Preface: After some consideration, I decided to make this TRAJQ x Highlander crossover project into two seperate stories, and this here is a prequel to "The Quest Chronicles: Highlander".

Shipping: Duncan x Tessa; Duncan x Amanda; Jonny x Jessie (implied); Richie x OC (Kaylee)

Disclaimer: The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, Jonny Quest and all characters and properties belong to Hanna Barbera and Warner Bros. Animation. Highlander and all characters and properties belong to Rysher Entertainment and Gaumount Television. Alex Kenyon belongs to a good friend of mine, and I got permission to use him. Kaylee DiMenco is the only character I own here as well as this project.

Plot: ("Course of Destiny") Kaylee reflects a bit on her life as she settles in with her uncle Dr. Quest and her cousins Jonny and Hadji.

Reflection

Kaylee sighed. She looked at her new room as she was settling in her new home with her uncle and nephew. Not really thinking much of it, but Kaylee assumed that this new life would be a lot better than her old life with her mother.

Yeah, her mother, Marissa, was the root of all her problems. She was very strict with Kaylee, never let her have any friends over. Heck, there were never any birthday parties. Nothing but the essentials. That woman was strict with her, more or less treated her like the black sheep, and never let her have any fun. None whatsoever. It was true, her mother never neglected her, but her home life was still awful. Whenever she did something she wasn't supposed to, her mother would beat her.

Eventually, when Kaylee was 15, she resorted to running away from home. It started with staying behind after school, whether she had something to do after school or not. After awhile, Kaylee started running away from home the standard way. Sometimes, she would be gone for days at a time, and she became quite a troublemaker. She did all of this because Kaylee figured if she couldn't have any fun at home, she'll find her fun elsewhere.

She also got herself kicked out of three different activities her mother forced her to take part of over the past two years: practicing the piano, which her mother made her take part of since she was 10, the flag girl squad from band class, and dancing. Granted, she was a good dancer. The reason she got kicked out was because she always got paired with a girl she hated and caused her problems in school named Stephanie and she repeatedly refused to do her assignments with her.

She found out that her mother indeed had a golden child in a family friend's daughter Chelsea, who was a miracle baby, was everything her mother wanted in a daughter and treated her like she was a princess. Not only did Kaylee find this hurtful, but she hated Chelsea. A part of her felt this wasn't fair because her mother was the root of all the troubles, and it wasn't her fault.

Eventually, her mother couldn't handle her troubled daughter any longer, and eventually decided to have Kaylee to move in with her uncle, who was her mother's brother.

This wasn't much of an issue because in a couple of months, Kaylee would be 18, and she would be an adult.

Kaylee sighed as she placed some of her clothes in the drawer that was in her new room.

"Have you settled in yet?" Benton asked as he walked to the doorway of her room. The door wasn't shut yet.

"I'm getting there," Kaylee smiled, "this is just a new situation here."

"I'm hoping you don't run away from our home," Benton stated, aware of the situation regarding why she was here in the first place.

"I don't have any intention of doing so," Kaylee shook her head. She noticed that he only got his sister's side of the story, and Benton and Marissa didn't exactly have the best relationship growing up either.

"Your mother," Benton spoke up, "my older sister, was a bully to me growing up because I wasn't like her."

Kaylee perked up. Why was he bringing this up? Was he trying to get her to open up and tell him her side of the story?

"You don't have to tell me your side of the story right now," Benton told his niece, "but whenever you want to open up about your side of the story, you can do so."

What the hell, Kaylee decided her uncle had the right to know what exactly happened, "You know something? I'll go ahead and tell you."

She didn't know if he would believe her side of the story or not, but she decided what harm could it do?

Kaylee proceeded to tell her side of the story. From Marissa being strict to her, to playing favoritism to her family friend's daughter, to making her take part of activities she wanted no part of, and not leaving out any details. Even going as far as to explain Marissa brushing off her complains to where she found it pointless to complain.

Benton looked surprised about all this. He knew his sister was bad, but he had no idea the extent of her behavior. At first, he thought his sister was acting out after her husband died when Kaylee was two years old, but this had gone on longer than that, "Thanks for telling me everything."

"No problem."

Benton looked over at his niece, "You keep settling in. Dinner will be ready soon."

With that, he walked out of the room.

Moments later, Jonny and Hadji walked over to the room.

"Sup?" Kaylee greeted her cousins.

"So," Jonny asked, "you're going to be staying here full time now?"

"Yeah," Kaylee answered as she unpacked her things to the shelves, drawers and closet, "your aunt isn't the nicest of people, in a nutshell, and that's how I ended up here."

The two boys looked at her confused as they were unaware of what she had to endure.

"She's not the nicest of people?" Hadji asked.

"Yeah," Kaylee answered, "and it's needless to say, you should be glad you guys have a loving dad who doesn't play favorites and treats you like an afterthought."

The two boys nodded, deciding not to bring up the conversation further.

-Brave-New-World-

Race looked over as Benton walked into the room.

"How's your niece holding?" Race asked.

"She seems to be doing fine," Benton answered, "but she dropped quite a bombshell."

"Regarding your sister?"

"Exactly," Benton nodded, "she's a gas lighting witch who has harmed her daughter, and that is why Kaylee acted the way she has."

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Race scoffed.

"Even Rachel had problems with her," Benton stated, "Marissa was controlling and what Kaylee told me just now confirmed everything I was suspecting."

"What do you plan to do?" Race asked.

"I might have to press charges for child neglect or child abandonment," Benton answered, "this is serious. Kaylee shouldn't have to deal with these issues. I would never play favorites and treat my son as an afterthought."

"I agree," Race nodded, "Marissa is nothing like you, and I don't know what her deal is."

"Me either."

Author's Note: I have had the hardest time getting this story up and running. It was kinda harder working on Kaylee's backstory. Initially, I had Kaylee's mother, back when she was named Kelle (I have no idea why I spelled it that way tbh), to be simply strict and she be a rebellious teenager. I developed the character for this story and hopefully, things will work out perfectly.