Aizawa stood at my door. "Can we talk?" I opened the door a little further before breaking down my hand and reattaching it to the rest of my body. I sat up in my bed, my blankets wrapped around me tightly. I turned to look at my alarm clock – it was noon. Aizawa pulled the chair away from the desk and wheeled it in front of my bed, sitting in it so he faced me. He crossed his arms and mindlessly tapped two fingers against his bicep. "Tomorrow's your licensing test."

I nodded, tucking my head below the lip of the blanket. I would fail the test at this rate. I had a fraction of the training my classmates were privy too because I had to work most days. Worse yet, I was wasting my last day of training to sulk in my own despair. What was the point to taking the exam anymore? I stared at the carpet below the wheels of the chair – watching as the strands bent as the wheels moved slightly back and forth. "Why did Vlad expel her?"

Aizawa let out a sigh. "She told you about that then, eh? We've been keeping an eye on her since she almost killed you, Midnight, and Cementoss at the Sports Festival. It appears that she used your match as a front."

"A front?" I looked up at Aizawa as he leaned back in the chair.

He nodded. "She used your match to broadcast to the country who you two were. Remember when your locker, desk, and swimsuit were trashed? Your sister did that herself. She was the one that instigated those students to drench you. When Best Jeanist revoked his offer to have her as his intern – he spoke with Vlad and I about his concerns with her. Then, she attacked you during school hours. Vlad caught her cheating on their exams, thus failing, and the decision was made to take her with us to the boot camp. We thought that if we could supervise her in that sort of environment, it would give us more insight into what was going on. As you know, she deserted her classmates.

"When given the same opportunity – you remained with everyone. After the attack, her mannerisms and activities were questioned. We had a feeling that she was the leak that was providing information to the League of Villains now that she's fled the school and murdered your grandmother. Well, that confirms our suspicions.

"Vlad and I came to your rooms just after nine last night once we got word of the fire. Neither of you were in your dormitories. No one in either class had any knowledge that you two had left the school. We began to suspect that you were both working with the League. Then, an hour later, you walked back in a mess. What happened last night?"

My vision began to tunnel. All the words that Aizawa spoke rang over and over and over. They had expected that I had been working with the League as well? "I was studying. Akari went past my window, and I followed her – it was something that we used to do as kids." I swallowed as the words 'leak' and 'traitor' reverberated in my brain. I felt my lip quiver as my eyes blinked to fight against the tears. "She attacked me and told me that she was getting kicked out. She kept blaming me. We fought. A portal opened – one of his –, and she left." I tucked my head into my comforter and began to sob uncontrollably. He would not believe me if I said that our mother was alive – that I had seen her. Heard her. She had called me trash, and that was exactly what I was.

Aizawa sighed, leaning forward so his elbows rested on his knees. "You get a pass for today. Pull yourself together for tomorrow and take the exam."

I scoffed, lifting my head up from the blankets, my jaw quivering. "I can take the exam. I won't pass, though – a villain shouldn't." After all – both of my parents and sister were villains now. I was made to be evil. Was Dad alive, too and working with the League of Villains all along?

"Stop it." Aizawa snapped, stiffening his neck to glare at me with his quirk activated. "If you had any hint of villainy in you, you would not be as distraught as you are. You've been grovelling long enough over what your sister thinks about you – it doesn't matter. Stop allowing your sister to manipulate you."

I wiped my eyes on my collar. He was right. I was not made out to be a villain. When I had wanted to go with Mom and Akari – it was because I did not want to lose them, not because I wanted to join them. Or, maybe, I was so broken because of how much I relied on Akari.

Aizawa yawned as he stood, wheeled the chair back to the desk, and moved to exit the room. "Buses leave at six sharp." With that, he left me alone in my dorm once more. Everything still stung. I stared at the closed door.

[B&M]

I stood with my classmates in the middle of the examination room. I had placed all three sensors in a row down my abdomen. I shifted uncomfortably – the examiners were well aware of my quirk and had put in a rule that I could not break down the sensors as it would give me an unfair advantage.

I gazed over the mostly empty audience seats – Redemption was giving myself and Tiny a thumbs up from his seat beside Aizawa and Miss Joke. I crossed my left arm over myself and cradled my elbow. I had not met Tiny at the hideout. He stood with some of the older examinees, his head high above them. Redemption was tall – but Tiny made him look average. Tiny was of a similar, hulking build but his muscles were leaner than Redemptions. He wore a sky-blue skin-tight suit from his toes to his fingers. His hands were gloved in the same fabric with a band of metal over his knuckles. He waved to Redemption, returning the thumbs up before running his large hand through his sandy, cropped hair. Redemption had mentioned Tiny during my internship – apparently, he had gotten himself 'found out' again. For someone so gigantic, how was he supposed to be inconspicuous?

"Ready?" Katsuki's arm brushed mine as he walked past me.

I frowned. "Maybe." I still felt numb. He stopped walking and looked back over his shoulder.

The representative for the hero commission coughed into the microphone. "Now that everyone has their balls and sensors – you all have sixty seconds to disperse around the arena. Once the alarm sounds, the test will begin." He yawned as the screen behind him began to count down.

"I'm going this way." Katsuki started to walk towards a cityscape. "Coming?"

"I'm coming!" Kirishima and Kaminari chased after him.

"Shouldn't we stay together," I called after him. After all – the other examinees knew more about us than we did of them. Ketsubutsu's and Shiketsu's students seemed to have been plotting and examining us the moment they met us outside the hall. I turned and broke my feet down, rushing after my classmates towards the mountainous area. Todoroki had left on his own as well. Hopefully, they would pass.

The moment the alarm sounded to begin, Ketsubutsu's students popped up from their hiding spots in the mountain and began to shower us with balls. They had already planned this attack. Midoriya jumped up and kicked back a few of the balls; Tokoyami used dark shadow to block the balls, while Mina melted them. I dissipated my arms, forming my Reversal technique to capture and return their balls. I managed to hit a few of their sensors – but not enough to get anyone out.

The boy with black hair and a green vest placed his hands on the ground. He had come up to us immediately and began to shake our hands until Katsuki slapped his hand away. Something nefarious had been processing through his mind. The ground began to vibrate, and large hunks of rock flew up as the mountainside collapsed. Dust and debris were flying everywhere. I reformed my arms and rose up above the cloud of dust. There was no way we would be able to work as a team with this much destruction and visual handicap – but that meant neither could they.

"It's about time someone passed. What?! There were a hundred and twenty people taken down by a single person in one attack!" The hero commissioner screamed over the intercom. There were ninety-nine spots left; we needed to get moving. I swallowed and broke down my body below my waist. I plunged into the dust cloud, weaving my way through our opponents. I held onto a ball in each hand, tapping every sensor that I passed.

"Someone got me out?"

"What? There's someone else here?"

"Stay on the defensive!"

I needed one more person out, and I would pass. The dust began to thin out – the bright red lights of the sensors I had already touched were beginning to be visible. Soon, they would be able to see my targets as well. I rushed towards the lights, tapping any unlit sensors.

"You've passed – please make your way to the anteroom." I reformed my body in the midst of a group. They were not part of the class from Ketsubutsu that had attacked us initially. They must have gotten mixed up in the same earthquake attack.

"Where the heck did she come from?"

"That's Sirius' kid. No wonder we couldn't see her."

I lifted my head and continued through the group. This test had no bearing on whether I'd make a decent hero or not. I just possessed a quirk that made this type of examination easy. If this was going to be how the rest of the testing would go – I would pass, but I would not feel like I had earned my pass.

I entered the anteroom – a table laden with food stood in the middle of the room. There were maybe twenty who had passed. A few of the others pecked away at the display while others waited for their classmates or friends. I was the first from UA to pass. Come on, Katsuki.

"Oh! Polaris," a high-pitched voice squeaked. I stood up straight, looking around me. Who was that? "Down here!"

I looked towards my feet. A small humanoid no bigger than an eraser stood, waving a blue appendage. Blue. "Tiny?" I gasped, squatting down. He placed his arms on his hips and nodded. He was barely two inches tall. I instinctually set my hand down for him to climb up on.

Tiny shook his head, "I may be able to change my size – but my weight stays the same. I wouldn't want to hurt your hand now. Just give me a second to resize myself!" He stuck his thumb into his mouth and began to blow. He motioned with his other arm for me to step back. I stood back up and took a few steps back. First, Tiny's right arm grew, then his left leg, followed by his right – his body morphed like a balloon animal being twisted into shape until he stood back at his full height. I stared up at the giant of a man he was. "I'll grab us some drinks!" I watched in dumbstruck awe as he sauntered over to the table and cleanly picked two water bottles up as if his hand was a claw machine.

He returned just as quickly, holding out the bottle to me. "Thanks." I managed to say, taking the bottle from his large hand. He could crush my skull between two fingers. "How long have you been a vigilante?"

Tiny sat on the floor, leaning up against the wall. "About ten years now – I never got into a hero program when I was a kid. It's all thanks to people like your D - uncle there for giving us those opportunities." He took a swig of his water.

I nodded. "Yeah. How many of there are you there? It was just him, Phoenix, and myself last time, and that place is far too large for just the three of you."

Tiny snorted, twisting the cap back on his water. "He's got a good twenty sidekicks under him – soon to be twenty-one – and a rotating cast of ten to thirty vigilantes."

"Ten to thirty?" Why such a large gap?

"Yeah – it's more dangerous to be doing hero work as a vigilante. Besides the actual villains, there are the police and the public safety commission. Since using your quick in public is forbidden without a license a lot of us will end up in Tartarus. Oh – more of you guys passed." Tiny smirked, crossing his arms. "Expected of UA, after all." I turned to face the entrance. I smiled as Katsuki and Kirishima entered. Kaminari, Uraraka, Sero, and Midoriya lagged. They had done it. The rest of the class was spaced around the room sporadically. I hadn't even noticed when they had come in.

"You were ready," Katsuki smirked as he walked past – heading to hand in his sensors. I may have passed – and been the first from UA to pass – but that doesn't mean that I deserved to pass. The end of the first test was called.

"One hundred students have advanced. If you did not pass – please leave the testing area immediately. For those that passed, please turn your attention to the screen," the exam instructor yawned over the intercom. The television flashed between different views of the various regions of the testing field. After a few moments, each biome exploded. Debris fell and fires erupted. I felt Katsuki's cool metal gauntlet brush the back of my forearm as he returned to stand beside me. Our last task was a rescue mission. "There is only one more exercise left in the exam. Your task is to rescue and save the bystanders that are trapped within. Use this time to show us how you will carryout your mission as if it were the real thing. We'll be scoring you on a point system – if you are above the cut off you will pass." The walls around us began to fall away.

"Polaris!" Iida shouted as our class took off running. "Can you locate those injured or in need of rescue in the urban area?" I watched as Katsuki, Kaminari, and Kirishima took off on their own yet again.

"Sure," I breathed, breaking down my body. I soared high above the arena taking in all the destruction. Some of the examinees were making a triage area against one of the stadium walls while others were marking off areas or making buildings stable before entering. I could help! I returned to the class just as Midoriya ran off with a small child bleeding from his head. "There's a group inside the mall – I can make a tunnel for them to exit out of. There's a few stuck under a sign to the east." I kept my upper body solidified as I rushed, spiralling to the mall I had seen. Iida, Uraraka, Jiro, and Yaoyorozu ran behind me. I broke down the rest of my body and spun, breaking down the wall with me. The edges of my round opening ebbed and pulsed like dark clouds of dust. Iida and Uraraka rushed through the opening I made and helped the five people trapped inside out to be received by Jiro and Yaoyorozu. Yaomomo created some bandages to splint the dislocated shoulder. Once they were out, I solidified the wall back in place. Iida and Jiro escorted the group to the first aid center. Uraraka, Yaomomo, and I kept working through the debris for more victims to rescue.

A series out explosions went off across the stadium. I rose into the air with my legs broken down and scanned the arena. "A villain has completed another large-scale attack," the examiner sounded over the intercom just before sirens began to howl. Dozens of men in full body suits with guns began to storm the arena.

I swallowed – watching as the mock enemies headed towards the first aid area. The pro-hero Gang Orca was leading them. "I'm going to go help." I spoke quickly to Uraraka before rushing across the stadium to the mock victims. The villains aimed their weapons at the victims and pulled the trigger. I erected my nebular wall between the two groups – the sticky substance hitting my wall and solidifying. Cement. A few of the other examinees rushed towards us with their victims in need of first aid. I opened a doorway in my wall and allowed them through to safety. Todoroki took on Gang Orca while Midoriya assisted with the other villains. I took blow after blow of the cement from the villains that tried to break down my wall and gain access to the first aid station. My wall remained upright. I needed to concentrate on keeping my wall intact and allowing new victims through.

A horn blew through the arena. "All of the victims have been rescued from the evacuation zone. The provisional licensing exam has officially been completed. After we tally the scores, we will announce the results here in the arena. Anyone injured should go to the infirmary, the rest of you are free to change clothes and wait wherever you are." The examiner sighed as his microphone clicked off. I broke down a section of the cement and allowed all of the other heroes in training and victims out. I let myself resolidify with a sigh. It was over now. I did not feel as if I should have passed the first round – but now, after the second round, I hope I did pass.

"Thanks for protecting us!" One of the Shiketsu students hit me with an open palm on the back. "That's a cool defensive move." He gave me a smile before running to meet up with the rest of his classmates. I turned to view the wall of cement that stood in my place. My father's Nebula technique did come in handy to save people. I gave myself a small smile before heading back to the changing rooms.

[B&M]

I stood beside Katsuki and Kirishima – rising on my toes to see over everyone's heads. Kirishima hit his fists together, "I passed!" I dissipated my legs and allowed myself to float upward just enough that I could see the bottom of the board. It took me a moment to locate my name, but when I did, I could not help but allow the smile to spread across my face. I had passed! I reformed my legs and hit the ground, turning to Katsuki. I froze – his face was forlorn.

"My – my name's not there," Katsuki whispered. His eyes continued to stare at the board, unblinking, as his jaw tightened.

Kirishima quickly looked the board over again. "You're right. We're all there but you and Todoroki." My stomach dropped. How had two of our top hero prospects failed the exam? I wanted to reach out to hold Katsuki's hand but forced my hands to grasp themselves.