The Price of Desire

Disclaimer: I do not own Victorious

A/N:

Chapter 23 (One Last Person)

"Trina, tell me you didn't damage Lane too much," Sikowitz commented as Trina stepped beside him, crossing her arms firmly against her chest. She took a deep breath and shrugged her shoulders, lowering her arms. Lane was a bastard, and yes there was quite a bit of bloodshed in her rage, but at least the man was not dead. His balls might have been shot off, if he had any, of course.

"Well I didn't kill him." She bowed her head, her balled up fists began shaking horribly. She was ashamed that she lost control. Sure her father was dead, but was that an excuse? Maybe, maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. "I lost it. I just…my dad is gone. I hate this. Chiefs Michael and Warren are on their way now…" They'd contacted Dr. Richards and let him know that they were headed towards them. "The Doc's still taking care of Lane. I think the students are a bit in shock…"

"How are you? Are you calm?"

She raised an eyebrow and chuckled dryly. Was he serious? Was he really asking this right now? Honestly? "How can I be?" She wanted the world to end, she wanted everything to crash, to burn. She didn't even feel like going after Nurse Bethany. She really was the only person left, and evidently, the base was this Hustler Hotel. What did this mean? A hotel filled with numerous enemies. Tori was dead. Her dad was gone. Most likely, her mother was gone too. The police were better off dealing with them. "Everyone I care about is gone, and you're asking me if I am calm?"

"I understand you're angry now." She scoffed and folded her arms across her chest. It was the understatement of the year. Jason and Christy stepped up to her and put their hands on her shoulder. She felt them there, but at the same time, she was so numb that she almost didn't realize they were there. "You've done what you set out to do by rescuing Tori's friends…" The teacher leaned over and untied Cat. The girl slowly rose to her feet, visibly shaken, but also she seemed something was on her mind. "Perhaps her spirit can rest in peace now." Tori bowed her head, her tears were all dried out, in truth. Maybe Tori would rest in peace, maybe her parents could rest in peace, but would she?

"Nurse Bethany…she's still…" She saw Cat scrunch her face, her body tensing with fear and concern. Of course, Cat probably had been traumatized over the past few days by that 'sweet' woman. She smiled sadly and met Cat's eyes. "Cat, you're safe now. You can be taken to your family now." Cat's eyes glazed over at the mention of her family. Her eyes filled with remorse, guilt, sorrow, and fear. She slowly looked around the room, absorbing all that she'd just seen.

"Mr. Sikowitz, you actually fought that man?"

"I just whipped him around a bit with a stick, no big deal." He smirked playfully as Cat looked up to him, awestruck. He stepped down from the stage and inhaled deeply. He could feel his master smiling down upon him. Maybe he was a master. He eyed Trina, Jason, and Christy with pride. It made him want to shed a tear. "We're not done yet, but first…Cat, your family is eager to see you." The girl gasped lightly and fresh tears erupted from her eyes.

"My family? Even after I ran off like that? I..I..."

"They love you," Jason commented. Trina nodded firmly and watched the redhead smile at him, recognizing him. She could tell if times were normal, Cat might want to ask if he was single, it was in her eyes that she still wondered about that. They'd only dated one time anyway, Cat was probably scared off by the fact that he was Sikowitz's nephew. She watched Jason move his strong arms against his firm chest and felt a shudder run through her body. That man was hers, she just couldn't believe it. Jason caught her staring and smirked, then glanced over to Cat, clearing his throat. Trina blushed and bowed her head, she wasn't too fond of being caught. "Anyway. They miss you and are willing to do anything to get you back. Beck, Andre, Robbie, Jade…they're all safe. Mr. Vega didn't make it…" Cat gasped and covered her mouth, instant recollection shot past her eyes.

"Oh my god! Poor Tori!" Trina tensed her muscles and turned her head to the side. Poor Tori? The guilt was still there, eating away at her like a number of vicious piranhas. Her soul was slowly dying, and the more she thought about her sister's death, the more she lost it. Cat moved her hand to her chest and looked to Trina. "I'm so happy that they're all safe, and Trina, I'm sorry about your parents." Her eyes began to water and her fists clenched tight as Cat started moving towards her. "But Trina, I-"

"It's over Cat." Her voice was calm, unwavering. She was emotionally exhausted, and there just didn't seem to be anything to fire her up. "All that's left is that Hustler Casino, right? The police are better to stake that place out….too many gang members would be there." Sikowitz raised an eyebrow while Trina's friends gazed at her with worry. Jason moved towards her and gave her a friendly hug while Christy started to rub her back.

"Trina, you know we could handle it," Christy said with a slow smile. "We've made it this far." This far? They'd done all they could. A casino would probably be bigger than any of the places they'd been to, with more gang members than they'd ever faced. No way in hell she was subjecting them to that.

"It's not worth the risk, Christy. Cat's the last person…I never want to see Bethany's face again…let the police handle her." Cat gasped and started to weep.

"Trina no! The hustler casino was only where we were held! It isn't where B-Bethany is…you can't be done. You were saving us all!" Trina moved her sad eyes to the girl and pulled her lips back. Was she feeling so terrible that she couldn't go after her damned nurse? "B-Bethany, every one of us had her as a nurse. So I know what it feels like to see her, but Trina please hear me out! You have to go after her."

"Why, Cat? Why?" Trina stepped from her friends and inhaled sharply as her eyes remained locked with Cat's. Her drive was gone. After fighting Lane off, she broke down and cried. He wasn't supposed to be bad, but he was. Bethany was supposed to be on their side, but she was evil. It hurt like hell. If the police already took out Giovanni and the majority of the gang, they could certainly take out Bethany without her help. "I saved you all. You, Beck, Andre, Jade, and Robbie." Cat started blubbering, she wanted to say something, but Trina kept going. "Dad's dead, Mom's most definitely dead, Tori's gone…if that…nurse is kicking back at her own house, fine. The police can go take care of her." She wiped her eyes and started to tremble. She was torn, split right down the middle, should she go in with guns blazing or should she let the police handle it?

"Trina! You're not understanding! It isn't over! Hear me out, please!"

"Cat. It's over." She turned away and saw Jason watching her, a genuine concern filled his heart. She wanted to fall into his arms, she wanted to cry, but she also wanted to be alone. She needed to think. "God I'm so grateful to all of you. Jason, please just give that chip to Chiefs Michael and Warren…" He had the chip, he'd been carrying it for a while now. She moved her eyes to Christy and Sikowitz, both deeply concerned. Tears welled up in her eyes, had she given up? Was she giving up? "I can't fight for revenge. I was fighting for Tori, for my parents, for you guys, and now that you're all safe…there is no reason to continue." Cat screamed out and grabbed her hands. Trina sighed in exasperation, imaging Tori once more.

"Trina save me, please!" Tori called out, her voice echoing through the air. Her sobs filled Trina's head, erupting from a dark place. "Oh god please…god I don't want to die! Please god, turn that water off! Trina where are you? I need you! I'm going to drown aren't I…oh god the water. Trina? Trina! TRINA! I need you, plea-a-a-se." Her voice shook with fear as water continued to drip, hitting the floor. "Don't give up on me, please. I need my sister! Please! Where are you!" She screamed and wept bitterly into her hands. "I'm hungry. I'm so hungry. I'm scared…so scared…I'm hurting. Oh god I'm hurting."

Trina lifted her head to the ceiling and breathed out slowly, she just couldn't shake that nightmare. That dream. She felt the others staring at her and slowly looked towards them. She was a mess. "What…I…I still failed Tori. I'm so grateful for you, Jason, Christy, and I'm so happy you're safe Cat. Please don't ever stop loving your family. You…never know what you have until it's gone."

"But it's not!" Cat screamed at the top of her lungs. The air filled with silence as Cat threw her hands to her mouth and whimpered. The others quickly snapped their heads towards her as she slowly fell to her knees and put her hands to the ground. Trina slowly walked to her and knelt beside her, putting her hand to her back.

"Cat?" What was with this girl? Was there something Cat knew that the others didn't? Was it possible? "Is there something else?"

"Trina. The others…the others were carted away so quickly, but Lane and Seth. They kept me with them. I was there the whole time." Cat started to sob, putting her head to her hands. Trina raised an eyebrow as Cat slowly shook her head. "I've been trying to tell you, but you won't listen!" What was so important? What did she need to listen to?

Tori's voice echoed in her head once again, in between moans and sobs she screamed. "Can't anyone hear me? Trina! Trina, where are you? I need you now! Please! I've always needed you, and I need you now. Oh god if you're up there, please…please don't let them forget me! Please!"

"I'm here Cat. I'm ready to listen. Tell me…everything…" They waited as Cat began to explain. Michael and Warren finally arrived in the room, but were shushed by Sikowitz. No one spoke as Cat begun her story.

"They led us all in with bags over our heads…"

"Put the bitch in the center of them," exclaimed a woman with a voice laced with venom. "Just one more Vega girl left" Cat struggled in her binds, her wrists were tied to the back of the chair. She couldn't see underneath the potato sack on her head, but the woman's voice sounded so familiar.

"Mrs. Lucas, what about that chip?"

"Screw the chip, this gang wasn't going to survive anyway!" Cat whimpered as she listened to the woman's voice. It echoed over the sounds of Beck's and Andre's moaning, the sounds of Jade's light sobbing, and Robbie's shivering. She hoped they'd be okay, but she was terrified. Too terrified. Where was Tori? Did they do something to Tori? Of everyone she heard, she couldn't hear Tori.

"Bethany? Why would you do this to my family? To my girls? Why? Why would you take their friends? I don't understand." Tori's mom? She was alive? She was safe? She tried to stifle her own whimpering to listen, but she could really hear so little of this conversation. "Where is my daughter?" Then again, was it really Mrs. Vega and not Tori? It was so hard to tell from the vocal inflection.

"Don't worry about your beloved gem, Holly. You know my connection with your girls, I haven't the heart to kill her. Not personally, anyway." Cat still wasn't sure what was being said. The woman who was begging, crying, sounded so much like Tori. She wanted to know who these people were and where they were at, but damn it if she couldn't gain any insight due to Robbie's whimpering and Beck's moaning. Not to say she wasn't concerned, she truly was, and wanted all of them to be safe, but she knew from her parents constant 'safety guides' over the years, if ever taken from home, it was best to try and remain calm in order to best gather clues of your whereabouts. She thought she heard something about a cold, dark basement in this woman, Bethany's home. Maybe they were holding the Vegas down there. "You however, I could care less about. I always thought you were a bitch…I grew up loving those girls like they were my own."

"What?"

"Why do you think I kept pressing that pathetic doctor to continue keeping them under his care all these years? Dumb bastard retired, so I don't get to see the girls anymore. Now I will…" Holly gasped. "I've never had a child of my own. Every one of these children here I've treated…I've watched them grow up, their parents and families neglecting them however, and I know…I could have treated them better. I could have made a better parent. Then there are your girls, such sweet children, I thought I could be a mother to them…"

"You're insane!"

"Maybe…"

Cat was confused by what she was hearing, still blocked by the sounds of her friends, while also blocked by her own whimpering. She was really too terrified to make any kind of judgment on who was talking. "Guys be quiet," she whispered. "I'm trying to hea-" Suddenly the woman let out a shrill scream. A thud was heard and then silence. Cat silenced and whimpered softly. Was everyone okay? Who just died?

Minutes later, she heard the cruel woman's voice again. "Get a camera ready. I got a surefire way to get Trina to come running towards us." She started to laugh. Suddenly, light, several gang members removed the bags from everyone's heads. They all screamed when they saw a girl in the middle of them, her head bowed, and straight brown hair covering her face. "Oh my god! Tori!" Cat let out a bawling scream as someone flashed a picture. Who seriously wanted to remember this gory, gruesome image? The other friends all reacted with shock, fear, but she didn't look to them. She didn't know how to tear her gaze away from the woman in the chair.

She kept her eyes locked onto Tori, shivering as she studied her dead friend. The others started being pulled away by various leaders in the gang, but she remained, tears flooding her veins and her heart pounding so loud that it was all she could hear. Maybe this Bethany woman wanted to keep her here.

Something was amiss though. Tori's hair was more feathery than it was straight, plus it looked like someone just threw a brown wig on her. She sniffed and slowly dropped her eyes to the blood running from her neck. The outfit Tori was wearing looked more like something Mrs. Vega would have worn.

"T-T-Tori?" She lifted her head, whimpering with fear as she watched the lady with a round, pleasant looking face, glaring at an older man. She recognized the woman as Nurse Bethany, she was the kind Nurse who was almost always there when she was growing up. The same for the others, she was the most popular nurse at the clinic, all children loved her! She gasped in shock and kept her eyes locked onto the woman and the man.

"So where is Tori, Bethany?" The man asked. He spoke to her as though she were his wife. "Why the obsession?"

"Tori and Trina should belong to us. I could care for them better than someone who is on the police force and never around." The man stared at her with an odd look while she folded her arms across her chest. Cat slowly looked to the woman before her, it was Mrs. Vega. The facial features were clear. She gasped softly and listened as Bethany continued on her rant. "Why you remember when they got imprisoned in that foreign country because of some stupidity? I would never have allowed that!"

"They were born to the Vegas, you were only their nurse."

"Don't question me, Giovanni!" Giovanni stepped back, shaking under his wife's vicious glare. "I will have them!"

"Okay! Okay! Geez…so where is she?"

"In our basement at home, of course. Now…" Cat looked to the two men beside them and gasped, it was Lane! What was Lane doing here? No, it couldn't be. Bethany turned to the two men and smirked. "Lane. Seth. Take care of Cat."

"Yes ma'am," Lane replied. She whimpered as her school guidance counselor began moving towards her, a dark grin upon his face. She bowed her head and started shivering. She didn't know how, but somehow, she had to let everyone know Tori was alive! She was alive! Bethany didn't plan on killing her.

Trina stared at Cat, her eyes wide and her body frozen with the earth. There was a rumbling deep inside of her. Cat looked into her eyes and let out a soft, questioning whine. Tori was alive? Bethany couldn't kill her? She'd lost her mother? She lost both her parents because of a lunatic that never had any fucking kids of her own? The plan the entire time was just to get her to go so that she could have the second Vega child? Seriously? No wonder Giovanni killed himself.

Then it happened, like Mount Vesuvius going off and destroying a city, she exploded. She rose to her feet and let out a terrible howl. She was going to destroy everything in her wake. She was going to get Tori back. The others took a step back, the two Chiefs knew better than to stop her. She met Christy's eyes and felt a genuine concern for her.

"Christy." The girl met her eyes, seemingly aware of what was going through her head. Trina clenched her fists tight and tightened her jaw in place. Christy had an older brother and a family to go back to, they were concerned about her. "Go home."

"What?" Christy's eyes widened and everyone did a double take. Was it that surprising? She had a new drive, she had a new reason to keep going. She didn't want to do anything to endanger those that she loved. They would have to forgive her for this.

"This one is mine. Forgive me." Jason moved forward, his face mixed with concern, loyalty, and fear.

"Trina. Alone?" She put her hands to his shoulders and looked into his eyes. He was the last person she wanted to lose, and the last person she wanted to put at risk.

"This isn't a lone wolf complex, this is about me, about Tori, about this fucking bitch that made us think she cared about us because she was our Nurse. She's killed my parents, she's messed with all of Tori's friends, she's holding Tori at her house…she is going to pay for this!"

"Trina are you sure you want to go alone?" She turned her head to Sikowitz, his question was filled with the same questioning tone as the others. He needed to stay here, he needed to be the one to continue teaching everyone. She slowly nodded, it was the only way after all.

"I'm sorry Mr. Sikowitz. I can't endanger anyone else." She already knew where Bethany's address was, everyone in town new where that woman lived. She lived in an upscale, Victorian home not far from here. She met Jason's eyes, so filled with love, so filled with trust. She leaned forward and kissed him tenderly on the lips. When she pulled back, he appeared mildly confused. "Jason. I'm not going to talk like I won't come back. I've come to love you, all of you." She stepped back and eyed him, Christy, Sikowitz, and the two Chiefs. "Thank you everyone for…for everything. I'm going to put a stop to this, I will get my baby sister back. She needs me." As she started towards the doorway, no one stopped her, everyone was too stunned by her sudden decision to move. She stopped and glanced back at everyone. Would she really be okay? The question went through her mind, but she could read it in the eyes of everyone. She looked to Cat, the innocent one in all of this. Thank God that Cat had been able to tell. Thank god she confirmed Trina's constant mental battle over that damned picture. She wasn't looking at her sister, she was looking at her mother! To the end, her mom was trying to defend her daughters, that's what she believed. Her mom died for them.

She clenched her fists and narrowed her eyes. "I'm not letting anyone else risk getting hurt because of me. If this woman wants me, I'm going to give her what she wants." She met her best friends gazes once more. Her heart started to sink, she knew they were hurt, but it had to be like this. "Jason, Christy, expect to see me again. You both have lives, people depending on you to come home safe, and so do I. I'll come back with Tori, but I don't want you to endanger your lives any further…God knows what this woman has hiding in her arsenal. If it's anything like that horror shop, then that's the last place I want you to be. I love you, you're all…family to me…" She smirked slightly and looked to Cat. "Cat, thank you. Everyone, take her home. I have some trash to deal with."

She stormed out, leaving them all behind. This was it. Nurse Bethany was dead. She crossed the wrong Vega. As she stormed through the halls of the school, students watched her cautiously. Don't worry, dear students, she would bring your beloved Tori back to you. She flipped her hair over her shoulder and stepped over the unconscious guidance counselor near the front door. She let out a scoff and formed a low growl from deep inside her throat. Nothing would stop her now, no one would get in her way. There was only one person who counted on her more, always depended on her and needed her more than ever, and she refused to let that person down! "My sister needs me."

Whoa. That's all I have to say there, give me your thoughts if you will ^_^