Eric stood once more in front of the mirror. He checked his phone, and groaned.

"Babe! Are you ready?"

A female chuckle answered him, and he checked his phone again, shaking his head. "Jessica never should have shown you Earth makeup." He grumbled.

It had been two weeks since the Washington D.C. fracture, and a meeting between the Dragons, leadership of 6-8, and the United States Government would be taking place. The event would be two days long, with talks of treaties and economic bargains expected to take place on seperate days. Eric sat down as he thought about the meetings that would take place.

"But why do I have to wear the blues!" He grumbled. "I look like a goddamn suit."

The bathroom door opened, and the heavenly scent of cherry blossoms in full bloom filled their bedroom. Eric stood up and turned around.

What he saw took his breath away.

A black dress hugged her curves, and her hair black hair was tied in a tight bun. She had a floral decoration on the bun, with her makeup accentuating her green eyes.

Eric’s jaw dropped.

"Easy there tiger." Mia said with a grin as she walked up, Kissing him. "We can’t afford to ruin the dress before work."

Eric nodded before wrapping her up in his arms. "I swear, every chance I get to look at you, I am reminded that I am the luckiest man in the universe."

Mia smirked as she took his hand. "Compliments later. For now, we have some higher ups to entertain."

Eric exhaled as they walked out of the house. "Jessica told me that she dropped Liara off with Samara and John. She’s going to go out with Liam, and will let me know when she’s back home."

Mia smiled as Eric opened her door for her. She waited for him to get in the truck before grabbing his hand, pulling it to her thigh. "Let the kids have fun. Heaven knows everyone has earned a little ’time off’."

"Yeah, but where is ours?" He grumbled as he got onto the highway leading towards Riemskin city.

Mia laughed, her head resting on Eric’s shoulder as they got suck behind a convoy. "We are senior leadership, dummy. Days off don’t exist."

"I know. One can only hope, ya know? Oh. Did you ever find that guy that took photographs of us during the siege? I know you were working on capturing him, but completely forgot with everything else that is going on."

Mia sighed and sat up, her hands began tracing circles on his. "Yes, but I wasn’t able to get more pictures. He was asking a stupid price for those pictures."

Eric’s eyebrows arched. "What did he ask for?"

"A tank."

Eric nearly slammed on the breaks. "You have got to be kidding me!" He growled. "Dumbfuck really asked for a tank as payment?"

"Calm down! You’re swerving!"

Eric immediately righted the steering wheel and let out an exasperated sigh. "The nerve of some people. Here we are fighting a war for survival, and that idiot thinks he can ask for whatever he wants. Doesn’t he realize that if we didn’t have those tanks, the empire would steamroll us?"

"Privileged people never realize how privileged they are, Eric." Mia said as she looked out the window. The forest was starting to fade away, and at the bottom of the hill, two cities sprawled side by side. City streets spread out at Washington, cars jotting the landscape like ants. An Obelisk stood tall, its imposing structure breaking the purple treeline. Teal grass intermixed with the green grass of earth, and large buildings in the distance seemed to break the sky apart. She took in the view with wonder, her eyes sparkling with excitement. "You have to show me D.C. after the meeting." She whispered as she looked to her left. Her eyes widened as she noticed the Capitol building of the U.S. The marble Dome stood tall, the top of it seemingly brushing against the clouds. "Pictures don’t do it justice." She said, awestruck as she craned her neck to see more of the structure.

Eric smiled at her sparkling eyes. He took a moment to look at the cities side by side, and stroked her hand. "In moments like this, the sights bring in the truth of what we are doing out on the front. Now, we aren’t just protecting the history of your country, or your people. Now, we are protecting my people and our history as well." Eric said before pulling into the Silver Castle parking lot. Liron was waiting for them.

"Envoy Liron!" Eric said with a smile as he shook the man’s hand. "It has been a while. I hope you are well!"

Liron walked up and opened the door for Mia. "It is good to see you as well, Master Sergeant. And Mrs. Dryer, it is a pleasure to have you back amongst the castle grounds."

Mia sighed, her arms interlinking with Eric’s. "Liron, you have known me since I was five years old." She grumbled. "You don’t have to call me anything other than Mia."

Liron smirked, his wrinkles lighting up as he began to lead them to the castle. "Would you prefer the name I used to call you then?"

"No! Absolutely not!"

The Envoy chuckled while opening the castle doors. "Very well. I will keep that secret safe..."

He motioned for a maid to come over and escort the couple. "For now."

Eric and Mia followed the maid to their quarters. The maid bowed to them as she closed the door, and Mia turned to Eric, looking at her phone. "We have roughly three hours until the first meeting takes place. Is there anything you wish to do?"

Eric laughed as he wrapped his arms around her. "As much as I would love to christen this room, we have work to do. I say we tie up any loose ends in our reporting." Mia sighed, kissing him before stroking her hand along his chest. "Okay. But after that meeting..."

She leaned into his ear, her lips pressing against his neck. "I don’t want to wear this dress after we cross the threshold of this room."

Eric grinned as he stroked her back. "Trust me, I can’t wait to take it off of you. As much as I love seeing it on you, I love what’s underneath much more."

The two seperated, and pulled out their various devices. Mia set up her workstation at a desk near the bed, and Eric set up his on the opposite side of the room. Keyboards clicked, and the couple occasionally cross referenced notes the other had taken.

Eric looked at one report, frowning.

"Hey Mia, when did this report come in?"

Mia walked over, her tail swishing as she read the report over Eric’s shoulder. "That was a picture from yesterday. I forgot to bring it up to you because you were out at Washington so late."

Eric’s eyes narrowed. "We need to bring this up immediately." He said firmly. "They are building Earth tech. I don’t know how, but this looks remarkably like an M270."

"Whats an M270?"

"The brios, but longer distance. They could hit anywhere in Riemskin from Esponia. That’s concerning enough, but what bothers me is they have better looking Llrathels now as well. I have no clue how, but from these pictures we recieved, it looks like they are trying to replicate Earth technology. And with their funding? They might be able to change the tide of war completely."

Josh stood in front of rows of the new weapons systems. He whistled as he ran his fingers over the sleek tubes where rockets would go. He looked at the chief engineer, patting the man on the back. "Good job, Johan. These Trumat systems look exactly like what I was expecting. How many do we have so far?" 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Johan bowed at the praise. "You provided the schematics, my lord. I am your humble servant. We currently have fifty of the Trumant systems, and Forty two of the new Llrathels. Under your guidance, we were able to make them fifteen percent faster."

Josh nodded. "And how many Sraiaz have you been able to rebuild?"

Johan referred to his notes. He put his glasses on and opened his notebook. "My lord, we were able to rebuild twenty Sraiaz systems. I know you did not ask, but we also built an additional ten Brios systems."

Josh nodded as he finished taking notes. He looked to his left, where Susan was studying the new systems. "When can we test them, Johan?"

Johan flinched slightly at the cold stare in her eyes before nodding. "Ma’am, the Trumat and Llrathel systems should be ready to test by Friday."

Susan nodded, looking out past the mountains.

"Very well. See to it that men go out there and place targets down. I do not wish for this to be an exercise shooting at rocks."