"You've got to believe me, Roz! There's a plot to kidnap children and extract screams from them by force! And even Waternoose is in on it!"

"A very interesting claim, Wazowski," drawled the slug. "What evidence do you have for this?"

"We saw them trying to steal a child that accidentally made its way onto the scare floor!" replied Mike, who was not particularly interested in divulging how much of a role he and Sully had had in hiding this child. "They've got a secret room, with a machine that sucks out screams! On top of that, we've set a trap for Waternoose! If we hurry we can catch him in the act!"

"Suppose I believe you, Wazowski," Roz continued. "What would you have me do about it?"

Mike's eye opened wide in shock at the sheer apathy on display. "They're kidnapping children! You're the head of the CDA, aren't you? It's your job to stop things like this from happening!"

Roz sighed heavily. "Mike, the job of the CDA is to prevent catastrophes like the Great Human Plague from happening again. However, we need to allow enough flexibility to allow for the power output that our society needs."

"Wait a minute..." mused Mike. His stomach dropped as he slowly came to a horrible realization. "You knew about this, didn't you?"

"Believe me, Mike, I understand your concerns. More than anyone else, I want this company's operation to be safe. It is my job to protect the public. But the CDA has made great advances in antibiotics and sanitation throughout the past decade. Sure, a human child running freely in our world is a dangerous threat to public health. But under proper CDA supervision and quarantine, that threat becomes quite manageable. I know it's not how you're used to doing things, but with the risks decreasing and the demands for power increasing every year, even the CDA must accept that on-site scream extraction is the future of energy. We're already preparing to tell the public about our new initiative, and reassure them about any safety concerns they may have."

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

"You call that the future?" Mike's green face was turning redder and redder. "Kidnapping children and using them as nothing more than batteries?"

"Mike, I suspect you've spent too much time around that child. You've gotten sentimental." Mike's face turned white as he realized that he really couldn't hide anything from the slug's eyes inside this organization. "If anyone involved in this mess is a threat to public health, it's you and your friend. As for the public, do you really think they care about humans? They already see them as nothing more than batteries. There may be some public outcry at first. But people trust the CDA, and we will assure them it is safe. Once they start seeing their power bills dropping, they'll thank us."

"You're insane. You'll never get away with this." Mike's knuckles were clenched in rage, but internally he was panicking. What could he do to stop this?

"Who will stop me? Everyone is behind me except for you. You'd better get ready to be accepting of change," said Roz nonchalantly.

"What are you going to do with Boo?" Mike blurted out, unthinking.

Roz snorted a bit. "You named it?" She laughed a little more. "It's not yours, so I don't see how that's any of your business," she responded.

"She's a thinking, feeling child! Just like our own children! How can you do something like this to her?" Mike exploded with rage, but Roz stubbornly kept her calm.

"It isn't just like our children. It's a human. It's a different species." She rolled her eyes. "Mike, have you looked into how humans behave towards other species? Believe me, they would do the same to us if they could. Your empathy is misplaced, and everyone else will easily see that."

"I'll destroy this evil plan if it's the last thing I do. I have a recording of this conversation. I'll leak it to the press!"

Roz snorted. "Good luck getting the press to run your story before our press release. You and I both know which of us the public will listen to."

"Screw you. I'll destroy you." Mike yelled back with confidence he didn't feel, before slamming the door and storming off. When he was sure he was out of anyone's earshot, he collapsed to the floor and wept. "Dammit, she's right," he said. "Even I probably would have accepted this before I met Boo. How can I tell Sully about this? He'll probably never see her again..."

Mike thought about all of the wars he had read about in history class at Monsters University, all of the horrible things monsters like him had done to each other. How could he expect those capable of... of that... to care about the children of some other species, from some other world? It was there, alone in a dark room, that Mike Wazowski finally understood the nature of both their worlds, and exactly how little he could do about it.