Summary: Chase Magnus must travel back to the Sanctuary and to the news that her sister, Ashley, was taken by the Cabal. Reuniting with her family, Chase is about to face her demons… in more ways than one. A/U
Disclaimer: I own nothing of Sanctuary; I'm just a story teller.
Pairing: This will be a John/Helen story….later down the road.
REUNITED FAMILY:
Helen knew she had no choice, none at all; she would have to contact Chase. A year ago Chase had ceased all contact, and Helen thought it was due to her setting up the Sanctuary in South America. Helen respected her younger daughter's space, even encouraged it, but for her to bring Chase out of hiding meant that Helen Magnus was out of options. She pulled out her phone, letting her finger hover over the send key. Helen hit send and waited for Chase to pick up. There was a slight click in the line, and then she was redirected to another number. It was odd for Chase to do something like this. Now was not the time to analyze why Chase had stopped contacting home.
"What?"
"Chase," Helen paused. What could she say over the phone, "Be ready, I'm sending someone for you." Then Helen disconnected. She set down her cell and looked up as John entered her office. They had both been shaken by what they had seen, Ashley was no longer theirs. Her pain reverberated in John, but she was too proud to say anything about it, just a she knew John would not broach the subject.
"John."
"Helen." John locked eyes with her. Pain and hatred burned in her eyes, just as pain and hatred burned in his heart.
"I need you to go to South America, Chase is waiting for you." Helen said quickly, she was about to choke on her unshed tears. As soon as John left, Helen had no doubt that she would break down and cry out all her pain.
"Why South America?" But John already knew the answer. His second daughter, Chase, lived there. He had seen her there on more than one occasion, but John was not about to tell Helen that.
"Chase is there obviously, I've told her to ready, and to expect you." Helen made her voice cold, distant, fighting like hell to keep the tears at bay.
John bowed, "As the lady wishes, but when I get back we are going to talk." And then he was gone before she could tell him to get out.
SOUTH AMERICA:
Chase couldn't believe that her own mother had cut her off; she flat out hung up on her. Something had to be really serious for Helen Magnus, leader of the Sanctuary network, to be calling her. Now Chase had to change direction and run, leaving behind a new life that she was slowly rebuilding and she had to go back to the family she willinly left to protect them from her savagery. Heading for a back road Chase pulled over, got out of her car and popped the trunk where she grabbed a bag that contained several sets of clothes and a few weapons. All she had to do was wait. The wind changed, someone came up behind, before Chase could react they were at Sanctuary. She turned and saw her father, John Druitt. Chase's first action was to drop her bag and wrap her arms around her father, the father that had saved her life. His arms, in turn, embraced her.
"Chase?"
Chase let go of her father and turned to face her mother, "Mother," she moved away from John and into Helen's open arms. The scent of pain and sadness lingered on the air, choking Chase, but her mother was holding and that clawing feeling abated. As much as Chase would love to hold onto her mother she had to get answers, she needed to know why she ran from South America.
"What's happened?"
"Ashley… is…"
"The Cabal has your sister," John spoke through the charged silence. Two set of eyes settled on him, Helen glared, while Chase looked scared.
Chase backed away, the air going out of her lungs, shock settling low in her gut. Her escape from the Cabal had been a lie; they had merely found a way to get to Ashley. She wanted to be sick. Taking her right hand Chase covered the needle marks where the IV had been. The Cabal had made her a guinea pig just to make sure the DNA manipulation would hold in Ashley, Chase was nothing more than an expendable lab rat. "They did to her what they tried to do to me." Chase growled.
Before they had taken her she had been an abnormal already, predisposed to feline genetics. Her DNA was closely related to that of a Tiger, and it was that DNA that helped her to resist the experiment the Cabal had conducted on her. She had only been free of them for about eight weeks, due in large part to her father rescuing her, other wise she would have died in their lab and more people would have died in her attempt to escape. As it stood now Chase was responsible for twenty-five people deaths. She had John Druitt to thank for her blood lust, her need to kill.
"What do you mean?" Helen asked as Chase uncurled her arms. There she could see needle marks. Some had to be from injections, others had to be from IV lines.
"They took me about a year ago, were they tried to brain wash me, but my animal nature only bent so far before…" Chase paused and rubbed at the crook of her arm, "Before they got more aggressive, then came the hourly injections, of what I have no clue, but I could feel myself changing on a cellular level. Then…"
"Helen, I've been going over…"
Chase whirled around and her claws extended, a deadly hiss issuing low in her throat. She wanted to strike but her muscles locked up, her entire body went rigid. The man, if you could call him that, was the reason half her DNA was changed, however unwilling he had been when it happed, "You bastard, this is your fault!"
"Now, now, don't be rude."
"Nikola, Chase, stop it." Helen ordered she was in no mood for fighting. Tesla backed away and John went to Chase, where he cupped her cheek and leaned his forehead to hers, muttering something to her as he lightly stroked her cheek. Chase dropped her arm and sagged slightly.
"As much as I would love to rip you to bloody shreds, you, Vamp Boy, were just as much a victim as I was," Chase growled her voice feline in nature. It was too deep to be human. She pushed away from her father and paced in a slow, deadly line, keeping her eyes on Nikola.
"Nikola, what is she talking about?"
"And do try to be honest." John stated holding up his right hand, which made Tesla cringe slightly, before hissing.
"A while back you remember we spent some time in the catacombs of Rome?"
"Yes? Get on with it Nikola."
"Well, my dear Helen, the reason the Cabal were after me, was because I had just escaped their experiments, not because I was a threat. Of course that was after I fixed Jonny Boy over there. They had taken many different blood samples, and now as evidence suggests, they injected it into kitten over there." Nikola jerked his head in Chase's direction and chuckled when she growled at him, he knew they sound meant she would try to kill him, and maybe even soon.
"I was patient Zero. What the succeeded in doing to Ashley they tested on me, refined the process. It was supposed to be me trying like hell to cripple you, not precious Ashley." Chase seethed. Helen rounded on Chase, but softened when she saw the guilt ridden look in her younger child's eyes.
"Hey, hey Chase, when did you get back?"
"Henry." Chase breathed out and walked over to him. She curled her index finger around a lock of his hair, it was getting longer, "I like what you've done to you hair."
"Thanks, like what you've done to yours." Henry smiled and wrapped his arms around her. He had only a moment to notice that there were veins of red, teal, blue, and purple color running through her normally dark mane of brown hair.
"I've missed you," Chase whispered and tightened her hold before letting go. Henry's warmth slid through Chase, soothing her, taking away some of her anger and stress. Feline and canine abnormals shared high body heat and it was a comfort when that heat was shared.
"Chase, we need a sample of your blood, so we can at least see what they did." Helen said breaking through the comforting haze that Henry and Chase were creating around them.
Chase backed away, "Right, yeah, sorry." But it wasn't her mother that came over, it was Nikola. Chase hissed as Henry shot out his arm to protect her.
"I think you should back up," Henry warned, a growl rumbling low in his throat, as he positioned Chase behind him. He knew that she was capable of taking care of herself, but it was pure instinct to protect what he had left that drove his actions, and the act that chase had a death grip on the back of his shirt.
"Oh, isn't that cute, the puppy protecting the kitten." Nikola laughed at the simultaneous growl from both Chase and Henry.
"Nikola." Druitt said drawing out the Vampires name. He hated Nikola with a fierce passion. The arrogant nature he had about him was only made worse when he became a vampire.
"OK, everyone back up." Chase ordered and cut a wide path around the vampire. She headed for the main stairs to take her out of the lab, a lab that she spent most of her childhood in watching as her mother catalogued new abnormals and she also kept a tab on Chase's own growing abnormal abilities. She knew all eyes were on her, but she still headed towards the stairs as she tried to ignore the looming question no one wanted to ask, 'How did you escape the Cabal?' Now chase knew that her 'escape' had more of a release, but they hadn't counted that she would kill the scientists and the guards assigned to the facility. She had her father, John Druitt, to thank for the animalistic hunger for blood and the need to kill, but he had also been the one to save her in the end taking her back to the jungle where she was safe.
"Hey, Chase, wait up. I'll go with you." Henry came up next to Chase and lightly passed the back of his hand over hers. He heard a slight chuckle as they raced up the stairs, like they had when they were kids.
"I know the way, Henry." She laughed but didn't push him farther. She wanted the company, if anything the excuse to get away from the constant scrutiny.
Helen watched Chase and Henry run up the stairs, she suppressed an urge to tell them to be careful. The image of them as children raced through her mind. Back then she had been able to protect them, keep the evil of the world from touching them. Now everything was falling apart. Helen could still remember the night Chase had come to her, begging to leave before she hurt anyone, the growing madness so closely resembled John that she had agreed. Helen sent her to the Amazon where she could shape shift and be safe, hopeful purging the primal rage that had begun. She had made sure that Chase was off the radar to anyone, so far underground that no one could find her, but some how the Cabal had found her.
"Who ever did this to them will pay," Helen vowed, even if she had to get blood on her hands, she would protect what was hers.
John came up close to her, taking her hand he teleported them to the top of the North Tower, her haven with in Sanctuary. He knew that Helen made her way there two or three times a day when they weren't out searching for leads on Ashley. Here was where he was going to confront her and get her to pour out all her bottled up feelings; she needed the emotional purge if she was going to keep a clear head in the coming battle.
"I'm in no mood for your games," Helen snapped yanking her hand out of his grasp.
"Scream."
"What?"
John grabbed Helens upper arms and shook her, "Scream, rage, and curse the heavens. Do something to purge the pain you are keeping bottled up." He let her go, backed away, and held up his hands. It would do nothing for him to get angry in turn.
"I will scream when I am good and ready, not because you tell me to." Helen spat out each word drenched in venom. She wanted to lash out and John was the easiest person. Turning Helen headed for the door that would take her back inside, but John appeared before she could open the door. She tried to move around him but he maneuvered his body to block hers.
"This is not a game!" Helen shouted and beat her fist against his chest.
"No, it's not."
For the first time in weeks Helen sank down and let grief over take her, she let it flood her system. Tears cascaded down her face; screams tore at her throat fighting to be free. The desperation to feel grief and anger had been clawing at her for a while, since the night Ashley betrayed them. More than anything she had wanted to fall to pieces in private, to have John here to see her made her feel weak and powerless.
John crouched down in front of Helen and tried to pull her into his arms. She pushed at him, but he only gently pulled her close and suffered the occasional fist to the chest as she cried. Each sob that fell from her lips tore at his heart. This had been the woman he had loved, the woman he was going to marry, and then his powers had gone out of control turning him into a killer, not just any killer. He had been Jack the Ripper, never been caught and never revealed. The burden of his conscience had weighed on him heavily since Nikola had shocked him back into his senses. More than anything his desire for redemption kept him here, kept him at Helen's side. If he had been on his own he may have given into his deep seeded nature to take life. He would have searched for Ashley on his own and killed anyone who had gotten in his way. Helen was right, he could very well slip back into the soulless killer he had been. But listening to her suffering kept him in check.
Chase and Henry had taken the long way around to the infirmary. She had wanted to see how much of her home had changed and was relieved to see that not much was different. Her room was still next to Ashley's and together she and Henry had dropped her duffle off and now they were on their way to the infirmary so she could get a vial of her blood so that her mother could map the genetic changes that the Cabal had made. She wasn't too thrilled about being poked with a needle again, but whatever helped to bring Ashley back.
Chase stopped talking when the door to the library opened and a man she hadn't seen before stepped out. He was about 5'11 shot hair spiked lightly in the front. Pale skin and blue eyes, something about his scent read as cop, but the geeky kind.
"Will, you missed it."
"Missed what and who's your friend?"
"This is Chase, Ashley's sister."
"Sis... sister?" Will stuttered, but it was obvious. The girl, Chase, looked like a close of Magnus. He looked her over discreetly and noticed a few things. She kept her left hand slightly behind her back, her gaze flitted about the room, and her breathing increased. Will also noticed a ring on her middle left finger, at the symbol on it he couldn't quite make out.
Chase stuck out her left hand in an offering of a hand shake, "Where are my manners, I'm Chase Magnus."
"Will Zimmerman, nice to meet you." Will replied and took her left hand. That was when Will stared directly at the blue tattoo between her thumb and index finger. It was a blue triangle connected by a circle at each point, and he was better able to get a look at her ring. The symbol he wasn't about to place but he had seen them before.
"Can I have my hand back?"
"Oh, sorry. I was just noticing your ring."
"It was a gift."
"Magnus might be waiting for us already." Henry piped up.
"Right. Time and Science waits for no one." Chase dropped Henry's hand. She hadn't even realized that she had taken it, and made her way towards the infirmary.
Henry and Will watched her go, "I didn't know Magnus had a second daughter. She has got be two years younger than Ashley." Will mused and Henry said nothing. Instead he left Will in the hall to follow Chase.
Helen felt worn out, tired, and drained. She didn't have the strength to move herself from John's light hold. Secretly she didn't want to move, but her fear of what he could become screamed inside her head to get up and get away from him. Helen had a job to do and she needed strength and a clear mind to do it. He was right, as much as she was loath to admit it, John had been right. She had needed to scream and cry.
"Thank you," Helen whispered and was surprised when John wiped away the remnants of her tears. Simple, intimate gestures were not beyond him. John grasped her hands lightly and pulled her up with him when he stood. She had only a moment to adjust before they were in the infirmary. Chase was no where to be found, but Kate was still manacled to the bed, only she was asleep and that suited Helen just fine. Before they had time to wonder what was taking Chase so long, the door opened and laughter filtered in before Henry and Chase. Henry was attacking her sides and Chase was laughing
"Ok... ok... I give. No more… Henry... no more!" Chase choked out between laughs.
"Say uncle."
"I... don't have... an uncle!" She continued to laugh.
"Ok." Henry released her and was rewarded with a hard slap to his upper arm.
"Are you two quiet through?" Helen asked with her hands on her hips.
"Yeah, mom, sorry." Chase said making her way over to the nearest gurney. It was there that she saw Kate, the same Kate who had led the Cabal to her. "I see someone final caught that rat." Chase jerked her head over to Kate's seeping form.
"You're acquainted with our sleeping friend?" John asked.
"Yeah, how do you think the Cabal trapped me? She made out that she knew where one of my friends was hiding, trying to lure me out, and when I couldn't wait any longer trusting her word, I get drugged and taken by the Cabal. I hope one of you shot her." Chase made a fist after her mother put the tourniquet around her forearm.
"Magnus nearly took off her foot." Henry commented rocking back and forth on his heals.
"You should have. Ow!"
"Sorry, should have warned you." Helen smiled, "Relax your fist. Some of these needle marks look months old. How long did they keep you?"
"Six month, I've been free eight weeks. The held more fr about two months before they started to experiment on me."
"Two weeks before they took Ashley. How did you escape?" Helen removed one vial of blood and inserted another and waited while it filled.
Chase looked to her father, "You didn't tell her?"
"Tell me what?"
"I can't believe you didn't tell her?" Chase shook her head, "The only reason I managed to get out without any more blood on my hands is thanks to my father. He found me and took me home to the jungle. I would have died at the hands of the Cabal during my escape, but he showed up in the nick of time." Chase bowed her head and held pressure to the crook of her arm.
"John?" Helen questioned. In the six weeks he had been around never once did he mention that he had been in contact with Chase. Not once.
"It was two days after your run in with Nikola. I found a few Cabal agents following me. I managed to get them to tell me what they knew and I went to find Chase."
Helen didn't say anything, she just took both vials of blood and left. Too many things had happened today. Her brain couldn't process them all. Ashley had been turned against them, Chase was used as a testing ground, and John had been in contact with Chase. Everything was unraveling. Rage boiled through her again, pure hot rage. Now was not the time to scream at them, she had to remember that John was Chase's father as well as Ashley's he had a right to be in contact with her and he had a right to help find Ashley and bring her home. Helen had to remember that, even if it made her madder than hell.
Chase watched her mother go anger and hurt poured off her in waves. She nearly wanted to rub her arms to get the feeling to go away, "I think we made her mad." She muttered and slide off the gurney. "I thought you were going to tell her."
"It's complicated."
"Coward, you just don't want mom to think any better of you." Chase spat out.
"That was uncalled for; I am still your father."
"Just because you had sex with my mother and donated DNA doesn't make you my father." Chase seethed and she had no idea why she was getting so angry. It could have to do with the residual vibes her mother had been throwing off.
"Ok, eww." Henry grimaced.
"Shut up Henry." Chased tossed a pillow at him, but deflated when he tossed it back at her, " I'm sorry, just mom's anger and then..." Chase sat down on the bed and put the pillow over her face. Hands encircled her wrists and pulled the pillow off her face. Her father stared at her, concern and sadness in his eyes. The man of perpetual sadness, he would never know redemption and never know forgiveness, but Chase forgave him, Chase loved him as her father.
Down in the lab Helen stood next to Nikola looking up at the screen in the lab. She had just run tests on Chase's blood and come up with some startling discoveries. The Cabal had used her for more than testing and perfecting the procedure they used to turn Ashley, their experiments were extensive. So far Helen had mapped the two dominant abnormal traits. One of them was her natural feline prowess and the other was the vampirism introduced in a synthetic serum. So far she thought that it was what allowed for the blending of more abnormal abilities later on. Normal humans have twenty-three pairs of chromosomes, but abnormals had twenty-four. The extra pair was what gave them their abilities. Chase was different in a sense; her blood could harbor and integrate new abilities for combat use. Helen thanked God that she had escaped before they had implemented more of their testing.
"Helen, look at this." Nikola caught her attention, pointing to the screen.
"What?" Helen turned her attention back to the lab monitor and nearly dropped her jaw, "Is that what I think it is?"
"Yes, but..."
"It's can't be..." Both Helen and Nikola were stunned.
"Can't be what?" Chase asked descending the stairs next to John. Helen noted that John wore a relaxed expression, but the sadness to his eyes stuck out. She had a pang of sympathy slice through her heart. After all was said and done she still cared for the man who gave her two wonderful daughters.
"Take a look at this, both you." Helen motioned for John and Chase to stand next to her.
"Ok, what are we looking at?" Chase asked but she knew the answer. "This shouldn't be what my blood looks like, should it?"
"Helen, what are we looking at?" John asked stepping closer, his voice soft and curious.
"John, you studied as Doctor, now think like one. What do you see?"
"That can't be a triple celled platelet."
"In fact, Jonny Boy, this is exactly what it is. Question is how it came to be in kitten's blood." Nikola chuckled as Chase hissed. He didn't miss the restraining hand John placed on his younger daughters arm.
"Having flashbacks to the movie UNDERWORLD. They said something about allowing for a perfect union blah, blah, blah." Chase moved her hand in a talking motion.
"In fact this allows for you to harbor more that one abnormal ability. I think this is what the Cabal did to you with Nikola's blood." Helen watched Chase digest the new information.
"So if that's true, why did they take the source blood, why not simply drain me and use my own blood to infect Ashley?"
"They needed it to make more copies of Ashley. Perhaps your blood was too unstable to introduce into her directly even though you are sisters. What they started to develop in you, they finished in her. She was the ultimate goal. You were..."
"The incubator, the lab rat, the guinea pig, pick a term. The used me to mix all the parts together, to get the best mix for a sentinel." Chase's voice dripped with venom, anger, and guilt. She brought her index and thumb over to the ring on her left hand and turned the inner track. It was something for her fingers to do, she needed the distraction. Being told that she had essentially brought about her own sisters destruction was enough information to process.
"Can we undo what they did to Chase? Maybe that would yield a treatment to help Ashley." John asked looking over at his younger daughter.
"Possibly, we would have to examine her blood closer but I do have a few more tests to run, with Chase's permission." Helen turned to look at her daughter. She didn't want to do anything that would remind her of the Cabal lab, but they needed answers, if they were going to help Ashley.
"Well, you don't have Chase's permission, because she is going to her room, getting a bottle of Tequila and going to try and get drunk. Someone will have to bring the others up to speed." She backed away and headed for the stairs at a dead run. Her animal instincts were telling her to run, so she ran. It wasn't that Chase didn't want to help Ashley, she did, and it was the way that her mother wanted her to help. Chase was not about to become some sort of lab rat again, no matter her mothers good intentions.
John was about to go after her when Helen put her hand on his arm, "Let her go, I was asking too much."
"So, what, we just let her run and hide in her room like a frightened child?"
"That is essentially what she is. The Cabal abused her for scientific gain. They had no regard for the animal part of her that they caged and drugged. I was asking too much of her." Helen took a deep breath and dropped her hand from John's arm. She braced both palms on the table in front of her and sighed. "John I need a sample of your blood."
"Why?"
"I want to introduce it into Chase's blood. If Ashley does come back here at the Cabal's bidding, then we are going to need all the advantages we can get and one of those advantages is Chase."
"You want to see if she really can be turned into something more, clever, clever Helen." Tesla mused as he went for a syringe.
"More like you want to see if you can give her an edge over Ashley." John whispered, but he was sure Nikola had heard him.
"Chase will need it, you saw what Ashley did to you and Nikola, and you two are far older than she is." Helen glanced at John when he moved in close to her. As much as she didn't want him near her, keeping him close was all she could think about. Their conversation on the roof while they were in Egypt played out through her mind again. 'I guess, I just want to know where we stand.' Helen didn't have an answer then an she didn't have one now. For the time being he was here and that was enough for her.
"You certainly do know how to spare my vanity."
"Vanity? You? Never in a million years." Helen scoffed, and then added a soft chuckle.
"Ok, who's ready to give blood?" Tesla interjected holding up a syringe.
"Thank you Nikola."
CHASE'S QUARTERS:
Chase lounged on her bed with a bottle of tequila grasped in her right hand. She was staring out the window looking at Old City. When she had been a child she would stay up all night just watching all the lights wink out one by one. She used to wonder what it was like to sleep through the night. Sleeping was something she never did on a regular basis. Her mother barely slept, Ashley barely had slept, and Chase barely slept. But now the lack of her sleeping was due in large part to the Cabal. The first few days of her freedom, when sleep had claimed her, she would dream of the cage and the lab and needles constantly being inserted into her arm. After that she had just given up sleeping for more than two hours at a stretch. It made her cranky and more sarcastic, but she would do anything to not have to see that lab again, even if it meant sacrificing her sleep. But when the exhaustion was too much to bear and sleep did claim her, her dreams were filled with blood and death, death of the scientist and the guards who had held her captive.
Chase lifted the bottle to her lips and knocked it back taking a quick swig before settling the bottle at her side again. She continued to watch the city even after her father appeared by the door. If he wanted to talk then he would have to break the silence first. She was as content as a cucumber to drink and watch the city out of her window. The window completely encompassed the wall, floor to ceiling. She had loved the open feeling the window provided her.
"Are we going to talk?" John asked taking a step closer, just a single step.
"I don't know, are we?" Chase drawled, knocking back another shot.
"Your mother only wants to help."
"By turning me into lab rat again? Thanks but no thanks. I got enough of that at the hands of the Cabal!" Chase shouted a slight trace of her parent's accents coming out. She was about to lift the bottle to her lips again when John appeared and snatched the bottle from her hand.
"Your mother is not the Cabal."
"I know but she is a scientist and she is driven by a scientist's desire for knowledge. You know what they say about good intentions and hell?" Chase chuckled adding a wicked note. John heard his own laugh echoing in her, his daughter.
"You've had enough."
"What are you, my father?!" Chase bounded off the bed and nearly had her hard around his neck when he teleported over by the window.
"I am your father." John stated and took a belt from the bottle.
"No, you're not. To be a father you have to be around, not just donate DNA!" She hissed and opened the door to leave her room. John was at her side in a blink of an eye sticking a needle in her arm. She swayed slightly, just before she hit the floor Chase found herself in the Infirmary. Her mother and Nikola were already there.
"I told you I would get her here."
"I said willingly John." Helen chided and then sighed. She would wait until she had Chase's complete cooperation.