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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The sound. The very feel of a bombardment assailed him. He'd been studying, listening to try to improve his English again when his mind wasn't wandering to fanciful dreams on its own. Alas, that searing thing shatters any concentration he had.

And he cried out for the intensity of it.

Renne has insanely good ears but with him, there are things somehow between the lines of senses. Heard but not, felt but not, smelled but not and all of them in between. This is pain, he knows. Pain is an all-too-familiar companion even if a reviled one. Except, it isn't his pain.
He stills himself.
The pain lances through his Being again and in a shot, he's down into his crawl, blazing to find the source of it.

On the way, he lets out his own primeval cry, a warning to any and all that might hear this screaming desperation within.

"Bee! Bee! Pain. Tar-Tar! Pain!"

Once he'd responded to Katara's earlier message, Billy knew that the grief would swell up soon enough. He'd finished up loose ends at work, changed into comfortable clothes, and found something small to work on while he waited for her to summon him. It would keep his fright-magnifying imagination at bay and let him focus on reality, calming enough to help when needed.

The call came a short while later, both of his Bondeds calling at once. Setting his work aside, he sprinted over to the epicenter of this feeling.

Silently, he bent to remove his socks and shoes and offer Renne a ride on his shoulder. But even that was taking too long. They needed to be together now.

Of the people that Katara knew might come down here, she knew her bonded would be here: they heard each other, and when he screamed, she felt Renne stir, and knew that Billy would be following soon. She closed her eyes, exhaling and sinking into the water again. She thought of Billy and Renne as her bonded, but had never called them brothers for a reason: she HAD her brother here, on the ship.

But that wasn't so anymore.

When she saw them approach, she barely managed to give them a smile. "Hey,: she said softly, her eyes downcast.

Having no desire to "go aquatic", since he associates such a shifting with a moment of serenity, Renne gives Bee a grateful chirp and crawls on up to the Human's shoulder. Up there, the oddity gives a hopefully reassuring nuzzle.

When he hears 'Tara's voice though, his own responds with no regard to hiding his worry.

"Tarrr-Tarrrr?"

"Katara," Billy whispers in response. When Renne climbs up, he responds with a pat and starts wading out. When he's close enough to do so, he ducks to catch her eyes and looks at her with all the compassion he can muster.

He's cautious, though, because he doesn't want to do anything that can be construed as attempting to replace Sokka. He'll let her take the lead.

Katara knew all too well what Billy was trying to do, or at least sensed it. Without a word she reached forward and hugged him tight, tears falling unashamedly down his back. She couldn't help it: with Sokka gone he was the closest thing to a brother figure that she had. She reached forward and took Renne in her hands, bringing him into the circle.

"Thanks for coming guys," she said, her voice shaky.

Immediately, his skinny arms extend to embrace the two. One arm around Bee, the other around 'Tara. Chirping quietly, his tongue occasionally flicks out to "groom" away as many tears as he can. It's an animal-in-the-wilds thing, nothing sick.

"Not abandon thee. Here, still. Not leave thee in Alone-ness."

That word "Aloneness" is said with the kind of tone one has when speaking of something incredibly beyond taboo.

"No, not alone," Billy affirms, taking his cue to hold her with all his strength. One of his hands smooths back her hair, the other tracing a steady pattern on her back.

"I'm sorry, so sorry," he says, sharing in her grief as the wave of emotion wells up. "I know I'm not him, I never will be, but I'll give what I can."

She laughs softly at the tongue lapping her cheek, and nuzzles him a moment. She already knew it was nothing weird Renne was doing, it was his way of being comforting, and it did help, actually.

"I know," she said to Renne, then turned to Billy's words, a note of seriousness in her gaze. "No, you won't. Sokka is my brother, I know you'd never try to take his place. But its like I keep telling you Billy: you have your own way of comforting me. You're my Bonded. I knew you'd come."

She smiled, and gave Billy a quick kiss on the cheek. Her eyes were still sad though.

"Eee. We hell-p Tarrr-Tarrr feel good-errr?"

Chirp. Of course, she gets a nuzzling back. Already, there's a faint almost-glimmer in his eyes if one looks hard enough. Prelude to the Pampering Prince.

"Right, we'll be here for as long as it takes."

Breathing deeply, he leans up and kisses her forehead. He's already soaked through with lakewater and tears, staying for a while longer won't hurt at all.

He's fixated so strongly on sending comforting thoughts to Katara that he doesn't participate in Renne's scheming.

"Thank you guys," she said, smiling at the both of them. They were really family she could count on when it came to things like this. She brought them out of the water, privately glad they followed her here. They always had a way of calming her.

Once they were all out of the water, she changed it to a sandy beach at sunset, the setting of Zuko's summer home on Ember Island. She stared into the distance a moment before gesturing them to come into the simulation of the house.

Chirp.

"Tarrr-Tarrr be Bon-d. Tarr-Tarrr hurrr-ted, we feel."

It's the truth and one he doesn't regret either. Curling up a bit on Bee's shoulder, the oddity offers a bit of his unusually warm temperature to help the Human dry off a little.

"You don't need to thank us," Billy insists, obediently following her into the house. At least it's only a Sensorium and he's not dripping in a real house.

"Where are we?" He catches that distant look and the obvious significance of the place.

Katara took a towel and started to dry herself, patting Renne.

"This is Zuko's summer home. We hid here after our other base was infiltrated, near the heart of the fire nation. This is where we hid right before we finally took on the fire nation directly. It was a pretty amazing day then. Sokka, his girlfriend Suki and Toph started taking down fire nation blimps, Aang fought the fire lord directly, and Zuko and I fought his sister at the Fire Nation capital. Wish Zuko remembered it, but Stacy pulled him before that."

She shrugged. "I guess I was feeling nostalgic."

"Eee."

He's not quite sure how to respond, except to listen and offer something. Although fearing he might somehow defile this house-of-memory, he can do things that won't touch the place. Thus, he offers a gentle, warm breeze, the sound of a Cil'a pod's calls and, there in his right hand/paw comes an unroasted marshmallow.

Ah, towels! He wraps one around his waist, listening attentively to Katara's tale.

"Definitely understandable at a time like this," he observes, happening to catch the marshmallow out of the corner of his eye. "Renne?"

She looked down and saw the marshmallow and smiled. Here they were, still sticking around and trying to make her feel better, and that did make her happy. This pain would be around for awhile, but she would brave it.

"Thank you Renne," she said, taking a marshmallow and taking it, laughing to herself. "I remember when we saw the Ember Island Players here. It was a play group, and they decided to make a play about us. It was pretty out there."

"Eee. May-bee, we do hell-p, if sha-rrre Rrrre-mem-berrr?"

It's just an offer of course, but beware. That little glimmer in his eyes is growing. Billy, ya might wanna warn her.

"You want to delve into our memories?"

It's a vague statement but somewhat clearer or a warning. But he thinks the memories might be too raw---what does she think?

Katara thought a moment. Her memories had some good ones, with the GAang and all they had done, but there were some pretty bad ones too, on her part and the others too. They COULD do this, and Renne was actually willing but was Billy?

"If you guys are, I am too. But my memories aren't always happy, good things, remember that."

"Is sa-me wi-th Rrrr-enne. Bu-t may-bee, if we do, we un-derrr-stahnd o-therrr, good-errr."

He's hoping his words are a little clearer at least. He's working on the English, honest! His offer though, is just an offer; a way perhaps to remind one another that memories are nigh impossible, if not impossible, to take away.

"I know, but we'll have each other." As always.

He nods, determined to see this through if it's what they need.

Katara nodded and closed her eyes. It wouldn't be easy to transmit all of her impressions of things through thought alone, especially when it came to Sokka, but she would do her best.

She started out with them as kids. They played together, Sokka acting like the boy who thought himself a man, Katara refuting that. The day that changed was the day they lost their mother: Katara watched her father leave them and Sokka accept the duty of watching over he. She would, in turn, watch over him too: the laundry, the food and the gathering would be her job, an accepted duty he would use to get out of doing certain things on his own. But the balance would happen too: he would have his sister listen to reason when she suggested something outlandish, stand by her when she did it anyway. He would come to see her as an extension of their mother, and then admit her face was the one that would remain when he thought of his mother. The thought choked her up, but it was necessary.

It was love. She shared it with her Bonded because it was a gift, to see the person that Sokka represented to Katara. He was her balanced side of the water tribe, as much a part of it as she was.

Quietly, for a moment, he sheds a tear. A tear of confusion, having never known such a life but of familiarity as well, having known the extermination of his species. He doesn't quite know what to say but instead, extends both arms to offer an embrace.

In return, he offers a memory of his own.

"Blood-Kin, this life-form is not Documented. How are we to -- " The younger twin was sternly silenced by his elder.
"The life-form is here. You can hear, touch, see, perceive and know him, yes?"
"Yes."
"Then he is real. He exists. And he must have a Calling, as we that are Documented do."
Lugh'ad protested only once, pointing out that the legal courts could not admit someone existed without Documentation. Still, the twins had come to an agreement and that night, when the suns set, they retrieved the then-unnamed Renne and they journeyed to a secret grove ofbanfa'al trees.

And there, Renne found his name.

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