The crackles of fuming flames sparked Shoto's consciousness along with the scent of smoke wafting through the air. Darkness loomed through his shut gaze, only the coolness of his nose buried in the hard clay hinting that he was still on the peak of the mountain. Rocks and layers of dirt drizzled over him, Shoto stretched out his aching limbs and grasped at the loose dirt beside him.

With a grunt, Shoto lifted himself out of the mound of rock he was buried. His chest bruised and legs covered in cuts that were oozing blood, he covered his face with his battered hands as pebbles and clay shed off him and plodded onto the overturn ground. He swiped away the grime from his eyes and braved a look at the wreckage before him.

A long, deep tunnel of dirt was etched into the very center of the mountain. Stretching over the overturned boulder in the center, the rock was crushed into tiny pieces with his folder of papers previously buried nowhere to be found. Flickers of fire burned along the trail before stopping by a smoldering hunk of metal that was buried halfway into the foundation of the summit. Turnt upside down, the rocket's siding had been stripped away with the glass cockpit halfway intact. The other half was replaced by the rock that contained the other half of the vehicle. Bits of metal were strewn about with a steady stream of gasoline leaking from the back propellers and forming a puddle at the base of the wreckage. A few spark plugs hissed and spat out electric bolts that snapped precariously close to the gas.

A pair of legs stuck out from the wreckage. The rest of a human's body was pinned between the ground and the top of the rocket. Somehow, the passenger had been thrown from the cockpit and now lay crushed on the ground.

Shoto took a step forward, his hand hugging his hip as he limped over the new trail of dirt towards the rocket.

As he hobbled forward, a zap emitted into his brain.

Shoto yelled out and clutched his head. When he massaged his head with his other hand, he noticed the rough wood of the wand bopped the top of his dirt-encrusted hair. The stench of gasoline compounded his migraine as he opened his eyes. When he looked down, he noticed his reflection in a shard of glass that had broken off the rocket. His breath hitched when he got a gaze of his face.

Within the confines of his cut profile were two eyes. Both, however, the same color. Green.

Once he realized it, he felt a strange static waver over his consciousness. His mind numb and helpless, Shoto felt his soul fall into a reclusive fugue. The pain in his attacked body slipped away like a cloud on a summer's day, and the heat of the smoking rocket erased into a gentile warmth akin to a fireplace on a winter's night.

"What's...happening to...me?" Shoto asked in a tired and mundane voice. He tried to lift up his hand to examine it, but it would not budge. Instead, Shoto was a passenger as he felt his body take another step towards the wreckage.

"You've ruined my plan long enough, Shoto," Alistair's voice rang through Shoto's head. "Now, I have to get serious."

Shoto felt himself blink at the realization of the what was happening to him. Alistair must have invaded his body when they were both touching the wand at the same time. That would explain why his eyes were a different hue than usual. Despite that fact, Shoto was still less caring about it, his own thoughts becoming ghosts as Alistair grit his own teeth with every lead-crushing step he took towards the wreckage.

Step.

Step.

Step.

Shoto had no free will to protest, nor did he have the desire. In fact, it felt nice to have someone else take control of his body for a change. A soothing velvet encapsulated him, and he felt his soul being rocked to sleep as the images before him played like a film strip flashing at low speed.

Step.

Step.

Step.

"Alistair...what are you doing?" Shoto felt himself ask without his voice making any noise.

"I'm making you pay," Alistair said in Shoto's voice. "If you don't coming willingly, then maybe you need a little encouragement."

The pair of legs pinned between the plane and the ground twitched. The black pants were shredded in the blast revealing splotches of fair, almost olive skin with brown penny-loafers. They looked quite similar to the uniforms for the hero school.

"Are these...they're students?" Shoto asked himself and Alistair.

"Of course," Alistair said. "And killing them will be easy in this state."

Shoto demurred at the proclamation. "But...why? Why them?"

"Why not?" Alistair said. "Besides, you want to be a hero, right? Here's your chance. Join me, or this kid dies."

Shoto saw the shoes of the student twist in the dirt. The legs began to splay violent as the poor student buried underneath realized his predicament.

Step.

Step.

Shoto's foot slapped into a puddle of gasoline. The legs froze in place at the realization of another person beyond the wreckage. However, the voice from the body awoke Shoto completely, his soul stirring within him as Alistair continued forward.

"Help, someone help," Katsu's voice shouted out from the wreckage. "I'm stuck in here."

Shoto felt his fingers twitch in protest at Alistair's movement as the situation dawned on him. "What? Katsu? No, this has to be a trick you're pulling. Why would Katsu be here?"

"It's fate," Alistair said. "He tried to find you, and now look! His mentor, his true father figure about to kill him!"

"What? Shoto? Is that you?" The voice cried out. "Get me out of here! I'm stuck!"

Shoto quivered and tried to pull Alistair away from the trapped boy. His eyes flickered for just an instant between green and back to their normal states. However, they flashed back to the foreign emerald before Alistair slogged past the brief protest like he was wading through tar. He regained control of Shoto's body and continued towards the wreckage.

Passing the destroyed boulder, Shoto's foot kicked away at a loose piece of paper and headed closer to the trapped student.

"I can't do anything," Shoto thought in panic. "I'm stuck!"

"And now you have a choice," Alistair said. "Join me, or your precious Katsu dies from your hand."

"No, never!" Shoto screamed in his mind. "Stop this, now!"

The boy struggled harder underneath the wreckage. "Shoto, I need help. I'm beginning to lose air!"

"This is an illusion," Shoto said to himself. "Some demented magic of yours. He wouldn't even know I was here. How would he know?"

"An illusion, huh?" Alistair said. "Then it won't matter if I burn him alive?"

Approaching the base of the wreckage, Alistair snapped his fingers and flicked open a small flame in his palm. He stared at the puddle of gasoline that grew large and sparkled under the brilliant flame that loomed closer and closer with every step.

"No, you can't do this," Shoto screamed from within. "Please, Katsu has nothing to do with this."

"Then you know what choice you have to make," Alistair said.

Shoto knew the last thing he should do was to join forces with this diabolical boy. He still had no idea what his scheme was, but if his soul would be forever in debt to him, then it would be a situation that would cause untold suffering. Yet, with Katsu crying out from beneath the wreckage, his reasoning was become overshadowed by the flame of his, now Alistair's palm that began to reflect off the gasoline's dark and viscous liquid.

"No, you're not Katsu," Shoto yelled. "This is an illusion. You're playing tricks on me.

"Shoto, help me!" Katsu screamed.

"Katsu, run!" Shoto shouted in his head. "Get out of here! Before it's too late! I can't save you!"

"Shoto," Katsu's voice shouted out. "It's getting hard to breath. I'm becoming cold."

Another step. Now, Shoto's body was right at the lip of the gasoline reservoir. The liquid had oozed around the entire frame of the rocket and covered the body that was struggling to free himself from the crash.

Alistair lowered the flame from his hand. It fell forward and pointed at the gas. Shoto saw the flame reflect off the puddle. Inches away. Now centimeters.

"Wait, stop! I'll do it! I'll do whatever you want. Just don't kill Katsu!"

Alistair stopped the flame in his tracks. He rose it upward for just a second. Then he gazed over at the wand glued in his other hand. He narrowed his eyes and rubbed his fingers around the rough splinters of wood that cut into Shoto's flesh.

"You know what?" Alistair examined the damaged wand that spindled in his, or Shoto's, fingers. "I think I'll just do it anyway."

"No, Alistair! Please," Shoto begged. "I promise I won't harm you again!"

"I believe you," Alistair chuckled out loud. "But just to be safe..." He grew the flame larger in his opposing hand and bent down towards the gasoline. His green eyes and face obscured by the fire, Shoto could only watch in horror at his body about to torch the gas and the entire rocket.

In that instant, Shoto thought back to the entire pathway of his life getting to this point. Graduating from school. Working at his dad's hero agency. Taking it over after he died. Becoming one of the most popular heroes with throngs of fans following his every move. How those silly fangirls wouldn't leave him aone at the bar when he just wanted a drink. The lonely nights calling up Momo and asking her if she wanted another chance with him.

That one night when he was alone in the bar and saw the report on the news about the famous Muteki family, and how their son was incarcreated. The picture the media used, a frightened child with innocent and confused eyes. As confused as he had been growing up in a loveless home. As confused as he was in that moment, as successful as he was at saving lives, still not being happy.

The endless nights of training and honing Katsu to be the perfect star hero. Becoming closer friends with Midoriya and, to a much lesser extent, Bakugo. How he envied each of their seemingly perfect lives and how well they balanced hero work and their own families. How happy Katsu was at getting stronger and stronger which each passing day. How much anger he felt when he saw Momo with another man and doing perfectly fine without him.

Throughout the entire journey of his life, it was only envy that connected his own arch. Envy of others and their peace and comfort and joy over their role in the universe. When the hand lowered down to the very surface of the gasoline, his knuckles kissed the warm liquid and emanated ripples across the surface that fizzled his face out of existence like static on a television screen.

"I...I think I deserve this," Shoto said to himself. "I am the Sin of Envy. If I had lived better, then I wouldn't be here."

Shoto resigned his own body to Alistair as the flames rested right at the edge of the gas.

Then, a slam awoke him.

"Mister Todoroki," A voice shouted from the inside of the cockpit. "What are you doing?"

Hanging upside down in the cockpit, Moxie revealed herself and knocked on the glass. Her own face crossed with various cuts, her chestnut brunette hair pooled over her face as she struggled with the seat harnesses that hung her just above the glass surface. Her skin pale and dripping with bubbles of blood snaking down her head, she slapped the glass with her knuckles and let out another shout.

"Mister Todoroki," Moxie said. "Help get us out!"

Alistair stood Shoto's body up straight and blinked in surprise. "Moxie? She's here?"

You moron, just do it already!

Shoto froze at the deep voice that intertwined itself into the conversation. This new voice made Shoto more confused as Alistair coughed out with the flame fading in his hand. "No, but...that's Moxie. I can't do this if she gets hurt."

She's just a tool! She can be replaced!

"But she's wearing the crystal!" Alistair said. "I can't hurt her."

As Moxie slammed her fist on the glass, she noticed Shoto muttering to himself with he flame diminishing with every passing second. She cried out with her voice became smaller and smaller before she noticed the pensive concern in his face. She stopped hitting the glass and squinted. Beyond the pale sunlight now risen above, she could see the odd hue in Shoto's eyes. A brilliant, yet familiar and comforting green.

"Alistair?" Moxie asked.

Within Shoto's body, the argument raged.

I am your creator, and you do as I say.

"Hurting Moxie was not the deal," Alistair said. "You know I can't do that!"

Shoto's eyes flickered from green back to their usual two tones. Then, the bore back into green.

Idiot! You're losing control!

"No, I'm not doing this if it involves Moxie," Alistair said. "It's against the rules."

Flicker. Shoto flexed his right fist around the wand.

Stop it and think straight!

"I am thinking straight," Alistair said. "I'm not hurting Moxie."

Flicker. Shoto's toes dug into the dirt.

I don't care if it's Moxie. I'm telling you to hurry up and kill them!

"And I'm telling you no!"

Flicker.

Shoto came alive within his own body. He panted out breath as if he were holding air in for hours. His knees buckled as the torrent of pain from the wreckage electrified him in one split second of torture. The air, warm and reeking of gasoline, battered the open wounds salting his face in the whipping wind. He squeezed both of his fists together, his arms trembling with every passing second that he was exposed to the elements on the summit. He knew of no way to cast Alistair out, so his body called for the only response he could think of.

Alistair immediately fought back, but all he could muster was a worsening migraine. Shoto clutched his head, his entire body shaking with the smoke billowing out of the rocket right into his face. He gazed up at the rocket and saw Moxie's face in the cockpit. Then, a flicker to Katsu buried halfway deep in the wreckage.

Katsu. He would do this for him.

Alistair tried to retch control one last time, Shoto's eyes flickering green for just a second before Shoto exploded with rage.

"No!" Shoto screamed out into the heavens.

Turning away from the wreckage, Shoto lifted up his legs heavier than bricks and charged for the edge of the cliff. He sprinted faster than the rocket that had crashed onto the mountain, the wind brushing over his face as his eyes watered from the exposure to the air. His heart pounded faster than the stomping of his feet with every bound to the very precipice of the mountain. He rushed towards the risen sun, the void coming closer and closer to his feet.

"No, Shoto! Don't do i-."

Leap.

Shoto gave one final glance at the sun. In that second that he rose up above the large drop-off below, the world froze in time. A flock of birds fluttered beyond the horizon and kissed the tips of the redwood canopies that obscured the forest below. The breathtaking sun glazed a warmth over Shoto's face; the pain evaporating into the crystal blue sky that shined with a kiss of periwinkle still dotting the bright canvas. Not a cloud blemishing the view, the horizon was peaceful with the shimmering star making Shoto calm and tranquil. His heart rested with only the sound of its dull beat and the chirping of the flying canaries sifting within his ears.

With the release of his envy, Shoto closed his eyes with a ghost of a smile on his face.

He was exactly where he needed to be, and he was doing exactly what he needed to do.

He plunged towards the ground, his head falling first with the rest of his body streamlined for the final descent.

James popped himself out just as Moxie had let out another cry.

The boy came to within seconds of the crash, but could only panic between the heavy metal of the rocket and the unforgiving earth of which he was pinned. His head groggy, the boy brushed back some of his raven hair while regaining his balance. The boy's throat was parched like a hitchhiker in the desert, and his arms were as limp as the tree saplings waving in the distance underneath the mountain's peak.

He gasped in the thick air, his eyes lidded and clouded when he observed the sight around him. He had heard the scuffle and the strange shouts from Moxie and that strange Shoto guy, but he had been completely blind while tying to escape from his prison. Finally free, his head swayed in lightness with the blood returning to his pale face.

"-mes. James!" Moxie shouted. "Are you alright?"

James gazed over at Moxie. The girl had tears dotting her face with blood mixed on her cheeks.

"Just peachy," James said. "Like a great massage."

Suddenly, a zap hissed from one of the plugs at the propeller of the rocket. James and Moxie snapped their focus on the sparks, spitting out shocks that died out just inches above the gasoline. The hose the plug was connected to snaked and withered around like an inflatable dummy fluffing in the air.

James realized the situation and hobbled over to the cockpit. Moxie had just released herself from the safety harnesses and fell onto the top of the glass. She had only made a small crack into the top of the surface with her helmet now to her side. James slammed his hand on the surface. His hands traced over the edge of the windowsill, but his hands slipped over the metal from the infusion of oil and gasoline that drenched his hands.

"There has to be some latch that gets this off," James said. "And why is there so much gas?"

"And Steve even said this was a solar-powered rocket," Moxie added.

"Green energy scam artist," James grunted under his breath. "Guess we'll have to do this manual."

James slammed his fist into the glass. He howled in pain, his knuckles effusing blood from the cuts already burning into his nerves.

"Use your quirk," Moxie said as she flickered her gaze over to the sparks that emitted over the gasoline. "That'll break the glass I bet."

"I-I can't," James said. "I'm to dehydrated. I don't feel anything left."

"But it's like a battery, right?" Moxie asked. "Just grab that spark plug."

"Yeah, and get electrocuted and burned like a scarecrow from the gas. Great idea," James rolled his eyes.

Zap!

From the other side of the rocket, the spark plug ignited a small piece of sapling that hung over propellor's fin. Once lit, the sapling wood fell onto the ground. Half of it in the puddle of gasoline, the other half was aflame but outside of the liquid. However, the sapling started to burn with the flames trailing over the wood towards the other half drenched in the gas.

James panicked and slammed his hand on the cockpit glass. The blood stained the outside of the glass but budged none as Moxie watched with worry pasted on her face. James yelled and thumped his fists like an angry ape over the surface right in front of Moxie.

Moxie examined the inside of the cockpit. The wires were exposed and destroyed with the frays exposed and sparking by her legs. The dashboard completely smashed, the glass and light fixtures buzzed with the stench of smoke building up in sinuses.

Turning back to James, she examined the inside of the windowsill. Around the sill was a thick barrier of wax built up around the sill. She picked at the wax with a fingernail. It was hard, but it could be removed with enough force. In fact, it could be removed much faster with heat.

"Wait, James," Moxie held her hand up at the struggling boy. "Let me start a fire in here."

"What?" James shouted. "Are you crazy?"

"The wax is keeping the glass on the sill," Moxie said. "If I melt it, it'll break much easier."

"But what if it doesn't break all the way?" James asked.

Another spurt of flames emanated from the sapling stick and trailed closer to the gasoline.

"If we make a hole, I can reach out to you and increase the energy for your quirk," Moxie said. "Enough for you to break me out."

Before James could respond, Moxie grabbed one of the sparks and tore off a piece of her thigh-high stockings. She held the fabric up to the spark. It ignited with the flames quickly enveloping the fabric. Moxie stuffed the fabric onto the wax at the windowsill. The smolder of the smoke quickly suffocated the oxygen in the small cockpit. The fabric's flames traced over the wax towards the strange velvet carpet that lined the top of the plush pilot's seat. However, the wax began to melt away and disintegrated from the sill.

Moxie coughed out and grabbed the helmet from her head. She unbuckled it and slammed the helmet over the section of the melted wax. Cracks traced over the impact like spiders crawling over a basement deck with every slam. The smoke started to fill Moxie's lungs, which made her heart kick into overdrive and assault her chest. Her slams weakened at a rapid pace, before a final crack ran right down the middle of the impact spot.

The girl squeaked out when fire enveloped the chair. Moxie hunched herself on the top of the glass and pointed at the large crack. "Hit it, James."

James shouted and slammed his throbbing fist into the glass. Only the small spot in the surface gave way with the edges of the thick glass prickling at James fist. He hissed in pain as his fist opened up to grasp at Moxie's palm. The girl, quickly becoming overtaken by the flames, faintly reached out to James as her eyes drooped down in fatigue. She lunged over and activated her quirk once touching the warm hands of James.

James shouted out when the flames kissed his hands. The appendages still covered in gasoline, his hand became lit with fire as Moxie's quirk infused within him. The small pit of energy within him rose with his back straightening and his muscles tensing at the overflow of energy. When he had just a small morsel of neon left, that seed expanded into a forest. Combined with the burning flames lapping his hands and engulfing it, his eyes twitched at the overflow that shook his body to its core.

Flicking his wrists, his hands woke with two burning lasers of lavender neon that raged in his arms. He pushed them forward and burst through the windows of the cockpit. the glass shattered like a fragile tea cup and fragmented onto the ground below. Moxie fell out, her limp body unable to hold herself upward as what held her was now broken. James, seeing this, dived down and grabbed at the girl. He clutched Moxie in his arms and turned around to face away from the ship.

One more pop.

James turned back. The flames had reached the gasoline.

Boom!

James screamed at the explosion. His back to it, him and Moxie flew feet above the ground as the entire rocket erupted into flames. His back burned and swished with jagged metal and glass burrowed into his skin, James wrapped his arms around Moxie and slammed his shoulder onto the ground.

The two rolled over the surface of the summit like two rag dolls in a harsh tornado of fire and debris with bits of metal and shards of glass twisting around them.

The world flipped over in James' gaze as he closed his eyes and buried his fingers into the hard clay. It slowed his and Moxie's tumble when he then felt his feet leave the earth below. James opened his eyes just in time to see the world disappear from underneath him and his heart plummeted into his stomach as he grabbed onto the ledge of the cliff.

And there he hung. With Moxie unconscious and in his arms above the drop off. Only his right hand's grasp on the edge of the cliff keeping him and the girl from certain doom.

When Shoto awoke, he knew he was dead.

His strength returned, and eery calm had blown over him like a soothing storm. Once his eyes were open, the light buzzing of squirrels burrowing into the trees and the flapping of eagles above made Shoto aware of his surroundings. Moving his head off the dirt ground, he stood upright on the floor of the forest.

Shielded from the sun, Shoto examined his body and found not a single scratch from his previous battle. In fact, his clothes were as goos as new. However, a strange, ethereal and golden glow encompassed the hero. He prodded at his own bare arm, but his finger went right through the golden glow as if it were not even there.

One of the squirrels seemed to have noticed Shoto and hopped over towards him. He watched as the squirrel bounded over to his foot. Then, it passed right his ankle with only a golden luminescence pooling around the creature.

Shoto Todoroki.

Shoto looked upward. A strange, feminine voice burled into his ear with a soothing warmth. A velvet blanket that made Shoto calm his nerves and gawk at the sky.

"Are you...like that other voice I heard? The one talking to Alistair?"

I'm...different. Less evil and less annoying.

Shoto blinked and looked down at his hands. Perfectly immaculate with the same golden glow surrounding them like they were drenched in honey.

"I'm...dead. Aren't I?"

Physically, you could technically be alive. But I doubt the paramedics could come within the next three minutes and revive the heartbeat of a man who fell over a thousand feet right onto his head. Don't worry, though. You're body is still with you. Just in a different state.

"Different state," Shoto asked. "Like Alistair."

Yes, that British brat was correct that you and him have similar souls. A similar power that seeps within. However, Alistair's power comes from Sin. Yours come from Virtue.

"But...I am sinful," Shoto said. "I'm the Sin of Envy."

Perhaps you were, but you have proven with your actions that you are a Virtue. That virtue that appreciates and thanks all of the promises and problems life has to offer. In your life, you have envied many, but you have also defeated that envy. Every time you saved somebody. Every time you acted selflessly. Every time you took care of Katsu.

"I did those things out of envy."

But what others reaped from them was something more powerful.

"So...it doesn't matter why I do something? As long as its good, then...I'm good."

It does matter why. That's why you are no longer a sin.

Shoto phased his foot through a small pebble and frowned at the ground. "I'm an envious person."

Yet you sacrificed yourself.

"I wanted to kill myself anyway."

But you didn't think of that at the moment, did you? You did it to stop Alistair. To save Moxie and who you thought was Katsu.

"So it was an illusion," Shoto said. "He tricked me into thinking it was him."

Yet your response was all the same, albeit with more screaming. That's okay, I'm use to screaming by now.

"Okay, but what's your point, lady," Shoto said. "Are you taking me to Heaven or not?"

All of those things you did may have been borne out of selfish needs for aggrandizement. For paving over your pain. But they soon morphed into real affection and love for others. Tell me, would you truly love Katsu and Izuku and even Momo if you only did these things from envy.

"No. I...I guess I wouldn't have," Shoto demurred.

That's what truly matters. You never were truly envious of others, Shoto. You masked your appreciation with envy in order to no become so attached to others.

Shoto wiped away a tear from his eye. "And...so they would be thankful for me. So that they would love me. And I would have a family."

Without seeming weak. Without becoming an easy target. Because affection and thankfulness...that was considered a weakness to you. A sin.

Shoto sniffled and looked up at the sky. A bright gold rained down through the canopy of the forest. He let out a watery smile. "It...it was."

But Shoto, it was not a sin. And now...now you can reap the benefits. Because you are the Virtue of Gratitude.

As the golden light bathed Shoto, an ivory orb spun from the light and morphed in front of Shoto. The man took a quick step forward and reached out at the brilliant sphere. The warm object made Shoto's heart flutter as the tips of fingers dripped into the light.

"Now, I can make things right," Shoto said. "One more time."

One more time.

For Katsu.

For Momo.

For Midoriya.

For his family. Mother and Father.

Literal cliffhanger!

Please review and let me know what you think. One more chappie from this arc, then Sports Time!

Please let me know what you think.

Thank you. See you soon!