MARCH 19TH, 2018
"I can't believe this is happening!" Rachel growled as she stormed through the halls of the base with Older Britney. Santana was given a sleep aid and Britney didn't want to leave her side. Leroy and Shelby were also being checked by one of the nurses at the base as was the blonde woman who appeared out of no where.
Britney sighed. "How do you think this happened?"
"I don't know Brit but we have to figure out something."
"Do you remember what happened?" Britney asked.
"Somewhat, I was arguing with Santana. She tried to fight me for obvious reasons." Rachel said with a smirk as she made a hand gesture toward Britney and Britney smiled adorably in that love sick way of hers. "Gag me, anyway during the fight I was hit with dizziness than pain. The last thing I remember was hearing Frannie's voice."
"Then we ended up here." Britney finished for her.
"Right."
The two stood silent as they thought to themselves. Britney opened her desk drawer to get a pen and paper to write down possible reasons as to what might have happened, when she furrowed her brow at the item she knows she didn't put there.
"Rach?" Britney called as she pulled the coke bottle with the rolled up paper in it from the drawer.
Rachel furrowed her brow as well as she stood up in curiosity. Rachel, Quinn, and, Santana all knew that Britney kept her desk as organized as possible, because she always lost the small sketches of possible future inventions she liked to work on.
So seeing an empty coke bottle with a rolled up piece of paper in it is definitely out of the ordinary and not suppose to be there.
The other reason that made it odd was the fact that it was old looking and the only item in the desk covered in light dust, completely untouched. Which is impossible because Britney uses the desk everyday when their not back in time.
"Did you put it there?" Rachel asked as she stood just behind Britney as the blonde opened the bottle fishing out the note.
"No."
Britney unrolled the note, the moment her eyes began reading they bulged and her jaw dropped.
"Oh my god.."
"Is that real?!" Rachel asked astonished.
"How did they do this?" Britney asked as she read Sam and Sue's hand writing.
"You can gasp in shock with wide eyes later, Q. Let's go we've got timelines to fix and things to do." Older Quinn said already walking her away.
"You heard mom, mini Q. Let's go." Moore said as he followed his mother.
Quinn still in slight shock rushed to her older self staring in fascination. She looked good. Damn good if you ask her. She was definitely fed, healthy, and fit. Like a veteran soldier who ended their career in the military with all their body parts intact but paid the price with a burdened mind.
"I don't get it. How am I here? What year am I even in?" Quinn asked as she followed herself.
"The same way Rachel got to you except with a smaller less obvious piece of equipment." Older Quinn answered
"What?"
"She means my ring." Moore said.
"Your ring?"
"Yeah, we still use the watches but the ring is a precautionary measure should the watches get damaged, stolen, or lost."
"And who came up with that idea?" Quinn asked just as they entered a clearing with a small cabin.
"To answer you're first question it's July 9th, 2038 and to answer your second question our wife did." Older Quinn replied with a soft smile.
"Rachel?" Quinn's voice perked up.
Just as they were reaching the front steps, the sound of a slow moving footsteps were heard. They sounded weighted with struggle accompanied by a third sound.
In the shaded entrance of the open front door was a silhouette. Quinn furrowed her brow in confusion.
"Mom?" Quinn said unconsciously to the slowly approaching figure before she gasped with disbelieving eyes that began to rapidly well with tears, as the person walked out of the shadows of shade and into the light.
There standing looking aged behind her older self that Quinn had meant in her present lifetime, was Rachel.
"Rachel?" Quinn said emotionally at the sight of her love.
"Hey beautiful." Rachel said with her own emotions.
"How? Wha-I-I don't understand?!" Quinn said as her sadness and anger swirled overwhelmingly within her.
Older Quinn and Rachel watched on with sympathy as Quinn began to sob into her hands.
Older Rachel reached for her wife's hand and Older Quinn understood as she took it to help her slow moving, limping wife walk down the stairs with her cane as her son took up support on her other.
The brunette took measured steps to Quinn and immediately once she was in reaching distance cupped the young blonde's face with one hand as she held onto her cane with the other.
"Hey, no sweetheart don't cry." At the brunette's touch and voice Quinn's body wracked harder with sobs. "Quinn, honey look at me. Please love, open those eyes I love so much." Rachel said softly.
Quinn's eyes coaxed open at the brunette's voice but she wasn't prepared to see the brunette up close.
Rachel's gorgeous face looked like it had been burned from existence. Most of her hair was gone on the right side with only a quarter of it still there.
Her skin looked scarred and pruned severely to the point that there were only a few spots that she could see that had not fallen victim like the rest of her but they were small splotches.
Rachel's right leg looked thinner than the other and weaker. Her beautiful nose that Quinn loved so much was stumped down to barely anything. It could hardly be called a nose at all.
She looked as if she had been engulfed in hell's flames long enough to sear her away almost completely.
Quinn stared down at her and her heart still beat just as strong if not stronger than it had before.
"I'm here Quinn, baby, I'm right here." Rachel said low and gently as Quinn's cries dwindled to congested breathing.
The two gazed into each other's eyes and younger Quinn did not give a rats ass in the moment that her older self was standing there as she surged forward and kissed the love of her life with all she had.
The older blonde quirked her brow with a soft emotional smile as she understood and knew exactly what her younger self was feeling.
Neither of them cared what Rachel looked like. She was still just as beautiful and sexy as she will always be in their eyes, minds, and, hearts. There love for her would stand through anything even time itself.
Older Rachel smiled into the kiss as she felt her stomach batter with butterflies and her knees going weak.
She didn't mean for a moan to slip from her lips when Quinn's massaged her own softly full of passion.
Rachel felt just as beautiful as she always does when Quinn kisses her. Younger Quinn slowly pulled from the kiss.
The brunette's eyes fluttered open in wonder. Once again being proven through another lifetime just how much Lucy Quinn Fabray loved her.
Younger Quinn's eyes were piercing her heart and locking her in. She watched with welling eyes as younger Quinn gently scooped her up bridal style.
Not taking her eyes off of Rachel as she walked the brunette back up the steps with her older smirking and her future son rolling his eyes good naturedly with a muttered "I'm going to patrol."
"I'm right here baby and I always will be." Younger Quinn said softly as she kissed the brunette where her barely there nose is. The brunette shut her eyes as she felt the young blonde's love as she still does from her wife.
"So am I." Rachel replied.
The blonde gently set the brunette down with ease on the couch she spotted in what she supposes is the living. The cabin was small and quiet.
"Here you go, beautiful." The older blonde came in with a hand holding six different pills in them and a glass of water.
Rachel smiled adoringly at her wife. "Thank you baby."
"Always, my love." The older blonde said as she took as seat next to her wife. Bringing the brunette's feet up to her lap and began massaging the brunette's thinner leg with the massage balm she brought with her.
"Please, Quinn, have a seat." Her older self said.
Quinn nodded feeling a little embarrassed for staring at the pair in fascination and also blushing as she realized she totally kissed this woman's wife right in front of her face.
"It's fine, you're me after all." Older Quinn said with a knowing smirk and quirked brow as younger Quinn sat on the recliner closest to Rachel. Needed to be as close to her as possible without being rude to the couple.
Rachel giggled with sparkling eyes as she too also knew Quinn like the back of her hand.
"Sorry." Quinn said embarrassed.
"Don't be, Like I said you're me. If you were some one else though than I'd have to kick you're ass because this hottie will forever be mine." Older Quinn said cockily.
"You're such a guy." Rachel scoffed.
"Hey!"
"Hey!"
The two blonde's said indignantly. Rachel's eyes shined at the sight. Oh yeah, she definitely loved having two Quinn's around.
"Okay you two I'm sorry."
The two settled and older Quinn decided it was time to actually talk.
"Okay so now that we finally got you here. I think it's time we talk."
"My first question is, how old are you?"
Both women chuckled.
"I'm 43." Older Quinn said.
"And I'm 54." Rachel answered.
Quinn furrowed her brow in confusion. "How is that possible."
"It's a long story and we will tell you."
"Okay I'll wait but if I have to wait for that answer can you at least tell me why I'm here?"
"You're here, Quinn, because Sam and Sue did a smart but also extremely stupid thing and everyone is going to pay a price for it." Older Quinn said.
"What did they do?"
"They sent a note." Quinn said grimly.
"A note?" Quinn asked confused, not understanding how a note could cause trouble.
"Yes." Rachel spoke up. "And because of that note I ended up like this." The brunette gestured to her entire body and younger Quinn swallowed thickly.
MARCH 19TH, 2018
"I can't believe this! The watches are the reason!" Britney fumed.
"I don't think it was just the watches Brit." Rachel said looking over her time line chart on her white board that she had drawn up.
"What do mean?" Britney said as she walked up beside the brunette.
"Look here." Rachel said as she pointed to the dates and events she had written at one point of the timeline. "The same day the watches malfunctioned is the same day Quinn killed Russell."
Britney nodded that she was following.
"In our own time Quinn never killed Russell, he killed Quinn, Frannie, and, my mom. So if my theory is correct than-"
"-Than Quinn killing Russell disrupted the timeline and kickstarted a new future."
"Exactly! So if we stop Quinn ahead of time we could reset where they left off in their own time... In theory at least."
"Okay so why did Sam and Sue send us the note to go back to a different time than?"
"They probably don't know what we know or they do know and think it'd be smarter to go further back."
"Do you think we should?"
"Not both of us. One of us needs to stay behind and look after our extra luggage. We also have to speak with whoever that woman is that helped save our asses."
Britney nodded her agreement. They had neglected speaking to her because they were too consumed about the fact that they brought back people from the past into the future.
"Okay but if one of us is going then we need a plan."
"Oh definitely." Rachel agreed with a smile.
"Okay first we have to decide who-"
"Oh that's easy, me."
"Why you?"
"Because I want to see Quinn. Even if it is from a distance. I.. I have to see her, Brit." Rachel said filling with need since her last memory of Quinn was her digging a blade in to her undead head.
"Of course, Rach." Britney said as she pulled the brunette into a hug as Rachel began to cry.
JULY 9TH, 2038
"I was just so eager to see you." Older Rachel explain. "I mean I had just killed you in zombie form the day before. I couldn't not go. Not after having to see you in that way infected by that virus."
Older Quinn and Rachel were telling the younger Quinn what happened no thanks to that damn message in a bottle.
"To me that's what I really cared about. Seeing you alive and breathing even if you'd only be a fourteen year-old girl who high school me thought despised me."
The three chuckled at that all knowing just how not true that was.
"Anyway we made a plan. It was simple. I'd go and do recon on Dennis Scott. I got pretty good at tailing him and even better at tailing you. Then the date came when Scott reached out to Sue and they met up. Unbeknownst to them I was hiding from a good vantage point watching as they argued and Sue tried to chase after him but lost him in the crowd. I had already followed him the way he had arrived to meet Sue and knew where to chase him. Long story short following him led me to his hide out where he had set up his detonation point of releasing the virus. I waited a long time hidden in a spot that was not at all comfortable but eventually he left the office. So I came out of hiding and began looking around for what Sue had sent me for, An antidote."
Quinn's eyes bulged as she gasped in shock. "What?"
"Yes, there is an antidote."
"How?"
"I'll get to that." The brunette said with a smile. "So I'm there looking around and me like an idiot, instead of waiting it out for at least an hour or two to make sure he didn't come back. I was in a rush and not paying mind to the fact that he had returned. The next thing I know everything went black. He knocked me out from behind. When I woke up I was tied to a bed."
Quinn's stomach churned at the thought of Rachel being tortured. Her eyes welling with tears at the thought.
"Hey." Older Quinn called softly.
The younger blonde's angry red eyes turned to her older self.
"He didn't hurt her. He's not the reason she was hurt."
Younger Quinn nodded jerkily stiff. Her older self patted her on the knee from where she sat.
"It's okay Quinn, I'm not traumatized by it. I've moved on all thanks to you." Rachel said sweetly and full of unadulterated love.
MARCH 19TH, 2018
"Okay so you're going back how many years?" Shelby asked dumbfounded with an equally shocked Leroy beside her and a worried younger Britney.
"I'm going back to 2008 so I can do some recon first. You know, find out his habits. Where exactly he placed the virus and try to find an antidote and if I just so happen to take him out while I'm at it, so be it." Rachel assured calmly.
"But why are you going alone?" Shelby asked in worry.
"Because all of you can put this entire plan in jeopardy and I need Brit to stay here and keep an eye on things."
"But why don't we go back to our past first?" Leroy asked.
"Because Santana is still sedated but when she wakes up Brit will be escorting you all back as soon as she wakes up. By then I should also be back in you're time with the antidote if there even is one."
"You don't even know if there is one?!" Shelby asked incredulously.
"No mom, we don't but I will at the very least get a better idea of what the virus is made of, if I can get a look at a copy of the formula he used to create it and hopefully create our own antidote."
"I have to agree with your mother, baby girl, I don't like this. Something doesn't feel right."
"What if you can't come back." Younger Britney whimpered.
Older Rachel walked over to her pulling her into a hug to console her. "I'll always come back Brit. Nothing has stopped me yet."
The younger blonde nodded as Rachel pulled back and cupped her cheek to wipe her tears.
She took in all of their worried faces, even older Britney was worried but Rachel could tell she was keeping her own worries to herself and Rachel was thankful for it.
"I promise guys, I'll be back before you know it. Safe, sound, and unharmed." Rachel swore.
JULY 9TH, 2038
"I was tied to the bed for a while before he actually spoke to me. He said that he didn't know who I was or why I broke into his place but he thanked me for doing so, because he needed a human test dummy and I arrived at the perfect time."
Younger Quinn clenched her jaw in anger wishes she could beat the living shit out of that Scott guy.
"Naturally I thought he was going to infect me with the virus but he didn't. He injected me with this pale pink thing. It was applied through a needle. I didn't know what it was but it made me feel like I was dying. I started sweating like crazy and vomited all over myself. My stomach was contracting painfully. So much so that I thrashed a lot and in doing so I didn't realize that the rope was gnawing through the skin of my wrists and I was bleeding. Then I passed out. When I woke up again he was sleeping with his head down on his desk. I don't know how long I had been out of it but I felt better than I had since he injected me."
Younger Quinn furrowed her brow wondering if what he injected her was the reason the brunette looked the way that she does.
"It took me a minute to get my bearings but when I did, I noticed the rope had loosened a good bit on wrists. So I pulled one of my hands free though it hurt like a bitch since I already injured it from all my thrashing. Anyway once I got my self loose I looked around for my things and thankfully he was thoughtless, because I found my gun and it was still loaded. I walked up behind him and put a bullet in his head. After that I gathered all the info on the virus, everything he was working on than left. What I didn't know was that there was a camera watching my every move because he was documenting what he injected me with."
MARCH 19TH, 2018
"Okay I guess that's everything." Rachel said as she zipped up her pack. The brunette turned to Britney and smiled. The two hugged wishing each other good luck, good bye, and all their 'just in case' routine.
The brunette then turned to her parents and younger Britney. She hugged her father first.
"Please babygirl, I know you can take of yourself but be safe."
"I will dad." Rachel assured.
They pulled apart than the brunette turned to her mother who was already crying, pulling her into a hug.
"Are you sure you have to do this?" Shelby whimpered.
"Yes, mom but don't worry I'm meeting you back in your past."
"I love you, please be careful."
"I will. I love you too."
The two brunette's released each other than Rachel turned to younger Britney. "Come here you."
Younger Britney leaped into her arms hugging her as tight as she could. "Please don't die."
"I won't Brit. You know me. I'm small, fast, and sneaky like the hamburgler." Rachel said jokingly referring to the old character from Mcdonalds just to make the blonde smile.
"Yeah you are but still be careful Rach."
"I will B."
The two released each other and Rachel stepped back and walked over to her back pack that she prepared for her stay in the past.
"See you guys soon, I love you."
"We love you." (Shelby)
"Good luck, we love you." (Older Britney)
"We love you babygirl, be careful." (Leroy)
"You got this Rach, we love you." (Younger Britney)
They all said simultaneously. Rachel smiled before lifting her hand with the watch and typing in her time, date, and coordinates. Soon the bright current appeared and consumed her completely all too soon for all of their liking.
"Come on guys. You need to rest and I have to get started on my watch so we can head back." Older Britney said as she guided the group away from the spot Rachel just vanished from. All of them feeling a unsettling feeling weigh upon them.
Unbeknownst to the group the blonde woman that had appeared out of no where had been silently watching from a far. The moment Rachel vanished the blonde woman power walked away in search of secluded area, there she opened her own portal and vanished just as easily as she arrived.
JULY 9TH, 2038
"So it was just gone?!" Younger Quinn asked in shock.
"Yup. I don't know what he did with it but it trapped me there." Rachel replied referring to the fact that Dennis Scott had taken her watch. Which caused her to be stuck in that time period with no help and no way to get home.
"So you're in what year by then?" Younger Quinn asked.
"By then I had already been surveilling him for a year. So it's 2009."
"So that's the year I came back!" Quinn spoke excitedly.
Older Rachel smiled broadly. "Yes it is the year you came back."
"That has to be how we got together?" Younger Quinn gestures between the two adults.
"Not exactly." Older Quinn says. "Though I think she should have come to me. Ms. I didn't want to mess with the timeline again."
"Wait what?! You didn't tell me?!" Younger Quinn asked dumbfounded. "I could have been the perfect help!"
"True. That's very true but you could have also ended up like me." Rachel says gravely.
Younger Quinn swallows thickly as she asks: "What do you mean?"
"You remember that video camera that was recording?"
"Yeah."
"Well it turns out Dennis Scott's son decided to seek revenge for what I had done and since he knew who killed his father thanks to the video. He decided to also take over his father's plan since he already knew everything thanks to Scott telling him."
"What?!"
"I let my guard when I shouldn't have. I felt too out of whack to focus. I also felt like I was on drugs. Not in a 'I need something to get me high' kind of way but in a 'I feel like I'm crawling out of my skin' kind of way."
"Why?"
"What he injected me with was basically taking over my body. On top of that I severely bruised and scared my wrists. I just felt all around bad. Now I'm not going to tell you the specifics because I don't want to go to deep into it but he attacked me on my way home from the 24 hour drug store."
Quinn gasped. "He did what?!"
"He caught me at night alone obviously. I didn't go out during the day because what his father injected me with was making my eyes sensitive to sunlight. He attacked me from behind and since I was already weak, I couldn't put up much of a fight. The next thing I know my body felt like it was on fire. Later on when I woke up I was in a hospital and I was being told that I suffered third degree burns due to an acid attack that covered 90 percent of my body."
"Acid! He threw fucking acid on you!" Quinn flipped as she jumped her feet in fury ready to kill.
"That was over 20 years ago Quinn, not now." Rachel said calmly. "Please have a seat, honey, let me finish."
Quinn didn't want to sit! She wanted to find the asshole who did this to Rachel and submerge him in acid.
"If it helps," Older Quinn began. "I already killed him and it was not a quick kill."
Both older women watched as younger Quinn seemed to settle at that fact that she did right by her wife even if it was by the hands of another version of her.
"I'm sorry." She said as she sat.
"It's okay, how do you think this one reacted when she first saw me again?" Rachel said with a nod in her wife's direction.
"Wait, what do you mean saw you again? When?"
"Like I explained earlier, he took my watch and I had no idea what he did with it so I was stuck in 2009. I was in the hospital and since my fingerprints were basically none existent and I refused to tell them who I was at the hospital."
"I was there for months healing. I left the hospital and headed back to the spot I arrived at when I first came. The untouched area that would one day be where the base would be. I sat there for a while because I had to figure out my next move."
"I was already an emotional wreck because I thought I looked disgusting. I was devastated and couldn't help but think that you would never want to be with me looking the way I do. It was all very depressing and woe is me."
"Anyway I buried everything I had stolen from Scott a good distance away from where the base would be built one day to keep it away from the construction sight. I stood there sleeping in the woods for months but to my shock you never came."
"Looking for you?"
"I mean you never came to build the bases." Rachel said.
"Why?!"
"I can answer that." Older Quinn said.
"Okay, why?" Quinn said turning her frustrated eyes on her older self.
"As Rachel said he took her watch."
The younger blonde nodded for her to continue eagerly.
"So what happens when your future self and a past self are in the same timeline?"
"One of them vanishes."
"Right but who takes whose place when that happens?"
"Oh my god.." Younger Quinn said as it finally dawned on her.
"Yes, the Rachel in 2009 vanished without a trace." Older Quinn confirmed.
"And you took her place." Younger Quinn said looking at older Rachel.
"Yes but no one could tell it was me because I was just a homeless burn victim."
"Wait so how did you guys-"
"It took a while because I was devastated. The person I had spent years replicating a time machine for vanished into thin air. I had no will to do anything because in my mind what was the point? Anyway, it was my senior year when I started to realize or should I say recognize a voice."
"Every Tuesday I went out for a walk to Rachel's favorite music store. Because that was Rachel's thing before the apocalypse."
Quinn nodded in agreement because yeah she knew that.
"Every Tuesday I'd see this homeless person sat on the ground hunched over covered in blanket's, outside of it and I'd always toss some cash in their cup they'd hold out to people in hopes of their generosity. One Tuesday I was in the record store closer to the entrance door when I first heard the sound that I never thought I'd hear again. It was Rachel's giggle." Older Quinn said with watery eyes.
Older Rachel had her own watery eyes with a wide nostalgic smile to match.
"I dropped whatever sheet music I had in my hands and rushed to the door but all I saw was a guy walking away from the homeless person sat Indian-style on the ground. "I thought I had just imagined it because I missed her so much."
"A week later I heard it again. Because I was standing in the same spot. Picking up the sheet music I had left last week. I rushed once again out the store but again nothing. All I saw were a couple of kids playing with a hacky sack. I stood closer to the door every week after that just.. waiting, listening. Hoping that I'd hear that laugh again. It wasn't until one night at around 2 am that I had trouble sleeping that I went out for a walk. I couldn't get Rachel out of my head. I knew I wasn't crazy, I heard her laugh I knew I did. It was driving me mad but then it happened again only this time it wasn't a laugh. I heard her angelic voice singing."
Younger Quinn's smile was face splitting as her eyes sparkled in delight.
"I felt enchanted and compelled. It was faint and coming from around the corner that I was already heading towards. I started to run towards it. When I got to the end of the street corner I literally felt like I was socked in the gut because that beautiful voice was coming from a body covered in old, raggedy clothing. I couldn't see any part of the person because like always they were covered from head to toe but I knew. I knew that voice. Especially singing that song."
"What song was it?" Young Quinn asked eagerly.
"Keep holding on, of course." Older Quinn said with a smile eyes on her wife.
"Of course." Rachel replied with a smile.
"So I followed the person blindly not knowing who it was but wishing it was her. The longer I followed her the more my surroundings became familiar. She was walking in the direction to the base where I had planned to but had not built yet. It was then that something inside me screamed at me to call her name.. and I did."
FLASHBACK
"Rachel?" Quinn called with soft desperation.
The figure in front of her froze and the singing stopped. It was silent as the two stood many feet apart, far out of reach.
"Rache-" Quinn began again only for the person to bolt with harsh speed gaining ground in the distance.
It took a second for Quinn to follow with just as much speed. The two ran further and further out of Lima's city Limits towards the old factory.
"Please! Please I swear I won't hurt you! Please stop!" Quinn tried but the person just keep running.
Quinn pushed herself passed her normal limits and began gaining ground as her desperation refused to let her lose the closest thing to Rachel she had. Even though she didn't know what exactly she was chasing.
In a last ditch of hope as she chased the person through the wooded area only lit by the moon she called out again.
"Rachel wait please don't leave me again!" The blonde cried out.
The person halted as did Quinn, a few feet away from each other. All that could be heard was the heavy breathing of the two.
"It's you isn't." Quinn said.
"I don't know what you're talking about." The voice came out low and grave.
"Don't play like you don't know. I know your voice, Rachel." Quinn said feeling her anger rise because for two years she had been lost with out the brunette.
"I'm not whoever the hell you're looking for. So get lost." The voice growled full of bitterness.
Inside Rachel was fighting with her emotions because Quinn, her Quinn was right behind her. Barely ten feet away, all it would take is turning around and she could be in her arms again but no. No, she couldn't. For the last two years Rachel has been alone.
She'd been mocked by her peers and looked down upon by adults. She'd been called heinously ugly. She's been called Quasimodo even though she doesn't have a hunch back, just her burns. She's had things thrown at her. Establishments call the police on her to remove her from the bus stop bench that she sat to rest. Reason being it looked bad to have homeless people lurking out front.
What hurt was that she had recognized a lot of people she had rescued in her own lifetime. The cruelty they've shown her has done nothing but make her feel ugly and disgusting.
She began believing their words and began telling herself that Quinn would never her want her ever again. Which is what was stopping her from revealing herself to Quinn.
"Why are you lying?" Quinn asked in frustration.
"I'm not."
Quinn stood quiet for a moment as she thought of the best way to get Rachel to reveal the truth. She didn't want to make her run again by walking toward her. She didn't understand why Rachel had ran away to begin with and chose to let everyone believe the worst.
"You know, if you didn't want me to chase you why did you sing?"
"It's two a.m. all of Lima is sleeping that's the only time that I can." Rachel answered without thinking but Quinn wasn't stupid enough to ruin this by pointing out the truth that Rachel admitted to just then.
"And the song choice? You must have known what a dead give away that is. I mean, don't get me wrong you sounded amazing as always though I admit you did sound a little sharp-"
"I beg your pardon!" Rachel said outraged but only turned slightly not even enough to see the blonde.
"No offense but you were a little off and-"
"A little off?! Are you insane that was perfect pitch Quinn!"
The blonde continued as if she didn't hear her. "-Not by much. Just a tinge and that can be worked on. Maybe better vocal warm ups? Because honestly if you're losing your vocal capabilities then-"
"I'll have you know that I took the perfect allotted time to do vocal warm ups and breathing exercises before exerting my vocal cords and for you to even insinuate such a thing is not only Ludacris but downright insulting Quinn Fabray and don't you dare-"
"There's my star." Quinn said with devoted love in her voice.
Rachel snapped her mouth shut, slamming her eyes and cussed under her breath.
"That was under handed." Rachel said softly sad.
"Rachel, I-" Quinn began to rush forward only for Rachel to run behind a tree using it to act as a barrier.
"Don't come any closer!" Rachel warned.
"Rachel, what is going on with you? Why are you-"
"Just leave Quinn."
"What?! No way! All this time I thought you had run away from home or kidnapped or-or worse and you want me to just leave?! Like I never saw you?! Are you insane?! No Rachel! I'm not going any where!"
"Quinn leave me alone. Just go back to your life an-and-"
"And what? Live without? 'Cause I hate to break it to you Rachel but there is no me without you and I'll be damned if I let you disappear on me again. I refuse to live without you."
"You were doing just fine before-"
"Yeah, because they never found a body and I've been searching on my own but I keep coming up empty! Until now that is and you expect me to just go and leave you here! If that's the case you're an idiot!"
"No you're the idiot for following me! Just leave me alone! Did it ever occur to you that maybe I want to be alone?! That maybe I ran away because I was tired of my life!"
"I would believe that if you didn't sound like you're high school self just a minute ago. The high school self that screamed at me in the parking lot at school telling me to stay away from her and her boyfriend. I would believe that if there wasn't so much pain in your voice. I would believe you... If you didn't sound like you need me to hold you.. kiss you.. make whatever it is that's hurting you so badly go away."
At the words Rachel whimpered as she bit her lip to keep her sobs in as she heard Quinn slowly getting closer to the tree.
"You're not the Rachel from this time.. I can tell. There's too much pain in you're voice and the last time I saw Rachel from this time she crossed the parking lot at school and kissed Finn Hudson because she needed to prove a point but you.. Right now I hear it in you're voice, you need me... You need me to love you."
Quinn's heart broke when she heard the first hiccup of a restraining cry.
"What are you so afraid, Rae? It's just me." The blonde spoke softly as she reached the tree but the brunette rounded it, leaning against it for support and to keep the blonde at bay.
"Rachel please.. Please whatever it is I'm here. I'm right here. Together we can get through anything, I promise."
"No, I don't want you to see me." The brunette whimpered.
"Why?"
"Because I don't!"
"Tell me why?" Quinn pushed already feeling something off about the girl.
"Just go Quinn!"
"No. You can tell me to leave. You can push me away but Rachel I swear you will not stop me from following you. I will follow you to the ends of the earth if I have to."
"No, you'll be disgusted by me." Rachel said in a small ashamed voice, barely above a whisper.
"Why would I?" Quinn's voice appeared behind her and Rachel gasped before trying to run but Quinn was faster as she wrapped both her arms around the brunette's waist from behind.
"Quinn let me go!" Rachel fought but Quinn wouldn't.
"Calm down Rachel, It's just me! It's okay! It's-"
Just then the brunette's hood slipped from her head and only a quarter patch of hair came into view but under the moon Quinn could clearly see the scarring of Rachel's scalp.
"Rachel." Quinn gasp. "Oh my god wha-"
Rachel shoved the blonde away seething in anger. "WHY DID YOU DO THAT?! WHY COULDN'T YOU JUST LEAVE?! HUH?! NOW YOU GET TO SEE THE FREAK SHOW OF LIMA THAT EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT! WHAT DO YOU THINK OF ME NOW QUINN?! HUH?! ANSWER ME!" Rachel fumed. "TELL ME QUINN! YOU WANT TO HUG ME NOW?! Yo-You want ki-kiss me nooowww!" Rachel sobbed as she fell to knees in the grass as Quinn watched her crumble in self loathing pieces.
It was true, all the residents of Lima had in one way or another spoke about the "homeless freak-show" Quinn had to step in a time or two and stop her peers from throwing trash at the brunette who always had her head bowed covered by her hoodie and blankets.
Quinn felt herself shattered at the sight of the brunette. She didn't understand why Rachel would ever think that Quinn would ever look at her and see her as anything other than exquisitely beautiful.
The blonde walked to the brunette and knelt onto the grass in front of her cupping the brunette's face bringing it up to her own and kissing her with passion. Rachel froze before she heard the blonde whisper against her lips.
"I want and need you just as much as have before and nothing will ever change that. I love you baby."
The words rocked the brunette to her core as she felt the blonde's arms wrap around her and hold her relentlessly in support and understanding.
END OF FLASHBACK
"It took me a long time to see what you saw in me Quinn." A calm Rachel said with silent tears running down her cheeks and a loving smile aimed at the younger blonde. "It wasn't easy for me to believe that you could love me like this, let alone want to still be with me in every way. It was you who helped me realize that I am still me. I'm still beautiful, strong, lovable me. I don't know how to explain to you just how much your love has saved me. In my life time, my other life times before I stood in this one. I'm still here because you love me."
"And you love me. That's why I'm still here too." Younger Quinn replied with a watery smile.
"I know and that's why we always find our way to each other." Older Quinn said.
"I just.. There's something I don't understand. You said that I never started on the base?"
"Yeah, that was our fault." Older Quinn began. "Even though we were happy to see the world alive and kicking again. The reason you and I went back to 2009 was to save Rachel really, if we're being honest but without her we lost any will to save any one else including our selves. So we didn't build anything."
"Nothing?"
"Well, other than this cabin that you built for us." Rachel interjected.
The young blonde looked around at the small cabin that could not be considered safe from zombies.
"Um.. not to insult our building skills here but uh.. how is this safe?"
"Well we don't need safety." Rachel answered.
"Why?"
"Because Quinn, thanks to Scott we're immune." Rachel answered.
Quinn's eyes bulged in shock. "Since when and how do I not know about this?!"
LIMA OHIO, 2008
The old auto factory stood lone and silent. The silence was broken within it's walls when a beam of light current appeared and out stepped a short brunette.
Rachel looked around the old auto factory with aged eyes. Nothing was out of place. She walked out into the halls and over looked the balcony on to the work floor.
The old rusted machine where covered in cob webs and it smelled musky. Rachel took a deep breath.
"Welcome home again." Rachel said to herself.
JULY 9TH, 2038
"How are we immune?!"
"Well the pink fluid he injected me with was the test trial for the antidote. Of course I didn't know it at the time. Quinn had decided to leave home nd come live with me at the factory. We struggled in the beginning because I was still an emotional wreck. So much so I hated even just looking at the factory."
"All the time traveling and trouble we've already separately gone through only to save the same people who have done nothing but remind just how cruel the world could be. I didn't want to save any of them."
"Since Quinn had the financial resources she bought all the building materials she needed and began building what would one day be this cabin. She began a garden in the back and bought chicken and a cow because she was at least thinking clearly that the apocalypse is still going to happen. She bought us all this furniture and basically shut us out from the world. Because of her we never had to leave."
"When the apocalypse did happen she had chosen a spot even more hidden and by her choice we were never found. That didn't mean we weren't aware of it happening. We felt the ground shake when the government dropped the bombs cutting off Lima. We watched the news broadcasting about it."
"Thankfully we didn't have to deal with a power outage because everything here is solar powered and we've never had to use any of the generators Quinn has bought us, because she keeps up the maintenance. We make all our own medicine and basic live as we human had before modern times but with the knowledge of modernization."
"We've lived a pretty sheltered life for over 20 years. We've obviously had children."
"Children?" Younger Quinn asked with a smile.
"Yes, you've met Jaxon. We have seven."
"Seven?!"
"Don't look at me! You're the one that can't keep your hands to yourself. If there's anyone to blame here it's you Quinn." Rachel said to younger Quinn with a wicked smirk.
Older Quinn laughed. "What can I say, she's sexy."
Rachel giggled youthfully and Quinn never wanted this lifetime that she was witnessing to ever end.
"Now to answer the question, one day I had been feeling depressed and angry at myself because I was so consumed with my own feelings, I neglected to think about my parents. You're mom and sister. San and Brit. Our group as a whole. Because of me none of them were the wiser of the apocalypse. I told Quinn that I wanted to search them any of them. That we had survived before why would now be any different.."
Younger Quinn nodded her agreement.
"I didn't take into account the fact that my leg after the attack has muscle damage from the acid burning deep enough. So when we began our search for survivors. I couldn't imagine how I'd feel the moment I saw my parent's and having to put both of them. We saw you're mom and my mom. Little by little every member of our group was a zombie. Every member of glee club as well. There was not a soul in Lima left unscathed. It was during the beginning of out trek back home that was attacked. I tried to run but my leg was slowing me down and it caught up to me and I was bit." Rachel said.
She pulled the sleeve of her shirt up, there looking large and round was a bite mark that definitely took a chunk of meat from the brunette.
"Quinn killed him but we were both freaking out. We rushed to get out of the city limits as fast as we could. When we finally made it home we knew we only had a little bit of time. So Quinn made up the bed and laid me in it as I started to burn up. Over the next few hours writhe in pain. I started throwing up this black tar looking stuff. Quinn stood by me the entire time."
"It went on like that for three days than in the early morning of the forth day I sat up on my own and felt like I just had gotten over the flu or something."
"We had no idea how but I was virus free. It wasn't until two weeks later that it hit me. The pink fluid. I immediately told Quinn to where I buried the box and she rushed to get it. We poured over everything. It was there all of it. The virus how it was created what was in it. The antidote, though the antidote didn't have much to work with because it was in it's infancy and there wasn't anything really on how exactly he made it but it obviously worked."
"And thankfully," Older Quinn chimed in ",She took the last and only other vile of the antidote and gave it to me and by administering it to me. Later on when we had kids they had also gained full immunity."
"Seriously?!"
"Yes."
"Oh my god, so there's a cure?!"
"There was a cure but now since we used it there isn't more made and that's where you come in Quinn." Older Quinn said taking the reigns of the conversation.
"What do I have to do?"
"First things first, We need to educate you on everything that Dennis Scott documented. Then I have to give you a crash course in the functionality of the knew base."
"New base? But I thought you guys said-"
"Yes but after what happened to Rachel," Older Quinn said as she walked toward the window that show the back yard. "We decided we had all the time in the world. So why not take the time to plan appropriately and really end this once and for all." The older blonde pulled back the curtain and Quinn gasped as she stood up and rushed to the window.
"Is that?"
"Yes."
"How?"
"We'll explain everything but first, dinner, rest, and a hell of a lot of studying because what we've discovered mini Q. Is that it doesn't matter how many lifetimes we jump, the virus still happens."
SUB BASE MARCH 19TH, 2018
Santana groaned as she began to stir. The brunette whimpered as she felt a throbbing pain in her calve.
"Hey try not to move." Was said softly.
Santana felt a damp towel being gently dabbed across her head. The brunette's eye began to flutter open. They were a little fuzzy but when they cleared she saw the most beautiful sight she never wanted to stop seeing.
"Brit?"
"It's me." Britney said softly with a watery smile, it being hours since Santana had been put under.
"Brit, I had the craziest dream. We were in the future and Quinn was a zombie."
"I know."
"No I'm serious, there were zombies everywhere an-ow!" Santana yelp in pain as she tried to sit up during her explanation.
"Take it easy, san. You're hurt."
"Wha-Why-I'm-"
"It wasn't a dream san, we're in the future and you're leg is hurt. So please lay down." Britney urged.
Santana laid back onto her pillow silently staring up at the ceiling. It only took 14 seconds for her to burst into tears. Britney immediately trying to calm her, god she wished it was all just a fucked up dream!
JULY 9TH, 2034
Quinn was sat on the recliner. Rachel, Quinn, and herself had all eaten dinner. They were allowing Quinn to unwind peacefully before they explained exactly why she had been brought there and what her mission would be, because it was going to be a hell of a lot to make sure that this time things wouldn't wrong.
Just as Quinn began to dose off running foot falls of heavy boots were approaching from outside. Quinn jumped to her feet on alert when the front door barged open and a blonde woman looking to be in her early 20s rushed in out of breath.
"MOM! MAMA!" She called out through the house before she spotted younger.
"Oh, hey mom. Didn't know you got here already." The young woman smirked with a raised brow that was identical to Quinn. In fact it looked as if Quinn's genes had created the woman on her own.
"Uh..Hi."
"Beth leave your mother alone." Rachel said as she walked into view from the kitchen and received a loving hugh and kiss from her daughter.
"What I was only teasing." Beth said with a wicked smirk that was definitely Rachel's.
Older Quinn rounded the corner also greeting her daughter. "Good to see you kid, now what has you in such a rush?"
"Mama did it, I watched her myself."
Rachel and Quinn looked at each other than turned to younger Quinn.
"What's going on?" Younger Quinn asked.
"Times up, mini Q. We need to get a move on." Older Quinn said.
"Wait, what does she mean by mama did it?"
"The time jump. Rachel just went back to 2008 and in a years time will have to endure all of it again if we don't fix it." Quinn said seriously all traces of humor gone. Her belly filling with rage at the thought. She'd take the acid hit for Rachel any day.
Younger Quinn also filling with rage at the same time at the mere thought of Rachel going through that lifetime again, even if she is unaware of it. "So what the hell are we waiting for? Show me what you need me to do."