D9 Fanfic

[Chapter 1]

"When are we going home?" Benjamin asked his father one afternoon. By this Ben meant the slums of District 9, not the faraway planet his family and bretheren came from twenty-eight years ago. Sasha knew this, and felt sorrow for the poleepkwa culture, as it seemed to be slipping away from the new generations' minds more and more each day.

"This is home now." he looked around at the clean tents, the lush grass...the barbed fence and posts filled with armed humans. "Is it not better than District 9?"

"I guess." Ben kicked an empty can. "I like scavenging, though. When is the mothership coming back?" the young poleepkwa asked as he looked at the empty sky.

Sasha only shook his head and there was silence between the two for a minute. "Gather your brothers." Benjamin ran off without a word. He skidded to a halt at the side of a tent where two little ones were in a scuffle. Ben was quick to pull them apart, scold the smaller one on the left, a yellow and black poleepkwa, then the one on the right, a pitch black child. Sasha watched as his last living child pointed towards him, then the two younglings jogged in the direction, followed by Benjamin.

All three halted at spitting distance from Sasha, waiting for punishment to begin.

Sasha's eyes first flickered over the dark one, whose own eyes avoided any contact. His claws were rubbing together, antennae going up and down frantically.

"Why do you fight your little brother?" Sasha sighed at the timid kid.

"H-He insulted me." Still no eye contact.

"What does he say to you?"

"He said I...I am a coward, and that I am weak. I have to prove him wrong."

"Do not lie to me, Julian."

This time there was eye contact, for a fraction of a second. The eyes held fear, but this was not fear of being in trouble or disappointing Julian's adopted father. It was fear that only a young poleepkwa would experience if his family was lost, probably in front of his own eyes.

"He insulted my family. He said that no good parenting could make me, and that I should never have come into existence, or my family."

The yellow-speckled child blinked. "I didn't say it like that!"

"Might as well have." Julian mumbled.

"Dawn, why must you say things like that to your brother?" Sasha asked as Benjamin joined him.

"He does it so then he can fight someone." Ben snorted. "That's all he does. Insults and fights."

"Apologize to your brother." Sasha said with a glare. Dawn did so, though he didn't look as sincere as he did dumbfounded. This might have been because he never had to apologize before, or that Julian would actually come out of his shell to be insulted. Sasha didn't like this, and continued to gaze down on the three children. One was a traumatized wreck, one was an oblivious brute, and one asked too many questions.

"Go to the tent now. The first one there gets first pick of dinner." Sasha ordered. "And no shoving, Dawn!" he called as the little ones raced away. Little did he know that one of his adopted son's aggressiveness was the least of his problems.

[Chapter 2]


Sasha's first impulse upon seeing the human was "Get out!" He did not care why there was one of the vile beings sitting in the back of his tent, nor how the human got there, it just had to leave.

<Please!> it begged, <I just need to stay here for a few weeks. I won't bother you or your kids, I won't make any noise->

"Get out!"

<Listen to me, man!>

"No. I don't need another human interuppting my or my sons lives. Leave now!" Sasha's clenched claw banged on a cardboard box for emphasis

The human flinched at this, arms going up near the face, palms out. However, one did not have a palm. In fact, one hand wasn't even human at all. It was dark, glossy, and clawed.

"Poleepkwa...?" Sasha murmured in awe as he observed the anomoly. "What are you?"

<I'm becoming a praw- one of you. That's why I'm here. One of my legs...it's already changing.>

Sasha looked down. Both of the human's feet were bloody and were patched with prawn shell, but one was longer than the other, and was erect beyond the knee, like a poleepkwa's. The more human-like leg was on the floor, making the appearence of the opposite directions of the legs almost comical. "How could something like this happen...?"

<I'll tell you if you let me stay.>

"How can I trust you?"

<Do I look like I'm in a position to lie, man?> the human asked, wrapping the blanket around himself again, then looked up at Sasha. For the first time he noticed the human had one golden poleepkwa eye. In it, he could read the fear and truthfulness of the human's words, while its natural eye was cold and blank.

The human is going to be one of us soon. There is blood going everywhere, so it must be painful. The humans must not want it, why else would it be behind the boxes? In the tent? In District 10 at all? Sasha thought to himself, one of the moments when he really took the time to think something through. And you know what? It must be suffering. Humans hate us, so it would hate being one of us. This is torture for it. And who gets to watch one of the things that help kill my kin and family?

"I do."

<What?>

"Nothing." Sasha looked around again, pretending to ponder while underneath he was gleeful. "If you stay here, would you owe your life to me?"

<Yes...>

"A debt you intend to pay?"

The human nodded after a moment, though with a weird look on its face.

"...Fine. You can stay here behind the food until you're completely changed. If I find you stealing any of the rations, I'll throw you right in front of your fellow humans."

<But I need to eat, man!>

"I know that. I'll give you some catfood a day." Sasha had no use for catfood anyways. He did not need or want a sugar rush, and Sasha didn't even want to [i]think[/i] about what would happen if any of the little ones got into it, especially Dawn. "You can use the corner to urinate, and if you need to deficate, we can probably find a can for you. You cannot talk to my children, or make any noise if other humans come here. Understood?"

<Yes, yes!> the sides of the human's mouth curved up. A 'smile', it was called, Sasha believed. <Thank you! You don't know how much this means to me.>

Sasha just snorted.

<Before you go, can I ask what you're called, eh?>

"Sasha."

<I'm Wikus.>

Sasha didn't care. "Just remember the rules. I will check on you every mealtime, and I will keep count of the cans back here." He said nothing more, and ignored anything else Wikus said.

"What is going on?" Benjamin asked when Sasha returned from the wall of boxes.

"Someone is staying here for a little while. Just a passerby that doesn't need your company. Don't go near it, speak to it, or look at it. Do you understand me?"

"Yes." Ben and Dawn said in unison. Julian was probably hiding.

Sasha then looked at Benjamin in particular. "I need you to promise me you won't speak to it."

"Yes, father." Ben said, disappointment in his eyes. "I promise." It had been Benjamin that had alerted Sasha to Wikus's presence. The little one had been last to the tent, and had to go to the back to fetch food, where he had seen the human and couldn't help but start babbling, excited to see something new. He had asked many questions that Sasha was unconcerned about when he had talked to the human. Where? Why? How? Was the world beyond the Districts nice? All the while Wikus tried to shush Ben, but he ignored the pleas. Now, it was depressing that he couldn't talk to the human anymore. He had so many questions about human life, and about the planet they were on.

Before the eight-year-old poleepkwa could dwell on it any longer, he was ordered to find Julian then have dinner.

For the rest of the night, Ben didn't think about their guest, not even when Wikus started whimpering while his face started to morph.

[Chapter 3]

Morning was no picnic for Sasha. His sons could sleep through just about anything, but Sasha had become a light sleeper from the need to be alert. When noise started coming from the back of the tent around sunrise, the adult poleepkwa jumped up, too groggy to remember his guest. He had used a pile of MNU-issued boxes as support as he craned to see what was making those gods-awful noises. He muttered under his breath when he recognized the silouhette of Wikus, remembering and regretting his actions. Still half-asleep he trudged the rest of the way to the back corner, intending to tell the human to shut it, but instead when his eyes were on Wikus's face in a growing patch of light, all he could do was tilt his head.

The skin and lip under its nose were gone completely, showing the top gum, but also what looked like two large thorns sticking out of it. These, Sasha assumed, were the beginnings of tendrils. There were no teeth around them, and very few on the lower part of the jaw, a stark contrast to the day before.

On the side of Wikus's poleepkwa eye, there were a few patches of skin missing, the biggest being around the cheek. There, the cheek itself was pushing out of the skin, split into two pointed pieces.

"Father?" Sasha blinked, the voice behind him making him focus again. He turned to see Benjamin, the child's eyes on the human. "Wow... It's becoming a poleepkwa, isn't it?"

"I told you not to come back here." Sasha growled.

Ben ducked in apology. "We're hungry, and I do not want to eat without you."

Right. The sun was completely up now, and the little ones would have awoken by this time. "Fine, but do not come back here again." Sasha motioned for Benjamin to go. When he was alone with Wikus again, he dipped a claw into a box. Out came a can of catfood, and Sasha rolled it to the human. "Control your noise level, or I will get rid of you. Have a good morning." he added at the last moment. Sasha then turned around and walked away, pulling a leg of meat from a rack above his head, and called his children to breakfast.


------

<-ave a good morning.> Wikus groaned inwardly as he woke up to these clicks.

Have a good morning.

"Fok." Why did everything have to hurt so badly? His rib cage was pushing out, his stomach was pulling in, his legs were of different size and shape from one another, he could feel his hips start to push against his worn pants...

What hurt the most was his face, and Wikus was afraid to find what could be poking out of it. He knew he was missing more teeth, just by feeling around with his tongue. There was less than ten in his lower jaw, and he found nothing but two thick, slimy things in the middle of his upper jaw that definately were not teeth. He attempted to ignore them, and spat out a tooth that he tongue had picked from the floor of his mouth.

A can of cat food was teetering next to his thigh, but Wikus didn't feel hungry. He felt like he had the worst flu on the planet, and prayed that it would end soon.


Wikus had managed to sleep for a few more hours, dreaming that he was completely human again, but when he came out of the bedroom, his wife, and soon everyone he knew, were prawns. When he awoke, he wasn't very disturbed. All of his dreams these days scared him, so much he wasn't afraid of them anymore. Reality, on the other hand, terrified him. The pain was no better than it had been in the morning, but now his narrow stomach growled for food, and he complied.

The catfood tasted no better than before, a comforting thought that at least his taste buds were still human. While eating, he had to hold up the two tentacles that were in his mouth so his gums and few teeth could attempt to chew the smelly pink stuff without any hassle.

The food went quickly. Then there was boredom. There was nothing to do; he was surrounded by boxes stamped with the MNU logo. He would learn later on that these were standard-issue, and contained cans of catfood and rubber, a year supply that would not be replenished under any circumstances until 2011. Wikus couldn't leave, and didn't want to, although he would have liked to at least stand up and stretch. His back was starting to get sore from sitting against a stack of boxes for so long without moving.

By the next week, Wikus was used to a pattern. The Sasha prawn would roll him a can in the morning, noon, and night, like he said he would. He could hear the clicks of Sasha's little ones around sunrise and sunset. When they were gone, it was dead silent, and a little eerie. No one talked to him, and he tried his best not to disturb them. Have a good morning was all that Wikus remembered being said to him at all until the day Sasha had come in and woken him up.



It had still been quite dark, and seeing a prawn in his face made Wikus flinch.

<Get up.> it clicked, and Wikus tried to, but his legs had become long and awkward by that time. Eventually Sasha leaned in and helped him up, then ordered Wikus to walk.

He did, after stumbling around a few steps.

<Can you speak?>

Wikus shook his head. All of his teeth had gone, and his mouth was covered with tendrils. He had learned how to translate the prawn language, but he had never learned to speak it. How could he? It had been impossible. Also at this time he didn't think to try speaking English.

<Then I shall teach you. Come. It is too small for two poleepkwas back here.>

Poleep-what? Wikus could only nod and follow. As he padded to the front, he noticed the three sleeping little ones. They looked quite peaceful, and in the dark they all reminded him of Christopher's son. This made him feel a pang of guilt.

Sasha hovered over the children. <It is time to wake up.> it whispered.

One sat up and rubbed its eyes, another yawned, and the last looked up sleepily, saw Wikus, and ran to one of the boxes.

<Julian does not take well to new faces.> Sasha explained, its voice softer and what Wikus thought was more friendly than when they first met. This only confirmed that he looked almost completely or just completely like a prawn, or poleepkwa, or whatever.

The largest of the three blinked up at the ex-human. It looked at the tattered shirt and pants that still clung to his body. <Is this the human?>

<Yes.> Sasha nodded. <It is.>

<I'm Benjamin! What's it like to be human?>

<He cannot speak our language, Benjamin.> Sasha said, shaking its head, but not looking annoyed.

<Then let's teach him!>

<Maybe afterwards we can play.> the smaller yellow-and-black prawn said.

<That may take a while.> Sasha patted the head of the littlest one. <Will you help me teach him?>

Benjamin nodded fervently, almost to the point of being bobble-head-like. <Definately!> His eyes went to Wikus.

<Sit down.> All the prawns collapsed at Sasha's command. <All right, now where will we start?>

[Chapter 4]

Within a few months, WIkus knew all the language he needed to have all kinds of conversations with other poleepkwa. It hadn't taken as long as it could have with the training he had had with MNU prior to this tornado of events. He even learned how to say his favorite word.

Along with this, Wikus noticed that he was at least two heads taller than Sasha, something Wikus couldn't help but point out in jest once and almost emptied his bladder at the amazingly dark glare he got as a response. Other than that, Sasha seemed to be a bit softer than when they first met, yet still wasn't afraid to give his guest a verbal lashing when Sasha believed it was neccesary.

Like when Wikus had given Dawn catfood upon his request, failing to remember what it could and did do to a poleepkwa that age: Dawn went into a hyper state for hours, most of it being pinned by Benjamin who watched as Sasha scolded someone twice the little one's age or more.

"You never give little ones cat food! What are you trying to do, alert your old friends to come and shoot every one of us to pieces? It's only luck that kept them from hearing, you know. Good gods...." At the end Sasha rubbed his face. "This had better not happen again, or I swear-"

"It won't, I promise! I didn't mean-"

"Just shut up." Sasha looked at the writhing Dawn and back at Wikus, saying, "If my son is addicted to that garbage, you'll have to find your own food from now on." With that he picked up the yellow child and took him to the back of the tent, probably to try and calm him down.

"....Fffff." Wikus himself had grown addicted to cat food, it being the only diet he had been forced on since entering the District. He prayed Dawn wasn't going to take the only food he could eat. It would be impossible to find more out where worse addicts scavenged daily, where there was little trash and leftovers to scrounge into a snack, let alone meal.

Benjamin plodded over to him, head cocked. "That wasn't very smart, huh? But it's okay. Father will forgive you. He always forgives eventually, I think. ...Do humans eat cat food?"

Wikus snorted. "No. Cat food is for, well, you know, cats."

"What is 'cat'?" Ben blinked.

"It's an...Earth creature, I suppose....on the cat food cans."

Ben perked up. "Really? That's what 'cat' is? What do they do?"

"They meow and tear up your furniture."

"What is 'furniture'?"

Wikus sighed. "Never mind."

"No, no, no! Please tell me! I want to know."

"Why do you need to know everything so badly?"

Ben shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I like to learn things. And Father barely tells me [i]anything[/i]. He says that there's no use knowing about human things, but we live with the humans, on their planet, so we should know as much as they do, right?"

Wikus shrugged.

"And you know everything they do, right?"

"....Yes...."

"So...can you teach me?"

Wikus's brow furrowed. "I don't know. Your father might-"

"He doesn't need to know. He wouldn't want to know anyways."

This was true.

"I guess I can, if I ever get out of here enough to see human things."

Benjamin laughed. "You will, father's just waiting for your eye to change."

"What?"

"Your eye. On this side..." Benjamin pointed to his own orange left eye. "It's blue. Poleepkwa don't usually have blue eyes like that. Once it goes away, Father will let you out."

For a moment, Wikus hoped that it would never change. It was the same feeling he had hoped for other things around his body that inevitably changed anyways, no matter how hard he wished they could stay. If he ever saw Tania again, he wanted this blue eye he and she were so familiar with to let her know he wasn't just a prawn.

"Are you okay?" Benjamin piped up before Wikus could sink into depression.

"Yes....yes, I'm fine."

"So, you'll teach me?"

"Yes."

"About everything?"

"I can try."

And at that moment, Benjamin officially liked their once-human guest.

[Chapter 5]

"Hmm." Sasha looked up at Wikus. "That is it?"

'That is it'?! 'That is it'?! I went through the most fokkin' traumatic thing, and you think that's it?! Wikus blinked back the anger. "Yes."

"Hmmmm. Interesting." Sasha didn't look like he meant it. "So the mothership will be back in three Earth years?"

"That's what Christopher said."

"It better be." Sasha mumbled into his claws while looking out the opening of the tent.

"No questions....?"

Sasha shook his head. "There is nothing else to know. You (were) an idiot, you (were) betrayed by your own kind, you betrayed your only help, it takes you long enough to realize your mistake, you help the mothership go, then you crawled to me. Correct?"

God, he hated this prawn sometimes. If it wasn't for the cat food, a place to stay, and maybe the kid.... "Yes." Wikus sighed inwardly.

"Then that is that." Sasha stood and stretched.

"Mm." Wikus glared at Sasha's back. "So...what are you going to do with the little ones today?"

"....Why do you ask?"

"Well, I was thinking that, you know, I need to see District 10, right?"

"Right..."

"And Benjamin is always watching his brothers-"

"Where are you going with this?"

"Why not give him a break and let him show me everything? You know how he likes exploring and all that..."

Sasha's dark green eyes went to slits. "I am not endangering my son."

Wikus scoffed. "How would it be any more dangerous than the last District?"

"I did not say that. Why does it matter so much for my son to be with you, anyways?"

"I like him. He asks questions." Wikus added before Sasha could prompt. "He's intellegent and.....nice, and don't you think he should have a little time to have some fun?"

"Well...of course I think he should, but I don't know if I can trust you with him."

Wikus rubbed his forehead, eyes closed, trying to keep cool. "Sasha, listen to yourself. I've been at your mercy for what, months now? And you think I would want to ruin that and hurt your child because I'm a human bastard?"

Sasha said nothing.

"We humans are vile, yes, but not every single one is out to hurt you or your family. Didn't you hear me five minutes ago when I told you about what happened to me? After all that I've done and all that I've seen, I could never hurt another pr....poleepkwa. Especially not the child of the one that kept me alive and taught me how to be one of you."

"All right, all right. Anything to make you stop lecturing me. But if he comes back with one scar on his body, I swear to gods..."

"He won't, Sasha." Wikus rolled his eyes and stepped outside. "Ben!"

The child, along with his younger yellow brother, turned and smiled. "Hi!"

"Where is Julian?"

"There." Dawn pointed to the tent's shadow, where yellow eyes blinked at Wikus.

"You and him go inside to your father now."

"Okie-doke." Dawn padded to the tent with Julian behind him.

Once his brothers were gone, Ben stood up, blinking. "What is going on?"

"Well, you know how I've been telling you things, right?"

"Oh, yes."

"Isn't it about time you told me something?"

"Like what?"

"Like, oh, District 10."

"Here?"

"Yes."

Ben smiled briefly. "But I don't know everything about this place..."

"That's okay, we'll find things together."

"Really? We get to explore?"

"Mm-hmm."

Ben clapped. "Yay! ...But what about Father?"

Wikus smiled. "Don't worry about him. He said it's okay."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Perfect! ...If we see any human things, will you tell me about them?"

"That's pushing it a little, eh?"

Ben's eyes flickered away. "I'm sorry..."

"No, no, no. There's nothing wrong with that." Wikus chuckled.

Benjamin nodded, and disappeared behind the larger prawn.

"Eh?" Wikus could feel something on his hips, then on his shoulders. "What are you...?"

"Oh. Is piggy-back pushing it?" Ben asked, his face appearing over Wikus's forehead.

"No. It's clever, actually." Wikus started looking around. "Just hang on."

"I will."

"Good. I don't want to lose you." Sasha would be so peeved. "Where to first?"

[Chapter 6]

"There are so many tents! It's like they go on forever and ever..." Ben chirped from Wikus's shoulders.

"Can you see yours from here?" Wikus asked, getting tired of only seeing white beyond white beyond white himself.

Ben giggled nervously. "I can't tell... They all look the same."

Great. "Well, we'll find it again later."

"Okay. ....What are clouds made of?"

Wikus flicked his antennae. "Water."

"Really? They look so...fluffy." Ben leaned on the larger poleepkwa's head.

"You can actually go right through them, you know."

"That doesn't make any sense!"

"You haven't seen anything yet...."

"What?"

"Nothing. Anyways, rain comes from clouds, right?"

"Yeah."

"So, water evaporates and makes clouds."

"What is 'evaporate'?"

"When...ehm...when water dries up and goes into the air."

"Hmm. Cool. So it happens over and over?"

"Yup. A cycle."

"Like 'bicycle'?"

"Like a wheel of one, yes. But always spinning without pedals."

"Oh. Ohhhh. That's neat. Are there other cycles?"

"Yes, but much more complicated than the water cycle."

Ben sighed. Complicated things were annoying. It was hard to wait a year or more to learn about something you want to know now. "There's a lot of complicated stuff in the human world, huh?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Meh." Ben looked above Wikus's head, trying to spot something new. There were wandering poleepkwa, some of them playmates; there were also humans around, MNU on their chests. "Farther won't like that..."

"What?" Wikus peered up at Ben. "MNU?"

"Yeah."

"Who does like those pricks?"

"What about other humans?"

"Oh. Hmm."

"Did you like them at some point?"

"Well..." Wikus's eyes flickered off to the distance. "Honestly, I worked for them once."

Prompted by no response, Wikus continued, "Humans are stupid and ignorant, Ben. Most don't know what they are doing, and those that do don't care."

"...But you're not like them."

"Now. But at one point, I was. I definately was."

Silence for another minute. "...It's in the past now. It's okay now." Benjamin shifted his position slightly. "What are they doing?"

"That is not something either of us need to know." Wikus turned and started on a new path. His eyes flickered to one of Ben's dangling legs. "What is this?"

"Hmm?"

"On your leg."

"Oh. It's a bandana."

"I see that." It was red, with a faded design and many tears. "Where did you get it?"

Ben pulled the leg in. "Father gave it to me. It was my other father's at one point."

"You had a second parent?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Where is he?"

"Gone. He's been gone for a while. Why is the sky blue?"

Wikus sighed and stashed the question about the bandana in the back of his mind for Sasha.

-----


Night fell, as did curfew. Neither Ben nor Wikus seemed to care much, as Ben was pointing out some of the stars to Wikus, calling them names Wikus's mostly-human mind couldn't translate.

"Aren't they pretty?" Ben asked.

"Yes."

"Father says they're all a lot like Earth's sun, but some are different colors. What colors are they?"

"Um..." Wikus struggled to remember his high school classes on the solar system. "Some are yellow, like the sun, some are big and red, and some are small and white."

"Are any pink?"

"Nope."

"Aww. Pink is pretty."

"It is."

Wikus stopped then, and gently took Ben from his shoulders. As soon as the child was on the ground, he felt the toll the day had taken on him. "Please tell me this is the right tent...I might just black out here."

"It is." Ben laughed. "You're funny."

"Good that someone thinks so."

"I wonder if Father and the others are still up...." Ben's eyes trailed up to the dark sky. "Ooh! Did you see that?"

Wikus peered at the speckled black. "What?"

"A star just went by!"

"Ah. A shooting star."

"Stars can fly?"

"Well...not really." Wikus was too tired to go on, and confirmed this with a yawn.

"You're tired, too?"

"Yes."

"Okay." Ben reached for Wikus's hand, and once his claws were around it, pulled back. "Eh?! ...Oh." He took the hand in his while Wikus looked down.

"What is it?"

"Your claw over here." Benjamin felt the stub where Wikus's thumb once was. "What happened to it?"

Wikus sighed, and although it went against his better judgement, answered with, "I cut it off."

"What? Why would you hurt yourself like that?"

"Humans are stupid, like I told you. When I first found out that I was turning into a poleepkwa, I went a little crazy with everything that was going on, which I'll tell you about when you're a little older. I was desperate to make everything back to normal, and for a second thought that taking off my whole arm would make it all go away. Luckily, I chickend out and only cut off my thumb."

"Ow...." Ben rubbed it a little more. "Does it still hurt?"

"No. But I think my shoulder blades are cracked."

"Oh. Sorry." Ben looked at the tent. "Are you ever upset about being a poleepkwa?"

"Do you really want to know?"

Ben's golden gaze returned to Wikus's two-toned. "Really really wanna."

Wikus took a moment to think, something he may not have done a few months ago before meeting Sasha and his sons. "I am...a lot. But you have to understand, I'm used to being a human. It would be the same for you if you went from poleepkwa to human, don't you think?"

Ben nodded slowly. "Yeah...do you ever want to be human again when you're around me?"

"No. Never." Possibly truth, he realized with some horror.

"How about Father?"

"Sometimes." Half-truth.

"I would, too."

They laughed.

"Might as well get inside before he or someone else finds us, eh?"

Ben nodded.

They went in together, and Ben curled up near his father. "Good night, Wikus." he whispered as to not wake the light sleeper.

"Good night."