"You know, I don't actually mind picking you up, I mean I have to get to practice anyway and this is on the way in," Quinn says looking over at Rachel.

Rachel glanced at the time, she was off her schedule, by at least half an hour, Quinn didn't have to be in till later. "Santana and Charlie can't fight forever—I mean they can't, right?"

Quinn shrugged her shoulders, "Really you would rather be in between them, then have me drive you to school?"

"Quinn, I know that practice doesn't start till 7, but I get nearly 45 minutes of pure peace to work on my abilities and my voice, or simply meditate. You don't get out of bed till 6:15."

"I can wake up earlier—actually no I can't. I'm basically on auto-pilot until practice, alright why are they fighting? I'll solve it so I can make Charlie drive me to school in the mornings."

"Well she wasn't waiting for us when we came back home after regionals, and she didn't even tell us how great we did, she doubled our training. Even coach Beiste doesn't quite know why, I thought we did fantastic at nationals, you watched didn't you?"

"I caught snippets of it, Charlie was watching it in the living room with gramps a couple of nights ago. I heard what happened though Figgins was very happy during that announcement on Monday." Quinn mused, tapping on her steering wheel. "I saw you though, and I thought you did really well you knocked out what? Ten teams?"

"It was 6, Quinn," Rachel laughs. "Are you serious though?"

"Serious—"

Rachel huffs, "You know about this stuff, about tactics, you're really good, probably a bit better than Charlie, and she thinks I did horribly."

Quinn shrugged her shoulders, "Did you actually ask her, and did she say that because I know my sister and if she really thought you guys did horribly she would have said something along the lines of you sucked. Did she say that?"

"I mean she may as well have," Rachel grumbles.

"Rachel, Charlie doesn't do metaphors. And the only time she infers things is when she's being obnoxious know-it-all little shit, because I didn't notice something that she did." Quinn rolled her eyes.

"Okay she didn't come out and say that we did horribly and she did critique nearly everyone, I mean there wasn't much footage to go on." Rachel admits. "So from what you did see—"

"Oh you guys went for the overkill method, which personally I approve of, but Charlie for whatever is pulling a do as I say not as I do. I mean I would probably reign it in, you don't want McKinley to get a reputation for playing dirty. That's sort of the Cheerio's thing. You have zero idea how cutthroat the competition is or how fucking insane some mother's get."

Rachel paused for a moment, "Quinn, for the most part Sue is relatively harmless, sometimes her crazy is funny. But I feel like she might feed some of your more—" Rachel gestures, for once at a loss for words.

Quinn blinked and squinted at Rachel, "I'm not going to commit a felony for Sue, I understand that she's batshit."

"I'm not worried that you'd commit a felony Quinn, I think that you'd ride the line very hard, just because it would be amusing. I mean it probably is, but you should still want fair competition, how do you know if you're better than everyone if you have to cheat or at least bend the rules to win."

"Rachel, even if I were to do something morally ambiguous, I can promise you that I wouldn't get caught. I'm certainly better than giving a rival the address of a crackhouse."

Rachel's eyes widened, "It was abandoned."

Quinn rolled her eyes, "Rachel, abandoned crack houses are still crack houses. I'm just pointing out that you really shouldn't be judging me about these things."

"I learned from that!"

"I learn things too Rachel, how not to get caught. I mean you made the mistake of not planning things through completely. If I had been you I would have scouted the area in advance, seen which places I could realistically hold auditions and then match that to a rather seedy part of town, that is closeby and you sending the wrong address could be seen as a simple accident or even better autocorrect, that you didn't notice. You apologize and make a show of being there for your rival, apologizing profusely all the while, to draw sympathy, you need to thread that needle carefully."

Rachel blinked, "There are times when I wonder about you." She's rewarded with an amused smile from Quinn, she wasn't a hundred percent sure that Quinn wasn't going to go off the deep end and become a supervillain just because she could.

~ O ~

Coach Beiste closed the door to her office and headed towards her desk, glancing up at Charlie who was laying on the couch in her office. "I was pretty sure at the beginning of the year, I told you that I didn't want the drama between you and Santana spilling out onto the team, and yet here we are. You've been running the team pretty hard, harder than usual. I haven't said anything but in front of them because I do think we need to show a unified front, but even I think it's too much. Especially since they did a good job at regionals."

Charlie sat up on the couch, "Is that your professional opinion?"

"They aren't professionals. They're teenagers competing. You know as well as I do that, most of the team won't become heroes. Kitty, Blaine, Finn, Jason and Rachel, come to mind. Santana, Regina and Artie. Tina has what it takes to become an agent of some sort. Emma has potential, but I'm not sure her heart is in it. The point is that some of them are simply doing this for fun, because it looks good and gives them an excellent chance at landing good jobs after high school or even getting into top universities with full scholarships."

"If they're winners," Charlie corrects. People seemed to forget that thing, the eyes of most trainers went to those who could pull out wins.

"Which they are. They won, and they won in convincing fashion."

"They also severely injured nearly 40 students. I understand that I'm training them and while I'm not indestructible, I can take far more damage than most other teenagers my age and shrug it off. Other teens can't and unless you want McKinley to get a reputation or you want the commission to get involved and do something that borders on stupid. Win at all costs applies to when you're an actual hero and as you so rightly pointed out most of them aren't going to be heroes. This is a competition, not a life and death situation and should be treated as such. I can get away with it because I know how to make my abilities non-lethal, Santana at this moment doesn't have that ability and you run the risk of another teenager dying. This is a competition and I can get away with a lot because of my skill level. McKinley without me or Quinn on the field doesn't have that luxury."

"Did you mention that to them, because right now it seems like you are punishing them."

"I'm not punishing anyone, I'm trying to get the team ready for the shit show that will be sectionals and ultimately nationals." Charlie responds with a shrug of her shoulders. "And I explained all this to Santana who for some reason thinks that this is a personal attack on her style of leading the team, it's not. This isn't about me and my 'unbearably large ego'. If people are focusing on Santana on the team, it means that they aren't bothering me which is something I want. I'm not saying that McKinley shouldn't steamroll the competition if it calls for it, but it was regionals and you were the odds on favorite to win, you should have engaged, the freshmen need experience, because from sectionals onwards the target is only going to get bigger, everyone is going to be trying to make a name for themselves off Mckinley's name."

"And you trusted Santana with this message?"

"She's my girlfriend! She should already know that I'm the straightforward twin, and if I were jealous I assure you that there would be no hiding it because I'm straightforward and I know how to recognize jealousy. I don't actually like most of the attention that I receive. I mean it is nice to get free shit everywhere, but other than that, I have to be nice to everyone and all smiles instead of the moody teenager that I am. I should be allowed to brood!"

Shannon blinked and stared at her former captain, she personally didn't have much luck when it came to the romance department, but even she could tell that Charlie had a tendency to overestimate her own abilities when it came to her communication skills. "I'll explain it to the team, and we will cut back on training, before we have a mutiny on our hands. You are not the norm, and your experiences with your grandfather are not normal Charlie."

Charlie grumbled mostly to herself but nodded.

~ O ~

"Thanksgiving is in two weeks, and I haven't heard back from Cassandra on whether she'd be attending. It's bad enough Brittany is spending her Thanksgiving with Mike's family, something about how they're afraid he's joined a cult." Judy groaned, she liked to be prepared and she needed to know if she needed two massive turkeys or if she could do with just one, and she needed to figure out the menu this year. "I tried to call Shelby, but I haven't heard from her either, and Charlie's still barely talking to me so I can't even ask her. Should I just assume?"

"You should never assume dear, but it is free food and drink," Artemis commented as she sat down. Cassandra no longer had a source of income, it was more than likely that she would show up. "You should still only buy one turkey. "

Judy turned to look at her mother, "Multiple people in this family are black holes. Perhaps I should pick up a ham instead? If need be I'll just make Russell take it home with him, he could use some home cooked food." Judy made a face at that and sighed, "What am I going to do about Charlie?"

"Don't worry about it Judy, she's not going to beat me before she graduates. Holly's going to the board, we'll know by next week what her year will be like." Lawrence calls from the couch. His back was killing him. "Dear if you could—"

"I'm not going to text Brittany for you, she's still asleep. When you first started this, I thought that you were going to use this as a teaching moment to teach her about how to manage her new abilities. You had a hand in teaching the four of them and when the time comes you'll teach Mikey how to use his gifts. Brittany can heal you, as can Rose, which means—"

Lawrence raised his head sharply, "She could heal my back!"

Artemis shook her head and looked over at Judy who let out a laugh, "You'd need to teach it to her. You could have tricked her into going to Summit for four years by highlighting that the four years would make her unbeatable."

"She doesn't need four years," Lawrence responds. "Frannie dropped out because she was bored and didn't need the degree, she was already a millionaire and she had started just as early as Charlie. Brittany is certainly smart enough to have several PhD's, the only reason she doesn't is because she likes pretending at being normal. Quinn's only going to get a degree because she needs the connections. And Charlie—they're already taking college level classes, which we had to force on Figgins just to keep them engaged. It's McKinley, a public school in the middle of nowhere Ohio. This after spending their entire lives being pushed academically at Pacific View Academy? Charlie can make theoretical physics possible, and she's talented. There are things she needs to work on, but that kid—we're only scratching the surface on all their abilities. And thanks to you we honestly have no idea how powerful she is because she has an aversion to showing it. She needs a year to finish what she needs to know and then she needs to reconnect with and learn about people."

Artemis sighed, "He's about to go on one of his rants," Artemis whispers to her daughter.

"Back in my day when we were young, people backpacked through Europe! They joined the peace corps. They learned about the people and they learned to care for people they learned to care for them deeply. They experienced things, and they lived. Quinn and Charlie are too young to be Atlas. Even if they share the burden, I don't think it's going to be enough. Cassandra cracked under that pressure." Lawrence's shoulders slump, his daughter had splintered under the weight of what they had expected from her. And it had taken him years to piece it back together. "Your kids are strong, Judy. If they all had the same determination as Charlie to perfect her abilities then well the government would have declared war on our family years ago."

"Charlie can't just travel the world, none of the girls can, we have to get permission from the state department to leave the country, remember our trip to Mexico? After Charlie's London fiasco, Russell's barely keeping the government at bay at this point—they won't let her see the world, dad. I mean the only reason we get to visit anywhere is because Frannie can open a portal anywhere on Earth."

"Charlie can open portals too," Artemis supplies.

"When did this happen? I thought that was a one-off!" Judy blinked.

~ O ~

"You know, I don't actually care that you and my twin are fighting. I've come to realize that most of your fights are dumb, and you really should communicate better. This is my advice to you, explain how you feel like Charlie is a child, because she is a child. Once you realize this, then you don't get nearly as upset with her when she's inconsiderate, rude or acts like a dick which honestly is Charlie's baseline personality because you know that she doesn't know any better." Quinn said with a groan, as Santana dropped her tray in front of her. They weren't friends, she had no idea why Santana was coming to her.

Santana stares at her for a moment, "I didn't come here for your dollar-store advice Fabgay. I'm here because I want you to kick Charlie's ass for me." At Quinn's unimpressed look Santana rolls her eyes, "Charlie thinks she's unbeatable, you have beaten Charlie so just kick her ass a bit and I don't know, humble her."

Quinn took a bite of her salad and stared at Santana, "Santana, I'm not going to fight Charlie for you. If I even offer, Charlie's going to be obsessed with sparring with me, which I find to be annoying."

"You sound scared."

This causes Quinn to roll her eyes hard, "I'm not a child Santana, you can't goad me into fighting my twin. Though I am curious as to why you want me to hurt your girlfriend."

"I don't want you to hurt her, I just want you to kick her ass," Santana clarifies.

"Charlie and I aren't allowed to spar without parental supervision, and what that really means is that we're not allowed to fight without there being a member of our family who can stop us from accidentally getting too competitive and destroying a large chunk of the planet. Is that what you want, Santana?" Quinn questions. "Just because you and Charlie can't talk about your problems like a normal couple—"

"I don't want you to kill my girlfriend Quinn. What I want—what I want is for her to stop coaching the Titans. I'm not saying that we don't need her, we do but as a sparring partner not a coach. At least not while I'm captain, I thought we could do this work together but she's contradicting me, second-guessing my decisions. The team needs one voice to listen to, and that voice needs to be mine."

Quinn stared at Santana, "I really don't know why you're telling me this, if you don't want Charlie to coach the team then tell her you don't want her to coach the team, that it's affecting your relationship and you think it would be best if you either broke up or she stopped coaching. I don't know why you want me involved in your love-life. I can't actually control my twin, I mean she might listen to me, but I can't control her. I'm also not going to fight my twin for you."

"Because she'll take it fucking personally!"

"Shouldn't she?" Quinn tilted her head. "You want the spotlight, which is fine, and probably necessary, and your girlfriend who you banned from coming to regionals and sectionals, wasn't around to hear your decision making, because you wanted everyone to look at you. Again I'm not judging, but have you thought this through?"

Santana bites her tongue, "I'm not doing this to be selfish—"

"You probably are, but again I really don't see why people can't be selfish sometimes," Quinn replies, looking at Santana's jello cup and swiping it. Her eyes flick up when she spots her twin entering the lunchroom with two bags of bacon jerky and raises her brow as Charlie spots her and makes a beeline towards their table. "Is that your lunch?"

Charlie shrugged her shoulders, as she slowed to the table her eyes landing on Santana, "Since when do you two hang out?"

"Santana wanted my advice on how to tell you that you're an absolute shit coach, and she doesn't want you coaching the Titans." Quinn says as she throws Santana under the bus.

Charlie glances at her girlfriend, "Okay."

Santana blinked, "Okay?"

"Yeah, if you don't need me then you don't need me," Charlie shrugged her shoulders and sat down and ripped open her bag of jerky.

"You really aren't mad?" Santana questions, they'd been fighting and it was probably for the best that they didn't work together any more. When Charlie just chews on a piece of bacon staring at her with a rather vacant expression, she balks. "I just don't think we work well together professionally and I don't—"

Charlie bit into another piece of jerky, still staring at her girlfriend. "Santana, if you don't want me working with the team then that's fine, but that means that you don't get the benefit of using my stuff, or picking my brain for things. In fact it's probably best we don't talk about the team at all, at least not in detail."

Santana scowled, it sure as hell sounded like Charlie was angry and was being passive aggressive about the whole thing, but she had gotten what she wanted. "It's not personal Charlie, I just think that you've been running the team hard—"

"The commission wants you to face live monsters at nationals," Santana went quiet immediately at this, her eyes widening. "Frannie gave me the heads up, I ran you hard because I have no idea how dangerous Nationals is going to be and your stunt at regionals might have worked and it might have gone well Santana, but something like that won't work against PVA, it won't work against other schools either. I'm not angry, honestly I'm relieved I'm not going to be responsible if anyone gets seriously injured. Plus I haven't had a proper training session in ages, the fact that my grandfather is kicking my ass is embarrassing to me." Charlie suddenly grins and looks at her twin. "Want to—"

"No."

Santana shook her head, Charlie needed to focus. "You can't just drop that on me—why didn't you tell me?"

"I'm not supposed to, I'm your coach. I was your coach, now I'm just your girlfriend and I gave you the heads up. Don't worry about it, Coach Beiste has plenty of experience, and you can practice against other schools." Charlie sighed and looked at her girlfriend, "I have no idea why anyone trusts me with state secrets, or classified material, but they do and even if you are my girlfriend that doesn't mean I can tell you what I know. I probably will when I feel the situation calls for it, but I really should get better at keeping state secrets."

Santana stared at her girlfriend for a moment before shaking her head and getting up. Charlie was keeping secrets too. She couldn't make proper decisions without all the information and she didn't just want to blindly follow her girlfriend, but live monsters. That had never been done before? Charlie fought monsters, and yes so did Beiste, but Charlie couldn't actually let Beiste know about what was planned at nationals. "Can I still ask your grandfather and grandmother to help us train?"

Charlie nodded, "You can even talk to Frannie, but I'm going to go train and catch up on all my cartoons. I'm not upset Santana, if you don't want my help then you don't want my help, I'll keep any comments I have to myself, and you can be the captain that you want on the team."

"Are you sure you're not upset?" Santana presses again.

"I would tell you if I was upset," Charlie promises with a shrug of her shoulders. "I'll resign from my position after lunch? But you have to tell the team."

Santana nodded that was fair, lunch was Charlie's favorite time of the day, there's still a bit of tension in the air, but Charlie had basically given her word, "Alright, I'll let them know—are we still going to be carpooling in the morning?"

"Yeah, Rachel doesn't trust Quinn to show up on time," Charlie responds and leans in to give Santana a very quick kiss on the cheek. "I'll see you after practice."

Quinn waits until Santana leaves before looking at her twin, "I thought that you believed that communication and honesty was the best in a relationship." A grin crosses her face when Charlie zaps her hard.

"Where's your girlfriend Lucy?" Charlie shoots back, watching as Quinn's face falls. "I'm not upset that she doesn't want my help, I was going to suggest it myself, we're arguing over everything and it hasn't been fun. I'm upset that she went to you to try and control me. What did she want you to do?"

"Kick your ass. I said no." Quinn supplies. "Are you going to try and help them from the shadows?"

"No, she said she didn't want my help—"

"She needs it. There is no way that the commission is going to throw some small level 1 henchmen monsters, Santana might be able to handle it, but she's the only one."

"Regina—"

"Being powerful enough to stop a monster doesn't mean that they can handle fighting one, you know that better than anyone," Quinn interrupts.

Charlie shoots her twin an annoyed look, and rolls her eyes. "I'm skipping the rest of the day, want to go somewhere fun?"

Quinn looked at her lunch for a moment, "I feel like sushi, and then spending time on the beach. Surfing?"

Charlie made a face, she really wasn't a fan of the beach and she certainly wasn't going to go surfing, "Fine, but if there's a monster in the deep you've got to fix it. I don't do octopuses or squids. Basically anything with tentacles is going to get a nope from me."