Cut The Whiskers Off Kittens [2/3]
Part One
He spent the night in his apartment, pacing the floor and trying to come up with a way to get through this. He tried to contact gods that he knew were long dead, and he looked at items in his apartment that could become a weapon at short notice. At the moment, his money was still on the microphone stand that he kept in the cupboard by the door, hidden behind the vacuum.
Running his fingers through his hair and tugging at the curls, he tried to slam an idea into his mind but nothing seemed willing to appear. The sun rose outside and with his curtains drawn he began to feel better, stronger; the light was all his, filling him up, and he leaned his forehead against the glass of his window, eyes shaded. Today might be the last chance he had to feel that heat, unless he was able to come up with something a lot better than he had so far.
A rapid, impatient knocking at his door forced his eyes to open. He glanced at the clock and saw that it was eight in the morning; too early for Sue to come for him, if she had decided to keep her word. That was doubtful.
He picked up a hefty book on his way to answer the door, thinking that it might be enough to buy him some time if he needed it, but when he opened the door there was an entirely different kind of monster waiting for him.
"Rachel," he said in surprise, before his attention shifted to take in all of the others behind her too. "Finn? Everyone?"
"You vanished yesterday," Rachel explained, striding forward in a way that forced him to open the door to them. Like a brightly coloured army, the entire Glee Club trooped into his home, with even Puck grouching along as the tail. Confused, Will continued to hold the door open even after they were all inside, as if waiting for anyone else to join in the impromptu morning party that seemed to have kicked to life in his living room.
He rubbed his forehead and followed after them, allowing the door to close after dropping his protective book to the ground. "What's going on, guys? Why are you here?"
"You're wearing yesterday's clothes," Kurt said. With one hand gloved and the other uncovered, he stared at Will with little short of horror in his eyes. Crimes against fashion apparently didn't warrant any leniency. "And they have blood on them."
Ah.
That might also explain the horror.
"I fell," he said, clutching at the first excuse that came to hand as he looked down at his clothes. He hadn't even noticed the rips and dried blood. He smelled of smoke as well, lingering reminders of the fire that he had caused in the city hall. "Don't worry about it, guys. Get to school and focus on your work."
"You're not coming into school," Rachel deduced, arms crossed over her chest as she gave him a glare worthy of a disappointed mother. "You don't look ill, Mister Shue."
"I have stuff to do," Will said. "The sub will take care of everything."
"Sectionals are closing in on us; now is not the time for personal business, not if we want to make it all the way to Nationals this year," Rachel said. She looked around at the others, all of whom seemed more focused on pretending that they weren't backing her up. "You need to take this seriously."
"Of course I am," Will answered, even if he could no longer plan on being their leader any more. This time tomorrow, he doubted if he would exist any more. "There are just... There's a lot going on for me right now, Rachel. I believe in you guys, and I believe that you can make it, but it's going to have to be without me."
They stared at him without blinking, until he was left wondering if he had accidentally stopped time.
"Are you quitting?" Finn asked eventually. "'cause, we can work harder. We'll be better."
"It's not about you," Will said, but he had to cut himself off when he found that he desperately wanted to laugh. He felt as though he was trying to break it off with a girlfriend. Considering the betrayed looks on the club's faces, maybe that wasn't too far wrong. "There's a lot that I need to deal with right now in my own life. Believe me - if I could be there with you guys, I would be, but that's not going to happen."
Finn looked as if he had just kicked him in the stomach. Will didn't have the heart to tell him that he had to accept it.
"Are you in trouble Mr Schue?" Finn asked, brow furrowed in concentration. "Because, if you are, you should tell us. Glee Club sticks together. You taught us that."
Had he? Will wasn't sure if he had ever noticed them taking that lesson seriously before. The sniping and arguments that went on within the club had made his heart sink when he had been nothing more than a human. Ascended from that form, it now seemed pitifully human.
"This is something I'm going to handle myself," he stated, hoping that the tone of his voice left no room for argument. Judging from the way that everyone's mouths opened, ready to protest, that wasn't the case - he raised his hand to still their words. "Don't argue with me on this, guys. It's time for you to get to school."
"We've got, like, an hour," Puck said. Will imagined that he was here mostly as an excuse to avoid going to school, if he could. "Seriously, dude. If you need someone taken down, give the word."
Will imagined Puck and his "bros" chucking Sue into a dumpster. It was unlikely to work, but a pleasant image nonetheless - although the intense likelihood of it ending up with all of the teenagers extremely dead made it a less promising prospect.
"Thank you for the offer, Puck, but I really don't think that this is appropriate," Will said. That was something of an understatement. Besides, as an impromptu army, these guys left something to be desired. Sue had ripped and sliced her way through twice as many gods. She wouldn't blink an eye faced with a plucky group of teenagers. "I appreciate your concern, everyone, honestly - but I'm an adult. I'm more than capable of handling this on my own."
"You still haven't said what 'this' is," Mercedes pointed out, standing at Kurt's side with her arms crossed.
Will smiled, almost to himself, and wondered how they would all react if he tried to tell them the truth; there was a god in their classroom and another leading the Cheerios, and the pair of them were squaring up for an unequal show-down. They wouldn't believe him. He knew that. Human minds were closed off to the realities of him and his kind these days. Too bloodthirsty to be worshipped, in Sue's case. Too sparkly to be respected, when it came to him.
"It doesn't matter; it's personal."
"We're family."
"You're students," Will corrected, frowning as sternly as he could manage at the lot of them. They didn't take it well, shifting and tossing their heads, but they listened for once when he tried to herd them towards the door again. It was like trying to herd a set of pigeons, as they flew towards interesting objects and cawed in anger as he shot down their ideas. "Thank you for your concern, guys. I appreciate it."
They left reluctantly, but only after making him promise that he would get in touch with them if he needed anything. For children, they were pushy. Will thought that as a human he had been far too lenient - too much freedom. He had been as weak as a teacher as he had been as a god; history was destined to repeat itself. All beings were stuck in patterns that repeated and repeated throughout the centuries, never truly changing. Even gods weren't exempt.
He closed the door in the wake of his visitors, and stood in his quiet apartment trying to clear his mind.
If he was weak, if he was stuck, and if he was doomed to repeat the past, then he had to work out how to put that to his advantage. By this point, it was clear enough that his life depended on it.
*
The evening came around all too quickly, despite his attempts to slow time down around himself, to drag it down and stretch it out. Yet the sun started to crawl beneath the skyline, and he found himself walking towards the high school where he had spent so many years hiding and pretending to be someone else - something else.
His hands glowed with nervous light, enough to fight off the growing darkness as night crowded in. It was unlikely to be enough to confuse Sylvestra. If it had been one of the slower or blinder gods, he might have got away with it.
But Sue was smart, he reminded himself as he allowed himself to slip inside the school, bringing the lock on the door and hoping that no one was still around. This could get messy, not to mention bloody.
His internal light brightened up the dark corridors as he walked through the school like a ghost, feeling out of place and unwanted. This place held the memories of a false life that he had lived, of songs he had sung and the students he had taught. It made him want to start smiling, even as the rush of bitter nostalgia had hit him hard. If it hadn't been for Sue, he could have carried on in this deceit for much longer yet. Time was a funny thing for gods. He could have been a Spanish teacher here for eternity.
On the other hand, that sounded a little bit like hell.
Maybe facing her now was a far better option.
"You look sappy," Sue said, behind him unexpectedly.
He hadn't heard a single footstep, but turning around he found her - too close. Her sneer pushed her further into his personal space than he was anticipating at this stage, and he didn't stop himself from taking a step backwards.
She looked him up and down like a farmer evaluating his cattle. "And you're glowing like a fairy."
His eyebrows rose. "That's kind of homophobic, isn't it?" It wasn't like them to pay any attention to those matters, too high above the worries of physical humanity to bother with bigotry.
Her scowl deepened until he was worried that she was going to try biting him. "I mean it literally, Schuester." She sniffed at him, edging closer as he tried to keep his distance. "I understand that a snivelling little god who hasn't had his powers out in years is gonna have an issue or thirty-two, but have your years in mortal flesh convinced you to become afraid of the dark?" She looked down at his glowing hands. "You're a god. Act like one."
He swallowed hard and tried to banish thoughts of sharp swords and running blood from his mind. "I wanted to be able to see you," he said. "You plan on killing me. Why shouldn't I see your face?"
She glared at him as if he had just gone cross-eyed, but her nostrils flared as she breathed in deeply. He didn't know how to interpret that.
"Aren't you going to run?" she asked. "I liked your little stunt yesterday."
"The fire?"
"The destruction." The glint in her eyes was little short of homicidal. "That was something. It was a start, anyway."
"Isn't destroying public property a little bit below you, Sue?" Will tried to point out.
"Start small - get bigger," Sue said. "I couldn't expect you to begin with anything more impressive than some burnt curtains. Your conscience is so grotesquely inflated that you would collapse into a snivelling heap of tissues. Then I really would have to kill you just to overcome the need to vomit."
Reality was spinning out of his grasp again. Frowning, he tried his best. "What are you up to? I thought we were here so that you could kill me."
"That's one way that this ends, if you continue to act like a crying little baby then the blood is going to have to flow as a cure for my headache. If you god-up a little, maybe I'll be able to understand the point in keeping you alive."
He'd known that already, but the pressure weighed heavily onto his shoulders. "I don't understand what you want," he admitted. She wanted entertainment and she thrived off of violence; he and his peace couldn't fit in with that.
"I want you to pull your finger out your ass and fight," she said, with a smile on her face that was mostly patronising. "I've got a long eternity ahead of me. Might as well draw this out a little."
Will's head tilted to the side as he considered the cold blue of her eyes. He stayed where he was, as tempting as it was to step forward. "I don't think you want to kill me at all," he concluded, a triumphant smile slowly spreading to his face as he realised that he was right.
Her upper lip twitched. "Don't be ridiculous."
"No, it's true." He knew it was. He could feel that truth on the air in this dim hallway, charging the space with electricity that he wanted to hide in. "You're lonely, Sue. You might not want to admit it, but without me around you'll be on your own again. Who would want that?"
"I'm not a bleeding heart like you," she sneered.
"It doesn't matter. Every being needs companionship. You're no exception."
"I am exceptionally exceptional, Schuester. Stay right where you are."
He took a step forward anyway, fully aware that he might end up receiving a sword through the chest at any moment. It didn't make him stop. Right now, this seemed like his best shot.
"Don't think I won't run you through and leave you bleeding. Think about those all-star failures of yours finding you here in the morning."
"Sue," Will said, as gently as he could manage. He was close enough to her now that it would be easy to reach out and take hold of one of her hands, the pair of them glowing together. "Let me live and you don't have to be alone any more. This violence, it isn't necessary."
She bared her teeth like a dangerous dog. "You're trying to make me weak. It won't work."
"There's nothing weak about this," Will assured her. He didn't think that she was listening, so he went ahead and took hold of her hand. She looked as disgusted as if he had decided to lick it. "Everyone needs a little contact, once in a while. Even you."
"The only contact I need, William, is my fist in your face," she snarled - but she hadn't even tried to pull her hand away from him yet. He could taste survival. "And that is exactly what is going to happen here if you don't remove yourself from me, and start running. Quickly."
"I'm done running," Will said, even if his heart was racing and it seemed like a spectacularly good idea. Maybe he should have just set something on fire instead. She seemed to like that. "I'm right here, and I'm not moving."
"I could move you." She glared, her eyes narrow in the dim glowing light from his hands. "I could throw you right through that wall. This building is structurally insecure; it would collapse into rubble on top of your deformed frame."
He smiled - he had her, now. A tug from his hand to bring her closer had no effect at all, but he took a step forward instead. "So do it," he challenged. "Get rid of me."
He edged closer until she would be able to feel the warmth of his breath against her mouth. He saw the rapid-fire way that she blinked in response, her nostrils flaring.
"Are you going to kill me?" he asked, knowing that she wouldn't - having faith in it.
"Considering it," she snapped. "You're boring me half to death. Is that the whole idea?"
"Could be," Will conceded. He tilted his head to the side, wondering if a god like her had ever been kissed before. Music mixed sweetly with romance; what could violence have to say on the matter? He tried to imagine if she had ever even been touched outside of battle, and he ran his thumb along her knuckles, tracing every bump. He had to block images of all the other gods that had been killed by these hands out of his mind; some of them had been friends of his, but survival meant more than that. "Are you bored now?" he asked, raising one hand to stroke his fingers against her cheek, the light from his fingertips illuminating their faces.
"Almost asleep," she confirmed.
He leaned in closer, until their lips were brushing and his eyes were half-lidded. "Now?" he asked, feeling an electric buzz against his lips with the shade of contact. It had been a long time for him too. Being with a god was nothing like it was with humans: more powerful, more important.
"Nearly dying from the monotony," Sue said. She swallowed hard and didn't back away. "Try harder, Schuester."
Fine, he thought. He grabbed her hips and pulled her forward, the zipper of her tracksuit pressed firmly against his chest. The new proximity allowed him to push their mouths together, harsh and demanding and not at all what a first kiss ought to be.
Her fingers tangled into his hair, pulling so hard at the curls that he thought she was trying to scalp him. When he tried to pull their mouths away, however, she gave a grunt that was certainly a threat, and he found himself wondering what he had got himself into. Her mouth pushed at him, tongue wet and eager, and he found himself with armfuls of a lusty, pushy goddess - this hadn't been the plan when he came out here tonight.
On the other hand, he thinks as he pushes her back against the nearest wall, it does seem to be working.
*
She allowed him to leave afterwards. Lying in an abandoned classroom with her tracksuit top still on (even if she'd long since lost the bottoms), she waved him towards the door. "We can reschedule the death match," she declared, as kindly as she was able.
Will raised his head, feeling as if all of the energy had been drained from his spent limbs. "Are you sure?" he asked, although he shouldn't have doubted a gift-horse while it was baring its teeth at him.
"Go," Sue insisted, giving him a firm shove so he fell off of the desk onto the floor. "Get dressed and get out before I decide to kill you anyway."
He couldn't think of a single reason to put up an argument, so he scrambled for his clothes and hopped into his trousers while she watched. "If you tell anyone about this, Schuester, I'll kill them too," she warned him absent-mindedly, as if death threats were no big deal.
He had to shrug. "Who would I tell?" All of the other gods were dead or hiding; none of the humans could understand. He was on his own in this.
She didn't watch him as he left, and he found himself out in the hallway once more. His heart raced and he couldn't escape the feeling that he'd just got away with something that he really shouldn't have. He wasn't usually this lucky.
He let himself out of the school and found himself unexpectedly at a loss about what to do now. Leaving the city still probably wasn't an option, and without any solid die-date he now found himself with open freedom on his hands. There was something intoxicating about it that he didn't want to leave behind.
The sun had started to rise and colour the car park when Will walked across it, hands in his pockets. He hadn't brought a car but the ground felt too good beneath his feet to take that happiness away. The walk would do him good: fresh air on his face, the sun in the sky, life in the world. He hadn't felt this good in a long time - and the ghosts of Sue's fiercely demanding hands were determined to send shivers down his spine.
His mind was lost in fresh memories he shouldn't have indulged in - and he didn't notice the angry principal heading his way until it was far too late.
"William!"
Will's footsteps came to a halt as he found himself faced with a pint-sized irate principal. "Figgins?" he said. "What are you doing here? It's early." Ridiculously early, in fact. No one should have been around.
"Some of us choose to come into work when we are paid to do so," Figgins said. "Where were you? I had to call for an emergency substitute. Do you know how much that costs? I can't budget for your boredom, William!"
Will could see the dying dollar signs skating around Figgins's mind. "I'm sorry," he said, while wondering why he bothered. "There was a family emergency."
"Miss Sylvester also disappeared," Figgins said, eyes narrowing. Will had the feeling that he was trying to see straight through his soul. He didn't know if it would work; he wasn't sure if gods had souls, as such. More than that. Less than that. Something entirely different. "Did she have a 'family emergency' too?"
"You'd have to ask her," Will said.
"I will," Figgins warned. Will smiled and wondered if she was still inside, pantsless. Figgins could find her like that and ask her all the questions that she would allow. "I'd better see you at work today, Schuester. I don't have enough money to hire a substitute for the second day in a row!"
"I'll be here," Will promised, surprising himself - but, what the hell, why not? With Sue temporarily putting him off of her hit list, he had all the time in the world to play around in the school, to try to make this club into something special. "See you later."
Figgins grunted at him with something like indignation, but he headed on his own way, scuttling up the steps into the school. Will left Sue to deal with him if she wanted to, hoping that she was currently too satisfied to think about murder. Figgins would probably get to keep his life.
In the meantime, Will found himself with a couple of hours before he had to think about returning to school to teach mortal teenagers. The world was his - and, at the moment, all he wanted was a decent cup of coffee.
*
As it turned out, going through this life as a god wasn't any different than it had been when he thought he was a human. No one paid him any more attention. The woman at the coffee shop looked tired and bored as she made his drink, and he imagined what it might feel like to pour music into her mind, to light up her thoughts with the kinds of melodies that only came to her in dreams; he could make her heart dance and a smile burst onto her face. Glee could spread throughout this entire town with the barest thought, and all that he would have to do would be sit back and watch.
But -
No.
He took hold of his drink and reined himself in, because his time and his memories of this town had taught him that glee was about more than the music; it was about choice. It was about opening your soul to something bigger than yourself, and that involved something inside you. He couldn't force it on people. Free will. Free music. It was important.
He drank from his coffee too quickly and burnt his tongue in the process, before he made his way back towards the school. He hadn't marked papers and found himself with no real desire to actually do so.
He floated throughout his morning without feeling any great sense of responsibility. When students tried to make his life a misery, it was easy enough to steal their voices away, leaving their mouths flapping and no words coming out. "It's strange," Emma said at lunch while she stared down at the crumbs that his sandwich had left across the table. She hadn't tried to clear them away one by one yet: to Will, that seemed like progress. "All these students going home sick... I think something might be going 'round. Is that what you had yesterday?"
Will shook his head, thinking of fires and running for his life. "Not quite."
"Seems strange, doesn't it?" Emma frowned, her brow drawing together in a way that Will found adorable, even now. He imagined that he always would. "It must be a bug."
"I'm sure you'll be fine," Will assured her - before a hand clamped down on his shoulder.
He looked up in alarm to find Sue towering over him, with a smile on her face that was threateningly friendly. "From what I hear, it is extraordinarily contagious. Mind if I take a seat?" She plopped down before anyone could raise an objection - not that Will would have dared to. "The strange thing is that all of the cases are originating in William's classroom. He's the only common link between them, and he had to take the afternoon off of work yesterday. If I were you, sunshine, I'm not sure if I'd feel safe around this harbour of germs without some considerable breathing apparatus to protect myself."
Emma's eyes grew wider and she swallowed, but she didn't move - a misplaced sense of loyalty and defiance, Will guessed. "It's okay," he assured her. "You can go if you want. I can handle Sue."
Emma delicately packed what little remained of her lunch away, twitching a smile at him before she beat a hasty defeat. Will watched as the door closed in her wake, lingering there for a moment, before he turned his attention back to Sue. He wasn't sure if he had the heart for this conversation. His nerves were already shredded.
"Was that really necessary?"
"Yes." She blinked at him like a reptile devoid of conscience. "Being around you is a health hazard. It was only fair to warn her before the stench of your hairspray reached fatal levels in her system."
He tried hard to be offended, but all that he managed was a small smile. "Sue," he cautioned quietly, more warmth in his voice than was secretly necessary. After last night, they had a connection. He had felt it.
Sue's face, however, remained completely impassive. "It isn't safe for that woman to be around you," Sue said, and Will began to get the impression that this really had nothing to do with contagious viruses or hairspray overloads at all. It was achingly personal.
"Are you jealous?" he asked her, leaning forward over the weak table. "Of Emma?"
She looked as if she was about to chop his head off for even suggesting it. That seemed like a solid enough indication that it was true.
"You are, aren't you?" He couldn't keep the giddy delight out of his voice.
"She's mortal. Human." Sue blinked at him, and she looked like a dinosaur in the sun. Her teeth were sharper than that. "It's a matter of principle."
"It is no such thing." Will was grinning by this point - it felt as though he had finally scored a point after a long, hard game. The victory was sure to be short-lived. "You were jealous because I was talking to someone else."
She leaned forward, deep into his personal space, and Will stayed right where he was. His brow furrowed and he met her glare with one of his own, remembering the ferocity that had come the night before and the feel of her burning hands against his bare skin.
"Stay away from that woman, William," she warns him. "Or you will find her pretty Bambi-eyed head sitting on your desk before the end of the day. Don't push me."
Will's eyebrows rose and he nodded, sinking against the back of his seat. It seemed to be enough to satisfy Sue, who lounged in her seat and happily stole one of his sandwiches. She took a ridiculously large chomp out of it and met his eyes as if eating his food was an open challenge. He rolled his eyes and didn't take her up on it. Sometimes you had to pick your battles when you were fighting with an obnoxiously powerful goddess.
*
The next battle that he picked, however, came only that evening once school was over and he was in the choir room with his glee club. The music was flowing, beats slamming, inspiration crackling - the kids thought that it was down to them alone and he let them grasp that belief, let it bolster their confidence and enthusiasm while he floated in his element. The music was like a drug for him, a home away from home, and here it welcomed him like an old friend. Inspiration had been gone for too long.
He managed to work in a spot of rapping for himself in between songs, smile on his face as he broke it down with the kids.
And then Sue came, smashing into the party like an angry storm cloud. "Schuester," she snapped. "Outside. Now."
He paused mid-rap. The backing music dwindled to a halt and he let his shoulders deflate. "Guys, keep practising, and talk among yourselves about ideas to really kick it this year." He left them talking quietly, knowing that he would have to deal with a coup from Rachel when he got back. Moving out into the corridor, he made sure to close the door firmly behind himself. He didn't think that most of the members of glee club would physically be able to handle the mental strain of overhearing a god's bickering fit.
"What is it, Sue?" he asked, hands settling on his hips. "I'm busy."
She looked as if he had splashed water into her face. He struggled not to look as if he was enjoying it too much. "I think you're beginning to forget your position in all of this, Schuester."
"I remember it perfectly." He remembered the needy, hunting grasp of her hands and the thrust of her tongue; he remembered realising that she was just as lonely as him, just as desperate. "You don't want to kill me. You've got nothing over me any more."
"I'll kill them." She thrust a finger in the direction of the choir room as if she was trying to shoot lightning from the tip. When he went back into the room, Will wouldn't have been surprised to find at least one of the kids without a breath in their body. "All of them."
"No, you won't," he said, steady and certain as if it was a fact. "If you hurt them, then we're done. And you're alone."
"And you'd have no more leverage over me. If you try to withhold anything from me, then I have no reason to keep you alive. Works both ways, maggot."
Will tightened his jaw and breathed in through his nose. Possibly, this hadn't been the brightest idea that he had ever had.
Sue closed in, tight enough that he could feel her breath and smell her sharp perfume. He met her eyes and glared at her, shoulders squared, but this was a fight that he could feel himself losing. "So go into your tone-deaf carollers and tell them to get themselves a new babysitter. You're done."
This was not how he had envisioned this, but he was cornered now: captured. "This isn't fair," he complained, his voice raising even if he knew he should have kept it down. "You can't do this."
Behind them, the door to the choir room opened and several heads stuck out. Will waved an impatient hand in their direction: the last thing that he needed was for any of the kids to get involved in this mess. He didn't need their blood on his hands.
"Do you need any help, Mr Schue?" Finn offered, as if he thought that a good football tackle might be all that was required in this situation.
Will turned around to tell him to get back to practice, but what he saw froze the words on his tongue. It wasn't a group of teenagers talking to him. More than that, bigger than that. He saw multi-coloured skin and extra eyes and snakes dancing where hair should be. He deliberately avoided looking into Rachel's eyes, just in case.
"I think you should let Mr Schue come back to practice, Coach Sylvester," Rachel advised. Turning back to Sue, Will saw the scandalised widening of her eyes and knew that she saw the same truth that he had: the gods were back. They'd been hiding all along. "We've got a lot of rehearsing to do."
Sue's hand scrambled at the waist to her pants, but her sword wasn't with her. Her sense of security must have saved them from a shot to the gut.
"Don't think you're getting away with this," she warned him, hissing her words low.
However, like a well-trained general, she made a tactical retreat, storming down the corridors. Will could practically see the furious plots forming in a dark cloud above her head, but they had time yet before they had to worry. Turning around, there was a broad, unbelieving smile on his face. His friends were there, alive and breathing in human form. Teenagers, under his nose the entire time - how was this possible?
As the door closed behind them, Will was swept into a group hug of godlike proportions, squeezing pressure that might have killed someone more mortal. "How is this possible?" he asked, laughing at the sight. Finn, unveiled as shining Apollo; Rachel, the snakes of her hair betraying her as Medusa; the three cheerleaders transformed into the three Muses. Gods from many mythologies lounged in the choir room, smiling at him from across the centuries. "You died. All of you - you died."
"That's right," Finn agreed. "But that doesn't have to mean we're gone. We thought something might happen - so we arranged this as an insurance policy."
Will shook his head: he still had no idea what 'this' was.
"We're shadows," Rachel said. "Projections, and pale ones at that."
"Ghosts," Will provided.
Rachel shook her head. "More than that. Much more. We're not quite up to our old standards, but between all of us we have a very good chance at overpowering Sylvestra."
At the mention of that shaky plan, Will frowned and shook his head. All of the optimism and blind faith in the world couldn't make up for one simple fact: she was more powerful than them. She had killed them when they were alive and at full strength.
The Muses smiled as if they were peeking into his very thoughts. "You can't kill a ghost," they said, Brittany, Quinn and Santana speaking as one. "We're already dead - what can she do to us now?"
"She's Sue. She'll find a way." Whether it meant charging into the Underworld itself, nothing would stop her. Will didn't doubt that.
"And so will we," Mercedes said, her hammer slung casually over her shoulder. "You taught us that, Mr Schue. As a group, there's nothing we can't do."
Will wasn't sure where the kids started and the gods began, but he found himself too overwhelmed to worry about the distinction. "Alright," he said, clapping his hands together once. "Let's do this."
It was time to plot against the most powerful god in the universe - and work out how to survive.
Part Three
He spent the night in his apartment, pacing the floor and trying to come up with a way to get through this. He tried to contact gods that he knew were long dead, and he looked at items in his apartment that could become a weapon at short notice. At the moment, his money was still on the microphone stand that he kept in the cupboard by the door, hidden behind the vacuum.
Running his fingers through his hair and tugging at the curls, he tried to slam an idea into his mind but nothing seemed willing to appear. The sun rose outside and with his curtains drawn he began to feel better, stronger; the light was all his, filling him up, and he leaned his forehead against the glass of his window, eyes shaded. Today might be the last chance he had to feel that heat, unless he was able to come up with something a lot better than he had so far.
A rapid, impatient knocking at his door forced his eyes to open. He glanced at the clock and saw that it was eight in the morning; too early for Sue to come for him, if she had decided to keep her word. That was doubtful.
He picked up a hefty book on his way to answer the door, thinking that it might be enough to buy him some time if he needed it, but when he opened the door there was an entirely different kind of monster waiting for him.
"Rachel," he said in surprise, before his attention shifted to take in all of the others behind her too. "Finn? Everyone?"
"You vanished yesterday," Rachel explained, striding forward in a way that forced him to open the door to them. Like a brightly coloured army, the entire Glee Club trooped into his home, with even Puck grouching along as the tail. Confused, Will continued to hold the door open even after they were all inside, as if waiting for anyone else to join in the impromptu morning party that seemed to have kicked to life in his living room.
He rubbed his forehead and followed after them, allowing the door to close after dropping his protective book to the ground. "What's going on, guys? Why are you here?"
"You're wearing yesterday's clothes," Kurt said. With one hand gloved and the other uncovered, he stared at Will with little short of horror in his eyes. Crimes against fashion apparently didn't warrant any leniency. "And they have blood on them."
Ah.
That might also explain the horror.
"I fell," he said, clutching at the first excuse that came to hand as he looked down at his clothes. He hadn't even noticed the rips and dried blood. He smelled of smoke as well, lingering reminders of the fire that he had caused in the city hall. "Don't worry about it, guys. Get to school and focus on your work."
"You're not coming into school," Rachel deduced, arms crossed over her chest as she gave him a glare worthy of a disappointed mother. "You don't look ill, Mister Shue."
"I have stuff to do," Will said. "The sub will take care of everything."
"Sectionals are closing in on us; now is not the time for personal business, not if we want to make it all the way to Nationals this year," Rachel said. She looked around at the others, all of whom seemed more focused on pretending that they weren't backing her up. "You need to take this seriously."
"Of course I am," Will answered, even if he could no longer plan on being their leader any more. This time tomorrow, he doubted if he would exist any more. "There are just... There's a lot going on for me right now, Rachel. I believe in you guys, and I believe that you can make it, but it's going to have to be without me."
They stared at him without blinking, until he was left wondering if he had accidentally stopped time.
"Are you quitting?" Finn asked eventually. "'cause, we can work harder. We'll be better."
"It's not about you," Will said, but he had to cut himself off when he found that he desperately wanted to laugh. He felt as though he was trying to break it off with a girlfriend. Considering the betrayed looks on the club's faces, maybe that wasn't too far wrong. "There's a lot that I need to deal with right now in my own life. Believe me - if I could be there with you guys, I would be, but that's not going to happen."
Finn looked as if he had just kicked him in the stomach. Will didn't have the heart to tell him that he had to accept it.
"Are you in trouble Mr Schue?" Finn asked, brow furrowed in concentration. "Because, if you are, you should tell us. Glee Club sticks together. You taught us that."
Had he? Will wasn't sure if he had ever noticed them taking that lesson seriously before. The sniping and arguments that went on within the club had made his heart sink when he had been nothing more than a human. Ascended from that form, it now seemed pitifully human.
"This is something I'm going to handle myself," he stated, hoping that the tone of his voice left no room for argument. Judging from the way that everyone's mouths opened, ready to protest, that wasn't the case - he raised his hand to still their words. "Don't argue with me on this, guys. It's time for you to get to school."
"We've got, like, an hour," Puck said. Will imagined that he was here mostly as an excuse to avoid going to school, if he could. "Seriously, dude. If you need someone taken down, give the word."
Will imagined Puck and his "bros" chucking Sue into a dumpster. It was unlikely to work, but a pleasant image nonetheless - although the intense likelihood of it ending up with all of the teenagers extremely dead made it a less promising prospect.
"Thank you for the offer, Puck, but I really don't think that this is appropriate," Will said. That was something of an understatement. Besides, as an impromptu army, these guys left something to be desired. Sue had ripped and sliced her way through twice as many gods. She wouldn't blink an eye faced with a plucky group of teenagers. "I appreciate your concern, everyone, honestly - but I'm an adult. I'm more than capable of handling this on my own."
"You still haven't said what 'this' is," Mercedes pointed out, standing at Kurt's side with her arms crossed.
Will smiled, almost to himself, and wondered how they would all react if he tried to tell them the truth; there was a god in their classroom and another leading the Cheerios, and the pair of them were squaring up for an unequal show-down. They wouldn't believe him. He knew that. Human minds were closed off to the realities of him and his kind these days. Too bloodthirsty to be worshipped, in Sue's case. Too sparkly to be respected, when it came to him.
"It doesn't matter; it's personal."
"We're family."
"You're students," Will corrected, frowning as sternly as he could manage at the lot of them. They didn't take it well, shifting and tossing their heads, but they listened for once when he tried to herd them towards the door again. It was like trying to herd a set of pigeons, as they flew towards interesting objects and cawed in anger as he shot down their ideas. "Thank you for your concern, guys. I appreciate it."
They left reluctantly, but only after making him promise that he would get in touch with them if he needed anything. For children, they were pushy. Will thought that as a human he had been far too lenient - too much freedom. He had been as weak as a teacher as he had been as a god; history was destined to repeat itself. All beings were stuck in patterns that repeated and repeated throughout the centuries, never truly changing. Even gods weren't exempt.
He closed the door in the wake of his visitors, and stood in his quiet apartment trying to clear his mind.
If he was weak, if he was stuck, and if he was doomed to repeat the past, then he had to work out how to put that to his advantage. By this point, it was clear enough that his life depended on it.
*
The evening came around all too quickly, despite his attempts to slow time down around himself, to drag it down and stretch it out. Yet the sun started to crawl beneath the skyline, and he found himself walking towards the high school where he had spent so many years hiding and pretending to be someone else - something else.
His hands glowed with nervous light, enough to fight off the growing darkness as night crowded in. It was unlikely to be enough to confuse Sylvestra. If it had been one of the slower or blinder gods, he might have got away with it.
But Sue was smart, he reminded himself as he allowed himself to slip inside the school, bringing the lock on the door and hoping that no one was still around. This could get messy, not to mention bloody.
His internal light brightened up the dark corridors as he walked through the school like a ghost, feeling out of place and unwanted. This place held the memories of a false life that he had lived, of songs he had sung and the students he had taught. It made him want to start smiling, even as the rush of bitter nostalgia had hit him hard. If it hadn't been for Sue, he could have carried on in this deceit for much longer yet. Time was a funny thing for gods. He could have been a Spanish teacher here for eternity.
On the other hand, that sounded a little bit like hell.
Maybe facing her now was a far better option.
"You look sappy," Sue said, behind him unexpectedly.
He hadn't heard a single footstep, but turning around he found her - too close. Her sneer pushed her further into his personal space than he was anticipating at this stage, and he didn't stop himself from taking a step backwards.
She looked him up and down like a farmer evaluating his cattle. "And you're glowing like a fairy."
His eyebrows rose. "That's kind of homophobic, isn't it?" It wasn't like them to pay any attention to those matters, too high above the worries of physical humanity to bother with bigotry.
Her scowl deepened until he was worried that she was going to try biting him. "I mean it literally, Schuester." She sniffed at him, edging closer as he tried to keep his distance. "I understand that a snivelling little god who hasn't had his powers out in years is gonna have an issue or thirty-two, but have your years in mortal flesh convinced you to become afraid of the dark?" She looked down at his glowing hands. "You're a god. Act like one."
He swallowed hard and tried to banish thoughts of sharp swords and running blood from his mind. "I wanted to be able to see you," he said. "You plan on killing me. Why shouldn't I see your face?"
She glared at him as if he had just gone cross-eyed, but her nostrils flared as she breathed in deeply. He didn't know how to interpret that.
"Aren't you going to run?" she asked. "I liked your little stunt yesterday."
"The fire?"
"The destruction." The glint in her eyes was little short of homicidal. "That was something. It was a start, anyway."
"Isn't destroying public property a little bit below you, Sue?" Will tried to point out.
"Start small - get bigger," Sue said. "I couldn't expect you to begin with anything more impressive than some burnt curtains. Your conscience is so grotesquely inflated that you would collapse into a snivelling heap of tissues. Then I really would have to kill you just to overcome the need to vomit."
Reality was spinning out of his grasp again. Frowning, he tried his best. "What are you up to? I thought we were here so that you could kill me."
"That's one way that this ends, if you continue to act like a crying little baby then the blood is going to have to flow as a cure for my headache. If you god-up a little, maybe I'll be able to understand the point in keeping you alive."
He'd known that already, but the pressure weighed heavily onto his shoulders. "I don't understand what you want," he admitted. She wanted entertainment and she thrived off of violence; he and his peace couldn't fit in with that.
"I want you to pull your finger out your ass and fight," she said, with a smile on her face that was mostly patronising. "I've got a long eternity ahead of me. Might as well draw this out a little."
Will's head tilted to the side as he considered the cold blue of her eyes. He stayed where he was, as tempting as it was to step forward. "I don't think you want to kill me at all," he concluded, a triumphant smile slowly spreading to his face as he realised that he was right.
Her upper lip twitched. "Don't be ridiculous."
"No, it's true." He knew it was. He could feel that truth on the air in this dim hallway, charging the space with electricity that he wanted to hide in. "You're lonely, Sue. You might not want to admit it, but without me around you'll be on your own again. Who would want that?"
"I'm not a bleeding heart like you," she sneered.
"It doesn't matter. Every being needs companionship. You're no exception."
"I am exceptionally exceptional, Schuester. Stay right where you are."
He took a step forward anyway, fully aware that he might end up receiving a sword through the chest at any moment. It didn't make him stop. Right now, this seemed like his best shot.
"Don't think I won't run you through and leave you bleeding. Think about those all-star failures of yours finding you here in the morning."
"Sue," Will said, as gently as he could manage. He was close enough to her now that it would be easy to reach out and take hold of one of her hands, the pair of them glowing together. "Let me live and you don't have to be alone any more. This violence, it isn't necessary."
She bared her teeth like a dangerous dog. "You're trying to make me weak. It won't work."
"There's nothing weak about this," Will assured her. He didn't think that she was listening, so he went ahead and took hold of her hand. She looked as disgusted as if he had decided to lick it. "Everyone needs a little contact, once in a while. Even you."
"The only contact I need, William, is my fist in your face," she snarled - but she hadn't even tried to pull her hand away from him yet. He could taste survival. "And that is exactly what is going to happen here if you don't remove yourself from me, and start running. Quickly."
"I'm done running," Will said, even if his heart was racing and it seemed like a spectacularly good idea. Maybe he should have just set something on fire instead. She seemed to like that. "I'm right here, and I'm not moving."
"I could move you." She glared, her eyes narrow in the dim glowing light from his hands. "I could throw you right through that wall. This building is structurally insecure; it would collapse into rubble on top of your deformed frame."
He smiled - he had her, now. A tug from his hand to bring her closer had no effect at all, but he took a step forward instead. "So do it," he challenged. "Get rid of me."
He edged closer until she would be able to feel the warmth of his breath against her mouth. He saw the rapid-fire way that she blinked in response, her nostrils flaring.
"Are you going to kill me?" he asked, knowing that she wouldn't - having faith in it.
"Considering it," she snapped. "You're boring me half to death. Is that the whole idea?"
"Could be," Will conceded. He tilted his head to the side, wondering if a god like her had ever been kissed before. Music mixed sweetly with romance; what could violence have to say on the matter? He tried to imagine if she had ever even been touched outside of battle, and he ran his thumb along her knuckles, tracing every bump. He had to block images of all the other gods that had been killed by these hands out of his mind; some of them had been friends of his, but survival meant more than that. "Are you bored now?" he asked, raising one hand to stroke his fingers against her cheek, the light from his fingertips illuminating their faces.
"Almost asleep," she confirmed.
He leaned in closer, until their lips were brushing and his eyes were half-lidded. "Now?" he asked, feeling an electric buzz against his lips with the shade of contact. It had been a long time for him too. Being with a god was nothing like it was with humans: more powerful, more important.
"Nearly dying from the monotony," Sue said. She swallowed hard and didn't back away. "Try harder, Schuester."
Fine, he thought. He grabbed her hips and pulled her forward, the zipper of her tracksuit pressed firmly against his chest. The new proximity allowed him to push their mouths together, harsh and demanding and not at all what a first kiss ought to be.
Her fingers tangled into his hair, pulling so hard at the curls that he thought she was trying to scalp him. When he tried to pull their mouths away, however, she gave a grunt that was certainly a threat, and he found himself wondering what he had got himself into. Her mouth pushed at him, tongue wet and eager, and he found himself with armfuls of a lusty, pushy goddess - this hadn't been the plan when he came out here tonight.
On the other hand, he thinks as he pushes her back against the nearest wall, it does seem to be working.
*
She allowed him to leave afterwards. Lying in an abandoned classroom with her tracksuit top still on (even if she'd long since lost the bottoms), she waved him towards the door. "We can reschedule the death match," she declared, as kindly as she was able.
Will raised his head, feeling as if all of the energy had been drained from his spent limbs. "Are you sure?" he asked, although he shouldn't have doubted a gift-horse while it was baring its teeth at him.
"Go," Sue insisted, giving him a firm shove so he fell off of the desk onto the floor. "Get dressed and get out before I decide to kill you anyway."
He couldn't think of a single reason to put up an argument, so he scrambled for his clothes and hopped into his trousers while she watched. "If you tell anyone about this, Schuester, I'll kill them too," she warned him absent-mindedly, as if death threats were no big deal.
He had to shrug. "Who would I tell?" All of the other gods were dead or hiding; none of the humans could understand. He was on his own in this.
She didn't watch him as he left, and he found himself out in the hallway once more. His heart raced and he couldn't escape the feeling that he'd just got away with something that he really shouldn't have. He wasn't usually this lucky.
He let himself out of the school and found himself unexpectedly at a loss about what to do now. Leaving the city still probably wasn't an option, and without any solid die-date he now found himself with open freedom on his hands. There was something intoxicating about it that he didn't want to leave behind.
The sun had started to rise and colour the car park when Will walked across it, hands in his pockets. He hadn't brought a car but the ground felt too good beneath his feet to take that happiness away. The walk would do him good: fresh air on his face, the sun in the sky, life in the world. He hadn't felt this good in a long time - and the ghosts of Sue's fiercely demanding hands were determined to send shivers down his spine.
His mind was lost in fresh memories he shouldn't have indulged in - and he didn't notice the angry principal heading his way until it was far too late.
"William!"
Will's footsteps came to a halt as he found himself faced with a pint-sized irate principal. "Figgins?" he said. "What are you doing here? It's early." Ridiculously early, in fact. No one should have been around.
"Some of us choose to come into work when we are paid to do so," Figgins said. "Where were you? I had to call for an emergency substitute. Do you know how much that costs? I can't budget for your boredom, William!"
Will could see the dying dollar signs skating around Figgins's mind. "I'm sorry," he said, while wondering why he bothered. "There was a family emergency."
"Miss Sylvester also disappeared," Figgins said, eyes narrowing. Will had the feeling that he was trying to see straight through his soul. He didn't know if it would work; he wasn't sure if gods had souls, as such. More than that. Less than that. Something entirely different. "Did she have a 'family emergency' too?"
"You'd have to ask her," Will said.
"I will," Figgins warned. Will smiled and wondered if she was still inside, pantsless. Figgins could find her like that and ask her all the questions that she would allow. "I'd better see you at work today, Schuester. I don't have enough money to hire a substitute for the second day in a row!"
"I'll be here," Will promised, surprising himself - but, what the hell, why not? With Sue temporarily putting him off of her hit list, he had all the time in the world to play around in the school, to try to make this club into something special. "See you later."
Figgins grunted at him with something like indignation, but he headed on his own way, scuttling up the steps into the school. Will left Sue to deal with him if she wanted to, hoping that she was currently too satisfied to think about murder. Figgins would probably get to keep his life.
In the meantime, Will found himself with a couple of hours before he had to think about returning to school to teach mortal teenagers. The world was his - and, at the moment, all he wanted was a decent cup of coffee.
*
As it turned out, going through this life as a god wasn't any different than it had been when he thought he was a human. No one paid him any more attention. The woman at the coffee shop looked tired and bored as she made his drink, and he imagined what it might feel like to pour music into her mind, to light up her thoughts with the kinds of melodies that only came to her in dreams; he could make her heart dance and a smile burst onto her face. Glee could spread throughout this entire town with the barest thought, and all that he would have to do would be sit back and watch.
But -
No.
He took hold of his drink and reined himself in, because his time and his memories of this town had taught him that glee was about more than the music; it was about choice. It was about opening your soul to something bigger than yourself, and that involved something inside you. He couldn't force it on people. Free will. Free music. It was important.
He drank from his coffee too quickly and burnt his tongue in the process, before he made his way back towards the school. He hadn't marked papers and found himself with no real desire to actually do so.
He floated throughout his morning without feeling any great sense of responsibility. When students tried to make his life a misery, it was easy enough to steal their voices away, leaving their mouths flapping and no words coming out. "It's strange," Emma said at lunch while she stared down at the crumbs that his sandwich had left across the table. She hadn't tried to clear them away one by one yet: to Will, that seemed like progress. "All these students going home sick... I think something might be going 'round. Is that what you had yesterday?"
Will shook his head, thinking of fires and running for his life. "Not quite."
"Seems strange, doesn't it?" Emma frowned, her brow drawing together in a way that Will found adorable, even now. He imagined that he always would. "It must be a bug."
"I'm sure you'll be fine," Will assured her - before a hand clamped down on his shoulder.
He looked up in alarm to find Sue towering over him, with a smile on her face that was threateningly friendly. "From what I hear, it is extraordinarily contagious. Mind if I take a seat?" She plopped down before anyone could raise an objection - not that Will would have dared to. "The strange thing is that all of the cases are originating in William's classroom. He's the only common link between them, and he had to take the afternoon off of work yesterday. If I were you, sunshine, I'm not sure if I'd feel safe around this harbour of germs without some considerable breathing apparatus to protect myself."
Emma's eyes grew wider and she swallowed, but she didn't move - a misplaced sense of loyalty and defiance, Will guessed. "It's okay," he assured her. "You can go if you want. I can handle Sue."
Emma delicately packed what little remained of her lunch away, twitching a smile at him before she beat a hasty defeat. Will watched as the door closed in her wake, lingering there for a moment, before he turned his attention back to Sue. He wasn't sure if he had the heart for this conversation. His nerves were already shredded.
"Was that really necessary?"
"Yes." She blinked at him like a reptile devoid of conscience. "Being around you is a health hazard. It was only fair to warn her before the stench of your hairspray reached fatal levels in her system."
He tried hard to be offended, but all that he managed was a small smile. "Sue," he cautioned quietly, more warmth in his voice than was secretly necessary. After last night, they had a connection. He had felt it.
Sue's face, however, remained completely impassive. "It isn't safe for that woman to be around you," Sue said, and Will began to get the impression that this really had nothing to do with contagious viruses or hairspray overloads at all. It was achingly personal.
"Are you jealous?" he asked her, leaning forward over the weak table. "Of Emma?"
She looked as if she was about to chop his head off for even suggesting it. That seemed like a solid enough indication that it was true.
"You are, aren't you?" He couldn't keep the giddy delight out of his voice.
"She's mortal. Human." Sue blinked at him, and she looked like a dinosaur in the sun. Her teeth were sharper than that. "It's a matter of principle."
"It is no such thing." Will was grinning by this point - it felt as though he had finally scored a point after a long, hard game. The victory was sure to be short-lived. "You were jealous because I was talking to someone else."
She leaned forward, deep into his personal space, and Will stayed right where he was. His brow furrowed and he met her glare with one of his own, remembering the ferocity that had come the night before and the feel of her burning hands against his bare skin.
"Stay away from that woman, William," she warns him. "Or you will find her pretty Bambi-eyed head sitting on your desk before the end of the day. Don't push me."
Will's eyebrows rose and he nodded, sinking against the back of his seat. It seemed to be enough to satisfy Sue, who lounged in her seat and happily stole one of his sandwiches. She took a ridiculously large chomp out of it and met his eyes as if eating his food was an open challenge. He rolled his eyes and didn't take her up on it. Sometimes you had to pick your battles when you were fighting with an obnoxiously powerful goddess.
*
The next battle that he picked, however, came only that evening once school was over and he was in the choir room with his glee club. The music was flowing, beats slamming, inspiration crackling - the kids thought that it was down to them alone and he let them grasp that belief, let it bolster their confidence and enthusiasm while he floated in his element. The music was like a drug for him, a home away from home, and here it welcomed him like an old friend. Inspiration had been gone for too long.
He managed to work in a spot of rapping for himself in between songs, smile on his face as he broke it down with the kids.
And then Sue came, smashing into the party like an angry storm cloud. "Schuester," she snapped. "Outside. Now."
He paused mid-rap. The backing music dwindled to a halt and he let his shoulders deflate. "Guys, keep practising, and talk among yourselves about ideas to really kick it this year." He left them talking quietly, knowing that he would have to deal with a coup from Rachel when he got back. Moving out into the corridor, he made sure to close the door firmly behind himself. He didn't think that most of the members of glee club would physically be able to handle the mental strain of overhearing a god's bickering fit.
"What is it, Sue?" he asked, hands settling on his hips. "I'm busy."
She looked as if he had splashed water into her face. He struggled not to look as if he was enjoying it too much. "I think you're beginning to forget your position in all of this, Schuester."
"I remember it perfectly." He remembered the needy, hunting grasp of her hands and the thrust of her tongue; he remembered realising that she was just as lonely as him, just as desperate. "You don't want to kill me. You've got nothing over me any more."
"I'll kill them." She thrust a finger in the direction of the choir room as if she was trying to shoot lightning from the tip. When he went back into the room, Will wouldn't have been surprised to find at least one of the kids without a breath in their body. "All of them."
"No, you won't," he said, steady and certain as if it was a fact. "If you hurt them, then we're done. And you're alone."
"And you'd have no more leverage over me. If you try to withhold anything from me, then I have no reason to keep you alive. Works both ways, maggot."
Will tightened his jaw and breathed in through his nose. Possibly, this hadn't been the brightest idea that he had ever had.
Sue closed in, tight enough that he could feel her breath and smell her sharp perfume. He met her eyes and glared at her, shoulders squared, but this was a fight that he could feel himself losing. "So go into your tone-deaf carollers and tell them to get themselves a new babysitter. You're done."
This was not how he had envisioned this, but he was cornered now: captured. "This isn't fair," he complained, his voice raising even if he knew he should have kept it down. "You can't do this."
Behind them, the door to the choir room opened and several heads stuck out. Will waved an impatient hand in their direction: the last thing that he needed was for any of the kids to get involved in this mess. He didn't need their blood on his hands.
"Do you need any help, Mr Schue?" Finn offered, as if he thought that a good football tackle might be all that was required in this situation.
Will turned around to tell him to get back to practice, but what he saw froze the words on his tongue. It wasn't a group of teenagers talking to him. More than that, bigger than that. He saw multi-coloured skin and extra eyes and snakes dancing where hair should be. He deliberately avoided looking into Rachel's eyes, just in case.
"I think you should let Mr Schue come back to practice, Coach Sylvester," Rachel advised. Turning back to Sue, Will saw the scandalised widening of her eyes and knew that she saw the same truth that he had: the gods were back. They'd been hiding all along. "We've got a lot of rehearsing to do."
Sue's hand scrambled at the waist to her pants, but her sword wasn't with her. Her sense of security must have saved them from a shot to the gut.
"Don't think you're getting away with this," she warned him, hissing her words low.
However, like a well-trained general, she made a tactical retreat, storming down the corridors. Will could practically see the furious plots forming in a dark cloud above her head, but they had time yet before they had to worry. Turning around, there was a broad, unbelieving smile on his face. His friends were there, alive and breathing in human form. Teenagers, under his nose the entire time - how was this possible?
As the door closed behind them, Will was swept into a group hug of godlike proportions, squeezing pressure that might have killed someone more mortal. "How is this possible?" he asked, laughing at the sight. Finn, unveiled as shining Apollo; Rachel, the snakes of her hair betraying her as Medusa; the three cheerleaders transformed into the three Muses. Gods from many mythologies lounged in the choir room, smiling at him from across the centuries. "You died. All of you - you died."
"That's right," Finn agreed. "But that doesn't have to mean we're gone. We thought something might happen - so we arranged this as an insurance policy."
Will shook his head: he still had no idea what 'this' was.
"We're shadows," Rachel said. "Projections, and pale ones at that."
"Ghosts," Will provided.
Rachel shook her head. "More than that. Much more. We're not quite up to our old standards, but between all of us we have a very good chance at overpowering Sylvestra."
At the mention of that shaky plan, Will frowned and shook his head. All of the optimism and blind faith in the world couldn't make up for one simple fact: she was more powerful than them. She had killed them when they were alive and at full strength.
The Muses smiled as if they were peeking into his very thoughts. "You can't kill a ghost," they said, Brittany, Quinn and Santana speaking as one. "We're already dead - what can she do to us now?"
"She's Sue. She'll find a way." Whether it meant charging into the Underworld itself, nothing would stop her. Will didn't doubt that.
"And so will we," Mercedes said, her hammer slung casually over her shoulder. "You taught us that, Mr Schue. As a group, there's nothing we can't do."
Will wasn't sure where the kids started and the gods began, but he found himself too overwhelmed to worry about the distinction. "Alright," he said, clapping his hands together once. "Let's do this."
It was time to plot against the most powerful god in the universe - and work out how to survive.
Part Three