land of sorrow {78th VT}

They're three years old and they drive me crazy.

Running up and down through the house, shrieking in excitement as colors flash on the screen even if it's the white of snow or the red of blood - they know nothing but their simple pleasures and pains.

And I hate them for it, but I promised her. I'm not like those people, the ones that let misery turn into temptation - (She tells me I oughtn't think of other people as spineless idiots so often) - the district's crawling with them, or the moonshine guy down at the Hob would've gone out of business a long time ago.

I promised her, I promised her I'd try, I -

Better the cracked plaster than that I turn to striking at my own flesh and blood.

I'd told her, you won't ever get out of there if you try and fight for anything but selfishness - she couldn't do it. My sister was so goddamn softhearted she'd hesitate to kill a robot - let alone a person - just because it looked like a child.

Stella is everything that Mila wasn't.

Strong, ruthless - I watched her suffer on television. I watched her make right choice after right choice at the kinds of moments my sister made the wrong ones - if only she'd -

Ah hell, there's no use mourning what couldn't come to be.

"Come on, let's get dressed. It's a special day today." Somehow I manage to get Almira to wriggle into a top and skirt. Yeah, I know, I'm terrible with kids. I only took them in because - well, I feel like I've got a duty to try and do right by her, somehow. Teach them how to survive in a world that gobbles up helpless little children for breakfast.

The square's crowded with people when we get there. Stella on stage almost seems too small to hold all we saw out of her in the Arena, but that's Twelve for you - occasionally someone in this run-down place manages to show the rest of 'em they shouldn't forget about us.

We used to talk about what we'd change here when we grew up and got important enough to be on that stage. Both of us, as it should have been, before she'd let that dream slide in favor of two children from a summer fling -

they're all that's left of her now.

So I step forward, introduce myself, let the kids climb up so they can shake Stella's hand too.

"Congratulations on all you've done - I just wanted to say I'm proud of having you as our victor."