The next morning Laura was cleaning up her breakfast dishes and reflecting on last nights events. Nald had been the happiest she had ever seen him. He said that Horus wanted to reopen some of the talks about the humans. Although Nald didn't really go into details, she was just happy she had been able to help. As for Ari, Laura had managed to get away without telling her too much, if anything. Of course, her friend had been very suspicious but Laura hadn't been able to form the words for her.

Every time she thought about it she felt a pang of guilt. There was a lot of things she had wanted Thade to feel, but last night had completely shocked her. She just needed to keep her mind off of it. Luckily after the mess on the balcony, she had run into Marcus again. He seemed like a nice ape, but she would need more time to judge that. Marcus had invited her to the temple, he had said something about needing to talk to her. Laura had agreed happily and was looking forward to it today.

A bang on the door seemed to knock Laura out of her thoughts. She quickly wiped her hands off and went over to open it, and it was the last person she expected to see. "Attar, what are you doing here?"

He was looking down at her with dark piercing eyes and it was making her a little uncomfortable. "I need you to see something." He said through clenched teeth. Whatever it was he sure wasn't happy about it. She knew it had something to do with Thade; there was no other reason Attar would come to her.

Without a second thought, she walked out and closed the door behind her. Attar seemed to relax a little when she didn't put up a fight about it. As Laura followed him through the city Attar didn't say a word to her. Whatever had happened, he seemed to be really worried about it. That made her start to worry as well so she picked up the pace.

When they got to a door hidden by some vines she looked up at Attar with confusion. He opened it without a word and it led through the wall to another pair of doors. When they stood in front of it Attar stopped her from continuing.

"What did you do?"

Laura almost felt her heart sink into her stomach, she knew this wasn't going to be good. "Attar, where are we?"

He pointed at the door, "This was the door to the training area for our soldiers."

"What do you mean was?"

"Answer my question first, what did you do?" He seemed to lean down closer to her face and she felt a little intimidated.

Laura took a deep breath and made it seem like it took her a minute to remember. "Well, I went to the party with my master, I talked to the senators, I danced with High Priest Marcus-"

Attar seemed shocked by this and held up his hand to stop her, "You danced with the High Priest?!"

Laura shrugged, "He volunteered, I was just as confused as you."

Getting past the shock Attar motioned for her to continue, "Senator Horus seemed pleased. I saw Ari, and met Senator Sandar-"

"Did you speak to General Thade?" Attar asked getting straight to the point.

Laura felt like lying would be pointless, Attar already knew the answer to the question. Still, she tried to play it off like it was nothing, "We had a conversation, why?"

Without another word, Attar approached the double doors and threw them open like they weighed nothing. What Laura saw made her lose her breath.

The area was completely destroyed. Everything was thrown all over the place. The practice dummies had been torn to pieces, ropes and weapons were scattered and the floor was covered with broken wood. Laura slowly turned back towards Attar with a somber expression, "Where is he now?"

She was surprised at how unfazed Attar was at her question, "He is home."

Looking back at the destruction Laura took it all in and then slowly shook her head. She hadn't wanted to cause this. As Laura went to walk out of the room, Attar grabbed her arm, "What did you do?"

With a heavy sigh, she turned back towards him and replied, "I'll stay away from him Attar, but I can't tell you anything. It's not my place. If he wants to tell you, he can."

Attar didn't seem pleased with the entire answer but he still released her and let her walk away. Well, now there was no way she was going to be able to take her mind off of what happened last night now. She needed to talk to someone before she exploded. The only person she could think of was Ari. Actually, it was time to tell her everything.

Getting to Ari's didn't take too long, but it took Laura a minute to build up her courage to knock on the door. She expected Ari or one of her human servants to answer the door, but instead, it was an older male gorilla. With a raised brow Laura asked, "Is Ari here?"

"Who's asking human?"

This bitch did not just sass her. She was having a shit day and this ape was really going to pull this human shit with her. "I'm her friend Dahlia, are you going to let me in?"

The ape didn't seem to like her attitude either and sneered at her and gave a gruff huff. Laura had to gather all of her self-control and calmed herself down before she really let this ape have it. "Look, I really need to talk to her, it's important."

He looked her over with a critical eye before slowly opening the door, "She's in her room. Cause her any trouble and I will throw you out myself."

While Laura didn't like his attitude, she did appreciate how protective he seemed to her friend.

He led her to Ari's door and knocked. Ari's voice rang out and the ape announced Laura's presence. The door swung open so fast Laura actually had to step back in surprise. The male ape didn't seem fazed at all. "Dahlia! Please come in," She said with a smile before turning back to the male. "Thank you, Krull."

After Krull left and both Laura and Ari got comfortable Laura smiled at her friend. "Well, Krull has a lovely personality."

Ari smiled sweetly, "Don't be too hard on him, he's had a hard past. My father took him in, he's a good male."

Well, once again Laura felt like an ass. How was she even supposed to start this whole conversation? Ari seemed to notice how nervous Laura was and placed a hand on her shoulder. "You can tell me anything Dahlia,"

With that show of support, the words just came flooding out. Everything from the beginning to last night. How she got here, the people she had met, how she had been looking for Leo, to the fruit stand incident, when Thade had almost killed her, all the way up to what happened last night. Ari seemed shocked and was trying to process all the information that was hitting her all at once.

After a few minutes, Ari let out a deep sigh and looked up at Laura with comforting eyes. "I knew something was different about you, not that you fell from the sky, but I knew it was something."

Laura almost teared up at how much relief she felt that Ari believed her. "Please, don't let anyone know."

"Of course not, do you really think they would believe me anyway Laura? Does Nald know?"

"No, I don't want to compromise everything he's worked for by knowing the truth."

Ari nodded and leaned back in her chair. "As for last night, I knew something was up even before the balcony incident."

Laura looked at her with confusion and Ari smiled, "I was watching Thade last night. When Marcus took your hand and led you to the dance floor, his eyes narrowed and at first, I just thought it was because he didn't think you should have the right."

"What changed your mind?"

"When you spun and stood facing Senator Horus, I heard Thade growl. When I turned to look, I noticed he was eyeing the Senator, not you. He almost made a show of dominance, for you. That's not the Thade I know. He even surprised himself, he left quickly so he wouldn't do anything."

Laura was shocked, and without meaning to, she felt her cheeks get warm. Oh, she was not blushing right now. Nope, not her. Laura tried to shake it off and placed her head in her hands. "Oh Ari, what have I done?"

"Thade is probably wondering the same thing. You need to know Laura, this is very dangerous. There are laws, if anyone found out-"

"Whoa! Let's back up, nothing has happened between Thade and me. And Ari, my friend, I'm gonna keep it that way."

"Just be careful alright?"

"Don't worry Ari, I'm the very soul of caution," Laura said with a beaming smile. Ari rolled her eyes at her and sighed.

"You are both doomed."

After leaving Ari's, Laura felt a lot better about everything. She just knew she could trust Ari and that made a huge weight lift from her shoulders. Laura followed the path she was on until she appeared in front of the temple. A few apes were milling around but they weren't going inside. As she wondered why she felt a presence beside her. Looking over she smiled at Marcus.

"Why is no one going in?"

"I told them I needed to clean the inside and that I was having a meeting with someone." He replied looking down at her with a soft smile.

He motioned for her to step inside and followed behind her. The inside was very cozy looking. It was lit with candles and at the front of the room was an altar with the statue of an ape on it. Looking around at the top she noticed tapestries hanging from the ceiling all in warm colors. For some reason, she actually felt kind of safe there.

"Who is that?" Laura asked pointing at the statue. Marcus walked over to the statue and stood beside it.

"This is Semos, the first Ape."

So he was like, their god? Before Laura could ask any more Marcus motioned for her to sit. She did so and he sat beside her.

"I know that you are trying to change things for your people Dahlia. You should know it is a very dangerous game you play. You could be killed, or worse." Marcus said staring into her eyes.

"Marcus, if someone doesn't do something, things could get even worse. I don't want to see my people be wiped out just because Apes have misconceptions about them. I want to help, and I believe that I can."

"You are brave, I will give you that, but there are players in this that could break everything that you are. Are you sure that you want to keep on this path that you are on?"

Without hesitation, Laura nodded her head, "Absolutely."

Marcus let out a soft chuckle and smiled at her. "I had a feeling that you would say that," He stood then and looked down at her. "Then I will help you."

Laura rose quickly, "Marcus, you don't have to do that. This isn't safe and I and Senator Nald are already in harm's way. You don't need to endanger yourself as well."

"I know things need to change Dahlia, and I want to be part of that change. I feel like I need to be."

Laura knew what he meant and she gave a slight nod. "I won't turn away your help. I would greatly appreciate it."

After a few more words with Marcus, she was heading out when she almost ran right into another ape. He was old and was wearing colorless robes. Laura bowed her head. "Please excuse me."

The ape sneered at her and gave growl of warning. Even though this wasn't the first time it had happened, this one seemed to make her shudder and placed a sense of fear in her. She quickly moved around him and out of the temple.

The old Ape turned towards Marcus after the human had left. The look of distaste was still there as he smelled the room. "It smells like that human, you need to fix that quickly."

The look of kindness on Marcu's face turned to one of pure cold. "I didn't even want to bring that filth in here. It feels like her mere presence has desecrated this temple."

"Says the one who danced with it, in public even." The older ape spat.

"I needed her trust, which I have now. If anything was to happen to her, I would in no way be implicated."

"Do it soon, I want her gone! I don't know what she has done to my son, but he visited me this morning and I could just feel that something was wrong. I know she has been hounding him, once she is dispatched, everything will be back to normal. The Senate will make the right decision and eradicate the humans."

"Semos will guide us, Zaius."

The older ape walked towards the statue and ran his finger over it. "Yes, he will."