Santana glanced over at Rachel, she had no idea why she had agreed to drive her to the Fabray's place, but Rachel had asked and she had already decided to go and pester Charlie for some more training. It was the day before Thanksgiving and both Charlie and Quinn had been MIA, which had led to a rather lackluster practice.

Today's practice had made it clear that Charlie's tyranny had forced them all to work harder, and that without her they wouldn't have the amazing resource of having both Artemis and Lawrence helping Coach Beiste. Without Artemis's increased gravity weighing her down, she personally felt like she hadn't done anything productive at all. Which is why she was making her way to the Fabray's compound.

"It was very nice of you to—"

"We agreed no one says anything," Santana interrupts Rachel. "And I'm not taking you home."

Rachel flinches at Santana's harsh tone, and she nods before looking out the window. Neither Quinn or Charlie had answered their phone, so she had managed to go to all their classes and grab their homework for them. She hadn't really expected Santana to agree to take her, but she was grateful, maybe with a bit of effort she and Santana could get to a place where they were cordial to one another.

Santana parks next to the Fabray's garage and immediately exits the car and makes her way to the front porch. It smells like, even though it's rather cold outside, they were grilling something on the barbeque. She can hear boisterous talking, coming from inside and rings the doorbell, turning as Rachel finally catches up. She waits two seconds more before reaching to press the doorbell again, however the door swings open, and a woman she's never met before is at the door.

"Whatever you're selling we're not really interested," The woman said before attempting to close the door in their face.

"We're here to see Quinn and Charlie, we're friends from school. I'm Rachel, this is Santana," Rachhel says quickly before the woman can send them away.

The woman stops and peers at Rachel, before a smirk crosses her lips. "Rachel? You're the person that Quinn has a—"

"Frannie! Be nice!"

Frannie turns to look at Brittany who scowls at her, and she opens the door. "Quinn, your friends are here," Frannie calls, losing interest rather quickly, and heading back to talk with all the other adults.

Brittany lingers for a moment, and smiles as she lets them inside. "Sorry about Frannie, she enjoys thinking she's above all of us lowly teenagers. I'm Brittany, by the way," Brittany says, extending her hand and shaking both Rachel and Santna's hand.

Quinn finally manages to come downstairs and looks at Rachel carrying what appeared to be two furry puppies. "Rachel—I was going to text you but I've literally been playing with our new puppies all—what are you doing here Santana?"

"Charlie," Santana replies, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Isn't here," Quinn replies. "She went out with my dad around ten this morning and they aren't back," Quinn said before moving towards Rachel with the puppies in her hand, grinning when she smiles. "Wolfgang is the boy and Arte is the girl."

"I've never seen dogs like this before, what breed are they?" Rachel asks, cooing at Arte when Quinn hands her over.

"Technically they're wild dogs from Australia. Frannie got mad at Charlie for ruining her pregnancy surprise, so she decided to send her to the outback. She found them and rescued them and our mom said we could keep them," Quinn explains turning to look at Santana, who was following Brittany into the house. "I said Charlie's not—" the sound of another car coming down the gravel path causes her to look up and nearly drop Wolfgang. Charlie had wanted an old clunker of a truck, that hadn't been too expensive, but what was parking beside their garage looked very much like a brand new truck. When Wolfgang yelps, Quinn looks at him and hands him to Rachel before heading down the steps towards Charlie who was hopping out of the driver side of the car.

Charlie hops out of her new truck and grins at Quinn. "Dad bought me a new—"

"I thought you wanted some old shitty truck, you asked dad for a new one?" Quinn hisses at Charlie.

Charlie puts her hands up defensively, and looks at Quinn wondering why she was mad. "I didn't ask for a new truck Quinn. Dad was horrified at the one I chose, something about needing a tetanus shot to drive it. So he took me to the Ford dealership and I got this one Quinn. It's electric, which means I don't ever need to buy fuel, I'm the battery! Plus it's blue and shiny and has all the safety features in it. I still have to buy all the accessories I want by myself, but it's in my name and everything. He agreed to pay for insurance until I graduate, but it's my truck."

Quinn's eye twitched and she turned on her father who was exiting the vehicle. "You bought her a brand new truck?"

Russell sighs, "We can head down to the dealership on Friday if you want, doesn't have to be a Ford Quinn, it can be any car you want—"

"I don't want your blood money," Quinn snaps at him.

"My job isn't illegal Quinn, these aren't ill-gotten gains," Russell says patiently. "Look, I get it you're furious with me, but I'm trying here."

"Buying Charlie a ridiculously expensive car, isn't trying. It's buying Charlie's affection—"

"I was never really mad at him Quinn, just disappointed," Charlie intercedes. "Now I really don't care, I smell food so I'm going to—" Charlie stops when she spots Santana at the doorway. "What are you doing here?"

"Training," came Santana's simple reply.

Rachel poked her head from the doorway, and smiled and waved at Charlie, Wolfgang in her hand. "Hey Charlie."

"Hey Rachel," Charlie replies brightly with a smile, before looking at Santana and scowling at her. "No."

"What do you mean no?" Santana insisted.

"No," Charlie repeats. "I don't know why everyone wants to fight me! I'm just a normal teenager who wants to play with my new puppies, and eat food and sleep. I just spent sixteen hours in the Australian outback. Do you know how many animals were trying to kill me? All of them. All of them were trying to kill me. Go home Santana, I'm not in the mood to entertain you." Charlie turns when Quinn stalks past her and follows her. "Quinn, it's a car. No one said that you had to forgive him. Just let him buy you a new car, you can say thank you and go back to ignoring him, or you know yelling at him every time he makes an attempt."

Quinn shrugs Charlie off, "Traitor."

Charlie rolls her eyes at Quinn's mood and turned to look at her new mobile sex pad. Now all she needed was an air mattress, a portable heater, some bluetooth speakers, lighting and the most important and expensive purchase was going to be a truck cap for the truck bed. She'd have to make certain that her truck cap had tinted windows for privacy. But she had a small nest egg and with Black Friday just around the corner she was sure she'd be able to afford something. The next thing would be finding someone who wanted to have sex with her.

~ O ~

Judy glared at her soon to be ex-husband, and shook her head. She didn't even know where to begin with his irresponsible purchase. Sure, the vehicle that Charlie had picked out looked like a metal death trap, but there were alternatives. A used truck would have been acceptable, a used car would have also been acceptable. A brand new 70 thousand truck was not an acceptable use of money. Instead of starting a fight with Russell she turns to Quinn. "We'll head out on Friday and look for something for you," she promises.

Quinn shook her head, between her grandmother, her grandfather and mother's car there really was no need for another vehicle in the house. "I don't mind driving the SUV mom. I, unlike some people don't really need a brand new expensive truck." Quinn shot a look at Charlie who didn't even notice, as she piled her plate high with food.

Santana looks between Quinn and Charlie, before nudging Charlie causing the youngest Fabray to turn to look at her. "Can you pass the butter?" she asks nodding towards it.

Charlie stared at Santana and then at the butter, before going back to eating her food. A grunt was Santana's only response.

Judy closed her eyes, her cheeks flushed with embarrassment. "Charlie, Santana is a guest—" Charlie grunts, and Judy looks to the heavens pleading for strength. "Words Charlie, and please pass Santana the butter—no powers at the table."

Charlie reaches for the butter and hands it over to Santana, "No one invited her, she's here because she wants to fight me. Are we going to feed all the villains who want me dead once I become a hero?"

"Santana isn't a villain Charlie," Judy sighed and looked at her mother for a bit of help.

"Debatable," both Quinn and Rachel muttered together. They share a look and grin.

Santana glares at Rachel, but keeps her mouth shut, instead shooting a look at Lawrence. She would have understood if he hadn't wanted to teach anyone, he was an old man after all, but he had chosen Rachel over her and it still stung.

"Santana isn't a villain," Charlie says her mouth filled with food. "She works harder than anyone else on the team," Charlie swallows and shoots Rachel a pointed look before reaching for her water, not noticing that Santana is staring at her, with shock written all over her face. "I'm just saying that we shouldn't feed people just because they want to fight me. Everyone wants to fight me, we shouldn't be rewarding them with food for it Mom."

"Charlie, our strength invites challenge." Artemis spoke up. "You challenge me every week, to test yourself."

"Yes every week. Not every day," Charlie gripes before sipping on her water. "I'm allowed to have a day off. I need to recharge you know I was in the Outback, I was sunburnt. I was eaten alive by questionable bugs that may or may not have been poisonous or carrying the plague," Charlie insists. She looks at Brittany. "I don't—"

"You don't," Brittany interrupts, grabbing more veggies, before looking at her phone a smile on her face.

"The Inter-High is next week, and I need to be ready Charlie, there will be all sorts of scouts from all the top Hero Academies. This year is McKinley's first real shot at winning. Jesse and Sebastian have both been scouted by some of the second tier schools." Santana swallows, she'd managed to beat Jesse, but Sebastian always managed to beat her. It was infuriating.

Cassandra blinked and turned to look at Charlie, suddenly interested in the conversation. "You're going to compete in the Inter-High?"

"Charlie's the team captain," Rachel offers up.

"Since when are you a team player?" Cassandra asks looking at Charlie.

Charlie stopped eating for a moment and looked at her aunt, her brow furrows for only a moment before she shrugs. "It was either join the Inter-high team or get—" Charlie stopped talking , instead choosing to stuff her mouth with food.

Judy turned to look at Charlie, "Or get what?"

"Suspended for having sex at school," Quinn said throwing Charlie under the bus. She smirks when Charlie glares at her. "She got caught having sex at school."

Judy slowly turned to look at her daughter, "What?"

Russell snorted, and reached over to rub Charlie's hair. He gets a tiny shock for his troubles, but he smiles. This was something that he and Charlie could talk about. It was easy. "Do you have a new girlfriend Charlie?"

"I was set up," Charlie said immediately. "I wasn't actually having sex with anyone at that moment. I was making out with someone. Which by the way is a completely normal teenage thing to do," Charlie said defensively.

Judy narrowed her eyes before sighing and deciding to let it go, it seemed like another meeting with Figgins was in order. "I shouldn't have to tell you not to have sex at school Charlie."

"I won't," Charlie promises her mother. That was what the new truck was for. She just needed to make sure that her mother never saw the air mattress in the back or she'd put two and two together.

Cassandra focused on Santana for a moment, and looked between her and Charlie for a moment, "So—Santana was it? What exactly is your power?"

"Pyrokinesis," Santana responds with a shrug of her shoulders.

"I knew a few pyrokinetics back in my hero days," Cassandra states, her lips curling downard and she picks up her glass of wine and drains it. "What level are you?"

"I don't—"

"Four," Charlie says. "She already passed the threshold for making it to level 4," She narrows her eyes at her aunt. It's only for a moment before she goes back to her food.

Santana glances around the table, she didn't know much about the Fabray and July clan, and maybe now was the time to learn some history. "You were a hero?"

Cassandra gripped her glass just a bit tighter, "I was, now I teach at the hero course at NYU." She ignores the looks that the rest of the family shoot each other. "I was looking to spar with Charlie, but since she's apparently on strike at the moment. How about after dinner, I see what you can do?"

Santana immediately brightened, "Really—"

"She'll pass," Charlie interjects immediately.

Santana scowled at Charlie. "No, I won't Smurfette. I came here to do some training and since your aunt is offering I'll take her up on it."

At this Charlie stopped eating and looked at Santana before pointing at Frannie. "Frannie teaches as well. It's considerably safer to fight Frannie, even if she is pregnant and a—"

"Finish that sentence and I send you to the Sahara desert." Frannie dares Charlie who wisely decides to keep her mouth shut.

"I'm not fighting a pregnant woman. Your aunt offered to spar with me and I want to take her up on that offer. I want to see how well I've been doing with your training," Santana responded stubbornly.

Cassandra pours herself another glass of wine, and drains it before getting up, "How about right now?"

Santana pauses before nodding, "I don't mind doing it right now." She glances down at her plate, "Let me just put this aside—" Santana blinked as Charlie grabbed her plate and emptied it out onto her plate. She scowls, "I was going to eat that." She rolls her eyes when Charlie grunts at her. Still she grabs her plate and brings it to the sink and puts it there before following Cassandra through the sliding door that led to the backyard.

Judy sighed, and watched as Charlie got up with her plate and followed them outside. "Could we just have one normal meal without someone needing medical attention?"

"No?" Brittany smiles when her mother shoots her a look. "Mike just texted me that he broke up with his girlfriend! But I've got to play this cool right?"

"This is the one that talks to animals?" Frannie asks.

Russell glanced at Brittany and wrinkled his nose, "He talks to animals?"

"He's cute," Brittany insists immediately.

"I mean can he at least control the animals?" Russell asks, he looks at Frannie. "Spycraft."

Frannie hums, her father made a decent point. "Okay maybe not the most useless of abilities if he can control them."

"He just talks to animals," Brittany responds tersely. She decides to ignore them and turn to her mother. "So what should I do?"

Judy smiles, this she could definitely help her daughter with. "Well you need to give it time Brittany, who did the breaking up? If it was him then I would say wait at least two weeks, flirt, let him know you're at least interested but you don't want to be the rebound. If he was broken up with then you should give him more time if he was heart broken."

"Or once again, you can aim for someone who has a useful power. You know like what Charlie and Quinn are doing," Frannie interrupts. "Not that it matters since they both like girls."

Rachel turns to look at Quinn, "You're dating someone?"

"I'm not and Charlie and Santana aren't even friends, so Frannie is full of shit like always," Quinn says glaring at her older sister. Frannie smirks at her in return.

"I'm talking about—"

"Frannie." Judy frowned at her eldest, she fixes a look on her face and Frannie finally backs down.

"Just be yourself Brittany," Artemis says after a moment of quiet. "If it's meant to be it will happen. You don't need to change, you don't need to chase him, just let it be. Communication, honesty and time, that's the key to any relationship."

A comfortable silence falls over the table and Judy glances at Russell for a moment, meeting his gaze. He flashes her an almost sad smile and she immediately looks away. She was still angry with him, and going back to him would set a very bad example to her daughters. She still loved him, but she knew that the woman he was with, wasn't the first, and if she got back together with him, she was certain that he would do it again. "Your grandmother is right, in the end you just need to be true to yourself. That goes for all of you." Judy shoots a pointed look to all her present children, and relaxes when they nod.

~ O ~

Santana didn't want to admit that she had made a mistake, but it was becoming increasingly obvious to her as the seconds ticked by that she had made a terrible, terrible mistake. This wasn't a training session, this was a beating. She still didn't quite know what Cassandra's powers were, which meant that she couldn't create a plan to counter them. Though as Cassandra suddenly enters her space, even if she did know exactly what Cassandra's powers were, she couldn't do much to stop them. Charlie at least handicapped herself considerably when they sparred, but there was no such luxury here, as Cassandra's glowing fist slams into her face, sending her flying.

She was certain that she had heard a crunch, from her jaw or some other part of her face breaking. Her nerve endings screamed in agony, as her powers began to flicker on and off. She barely had any control left, and her senses were growing duller, as she raised her arm to try and fire off a fireball so she can get some distance.

An almost cruel smile crosses Cassandra's face as her hand glows and an energy beam leaves her hand slamming into Santana's chest, sending her flying backwards. "Is that it? Is that all you've got?" Cassandra turns to Charlie who was watching with a stony expression on her face. "Weak. She's weak Charlie."

Charlie doesn't respond to Cassandra's taunts, instead turning to watch Santana attempting to get up. Charlie clenches her fist, a spark of electricity arcs around her fist before she exhales slowly.

Santana manages to get to her feet, staggering a bit as she gets to a vertical base. She immediately puts her fists up, and tries to flame up, but for the first time her abilities don't immediately ignite and she's suddenly defenseless. She tries to scramble back but her body doesn't respond and she can only watch from her one good eye as Cassandra closes the distance between them. She tries to strike, with the jab that Charlie had shown her.

Cassandra bats away Santana's arm easily slams a fist into her stomach, causing Santana to double over. "I thought with you backing her, I would at least break a sweat Charlie. Guess not." Cassandra lifts her hand, her hand glowing with energy that slowly elongates until it's in the shape of a long blade. She flicks her eyes at Charlie who still hasn't moved and flashes that cruel smile once more before bringing her hand down.

Suddenly Charlie is in front of Santana, and Cassandra's energy blade slams into an electric shield that Charlie had constructed. The energy blade doesn't budge.

A huge grin crosses Cassandra's face after a very brief moment of confusion, as she tries to force her blade through Charlie's shield but even with her increased strength, even while attempting to increase the energy in the blade. Charlie doesn't move, she barely seems phased by her attack, causing Cassandra's eyes to widen. She glances up at Charlie and nearly backpedals when she realizes that Charlie's eyes are glowing a bright white. "What—" Before Cassandra can finish her sentence it's like an invisible force is yanking her backwards and she suddenly finds herself flying towards the pond, before her body comes to a complete stop above the pond. She attempts to kick and fight back, but her muscles are paralyzed and all she can do is turn her gaze to Charlie, before she's plunged into the pond.

Charlie blinks, and turns to look at Santana who finally drops to her knees in front of her. Charlie watches as Santana tries to get back up once again, before she finally drops down and scoops Santana up, and carries her back into the house. She uses her abilities on the metal patio door, causing it to open for her. "Britt," Charlie says calmly as she interrupts the family dinner.

Brittany looks up at Charlie, but her eyes fall on Santana and she drops her fork as she immediately moves to pull her hair back into a ponytail. She could hear a disturbing wheeze as Santana attempted to breathe. "You need to put her down on a flat surface—"

"My room," Charlie interrupts looking at Frannie who immediately opens a portal and Charlie steps through it. Brittany following her, leaving everyone else at the table speechless.

Artemis stared at where Charlie had just been standing before she got to her feet. "Frannie we need to have a conversation about something important later. Excuse me, I need to have a conversation with my daughter about her drinking." She nods her head at Judy before she walks out the patio door, slamming it closed behind her.