Chapter 10 - Love without someone
Miki, Abby and Jia were flown over to Hong Kong by helicopter from the ship Apex had kept them on. Dr. Andrews had fallen too ill after her fall and had to be flown separately. Miki was just thinking, as she often did, in this and many other ways she and Madison were very similar.
Miki realized that it hadn't taken nearly as long as they thought, which probably meant that the ship wasn't far from Hong Kong, probably somewhere in a steep coastal area behind cliffs and mountains where Kong and the ship could easily hide. Even if these, monsters, were gigantic, they could hide, be kept secret, so did Monarch for years, so they survived the millions of years.
But now they were awakening again and the hiding had stopped, the keeping secret by Monarch was hardly possible anymore. It was little surprise to Miki that people like Jonah's group and Apex set out to exploit the Titans and their powers. Humans may not be that big, but humans have brains, minds, ways to create their environment to their liking. But how far could one go? How far should one go?
That's what Miki asked herself sometimes, Monarch's only task was to prevent situations like this from becoming possible, but in the last years it became more and more difficult and now with the abrupt awakening it had become even more complicated for both sides.
Even though they could easily be seen as gods when it came to facts, the Titans were also just living beings that lived on this planet, but you can't start living together from one day to the next, sure the Titans had their positive effects, but also their negative ones. Just as a volcanic eruption could wipe out a land area, the surviving ashes could sprout new life. That's what the Titans were, and that's how humans would have to learn to adapt. If it had not been so fast, it had been just under 5 years the rest of the world ever learned that monsters were real and processed the whole thing, then they were overrun by a cataclysm.
Emma Russell's actions had made it all worse, even if she was of good mind, they were marked with bias, trauma, and rash risks.
Although what happened to her wasn't necessarily unpredictable when you had all the pieces of the puzzle.
Working at Monarch in a high position means pressure, but after Emma lost her oldest child and then divorcing her husband and then fighting over the child she could barely care for, her way of dealing with it all was to immerse herself in her work, the work of keeping giant monsters secret from the rest of the population. Then still behind her stood Jonah, planting false impressions of the world in her mind, manipulating her here and there.
In retrospect, you're always smarter, but when it all happened, no one really knew anything, especially since neither Emma nor Maddie said anything and Mark was at a distance.
It made Miki worry about Madison, she had to live through all this, even that she had survived everything was a miracle and now she was pushed into the whole thing, into a role for which she apparently could hardly decide. A reason why she always tried to be there for her, as if she were her own daughter, but now she hoped that Madison would not do anything rash like her mother, especially in this situation.
At the thought of Madison as her daughter, she grabbed her stomach and closed her eyes, she too had gone through bad things when she was young, so she could understand Madison's pain all too well. A personal reason why she had founded this department in the first place, why she always tried to be there for her charges as if she were their real mother.
Then she felt a slight vibration go through the machine.
Finally they had landed. The helicopter had landed on a skyscraper, they were immediately taken out, Miki held Jia and Abby close to her, it was all quite stormy and it wasn't just the wind. The environment around them confused her a bit, it didn't look like what she would have expected, there was a teacher pool, chairs, tables, umbrellas. Although it was night, but the metropolis was still loudly alive, everywhere were neon lights, it was quite loud, there was commotion down in the streets, exactly what was going on there they could not hear.
Belvera, Ren and a few guards escorted them over to an elevator, pushed them in and immediately they went down. As they waited in the elevator Ren sighed and grabbed his forehead. "What is it?" Belvera asked.
"I still think we shouldn't station ourselves here, it's too conspicuous."
"Now pull yourself together Serizawa."
Miki winced when she heard the name, even Abby and Jia whose hands she was holding noticed. Maybe it was just a coincidence, but she had had a feeling where she looked at him, could this man be related to Ishiro?
"I just mean it's-" "Relax, nothing can happen, remember we have the upper hand right now and if we let everything go according to my plan it will all go smooth as butter," the elevator stopped and a ding sounded, "ah, we're here."
When the door opened it revealed a huge hotel suite, probably private and that would cost a lot of money, unimaginable money for some, it seemed to have several rooms. The anteroom was a few meters wide, there was a door on the left, then an open kitchen on the right, bigger than Miki's in New York, the rest of the room was a large living room, with all sorts of furnishings, but the most striking thing was the large glass wall over which you could see most of Hong Kong, although it was not even the tallest building.
Belvera turned to the guards.
"Put the equipment and suitcases in the back and rest, I'll take our guests to their rooms."
They nodded and went after her, unloading their items and starting to set up any equipment, meanwhile Belvera, with some after effect of her revolver took Miki, Abby and Jia to a room, the door was just past the kitchen, seen to the right of the entrance. It was a fairly large bedroom, a large bed stood in front, behind it was also a large window just like the view in the living room, book shelves surrounded the wall, across from the bed was a TV, under that was a mini fridge, right next to it was an open door to a bathroom.
The three slowly went in, Abby immediately sat down on the bed, Jia stayed with Miki, Belvera leaned against the door and put her revolver away, Miki turned to her.
"You will all stay here for a while, snacks are in the fridge, food comes at certain times, if anything else hit the door," Belvera looked down at Jia and crouched down to her, "Won't you rather stay with me, maybe you don't hear something accidentally."
Jia hid behind Miki, who stood protectively in front of her. Belvera looked at her suspiciously as she stood back up.
"Watch what you're doing Miss Seagusa."
All that came in reply was a blunt nod. Belvera kept her eyes on her, then closed and locked the door.
"What's the problem with that weird aunt?" Asked Abby, Miki did not respond to the comment and crouched down again to Jia. The little one was scared, all this was unfamiliar and new, she had never been so far away from her village at all from the whole island, then to be trapped by someone like Belvera, this made her very stressed, tears came up again.
Miki held her hand and gently
grabbed her cheek, rubbing a little to calm her down.
"Are you okay?"
Miki spoke clearly, making sure Jia could read her lips. Jia nodded, Miki gave a soft smile and said
"You're very strong, you know that?"
Jia smiled a little again and had quickly calmed down, Abby watched as she did, she felt a little left out, but it didn't really matter, at least she thought it did.
"Come on, it's been a long day, you're exhausted, let's put you to bed." Miki stood up and took her hand and led her to the bed.
"Abby, please make room for Jia."
"No problem." Sighing and sliding a little to the side, Jia climbed up, took off her shoes and got some bed ready, the blankets and pillows all freshly covered.
True, it was quite a large bed, more than enough room for the three of them to share, but Miki would barely be able to sleep after these anyway.
Jia continued to crawl forward to the other end, Miki moved to the side and helped her tuck in, then straightened her still to the cushion.
"Is it comfortable?" Miki pointed out to her, Jia replied with a sign "Yes."
Never before had the Iwi girl slept like this, usually it was always on the ground of a tent, or in a tree, this felt like lying on a cloud in comparison, so comfortable, cuddly, Miki sat down to her bed, made sure everything was okay, wanted to get up again but then we felt her hand being pulled, Jia wanted her to stay with her, so she did.
Abby sat down at the end of the bed on the floor, had taken a juice from the fridge, turned up the TV and pouted something to herself.
Serizawa just stood at the large window, looking down on the city, hands behind his back. Soon he would finally prove that man did not need Godzilla, that his father was always wrong, that mankind was the pet of Godzilla, it was his equal, a struggle for supremacy and he would free it from the current domination of the Titans.
He looked down at the streets, there was a lot going on, a protest was going on down there, he wondered what it was all about, why people were doing it.
"Serizawa why so serious?" Shouted Belvera behind him, he looked behind, she was standing in the kitchen and had opened a bottle of champagne.
"Isn't it a little early to be celebrating?"
"I'm not celebrating, but I'm certainly not going to miss the opportunity for free champagne."
"Well, free isn't really..."
"With the money we're getting, it's nothing in comparison."
"Why did we have to ask for so much money anyway? Our sponsor has more than enough."
With two glasses in hand she walked over to him,
"Sure, but you can always make a profit, besides it's a bit more inconspicuous and compared to what Monarch usually has to spend sometimes it's next to nothing."
Serizawa scoffed at the remark and turned back out to the window.
"Think of me as old-fashioned, but I always tried to be careful with money, since my mother barely had any and my father-" "Yes, her father left her alone, boo hoo."
Serizawa sighed loudly, frustrated and annoyed a little, but Belvera hardly seemed to care.
"Relax Serizawa, here, take."
She handed him a glass, he reluctantly accepted it and took a sip while looking back at the streets where the protest was currently taking place.
"Tell me Belvera...what's happening down there?" "Down where?"
He pointed down to the streets, she gave it just a quick glance and scoffed, "I don't know, nothing relevant to us." She put the champagne bottle on the table and sat down on the sofa, "The only thing I got was that the government is having problems with the city, but like I said, I don't care," and sat back as if nothing was going on, which bothered Serizawa a bit.
"You are from this country, aren't you?" "I don't care about my origin and I like to forget it, besides, I don't care about these people."
"But isn't that exactly what we want, to get humanity back away from oppression?"
"From titans, not other humans."
"How can you think like that?"
"I'm just doing stuff for business, and business can only run properly when these things are back underground and not interfering with it."
"But what if governments like this try to use them then?"
"Then they're customers."
Serizawa looked at her speechless, she could tell he was mad at her, but in her eyes he was just a little runt who made his plans look big and she knew who was really in charge.
"Ren, if I may call you that, our views may be different, but the important thing is we both get what we want and it will help a lot of people, right?" She said and was about to toast him to a second glass, but he turned away from her, back to the window and looked down on the city at night.
"Have the peace Ren, she's right, we'll both get what we want, I'll get what I want and then we can move on with the other plans, but first Jonah has to be delivered to us, only he can access the resources I...we need. Let's hope Monarch doesn't do anything stupid or whoever this Madison is."
He had never met her, he had only heard something about Belvera and had done some research, he didn't quite believe what he heard but didn't want to contradict his business partner.
A little later at night
Miki was freshening up and getting ready for bed in the bathroom, she looked at a clock hanging above the mirror, it was almost 1 o'clock but she hardly felt tired, too stressed and wired from all the action that had happened to her so far, she sighed and wished she could do more, but in her situation it was wiser to do nothing, no elaborate plan would really work and where was she supposed to go anyway?
It reminded her of the story Madison had told her about stealing the Orca and sneaking through the bunker's ventilation systems, but that was a very different situation, there she knew the terrain and was not trapped and not under constant surveillance, but always in danger.
Here there were no ventilation shafts nor would any of the three know their way around Hong Kong. Just do what these people want you to do and nothing will happen, she told herself, but she wasn't sure about that either, especially as she saw Belvera, she seemed to be more scrupulous than this Serizawa, and also the one who was in charge of the whole thing, even if he might share the position with her. She could well become a serious opponent of Monarch in the future, especially if she assists in Jonah's operations.
but now she needed a little rest Miki went out and turned off the light on the way. When she went back into the other room she saw Abby sitting on the floor leaning against the bed staring at the TV with cans of soft drink and sweet snacks around her.
"Abby..." "What-" she said with her mouth half full.
"You're not supposed to stay up this late or eat, especially this, how are you going to sleep?"
"Like I can fall asleep so easily with everything going on."
Miki wanted to say something again, but there was an easier way, besides Abby was partially right.
"Alright, but then I'll keep you company, slide to the side." Abby put the cans to her right to the left and slid a little, letting Miki sit next to her, she looked quite pleased.
"What's on right now?" "I don't know I'm just going through the channels."
"Aaand what do you have for snacks?" "Not much, do you want Smarties?"
"Yeah I'd love to."
Abby handed her an open pack and pressed on at the channels, first came a lot of Chinese channels that neither of them understood but things had cable, they then passed a movie, was a Sci Fi movie that looked quite interesting but Miki was a bit skeptical.
"Are you sure you want to watch this? "
"I've seen it before, it was very relaxing and distracting." "Hmm."
They stayed with it for a while, it was about a security robot in the future who gained freedom and was about to embark on a journey to investigate an accident he was involved in, but Miki was only paying attention in passing, she was keeping an eye on Abby, something was up, she seemed excited but didn't want to talk about it directly. That was normal, at Abby's age, no, actually at any age, one had problems to be completely open also with people who were close to them, one tried to hint that something was wrong but then at every opportunity one rejected questions or didn't want to talk, one was afraid about it until it was maybe too late.
Normally Miki would have given her more time, but who knew if they would survive this whole story and the last thing she wanted would be not to have asked.
"Abby?" "Huh?" she turned to Miki with a straw in her mouth.
"I'm sorry to have to ask all this now, but I noticed something was bothering you."
Abby looked away and down put the can of juice aside, she was right.
"You didn't want to talk about it, did you?" At first she just nodded and didn't look at Miki, after an awkward silence she spoke, "You remember what I said about Madison?" "Yes of course, is that it?" "It not only that."
She said, Miki could feel her protégé started to tremble, she was afraid to say something she might regret.
Carefully, she grabbed her hand; she could feel her pulse. "Abby?" Her charge looked up at her, he now she saw Abby was on the verge of crying. "It's okay Abby, I'm here for you, always. I'm here for everyone, I always will be. "
Abby took her time with what she was saying, then she began to narrate and things became clearer for her.
"I-I told you...that I was afraid of what Madison would say, about letting her go to the island at all...after what she told us. It wasn't...it wasn't just letting go of a friend...she was the first friend I had, the first one to leave me with her and not push me away when I told her...you confess how I felt with her..."
A brief moment she had to rub the tears from her face, Miki held her hand, Abby took a deep breath, let the air fill her lungs, and out again, now she couldn't turn back, she thought to herself.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah I just...I've never had this before. You didn't really find out the reason I came to you, did you?"
"What do you mean, I thought it was because your father was too busy and the area wasn't safe anymore because of-"
"That was only half the truth. You have to understand, I've known the whole thing for a while, that I wasn't into boys, but I didn't dare come out... until I did, maybe a year before Ghidorah, I couldn't remember exactly... it was hard. I had a crush on a girl at my school, but when I confessed it to her, she broke my heart and rejected me, even as I searched for another half. She told everyone at school, not everyone was against me of course, just she was the worst person I could have told... I was laughed at and ridiculed by her and her friends. After that I came home, sad, crying and weeping, never wanting to leave my room again, feeling sick, wanting to throw up all the time. My father and mother...they...when I told them,"
now came the hard part, for a long time she had repressed these memories but had to live through them. At first she stumbled trying to tell it, it didn't come out stuttering, but then she felt someone gently touch her shoulder, Miki it was of course, but she pulled Abby closer to her. Carefully she stroked her head, for a few minutes, then she said,
"I get it now, I'm sorry for what happened to you, sometimes life can stab us in the back pretty good and we try to hide the wounds. I carry them too."
Abby looked up at Miki, her expression was similar, she too was just remembering Bad Things again. "I've only told a few, not even Maddie, some just know from my files, but I don't like to talk about it, openly I had never talked about it before." Abby was quite taken back hearing such words from Miki.
"I came to Monarch quite young, already at 12 I came here through my parents and 17 when I started working for the organization. I was accepted because I was researching functions of dreams and thoughts, I had developed theories about telepathy when I was in college, I had a dear professor here at Monarch who had worked in the same field as me and made it possible for me to start so early. There were also events where I wasn't sure if they were real, but they were part of why I was accepted. I was to help research Godzilla and other sleeping Titans, study their brain flows, see if they could be prevented from waking up, at that time there were not so many of them, only a handful, yet we were always in direct contact, I could stand more because I was young, but you can imagine that it was not good to be constantly handling radioactive beings and samples just like that. Although we learned that kaiju didn't emit radiation directly, the material like blood, saliva and other pieces of the body we took out emitted it as soon as it was taken out and slowly decayed, it took us a while to realize that and I had to pay the price,"
Miki grabbed her stomach again.
"I was just 20, then I learned that I could never have children and I might even get cancer, the last didn't happen and I'm still alive. But it was the reason I stopped dating anyone or going into a relationship, was afraid to tell anyone and then they would push me away because I couldn't share something with them. That's why I retrained, got a second degree in caring and education, learned as much as I could, and started this program. On one side to fill that hole in my soul, on the other to help kids like you who were scared or had problems living a normal life when they were put into this organization. And I will do that until I can't do it anymore. "
The silence that followed was ear numbing, all sounds around her were like muted, shocked by what she heard, but in a way she felt better, for the first time she saw Miki shedding tears unlike she had ever thought she was not alone, none of them were, they had each other. Abby hugged Miki tightly, she had just wiped the tears from her face. At first she let Abby go, but then she hugged Abby back and stroked her head.
"Miki?" "Yes Abby?" the two looked at each other. "Can you be my mom?" Miki, with tears in her eyes smiled. "Sure Abby, forever." Miki held Abby for quite a while until it got later and later, time melted away, the TV had only a static picture, Abby had fallen asleep and Miki was also getting more and more tired carefully she picked Abby up, up on the bed and tucked her in next to Jia, covering her.
She turned off the TV and then lay down herself, at the end of the bed she curled up and closed her eyes, hoping that everything would go well, that none of her family would have to suffer anymore.