A/N: Chapter 11! Read, enjoy, review! And if you haven't already, check out "The Setori Sisters' Secret" by ParadoxTremors. It's definitely worth a read! : ] take care everyone.

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Emma

I hurried through the darkness of the docks behind Lewis, with Rikki behind me. The air was heavy and there was a certain uneasiness to it. I had seen earlier on the news that there was a bad storm coming our way, and it felt like the rain from it was calling me, letting me know that it was about to raise hell. I kept my eyes glued to Lewis's back; He was leading the way to Denman's yacht which was visible from half a mile away; the thing was huge and it looked more like a small cruise ship than a yacht. It would have been unbelievably beautiful if it weren't for the witch that owned it.

I creased my eyebrows together and cut my eyes, glaring at the ritzy vessel in the distance. For what we were about to do I was obscenely calm, especially for me. On the walk over, I had left Ash a voicemail telling him simply that I loved him and did the same for my parents and little brother. I didn't know what would happen to me, but I did know what could happen and I wanted to be prepared for the worst. My parents still had no idea about my tail and neither did Elliot, and I had absolutely no intention of having that be the last thing I told them. The messages took me less than 2 minutes to leave and once I was finished I shut my phone off and shoved it into my pocket. I never, ever turn my phone off. But something had happened to Rikki and I, something that we should be used to by now. Defender mode had switched on in full force and it wasn't showing any signs of coming down any time soon. Denman didn't just have one of us; she had two of us and an innocent person – Nate. It was almost like the full moon had hit us, Rikki and I – my inhibitions were gone and we only had one goal in mind: getting all of us back together, safely, in once piece.

I glanced at Lewis, who was walking a step ahead of me. Even though he wasn't half fish like the four of us were, it was pretty easy to see that there had been a change in him. We were practically a family, and it was noticeable from the beginning that having Cora around changed him somehow. It was bound to happen sooner or later; after being pushed around for so many years there had to come a point where he was sick of dealing with people trying to pull things over on him and the people he cared about. After so many threats and so many people assuming he wouldn't fight back, it was no wonder that it had all boiled over now after we'd all been through so much. If I had been in his shoes I would have gotten tired of people thinking that I was weak, too.

I clenched my hands out of reflex as we approached the yacht. I looked up at it, scanning my eyes over it quickly; the lights were all off except for one, way down at the bottom. I saw Rikki crouch down a little next to it before standing back up and shaking her head. I ducked down briefly to take a look for myself; the window was blocked with a white sheet and we couldn't see anything. Lewis tugged his jacket down securely and turned back to face us, and nodded to the deck of the boat. We didn't need to be told what he meant; we could hear the yacht's engine running. Denman was definitely on this thing, and she was going to bring it out of the harbor. We crept closer to the small gate and made a quick check of what we could see of the deck – empty. Utterly and completely empty. We knew that there was something shady going on here, but we couldn't risk having this thing leave with our friends without us on it. Lewis led the way, staying close to the wall of the inner deck. I followed after him and hid against the wall next to him and reached out for Rikki, who jumped on next to me. I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up. The second Rikki's feet touched the floor of the deck, I felt us start to move – the yacht was pulling out of the harbor. I exchanged a brief glance with Lewis and Rikki on either side of me. We needed to move.

We moved around to the other side of the massive deck finding the door to the stairs down to the lower level. It was quiet; too quiet, but we knew how Denman operated. She didn't need a team of 15 people in order to be dangerous. We watched Lewis start to head down the stairs first but Rikki reached past me and tugged him back to stop him. She gave him a fierce look as she passed him and started to slowly descend the stairs. The yacht was huge and we had no idea just how many levels there were, who was waiting for us or where our friends were but we knew that we had to find them and fast. Once Rikki reached the bottom of the stairs I saw her glance in either direction before waving Lewis and I down. We followed after her and started on what we knew was a dangerous trip through unfamiliar enemy territory.

*

We had been moving for a while and even though we hadn't come across anybody yet, our guards were still up in full force. Linda Denman wasn't stupid; she had planned for this. She had planned for us to come, and even though she might not have known exactly where we were, she certainly knew that we were there to save our friends. When she or her lackeys sprang on us we'd just have to react, and be ready.

We were edging our way down a dark unlit hallway when we heard something muffled coming from one of the doors on our right. Lewis motioned for us to stop moving and pressed his ear up against the door before pushing the lock-release button and pulling it open. There, in the room not much bigger than a closet, was Nate – tied into a metal folding chair with knots like ones I've never seen in my life, blindfolded and gagged. Breathing a sigh of relief Lewis immediately started pulling the blindfold and gag off of Nate and Rikki made her way into the closet to start cutting away at the ropes with her pocket-knife. I stood in the doorway of the closet facing the hallway, watching for any unwanted visitors. The second Nate realized that it was just us he calmed down.

"Thank god it's you guys! They've got Cleo, they… they drugged me, they made me leave her a message… I think they've got Zane, too – I heard his voice, I know I did, he sounded upset."

A pause filled the air and I heard Lewis sigh as he helped Nate up out of the chair quickly.

"They didn't kidnap him, Nate – he's one of them. He works for Denman; he's the one that brought Cora in." I heard Lewis's voice shake a little and bit my lip briefly as I watched realization wash over Nate's face.

"He really snapped, then. I can't believe it," His voice sounded so sad, and I felt a little pang of guilt – Zane was Nate's best friend and I knew that he hadn't wanted to admit that there was something wrong with Zane even when we all knew there was, and this was a horrible way to realize the truth. I watched his face blank momentarily but he shook it off quickly and looked at Lewis, "We started moving, didn't we? I can feel this thing moving. I've gotta find Cleo, they want to hurt her… God I don't even want to think about what they want to do… This is all my fault; I can't believe I gave in."

"You were drugged, Nate – this isn't your fault in the slightest, don't even try talking like that," Rikki said sharply, letting the rest of the ropes drop to the floor of the closet, "And you're not going to find anybody by yourself. I'll come with you."

"Rikki's right," I heard Lewis's voice in the dimness of the hallway next, "Splitting up is our best bet for now, at least. Rikki, you stay with Nate – Emma and I will take off the other way. And Nate… take this." I saw Lewis reach under his jacket and very discreetly pass Zane's gun to Nate. Nate blinked down at it and I could tell that even in the dark he recognized his friend's property right away.

"Where did you get this?"

"He dropped it in the restaurant when he took her," Lewis was speaking through his teeth now but I could hear that he was trying to keep himself calm; it wasn't Nate he was after, after all, "I'm not telling you to use this, but if you have to…" He trailed off, "You know that these people are killers, Nate." It was silent for a second and then Nate nodded.

"I know. But I'm not going to let them touch her," He muttered as he and Rikki stepped out into the hall with Lewis and I. He stared at Rikki for a second and then looked up at Lewis. Even though it was dark, I could feel the hesitation in the air, "What's our plan?"

"You two head that way. Stay hidden and keep quiet. Rikki is great at creating distractions if you run into anybody, but if things turn ugly be as safe as you possibly can. If you find Cleo and Cora, get them down to the lower deck fast."

"What if we're too far out by then?" He asked. I felt strange buzzing in my skull. It may not have been a full moon, but the storm was messing with us; Rikki and I could both feel it. This was going to be a bad one. If Denman was smart, she wouldn't pull this boat out too far out into the ocean in the midst of a huge storm. However, with as reckless and ruthless as she'd gotten this time around I could never be certain I answered before Lewis even had a chance

"Let us worry about that." I said, glancing quickly at Rikki. She said nothing, but I knew she shared the same feeling that I was having; a strange kind of safe pressure from the incoming storm. I couldn't place what it was. I should be terrified – storms meant rain, rain meant tails and tails meant a major bruise in our plan to escape the yacht once we found Cleo and Cora. But for whatever reason, I of all people wasn't too worried. It didn't look like Rikki was either. I saw Lewis eye me curiously, but I kept my eyes fixed firmly on Nate. He seemed convinced by my words. It was quiet for a quick second and Lewis spoke up again.

"All right. You two, head that way. Be careful, the both of you. We'll see you down there." He said and nodded Rikki and Nate off. They turned and after a few seconds we couldn't see them anymore in the dark hallway. Lewis and I headed off in the opposite direction and I hadn't taken 5 steps before I felt the boat shift uneasily on the water and I had to reach out and steady myself on the wall. The storm was picking up.

Cora

I heard banging on the pipe behind me and I picked my head up a little. The banging hadn't come from my side. I slid my eyes open slightly and winced at the sight of my hands pinned to the table in front of me. There was a lot of blood but I could see that it wasn't anywhere near an amount that I should be concerned with. I was more concerned with the fact that the knife in my left hand had gone through sideways – straight through the middle. I didn't want to even think about how wide the blade was but I knew it had to have gone through at least one bone; I could feel my hand throbbing already. My fingers were trembling and I tried hard to stop them – the injuries were excruciating but were more painful if I moved my hands or fingers at all.

I bit my lip and shut my eyes again letting my head droop back down, trying to block it out. I realized that the pain from the knives in my hands had completely taken over the pain in my stomach from my brief meeting with Zane a minute ago. My throat felt raw. I didn't remember screaming when I was stabbed but I must have. I swallowed hard and ground my teeth together a little. I thought back to my vision from earlier and immediately felt nauseous. I needed to find Cleo, to prevent what I had seen from happening to her…

Then I heard the banging on the pipe again. This time, though, I heard a voice along with it. A scared, familiar voice that was muffled through the wall.

"Is someone there?!"

Cleo. I immediately leaned back in the chair I was in and gasped as the knives in my hands tugged at the end of my arms, keeping me from moving any further. I closed my eyes and bit down hard on my lip and gave my arms a quick tug as I tried to turn my body to the side to better face the wall behind me, dragging the cheap table with me. I shuddered a little when I realized the slight movement had caused another trickle of blood to seep out between my right hand and the table. Very carefully tilting my chair forward, I let it bang back against the pipe behind me.

"Cleo! Are you all right – are you hurt?!"

"I'm fine, just tied up. I heard a scream, are you in there alone? They've got Nate, they took him in because of me." I heard her voice and I could tell that she was crying. I felt the pain in my stomach throb again and got a little dizzy. I turned my head as far to the side as I could to examine the wall. Just next to the pipe was a tiny crack that I could see light shining through and just a tiny strand of curly brown hair.

"Yeah…" I accidentally felt my hands flinch and had to hold back a yell, "I'm alone. I'm gonna get you out of there, Cleo…" I tried to think as fast as I could, "What have they tied you with?"

"It feels like it's just thin rope." She responded. I paused for a second and looked down at myself. She had rope? I had chains hanging off of my legs and chair.

"Oh come on; really?!" She had rope? I had chains hanging off of my legs and chair, and my hands had been chained up at the beginning as well. They really weren't taking their chances when it came to me, were they. I groaned and shut my eyes for a second and started thinking again. This was going to make me slower in trying to free her and so I silently hoped that I wouldn't screw up. I had to move fast no matter how much it hurt. My eyes darted around the room quickly; it was empty and so I didn't have a ton of options, "Okay, Cleo… Just hang on for a minute, okay?"

"Okay…" She sounded so uneasy and I felt my stomach throb again.

I bit my lip and stared down at the table, knowing what it was that I had to do. I straightened sitting forward in my chair and looked down at the knives. I leaned down and took the handle of the knife in my left hand between my teeth and bit down as firmly as I could. I took a deep breath and shut my eyes and yanked my head upward as fast as I could. The feeling of the blade slicing back through my flesh was agonizing but now that I knew that Cleo could hear me, my body wouldn't let me scream. It was like the stupid Protector gene could tell that it would make her nervous and the sound just wouldn't come out. I dropped the knife out of my mouth back to the table and immediately took the other one, ripping it out just as fast. My stomach lurched nauseously and I let out a small yelp, quiet enough so that I wouldn't be heard and I dropped the second one as well.

I winced and looked down at my hands and realized I was panting; my left hand was swelling a little and I thought of the broken bone, but thankfully the knife that had cut through my right hand appeared to have just gone through flesh. My body shuddered hard and my now very bloody hands shook as I picked them up. Free from the table now I turned around in my chair to face the wall. I had something important to take care of.

"Cleo… I need you to stand up if you can and move as far to the other side of the crack as possible, okay?" I asked, trying to keep my voice from shaking. I looked down and realized that my hands were still bleeding.

"Okay, I'm there." I heard her respond. For a second, I felt the pain in my stomach go away and I smiled slightly – she trusted me. I was calming her down a little. I bit my lip slightly and stood up out of the chair. The second my hands were down at my sides they started throbbing like crazy and felt very, very warm. I shuddered a little and picked them up quickly. I eyed the wall between Cleo and I and cautiously raised my hands. I tried to clench my fingers.

"Gah…" I muttered quietly and winced, then tried shaking off the pain and gently pressed my hands up against the wall. I didn't know what I was doing exactly but I concentrated hard. I had one goal in mind and that goal was to get to Cleo. My skull was buzzing and my mind was sharp and I knew that I had to be in full blown Protector mode. I sighed and closed my eyes and felt the wall begin to tremble slightly in the places that I was touching it. I opened my eyes and raised my eyebrows. 'Well, if this was doing what I want it to do, then…' I ran my hands down the wall almost to the floor leaving long red streaks on the paint. I smirked a little. It was a small satisfaction but if there were ever a person who deserved a bloodstained wall it was Linda Denman. The wall continued to tremble and once I left the trail I pressed my hands firmly in the center of it. After a few seconds, I felt the wall start to crumble away under my hands as if I had punched through it. I slid my eyes shut and concentrated harder and before I knew it there was a decent-sized, albeit rough-looking hole in the wall.

I quickly looked down at the chains still hanging from my ankles holding me into the chair and started pulling them apart as fast as I could. It hurt badly to do much of anything with my hands but Cleo was waiting for me and I couldn't let her down. I grabbed the bloody knives from the table once I was free from the chair and stood up, still keeping my hands level with my chest and jumped through the hole, landing on my feet on the floor of Cleo's room. The thud of the landing made my hands throb again and I grimaced but turned to face Cleo.

"Cora!" I heard her sigh and the pain in my stomach ceased for a second and then came back. I ignored it and used one of the knives to cut through the ropes binding her hands together to the pipe. The act of using my hands to cut them was excruciating but luckily because of how sharp the blades were I only had to nick the ropes in order for them to pop off of her hands. Once I was done I let the ropes drop to the floor and the second she was free I felt Cleo throw her arms around me, "Oh my gosh, thank you so much Cora! We have to go find Nate, I—" She stopped herself from talking and I saw her eyes start to move down. I quickly realized that I was still bleeding and tried to move my hands around behind me before she noticed but it was too late. I felt my stomach lurch painfully as I watched her face fall sadly. Cleo's sad face was an absolute killer. "What… what happened to you?" I saw her reach out for my arms and I winced a little, trying to hold them back. She grabbed them anyway and I sighed and tried to keep my hands up in an attempt to not bleed all over my friend.

"We can worry about it later, all right?" I smiled a little in an attempt to calm her down and turned quickly and walked towards the door of the room. I jiggled the handle and found it locked, of course, "Damn."

"Wait… Give me one of those knives!" Cleo said. I blinked and handed her one of the blades, kind of embarrassed at the fact that I couldn't hold them properly.

"What are you going to do? Be careful with it, it's… really, really sharp." I winced at the memory and blinked down at my hands that were still shaking. I hissed a little at them. I realized the shaking was probably due to the nerves being severed and now they're panicking. 'Ugh. Sorry for getting you hurt, but please come through for me, Cleo needs you…' I thought, frustrated. Cleo looked at me and smiled and I watch as she slid the blade of the knife into the space between the door and the doorframe right below the lock and started carefully jiggling it around.

"I will be, don't worry." She reassured me. I felt my eyes get wider and I stared at her in disbelief.

"Cleo… you know how to jimmy locks?!" I asked. I couldn't believe what I was seeing; sweet little Cleo knew how to jimmy locks? She blushed a little and I felt bad for embarrassing her.

"Rikki taught me."

"That… makes more sense." I smirked a little and cradled my hands up to my chest. Maybe if I kept mentally asking them to cooperate with me despite the wounds, they would? I sighed – wishful thinking. In another second the lock clicked and Cleo carefully pulled the door open.

"We've got to find Nate." She said and I watched her look out into the hallway. Just seeing the worry on her face killed me and the painful knot in my stomach grew.

"We'll find him Cleo, I promise." I kept my voice calm and quiet and my hands throbbed as I stepped out into the hallway in front of her. I looked into the empty dark hallway and stood against the wall. I saw that she tried to come up next to me and stopped short, staying behind me.

"Cora… you're doing it again!"

"Doing what?"

"Your powers won't let me stand with you!" She said, pouting. I felt my cheeks get warm a little and I looked down, feeling another pang of guilt. I didn't realize that the Protector in me wouldn't let her come in front of me; it was like I had no control over it but I wasn't complaining. I was responsible for her, and there was no way I was going to let her get hurt on my watch. I cradled my hands against my chest and glanced down the dark hall. We could feel the boat rocking pretty badly and I knew that it was making her uneasy.

"Sorry… I can't switch it off. Come on, let's go find him." I started moving down the hall a few steps and heard Cleo speak after a second.

"This way." I heard her say, peering down the hall in the opposite direction. I tilted my head to the side; I wouldn't question her instincts, but I was curious, "I just have a better feeling about going this way to find him." She said quietly. I stood still for a second and nodded once before heading past her again, my Protector gene keeping her behind me again and head down the hallway quietly in the other direction.

My heart ached and I shut my eyes briefly. I knew that Lewis was safe, wherever he was – I could feel it. None of the people that I loved were hurt or being hurt and sensing that thankfully helped my nerves let up. However, now it was just a matter of keeping them all that way. We reached the end of the hall and turned the corner and I bit my lip slightly. A big part of me wished that Lewis, Emma and Rikki hadn't been drawn onto this boat. A big part of me wished that they were safe at home, that Lewis was in watching television for the night; that Emma and Rikki were in their apartment doing their homework. But an even bigger part of me knew that they were after us. The part of me that now knew they needed us. I glanced back at Cleo almost to make sure that she was still there and took a short breath to brace myself as the yacht swayed on the water a little harder. I sighed quietly and shuddered, letting my thoughts drift to Lewis and felt the dull pain from my stomach flood into my chest.

'Wherever you are, Lewis, please don't do anything crazy until I can get to you…'

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