She arrives with her own name still lingering on her ears. Everything is cooler now, darker, dimmer, duller, diluted. It's a welcome relief against the quiet sizzle of her own skin as even now waves of heat rise off of her in little hisses of steam. Stacked against the reality of her nightmare, this place feels even more like an unfocused dream than it did when she first landed. Her eyes long to flutter closed, her head to loll, her body to sag and spill out over the arms of her partner in this life, her heart to drift away on the currents of a long-distant river.

Anything to rest. Except that her ears are ringing: Bella, Bella, Bella. In Ember's voice: Bella, Bella, Bella. And the name stirs up the wind, and with nothing else to distract her all there is to breathe is the scent of effort sweat that carries her all the way back to long afternoons in the gymnasium and sleepless nights thereafter. Roses. Sweet, tender roses painted over salt and heat. And alongside them, a memory of a face. A hand reaching out to her so deep inside the armor of XIII that gave her the strength to pull free. A smile she thought she'd only seen in her dreams. And the name that goes with it all.

Dany. Dany, Dany, Dany, Dany. Re. Da. Na.

Bella stiffens. Her head lifts and her neck cranes, looking for the one who wears that face and mantle now, but there is no sign of her. There wouldn't be; she elected not to come along on the barbaric mission to doom an independent planet. There was only Ember. No. No, no, no, no. She can't. She couldn't. But... she is. Every breath only confirms it. The sounds her voice makes line up more and more. A princess and a child of the gods?

She's going to vomit. She's going to faint. She's. She...

She rises. Plants her feet on the ground, which isn't hard being so much taller than the one who's holding her, and forces them to be strong enough to hold her. She curls her back and wills the muscles to clench and pull her skyward until she stands vertical once more. Her body feels heavy and exhausted as she slips around behind Ember, but she stands tall against the tide of wolves and wolflings, and taller against the memory of the hateful sun. Her hand finds Ember's shoulder, and she squeezes it. Her second hand on the other side. A gesture of support, on the surface, throwing her weight behind the declarations of the bright young Ceronian and latest face of the Princess Redana Claudius (she sniffs again, quietly. Her mouth curls in surprise). But in truth it's Ember that's lending her strength to Bella. Just like always. Ever since...

"You're going to leave this planet," her voice is imperious, booming against the empty air of 'Portugal', "And you're going to take these half-lifted with you when you go. Find them somewhere new to be and teach them how to live with the bodies you've given them. Then you're going to fuck off back to Ceron and let them record the stench of all your failures into the histories, or else tuck your tails between your legs and go running from all the things in this universe bigger and badder than you. I don't care. But fix this first. You owe them that much."

Bella's head dips, just a fraction. Her eyes lower, and find the weapon that had killed her. Failed to kill her. Even now was killing her. She snarls.

"Dyssia. Pick that fucking thing up right now. I want to throw it into a star."