Charlie's lips curled in irritation as he turned to look at Lauren Zizes, she was slow, and he was beginning to question her talents. Quinn insisted that Lauren had it out for her and was some savant when it came to her discipline; natural magic. It was an oddity just like his discipline, and he was mildly curious about what she could do. Natural magic was difficult to comprehend, but it generally dealt with the ability to control and manipulate living things through magical means. It was similar to his mother's healing magic, if anything they were two sides to the same coin. "This is why I don't work with other magician's, they merely slow me down." Charlie informed Lauren his arms crossed over his chest.

"I'm sorry that we have protocols that we have to follow." Lauren snaps. She's tired of Quinn's male alter-ego sneering over her shoulder every five minutes.

"Even with your protocols, given the situation and Noah Puckerman's discipline, this is a situation where the ends justify the means. No one is going to care if you followed some silly rule book when there is a lunatic who is in the business of invading people's minds and controlling their actions running about," Charlie pointed out. "The only reason I even chose you, was simply because you have a strong psychic shield from what I've gathered. While I could take you down if you became—compromised, it would be a headache and a bother."

"And I want to make sure that when we take this overgrown toddler down, that there is no reason for an appeal."

"Why would there be an appeal?"

"There's always an appeal." She rolls her eyes. Can he really be this naive? She was going to have to tease Quinn about that sometime.

"I'm aware of how the judicial system works, I'm asking why there would be an appeal when there are so many victims. My assistant—Santana—she's not his only victim. There are other women—other men probably that can inform the court of the horrors that he inflicted on them."

"If this guy is so terrible then why haven't I heard of him? We're going on your word that he's a bad guy and yes I understand he invaded the thoughts of your Assistant and you want vengeance but what about the others? Why haven't they come forward?" Lauren frowned, it had been bothering her all day. It didn't make sense the way Charlie described Puckerman made it seem as if Noah was some sort of devil.

"Maybe they couldn't."

"Well if they couldn't come forward before, then they probably wouldn't be able to come forward even after he is caught."

Charlie shook his head, "No, they might not be which is why I believe that if we're going to do this then he should be subjected to a confession. Personally I think frying his brain so he can't hurt anyone else is the smart idea but Santana objects to that. Says it will make it worse."

Lauren's eyes widened, a confession wasn't something that they just threw around. It was a last resort, and it was only used for the worst of the worst. Breaking into someone's mind, forcing them to tell the truth or making them drink various serum's that would make plying the truth out had serious ramifications. It wasn't something that they just did for some mild offense. "There is no way that anyone on the council is going to give permission for a confession. I mean I always knew there was something off about you but so what? At worst what he did to Santana was horrible, it was a violation but it doesn't rise to a confession—"

"What if I can get him to admit to something heinous?" Charlie broke in, his tone was lower than she had ever heard it and his eyes narrowing. "How bad would it have to be to get everyone to sign off on a confession?"

"How bad? It would have to be catastrophic predatory behavior." Lauren responds almost instantly.

Charlie stares at Lauren for a moment before turning his attention back to the street, "Noah apparently has a daughter, I'm not sure if that's his actual daughter or some poor child he's controlling. Though given his proclivities it's entirely possible that it is his daughter."

Lauren blinks it takes a moment for her to follow that train of thought, "If what you're implying is true than that would most definitely meet the criteria for a confession and I would recommend it."

Charlie nods that's all he wants to know, he wasn't going to be able to keep his promise to Santana then. Though Noah had never been intelligent, and he had always seemed to boast about his conquests. He cracks his fingers, and immediately feels the spark dance around his fingers.

~O~

Noah Puckerman glanced at his phone, nothing. Still nothing, there was no way that Charlie had figured it out but a chance encounter with Brittany? It was possible that she had noticed something wrong. Which meant that his cover was blown. "We need to leave Finn, maybe head down to New Orleans."

Finn frowned and glanced at Noah, "I didn't even want to come to the city anyway, it's too noisy the people aren't that nice, it's expensive and the magicians are arrogant—it's not fun. I'm a small town boy—"

"Dude, if you're going to break out into song I swear I'll shove my foot so far up your ass that you'll be a soprano. It doesn't matter where, we have to go and we have to go now."

"Dad?" A small voice makes Puck turn around and his face softens. "We're moving again?"

He winces at the unintended reminder. He had promised her that they were here for good. Noah Puckerman might be a lot of things, but he was mostly a decent father. "I'm sorry Beth, I am but the man who hurt me found out that I was here. He's going to come after me and I don't want him to hurt you because he would—he's not a good person." His hands ached with a dull throbbing sensation, he could barely move them most days, and on rainy days the ache was worse.

Finn made a face and looked at Beth, "We don't have to move Noah, we can just—maybe we can ask him to leave us alone?"

Noah laughed bitterly holding up his hands, "Do you think someone who did this was reasonable? He took away my ability to do magic, I spent years with various healers and they all said the same thing. I'd never be able to do proper magic again. He took that away from me and he's probably searching for me right now. It's a good thing you did the cloaking spell or he'd be here right now."

"Well you helped, you know I never would have become a Magician if it wasn't for you," Finn admitted.

Noah frowned, that was true. Finn was a fucking idiot, but there was a reason that he had chosen to help him. It had been practical, especially with Finn's discipline. "Don't worry about it—" Noah's eyes flicked up towards the ceiling as the lights began to blink, and he could practically taste the ozone in the air. He had been here before. "Shit."

"Swear jar!" Beth said with a grin.

"Beth, you need to go to your room. I—" Noah began before the wooden door was blown off its hinges and went flying into the room. Beth screamed and Noah immediately went to wrap his arms around her. "It's okay! It's okay— I promise."

"What's going on?" Finn asks, coughing as he comes around the counter as if he is some sort of match for Charlie's raw powers.

Charlie Fabray walked into the apartment his eyes narrowing and his hands sparking with lightning. "Noah. I'm taking you in."

Noah cocks his brow. "Just like that? You think you can waltz in here and tell me what to do?"

Charlie's eyes flicked to the dwarf in Noah's arms, Santana had been right he did have a dwarf of his own. It didn't change anything. "Do not make me hurt you in front of her, despite every fiber of my body telling me to put you in the ground and be done with it, I'm giving you a chance to come peacefully."

"Why the fuck should I believe you? You destroyed my life. You took away my ability to do magic, made me into some second rate assistant. You stole my future from me. And for what? Because I was sleeping with your sister?"

Charlie grinds his teeth but doesn't rise to the bait. He needs to get Noah to confess to worse. "Sleeping with her assumes that she had a choice."

Puck rolls his eyes. "Of course she did. She wanted it. She told me that plenty of times."

"She told you that, because you forced her to. You are a predator." Charlie corrects. "Because you don't understand the word no. You just tell people to do whatever you want, no matter the consequences."

"That didn't seem to bother you when you were the one getting the benefits."

"Getting extra dessert is not the same as what you did to her, what you've done to other women—"

"Leave my dad alone!" Beth shouted at Charlie.

Charlie frowned and tilted his head at the dwarf who was yelling at him before he raised his hand, feeling the power rise in his hands. He was done with this, with talking Noah, with dealing with this situation. He would make this quick and painless.

~O~

Brittany S. Fabray glanced at Santana and Antonio, they both looked anxious. She didn't blame them, why wouldn't they be anxious, Charlie had been gone for three hours now and she wasn't quite sure what that meant. She knew that it probably meant that he wouldn't be back until he got his hands on Noah, he had always been determined when he wanted to be. "You know, he was dropped on his head as a child," Brittany says watching as both Antonio and Santana turn to her. She smiles and runs her fingers behind the ridges on Spot's head.

"Really?" Antonio asked and frowned. He had always thought Mr. Charlie was super smart when it came to magic.

"Yeah, dad was tossing him up in the air and then sort of dropped him. I don't know how it happened. But he was dropped, dad freaked out of course. Didn't tell mom to much later, but that's what me and Quinn think caused Charlie to be Charlie. And now you know his origin story. Dropped on the head as a child."

Santana opened her mouth and then rolled her eyes when Brittany shot her a mischievous grin. She didn't need her third eye to know that Brittany was merely bullshitting them. "He wasn't dropped on his head as a child Antonio, she's just trying to distract us."

Antonio nodded, "Oh. Well when do you think Mr. Charlie will be back?"

"My brother probably won't be back until it's done. It's just the way it is, once he has a problem he does everything he possibly can to solve it. So how about I tell you about Spot? I mean it's not as good a name as Lord Tubbington but not everyone can have an awesome name like that."

Antonio nodded, "Spot won't do tricks for me."

"Probably because she's too smart and knows you're just going to give her what she wants anyway. For your first dragon a Winchester is probably the best choice to be honest, smart, loyal, fiercely protective, and sentient and they don't have some of the bad habits that other dragons have. They aren't attracted to shiny objects."

"And she can spit fireballs!" Antonio said eagerly.

"I can see how that will be attractive to a young boy," Brittany said looking at Santana. "She's not doing that all the time is she?"

"No, the worst is she just blows smoke at him and then walks away. I'm not sure that's good for his lungs."

Brittany chuckled, "She's sassy, but I can train her not to do that. I mean she'll probably nip his fingers instead—"

"Can she talk? Mr. Charlie said that she might be able to talk!" Antonio asked excitedly. His fears and worries gone as he focused on Spot who shot him a glance before putting her head back down on Brittany's lap.

"Charlie doesn't really care about the different species of dragon, or any animal in my bestiary. It's quite probable that he thought he summoned you a Greyling, which does have the ability to talk but Spot is a Winchester, they don't talk. They do however understand everything that is going on around them. She's intelligent has an excellent self-awareness. Also I don't think she does tricks."

"But Mr. Charlie said—"

"Oh I'm sure you can train her to sit and whatever, most other Winchesters would probably do it for you to make you go away. I'm saying Spot doesn't do tricks. You probably wouldn't like it if someone told you to roll over. Or speak on command."

Antonio's brow furrowed at this, she was right that didn't quite sound like fun. "Oh, but she listens to Mr. Charlie—where is he?"

"I'm sure my brother is fine. It's his thing, he goes after Thunder Giants, and he's fine. He goes after a Mongolian death worm and is fine. He tries to drink a dwarf under the table—well mom needed to do the magical equivalent of pumping his stomach, but he was fine." Brittany said cheerfully.

Santana snorted at the mental image of Charlie drunk, she'd pay for anything to see the normally socially awkward Magician drunk off his ass. "So what you're saying is that he'll be fine? I mean even if he holds back?"

Brittany was about to answer when her phone rang, "Yeah, he's pretty durable," she frowned as she glanced at her mom's face flashing on her phone. That never boded well for any one of them. "One second, it's my mother." She said answering her call. "Mom—"

Santana winced, she could hear Mrs. Fabray practically yelling on the phone. "Is everything okay?" She finally asks when Brittany ends the call.

Brittany smiled and even though she felt guilty about doing it she needed them calm. So maybe giving them a small push with her abilities was wrong especially with what Santana had been through but she needed them to not panic. "Yeah, we just need to go my parent's place. Charlie's there, so don't worry. Mom always gets worked up when he scrapes his knee, and apparently it's my fault since I'm the oldest." They would find out about his left hand when they got there.