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

Comments

[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.

Throughout the beginning, she hadn't wavered in what she thought. She believed in it as much as she could, because a slight waver and she knew she wouldn't have the heart to go through with any of it. Leon looked like he wanted a word with her, and she flat out couldn't even look the Captain in the eye. That she attributed to her earlier attack on fellow starfleet member James Kirk. The group lead by Sam were going to be put in a holding cell, and she knew that fate was her own and accepted it. One didn't make a decision like this and think she was off the hook because she'd helped the injured. Katara was grim in accepting that security on the ship needed its order, and that depended on knowing the rest of the staff knew they had nothing to fear from this "mutiny" again.

Two things haunted Katara as she finished her last rounds, and treated Xander, who had been retrieved by Sokka earlier, memories that made all of this more poignant: Hamma was one, of course. The Yeerk would always remind her of Hamma, whether she wanted it to or not. She saw her face in it, alive and warped from years of imprisonment, willing to use others for her own whims. She had haunted Katara for many months: she would be a forefront in her dreams later.

The other was Jaime, and how his face looked last when she spoke with him. How he believed in helping others, how strong he was committed to helping his fellow crew members. She'd heard what had happened: how Blue Beetle's "other: had crushed the supposed Yeerk, and how close he'd come to killing Sam Winchester. It would have been easy to blame Sam, who had injured many with the gun, or any of the others who had injured some of the crew: by now she'd gotten a pretty thorough explanation of who had done what. But Katara was far more sensible than that. The blame here she rested on herself, one of the few teenagers participating in this madness. If it hadn't been for Danny, how far would she have gotten?

And if Jaime had actually killed that Yeerk, there was no mistake about it: it might as well been Aang, forced to do it in the Avatar state. And that was nothing Katara would soon be forgetting. The guilt cut through her like a knife, deservedly so considering how little she was injured today. She had made friends today, but the rest of the crew would probably not be so forgiving, and Katara knew that was also deserved.

Wrong and right, the crew's safety over that aliens...the line was so blurred Katara couldn't help but understand both arguments, and in the end was so unsure about what she believed now she had to focus exclusively on helping the wounded to quell the storm in her mind.

The water in her hands may as well have been red. She'd seen enough of that
today to know it to be literal.

[demonbloodsam]

The revelation that Schmuz--the Yeerk--was still alive hit Sam like a sledgehammer. He felt like someone had just dropped a building on him. His shoulders slumped forward and he hung his head in defeat, staring at an empty space on the ground before him. Inside, his stomach twisted in knots and his heart slowed it's beat until it was little more than dull, but strong, thumping in his chest, echoing in his ears so loud he thought that everyone could hear it.

It was over...and it'd all been for nothing. All the fighting, all the people that had been hurt, it had all been for nothing. Schmuz was still alive. Sam had failed.

The weight of his guilt and remorse for all those injured seemed even heavier now. There was no solace in knowing that he and the others may have just saved the entire crew further hurt at the hands of a Yeerk. There was no comfort in knowing that they had prevented anyone else from going through what he and other infested crew members had gone through. The threat was still there.

All those people had gotten hurt...over a decoy.

It took every ounce of will-power he had left for Sam not to bust into tears right there in the middle of city, where he sat on his knees, defeated, in front of the entire crew. He'd tried to protect them. He'd tried so hard. So hard that some of them had gotten hurt. Now he would have to face the consequences of his actions--as he knew he'd have to--but he would have to do so without the comfort of knowing he'd just spared them something awful.

And, he knew, he would have to do it alone.

[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?

"I can sympathize and empathize with your position, Mister Winchester, perhaps better than you know. That does not, however, give you any right to endanger my crew with your infighting and anger! People could have died here today, and a few nearly did. We have members of this crew currently in critical condition because you decided to turn the lower decks into a war zone.

"Your actions today were inexcusable. What was it that prevented you from being the better person in this and letting him proceed to his punishment, Mister Winchester? Was it anger at what the rest of his companions had done? Was it truly to stop one being from posing a risk to the crew? If that's the case, I would seriously recommend reevaluating who has caused the most damage to the crew of the two of you so far.

"You can think on that while you spend some time in the brig." When Picard turned away from Sam, he cast a glance at Katara. Unlike the glare he'd leveled at the young man, there was only sorrow in his expression now.

"I had thought you better than this, Miss Katara," he said, leaving the group to their thoughts while he spoke with Master Chief about what to do with all the conspirators.

[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.