A House Divided [Epilogue]

[governmentninja]

The fighting had finally ended, but not before a lot of damage had been done. A number of people had been injured, but they were being treated now. Winchester had been subdued, but not before he saw the Yeerk dead. The rest of his group had also been taken down and cuffed, with two exceptions. The first being the mysterious redheaded fellow, who

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[clear_horizons]

Picard entered the city in rather dark spirits. He had heard about the fighting taking place, and heard smatterings of chatter from the sick bay and its attendants regarding several severely injured crew members. He didn't bother responding to the summons he'd received; he was confident that his arrival would be acknowledgment enough. At the moment, he was more concerned with maintaining at least the illusion of calm, despite the anger he felt on the inside.

That they'd gone this far, hurt so many, all for one prisoner, was beyond the captain's reasoning. The entire fight had been unnecessary, wasteful. His grip tightened around the metallic ball in his hand when he walked up to Leon, resting his free hand on the other man's shoulder. "It's over then, Mister Kennedy?"

[governmentninja]

"Sir." Leon's posture shifted a little until he was standing at attention. It was an unconscious action, something he reflexively did around any of his superiors. It also forced him to push back his worries about Claire, for the moment, anyway.

"It's over, sir. Or at least it will be once I finish delivering the prisoner," he reported. There was almost no emotion in his voice, it was easier to just divorce that part of himself for now just to do his job.

"Winchester's group, with the exceptions of Katara and one other, are being held over there. We have a number of wounded, but zero fatalities." Save for one smashed Yeerkball.

"I let this get completely out of hand..." He shook his head, more disappointed in himself more than anything right then. But he wasn't going to wallow, not when there was still something he needed to do.

And speaking of, Leon held out his hand for the Yeerkball Picard was holding.

"If I may...?"

[clear_horizons]

"No, Mister Kennedy, don't believe that. You did well. Here." Picard handed over the Yeerkball gratefully, thankful to be rid of the foul creature. He knew it had to live in order to validate the concept of justice aboard the ship; that didn't mean he liked it.

"You handled a bad situation with all the grace you could, and all the force that was needed. Injuries are never good, or easy to bear, but there wasn't a single fatality, and the conspirators are now in custody. Take heart in that. Now, go deliver the prisoner, and then go see to Miss Redfield. That's an order."

[governmentninja]

"Yes sir." Leon took the Yeerkball, the one that had safely held Schmuz the entire time, from Picard, then turned to address his Security team.

"Chief, get ready to move the prisoners momentarily." Leon had a feeling Picard would want to address them first. "When you go, leave a small detail to assist the medics and keep an eye on Katara. When she's done here... have her wait in one of the interrogation rooms, unless the Captain has other plans for her. But I'd like to have a word with her before we decide what to do with her."

There was a minor change in his expression. He understood that he had to keep the Chief in the dark about this, but he really felt like shit about it.

"I'll explain everything in full to everyone later, I promise you that. For now, I want to get this godforsaken thing down into stasis and get this day over with.

"Jeka," he stated to his master illusionist as he walked towards the hub. He held up the pieces of the damaged decoy Yeerkball, "excellent work."

[hatngartersnake]

The damaged Yeerkball and the puddles that had formed on the floor where Leon had walked and stood vanished; as if they'd never been in the first place.

And they never had. With all of the tension and the fighting, no one had noticed that she'd slipped inside their minds and made them see -- and in some cases, throw, catch, and wrestle with -- something that wasn't actually there.

Jeka sighed softly. This really hadn't been how she'd wanted to make herself known in the crew. She slithered over to the red-haired woman who was in charge of the medbay.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" she asked quietly.

[kaya_waterwave]

There was a quiet that had come across the girl, as she continued to assist in the helping of wounds, which she had been at all day. If she were tired, she certainly didn't show it, but she also had lost any of the cheerfulness most people had seen from her in the past month. For Katara, there was little to show happiness about. She kept her feelings to herself now, preferring to focus them on healing the injured members of the crew, Sam's group and Leon's group alike

[demonbloodsam]

[clear_horizons]

"Mister Winchester," Picard began, locking a steady gaze at the young man, "I am terribly disappointed in you." His rage had dissipated a lot since speaking to Leon, and while he was still quite angry, disappointment was honestly the foremost thought on his mind.

"What the hell did you hope to accomplish with this, Mister Winchester? All this damage, several members of my crew severely injured, all to kill one tried and sentenced prisoner? Was his death so critical that it would be worth the cost of even one of the crew? How about two? Four? Ten? What did the prisoner's life equal among the crew, Mister Winchester

[kaya_waterwave]

And that was all that was needed to turn Katara to jelly. She turned from Picard, burying her face in her hands, sobbing softly. All these people today, hurt, critically injured, and she helped. Oh yes, she was totally better than the Yeerk now! If Aang ever saw her, he would be worse than disappointed, it would make him sad. And that would be enough to end any kind of killing in her heart. Once upon a time, it had been enough to stop her before.

Maybe it was to stop something like this from happening too.

[runnerwithagun]

". . ."

It was at this point in time when the effects of being stunned wore off from Ronon. Naturally, waking to find yourself tied up never goes down well, especially not for the proud Satedan. He caught the tail end of Captain Picard's lecture and it soon became clear to him that his was the losing side. What the hell had happened since he was stunned? The girl crying nearby and somber atmosphere was telling him that a lot more happened than them only losing. Ronon was almost afraid to learn the truth but he had to know.

".. Uhh.. what happened?" It was almost a whisper.

[kaya_waterwave]

"We lost," Katara murmured, sniffing. "A few people and a wolf got shot, and the Yeerk was never in that ball to begin with. It was a decoy. People all got hurt for nothing. No one is dead, thank goodness, but we're probably all going to go to confinement."

Jaime. I'm sorry.

[runnerwithagun]

". . ." People were shot!? "No one was meant to get shot." Ronon's voice carried a growl and almost sounded like an excuse. And to think that this happened over a decoy. So the Yeerk was still alive then. He was angry with whoever decided to spray bullets at people and equally as disappointed with the outcome. Although truth be told, Ronon was expecting confinement whether they won or lost. This would have to have been one of the worst possible outcomes that could happen to them.

Ronon hung his head.

[kaya_waterwave]

"It was Sam," Katara said, sighing. "They weren't deliberate, but most were from him. The only other actual shooting not from him was a guy shooting at a wolf, but I attended to her wounds."

Small consolation. Small.