Greetings! And welcome to my first attempt at writing a D9-fic.
It's probably my favourite movie of all times. It blows me away every time I see it. And the characters… Oh, boy – I love C.J. and Wikus a lot.
Yes, sorry to admit that I am a bit of a Slash-fan. But Tania/Wikus is sweet too.
Title: Flower
Pairing(s): Tania/Wikus & implied Christopher/Wikus
Warnings: spoilers for movie, Character-death, implied slash between alien and human-gone-alien.
Yeah…
I just really wanted to try writing something different AND from Tania's POV. Please tell me how I managed :)
Tania turned the TV off and pulled the blanket tighter around her thin shoulders. She had lost a lot of weight over the past three years, mostly from stress and a depression she had suffered from after an abortion. Even though family and religion had begged her to keep the little girl growing in her, she had had no choice.
She couldn't bring Wikus' child into the world without him in it. She just couldn't.
Tania trembled as another explosion was heard nearby. Everybody was freaking out outside. And to think that the aliens had been considered violent… It was the entire population of Johannesburg, it seemed, that was ripping the neighbourhoods apart in anxiety. The aliens had already been taken into the Mothership.
Three years. The Mothership had been gone for three years. Three years of fear of its return, and an eternity of mysterious, handcrafted flowers appearing at her doorstep. Three years alone in a house full of pictures of herself and the man she loved.
But then the Mothership had returned.
The people of Earth had not known what to do with themselves. Had it returned for revenge? War? At first it hadn't seemed like it. A protective, alien force-field was created around the new alien-habitat, District 10. And on every news-channel or radio-station Tania had heard how the refugees from outer space had been flown into alien rescue-ships. They were being taken away from the hell they were living in by their own kind. They were saved. The aliens were going home.
Except that they still hadn't.
The Mothership had remained hovering in the sky over the city; activated, but unmoving. People had begun freaking out.
"They're mobilizing! They're gonna kill us all!"
"Confess your sins, 'for your sins have returned to destroy you…"
"I don't want to die!"
Tania turned off the TV every time the apocalypse-proclaimers took the spot-light. She didn't care for any preaches about aliens killing her. For one, the aliens hadn't even emerged from the Mothership again or declared that they wanted to set foot on the planet of their torturers again, and second… she was already a little dead inside.
Wikus was dead. When the flowers had stopped coming, so had her hope of his well-being ended.
A knock on her door startled her. It was late now, dark outside. She was certain that none of her family dared to move around in the streets now, all were too afraid. On unsteady feet she moved to the door, opened it.
"Oh, my…" Tania was too shocked to be scared. The blanket nearly fell from her shoulders.
A huge, dark-green alien stood at her door-step. It looked like all of the posters and TV-spots she had seen of them: insect-like, tentacles, alien…
But the sad, intelligent expression of its eyes had her stopping from slamming the door in its face. Something told her that this… creature wasn't here to kill her or do her any harm.
"C-can I h-help y-you?" Tania gasped out, staring into large, luminous eyes. Such intensity.
"Are you the mate of Wikus?" it clicked, sad eyes searching her face, looking at her.
She gasped at the mentioning of her husband's name, her hand came up to cover her mouth.
"Who a-are you?" she whimpered. The creature studied her.
"I am the bringer of news of Wikus," it rumbled in a deep baritone. Intimidating, regal.
Tania shivered. The way the creature spoke her husband's name… It clicked it carefully, caressed the sound. It knew Wikus.
"Who are you?" she asked again gently, embracing the blanket around her tighter.
This time it bowed its head in a solemn greeting. A formal, gentle creature.
"You may call me Christopher. Christopher Johnson," the alien explained in their language. It was impressive how easily the aliens made themselves understood; there was simply no language-barrier, even if DNA and galaxies tore their co-existence apart. "I am a… friend of your mate's."
Friend…
"How did… Wikus meet you, Christopher?" Tania of course knew that it had to be through his alien-associated work, but still. This monster-like looking gentleman wasn't telling her everything.
Christopher shifted on his powerful legs, gestured with his secondary limbs. Suddenly a hard glint entered its eyes.
"He hid with me after your father tried to kill him and helped me save my people from the evil of your planet," it hiss-clicked, antennas erect in fury. "We fought together to save each other."
Tania was speechless. But she didn't question the raged alien in her doorway. Even if every piece of information seemed too surreal to be true, the last years had made her feel more open to any explanation that might ease the sorrow from the total destruction of her existence. Her existence and the future it had promised with husband, child and happiness.
"You saved each other?" she asked in almost a whisper. Christopher's anger faltered immediately. The sadness of his eyes returned.
"He saved me, yes," it clicked gently. "He told me to leave him behind so that I could escape with my son and search for help."
"But Wikus…?"
If aliens could cry, then Christopher might have been crying at that moment, Tania realized later on. The non-human sound that escaped its throat was raw and suffering.
"I couldn't save him," it mourned quietly. "He was… so weak when I found him. Sick."
They stared at each other in silence, grieved.
"He had been so brave and strong for the past three years. But when I carried him to the operation-table, his life was slipping away. I made the Ship stay in your atmosphere until I was finished, they promised me to give me a chance to honour his wish to become human. I had the cure, I was ready to make him human, ready to give him up to the humans…"
Give him up?
"But he died right there. In my arms."
Tania's cheeks were already wet from tears. Wikus. Her Wikus. Their Wikus; Hers and Christopher's.
"He asked me to give you this," the gentle creature clicked, handed her a handcrafted flower.
Tania sobbed as she understood that it had been her Wikus all along. She held the tiny, fragile thing in her fingers, touched the bend metal with her fingers. Her wedding-ring glinted in the soft light from her living-room.
"I must go now. Return to our Home," Christopher turned around slowly, one last glance at the flower in her hands. "I am sorry for your loss. Please take care."
Tania would look back at what she did then later, but she would never regret it.
"Christopher, wait!" she cried. The alien stopped, looked at her. Gentle eyes, sad eyes. Eyes that had watched Wikus draw his last breath in grief.
"… please, take this." She offered the flower to the alien. "And I am sorry for your loss, as well."
Christopher stared into her eyes, despair and hopelessness overwhelming. But he took it, carefully. Ran his tentacle over the crafted leaves in wonder.
"I thank you."
Tania smiled, though her world was shattered and her heart was aching.
"Never forget Wikus."
"I never will."
With that Christopher disappeared into the darkness with the flower. Silence.
~ ~ ~FIN ~ ~ ~
And thus the Mothership leaves Earth.
Gah, so short! Sorry!
Please Review :)