The Zodiac Cycle

3.12 Meeting

"Hell no." Carson objected, standing up.

"Carson, please." I put my hand on his shoulder to urge him to sit back down.

He looked at me for a second before sitting back down with a huff.

We were finally having the strategy meeting after another week of some extra training. We were in a conference room similar to the one at Lazarus, but it was much larger and had a few new faces added to Vel, Olive, Stormy, and Mark.

"Look, it wont be for long, but we need to try to get Zach to set himself up here." Olive persisted calmly.

"By getting half our team captured?" Carson growled. "Not going to happen. We don't split up."

"Yeah, I heard." Olive narrowed her eyes at him, the sarcasm dripping dangerously from her voice.

"Tell us the rest of your idea before we jump to any conclusions." I tried once again to calm the Satyr at my side.

"Well, it all really depends on predicting what Zach will do next." She crossed her arms. "And if he does something unexpected, I have a bug in the castle that can get us information that I might not be able to get."

"Okay, so what do you predict Zach will do?" I asked.

"I predict he will separate you from the rest of the rioters, and try to figure out if any of them are also Zodiacs." She pulled out a fabric bag. "We can cover their signs with makeup so they'll just seem like everyone else."

"So you want to start a riot, get ourselves captured, and then what?"

"Then, most likely, Zach will try to publicly execute you. He's big on making messages."

"That's encouraging." Ash mumbled, sitting on my other side.

"We have these." She pulled a weird looking pair of handcuffs out of her bag. "They unlock through a signal sent by this button." She also showed the group a remote with several buttons.

"So, you are going to unlock my cuffs before I get my head chopped off." I clarified.

"Yes and no. It wont be me, it'll be my bug."

"Ah yes, the bug that absolutely no one but you knows even the name of." Carson crossed his arms as well.

"Their name is irrelevant. The more people that know them, the more danger they're in." Olive put the cuffs and remote back in the bag. "The rest of you will be sneaking into the castle during the execution. Security will be thin during a big event like that, so it'll be the perfect opportunity."

"Then who's going to be there for Amber in case something goes wrong?" Carson scowled.

"Well, before the execution, I will probably have a chance to release Elizabeth, Clementine, and Avery from inside the castle, so they can get into good positions. We need to make the fight inside. Zach has more advantages outside."

"You didn't answer my question."

"I'm getting there. The execution will probably be outside, so we also need some way to draw him inside."

"That's where I come in." Vel raised a hand. "Zach has a particular- distaste let's say- for me."

"I'll be near Vel, at the execution, so we can keep an eye on Amber." Olive explained. "After that, we all attack once we get him inside."

"What about Mark and Stormy?" Ash pointed out.

"We are not fighters." Mark put his arms in an X, denying the idea. "I make weapons,"

"And I make Armor." Stormy finished.

"Once again, we don't need weapons." Carson huffed.

"But we do, and normal weapons could help you save energy in the battle," Vel calmly concurred, "And you need Armor, you're not covered in steel."