trans_9 | Basics

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There was a time to get sick. There was a time to bemoan the things that seemed like empty spots in her head. and there was time to sleep and dream of times that were better (or have nightmares of worse times too). But when these times passed, and eventually that was the case, there was nothing left to do but go back to what you were best at, and refine it to make it your own. Going to the podpop had been a start, and Katara capitalized on it the next day. A visit to the Sensorium and the scenery changed: she was at the desert lands they'd been left to brave after the library sunk and Appa had been captured. There was no gang here though, just miles and miles of sand and heat bearing down on her. To Toph and Aang, she was sure these circumstances were unpleasant, but to her and Sokka specifically, it had been alien and frustrating (it had helped Sokka that he was strung out on Cactus juice and she was fixated on keeping the group together at the time). She had also made sure there would be no water nearby, and so her pouch was also gone.

The morning was spent in quiet meditation on the sands. Her mind was full of questions and brimming with thoughts, but she momentarily displaced them from her mind. She was uncomfortable, sweaty and hot, but stayed in deep meditation, moving from time to time so she wouldn't cramp up. Once she'd seen the sun position itself to indicate noontime, Katara rose, and her attire was that of her firebending disguise: she would need it.

The exercising in the Weirding way, however, required targets, so the desert was now strewn with several dummies. Here Katara incorporated her Bene Gesserit martial art with that of the training she'd practiced in Will's gym: she catapulted herself upward, struck with deadly precision and then rolled into a new defensive stance, ready for the next attack. It had been awhile since Katara incorporated her waterbending flexibility with the Weirding way, and truthfully it was seldom Katara practiced the art, fully aware (thanks to deadly robots) how damaging it could be. She bent her legs a bit and brought her arms up again, using her force against the dummy and knocking it backward with what looked like minimal effort. She knew it would be awhile before she was an expert in the Weirding Way, but that was more than reason to practice, with all they had encountered.

When she had worked up a definite sweat, she went back to the flexibility part: she flipped, jumped, turned several times in the air and, on her back, curled her legs upward and leapt back to position. She was stinky and definitely perspiring, but that was easily taken care of if she decided to turn the Sensorium into a spa, not that she was in a big hurry to do so.

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"A sky... bison? You mean a bison that flies in the air? Really?" Negi beamed at the thought, thinking of how it could possibly look. "It must be an amazing animal!"

Katara nodded. "Appa is pretty amazing, but I don't think describing him will do him justice." She closed her eyes, and a moment later there was a booming roar that filled the air. Katara laughed as an enormous shadow seemed to block out their sun, and the huge sky bison (http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/File:Appa_Eclipse.png) landed neatly before them, nuzzling the waterbender, then sniffing at its new guest before consenting to give him a friendly lick that knocked him off his feet.

Katara giggled. "That's Appa. He's really friendly, and the last of his kind. I think he likes you!"

Being full-body licked by a fuzzy bison was quite the experience and Negi laughed even as he was pitched off his feet and onto his butt. "Wow," said Negi with an awed expression, getting up and rubbing Appa on the nose. "He's so BIG! We don't get animals this big back home!"

Katara smiled. "It can be pretty common back home. we've had some pretty big creatures, although not all of them are friendly. Appa has been our companion since I've known him: he's linked to the person he sees as his master, but its not even fair to call it that, The two of them have a bond, and as they're both the last of their kind, its even stronger now."

Katara looked a little wistful here.

"Like a very close friend or family," nodded Negi as he rubbed Appa's nose a little more, ending with a gentle pat. He didn't comment on the last of their kind thing, since it hit a little close to home being an orphan for most of his life.

"So that um, art that you were practicing. Is it fairly common back on your world? Bending you said."

Katara nodded. "I wish he were really here. I miss him. He was always a staple to our party even if he couldn't talk. When he was kidnapped, Aang was so devastated: He really loves him. we all do."

Katara tried not to look too sad here. "In the North Pole, no. There are still a lot of waterbenders there, although only the fighters are male. The female waterbenders are healers. Where I'm from, the South pole, I'm the last of our waterbenders. The rest of them were killed or captured by the Fire Nation so they wouldn't lose a threat to them anymore."

A war then. Probably one of genocide considering how much emphasis Katara put on "last". It was kind of depressing come to think about it, and Negi shuffled his feet in the sand uncomfortably. "I'm sorry if that brings up bad memories Katara," said Negi honestly. "I know how it's like."

Six years. That snowy night. The demons. All of it. Just so he could be used as a weapon.

Negi's hands balled into fists as he tried not to show outwardly signs of frustration.

"It's all right," Katara said. "I've had to come to terms with it. It's what made me so strong of a bender, and why I'm learning about different martial arts now. I refuse to let a lack of water make me vulnerable when I can help others. I'm here, and I survived because I was meant to. It's why I think we were all brought to this ship, in a way."

Katara could sense the frustration though, and put a hand to his arm.

"I'm not the only one with bad memories of back home, am I?"

"No you're not," admitted Negi, thinking of the memories. He bit his lip and then began to explain. "Back home, my students and I are stuck in a place known as Magica Mundus, the Magic World, a magical plane cast over the planet Mars, separate from Earth. I've been trying to get them all home safely, but now that seems impossible."

Pain flickered across Negi's expression, thinking of Rakan's last words, that Asuna wasn't Asuna at all, but an impostor, moments before he died. "We... lost several friends in the process of finding a way home and since then..."

Katara didn't know much about Mars, and only a precious little about Earth, but she definitely sympathized when it came to losing some people that were on his team, or what happened when you and your team were lost and you were desperately trying to get them back home.

"I'm sorry," she said, mimicking the very words he said to her only a few minutes ago. "It's pretty rough when the people you know get hurt or...don't live before you can reach your goal. On the ship, when we had a mission, we lost someone too. It was very sad for most of us, and I was sorry that I didn't get to talk to him more."

Negi nodded, trying to buck up and bear with it. But it was pretty fresh in his mind, considering everything. He rubbed his face, trying to not let emotion spill out in front of Katara. "I'm sorry for that. I'm just... so unused to everyone not being here. I mean, Yue-san and Master is here but it doesn't feel right yet."

Katara was not one for telling anyone to hide their emotions: in fact, it would make her a bit of a hypocrite. "You don't have to apologize. Just because you arrived here and everything's new doesn't mean you get to forget about the things that happened in your world. I know that even with my brother and my closest friends here, there are some people I tend to always miss.

Edited 2010-04-04 23:29 (UTC)

Negi nodded, sighing before he looked up. "Thanks, Katara. I needed that. I should get my head examined for being so upset lately."

He looked at her and then asked, "Do you... want to spar? Just a light one?"

Katara shook her head. "No one can be stoic all the time, trust me. Even with all of my training to still my emotions, I'm still prone to having times where I feel like I didn't do all that I could."

Katara looked a little startled, but smiled. "Sure, why not?"

Negi nodded, and then smiled as he pulled his cloak off and set it and his staff to the side. Clad in plantsuit only, he stretched his legs before sliding into a Chinese Kung Fu stance, one that might be similar to Katara as it was extremely similar to the one that Zuko would use, hand in a open position and in a straight stance. "When you're ready."

Katara got into her stance as well. She thought she told him that she also had been trained in the ways of the Bene Gesserit. She'd never have known that her martial arts were similar to Tai Chi, but she did have the advantage that the Weirding Way and Prana-Bindu, which made her very fast and able to contort herself in ways a regular human being shouldn't.

"Okay," she said, serious now. "Ready."

Negi nodded as he prepared to strike.

A long half-second passed and he was moving in quickly with a perfect straight punch, fist drawn back and the first attack a lunging strike.

Katara eased out of his range, and a second later was at his back, then a moment later back at his front, her leg knocking at his back leg to throw him off balance.

He was very fast, but she was faster. Now she was going to see if his balance was just as good.

So quick!

Negi readjusted his center of balance from the lunging move as the foot connected. Skipping around, he backstepped easily, keeping his balance, swinging into a defensive horse stance.

Katara smiled. He adjusted. Good. He definitely knew what he was doing, and his form was excellent.

And now he was strengthening his stance. Now she came at him offensively Bene Gesserit style, her hands at her chest and curled, to see how he faired in an upper torso fight. The hands moved like lightning: he would have to match her hand movements with his own, if he could.

Fast hands, faster reflexes. If Negi was just a normal kid, this would have been extremely tough.

Moving into the fluid motions of his various Kung Fu styles, he started to move into a sequence of counters, all moving towards a possible elbow strike as he closed the distance once more.

Katara couldn't help it: she laughed. It wasn't for sarcasm or bragging, but of actual mirth. "You're really good, do you know that? How old are you?"

Yes, this is Katara, striking a conversation while moving her hands deftly. She was also working towards weakening his horse stance, since her movenent were coming faster now and requiring motions that used the hips. She then moved in with a strike of her own, a right finger jab to the chest, with the Bg push that made a relatively innocent looking strike actually more forceful, enough to reel back half a second.

Negi laughed as well as he fought back, parrying as he did so. "I'm ten. Honestly, I'm ten."

He grinned, having a lot of fun in this fight as he guarded his chest, knowing techniques were often more powerful than they appeared to be.

She grinned. "I have to hand it to you then: I don't know too many kids that have this much knowledge of martial arts at such a young age. Your master must be proud."

But she was going to make sure that her own teachers were proud too, and gave a small leap to see if he could stand a nudge to the head as well. Her legs were ready should he try a foot sweep on the way down.

"I'm more of a beginner compared to Master Ku," replied Negi, seeing the attack coming at his head.

Blocking it, he was thrown to the ground, but his hands shot out, impacting on the sand and flipping backwards into a crouching position.

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