"Wait, Jade!" Quinn called as he ran to catch up with his friend... or maybe she no longer considered herself to be that.

"Shut up! And back off!" Jade yelled as she continued increasing the distance between them. Quinn continued to chase after her, hoping she'd eventually see reason.

A few steps later, he lost his footing on what felt like ice. His foot slipped and as he tried to use his other foot to catch himself, that foot slipped too. This continued for several more seconds until he finally found his balance in an awkward stance where his feet were about three feet apart, both feet were turned in, his left knee was bent much more than the right, and his right hand was in front of his hunched-over body as if ready to catch him in case he did indeed fall.

He slowly brought his feet together and made his way to a part of the sidewalk that was safe.  When he looked up again, Jade was nowhere to be found.

Quinn wished his power was the ability to control time so that he could rewind to before everything went wrong.  Jade was the only real friend he'd made since starting college.  Most of the people he met looked down on him because they believed he had no powers. He was sure the villains were the same way about those with lesser powers than their own- making them feel as if they were worthless- but he somehow expected more of heroes.

Or, heroes in training, rather...

Quinn continued moving. He assumed Jade was headed toward the apartment, so he went that way too.

***

The thoughts that went through Jade's head as she moved through the busy streets were vast and disconnected. Some scared her to the point she wondered if she knew herself, like how she knew she'd hurt, maim, and then kill Quinn if he so much as considered doing anything to Bella. Others didn't relate to her current situation at all and really made little sense, like how she wondered what she'd have for dinner. They had no food left at the apartment and she didn't want to go to the store. The rest were unrelated to her problem and more related to current events, like how she wondered why people were running frantically and emergency vehicles were rushing past. She usually didn't see any reason to pay attention to such things, but it was so constant and concerning at the moment, she felt she had to find out.

Jade followed the plethora of emergency vehicles that all seemed to be heading downtown, doing her best to ignore the fact that people continually ran into her as the fled the whatever happened to cause such a commotion.  Ambulances, police cars, and a couple of fire trucks were all rushing toward the garment district.  Jade only realized this when she got downtown and was still being pushed around by fleeing crowds.

There were so may scenarios that floated through Jade's mind.  The first was some type of attack, one in which she could practice being a hero.  Maybe a robbery or an electrical fire that engulfed a full building or maybe there was a villain she could talk down from being a villain.  After all, that's what she wanted to do, convince villains to change their lives and be better.

Running through the streets and listening in on the conversations around her, she soon became aware that some of those running away from the scene didn't even know what they were running away from.  She even stopped someone to ask and all they could tell her was that someone told them to run and then they heard a bunch of noise and screaming and they ran. Jade sighed and continued on her way, still not completely sure why she was doing it.

When she finally arrived, almost the entirety of the garment district was blocked off and she still couldn't see why.  Nothing seemed particularly out of place.  She continued to look around for some indication of what happened, but found none.  Not until she heard her name being called, anyway.

She'd definitely heard someone call her name and began looking around for a familiar face, someone who might know her.  She looked around for several moments before finally spotting bright red hair and the familiar face attached to it.

The look on Bella's face revealed nothing, which at the very least meant that whatever happened between the morning and that very moment brought back the Bella Jade knew so well.

Jade jogged over to the alley where Bella stood in the shadows.  It wasn't until she was much closer that she saw someone else was there as well.

"What's wrong with him?" Jade asked when she arrived.

"Oh, this is Hades.  He's fine, just recovering," Bella responded.  "But what are you doing here?"

"I saw the fleeing crowds and approaching emergency vehicles and wanted to see what was going on."

"Oh, we might have caused a disturbance, but I blame Hades for trying to kill me."

Jade's eyes widened, her mouth falling or at the same time.  Kill?  Had she heard that right?  Hades, the guy Bella definitely had a crush on, had tried to kill her and not only had Bella apparently won by the looks of the two of them, but she also didn't seem angry at all.

"Don't look so surprised, Jade.  Didn't I tell you he was training me?"

"Not that I can remember and even if you had told me, trying to kill you does not equal training."

"Maybe not for heroes," Hades said, making his first contribution to the conversation, "but this is how villains train."  He struggled to stand up from where he'd been sitting and leaning against the wall.  "By the way, Bella, good job.  I've only felt that way once before and I don't plan on it happening too often."

"You mean you've been unable to breathe before?" Bella asked, filling Jade's head with so many questions.

"No, I've had the feeling of an impending death before, once.  That was when I was fighting the headmaster."

"What exactly... is the headmaster's superpower?"

"Some other time," Hades sighed.  "Honestly, I need to go home and sleep until the sun comes up."

"The sun is up," Jade pointed out.

"Yeah, so that gives me plenty of time to rest, doesn't it?"

Jade raised an eyebrow but didn't argue the point.  Instead, she turned her sights to Bella.  "So, are you feeling better?"

"Much better," Bella sighed happily.  "So much better.  But you look..."

"Like we have another problem to add on top of the pile?"

Hades' foot stopped midair, unable to take another step after what he'd just heard.  The hope, of course, was that the problem was something minor, but nothin with Bella ever seemed to be minor.

"What now?" Bella frowned.

Jade sighed.  "It's my headmaster and Quinn."

***

Quinn sat in front of the apartment door patiently waiting for someone to either come out or come home.  He'd rung the doorbell and pounded on the door, begging and groveling for over an hour.  The bright sky had acquired an orange glow to it by the time a neighbor came out glaring at him and scolding him for making such a ruckus.  She'd stated that some people were trying to relax and others just enjoyed the lack of begging and pleading that usually went on in the halls of the apartment building then kindly told him to shut up before she got him kicked out.  He didn't make another sound after that.

The truth was, he figured they weren't home.  If memory served him well, then Bella hated him and Jade was no longer very fond of him either.  After the amount of trouble he'd caused just at their front door- apparently enough to annoy their neighbors- and what happened earlier in the headmaster's office, he was sure they'd be out there pummeling him if nothing else.

So he opted to just wait for them.  He sat their as the window at the end of the hallway showed the passing time.  The bright blue sky turned orange, then a reddish purple, then dark blue, casting a darkness in the hallway that almost made him shudder with the addition of his very creative imagination.

See, the lack of activity and boredom of waiting had given his mind time to think of the events that were to come.

His first thought was that Jade would freeze him in a block of ice- clearly upset and unwilling to even give him the chance to go through with the headmaster's plan- then Bella would use her telekinesis to throw the ice into space so there would be no body and no evidence.  But despite Jade's cold and harsh words, he didn't think her capable of such things, so his mind took him to a different scenario.

The second scenario caused him to sweat as well.  Bella, already having hated him since day one, would be furious with his lies and deceit and she'd use her powers to slowly pull him apart, atom by atom, in a painful and excruciating reminder of what happens when you cross a villain with telekinesis.

He shook that scenario away with a fierce shake of his head, but the first two replayed in his head, causing anxiety and making him regret his decision to try and fix things instead of just hiding.  His power was good for that.  He tried to force a third scenario into his head, one in which both women forgave him and they all say around a table and tried to figure out what to do, but that seemed so unlikely, so far-fetched and the other two came back with a vengeance, pushing out any positive or hopeful thoughts.

Quinn had been through about as much self-inflicted grief as he could bare before he pushed himself up off of the floor.  He couldn't wait anymore.  He could hope that Jade would calm down by morning, but waiting would only cause him more anxiety if it didn't produce Jade.

There was only one working elevator in the building which meant Quinn often found it faster to take the stairs during the day since the elevator was in constant use, but it was late and he hoped that would mean fewer people would be using it.  He waited only a few seconds for the elevator to ascend to the fourth floor from the first.  When he heard the ding of the elevator signifying that it had arrived, he took a step forward only to take two very cautious steps back.

The look on Jade's face when she saw him had softened slightly from the last time he'd seen her, but Bella's had hardened.  It had hardened a lot.  Between the two of them and the looks on their faces, he was surprised he was still standing there instead of having been thrown fifty feet through the window and onto the street.  He was surprised he was still breathing.

Both Jade and Bella brushed past him, not giving him any more attention than the glares they seemed unable to control when they saw him.  He shuttered a little, but turned and opened his mouth to talk.

"Quinn, right?" the man who was in the elevator with them said as he put an arm around Quinn's shoulder and guided him in the opposite direction of the women.  "We need to talk."

Quinn shivered the moment the man touched him and he didn't quite feel comfortable with him.  They were at the opposite end of the hall from the apartment before the two stopped walking.

"Quinn, Jade told us about the little plan with the headmaster-"

"Wait, I told Jade I don't plan on going through with that plan-"

"Quinn, calm down.  Don't be so defensive," the man said with an ominous smile.  "I'm just here to remind you that crossing Bella won't end well for you.  I don't know much about Jade, but my care for her goes as far as not wanting to hurt Bella.  Hurt her, I end you."

Something about the way the man said it made Quinn believe that he really would kill if it came down to it.

"I won't," Quinn swallowed.

"Then we won't have any problems."  The man smiled a more genuine smile, though Quinn couldn't shake the fear.  "I'm Hades.  I talked them down from the ledge and they'll at least hear you out, but I felt I should make sure you know that by crossing Bella, you make three enemies, not one and not two."

"I know... now."

Quinn tried to calm his racing heart as they made their way to the apartment to talk to Jade and Bella.  He really hoped he didn't misspeak during the conversation.  It seemed like it was going to be an important one.

Maybe he should've just run when he had the chance.