A few hours later, Elyse and I were free. Well, as free as you could get with multiple hidden personalities watching you and threatening you with mysterious, beautiful women that suddenly disappeared in the middle of the night. Normal, right?
Fortunately, Elyse had exactly the same thought process as I did in the infirmary and we both agreed to not let our emotions get in the way of the investigation. Due to that, Elyse was released only a small portion of time after me with all the blame on the non-existent animal attack. Fingers crossed that the hunt for the wild beast would deflect a little attention away from me. I could certainly have done without it.
So on we went to Lucas' office. We were determined and ready to confront him and his lies. Until we weren't. Patiently, we waited outside the familiar, grand oak door but there was no reply to our obnoxious and incessant knocking. The mood dampened and we hesitated, unsure of what to do. Usually the hero didn't come into contact with such trivial issues as the villain not being home. Not that I was saying that Lucas was a villain or anything, despite some serious anger issues, but the whole thing was quite the inconvenience.
"What now?" I asked Elyse.
"We wait, I guess," she replied.
I shrugged.
I wouldn't have noticed all the time passing if it weren't for the DigiClock on the opposite wall. Fifteen minutes, half an hour, forty-five minutes...
No Lucas but oddly nobody else either.
"Where is everyone?" I wondered aloud.
"I was just thinking that," replied Elyse, "have we missed something?"
I glanced around and suddenly Amir popped out of nowhere. "I've been looking for you two!" He exclaimed. "Come, there's a huge meeting going down in the briefing room and it starts in five minutes!"
We hurried along with Amir but luckily, the briefing room wasn't that far away from Lucas' office. As we arrived, Amir gave me a curious look and left to find a seat while Elyse and I did the same. Our lateness earned many glares and the second we sat down, the meeting could begin. Oops. I guessed the confrontation would have to wait.
"I apologise for the inconvenience but this meeting was urgent," Lucas began with a narrowed look in my direction, "but I am afraid that I come with bad news. Originally, we thought we had three weeks now until the Solar Elections. However, I have received word that an astronomer got the date wrong completely but unexpectedly and the Solar Elections have been brought forward."
"How forward?" Someone called out.
"They start tomorrow."
All round the room, everyone gasped. Tomorrow? That would be impossible, how could this have happened? All the government approved astronomers were the best of the best. Unless...
"Are the changes really due to an astronomer's mistake?" I enquired. Shocked, everyone turned to gape at me now, including Lucas. "Well, are they?"
"Well erm no," Lucas stammered, he regained composure of himself and continued. "I believe that the rumours are true and a spy among us had alerted the Higher Authority of our plans to interrupt the elections. They must have brought everything forward as a security measure to stop us from assassinating Alpha and Beta and igniting the rebellion."
"Will this stop the rebellion?" Elyse asked.
"Of course not, but we will now be even more disadvantaged than before. I have already alerted the Skyfallian Resistance and the one in Aurora, on the other side of Zyphia. They are travelling as fast as they can to get here and help but I fear there isn't enough time. We will have to start without them."
"We can't do it without them!" Another ownerless voice exclaimed.
"Well, we have to try!" Lucas shouted, slamming his hand in a nearby table. "This is for Terra! Everything we have worked for and gained has led up to this point! Don't back out on me now when we are so close. I know the change is sudden and it makes everything so much harder but you have to have faith in me, faith in us, faith in Terra!"
The audience was stunned but slowly, everyone brought their hands together and started to clap, even me, and Elyse. The speech was short and sweet but it was rallying and it had certainly ignited the rebellion in us. I had complete confidence in Lucas as a leader; he was born to do this.
"So here's the plan..."
I listened in awe as Lucas masterfully demonstrated us infiltrating the Zyphia Chambers on a HoloPad with our actions already pre-programmed into a visual display. Amir and a team of engineers along with some muscle, would hack into the building one lock at a time before reaching the underground vault. Rachel would be there to meet them and the vault would be opened with her gained knowledge of the codes. Then they would retrieve the NukeFusions and move each one to a facility.
Outside the elections would be taking place with Lucas undercover in the crowd, coordinating our actions. When he received word of the NukeFusions coming into our possession, he would take the stage and make an announcement to evacuate all the facilities so that we wouldn't cause any innocent casualties. Here Alpha and Beta would be assassinated. After we had blown up all the facilities, we would join the prisoners and rebel against Zyphia. At this point, the Resistance members from other cities should have arrived and could help too. The plan was set and perfectly timed as most of the security would be at the Solar Elections which made it easier to gain control of the rest of the city once we had the bombs.
Everyone had their respective positions within their squads. Elyse and I were due to be stationed as backup next to the Zyphia chambers where we could oversee the Solar Elections while help Amir get inside the buildings to retrieve the bombs.
"You see?" Lucas finished up, "we don't need more time as the plan is set. I just have one question:"
"ARE YOU READY TO START A REBELLION?"
Shouting and screaming and yelling and cheering emanated from every single person in the room. We were inspired and tomorrow, we would be victorious. The mood stayed high as everyone ran out of the amphitheatre making a nice change from the usual order and stiffness. Elyse and I were left smiling as Lucas made his way towards us after indicating for us to stay behind. An apologetic face poorly tried to make the huge grin he had on when calling out the meeting.
"Elyse, Verity, I would like to formally apologise about my lies concerning the supposed cave-in in the abandoned facility."
Wait, what?!
"It has also come to my attention that yesterday you both went exploring and discovered the facility while you also knew that it was no animal that attacked you and Rachel."
"You know about that?" I asked, completely gobsmacked.
"Yes, I have been doing my utmost best to find the spy that betrayed the three of you and hopefully tomorrow, they will be found. I know the government will be aware of the plan tomorrow but my hope is that it is too late to make any major changes for the Solar Elections. As for the facility here, I would like to explain myself, if you would let me?"
Astounded, we nodded.
"When you found out the truth, your reactions were very severe and I simply wanted to prevent that kind of trauma from everyone here. To me and everyone else, this compound is a safe haven for us all and the practicality of it simply includes that the government would never look to see us hiding in a place they built and we hate. It's just another tactic..."
"Hiding in plain sight," I finished.
"Exactly. Do you think you can forgive me?"
I still couldn't believe how honourable he had been and I felt guilty yet again that I had accused him of some terrible, terrible things.
"Lucas, we're sorry too-"
"Nonsense, you have nothing to apologise for. Though I do require something from you, Verity? After tomorrow, we need to discuss something crucial. I'm afraid I have been hiding something from you. But it can wait until after the rebellion now. I'll apologise again though."
He refused to hear any more of our apologies and interruptions, and left once he was certain that we have forgiven him.
"It's a long day tomorrow, you should get some rest," Elyse ordered once she saw me do a giant yawn.
"I'll think I'll just do that," I replied and we went our separate ways.
As I was drifting off to sleep but mind wandered but for the first time in a a positive way. I was happy and content and hopeful. Something I had never really been all at once before and I relished the feeling. What was it that Lucas had been hiding from me? Why? Oh, it didn't matter now because soon we would be free to do whatever we wanted and to live however we would like. And tomorrow?
Tomorrow, we would rebel.