Taran's POV
Taran was deep in meditation, but he still was not vulnerable to any means. He heard movements, and something being done on a control panel. He kept his position, and simply finished more quickly than he would have liked. The gem's pulsating slowed and stopped, and finally faded after a few more minutes.
Whoever had come after him had allowed him more time than he had expected. That left only two possibilities on who it could be. And Rose was not in the condition to be following him at the moment. Taran did not yet move, nor open his eyes.
"I didn't expect to meet a dragoon on this little adventure." Taran replied somewhat lightheartedly, finally relaxing his posture and stretching his arms. "And Dragon's dragoon. The last of the blue dragons is very important, indeed. Well, the last pure blue." Taran sighed. He wasn't going to get out of this that easily, he knew.
Getting up slowly, Taran turned to face n**. He had not wanted to meet her gaze, not yet, but there was no avoiding it. He knew what she would see in his eyes. He put off the moment just a bit longer by bowing to the dragoon upon facing her.
"It is an honor." Taran said simply, still bent in half in a bow.
Sadly, the ruse about being a simple mage might end here forever.
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Rose's POV
Nissa looked at Rose. "It is okay. You were acting in self defense. There is no shame in that--even if horrific."
Rose stopped rubbing her forehead slowly, and tears simply ran freely down her face. She opened her mouth to speak, and nothing came out. She closed it, and shook her head, the tears still running non-stop.
At that point, ANTIE-D came over to Rose, as well. She didn't say anything, which Rose was thankful for- but the attention was starting to embarass her.
Rose opened her mouth again, and could not speak still.
How could she tell androids the pain of knowing that you had just ended lives?
People- or at least beings- that had a past, a family, friends, dreams, and a future, and you ended it. Beings that had wanted nothing more than to accomplish something, and you instead took everything away from them. They might have made different choices if they knew they were to be facing their own deaths. Those beings were powerful- it was doubtful they thought about their mortality before boarding this ship. And how many other lives, those of the ones left behind, would now be changed forever for the worse?
Rose could only think these things. She opened her mouth a third time, and ended up closing it again soundlessly. Her eyes were red already from the stinging of the tears that still ran down her face.
All she could do was shake her head. They couldn't understand, and she couldn't tell them.
From across the room, they came.
Tuli and Jaa each came from behind Rose to hover on each side of her, just in front of her.
'We heard.' Tuli thought to Rose.
'We understand.' Jaa thought to Rose.
Rose shook her head at them, still feeling that they could not understand the depth of her sorrow.
Tuli and Jaa looked at her sadly.
'But we do. You are not the first to have ended lives. Everyone on this ship has.' Tuli reasoned. Reason was the best cure for emotion.
'And we know how much you must feel this. You are, after all, part angel. You may not yet know what that means, but life is even more precious in your eyes.' Jaa said softly. Deeply felt reason combats deeply felt emotion.
Rose looked up at both of them, one at a time. The flow of tears slowed and stopped, though her eyes were still full of tears ready to spill.
'Crying is mourning. It is right to mourn after death.' Tuli said simply.
Jaa looked at him, almost frustrated. Sometimes he tried to skip ahead too much.
'Remember why you killed. The lives you were protecting are safe from harm. You were defensive, like Nissa said, and more killing might have been done had you not stood up to them.' Jaa tried to backpedal Tuli's speedy conclusion.
Rose smiled, ever so little. It still hurt, and she still felt there was more she would have to face about this later. But... not now. She was all right. Everyone on the ship- save the missing Nogard, was fine. Part of her was still silent and torn. Maybe it would always be so. But she could look forward again.
"Thanks." Rose muttered out hoarsly. Looking at Nissa and ANTIE-D, she smiled and blushed sheepishly. "And, sorry about that." She had meant her little meltdown, and she thought they probably knew that. She felt embarrassed, as she looked around, trying to figure out what she had missed in the meantime.
Dragon was talking to Shal and Wynn and most of her crew, near where Nogard had been. Niko was curled up on a table, and of course the Gwees were right there with her and ANTIE-D. But... Taran wasn't there. Where had he gone?
Rose changed into some of her normal clothes after she realized she had changed into her least favorite things just to avoid the blood that wasn't really there. She then walked over to Dragon. She waited for Shal to finish explaining about Xangord.
"Dragon?" Rose asked. She knew she must look a wreck, and that Dragon probably hadn't noticed her little... breakdown... in the middle of the rest of the chaos.
"Permission to help rescue Nogard?" It was the only thing that made sense to her. But she would have to send the firefly down to pick up the rest of her pets... they'd been alone too long already.
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Se'rox's POV
Se'rox listened to ZuchaX. She had not known he had no Somebody.
"I'm... sorry." she said apologetically. She did not mean to offend. "But... I doubt you were a failed experiment."
When he showed her the portal, of course, she saw nothing. That was the one thing she had no ability with; determining anything on the other side of a portal was always beyond her. It frightened her a bit- one of the only things that did. But she trusted ZuchaX explicitly.
"Sounds like a nice place. And right now, I do feel too exposed. Yes, I would like to go." She looked up at ZuchaX, a grin crossing her face. "But I doubt I'll see much at all."
She had been a prisoner of a faction of the Organization for a long time, and was still in hiding in a way. But no longer was she stuck on a world no bigger than a ship, and she was anxious to go places.
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That odd being on the ship
Seeing the aftermath of the fight, and so many people doing and saying so much, Niva decided not to make a grand entrance. Or any entrance at all right now. Instead, she silently headed back down the hall. She had seen Rose, and though she had been upset, she seemed to recover well.
Niva went, instead, to the control room, and waited there.
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