Hi. This is unedited and not very cohesive...but it was fun. Plus my writes block is gone. =D

Numb

She wasn't sure how long it had been since saving the world. She wasn't sure of much. It was like her will had been stripped from her, and now she was a shell - a shell that was numb to the world.

Not even Keith had been able to get her to snap out of it. He'd told jokes and talked to her and squeezed her hand - but there was a heaviness on her heart that choked her throat when she might have laughed and shrunk her rare smiles so they were barely discernable. She thought that if the Union exploded around her she would remain in her chair, look around in vague surprise, and ignore it. It was hard to focus her mind on what she should have been doing. She just sat there and watched the Union staff hurry around. She only vaguely registered that every one of them gave her a concerned glance as they passed.

"Kate?"

It was Keith. Shel nuzzled his leg, and Keith absent-mindedly stroked his faceplate. "Aren't you going to the debrief?"

"Debrief?" she said blankly.

That only seemed to worry him more. "The debrief for the Darkrai-"

She looked away at the name.

"The, uh, Altru mission. Y'know, when you saved every Pokemon in Almia?"

Now that she thought of it, Rhythmi might have told her about it a while ago… "Oh…when?"

"Now," he said. "That's why I'm here; they won't start without you."

She blinked a moment before standing and brushing past him in the direction of the meeting room.

Keith stared after her. He looked at the ceiling and prayed to anything listening that Kate would be okay.

They were all assembled. Debriefs tended to be long, so everyone had brought in small folding chairs to sit on. Someone had brought one for the youngest attendee, so Kate quickly sat and looked at Erma.

After a moment her mind had already disconnected from the world of focus. She stared at the light coming from the underfoot monitor, not seeing the designs in front of her. What she really wanted was to curl up in her bed and stay there, but she didn't want to make people worry.

Her thoughts drifted, and soon she couldn't remember what she had been thinking about it the first place. She stayed like that, dazed and unfocused, until Shel nudged her leg for the third time. She refocused herself and looked up, intending to join whatever conversation was taking place, but nobody was in their seats. Everybody was gathered in the middle of the room, talking about something in whispers that failed to be whispers, easily audible. Kate was set to get up and listen in, but from the snatches of conversation she heard someone say, "…about Kate. I'm not…"

She immediately resumed her slouch from before, but this time she was intently focused on the words of the group.

"Whenever I mention Darkrai - sometimes even if I just mention Altru, or Melody, or the mission - she looks away and goes back into a daze. It might have something to do with that." That was Keith, she was sure. He had a loud voice.

"Perhaps trauma…Darkrai is…been a lot for her to…" Wendy, maybe. Kate subtly scooted her chair closer so she could hear better.

"She's a Top Ranger, and she didn't get that title for sitting around and having a weak mind. Kate's strong…stronger than some of us here, I might say."

"Everyone has their limits, Sven. She was bound to break under all of that strain."

"Any ranger should have been able to handle it. Maybe not a rookie ranger, but Darkrai's antics were no scarier than things the average ranger may face. Considering that it's Kate we're dealing with, I believe it's impossible that Darkrai is what has caused this."

"I think…" The voice got quiet, but a moment later Keith regained his strength. "We expect so much of her, and we justify it by saying that she's mature, and smart, and skilled. She has more of those than me, I can tell you that right now. But we forget…she started Ranger School two years early. Barely a year after that she was asked to come here, so she should actually still be in school right now. But here she is, and we put so much on her and think she can handle it, but… I don't know if she can. I've seen glimpses of stress and breakdowns from her, and for all of the Altru mission she was acting odd. She needs a break."

Kate shook her head. "Thanks, but you're wrong. It's not the age that matters. I'm mature enough to be a Top Ranger, and that means I have to act like one. Don't make excuses for me."

The group turned as one to look at her as she looked at them. Keith hesitantly continued, "I think what Kate needs is a chance to act her age. She needs the chance to have no obligations or rules and be able to have fun, because even in school…even then she acted like she was fifteen when she was only thirteen."

"Maybe, in my mind, I was fifteen back then. You have no right to claim to know my mind. I have plenty of fun, and you need to accept that I don't always show it."

"I…" Keith stopped. "Kate…that doesn't change the fact that something's wrong now. All I want to do is fix it. Something about Darkrai-" Kate flinched and bit her lip. "Yes! Something about what it did bothers you. All you need to do is tell someone, Kate."

"No," The word was so faint that even Kate barely heard herself say it. "I…if I think about it - no, I - don't make me." She couldn't bear to remember the things she had seen - the nightmares she had witnessed. She couldn't admit that at one point it had driven her so insane that she had given up. The mere memory of it made her cringe and shake, and she choked whenever she tried to explain.

"Talking always helps. You can trust me, Smartie."

Her memories were surrounding her, suffocating her, and her face was warm and wet, and everybody was staring, and all she could do was say, "You can't make me." And she ran.

She fled the meeting room and was halfway to her room when Keith caught up and swept her into a tight, encasing hug. Instead of fighting she let him hold her, and she cried. She couldn't remember the last time she had cried like this, sobs making her body shake and leaving her gasping for air. And Keith just hugged her tighter and whispered soothing words in her ear, like he would to a Pokemon, and all she could do was let her numbness wash away, followed by every ounce of dignity and strength she possessed.

Blazie