A sound of breaking glass and crunching metal; the car was tossed sideways, rolled a few feet, and then stopped. It was all over in less than thirty seconds. Thirty seconds was all it took for Quinn's dreams to be crushed. No more cheerios, no more dancing, no more Yale. No one knew this better than Quinn Fabray. She didn't cry or scream or yell, because she just didn't have the energy. She was slowly suffocating, the weight on her chest getting heavier and heavier each day.

Paralyzed. As in a wheelchair, not for a few hours a day, but for like, forever. She would never get to cheer with her friends again, or rule the school like she used to, or get another chance for her perfect thing. (Beth wasn't hers. She never was.) You can still go to Yale, she was told over and over. Who were they kidding? She could barely move without help, how was she supposed to fend for herself in mere months? Everything she had worked for was over. Quinn Fabray had fallen one too many times to get back up again.

It was one of those long days in the hospital in which her mother was working, she was alone and everything hurt but her legs, and hell, that was cruel irony at its worst. At best Quinn was expecting a pity visit from one of the glee kids and something good on TV. At worse she was expecting a meteor to fall on top of her from the sky, because why the hell not. She had already experienced pretty much everything else.

To say the least, she was surprised when Rachel Berry walked in. Even better, Finn Hudson was noticeably absent from her side.

"Hello, Quinn," she said stiffly, her smile a little too bright.

"Hey, Rachel," Quinn said, sitting up a little straighter. "I'm really glad to see you," and she really, really was.

"I…" she trailed off, and her smile faltered. "Um, mind if I sit down?"

"Yeah, sure," not like Quinn could do anything about it either way.

Rachel settled herself into one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs arranged near Quinn's hospital bed. She took a deep breath and changed her expression so she was looking bright and cheerful again. Quinn would've smiled if she hadn't been having such a crappy month. "So, Quinn," Rachel paused again, and looked towards the floor. Obviously she was having trouble saying whatever she was trying to say, but made another attempt, her smile getting bigger and faker the more she struggled. "Well, I've been wondering if, well, if you've been getting—I mean having—troubles or any, um, issues with the…" by this point Rachel was starting to look like a crazed clown, and Quinn was starting to get annoyed. She wasn't that fragile.

"Just spit it out, Rachel. Honestly, I won't get offended."

Rachel sighed again, and abandoned her smile. "I wanted to know if you wanted to talk about what happened."

"No." This response was immediate and final. "My life is over, and no amount of 'talking' is going to help."

Rachel looked even more hopeless, perched in the tiny chair, clutching her purse and trying to come up with a response. "Quinn," she said slowly. Quinn looked away. She didn't want pity talks. She'd had enough of those by her third day in the hospital. Why did people insist in trying to cheer her up? Nothing about this situation was okay, and Quinn didn't want anyone pretending it was. "Quinn—please, look at me," Rachel begged, her voice catching on the last word. As much as Quinn wanted to be mad at Rachel, she still couldn't stand to see her upset, so she looked back at her. "Quinn, I'm so sorry that I did this to you," seeing that Quinn was about to object, Rachel hurried on. "but you've always been able to bounce back after everything you've been through. I'm not going to let you act like this forever."

Rachel stood up and started heading towards the exit. She turned around and added, "you're Quinn Fabray, and you're going to act like it. I'm not giving up on you."

RQ-SB-RQ-SB

"Hey, Britt. Having a good day?" Santana leaned against the lockers next to her girlfriend.

"Yeah, in art we painted. Well, I painted. I don't know what everyone else was doing," Santana was about to respond to this when Brittany added, "Oh! And Coach Sylvester wants to talk to you."

"Really? When did she tell you that?" They didn't have cheerios practice until later on that day.

"She didn't tell me. I just know."

"Okay, thanks for telling me, Britt." Normally, someone might question this, but Santana was used to Brittany's odd comments. She wouldn't even be surprised if Coach Sue did want to see her about something.

They both turned their heads when a loud crash was heard down the hallway, and several voices broke out at once.

"What was that?" Brittany asked.

"Some Neanderthals got into a fight, I'm sure," Santana rolled her eyes. This was not rare at McKinley.

"Santana…" Brittany's voice rose in panic as she stared down towards the commotion.

"What is it?"

"I think Quinn's down there," This Santana paid attention to. If anyone was acting like a Neanderthal lately, it was Q herself. Yeah, she was stuck in a wheelchair. She was still going to Yale, for Christ's sakes. But the way she carried on and on and on about how her life was over, you'd think she was dying or something. It had been two months since the accident, and although people had been sympathetic at first, by this point everyone was sick of Quinn's "poor me" attitude. Still, Santana didn't want to break up the unholy trinity by getting Quinn killed, she decided to rescue Quinn's paralyzed ass.

"Where, Britt?"

"Down at the other end. By the football player who still wets the bed."

Santana had no idea where Brittany had gotten that piece of information, but Quinn wasn't hard to spot in her wheelchair, trying to wheel away from the fight. Santana sprinted down the hallway, stopping only to yell a string of Spanish at some poor hockey player who got shoved into her. Reaching Quinn's chair, she barreled through the crowd, stopping only when they'd reached Brittany.

"Trying to get yourself killed, Q?" Santana asked the scowling blonde.

"I could've handled it." Lately, Quinn had been a real bitch about people trying to help her out with anything. Santana guessed it was a side effect of the chair, but she was really getting sick of it either way.

"Okay, fine. I'll remember that the next time I run through a fistfight to save your sorry ass. C'mon, Britt."

"See you later, Quinn!" Brittany called over her shoulder as the girl rolled away.

SB-RQ-SB-RQ

"Hmm…the wheelchair girl might be a problem. What do you think?"

"She'll get over it. Water's good with healing."

"True, but the girl was raised on earth."

"Exactly why she'll be good at protecting it when the time comes."

"In a wheelchair?"

"It's not like we have much of a choice. She will be ready to help when we need it."

"What about the fire girl, huh? She looks handy, although she looks like she's gotten a little too used to the earth's customs. Not like the airhead."

"Yes, I've noticed that that one has adapted to earth the least. She's definitely a descendent of the wind."

"Is that good or bad?"

"Could be either. If she were back, she would definitely have a gift. Here—I'm not so sure. She could be a liability in battle. She'd make an excellent sorcerer, though."

"What about earth?"

"I'm not sure. We haven't seen anything besides the usual—strong, dependent, stubborn. We'll have to wait to see where she is at."

"Physically, or mentally?"

"Either."

"So are we going to tell them soon?"

"Yes. It's been a gambit waiting this long. It's a miracle none of them have been attacked yet, even under constant watch. I wanted to wait until they were ready, and now—I think they're as ready as they'll ever be. We shall tell them soon."

RQ-SB-RQ-SB

Santana was in the middle of her math test when she was suddenly jabbed with a pencil. "Brittany," she hissed. "I can't help you right now. Just guess."

"No, it's not that." Brittany said loudly. A few people around them shushed her. Santana glanced towards the teacher's desk nervously. She could not afford to fail another math test. Luckily for her, the teacher was still grading papers.

"What is it?"

"It's Rachel. She's been kidnapped!"

This is my FIRST glee story, and I'm so excited to see what you think of the first chapter! Some questions will be answered next chapter, but if you haven't guessed yet, the people who kidnapped Rachel are NOT good guys! I will update if and when enough people show interest in the story.