Sorry about the wait, I've just been really busy with school. So to make up for it, I made this chapter longer than I first intended it to be. I hope you enjoy it and I will have the next chapter ASAP. :D

Chapter 7: Unexpected Ally

Did Zoe just…? Manny thought to himself. He couldn't believe what he just saw. Why on earth would she help them if her family's life was at stake?

"Ahem!" yelled Zoe. "What are you doing still standing there?! Go finish untying your girlfriend!"

Manny tuned in. "Uh…oh, right." He ran over to Frida and started to untie her again.

"What's going on? Why did she do that?" Frida asked, confounded.

"I have no idea."

Zoe attacked Sartana again; it was easy for her because of how surprised Sartana was.

"What are you doing Zoe?!"

"I'm helping Manny!"

"You made a big mistake, Zoe. Now your family will perish and it will be all your fault!"

"I don't think so." Zoe said, as she pointed over to the place where the bandittos were supposed to be constraining Zoe's family; Sartana looked and they were gone.

"What?! How did they escape?!"

"You know that your bandittos are actually quite brittle?" Sartana quickly looks around to try and find them and then finally spots them, but they were in a million pieces. There was a severed hand crawling to find its owner, and a torso with one leg was hopping around and trying to find its head. "Pull on a limb hard enough and it comes off." Zoe smirked.

"You idiots! Find your heads and put yourselves back together!"

"Oh, you mean these heads?" Zoe pulls them out.

"Give me those right now!"

"No, I don't think I will. Unless, of course, you give Manny his belt back."

Sartana laughs. "You must be loco! Now give them to me!"

"Oh, alright."Zoe finally agreed, and then she slowly started to pass them over to Sartana but 'accidentally' dropped them onto the ground. "Oops." Then she crushed them with her foot. "Sorry."

"You said you would give them to me!"

"Yeah, but I…fibbed! It's not nice being lied to, is it?!" Sartana got really angry at this comment and attacked Zoe.

It took a while on account of Zoe tying the knots really tight, but Manny finally untied Frida. Frida noticed that Sartana was distracted from fighting Zoe and had no idea that she was free. "Manny, now's our chance! Let's get out of here!" She grabbed his hand and they headed for the exit. Manny looked back at Zoe before they left.

She looked at him just standing there. "What are you doing?! Get out of here now; I can take her!" Manny nods and they run out of the door. They ran a couple of feet until the sound of Zoe's scream made Manny stop, which jerked Frida and made her stop too.

"Manny? What are you doing? Let's go!"

"Do you think she's okay?"

"Who cares? She wanted to kill me; she deserves what she's getting if you ask me."

"But we can't just leave her there…"

"Manny, I don't think you understand what I'm saying. She…wanted…to…kill…me!"

"I know, but…"

Frida looks at Manny's face and finally gives in. "Stupid guilt! Well, come on then." They head back to Sartana's again. Once they got there, Zoe was on the ground with the face to her helmet shattered. A couple of bandittos spotted them and started to attack.

"Don't worry," said Frida. "I'll take care of these bozos."

Manny nodded and then ran over to Zoe. Sartana was about to strike her but Manny jumped onto her shoulders and pulled her backwards. This caused her to fall over, but unfortunately, Manny went with her and she crushed him.

"Oh, nice one hero!" Zoe said sarcastically.

"Hey, I didn't have to come and save you, you know!"

"You call that saving me?!" Zoe laughed. "You are practically useless without your belt!"

"Well, do you think you can at least get her off of me? I think I knocked her out." Zoe rolled her eyes, and then walked over to him and pushed Sartana off.

"Well, look at that! You actually did knock her out. I guess you aren't completely useless after all." Zoe said nonchalantly.

"Gee, thanks." Manny said with much sarcasm. "At least I can get my belt now." Manny grabbed the belt, but once he did, Sartana's hand suddenly grabbed him and launched him across the room. When he landed on the other side of the room, he took out a banditto who was about to hit Frida.

"Thanks, Manny; that was a close one."

"No problema." Manny said painfully, while Frida helped him up.

"A little help here!" Zoe yelled from across the room; her wings were now shattered too and Sartana had her cornered.

"Still no chance we just get out of here while we can?" Frida asked hopefully. Manny gave her the stink eye. "Yeah…I didn't think so." They both ran to Zoe's aid.

Sartana turned around when she heard them coming, took out her guitar, and strummed it. But Manny dropped to the ground, slid right under her, and ended up next to Zoe.

"That was pretty slick, huh?"

"Yes, but now we're both cornered!" Signifying that Sartana had them trapped.

"Oh…didn't think about that."

"Well, clearly you don't think at all! If you had any thought in your mind, you wouldn't be in this mess!"

"Well, if you had any thought in your mind then you wouldn't have gotten me into this mess!"

"Well, if you…!"

"Oh, will you just shut up already so I can kill you?!" They shut up; Sartana reached for her guitar, but Frida jumped on her head and wrapped her arms around Sartana's neck, trying to asphyxiate her.

"Don't worry, Manny. I'll choke her before she can do anything!"

"Um…Frida? You do know that Sartana doesn't need to breathe right?"

Realization hits her. "Oh…right." Sartana then grabs Frida and throws her into the corner with Manny and Zoe.

"Now I have you." She pulled her guitar off of her shoulder slowly, enjoying the suspense.

"This is exactly why you two should have gotten out of here when I told you to!" said Zoe angrily.

"If it wasn't for us, you'd be dead right now!" Frida commented back.

"I could have taken Sartana out easily if you didn't come and try to 'save me'."

"Yeah? It sure didn't look that way when we came back."

"I was only pretending to act weak and defenseless so that Sartana would let her guard down. It's a defense strategy! Anyone who has a brain knows that!"

"You did not just call me stupid!"

"Girls…knock it off." Manny urged as Sartana slowly started to strum her guitar, but he was ignored.

"Well, you're the one who tried to suffocate a skeleton!"

"Oh, that's it!" Frida pounced on Zoe and they started to cat-fight. They rolled around scratching and pulling each other's hair, and then bumped into Sartana which caused her beam of power to shoot off in another direction; it hit her two bandittos, and they fell to pieces again.

"Not again!" Sartana groaned. In the confusion. Manny ran out of the corner to the sprawling girls to try to stop them. He had managed to break them up, but not quick enough because Sartana had strummed her guitar again. The beam hit the three of them and they flew across the room; Sartana fled.

Manny slowly opened his eyes about five minutes later to find Sartana gone. Where would she have fled to? Manny then heard a groan coming from behind him, and he turned to see Frida on the ground. "Frida?! Are you okay?!" She nodded and helped her up. "I just hurt my leg a little bit."

Manny looked at it. "A little bit? Frida, your leg is bleeding really badly." Manny took off his jacket and used it to clean up the wound and make a bandage.

"No, I'm fine. Thanks for asking." Zoe said as she made her way over to them.

"Well, you must be fine if you're up and walking around." Frida said weakly, but with a hint of sarcasm.

"Just because you're hurt, doesn't mean I won't still kick your butt!"

"Bring it on Black Chicken!"

"Cut it out, guys." Manny said concerned. "We need to find Sartana. Where do you think she fled to? Where could she have fled to? This is her only hide-out."

"I don't know." Zoe said. "She did mention something about wanting to get the pieces to another broken guitar, but she didn't give any details."

"Django." Manny and Frida said together.

"Django of the Dead! I can't believe I never thought of that!"

"Who's the stupid one now?" Frida laughed.

Zoe just rolled her eyes. "But where would she find the pieces anyway? I thought they were disposed of like Sartana's."

"I don't really know what happened to them, actually." Manny said.

"I do!" Frida said suddenly. "They're at my house." Manny and Zoe both gave her confused looks. "My dad was supposed to keep them at the Police Station, but he thought they would be safer at home under his close watch."

"But how would Sartana know that?" asked Manny.

"I don't know…but if she is smart enough to check the Police Station and finds out that they're not there, then she's smart enough to assume that the only other place they can be is at the Police Chief's house." Zoe said.

"You're probably right. We should head to Frida's house and hope that Sartana isn't there yet. If she's not, we can surprise her." Frida and Zoe nod.

They make their way out of the old hide-out and start to make their way to Frida's. On the way, however, Frida needed to stop for a second to rest her badly injured leg. Manny looked at her sitting there in pain and he felt really bad that he let this happen to her. He sat down next to her.

"You okay?"

"I'm fine. Just need to sit for a few seconds." Manny looked to Zoe who was crossing her arms and tapping her foot.

"We don't have all night you know?" she said impatiently.

Manny turned back to Frida. "Frida? I don't think you should come with us, just let me and Zoe fight Sartana."

"What? Why?!"

"Frida, you're hurt; and I don't want you to get hurt again."

"But you need all the help you can get!"

"I know, but Zoe and I can handle it. I want you to go back to my house, you'll be safe there."

"And you expect me to just sit around and wait for you to come back like some sissy little princess locked in a tower or something?!"

"Please, Frida." He took her hands and held them in his. "For me."

"Okay."

"Thank you."

"Come on Prince Charming, let's go!" Yelled Zoe.

"Okay, okay! Just a sec!" He turned back to Frida.

"Well, go on. You have to get there before Sartana does." Manny nodded. He let go of her hands, and turned away. His confidence slowly faded away, and he didn't think he could actually go through with this anymore. He didn't have his belt so he would get creamed for sure. And what if he didn't come back home to Frida? He turned back around to her.

"I almost forgot." He grabbed her hand, pulled her in closer to him and kissed her passionately on the lips. It wasn't anything like the first kiss they shared; it was like something he never felt before. Their lips melted together like butter and his heart was doing a million back flips. He suddenly felt her hand run through his hair and he soon found he was stroking her face with his. He kinda wished that this kiss had been their first so that there wouldn't have been any confusion, and they could have spent more time together before all if this insanity happened; instead, he would most likely never see Frida again. They finally pulled away from each other, but they still held each other close. "Just in case." Manny said.

"Just in case what? You don't come back?" Frida asked; Manny nodded. "You're going to come back, Manny. I know you are." Manny looked into Frida's blue eyes and saw she was scared too. He pulled her in again and held her.

"I hope you're right." He kissed her again and even though it was shorter this time, the sensation was still there. He would have stayed there all night kissing her, but Zoe yelled at him again.

"COME ON!!!! You two can smooch later!" Manny looked to Frida again.

"Go kick some Sartana butt." Manny nodded and then he and Zoe ran off into the night.