Chapter Text
Gert all but burst into the coffee shop, sweating, pale as a sheet, and out of breath.
“Gert,” Alex said, “Where have you been? Where’s Chase?”
“I think something might’ve happened to him.” She looked like she could hardly breathe so the others quickly ushered her over and sat her down and waited as she regained her breath enough to speak.
“I tried calling Chase to let him know what was happening but he wasn’t picking up his phone so I went by his place to see if he was there but when I got there the place was empty. And I thought that was kind of weird so when I was on my way out I checked the garage and I noticed the garage door was open. So I went inside and I found the lab like absolutely trashed. There was broken glass everywhere and there was blood on the floor like a lot of blood-”
“Gert slow down,” Karolina instructed, “What do you mean blood? Whose blood?”
“I don’t know.” Gert’s voice shook as she spoke, “But I’m pretty sure something really bad happened. I found Chase’s phone on the floor.”
Gert pulled something the phone of her pocket and set it on the table. For a moment, they all stared in silence at the cracked screen.
“Everybody take a breath,” Nico said trying to appear calmer than she felt,” Let’s not jump to any conclusions. Gert, did you see anything else?”
“Yeah, when I was leaving I saw your parents’ car pulling up.”
There was another beat of silence.
“Why don’t we just get down there and see if we can find some more clues of what exactly happened?” said Molly.
“I think I’ve got a better idea,” Alex spoke up.
He opened up his laptop and began to type.
“You said this was in the garage. Well lucky for us the Stein’s use Wizard Tech security cameras to monitor the lab. I can use the same backdoor to access them so that we can see what happened.”
Alex typed for a while before he said he was in and indicated for them to come look at the screen.
The camera showed Chase working the lab a couple of hours earlier. He was working on the fistigons. Alex fast forward a bit to Victor entering the lab. The video feed had no audio so the group could only watch as Victor Stein called out to his startling him from his work. Chase stood up and turned to face his father looking confused. The confusion quickly turned to hurt and anger conversation turned into an argument and the tension in the room was practically palpable through the video. Victor swung at his son, but Chase dodged landing a strike of his own and knocking Victor onto the table. All the anger seeped from Chase’s face when Victor turned around holding the fistigons.
Gert gasped as watched Victor send Chase flying the glass door. Without a word, Alex switched the camera feed from the lab to the main garage. There they could only watch in horror as Chase on the ground floor backed away from his father. Even without audio, it was clear he was pleading. This time it was all of their turns to gasp as Victor Stein stood over his son and fired the fistigons. Chase laid still and unmoving and then the screen went to black.
“What just happened?” Nico whispered.
Alex typed urgently and banged at the side of his laptop but the screen still did not turn back on. The room was quickly filled with the sound of hyperventilating.
“Is Chase dead...?” Molly gasped tearily.
“No,” said a voice.
They all jumped and turned to the door to see Tina Minoru standing in the doorway.
“Mom?” Nico asked, surprised, “What- Do you know about…?”
“I got a notification that the security cameras in the Stein House had been hacked and I figured it was your lot. You weren’t supposed to see that.” She said with a sincereness in her voice that was unfamiliar.
“What the hell is going on?” Alex shouted, standing up abruptly, “We just watched Victor Stein…”
He trailed off slightly as if unsure of what to say.
“Chase is alive,” Tina replied firmly, “if in critical condition. But we are handling it and making sure he receives the best care. So all we can ask is that you kids be patient.”
Tina’s words eased the tension in the room slightly but not completely. There was more she wasn’t saying.
“Well, where is he?” Gert asked, her voice slightly watery, “Can we see him?"
"He's being well taken care of," Tina responded vaguely.
"What does that mean? Is he in a hospital?" Said Gert growing slightly frustrated.
"Children," Tina stated, "I understand that you're worried about your friend but the situation is more complicated than you know. The best thing you can do for him is go home and wait. You'll know more as soon as your parents do."
Without another word she Tina left the same way she came. And the room was silent once again.
"Ugh," Molly cried out slamming her first down on the table and nearly causing it to break, "Chase’s parents- all of PRIDE, are the ones that let this happen to him and now we’re just supposed to trust that they'll take care of him?"
"Molly's right," Alex said to the group, "This is the last straw. We can't let them get with this. We've got to expose PRIDE once and for all. But first, we need to get Chase back."
~*~
Someone was screaming and crying. The sound grated against Victor's ears. As the fog cleared a sense of dread filled him in anticipation for the realization to come. It was Janet crying. She was holding their son and she was crying. She’d cried when he was born too. He'd made a promise then hadn't he. To be different than his father was.
In an instant, everything rushed back to him and he was left standing there looking down at his own with his own weapon still on his arm. Chase was still in his mother's arms but blood poured from his nose and mouth as she held his head in her arms.
"Oh God," he whispered distantly.
His voice sounded foreign. Over the sound of Janet's crying, a faint wheezing is the only proof he had that Chase was still alive. He didn't speak, he just moved. They pulled the pod out of the chamber where it was hidden away. There was still a little bit of juice left in it. Hopefully, it’d be enough. He brought the pod over to where Janet was still on the floor. She clutched Chase closer to her as he approached.
"He doesn't have much time," he said softly trying to keep the edge of his voice, "this might be his only chance."
Janet stared at him a moment more before nodding. They opened the pod and put their son in.
"Well this is quite something," Jonah said as he looked down upon the scene he had walked onto.
He glanced disinterestedly at the bloodstains on the floor and stepped over the broken glass to reach the pod where Chase now rested peacefully while his parents ringed their hands, still stained with his blood.
"Looks like you've got a real mess on your hands," he stated bluntly, "I'm not sure what you want me to do about it."
Janet opened her mouth to speak but was cut off.
"I need you to fix this. I don't care what needs to be done. We'll do another ritual if we have to. But we need to fix him." Victor spat.
"The pod won't work on him. It was built for my DNA. It'll fry his insides at best but I don't see how that'll be very helpful."
"Do I look like I'm in the mood for jokes?" Victor whispered harshly.
"No, you do however look like a man who just murdered his own son," he said stepping into Victor's space, "so I'd be very careful as you ask for my help."
"Please," Janet finally spoke up, "we'll do anything just please save our son."
There was a beat as Jonah once again stared down, seemingly disinterested, at the reflected pod.
"There is something. It's part of a side project I was working on but it should work in this situation."
“Yes, anything we can try.”
“Don’t think I’m doing this out of the kindness of my heart or anything. It’s gonna cost.”
~*~
“How the hell did this happen?” Jeffrey spoke harshly.
The members of PRIDE minus Victor and Janet Stein gathered around a table in the Wilder’s dining room. They had all just watched the security footage of Victor Stein and his son.
“We’re not entirely sure,” Tina replied smoothly, “Jonah seems to believe that this may be a side effect of the serum he gave to Victor.”
“But there’s also the possibility that this was all just him.”
“Why did he even have a weapon like that just lying around?” Dale spoke up.
“Apparently Chase had created it and had been working on it with Victor,” Robert responded exasperatedly.
“This is insane,” Stacey replied, “what the hell kind of person would do that to their own kid?”
“None of us get to pretend like we weren’t complacent.” Tina spoke up harshly,” carefully looking away and this is the result. What happened to Chase Stein is on all of us and if he dies all of us will have to carry that weight.”