Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Some small, reasonable part of Kurt was telling him to stop grilling Sebastian's body with flames, but right now, Kurt wasn't really himself. He had been mad a couple of times before, but it couldn't be compared to how he was feeling now.

Sebastian was wincing in pain when Kurt attacked him with another fireball, again and again. "Three strikes, Sebastian", he bellowed with a glare.

"First: You tried to kill me." A fireball was grazing Sebastian's cheek and left a burn mark.

"Second: You hurt Blaine." The flames trapped him in a corner, there was no way out.

"And third: You killed Majesty. Don't think I will ever forgive you for that. I promise, you will find no mercy in me." Sebastian cried out loud as the flames were coming closer and closer, the heatwave let him break into sweat. Kurt laughed cruelly, the orange in his eyes got more intense. "But don't think I will make it quick and painless. You don't deserve that. You deserve to suffer a slow, painful death."

The whimpers of Sebastian were music to Kurt's ears. "I'm sorry, Meerkat, but you brought this upon yourself. Karma is striking, and it's striking hard."

That was it. He was going to kill Sebastian now. Let his flames engulf him and burn his body until nothing was left of him anymore.

Just when Kurt was about to lift his hand to do the deed- he couldn't. But not because he didn't want to. He was physically unable to move any body part of his all of a sudden, apart from his face muscles. "What in the world…?"

"I'm sorry, cous", a familiar voice behind him said. Kurt didn't need to turn his head to know who that voice belonged to.

"Travis, what the hell?!", he exclaimed, beyond irritated and still not able to move. "I was kind of in the middle of something, you know."

"Yeah, and that's exactly what worried me, Kurtie", Travis' voice answered. "We couldn't let you do that."

We?

"That doesn't make any sense. That's what you wanted me to do, right?", Kurt hissed back. "You claimed that our ancestors had been villains. According to you, being bad ran in our blood."

Travis scratched the back of his redhead. "Yeah…Forget that. I was wrong, okay?" He heard him sigh. "Maybe, I'm kind of the bad one among us, but you, Kurt…you're not. You are a freaking saint!"

Kurt sighed too; his eye color changed from orange to blue again. "Let go of me, okay? I'm not going to do anything, I promise."

He felt how the impact of Travis's powers faded away and turned around. Much to his surprise, Travis was not the only one that was standing behind him.

"What are you doing here?!", he barked at Sam and Blaine. "Didn't Mercedes tell you not to follow us?"

Sam scratched the back of his head. "Yes, she did. But I just can't help it. I can't let her do this alone."

Kurt frowned. "I think she already went ahead to Russell Fabray. He might be one story up."

"Let's go, then", Sam said, determined. "Maybe, she needs help."

After they had tied up Sebastian's hands and feet and Sam had pocketed the nunchucks, the three of them started walking towards the staircase -except for Kurt. Just when he thought he had calmed down again, he spotted the dead body of Majesty Sebastian must have kicked aside during their fight. He felt how his anger flared up again. He was about to rush to the unconscious Sebastian again to end what he had started when someone grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him around forcefully.

"Just what do you think you're doing?", Blaine hissed at him angrily. "And don't even try to talk yourself out of this. You still want to kill Sebastian, right?"

"Let go of me, Blaine", Kurt said calmly, but hot flames were coming out of his fingertips that made their way up his wrists. Even though Blaine flinched due to the pain Kurt must cause him, his grip stayed firm. "Let go, or you are going to be next."

"No. I know that you don't like me, but you would never hurt me."

"Blaine, I swear to god, let go of me right now, or so help me…" Kurt glared at him hostilely. "Besides, Sebastian had it coming. He is no good person, and the world will be a better place without scum like him. I will make sure he will get the punishment he deserves. I will-"

A loud smack ended his tirade. Blaine had seriously slapped him hard across the face. Incredulous, Kurt held his aching cheek and looked at the other fuming guy with his big blue eyes. "What…?"

"Say, are you out of your mind right now?!" Blaine's yelling let him flinch a little. "What the hell is wrong with you?! Since when do heroes take lives if they have another choice? You are Foxfire, for crying out loud! You are a rolemodel, someone so many people out there are looking up to. Do you know why I fell for Foxfire back then, long before I knew it was you? Because of his kindness and his big heart!"

"Foxfire does not kill people, even if they deserved it. Foxfire is better than those murderers and criminals out there. Foxfire is classy, he is noble-minded, he would never go that low, or do I need to remind you of that?!"

"But he killed Majesty…", Kurt said quietly, looking crestfallen and heartbroken. "Blaine, he just killed her. In front of my eyes. There was absolutely nothing I could do to save her."

"I know, and I'm so sorry about that."

"He killed Majesty", Kurt repeated as if he tried to grasp what had happened. "Majesty is dead. She will never come back."

Blaine wordlessly pulled him in a hug and continued to hold Kurt while he sobbed into his shirt.

…

Mercedes was convinced she needed eyebleach after what she needed to witness right now. Shonda calling Russell Fabray babe and poopsie was going to haunt her in her nightmares for a long, long time.

"Shonda, what the hell?", she eventually exclaimed. "You are hopefully aware that you plan on marrying an old racist white man?"

Mercedes wouldn't even do that if she got paid. Either the sex with Shonda's better half was incredible (ew) or she was only willing to marry that dude because he was loaded. The latter theory was the more logical one, though. She never would have thought that Shonda was a gold digger, but after everything she had done, Mercedes concluded that she didn't know Shonda that well after all.

Shonda, however, shrugged. "Russie is my soulmate, no matter what other people might think about that. We have similar visions, and we both love garlic pasta."

"Whether that's enough for a healthy marriage?", Mercedes muttered with a roll of her eyes. "Did you know that your oh-so great fiancé was the boss of an organization that wants to poison our atmosphere to kill innocents?"

She was surprised when Shonda just laughed at her. "Whether I know? Of course, I do; I helped him come up with that plan, silly!"

Mercedes was at a loss of words. "You…?"

"Yes, I'm not the person you think I am Mercy. I was also the one who convinced you to give up being Catgirl – sadly I wasn't that convincing enough", she commented, smirking evilly.

She just couldn't believe it. "You little bitch", she hissed. "And I thought we were friends."

"But we still are, Mercy! It was my idea to make you join the Fighters for Perfection."

Russell shook his head sadly. "She already said no, my love", he told her. "I just asked her. She still didn't change her mind."

"And I will never change my mind. My answer will always be no", Mercedes added icily.

Shonda groaned in disappointment. "Did you tell her about the cash?"

"Yes. She wasn't impressed."

"And her possible collab with the Kardashians? Everyone loves the Kardashians."

"That didn't impress her either, baby."

Shonda threw Mercedes an incredulous glance. "What is wrong with you?"

"I could ask you the same", Mercedes retorted. "The Kardashians are a bunch of lunatics. Why would I want to meet them, let alone work with them?"

Shonda waved it off. "I didn't mean that, silly. And don't you dare call Kim a lunatic. That woman is a freaking goddess. But I digress. What I mean is that I will have to eliminate you if you are not here to work with us. You are a millstone around our neck, and you are slowly turning into a nuisance."

When she said that, Mercedes just snorted. "You want to eliminate me?" She knew Shonda Wright. That woman was weaker than a toothpick. Back in highschool, she had started crying when Mercedes boxed her in the arm amicably. Shonda was no fighter. Not at all.

Shonda got up from her fiancé's lap and cracked her fingers. "Oh, Mercy." She put off her yellow biker jacket, her dark brown eyes turned into a feral yellow. "It's a big mistake to underestimate me."

In the next moment, Mercedes was on the ground. Shonda towered over her self-righteously.

"But…how…?"

Her ex-best friend laughed shortly. "You weren't the only one that got changed."

Mercedes gasped for air. "You too? But why didn't you tell me?"

"I had my reasons, Mercy. The two of us were on different sides. I just couldn't tell you." Shonda crossed her arms. "This is your last chance. You either join the Fighters for Perfection, or I will wipe the floor with you, here and there."

Mercedes glared at her hostilely. "I would rather die than be part of your criminal organization", she spat.

As if she had expected that answer, Shonda shrugged. "Okay. You didn't want it the other way." When she wanted to kick her in the side, Mercedes rolled away and quickly jumped up again.

Shonda shortly turned to her soon to be husband. "Baby, things might get ugly. I want you to take cover so that you won't be covered in Mercy's blood afterwards."

At that, Mercedes snorted.

Russell, however, smiled at his fiancé. "Will do. I can't wait to see you defeat her." He went a safe distance farther away from their spot.

As soon as he was gone, Shonda got down on all fours. "This is going to be your end, Mercy", she growled before she transformed into her wildcat form.

Mercedes did the same. They were going to see about that.

With another growl, Shonda leapt at her and buried her sharp claws into her shoulder. Dammit, Shonda was an excellent fighter. She was fast and agile, nothing like the weakling-Shonda Mercedes knew from highschool. Mercedes was a rather defensive fighter, she only attacked if she had no other choice. Now, Shonda didn't leave her any other choice.

Mercedes pushed her into a wall with her body. It was true that Shonda was a great fighter, but she was still not Catgirl. There was no way that –

The crash in the wall hadn't hurt Shonda in the slightest. She bit down into Mercedes' stomach, and she cried out in pain. There was a bright red mark now. Shonda started attacking her with her claws, again and again. Blood was dripping down the ground, and Mercedes' alarmedly noticed it was hers. Welp, this was going to be harder than expected. She never should have underestimated her.

But … what did Kurt say again? Fighting with her brains was way more effective than immethodical raw violence. She needed to find a way to defeat Shonda without overexerting herself. There just needed to be something she could do.

Another blow of Shonda sent her to the ground again. Much to her horror, she felt how close she was to passing out. There was no way she could let Shonda win. No way.

Shonda strutted over to her and shifted back to her human form, and Mercedes decided to do the same. "Well… game over for you. Any last words before I snap your neck?"

She lifted Mercedes up easily and pushed her against the wall to strangle her.

Mercedes, however, glared at her angrily with her lips pressed into a thin line.

"Nothing?" Shonda shrugged while she held her ex-friend by her neck. "Okay. Fine by me."

She started strangling her, and Mercedes wondered when the hell she had gotten that strong. White stars were dancing in front of her eyes as she slowly lost consciousness, but Shonda didn't stop. That madwoman just applied more pressure to her neck and laughed as if it was the funniest thing she had ever seen.

Mercedes tried everything in her power to free herself, but her limbs were as heavy as lead and her powers way too weak.

Just when she accepted that her fate was sealed, a male voice called out: "Stop!"

Surprised, Shonda dropped her and turned around. None other than Russell Fabray had went over to her with his hands on his hips. "Baby, stop that. Catgirl won't be of use anymore once she's dead. You cannot kill her."

Meanwhile, Mercedes tried to catch her breath again and slowly massaged her neck with her fingers.

Shonda cocked her head to the side in confusion. "But I thought that's what you wanted, Russie."

Russell went over to her with his arms wide open. "I changed my mind, my most favorite chocolate bear. If we want to rule over New York, we need to do it differently. Not like that."

"Huh." Shonda scratched her head. "And what is your plan? I'm all ears."

If only Mercedes was strong enough to take her down now… But right now, she was useless. She was pretty sure that her right arm was broken, and her ankle was at least sprained. Damn you, Shonda Wright…

"We need to be smart now, my chocolate truffle. Come with me. I have the best ideas whenever I have a round of sex." Russell held out his hand to tug her to their on-suite bedroom Mercedes only noticed now.

Shonda smiled at him softly and took his hand. "Sure, Russie."

"Perfect."

"But there's one thing."

"Which is?"

"That." With that, Shonda punched him right in the guts. Russell groaned in pain and hunched down, holding his stomach.

"Why?", he exclaimed loudly "Why would you do that!"

Shonda was glaring down at him. "Because, idiot, I know exactly you're not my fiancé. The real Russell would never give me nicknames based on chocolate. He hates chocolate more than he hates Catgirl over there."

"Hey!", Mercedes commented faintly. "Not cool to compare me to chocolate."

The impostor Russell rolled his eyes and started shifting into –

"Travis?" Mercedes was pretty certain that he was supposed to be in jail now.

The guy in question was smirking. "The one and only. My folks bailed me out of jail when Russell fucking Fabray refused to help me. I never should've worked for that bastard. After a lot of thinking and meditating in jail, I decided to switch sides and support team Catgirl from now on."

Mercedes slowly got up and brushed her pants. She felt how her self healing powers were kicking in. Thank god. "Welp, I never would've thought I would one day be happy to see you, but here I am."

Travis held his chest. "Aw, was that a compliment from the one and only Mercedes Jones aka Catgirl? I feel flattered."

The only one who wasn't so pleased was Shonda. When Travis turned to Mercedes entirely, they didn't notice how the villainess lunged at him and knocked him down from behind. The redhead almost immediately fainted.

"That son of a bitch", she growled with the broken wine bottle in hand. "Dared to foil my plans. He…"

"Mercedes!" Sam came running over to them with nothing but worry in his green eyes. "Are you okay?"

Shonda threw her hands up in exasperation. "Oh, come on! What is wrong with you guys? Can't we just fight without anyone disturbing us?"

Mercedes completely ignored her. She was way too busy staring down that idiot in front of her. "Didn't I tell you to stay home?!", she hissed, beyond pissed. "What about that was it you didn't understand?"

The male blonde rubbed his neck sheepishly. "Yeah, sorry about that. But Mercedes, I just didn't want you to do this alone. You are not alone, okay? You have me. You will always have me."

To be honest, she didn't know what to say now. "Sam, I…"

Shonda behind them yawned loudly. "Are you done yet? Can I continue to kill Mercedes?"

Sam went to stand in front of the heroine. "No way. I won't allow that."

"Listen, albino, that's between me and her. It's so not cool to get involved in our fight."

Before Sam could protest, Shonda had already punched him in the face in lightning speed. He reeled back; his nose started bleeding.

"Sam!" Mercedes wanted to rush to his side, but Shonda was faster. Before she could blink, Mercedes hit the ground again. Dammit, she should have seen that coming.

"Just understand that you cannot win this fight, Catgirl", Shonda laughed while she kicked the heroine in the side repeatedly. "I am better than you. There is a reason all the guys in highschool befriended you, like Puckerman: because they wanted your then best friend, me. Because they saw that you were worthless. You are nothing. You are a loser."

Tears were stinging in Mercedes' eyes. What Shonda said wasn't that wrong. There was a reason all the boys back then wanted to date Shonda, not her. There was a reason people had been looking down on her all her life, that stupid chubby black girl. She couldn't even manage to keep the city and the people she loved safe. Maybe, she really was a loser.

"That's not true." Sam slowly got up and wiped his bloody nose with his sleeve. "Mercedes is the bravest, strongest, kindest, most courageous woman I know. Just because those guys, or any other person couldn't appreciate what she was worth, doesn't mean that she is worth less. But just look at you, Shonda. All you achieved so far was trick an older man into liking you. You are so cold from the inside you need to burn Russell Fabray's money to keep yourself warm. On top of that, you want to get rich at the cost of innocents. If anything, you are the loser here."

Mercedes' eyes widened. She didn't know whether to be awestruck that Sam was defending her, or whether to be mad he was willingly skating on super thin ice.

Shonda's jaw was clenched. "Oh, is that so?"

"Yes. And if you don't see that and need to hurt my girlfriend's feelings, just to feel better, you are more pathetic than I would have thought. Just do what you want with me, but deep down, you know I'm right. You will never be better than her."

What did he just call her?

With an angry scream, Shonda lunged at Sam once again and threw him against the wall with all she had.

"No!", Mercedes screeched when Sam hit the ground and laid there, motionless. "No, no, no!"

Her anger did weird things to her heart. Next thing she knew, all the forks from the table next to them came flying over to Shonda and buried themselves deeply into her skin. Shonda's cry of pain echoed across the entire room.

Blind with rage, Mercedes turned back into a wildcat and continued attacking the other woman with her sharp class. All she could see in front of her mind's eye was Sam, how he was hurt. The feral part of her wanted to see Shonda dead for what she had done to the love of her life. Even when Shonda had long stopped moving, Mercedes continued to maul her with everything she had.

Shonda had hurt Sam, and she was going to pay. With a growl, Mercedes bit down Shonda's neck. Shonda needed to die. She just needed to.

Suddenly, a fireball hit Mercedes and sent her flying back, away from Shonda's form. She growled aggressively, but her tunnel vision started fading.

"You need to snap out of it, Mercedes!" Kurt's voice sounded so far away. "Do you understand? That's not you. That's not what Catgirl stands for."

She scrambled to her paws and wanted to lunge at Shonda again, but Kurt got into her way. "Don't force me to attack you again." His eyes started to turn orange. "I really don't want to, but if you leave me no other choice…"

Mercedes hissed at him. Why didn't he just move so that she could slash the enemy's neck? Shonda didn't deserve to live. She...

"Mercedes, please don't kill her." Wait. WAIT. That was Sam's voice, wasn't it? He…he was fine? She turned her head, Sam was standing there, holding his side and with Blaine supporting him. "Yes, what she did wasn't okay, but it's over now. I'm okay. It's okay." His soothing voice was balm to her soul.

Sam let go of his best friend and slowly limped over to Mercedes. "You are my personal heroine, and I don't know what I would do without you. I don't want you to go down that dark path as long as you can help it." He crouched down so that he could look her in her eyes directly. "I hope you didn't mind that I called you my girlfriend?"

She purred to show her approval. Sam started massaging her behind her ears, and gosh, that had never felt so good before.

"Hey, why don't you two get a room? That's slowly turning uncomfortable for some of us", Blaine behind them commented. Kurt snickered at his words. Since when were those two getting along so well?

Mercedes shifted back into her human self. "Not cool, Blaine. You destroyed our moment", she pouted. She was a little concerned, though. When she had just seen how Sam got hurt, she had completely lost control. A side she didn't even know she had had taken over. Something dangerous, savage was part of her. If she hadn't snapped out of it in time, well…

Kurt noticed her worries. "I know how you just felt. I felt it as well when Sebastian just killed Majesty, and I almost wouldn't have snapped out of it. But we are still human. We are no monsters. Someone reminded me of that before it was too late." He shortly exchanged glances with Blaine. Mercedes had no idea what that was about.

"Wait…did you just say that Majesty died?"

Kurt looked down sadly, and Mercedes pulled away from Sam's embrace to get up and hug Kurt shortly. "I'm so sorry, boo", she muttered in his chest. "I know how much she meant to you."

He gulped. "She did. Thanks."

After a while, she turned to Shonda to tie her up with the ropes of the curtains and helped the boys wake up Travis. Poor guy had been unconscious this whole time.

But still, she wondered where…

"Hey", she asked the four guys around her "Has anyone seen Russell?"

"You mean this dude?", a female voice behind her asked.

Mercedes turned around – and was impressed to see Santana stand at the doorway with Russell Fabray, she was holding him by his lapel. Quinn was right next to them.

"That douche tried to leave, but Lucy Q and I caught him and stopped him."

Russell looked at his daughter in disappointment. "Et tu, Quinnie?"

"Don't you dare call me that", the blonde hissed between gritted teeth. "You are such an asshole. I tried to make you proud all my life, but all you did was reject me when I made one silly mistake. I refuse to be your puppet on your string any longer. It's over, father."

Mercedes gave her both thumbs up. She couldn't help but feel proud that Quinn had the courage to stand up to her dad.

Russell narrowed his eyes at them all. And started laughing, much to their surprise. "Oh, you think you are so smart. But don't think that this is over. I'm still going to make sure to execute our plans. The bomb at the New Yorker aquarium was just the beginning. My team has placed dozens of those bombs all over New York, and once they all blow up, our atmosphere will be polluted and the cleansing will take place, or did you forget that?"

They all exchanged shocked glances – until Mercedes started laughing.

"And what's so funny now?", Russell bellowed.

Mercedes smirked at him. "Oh, Mr Fabray. You are so stupid it hurts."

"And why?"

"Because" Mercedes kept smirking at him naughtily "Did you know that the mask of my Catgirl uniform has a mic? My partners and I can communicate better that way. Did you know that I recorded everything the moment I entered this building, including our little conversation we had when I came to your nice dinner?"

"Well, let's just say, everything you said will be uploaded on my cloud as we speak. And guess who gets the audio if you refuse to deactivate the bombs right now? Right, all of the police departments this city has to offer, maybe I could even get the FBI involved. I guess they wouldn't be so happy to find out what Mr Russell Fabray and his fiancée are up to."

Russell gulped.

"Oh, and before you start to threaten us with your power, how you have moles everywhere", Quinn interjected "Travis and I know exactly who they are. They won't help you this time. If they try something, I will give the cops an anonymous tip, and you will be in more trouble than you already are."

Defeated, Russell sank to his knees. Mercedes smiled down at him. "So do we have a deal?"

He nodded slowly.

Mercedes nodded happily. "That's more like it."

Shaking his head, he muttered: "I still don't get how you could turn down my offer. I mean, your generation loves the Kardashians."

"Kardashians?" Kurt perked up his ears at that. "Mercedes, what is he talking about?"

She waved it off. "Oh, he just offered me a reality show with the Kardashians if I agreed to joining his criminal organization..."

"And you said no?" Kurt gasped for air as if she had just declared she was going to shoot puppy dogs. "Jesus, what is wrong with you?"

"Shonda said the same", Russell muttered.

"White boy, please don't say you would consider selling your soul just to be filmed how you shop lace lingerie with those women", Mercedes asked with cocked eyebrows.

Kurt furrowed his eyebrows weirdly and rubbed his neck. "Well…"

"I cannot believe you!" She turned to Sam next to her. "Sam, a little help over there?"

The corners of Sam's mouth twitched. "Mercedes, you know that I will always be on your side, but I really don't want to get involved. I'm not keen on getting thrown into walls again."

Santana cleared her throat, annoyed. "Can we now go search for the bombs before I kill the two of you? I want to go home. Besides, I'm pretty sure some of us need medical attention anytime soon."

When she said that, Mercedes looked in the round. She was not wrong, with their blood covered clothes and (hopefully minor) injuries, they all looked as if they had returned from war. Blaine quickly hid his burn injuries on his hands and wrists behind his back while Kurt looked down guiltily. Mercedes wondered what that was about.

"Oh, sure." Mercedes turned away from the guys and back to Russell. Her hand was still intertwined with Sam's, and there was no way she was going to let go of him soon. "So…where are the bombs, Mister F?"

That was the penultimate chapter, you guys. Next time, I'm gonna upload the very last chapter to wrap this story up, I hope you won't be disappointed. I still didn't finish planning the last chapter, so if you have any wishes for the epilogue, please let me know in the comments.

Thanks for having read this story for more than one and a half years, I love you so much, you are so awesome!