A/N: i just noticed how much quinn is growing me and then i realised i like one of the most well meaning characters - quinn, and one of the least well meaning characters - drake 🤦, also someone agree with me that lana is awesome

Warnings: swearing, guns, creepy gaiaphage (pretty much goes with the plot apart some cuteness at the end)

Word Count: 1592

'I need my arm back,' Drake says. 'And the only way that that's going to happen is to get that girl and force her to.'

Caine swings back on the teacher's chair. 'Fine then. Take Rebel with you, just in case.'

'Like she wouldn't go with him in the first place,' Diana smirks.

'What exactly is your problem?' I drawl. 'Is it that you're scared of me, Diana? Scared what Drake and I could do to you?' I laugh, cutting off Caine as he starts to speak. 'Don't worry, I know good dog Caine will keep me in line. I know who's the boss,' I breeze, swaggering out of the door, holding it for Drake with a gentlewomanly smile. I wait until he's through, then throw Caine a mock salute and slam the door.

'You be careful!' He yells.

'Oh, I will,' I shout back. 'Thanks, but you don't need to worry about me.'

-----------

We get Panda to drive one of the SUVs. Drake looks through the window with his peripheral vision, muttering to himself. Panda jolts to a stop around the corner from Lana's house, and Drake flinches, face screwing up in pain.

'Careful,' I growl, yanking open my door and waiting for Drake to get out, knowing he'll hate it if I go to help. We creep in through the back door, and we stand around in her kitchen, waiting for her to come back in from her porch.

She opens the door and freezes.

'I used to be right handed,' Drake says, waving his gun in his left hand. 'So I may not be such a good shot, but Rebel will splatter your brains out if you so much blink weird.'

'What do you want?' Lana asks.

'I think you know what he wants,' I growl, prowling closer, gun trained on her forehead.

'I - I'll try.'

'You'll do more than that,' Drake snarls, twitching slightly as he shifts his stump.

'I have to touch it,' she mutters, reaching forward. My finger tightens on the trigger.

'Not here. Get into the car outside.'

We're silent in the car, Lana sitting stiffly beside Panda, my pistol pressed hard against her head, Drake slumped next to me, occasionally wincing. I grab his hand, and he squeezes hard enough that our interlocked fingers start shaking. It's completely dark when we hear screeches, and suddenly a figure, being attacked by dogs - no, coyotes - wobbles in front of our car. Panda shrieks as another lunges in through the window, and Lana curses.

'You stay here,' I snap at Drake, pulling out my pistol and firing into the night. There's a sudden silence, and I climb out. Drake staggers out behind me, and I give him a dirty look, about to speak, when one of the coyotes fucking beats me to it.

'Give us female,' it says, in a strange voice of wet gravel mixed with a dog's whine.

'What?' Drake mutters.

'Darkness say: bring female.'

'Leave me alone, Pack Leader,' Lana hisses, voice venomous, and I squint at her.

'You know this talking coyote?' She nods mutely, and I notice one creeping up on my left. I shoot, and it falls, a bullet through the forehead.

'Anyone else?' I growl.

'Darkness say: bring female.' The speaking one repeats.

'She has to heal my arm,' Drake snarls, when the figure who was attacked in the first place, Howard, speaks up.

'You say you want the girl? Well, Drake wants her to heal his arm, so maybe we can work a deal, right?'

Silence.

'Right?'

-----------

The coyotes are a living sea around us, and I can sense Lana's fear, almost smell it.

'Please, why can't I try to heal - '

'We go to Darkness first.' Pack Leader growls.

'What is this Darkness?' I demand, trotting along beside Drake. Lana shrugs, but her eyes glaze over like she's remembering something that haunts her. I squint through the dark night and make out an old mining place.

'A mine?' I ask.

'It's what's in the mine,' Lana says darkly, and I huff.

'Dramatic much?'

Lana doesn't answer, just puts her head down and follows the stream of coyotes into the gaping mouth of the mine. I fumble for Drake's long fingers in the pitch black, relieved when I find them. I start noticing a strange green glow to the walls, and I can feel my heart hammering against my ribs, pumping adrenaline through my body. The air grows musty, and the green glow grows strong enough that now I can see around me, when suddenly we stumble into a large cavern, a thick growth of the glowing rocks piled in front of me. Lana falls to her knees, face contorted in fear, and suddenly she's not her any more, she's something else.

'Why do you come to me?' Lana - not - Lana demands, like a marionette, a puppet on strings.

'The... coyote.' Drake manages, and something in the back of my mind tells me this is the Darkness. And then I realise I'm kneeling too, I'm touching the rocks, the fucking glowing rocks -

'Faithful pack leader, obedient but not yet equal to a human,' Lana - not - Lana says, and suddenly Lana's body twists, it's back arching, it's face contorting in pain. Somewhere off to the side, Panda whimpers, reminding me of his miserly presence.

'If you kill her, she can't fix my arm,' Drake snaps, and I can't help but almost smile that that's what he's thinking about. She goes limp, but not herself again.

'You're bold to demand things,' it says through Lana.

'I just want my arm back.' And suddenly he's seized, possessed, whatever, and it scares me, scares me because he isn't the boy who I used to know -

Pain hits me, all over, throbbing through every fibre, every cell, and yet I can't scream, but my body twists, my brain seemingly emptying out, my thoughts no longer just mine, but it's too. I try, try to fight it, get it out out out, but it's still in there, torturing me, pain crackling, aching through each and every joint with a terrifying ruthlessness. It goes as fast as it came, but I'm left as a shivering pile on the floor. My breath comes out in harsh pants, but I force myself upright, defiant.

'I've found much better teachers for you, Pack Leader,' it speaks, using Lana's mouth again.

'Yeah, but my arm,' Drake answers, appearing unshaken, yet he seeks my hand in the dark, and I hold onto his slim fingers.

'Give me your arm,' Lana says, more her, but still not quite the same yet. The Darkness takes over again. 'I will give you an arm as such no human has had. You have no magic, but the girl will serve.' Drake lets her lay her hands on his stump, and I simply watch as what grows is definitely not human.

'Yes,' Drake breathes, even as Lana sobs.

'No,' she whimpers. 'No.' She crumples to the floor, either exhausted or terrified, and Drake smiles, admiring his new 'hand'. It's a wiry, almost ten foot tentacle, reddish in colour, and God, it's hot. He cracks it like a whip, and it makes a small sonic boom. He throws me that shark grin, and I almost forget we're in a weird ass chamber with a surprisingly quiet green glowing rock.

'Like it?' He asks, waving it in front of my face. I grab it, planting a kiss on the very end.

'How could I not?'

Suddenly, Lana's head snaps up.

'We have to leave,' she gasps.

'Why?' I ask, wondering if something's going to happen.

'Why not?' She snaps, but she's still pale. There's a movement in my peripheral vision, and Pack Leader shifts to his feet, but doesn't straighten completely, still submissive, tail between his legs.

'Pack go where human go,' he rasps, and Drake looks at the glowing rocks, then towards the exit.

'Caine,' he says eventually, then leans down, putting his lips to my ear so Lana won't hear. 'We get Caine to overthrow Sam with the help of the coyotes, then we, y'know.'

I grin up at him, nodding. 'Hell yeah.'

We trudge back out the tunnel, followed by the stream of coyotes. Once the adrenaline leaves me, I feel my feet start to drag, my muscles starting to ache from the pain that the Darkness caused me when it was doing - when it was doing whatever it was doing. I trip, shooting out a hand and steadying myself on Drake's shoulder, thankful I didn't get run over by the coyotes loping along behind us. He glances back at me, and his icy blue eyes almost soften. He holds out his hand, and I take his bony fingers, letting the contact fuel me, but since I can't remember the last time I slept, it doesn't do that much good.

'I'm scared,' Panda whines, and I don't even have the energy to give him a dirty look. That's what Drake notices.

'C'mere, babe,' he says, tugging at our interlocked fingers. 'You were on watch last time. Promise I won't drop you,' he adds with a laugh. Trance like, I stumble closer to him, eyes half closed, until he grabs me around the waist and hoists me up, somehow maneuvering me until my front is against his, my legs around his waist. His non - human hand snakes around me, and I lean my head on his shoulder, eyes already closing.

'Thanks,' I mumble.