[This is a song about talking someone off the ledge. The evil voice is in light. The friend's voice in bold. I think the song can fit different situations and seemed perfect for this chapter.]

"Achilles

Achilles
Achilles come down. Won't you
Get up off
Get up off the roof? You're scaring us
And all of us
Some of us love you

Achilles, it's not much but there's proof. You crazy a--ed cosmonaut

Remember your virtue
Redemption lies plainly in truth

Just humour us

Achilles
Achilles come down
Won't you get up off
Get up off the roof

Achilles

Achilles
Achilles come down, won't you
Get up off
Get up off the roof?

The self is not so weightless
Nor whole and unbroken
Remember the pact of our youth

Where you go, I'm going

So jump and I'm jumping
Since there is no me without you

Soldier on

Achilles
Achilles come down
Won't you get up off
Get up off the roof? Loathe the way they light candles in Rome
But love the sweet air of the votives
Hurt and grieve but don't suffer alone
Engage with the pain as a motive

Today of all days

See
How the most dangerous thing is to love
How you will heal and you'll rise above

Achilles

Achilles
Achilles

Jump now
You are absent of cause
Or excuse

So self-indulgent

And self-referential
No audience could ever want you

You crave the applause

Yet hate the attention
Then miss it. Your act is a ruse. It is empty, Achilles
So end it all now
It's a pointless resistance
For you, Achilles
Achilles

Just put down the bottle
Don't listen to what you've consumed

It's chaos, confusion

And wholly unworthy
Of feeding, and it's wholly untrue

You may feel no purpose

Nor a point for existing
It's all just conjecture and gloom

And there may not be meaning

So find one and seize it
Do not waste your self on this roof

Hear those bells ring deep in the soul

Chiming away for a moment
Feel your breath course frankly below
See life as a worthy opponent

Today of all days

See
How the most dangerous thing is to love
How you will heal, and you'll rise above
Crowned by an overture bold and beyond
Ah, it's more courageous to overcome

You want the acclaim

The mother of mothers (It's not worth it Achilles)
More poignant than fame
Or the taste of another (Don't listen Achilles)
But be real and just jump
You dense m****f***er (You're worth more, Achilles)
You will not be more
Than a rat in the gutter (So much more than a rat)You want my opinion (No one asked your opinion)
My opinion you've got
You asked for my counsel (No one asked for your thoughts)
I gave you my thoughts. Be done with this now
And jump off the roof

Can you hear me Achilles?
I'm talking to you
I'm talking to you
I'm talking to you
I'm talking to you
Achilles come down
Achilles come down. Throw yourself into the unknown
With pace and a fury defiant
Clothe yourself in beauty untold
And see life as a means to a triumph
Today of all days
See how the most dangerous thing is to love
How you will heal and you'll rise above
Crowned by an overture bold and beyond
Ah, it's more courageous to overcome."

Shine followed Dabi a long way, and, as if there was some Divine comedy in play, it started raining. Rain was common in Japan, and at least the snow seemed over...but it was still cold, stinging rain.

Shine had on a coat that was at least mostly waterproof, but she was still freezing, and Dabi wasn't that bundled up, not that he ever was.

The rain only made him feel sicker. He was already woozy.

He didn't realize it for sure, but Medea's attack had made him ill more from the memories than her actual fire.

This area wasn't too far from the coast, as it turned out, and after he'd only gone about a kilometer, the streets gave way to a small line of sand.

"Dabi!" Shine called. She knew he knew she was following him.

"Go to he--!" Dabi yelled at her.

His strength gave out not that much later, and he sat against a wall.

Shine still found him after turning the wrong corner a few times.

"Dabi..." she said sadly, "Come on, this is foolishness. The ninja will find you."

"Who cares?" Dabi wasn't really thinking at all right now.

"I care. Your League cares. You would care too if you were thinking straight... I get it." Shine knelt down. "You don't want to come with me...but come on, at least come back for them. Is it worth it to endanger everyone else?"

"I don't care," Dabi growled, "Leave. Before I set you on fire." His hand and eyes blazed up.

Shine flinched. "You don't mean that."

Dabi lashed out and grabbed her wrist, twisting it painfully. Fire curled over his hands. "Don't I?"

"Dabi...stop..." Shine almost choked. She was starting to feel searing heat...and also cold.

"You shouldn't have followed me." Dabi's tone was evil. "That was not smart. Learn to take a hint, Likstar."

"Let go!" Shine yelled at him.

Her raising her voice startled him--maybe because she almost never did. He flinched, and she yanked her hand free and held it out to let rain fall on it.

Somehow, her skin hadn't melted right off of her, but it was bright red. It would be a painful burn.

"Get out of here," Dabi said coldly.

"If I do that, they'll capture you," Shine said, somehow just as firm as before, even after that, "And we'll probably never see you again...at least in one piece. I can't let that happen, Dabi."

"Why should it matter to you? I hate you. You understand that? All of you," Dabi said.

Shine sat back, ignoring the wet sand.

"I know that." She sounded so sad... It was driving him crazy. "But don't make me go through that again, please."

"What?" Dabi coughed. "Go through what? Someone hating you? Most people hate you."

That was just cruel, but he didn't care.

"No, losing one of my people." Shine didn't even seem to notice. "Oh, God, please, not again."

Was she even talking to Dabi?

She hugged her sides and cradled her hurt hand. "I won't even talk to you, Dabi, if you wish, but I have to know you'll go back, at least. Please. Don't let this hatred and anger make you throw your life or your mind away to these ninja dogs... Come on. I can't believe I'm saying this, but where's that drive I never liked about you to get revenge?"

"Revenge?" Dabi laughed hollowly again. "Come on. Nothing is ever really going to satisfy me. It's all useless... I might as well just face it... And don't you worry about it-- I was never your people."

"I don't think you get to choose that, actually," Shine said, "You can leave...but I choose, and God chose, who would be my people. I assure you, if you go, I'll be devastated. But that doesn't even matter. The point is, don't you care at all what happens to you?"

"What is this, some kind of last ditch effort? Give it up already. You think I am ever going to accept what you say?" Dabi said.

"I fear very much that you won't, actually," Shine replied in a flat voice.

That finally shook him a little.

"Then why are you here?"

"Because if you don't accept it, Dabi, I have even more reason to want you alive. Can you imagine anything worse than dying in agony? I can't...except what would lie beyond it."

"Oh, don't give me that fire and brimstone crap."

"Don't believe it, then. I don't have a choice," Shine said, "Either it's the whole truth, or it's useless, Touya Todoroki. You must know that."

That name made him sit up and glare at her more than before. "Don't call me that!"

"Why not? You want to break off our deals, I can call you whatever I like." Shine seemed to only be encouraged by him reacting at all. "And it is your name. I'd like to at least use it for once if you're going to die anyway. But you must not do that, Touya."

"Shut up." Dabi covered his ears.

Shine was quiet while the rain continued to drench both of them. Dabi started coughing again. This was bad for him.

It didn't matter anymore.

Shine hugged her sides more and winced at the pain. 

Dabi wished she's just leave... He was starting to feel like even making more fire was going to make him pass out, so driving her off was looking like less of an option...and nothing he said was getting her upset enough.

Grasping for the worst idea yet, he tried something reprehensible.

"Even if I come back," he said horribly, "I'll just go after all of them...all those kids...all the Pros... I won't rest until all of them are nothing but ashes...especially the ones you're the closest too. You'll regret not taking me seriously."

Shine didn't react at all...except to smile.

Dabi almost choked on rage. "You think that's funny??!"

"No," Shine said, "I just thought it was humorous how you thought that was going to work."

That pretty much crushed his pride into oblivion...though he wouldn't show it.

"You think I'm joking."

"No...I think you're an idiot if you think I would ever let you do that," Shine said, "The mere fact you even threatened it showed me how little you're thinking right now. I'm sorry. I'm supposed to cry and scream at you, I know...but I just couldn't picture you ever actually pulling it off."

This was too much. The last shot in his locker was to disgust her with that threat, and she was laughing at him?

Dabi felt like a bug. Shine was an enigma-- angry when you didn't expect it, never angry when you did. Suddenly all the fight went out of him. Nothing he was ever going to do was going to break her. He felt like a worm...

She was just too far above it...

For a brief second, even in his daze, he had the clarity to know that was because she saw through the deceit and self delusion that made up most of his and every other villain's personas-- the delusion he really knew was there, deep down, if he'd ever admitted it to himself. That was really just a mask for fear and guilt.

The moment of clarity didn't last.

Rage, frustration, pain, guilt all welled up inside him and slammed him full force.

He was choking on them.

Or was he sobbing?

He couldn't tell.

In fact, he was doing both. Shine was amazed that it just burst out of nowhere.

"Touya..." She tried to reach out and touch his arm. She really never learned.

"Don't!" He swung blindly at her. "Get away from me! I hate you! I hate you!"

"Touya," she said.

"Shut up. Shut up. Shut up!"

He continued to sob uncontrollably. "Why can't you just leave me alone? I never asked for this... Just let me be..."

Shine was crying now too. Watching this melt down was the last in a string of very painful experiences she'd had today. It was too much.

But for her pain always turned into a plea for help.

She started to pray silently--or out loud. At some point she didn't notice either which it was.

A strange thing happened, though: as she did, Dabi started to quiet down.

He didn't even know why-- just the longer she talked, not even to him, the more his mind became clear...and he began to realize why he was so upset.

Shine wasn't even looking at him. She was looking toward the ocean, which in the darkness was barely even a glimmer of reflected light, but still...Shine loved the ocean.

Then she realized Dabi had stopped sobbing.

She looked back.

Dabi was just staring at her.

Then he laughed bitterly. A dreadful laugh.

"You know, Likstar, I just figured it out... I'm not even really mad at you, am I?"

His voice was awful, so dead sounding.

"It's me." He laughed again and rubbed his face. His eyes looked wild behind his hand.

"I'm furious at myself... Yeah, all those things I did because I'm such a complete piece of s---! And I always was...and you just keep ignoring it... I hate you so much for that...but I really hate me. I can't believe, all this time, and my reaction to even one person actually trying to be a good guy is...hatred. I'm less than the dirt we're sitting on... It's so funny...I used to think I was somehow above other villains... I had such a good reason, you know...but what does all that matter? In the end we're all trash, and the one who knows what he is and still is it is worse off, after all."

Shine thought that, despite his crazy look, he was far closer to speaking sense now than before.

"You know...you're right, Touya," she said. He didn't even object to the name now.

"Huh? Not what I expected the optimist to say..." he said, still bitterly, "You see it now, huh? Why waste your time...? You know, Likstar," he spoke like he was feverish almost, "the real truth is, I knew all along. You're worth 100 of me... Isn't that just the worst part? I really knew, from the very first, that you were being honest...and I didn't care. He--, you might even be right about the God stuff-- I still wouldn't care. It's just how low and small and disgusting I really am..."

"I know you are," Shine said.

Dabi looked up. "Yeah...you do... You're crazy, you know that? You still tried."

"I've met people like you before, Touya. What can I say?" Shine was quiet. She was calm now, for some reason.

"I guess I really never was hero material," Dabi said, still unhinged, "Maybe some people are just not born for it...just born for...this..."

"You know that we're all born in sin--that is, evil," Shine said slowly, "You, me, all of us... The hero thing is only a label, you know. We're all born villains... This is why nothing you say can really surprise me, Touya. You are so ashamed of your fall, and rightly so-- it is shameful. But I'm not ashamed at all for owning up to it. That was when I found freedom. When we stop trying to pretend we are anything but these pathetic, small, little sinners...that is when we truly know ourselves."

"You could never have been that bad," Dabi said, "Don't lie."

"You would be surprised... I know my secret sins even if you don't, and I won't be telling them to you. What does it matter to you what I did?" Shine could still remember though. "You know yourself, don't you? You don't need me to prove it to you. Trust me, I know myself too...at least a little. Trust me, even I could tell you things that would disgust you...but we're different... I'm not ashamed anymore. I don't think you've ever not been ashamed, have you? Isn't that why you hate so much?"

"If what you're saying is true, I couldn't help it," Dabi said bitterly, "So what's the point of shame, huh?"

"In the words of my sage: don't you think the things people are most ashamed of is what they cannot help?" Shine said.

She looked at him closely. "You're just like me: It's all so tempting to say being a villain is your chosen path, and being despicable is your flavor...but what really keeps you up at night, afraid to look at yourself in the mirror, afraid of your own mind...is the horrible, terrible, paralyzing thought that maybe in reality, you really never could help it. Maybe we're born that way. Maybe it's inevitable...and, yes, I'm describing what I felt. Is it familiar to you?"

"You...actually got that dark, huh?" Dabi was almost impressed, if it was not so grotesque.

"Darker, even," Shine said, "I was horrible, Touya. It was hell..." She hugged her knees. She'd forgotten the pain for the time being. "And then...it was heaven... It was so...different after I just...owned up to it...told God I'd do it His way. You know, you think I'm up on this stuff because it sounds good, but it saved my life. That's why I'm so adamant about it. I really don't think I'd be here otherwise. I know why you've been running from me, Touya... It's not really me, is it? It's that you can sense I was telling you the truth, that we were alike...and it is just so terrifying that, if that's true, then I might really be proof change was possible after all..."

Dabi didn't argue... It sounded like the truth.

"And you can honestly say you think there's no difference, huh?" he said dryly, "That despite my clear decision to actually be a psychopath, and you're a saint, we're still in the same playing field...?"

"I wasn't always a saint, Touya... The great gift of our faith is the ability to be lifted off your field, but to remember it and be able to look back down. The Lord can bend down farthest because He is higher. Longer arms means longer reach, doesn't it? You're too small to possibly understand anyone else...but I've grown a bit... You're mistaking that for thinking that means I'm not still as human and mean as you are, if left to myself. You're a psychopath...so? I don't think you really are one, technically, but even if you were, we are all...evil. You have your way, I have mine. That's what I've been telling you from the start. The idea that there's a divide is yours, not mine."

Dabi for the first time understood that... She had never really ever said otherwise. He had always thrown the hero-villain thing in her face, never vice versa.

He really was a fool, he thought.

"Well, Likstar, I admit it. I'm a dumba--," he said slowly, "But, the thing is...I think...I've been broken and messed up so long, I could never be anything but that."

"That is not true. It's only that is all you've seen for so long, you forgot what it was like to be different."

"Even if I believed you, no one else would. What do you think would happen if I wanted that? I'd never get taken seriously. So there's no point even asking."

"I would take you seriously. More importantly, God would." Shine was not budging. "And it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. They never did anything for you anyway. You shouldn't do this for them-- they don't deserve it."

Never in a million years would Dabi had thought that would make him laugh after what he'd been acting like this whole time, but it did. It was just so weird to say that.

"So what? You think I should just become a good guy? Please... It's ridiculous... I'm insane."

"So were many of us. Does it really matter?"

"Kind of."

"No, it doesn't. Come now, Touya...if you know that...then don't you think we've known? All three of us...if it was a problem, we would never have had this conversation. I don't waste my time on people who can't appreciate it. Mistakes are not made with this. I'm not even telling you to be good. That's not the point. Do you want to live-- or die? That's the point."

Dabi fell silent... When had he ever cared about that?

He thought of all the past...all he'd ever worked for...all he'd ever thought was important.

It looked pretty empty right now.

But to abandon it, when that was the only life he knew? It wasn't much of a life, but...

"What would be left of me...if I didn't live this way?" he said slowly.

Shine laughed oddly. "Nothing, Touya...absolutely nothing..."

That normally would be a weird thing to hear...but somehow...that was when it clicked.

Those words. Nothing.

It was like light broke in the thick clouds around his mind... Nothing...that was just it...

He hated this so much. He hated all of it. He hated being a prisoner to it-- to spite, to vindictiveness, despair, fear, guilt...all of it...

And he was never going to get out.

But...if it was all nothing...it would all be nothing...

Was that even possible? A 180 like that?

Shine was silent. Maybe she could sense he was struggling...or she was out of words, for once in her life.

Like it was on cue, the rain stopped and the moon came out, making the beach silver.

Dabi was still resisting though... Why should he have to give it all up... Why him? What was the point of 14 years of effort, then, to just throw it away?

And what was going to come of it...even if he succeeded...? He'd never thought much beyond that...or if he'd even keep living...

Nothing... It was all nothing...nothing. Nothing...

What did he care? Why did he need anything from this life?

But then...why even be born, then...?

Nothing...nothing...

He never knew what finally pushed him over the edge, but suddenly he'd made up his mind without even knowing how.

He sat up. 

Shine was still waiting.

"I...don't want to be like this anymore." Dabi only knew as he said it that it was true... He'd not wanted it for a long time...he just didn't know it.

"I'm not saying I'm over it...or that I'm not hating them all anymore...but if that's not a problem...then...I...need you to help me," he said slowly...in a small voice.

Shine nodded.

"Okay," she said.

Then she smiled like all that had been worth it to get to this point.

* * *

It was an hour and a half later, and Dabi was not back-- and neither was Shine.

The rain had made the whole group take cover in the first empty building they could find... It looked like an old surf shop.

"I guess this is close to the coast," Hawks said, "It's really pouring out there." He looked out the window.

"And Dabi is out in this?" Spinner said, shivering. He was very cold sensitive. The whole lizard thing. "He'll catch his death. He's so easily infected."

"I think a cold will be the least of his problems, if those ninja are still out there," Hawks said, "I doubt the rain will stop them."

Shigaraki sniffed.

"Where're those two little weirdo kids?" Mirko wondered, "Are they even villains?"

"Apparently," Spinner said, "Compress and Silk are still missing, too."

"West is not back either," Hawks said.

"Is stating all this supposed to help?" Mirko said, annoyed now, "We all know that, okay?"

"You were doing it too," Hawks said warmly.

"Well, shut up," she snapped.

"What is your problem?" Hawks replied, "I get it, you hate me now, but this is not the time for this."

"Hawks, this has been the longest day of my life," Mirko said, in finally a tone that showed visible strain, "and I wouldn't push me if I were you."

That shut him up.

"How's it been so awful for you?" Spinner was bored. "You got to beat up bad guys. The rest of us were useless."

Mirko frowned. "I can't say I enjoyed it as much as usual... It's not the same with quirkless ninja."

The door opened suddenly and Wally appeared, dragging Medea.

"Let me go, you big jerk!" She swatted at him. She was dripping.

Compress and Silk followed him in, also soaked. Compress was limping.

"Couldn't find the other kid," Wally said, "and now it's wet, and I can't run in the rain. It's too dangerous... I think I went the wrong way to find Shine... Maybe she went towards the beach-- she would...if Dabi did, though... I didn't see any fire."

"Good sign?" Mirko said, "He didn't kill her, then."

"Or he got captured." Shigaraki was the pessimist of the group right now.

"Sorry, I can't look either way." Wally looked upset. "At least, unless I walk like a normal person, and that's not much use... I tried calling Shine...but maybe her phone died."

"Let me go look for my brother!" Medea said, "We're a team!"

"Sweetheart, even if it wasn't raining, you can't go around when quirk killing ninja are hiding around the area," Wally said, "Let's hope he found a good hiding spot to wait out the storm. He was small. He could probably do it."

Spinner snickered.

"I said let me go!" Medea's eyes turned purple, and she lit her hand on fire.

But Wally moved much too fast for her to burn him, and he pushed her into a chair. "Theatrics isn't going to get you anywhere."

"I think part of my soul just died," Compress said.

"What happened to your leg?" Spinner asked him? "Too many escape acts?"

"Throwing star... I see you're unscathed." Compress made it sound like that disappointed him.

"Maybe I'm just faster than you."

"Perhaps it's the reptilian skin instead." Compress was savage.

"Oh, shut up," Shigaraki cut in, "It's a bad enough being in this situation without listening to your petty squabbling."

"I wish you'd take your own advice," Hawks said.

"You shut up, bird man," Shigaraki said.

"The nickname thing is spreading," Wally said dramatically.

He sighed. "Well, I really hope Shine is okay...and Dabi too. Poor stupid, idiot."

The LOV didn't even object to the term.

* * *

In fact, Dabi was not okay.

He had been okay for a second after they got done talking, but of course, it was right then that the ninja found them.

After being so weakened, Dabi didn't have the power to put up much of a fight, even if they couldn't block his quirk, and Shine's injury made it hard for her to use her sword, they were both overpowered easily and hauled away.