Ch 9: Narpollo Pt. 2 True Heart (Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, But Sometimes You Still Lose)

Feeling the power of your home planet's energy, you let it course through your veins, charging up some power so you can burst through the atmosphere in under a second to bypass the security.

At the end of the exit tunnel, you can see that the hovercraft is still in space but close enough to Narpollo's atmosphere so you won't run out of oxygen if you go fast enough.

The dark energy consumes you and you're ready to go.

In a split second, you're gone, engulfed momentarily by the cold crisp atmosphere of space, soon to be replaced by the welcoming warmth of Narpollo. The familiar heat feels so good to your body, amplifying your speed as you become more comfortable with where you are.

You fly along a well-remembered route, twisting and turning at certain angles of specific buildings to avoid being seen.

Rounding a giant cylindrical building, your titan HQ starts to come into view.

Unlike Predastar who favours privacy of their titans whereabouts, Narpollo's titan HQ is in an ancient temple build for the god Zeus. They chose this as their HQ, or rather, Carl did, because of it's grand entrance.

Greek columns hold up the grand roof with stairs leading up to the entrance. In the temple is nothing but statues of each titan, with yours being beside Carl's statue.

You were always uncomfortable with it being there and you're pretty sure that the idea came to your Narpollian president during one of her drunk stupors. President Rhodes never really had good ideas, or ones that could last long or make sense.

This was just a way to make the planet completely aware of the powers titans hold and that wealthy people should give their money to them for their cause – or Carl's cause rather.

The real HQ entrance lies underneath the pool of water that sits in front of the temple, a long rectangular shaped pool that stretches out in front of the temple for a block or so.

Your aim is to fly at a speed high enough so that you can penetrate the water without it even splashing.

You've done this a million times and love doing it each time.

The secret is to create an energy barrier around you so that you're producing energy shaped like a drill. You put your arms in front of you as if you were diving and put one foot on top of the other, allowing the energy around you to form a similar shape around you. This allows for a decreased surface area when you hit the water and combined with your speed, it prevents any disturbance on in the pool.

Angling yourself perfectly, you hit the spot in the pool and stop your energy flow, landing on the downward slanted hallway and softening the blow by somersaulting on the floor.

Looking back up and behind you, you see the small opening of the HQ entrance that's masked by the pool, but really it's just a hole where a thin layer of water is shot over top to cover up the hole.

You walk down the slanted hall and deeper underground, the only light coming from the watery entrance of your HQ. The reflection of water dances all around you and the hallway curves to the left. Unlike Predastar, your HQ was made of smooth cement walls and not the fancy opaque glass material with lights everywhere.

Your heart rate picks up but you try to keep your breathing even. You power down your helmet so you can think more clearly.

A set of heavy security doors are ahead of you and a glowing blue rectangular pad to the right. You hold the back of you hand up against if for a second so it can read the Narpollo titan imprint on your lattimus and the doors open up for you.

The view comes before you and it's as if you never left. Kind of reminding you of a warship every time you're in HQ, you see the black metal walls accented by red lights of the hallways.

You need to get to Quinn first, and she's most likely in her room.

Male laughter comes from your left and you hear the guys shout something at their hologram-television.

"Give him those tight pants-"

"Oh and those, no go back, yeah those shoes-"

"Finn's gonna kill us when he sees we dicked around with his character profile,"

"Oh man I love this game, he's going to go online and other players will think he's such a tool."

There's one guy who hasn't stopped laughing the whole time, probably Jake.

Your heart warms at the thought of the guys goofing around and you're dying to see them but you remind yourself that time is of the essence. The longer you linger, the higher the risk of being in danger there is so you force yourself to head down towards the living quarters.

Turning the corner to the quarters, you walk into someone's stomach and jump back to see that you walked right into Finn who widens his eyes.

"Whoa, sorry Santana," he says.

"Watch it, whale blubber," you spit out at him out of habit. You're so happy to see him and he probably doesn't even know how much you care for him.

Back in the younger days, you were really small in physique compared to the other titans. It was clear that you were weak and at a disadvantage compared to the others so Finn offered to train you outside of practice because he is one of the strongest titans to this day. Strong, but not smart.

"Gotta get back to my game, sorry," he says. He is about to take a step around you when you see the light bulb click as he does a double take.

"Wait, Santana?! Santana?! You're here?!" he starts to get excited and grabs both of your arms to shake you to see if you're really there. He's such a big being that his palms can grab your arms even though you've got your lattimus still on.

"Oh my god Santana you're really here!" he says, raising his voice.

You wiggle out of his grip and laugh.

"Yes, you moron, I'm really here. Now keep your voice down will you? It's not supposed to be a giant welcoming," you say. He eagerly nods and gives you a big bear hug.

"We've missed you," he says.

A dull pang hits you in the gut because you don't realize how much you've missed your family too.

You part from him and look up with a serious face.

"Look, I'm here for two specific reasons and they are of the utmost importance. Do you trust me?"

"Of course," he responds seriously. Your titans know by now that when you are focused and serious, you mean business.

This might be a slight change in your game plan but it could speed things up. You were going to go get Quinn and then tackle each person on their own but now, it might be easier to explain everything to everyone in one place. You never thought of it because it could look suspicious if everyone was missing from the HQ and there would be no place to reveal your plans but adrenaline sometimes works to your advantage and helps you think.

Back during period of the "void", Quinn's powers seemed to awaken with her anxiety and started to become more unpredictable than usual so you and her would go into a special chamber you ordered to be built so that Quinn could be there whenever she felt the explosive energy coming on. The void was probably not known by Carl because he was never around when it got installed and only you and Quinn used it. Other titans obviously wanted to see what it was but you didn't let them because otherwise they would use the room for their own idiotic purposes.

"You know Babylon?" you ask him.

"You and Quinn's magic place? Yeah I do," he responds.

"It's not a magic place, idiot. Okay. Get everyone there in less than five. Don't explain anything to them, just bring everyone there. The code to get in is my last name."

He shakes his head in disbelief and laughs at you.

"Oh man. This whole time, the passcode to get into your secret place was your last name? Damn, Puck and I have tried every word but that."

You can't help but smile. You knew that they would do that and think that you would never use something simple because it would be too easy.

"Reverse psychology bitches!" you smirk playfully. "Okay, see you there?" you say.

"Wait, you're not coming right now?" he asks.

"No, I gotta find Quinn. You know where she is?"

"Probably her room," he responds.

"Great minds think alike," you wink. "See you in a bit. Less than five, Finn. I'm serious."

"Got it."

You continue past him and sprint down the hall to see your blonde friend. On the way, you slow down a little and look to your left just as you pass your own room. There's no time to go in there and take a look around.

You reach the end of the hall and kick the door open.

Quinn sit up on her bed looking alarmed and clearly confused.

"San- Santana?" she croaks out.

"Hey hot stuff. Nice to see you looking your best," you smile sarcastically. Her short blonde hair is flying up all over the place.

"You asshole, I was having a great nap until you showed up," she says.

You walk over to her bed and sit down on the edge of her bed in front of Quinn.

"Oh boy have I missed you," you say, giving her a hug.

"Ow get off of me, your stupid armour hurts," she says pushing you away.

She's sporting your HQ uniform, a skintight black tank top and your armour is digging into her bare arms so no wonder it hurts.

"What are you doing here?" she asks.

"Straight to the point, clearly not happy to see me," you say pretending to think. "You knew I was coming didn't you? You knew something was up?" you ask suspiciously.

Quinn nods.

"I could feel your racing heart beat once you got here but that was only because I was sleeping. I am more connected to you when I am asleep for some reason and your emotions get put onto me. I don't see anything in those dreams but can feel the emotions overwhelm me."

You wonder how confused Quinn must be because you know that you've gone through so much. Quinn's third recognizable power is her connection to you and sensing what you go through. It might be because you guys hung out a lot when you were younger but you've never been able to explain it.

"I'm sorry I put you through all of that," you earnestly say. "But it's not so much a burden as a gift right now, that skill of yours. You know that something's going on and that I'm here because of that. It's bad."

She flings the blanket off of her and gets off of the bed, powering up as she does so.

Her jet black lattimus surrounds her in a heart beat, with the exception of her helmet.

"What do we have to do? I sensed urgency and fear, it wasn't pretty."

You get up too, and face her.

"We need to go to Babylon. But first, between you and me, I need to know what has been going on here since I've been gone?" you ask.

A pained look comes across her face.

"We tried looking for you and came up to a dead end every time. That planet has a good security system."

You nod.

"Yeah, Artie's a genius."

"Who?"

"Artie. I'm kind of part of the Predastar titans now-"

"-the fuck?"

"-but I'll explain that once we get to Babylon. I need to know if Carl is here right now or if he's been here at all."

"I don't know. Carl's been in and out like he always has been, we've been self-sufficient so I don't think he cares what we do."

Everything seems normal which is good. If Carl made progress, his daily activities would've changed by now. You grab Quinn's arm and lead her out of the room.

"By the way, I fought a simulation version of you," you say, looking over at her. "You totally rocked."

Quinn rolls her eyes at you.

"Santana, I told you, I can't control my powers so I need to stay away from using them as much as possible."

"Trust me Quinn. After what I'm about to tell you all, you're going to want to use them all on one asshole."

Thinking of Carl and how he's manipulated you guys all of your lives makes you sick to your stomach. Your eyes start to glow from the anger but you don't do anything to resist it. Out of the corner of your eye, you know Quinn can see your anger so she keeps her mouth shut. You continue to walk through your HQ until you reach the right hallway.

Approaching a secret door in the wall in the ladies bathroom, you place your palm flat onto the center, between the ceiling and floor. Concentrated energy from your body flows through into the wall with the dark purple energy flowing like veins all over the wall.

A holographic pad appears in the form of your dark energy and you type in the code.

The door to Babylon swings open and you and your comrade are welcomed by pitch darkness.

The first part of Babylon is a narrow hallway which leads to a dome-like room, normally also in darkness.

Today, you see a glow of warm light coming from the end of the hall and when you walk into the dome room, you see all of your titan family standing in a circle around a light that someone brought.

Eyes turn to you as they hear your footsteps approach.

"Santana?" says Puck in awe.

"Ohmygod I might cry," says Sugar.

"Is this everyone?" you ask Finn, walking into the circle.

"Yep except for Carl," he responds.

"Good. Everyone, listen up. I've got a lot to tell you and not a lot of time."

You begin from the very beginning, how you were trapped and then offered to join them. It kind of sounds like a fairy tale the way you explain their facilities and people. You enjoy how their eyes widen at the discoveries of two energy sources, especially when told by a wild man in the jungle. You can also sense the anger festering in your titans after revealing Carl as the moon god.

"-which leads me to why I'm here today. I know it all sounds crazy but you've got to trust me. There's more than just us at stake here. It's the whole galaxy if we let our crazy hot grandpa of a boss do what he's set out to do. I'm the last person who would believe this crap but I've seen it with my own eyes and can't wait to get back to Predastar with you all so that we can plan out how to obliterate this jackass."

You look around at everyone who's staring back at you. Puck looks straight at you, looking angry. Finn has that confused facial expression he always carries. Jake is looking down, so is Sugar. Karofsky is biting his bottom lip. When you make eye contact with Blaine, he speaks up.

"So you want us to leave with you, right this second?" he asks.

You nod. "Absolutely."

"What if we don't?" he retorts.

"Then I disown you as a titan. I will no longer know you."

Silence follows as the information sinks into everyone.

"Guys, another second we waste is one lost. I'm all in," says Blaine.

The others look over to him and nod in agreement.

"Yeah, we're in this together," says Finn.

"This motherfucker has been wasting our time this whole time. No way I'm going to let him loose like that. Where is he?" yells Puck.

"That brings me to the next point," you begin. "We have got no idea where Carl is right now and we need to get on that. This might be the only chance that we'll be this close to his lab-"

"-and we need to get in there?" finishes Quinn.

"I'll break that wall down," says Puck.

"We need intel on him, his plans, what he's doing with all of the energy we helped him get. And where the hell is all of it anyways?" you ask.

"Honestly I thought he was keeping his energy in here, being a secret chamber and all," says Jake.

"He probably went all Harry Potter on us and has his own secret chamber in the basement or something," jokes Sugar.

"No, no, you might be right. I've seen him go through the entrance doors but they don't lead into our HQ," says Blaine.

"Wait, what do you mean? I just came through those doors," you say.

"That blue pad where we scan ourselves in? I was just entering the pool to get into HQ when I saw him scan his armour and the pad turned red, and then those double doors opened and he went into it but I couldn't see inside because I was too high from my angle."

"Maybe that's where he goes all of the time," mutters Quinn.

"So what's the plan though? We can speculate all we want but we've got to get moving don't we?" asks Karofsky.

"Let's go back to doing what we were doing in case he does come back and we're not all missing. Lopez will hide in Quinn's room while Blaine and I go scope out Carl's lab. Everyone will be close by though in case something happens. Then we book it out of here to the Predastar ship," says Finn.

You hate sitting out but it makes sense to stay hidden in case Carl does come back.

"Here are the coordinates for the hovercraft, just sent them all to your latimusses," you say.

"How do we know when to leave?" asks Sugar.

"I'll take the lights out," says Blaine.

Your lattimus helmets allow you to see in the dark just fine and maybe cutting out the lights is stupid but it would confuse Carl if he was here. Maybe he would think that all of the titans left to find some help to fix it, although if he did think that, he really has no regard for our intelligence.

"Let's do this. I'll go with Quinn. The rest of you, position yourselves in good spots to leave with haste," you command.

"It's good to see you again, Santana," Finn says.

"Yeah, I actually missed you ordering me around," laughs Puck.

"Shut up and let's go," you say smiling. They know it's you showing them love.

The guys leave first, followed by Karofsky, Blaine, Sugar, and then you and Quinn.

You're confused though because once you get out, everyone is still standing there but in a semi circle, as if they were protecting you.

"-yes but what I was asking is what were you all doing there in there at once?"

Fear fills your body and you shrink down a little to avoid being seen.

There's no mistake that that's Carl's voice.

"We finally figured out the passcode and wanted to check it out," you hear Finn say.

You've got to admit, Finn is really pulling his weight here and sounding confident. He would've been a great leader while you were gone and you wish you saw him in action.

"Interesting," says Carl.

Deep inside of you, you know that Carl can sense your energy and your presence because you all share some of his energy. You're not sure whether your titans understand the energy connection stuff that far yet to connect the dots that this is a bad situation. Plus, you're still in your lattimus but so is Quinn and she's attempting to block you.

"Interesting, and I'm sensing you're in a little bit of a frenzy over here, Puckerman. What's the trouble?"

You can picture Carl in his Narpollo get up, pretending to act all caring. You want to smack him so hard in the gonads right now. What an ass, he definitely knows you're there.

Panic sits in, you're ready to take action because you know Puck won't be like Finn. He wont' be able to hold his cool.

"You have made us do your bitch work for all our lives and for what stupid reason? To blow up the whole galaxy? What the hell is your problem? Don't you realize that you have thrown away all of our lives?" he yells.

Carl starts to laugh.

"Wipe that fucking smirk off of your face or do you want me to do it for you?"

"Puck, relax buddy. You don't get it."

"Oh I get it, you wanted all of the energy in the galaxy to become a god again all because you can't get over a billion year grudge that literally nobody gives two shits about, now that's pathetic," he spits out.

Silence follows. You close your eyes, concentrating your energy but you notice something strange. Normally you can only feel your energy charging, but you can also feel a large pool of energy being taken from the atmosphere around you and headed towards Puck.

"No need to get hasty Puck."

Carl's voice becomes distorted and deeper. You see your titans step back.

Puck and Finn power up into their lattimuses, as does everyone else in a split second, and you see why.

Carl is growing in size and is in his lattimus, although it's got some ancient markings on it and he's got… what the fuck? He's got four arms.

Soon his head hits the ceiling and he's continuing to grow still.

You can sense the power growing around you that doesn't belong to any of you. It's time to move.

"GET OUT!" you yell, powering up your lattimus.

Everyone surges forward, blasting their energy to propel them around Carl and through the hallways to the exit.

"I command you to stay," says the beast. You dare to look back for a brief second and see that Carl has become some sort of mythological beast that continues to morph and mutilate.

You power up your communicator to send a message to the Predastar titans.

"Artie, get ready to fly our asses out of here we're coming ou- HOLY SHIT!"

An invisible force knocks you from behind but you're ahead of Karofsky and Quinn so you didn't get the full blow.

You turn around to see Karofsky shooting energy beams from both his hands and feet in the direction you guys came from while simultaneously flying backwards.

Quinn was the one that set off the force field attack but now she's slowing down her flying. Those powers she has takes a lot out of her and you know she won't make it. You blast towards her and swing her arm around you shoulder and blast back towards the double door entrance right away.

All of you get through and you can already see lattimuses flying towards the atmosphere. Karofsky shoots by you and you see Finn flying in the opposite direction and straight towards you.

For a second you think he's going to help you but then instead he charges up a giant energy ball over his head with both hands and with a mighty throw, he shoots it down towards the entrance of the HQ just as you see four lattimus hands the size of a building punch through the pool from underground.

Your eyes widen at the monster being unleashed by the energy you and the titans harvested over the years.

Finn doesn't try to attack it anymore because even his energy beam didn't deter Carl.

"COME ON," he shouts through his helmet. Your Narpollo lattimuses don't have the internal communicators like Predastar does.

He takes Quinn's other arm and swings it over his shoulder as you both blast off into the air.

By now, citizens of Narpollo are out in the open and screaming around amongst the chaos that's occurring. You look back and see the greek columns of the HQ starting to crumble.

You hope your stupid titan statues fall with it. It symbolizes the old life you've had and how you want it destroyed.

Flying through the clouds, you start to feel the temperature drop drastically and you can see the hovercraft waiting with its tunnel exit dropped for you.

"I can fly guys, I can do it," says Quinn.

"You sure?" asks Finn.

"Yeah thanks, I owe you one."

Quinn takes her arms over your heads and speeds off into the hovercraft.

Apparently she has another power and that totals it to four. Super speed. Who knew?

Before you can even think about how Quinn is so randomly powerful at intermittent bursts of time, a large blow to your back sends you hurling straight down towards the grounds of Narpollo.

/

You were tense and trying to hold still but now you can't hold it in any longer.

"Artie, can't we get closer? I can't see anything that's happening!" you exclaim.

"Well yes, technically being out of their planet's atmosphere would do that-"

"Not now Berry," you sigh.

"Sorry," she responds, shrinking back.

You're in the control room with Artie, Kitty, and Rachel, the latter who has not left your side since Lopez took off and maybe you're regretting asking her to keep an eye on you now.

"Commander, please, just sit down, Lopez told us their coming out now-"

"Yes but their transmission got cut off after Lopez said some pretty swear words and now I need to see what's going on!" you say annoyed.

Artie bites his bottom lip in worry.

"But what if they pick up our signals?" he says.

"I'm with my blonde over here," says Kitty as she walks over to Artie's flight seat. "I can't stand not knowing what's going on and I think our cover would've been blown anyways I mean, if their security was that good, they would've picked up Lopez's by now too."

Artie looks between the three women surrounding him and sighs.

"Alright, but you gotta get out of my way. Go to the exit chamber and I'll open up the exit tunnel so you can either fly out or just watch from the hovercraft to see what's going on."

"YES YOU'RE THE BEST!" you scream, not even looking back as you run up the stairs and over to the exit chamber.

As you pass by the living quarters hall, you hear Sam, Mercedes, and Tina trying to get the new Narpollian titans settled. They haven't realized that Lopez and the other titan are still out there.

You sprint.

Just as you reach there, the tunnel exit opens up and you are able to see the orange skies outside.

You then have to rub your eyes in confusion because what you see is not what you were expecting.

A giant dark purple lattimus that has more sinister features on it is standing on a what seemed to be a large pool, with greek columns and rubble strewn around it's feet. People are running away from it and you see four arms shooting beams at two bursts of light flying around it.

One of them is metallic red – Lopez. The other one was one you fought off at Mike's camp back when the Narpollo titans were trying to destroy the Metropolis force field. It was one of the large goons bearing a black and dark grey lattimus.

They seemed to be working together but the giant lattimus is too strong.

Another lattimus seems to fly out of no where and blasts into the tunnel, collapsing once reaching inside.

It's the jet black lattimus that you fought in the simulator… What was her name again? You don't have time to think and you beckon Rachel over.

"Berry, help her," you command.

You want to help others but Lopez is in danger.

"Got it. Commander, you ordered me to remind you that you're our leader. Don't go out there," she says softly.

"I'm not going to do anything, Berry," you snap.

Lopez just got struck by an energy beam to the back and is now falling towards the ground.

Panic whips through your body and you're about to fly out when you feel a firm grip on your shoulder.

"Don't do it. We need you here," says Berry.

You see Lopez's armour falling and you're fighting every instinct to fly out there to catch her and bring her back into safety.

"You won't be able to fight out there anyways. You're at a disadvantage. This is their planet. You have limited light energy and could just put everyone else in danger if you get hurt."

You know Rachel is right. You close your eyes shut and grit your teeth, clenching your jawline.

You didn't even realize you were crouched down, hands at the edge of the tunnel exit, ready to blast off.

You straighten up and look Rachel in the eyes.

"Thank you," you muster up. "You're right, I knew I could count on you."

Rachel nods and turns to help Quinn.

"We can't go out there, but we can bring the hovercraft to them."

You run back to the command center and turn Artie's chair around to face you.

"Bring the ship down. We're going in to pick them up."

/

You feel the heat of the planet surround you once again and that wakes you up from your stupor.

You send out energy from your feet and hands in the direction of the planet to slow yourself down. You then straight up and float in the air, looking around for what hit you.

Unfortunately, it isn't that hard to spot the giant lattimus monster from below who is now getting bigger because it's… it's flying at you?

Shit.

You blast energy at it from your hands and are soon joined by Finn who flies by you and hurls a round house kick shooting energy beams at Carl's lattimus face.

As it gets closer, you see that your beams are doing no damage and his lattimus helmet no longer looks like yours. It looks like some sort of mythological god with ancient markings engraved on it.

One of the hands are reaching slowly upwards towards you.

You fly to the left and send a slicing beam at it's wrist which leaves a scuff mark on your opponent.

Finn blasts over top of the lattimus head and sends an electrifying surge of energy downwards, causing the lattimus to stumble a bit.

Finn regroups with you and shouts over to you.

"Santana, go. GET OUT OF HERE. I can handle him."

You eyes widen.

"NO! I'm not leaving without you. You can't stop him!"

Carl sends a blast between the both of you, luckily both of you seeing it ahead of time and dodging it by blasting upwards.

"I can hold him off and give the rest of you time to get out of here, you know that."

It's true, Finn's special power was rarely used, and you've only seen it once when you had to take energy from a particularly strong planet.

"IT'S EITHER ME OR ALL OF THE TITANS. GO SANTANA!" he yells.

"I WON'T LEAVE YOU FINN," you yell back.

At this point, Carl's lifting up his lattimus legs so that he can stand on the ground. He's taller than most buildings and charges up energy at his mouth area.

A ball of sizzling dark purple energy starts to build up.

You blast downwards and send blasts at both of his knees while Finn shoots at Carl's shoulders.

You're sweating and your muscles ache from charging up so much energy but you can't stop.

You're so focused on attacking Carl that you miss him shoot his energy beam at the hovercraft flying down towards you.

Skillfully maneuvering the hovercraft is Kitty and Artie as it flies by you.

"Santana get out of there! Get in the hovercraft!" incomes Brittany's voice in your helmet.

Carl is slow but that split moment of distraction allowed him a window of opportunity to shoot a narrow energy beam at the hovercraft, piercing right through it's back.

"NO!" you yell. You blast up towards where Finn is.

You release the anger in you and charge up all of the energy you can at your chest and blast it straight at the lattimuses head.

"SANTANA. GET. IN. THE SHIP!" yells Finn.

You take a look at the spot where you hit Carl, hoping to see some sort of damage but there is none. The dark purple lattimus armour remains in tact and shiny as ever.

"FINN YOU GET IN HERE TOO," you plead.

"JUST GO!"

You don't waste another second and blast towards the hovercraft which is now flying away from the lattimus and towards the atmosphere.

Reaching the tunnel, you blast your way in immediately land on your feet once you reach the inside.

Everyone is inside watching that giant monster of Carl swinging away at Finn.

"FINN GET IN HERE," you yell out.

"-damage is not bad but we can't last very long without repairing it-" you over hear in the background of what seems to be Artie's voice.

You see Finn throw a slicing beam of energy at the junction of Carl's neck and shoulder before he blasts towards the ship.

While he does so, you see purple energy surround him and start to tug away at his armour.

"No…" you breathe out.

"WHAT THE HELL MAN!" you hear Puck yell.

Finn is using his power of which he transforms into Finn on steroids basically. You call it his berserk mode and knows that this means one thing.

He's not coming back.

Finn fully transforms into a lattimus that looks doubly armoured and is constantly surrounded by dark purple energy.

He reaches the tunnel entrance and holds onto it with both hands.

"I love you guys," he says.

A moment later, he shoots energy into the hovercraft walls and you hear metal cranking.

"HE"S FIXING THE HOLES!" you hear Artie shout.

"Do me a favour and kick his ass for me," says Finn.

You're staring at him from the other side of the tunnel in the hovercraft and swallow.

"I will," you promise.

You can picture his goofy grin as he nods his head one more time at you. No one has ever had as much heart and spirit as Finn. No one would ever be willing to sacrifice themselves like he is right now. No one will ever be as good of a man as him.

With a grunt, he starts to move the entire hovercraft on his own by blasting energy out of his feet and pushing ship with his hands.

You feel the ship gaining momentum as it heads upwards on an angle into the atmosphere.

Just as the ship gets enough speed, you see Finn get knocked in his side by one of Carl's energy beams.

The hovercraft starts to gain it's regular speed and the last thing you see is Finn shooting an energy beam at Carl's head but then Carl outstretches his arm so that his palm is below Finn and releases a large energy beam, completely consuming Finn's armour.

"NO!" you hear everyone scream.

"No…" says Puck.

"Artie, shut the tunnel exit of the hovercraft," says Pierce.

You kneel on the floor, looking down at the tunnel door of the hovercraft where you last saw Finn through.

All emotions inside of you disappear.

All sounds of chattering and screams fade away.

Coldness surrounds your heart. Fury flows through your blood vessels. Shock and disbelief amplify with each heart beat.

Finn is dead.

Your fists close and shake, your muscles tense and flexed.

There's one thing you can only think of right now.

Carl needs to die.

You stand up and don't even register the rest of the titans around you.

As soon as you stand up, sudden pain shoots through your body.

The edges around your vision goes starts to fade black.

Before you know what's happening, you collapse on the floor.


A/U: I would like to toast two new reviewers in order of their posts: Dman & naynay1963.

To Dman: whoever you are, your reviews are spot on! (I also appreciate you posting with a random name so it's easier to respond to you).

I wrote this chapter and had it in mind from the very beginning. Personally, I felt the sudden loss of Cory Monteith/Finn and it was one of the situations that made me realize how fragile and temporary life is. I think that it's normal for people to forget how lucky we are to have one another, and to me, the thought of how easy it is for someone to be gone the next day is surreal.

Writing is an outlet I never understood until I tried it out. I can't express my views to anyone out loud because no one I know understands why Cory means so much to me but through writing and through my characters, I can explain how I view not only Finn, but all of the other ones and their individual personalities, how I relate to them, and how I feel through them. That's the magic of writing. I'm glad you find the connections between the show's lines and how I've fit them into my story here and there, that's a good fan right there. Also, JBI is still there. He's an example of why I enjoy writing so much now. People always view him as bad because of how he is in the show. He's a horny teen, but that doesn't mean he can't do any good now, does it? :-) His time will come.

To naynay1963: THANK YOU. Thank you for your review. Thank you for your comments, of which I agree to 100%. Thank you for taking the time to express your gratitude and appreciation. You are a beautiful person, whoever, and wherever you are. Sometimes, simple praise and reinforcement can go a long way, especially from a stranger.

You are right that I should own what I write. It is my story after all. One thing I was debating with my response to those comments of disgust though was how I should approach it: with a hard head and completely not own up to the fact that I indeed started out without a g!p scene in mind? Or should I not hide behind my anonymity and honestly admit that I put it there organically? I respect people, and with the power of internet, I don't want to abuse it. I do care about people who read my story because it takes a lot to write it. A lot of brainstorming goes into it, and so if people are here to enjoy the ride with me, I will welcome it. I know I can't please everyone but right now, it's more so a decision based upon my original intentions - to stop straying so far from what I wanted to portray: a budding romance, but a killer story. Slow and steady wins the race. It wasn't fair of me to put that scene in in the first place in hindsight. I'm new to this realm and if I didn't put it in the description, the users have a right to object to it. BUT, you have made me smile tonight in spite of those other reviews. I've decided to take down all g!p related comments and will keep it that way so we can put it behind us and continue along with what we're all here for.

BOTTOM LINE: REVIEWS ARE GREAT, FRIENDS! We can only go up from here.