Tammi grunted as her body was filled with a power that wasn't her own, jerking her arm away from the grip that was keeping it trapped. The girl who was holding her arm frowned before putting her hands in her lap as her cousin stepped away.

The blonde looked down at her bound arm and flexed her fingers, wincing lightly as the broken bones in her arm shifted as the power that the other teen had given her went to work on repairing the broken limb. It itched and was more than a little uncomfortable, but it wasn't painful so she was glad for that. It would fucking suck if the Empire's only healer caused you pain when she healed you.

Though withholding that healing on the orders of some rich hag didn't exactly make the pain any better. Tammi was getting real sick of her aunt's bullshit.

The room was silent for what felt like several minutes, only interrupted by the small grunts that Tammi let out as her arm healed, before it was broken by the only other occupant in the room.

"I'm worried about you, Tammi." Ophelia's voice was quiet but easily heard in the silent room. Tammi gave her a sidelong glance, scoffing at the concerned look on her face.

"Why? There's nothing to be worried about." Tammi's tone was curt, showing exactly how she was feeling about the other girl at the moment. Ophelia heard this but didn't comment, instead looking to the girl's arm as it flexed in its cast.

"We know what you've been doing, outside of the gang, I mean." Ophelia confessed and Tammi immediately went still, "People have seen you hanging out with that girl and Kaiser isn't happy about it. Nobody is."

There was a long pause in which Tammi didn't say anything before, "I don't know what you're talking about."

Ophelia's lips thinned, "You're really going to do this?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Tammi repeated stubbornly, turning away from her cousin.

"I can pull out pictures if you want." Ophelia offered, staring her down, "Anges suspected something was off so she had some people follow you. We've got you in plain view hanging out with that slant-eyed bitch."

At her words, Tammi's demeanor shifted so suddenly that Ophelia wasn't even able to react. The intentionally stoic look on her face gave way to an angry scowl and she immediately whirled around to face her cousin. She stalked over to her, clearing the distance between them in just a few steps as she got up into the other girl's face, causing her to lean back.

"Don't fucking call her that!" She hissed out only a few inches away, causing Ophelia to flinch and her eyes to widen in surprise.

Almost immediately, Tammi realized what she did and stepped back, smoothing her face with some effort. She hadn't meant to do that but hearing her cousin insult Yuko had set her off. She took a breath before exhaling sharply through her nose, "Don't call her that. She's my friend and you're not going to insult her to my face unless you want your shit rocked, you get me?"

"...Right." Ophelia eyed her cousin, wary of any more outbursts, "What is her name then?"

"None of your business." Tammi said simply. She knew better than to give Yuko's name to anyone in the Empire. It wasn't exactly unique but if they already had her face then they would easily be able to find her based on just those two would kill anyone who hurt her best friend, especially someone in the Empire, but they didn't know that so it wouldn't stop them from trying to find and hurt her anyway.

She'd keep them in the dark for as long as she could and tell Yuko to watch herself when she was out in public just in case.

Tammi reached down and dug her fingers underneath her cast. Her arm was healed enough by now and the cast was flimsy enough to easily rip off. With a few jerks, she managed to pry it loose, peeling it off of her arm and tossing it to the ground. She sighed in relief as her skin was exposed to oxygen for the first time in nearly a month.

She flexed her arm, making sure that everything was fine with the limb. Ophelia's powers worked slowly so there was a small chance that it was still working. She didn't feel any discomfort though so that meant she didn't need to stay here any longer.

"Alright, we're done here. I'll see you later, I guess." Tammi walked to the door, wanting to get out of the house as quickly as possible. It was pretty late out so there probably wasn't that much to do around the city except clubbing, but she didn't care. This conversation was one she really didn't want to have right now, or ever if she could help it.

Yuko's job had been keeping her up later given how fast she had been responding to Tammi's texts here recently, so she was probably up despite it being like two in the morning. Maybe Tammi would just walk around the city and chat with her. She had a feeling they could both use the company at the moment.

"Wait, where are you going?"

"Don't worry about it." Tammi said, picking up the bright red jacket that she had left by the door, "I'll be back before you get up in the morning. Maybe." Probably not.

"You can't." Ophelia said as she pulled on her jacket, "You can't go right now, Tammi."

Tammi paused as she went to zip herself up. She looked back at her cousin who was giving her an odd look, "What are you talking about? You trying to put me under some sort of curfew or something? Good luck."

Ophelia rolled her eyes, "No, I mean you aren't allowed to go out right now."

Tammi gave the other girl her full attention, not liking what she was hearing, "What do you mean I'm not allowed?"

"I mean Kaiser has forbidden you from going anywhere he hasn't sanctioned. At least for a while."

"...What the hell are you talking about, Ophelia?"

"Agnes isn't happy with you, Tammi." Ophelia said, and Tammi's fist clenched at the mention of her aunt's name, "She was so proud of you when you joined the Empire but you're throwing it all away by spending time with that… girl. She's asked Kaiser to keep you under lockdown until you start to behave and he agreed with her. You're not allowed to leave the house until we go get Brad and Felix from the PRT."

Tammi just stared at the other girl for a long moment, disbelief warring with anger at what she had just been told. Anger won out easily, filling her to the brim almost immediately as she registered her cousin's words.

"Why the hell would he agree with that? He knows I'm the only one who can get us around the city in any reasonable amount of time!" Tammi sounded like she was begging but she didn't care. The idea of being locked up away from the world again made her sick to her fucking stomach. She had to know what Kaiser was thinking.

Ophelia sighed, looking away, "You've been stepping out of line more and more recently. You knew you weren't supposed to go fight the ABB, Tammi. Kaiser explicitly said he didn't want us to mess with the ABB even while Lung was out of the city, especially with his apparent daughter holding the reins. If you hadn't gone with them, Brad and Felix might not be locked up right now."

Tammi scoffed at the shitty explanation, "Or they would have gone by themselves and gotten caught anyway! You know how stupid Brad can be sometimes and Felix is always right behind him! I thought at least if I tagged along, I might be able to get us out of there if anything happened!"

"But you didn't, and now both of them are locked up and you're just now back to full strength." Ophelia insisted, making Tammi grit her teeth.

"Yeah. And who's fuckin' fault is that?" She spat, kicking her cast across the room. It hit the wall with a loud thud, the materials it was made of not being heavy enough to do any real damage, "If you would have just healed me, I would have been up and running in a day, but you just had to go and listen to that bitch!"

Ophelia scowled, "Tammi! Agnes deserves your respect! She's been a sponsor for the Empire since before the Herren Clan arrived in the states!"

"She'd have my respect if she stopped meddling in my goddamn life!" Tammi snarled, "All she is now is some rich bitch who won't stop sticking her nose into my business! I was fine with joining the Empire because it meant my parents wouldn't have any more say or control over my life! I didn't join to trade two wardens for one!"

Ophelia opened her mouth to continue arguing but she immediately closed it and took a deep breath. They were getting off topic and this would go nowhere with how angry her cousin was at the moment, "I didn't want this Tammi nor did I vote for it. I'm just the messenger."

Tammi laughed, high and sharp, "Oh, you're just the messenger? Do you think that makes it any better? That you're just the person who Kaiser ordered to tell me that he was taking away all of my freedom?"

"Tammi-"

"NO! I'm not going to fucking stay locked up in the house again!" Tammi was screaming now, her voice echoing through the empty house and causing her cousin to flinch back, "This was the entire reason I joined the Empire in the first place! If I wanted my freedom to be taken away from me bit by bit, I would have stayed with my fucking parents!"

She turned around and grabbed the door handle, wrenching it open and causing it to crash into the wall with a loud bang. Ophelia flinched at the noise but spoke up anyway, "Tammi, Kaiser said-"

"You can tell Kaiser he can shove his orders up his ass. Agnes too." Tammi spat as she pulled on her hood, hiding her hair underneath the red fabric, "I'm done. Done with Agnes, done with being told what to do, done with the Empire."

Tammi may have been acting a bit hasty thanks to her anger but it wasn't like there was much keeping her in the gang anyway apart from obligation. She wasn't close to anybody apart from Ophelia and that was because they were cousins and even then they weren't even that close. There was no reason to stay if this was how they were going to treat her.

"What!?" Ophelia's voiced raised for the first time during their argument as she stood up from where she had been sitting, shock and horror written on her face at what her cousin just said.

"Yeah, you heard me, I quit. Find a new superpowered taxi because I'm fucking sick of this shit." Tammi said as she zipped up her jacket in preparation to walk out into the chilly night." She looked back at Ophelia just before she stepped out of the house, giving her a glare, "And tell that old bitch that if she wants to run my life, she can take it up with me. I'm done having other people decide what's best for me. I'm the only one who gets to do that now."

"That's not how that works! You can't just leave the Empire!"

"Touch shit! You can't do anything about it!"

"Wait! Where will you go?" Ophelia shouted, rushing forward grabbing her by the sleeve to stop her from leaving, "The Protectorate will just ship you off right back to juvie and none of the other gangs will take you unless you want to become a drug addict!"

"I'll figure it out! Now let go of me!"

"No! We need you!" Ophelia pulled her cousin's sleeve harshly, causing Tammi to stumble backwards into the house. The blonde turned to her cousin, fire in her eyes as she jerked her arm free of the other girl's grip. Ophelia glared right back, "I'm not letting you leave!"

At her declaration, Tammi just laughed, "Really? You're not letting me? Just how the hell are you gonna stop me?"

Ophelia flinched slightly as the other girl stepped into her personal space. Tammi wasn't that much taller than her but just then, she seemed to loom over her. Her blue eyes were challenging, just asking her cousin to try something, "You can't use your powers on yourself while I've got both my arms back and more than enough shit around here to use my powers on. I wonder how you'd like to be the one stuck in a cast for a few months."

Ophelia kept up her glare before a hint of unease broke through. Tammi's eyes didn't waver from her own, staring her down and showing just how serious she was in her threat. If she continued pushing this, Tammi would hurt her, there was no doubt about that. There was nothing she could do to stop her.

She slowly let go of her cousin's arm, stepping away from her silently. Tammi nodded, turning back to the door. "That's what I thought. Don't bother hiding any of this from Viktor, I'll be long gone by then. Bye, Ophelia."

The pictures on the wall rattled as the door slammed shut behind Tammi, finalizing her decision and leaving Ophelia alone in the house. She stared at the door numbly for a long moment, before slowly making her way back into the house to get her phone and tell Kaiser or anyone about what just happened.

She whimpered lightly as she realized just how bad this was. One of their most mobile capes had just walked out on the gang while Hookwolf and Stormtiger were still locked up and she hadn't been able to do a damn thing to stop it. Without her, they would have a much harder time breaking the two out or even getting around the city in any reasonable amount of time.

Kaiser was going to kill her. If Agnes didn't do it first.

Next five chapters available to Patrons!