Hey, guys! I'm so so sorry for the late upload, but it's here now! This chapter is a little shorter, but don't worry, story progression is still being made.

As always, I love to see what you guys have to say about the story, so reviews are always greatly appreciated!

Hope you enjoy the chapter! :)

"As much as I would love to stay out here with you for longer, we should probably head back inside."

After our conversation, Brittany and I just sat on the roof together in silence, enjoying each other's company. As I look up at the stars, I can feel a goofy grin take over my face as I replay the moment we shared a few minutes ago.

The kiss felt like magic. I've had my share of experiences when it comes to doing physical things, but it just felt different with her…even something as small as a kiss. It felt like it actually meant something.

It takes a moment, but I finally snap out of my head and register what she said. "Why?" I ask. "I feel comfortable right now - with you…I don't want to leave and let this moment end."

I lift my head off her shoulder to find a soft smile looking down at me.

"I know." She uses the hand of the arm wrapped around my shoulders to gently caress up and down my upper arm. "But we have to go back in eventually, and it's getting kinda late."

I let out a sigh, knowing she has a point. Looking at where the moon sits in the sky, I'd say it's getting close to 10 right about now.

"Plus," She pats my arm as she sits up straighter. "We have tomorrow night to spend together."

Hearing her say those words makes my heart flutter. An hour or so ago, I found myself worried that I had ruined everything with her, but now it feels incredible to know I didn't.

"You still want to go out with me?" I scrunch my brows as I ask, even though a smile is still evident on my face.

She breathes out a small chuckle. "Of course…why wouldn't I?"

I don't have an answer for her question that doesn't involve repeating myself, so I just shrug my shoulders and continue looking at her.

"You worry too much," She says with a small laugh as she wraps her arms around my shoulders to give me a playful side hug.

I feel myself melt into her as I give into the hug. I can't help the laugh that escapes me as she squeezes my body.

"Alright, come on." She says as she goes to stand up. "There's someone that really needs to talk to you."

I raise my eyebrow at her, silently questioning who it is. She just smiles and shakes her head as she extends her hands out to help me up.

Unable to resist, I give in with a lighthearted roll of my eyes as I take her hands in both of mine and stand with her.

As she turns to start walking towards the exit door, she lets go of one of my hands and intertwines our fingers together with the other. She must notice how I look down and marvel at the sight because I hear her laugh as she leads us to the door.

"You're such a dork." She says as she pulls the door open, allowing me to walk through first.

/

As I walk through the front door, I notice three sets of eyes snap over to us. Brittany doesn't let go of my hand, though, and squeezes tighter.

"Santana," I hear Tina huff out as she crosses her arms across her chest. "Mike said he needs to talk to you, but don't think you're getting out of having this conversation with me."

She looks mad, and not just-a-little-upset-mad, but completely pissed. I gulp and nod slowly as my attention diverts to the other two people looking at me.

"I'm going to take Brittany home, but we're talking when I get back…understood?" She raises her eyebrows for emphasis, and I nod wordlessly.

"See you tomorrow," Brittany says as she gives my hand a final squeeze before grabbing her purse and following Tina out the door.

I stare at the door for a few moments after they leave, not wanting to speak to Mike and Quinn right now.

"So, when did that happen?" Mike breaks the silence.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath before turning around to face him. "When did what happen?" I ask, narrowing my eyes at him.

"You and Brittany," He says like it's obvious.

"I told you, they've been at it for weeks." Quinn pipes in.

"What do you want?" I ask, wanting to get straight to the point without making small talk.

Mike looks down at his feet and scuffs the floor with his shoe for a second. "We just wanted to debrief you on what happened at the meeting today."

"What meeting?" I cross my arms over my chest so I don't have to worry about what to do with my hands.

"The alert that you refused to answer," Quinn answers with a roll of her eyes. "Shit's going down, so we all met to discuss our plan."

I narrow my eyes but stay silent to let them continue explaining.

"Well, for starters, we found an energy signal that matches similarly to Rory's power usage. Except, we didn't detect it at his compound. It's coming from different locations throughout the world."

He stuffs his hands in his back pockets and looks over at Quinn. "Artie started browsing the news and internet for any signs of trouble, and we're finding that some city halls and capitals are being destroyed - some only partly, but some are completely demolished."

I look back and forth between them, noticing how their stances get more anxious as he continues.

"In the same cities where the attacks are happening, there's been sights of Rory and his Warblers."

He goes silent after that, like he's waiting for me to comment on the matter.

"Okay," I start, dragging out the word. "And you alerted me because?"

"Oh, for God's sake," Quinn rolls her eyes. "Because you're a part of The Shadow League…have you not been paying attention for the past month?"

I scoff and let my arms fall to the side. "I already told you I want nothing to do with all this," I say as I walk past them and make my way into the kitchen.

I get a bottle of water out of the fridge, and as I shut the door, I notice them both following me in.

"Santana, don't be that way," Mike says. Is that supposed to persuade me or something? "We need your help."

"I don't get it…you guys were perfectly fine without me before, so what's the big deal now?" I unscrew the cap on the water bottle and take a sip.

"Because we need as many supers as we can get," He pauses for a second and swallows. "And Rory's more powerful than you think." I notice he sounds a little unsure in the last sentence.

"Good God, Mike, just tell her," Quinn says exasperatedly as she throws her arms in the air.

"I told you it wouldn't come to that." He harshly whispers to her.

Now I'm starting to get a little lost. "Tell me what?"

Mike glares at Quinn before turning back to face me and taking a deep breath. "It's not a definite threat right now, so I don't want you to worry, but-"

"Brittany's in danger," Quinn interrupts him.

My eyes widen at what she says and how calmly she says it.

"Quinn!" Mike bites. "Santana," He turns back to me with a reassuring smile, but it does nothing to slow my heart rate. "That's not the case right now."

"Key words…right now." I hear Quinn interject again.

I feel my breathing start to become labored as the conversation continues. Mike must be able to notice because he grabs Quinn's shoulders and directs her out of the kitchen.

"Out. You're not helping!" I hear him tell her outside the kitchen door.

He walks back in a moment later, looking aggravated, but gives me another smile to reassure me.

"Look…I'm gonna be frank," He says as he shrugs his shoulders. "Rory hasn't forgotten about you…you might actually be the reason he's on this rampage right now, which means no one is safe. He has eyes where you think no one can see you, Santana. Which means no one close to you is safe, either."

I let his words sink in as he continues explaining. I told myself that I was done with The Shadow League, and nothing could make me go back to them…but hearing my family's in danger is enough to make me return.

"Now, Quinn and I can work to protect Tina, Kurt, and Mercedes since we're all closer to each other. But Brittany's new in our lives, and she's more likely to trust you over any of us. We need you to protect her."

I find that I'm not even looking at Mike anymore, but rather, looking past him at the wall. Thinking about what he just told me, I automatically know that I'll do whatever it takes to keep them safe. Even go back on the promises I made to myself.

"Done," I say with a definitive nod of my head. I look over at Mike to see he seems surprised that I agreed so quickly.

"Great, thank you." He says with a smile as he lets out a breath of relief. "I know this isn't the most exciting thing for you, but it means a lot that you'd help us out."

"I'm not doing it for you," I clarify. "I'm doing this to keep the people I care about safe."

"Still…thanks." He nods and puts his hands back in his pockets as he rocks back and forth on the balls of his feet. I've known him long enough to know that he only does that when he's nervous about something.

"Why'd you tell her?" I ask, which seems to catch him off guard. I know I'm going to hate myself for it later, but I still can't stand to see him look so uncomfortable.

"What?" He asks with his brow furrowed, looking confused.

"Britt…why'd you tell her?"

He seems to understand what I mean now since his eyes light up in recognition.

"It was the only option," He says as he shrugs his shoulders. "Quinn brought her to the headquarters, which means she saw things, so there really wasn't anything else to do."

I can tell he's not being totally honest with me with the way he's still rocking back and forth and refusing to make eye contact.

"Please…I've seen how cutthroat some of them are at the headquarters. That couldn't have been the only option."

"Well," He looks down at his feet. "At first, we were going to erase her memory." He says quietly.

"What?!" My jaw drops open, and my eyes widen at hearing his words. I thought they were a group of superheroes, and erasing someone's memory seems like a highly unethical thing to do.

"But we didn't! I talked them out of it!" He rushes to explain as he puts his hands out in front of him. He probably thought I would lose control again, which I can't really blame him for, but it still stings a bit.

"You were just going to wipe her memory? Like all of it…just gone?" My voice gets quieter as I continue speaking, not believing that it was ever even an option.

"Well, not totally…all her memories associated with The Shadow League have one central point…you." His eyes dart around to everything in the kitchen except for my face. "If we were to just erase you from her memory, it would've solved everything."

I scoff in disbelief. "So…in order to preserve your organization, you were going to mess up both of our lives?"

"They were…not me." He finally makes eye contact with me. "I wouldn't let them do it," He says as he steps closer to me. "With the way the board works, we all have to agree on a decision in order for it to be put into place. And since I was the only one who disagreed with their memory wipe plan, it didn't go through…leaving us with the only option left of just explaining everything to her and making her sign a non-disclosure agreement."

"Why did you disagree?"

He shrugs his shoulders and keeps eye contact. "I feel like I owe you one."

I raise an eyebrow at him, encouraging him to continue.

"Look, what I did was wrong…I get that. But you needed something to push you over the edge like that. Still, it wasn't right, and I'm sorry." I look into his eyes to determine if he's being genuine, even though he's never given me a reason to believe he ever won't.

"I knew something was going on with you guys, but I didn't feel it was my place to ask anymore…our relationship wasn't in the best place. But when she came in, I knew I couldn't let this screw up your life any more than it already has. You've been dealt so much in the past month, and I didn't want to add any more upheaval in your life."

I can feel my eyes start to sting with ushed tears. He did screw me over, in the worst way possible, but being honest with myself…I really miss my best friend. We've always been there for each other and had each other's back through everything. He was one of the only people there for me when shit went down with my parents, and we'd never gotten in this big of a fight before. What he did was wrong, and it hurt, but at least he acknowledges that.

"Well, thanks," I say softly, setting my bottle of water down on the counter so I can cross my arms over my chest. "That means a lot."

We stay silent for what seems like hours after that. Only the sound of his footsteps moving closer to me broke the silence. I can feel the lump in the back of my throat get more prominent as I feel his arms wrap around my shoulders, bringing me into a hug.

As soon as he makes contact with me, I open my arms and melt into his embrace as silent tears fall down my cheeks.

"I'm still mad at you," I choke out, and I hate how weak my voice sounds.

"When are you not?" He laughs in my hair, effectively putting a smile on his face. "I missed you, Santana."

"Yea, me too," I nod as I close my eyes and enjoy our reunion. "I bet Tina doesn't, though…she's pissed at me," I say as I pull away and wipe my cheeks.

He doesn't say anything in reply but just chuckles and shakes his head.

"I swear, she's always been pissed off at me for something lately." I shake my head and look down at my feet, dreading the conversation I'll have with her when she gets home.

"Well, if you'd stop littering the kitchen floor with eating utensils, she might be in a better mood." He laughs as he pokes my shoulder playfully.

"Too soon, Chang…too soon." I can't help the smile that breaks out across my face.

"Ugh, are you two done? I'd really like to go home now, but Mike's my ride." Quinn says from behind the kitchen door. I can practically hear her eyes rolling as she says it.

"Relax, Fabray. You know I don't want to keep you here longer than I have to…God knows how much you push my buttons." I say as I swing open the kitchen door. She must've been leaning on it because she has to catch her balance again once the support is gone.

"So, are you coming on full-time or what?" She asks with a roll of her eyes.

"Quinn, we didn't talk about that," Mike says from behind me.

"Well, wasn't that the whole point of talking to her? God, I can't deal with you two." She waves her hand in the air as she turns around and grabs her coat from the rack by the door. "I'll be in the car, Mike…don't be much longer; I wanna go to sleep."

"Yea, you clearly need all the beauty sleep you can get…though I doubt it would help your case." I smirk as she scowls at me. Damn, she's even more of a bitch when she's tired.

As she tugs open the door and steps forward to walk out, I call her name to get her attention again. "Quinn."

"What?" She huffs as she turns around.

"I-uh…I just wanted to say sorry for…you know." I shrug my shoulders.

I notice her expression soften just the slightest bit at my words. "Don't sweat it. Besides, everyone knows I could've taken you down if things got too out of hand." She says with a smirk as she walks through the threshold and closes the door behind her.

It's silent for a moment until Mike moves past me to grab his own coat and keys. "Well, I better get going…don't want to keep her waiting too long." He pulls his arms through his jacket. "I do have one more question for you, though."

"Does it have to do with the full-time thing Quinn was talking about?" I sigh.

He reluctantly nods and gives me a sheepish smile. "I was wondering if you'd come on full-time with The Shadow League. We could really use more supers…definitely ones with as much fire as you."

I take a deep breath and look at him, considering my options. "Full-time? What does that exactly entail?"

"Well, you'd have to quit the country club since we'll have to train you some more, but you'd be at the headquarters during the day, just like you would any job. You'll just be doing different things."

"Like what?"

"Well, sometimes we send groups out to survey the city and make sure everything's okay…sometimes you'll have to go undercover if we find things that need to be taken care of in secret; it really just depends."

"Am I getting paid?" I ask. It's something important that I need to take into consideration…I still have to pay my half of the bill, you know.

"Of course," He furrows his eyebrows like the answer should've been obvious. "Oh!" His eyes light up like he just remembered something as he reaches into his coat pocket. "Here…this is your quote." He hands me a small card with a number on it.

My eyes bulge out when I see the number written on the card. Wow, that's a lot of zeroes.

"T-this is what I'll make?" I ask in disbelief as I point down at the card.

"Yep, that's the yearly salary…it goes up with the more missions and tasks you complete successfully." He says it so nonchalantly as he straightens his jacket out and swirls his keys in his hands. "Look, I know it's a lot, so you don't have to let me know right now. Sooner than later would be better, though…and you can call me if you have any questions." He winks as he opens the front door.

I nod and gulp loudly. "Okay," I say quietly, not even sure if it's audible or not.

"See you later, Santana." He smiles and closes the door behind him, leaving me alone to mull over the information I was just given in the past 30 minutes.