Izuku's not really sure how long it's been since he ended up in the cell. Charlie says that's a side effect of their containment; time is without existence here. Hours can drag on like days and flash by like seconds. Izuku tells him it could be a mind trick the commission's playing on them. His new friend laughs at that. 

There is some truth to what Charlie says. Grey walls and dim yellow lights stretch at time like it's an elastic band, forcing it to feel longer and longer till he starts questioning if he's counting at the right pace for a clock. It's agonizing in the sense that he knows what hour it is shouldn't matter. Time is relevant, and yet he finds himself lost without it's presence. 

Or maybe that's just the boredom getting to him. 

It's a shame the commission took away all his possessions. He's missing his notebook immensely right now (and also the fidget cube that used to be stashed in his thigh pocket). He tried to make a game out of the bland food they're given but realized food was more valuable in his stomach than as an entertainer. 

He busies himself instead with pestering Charlie. The man doesn't seem to mind when Izuku starts asking him where he learned how to hack. Apparently it'd been his hobby since he was a kid; he won all sorts of competitions for it when he was young before he aged out of most programs. After that he got scouted by some shadier groups and started to do work for vigilantes and select villains (always depending on their motives and targets). 

When he turned the questions on Izuku, the boy had only shrugged and claimed to learn through online classes. He was baffled, asking him how he gets so much high security information, like Ayumu's existence. Izuku felt his ears turn red when he answered that all he had to do was walk through the front door. People are so worried about online information nowadays that they forget about the paper copy. Charlie had laughed at that too. 

Izuku thinks Charlie likes him. He fusses over his bruises and cut lip too much not to. Charlie's not so bad either. If Izuku had met him anywhere else, he wouldn't have thought him to be anything but a middle aged man living his best life. One of those older people who talk about their kids and job a ton, except replace kid with niece in Charlie's case. Komori is going to kill him if he ever finds out the sorts of stories Charlie has been sharing with him. 

So he has Charlie, but that's it. Ayumu's stopped by twice to deliver food and water though she never stays long, always rushing away before he can talk to her. He thinks she feels guilty. He wants to tell her not to be. 

There's the guards too, he supposes. They're not interesting though. They simply stand on either side of the cell for hours on end, rotating shifts and never saying a word to him. The guards that beat him up the day before never come back but that doesn't keep Izuku from moving to the shadows each time a new set of guards walk in. 

He was expecting another beating after a day passed. Instead, he found himself sitting in a whole other room, no guards in sight. 

Izuku isn't proud to say he's uncertain how he got there. He has half the mind to consider the empty room a trick of his thoughts; a hallucination brought forth through boredom. He knows better than that though. 

There's a large glass pane nailed in place directly in front of him. Through it, he can make out Charlie in a chair not too different from his own, plastic arms winding into an equally plastic seat and set of legs. Charlie's body is hooked up to several wires connected to some odd machine with dozens of dials. His hands are strapped to the chair, eyes wandering off into the distance. 

Izuku can guess how they got there. 

"Charlie!" he shouts. He waves, hoping to catch the mans attention. He doesn't like the idea of them being stuck in here. 

"He can't hear you." 

Izuku stills, a shiver running up his spine. He hasn't known Damaso long, but he thinks he'd recognize her voice anywhere. He hasn't seen her in a day. He's hoped foolishly that it meant she wouldn't bother him anymore. He knew it'd been a lie, but he'd still dreamed otherwise. Hearing her now, his heart plummeted. 

The head of the commission walked around  the room, her heels click clacking, till she stood before him. Her cloths were their usual prim white, not a piece of lint in sight, and her smile stretched wide like she heard some sick joke only she understood. 

"The glass is too thick to hear anything through. The only way to talk to him is through this speaker," she said, gesturing to a box in her hand. "We can hear everything in there though, just as we can see him and he can't see us. Neat, isn't it?" 

Izuku stayed silent, saving his words for later. Damaso watches him for a moment, then turns to grab a chair from the corner of the room. She drags it to to him, sitting down beside him, crossing her leg over her knee. She smiles, not at all unnerved by Izuku's lack of restraints. A glance over his shoulder tells him there's a guard hovering by the back wall.

"You know, Revite," she says out of the blue, "you're a lot less talkative then I imagined."

He doesn't respond. 

She clucks her tongue. "Being difficult today, are we? Do you know why you're here, Revite?"

He doesn't so much as look her way, keeping his eyes trained on Charlie. 

"You're here because you meddled in the wrong area and I need to clean up the mess you made," she answered her own question. "To do that, I need you to cooperate and tell me where your friends are. Are you going to cooperate?" 

This time, he did face her. He looked to her out of the corner of his eyes, allowing his features to settle into a glare. She could have Dabi and Hawks' location over his dead body. He may be stuck here but doesn't mean he can't do anything to protect his family. 

Damaso sighs, pinching her nose. "Revite, honestly, I'm not asking for much. If it helps, I promise I won't hurt them. The three of you can live in a nice enclosure that we'll set up and you won't have another painful day in your life." 

"You must think I'm stupid if you believe for one second that I'd trust you," he murmured, voice not climbing any higher than a whisper. 

"You must think me to be evil to believe I'd go back on my word," she retorted. 

"You are evil." 

For some reason that Izuku couldn't fathom, that drew a laugh from her. She threw her head back, hollow laughter tumbling out of her perfectly glossed lips. She calmed for a moment and grinned at him. 

"You're so young, Revite, it's hilarious," she notes. Her long nails drum on her legs, a steady rhythm that keeps Izuku from hitting something (or someone). "You don't yet understand what a lie the word 'evil' is. It's made up, meant to set strict lines between what's right and wrong so society can appear somewhat tame." 

Izuku feels deja-vu as she preaches. As he stares at her white heels, he see's heavy red boots packed with knives instead. At the thought of looking her in the eyes, he pictures murderous red ones concealed by a white bandanna mask. He stops seeing the room, and for a brief moment finds himself in a random Hosu alley. 

"There is no evil," Damaso continues. "There is no black or white, only a hazy grey area. We, the law, attempt to sort that mess out with rules but it's never enough. According to the law, your friend Charlie here is evil." 

She gestures to the glass, rolling her eyes. "And according to him, I'm evil. The truth is, we are all simply existing. I may do what you perceive as wrong and you may do what I perceive is wrong. Regardless, those things were done and the consequences for them are dealt by whichever side is more powerful." 

Izuku has grown so used to her grin that he sees it stretch ever wider across her face in his mind before it does so in reality. 

"I am more powerful and thus you shall receive the consequences I deem fit for your wrongs. And if you do not comply, I'll pass your pain onto those around you, starting with him." 

Through the glass, Izuku saw a door open in the room Charlie was being held in. His eyes widened as a guard appeared, a long black rod clutched in his hand. The end of the rod looked coiled, intimidating enough that Izuku feel his heart rate spike. 

"Don't," was all he managed to say, eyes darting between Charlie and the weapon wielding guard. 

"Do you know what that is?" Damaso asked. Izuku didn't answer, focusing on the guard as they crept ever closer to Charlie. "It's a stun baton. Y'know, they're supposed to be self defense weapons but I find they work much better for torture." 

He shook his head. "Don't touch him." 

"Won't have to," she stated. Then, she gave him a pitying look. "Ah, don't worry that head of yours. It won't hurt him that bad. The pain's the same as shoving a paper clip into an outlet. He might feel distorted or unbalanced for a while after use but there won't be any permanent damage. That is, if we don't increase the energy output." 

The last sentence felt like a threat. Izuku feels his tongue go numb, heavy as lead, and his ears ringing faintly. He felt cold all over despite his jacket. 

"Here's how this is going to go," Damaso says. She leans forward, resting her elbows on her knees and staring him in the eye. "I'm going to ask you a question and depending on how you answer, your friend will be hurt. Holding the stun baton to Charlie for a second will give him mild pain and muscle contractions where we press it. Two seconds will cause muscle spasms and some mental disorientation. Three seconds worsens those symptoms. Supposedly.

"Different parts of the body feel different sorts of pain. Some of that is whether there's clothing or not, and some is solely dependent on how sensitive those nerves endings are. As well, we can change the pain he feels. Upping the voltage will change that paper clip in an outlet feeling to a rough push that most would consider extremely painful." 

Izuku barely registers her words as he watches Charlie jerk against his restraints. The guard stands still in front of him yet Izuku can't help but envision him lunging forward with their weapon, shocking Charlie. Izuku can't do anything, not from this side of the glass and he aches because of it. The urge to help Charlie pulls at him like how the moon pulls at the tide, blood curdling with needs and pleads. 

It makes him sick to his stomach thinking of all the things Damaso could do to them, how this is merciful. 

Damaso folds her hands and nods to him. "That's where you come in. You'll get three tries to answer my questions and each time you fail to answer, the duration that baton touches Charlie goes up. I'll run through every question like that then come back to ask again about any you still haven't answered. At that point the duration will vary but the baton will be placed in more painful places with higher voltages. Do you understand?" 

He grits his teeth. Endanger Charlie, or endanger everyone he's been trying to help. 

Staring, he maps out the man's face; how wrinkles around his eyes hint at his age; how cracked lenses distort his soft brown eyes that light up when he talks about his niece; how his low-pony curls at the nape of his neck. 

Damaso presses a button at her gold belt and Izuku watches with horror as the guard jabs the baton at Charlie, holding it there for a second. Charlie flinches in his seat. His eyes squeeze shut and his teeth bite at his lip. 

"That was a question," Damaso says, her voice maintaining it's smooth elegance that gives him chills. "So, do you understand me, Revite?" 

He looks to her and holds her gaze. Her eyes are hard like someone wearing a mask. Izuku knows in that moment his eyes are a different kind of hard, more like eyes of the person Charlie had assumed he was from his article. The angry kind. 

"I understand," he croaks, fighting against every part of him that yearns to spit at this woman's feet. 

She clasped her hands together. "Excellent. Second question: where are Hawks and Dabi?" 

"In Musutafu," he answers. 

Damaso presses down on the button again. This time Charlie's fist tightens where they're bound down as the baton presses into his leg briefly. 

"Don't play coy with me, Revite," Damaso warns. "Where are Hawks and Dabi?"

"I don't know." 

Damaso shocks Charlie again. This time he hears him scream.

"Where are they?" 

Izuku glanced between Damaso and Charlie. His new friend slumped against his restraints, head hanging forward. Izuku didn't want him to be shocked; he couldn't stand to hear him scream again. 

"I don't know," Izuku says again. "We never -- we were always jumping between places. They'd be at a new location by now. I don't know where they are." 

Lying through his teeth, he prayed she believed him. He doesn't want Charlie to hurt any more, but he can't let Damaso find his friends. They're depending on him just as he's depending on them. If all else fails here where he's trapped, then at least Dabi and Hawks are still around to fix things from the outside. 

Damaso's jaw tightened, the action bringing forth a small dip in her cheek. She believed him. 

"Question three: how did you recruit Hawks?" 

At this question, Izuku grinned. He made sure to look Damaso in the eye as he spat, "You're the one who shoved him in my direction. All I had to do was show him the kinds of heroes you were hiding." 

"What did you promise him?" Damaso ground out. Izuku realized then that she would never understand how he gained Hawks' trust. She assumed something had been exchanged beyond emotions. She thought he'd lured Hawks in when he'd only welcomed him. 

"Help," he answered. "I promised to help him, and I did." 

Despite his reply (or perhaps in spite of it), Damaso pressed down on her belt button. Izuku didn't look but he heard Charlie grunt. Forcing himself not wince on the man's behalf, he awaited Damaso's next question. 

"Number four: what did Hawks tell you about the commission?" 

"Everything." 

Oddly enough, Damaso's expression didn't drop. She looked almost smug as she tilted her head and echoed, "Everything? Do you really think so?" 

The door to Charlie's room swings open. Izuku watched in shock as Ayumu stepped through, a guard at her side. Her eyes were narrowed into a glare but her shoulders slumped with the kind of exhaustion that drove people to pass out. She looked tired beyond anything he could imagine. 

He stands, reaching out toward the glass. As he does so, the gaurd from behind him moves to his own side. They rest a hand on the baton of their own resting at their hip, a clear warning: try anything and see what happens. 

Izuku sits back down. 

"Let's have a little fun," Damaso says before pressing a different button in her belt labeled 'sound' and saying, "Yuriko, darling, how are you?" 

Ayumu snarled at the glass. She snapped, "Fine."

Damaso smiled. "Would you mind telling Revite here how you grew up?" 

"He already knows." 

Damaso turned her head to him, raising her eyebrows. The necklace around her neck clinked with the action. She tilted her head. "Is that true?" He nodded, and she looked back to Ayumu. "Very well. How about you share with us what happened to your friend. Nori, was it?"

After so much time around Dabi, Izuku has grown used to fire and his brother going from zero to one-hundred in a second. One key word could set him off. Izuku realized it was the same for Ayumu as her face shifted from a defeated snarl to a full on anger twisted expression. In that moment, her elbow drew back, effectively ramming into the face of the guard behind her. 

"Don't say her name, you bitch!" Ayumu shouted. 

Next to him, Damaso sighed. Her hands remained tucked at her sides. She warned, "Yuriko, I advise you don't speak to me that way." 

"Or what? You'll kill me like you did with Nori and everyone else who dares to talk back to you?"  

A piece of Damaso's facade cracks. Her jaw clenches and her eyes harden. Izuku watches and wonders if cracks work for her like they work for dams; Break too much and all the water comes tumbling out, destroying everything in it's path. He doesn't want to find out. 

He draws the attention back to him. Faking shock, he lets bewilderment seep into his tone as he asked, "You killed them?" 

The distraction works well enough, Damaso whirling her head to face him. Through the glass, Ayumu looks no less furious - maybe more so as Damaso dismisses her so easily - but Izuku pleads with his eyes for her to go along. She has already hurt so much. He wishes that for this one time, he could hurt in her place. 

Surprisingly, she doesn't push Damaso further. 

"Whatever I did to Nori and the others was for the better," Damaso reassures. "Surely you can understand that. You tear some heroes lives apart, ostracize them from their jobs and their families with your articles. But, it's for the greater good, no?" 

He grits his teeth and forces out, "That's not a fair comparison. They were bad people and brought it upon themselves. The people you hurt, they were good." 

"Were they? Nori was a brat who knew what she had coming if she were to continue with her behavior. You think you know them but you do not. They were not good." Damaso raises her chin and gestures to the room around them. She says, "Outside these walls are heroes running around with no guidance. That is what we at the commission are here for: to guide. Nori, Ayumu, Hawks and all the rest were products of that guidance. The world needed better heroes and so we made them. Just as you say, the system is collapsing under the weight of licensed villains but with our hero program, that won't happen. Can't you see, Revite? We're on the same side." 

Bile gathers in his mouth as her words needle their way through his ears and into his heart, piercing at any vulnerabilities. How could someone say such a thing? How could she stand before him and claim to hold any resemblance? Does she honestly not see that it is not the heroes failing the system, but the system failing the heroes? 

Izuku felt like he was a kid again, listening to his teachers and peers tell him he was worthless because of his quirk status. That feeling of confusion that quickly evaporated into pain and despair. He wondered then, as he wondered now, how anyone could believe such a thing? 

His confusion surrounding quirkist people had faded into dull acceptance but this - his shock at Damaso's beliefs - this was not going to fade. He would fuel this rage quietly until it ensured Ayumu's safety. 

"You're crazy," he spits, and it doesn't cover an eighth of the things he thinks of her then. 

She shrugs, his words bouncing off her like rubber. "It doesn't matter what you think. The fact is I helped them. Some of them anyway. Others couldn't be helped, like your dear traitor Hawks. Nori was one of them - so stubborn in her ways. She had to go if we didn't want her influencing her fellow heroes. Her and Hiroto, and Kiyoshi, and Hatsu."

Izuku barely registered the sound of Ayumu snarling as his mind hung on one of the names. Hatsu, like in Charlie's files. 

"Capillum. . . " he muttered. Details of her article came back to him; How she made technology for villains to use in robberies. 

Damaso barked a short laugh, saying, "Ah yes. I forgot about your little article on her. The ironic part is that your article helped us with her case. Some of her buyers which you listed weren't ones we were aware of. Your name dropping certainly helped in tying up loose ends." 

"What did you do to her?" he demanded. He hadn't thought highly of Capillum - she was licensed villain in his eyes - but if she really was apart of the commission program then her actions could at least be understood. If Hawks and Ayumu were anything to go by, those who make it out of the program aren't the most mentally sound. 

Damaso angled her head to the glass, meeting Ayumu's eyes. "Do you want to tell him or should I?" 

Ayumu's lips pull back to reveal her teeth as she sneers. 

"Fine. So testy." Damaso gave Izuku a look not too different from the one parent's give. Like teenagers, am I right? but replace teenagers with abused and manipulated heroes who won't stay in line. She still grins. "How do I put this? Hatsu was a. . . curious girl. She learned everything she could about technology in our program for the purpose of hacking, making support gear, y'know those things that we thought would be good as a hero. She asked a lot of questions. She poked and prodded at everything that caught her mind. She liked studying the grass to see why it turned towards the sun at all times of the day.

"Tech was good way to redirect that curiosity. Once she was an adult, we saw no reason to keep too much of an eye on her. She was like Hawks in that sense, always so compliant. Apparently, she knew more than perceived. In her search to find out all she could about tech, she came across a project of ours and decided to turn against us." 

Damaso says Hatsu like she says Hawks. With the disappointment of someone who'd put all they had into something that came out poorly. A failure. 

It makes Izuku so sick he can hardly keep his hands from shaking. 

"Her retaliation was to make weapons for villains to use to steal the commission's personal funds from various banks. It was also a ploy for her to gain attention from villains higher up. She had a plan to use her more advanced weapons to take out our project," she explained. Her eyes twinkled as she said, "But we dealt with her before any of that could happen. Her and Nori are no longer in the way of our goals." 

"You bitch!" Ayumu screamed. She jabbed her finger accusingly at the glass as tears rolled down her face, sobs causing her words to wobble. "All she ever wanted was to help people! She was a hero and you took that away from her! You took everything away from her! How dare you call yourself good! She was-! She was. . . . good. She was so good." 

All the fire left Ayumu in her last words and her shoulder angled in and her tears came in full. Her voice cracked and trembled as it faded into a whisper. Izuku's hand twitched with a desire to reach out and embrace her, to give her what she deserved and had never received. 

His eyes wandered to Charlie's slumped form, wondering what he'd have said then. Had he known Hatsu beyond his research notes? Would he have cried in grief as Ayumu does? 

"She helped villains, Yuriko," Damaso said. "We don't condone that sort of thing." 

Izuku glared at her and hissed, "And you yet you'd let Hawk's help me for the sake of spying?" 

"That was for the mission." 

Can she not hear how she contradicts herself? She runs in circles, so desperate to prove her reasons that she stumbled over the very rules she'd set. 

As if sensing his growing animosity, the guard next to him pulled his baton the rest of the way out of his belt. Izuku bit his tongue. 

"What are you thinking, Revite?" Damaso pushes. He nearly doesn't answer but a glance at Charlie and the stun baton pointed at him draws the truth from him. 

"I'm wondering how you could ruin those kids lives like that," he answers, eyes downcast. He watches the floor like a hawk. His thoughts run wild with the repetition of, if I don't look at her then this will be easier. Don't look at Charlie. Don't look at Ayumu. 

It still causes him to flinch when he hears Damaso laugh bitterly. 

"Ruin their lives?" she exclaims like he'd proposed the sky was falling. "I gave them lives! They were not wanted where they came from. Not even Hawks. His mother handed him over for nothing but a few wads of cash. He was lucky to be taken in by us, just as all the others were. We tried to save those kids, believe me. We even tried saving your precious Todoroki's."

He froze. How could he not? 

"Oh come now. Don't act so surprised. I know you read the file from when we approached Endeavor about placing Touya in the program." 

He had - when he broke into the commission what felt like years ago but was really only a little over a month back. He remembers seeing Dabi's old name on the papers and feeling a flash of anger surface in him. His hands had fisted the white sheets and his knees had felt weak yet he'd been so relieved to know Dabi was standing beside him not as someone who'd gone through what Hawks had on top of all his family issues, but as someone who'd narrowly escaped a program meant to doom the already damned. 

He refused to say anything - he didn't know what he could say. 

For a second, he imagined it was not Ayumu crying on the other side of the glass but rather the man he'd come to love as a brother. Instead of having eyes that couldn't stand to be seen out of without the help of drugs, there'd be skin that couldn't serve it's function without metal scrapes sewing it together. More purple than his skin's beige. Dabi with all the pain and none of the years where he got some semblance of a break from it. 

Dabi may be the one who creates fire, but in that room Izuku burns furiously. He teeters on a dangerous edge separating flying fists and his current retorts. A little push and he'd be thrown into chaos and violence. 

"Endeavor refused, of course," Damaso said. She paused, then her eyes lit up. "Now there's a thought. With Endeavor out of the picture and Shouto in need of a home, maybe we can have a Todoroki trainee after all."  

And what a grand fucking push that was. 

His hand drew back and snagged the baton from the guard's hands without a second thought. His feet kicked the chair out from under Damaso, sending her to the ground as he loomed over her, baton directed at her. 

He yells, "Don't even think of laying a hand on him or I will rip your entire world apart!" 

The scariest part was that he meant it. From deep in him, a rage stronger than any quirk was drawn. His words rang with truth as his mind went over the millions of ways he could tear down the commission. Not just with his articles. With his own fists too.  

It terrified him to think of what he would do. He'd always tried to be a hero even as he weeded them out and bore the title of vigilante. His thoughts didn't feel heroic at all. Just pained. 

The guard in the room reaches for him but Damaso waves him away. She acts calm but he saw the way her mask fell when he first spurred into action. As scared as he'd been of himself, she'd been even more frightened. He knew so without having to look her shaky hands and doe-wide eyes. 

"You can't hurt me from within these walls," Damaso said. "You are a prisoner, remember? And so are Yuriko and Charlie." 

Ice cold water would have felt less chilling as he remembered his situation. He could try to hurt her now and maybe he'd succeed. He'd rough up her body a bit but then the rest of the commission would hurt Charlie back with three times the force. They could get his classmates, his friends, his mother. Everyone. He'd hurt them a little but they'd destroy those he loved. 

Patience, he told himself just as he told Dabi a thousand times. If anger was to have any use, it would be as fuel for the calculated fall he would deliver another time. Rage and hurt would get him through the boring days of wait to come. Things would be better if all he did was wait. 

He cursed out the walls and cell bars confining him one last time before lowering the baton. The guard immediately ripped it from his hands. 

"Good," Damaso said with all the satisfaction of a queen. And, well, he couldn't have that. 

He spat at her from where he towered above and bluntly said, "You're a horrible person." 

Damaso gawked at him, wiping the spit off her face with a disgust twisted look. No later did she order, "Take him back to his room. And give the heroine a little gift for his behavior." 

He didn't put up a fight as two guards burst into the room and grabbed him by his elbows, herding him out the door. They guided him into an open hall, passing by many doors. His eyes flickered to each of the rooms, mapping the area for later. One of the rooms close to the one they left had it's door swung wide open revealing a group of workers pinning what looked like wall paper up over a window that look onto a neighboring building's balcony. A worker saw him looking their way and quickly slammed the door. 

The guard to his left barked at him to keep walking and they shuffled the rest of the way back to his cell just around the corner. He was thrown in with enough forced that landing hurt his already bruised ribs. He winced, the sound of the cell door sliding shut ringing in his ears. 

He was alone. 

-:-

Charlie woke up not half an hour after being put back in their cell (which was only a few minutes after Izuku returned). He came to with a groan that snapped Izuku out of his thoughts. It was a good thing - his thoughts weren't exactly heading to a happy place. 

He scrambled over to Charlie, hands coming to steady him as he sat up. He whispered, "Take it easy." 

Being in the state he is, Charlie ignored him in favour of pressing a palm to his forehead and mumbling, "Shit. I feel like I have a hangover." 

"Not quite," Izuku chuckled. It hurt to try and laugh it off. "Do you need anything?" 

"Water, maybe?" 

"Uh, I think we have some left over from this morning. Fingers crossed."

A check in the water bottles they were given with that day's excuse for breakfast confirmed that no, there no water left. He apologized to Charlie but that only seemed to upset him more. 

He frowned. "Are you okay?" 

Charlie's brows pinched together and he shook his head. "Stop that." 

"Stop what? Did I do something wrong?" 

"That. Stop that." Charlie sighed and rested his head in his hands. He grumbled, "You don't have to check if something's wrong. You don't have to apologize for the water. You don't have to check on me or help me." 

Izuku felt himself frown more. He didn't understand. Why now was Charlie saying this when he seemed fine with his help before? Why was it suddenly so tense in the cell? 

Hesitantly, Izuku asked, "Does it offend you? Because you really shouldn't be offended. Everyone needs help sometimes and I'm more than happy to--" 

"That's just it," Charlie snapped and Izuku recoiled a tad. "All you want to do is help. You worry about me here. You put yourself in front of any harm Ayumu might receive. You risk your life regularly to help the people licensed villains and the commission hurt. You help so much it's going to start hurting you. I feel like you forget about yourself." 

And okay. Sure. He was helping Charlie instead of working through the weird mental shit that was starting to tug as his brain, begging for his attention, but that was fine. He was fine. He wasn't scared, or in pain, or sad, or losing hope or. . . well, any of those other things. No. 

And even if he was - what would it matter? He's not the one who was literally shocked into unconsciousness. Charlie takes priority in this situation. 

"But you're hurt," Izuku argued. 

"Says the one with the massive cut on his lip," Charlie snorted. Izuku raised his brows, the cut wasn't that big. It wouldn't even warrant more than four stitches. And it was healing. "Not that that's the point! The point is, learn to take care of yourself. Before I passed out I heard how you dragged Damaso's attention back to you when Ayumu was mad. You put yourself in the line of fire." 

"Yeah, so she wouldn't get hurt. Damaso was going to blow." 

"So you risked getting caught in it instead?" 

"Don't sound so appalled. I can take it." 

"You shouldn't have to take it!" Charlie shouted. 

In Izuku's mind, everyone has a fuse. Some are long, some are short. Charlie's seems to be long enough to wrap around an entire city. Where Dabi would already be seething and sending flames out, Charlie keeps level headed and questions more. But, Izuku has also learned that people have more than one fuse and some of those fuses are shorter than others and it always depends on the topic. Charlies fuse is long, but whatever topic they'd somehow chipped at was much, much shorter. 

"What's this really about?" Izuku asked. 

Charlie looked him in the eyes. "You're a child. You don't deserve to deal with all this because us grown ups have failed you." 

Guilt, Izuku thought. Everything had a source. Unfortunately, this was Charlie's. 

Izuku sighed and scooted closer to Charlie. He pressed his back against the cell wall and turned his head to his companion, expression open. He said, "You haven't failed me. You don't need to feel bad about getting help from me just because you're 'supposed' to look after me 'cause I'm young. You can't control the situation we're in anymore than I can so we might as well help each other out as much as we can. I'm not going to let you suffer, and you're not going to let me suffer." 

"You're not just suffering, Revite," Charlie says. He points to his bruised stomach. "You're inflicting pain on yourself. I can't sit by and watch that." 

"Then don't."  

This seems to shock Charlie as he gapes at him. "So why--" 

"But," Izuku cut in, "that doesn't mean you can't accept help from me. You don't want me to hurt myself in favour of others? Fine. I won't fight your battles for you or whatever it is. However, helping you right now isn't hurting me. Let me help now." 

"But with Ayumu--" 

"Was hurting me. I know. I'm sorry," he admitted, rolling his eyes. It was like being grilled by Dabi for the hundredth time. "I promise to think about consequences before I help someone in the future." 

Charlie hummed. Izuku was glad he wasn't Dabi because after his stunt with the commission building, he always made sure to be extra specific about their deals. He would have asked him to not only think about consequences but to also not go through with the saving at all if said consequences were bad. 

Oh well. 

"You know you can't save everyone, right?" 

Izuku looked to the ground, fidgeting with his hands. That was an uncomfortable thought, but a very real one. "I know." 

"If Dabi and Hawks get hurt--" 

"They won't." 

"If they do," Charlie pressed, "it won't be your fault. If you don't save them so you can be okay, it still won't be your fault. You can't save everyone nor is it your duty to save all of those who you can - not with those risks. What you've done as Revite is already enough." 

He knew he was right. On the surface of the most logical part of his brain he knew that his life had value too, and that he isn't obligated to help. . . yet it still caused his stomach to turn. 

"What if it's not enough?" he voiced his thoughts. He shook his head. "I just -- If all these people before - Hatsu, Ayumu, you - couldn't take down the commission, what's to say I can do it? What makes me so different." 

Charlie's worried look shifted into something Izuku couldn't recognize. His lips pursed and his eyes turning down to where the rims of his glasses blocked them, shoulders lowering. 

"Have I ever told you about my wife, Revite?" 

The sudden change of topic was jarring. He knew he was married, he had to be if he was Komori's uncle-in-law, still it had never fully occurred to him. His house looked overrun by his own things, not anyone else, and he never talked about her. 

He shook his head. 

Charlie leaned his head back on the wall. "She was wonderful in the way that people couldn't help but be affected by her. She was smart, beautiful, funny, and everything people want to see in someone. But she was also quiet. She watched people silently, catching on to their missteps or vulnerabilities. Even the commissions." 

A small smile graced his features. "I met her through my more morally grey job. I was hacking a reporter for information on a client of mine and she was that reporter. Apparently what she'd gathered on my client wasn't a threat to him, but to the commission attacking him." 

He chuckled then. "She was wild in a way no one ever noticed. When they thought she was shy, she was actually picking them apart. I could tell and was immediately hooked. We started working together and then you probably can guess how the rest went. Until the commission found out and she. . . " 

Izuku knew where this was going. He could tell by the way Charlie's words grew softer, less adored and more bittersweet. He reached out and placed a hand on Charlie's shoulder, offering him a comforting smile. 

"What I'm saying," Charlie continued, "is that when she died, what she knew died with her. When I was caught, my researched was swept aside with me. When Ayumu and Hatsu were drawn back to the commission, their efforts were lost." He faced Izuku head on, eyes softening. "You asked why you're different? It's because where my wife was quiet, you're loud. You've already put all the questions out to the world so if you do stop fighting for whatever reason, be it death, capture, something else entirely, people will still look for answers." 

Izuku felt a small spark of something swell in him as Charlie grinned, bright and hopeful. 

"You actions will leave echoes stronger than all the others, Revite." 

Charlie had called it enough, and Izuku believed it then. Regardless, he'd keep going no matter who or what tried to stop him. Plus Ultra, and all that. 

He nearly snickered at his own thoughts. He grinned back at Charlie. They'd get out of here and he'd keep being Revite. 

Plus Ultra.

-:- 

Dabi looked over every map with growing disappointment. They'd been at it for hours and it still felt like they were running in circles. Different groups were spread out across the city searching for Izuku and he was still stuck here, feeding his headache and feeling of uselessness. 

Hawks bumped his shoulder from where he sat beside him. His eyes were narrowed in concern. It was odd seeing them now without any eyeliner - like he was missing a key feature. 

"You okay?" he asked. 

Was he? No. Was he worse than he'd been for the past few days? No. 

"Hmph," Dabi settled on. He pointed to the maps and all the little colour coded flags on them. "This looks like a child started stabbing at it randomly." 

Hawks smiled, though it was lacking his normal overwhelming cheer. "Sutorimu and Komori like it." 

"Are you siding with them?" he inquired. "Don't tell me the neon actually appeals to you?" 

Hawks leaned into him and hummed. Dabi embraced the warmth of his shoulder and head naturally. "I mean, it helps when trying decipher what everything means. Like orange is increased security, and pink is suspicious activity. It's easy to find everything and see which places have the most overlaps." 

"But it's neon." 

"So?" 

He veered away from him and scowled. "See if I ever touch you again." 

"You're so edgy, my gods," Hawks said, rolling his eyes. 

Dabi leaned back into him. He knew they both agreed that this thing between them wouldn't be used as a distraction, however the casual remarks was much nicer than thinking about the dozens of flags and how they equated to nothing in the end. They went back to the flags every time though, just as they do now. 

Until Kaseki came barreling around the corner, his socks sliding him across the hardwood floors. 

Dabi resisted the urge to groan for the seventh time at the boy's clumsiness as he looked to him. "What is it? Another 'maybe suspicious' activity." 

Kaseki shook his head, a massive grin spreading across his face. He practically glowed in the already vibrant room. 

"We found Midoriya." 

[A/N: Sorry for the absence. Life got really crazy really fast, but things have calmed down now. I just want to say that all the lovely comments/votes I've received in the past few weeks has made my day and definitely encouraged me to write! Thank you. It means a lot.]