Shoto and Camie found themselves in a small room that looked like the inside of a freezer.

"What is this?" Camie said, shivering, "What the frick did they do? Kidnap us?"

"Relax," a voice came from somewhere inside the wall, it sounded like, "our plan isn't to kill you. We just need you contained for a brief time, then you'll be free to go. Just so you know, Son of Endeavor, this room is insulated. It used to be part of a restaurant, actually. You might be able to get out, but we have hours to take it out on your companion there if you try anything... Actually, she's expendable, so don't push it."

Shoto kicked something in anger. "I'm so stupid... How did I not realize it was a trap?"

"Yo, how did any of us not?" Camie gestured, leaning on the wall. "Gosh, it's freezing in here. But don't hate on yourself, bro. It wasn't like it was super obvious. Who was that guy, anyway? Not a real one, clearly."

"Must have been a clone or double or something," Shoto sighed. "I... can't believe it. Yaoyurozu and Likstar are probably caught by the League right now... even Bakugo."

"Hey, Bakugo's survived it before," Camie pointed out.

"Yes, that makes it more likely they will kill him this time," Shoto said, "Why would they risk that twice? We don't know what they want. They could have killed them already."

Camie looked at him nervously. "You think so?"

"Yes," Shoto said bleakly, "And I don't know about Yaoyurozu. Honestly, it's weird to say this, but I almost hope they want her blood or something because she is useful, because at least she might be rescued then. Or let go..."

"Her blood?" Camie said, "You mean so the can pose at her too...? Yikes..." She hugged her sides. "That would be so creepy. Like, how would she even deal with that?"

"She's strong. She'll be fine..." Shoto tried to convince himself.

"I thought there was something going on with you two, though," Camie mused.

"I don't know what that means, but we should be focusing on a plan..." Shoto lowered his voice. "They might let us go... and we need to figure out where we are then. The others are probably close. I think that quirk they use is short range, if I remember right from before. So we must be close.... If we could find them...."

"Or the police..." Camie said, "or the Pros.... But who'd come looking for us here? No one knew where we were going, right? It was top secret."

"Shh, don't say that," Shoto said.

"We already knew," the voice from outside scared them both by saying. "We're well aware no one will be able to find you. You should behave yourselves... or we might have to cool you down."

It did seem colder than before. Camie shivered again. "Hey, can't you use some fire?"

"If this is insulated, there might be limited air in here..." Shoto reasoned, "If I use fire... I could burn it up. I don't know if I should risk it." He sighed, then took off his jacket. "Here... the cold isn't going to bother me as much because of my quirk. You should use this."

"Oh, thanks." Camie took it. "Wow, you're so chivalrous. What a heartbreaker... Momo's lucky."

Shoto didn't know what she meant by that. He leaned on the wall and sighed.

There had to be a way out of this. Momo would be able to do something, but she had so many more options. Why did he only have to be able to do two things with his stupid quirk! How did he keep ending up in this position!?

Camie shivered. "I wonder if there's a camera on us..."

"I wouldn't think so, but they might have put one up. They planned this..." Shoto sighed, "Can you be quiet, please? I'm trying to focus."

"Sorry..." Camie hugged her knees.

She blew a thin cloud of smoke.

* * *

Shine, Momo, and Bakugo found themselves standing and in some kind of grassy bank, from the look of it. The landscape Shine saw looked similar from when she'd been snatched by Hawks.... She was sure she saw the same building in the distance... She concluded that this must be an outlet in the middle of the city to the ocean, and that was surround by the drain and bridge nearby... but no one was in sight. An abandoned bridge, then? It was partially collapsed in. Must be from an attack or earthquake.... Perfect place for no one to see them.

Momo didn't get a chance to take this in. She was promptly sick as soon as they were free. The last shock of being  teleported had finally done it for her.

Bakugo seemed okay, but he was glaring.

Toga was gone.

"Likstar, get us out of here! We have to get those other two idiots," Bakugo said.

"I know we need to." Shine looked at her hands. "But... I can't."

"What...?" Bakugp swore. "D--- it! Why not?! Of course you freaking can!"

"No, you see, at first I didn't because I could bring the villains with them," Shine said, "but then I was going to risk it anyway, and now they've portaled us, I can't."

"Why not?" Momo rubbed her mouth.

Shine lowered her voice. "I never told you this because it never came up, but... warping, remember? It's not good because it's less controlled than portals? Well, that black stuff warped us in the worst way I've ever felt, personally (save for once). I feel icky all over... and I can't portal now."

"It blocked you?" Momo was terrified. Rightly so.

"Yes... more like, if I tried, I'd probably get very sick," Shine said, "I could do it, but it won't work. I could kill or hurt all of us. It will take some time to recover, and it's best to get away from where you were warped in, because that has the most... negative effects from it, I guess...
I'm so sorry. I never expected to need to explain that. I never was warped by them. The energy from it was so weak before it didn't seem to affect me, but having it touch me was way different."

"Well, great." Bakugo swore a lot more. "Now we can't fricking leave that way! Let's call someone."

"My phone..." Shine felt for it. "It's not here... That little psycho! She took it off me. She must be good at pick-pocketing."

Not really surprising. Momo and Bakugo found they didn't have theirs either.

"Maybe I could make one..." Momo mused.

"The better question is... Why is no one else here?" Shine looked around. "I was sure Dabi was going to be. And no one... I'm afraid to move. I might undo it."

Bakugo's eyes narrowed. "And where did they take the other two idiots?"

* * *

Dabi should have been attacking them now... but he was hesitant to come out of hiding from where he was behind some cement blocks...

What was it? Why wasn't he moving? Ah... flashbacks...

"Get up! Why aren't you moving!" Endeavor's voice boomed in his head, "Get up!"

Dabi put a hand to his head, trying to shake the words from his mind. "Not the time..." he muttered to himself, "Not the time... Not the time..."

His head cleared somewhat. Remembering that now, of all times-- he never had done that before when he was going to kill someone... only when he was going to do something he really didn't want to do... It wasn't a great sign it was happening now...

No one was around. He could burn this whole place... and the plan had worked even better than they thought. They didn't even need hostages now... Likstar couldn't leave... Who knew the key to immobilizing her had been so close the whole time...? Could have eliminated her weeks ago...

Somehow, the fact that it was so easy just made this seem... underwhelming. Like, she could of at least given them one last good fight, but one of the students was already looking ready to faint, and the other wasn't going to be any match for him once he used his fire. Likstar was just really, really unlucky...

Even her dumb boyfriend wasn't around again. This was gift-wrapped for him...

He didn't want to think about gifts.

What did they ever do to you? A tiny voice said in the back of his mind, Even if you're crazy and evil now, did you ever set out to hurt innocent people? All they've done is try to be nice to you. You think this will make things better?

Shut up, his other voice growled at it. This is necessary, and they knew for the beginning what I was. This should be no surprise to them. It's her own stupid fault for doing this. Just like with Hawks... They knew I was a snake, and they let me bite anyway. It's on them.

Either way, he didn't have a choice.

But Likstar wasn't so stupid as that. He heard her say something to the other two.

"Listen, if it's Dabi who's after us, this location may help us. There's water that way. Get to the bridge. If he shows up, I want you to jump in."

"Us? What about you?" the tall, scared girl... Yaoyurozu, said.

"Listen, you both know that this is my fault," Shine said seriously, "Whatever is going on here, I'm sure it's because of me... They want me, no doubt. For whatever reason, let's hope it's just blackmail. If you get away, they won't care as long as I'm still here. I want to buy you time."

"The frick, you think we're just going to leave you here? We're gosh-danged heroes!" Bakugo shouted.

"Shut up!" Shine grabbed his arm. "Let the whole world know, why don't you? I'm not sure how close anyone could be to eavesdrop on us... What choice do we have? You have a better shot at getting help if you get away. We need Wally... He could help us the most... but any Pro, if you could get one, would be better than nothing."

"If we leave you here, they could do anything..." Momo said.

"It's okay, Momo. I'm not alone," Shine said, "God is here."

"Yeah, that crap sounds good and all, but it's not really doing anything," Bakugo said.

"Watch your words, Katsuki. I've been saved plenty of times when I was alone but for that," Shine reprimanded. "If it's His will, I will be fine, mark my words. If it's not, you can't save me anyway, so go. I still need to protect both of you."

Momo seemed to be wiping away tears but she finally said, "Okay... we'll move closer... but follow us from a distance, all right? Once we're there, try to join us too. He can't attack any of us, then."

How cute. They really thought this plan was going to work, like he wasn't faster than that, Dabi thought.

Dabi knew he needed to act before they got too far even so. A chase wasn't ideal here. A pro could still spot them if too much noise was made.

He wasn't moving still... Why? He'd never hesitated this much to attack before...

Finally, he made himself start a small fire.

It whipped over the grass pretty quickly.

Shine turned to see it. "Oh, no..." Then she looked right at him.

For the rest of his life, Dabi had a feeling he was never going to forget that look.

It wasn't that it was so full of hate, it's that it wasn't. Not even surprised... just... knowing. Regret. Sadness.

As if the words "So it was you..." had been made into a facial expression, because he felt as if they'd been said aloud.

It was a brief look too, before Shine drew her sword and drew some kind of line in the ground. "Both of you run. No time now," she said.

The two kids ran for it.

"That crazy SOB is going to burn this whole area just to kill us!" Bakugo cried. 

Momo gasped for air. "But there's still people who live not that far. The fire could spread to them!"

"Yeah, I don't freaking think he cares!" Bakugo retorted.

"Maybe I could make a radio, get on the Police scanner..." Momo said, "But I need time to make something that complicated. We need to get to the water first."

Bakugo began to yank her along, using his quirk to make them go fast. Shine remained behind.

"I saw you, Dabi," she said in such an unbearably normal voice. "Are you going to come out and face me? Or just hide there and do this like a coward?"

It probably wasn't the smartest move, but Dabi stepped into view. His blue eyes were burning too... maybe with anger, maybe with guilt. "You called?" Then he laughed. "Don't act so surprised... You knew this would happen eventually."

"I thought about it, but I didn't know," Shine said, "and... I was starting to think it never would... I'm not a fool, though, and I know what you do. But just tell me: Why did you break the deal? I thought the LOV at least held up their end of the bargain. I've held up mine. Killing me was fair game, but the kids? Why? You don't need to kill them. I'm the threat."

"Well, don't take it personal." Dabi lit up some more fire. "It's not that they wanted to go back on it... but it struck us that it's far more humiliating to everyone if one of them dies too... but we're feeling generous. We'll only kill one, maybe. If you ask nicely. Take your pick of which."

"You'd ask me to choose which person?" Shine's tone really was cuttingly disgusted. "I could never do that."

"Even if it means they both die?" Dabi said.

Shine bit her lip. "I... have to believe that my choice not to kill an innocent person by my words would be honored, because I cannot possibly choose one. And it's twisted to ask me to. I would die for them. Isn't that enough? Must you torture me further, Dabi? If you show no other mercy, at least let this end with me knowing they got away and I did my job. It won't hurt you to let them go."

This was putting a bad taste in Dabi's mouth. He swallowed.

"Shine?" Momo was looking back, and she saw him. "Oh, no..." She stopped.

But Bakugo beat her to it. He charged back that direction before she could stop him.

Momo froze. Should she do as Shine said...or go back and try to help...? Ah! Shine might not hate her for disobeying, but if it cost them their lives, that would be... a terrible way to go out... knowing she'd failed... Could Bakugo handle this? But Todoroki and Camie-- she needed to save them too.

Hating it, Momo kept backing up, but she didn't finish going to the river. She started making her creation right there, while watching to see what happened.

Bakugo raced back, but Shine held up her arm and he slowed.

"Don't come closer," she called. Keeping her eyes fixed on Dabi.

He wished she'd stop looking at him... It was starting to remind him of the look on his mom's face when Endeavor would drag him or his siblings off for training... until he stopped doing that anyway. That pleading, upset look.

He felt blood on his face... His scars must have opened.

"Are you... crying blood?" Shine said oddly.

Dabi wiped it away. "Just a little side effect of my face job. Don't worry about it..."

The fire was surrounding all of them more and getting hotter. Likstar's face was flushing. Bakugo was sweating buckets... Dabi himself was beginning to feel the heat, even if it wasn't as bad for him yet. The sun was getting blocked by smoke. Help would be sure to come... but it would be far too late for them.

"I guess at times like this, it's normal to ask if you have any last words..." Dabi said.

"I have... a question..." Shine said, "I know it doesn't matter, but... why are you doing this? What did we do?"

Dabi clenched his other fist. "Nothing..." he said through gritted teeth, "The League just decided you're too much of a liability. All these accidental meetings, leading the heroes to us, even if you were serious about not doing it on purpose. It's not personal."

"Ah, I see..." Shine said, "I was hoping you at least hated us."

Leave it to her to have one last sentence to completely flabbergast him.

"What the frick kind of last statement is that?" he spat, "Don't be so melodramatic. You knew it was never gonna be any different."

"I knew no such thing." Shine glanced at Bakugo nervously and motioned for him to run. "And... it is just a final injury that you care so little that this is not even a matter of hatred... just business. That is truly humiliating for me. But I know, we can't always succeed... I will still believe it wasn't for nothing..." her legs were shaking. Either the heat or actual fear must be affecting her more than her voice would lead you to believe.

Dabi was starting to feel sicker. Using his quirk, the heat... or emotions, he didn't know which. He thought he was calmer now, but something was just off about this...

"Sheesh, you could at least fight back," he said, "Why not attack me with that sword of yours?"

"I can't hurt you with it enough to stop you..." Shine said, "Even if I managed... I know now what you are going to try to do... Come, don't torture me with these kinds of questions when you know I can't do anything, or this wouldn't be happening. Doesn't every predator trap its prey like that?... I would be saying something else right now, like it's no hard feelings... and for me, I would mean that... Really... shockingly... I thought I'd be angry, but I'm really just angry because of my students. If you'd just let them go, I would be able to accept this."

"Are you insane? You know how much it's going to hurt when that flame catches up to you?" Dabi said, "I won't resent it if you fight a little, you know. You're making this weird."

What the frick was he saying? It just seemed to say itself. Why was he wasting time? If she wasn't going to fight, he could be done with this sooner.

Bakugo was watching this with a puzzled look. Why wasn't he fighting at least? Little punk.

The black ooze appeared around him, and he vanished.

Perhaps whoever was keeping tabs on this had decided he was too dangerous to leave there. Or... someone had heeded Shine's request.

 She seemed to sigh. Though with how hot the air was, it was strange she even could. "I guess that's taken care of... Thank you." 

"That wasn't me," Dabi muttered, "Whatever..."

"I'll thank you for offering to let me fight back," Shine said quietly, "That was surprising. I can tell you don't really want to do this... I'm sorry they sent you. Anyone else I could have felt less bad for. But this will haunt you. But I can't risk fighting back if they have the other two students... Even if you let me, they won't.... I know that... Just get it over with, Dabi."

Why did she have to say crap like that?

"You think I'll lose sleep over this?" he scoffed aloud.

"Don't you over all the people you kill?" Shine said strangely... almost like she wasn't the one who really knew it as she said it.

Dabi felt chilled despite the heat.

"It drove you crazy, didn't it?" Shine spoke gently, "You told me that... you can't stop thinking about it. I can't make myself resent you, really. I should... but... it's not in me right now.... I hope that means my heart was in the right place. Or am I just in denial...? I feel I shouldn't be saying all this aloud. Why aren't you doing something? This is already bad enough, standing here. Just end it."

"You can't really want me to kill you." Dabi was angry. "Stop saying that."

"I know I will go to a better place, and I'd rather you kill me than let me die slowly by this heat," Shine said, "But I'd much rather live, of course... I didn't think it was an option, though, so making it fast was my last request..." She put her hands together over her sword. "But even now, I know I could be saved for this. I feel calm... because of that. I know it's not up to me how this plays out. Isn't that strength?"

Dabi wished she'd stop talking. Then she did. She just waited.

It would just take one final shot to finish this. Dabi was hesitating. He set his jaw. Time to end it.

Shine didn't move.

***

Shoto was still trying to think of a plan when the door to the freezer was unlocked. He looked up.

Camie's hand had covered his mouth before he could do anything, and she pulled him behind a shelf. 

"Hold still and zip it," she said.

She blew more smoke.

The door opened, and someone cautiously peered in.

"Hey," it was Twice's voice, "It's true. They're not here."

"How is that possible?" A different voice yelled from outside.

"Secret exit, maybe?" Twice suggested, "No, that's stupid," his other voice said.

"Ah, come on," Toga's voice whined, "I don't want to chase them down anyway... Can't we just let them go? Unless I get to cut them. Do I get to cut them?"

"Dabi said not to maim these two," Twice reminded her, "Absolutely baby," his other voice said.

"Is that a yes?" Toga asked the other guy.

"No, we can't hurt them unless boss says to," the other voice said, "Where's Compress...? Maybe he can capture them. Twice, make sure they aren't hiding behind something."

"I can see every corner of this room..." Twice grumbled, stepping in. Camie waited as he came closer, then she karate chopped the back of his neck. Twice slumped onto the floor.

"Twice? Are you okay?" the other voice called.

In a dead on impersonation of Twice, Camie's illusion called, "Yeah, just tripped on the corner here. Yea. Ouch, that hurt-- No, it didn't!"

Shoto was shocked that she remembered that detail.

"Right, well, get out of there, then, before we shut the door. No holes, right?"

"You know, actually I am seeing something," Camie's illusion said, "It looks like a slit thingy in the wall, like for one of those air things."

"What, they couldn't fit in that, could they?" the other voice said.

"I don't know. Did you know the girl's quirk?" the illusion answered.

Shoto began slowly freezing the real Twice to the floor.

"No, I never heard what it was. Toga?"

"I just took her blood. I can't take her quirk," Toga grumbled, "She was nice though. I'd totally do it again..."

Camie herself actually looked a little nauseated by that, but her illusions didn't stop. "Maybe she has a quirk for this."

"D--- it," the other voice came in.... It was the green lizard guy-- Spinner, was it? Toga came too.

Shoto used ice to knock both of them back, and he and Camie dashed out the door.

Toga recovered first and jumped like a gymnast after them. Unfortunately she made it out before Shoto was able to slam the door shut on Spinner, who yelped, "Hey, you can't do that! I'm cold sensitive!"

Shoto didn't have any time to enjoy this victory. Toga had a knife out and had slashed him before he even could dodge.

"Now that wasn't very nice of you," she said, with a crazy gleam in her eye, "But you're pretty cute... so I'll cut you anyway."

"B----, no way," Camie said.

Toga glanced at her. "Oh, hi," she said in a weird voice, "Recovered, I see? But don't worry, I'd like to get to know you better too."

Camie made a strange face. "I'll totally beat you."

Toga pulled another knife out of her sleeve. "Really?"

A tube shot out of something on her back and stuck onto Camie's arm. Drawing blood.

Something about that made Camie react in a way Shoto didn't expect. She screamed and tried to yank it out... tripping in the process.

"Oh, wow, you're klutsy..." Toga said.

Shoto shot ice toward her, but she dodged.

The weapon did come disconnected from Camie, at least, but Camie didn't calm down at all. She was shaking.

"Utsushimi? What's wrong with you? It's just a little blood. You have to fight," Shoto said.

Camie gave him a strange look. "Fight? Right." She got up shakily.

Toga was already running for the exit. "Compress! I don't wanna die! Where are you!"

Something came flying at them. A marble?

They almost ran into a full chunk of metal pipe as it blocked their path.

"They're getting away," Shoto said.

"Good, yes, away..." Camie said nervously, "Away from us. That sounds about right."

"Camie, we'll lose our lead to the others. We have to follow them... Maybe I can melt this... or I could freeze an ice elevator for us. Do you think you could climb over that?" Shoto asked.

Camie whimpered. "Do I have to?"

"Yes. What kind of hero are you? What's the matter?" Shoto said.

"I'm-- forget it. Let's just try." Camie bit her lip.

Shoto made an ice elevator, but the pipe still had them blocked in pretty tight. They were in some kind of kitchen, it looked like. Camie was able to slip over it and down the other side, while he struggled. He was taller and bulkier than her in some ways.

"Camie, can you follow them? They won't be able to see you, right? If you use your quirk? I'll  catch up once I'm free," he said.

"Right," Camie said, not very confidently, but she ran after them.

Shoto finally struggled free after what felt like an hour to him (it was really about 3 minutes of wiggling and using ice to push himself).

Camie was long gone by then, but he found plenty of open doors and went out of the restaurant.

He saw nothing but bare street and parking lot, then plain grass... He saw wreckage, a broken bridge-- this as if by a devastated area from villains, and it hadn't be rebuilt yet...

Wait, was that smoke? He saw smoke... and fire...? Oh, no, he knew that fire.

He forgot about Camie and rushed toward it, sure that's where his friends were.