"We should have left him there!" Ben pounded his fist into the table, Gwen had just told him what she'd seen.
"That's what I said." She sounded bored.
"That creep, leading us on like he knew the way- now we're more lost than ever."
"At least he didn't take Ship with him." Gwen added fairly. She knew that it would have been all too easy for Baz-L to take their only ride home. She was trying to remain positive.
"Maybe someone here will know directions." Ben perked up.
"I'm pretty sure there is a lot of criminal activity here though," Gwen reasoned, "I'm pretty sure that window where we were waiting was a trade stop, I thought I'd recognised the sign- how could I be so stupid!" Gwen put her face in her hands. There had been a symbol before the alien writing, a symbol which she had seen in the window of Kevin and Arjit's gun shop on the red and blue planet, a symbol which Kevin had told her was representative of an intergalactic pawn shop.
"Don't be so hard on yourself." Be soothed her. "We'll get to Osmos five if it's the last thing we do!" He said loudly so that people several tables over could have heard.
"It might just be the last thing you do." Said a young man at the table opposite them.
Ben, caught off guard responded "What's that?"
"You're going to Osmos five, you said if it's the last thing you do, and it just might be." He repeated.
Gwen eyed him curiously. "And why is that?"
The man took a drink from his cup and looked solemnly between the two of them, "The war," he said, then raised his eyebrows "or don't you know?" he asked, voice laden with sarcasm.
"We do know," Ben got up, moved tables and sat beside this man. "I'm Ben Tennyson, you are?"
"Mason Aldring." He shook Ben's outstretched hand. He looked at Gwen, waiting for her to introduce herself.
"Gwen Tennyson" She reached out a hand, expecting him to shake it.
Mason smiled sympathetically, "I'm sorry, I'm afraid I'll have to be rude. I can feel your energy from here, it's quite distressing."
Ben looked at him "You're an osmosian." It wasn't a question. Mason nodded.
"Can you tell us how to get to Osmos?" Gwen asked ignoring the sullen look on Mason's face.
He chuckled "You wouldn't be allowed in the atmosphere. I can barely take mr. battery over here, but you," he paused "You're MADE of energy"
"Mr. battery?" Ben asked, insulted, "I am the wielder of the omnitrix, defender of-"
"I know about you," Mason interrupted him, "Yeah, you were with Levin when he took down Agregor, or so rumors say"
"Ben, remember what Raylin and Grandpa Max said?" Gwen asked pointedly "Osmosians don't worry too much about other planets. Let's just convince him to take us to find Kevin, put your ego aside."
"Right." Ben said shortly, "So, your planet. Can you take us to it?"
"No," Mason took another drink from his cup, "Not after what it took to leave."
Gwen's sympathies were now with this young man before her. He couldn't be more than 19, and yet he sat looking as though he was full of regret. "Can you tell us?" She asked him?
He sighed, and looked at the two of them. "It's kindof a long story.."
"We have time." Ben said, leaning in.
Mason took a deep sigh. Part of him looked relieved, as though he'd been waiting to tell someone, and so he began to tell them his story. "I grew up in a world that loved order and peace. We helped other planets by renewing their resources, and we helped each other. Life was good, life was normal. But things started changing when I was eight. Dad would come home and whisper to mom, he never whispered before, osmosians don't keep secrets from their children. But, in homes all across the world, children were hearing their parents whisper. They were talking about Agregor.
We have a lot of rules, but our biggest one is not to absorb energy. We just- don't do it. But one day a planet approached us and asked us to refurbish their electrical currents. No one at the Keepers cabinet would do it, but there was a young intern who wanted to rise into the spot of top keeper. That was Agregor.
He went behind the cabinet's back, and helped the planet, but he snapped. He came back power hungry. From what I'm told, usually there were systems in place to stop this kind of thing, but Agregor dodged them and went on the run.
That's what I knew of the situation. Those were the early rumors. Then people kept getting arrested for energy usage, more than ever in recorded history, 25 in one month. The cabinet was sure that Agregor had something to do with it, but he was still missing. People started getting scared, because the energy users were violent. The numbers kept growing, they were forming a cult.
They would find you, if you walked from school alone, and try to talk you into the power of energy, that abstaining was for the weak. They would demonstrate, they might force you to absorb, or, in three cases, they might even kill you if you refused to humour them, like my sister."
Ben and Gwen gasped at the same time.
Mason continued, "Meanwhile, news kept reporting more and more arrests of energy users, and all usual methods of restriction were failing. Then, one day when I was 14 an entire town just north of the capital was annihilated by a group of just 200 people, all of them energy users. It marked Agregor's return, no one had seen him in six years.
It kept happening, they overturned cities, killed, took, and for no reason other than madness. The capital city, Render, fought back as much as they could, but in the end, it fell too. After Render was taken, people went underground. Literally. People were moved into hills, created by the keepers in order to stay hidden from Aggregor and his followers. We were still fighting him, but the conditions in the hills were abysmal.
It's all class based, Keepers made a lot of money, apparently, according to rumor their hills are big, and protected, with each family kept together in mansions. Their food is plentiful, and their worries non existent. But in the lower hills, the hills of the farmers or merchants, there is poverty, and families are torn apart. My town was moved to a small hill, the fifth made. We were poor, and I saw everyone I knew there. We were starving, and crime was high. People were scared and acted irrationally. The resources that would usually give us money and protection were isolated in their own hills, so gangs formed and people fought each other over every little ounce of food. Hill number one, occupied by the homeless, became the first to join Agregor, seeing a better life with him, even if it condemned them to insanity.
The resistance was still going though. People left to fight against the crazies, people of all class, not just keepers like it would be normally. Soldiers came from everywhere, and died all over. We started getting news that claimed Agregor was planning to leave the planet. All news was mainly rumor based, and no one really believed it until the cabinet showed up. They said they needed more people to create a task force army to bring down Agregor. They just took people. Anyone eligible to fight was just...taken, my mom and dad with them. Everyone's parent's. The only adults left were old or weak. Three hundred thousand on that task force. All of them died."
He took a break and gulped from his cup. He was in distress, "So Agregor left the planet, but he met his death," He acknowledged Ben and Gwen, "Present company to thank, of course"
"Many people thought that would be the end of the war" He resumed, "but it wasn't. A new leader took over, I don't know his name.
There's still a strong resistance on Osmos, but many people, like myself, think it's all hopeless.
So I decided I needed to leave. It isn't safe there, and I won't join a hopeless cause. But, the thing is, the planet is on basic lockdown. Plans to get in or out have to be perfect, otherwise, one of the crazies will get you. I took my time, and found out what it took to leave. I even stole money to buy my way on a vessel. I packed my things, and tried to get my girlfriend to come with me, but she wouldn't. That was the last time I saw her, we broke up. Because I won't wait to be killed."
Ben and Gwen looked at him, both so sympathetic to his story.
"So, no. After all of that, I will not help you get in to Osmos"
"We're going to make things right," Ben said, placing a hand on Mason's shoulder, "But we can't if we can't get there."
Mason laughed coldly "The two of you? If the crazies get you, your energy will ensure the destruction of our planet!"
"Then they'll have to not get us" Gwen said, "Mason, you know a lot about Osmos, and how to leave. This is your chance to make it right."
"Be a hero, make a real change." Ben finished for her.
When Mason looked unmoved, Ben spoke again. "The way you talked about the old Osmos, we can get that back, but we need your help. We can't even find the planet, let alone get into it. You can help us. You ran, and that's ok, but now's your chance to take a stand, because we WILL win."
Mason looked at him, debating the issue in his head.
Ben continued to persuade him. "You know people fighting, you can fix things, bring us there and you'll be a hero. To me, to us. We need you, Mason."
Mason looked between the two of them, Gwen worried that this was a lost cause. She hoped dreadfully that he would decide to help them, but could not blame him for being afraid. At long last, Mason took a deep sigh and said "Okay."