The Seven Revels

Indigo stared at Milo for a long time as he continued to smile weakly at her. He held up his wrist and pointed at his watch.

Midnight. August Fifth.

Happy Birthday to me, Indigo thought as she watched him, disappointment flooding through her.

She'd wanted this, hadn't she? To spend her birthday with Milo Burgess? For him to come back to her, begging for forgiveness. Her Nana had predicted it and had told her the only way to truly stop hurting was to forgive Milo. Yet as she sat mere feet away from him after many months and billions of miles separating them, she didn't feel anything but disappointment. Yes, she had wanted this, but it wasn't at all how she'd imagined it would be.

"I want you to leave," she said after another breath of silence. Milo's smile vanished and was replaced with a look of weary surrender.

"I don't really know what to do," he said. "Where am I supposed to go?"

"That's not my problem," Indigo said, her voice gentler than she'd meant it to be. "I told you what to do. And if you want to come back when you've done it, we might be willing to let you aboard again. I want to believe you, Milo. I really do. But I put a lot of blind faith in you once upon a time and I've never regretted anything more in my life."

She couldn't ignore Milo's flinch as she said that. "Come back when you're the Milo I know," she said, her voice dropping to just above a whisper.

"I'm sorry I hurt you, Indigo. I really am. I'll go and I'll come back. I promise. And I'm not going to break that promise."

"We'll see," Indigo said.

"So I guess this is goodbye?"

Indigo swallowed hard, trying to push down sudden tears. She nodded.

"Okay," Milo said, turning away. "I'll see you soon, Indi. I'm not going to leave you alone for very long this time."

"I'm not alone anymore," Indigo said.

Milo just nodded before raising his hand in a farewell gesture. He started down the hall and Indigo watched for a moment before she stood and followed him. As they reached the bay doors, Psi stepped forward and grabbed Milo by the collar of his shirt. Garrett stood up quickly.

"Psi," he warned. "Stop it."

"No, it's okay," Milo said. "I deserve it."

"I've just got one question for you," Psi hissed in his face. He leaned closer to Milo's face and for a moment it looked like the two could be lovers about to kiss. Then Psi spoke.

"Does everyone in your family do this?" he asked, his voice hard as steel.

"I don't understand," Milo said, trying his best to keep calm.

"Don't you dare try and tell me that. You know damn well what I'm talking about. It must be a Burgess thing, huh? Leaving someone who cares about you, who doesn't have anyone but you. Just ditching without warning, with nothing?! Who decided you were allowed to do that. Just brush off your responsibility as a guardian and a friend and leave because life offered you better lemons? I don't fucking understand what possibly justifies that kind of behavior."

Milo glanced around as though he were looking for someone to help him. Most of the others were watching with grim interest, as if they were waiting for Psi to beat the shit out of Milo. Garrett, however, looked confused.

"Psi, why are you acting like this?" he asked. "It's so unlike you."

"I think you know why," Psi said, still looking at Milo. "Your brother promised he'd always be there for me, that he'd help me no matter what. We were going to run away together, fall in love... And then one night he left. He didn't come find me like we'd planned. He ran away to Addiphate and left me alone on Earth with nothing and no one. And then you come along and do the same thing to Indigo and I want to know why. Why are you allowed to do that? What's so special about you Burgess's that you can do that?"

Milo swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing. "I didn't know you knew my brother," he said.

"Well maybe if you had stuck around, you would have."

"Psi, please listen to me. I know that what I did was wrong and I know that it was unforgivable. So I'm leaving and I'm going to come back once I'm sure I've found the person I used to be."

"You have to remember, Psi," Garrett chimed in, "Without him, we'd all be dead. Despite everything he did, we should be grateful for that first act of selflessness. I don't know why you did it, Burgess, but you saved our lives. The lives of a bunch of lower class. You stayed behind despite the fact that you had a first class ticket to safety. And if you're telling the truth and you really did ditch the ISA for us... You're not as bad as we all thought. Doesn't mean we're going to trust you anytime soon, though."

"I know," Milo said. "I know I'll have to work hard to earn your trust again, and I'm going to do that. I'll find you guys again. No matter what."

"I believe you," Quill said. "And I don't like believing you but here I am." He held his hand out to Milo. "I still hate your guts, but..." he lowered his voice considerably, "...For Indigo's sake, I hope things work out. She needs someone who knows her. The only person in this universe who really knows her is you."

Milo took Quill's hand in his own and shook it. "I'm sorry again. I know it's not enough." Milo let go of Quill's hand and glanced around again. Then, without another word, he moved across the dock and back onto his ship. He stood facing them for a long time, sadness etched deep in his face.

"I'll be back," he said, directing his words at Indigo. "That's a promise I intend to never break."

Indigo said nothing, just stared at him. Finally, Quill hit the button to seal the bay doors and they closed between Milo Burgess and the Seven Revels. A few moments later, the crew of the Nightjar was standing in the cockpit, watching as Milo's racer jet, named the Renegade, slowly became a dimmer blot of light in the never-ending darkness.

"Do you really think he'll change?" Quill asked.

"He already has," Indigo said. "In so many ways he's different than he used to be."

"Not always a good thing, is it?"

Indigo shook her head. "No. It's not."

Milo's ship slowly grew dimmer and dimmer until, no matter how hard Indigo stared, she could not distinguish him from the millions of stars around them.

"I'm ready to get to Hittica," Quill said after a long silence.

"Hopefully Hittica will be a new beginning," Garrett said. He glanced at Psi, then Indigo, then back out the window after Milo Burgess. "For all of us."

Indigo took a deep breath and swallowed tears once again. She reached out and took Psi's hand, not daring to look at him. Psi clutched her hand in his with crushing force, as though he were trying to channel all of his hurt and anger into her.

"Do you think he'll be okay?" Indigo asked.

"That's up to him now," Garrett said. "For now, let's just focus on getting ourselves somewhere safe. We're far from being in the clear yet."

"I've got a good feeling about this," Quill said. "Something is bound to go right for us."

Each of them slowly collapsed onto the floor until they were all sprawled across it, intertwined in ways they'd never been before.

Just as Indigo began to close her eyes and let sleep take over, the radio blared to life.

"EMERGENCY BROADCAST..."