[Note: Old art featuring VJ's previous design]

"You're not real."

The small smile on Lady Zalinski's face grew a little wider. "No, no I'm not, dear one. By all intents and purposes, this is where I ended up after all that transpired in life. This memory keeps me safe from outside eyes. Here is where I stay, in your heart, and your mind."

The hedgehog's eyes averted from the lush, tropical beauty that stretched out as far as her eyes could see.

"I'm-" the words were difficult to speak, to get out of the welling lump in her throat. "I'm not going to survive this go'round, am I?"

Lady Zalinski betrayed no outward signs of baulking at her query, save for the gentle rise and fall of her chest, though no discernable sounds of her breathing could be identified.

"You need something to hold onto in this troubled time, dear one. Even now, you still cling to the precipice like a waterlogged Tyagron, desperate to survive a raging river whose current is far stronger than your ability to best its forceful commandeering of the situation at hand. Though I know why it is you have chosen this memory of us to reflect upon. It gives you strength...even in this dark hour."

"I never did accept your passing."

"No," Lady Zalinski let out a gentle laugh. "I know. Loss was not a new situation for you in your young years, but a loss of emotional support in what little time I was given to care for you certainly was. You let me into your life, and I in turn revealed mine to you. There are some hurts that never leave us, Velindra, some that go so deep that the scars they leave never heal until death lays a hand on them."

"I know the guys sabotaged me, and my gear, and my leadership and everything else they could think of to do to me. I know Kingsley is dead, and I know Kestral escaped. I know all of that!" Vee-Jay's voice betrayed its trembling fear. "Do I wake up...or am I here because this is where I'm...where I'm going to be staying from here on out?"

"That, dear one, is something only you can answer," Kara-Ma's voice felt like the whisper of a distant wind. "...and only when you truly feel ready to fight back."

~**~

Drawn several months ago.

~**~

Vee-Jay's first mission ends with catastrophic results for both herself, her team and the Draconi'dia Council.

In between drifting in and out of consciousness, first in the ERS chopper, then within the halls of the Royal Valanciana Hospital towards the ER, she finds herself in a familiar setting with a familiar face that left her side three years before these events. This is one of her key memories, a lifeline tethered to a distant dream, as those frantic for news of her condition drift in and out of both the Great Beyond and the Waking Reality.

Vee-Jay is around 12, about to turn 13 here as the memory plays out in her bloody drug-induced mind. She's fully aware she's very badly hurt, and that death might be a'knocking at her door but she's still refusing to answer it. Desperate for comfort, she drifts to the one memory that has been her safehaven from all those doubts and niggling fears and overheard conversations between those she serves with: her time with her teacher, Lady Kara-Ma Zalinski.

And, just like High Elder Laocard, Kara-Ma's not about to say which way or the other the pendulum of time is going to swing, rather, this is all up to VJ whether or not she wakes up, or sleeps eternally.

DSF: ORIGINS Literature and Character Design: Lady Kara-Ma Zalinski & Velindra-Jay Amariel Hedgehog belong to ladystarfleet, 1991 - 2015