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"Tell me!" Mom screamed, raising her hand to slap Leilah, but faltering at the last second and barely hitting her.

"I really forgot! I don't know!" Leilah lied, raising her hands to shield her face anyway.

"Don't lie to me! I didn't raise you to lie, young lady!" Mom settled for yelling at her.

Somewhere in the lecture Penny had entered and through interspersed questions gotten a grasp on what was going on.

"Let me talk to her, Mom." Penny said, pulling at Mom's jacket.

She didn't move, continuing to yell at Leilah.

"It will only take a moment. Mom." Penny said.

"Don't lecture me, young lady! She somehow got a deep gash in her side and was !@#$% bleeding out and she's not even telling her own family what happened to her! She needs to tell us what !@#$% monster did this to her right now and she's clamming up as if she doesn't trust her own mother! I'm going to beat the truth out of this little liar until she-"

"Mom. You aren't going to do any such thing. She's hurt." Penny insisted.

Leilah's estimation of her sister rose as she clutched at the bandage on her side, trying to make the power in her body heal it in a way that was less painful.

Right now she was far more scared of her mother than she was of Amber. In fact she'd almost rather be fighting Amber.

A mesmerizing thought bubbled up in Leilah's mind.

What if she could just... transform and teleport away? Nobody was looking for her. She didn't need food as Diamond. She didn't want to be yelled at, and she didn't want to be hit.

As Leilah tried to gather up her courage, she became aware that Penny had successfully convinced Mom to leave the room and was crouched by Leilah's side.

"She cares about you. That's why she's so angry. You nearly died from blood loss, Leilah. That really scared us. Step into our shoes- what if that happens again? What can we do to help if you if we don't even know what happened?" Penny said, her voice softer than Leilah had known it could go.

"It was my fault." Leilah said, looking aside.

Penny waited, but Leilah didn't say anything else. She wasn't sure how to start, what to tell them, how they'd react.

Penny grabbed Leilah's shoulders and shook her, stopping when Leilah winced in pain.

Maybe she should play up the pain she was feeling to soften her family's anger. But then maybe she should just leave? Would that be okay? They'd wonder where she'd gone and worry about her.

"You're being selfish! Think about how we feel!" Penny yelled, and left the room.

Once Penny had left and Leilah knew there was nobody around to reprimand her for crying, she did.

"I should have told them. Why didn't I tell them?" Leilah said to herself.

It was a stupid thing, anyway. Thinking she could be a hero, staying to fight someone clearly more powerful than herself. She wasn't going to do anything like that ever again. Diamond wasn't some escape- what Leilah did in that form was real, with real consequences.

And someone like Leilah could never be a hero.

It'd never happen again. She'd stay away from danger, and eventually her family would forget all about this. But that didn't mean Leilah would stop being Diamond. It was the only way she had to get away from things.