Nexus: Well, here it is... Chapter 7! I know it's been a little while since Chapter 6 came out and despite my promise to update something else before this story, ideas are just buzzing like nuts to get this story done. As I suspected, my idea of sticking to my outlines didn't work, they were more like a set of guide lines in the end...

Zac: But you'll still end up at the same ending with the same story points?

Nexus: Most likely, unless my brain buzzes me a new idea to add any time soon. Now, onto the new chapter. And thanks to everyone who was reviewed, faved and folllowed up until now, it'd be a long list if I mentioned everyone who has done so... so you all have my greatest thanks and I love each and everyone of you ^_^ xxx

Chapter 7: The Escape

It had been two days since Zac was locked in his tank, thinking he was going to lose his mind if he stayed in it alone any longer.

His prayers were answered when Joanna unlocked the door to his room and walked in bearing good news, the sea demon in control.

"Don't seem so down Zac. You might want to try and act nice to me for what I'm about to do," Joanna said.

The seal of the porthole was lifted and a small creature was dropped in. It took Zac a few seconds to realise what it was, and more importantly who it was.

"Amy!" He screamed in happiness as he swam up to meet his friend with a hug. Amy was a small baby white spotted seal that Zac had seen and made good friends with out and around in the oceans. He didn't just stick to the Australian Coast, he ventured out further one day after leaving early and met Amy, his best ocean friend. Being a merman, he could understand her small cries as if she was speaking like she was a human.

After a long hug with her, he released his hold and turned back to Joanna. "Why would you do this for me?" Zac asked.

Once Joanna's men replaced the porthole seal and left the room, the sea demon inside her explained. "I'd been out and about and was there when you made such good friends with Amy. Yesterday you seemed really gloomy and depressed, so I thought you could use a friend to cheer you up."

Zac glared back at her realising that something couldn't have been right with this.

"Look, I can't have this woman's test subject getting all gloomy and depressed alright!? I didn't want to find her but I did so that you would seem slightly happier," Joanna explained.

Zac didn't know what to say. He was just happy right now to have a friend to keep him company. Right now he was totally trapped inside a tank in a rather secure Experiment Centre that wasn't known by many and had little to zero chance of escaping/ leaving any time soon. He knew he would just have to stay content.

"Well, if there is nothing more to say, then you will remain here with Amy for as long as I see fit." Joanna then left the room and locked to door.

Amy followed Zac down to the bottom of the tank and settled up along side him, letting out a small cry.

"I don't know how long we'll be here. We could be here forever at this rate," Zac said responding to her cry.

It was getting rather late so Zac settled down and eventually fell asleep. Amy rested up against him, offering Zac some comfort.

It had been roughly another two weeks and Zac was still locked away in his tank.

"Hey Joanna, why haven't you done anything about Zac recently?" John asked suspiciously.

"I have my reasons. I have no more research to do on him now but I'm not just going to release him back into the wild," she replied, the sea demon still in control all the time.

John could sense that something wasn't right, but he wasn't going to push Joanna on the issue.

- In Zac's room -

The door opened rather quickly and woke up a sleeping Zac and Amy as a flash of light flooded the room. Zac looked up once the light died down a little and saw the same woman who had been bringing him his and Amy's food for the last two weeks.

She climbed up the ladder with a bowl of sea food, mainly prawns, some tuna and a lobster, for both of them to eat. She opened the small porthole and dropped the food in for them. She walked back down the ladder and watched as both of them gathered it up and brought it back down to the bottom, feasting on it the second they got there.

The girl had never spoken to Zac once, but finally worked up the courage to see if he would respond to her.

"Hi," she said shyly.

To her surprise, Zac stopped eating and looked up at her, Amy just carrying on eating.

"Hey," he replied slowly. He was a little surprised, this girl had never talked to him before.

"Um, is the food- alright?" She eventually stumbled out.

"Yeah it's fine," Zac replied, still a little shook by human contact after so long.

"Listen I- I've wanted to talk to you for a while now but I always kept on wondering if you would reply to me, so I backed down. I guess I should say thanks for not ignoring me like you do with Joanna," the girl said rather softly.

Zac looked away in detest when he heard Joanna's name.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to bring her up," the girl apologised.

"It's okay," Zac replied sighing. "It's not your fault or anything."

The girl smiled happily to herself for a second or two. She'd never been able to work up the courage to talk to Zac ever before.

"You know, it's funny," she said to herself.

"What's funny?" Zac asked confused.

"I've seen you around many times and yet I've never talk to you before. This is the first contact you and I have ever made," she replied, as she began taking off her glasses and untying her hair.

As she did so, Zac slowly realised who this girl was.

"Marie Westhall?" Zac said rather loudly in shock.

"Shush! I'm not even supposed to still be here you know," she replied, putting a finger to her lips. "But yes, it's me, the really quiet one from nearly all your classes in Sun Coast High." Marie was almost as tall as Evie was, if not a little shorter. She had luscious green eyes and long flowing blonde hair, but she had it previously tied up in a spiky bun. She also wore a pair of fake glasses as they obscured her identity as she was known for having rather good eye sight.

Amy had finished eating her food and swam over to where Zac was, pressing her face right against the glass, looking at Marie. "So, you're Amy right?"

Amy cried back at her and swam round for a little bit, providing some entertainment and light heartedness.

Zac couldn't believe his this. The one person he'd got human contact with was a girl he'd seen loads in life but never talked to. "So, the one time I actually talk to you is one the one time you see me like this?"

"I know, I can't still fathom it myself," Marie replied. "This has been bugging me for a while now, but who on land knowns you're like this?"

It didn't take Zac long to think about that. "There's Cam, Nixie, Lyla, Sirena, David and Joe."

Marie was a little shocked that six people knew about him, but a little bit more shocked by three people not mentioned.

"So, your parents and even your own girlfriend don't know about you?"

Zac looked away in sadness for a second.

"Zac?"

"I've wanted to tell Evie for the longest time now," he said in a low sad tone. "But I've never been able to work up the courage and tell her. I guess I'm afraid of what will happen if I do. And I can't tell my parents, dad's a doctor after all."

Marie never looked at it in that way before. He was just scared of what she would think.

"So how come everyone else you mentioned knows. Accidents or?"

Zac sighed, he was going to have to obscure some of the moments here. "Cam was the first one I told about it, since I was in such shock from it all, and he's helped me through with it. There was an incident where I got caught on some netting and Joe saw me and chased me out to Mako. David went with him and eventually both found out. As for the girls, if you remember the pool party Evie threw me, Cam shoved me into the pool and those three were there when at the time." He completely left out the fact that the three girls were mermaids, he couldn't risk that kind of info in a place like this.

"Sounds like you've been through a lot then," Marie replied after taking it all in. "But, there's still one thing I don't get? Joanna's done all her research yet she's still keeping you prisoner and she hasn't given anyone a reason for it."

Zac couldn't tell Marie about the sea demon inside her, so he lied. "I don't know myself. All I know is that I've just got to stick it out until I'm let free. I don't know how long it will be... but know that I've got Amy, and you, I know I'll be okay."

Marie smiled at his words whilst Amy tackled his face, nuzzling him in happiness.

"Marie! Aren't you done feeding him!?" A voice called rather angrily from down the hall.

"Coming Joanna!" Marie called back as she hurried and grabbed the empty bowl. "I have to go Zac, I'll see you next feeding time!" She ran out of the door and pulled it shut as she left.

Zac settled back down at the bottom of the tank with Amy, just happy to have found some human contact.

- Meanwhile, on land -

During the two weeks that had gone by, life on land had been hectic. Word of Zac's disappearance had broken out and was all over the Australian news. The mermaids and Rita were still working their hardest with Rita's many contacts to try and find Zac, but they still weren't getting anything. They'd done god knows how much research in Joanna Fischer and her many research labs and experiment centre's.

Zac's parents, Evie and Cam had been working like nuts themselves, trying to get some sort of lead on Zac. Evie did ask Sirena if she knew anything but Sirena had to lie to her and say that she knew nothing. Evie was getting rather suspicious of the newcomers since they had spent plenty of time with Zac before, and even her own Principal seemed rather interested in him since he changed suddenly.

Evie had only one clue to go on. A year ago she did work experience at an experiment centre that had its own passage system and wasn't anywhere near the gold coast area. She didn't know the name of it but she still had her key card for the docs passage system. She didn't know what possessed her to think that Zac would be out there or around the area, but she thought it was worth a shot. What if Zac had been helping out Joanna and since no news was passed down, no-one knew anything?

She left her house and headed out to Zac's house. She rang the doorbell and was greeting by Zac's mum.

"Hey Evie," Mrs Blakely said cheerfully.

"Hi Mrs Blakely. I need a favour," Evie said bluntly.

"What kind of favour?" She asked.

"Could I borrow the key to Zac's boat tied up at the dock?" Evie asked back, flinching slightly.

"Sure, I don't see why not. Going out on another dive are we?"

Evie knew that so wasn't the reason, but she went along with it.

"Yeah, we would have used dad's boat but the motor went bust so he sent me round to ask if we could borrow it for a while," Evie lied.

"Oh, it's no problem then, give me one second," Mrs Blakely replied as she went inside to get the key. She walked back to the door and tossed it to Evie.

"Take good care of it alright?"

"I shall do," Evie replied happily. Now she had a boat to get her to her destination.

"Bye Evie," Mrs Blakely called as she closed the door.

Evie rushed over to the dock where she'd left her back with some food and drink, and her EC42 Key card, and hopped aboard Zac's boat, driving it out of the canal and into the open ocean. It was going to get dark but she didn't care. Night time was a better time to investigate anyway, less people around.

- At Rita's place -

"Should we be worried about tonight?" Sirena asked.

"I don't know really," Rita replied. "It may be a full moon but we don't know if Zac has any way of being in sight of it. He might see it, he might not see it, we'll never know. If he does see it, we can only hope that nothing bad happens.

Lyla was really worried. She knew herself how strong the pull of the moon was and knew that if Zac saw it, there was no telling what would happen to him. Was his whole being a merman thing only a one moon cycle like Nixie first thought? Would nothing happen at all? All she could do was last it out and hope for the best.

- The same night -

Back at the room that Zac was being held in, there was a small window on the ceiling that allowed Light to get in. It was only a small window, but it was more than enough.

Zac woke up as he felt a light slowly creeping into the room. He looked up at the small window and was completely phased when the light of the full moon hit his eyes.

Amy looked up to see Zac completely fixated at the moon and began shaking him. Despite her efforts, Zac wasn't moving.

After taking a deep breath in, Zac just snapped!

He began thrashing his tail against the glass, desperate to get out of the tank, scaring poor Amy in the process.

Because it was so late at night, though, no-one else was around to see this or hear this happening.

After about 5 minutes of constant glass smashing attempts, Zac suddenly stopped, his body becoming very weak as he fainted to the bottom of the tank. Amy tried to wake him up but to no avail. She eventually just went back to sleep and hoped that Zac was okay after what happened.

Half an hour later, Zac stirred from his sudden faint, much to the surprise of Amy.

Amy cried at his and shot right into his chest for a cuddle.

"I'm fine Amy, what's wrong?" Zac asked looking at the saddened face of his seal friend.

Amy explained to Zac in short cries what he'd done.

"I see, the full moon huh?"

Amy cried to him again, but with a plan in mind.

Zac eyes shot open at the idea of the plan. Yeah it was crazy nuts and it would drain loads of energy from his body but it was worth it if he could pull it off.

Amy noticed that Zac's tail bashing had created a small dent in the tank's wall, all he would need to do was keep on smashing away at it with Amy's help until it broke and then escape using his powers to open all the locked doors and make a break from this place. He didn't know where he would go, but it would be far away from this place.

Zac and Amy spent the next two hours knocking away at the dent, making slow but steady progress on the crack. Amy took one rather large swing at it with her tail that seemed to have made good work on it. Soon after she did though, the glass cracked and the water from the tank flooded the entire room.

Zac then proceeded to use his powers to dry up all the water in the room. It seems the full moon gave him a boost in his powers as the speed the water was disappearing at was much faster than ever before. Within 5 minutes, Zac was done and he himself was dry. He scooped Amy up into his arms as she just looked at him with here small eyes open as wide as they would do.

Lucky for Zac, Joanna had left an area plan of EC42 open for viewing on her desk which Zac had been studying for quite some time. Using his spare hand that wasn't supporting Amy, he unlocked the door to his room, surprised that no alarms were sett off or anything. EC42 may have been an extensive research centre but because it was so obscure, not much security was ever put in.

After a long time of remembering the map and getting lost once or twice, Zac and Amy eventually found their way out of the front door of EC42 and made a break for the open Ocean.

Amy was so happy to be back in the water just then, she hated being out of the water for too long, even just those few minutes. She cried at Zac, asking him about the whole human thing.

"Yeah, I never told you about that did I?" Zac replied, feeling slightly guilty. Amy thought he was a fully fledged merman, not a half human breed.

Nonetheless, Amy still gave him a nuzzle around the face and began heading out with Zac. She cried, asking him what he was going to do now, since Amy herself had to get home.

"I don't know where I'll go. I guess I'll find somewhere to sleep for the night and then try and find those girls," Zac replied, giving his friend a hug goodbye.

Once Amy had left the area, Zac decided to head to the one part of a nearby beach that he knew would be secluded at this time of night.

Oh how wrong he was. When he got there, he could hear incessant screams and burst of anger on the shore. He slowly popped his head up out of the water and saw the last thing he needed to see right now.

When Evie was heading out towards EC42, she'd gotten herself a little bit lost. Not only that, the boat's motor had really given in. The one thing Evie lied about was the one thing that happened to happen with her. She'd dragged the boat onto the shore and was shouting as she tried to fix the motor, but to no avail.

"Evie?" Zac said without even realising it.

Evie suddenly shot her head around to see the source of her name being called.

"Zac?" Evie said breathlessly. Was she just hallucinating right now? No, Zac was really here! "Zac!" She began wading out into the water to come to him.

"No Evie, stay back a minute," Zac asked her as he swam back a little.

"Why? Look, am I hallucinating or is that really you I'm seeing?" Evie asked back.

"Oh no, it's me alright," Zac replied, turning his head.

"You've been declared missing for nearly three weeks now Zac! And you suddenly turn up here? What's been going on? Where did you go, where have you been?" There was anger and yet happiness in her voice and she fired off these questions to her boyfriend.

Zac didn't reply to anything and just looked away.

Evie noticed that he didn't seem well. His cheeks were flushed but his skin was really pale and he looked rather sickly. His eyes were full of pain and misery and his face devoid of all life.

"Maybe you should come ashore and we can talk," she suggested in a soft tone, as she walked back out onto land.

She turned around to see that Zac hadn't moved.

"Zac?"

"I can't," he said plainly.

"What do you mean you can't? Can't what?" Evie asked confused.

"I can't come on shore right now," he replied in a low tone.

Evie just stared at him dumbfounded and angry.

"There's a really good explanation as to why I can't," he said taking in a deep breath. Right now, he had to tell Evie.

"I'm... I- eh," he stumbled.

"Just say it already Zac!" Evie shouted at him.

"I'm a merman alright!?" Zac shouted back even louder, taking short breaths of air in afterwards.

"What?" Evie asked in shock.

"I'm a merman," he re-enforced.

Evie didn't know how to respond right now.

"I've wanted to tell you for ages," he said with a tear in his eye as he lifted his tail out of the water for Evie to see, Evie herself jumping back a bit when she saw it.

"How long?" She eventually asked. "How long have you been like this?"

"Just under two months," Zac replied in a sad tone.

Evie couldn't believe him. "Two months? I guess I'm not the first person who knows either?"

"No," Zac replied, looking away from her.

"So who else? Cam maybe? What about David? Or those girls who always seem so interested in you?"

"It's a long story Evie and one that I don't have time to explain," Zac told her briefly, swimming closer and closer to a rock that was only a metre off the shore line. "Short story, I'm in trouble right now and I need your help." He was desperate now.

"Why should I help you?" Evie growled.

"That scientist Joanna Fischer, I've been her captive test subject this entire time," Zac explained.

Evie was a little thrown off by this. "But she told the media that she hadn't-"

"She hasn't told the media anything for several good reasons! She's being controlled by an evil power and I've only just managed to escape the place. Took nearly two hours of slapping a glass tank to get out but it was worth it." He sighed for a second. "I still need your help."

"Fine," Evie replied. "But I want you to tell me everything. The whole truth, not a single detail left out understood?"

"Understood," Zac replied as he pulled himself up onto the rock and steam dried himself.

When he stood up, Evie couldn't take her eyes off of him. "How did you?"

"Part of the tail deal. I'll explain it all later yeah?" Zac jumped off of the rock and down onto the beach where Evie was standing.

"We'll go to my place, get some rest and we'll talk in the morning," Evie said sharply as she looked around the boat. "Only issue is getting back."

Zac looked over at the busted motor and had an idea. He dived back into the Ocean and used his powers to drag the boat back out next to him.

Evie just looked at him again, her initial shock wearing off pretty quickly. There was only so much she could take in. Zac steered the boat over towards where Evie was and motioned for her to get on.

"I'll just have to drag it back with me then," he said as he dived under the water and swam a few metres out in front of the boat. He then flicked his hands backwards and began using his telekinesis to bring the boat with him.

The ride home to Evie's gave her lots of time to think over everything that had happened. Inside she was as furious as hell at Zac for not telling her about what happened to him. But with the state he was in and all the business with the marine biologist, she knew she would have to be just a little bit soft on him. It wasn't a good idea to herself so worked up over it and make Zac scared of her.

After some sleep, even though it was 5 in the morning, Evie would be getting all the answers she wanted.

Nexus: I can't ignore this story right now... I'm too attached to it, plus people seem to really like this which makes me happy. I think this is the first fanfic I've been so excited about. I've already started work on Chapter 8 which you'll be seeing either tomorrow or sometime middle of the week probably. If work becomes too much, it'll be the weekend before I post it.

I hope everyone liked this chapter and I hope you're all looking forward to the next one ;) xxx