Hi! So, this chapter doesn't focus very much on Samchel, unfortunately, but has some very strong Sam, Puck, Tina, Quinn and Finn character development, so hopefully it will tide you over. I promise that there is a scene coming up that will more than satisfy you I hope.
I don't own Glee.
Read and review!
The High Seas
"Kitty...?" Puck whispered, staring down at the sister he'd left behind so long ago.
He couldn't believe it, it was practically impossible. A guy with his luck did not live in the wilderness, exiled and fighting for survival in harsh climates, competing for food against other wild animals, and then just suddenly happen upon his long lost sister.
That didn't happen. This couldn't be real!
"Aww!" A cheerful voice gushed behind him. "Family reunion!"
He aimed a glance at Mercedes as she walked up behind him.
Puck was creeping through the cave, on the lookout for any rodents unlucky enough to be creeping around through the dark. He had his bow drawn, and his knife handy in his pocket. He'd brought along his axe in case any of the darkness dwellers felt brave enough to stand up to him, but he'd made a name for himself amongst the natural kingdoms around the Silver Shore, and usually predators left him be.
Puck had lopped off his hair as often as he could, it got in the way, and his body was weather beaten and scarred, but he was alive, and he was healthy. Without a fresh water spring he was forced to boil sea water or suck on dew to get his nourishment, but everything else came relatively easily once he got the hang of it. With nothing else to do, and a constant paranoia, Puck had done nothing but train for years, his fury and resentment towards the King growing day in and day out.
He froze as a sound reached his ears.
It was so unfamiliar to him, that he almost didn't recognize it as speech. Words. Human words. He hadn't heard human words since he boarded up the Starryville entrance to the mine years ago. English even, he understood it! With nobody to talk to, he'd worried that he might forget.
Slowly Puck began to creep through the tunnels, following the sounds of voices.
What were people doing in these mines? They were dangerous! They could get themselves killed! How had they even made it this far in?
He reached an outcropping and looked up to find that the adventurers had strung a rope from one side of the cavern to the other. He looked down at the rushing rapids below and knew with absolute certainty that if they fell, they would crack their heads open and die.
He watched a pretty blonde girl cross over first, and was surprised when she succeeded. More and more people crossed over, all of them nimble enough that there were no great disasters.
Puck's eyes had grown sharp living in solitude for so long, however. The eyes of a hunter. He saw the fraying rope, and he knew that it was going to break.
Resigning himself to play the hero, he uncoiled a rope from around his torso, a sharp hook attached to the end. It was an old grappling hook from an adventurer long gone that Puck had restored to its former glory. He pitched it at the wall across from him and smiled as it stabbed into the brick.
Puck pulled it tight as the girl reached the middle, and he looked up when the rope snapped and she began to scream. Setting his face, Puck ran forwards, swung on the rope, wrapped his free arm around her, waited until they swung back, and let go, rolling them both back to the ground.
Her scream had cut off when he grabbed her, and when he looked down at her, she had passed out from shock. She was very pretty, he admitted to himself. He'd missed human contact, forgot that it could be pleasant.
When she woke up and asked who he was, he told her. He told her everything, his whole story, and Mercedes in turn told him hers. It seemed that they'd both been wronged by the King, hurt by his forces, had their lives ripped apart.
Now they were both trying to make the best of it.
After she'd finished, she began to tell him another story. One of two children who had grown up in the castle and been sentenced to death, of three teenagers from a small town on the outskirts of the Kingdom who had been in the wrong place at the wrong time and ended up running for their lives, of how one of those girls had lost his own father, and how the other had died. She told him the stories of all of her friends, and then she told him one final story, the story of a girl who had lost her brother because of the King.
Puck asked the name of the girl.
Mercedes said Kitty.
Kitty ran to her brother and he held her tight, looking over her head at Sam.
"I want to join you." Puck said.
Sam smiled softly and nodded.
"Welcome aboard."
"I can't believe you're here..." Kitty whispered against Puck's rough cloth jacket.
"I am." He smiled down at her and she didn't even bother trying to hide her tears. "I'm not leaving."
"I couldn't...I was so broken...Mom and Dad...they're dead. I was so alone!"
"I'm sorry..." Puck whispered, holding her close. "I'm so sorry."
"I wanted to die." Kitty admitted.
"Hey..." Puck knelt down and she sat with him as he held both of her arms in his. "Sometimes when the thing you care about most leaves you, you're forced to keep going anyways. It doesn't mean you have to like it, it just means that you have to accept it." He said with more certainty than he thought he was capable. "But sometimes life takes a turn you don't expect! That's the reason you go on living."
Puck smiled at his sister and drew her close.
"I'm here now. I'm not going anywhere." He promised.
There wasn't a dry eye in the cave as Sam, Blaine, Kurt, Tina and Mercedes watched the siblings' reunion.
"You don't know that." Kitty whispered. "You're here now, but what if you're not tomorrow? What if I lose you again? What if you lose me?"
"I never lost you in the first place, and you never lost me." Puck said holding her tightly. "Remember that, we'll always be together, even if we aren't. Okay?"
Kitty sniffled and looked up at him.
"Promise?"
"I promise." He whispered and kissed the top of her head. "Do you?"
She nodded.
"I promise."
"Good." He smiled and looked around at the others. "Then let's get out of this cave."
Sam nodded, inspired.
"You got it."
Puck made his introductions to the rest of the group as they awoke, and everybody was relieved at how well the others took to him. Finn and Rachel sympathised with his story, and the three of them became quite close. Quinn too, took a shine to Puck, and Blaine found himself inspired by the older boy. Kurt and Tina both found contentment in hanging out with the new boy, and Sam was relieved to have finally found somebody who might be able to take some of the pressure.
As strong as Puck was, Sam was happy to split the leadership role with him, though it didn't seem as though Puck wanted any part of it. On the contrary, more often than not, Puck disappeared to talk to Mercedes, getting up to date on the goings-on in the world. Out of everybody, it seemed Puck and Mercedes had grown the closest.
There was something interesting in watching the two of them interact. It was oddly familiar to some of them; Sam, Rachel, Blaine, Quinn, Brittney and Santana, but they couldn't quite seem to put their fingers on it.
That was fine with Puck, because he knew exactly what he was feeling, and he wasn't sure he wanted to let it be known. He felt an undeniable desire to protect Mercedes, not as strong as his desire to help his sister, but stronger than he would expect to feel for a stranger.
He'd never loved anybody back in Fayhaven, and he didn't believe this to be love either, but it was definitely something. If he had to put a name to it...Puck had a crush!
Romantic entanglements aside, with Puck leading them they made quick work of the rest of the Vertglass Mines, and without their King, the spiders weren't quick to attack again, much to Santana's relief.
When they finally saw the sun again, nobody could help but smile. They all felt stronger now, like they'd stood a test of strength and come out the other side. Yes, some-most even- had fallen to the spiders, but they hadn't died, and that was as much a cause for celebration as any!
"We're heading to Ironmount Point." Finn informed everybody as they sat in a circle on the beach. "Now that we have Puck, we only need one more soldier to make us complete. Marley. She's saved our butts already, but we need her on the battlefield. She is the strongest magical being in the Kingdom. If she can't be of assistance, nobody can."
"Ironmount Point is across the Wintersea." Puck piped up, looking out across the ocean. "I've never been there personally, but adventurers passing by have talked about it. There's a nameless little ice fishing village on the other side of the caves there, but I'm not sure what's in them."
"We are." Blaine piped up. "On the other side of the Wintersea are the Icegate Crags. It's basically a straight shoot, we've seen the maps. You go in, you go down a ladder, through a few chambers and then back out again."
"Only most people don't come back out again." Rachel picked up. "Because in those caves is the Ice Dragon. One of the five big dragons that the King uses for his sacrifices."
"There are only five dragons?" Quinn asked.
"No there are more, but these five; Ice, Earth, Thunder, Fire and Sea, used to be strong representatives of ancient nations. Legend says that their ancestors created this world, and whether or not that's actually true, they are all terrifyingly strong, and they are all brainwashed by the King." Blaine said.
"Awesome..." Puck drawled.
"First things first, we need to get across the Wintersea." Kurt pointed out and they all paused, deliberating that.
"We could..." Puck started, but then paused. "I don't know, we could build a raft. I know how, I used to make them to fish in deeper waters, but the waters get dangerous the deeper you go."
"That's comforting." Santana said.
"We don't really have any other options." Sam said. "Everybody split up and look for wood or bark that we can use to tie it together. Just...look for anything Puck might find useful."
Quinn kicked off her worn leather sandals and held them as she walked along the beach, Blaine at her side. Brisk water from the Wintersea lapped at their ankles, but neither complained. There was something peaceful about a walk on the beach, when they were constantly running for their lives.
A warm breeze drifted by them, tussling Quinn's hair.
She scowled and attempted to pat it down, looking up in time to catch Blaine's grin before he averted his eyes.
"What?" She laughed. "This hair is too unruly for wind!"
"I don't understand how a girl so badass can be so delicate at the same time!" He laughed.
She grinned and brushed imaginary dirt off her shoulders.
"That's just how I roll." She nodded. They both laughed, looking at each other, forgetting all about collecting driftwood for the raft.
A flock of seabirds passed overhead and they both looked up. The birds swooped and spiralled for a moment before taking off across the ocean. Quinn smiled after them.
"It's amazing how fantastic some things are, if you just know where to look." Blaine sighed.
"Like you?" Quinn said, before she realized what she was saying. He looked startled, and confused, so she hastily explained. "I mean, people thought you were a savage in those woods, but you're actually a really nice guy!"
"I guess." He laughed. "It just took you getting chased into my house at sword-point to figure that out." He joked.
"You shush." She nudged him and he smiled.
"You're pretty fantastic too Quinn Fabray." He said.
"Not really." She laughed.
"You are! You're such a great person, caring and kind and brave in the face of adversity. I'm glad those guys tried to kill you." He laughed. "If they hadn't, I never would've met you. You're my first girlfriend, yeah, but I've never had a friend as good as you either." He smiled tenderly and she laughed.
"To be fair, you never had a friend before me." She joked and he pouted. She paused and he looked at her.
"What?"
"Nothing..."
"What?"
"It's just..." She paused and took a deep breath. She looked down at a rock half buried in the sand. She bent down and picked it up. As the sand fell away, she discovered that it was heart-shaped. That was all the encouragement she needed. "We're lucky you know? We aren't like Sam and Rachel, or Santana and Brittney. We were best friends first, and then we found love."
Blaine was silent. He was silent for so long, in fact, that Quinn began to worry that she'd made a mistake or said something wrong. They just continued to walk forwards together, silently breathing in the salty ocean air.
-Musical Cue-
-Lucky: Jason Mraz & Colbie Caillait
She had just turned to take it back, out of fear of his response, when he began to sing.
"Do you hear me? I'm talkin' to you." He smiled faintly, eyes sparkling as he took her hand and gestured out across the Wintersea. "Across the water, across the deep blue ocean, under the open sky, oh my, baby I'm trying."
Shyly Quinn tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, she drew closer to him as she sang her own verse.
"Boy I hear you...in my dreams. I feel you whisper, across the sea." She felt the breeze stir her hair again, but she couldn't bring herself to mind. "I keep you with me in my heart, you make it easier when life gets hard."
Together they continued to sing, leaning against one another, hands clasped tenderly.
"I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend, lucky to have been where I have been...Lucky to be coming home again..." They paused and Quinn looked up at him smiling. He caught her gaze and they stopped walking. "Oooh, oooh, oooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, oooh, ooh..."
"They don't-" Quinn started, shaking her head. "-know how long it takes..."
"They don't know how long it takes." He grabbed her other hand and she joined him to finish the line. "Waiting for a love like this."
"Every time-" Quinn started again, smiling broadly. "-we say goodbye..."
"Every time we say goodbye." He smiled back at her. "I wish we had one more kiss, I'll wait for you, I promise you, I will!" They finished, he leaned in and Quinn giggled as she broke away, running further away from the beach, laughing.
"Oh I-!" He laughed and then took off after her.
"I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend! Lucky to have been where I have been! Lucky to be coming home again." He caught her, wrapped his arms around her midsection and spun her around.
He set her down and she grabbed his arms as she stumbled, both of them falling to the sand next to a small group of beach flowers.
"Lucky we're in love in every way." They sang, looking up at the clouds above. "Lucky to have stayed where we have stayed, lucky to be coming home someday..."
"And so I'm sailing through the sea..." He sang, propping himself up on one elbow to look at her. "To an island, where we'll meet. You'll hear the music fill the air! I'll put a flower, in your hair." He reached past her and plucked a large white blossom, settling it behind her ear as she sang back.
"Though the breezes through the trees, move so pretty...you're all I see!" She laughed and tackled him. They began to roll down the beach. The slowed and came to a stop and she smiled down at him. "As the world keeps spinning 'round, you hold me right here, right now."
"I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend." They sang together. Quinn stood up and held out a hand to help him to his feet as well. "Lucky to have been where I have been, lucky to be coming home again..."
They both looked up as chirping filled the air. The birds from before had returned and were spiralling and looping about around their heads. They both grinned, grabbing one another's hands.
"I'm lucky we're in love in every way, lucky to have stayed where we have stayed...lucky to be coming home someday." They looked down into each other's eyes once more, both smiling so wide it almost hurt. With each ooh that followed, they drew closer and closer until they were caught in a kiss.
"Eeep!" Brittney squealed and they pulled apart. "You two are just so cute! Puck made the raft, we're good to go."
She practically floated away from them and Quinn and Blaine laughed.
"You're beautiful Quinn Fabray, inside and out. I can think of nobody greater." He smiled at her and walked away.
Quinn smiled softly to herself, watching him go.
Long ago, it seemed like eons, she was worried about being hot. She wanted more than anything to turn heads when she walked into a room. But now she saw that it wasn't hotness that she needed. She wanted beauty, but not the kind that was skin deep. The kind that radiated from the heart, and drew people towards you just because they could recognize that light.
Yes, she decided, she was happy with how her story had panned out. It wasn't over, not yet, but she was fairly certain that she didn't have a whole lot of soul searching left to do. No, Quinn Fabray knew who she was, now she just had to fight for the right to keep it that way.
"Rachel?"
Rachel looked up, smiling as Kitty approached her.
"Hey!" Rachel beamed.
Seeing Kitty, or Puck for that matter, gave her unbelievable hope. It made her think that she didn't have to worry so much about things going awry with her brother or Sam. She was genuinely happy for the other siblings, undeniably.
"What's up?" She asked.
"I just wanted to thank you." Kitty said.
"For what?" Rachel shifted her body so that she was giving Kitty all of her attention.
"For being my family when I didn't have any." Kitty admitted shyly, almost embarrassed.
"Aww!" Rachel put a hand to her chest and frowned. She smiled with her eyes though, as she stood and wrapped Kitty in a hug. "I'm still your family! We all are!"
"Yeah..." Kitty smiled, looking truly happy.
It was interesting to her, to be truly happy. She could barely remember the feeling anymore, and it was so pleasant, that she couldn't help but laugh.
"I know!" She smiled and it was contagious to the point that soon both girls were shaking their heads at how ridiculously pleased they were with their situation. They were still fugitives, their lives were still on the line, but in that moment, none of that mattered.
Which was good, because that moment didn't last.
"Where did this even come from?" Blaine screamed over the roar of the storm clouds over head as it pelted their raft with hard, cold rain.
The ocean was churning, huge waves threatening their balance at every crest, and threatening to swallow them with every trough.
"I don't know!" Puck screamed back as a thunder clap burst in the distance. He was holding tightly to the mast erected in the center of the raft. Others clung to small guard rails that Puck had thought to create on the side.
"Oh my God!" Tina screamed suddenly.
She let go of the guard rail and covered her mouth, pointing at the ocean where the ridges of a long serpent-like creature could be seen diving into the water almost directly next to their craft.
"What is that thing?" Kitty yelled.
Like her words were a cue for the beast to emerge, an enormous sea snake erupted out of the water in front of her, cracking its snout on one far edges of the craft.
"Tina!" Blaine yelled, reaching out to reel her in, but the raft bucked so strongly that she flew through the air, slamming into him and sending them both toppling into the churning mass of white water below them.
"Blaine!" Rachel screamed, running from her rail towards the side where they had vanished.
Another wave hit and water washed over the deck. Rachel screamed as her feet flew out from under her and the raft was tilted almost vertically.
"Sam!" She yelled, flailing her hands wildly to try and hold onto something.
Puck dropped to the ground and wrapped his legs around the mast, reaching out and grabbing her arm with both of his hands.
"It's circling back!" Kurt warned as the serpent made a beeline directly for their raft.
"We've invaded its territory!" Puck realized.
Finn shot a beam of electricity at it as it approached, but that only served to anger it more, and it dove under the surface, sending up a massive tidal wave by splashing its tail down into the water.
"Hold on!" Sam yelled as the water reared up over them and the raft started sliding up the slope.
The water came down, harsh and blistering cold on their heads. Miraculously, their little raft managed to stay upright.
"Rachel!" Puck screamed as her hands slipped from his. She fell and slammed into the guard rail so hard that it cracked and split down the middle, sending her flying into the ocean.
"Rachel!" Sam repeated, squinting through the rain and yelling so loudly that it made his throat raw.
Santana screamed as the guard rail she was against split from the force of Rachel's fall. She felt wood slipping away from her as she plummeted into the ocean, but she managed to latch onto a loose piece of timber that was barely connected by some loose bark.
She locked her terrified eyes on Brittney's as the bark ripped and she splashed back into the ocean.
"Santana!" Brittney yelled, letting go of her perch and taking off, planting one foot on the guard rail and diving in after her.
"No!" Puck yelled.
"Brittney!" Sam cried out.
A bolt of lightning hit the ocean almost directly beside them and the raft rocked violently at the intense hit.
Mercedes cried out as her arms slipped from around the wet wood that she'd been clasping to. She slid down the slanted deck, reaching out for whatever she could grasp.
Finn lunged for her, attempting to stop her fall, but he misjudged the violent jerk that catching her would cause and he dropped with her, flailing wildly into the ocean.
Puck, Kitty, Quinn, Kurt and Sam looked around at one another, the only ones left afloat. The only ones who had yet to be pitched into the sea.
"Guys!" Kurt yelled suddenly, letting go of his guard rail and backing away from it. His feet slipped on the deck but he scrambled backwards as the sea serpent turned its attention back to them. "Guys!" He screamed.
It opened its jaws and clamped down hard on the place where Kurt had been positioned only moments before. He screamed as it tilted the raft down and he slid towards its suddenly gaping mouth.
"Kurt!" Kitty cried out.
Kurt separated his legs, planting one foot against the upper teeth of the beast and the other against the bottom row. His position was the only thing keeping him from plummeting down the gullet of the beast.
"Kurt jump!" Puck yelled, reaching out for him, legs still wrapped around the mast.
He crouched and jumped up towards him and the serpent roared and shook its head, smashing it down against the raft and sending a crack running almost all the way through the middle.
"No!" Sam reached out to grab part of the railing on the other side of the crack, desperate to keep their only means of survival afloat. Quinn reached across to grab onto his forearm in an attempt to keep them together.
Kurt screamed as the serpent descended again, sending a cascade of water over all of them. The force of the attack was enough to split the rest of the craft. The piece in Sam's hand split away and he almost toppled over from the sudden jolt.
Quinn cried out as Sam fell back and she found herself pitching headfirst into the water.
"Quinn!" Sam yelled, lunging for her, but she had vanished under the churning surface.
He frantically lunged for the other section, but found himself almost suspended above the writhing water of death. Kitty grabbed him and pulled him back, both of them clinging to the railing for dear life as Kurt and Puck drifted away.
"Kitty!" Puck yelled as she and Sam vanished behind a large wave.
"Puck!" She yelled back.
The serpent reared up between them once more and body slammed the surface, sending two split tidal waves towards both of them. When the water settled, Kitty and Sam had gone under, and Puck found that Kurt's fingers had slipped from his grasp.
"No! Kurt! Kitty! Sam!" He yelled over the storm.
He looked up as thunder clapped overhead and a bolt of lightning shot down at the only railing left. It splintered and jagged shards flew everywhere. One thicker piece smacked against his head, and he saw fuzzy shapes appear before his eyes as his vision swam.
"Stay awake..." He tried to tell himself, but that was not going to work, so he pulled himself up and tightened both his arms and legs around the mast. "Don't let go..." He whispered, and unconsciousness claimed him.
Love of a Soldier
When Puck woke again, he felt sand clinging to his cheek, face pressed into the beach and half-buried to the point where a heavy inhalation sent him into a fit of coughing up wet, gritty sand.
He lifted his arms out in front of him and pushed himself up onto all fours, looking around at his surroundings blearily. The beach he was on was not the Silvershore that he was accustomed to. This sand was almost white, and the trees that lined the beach were of a variety that Puck was unfamiliar with.
The air was also significantly colder than it had been on the other side. Though that was to be expected, they were surrounding the Icegate Crags, the coldest part of the Kingdom and home to countless winter-born creatures.
The raft was in pieces behind him, worn raw and covered in seaweed.
Blinking harshly and rubbing sand that had encrusted itself on his eyelids away, Puck tried to remember what had happened. How long had he been out? A day? Two? More? No, it wasn't likely that it was any more than that, he was hungry, but he didn't have the insatiable appetite he'd had when a climbing accident knocked him out for four days earlier in the year.
He remembered being hit in the head, and then falling unconscious. He'd told himself not to let go of the raft, and from the looks of it, he hadn't. However, he wasn't connected anymore, but was instead sprawled across the beach ahead of the raft.
A brief flash of memory came back to him; plunging through the waves, waking up periodically, spotting a body floating in the water and swimming towards it...
That body...who had it been? Were they alive? Had he made it to them?
He looked around the beach and sat back on his knees, trying to work some of the stiffness out of his joints.
"You're awake!" Somebody cried and he turned to find Tina rushing towards him, arms laden with a few berries that she'd managed to discover in the forest.
"Tina?" Puck blinked at her.
Yes, he remembered now, he'd hauled her atop the raft and pumped her chest until she coughed up so much water that he was worried she would start bleeding internally. When she came to he remembered a joint feeling of accomplishment and fatigue before he collapsed, head thunking against the raft.
As if he didn't have a headache already...
"Yes!" She knelt down before him and handed him the berries, which he greedily gobbled down, licking the juice off of his fingers when he was finished.
He paused and looked up at her guiltily.
"Sorry, I should've saved you some."
"Oh, don't worry about it!" She waved away his concern immediately. "I gorged myself back at the bush where I found them." She laughed.
"How are you so happy?" He asked.
She frowned, initially perplexed by the question. Tina reasoned that it made sense that she should be upset, but she had prayed to come out of that ocean alive, and here she was! Not only that, but Puck was still with her. She felt that, perhaps it was better to focus on the good, than the bad, and to keep praying for the others. So until she was proven wrong, she would have faith that everybody else was okay too.
"I don't know. I guess I'm just thankful." Tina finally said. "I haven't seen you since that night... Finn explained to me what happened to you. After that, there was no joy in Fayhaven. Kitty lost herself in the darkness, Finn had vanished into the night, and there were soldiers prowling the streets searching for you for weeks. Safety was a thing of the past, privacy was totally out of the question. People were killed for being out past curfew."
"And that makes you thankful?" Puck asked, not judging her, just genuinely mystified.
"After all of that, nobody was happy, nobody left their homes, nobody did anything! Then, all of a sudden, I had the power to change all that! And I did! If I could do that, why can't I do this? If I believe it, I will succeed!" She said optimistically.
Puck smiled at her, genuinely inspired by her faith, but a key point still nagged at him.
"That's great but...the others are all missing...maybe dead." He said, looking down. Instead of bringing the mood down, however, Tina responded with a fiery chirp so optimistic that it brought him to his feet.
"They aren't!" She grinned sharply. "Have a little faith, we'll find them."
And that was how Puck found himself walking down a frigid beach; eyes peeled for the bodies of his friends, praying that any he found would not be corpses.
"What happened?" He asked, mostly just to fill the silence. "After you got knocked overboard, I mean."
Tina frowned and reflected on that.
"I tried to hold onto Blaine, but he kept telling me how cold he was, and his skin was turning blue..." She said. "I was still doing fine, but he doesn't have the body type for the cold, and I could tell that he was dying relatively quickly..."
Puck felt his heart skip a beat. This did not sound like a story with a happy ending.
"And...?" He prompted her so quietly that he barely whispered.
"I found a piece of driftwood, probably from some other boat that ran into that serpent's domain. It wasn't very big, and I was losing energy, so I made an executive decision, and I hauled him up onto it." She smiled, pleased with herself. "Then I prayed as my arms gave out and I fell unconscious. When you found me, my prayers had been answered, and I watched over you until I saw the sun come up. I spotted the shore and I swam towards it with the raft, but I noticed something."
She paused and walked him to the edge of the sea where the waves lapped at their toes.
"The current drags everything this way!" She said.
Puck nodded, observing nature at work.
"Yes. Yes it does." He nodded.
"So...?" Tina prompted him.
Determined not to be outwitted he pursed his lips and thought about it. They had all been lost to the sea, he'd witnessed it himself, and if there was a current pulling towards the shore, then maybe...maybe everybody else drifted this way too!
"The others are here!" He realized. "Somewhere on the beach!"
Tina nodded and clapped her hands excitedly for him.
"Exactly!" She let her eyes flicker out to the ocean and froze. "Puck!"
Tina grabbed his arm and whipped him around, pointing out into the waves where a familiar vessel was floating towards them with two bodies draped over the wood.
Puck wasted no time. His throat was still raw from breathing in sand, but he hadn't swallowed water like Tina had, and his lungs were strong from years of living in or around the Mines. With this in mind, he dove into the water and began front crawling like his life depended on it.
The other half of the raft, the one that had vanished with Sam and Kitty on the other side of a split tidal wave, was bouncing on the waves along the coast. Puck, thanks to years of strengthening his body and mind on the land, swam faster than even he thought possible.
As he neared, he saw somebody on the raft stir and jump up in excitement. The raft wobbled as its balance was upset and he saw a body slumped over the side tumble into the water as the first individual immediately sank back to their knees.
"Puck!" The person from the boat yelled.
He recognized her as Quinn as he neared her.
"Get Finn!" She yelled, features etched with guilt and worry.
"Gah!" Finn burst from the water almost directly beside Puck and he gave a shout of surprise. "My junk is cold!"
Puck and Quinn both sighed, relieved that instead of drowning him, the cold water had jolted Finn from his sleep. Puck and Quinn locked eyes and she sighed and rested her head on her knees, waterlogged hair still plastered to the back of her head.
"What happened to you guys?" Puck asked as he grabbed hold of the raft and began to slowly kick back towards shore where Tina was waiting.
"I never let go of the raft." Quinn explained, lifting her head up and squinting in the sun. "When I fell in, I grabbed a loose piece of bark on the underside. I could feel the snake swimming around me, so I flattened myself against the bottom and held my breath for as long as I could."
"You didn't see my sister?" Puck asked and Quinn frowned.
"At one point, the raft flipped and I could hear splashing around me, so I forced myself to open my eyes. I saw Kitty kicking towards the surface with Sam in her arms, but he was knocked out and she was fighting. I tried to go help her, but the snake cut between us and hit the raft with its tail." Quinn paused and frowned in memory.
"It didn't-" Puck started but Quinn cut him off.
"No, it was just going back to its territory; we'd drifted out of it by that point. It didn't attack either of them, but it sent me off course with the raft, and I ran out of air so I had to come up. I was too afraid to let go of the raft, so I climbed on top and swam it over to where I had seen them, but I couldn't find them again." She frowned. "I'm sorry."
Puck sighed.
"It's not your fault, I'm sure they're fine." He said, and he decided to take a page from Tina's book and have faith.
He felt his feet brush sand and he stood up in the water, walking the raft closer to the land. Finn splashed through the water ahead of him and Tina ran to him, holding him at arm's length to examine him for wounds.
Wounds...Puck gingerly touched his own bruises, wincing at the pain.
"Are you alright?" Quinn asked.
"Fine." He said. "Just a little sore."
She frowned sympathetically and hopped off of the raft once they were in shallow water, helping him to drag it onto the beach. The two of them joined up with Finn and Tina just in time for her to ask him what had happened to him.
"Mercedes pulled me into the water, and then she didn't let go of my hand for a really long time." Finn started, using his hands to emphasise his words.
Puck felt a tug on his heartstrings. Mercedes! He'd forgotten about her! Was she okay? Had she survived the close call at sea? He had heard her story; the emotional scarring was not going to go away, she didn't need any more pain! And he didn't need any more loss!
"What happened?" He prompted impatiently, earning curious looks from the girls and an annoyed one from Finn.
"I was getting there!"
"Get there faster." Puck snapped, not in the mood for beating around the bush.
"I lost her. She got tired and then she just stopped swimming, I couldn't ho-"
"You just let her go?" Puck yelled, infuriated. "She could be dead now becau-"
"I didn't let her go on purpose! My arms gave out! I-"
"You should've-"
"Puck!" Quinn yelled, reaching out and touching his arms gently, pushing him away from Finn and trying to sooth him and scold him simultaneously with her eyes. She turned back to Finn and Kurt. "We're going for a walk, don't wander."
Puck frowned as Quinn grabbed his hand and pulled him away from the other two, who were looking at him with uncertainty clear in their eyes.
"Everybody is having a hard time right now Puck, we all need to keep our heads up if we're going to get through it. I'm sure you didn't survive on your own by being negative, it's the same with the group." She tisked.
Puck frowned, he felt like a schoolchild being lectured by the teacher because he'd done something naughty. He did feel bad, sort of, and he would apologize! Quinn just didn't understand...
"I understand why you did it." She said and he stopped so suddenly that she almost kept walking. She paused and looked back at him. "What?"
"N-nothing..." He mumbled and caught back up with her. His people skills were clearly a little bit off after three years of solitude. "You understand?"
"Of course I do! Sam and Brittney are my childhood best friends, and Rachel is the best friend I've ever had, don't tell them that."
"If I have the chance I'll be sure not to." He said dryly.
"But I'm worried about Blaine because I love him. Just like you're worried about Mercedes for the same reason."
Instead of denying it, Puck sat down in the sand, looked out to sea and straight up asked her; "Is it love?"
Quinn smiled at his naivety and sat down next to him.
"Looks that way to me. You want to protect her, even when you know you can't. She's all you think about when your mind wanders, you care badly about her...tell me something, what would you do if you met Coal?"
"Knock his teeth out." He said without thinking. "Then feed them to him."
Quinn laughed and cringed simultaneously.
"Yeah, I think its love."
"Because I want to knock somebody's face in for her?"
"Exactly."
"Huh..." He let this sink in. "Do I deserve love?" He asked.
Puck was at the point where he had to confide in somebody. Maybe he'd only known Quinn for a few days, but she was there, and he was confused, and, even if it was for a limited time, he'd lowered his barriers to let her in.
Did he deserve love? He'd left his family and friends to fight for themselves against an army, he'd almost singlehandedly sent an entire town spiralling into the depths of despair, he'd become a recluse for three years. He didn't even have a clear idea what love was, just that it made him sick and elated at the same time.
It wasn't that he hadn't heard of love in Fayhaven, he'd just never experienced it for himself, and now that he was...he wasn't sure if he liked this feeling called love or not. Maybe he should've talked to Rachel, though there was a good chance that she was still lost at sea. She seemed to be pretty heavily involved in love herself.
"Puck..." Quinn said softly, and so slowly. "You deserve love and so much more. You're a great guy, and I'm sure Mercedes will see that. We'll find her, and then you can show her that love. She deserves a guy like you, especially after everything she's been through."
Puck took a deep breath.
"What if she doesn't feel the same?"
"Then you'll know that you tried." Quinn said. "I know that's not the most comforting thing to say, but it's better to seize the day, and see where things go, than it is to watch the chances pass by. Maybe she'll say no, and we move on as we are now. Maybe she says yes, and you start something that dissolves in a few weeks and then you move on as you are now. Maybe she says yes and you get married one day and start a family. Nobody knows for sure, you've just got to hope that everything works itself out."
Puck absorbed this information. Maybe Quinn was right, he just had to have hope, and if Mercedes wasn't the one for him, for whatever reason, then one day, he'd find somebody else who made him sick and happy at the same time.
He smiled.
He would go for it. He would tell Mercedes how he felt! He would have hope, and he would seize the day. After all, he only had one life to live!
He paused and looked at Quinn.
Well, two lives, in special cases.
"Help!"
Quinn and Puck both looked at one another, eyes wide, muscles tense. Then they were off, shooting across the sand towards the sound like arrows flying from a bow.
As Puck ran he reached back and felt for his quiver. It was still there, and still stocked! His bow was also present, as was his axe. The only thing to have slipped from his possession was one of the daggers he usually kept on his hip.
"Help!" The person called out again and Quinn and Puck whipped around the side of a bend to find Santana having a stare down with a bear, Kurt and Brittney standing behind her and watching the huge animal roar.
Puck and Quinn both froze suddenly and they heard the footsteps of Finn and Tina catching up to them from behind.
"What do we do?" Kurt whispered harshly.
Santana went to turn her head but Rachel's voice rang out suddenly.
"Don't look away!" She yelled.
Tina, Quinn, Puck, Kurt and Finn all whipped their heads around as the siblings strolled into view. Her eyes were locked on the bear whose eyes were locked on Santana's.
"You're in the middle of a battle for dominance." Rachel said. "You look away and you die. It hasn't attacked you yet, so it's protecting something, most likely her children, back away slowly but don't move your eyes." She commanded.
Santana nodded and slowly began to do so. The bear growled and swept at him with a paw, but Santana was far beyond reach, and the bear did not advance, which meant it didn't think of Santana as food.
Rachel and Blaine stood just off to the side as the others all backed away towards her. They were both poised and ready to intervene if things got messy. Thankfully, when
Santana was far enough away, the animal turned away and pushed back into the trees. Seconds later they heard the young whining of bear cubs nearby.
Rachel sighed with relief and turned to the others.
"Cubs, I thought so. You're all safe now."
"Where are the others?" Blaine asked, crossing to Quinn's side and hugging her distractedly. "Sam, Kitty and Mercedes?"
"Hold on!" Quinn said, looking around at the five newcomers. "What happened to you guys?"
Santana smiled and hugged Brittney tightly from the side.
"Brittney caught me when I went under, and we stayed together by treading water and linking one leg with each other. Eventually, we saw land and we started swimming towards it, but I saw somebody floating just off the coast." Santana looked over at Kurt who smiled at her. "It was Kurt, and I dragged his scrawny ass onto the beach. I gave him CPR and he coughed up water, and woke up!"
"I swam until I saw land." Rachel explained. "I found Blaine unconscious on a board washed up nearby and smacked him until he woke up."
Blaine rubbed his jaw as if he could still feel the pain.
"I repeat." He said. "Where are Sam-"
"Wake up!" Somebody yelled from just around the bend.
They all paused and looked around.
"That was Sam's voice..." Rachel whispered.
Puck felt his throat tighten up, there were three people missing; his sister, the girl he was in love with, and Sam. If it was Sam who was yelling, than one of the two people he cared the most for in the world was in trouble.
Puck booted away from his spot, kicking up sand in his haste and scrambling over his own feet as he almost lost his balance. He practically flew across the bend and didn't even pause as he took in the sight before him.
Sam was pumping Mercedes's chest and then kneeling down to check her breathing, shaking his head as tears fell from his eyes. Kitty stood behind him, one hand to her lips, eyes brimming with tears of her own.
"-my fault, all my fault." Sam was rambling.
"Mercedes!" Puck cried, diving to the sand and physically shoving Sam out of the way.
Sam fell onto his rear and curled his knees up, resting his forehead on top of them and shaking his head frantically.
"I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry."
In some far off part of Puck's mind he saw Rachel running past him and holding onto Sam, murmering soothing words into his ear that didn't reach Puck through the rushing sound of his own blood pumping past his ears as adrenaline filled his body.
He pressed his hands against Mercedes's chest and pumped hard enough to leave a bruise, but she didn't stir. He pumped again, and nothing. A third time yielded similar results. Puck knelt down, pinched her nose, opened her mouth and breathed air into her lungs.
"Come on..." He heard Brittney pleading behind him, Tina was standing just behind him, holding onto the cross around her neck.
Pump, pump, pump, breath!
Nothing.
Pump, pump, pump, breath!
Nothing.
Puck watched as his tears fell down onto Mercedes's cheeks.
"Wake up!" He cried, his voice cracking. "Wake. Up!"
He grabbed her shoulders and started shaking her violently.
"Puck! Puck!" Blaine knelt down beside him and grabbed his shoulders, holding him back.
"No!" He broke free of Blaine's hold and dropped his face onto Mercedes's stomach, his hands grabbing her limp ones with as much force as he could muster.
Finn looked down as Puck sobbed into Mercedes's shirt and felt shell shocked. She'd just been saved from death, how was the world cruel enough to take her now? Puck had formed a connection with her, they all had! Brittney, Sam, Quinn, Kurt, they were all staring down at the biracial beauty, so full of compassion, lying drowned on the beach.
Puck choked suddenly and his head shot upright.
"Mercedes?" He whispered.
"What?" Brittney stepped forwards, looking over Puck's head.
"I...her fingers...twitched. That's not normal right? That means she must still be-"
Mercedes gasped and bolted upright, immediately hacking up water onto the sand at her side. She held her hands out and propped herself up, coughing so harshly that tears came to her eyes and dropped with her saliva and sea water to the ground below.
She was vaguely aware of people holding her tightly, and when she wiped the tears from her eyes, she found Puck, Brittney and Tina all gripping her in a vice, hugging any part of her that they could reach.
"What's wrong?" She rasped, voice rough from tearing up her throat.
Puck and Brittney seemed beyond responding, but Santana smiled through her tears and locked eyes with Mercedes.
"You're alive Wheezy!"
Sam could barely even register that Mercedes was alive. All that he could think, not for the first time, was that he was putting them in danger! Mercedes was happy in Violetedge until Sam showed up. Thanks to him, her home was burnt to the ground! Destroyed! She would have died if it weren't for Brittney, and it would've been all Sam's fault!
Blaine and Rachel had been safe in their forest. They led a comfortable life, even if it was antisocial. They befriended the wildlife, they lived off the land, they were fine. Then Sam showed up and refused to let them say no once he got his idea into his head.
He was selfish! Selfish! If he had just led Quinn somewhere comfortable and bunkered down to hide like the siblings had done, like Mercedes had done, like Puck and Finn had done, then maybe they would all be safer! Quinn would never have died! Mercedes wouldn't have had to cheat death twice! Kurt never would've almost become snake food! Tina never would've had to leave her safe, comfortable life.
"Stop it." Rachel hissed to him.
"What?" He glared at her.
"You're not putting us in danger, I'm tired of you acting like this! It's your decisions that have kept us alive Sam!" Rachel snapped.
"How did you know-"
"For once, your emotions were plastered across your face."
Sam sighed.
"I'm the reason you keep getting hurt. All of you!" He looked out at the others, but Brittney, Puck and Kurt refused to take their attention away from Mercedes. Sam didn't blame them. "You were all fine before I came and screwed you all up."
"I wasn't." Quinn said quietly, looking almost offended that he would even suggest such a thing. "Even before they tried to kill me, I wasn't fine. This journey helped fix me. I discovered the value of love, and I learned to hope." She said, not with a dazed inspirational expression, but with one of deadly seriousness.
"I learned that I belonged." Santana said.
"I discovered friendship..." Blaine swallowed hard.
"I found my faith." Tina added. "We may have seemed fine on the outside Sam, but nobody here was alright internally."
"Yeah well at least you were all still alive!" Sam snapped at her.
"We are all still alive." Tina said tersely.
"Quinn died!" Sam said. "Rachel, Blaine, Finn and Santana almost died in the forest! Mercedes has almost died twice! How many times do we cheat death before we run out of luck?"
Finn frowned and looked at their leader, running a hand through his hair and taking a step forwards.
"Hey..." He said.
-Musical Cue-
-Pink: F**kin' Perfect-
"Made a wrong turn..." Finn sang and Sam looked up at him. "Once or twice."
Finn shrugged and rested one hand on Sam's shoulder.
"Dug my way out, blood and fire!"
"Bad decisions..." Tina shook her head and smiled sympathetically. "That's alright! Welcome to my silly life."
Mercedes held Puck's hand and turned where she sat to face their leader.
"Mistreated. Misplaced, misunderstood...Miss, "no way, it's all good"" With Puck's help she stood up. "It didn't slow me down."
Kitty looked down at the ground on Puck's other side, frowning.
"Mistaken, always second guessin', underestimated...look I'm still around." She looked up, smiling as Kurt tangled their fingers together, walking up on her other side and picking up the song.
"Pretty, pretty please! Don't you ever, ever feel!" He sang, shaking her head. "Like you're less than, less than perfect!"
"Pretty, pretty please!" Quinn sang out, reaching down and grabbing Sam's hand. "If you ever, ever feel! Like you're nothing! You are perfect...to me." She smiled softly and brought him to his feet as Blaine rose in front of him.
"You're so mean...when you talk..." Blaine's eyes were sad as Santana echoed him and Sam felt a pang of guilt. "About yourself, you are wrong."
"Change the voices..." Santana sang out, Blaine taking the background parts coming up on Sam's other side. "In your head. Make them like you instead!"
The two of them stepped back and Brittney and Puck reached forwards, grabbing Sam's hands and leading him further down the beach as they sang together.
"So complicated, look happy you'll make it! Filled with so much hatred...such a tired game." The two of them frowned at him, letting go of his hand and taking a step away. "It's enough! I've done all I can think of, chased down all my demons, I've seen you do the same."
Sam turned as his other friends parted and Rachel stood up, belting.
"Oh!" She wailed. "Pretty, pretty please! Don't you ever, ever feel, like you're less than, less than perfect!"
She walked slowly towards him, through the aisle their friends formed.
"Pretty, pretty please! She smiled as she grabbed his hands and they turned as the others formed a line across from them. Brittney took a step out on the far end, all grinning eagerly. "If you ever, ever feel! Like you're nothing, you are perfect to me!"
"The whole world's scared so I swallow the fear!"Brittney nodded sharply.
"The only thing I should be drinking is an ice cold beer." Puck shrugged.
"So cool in line, and we try, try, try." Quinn frowned.
"But we try too hard, it's a waste of my time." Blaine grabbed her hand.
"Done lookin' for the critics, cause they're everywhere!" Santana scoffed.
"They don't like my jeans, they don't get my hair." Tina tossed her head.
"Exchange ourselves, and we do it all the time..." Mercedes frowned.
"Why do we do that?" Kurt asked.
"Why do I do that?" Finn shrugged.
"Why do I do that...?" Sam whispered.
"Yeah!" Rachel belted, pulling him into the crowd of their friends. "Ohh, oh pretty pretty pretty!"
"Pretty, pretty please!" Everybody belted and Sam couldn't help but smile. "Don't you ever, ever feel!"
"Like you're less than! Less than perfect!" They sang as Rachel adlibbed. "Pretty, pretty please! If you ever, ever feel, like you're nothing, you are perfect!" They all dropped out as Rachel carried on.
"To me! Yeah!" She belted. "You're perfect! You're perfect! To me! Yeah!"
"Pretty , pretty please! If you ever, ever feel! Like you're nothin', you are perfect..." They all stopped again and Rachel turned to pull Sam into a hug. "To me."
Sam couldn't help but smile, blinking back tears of happiness as his friends gathered around him in a huge group hug. Eventually, Finn stepped away and looked at Sam with deadly seriousness.
"This isn't about you Sam, and it's not about any one of us. It's about all of us! We're a team, and without any one of us, this never would've gotten as far as it did. If I hadn't pointed you towards Violetedge, none of this would've happened either. If Marley hadn't sent me to intercept you, things would be different. Without Kitty sending us on the hero quest, we'd still be sitting in Tina's bar in Fayhaven. No single person is to blame for all of this, we all decided our own destinies, nobody was forced to tag along. We're all fighting for something, or somebody, or some life that we never had. Yes, I'm almost certain that somebody is going to die before this war is over, but if that guy is me, than I don't want to go down worrying about everything that I did and didn't do. I want to go down feeling proud that I went down for the good of the entire Kingdom, instead of selfishly hiding in the background until some stray soldier found and killed me!" He panted, out of breath and shaking his head. "I'm just being honest here, you've helped so many people, me included, and if you think that makes you a bad person than you're an idiot. We have all been a part of the hurt just as much as we've been a part of the healing, but if I do one thing before I die, I'll convince you that you are a hero, you have always been a hero, and you will die a hero, just like everybody else here. Okay?"
Sam blinked.
"...Okay..." He whispered.
Finn huffed and turned away.
"Okay." He nodded and started walking.
"Where are you going?" Kitty asked.
"To find the entrance. It's time to move forwards."
The Price of Magic
"This is it..." Finn said, swallowing nervously and looking at the large stone tablet that acted as a door to the Icegate Caverns. There was a large draconian insignia carved into the door, with two sapphires as eyes.
"How do we open it?" Kurt asked, looking at it curiously.
"It's an ancient text..." Tina said, stepping up and panning her eyes over the glyphs carved above the dragon. "Brave traveler, beware the ground before you tread, beware the sound before you hear, but above all, beware the beast that guards the tomb of ice, lest it become your tomb as well."
She stood up and frowned at it, turning and glancing over her shoulder at the others.
"It doesn't say anything about how to open it, but there's got to be a way." She said.
"I know how." Blaine said, stepping forwards and tracing his fingers along one of the cracks. "I read about it in a book in the castle library."
"Weren't you like, five when you lived at the castle?" Quinn asked doubtfully.
"Seven." He said defensively. "It said that to enter the cave of the Ice Dragon, you had to see as the dragon saw."
Blaine knelt down in front of the door and peered into one of the sapphire eyes. He saw a small blue fire ignite in the back of the jewel and moved over to the other eye. When that fire lit as well, a shimmering cross appeared in the door and Blaine turned it, stepping back as the door swung inwards.
"Alright..." He swallowed nervously. "Here we go."
The Icegate Caverns were freezing. Breath froze as soon as it left mouths, feet slipped over icy patches riddling the path, friends huddled together in an attempt to conserve body heat. Some of the smaller soldiers were having a tough time dealing with the cold, and had to clamp their teeth together to keep their noise from echoing around the whole cave.
Finn had yet to give up the lead, and marched everybody purposefully forwards. As a result, he fell often, and Sam was always right behind him to catch him and set him back on his feet. The further Finn got into the cave, the more unwound he became.
"What's wrong?" Sam asked.
"I just have a really bad feeling about this place..." Finn whispered back, looking around at the shining, glittering walls.
"What kind of feeling?"
Finn frowned.
"Just make me a promise, alright?" He looked at Sam seriously and Sam shifted uneasily.
"What kind of promise?"
"Just promise me." Finn whispered as they passed through a large archway into a relatively large chamber. "That you'll always be sincere, and that you'll keep the end in sight."
Sam frowned.
"Okay, but-"
They were interrupted as an ear splitting roar filled the chamber. They all turned, one after another to stare as one of the ice covered walls shattered and an enormous light blue dragon stomped forwards. With piercing blue eyes, diamond-hard transparent scales ridging its back and teeth made for tearing things apart, the twelve of them were practically frozen to their spots.
"Fuck." Santana swore.
"Run!" Kitty yelled, sprinting towards the other entrance.
The dragon stomped its feet and a sheet of ice fell from the ceiling and blocked the entrance completely. Kitty whipped out a dagger and stabbed it, but the hilt split off in her hands. She didn't dare try the other weapon.
Kurt took a few faltering steps backwards and then ran towards the entrance from which they'd come, but the dragon stomped its foot down again, roaring as he did, and another sheet of ice came down in front of him, almost hitting him in the foot.
"We're trapped!" Rachel yelled.
"What do we do?" Mercedes asked, nervously inching towards the back, she being the only one who didn't have a weapon.
Finn said nothing, but looked at the dragon with fire in his eyes.
Sam looked around, all eyes on him. He sighed, it was his call...again...
As it turned out, he didn't have to make a decision. The dragon made it for him as it opened its mouth and let loose a blast of blue fire towards them.
"Avoid that! It's deadly!" Rachel grabbed the closest person to her; Brittney, and dove to the ground underneath of it. She saw Blaine take Santana to the ground next to him, both grunting as their chins hit the ice.
The others had managed to stay out of its path, but they all turned as the dragon let out a thinner, more direct line of blue energy. This energy took off like a bullet towards Kurt, who shrieked and tried to brace himself, but the beam hit him and steam immediately rose from his body.
When the steam cleared, Kurt was encased in ice, frozen in the same shrieking pose.
"Kurt!" Mercedes ran towards her, but the dragon lifted into the air and flew forwards, landing directly in front of her and sweeping its tail at her, sending her skidding backwards along the ice and into Sam, both of them skidding to the ground.
The dragon opened its mouth and aimed another ice beam at the pair of them, and Sam barely managed to get between Mercedes and the beam before it had frozen them both to the floor, the two of them cringing like pained statues.
Finn gritted his teeth.
"You can do this..." Marley whispered in his head.
Finn rolled his sleeves up and summoned a ball of fire in each hand, sending them flinging towards the two human ice sculptures. The dragon roared as the fireballs began to spin in perpetual motion, melting the magical ice of the beast.
The dragon lunged forwards towards the four who had fallen to the ground, and Blaine rolled out of the way as its foot came down hard, so hard that it shook the entire cavern.
Santana's scream of piercing agony echoed around the room and everybody stared down in shock at where the dragon had put all its weight on her leg, and snapped it like a twig. She broke down on the ground, sobbing, and Brittney tried to crawl towards her, but the dragon swung at the blonde girl with his tail, not only smashing her backwards into the wall over Rachel's head so hard that her head swam and spots erupted in front of her eyes, but cutting her in the chest with her scales.
"Oh my God!" Tina backed up against one wall of the cavern as it turned its eyes on her, and lunged towards her with gaping jaws.
A larger fireball than the others smashed it in the side of the head and knocked it onto its side on the ground, skidding along the floor towards Rachel, who screamed and scrambled out of the way towards Kurt's melting sculpture, which was already almost gone.
"Leave them alone." Finn said, stepping in front of Tina.
Kitty rushed to Tina's side and pulled her away as the dragon shot a huge beam of blue fire at Finn who ducked to the ground and rolled underneath of it as Puck covered Quinn and arched his back as the blue fire burnt through his shirt and left a painful sear across his back.
Kurt gasped as his head was freed and he looked over at the others, Mercedes and Sam broke free moments later, glancing over at where Quinn was nursing Puck's back. Blaine had gone to Santana and was holding her tightly as she sobbed into his sleeve while he looked at the dragon with fear. Rachel had gone to Brittney and was inspecting the back of her bleeding head, forcing the other girl to look at her. Tina and Kitty had retreated to a small corner of the room and were watching, holding one another close.
There wasn't a person in that room who didn't know that this battle was over their heads.
The dragon turned and opened its mouth, charging up a beam of blue fire at Kitty and Tina. Both girls screamed as the dragon unleashed an enormous burst at them. There was no way that they could escape, they were trapped! That fire would kill them both.
"Hey!" Finn yelled, stepping in between them and extending both of his palms, shooting a massive torrent of fire back at the huge dragon.
"Finn!" Kitty yelled. "What are you doing?"
Finn turned and looked over his shoulder, smiling.
"Being a hero, what does it look like?" He turned back to the dragon as the fires hit one another and began a battle for dominance. The dragon stomped its foot and its fire grew in intensity. Finn gritted his teeth and tensed all of his muscles as he was enveloped in his own fire, staring out at the dragon as his power grew.
"Finn!" Sam yelled.
Finn looked at him sadly.
"You can't win this! You'll die!" Sam continued.
"You're wrong." Finn said. "I've got this!" He stomped his own foot on the ground and the dragon retaliated by opening his mouth wider, both flames grew and the energy flare between the two of them began to pulse crazily in a blinding white light.
"Finn!" Kitty yelled.
He turned and looked at her, then around at the others, one by one he locked eyes with them all; Kitty, Kurt, Puck, Quinn, Blaine, Santana, Rachel, Brittney, Tina, Mercedes and finally, Sam.
"Stay strong. Stay sincere. Don't fight your feelings, but don't wallow in things that you didn't have the power to change either. Go out there and win this war for me. Don't let all of this be in vain." He smiled sadly.
The power of the two beams broke and the red and blue flames spiralled around each other, simultaneously going in both directions at once. Finn smiled as the blue fire hit him at full power, immersing him completely.
"Goodbye..." He whispered before the light became too much for everybody else and they were forced to look away.
When the light died down, the dragon was on its side on the other end of the cavern, and Finn was slowly falling to the ground at the front.
"Finn!" Kitty yelled, sprinting towards him.
Sam got their first, catching him before his head hit the ice and holding him close, tears streaming down Sam's face.
"Finn!" Sam sobbed, shaking him. "Finn!"
A light green light shimmered out of Finn, making a cloud in the air. Sam looked up into it as it lit the cavern. Sam watched as a dark figure slowly approached Quinn and Bruce on a bridge. Sam watched himself tackle the figure.
"Ooh my butt!"
Sam paused, fists raised to punch the boy beneath him in the face.
"Excuse me?" Sam paused.
"You like, broke my butt!" The boy said, contorting his face into an accusatory gaze. "I use that."
"I...I was trying to protect my friends..." Sam stammered.
"Well you didn't have to hurt my butt... It's not like I was gonna use it as a weapon." He said. "Wait, can you do that?" He beamed with childish excitement.
"You don't work for the King?" Quinn asked, approaching them.
"No I do not work for the King, do you know why I don't? Because the King, is a fucking asshole!" He nodded affirmatively. "Now c'mon man, get off of me."
Sam paused.
"Uh...please?"
Sam was surprised to find himself barking a laugh at that. It seemed like so long ago.
"I am Finn Hudson." He said. "I was waiting here for you, for like, a really long time, and I got really hungry, but I just kept on waiting, and then you broke my butt...so you're welcome."
Mercedes watched as Coal strolled into the scene, Finn had jumped onto the banister and was watching him. Coal's niece was beside him and Mercedes fought the distaste in her mouth.
"You there!" Coal boomed.
"Who, me?" He acted confused.
"Why are you sitting on a bridge?" Ree asked judgementally.
"Why are you not sitting on a bridge?"
"Now, have you seen a small group of fugitives run past here?"
"Do they run like this?" Finn flailed his arms wildly and sprinted off in the other direction, wailing. Coal and his niece stared after him until he'd disappeared.
"Is he gonna come back...?" She wondered aloud.
"I...I don't know..." Coal stammered.
Quinn snickered at that, and the scene in the cloud changed to Sam, Bruce and her hiding beneath the bridge. She watched Finn sneak up behind her, and shook her head in anticipation.
"Boo!" Finn yelled.
She screamed and fell back into the river.
Quinn watched as she was fished out of the river by her friends and dragged up in front of a cackling Finn.
"How did you get back here so stealthily?" Quinn panted. "Are you some kind of ninja?"
"I'm a wizard!" He posed beaming.
"Alright than!" Sam nodded sharply.
"Yeah, anyways, you guys...should...go to...Violetedge." Finn nodded, pursing his lips.
"Violetedge?" Bruce asked. "Why Violetedge? That wasn't a part of my plan."
"Well, your plan, is dumb as shit!"
"Hey!" Bruce gawked.
"Are you the most powerful magical sorceress in the whole kingdom? No? Then shut the hell up about your plan, because, I said so. Done. There. Goodbye." He turned and ran off into the forest.
Blaine groaned and covered his eyes as he remembered the next scene.
"Yeah, but he's not here!" Sam was yelling in frustration. "We really needed his help!" He cried.
"Sorry I was eating..." Finn mumbled awkwardly.
Blaine watched as the five of them that had been in the group at the time whipped out their weapons and turned to face the intruder.
"What?" Finn raised his arms, shrugging overdramatically and giving them a cheesy smile.
"Stop doing that!" Quinn cried.
"Where did you even come from?" Blaine laughed.
"Well..." Finn started. "When a man and a woman love-"
"Never mind!"
Rachel smiled wearily, remembering that night on the bridge so long ago.
Puck grinned and laughed, shaking his head and wiping his eyes. It was hard to not remember Finn as that happy-go-lucky person he was when they were friends four years earlier.
The memories continued, on and on; Santana and Finn pretending to be a married couple in an attempt to get out of jail. Finn talking back to the guard outside of his cell. The confrontation with the Pied Piper and Finn's retelling of his story. Rachel hugging him and Sam and Finn's fireside heart to heart. Meeting Kitty for the first time and the speech to his parents. Even snippets of conversation from his night with Kitty popped up, not enough to show what had happened, but enough to remind her and everybody else of his soft side. When the memories finally came to a close, and Finn just lay there, so still, and so pale, and so cold, nobody could help but cry.
Yeah...so...that just happened. Next chapter is a huge one content-wise. The team reels with the death of Finn Hudson, and fissures appear between them all. As each member of the group unravels and finds themselves at odds with the others, one deals with their pain in the worst way, and must then deal with the consequences. When the dust has settled, somebody else lies dead, and the team must fight on. With casualties lining up, the team splits into two. With infection setting into Santana's leg, things begin to look dark for her and Brittney, and when Rachel comes face to face with her mother, everything she's been avoiding comes crashing down on her.
Read and review, because believe me, you WANT the next chapter updated as soon as possible. It is so good. It's shorter than the others, because there's so much epic that I didn't want to bomb you with epic. Besides, the chapter after the next one is titled Healing, so obviously it's not as OMFG WHAT?! As the next one is. :)
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