“You are about an asshole, you know that?” he turned to Temilyn.

“Get in that god damn bar!” growled Zane, shoving Temilyn rudely through the door.

—

She appeared in the doorway.  Her hair was died blood crimson.  She came toward him and put her arms around him.

—

“I don’t care!” he shouted over the storm.  “I don’t god damn care!  Get out of my way!”

Zack hit him as hard as he could but it barely slowed Zane down — instead he hit back harder, full of the fury of the dead.  The rain poured down upon them as they staggered back and forth across the tilted surface of broken wood, slipping and turning in the raging fury of the storm.   They rained blows on each other as they had never done before, their furious shouting lost in the howling wind.  Zack had to wonder as he fought with all his might whether it would be worth it to kill Zane just to keep him from his idiot quest, when all he was fighting for was to keep Zane from killing himself.  At last, soaked to the bone with rain and blood — his own and Zane’s — he sank to his knees exhausted, , unable to keep up the onslaught, holding up his hands in surrender.  “You win you idiot!” he screamed, barely able to see Zane through the gray haze of the downpouring rain.  “Go ahead!  Leave Marina!  Leave everyone!  Go get yourself killed!”

But Zane was already turning away, turning toward the oncoming wave of living water that raged toward them, about to get lost in the tempestuous oblivion — until Cassie appeared, pointing a gun straight at him.

He was exhausted and barely conscious.  They half-walked, half-carried him down to the park where Marina had pitched the hospital.

—

“The message was, ‘Tell Marina to forgive herself, and rule.'”

She had to turn her face away, blinded by tears.

—

“You want to belong, you know you do.”

“You have no idea how much you piss me off when you say things like that, you normo piece of crap.”

—

He pushed the henchman’s leg back up and leaned forward, showing him the knife.  “I could cut this hamstring like cutting up a steak sandwich.  If you didn’t get to a doctor in time, you would never walk again.  Do you understand?”  He held the blade near the minion’s face and the thug nodded warily, knowing he was risking all in that moment.  “So you had better tell me what I want to know, because I have nothing to lose and you are in my way right now.  Who sent you?  Was it Kire?”

Wounded and covered in blood as he was, the thug still gave a weary laugh.  “Why go to all the trouble, asshole?  We killed your father, we’re going to kill you one way or the other -” he interrupted himself with a brutal cry as the flesh of his leg was cut two inches deep and he began to bleed.  He thrashed violently but Zack had all the leverage and held him down so he could only hurt himself more.

“Good luck walking, scumbag.  Tell me now you little son of a bitch or it’s going to hurt worse!  It’s going to go on for a long time and it’s never going to get better!  I want answers!”  He pushed the blade against the man’s chest, cutting the fabric of his black uniform.

Pinned against the wall, he could do nothing but glare at Zashic and spit the words through his teeth.  “Of course it was Kire!  Who else would it be?  It was Kire and the entire rest of the government.  You aren’t getting it.  It’s over, don’t you understand?  We own it!  There is no way to fight.  There is nowhere you can hide.  The satellites can track you wherever you go within 300 miles.  You are totally fucked!” he shouted.  “You let me go now or I’m going to make sure you go through hell a hundred times worse than this.  I swear!”

Zack had had enough so he simply slashed the throat and the soldier slumped to the ground, bleeding his life into the carpet where Zack had played hide-and-seek as a child.  But there was no time to think about that now.  He stood up and turned to go — only to look up and Adrial standing at the top of the stairs, looking down at him coldly.  She had seen the whole thing.  His heart sank, but he had to move fast.

“So now you know what I am,” he said, “and why I have nightmares.  I wish I had time to talk to you about this but we have to get you out of here now.  Your best bet is to go home and say I forced you to stay here while I fought.   You don’t have to hide anything else.  A lot of people know we’ve been broken up for a while. Just tell them the truth, that you had no idea what was going on –”

She interrupted him.”I’m not leaving you, Zack.” she said urgently.  Her eyes were glistening, ferocious.  “Let’s get in the spinner and get out of here.”

Zack took a deep, exasperated breath.  Even now, she was still busting his balls.  “My brother and Kire are conspiring against my whole family, Adrial.  They’re going to make me out like a traitor.  I can’t protect you — ”

“I said no!” she screamed.  She ran down the stairs at him and began striking him with her fists.  “We don’t have time for this.  You are not going to leave the only person in the world who is on your side.  I won’t let you.  Tell them you kidnapped me if you want, but you are not leaving me here!” she sank her fingers into the flesh of his arms and stared into his eyes.  “Now, Zack!  Let’s get in the god damn spinner and go! Don’t argue!”

He calculated the odds with speed he’d learned on the battlefield. He knew it was better to move than stay and struggle with her. Also,if they got caught she could still claim that he had kidnapped her.  “Okay, move.  Quickly. Stay low and stay away from the windows.”  They began to run down the hall but it was no use.  The enemy spinner spotted them and glowing hot rain of blaster fire poured in on them.  They made it to