Ch 11: Awakenings Pt. II
You have a feeling inside of you, a gut feeling, and you need to talk to Schuester about it. Some time during your healing session, you subconsciously connected the dots of information that have been given to you thus far and figured out what Schuester was trying to tell you that one night on the hovercraft, but ever since waking up, you can't remember your revelation.
It's that frustrating feeling of waking up from a beautiful dream and only being able to remember how the dream made you feel, except this time, the dream was not a happy one.
All you were left with was a deep feeling of sacrifice and sadness for the greater good but with no clue what caused these feelings or why.
Once you saw Pierce upon awakening, those feelings made you know that you needed to memorize her, and spend as much time with her as possible because your time was coming to an end… but why?
It was just a feeling, but still, you couldn't shake it off.
Fucking Schuester.
You need to have another conversation with him. Maybe it will help to jog your memory - after all, he was the one who spoke to you cryptically on the hovercraft that one time.
This semi-revelation sucks.
That's why you basically ran away from Brittany once you woke up.
You didn't want to feel like that; you didn't want to look at her and only feel the impending sadness that's inevitably coming and not even know why.
You want to look at her and remember how just seeing her changes everything around you. Even the air changes like you're breathing in happiness, bringing you to a place where you know anything's possible.
But you don't feel like that anymore.
You feel distant, and you want to be so you can avoid what the reality is now.
A reality where one of your good friends is gone.
You remember your tall Frankenstein of a friend.
You can see his dopey lopsided grin staring down at you when you close your eyes.
Finn.
You feel like you let him down, like you let your titans down.
Could you have done something differently? You're their leader, so why didn't you choose to sacrifice yourself? Of course, Finn had the super power to use super strength and give your ship the momentum to fly away after being damaged but you shouldn't have left.
Dealing with the pain hurts.
Not dealing with the pain and pretending hurts even more.
You really don't know how to go about coping with this truth so the result is you running away from anything that draws breath and hiding in your room to lie in your bed, existing and doing no more than that.
He was such a good guy, and now he's gone.
You try to shut down your head so that you can stop replaying the scenario over and over in your head.
You try to convince yourself that you had no other choice but to get on the ship otherwise you would've jeopardized everyone who was on it, but you still feel like you could've done more.
With the combination of Finn and the whole ordeal with Schuester, you just want to will it all away by burying your head into your pillow, face first.
Your walls of tough skin broke down just like that.
You're not ready to talk to people about any of it, and you especially don't want to talk to Pierce about it. Not yet, anyways.
Besides, you know that if you speak to someone, you'll say something stupid and hurtful so you need to compose yourself and get over this phase before returning to your life.
You lie in your bed and wait.
Hours pass by and you remain in your grief-stricken-confused-about-your-feelings state.
You even drift off into sleep a couple of times to be awoken by dreams of losing Brittany forever, or dreaming of the giant creepy lattimus that Carl has become. You've even woken up to yourself crying only to groan and flip your pillow over to the dry side of the pillow case to continue your coma.
It's the thirtieth time you've fallen asleep when Arties booming voice echoes throughout your room.
"Titans, we're rolling out in 30."
You groan like a bratty teenager. That's the last thing you want to be doing right now, getting ready for another mission.
"Titans, we are about to destroy."
That wakes you up. Destroy? Are we going to face Carl again?
Practically leaping out of your bed, you burst through your door to see tons of titans running around in bright coloured uniforms.
"Looking a little confused there, Lopez."
You look around and see Sam's sauntering towards you with a small smile on his face.
He reaches you and puts a hand on your shoulder.
"Hey," he says quietly. "It's good to see you. We've missed you."
This is your second interaction with a person and you want to keep it together. Not trusting your words right now, you proceed to give him a hug and bury your face into his shoulder.
You pull back and attempt to smile.
"What's- what's going on?" you say.
"Brittany's called a mission to the Bavarian Planes. Schuester hologrammed himself in and told her and Artie that Carl is going to try to take all of the pure life energy to add to his powers and then go see Odom to become a god once more."
"And we're going to stop him?" you ask skeptically.
"We're going to stop him," he confirms.
"Did she not see what happened last time?!" you wonder out loud in frustration and fear. You don't think this is a good idea at all. You were barely able to make a scratch on Carl with your energy blasts. If you couldn't do it, most of the other titans wouldn't be able to either.
"Oh trust me, she saw," he says with a dark face.
You scrunch your eyebrows in confusion.
"What does that mean?" you respond.
Sam sighs giving you a look that only transmits a 'you have no idea, do you' message across his facial features.
"She was the first one to you when you fell unconscious from your injuries, and I swear to God that she hasn't left your side since. She slept in the medic center all week long on a chair. She's barely talked to anyone and is all mopey. It's scary."
You widen your eyes at that.
He crosses his arms and looks sternly down at you.
"You didn't know, did you? Let me guess, you haven't spoken to her yet, or anyone for that matter?" he says. You bow your head in shame, avoiding his eye contact. Sam sighs.
"Santana, you can't just shut people out. You should know by now that we're here for you. We're your friends," he says. "Especially Britt. She cares about you, you know that. And I'm more than a hundred percent sure that she's had more than enough time to think about what her next move is gonna be for us. Trust me," he says, taking your shoulders with both hands. "She's seen you unconscious over the last week. For the past week, all she was reminded of was what happened last time."
You try your best to hold up a straight face.
You feel a swell of happiness in your chest knowing that Britt didn't leave you alone but you also feel like such an asshole for brushing her off like that.
Obviously Pierce wouldn't have just shown up to see you out of the pod, because now that you think of it, if the roles were reversed, you would've probably gone crazy and done more than just visit there every day. You would've knocked yourself out so that you could get put in the healing pod with her so that you would both be out of commission; so you wouldn't have to experience life without her.
Of course she would want to be there for you. How could you be so stupid? Did you really think she was there to say hi and then go back to her business? She's waited a week for you to wake up and you walked away.
You feel like a douche.
Sam grabs your elbow and gives you a tug until you come back down to reality and start to follow him over to the ship.
"Come on, let's go."
Once arriving in the hanger where the hovercraft sits, you move away from Sam and try to stay out of everyone's way by lingering in the shadows.
You're not ready to talk to people just yet and you know that they can sense that, so they leave you be and continue on with prepping for the launch.
Titans are moving back and forth, bringing their belongings into the hovercraft or other supplies.
Pierce comes into your sight here and there, moving quickly and with ferocity, making sure everything is going alright and that the Narpollians know what they're doing.
You wish you could will yourself to be like that right now but something inside you has changed. A switch has flipped. You don't feel invincible anymore. You feel weak. On top of that, you can't help but feel like there's no time left because of that weird gut feeling you woke up with.
You try to distract your mind from whirring too much.
If anything is comforting you right now, it's the sight of your old team working together with your new family.
Sugar's looking confused, but that's normal. Blaine is with Jake and Ryder, loading up food into the hovercraft. Puck, Marley, Kurt and Karofsky are lifting light and dark energy in the black energy harvester containers and hauling them into the ship.
You look around for Quinn and find her nodding along to whatever Berry is telling her. You smile a bit and walk towards her.
Like a good friend with psychic connections to you, she sees you and excuses herself from Berry.
"How're you holding up?" you ask as she comes closer to you.
"Taking it slowly, but I'll be alright eventually. You?"
"I don't know," you respond honestly. "We'll catch up later though?"
She gives you a sad smile.
"I gotta go back to Rachel. She's updating me on what the Planes are."
You nod in understanding.
"I'll see you soon."
/
Before you know it, everyone is strapped into his or her personalized seats in which Artie installed during the repairs. He also added new living quarters for the new titans. Instead of two rows of seats where you all faced each other, a middle row has been added, but because of the limited room, those seats are facing forward.
You're left with a side view of Puck instead of Brittany, something you're both disappointed and grateful for.
You're so distracted by the blonde that you don't even laugh at how much the Narpollian titans are struggling with their seats like the first time you did.
Although Puck is in between you and Brittany, you can practically feel her eyes gazing through his mohawked head.
The familiar rumbling of the hovercraft and the faster-than-speed-of-light take off passes by without stunning you, and now comes the several hours of waiting to get to the Planes.
As soon as you're allowed to get out of the chairs, you lean forward to look past Puck and see bright blue eyes staring right back at you. You signal with your eyes in the general direction of the body of the rest of the hovercraft and you know that she knows what you're trying to tell her. Shutting people out of your world is normal, but you owe it to her to explain, or attempt to at least, why you need some time alone right now. Without wasting another second, you make a beeline for your room.
/
You're sitting on the edge of your bed, tapping your foot in anticipation.
You've come a long way with Pierce and you don't want anything to come in between you.
It seems like eons before the sound of gushing air from the doors comes to your ears.
Looking up, you see Pierce stand at the doorway, one hand on the frame.
She looks hesitant.
"Can I come in?" she asks.
You look at her quizzically and smile, remembering all of the times she's barged in on you at embarrassing moments.
"When has that ever stopped you?" you smile.
She laughs bashfully and comes in.
You don't even let her take three steps into your room before you lose your inhibition and rush over to her and give her a hug.
You bury your head into her neck and enjoy her aroma.
You feel her arms wrap around your shoulders tightly, welcoming your body into hers.
Even though it's such a simple action, you're trying to communicate without words your appreciation and need for her.
Releasing the hug, you hold her arms as she rubs up and down your biceps softly in a comforting manner. Your eyes flicker all over her facial features, absorbing it into your mind.
"Hey," she softly says.
"Hi," you respond. You clear your throat.
"Look, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I shut myself down. I- I just couldn't deal with people," you start.
She nods in understanding, letting you speak.
This is one of the many things you love about her; she knows when there's a lot on your mind and she knows how to react to it perfectly. Right now, you just need to try to get your words out.
"Honestly, I can't even explain what's going on with me. Just know that no matter what, even if I'm acting like an idiot, I will always love you the most," you earnestly say, looking up into her eyes.
She bites her bottom lip and nods.
"I was so worried about you," she confesses. "And I'm so happy to see you, but I understand that you need some time. I get it, completely. If you want me, I'm here. It's your choice."
You give her a small smile. Her facial features go from worried to uncomfortable.
"Britt, what is it?" you probe.
She shuffles around a little and takes a breath.
"Listen, I want to talk to you about today. I don't want you to fight."
You scoff at that remark, waiting for her to continue. When she doesn't, you realize she's being serious.
"Wait, you're kidding right?"
"You just got better, I'm not going to just throw you in the mix again," she says.
"You know that you're going to need me in the fight-" you protest.
"-I know-"
"-then what's the problem with me fighting? You and I both know that I'm good to go."
There's no way in hell you're going to be sitting on the sidelines, watching everyone you love (mostly everyone… okay fine you do love Rachel too) fight an impossible monster.
"I'm not strong enough," she says looking down.
"Wait, is this just a work out to you?" you say incredulously. "Is this you trying to prove to yourself you are strong enough-"
"-no,"
"Then what on earth are you talking about, Britt? You and I are among the top fighters here and if anything, it'll be me or you who's going to bring Carl down!"
"I'm not strong enough," she says shaking her head, looking down.
"Exactly! So you need me there too!"
"No, you don't get it," she whispers. "I'm not… I'm not strong enough.., I can't lose you again. I won't be strong enough the next time."
You stare at her with your mouth open like an idiot.
"I can't bare to see you like that again. Look at how you are acting right now, after losing Finn. Now, imagine how I would be acting if I lost you. I don't think I would be able to live if it were you in Finn's place this time."
She's biting her lower lip to stop it from quivering.
Your eyes soften and you lift her chin up with your hand.
"Hey, hey, hey, none of that talk. Look at me," you say. "You won't lose me, not if we fight together. You said it yourself! You're not strong enough. The titans individually are most definitely not strong enough. Finn – he was an amazing fighter and I miss him so, so much. I would be pissed if we were making a stupid decision and choosing to put ourselves in that situation again by fighting Carl one on one but no. This time, we've got my titans, we've got your titans, and we've got you and I leading the pack. We'll hit him with everything we've got. He caught us off guard last time; this time, we've got the element of surprise."
You know you're comforting her because her facial features start to relax a little.
Inside, you know that what you say is only partially true. You're connected to Carl, as are the rest of your Narpollo titans, and heck – even the planet Narpollo itself is.
You know that you won't be able to surprise him because he'll be able to sense you from a mile away but you don't care.
You're going to have to face him at some point, and better together than alone.
"You still look scared," you point out.
"That's because I am," she says.
This is Brittany talking to you, not Commander Pierce.
"Brittany, listen to me. You're amazing. You're a genius. I've seen the way you work, and one thing that I've noticed is that fear, it doesn't shut you down. Fear – it wakes you up."
She looks at you with a lost puppy look.
"How do you know that? You haven't even seen me in a serious situation yet."
You chuckle a little.
"Do you forget the very first time I fought you? It doesn't take a lot to see that being in challenging situations is where you excel. You countered every single attack I threw at you, and I didn't go easy on you," you say truthfully.
She nods.
"Thanks," she says gratefully. "I just wish we had some sort of way of beating him, or knowing how to weaken him. I normally have a plan or strategy for everything we do but this time, we're just going in blind."
You don't know how to respond to that because you've got no answer so you just stand there in silence, conveying your agreement to the difficulty of your mission.
Brittany sighs. "Well, I'll leave you to your thoughts. I gotta get back to check up on the other titans."
"Are you okay? You look like you're about to doze off…" you say, noticing how her eyes are slowly drooping as your conversation progresses.
"I'm just a little behind on my sleep but it's normal, no worries," she says as she turns to go.
"Alright. Thanks for the talk," you say after her.
She smiles and pats your arm before walking away.
The door shuts and you realize that this might be your last chance to avenge Finn.
There are a couple of more hours to go before you land.
You need to get out of this funk to think straight and bring your all.
So far, what you've been doing is trying to push everything down or not think about it, but after speaking honestly to Britt, you feel loads better.
You decide to let your mind run and stop repressing everything. Maybe actually letting yourself feel the full-blown hurt will allow you to finally accept what has happened and slowly move on.
You don't want to hold back anymore so you let the horrific memories replay of what happened on Narpollo in your head, over and over again until you're only consumed by fury.
Section 1.5 – Quinn to the Rescue
"What's up Britt?" you say as you walk up to her.
She's been hanging around the control center for most of the journey and you're tired of listening to Berry rant to Kurt and Blaine, or watching the guys play video games. Besides, there's just a blonde-to-blonde connection between you and Britt so you want to hang out with her.
"Oh, hey Quinn," she greets, flashing you her famous smile. "Can I help you with anything?"
"Nah, just came to see how you're doing."
"I'm alright, this wait is absolutely killing me though, and I don't do well with boredom. I might fall asleep any second now and be like a vampire," she jokes.
You notice the eyebags under her eyes and her slouched posture. You remember how she's been absent at every titan get together and has been basically living in the medic center by Santana's side. Putting two and two together, you think she's in need of some friend help right now.
"How much sleep did you get over the last week?" you ask cautiously.
She twists her mouth in thought.
"Not very much. I spent most of the time watching Santana… so, maybe about three or four hours each day?"
"Oh my god, how are you still functioning?" you ask in disbelief. "You're going to fight in this half awake state?"
She nods.
"I'm fine, honestly. I'm used to not sleeping around here. There's too much to do."
There's not much you can do about giving her time to sleep but wait one second – you've got something that might help her out.
Some days, when your powers got really out of control, you wouldn't be able to sleep because you were so charged up but yet you would be exhausted from exerting all of that energy. That's when you discovered over the counter pills labelled "Vitamin D". You're not really sure what it is but the pharmacist said they help with energy, so you took them because you were worn out.
The fact that you were bouncing off the walls that day after taking those pills is an understatement.
"I've got something that could help you. It works like caffeine. It boosts up your energy and delays your tiredness. Do you want some?" you ask excitedly.
"What will they do to me?" she asks.
You can see from her face that she's curious.
It's nothing unsafe - it makes you super awake and alert, like you're on a much faster speed of life than the rest of the world.
"I'll be right back," you smile.
You don't like how Brittany's been stressing out over Santana because from what you've heard around the HQ about Brittany's fighting skills, you most definitely need her for this fight.
If we want to end Carl, it's going to have to be with your full strength.
Plus, it's clear that Santana and Brittany have something special going on so you have to play your part as Santana's oldest friend to help her out as much as possible.
After rummaging through your bags, you find your Vitamin D pills and jog back to the control center where she's leaned over Artie's flight seat, chatting with him.
"Here you go," you say, handing over two pills to her and a glass of water. "Pop these two babies up and I guarantee you won't feel the sleep deprivation for a couple of hours.
"Thanks," she says taking the pills from you.
"Holy shit, are those what I think they are?" says Artie, doing a double take on the pills.
"Vitamin D?" you say.
Artie starts to laugh.
"Oh man," he says in between laughing. "I've had those before in my school days. That's how I got by designing security systems for Metropolis, updating the new force field, and getting by with a first class grade score all in one semester. You get hyped up," he says, raising his hands for emphasis.
Brittany's eyes widen and she smiles.
"Perfect."
/
"HALF-AN-HOUR-TO-LANDING-AND-I-FEEL-SO-GREAT-QUINN-FABRAY-YOU-MADE-MY-DAY-WHERE'S-SANTANA-OH-MAN-I-CAN'T-WAIT-TO-KICK-CARL-IN-THE-ASS-LET'S-GO-TO-THE-KITCHEN-FOR-SOME-FOOD-I'M-HUNGRY-"
Artie looks at you with wide eyes.
"You've created a monster," he says. "I'm not sure whether to be scared of this version of Brittany or laughing at this hilarity."
"I-" you try to say something but you don't even know what you want to say.
Brittany is on overdrive right now and her energy is through the roof.
Her eyes are wide open and she has an uncontrollably large smile plastered onto her face.
"Britt, can you still fight and think okay?" you ask.
"I'M-GOING-TO-PERSONALLY-SEE-TO-IT-THAT-CARL-GETS-SMACKED-BY-THE-HAND-OF-GOD," she says in one quick breath.
"Don't worry, haven't you had the pills before? I remember that I was in full control, it's just you can do things a lot faster and your brain goes into hyper mode, absorbing and processing things at a faster speed than normal," explains Artie.
Brittany's still standing there smiling at you guys and her eyes shift back and forth between you and Artie quickly for a second more before speaking up again.
"I'M-GONNA-GO-FIND-SANTANA-I'LL-SEE-YOU-ALL-LATER-THANKS-YOU'RE-THE-BESTEST-GET-ME-MORE-PILLS-PLEASE-ARTIE-YOUR-GLASSES-LOOK-HOT."
And before you can even respond to that, Brittany zooms off in her super speed power and disappears up the stairs and down the hallway.
"Umm…You better go get her," says Artie.
"Yeah…" you say in shock. "I'll… I'll be right back."
You make way to go up the stairs of the control center and continue to run down to the living quarters because that's where you're assuming Santana will be. Once you get there in lightning time, low and behold, you see her room door wide open.
Finally reaching her door in record timing,you see that Brittany is re-arranging Santana's room and talking at an uber fast speed.
"What. The hell. Is this Brittany?" Santana asks looking flustered. Her eyes are following Brittany as Britt runs back and forth in her room carrying her stuff around.
Santana was clearly taking a siesta (sleep) but is now sitting up right with the blanket still covering her.
"I'M-MAKING-MORE-SPACE-IN-THIS-ROOM-SO-I-CAN-DANCE-WITH-YOU-ONE-MORE-TIME-BEFORE-WE-LAND-LIKE-WE-DID-THE-FIRST-TIME-ON-THIS-SHIP-CAUSE-WE-WON'T-KNOW-WHAT-WILL-HAPPEN-TO-EITHER-OF-US-SO-I-WANT-TO-SPEND-TIME-ALONE-WITH-YOU-BECAUSE-I-KNOW-YOU'RE-NOT-HAPPY-RIGHT-NOW-AND-"
"Okay, okay, okay, Britt-"
"I-KNOW-THIS-WILL-MAKE-YOU-FEEL-A-LITTLE-BETTER-"
"BRITT BRITT. STOP TALKING!" Santana says, raising her voice.
She gets out of her bed and walks towards Brittany.
Brittany just stands in the room and smiles at Santana, panting because she's trying to catch her breath.
"Britt, you're scaring me. This isn't you," says Santana, holding both of Brittany's shoulders.
"It's my fault," you say, entering the room.
"The fuck Fabray?" says Santana. She immediately went from sweet Santana to pissed off Santana, something you've gotten a lot of over the years. By now, it's just funny.
"Look, Britt was feeling really worn out so I gave her some of my Vitamin D pills so she wouldn't fall asleep halfway through our fight," you say.
"So you drugged her?"
"No! Well, technically yes but did you see her? She needs it," you say. "She'll be able to react, think, and fight ten times faster than normal."
"Okay, now you're just making shit up," says Santana.
"Yeah, okay, maybe I am just a little. I don't know for sure if it's ten times but you do all of the above at a much higher rate," you say.
Santana rolls her eyes.
"Great. Whatever. Will she calm down a little by the time we get there?" she asks.
"I-DON'T-WANT-TO-CALM-DOWN-I-NEED-TO-KILL-CARL-SO-I-CAN-GET-BACK-TO-LORD-TUBBINGTON," shouts Brittany.
You give her a very confused look and turn back to Santana.
"Yes she should calm down a little by then but she'll still be hyped up enough to keep her from feeling so tired."
"Good, now lets me gets my shut eye on, sorry Britt, I love you, but you gotta go with Quinn."
"OKAY," she shouts, saluting you in the process.
"Later, Lopez," you say, turning Brittany around and pushing her out of the room.
Even though the door closes, you're pretty sure the whole ship heard Brittany yell back towards Santana's room.
"I'LL-MISS-YOUUUUUUUUUUUU."
You laugh at Brittany and struggle to keep on moving her forward because she's still facing Santana's doorway and isn't focusing on walking backwards.
"Come on Captain," you say.
"I've missed her," she says in a sad voice. You look at Brittany and see her staring back at Santana's door with a longing look.
"Me too," you sigh.
It's hard to believe such an innocent looking titan is the captain of everyone here. You've watched her go from menacing at thoughts of Carl, to laughing hysterically, to a sad lost little panda in the span of ten minutes.
She doesn't deserve all of this pressure on her, yet she's the most powerful titan amongst you all.
Pity is the word that comes to mind when you look at her. You think you know why.
She wants something that she can't have because she's in a position where everyone trusts her.
Everyone believes in her.
And for that, you feel sorry for her. But that also makes you understand why her team is so loyal and willing to have her as their commander. She can understand what the big picture is and put aside anything personal for the greater good. That's why even someone like Santana chose to stay with Predastar. Their leader is someone who is willing to sacrifice themselves for everyone and so who wouldn't want to fight for them?
It's this moment that you swear you will defend her. It's this moment that your allegiance to your blonde captain is solidified.
It's strange though, looking at this young woman, a face of beauty and strength no doubt, but you never would've guessed her to be the captain on first glance.
You guess that sometimes, power and talent present themselves in those who seem least likely to have it.
Pierce makes you want to fight for her. And so you will.
/
"GET OVER HERE WOMAN! YOU GOTTA SEE THIS!" shouts Karofsky as he bursts into your room and drags you off of your bed.
"What the hell?" you say in frustration.
You're about to scream and hit him but then you see the flicker of fear in his eyes. Your breathing changes into a slow steady one to oppose the fear.
"Carl?" you ask.
He nods with worry etched all over his face.
"We're at the fricking planes and we can see him flying towards it on the four eyes' radar," he says.
You push past him and stride through your room door heading to the control center.
You don't care what powers Carl has, you're going to do everything you can possibly do to rid this world of him, once and for all.
The only sounds in the luminescent halls are coming from yours and Karofsky's footsteps. Everyone else must be already there in the control center.
Sure enough, as you get closer, voices emerge but your ears are only tuned to one frequency: the Brittany frequency.
"- absolutely must stay here and leave us if we don't come back, get yourselves out-"
"-Lord have mercy, please don't let it come to that-"
"-it won't Mercedes, or I hope it won't."
You step onto the balcony and see the titans on the floor deck around Artie and Kitty's flight seats chatting or staring out at the planes through the front window.
Once again, the giant curved glass gives it a feeling like we're not in a ship, but rather, like we're all flying towards this massive floating rock out in space.
You can see on Artie's holographic map that there is a red dot approaching the planes from another direction. It must be Carl. Artie must've been able to detect such a large source of power.
You lean on the balcony rail and watch Pierce give orders to people. It seems like the Vitamin D has toned down and she's less hyper now.
Almost as if she could sense you looking at her, Pierce looks up directly at you and makes eye contact. She excuses herself from Ryder and Jake who were talking to her and heads towards the stairs to come to you.
Even in times of crisis, you can't help yourself but steal glances at the blonde's figure while she walks towards you.
"Hey," she says as she approaches you.
"Hi," you respond.
"Are you feeling better?" she asks.
You chuckle lightly and that makes her look a little confused.
"Shouldn't I be the one asking you that? Miss over-dosed?" you joke.
She looks embarrassed and rolls her eyes, smiling.
"Oh shut up," she says.
You laugh and shake your head at her.
"It's okay, you're cute when you're hyped on drugs," you say.
"Am I not cute normally?"
You pretend to think and scrunch up your face.
"Oh my god," Brittany laughs, punching your shoulder.
"Yeah okay fine, maybe you're a little bit cute normally. But not as much as when you're drugged."
"I'll be sure to go to my dealer more often then," she says.
You scoff at that. "Fabray? A dealer? Girl, you ain't got no nothin' yet. If you want something real, talk to Puck," you say.
"You know I'm joking right, San?"
"What?" you pretend, acting innocent.
"Drugs are bad, I don't do them."
"Except for Vitamin D?" you smirk.
"Those weren't drugs."
"So they're just magic pills that you pop and go cray cray on them?"
"Yes," says Pierce with a straight face.
You try to hold a straight face to her too but end up cracking a smile.
"You goof," you say.
"It's good to have you back in the public," she says to you.
"Thanks, I feel that way too," you say. "But seriously, don't take those things from Fabray ever again. She can take as many dopey pills as she wants to keep her from exploding on the sidelines while we do our thing on Carl but you become a nightmare," you say, poking her on the nose. She simply smiles innocently at you.
"Quinn's going to fight," Britt states.
You do a double take.
"She is?" you as skeptically.
Britt nods and purses her lips.
"Yeah, she offered to, and I thought better than to say no to her."
"I taught you well, young jedi," you say. She laughs adoringly and looks out front. "Glad you got Fabray out of her stupor. I could never get her to fight. Looks like she really believes in you… I believe in you too."
Britt smiles at you and nods.
"So, what's the plan?" you ask.
"There is none. We'll station in groups to protect the falls where the pure energy is but other than that, I got nothing else."
You nod in dismay.
She's right, there is nothing we can really do at this point. All we know is that he's been able to absorb dark energy, energy which he basically created, and has transformed into something that looks half titan and half mythological god. Other than that, nothing else has come to light. No damage by your beams worked on him, there was that one scuff mark you left on his armour but that was the most damage you had been able to inflict. There must be something he's weak against or somewhere where he's vulnerable.
"Why are we doing this, Britt?" you ask honestly. There's a probability that not everyone will come back, a probability that this would do more harm than good.
She looks you in the eye and steps forward.
"Because last time, I couldn't do anything except for watch. No one else could do anything. The longer we wait, the stronger he gets. What if we all just came down to Narpollo instead of sending you off and what if we all could've taken down Carl together? What if that could've prevented Finn from…"
She can't finish her sentence and closes her eyes, taking a deep breath.
"I chose to do this because we can still make a difference. And this is a chance to. We need to intercept him before he gets stronger, and I'm not going to sit by and let him do his thing without a fight."
You nod in understanding, recognizing the sacrifice that she's accepted, the very same one that Finn accepted.
"Come on, we're about to land," she says. "GUYS LET'S GO!" she yells down to the floor deck.
You turn to go, not bothering to wait for the others.
/
Déjà vu hits you as the titans gather around the tunnel exit opening, all powered up in their lattimuses.
You think of the time when you were last here, exploring the planes with Brittany and how you both admitted how you felt about each other. It's also when you promised to go on your first date the next time you returned.
"Some date…" you mutter to yourself. Brittany's busy directing other titans to where they will be stationed and you already know where you'll be so you aren't listening. You see the basic plan in attacking Carl like a city defense. A powerhouse lies within each level of attack to ensure constant damage.
You've got the outer walls, the solid bricks to hold him down: Puck, Sam, Ryder, Jake, and Karofsky. They're going to start attacking Carl first. Meanwhile, you've got the random foot soldiers who can do some damage and scout out weaknesses: Mike, Berry, Kurt, Marley, and Blaine. Lastly, you've got the secret weapons, the last resort. If they can't stop it, no one can. That would be you, Brittany, and Quinn. The rest of them, being: Sugar, Artie, Kitty, Holly, JBI, Tina, and Mercedes, are all going to hang back in the hovercraft in case they need to make an escape or provide back up.
"-love you guys and let's go."
Britt's finished her speech and not a second later, you're blasting off into the exit tunnel without hesitating.
You fly through the opaque glass tunnel and feel the chilled galactic air hit you as soon as you reach the exit.
You look behind you and see the other titans blasting out and the hovercraft flying away, staying high up in the atmosphere to keep a look out.
Carl is visible at this point. He looks like a fireball flying through the sky that's gradually getting bigger and bigger the closer he comes to you.
You see the lattimuses position themselves on the outskirts before the ground drops towards the fields and pure life energy.
You fly over and past them to go down the slope and towards the fields and falls.
You land on the strange grassy field and look at the life energy.
The falls sound so powerful, yet the actual physical flow of the energy looks so soothing and calm, with the swirls of white dancing amongst each other before hitting the bottom.
The ice blue lattimus and jet black one land close to you not many seconds later, and the three of you look fierce as ever.
"The unholy trinity…" says Quinn through her new helmet communicator that Artie installed.
Britt points up to the sky and you see the fireball getting real close.
You can't resist so you fly up and can see the guys getting ready to fire their energy beams at the being on fire but something strange happens.
Sam starts to lower his beams and waves the other guys to stop too.
"The fuck…?" you say.
"San, what is it?" says Britt.
"That's… that's not-" you start to say.
"Guys, don't do anything, it's Schuester!" says Sam thorugh the communicator.
"What?" says Britt.
A second later, the firey ball moves faster than you can even turn your head, and lands on the rocky surface of the Planes in a one legged kneeling position with one arm stretched out touching the ground. It's a white lattimus that raises its head and stands up slowly. You see the helmet power down, and low and behold, a head of brown curly hair emerges.
"Hi guys, I got here as fast as I could," says Schue.
You see a flash of ice blue blast by you and towards Schuester so you follow suit.
"Why are you here?" demands Brittany, powering down her helmet. Her hair is up in a messy bun and her eyes are clear as ever.
"No, why are you here?" says Schuester, looking down on her. "I explicitly told you not to come and you didn't follow instructions. What part of 'don't go' did you not understand? Carl is unstable right now. You and I have no idea what he's capable of."
"I don't care," says Brittany fiercely. "You aren't the one who watched our friend die. You were the one who decided to not tell us about this whole god thing. You are the one who left us alone in the dark to figure things out. And because of that, all of this," she waves and gestures to the titans around, "is happening when we could've done something about this a long, long time ago."
Schuester sighs.
"Yes, I see that now and I know that I was wrong. Can't you trust me now though? I made one mistake, thinking that it would be for the best. Now, I'm trying to fix it. I'm trying to fix it with as little trouble as possible. We seriously don't know what we're up against, so please, just listen to me and we need to all retreat before Carl gets here."
Britt shakes her head.
"It's too late," she says, powering her helmet back up, blasting back towards the falls.
You look up and see a much larger fireball flying from the sky, directly at you.
You blast backwards, turning around and follow Pierce's tracks over the grass field.
Carl is here.
/
To A: Haha love the name. I'll put an end to your suspicions. Don't be suspicious of Schuester. In my story, the whole point of his character is to reflect someone in life who has made a mistake and is trying to get other people's trust back. It's tough, but sometimes you've got to take a leap of faith. People make mistakes, and some of those people genuinely are sorry and try to fix it by doing everything they can.