Veronica and Malone have been at the Zanga village for nearly three days with no word. Marguerite and Challenger were still working out how to save Roxton, but it looked like it was only up to Marguerite.
'My blood. No, maybe not. Maybe we aren't meant to be together. I should still try. For John. Its our last hope of saving him without a doctor.' Those thoughts frequently ran through her mind while the younger inhabitants of the treehouse were away.
"Marguerite? Can you come into my lab for a moment?" she heard Challenger call
She walked down the stairs and stared at the scientist. He gulped. She hadn't been eating much over these last weeks, but he didn't know she lost so much weight. There were dark cicles under her eyes and he coulndn't tell if it was a bruise or not.
"What do you need?" she asked.
"I was thinking that maybe we should try what Assai said was the cure."
Marguerite looked down. "It might not work, George. We could even speed up the process."
Challenger sighed. He didn't want it to come to this. "Then we have no choice but to..."
"NO!" she screamed. "No! I won't let you... I won't let you kill him! You can't! You just can't!"
"There is nothing else we can do to ease his pain."
She was crying again, but this time out of anger and fear. "Wasn't he the one who is always saving YOUR neck?! He's always there for all of us. Why can't we be there for him? Think about what he's done for you...for me. Please, George. I can't let you."
Challenger lifted a hand to his head and wiped the sweat from his brow. "What else can we do. We don't have a doctor..."
"The cure. Roxton can drink my blood and we'll see if he wakes up in the morning." She said softly.
"Are you sure? It's up to you if you want to do this." Challenger reminded her.
"Just get what we need and bring it to where he is lying." With that, she turned away and went back to her unconscious lover.
"Well, that was useless." Veronica said as she and Malone headed home. "I didn't find out anything to help Roxton."
"Well, what did you ask?" Malone asked.
Veronica stopped walking and turned to the journalist. "first I asked if there was another cure and the shaman said no. Then if he could help find John's soulmate by a ritual or something. He said no again. He told me that it was up to fate and his strength. He said that Roxton's strong and if we do the cure, he will likely wake up. Then the shaman left."
Malone took a drink of water from his canteen and smiled at her. "Well, he said that he's strong. Maybe he will make it through."
"God I hope so. Not just for Roxton. But for Marguerite too." Veronica said as they started to walk back home again.
Marguerite had just finished administering her blood to Roxton, with Challenger's help of course. She turned away from the hunter, unable to bear the thought of him not waking the next morning. It was almost night and the elevator just came up.
"I'm sorry, Marguerite." Veronica whispered after walking towards her. "We didn't find out anything."
"It's all right. We just tried the cure. Challenger said that