Child of Fate

                                    

                                          
Imperator was in her office, completely oblivious to the fact that she had been discovered. Secondo didn't bother to knock, he just walked right in with his ghouls trailing behind.
"Excuse me?!" she said indignantly, standing up and coming out from behind her desk. Quinn and Fire walked straight over to her and grabbed her by the arms, one on either side. "Get your filthy ghoul hands off me! Secondo! What's going on?"
She tried twisting out of their hold but they were too strong. Quinn didn't care how hard he manhandled her so she was sure to be left with bruises once they had her where they wanted her.
"We know all about your little plan to get rid of Terzo. Your days here are numbered, Imperator. Your betrayal will be met with harsh reprisals."
Quinn smiled as he felt the absolute rage Imperator felt at being discovered. She'd convinced herself that she was untouchable, that she could carry out her plan and achieve whatever goal she had planned.
She fought like a wildcat, screeching and cursing and trying to claw at them. She caught Fire across the cheek with her nails when she got a hand free and even with the strength of both ghouls, she wasn't completely subdued.
"Hold fucking still!" Quinn snarled at her, managing to twist her arm behind her back and push her down onto the table to overpower her. "Can I knock her out, Secondo?"
She was still fighting even though she had no hope. He had to admit she was feisty, she wasn't giving up as easily as Anya did.
"Si. Just do it." She bit Quinn's hand just then and he saw red. Usually he would have used his quintessence to knock her out, but he did it the old fashioned way; he slammed her head onto the desk and she went still beneath him. "Quinn! That was unnecessary!"
He growled and sucked the blood from his hand, it stung like a bitch.
"She fucking bit me! It was fucking necessary!"
"Is she okay?" Secondo asked.
"What the fuck does it matter?"
Secondo stormed over to them and put his fingers to the pulse point on her neck.
"It matters!" Secondo hissed. "We need her alive for now. Air? Pick her up and get her to the basement."
"Yup. Sure thing," Air said as he obeyed Secondo's order, grabbing her and cradling her in his arms.
"Quinn? Check her head. Did you break her skull?"
Quinn glared at Secondo and used his quintessence to check the extent of the head injury.
"No. She will have a mild concussion when she wakes up and some bruising but nothing more, unfortunately."
Secondo nodded and motioned for them to go. He cast another cloaking spell to make their descent to the basement cells discreet and they left.
Quinn could feel the anger coming from his fellow ghouls. There was shock too, but the idea that Imperator could betray them was not as far fetched as it had been with Anya. Imperator definitely had it in her and somewhere at the backs of their minds they had all expected it.
Once they had her locked securely in her warded cell Secondo took a moment to breathe. Quinn sent him quintessence and he gave him a nod of thanks. This was all just too much to take in, for all of them. Even the usually even tempered Secondo was struggling. It had been one thing after another lately and it was wearing them all down bit by bit. Imperator's plan was working, the Clergy was at breaking point and Terzo was weakened. There should have been a feeling of relief that it was over now, but Quinn knew that this was not the end of it. They'd barely scratched the surface if his gut feeling was right.