Chương 90: A Moment of Peace
A/N: L'Naan's 'eye' is now named the 'Eye of Warcraft', I forget to fix it before I released the last chapter, though I've fixed it now.
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Katye had tried to apologize later that night, but I refused to let her start. We talked, and I explained my side of things, including that I talked with my other side. This was just another quirk to our relationship, and one we would work out over time with Echo, L'Naan, and even Raven, once we got her back. Echo was not thrilled about the idea of Katye training for long periods, but with the promise of not spending years apart any time soon, she swallowed her complaints.
After that was handled, we settled onto our little beach and into a comfortable routine. Echo got to hunt and even took L'Naan with her a few times once her replacement arm was finished. Filigree and Nyka played together through the jungle while Katye and I lounged on the shore, not too far from the ship. Typically, I would nap in the sunlight while listening to music while Katye spent most of her time reading. We both went hunting with Echo at least once, Katye barbecued every night, and L'Naan even underwent her Naru Darc trial.
The ocean breeze kept me cool while I sprawled out on a large towel, under the twin suns. Music was playing softly in the background. Katye was using my side as a pillow while she read and hummed along to the song. Echo and L'Naan were sparring on the edge of the water, in only a pair of shorts and a wrap around their breasts, quality entertainment. I was at the peak level of comfiness, so something had to come along and disturb my peace.
::We are being hailed by Voyager.:: Fae chimed through the comm badge that Katye had pinned to her chest.
I groaned and complained, "Why are you even wearing your comm badge?"
"For moments like this," she retorted, shutting her book with a snap as she sat up, and then tapped her badge. "Put it through."
"Rebecca?" Janeway's voice came from Katye's badge.
"Yes, captain. I apologize for no visual, but we aren't on the ship right now," I replied as Echo and L'Naan stopped sparring and walked over.
"That's fine; I was hoping to pick your brain anyways. We made contact with a race known as the Mari and are orbiting their home world while we trade, and the crew gets some R and R. They're telepathic which has led to B'Elanna being arrested for a violent thought that sparked a beating in the marketplace. She is to undergo an engramatic purge unless you or Tuvok can find something that will convince the Mari government to release her," Janeway explained.
I knew the episode that she was talking about. B'Elanna had been set up by the merchant that she and Janeway had been negotiating with for some part for the ship. The person who did the actual beating had bumped into and stomped on B'Elanna's foot intentionally to trigger a violent thought. They both 'stole' the thought, and the merchant sold it to several other people which resulted in a murder later on. Tuvok was able to solve everything, but the procedure was started and active for a few minutes before Janeway was able to reveal the merchant's true merchandise.
"Yes, I've had a vision of the events you are talking about... She was bumped into by someone, causing the violent thought that she is being charged with, right?" I asked.
"Yes, he was the one who beat the other person."
"He did it intentionally to spark the thought and was working with the merchant that you were bartering with at the time. The guilty man extracted the thought, but so did the merchant. If you don't act quickly, the young woman that Neelix is bartering with for fruits and vegetables will be murdered, so I ask that you have someone watch over her in the marketplace, once it opens. Tuvok can persuade the merchant..."
"Guill, his name is Guill," L'Naan growled.
"Guill, to trade violent thoughts with him. While Guill doesn't reveal the exact thought to Tuvok, his trained skill with telepathy allows him to gain the advantage against Guill and force him to admit his wrong doings, which saves B'Elanna from the purge. That's all the help that I can give you, since even if we left now, there is no way that we could get there in time to save B'Elanna."
"That's more than enough, Rebecca, thank you. When will you be returning to Voyager?" Janeway asked.
I glanced around my group, but the most laid-back reaction I got was from Echo, who was the least invested in the Voyager crew.
"It seems my group is ready to get back on the road, so to speak. We'll clean up here and leave within the hour," I replied.
"I didn't mean for you to end your vacation three days early."
"It's fine. Katye and L'Naan are ready to get back to their duties, it seems, and Echo and I would like a way to regenerate that doesn't drain our core every time," I replied with a light chuckle.
"Alright, do you want us to wait for you?"
"We'll catch up like we planned. It won't take too long since you visited the Mari as I doubt these events happened over a day."
"This is our fourth day here, and hopefully, our last once we get the matter with B'Elanna resolved."
"Then it won't take us too long to return even if you leave orbit. I'll give you an eta once the Fae Dragon is back in space," I said.
"Thank you, Rebecca, for all of your help," she replied.
"All a part of the job, Captain. We'll see you soon. Rebecca out," I yawned and stretched, not ready to get up, but unable to argue otherwise.
"Now that she has decided that we are heading back, is there anything else that you two wanted to do before we go?" Katye asked, standing up.
"Don't act like this was my decision alone," I grumbled while standing up.
"Not really," Echo replied with a heavy sigh, unable to find an excuse to save her from Tuvok's reports which she still remembered.
"I was promised a sparring match, unless you are a bIHnuch," L'Naan taunted.
"I figured that you would want to do that within the Mental Plane back on Fae; that way, I can't accidentally hurt you," I retorted.
"She can't replicate my full potential since my strength ties into my Soul Power, but if you need the advantage," she mocked.
"Do you really think I'm so easy to goad? If you want to spar, that's fine, but I don't want to have to heal you, nor do I want to destroy your new arm. If you want to take that risk, that's on you."
"I'll make sure that none of that happens, so stop your baiting, both of you. If you want to spar, then you can spar," Katye interjected.
I gave a wry chuckle while L'Naan grinned with a familiar battle hungry gaze that I had seen whenever she sparred or trained on the holo-deck. Echo was laughing at me through our connection since she had been the one regularly sparring against L'Naan and her unique 'eye'. While Echo could beat her in their duels, that was because there was no restriction on magic while I was completely cut off if I was to spar against her.
"Fine, let's do this," I replied as I summoned out a pair of heavy short swords from my ring.
L'Naan called out her Soul Weapon in its bat'leth form. "No magic or Soul Power, just Weapon-Force and my 'eye'."
"Deal, on the condition that I can repair my weapons throughout the fight. Even coating them in Weapon-Force can't make up the difference in the quality of our weapons and, in a true fight, any opponent would be able to reinforce their weapon with mana, allowing them to last longer," I replied.
She smirked, "Fair."
Katye and Echo backed away while I flared my Earth Domain and crumbled the stone furniture in the area to give us some room. I retracted my Domain and took my stance, waiting for L'Naan to make her move. She closed her eyes, stirring her mana, and activated her 'Eye of Warcraft'.
There was a synergy between her 'eye' and her Soul-Weapon which turned her aura into a sharp blade. Watching Echo and L'Naan spar over the past week, I had noticed that the weapons that Echo used could not hold up against the repeated assault of her bat'leth. Echo's Weapon-Force was stronger than my own, but if she only used that to reinforce her sword against L'Naan, it would crack in a dozen or so clashes.
Her eyes opened and one was dyed a burnt-sienna color, her aura sharpening. The instant that it reached its peak, she swung her bat'leth with no warning and launched a band of Weapon-Force at me. She did not catch me off guard, so I responded with a cross slash from both of my short swords. The band of burnt-sienna struggled against the X of stormy gray for a moment before my attack destroyed hers, but she had already launched a second attack which shattered what was left of my cross attack, barely losing any strength.
The delay was enough time for me to dodge the attack, including her second one. I sent another dual slash at her, but this one was parallel, horizontal lines while I continued to circle closer to her at high speed. She shattered the silver bands with a single swing of her bat'leth, but I released parallel slashes of Weapon-Force with every step as I closed the distance between us while avoiding the remains of her counterattacks.
Finally closing the distance between us, I stabbed out with one of my short swords, which she deflected with the swing of her weapon. I struck with the second, but again she deflected it, her bat'leth making a circular motion from the first impact. I allowed my body to go with the flow of her counters and let my foot come up to kick her in the head, almost cartwheeling myself.
Normally, this would be enough to catch her off guard, but perhaps the 'eye' allowed her to react properly before my attack connected. While dropping her bat'leth and attacking me directly with her fists was a decent option, she chose smarter and slammed her shoulder into my chest, knocking me away. I did not fall, springing off my hands, while keeping a hold of my swords, and landed on my feet with my back to her.
I could sense her launching a Weapon-Force blade at my back, though I could not tell how it moved. Typically, I would teleport myself out of this situation, but with that unavailable, I threw myself forward and to the side, tumbling and twisting around to face her. The first attack missed, but she launched a second at me just as I got my feet underneath me properly. I overcharged my right sword with Weapon-Force and struck out against her attack. While I destroyed the band of energy, a crack appeared on the blade of my sword; there was a limit to how much energy the crude metal could channel.
There was about ten feet between us, and she would need a moment or two before she could release another ranged blade of Weapon-Force, just like myself. Thanks to my prone position on all fours, I threw myself at her and closed the distance between us with my weapons stabbing out. With a sweep of her bat'leth, she knocked my swords to the side, but I slammed into her with my body, causing her to stumble a few steps back.
Allowing the momentum of the deflection to help me spin around faster, I brought down both of my swords for a heavy chop. She countered, bringing her bat'leth overhead, and my two blades slammed onto it. She struggled against my strength while my blades struggled against the sharpness of her bat'leth, forcing me to channel my mana into them or have them broken. She smirked, having sensed me using my mana, but that just made me push down harder.
Her arms were pressed against her chest and her teeth were gritting as her knees started to buckle. Instead of deflecting my blades, she had decided on a battle of strength, which she knew she had little chance of winning, so I was confused, until she revealed a little trick. A panel in her prosthetic arm opened and fired a concentrated phaser beam at me. It hit my right hip, causing me to fall to my knee. Now, she shoved back my swords, behind me, but instead of surrendering, I played dirty too.
Those last moments against the Elder Lich and Death Knight General, my body had completed its Telo transformation, allowing me the ability to harness the full potential of my Dragon Body. I 'Willed' the full transformation, causing my scales to grow and my muscles to strengthen while my horns turned ruby red as if my Dusa form was active. It only took a moment for the transformation to happen, and as it did, I dropped my swords since I would not need them anymore.
I sprang forward with newfound strength, headbutting her in the gut and throwing her back. She managed to stay on her feet, but just barely. She let go of her bat'leth with her left hand and pointed her palm at me, revealing another phaser. The beam hit me, but unlike before, my scales absorbed all the energy before it could hurt me. I smirked and drew back a clawed fist before throwing a lunging punch at her chest... but before it could connect, someone intervened.
Both L'Naan and I were enveloped in a sparkling teal Domain, connected to Katye's outstretched finger. While my mind seemed to be able to resist the effect, my body could not, and I found myself slowing to a snail's pace. Katye walked up casually and knocked my hand off course.
"You would have shattered her sternum and numerous ribs if that had landed. I'm sure you remember how that feels," Katye chided as Time returned to normal around us.
I nearly smashed into Katye, but a Mana Shield flashed across her skin, negating the damage to her. L'Naan was completely stunned by how Katye seemed to 'appear' between us, which meant that she had been fully affected by the Time Domain. Her power had certainly grown a lot while we were separated, closing the distance between us significantly, it seemed.
"Says the person who caused the injuries intentionally," I retorted, shifting back to my usual appearance and stepping back.
"You cheated," L'Naan accused.
"No more than you did," Katye replied. "Your rules were no magic or Soul Power and, what she did was use the full strength of her physical body while you used a magical device to launch surprise attacks."
"Not that it did much," she grumbled, dismissing her Soul-Weapon and canceling her 'eye'.
"The first one hurt, so it would knock out a normal person with a single hit," I said.
L'Naan snorted with annoyance while Echo chuckled and mocked, "If it was that easy to close the distance between us and Becca, I would have done it years ago. A trick isn't going to help you win."
"I beat you," she retorted.
"With restrictions," Echo shot back with a smirk.
Nyka, with Filigree on her back, walked out of the brush of the forest and trotted over to us. The small pixie was smiling, but it was clear that she was exhausted with how her eyes drooped, making Katye and I chuckle. Katye bent over and gently picked her up.
"Well, now that we are all here, ready to get back to Voyager?" Katye asked, pulling a mana fruit out of her storage and handing it to Filigree.
Echo and L'Naan nodded while I smiled lightly and said, "Back to the adventure."
A/N: Sorry for the delay, I got this to my editor late. I will do my best to keep up with the schedule, but I may be late like this for a while. Aside from my personal problems, my work has really gotten hectic, so it's getting harder to write once I'm off.
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