Likstar was sitting on the porch of the dorms reading and taking notes on her Bible when the twins walked up the path.

They didn't run into anyone else on the way. Everyone was at lunch.

Eri was sitting on the porch with Shine, using chalk to make pictures on it. Every now and then she told Shine to look, and Shine would say it was cool.

But when she saw the twins, she said, "Eri, can you go inside and grab us some fruit snacks and give Koda's bunny a treat?"

"Oh, ok." Eri loved feeding the bunny. "You're not coming?"

"Nah, you're old enough to do it alone," Shine said.

Eri happily when inside.

"Sly," Lethe commented.

"She is," Shine shrugged, "And kids like to feel important. Which is, I assume, why you are here. How did you get past the security?"

"A magician never gives away their tricks, Miss Likstar," Lethe said, "What is your code name?"

"Likstar is. My friends call me Shine."

"That sounds like a code name," Medea snarked.

"Whatever," Shine replied in kind, "If it's about Dabi, forget it. I'm not answering you any more than anyone else. Go back to the League before the robots wheel around here and see you."

"They already let us pass." Lethe held up his fake ID.

"You're thorough, I'll give you that," Shine said, "Want a snack? We have tons."

"What?" Medea said.

"You can sit down," Shine said, "Might as well." She gestured toward the chairs. "Eri will be back soon, but we have a few minutes. What can I do for you?"

Lethe approached her cautiously. "Well, we could sit and talk for a minute."

Medea felt weird about this. Sure, they did it all the time, but Likstar had such a weird aura...and she was babysitting a kid. Should they really mess with her right now? It wasn't the kid's fault, right?

But they couldn't come back.

"I'll send you back out, so you don't have to sneak out," Shine was offering, "I got no reason to detain you two here. Are you spying?"

"Not really," Lethe said.

"Good. But the League needs to use kids now? Really."

"We volunteered. So you do know where Dabi is?"

"I'm not going to answer that." Shine fingered her bible.

"Yes." Lethe held up his hand. "You are."

Shine was supposed to glaze over. Everyone always did when he pulled out their memory palace... Red squares started to appear--and then they vanished.

Shine put her hands to her head. "Ow...what was that? What did you just try to do to me?"

Lethe had never once failed to use his quirk since he was little and had gotten over the mistakes period. He'd been a prodigy even then.

Medea was shocked. He was more shocked.

"How did you do that? It was like you locked me out..."

"My mind is not your playground!" Shine's eyes flashed golden, startling them. "How dare you?" She stood up, towering over them, of course.

Lethe backed up, scared now. "I don't understand."

"Higher resistance to mental quirks. I sure do love the perks of my job," Shine said icily, "Means little thieves like you can't just steal my memory. FYI, kid, I've had my memory stolen before. I'm not anxious to repeat that experience. It was horrible. Do you know what it's like to forget who you are? Literally? And to feel your power, your personality, your growth, all draining away from you bit by bit?"

Medea stared at her. Why was this making her feel strange? Her head started to hurt suddenly.

"It's horrible." Shine was fierce. "You should be ashamed of yourself. What kind of psychotic person does that so causally to someone? I knew it. I knew the name Lethe had to have something to do with memory! Does the League know this yet?"

"Medea!" Lethe snapped at her.

Medea came out of her daze and lit herself on fire, projecting it at Shine, trying to grab her arm.

Shine's sword blocked it, fast as lightning. The fire didn't phase through it.

"I'm sorry...but I'm too old for a couple of teenagers to be the ones to take me down," Shine said evenly, "Put your fire away, Medea... That name, too-- I wonder about it. You know what that myth is about? A witch who murders her family to get revenge on her lover. Is that really a good thing to call yourself?"

Shine honestly only meant this to be a lecture on the importance of words, one of her sore subjects with the kids at UA. She did not think it would cause the reaction it did.

Medea suddenly back up and screamed. "No! No! Ah...why does it hurt so much?"

She fell to her knees, holding her head.

Lethe was alarmed. "What have you done!" He shoved Shine without even thinking. She fell onto one of the chairs, too surprised to even react.

"Medea! Are you okay?" Lethe grabbed her arm. "Hold still."

"Get away from me!" Medea wailed, "Before I hurt you too! Get away!" Her fire blazed up.

Shine reached out her sword and passed it through flame. "Stop..."

The fire disappeared in an instant.

The twins both looked up, startled.

"I'm sorry," Shine said, "I had no idea that was... I just thought it was... I didn't mean to. Please, calm down."

"I think you've done enough," Lethe spat at her, "Stay away from us. Come on, Medea, let's go."

"But...but..." Medea sputtered, "Lethe, I think...I...I'm sure I know something..."

"We'll discuss it away from her." Lethe led her away.

"Wait." Shine ran after him. "Whatever you're going to do to her, you must not do it. You can't suppress her memories, Lethe. You'll hurt her worse than they ever will. It's wrong to play God like that. It's an atrocity."

"You don't even know what you're talking about!" Lethe yelled at her, "You don't know what an atrocity really is! Go to h---!"

"Don't say that," Shine warned.

Before Lethe could do or say more, black ooze appeared around him and Medea, and they vanished.

Shine stared. "Oh...Tenko Shimura, what are you doing?" she said, looking aghast.

* * *

"And I'll kill both of you if you ever let this happen again!" Shigaraki was yelling at Compress and Silk, who were outside of UA now.

"How was I to know he used his quirk on you?" Compress was trying to find himself. "We still aren't sure what it is. Shouldn't we all just stay calm?"

"Calm? I told you to leave the Dabi thing alone, and you immediately disobeyed me! Normally I'd tear you into pieces for this, but we're too short handed," Shigaraki scolded.

The twins appeared, coughing on black ooze.

Medea was still upset. "It's coming back... I know it is... What's going on?" she wailed, "What did you do to me, Yuma?"

"Look, it'll be okay," Lethe was shaken, "Just breathe."

"What is wrong?" Silk was at once alarmed. "What happen to her?"

"Just stay away from her!" Lethe yelled at Silk.

"You have some explaining to do," Shigaraki said to him, angrily.

"Yes," Spinner agreed, "Start talking."

Lethe looked at all of them, panicking. "No...I... You don't understand. I didn't do anything!"

Medea moaned in pain.

Silk patted her arm. "Try to calm down. Take deep breath... What is hurting you?"

"My mind is..." Medea said, "I don't remember...but I do remember... I think it was my fault, wasn't it?"

"I don't know what is your fault, but you should not torture yourself by getting so upset," Silk said, trying to speak calmly, "Just slowly explain."

"I--I can't," Medea said.

"All of you, back off!" Lethe said, "Now!"

"Not until you tell us what you've done," Compress insisted, "What did you do?"

Lethe looked at them all. His eyes were wild like a cornered bull. Then he raised both his hands and memory squares appeared around all of them.

"Lethe?" Medea sat up. "Stop! So many of them will damage their minds or yours!"

"We have no choice!" Lethe said. All the LOV went into a daze-- but not a full daze. They seemed to be fighting it. He couldn't keep his control over so many.

Then the shock made them all pass out.

Lethe panted. "Come, we have to go..." He rubbed his head as memories came flashing before his eyes.

"What did you do to me?" Medea asked him.

Lethe turned to her...a terrible look in his eyes. "I'm sorry, Aya...but I have to do this to protect you."

"What?"

Lethe reached out...

* * *

Shine made it to the LOV, after first taking time to call Wally and tell him to come watch Eri for a moment and stand by if she needed back up.

She got outside and was surprised to find them only a block or so from the school, all passed out.

But they were already stirring. She began shaking them.

"Get off me!" Shigaraki almost dissolved her before he knew who she was.

"What happened? Why are we all here?" Compress said, dazed, "I have such a massive headache."

"Where is Lethe?" Shine asked.

"I'll do you one better-- who is Lethe?" Spinner asked, crossly.

"I'll do you one better than that. Why is Lethe?" Compress said, "I mean, what kind of a name is that?"

Shine stared at all of them in horror. "Oh, no... Don't tell me he took all of your memories of him... That's so many. How...how could he do that?"

"Why are we so close to UA?" Shigaraki wondered, "Did you bring us here, Likstar?"

"No, I didn't..." Shine wasn't sure how to explain this. "Listen, I know who's behind this, and you have to do what I say if you want to be smart: Don't go back to your lair. You need to find a new one. And if you see a kid with red eyes and dark hair who looks like he hasn't seen the sun in 5 years, and a girl with purple streaks in her hair, blue eyes that turn purple, and a crazy expression, run the other way. Don't engage them."

"Why are they so special?" Spinner grumbled, "What's going on?"

"I somehow doubt he could erase your memory permanently on so little time," Shine mused, "Not if the other girl's were triggered just by what I said...so you should remember it eventually. Just sit tight till then, and call me when you do, so we know exactly what they stole."

"Someone stole from us?" Compress said.

"Yes, they stole a lot," Shine said.

"And we don't remember it..." Compress was skeptical.

"I know a kid who can brainwash people. Is this really so far fetched?" Shine inquired.

"She makes a fair point," Compress allowed.

Silk rubbed her head. "I have strangest feeling of deja vu..."

"Miss Likstar?" Shine heard someone calling her.

"Oh no..." She waved the villains aside. "Go hide." 

She ran back toward the gate.

"Monoma?"

"I thought you might have gone for a walk," Monoma panted, "You were not at the dorm... Your boyfriend said you went out."

"Is something wrong?" Shine had a bad feeling about it.

"You know I wouldn't harass someone, right?" Monoma asked.

Shine choked on a laugh. "Uh...sexually harass? No, I don't see it. But if you mean in general--"

"No, I mean like that, because you won't think I'm lying, then... There was an intruder at the school. I'm sure of it."

"I see... All right, tell me about it," Shine sighed, coming back in the gate.

***

The LOV found a new lair with quite a bit of difficulty. Luckily, they had a few lined up.

Toga and Twice joined them and were puzzled by their memory loss.

"Snarky kids, cute but annoying, not ringing a bell?" Toga said.

"They were great!" "I hated them!" "They're gone now!" Twice said.

"I feel like I should know, but I don't." Shigaraki swore. "I can't believe this! How could we have let such people into the League?"

"It was Compressy's fault." Toga didn't even hesitate to throw him under the bus.

"Hey!" Compress said.

Silk rubbed her head. Then she started to spin a screen--suddenly she stopped. "Oh..." she gasped.

"What?" Compress grabbed her arm. "You remember?"

"I remember...yes.... I remember them." Silk's eyes cleared. Then her face darkened. "My memories... They stole them once before... I don't know how much... I can't recall it... I guess that's suppressed...but I know who it is...Lethe... He must not be able to seal them that tightly when it's on so many people. Come, all of you, just try harder. You can force more up if you try sometimes."

"I am. It's just giving me a headache," Spinner snapped.

Compress snapped his fingers. "It's just on the tip of my tongue---Ah aha!" He sat up. "I remember! Because Silk and I went out with them to do something...find Dabi, I think. That's what is was."

"Likstar..." Shigaraki suddenly whined, "Now I remember. Because she kn--" He stopped. "Because she knew who they were," he finished, "I remember those brats now... Why that little devil! He messed with my memories before too... D--- it, what did he rifle through? I don't know."

"Boss...not to be alarming," Spinner looked a little greener than usual, "but if they went through your memory, and you know all the LOV's secrets, even ones we don't know...that could be very bad... Would a couple of kids be able to use that?"

"Something is staring us in face." Silk rubbed her temples. "The reason... I know it's so obvious, why they would need to know all this... What could it be?"

They all went silent, racking their brains for a reason.

No one came up with one.

"If Miss Likstar warned us not to even talk to them," Compress spoke, "then even she is afraid of what they would do. Should we just kill them on sight?"

"That might be best," Shigaraki mused, "Maybe not risk touching them though. Do we have guns?"

"I think so. We could call in for some," Spinner said.

"We should prepare, then," Shigaraki sighed, "No telling what could be coming if they got away."

* * *

For a full 24 hours, nothing happened.

The twins did not reappear.

All the LOV did eventually remember them, but Shigaraki's memory of what was taken, and Silk's, did not return. Lethe apparently sealed them much more fully than the others.

Monoma was not told by Shine exactly what was going on, just that she would look into it, and he should avoid the girl in question if he saw her again.

Wally told Shine not to worry. The kids probably just spooked and went into hiding. They didn't seem like they would plot some kind of revenge on her.

"But...to do that to your own sister..." Shine shuddered, "What a monstrous person."

"Maybe he had a reason."

"I think we can guess what it was... She must have hurt someone..."

"Well...Shine, if you had the power of a god and the maturity of a kid, what would you do?" Wally asked.

Shine shook her head. "I know. You're right... Maybe it's too personal for me."

"Maybe we could help her, since you have experience with it. You could help, I bet."

"Not if they don't reappear... That poor girl... I feel bad about letting them get away. Should I just go after them?"

"No, Shine, they could have gone anywhere, to anyone. It's too dangerous to just chase them," Wally insisted.

They later conferred with Dabi about it.

"I knew there was something off about those kids," he said. He told them about Medea attacking him. "I bet when that no good brother of hers took her aside, he just wiped her memory of what happened."

"No, clearly he can't wipe memory completely. He can only suppress it. She still had it," Shine said.

"Well, he suppressed it, then... What a psycho. Even Shigaraki wouldn't do something that messed up," Dabi said, "Heck, not even sure AFO would."

"Oh, no, he would." Shine was certain of it. "Let's hope he never hears of them."

"If they stole anything else from us, we'd never have known," Dabi said, "They could know everything about us... Even..." he looked freaked out, "who I am..."

"I doubt they have a motive to expose you," Shine said, "They would not want to police to know about them."

"At least they didn't get in your head, babe." Wally patted her shoulder. "So they won't know where to find Dabi or any of the kids."

"Or many other things they should not know about me," Shine said, "It's a real blessing that we are normally immune to mind games."

"So how does that work, some kind of shield?" Dabi said.

"Sometimes they work on us, but nothing useful comes of it, to the person using it. We're not necessarily more clever than anyone else. Other times, we're totally immune. And other times, we had to shut people out on purpose, but we can. Like you can resist brainwashing. Whether it's permanent or not, we've never tested. It seems to last as long as we need it," Shine said, "And I think it's high time we had a talk with everyone about it... If you're all going to fight with us, you need to be able to use the same power as us."

"Huh?" Dabi said.

"Ooh, I love this stage." Wally was excited. "It's so cool seeing everyone jump into action."

"Go round up the kids, Wally," Shine said, "It's time to level up."

* * *

"You disappointed us." The head ninja smacked Lethe across the face.

He stared at the ground, not resisting.

Medea tried to move, but more ninja held her back.

"But, not to worry." The Head regained their composure. "The plan is already in motion. We found the lab you so generously tipped us off about. So we aren't going to fire you just yet."

"Yet? I thought this was the last thing," Lethe said.

"That was before you screwed it up," the Head said coolly, "Now, we want you to do something more for us. We're going to swing by and see the show for ourselves. That's not going to be a problem, is it?"

Medea flinched as they pressed the chip that was in her arm.

"No," Lethe said dejectedly.

"Good. Why don't you change out of those ridiculous clothes and get ready? And, you," to another ninja, "ready the others chosen for this assignment. We need to move fast."

They bowed and left.

Lethe and Medea went aside to put on their regular costumes. Medea was still silent.

"What's wrong?" Lethe asked.

"A headache... I feel like I'm forgetting something."

"You feel like that's a lot. So?" Lethe kept his tone calm.

"I don't know, it's just worse. Maybe it's the stress," Medea said, "I wish they'd just take this thing out already..." She picked at the chip.

"I hope they keep their word at all..." Lethe sighed, "I can't afford to screw up again. This better go off well."

"Why did they want to know that?"

"I don't know. Something they wanted to find there maybe? It's none of our business."

* * *

Medea knew Lethe was acting off. But at times like this, he would just withdraw and never tell her what was on his mind.

He thought it was protecting her.

She rubbed her head. What was with this nagging feeling that she'd forgotten seeing something really important? Was it someone's birthday?

The feeling was filling her with rage.

Angrily, she kicked a door open as she left. Maybe she'd get to beat someone up on this mission... That would make her feel better.

Maybe she'd not feel so disoriented, then.

https://youtu.be/Thb_9t9p0OA

"I pirouette in the dark. I see the stars through a mirror. Tired mechanical heart beats till the song disappears.

Somebody shine a light! I'm frozen by the fear in me! Somebody make me feel alive and shatter me!

So cut me from the line, dizzy, spinning endlessly! Somebody make me feel alive and shatter me!

...

If I break the glass then I'll have to fly. There's no one to catch me if I take a dive. I'm scared to change and the days stay the same. The world is still spinning but only in rain."

[All images designed by Onerose, using templates by original designers.

This is not commercial use, so they should be fine to use anyway, but I'm supposed to put this disclaimer.]