Wow guys, it's been a while! I hope this lovely chapter makes up for it!

Oh and a side note for her-eyes-fiery-pinpricks: I LOVE REVOLUTION! It's one of my favorite TV shows!

Without further adieu, I present chapter 5!

Chapter 5: The Small Blue Flame

May 1, 2358
Province 12, County 5, Argentina
Buenos Aires Apartment Sector 98

As Willa slowed her car down for the red light, she realized she couldn't feel the tips of her fingers. She glanced down and noticed that she had been gripping the steering wheel so hard that her knuckles had almost turned white. She hesitated before relinquishing her grip. She took a deep breath and placed her hands in her lap.

She glanced up at the red light and tapped her left foot as she waited for it to turn green.

Green, Willa felt a chill run up her spine, I hate that color.

Willa pushed the thought out of her mind. The last thing she wanted was to think about work today. She didn't want to think about the long hours slaving away over that stupid nuclear weapon that the stupid dictator wants for no stupid reason. She didn't want to think about how she risks her life every day when she gets within 20 miles of the government lab in Buenos Aires. She didn't want to think about how she didn't choose this life—it was chosen for her. She didn't want to think about how awful her husband was.

But she did want to think about her beautiful eight-month old daughter, Lizzie. She was the only reason Willa hadn't gone crazy yet.

The light turned green and Willa hit the gas petal, finishing her journey home.

She pulled into the driveway and opened the garage door. For some odd reason, her husband's car wasn't in there. Once she had parked the car and turned it off, she noticed a note taped to the front door.

She took it off and read it.

Wills—

Willa rolled her eyes. She hated that nickname.

I'm going out with the boys tonight. Probably be back tomorrow. I got a babysitter for the baby. I promised him $150.

—Spencer

Willa crumbled up the note and threw it on the ground in frustration. Sometimes she really, really hated her husband. He wasn't supposed to go out on weekdays. That was their deal.

But of course, he always did what he wanted. And he knew that there was nothing she could do about it. Stupid "no divorce" law.

Willa blamed a lot of people for her situation: her parents, the ridiculous government, Spencer, everyone. But more than anything, she blamed herself. She could have searched harder for a way out of this arranged marriage. She could have done something, anything, but she didn't.

She unlocked the front door and stepped inside. The first sound she heard was the television.

What kind of babysitter watches television while with a baby?

Willa stormed into the living room—ready to give the babysitter an earful—and saw a young man with brown hair and green eyes sitting on the couch. When he noticed Willa, he turned and gave her a smile.

Something about him seemed familiar. Had he babysat for her before?

"Uh…where's my daughter?" She asked him.

"Oh," the young man picked up the remote and muted the television. He turned to face her. "She fell asleep about an hour ago. I decided watching her while she slept would be very weird, so I came in here." He motioned to the television. "Nice living room, by the way. You must be very rich."

Willa shrugged. "This is all my husband's stuff. All he does is watch football and play video games."

The young man nodded solemnly. "He seemed like that kind of guy."

Based off of his tone of voice, he didn't seem to like "that kind of guy"—whatever that meant.

"I'm Willa, by the way." Willa extended her hand to the young man. "Sorry about any inconveniences my daughter or husband might have caused you today."

"Name's Daniel," the young man said as he shook her hand. "And your daughter was no trouble at all. She's a sweetheart. Your husband…he…is uh…interesting."

Willa let out a laugh. "That's about the nicest thing you can say about him."

She sat down on the couch next to Daniel. "What are you watching?"

"Oh!" He perked up and turned up the television. "I got bored, so I found this royal gossip channel. It sounded dumb, but it's actually interesting."

Willa gave him a strange look. "Why is it interesting? The royal family is boring."

"The 11th province has this crazy stupid prince, Prince Greg," Daniel glanced her way. The gleam in his eyes screamed mischief, but she loved it. Something about that mischievous look seemed so familiar, but she couldn't quite place it.

"What's Prince Greg doing to make the royal gossip channel?" She asked out of curiosity.

"Oh, okay." Daniel's eyes lit up, as if he hadn't had a decent conversation with someone in a long time. "So, the wise guy supposedly…"

Daniel pointed to the television and started filling her in on the latest royal news. After pointing, his hand grazed hers and her mind went to another place and time.

Finn and Willa reboarded to the ship after Philby, but before the others While Philby returned to his stateroom to review the ship's security video for Luowski and the stolen computer, Finn and Willa watched for their friends on the dock over the stern rails of Cabanas restaurant.

"Have you kissed her yet?" Willa asked.

"W…H…A…T…?" Finn's face drained of color.

"Amanda." Willa was trying so hard not to laugh at his reaction to her question. "Have you guys kissed?"

His shoulders slumped. "We barely even talk anymore." He was silent for a second before snapping his attention back to her, his expression filled with anger. "Why are you asking me this?"

Willa shrugged. "Conversation breaks the tension. We all need conversation."

"You need your head examined," Finn retorted.

"It's a simple enough question. Have you kissed her?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

"You guess!? Was it that bad? Seriously?"

"I didn't say it was bad." Willa could tell that Finn was considering jumping over the rail. The fact that she could make him this uncomfortable just by asking a simple question made her want to laugh, but she suppressed it for his sake.

"You don't sound too impressed."

"I've kissed her. Okay, Willa?"

"It was just okay?"

"Stop messing with me."

"I'm sure it was more than okay for Amanda. Same with Charlene."

"What's Charlie got to do with this?"

Willa stared at him with a blank expression. "Are you that blind?"

"She likes Maybeck."

Willa rolled her eyes and stared down at the docks. "You got that right. She likes Maybeck."

"Get your head in the game," he said.

Willa started singing "get'cha head in the game" in her head. "There's one checkpoint, Finn. How difficult is it to watch one checkpoint?"

There was a moment of awkward silence. The High School Musical song was still stuck in her head.

"The silent treatment is killing Amanda," Willa said. "You know that, don't you?"

"That's ridiculous. She's barely even spoken to me lately."

"What's she supposed to say? 'Hey, Finn, I'm crushing on you big-time, and the way you gawk at Storey and the way you treat me leaves me in tears and unable to sleep at night'? That?"

"Oh…come on!" Finn said.

Willa rolled her eyes at him. "Seriously? Get…a…clue."

Willa's weird flashback ended and she took a sharp breath. Daniel turned and looked at her with a confused expression.

"Are you okay, Willa?"

Willa took a few breaths and faced him, forcing a smile. "Of course, this…this royal stuff…it's just shocking that's all."

Daniel didn't seem convinced. "Sure…"

Willa rolled her eyes and stood up. "You can leave now, Daniel. I can take it from here."

Daniel stood up too. "Do you need me to come tomorrow? Your husband said he wasn't coming back until then."

Willa raised her eyebrow. She did seem to trust this guy. If he could get her daughter to sleep more than 30 minutes at a time, he's definitely a good babysitter.

"Sure," Willa finally replied. "Do you mind if I pay you tomorrow? I don't have any cash on me at the moment."

"Oh I don't want your cash."

"What?"

"I said I would do it for free."

"That's nonsense, Daniel. I'll pay you what my husband promised you tomorrow."

"He promised me way too much. I don't want it. I've got enough cash to live off of."

Willa studied him. He seemed to have his mind made up. "Fine, if you insist."

"Awesome!" Daniel perked up. "What time should I be here tomorrow?"

"I leave for work at six in the morning, so is 5:30 okay?"

"Five-thirty in the morning?"

"Is that too early?"

Daniel's shoulders slumped. "No," he mumbled.

Willa smiled. "Good, I'll see you then."

Daniel nodded and pushed past her, heading for the front door.

At the last minute, he turned around. "Willa?"

Willa turned around and looked at him. "Yes, Daniel?"

He rummaged through his pockets and pulled out a black envelope. "This is for you." He walked over and handed it to her. His hand touched hers and her mind was transported to another place for the second time today.

"That's better, my little ugly duckling," the Queen said. "More details, and I'll keep them off you."

Willa collected herself and looked up, intent to meet eyes with the Queen. But what she saw just beyond the Queen nearly stopped her heart: Finn. Her friend Finn, not the Queen's copy of him. He wore all back and was carrying the shimmering blue line that said he'd crossed over. Finn, who'd come to rescue her.

The Evil Queen caught Willa's eye movement and without looking behind her, made a sweeping, surprisingly graceful motion toward Finn, her lips moving, but making no sound. Whatever she had expected to happen to him did not. The blue line around Finn's DHI shimmered, though only slightly—he was only part hologram. He rushed Willa, lowered his shoulder, and hit her like a football tackle, throwing her onto his shoulder. He took off at a run.

Spiders raced up his back, Willa brushing them off furiously. She looked down: the stream of spiders had stretched into long black line like a…

Snake.

Gigabyte, the twenty-foot python, was a matter of yards behind Finn. The vultures flew on either side of him.

Back at Gigabyte's tail, the remaining spiders turned into rattlesnakes.

"Finn…" Willa gasped, laying atop his shoulder. "Snakes."

The rattlesnakes moved faster than the giant python.

"Finn?" she said.

He could feel himself slowing down—the more frightened she became, the heavier she was to carry.

"Don't…look!"

Willa snapped back to attention.

"You sure you're okay?" Daniel asked her in a caring voice. "Maybe you should go take a nap. I can stay and watch Lizzie if you—"

"No!" Willa didn't mean to shout, but she had. She knew immediately her harsh tone had hurt Daniel's feelings.

"Okay!" He threw up his hands in defeat. "Just read the letter when I'm gone, and make sure that nobody finds it."

Willa eyed him suspiciously. "Okay."

"I'll see you tomorrow at five-thirty then," Daniel said with a smile. She could tell that he didn't want to be up that early, but she was glad that he was. She was looking forward to seeing him.

She was the nicest person she had met in a long time. Of course she wanted him to come back. He looks just like that Finn guy from those weird flashes I've been having today, she thought to herself as he walked out of the front door.

She sat back down on the couch and turned off the television. She waited to hear her daughter cry or make some kind of noise, but all she heard was silence.

Willa was so glad to hear silence in her home. It was almost never this way.

She opened the black envelope and pulled out a letter. The red ink faded into the piece of notebook paper. It had obviously been written a long time ago. The handwriting was a little sloppy, but still legible.

Willa held it a little closer to her face so that she could read the small font.

Don't tell anyone where you're going or why. If you do it'll ruin everything. I may have seemed familiar. I can tell you who I really am and how we know each other. Meet me in Magic Kingdom, Lake Buena Vista, Florida, US on October 1st no later than one in the morning. (Yes, I know that's the forbidden district, it's the only safe place for us to talk). Meet me in front of the castle. Come alone and don't be late.

Willa stared at the letter. The forbidden district? She had a vague memory of reading about that once in school. She had never seen any pictures of it, so she didn't know what to look for when she got there, but at least she knew there was a castle—for that was where she would be meeting Daniel.

She was right to sense the familiarity of Daniel's face. Why did he look just like Finn from those flashes?

He knew her, but he wouldn't explain until October 1st. Why then? Why not now?

There must be others meeting us, she concluded.

Were the others also people that she knew? Why was the forbidden district the only safe place? Everyone knew of secret hiding spots within the provinces. This must be a top-secret meeting.

Willa picked up the letter and the envelope and walked into the kitchen. She turned on the oven and watched as a small blue flame ignited. She placed the letter back in the envelope and held it as the flames caught the edge.

She watched as the flames slowly consumed the envelope, causing it to crumble to ashes. At the last possible second, Willa let go of the envelope and threw the rest into the trashcan, so that she wouldn't get burned.

She stood there, watching the small blue flame. Something about it was so calming. It blew her mind that something that looked so beautiful and wonderful could be so destructive.

She shook the strange thoughts out of her head and started thinking about the more pressing issue.

She had five months to find a way to get to the forbidden district undetected. Willa took a deep breath, turned off the stove, and headed to her bedroom.

She had a trip to plan.

1st quote: Kingdom Keepers 6: Dark Passage, p. 167-9 (paraphrased for Willa's POV)

2nd quote: Kingdom Keepers 4: Power Play, p. 237-8

I also don't own any rights to High School Musical, just so you know.

I hope y'all enjoyed this chapter. I know it's short, but I still had fun with it. The next chapter is Amanda..and boy it's going to be good! :) Please review! Let me know what you think! I'll have the next chapter up as soon as I can! Have a wonderful week!