Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Quinn threw her purse into the corner when she had entered her apartment. It has been a long day, she really needed something to eat now. Whether that Thai restaurant was still open now at 11 at night?

She ruffled her shoulder length hair in distress. So now Mercedes and her friends found out she was the Fightress. That was going to complicate things a lot. When Catgirl had confronted her about it, she had pretended to be unfazed, but in reality she was concerned. What was that going to mean for their plans? What was she going to do now? Call her dad? No, that was out of question, he was going to kill her.

The blonde checked her watch shortly. Time for her shot. She retrieved a small syringe from her drawer in the bathroom and did what she had to do. After that, she swallowed three colored pills with a couple of gulps of water. With a frown, she looked at herself in the mirror. Her hazel eyes had lost their glint, her face was ashen and her hair frizzy. It had been a while since she had slept properly for the last time.

With a sigh, Quinn splashed her face with icecold water and went back to the kitchen.

…

Flashback

She was so excited to start her freshman year at NYU. Quinn took another sip from her latte she had ordered at the Spotlight diner where her old friend Santana had been working. The Latina had just disappeared even though their term had just started. Quinn wondered whether she had already dropped out. But enough about Santana. After all, this was not about her.

Actually, Quinn had been accepted to Yale and Stanford as well, but she had decided on NYU in the end. NYC was just so exciting and had more to offer than New Haven and Stanford. That was definitely the right decision. She closed her MacBook with the first draft of her paper and paid for her drink. When she had left the diner, someone was calling her. Quinn retrieved her phone and frowned. An unknown number? Who could it be? She decided to accept the call anyway.

"Hello?"

"Am I talking to Quinn Fabray?", a male voice asked.

"Yes? Why? What happened?"

"I'm sorry to tell you your mother got into an accident. She-" The phone fell out of her grasp and to the ground with a loud clatter.

Quinn took the next flight to fly back to Noblesville, Indiana, to be with her mother. A drunk driver had hit her mom on the crosswalk, that asshole just hit and ran instead of turning himself in. Judy's condition was still critical but luckily, she was mainly stable. Even though Quinn was clearly upset, the doctors had approached her and handed her the medical bills that skyrocketed more with each day her mom spent in hospital.

You see, Quinn's dad kicked her out of home at age sixteen when her schoolmate Matt had impregnated her. A couple of weeks later, Judy approached her daughter and told her she had divorced him and that they should move in together. After Quinn had given up her baby daughter for adoption, she and Judy had started all over. It was hard because Russell had been the main breadwinner of the family and Quinn also needed to work as a waitress at a restaurant next to her school to help make ends meet. But they did it in the end, Quinn even got a fully paid scholarship for her dream colleges after highschool.

Of course, the medical treatment of her mom would ruin the both of them financially. Quinn also knew they needed to pay back the mortgage of their small house. She had absolutely no idea how they were going to handle all that. Unless…

With shaking fingers, she dialed the number of the absolutely last person she ever wanted to ask for help.

"Quinn." The cold voice of her dad made her shiver. "I awaited your call."

"You did?" Quinn cocked her eyebrow in surprise. "So you already knew?"

"Of course I knew. Judy is my ex-wife, after all." Russell exhaled loudly at the other end of the line. "Listen, I want to help you. I will bear the costs for your mother's treatments."

Why did that sound too good to be true? "Really?", Quinn said dryly. "You don't want us to pay them back one day?"

"Not at all."

"And there are no conditions?"

"No." What? "Apart from that one small condition."

She knew it! Quinn scowled at the wall in front of her. "And what do you want me to do?"

"You surely know about the project my firm has been working on", he started explaining. "I want you to be part of it, my daughter."

"You mean that highly unethical project where you hurt innocent animals?" She scoffed spitefully "Forget it."

Russell clicked with his tongue disdainfully. "Well, babygirl, in that case, make sure to finance your mom's hospital stay yourself."

Quinn looked to the ceiling, debating with herself. There was no way they could afford all that without help. And even though she hated her dad with all her heart, she couldn't allow that her mom died. Her mom hadn't been the worldbest mom in the past, but she was trying so hard to make up for her dad's treatment. Her brother and sister just left to god knew where once they graduated and didn't even bother to come visit them even once. She was all Quinn had at the moment. With a sigh, she finally relented. "What do I have to do?"

She could almost see Russell's self-righteous grin in front of her mind's eye. What a monster. "I knew you wouldn't let me down, babygirl."

…

From that moment on, Quinn was forced to take shots and pills from her dad's firm regularly. She had no idea what would happen to her body if she just stopped it. A couple of weeks after her first treatment, she noticed some changes about herself. She was faster and stronger than before; her senses had sharpened drastically. She could hear a feather fall down three miles away. She could climb skyscrapers without problems. Her reflexes were abnormally fast, too. In exchange for those services, her dad wanted her to put on a costume and become The Fightress whenever he needed her. The Fighters for Perfection had been his idea, too.

Actually, Quinn never wanted to be part of all this. But she owed her dad after he had saved mom's life four and a half years ago. She had no other choice. She was trapped. Her dad had made abundantly clear that he was going to destroy her and her mom if she dared to diverge from their plans. She had seen Russell's angry face in front of her mind's eye when Marley turned up in front of her door and how he threatened to kill her mom and everyone else that was close to Quinn. When Marley had found out she was the Fightress, she had backed away from the blonde anxiously. And since the janitor had just mopped the floor of the staircase, the petite brunette had slipped. Marley's fall down the stairs was just an unfortunate accident, really! She would never hurt innocents willingly. When Catgirl and her people had confronted her about it, Quinn had acted like on autopilot and pretended she purposely pushed Marley even though every single word tore her apart from the inside. It took her a lot of self control to not burst into tears in front of the heroes.

Desperate, Quinn buried her face in her hands and started sobbing. Judy didn't know of the sacrifices her daughter made just so that she had a decent life, and she could never ever find out about it. Playing the supervillain day by day was tiring her out especially because she wasn't allowed to confide in anyone. She hated being The Fightress, ever since she had put on that mask for the first time, she had cried herself to sleep every other night. She felt as if she was playing a role in her dad's cruel play, never allowed to be just herself. To be honest, she had no idea how long it would take until she would break down completely.

…

With a scowl, Mercedes sat down on Travis's opposite at the visitors' room of the prison. "I wonder why I agree to this all the time", she muttered. Kurt would so call her out if he learned she was visiting his cousin again.

"So nice to meet you again, Catgirl", he smirked. "Say, are you still single? If I get out, we could maybe-"

"I'm not interested, creep", she hissed. "So why did you want to meet me this time?"

The ginger shapeshifter smirked at her. "Hey, don't get all aggro on me, I want to help you."

"I have a good reason to get all aggro on you, Bancroft." Mercedes crossed her arms, annoyed. "Now, spit it out. What do you know?"

"I may not know who the leader of the Clowns for Perfection is yet, but I know the Big Boss's plan", he said with wiggling eyebrows. "You won't like it."

Mercedes stared at him. "What do you mean?"

"You surely wonder why my cous has these headaches lately, right?" Now that she thought about it, Kurt's mysterious headaches had started back then at the escape room and got worse gradually. Not even Aspirin could help him.

"But…how do you know of-"

He silenced her with his lifted hand. "Doesn't matter. Don't you want to know the reason?"

"Stop beating around the bush and tell me already!", she snarled with clenched fists.

Travis started laughing. "Kurt's head hurts because his senses picked up on something. See, enhanced senses can be a blessing and a curse at the same time."

"Elaborate?"

The redhead leaned back with a smirk. "His sensitive senses detected the change in our atmosphere. And the Fighters for Perfection might or might not have something to do with it."

Mercedes glared at him. "How?", she snapped. "What have your people done, Bancroft?"

All of a sudden, more and more people around them started coughing. Mercedes looked at them, alarmed. Travis, however, was staying calm.

"Now, I'm one hundred percent sure my theory is right." His constant smirk was driving her over the edge. "Looks like the Big Boss already started with the purge, Catgirl."

…

As soon as Travis had broken the news to her, Mercedes had rushed out of the prison manically. That's what the Fighters for Perfection had been planning all the time? She felt sick to the stomach. Nevertheless, she made her way to a certain apartment complex and knocked on a door repeatedly.

"Sam, please open!", she yelled urgently.

He did and yanked her into his apartment. "What are you thinking?", he hissed irritatedly. "Do you want people to call the cops?"

"Sam, we need to talk", she said quickly and started pacing. "I know you are still mad at me, and I get you, but please let's just set our private problems aside for one second, okay?"

He must have noticed how worked up she was because he nodded shortly.

"Something bad is going to happen", she began "And I want you to leave New York, preferably today. Pack a suitcase and take the earliest flight to your family in Missouri. The sooner the better. Also, take Blaine with you. He is in danger as well."

"Mercedes, why shall I do that?", he asked confusedly. "You make it sound as if the world will end today."

"Not exactly the world, but probably NYC", she said nervously.

"Will you tell me what's wrong?"

She took a deep breath, stopped, and looked at him. "Quinn Fabray is the Fightress", she told him.

Sam gasped for air. "No way…"

"But that's not all", she said "We don't know yet who her boss is, but that person made sure to release genetically modified animals that run around in New York and attack innocent humans. But the most recent problem is that they want to get rid or everyone that is not…"

Sam covered his mouth with his hand. "Shit. They want to kill off all humans without altered DNA, right?"

"Yup."

"But how?"

"They must have developed microparticles that are deadly for ordinary humans if they breathe them in. Shapeshifters are immune to them, at least according to Travis."

"Travis as in…Kurt's mean cousin?", Sam queried.

Right, Kurt grew up with Sam and Blaine, made sense Sam knew him too. Mercedes nodded.

"I doubt that Travis is that mean, though, but that's a topic for another time." She ruffled her hair nervously. "That's what the Fighters for Perfection have been plotting while Vortex and Catgirl had that issue with the fake Foxfire-"

"- Fake Foxfire?", Sam asked confusedly.

Mercedes waved it off. "Another long story. Anyways, they wanted us distracted so that they could work on their formula to poison our atmosphere, it all makes sense now!" And they were so stupid to think the Fighters for Perfection would just sit on their hands while she and Santana fought phony Kurt...

Sam furrowed his eyebrows. "And the government just sits around and lets them do that? That doesn't make any sense…"

"Travis told me that the leader of the Fighters for Perfection was a big wheel. I'm positive that he pulled some strings so that the government turned a blind eye, or some mole made sure they were left in the dark. And no, Quinn isn't the leader, she's not that powerful."

"Damn, that sounds dangerous as hell." He seemed to think about it. But then, he crossed his arms. "And you expect me to leave, just like a coward?"

"Sam, New York is doomed! If you stayed you could die. I just want to protect you."

"How often do I have to tell you that I don't need your protection, Mercedes!", he shouted irritatedly. "I'm a grown man, I can make my own decisions. And I won't just run away while the Fighters for Perfection destroy this city. New York is my home; I will fight for it even if I have to die during the fight."

"But Sam…"

"Don't but Sam me!", he cut her off harshly. "Just try to change my mind. I will stay, period."

The stubbornness in his eyes let her heart flutter again. But seriously, this was not the time to swoon over him. Mercedes nodded. "Okay." She may not be happy with his decision, but he was right. She had no right to save him against his will. He wanted to fight for New York as much as she wanted it.

…

"Okay, what's the plan, fellas?" Mercedes was standing in front of the whiteboard in their HQ and looked into five determined pairs of eyes, Team Catgirl's taskforce for saving New York.

"I have a couple of contacts at the hospital I intern at", Sam thought out loud "I could gather them so that we develop some kind of serum."

"Great idea, Sam!", Mercedes said with a smile and wrote it down. Sadly, he didn't requite her smile.

"How much time do we have left until we die?", Blaine wondered. Just like Sam, he had refused to leave New York even though he didn't fully recover from the injury yet. "Will the death be slow, or rather quick? Will we suffocate or drown in our own blood? Will we-"

"Stop it, you're giving me the creeps, hobbit", Santana berated him and glowered.

"Easy for you to say. You don't have to fear for your life", Blaine muttered.

Santana turned to her girlfriend "Britt, will you please look in the future and tell us whether they will all die?"

Much to her disdain, the blonde shook her head. "That's not how my abilities work, San", she reminded her.

"We need to make sure to find out who exactly the head of this organization is", Kurt spoke up. "If we know who it is, we can defeat them more easily."

"According to your cousin, this someone is a super powerful magnate. Someone who's ruthless and icecold. Someone who is in some way related to Quinn. Someone-"

"Russell motherfucking Fabray", Santana suddenly cut off Mercedes.

Mercedes looked at her questioningly. "Who?"

"Quinn's asshole of a dad", the Latina explained. "That douchebag kicked her out in highschool cause she was preggers. As far as I know, he's one of those stinking rich businessmen or something."

"So it's him?", Sam asked. "He is our main target?"

"Makes sense", Mercedes answered, frowning. "But how do we defeat someone as powerful as him? I'm pretty sure his daughter is not the only fighter he has. He probably has another ace up his sleeve."

This was going to be harder than expected.

But Kurt just shook his head. "That won't scare us away, will it? He has an ace up his sleeve, so? We are going to bust the Fighters for Perfection before he can make use of it."

"But first, we need to make sure we save the citizens of New York", Sam commented.

Yeah, their outlook was more than bad, but when Mercedes looked into the round of determined faces, she couldn't help but feel optimistic. They were all here now, and they wouldn't give up until they had defeated their foes. Together.