The Templar uniform was—suffocating. It was the only way to describe the sensation that adequately described the oppressive feeling that she felt while wearing her dress Templar uniform. She had gone from a blood red, to a white. It was the right uniform to wear because the sea of Templar's parted for her as she pushed her way towards the front of the gathered Templars.
She personally couldn't remember the last time she'd been to the lodge, it was usually where they held trials for Templars that stood accused of breaking their vows, or doing something heinous. She had never given it much thought before, but she should have noticed that the Templars were corrupt years ago. With an organization that stretched across the globe, and videos of Templar abuses caught on camera, the lodge should have been in constant use. It certainly wasn't meant to be used for whatever this sham trial was.
There was a charge in the air, and Quinn looks up to the bench. There were five chairs, and all she could see were old men—old white men. One of which was her grandfather, who had a grim look on his face as he sat in his seat. She would like to think that he would vote that Charlie was innocent, which would be the right thing to do, but—he was more likely to abstain which would be a death sentence for Charlie.
Personally she was glad that this trial wasn't open to the press. The optics would be something that the Templars could never recover from. If they could even recover from this. Charlie was a hero, children looked up to her, and she was the face of a magic-touched movement across the globe. This entire trial smelt of bad judgement all around, the Templars had already been condemned, they still had various senate hearings which would determine if the Templars deserved their revered place in society.
She scans the front of the room, she doesn't spot her aunt Cassandra, but she does see her father standing near the bench with a stony look on his face. She wonders if anyone bothered to mention it to her mother that Charlie had been captured, but her mother was no longer a Templar. It was all rather difficult. She would rather be doing anything else than this. If it hadn't been for Rachel insisting she might very well have missed this shit show.
One of the large ornate side door opens, and the sound of thick chains scraping along the floor echoes through the room which has gone silent. But even with the silence, it feels like any moment that the powder keg of emotions would cause the tension in the room to erupt like a volcano. Despite that, Quinn turns to take a look at Charlie and winces, with eighty Templars dead, they had taken every precaution and she could see the anti-magic gear that they had equipped Charlie with. The thick collar looked like it was choking her and she'd never seen it glow so brightly before, as did the thick cuffs around her wrist and ankles, all of which was tied to thick metal chains that Charlie could easily trip over.
One of Charlie's eyes was nearly swollen shut as she is forced to a small raised platform, with a chain loop in the middle. She is quickly cuffed to it as she looks around taking everything in with her good eye. Their eyes meet and Quinn doesn't quite know what to expect from Charlie, but it's certainly not an easy going smile. Charlie was supposed to be taking this seriously. Nearly everyone in this room wanted her dead. And the only reason they were going through this sham trial, was so they could still pretend that they were the good guys. Charlie should be terrified. She should be worried. She was in the belly beast, with no backup, with no friends, and she didn't even have a lawyer.
The courtroom is quiet as the Inquisitor begins to list out all of Charlie's so-called crimes. Each crime is met with increasing frustration and anger from the gathered Templars until her grandfather slams his hand down on the bench.
"Quiet." He snaps loudly causing the room to fall into silence once more. With a frown he turns to the Inquisitor. "Continue Inquisitor James."
~ O ~
Practice made perfect. And even though her musical had been nominated for a Tony, that didn't mean that they could all slack off. But she had learned that getting on everyone's last nerve was not the way to motivate everyone to practice as hard as she did. But this was the first time she'd seen everyone staring at their phones, headphones in. She can't help but clear her throat a few times till one of the members of the background dancers looks up at her, an annoyed expression on her face. "We should be practicing!"
"No one can practice today Rachel, we're sorry but have you seen what's been on all the stations this morning? I mean all the news stations? The Templars have Charlie, you know the hero from the fires? And the tsunami? The one that rescued all those children too? They have her, and it's disgusting. They had to cut the feed earlier because a few of the Templars started to beat her."
"What?" Rachel's eyes widen and when the dancer shows her the footage she immediately pulls out her phone. "Where—?"
"Any of the stations, MSNBC, ABC, Fox, CNN, BNN, CBS News—it's on everywhere, the ones that aren't on those sites, are uninterrupted and uncensored, but I don't think I could watch it."
Rachel immediately finds a stream and it takes her a moment to realize that she can see what Charlie can see, and it's clear that her left eye is swollen. She winces as Charlie looks around the room, staring at each of her judges and she grits her teeth when she spots Lawrence July. She ends the stream and immediately shoots a message to Quinn. All eyes were currently on the Templars who probably weren't completely aware of the fact that the world was watching. Quinn needed to step up. This could be her only chance to wrest control of the entire organization without a drop of blood being spilt.
~ O ~
Quinn glanced at her phone discreetly and flicked her eyes, reading the text message from Rachel. She immediately looks up at Charlie, she should have known that Titan wouldn't have let Charlie out of their grasp without a plan to hit back at the Templars. How they had managed to convince Charlie that this of all things was a good idea was beyond her. A million things could have gone wrong, they could have killed her on the spot.
Inquisitor James, finishes speaking and looks up at the judges. "She killed eighty of our men, and during her escape we believe she killed two Templars to facilitate her escape. She is a danger to society, and while the world might be willing to forgive and pretend, we must remain pure in our beliefs, we must remember that thou shall not allow a witch to live. We are the last bastion to stand against the darkness, and to do that we must do the right thing. The right thing is her death."
One of the judges turned to Charlie, "Do you have anything to say in your defense?"
Charlie blinked twice, and looked around. "I don't understand why I'm here," she admits with a simple shrug of her shoulders.
"So you admit that you did everything you're accused of?"
Charlie opens her mouth to say something and Quinn's heard enough, they were in the United States and Charlie was entitled to representation. Even within these halls she was entitled to representation. "This a farce," she says speaking up, causing several Templars to turn to look at her. Betrayal in their eyes, but she was beyond done caring as she pushes through the group. "She's entitled to a capable defense. If you wanted to kill her then you should have done that already."
"Lawrence," one of the judges spoke up turning to look at Lawrence who was pinching the bridge of his nose, "Your grandchildren are causing trouble again."
"Lucy," Lawrence frowns.
"You really should recuse yourself," Quinn retorts as she finally manages to stand beside Charlie who turns to look at her. "Why in the world did you agree to be here?" She asks.
"They kidnapped Mike and Brittany, and they're my friends. Mike taught me how to cook. Santana called me for help and they promised not to hurt them if I came with them so I did. The only reason I'm here right now is because I'm not sure if they've got people who might hurt Santana."
Quinn blinked slowly, of all the things she had expected to hear that wasn't it. "Are we in the business of kidnapping and blackmailing people now?" Quinn asked turning to the judges.
"Enough Lucy—she killed 80 Templars—" Russell snaps at her stepping forward to drag her back to the audience. "You're going to throw away everything you've worked for."
"It needed to be done, she is powerful, and dangerous. We needed to do this with the minimum amount of casualties." Inquisitor James spoke up harshly.
Quinn shrugged her father off her shoulder, moving to stand by Charlie who was watching quietly for a moment. "I'll stand in as her defense, and she pleads not guilty."
"Lawrence."
"Once again, you really should recuse yourself," Quinn snapped at her grandfather.
Lawrence closed his eyes for a moment, before sighing and looking at Charlie who had grown bored with all the talking and arguing, and was back looking at her cuffs and jerking on them. "You won't be able to break those apart—or teleport away. We used that on your little friend, we tripled the charms to make sure that you couldn't break free." He turns to Quinn and shoots her a pleading look, he was doing this to protect Charlie. "I'm not going to—" There was a loud crack and the ground quakes, before the sound of metal dropping to the ground causing everyone to turn back to Charlie who was rubbing her wrists. Even Quinn had taken a step back. There was no way she should have been able to get out of those, at least not without a strain, but she looked fine.
"I don't know why I'm here, because I don't accept your authority," Charlie informs the judges, as a few Templars immediately make a beeline towards her, their weapons drawn. "I did this because I was worried about you hurting the people who are very important to me. I let you hit me, because I didn't want you hurting them."
Quinn moved to intercept the thrust of a sword, disarming the man with quick movement and stepping in front of Charlie, causing the other Templars to stop in their tracks. "And the reason you haven't left?"
"Because if I leave then a Templar will probably come after my loved ones when I'm not around, and hurt them, if not kill them. After which I'm not sure what I will do, but I do imagine it will be catastrophic for everyone in this room. I don't think anyone in this room wants me to be what you tortured me and forced me to be."
The threat hangs in the air and Lawrence finally raises his hand, "Stand down."
"Lawrence—"
"Shut up Clifford," Lawrence snaps at him. "We're all civilized here," he said finally turning back to his granddaughters. "Now may we continue?"
Quinn exhales and turns to look at Charlie who looked like she was about to leave, and she reaches to touch her twin's arm. "Do you trust me?"
Charlie studied her twin for a moment, noting the uniform. "I don't think you can change anyone's mind, they think I'm guilty."
Quinn glanced at the gathered people for a moment before nodding, "They do," she said. "But we're not going down without a fight, let everyone know what was done to you. The atrocities that they're covering up under the guise of being holy, or whatever bullshit they want to tell themselves, to justify pretending that you're the villain in this story." A smile crossed Charlie's face and she relaxes.
"Okay."
"Okay?" Quinn repeats, smiling back at Charlie. They were on the same page finally and it was time to bring the organization down. She immediately turns her attention back to her grandfather who had a grim look on his face. No matter what was said, they were going to find her guilty. But she wasn't trying to get them to find her innocent. She was going to bring the Templars crimes and abuses to light, and then she was going to let Charlie go home.
"I have a date Quinn," Charlie informs her twin impatiently. "It's my first one, she told me if I came back alright she'd let me take her out on a date. So we have to hurry this up, I want to go home."
Quinn rolled her eyes, but nodded, of course this had something to do with Santana. But right now it would have to do. "Let's begin at the fact that you took a two year old from her mother, and her twin sister and put her in a cage. Nothing new of course, considering that we still have children in cages." Quinn said in an accusatory tone.
