Not everyone wanted to stay in Canada even long enough to throw the Originals off, but they could see the wisdom of misdirecting them...so they gave in.

But the prisoners were another story. Most of them were mad about being taken. They didn't even understand that they were captives.

It was hard to put it together, but through persistence, Shine and Wally got them to explain that they thought they were kept in cells for their own safety.

Some of them had memories of being mistreated, but they believed it was heroes that had done that--because they'd been told that by their new friends. They didn't understand that the dome was a hidden base in the woods. They'd never been outside since arriving. They thought it was a regular camp that got raided by enemies, which they now thought the group was.

The group had no personal relationship with them to fall back on...and after probably two hours of arguing and coaxing by turns, Shine and Wally almost gave up any hope of them realizing the truth.

Kayla didn't even try to help.

"It won't work." She crossed her arms. "The Commander knows what he's doing. They aren't gullible, they're just...clean slates. They're suspicious as adults but have the blind memories of children, not seeing the flaws in their caregivers... I'm sorry if you thought it would be any different, but they trust us. They won't trust you. You just kidnapped them."

Wally was about ready to snap.

"But we didn't!" he said.

Kayla shrugged.

"You mean...the only thing we can do is let them go?" Shine was exhausted by now and short tempered. "What kind of solution is that?"

"I'm telling you, as long as you keep them here by force, they'll think the same," Kayla said, "Now, you can call the authorities, but that won't help. Even if they believed you, and that's a big if, none of these people will testify to being kidnapped by us, and they'll say they were at that camp willingly, and the camp is recognized by the county. They'll arrest you, not us."

"Are you just okay with this?" Wally demanded.

Kayla's expression wavered. "It's...not my doing... I didn't set out to save all of them, you did. I was sticking with one. I'm sorry if that bothers you, but I'm not the optimist you clearly are. I'm a realist. They won't come with you."

Unfortunately, she seemed to be right.

"All right..." Shine sighed, "All of you," she addressed the prisoners, "we're going to let you go...since we have no choice...but you can't go back to that camp, partly because you don't know how to get there."

They glared at her.

"So I suggest you call your families, friends, whoever you can," Shine said, "We'll assist you with that. Ask them what happened. If you don't believe us, maybe they can help you. Are you all willing to agree to that?"

"How do we know this isn't a trick?" they said angrily.

"If you'd rather be alone in the middle of Canada on your own, you can walk away now." Shine crossed her arms.

To the kids' shock, some of them did walk away then, saying they didn't trust heroes...

But most weren't that committed. After all, at least she wasn't threatening them.

Momo helped them make the calls and gave them all enough money for a couple nights at a motel. She could do that easily enough.

"I don't like just letting them go," she said, "Won't the Originals find them again?"

"We have nowhere to put them..." Shine was sitting on a stump, looking dejected and tired.  "I realize now we don't have any kind of rescue shelter. I remember what happened to the people we got arrested before. That haunted me... I don't want them to all get killed too. It might be, if they go home, the Originals will ignore them. If they all went missing twice it would look odd... Or they may go at them anyway, but we can't have all these people with us, without ID or papers... We can only hope they get away... God alone knows if this fate was better than just leaving them to be puppets."

"I'd have to think it is," Monama said, "That camp was horrible."

Medea was sitting by herself, looking sad still.

"This is wrong." Mirko kicked grass. "We saved them only to abandon them?"

"Saving people who don't want it is never as satisfying," Shine sighed, "They always go back. You can take the victim out of the prison, but you can't always take the prison out of the victim, not unless they want it. Normally, that is why we work only by consent. This seemed like an exception, but that doesn't make it easy. Sorry, Rumi."

Mirko sighed. "It's not your fault. I just wish we could...I don't know, waste those d--- ninja."

"We could have," Shigaraki muttered, "but Likstar let them go again. They'll be back." He sounded oddly resigned to it. But then, he always did.

"We'll see if they listen to my warning," Shine said.

"Was that you knowing the future?" Shigaraki asked, "Will they suffer for certain?"

"We can hope they will see the errors of their ways. If Kayla can, why not them?" Shine said, "But, yes, they'll go down...but I can't promise you it'll be now. Or even in our lifetimes. It's inevitable that they fall, but I don't know when. And sadly, if results aren't immediate, many people ignore warnings. Don't all the Old Testament prophets know it...but that does not mean the prophecy will not come true. Just that...sometimes we are supposed to look out for the future of our children, not just ourselves."

Ibara was still out of it. She had yet to remember anything else.

Momo was trying to talk to her too, about Kendo, and her class, but she was only getting upset when she mentioned heroes, and the rest of the time she just seemed distressed.

Iida was beside himself and not sure what to do...and he was furious at the ninja and Lethe.

"That monster deserves to pay for all of this!" he said darkly.

Momo was afraid of him when he was like this... She wished Shoto were there. He'd seen him like this before, hadn't he? He might be able to help.

Bakugo wasn't as fazed, but he had nothing comforting to say.

"I'm glad that little psycho left the LOV," Ren commented to Rumi, "or I'd really fear for your safety in more ways than one."

Mirko glared at him.

"I'm surprised you didn't make more use of him," Ren said to Shigaraki.

Mirko knew Ren well enough to know that was a direct insult, though a subtle one.

"Stop it," she said.

"What? It's just a comment," Ren said, "Waste of resources there."

Shigaraki glanced up at him. "It's not right to mess with people's heads."

Ren snorted. "Really? What do you call the LOV?"

"We don't do that," Shigaraki said.

"Uh, nomu..." Ren said.

Shigaraki had no retort for that.

"Ren!" Mirko shook his arm. "Knock it off."

"I'm sorry, are you defending them?" Ren said, "Because it sure sounds like it."

"No, but..." Mirko paused. But what? What was she doing? "You're not making it any better by talking about it," she finished lamely.

"And you care because...?" Ren said.

"Well, it's not sensitive. His sister is right there." Mirko found the right excuse.

That was true enough.

Medea looked up at them dully.

"Yeah, stop talking about it front of her," Shigaraki agreed. 

Medea seemed ready to crumple at any second, and he didn't want to deal with that again.

"Oh, well, if both of you are gonna gang up on me," Ren said mockingly, "I guess I'll have to."

"Don't be such a prick," Mirko said.

"At least I'm not a fool," Ren said, walking away.

Mirko stared after him, then she stomped so hard she dented the ground. "Little---brat..."

She stormed off the other way.

Shigaraki frowned. This didn't seem normal... What was Ren trying to do?

Was he accusing the LOV of having plans to strip people's identities? Because that was ridiculous. They would never do that.

[Cruel irony is cruel...]

"He's right," Medea said, "I'm sorry, Shigaraki. All of this is because of me." She put her chin in her hands. "Lethe would never have done this if it wasn't for me." She sniffled. "It would be better if I just had disappeared. I thought it didn't matter--we're all outcasts in the LOV, right? But I see now, I'm not just an outcast, I'm a target. Y'all are crazy b-----ds, but you're not like Lethe...or the ninja, and I'm just the weak link."

Shigaraki was not good at comforting people or even reading them... Still, this didn't sound right.

"You're powerful," he said.

"That's the problem," Medea said, "My power is the problem. If I was totally useless, I wouldn't be a target. You all should have just killed me once Lethe was gone."

"That's not how we do things."

"I know that! You're surprisingly soft for villains," Medea snapped, "but you should have been crueller to me. We all would have been better off."

"Medea!" Shine heard her. "That's not the way to talk about yourself."

She came over. "We all feel bad. I feel so tired I could faint right now, and for all that, we still have a lot of work left, so trust me--I get it if you're kind of depressed and discouraged right now...but you must not talk that way. It's not right. You have so much more worth than your quirk or your talents. You have value because you are a human being, and we love you." 

Medea sat up. "What?"

"It's true," Shine said, "You have all of us. Even the LOV, as whacked as they are, aren't as cruel as you are to yourself. I get it, I have low self worth issues too, and I know what it's like to be under someone else's thumb. You lose yourself...but you've already come so much farther than you think you have, at 16 no less. You have a really special spirit--that's obvious--and you have something important you're supposed to do. Don't you let your brother's misguided intentions cloud your future for you. He is not the final word on you, thank goodness. No human being knows what we're ultimately going to be. Only God knows that. If you're still here, you're meant to be."

Medea blinked at her.

"I know this won't cure it overnight," Shine said, "but if you tell yourself that every day, whenever you feel worthless, overtime, it does sink in. Take it from someone who had to do it for years. It gets better. It really does."

"Were...you depressed?" Medea asked.

"For a short time," Shine said, seriously, "My dad left this really big mark in my life...scarred me inside, if not outside... For a while, I was afraid I'd never be who I was meant to be because of him... No one could talk me out of it...but I prayed a lot, and it didn't make me feel better for a long time, but even so, just talking about it to God, I began to see some stuff. There wasn't an instant fix to it, but I had to change the way I thought about everything. To this day, I still am changing all that. But I know now, I can. And you can too. You have, in fact. Today was horrible, but it's just one day, sweetie. The rest of your life, you can be always getting a little more free of this. Someday, you may not even think of it anymore. You're young. You could have 50 years or more to live without this problem. Our past is not our future, as a lady pastor I know likes to say. The biggest lie we believe is that how we've been living is the only way we can live, but the truth is, that can all change in the span of an hour. People have lost everything in that amount of time, as you know, but people can get the thing they most need in that amount of time as well. Bad is not destined to happen just because it happens a lot."

Medea wiped her eyes. "You...you really think that's true?"

"I know it's true, honey," Shine said emphatically, "That's why I'm here. I admire you. You've got more grit than millions of people around the world do who have had less harrowing experiences than you. I'm just saying, use it. It's okay to collapse once in a while and let other people help you, but don't think you don't have it in you to keep going, because you do. And all the stuff that looks so bad right now one day, is going to make you laugh at how it ever bothered you...one day. When you've grown beyond it."  She put a hand on Medea's shoulder. "Think of it like this...when we're toddlers, a baby gate is enough to keep us out of a room. It's just flimsy plastic, not much to it, easily breakable, and yet to us, it's an insurmountable obstacle--but then, we grow, and in just a few years, we can knock it out of the way. By the time we're adults, we can step over it with hardly any effort at all. It's hardly even an issue...and we can remove it, even, by then. And then, we see it was never really that powerful. Thankfully, our strength changes over time, but the past doesn't. It will never get any stronger. You just have to get strong enough to get over it."

Medea straightened. "I...I do like what you're saying...but I still feel like s---."

"That's fine," Shine said, "You'll feel different soon. But don't hate on yourself." She gave her a light hug. "Okay? I'm proud of you, for whatever it's worth."

Medea started crying again. "Dang it, Likstar, I was just starting to calm down..."

Shine smiled and nodded at Shigaraki like, "There you go." Then she walked away.

"How...how did that help you?" Shigaraki stared at Medea. "Just because she said all that?"

Medea used her sleeve to dry her face off. "I don't understand half of what she says," she said, "but I can tell she means it. She's been there, you can tell. She's so...raw, you know? Real about it. So I feel like she knows...and, she cares. She doesn't even know me or have a reason to care what some punk kid off the streets does with her life, but she still cares. I just think it's cool...and I guess I feel better because of that. No one gave a s--- about me before. Now a lot of people have been helping me. I might be depressed half the time, but that's still really sweet, isn't it? I've never had it so good."

She could say that after what happened to her just today? Shigaraki would have to give her points for optimism.

"Hey, I got the cars back!" Wally called.

"How in the...?" Kayla gaped.

"I just summoned them," Wally said, "I thought I might be able to, but they're so big, I've never tried that big before, so I didn't want to get anyone's hopes up, but here they are. I hope they aren't chipped."

"I'll check," Ren said.

He checked.

"Nope, surprisingly, they must not have had the time."

"Ibara," Shine said, "are you willing to come with us?"

Ibara looked up.

"I don't know what's going on," she said, "I...think I just want to go home... Are we going home?"

"We'll take you home," Shine said, "I'm sure your parents are worried sick."

Ibara nodded. "I don't think I said goodbye to them. That was so irresponsible of me... You aren't taking me to UA, are you?"

"Not if you don't want to do," Shine said.

Ibara nodded. "I'm still not sure if you're misguided or not, but you seem to have a good heart, and I don't know where else I would go. I'm not sure where I am."

"We can't drive all the way into the mountains today," Wally yawned, "I mean, we're way too tired...but we have to get out of Alliance,. It's too easy to find us here. There's literally a meeting point a few miles away."

"Yeah, let's just find a smaller town or something and crash," Shine said, "Then we'll go that way and portal tomorrow once we've led them far enough west. Sound good?"

Everyone agreed reluctantly.

* * *

It was a short drive, but Shine and Wally still barely stayed awake, even with the coffee they bought before leaving.

Ibara joined Shine's car. Kayla joined Wally's. They were calmer now.

Iida sat next to her, trying to be reassuring.

"It will just be about a 12 hours or so before we're safely home," he said.

Shigaraki found him annoying.

"How do you tolerate this kid in your class?" he griped to Shine.

"I try to tune him out," Shine said, "like how I do with you when you're acting weird."

Shigaraki was silent.

Mirko and Ren weren't talking to each other. Ren did call Intelli to fill him in.

Intelli said he'd told Ren's parents that Ren was staying at his place to work on a project. "I'm saving your a--, dude. You owe me big. Your mom was furious at me because you didn't tell her in person."

"That's my mama, all right," Ren admitted, "Sorry, padre."

"You'd better buy me so much coffee for this," Intelli grumbled, "Maybe with Reina's number...?"

"Dude, Rumi can hear you!" Ren said.

"He has terrible taste." Rumi crossed her arms.

"She says you have terrible taste," Ren said.

"Hey, I like my coffee as dark and bitter as my soul," Intelli said.

"So, like a light mocha...?" Ren said.

"Oh, ha ha. Seriously, Reina's cool..."

"If you like bullies."

"She's just tempestuous. Spicy, you know?"

"Sure...spicy like a ghost pepper..." Ren made a face. "Whatever. If she got out of the house more I'd have more peace and quiet. But it's never gonna happen."

"Can you talk about this when the rest of us can't hear you?" Mirko shoved him.

"Right, Sis says I have to hang up," Ren said.

"Fine, I'm going back to sleep, then," Intelli said, "And do not call me, unless someone is dying or someone will be dying. Got it?" He hung up.

"How touching, he must have been up all night worrying about us," Ren said, "I know I was."

* * *

The motel they found was pretty run down... Shine said it was better. They didn't ask for ID to book a room.

"Ew..." Camie said, "Why would anyone with ID book a room? I bet they have roaches."

"Well, just like the lair," Medea said cheerfully, "I should feel right at home. As long as the roof doesn't leak."

"At least they didn't ask us any questions..." Wally yawned, "but...how are we doing this?"

Everyone looked at each other.

"Well, I guess just girls and girls and boys and boys," Shine said, "No one kill each other. It's just for 6 hours or so, so we're not dead on the road. No one has to sleep if they don't want to, but if you don't keep it down so we can, I'm going to make you ride on the hood of the car."

"That's not so bad," Shigaraki said.

"Going up a mountain?" Shine said, "Well, it was nice knowing you. We all good?"

"Yes, sure, you should probably go to sleep," Camie said, "You get really crazy when you're tired, Shine."

"Because I have to deal with all your crap all day," Shine said saltily. She marched off with one of the room keys.

"I'll go with her," Kayla said, "I don't want to talk to anyone." She followed.

Everyone else split up as least awkwardly as possible...except that Shigaraki and Ren ended up in the same room.

"I'm not really gonna sleep," Ren announced, "I'm just going to hook my stuff up to the outlet in the bathroom. I'm too wired to sleep. Get it? Wired? 'Cause of my quirk."

Shigaraki gave him a death glare.

"Right," Ren said, "Well, I'll keep it down. The rest of the room is all yours. Try not to break anything."

He shut the bathroom door.

Shigaraki didn't like this... He wasn't used to being in a non-abandoned hotel. So many people...and Ren being there to listen in and do his weird tinkering didn't help...too much like having the doctor around.

He was too exhausted not to fall asleep though, even without meaning to.

Ren woke him up though, even before the mark Shine had set for leaving.

"I think we really should have a little talk." Ren peered out of the bathroom.

Shigaraki sat up to glare at him.

"I couldn't help noticing you and Rumi are getting along a little better," Ren said.

"No, we aren't," Shigaraki said, "She's really annoying."

"Oh, I know." Ren smiled a very hard-to-read smile. "But still, she's my sister. She tell you I told her she should ditch your sorry a---s?"

"No," Shigaraki said. He didn't see any reason to say he knew anyway, since he'd have to explain how, then.

"Yeah, well, for the record, I think she's making a mistake by hanging around." Ren put his hands together. "And I can't figure out why... She's too soft, that's what it is. Remember what I said though--if anything happens to her, I'll end all of you. It's been a real treat working together and all, but it's a treat I can live without. If anyone hurts my family," he got a scary look in his eye, "I will destroy them. And if that doctor friend of yours messes with one hair on her head, I'll make sure you all pay for it."

Shigaraki found Ren way more unsettling than most punk kids his size would be... What was with this family and threatening you?"

"You think it's smart to pick a fight with me and the League?" he said, not wanting to just take that.

"Maybe not," Ren said, "but what can I say? The hot-bloodedness runs in the family. We're not always smart...but we are tough. I'll be watching you really closely."

Shigaraki got mad. Ren had no right to meddle with them.

"You know, maybe you should just let your sister make her own choices," he said meanly, "Clearly she doesn't want to listen to you anyway. Stay out of our business."

"Pardon?" Ren said, eyebrow up, "And just what do you know about Rumi? You don't understand anyone, let alone her. She's not as easy to read as she seems. She thinks she wants this now, because she's a hot-head, and she doesn't like to give up, but she might not think that when it gets to not being fun anymore."

"Fun? I don't think you understand the situation at all. We're being hunted," Shigaraki said, "Did you miss the little details about what just happened? You think we asked for this?"

"I think you brought it on yourself," Ren said bitterly, "and Rumi got dragged into it because she's a hero...can't resist protecting other people. I'll never convince her to leave as long as she thinks that's what's going on... Maybe though, if you just decided to stop pretending this was necessary anymore, despite whatever sick satisfaction you get out of 'corrupting ' a pro hero. I'm not stupid. I see where this is going. She gets used to all of you, and she won't see it coming when your master or the doctor friend decide to do something to her...and all of you won't do jacks--- to stop it."

Shigaraki blinked at him. What was he on about?

"It's clever," Ren said, "but she doesn't listen to me if I tell her that's what's happening. She's just too hardheaded... If I were you, and I wanted my League to stay safe, I'd make her leave before that happened." He held up one of his tools. "I won't be happy if I lose my sister...and after seeing what happened to that Ibara girl, I don't really care if that happens because she's helping the LOV or because the LOV is letting her get screwed over. Either way, this is a dangerous game, and it's not worth playing. I hope we can understand each other, man to half-dead corpse."

"Is this a suggestion or an ultimatum?" Shigaraki asked.

"I'm glad you're catching on," Ren said, "I'll just be downstairs." He grabbed his backpack and went out the door.

Shigaraki glared after him. Pretentious little punk! Who did he think he was threatening?

Mirko could go any time she wanted! No one was making her stay!...It would be stupid for her to go, but she could. They'd all have an easier time that way anyway.

Of course...if the ninja caught her after that, they'd really be screwed... After what happened to that hero student, anyone else being caught and stripped of their motives and memories...it could be the end of the League...

Likstar would keep close watch on them, no doubt, but Mirko was uncontrollable... If she was willingly putting herself under watch, so much the better. Why ruin that? Ren was an idiot, allowing family bonds to blind him to the direness of the situation.

Shigaraki huffily got up and left the room too.

* * *

Everyone else slept only fitfully and were ready to leave at the right time.

Momo had managed to call Shoto, who had not been asleep anyway. He was glad to hear she was okay...and sorry to hear Ibara was not doing so well.

"At least you have her though," he said, "And you'll be back tomorrow?"

"Today, for us," Momo said, "but it might be yesterday for you...or...no, it was yesterday here... Huh... Well, soon. We have to drive up into the mountains first and ditch the cars, I guess. I feel bad about that, but we can't return them. It would lead the ninja right to those people."

"Yeah, I think they'd rather lose two cars than their lives," Shoto said.

"I should wire them the money for it..." Momo said.

"Maybe you should focus on getting back first," Shoto said.

"Tell her you miss her, you moron," Dabi said in the background.

"I didn't ask you!" Shoto snapped.

"Well, you're making me sick listening to this," Dabi grumbled.

"I miss you," Momo said quietly.

"I...uh, miss you too." Shoto sounded like he was blushing.

"Aww..." Camie heard Momo. "That's so cute... Man, I wish I had that..."

"Let's go..." Shine called.

Momo said goodbye quickly.

"You and Icyhot finally are together?" Bakugo said.

"Uh...yes..." she said.

"About d--- time," Bakugo said, "It was getting so sickening watching you dance around it."

"Really," Momo said, "How did even you know?"

"Because everyone likes to b---- about stuff to me!" Bakugo said, stomping away.

Who liked to complain to him? Momo wondered dryly.