Z P.O.V.
I awaken with a swift jerk, my eyes spring wide open, my head pops up from the desk. I am in a state of was that a dream or real? The confusion swirls in my head as I replay the information my deceased wife had given me.
Deciding that the whole dream was real and accompanying the fact that I literally have nothing else to lose. I entered the information of mixing my blood with Emily's and adding in the cure we had made into the database of probability.
After I finish typing in the strange solution to defeating Solarious I enter the 'enter' button and wait. The loading bar appears on the screen. Slow lines streak to the right of the monitor as the words 'please wait' are displayed underneath.
This may be crazy, I may have only dreamt that out of desperation. But, there also had to be a deeper reason. Estelle came back to me for a reason. 'Come on, damn you' my frustration grew with each passing second. The anticipation kept building the more that screen did not change and remained the same.
A few more minutes past and my patience has worn thin, I banged my fist into the desk leaving a small indention around my knuckles. Just then the words I had longed to see, the words that had evaded me, finally appeared.
" Mission success rate 99%" I said the words aloud, as if to prove that my eyes had not deceived me.
I stood in disbelief, that the answer to ending all of this came from someone who had long passed. " Oh, baby, thank you." I whispered, turning away and running to the Numirian ancestors. It was time to plan, rehearse and fulfill the last mission.
General Adkins P.O.V.
" With the fall of Caspia, I think now is the time we consider more drastic measures to secure our planet. It won't be long before Solarious is on our doorstep knocking."
I plead my reasoning for strict security and to be allowed to carry on with injecting the powerful cure into more of my soldiers. With the different abilities they gain from it, will add more to our advantage against the Reptilian army.
" We will not allow for more Numirians to be your test subjects," Oceania replies dismissively.
"My lady please-'' I don't even get the rest of my sentence out before the great oak wood doors burst ajar, revealing a rather overjoyed, wide eyed, smiling Z. She is rushing full force in my direction with no intention of slowing down.
"How dare you burst into our chambers unannounced!" Gia shouts in disdain.
But, still her words bring no pause to Z and her movements. They flowed out of the room missing her ears and drifting away into the air around her. Z continues until she stands right next to me. She looks at me with this kind of ' you wont believe this' look and then bows to the elders.
" I apologize for the intrusion great elders." She says standing straight once again.
" As you know, with Caspia falling and so many injured and brought back here, I have been trying to develop a new plan at stopping Solarious." She begins.
Clearly annoyed through his stone face and the darkening of his red eyes Sozu looks straight at Z.
" Just get to your point Z, time is not on our side any longer."
She nods and opens her mouth to reply and lay everything out for them. Whatever this newfound light is and inspiration she has, I hope it is as good as she believes.
"Solarious can be stopped once and for all. Thanks to a friend that has since passed, mixing my blood with the blood of Emily, and with the cure we created, can be combined if done correctly to create something that makes him prone to many weaknesses. Namely silver."
I could not believe what she just said. Did she seriously come up with a way to reverse engineer what we had made to give the gift of an ability and turn it into something that can give a curse instead?
We stood silent, the Elders didn't know what to say and I myself had nothing to say, I was stunned. Standing there like a buffoon in utter disbelief.
"Explain." Arian breaks the silence that had shifted into the room.
" By mixing my blood, Emily's blood and and adding in the cure, if done correctly, our blood will interact with each other, her incell blood will attach itself to mine and then will fuse with the cure, now with the combination of two blood samples already having an ability, my theory is that the cure will have the obverse effect, instead of providing the subject with no abilities an ability, it will provide the subject with an ability already a grave weakness of whatever blood it was mixed with."
" So, if I understand you correctly, since your power is through Lycan kinship , and your weakness is silver, whoever is injected with this mixture won't gain an ability but the weakness that said subject has?" I ask, trying to make sure I am hearing this correctly.
Z smiles and nods to me, this sounds incredibly ridiculous, but at the same time genius.
" And how do you propose to engineer such a thing in a short amount of time?" Oceania asks curiosity.
" It will be a trial and error thing, but it's the best solution we have, Solarious won't be expecting this, we have the advantage." She looks from them to me.
"Trial and error thing, your plan sounds great but we can't sit here and do nothing but trial and error, we need something in place that is solid." I replied.
" General, we won't be doing nothing, while my team works to develop it, your soldiers can work on evacuating citizens and the injured."
" What do you mean evacuate? We won't abandon Numir, this is our home" I cut her off, I won't hear of it.
" Your people need you, I don't have to already state the obvious. Solarious will come for Numir next, do you really want to risk the lives of the people on Numir and the refugees from Caspia?" She interjects, her tone laced with annoyance.
" No, you don't have to, but why try this when we can just go with already works with more soldiers that carry an ability we can fight back and stop him, no waiting game, we take the fight to him." I don't hold back my tone either.
" More soldiers won't do anything but lead to more slaughter. He is more powerful than we anticipated at first. The battle at Caspia proved that. But, this, this idea right here, it will work." Z isn't going to stand down either.
My blood is beginning to boil. She is so damn set on this brilliant idea of hers that she believes an untested thing will work. I'm not willing to roll the dice and gamble everyone's lives on just a thought or idea.
" Wrong it proved that we need a better offense and I can do just that. It's a proven method, while yours isn't. It'll be too much time, time we don't have to waste just on a whim of yours."
By now the patience Z has is beginning to falter, her brow narrows and if her eyes could shoot daggers, I would be impaled right now. Clearly neither of us is going to see eye to eye on this subject. Two hard headed people, believing that they're in the right. Unwilling to concede defeat to the latter.
" True, we do need a stronger offense, but it also proved that more lives were lost by lack of training of soldiers with their abilities. They all have different powers and are self training to figure out how to use them. An unprepared weapon is just as useless as a broken one."
She takes a breath and sighs. Looking away from me and to the Elders.
" It is ultimately your decision, great elders. If given your permission I will begin development with my team immediately." Her tone is lighter now. She stands there waiting, avoiding eye contact with me.
" How are you so sure of this Z?" Arian replied.
" Because, the source behind this idea was Estelle." There is a hint of sadness behind those words and her eyes drop a bit.
Hearing that name makes my heart ache for the pain of losing her wife, her mate. I remember how broken she was when she first came to Numir. She was a lost soul, a lone wolf without her pack and without a mate to sooth her. Shattering the anger that was boiling at mentioning Estelle I sighed.
" Etselle died a long time ago, how could she have seen you?" Gia asked.
" Someone, which I am assuming was a member of the team , sought that I unwillingly get some sort of rest, I found myself back in the dreamscape, where Estelle had found me also. She came to me and told me it was a one shot surprise attack we had against him, elders, I believe it's the best option we have." Z's voice is absolute.
" Let us convene, you both will have our decision, in two hours." Sozu orders.
Z and I bow and take our leave out of the chamber. Thatvwas certainly a rollercoaster of emotion in there. I want to be angry with Z, to be able to tell her how wrong she is. But, now after hearing what she said, I can see how short sighted it was of me to not even consider her plan.
" Z, my apologies, a good leader listens to all plans, and opinions and I was so into my own ego and head that I dismissed yours." I muster up the words.
I am not a very apologetic person, and I never apologize. Even when I am wrong. That also needs to change. A good leader knows when to admit that they are wrong just as much.
" None needed General, but thank you. Whatever the decision you have our support still. That won't change, I won't blame a leader who is just trying to save his people." Z shakes my hand and takes her leave towards the room she shares with Emily.
Emily P.O.V.
I hear the small 'click' of the door knob being turned. I lift my head to see who would be walking through the door. Z has been away for a few days running on no sleep trying to come up with a way to stop all of this madness. I, myself, have barely laid down for the first time in four days.
Yawning from exhaustion I hesitantly sit up, ready to be called upon to help out in the infirmary. But when I throw the blanket off of me. My eyes don't see another Numirian in need of my help. Instead, my tired eyes see the moody lone wolf who had stolen my heart months ago.
"Z? What are you doing here?" I ask her stretching my arms above my head.
" Hey, I went to speak with the elders and General Adkins. I wanted to talk to you as well." She replied in a whisper-like voice.
Z came and sat on the edge of the bed next to me, placing her gentle but firm hands in mine. Her thumb caressed the top of my hand as she looked at me lovingly in my eyes. I know a few days of not being by her side does not or rather should not be counted as time to miss her, but I really did.
"Did you manage to come up with a strategy?: I ask, breaking eye contact.
" Yes; yes I did, and it's going to take the both of us and a well thought of way to carry it out."
I lifted my eyes to meet hers yet again. My curiosity grew and tilted my head slightly.
"Do tell." I kept it simple, I wanted to know more, I needed to know.
" How about we both rest for a couple more hours. And then I tell you. Your bags under your eyes have bags."
Z lays back onto the bed, her head and upper back supported by two pillows. Lifting her arm up to offer me a place to slither next to her and place my head on her chest. I wanted to argue back that we had gotten enough rest. But there is no way I could really fake that one, I was indeed beyond tired and a couple more hours sounded like heaven, especially in her arms.
With a simple nod, I draped my arm across her waist and laid my head down. The smooth rhythm of her heart beat, vibrated like a lullaby to my ears and soon I had drifted back off to sleep. For now, just for a short amount of time before chaos, I could use a little bit of peace.