Worth A Second Chance

"This is beyond ridiculous, Klaatu," Jeeves, the second-in-command of Zion 2.0, finally blurted out. "I'm not pleased with the idea of meeting up with those fools-more so when they're merely going to give us lame-ass excuses as to why we shouldn't wipe them out this very instant."

Much to his chagrin, Klaatu didn't seem to be concerned at the very least. "Calm yourself now, brother. We're to do as we were told-no matter where we stand in that regard. The Council must have a good reason for wanting to hear their side. We must respect that."

"As always, you have yet to surprise me," Jeeves muttered grudgingly, before turning back to his side of the cabin. "I despise you sometimes, you know that?"

"Only because I'm correct."

"Whatever. I'm not interested in their reasons. They're waging war against each other. They've spent the last three-to-four centuries trashing their planet. Like seriously, do they wanna die? Cats do a better job of managing their lives than those pests. Isn't that right, Tigris?" Klaatu rolled his eyes at his brother's antics. One would have been misled to believe that the macho commander was a cold-hearted being. Klaatu himself wouldn't believe anyone who told him that Jeeves had a soft spot for kittens-if he hadn't witnessed it firsthand.

"We'll hear their side soon enough, Jeeves. Hopefully you'll cut out your whining by then, because I can only take so much before I decide to leave you there with those pests as you so eloquently put it. We're landing in 03 00 minutes. Zion 2.0, prepare to infiltrate planet Earth."

"Earthlings, here we come."

~*~

"EMILY!"

"I'm coming, Mom!" Thundering footsteps echoed throughout the garage as sixteen-year-old Emily Bonaparte bounded down the steep staircase of their apartment.

"We would've left without you, y'know," her very annoyed twin drawled as soon as she jumped inside the car. "You took ages, Em, ages."

"Oh yes, brother-dear-who-keeps-insisting-that-he-is-older-by-two-seconds-I totally get it. Your boredom encompassed such great heights that you decided to fall asleep for a hundred years a la Aurora in Sleeping Beauty. And I, the ever so gallant prince(ss), woke you up by barging in into your ever-so-boring life. Did I get that right?"

"HEY!" Emily earned a half-hearted shove for her snarky comeback. "Serves you right, princess."

"Now kids, that's enough," their father glared at them mock angrily from the rearview mirror. "I might just drop you so-called royalties in the middle of the road."

~*~

"Target: Selected. Target: Scanning. Target Profile: Emily Bonaparte. Sixteen. 5'2 ft. 58 kg. Hair: Brown. Chin-length. Eyes: Bespectacled. Gray. Mission begin!"

Klaatu nearly growled in response. He hated listening to the mechanical monotone, but orders from the Council included consulting the robotic mechanism known as the computer for everything related to the mission. Including the target specs. Ridiculous, he thought to himself. I don't need a computer to tell me things I can obviously figure out on my own.

Nevertheless, he set off. Where to? To kidnap a certain Emily Bonaparte, of course-although Klaatu would prefer the term "interrogate". So there he went, the little stalker.

"We'll be waiting in the car, sweetheart. Remember, two Big Macs for me and Gabe!"

"That's like the tenth time, Dad!" A laughing brunette came within line of Klaatu's vision. She was wearing a pair of jeans and a hoodie. Strange. I thought girls wore close to nothing these days. Seems like I was mistaken. Is she the target? A confirmation from the computer urged Klaatu to move. He had to get her away from people-because she'd probably scream bloody murder.

"Jeeves. The trap. Is it all set?" A crackling noise came from his headpiece before Jeeve's voice came on. "In three seconds, she'll be in our territory. Ready?"

"As I'll ever be."

~*~

"Strange little thing, don't you think? Quite the misfit, no?" Emily stirred loosely as she heard voices hovering above her, before her eyes snapped open to behold two fun-sized green...elves? Was that the proper way to describe them? They certainly look elven, with their ears and size, but their features were somewhat reptilian. Come to think of it, they looked like a cross between Yoda and a reptile...

"Who's Yoda?"

"Target's awake! Finally!"

"Shut up, Jeeves. Leave us."

"Whatever. I don't wanna listen to her yammering." The smaller of the two Yodeptiles (that's what Emily decided to call them) glared at her with distaste, before stomping off.

"Okay, so who the bloody hell are you? Where am I and why am I here? Tell me this instant or I'll-"

The Yodeptile smiled grimly. "Klaatu of Zion 2.0, at your service. You're in our territory, with no means of escape other than us. You're not here to ask questions. I'm the one who'll be doing that. You just have to cooperate and everything will be fine."

"What do you want exactly?"

"I want to know why you humans have been deteriorating." At Emily's incredulous expression, he continued. "Look around you. You're surrounded with war and destruction. Why is that?"

"Y'know how popularity works? Well, that summarizes the whole shit we're going through right now. We live in a world where popularity wins and rules. If majority are doing wrong, the wrong becomes right-even though people know that's not the case. Another thing: Technology. In the virtual world, we're technically invincible. So we do what we want, we say what we want. Freedom compromises our sense of responsibility. Next: Material attachment. We become too attached to this world so much-that we end up loving things and using people. That pretty much sums it up. We suck at being humans-we-all-know-that-been-there-done-that-but I think we just need a push in the right direction. Just something to cause a domino effect to reverse this hellhole we created, y'know?"

Klaatu stared at her, dumbfounded. She probably didn't realize it, but he felt her passion and sincerity as she spoke. "Humanity might just have hope after all."