Lethe hadn't been sleeping well since the destruction of the city. He kept dreaming of his sister-- and the past.

The memories seemed more vivid than ever. Using his quirk had always had that one side effect: he'd remember what he suppressed as if he was the one who lived it, the images playing before his mind.

He'd done it so much there was hardly a time of day he didn't have one in the back of his mind, but he'd learned to ignore them mostly.

Over a week afterward though, he was restless, thinking of the events that caused him and Medea to have to run.

When the fire in their house had started, Lethe hadn't been present, so he wasn't sure what happened.

He knew that up until then Medea's quirk had only ever shown itself in her eyes changing color and never any outward manifestation. The doctors had said she was just a late bloomer. Their theory was her quirk was too weak to show itself much without intense training.

What they'd said afterward was it was actually too strong to properly come out until she let it.

Lethe didn't know what she'd been arguing with their parents about when it happened. Probably something stupid. At 13, they'd both been starting their rebellious phase, which for him had been sneaking forbidden comics into his room, and for Medea had been dying her hair purple...but she wanted to do more. She always wanted to get out and do more than her parents were comfortable with.

No doubt it had been that, and he'd heard yelling, and then heat had assailed him through the walls, and fire had blasted them open in one huge burst of energy.

Medea had become a nuclear reactor, it felt like. Way out of control. It was common, he learned later, for a first appearance of a quirk to be that explosive and erratic if it was an unusual one.

The house had started to cave in from heat and the force. Lethe had heard their parents yelling at them to get out, so he ran, and Medea followed, and she'd phased right through the walls and out into the street, still on fire. Some people had seen her who were out walking. They also called the police.

It was a blur to Lethe after that for his own memories, but for Medea's, he knew there had been so much screaming, and people yelling and whispering about her being cursed.

And of course, the most painful of all, watching the inside of the house cave in, and their parents had not made it out.

The fire department and heroes said later that it looked as though they had tried to go back for something. And the roof had fallen in on them before they could make it out. The fire was already so large, the smoke and fumes probably had smothered them before the flames even reached them.

It was horrible... Lethe had wished many times he could suppress his own memory of what happened. His quirk did not work on himself.

It really wasn't Aya's fault, he'd thought to himself at the time, scared of how she'd reacted to it all. She hadn't meant to destroy the house. She hadn't meant for her quirk to go off. None of them had known it would. Couldn't she get angry without causing such a tragedy?

It was better if she didn't know. She could never trust herself again... He was afraid she'd do something to hurt herself if she carried that guilt or the memories of what people were saying about her.

So he suppressed it all...and she was happy again.

And he would always remember what happened. Enough for both of them.

They could be happy, if he just took on the weight of the truth, and Medea was blissfully unaware of it. It worked, didn't it?

[My sister pointed out how well this song fit them. These characters were her original concept if you didn't read where I explained that.]

"There's an old voice in my head that's holding me back

(Well, tell her that I miss our little talks )

Soon it will be over and buried with our past

(We used to play outside when we were young and full of life and full of love)

Some days, I don't know if I am wrong or right

(Your mind is playing tricks on you, my dear)

'Cause though the truth may vary, this ship will carry our Bodies safe to shore

Hey! Don't listen to a word I say. Hey! The screams all sound the same. Hey! Though the truth may vary, this ship will carry our Bodies safe to shore!

You're gone, gone, gone away; I watched you disappear. All that's left is a ghost of you.

Now we're torn, torn, torn apart; there's nothing we can do.

Just let me go. We'll meet again soon.

Now wait, wait, wait for me; please hang around. I'll see you when I fall asleep."

But at about the 8th night (the very same one Medea had her huge breakdown), he was pondering all these memories again, with such an intensity he could only assume Medea must be trying to suppress them all the more... Without his help, she usually couldn't do it...but maybe she had...

There was some point, though...when he realized...the intensity of his memory was fading.

He jolted up when he first knew it...then he began combing over the memories in in his mind, all the ones that had come to him over the last several days, and he realized they had all come to him very vividly...and then faded...almost so gradually he couldn't tell. They had become just shadows of how vivid they were before. More like he was remembering the memory as you'd remember a movie, not as one he'd lived...

This effect only ever happened when he released his quirk off someone, or they broke through it themselves... He was rattled to the core.

"Aya...what have you done?" he muttered to the darkness, "What are you doing?"

* * *

After Medea's huge meltdown she was calmer for the rest of the week. She remained downcast, but her outbursts were lesser. Short lived.

Her snarkiness decreased too, but that seemed more likely to be due to being depressed than any return of her memory.

Silk was still worried about her... They kind of all were, in their own ways, even Mirko.

But none of the LOV knew the first thing about expressing sympathy, so they were just kind of silent.

Silk was the only one who tried to talk to her about it. Medea wouldn't say much.

Silk finally asked her if she'd like to talk to Miss Likstar again about it.

Medea perked up ever so slightly. "I dunno if I really want to... She said some stuff that was kind of nice, but it might be too good to be true, and I don't know if she really gets how horrible I am."

"I..." Silk wasn't sure what to say. "I don't know her that well..." She glanced up at the others, who were not really listening, just sitting around doing their usual bored activities... Mirko was going through some kind of case file. It was late at night.

"What would you say?" Silk fixed on Shigaraki, who was, as usual, staring into nowhere.

"About Likstar?" He always seemed to be listening even if he didn't look like he was. "She understands just fine, probably too much."

"No, she wouldn't say that about me if she understood," Medea said, "It's all b---s---, trying to be someone else."

"That's what she thinks-- it is crazy," Shigaraki agreed.

"She seemed to know a lot," Silk said, "Perhaps if you gave chance, she'd have more to say."

"Well, I don't know her anyway..." Medea mumbled, "not that it wasn't cool of her to come over and try to help someone she doesn't even know, but I don't know how to handle that. She might have her own motive. I don't trust anyone anymore."

"Miss Likstar has no motives beyond helping," Compress declared, boredly playing solitaire, "It's the d----est thing. I really thought she did, but after all this time, we still haven't found one."

"Maybe there are just actual good people in the world," Silk suggested.

Medea snorted. "Well, what's she doing around us, then?"

"That's what we'd like to know," Spinner muttered.

"You haven't shown any interest in anything else. I think you must want this," Silk said, "Why not just talk to her? And if it no work, at least you tried...You cannot be like this forever, darling. It won't work... Limbo is no good."

"Yeah, whatever... I'll think about it." Medea walked away.

"Want to play something that requires actual skill?" Compress asked Silk, "This is dull."

"Sure, I play poker," Silk said, "I have great poker face."

"I'm sure you do."

* * *

Medea didn't know what she wanted... She was no longer in physical pain. Most of her memories had returned... The only thing she still didn't know was exactly what she'd been doing when the fire started and how it had...but she remembered the rest.

She hated the thought of Lethe's terror stricken face, but she also hated him right now. She got it-- he'd done it because he was scared...but it was no excuse to mess with her head. She didn't want to talk to him ever again.

But she had no other confidante... Silk was being nice to her, but Silk was kind of at a loss. She had no tragedy of this sort in her life.

And Medea, in truth, felt guilty about Lethe taking Silk's memories also... She wasn't sure Silk had even got them all back. She didn't know what Lethe had seen in her head. He'd said very little about it, but she knew it wasn't good if he suppressed it. At least, not good for the Originals.

And she felt like she should tell Silk that, but she was afraid to make the woman mad at her with all the other stuff she had going on.

So she wasn't talking to her much about it all... Likstar seemed nice enough, but would she really understand?

Still, if you have no other recourse, you usually end up taking the one available.

Medea told them the following day she'd hear Likstar out if she had anything to say about getting the memories back.

The LOV didn't even react. Most of them only heard it secondhand anyway when Silk mentioned it, but even then they didn't react much.

Mirko thought it was weird when she heard it. "You're not worried Likstar will influence her to leave the League too?"

"We don't force people to stay," Shigaraki said with disdain, "and the kid probably isn't really in shape for it. The only reason she's still here is she has nowhere else to go, and it's cruel to kick her out."

Mirko gave him a very strange look. "Okay...well, you know they have shelters or something for kids like her."

"They're hell." Shigaraki dismissed that idea.

"That would be cruel," Silk said, "Last thing girl needs right now is to feel we are afraid of her or disgusted with her. If we kick her out, no telling what she'd do... Don't you know anything, No# 5?"

"Glad you finally got my ranking right," Mirko said dryly, "And hey, I'm not saying she has to go. It's not up to me...but it's not like the LOV is a safe place for a kid."

"True enough, but the Originals will find her if we send her anywhere else, and what would they do to her?" Silk said.

That was only too true.

"This is like some charity now," Spinner grumbled, "I guess it already was, with Twice and all, but really, we're just letting people hang around for their own safety now."

"Ours too, Spinner," Compress said flatly, "We're in trouble as much as they are if they get caught."

"I know... It just feels like we're being too soft."

"And being stupid would be better? Well, looks who's talking."

"Shut up, Compress!" Spinner snapped.

As usual, Shigaraki ignored their bickering, and Silk rolled her eyes at it.

Mirko didn't say any more about Medea. She was just surprised the LOV cared what happened to the kid at all... Actually she kept being surprised by their actual care for their own members. It was not in line with the public image of them, or what the heroes were led to believe.

In fact, she was starting to think no one really knew that much about the LOV at all...and she'd never cared herself to know. What would it have ever changed? What did it change now?

Nothing really.

Except perhaps the way the law approached them might have been different.

* * *

"Yeah, she can visit," Shine said, looking around to make sure no one was eavesdropping, "In fact, we have a counselor here who could probably help her if she's willing. I'll ask. I'm happy to talk to her too... No, it's not going to matter. She's not wanted by them officially. Let's hang up now, though."

"Who was that?" Aizawa scared the crap out of her by appearing from around a corner.

"Oh, geez, Aizawa! Can you not do the Batman thing?" Shine recovered.

"I really still don't know who that is. Who were you talking about?"

"That girl who helped us... She needs help."

"And you're just going to help her without our permission?"

"She's not out for arrest, Aizawa. Is it illegal?" Shine asked.

"It's against school rules."

"So is most of what we do."

Aizawa sighed. "Just keep her away from the students... On that note, there's something I've been meaning to talk to you about."

"Oh, okay," Shine said, like "and now the deluge..."

"Remember what you did to those nomu? You got them to talk to you?" Aizawa said.

Shine bit her lip. "Yeah, how could I forget? I've had nightmares about it."

"Really?" He raised an eyebrow.

"That I didn't succeed, that they became angry..." Shine said, "but it's been stopping the last few days, so I think I'm better... Yes, I get PTSD too, Aizawa. I'm not inhuman. It's just different for me and Wally, that's all. Different ways to handle it."

"Interesting...but about what you did... What exactly did you do?"

Shine stared out the window of the common area. "It's unclear... The nomu are--were, I should say--not really human anymore. It's like they were dead."

Aizawa narrowed his eyes. "Oh?"

"But a little tiny piece of their soul is still tied to that form, and it is how they are able to sort of obey and respond...but what I found is that they have a slight vestige of trapped consciousness too," Shine said. She tugged her hair. "It's very horrible to see, but I find solace in knowing I at least helped them have peace. It's all I could do. I can't reverse the process. It's too late. They are not alive enough."

"I see..." Aizawa said. He didn't sound happy, not that he ever did, but more unhappy. "But...suppose there was one that was still more human, in its own body, but without its mind, or just a fragment of it."

"I don't understand how that is different from what I just said." Shine was a little flat.

"One that has more emotion and will and mind power than the regular ones, but it's all still focused on one thing," Aizawa said.

"Example?" Shine said.

"It has a personality, but it's not its own... It's still a nomu."

"Look, Aizawa, I don't know how to understand you. If I didn't meet it, what could I know about it from what you're saying?" Shine frowned. "Clearly you have a real one in mind. Don't tell me there's more of those things? I was afraid of it, but after that nightmare, I...shudder to think of dealing with it again."

"I know it's hard for you." Aizawa surprised her by being sympathetic. "Believe me, I didn't want to have this conversation either...but Kurogiri was the one who separated us all, and...this... Well...I'm not supposed do tell anyone this. It's highly classified."

"And you want to tell me?" Shine was clearly shocked.

"I wouldn't, except no one has ever handled a nomu the way you and West did... It was like you knew them...and you know all that. How did you know that? Who told you?"

"No one told me. I can sense it." Shine pulled out her sword. "This reveals the truth about things to me. When I stabbed one, it became clear... It's like a 6th sense, but less mine and more something I'm told...when I need to know. When it comes to the spiritual realm, I'm pretty sensitive, and the nomu's mental state is hardly more than spirit now... They are not really human anymore. They are an abomination... What does this have to do with Kurogiri?"

Silence.

Shine was not dumb, and she stared at Aizawa, and a horrible idea came into her mind.

"Aizawa...do not tell me that man is... But...how?"

"We don't know," Aizawa said, "I wish I could tell you... All I know is...something I am only going to tell you in the slight hope you may be able to help him. No one else is to learn about this."

"I will not promise that." Shine shook her head. "If my team needs to know, I'll tell them. We have no more time for secrets if it could be more helpful to share them. The government does not know everything, Aizawa. You'll have to let that classified thing go."

"I would get in a lot of trouble for telling you, let alone students."

"So you won't tell them, and I won't say you told me. I know enough weird things on my own. I think I can guess where this is going, but clearly you know a little more. So just tell me."

Aizawa sighed. "Right... Well, fine... Only for his sake... Kurogiri's real name is Oroboro. I used to know him."

"What?" Shine's mouth dropped open.

Aizawa explained about this school friend.

Shine was horrified and also sad.

"But he didn't die... He became... Do you think he chose it?"

"No, I don't. I'd say I have proof he didn't," Aizawa said, "This is also top secret, but..." He began to tell her what happened when he interviewed him.

"This was months ago?" Shine said.

"After you arrived, but yes. It wasn't long after, he got arrested soon after you moved here, remember?"

"I do. I didn't even meet the guy until we rescued Eri. I just saw footage of him. I could never get a real read on him...and I see why...but he has more mind than the other nomu do, Aizawa."

"That is what I was hoping you could explain, but it seems you don't know either."

"No," Shine thought, "Let me tell you how the Gift of Knowledge works for me, Aizawa. The Spirit of God does not explain evil to us. That is not how he works. God does not need to reveal evil. Evil does not make sense. It is just...evil. Why should He waste his time telling us what we already know? Man is evil already... All he tells us is to help us free people from it. In short, He is not going to tell me what they did to Kurogiri and cloud my mind with such darkness, unless it would help the poor sod...but I don't know that it would. Understanding the darkness rarely helps as much as people think it does. Only if you've overcome it yourself does it do any good, and I've never been a nomu, so...yeah, I'm sorry."

Aizawa was silent for a moment. "Well, if you can't help it...I thought...maybe you could do something more for him... I don't know why he is with a different group now. I thought his will was bent just to Shigaraki's care."

"And while horrid, that was far better than whatever is going on now," Shine said, "All For One can't even hire a babysitter without brainwashing the crap out of them first. I have never disliked anyone so much whom I never met... I've only met a few creeps worse than AFO. At least I had to meet them first to see what they did. I shudder to think what meeting AFO would be like."

"No one is asking that. I don't think you should at all," Aizawa said coolly, "But can you undo what happened to Kurogiri?"

"Do you believe I can?"

"I don't know."

"Then neither do I. It's more like he's dead," Shine said, "There's some black magic in all this, under the guise of science... No one can naturally create a monster like that. Kurogiri...or Oroboro, I should say... Look, to be honest, we can raise the dead. But this is not regular death. I...don't think it would be likely in this case to work. It's too complicated how it happened to him. It might be. God can do anything, and I can ask, but I myself lack any wisdom of how to do it. If he is dead...then the best thing would be to release him... Do you know if he was religious at all?"

"No... He said something about confession, but it was a joke. Would that help?" Aizawa said.

"It seems unlikely to me he'd be like this if he was truly..." Shine mused to herself, "but it could be... I...no, I'm sure if the Spirit was with him he couldn't be...but then he's never done all that much bad... No, I would be able to tell..."

"Excuse me?" Aizawa interrupted.

Shine looked up. "It might have helped, but it's almost better to think it's not so...or we're really screwed. I might be able to help him have peace. That is all I could do, I think... I'm sorry, truly. If more is possible, it has to come from a higher power than I am able to wield, I think."

"You have a limit?" Aizawa had never been sure of this.

"All of us have a measure of grace according to faith... It can grow, but not all of us need the same amount, after all. And in this case, I think it's beyond me," Shine said, "It's hard to explain to you. You'd have to experience it..."

"Even if you could only do that, it's better than what he is now," Aizawa said, "It is...not good thinking of him being trapped inside that...thing."

"It explains a lot to me," Shine said, "Kurogiri blocked my power, but I thought there was more to it than just the warping. So much darkness...now I know why. I wonder why I don't get that from Shigaraki. He only blocked me by directly touching me with that stuff... It's like it's not part of him."

"Why does it matter?"

"It matters to me, Aizawa." Shine leaned on her hand.

Aizawa was silent for a moment, then he said, "Joke thinks you're here to help us because of all this crap that's been going down...that you're preventing worse things from happening. Is that true?"

"It tends to be, but I can't give you specifics. I don't know them," Shine said, "and working in what ifs is unwise. Would dreadful things happen if we weren't here? I could say that about any one of you. You've all helped. We do what we can. I know that we always come to a turning point in history, but it's not clear how it is turning. I see things through the individuals I meet, not the whole story. I see better than you can, since you're limited to just what you experience...but I'm nothing like all knowing. It's just a little help, really."

"Seems like a lot."

"If that's true, it just shows how oblivious most of us are most of the time," Shine said dryly.

That could be true.

"If you did help, I'd consider that a personal favor," he said.

"No need to get sentimental on me, Aizawa," Shine said smiling, "I would help the guy regardless. You must know that by now, but I can't just hunt him down. If we meet again, I can try. I could teach you yourself how to handle it too, if you'd prefer to have some insurance."

"You...can do that?"

"Of course. Your own students are learning it. They used it. We can share our power, or rather, it expands, since it's not ours. It's called passing on the mantle... It's not so uncommon here, is it?" Shine said, but she remembered then he didn't know about Deku. Still, there had to be other examples.

Aizawa must have thought of one similar enough at least. He didn't question it. "It probably would be smarter if I knew how to do it."

"I guess wanting to help someone is a good reason," Shine said, "You can join us when we talk about it again. Or we can talk privately, as you want this to be secret...but later, I need to go talk to Cece."

"Fine... Uh...thanks," Aizawa said.

"I'm just glad you told me," Shine said, walking away, "Though I take no pleasure in hearing it, I'm glad we have a chance to make it a little better. So much suffering...it's heartbreaking." She left.

It was, Aizawa thought.

Why did he feel kind of wrung out now that she said it though? Was this her effect on the students? Just getting it? Saying the thing that would make you feel understood?

He had to go grade assignments...

[Believe it or not, I wrote all that stuff about nomu back in the prior arcs (both the city destruction one, and the one where Mirko and Shine both fought one after it went out of control) before I watched the show's episode that covered it, and I didn't get any manga spoilers for it either.

I am scarily good at guessing this stuff. Either I'm trope savvy, or I'm in sync with Horikoshi's thought waves.

I think my take is still slightly different, but most of what the show said only confirmed what I thought about the nomu, and Kurogiri wasn't even that big of a surprise. It explained what I could never understand about his singular will to serve Shigaraki... It's so sick. All For One really is the worst.

No one better comment that he's a sympathetic villain. I will scream.]