SWRC: Too Soon... (Book 3)

Chapter 7 Only One.

"What will happen? And why won't we like it?" asked Jexxel in quick succession.

Neeran sighed and turned around so that she was facing them all with her hands against the bench behind her, began to explain.

"There is an operation used among my species to affect a persons life. Usually, it's for the good of the individual, such as extreme medical reasons and so on of that nature."

The children from Jexxel down were all looking at each other and wondering what Neeran could possibly mean by saying that they wouldn't like it.
Shakkuri on the other hand, could already see where that particular conversation was going and Zach already knew about it.

"But if it's for that reason, then why wouldn't we like it?" asked Kyipen with childish innocence that Neeran was almost envious of.

"This operation, it's not what you think it may be," said Neeran keeping everyone's attention on her. "It's older than Jax is. The procedure was created for our kind in order to allow one of our species to pass away when they were sick of living."

Everyone was watching Neeran intently as she continued to explain what this mystery procedure she knew of was.

"It involves drawing the blood out of the individual in question and replacing it with pure human blood collected when the person is an infant, preferably shortly after they are born, thus giving the recipient about 100 years of life left before they will die."

"Why 100 years?" asked Chopper.
"100 years is a long time in your lifespan but it's extremely short in our existence," explained Neeran. "We can live forever, we have no definitive finishing age."

"So, Ezra can live forever?" asked Chopper.

"If he wasn't born in these times, then possibly," said Neeran. "but as it is, Ezra is going to die."

"What?!" exclaimed Janan. "He's going to die?!"

"There was a time when humans could undergo the procedure and become one of us, but that time has passed," said Neeran, cutting Janan off. "You humans have adapted, changed and evolved and as such it has made this procedure useless as the recipient will die. Your genes are too far removed from ours now to allow the adaption to work."

"Can't you save him?" asked Kyipen who, much like Janan, was very fond of her older brother Ezra.

"I can," said Neeran. "If I can replace all of the blood that is triggering Ezra's immune system to battle it as a virus and replace it with his original human blood, he should live to fight another day."

Everyone was thinking what Neeran had said and Zach knew he had speak up.

"I feel this should be mentioned," said Zach from behind all of the children. "You haven't met any of them, but Neeran and I were once part of a team back on Earth. There were seven of us and we all went through with the procedure to become this species. We survived and became like this because that was almost 26,000 years ago and our genes were much closer to Jax's, hence why it worked for us. But as Neeran explained about two weeks ago, a lot can happen in 26,000 years."

Everyone was silent as Neeran tried to force herself to say one simple sentence.

One sentence, that would change everything.

"What do you choose Ezra?"

All eyes turned to Ezra as everyone awaited his decision.  Ezra, who at that point was too afraid to use his voice, walked cautiously up to Neeran and motioned to be picked up.

Neeran knew what he meant and picked him up, never wanting to let him leave her embrace.

"Goodbye, Ezra Zaneshi," whispered Neeran, as she kissed his forehead gently and placed him on the bench behind her before beginning the blood transfusion.
Ezra passed out within moments and Neeran forced herself to begin erasing and changing his memories of the first seven years of his life and transferring them to her memory, hoping that there would be a way to bring him back into their family and return the memories.

Neeran couldn't control herself and began to weep for the child she was about to lose.