Struck Down

If you've read Starstruck before, you've likely read this already since I'd posted it in the endnotes (it's removed now), though I've fixed up the SPaG issues in this one. Pen-in-April did not know how to properly dialogue tag.

x.X.x

Her world goes black, and a while later, she wakes up, her birth father hovering over her with his hands glowing, with a faint quirk on his lips, which is the first sign.

She shoots up, and the first thing that comes out of her mouth is, "Where's Quinn?"

Apollo's smile dims, and that's the second sign. "Honey-"

"Where's Quinn," she repeats, trying to calm her erratic heartbeat. "I need to see her."

The sun god sighs forlornly, eyes holding little of its natural glow, and he acquiesces, reaching out to teleport them. "Please don't hate me," he whispers, and that's the final blow.

When Rachel sees light again, she doesn't even register the nausea that comes with teleporting, because Quinn is lying on a medical bed, body so broken Rachel nearly doesn't recognize her.

"What's wrong with her?" Rachel's voice takes on a panicked high hue. "Why aren't you healing her?"

"Rach-" Apollo steps forward to try to placate her, but the diva cuts him off like before.

"Dad, she needs healing." Her breathing starts becoming ragged and sharp, and Rachel knows that she's having a panic attack, but the sight of beautiful, untouchable Quinn unmoving is too much to take and she can't breathe and-

"Rachel listen to me!"

Hands shake her shoulders and she freezes, heartbeat thumping hard in her ears.

"What happened?" she asks again, this time resigned and quiet.

"She asked me to save you first," Apollo chokes out brokenly. "It was either you or her, and by the time we got to her the magic from Kronos' blade had already gotten into her system. We can't heal her more or she'll die from overdosage. Rachel, I- I'm sorry."

Cold blood rushes through her veins, and she struggles not to shout and accuse of him being selfish, because that's not what Quinn needs right now, so she shuts her eyes closed and tries to keep a rational line of thinking, no matter her racing heart.

"Why can't you make her a Goddess, then," She's desperate now, grasping at straws. "She's more than earned it, and I refuse to believe that Zeus would be so cruel as to let his child die like this!"

Apollo gives her a warning look, but Rachel doesn't back down, staring defiantly at the Olympian.

A contemplative look crosses his face, and he asks, "You know that if we did make her a Goddess, she wouldn't be able to interact with the moral world like a normal demigod would, right?"

The hidden implications come across clearly enough, and Rachel feels her face flare up. "If that is what's keeping your vote, then you're more selfish than I thought, father."

"You would let her achieve godhood and leave you behind if it ensured her living?"

The demigod doesn't think twice. "Yes."

Something flashes across her father's eyes, turning it soft. "You really do love her, don't you?"

Someone finally verbalizing it stabs at her chest, making her feelings seem real, and she exhales, "I do."

Sadness fills Apollo's face, as if her confirmation had made his next words much harder to swallow. "We can't. The magic in Kronos' blade makes it so that godly intervention is blocked out."

Rachel's heart drops. Something inside of her screams in anguish and yells for retribution on someone, anyone, to make everyone suffer as she is suffering now, but then, like a lightbulb, it all cuts off, and all that is left is a cold empty husk.

"I'll leave you alone now Rachel," Her father sighs, before he pauses, hesitant. "I-I love you, you know that, right?"

Rachel deflates. "I know."

With a nod and a bright flash of light, he is gone.

Rachel looks at Quinn's face, and prays to every god she knows, though she knows it's no use.

Quinn doesn't wake.