When Santana went into this whole superhero business, she was prepared for anything but this. Sure, she had learned from reading countless comic books that a villain's job was to find the superhero's Kryptonite, his one ultimate weakness, but she never dreamt that it would develop into a situation like this. She had so many weaknesses, really—so why, why did he have to strike the one chord that would buckle her completely?

There were no words to describe how furious she was with herself for letting Brittany come with her to the bank. If she had only stood firm on her ground and never let Brittany tag along, then the Wolf would've never found the way to make Varied Bunting stay in her bed all day and cry herself to sleep because she had no idea how to find the girl that she's loved for so many years. Image after image rolled through her mind, of what the Wolf and his thugs could be doing to Brittany right now, if they were beating her or if she was just tied up in a dark room and left there to soak in her fear. Either way, Brittany must be feeling very lonely right now, and Santana hated herself for putting her girlfriend in a position of such danger.

She was laying in her bed now, her face stuffed in her pillow and her eyes sore from crying. The FBI agents on the case were no closer to finding Brittany, and she, of course, being the lousy superhero that she is, was of absolutely no help. She had flown across all of Lima several times in search of the black van that the Wolf had brought to Breadstix, but her searches were to no avail. It had been three days since Brittany disappeared and a note with her name and the Wolf's signature was delivered to Santana, and nobody knew what to do.

Santana felt her phone vibrate, so she blindly reached to her right until her hand closed around it. She turned her head away from the pillow, stared at the screen for a few seconds, and opened the text.

Sam [Tuesday, 4:33 PM]: Manen nalyë?

Santana smiled appreciatively at her phone. Only Sam would know that sending her a text in Elvish would raise her mood. She translated the text in her head—How are you?, and quickly typed in a response.

Im maer. Le hannon.

Santana read over her text, making sure that it actually meant what she wanted it to—I'm fine. Thank you. After she was sure that the words were correct, she pressed Send and dropped back down into the pillows.

It wasn't long before she was looking at her phone again and searching for the number of the FBI agent who was assigned to work with her, as Varied Bunting. She cleared her throat, selected the number, and brought the phone to her ear.

"Hello?" the gentle voice of Special Agent Natalie Biggs answered at the other end of the line.

"Hi." Santana's eyes darted around nervously. "It's Varied Bunting," she said quietly.

"Hi," Natalie responded, her tone caring and motherly. "We're still working on the phone number that you gave us. No leads have come up so far." There was a short pause. "I'm sorry."

Santana closed her eyes, trying to delay the stream of tears that she knew was bound to come. "Thank you," she said, her voice cracking against her will. She ended the call, a few tears already rolling down her cheeks, and hugged her pillow close to her, imagining that it was Brittany and that she was safe here in her arms.

"Can anyone tell me what the third derivative of cosine of 5x plus sine of 8x is?" Mrs. Hagberg looked at the class expectantly. Naturally, all of the students were too lazy to work out the problem by themselves and preferred to just copy what she wrote on the board, so Mrs. Hagberg turned to the one person who she knew wouldn't have any problem with solving this equation—Santana Lopez.

"Santana?" she tried hopefully.

Santana had spent the entire class staring groggily at a certain point on her desk. The worksheet that Mrs. Hagberg handed out earlier lay forgotten in front of her, clean and unmarked by the intricate calculations that Santana would've usually filled it with. Santana didn't hear Mrs. Hagberg call her name; she was lost once again in her imaginations of what was being done to Brittany while she was sitting in a classroom and doing nothing to help. She prayed that the Wolf was only trying to hurt her by kidnapping Brittany, and that he didn't want to hurt Brittany as well.

When she didn't respond, the entire class turned their heads to her, eyebrows raised because Santana Lopez was the last person to ignore a teacher when she was being addressed. Santana saw the shifts of her classmates out of the corner of her eye and gazed up, startled, to find everybody in the room staring at her. She looked around, wondering if she had maybe said one of her horrifying thoughts aloud, until Mrs. Hagberg finally repeated, "Do you know what the third derivative of cosine of 5x plus sine of 8x is?"

Santana blinked to try to make her brain work. It was absurd that she was here, answering math questions, while Brittany was still nowhere to be found. "It's 125 sine of 5x minus 512 cosine of 8x," she said, quietly but certainly.

Mrs. Hagberg nodded and flashed her a smile—a rare occurrence, because the facial expression that she usually wore was a frustrated scowl. "That is correct," she said as she turned to the whiteboard and began to work out the equation.

"How does she do that?" Santana heard a whisper from the back of the room.

Before she had the chance to turn around and see who was inquiring about her academic abilities, the door of the classroom opened and a short freshman walked in and whispered inaudibly to Mrs. Hagberg. Mrs. Hagberg raised her eyebrows and turned to look straight at Santana. "Principal Figgins wants to see you, Santana."

Santana gaped at her in shock. Principal Figgins wanted to see her? For what reason? Was she in trouble?

Silently, she picked up her backpack, grabbed the worksheet on the desk, and made her way across the classroom, the eyes of every student in the room on her as she exited through the door.

On her way to Principal Figgins's office, Santana tried to think of every possible scenario to explain her being called to the principal's office. She had never broken any school rules other than the times she had left the school to fulfill her superhero duties, and, well, she couldn't really be blamed for that. She didn't know how she'd explain these absences; she'd have to reveal that she's Varied Bunting or she'd get detention. The other scenario playing in her mind had to do with Brittany, and had two outcomes—one where Brittany was found alive, and one where she was found dead. The latter hurt so much to think about that Santana almost ran the remaining way to the office, no longer able to take this terrible anticipation.

As it turned out, Principal Figgins was not the only one waiting for her in his office. When she entered the room, she saw none other than Special Agent Natalie Biggs and her partner for this case, Special Agent Reed Jonston. Her eyes jumped between the three for a few seconds, her mouth hanging a little open, until Natalie finally stood and walked forward, offering Santana her hand. "Hi," she smiled as Santana placed her hand in hers, "I'm Natalie Biggs, and this is my partner, Reed Jonston." Santana tried to make it seem like she really was meeting them for the first time, but Natalie was looking at her in a way that made this task very difficult to perform. Natalie winked secretly at her, to which Santana responded with a very obvious gawk, and continued, "We work for the FBI, and we're here to talk to you about your friend, Brittany Pierce."

"More than a friend, according to the whispers of the students in the halls," Principal Figgins chimed in. Santana couldn't stop the glare that she sent his way. He was much too involved in the students' rumors and gossip for her liking.

"Oh?" Natalie raised her eyebrows, and shifted her eyes back to Santana. Santana dropped her gaze to the floor and nodded, her cheeks burning. She still hadn't gotten used to this whole being out of the closet deal.

They stood awkwardly like that for a few moments, until Reed finally spoke up. "Well, then," he began. "I'm sure you're just as desperate as we are to find Brittany."

Santana raised her gaze to him and nodded quickly. She looked at Natalie again, hopeful that maybe they had some new leads, but Natalie shook her head apologetically. "We haven't found her yet, Santana. We're doing our best with the information that we've acquired, which isn't much."

Santana looked away, disappointed. Brittany had been gone for four days now, and she and the FBI were no closer to locating her and saving her from the hands of those callous brutes.

"We'd like to ask you some questions about Brittany," Natalie said, her tone, once again, kind and motherly. "If you could sit down, please."

Natalie and Reed asked her some questions about when and where she last saw Brittany, and if Brittany had acted oddly or out of the ordinary. Santana tried her best to give as much information as she could, but even she knew that her answers wouldn't aid in the search for Brittany. The Wolf was smarter than to leave evidence behind him that could lead to his possible imprisonment.

When they ran out of questions to ask, Natalie and Reed thanked Santana for her help, and Natalie wrote down her number in case they needed to contact her again. Santana panicked a little when she was asked for her number, because they already had her number as Varied Bunting, but Natalie once again gave her a subtle look of confirmation that they were indeed sharing a secret, and went about taking her number without suspicion.

Reed moved on to question Principal Figgins, and Natalie pulled Santana outside to the empty hallway. When they were alone, she turned to Santana and said, "I'm sure you've already realized that I know who you are."

Santana nodded, her eyes uncertain. Natalie smiled warmly. "Don't worry, this secret stays between you and me. I contacted your cell phone provider and found out that Varied Bunting's number belongs to a girl named Santana Lopez. When we came here and were told that Brittany is friends with this Santana Lopez, I knew that this was no coincidence." She surveyed Santana, who was biting her lip nervously. "Nobody else knows of this, Santana, and I don't mean to tell them. You have a right to privacy."

Santana nodded again, her hands fidgeting anxiously with her sweater. "There's no new information?"

Natalie shook her head. "No, I'm sorry." She put a caring hand on Santana's shoulder. "You'd be the first to know if something came up."

"Thank you." Santana tried her best to hide her disappointment. She thought that as upsetting as it was to still be no closer to finding Brittany, at least the agents hadn't come to tell her that they found her girlfriend's dead body in some lake floating among some very oblivious fish.

Santana was lying in her bed, too exhausted to even cry, when she heard a soft knock on the door. She raised her head a little, stared at the door for a moment, and said, "Come in."

Maribel stepped into the room, a worried look in her eyes. She smiled sadly when she saw Santana lying face down on the bed and walked over to her. "How are you doing?" she asked, sitting down on the edge of the bed and running her fingers through her daughter's hair.

Santana shrugged and put her head back down, knowing that her mother didn't really need an answer and could sense that she wasn't okay. Maribel sighed deeply and stroked Santana's cheek. "I'd like to talk to you about this…Wolf guy."

Santana raised her eyebrows and pushed herself up so that she was sitting, facing her mother. "What do you want to know?"

Maribel licked her lips in thought. "You took his mask off, right? What did he look like under his wolf mask?"

"He…" Santana willed her mind to remember the exact details of his face. It had all happened so quickly and she was in such panic that certain elements of the scene escaped her memory. "He had scars all over his face…" Santana absentmindedly touched her chin and cheek, where she had seen his scars. "And his lip was torn," she added, her fingers now grazing her lips.

"And his eyes?" Maribel prompted, gazing at Santana in a way that made Santana think that she already knew the answer. "What color were his eyes, Santana?"

Santana closed her eyes and tried to remember. She saw the scene before her, the crowd of onlookers down in the street, the police officers and their weapons… "They were two different colors," she said confidently. "The right was blue and the left green."

Maribel shook her head and bit her lip. "Why?" Santana asked curiously. "Do you know him?"

Maribel's eyes widened, and she quickly said, "No! No, it's very common for Likors to have two different colored eyes." She looked away.

Santana eyed her suspiciously. She had a strong feeling that her mom wasn't being completely honest with her. "Really?" she asked skeptically.

Maribel peeked up at her. "Okay, I know of him," she admitted reluctantly.

Santana leaned forward, her eyes round with astonishment. "Really? Was he famous in Illdenwan?"

"He…" She glanced sideways and licked her lips again. "Yes, I guess you could say that."

"Was he responsible for a genocide? Has he killed millions? Is he the evil leader of the Likors?"

"No, no, nothing like that," Maribel shook her head. "He was a researcher in Earth biology." She paused for a moment. "A genius, really. He made a lot of trips here to Earth, obtaining samples and then bringing them home for further examination. He was very talented and successful, and he brought in most of the research on Earth that the Illdenwanese had done."

"So what happened?" Santana asked, intrigued.

"He traveled to Earth once more to study some canidae animals. Dogs, coyotes, foxes…and wolves." She looked at the wall behind Santana, as if she was remembering something that was forgotten a long time ago. "It was when he was studying wolves that he was attacked by one, and, well…after that, everything changed." She nodded sorrowfully to herself. "He lost his mind. He began to research weapons that could be used against humans, as if they were the ones responsible for the scars on his face."

Santana stared at her and blinked once. "Seriously?" she asked flatly. Maribel raised her eyebrows. "He's a mad scientist?"

Maribel chuckled, gazing at her daughter with a smile that was well reflected in her eyes. "Just like your comic books, huh?"

Santana nodded and rested her chin on her knees, which were curled up to her body. "So he wasn't always like this?" she asked.

"No," Maribel sighed. "Before this happened, actually, he was known for wanting peace between the Likors and the Lumlis. His Illdenwanese name was Nukk Loness. His human name is Hugo Harrington."

"What's your Illdenwanese name?" Santana asked curiously.

"Joori Tyms," Maribel smiled.

"Joori?" Santana's eyes widened. "I thought that was just a pet name Dad calls you."

"No, it's my real name," she admitted and stroked Santana's hair again. Santana hugged her knees and remembered how her superheroes always defeated the villains. Just like the villains had found their Achilles' heel, the superheroes always struck back with the villains' own weaknesses. And now that she knew a little more about the Wolf, she thought that maybe, just maybe, she had found his real weakness.

"Okay, wait, so you think that in order to defeat the Wolf, we need…a wolf?" Sam cocked his head to one side, clearly puzzled. "But the Wolf is a wolf, or at least his mask is a wolf, so how would getting a wolf defeat the Wolf?"

"Okay, first of all, please stop saying 'wolf.'" Santana shot him an exasperated glance. He smirked in response. "Don't you get it? The reason he went mad is because a wolf attacked him. It changed his thought process, his rationality, his entire life. Don't you think that bringing back that memory, of the most terrible moment of his life, would cripple him for just enough time for us to overpower him?"

"Oh, I get it," Sam began to nod enthusiastically, "he uses the wolf character to seem like he's one with the wolves, when really, he's super scared of them. But no one knows that, because everyone assumes that he loves wolves and that's why he uses a mask of one." He grasped his backpack straps the way he always did when he was excited. "It's like how Batman is a bat but he's actually afraid of bats, or at least was."

"Exactly! Henri Ducard would have taught the Wolf one hell of a lesson about facing his fears," Santana replied eagerly. "Well, except for the fact that he turned out to be a Ra's Al Ghul in the end and he's completely crazy."

"Right," Sam nodded thoughtfully. "But how do we know that the Wolf hasn't already faced his fears? I mean, what if he's already forced himself to be among wolves, and conquered the fear?"

"I just have this feeling…" Santana looked around at the front lawns that they were passing without really seeing them. "He's armored himself with over a dozen burly guys with huge guns, he tries to never make direct contact with his enemies… I don't think that he'd be brave enough to face his fears." She glanced at Sam, who looked to be considering her words. "Think about it. Bruce Wayne, who we both know is extremely brave, wasn't willing to face his fears until he was forced to. Bruce Wayne fights by himself, without the aid of some brawny thugs, and yet even he had to be pressured into facing the bats and his guilt."

"It makes sense," Sam agreed as they turned a corner and the school became visible. "I just hope that you're right."

It wasn't until lunchtime that Santana was in the girls' bathroom and she received a text from another unknown number. She quickly washed her hands and exited the bathroom into the busy hallway, terrified that this text might be an announcement of Brittany's imminent death or excruciating torture.

Unknown Number [Thursday, 12:23 PM]: I see your searches have brought you no answers. This is a quarrel that must be settled between you and I, Varied Bunting, which is why I will allow you to retrieve your lost one in exchange for something else—my pride, and your freedom. I will not rest until I've overpowered your despicable superhero play, and until I've proven to this world that my kind will always be superior to yours. If you're game, Varied Bunting, here is your clue: 'On the third day of a Fool's month, the sun will shine on a Leering marble statue for precisely thirty minutes. If you are not present within this specific time frame on this specific day at this specific location, your missing will be truly lost, and your fate in the hands of the cruel civilians whom you so wish to protect.' Now, a warning: come alone, without the help of petty humans or their useless gadgets of communication. If you do not obey the rules of the game, Varied Bunting, neither will I. Play wisely.

Santana gaped at her phone, frozen in place in the middle of the hallway and completely oblivious to the annoyed students who were forced to walk around her. A Fool's month… Leering marble statue… What did all of this mean?

Determinedly, Santana set off for the cafeteria in hopes of finding Sam. Some students gave her apologetic smiles along the way, which had been happening often lately because of Brittany's disappearance. People always seemed to be apologizing, even if they weren't responsible.

When she arrived at the cafeteria, she couldn't, to her great disappointment, find Sam. She made her way to their regular table to find Artie seated there with some guys from the Video Game Club, talking excitedly about a new Assassin's Creed game that was supposed to be released later that year. Santana stood silently in front of the table for a few moments, until Artie finally noticed her and cocked an eyebrow.

"I…" Her eyes darted between the other video gamers, whom she did not want to involve in her superhero business. She tried to think of a way to say this as inconspicuously as possible. "Can you tell my best mellon that a hero is in need of him, please?"

"Your best melon?" Artie stared at her like she was insane. "What?"

"Not melon, you idiot, mellon. Elvish for 'friend,'" she rolled her eyes.

"Why can't you just speak English like a normal person?"

"Just, ugh, if you see Sam, tell him I need him."

She shot one last worried glance at the other gamers and then made her way out of the cafeteria. There was a feeling inside her that she couldn't quite pinpoint—extreme anxiety mixed with incredible fear, and maybe just a tiny little bit of hope that she'd finally be able to rescue Brittany from that damned madman.

Santana reluctantly went to class after lunch, feeling that she's completely wasting her precious time instead of figuring out the Wolf's riddle. It wasn't until after school had ended that Sam was finally able to catch her.

"Sorry, I spilled a bunch of Kool-Aid on myself during Spanish class, and my mom had to bring me a new pair of pants," he apologized as he walked to her across the hallway. "You were looking for me?"

Without answering, she opened the text and held out her phone. He grasped it and read the text, his eyes getting wider and wider with each word. When he was finally finished, he looked up at her, completely dumbfounded. "Do you have any idea what this means?"

"I have some ideas, but I don't know if they're right." She pulled him into the nearest empty classroom, and they sat down at a table, facing each other. "Okay, so, the third day of a Fool's month. A fool's month should be April, right? I mean, April Fools'. So I think it's the third day of April."

"That makes sense," Sam rubbed his jeans uncertainly. "But April is like five weeks away."

"I know," Santana replied sorrowfully. "He's going to keep Brittany for more than a month. If only I knew where he was keeping her… I'd kick his ass so hard that even Ares would look like a fluffy teddy bear next to me."

The mere thought of leaving Brittany to stay in the Wolf's custody for over a month made her want to crawl up in bed again and never come out. But she had a clue now—this was not the time for emotions to take over and for giving up. This was a time for taking action.

"So what do you think this statue is?" Sam looked at the text again, his thumb between his teeth.

"I don't know," Santana admitted. "And I'm also wondering why Leering is capitalized."

"Maybe it's a name? Like in National Treasure, how Silence was capitalized in the riddle from the meerschaum pipe, because it was a name—Silence Dogood. Maybe Leering is somebody's name."

"But whose?" Santana rubbed her eyes anxiously. "I've never heard of anybody named Leering."

"I don't know," Sam leaned back in his chair and bit his lip. "And what about the marble part? Is it a statue of marbles or is it a statue made of marble?"

"I think it's a statue made of marble…" Santana said slowly. "I don't think that there's a statue of marbles anywhere around here. Or anywhere at all. I mean, who would make a statue of marbles?"

"That's true," Sam agreed.

They sat in silence for a couple minutes, each trying to figure out what the clue could possibly mean. Santana rested her head in her hands and stared intently at the table. Leering could mean that the statue seemed to be leering, but then why would it be capitalized? Unless Sam was right, and it really was somebody's name, but Santana had an odd feeling that it wasn't. It could be… Well, she'd have to ask her mother that. "Come on, I think I have an idea, but I need my mom for that," she beckoned Sam, who followed her out of the school and into the street.

To Santana's great relief, her mother was home when they arrived at the house. She greeted them in the living room, but instantly sensed that something significant had happened to her daughter. "What's wrong, mi cielo?"

Santana hesitated for a few seconds, and then handed her mother her phone. Maribel read the text, her eyes worried and uncertain. Finally, she looked back up at Santana. "Do you think you know when and where this is?"

"We're pretty sure that it's on April 3rd, because of April Fools' Day," Santana explained as she and Sam took a seat on the couch. "That's all we've figured out."

Maribel nodded, deep in thought, and looked back at the text. "I wanted to ask you something," Santana began, and Maribel looked up at her again, her eyebrows raised in question. "Is leering a word in Illdenwanese?"

Maribel thought for a moment, and then her face lit up as if the answer to the clue had hit her. "Yes! It means 'angel.' If it's a statue of an angel and it's made of marble—"

"Oh!" Sam and Santana beamed. "The Gethsemani Cemetery!"

"Yes," Maribel answered with a relieved smile. Hope ignited in Santana like a fire in a gas station. Now that she knew when and where this exchange would occur, she felt much closer to finally rescuing Brittany. The only problem was that April, like Sam had said, was really five weeks away. She wondered why the Wolf would wait five weeks if all that he wanted was to overpower her. Maybe it was some sort of attack technique—by the end of those five weeks, Santana would probably be so distraught about Brittany's absence that she wouldn't be up for the fight. Well, she wasn't going to let that happen. Not if Varied Bunting had anything to say about it.

"That's kinda messed up," Sam rubbed the back of his neck uneasily. "Like, what if he makes bodies fly out of the ground? What if he brings on a zombie apocalypse?"

"I would rather have a zombie apocalypse and Brittany than not have Brittany at all," Santana reasoned, but Sam still looked unsure. "Look, if worst comes to worst, we'll summon allies from Illdenwan to defeat the zombies, okay?"

Sam nodded, and seemed to be comforted by that thought. Santana turned back to her mom, who looked to be trying very hard not to laugh at the fact that a zombie apocalypse was a completely legitimate possibility to them.

"Wait," Sam grabbed Santana's phone again, searching the text for something. "The sun will shine on a Leering marble statue for precisely thirty minutes. Isn't the angel statue in the middle of the cemetery? How can the sun only shine on it for thirty minutes?"

Santana leaned her chin into the palm of her hand, her bottom lip between her teeth. "It's not like there are a bunch of trees around it to hide it from the sun…" she thought out loud. "Or maybe he means that it'll be cloudy that day, but unless he also has weather-forecasting superpowers, I don't think he'd be able to tell that. Or his superpower is so strong that he could make the clouds move by himself. But that would mean that he's got some sort of very powerful hydrokinetic ability to control water, like a waterbender, and if this is true, then what if he creates a tsunami? Oh, God, what if he can move asteroids with his Likor power and he flies one into Earth, and we'll all become extinct just like the dinosaurs, and—"

"Santana!" her mother exclaimed, snapping Santana out of her panicked rambling. "He doesn't have any hydro-gefilte fish ability, and his Likor power isn't nearly strong enough to move asteroids or create tsunamis. Even flying a van must have been a serious strain for him."

"So what's going to cast a shadow on the statue the entire day except for thirty minutes?" Santana asked, gripping her hair as if about to pull it out.

"Uhh—the building of the cemetery office?" Maribel suggested, her eyebrows slightly raised as if this was very obvious.

"Oh." Santana rubbed her head. "Right."

"The building is tall and it wraps around the angel statue in a way that shields it from the sun for most of the day. It should be sometime midday, when the sun is directly above the statue, that it won't be in the shadows," Maribel explained.

"I'm going to my grandma's house on Saturday," Sam began. "It's right next to the Gethsemani Cemetery, so I could check when the sun shines on the angel statue."

"Okay," Santana nodded, her worries of tsunamis and asteroids slowly dissolving and hope building up in her again. "Everything is settled except for one thing—the Wolf said to come alone, but I have no weapon that I can use effectively against him."

"You're not going alone," her mom said immediately.

"Mom—"

"Out of the question! I'm not going to sit back while he kills you! You're going to call the FBI, and believe me, they've dealt with situations like this before," Maribel stated firmly.

"But he said that if I don't obey the rules, he won't either, and that could mean Brittany won't come out alive. I can't let that happen," Santana desperately tried to reason.

"Santana, if you go alone, both you and Brittany will be killed. We both know that you're not strong enough to overpower him with no backup."

"Fine," Santana crossed her arms over her chest. "It doesn't matter anyway, because I still don't have a weapon that can defeat him. If only I could get my hands on some wolves."

"Wolves?" Maribel asked confusedly.

"Yeah, wolves are the key to defeating him," Santana muttered and looked away, the hope that she felt just moments ago waning.

When Santana looked back at her mom, she was surprised to see her facial expression calculating. She looked up at the ceiling, as if deep in thought, and finally said, "Wait here, I think I might have something that'll help you."

She quickly stood on her feet and disappeared up the stairs. Santana cocked an eyebrow and shared a puzzled look with Sam, wondering what her mother thought could aid in defeating the Wolf. She tried to think of a possible way to get around contacting the FBI, whom she thought would screw up everything, but she knew that if her mother had anything to say about it, the FBI would be the first to know of the clue that the Wolf had sent her. Some part of her knew that her mom was right, and that the Wolf had most likely set up a trap or ambush for her, but a much louder and more prominent part of her told her that if she didn't obey the Wolf's rules, Brittany's life would be on the line. It was a tough call—risk Brittany's life by coming alone, or risk her life even more by coming with backup? Either way, the thought of Brittany getting caught in the middle of all of this brought her both colossal anxiety and extreme anger.

"To be honest, that angel kinda scares me," Sam said suddenly. Santana stared at him like he was deranged. "Well, doesn't it remind you of the Weeping Angels? Don't blink. Don't even blink. Blink and you're dead. They are fast, faster than you can believe! Don't turn you back, don't look away, and—"

"STOP!" Santana cupped her hand around his mouth, punching his arm in the process. "This is complicated enough as is without getting the Weeping Angels involved! Shut up!"

Maribel came down the stairs with a large black case in her hands, pausing a bit when she noticed that Santana was practically holding Sam in a headlock. Santana slowly freed him, her full attention now on this black case that she'd never seen before in her life. "What is it?"

Without answering, Maribel walked to the living room table and laid the black case on it, punching in the combination to the lock. Sam and Santana instantly stood up and hurried around the table, eager to see what was inside.

Santana sort of expected the case to open and a golden light to beam from inside, but what she saw instead was so much cooler. "Whoa," she and Sam said appreciatively in unison.

Inside the black case was one of the most awesome weapons that she had ever seen. It was made of what looked like stainless steel (although Santana couldn't be sure of that—this weapon didn't look like anything made on Earth, so for all she knew, it could've been made of some unknown Illdenwanese metal), and was painted with blue streaks across the wide barrel. The end of it was an open ring made of metal as well with tiny outlets on it that looked like some sort of magical energy creators. It was by far the coolest weapon that she had ever seen, and that's including Sora's Oblivion keyblade and Commander Shepard's M-490 Blackstorm.

"What does it do?" Santana asked in awe.

"It creates incredibly real holograms of anything that it's programmed to—watch," Maribel lifted the weapon out of its case, typed something in the tiny keyboard with strange figures on it that was on the back of the gun, and then pulled the trigger.

The outlets in the open metal ring lit up with what looked like green electricity. The currents molded together, there was a high-pitched sound that got louder by the second, and the next thing Santana knew, she and Sam were screaming at the top of their lungs and jumping behind the couch because there was a giant freaking dragon in the middle of her living room.

Santana could hear her mother's laughter ring through the room, but what was much more worrying was the dragon's roar, which quickly swallowed up the laughter. It seemed like the entire house was about to collapse from that earsplitting roar, and Santana, panicked, tried to think of any possible way to escape from the house without being burned to the bone or eaten. A stream of fire shot above the couch, eliminating all possible escape routes, and Sam and Santana covered their heads, wholly terrified.

"It's a hologram, sillies!" her mother called, and suddenly the sounds of the dragon were gone and everything was quiet again. Her heart beating furiously in her chest, Santana slowly peeked above the couch to see that the dragon had disappeared, and instead she was met with her mother's amused smile.

"That…" she breathed, "was…not…funny."

"Oh, come on, Santana, you know you've always wanted to see a dragon!" Maribel teased, setting down the weapon on the table.

"I'd like to see a dragon when Brittany is sitting by my side and I'm warned of it first," Santana muttered, irritated, and made her way back to the front of the couch. "Now's hardly the time."

"So we'd be able to create wolves from that weapon?" Sam asked, still somewhat rattled as well.

"Mhmm," Maribel hummed. "As you've seen, the holograms seem very real, so I doubt that he would suspect that they aren't."

"Brilliant," Sam said quietly. Santana's heart was still beating way too quickly for her to appreciate and be in awe of the weapon's ability.

Maribel took the weapons into her hands again, walked to the couch on which Sam and Santana were seated, and sat between them. "This is how you spell 'wolf' in Illdenwanese," she demonstrated on the weapon, pushing six buttons that had the thin, curly markings of Illdenwanese on them. Sam and Santana looked carefully, memorizing the figures and the path that Maribel's finger made. "Once you have it typed in, all you have to do is pull the trigger, and it'll appear."

"And if we want more than one to be made?" Santana inquired, much more calm now than she was a few moments ago.

"Pull the trigger as many times as you need, and with each pull another wolf will appear."

"What about when we want the wolves to disappear?" Sam asked.

"Push the trigger in the opposite direction, and they're all gone," Maribel explained.

She allowed Santana to take the weapon into her hands and examine it. "It really is brilliant," Santana agreed. "I mean, this will get the job done without putting any lives in danger by bringing in real untamed wolves."

"Exactly," Maribel nodded. She fell quiet, so after Santana finished examining the weapon, she peeked up at her. Maribel seemed to be deep in thought. She had been like this quite often lately. Santana presumed that her mother was either revisiting forgotten memories from Illdenwan, or that she was as desperate as Santana to find Brittany. Either way, she had been acting odd lately—but so had Santana, so she couldn't be one to judge.

Finally, Maribel said, "Promise me, Santana, that you won't leave without me and without backup. I cannot begin to stress how crucial this is."

Santana looked down at the weapon again. Having her mother, who could also fly, at the scene would certainly be helpful. And as much as she was reluctant to admit it, she knew that the FBI would have much better strategies on how to approach a situation like this than she did. Maybe her mom was right. The Wolf had written it himself—Play wisely. The only way to make sure that Brittany came out of this alive was to play wisely, and going in alone with absolutely no help would not be the wise choice to make. "Okay," Santana accorded. "I promise."

Let's not make this mission a failed one like that time we were Luke and Leia cosplays and fell prisoners to that ass Jabba the Hutt cosplay. I will never regain my pride.

Sam [Saturday, 10:03 AM]: I will never forget how he put that collar around your neck and dragged you around with him until you swore your devotion. Hahahaha

You know what? Leia kills Jabba in the end.

Sam [Saturday, 10:05 AM]: Well, then, you're obviously not Leia.

Oh, shut up and get to the cemetery.

Santana sunk back into the couch in her Varied Bunting outfit, dropping her phone to the side. She decided that the first thing she'd do after finding out when the sun shines on the angel statue was fly out to meet Special Agent Natalie Biggs from the FBI and fill her in on everything that's happened. She was still somewhat hesitant, and the possibility of losing Brittany was ever present and terrifying, but the little angel and devil on her shoulders came to an agreement that she had absolutely no chance against the Wolf by herself. When it came down to it, Brittany's life was the most important thing on this mission, and Santana felt like she'd have a much greater chance of keeping Brittany safe if she had reinforcement.

Her father walked into the living room, his glasses low on his nose as he flipped through the morning paper. He glanced up. "Dressed for work, are we?"

Santana didn't answer. Her father dropped the newspaper on a recliner and made his way to the couch that she was sitting on. "How are you?" he asked as he enveloped her into a hug.

Santana buried her face in his shirt, torn between wanting to cry and elaborately explaining all of her problems. She shrugged. "I've dreamed about having Brittany as my girlfriend since first grade. It was always the one unachievable goal I had, and I always knew it wouldn't happen."

"But it did," he stroked her hair soothingly.

She bit her lip. She wanted to express the guilt that she felt to him, but she couldn't see a way of doing that without indirectly incriminating herself. But then again, it was her dad, and he wouldn't judge her as she judges herself. "It's my fault. All of it."

Her father tightened his arms around her, drawing her in closer. "How do you mean?"

"If Brittany weren't my girlfriend, she would be safe in her room right now," Santana explained. "She's in danger because of me, because the Wolf wants to get to me and she's my Kryptonite. It's all my fault."

"But she would still be mean to you if things hadn't played out the way they did," he replied, resting his chin on her head.

Santana fell quiet. Here was the biggest question, the test—would she rather have never gotten the chance to be with Brittany but for Brittany to be safe or would she rather have been selfish and take Brittany for herself with all of the consequences? What was more important to her, Brittany's happiness or her own? She didn't even need to think for one second to know the answer to that. "I'd take all of the bullying from her if it meant that she'd always be safe," Santana said, and knew that her words were the complete truth.

It took nearly four hours for Sam to finally text her. She had been lying on the couch with her head in her father's lap while he read a book. She couldn't bring herself to do anything—ever since she had gotten the text from the Wolf, she had been even more restless and anxious than she was before. She didn't want to wait until April to rescue Brittany. She couldn't stand the thought of leaving her there even one more day, but even the FBI didn't have any clue as to the Wolf's whereabouts. Her mood constantly changed between utter hopelessness and blazing fury. When she was infuriated, she often considered obtaining a gun so that she could blow twenty holes into the Wolf for kidnapping Brittany. When she became calmer, however, she'd always know that she shouldn't get down to the Wolf's level. As enraged as she was about the entire situation, killing the Wolf was not the answer to her troubles.

When she heard her phone buzz, she sprung up to reach for it, startling her father. She quickly swiped her finger across the screen to unlock the phone and opened the text.

Sam [Saturday, 1:44 PM]: The sun shines on the angel from 1:13-1:43 pm. Also, I blinked and even tried to turn around a couple times, but the angel didn't move, so we're safe.

Santana rolled her eyes at the phone, but quickly typed in a response.

Thanks. Piece of advice, though, when you walk away from the angel, don't turn your back to it. It could have been pretending to be a regular statue.

Sam [Saturday, 1:45 PM]: I hate you.

Santana smirked at her phone briefly before exiting the text and hitting the green phone button to look for Natalie's number.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Natalie, it's Santana…Varied Bunting." Santana leaned back into the couch, glancing at her father momentarily to find him gazing curiously at her.

"Hi Santana," Natalie said, her voice a bit downcast. "I'm afraid we don't have any new information."

"I do, though," Santana replied, biting the skin around her thumb nervously. She was having second thoughts about involving the FBI.

"You do?" Natalie sounded surprised.

"Yeah," Santana said hesitantly. She took in a deep breath, reminding herself that going on this mission alone would most likely get Brittany killed, and that she couldn't let that happen. "Meet me in ten minutes on the roof of the Federal Office Building?"

"I will," Natalie said immediately. Santana ended the call, her bottom lip between her teeth and her knee bouncing up and down.

Santana felt her father's hand on her back, and she turned to him. "You're doing the right thing," he said softly.

Santana nodded slowly, absentmindedly. Some part of her knew that her father was right, but another part of her, the part that likes to worry about everything, felt like she was making a big mistake. "I have to go," she said finally, letting her father give her one last reassuring squeeze on the shoulder before marching out of the house and falling forward to take flight.

It took Santana only about five minutes to reach the Federal Office Building, so she sat on the edge of the building and looked down at the people bustling down the street, each in a hurry to get somewhere and with his or her own worries. It seemed odd to think that there were other worries outside of Brittany's kidnapping—but every person always seemed to believe that his worries were of the most importance.

Santana heard a door open behind her, so she turned around. Natalie smiled at her as she made her way across the roof. "So you've got new information?" she began.

Santana held out her phone, which was opened to the text. She fidgeted nervously with her cape as Natalie read, a crease between her eyebrows becoming deeper and deeper as she read on.

Finally, Natalie looked up at Santana. "Let me just begin by telling you that you did the right thing by not listening to his 'rules' and contacting me."

Santana nodded uncertainly. Natalie went on, "The Wolf will not know that we're there, I assure you. Not until Brittany is presented and I give the signal for my team to move in." She surveyed Santana, who was chewing on her nail. "She'll be safe, Santana. The situation is in good hands."

Santana nodded again, more to herself than to Natalie. "We've figured out what the text means," she said, gazing up at Natalie again. "It'll be on April 3rd from 1:13 to 1:43 PM at the Gethsemani Cemetery."

"You're sure of this?" Natalie asked, glancing down at the text again.

"Positive," Santana answered confidently.

"That means we've got a little over a month to prepare for this operation," Natalie said thoughtfully. "Come on, we'll notify my ASAC and begin the preparations."

Santana stayed at the field office the entire day, mostly watching as Natalie assembled a team to work on this case and to analyze the text further. They questioned Santana about her findings, and seemed to be convinced by her answers. By the time Santana left at around eight at night, she felt a lot more confident that she had indeed made the right choice by involving the FBI. They were professional and well prepared for these kinds of situations, just like Santana's mom and dad had said. She fell asleep quickly that night, comforted by the thought that she was one step closer to rescuing Brittany.

"Is the series from one to infinity of natural log of n over n convergent or divergent? Anyone?" Mrs. Hagberg looked expectantly at Santana, knowing that no one else would answer or even know how to answer her question.

Santana looked up, unsurprised by the fact that Mrs. Hagberg was staring directly at her. "Divergent," she said quietly.

"Good," Mrs. Hagberg nodded. "How do you know this?"

"By the Comparison Test, if you compare the natural log of n over n to one over n. The original sum is greater than one over n, and since one over n is the harmonic series, it is divergent, and therefore we can infer that the natural log of n over n is divergent as well."

"Very good!" Mrs. Hagberg exclaimed and turned back to the board. Santana sunk back into her seat and returned to doodling the Wolf in her notebook, each doodle portraying a different way in which she wished to end his life.

Santana felt her phone vibrate in her pocket repeatedly, so she pulled it out and looked at it under her desk to see that her mother was calling her. She let it buzz and made a mental note to call her when the class was over.

About ten seconds after it was finished buzzing, the phone began to buzz again. Santana peeked under her desk. It was her mom. What was so urgent that she'd call her in the middle of class?

Santana slipped the phone back into her pocket and raised her hand to ask to go to the bathroom. Once she was out of the room, she pulled out her phone again and dialed her mother back.

She brought the phone to her ear, only to pull it back when she heard her mother shouting hysterically at the other end of the line. "Mom? What—"

"GET TO THE CEMETERY!" she screeched, breathing heavily as if she was sprinting.

"The cemetery? Why? I don't need to be there until April 3rd—"

"IT'S TODAY!" Maribel yelled, entirely panicked. "A Fool's month is not April, it's March! 'Fool' means 'to march' in Illdenwanese! It's today, it's right now, Santana, get there!"

Santana looked at her watch. March 3rd, 1:21 PM. She had only twenty-two minutes to get to the cemetery.

She didn't put her superhero attire on, she didn't notify anyone of her leaving, she didn't even take her backpack with her—Santana let herself fall forward and rocketed down the hall and out the front doors at full speed, soaring through the sky in the direction of the Gethsemani Cemetery with one thought and one thought only on her mind: Brittany.

She had never flown so fast in her life. She cursed the wind for fighting against her, she cursed drag forces and gravity and Newton's laws, she cursed the birds that she had to fly around because they were too stupid to move out of her way. It was as if the world was fighting against her, throwing every possible obstacle her way to keep her from getting to Brittany on time. She was met with tall buildings that she could swear she'd never seen before, a helicopter that appeared out of absolutely nowhere, and monstrous winds that made her eyes water heavily, blurring her vision and therefore handicapping her. At one point she didn't know whether the tears were flowing because of the wind or on their own—she'd never felt more terrified and distraught than she did now, with the knowledge that if she didn't get to the cemetery on time, she'd lose Brittany for good.

When she was already halfway across Lima, Santana realized that she was going in with no backup, no weapon, and no help. All she had was herself and her flying power, and who knows what kinds of weapons the Wolf would present in their fight. Flying back to her house to get the Illdenwanese weapon was out of the question—by the time she'd get to the cemetery, the Wolf and Brittany would both be long gone. Her mother wasn't at home, from what she'd understood, and her father was at work. That really only left one person who could bring the weapon to her.

Without hindering her flight, she pulled her phone out of her pocket again and quickly dialed Sam. She prayed that he'd excuse himself from class and answer, and she hoped that he'd be able to hear her through all of the noise of the wind if he did pick up.

After about ten rings, Santana finally heard Sam's worried voice. "Hello?"

"Sam, you have to get the weapon and come to the cemetery," she shouted into the phone.

"What? Santana? I can't hear you!" Sam shouted back.

Santana halted in place, making her lose her balance momentarily, but ending the terrible noise from the wind. "You have to get the weapon and meet me at the cemetery," she repeated quickly.

"Wait, why—"

"It's March 3rd, not April 3rd, I'll explain it to you later if I come out of this alive, but right now I need you to leave whatever you're doing, get to my house, and bring the weapon to the cemetery. My backpack's still in Mrs. Hagberg's class—my keys are in the front pocket. Go!" She ended the call and looked at her watch again. 1:27 PM. She only had sixteen minutes left. Panicked, she directed herself forward again, springing back into flight towards the cemetery.

She wanted to call Natalie, she wanted to have reinforcement, but she knew that with so little time to prepare, the FBI would not be able to help in this matter. It'd be as the Wolf had planned it all along—him against her with no interference by who he deemed petty humans.

It took her another seven minutes to reach the cemetery. When she finally saw the white graves, she barreled toward the cemetery office, knowing that the marble statue of the angel was placed right behind it.

She landed clumsily on top of the cemetery office building, breathing heavily and crouching down so that she wouldn't be seen. She quietly made her way across the roof and to the other side, where she dropped to her knees and peeked above the edge, looking for any signs of the Wolf, or, more importantly, Brittany.

The angel statue stood tall under the warm sun, a large marble cross situated behind it, casting a shadow on the angel's face. In some miniscule part of her mind Santana remembered the Weeping Angels, but that thought was quickly pushed aside by the worrisome fact that as far as she could see, there was nobody here.

Santana's always hated cemeteries—she always felt like they were creepy, like being among the dead would cast a curse on her own life, like the dead were not in peace in their places below the ground. All of these things seemed extremely heightened today; it was quiet—too quiet.

Had she missed the time interval? She checked her watch again. Six minutes left. The Wolf wasn't one to bail out early. He wouldn't give up his game so easily. So where on earth were they?

She guessed that the Wolf, just like her, was hiding and waiting for her to come out first. Those were the rules of the battle, after all: let your enemy emerge from hiding first and then attack him from the back. It was a flawless battle technique—all that was left to be determined is who makes the brave move first, and who attacks whom from the back.

Santana laid out the possibilities before her. She could wait until Sam arrived with the weapon, but it would surely take him twenty minutes if not more, and frankly, she couldn't afford that amount of time. Not when Brittany's life was on the line. Another option was to sneak around the building and try to catch the Wolf off-guard, but that would take ten minutes in and of itself, and she couldn't afford that amount of time either, what with the five minutes that she had left in the time interval. The only other option she could see, to her great dismay, was to reveal her location and let the Wolf attack first.

With every instinct screaming at her to do the opposite of what she was about to, Santana slowly straightened up and let herself fall forward. Her eyes darting in all directions, she cautiously floated off of the roof and lowered herself until she was a mere five feet aboveground. She held her breath, anticipating an ambush any second.

What she heard instead was ten times—no, a hundred times—worse. Instead of the gunshots that she was expecting to hear, Santana heard a soft sob, which she knew could only belong to one person. She snapped around in the air, trying to sense the direction from which the sob was coming, but she was met everywhere with aged trees and brick walls and white tombstones, none of which provided any clue as to Brittany's whereabouts. The sob grew louder, but Santana still couldn't figure out which direction it was coming from. She twirled around, her eyes flying over everything around her, looking for a flash of blond hair or the bared teeth of the Wolf's mask, anything that would indicate their location, but to no avail.

The next thing happened so quickly that in a few years, looking back, Santana wouldn't remember exactly what had occurred. All she would remember is that suddenly things were flying at her from all directions, except for one thing, or, more specifically, one body, which was rocketing across the sky in the opposite direction. Santana didn't have to be told twice that that body was Brittany's. She projected through the air, slightly faster than Brittany's body was moving, but still not fast enough to catch up. Something hit her in the head, and she became momentarily disoriented, but quickly recovered and continued to soar toward Brittany, who was screaming at the top of her lungs.

She realized, a little too late, that they were flying straight at another statue in the cemetery, a sort of white obelisk, behind which was a giant tree. Even if they were able to dodge the obelisk, they'd still hit the tree, but it didn't look like Brittany was about to dodge either one of those.

Santana willed her body to move the fastest it had ever moved, and after a few seconds of strenuous flying, she was able to wrap her arms around Brittany's waist and hug her close. The problem was that unlike the time at Breadstix, the Wolf didn't seem to want to let go of his victim's body, and even though Santana was holding onto Brittany, they were still both flying straight at the obelisk at a dangerous speed, the distance between the cold marble and them closing by the second.

Santana pulled as hard as she could on Brittany's waist, and Brittany grasped onto her arms as if to help, but it seemed that the Wolf's superpower was more powerful than both of them together, and all Santana could manage to do was slow them down a little. When she looked up again, the obelisk was twenty feet in front of them. Without thinking about the consequences, Santana did the first thing that seemed rational—she turned their bodies around so that her back was flying toward the obelisk and Brittany would not endure the blow.

They crashed into the obelisk, Santana's head making a worrying clunk as it bounced off of the marble, and collapsed to the ground in a heap of loose limbs. Santana found herself unable to move her body, her vision darkening and all of her strength escaping. All she could register was that it felt like someone was repeatedly pounding a hammer on her head, and that her hand was loosely grasping onto Brittany's. Then everything went black.

"Well, well, looks like someone forgot her mask at home."

The voice was quiet, distant, as if she was hearing it from miles away. She felt incredibly nauseous and couldn't bring herself to open her eyes. Her body was shaking, almost in a feverish way. It didn't feel like someone was pounding a hammer on her head anymore—it felt like there was a hammer pounding several nails into her skull at the same time. She could feel two arms wrapped around her protectively, and somewhere in her mind it occurred to her that Brittany was all right, well enough to be holding her. That thought comforted her.

"Please, she's got a concussion," she heard Brittany say, but her voice also sounded very distant even though Brittany was mere inches above her. "Please, you've got to have some compassion. She needs an ambulance."

"It is rather inconvenient," she heard the Wolf say. "I had been hoping to defeat her in battle, but I presume this defeat will have to suffice."

"What's wrong with you?" Brittany sounded angry. "It's one thing to lock me up in a room for a week, but she needs hospital care, and if she doesn't get it soon, this might cost her her life."

"Well, it'd just be an alternate situation that bears an identical outcome to the one that I had imagined," he replied with a cold chuckle.

Santana didn't know if she was imagining it, or if Brittany was actually growling above her. She was feeling a bit better now, and was able to open her eyes halfway, although the sunlight was quick to heighten her nausea again. She shivered involuntarily, and Brittany tightened her arms around her and held her closer.

Santana's eyes slowly came into focus, but every time she tried to open them further, she felt like she was about to vomit, and she closed them again. "Please…" Brittany begged.

"Do you not understand that your whining is meaningless? I've achieved my goal, which was to overpower your useless partner, and letting her die a slow death would only be the cherry to top this marvelous situation. Your begging goes to waste."

If it were any other situation, Santana might have advised him not to get on Brittany's bad side, because getting on Brittany S. Pierce's bad side was one of the worst and most frightening things she'd ever experienced. As it happened, Santana was barely conscious and the Wolf had the upper hand, so neither the advice nor the expected outcome of making Brittany S. Pierce angry came to be.

Santana didn't know how long she was lying there in Brittany's arms, or what Brittany and the Wolf were doing during this time. She couldn't see any escape from this situation—not when she was unable to use her superpower and fly them out of there. Brittany could lift her and run away, but she wouldn't get very far until the Wolf would use his power on her again and bring her right back to where she was. Santana might have been able to come up with more clever escape routes if she were able to think clearly, but she wasn't, and so she continued to lay limply with her head buried in Brittany's chest and feeling as if she was about to puke her guts out.

"Santana?" she heard someone call from a distance. "Santana!" The voice was getting closer, and she realized that it was her mother. Her mother was here. It was going to be okay.

She opened her eyes as much as she could, and the first thing she saw was the Wolf. She had expected him to fight her mom as he would've fought her, because a Lumli was a Lumli and she would be just as much of an enemy to him, but the Wolf seemed to be frozen. Santana couldn't see his facial expression because he was wearing his mask, but through her haze, she sensed that he was either too perplexed to act or too mortified to move. Either way, her mother was able to fly down directly to her with no interference from him. "What's happened?" she asked Brittany.

Brittany explained to her how the Wolf had flown them straight into the obelisk, and how Santana's head was hit against it, and that she had a concussion. Santana could see a crease growing between her mother's eyebrows, first worried and then angry. When Brittany was finished, Maribel clenched her jaw closed and turned to the Wolf, her eyes shooting daggers.

"Why don't you take off this idiotic mask so we can speak face to face, Nukk?" she said bitterly, and even Santana, through her concussion, could remember how much she hated the few times when her mother directed that tone of voice to her.

"Joori—"

"Take off that stupid mask, Nukk, before I kick it off of your face. You of all people should know not to mess with me when I'm angry."

It took Santana a few moments to understand that something was off. He of all people? And he knew her name? Didn't her mother say that she knew of him, not knew him personally?

The Wolf didn't take off his mask, and Santana saw his hands ball up into fists. "You're the one who deserted me, Joori, you have no right—"

"I have no right?" Maribel screeched. "You tried to kill my daughter and you dare to tell me I have no right?"

"I didn't know she was your daughter!"

"Oh, and that's supposed to make me feel better, is it? You think I would've let this happen if this were some other Lumli? You are so much better than this, Nukk. You are so much better than to go down to the level of Illdenwan with their stupid discrimination and racism. Or at least you used to be, you're obviously not anymore." Santana couldn't see her facial expression from this angle, but she could imagine how her mom was giving him that narrow-eyed look she gives people she truly despises, the look that makes people cower down despite the fact that Maribel isn't very intimidating.

"Maybe I wouldn't have so much resentment for Lumlis if you hadn't turned against me," the Wolf said, seemingly through gritted teeth.

"Don't turn this on me, Nukk. We both know very well what happened. You developed an irrational hatred for humans because a non-intelligent creature from their planet attacked you, and I was disapproving, because I wanted to build an alliance with the humans. That's why we broke off, and that's why we'll never get along again."

"You mated with a human?" he asked in disgust.

"Yes, I mated with a human, and this mating brought us the best child we could've ever hoped for. This same child that you've been trying to kill. This same child that I'm going to fly to a hospital right now before she goes out on me, because I love her. Love, Nukk. A concept you haven't been able to grasp for many years." Maribel turned to Santana and bent over her, checking her pupils for evenness.

"And what will happen with me?" the Wolf asked uncertainly.

"You?" Maribel turned to him. "You'll sit in jail for a very long time."

"You'd let me rot in human jail?"

"That's exactly where you deserve to rot, Nukk," her mother shot back.

"Never," he stepped back, his head snapping between Maribel, Santana, and Brittany. "I never saw myself hurting you, Joori, but you leave me no choice." He made a circular motion with his hands, and dozens of rocks and pebbles rose from the ground and assembled around him.

"You wouldn't—" Maribel began.

"Oh, I would," he cut her off, cocking his hands back as if to ready them to shoot forward, therefore making all of the stones shoot straight at the three of them.

Santana wasn't really sure what happened next—she thought that she might've fainted because of her combined fear and weakness, but she was able to gather a few things, one of which was the fact that there were suddenly very loud barks all around that seemed too violent to belong to dogs. She heard Brittany gasp in fright, and she hugged Santana to her as close as she could, leaning down and burying her face in Santana's hair.

She heard a few screams, coming from a man, and then a shout from her mother, "Grab his hands, Sam, grab his hands!" After that she couldn't remember anything, and she lost consciousness with the faint thought that Brittany was right here, alive, next to her, and that the mission that she had so feared and anticipated had been successfully accomplished.

A few hours later, she had woken up in a white hospital room and came to learn that the Wolf was in custody and everyone was safe. When she asked what had made the Wolf drop the stones, which was the last thing that she remembered, Brittany explained to her how Sam showed up with a pack of wolves, and how the wolves scared the Wolf enough to make him drop the rocks, and how Sam had jumped on him and clutched his hands in a way that wouldn't allow him to use his superpower. She had a giant smile plastered on her face as Brittany explained this, making a mental note to tell Sam that he's the best sidekick any superhero could ever hope for. Well, maybe she could promote him to a sub-superhero rank, because he was so damn good. He did save the day, after all, and only superheroes can save the day.

A month later, the story of the Wolf had already become a tall tale, with different versions floating around, some of which were utterly ludicrous—Santana had heard one girl tell her friend that the Wolf transformed into a real wolf but then the other wolves overpowered him (this didn't even make any sense), and she'd heard a freshman kid tell his girlfriend that Brittany was kept as a sex slave for the entire week and a half she was gone, when in fact the Wolf had kept her in a secluded room and fed her two small meals a day with a sufficient amount of water, and actually hadn't abused her at all, unless you considered completely ignoring her existence a form of abuse. When Brittany told this to Santana and she wasn't convinced, she assured her that the worst thing about being in the Wolf's custody for a week and a half was the unbelievable amount of boredom that she had felt after her fear had waned. This made Santana feel a little better, but she still thought that the Wolf should sit in jail for the rest of his life whether he had hurt her physically or not.

It turned out that Maribel knew so much about the Wolf because she was an Earth biology researcher just like him, and they had worked very closely on projects together. Santana asked her if there had ever been anything romantic between them, and her mother thoughtfully answered that there probably would have been if he hadn't lost his mind, and if he hadn't created a medicine that stopped him from aging at the age of twenty-two, which was just plain weird. She was quick to say, however, that the one good outcome of him losing his mind was her falling in love with Santana's father when she moved to Earth, and having the most amazing daughter that she could ever dream to have.

The Wolf was given life imprisonment for his first-degree murder of the secretary at the Lima City Council, along with some other shorter sentences for kidnapping and holding hostages. Lima was back to being the uneventful and boring city that it is, and everything was set back in its rightful place.

As for Brittany and Santana, the entire Wolf story brought them impossibly close to each other and made Brittany completely forget that she had ever cared about popularity, and remember that she really only cared about being with Santana and making Santana happy. And Santana, well… She was just a shy little superhero with black-rimmed glasses, sweaters, and khakis, who also happened to have gotten the girl of her dreams. No big deal.

On a warm spring day in the middle of April, Brittany and Santana were lying, facing each other, on Brittany's bed, their hands woven together and their legs tangled, murmuring things that made each other smile and basking in their love and the happiness that they brought to each other.

"You know what I've always wanted? What my biggest dream has ever been?" Santana asked.

"What?" Brittany smiled, placing a soft kiss on her nose.

Santana bit her lip uncertainly, even though she already knew what Brittany's answer would be. "To go to prom with you."

"Oh," Brittany's smile grew into a grin. "Well, all you had to do is ask."

Santana smiled coyly, glancing down at their hands. "I know." She was quiet for a little bit, images of the two of them in prom dresses dancing together rolling through her mind, each one making her happier than the previous.

Suddenly, another thought struck her, and she almost giggled at herself for it. "Do you think that Mercedes would agree to go to prom with Sam?"

Brittany raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Mercedes Jones?"

"Yeah," Santana laughed. "Sam's got a huge crush on her."

"Well," Brittany looked up thoughtfully. "She'd never admit to it, but Mercedes has a soft side for nerds, kinda like how I would've never admitted to that either a couple months ago. So, yeah, I think he's got a fair chance."

"I mean, he did save our lives and all," Santana reasoned. "He deserves some kind of reward for his abilities."

"Very true," Brittany agreed, squeezing Santana's hands in hers. "I guess all we need now is to test your abilities."

"My abilities?" Santana said incredulously. "I'm Varied freaking Bunting—"

"Well, Varied Bunting, I've got a riddle that will truly test your abilities," Brittany's smile turned mischievous.

"Is that right?" Santana cocked an eyebrow, a teasing smile playing at her lips.

"Mhmm," Brittany pulled a folded paper out of her pocket and handed it to Santana with a playful shove. Santana unfolded the paper and read what was written.

On your journey, you will find two hills, between which lies a deep valley. Walk across the valley, and you will come upon a wishing well. Proceed around the wishing well, and you will find yourself standing before a small bush. Behind the bush is what you're looking for, and where you'll find a most pleasant home for years to come.

"Two hills, valley, wishing well, bush… I don't get—oh. Oh." Santana's eyes widened.

"Oh," Brittany smirked, and pulled her into a kiss that Santana could never have dreamed to be happier to receive.

A/N: I'm pretty sure that this is going to be the last chapter, but…I don't know, we'll see. :)

P.S. If you understand the last riddle, you get ten brownie points. ;)