BENNY’S CONFLICT
Benny and his crew’s mission has succeeded. After being arrested, being shot at, and escaping certain death many times, they have fled the prison planet with Carlos’ rescued parents. But although they deserve a long, relaxing break, it seems that their troubles aren’t over yet…
BENNY couldn’t understand how he had felt so many different emotions in such a short amount of time.
In about ten seconds, he had gone from hopeless fear to incredible happiness and now fearful confusion. Shana Vees, a faithful partner through his adventures, had taken the shield-rifle she had used moments ago to shoot at security bots, and now aimed it at Carlos’ parents, Bernard and Bertha, the very people she had been trying to save.
Carlos immediately walked forward to stop her, but she pointed the weapon at him, and he backed away.
“Don’t try to stop me,” she warned him. “I’ve been meaning to do this for a long time now.”
“But… why?” Carlos sounded confused and betrayed, and Benny felt the same.
“Your parents used to be major threats to my freedom fighters, long before I joined. When Benny came to me with the opportunity to find them, I took it.”
“Why? Why my parents? What did they do that makes you want to kill them?”
“For decades your parents have been fierce supporters of the human supremacist Izen Dopolous.”
Carlos’ look of betrayal stayed on his face, but it wasn’t directed at Shana anymore. Instead, he turned over to his parents, who were no longer cowering.
“Is it true?” he asked them with a faint voice. “You worked for Izen Dopolous?”
The first to answer was Carlos’ father Bernard. “We didn’t work for him. We worked with him. We gained his trust so completely that whole areas of his operation were left to our command.”
Carlos’ mother Bertha pitched in. ”Then, when we were on Earth II, we had you. So we took a break from our work to raise you, which impacted us financially during the war. Soon, we knew we had to give you up, so we put you with S.T.A.R, where Izen’s roots run deep, hoping you would grow up to join our cause.”
“After that,” Bernard continued, “we were rescued by Izen, and shortly after we were arrested. During all our interrogations, we never betrayed his location or much of what we did. Still, they had enough evidence to imprison us for life. But not anymore! Now you’ve saved us, and you can take us back to Izen.”
“No,” Carlos’ voice was heavily emotional now. “That won’t happen.
You see, while I was in S.T.A.R I didn’t become what you wanted me to become. I broke free. I became more compassionate. Humans aren’t the only living creatures in the universe. There’s
nothing that separates us from aliens. And for over a year I’ve been fighting to make sure others realise that.”
Both his parents looked down at the ground with shame, but Benny could tell it wasn’t themselves they were ashamed of. He looked over at Shana, who was still holding the shield-rifle. Carlos looked at her, and nodded, then turned to face the wall.
“Hold on now,” Benny interrupted before Shana could fire. “Surely there has to be a better solution than killing them. I mean, Izen himself is dead. Isn’t that enough.”
“I would not be so sure about that,” echoed a metallic voice from the corner of the room. Everyone turned around, and saw Carlson the android standing up, the Freedom Cube still plugged in to the back of his head. But the voice that had spoken out of the android wasn’t the friendly, approachable one it usually had. This voice was deeper, and more evil.
There was nothing approachable about Carlson now, and Benny knew what was standing before them wasn’t the android. In fact, he was sure it was the supremacist himself, Izen Dopolous.