A/N: Hey guys, hope you're all doing well. The mess begins in this chapter; friends are pulled apart, people are tricked and schemes are put in motion. Zane has crossed over to the dark side and takes his action. Read, enjoy and review!
Also, everyone should go read Paradox Tremor's The Setori Sisters' Secret! (Yes, he's got my permission to use the character of Cora, guys – don't worry! : ] ) It's definitely a great story and it's a lot different than any other H2O story I've read! Check it out and let him know how you like it, I promise it won't disappoint you!
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Three Days Later
Nate walked out of the gym and into the crisp, cool nighttime air. It was unusually cool for a January evening in the Gold Coast, but Nate couldn't complain. After his workout nothing felt better than just being out in cool, fresh air. He hoisted his gym bag over his shoulder and started walking across the fairly empty parking lot towards his car. After a minute he stopped in front of his silver car and stuffed his hand into his pocket, starting to fish around for his keys. With a triumphant smile he plucked them out finally and shifted the extras out of the way getting ready to unlock his doors. He smiled contently and briefly shut his eyes and sighed. It had been a long day but the workout had definitely relaxed him. He was looking forward to taking a hot shower and spending the rest of the night with Cleo. With the press of the button the locks shifted audibly and he reached for the handle of the driver's side door. The second Nate's hand touched the cool steel he was hit roughly in the back of the head and crumpled to the asphalt, unconscious.
Eric smirked and rolled his eyes, nudging the young man with his foot to make sure he was out cold. Satisfied, he reached down and plucked the keys out of Nate's now open hand and stuffed them into his own pocket. After taking a quick look around to make sure nobody was watching, Eric knelt down and pulled Nate up off of the ground and dragged him to a nearby black panel van. In a matter of seconds Nate was shoved into the back of the van and Eric hopped into the driver's seat and pulled out of the parking lot casually as if nothing had ever happened.
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"We're can do this for as long as we have to until you get it right!" John growled at Nate. For the most part Nate was unscathed from his abduction with the exception of a nasty bump on the back of the head and a little dizziness. Once Eric had gotten him back to Dr. Denman's docked yacht, John had dragged him downstairs and tied him tightly into a metal chair and blindfolded him before he came to.
"I won't do it!" Nate hissed back through his teeth, turning his head blindly towards the tall muscular man towering over him with a tape-recorder.
"All right, since you think you're a hard-ass… We'll see how much of a hard-ass you really are in a minute…" John muttered and head to the other side of the room, throwing a cabinet open and digging through it. After a minute he pulled a syringe out of a wooden box and smirked, flicking the end of the needle – Valium. "Not a bad deal workin' for a doctor, I've gotta say. Let's see if this makes you a little more willing to talk, eh?"
Nate tensed in the chair and tried moving his arms. Nothing – he was tied down tight. He was strong but these binds were extremely constricting and he couldn't move his limbs in any more than an inch in any direction. He watched as the tall man bent down slightly and roughly jammed the needle into his forearm. Nate clenched his jaw hard and grunted; it wasn't the prick of a needle that exasperated him, but the realization of what he was being injected with. In a few minutes he'd be so far gone for an hour or so that he wouldn't even know who he was – or who Cleo was.
John grinned and took a seat on the other side of the room and kicked his legs up on the table, sighing contently. He'd have what he wanted out of this kid in a matter of minutes and then he'd be one sweet step closer to his paycheck.
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"Take these and go!" Eric tossed the keys he had stolen from Nate to Zane. They landed with a metallic jingle in Zane's palm and the pale, stern-looking young man stared hard at his 'supervisor.' He squeezed the keys tightly in his hand and clenched his jaw, glancing down at the keys in his hand and flipped through them quickly until he found the one that he was looking for; the keys to the Sheppard's Inn, Nate's place of work.
And Cora's.
Zane cocked his head to the side slightly and nodded once at his superior before wordlessly turning and leaving the deck of Denman's yacht. He trodded down the deck towards the shore and caught a glimpse of himself in the water lit up by the half-moon and stared blankly at his appearance that 2 months ago, would have made him wince. Now, he didn't care. He looked like hell but it was worth it. Rikki had left him but this would bring her back – he was sure of it. Even Denman had said so; this was the only way to prove to Rikki how much he loved her. This was the only way to show her that he wasn't going to lose her. He tightened his grip on Nate's keys and got into his own car, driving off down the road towards the Sheppard's Inn.
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Cleo bounced through the exit of the marine park, sighing happily as she stared up at the starry sky. It was beautiful, and it was a nice sight to end an already fairly decent day. She was a little sore and she stretched comfortably before digging through her purse for her phone to see if she had missed any messages. Her face lit up brightly when she saw that she had a voicemail from Nate, and she sat down on the bench next to the exit and listened to it.
"Hey sweetie, it's me… I was thinking maybe we could have dinner? I set up a picnic just for us in the back of the gazebo at Tier Park; come and meet me here when you get off of work. I love you and I'll see you soon."
Cleo smiled but cocked her head to the side slightly. Nate usually greeted her by name in his messages at least once, and even though this was certainly his voice it sounded sort of far away and dazed as if he had just woken up. She shook off her feelings – he very well could have just woken up; she knew that he had had a long day and had taken the night off from work to relax so she hoped this was the case. She bit her lip and felt her cheeks get hot; a picnic in the park? It sounded wonderful and she was hungry. Then she thought about what Cora and Emma would say. They would have her ass for going anywhere that wasn't school or work, at least Emma would physically. Cora would just lay on one heck of a guilt trip, which might have even been worse.
'But,' she thought, her smile perking up again with glee, 'They can't be too mad – Nate will be with me, anyway. It's not like I'm really going to be alone. Not to mention I'm freaking starving, here…' She shot a quick text to Nate's phone letting him know that she was on her way to meet him, dropped her phone back into her purse and left, hurrying down the sidewalk towards the park - unaware that it was not her boyfriend waiting for her behind the gazebo.
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"Goodnight Craig, I'll see you tomorrow!"
"You sure you're all right locking up here, Cora? I don't think your boyfriend is going to be too thrilled about it. Kinda protective, ain't he?" Craig smirked at her, raising his eyebrow as he shrugged his jacket on. Cora bit her lip and felt the ghost of a smirk start to make its way onto her face; Craig was right, but he had no idea why Lewis was so protective and she planned to keep it that way.
"Kinda. And I'll be fine, I promise. Get out of here." She smiled wider and shooed her last co-worker through the front door. With a wave from the other side of the glass, Craig was gone. Cora smiled and let out a sigh before heading to the employee break-room to gather her things. She dug through her cubby and pulled out her light black sweater and her purse before heading to the back door to check one more time that it was locked. She briefly rattled the knob and satisfied, she turned to make her way back through the room to exit through the front of the building. However, what she didn't see was the set of bloodshot brown eyes that were watching her through a space in the pantry shelf.
Cora tucked her hair behind her ear and pulled her keys out of her purse and started heading out of the room. But the second she turned around she was hit with a jolt of pain so overwhelming through the front of her head that she thought she had been hit with something. She threw her arm out, grasping the couch to keep her from falling onto the floor and squeezed her eyes shut, seeing darkness and then brightly colored shapes appear behind her eyes. She hadn't been hit with anything, she was having a vision – and from the feeling of it, this one would be far from harmless.
The pain was excruciating and it flooded her entire body, starting in her head and rushing down to her chest in a matter of milliseconds. She felt herself gasp for breath as she saw images of Cleo being yanked out of the darkness by a tall shadowy figure. The images came in painful flashes across her mind and she watched as water was thrown on her friend, turning her into a mermaid in the middle of the floor in an empty room that was waterless aside from what was on Cleo's body. Denman approached her from the other side of the room, grinning her beautiful pearly smile. Cora watched as Cleo raised her hands, trying to defend herself from the mad scientist with her powers but there was no water in the room for her to manipulate – it had undoubtedly been planned this way. Her friend struggled on the floor, pushing herself back into a corner with her arms as Denman brought the knife down again and again. The scream that Cora heard was ear-piercing and it sent a wave of pain so violent through her stomach that she almost threw up. She could feel the knife piercing Cleo's flesh as if it were piercing her own – straight through the heart.
For the first time in her 5 years of visions, Cora had to force herself out of it. It was too much to witness, too much to watch, too much to feel. She came out of the vision breathing hard, her entire body still wracked with pain and so she had no way of accurately guessing how far into the future this vision took place. She reached for her phone, flipping it open and dialing a number as fast as she could.
"Hello?"
"Emma!" She practically screamed over the line. Emma pricked her head up – this was the first time she had ever heard Cora raise her voice. Something was wrong.
"Cora, what's the matter?"
"Is Cleo home?!"
"No, she's not back from work yet. She must be running a little late – why?"
"Shit!" Cora yelled and clapped a hand over her face. The pain in her stomach was horrible, making it hard for her to breathe as she spoke. Emma on the other line sat up higher on the living room couch and raised her eyebrows. Cora had cursed? There was definitely something very wrong. Cora braced herself for a split second, putting things together in her head as fast as she could, "Emma do not leave the apartment no matter what – you stay put, don't even answer the door! Shut the lights off pretend you're not home, I don't care what you need to do just hide! I'm calling Lewis!" And without waiting for a response from her friend she hung up and started hitting other buttons, hoping she was hitting the right ones.
What she couldn't see as she dialed the next number was the person who had slipped into the room during her violent vision who was now waiting silently behind the very couch she was struggling to stay sitting on – Zane Bennett.
She hit the 'call' button and waited in anguish as the phone rang. After the third ring she heard Lewis's voice.
"Hey! Ready for me to come and get you?" He asked. Cora could feel him smiling and it eased the horrible pain in every inch of her body slightly.
"Lewis, I just had a vision – this is serious; something very, very bad—"
Before she realized what was happening her phone was yanked roughly out of her hand and thrown across the room, hitting the metal lockers and breaking into several pieces. She was only able to shove her body up slightly to see who had done it when a thick cloth was clapped over her face from behind – covered in chloroform. In the split second before she lost consciousness she jammed her elbow out behind her hoping to hit whoever had attacked her and made contact with skin. She heard her attacker grunt, and her world went black.
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