AN: Thank you for all the reviews, I hope you continue to enjoy this story and keep reviewing. Enjoy.
Rachel bit her lip at the nice apartment, "This is ours?" She asked turning to Santana who smiled proudly, glad that she was pleased with it. Sure it was empty and it could certainly use a dusting and some cleaning, but they had a tub. She could finally take a bath. Plus they had a stove and a fridge—things that had been an absolute luxury for them on the outside. She frowns ever so slightly because this seems too much. "What's the catch?" Santana's smile fades but she doesn't let that phase her. "What's the catch Santana? There has to be one, they have mechanics here and from what I gathered where you live and the perks that you get is based on what you do and how useful you are to the city."
Santana sighed, Rachel had every right to be suspicious. This was far too good to be true, she felt it to, and she was waiting for the other shoe to drop. "There is no catch Rachel—not really. At least not that I've figured out. I mean the Commander is a bit—crazy and I think she's using me in some game that she's playing. But—I'm not fighting, she said that I don't have to fight and I can work on cars—and that I'd have a family." Santana says running her hands along the island in the kitchen. "This Citadel treats their genetically modified soldiers differently." Santana admits after a moment.
Rachel looks around the place still feeling slightly uneasy, for the past few months everything that she had received had come with a price, whether it was something as simple as a cup of water to the clothes on her back. This was far more than that and she couldn't shake the feeling that the price would be far too steep for them to pay. "There's nothing wrong with the place is there?"
Santana was about to shake her head when there was a thud outside the door that caused Rachel to jump, there was a scratching at the door and Santana moved into action darting to check on who was disturbing them. They had left Combustion and had been dropped off by Sam and Puck. She had thought that this place would be safe but clearly that wasn't the case. She checked the peephole, but couldn't get a good read on the person outside. All she can smell is alcohol and smoke. Santana turns to Rachel immediately. "Rachel—I need you to go to one of the bedrooms." Santana says, as the scratching at the door continues. The doorknob rattles and Santana grips it waiting until she hears the sound of the door closing and she counts to three before she unlocks and whips the door open. She takes a step back immediately as two bodies hit the floor. The immediate smell of pheromones makes Santana take a step back as she looks at Quinn who is currently on top of some random woman that she had probably picked up at the bar. "Quinn?"
Quinn's pulls away from the woman's lips and looks up. "You again?" she asks Santana. Irritation evident in her voice as the woman underneath her continues to work on getting her shirt off as she kisses and sucks on her neck trying to mark her. "What the fuck are you doing in my apartment?"
Santana stares at Quinn in shock for a moment, she's drunk again. She can tell by the slur in her speech, and a part of her wonders if this is why everyone moved out of the apartments. "This isn't your fucking apartment. You live across the fucking hall!" Santana snaps back. Quinn gives her a blank stare, and then goes back to the woman who has her shirt half off and slides her hand down the front of her pants, planning to ignore the irritating woman and just get on with it. Santana's jaw drops for a moment and she's about to start yelling when she spots the other twin walking up to their apartment. "Look, Charlie—can you please do something about this?" Santana asks pinching the bridge of her nose.
Charlie tilts her head towards Santana for a moment and flicks her eyes down to Quinn who is currently thrusting her fingers in and out of the girl at a rapid pace. Charlie rolls her eyes not the least perturbed by Quinn's actions. Her night had been a bust and she was in a bit of a mood. "If it bothers you then make her stop," Charlie said turning back to Santana.
Santana frowns at the edge in Charlie's voice. "I don't want to fight her, I just want to get some sleep!" She wasn't surprised when Charlie didn't budge, and she tried to block out the moans and grunts coming from the unenhanced person that Quinn was busy fucking on her floor. Santana made a face and crinkled her nose, she could smell it, and she could hear every last noise and she shivered. She looks over at Charlie once more but the other twin doesn't seem to be in the mood to help. Santana groans and storms over to the sink turning on the water and pouring some in a cup. She storms right back over to Quinn and the girl and tilts the cup onto them, spilling the contents all over them.
Quinn's body went rigid after the cold water hit her and she slowly looks up at Santana her eyes narrowing. She can hear Charlie's laughter and she flushes angrily. She pulls her fingers free, not caring that they're soaked in another woman's wetness and clenches her fist, all night people had been ruining the mood and all she wants is to fuck someone until they screamed her name. Both times Santana had been at the center of it all and she's already beginning to hate her. "You—"
Rachel pops her head out of the bedroom, "Santana is it safe now?" she asks and flicks her eyes to Quinn who is still on top of another woman, both of them looked wet. Rachel blinks wondering what the hell is going on. "What are they doing here?" she demands.
Quinn turns to Rachel and frowns ever so slightly. "You tried to kill me," she says bluntly pulling off the girl, distracted completely from what she had been doing before. She ignores the girl's whines for attention and shoves Santana aside approaching Rachel.
Rachel doesn't notice Santana moving to her side, and she certainly doesn't see Charlie moving to intercept Quinn if things go out of hand. "You kidnapped Santana and myself. Of course I tried to shoot you." Rachel says angrily. This is all their fault, and while a part of her knows that she should be grateful that they helped rescue her from Finn, Quinn wasn't her hero. She had been prepared to leave her to starve to death. Rachel frowns for a moment, as it dawns on her that Quinn is practically topless in front of her. "Will it kill you, to keep your shirt on?" she snaps at Quinn looking away.
Quinn frowned and looked down at herself, her pants were undone and her shirt was unbuttoned she smirks at Rachel and is about to say something, when she feels arms wrap around her waist and she tilts her head to look at who had touched her. "Baby, you promised," she wines playfully leaning in and kissing Quinn who responds. Quinn turns back to Rachel who looks absolutely enraged by her behavior.
"Quinn, let's get out of here, we've still got to deal with Commander in the morning," Charlie says with an irritated sigh flicking her eyes to Santana. If she couldn't fight then she wanted to watch a good fight and she was good, if a little rough around the edges. Maybe she'd be interesting for a few minutes before she was eternally bored.
Santana frowns as she finally manages to get their unwelcomed guests out of their apartment and she shuts the door and locks it and turns to Rachel who looks furious. "They live across the hall," Santana says after a moment of waiting for Rachel to explode in anger.
"I thought you said that there wasn't a price!"
Santana winces and wants to cover her sensitive ears. It's going to be a long night of trying to explain to Rachel that this was still a good thing. Even if she's not quite sure if she believed it herself.
Sue Sylvester rarely ever called for these types of general inspections but she needed to assess where her current troop strength. She hadn't handicapped herself as badly as everyone seemed to think, her top squads would easily wipe the floor with Will's haphazardly chosen soldiers. She stopped in front of Clint whose face was battered and looked like he had been put through hell and back. "Clint?"
"Yes Ma'am," he said still at attention trying to look at her even though one eye was still swollen shut. Charlie had fractured most of the bones in his face and his healing was not as great as the 'Wonder twins'. The only positive to this situation was that his face really didn't hurt.
"What happened to your face?" Sue questions but Clint doesn't answer right away. "I asked you a question." Sue snaps at him, getting in his face and he turns away for a split second.
"I got into a fight at Combustion Ma'am." He swallows because this isn't good.
"You lost," Sue said bluntly, and shakes her head. It had to have been Charlie by the looks of the damage. It was stupid to get into a fight with either twin. It showed poor judgement on his part, and she didn't need his stupidity and brashness, infecting everyone else. "Unfortunately for you, the rest of Chromium Squad have been cut from the War Games."
Clint frowned as best as he could with his messed up face. "But Ma'am—" Clint immediately protests, breaking rank and taking a step towards her. That wasn't fair at all, his face would be healed within the week—two at most. They didn't deserve to be stripped of their chance to participate in the War Games. Clint had the good sense to shut his mouth when Sue shot him withering look and he immediately took formation, standing at attention again. It wasn't fair, fucking Argon Squad, he ran his squad like a well-oiled machine. It shouldn't matter if the Argon Squad was by far the strongest squad, they were barely functional. He had even heard they had failed their last mission. It wasn't fair that they got preferential treatment because the Commander had a soft spot for the twins.
Sue studied Clint for a moment, it was a shame he had been promising. He showed passable leadership skills but his arrogance and narcissism was going to get him and his squad killed. A little humility would do Chromium squad some good and she'd be able to test out another promising squad. Sue continued her inspection, carefully looking at every team assessing them in her head, adjusting their position in the ranks in her head. She'd only take her fifty best teams. She nearly passed Mike and Argon squad, and paused for a moment and took a few steps back. Forty percent of his five man team was missing. "Mike."
Mike swallowed, "Yes Ma'am." He said knowing what the next question was going to be. He should have gone there himself and dragged them kicking and screaming to this inspection. But like an idiot, he had assumed that once they got the message that there was going to be an inspection they'd show up. He should have known better. They'd been on the same squad for years. He really should have known better.
Sue studied Sam and Puck before flicking her eyes back to Mike. "Where are they?"
Mike could feel a bead of sweat travel down his forehead, and he knew most of the attention was on him and the rest of Argon Squad. He looked like a terrible leader that couldn't control his squad. He had heard it-all. He'd like to see any of them try and coral the twins when they didn't want to show up. He was sure most of them would end up in the hospital. "I don't know Ma'am. I don't know." He repeats crisply and clearly.
"I see." Sue said and then studied Argon Squad again, and continued to walk and inspect the rest of her squadrons. She had put Mike in charge of Argon Squad because out of all the men and women in her army, he had all the qualifications she was looking for. Sam and Puck didn't piss the twins off enough but they didn't have excellent leadership skills. Mike was calm, he was collected and most importantly, he had excellent leadership skills and the twins tolerated him better. The only problem was that tolerating him didn't mean that they respected him enough to follow his command. She'd have to personally deal with them later. There was a part of her that wanted to immediately remove Argon Squad from the games but the twins by themselves struck fear into the hearts of most people in the Citadel. She finished her inspection, taking her time, focusing on the rest of the squads working her way all the way down to the Hydrogen Squad.
Sue kept moving until she was standing ahead of her troops, "At ease," she barked watching as her troops relaxed. "As you may have heard we will be having War Games with the unenhanced branch of the army. 250 of my best and brightest will be going against Will and I want to say this now. Failure is not an option. So I'm going to call out squadron names, will the captains of each squadron please meet me for a strategy meeting, the rest of you will be dismissed to go about your normal activities." Sue said loudly. "Lithium, Boron, Carbon, Silicon, Titanium—"
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Puck hisses quietly, despite knowing that everyone in the vicinity could hear them. Mike elbowed him and shook his head and he frowned. He could see the smug looks on all the other squadron's faces, but he couldn't care less. They were the best damn squad that Sue had, how could she skip over them.
"Where the hell are they?" Sam mutters, out of all the times for them to blow off an inspection, this wasn't the best time. Now they were going to complain endlessly about how they couldn't compete in mock simulations. It was interesting and it was new. It could have been some fun.
Mike didn't say anything he just gave Sam and Puck a look, shutting them up. At this point he didn't care about the War Games, it would be difficult enough controlling the twins and making sure they didn't accidentally kill members of the unenhanced army. Of course now they would probably accidentally kill members of the enhanced army instead to make a point. He was damned if he did and damned if he didn't.
"Plutonium, Americium and Dubnium." Sue said pausing for effect and then looked over at Argon squad studying Mike for a moment. Sue Sylvester didn't just want to win, she wanted to absolutely destroy and embarrass William's side. It made sense that if the citizens of the Citadel no longer had confidence in William's side then the council would be forced to side with her and she'd get her full budget back. "And let's not forget Argon Squad." She ignored the whispers of discontent that immediately ran through the crowd. "I expect the Captains of each Squadron that was called out to meet me in the War Room in five minutes. The rest of you—go back to whatever you're supposed to be doing and think about being better. Dismissed." Sue barks out as her army immediately snaps to attention once more as she walks off the podium.
Mike ignores the heated looks he's getting from the other squadrons and turns to Sam and Puck who were giving each other high-fives. This wasn't something to be celebrating. Sue was insane and for all he knew there would be an unfortunate punishment for the entire squad which they'd up doing and the twins would end up doing their own thing because they didn't want to do it. "I want you to find them. I want you to get them in uniform, and get them here where they'll be the ones to explain to the Commander why they missed an inspection and we aren't going to take the punishment without them. They aren't just going to leave us to do whatever sick and twisted thing the Commander asks us to do." Mike sighed. "I have to go I don't want to piss her off further and arriving on time means that I'm late." With that he takes off running, heading to the war room.
Sam and Puck glanced at each other. Mike had given them the hard job. It certainly felt like a punishment, "So—you want to say we looked for them and just didn't find them?" Puck asked Sam.
"Yep." Sam said shaking his head. "They're probably drunk again and or having sex with someone. It ends up badly for us if we interrupt," Sam said. "Come on let's go do an equipment check and then head down to the armory."
"If you want to see some guns Sam—" Puck trails off, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively as he flexes. Sam gives him a dry look and walks off. "Oh come on Sam!"
William Schuester entered the elevator in the apartment complex. News and rumors moved fast in the Citadel, especially with Sue's pet project the Wonder Twins involved. He had heard about them finally bringing back two refugees. It was unheard of, and they had to be useful. Useful enough for Sue to try and hide them in this part of the city. Put them within close contact of the twins so that they could protect them, but he knew things. If Sue had gone through great lengths to hide this girl from him. Allowing her to live in a place like this then she had to be an asset. Why else would the twins bring them to the Citadel? He stepped off on the thirteenth floor and walked straight to the apartment. He glanced warily at the twin's apartment for a moment. He would need to separate her from them so that they could have a private talk. He knocked on the door. It took a moment but the door opened and William looked down at the short woman in front of him. Confusion crossed his face immediately, he didn't know what he had expected when he had glanced over her file but this. This wasn't it. He wouldn't judge her simply by her looks though, she must have something to offer and he puts on a smile. "Commander William Schuester I am in charge of the unenhanced army here in the Citadel," he said extending his hand towards her. "You must be Rachel Berry, I read your file."
Rachel stared at his hand for a moment before taking it and shaking it. She had expected some recruiter to come and tell her about how great the army was and all the opportunities that was open to her, not the head of the army at her door. She stares, even knowing that it's rude but this seems off, incredibly off. She didn't know much about the army but the idea of a Commander coming to meet her and try and convince her to join the army seemed like it wasn't standard operating procedure. Even Finn didn't go out of his way to meet the new recruits. "I heard—I'm sorry I was just cleaning our new apartment. I thought I had a few days before a recruiter came down to see me—I never expected the Commander of the army."
Will smiled at her before he realized that this small girl was currently surrounded by those enhanced monsters. This wouldn't do at all. His first order of business was getting her proper accommodation without having to worry about what the Twin Terrors were doing to her, and Sue getting her claws into Rachel. "I understand but it's not every day that the Twin Terrors take an interest in anyone. Let alone bring anyone back and sign their names on the immigration forms. Which means that they believe—or at least one of them believes that you're worth something, that you have some useful skill that will benefit this city." Will pauses for a moment, "May I come in?"
Rachel blinks this was new, well she had heard bits and pieces of it before but she didn't know that Quinn had signed her name on the immigration papers. She would wonder what that meant later, "Where are my manners—I'm sorry about the mess, but we just arrived yesterday and Santana had to go to work this morning. So it's still dusty and we're thinking about trying to figure something out, to keep the—" Rachel stops and looks at Will she doesn't know him and she doesn't quite know what power he has. Even if she's irritated at their presence, she doesn't want to get them in trouble. She would grudgingly admit that her life had taken a turn for the better since they had kidnapped them. Will studied her, "It's unimportant—we don't have much but would you like a glass of water?" Rachel asked him.
Will smiled at her warmly. "I'm fine. I prefer to get right down to business. I want to know everything about you Rachel, I want to know what makes you so special. There isn't nearly enough information in your file and I want to find the right position in my army for you."
"Truthfully, I don't really want to join the army. I appreciate the fact that you came all the way down here, but I don't think that I'm—cut from the right cloth." Rachel flashes him a relaxed smile. "Santana says that I'd be terrible at it, having someone telling me what to do, all the time she said it would get old really fast."
The smile on Will's smile fades, he wasn't quite used to be being told no especially by someone who was so far beneath him. He's quiet studying Rachel for a moment, perhaps she had some better offers. Sue taking on an unenhanced person seemed like something that she would do. She was always attempting to humiliate him, trying to embarrass him. His anger spikes and he locks eyes with Rachel as he moves closer. He takes a deep calming breath, and pushes the smile on his face. "I'm sorry I don't quite think you understand how the Citadel works. If you truly believe that Sue cares about someone unenhanced like you than you're delusional. Especially because soon Sue won't have any power left in this Citadel. We'll have a utopia, where we aren't spat on by those modified freaks. You know we'd be able to take in more refugees, more people if they weren't such a leech on society." Will calms himself. "This is the best opportunity that you're going to get Rachel. This is the best job you're going to get and it's best to choose the winning side. Beside who's going to want to hire you when they know that you're a killer and worse that your only friends in the Citadel are the genetically modified soldiers? That you're getting special treatment because you're one of their whores?"
Rachel's body tenses wondering how he knew, but his wording is off and she looks at him. It doesn't seem like something that Quinn or Charlie would write in their report—they didn't seem like the type to worry about silly little things like reports. So it was just an insult, like everyone else in this city who seemed to hate the people who she was sure protected them more than they knew. "Perhaps not—but that doesn't mean that I wish to be bullied by you into joining your army. I'm not a fighter. I never even held a gun before Quinn handed me one. I think you have the very wrong idea about me. I don't know why Quinn signed the immigration papers or what she saw me. She kidnapped me. If you're asking what my special talent is, it seems that I have a knack for getting kidnapped."
Will stared at her, disbelief. It had been years since anyone had talked to him like that. He resisted the urge to force her into line, that was something that Sue did with her monsters and he wasn't a monster. He pulled away and touched the dusty counter and frowned as he rubbed his fingers clean. "I don't believe you. As monstrous as the twins are, I'm sure that everything that they do has a reason. I notice that you're living with this Santana person—you will join the army because now that I think about it, you're already in the perfect position. You've infiltrated the modified freaks. It's practically impossible for me to get good eyes and ears with Sue's camp and I need information. I need to know what she's up to."
"I don't even know Sue—" Rachel begins angrily, she's not going to spy on Santana or anyone else. Santana liked it here. Why she would never understand, Will was exactly like Finn just worse. He had more power, sure he might not be a rapist but he was a bully, a terrible bully and she wasn't going to stand for it.
"No, but you know her two favorite pets," Will said and smirked at her. "They know more than that they let on, and it's your job to report everything that you hear from them and their team. I need to know exactly what Sue is planning." With the war games coming up it was the perfect plan to crush Sue and making sure that people questioned the use of genetically modified soldiers.
Rachel wanted to point out that she didn't even like the twins, and Santana was her friend one who she wasn't going to betray because of him. She was excited to go to work, to just work on cars and not be belittled and treated like garbage by the people she was working for. "I am not, going to spy for you. I am not going to do anything for you. Now if you can please leave." Rachel said breaking free from him and storming over to the door and opening it and giving him a look. She was done being used by people.
Will stood there for a moment, studying Rachel and then smiled at her calmly. "If that's what you wish." He moved towards the door, and stopped, "I hope you don't get to comfortable. That friend of yours Santana was it, well from what I gathered she doesn't have illegal mods. Which means that another Citadel spent money and resources creating her. The fact that she's here instead of back in that Citadel means that she went AWOL and once I find out what Citadel that is, I'll make sure that they return her. I have enough clout with the council these days to make sure that anything happens." He watches as Rachel freezes and he smiles at her.
Rachel freezes, she didn't know what would happen to Santana but she knew enough, more than enough to know that it would be bad—worse than her time with Finn. Anyone that could force such a change on someone had to be bad, she swallows. She didn't even like the twins and it was just information. It'd give her time to figure out what to do and how she and Santana could escape. "What do I have to do?" Rachel asks as she closes the door and puts a resigned look on her face. It's a look that she's practiced to the point of perfection and judging from the smug smirk on his face, like Finn, Will takes believes her. Hook, line and sinker.
"You want to see if she wants to go get lunch with us?" Sam asked as they passed the garage that they had dropped Santana off this morning. He wasn't even quite sure how it worked since they didn't even have a real mechanic. All of their vehicles were fixed up by the other branch. Which generally meant that they took their sweet time doing it so having their own mechanic seemed to be a good thing.
Puck glanced over at the garage and smirked, "Sure why not, maybe she'll want to see my gun—and other things," Puck said with a smirk. Sam gave him an irritated look and he was sure he saw something else there but he wasn't going to question it. He shook his head and shot Sam a look as they entered the old garage that they had walked by practically every day for years without ever going inside. It had looked decrepit on the outside and they had dropped Santana off this morning and had rushed to get ready for the inspection, leaving her to figure things out on her own. He was surprised though by how clean and professional looking it was on the inside. What looked to be brand new tools were already lining the walls and it looked like the unenhanced garages that they needed to take their vehicles to. Someone was even in the process of building a lift for her. "Shit, the Commander moves fast," he muttered under his breath.
Sam had to agree, he had felt sorry for Santana who still wasn't quite sure what to do. They didn't have any formal mechanics that Santana had to report to and they certainly didn't know what to do when it came to stuff like this, but it seemed that it had all been set up to Santana's specifications and there was already a transport truck in the garage which meant that Santana was already busy. "Santana?" he called out wondering where she was.
Santana rolled out from underneath the transport van, this place had everything. She was still confused as to how everything work but it seemed that she had been put in charge and given some free reign. She wasn't reporting to anyone though she imagined that someone would end up telling her and giving her instructions but she was already working on cars and these were the best tools that she had. Ever. She had been given everything she needed and no one was expecting her to fight. The Commander had kept her promise and they were in desperate need of a mechanic. There was such a backlog of vehicles that needed to be fixed, she'd be busy for months. Some of them just needed something as simple as an oil change others needed to get a whole new engine or spark plugs. Some simply needed new tires. She wondered if she showed Rachel her garage, it would help calm her down. "Yeah?" She asked wiping her oily hands on a grease stained towel.
Puck tilted his head and looked at her on the ground, "It's time for lunch and we wanted to know if you wanted to grab something to eat and hang out with the coolest squad ever."
Santana pauses she's so used to having to go days without meals and she's about to nod when she pauses. "Are the twins with you?"
Sam and Puck glance at each other, "If anyone asks we looked for them but we never found them," Sam says after a moment and Puck nods. "They're in deep shit for missing for the inspection. Mike's pissed, I think the Commander is pissed which means that they'll get in trouble and they have a tendency to shoot the messenger."
"We don't want to be shot," Puck throws in and Santana snorts at this. He smiles at her, "But seriously though they aren't that bad."
Santana shoots him a look of disbelief, "Last night, Quinn got the wrong apartment and proceeded to have sex on my floor while Charlie egged me on to force Quinn to leave. What do you mean they aren't that bad?" Puck and Sam both share looks again and start to snicker. "What?"
"That's it? When I first found out that I was on the squad with the Wonder Twins, well Quinn put me in the hospital for weeks," Puck explained.
"He forgets to mention that he slapped Quinn's ass," Sam said dryly. "If he tries to do the same with you, it's perfectly acceptable to break bones," Sam throws in.
Santana turns to Puck who wiggles his eyebrows at her and she laughs at his ridiculousness. "What's their deal anyway?" Santana asks as she tosses the towel away and moves with Sam and Puck to the mess hall.
"Their deal is that they're the last genetic modified beings that this Citadel made successfully. Their modifications were highly experimental and dangerous. Which is why they're so much stronger than everyone else." Sam explains.
Puck smiles and run a hand through his Mohawk. "You know how it is as a mod." He grins when Santana nods. "You get them when you're young like really young so that we can maximize the potential. By the time we're five we're already stronger than most grown men. Which is why we're separated from the unenhanced kids, I get it. Mind of a child, strength of an adult. It's for their own safety. But it's not that bad because we had other kids like us that we can play with. How we want if we want to roughhouse there wasn't much chance that we would hurt each other. By the time they were five—they made us look unenhanced. Rumor has it that they were playing tag and they snapped someone's arm accidentally." Puck shrugs at this. "Truthfully, I don't know how much is true. It's just rumors getting the story out of them is damn near impossible. What I do know is true is that they were raised separately from us. I hear that they ran experiments on them, and stuff trying to get them to their full potential—or trying to find out what made them so damn special. They don't talk about that shit either. Like I said mostly rumors. But that's basically the story, you'd have to ask them if you want to know how much is true or not. They won't give you a straight answer because they don't talk about it."
Sam studies Santana for a moment, there was a lot of other stuff when it came to the twins but they had just met her and it didn't seem right to talk about it. "What's your story?" Sam asks. "We've never met another modified individual from another Citadel," he explains.
Santana was quiet for a moment and bites the inside of her cheek. It's an internal debate that she has but Rachel knows and while she doesn't understand everything she understands enough. "My family—got accepted into one of the Citadels when was like a baby. I mean it was kind of a shitty place to grow up. It was a real religious place where they practiced the old religions. Talked about making America great again and expanding and getting more and more people. They—were corrupt. Most of the people in power were corrupt. They'd talk about morals, they'd talk about how to be god fearing people but the things I saw them do." Santana was quiet and she frowns ever so slightly. "They had a lottery—to determine who was genetically modified. I was four, it was right before I aged out of the lottery when my name came up. I underwent the process."
"Fuck." Puck said simply staring at Santana. Four was old enough that you'd remember. You'd remember all the treatments. I mean he heard some people still had echoes of what was done to them, but that was nightmares. They'd never remember the next time.
Santana snorts, "Yeah. Fuck. I remember everything. I wish I didn't. I remember what it was like—to be whole. Before they took everything from me. My family—my friends, my—body," Santana whispers the last part and blinks a few times before clearing her throat.
"What do you mean your body?" Sam asked.
"Women—weren't as good as men. They were weak—if they got caught by the enemy they were going to be easier to break because we could get raped. So they made me more like—a boy in some parts." Santana explained to them looking at them. People found out all the time and she was so used to disgust, so used to people making her feel less human than she already felt. She didn't feel like a woman sometime. Freak was a better term.
"Holy shit—no wonder you got the hell out of there." Sam said absolutely horrified. "I mean I thought we had it bad—but fuck."
"Didn't you have proper training?" Puck asks completely baffled. "Like the Commander is batshit crazy but she makes sure that we're ready that we're prepared for everything and anything. Including that—I mean she cares about us. Even if she calls us her pawns, all the time we're still important to her. Every last one of us." Puck said.
Santana stared at them, they were taking this in stride they were horrified for her. It was the same reaction Rachel had when she had finally told the story and she relaxes. She thinks she's going to like it here. "I escaped when I was fourteen." Santana says continuing on with her story.
"And then?" Puck asks, Santana certainly looks a lot older than fourteen, but she shrugs and he grumbles. "Oh come on. I'll tell you my life story."
"Don't." Sam said immediately stopping her before she could say anything. "He'll spend the next hour talking about all the men and women he's slept with."
Puck pouted and Santana laughed for the first time in a long time, she was going to like it here. Sue was right she would have everything that she could ever wanted—plus family. She and Rachel were going to get a huge family.
Quinn sighed as she threw the dart at the dartboard that they had discovered a few months ago, "You know, this was more fun when we could drop stuff on people's head," Quinn says looking at Charlie who is lying down on the roof of Brittany's building staring at the clouds.
Charlie smiles at the memory, water, buckets of paint, they had dropped it all off the roof of Brittany's building much to the annoyance of the workers. "If we get caught again Brittany said she'd cut our bacon supply." Charlie reminded Quinn.
"Well who says we're going to get caught?" Quinn asks turning to Charlie. Her twin doesn't make a move to get up and take her turn and she rolls her eyes and moves to go meet her and sit by her. Charlie shoots that amused smirk on her face and Quinn laughs. "I mean apart from the fact that it's always us. We'll just deny it or run away."
Charlie finally sits up and looks at her wrist that is healing prodding it with a finger. She didn't feel anything, it wasn't throbbing or itching. It was just there and she didn't like it. "Well—we could always go dump stuff on Frannie. She did make Brittany upset. I'm pretty sure Brittany doesn't want us to kill her. Like fifty percent sure."
Quinn smiles at that for a moment, before pausing. "I'm pretty sure they made up again. She might be upset with us if we dump paint on Frannie. Plus she'll know it was us. She knew the last time it was us and you remember how mad she got then." Quinn turns to Charlie and gently pulls at her broken wrist massaging it gently to comfort her.
Charlie takes the comfort and relaxes and tilts her head up to look at the sky for a moment. "People are odd. I love you and we don't fight with each other not like Brittany and Frannie do." She never fought with Quinn, not with her words anyway. They fought all the time with their hands, but that's because there was no one else they could do it with.
Quinn nods at Charlie's assessment. "They are odd, but Brittany says she loves Frannie and she wants us to respect that." Quinn crinkles her nose at that. "Maybe we should threaten Frannie to make sure that she doesn't hurt Brittany again."
"I thought you did that last time?" Charlie asks tilting her head. She smiles as an idea pops into her head. "Maybe if we dangle her over the wall and threaten to drop her she'll be nice to Brittany."
Quinn grins at that idea, it was definitely something to keep in mind the next time Frannie stepped out of line. She puts Charlie's hand down and lays back on the ceiling and looks at the clouds. "Last night was boring—she was boring. Do you think we'll be allowed out of the Citadel again and go on another mission? We're allowed to do whatever we want out there and I hate all these—rules."
Charlie smirks at this, she didn't like being told what to do all the time. "I think Sue's still mad that we didn't find them. It wasn't our fault though. There wasn't any sign of them and we went pretty far out this time." Not far enough to see the monsters that supposedly outside of the walls but they had gone farther than usual.
"Of course it wasn't our fault. They were never there," Quinn said slightly irked at the situation. It wasn't fair that they were getting in trouble. "I didn't smell anything and I know that you didn't smell anything. Maybe they—defected or something." They hadn't bothered to share this information with the rest of their squad. Their senses simply weren't as good and it was almost impossible to write in a report that they just knew that they weren't there. The unenhanced people didn't get it either and they had gotten in plenty of trouble for that over the years. Quinn shrugs her shoulders there's no point in worrying about it now. Sue would get over it she always did. "They'll probably show up eventually."
Charlie nods at this, "Probably. People don't just disappear," Charlie says as she tilts her head to the door that leads into the building that opens. A pleased smile crosses her face when Brittany comes up balancing a tray filled with food and what smells like bacon. She moves quickly and goes to help Brittany with the tray taking it from her and moving back to sit beside her sister. "It's all our favorites Quinn!" Charlie said.
Brittany holds her own bagged lunch and shakes her head as she watches the two of them dig in. She feels guilty for trying to bribe them she even feels guilty for wanting to ask them this question but she's so tired of Frannie being made to feel less than. She takes a seat across from them and crosses her legs. "Did you two scale the building again?" Brittany asks and Quinn nods at her as she stuffs her mouth filled with the bacon sandwiches that she made for them. She should have known but they weren't allowed in the building anymore. She sighs and watches them eat and drink. "Are you two going to be in the War games?" This causes both of them to stop eating and look at her, confusion on their faces. "No one's told you? Frannie told me last night, that Sue and Will are fighting for resources again and Sue challenged him to some war games. I thought you would have heard about it by now."
Quinn swallowed and frowned and turned to Charlie who gave her a brief nod. This was probably why Sue had called the inspection. Which probably meant that they had got in trouble for skipping again. Even though they never ever went to the inspections anyway. They were boring, they did enough boring things as it was. "We're probably not allowed to. We were never allowed to play games with anyone else." Quinn says with a shrug.
Brittany makes a face at that statement. She knew that feeling well, she had always been too weird to play with the other kids. Her mind just worked differently. She'd find some games to play with Quinn and Charlie together. They'd like that she thought. "Frannie says it's a waste of resources and that you shouldn't be playing games and betting on resources like that." Brittany explains to them.
Charlie's nose crinkles as she chews. "Are you two fighting again? Because you don't smell like sex." Charlie tilts her head at her twin. "Quinn smells like sex, she had sex last night and she still smells like her." Charlie asks bluntly causing Brittany to flush and look away.
"We're not fighting—Frannie was upset last night and I needed to comfort her—without sex." Brittany explains to the twins slowly. She doesn't see any concern for Frannie on their faces and she sighs, at least there's no judgement. They never judged her, they never thought she was weird they just didn't understand and it was easier to explain it to them then it was other people. "Your father—was mean to her yesterday and she made Frannie feel really small and I don't like that. I don't like it when she cries and I don't like it when she's upset and I was wondering if you could—do something about it?" Brittany asks biting her lip as she watches the twins.
"Are you asking us to kill him?" Charlie asks taking another bite of her sandwich and reaching for another one.
"Frannie will be super mad at me if you kill him. But he makes her feel so bad and he's part of the reason that Frannie doesn't want us to be out in the public together. Because of how Russell is—and I want to protect her but I'm not strong enough."
Quinn chews slowly, thinking about Brittany's request. She had no real problem killing problem killing their father. It's not like he raised them, in fact the last time they had seen him. They had been forced to take pictures with him and pretend to be his good little pet monsters. But she heard every last mean thing that he said about them and she didn't particularly like him. "We can kill him for you Brittany. But we'd get in a lot of trouble. Like serious trouble, I don't think people will be happy and they might exile us or try and kill us."
Brittany's face fell at this, she didn't want that either. She just wanted him to stop being mean. "Then don't do anything, I just want him to stop making Frannie feel bad all the time. Like she isn't good enough," Brittany explained. She sighs and eats her own lunch and looks at the twins who still seem to be thinking about doing it anyway. "I mean it—please don't do anything. I don't want to lose you two. I can't lose all three of you," Brittany said. She didn't doubt for a second that Frannie would break up with her and she'd lose her then she'd be alone. She waits until they nod and murmur their promises before she relaxes. She smiles at them and thinks of an idea that might get them to like Frannie. "How about we play some games later tonight?" She offers. "You and Charlie can be a team and me and Frannie can be a team and we'll make it a party."
Quinn's nose crinkles, "Does Frannie have to come?"
"Yes that way she can see that all because you're modded doesn't mean that you're monsters." Brittany lectures ignoring the face that Quinn and Charlie are giving her. "You can invite Puck and Sam and Mike and all of your friends and I'll bring the snacks and the alcohol. Board games are really fun and you'll like it." Brittany explains.
"More bacon?" Charlie asks and Brittany nods. "Alright we'll play games with you and Frannie tonight but you can't forget the bacon."
Brittany grins wildly, it would be fun. Certainly a lot more fun than going to some stuffy dinner with Frannie's parents.
AN: Things begin to move as sides are drawn, fights break out amongst other things. Please take the time to review.