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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"Maybe because we're more apt to want to take responsibility for things?" It was possible: if most girls had a whole 'lets look over people' thing, they would naturally be trying to strengthen themselves, right?"

Luckily, she knew nothing about Zetta and his thoughts on adolescent girls.

"I guess. You seem to be doing more to help out this ship than any of the damn people in alleged 'charge'." Now Zetta was all contempt and annoyance. "Captain? Council? Fah. Their heads are so far up their asses they can see their own tonsils from the wrong way back. If it weren't your crowd of people I'd've scuttled this ship and gone on my way ages ago."

Katara shrugged. "I do what I can to help the kids on the ship get prepared. The council, the Captain: they try to keep things under control on the ship. If we didn't have that, I know the morale on this ship might be pretty low, and you'd have some of the people here turning on others. I wouldn't want to be in their shoes: I'm free to do this at least. They aren't."

"Keep things under control? You mean, by forcing demon Overlords into counseling, books into physical examinations, and hiding the presence of a rage virus in the city so people had to find out second and third-hand?"

He's disgusted, but now irritated. He'd hoped, somehow, that Katara would be of his mind about things, but... that was too much to ask, he realized.

Katara sighed. It wasn't as if she agreed on everything the council did: in fact, it was only recently that she learned Matt was on the council. What had not occurred to her though, was the last part: she had not thought it possible that they would let the information about the virus happen without telling people what it was.

Then again, she thought she had heard a message about the virus, right?

"I don't really know why they think the psychological thing would work," Katara said. "There are far too many people on the ship to evaluate, and no real way to evaluate them in a fair way. The physical thing makes sense though: it would probably be standard on any ship or military thing. The virus I don't have an answer for though: they dropped the ball on that, and I don't really like all of their secrecy. Personally, the council exists to calm down most people used to normal life: even I know they can't implement half the stuff they want to do."

Personally, she thought the council had little power anyway, but she kept that to herself. She knew how important it was to think these factions had power, who didn't?

"Huh... so it's just a front to keep people thinking there's decent people in charge, even if they can't do a thing?"

Zetta seemed to understand this, and this comprehension lightened his mood... for a moment. Then he just got darker, a rage slowly building on his features.

And then it abruptly vanished, for reasons no one would ever begin to suspect. Namely -- because at this moment, for this one particular time only, Zetta didn't think he ought to be ranting and raving at Katara.

He hadn't forgotten why he had come to see her to begin with, after all.

"People need that, especially if they come from worlds where order and government made them feel safe," Katara said. "Besides, I'm sure they're doing something, even if they choose not to tell us what that is. At the very least, I know the magical department do their best. Have you met Nanoha yet?"

But she did notice the look on his face: it was hard to miss. "If something is making you angry, I'll listen, Overlord Zetta. It;s not all about me, you know!"

"No.... I haven't met Nanoha," Zetta said. In fact he'd only met one person from that world, Reinforce (Eins), and he had no idea they had any connection anyway.

"Heh. D'you really want to hear me rant about how a bunch of people who aren't doing crap are in charge, instead of someone who would?"

"You should," Katara said. "She's in the Magical Department. I'm not sure of most of the people on this ship: they think being grown up and having their own experiences entitles them to keep secrets, because they feel they know better than we do. Nanoha isn't like that: its like she's been there before and is honestly trying to do whatever she can."

But Katara didn't shake her head and what he said. "I want to now what you're thinking. What's the point of being on this ship and having a government if you can't talk about them and where they're succeeding or failing?"

Zetta just grunted at the description of Nanoha. He'd believe it when he saw it... but given his habit of butting into anything and everything he could, the fact that he hadn't run into this girl yet made him think that whatever her good points were, accessibility wasn't one of them.

"Look, Katara," he said. "I'm an Overlord, okay? That means I'm the ruler of a Netherworld, because I'm the most badass freakin' demon in it. And of all the thousands and thousands of Overlords out there? I'm the most badass freakin' Overlord. I don't know what you think of when you hear that, but it means that if I had my body back... well, we wouldn't be here, because I'd have killed ever last Ohm that thought it was worthy of death at my hands!

"But I don't have my body. I'm stuck in the Sacred Tome. Okay, fine, whatever. That doesn't make me any less of what I am, though. And that means someday -- maybe soon, maybe not -- this crew is gonna splinter like balsa wood. On the one side, we'll have all the idiots who are spending more times playing games and screwing around and not telling us crap. And on the other? There'll be me. And people like me, or people who know that I'm not playing around. The people who are smart enough to get stuff done and do what needs to be done.

"And that splintering is gonna be damn ugly."

Katara was quiet a moment. She knew she had to think out what she was going to say carefully, because honestly she didn't completely disagree with what he was saying. In certain instances, it was actually telling considering what he, as someone knew, had seen.

"I hope that doesn't come to pass," Katara said quietly. "The fight is not going to be an easy one, and it may be that there will be deaths. I've always prepared myself for that. But if we continue to be divided, quibbling about our differences, it will make it all that much easier for the Ohm to attack and hurt us. You have to understand something Overlord Zetta: in my world, evil meant suppressing others, hurting them and keeping them captive. As long as I've been here, that concept has been turned upside down and around.

She paused. "So this is what my deciding factor is: the choices we make are what will decide how we face the Ohm. I'm for what choice looks after those on this ship, and what prepares us to fight: that is why I maintained The Outsiders. If one of these factions are against preserving their lives, than I am against that. You can call me an idealist or foolish for that, but its what I think."

"So here's a thought for you, then," Zetta said. "You want to keep people on the ship alive, right? What about the people in the pods? They're alive, I guess, but is that living? If you have to sacrifice, I dunno, two people not in the pods to save twenty people in the pods, is that okay? Two hundred? All of 'em? And what about all the people who died on the worlds? We beat the Ohm, we bring them all back...

"I dunno what you think, but I'll tell you what I do, so if that kinda fight ever happens you can decide where you stand a little better." Zetta paused for pretty deliberate dramatic effect. "I'm playing to win. I'm going to beat the Ohm and get my Netherworld back. And my body. I'm not going to go about it some stupid way that gets people killed, and I'm not gonna sacrifice people just to make it happen." Because that would certainly lose the cooperation of a large number of people, after all. "And when we wish things back to the way they were before, I'll release everything but my Netherworld from my Netherworld. That's my plan here."

This wasn't exactly how she expected this conversation to go, not really. But at the same time, he posed a good question, one that she honestly thought more people should have been thinking about. And she was completely prepared to at least answer him.

"I'll save everyone that I can, Overlord Zetta. I know it sounds stupid to you, and I know I must look like nothing but a naive little girl, but I will. If it means I have to pick a side, then I'll do it. I don't know if our reasons will coincide, I have no idea. But I do know that my reason to be here is to fight the Ohm, and make sure we don't become less than we could be for that. But...Overlord Zetta, I want you to know something. Thank you for helping me..with all of your evilness."

She had to add that last part so he wouldn't think she was being too nice.

"Stupid?" Zetta pondered this for a moment, then said, with chuckle and a shrug in his voice, "The multiverse probably needs naive little girls as much as it needs a badass freakin' Overlord. If everyone was a demon, what would make it special?

"B-but don't get all mushy on me!" he sputtered. "I'm not helping you because I -- because I care or anything! You're -- useful! And I don't want you pulling an Alex or something!"

It'd all be a lot more believable if he hadn't sputtered his desperate way through all of it. At this point, the only person those claims are even plausible to is Zetta himself.

Katara sniffed, looking haughty. "You didn't have to agree with me saying I was naive! I prefer to think of myself as an idealist! It isn't my fault that my first instinct isn't to crush my enemies to a pulp, you know!"

Which she was saying because she mostly meant, but specifically so that it would avoid the overly mushy part of their conversation. Besides, how could one continued to stay endeared over a person who praised themselves every five seconds anyway?

"Darn right I'm useful, don't forget it! And I'm not going to do anything like Alex did: I'm a waterbending master, and you can't really be one if you don't have control over your emotions! I used to get upset like Alex did and my bending would suffer for it: obviously I can't do that anymore."

Zetta laughed, though not evilly or cruelly. "I call 'em like I see 'em. But you're only naive in demon terms, so isn't me saying that really a compliment?"

Sure, Zetta praised himself a lot, quite shamelessly -- because he was, pretty understandably, proud of being the strongest being in existence. And if it cost him people being all sweet to him, well, so be it! He's still awesome whether they love him or not!

"Oh, so your power isn't helped by strong emotions, huh? Is that a waterbending thing or a bending thing? Crazy chick you showed me didn't seem to be suffering from... whatever the hell she was feeling," he finished on a disturbed note.

She frowned, but he had a point, at least from his perspective. "I guess that is kind of a compliment, so I can't complain."

Here, she knew she was going to have to explain. "I used to get very emotional, and it would honestly screw up my bending: it was unfocused and completely brought out by anger. That girl you saw mastered her emotions, and it made her dangerous, practically unstoppable. But the day I fought her, the day you saw? She wasn't that on a day where she got tenfold strength and was fighting me. I'm not saying emotions don't help, but if you let them control you, it just winds up hurting others."

"I've always felt that a good rage really helps you blast better," he said. "But yeah, it's stupid if you blast the wrong things because of it. But demon powers aren't your bending powers, so, apple juice and Prinny juice."

"Whatever emotion you have in a fight, you have to channel it, not let it control you," Katara said. "No one said feelings couldn't help. You just can't let the emotion do the talking. If you do, its controlling you."

Here, she was confused. "Um, what about juice?"

"Uh, you know, comparing two things that aren't alike?" Zetta tried to come up with a better metaphor, but... nothing was like Prinny juice. What could possibly fit better?

Katara laughed. "I guess, never heard of it, to be honest. But I stand by what I said though. It's why I'm here to begin with. I would never allow my feelings to get the better of me in a fight."

"...that whole thing you went through on your world must have been pretty rough on you," Zetta said thoughtfully, looking at the girl. "I mean, I know humans grow up a lot faster than demons, but still, even speaking relatively..."

"It was a war," Katara said. "A hundred years, and for the most part, it touched on everyone. Adapting, learning to fight: these were things you did, or you became someone terrorized. I'm making sure that never happens again: not to me, or to anyone who feels that way here."

And here she looked serious. "That was something me AND my brother believed in our world. I'm going to make sure that continues, even with the Outsiders."

Zetta made a noise somewhere between amused and thoughtful. "Sounds like a lot of people have had one of those in the past. Well, once we get out of this crap, if you ever get an insane murderous dictator taking over your planet, let me know and I'll kick his ass so hard he'll get an orbital tour of his former conquests."

Katara shook her head. "There have been a LOT of stories I heard, not all of them pretty, to be honest. But if that's true, I think you should take what you ca from your own personal pain and learn from it. I'm sure you learned something after turning into a book, right?"

Here she did smile a little, almost shyly. Overlord Zetta was definitely a charismatic guy. "I think I'll have to settle for the alien species trying to destroy us all as the worse enemy I've ever faced."

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