Reflections

True bit her nails nervously as she watched the sun rise slowly. Then she realized what she was doing and pulled her hand away from her mouth, scowling because she'd been trying to grow her nails. True glared at the ragged nails. A year ago she wouldn't have cared what her nails look like, but lately she'd started to take an interest in how she looked. She'd even been watching a few of the older brothers of Syndrome kids with interest, though she tried to hide it, afraid it was a symptom of Growing Up.
"True?"
She looked up, to see Devon standing beside her. It was a few minutes before sunrise, when they'd been told to meet the Terrians here, a few klicks away from New Pacifica. Two Dune Rail's had left New Pacifca half an hour ago, carrying True, John, Devon, Uly, Alonzo Solace and Julia.
"Yeh?"
Devon sat down beside her on the ground. "How are you feeling?"
True shrugged. "Okay." Whatever was in that dirt Uly had covered her in, it had made her feel much better. But Julia didn't think the effects would last more than a few hours, so she'd had Uly go out and contact the Terrians immediately on the Dream Plane. Their response had been swift and sure, calling True and Uly and their people to this meeting place at sunrise.
"You nervous?"
True's gaze slid sideways to the woman beside her. Over the past year, as True grew and approached her teenage years, she'd often sought out the company of other women. There were some things her father just couldn't help her with. Although Bess had been very helpful, True had found herself turning, most often, to Devon for advice. Perhaps they filled in each other a need, Devon for a daughter, and True for a mother.
"Yes."
Devon put an arm around True's shoulders and hugged her. "It'll be okay, True. We'll meet you here at sunset, just like we said."
The girl leaned against Devon, seeking comfort. "You won't leave?" and her voice was small and frightened. Devon could understand that. She suspected she'd be frightened too, if she were going into an unknown situation with the unnerving Terrians.
"Of course we won't leave, True," Devon told her, privately startled that the girl could think such a thing. "I don't think your father would let us, anyway," the woman added with a touch of humor that brought a small smile to True's lips.
"I guess not."

The girl blinked suddenly as the first rays of the new day's light reflected off the APC parked in front of her, momentarily blinding her. As she closed her eyes and rubbed them, the rumbling sound of Terrians moving through the earth filled her ears. True's eyes popped open, but they had already arrived. Six Terrians stood before her and Devon.

Alonzo, Julia and her father were beside them in an instant, even as Uly stepped forward to greet the aliens. The boy trilled something at them, and they responded. He listened for several moments, before turning back to the humans, his eyes focussing automatically on True.
"Are you ready?"
He was distanced, aloof, taking on those attributes through his link to the planet and the Terrians. But he was still more human than the 7 foot creatures behind him. True swallowed nervously, squeezed her fathers hand, and nodded.
"Yes." Her voice was a little croaky, but True ignored this as she released her father's hand and stepped up behind Uly. "You're still coming with me, right?" she asked quietly. The boy smiled calmly at her and nodded, holding one of her hands in his. True relaxed and let him pull her closer to the semi-circle of Terrians. They trilled something at her, and she had the odd sensation that they meant to reassure her.

One impossibly huge Terrian hand clutched True's free hand and the girl jumped, cringing away from it. The soothing whale-like noise increased in tempo, and then True was being pulled inexorably down towards the earth, only she hadn't moved. Then everything tilted and blurred into blackness, and True realized with shock that she was inside the earth, travelling through it as the Terrians did. And she was still holding Uly's hand, still held by the Terrian, even though they were passing through the ground. Only it was more like the ground was passing through her, becoming her for that short time.

And then she was tumbling out of the wall into a Terrian cave, Uly still beside her, helping her keep her balance as she fell. The girl looked around her, her body shaking in violent reaction to that unexpected journey through the ground. Wide-eyed and trembling, True quickly realized they were in a Terrian cave.
"Uly?" she whimpered, clutching tightly to the boy's hand. There were more Terrians appearing, more than she'd ever seen, and she didn't understand how they could all fit in this cave. They surrounded her, circling, trilling their eerie music. Desperately, True clutched at the one human voice, Uly's.
"It's okay, True. You're safe, now," the boy was telling her, reassuring her over and over again, pausing occassionally to join in the Terrian song. The Terrians remained just far enough away that they weren't touching her for an interminable time, circling, singing. Then one reached out and grabbed her shoulder, and True was falling.... falling...

She could never accurately remember what happened then. The next hours were disjointed, chaotic, confusing. It was like she was asleep and dreaming, only her dreams were real. Reality came to her in flashes. Once, True found herself all alone in a dark cave whose walls reflected red light from somewhere. And it was silent. So silent that silence itself was deafening. Another time she was in a place so bright, so bleached-white that wherever she looked, she was blinded. She cried out from a pain that somehow seemed to be coming from all around her, and then tumbled back into the unending darkness. The next thing she was aware of was being on the ground in another Terrian-cave, with the tall creatures all around her, as they let whisps of dirt fall through their huge hands. The few particles of dirt became many as they fell on top of her, until the dirt buried her and consumed her. Through it all, Uly's voice spoke in her ear, though he didn't seem to be anywhere near her, that she could see. And the Terrians song sounded in her veins, travelling along her body until it felt like she was the song, that the girl known as True was just a memory of the song, that all her life was just one fragment of the song she now was. Slowly, as the song ate along her body and became her, True had a single, terrifyingly beautiful flash of reality that she was the planet. The planet was her body, the ocean her tears, the dirt that covered it her skin, the caves her veins....

Finally, all the bewildering glimpses of something she couldn't understand coalesced into a single vision. She lay on the ground in a Terrian cave, and there was silence, and Uly stood over her. There were no Terrians around. True blinked dirt from her eyelashes, checking to see if she was hurt. The girl discovered she felt stronger and healthier than she could ever remember, like the little sick part of her had been replaced completely.
"Uly?" True sat up, looking around. "Where are we?"
Uly was kneeling beside her, helping her stand. "We're going home now, True. It's almost sunset."
"Sunset!" But they'd only just left, hadn't they? True frowned to herself, experiencing that odd sense generally following a dreaming sleep that both no time, and a great period of time had passed while she slept. She was very confused but, she realized with some surprise, not frightened at all.
"Yes. C'mon. Mom and everyone else is waiting for us," and he tugged on her hand gently, getting her to dazedly let him pull her along through the tunnels. He seemed to know where he was going, for he never once faltered in the short journey through the tunnels. True followed the smaller figure, too dazed to really take notice of where they were. It was only when they emerged from the caves into the painful glare of the setting sun that True looked up from the ground in surprise. Uly didn't stop, even then. He simply tugged again on her hand and took her around a clump of trees, until they could see their people.
"Daddy!" True cried, startled out of her distracted confusion at the sight of her father, pacing wearily beside an APC. His head jerked up at her cry and, catching sight of her, he let out a yell and ran to her, picking her up in his arms like she weighed no more than a feather and crushing her to him.
"Oh, True-girl, you're safe, you're safe," he growled in her ear, hugging her tightly to him. She hugged him back, not caring that he was practically crushing her thin body. "I'm back, Daddy, I'm okay," she told him, burying her face in his neck and trying to comfort him. True wasn't afraid at all, she realized. She hadn't been since the Terrians touched her in their cave, however long ago that had been. But her father was.
"I won't ever let them near you again, I promise, baby," he told her, and True pulled back to look at him.
She stroked his cheek, reassuring him, like she were the parent and he the child. "They didn't hurt me, Daddy. I feel better now. They made me better," the girl tried to comfort him, but he only trembled and clutched her to him again.

True was aware of Devon, Julia and Alonzo gathering around them, maintaining a discrete distance to allow father and daughter this reunion in peace. After a while, her father released her slowly, putting her down on the ground and kneeling before her. His sharp blue gaze ran over her, checking to see whether she was okay, whether she was hurt or injured.
"I'm fine, Daddy," True insisted.
"Julia!" John called, ignoring her words. Doctor Heller was beside them in an instant, apparently having waited for just that summons, trying to extricate True from her father's arms to run the diag-glove over her. She partially managed to do so, and, after a moment or two, smiled and relaxed her tense muscles.
"She's right, John. She's fine. No signs of allergy, nothing. In fact," and Heller frowned thoughtfully. "I don't recall ever seeing True's vitals this strong."
Danziger frowned, peering uncomprehendingly at the readout on Julia's diag-glove. "What did they do to her?" he demanded, holding his daughter tightly to him, his distrust for the Terrians in strong evidence, despite what they'd apparently done for his daughter.
Julia hesitated, glancing over at Devon and Uly for an instant. "I read minute changes in her DNA... Not to the degree of Uly's or the other Syndrome childrens transformations, but it is there..." Heller stopped suddenly and looked over at Uly, catching the boy's expression. "Perhaps you'd better ask Uly how this will manifest itself, since the Terrians seem to be unavailable to answer questions."
Giving her a dirty look for her humor, John turned to the child. "Uly?" His usual gruffness was, as always, softened in the boys presence.
"It's up to True. She can stay the way she is, or she can learn to Dream with the Terrians, and travel through the Mother...." The boy shrugged, idly twirling his mock-Terrian staff around.
Danziger's frown deepened as he watched his daughter, who was biting her lip thoughtfully at this news.
"John..." Julia tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention. "The changes are barely noticable. But I'll watch True for a few days, if you'd like -" and her lips quirked when she saw Danziger nod vehemently. "I think she's gonna be okay." Julia smiled at the young girl under discussion. "How do you feel?"
"Strong," True answered immediately, her eyes locking with Uly's over her dad's shoulders. The boy smiled back. This was how he had felt, two years ago, when the Terrians had taken and healed him? And no one had believed him then. At least she had the benefit of people who'd had two years experience with Terrians, and their abilities. In that instant, that look of silent understanding, a new kinship was formed between them. Though True may never be as deeply in tune with the planet as Uly was, the connection was there, in her body, in her blood. A connection to the planet, to the Terrians. And to Uly, who had stood with her throughout it all.