"This is your fault!" Russell snapped at Cassandra. He should have done the intelligent thing and left Cassandra in the fucking desert.

"My fault? Are you fucking kidding me? None of your Templars would have lasted anywhere as long as I did, and they would have gotten in my way or worse killed her. Is that what you wanted Rusty?"

"You fucking bitch—those fancy wards of yours didn't stop you from being sent to the desert, did they?" Russell retorted.

Judy watches as Quinn's eyes flutter open for a moment before she squeezes them shut, and turns to look at her husband and her sister who are both bickering. "Enough. Unless the two of you have forgotten, we are in a hospital. If you want to yell at each other please do it outside."

"Mom?" Quinn manages to croak out, still keeping her eyes firmly closed.

Judy grabs the plastic cup and pours some water into it before sticking a straw into it and brings it to Quinn's lips. "Drink up," Judy said in a soothing voice. "You weren't medically cleared Quinn—what you did was dangerous."

Quinn does drink slowly before finally opening her eyes as the pain in her head subsides, the memories of the past few hours coming back to her in force. With some effort she sits up in the bed and turns to look at her parents and spots Cassandra leaning against the wall, as far away from her father as she can manage. "I thought you were dead."

"You really can't get rid of me that easily," Cassandra responded looking away from her niece, "She teleported me to a desert in Arizona, impressive really."

"She," Quinn repeats quietly before looking at her father. "Charlie. That's what the woman called her, Charlie." The name sounded so familiar, and just repeating it caused her head to throb. Her splitting headache doesn't stop her parents from exchanging looks at one another.

"She—" Judy began and looked at her husband for some help.

"Don't lie to her. It's a bit late for that and she deserves the truth." Cassandra said crossing her arms over her chest. "Dad was planning on telling her anyway once I brought her in. Easier to show her the truth than to tell."

"Tell me the truth?" Quinn repeats, narrowing her eyes slightly that implied that they had been lying to her. "You knew about her?"

"She was born about eleven minutes after you were born," Judy said quietly folding her hands onto her lap. "Charlotte Reagan Fabray. That was—is her name. She is your identical twin—"

"Judy." Russell's voice was sharp and filled with absolute rebuke.

Judy turned to her husband, "There's no point in hiding it any longer Russell, she saw her. Charlie attacked the Templars. What could they have done to her—"

"Nothing happened to her, she was trained like everyone else she was a valuable asset," Russell says belligerently.

Quinn grimaced, as a sharp pulse of pain hit her, and she closes her eyes as she shakes it off. If her parents were just going to lie to her or tell her half-truths about this situation, then the only person she could trust was her Aunt Cassandra, who probably couldn't be bothered to come up with a lie. She opens her eyes and turns to Cassandra, when they're eyes lock for a moment she swallows. "Tell me what's going on, please?"

Cassandra looked at her nails for a moment before sighing. "You have a twin sister like your mom said. She presented as magic-touched when she was two. You two were immediately separated, which needed to be done, someone at that age has no control. She could have accidentally killed you. It's about the only thing this family agreed upon. What we didn't agree on, was what to do with her, when she came of age, and whether you would have contact with her. Your grandfather and I both agree that she would have made a fantastic Templar once she gained control of her powers. However, even though he's on the council, the rest of the council wouldn't budge and your father caved like the craven coward that he is, she was taken and turned into an asset. A weapon that the Templars could use, they're usually used for suicide missions."

"Craven coward? The alternative was death, unlike you I had a family to think about," Russell interjects turning to look at Cassandra, his face a purplish red.

"She escaped eight months ago," Judy said choosing to ignore her husband and sister as she focuses on Quinn. "She's been missing for eight months, I wanted to tell you. But we weren't sure how you would take it and finding your sister was our top priority. I've wanted to tell you—Charlie and Lucy, she adored you Quinn. Followed you everywhere and when you weren't around, she cried something fierce, that's how it happened. You were sick and we separated you and she threw a tantrum, things were in the air, floating the lights were flickering. I had hoped it was a simple possession, we could fix that. I could fix it, but it became clear that she was magic-touched and there was nothing we could do to fix that."

"How?"

Judy swallowed and looked at Quinn, "How?" She repeats slowly.

"How could you let this happen? How did it happen? Why didn't you just tell me? I should have known what was going on." Quinn takes a deep breath, as she closes her eyes, trying to will away the searing pain in her head.

"That pain in your head is why I didn't tell you. Rusty over here thought it was best to seal your memories away," Cassandra said with a shrug.

Quinn turned sharply towards her father, "What?"

Cassandra smirked at Russell. This was his mess, poor decision after poor decision. "It's how he makes his problems go away. If you didn't remember Charlie you would be okay, you'd be the perfect Templar. Justice without mercy, or something like that. I don't really know, but our hands were tied. I bet the first person who showed her kindness is the first person who she decided to be loyal too."

"It was the right decision, Charlie needed to forget you. She needed to be trained, but I made sure she had a good life, that she was safe. That she was trained, that she could help you. I had hoped that getting on the council would give me the power to make her your partner Quinn. The first magic-touched Templar. I was never going to hide this from you forever."

"The right decision just kicked our asses, and is currently out there with info that could come back and bite us in the ass," Quinn said coldly as she kicks off the blanket that was draped over her body. She yanks her hand away from her mother, "Give me all the information that you have on her, everything. I want to see where she was being held."

Russell bristled, "Who do you think you're talking to?"

Quinn hesitates, normally that tone of voice from him was enough to get her to rethink her approach but she was tired and her head pounded, "The man who apparently violated my memory. Memory magic is a violation only to be used if there is no other choice or if the situation calls for it. It's dangerous and unpredictable at best and you had it used on me god knows how many times, because you took away my twin." She didn't know how to even begin unpacking all of this information, she just knew she wanted to get away from her parents and the rest of her family.

She opens the door to her room and nearly slams into her grandfather, she looks up at him and frowns and tries to pull away from him but for an old-man he's still strong and she finally gives up and just sinks into him. "You lied to me."

"I'm sorry," Lawrence stated simply. "I should have told you." He pats her back gently. "This never should have happened Quinn, and I'm sorry I didn't do a better job of protecting you." He looked up at both his own daughters for a moment before turning from Judy and focusing on Cassandra.

"Just as powerful as ever, learned a few new tricks as well. I underestimated her, this was my fault," Cassandra said with a frown.

"No, it isn't. It was to be expected she's been gone for eight months. The only good thing is that she didn't kill anyone, this situation can still be salvaged." Lawrence said calmly turning to look at Russell. "You've been suspended pending investigation."

"Bullshit—"

"Don't push your luck Russell," Lawrence interrupted. "I'd make sure you had a solid defense, because this mess doesn't look good and we're going to need to cover it up. It's going to be an expensive fix, and at this point information was stolen. We're going to do everything that we can to cover this mess up, but it's only time before this situation explodes in our face."

"So, I'm the scapegoat?" Russell said coldly.

"You were in charge of this base were you not, ultimately the buck stops with you." Lawrence said smoothly before turning his attention onto Quinn. "I know this is very confusing—"

Quinn finally managed to separate from her grandfather and narrowed her eyes at him, "I'll tell you what I told him, I want all the information on her. I mean everything. I don't care how irrelevant you think it is. Progress reports, video, everything. I want to see where she was held."

Lawrence studied Quinn for a moment, "If you get back into that bed and rest, I'll see to it that you have everything that you want and need."

Quinn narrowed her eyes but after a moment nodded and allowed him to help her back to the bed.

~ O ~

"You do know that I'm going to be fine right? The Doctor's just said that all that magic-touched did to me was knock me out, and she did a half-assed job of it as well."

"Physically perhaps, mentally—" Lawrence trails off and studies his granddaughter. "You're still upset with me."

Quinn looked up from where she was currently bogged down in paperwork, at the very least her grandfather had kept his promise to give her all the information she had. After she finished going through the reports, she was going to watch the video, maybe then she'd get a sense of the sister she never knew she had. "Well how would you feel if you found out that you had an identical twin brother that the Templars hid from you because he just happened to be magic touched? I don't even know how I feel. I'm furious with my father, I'm angry with my mother, and I'm disappointed in you."

"Disappointed?"

"You could have saved her, if you really wanted to. You could have saved her."

Lawrence frowned slightly, "I had a plan, I doubt it was a very good plan, but before I could act on the plan well—your father had her moved. It's not as if I haven't tried over the years, but his constant refusal to give her to me—well there's a reason we no longer have family reunions. When I heard that she had escaped, eight months after the fact—I realized it was finally time to do what we should have done to begin with."

"And my memories?"

"I admit that I was focused on your twin sister, and I wasn't aware of what was going on with you. I knew you were being tested often, because of what Charlie was. That I didn't pay attention to you until it was far too late, I don't mess around with memory magic or I would have had it undone. You seemed happy, you seemed like you were okay."

Quinn didn't say anything immediately; this secret had clearly torn her family apart and she still couldn't place the emotion that was plaguing her. Every now and again she'd have a brief flash, a fuzzy image of her holding hands with her sister. She felt something, but as the memory magic faded, she'd feel stronger emotions. "So, you don't know anything about her? What she liked, or disliked?"

"No. I doubt your father did. I fear your aunt Cassandra may be correct, that the first person who showed her kindness is the person she decided to be loyal too. I've seen how we treat our assets, it's not pleasant, and the system is rife with abuses."

Quinn narrowed her eyes, "I'll find her and I'll bring her in. She didn't know about me she has to at least be curious. I can make promises, we can make her comfortable. Give her some limited freedom."

"Eight months is a long enough time to realize that she had most of her life robbed from her. It's more than enough time to realize how sweet freedom tastes and she may never want to come back willingly. She was supposed to be a weapon Quinn. And even with that she didn't really hurt anyone, I mean she hurt Finn but nothing life threatening, his pride is wounded. So is Cassandra's."

"So, you think we should just let her go?" Quinn frowned at him.

"Even if I think we should we can't, she knows too much and they stole information. We need to get that information back before it bites us in the ass and I know it will," Lawrence sighs. "You can read people into this if you want, but make sure you trust them."

"Sam—just Sam, working with Finn is going to be difficult."

"He hasn't taken the breakup well? I was going to do it today before all of this happened." Quinn says. "I'll wait until he comes to visit and then tell him. I doubt he'll take it well, but I can't deal with this and Rachel and him all at the same time." Quinn sighs. She looks up at her grandfather once more when she feels his calloused hands on top of her hand.

"You know you'll have my full support."

Quinn nodded, "When this is all over—I'll be requesting that transfer. I don't think I can work for him anymore."

"I understand," Lawrence patted Quinn's hand gently.