trans_9 | Power Within... [Open]

Within the Sensoriums, Sasami sat idly in a room decorated with various items. Magical items, in fact. Not only did she have the potential for amazing magical power, but she also knew Tsunami's power was being locked away. If she could mix the two, she might be able to free Tsunami and end this silly conflict.

However, there laid the problem. Being bonded to a goddess, there was tons of power that could be used. At the same time, there was also various magic types out there, especially with what was being used on the ship. Negi was teaching her one style, but it was still very basic, even with her Pactio. There were others out there, too. Commander Nanoha had one style, and so did Councilman Matt. Evangeline was something like Negi, but she probably would never train her, especially after that outburst trying to help Negi. But, wasn't there others like Hay Lin-neesan or Aqua-neesan?

She let out a sigh. Maybe she was thinking too hard about this. She did have other stuff she could be working on at the moment, like her restaurant.

Or maybe she shouldn't be working at all...

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"What's with all the junk?"

Evangeline couldn't help herself. Couldn't keep from dropping in on the girl; for all she'd avoided her since their little scuffle over the boy, the incident with Kain had forced a reappraisal. Not a reversal, just yet, but the girl was no longer beneath notice. What choice she made now was worth considering.

But once there she couldn't help but drop the comment. Mages did love the trappings of power; the archetypal staff and robe, the artifacts of their attendants. Evangeline was really no different; she had her grand keep at Leibenschilt and her other vast diorama to impress upon lesser mages the scope of her power and learning. But she understood that real, personal power did not flow from those things. They only emphasized what was there... or what was not.

"Huh? Oh!" Sasami uttered, seeing Evangeline approach her. Admittedly, it was a surprise to see her here. Mostly because she figured she still hated her. "Ah... I've been thinking... and I guess I needed some idea of where to go with it so..."

She motioned to "the junk", sheepishly. "I have a lot of power and I don't know where to take it or how to use it properly."

"You're looking for inspiration." Evangeline assumed. "But the objects a system produces or uses are not the system. A sword doesn't teach you how to fight or work steel. These are no different."

She sat across from the girl. She was trying to have a serious conversation, and keeping off her feet somewhat restricted her tendency towards intimidating body language... though with her that was a term that could take a fast turn for the euphemistic.

"Has the boy taught you nothing?" She meant Negi, of course, but he was always 'the boy' when she talked to others.

Sasami began to counter over what Eva had said, but stopped. Of course he taught her, but it was just the basics. It was before KAIN. Before the game decided to change the rules.

"N-No. I don't know where to begin." Sasami admitted. "A lot of things have changed and I'm trying to keep up with it all."

"To start with..." Evangeline said. "Do you want to wield it?"

That was always the starting-point - why power? It might seem a strange question coming from Evangeline, who clearly enjoyed surveying the world from her pinnacle of magical achievement... but she was a person who saw limits everywhere, and knew how power could bind as well as liberate.

Did she want to wield it?

It would be a simple answer, wouldn't it? She had to - that power was every bit of her. There was a bit of doubt, though - people like Aqua and Starfire had worried about her pushing herself...

...but, then the memories of KAIN came back and the fact that Negi had gotten hurt trying to save her. She wouldn't let that happen again.

"Yes. Yes, I do."

"Why? Are you afraid for your own life? For the boy? Do you want to fight for the people on the ship? Are you bound to by your lineage? And don't just nod, tell me in your own words."

Evangeline was not the sort to trust most people's rationalizations for their actions, but they were still revealing, and important in their own way. They told you something of what moved a person, even if it wasn't always the most important thing...

"I want to fight for everyone!" Sasami said, a determined look on her face. "I want to help everyone here, no matter what." She looked down a bit as she tried to find the words.

"I know everyone's worried about me, about how I've pushed myself here. I tried joining the Council twice - I even turned down a third time because someone was repodded - and I've been trying to set up a place for others to eat at, but... what you did, what Negi did, what everyone did when KAIN attacked and knowing what I have now..."

She looked back up at Eva.

"I want to return that favor, but... I can't do it by myself. I need help."

Tch. The girl knew she'd fought, huh? She'd been hoping that wouldn't get around. People always seemed to take it the wrong way when she fought their enemies... and she liked the solitude she had in the ship. No one here bothered her.

"You will suffer for it. And when you are hurt it will hurt all those who used to protect you. And it may be that it comes to naught, that you fail those you mean to protect."

The voice was superficially taunting, not so different from her normal tone... but there was a coldness underneath it. A seriousness that didn't attend her more casual quarreling. She was not saying nice things, but they were, so far as she was concerned, the truth.

"And you will see the world through the eyes power gives you. That don't let you look on anything without knowing your capacity to change it. And when you know how little you cannot do you will find out just what kind of person you really are."

...she really wished she'd brought something with her to crush for dramatic effect right about now. That would have been great.

She smiled a thin smile. "It would be fun to watch you come to grips with all that, of course. But consider what you have. In the midst of all this-" The ship, the war against the Ohm, she meant. "-you are free to be a child. You are protected by those who have already given up that happiness that they might do so. Your own sacrifice denies theirs. Is it worth it?"

Sasami listened to Eva's speech intently. She could tell that she was trying to dissuade her from doing this.

"Eva... I haven't been a child since I was three." Sasami said, finally. "I don't know if I can call it that, really. I'm not the real Sasami. The real Sasami died seven hundred years ago." Truth be told, that was a lie, but it was a lie she's been convinced of for that long. "I'm nothing more than a vessel for the power within, a power that's now locked..."

She looked down a bit. "I've seen a lot before I came here. I've... I've destroyed a lot." Her mind flashed back to her - no, Tsunami's - fight with Tokimi and that it destroyed part of the galaxy with just one blow. "But, if I can protect those I love here, then it's a sacrifice I can live with! But..."

She looked back up at Eva. "Don't tell me that those who watch over me have sacrificed their happiness for me. I know they've done so much more before we ever met." Aqua, Hay Lin, Reimi, even Negi... they've been so much more than she ever did. "I'm not going to make their sacrifices in vain. I'm going to make sure that we all live together."

Power Within... [Open]

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