--- Silent Peace ---
No one was shouting anymore.
This didn't mean everything was alright. But everyone was tired. For the first time in this story, tiredness had become a unifying force.
In the small meeting room in Tokyo, Lila, Billy, Ashley, and Anna were at the same table. The conversations were short, the sentences clear.
"We don't have to love each other," Anna said. "But now we're looking in the same direction."
Ashley nodded.
"I did wrong," she said. "But I didn't run away."
For the first time that day, Lila smiled.
"That's enough."
The disagreements hadn't ended; they had become insignificant.
--- Sandra's Defeat ---
For Sandra, defeat wasn't being caught.
No one arrested her. No one shouted at her. No one demanded an explanation.
It was simply… no one was listening to her anymore.
That was the only thing Sandra couldn't bear.
Sandra was sitting on the edge of the bed when Billy closed his suitcase.
"Don't go," she said. There was no command in her voice.
Billy stopped.
"I need to help you," he said. "But not by staying with you."
Sandra looked up.
"You chose him."
Billy replied slowly.
"No. Myself."
That sentence emptied Sandra's heart.
--- Collapse ---
Sandra was hospitalized a few days later.
The diagnosis was unclear. The doctors chose their words carefully: burnout, acute stress, paranoid episode.
When Sandra looked in the mirror, she saw not her uniform, but a woman who had lost control.
I'm not like this.
That thought was the only thing that made her cry.
--- Lila's "Why?" ---
Lila stood beside Billy in the hospital hallway.
"Why did she do all this?" she asked.
Billy didn't answer.
"I wasn't his enemy," Lila said. "I was just… looking for him."
Billy lowered his head.
"Some people," he said, "think they're the one who's lost."
Lila fell silent.
Her sadness wasn't anger. It was trying to understand.
--- The Road to Karen ---
Karen and Lila's meeting wasn't planned.
A transfer. Wrong time. An empty terminal.
Lila sat, writing in her diary.
"Si ella es real, no debo huir." (If she's real, I shouldn't run away.)
"Lila?"
That voice.
Lila looked up.
Karen was standing opposite her.
Neither of them moved.
--- Recognition ---
"I…" Karen said.
"I know," Lila said.
That word solved everything.
Karen started to cry. Lila stood up and held her.
"I'm late," said Karen.
"No," said Lila. "You're on time."
--- A Pledge of Solidarity ---
They sat side by side in a quiet corner.
"We don't know each other," said Karen. "But I'm not alone anymore."
Lila nodded.
"Me neither."
They held hands.
"If we get lost," said Lila, "we'll look for each other."
Karen smiled through her tears.
"Promise."
It wasn't a vow.
It was a pledge of solidarity.
--- ---
Billy set off to return to Alaska.
Ashley began to put her life back together.
Anna began to write.
Sandra rested quietly in a hospital room.
Lila and Karen walked side by side.
Lila wrote on the last page of her diary:
"No encontré solo a mi hermana."
(I didn't just find my sister.)
"Me encontré a mí." (I found myself too.)