12A/N I'm back! I don't have a choice really; I want this story finished before September.
I don't think I ever wrote a chapter so rapidly. I just got back from work. What should have been an uneventful walk home after work ended up being rather stressful... First off, some random cyclist almost ran me over (He would have plowed into me had I not jumped out of the way) and then, I was walking across the bridge when I noticed something... There were spiders. Everywhere. All along the railing, hundreds of big, hairy spiders! D: It was disgusting! And there were sticky spider webs clinging all over me! It was a nightmare! I honestly don't know why there were so many... I walk there all the time and this has never happened before. Maybe they're attracted to the light posts or something... *shudder*
Only one chapter to go! Please leave a review! I love feedback! :D
The sun was hot, the soil was dry and the blue sky glowed from above, cool and mocking. The blocks of Babylonia floated in a medley of bright greens and golden yellows; frilly horizons of lush foliage. Every single block was green it seemed, except Mila's own small piece of land.
Her land wasn't green… No. It was more of a dull brown. And there were no perfectly aligned rows of vegetables; no square fields of cereal adorning the ground. In fact, the land hadn't changed all that much since the new settlers had arrived here, a month before. Expect perhaps, if one counted the patch of scratched soil in front of the house as change; where someone – an inexperienced someone by the looks of it – had attempted to grow... well, something.
One month. One month and that was all it took for Mila to lose it.
"I hate this." Mila muttered as she attacked the dry patch of earth with a rake. "I hate this. I hate this. I hate this…"
She kept murmuring the words, over and over, until they looped and became an everlasting song invading her brain. The words always reappeared whenever she tried farming. Now the phrase was permanently etched into the inside on her skull, just lurking there, ready to pop out and spread negativity whenever she tried doing something productive. It's not like she hadn't tried being positive… It's just that it wasn't physically possible for her to be optimistic anymore.
Whatever hope she'd had of Marcus coming back was quickly fading, instead being replaced by anger. Where was he? Why hadn't he shown up yet? Because of his disappearance, Mila now had to raise her two young children by herself. That wasn't an easy task; not when she was simultaneously learning how to farm. Her days always ended up fragmented into frustrating pieces; she would have to rush inside whenever Lena cried, or needed to be taken care of; she needed to work and somehow entertain Mahad at the same time.
"Go catch crickets in the field.", "Go play with your toys." Or simply "GO." Didn't work with the boy. Mila wondered how Marcus could ever have kept him entertained in the first place... Maybe it was a father-son thing. Or perhaps Mahad simply needed his dad. Sadly, there was no possible way that she could ever fill that gap. Certainly not now, when Lena needed most of the attention.
And if raising the children by herself wasn't enough, Mila had to deal with the impossible task of farming. At first it had seemed possible; plant a few seeds, wait a while and voilà!
Reality hit her like a brick wall.
What used to be fields surrounding the old house had still been a mess of wild weeds and brambles when she had returned from Puerto Angel. She somehow needed to tame that mess. But she had not enough farming tools left in the brick house, and most good shovels or rakes had been rusted and chipped at best.
Equipped with whatever tools she had found, Mila had set out to farm. She'd worked for days, uprooting unwanted reeds from a large patch close to the front yard of the house, brushing the earth until no unwanted plants remained. And then came another problem; which seeds should she plant?
There were hundreds of stacked canisters in the cellar… So she'd picked corn first.
But only a few measly sprouts had pierced the soil, and they all looked on the verge of dying already. There wasn't enough rain! And she didn't want to waste drinking water on this sandy soil…
Then she'd attempted just sprinkling random seeds here and there, hoping other plants would have more resistance to heat. And now her garden was a proper mess. She couldn't tell one damn yellowed sprout from the other and she was getting thoroughly depressed just by looking at it.
She'd read Vector's books on agriculture of course, but reading about farming and actually doing it were entirely different things. The books had given her an insightful overlook on farming, but nothing could ever have prepared her for this.
How could she ever survive here if she couldn't even farm properly? How would she make a living? The feeble savings she had earned by selling water or seeds at the market had dwindled dangerously already and her block stood out like sore thumb. It looked painfully obvious that a newcomer had settled here and Mila now worried that someone would recognize her or worse, set the Sphere after her…
She just didn't feel like she could trust anyone so she simply avoided people. Stayed on her own property – which wasn't even 'her' property in the first place.
One top of all that, multitasking had finally caught up to her and she now had a constant pounding headache.
You can do this, said a feeble sounding voice of reason, It's not impossible. You can do this…
"I can't." She said aloud, dropping the rake. The tool fell into the dirt with a muffled thud and Mila wiped her forehead on her sleeve, pushing the greasy hair out of her face. She squinted up at the harsh sun and just stood there, gritting her teeth until her jaw hurt.
She stared down at the measly garden. She looked at the wild reeds taking over at the fields again and her hands glowed. She just wanted to set the place aflame. Just one little spark of seijin energy would do the trick; on tiny flame of blue…
The glow faded abruptly and Mila unfurled her fists; she needed to take a break. Go rest inside for a bit.
She left the field and stepped inside the house, the wooden patio door creaking on its hinges as it swung shut behind her. The inside of the house was clean now. She'd tidied up the entire place. It was spotlessly clean – old and rusty – but neat. She'd also gotten rid of any moldy furniture and had dismantled the wooden pieces and created a tidy stack of firewood in the back yard. They had a fireplace in here anyway; it might come in handy if it ever got too cold. She couldn't imagine what a cold Babylonia would look like; it was always scorching hot during the day. The only time it was ever cold was at night. Sometimes.
Mila sighed and took Lena out of her cot (she had placed the makeshift cot in the living room so that the baby was close by and easily heard from outside) and held the drowsy baby in her arms. It's not as if Lena would ever go unsupervised anyway; Mila was a seijin after all and she could always sense where her children were and if they were in danger. It was a plus to have this ability when she had to handle several problems at once. The young mother sat on the living room sofa with an exhausted sigh and she leaned back tiredly.
Mahad was sitting on the floor next to the couch, staring at the small amalgam of toy airplanes littering the place. He looked utterly bored. He needed to be with other kids his age, Mila knew. To have fun. It seemed to Mila that she hadn't seen her son happy ever since… Well, ever since he'd last seen his father.
"You know," Mahad started, looking up at her with a tentative blue gaze, "It's really boring here."
Mila stared at him tiredly and finally let her head loll back, closing her eyes. "I know." She sighed.
To her surprise, Mahad didn't respond with a whiny retort, like so many other times they'd held this conversation. She opened one eye to peer at him and found him staring sadly into the air. She'd been so busy trying to make a living that she realized she hadn't had time to pay him much attention lately. Maybe that's why he'd been having tantrums every other day.
Her frustrations about life faded slightly. Now she just felt terrible.
Lena stared curiously at her mother, and then at Mahad. She let out a loud happy yelp and Mila cringed as her headache pounded. "Shh…" Mila breathed softly, "Mother has a headache. Don't scream…" When Lena had settled down, Mila sat more upright and leaned toward Mahad.
His black hair was rather tangled, falling over his eyes a little. His red clothes were grass-stained and muddied from playing outside and his shoelaces were tied into clumsy, lumpy knots. He still couldn't really tie his shoes properly but she smiled all the same at the effort.
The seijin rubbed her eyes with a yawn and then she just looked at her son, too tired to offer any words of reassurance. She was so, so exhausted that she couldn't even gather the energy to go play outside with him now. Farming was arduous work. And the voyage back from the pirate base of Puerto Angel had been so stressful that it had really tired her out. She'd had to abandon the Hyperion and switch out her stolen patroller for another ship. The new ship didn't even compare to the Hyperion, but at least it was basic and unattractive. Perfect to blend in. And by now, the stolen patroller had probably been dismantled and spread out all across the reaches of the black market. No way the Sphere would ever find out what had happened.
Still, it had been such a risky plan to leave to Hyperion for the patroller that Mila still shuddered at the thought of all the things that could have gone wrong. 'What if's' were terrible for the mind. But at least they had made it to Babylonia... Even if life wasn't any easier than it had been before.
"Mom." Mahad said calmly, "When is Dad coming back?"
Mila froze, staring at him, shocked at the simple ease with which he had asked the question. She was tired of changing the subject and avoiding the question all the time so she responded with the most suitable answer she could think of; "Soon, I hope."
"I hope so too." He muttered angrily. "I don't get what's taking him so long…"
Mila nodded sadly. She leaned back and stared at the ceiling. Maybe coming to Babylonia had been a mistake… Maybe Marcus wasn't coming back. She bit her bottom lip as she fought back tears. Perhaps she should have stayed on Puerto Angel, with the pirates, where she belonged. She didn't care anymore if the Resistance was dead. She didn't care that the pirates had become a discouraged, angry lot.
At first she had stayed awake at night, just wondering why most rebels had treated her with such contempt back on Puerto Angel. Okay, they were depressed and she understood that, but what had she done wrong in the first place?
Several conclusions had come to mind; perhaps it was because she had fled Angkor that night. She hadn't exactly stayed behind to fight. But everything had happened so quickly… And it wasn't as if she would have risked leaving her children there a minute longer. If the bombs hadn't killed them then the smoke would soon have finished the job. Mila would surely have died if she'd lost her children. And then what use would she have been to the rebels? Just another suicide case, that's all.
And then there was the fact that the pirates had been disappointed to see her because they had probably expected Marcus arriving in the Hyperion. She understood their disappointment, but she also didn't think it was fair. Marcus was just one man, he wasn't any different from the rest of them; Mila had often been left in the shadows a little, just like the others. That wasn't exactly pleasant; although it was kind of an advantage now, that not everyone would recognize her. It was Marcus the Sphere was after and it was Marcus the pirates wanted back.
It wasn't as if Marcus had purposely tried to cast everyone in the shadows, it was just that he had been chosen as the leader of the Resistance. It was natural for popularity to ensue after all. But that didn't necessarily mean that Mila always approved of being left in the background. This was why staying here on Babylonia, acting like a docile worker... It was getting nearly intolerable. She had been trained to fight at the Academy; then she had left the Sphere to fight alongside the pirates. Fighting, that was all she had ever known. And acting like another passive farmer was killing her. She didn't know how she would ever get used to this calm lifestyle.
Maybe this was a sign. She would need to head back to Puerto Angel. This wasn't working and Marcus wasn't showing up. Yes, living with the pirates was risky, but living here was proving to be almost impossible. This place was a constant reminder of something that wouldn't happen. Marcus wasn't coming... He was lost. He'd been captured. Or maybe he was- No, he couldn't be dead. She would have felt it. She kept telling herself that she would have known already.
Mahad settled next to his mother on the sofa and he looked up at her. "Hey, mom?"
"Yes?" She asked.
"There's a bug in your hair."
Mila grunted tiredly. She neither had the energy or the will power to lift her arm and take the insect off her head. Mahad stood up on the couch and scooped the tiny insect from Mila's hair, showing it to her. It was a shiny beetle, squirming on its back, its several little legs kicking uselessly into the air.
"Ugh, don't put that near my face…" Mila laughed.
Mahad smirked. "Can I rip its wings off?" He asked mischievously.
"No," Mila said indignantly, "Why would you do something like that?"
He shrugged. "I don't know-"
"Just thrown it back outside." Mila said softly.
He sighed. "Fiiinnneee…."
He went outside. Then she heard him gasp and he burst back inside the house seconds later, eyes wide. "There are strangers outside!"
Mila sat upright. "What?"
"Come take a look." He said, dashing back out the door.
Mila could see the strangers now. Three of them, marching from the distance. They were coming straight for the house.
Who were these people? What did they think they were doing, just trespassing on her property like that?
"Mahad…" She whispered, "Go back inside with Lena okay?"
"No, Mom! I want to stay and watch..."
She looked back at him, raising an eyebrow. He crossed his arms defiantly. After a brief stare-down, Mahad turned around with a defeated sigh.
She heard his angered footsteps as he trudged away. Mila then grabbed a shovel leaning against the side of the house and stepped to the edge of the yard, leaning against the tool with what she hoped was a menacing expression.
Within minutes, the figures had crossed the distorting heat waves rising from the earth and were now completely visible. Mila was shocked by what she saw; a woman, a man and a small boy. Typical looking Babylonians, all dressed in colourful clothing. Neighbors maybe?
Still, she didn't understand what they could possibly be doing here. The woman waved but Mila just fixed her with a fierce glare, gripping the shovel tightly. She waited until the strangers had stopped right in front of her before making a move. "What are you doing on my property?" She demanded.
The man's smile faded and it was then that Mila became painfully aware of something; she was acting like an uncivilized hillbilly.
The woman, who seemed just a little older than Mila herself, lifted her hands peacefully. "No, no… Don't worry. We're just your neighbors, see?" She pointed at one of the closest block fragments and then stretched her arm out in greeting. "Just came by to introduce ourselves."
Mila's frown faded, but the suspicious glint remained in her eyes. "… Oh." She said, placing the shovel back against the house. "I see."
She shook hands with the newcomers. They had a son about Mahad's age too, and by the looks of it, she seemed to have frightened the small boy with her rude demeanor. He was hiding behind his mother's legs, glancing at Mila.
Mila laughed nervously. "I'm sorry… I- I wasn't expecting-"
"Oh no, we're sorry." Said the man, "Should have introduced ourselves sooner…"
"You probably thought we were the Sphere!" The woman laughed. In fact, she laughed so loudly that Mila flinched. The seijin didn't know what was funny about the Sphere but she gave a weak laugh all the same. "I'm Renata. And this is my husband…"
"Hunter, nice to meet you." He said. "And this is our son, Shoomdai."
The little boy waved shyly.
"Mila." She said in return, tipping her head slightly.
"And my name's Mahad!" Cried a voice from behind. Everyone turned around and noticed the boy peering from around the side of the house, an insolent grin plastered on his face.
Mila closed her eyes momentarily before motioning to Mahad. The boy trudged forward to stand beside his mother.
Shoomdai frowned, leaning toward Mahad slightly. "Your mom's not very nice." He whispered, loud enough for the parents to hear. Mila was met with worried glances from the parents, but she just shook her head with a smile.
"Watch your mouth or I'll punch your face in." Mahad retorted.
The two boys glared at each other before bursting out with laughter. "Wanna go play catch?" Mahad asked.
"Sure!"
It wasn't long before the two boys took off and Mila was standing alone with these strange, good-natured people again.
"I haven't seen anyone on this piece of land since… Well, ever since we moved here, right hon'?" Asked Renata, turning to her husband with a sweep of dark brown hair.
He shook his head. "Nope. Always been deserted."
They both stared expectantly at Mila, who stumbled on her words; "Oh… well. Yes, I'm new here. Just arrived a few weeks ago with my two kids…"
The couple stared back with a curious glaze in their eyes. Their cheerful stature was very unsettling.
"It was my… my grandfather's property." Mila lied, "I decided to move here. You know, enjoy the country life-" A deerfly settled on Mila's arm and she slapped viciously at the insect. The fly took off drunkenly, and Mila put on a forced smile.
"That's... nice." Renata said slowly.
They didn't move and Mila just stared back uncomfortably, aware of Mahad and Shoomdai's loud laughs as they played catch.
"Oh!" Hunter turned to Renata, "Did you bring…"
"Oh yes, I almost forgot." Renata lifted her arm, holding out a small cardboard box tied shut with a string of tweed, intricately curled into a nice bow on top. Mila hadn't noticed the package until now.
"... For us?" Mila asked incredulously. She opened the box slowly, still a little suspicious.
"I baked them last night, it's no hassle really." Renata muttered, looking a little worried now.
The box opened and a delicious smell invaded the air, and a variety of plump oatmeal cookies was revealed. Mila looked up, mouth hanging open. "I don't know what to say… Thank you, it's very kind…"
It was almost a little too kind… What were these people expecting in return? It was all very odd…
"Just trying to be neighborly that's all." Hunter said abruptly, as if reading her thoughts. "We saw you working outside from our place see, and we just thought we'd come by and say hello."
"Thank you." Mila murmured again. Just then, she heard Lena start crying. "Why don't you come inside?" She smiled, wiping her dusty free hand on her overalls.
The evening that ensued was the most relaxing, pleasant evening she had ever had on Babylonia. They spent hours sitting around the table, eating and chatting. Mila had never met such… well… such nice people. And they were nice just for the sake of being nice! It was incredible. Mila had always lived in a world where most people were only kind to you when they expected something in return. But these people, they just enjoyed the fact that they were making a new friend, it seemed.
Mahad and Shoomdai spent hours playing outside, and Mila was just relieved to hear her son laugh again. Lena sat in her mother's arms most of the evening, basking in the glow of attention.
"She's so beautiful!" Renata had exclaimed, more than once. Lena was beaming. And Mila felt that, even though every muscle in her body hurt, even though her hands were cut and blistered, things were just a little better.
The couple proved to be very insightful too, detailing Babylonia and its many activities. There was even a school nearby. Mila hadn't even thought about school. She'd been too stressed out.
They also admitted that they thought it looked like she needed help. Mila denied this but she could tell by their expressions that they didn't buy it. They offered countless tips and instructions on farming, and Mila memorized them raptly. In the end, she decided it didn't matter if she looked a little clueless. Because honestly, she needed the help.
It was pitch dark by the time they left. That night, as she watched them leave, there was no place left for doubt to settle in her mind. She smiled as she carried a sleeping Mahad back inside.
Somehow, things seemed just a little brighter now. Somehow, life wasn't completely impossible anymore.
A/N I decided Mila needed a little help. How could she be successful at farming if she lived most her life with the Sphere anyway? I wasn't sure what to name Shoomdai's parents ('cause he has such a weird name) so I had to settle for pretty normal names in the end. There was nothing that could rival something like Shoomdai... Gotta love the weird names on this show. ;)
I decided to bring in other Babylonians because it does seem like a populated area in the show. Unfortunately, they never showed any other adults on Babylonia so I had to make up two people (But at least they're Shoomdai's parents)... Okay, now tell me what you think!
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