Chapter Ten

"So you girls do take after your old man after all." Jake's eyes were brimming. "I don't know whether to be proud, or sorry - that now you have to share the burden, too."

Daria turned to solemnly gaze at DeMartino. "You knew, didn't you?"

He gazed back with equal intensity. "Maybe I DID, a little. I sensed that there was something GREATER to you than met the eye. You weren't just SMART, you were uncanny. I never tried to BROACH the subject, because, for the sake of concealment, Norlek wanted as much DISTANCE between him and me, or me and his family, as possible. Still, I felt that I should keep my EYE on you. Only until today, I never realized that your SISTER could be just as powerful."

Silence descended upon the group. Quinn felt slightly nauseous, from more than just the Chinese food. She pulled herself into a fetal position and hugged her knees, trying to make her mind blank.

"That's it, then," said Jake, his radiant expression quickly falling away. "I have no choice. I have to take you with me - if he catches you, he could take you back to Xulfanex, too!"

"No!" Quinn cried, almost without thinking. Everyone turned to look at her. "He said he can't go - he doesn't have the calculations to get back, and he needs someone who's good at math to do them! And I'm so not gonna help him!"

Daria gave her a hard look. "You really think you're the only one who knows how to solve an equation?"

Quinn scowled at her sister's typical "I told you so" tone. But the more she thought about it, the sicker she felt. An image rose up in her mind of Mr. Phelps seated in his classroom, as though everything were normal. Barry, her nerdy teammate on the mathletics squad, bound in, a notebook swinging around in his hand. "I did it, Mr. Phelps!" he squeaked with joy. "It took me two weeks, but I finally figured out how much propulsion you would need to get from earth to Xulfanex!"

"I can't believe they made a 'lost episode' of Star Trek and I didn't know about it!" Barry enthused. "When do I get the tape?"

"Oh... tomorrow, definitely. Thank you again. Yes, thank you..."

Quinn swallowed back vomit, and uttered a shaky, low, "Oh God..."

"Dad," said Daria. "What if we didn't go anywhere? What if we just waited for Phelps to come to us?"

"Daria, no." Jake gazed at her with a deeply troubled expression. "I know what you're thinking, 'cause it just entered my mind, too."

"So why can't all three of us fight him together? He couldn't hypnotize all of us, not if we stood in different places. It took him so long to even figure out Quinn and I were your kids, though God knows if he had just checked our last name he might have put us toge -"

"Out of the question!" came Helen's sudden, shrill cry. She looked at Daria with an angrier expression than either daughter could recall having seen. "For God's sake, Daria, this isn't one of your silly video games! If he hits you, you could die, and if he catches you, you girls could suffer even..." Tears filled her eyes. "I don't even want to think about it!"

"Who says I'm treating this like a game?" Daria shot back in a higher, angrier tone than normal. "You just finished telling us that Dad's been running for thirty years, and now I come up with a way we could stop it-"

"Stop it, Daria!" Quinn gasped.

The pain in her stomach was becoming too much; Quinn clasped it with both hands and rolled over on one side, praying the vomit would shoot out in a quick, neat spray. Her family turned to her, anger giving way to concern. Helen bent over Quinn and stroked her forehead. Quinn tried to pull away, but her mother's hand found her anyway, soothingly wiping the perspiration from her face. Quinn squeezed her eyes shut and tried to keep her mind a blank slate.

Jake and Daria watched. "Even if we did do it, kiddo," Jake said, subdued. "We couldn't just wait for him here. We don't know how long it would take, and this is no place to hide out. We'll need to find some place else."

Quinn walked through the door and was surprised to find herself in Mr. Phelps's classroom. Students shuffled in, as on a typical day, while Phelps stood at the blackboard jotting down equations for the day's lesson. Feeling the weight of Quinn's stare, he turned around.

"Ms. Morgendorffer," he said, his face radiating its usual aloofness. "Good morning. Why don't you take your seat?"

Quinn did as she was told, then found the classroom empty of all but her and Phelps. "I'm not really here, am I?" she said.

"No," Phelps replied in a mild tone. "This is in your mind." He strode toward her and sat down on top of one of the desks in the neighboring row, facing toward her.

"Are you there with me?" Quinn asked, feeling a sliver of fear.

"Yes," he said gently.

"Then please, get out." Quinn struggled to leave the desk, but her legs were too weak to stand. "I don't want you here. Leave me alone."

"Ms. Morgendorffer, please," said Phelps in that same soothing tone. "I'm here to help you. Really help you - not fill your mind with fear the way that DeMartino has. Don't forget, I was the one who spent those months working with you."

"That was a lie," Quinn spat. "You just used me hoping to get back home."

"Why do you give me such little credit?" Phelps replied with faint surprise. "Do you think I would work with someone whom I couldn't stand? I told you you're a beautiful young woman, Ms. Morgendorffer. And as your sister said, you aren't the only one who can solve an equation."

"Stop." Again, Quinn tried feebly to leave the desk. "I don't believe anything you say."

"Then don't believe it when I tell you that I know how this weighs upon you," he said softly. "While your sister has always accepted her role as the odd man out, you have just wanted to lead a normal life. Now you can't ever have that."

Quinn gazed downward. Tears spilled out of her eyes and splattered onto the desktop.

"You have powers you don't know how to control, and you've learned that your family history is based on a lie."

"Stop..."

"You killed your best friend with your fear."

"Stop it!"

"Quinn, if you let me help you, I can take it all away," Phelps whispered.

"No..." Quinn trembled. "You'll either kill me, or you'll try to take me back to Xulfanex."

"You're wrong. Lead me to your father, and I'll tell you how you can get rid of your powers for good."

"Enough! I won't listen to you!" Quinn finally found strength in her legs and rose. She gazed angrily at the teacher she once revered. "Talk all you want, but I'm not gonna help you! I won't lead you to my dad, and I won't do your stupid calculations!"

Mr. Phelps looked surprised. Then he smiled. "Won't do my calculations? But you already have."

Quinn started to protest, but the words died on her lips as she gazed at the blackboard. The simple equation Phelps had written for the daily lesson expanded across the entire board, revealing several markings that Quinn recognized as her own. Underneath each was the solution.

"Day after day," Phelps said calmly, "I would give you equations, and you would solve them. I increased their difficulty, and you solved them. Little by little, the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. Until finally, I gave you the equation that had baffled me since I came to this planet. For a while, you were stumped, too. But you kept working at it and working at it until it, too, was solved."

The board swam before Quinn's eyes, and the room seemed to lose control of its gravity.

"I really want to thank you, Ms. Morgendorffer, for paving my way home."

"NO!"

Quinn awoke with a gasp. Daylight spilled over the bed, illuminating the pleasant room which she immediately recognized as not her own. She rubbed tears out of her eyes and reached for her glasses, confused. Beside her, the covers had been pushed back. Quinn tried to remember how she had come here, but her mind was a blur.

"Mom?" she cried, worried.

"Yeesh, she's in the kitchen," came a voice from the door. "Though that scream of yours ought to have summoned her pretty fast."

Quinn adjusted her glasses and looked with surprise at her aunt Amy.

"It's about time you woke up," Amy said.