"Were you actually just going to take off in the middle of the night, and leave without saying goodbye?"
Charlie turns from where she is currently standing throwing clothes haphazardly into her suitcase, she had already moved all of her books, and all the important tech from her room, and had transferred it to her LA penthouse. "I didn't think you wanted me to ruin what I can only imagine was a very fun birthday for you, by saying goodbye. I can open portals Quinn, and I get bored easily. Do you honestly think that I'd just dip and you'd never see me again? I'd miss you, and honestly we both know that you need all the help you can get with Rachel."
Quinn rolled her eyes, "Rachel and I are communicating perfectly without you, and what we shared together was precious. You'd only come back to mess with me and try to convince Rachel that you give good advice."
"I do give good advice Quinn, you just don't want to listen to it," Charlie smirked as she noticed some bruising on Quinn's neck. "On another note, what did dad get you for your birthday? I can already see what Rachel got you, judging from the marks on your neck.
Quinn immediately flushed and brought a hand to her neck, narrowing her eyes at her twin who snorted. "Shut-up," she grumbled as she entered Charlie's room and looked at the mess that she considered packing and absentmindedly picked up a shirt and folded it. "Dad bought me a place near Yale, like a house. It was sweet, even though I would be moving into dorms at least for at least Freshman year. But I need a private place for me and Rachel, and you know hosting parties. Plus he got me a small car, so I can go on drives with Rachel, to take her to all the best vegan hotspots."
"Are you sure that Rachel will enjoy being taken to the forest to forage for food Quinn? I mean knowing you it's probably a sex thing, but whatever I don't kink shame." Charlie grins as Quinn shoves her. "I don't think I'm going to be that busy for the next few days, just orientation and meeting my classmates and getting used to the time difference." Charlie pauses for a moment. "This is the first time I'm not going to have you there as a buffer on my first day of school."
"You haven't even left yet and you miss me," Quinn snorted when Charlie zapped her.
"Please, I'll just make a friend and they'll be my buffer."
The comment is enough to get Quinn to stop folding Charlie's clothes and stare at her twin for a brief moment, "It's good to have aspirations, Charlie."
"I can make friends."
"Sure you can."
"I have more friends than you!"
"You have more people who tolerate your bullshit because you tortured them for months, I wouldn't consider any of the Cheerios friends." Before Charlie can argue the point she decides to change the subject. "So, when do I get to see it? An Edna Mode, super suit? I am curious, I mean you probably aren't going to be winning any best dressed awards but you will probably be the best dressed hero for a while."
"It's not ready. She actually got upset that I'm far more powerful than grandpa led her to believe. She cursed him out before she was hit with a wave of inspiration and then kicked me out so she could focus. I mean it all happened relatively fast, and she was mumbling about the creative gods or something I don't know, she barely let me get a word in edgewise, but if grandpa trusted her she's probably a good person. And I did say I wanted her to design my super suit. I just thought it would take some begging and some epic heroics on my part."
"As if you haven't done that." Quinn stated and smiled at her sister, "This weekend, I'm going to see grandma's lawyer and see what information she has for us, I'll parse it and share anything that I think you need to know."
Charlie was quiet for a moment, as if she was debating, "Send me what you get, I can't expect you to do all the work."
"You don't trust me?"
"Of course I do, but there are things that I consider important that might not be on your radar. We can compare notes and then we'll be able to see each other's point of view on things."
Quinn nodded, that made sense. "The corruption in the hero community?"
"Linda feels like I'm trying to make sense of the tragedy in a logical way, and that I might slip down the hole into conspiracy theories. I mean she's probably right, Linda generally is, but with the lost memories and everything that's happened, my brain feels itchy, for lack of a better word. I feel as if there is missing information that will make everything make sense and once I figure out what the fuck is missing and how it fits, I'll be better off."
"And Brittany says there's no way to get the memories back?"
"She wouldn't even know where to begin and you know how much she dislikes working on brains, and memories are something that she really doesn't want to screw up. It's not that bad, I don't know what I don't remember," Charlie smiles and rubs the back of her neck. "Brittany thinks I'm awakening the power hence the whole consequences bit, and if I'm not careful I'll end up like Charlotte with an incomplete awakening."
Quinn made a face, "Don't turn yourself into a vegetable."
"Your concern for my well being is touching. Brittany says if I absolutely must use it, then I can only do it for five minutes maximum, any longer and I'll start to have effects. Even without it I'm plenty powerful and it's not like I have to use them to tap into your powers anymore."
"I'm serious Charlie, the family needs you, and we already lost mom, who knows what I'll do if you die."
"I'm not going to die, but after Summit I am going to explore the world. I think I need to learn about things all over again, and see how people are living. I want to be a hero of the people, not the politicians. I just want to do good."
"You just want to sample all the food in the world and learn how to cook it for yourself," Quinn retorts flatly.
Charlie grinned, "That too! The best way to experience another person's culture is to share in the food, it's what binds us or so they say. Also my spice game is weak according to Santana."
~ O ~
"I'm not saying that you and Santana should be best friends Quinn, but maybe ease off for a few days or at least until after nationals? Charlie's always been the buffer between the two of you and with her gone, she's probably a bit lonely since they spent all their time together. And when Santana gets lonely she gets grumpy and honestly sort of mean, it's just Santana. She might try and pick a fight with you and you should probably be the bigger person—"
"Absolutely not," Quinn interjects, looking at Rachel.
"You're making Charlie seem like the mature twin here."
"Charlie and Santana have a weird quasi-relationship, a relationship that I really don't approve of. Out of all the people at McKinley that Charlie could be with she had to choose Santana, who makes Charlie about a million times more annoying. They're not dating and Charlie's not here so neither one of us need to pretend to like each other. I'm not going to pick a fight with Santana. But I'm also not going to let her bullshit slide Rachel."
Rachel shot her possible girlfriend a dull look, they hadn't labeled what they were yet, but she was certain that they were dating. "Quinn, it doesn't cost anything to be kind."
"Being kind to Santana in specific, costs me a bit of my sanity. Really I don't know why you're friendly with her, she made your life miserable for years. Has she ever apologized?"
Rachel paused for a moment, "We've come to an unspoken agreement about our past, we don't talk about it, and Santana is friendly enough. I mean in all honesty, Santana's always been like this. She's always been prickly and she's always had a temper. Charlie mellowed her out a lot, and there were growing pains there. I could spend the rest of my life hating Santana, or I could just forgive her and move on. She's been nicer to me and we're friendly. And because of Charlie I've seen a side of her that I've never once seen before. She cares for your sister Quinn, and Charlie likes the fact that Santana's prickly."
Quinn made a face, "You shouldn't just accept things—"
"Santana was a bitch to everyone, even her friends. She didn't target me in particular. We just ran afoul more often than not because our fathers work in the same hospital, and they dislike each other. Santana never once bullied me because I was adopted or I had two gay dads. This is Lima, it's not exactly as progressive here. She honestly didn't care about that, she cared that I was weak but everyone was always weaker than Santana, and because she was strong and had such powerful abilities people kissed her ass. It went to her head and she got an ego, but even with all that power she probably felt powerless because McKinley sucked. They really sucked before your family came and turned things around. She's wanted to be a hero since she was a kid. I remember that clearly. She treated everyone who was weaker than her like crap. And honestly thought all of us were holding her back. I mean the team was, and the coach at the time was problematic in so many ways."
"That's not exactly a ringing endorsement of Santana, Rachel. She was an AI who quite frankly bought into her own hype and then decided to turn the school into some weird natural selection bullshit. If anything it just makes me question why Charlie got involved with her to begin with. She's never liked bullies, and she especially hates when those who are strong pick on the weak."
"Santana swallowed her pride and asked Charlie for help. It's not like I didn't ask Charlie when we were in New York," Rachel replied with a shrug of her shoulders.
"My twin has always been a fucking idiot and a sap when a pretty girl asks her for help. Santana's behavior was abhorrent and problematic. And she gets off on getting under my skin, like she's won some prize because Charlie loves her. We don't get along and I don't like her."
"But you like me right?"
"Of course I do—"
"And you love your twin?" Rachel smiled when Quinn's brow furrowed as her girlfriend quickly parsed where this conversation was heading. "If Charlie and Santana end up together, she's going to be in your life for a really long time, so it's probably in your best interest to reach some sort of armistice if not an outright truce, because the hostility between the two of you is exhausting. And what happens if they get married and have children?"
Quinn physically shuddered, "Over my dead body. Besides, you know Charlie wants to have like a million children? Santana's never going to agree to that. So we don't have anything to worry about. I'm sure Charlie will settle down with a nice woman who also wants to have a gaggle of children."
"Shall we make it a bet?" Rachel grins at Quinn.
Quinn's brow shoots up and she looks at Rachel, "A bet?"
Rachel nods, "A bet that they're going to end up married! I think they're endgame."
"You need to be far more specific, Charlie and Santana could get together in their sixties after marrying other people and having lives together," Quinn points out. "So the bet would have to be that if they end up together, and are endgame then we're talking first marriage for the two of them," when Rachel nods at this caveat, Quinn hums, "And what do I get when I inevitably win?"
"I will admit that Charlie knows nothing about relationships and will never ask her for romantic advice again," Rachel responds, watching as Quinn smirks. "And I promise that if she ever does come out with a book, I'll donate—"
"Burn it. You'll burn it in front of her," Quinn corrects.
"Fine, I'll burn it in front of her. But if I win?" Rachel presses.
"If Charlie ever writes a relationship book, I'll read it—and I'll try and be nice to Santana," Quinn muttered.
"Before we agree, we can't sabotage their relationships in any way, we're there to be supportive friends and or family. If Charlie's dating someone that isn't Santana I'll be supportive, I'm not going to sabotage her relationship. Same with Santana, and the two of them can't know about this bet."
"God no, they'd get together just to spite me," Quinn muttered.
"They totally would and you would deserve it."
"You're supposed to be on my side," Quinn complains looking at Rachel who laughs.
"I am always, but I also know Charlie and Santana and if they even get a whiff of this bet, they would totally do it to spite you. And end up having an amazing marriage again, just to spite you. I'm only stating facts," Rachel said, patting Quinn on the arm, watching as Quinn huffs. Charlie and Quinn had very similar expressions when things didn't go their way and she had never noticed how cute it was until now.
~ O ~
"Under normal circumstances—people competing in the Inter-High hero competition are supposed to avoid using lethal force. Accidents happen, obviously but for someone with a purely offensive ability it limits what you can do. Of all the elemental AI abilities, fire happens to be the worst possible one especially at the Inter-high," Frannie explained as she adjusted her tablet that was on the conference table in front of her.
"So I never would have been considered?" Santana questions, clenching her fist. "Like before Thing 1 and Thing 2 came to McKinley?"
"No, you wouldn't have. You probably would have been invited to a third-rate school, even if I had decided to come to the midwest to scout for talent, McKinley never placed, and from what I witnessed of your previous attempts your team was terrible, and your coach was awful. Hopefully he was fired."
"He's teaching us Spanish now, he knows maybe three words of Spanish," Santana replied.
"Failing upward? Typical," Frannie said with a roll of her eyes. "Santana, what I'm trying to say is that your abilities are inherently dangerous and unfortunately that acted as a strike against you. Charlie in theory belongs to the same boat, electricity is inherently dangerous. The difference is Charlie's been training her abilities since she was a child, her control over electricity is second to none, she knows how much volts to pump into a person, she can control their bioelectric signals but she also mastered magnetism. And then there's her tertiary ability that manifested—"
"Hold up. Charlie has three abilities?" Santana wrinkled her nose, how the fuck was that fair?
"Not quite, electromagnetism is one ability and more importantly it's a fundamental force. Another such fundamental force is gravity, which my grandmother had. Electricity and magnetism are linked, I'm not going to give you a physics lesson but there is a reason that Charlie's so good at math. She needed to be to fully understand what she could do and it's why she reads theoretical physic papers for ideas. Brittany and Charlie are the only ones of us to express a secondary ability, at least an unrelated secondary ability. The reason Charlie's growth is exponential at this rate, is because she inherited my grandfather's abilities. It's possible Quinn and myself have secondary abilities that we're not aware of, but at the same time I'm happy with what I can do and Quinn never cared beyond making sure she could defend herself against most threats. My grandfather was a level 3, he had the ability to perceive stress points, fracture planes, or weaknesses in objects, people, and in theory societies. Charlie has that ability on steroids, two competing level 5 abilities. Charlie has the ability to see and copy how abilities work. I don't quite understand how, I thought her using Quinn's ability was some sort of twin thing but then she started copying other members of the family. She just understood how they worked and could replicate it. Do not ask me how."
"Wait—so any ability?"
"That's the working theory. It's also why Charlie's far better at threat assessment than anyone I've ever met. But it's also why she's incapable of teaching things, for her it's an intuitive thing, add that with her ability to read people's bioelectrical signals well have you ever wondered how she was always able to find Tina or she seems unphased by surprise attacks. Honestly Charlie was the worst possible choice to coach you in anything other than fitness. I'm surprised my grandfather didn't put a stop to it, he probably thought this was good for her and she was having fun. I've said it a million times, you're not Charlie and now I've explained why you'll never be her. But you are going through an awakening and I have a feeling that once you finally awaken you'll be just as untouchable as Charlie is in a fight."
Santana swallowed, she had always wondered what Charlie's upper bounds were, "I don't understand why you're telling me all this."
"Because I am giving you permission to use lethal force, and while your abilities are strong, I have a week to teach you the fundamentals on how to use lethal force effectively against an opponent that isn't Charlie. Your abilities don't affect Charlie, which was why she was why she was able to push you and increase your stamina significantly. That said, I was watching Charlie in New York and there is something about facing a monster for the very first time. All that power, all that training nearly went out the window because she got scared. And I fear that if I don't expose you to this in a controlled setting you'll panic like she did."
Santana swallowed, "Wait you're not going to throw me to a monster and hope that I sink or swim?"
Frannie raised a brow at the question, "What exactly do my sisters say about me behind my back?"
Santana flashed Frannie a small, "It's not like you hide the fact that you've made attempts to murder them."
Frannie smirked, "Unfortunately, I don't have the ability to control a situation like my sisters and make it safe for you to face a monster, so we're going to watch tape, and if I can I'll try and call in a favor, but I can't make any promises."
A/N: Before anyone can ask, Brittany and Charlie are the only ones that display secondary gifts. All 4 of them inherited their grandfather's abilities, Brittany inherited Russell's, Lawrence's and a variation of healing (Rose). Judy was a dud, she doesn't have any outward ability, but she was a level 5, I imagine you can figure out what her ability was.