markofthebrave | [ Action, Voice ] .045

[Raine was right. A draft had come, this one worse than before - and in a place where she could be more useful than any other location. And she wasn't going.

She took a good long look at that list. And there are some people that she has to visit.

...okay, there are a lot of people she has to visit.

First stop - Shikamaru and Chouji's place. If she can't go herself, then she has to do what she can to help the people who are going out out, and that means talking with the strategist going out there who she trusts.

Next stop - Casa de Freedom Fighter. She may have put it off if her talk with Shikamaru hadn't made her realize how absolutely necessary this was.

From there... spirits, so many people... Katara takes out her journal and stares at it a bit before making a general voice post and then crafting some filters.]

If anyone - needs me for anything, or if there's anything I can do to help out before you go, I'm around. I've fought in swamps before, and although I don't know anything more about this one, I'll try to answer what I can.

[And now it's time for filters. She doesn't have anything specific to say to these people, not over the journals anyway, so the message is the same.]

[Filtered to Ginko, Masaomi, Raine, Kurt, and Sanji]

Hey. If you have time, I'd like to see you before you go.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ABRUPTLY in a flash, Kurt is sitting on the railing.]

This bridge?

[Katara jumps, abruptly closing her journal.]

Yes. This bridge.

[He loves doing that, even on days like this.]

So, what's up?

[Oh, not much.]

I wanted to talk to you about the draft.

[He gives a nod.]

You've been out there before, yeah?

[And she nods.] A few times. Twice on the draft, once on a raid for one of the renegade Malnosso facilities. The ones that hold the kidnapped victims.

[... right, the infiltration. He was still new to Luceti when that happened.]

But those Third Party guys weren't at that other place.

No, they weren't.

[A deep breath.] Have you ever been in a fight like this before?

... not really. I mean... we train to fight pretty much every day, but that's against other mutants... or giant robots. [The Sentinels had become a recurring opponent in the Danger Room after that one incident.]

But we don't kill. [Kurt is less worried about the setting and more about what he has to do.]

[Katara nods. She's not too surprised Kurt's been training to use his powers to fight. What else are powers for anyway?]

There are positions in the draft where you may not have to. But when it comes down to your life and the life of the people you're there to protect, you can't afford to hesitate.

Yeah, I know. [But... he isn't going to wait around while others fight. That's not what X-Men do. Still... she makes a good point.]

I don't want to have to kill them.

[She's silent for a long moment.]

You have to decide what you're going to do. Sometimes things happen in the heat of the moment and - you can't hold back out there. I'm not going to tell you what you should decide, but you should know that they won't go down easily. They'll keep fighting, even if they're severely wounded. The only way I've found to keep people safe out there is to kill the enemy.

[He ends up turning away, towards the river.]

I know that, but... it's not that easy, is it? What makes my life worth more than one of theirs? Or ten of theirs? [It's war, he knows that. But to ensure his own survival, it's not choosing ONE life, his own, over another. It's his life over several. For every hour he stays alive, how many people die for that?]

[That's a deep question. She's a little surprised, hearing it from him. But she doesn't hesitate for long in answering it.]

Nothing. But that's not the question you have to be asking yourself.

[A deep breath.]

You should be asking yourself - if you die, who's going to be there to watch your friends' backs? [She pauses a moment to let that sink in.] It's not right - it's not fair that we should have to fight like this. But we're not being given a choice.

Maybe on some grand scale, every life is equal. But it's not equal to me. There are some people I'd die to protect, and some people I'd kill to protect. And that's why it's so important to stay alive. Because if I'm not able to fight, I'm not able to protect them. And if I have to die, I want to to be in protecting them, and not because I was refusing to do what I had to in order to stay alive.

[... he hated that. It was because he knew she was right that her words stung all the more. Of course, when it came down to it, his own life an actions was saving others. It didn't change the fact these Third Party guys were still people who would die, but all the same...]

... I guess even King David took the life of Goliath. {And many more besides that. He knows it won't make sense to Katara, but he says it for his own benefit. If he is forced to kill during this draft, it won't make him a murderer. But it will be a line he'll draw. He won't be the same Kurt he was before.]

Who's King David?

[She doesn't mind asking, not just out of curiosity, but because it seems the story gave him comfort.]

I didn't know America had kings.

No no, he's from waay before America existed. He started out as just a shepherd, yeah? But God chose him to be king, when King Saul started going all Dark Side and crazy in the head. But even though he was chosen by God, he didn't just get to take over when Saul died. He had to fight a lot of battles. Some for Saul, some against him, just to survive. Anyway... he did become king eventually. But the point is that sometimes even a man of God has to fight for his life.

[... and other times, they don't fight at all. Which makes it hard to know the right course.]

[Uh...]

[So he was relating back some legend...?

She has a feeling that asking for clarification will just make things further off-track.]

...I really have no idea what you just said. But I'm glad that you have something that serves as an example for you.

[Not a legend....!]

Ahh, right. I guess it doesn't make much sense without context, huh?

[Katara shrugs. And moving on to the next order of business - confessional.]

Do you know Shikamaru?

No, who is he?

He's a good friend of mine here. In his world, he's a ninja. He and Albert Silverberg are one of the two main strategists going out there.

[She moves to look at him directly.]

I told him about your teleporting ability, so he might get in contact with you. But even if he doesn't, remember his name. He and Chouji are both going to be out there, and they're people I'd trust with my life. If you need anything out there, go to one of them, or to Raine. Sanji, Ginko, and Luffy will all be there too, but they'll probably be harder to find. So remember that, okay?

[A nod at that.]

Okay, I'll keep them in mind. [Even if Raine is the only name he knows of that group.]

[Action]

markofthebrave - 2011-06-10 02:47 (UTC) - Expand

bamfing - 2011-06-10 11:58 (UTC) - Expand

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