Dragon's Progeny: Chapter 72
Tammi's group sped through the sky, passing through clouds and an increasing amount of smog as she sailed towards her home. Her eye stung and all she smelled was smoke, even through her scarf, and as she dipped below the cloud cover, it was easy to see what.
“Damn.” Glitz said, and Tammi nodded silently as she took in what had become of her home. Even from hundreds of feet in the air, the glow of the fire inside the halls of Yuko’s house were easy to see. Smoke curled up into the sky in thick, black tendrils, choking the breath from her lungs and stinging her eyes. She could see people standing in the yards, ants from so high up but growing bigger as they approached. There was a crew of firefighters trying to quell the blaze, and a contingent of police and PRT wagons were parked nearby, flashing lights blinking through the smog.
As they got closer, Tammi's eyes locked onto the crowd standing in the middle of the yard, picking out her girlfriend almost immediately. Yuko didn't look hurt, at least as far as Tammi could tell. She was in plainclothes and standing tall as usual, but Tammi could tell from the set of her shoulders that she wasn't as calm as she was making herself out to be.
She was talking to Miss Militia, while Assault and Battery lingered nearby, keeping an eye out. A man was standing to her left, though it took a moment to recognize him given his disgruntled stage. Hiashi had clearly thrown on whatever he could find before making his way over here and was standing by Yuko's side, keeping an eye on their leader just as Lee used to.
Eyes turned towards them as Tammi set her platform down, tensions rising as they suspected another attack, only to fall once more as they recognized her. Yuko was pulled away from her conversation with the heroine who excused herself to talk to her colleagues. She turned and stark relief hit her face as she caught sight of Tammi, followed by confusion and concern as she took in their rugged states and the unfamiliar cape trailing behind them.
“Herald, welcome home.” Yuko greeted, “And the rest of you as well..I'm glad to see that you are all safe.”
“We almost weren't.” Glitz griped, earning Yuko's interested gaze. She crossed her arms, looking around at the burning house and the yard full of agents and captured goons, “What the hell happened here?”
“The Fallen. They struck while I was asleep and caught me off guard.” Yuko answered, glancing off to the side, “As you can see, they've made quite a mess of things.”
Tammi's gaze followed hers and saw the Fallen being interrogated and read their rights. There was a group of them separated from the rest, wearing costumes and covered from head to toe in containment foam. Two of them were unconscious while the other one, a woman, was glaring murderously at them all.
Tammi recognized one of the unconscious capes and nodded to him, “That's the one that attacked our shipments. Squall.”
Yuko nodded, “Indeed. And the PRT has already identified the other two as Crowlies as well. Though it seems that Squall was taking the lead on this particular excursion. I am unsure if he's their actual leader though. He certainly acted like it.”
She shook her head, “That's been dealt with, however. What happened to you three, and who is this that you've brought with you?”
Golem flinched as Yuko's attention landed on him and Tammi rolled her eyes, stepping forward to explain what happened. She ran through everything she could remember, from arriving at the scene with the ‘Empire’ already in custody, to discovering that they weren't actually who they seemed moments before everything went to shit and the events that came after.
By the time her story was over, Yuko's face was disturbed, unsettled even. She frowned deeply, taking a moment to gather her thoughts as she looked at her burning home. The firefighters were doing a good job of putting it out but it was easy for all to see that the damage was immense. It would take months before they could move back in, assuming the place wouldn't simply be condemned.
“For Coil and the Fallen to attack almost simultaneously… This was no coincidence.” She turned back to them, frowning gravely, “He planned this. There's no doubt about it.”
“To what end though?” Hiashi questioned, “There was no chance that this rabble would be able to actually kill you and everyone in the city knows it.”
“Except they nearly did.” Yuko replied, “As much as I hate to admit it, Squall had me dead to rights before the heroes showed up. If he was more focused on actually killing me instead of standing around posturing and declaring his victory, I very well may have died.”
Tammi frowned, unable to imagine a world where Yuko lost to trash like this. Her girlfriend saw her expression and smiled reassuringly, “Again, I am fine, but if these men were more confident, that could have easily changed.”
As silence spread between the group, the woman looked around, taking in the chaos surrounding them. The PRT had already cordoned off the area with the help of the police and were making short work of the Fallen, loading them up and hauling them off to wherever they were keeping prisoners these days. Miss Militia finished talking with her colleagues and returned, speaking to Yuko directly.
“We can take it from here.” She said, “It's probably best you vacate the area for now, just in case there are any lingering around that we missed. I don't think I need to tell you that this bunch wouldn't miss the chance to take a shot at you if they saw one available.”
Yuko didn't seem to have any issues with getting ejected from her own property, nodding amicably, “I was just about to suggest we relocate for the time being. Standing in my yard leaves us much too exposed. Hiashi, I trust you can take things from here?”
“I'll take care of it, Yosei-sama.”
Yuko smiled at his acceptance, before looking at them all. Her gaze stopped on Golem, lingering behind the rest of them. He stiffened as their eyes met and she hummed, “And you, Golem, I would like you to join us if that's alright with you. Your account may be very useful.”
He seemed hesitant and didn't answer immediately, but Tammi glanced at him, meeting his eyes and pinning him with her gaze. He looked at her and then Yuko, and something seemed to change behind his gaze before he nodded slowly.
“Yeah, I'll come with you.” He said quietly.
Yuko raised an eyebrow, clearly noticing the byplay between the two of them, but she chose not to comment on it. Tammi was glad; she wasn't sure how she'd explain their connection, at least not before talking to him.
“The safehouse is nearby “ Yuko said, “Come. We can discuss things freely there.”
~~~
They reconvened at a house only a few blocks away, gathering together in the sitting room so they could pool their information together. They went over their sides of the stories, running through all perspectives so that they could be sure they didn’t miss anything. It took a while, long enough that the twins looked ready to fall asleep and Tammi could feel the prodding of her own brain telling her to hit the hay, but she stayed focused, knowing that this was important.
During a lull in the conversation, one that they used to take a short sabbatical and use the restroom or grab something to drink, Glitz patted the pleather couch she was sitting on, looking to their leader, “Hey, so like, I know we have safehouses but this wasn't what I was imagining. Is this what they're all like?”
“Not at all.” Yuko answered, sipping from a glass of water, “This is a safehouse in the loosest terms; it just happened to be the closest. There is also the possibility that Coil’s eyes have followed us away from my home so I'd rather not reveal one of our more secure locations.”
While the rest of the group accepted the words at face value, Tammi read between the lines and understood what she wasn't saying. Between the recent attack, the relative recency of the twins’ recruitment, not to mention Golem's presence, Yuko simply didn't trust them. Better to meet somewhere relatively open so that she could deal with what came rather than an underground bunker where she would be trapped if something went wrong.
“Now then, since we’re all back I suppose I should relay some important information that I just received." Yuko paused, “They have put out the blaze and the damage, while severe, is repairable. Unfortunately, Othala is missing.”
Her words were met with silence, though both Tammi and Golem sucked in a breath at the news. Yuko's eyes flickered to the larger cape for just a moment before she continued, “I'm unsure if she escaped in the chaos or was taken, but the fact remains that she is nowhere to be found, nor is her corpse. For all intents and purposes, she has disappeared off the face of the earth.”
“Someone broke her out.” Tammi agreed instantly, “There’s no chance that all this shit happened to go down all at the same time and she goes missing too. If she just ran away while everything was burning, the fire or one of the Fallen would have gotten to her.”
The blaze that had consumed their home started in the same part of the house that Ophelia had been. With how huge it was when Tammi got there on top of Yuko’s own account, it had grown fast, too fast for anyone inside to escape unless they were.
Yuko nodded, “I believe you’re right. The question of the day is why? Othala is a powerful cape, sure, but to someone like Coil, she is nothing but a liability. He prefers tactics and trained soldiers to a white mage who can be targeted just as easily as any other civilian. I fear there may be some other factor at play here, but I’ll admit, I’m at a loss for what it could possibly be.”
Nobody else offered anything; even Tammi was at a loss. Frowning, Yuko stood, a troubled look on her face, “I need to make a few calls. If Coil has grown bold enough to burn resources like this, then he likely has something bigger planned. We must prepare.”
Yuko disappeared into an adjacent room, closing the door softly behind her. As she did so, Glam stood alongside his sister, drawing Tammi and Golem’s attention. “We’re gonna head out too.” He said with a quick shake of his head, “This was fun, but I think we’ve had more than enough for tonight.”
“You’re just leaving?” Tammi asked, suspicion painting her tone, “We just got here. Yosei will probably need us again.”
“Then text us or something, dude.” Glitz said with a yawn, “It’s the twenty-first century. If you need to get a hold of us then it’s not like you have to send a telegram or some shit. ‘Sides, we’re not going far anywhere. We got a bolt hole on a street near here so we’ll be right around the corner if shit pops off.”
It didn’t surprise Tammi that the two had some sort of hideaway, even in ABB territory. They struck her as the type to spend their time in a different bed every night, and given they hadn’t been caught before now, those beds were probably pretty well hidden. Still…
“And what about Coil? You’re ABB, guilty by association even if you haven’t been a part of the gang long. He’ll be gunning for you.”
“Then we’ll gun back harder.” Glitz said like she was stupid, “We’re the strongest Blasters in the city now that Purity is munching on dirt. If those assholes come for us, we’ll send ‘em packing and give the whole city a light show just like we did earlier.”
“We’ll be fine, Sabrina.” Glam chuckled and his sister snorted at the dig, “Go cuddle with your girlfriend or something. Don’t waste time worrying about us.”
The door slammed shut behind them before Tammi could offer a rebuttal. She sighed, rubbing her face in annoyance. Those two were useful in a fight, but apart from that, they were nothing but a headache. Part of her wondered why they were in such a rush to leave, but she knew from experience that anything involving work was practically asking for them to ditch their duties. Leaving before Yuko could tell them to do something else was just par for the course.
Shaking her head, she put them out of her mind for the moment, reminding herself to reprimand them in a way they would care about before turning her eyes to the only other person left in the room. Now that they were alone, she could focus all of her attention on Golem, which he clearly knew as well and certainly didn’t appreciate. He shifted nervously as Tammi’s eyes slid towards him, looking away the moment their gazes met, just as she thought he would.
She could tell that he wanted to leave just like the twins did but she wouldn’t let him. She’d been long enough without answers.
“We’re alone now. Time to fess up.” He flinched at the sound of her voice, making her roll her eyes. He was extra jumpy today, wasn’t he? She’d almost feel bad, but she wasn’t in the mood for ghosts from her past to start reappearing now of all times so she was going to get to the bottom of this.
She leaned forward, catching his eyes and pinning him with her gaze, “Why are you fighting the Empire, Theo?” He paused, opening his mouth, but Tammi cut him off before he could say some excuse, “And don’t give me some of that crap about it not being you. We’ve been through enough awkward silences for me to know better by now, so we can skip all that and get straight to you telling me what the fuck happened. Last time I checked, you didn't have any powers.”
The other teen looked away uncomfortably, not saying a word. Tammi knew that the fact had been a sore subject between him and Kaiser, and one of the many reasons that the man decided to try and push them together despite the obvious lacking chemistry. Maybe he thought she could somehow help him trigger or even that their kid (ew) might have been less of a failure than his son. How would he react seeing him now, she wondered.
Theo was silent for a long time, gathering his thoughts. Tammi wondered if he was searching for some sort of way out of this situation, before he finally spoke, his voice a bare whisper that she could barely overhear.
“I don’t want to talk about it.” He said in a tone much more reminiscent of the boy she had known, “I don’t want to do this. If I had it my way, I’d be out of the city with Aster or something, but I didn’t have a choice.”
Aster. The name rang a bell that had been silent for a long time. “That’s Kayden’s kid, right? How is she?”
He laughed, heavy and wet and full of sorrow, “I don’t know.”
Tammi blinked as he pulled off his mask and put his face in his hands. It was Theo alright, though he looked different. His face was still chubby and he still had that tiny amount of scruff on his jaw like a beard was too scared to come in, but his eyes were tired and his skin was pale, like he hadn’t slept in days.
He rubbed his eyes, seeming more like a tired old man than the teenager that she knew he was, and took a shuddering breath. “That’s the entire reason I’m even out here like this. Someone took her. Snatched her right out of the apartment–they… They even killed the sitter.”
Tammi’s stomach sank as Theo clasped his hands together, gathering himself, “I was meeting with some people. Trying to figure out what to do now that I was the only one taking care of her. I wanted to get out of the city and take her with me, maybe to Boston or somewhere further north, I don’t know. I left her with someone I trusted and I wasn’t even gone that long but when I got back she was gone and Jaycie… I was the one who found what was left of her.”
Jesus. All of Tammi’s anger fled her body as she watched Theo try his best not to break down in front of her. She gave him a minute to compose himself, understanding that this couldn’t have been easy on him while she digested the information. After a minute or two, she spoke again this time in a much gentler tone, “That doesn’t really explain what you’re doing fighting the Empire. Or I guess, people who you thought were the Empire.”
Theo sniffed, meeting her eyes with a teary gaze, “That was just a coincidence. I was going to head to the PRT and tell them what was going on but I ran into those guys on the way over. I figured that taking a few of them down would be a good way to get their attention so I helped, and then you showed up.”
Tammi nodded, that made a little sense, “But why come back with us? You could've stayed with the PRT and got what you wanted.”
“Because… I realized something while I was standing in Yosei’s yard.”
Tammi was confused by the odd shift his tone had taken, “What was it?”
“It started with Jaycie. The way she was killed, I mean. She was torn apart, literally.” He looked shaken, “You don’t know how bad it was. There was blood all over everything and these gashes in the walls and floor and… I’ve seen what Hookwolf can do and this was ten times worse. It was like an animal went after her and just didn’t stop tearing until there was nothing left to tear. I think they condemned the whole building, or at least that floor. There’s still police tape all over the place.”
“Fuck. I’m sorry, Theo.” Tammi said sympathetically. He just nodded, accepting her sympathy without a word.
“I wondered who could have done it. Hookwolf’s gone and he isn’t coming back, and new capes are appearing all over the city so it could have been some random nobody, but this felt deliberate. There was no reason to do that to her or take Aster so they had to be after something, right? It wasn’t just some random psychopath!”
He shuddered, taking a moment to calm himself down before saying quietly, “I couldn’t make any sense of it, until I looked Yosei in the eyes and remembered. There was one more cape who could do that kind of damage and is also insane enough to rip apart a poor girl for no reason. She was the whole reason Yosei was even unmasked in the first place.
Tammi only had to think about it for a moment before coming to the same conclusion he did, “Night. You think Night did it?”
“It fits what I know about her.” Theo nodded, “She came over a couple times to visit and always struck me as kind of… off, i guess. Kayden was always uncomfortable around her even though she tried to play it cool, and I could tell they knew each other from ‘work’. When I asked one night, Kayden gave me the broad strokes of what she was like, and told me what to do if she ever came over when I wasn’t around. I didn’t get it at first, but seeing her fight Yosei on TV and doing a little research changed that. She’s insane, and she’s the only one with powers that would let her do that and the skill to get away with it.”
And if Night was still here and stealing little Aryan children, one related to Kaiser no less, then there could only be one possible face behind it. Tammi should have guessed that Agnes wouldn't leave the city after all the work she put in, but somehow she couldn't find it in herself to be happy that her chance at revenge hadn't taken itself back to Germany on a private jet.
Tammi burned to tell Yuko about this development, but there was one thing she still didn’t understand. “But why come to us? Why not go to the PRT like you originally planned? They’d be able to help you, and I know you know that Yosei’s the one who killed–”
“My dad and Kayden?” Theo finished for her, and she nodded silently. “Yeah, trust me, I know. That’s why I can’t even look her in the eye. Did you know they offered to show me his body? Everyone knew who Maxwell Anders’ son was, even the police. I had to change apartments twice. Good thing I have my trust fund, right?”
His attempt at humor fell flatter than the table between, and he swallowed, looking back down at his hands and speaking in a dead tone, “I know the PRT probably would have helped me, or at least tried. They would have told me they were gonna do all they could and look for her. Maybe they’d even find Agnes and put her away and maybe I’d even get custody of her like I was going to ask for but…”
“You don’t think they could actually do it, do you?” Tammi asked.
“No. I know they could do it.” He denied, surprising her, “The way things are going, I doubt it’ll take a month before there isn’t a criminal in the city that doesn’t wear ABB colors. The PRT is driving them all out, with your help. It’s only a matter of time before there isn’t anywhere left for them to hide.”
“Then why?”
“Because I don’t want them to find Agnes and read her her rights and lock her away under the jail or whatever.” Theo’s face was harsh, a mask of anger that he plastered on so suddenly that it almost gave Tammi whiplash. He spoke in an angry, trembling whisper, “I don’t want justice. I want her dead.”
The vitriol in his voice made Tammi mentally reel, and she chose her next words carefully, “So you're willing to join up with the ABB to make that happen? Even though our leader is the one who, you know.”
“If that'll stop her from messing with Aster, then I'll do anything. Besides,” he gritted his teeth, “it’s her fault Kayden’s dead, and him too. Yosei never would have gone to war with the Empire if she just left you alone. Yosei killed them, but Agnes is the only reason that she even got that chance.”
Not exactly untrue but Tammi had a feeling that he was shifting the blame a little bit. Tammi hated Agnes as much as a person could possibly hate someone else, but the war with the Empire was inevitable, along with Kaiser’s death. Kayden… was an unfortunate casualty, but Agnes wasn’t the one to drive her to protect Kaiser. She did that all on her own.
The anger in Theo’s eyes was clear, and Tammi definitely recognized it from the days when she first triggered. He was hurting, and didn't know how to cope with it. Theo had always been a bit on the softer side and he definitely didn't have the stomach for all this gang shit. Agnes was just a target to point his rage at; once his sister was safe, he'd probably forget all about her.
Tammi sighed, unsure of what to do. She was glad to have the help against Coil, but feeding into Theo’s want for revenge would only get him hurt in the long run. He was a complete rookie, one who didn't know what kind of shit he was getting into.
“I'll talk to Yosei.” She finally said, watching as he looked up at her in shock, “I'm not promising anything.” She warned, “Just… stay right there. I'll be right back.”
“Thanks, Tammi.” Theo said as she passed him, leaning back on the couch, “Thank you so much.”
Don't thank me, she wanted to tell him. No matter what Yuko said, she knew that he wasn't going to get what he really wanted. Things were too complicated, too chaotic to add another piece to the board right before the final play. At best, he’d be relegated to a defensive position in their territory, but there wasn't a chance in hell he was going to get to see Agnes fall, or make it happen.
Tammi wondered if the flash of satisfaction that she felt at the thought made her a good person, or a very bad one.