"I don't have a fu--"

The words are stolen from her by a painful hacking fit. Redana's fingers against her cheek are soft and soothing and warmer than a blanket fresh out of a dry cycle. Bella allows her eyes to flutter shut and presses her face deeper into that hand. Where it retracts, she cranes her neck to press close again. It's all she has to cling with. It's all she has to cling to.

"I don't have a future idiot," Her voice is softer this time; the melancholy and melodic whisper of the defeated, "Just look at me. Clean slate and all I managed to be was myself."

When she opens her eyes again they are wet. The tears sting at the corners and blur her vision even through the Auspex. Her breath hitches, stinging her chest with little hiccup pains magnified by her broken bones and ruined body. Her arms don't belong to her, she can't use either one to make it stop. The muscles in her face refuse to scowl or squint away the crying fit. So all she can do is let it happen. All she can do is let herself be carried, let herself be pushed away, and let herself believe it's because she is loved. All she can do is--

"I don't want you to be Princess Redana."

The words startle her so much she winds up pinching her tail on her mangled claws. She gasps, half in pain and half in shock. But now that they've tumbled out, she can't make them stop.

"I don't want anyone to be Princess Redana. I don't want this debt, this guilt this... this... pushing me away for my own good. It's all so stupid. That's what Princess Redana does and I hate it. I hate her. But I don't hate you. I don't... this isn't about dreams, or biomancy programming whatever, ok? I've had five years to think about this. The Empire is dead. We're not. Fff... fuck it."

She sighs, and nestles closer. But her feet find purchase on the floor, and she shuffles forward to move them toward the hideous rust bucket known as the [i]Plousios[/i] once again. Hand in hand and arm in arm.

"Don't make me chase you. Please. Just let... just let me be the one to take you where you're going."