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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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.

Ah, family. Billy absorbs Katara's thoughts, getting to know the man he'd never had a chance to meet on the ship. Their life had been rough (whose hadn't on this ship, really) but they had each other to rely on. That was enough, and he has to agree: it's incredibly cruel of Stacy to tear them apart again.

At Renne's familiar memory, Billy smiles. He knows something or other of the Documentation, and for a brief second he feels that illogical merging of their consciousness all over again. He wonders if Katara will ever experience that in detail---maybe he should suggest it.

But for the moment, Billy feels compelled to share a memory of his own. I don't have biological siblings, and my parents were always somewhat distant. No one knew me as well as the other Rangers, he thinks, calling them up one by one. Jason, always behind him with an encouraging word. Zack, two dance steps ahead with an unbreakable smile. Trini, waiting peacefully at his side. Kimberly, breathing life into everything they did. Tommy, courageously moving on from his past and pulling them forward. Zordon and Alpha, providing advice and cracking the occasional joke (mostly Alpha. He still didn't quite understand human culture).

He'd only known Rocky, Aisha, and Adam for a few months before the end of their world, but the three had started to influence him in their own ways. Everyone had always been there with advice and support where his family could never be.

And, of course, there's the current family right in front of him. He smiles for them.

Now she had even more of a reason for being grateful for their appearance: they could see Sokka for who he was, for all of the things that made him so amazing as a sibling. What she hadn't expected, but was just as grateful for, was the memories of her Bonded too.

Renne's came to her in a sort of yellow white color: it was as if that moment were a point with Renne that was a very bright part in his life. She could see that it was when the imp started to really form the active part of his life. She smiled, holding her smaller bonded tight.

When Billy's came, it was a little different: she could see swirls of different colors here, and she felt the different strengths and attributes of all of the different rangers. Even though she didn't have their strengths, she could actually feel what each of them had brought to their group. She breathed in, and held Billy's hand now.

And now she sent out a memory of her own: the first time she bonded with them, when Goliath and Jamie had been with them. While the latter two were not as bright in color as the other two, they shone nonetheless, and reflected colors all over the three. They could feel the elation and the joy in being with her friends, soon to be her bonded.

Flushing a little, the oddity gives each of his Bondeds a nuzzle, then sends Billy a little thread that 'feels' like I understand. He does in a way, understand distant parental relations, what with being legally the equivalent stillborn.

Still, the sharing brings a reverence out of him as a tiny thought turns into an idea, then a plot in and of itself. With one more nuzzle, the creature crawls carefully out of the house to another part of the Sensorium chamber. Indeed, they have and can share their own memories, but making memories together now and in the future...that too, could be rejuvenating.

Plus, he has a little surprise.

It's amazing what a small thread of happiness can do. Billy sends them both a distinct feeling of gratitude that then fades into puzzlement. What on earth is Renne doing now?

"He's plotting for us again," Billy whispers with a shake of the head. After a moment passes, he motions to Katara and sets off after their fuzzy blue friend.

Does she really have a choice? Katara followed Billy, taking his hand.

"What are we going to do?"

Hello, you two. Meet a very LARGE pile of pillows, cushions and blankets. And a rather nice spread of fruits, salads and light tea-broths. A little ways off from that is a little campfire with a ring of sitting-rocks around it.

And the obligatory marshmallows, already skewered.

The hand grasping his receives a gentle rub to the knuckles. As they step out and see the pampering-grounds set up, Billy grins and starts to wade through the fluff.

One of his hands reaches for a blanket, tempted to wrap it around him and hed out toward the fire-pit. But he'll wait to watch Katara first---it's about her today.

Katara couldn't help but stare in awe. It all looked so amazing, and Renne had taken all this time to do this for them. She flushed, and matched Billy's wading. She wanted to hug him, but was already bee-lining for the marshmallows.

She couldn't help it: she loved them.

She wrapped the blanket around Billy, grinning. "You good?"

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