17- Video

[bodilesswarrior]

[Her hands are clasped in front of her, lips a thin line. She looks more irritated than traumatised.

She can still feel the press of a mask, if she tries.]

Well, that was fun. [Her voice is dry and flat.]

Status, everyone?

[Private to people who went through the door]

What did you see? What do you remember?

[Private to the Emperor]

[A wry smile curves her lips.]

Guess the breach was prophetic.

[Private to Bond]

[It's a different sort of smile, this time, slight and sharp.]

I would have beaten you eventually.

[Not she; it would be easier, to think that way, but not particularly honest.]

Comments

[bodilesswarrior]

[Barbara is silent, for a moment, as she considers the implications. That's one thing she can't understand, not truly; she can shut her emotions off and struggle to find them again, but they're always a part of her.

She thinks, perhaps, he's stronger than she is. And it makes her smile, just a little.]

I think the fact that you're still holding on to that - means we've definitely got a good place to start.

[heisrisen]

[It doesn't feel like a start, to him. It feels like an infinite, asymptotic end, his struggle with his symbiant, the equilibrium they maintained for so long, the trenches they've carved in his neural landscape, everything whittled by long struggle to what he will surrender, and what he won't, with very little left to be dealt with. But he makes a wry face and doesn't contradict her. This is his idea of cooperation.]

I've known a lot of walking ghosts.

It's not bad, mind you. No fear, no hunger, no pain. But it's not the eternity I want.

[bodilesswarrior]

[She considers, for a moment, before she answers.] Not the one she wanted, either.

[heisrisen]

Don't generalize. It wasn't immortality she rejected. It was dying, again, writ slow.

[That's how he interprets it. And he's at least partly right.]

[bodilesswarrior]

All right. [Or maybe that's what he tells himself, or maybe it's a bit of both. She doesn't let the scepticism show, not yet.]

Either way, though, shouldn't it have been her choice?

[heisrisen]

That depends on the cost, doesn't it?

Even so. She chose to die.

[He has always been in the business of giving his sister what she wants. Despite the tangle of bitterness, this is still what he tells himself.]

[bodilesswarrior]

Couldn't you have arranged something discreet with her?