BenchBeYolking here! Another surprise chapter right outta nowhere! I hope you all enjoy it! This one was a blast to write!

...Coming up with things to write here is getting harder, but you know what isn't? Loving all you lovely people who keep reading and reviewing! Thanks for making it feel great to write! As always, I take criticism seriously, and I accept all praise with teary eyes. If you've made it to chapter 8, clearly I have to be doing something right, haha.

Anyway, keep on rocking it! I'll let the chapter...speak for itself!

Lazarus held his triumphant pose for a moment, waiting for Blue to react, after a stunned moment, she moved to raise her gun up.

Lazarus pounced forward, the combat feeling so much more familiar inside his costume and mask, as he wrapped a hand around her neck and used the other one to block her eyes. Lifting her off the ground as he turned to Goro.

"Run!" Lazarus commanded, and Goro obeyed.

"I'll be back with help! Hold on!" He cried as he fled, stumbling out the door. Instantly, Lazarus felt his foot twist, accompanied by several quiet bangs as Blue fired four rounds into his foot. Before Lazarus could react, she swung an elbow into his face, knocking his head back and causing him to lose his iron grip on her.

Lazarus stumbled back, he felt Blue shove him again, this time, Lazarus dropped his stance and swung blindly with a right jab, catching her in the shoulder, as she was sent stumbling back, clearly not use to the pain of close quarters combat. Lazarus readjusted his mask slightly to the left, as he walked towards Blue's unmoving position.

"I killed you!" Blue cried, snapped out of her daze as she lifted the gun at him, Lazarus laughed, but he heard it ring hollow as it was echoed back by the room.

"I am as unkillable as the ideals of justice." Lazarus threw his arms out, presenting a massive target as he walked towards her, his grim determination covered by his mask. Blue took a cautious step back.

"How-how?" Blue's hand shook, but Lazarus had tried pleading and mercy, he knew it was time for a different approach.

"I gave you a choice. You chose death. Much like I did to bring you to me, you made a poor decision. You were kind enough to give me 'justice,' as you put it. I feel it only fair I extend the same courtesy to you," Lazarus tilted his head, feeling the vengeful smile touch his face, "Theft brings death, then surely, death brings death." Lazarus lifted a single arm, extending it as if he were a gentleman taking a lady's hand, feeling his eyes burn with sadistic glee he had long kept repressed at her terror, "I've come back to take you with me."

Blue shrieked, the stress of the night combining with Lazarus's words to completely push her over the edge, she fired blindly, her eyes squeezed shut as she did so.

Lazarus laughed as several of the bullets flew wide, missing him completely, before one struck him dead in the heart.

Lazarus gasped, the air instantly knocked out of his lungs as he forced his eyes to look down, his metal cube embedded in his chest, dented on one side. A bullet clattered to the floor between his feet.

Lazarus felt his body shudder, his neck twisting, and suddenly, he wasn't in control anymore.

Lazarus felt his body swing around randomly, his arms jerkily moving every which way, his legs crumpling beneath his feet as he convulsed, every muscle in his body trying to complete a different task, his mind unable to parse the hundreds of impulses overloading it. Lazarus struggled to regain control, feeling helplessly trapped in his own head as his heart pounded. Phantom images of Newtonia dancing and flickering in and out of his vision. He remembered vividly why he never kept his cube in his chest.

Blue's face entered his vision as she stood over him, screaming hysterically as she kicked him again and again, though Lazarus couldn't feel a thing, he also couldn't defend himself. After unleashing her rage on him, she planted a foot on his chest, breathing heavily, her hands wildly shaking as she tried to keep her grip on the gun.

"Die! Die! Die!" She screamed as she leveled the gun at his head, then pointed it down at his cube, "I'll finish you off right here! No mercy! You die tonight!" Lazarus could only watch helplessly from behind his mask as she steadied her hands, putting the gun right over his cube, and then pulled the trigger.

Click.

…

Click.

Click. Click. Click.

Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click.

Lazarus's entire world was the blessing of the clicking of an empty gun, before with a sudden pop, Lazarus felt the dent smooth over on the cube, the natural beating of his heart having shifted the metal back to its regular form. Lazarus looked up at Blue, utterly devastated as she gazed at her gun, looking entirely betrayed. Blue's bright eyes became grey and cloudy in an instant as her words sunk in, and she had lost her chance to run away with her life.

Lazarus reached for her ankle and slowly pushed it off of his chest, standing up to his full height, enveloping Blue in his shadow. She looked up at him, and Lazarus felt no fear looking into her eyes, she had been beaten, and she had accepted it as tears streamed down her face. She smiled a pathetic smile, sniffling slightly as she did so. He felt something stir inside him, he couldn't leave her looking this sad, even after all she had done to him.

"Be heartless boy, and don't be satisfied by simply the look of defeat, not if you want to save people."

Lazarus reached out, wiping a tear from her face, leaving her confused for a moment, the sadness leaving her visage. Feeling satisfied with how she now looked, Lazarus asked a delicate question, one he hoped he knew the answer to.

"Do you regret it?" Lazarus spoke, the calm between the two of them seemed to stretch into an eternity.

"Not one bit." She replied, her voice dull, as if she thought she was being completely honest, Lazarus searched her face for a hint, or even a trace of remorse, and felt something dark inside him rise as he found none. A storm of emotions brewing behind his eyes.

"People are weak, boy, they are cheats and fakers, but you can change that, you know how, don't you?"

"You were going to kill me, and you feel nothing." Lazarus loomed over her, feeling helpessness mix with rage in his gut, a potent brew of unpredictibility surging through his bloodstream. Blue laughed hollowly.

"Go ahead and arrest me, Vigilante, but I'll be back, and by then I'll learn how to kill before I think. You can talk a big game about death, but I know who I am. I don't fear death." Blue spat, and Lazarus felt stunned, he felt empty.

Lazarus grabbed her by the back of the head. A fistfull of pink hair as he relized he only knew one other thing to do.

"Don't try to be a hero, there are enough of those spandex wearing idiots about, the laws are corrupt and so are they… but we don't have to be!"

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Please stop! Mercy! Mercy!" Blue cried as Lazarus dragged her by her hair towards the windows of his apartment, he felt his empty eyes gloss over as he mechanically moved. Blue desperately began clawing at the rough burlap and leather of his glove and sleeve, doing more damage to her fingernails then him.

"I guess there is a lesson you need to be taught, for everyone's good." Lazarus spoke, his voice crisp and clear. A declaration of his conviction and intentions. "I swore to hold off death by any means necessary, and to fulfill that conviction, I must change society by removing those who would bring death to it."

"You must teach them, Lich, they should fear death."

Lazarus reached the boarded up exit to his balcony, rearing his damaged foot back as he slammed it into the thin glass door, causing it to vibrate violently. Lazarus did it again, this time sending a spiderweb of cracks along its surface. He felt Blue tense as she realized where he was going.

"No! No! I don't want to die! I don't wanna-" Blue bawled as Lazarus kicked one final time, shattering the glass and knocking several boards loose as they tumbled straight down six stories to the dark alleyway beneath.

Lazarus released his grip on her pink hair, instantly, Blue turned to scurry away on her hands and knees, giving Lazarus the perfect opportunity to grab her by the ankle, keeping on hand on the empty frame as he tugged her out of the doorway, leaving her dangling over the empty abyss.

Over the sounds of her terrified screams, Lazarus scanned the blackness, seeing nothing below or around the street. Turning his attention back to Blue, he gripped tighter around her ankle.

"This is death! Which you would have inflicted me with!" Lazarus declared harshly, "Embrace it now!"

"Please!" She begged, Lazarus made it clear her words were falling on deaf ears.

"Make your peace with it! Let it consume you! Let it become you! Become one with death!" Lazarus screamed as he held her out farther away, his arm beginning to grow tired of the extra weight on it. His mind screaming at him to stop.

"I'm sorry!" Blue sobbed, completely breaking down, Lazarus pushed further, old habits burrowing their way past his mind, overtaking him, consuming him in his fervor.

"Who do you leave behind?" Lazarus spoke clearly, the crisp wind carrying his voice away as it left his mouth, even as the anger dropped from his voice, he felt the intensity remain.

"I-I-" Blue blubbered, trying to make sense, of her fear and her thoughts. Lazarus waited, letting his patience be put to the test.

"A sister! Two sisters, and a dad, and an older brother!" Blue confessed finally, a strong gust of wind setting her body in motion as she dangled backwards and forwards.

"Why did you choose this? Why did you choose death?" Lazarus spat the words out of his mouth, his mask shielding him from the wind, but not the chill creeping down his spine.

"The gang always looked after my family! I had to do my part! I just wanted to do my part!" Blue wasn't crying anymore, the wind had stolen her tears away, now her answers were reflective and clear in Lazarus's eyes. He felt her, and he knew she felt him. This was honesty, this was justice.

"Do you regret what has led you to death?" Lazarus felt his arm beging to shake, but he held on tighter. It didn't feel like it was his voice speaking.

"Yes! God yes! I was wrong! I never wanted to hurt-" As Blue began to lie, Lazarus lowered her down slightly further, both to cut to the truth, and because his arm was killing him. Instantly, her tune changed, the pretenses and falseness vanishing, "I did want to hurt you! Alright! But it was wrong! I don't want to die...and I don't want to feel the way killing you made me feel! But I don't want my siblings to have to feel like that! Someone has to pay the debt my father owes! But still! The happiest moment of my life is when you stopped me from killing Goro!" Her answer was full and complete, and as Lazarus looked down at her face, the words that had come out of her mouth had surprised her. Lazarus laughed.

"On the edge of death, the hubris of mankind is stripped away, and only honesty remains. That is the truth." Lazarus felt the words feel like copper in his mouth, words he had sworn never to say again. He lifted her up, slightly, so that she could bend her neck to look into his mask.

"Blue." He spoke aloud the name he had given her, his words carrying authority, "You have committed an act against society; a violation of justice. You pleaded you had no choice." Lazarus let his words hang in the air at the same hight Blue did, the only other sound being the wind pass behind him, ruffling his costume in the night sky.

"I, as unworthy to do so as I am, have judged your heart, and now I pass my verdict. I choose-" Lazarus lifted her foot high, heaving her upwards.

Before releasing her ankle and letting her fall.

An unearthly sound left Blue's lips as she went into freefall for the quarter of a second it took Lazarus to catch her, as he wrapped his other hand around her midsection and used the strength of his non-tired hand to drag her back inside the apartment. Leaving her emotionally fragile body prone on the floor as he felt fatigue overtake him.

Lazarus took a few deep breaths, standing between Blue and the certain death of the drop, centering himself as he forced his emotions to obey his command. "Life… My final judgement is over."

Lazarus moved forward, his body as tired as his mind as he grabbed Blue by the shoulder and flipped her over, looking her dead in her eyes, which reflected back to him emotions of fear, unsure gratitude, and deep-seated sadness, he knew he mirrored those same thoughts back at her.

"Justice, is sometimes punishing wrongdoers, but it is also giving the worthy the chance to make just, on the crimes they have committed. That is what I've learned. Justice is cruel, and inhumane, and I thought I could leave it behind when I left home." Lazarus reached up and lifted the mask, revealing his face to Blue, giving her a human face to connect with as the words that poured out of his mouth felt like his again. He felt the disgusting wave of sadism and fear mongering succumb to more normal impulses, the storm had passed.

"No one else will give you a second chance after you choose death. Once you choose death, once, you can never go back. I am the only one alive who can grant you absolution of guilt if you choose death against me, which I am giving you right now, freely." Lazarus rested a hand on her shoulder, as tears reformed in her eyes.

"Be free, Blue, to choose life. Know now that you have that choice. You stared death in the face and found in the void that your soul was not corrupt. You can save yourself still." As Lazarus spoke, Blue's eyes flickered with all sorts of emotions, from anger to happiness to numbness, and Lazarus took a shaky breath.

"You may pass your own judgement on my methods, so many others have, but I hope that you now see where all roads converge, and you can forgive me for what I just did to you. Next time you stare death in the face, you may not be pulled back from the brink. My advice? Go home. Be with your family. Love them, and cherish them and choose them over death. Every. Day. Choose life every day, and leave death to me." He ended with a deep breath, his own eyes threatening to bust with tears.

At the mention of her family, something broke inside Blue. She threw herself into his arms, sobbing and crying muffled apologize into his chest, who they were for was irrelevant to him.

Lazarus said nothing and did nothing, he simply offered her the right to recover. She deserved it after what he had just put her though. Lazarus put his arms around her, lightly, as to not trap her.

Lazarus looked down past Blue's crying form to see his hands shake, his own fear and doubts manifesting for a moment before he put them down, deep down, where they belonged. Now was not the time to show weakness. Now was not the time to mourn that fact that yet again he had broken his word and returned to his teacher's old ways.

"Weakness is forcing you to leave, Lich, but that same weakness will bring you back to me, that fire in your gut will burn at you, and then your weakness will drive you to do anything to put it out."

Suddenly, Lazarus train of thought stopped dead. He heard the sound of footsteps pounding down the hallway, instantly, Lazarus stood, leaving Blue to fall forward, curling up into a ball beneath him (instantly filling him with guilt). Lazarus pulled his mask back down over his face just as a new figure in what Lazarus could only describe as fashionable blue and white swimming gear appeared in the doorway.

"Freeze, I am Pro Hero Manual! Cease your violence immediately!" The hero who identified himself as Manual paused in the doorway, almost instantly taking in the scene, most likely noticing the bullet holes, the shattered glass, Lazarus's clearly menacing mask and costume, and the girl crying at Lazarus's feet.

Lazarus really didn't like how the scene painted him.

Instinctively, he threw his hand up in surrender, hoping to buy himself a moment to think.

"Detain him! Quickly!" Manual shouted without missing a beat, Lazarus tisked, his plan instantly failing as he weighed his chances of escaping out the front door, which grew more grim by the second. A second man, also in costume, and with massive muscles, appeared behind Manual.

"Relax boss, what's he gonna do, throw himself out the window?" As the man guffawed at his own joke, Lazarus shrugged.

"Eh, don't have any better options." Lazarus half-heartedly admitted, before bolting for the open window.

"No you don't!" The muscled man cried, sprinting to intercept Lazarus. Lazarus leapt, swinging off the crossbeam above his head to avoid the Sidekick's reckless charge, laughing as adrenaline pumped through his system. Lazarus reached the broken door to what would have been the balcony.

"Goodbye cruel world! The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our separate ways," Lazarus took a shuffle back, feeling gravity do the hard work as he began to fall backwards, "I to die, and you to live. Which of these two is better? Only god knows!" With the last word, and just before the Sidekick could reach him, Lazarus passed the threshold and entered free fall, Laughing as the world blurred around him, screaming out to those above him.

"That's socrates if you were curious!" Lazarus called out to the open air, which was all he could do before he hit the garbage bin previously six stories below him.

Lazarus slammed the massive garbage bin shut, hiding the knocked out bodies of the thugs inside as he dusted off his hands. He readjusted the mask on his face, the new and far more comfortable weight almost throwing him off with how easily it fit him, as if it had been made for his face alone.

"Uh, Brother? Laaaaz, ehm, Lich?" Isaac awkwardly approached him, Newtonia clearly urging him to say something as she stood a few feet behind him, the two of them lifting their masks to reveal unsure expressions.

Lazarus smiled, leaning against the bin as he snapped his fingers, pointing at Isaac and lifting his new mask up, "what'chu need bro? I'm all ears." Lazarus knew he had come off as a little cold lately, and after the incident with Dale, he hadn't really said a word about what had gone on, but he had been distracted by other things lately, things he knew he couldn't talk to Isaac about, not yet at least.

"I um," Isaac frowned, a rare expression on the normally always confident boy, as he turned to look at Newtonia whose eyes said, 'hurry up and just say it.' Isaac turned back to Lazarus smiling stiffly, "First off, can I say, thank you for having my back-" Lazarus cut Isaac off with a mid toned huh sound.

"Okay, you never sugarcoat things, what's up? Really?" Lazarus cut right to the point as Isaac sighed.

"You went really hard tonight. Like, scary hard. Okay?" Isaac admitted finally, wringing his wrists in a very abnormal pattern. Left then right, then left again, then repeat.

"I go hard every night, thanks for finally noticing." Lazarus chuckled as he moved to walk by Isaac, only to be stopped by a light, but firm hand on his chest.

"You nearly beat that guy to death, Laz, this is no joke." Isaac said quietly, and Lazarus could finally see the anger bubbling just below Isaacs unusually shaky exterior.

"And he beats people to near death as well. And that's the key word, near. I didn't kill him. I'm not a monster." Lazarus lowered Isaac's hand and stepped away, shaking his head.

"Did you want to?" Isaac said briskly, leaving Lazarus in shock, which quickly began to morph into a ball of lightning hot rage in his chest. Lazarus took a breath, calming the storm, he had to control himself, he couldn't do to Isaac what he did to Dale.

"God, no. Isaac, what do you take me for? After all the times I've died, you really think I'd wish that on another person? Especially someone as petty as a thug? You know me better. Least I thought you did, bro." Lazarus finished, looking to Newtonia for support, who purposefully avoided meeting his eyes.

"He threw up his hands and said he wasn't going to hurt anyone anymore, we could have just let him go! ...and then you just…" Isaac trailed off, the image obviously stuck in his head, "You may not have wanted to kill him, but you took him right to the point of no return. Why? Why would you do that to someone Lazarus, that's not like you." Isaac finished, and Lazarus couldn't help but laugh.

"You don't get it, neither of you do." Lazarus put his hands in his head and felt the storm of emotions he had been repressing try to form again, "No one does. Okay? I want to prevent death. I never want to hear of another person taken before their time, but I've tried being nice, I've tried playing by the rules, then I tried breaking the rules with you two, but guess what? Nothing helps. The world is still rotten! When I beat that guy up, he stopped trying to play innocent and started swearing up and down he'd kill us all; that was the kind of man he truly was, and a man like that did not deserve the mercy of being let off the hook only to end up hurting someone else. What we've been doing, doesn't help. You know why?" Lazarus took a step towards his brother, who regarded him with the most deplorable response of all, pity.

"Lazarus...what the hell man?" Isaac shook his head, "Who the hell has been putting this crap into your ears? Rotten world? We don't understand? Get real, then get off your high horse -than-death and stop being such a jackass! We can't even go to Dale anymore because you blew up at him, and don't think we're just going to sweep that under the rug, okay? Something's up. Talk to me. You're a hothead but you normally keep a cool head about these things. Please, I just want-" Isaac tried to take a step towards Lazarus, and Lazarus took a step back, holding out a hand to enforce the distance between them. Putting up a finger and lowering his brow.

"This society is corrupt. Heroes, are corrupt, All Might, is corrupt. Hell, the whole world is built on corruption, but I-," Lazarus corrected himself, "We have the power to change that, by showing them the truth," Lazarus pointed at the bin, feeling his eyes harden, "All people lie, to the world, sure, we expect that, but it goes deeper. They lie to themselves. They tell themselves they don't fear death and because of that they are able to act like the death of others doesn't affect them. I reminded them of their mortal nature, and of the empathy they've tried to repress." He paused to breath.

"I can take them to the brink, to the edge of the nothingness between life and death and show them their true selves, because near-dead men don't lie. Only then can we judge what kind of people they are." Lazarus looked into Isaac's eyes, seeing disbelief, followed by an emotion Lazarus couldn't place.

"You," Isaac began, stepping closer to Lazarus and putting a hand on his shoulder, "Have gone, absolutely, raving mad." Isaac laughed, though there was a layer of uncomfortableness to his laugh, Lazarus didn't find it that funny.

"My goals are not laughable." Lazarus asserted, feeling heat rise into his cheeks, Newtonia looked pale and unsure, and Isaac wouldn't stop laughing.

"Yes they are! What do you think you are? The messiah? All praise Lazarus, on the third second he rose again! Snap out of it!" Isaac snapped, slapping Lazarus across the face. Lazarus, not seeing the blow coming, was shaken, almost falling to his knees with the force of the impact as Isaac grabbed him by the burlap on front of his costume and pressed his own head against Lazarus's mask.

"Who the hell gave you the right to judge anyone, huh? We're doing this to keep the peace! Not enforce some screwed up sense of morality!" Isaac yelled in his face, Lazarus felt himself reach the boiling point.

"Isaac! Enough! This isn't what we-" Newtonia's younger, calmer voice tried to enter the conversation, but Lazarus had enough.

"It's not morality! It's justice!" Lazarus cried as he reared back and slammed his head into Isaac's knocking the other boy to the floor.

Isaac sat on the ground, dazed, clearly not use to being hit. Lazarus felt a pain in his chest, and he knew that was because it was Lazarus's job to make sure Isaac wasn't hurt.

"Oh crap, no-nonono. Isaac, oh god, no, are you alright?" Lazarus leaned down, taking off his mask to inspect Isaac's nose with clearer eyes, hoping that it wasn't too badly bruised.

Instantly, Isaac swung and smashed Lazarus in the nose, bruising it in several places.

Lazarus was on the ground, also dazed, and a little hurt, both physically and emotionally. Almost instantly, Isaac was above him, smiling sadly.

"Tit for tat man, rules of brotherly love, what one sibling gets the other ones have to get, right?" Isaac reached out his hand, offering it to Lazarus, who took it quickly. Rising up to his brother, before quickly wrapping Isaac in a hug.

"I'm so sorry, I've...I-" Lazarus tried to find the words to confess where he had gone the last few weeks, why he couldn't tell them anything, why he had been so on edge, but Isaac silenced them with a sigh.

"Don't get me wrong, you are wrong." Isaac ended the hug, but still kept a grip on Lazarus's shoulders, "Very wrong, and I will prove it to you. And then I will forever hold my status as the wiser, smarter, better looking, and best behaved sibling over your head until the day you die, for real, that is." Lazarus stopped, and then laughed, his emotions dissipating.

"You forgot humble, somewhere in there." Lazarus ribbed, and Isaac laughed.

"Nah, humble belongs to Newtonia over there, as well as best hair, and until recently, most likely of the three of us to commit a murder." Both Newtonia and Lazarus scoffed, before they both lost it in giggling.

"Who said all that stuff to you man?" Isaac asked again, his laughter dying slightly, "No offense, you've never been a deep thinker, and I know how you speak, and that sentence was full of nonsense crap that you'd never say before. Where'd it come from?" Isaac's casual tone betrayed the intense curiosity in his eyes, and Lazarus knew he couldn't lie.

"I've been talking to some people from Deep Well…" Instantly, the causal mood died.

"Jesus…Laz-, you haven't…" Isaac spoke, a tired sadness in his voice, as if his worst fears had come true.

'It's- It's not as bad as it seems, they're not as bad as the media makes them out to be-" Lazarus tried to defend himself, but Isaac cut him off.

"Not as bad? They're a group of cyber hackers, anarchists, serial-killer vigilantes, online trolls, and nutjobs who are the sole reason we get hunted down for trying to help out! They're not just bad, they are objectively evil and working against the interests of peace! You know this Lazarus! We've had to fight them before!" Isaac rubbed his forehead, clearly trying incredibly hard to keep anger out of his voice.

"Okay, look, maybe, yes, as a whole, they're bad news, but there's this one person; really well spoken, I took an interest in her, she took an interest in me…She's super busy with her work in trying to spread her message across the land, but we text chat and she sends me videos from time to time..." Lazarus tried to continue his story, only for Isaac to groan.

"Did you join a cult? Did you get seduced by a cult leader?" Isaac wearily exclaimed, Lazarus sighed.

"No! She's been teaching me, okay? I've- I've just- I've never realized how pointless what we're doing is, we're not fighting for any reason, okay? We're- We're just doing the job of temporary heroes! There are enough heroes out there keeping the status quo, what the world needs is people who will change the world! Who will make it better! Don't you want to make the world better? Right guys?" Lazarus tried to use the same words that had inspired him, but found that Isaac and Newtonia were not as open to them as he was.

"Has she been sending you money too?" Newtonia asked quietly, and Lazarus felt his blood run cold.

"Wha-what?" Lazarus asked, trying to pick up the lie half-way. Isaac wasn't buying it.

"It's not hard to tell, okay? You blow your allowance the second dad gives it to you, yet you've been treating us to lunch and visiting Dale and the Tinker-twins alone. You've got cash Lazarus, where's it from?" Isaac tried to shake the answer out of him. Lazarus resisted the urge to get mad and run, and decided to try being honest for a change.

"I've...been doing, bounties. For Deep Well. That's where I've been." If his original comment on Deep Well had killed the mood, this one buried it six feet under.

"Seriously? Have you forgotten why we started doing this whole thing?" Isaac asked, not angry, but more disappointed, which somehow angered Lazarus even more.

"Hey, I'm not doing anything I wouldn't do normally, okay? Take out thugs, leave some bruses that'll sting, and...then I take a photo to prove it was me and send it in online, they give me an address nearby and I go grab a paper bag filled with a little something! It's not like we can't use the money, okay?" Lazarus tried to bite back the coming confession, but couldn't, it escaped out of his mouth before he could stop it.

"I've been intercepting dad's phone bill and paying it off, he just thinks he's gotten lucky and they're forgetting to charge him or something. A fifty dollar phone bill was causing our dad to lose sleep at night, what's so bad about helping him out along with the town? Huh? I owe it to our parents, no offense, more than you two do. He was kinda stuck with you guys no matter what." Lazarus ended, leaving the two blood sibling to look at each other awkwardly, unsure of how to respond.

"...where's this money come from? Deep Wells isn't exactly filled with rich people." Isaac asked, clearly trying to clear the bitter taste from his mouth that Lazarus's last comment left.

Lazarus sighed, knowing the question was coming, "Well, the rumor is that some hackers-" Lazarus began, and Isaac cut him off before he could flower it up.

"Stolen. Money." Isaac spat, and Lazarus deflated.

"...Rich people-" Lazarus began, but Isaac's harsh voice shut him down.

"No. This ends today. Laz, As your only brother, and as Grav; Vigilante of Peace, I am ordering you to never take another bounty from Deep Wells, ever, again." Isaac stepped forward and grabbed Lazarus by the side of the head, and Lazarus was forced to look deep into his brothers solemn twinkling eyes.

"I won't lose you. Okay? You are my brother, and I love you, and I will protect you from becoming anything else but the upstanding man I see in your future. You care so much, Lazarus, you care more about the fate of other people than anyone else I know, but because of that, you sometimes forget that giving and caring isn't always reciprocated, and you have to accept that it's a bad world to be a good person in, and we can't change that. But we have to still be good people, because no one else is gonna take this crappy job off our hands. Cool?" As Isaac finished, Lazarus couldn't meet his eyes, not out of shame, but out of the tears that threatened to fall from his face.

"Okay." Lazarus said, taking a breath and stabilizing himself, "I see it, no matter how many ways I try and say it, it is, what it is… and that's wrong. I'm wrong, god, I just...I want to be right, you know? I want to be able to see justice done. I know what I did was wrong, but...I- Dale." Lazarus went silent.

"Every day I feel it get stronger." Lazarus spoke quietly, clutching at the cube in his back pocket, "The storm, these emotions, this anger at the world, and I just want it to stop, I feel so alone, at the edge." Lazarus opened up the floodgates, feeling years of repression escape.

"I just...I feel like you can't understand what it's like to die, no one can, except me, and when I bring a person to the edge, even for a moment, and I see them embrace death and be totally honest with themselves...it's cathartic, okay? I don't feel so alone. I feel like for a moment, their honesty makes them someone I can finally form a connection with, even if they hate me."

Newtonia reached out and hugged him, placing her head on his shoulder for comfort, Lazarus sighed as he kept going.

"It makes me an awful person, I know. Yet it's the only way I know to save people. To make them see the futility of their actions. You can't beat someone into believing something, but you can make them rethink their life, and the only way I know to do that is to make them realize how much of it was wasted on nothing. I can do more than just protect people, I know that. I can save people, from themselves. I've...I guess I just ignored the cost it took to do that, and I've never tried another way." Lazarus choked on his words as Isaac pulled him in for a hug, and Lazarus suddenly didn't feel so alone.

"So, I'll try, I'll try another way, I can't say I won't stop trying to save people, because I don't think I could do that, if I wanted. But I can try another way. I hope that's good enough, god I hope that's good enough… and no more lessons from Deep Well, hell, no more contact with Deep Well. I'm done. I don't need them, I just need you guys. My family." With that, Lazarus gave himself fully to the hug, the three inseparable vigilantes bonding together for a single peaceful moment.

It felt right.

"Hey." Lazarus piped up, grinning, feeling his cheeks staining with tears, "Cut the older brother crap, okay? Four weeks, not that much time." Isaac laughed through his own tears.

"Four of the best weeks of my life before you were born you little troublemaker." Isaac remarked, leading Lazarus to join in.

"You guys didn't adopt me till I was four, what's this four weeks crap?" Lazarus shot back to Isaac's grinning face.

"Your mere existence brough stress into my universe, I got my first grey hair when I was three in preparation for your arrival." All three of them laughed, and suddenly, the world wasn't such a bad place.

"Promise me Laza- Lich." Newtonia spoke catching herself before she forgot his code name, locking her hands behind her back, trying not to appear nervous, "Promise me that you'll listen to us, alright? You can do whatever you think is right, but you have to promise me that if we say you go too far, you have to believe, us, can you do that?" Newtonia's wide eyes were irresistible, and Lazarus ruffled her hair, much to her chagrin, as he laughed.

"Sure thing, here, I'll delete my contact from Deep Wells right now, just get that out of the way." Lazarus pulled out his phone and navigated to his contacts as he saw Isaac and Newtonia share a small smile, clearly relieved that everything had turned out alright. Both of them turned and began to walk down the alleyway as Lazarus tried to get the touchscreen to work with his gloves.

"Stupid, stupid…" Lazarus muttered as he tried repeatedly to hit the 'delete contact' button, only for his phone to buzz and vibrate in his hand, Lazarus looked down, rolling his eyes as he realized it was in fact Deep Well trying to message him, but before he could bring his finger down, the header line caught his attention, and Lazarus's breath escaped him.

"Lich! Common!" Isaac called from down the alleyway, Lazarus was frozen to the spot he stood on.

Lazarus felt his gut drop as he hit the lock screen button, slipping his phone back into his pocket as he ran to catch up with his siblings. His eyes cloudy as a storm brewed behind them.

Lazarus felt the world morph into a harsh kaleidoscope of colours and sound, before everything went dark, but the ache in his head told him that he was still conscious, regrettably. Lazarus clawed his way out of the sharp edges and foul smells of the trash bin, pretending he couldn't feel the blood trickle down the back of his neck, currently, adrenaline was overriding any other concerns he had about his body's state.

Lazarus lept for the wall on the other side of the alleyway, climbing up the uneven bricks before he reached the fire escape on the other side, slipping his body over the bars as he began to climb the endless, rickety stairs upwards towards the roof of the other building, his vision occasionally turning back to splotches of colour as a dull ringing seemed to persist in the back of his ears.

The climb ended suddenly, and Lazarus was on the roof of the building across the way, looking back down at the alleyway, now swarmed with police officers trying to figure out where a masked, half-dead man could have stumbled off to. Lazarus moved away from the chaos behind him, his eyes still locked over his shoulder, he felt himself collide with something ahead of him, the slight contact causing him to fall to the ground, his head swam, and Lazarus imagined with intense pain, if not for his quirk.

His vision refocused, and he looked at what he had ran into, his breath draining along with his hopes of escape at the pro hero in front of him.

The pro hero took a step forward, and Lazarus made no effort to move away as Stain bent down to look him in the eyes, saying nothing.

Stain reached out and grabbed at Lazarus's mask, his face strangely curious, as he removed the covering to reveal Lazarus.

"Surprise." Lazarus coughed, feeling his dreams flush down the drain with each passing moment.

Stain stared at his face, before he began to laugh, it was a deep, honest laugh, almost bordering on crazed. Lazarus could only watch Stain become consumed with mirth in shocked silence.

"So this is your conviction's true form put to actions? Preventing death by putting the fear of it into the guilty? Interesting… interesting indeed. It was certainly wise to let you live, if only to see where your path ends." Stain stood, and reached down, offering a hand to Lazarus.

Lazarus felt numb as he grabbed Stain's hand and pulled himself to his feet. Almost instantly, Stain moved to walk by him, placing a hand on Lazarus's shoulder.

"Be wary, young...Lazarus, was it? Be wary. This world is corrupt to it's core, and those like you, the young, the hopeful for a better future, it kills people like you, like us. People who see how we need to embrace what is wrong to allow true justice to shine." Stain suddenly squeezed down on Lazarus's shoulder, but Lazarus was too enthralled by Stain's words to notice the bone-crushing force being applied to his shoulder.

"I wasted years trying to change society, young, and foolish, I thought if I made them see the world as it was, they would work with me to change it. I learned that people in this world care very little for why people do things, only how things are done. That is the opposite of how it should be." Stain turned around, finally meeting Lazarus's eyes, and Lazarus saw himself reflected in Stain's red orbs.

"Don't let them break you, Lazarus, stay true to your conviction, and let none question your justice if it helps others. But know when to question yourself. Good luck on your path. I feel we will meet again one day." As Stain finished, he simply turned and walked away, leaping down the side of the building away from where Lazarus had come from, leaving Lazarus alone, and with too many questions, to think on his words.

"...He remembered my name." Lazarus grinned like an idiot, feeling elated. He had finally found someone, a pro hero, none the less, who understood him, who would overlook his issues with his conflicting morality, and would still give him the chance to change.

Lazarus felt for the knife at his chest, still there after all the ruckus. Yet again Stain had saved his life, and he would not waste it, he would change, and he would become someone worthy of the title he sought. At that moment, Lazarus knew, for all his flaws, he could still become a hero.

"Spread out! Find that masked assailant!" Manual's voice was carried to Lazarus by the wind, giving him the cue he needed to skidaddle, even with his most likely fatal concussion. Lazarus muttered to himself as he prepared to leap from one building to another.

"Downgraded from crazy vigilante to masked assailant, welcome to Japan, Lich." Lazarus grinned as he took a moment to rub the side of his nose with his thumb. He ran as he lept over the edge of the building and prepared to grab onto the ledge of the next one.

He missed slightly and tumbled down into the dark abyss below.

Lazarus knocked three times on the door, his hand leaving a red stain on the door as he returned it to it's position on the back of his head, his bruised body shaking from exhaustion and blood loss. Almost instantly, the door was opened, Hanta's tired face greeting him for half a moment before fear overtook him.

"What-" Lazarus took off his mask, revealing his tired, bloody face to Hanta, who quickly stepped aside to allow him entry. Lazarus stumbled into the kitchen, dropping his mask, before slipping off his costume, feeling slightly better without the weight on his back.

"Laz-kun, what the hell happened!" Hanta hissed, clearly concerned, Lazarus looked at Hanta funnily, feeling the cold hands of death beginning to wrap around his heart as he moved to the kitchen and washed his blood soaked hands in the sink.

"Laz-kun? I like it! Don't worry, just making myself comfortable…" Lazarus muttered more to himself as he stumbled to the familiar space, grabbing a glass in a shaky hand and filling it with water, chugging down the liquid as if it would give him a barrier against hell itself.

"Lazarus!" Hanta cried slightly louder, trying hard not to wake his parents, Lazarus assumed, "What's going on?" Lazarus paused, empty glass in hand as he felt something give inside his head.

"I'll tell you when I get back." Lazarus muttered as he felt his grip slip on the glass, as it fell to the floor and shattered, Lazarus fell immediately afterwards, but he was dead before he hit the ground.