Chapter Thirteen

"Damn! They beat us to her again!" Scarl gave a groan. "This is getting ridiculous!" He slammed his fist on the console.

"We're sorry Sir. We've failed you again." His servant, Ramone said.

"It will be your last failure,won't it, Ramone? Bring me the kiddies!"

"They've already told you! They don't know where the rebels hide! Let them go!" Dr. Baker struggled in his imprisonment.

"I do not think so. They will be instrumental in making her talk." Scarl glared at him. "You do not honestly believe she'd have her human friends killed for cybernetic freaks."

"It's not right to make her choose!" Baker retorted. "She obviously cares a lot for these rebels, or she would've come to us willingly. "

"We shall see….we shall see." Scarl left now, and locked the door.

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"This place is great!" Frances exclaimed. So much better than the Academy. Now I understand why it was so hard for you to leave before, Carla."

The younger girl smiled. "Yeah…." She followed Chang into the kitchen. "I don't suppose you still need an apprentice….."

"Of course I do!" The chef smiled at her, touching her arm. "Come! I'll show you what I'm cooking tonight."

The girl followed him with a gentle smile. The stove was full of its usual pots and pans. "What is it?"

"Rice and Fish Casserole." He told her, lifting a lid for her to look. "It's missing something though. Can you tell me what it is?" He was hoping she'd retained some of the information he'd taught her before."

"Seafood seasoning." She supplied him with the answer he wanted.

"Very good." He grinned, adding the named seasoning. "Here now. You should go spend sometime with 001 and your friend. She's got to be a little uncomfortable right now." Chang ushered her out of the kitchen.

"Hmm….." She stared at the kitchen door, before returning to the living room. "He's up to something." She told Ivan, as she picked him up out of the basket.

"That doesn't surprise me. He tends to cook a lot more when he's worried about something." The baby cyborg looked up at her through his mop of blue hair. "We've all been worried about you. When I got word of your friends' capture we thought we'd never see you again."

"If by some chance Melissa found ……oh no! My journals!" She gasped. "I can't believe I left them there for the world to find!"

"What was in them?" Jet asked her, suspiciously.

"Just……stories….letters." She told him. "Nothing revealing your location."

"What kind of stories?" Francoise asked.

"Just stuff that I've written over the months I was there. I wrote a nice one about my rescue. " She smiled, obviously proud of herself. "I was going to enter it in a writing contest, but I thought better of it."

"I'm glad you did." Jet told her sharply. "You shouldn't have been writing anything about us at all!"

"Cool it, Jet. She didn't mean any harm by it…. She was probably lonely." Puyunma defended the little girl. "At least she was smart enough to keep our whereabouts off her journal pages." He rumpled Carla's hair.

Carla frowned at Jet. After all this time, he still didn't trust her. What did she have to do to prove herself to him? "I'm sorry, Jet…"

"Yeah…..okay." The red headed cyborg stepped outside.

"Is he always like that?" Frances asked.

"Pretty much. It's mostly worry that does it to him." Ivan told her. He looked up at his friend Carla now. "Don't let him bother you. We all know how hard it's been for you. For your part, you've done well."

"I know, but I feel like I'm always letting him down. I do my best, but it's never good enough."

"It's good enough for us." Joe told her. "That's all that matters." He smiled at her reassuringly. "We're just glad you're safe."

"I wish we could say the same for your friends." Professor Gilmore spoke up now. He'd been playing a game with Kazumi, and had walked into the living room when the argument erupted. "With no way of knowing which base they're in, we can't even attempt a rescue mission."

"I know….." Carla had been trying to keep her mind off of Melissa and Jordan. "I hope they're all right."

"There is no telling." Gilmore told her.

Carla knew he was telling the truth, but she didn't want to believe it. She wanted her "family" to say they were going to try everything in their power to get her friends back. "What can we do to help them?" She asked instead of arguing that case.

"I'm afraid there is very little we can do, aside from hoping some clues to their whereabouts crop up." Joe told her softly, his heart breaking for her. "That, and keep you out of harm's way."

"That goes for you too." Gilmore told Frances. "If Black Ghost found another one of her friends,especially one who has been here, it would be chaotic for everyone involved."

"Yes sir." Frances agreed. "Don't worry. I'll stay here."

"Then it is all good for now." Puyunma told the room in general.

"Yes." Junior replied. "I think so. Let's just keep our guard up."

"Agreed." Joe said, as he walked into the kitchen to help Chang set the table.

Carla silently agreed with them all, though she didn't say it. She was tired of running in fear. She wondered if it would ever end. "I'm not really hungry. I think I'm just going to go to sleep for a while." She stood up, and walked upstairs to her old room, and laid down on the soft, clean sheets. It might be okay for now, but how long do they think it will take for Black Ghost to figure out I'm gone again? Not very long I expect, and of course they know where Kazumi lives. If all else fails, they'll come here, and ruin more innocent lives. With those thoughts, Carla fell asleep, in her first fitful sleep in a long time.