By the time he made it to the community college, most of his anger had fizzled out. He felt a cold emptiness settling down in his heart where the fire of his rage used to burn. He could claim to hate the other heroes with every single one of his breaths, but there would always be some part of him that missed his friends. He wanted to be at Nemesis and the Blade for teaming up and plotting behind his back, but could he blame them? There were several things that he had done behind their backs for the same exact reason; they would stop him if they knew everything he was planning on doing. On a similar thought, he had some respect for Ender and Kamikaze. They had given him the information he wanted from them, after all.

Regardless, they weren't his friends anymore. He had moved on. He had been moved on for a long time already. He had learned how to live by himself and for himself. He was not the selfless vigilante he used to be. He was now a selfish teenager who was trying desperately to hang onto the job he had. All the other heroes- the ones who had proper licenses- needed to move on from him. They had responsibilities and lives outside of him that he wouldn't let them throw away for no good reason. They each had a district that they had sworn to protect. Vermillion's vow to protect Logstedshire was now as empty as his heart.

"Are you coming inside or freezing to death out there?" Beau said. Vermillion startled to attention. He hadn't realized that he had arrived at the college. Beau had the window open, leaning outside of it on her arms. She wasn't looking at Vermillion. Her gaze traveled upward all the way to the stars that shone in Logstedshire's night sky. While the other districts had light pollution that hid the stars, Logstedshire didn't have enough light to completely obscure the brighter stars. It could have been seen as something poetic, but Vermillion had never thought about it past the basic fact.

"I'm coming in. It's cold as fuck out here," Vermillion said, rolling into the room. He landed on his back, spreading his limbs out. There wasn't enough room for him to completely stretch out, his limbs twisting and folding in a way that would surely make him ache later. Beau shut her window. She stepped over Vermillion's arm to lean down at his side. She raised an eyebrow at him. Vermillion lifted the papers towards her. "Here."

Beau took the papers, falling onto her butt as she read the documents. Vermillion didn't look at her. He stared up at her roof, counting the small indents that formed shadowy patterns because of the lamplight. Even though his eyes were pinned to the ceiling, his mind began to spin the hands of his internal clock backwards. When the hands stopped, he was in another time period all together.

This was a couple years back. Vermillion heard rumors about the Pit being operated in a factory that was facing bankruptcy soon. He assumed that the owner of the factory was selling time at his factory in order to have enough money to pay off his debts. Every night, the Pit would meet at the factory, postponing the company's imminent bankruptcy. Vermillion made sure that all his weapons were secure. He mainly used knives and daggers, but he had recently acquired an airsoft gun that looked like the real deal for threatening purposes. He didn't really need a gun since his powers helped him shoot far larger and sharper projectiles than bullets, but he knew that people like the Pit betters only responded to violence they understood. They knew a gun could kill them. His reputation wasn't prominent enough for his own skills to scare the betters.

Vermillion had walked inside like a regular person. No one recognized him, and if they did, he wasn't a threat to them. To those that knew his name, he was nothing more than a kid playing hero. Vermillion decided long ago that he would let his actions prove them wrong. He didn't need the sick criminals that placed bets on which child would win a fight to think highly of him. He didn't become a hero for recognition. He did it to save people like the children of the Pit. The people who were being forced to fight each other for their own safety. Vermillion knew a thing or two about that.

Instead of going to the main rings, Vermillion ducked down into the lower levels of the factory. There were several people locked in cages with guards periodically walking through the aisles. Vermillion took a deep breath, pulling out his knives from his belt. He took a second steadying breath before launching himself forward. He quickly disarmed the guards in his path. As he walked down the aisles, he cut through the locks that held the cage doors tightly in place using pressurized air. The people in the cages were confused, but they didn't need much prompting to run away from the hellscape they had found themselves in. Vermillion continued slicing through guards and cage locks.

The last cage he found was built into the wall like a cell. It had a more intricate lock than the others, and the window to see the interior was small with thick bars. There were four people in the cage, each one decked out with actual armor and electrical collars. These four were the best of the best, Vermillion knew. He actually knew a few of them from their reputations. The one in dark pink armor was Thorn. She was a rare Fae hybrid with a little bit of Creeper in her veins. She was known for having beautiful moves that tore an opponent up from the inside out. The one in purple armor was Indigo. No one was entirely sure what kind of hybrid he was, and this prompted an extra layer to the gambling for or against the mysterious mist maker. The one in gray armor was the Afreet. He was a half-demon, half-human, something far grander than a hybrid. He was known for his bloody brutality. The last person in the room was the newest fighter in the Pit. She had not earned a nickname for herself yet, but people were amazed by such a unique power that belonged to the seemingly weak Avian. The four of them were the stars of the show. This granted them a little more freedom than everyone else, but they were also given a lot more pain. They were trapped in a cage just like everyone else.

Vermillion had cut through all the locks, his knives spinning around him to attack any guard that wanted to sneak up on him while he was working. At this point, the four in the cell had noticed that someone was messing with their lock. One of them- Indigo- was pressed against the barred window to watch Vermillion work. He made a quiet noise, and Vermillion threw his hand behind him to send an air current carrying two of his knives behind him. He heard the noise of metal hitting flesh along with a groan of pain. The guard started coughing, and the dripping of blood hitting the floor got louder as the guard stomped his way over to Vermillion. The vigilante waited, jumping to the side at the last minute. The guard slammed right into the lock Vermillion was working on, breaking the very last part with his brute force. The guard fell to the ground inside the cell. Vermillion grabbed Indigo and Thorn, dragging the two of them behind him. As he counted the footsteps, he could tell that Afreet and the last girl were following behind them.

When they broke to the surface, the betting grounds were in chaos. Some of the fighters Vermillion had freed had already escaped, some were being held hostage, and others were actively fighting as a means to get revenge. Vermillion dropped Indigo and Thorn's hands to join the brawl. He wasn't sure what the four of them would do, but he hadn't expected them to fight alongside him. He didn't know if they wanted revenge or if they truly cared about their fellow fighters. Vermillion wasn't going to ask. It was not his job to tell these guys how to use their newfound freedom. He just wanted to give them a choice. Logstedshire wasn't a good place for anyone, but it was better than the Pit.

Vermillion had managed to get all the fighters out of the Pit's factory, even the four that were more than willing to lose their lives. Vermillion hadn't been able to do much for everyone, but he did work decently hard at getting them a place to stay. Some were given luckier deals than others. Thorn and Indigo were able to get jobs with the hero network. They had found people who were willing to hire them on as sidekicks. Afreet had decided to find his mother in the Nether, a country outside of the walls. The last girl- Beau- remained in Logstedshire. She practically forced Vermillion to make her his ally. Although she should have been a high schooler, Beau was able to get a dorm at the community college by working as a tutor while finishing high school for her diploma. The other fighters Vermillion had rescued lived in an orphanage or found passage to another district.

"Do you know who the fuck did this?" Beau said, pulling Vermillion back into the present. Beau's fists were trembling as she held the papers, crinkling the edges. She was seething, and Vermillion wondered if that was what Ender saw when Vermillion was losing his composure. Vermillion imagined Beau kicking the roof of a building three times, and a breathy laugh left his body at the idea. Beau glared at him, clearly unimpressed with his expression.

"No, I don't know. I have a fucking idea, and you're not going to fucking like it," Vermillion said. He sat up, twisting his body around to look over the paper beside Beau. "It has to be the damned Pit. If hybrids are discriminated against any more, the Pit won't have many legal repercussions to worry about. They'll have even more fucking hybrids than they did before."

"Why would the Pit do something so Primedamn drastic? If Logstedshire is put under martial law, how the hell do they think they're gonna kidnap hybrids?" Beau responded. She nearly flung the papers away from her, but Vermillion plucked them out of her hand. He pulled them into his lap, running his finger along the lines of text that explained how this would drive hybrids insane.

"No one gives a flying fuck about hyrbids. The police sure as hell don't give a damn about us. If they see a hybrid getting taken off the street, they'll chalk it up to a human doing their civil duty and getting rid of a hybrid. I thought you would know by now that no one cares about hybrids," Vermillion responds. He has seen it way too many times. He had seen hybrids being the victims of theft, kidnapping, rape, and murder, and the police never gave it more than a passing glance. Every child in Logstedshire knew that they needed to protect themselves because nobody else would. But they also knew that the moment they defended themselves or someone they loved, the police would drag them to hell and back before returning them to their homes. In Logstedshire, 'fair' didn't exist. A hybrid had to take what was given to them even if it was a beating because that was the only way to survive.

"You cared about hybrids," Beau muttered softly. Perhaps the same thoughts had been running through her mind about how Logstedshire wasn't a perfect place for anyone. She must have remembered all the work that she and Vermillion had put into making this district a little safer, a little kinder.

"Shut up," Vermillion demanded. Those memories were from a long time ago. They were working on a different problem now, and then they would split up once more.

"Why did you leave, Vermillion? Why the fuck did you quit when you knew more than anyone else how fucking terrible this damned district is? What made you lose your faith, huh? Have you decided to side with the fucking humans? Decided that you had enough turning on your own kind?" Beau demanded, the anger about the problem they had at hand bleeding into her words. She was beyond upset to the point that she brought up something that she had promised she would never talk about. Despite fighting for hybrids, Vermillion wasn't one. He was a human in most senses of the word. He had powers like other humans, not Origins like hybrids. His powers were entirely his own, not a product of his species. Vermillion hated being compared to humans, though. At least, he hated being compared to the humans of Logstedshire. He guessed he was just as bad as them now, though.

Vermillion was ready to defend himself or to give into her words when Beau's computer went off. She growled as she checked it. Her growling cut off as her eyes widened. She turns to Vermillion, calling out breathlessly. "A hybrid attacked a human at the border. A riot has started."

Vermillion cursed. He ran towards the window, pulling it up even as he nearly fell. He jumped from the window, using his power to lift him to the neighboring rooftop. With the early morning sun rising above the horizon, Vermillion could see the smoke billowing towards the sky. A riot had begun.