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Anya could finally say she adapted properly to her new life.
She was doing okay at Eden. Her grades weren't the best, but thanks to the skipping, she already earned herself a stella star by helping an old professor with poor memory find an Eden time capsule that would actually go to a museum. She also earned a tonitrus bolt as well because Damian Desmond is annoying, but what can you do.
She still wasn't sure what exactly Papa's job had to do with Eden, but her doing well and making a lot of friends was important. He always looks dead inside when she mentions a fight with Desmond, so maybe she was supposed to get along with him, in particular? It was very hard, especially when she couldn't hope on getting some useful information through skips, considering her and Damian were too close in age. Also, if she did end up skipping with him, he'd probably be a useless baby.
Her skipping habilities still didn't get any better. She had zero control of where and when she was going, so even the capsule thing was pure luck. They still helped her in knowing more about her parents, though.
Papa was always a bit mysterious in her travels. At this point she knew he was a spy working for an Westalian agency named WISE. It seems he's always working, either chasing bad guys or stuck in an office doing paperwork. She favors the office skips because they are safer and easier to hide. It still looked boring as hell.
She would almost always find him as an adult. Since they met, she had seen as a child three times. The one time in the rain when they shared a cardboard box as shelter, a brief moment in a cramped orphanage room in which he was asleep and another when he was slightly older and punched a guy in the nose.
In this same day, she found out Papa's name. His real name. At least she thought it was, because people were calling him that and it wasn't something flashy like "Twilight". It was a secret she held safely in her memory, because Papa was always changing names and codenames. His first name was important.
So, she was a bit curious about his childhood. She knew he was an orphan and that things were very difficult when he was young, but that was all. With Mama, she got to see her mother, the house they grew up, the school uncle Yuri went to, even got to taste Mama's cooking when they were living by themselves (it was yucky). With Papa, she only had the cold and frigid experience of sleeping in the streets while a storm poured outside.
She watched the sleeping form of Loid in the sofa as the news played on TV. He was always coming home so tired these days, if he came at all. She would watch cartoons in his place, then.
In the blink of an eye, before she could reach the remote, she was blinded by sunlight. And the screeching sound of a bicycle stopping too suddenly and too close to her.
"Woah!" The teenager looked at her in mild shock, as he was sure the girl wasn't there a second ago, before he was staring at a pretty lady on the other side of the street... "Mind your step, kid!"
Anya had barely registered what the guy has said, running away from the scene and hoping no other person would question a girl materializing from thin air in the middle of the day.
After turning a corner, she took a breath and tried to catch her surroundings. It was a busy town. Lots of people, some old-looking cars in the streets, she even saw a pair of church ladies (nuns?) she only saw in books.
So, this was the past, and a really far one, it seemed. It also didn't feel like Berlint. The boy from the bycicle did speak Ostanian, though. So maybe this is just another Ostanian city?
She looked back the path she had ran. Who triggered her skip? Mama was out walking Bond. So that only left them with... Papa.
She walked back to where she showed up, watching closely for any tall blond heads that could be Twilight. She had to lower her vision a bit, just in time to catch a boy as young as her, leaving a store she was right in front of before.
It looked just like the boy in the rain all those skips ago.
Anya didn't know how her father as a child would be like, but she decided to be straight to the point. So she ran up to him with a clear intent on her head.
"Hey, you!" She called as she approached the blonde, who seemed to be just a little taller than her. Twilight turned around slightly confused. "Yep, you!"
He looked at her from head to toes, wondering who was the stranger randomly talking to him.
"Uhm... Hello?" He asked with a slight tilt of his head.
"Hi!" She waved kind of excited. "My name is Anya. I want to be your friend."
Twilight blinked in now complete confusion.
"...Do we know each other?" He tried to pierce together the appearance to maybe some girl he had seen at school. But this one wasn't like any he had met before.
For starters, girls don't suddenly say "please be my friend". No, they point at you and giggle among themselves, calling boys dumb. He also never saw any girl with pink hair. Or horns.
The last item did make her the more suspicious.
"No." Anya admitted. "But I know your name! And I want to be your friend."
"You know my name?!" He was definitely weirded out now.
She nodded, cupping her hands together and scuttling closer to say it in his ear, which didn't improve her image at all in the boy's eyes because now the weirdo had a problem with personal space.
She whispered a name. And he frowned unsure because yeah, that was his name, but how could she know that and he didn't have a clue about her?
"Will you be my friend, then?" She asked expectantly.
"I just met you!" He tried to be reasonable with her. "I'm on my way to meet my real friends, right now."
"So I'll just follow you." She decided at last. "Until you become my friend."
The blonde couldn't decide on being angry or dumbfounded. Just what was wrong with her?! As much as he wanted to just walk away, or even more extreme, tell her to piss off, he was taught to be polite and kind to people as much as he could. And it wasn't like Anya was bullying him in some way, she was just being ridiculously annoying.
He turned around and walked his way with a little bit more speed than usual, but of course the girl followed him, standing just a few steps behind. He rolled eyes.
"Where do you live?" Anya asked.
"At my house." He answered with an annoyed, but embarrassed blush of someone not used to be aggressive.
"With your Mama and Papa?"
"Yes."
"Cool! I live with my parents, too. I have a dog."
"Hm." He secretly wished they had a dog as well, but his father wouldn't allow it.
"What's your favorite food?" Anya asked.
"Pancakes, I guess?" He wasn't even trying at this point, the questions were so random. Like her.
"I like peanuts." She said even when no one asked. "What do you like to play?"
"Me and my friends play as soldiers." This one came out easier. "Like we are in the war."
Anya blinked a bit at the word.
"War?"
"Yeah, war." He answered simply. "We play cards, too."
"Cards are boring." She frowned remembering her experience with card games at Eden. "I like plushies."
"Stuffed animals, you mean?" He raised an eyebrow at the uncommon use of word. They stopped before crossing the street. "You talk different."
"Different?" She never thought of her voice like that, but Papa did spoke in a slight different pitch and rhythm than her and her classmates. Maybe because this is in the past? "I didn't see that."
"But you do." He insisted. "Are you not from Luwen?"
"...No." She now knew this place called 'Luwen'. It didn't like any town she had heard about in Ostania, though.
"Where are you from?"
She could easily say that she's from Berlint, but since Twilight also had given her evasive responses, she decided to pay in the same coin.
"I'm not sure." She shrugged, not really considering that a lie. "I'm always traveling. From one town to another."
"Oh." This sort of interested the boy. "Is it because of your parents' job?"
Not really, but she nodded in agreement.
"My father travels a lot, too." It was his turn to open up a bit, now. She was glad he didn't seem so closed off after some time. Or maybe he had just gave up. "I don't know what he works with. But it's important stuff."
Anya didn't had much interest right now at her Grandpa's (?) job, but the topic did catch her interest.
"What do you like to play with your Papa?" She asked in slight excitement. "Does he tell you bedtime stories?"
Twilight frowned and flushed, avoiding look at her this time.
"I don't play with my father. Who puts me to sleep is my mom."
That could've been a normal answer, but the way he looked very uncomfortable with the talk made Anya intrigued. For some reason, she assumed Papa's father would be just like him. Maybe a very busy man, but one that tried to spend time with his son, anyway.
"...Both my Papa and Mama do that." She didn't know how to make it less awkward, so she decided to be honest about her almost-too-good life. "Mama does it more because Papa comes home late. She's very pretty and likes to sing to me."
"Mine, too." At least one thing they could agree about their families. "Her voice is very pretty when singing. I also like to help her at home with chores."
"Mama usually doesn't ask for help, she likes cleaning a lot." Anya thought a bit about how to say the next part. "My Papa... looks a bit like you. He's very kind, but can be a bit silly sometimes."
The boy froze at that, looking at Anya almost pale. The surprise was such that he even stopped walking to stare at her for a bit. Anya looked at him in doubt.
"You dare call your father 'silly'?!" It was just so shocking that idea, even if she wasn't saying it to his face. She was just getting stranger and stranger in his eyes. "What if he hits you?"
It was Anya's turn to look at him in mild horror and even a bit offended.
"Papa would never hit me!" She exclaimed in clear anger, fists tightening by her side.
Anya was about to ask why would a parent hit their child, but the way the blonde's eyes saddened deeply at her words made her realize the obvious.
Papa's father wasn't always at home. He wouldn't play with him and wouldn't tell bedtime stories. And he would beat Papa from time to time.
Papa, while raising Anya in a warm and tender household, didn't exactly had one when he was a child.
Anya didn't know what to say, especially when Twilight sighed and mumbled a quiet "Lucky you" and returned his walking. She decided this didn't deserve any more words, unless she really wanted him to despise her and send her away. So she stayed quiet, while following him on the path they were taking.
For starters, she knew not all fathers could be as nice as hers. With the little knowledge she had about Damian's life, she knew he wasn't on good terms with his father. When she was living with other foster families, they were never as understanding of her fears and needs as her Papa. She couldn't even count anyone in the lab as a parent.
Still, to think her father's harsh life started way before the days he lived on the street left her deeply saddened. She wished she could cheer him up in some way.
The rest of their silent and a bit awkward journey didn't take long, as they found themselves in a fenced area, with a big structure Anya could only describe as an ugly brick house. They walked over to a wooden door Twilight was about to knock, before realizing something and turning to her:
"You can't go in." He said with a serious face. "It's only for authorized personnel."
Anya puffed her cheeks.
"I want to play, too!"
"You weren't even supposed to be following me!" He hissed.
"I don't need to go through this door. I'll find my way." She declared ready to turn around and looking for a low enough window she could climb into.
"No, wait!" The boy called her again still looking annoyed, kind of hating himself too. He was actually afraid she could break a bone trying to get inside without using the door. He decided she was just a dumb little kid and he should take responsibility because he's the oldest (and smartest) of the two. "...You can go in. Just don't say anything weird."
Anya's face lightened up.
"Okay!" She agreed, waiting expectantly as he knocked.
Not only there was a knock, but also Twilight pressing his ear against the door and then whispering "Flash" for whatever reason. Just after that, the door opened revealing a boy the same age as them. A secret password, huh?
"Advisor is finally here!" The glasses-wearing kid said announcing their friend's arriving, just then realizing Anya right behind him. "Uh... Who's that?"
The blonde sighed deeply, as the other boys all came over to see what's the commotion and Anya waved with a small grin.
"Hi!"
"This is Anya. She's my... neighbor." The boy came up with an excuse at the spot. It was much easier than trying to explain a random girl insisting on being his friend on the way to their play time. "I need to babysit her today."
Anya looked at him atonished.
"I'm not a baby!"
"We can't have girls hanging around." Chubby said with a frown. "It's a serious game!"
"Advisor, are you really letting her play with us?" Freckles asked skeptical, but they all seemed to actually respect the blonde's decision on that.
"I need to. She can get me into trouble." He said before looking at Anya, as if saying 'Remember what I said. Don't be weird.'
The other boys were unamused at the new way their play would roll like and they all entered the depot grumbling. Freckles then argued:
"But girls can't be soldiers! And she doesn't even have a gun."
"I...I can be the nurse!" Anya shot back. "There are lots of nurse ladies in the war!"
"Okay, then you'll be the Ostanian nurse." Glasses said already finding a role for their new guest. The boys on the Ostanian side grimaced.
"Why does she has to go with us?!" Chubby complained once again.
"Because Ostania has all the weaklings." Glasses said mockingly. "You'll need every help against Westalis!"
Only then Anya understood what the whole game was about. She felt cold.
They were playing Westalis against Ostania. East versus West.
Literally the one thing her Papa in the future was fighting so hard to prevent.
"Is being on the Ostanian side... bad?" She asked just to Twilight, as the other boys were preparing their scenario.
"Of course." He frowned and looked at her as if it was obvious. "Ostanian people are ugly monsters. They even have horns... and eat other people."
Twilight's tone started sure of himself, but it wavered when he saw the almost tearful face Anya had when hearing about Ostania. Then he looked up at her odd horns and hair color. He recalled their talk about her speaking different, her not being born in Luwen, always traveling. Then another memory, a sort of distant one, of a radio soap opera his mother would listen to. The antagonist was portrayed by a Ostanian actress and she did sound a bit like Anya.
Was Anya... actually Ostanian?
He didn't have time to actually say anything, because the boys called them over to start their play. Anya seemed to recover of the small shock in a minute and skipped over to where they were all playing, as if nothing has happened. Her companion also decided to forget it for a bit, so they could enjoy properly their afternoon.
Westalis was represented by Twilight and Glasses, while Ostania was Chubby, Freckles and now Anya. They would run around, hide themselves behind boxes, yell curses and try to shoot each other.
Anya found it boring. She could come up with a better plot with Agent Penguinman and her other toys. Maybe she was still a bit shaken by realizing how deep the hatred for Ostania was in Westalis...
At some point, Ostania has covered more ground than Westalis and had them trenched. This would be a good opportunity to finally win over them.
Except, when the boys ran over to ambush them, a bucket fell right on Freckle's head. Anya, right behind him, blinked on surprise but was fast on her work.
"Pain pain go away!" She sad patting the fallen boy with a bit more force than necessary on his head. "Go, you have to fight!"
"But I'm dead!" He said still recovering of the impact on his helmet. Some feet from them, the General called the Westalians 'dogs'.
"I'm a nurse so I saved you, dummy." She said as if it was obvious, pulling him up as best she could. "Get up!"
The boy, even if a bit in pain, realized that did make sense. So he jumped to this feet in a beat and pointed his rifle at the Advisor, who had just finished off his friend with a rubber band gun.
"Drop your gun, Westalian trash!" Freckles commanded and Twilight looked at him in alarm, a gun empty of any ammunition in his hand. "I'll make you pay for my friend's death!"
"But you were dead, too!" Twilight said the obvious, as he had watched the bucket fall on the kid's head.
"The nurse saved me so now I'm back." He argued.
Twilight turned red as he looked at Anya in betrayal.
"It doesn't make sense!"
"It does because nurses save people." She shot back with a frown. "Just admit Ostania won!"
"Not so fast!" Glasses, until now hidden, emerged behind Anya and poking her back with his gun. She yelped in surprise. "I got your nurse, Ostanian! Surrender right now!"
"I'm not surrendering!" Freckles said unmoving from his position, not even to see Glasses behind them. "One more step and I'll kill your soldier!"
Now, this setting was the most complex they ever got in. Because usually the Advisor would manage to disarm and kill everyone, making Westalis the winner. But now he failed to finish them all, there was one pointing a gun towards him, as he was unarmed. But his Westalian partner also had an Ostanian as hostage. So, in theory, if one of them shot, the enemy would do the same and they would win.
But who would pull the trigger first?
The blonde tried to think up a solution that could help his team even in the dreariest moments, as he always did. But there were no reasonable thing they could come up without everyone dying in both sides.
It was the first time he looked at war like that. A game that not only your enemy, but your friend could get deeply hurt.
After a full and tense minute with no one taking a step forward, Twilight dared to say in a quieter voice:
"I think... we should make a truce."
"Huh?!" All his friends looked at him dumbfounded, with Glasses saying "How can there be a truce? Someone has to win the war!"
"But we'll all end up dead if it goes on like that." He said simply, not noticing how Anya looked at him in admiration for his resolution. "I think just today, there should be no winners. It'd be unfair, since we all played our best."
He could see his friends thinking deeply about that idea, as they never had not a victory on either side. It was what kept them hooked on their game, to paint them as cool war heroes that defeated the enemy. Only Anya already had a small smile as she looked at Twilight, seemingly supportive of his take. But she didn't have real authority on their play, so she kept quiet.
"...I guess I agree." Chubby said and since he had more or less the role of a leader there, it was an important decision. "It was getting too long, anyway. We can decide the teams on rock, paper, scissors next time."
Glasses laughed mockingly.
"General only accepted it because you're tired of losing."
"Oh, shut up." Chubby rolled, walking over to their backpacks. "Let's see that when I beat you up in poker."
With that, the boys were ready for another game, this time with cards. Anya didn't want to play that one, even more after noticing the rules were different than what she learned (after all, they were in a different country and time). She got to watch Twilight play and have fun while stealing some of his snacks and getting a glimpse of his school book. She learned the year they were in by the notes and felt a cold shiver when doing the math with what she briefly learned in History classes.
This was the year a war would break between Ostania and Westalis.
People were living a carefree life in the streets and the boys were treating it as a play, so it must be a thing from the future, which she didn't know how long. The last time she met her young Papa, she didn't have the opportunity to see their surroundings, but maybe him living alone was during the war?
She looked over to him making a face at losing a round.
Anya learned to never disclose of the future for anyone in her skips. It never changed anything in the end. She remembered the scientists talking among themselves about the possibility of another reality being created when a change happened, but it would never affect their real world. It meant that this Papa could have another life knowing about the future war, but her Papa would still go through the same struggles.
What could she even do, in the end, to prevent a whole conflict between nations? Nothing. Because she was just a child and her power was useless. She couldn't help him in any way, as their meeting wouldn't change his gloomy fate.
When all their games ended and it was time to say goodbye, Twilight and Anya took their way together. After all, they were supposed to be neighbors.
They hadn't really said anything since that time before the war game started. Anya also seemed suspiciously quiet for the boy's short term standards. So, this time, he was the one with the questions.
"Are you Ostanian?"
Anya straightened up and looked at him suspiciously.
"Why would you say that?"
"I'm not telling anyone. And I'm not... mad at you. Or afraid." He didn't know what to say to make him look like a safe choice in friendship. After all, they did curse Ostanians all day right in front of her. It made him kind of embarrassed.
"...Well, I am." Anya said shrugging. "Before coming here, I lived in Berlint."
"Then is it true that all Ostanians have horns?" He said immediately looking up at her hair in curiosity. "Do they have pink hair like you?"
She flushed deeply. So that's why he was always staring at her hair!
"They are not horns!" She argued defensively. "No, they're not all like me. Papa is blonde and Mama has dark hair... We look like normal people. We are normal people. Not monsters."
That settled the doubt plaguing Twilight's heart since realizing Anya was from the enemy country. Because as much as she was annoying and very obnoxious, he couldn't doubt she was a normal girl. He couldn't see her as a human-eating monster people depicted Ostanians like.
He thought about her looking at him tearful when he talked like that about Ostania and thought about how he would also be bothered if he was in another country and someone said something about Westalis. It would be awful. Anya surely felt awful.
"...I'm sorry you had to hear us talking so bad about Ostania." He said looking sincerely ashamed. "It's just that we always learned you guys were monsters."
"It's okay." She mumbled kicking a pebble on their way. "Actually, there are Westalians calling people in Ostania in the same way."
He nodded, already guessing it would be reciprocal.
"What did you think of our game of war of East versus West?" He asked curiously.
"It was very boring." She said simply. "I would rather play hide and seek with my plushies. And they don't know how to hide."
The boy smiled at that, glad that Anya still had a bit of humor even after such an awkward day.
"...I liked how you said we should do a truce." She continued.
"But no one ended up winning, in the end." He pointed out what annoyed his friends.
"But at least no one died." She looked at him serious, taking a moment for the next part. "My Papa is Westalian and my Mama is Ostanian, advisor. If there was a real war, all my family would be hurt."
Twilight's eyes widened at her disclosure. He never thought about people from Ostania and Westalis marrying each other. Someone like Anya wouldn't really enjoy a real victory in either side, because a part of her still lost.
"...There won't be a war, though." He tried to think from a better side. "Well, I think there won't be one. But people will still keep hating each other on both sides..."
"And what's with the other people?" She frowned and flicked his forehead for good measure, earning a surprised "Ouch!" from the older one. "It's important what you think. If someone is choosing war, then you'll be the one choosing peace. Because one day, you'll end up loving someone from an enemy country."
He frowned massaging his attacked forehead and not really getting what she meant with that.
"Love? I only love my mom."
"Trust me. I know more stuff than you." She declared sure of herself.
He snickered.
"But I am taller."
"That doesn't mean anything!" She puffed her cheeks, grabbing his arm. "Now you have to buy me peanuts. I'm hungry."
"You ate all my chips." He shot back, shaking his head. "We'll share a croquette."
"What's that?" She tilted her head. "Sounds like a bug."
"Ew, don't make it gross!"
"You started it, I just wanted peanuts!"
They kept their bickering on the way to the busy sites of Luwen, but one couldn't deny they were, at some level, friends. Maybe it couldn't change history as we know it, but it's a winning that peace between East and West could exist for a brief moment in the form of a pair of children.