AN: So this chapter turned out quite a bit longer than I had anticipated so apologies for taking so long to get it out. It didn't help that writing Piggot without falling too far in either direction is difficult. Anyway, enjoy the resolution to the mini-cliffhanger!

Interlude C-3

(Two Years ago)

"Danny Hebert, as I live and breathe! Why, fancy seeing you here good man!"

Kayden sighed at the elaborate enthusiasm Marcus Rowe was oozing. The man was such a pig; that James had allowed such a stupid thug any sort of leadership role was simply ridiculous. It must have been a bad week for James to have slipped far enough to not bother vetting someone like Rowe.

Not that it was any of her business anymore. She was done with that life now. This wasn't her problem. Who James chose to elevate and who that little idiot chose to shakedown and where was not her problem. All she wanted was a nice drink, and to hopefully forget about Max and her continual failing at the one thing she wanted out of life.

"Didn't we just meet a few hours ago old buddy? I know you remember. You told me to come back later, din't ya?"

"I believe I said to get lost. The DWA has no interest in any 'help' from the gangs thank you very much. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm here to have a drink."

"Now see, that's where we have a bit of a problem, old buddy. Cause we got - "

"He said get lost, so get lost, Rowe!" Kayden growled. She twisted and fixed the grunt with a glare.

Rowe looked to her and blinked, his eyes narrowing. "This isn't any of your concern lady. Imma just talking to my friend here."

"No, you're disturbing my evening. Get out and don't come back. While you're at it, leave the man be from now on."

"I don't know who you think you are, bitch, but you don't know who you're mouthing off to."

Kayden snarled, pushing off her seat. The halogen lights in the bar dimmed as she sucked in some of their energy, not enough to glow up, but enough to strengthen her. This entire day had been horrible and if this stupid little boy was going to volunteer to be a punching bag for her frustration then so be it!

She hadn't even taken two steps before the man Rowe had been harassing was in front of her, facing Rowe, his back to her. "Last chance to leave in one piece."

"Fuck you old man. This is your last chance to - " Rowe cut off as the man's fist connected with his jaw. The thug spun around once before falling flat on the floor of the bar to soft claps from the surrounding patrons.

The man shook out his fist and turned to Kayden. "I'm sorry about that, Miss. Thank you for the support, but you shouldn't have had to get involved. He's part of the Empire and they're trying to muscle in on my work. I had it handled."

"Apparently," Kayden said, snorting. Rowe groaned, still splayed out on the floor. "Knocking out one of the grunts isn't generally the best option though."

He rubbed his knuckles and grimaced. "Yeah…Well this one made some snide threatening comments about my daughter earlier too. He's lucky I didn't kill him. If anyone touches my little girl I will burn the entire gang to the ground. There may not be much good left in Brockton these days, but protecting my daughter is something I will always care about."

Kayden smiled, laying a hand over her stomach. Something she would never have…"I can definitely understand that. Buy me a drink and tell me about her?"

He blushed and nodded. "Odd way to start a bar conversation, but okay, if you want to talk about Taylor, I can do that. I'm Danny."

"Nice to meet you, Danny. I'm Kayden," she said, smiling. "I don't really want to talk about me at the moment; things haven't exactly gone the way I planned lately. So I'd love to talk about you and since you love your daughter, it seems like talking about her would be a good way to start, yeah?"

Chuckling he nodded. "Well when you put it like that, I have to agree. You're probably pretty interesting yourself though. Not many people in Brockton Bay would step in to defend others."

"Oh don't be so quick to ascribe altruistic motives," Kayden sighed. "Just give me a moment to make sure that this little shit doesn't harass you or your little girl anymore. Then we can talk and I can try to stop you from running for the hills."

She tried to ignore the way his eyes narrowed slightly at her words. Instead, she squatted besides Rowe and grabbed his hair pulling his head up so that he could stare into her eyes as he groaned again. Waiting until he focused on her, she nodded once to him. "Do I have your attention now, Marcus? Good. My name is Kayden Anders. I'm not in your gang's power structure anymore, but you should still recognize my name. Do you?" The tiny man swallowed, a small shudder running through his body. "Good. Now, just because I'm done with the Empire, that doesn't mean I'm leaving the city. So, you're going to leave Mr.…" She paused and looked to the side.

Danny frowned, but took his cue. "Hebert."

"You're going to leave Mr. Hebert, his daughter, his entire work organization alone. If you have an issue with that you can tell your boss to come and talk to me. Got it?"

Rowe hurriedly nodded as best he could with his hair still held in her grip. Smiling, she patted his cheek with her free hand and let go, making sure that his face fell back into the floor, nose first. She stood, and walked over to sit next to Danny, a small sad smile crossing her face as he stared at her, a wary distance in his previously open gaze.

"You're Empire too?"

"Formerly. I was…married in. We've been having differences of opinions for awhile now and…I'm trying to do better. My ex-husband didn't like that and he liked even less that I couldn't have kids for him. I'm making my own path now."

Danny slowly nodded. "Perhaps I'd better get those drinks. I feel like this is going to be a much longer conversation than I had expected…"

"I'd…like that. I'd like that very much."

Purity forced the memories down as she flew through the streets of the city. She didn't want to think of what had been or what she was going to find when she got to the Dockworkers office, she just wanted to get there. She hadn't traveled this fast since she'd triggered. She hadn't ever needed to travel this fast. Why couldn't he have picked up his fucking phone? Why couldn't the news have kept the two of them off their goddamn report?!

"…information reportedly provided by the new fiance of Kaiser's estranged ex-wife…"

Purity's teeth gnashed even as she banked back towards the ground. There was no possible way that Max believed that horseshit. Even if he'd managed to convince himself that she'd told Danny about the connection between Kaiser and Max Anders, he'd never be idiotic enough to think that Danny would go the fucking news with that information! But Max was smart enough to realize that his future in Brockton Bay was over. He'd be leaving, heading to the Gesellschaft for relocation and assistance.

And he'd be burning all of his bridges behind him like the spiteful little man he was. He'd be aiming to hurt her for daring to leave him. With nothing left to lose he'd show his true colors. He'd go for Danny and bank on the fact that he could get away before she found him to retaliate. He wouldn't go for Taylor, not with her being a cape. The Gesellschaft wouldn't overlook that sort of thing, even if they wouldn't bat an eye at him 'cleaning up his house' on his way out the door.

She forced more speed. It was too dark and she was burning through her power, but it didn't matter. She just needed to get to the docks.

Goddammit Danny! Why did he have to be a good man tonight?! Why did he have to dally for so long?! Letting her talk to Taylor was one thing, but whittling away this much time in this type of city was moronic! She could kill him herself for doing this!

Crashing, explosions, and metallic clangs rang through the night as Kayden swooped through the last block separating her from her target. She reached for even more speed. There was already a fight. Who was fighting? Who was fighting?!

She crested the final barricade and rocketed into the small clearing between the DWA building and the surrounding block. Hookwolf was already there standing in the middle of the clearing wrestling with a gigantic gorilla, the gorilla taking little notice of the blades biting into its hide. There was a large, heavy sandbag a short ways behind Hookwolf, resting against the side of the building. Another masked man was across the clearing holding a bag of metallic ball bearings that he seemed to be firing randomly into Hookwolf's mass. Not that that would do likely anything; without hitting Hookwolf's core it was useless.

Purity's eyes narrowed, her gaze centering on Hookwolf, the blood on his blades visible even during his clash with the ape. Danny was nowhere in sight. Purity screamed, bringing her hands forward and unleashing her pain.

The beam shot out, the double helix spiraling into Hookwolf. The bladed wolf roared and bent sideways, trying to twist out of the way of her rage, but Purity just followed him, burning through the layers surrounding his core as she drove forward. Hookwolf twisted again, more and more of him melting under her onslaught even as he shifted his mass to throw material into her path. He managed to angle himself to get the gorilla into the way, but she didn't care. The gorilla popped as her beam momentarily flashed through it - a projection then, good to know - and then her attack was centered back on Hookwolf again.

There was almost no metal left on Hookwolf as Purity finally let the light stop. She ignored the other cape present as she dropped down next to the panting, burned man curled into a ball on the ground. She grabbed Hookwolf by the throat, her hand blazing bright as she forced him to look at her. "Where. Is. My. Fiance?"

"I…Don't…Know…"

"WHERE?!"

"Don't know…" Hookwolf choked out, her hand starting to burn him again.

"Did you kill him?"

"He tried to."

Purity snapped her head to the side, glaring at the teenager who walked up to her, his hands spread wide. "Easy, easy now. Just gonna answer your question crazy lady."

"Talk fast," Kayden growled.

The boy nodded. "We got a tip, our boss said he had heard there might be trouble so he asked us to come check things out. Found this cape about to spear some man through the chest. Our leader teleported the guy out, though not before he got a bit hurt. We've been fighting this fucker ever since. He's Hookwolf right? He's…really hard to put down. You made it look easy…"

Purity's eyes narrowed to slits. "Who the hell are you that you don't know who Hookwolf is?"

"We're new in town. We're the Travelers. I'm Ballistic, the gorilla was Genesis. Our leader is Trickster, that's who teleported your man out. They're about a block that way with one of our other members. If you want to head over there he can answer more questions."

Purity turned back to Hookwolf. Her lip curled as she stared down at the murdering thug. "You were going to kill my fiance."

Hookwolf grinned up at her and let out a watery chuckle. "Fuck. You. Bitch."

"No. Fuck you." Her hand blazed bright, and what was left of Hookwolf vanished beneath her.

Her lip curling into a snarl, she stood and glared at Ballistic. He had taken several large steps back from the smoking crater and was breathing hard. "Show me where my fiance is."

Mars - Sundancer, it was Sundancer, why did she still have problems with that - shifted her weight from knee to knee. Staring down the road at the large Fuck Off Beam that was still drilling into the ground, she swallowed again trying to hum to herself to avoid thinking about what that meant.

"Jeez, people in this city don't do shit by halves do they," Trickster muttered, one foot on the roof edge as he stared at the growing destruction.

"I think we should go," Sundancer murmured. The guy she was holding up groaned. She pressed the bloody bandage against his shoulder harder eliciting a gasp. "It's not safe here."

"Ballistic is still down there. Can't go yet. Besides, job's not done."

"I really don't like this, Trickster. We should go."

"Just keep the civ from bleeding out and let me think." He started pacing back and forth, shaking his head. "I thought we'd have more time before having to do anything in costume. Who do you think that is there?"

"Purity! Of course it's fucking Purity! She's the only real true Blaster in the city! Am I the only one who actually does research?!"

"I thought New Wave had Blasters? Those open capes, it could be them couldn't it?"

"They have mini lasers, you ass," Sundancer snapped. "Laserdream's are stronger, but nothing like that. Purity is a loose cannon and if she knows this guy and sees us like this and thinks the wrong thing we are dead! We need to go."

Trickster stopped and turned to her grinning. "Wait this is perfect! We're supposed to talk to Purity! Either Purity or the new healer girl, Hardedge or something."

"Hardlight. It's Hardlight!"

"That's it." He snapped his fingers and nodded. "Great, she'll deal with Hookwolf, then Ballistic will show her to us and I give her the pitch and we can all go our separate ways. Easy job, easy money, easy favor owed."

Sundancer glared at him. "All you ever think about is her. You don't give a shit about any of the rest of us at all do you?"

"Hey I keep us together, I keep us safe!"

"Only because you need us to help you take care of her. She won't even talk to us anymore, only you. Does she even want to keep living anymore? Or are you just lying to us and keeping her alive because you're a twisted fuck that can't bear to let her die like she wants?"

Trickster stiffened, and turned to slowly center his gaze on her. "Careful, Dancer."

"Or what? You'll feed me to Accord too like you did with Perdition?"

"Shut up or - "

"Where is my fiance?" Trickster's mouth snapped closed and Sundancer's breath caught in her throat as she turned to stare up at the radiant, floating woman hovering above her.

Trickster rallied and smiled, gesturing behind him with a small bow. "Right here, Ma'am. At least, I assume this is the man you're referring to."

Before Trickster could continue speaking, Purity flew past him and landed beside Sundancer. She dropped to her knees and laid her hands on the man, drawing another groan from him. Pulling him into her lap, she murmured into his ear completely ignoring Sundancer. Mars was only too happy to scramble away from the woman.

"Our employer sends his regards. He received a tip from a Thinker that there would be trouble here tonight and he wishes to offer his assistance as a sign of goodwill. He realizes that you are attempting to turn over a new leaf and he is perfectly happy to assist with that. He advises that he can provide information on both Empire Eighty Eight and Azn Bad Boys activities. He can also assist in ensuring that Rune is removed from her current associations and provided alternate employment without prosecution, if that is something you and Hardlight request. All he asks in return, is to leave his operations alone for the time being. He simply wishes to clean up the city in his own way and then he will leave. He is labeled a villain more because he is willing to make the hard choices and do what needs to be done, instead of playing by the rules that the PRT is stuck following. He has no interest in ruling the underground, he merely wants the other gang lords gone."

"You're working for Coil." Purity's voice was soft.

"Yes, Madame, we are," Trickster said with another small bow. "My team may be separately contacting you later, outside of our employer's interests. One of our teammates requires healing you see, and considering we just saved your fiance, I figure it wouldn't be too much to ask for the help of your associate Hardlight in return."

Purity snarled. "I have been doing this longer than you have been alive, child! If you think I believe that crock of shit for a second then you're delusional. Thank you for saving my fiance. Now get away from my family."

"Yes, Ma'am, right Ma'am, we're leaving, Ma'am," Sundancer said, nodding as quickly as she could. Standing, she grabbed Trickster's arm. "Let's go!"

Trickster ground his teeth and nodded. As he looked to the street for something to swap them with, she heard Purity mutter, "Now, I just need to find Hardlight to get this healed…" Then she was on the street, a mailbox up next to Trickster. A moment later he was beside her again.

"Guys! Hey, over here!" Sundancer looked to the left and saw Ballistic running towards them waving. He stopped next to her, his arms crossed. "Crazy lady gone? Can we head back yet? We've been in town for like five hours and I already hate this place."

"Well, she - " Trickster cut off as a streak of light flew off the roof above them, heading down the street. If Sundancer squinted, she could just barely make out the man held in Purity's arms. "Yeah, she's gone. Let's get back to the base."

Ballistic nodded as the trio started to walk away. "Trickster, for the record, this new boss? He fucking sucks. There had to be better ways to get a favor from a healer than dealing with Miss Murdering Light Bulb."

"…Shut up."

"You're sure they're healing him?" Hardlight asked for the fifth time. It was getting to be frustratingly annoying.

"Yes. We're sure. Your powers are very effective, Hardlight, even if they are somewhat slow." Emily said, for the fifth time. She hated teenagers.

"But that was a deep stab…"

"And most of the internal damage is already healed. As the doctors have verified. Multiple times."

"Honey, he's going to be fine. He's going to be fine."

Emily shut her eyes and begged whatever god was listening for patience. Since when had Purity become the voice of reason? And she wasn't even the true voice of reason, if the vague reports of her actions at the DWA headquarters had any kernel of truth to them. At least there wasn't any video of that this time. Having video evidence of the woman murdering a man in cold blood would certainly make any whitewashing of her actions…difficult. The PRT still needed to remain on good terms with her.

It didn't help that Emily would have done the exact same thing in Purity's shoes. And didn't that just burn.

"I just…" Hardlight gripped her arm and dropped her gaze to the floor. "He was having a good day. Why would Kaiser do this?"

Purity scowled, her hand clenching into a fist. "To punish me. With his civilian identity shot and someone framing Danny for the leak, he's lost the city. He can't stay here and if he's going to leave then he's going to be a petty, spiteful, vindictive, little, fucking, bastard on his way out the door."

"But shouldn't he go after me if he's burning things to the ground?" she whispered.

Emily shook her head. "Not if he knows you are a cape. He'd likely ask for assistance with a new identity from his backers in the Gesellschaft. Their politics are complicated, but what's understood is that they frown on attacking capes in their civilian identities. Your father is not a cape however, and since he 'supposedly' already blurred the lines by outing Kaiser, he's fair game. No one with one lick of sense believes it, but it's enough justification that Kaiser can show himself for the murderer he is while still staying in his backer's good graces."

"I wish I'd never gotten powers," Hardlight whispered.

Emily snorted and found herself nodding. Maybe the girl did have a good head on her shoulders after all. Turning to Purity she set her hands on the top of her cane. "We need to discuss what happens now. You were right to bring him here, but how do you expect this to go? We can't just completely ignore the events of this afternoon."

"I have no idea what you mean." Purity's poker face was impressive.

"Let's cut the bullshit, shall we?" Emily said. "You executed Hookwolf. I'm not saying you were wrong, he's evaded transport to the Birdcage twice and he's a murderer more times over than I can count, but you still executed him."

Purity scowled, her fist clenching tight again before she slowly flexed the muscles. "That monster tried to kill Danny."

"You could have taken him in alive at the end. We both know it."

"The city is safer without him."

The problem was, she was right. And with Kaiser about to run, the powder keg was going to ignite anyway. Emily sighed. "Let's be clear, Purity, I'm aware that if I put my foot down, you're still going to fly out of here and likely destroy half my city while going on your ensuing rampage. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to sit here, and we're going to discuss this like adults until we are each talked down to a point that neither of us is happy with, but we can both live with. I can't actually contain you, but you still want to have some sort of relationship with your daughter and future husband. So work with me in the spirit of compromise. If I let you walk out from this building, I need assurance that you aren't going to immediately go and kill all of your former associates. The Hookwolf situation, while bad, we can cover with a backdated kill order. His repeated Birdcage evasions made that simple enough. Going after anyone else distinctly cannot be handwaved away. It would be vengeance and we would be forced to take action."

Purity met her gaze. "I can promise that I will not kill anyone who does not try to kill my daughter, my fiance, or I first. It would be self-defense in that case."

Emily scowled. There was a lot of leeway in that. "Kaiser."

"I make no promises either way. We both know they would be entirely empty. What I can say is that should the worst come to happen, it will not be your problem and he will be inviting it upon himself."

"That's not remotely good enough. Not by a long shot."

Hardlight looked up at that, her eyes narrowing as she glanced between the two. "I can promise something in my mother's stead."

"Honey - "

"No. Hear me out. This is what we'll agree to. We will attempt to arrest Kaiser. If he surrenders at any point, we will arrest him and make sure he gets back to the Rig. If he tries to fight, whatever happens is on him. Purity is a Blaster 8. I don't know what my ratings are, but I'm guessing at least some of them are pretty high considering that any of my minions with sharp edges can bisect things and I can make a lot of them on command. Kaiser would have to be suicidal to fight both of us combined."

Emily considered that. It still wasn't ideal, but capes did die in regular fights and the girl wasn't wrong. Kaiser knew what type of capability Purity had. He had to know that if she fought him seriously, he'd never survive. He had already taken the first leap and made sure that she fought him seriously. The real question was if anyone would find the bastard before he skipped town.

"Okay. I can agree with that. But we will take point. Purity, you can stay back in the wings in case reinforcement is needed or if he manages to slip away. Otherwise, I want you both to sit out this conflict. You're too close to the entire situation. Let us handle the Empire capes, unless they are actively coming after you."

"You're insane if you think that I'm not answering this. They tried to kill him! I am not letting this go. And, just in case you forgot, we are not part of your organization."

"That's true. What's also true is that the backdating of Hookwolf's Kill Order hasn't been signed off yet. You can do this my way and work with me or you can end up behind bars. Your choice."

"I'm willing to compromise, but you can't ask me to just sit back and twiddle my thumbs when they go after my family. That's inviting more retaliation - not just on me, but on every single other cape out there. This is another Fleur situation all over again."

Piggot glared. "There are a lot of innocent people who will be caught in the crossfire if you go out there looking for trouble."

"I'll leave Medhall alone and I will take extreme care with any blasts that I use. My daughter will be on hand to ensure that anyone hurt by the other capes will be healed and her projections can shield people in the meantime."

"Property damage is still an issue, Purity."

Purity nodded. "Yes, I'm aware. I'll restrict my activities to the warehouses that the Empire uses to store drugs or weapons. They are in mostly deserted areas of the city and the capes will undoubtedly try to defend those anyway, so we both get what we want."

Emily groaned. Why did capes have to be so goddamn difficult? "Provide the PRT and BBPD their addresses and WE will make those hits. We have the manpower to hit them at once, coordinating our raids, and preventing their escape. You can work in concert with the Protectorate personnel as a rapid response force, playing by our rules."

"Fine," Purity snapped.

Emily eyed one cape then other. "Will you agree to join the Protectorate and the Wards once this is done?"

Purity glanced at her daughter while Hardlight just looked at the floor. "I need to talk to my friend first. I…Can I think about it?"

Emily nodded once. "We'll discuss this again. Hardlight, you should know that if Rune is willing to agree to certain conditions, we are willing to offer her a probationary membership with the Wards. She will need to come forward before any actions in this coming shitstorm and she would have to rebrand, obviously, but it's been done before. I wanted you to be aware of that fact and you should be the one to pass this along to her."

Hardlight's eyes snapped up and she sucked in a breath, her hand squeezing tighter on her arm. "You'd let her in? Even though she was with the Empire?"

"We've taken people in similar situations before, plus its one less cape to fight on their side," Emily stated.

"I…I have to…Okay. Okay, I'll…talk to her. Thank you."

"We need all the help we can get in this city." Emily paused mentally flipping through her current roster. "When you leave, you'll go with Armsmaster and Assault."

"I thought we just agreed - "

Emily cut Purity off with a wave of her hand. "We agreed that you wouldn't be going about like a madwoman and getting yourself and your daughter into trouble that you can't get her out of. This is my insurance that you stick to that agreement." She sighed, shaking her head. "Purity, your partner was just attacked. You killed a man to save him. You're about to embark on a crusade against former friends and allies in what amounts to a vengeance crusade with just your daughter for backup. Take this for what it is. Assistance and legitimacy. All you have to do is moderate yourself. That's all I'm asking. I want to save this city. Help me do that and you help your family at the same time."

Purity shut her eyes and nodded. "Fine." Her voice was quiet, defeated, but it didn't matter. She agreed and that was all that was important.

"Good. Now, what are we going to do about Mr. Hebert here?"

Purity grimaced and stepped to the man's side, laying a hand on his arm and squeezing softly. "It's not safe for him in the city. Not until we finish getting rid of the Empire."

"What?" Hardlight squeaked. Nearly two dozen minions popped into the room, joining the one that was already sleeping on her father's stomach in the hospital bed. Emily glared at the one that latched onto her own leg. "There's going to be more people trying to hurt him?!"

"It would be best if we moved all three of you to a new city," Emily grunted. She gave up on trying to shake the small white cherub off after she noticed that the entire room was crowded with the short things.

Purity shook her head. "I'm not going anywhere until Kaiser is dealt with as well as the rest of the Empire. I've let them get away with this shit for too long. I also want to know who framed Danny for this. I'm not leaving until I get answers."

"Hardlight?"

"I…Dad loves this city. Mom loved it too. And if my mother is staying, and my friend is here, I…I'm staying too. I'm going to help make this city someplace that Dad can be proud of."

"Dammit, that's what I was afraid of," Emily muttered. The warmth in her abdomen was disturbingly pleasant and she glared down at the cherub even harder. She had worked so hard to avoid parahuman healing and now this idealistic healer was doing this shit without even bothering to notice. "Fine. We'll put Mr. Hebert into Protective Custody. Once the city is deemed safe, we'll consult with everyone involved and see if it is appropriate for him to return."

"Director," Purity said, turning to focus fully on Emily. "Before Danny leaves, there was one thing that we had wanted to complete."

There was alway 'one more thing' when dealing with capes. Emily scowled and waved the woman on.

"Well it was going to be a surprise, but this night has been rather awful and if we can get it done sooner rather than later…We were going to make our marriage official and then I was going to adopt Taylor. If she was okay with that, that is."

Emily blinked. That was not remotely what she had expected. She turned to the girl, who was just gaping at Purity.

"You…want to adopt me?"

"We were going to ask you tomorrow evening…Is that something that - "

"Yes."

Purity chuckled. "I haven't even finished asking, sweetheart."

"Yes."

Purity stepped forward, the minions parting like the Red Sea for her as she pulled her daughter into a hug. "I love you, Taylor."

"I love you too, Mom."