A/N: I just don't get ONE thing! I start out all my stories, intending they won't go more than ten or twelve chapters. Thirteen tops without an epilogue. And I end up with ideas of having a story more than thirty chapters, and compress it into at least about 20-25 chapters. Is something wrong with me?


Ch- 16: Fear

"hello Z," he said, smiling,

There she was, right there in front of him: Z Delgado! His daydreams had turned real. After so long, she was right there, right in front of him. a little older, but still, just as beautiful if not more, and still, cold and disdainful as ever.

He decided to play a little game.

"I'm home honey! And I thought you'd be happier to see me." he said, like it were any normal conversation between a husband and his wife.

Z knew how to play along, "I just didn't think your… meeting would end before, you know, Thursday."

"you know those delegates… they had it postponed" he smiled again, continuing their 'pretend' conversation, "you look good" he complimented.

She smiled back, as sweetly as she could bring herself to, dragged a chair back, and sat in front of him, at the table; she was wearing black pants, and a silver lined shirt, with an SPD logo printed on the front. It was one of those 'under the uniform' uniform shirts, like the ones they used for training, and it made her look so hot!

The more he thought about what was coming, the more he salivated; he'd pictured the whole scene playing out more than a million times all these years… At first, she'd try to be reasonable, trying to convince to let her go. He'd let that go on for a while, building her fear, until she'll really understand that she's powerless against him. And then he'd make her scream!

He felt a sharp edge of anticipation as lovely pictures and even lovelier sounds played in his head. His plan was to incapacitate Z, and if Sky wasn't around, then maybe have some fun with her waiting for Sky. Then he'd tie them up, and carry them to his safe haven… someplace where they wouldn't be interrupted for days…

Arriving here, he had taken adequate measures, following the commanders' car right from SPD to their house, and then entering through the backdoor in the kitchen that they usually kept unbolted, so it was easy to break, and then he decided to wait for them in the kitchen.

He had an idea that it might be a little difficult, just in case she decided to put up a fight, so, he had a duffel bag with him, in which he carried a crowbar, a hammer, some good, long nails, nylon rope, duct tape, two small rubber balls, a butane torch, a small metal box, some hydrofluoric acid, and a bunch of other, rather disturbing stuff. He had taken a minute off his schedule, to kill off the guy at the hardware store, so that nobody would be able to trace his movements.

Not bad planning for a psychopath no?

But the way she just casually sat there in front of him, crossing her feet, a not too wide, a little amused smile on her lips, was just… off.

Nobody SMILED when they saw Bridge Carson. Not anymore. Certainly not Z Delgado. He had expected she try to run, at least, but she just sat there. This was SO wrong! He had visualized this moment for so long, and now that it was happening, him and Z, alone at last, she wasn't doing anything she was supposed to do! What was with that?

Then she stood up, and leaned towards him—towards! Her face inches from his, "why Bridge?" she asked, in a mocking voice, "did you think I'd run? Beg? Or maybe scream?" then she grinned, right in his face, "are you disappointed? You like when people freak out, no? it's part of the fun, right?" she asked, and he felt scared. Him, BRIDGE CARSON felt scared.

Why?

Because, she, Z Delgado, was not.

Z. Was. Not. Afraid.

Crazy!

Well, if she wasn't, he'd have to make her.

Maybe he should start a conversation, something that might instill fear in her mind… maybe a little bragging, no?

He looked into her eyes, which usually made anyone who looked into them scared. All of them saw estranged memories of all his tortures, rapes and murders, all of them reflected in his eyes. It was disturbing… disturbing for any normal human being. Why wasn't she getting unnerved? WHAT THE FRICKIN HELL WAS WRONG WITH HER?

"Bridge" she said, as calmly as she could.

"Bridge, I've been scared of you all my life, I've been blaming myself for what I've made you." She stared right into her eyes, "not anymore"

She sat back, "I've realized that whatever you have become, is on you. You could've taken the high road. Maybe moved on from me, like almost EVERYONE in the universe, who faces break-ups. It's not my fault, or Sky's that you couldn't handle the fact someone didn't want to date you anymore! It's not MY fault that you couldn't handle a single BREAK-UP!"

She was mad, he realized, and in that fire of anger, she had lost all her fear of him. Damn…

Fear. It was the strongest thing in the universe. If someone's afraid of you, it's very easy to subdue them. They make half of their mistakes in fear. This what precisely what happened the last time he had crashed at Sky and Z's place. They had two children, one fifteen, one twenty something, which was very strange considering their ages, as if Z had been a teenager when the child had been born. He could never clarify it with her. eh. Must've been some teenage pregnancy, who cares? But that time, on their 15th anniversary, he had snuck into the party, and nobody had noticed. When Sky did, he got afraid…. Afraid that he might lose his wife, his children. You only get afraid when you have something or someone to lose. You're afraid for them. And in that fear, Sky had tried to negotiate with him, to not hurt his children, and that made Bridge feel in supremacy, that was what gave him power over Sky Tate. He gave this trade off— Sky fights with him, one on one, and if he wins, Bridge would leave, and if he loses, well, then he loses.

In a fair fight, maybe Sky would've beaten Bridge, but here, in his own house, Bridge manipulated him with his clever words, understanding with his psychic powers how Sky was processing what he was saying, and managed to overpower him with his emotions of love, care and guilt. Sky had become WEAK! HA! Then he had thrown him off the roof of the house, not knowing whether he'd survive, but by that time, Z had called for backup, and he was forced to flee.

This time he had come with planning; he'd make quick work of Sky and Z, BEFORE they could call for backup.

He slowly rose from his chair, menacingly, wondering whether Z would feel her fear rushing back. But Z mirrored his actions; she also slowly got up from her chair, not breaking eye contact with him, the very same eye contact that could make people shiver. They could see his soul reflected in his eyes, and his soul was dead. She wasn't scared of death!

They didn't speak anymore. Bridge lunged at Z, hand extended, a blade in the hand, and she caught his hand, pulled it to her side, and brought him close to her; they froze like that for a few seconds, and then Z brought up her knee and kicked Carson in the robs which sent him back, spiraling.

"AH!" he groaned, as he felt something break inside, but nevertheless, he lunged at her again, this time, aiming at her feet, and before she could react, he kicked her ankles, making her fall. She used the kitchen table to steady herself, and gather momentum to launch herself at him, and hit him hard. He fell back, and crashed against the dishwasher. She decided to take the fight out of the kitchen, and ran into the living room, grabbing one of her golf clubs, and swinging it hard at Bridge, but its neck was cut in half by the extremely sharp blade in her hands.

"like it? It's Zoldan" he bragged, and she realized that it might've been her neck in place of the golf club.

She held the two broken pieces of the stick in her hands, in a cross formation, and used it as a block against Bridge's next attack with the Zoldan blade, and pushed him back.

She then climbed onto the couch, and using its springs as a trampoline, jumped high up, and kicked Bridge, right in the neck, and was sure he had broken at least one bone. He held his neck in his palm, massaging it, while used his free hand to take another swing at Z, which caught her in the back, leaving a long bloody scar all the way down, making her moan in pain.

"you know, you should get familiar with that sound. You're gonna be making it a lot in the coming few days!" he snarled viciously, and attacked again, still supporting his neck with the other hand.

"you STILL need to learn when to stop talking!" she said, sassily, and reached for her blaster, aiming at him, but missed as he leapt out of the way.

"oh, we're on to blasters now? okay!" he seemed oddly excited about it as he pulled out his bloody red blaster and fired at Z, whom he missed by inches and it hit one of the centre pieces of the living room.

"not the ones from Peru!" she groaned almost comically as she saw her 'precious' piece from Peru being shattered by the blast.

Then came another blast, which seemed very, very poorly aimed, and hit one of the Japanese wall hangings; Z cocked her head to her side, and said, "eh well, that had never been my favorite. But Sky's gonna be mad." He fired another shot, angry at hearing Sky's name, and missed yet again, and Z scoffed, "you're a little too out of practice no?"

"SHUT UP!" he screamed and finally, one of her blasts hit Z, right in the left shoulder, making her drop to her knees. But the fight was far from over, she swiftly lifted her right hand, and aimed a shot at Bridge and hit him, perfectly on spot, on his thigh, causing a stream of blood to gush out of the spot, and he also collapsed onto the floor on his knees. (Remember this is an unmorphed fight)

but then he started laughing, laughing like a maniac.

"Z, Z, Z," he said, shaking his head pitifully, "I forgot to tell you about a new… quirk I got!" he pulled out a small device from his pocked, and Z realized it was one of those healing tools that were still in the testing phase, and had been stolen from the lab of Dr. Rheas. Guess she had cracked that case.

He held it to himself, "any bleeding wound, closes up" he snapped his fingers, "just… like… that." he smirked, as she watched almost all his wounds, caused by her, closing up.

Hers meanwhile, the ones at the back, and the ones in the front, were bleeding a river. If she didn't do anything about it soon, she'd better bleed to death. Or worse…. He might just heal her enough to keep her alive, yet incapacitate her, and well… and well, then nobody could save her then.

The mere prospect of what he might do to her rattled her to her very soul, but still, she could feel her knees give way, as she collapsed form excess blood loss, at the feet of her ex-boyfriend, and arch nemesis, Bridge Carson, as he laughed.


A/N: So? Will she live? I can kill her off you know...