Lament for a Daemon's Soul [Chapter Twenty-Eight]
Title: Lament for a Daemon’s Soul
Author: Sio
Rating: At least R for violence.
Length: 75433 / ?
Spoilers: This is AU, but Season 1 spoilers are possible starting with chapter 6.
Summary: Rachel is a member of an immortal altered race of humans that call themselves the Vanpyr and live in secret alongside normal humans. Murdered years earlier, her outrage over her death gave her the strength of will to step Beyond the Veil and join the ranks of the altered humans known as the Vanpyr as a Daemon. Since then she has been hiding the truth of her existence and fighting to control the Beast within her. So far so good, until she enrolls as a student at William McKinley High in Lima, Ohio as the daughter of her “two gay dads”.
Note: This is a loose fusion with an original universe.
For a prompt (found here) at rq_meme.
A/N: YES! It's here! Sorry it took so long. >_>;
*****
Chapter Twenty Eight
No matter how much growth Finn may have shown by returning to the club at Sectionals, what he did upon the group’s return surprised no one. However, surprised or not, Quinn still felt the sharp pang of loss sting her heart at the sight of the two duffel bags that contained the sum total of her life - garment bag of glee club costumes draped over the top - sitting on the front steps of the Hudson house. Neither Carole or Finn came out to speak to her as she stepped out of Puck’s truck assisted by Rachel, during the walk of shame to pick up her bags, when Puck set them in the back of the truck or even when they drove off. The opinion of the Hudson family for the girl who’d brought so much chaos, stress and pain into their lives was perfectly evident.
Quinn leaned against Rachel as Puck drove, sobbing softly, “what am I going to do?”
“You’re gonna let us be there for you.” Puck’s gruff voice broke her out of her self-pity.
She shook her head, wiping at the tears streaking her cheeks, “I told you, Puck, I don’t want -”
“Not my place,” he laughed, a soft bark of sound that reminded her of the warm comfort of his wolf form, “unless you really want to crash on my lumpy-ass couch in the basement, we just don’t have room. You can stay with Rach.”
The blonde turned a curious yet hopeful gaze on the brunette who’d been sitting quietly beside her, “can I?”
Rachel shrugged, glancing sideways at the taller girl with a shy smile, “of course, Quinn, my home is yours. For as long as you need it.”
“But what about your dads?” She caught her lower lip between her teeth, worrying it, “they won’t mind will they?”
They pulled into the driveway of Rachel’s house as she spoke, “they won’t mind, Quinn. And even if they did, they’re not really my dads, and,” she hopped out and turned to lift Quinn down to the ground with a casual strength far greater than should be possessed by someone of her stature, “even if they do, they don’t have much of a choice.”
The pregnant teen looked at her confusedly even as she accepted the garment bag from Puck, the boy insisting on taking the two duffel bags in himself. “I don’t understand.”
“It’s my home, not theirs.”
She unlocked the front door, directing them to the stairs to the second floor to situate her new housemate as she went to find her “fathers” and explain the situation. She found the first of the two in the kitchen preparing to make dinner. Hiram had been a surprise child, but she’d never regret bringing him into the world - he was easily the most adaptable of all her children throughout the years. She was certain he’d adapt to this as well.
Rachel wrapped her arms around his waist as he stood at the counter, giving him a hug, her cheek pressed against his back just at the base of his neck. He smiled at his work, finishing chopping the pepper on his board before turning to give her a real hug. He just held her for a moment before pressing a kiss to the top of her head.
“How was Sectionals, mom?”
The shocked gasp from the doorway jerked his gaze up from his mother in his arms to the blonde girl and mohawked boy in the archway leading to the dining room. His eyes widened in shock behind his black rimmed glasses as he took them in, slowly shaking his head back and forth in disbelief. So much work, and a stupid slip of the tongue -
“Hiram, these are the two I’ve been telling you about,” Rachel gestured first at Quinn then at Puck, “Quinn Fabray and Noah Puckerman. Quinn, Noah, this is my son. Hiram.”
“W-what - Rachel?!”
She laughed, an amused trill that delighted a certain blonde to hear - it’d been absent the last few days - and surprised the man beside her, “Hiram, Noah and I were married for a while - 1859, right?”
“‘58, but who’s counting.” Puck smirked, leaning casually against the wall, arms crossed over his chest.
When she laughed again, Quinn shot a grateful smile back over her should at Puck, who just shrugged. “How could I forget! He was quite dashing in his Sunday best, charmed me all over again,” she smiled warmly at the boy.
Hiram pushed his glasses up from where they’d slid down his nose, “you mean to say you’re a...?”
Puck raised a brow, “if you’re trying to suggest I’m another winged, fanged scary like Rach, you’re barking up the wrong tree, kid. I am a wolf.”
His self-satisfied smirk just inspired Quinn to reach over and smack his shoulder. “More like a dog.”
“Hey, that hurt!” He pouted, rubbing at his arm.
The blonde just rolled her eyes, one hand lightly caressing her stomach. “Good. Men!”
“And Quinn,” Rachel paused, unable to really tone down the warmth of the smile she gave the girl, “Quinn’s my best friend. She knows about us.”
“But she’s not...”
The brunette shook her head, “she’s mortal, like you and Leroy. Which brings me to the point. Quinn has been cruelly ejected from her familial home and that of her now former boyfriend, so she will be moving into the spare room.”
Hiram just shrugged, “Okay. You know you don’t have to tell me, mom. I’m assuming she’ll be joining us for dinner tonight, will you be staying as well, Noah?”
“Nah, I gotta be getting home, but thanks for the invite, Hiram. You all good now, Q?”
“No,” she stepped to him and gave him a tight hug, “but I think I will be. Thanks, Puck.”
He hugged her back, nearly lifting her from the ground, “Any time, Quinn. See ya, Rach.”
She placed her hands on his shoulders and stood up on tiptoe to place a kiss on his cheek and whisper in his ear, “Thank you, Noah. Give Sarah an extra hug from me tonight, okay?”
“Every night, Rach. Take care of Q, 'kay?”
She just smiled, “always.”
*****
The tension in the room was almost palpable. The only sound filling the small room was the whir of the elliptical machine. Yet for the two standing before the mild glare of the machine’s user, it seemed as though a rumbling tumult crashed and roared about them as they absorbed the force of their coach’s displeasure.
“You two should be wetting yourselves with shame.”
The words were mild but it took a disbelievingly high amount of will not to comply with her words. It was always hard around Sue. There was something about her that compelled the Cheerios to comply with her every - and often absurd - whim. No matter how independent they might be outside of her regard, once in her presence it was almost impossible to disobey her.
And Sue was more than a little aware of this fact. To be precise, she encouraged it, tying the threads of power that connected her to her followers ever so slightly tighter with every surrender to her will - no matter how tiny. She craved their worship, their blind devotion, with a hunger that rivaled that of Will Schuester’s hunger for ever increasing amounts of rancid hair lube.
So she only barely restrained the pleased smirk that threatened to curl her lips as she felt their nervous energy vibrating the lines. She could feel them resisting the urge to do as she said and it gave her a warm thrill. After the disappointment that Quinn Fabray had ended up being, these two were the only ones who actually challenged her hold. With the proper grooming, they would make entirely adequate high priestesses and leaders of her congregation once she gathered enough followers to re-Ascend.
Quinn had been her chosen one. Blonde, beautiful, perfect. But she had somehow twisted so far from the Sue’s control to snap the lines. Leaving her to rely on her second choices, the duo of Santana and Brittany. They would serve in time. But only with the proper grooming, so as she dismounted her mechanical steed like the descending ruler from on high she so obviously was, she resolved to test them.
“Glee club won Sectionals and you did nothing to stop it.”
She stalked around behind them as she spoke, feeling the tugs on the strings that tied them to her and reveling in their meager attempts at rebellion. They enjoyed participating in that revolting little gathering of mouth-breathers. Normally, she wouldn’t care so long as their true devotion remained proper directed at her, but she’d taken a disliking to the club’s mop-headed director. And it didn’t help that it was hiding the yet unknown Daemon in its midst.
“If you were Samurai,” she leaned in, lowering her voice to threatening registers as she turned to Brittany - who was, surprisingly, tugging harder than her normally fiery compatriot, “and my letter opener was sharp enough, I would ask you both, right now, to commit seppuku.”
She leaned against her desk, crossing her arms and staring at them, waiting to see how they would react, if they would dare talk back to their master. “In Japanese, this means ritual belly-slitting.”
“We were seduced by the glitz and glamour of show biz.”
As predicted by the uneven tugging, the blonde had managed to find some strength somewhere in that ditzy persona she was so very fond of. Still looked to her keeper for confirmation, but Sue had to admit, she was a little impressed at how the normally timid girl stepped up. Perhaps there was more hope for her than she’d originally thought.
“Let me drop some knowledge on you. Ever since Quinn Fabray got knocked up,” Sue made her way back to her weight rack, picking up a couple of light weights, “I’ve been in the market for a new head cheerleader.” That would tickle their interests.
They didn’t move - obviously the geas to remain standing was a little too tight - so she released her mental grip on the lines, allowing them some return of control. “If you want the job, and back in my good graces, you’re gonna have to turn around and listen up. You’re familiar with a little glee clubber named Rachel Berry?”
The girls could only nod, compelled into silence by the awe-inspiring presence that is Sue Sylvester - not to mention the tight mental “fingers” she was keeping on the lines between them. She could feel them struggling against the geas - the lines twitching against her hold - and it amused her to let them out and reel them in again like an elaborate fishing game. She’d had so very very long to perfect her techniques - the willful teenagers didn’t stand a chance.
“Rachel’s the kind of girl who wants things too badly.” The Streisand-obsessed midget would have made an intriguing addition to her congregation, too bad she possessed such an annoyingly high amount of will and resisted every attempt to lasso her with a line. It was almost enough to make her suspect the annoying diva was the mysterious Daemon who had thus far eluded her detection, but of course that couldn’t be the case - no self respecting Daemon would allow herself to be treated so basely within her own territory after all.
“And what she really wants is one Finn Hudson.” A hard tug on her lines caught her attention. Santana. Intriguing.
“Berry doesn’t even like the Jolly Green Giant.” Was that an actual sneer on her over-tanned face? Very intriguing. And now a pull from Brittany. This was getting more interesting by the moment.
“She was really mean to him when he came back at Sectionals. I don’t think she liked how he yelled at Q when she told him about the baby.”
“Finally, something useful has managed to fall from your pathetic lips. This bit of information hadn’t reached me yet. You’re saying the miniature diva has a thing for the ladies?” She loosened the strings, letting a bit more free will in.
“What we’re saying is that Berry digs on Ms. Teen Statistic, not Tall, Dumb, and Dopey.”
Sue just nodded, she had no problem with this turn of events. In fact, this was even better. Two birds, one stone. Take out the keystone of the glee club in the form of one Rachel Berry and gain suitable revenge upon Quinn Fabray for being so utterly disappointing. Outstanding.
“Even better. I want you to go after the both of them. Shower them with that special affection you’re both so very good at. Make them fall for you.” She smiled slyly, pumping the weights, “Then, when they’re both completely enamored, crush them. Drop them like a piano from the top of the Empire State Building. Humiliated and embarrassed they’ll have no choice but to abandoned that pathetic club, and without his two co-captains, Schuester doesn’t stand a chance at Regionals.”
Brittany looked so very confused that Sue loosened the reins for a moment to hear what was on her mind. “I don’t know if Q likes girls like that.”
“It doesn’t matter. She’s pregnant, homeless, and alone. She’ll fall for any attention tossed her way like a starving mongrel on a soup bone. All you have to do is provide it.” Sue tossed them the hand weights with a confident smirk, releasing her control over them. “Get on it, ladies.”
The two girls looked at each other, having barely caught the weights, suddenly finding themselves caught between their friends and their coach and not liking it one bit.
*****
It wasn’t as if they wanted to play the other two girls. But it was a direct order from Coach Sylvester and they were getting increasingly hard to completely resist. It had taken a lot of discussion - and plenty of extra explanations on Santana’s part - before they finally came to what they thought could be an acceptable alternative.
They would fail.
It wasn’t like they wouldn’t try. Of course, they would. Coach Sylvester would destroy them if they didn’t make every attempt to carry out her plans. But she hadn’t told them how they must achieve the goals she set, only that they had to achieve them. Her mistake. They were quite proud of their little plan for self-sabotage.
The first thing they decided was that the first approach would be while all four - hunters and prey as Sylvester liked to put it - were together in the same room. This was important to later steps. Both Rachel and Quinn needed to be aware of the dance and who the players were in the game. It would give the other two girls a chance to gather their forces, marshal their defenses against anything the school’s two best temptresses could throw at them. And with Quinn in the game, there was the possibility that it would let them figure out that Sylvester was behind it more than the duo’s own inclinations.
Next was the assignment of targets. This was more difficult as they had to maneuver themselves to pit their weaknesses against their opponents’ strengths, almost as foreign a technique as not double-teaming their designated prey. Not that they would double-team either Rachel or Quinn, that would either be too effective or too obviously an attempt to fail and neither option was acceptable.
So it was decided. Quinn would be approached by the naive Brittany, pitting her blunt straightforwardness and simple wiles against the ex-cheerleader’s cunning mind and confidence. Santana would tackle Rachel, pouring her natural affinity for sexual aggression and need for achieving dominance in any situation situation directly against the diva’s self-confidence and refusal to back down.
After the opening rounds were fired, it was up to each girl on her own to manipulate the field. And if by some bizarre stretch of fate and the imagination, they failed to succeed, well, that could be fun too, right? Plan made, they smiled, Santana flipping of the lights with the switch beside her bed, a low chuckle curling through the darkened room.
*****
The pair smirked at each other during Finn’s incredibly awkward strutting and posturing around the room like he thought he was some kind of rock star belting out Hello, I Love You. Watching that painful performance, they breathed yet another sigh of relief that he wasn’t their prey. Not only would it have been entirely too easy and, like, no challenge at all to get him, but just going after someone that awkward would have been embarrassing.
They waited until most of the club had departed before making their individual ways over to where Rachel and Quinn were preparing to leave. It wasn’t common knowledge, but a side benefit of being friends with the co-captains was being aware of the change in their living status. The duo were fully aware that Quinn had moved into Berry’s guest room and was car-pooling with the diva, even if they were trying to hide it by waiting until everyone else had left.
*****
“Say, Q?”
The pregnant teen looked up from where she’d been shuffling through her music folder, “yes, Britt? Something I can help you with?”
“I was just wondering, since, you know, you’re not with Finn anymore...” Brittany smiled brightly, tugging at the bottom of her cheerleading top.
Quinn just raised a brow, “no, I won’t be upset if you kiss him for your list. As you said, we’re not together.”
“No! Ew. He looks like a big baby. Besides, I totally kissed him last year.” She looked confused for a moment, thinking about it, “he really wasn’t very good.”
“No kidding.” Quinn wasn’t really listening any more, her attention more on the scene going on across the room, Santana backing Rachel up against the wall.
“But that wasn’t what I wanted to ask. What was it? Oh!” She smiled again, “Do you want to make out?”
“Hmm?” Quinn was staring at the two by the wall with narrowed eyes and thinned lips - positive that Santana was up to something - when Brittany’s words sank in, making her whip her head around, “wait - what!?”
“We should make out! You’re not with Finn anymore and,” Brittany’s smile turned seductive as she reached out and ran a lazy finger along the side of the other blonde’s wide-eyed face, “I would love to check you off my list.”
“B, I’m, um, flattered, really, but I’m not... I mean, you’ve never asked me before?”
Brittany just shrugged, “I always thought you were, like, capital ‘S’ straight cause you always got mad at me and San kissing and stuff, but I’ve seen you checking out Rachel lately, so that can’t be really true, right? Besides, San’s into Rachel right now, and that’s, like, super hot.”
“Santana is not into Rachel, Britt.” The possibility never even crossed her mind, though what was going on against the wall was a bit concerning, “And I’m sorry, but while the offer is flattering and all...”
“Oh, well, okay then. But, Q, remember,” the lanky dancer paused turning away to run a hand down her side, “you ever want to get with this, you just let me know? It’ll be hot.”
And, with a final lick of her lips and swirl of her Cheerios’s skirt, the tall blonde was gone, leaving Quinn far more confused that she had been five minutes earlier.
*****
“Berry.”
“Santana.” Rachel barely acknowledged the darker girl before she found her invading her space, backing her towards the wall. “Wha- ?”
Santana only smirked, trailing her fingers down the smaller girl’s shoulder and arm, propping herself up with one arm against the wall, hand just to the side of Rachel’s head. “You and me? We gotz to be talking.”
“I honestly have no idea what you are talking about, Santana.” The smaller girl frowned in confusion, but was thoroughly boxed in by the taller girl unless she wished to hurt her - and things weren’t quite that bad yet. “This is highly inappropriate behavior.”
“Admit it, you love it. I’ve seen you lookin', Berry, and I gotta say, I approve. You and me be all kinds of hot up in here.” She leaned forward, her lips curled into a knowing smirk a scarce inch from the smaller girl’s, “I bet you’re hiding one hell of a smoking hot body under all this argyle.”
She drew her finger down the front of Rachel’s sweater, making a point to brush her knuckles against the side of the girl’s breasts as she did. Her eyes stayed on Rachel’s, noticing the swift glance to the side to where she knew Brittany was propositioning the ex-cheerleader. It only made her smile a little wider confirming the midget’s fixation on the mom-to-be.
“You know, she’ll never go for you, right?”
Rachel frowned, her attention back on the cheerleader in front of her, “what are you talking about?”
“Quinn.” She rolled her eyes as the diva opened her mouth to try and protest, “zip it, Tiny. You and I both know you got the hots for the walking advertisement for condoms and birth control. Don’t bother trying to deny it cause that shit’s pathetic as hell. She ain’t never gonna go for you, Mighty Mouse, so just give it up and go for a sure thing.”
“And I suppose that would be you?”
“You see any other hot as hell Latinas lusting after your fine ass? Cause seriously? Ain’t no one in this school better step to my game. I will seriously cut on a bitch iffin they do.”
Rachel smiled tightly, pushing at the girl’s arm and ducking under, “Thank you for the offer, Santana, but I believe I’ll have to decline. I am certain I do not feel the urge to ‘get with’ anyone who feels so compelled to speak in such an absurd manner. Now, if you do not mind, I must be going.”
Before she got more than a couple paces away, Santana’s hand caught her wrist. “Look, Berry, we didn’t get off to the right start. I’m sorry for that and shit, but I’m not lying about Quinn. She’ll let you down. She gets scared and she runs, it’s what she does.”
The diva quietly twisted her wrist from the taller girl’s loose grasp, “Thank you for the warning, Santana. I’ll be sure to keep it in mind.”
“Don’t forget, okay? Things don’t work out with Q,” Santana risked a glance at Quinn, noticing the dark glare her former captain was shooting her way, “give me a shout, kay? Cause I be lovin to get all up in them tiny skirts of yours and giving that sexy ass of yours a test run.”
And then she was gone, out the door with her blonde best friend, leaving Rachel and Quinn to stare confusedly at each other from across the room.
What was going on?
Author: Sio
Rating: At least R for violence.
Length: 75433 / ?
Spoilers: This is AU, but Season 1 spoilers are possible starting with chapter 6.
Summary: Rachel is a member of an immortal altered race of humans that call themselves the Vanpyr and live in secret alongside normal humans. Murdered years earlier, her outrage over her death gave her the strength of will to step Beyond the Veil and join the ranks of the altered humans known as the Vanpyr as a Daemon. Since then she has been hiding the truth of her existence and fighting to control the Beast within her. So far so good, until she enrolls as a student at William McKinley High in Lima, Ohio as the daughter of her “two gay dads”.
Note: This is a loose fusion with an original universe.
For a prompt (found here) at rq_meme.
A/N: YES! It's here! Sorry it took so long. >_>;
*****
Chapter Twenty Eight
No matter how much growth Finn may have shown by returning to the club at Sectionals, what he did upon the group’s return surprised no one. However, surprised or not, Quinn still felt the sharp pang of loss sting her heart at the sight of the two duffel bags that contained the sum total of her life - garment bag of glee club costumes draped over the top - sitting on the front steps of the Hudson house. Neither Carole or Finn came out to speak to her as she stepped out of Puck’s truck assisted by Rachel, during the walk of shame to pick up her bags, when Puck set them in the back of the truck or even when they drove off. The opinion of the Hudson family for the girl who’d brought so much chaos, stress and pain into their lives was perfectly evident.
Quinn leaned against Rachel as Puck drove, sobbing softly, “what am I going to do?”
“You’re gonna let us be there for you.” Puck’s gruff voice broke her out of her self-pity.
She shook her head, wiping at the tears streaking her cheeks, “I told you, Puck, I don’t want -”
“Not my place,” he laughed, a soft bark of sound that reminded her of the warm comfort of his wolf form, “unless you really want to crash on my lumpy-ass couch in the basement, we just don’t have room. You can stay with Rach.”
The blonde turned a curious yet hopeful gaze on the brunette who’d been sitting quietly beside her, “can I?”
Rachel shrugged, glancing sideways at the taller girl with a shy smile, “of course, Quinn, my home is yours. For as long as you need it.”
“But what about your dads?” She caught her lower lip between her teeth, worrying it, “they won’t mind will they?”
They pulled into the driveway of Rachel’s house as she spoke, “they won’t mind, Quinn. And even if they did, they’re not really my dads, and,” she hopped out and turned to lift Quinn down to the ground with a casual strength far greater than should be possessed by someone of her stature, “even if they do, they don’t have much of a choice.”
The pregnant teen looked at her confusedly even as she accepted the garment bag from Puck, the boy insisting on taking the two duffel bags in himself. “I don’t understand.”
“It’s my home, not theirs.”
She unlocked the front door, directing them to the stairs to the second floor to situate her new housemate as she went to find her “fathers” and explain the situation. She found the first of the two in the kitchen preparing to make dinner. Hiram had been a surprise child, but she’d never regret bringing him into the world - he was easily the most adaptable of all her children throughout the years. She was certain he’d adapt to this as well.
Rachel wrapped her arms around his waist as he stood at the counter, giving him a hug, her cheek pressed against his back just at the base of his neck. He smiled at his work, finishing chopping the pepper on his board before turning to give her a real hug. He just held her for a moment before pressing a kiss to the top of her head.
“How was Sectionals, mom?”
The shocked gasp from the doorway jerked his gaze up from his mother in his arms to the blonde girl and mohawked boy in the archway leading to the dining room. His eyes widened in shock behind his black rimmed glasses as he took them in, slowly shaking his head back and forth in disbelief. So much work, and a stupid slip of the tongue -
“Hiram, these are the two I’ve been telling you about,” Rachel gestured first at Quinn then at Puck, “Quinn Fabray and Noah Puckerman. Quinn, Noah, this is my son. Hiram.”
“W-what - Rachel?!”
She laughed, an amused trill that delighted a certain blonde to hear - it’d been absent the last few days - and surprised the man beside her, “Hiram, Noah and I were married for a while - 1859, right?”
“‘58, but who’s counting.” Puck smirked, leaning casually against the wall, arms crossed over his chest.
When she laughed again, Quinn shot a grateful smile back over her should at Puck, who just shrugged. “How could I forget! He was quite dashing in his Sunday best, charmed me all over again,” she smiled warmly at the boy.
Hiram pushed his glasses up from where they’d slid down his nose, “you mean to say you’re a...?”
Puck raised a brow, “if you’re trying to suggest I’m another winged, fanged scary like Rach, you’re barking up the wrong tree, kid. I am a wolf.”
His self-satisfied smirk just inspired Quinn to reach over and smack his shoulder. “More like a dog.”
“Hey, that hurt!” He pouted, rubbing at his arm.
The blonde just rolled her eyes, one hand lightly caressing her stomach. “Good. Men!”
“And Quinn,” Rachel paused, unable to really tone down the warmth of the smile she gave the girl, “Quinn’s my best friend. She knows about us.”
“But she’s not...”
The brunette shook her head, “she’s mortal, like you and Leroy. Which brings me to the point. Quinn has been cruelly ejected from her familial home and that of her now former boyfriend, so she will be moving into the spare room.”
Hiram just shrugged, “Okay. You know you don’t have to tell me, mom. I’m assuming she’ll be joining us for dinner tonight, will you be staying as well, Noah?”
“Nah, I gotta be getting home, but thanks for the invite, Hiram. You all good now, Q?”
“No,” she stepped to him and gave him a tight hug, “but I think I will be. Thanks, Puck.”
He hugged her back, nearly lifting her from the ground, “Any time, Quinn. See ya, Rach.”
She placed her hands on his shoulders and stood up on tiptoe to place a kiss on his cheek and whisper in his ear, “Thank you, Noah. Give Sarah an extra hug from me tonight, okay?”
“Every night, Rach. Take care of Q, 'kay?”
She just smiled, “always.”
*****
The tension in the room was almost palpable. The only sound filling the small room was the whir of the elliptical machine. Yet for the two standing before the mild glare of the machine’s user, it seemed as though a rumbling tumult crashed and roared about them as they absorbed the force of their coach’s displeasure.
“You two should be wetting yourselves with shame.”
The words were mild but it took a disbelievingly high amount of will not to comply with her words. It was always hard around Sue. There was something about her that compelled the Cheerios to comply with her every - and often absurd - whim. No matter how independent they might be outside of her regard, once in her presence it was almost impossible to disobey her.
And Sue was more than a little aware of this fact. To be precise, she encouraged it, tying the threads of power that connected her to her followers ever so slightly tighter with every surrender to her will - no matter how tiny. She craved their worship, their blind devotion, with a hunger that rivaled that of Will Schuester’s hunger for ever increasing amounts of rancid hair lube.
So she only barely restrained the pleased smirk that threatened to curl her lips as she felt their nervous energy vibrating the lines. She could feel them resisting the urge to do as she said and it gave her a warm thrill. After the disappointment that Quinn Fabray had ended up being, these two were the only ones who actually challenged her hold. With the proper grooming, they would make entirely adequate high priestesses and leaders of her congregation once she gathered enough followers to re-Ascend.
Quinn had been her chosen one. Blonde, beautiful, perfect. But she had somehow twisted so far from the Sue’s control to snap the lines. Leaving her to rely on her second choices, the duo of Santana and Brittany. They would serve in time. But only with the proper grooming, so as she dismounted her mechanical steed like the descending ruler from on high she so obviously was, she resolved to test them.
“Glee club won Sectionals and you did nothing to stop it.”
She stalked around behind them as she spoke, feeling the tugs on the strings that tied them to her and reveling in their meager attempts at rebellion. They enjoyed participating in that revolting little gathering of mouth-breathers. Normally, she wouldn’t care so long as their true devotion remained proper directed at her, but she’d taken a disliking to the club’s mop-headed director. And it didn’t help that it was hiding the yet unknown Daemon in its midst.
“If you were Samurai,” she leaned in, lowering her voice to threatening registers as she turned to Brittany - who was, surprisingly, tugging harder than her normally fiery compatriot, “and my letter opener was sharp enough, I would ask you both, right now, to commit seppuku.”
She leaned against her desk, crossing her arms and staring at them, waiting to see how they would react, if they would dare talk back to their master. “In Japanese, this means ritual belly-slitting.”
“We were seduced by the glitz and glamour of show biz.”
As predicted by the uneven tugging, the blonde had managed to find some strength somewhere in that ditzy persona she was so very fond of. Still looked to her keeper for confirmation, but Sue had to admit, she was a little impressed at how the normally timid girl stepped up. Perhaps there was more hope for her than she’d originally thought.
“Let me drop some knowledge on you. Ever since Quinn Fabray got knocked up,” Sue made her way back to her weight rack, picking up a couple of light weights, “I’ve been in the market for a new head cheerleader.” That would tickle their interests.
They didn’t move - obviously the geas to remain standing was a little too tight - so she released her mental grip on the lines, allowing them some return of control. “If you want the job, and back in my good graces, you’re gonna have to turn around and listen up. You’re familiar with a little glee clubber named Rachel Berry?”
The girls could only nod, compelled into silence by the awe-inspiring presence that is Sue Sylvester - not to mention the tight mental “fingers” she was keeping on the lines between them. She could feel them struggling against the geas - the lines twitching against her hold - and it amused her to let them out and reel them in again like an elaborate fishing game. She’d had so very very long to perfect her techniques - the willful teenagers didn’t stand a chance.
“Rachel’s the kind of girl who wants things too badly.” The Streisand-obsessed midget would have made an intriguing addition to her congregation, too bad she possessed such an annoyingly high amount of will and resisted every attempt to lasso her with a line. It was almost enough to make her suspect the annoying diva was the mysterious Daemon who had thus far eluded her detection, but of course that couldn’t be the case - no self respecting Daemon would allow herself to be treated so basely within her own territory after all.
“And what she really wants is one Finn Hudson.” A hard tug on her lines caught her attention. Santana. Intriguing.
“Berry doesn’t even like the Jolly Green Giant.” Was that an actual sneer on her over-tanned face? Very intriguing. And now a pull from Brittany. This was getting more interesting by the moment.
“She was really mean to him when he came back at Sectionals. I don’t think she liked how he yelled at Q when she told him about the baby.”
“Finally, something useful has managed to fall from your pathetic lips. This bit of information hadn’t reached me yet. You’re saying the miniature diva has a thing for the ladies?” She loosened the strings, letting a bit more free will in.
“What we’re saying is that Berry digs on Ms. Teen Statistic, not Tall, Dumb, and Dopey.”
Sue just nodded, she had no problem with this turn of events. In fact, this was even better. Two birds, one stone. Take out the keystone of the glee club in the form of one Rachel Berry and gain suitable revenge upon Quinn Fabray for being so utterly disappointing. Outstanding.
“Even better. I want you to go after the both of them. Shower them with that special affection you’re both so very good at. Make them fall for you.” She smiled slyly, pumping the weights, “Then, when they’re both completely enamored, crush them. Drop them like a piano from the top of the Empire State Building. Humiliated and embarrassed they’ll have no choice but to abandoned that pathetic club, and without his two co-captains, Schuester doesn’t stand a chance at Regionals.”
Brittany looked so very confused that Sue loosened the reins for a moment to hear what was on her mind. “I don’t know if Q likes girls like that.”
“It doesn’t matter. She’s pregnant, homeless, and alone. She’ll fall for any attention tossed her way like a starving mongrel on a soup bone. All you have to do is provide it.” Sue tossed them the hand weights with a confident smirk, releasing her control over them. “Get on it, ladies.”
The two girls looked at each other, having barely caught the weights, suddenly finding themselves caught between their friends and their coach and not liking it one bit.
*****
It wasn’t as if they wanted to play the other two girls. But it was a direct order from Coach Sylvester and they were getting increasingly hard to completely resist. It had taken a lot of discussion - and plenty of extra explanations on Santana’s part - before they finally came to what they thought could be an acceptable alternative.
They would fail.
It wasn’t like they wouldn’t try. Of course, they would. Coach Sylvester would destroy them if they didn’t make every attempt to carry out her plans. But she hadn’t told them how they must achieve the goals she set, only that they had to achieve them. Her mistake. They were quite proud of their little plan for self-sabotage.
The first thing they decided was that the first approach would be while all four - hunters and prey as Sylvester liked to put it - were together in the same room. This was important to later steps. Both Rachel and Quinn needed to be aware of the dance and who the players were in the game. It would give the other two girls a chance to gather their forces, marshal their defenses against anything the school’s two best temptresses could throw at them. And with Quinn in the game, there was the possibility that it would let them figure out that Sylvester was behind it more than the duo’s own inclinations.
Next was the assignment of targets. This was more difficult as they had to maneuver themselves to pit their weaknesses against their opponents’ strengths, almost as foreign a technique as not double-teaming their designated prey. Not that they would double-team either Rachel or Quinn, that would either be too effective or too obviously an attempt to fail and neither option was acceptable.
So it was decided. Quinn would be approached by the naive Brittany, pitting her blunt straightforwardness and simple wiles against the ex-cheerleader’s cunning mind and confidence. Santana would tackle Rachel, pouring her natural affinity for sexual aggression and need for achieving dominance in any situation situation directly against the diva’s self-confidence and refusal to back down.
After the opening rounds were fired, it was up to each girl on her own to manipulate the field. And if by some bizarre stretch of fate and the imagination, they failed to succeed, well, that could be fun too, right? Plan made, they smiled, Santana flipping of the lights with the switch beside her bed, a low chuckle curling through the darkened room.
*****
The pair smirked at each other during Finn’s incredibly awkward strutting and posturing around the room like he thought he was some kind of rock star belting out Hello, I Love You. Watching that painful performance, they breathed yet another sigh of relief that he wasn’t their prey. Not only would it have been entirely too easy and, like, no challenge at all to get him, but just going after someone that awkward would have been embarrassing.
They waited until most of the club had departed before making their individual ways over to where Rachel and Quinn were preparing to leave. It wasn’t common knowledge, but a side benefit of being friends with the co-captains was being aware of the change in their living status. The duo were fully aware that Quinn had moved into Berry’s guest room and was car-pooling with the diva, even if they were trying to hide it by waiting until everyone else had left.
*****
“Say, Q?”
The pregnant teen looked up from where she’d been shuffling through her music folder, “yes, Britt? Something I can help you with?”
“I was just wondering, since, you know, you’re not with Finn anymore...” Brittany smiled brightly, tugging at the bottom of her cheerleading top.
Quinn just raised a brow, “no, I won’t be upset if you kiss him for your list. As you said, we’re not together.”
“No! Ew. He looks like a big baby. Besides, I totally kissed him last year.” She looked confused for a moment, thinking about it, “he really wasn’t very good.”
“No kidding.” Quinn wasn’t really listening any more, her attention more on the scene going on across the room, Santana backing Rachel up against the wall.
“But that wasn’t what I wanted to ask. What was it? Oh!” She smiled again, “Do you want to make out?”
“Hmm?” Quinn was staring at the two by the wall with narrowed eyes and thinned lips - positive that Santana was up to something - when Brittany’s words sank in, making her whip her head around, “wait - what!?”
“We should make out! You’re not with Finn anymore and,” Brittany’s smile turned seductive as she reached out and ran a lazy finger along the side of the other blonde’s wide-eyed face, “I would love to check you off my list.”
“B, I’m, um, flattered, really, but I’m not... I mean, you’ve never asked me before?”
Brittany just shrugged, “I always thought you were, like, capital ‘S’ straight cause you always got mad at me and San kissing and stuff, but I’ve seen you checking out Rachel lately, so that can’t be really true, right? Besides, San’s into Rachel right now, and that’s, like, super hot.”
“Santana is not into Rachel, Britt.” The possibility never even crossed her mind, though what was going on against the wall was a bit concerning, “And I’m sorry, but while the offer is flattering and all...”
“Oh, well, okay then. But, Q, remember,” the lanky dancer paused turning away to run a hand down her side, “you ever want to get with this, you just let me know? It’ll be hot.”
And, with a final lick of her lips and swirl of her Cheerios’s skirt, the tall blonde was gone, leaving Quinn far more confused that she had been five minutes earlier.
*****
“Berry.”
“Santana.” Rachel barely acknowledged the darker girl before she found her invading her space, backing her towards the wall. “Wha- ?”
Santana only smirked, trailing her fingers down the smaller girl’s shoulder and arm, propping herself up with one arm against the wall, hand just to the side of Rachel’s head. “You and me? We gotz to be talking.”
“I honestly have no idea what you are talking about, Santana.” The smaller girl frowned in confusion, but was thoroughly boxed in by the taller girl unless she wished to hurt her - and things weren’t quite that bad yet. “This is highly inappropriate behavior.”
“Admit it, you love it. I’ve seen you lookin', Berry, and I gotta say, I approve. You and me be all kinds of hot up in here.” She leaned forward, her lips curled into a knowing smirk a scarce inch from the smaller girl’s, “I bet you’re hiding one hell of a smoking hot body under all this argyle.”
She drew her finger down the front of Rachel’s sweater, making a point to brush her knuckles against the side of the girl’s breasts as she did. Her eyes stayed on Rachel’s, noticing the swift glance to the side to where she knew Brittany was propositioning the ex-cheerleader. It only made her smile a little wider confirming the midget’s fixation on the mom-to-be.
“You know, she’ll never go for you, right?”
Rachel frowned, her attention back on the cheerleader in front of her, “what are you talking about?”
“Quinn.” She rolled her eyes as the diva opened her mouth to try and protest, “zip it, Tiny. You and I both know you got the hots for the walking advertisement for condoms and birth control. Don’t bother trying to deny it cause that shit’s pathetic as hell. She ain’t never gonna go for you, Mighty Mouse, so just give it up and go for a sure thing.”
“And I suppose that would be you?”
“You see any other hot as hell Latinas lusting after your fine ass? Cause seriously? Ain’t no one in this school better step to my game. I will seriously cut on a bitch iffin they do.”
Rachel smiled tightly, pushing at the girl’s arm and ducking under, “Thank you for the offer, Santana, but I believe I’ll have to decline. I am certain I do not feel the urge to ‘get with’ anyone who feels so compelled to speak in such an absurd manner. Now, if you do not mind, I must be going.”
Before she got more than a couple paces away, Santana’s hand caught her wrist. “Look, Berry, we didn’t get off to the right start. I’m sorry for that and shit, but I’m not lying about Quinn. She’ll let you down. She gets scared and she runs, it’s what she does.”
The diva quietly twisted her wrist from the taller girl’s loose grasp, “Thank you for the warning, Santana. I’ll be sure to keep it in mind.”
“Don’t forget, okay? Things don’t work out with Q,” Santana risked a glance at Quinn, noticing the dark glare her former captain was shooting her way, “give me a shout, kay? Cause I be lovin to get all up in them tiny skirts of yours and giving that sexy ass of yours a test run.”
And then she was gone, out the door with her blonde best friend, leaving Rachel and Quinn to stare confusedly at each other from across the room.
What was going on?