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[There's a small girl onscreen. Tiny, pale, likely no more than 13, with a mass of heavy, dark hair and pale green eyes that spear outward from the feed.]

[. . . Though there's something off about that glare. It doesn't quite seem to focus like a glare should. And the screen itself is not quite centered on her; it cuts off her chin.]

[But there's certainly enough visible to say that she is decidedly Displeased.]

[And wet.]

I think I've gotten pretty tolerant of weird stuff going on around here. Bending suddenly getting yanked away? Managed. Invasion of the purring fluffy things? Whatever. Dream-sharing? Yeah, fine. Way, way messing up the timeline, until my-- . . .

[She cuts herself off there, though, her lips pressing together sharply. And when she pushes on, she lets that go.]

Forget it.

The point is, enough's enough. When I go to sleep in my own bed in Earth, I'd better darn well wake up in my own bed in Earth, not turn over and find myself tipping over into a fountain in the Water Sector. Whatever's going on, somebody had better speak up about it now, because I'm wet and I'm cold, and there's some kedan family living in my house, and I want an explanation now so I can smash the source into a pulp several times with a rock and get back to bed.

[A sneeze. But she looks no less fierce for it, jerking the back of her wrist across her nose.]

Start now.

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[It IS really. Enjolras understands the face, perfectly well. He's sure he made some varient of it, all through December, believe him.]

It...is a lot to take in, yes. And does not make much logical sense. But...it is what we've been told and all evidence points there. It...the hatchlings are gone as well. Were you close to any? I...do not remember offhand, who the others chose to adopt. Taraja could have said, if she were here...

Yin. [Her face softens immediately at this.] Found her when she was just an egg -- underground.

. . . What do you mean, she's gone?

[That softness didn't last long; the edge is back.]

[Better start with this evidence stuff, Enjolras.]

Oh thank you. Yin. [Enjolras mutters this under his breath, though he is glad to hear the name, one of the hatchlings that he knows is presumably safe. Taraja is too far away to communicate with, but he's not felt that stress that would mean anything is wrong. That said, the situation is difficult to explain.]

It...try reaching for her, as you would before. With Taraja...I can still feel her presence and I think that she can feel mine. We are just separated. During the year that those of us who stayed, to fight the war in the dreaming, they no longer felt safe with most of us gone. They left in a pod and are together, as I can tell it.

[He SHOULD mention the massacre, but that's too much for right now, seeing how much he knew it hurt Taraja. Anything that brought her pain, that might have brought another hatchling pain, or even now, another parent, when it is not necessary? He cannot do it. ]

[Just as well he doesn't. It would be a little too much -- too hard to take in the wake of everything else.]

[She's quiet a moment. Still -- as though listening, trying to catch a sound that's almost too faint to hear. The muscles in her shoulders tighten, as though somehow that can help her to pick up the voice she can barely catch.]

What's . . .

[Her mouth tightens.]

Okay, let's say I believe you. I'm not giving it the official seal or anything, but let's say. Tell me what happened.

[Enjolras finds himself nodding, not realizing she will not be able to see that, and then pauses for a moment, trying to collect his thoughts a bit. How to explain everything when he is still attempting to make sense of it? Well..there are a few ways to begin.]

They have decided to travel together, to explore the current and keep safe there. We defeated...our enemy... [He doubts he will ever be able to say Malicant's name and perhaps that is for the better.] ... last winter.

However...it required that we enter the dreaming itself, and when we did so...we became trapped there, once our task was done. It took a year for the spell to break, and this....the world around us...is what we returned to. When we did not return...the hatchlings...

[Used as he is to the fact, Enjolras still finds himself choking up a little to think about how unsure and scared Taraja must have been, and how glad he is that he had given her one of his earrings to wear on a scarf tied around her foot. At least it is a piece of himself she could keep. Still, it doesn't change the fact of what happened at all.]

They chose to leave, to seek out...well safety where they could, I suppose. I am told that they are...quite grown up now. Still young, but much larger... I...it is a void many of us struggle with.

No.

I mean . . . okay, I get that.

[And more that she doesn't want to concentrate on it too much.]

I need all the stuff that led up to that. You're telling me the war is over. That it has been. And you had to fight off the M-guy.

I need to know how that happened.

Ah, well. Where to begin...

[Enjolras pauses for a moment, thinking, and then the darkest thing possible occurs to him as a potential starting point.]

Our enemy kept up his work, while we looked for him and at one point, he came here and he... [It's hard to talk about, even though Taraja is still alive and well. And he gets the reason she'd rather not speak of the hatchlings now, but this next part DOES have to be said. ]

We all fell instantly into a deep sleep and when we woke the Emperor, Evandau, was found dead on the palace steps. Along with, and near....several of the hatchlings. I suspect that is why those of them who survived, wished to leave while we were away.

As far as fighting goes, he was here all along. In the guise of Asti himself. We trusted him for boons and were granted them but all along they were...well, not so good in the end. We found a way under the shell, a path, and into the dreaming. Eva and Milyn found a way, a serum, to help us with going under and then...it would appear we faced him. It was strange though.

We turned on each other, for some reason, on the way down. Maybe we were wired for it, from the pressure? But once we got further in, and became separated...I have not really talked to anyone about what happened but we seem to have each...gotten our own scenario in which he became something that we most feared.

And after those fights, finding a way out of the situation, we could not get back out of the Dreaming. We were held under the influence of a rather strong magic. And we were in there for a year. And now that we've returned...well, there IS the current state of things to contend with. It would seem that in dispatching an evil godlike being, we've given this island some diplomatic issues and concerns as well.

[And that's . . . a lot to absorb. A variety of emotions flickers through Toph's face, all of them fleeting. Finally her face falls, the heavy mass of her hair concealing most of her features from view.]

[Her jaw is tight, her hands and shoulders knotted.]

Yeah . . . okay.

[She's quiet for some moments, trying her best to absorb everything. It's a monumental task, and she won't have managed it by the end of this conversation by any means. All she can do right now, though, is go with the flow. Gather as much information as she can.]

You say he told you he was the Turtle, and you thought he was.

But we're standing on the Turtle now. Right?

We are, yes.

It was...his SPIRIT, his corruption. It made the real Asti, the turtle, ill, by a sort of...I believe it could be called a possession, rightly speaking.

[It's strange, a year later, how odd Enjolras still finds the statement, or would find it if he hadn't been a part of things, anyway.]

So...we removed him from the last parts of the turtle, when we struck out and killed him. His influence, his power...all of that is gone. And Asti himself is silent, with no one to reach him. I wonder, now, if they ever did.

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