Dabi thought a lot about what had happened and didn't feel any better about it. But what else was he going to do? This wasn't him-- all this going around being helpful stuff.

At what moment had he started to care anyway? He'd been so sure he was as callous as ever.

Someone like Likstar, who didn't care about the differences between people, was going to get under the League's skin if she wasn't gotten rid of. That was why they'd tried to eliminate her, but then he'd messed that up...and he wasn't even sorry. Just sorry he was so pathetic.

If it had been a Pro, he thought he could have done it...but he just couldn't write off killing her... Even West, though he didn't know him well, didn't seem like your cut and dried Pro. Neither of them really deserved to be mixed up in all this.

What a mess.

And the League had their own problems anyway.

To his surprise, Shigaraki came back to the lair with the news of another collusion between them and that crazy Pro Mirko.

Dabi didn't think Mirko was the worst hero out there--that was Endeavor.

But she was no Hawks. She wouldn't be easy to control, as evidenced by the fact that she'd started the whole thing.

He couldn't believe Shigaraki had agreed to it, but after hearing what happened, Compress and Spinner agreed he had no choice.

"If someone that hot headed got too angry, she'd blow our cover for sure," Compress said.

"What a pain," Spinner whined, "But all we have to do is get her a lead, and she'll be off our backs, right?"

"Yes," Shigaraki said, "Now, who can do that?"

"Wait just a d--- second. Am I the only one who has a problem with helping a Pro?" Dabi spoke up, "Isn't that kind of against our whole code?"

"And who started using Hawks as a double agent?" Spinner shot back.

Dabi scowled. "We all agreed on that, and we all knew the metas were using him anyway. We just needed to exploit that."

"And your point is..." Shigaraki was impatient.

"My point is, Bunny Girl's a wild card. She's not controllable. You can't help her-- she'll never let this advantage go." Dabi was sure from what little he'd seen of her on the mission this was true--plus, he still hated her for ruining his chance to kill Endeavor.

"Dabi, may I remind you that Likstar has these Pros all as part of her weird quest to save heroes," Shigaraki said, like Dabi was a moron. It only pissed him off more. "And if we don't cooperate, they could come down on us. We're right on the brink of a turf war with the metas. We can't handle a bunch of Pros also."

"We'll have to wait to kill them till after we crush the metas," Spinner agreed.

Dabi thought this was rather a lofty goal, personally, but didn't say so. "So what? We just let her use us? That's humiliating."

"Oh, don't be so narrow," Shigaraki said, sounding devious, "She can think she's taking advantage of us, but we're really going to use her. She's stupid enough to do all the dangerous parts of this, and we can exploit that. And if she gets caught, it doesn't come back to us. Problem solved. We really can't lose in this."

"Well, in that case, suppose we tipped off the people you want us to look for, and they could just kill her, so that wouldn't be a problem?" Compress said, "Then we'd cover our bases."

Shigaraki hesitated.

Why was he hesitating? Dabi frowned. That was just the kind of plan he'd come up with himself. Compress was right.

"We might need to know more about these guys," Shigaraki said slowly, "I hate to say it, but the Pro may have a point... If they are anything like the metas, they'll come after us eventually. I consider it a waste of an opportunity to just tip them off."

"But perhaps they will use us as allies, then," Compress argued, "Let's ask the new recruit." He turned to Silk.

Silk was sitting in a corner sketching something on one of her screens. She looked up. "The Originals, you mean?"

"The what?" Spinner said.

"That's what those weirdos called themselves, The Originals," Silk said, "And if you want to find them, I can help you. I heard of a new place they like to hang around while I was around the camp...but they're really creepy about letting anyone with a quirk around them. You have to swear a blood oath or something not to tell anyone about it."

"Did you?" Spinner asked.

"No," Silk said, "I never actually went to those places. You think I want to get my quirk drugged away or whatever they do? I heard rumors though. Some of them are real hardcore."

"What kind of hardcore?" Compress said suspiciously.

Silk thought. "Well, not everyone in the group started out quirkless. They are mostly born that way, but some are people who just had their quirks...removed...you know, surgically."

They all were horrified. Though All For One could do the same thing, the idea of letting someone cut you open to do it willingly was revolting.

"Ew," Spinner summed it up.

Silk nodded. "Right? Repulsive... Over my dead body...but it's possible. Eh, you know some rich families who end up with problem quirk babies have it done anyway. Wouldn't want to tarnish the family name."

"That's awful," Twice said, "But awesome!" his other voice said.

"Shut up, Twice," Spinner muttered.

"But some quirks can't be removed like that," Silk went on, "You know, one's like yours," nodding at all of them, "At least not without cutting off your hands or fingers or something. And most people aren't that hardcore. So the drug was just the ticket they needed to go more public with this. But that's about all I know, and that's just because that was all part of Overhaul's deal with them. I don't even know if the places they meet they'd still use. But I guess a lot of it is camps and other facilities like that... Maybe because they have equipment and space..."

"Wait, there's more?" Dabi said, "That camp wasn't the only one?"

"Oh, no, darling." Silk seemed to have a very slight Russian accent at times. "There's lot's more. And in other countries too, probably. Mother Russia is full of places like that."

[This is meant to be Russia in this world, btw, I'm not making statements on real world countries.]

"Wait, are you Russian?" Spinner asked.

"Partially," Silk said, like it wasn't important.

"Well...see," Shigaraki reverted back to the subject, "We need to know more about them."

"Hey, this sounds a bit bigger than us, though," Compress said, "The metas are bad enough. We can't take on two groups like this."

"Then we stay out of their way. The point is we need to know one way or the other," Shigaraki said.

"But I still don't know if using a Pro is a smart idea," Spinner said, "They're going to want to do hero things. And we can't trust them."

"And one famous for not being a team player isn't likely to have much sense of loyalty, even if we were having a mutually beneficial arrangement," Compress said, "I have a feeling this Pro would think nothing of using us and then turning us in."

Dabi thought that might be true.

"Well, on that note, Likstar can work to our advantage also," Shigaraki said, "She's keeping the Pros off our backs."

"We can't trust her," Compress said, "She's not a hero, but she's certainly not a villain."

"But she is a buffer," Dabi pointed out, "As long as she's watching them, she'll warn us if they start to go back on this stupid deal we have. And we need that to keep up as long as possible, so we can focus on the metas."

"I thought Hawks was doing that," Spinner said.

"Hawks is an idiot," Shigaraki said, "He's too easy to figure out. They're already suspicious of him...and I'm not so sure he didn't tip off Endeavor too."

"What? That snake!" Dabi was mad.

"Well, it's just a hunch, but that nuisance has been poking around a lot," Shigaraki said, "So, Likstar is the smarter option. So far, she's succeeded at keeping them at bay. Hawks might still be of use, but I'm not counting on him not getting eliminated by the metas soon enough as it is."

"They probably will," Spinner admitted, "and we need a fall back...but I don't like this. It feels too...ambiguous."

"Well, no one asked you," Dabi said.

"Come now, Dabi, we all already know you just like Miss Likstar," Compress said, flipping a card out of his sleeve for emphasis, "It's not that hard to figure out why you're in favor of this. But it's a little harder to understand the boss also being in favor of it."

Dabi stood up to Compress and lit his hands on fire. Compress cringed away, now afraid.

"You want to try again that again?" Dabi said through gritted teeth, "Do I look like I'm in the mood for your bulls---?"

"Uh...no..." Compress said. He started to move his hand like he was going to turn Dabi into a marble, but Dabi grabbed his wrist, with his hand still on fire.

"You just got this hand back. It'd be a shame if something happened to it."

The sleeve of Compress's coat began to smoke.

Silk sat up, looking horrified.

Spinner and Twice didn't move to stop Dabi.

"Dabi, knock it off," Shigaraki said warningly, "The only one threatening anyone around here should be me. Play nice."

Dabi let go of Compress. "Magic Man here should watch his mouth."

"Fighting amongst ourselves would be a waste of time," Shigaraki pointed out. 

"That's funny coming from you though," Dabi said.

Everyone stared at him.

"Are you mad?" Spinner said.

Shigaraki didn't even get angry. "Perhaps I've just realized it's a pointless endeavor. You'd be smart to realize the same thing, Dabi, if you're going to expect us to trust you with assignments."

Dabi knew he was acting stupidly. He might not care for the LOV himself, but this was just going to get him killed if he kept acting like it.

He shuffled back. "Whatever. Just don't talk that s--- again."

The League shrugged. Outbursts like this weren't really anything to write home about for them. All of them were temperamental. Only Silk seemed uneasy still. She was clearly not the psychotic type.

Shigaraki moved on. "Anyway, for now we have no choice but to play this hand... Let's just hope it doesn't end badly. Who's going to go after the trail?"

"If you'll allow me, I believe I can use the new hires for this again," Compress said, "It worked out well last time. They seem skilled at this."

"Perhaps it would also be good to use our latest hire." Spinner still disliked Silk. "Give her a chance to prove herself."

Silk looked up again. "What? I'm not going after the Originals... I got away from them for a reason."

"No contact is necessary, Madame. We just need to find out where they might be hiding." Compress tipped his hat. "The rest is up to the number 5... This ought to be a real show."

* * *

Finally, Shine and Eri got to come back to UA, and it was officially announced that Eri was found.

Aizawa told Nezu a very edited version of the truth, leaving out the LOV's involvement completely.

Nezu probably knew something was up, but he didn't question Aizawa further on it.

All the other staff were genuinely glad to see Eri back. Even Midnight told Shine she was glad she hadn't died because it would have been disappointing not to witness it for herself.

Shine took that to mean Midnight was getting over her grudge.

All Might told them they'd done well, and he just wished he'd been able to help.

"I feel so useless now," he said.

Shine smiled. "All Might, it's not useless to be a teacher. There's something of what you teach in every time the students will save other people. It's a far wider impact that being a Pro yourself is. We go from one thing to a bigger thing, don't we?"

All Might gave her an odd look. "That's...a new perspective..."

"Really?" Shine was hardly surprised at this point.

Momo was glad to have her back--and dying to talk about what happened with someone.

Shoto was still not acting normal though.

Bakugo was back to his usual self, and he got a shock when Eri came back to the dorms with them: she went up and hugged him. 

"Thank you for saving me, Mr. Bakugo," she said.

Bakugo was going to say something insensitive, but one look at Aizawa and he knew he'd die if he did.

"Uh...yeah, whatever," he said uncomfortably.

Luckily, Eri didn't really care. She walked away calmly.

"Aww..." Mina and Ochaco were dying of cuteness.

"Shut up!" Bakugo snapped at them.

"I guess you finally made a good impression on a kid,." Shoto was a savage.

"Shut the heck up, ICYHOT!" Bakugo yelled at him.

"You did great," Shine told Bakugo, "All of you did. I was so proud."

"Ah, geez, Miss Likstar, we didn't do much," Kaminari said.

"Why do you look like you got run over?" Jiro asked Shine, not one for sentiment.

"Oh...uh...still recovering..." Shine did look tired.

"Just take it easy on her," Wally told them, "No late night arguments or something like that. She's bushed."

"Oh, wow, I'm sorry. Do you want us to get you anything?" Momo asked.

"Coffee..." Shine said.

"You know coffee is bad for you, right?" Shoto said.

"Shoto, shut up," Shine said, "I'm sure you eat too much soba for a normal person."

"No, I don't!" He got offended.

"Miss Likstar," Aoyama came sliding into the room, "in honor of your and Eri's return, we have decked out your room in sparkles!"

"We couldn't stop him..." the girls said apologetically.

"And cheese!" Aoyama added.

Shine started laughing.

"Cheese?" Eri looked confused and went to go investigate her room.

"If I find cheese in my room, Aoyama, you are getting detention," Aizawa warned, following her.

"Oh, I wouldn't, sir," Aoyama said.

"Mr. Aizawa seems a little odd lately," Mina said, "He's so...upbeat, for him."

"Well, he's glad Eri's back," Ochaco guessed.

"Hey, Mr. West, guess what?" Kaminari grabbed Jiro's hand. "We dating now!"

"Kaminari..." Jiro pulled her hand away and reddened. "Not in front of them..."

"Wait, when did this happen?" Wally said.

"Oh, a couple days ago," Kaminari said, "I mean, we haven't actually gone out yet...but we're gonna this weekend, right?"

"I guess..." Jiro put her earjacks together nervously.

"Oh, wow." Shine was listening. "That's terrific. I thought you two would make a good couple."

"You...did?" Kaminari said.

"Of course," Shine said.

"Does Aizawa know though?" Wally asked.

"Uh...no...can we not tell him, maybe?" Kaminari said.

"You know there's gonna be rules right, though?" Wally rubbed his hands together. "I've been waiting for some of you kids to get together so I could do this. I've always wanted to lay down the law about dating."

"Really?" Shine was amused. "First I've heard of it."

"What person doesn't want to do that?" Wally said.

"Oh no..." Jiro muttered, "Please don't say anything embarrassing..."

"You have a curfew." Wally held up a finger. "First of all. And if you don't have her home by then, on behalf of her dad, I'll have to kill you instead."

Kaminari swallowed. "Uh, right..."

"And the rules about being in people's rooms after curfew are not going to change," Wally added.

Jiro blushed.

"He's right," Shine said, "I'm sure you're good kids, but we have standards to uphold here. And, if you don't want Aizawa to make this a problem, don't make it one for us, and he won't care. That's all there is to that."

"Yeah...I think that's about it," Wally said.

"Really?" Iida was listening. "I thought there would be a whole list of dos and don'ts to uphold the standards of UA."

[He thought or he hoped? Smh.]

"No, Iida, I think that's something couples have to work out for themselves," Shine said, "As long as you don't make us, we're not getting involved. That's our motto. I'm sure hero students will think responsibly...right?"

They all nodded. They just wanted her to drop the subject.

"Wait a minute," Mineta said, "Are you saying that--?"

"Whatever you were going to say there, I wouldn't," Wally glared at him.

Mineta shut up.

"I'm confused." Shoto looked at Kaminari. "What exactly are you doing? What do you mean by dating?"

They all stared at him.

"Well...he really doesn't know jack..." Sero muttered.

"You know..." Kaminari looked around, "I bet Mr. West would explain it to you better, since he's had a girlfriend for, like, years and all..."

"What?" Wally said.

"Bye." Kaminari made a beeline for the stairs.

Jiro also exited.

"They're still shy about it," Mina explained, "But I'm so excited for them! Finally! I've been waiting for someone to get together in this class since last year!"

"I think you might be more excited than they are," Kirishima said.

"Love is in the air, finally," Aoyama said. He winked at Ochaco. "Hopefully it will catch on."

Ochaco reddened and walked away from him.

"Boy, first Aizawa and now you," Wally said without thinking.

"First who?" Mina and Sero and Aoyama all said.

"Huh? Oh...uh...nevermind..." Wally ran out of the room.

"Don't look at me," Shine said, shrugging.

"I must know!" Aoyama said.

"Get used to disappointment," Shine sighed.

["The Princess Bride" reference is always a win!]

                                                                                     ***

Compresss introduced Silk to the hired-longer-than-her-by-one-week initiates.

"This is Lethe." He gestured to the thin, tired looking kid who always seemed to be in a bad mood.

Lethe didn't even say hello, just stared at Silk coldly.

"And this is Medea," Compress said.

Medea's purple streaks in her hair were darker today, must be new. She looked like your average mall teenager...except something in her eyes just wasn't right. Her eyes were purple too.

[Both character designs by Onerose. Pretty cool right?]

"Hi," she said. She spoke normally enough.

"All right, what's their gimmick?" Silk said.

"Gimmick?" Compress said.

"Yeah, there's the guy with all the swords, the guy with MPD (Multiple Personality Disorder), the fire hazard, the freaky knife girl, the boss (Silk didn't have the nerve to make fun of Shigaraki), and you're the theater guy. So what's their gimmick?"

"I...actually am not fully aware of Lethe's quirk. What is it again?" Compress said.

"Nice try," Lethe said dryly.

"But Medea here can phase through things with her fire. Show her, Medea."

Medea's whole body turned into purple flames, and she passed through the wall behind her, then came back.

"How does she not burn things?" Silk wasn't thrilled about another fire user being around her screens.

"I can if I want to," Medea said, "My fire is special."

"You know how you can run your hand through a candle? She's like that," Lethe said flatly, "But if you make her mad, her fire is erratic, so keep your rude remarks to yourself."

Silk blinked at him. Who did he think he was?

"How old are you, 17?" she said.

"Does it matter?" Lethe said.

"They're also twins," Compress added, "The point is, they are excellent at getting info. Lethe knows a lot of people. Now, did you dig up anything on the Originals?"

Lethe nodded. 

"People trust a scrawny kid like this to be a runner?" Silk said.

"Who says that? I'm just good at getting info," Lethe said, "Now, about the Originals...they have a couple different names..."

He began giving them a surprising amount of info.

"Who told you all this? Didn't you have to take a blood oath?" Silk demanded.

"They thought I did," Lethe said. That was all he said.

Medea smiled unpleasantly. "My brother is very talented."

Silk shuddered. "So why do you need me?"

"Simple. We have a lot of potential places to look," Compress said, "and all of us are going to scout them out. If we give the Pro a bad lead, she'll take it out on us for sure. We're going to find a real spot. Now, I suggest we all split up. Can I trust you two newbies to take care of yourselves?"

"Sure, Mr. Mask," Medea said flatly, "We've got this. We just need to confirm people are at these locations? It should be a snap. I can get in and get out."

"They'll never even know we were there," Lethe said, "But what about you and the painter, here?"

"Silk Screens are not paintings," Silk said.

"Well, we'll take the east and you take the west," Compress said, "Meet back here in... Let's see, for the train...and the bus...8 hours?"

"Fine," Lethe said, "But you're paying for the fare."

Compress sighed.

* * *

That night, Shine had a dream that made her wake up screaming and clutching her chest.

The kids heard her, and so did Wally. He came rushing in and hugged her from behind while she was still gasping.

Momo and Bakugo and Jiro were outside the door, but hearing her calm down, they crept back to their rooms.

"Mr. West will know what to do," Momo said.

"Weird. She's never had that happen. It's usually you," Jiro said.

Momo looked at Jiro oddly. "What? I don't...that often... Jiro!"

"We all have them, Momo. It's not a big deal." Jiro rolled her eyes.

Bakugo wondered what could have caused it though.

"It wasn't bad at first..." Shine told Wally slowly, once she'd calmed a little, "It was about the mission...but then there was this dark stuff, like a hand, and it started to choke me. And Overhaul was leering...and...I don't know, I didn't feel so scared when it actually happened, but I wasn't protected at all in this dream."

"I think you're just having PTSD. It was pretty intense." Wally patted her head. "It's normal."

"I know..." Shine was still shaking. "But you know me. I rarely have dreams like that..."

"Well, it was a real exception. Let's just do the regular thing. It'll be fine."

"Yeah..." Shine leaned on his shoulder. "I'm sure you're right..."

* * *

Shine felt exhausted the next day, even though she'd gone back to sleep fairly quickly.

A couple days went by with nothing further, but her energy was not back.

On top of this, she worried that her fight with Mirko might not be resolved so quickly. She hadn't heard from her at all. The Rabbit Hero had gone back out of the country for a bit, as was her custom. 

But she came back after the 3rd day from the dream.

Shine also pondered what happened with Dabi. She worried about Shoto.

But she didn't feel like she could broach the subject yet. It was clearly bothering him, though.

Momo must have known too, based on how she was acting.

Shoto couldn't believe it all still. He was furious with Dabi, furious with his father...and he was scared of what Dabi was going to do to his family.

And...he had a haunting dread that maybe Shine had known part of it and hadn't told him...and he couldn't look her in the eye. Maybe it wasn't true, but if it was, he didn't know if he could forgive her.

And she was friends with Dabi on top of that...

How could his own brother have been a villain? His family really did have a dark side, even more than he thought before. He had hated his dad, but his dad had done less terrible things than Dabi had...

That person couldn't be his brother. But he was...

And he told Shoto just to anger him...and then he just walked off... That was it? Nothing else. Just, "I'll kill you next time..." (Though Dabi didn't say that, but he read into it.)

Shoto just couldn't focus on anything. Even Aizawa asked him if something was wrong, but he lied. Aizawa was the last person he could tell about it.

He would have been shocked to know Dabi was thinking of the same thing as him, though for different reasons. Very shocked.