Death, of course, was not the end. Midoriya felt like laughing as the flames consumed him. Burning to death was a new one, but oddly familiar. There was less terror at least, less sense of his life flashing before his eyes, just falling, or flying, depending on which way you looked at it. Slipping into the darkness and then the golden light, he wondered if there was a way he could have saved the villain that Ingenium had killed. All Might would have been fast enough, would have saved him, wrapped his arms around him and made sure he served his time in Tartarus. But much as he wished he was, Midoriya was not All Might. Even with a quirk, and a hero license. He was just Midoriya.

The fire faded, and he stood once more in the ashes, costume smouldering.

The following hours passed in a blur. Making his way out of the compound, Midoriya was greeted by officials in protective gear, pointing Geiger counters at him, and he soon found himself sitting on a gurney in a temporary shelter, sunlight filtering through the yellow plastic.

"Where the fuck is he?" Midoriya would have recognised that yelling anywhere. "Let me through."

Midoriya slid from his seat, looking towards the entrance. "Kacchan?"

One of the officials outside was trying to hold Kacchan by the sounds of it, their voice muffled by protective equipment. "Sir, this is a contaminated area."

There was the sound of a scuffle, and a yelp from whoever was standing watch outside, and Kacchan barged in, filthy and furious. His hero costume was damaged, mask cracked half off, but aside from a few scratches he seemed uninjured.

Kacchan closed the distance between himself and Midoriya, finger jabbing at his chest, with a forcefulness that was painful even through Midoriya's costume. "You dipshit! Think you can steal all the glory, hah?"

The what? Midoriya blinked. "Kacchan- I just shut down the reactor, that's all."

"Bullshit," Kacchan growled, spittle flying. "Your first mission, and you save ten thousand people? You trying to make the rest of us look bad?"

"What- ten thousand?" Midoriya stammered out.

Kacchan grunted. "Don't give me that. Isn't that what you were always going on about? How you're going to save people? Well, you did it. Good job, idiot."

Midoriya found a grin creeping onto his face as the number three hero's words sank in. "Thanks, Kacchan."

"Yeah, well-" Kacchan pulled a face. "At least you won, I guess."

Midoriya nodded, his mind cutting back to Ingenium. Midoriya had let one man die, and a wanted criminal go. Kacchan wouldn't be congratulating him if he knew the truth. But there was something else playing in the back of his mind. He'd ruled out Lemillion and his wife as traitors, as well as Todoroki. He wasn't willing to countenance it being Kacchan, not yet. That left-

"Kacchan-" Midoriya ventured. "How well do you know Uraraka? You went to UA together, right?"

Kacchan stared at him with a mixture of scorn and confusion, red eyes blazing. "The hell?" he spat. "Why are you asking me bullshit like that? The explosion melt your brains or something?"

"No." Midoriya swallowed, feeling himself trip over his own words, old speech patterns returning. "I was- I was just wondering if you knew her really well."

Kacchan glared at him, and Midoriya felt a surge of unease under his stare. Kacchan had always been a lot of things- angry, impulsive, obtuse. But stupid was not one of those things. Something had clicked into place in Kacchan's head, Midoriya was sure of it. "The fuck are you implying," he growled.

There was a quiet cough from the entrance of the tent. "Am I interrupting something?"

Kacchan spun round, eyes narrowing to glare at the intruder. "The fuck are you doing here?"

Over Kacchan's shoulder, Midoriya could see that the newcomer was Uravity's top sidekick, Heavenly Body. His hero costume consisted of a shirt that left his chiselled stomach exposed, bright red short-shorts, and knee-high white boots that matched Uravity's, but with red details rather than her pink. He wore a helmet on his head, with what looked like several of saturn's rings on a skew around it.

Three small metal spheres bobbed in the air as they circled him, courtesy of his quirk, orbit. "I should ask you the same question," he said. "Since you're currently harassing an intern from my agency."

"Your agency?" Kacchan seethed. "Big talk for someone who's too fucking incompetent to make it without round-face backing him up."

"Kacchan. That's enough." Midoriya pulled himself up to his full height, finding to his surprise that he was just a hair taller than Kacchan, and put his hand on Kacchan's shoulder. He half expected Kacchan to explode at him, but to his surprise the hero's eyes widened fractionally before he slapped the hand away.

"Don't tell me what to do," he snapped, moving to leave. "Damn intern."

Midoriya looked to Heavenly Body as Kacchan shoved his way past him. "Why are you here, anyway?"

Heavenly Body beamed. "You don't know? You're the man of the hour, Izukuu," he dragged out Midoriya's name with a grin. "The attack was safely averted, and Lemillion is pinning the credit squarely on you." He squinted at Midoriya. "Now, you're not radioactive anymore, right?"

Hesitantly, Midoriya nodded. "They said my quirk helped somehow."

"Sweet. Then you should come with me."

Heavenly Body walked beside Midoriya to the makeshift stage that had been set up for the media. It was a good distance from the facility, but close enough that the cooling towers still loomed in the background, largely undamaged by the day's events. The pro hero Nejire-chan was flying about, assisting the emergency repair crews with her quirk, and the stage was occupied by a police officer, who was taking questions.

"So, I take it you've not had media training?" Heavenly Body asked.

"That's Meteo-right!" said Midoriya cheerfully, recalling the sidekick's catchphrase from his debut three years ago.

"Hoo boy, okay. We're gonna have fun with this." Heavenly Body rubbed his chin. "How are you in front of crowds?"

"I-" Midoriya thought about it. The last time he'd presented in front of a crowd larger than a departmental meeting at Can't Stop Sparkling was university, and he vaguely remembered being terrified in front of a lecture hall full of people. "Not bad," he said. "Did you have- uh- any tips for me?"

Heavenly Body nodded, launching immediately into a lecture on media relations that made Midoriya wish he had one of his notebooks with him, but he took in as much as he could without one.

"Now, we've got you down to make a statement to the press, but if anyone asks any questions, you can field them to me or Ochako, got it?"

Numbly Midoriya nodded, and it seemed like only a few seconds passed before he was being pressed up onto the stage, Heavenly Body giving him a double thumbs up from the sidelines. The flash of the cameras was blinding, and Midoriya suppressed the urge to cover his eyes, heart beating loud in his chest as he forced himself to wave to the crowd. How were they more intimidating than a villain, he wondered, as the advice Heavenly Body had given him slipped from his mind like oil. Did journalists really scare him more than death? Midoriya tried not to mumble as he read from his pre-prepared statement, something one of Uravity's press officers had whipped up. It bore little relation to what he had experienced, but he supposed that it was for the best. Who would want to know about his experiences, anyway? The smell of blood, how he felt at the moment of death? It was too dark for the newspapers. Midoriya stumbled his way to the end of the statement, wishing fervently that he'd had time to memorise it, and came to the last line.

"I- ah-" Midoriya swallowed down his nerves, his grip tight on the podium as he leaned over the microphone. "Any questions?"

Several journalists raised a hand.

"Ah, yes?" Midoriya swallowed, pointing to one at the back, a woman in a navy blazer.

"Is it true that you haven't picked a hero name yet?" she asked.

"I, ah, yeah." Midoriya grinned, hand going nervously to the back of his head. "Guess I've been too busy saving people so far."

There was laughter from the crowd, and Midoriya felt like press conferences weren't the worst part of being a hero.

When he got off stage, Eri was waiting for him, still in full hero costume, a faint golden aura surrounding her that shimmered out as Midoriya approached.

"Sorry I got to you so late." Eri gave him an apologetic smile. "Mirio said you should be low priority, because of your quirk."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm using my quirk on anyone who's been exposed to the radiation," Eri explained. "To rewind them to the point before the attack."

"I see," said Midoriya, with a small frown. "The medics who treated me said I didn't show signs of exposure. Something to do with my quirk."

"Really?" Eri looked faintly surprised. "But you were right in the middle of it."

Midoriya nodded.

"You should pass that on to Melissa," said Eri. "She'd be interested."

"If someone else was in there with me," said Midoriya, a thought nagging at him, Ingenium's voice grating out an I'll be fine. "I mean, theoretically-" he trailed off.

"Then they probably received a lethal dose of radiation," said Eri, frowning at him.

"Even if they had some kind of biomechanical quirk?"

"No, that shouldn't make a difference. The organic parts of the person's body would still be damaged." Eri's eyes narrowed. "Why? There wasn't anyone in there with you, was there?"

Panic seized Midoriya's heart. There was no way for him to admit what happened without implicating himself in Ingenium's actions, but if what Eri told him was right, Ingenium was going to die. "I, uh-" he hesitated, looking about, at the officials in protective gear that were scurrying around. "Could I get your number? Get back to you on that. Sorry-"

Eri gave him a tired sort of smile. "You're a funny guy, Midoriya," she said. "Sure."

With access to the scanners Lemillion's agency had brought in for the incident, it hadn't been hard to track Ingenium down- a trail of radiation lead from the powerplant to the building where he was hiding- too dispersed to cause serious harm, but high enough to show up on the instruments. Briefly, Midoriya considered asking for backup, but his position as an intern at the Uravity agency seemed precarious enough as it was, and he couldn't admit to having let Ingenium go.

Instead, he called the number Eri had given him, and agreed a meeting place nearby, in a public park, hoping that she would take him seriously and come.

"What is this about?" Eri Aizawa sidled towards him, her white hair loose around her shoulders, tinged yellow by the streetlights. The dark circles under her eyes seemed even deeper than they had been that morning, and her expression was suspicious.

Midoriya released the breath he had been holding. The message he'd sent her had been about saving someone's life. He hadn't dared be more specific than that. "It's Ingenium," he said.

"The vigilante?" Eri's expression twisted, and she reached into her pocket for her phone. "He's dangerous."

"Wait. Just hear me out."

The look Eri gave him was stern. "He murders people."

She wasn't wrong. Midoriya raised his hands, palms forward. "He helped today. At the powerplant."

Her eyes widened. "He helped?"

"There was a villain there. I don't know if I would have been able to complete the shutdown sequence without him," said Midoriya.

There was a silence in the night air between them. "And so you let him go," finished Eri, her voice soft. "Didn't you."

Midoriya's heart sank, and he lowered his chin to his chest. He had a thousand excuses, but none of them seemed to stand up to scrutiny anymore. Not enough time, not enough strength. They were the same excuses that had circled him his whole life, with every failed attempt to become a hero.

"And now you want me to come with you and save his life?" Eri asked.

"Please." Midoriya screwed his eyes shut, clasping his hands together. "I can't just let him die."

"Because he saved your ass back in the control room," said Eri, her jaw clenched. "That doesn't erase what he's done."

"No." Midoriya heard his own voice crack. "Because he can be saved."

There was a pause as Eri stared at him. "I'm pretty sure that what you're asking is illegal," she said, drily.

A lump of hope rose unbidden in Midoriya's throat. "Then you will help?"

"I'm a hero," said Eri, shoving her hands firmly into her pockets as she stared at him. "I can't leave someone to die, no matter who they are."

Midoriya's shoulders slumped as he released the breath he hadn't realised he had been holding.

The place he'd tracked Ingenium to stank of stale grapefruit and metal, even from the stairwell. A single electric light buzzed as it flickered on and off above the door. Midoriya wouldn't have even considered the building as a possible residence if he hadn't already scouted it. Midoriya raised the radiation counter to the door and it crackled to life, needle twitching. "He's here."

"You weren't planning on knocking?" asked Eri. "That's rude."

"I'm very sorry!" Midoriya called, as he tried the door. It was unlocked, and he stepped in, not removing his shoes. Ingenium had been helpful back in the control room of the powerplant, but there was no guarantee of him being sanguine about Midoriya bursting in on him in his hideout, and, whether he was suffering radiation poisoning or not, Midoriya didn't fancy fighting a killer in his socks. Eri gave him a questioning look but followed suit, capture weapon still festooned about her neck like a scarf.

Inside it was dark, light from the streetlamps outside seeping through the blinds that covered the windows in long lines, and Midoriya saw movement in the far corner, a faint shink of oiled metal on metal. A cough, crackling with fluid. Ingenium.

Midoriya tensed, and felt Eri do the same behind him. Ingenium's body looked stranger and more intimidating in a confined space, but closing in Midoriya could see that his suspicions were correct- Ingenium looked sick, his lips cracked and stained with dried blood, which also speckled the blankets of the bed he was lying on. His hair was in disarray, a few pieces of his equipment discarded around him.

"Ingenium," Midoriya said.

Tensei Iida looked up at Midoriya through rheumy eyes. Cartons of juice were scattered over the floor, the spilled liquid pooling and staining where it lay. His mechanical body was supine, the interlocking metal plates skewed at odd angles where it had curled over to fit on the mattress in the corner of the room furthest from the window.

"You-" he hissed, and his lower body whirred, the length of it twitching as he drew himself up.

"Easy now," Midoriya raised his hands. "We're here to help."

"We?" Ingenium's head jerked in Eri's direction, and Midoriya found himself stepping in, putting his body between Ingenium and Eri.

"You shouldn't get much closer than that," said Eri from behind him. "The range on his arm blades is about two metres."

Midoriya nodded, wishing he had brought a notebook with him.

"You're in no danger from me," said Ingenium, wiping a little dark liquid from his mouth. "I mean no harm to you, Rewind Girl. Or to the pyrefly here."

Eri gave a growl in her throat. "Big words. For a killer."

Ingenium stared at her, his eyes flat, his lower body giving a metallic susurrus as it shifted. "I do what's necessary," he rasped. "What no-one else is willing to do."

Eri swallowed. "Heroes do what's necessary," she said, a hard edge to her voice. "Without killing anyone."

"If both of us had heroes in that control room, everyone would have died," said Ingenium, with a look at Midoriya, his expression nearly identical to the one he had worn when he had decapitated the spined villain. "The villains are already winning the world. Is that really what you want?"

"What's he talking about?" Eri looked between them, her expression critical. "Midoriya, what happened in there?"

Midoriya steeled himself, willing his legs not to shake, which was easier said than done now that he faced the vigilante up close. "Can we have this discussion after we've saved your life?" he asked.

"You've been a hero less than a day, and already you're seeing how the hero's code falls down in the face of reality. How did you like your handicap? The villains get to try to kill you as much as they want to, and you get to slap them in handcuffs."

Midoriya felt his jaw twitch, and he clenched his fist as he looked at Eri. "There was a villain with us, in the control room," he admitted. "Ingenium killed him."

Eri's face was impassive. "That's hardly out of character."

"It was the only practical choice," said Ingenium, his eyes betraying no guilt.

"It's not about practicality," said Midoriya. "It's about protecting people. Saving people."

"Saving people? When it came down to it, you needed to make a choice," said Ingenium. "Between the life of a man and the lives of those he threatened. And you hesitated."

"A hero can save all of those lives. Even the villains."

Ingenium gave a tired smile. "My brother would have agreed with you. And look where that got him."

"I've had about enough of this," said Eri, stepping forward past Midoriya. A faint golden aura gathered around her horn, and her mouth was set in a hard line. "I think there was a kettle and stuff in the kitchen. Get me some coffee."

"But-" Midoriya started, and Eri shut him down with a small frown.

"I'm doing you a huge favour not calling the both of you in as co-conspirators," she said. "So do me a favour too and get me some coffee, okay?"

Midoriya stepped into the grimy kitchenette, rifling through the cupboards in search of coffee. Judging by the number of grapefruit cartons, pressed flat and stacked neatly in the recycling bin, Ingenium hadn't been here too long. A week at most, probably dating back to the photos of him Midoriya had seen on the forums. There had to be someone helping Ingenium stay hidden, but Midoriya saw no sign of them in the house, no discarded mail or post-it on the wall.

Had Ingenium been in the right about the villain? Midoriya mulled it over as he rinsed a cup in the sink and spooned some instant coffee into it. Golden light from Eri's quirk spilled over the threshold from the main room as he set the kettle to boil.

By the time the coffee was finished, the glow had faded again, and Eri stood before the vigilante, the horn on her forehead perhaps a little longer than it had been that morning. Ingenium had folded in on himself, arms crossed over his chest and eyes closed, but his breathing was steadier than before.

"He'll be okay," said Eri, taking the cup from Midoriya's hands and drinking from it without looking at him. "I rewound him a day or so- to before the incident. Unless he was playing around in nuclear waste dumps before that, he should be fine."

"Thank goodness," Midoriya huffed a sigh of relief, and Ingenium's eyes opened again.

"How do you feel?" Eri asked him, and Ingenium felt at his throat with his more-human hand, expression thoughtful.

"I'm… functional," he said. He flexed the fingers of his hand, and there was an answering noise from his lower body, the low whisper of oiled metal on metal. He smiled, an expression that looked out-of-place on his lined face. "Thank you, for my reprieve."

"It's more mercy than you've ever given anyone," said Eri, her voice dark, and Midoriya wondered briefly if Ingenium's long list of victims included anyone she had known.

"So what's it going to be?" Ingenium tilted his head. "You going to take me in? Or let me free to do the things that need to be done?"

A few days ago, it wouldn't have even been a question. Ingenium was a vigilante, a murderer. His rap sheet was longer than most villains, starting with Stain and continuing in the same vein, the worst and most dangerous men and women. But something inside Midoriya told him that Tensei Iida wasn't a bad man at the core of it. A desperate man, perhaps. A man pressed to desperate ends by circumstance. Would All Might have let him go? For once, Midoriya wasn't sure.

"We're taking you in," said Midoriya, sounding more sure than he was.

Ingenium seemed unsurprised. "Just as well," he said, with a small bow of his head. "I've been meaning to purge Tartarus for a while."

A little of the tension seemed to leave Eri's shoulders. "You'll go willingly?"

"Unless you wanted a fight," said Ingenium, cocking an eyebrow as he looked between the two of them.

Eri nodded, looking to Midoriya. "You watch him. I'll call for transport."

It seemed to Midoriya that Ingenium was the one watching him as he stood guard, the half-man's blue eyes languid and knowing. A van passed outside, close enough to rattle the blinds in the windows.

"After you killed Stain, you could have gone straight again," said Midoriya, voicing his thoughts.

"You're wondering why I didn't?" Ingenium tilted his head, and his lower body shifted.

"I- yeah-" Midoriya frowned. "I mean, you were a hero."

"Like you always wanted to be." A hiss that might have been a chuckle emerged from Ingenium's body.

"I-" A jolt of unease ran up Midoriya's spine. "How did you know that?"

"You were sponsored by a top hero agency," said Ingenium. "Mentored by another. You think I haven't looked into your background?" He paused, before continuing. "AllMight#1Fan."

Midoriya swallowed, remembering the feeling he'd had coming back from the bar with Todoroki. "You've been watching me."

Ingenium didn't bother to deny it. "You should join me," he said, softly. "You have an understanding of what's at stake." He breathed out, engines in his lower half idling. "Though if you don't have the stomach for my line of work, perhaps you could work on cleaning your own house instead."

"What's that meant to mean?"

"The hero association is compromised, hopelessly," said Ingenium. "You're not the only one I've been watching."

Midoriya started, remembering what Sir Nighteye had told him. A spy, in the upper ranks. He couldn't let anyone know, not without putting them in danger too. He looked to the doorway, but Eri showed no sign of returning. "What do you know?"

"That they're foiled at every turn. They're little more than puppets, jumping where the liberation front lead them."

It matched with what Nighteye had said. Midoriya bit his lip. Anyone who knew about the spy was in danger, but he was pretty sure Ingenium wasn't about to go spreading that sort of knowledge around, and if he knew something, anything.

"Sir Nighteye told me-" Midoriya started, as Eri returned, the slam of the door and the sound of her footsteps on the stairs cutting his statement short.

"That man-" Ingenium's lips closed, and the gaze he gave Midoriya was sharp. His words were carefully chosen. "Be careful with him. He's not what he seems."