunfire.

He didn't need to find Sofia, considering that she was right there. But Nori was... calling her a friend still seemed wrong, but he needed to find her. He owed her that much, at least, though there was something more to it.

"Those are real," he responded. Those guns, and dodging them, were how he got the vast majority of his wounds. "And they already killed Kon." Or so he thought. That nightmare had been terribly convincing. Either way, his mouth still tasted like bile as he said it.

He didn't really care if his life got claimed by them next. Its not like it was worth much at the moment. But...

"I need to find Nori," he repeated, since that was the only thing he knew for sure at this point. Everything was upside down, and she was the closest thing he had to an anchor to right himself with. And that thought was one of the few things keeping him going.

Katara sighed. There were too many things going on at once, and the thing was, they had to stay focused on something. Splitting up was just a bad idea, and she wanted them all together. She walked over and grabbed Sophia's hand to bring the girl down lower to her, talking as softly as she could.

"It's not a good idea to go off alone Sophia, no matter what is going on. I don't know this situation, but I DO know that the Nightmare King wants to cause as much chaos as he can, and he'll succeed if we let him. Don't give him that chance. Stick with us, will you please? I don't want you thinking you aren't needed, you ARE. All of us are."

She sighed, then looked at the rest. "We should probably stick together if we're going to find this Nori, okay? But once we find her, there's no time to spare: we have to fight this king or he's going to hurt people we care about. As for Kon being dead...that could have been a nightmare. We can't be fooled by what's being showed to us. If its true...well, all the more reason to stick together, so we're stronger."

She hoped Julian didn't lose heart right now: they all needed to work together. She gave Sheeana a look: Please lend me some of your strength, Sister.

And she really REALLY didn't want to think of Kon being dead. she just got over her nightmares of Braniac 5.

Edited 2010-03-05 06:30 (UTC)

"Katara is right. You were killed in my nightmare and you are here. Kon," whoever he was, "May still be alive." She glanced back, clearly wanting to leave but reason held her back. After all, a stray bullet had been responsible for her mother's death. That would not be an issue if she had not lost her powers. Again.

Sheeana was of half a mind to let the wounded boy wander off and die if he wanted to so badly. Admirable in Sofia, it struck her as nothing but ego in him. But then Katara gave her the pleading look. Sometimes she thought her acolyte was naive, and sometimes she thought she was a natural Witch. This was the latter.

"Katara's right. Your bravery is admirable but misplaced. You should stay."

Julian leveled a skeptical look at Sofia. As if to say 'You? Actually stick around when there's trouble?'

A year ago, it would've been her he was looking for, not Nori. A year ago, there would have been no doubt what so ever that he wanted her at his side. But now he can only wonder why she's still there. It's not like she still cared about him...

~~...right?~~

But now wasn't the time and the place to get into that.

"I wouldn't get your hopes up about Kon." That was him, as far as Julian was concerned. No way his brain would've dreamed that up, or World War II, for that matter.

"We need to get moving." If they wanted to follow him around, he wasn't going to bother arguing. But...

...he still had to find Nori.

Katara glared at Julian as if to say YES, she's sticking around, so stop causing trouble already!

"Well I would," Katara said. "Kon is pretty indestructible, isn't he? I don't think he'd die so easily. And like I said, even if that isn't the case, we still have a job to do. We'll help you look for Nori, but if we can't find her, we have to assume she might not be here, and is fighting elsewhere. And if that's the case, then I have a mission of my own to finish. I have since the time I've been on the ship. If you guys don't want part of that, its okay. It's my thing."

By now, she had talked enough about Aang that she was sure most people knew who she was looking for. She looked over at Sofia, then again at Sheeana, and started walking with Julian without another word.

Right now, leader or no leader, she had to help these people if she could. But when that was done, it was all about finding Aang.

Sofia walked as well, keeping on Katara's other side. "What mission?" She wanted to look for Nori as well, but Katara had helped ~~Julian~~ them and she was curious.

"Finding her boyfriend," Julian assumed. "Bald kid with tattoos."

Yes, he knew what Aang looked like.

Julian wanted to get a better look at the city, and made a noise of frustration when he once again tried-- and failed-- to access his powers. That was only made all the more annoying because Katara still had hers. Maybe it was just him and Kon, then?

He looked over at Sofia. "Do you still have your powers, or did you get flatscanned again?"

"Oh. Do not worry we-" Sofia stopped talking when Julian asked that. She glared at him in response until finally she unstuck her tongue from the roof of her mouth. "No. I do not have my powers." She couldn't have sound more venomous if she tried.

"Julian?" Oh, girls, look who joined the party. She's pretty, blonde, and powerful.

~~Move over, Sofia, Supergirl's in the meathouse.~~

She'd been walking around (http://community.livejournal.com/trans_9/306644.html?thread=23463124#t23463124), not knowing where to go, when she heard a familiar voice.

"Katara?"

It sounded like it was coming from somewhere behind a pile of blurry she-didn't-know-whats, and so she took off running.

"Katara, are you there?"

Please don't let it be a dream. Not right now.

Sheeana noticed the acrimony. It is a good thing then that a Bene Gesserit's abilities are the result of training and not accident of birth.

"He was interred fighting the Nightmare King, yes? The closer we head towards Escherville, the more likely we are to see traces of his passage." And the farther they would get from her Worm, but she would deal with that problem when it came its time. Circumstances would shift.

She noted the Aryan Uberwoman's arrival, and that of another friend of Katara's. Who is she? Tauph? Zhukau?

Katara was about to reply to the new girl (and glare at Julian because he was not just some bald kid with tattoos,he was the AVATAR) when she heard the familiar voice. Katara's no nonsense face burst with a look of momentary happy, and seeing the smaller girl trying to approach, she moved the water away from Toph so that the girl could find them more easily.

"Toph!" She cried, and brought her into the group, her hand shielding the girl from the rain. "I'm so glad you're here! I was worried something might have happened to you. Are you okay? Did the Nightmares attack you too?"

Katara motioned to the others. "Guys, this is my friend Toph from my world. She's an earthbender, so its a bit harder for her to move through all of this: it'll be easier when it turns to mud." She then nodded in the new girl's direction. "I'm Katara of the Southern Water Tribe. Who might you be?"

"Kara...," Julian answered on her behalf. Under different circumstances, he'd be thrilled to see her. He was relieved that she was alive, but part of him was wondering how he could possibly tell her that her cousin was dead.

"Kara, everyone. Everyone? Kara, Kon's cousin."

If there was any hope at all that Kon's death was just some messed up illusion...

"Do either of you two still have your powers?" he asked the new arrivals.

...Oh.

Sofia didn't quite know what she was feeling just now, but whatever it was, she didn't like it.

"I am Sofia." She tried to sound friendly but her heart wasn't in it.

"Hi," Toph said to everyone. "So, what is this? More nightmare stuff?"

"Sofia," Kara nodded at her. She walked up to Julian and hugged him, holding on maybe a second longer than she needed to. Staking her claim? Maybe. Or maybe she was just frightened. "I'm all powered out. A walk under the yellow sun would be amazing right now." She looked around. "Have you guys seen Kon?"

He hugged her back, though his heart sank at her answer and her question.

"Kon..." How could her tell her this? He decided to take it from the top. "Kon lost his powers to, we both did." So, no, Sofia, you aren't the only powerless mutant in the group.

"We ended up landing right in the middle of a hotzone when the City turned into World War II and we... we tried to get out of there," and they almost made it, despite Kon getting injured, but... "But there was an explosion, a mortal shell that landed practically on top of us. And..."

And he couldn't look her in the eyes right now, his gaze downcast.

"It landed closer to him than it did to me. He...

"He didn't make it. I'm sorry."

"We do not know that." Even if she felt an inexplicable pang of jealousy, she didn't want Kara to worry. "I dreamed that Julian, Nori, and other friends of mine were killed and Julian is still alive. It may be another trick."

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