"So, kiddo. You have to tell me the story about that girl last night!"

Izuku blinked as Cayde wrapped his arm around his shoulder, pulling him into a side hug. They had just finished a set of drills in the practice area of the Crucible, where Guardians usually went to train if they didn't feel like dying over and over.

It was the best place for him, mainly because he couldn't come back from the dead yet.

He mentally scrambled to remember the various bits of the cover story he had created on the fly during the party last night. Feigning ignorance, Izuku cocked his head to the side. "What do you mean?"

Shaxx laughed, and Izuku could practically feel the vibrations of the laughter in his own chest. "Come now, Izuku! You had one of the prettiest girls in the Last City on your arm last night, as if she popped out of thin air! There must be a story!"

He thanked the universe for Shaxx's flowery way of speaking, as it had given him time to put all of the details of his story together. "Ah, yes. Evelynn is someone I met while hanging around Banshee's workshop."

The two Guardians nodded, motioning for Izuku to continue. He smiled at their enthusiasm. "She isn't a Guardian, but she is a… budding Gunsmith and wanted to talk to Banshee about an apprenticeship opportunity. I doubt he'd remember her by now, though."

Cayde hummed, shaking his head slowly. "Yea, Banshee… 44 reboots is a lot. More than any other Exo we know of. I've only had 6 reboots and I'm still foggy on most of the details of my life. Can't imagine he's got much data in the old banks."

Shaxx put his hand on Cayde's shoulder, in what seemed to be a comforting gesture to Izuku, before suddenly turning his head to face him. "An excellent verbal parry, Izuku! But you've yet to gain my experience, with physical or mental combat!"

Cayde jolted, pointing an accusatory finger at Izuku. "Hey! You distracted me with my empathy to get out of spilling the beans!"

Izuku nodded, not finding any reason to deny it, and let out a small yell as Cayde rushed forward, wrapping the boy up in a hug, fake-crying. "You sneaky little shit! I'm so proud of you!"

Something about Cayde, one of his primary male role models, saying that he was proud of him pushed a memory button from 'before' in Izuku's head. Coughing as he felt his throat tighten up, he exited the hug and cleared his throat.

"Anyway. Evelynn and I got to talking after Banshee spaced out halfway through explaining that he didn't take apprentices, and I may have shared my notes on his gear with her. She was grateful so we went and had lunch, and when we got back from the Hellmouth, she asked if she could come to the party and I said yes."

Shaxx laughed boisterously, slapping Izuku on the back. "I see, do not worry, neither of us will be dobbing you in! I've done far more than sharing some notes to win the affection of a lady…"

Izuku shook his head. "I wasn't trying to win her affection. She wanted help, and I was able to help. Plus, with more high-quality Gunsmiths, Guardians will have better gear, and do better. And when Guardians do better, we all do, right?"

Cayde nodded. "I don't believe you on that first bit, but I'll drop it for now so we can go back to training! I do want to meet her again, though. She was quiet, but she was pretty fun!"

Izuku chuckled softly. "Oh, don't worry. I have a feeling we'll be seeing her more often from now on."

"Greetings, O' companion mine."

Izuku nodded to Riven-Evelynn as she stepped out of the portal in his study, and shut it down after she had crossed over fully. She took another look around, and Izuku marvelled at how proficient she seemed with her human body now.

Or at least, he did, until she stumbled, her legs crossing over each other, and he had to create a portal and catch her to stop her from falling flat on her face.

"Are you alright?"

"This blasted form is infuriating! How can you live like this, with your spindly limbs?!"

She untangled her legs and planted her feet on the ground. Izuku chuckled as he let go of her now that she had stabilised. "I'm going to take that as a yes. What can I do for you, Riven?"

She shook her 'shoulders' and turned to face him. "You can do nothing for me this day, O' Helper mine."

Confused, Izuku frowned, hands coming together to fidget with a small green flame. "I see. Then may I ask why you are here?"

Riven smiled wickedly, her grin still looking like a predator's. She had apparently chosen to ignore his advice about smiles when her cover wasn't on the line. She walked out into the doorway between the study and the lounge room.

"My queen has detected some interesting activity in her Reef and has thought of an even more interesting plan. I thought you might like to be privy to it."

Izuku raised an eyebrow, and followed her out, flopping down onto the opposite end of the couch that she sat on. "This won't cost me a wish or anything, will it?"

Riven laughed, which sounded creepy and weird in her not-quite-mastered human body. But, less creepy than hearing Wizards and Knights shuffle around your hiding place in the tunnels of the Hellmouth.

"For information, your 'Vanguard' would give you in a few days time anyway? No, think of this as a favour, not a 'Wish'."

Izuku frowned, crossing his arms as he pulled his feet up onto the couch. "I… I do trust you, but is it safe for me to owe you a favour? Will I still get some sort of backlash for this?"

Izuku was kind of surprised at the annoyed look on Riven's human face as he said that. "No, O' questioner mine, there is no backlash. You are away my entire existence is not based on my ability to grant wishes, yes?"

Izuku's eyes widened as he realised that he had just insulted a wish-granting super dragon that was in his house. "No, no of course it's not! I'm sorry if I insinuated that it was, truly…"

Riven raised her chin at him, an aloof look on her face. "You are forgiven for your insult. Do not allow it to happen again. Now, do you want this information or not?"

Izuku nodded, sitting up and opening a portal next to him, reaching through and grabbing his datapad and opening the 'notes' function. "Yes, please. I would be glad to hear it."

She gave him a look that pretty much said 'you're overdoing it and sighed, but she started speaking either way. "In 5 days, Queen Mara Sov of the Awoken will be opening up the Reef to the Guardians, to hire them to quell a bit of an insurrection."

Izuku wrote it down, his eyes wide as he realised how big this was. According to Riven, and the Guardians, the Awoken Queen hadn't opened up the Reef since the Dark Ages, when it was first being created.

He frowned, worry starting to grow in his chest. "What kind of insurrection could be so dangerous that she would lift the ban on outsiders entering the Reef after so long?"

"The Eliksni House of Wolves, and a new 'Kell of Kells', O' liberator mine."

Izuku hummed at that. He knew what the Eliksni were, he'd actually met one during his time in the Hellmouth, a 'Dreg' by the name of Hiraks, but his explanation of their society had been fairly lacking since he had been super young. And because of that, didn't know much about the Eliksni, or the 'Fallen', as humanity called them.

"I must admit I don't know as much about the Eliksni as I'd like to. Would you please care to explain what the 'Kell of Kells' is?"

Riven seemed to preen at the question, a smug smile forming on her face. "I would indeed, O' student mine. Listen well."

Hellmouth, 5 years prior.

Izuku crawled through a small tunnel, the torch he had stolen almost completely dim now that it was out of its socket on the wall.

It was weird to him that a supposedly magic flame could go out just because it wasn't 'plugged into the wall', but he was 9 years old and only just starting to grasp the fact that magic existed.

He pushed against the rock he had set up at the end of the small tunnel to block off one of his safe rooms, the thick slab landing on a pile of Thrall skin to stop it from letting out a loud noise that could reveal this spot to the patrolling Hive.

He pulled his backpack through the hole after him and moved over to the wall, plugging his torch back into a wall socket he had stolen a few years ago. The flame flared to life again almost instantly, illuminating the room with soft green light.

"Screech!"

Izuku pulled out his Hand Cannon as he spun around to face the noise, the tip of the barrel slamming into something. It was only because he saw the 4 blue eyes, so different to those of the Hive, that he didn't pull the trigger.

The small creature in front of him had grey skin, 4 glowing blue eyes, and what looked like 2 metal tubes sticking out of its back. Pushing it backwards with his Hand Cannon, Izuku stood up and glared at it.

"What are you and why are you in my safe spot?"

The creature made bug-like chittering sounds as it waved its arms around. Right, it probably couldn't understand him when he spoke Japanese. What about…

"What are you, and why are you in my safe spot?"

The creature jolted as Izuku spoke the Hive's language. He couldn't really even explain how he knew it himself, it just seemed to come to him the more he heard it. The creature took a step back, hitting the wall, and crouched down slightly.

"I am Eliksni, yes? You are… human! Young human, small human, weak human. How are you living?"

Izuku frowned, squinting at the creature, no, the 'Eliksni'. "I am 'alive' because I am sneaky, and have set up many safe spots. This is one. You are an intruder."

The Eliksni fell to his knees(?) and patted the ground with his hands, something that even Izuku could recognise was a sign of surrender. "I will not fight! Please do not shoot. I am young Eliksni, small Eliksni, weak Eliksni, a Dreg! We are joined in 'Hellmouth' with nothing but Hive. Why kill one another?"

Izuku paused at that. Why… why was he so ready to execute someone who was in pretty much the same situation as he was? And the Eliksni was right, he wasn't even any bigger than Izuku was… in fact, it looked like he was smaller.

"What is your name?"

The Eliksni seemed surprised at his continued existence and raised its head from the floor to meet Izuku's eyes. "It is Hiraks. Hiraks, of House Exile. Or… formerly of House Exile. I have been lost to them since I was stranded here."

Izuku nodded, his hands a little shaky as he holstered his Hand Cannon. Hiraks seemed surprised at that, and when Izuku motioned for him to get back up, he did so. Izuku stuck out his hand, and while Hiraks flinched at the movement, he didn't attack.

Izuku felt a smile form on his face as he held his hand out. Helping someone out like this… would his mum be proud of him? Would All Might approve? He hoped so. "M-my name is Izuku Midoriya. Humans don't really have 'Houses' where I'm from…"

Hiraks let out a small chittering noise that Izuku recognised as laughter, and clasped Izuku's hands with both of his own.

"It is great pleasure to meet you, Houseless Izuku Midoriya. May this be the start of great friendship, yes?"