"Wake up, Zane."

Tally leaned over her sleeping boyfriend, who had yet to find out what he had become-what would bring them together. What Tally had waited so long for and come all this way to get. Also the reason Zane was still in the hospital

Zane's eyelids fluttered, then he slowly lifted them and looked straight at Tally.

Back in pretty days, Tally would have been scared to death at what she saw in Zane's eyes. They weren't pretty eyes-they were cruel and black and penetrating. His gaze was no longer soft and warm-his features no longer delicate and beautiful in the way that Tally had always known as a pretty.

She could already see how different Zane was.

And it made her so incredibly happy.

Zane was Special, and now they could be together.

"Tally?" Zane's voice was soft-for a Special-that is. He reached out and touched her arm and smiled. "What happened to me, Tally?"

"You're just like me now, Zane. You're Special."

"I thought I was dead. That's an improvement."

Tally laughed, something she thought she'd forgotten how to do. "You have no idea the things you can do now. How clear and icy the world feels, Zane. And now we can both experience it-together."

*****

Tally urged her board forward, feeling as icy as she'd ever been. Zane was right alongside her, picking up speed. It was almost as if Zane being so close to her made the world extra-icy, and she loved the feeling. But she had to remind herself what she was doing.

Uglies. Chasing down some runaway uglies. The mission was exhilarating…it had been so long since she'd even had a real mission. She could hear Shay over her skintenna…alerting her constantly, even though Tally could see for herself where all the little uglies were. Her infrared vision told her that there were three of them-their bodies all glowing ahead of her.

"What's the plan, Tally?" Zane asked suddenly.

Tally laughed, a shrill laugh. "Specials don't plan, Zane-la."

They had the uglies now.

Tally lowered her board, and Zane followed suit. Tally saw Shay on the other side of the trees, swooping down on her board; the uglies were surrounded.

"New smokies?" Zane questioned.

"No. Just uglies," Tally answered. "This'll be too easy."

Tally moved closer and close until she, Zane, and Shay were hovering right alongside the uglies. These uglies looked terrified, and for a brief moment Tally wondered what made them choose to try and run off if they were so frightened. Tally shook the thought from her head. Stay icy, she told herself.

Shay stabbed the closest ugly with her stinger, and he went limp and started to fall backwards. But Shay caught him and tossed him onto the back of her board. "Sleep tight, ugly. Special Circumstances is waiting."

Tally was beginning to feel something…something that she recognized…creeping through her. A feeling she used to have often, maybe in ugly days. Hesitation?

A Special doesn't hesitate.

I don't want to hurt you, but I will I have to.

Tally had repeated the Special's motto over and again to her ugly victims, without giving it a second thought. It was a Special's job to scare people. Hurt them. Do away with them. Why was this feeling of hesitation plaguing her now?

Tally almost stopped her board, but she kept on going. Shay was beginning to look at her quizzically. Zane seemed to focused on his first mission as a Special. Tally didn't feel different. Her senses were icy, clear, blazing, as alert as possible, maybe even more. This feeling was something deeper, that couldn't be covered by iciness.

Tally pushed it to the side.

She wouldn't let he self feel this way.

She would stay icy.

But before she even brought out her stinger…a wave of dizziness crashed over her, her pulsating, hammering in her chest so loudly she was surprised Zane and Shay didn't hear it. Maybe they did. But Tally never asked them, because the next second all she saw was blankness.

*****

Tally rubbed her head.

Where was she again?

Oh, yeah, she had just fallen off of her board. Had she hit something? That was a very un-Tally thing to do. She realized she was laying down, and lifted herself up so she was sitting on her knees.

In the middle of the forest.

And no one was around. She didn't see Shay, Zane or any of the other Cutters around anywhere. No matter how mad Shay got at Tally, it wasn't like her to just ditch her. And Zane? No, he would never do something like that. Especially when they could finally be together.

Tally tried to switch to infrared, but her eyes weren't allowing her. She squinted. Still everything was blurry. She could see the basic shapes of the trees around her, but couldn't make out anything else. Besides blurred colors and darkness.

Okay, what is going on? Tally asked herself.

She laid back down on the soft grass beneath her. She was asleep. There was no other explanation. Specials didn't ever lose their superior strength or eyesight…or anything else, and Shay and Zane would never just ditch her, leaving her alone in the forest.

This was just a nightmare. Simple as that.

Tally woke up a few hours later.

No, this wasn't a nightmare.

It seemed that everything had just gotten blurrier. And Tally felt weak, completely weak.

This whole thing was bogus.