trans_9 | Last Straw

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Last Straw

She went straight to the Sensoriums. Her feelings were all over the place, and she had to get away from people right now. She remembered all too well what happened to Alex when he lost Luna: she knew she had to find a way to take her aggression out. There was pain and self loathing and unspeakable things she was sorting through, but right now it was nothing but anger she was feeding on. She closed her eyes when she entered, concentrating on the enemies she;s fought while she'd been on the ship.

The Terminators. The T-Rex. The Nightmare King's monster minions. The traps Hal had laid for them. They came one at a time but Katara was ready, steeling herself to calmly maneuver out of the traps, to find a way to take down the terminator most efficiently, and those alone took more than a few hours. It was when she got to the nightmare King's minions, however, that Katara stopped being cautious. Now she ripped into them, stabbing at them with ice shards and freezing them on the spot before blowing through them, and slowly her determined face gave away to that of rage. As she started to remember their fights, their hugs, their talks, she switched to the Bene Gesserit fighting style, her hits were starting to get more serious, leaving many injured in her wake, though she received a few cuts herself. When she was done an hour later, it faded, all of it, and she was left in water, where she had heard Sokka once talk to Toph about how she'd been like a mother to her, and she couldn't stand it anymore. She let out a scream, primal and pained.

"WHY?! WHY BRING HIM HERE JUST TO TAKE HIM AWAY?! ALL THIS TIME, JUST TO TAKE HIM AND NOT HAVE AANG HERE AND MAKE ZUKO FORGET WHAT WE ALL DID?? WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME!?"

And she dissolved into tears here, the sun sinking into the clouds and leaving a dark, lonely pond.

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"There isn't a reason," said an entirely-too-familiar voice from nearby.

No, of course Zetta hadn't come to comfort her immediately on hearing of her loss. Don't suggest stupid things like that! That's just... stupid. He's a demon. And an Overlord. He doesn't do that.

Still, there's the book, standing at the edge of the water, looking at her. "And there's nothing anyone wants of you to make it stop. You know that. It's a stupid, crappy thing that just happened."

At least she wasn't attacking the pod cavern...

Katara knew it was the voice of Overlord Zetta, and though it seemed strange to have him there at all, she knew that there was a part of him that was watching her. She wouldn't mention it: he had a reputation to maintain or whatever, but she was grateful even if she felt incredibly lousy at the moment.

"I don't see why they brought him here to take him away," she finally said. "It's so stupid! Sokka is smart, a great swordsman, always has a way of making everyone laugh. The Avatar gang would never have been the same without him. I just don't understand. It's like they brought us all here just to mess with us."

She sighed, shaking her head. "Don't you wish Stacy could at least have brought you here in your own form, not as a book?"

"I did this to myself," he said quietly. "The Sacred Tome is the keystone of my Netherworld. The Ohm tampered with it... " He skipped the part where he set it on fire. "Long story short, I had to bind my soul to it to save my life. But my Netherworld was destroyed, and I ended up... here.

"Stupid crap happens. My castle, my brothers, my Netherworld, my body... all gone. But I'm still alive, and so long as THAT's true, there's a way to pull out of this damn mess. Your brother may be back in the pods, but he's still alive. So are you. Even if the people you care about are crammed in the pods, they're still alive, and so are you. That means in the end it can still all be turned around."

She could definitely understand what he was saying, even if that overwhelming sadness was still there. What was more, she hadn't been around Sokka as much as she should have, and that guilt was eating at her. Still, he had a point, and she knew, after her talk with Alex, that listening to reason was always a good thing.

"I'm trying to believe that, and I know that later, I might feel better about this. Its just that he was always here, and he always was able to tell me when I was being stupid. I'm just really going to miss him. He was the only other link to my world. If he's not here, I'm the only one from the water tribe."

Zetta blinked. "Oh, hey. Don't get me wrong, you're allowed to be upset for a while. That's just normal. I just gotta make sure you don't do anything stupid, and you get back up and keep going after a little while. The second part's the most important."

It takes a special kind of personality to be so damn cheerful and arrogant and confident of success after being reduced to a BOOK.

"Good, because I know I'm going to be upset for awhile," Katara warned, laughing bitterly. "I'm not a god, even I know this is something I can;t phase out. He's family, and I love him always."

Here she shook her head. "Believe me, I'm not going to do anything terribly stupid. After having to deal with Alex and almost killing the man that murdered my mother. I know enough about not doing something when my emotions are running high."

"Well, I had to check." Zetta seemed a little defensive, though he looked back up to meet her eyes.

"Just remember. The only thing that can break you IS you."

She nodded. "I know. That's why I chose to come here. It hurts, and I feel horrible, but I can't break. I have a team now, and people who depend on me. I won't break that easily. I just need time."

She shook her head, "Besides, you've seen how I fight. If I let myself get out of control, I could really hurt someone."

"Good," the Overlord said, with an odd motion that approximated a nod and looked very strange. He seemed pleased.

"Wasn't much of a fight, though. You kept winning."

Katara grinned. "It wasn't that way the first time, but I learn. With the Ohm it won't be as clean, but I'll do what I can. Its why I train."

She smiled. "If you can still bring up those simulations, it would help."

"What, mine?" He frowned, thinking quickly. "You are SO not suited to be an apprentice, but I could put you through some of the ones I hit Ruffnut with. Crank it up a little, make some adjustments for all that wacky stuff you do..."

Katara gave him a piercing look. "I would so BE an awesome apprentice, but I'm not going for that, thank you! I was just asking for simulations. We need to be prepared for the Ohm, and that won't happen by playing things safe."

Even grieved, Katara still had her eyes on the things that were necessary for the Outsiders.

"You would not." Zetta wasn't being harsh at all, simply matter-of-fact. "You've got entirely the wrong attitude. All this caring and worrying and being a good person. How could I make an Overlord out of THAT? You'd probably hesitate to conquer a Netherworld and rule it tyrannically, so...."

Actually, he was having a hard time not snickering at the thought, if truth be known.

"But what I was thinking was, it might help you take your mind off it to have a more... you know, structured sort of fight. Instead of just rage smash rage smash ice water thing dies."

Katara snorted. "Well of course I wouldn't do any of that. I had enough people in my world running around conquering everything and making chaos. If that's what you do, its now wonder we disagree on everything!"

She thought a minute. "That would be a good idea, yes. I don't usually fight like this, I was just really upset anyway. A real fight would be a lot more intense, with risk and stealth and narrow avoiding of death. The last time I fought the Oh, it was a lot like that. I was lucky there was a full moon out, or I wouldn't have been able to bloodbend."

"I'm a demon," Zetta said, not the least bit put out by her criticism. "That's how we do things. But it's not chaos. I haven't had a challenge from my own personal Netherworld in twenty-five thousand years. I bet your world doesn't even have just one ruler, and how often does THAT job turn over and mess everything up while the new ones are getting settled?"

Zetta: Force of order and stability in the cosmos. If lightning doesn't strike him right now, it's only because he ranks above the

"Wait... bloodbend?"

Here, Katara didn't really look too happy. It wasn't because of the demon part: she didn't know a whole lot about demons anyway. But one ruler presiding over everything she knew about, all right: it had been the whole reason for the war in her world.

"They tried to make it under one ruler," Katara said, taking another swig. "The Firelord. But doing that meant he killed off the airbender, imprisoned all of the Southern waterbenders and tried to decimate the Earth kingdom. I don't know how you go about managing your world, you might even be a good overlord. But in my world, all that ever did was destroy families and ruin lives."

And for the NEXT explanation, she took along breath.

"Blood bend. It only happens during a full moon. I'm a waterbending master...so I can actually manipulate the water in anyone that is made of water, and most people, as you know are. Well, that day with the Ohm, I found out they were mostly made of water too."

Edited 2010-10-26 13:48 (UTC)

"Coward!" Zetta looked and sounded exactly as disgusted as he felt. "How the hell did someone with no spine at all ever get up to that level? No, Katara, that's not how you do it if you want to do it right," he growled. "You don't kill people. That shows you fear them. Or that you fear losing someday, one or the other. And besides, it's better to leave the guy who lost alive, so he has to live knowing he lost."

It's a strange code the Overlord lives by.

"Why only a full moon? I mean... they're not MORE blood then than at any other time, are they?"

"Three generations of putting people down is how," Katara said, not fully able to contain the bitterness in her voice. "The military of the Fire Nation spent a hundred years waging war all over the other nations, causing destruction and subjugating others. It was because of them I lost my mother."

She turned her head a moment, unwilling to let anyone see that look on her face: a mixture of pain and resentment still.

"But we did win, and Aang, the person who headed our rebellion, DID beat the Firelord without killing him too. Everyone thought he should, but he didn't want to have blood on his hands. So he found a way to remove his bending permanently."

She shook her head. "Waterbenders are at their peak during the full moon: it was the moon's control of the tides that is the origin of waterbending. The way it pushed and pulled, that was the basis of how we learned to do it."

"Hyaaa ha ha ha! I like that! Leave him forever aware of just how badly he blew it and got schooled. That's a good win in my book. See, pissing people off like he did to everybody is just asking for someone to come up and drop you. Bad strategy."

To conclude that Zetta has succeeded, at least a little, in distracting Katara is to imply the Overlord has a level of cunning that just doesn't quite mesh with his hopelessly staightforward nature.

"The moon doesn't turn water to ice though... how's that fit in?"

"Doing something like that is what makes people want to kill you in the first place," Katara said, remembering the craziness in Azula's eyes. "The better heroes don't kill unless they have absolutely no choice, and I MEAN no choice. You don't get stronger and better by resorting to the same methods as the person that did it in the first place."

Oh, she got it all right: it wasn't like the Overlord was just talking to make conversation, but she wouldn't mention it.

"I said they were the basis," Katara said, "but as we learned to control the water, naturally we would learn to make it freeze over too, not to mention make it architecture, shielding, weapons...there is a lot to do with water."

Edited 2010-10-26 16:19 (UTC)

Katara underestimated what a total chatterbox Zetta was. Seriously, for a badass freakin' Overlord, he sure seemed to love to yak.

"So... you kicked the moon's ass at its own job," Zetta said. Appreciatively, at that. "That actually sounds pretty neat." Not that he had a use for the non-war implementations of the technique.

Katara laughed a little at that. "We don't quite think of it in that way. The moon played an important part in what we are, and without it we wouldn't be where we are. But like any student, we try to surpass the teacher with what we learn. That's why its always important to keep training and bettering yourself. I'm glad Ruffnut is training with you, you know. She has a lot of energy."

God help whoever trained that little girl.

"Hyaaa ha ha ha! I love that kid!" Ruffnut was... an oddly good match for Zetta. "Soul of a demon! She'll never surpass me, but if she doesn't surpass everyone ELSE, I'll be surprised." He looked a bit smug and satisfied for a moment.

"So... this bending-water thing... if you guys learned it, how come it's a tribe? I mean, if you figured it out, why can't anyone?" Not that he's being critical, just curious. All new forms of power fascinate Zetta, inasmuch as he wants to know what might appear on the scene someday when things are back to normal. He may be dumb as a post, but it's a reasonably capable post in terms of tactical matters.

Katara nodded. "Ruffnut is really amazing from what I saw. But you know I think it would also be good to have someone train the little girl too. She seemed really violent and I thought it was crazy to even be there with her, but I feel like there was some untapped potential there too. When I saw her refuse help, it was like...she had something to prove, I don't know. Do you know anyone who would be able to help her train too?"

It wasn't a big thing, it just reminded her a little of Toph when she first saw her.

She put up her hand. "Only some of us have the ability. Largely we're a tribe because of where we live, the South Pole. The rest of the tribe are still training to just fight against the fire nation, but all of us as a whole are a family, protecting each other and looking out. With the Southern Tribe, all of our benders were taken, except for one. So the men of our tribe journeyed to join the earth kingdom in fighting the fire nation."

He could make a guess at the last "one" of the waterbenders.

"Eh," Zetta said with a shrug in his voice. "She wants to be a hero. I can't train that. I mean... specifically. I could probably pull off some generalities, I like her style. Did she actually ever join the Outsiders? Since I seem to be meeting most of you lately, I swear." Zetta trailed off into muttering to himself, something about minions and Overlording, before Katara's next words drew him back.

"And that fire guy was fought and beaten. I'm guessing with your help somewhere along the line."

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