vvvVVVvvv
"Quinn, stop," begged Rachel. She could feel the blonde's fingers slipping closer. "Don't make me do this Quinn."
"Do what?" questioned Quinn huskily. Her fingers circled dangerously close. Quinn took a quick glance at Rachel's face then caught Rachel's irises rapidly change from rich brown to a frightening jet-black. A shiver ran through her body as she felt and heard Rachel take a deep breath. The woman's skin began to ripple from the lively colour it was to a paler hue. She heard the loud beating of their hearts and her own deep breathing. She was hypersensitive to the things around her. She heard running footsteps outside, getting closer to the room. Something clicked in her as she looked back down into the eyes of the upset brunette and she was suddenly aware of what she was doing. She jerked her right hand out of where they were. "Rachel, I'm so-"
Her sentence was cut off as Santana, Brittany and Sue burst through the doors. "Fucking Fabray!" yelled out the Latina as she threw an orb of blue light at Quinn. It slammed into the blonde woman, throwing her off Rachel. Blue tendrils wrapped around Quinn, as it bound her arms to her side and legs together leaving her immobile. Quinn didn't struggle against it and just fell to the floor in a slumped heap.
Brittany rushed to Rachel's side and pushed away the stray hairs across her face behind her ear. "Are you alright?" she asked concerned.
Rachel looked up at Brittany as her eyes slowly changed back to their normal colour. "I'm okay, but Quinn isn't," she replied looking towards Quinn who was slumped on the floor against the wall. "Let her go S," she asked.
"No!" refused Santana. She looked at the motionless woman on the floor and was disappointed by what she saw. "Well done Fabray," she spat out sarcastically.
A quiet sob came out of Quinn's mouth as she kept her head down in shame. She couldn't understand what came over her. She could feel it; she could feel that something was very wrong with her. More tears escaped her eyes, as she felt more confused while she thought over what she had done.
"Fabray," Sue spoke finally, which broke the silence in the tension filled air.
Quinn reluctantly looked up at her coach, her eyes dull.
"Isolation," ordered the coach.
Quinn simply nodded her head in acknowledgement then hung her head down again.
"S, could you please," asked Coach Sylvester, tipping her head toward Quinn.
"Santana, unbind her please," begged Rachel quietly. Brittany looked at Rachel with worry in her eyes, but Rachel looked back at her with confidence. "Don't worry Britt, she won't hurt me," she reassured the taller woman.
Santana looked down fiercely at Quinn. "One wrong move Q and you know what I'll do," she warned. She lifted her right hand and the blue bindings around Quinn disappeared into nothingness.
vvvVVVvvv
Soft sounds of a female voice sighing and groaning echoed through an abandoned subway in the depths of Manhattan underground. The smell of burned flesh emanated from a chamber, which was once a control room. Broken glass and derelict pieces of iron were strewn across the floor.
"Master," spoke a hooded man in a dark robe.
"What is it?" asked Russell Fabray who was slouched in a large old leather armchair. He was dressed smartly despite his disfigured face. He almost looked as if it was, a dangerous kingpin from the criminal underworld, but he was from a different kind of underworld. A woman was straddled on his legs grinding against him and running her fingers through his hair. Small whimpers and moans came from her lips as her heated body moved back and forth as if in a trance.
"We found him," replied the hooded man.
"Bring him in."
Two other hooded figures entered the room dragging a blindfolded and gagged person in between them. Drool dripped from the captive's bound lips, tears streaming down his cheek, as he tried to scream for help and struggled against the arms holding him. His ginger hair was matted with a mix of his own blood and sweat. He tried to break free from the cords that were bound around his wrists, but they were secure, leaving fierce red grazes. The hooded men stopped about 5 feet away from the devilish kingpin.
"Get off me bitch," he growled as he pushed the grinding woman off of his knees.
She fell to the ground and slowly sat up, stared blankly at one of the dirt-covered walls and did nothing more, but sway side to side to her own little tune in her head.
"Jacob Ben Israel," he spoke out slowly. "New York's finest celebrity stalker!"
One of the hooded men roughly took off the blindfold around Jacob's head and ungagged him.
As the young man's eyes began to focus and soak in his surroundings his eyes went wide in terror as his gaze fell upon the man in front of him.
"You two can leave," he gestured to his two hooded henchmen. He looked at the last hooded man in the room, "You can stay St. James."
Jacob Ben Israel's ears perked up to the familiar name. "Jesse St. James? As in the ex-lover of Rachel Berry?"
"Shut the hell up you piece of dirt," Jesse took a step forward to re-gag Jacob, and then kicked him over with his heel as he pushed back his own hood. He flicked his brown curls to the side, which revealed the fierce scar that went across his face diagonally. He smirked at Jacob who was on his side looking up at him, terror evident in his eyes. He looked back to his master waiting for his next order.
vvvVVVvvv
Jesse St. James had only met his master a few months ago when Russell attacked Quinn and Rachel. They didn't notice the young man had followed them when they decided to go for a late night stroll in Central Park. He didn't know what compelled him to follow them, except that he once had a thing with the brunette diva that wouldn't put out for him. He had felt a sense of overbearing possession come over him and he couldn't help, but act like a stalker to see what his ex was up to after the performance was over. Deep down he knew he was jealous and that he still wanted her. She was much more successful than him and he would kill to ride on her coattails to get to the top of the entertainment ladder. She was also as beautiful as her voice, and it was to die for.
Once at the park he came face to face with the disfigured man from hell. He too had been following the girls, but more specifically his daughter.
"She will lead me to the key," he had told Jesse.
Feeling the strong sense of ownership over Rachel he lashed out at Russell threatening him to keep away from her, but instead he was met a painful punishment across his star-quality visage. He was tempted to lash out again, but knew he would never win. Russell was overjoyed with the zealousness of Jesse and gave him a proposition; if he could channel all this anger and unreciprocated feelings in serving him as his right-hand man.
"Maybe it was the will of the fates that brought you to me!" he had said to the young man.
Although he was a powerful and evil being, Russell knew he couldn't be in more than one place at a time, unless he used his powerless shadows to imitate him, so he delegated some of his responsibilities to Jesse St. James. He promised the young aspiring Broadway actor that he will have immeasurable riches and would see his name up in lights not just on Broadway, but maybe the world, and of course, Rachel Berry.
vvvVVVvvv
"St. James! Take the gag off Ben Israel. We're meant to be treating him humanely for Hades' sake!" ordered Russell.
Jesse looked at his master then back to Jacob. He could see the young man trembling. "But we aren't really that human," he stated flatly.
"For fuck's sake Jesse, put your pride and stubbornness aside for once. We are not barbarians! Have some fucking class," yelled out Russell.
Jesse roughly tore the gag off Jacob. He ignored the captured man's whimper of pain and looked back up to his boss expectantly.
"Wh-who a-are y-y-you?" stammered out Ben Israel as his eyes dared look at the man on the chair in front of him.
"Who am I?" chuckled out Russell. "I'm your worst nightmare! That is, if you don't give to me what I ask you to do."
"Wha-what is this all about? Did someone send you to kill me? Oh god, it wasn't because of that viral celebrity sex tape I released online was it? I swear I'll take it offline!"
Russell and Jesse both looked at him strangely. St. James took a menacing step toward Jacob, and raised his fist ready to thump sense into him.
Ben Israel fell back down and cowered in fear. "Pl-please sir, I-I'll do anything you want! Just don't hurt me," begged their captive.
"Good! Excellent! I'm glad you can see where you stand. See Jesse! This is what we call submission. Now get your proud ass out of here and take this pathetic meat sack with you. Get him initiated into the brotherhood and then give him his assignment."
"Yes my lord," replied St. James obediently.
"Oh, and Jesse?"
"Yes sir?"
"Try not to kill him by 'accident' this time. I won't tolerate it because this one is important."
Jesse nodded in acknowledgement to his master's orders and led the young frightened man out of the chamber.
vvvVVVvvv
"Coach Sylvester!" yelled out Rachel as she stalked the woman down the halls of their safe house. "Coach Sylvester stop! I'm trying to speak to you!"
The tall woman stopped abruptly as Rachel nearly bumped into her. Turning around she glared at the young singer. "What?" she asked in frustration.
"Where's Quinn? She was in the infirmary last night, but I checked this morning and she was gone. Where is she Sue?"
"Isolation," was all she got as an answer.
"Isolation?" Rachel asked confused.
"Yes, she's in isolation. Now get lost. I need to figure out our next plan of action against Russell freaking Fabray."
"Sue where is sh-..."
"Isolation, Berry," cut in Santana as she looked up from the couch in the room the two had just walked into. Santana played with Brittany's hair, whose head was in her lap, as they watched old reruns of Rugrats on TV.
Brittany sat up and looked sadly at Rachel. "She left early this morning. She said she was going far away. I tried to say good bye, but she just left."
"And where exactly is 'far away'?" Rachel asked angrily.
Both Santana and Brittany shrugged with no answer to her question. Sue let out a frustrated sigh and tried to walk away.
"Coach Sylvester, tell me where she is," demanded the songstress.
Sue turned around to face Rachel, "Well Berrycakes, judging by the time right now she's a quarter of the way around the world."
"WHAT?" yelled out Rachel with an incredulous look on her face. "Wh-where's she going?"
"Africa. The Sahara to be exact."
Rachel stared at Sue, her mouth agape in shock.
vvvVVVvvv
"Okay miss! Lady Sylvester told us this is where we're meant to throw you out!" yelled the helicopter pilot at the young blonde in the back.
"Are you sure these are the right coordinates?" she yelled back as she shifted her parachute pack on her back.
The pilot checked his coordinates on his dash with the sheet of paper that was given to him by Sue Sylvester. Looking back at Quinn he simply nodded and replied, "Yup."
Quinn looked over the expanse of land beneath her. "Fucking Sylvester," she grumbled out quietly.
"Alright Miss Fabray, I've brought us up to a decent altitude so you can jump. These coordinates are smack bang in the middle of the desert so it's up to you which direction you want to go."
"Who does Sylvester think I am?" yelled out Quinn in frustration as she looked
"I'm not entirely sure miss but she told me something about isolation and maybe giving you a Bear Gryll's type treatment."
"That old English geezer from those survival TV shows?" she asked.
"Yup! You better get ready to jump! I've only enough fuel to get me back to Morocco."
Quinn shifted herself toward the door as she slid it open. Looking down at the desert below her she tightened her parachute pack once more and slid down her goggles over her eyes. Holding onto the sides of the helicopter's exit she prepared herself for the jump.
"Oh! And Quinn..."
"Yeah?" she asked interrupted from her mental preparation.
"Watch out for lions," winked back the pilot as he lifted his helmet visor.
A small smile crossed Quinn's face, "You crazy fool. Thanks Puckerman!"
With that last reply she fell freely backwards from the helicopter down towards the desert.
The air rushed pass her as she descended through the sky, free falling. She squeezed her eyes shut as she tried to push thoughts of what she nearly did to Rachel. She opened her eyes again to look at her gauge. She was near 3000 feet from the ground, but she didn't deploy her chute yet. She counted the next few seconds. She could end it all, she could, but she couldn't bear the thought of abandoning her friends, her responsibility as a chosen one, and Rachel. She pulled at her cord and the chute deployed from her pack and jerked her upwards.
She struggled a little against the small gusts of wind caused by thermal pockets in the air. Eventually her feet touched the ground. She looked back up at the hovering helicopter and waved, indicating that she had landed. A crackling sound came from her radio attached to the strap of her bag, "Good luck Fabray. Hope you can figure out what it is Sylvester wants you to do. Over."
"Thanks Puck. Over," she responded through the receiver.
"No problem lightning McQuinn. I'm only a radio call away if you bump into any serious trouble. Over and out."
Smirking at his last message, Quinn unclasped the parachute from around her back and rolled the chute up back into the pack, hoping that it'll be useful somehow. First she needed to get her bearings. She looked around her and all she saw was desert sand to her left and some rocky mountain ranges to her right. Looking up at the sun then down at her watch she calculated what direction she wanted to move. She needed to find water since all she had was a small army flask of it. She had to head west towards Mali where she hoped to find some water along the way, maybe from a well near an oasis. Taking a sip from her flask and tightening the laces on her boots she began her walk.
vvvVVVvvv
"AFRICA?" shouted Rachel Berry angrily. "I thought sending her to Tibet was ridiculous, but no, there's more! You send her to Africa!"
"Shut it Berry!" yelled Sue. "She'll be fine! She needs this. Her 'wild' side seems to have taken reign so why not send her literally into the wild where she can maybe find some sense of tranquility and control over this stupid thing that her father has unlocked inside her."
"What did he unlock Sue? What? Cos I don't understand why all this change has suddenly happened to her and then all of a sudden she's shipped off to Timbuktu," questioned Rachel frustrated.
"Don't think that Russell's darkness was just bestowed upon him. Sometimes people are just born with it. They just need some sort of catalyst for it to become more prominent. Quinn is his daughter, so she has that darkness in her too."
"But she's-"
"I haven't finished yet Berry."
"Sorry," apologized Rachel. "Please, continue."
"She still has light in her, just that her encounter with her father has somehow subdued it's strength in her. She knows this now. She needs to control that darkness, use it in balance with the light inside her. It's complicated and also dangerous. That's why I had to send her to somewhere isolated."
"Well, you could've chosen Australia."
"No! Though I did consider it I decided to choose Africa. Australia is just too..."
"Just too?" asked Rachel waiting for the woman to complete her sentence.
"Look, it's too late already to change where I've sent her. She'll be back when she's ready. Kurt and Puckerman are not too far away if she gets in any serious trouble. Porcelain is probably having a ball of a time in Morocco. In the mean time we need to keep our guard up and figure out the hellhound's next plan of action, and you Berrylips need to continue your training."
Rachel let out an angry breath as Sue exited the room. Her attention was drawn to the couple on the couch.
"Santana?" asked Brittany as she looked at her girlfriend.
"Yeah B?" Santana asked back.
"Quinn's not going to hurt any of the lions in Africa is she?"
"No baby. It's more likely she'll become friends with them. Probably challenge an alpha and make her own pride."
"Can we call her Lion Quinn?"
"What ever you want B."
Rachel looked at Santana with an expression of ridiculousness.
The Latina smirked back at Rachel and then turned her attention back to playing with Brittany's hair while watching TV.
vvvVVVvvv
It was nearly night fall as the air around Quinn began to cool down. She needed to set up camp. Lucky for her she had stumbled across a small oasis after walking a few miles. It looked like a small group of camel herders may have used the place not too long ago judging by the tracks around the area. They had probably left that morning. Picking up a long branch she spotted on the ground she stuck it into the ground vertically. From there she threw her parachute over the top then spread out the bottom making a tent like shape. She weighed down the bottom of her make-shift tent with medium sized rocks and left one side open to the air. Soon her shelter for the night looked like a very rough teepee. Finding a small bunch of dry grass, most probably left by the herdsman when feeding their camels, she used it as tinder to light a fire with her flint and pocketknife. Gathering other dry branches around the small oasis she made for herself a reasonable fire. It would keep her warm from the desert cold as well as protect her from any curious predators. She put a tin cup she had filled with water on the edge of the fire pit. She had found it near a well where she took the water from. Chewing on some of the dates she had picked from the nearby palms she stared at the flames licking the side of the tin cup. Her thoughts were then broken by a familiar voice in her head.
"Quinn?"
Surely she wasn't going crazy already? She was hearing Rachel Berry's voice. She had kept herself hydrated and fed so how could it be?
"Quinn?"
There it was again. There was nothing to lose now since she must be already losing her mind so she responded with her thoughts, "Rachel?"
"Oh thank Zues! You can hear me."
A small smile crossed Quinn's face. She wasn't going crazy after all.
"Hi. Is Kurt helping you do this?" she asked hesitantly.
"No, no, no! Sue's training me to further my powers. She helped me further my psychic skills. We didn't expect it to be so powerful to the point that I can, if you put it in this way, make international calls. So she's given me some allowance to talk to you just this once."
"Okay," Quinn responded amused. Then there was a small pause.
"How are you?" asked a nervous Rachel.
"I'm okay. Could be better," she answered honestly.
There was an air of silence again except for the quiet sound of crackling wood from Quinn's fire. She thought she heard quiet even breaths through Rachel's telepathic line.
"Quinn?"
"Yeah?"
"When will you return?"
Taking in an uncertain breath Quinn replied, "I'm not sure."
She swore she had somehow envisioned Rachel's face at that moment in her mind. The brunette's eyes looked like they were brimming with tears.
"Rachel, I-" Quinn hesitated with her words.
"Yes?" she replied quietly.
"Rach, I-I'm sorry for what happened."
"Quinn," Rachel whispered gently.
"I just, I wasn't myself. Please know that I would never intentionally do something like...like that to you." Quinn exhaled a frustrated breath and continued her apology, "I'm such an idiot and I understand if you're angry with me. You don't deserve to be with someone like me. I don't want to hurt you again. God! I sound like a complete sap!"
Rachel giggled quietly at the blonde's apologetic rambling. "Quinn, as upset as I am, I'm not angry with you. Like you said, you weren't yourself. And stop with the self-loathing! None of us are perfect Quinn."
A sigh of relief escaped from Quinn's lips. She threw another branch into the flames of her fire. There was another moment of silence as Quinn thought through Rachel's response.
Rachel's voice broke the silence again as she quietly said, "Quinn?"
"Yeah Rach?"
"I know it's late on your side of the world. I have to get back to my training with Coach Sylvester. You need to get plenty of rest to go through your isolation training."
"Okay Rach."
What Rachel didn't know was that Quinn wouldn't be getting any shuteye tonight. She had to prepare herself mentally for the next day when her intensive isolation training will begin. Then she will have to go in search for a particular band of Berbers who have a spiritual guide among them, as Sylvester had informed her.
"Oh, and Quinn?" Rachel quietly speaks again.
"Yes Rachel?" responds Quinn with one of her eyebrows raised.
"I-I...umm...I miss you."
A small smile crossed Quinn's face as she felt her own heart beat pick up. "I miss you too Rachel."
"Please come home safely," Rachel begged quietly.
"I will," Quinn replied with a little chuckle.
"Okay, good night Quinn."
"Good night Rachel."
Quinn's attention was drawn back to the flames as the sounds of the quiet desert settled in again. After throwing another branch into the flames and moving her tin cup of boiling water to the side for it to cool down she lay back down against her small straw rug. She stared up at the stars, but as her thoughts were about to drift to the events that brought her to the desert she heard Rachel's voice again.
"I love you."
There was a pause of uncertain silence. Taking a breath in, Quinn replied quietly, but also out loud, with a small smile and a skip in her heartbeat, "I love you too."
vvvVVVvv
A/N: My human readers! I'm deeply sorry for my super super delayed update. Yes, it's been a few crazy months for me. I moved to a new apartment where I had no Internet for 4 months then got bogged down with work then went away for a month overseas in a desert. I hope this makes up for my silence! Also it may or may not be delayed as I'll be going on another move again. Life is busy!
Thanks for all of you who have stuck on and given me reviews. I'm sorry for the grammar and spelling mistakes. Especially with my inconsistencies with tenses. BUT I look forward to your further reviews for this story especially with the fluffiness at the end of this chapter.