Thank you for the reviews since the previous chapter: Ilianalovee, bigbangfan91, NZgleek91, Diana, Guest, Monichanz, General Mac, LoveSKINS94, Volerian, Iza.G, HiddenBetweenTheLines, lemon-rind, ShadownCub, Boston blue, supernena25, mythic-lionheart, Gleelover47, ToastedMarshemellow08, wkgreen, djsmith10186, Devin Jaste, Alex sweets, Koredaze, PraiseFortheFallen, Kazehana Sora, agirl002, Nightlancer600 and lyssaspeakgood (for ch1 & ch2)
Posted: 4/12/12
Fear and Loathing
Rachel started by calling Santana's cell, she was lucky that Santana was nervously standing by and ready to answer her phone at the base.
"Hello? Rach, what's going on is Quinn okay?" she heard the Latina ask erratically
"It was close" Rachel admitted with an audibly gulp "I haven't got time to talk right now, they took Beth away, I'm going to get her but Quinn's pretty shaken up obviously. I've sent her to the base, keep an eye on the gate so you can let her in, and give her directions"
"Is there anything else we can do?"
"I need you to stay there, this whole night has been a mess and I want you and Brittany safe. And I want you standing by for two new arrivals and my return" she finished confidently
...
Quinn flinched as she drove down the dark streets of the town. She flinched when 2 cop cars and a fire engine shot out at the junction ahead of her and turned the sharp corner to head down the one she was currently driving up.
She felt herself sink in her seat as they rushed pass, sirens blaring and lights flashing. She had a feeling they were heading to her apartment, they must have had several calls after all the noise that was made in the apartment.
Quinn swallowed guiltily; they'd find the damage and the body
"Oh god" she tried to remain calm and just keep driving. She had to just follow the instruction she was given, but what she really wanted was Rachel and Beth with her right now. Then she was sure she could handle anything.
...
Rachel stated by heading toward the Fabray house in her flight, she had to start somewhere, while Fairchild scanned the licence plates on the cars beneath them and searched through traffic cam streaming
"Miss, I think I've found our target, Russell Fabray, 3 miles at a bearing of 073 of here"
"Great Fairchild" Rachel naturally praised the intelligent computer as she changed her flight trajectory "how did you found him?" she asked to keep her mind calm
"I looked at traffic camera footage timed around the time and area of Miss Quinn's apartment building. I cross referenced all moving vehicles in the recordings with the type and make of car the purifiers all drive, as far as we've witnessed"
"That's great Fairchild we'll be there in a minute" Rachel tried to calm her breathing but her heart was racing, she had to have a plan devised for how she would save Beth before he could harm her. And she had to believe he hadn't already harmed that beautiful little baby, Quinn's light in the darkness of her life. Rachel didn't know how she could return to that base without Beth if the worst had happened.
She'd been too late for Quinn but had been lucky, she couldn't let the same mistake happen again.
"I'm sorry miss to inform you, he must have reached his destination, he may know we're coming if the purifier at Miss Quinn's apartment didn't report in. He has stopped on a bridge, I think he intends to drown the child or hold her ransom"
"Ransom?" Rachel furrowed, and bridge? There weren't that many in the area, and they weren't very high. He intended to drown her them. Considering the technology they had to freeze her suit their ways and understandings were primitive. "Oh I see" Rachel announced her realisation before Fairchild could give a lengthy hypothetical explanation.
The street lights faded beneath her as she started flying over a wooded area that had a dirt track running through it "Good idea Russell" Rachel muttered to herself. Now he'd be able to see her coming from the dark and quiet of the woods.
...
"What the hell?" Quinn muttered to herself as she rolled to a stop in front of a chain link gate and beyond the gate stood a scrap yard. She leant forward in her seat and checked the note paper Rachel had written on, she'd followed the right road. Had she got it wrong?
She flinched when she heard her cell phone ring in her pocket. She scrambled to find it, when she freed it from her pocket she strained her tired eyes to see the name on the illuminated screen. She felt some sort of relief when it read: Santana
"Hello?" she answered
"Hey Q, some freaky shit going on tonight, right?" Santana's tone sounded abnormally soft and if Quinn wasn't so shaken up already it would have worried her.
"That's one way to but it" she breathed shakily "I don't even know where I am"
"You're in the right place; I know it doesn't look like much but just wait. I'll open the gate, put me on speaker so you can drive as I give you direction"
"Okay" Quinn said shakily as she pulled the phone from her head and hit the hands free button and dropped the phone on the passenger seat next to.
She watched the gates open inward before she crept the car forward and into the scrap yard.
...
Rachel landed, or more like dropped, onto the dirt just before the small stone bridge, landing on one knee and a bent leg, with her hand also on the ground to support her. She slowly rose her head to connect her glowing cold blue 'eyes' of the helmet with the cloaked purifier. She then stood up and strutted confidently closer to the purifier and his hostage as he stood on the stone wall of the bridge.
"Stop, don't come any closer" He called out. His voice was confident despite his position. He also had Beth facing outward so Rachel could see the little girl and the distress she was in as she bawled her head off
"Or you'll drop her?" Rachel asked, finishing the cliché threat for him. Rachel was confident that if he dropped her she'd catch Beth before she hit the water only a few feet below.
"If I drop her you'll be able to shoot me" he gripped the crying baby tighter to his chest "so no, I'll jump. It's been raining heavily the past few days; I don't need to be able to hear that water to tell you its deep and fast flowing. We both go in, I'll fight my way out and get away and this little shit won't be my problem anymore"
"Why don't you just jump then?" she dared to dare. Russell knew how to play the game though as he shuffle from foot to foot along the wall as if preparing to take the jump
"No, I think we should talk first" he called out over the noise of Beth crying
"Oh you and your wife sure like to talk" Rachel knew she was playing with fire, but she hoped it might work to distract him until she could hit him and grab crying, cold Beth before she could come to harm "You both have a lot in common, you'll have another thing in a minute"
"And what's that?"
"You'll both be dead"
"Judy's dead" His voice didn't waver at the presumptuous statement "You killed her"
"Not me" she edged closer but it was hardly subtle
"I said don't come any closer"
"Why a bridge? And water?" Rachel asked "Your wife seemed to have some sort of fetish for strangling, there's so many other ways you could do this, a gun, a bomb, but you picked water. Suffocation fetish or something, you sick bastard" she spat
"You're trying to stall me. And I said don't come any closer!" he yelled again when he saw her feet shuffle
"I believe you're the one stalling, you could have done your job by now"
"As long as she's alive I have leverage"
"No you don't if I leave you kill her anyway, you're stalling" when had this become a 'no you are' argument "Hand her over, I might let you live"
"Leave, I might let her live" he tried to bargain back with a smirk that she could easily see in the shadow of his hood
She chuckled "There no version of this where you come out on top, so hand her over"
"Not going to happen. I'd rather not die but if I do I will know I've fulfilled my duties" he yelled over the increased cries of the unhappy little girl
"Fairchild you got it?" Rachel asked lowly
"New weapon finally calibrated Miss" she hadn't had time to finish this one, she'd only installed it, she hadn't calibrated it, so she'd ordered Fairchild to do that before she landed while she stalled.
"I'm curious" Rachel started, she knew she was still pushing her luck that he hadn't jumped or thrown Beth yet "How could you, or Judy so easily turn on a girl you raised?"
"It's funny really" He chuckled sinisterly, just like Judy had done so not an hour before, they really must have been meant for one another "We didn't know what Quinn was, we just needed another child for the family, and she was there, ready for us to take home. With her blonde hair and pretty features even so young, we could see she had potential to be a daughter we could have been proud of. But then she turned out to be what she is... un-pure, in so many ways"
"What do you mean?"
"First when she started high school her obsession with you. I could see it in her eyes when she would talk about you. When she finally donned that cheerleading uniform and started dating that idiot we though our first fears were over, but no, then she had to go get herself knocked up. If all that wasn't bad enough she then had to become something... Un-Holy, Un-Godly"
If only they'd known the whole truth they might laugh at the irony in that sentence
...
Quinn pulled her red car through the open garage door to the warehouse. She immediately saw Rachel's and Santana's cars parked next to each other by the wall so she parked hers next to them, making sure she wasn't in the way of the entrance.
She didn't want to leave her things in the car, she wanted them with her. Mainly Beth's things she wanted them close to make her feel closer to her daughter, but also the hammer, it was calling to her again.
She turned in her seat and grabbed the back pack with Beth's clothes in it and the hammer. She was going to try and reach the duffle bag too, that Mr Huggles was hiding in when the back passenger door opened making her flinch.
"It's okay Q, I got it" Santana told her softly as she picked up duffle bag. Quinn just nodded and got out of the car with the two items already in hand.
"What's with the hammer?" Santana asked as she led the Quinn over to the opposite side of the floor, where Rachel's desk was and Brittany was waiting
"I don't know, I found it... It's like it calls to me" she muttered, she snapped her gaze to Santana when she caught the look she was getting from the Latina "I'm not crazy" she defended
Santana mock surrendered with her free hand "Right now Q, I'll believe anything"
"Good evening Miss Quinn" yet again Quinn was flinching, she wasn't sure her heart could keep jumping in her chest like that without causing permanent damage "It's nice to finally meet you, I only wish it was under better circumstances"
Quinn looked up at the ceiling where the voice had come from, she then looked round as if trying to find a woman with a micro phone in a box looking down at her "Wh-Who was that?"
"Oh that's Fairchild" Santana shrugged, forgetting her own reaction to hearing that voice the first few times "She's like Rachel's computer companion"
"Right" Quinn just nodded slowly. It was too late to pinch herself and hope this was all some crazy nightmare
Before anything else was said Quinn found herself constricted, her arms pinned to her side making her drop her things, as Brittany tightly wrapped her in a hug "It's okay Quinn, Rachel will rescue her" she pulled away to smile confidently at the slightly shorter blonde "But you already know that"
Yes Quinn had already told herself that, but how did Brittany know that.
"There's a lot to explain" Santana started, instantly recognising the confusing on Quinn's face "But considering what else is going on in your mind-"
"Which is a lot" Brittany chimed in
"I think we should wait until Rachel's back and everyone safe. Then she can help explain" Santana told Quinn, knowing it was a lot to take in. At least Santana had learnt these things gradually, but Quinn had had the whole lot thrown at her and her daughter taken away so lots of words and secrets on top of that wasn't going to help right now
...
"She wasn't our daughter anymore" She could see he was losing grip on Beth as he bounced her to hoist her into a better renewed grip "we cut the cord so to speak. It wasn't hard-"
"Your hate for the mutants is that strong?"
"Yes, they are impure. Shame if you weren't so with them, you could have been useful to us-" And if Russell hadn't been giving another speech he may have heard her mutter 'Fairchild find a target' "-But now we'll just have to destroy you too"
"Target acquired" was announced clearly inside the helmet
"Well not that this hasn't been fun Russell but we can't stand here all night" she saw on the screen the target line up, pin pointing itself to his exposed shoulder on the side further from Beth's head "It's over, for you"
"No it isn't" he smirked like he had a dirty little secret
"Yes it is" she stated confidently, her helmet hiding a smirk of her own.
A panel on her shoulder flipped up and a pre targeted dart shot out, pinning through Russell's robe and clothes underneath, penetrating the skin and sending an electronic pulse through his body that made his muscles fail. As soon as the dart was release Rachel shot forward, solely on the thrusters at her feet so she could grab Beth with one hand before Russell dropped her and grab the flailing man before he fell of the bridge.
With Beth cradled unhappily in one metal clad arm and Russell held by the wrist she slowly hovered herself with her boot thrusters back to the bridge a few metres behind.
She knew the pulse from the dart would fade soon but she had Beth now, without her Russell would be easy to deal with. She dropped the paralytic man on the dirt road, letting him collapse in a heap while she dropped herself and Beth by the open door of the car that had been messily left at an angle across the bridge.
She raised the face shield to look at the little girl. The wiring and movement shocked little Beth into a wide eyed, curious silence. That was until she saw Rachel's face and then she seemed to furrow her little brow as if she recognised the face in front of her.
"Hey Beth" Rachel said softly "I'm gonna get you back to your momma in a second okay" she had no idea if Beth understood half the words she said but she hoped 'Momma' would be enough. She started fidgeting and whining again "I know "Rachel hushed her as she leant into the car and placed Beth on the front passenger seat "You stay there and be a good girl for Rachel" she offered the probably clueless infant a sad smile before turning back to the purifier who was regaining function of his muscles.
He stood up woozily and dusted himself off as Rachel strutted up behind him. She closed the face shield locking herself safely inside, preparing for more of his games.
As she suspected her took action, rather than running. He spun round, gun in hand ready to fire when Rachel caught his flying hand. She squeezed it making him cry out and easily pulled the dull pistol from his
"You purifiers surprise me" she said as she twisted his arm forcing him onto his knees. She then looked at the gun in its hand, surprised he'd tried to attack her with something so primitive. She bent it in her hand and dropped it to the floor.
As she looked back at the struggling man whose arm she still gripped she saw in his other hand another of those electromagnetic bugs that Judy had stuck to her earlier. As he reached out to stick it to her she raised her free hand and fired her repulsor at his hand.
His pained scream echoed around them. When she retracted the repulsor blast they could both see his hand had been completely destroyed. She didn't let that scary image deter her. She moved his head round so he wasn't looking at the... non-hand, and ground out.
"You've really pissed me off on a bad night, if you'd been earlier I would have shown mercy, but not now. You've hurt someone important to me, who you don't deserve to have ever called daughter" she threw his arm away from her and he collapsed again on the ground. He rolled over to look at her, she actually though she saw sympathy in his eyes before she raised both hands and fired the palm repulsors at his head.
His scream was short, the death quick, when she stopped the repulsors the only noises that remained was the flow of water underneath her, the wind in the trees and Beth crying in the car behind her.
"So much for not showing mercy" Rachel muttered to herself as she turned her back on the decimated corpse and returned to Beth "Hey Beth, I can take you to momma now" she went to climb into the car but the weight of her suit made it sink, so much so it was too much for the suspension and the car ended up sitting on its tires "Oh great" she sighed. She looked into the back of the car and saw one of the purifier's robes, giving her an idea.
She took the robe and laid it over the seat, she then took Beth and placed her in the middle. She quickly wrapped the robe securely round the little girl, so she was covered but not suffocated
"Quinn will probably kill me for this, let's just hope we don't have an accident" she cradled Beth in both arms, holding her with the appropriate amount of grip as she engaged the thrusters "Low, slow and cautious should work" she muttered to herself as she started a steady flight back to the base
...
"So what happened?" Santana asked cautiously, wanting to know what happened even though Quinn wouldn't want to talk about it. They hadn't made it to the living quarters yet and Quinn seemed content on where she was for the moment
"My mom... I killed my mom" she bit her lip as it started trembling "She tried to kill me, I felt like she had. And I woke up, I saw her in the door way and just" she held out her hands "there was lightning from my hands and I just struck her. She's dead"
"Quinn, I-it was self defence, she tried to kill you first" Santana said justifying what she said
"She tried to get Rachel too, she hurt her" she muttered "And then I accidentally did, but she's okay, I think" every word was unsure of itself and just fell from her mouth in short sentences "She said some things, my mother, then Rachel was saying things. She thinks I'm a mutant" she shook her head showing she didn't understand and wasn't sure of what she was saying
"Like us then" Brittany chirped, peeling her eyes from the computer screens for a few minutes
"I don't understand"
"Um, well" so much for waiting for Rachel "Basically mutants are people with... abilities" Santana now felt like she was quoting the short brunette
"Super powers" Brittany supplied "like I can feel emotions and some other stuff"
Quinn just nodded. Considering the night she was having Quinn chose to accept it, it seemed to make sense "And what about you?" she asked the Latina
"Oh, I'm a Pyrokinetic" she said proudly "I can create and control fire" she added when she saw Quinn looked unsure. She then snapped her fingers lighting her finger tip like she had in the hallway a few weeks ago
"Right" Quinn said slowly as she kept her eyes on the dancing flame "This is so weird... it's like it makes sense and it doesn't at the same time"
Santana absorbed the fire back into her skin and watched as Quinn hung her head and rubbed her eyes "Come on Q, Let's get your room set up" Santana encouraged. Brittany had returned her attention back to the computer still scanning traffic cams, especially in the vicinity of Quinn's apartment where people were gathering
"No, I just want to wait here, until they get back" Quinn replied from the stool she'd been given to sit on
"I was just thinking, get you settled, just so you're not thinking-"
"You mean to distract me" She spat, irritated. She really didn't want people telling her what to do right now.
Santana sighed, she was just trying to be sensible and helpful "I get it Q-"
"No you don't!" Quinn snapped
"You didn't let me finish, I was gonna say, I get that I don't get how you're feeling" she crouched down in front of her friend so she could peer up and make eye contact "But at a time like this I'm just trying to be sensible. You've had a rough night"
"It's not over yet, not until I get my baby back"
"Rachel will get her, and while we wait, lets stay positive and get your stuff put away" Santana stood up straight again and grabbed the duffle bag. She then, out of curiosity and wanting to inspect and feel the item she went to pick up the hammer. She gripped the handle and prepared herself for the weight as she yanked it up, only for her to fall, technically pulling herself down onto the ground. "Holy shit" she blinked away her shock and sat up, she quickly discarded the duffle bag and grabbed the handle with both hands and pulled it again, but instead of pulling the hammer to her she pulled herself towards it, sliding across the smooth clean floor "How the hell did you carry this Q?" she looked up at the girl stunned, who only looked back at her confused
"What are you talking about?" Quinn asked irritably as she looked down at the girl
"I can't move it, it's too heavy" she said with nervous laughter and disbelief
"It's not that heavy, it's actually kinda light for a hammer, or axe, or whatever it is"
"No Q Seriously" she tried pulling it up again only to slide closer to it "what the-" she grunted then gave up, deciding it was easier to pull herself off the floor.
Quinn sighed and got up, she wandered closer "Santana stop playing around" she breathed, exhausted. Exhausted from the night she was having and exhausted with these types of games "It's not that heavy" she reached her hand out as she closed in on the hammer. As she did the handle rose from the ground and automatically met her hand.
She looked up to Santana with wide eyes, the expression on Santana's face told her 'yes that really did happen' "Whoa"
"What's was that?" Quinn asked frozen to the spot with the handle of the hammer still in hand
"How the hell should I know?" Santana was just as shocked
"Maybe you can control metal" Brittany suggested, she was definitely the most comfortable with all these new findings, probably because her ability was in her mind already and had felt natural when it developed. Or maybe Brittany was just more open to accepting all possibilities
Fairchild was the next to speak and bring a distracting peace to the ware house "Miss Rachel has secured Miss Beth, who is unharmed. They are both on their return here and are expected shortly"
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