I forgot to mention during the last chapter that this takes place in the Buffyverse, but the Buffy characters don't necessarily exist in this world, so no multiple Slayers.
Thank you to everyone that commented on the last chapter.
Enjoy...
Chapter 2 – Deep End
"What was that? They-they just exploded into dust!"
Quinn was staring at her with her mouth agape, not even bothering to hide the fact that the stake and cross were still in her hands. She was prepared for vampires tonight, not for Rachel Berry. She wanted to run away and pretend this never happened, but she couldn't just leave Rachel all alone in a dangerous graveyard. What the hell was she doing out here, anyway?
"What the hell are you doing out here?" Quinn asked, taking a few steps toward Rachel so she was standing just a foot from her. "Do you just like troll the graveyard at night or something."
Rachel frowned, looked to the side, and looked like she was about to cry. Quinn rolled her eyes and followed Rachel's gaze; it took her a second to notice it, but when she did, she felt like someone had punched her in the gut.
Hiram Berry
"Oh," Quinn said upon realization.
"What was that, Quinn?" Rachel whispered as a tear streaked down her cheek.
"Go home, Berry," Quinn demanded.
Rachel huffed. "I didn't walk all this way just to walk back. First, you're going to tell me what I saw. Why are you fighting with some woman, in the middle of the night, in a graveyard?"
"You walked here?" Quinn angrily asked. "Do you know how dangerous that is?"
Rachel scoffed. "Don't pretend you care for my wellbeing."
"God help me," Quinn said, grabbing Rachel by her arm and pulling her along.
"Ouch," Rachel said, trying to retract her arm from Quinn's grasp, but it was too strong. "Where are you taking me?"
"To my car," Quinn said loudly, bending down and grabbing her bag. "I'm taking you home."
"But I just got here!" Rachel protested.
"And now you're going home," Quinn said, opening the passenger door and pushing Rachel inside.
As soon as she got into the car, Rachel's eyes were glued onto her. "What's a Slayer?"
"Nothing," Quinn replied.
Rachel frowned. "Why did that woman turn into dust?"
"No idea what you're talking about," Quinn lied.
"Yes you do!" Rachel yelled. "I'm not crazy; I know what I saw!"
Quinn stayed silent and Rachel crossed her arms, huffing. "How do you even know where I live?"
"The Cheerios might have TPed your house last year," Quinn answered.
"I knew that was you guys," Rachel mumbled.
When Quinn pulled into Rachel's drive, they both got out of the car.
"Do you really need to walk me to my door?" Rachel asked.
"Yes," Quinn replied, following beside Rachel until she was right at the front door.
"Are you going to follow me in too?" Rachel asked rolling her eyes.
"Listen to me," Quinn said, pulling Rachel's arm so the brunette was facing her. "Do not go out after dark again, okay, and especially not alone to a graveyard."
Rachel was looking at the blonde like she was crazy. "Whatever you say, Quinn."
"No." Quinn pulled her back. "Promise me."
"If I promise, will you let go of my arm?" Rachel asked.
"Yes," Quinn replied.
"Fine, then," Rachel said, pulling her arm away. "I promise I won't go out after dark even though I think you've lost your mind. And are you ever going to tell me what the hell I saw back there?"
Quinn opened the door for her and pushed her inside. "No."
With that, Quinn shut the door in Rachel's face and walked back to her car. She knew Rachel would never give it up, but she was going to deal with it another day. Maybe with some luck, Rachel would wake up thinking it was all a dream like Quinn had.
"Why the hell is that Hobbit staring at you?"
Quinn followed Santana's eyes and saw that Rachel was standing near her locker, staring in Quinn's direction. It made the blonde uneasy because Rachel clearly had not forgotten what she saw the previous night. She knew Rachel wouldn't forget, but part of her had still hoped. With everything going on it her life, she really didn't need Rachel questioning her every chance she got. Mostly she was wondering why of all people it had to be Rachel Berry there in that graveyard. Clearly the universe was mocking her.
Quinn shrugged. "Who knows?"
"Why don't I go do something about it then?" Santana said, smiling.
Quinn tried grabbing Santana's arm to stop her, but the girl was already off and walking down the hall. "Santana! Brittany, we have to stop her."
Brittany looked at her and frowned. "When did you start caring about Rachel?"
"Please, Brittany!" Quinn begged. "Just do something to get Santana away from her."
Quinn was terrified that Rachel would spill what she saw; she didn't know if anyone would believe it, but it could certainly make her life more difficult. She knew if roles had been reversed, she would be using the knowledge to her advantage. If she was picked on every single day and suddenly had dirt on the most popular girl in school, there would be no way she wouldn't blackmail her. Maybe Rachel was better than that, but she sure as hell didn't want to push her.
Brittany nodded, seeing the panic in Quinn's eyes, and started walking after Santana. Quinn stayed by her locker and watched them, too afraid to go over.
Santana was already at Rachel; Quinn didn't know what her friend was saying to the brunette, but Rachel's face told her enough. As soon as Brittany approached them, she whispered something in Santana's ear and the girl stopped talking. Quinn had no idea what Brittany said to her, but Santana linked arms with the blonde and they started walking away together.
Quinn breathed a sigh of relief and smiled—until Rachel looked over and she was filled with dread again.
Rachel closed her locker and started walking over to where Quinn was standing. The blonde thought about making a run for it, but her feet wouldn't seem to move. Instead, she quickly turned to her locker and pretended to be looking for something.
"Can we talk?"
"No," Quinn said, grabbing her Geometry book.
"We really need to talk," Rachel insisted.
"There's nothing to talk about!" Quinn whispered loudly, slamming her locker shut.
Undeterred, Rachel followed Quinn down the hall. "When I got home last night, I did a bit of research online and I found some very interesting websites. Do you want to know what I found?"
Quinn internally groaned, but stayed quiet, with her eyes facing forward; she hoped if she ignored the brunette long enough, she would take a hint and go away.
"I'll take your silence as a yes," Rachel said and Quinn rolled her eyes. "It was a very interesting website on the supernatural. It was actually a database of sorts and you could click on different descriptions and it would tell you what you're dealing with. So, I looked up things that explode into dust. There were several options, but then I remember what you had in your hand last night and I realized I was being stupid because it was so obvious you were fighting a vam—"
Quinn quickly clamped her hand over Rachel's mouth, grabbed her arm, and pulled her into the nearest bathroom. She nearly threw her through the door and was happy to see it was empty.
"Well that was rude," Rachel said, rubbing her arm.
"Listen to me," Quinn said, getting in Rachel's face. "You are going to shut the hell up about this right now. You're going to forget what you saw last night and you are never going to tell anyone else. Do you understand that?"
Rachel smirked. "I notice you're not actually denying anything I said."
"Oh my God," Quinn said, shaking her head. "Could you be any more infuriating?"
"The only thing I really don't understand is what a Slayer is," Rachel continued. "All I really found were websites for some metal band and a couple references to some video games."
Quinn rubbed her temples, sighing. "I swear, if you tell anyone about this—"
"Do you really think I'm going to tell people?" Rachel asked. "If I was going to do that, don't you think I would have done it first thing this morning? Besides, who is even going to believe me when I say I saw Quinn Fabray, head cheerleader and most popular girl at school, kill a vampire? I don't know what they would believe less— that vampires exist or that you were in a graveyard, fighting. Either way, people are going to think I'm crazy; it would be my word against yours and I don't think anyone would be taking my side on the issue."
"Well—thanks then," Quinn said, relieved that her secret was safe for now.
Rachel nodded. "Now can you tell me what a Slayer is?"
"No," Quinn said, rolling her eyes. "Get to class, Berry."
Quinn walked to the door shaking her head as Rachel called out to her, "I am going to find out whether you tell me or not!"
"Ooh, a slide!" Brittany clapped in excitement. "C'mon!"
"We'll be at the slide," Santana said to Quinn as she was pulled along by the excited blonde.
Quinn smirked. "Have fun."
"You showed up," Puck said, coming over to Quinn and putting his arm around her shoulder.
"I did," Quinn said, pushing his arm off.
"Why do you have to be like that?" he asked, leering at her.
"In case you forgot, I just broke up with your best friend last week," Quinn reminded him. "Isn't it against some guy code to move in that quickly?"
"Finn doesn't care," Puck said, shrugging.
"Still not interested," Quinn said, trying to walk away.
"Come on," Puck said, catching up to her and trying to put his arm around her waist. "We'd be so hot together; you can't deny it."
"Puck, it's never going to happen," Quinn responded. "I know what you do with the girls you date—and I use that term loosely. You sleep with anything that moves and I'm not going to be another one of your conquests. In fact, I feel like I'm going to catch something just standing next to you."
"That hurts," Puck replied.
Quinn laughed. "Sure it does."
"Here," Puck said, walking past one of the picnic tables and grabbing a wine cooler. "Have this; it'll loosen you up a bit."
Puck wiggled his eyebrows and Quinn rolled her eyes as he walked away. She set the wine cooler back where it came from and looked around at everyone. It seemed like most of McKinley had turned out for Puck's end of the summer bash. He had the party every year on the first Saturday of September, at his uncle's lake house.
Quinn suspected the sole purpose of it was to get the girls at school drunk and half naked.
It was the one party of the year that everyone was invited to, but unless you were a jock or Cheerio, most didn't bother showing up. However, Quinn did notice that Tina, the loud mouth diva girl, and that Hummel kid had shown up.
Puck had walked over to the barbeque, where several other guys were laughing as they watched the girls prance around in the smallest bikinis they could find. Quinn rolled her eyes and was suddenly reminded why she said every year that she was never coming to this thing again. Next year she was really going to have to remember not to come.
"Quinn!" Brittany was yelling at her from the edge of the lake. "Come in!"
"Maybe in a bit," Quinn yelled back.
She walked over to Santana, who was sitting at the dock, with her legs dangling just above the water.
"Why aren't you in there?" Quinn asked.
"And mess up my hair?" Santana said, scoffing.
Quinn laughed. "I'm surprised Brittany didn't pout until you went in."
"I don't do everything Brittany wants," Santana replied.
"Sure you don't," Quinn said, grinning.
"I don't!" Santana insisted.
"Whatever you say," Quinn said, shaking her head.
"Bitch," Santana mumbled.
Quinn smiled to herself; it was funny and almost kind of cute how whipped Santana was when it came to Brittany. It was the one thing Quinn could always give her a hard time about. Santana would deny it, but Quinn knew she was completely in love with the blonde. She just wished Santana would realize it and stop worrying so much about what everyone else would think.
"Would you take your no neck self and leave us alone?"
Quinn looked to the edge of the party and saw a guy in a letterman jacket standing next to Tina and the Hummel kid—she thought his name was Kurt—standing there with his hands on his hips. She didn't know what was going on, but by the look on their faces, it was nothing good.
This was why the losers of McKinley didn't show up, and if they did, it was only once.
She sighed as she watched Tina push the guy away. "I'll be right back," she said to Santana as she stood up and dusted her shorts off.
Quinn made her way through the throng of people, which was easier said than done. Several times people tried to stop her to talk and she would politely—and sometimes not so politely—brush them off.
"What's going on?" Quinn asked when she finally reached the group she was trying to get to.
"I was just welcoming these guys to the party," the jock said.
Quinn didn't recognize him, but judging by the hair, he was one of the hockey team. "Yeah, well—why don't you go away before you make an even bigger ass of yourself?"
Kurt and diva girl were standing there with their mouths agape.
"Since when do you stick up for losers, Fabray?"
"Since some dumbass guy decided to harass a girl," Quinn replied. "You looked like you were a second away from groping her and I'm sure she did not appreciate it."
"I get it," the jock said, walking toward Quinn. "You want me all for yourself. I think I can arrange that."
Quinn watched him, disbelievingly, as he put his arm around her. "Remove your arm or I will remove it for you."
"Better?" Quinn felt his arm slide down to her butt.
Quinn smiled at him before elbowing him in the gut. When he doubled over in pain,Quinn grabbed him by the back of his jacket and threw him several feet into the water.
"Better?" she asked, smiling sweetly at him.
"Wow," Kurt said, walking next to her and staring at the soaking wet jock. "How did you throw him like that?"
Quinn's eyes widened for a moment. "Oh—Cheerios training."
"Impressive," Kurt said, giving her a smile. "Did you see that, Mercedes!"
So that was diva girl's name.
"Thanks," Tina said, shyly approaching Quinn.
Quinn gave her a smile. "Don't mention it."
"You really didn't have to do that, though," Tina said.
"I know," Quinn said. "Just like you didn't have to help me, but you did."
They smiled at each other and Quinn walked back to where she'd left Santana; her friend was staring at her with a mix of disbelief and astonishment.
"Did I just see you throw Cooper into the lake?" Santana asked.
Quinn shrugged. "Is that who that was?"
"Since when do you throw members of the hockey team into lakes?" Santana questioned.
"He put his hands on me," Quinn replied. "I did warn him."
Quinn's phone started buzzing and she pulled it out of her pocket to see her mom calling. "Sorry, it's my mother."
"Tell her I say hello," Santana said, smirking.
Quinn rolled her eyes; Santana knew Quinn's mother hated her. "Hello?"
"Quinn, honey, I need you home right now."
Quinn frowned. "I told you I was going to Puck's party today."
"Your father wants you home."
"Fine," Quinn said, sighing. "Bye.
She most definitely did not need her father hounding her, so it was always easier to go along with whatever he wanted. Plus, she'd really rather not be here.
"I have to go," Quinn said softly.
"But you just got here," Santana replied.
Quinn sighed again. "I know, but she was calling because my dad wants me home for some reason."
"You know, someone really needs to remove that stick from his ass," Santana replied.
"Yeah, yeah," Quinn said, smiling. "I'll see you Monday."
"Want me to do it next time I see him?" Santana shouted after her.
"So I've been doing some more research."
Quinn rolled her eyes. "Good for you, Berry."
"Do you want to know what I found?" Rachel asked.
"No, but I'm sure you're going to tell me anyway," Quinn replied.
Rachel smiled. "Well I didn't find a lot until late last night when I finally stumbled upon a site that made reference to the Slayer. While I have no way of knowing if anything I was reading was correct, it made for an interesting read. It said that the Slayer is imbued with superhuman powers and her goal is to stop the spread of evil in the world. When one dies, the next is called. The author of the website seems to think there's only one at a time, which really doesn't make any logical sense to me. If someone was going to give girls the power to fight evil, shouldn't they just give it to more than of them? I mean really, what can one girl really do? It also had information on girls that were believed to be previous Slayers, but it was all just conjecture."
Quinn opened her mouth and quickly closed it; this girl was definitely good at her research.
"So," Rachel said, grinning. "Was any of it correct?"
Quinn shrugged. "Still have no idea what you're talking about."
"You know I'm going to find out," Rachel replied. "I'm very persistent and I will not give up until I've found out the truth, so you should just tell me now and save us both the trouble."
Quinn shook her head and started walking down the hall, ignoring the brunette that she knew was following her.
"So how long have you been the Slayer?" Rachel asked, lowering her voice when a few students went by. "And who else knows? I imagine Brittany and Santana do since they're your best friends. I guess that means I could go question them about it since you won't tell me anything. Or at least Brittany; Santana would probably hit me if I even got within a few yards of her. Brittany's nice, though, and would probably be willing to talk.
Quinn stopped walking and turned toward the ranting girl. "Oh my God! Will you just stop talking? Brittany and Santana don't know anything so do not go asking them. The last thing I need is Santana trying to figure out what you're talking about because she's even worse than you when she wants to know something."
Rachel smiled. "Does this mean I'm the only one that knows?"
"Q, my office right now!" Sue was standing in the middle of the hall with her arms crossed.
"Yes, Coach," Quinn said, never so happy to see her."Gotta go."
Quinn left Rachel behind and followed Sue into her office. Her Watcher was already sitting behind the desk, eyeing her when she came in and sat down.
"Cheerios practice is cancelled today because that insipid Williams girl gave the flu to half the other girls," Sue said, shaking her head. "You have training right after school. Don't be late."
"Right," Quinn said, nodding.
Sue stared at her. "You seem awfully agreeable today."
"Just having a good day," Quinn lied, shrugging.
The truth was, Quinn was afraid of what she would say if she found out Rachel had seen her the other night. Sue had stressed the importance of no one finding out and then the next day, Rachel saw her. Quinn hadn't told her Watcher yet since she was hoping Rachel would keep her mouth shut and she wouldn't need to. Quinn really didn't want an hour long lecture of how she was the worst Slayer in the history of Slayers, which she could see Sue giving her.
Plus, she was just really happy right now that Sue had saved her from Rachel's interrogation, so she was likely to happily agree to anything right now.
"Stop looking so happy," Sue ordered. "It's making me feel queasy."
"Yes, Coach," Quinn said as she got up to leave the room.
As soon as she left the office, Quinn nearly collided with someone, causing her books to fly out of her hands. She reached down to pick up her notebook and English book from the floor.
"Sorry, Britt," she said as soon as she looked up and saw it was her friend that she'd run into.
Brittany nodded, but remained quiet.
"Are you okay?" Quinn asked.
"I'm fine," Brittany replied.
Quinn frowned; she'd never seen her friend like this before. Usually she was chipper—too chipper—and nearly vibrating with happiness. Right now she was expressionless and had no emotion in her voice, which unnerved Quinn.
"Are you sure?" Quinn asked.
Brittany nodded and started walking away without so much as a goodbye. Quinn watched her retreat down the hall and shook her head, wondering what Santana had done now to make the blonde so catatonic.
"Santana!" she said, causing the girl to turn around.
"Quinn!" Santana mocked; Quinn smacked her on the arm and scowled. "Ouch, what the hell was that for?"
"What did you do to Brittany?" Quinn asked loudly.
"What do you mean?" Santana asked. "I haven't even seen her yet."
Quinn frowned. "Did you two get in a fight last night?"
"What? No!" Santana said, rubbing her arm. "Okay seriously, Fabray, when the hell did you learn to hit so hard."
Quinn felt slightly guilty at this; she still wasn't used to how much strength she had. "Clearly something is wrong with her and you're the only one who ever makes her not happy."
"Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence," Santana said, rolling her eyes. "I swear I didn't do anything to Brittany. We just watched a few movies last night and then she went home. She was perfectly fine when she left."
Quinn could usually tell when Santana was lying and she didn't appear to be right now. "Fine, but something else must be wrong with her because when I saw her she was—"
"Sad?" Santana asked.
"No," Quinn said, frowning. "She actually wasn't really anything."
Santana scoffed. "So you hit me because Brittany was neutral."
Quinn rolled her eyes. "When was the last time you saw Brittany show no emotion? So go figure out what you did and make it better."
"Why do you automatically assume it was something I did?" Santana asked.
"Because it's always something you did," Quinn replied. "Now go fix."
"Fine," Santana said, huffing. "But I swear it wasn't me."
The bell rang and Quinn gave Santana one last scowl; she didn't know what Santana had done, but she knew she was responsible somehow, and even if she wasn't responsible, she was the one person that could probably make it better.
When Quinn walked into her English class, she took her seat in front of Puck and waited for the inevitable; he always made some lewd comment that she would smack him for.
When he didn't say anything, she turned around and asked him, "Are you okay? I've been here for a whole thirty seconds and you haven't made a comment about any part of my anatomy."
"I'm fine," Puck tonelessly answered.
"First Brittany and now you," Quinn mumbled, turning back around.
Quinn suddenly wondered if maybe she had actually hurt Puck's feelings the other day, but it was nothing worse than anything else she had said to him before. Everything she said to him always just rolled off his back. He would flirt and she would reject; it was the nature of their relationship.
Tina sat down in the seat next to Quinn and smiled shyly at her. "Hey."
Well at least someone seemed to be acting normal today. "Hey, Tina."
"Thanks again for the other day," Tina said.
"Don't mention it," Quinn said, smiling.
"Since when did you start befriending the weird goth chick?" Santana asked, walking to her seat.
Quinn sighed as she watched Tina shrink into her seat. "Leave her alone."
Santana looked shocked. "Seriously, Q?"
"Leave it," Quinn said.
"Why are you—"
"I told you to leave it," Quinn stated.
"Whatever," Santana said, rolling her eyes.
"Stop thinking so much and just react," Sue demanded.
Quinn groaned as she stood up and then decided to drop onto the mat; her muscles ached and she didn't even want to think about how many bruises she had at this point.
She was used to Sue's sadistic training techniques, but this was going to a whole other level. She had set up a rigorous obstacle course that Quinn had yet to make it through. Every time she fell or struggled, she was forced to start again. After trying to make it up a ten foot wall for the twentieth time, she thought her arms were just going to fall off.
"Are you going to get up or are you going to lay there?" Sue asked, sounding annoyed.
Quinn sighed. "I'm going to lay here."
"I thought you were better than that." Sue was looking down at her, shaking her head.
"I can't move," Quinn whined.
"Oh for the love of—" Sue stuck her hand out and Quinn reluctantly took it to get up. "I expect more from my Cheerios captain and definitely more from my Slayer."
Quinn scoffed and opened her mouth to say something.
"Training tomorrow," Sue demanded, cutting her off before Quinn could say anything else. "Six a.m. sharp."
Quinn nodded in acknowledgement. "Got it."
"Patrol tonight," Sue said as she walked toward the door.
"Where at?" Quinn asked.
Sue shrugged. "Wherever you want; I'm sure all the graveyards are crawling with vampires."
"Uhm, Coach." Quinn knew this was probably a terrible time to bring this up, but Rachel had been following her around all day and it was only a matter of time before Sylvester figured it out. "Someone saw me slay a vampire." She was purposefully leaving out that she had been hiding this fact from her for days.
Sue was staring at her with a blank expression. "Excuse me?"
Quinn flinched in anticipation of what was coming. "I didn't know she was behind me."
"What does she know?" Sue's voice was deadly.
"A lot," Quinn admitted. "The vampire might have mentioned I'm the Slayer and now she keeps asking me about it and has been doing research into it."
Sue closed her eyes. "What did you tell her?"
"Nothing," Quinn quickly said. "I usually just ignore her or play dumb."
"Who is it?" Sue asked.
Quinn sighed. "Rachel Berry."
Quinn could see the vain in Sue's forehead and knew she was angrier than she'd ever seen her. "Whatever you do, do not confirm anything she thinks she knows."
"I won't," Quinn said, nodding.
Sue was mumbling to herself as she left the room; Quinn was pretty sure she heard the words unacceptable and incompetent, but it was hard to tell. Quinn was just happy that Sue was leaving without yelling at her; she had really expected much worse since she had seen some of the other Cheerios get chewed out for even minor things. If here was something Sue Sylvester wasn't known for, it was her patience and tolerance for other people's failures.
Quinn glanced at the clock and saw that it was nearly ten o'clock. No wonder she was so dead on her feet; she had been training for over six hours. She never figured being a Slayer would be easy, but this was really taking a toll on her. She barely slept anymore and was behind in almost all her classes. Between school, practice, training, and patrolling, she didn't have the time to do anything else.
Sighing, she grabbed her phone from her backpack and noticed she had several missed calls from Santana, as well as a text that simply said 'call me, bitch'. Quinn threw the phone back into her bag; Santana could wait until tomorrow. Right now she had to worry about killing some vampires and not dying in the process.
Quinn had already been in the training room for over an hour. She had been working on her endurance since Sylvester told her she was failing in that department. Her coach had some kind of meeting, though, and had left her alone to continue with her training. Quinn got bored after a while and decided to grab a crossbow; Sue wouldn't let her touch any of the weapons and she had been anxious to try them out. She was becoming proficient at hand to hand combat, but using weapons just sounded like more fun.
Currently, she was using the wooden post at the corner of the room as a target. So far she had hit the wall twice and shot another into the opposite side of the room as she was trying to load the arrow. Needless to say, it was not going very well.
"Wow," she heard a voice say behind her.
She whipped around and saw Rachel standing there, mouth agape.
"Wh-what the hell are you doing in here?" Quinn asked, the crossbow hanging limply by her side.
"I followed you the other day and watched you come in here," Rachel replied, looking around the room. "This is amazing."
"Rachel!" Quinn said, bringing the brunette's attention to her. "What the hell are you doing in here?"
"Oh, right," Rachel replied. "I saw you come in here the other day, so I decided I would come in here and see what you were doing. I got here early this morning and the door was locked of course, but I was hiding in the locker room when I saw Miss Sylvester and I caught the door before it closed. It's a very nice setup you have here."
"How long have you been watching me?" Quinn wondered.
"Since she left," Rachel replied. "You're really terrible at the crossbow; you might want to practice with something else before you shoot yourself."
Sue was going to kill her when she found out—or maybe she'd just kill Rachel.
"Does this mean Sue knows who you are?" Rachel asked. "I guess that's a stupid question—she must since she's been in here. I mean, it'd be kind of hard to explain a room full of weapons wouldn't it?"
"Rachel, you need to go," Quinn said, walking up to the brunette. "You can't be in here. Sylvester is going to kill me if she finds out; she's already mad that you saw what you saw the other night and I don't need her finding out you've been in here. She could be back at any time, so can you please go."
"I will if you tell me the truth," Rachel said, smiling.
Quinn narrowed her eyes at the girl as she weighed her options. She could deny everything and run the risk of Rachel getting mad and telling everyone; she could lie, but she didn't think Rachel would believe any lie she can up with; or she could just tell her the truth since she seemed to know almost everything anyway. The fourth option she thought of was killing Rachel, finding some place to stuff her body, and hoping no one ever noticed she was gone, but she didn't think that was a very viable option.
Although if Rachel didn't stop grinning at her like that, she just might go with option four.
Quinn sighed. "Why, out of all the people in this school, did it have to be you that saw me? You are so annoyingly persistent that I really just want to hit you right now."
"Be glad it was me that saw you and not anyone else," Rachel said, shaking her head. "If it had been anyone else, the whole school would have known by the next morning, so be glad it was someone that can actually keep a secret."
"Let's go somewhere else," Quinn said, walking over to the wall and hanging the crossbow up. "I don't want Coach coming in here and seeing you because knowing you, this is going to take a while, and I'd rather get yelled at for leaving training early than for you being in here."
"Let's go to the auditorium," Rachel said. "I think I'm the only person who ever goes in there, so it'll be empty."
Quinn nodded and grabbed her backpack from beside the door. Rachel opened the door and Quinn followed her out of the locker room, down several hallways, and into the large auditorium.
"Wow," Quinn said, looking around. "I didn't even know this was here."
"It's my favorite place at school," Rachel said as she led Quinn toward the stage. "No one ever comes in here to bother me. I can stand on stage and sing with no one judging me or telling me how worthless I am."
"You just have to ignore anything Santana says," Quinn replied. "I know she can be a real bitch, but it's actually nothing personal. She's like that with everyone that isn't Britt and you are just an easy target for her. As for me—I'm sorry."
Rachel nodded. "It's fine—well, it's not, and while I really would love to talk about it, it's not what we're here to discuss right now."
"Right." Quinn sat down on the edge of the stage and Rachel did the same, sitting next to her. "What do you want to know?"
"Is the research I've done correct?" Rachel asked first.
"Pretty much," Quinn replied.
"How did this all happen?" Rachel asked. "When did this all happen?"
"I just found out last week," Quinn started. "I was walking home after practice and I thought I heard a scream from the graveyard I was walking by and when I went in, Sylvester was there; she gave me a stake, told me there was a vampire behind me, and basically told me to go at it. The next day, she told me I'm the new Slayer."
"So there is only one?" Rachel asked.
Quinn nodded. "'One girl in all the world' as Sue said."
"And you're here to fight vampires?"
"Not just vampires," Quinn replied. "There are apparently a lot of things in this world that we don't know about."
Rachel shuddered. "If that database I found was correct—there are thousands of demons and creatures out there and most of them were not very pleasant."
"And it's my job to fight them," Quinn said, smiling sadly.
"What is Coach Sylvester's role in this?" Rachel asked.
"She's a Watcher," Quinn answered. "Basically she's here to guide and train me and try to keep me alive as long as possible. As you can imagine, Slayers aren't known for their long, carefree lives."
"At least she has you training," Rachel said.
Quinn nodded. "Every day after school; sometimes in the morning if we don't have Cheerios practice and then I go patrolling a lot of nights."
"Patrolling?" Rachel asked.
"Patrolling graveyards," Quinn replied. "Like I was doing the other night. Her strategy, like with all other things, seems to be to throw me in the deep end and hope I don't die. She wants me out there, fighting because she says I won't really learn any other way. The training has mostly been about getting up my endurance and strength."
"Hence being terrible with the crossbow," Rachel said, smiling.
Quinn laughed. "Yeah, she hasn't really gotten around to teaching me how to use the weapons yet. When she left this morning, I figured what the hell, she'll never know."
"Except when she sees the holes in the wall," Rachel pointed out.
"I wasn't really anticipating being that bad at it," Quinn said, shaking her head.
Rachel smiled as she watched the blonde. "Who all knows that you're the Slayer?"
"Including you and Sylvester," Quinn said. "Two people."
"I'm the only person, other than your Watcher, to know?" Rachel asked.
The shock was evident on the brunette's face and it made Quinn smile for some reason. "You weren't exactly supposed to find out—no one is supposed to know. If everyone knows who I am—well, most people would just think I'm crazy, but if the wrong things find out, they'll probably come after me before I'm ready. People don't know or chose not to know that this town isn't exactly normal."
Rachel frowned. "What do you mean by not normal?"
"Lima is on a Hellmouth," Quinn replied. "Basically it means we're on one of the mouths to hell and all kinds of bad things are drawn the energy here. That's why there are so many vampires around and why this town has so many mysterious deaths."
"My dad," Rachel whispered, wiping the tears from her eyes before they could fall. "The medical examiner said they didn't know what kill him—they just said he was attacked by some unidentified animal. I'm guessing it wasn't an animal."
Quinn sighed, frowning. "I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault," Rachel said, shaking her head. "How can people not see what's going on?"
Quinn shrugged. "Did you ever notice anything strange going on? I mean, six kids died last year, in our grade alone, but I never really thought a thing about it because they always acted like there were logical reasons for each of the deaths. Sylvester thinks it's a government cover up, but she thinks everything is a government cover up."
"For once I'm inclined to agree with her," Rachel stated.
The bell rang, causing both girls to jump; Rachel sighed and leapt down from the edge of the stage. "Thank you for finally telling me the truth. As I said before, I promise not to tell anyone."
"Thanks for keeping it a secret," Quinn said, smiling. "And thanks for not freaking out when you saw me the other night."
"Oh I was freaking out," Rachel said, smiling back. "I'm just very good at appearing calm when I need to. Listen, Quinn—if you ever need my help with anything, let me know, okay? I hate the thought of you having no one to help you and being out there all on your own."
"Believe me, I hope to never have to involve anyone else in this," Quinn replied. "It's bad enough that my life is over; I'm not going to subject anyone else to it."
Rachel nodded. "I still stand by my statement."
"Thanks, Rachel," Quinn said, causing the brunette to beam at her.
"Why the hell didn't you call me back?" Santana said as she stormed into the room and huffily sat on the stool next to Quinn.
Several students jumped or cowered in their seats at the sound of an angry Santana, but Quinn casually looked up from her Chemistry book at the fuming brunette. Anytime she didn't immediately call Santana back, she would get yelled at, so Quinn was very much used to this happening and it no longer fazed her.
"I'm sorry," Quinn said through a yawn. "I was really busy last night."
"First you yell at me for something I didn't do, and then you don't even answer your damn phone when I try calling you about it." Santana crossed her arms. "Some friend you are."
Quinn rolled her eyes. "I already said I was sorry. Now, are you going to tell me what you were calling about or are you going to pout."
Santana scoffed. "I am not pouting."
"It looks like it to me," Quinn said, shrugging.
"Can you quit being a bitch and let me talk?" Santana asked, scowling.
"I'm sorry, Santana, you have my full attention," Quinn said, repressing another eye roll.
"Good," Santana replied. "So I talked to Britt last night."
"And?" Quinn asked.
"And you're right," Santana replied. "She is acting really un-Britt like and I have no idea why. And before you blame me again, I repeat—I did nothing to her. I have no idea what's going on with her, but I went over to her house last night and she just sat there all night."
Quinn frowned. "She just sat there?"
Santana nodded. "The whole time I was there. She only said a few words to me, so I thought she might be mad at me, but even when she's mad, she usually looks like she's going to cry or something. I even put in her favorite movie to try and cheer her up, but she didn't laugh at all during it."
Their teacher walked in and Quinn whispered, "What do you think is wrong with her?"
Santana shrugged. "If I knew, why'd I be talking to you about it?"
Quinn shrugged and tried to focus on what her teacher was saying, but it was difficult. She was worried about Brittany; if Santana couldn't figure out what was wrong with her, what chance did she have? Santana knew the blonde better than anyone and she seemed just as clueless as Quinn, which really worried her. Brittany wasn't very good at hiding her emotions and she definitely wasn't good at not talking. This was especially true when it came to Santana, so hearing that Brittany had ignored the brunette didn't make any sense.
"Psst!"
Quinn looked behind her and saw Rachel trying to discretely motion to her, but being Rachel, she actually looked like she was having a seizure and several other people were looking on in interest. Quinn rolled her eyes and mouthed, "What?"
Instead of saying anything, Rachel tossed a folded up piece of paper in her direction. Quinn looked back to see if the teacher had noticed anything, but he was facing away from her, writing on the whiteboard. Luckily Santana hadn't noticed anything either, but Quinn suspected it was only because her mind was on Brittany. Quinn quickly reached down and grabbed the piece of paper from the floor and hurriedly sat back up, hoping no one had noticed her. Thankfully, neither her teacher nor Santana had noticed anything.
When Quinn opened the note, she read Rachel's short message, which was written in the brunette's neat, loopy handwriting.
Can you stay behind? I need to talk to you.
Quinn looked back at Rachel and nodded to her.
When the bell rang, Quinn hoped Santana would go on to lunch and not notice she was hanging back, but she wasn't that lucky.
"Are you coming?" Santana asked, standing by the door and looking rather impatient with her.
"Go on, I need to call my mom about something," Quinn lied.
"Whatever," Santana said before walking off.
Rachel had been bending down, pretending to tie her nonexistent shoelaces, but stood up the moment Santana left the room.
"What is it, Berry?" Quinn asked.
"I couldn't help but overhear you and Santana discussing Brittany," Rachel replied. "I'm afraid to say she isn't the only person at this school that has been exhibiting strange behavior. Both Mercedes and Kurt have been acting rather strange this week as well. At first I thought they were angry with me over something, but after hearing you two discussing Brittany, I'm starting to suspect it might be something else entirely."
"What kind of strange behavior?" Quinn asked.
"While Mercedes is normally very civil and talks to me, she completely ignored all my attempts to talk to her yesterday," Rachel replied. "And Kurt is normally very exuberant and dramatic, but he didn't say a word when Mr. Schuester gave me the solo in Glee Club yesterday. Actually, neither of them did, which is completely unprecedented. Usually they both fight me for every solo even though I'm clearly the superior vocalist."
"So what are you suggesting?" Quinn asked.
"I don't think it's a coincidence that three people are acting strange," Rachel replied.
"Four," Quinn corrected, thinking back to the day before.
"Four?" Rachel asked, frowning.
"Puck," Quinn replied. "He didn't try hitting on me yesterday, which is unheard of for him."
"So four people, that we know of, are behaving strangely," Rachel said, pacing in front of Quinn a bit. "I really don't think this is a coincidence; I mean, isn't it possible that something supernatural is going on?"
"You think it's something supernatural?" Quinn asked.
"You don't think it is?" Rachel asked.
"I mean, yeah, it's possible," Quinn replied. "What could it be though?"
"I'm not sure, but I can do some research into it," Rachel replied. "I have that monster database bookmarked on my laptop at home. What if I run home after school, grab it, and meet you back here after your training?"
"Okay," Quinn replied. "You can come straight here, though; Sylvester has the flu so practice is cancelled and she told me to train on my own today."
"I'll get back here as fast as possible," Rachel replied. "I'll just tell Daddy that I forgot something for Glee. Lately he's been kind of—off. He won't really ask any questions if I'm out late."
"Sounds like a plan," Quinn said, smiling sadly at the brunette.
Quinn was pacing around the training room, waiting on Rachel to show up. She had grabbed a book from one of the bookshelves that sat in the corner of the room and tried looking through it for anything that sounded like what was happening at school. Sue had quite a few books on demons and Quinn was hoping to find something in it, but figured Rachel's database would be a lot more helpful. It couldn't hurt trying it the old school way while she waited, though.
At a quarter til four, she finally heard a knock on the door followed by Rachel saying, "It's me."
"Quick," Quinn said as she opened the door and ushered Rachel into the room. "No you saw you, did they?"
"Who would possibly see me?" Rachel asked. "Do people often hang around the Cheerios locker room?"
"You'd be surprised," Quinn replied. "But it's mostly just pervy teenage boys hoping to catch a glimpse of one of us naked."
"What's that?" Rachel asked, nodding to the book in Quinn's hand.
Quinn held the front up so Rachel could see it. "One of Sylvester's books from when she was in school or in training to be a Watcher—or something." Quinn shrugged. "I wasn't really paying attention at the time."
"Anything so far?" Rachel asked.
"If by something you mean a demon that shoots out paralyzing snot, then yes," Quinn said, scrunching her face is disgust. "I mean really, how is that useful? At least if you're going to be a demon, you should have some cool ability like breathing fire or going into people's minds or something."
Rachel laughed. "It sounds like you've thought a lot about this."
"Very funny," Quinn said, rolling her eyes. "Come on; let's see if you can do any better."
"Gladly," Rachel said, pulling her laptop out of her bag and sitting down on the nearby bench.
Quinn sat down next to her and looked at the screen. "Find-a-monster dot com?" Quinn laughed and shook her head. "Couldn't they have come up with a better name?"
"Well what would you call it?" Rachel asked.
"I don't know," Quinn answered, shrugging. "Just something a little less lame. I guess it could be something worse, though, like Demons, Demons, Demons."
Rachel ignored the comment and clicked on the advanced search. "If you know the name of the monster, you can type it in, but since we obviously don't know what's causing this, we input the effects we're seeing."
"So what do we put in?" Quinn asked. "Personality change?"
"We can try that," Rachel said, typing into the box and hitting the search button.
Quinn's jaw dropped. "Four hundred, thirty-seven results? How the hell many things are there in this world?"
"I told you there are a lot," Rachel replied. "This database lists tens of thousands and I doubt that's a complete list of them."
Quinn rubbed at her temples. "Is there anything else we can put in to narrow it down? I really don't want to have to go through hundreds of web pages."
"Emotional change?" Quinn asked.
Rachel added it into the search and it returned two-hundred, ninety-three results; they both looked at the screen and sighed.
"At least it narrowed it down a little," Rachel said, shrugging. "We'll just go through them one by one and see if anything pops out at us."
Several hours later and they were barely a third of the way through; they were both getting restless and frustrated at still having found nothing. Quinn had long ago given up sitting still and had started pacing around the room while Rachel read the descriptions out loud to her.
"Next," Quinn requested.
"You guys should really think about getting a couch in here," Rachel said, shifting around. "This bench is not the most comfortable for prolonged sitting."
Quinn rolled her eyes. "Can you please focus? I'd like to get home sometime tonight."
"We could stop and then tomorrow we could pick up where we left off," Rachel said, shrugging.
Quinn shook her head. "I can't; this could be something bad and I have to stop it before it gets worse. This thing is affecting Brittany and I can't let anything happen to her."
"We'll figure it out," Rachel promised. "Okay, let's stop and think for a second. When did all of this start?"
"Monday," Quinn replied. "Santana said Britt was perfectly fine Sunday night, and by Monday, she was acting weird."
"Okay so what happened over the weekend that could explain it?" Rachel asked.
"I don't know," Quinn said, shrugging. "I would probably have to call Santana and ask—Puck's party." Quinn stopped pacing and slapped herself in the forehead. "The lake—Puck had a party at the lake. Puck, Brittany, Mercedes, and Kurt were all there—but so were Santana and I, but we're both fine."
Rachel frowned. "Did they all do something that you two didn't?"
"I don't know," Quinn replied. "I actually wasn't there for long; my mom called me and said I needed to come home so I left right after I got there."
Rachel clicked on the search again. "I'm going to check for things in the water. Maybe you weren't there long enough o become affected and Santana somehow missed out on it too."
"Yes!" Quinn said, sitting down next to Rachel. "Santana wasn't swimming when she was there since she didn't want to mess up her hair. So maybe it's just the people that went in the water. Have you noticed other people acting funny this week?"
"Well, I haven't been slushied once, so yeah, that's a little weird," Rachel replied. "I didn't really think anything of it, but the hallways have been unnaturally quiet. I just assumed it was because half the Cheerios are out with the flu, but now that I think of it, even the football players have been quiet."
"That has to be it," Quinn said, excitedly.
"Three results," Rachel said, angling the laptop so Quinn could get a better look. "And you said it was at a lake?"
"Yeah," Quinn said, nodding.
Rachel smiled. "This is it then—it's the only freshwater one; the other two are in the ocean."
"A Vla'ala?" Quinn asked, looking at the screen. "Where the hell do they come up with these names?"
"The Vla'ala is known to live in deep, freshwater lakes," Rachel read aloud. "It releases parasites into the water that enter a victim's body and attach themselves to the host's amygdala. The parasite grows by feeding off the host's emotions, leaving them in a catatonic like state. The host is usually killed after several weeks when the parasite grows too big to be contained. Once the Vla'ala is free, it seeks out the nearest freshwater body, where it continued growing and starts releasing parasites of its own into the water."
"Does it say how to stop it?" Quinn asked.
Rachel scrolled down the page. "The only way to save a host is to kill the parent Vla'ala."
"Meaning I get to go swimming in Cohen Lake," Quinn stated.
"I propose we go first thing in the morning," Rachel said.
Quinn shook her head. "You're not going."
"What?" Rachel yelled, standing up. "Of course I'm going! It's too dangerous."
"Which is exactly why you're not going," Quinn replied.
"Quinn—"
"No," the blonde interrupted. "We're not arguing about it."
Rachel huffed, crossing her arms. "Fine."
By the time the sun was rising the next morning, Quinn was already on the way to the lake. She went to the training room early and grabbed one of the swords that were hanging on the wall. She didn't know if it would really do any good, but she didn't know what else to use. It's not like she could shoot the crossbow at it even if she knew how to use the thing.
Mostly, she was hoping to somehow lure it to dry land where she might actually stand a fighting chance.
When Quinn pulled up to the lake, it was completely deserted except for a couple ducks swimming across the surface. It looked so tranquil that it was hard to believe there was some demon hiding beneath the surface.
She turned off the ignition, popped the trunk, and stepped out of the car, grabbing the sword from the back seat before she closed the door.
She sighed, knowing there was no point in delaying the inevitable.
Quinn set the sword down on the hood of the car so she could pull her shirt off. She then slipped her shoes off and took her Cheerios shorts off, leaving her standing there in her bikini. It wasn't the ideal thing to be fighting a monster in, but she was going to have to swim, so the less clothes, the better. She was just thankful her parents had made her take swimming lessons when she was younger and that she spent so many summers at camp, where her favorite thing to do was swimming.
"So that's what you're going to use to kill it?"
Quinn whipped around to find Rachel standing there, intently watching her. "Rachel! I told you I was doing this alone."
Rachel shrugged. "Too bad; I'm here and I'm not leaving."
"This is going to be dangerous," Quinn stated, walking around the back of the car and grabbing an underwater flashlight from the trunk.
"Which is why I am not letting you do it on your own," Rachel replied. "I will stay away from the water, but I am going to be here in case you need help."
"Fine," Quinn said, rolling her eyes. "But I'm not happy about it."
"I never assumed you would be," Rachel said, smiling.
Quinn shivered and grabbed the sword. "Here goes nothing."
"What's your plan?" Rachel asked.
Quinn shrugged. "Stab it and hope I don't die?"
"Excellent plan," Rachel said, clearly not amused.
"I thought so," Quinn said, smiling over her shoulder at the brunette. "If I don't come out, can you tell Sylvester this is all her fault and I'm coming back to haunt her ass?"
"I'll be sure to pass along the message," Rachel deadpanned as Quinn tossed her the keys to the car.
With one last look, Quinn dove into the lake and Rachel couldn't help but hold her breath. The blonde's head popped out after a few seconds and Rachel watched as she started swimming to the middle of the lake. Luckily the lake wasn't too huge or they definitely would have needed a boat for this and Rachel had no idea where to get one of those.
Quinn paused when she finally reached the middle of the lake and Rachel nervously watched her, knowing what she was about to do, and wondering if she would ever see her again. When Quinn dove under, Rachel walked closer to the edge of the water, but stayed out as she had promised she would.
The blonde has sent a few ripples when she dove under, but other than that it was calm, which Rachel found unsettling. She hated standing there, not being able to see what was happening underneath the surface.
And just how long could Quinn hold her breath?
Maybe extra lung capacity was part of the whole Slayer thing, but to Rachel it seemed like she'd already been down there an eternity and surely any normal person would have drowned by now. Of course, in Rachel's panicked state, maybe time was just moving at a completely different pace than in reality.
After a while, a few bubbles hit the surface, causing the brunette to jump; a few seconds later, Quinn's head hit the surface of the water and she was gasping for air.
"Are you okay?" Rachel yelled, but Quinn was already busy swimming back to the shore at a very hurried pace.
That's when Rachel noticed Quinn was not alone.
Rachel could only assume it was the Vla'ala that was chasing after Quinn. The website had a crude, black and white drawing off the thing, but in reality it was a grayish-blue color. She could only see a couple of weird tentacle like things sticking out of the water, so she could only imagine how big it was.
"Shit shit shit!" she said, before covering her mouth in surprise that that kind of language had come out.
She frantically looked around for anything that she could use as a weapon, but the only thing around was the car. Rachel ran to the opened trunk to see if maybe Quinn had brought another sword, but the only things in there were Quinn's Cheerios bag, an umbrella, and—
"Oh!" Rachel said, quickly grabbing the jumper cables from the trunk, before running around and popping the hood.
Quinn was almost to the edge of the lake when Rachel propped open the hood and connected the ends of the jumper cables to the battery. When Rachel looked over her shoulder, the Vla'ala had partly emerged out of the water and she couldn't help but shudder.
The picture definitely hadn't done the thing justice. It had tentacle like arms all over its body, several milky eyes on what she assumed was its face since they were right above a row of very sharp looking teeth, and its rounded body sat atop a long, eel like tail.
And Rachel could see the gash in the side of the Vla'ala's body where Quinn had struck it with the sword.
When Quinn finally made it out of the water, she looked exhausted, but she still managed to run over to where Rachel was standing.
"Here!" Rachel said, drawing Quinn's attention to what she was holding.
"You're a genius!" Quinn said, throwing the sword onto the ground and grabbing the two ends from Rachel.
"Tell me when," Rachel said, jumping into the car and putting the keys into the ignition.
Rachel watched as Quinn turned around and kicked the thing, sending it back several feet; it seemed to have slightly dazed it, giving Quinn enough time to attach one end of the jumper cables to one of the monster's tentacles.
With her free hand, Quinn grabbed the sword from the ground and took several swings but missed.
"C'mon," Rachel whispered as she watched the scene unfold.
The Vla'ala advanced on Quinn, snapping at her, but she managed to get in another kick, tripping herself in the process. She hit the ground with a loud thud, causing Rachel to flinch. Quinn groaned and rubbed her head where it had slammed into the ground.
"Put it on the dangly one!" Rachel yelled from inside the car.
Quinn looked at the underside of the Vla'ala and saw what Rachel was talking about. She scrambled closer to it, quickly attaching the other end of the jumper cable to the small tentacle.
"Now!" Quinn yelled, rushing to get away from the monster.
Rachel turned the key over and the Vla'ala immediately stopped moving toward Quinn and started convulsing.
The brunette got out of the car and looked at Quinn. "Do you think everyone is back to normal now?"
"Give it a few more minutes," Quinn said, watching the thing being fried in front of her. "Thanks for not listening to me and coming."
Rachel smiled at Quinn. "I thought I might be useful."
Quinn and Rachel watched the Vla'ala fall to the ground and stop moving.
"Do you think you should stab it or something?" Rachel asked.
"Turn the engine off," Quinn said as she walked over to it. "I'm pretty sure it's dead."
"You're positive?" Rachel asked, turning off the engine.
Quinn poked it several times with the end of the sword. "Yeah—it's crispy."
"Eww." Rachel scrunched up her face. "Should we do something with it? Someone will probably see it if we just leave it here."
Quinn sighed. "I do not remember signing up for monster cleanup."
It was still so early in the morning that even after doing everything, Quinn and Rachel were still two of the first people at school. The ride had been virtually silent as Rachel sat there trying to process everything she'd seen and Quinn was simply too tired to talk.
As soon as they pulled into the parking lot, though, Rachel got a strange look on her face, which didn't go unnoticed by Quinn.
"What?" she asked, looking at the brunette.
"How do you have your license?" Rachel asked.
"After everything that's happened this morning, that's what you're worried about?" Quinn asked, laughing. Rachel frowned at her and Quinn sighed. "Sylvester."
"Sylvester?" Rachel asked.
"She does something to get all the Cheerios their licenses," Quinn replied. "Even the freshmen have them."
Rachel's jaw dropped a bit. "And that's legal?"
"I don't know," Quinn said, shrugging. "I didn't ask."
Rachel scoffed. "How could you not ask? What if you get pulled over sometime and then get thrown in jail because you don't have a valid driver's license and then you—"
"Rachel!" Quinn interrupted, rolling her eyes. "We just spent the morning fighting a lake monster that inserted parasites into our friends—do we really need to talk about this right now?"
"Fine," Rachel said, huffing. "But we will talk about this sometime."
"I look forward to it," Quinn joked.
Quinn opened the door and stepped out of the car; she walked around to the trunk and pulled out her Cheerios duffle, which contained the sword.
"I'm going to put this back in the training room," Quinn said, trying hide the hilt of the sword.
The two walked into the building together and once inside, Quinn quickly took off down the hall and deposited the sword back into the training room. Luckily no one saw her; she had no idea how she would explain having a two and half foot sword in her Cheerios bag, especially since it was still covered in the Vla'ala's purple colored blood.
When she walked out of the locker room and back into the hall, it was definitely more crowded and rowdier than it had been all week. She walked through the halls, to her locker, where Santana and Brittany were standing.
"Quinn!" Brittany greeted before launching herself at Quinn.
"Hey Britt," Quinn said, smiling over the taller girl's shoulder at Rachel, who was watching them with a smile of her own.
"I have to go talk to Coach," Brittany said as she pulled away.
Quinn and Santana watched Brittany walk down the hall; Santana looked relieved and was actually smiling for once.
"She seems to be back to normal," Quinn noted.
"It was weird," Santana said, shaking her head. "I was at her house this morning and she was still acting weird and then all of a sudden, she started acting like Britt again."
Quinn smiled to herself. "Wonder what could have happened?"
Santana shrugged. "Who the hell knows? I'm just glad our Britts is back." Santana suddenly got that evil smile on her face that meant something bad was going to happen. "And I know just the thing to make me feel even better." She turned around and looked at Rachel, who was still at her locker. "It's already Wednesday and I haven't tortured Berry once this week."
Santana started walking toward Rachel, but Quinn quickly grabbed her arm before the other girl could get very far. "Don't, Santana."
"Excuse me?" Santana asked, turning around. "Did you just ask me to not torture the Hobbit?"
"I've never asked you for anything before, but please just do this one thing for me," Quinn said, pulling Santana closer. "Leave Rachel alone. I don't just mean right now or today, but for good—leave her alone. No more names, no more slushies, no more pushing her around."
"Do you really expect me to just stop doing all that?" Santana asked. "And when the hell did she become Rachel?"
"Yes, I do," Quinn answered. "Because if nothing else, I'm your captain and can make your life hell for the next three years if I want to."
Quinn could see it in Santana's eyes that she felt betrayed, but it was necessary. Rachel had never deserved anything they had done to her. Quinn and Santana had both been horrible to her, yet she had still been willing to keep Quinn's secret and had helped her, just because she didn't want Quinn going alone. Quinn couldn't change what she had done in the past, but she wasn't going to let the future be just as shitty to the brunette.
Even if it meant her best friend being mad at her.
Santana scowled at her and jerked her arm at of Quinn's grasp. "Whatever you say, Captain."
Quinn watched as Santana walked away and then turned back to where Rachel was and started walking toward her.
"Hey," Quinn said, leaning against the locker next to Rachel's.
Rachel had involuntarily flinched at the sound of Quinn's voice. "Hi."
"Come with me," Quinn said, pushing off from the locker.
"Where are we going?" Rachel asked, shutting her locker and looking confusedly at Quinn.
Quinn smiled. "I want to introduce you to my Watcher."
I do anticipate every chapter being at least 10k words, so it will probably be a few weeks between updates. I'd love to update faster, but I have another story to work on, I'm a full time student, have a part-time job, and I raid three nights a week.
Reviews are always appreciated.
