"How in the world did you get tickets for The Incredibles Musical? I heard it was sold out till like next year!" Rachel questioned Quinn. "I mean I can't blame them. Lin Maneul Miranda is a genius, this and Hamilton? He'll be swimming in Tony's for the rest of his life."
"Don't worry about it," Quinn says with a shrug.
"You know who says don't worry about it? People in the mob, did you threaten someone to give you their tickets or you'd give them ice shoes?"
"Ice shoes?" Quinn asks, trying not to smile.
"Like cement block shoes, but like with ice!"
"Ice floats," Quinn reminds Rachel who immediately flushes. "I'm not part of the mob Rachel, I just used my dad's many contacts to get some tickets."
"Well, I think I would have preferred a dramatic story about how you were in the mob, my dad has started to watch old gangster movies, I may have caught a few of them, and it is rather exciting isn't it?"
"I mean I can see why, I'm sure some of it is romanticized but there was an honor with some of the old school mafias. They had some sense of honor, many of them were pillars of the community. They considered themselves a different breed than most criminals. It was actually rather enterprising when you think of it. I mean these days, with the cartels, and the supervillain organizations that are still around there isn't much to differentiate them from common criminals." Quinn tilts her head at the information she'd just said, that was certainly an idea.
"Quinn, please don't start your own mafia."
Quinn blinked and looked at Rachel, "What I wasn't thinking—"
"Or taking over a criminal organization and attempting to reform them. The world may be rotten, but that doesn't mean you need to become Don Quinn to fix it. You have money and you have power and there are easier ways to get what you want."
"Robin Hood was a criminal."
"Are you going to give out all of your money then and then start stealing from other rich people?" Rachel smirks when Quinn crinkles her nose. "If you want my advice; if you're going to be part of the billionaire class, which really shouldn't exist Quinn, then may I suggest actually paying people what they're worth? People were happier they could have vacations, they had time off, they could afford a place to live on a person's salary. You can't do that anymore, so people are miserable. They look at the old days and think it was easier back then because it was."
"So you want me to become the most loveable person in the world?"
"You're already the most loveable person in the world Quinn, you're smart, you're funny, you're artistic. I don't know why you think that you're not. I mean at the end of the day Charlie isn't making people's lives better, she's just saving them at that moment. You could make a much bigger difference and I'd never have to worry about you getting eaten by a monster," Rachel smiled when Quinn turned a bright red.
"I mean I never would have gotten eaten by a monster," Quinn mumbles as she reaches for Rachel's hand as the lights in the theater dim. She smiles, glad that the lights are no longer bright as she can feel the heat from her cheeks, this felt right.
~ O ~
"I'm sure you are aware that I can't actually talk about your sister's mental well-being, not without her express permission." Linda reminds Brittany, who smiles at her. It's slightly unnerving as if she's being tested.
"I mean there isn't anything about Charlie I don't know, I've put her back together so many times, I probably know more than you," Brittany pointed out.
"Put her back together—"
"Charlie and Quinn both swear by you, but my only question is why didn't you notice that she was barely functioning?"
"I think we have two different definitions of functioning, I mean I just saw her on tv a few weeks ago doing some rather impressive heroics, and fighting into the early morning around the world. She is capable of doing that, by her own admission the only grade that's slipped is Spanish but Charlie admits to not actually studying it and trying to copy Santana."
"And you didn't tell her cheating was wrong?" Brittney grinned, it did sound like something Charlie would clearly admit to. "They've always done that, but not that. Charlie is very good at pretending she's fine, you need to get better at spotting it and since Charlie doesn't really lie she just omits the truth you need to be more specific in what you ask her. Charlie's been healing herself—badly might I add. Memory loss, weird behavior by Charlie's standards, she's eating healthy."
"How is Charlie eating better, an issue?"
"Charlie's caloric intake is enormous, her metabolism is a work of art, it's beyond efficient. Under normal circumstances she needs 15000 calories a day, I mean most days she tops at 10 because she prefers to be lean and toned, rather than bulky but by my estimation she's down to 5000 calories a day. The amount of food she eats has changed, what she eats has changed. Everything is changing and she's stopped training. I mean she still works out, but she doesn't train," Brittany listed off. "I know that you're probably focused on the guilt and the PTSD that Charlie probably has but you need to be better at your job."
"Depression is common after—"
"Charlie's not exactly depressed."
Linda frowned at the challenge, "I don't pester my clients, that's not how I do business. This is a safe space, they tell me what they're feeling, they tell me what they want to talk about and while I steer the conversation at times, especially with Charlie's attention being what it is. Your mother just died, as did your grandparents how are you handling it?"
"This isn't about me—"
"It is, you think that you're here to let me know about Charlie's physical condition—"
"Charlie, like other members of my family, has two abilities. I know that everyone in the world thinks that Charlie's a level 6, but the strength that we're seeing now is still a fraction of Charlie's abilities. Her secondary ability is the problem Linda, when I went in to heal her, Charlie's mind was—swiss cheese basically. She's been trying to fix it, but her wires were getting crossed, parts of her memory are well there is no connection there, I'm not sure if she burnt it out or if she did it on purpose. I mean I get blocking out trauma, Charlie's mind is full of all the blocks she's put in place to make sure she doesn't remember things like her various compound fractures. I got good at healing quickly because I needed to get good."
Linda paused, Charlie didn't truly speak of her childhood, and that's where most of her issues would have started arising. And the off-hand remarks Charlie would make suggested that her childhood wasn't easy and wasn't pleasant at all. "Compound fractures?"
Brittany hesitated, she had probably said too much, it wasn't a family secret but it's not as if Charlie had extensive medical records either. Her family had a nasty habit of keeping everything in-house. "Charlie's been training since she was a child, accidents happen. Quite a few accidents, Charlie isn't exactly graceful and she needed to practice far harder to do what me and the rest of our sisters can do. The issue is that she's using my grandfather's abilities a far more powerful version of my grandfather's abilities and I believe the longer she uses that ability the more damage she does to herself. She will get to the point where the cost will be minimal, but she's not there yet and she's just hurting herself at this point."
"And you healed Charlie?"
"I have literally put Charlie back together, multiple times. That's why she is so incredibly reckless. I thought that since she could now heal herself, it would mean I didn't have to worry as much but she's absolutely awful at it. Her neurotransmitters were poorly made, honestly I'm surprised she fought as well as she did. But what I'm most concerned with is that her emotions are—I don't know how to describe this. When I see people's emotions, I see them in color. "Mike's pink whenever he looks at me, like a bright pink. I mean when he's horny he's—"
"I thought you said you could heal?"
"I also inherited an off-shoot of my father's abilities, while he can manipulate people's emotions which is beyond problematic considering his obvious sex addiction but my ability is different. Not quite the same, I see people's auras. You're confused, right now and intrigued, but you're not surprised. Interesting, not that it matters, this is about Charlie. Charlie's boring, it's a usual steady stream of colors. Orange mostly, that usually means that she's hungry. Vibrant red whenever Santana's in the room, like it lights up the room whenever Santana's in the room. She's not kidding when she says she loves Santana. These days it's only dark gray."
"And what about other members of your family? Quinn? Your older sister?"
"Frannie feels guilty, it clings to her. It's a dark purple for her. Quinn is almost impossible to read at times, she's distracting herself with a new relationship with Rachel, so she's mostly pink but the moment it gets quiet her aura turns like this almost icy blue."
"And what about your aura?"
"My aura? I can't see my own," Brittany said with a shrug. "I'm handling their deaths the best I can."
"Not even in a mirror?"
"Not even in a mirror."
"How are you handling their deaths? I know you're concerned about Charlie but so is nearly everyone else in your family, I have to send reports to your father about Charlie's progress. Quinn asks about how she's doing and to make sure that I sound the alarm if she starts to engage in risky behaviors. I'm not quite sure what that means considering Charlie constantly risks her life to be a hero."
"The concern here is that Charlie becomes the next Cassandra, and you need to make sure that doesn't happen—"
"I don't think you know your sister as well as you think you do. I haven't met your aunt, but Charlie doesn't have a predilection for violence, oh she likes a good fight, but we have boxers and mixed martial artists who enjoy fighting as well. Being able to read her aura is one thing, but actually understanding what that means and how she's processing it is another thing entirely. You know how I know this? Charlie didn't kill Cassandra, I'm sure at that moment she certainly wanted to but she didn't. She also doesn't want to see her aunt tortured. That is not someone who is days away from destroying the planet." Linda interrupts, cutting directly to the chase. She had explained this to Russell a million times and the isolation was probably doing more damage than anything good. If Charlie's own family thought that she was turning into a monster she hoped it didn't turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
"I don't think you understand, I don't think we could stop Charlie even if we wanted to."
"Has this been a constant problem for you? Stopping Charlie from going too far in anything other than training?"
Brittany's brow furrowed, "Well not really, but—"
"Do you think she's going to end up like Cassandra?"
Brittany opens her mouth before closing it and then narrowing her eyes, "Why has this become about me?"
~ O ~
Santana took a deep breath, before knocking on Frannie's apartment door. It was firm but not overpowering she didn't want to put the elder Fabray sister in a mood by waking up Mikey. She was running out of time to make a decision, and her parents were putting a tremendous amount of pressure on her to choose K2, without waiting for an invitation to Summit.
Under normal circumstances she would simply ask Charlie, as she did value her ex's insight. But things between her and Charlie were complicated. Just looking at Charlie sometimes simply hurt, and she still didn't understand why it had happened. It would be one thing if Charlie blamed her for the Cassandra situation, it would hurt but she could at least accept Charlie's feelings on that, but she didn't accept them here. She didn't understand why they couldn't just figure it out, and actually talk about things without Charlie insisting on being some sort of stupid martyr. Plus, Charlie was an absolute shithead for still trying to get in her pants without the commitment. Each time that Charlie would smile that little crooked smile at her, it broke her heart again and made her intensely jealous. Charlie would date again, and that smile would be for someone else, and Charlie would love that person with every fiber of her being and in the end she would simply forget about her.
Which was the only reason she was at Frannie's door, hoping that Frannie was—
The door swings open and Santana takes a step back at the sight of a shirtless man, with rather long dreadlocks who was carrying baby Mikey in his arms, "Hi!"
"Hi—is Frannie in?"
"She's in a meeting, it should be over soon, you want to come in and wait? I'm Joe by the way, Mikey's dad."
"Oh," Santana says letting out a breath, she still knew she was deeply fucked and should have at least gone through one of the twins or Russell to make an appointment with Frannie. If there was one thing that she knew, it was that Frannie liked to keep her private life private. She could only pray that Frannie didn't take it out on her. "I'm Santana," she says introducing herself.
"I know, you're on Frannie's wall."
"Frannie's wall?" Santana repeats.
Joe hummed in response, "The top high-school recruits in the country, Frannie has a wall in her office dedicated to all the top recruits, ranked. You're pretty high up there." Joe frowns as Mikey begins to fuss. "Sorry he's probably hungry or bored. Make yourself at home on the couch, I'm going to go warm a bottle.
"I can watch him," Santana offers, extending her hands.
"Don't worry about it, he's being picky these days with who holds him, and if he starts crying then I'm going to be banished to Antarctica for a week."
"At least it's not lava?" Santana offers.
"I was joking, she likes me, she isn't actively trying to kill me or maim me. Not that I don't piss her off, but she wouldn't know how to explain it to Mikey if she accidentally killed me," Joe let out a laugh.
Santana nodded, wordlessly. The way Charlie and Quinn talked about Frannie, made her into some sadistic monster who constantly tried to murder them, but considering that they had both told the team that Frannie was weak suggested that the two of them couldn't be trusted.
It takes a few minutes before Frannie exits her office and pauses in the hallway when she sees Santana sitting on her couch. Almost immediately she raises a perfectly manicured eyebrow, "Did Charlie open a portal?" She hadn't felt anything and if Charlie could move undetected, which was problematic on so many levels.
"I drove, Charlie gave me your address, I hope that's okay. And if it's not you should throw Charlie into lava," Santana said immediately.
Frannie smirked at Santana's response, "Why are you here Santana? I take my time with my family seriously, and if I could throw Charlie into an active volcano I could, she's learned to block me."
"Charlie said that there's a very good chance that I will get an invitation to try out for Summit, I know that I have a guarantee at K2—but this is my career. This is my life and I can't let my relationship with Charlie factor into it. She certainly doesn't choose to make me a part of her decision making when it comes to her career."
"What exactly are you asking me? Because that's a statement," Frannie says as she spots Joe coming back with Mikey in his arms. "He's on a schedule."
"He was hungry," Joe responds with a shrug.
"What am I lacking?"
"Experience. Tactics. Power. And you've made the unfortunate mistake of believing Charlie's word as gospel. Charlie's an idiot."
"Charlie told me to go to K2, because you'd be there," Santana says, defending Charlie. She glances over at Joe who snorts.
"Summit has decided to do something incredibly foolish, they're going to spend quite a bit of their resources on Charlie. Who unlike other freshmen and even some seniors is capable of training on her own. Which means their resources won't be flowing towards the rest of their Freshmen class. It's only for a year, but a year can make all the difference. If you go to Summit while Charlie is at Summit they will mismanage your training. Charlie will suck up all the oxygen in the room. She can't help it."
"So you're saying that Charlie has nothing left to learn?"
"Oh Charlie has plenty to learn, she's simply not going to learn it in Summit. Or K2, or anywhere. Charlie lacks experience but she's closing the gap quickly. It depends on what you really want. If you want to be on the level of the Utopian and the 4 Horsewomen, I can get you there. If you're just looking to become a hero—well hundreds of heroes died recently and there's a push to replenish the ranks—"
"I want the former. I want to be better than Charlie."
"You need to be realistic Santana. I can't promise you that. I have no idea how powerful Charlie is. And everytime she fights and engages with powerful enemies she gets exponentially better."
"I didn't say more powerful, I said better. I want to be on the level that when there is a world threat, that my name comes up in the same breath as The Utopian, Charlotte Flair, and Charlie. I thought I'd be okay with being number two but I'm not and I think that the only way that Charlie will actually respect me is if I'm better than her. So I want to be better than her."
Frannie stared at Santana, there was a determination in her eyes. Charlie believed that Santana could do it, as did Lawrence, why they hadn't taken her training far more seriously, "After sectionals, we'll begin your training. Your parents will need to sign a waiver. Keep in mind, my time is valuable. So if you complain, the training will stop, I don't like whining."
A massive grin broke out on Santana's face, "Seriously?"
"Yes, I don't like repeating myself." Frannie said with a shrug of her shoulders. "If you're serious about this then you must keep it from Charlie, she'll meddle and I'll have to spend time removing your bad habits. We'll start with the fundamentals, books on tactics, a complete look at your diet and training schedule, your body will be in constant pain, for weeks. And you must keep your grades up. I'm not going to have your parents yelling at me because you're as dim as Charlie is."
Santana nodded, keeping it from Charlie wouldn't be difficult at all. She might not catch up to Charlie's level of powers, but she was going to be mentioned in the same breath as Charlie.
~ O ~
Charlie tapped her pen on her desk at a rapid pace, her father had given her a few contracts to look over that had been summarized for her, and a few resumes to look through. She had given up after 10 minutes, she really didn't care about the money at all, maybe that would change with time, but she already had plenty of money despite her father putting most of it in a trust so she didn't blow through it in a week. She didn't actually understand where he was coming from. She spent most of her money on food.
Even though she knows that there is no one near her bedroom, she can't help but look up as she approaches her laptop and checks visually before she opens a new browser in private mode and types in Cassandra's name, and focuses on news articles and reads the first few that pop up. She didn't know what she expected, a long protracted criminal battle where her aunt's lawyer would plead for diminished capacity. She certainly didn't expect her aunt to plead guilty to all charges.
She scans the article looking to see if they mentioned which prison she was at, but she can't find anything that gives her any information on that, she frowns slightly and heads to her closet, stripping out of her pajamas and pulling out one of her suits, her mother had bought it for her something about always looking her best. They were supposed to start looking for something for Prom together, but she no longer had a girlfriend and prom would probably be boring. She takes a deep breath and pushes through the wave of sadness that threatens to overwhelm her. She slowly changes into the gray suit and looks at herself in the mirror for one brief second, running a hand through her hair to muss it up. If anyone saw her they'd think she was just going on a date, which worked for her because she couldn't imagine that there would be a member of her immediate family who would approve of this. She doubted that even Linda would be okay with this but she was turning 18 in a few weeks and she needed to start making decisions about things on her own. She needed to figure out how to carry herself, how to be who everyone expected her to be. But first she needed to make sure that her aunt wasn't being experimented on.
She takes a deep breath before she opens a portal, her grandmother never raises her voice. She hadn't needed to, there had always been a regal air around her, no one dared test her. Maybe that respect came with age, but she needed to lean into it now if she was going to get the answers that she was seeking. She exhales slowly and opens a portal, as her eyes flicker and start to glow before she walks through the portal and into General Alder's office on base. She'd been there before with her grandmother on more than one occasion.
Almost immediately she can feel weapons being drawn even as she sees General Alder going through some paperwork, "You too?" Charlie said immediately, making a face at the mountains of papers.
Sarah Alder paused for a moment and looked up at Charlie before waving off her crones, "This much paperwork is to be expected for someone in my position. It is not fun, but it is necessary." Sarah finishes reading through the document that she's reading before placing it down on her desk and giving Charlie her full attention. "Have you come to ask me to swear loyalty to you? I was expecting this, but I imagined that you would wait a few more years."
Charlie balked at the idea immediately, "Swear loyalty—this isn't feudal England, General Alder. This is America, we don't do that—"
"When I was your age, which was many moons ago, hundreds of years ago, they came for us. They called us witches, and to save my people I needed to swear loyalty to the US government. I had to watch as my sisters and brothers were enslaved and give their lives."
"I'm aware of this country's history. My father gave me a lecture about this before my Senate hearings. I'm aware that we've never really lived up to the promise that was made, but I'm not here to get you to swear loyalty to me. General Alder, I'm not here to break the status quo, I just want to know where they're holding her. I need to make certain that she isn't being experimented on, that she's being treated like a human being."
For one brief moment, a look of shock crossed Alder's face, before she schools her features and looks at Artemis July's youngest grandchild. "Do you wish to free her?"
Charlie tilted her head, "No, and before you ask I haven't forgiven her either. But I do have questions, and she has answers. After what happened with the Union, I don't trust our government. I imagine that they want a weapon that they can use to keep me in line, and Cassandra is my aunt."
"And if they have been experimenting on her? What will you do then?" When Charlie doesn't have an immediate answer Sarah smiles, "Your grandmother would not stand for such a thing."
"I'm not my grandmother."
"No, you're not," Alder acquiesces after a moment. "I'll look into it for you and make the arrangements."
"And the cost?" Charlie questions. "I've known you since I was a child, you don't do anything out of the goodness of your heart."
"Do you know why your grandmother and I didn't get along?"
"I don't know, old lady stuff? Didn't you try and have sex with my grandad? Did you succeed in having sex with my grandad? Are you a homewrecker?"
Sarah laughed at the absurdity of that claim, "She really kept you in the dark didn't she? No. I didn't try and sleep with your grandfather. She thought that I was a coward, how could I let them order me around. How could I possibly let them put a leash on me and my people? The fact that I had disgusted her, but I do not have the power that you do."
Charlie's eyes narrowed, she should have brought Quinn. "What's this going to cost me, General Alder?" She repeats again, keeping her voice firm.
Sarah let out another laugh, "This one is free Charlie. You're just starting out and technically this is you calling in your grandmother's favor that I owed her. I hope that we can have a far better relationship."
"I'm 17, and while I like older women—honestly women of all shapes and sizes, you're far too old for me," Charlie says immediately as she leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs. "If you meant a working relationship—all I know about you is what my grandmother told me about you, and she firmly believes that you aren't to be trusted. She also said a few choice words, which leads me to believe that at some point you tried to become my step-grandmother. But you need to understand and all the scared politicians need to understand, is that I am not the second-coming of Artemis July. She was my grandmother and I was her little Firefly, our relationship was complicated but in the end I loved her. She raised me, she made me strong. But I am not her, I will never be her so whatever drama you had with my grandmother, that's forgotten until I can make up my mind about you."
"Then I shall endeavor to make sure that I have earned your trust young Tyrant."
Charlie raised a brow at the term for a moment but shrugged it off, "When you have information about my aunt, tell me where and I'll be there. I've got to get home before my father realizes that I've run off with a lot of paperwork left to do."