Sorry this took so long. Family drama and the like. Not pretty in the real world for me right now. But Second Chance is finished, but you're not getting the final chapter till tomorrow at the earliest.

Ha ha.

So instead of mushy- gushy romance, you get ecowarriors. How you like them apples?

And so, with spelling and grammar approval from Konpeki Rei, read on.

Chapter 2

This Is Why I Don't Work With Other People

"OK, team, we need to think up some ideas to help Viridi get better," I say, slamming my fist in my palm. I look to my companions.

Dark Pit sighs. "You do realize no one else cares."

I frown. "How could you be so cruel?"

"Easy. I'm a manifestation of your bad side. I was made to be cruel."

"Doesn't mean you have to be..." I mumble.

"Um, yeah, it does."

Palutena rolls her eyes. "Alright, you two, stop fighting. Pit needs our help," she disciplines.

I nod. "Thank you. Now, we know that in order to heal Viridi, we need to stop the humans' destruction of the planet and clean up the already existing messes. The question is, where do we start?"

"Plant some trees. There, I've contributed. Can I leave now?" Dark Pit asks moodily.

"NO!" I shout. "We need more!"

"Plant a lot of trees," he sarcastically offers. I groan inwardly. This is why I don't normally work with this jerk.

Fortunately, Lady Palutena has a legitimate plan. "Well, the oceans are full of litter from mankind. If we clean up all of the water on Earth, that should be enough to at least get Viridi's fever down."

I smile. "That's perfect! Dark Pit, go rally the troops. Send them to every shore in the world. We're on trash patrol."

He gives me a mock salute. "Aye aye, captain." He stalks away.

I go to follow him when something catches my elbow. I turn to see Palutena's face. She looks confuzzled (I know that's not a real word, but it's the only thing that can describe her expression).

"Pit, why are you doing this?"

"What do you mean?" I question.

"Why are you making such an effort to heal Viridi?" she clarifies.

I blush. "Well... um..."

She stares me down. "It's not for the power of flight, I know that much. You know as well as everybody else that there is no way you'll ever be able to fly on your own. It's just not possible. So what's your motive?"

I bite my lip and think. "Uh... gee, well..." I sigh. "I don't know. It just... it just feels like the right thing to do."

She gives me a knowing smile. "I thought so. Luckily for you, I know why."

My eyes pop out. "You do?"

She laughs. "Yep. You're doing all this because you love her!"

I pale. "What? No! I don't-"

"You told me, remember? Two years ago? After I locked you two in here?" She gestures around the conference room and suddenly I recall the event.

"Oh yeah..." I whisper. "Yeah. That's why. Cuz I love her."

Palutena crosses her arms. "And you haven't told her yet."

"It's not my fault!" I protest. "I haven't been able to see her that much lately! And when we do, I'm fighting her! That's not exactly a good time to confess your feelings to someone. 'This will be the last day of your life, you pathetic angel!'" I cry in a high- pitched voice, attempting to sound like Viridi. "'Well then, I think of you as the most beautiful, wonderful, and amazing person in the world!'" I say in my normal voice. I look to the Goddess of Light. "See? Doesn't exactly work."

"I suppose you're right," she agrees. "So I'll haphazard I guess as to healing her is your way of saying 'I love you?'''

I nod and turn as red as the "cherry" on a Souflee.

"You'll have to tell her flat- out eventually," she says quietly. I nod some more, still unable to speak. I'm afraid I might start crying if I do.

"But you don't want to. You're afraid she'll reject you," she realizes.

Finally I break my silence. "How did you know?" I blubber.

"Laurel crown, Pit. I can read your heart with your laurel crown. So you better not be thinking anything... naughty."

I laugh. "OK, I've heard that before somewhere..."

Palutena gives me a hug and whispers in my ear. "Go get Viridi better. But promise me that when you're done, you'll tell her why."

"I promise. But only if she asks," I add.

She sighs. "Fine. Now get to work, Doctor Pit. Your 'patient' is waiting."

. . .

I smile at the pile of trash that's been built up in front of me. "Great work, guys. We're almost done. Only about a hundred or so more pounds to collect."

"Captain, that's all we can do for now. Tide is about to go back out, and once that happens, we won't be able to reach the rest of the garbage," one of the Centurions told me.

I look at the soldier. "When's the next high tide?" I ask him.

"Not for another few hours- after dark."

I sigh. I was really hoping to finish this before I went to bed. And Lady Palutena won't extend my curfew. What to do... what to do...

"Pit? Is that you?" calls a loud and booming male voice. One that's project through the water of the seas all around. A godly voice.

"Huh? Who's there?" I spin around, looking for the speaker's body.

"Pit, you've grown! I barely recognized you! How's Palutena?" responds the voice. He sounds kinda like a grandfather. A bossy grandfather.

"She's... good," I answer hesitantly. "How are you... whoever you are?"

"Now, little angel, don't you recognize the sound of the mighty Poseidon?"

"Oh yeah! God of the Sea! I fought Thanatos in your castle!" I exclaim, remembering the event.

"Yes, yes, we were all there. The readers didn't click on this story to read rehashed gameplay. They, like I, want to know about now. What exactly are you doing?" he inquires.

"I'm cleaning out the oceans!" I explain.

"Oh, well, thank you, I suppose. But is there a reason?"

"Um, yeah... do you know the goddess Viridi?"

"Goddess of Nature? Of course. She's my niece, you know."

Wait, what? Poseidon has a sister or a brother? And they gave birth to Viridi? "Wow, really? She never mentioned it... which side?"

The powerful ocean god laughs."Still as naive as before, I see. You should know by now, angel, that gods do not have families. We have no parents, we have no siblings, we have no children... I merely think of Viridi as my niece."

I release a deep breath. "Oh, OK."

"Viridi is sick right now, correct? And I'll wager a guess that that's the reason you're doing all this," he says.

I nod, even though he can't see me. Or maybe he can. Heck if I now. (You would think living with and dating a goddess would teach you about them, but noooooo. It's all "secret goddess techniques.")

"Well, the thing is, Lord Poseidon, it's low tide and there's still a bunch of trash left. And I have to leave at sundown. Do you think you could, I dunno, make high tide come early today?" I mumble, running my sandaled foot through the sand.

"Hmm... I don't see why I should. After all, you somewhat destroyed my underwater castle when you visited," Poseidon considers.

"But I'm cleaning the ocean! It helps both Viridi and you!" I argue.

He tutts. "True, true, but that's no reason you can't wait until morning."

I beg. No, I actually get down on my knees and beg. "I need to do this now! If I wait much longer, Viridi might get even more sick!" I feel a tear beginning to well up in the corner of my left eye. Get yourself together, Pitstain, says a little voice in my head that sounds an awful lot like Dark Pit.

"Oh, very well. Just wait a moment while I prepare myself," he relents.

"Oh thank you thank you thank you!" I cheer, getting back up to my feet.

"Don't mention it," Poseidon groans.

A few minutes pass and then the waters begin to crash into the beaches. I turn to the Centurions. "Men! Collect the rest! This is the final time!"

"Yes, sir!" answer the members of Palutena's guard.

An hour or so passes before low tide kicks in. But I'm not upset, every last piece of garbage is out of the oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, ponds, and hot springs.

"Good job, soldiers," I tell the troops. I look at the sparkling waters. "Thank you, Poseidon."

He chuckles. "Take good care of my 'niece,' Pit. Or the next time you go swimming, you may meet a shark or two."

My eyes bug out in fright. "Ye- yes, sir."

. . .

You've done good, Pit. But you could do more good.

This thought had occurred to me when I was on my way back to Palutena's temple. The thing was, though, that I had no clue what I could do.

That's when I remembered (strange for me, huh?) an old friend, one with a lot of sway over many humans. He might be able to help.

So I made a beeline for a large city, heading directly to the house of the governor. As I land, I see the back of his head in the window. Perfect. He's home and he's alone.

I burst through the door. "Hello, Magnus!" I yell, even though he's in the adjacent room.

He jumps a little then sighs. "Oh, Angel Face. It's you. What do you want?"

If you were expecting him to be more surprised, sorry to disappoint. I've actually visited my human mercenary chum a few times before since the ending of Uprising. He's getting gray hair. Just don't mention it to him, or he'll do things to the sacred buns that make sitting in a hot spring a real pain in the... well, sacred buns. "You're in charge of a lot of humans, right? Not just here, but in other places, too?" I ask him gleefully.

He rolls his eyes. "You know I am. What about it?"

"Can you see if you can get them to cut down less trees? And not litter? And clean up the planet? Like, now?"

"Why?"

"Because you and Gaol have a lot of power over a bunch of people. You can convince them to do almost anything. You two are some of the coolest-"

He cuts me off with a finger to my lips. "Shut it, kid. I know why you're asking me, and I know that I'm awesome. What I care about is why you're asking me for help. You're still a bit of an enemy to us, for everything you did during Palutena's madness."

I stutter, "But that wasn't me! It was just my body? I was that ring, remember? You wore me!"

"And I am forever scarred by that event. But still doesn't mean I wanna go help your healing your goddess girlfriend," Magnus growls.

"Well, yeah, but- hey, how do YOU know Viridi's sick?" I inquire.

"You aren't the only person Palutena talks too," he gloats. I scowl. I knew it... I knew I wasn't her only friend... then again, how many friends does she have on Facebook? Like, 500? "So Angel Face, why are you so bent on helping her?"

"She's my girlfriend," I say.

"So? Gaol was sick last month. Didn't mean I ran across the globe getting her medicine."

"You saved her from becoming Dark Lord Gaol forever," I remind him. He dismisses it.

"That's cuz she was in my mercenary gang, idiot. Of course I'd save her. Besides, there was reward money for 'killing him.' Seemed like a sweet deal. Anyway, it's not liked I loved her or anything. Now love, short stack, can make you do some crazy things. But you're not in love."

"Um, actually..." I mumble, before whispering something so quietly not even I hear it.

"What was that?"

"I love her," I mutter under my breath.

"Can't hear you," Magnus taunts, cupping his hand over his ears.

"I love her," I say at normal volume.

"A little louder, please."

"I LOVE HER, OK?" I scream in his face. He wipes my spit from his mug.

"Now that wasn't so hard, was it? And next time, say it, don't spray it," he laughs cockily. "Alright, I'm in. If you promise not to visit for, oh, I don't know, EVER AGAIN."

I stick out my hand. "Deal. Oh, and Magnus?"

"What?" he moans.

"You might wanna think about a toupee," I chide before taking to the skies.

End Chapter 2

Yay for cameos! We got Magnus, the Centurions, Poseidon... jeez, it's like an episode of "The Big Bang Theory" or something. (I love that show!)

LATE NOTE: Looking at this couple now, I'm reminded of the song "Juvenile (feat. Kagamine Rin/Len)" by Dixie Flatline. Minus the twincest thing.

So, as I mentioned before, new chapter tomorrow. But until then: Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock!