They reach the settlement and Stan and Mason depart the vehicles and Aphrodite welcomes them, hugging Stan and greeting Mason, Stan watch with the edge of his eyes Kalevi waving with his hand on the height of his shoulder and Stan respond in the same way, Stan say to them "I have to go meet Jorogumo, go home and I will be back in ten minutes" he first go to the vehicles, looking if she's there, he only find people and soldiers coughing and going home, he moves to the barracks with a slight increase In his speed.
Finding soldiers outside murmuring to each other and looking around them if people are nearby, he goes closer and the soldiers stops speaking, asking him "what do you need in a time like this?" "I'm searching for Jorogumo, she told me to find her when I can"
"Miss Jorogumo is having a talk with a soldier and after that a meeting with her soldiers and then counting our food supply, better come tomorrow morning" "alright then good night" Stan leaves the soldiers and start going back.
On the black pitch night he sees Kalevi's figure outside a house, Kalevi notice Stan and walks to his side, Stan talked to him but he doesn't answer, he goes to his side and says to his ear "can I ask you something?" "Ask me whatever you want" "can you tell me why the soldier tried to kill herself?" Stan repeats to Kalevi what Aramis said and Kalevi whispers "do you know what all of this can mean?" "I hope I could know, it was so disturbing hearing her" "maybe it is another planet with many unsettling truths" "can you explain me more?" "Maybe another day, right now I just want to go home" Kalevi turn and left, waving his hand without looking at Stan and going inside the house.
Stan continues his way, wondering what Kalevi meant and without realizing it, he arrives back and opens the door, and with the first groaning sound, he catce Mason's voice "Stan, is Aphrodite okay?" The door fully opens "Yeah, why do you ask?" "We were talking and suddenly she said she had to do something, she sounded almost ready to cry" "do you know where she is?" Mason cough and cleared his voice "I don't know, I believed you would know because you are together" "I have to go" "Stan do you need any help from me?" "No, I can handle it myself" "then just a quick tip let her be herself, we hardly get the chance now to let our emotions out, let her see who she really is" Stan left and run to the woods, looking at every corner of the trees.
After several minutes he finds her on the edge of the mountain, resting there with her legs hanging up from the cliff, Stan gets close to her with quick steps and sees her staring up, he gently put his palm on her back and she makes a small jump back and then stares at him with her eyes half closed and her mouth open.
"Please say something, open to me" "everything is alright, let's go back" Stan makes a brief pause "let's go, I won't change your mind" Aphrodite starts ambling and after some steps Stan shouts "do not make another step" Aphrodite gaze at him, asking "why not? Let's just go back and sleep"
"I know you want to hide your feelings and I understand the reason but please don't do this to yourself, show to yourself who you are" Aphrodite left with her mouth open, her jaw shaking from trying to form words and in the end she just falls to her knees, letting a scream that pierces Stans eardrums.
Aphrodite's throat starts shattering and she suddenly stops, she begins to cough and Stan helps her get up "thank you" "do you feel better now?" "Can we sit a bit more?" Stan smiled "we can stay here as long as you want" they sit to the edge and Aphrodite stares up again "don't you want to cry and let it all out?" "I'm tired of crying, I cannot cry all the time, I don't want that" she makes a long pause and proceed to speak again "do you believe things will be better after we leave?" Stans's arms clunch for a moment and he says"Of course, after this you can pay for your parent's treatment" her look stays to the sky and says "it will get better"a silence surrounds them and suddenly Aphrodite gets up "let's go back" "alright"
They went back and sleep, waking the next morning Mason, Stan and Aphrodite go outside and do their routine.
As stan sits down to rest, he sees Jorogumo coming towards him, he slowly gets up and Jorogumo says "Stan I want you to come in the barracks in 10 minutes" she left quickly before Stan can say anything and he lift his one eyebrow up, go to the barracks, meeting the same soldiers from yesterday and they guide them to a half constructed tower as the one they help find the USS signals, they go inside and see Jorogumo, watching the screen, Stan goes beside her and says "should I start?" "Before that I want to ask you, can you help me build a portable device to locate the signals?" "You need that if any creature shows again and destroy the tower?" "Yes" "I can with the right components" she takes her look at a table on the far right and says "the components are there" "then I can make it in one to two hours" "take your time, you do not need to make haste" Stan starts to work and when he finish he gives the portable device to Jorogumo and she says "you are very talented" "Thank you" he makes a brief pause to see if Jorogumo would do any action but she do nothing, he then says"Can I ask you about Aramis?" "If you want to know if she's well I can only say she needs more time" "not only about that she's from mercury isn't she?" "Yes , one of the proudest I have ever seen" "in the jungle , she starts saying some things" Jorogumo lift one of her eyebrows "what exactly she said?" "She start talking alone, questioning if she and her sister suffering was from a war, she said she was sorry and she couldn't hear the children's screams anymore, she said they wanted to make her and her sister suffer and when she tried to draw her gun she said she deserve to die" Jorogumos doesn't change at the slightest"Tell me, what happened to your planet?" Jorogumo look inside his eyes with almost the same unemotional face, with the only change be her eyebrows pulled a bit closer "seven years ago mercury had a civil war, me, Aramis and other soldiers were fighting for the freedom of our planet from people who wanted power for their own benefit, trying to make us slaves " she takes a deep breath and continues "but in war you cannot count a life by morals, not even children""why I haven't heard of something like this?" "The USS and especially earth and mars made an AI so advanced that it can choose what is gonna be uploaded on the internet and what not, we even tried with oral communication but the AI is advanced enough to understand us and disorient our speech, we can only reveal through a close oral speech but the USS will not let us travel through other planets, and you know because of poverty and no jobs people cannot afford to come to our planet and see what is happening" "then why don't you tell everyone here about this? People can learn the truth" she takes another deep breath and close her eyes "do you think people will care so much about another planet?" "Yes we speak about billions of people" "you put too much faith into them, Stan, most of them don't even care about the person next to them, only if it's for gain or a close person and even if they cared about us it will last only for some months or a a year hardly" "but would we lose something if we tell them?" "Alright then, go tell them"Stan takes his way to the stairs, and before leaving he asks one more question "Jorogumo, what will happen with the energy source we are searching" "do not worry Stan, we will find it just in time for the USS to come" abruptly a woman shows up, she pass Stan without even gazing at him and goes straight to Jorogumos ear, Stan look at them and Jorogumo make a sign for him to leave, he takes the stairs down and suddenly he hears footsteps behind him, Jorogumo and the soldier running outside, Stan lost them from his sιght and continue to his house.
finding Mason in the house with some venurians "Mason can I talk to you?" "Of course" he look at the venurians and says "I will be back in a minute" he goes outside and Stan tells him "so I learned some things about Aramis and mercury" "I better hoped we were going to forget about that but, tell me" "mercury had a civil war" Mason laughs out loud and says "where did you heard that?" "Jorogumo told me about it, we have to tell everyone about this" "stan, did Jorogumo told this to anyone else?" "I don't know, but possibly not" "she may have a reason about this, maybe she knows the world will not care so much about this" "but it's about a whole planet, they hide the truth about a war from us" "I know Stan but there is nothing we can do, we already have enough problems here and on earth, we must stay focused on making our lives better" "but do you want to stay in the dark about this? You don't even know if there are more that we don't know, how many people may have died" "Stan, may I sound a bit selfish now but I only care about my close people, I cannot care about some people in mercury" Mason coughs and cover his mouth with his hand and breathes hard, sounding like his lungs are closing "are you alright?" "I'm alright it will pass" he coughs a bit more still keeping his arm close to his mouth and says "I better tell the other to leave and go sleep somewhere alone" "you don't have any reason to do this" "I don't want to get you sick or Aphrodite, you know I believe you two are are great for each other "You can just sit home in the bed and I and Aphrodite will keep a distance" "it will only be for one or two nights, do not worry" "alright then" Stan clunch his hand and Mason says "beside you will have some time alone, doing your things" Mason laugh and Stan look at him with his eyes half closed "you know I'm not doing things like that" Mason laughs a bit louder and says "I just like teasing you" Mason enters the house, telling the mercurians to leave and when they do he takes a blanket and waves Stan while he clunch his hands more and more intense.
Stan and Aphrodite left alone and Aphrodite asks Stan "do you want me to sing you?" "If it's not too much" she starts making repeated motifs with her euphonia voice and then singing
"Time pass by
Everything twisting minute by minute
Thoughts of darkness close to us
And still here we are
Fighting for a better us
And still not in the end
Sometimes I can feel your hearts faint beats
Feel your fears you so much can't control
Forming words of sadness "better be a nice end"
And here we are
Friend and lover together with you
To make you believe in the nice end"
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