<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 150%; line-height: 116%;"><span style="color: #BF0000">Karra Lee Micheals</span></span></div><br/><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #BF0000">Captain Micheals</span></div><br/><br/><div style="text-align: center;"><a class="postlink" href="http://i1343.photobucket.com/albums/o793/Galvin_Fugazi/d8d8d07d-bef1-4b12-bb9c-4a8ccbe576b0_zps6c4f5818.jpg">[ img ]</a></div><br/><br/>Karra wondered what she had expected Tom to answer. The truth always hurt, but it was the only thing she ever listened to. Tom seemed to know that, he seemed to know everything about how she operated. It amazed her, really.<br/><br/>When it came to taking risks, she usually thought the risk was worth it. However, what she considered worth it and what others might consider worth it were completely different--and she knew that. She could recall many moments working with Tom where he had pulled her from the brink. Her crazy ideas and misadventures had always saved the day. At the end of it, though, while she sat on a gurney in one of the many medical facilities she had become familiar with--Tom was there to bite her head off. Usually his lectures fell on drug hazed ears, kind of like now.<br/><br/>However, this drug induced haze was far less hazy than the hospital grade meds. For that, she was thankful. She wanted to remember Tom's words this time. She knew she would--they were harsh words. He meant them, he believed every single word he threw at her. Her insecurities drove her to impossibly dangerous avenues, avenues Tom and others before him had told her not to go.<br/><br/>She did try to prove herself often, she realized. She had this need to always prove she was strong, to prove that no one and nothing could take her down. The more people tried to reel her in, the more far out she wanted to go. She was always afraid of those around her trapping her, confining her to their own will. She constantly fought against it, constantly tried to prove she was stronger than those around her gave her credit for. She knew that most of the time people didn't view her as weak, but any time she was told she could not go out to the field, could not join in combat, could not join a rescue mission--anything that even had the slightest bit of danger---she felt it was a criticism to her character. She took it to heart, always. Even when she logically knew that the commands she had been given were for a good reason, she still took it to heart.<br/><br/>Playing it safe had never gotten her anywhere, but then again she had never allowed it to take her anywhere. Perhaps Tom was right, maybe the question wasn't how much she was risking, but whether or not the risks were worth it. She always tried to think of abstract consequences, but never about those close to her. She didn't allow their faces to flood her as she tried to make decisions. She knew if she considered the feelings of those around her, she would never do anything even slightly risky.<br/><br/>She had begun, at some point, to think she was invincible. Tom's words, however, reminded her that she very much wasn't. If she were being honest with herself, she was likely one of the most vulnerable people around. At least on the inside. She was emotional, moody, and had violent outbursts. Luckily for her, she generally kept it cool on the outside and the violent outbursts tended to aid her in whatever messes she landed in---but she knew her luck would run out eventually.<br/><br/>She had slowly leaned back in her chair as she thought, Tom watching her with his dark eyes. Her own flicked up to meet his,<span style="color: #BF0000">"I see..."</span>is all she whispered out. She didn't know what else she was supposed to say. Was there really anything else to say?<br/><br/><span style="color: #BF0000">"I'm sorry..." </span>she started,<span style="color: #BF0000">"but I've always thought the risks worth it."</span>Tom seemed to have something flash across his face. Anger? Frustration? She wasn't sure,<span style="color: #BF0000">"...and I think it was because I never really sat down to think how it would hurt those close to me....I never thought about how people might come after me, or how selfish my moves were. I just had thought about the end goal, the end of the mission...You say no soldier is any good dead, but sometimes I wonder." </span>The last part was a bit dark, but Karra showed no signs of regret or remorse for that last piece.<br/><br/>She, up until very recently, had fantasized about dying in some heroic instance. She had always imagined dying as a hero--finally being granted the peace she wanted without the horrid scar of suicide upon her already tainted soul.