Part Two, Chapter Twenty: Mother

"I'm sure you already know what's going on here, so I'll make this short."

Her mother's voice bounced around the empty apartment walls as she ran around looking for her suit and helmet. When she found it, she desperately started pulling her sweaty workout clothes off and pulling her thick spandex on.

"I have your girlfriend here- don't worry- I'm not going to hurt her or anything. I want you on my side. Meet me at the location I sent to you. I think you'll find it brings back a fond memory."

The video ended just that abruptly and with just that little explanation.

"I can't believe it. I can't believe I finally have to go kill that bitch." She said to herself as she pulled her helmet on.

Her rage only increased as she pulled her hoverboard from the closet, and opened up the door to the apartment balcony. She took off into the night, wishing she had left her helmet off so that the night air might cool off some of the heat rising from her skin.

If she's hurt Charlie at all, even just punching her in the face one time, I swear to God I'm going to kill her. I might kill her anyway. She could have just left me alone. She could have bothered literally anyone but me. She chose this.

Before she could dwell on her venomous thoughts any longer, her phone began to buzz at her side. Against her better judgment, she used her helmet to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Beatrice!" Lin's voice rang out in her ears.

She figured he had probably already realized what was up to somehow, and was about to try and stop her. She could already hear his disapproving tone as he lectured her about how she needed to alert the authorize and do things legally and safely.

"What?" She said as she sailed through the thick jungle of buildings.

He surprised her by asking something she wasn't expecting.

"Is TJ with you?"

His voice was strained and she could hear frantic sounding steps in the background of the call.

"No, why?" She asked. "Did you do something to piss him off?"

"No." He said. "I just got home and he's not here. He's not answering his phone either and I'm worried about him-"

The realization of what was going on hit her.

"Fuck."

Beatrice was sure she knew where he was. She didn't want to get Lin involved, but realized at this point that it wouldn't really be fair to him not to tell him what was going on.

"Listen Lin. I'm going to send you some coordinates. Meet me there."

"Beatrice what's goi-" she ended the call. She was sure he was smart enough to fill in the blanks himself.

"You are about to arrive at your destination." The GPS in her suit announced.

She was coming up on an old parking garage. New Atlanta had no shortage of abandoned buildings, but this one really seemed like it had seen better days. Beatrice winced at the sight of it, wondering if her mother was really just openly mocking her like this.

She slowed down as she approached it, trying to keep her guard on high alert. The last time she had fought her mother, she had pretty much gotten her ass kicked, and she didn't want to be embarrassed like that in front of Charlie again.

There wasn't anything quite as embarrassing as having the shit beat out of you by your mom in front of your girlfriend.

As she landed, she pulled off her helmet and looked around. There were a few cars parked, but they looked ancient.

There was a puff of smoke, and her mother was in front of her. She had a hand on her hip and a smile on her face, but Charlie was nowhere to be found.

"Hello Beatrice." She said.

Beatrice tried to respond, but all that came out was an animalistic snarl and a rearing back of her fist.

Her mother dismissively waved her hand and sent her stumbling back on her feet.

"Please, Beatrice. I'm trying to have an adult discussion with you. Can't you just control your volatile emotions for just one moment?"

Beatrice tried not to let her get under her skin anymore.

"Where the fuck is Charlie!?" She shouted. "I swear to God, if you've done anything to her, not only will you die today, you will suffer the whole time I'm killing you."

"Well, if you think you can calm yourself for just a minute, I can take you to her."

"Why should I trust you?" Beatrice shouted. "Why would I ever trust you?"

Beatrice threw another punch her way, but was again knocked back with just a flick of her hand and an amused smirk.

"Do you want to see your little girlfriend or not?"

Beatrice relaxed out of a fighting stance and crossed her arms.

"Take me to her."

Beatrice knew that she was probably playing right into whatever plan her mother had put together, but she had to know that Charlie was okay. That was the most important thing in the world to her right now.

Her mother gave her a satisfied smile, and grabbed her by the forearm. In an instant, she was transported to a small office. With the windows and doors boarded up.

Charlie was sitting in a rusty old office chair, spinning around in circles like she was bored. In her lap, a small yellow puppy was chewing on her index finger.

"Beatrice!"

Her eyes lit up, and she jumped from the seat. Beatrice ran over to her and pulled her into a tight hug.

"How did she get you? What did she do to you?" Beatrice asked.

Charlie opened her mouth, but she wasn't the one who answered.

"It was easy. I came up to her door with a puppy and she just kind of came with me." Her mother said.

Beatrice turned to Charlie and frowned.

"Charlie, what the hell?!"

Charlie's cheeks turned pink.

"That's not the whole story! She said she was going to kill the puppy if I didn't come, and I could keep it if I did!"

Charlie held the puppy close for emphasis, and it nipped at the collar of her shirt as it excitedly wagged its tail.

"Charlie! Still!"

"I named him Butter." Charlie said offhandedly. "I love him already."

Beatrice bit her lip and looked Charlie over. She didn't seem to be hurt or scared, considering the circumstances.

"Has she done anything to hurt you?" Beatrice asked, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Charlie said. "She hasn't hurt me or anything yet."

"Yet?" Her mother spoke up behind her with an incredulous scoff, "I already promised Beatrice I wasn't going to hurt you. What, do you think I'm a liar or something?"

"Yes. Absolutely." Beatrice said. "Why would I think you were anything else?"

Her mother said nothing more, only rolled her eyes and grabbed her wrist. Before Beatrice even had a chance to protest, she was teleported back out of the room. She jerked her wrist away just as they appeared back out in the parking area.

"Take me back to her!" Beatrice snapped. "I'm not playing your games."

"Just teleport there yourself." Her mother said. "What, did you forget you have super powers?"

Embarrassment washed over her. Her heart was beating so fast. She hadn't planned on the next time she saw her mother being like this. She thought she was finally going to best her. She thought she wasn't going to be afraid of her.

She was wrong. Here she was already losing her composure.

"I don't know what you could have planned." Beatrice said.

Her mother regarded her with a surprisingly neutral expression, before turning away and waving her hand.

"Come with me."

At a loss for what else to do, Beatrice followed her. She led her to another small office and leaned back against a desk in the middle of the room.

"What do you want from me?" Beatrice snapped.

"I just wanted to talk to you as your mother." She said.

"The last time I saw you, you strangled me and broke my arm." Beatrice seethed. "Why would I ever want to fucking see you again, let alone cooperate with you?"

"Because you have clarity now." Her mother said.

Beatrice frowned.

"I have what?"

"Clarity." She repeated. "You've seen how they treat us, the mutants. You're just a commodity to them. The only reason we're not second class citizens to them anymore is because they've decided that we can be useful."

"No, that's-" she started to disagree, even though some of what she said seemed to make sense, but her mother cut her off before she could really get anything out.

"You saw what they did to your brother, what they were doing to all of those other mutants. Using him to make a product. He was just a criminal anyway. Most of us are criminals in their eyes anway.

That's what they do. Beatrice - they take the parts of us that they like and they toss the rest to the side. They just take and take and take. Take things that belong to us.

They even turned on your little girlfriend, even though her whole thing is supposed to be making people like her. How sad is that? That their prejudice is that strong?"

"They didn't know Charlie-"

"I mean, they hated you until they could use you to protect oil pipelines and sell magazines. They didn't really care about you though. They never do."

Beatrice faltered. She didn't like her mother capitalizing on the isolation and rejection she had always feared her whole life. She didn't like the way she could monopolize her emotions like that.

Most of all, she hated that the only reason she could think of to tell her mom she had become a hero, aside from money, was that she hated her. She knew her mother was evil, and she wanted to do the opposite of what her mother would have wanted her to do.

"I know you're not happy, Beatrice- but you could be."

Beatrice shook her head.

"You don't know anything about me."

A smile spread across her mother's face, like those were the words she had been waiting to hear

"I know more about you than any of your little friends in there."

Beatrice narrowed her eyes.

"What does that mean?"

Her mother walked around the office desk, and pulled the center drawer open. From it, she produced the green syringe that Beatrice had stolen from the warehouse when she had rescued TJ. Beatrice's eyes widened and she nervously rubbed her palms together

"You stole this from the factory." Her mother said. "But you didn't hand it over to the police, and you didn't tell your little friends about it either. You didn't even mention it to your little girlfriend. Why is that?"

"I- it's nothing like that-" she said, "You're making it into something it's not."

In truth, Beatrice never really could explain her actions to herself. She had thought of it as more of a... curiosity. A what if.

What if her powers were stronger?

"You wanted to make yourself stronger." She said.

"I- I'm already strong."

"Are you though?"

Beatrice opened her mouth, but couldn't find the will to puff herself up when she didn't really believe it.

At her silence, her mother pushed the syringe closer.

"You could be."

Do it. Just do it.

She thought to herself.

Then you can finally be strong enough to beat her. She wants you to be stronger anyway.

Do it and turn on her

She swallowed.

She grabbed the syringe off of the table, and jabbed it straight into her thigh. The gel-like substance surged through her veins with a cold burn. It felt almost like her blood was turning into ice.

The burn faded away after a moment, and she blinked in surprise.

She immediately knew something was wrong.

Her body felt... quiet.

It was like being in a room with an air conditioner running. While it was going, you didn't notice the constant hum, but as soon as it shut off, the silence seemed... wrong.

Beatrice panicked at the feeling, and immediately turned and waved her hand, trying to get the door to the office to slam shut. Nothing happened. She tried over and over and over again, but nothing happened.

She turned to her mother, eyes wide and heart racing in fear.

"Wha- what did you do to me?"

A smile spread across her mother's face that sent a chill down her spine.

"You really are gullible, aren't you?"