Today is the day when Santino gets to meet his family.
Today, his daughter is having a party for her fifth birthday. He bought a present for her, a new bike in the pink color with a balloon strapped on the grip. He's sure that she will love it. After all, it was Wang's idea.
His son is about nine years old and very caring for her sister.
His wife is about the same age as he is—she works in a grocery store.
Alphonse's fundamental rights have been written on to everyone, which says everyone will have the right to study at no cost; therefore, she doesn't need to save for her children's college payments.
Santino used to work as a technician for Alphonse until they recognized his talent.
He was one of those who tested the machines and used them in the very first fights. He knew that he would be a great pilot. Thus he got a promotion. Santino believes it's the right choice, and his wife will not stand in his way.
He makes his way to his house—releases a sigh of relief, and knocks on the door gently.
The door opens, and his wife looks at him with a smile.
"Are these for me?" she says, wiggling with her words.
He reveals his face behind the shrub of roses. "Of course they are."
Isabell kisses his lips gently and takes the roses to put them into a vase.
Both of his children aren't home yet, enough time to decorate.
They place balloons everywhere around the living room, in pink with a unicorn. Isabell has already prepared a cake for today, strawberry with pony shaped topping. She will love this.
The pink-yellow garland runs through the entire living room with her name and her year on it.
"I think she is going to love this decoration. Everything is so pink, fluffy, and lively," Isabell cheers.
"Yeah. I think she will," he says. As they continue to decorate, they hear the door opening.
"Hey, mom. I'm home," says the boy loudly as he walks in. "What is up with the bike?" he asks, throwing away his blue backpack.
His eyes open widely. "You are here," he says and rushes towards Santino, hugging him like he was gone for a year.
"Yeah. I am here, Leo. Today is your sisters' birthday. Of course, I would come." He looks at him and continues to talk. "How was school today?"
"Great," says Leon smilingly. "School is fun, a lot of fun."
"I'm proud of you, my son."
"Isla will be here in about an hour. She will come on the bus. The bus driver, Kathrin, is always so nice to her. She brings them right to their door to make sure that they will be safe," explains Isabell.
"Oh, yeah, I remember her from last time. She is that small woman, right?"
"Yeah, she is a midget, but a really nice one."
The world behind the war goes on as if there were none, not just in London, everywhere. Everyone is working in their everyday jobs, and everyone keeps on doing what they have to do.
Kathrin is one of them; she is part of Antares, always has been.
The doorbell rings, and Isabell answers immediately.
"Hey, my little birthday girl, how was today?"
"It was great," she says and rushes in.
Kathrin steps in. "She gave me an invite to her party, isn't she sweet?"
"Yeah, she truly is."
"By the way, who's pretty bike is it?"
"It's for Isla. Her dad bought it."
"Oh, Santino is here?" she puts her hands on her cheeks, and her mouth stays open. "I guess I know who is going to have a fun night tonight."
Isabell rolls her eyes in embarrassment over the sassiness.
Kathrin continues. "But anyway, I got to go now. Have to drive some children home. You have a great birthday for Isla. See you tomorrow," she waves at her and walks back into the yellow bus, driving away.
"Daddy! Daddy, You are here," says Isla happily as she rushes towards Santino, who picks her up to hug her. "I missed you so much," she continues.
"I missed you too," he says with a smile.
"Can we eat the cake now?" throws Leon in.
Isabell puts the cake on the table, and they start to sing a birthday song for her.
She blows out the five candles—her family clap in happiness and starts to cut the strawberry cake. Isla gets the part with the fondant pony. Instead of eating, she puts the pony on the edge of the table.
"The cake is so tasty!" she says smilingly.
"Yeah, your mum can bake really well. She has a talent," he looks at her, as she gets embarrassed once again. He loves it when it happens.
"How long are you going to stay, Santi?" she asks him.
"Well," he finishes swallowing the piece of cake first. "About two weeks. They said I could take the time for myself."
"Oh wow, that is more than the usual. Alphonse is a great guy. He knows who needs the time off for their family."
"Yeah, something like that," he looks away.
He knows why he's off for more than a week. The machines are in their final stage of construction. Soon, he will be a pilot, a real pilot. These two weeks might be the last weeks of him with his family. Of course, no one can tell what the future will hold as he hopes to return, always. As of now, he just wants to enjoy his time with his family.
Santino continues talking. "Hey, you want to see your gift from me?"
"Your gift? For me?" she asks.
"Yeah, go outside. Didn't you see it as you stepped in?"
"See what?" she leaves the plate and runs outside.
Speechless, she stands in front of the dreamy pink bike she wished for. She starts to cry and looks at her dad, "Thank you," she says with glassy eyes.
"Don't forget." Santino pulls out a helmet for her in a matching color of pink.
She puts it on and immediately sets off with her new bike, bicycling around the house until the evening. Her brother stands by her side the whole time.
After the dinner, Santino brings her back into her room.
"Can you tell me a story?" she asks underneath the blanket. "Yeah, sure. What kind of story do you want to hear about?" he questions, holding the doorframe tight to his body.
"The one about Robin Hood!" "Robin Hood? Are you sure you want to read a story about a thief?"
"He is not a thief," she lifts her tone. "He stole money from the rich to give it to the poor."
"And you think that's not something that a thief would do?"
"No," she says. "Only a hero does that," and smiles at him.
"Okay, Robin Hood it is." He picks up the book and lays himself next to his daughter. He looks at her and starts reading the story of Robin Hood.
His wife, Isabell, is watching the news as he descends the stairs right after Isla fell asleep during the story reading. He stares at the flickering, standing in the middle of the stairs.
Alphonse Antares has announced that he will hold a press conference regarding the world laws' reform in the upcoming days. Including the seventh one. Resource management in a few countries has been rising drastically. The essential life workers, for this matter, are unable to keep providing. In addition, he will announce the ninth and, as of right now, final law. We have no further information regarding this matter. Now, let's head back to the weather.
"A new law?" she looks at him, appalled.
"Yeah. He didn't tell us what it's going to be, but yeah. I wanted to talk to you about this as well."
"What do you mean?" she crosses her arms.
Santino seats himself next to her, releasing a heavy sigh. "Well, how do I put this? As you know, soon our machines will be ready, and we will be going into war. These two weeks might be my last with you."
Shockingly she just stares at him with open eyes. "What?" she asks.
"I am sorry," he shrugs slowly.
"It's okay, but just promise me you will come back. Always."
"I promise I will come back."
She snuggles into him, and they continue to watch TV until midnight and go to bed, tiringly.
Nalani walks around the building; she cannot find Teresa anywhere; she is searching. If they do not visit their families, they sleep inside Alphonse's castle on the last floor. She walks closer to the balcony seeing a woman looking up to the sky. She opens the door and talks to her.
"There you are. I've been looking for you everywhere." The woman turns around.
"Hey, Nalani. I am just checking out the amazing view from here. Look at all the stars. They are so pretty shining upon all of us."
"Yeah, pretty. It feels chilly. Shouldn't we go back inside?" asks Nalani.
"Well yeah, but I'd rather keep watching the stars," she says.
"You are so weird. You can look at them every day. They are the same. Tomorrow, today, in two days, whatever. Now, come in. It is really getting cold, Teresa."
She looks at her. "You don't understand anything. They are not the same. They are all different just like we are," she points at the bright star ahead of them.
"Well yeah, but still," she drags Teresa inside and closes the balcony.
"Now, let's go to sleep, okay?"
"You know what I wonder, Nalani?"
"What?" she asks.
"Are we doing the right thing?" she wraps her fingers around.
Nalani looks at her and smiles. She puts her hand on her shoulder and starts to comfort her.
"Of course we are. Look at the people. They got everything they want. They are healthy, have no worries. Don't you think this is the ideal life?"
"But why are we fighting then? I mean talking about number eight, and I can see why. Is there really no other way to handle this?"
"No," says Nalani and starts to sharpen her tone. "And you want to know why? Because people are bad. They do bad things. The only way to stop them and prove their guilt is by having evidence of their deeds. Don't you remember when Alphonse put this up?" she pauses. "The entire criminality fell over fifty percent, Teresa. Fifty percent. And now? Look outside. Criminality is no more. The only ones who are against this are the people who are saying that doing bad things is right."
Teresa looks down, she did not want to question anything, but it feels wrong to take away their freedom.
"But isn't there a different way of handling it?" she asks carefully.
"No. And seriously? It's been so long since they've put the law in. the people who fight us, the ones fighting in those machines claiming they know how to fix this, are wrong."
"Why's that?"
"Because we are right. We, you and me," she holds her hands and looks at her. "Will be saving the world from evil, together with Wang, Santino, and Rory. We will lead the way for our people to victory. We will unite."
"You are right. I am sorry I shouldn't have doubted anything. I am so stupid for thinking that we are wrong. The lady from before just got me confused," Teresa snorts. "Thank you for always helping me."
"Don't worry," says Nalani with a smile.
Nalani hugs Teresa, and they move to their rooms, resting at night for the day tomorrow. Aside from Rory, no one really knows what is going on behind the curtain. He is the only one aware of all the bad things that are going on. Alphonse tends to lie repeatedly to blend people, manipulate and tell them fake stories about a world creation that will never exist. Even during the days when he implemented the point system, the world was in chaos, but those things are never shown. He tells the world that it was in a better state than before.
He also never told anyone how he used people for his deeds without giving them any kind of payment in return; they worked until they were dead. Many people died of starvation because he did not want to change anything in the more impoverished regions of the world, countries he never cared for. Nowadays, everyone has the system, but trying to cover history with a lie might be exposed someday.
Those who knew the truth about him vanished immediately, unable to provide the validation. His son, Maxim, is aware of every single crime he has ever done in this world. He knows how these people turned into mindless slaves unable to function alone.
At first, his goal was to save the world, but the more power he got, the more he craved more. Stargazer, on the other hand, is also aware of these crimes. Jason's father was one of those who knew the truth.
His goal is not to destroy him but more to take away his power and divide it by people with knowledge of the world and making it function. Just like back in the day, each country having a president working individually for one.
Even now, his so-called equality doesn't work the way it does. Essential workers, which he needs for food provision, are the only ones capable of choosing aside.
Jason wants people to have their backgrounds back. Their voice, their country, their language, their creeds. All of those things make each one of us an individual. Indeed, what the other alliances seek for those. There is no need to take away the individualism from one to save another as criminality will never be gone; Alphonse needs to wake up from his delusional illusion.
Stargazerdoes not want to have its power; they want to divide the power to unite, atleast that is what Jason promised to