OK, just to be safe, this chapter should be 11+ at least.

Chapter 7

Gail sat in a chair in the lobby of the hideout, wrapping a blanket around herself with one hand and holding an ice pack to her sore head with the other. "Thanks for pulling me out."

"It's OK, Gail," Howie said, sitting next to her, "We're supposed to protect our own. And you're alright, right?"

"Of course, How," said Gail, putting down the ice pack and starting to get up, "I'm fin—oh, that's a nosebleed!" She grabbed her nose as if it were broken.

Kyra came up and held a cloth to her face. "Boy, he really did a number on you, didn't he?"

"Well, I'd say so, he…" She then remembered that 14-year-old Howie was in the room. "You know, he…" She bobbed her head.

Kyra's eyes widened as she realized what that meant. "OH! Oh! He… Did he…?"

"Oh, no! Nothing like that! He just… You know the phrase 'going for second'?"

Kyra nodded.

"Yeah, he just struck a double play and stole a base." She sat back down. "Lucky for me, the ball hit the plate first."

"You fought him off?"

She thought about that. "Sure, let's go with that."

Duck came up. "What's she talking about? Did she seduce him or something?"

Gail glared at him.

Kyra whispered something in his ear.

"OH! Oh…whoa."

"Can we move on to another subject?" Trinity asked, uncomfortably.

"Right." Kyra looked at Gail. "What'd you find? Did you get Zara out?"

"No, she was buried too deep in his subconscious. I'd have to be Ellen Paige in Inception to get her out of him, even with my powers. And the movie would've made more sense."

"Well, what'd you find out about Zack?"

Gail sighed and put down the cloth. "The reason he's evil: the meteor's impact did something…or Wake's messed with him through his powers when she rose…for some reason, his soul was split before he got knocked into his coma. Wake knew about this; that's why she made Deirdre plant that bomb. She knew Zack would get knocked in a coma and something would happen because of his split soul that would make him end up evil. That way he goes to their side and becomes the way to take out Zara. We lose our 2 most powerful, the Dark Side gets a top warrior—it's a win-win for them. Lose-lose for us."

"Unless, of course, we can pull Zara out," said Orion, "I mean, how hard could it be to—"

Gail looked at him.

"What?"

"Maybe I didn't make myself clear enough: she buried too deep inside him. She's not in reality, her soul is locked in a fractured one, she can't heal herself and wouldn't be able to even if she could because she's not in contact with her own body—there's no way to get her out unless we can convince Zack to somehow. And given what he almost just did to me, I'd say he's drifted too far into the dark side of the Force to give in to anything on the manipulation scale from 'rabbit season, duck season' to 'these are not the droids you're looking for.'"

"Not that the last one ever works," said Trinity, "Maybe if we can get him close enough to me—"

"We're not risking you," Orion instantly ordered her, "If you force Zack to give up Zara, he's gonna wake up first and the first thing he'll do is attack you like he did to Gail."

"Actually," said Gail, "if Tree's influence is strong enough to pull Zara away from Zack's manipulation, she might be able to influence him to not attack her. All we have to do is get him away from the Dark Side, make sure she catches him in one of the points where he can wake up with Zara still buried, get her to make him give up Zara's ghost—pun intended—and then make him back off long enough to make a clean getaway."

"She can only hold an influence as long as she's touching someone," said Orion, "As soon as she would let go of him to make her way off, he'd be able to attack."

"Look, even if Zara isn't, Zack is still in reality. He's one of the things she can manipulate, even if at the cost of her own energy."

"Too much energy. She'd be too weak by then to hold him off."

"So we'll come along. All of us put together can easily hold down one."

"And what if the rest of the Dark Side jumps in? What then?"

"We'll do what we can. I know there's probably more of them to take care of by now, especially now that Jake and Val skipped, but with people like me and Trinity on the team, we could take them no problem."

"What about Wake?"

Gail sighed. She had nothing to say to that.

"You know…" Trinity said, "…this plan…might just be crazy enough to actually work."

"That's what I was gonna say," Tech instantly jumped in.

Trinity smiled.

Zara finished fighting off the Vampires. She was even more sore and in pain than before Zack had zoned out, but she was still alive and not suicidal.

Then Zack reappeared.

Zara looked at him. "How long were you gone?"

"A while. Long enough to have a little fun with good old Gail." He was smiling eerily. It was freaking her out.

"OK, why do you suddenly have this creepy look of satisfaction like you got some—oh my, squirrel, you raped her?"

"Tried to. She's relentless. She tranquilized me halfway there."

Zara sighed with relief.

"Lucky for me, you're not gonna get that far."

Zara looked at him again.

Zack lay on his bed again. He slowly started smiling again…

(Mission Impossible theme plays)

The window slowly opened and Duck slid in on a rope. He rolled across the floor to the bed and jumped onto Zack, careful not to wake him up just yet, and grabbed him, quacking both of them off to the street a couple blocks down. He looked at the others. "That was too easy. But fun."

Trinity shushed him. She knelt down and grabbed Zack's wrists, closing her eyes.

Zack was advancing on Zara. Suddenly, he was pushed back into a tree.

Zack's eyes snapped open. Of course, he instantly stared trying to fight her off.

Orion started for her.

"Wait!" Tech stopped him.

Trinity kept her hold on Zack.

Zara looked around. The tree collapsed. The rest of the graveyard started to crumble around her and fade from sight…she jumped…

…and woke up. She looked around. She was back in the medical wing at the hideout. She grabbed her neck and felt the bandage where Loraine had bitten her. Then she examined the rest of her body and saw no stab wounds or bruises or bites. "Oh…" She fell back onto her pillow somewhat happily.

Trinity pushed Zack down. "Zara's out."

"Then let's get out of here." Orion, of course, instantly started dragging Trinity off. The others followed.

Zack looked at Orion and Tech protectively holding Trinity and smirked. "Nice girl. Does she want a taste of what Gail got?"

Tech and Orion whirled around, prepared to attack him—

"No!" Gail stopped them. "He's not worth it." She looked at Zack. "Trust me, I know."

Zack just smirked at her.

She led them off with Kyra.

30 minutes later…

After giving her some time to recuperate, Kyra had led Zara into from the medical wing to her bedroom, where the 2 were now talking.

"How you holding up?" asked Kyra.

"Not the best, but I'll live." Zara sighed. "I can't believe Zack would do that."

"It wasn't him. Gail said his soul was fragmented. Half of it isn't there, it's been replaced by some dark force."

"Wow. That explains a lot. I mean, he said he almost raped her."

"Truth."

"Ouch."

"Yeah."

Zara shrugged. "Well, at least the rest wasn't real. I mean, I should've suspected he only had me in comatose when I heard you guys say Jake and Val had skipped. That's crazy, right?"

Kyra's smile slowly faded.

Zara stopped smiling, too. "What?"

Kyra sighed. "That was real."

Zara stared at her.

"Apparently, Zack's defection was a bit too much of an inspiration for them. They jumped ship just before you went out of it."

Zara didn't take her eyes off her.

"Kyra!" Nathan's voice came through from the next room, "The new recruits will be here in a few minutes! You better let them in!"

Kyra walked over to the door and opened it. "I'm coming, Nat!" She looked at Zara one last time and left.

Zara groaned, pounding her pillow. "I wish Zack had never turned evil!" Suddenly, an idea hit her. And it hit her hard. It hit her with such force that she couldn't control herself when it did. She looked at her fingers and didn't stop herself from snapping them.

TO BE CONTINUED…

YAY! I finished it! Yeah, I watched Star Wars with my brother and I recently got to see Inception so I enjoyed making comments about those through Gail. Well, I had a little fun with this one even if it was a little unimportant for the story from chapter 2 on and wasn't all that good because I got all those writer's blocks but the next one might be a little better. I hope. Anyway, see ya!