When her Abuela had been alive, she had spent most of her days talking about how great things had been. Stories about how there used to be real freedom in this country, back when the states were actually united and hadn't been broken up into territories for the vampires. Her Abuela would use to tell her stories about how the disenfranchised would eventually rise up and march and maybe have their voices heard. That a safe space had been a place where you could exchange your ideas, without being persecuted.

Yet, even though she was currently collared like some lowly animal, she had never felt this free before. It had been the first time that she had ever spoke up for herself against the people who would persecute humanity for nothing more than simply being human. Perhaps she had misjudged the regents, from what she could gather they didn't seem to be the tyrants she had believed them to be. Charlie had even implied that she thought that humanity was important. Though, it didn't mean much considering that humanity didn't have a voice. And she needed to be careful, she was their 'pet', which meant that she got perks that very few other humans received.

Maybe the regents could be reasoned with, perhaps she could use her new position to get them to hold elections for the humans so that they could have a seat at the table as well. But to do that, she needed to understand what her boundaries were with them. Which was why she was currently standing out at a door that she hoped led outside. It wasn't the main door, but it was just off the kitchen which meant that she could hopefully walk around without too much fuss and be back before Blaine started to look for her.

She exhales and reaches for the door, pausing for a moment to make sure that there wasn't a vampire that had snuck up on her, before pushing it open, wincing at the cold air that hits her. She pulls the sweater a bit tighter around her as she takes a step outside and waits. When nothing happens, she takes a few more steps, wondering how easy it would be to simply keep walking.

Probably not far. Even without worrying about the Regents, she was still a wanted criminal. Unable to ignore the huge greenhouse toward the back of the property, she lets her curiosity guide her and pull her toward the massive structure. Passing a few fruit trees along the way, she marvels at the sight of fruit and nuts that she's only able to identify because she's seen them in textbooks. A sense of nervousness tugs at her, worrying that she'd somehow ventured beyond where she was supposed to go, but today is about pushing the limits a little. She reaches for the handle to the door and tests it, biting her lip when the door opens and she quickly steps inside feeling the warmth and the humidity from the greenhouse. Well it certainly explained how they got their fruits.

She freezes when she realizes she's not alone. "Either step inside or get out, either way shut the damn door. You're letting all the air out." Quinn's voice calls from somewhere deeper in the greenhouse.

She moves quickly, stepping inside the structure and immediately closing the door behind her despite every last bone in her body telling her to run. But if she was going to use her new power to help humanity, then she needed to get over it.

"Sorry," she mumbles, her voice low. She was certain that Quinn had heard her, but the vampire doesn't say anything in return. It's enough to get her to move through the greenhouse searching for Quinn, it would help her feel at ease to know exactly where Quinn was. She spots the vampire working quietly, cutting away dead plant matter and approaches her carefully, stopping when she's a few feet away. "So, this is where you get all your fresh fruit," she mumbles reaching out to touch one of oranges. They were quickly becoming her favorite thing to eat. She notices the basket filled with more oranges and moves to pluck the orange she was touching off the branch.

"It's not ripe yet." Quinn says finally speaking up and causing Santana to immediately let go of the orange she was holding. She turns to look at Santana carefully an amused smile crossing her features. "You don't have to look like it's going to bite you, you know."

"I know that." Santana denies, stepping away from the tree anyway, just to be safe. She didn't want to get in Quinn's way and she wasn't sure what she was doing. It was better to wait and see then to do something that would irk the regent.

Quinn hums noncommittally. "So, would you like to tell me what my twin's plan is? As you've probably noticed my sister doesn't really believe in sharing her schemes."

Santana blinked and then swallowed, "Well I don't—"

"Before you continue, I probably shouldn't need to remind you that I can tell when you're lying. I don't appreciate being lied to. It's a waste of my time. It's a waste of yours and it puts me in a mood." Quinn interrupts tilting her head towards Santana as she moves a leaf upward to check it for mold and bugs.

Santana flushed and swallowed, "I don't know what plans she has. I just asked her why she spared me, she claimed it was because she was bored. I got upset—this is my life and I don't feel comfortable knowing that I was spared because she was bored." Santana shifts uncomfortably when Quinn turns to look at her. "She told me that you were better than other vampires and you were much older than I thought you were. You were born in the time of the crusades, and that she thought that humanity was important. That's all—she had to go to another meeting and I think Blaine would have lost it if I had tagged along."

An amused look crosses Quinn's face as she cuts the leaf off the branch. "Blaine probably would have, he takes his job far too seriously. As for my sister's eternal boredom, it's not something that you should take personally. When you've lived as long as we have, you lose perspective every now and again. It's quite possible she's simply recalibrating where her compass is."

Santana frowned and kicked at the ground, "You don't really believe that do you?"

Quinn raises a brow and smiles to herself. "I do in part, but it's also likely that my twin has a plan that she hasn't shared with me."

"Well—have you asked her to write it down?" Santana offers. It's obviously a stupid question from how Quinn begins to laugh.

"No, I haven't asked her to write it down. My dear sister is a mute by choice, she does have the ability to speak despite what many people believe. I think she finds it amusing to make me guess what she's going on about as she waves her hands like a maniac." Quinn sighs dramatically.

Santana blinked suddenly feeling like an idiot, "Oh."

"Congrats on getting her to write things down, that's usually something she simply doesn't do either."

"And here I was feeling brilliant that I got to understand her." Santana frowns.

"To be fair, most of the vampires in our court aren't smart or brave enough to have tried that." Quinn notes. "Charlie doesn't like governing and she uses her selective mutism to avoid having to work with the blood-thirsty vampires in our region. The deal is, though, three times a month she has to take over so that I can have some time to myself."

Santana kicks herself. "Oh, sorry. Am I interrupting you? I can go—"

Quinn shrugs, dusting off her hands as she turns back to her gardening. "It's fine. I imagine that Charlie's off making a mess of things so she can weasel her way out of our deal. Blaine already reported that she's managed to offend the delegation from the therianthrope community. I imagine by the end of the day there will be several more disasters for me to put out. Your presence means that you aren't egging her on to do something stupid. You've already created quite a mess already."

"I just wanted to make sure that humans were treated with respect—"

Quinn waves away Santana's defensiveness, "Oh, I don't mind you speaking up in meetings, especially if it's to curb asinine plans. My sister certainly isn't going to break her selective mutism to curb their plans. However, your presence irritates the vampires that surround us. Hunter was, unfortunately, rather popular, and they believe that you are the cause of his death, despite the fact that my sister and I have been looking for an excuse for months."

Santana frowned, "That doesn't even make any sense—"

"My sister and I are not like other vampires. We can not be destroyed by regular means, and going against us is a death wish. They need to blame someone, and they aren't stupid enough to make a play for our seats. It has never ended well for anyone that has tried. You on the other hand are quite easy to kill and I'm sure they'll like hearing you scream."

Santana swallowed but steeled herself, "And you wonder why people are afraid of vampires?"

"There are far worse things than death." Quinn points out. "Vampires need humans. Your blood tastes better when you're happy, and well fed. It's a simple symbiotic relationship and of course there are some individuals that have more sadistic tastes, but that's not only true for vampires."

Santana looked away for a moment, "I know that you're here to protect us from what happened down south, but we aren't cattle, and I'm not a pet."

Quinn puts the shears down, and reaches to pick up her basket of fresh fruit. "We were twelve, when we became concubines. It was after our first blood," she informs Santana bluntly. "You're complaining because of a title that we gave you that gives you far more power and influence then someone in your shoes should possibly have. It's demeaning but as far as I'm concerned you were a part of a terrorist group." Quinn adds reaching into the basket and tossing Santana an orange. "If it were up to me I would have let you return to your life and faced the consequences of choosing friends like that. My sister on the other hand, realized that it wasn't an option and letting you go meant signing your death warrant. Signing your family's death warrant. So, she saved you. To what end, I have no idea because I imagine that saving you will become an issue that I will have to clean up later."

Santana rolled the orange in her hands and bit her lip, there was so much to process and she wasn't sure how much she could simply ask. "So why did she save me? If I'm just going to be a headache for you to clean up later. If I'm just a simple terrorist?"

Quinn shrugs, "With my sister, it's impossible to tell. Perhaps she thought I needed this. Perhaps she sees something that I don't. It wouldn't be the first time," Quinn shrugged. "What I do know, is that you wore our collar. Which makes you ours. We won't harm you, and we have given you our trust, even though as far as I'm concerned it hasn't been earned."

"I didn't—"

"I won't tell my sister about the fact you've been scoping out potential escape routes as long as you agree that once my twin's grand plan reveals itself, you'll let me in on whatever she has up her sleeve." Quinn reasons.

It all sounds so reasonable that Santana practically has to pinch herself. These are the Regents. There's got to be something darker lurking behind Quinn's offer. "So, this is part of the game, right? The Red Court is always trying to—"

Quinn scoffs and it sounds so undignified that it cuts Santana short. "Charlie and I argue but we don't play that game, not with each other."

"Why not?"

"Because when you've lived for over six centuries, you learn the value of family. Charlie and I learned long ago that the only people we could trust completely was each other."

"Then why are you worried about her plans?"

"Because my dear sister likes to watch me squirm. I prefer to be prepared ahead of time." Quinn smirks softly to herself. She shakes her head and turns to Santana. "Now that you're wearing our collar, I expect you at dinner, and you shall be joining me for those silly delegation meetings. From now on the humans have a seat at the table and you're their voice."

Santana's jaw dropped. "I can't speak for everyone—I wasn't elected and—"

Quinn shrugged and waved her off, growing bored with this conversation. "I'm going to go back inside and start cleaning up my sister's messes. I suggest you talk to Blaine to start getting yourself caught up. I have no intention of letting you become Charlie's pet. Sam was lazy and he enjoyed peeing on my things." Quinn headed towards the exit. "When you're done in here, make sure you close the doors, or you'll kill all my plants."

~O~

Santana drummed her fingers impatiently against the dinner table, ignoring the irritated looks Sam seemed to shoot her every few minutes or so.

"Could you stop that?"

"No. Where are they? Quinn said I had to be at dinner and then she just makes us wait around for her—it's been almost half an hour. What could she possibly be doing? They finished their meetings hours ago."

"It was Charlie's turn to attend the meetings. She's probably—" Sam stutters and if Santana were playing closer attention she would notice the distinct blushing of his cheeks, "taking it out on Quinn."

"No, it's probably some sick game so that she can humiliate me again." Santana frowned. It was really the only thing that made sense.

"I think you're overestimating your own importance," Sam muttered and shrugged when Santana glared at him. "Trust me, I've been there. It has nothing to do with you."

She scowls and sighs. "Fine, maybe it isn't about me. But how did you manage this. You were their pet—"

"Technically, I'm still their pet. I just don't have to wear a collar, and I don't have to check in." Sam shrugs. "I was no longer a puppy, so I wasn't cute and furry and I was heavy."

"If you were their pet, and you aren't now, the real question is how do you put up with them? After everything that they've done, everything that they are, you just let them treat you like they're better than you and that they know what's best?"

Sam smiles, he understood her frustration about the situation perfectly. "I do. I don't think that they mean any harm by it. You have to understand that they've been around longer than we have. They've lived through several lifetimes so yes, they do come off like that—I think it's a vampire thing. But if you think that I didn't get my revenge? I peed on Quinn's shoes, chewed through Charlie's favorite clothing, you know all that fun stuff. My canine side likes to piss them off." Sam shrugs and leans back. "Look, it's a process and at least they seem to be respecting your autonomy, and they aren't trying to put you into stupid outfits."

"I wouldn't wear it," Santana responds stubbornly. "They do know it's rude to make people wait, right?"

"I don't think they're thinking about me or you right now. This isn't about us. Trust me it isn't, they get like this sometimes and I guess they're just—"

"Fine, if this isn't some master plan to humiliate me or inconvenience me, then why am I here? They've never really insisted that I join them for dinner before. Where are the other vampires?"

Sam studies Santana and leans back in his chair. "You know, you're right in your belief that most vampires and a lot of my kind are not fans of humanity. Given the history between the races and how vampires view most things in general, we've all done things to hurt the other. Humanity did far more, to hurt my kind and perhaps this is payback. But I do know the two of them and perhaps they view this as a way to sort of bring the races together. I get it, you're still bristling over the act that they call you a pet. Trust me, most of our kind find it incredibly offensive. They know it's offensive, and that's why they do it. To get a rise out of you and you keep taking the bait. They need to find their amusement somewhere, and you just keep giving it to them, which means that they are going to keep doing it."

Santana opens her mouth to argue when the twins slide into the room like they don't have a care in the world. This time, Santana doesn't miss the way that Sam looks away and blushes. Charlie fiddles with her pants, but Quinn slides into her seat at the head of the table without blinking. Santana looks between Charlie and Sam, feeling oddly like she was missing something.

"We apologize for being late, Charlie had something important to get across," Quinn said with ease watching as her twin takes a seat at the opposite end of the table. She smiles when Charlie begins to make gestures. "Yes, you made your case. Though I'm sure you'll have to make the case a few more times before I agree with you."

Charlie flashes a smile at this and nods and taps the table, glancing at Santana and grinning at her.

"You're late," Santana points out and frowns when Charlie's grin grows wider. She realized that she didn't actually want to know what they were doing.

The smile fades from Quinn's face. "You two are our pets and you're here to remind us of our humanity, not to be our personal assistants and make sure that we arrive anywhere on time."

Santana scowled and was about to retort when Sam decided to intervene, "Of course, but the delegates from my community are not thrilled with the idea that you aren't taking their concerns seriously. I mean they aren't as open with me because of my relationship with you."

"Of course, because we don't have to worry about the vampires around us as well. Would it kill you to be diplomatic?"

Charlie grinned at her twin and was suddenly gone, leaving the room for a moment only to return with a long sword that was in its scabbard.

"We aren't going to massacre everyone Charlie." Quinn retorts and watches as Charlie scowls. "Put it away, we're about to have dinner."

Charlie frowns at this statement and places the sword on the ground.

Quinn watches her twin for a moment before turning her attention back to Santana studying her carefully. "Earlier, I suggested that you would be the voice for the humans, however my sister has made some excellent points about that. Given your history and your radical leanings—"

"Wanting humans to have a seat at the table and have a voice in how this government is run is not radical. They want to cut our education, they want to take away our education—to make us nothing more than cattle. Like we won't be able to bring anything to the table."

"Santana—" Sam mutters trying to get her to calm down.

"Excuse me, I don't know why I have to keep reminding you that you were a terrorist. That your group caused the death of hundreds of people and injured more. This isn't about you, it's about the optics of the situation and given the fact that my sister has spared your life despite your ties to that organization which is still active, the optics of this situation isn't good. It looks like we are weak and forgiving to terror."

"I had nothing to do with the attacks on Hunter. I don't believe in violence for the cause. I'm not like William Schuester."

"Which is why you're alive," Quinn points out looking at her sister. "My sister pointed out that we are unfortunately in the same boat as you. The people do not know us, they do not trust us. They fear us, and that in this current climate is problematic. This is why we've both decided that you are to be our ambassador in a way, to help us rebuild that bridge that has been lost, in the process you'll be reforming your image, and perhaps you'll learn something about the other races. Hatred is bred through ignorance, and we need to rectify that."

Santana chewed on the inside her lip, Sebastian had something similar to that before he had died. He might have betrayed his friends and his family but he did seem right about one thing and that was the fact that she didn't know enough to have an informed opinion. The twin Regents were not the dictators that she had always imagined that they were. They were not anything like Hunter—even if they were just as arrogant and as dangerous as he was. "I'm your pet, do you really think that they'll respect what I have to say? Part of the problem is how you view humanity, like we're nothing more than food. I know you two may not think that but other vampires do. For fucks sake, I'm your pet. Do you have any idea how offensive that is? And shouldn't you—"

"Santana," Sam interrupted immediately.

"No, you said earlier today that you understood what it was like to be owned. That you were twelve when you were forced to become a concubine. Maybe it was a different time but you probably thought about escaping every single day, you probably dreamed of killing him one day—you probably wished for your freedom." Santana continued. "Because you were human and that's what humans do."

Sam glanced between the two vampires who were watching Santana, as he sunk down low in his chair. Santana seemed angry but it was nothing compared to seeing the two Regents angry.

Quinn looked up as trays of food were brought into the room, easing the tension in the room and were placed in front of her. She immediately lifts the tray up and inhales deeply, enjoying the rich aroma of the beef fillet that had been presented towards her and immediately looks at Charlie, narrowing her eyes as Charlie pushed all the vegetables away to the edge of her plate. "I've made it abundantly clear that you don't get dessert unless you eat your vegetables Charlie." She didn't blink as her twin made a very rude gesture at her and turns her attention towards Santana. "Freedom? That's an interesting term. To which type of freedom are you referring? Maybe the crusades where thousands of people were murdered because of their religion? The first, second, and third world war where millions of lives were lost because of blood-thirsty leaders who wanted to prove themselves? Or the golden age of humanity where ethnic groups were slaughtered to try and stem the rise of shifters—"

"That doesn't—"

"Oh, but it does matter. Humanity's level of hypocrisy is stunning. Perhaps it is a lofty goal for humanity to preach, peace and understanding but until then the only reason that vampires are in charge is to keep you all from killing each other." Quinn pointed at Charlie who immediately popped her fangs out. "You're right in the idea we were once human, but unlike those who are over correcting and are trying to be blood-thirsty vampires. Our memories of humanity aren't pleasant. So, it does matter. It matters a lot, and perhaps if you got off your soapbox and learn about the therianthrope community as well as vampires, you'd learn something."

Santana was about to respond when she stops, deciding to give up when Charlie starts pushing vegetables onto her plate. She's unsure of how to respond and looks up at Sam who has an amused look on his face though she's sure he's going to make an attempt to do the same thing. "I think I figured out her master plan," Santana says flatly looking at Quinn who looked outraged at the fact that Charlie was now happily eating the beef fillet on her plate and sipping the wine that she had been given.

Quinn scowls at her twin, "Unfortunately I think that you may be right."