Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 79th cycle. Now cycle 80!

"Yellow Brick Roads"
In Gen2!World: G1!Santana, G2!Sue
Berry-St series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

She'd been so upset, with Rachel, with Quinn, with herself really, that she hadn't felt the symptoms coming on. Even if she had, she likely wouldn't have understood what they signalled. But then all of a sudden, she'd felt herself fall, heard an echo of Rachel's plaintive cry, and then… nothing. The next thing she knew, she was waking up, lying sideways on her bed as though she'd taken an unexpected and highly determined face plant.

It took a few moments for her to realize something was wrong. She hadn't been in her room, had she? No, she was at Rachel's house, so how had she ended up here, like this? It wasn't as though Rachel had brought her back here, and if she had, she wouldn't have brought her around her bed and left her the way she woke up. Had she just blocked the last part out? She had always believed she was not far off from a rage blackout sometime in her life, and she had been rather upset with Rachel, but this much?

It was morning, so she'd put these thoughts aside long enough to start getting ready for school. It wasn't until she was grabbing her bag to head down for breakfast that she saw what was missing. There was no sign whatsoever of her involvement with Glee Club in this room. She had enough pride in her accomplishments that she put them on display here, but it was all gone, so what…

"Oh…" she stopped short as it started coming together. Had she not been living around those guys long enough to understand what was happening? But it couldn't be, not with her, right? She was not part of this, she wasn't… What if she had really been switched, sent to that other place? She had to know for sure.

When she made it to school, she had such a slow, tentative walk, that it was a wonder no one was looking at her like the girl who'd partied too hard the night before and was still a little bit drunk or hung over. She didn't know what her tactic was, but then she stopped in front of the trophy case, her eyes drawn to a newspaper clipping, a photo… McKinley High student, Matthew Rutherford, died last weekend as a result of… Her heart felt like it had taken a header off a long and steep staircase. She'd known about this, vaguely, from that other Mike, and Kurt, and Quinn, but to see it like this…

She was just barely keeping it together, keeping herself from crying, when she saw a reflection in the trophy case's glass that stopped her and made her turn slowly.

There was Rachel, walking down the hall, walking past her, with a smile on her face… over to Quinn, who was smiling back, waiting for her. She watched as the girl leaned in, kissing the blonde in that same way she would kiss her, the way that would make the world vanish for a moment. When they parted, they spoke for a few more seconds, then Rachel went on her way. Santana blinked, realizing she'd been staring a bit too intently. But as she looked again, she could see Quinn sharing a look with someone further up the hall… Jesse. Her shoulders were up, head tilted just barely, in a way Santana could only explain as 'I had no choice.'

It took everything Santana had not to react. She turned back toward the case, thinking. That was not her Rachel, that was the other one. That was the girlfriend of the Quinn currently in her world, the one who'd kissed her Rachel, the girlfriend her Rachel had pretended to be, to comfort that Quinn. So this meant that the Quinn here, the one who'd shrugged at Jesse, was the one that belonged to her world, who'd been sent here after being in another place already, just like her Rachel had said. That was all it was. This was not her Rachel, and she would repeat it to herself every two seconds if she had to, if it helped make her nerves settle down.

Then she wondered if they would know. If she didn't tell anyone, would those guys realize she wasn't the same Santana who'd been there the day before? Would they be able to tell the difference? Maybe she'd find that out for herself and…

"Santana, my office, now!"

She turned to see Coach Sylvester staring at her, and out of habit, she hurried off to do as she'd told. At least some things remained the same.

Santana thought she'd be just fine, for having gone through these kinds of sit downs many times before. Except she couldn't get that image out of her head, Rachel kissing Quinn… In her head, there was no telling who was who, her Rachel or the other one, this Quinn or that… All she saw was her girlfriend kissing another girl, and it made her feel dizzy. The longer she thought about it, the more heated she remembered it being, too, so much so that by the time the coach started talking, she was picturing Rachel pressing Quinn to the lockers, ravaging her…

"I need your assistance on a certain delicate matter," Sue started, and Santana blinked, looking at her.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Well, it's good to know I command so much attention," Sue frowned.

"Sorry, I…"

"Two apologies in as many replies, what's going on with you?" Santana wasn't sure what it was about her tone that was so inviting, but the next thing she knew, she was saying a lot of things maybe she shouldn't have been saying.

"You ever wake up in the morning feeling like you don't know where you are or how you got there, and it feels like the entire world is different? Well, that was me this morning, except it wasn't all in my head, I literally got thrown into another place. I don't belong here." There was too much going on in her head, and for lack of anyone else she would dare mention any of this to, before she knew it, she was telling the whole thing to Sue Sylvester, all about her own version of McKinley, and how some of them from this place here had already been there, and now she was, too.

When she'd stopped, Santana had finally remembered where she was, and who she was talking to, and she felt she might have made a huge mistake. Sue sat back in her chair, staring at her, and Santana would have given anything to know what was going through her head.

THE END

A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!