To make up for my unforgivably long absence, I present you with my longest chapter to date. I apologize so freaking deeply. Also, I fear that this might be a very lame ending to this story. There will still be one more chapter after this. Only one. I'm ending it now, but I SHALL return and rewrite this ending. That I can assure you. Forgive me, my loves.

I woke up to Seth gently rubbing my back. "Syd, it's about 7:00. Aunt will have breakfast ready soon. We should get up and go over the plan one more time."

"Mmmm." I groaned into his chest, hoping that I would be able to get just five more minutes. Truth was, I was nervous as hell. I wasn't sure that I could do this. I don't think that I've even fully comprehended what exactly is at stake here. I never was that great at presentations during class. I stopped breathing and talked really really really fast. I almost passed out once, because I wasn't breathing. What if I pass out during this meeting? Or if I throw up all over the President? Surely that wouldn't be a good idea. That would probably be the fastest way to get this mission to fail. What if something goes wrong and they put me in prison? I don't think it's a crime to be from Earth, but at the same time, I wasn't sure. Why had we had to sneak the entire way here? Was it because of me being and Earthling? Why hadn't I thought it important to ask these questions before?

Seth just laughed and brushed my hair out of my face and kissed my forehead lightly. He carefully pulled his arm out from under me and jumped over me, rolling out of the bed. The bed was cold without him, so I huffed and followed him out of the bed. He was already walking out, I assumed he was going to his room to get dressed. I threw on some clothes and walked out, going down to where the others were already grouped in the kitchen, piling food onto their plates.

"So, today's the big day!" Steven rubbed my arm encouragingly.

"Yep." I muttered, not keen on being reminded.

"You ready for this?" Travis asked.

"Of course, she's ready." Sara smiled. "She'll be brilliant and will come out of the Capitol building a hero of both planets!"

I smiled at her, gracious for her encouraging words, but they didn't exactly make me feel better.

"Well, let's not talk about this just yet, yeah? Let Syd enjoy her breakfast!" Aunt Turner quipped, for which I was extremely grateful.

Breakfast flew by, as did my shower and the quick run by of what I was supposed to do and say. In no time, we were walking to Capitol Street. While Aunt Turner and I were inside the building, the others would be across the street, watching for anything suspicious. Hopefully my powers would work through the building. Seth was walking as close as possible to my side and holding my hand so tightly I thought it might fall off. He kept kissing my temple lightly as we walked. I'm not sure if that was his attempt to make me feel better, but if it was then it wasn't working. It felt more like the last final kisses before someone goes off to war before they die. The butterflies in my stomach felt more like bats. Big, huge bats. I thought I was going to throw up everywhere. I'm pretty sure I was sweating, even though the air surrounding us was surprisingly crisp for the summer. The walk seemed to take only five seconds, and we were there in no time.

"Alright." Aunt Turner turned to where Seth and I were walking behind her. "We're here. To your positions, everyone."

The others all gathered around my, patting my back and giving good bye hugs. Seth took the longest, planting a long kiss on my forehead, then pulling back to lock his blue eyes into mine. "You'll be brilliant. Just hurry back. And try to keep checking to make sure that you can communicate with someone out here at random." I nodded my head, staring into his eyes, hoping that I was putting on a brave face. "I love you." He whispered into my ear before planting a light kiss on my lips and dropping his hands from my shoulders.

"I love you." I whispered back as he walked away. "I'll see you soon." I said confidently as I smiled and walked up to Aunt Turner.

"You ready?" She asked.

"As ready as I'll ever be, I suppose."

We walked into the Capitol building, a big stone building that I could tell was beautiful at some time, before it started to look worn and dirty. The inside was still magnificent, a shock from the dirty outside. Glass chandeliers hung all around the humongous open atrium type thing we had walked into. I could see the floors going up and up and up... There had to be at least 30 of them, if not more! There were hundreds of people walking around these floors, none paid us any attention. We walked up to the front desk and Aunt Turner signed us in.

"If you two will just head up to the 15th floor to begin your security check-in's, your meeting will begin soon." The friendly looking lady pointed us to the elevators. "Have a nice visit!"

She was oddly friendly for someone working for a government that was attempting to take over another living planet.

Once inside the elevators, which we were miraculously alone in, Aunt Turner turned to me. "Should you need to address me, call me Ms. Turner or Ms. Cassidy. I'm not sure how the government would take to you calling me Aunt!"

I nodded my head, then thought of something. "Actually, do you not think that it would make the fact that Earthlings and Khan's are compatible more obvious? If they see that we already have a family like relationship, then perhaps they will realize that Earthlings aren't bad people!"

"That's a brilliant idea! Forget what I said. Just call me Auntie!" She smiled and patted my back. We arrive on the 15th floor and unloaded from the elevator. There was another help desk equipped with an overly friendly pretty woman who pointed us into "Security room 4". Once inside the room, I was sat in front of a grumpy looking man in front of a tablet like thing.

"Name?" He asked.

"Sydley Compton."

"Age?"

"Seventeen."

"What business do you have in the Capitol building?"

"I'm here to present the evidence found to support the theory that Kubla Khan does not have to take over Earth, and that the atmosphere here is, in fact, still able to be saved."

The worker looked up at me with disbelief in his eyes. "You think you're going to save Earth?" I nodded. "Good luck with that and may you be ever successful in your attempt."

The fact that he approved of my mission made me relax considerably. If a government worker thought that finding a way to save Kubla Khan without taking over Earth was a good idea, then perhaps the rest of them would agree! The questions went by quickly and, after showing him the device that I would be using to make my presentation and him checking it over to be sure it was nothing harmful, he stood and escorted Aunt Turner and myself into an elevator. He pressed a button marked -5, the doors shut and we began our dissent.

"-5?" I asked.

"The room you will be meeting in is underground, on the fifth level. Hope you're not claustrophobic."

Hm. This could be a spot of trouble. I realized that I hadn't tried to communicate with anyone since I arrived, so I tried for Sara.

Sara? Sara, can you hear me?

Yes! I can hear you. Are you guys okay?

We're okay! We're heading down to the meeting room now. It's five floors below ground!

Just don't think about being underground, Syd. You'll do great, sister.

Her calling me sister shocked me a bit. Yes, they had quickly become my family, but I had never thought of it as having a sister before. That was nice. All too soon, the elevator was stopping, the doors were dinging and sliding open, and I was being ushered off and into a meeting room. They were a lot like the meeting rooms you see on movies... for prisoners. Dark, with no windows and very minimal lighting. A cold long metal table was surrounded with ten or so cold, straight backed, metal chairs.

"Take a seat the end there," the worker pointed me to a chair. "And good luck, Miss Compton." The he shut the door and was gone. I sat in the chair he had pointed to and Aunt Turner sat at the corner chair to my left.

"And now, we wait. Hopefully, it won't take them too long to get in here. You remember what to do and say?"

I nodded and closed my eyes. "Slide my finger over the sensor and press hologram. Touch a tree and read the text in the box. Suggest bringing plants, trees and seeds from Earth. Also suggest keeping the ban on non-harmful acts and making sure that no plants and trees are harmed."

"Yes! Simple as that. Just keep calm. Keep calm and kick ass." She smiled and winked.

I smiled back, "I'm going to try and reach Seth. I got Sara on the elevator, but I'm not sure how my powers will work actually being five floors underground." She nodded and I closed my eyes, focusing all my energy on the wire connecting my mind to Seth's, praying that this would work.

Seth? Can you hear me?

I waited, but I didn't get a response.

Seth? Seth?... Sara? Can you hear me?

I got a weird static noise in my head, like when your radio loses its station.

Guys? Can either of you hear me?

Another weird static.

I told Aunt Turner of the static, and she just laughed. "You've only had your powers a little while. You're five feet underground. I would have considered it a miracle if they had worked!"

I sighed, frustrated. I had been relying on my ability to converse with Seth and Sara if needed to keep me sane.

The seconds ticked by slowly, as opposed to how quickly the rest of that morning had gone. It seemed like I had been in the waiting room for an entire day. I'm not sure if it was because I knew what was coming or because of the fact that I couldn't see the light, so I had no way of knowing how much time had passed.

Finally, the door to the room opened. In walked two blondes who HAD to be Seth and Sara's parents. I swear, their entire family must be beautiful, pale skinned, blue eyed blondes. They were followed by two men in what looked like guard uniforms, who said nothing but stood behind the chairs that the couple sat in.

"Ah, brother. How is prison treating you?"

"Just peachy. How's freedom?"

"As grand as ever." She laughed, then turned to me. "Sydley, this is my brother, Saiden and his wife, Saihbon. This is Sydley. She's here to save the planets. She's also your sons Xanadu." She smiled hugely

"Xanadu!" Mrs. Turner exclaimed.

"Here to save the planets?" Mr. Turner asked.

"It's nice to meet you, both. Yes, Seth and Sara ended up in my uncles cab, while on Earth. My uncle and I are very stubborn people and wouldn't leave when they asked us too. Turned out to be a good thing, we saved their lives a few times. And during all of this... I... Fell in love with your son. I fell in love with your daughter too, though in a different sense that the way that I love Seth. I'm here to present your experiment to the President, in hopes that they will believe it and that a neutral face whose family has not been imprisoned with do some good. We're hoping that me being an Earthling will drive home the point that Earth is not a horrible planet and doesn't deserve to be taken over."

"Well, let's just hope you're successful." Mrs. Turner smiled at me as she patted my hands that were laying on the table.

"They're not aware that it's our experiment that you're presenting?"

I turned to Aunt Turner, and she shook her head. "No, I didn't tell them whose experiment it is. Just that it may save our planet."

"That was a good idea." He nodded. We fell silent as the door came open again. This time, a brunette woman who looked to be in her 50's walked in, followed by a group of men and women, ranging in age. They were all wearing looks of disinterest on their faces already. As they got settled into their seats, all of their eyes were trained on either the President or at myself. I tried to make eye contact with each of them, trying to put on a great brave face for each and every one of them.

Finally, the president stood up and cleared her throat. "Miss Compton, I am President Sheen. Please, let us see what you have." then she sat back down.

I stood up and smiled, "Hello, I'm Sydley Compton. I'm from Earth, and when I heard about your planets troubles, I began conducting an experiment." There was a lot of noise when I admitted that I was from Earth, however no one interrupted me. "I'm here to show you the outcome of this experiment, which proves that your atmosphere, and your world can be saved."

I slid my finger over the sensor and pressed the words and images that I had practiced time and time again.

"This image is of a meadow on Kubla Khan. If you were to go to this meadow now, it would look nothing like this. Instead, you would see dead trees, dead grass and no animals." I touched the trees, and the text box popped up. "Earth's atmosphere is compatible with Kubla Khans. It has survived centuries of harmful treatment due to the successful regeneration of plants, trees and other oxygen producing resources. As the resources are destroyed, so is the atmosphere. In order to save Kubla Khans planet, Earth is, in fact, needed. However, the take over of that planet is not. It will be as simple as going to Earth and retrieving oxygen producing plants, seeds and trees, and bringing them back to Kubla Khan! If we can produce more oxygen than we are destroying, the planet would be able to survive! The planet would also need to continue to act responsibly as they are now, cutting down pollution inducing acts, reducing the driving of cars and other such harmful activities that do not have to be preformed. It may take a while for the atmosphere to get back to normal, but I can almost guarantee that in the end, it will be better than it ever was before! So instead of costing thousands of lives on Kubla Khan and billions of lives on Earth, let's just save this beautiful planet and restore it to the magnificent place it once was."

Then I sat back down. I hoped that that would be enough, because I didn't know what else I was supposed to do.

"Well, if that is it, then I will ask you to kindly step outside while I talk our decision over with my Council and our Scientists."

I stood and thanked them for their time and consideration before stepping out into the dark hallway. To my surprise, the wait for them to come out and retrieve me was surprisingly quick. Aunt Turner opened the door with a smile on her face and whispered, "Great work! Come on in."

I followed her in the door and sat down in the seat I had previously been in. The President stood up again and spoke. "After taking all of your opinions into consideration, I have decided that I will go through... with the new plan. I do love Kubla Khan and would hate to see it go to waste. If you truly believe that this will save our planet, we shall try it. If it doesn't work, then we will continue on with our original plan."

YES! I celebrated the victory silently in my mind.

"However, I have also decided that, as an illegal person on our planet without permission, you shall be placed in our jails until we decide what is to be done with you."

"What?" I couldn't believe it. "But, I only came here to save your planet as well as mine!"

"Be that as it may, there are rules. Rules that were not followed." She had a stern look on her face. The others around the table had looks of disbelief on their faces. One of the men opened his mouth,

"Come on, President Sheen. Surely you can cut her some slack. After all, she surely didn't know. And she was only doing what she thought was right."

"Silence, Connors. Guards." The President snapped her fingers. The guards that had transported the Turners in came over and grabbed my arms beside me.

Cassidy! What do I do?

I don't know! I wasn't expecting this! Don't worry, we'll get you out. Just go. Behave. Do as they tell you. We'll get you out of here.

So I did as she said. I stood and went with them, putting up no struggle.

"There's a good girl." The one holding my right arm said. "If you don't put up a struggle, we won't have to hurt you."

"I just don't understand." I mumbled. "I didn't know I was going to get arrested for saving the planets."

"Honestly kid, neither did we." The one on my left told me. "We're just doing our jobs."

I hung my head as we walked towards the elevators. We got in and they pressed the button for the 29th floor. At least we were going above ground! Maybe I'd be able to communicate with Seth and Sara there!

"The prison is on the 29th floor?" It didn't make sense to me that the meeting rooms were underground, but the prison was above.

"Prison? No, no. You're just going to a holding room. You'll be transported to the prison after your fate is decided. She'll have to convince the Judge and a group of Councils to punish you. I wouldn't worry too much, little girl."

When we got to the 29th floor, we walked out into a hallway that was pure white. The doors had little square windows on them, and nothing else. It was like the typical insane asylum holding rooms. They opened up one of the doors and led me inside. There was a long rectangle sticking out of the wall. I assumed it was a bed chair thing. There was also a wall full of nothing but windows.

"You stay here. We'll be back for you when it's decided what happens to you."

"Thank you." I smiled. Even if they were putting me in a holding room, they had still seemed reluctant and unhappy to do so.

I sat on the bed and tried my powers.

Sara? Can you hear me?

Sydley! Finally! I was getting so worried. I heard you, but I don't guess you could hear what I was saying back! What's going on?

The President put me in a holding room! She wants me charged for being here without permission! I'm on the 29th floor!

Is there any way you can get out?

I don't think so... There's people everywhere, and I don't think that the President would make it that easy for me to escape. The wall is pure window though... Do you think you could levitate me?

I may be able to... I lifted you before. But 29 floors is a lot more of a fall than just a few feet!

I'm willing to try. Hang on, I'm going to bust out the window. I can't see you. Where are you?

We're still in the park! Hang on, we'll move around. Let me know when you see one of us.

I see Steven!

The rest of the group all gathered around him as I looked for something to throw out the window. There was nothing, so I tried kicking it. That didn't work either. All that got me was a hurt foot. I looked for another way out, and had almost given up when I saw... There was a lock on the window. I slid the lock back and threw the window open. The windows were slip in half, with one long left window and one long right window. Really, the Capitol made it way too easy to escape.

Alright, the windows open. What do I do now?

Hope that this works.

I closed my eyes and felt myself being lifted. Oh, this felt so weird. I didn't like not having my feet on the ground. I kept my eyes as tightly closed as possible. Before I knew it, I felt Seth's strong arms wrap around me. He kissed my forehead and pulled me into him.

"We have to get you out of here!" He said urgently.

"Where's Aunt Cassidy? You're parents were nice. What's going on? Where are we going to go?" I wasn't sure what to expect. If I had been worried before, I was scared out of my mind now.

"Aunt Cassidy will be fine. We have to get back to her house, now!"

The others grouped around me, keeping me hidden from peoples sight. Seth wasn't letting go of my hand. But the others, while serious, were still estatic.

"So, how'd it go?" "What did they say?" "Did they go for it?"

"Yeah! They're going to try this plan! But she said if it doesn't work, which I'm positive it will, that they will continue with the original."

"Woo!" "Yeah!" "Alright!" "Good job, guys!" Yells of excitement filled the air.

"I'm glad they went for it. But you can't stay here!" Seth whispered.

"What? What do you mean, I can't stay here?" I had just fought for the freedom of this planet, but I wasn't allowed to stay?

"They will find you, Sydley. If you stay on Kubla Khan, they will hunt you down. If you were going to be freed before, there's now way you would be freed now. You just ran away from the law."

"So, I'm going back to Earth?"

"Yes. It's the only choice."

This saddened me, a lot. I had all these friends here! And not to mention Seth and Sara. I was positive that they wouldn't be joining me on Earth. This is their home, after all. Their home that would, sooner or later, be back to the glorious beautiful planet that it had once been. Why would they ever want to come to Earth? But what would happen between Seth and I? My mind went blank, my body cold. I had been under a lot of pressure recently, and even though all of that was over, this pushed me over the edge.

The next thing I knew, I was on a spaceship heading back to Earth.