Session 8

Quinn frowned in horror as Mack began to open the pod of her shuttle. She spun around on her heels in attempts to make a run for it. Maybe if she made it to her ship she'd have a chance to escape.

"Hold it, Q," Mack called out and Quinn heard the sound of a gun being cocked behind her. Quinn was weaponless. She froze in her spot and slowly turned around.

"There's a good girl," Mack smirked as she jumped out of her shuttle. Her bright red hair was typically enamoring, especially in the sunlight, but in this moment, Quinn couldn't help but feel her stomach churn.

"What are you doing here Mack?" Quinn asked shakily as she continued to point the gun in her direction. Although Mack seemed confident, Quinn could tell her finger was shaking along the trigger. It was clear that she wasn't used to holding such a weapon.

"I had a feeling at some point in time you'd try to take my chip back. So I implemented a tracking device within it," she sneered and Quinn's eyebrows knit together in anger.

"You're chip?" Quinn growled furiously. The audacity she had to call it her property made Quinn want to scream. How dare she claim it as her own.

"And as soon as that arrogant flyboy left my house last night, I had a gut feeling he was working for you," she added, and Quinn huffed in frustration. Maybe Spike wasn't as smooth as she thought he'd be. Clearly Mack was able to see through him, and unfortunately for Quinn, she now had to deal with the consequences of his actions.

"Listen," Mack began calmly as she closed the space between her and Quinn in a matter of seconds. She watched as Mack approached her, and is was almost embarrassing to be cornered by someone like herself. Of all people to catch her, Quinn did not think Mack was going to be that person.

"I know you've got the chip, and I have no doubt that you've already made a thousand copies," she explained sharply. Quinn was livid, but she had no choice but to submit to her opponent. Ordinarily Quinn carried some sort of weapon, but for now she had nothing but a switch blade in her pocket. As much as she wanted to draw it, she knew Mack had the upper hand.

"I might as well collect my bounty now," Mack threatened, but her statement only supported Quinn's suspicions.

"So you are doing this for the money," She grimaced as Mack planted the barrel of the gun against Quinn's forehead.

"More or less," she shrugged cockily, but it didn't make sense. Quinn knew Mack was in debt, but was she really in deep enough to sacrifice a friend? Quinn felt like she was missing a piece to the puzzle.

"Why?" Quinn inquired. Mack paused dramatically for a moment before a wide smile spread across her face. She looked into Quinn's eyes menacingly and it was clear to Quinn that she had been waiting to have this conversation for a long time.

"Revenge," she chuckled as she pressed the tip of the gun harder against Quinn's head.

"For what?" Quinn cried. Mack exhaled before placing a hand on her hip.

"You made my life a living hell throughout high school and University. But even after we graduated you still continued to torment me in the workplace," Mack began coarsely, but again, Quinn didn't quite know what she was talking about. Of course they had their differences, but Quinn never once went out of her way to harm Mack. Why would she? After all, she loved her.

"We were bestfriends," Quinn whimpered pathetically.

"Maybe to you, but to me you were nothing but a roadblock," she sneered.

"I don't know why you feel this way Mack," Quinn warbled as she slowly dug her hand into her pocket. Mack was in dangerously close range, and Quinn figured she might have a chance to overpower her if she was able to get a grip on her knife.

"You're so fucking blind," she growled, pushing the gun deeper into her forehead. Quinn almost never trembled at gunpoint anymore, but now she felt herself breaking a sweat. She was nervous, but she wasn't scared. 3 words caught in her throat as her eyes glazed over with tears.

"I loved you," Quinn whimpered softly, but Mack didn't break.

"Bullshit," she hissed before dropping the gun and taking Quinn by the throat. Quinn gasped as the sudden impact cut off her air supply.

"You stole Lucas from me, you told Elliot I was insane so he wouldn't talk to me, and worst of all, you made it impossible for me to have any other friends that weren't you," she shouted violently as Quinn choked within her grasp. Of course she was still hung up on all of that. Somehow despite being in her mid twenties, Mack still had the scope of a teenage girl.

"L-Lucas was an a-asshole," Quinn mumbled as her fingers finally wrapped around the handle of her switchblade. That part was true. Lucas was a player, and in all fairness he fucked both girls over. If anything, Quinn was nothing but his sloppy seconds, and of course she knew she had broken the girl code between her and Mack after getting with him, but she was 16 at the time. It's not like she knew any better.

"And I didn't make it impossible for you," Quinn choked as she clawed at Mack's hands.

"You are insane, look at yourself!" Quinn cried hopelessly as Mack's nails dug into the skin around her neck. That fact was also true.

All throughout their youth, Mack struggled to fit in wherever she went. Quinn was her only friend because no one else was ever stable enough to put up with Mack's insanity.

While others teased Mack behind her back, Quinn was always the one to be by her side defending her. It was clear to Quinn now that Mack never felt the same way about her. She only wanted to get close so she could take her revenge.

"You're just as pathetic as the day I left you locked up in that fucking closet," Mack chuckled psychotically before throwing Quinn to the ground. She pulled her hand out of her pocket in order to break her fall, evidently losing grip of the switchblade in the process.

As she desperately attempted to refill her lungs with air, she watched as Mack picked her gun up from the ground. She was familiar with the phrase don't bring a knife to a gun fight, and now more than ever, she was completely defenseless.

"Y'know," Mack began to say as Quinn coughed and sputtered beneath her.

"I have to hand it to you Quinn, you almost had me caught" she smiled before kicking Quinn in the stomach. She groaned in response as she tightly clasped her abdomen.

"You're clever, and that was the one thing I admired about you," Mack kicked Quinn once more as she held the gun towards her leg. Quinn was mortified. Of all people to bring her down to this state, why did it have to be Mack?

"Let's see how your cleverness holds up when you're behind bars," she sighed before shooting Quinn in the thigh. She yelped in pain as she looked down to see a dart sticking out of her leg.

Suddenly Quinn's eyelids became heavy, and the last thing she heard before passing out was the mechanical whirring of a nearby shuttle.

...

Quinn awoke to the feeling of weightlessness surrounding her body. Her head was pounding and her stomach felt like it had turned itself inside out. Her eyes were too heavy to open for longer than a few seconds at a time, but when she was able to see, Quinn could tell she was in a ship somewhere out in space.

A flash of red hair caught her eyes as the shuttle maintained a steady hover above some planets gravitational field. Mack had taken her off of Venus, but she didn't know where she was now.

"M-Mack?" Quinn stuttered as she turned her head towards the front of the ship.

"Oh, you're awake," she groaned as she twisted around in her seat. Once Mack had turned, Quinn noticed a familiar looking device hanging from a hook on the shuttles control panel. The device was white, and it was shaped like a masquerade mask.

"Oh that old thing?" Mack cocked her head to the side when she noticed what Quinn was so fixated on.

"T-that's mine," Quinn stuttered weakly before something hit, and shook the shuttle. Mack quickly spun around before throwing her hands back onto the controls.

"Shit," she cursed under her breath as she grabbed the thrusters before pulling away from the planet beneath them.

"Don't your friends know threes a crowd?" she grumbled before aggressively before accelerating her ship forwards.

"Give it up, Mack," Spikes voice suddenly came over the ships coms. Quinn suddenly felt relief wash over her body. Someone was there to save her, and that someone happened to be an excellent pilot and a damn good shot.

"Aren't you tired of this yet?" Mack shouted confidently as she flew through a massive shower of projectiles.

"You think I'd give up after 2 hours?" Spike scoffed.

"This is childs play, and I know for a fact you're almost out of fuel," he added tauntingly.

Quinn's eyes widened when she realized how long Mack had been running. 2 hours? That was surprising. Maybe Mack was a better pilot than Quinn gave her credit for.

"You can't kill us," Mack panicked as the ship began to shutter. She was indeed running out of fuel.

"There's a hefty bounty in here and I promise you don't wanna let it get away," she added as her ship suddenly came to a stand still.

"Fuck!" Mack shouted as Spikes ship pulled up next to her. Error messages flashed along her dashboard while she ran her fingers through her hair in frustration.

"We'll be seeing you on board shortly," Spike announced pompously and Quinn could hear the smirk in his voice.

"Good luck with that," Mack retort before using the last of her fuel to flip her ship upside down. The movement was so fast, and so sharp, Quinn ended up smashing her head against the glass of the shuttles pod. Pain struck her body in an instant, but as soon as she closed her eyes, she was out cold yet again.