Padme wasn't impressed at all with Sir Nighteye.

When Yagi had told her about his sidekick there had been a… barrier… between his words and his true emotions. It was something most people wouldn't have picked up but considering that Obi Wan was her brother-in-law AND pretty much her brother she was well used to people saying one thing while hiding their true thoughts.

"Oh, children can be like that," he once said to a woman who had been complaining about their child wanting to be a support hero rather than a limelight one. The woman had taken it as in 'He'll grow out of it'. He'd meant 'they actually are noble and not jaded assholes like you'. Other times it was about holding back all the information one wanted to say. 'The will of the Council' was a favorite of Obi Wan's and Padme had come to understand that meant 'I don't agree with it but I have to say I do because of bloody politics'.

Anakin had both learned and not learned that dance. His time as a slave had taught him to keep his emotions close. BUT… it was all or nothing for him. He either bottled it all up or he let it explode. He was working on that, of course, but he'd never be the expert of saying one thing while meaning another that Obi Wan was.

Or herself, for that matter. Obi Wan was right not to trust politicians.

'I'm just putting this dripping, slightly smoking device someplace safe, Anakin!' Right before it ended up being tossed in the garbage.

So when Yagi had told her all about Sir Nighteye and how amazing he was Padme had been able to see the barrier between his words and his true thoughts. How he spoke only in the past tense. How he was careful to praise his friend but never give too many details. The way he spoke of things with a muted passion, like he was trying to fake it sometimes and other times he was trying to hide it.

And, of course, there is the fact that Yagi and Sir Nighteye haven't interacted once since she first met All Might.

Seeing how he was reacting in that moment she understood why Yagi had cut the man out of his life.

"And now your rush to select someone to give your quirk to makes complete sense," Nighteye said with the same tone many of the Inner Core senators used whenever Padme tried to get them to meet with her concerning a bill. The same elitist huff that meant they were older and more cultured than a 'silly little girl from some backwater planet' and thus they knew far better than her when it came to all things. "I truly thought better of you. I truly did."

"Mirai…" Yagi said and Padme hated how hurt his voice came out.

"There is still so much evil in the world. For you to walk away from your duty for something as frivolous as-"

"That's enough," Padme said, moving to stand in front of Yagi. It was a touch funny, she thought in the back of her mind, seeing as she was so much smaller than him even in his thin form. But she wasn't going to allow Nighteye to bully her friend a second more. "How dare you."

"This is-"

"No, you will not speak," Padme said firmly. "Normally I'd say you could talk after I was done but at the moment I'm not sure you've earned that right. We'll see how I feel when I get done. But you have no right to talk to him now so you are going to listen to me.

"Yagi has been fighting for this world for decades. He has sacrificed everything. He has no wife. No children. He doesn't have hobbies. He doesn't take days off. He has sacrificed his entire body just to be the Symbol of Peace. And that was okay, when that was what he wanted. He didn't mind doing that and I am in awe of him for that. I've never met anyone as dedicated as him."

And she meant that; not even the Jedi had proven to be as dedicated as him, for they at least took time away from their missions to be at the temple, enjoying the wonders of their home. Yagi had admitted he still hadn't seen all the levels in Might Tower. Everything in his life revolved around his work.

"But now he is an old man. He might not look it to you but he is. And the world is filled with new heroes that are ready to step up to bat. Yes, there will never be another All Might. But we don't need that. We have enough heroes to spread the burden out. Hasn't he earned the right to be happy?"

Mirai shook his head though. "But you just admitted it yourself: he is All Might. There will never be another All Might. And his choice of successor shows that he has not thought this through." He let out a sigh, adjusting his glasses. "If you believed that he had chosen correctly you would have said there would be a new All Might. But this Star Might… she will fail. The only way she will ever be able to do good in the world is by giving up that quirk to someone that can do right by it."

"And who decides that?" Padme charged. "You? I was told your power lets you see the future, not that it makes you able to predict perfectly the outcome of every life." Nighteye opened his mouth but Padme didn't let him speak. "Nope. I am talking. Not you."

"You asked a-"

She continued on, speaking until he snapped his mouth shut. "You have only seen what Yagi can do… you've never experienced it. You haven't felt your muscles tense as you try and figure out how much force to use in your jump to make sure you clear the building but don't create a crater in the sidewalk. You haven't had to figure out how hard to perform a Tatooine Smash so that you only stop a villain and don't kill them. You haven't had to deal with the power thrumming in your veins when you have to just open a door. How many terrified children have you had to comfort while having the strength to reduce them to a red paste if you squeeze them a bit too hard?

"It is so easy for you to stand there and claim you understand when you don't. You pass your judgement on him and think you know best and I have yet to hear a single reason why you get to decide who he gives his quirk to. Because you were friends with him? A true friend would be thrilled that he was able to eat a meal that wasn't a carefully sifted slurry! That he could sleep at night without waking up hacking up what little remains of his lungs. A real friend would respect his choices and say they were going to stand by his choice of successor and not think about how mad they were their friend didn't let them dictate everything they did in their lives!"

Nighteye stared at her for a long moment.

"You are Star Might," he said simply.

Padme narrowed her eyes. "I am."

"And you think you are impartial? You have been given something that didn't belong to you-"

"And you decided to try and dictate something that you have no right to!"

"-and do not see the power it holds. You are a child who has found a loaded gun. If you truly were the hero you present yourself to be you would give that quirk to one that could properly use it-"

Padme felt something shift behind her and suddenly All Might was standing beside her. Not Yagi. All Might.

"I think its time you left, Mirai."

"This isn't over," Mirai stated. "There is still time for you to come to see reason. To understand that I only want the best for you."

"You want what's best for yourself," Padme said before allowing One For All to thrum in her veins, causing her to rise up and bulk up. She stood next to All Might, eyes narrowed. "Leave."

Mirai adjusted his glasses before letting out a sigh. He was halfway to the elevator when Yagi said, "Your pass to Might Tower will be revoked until you apologize to Padme."

"Just further proof she has bewitched you."

And with that he left.

"That…" Padme searched for the right word and, when nothing came to her, began to curse in Huttnees. When one was married to Anakin Skywalker they learned all sorts of colorful phrases.

"I'm afraid I didn't get all that," Yagi admitted as he shrank back down to his normal form. "I get from the tone though that it wasn't pleasant concerning Mirai."

"Nah," Gran said as he ambled in from a side room, eating a pepperoni sandwich. "I know that tone. That was insulting his mother."

Padme turned and glared at Gran. "You were here the entire time?"

"Course I was. Very entertaining! Also good job giving the lip to Nighteye. The stick up his ass has a stick up its ass! Man needs to be read the riot act sometimes." He took another bite of his sandwich.

Yagi… began to laugh.

Padme turned to stare at him but Yagi was too far gone. It wasn't just mere chuckles. It was a deep belly laugh that probably was hurting him greatly to give. And yet he wasn't wincing or cringing. He was just laughing long and hard.

And that made Padme laugh too.

Soon all three of them were going off and all Padme could think was that if Nighteye could see them he would be oh so angry.

~MC~MC~MC~

Obi Wan smiled as he looked across at Nemuri. "You look lovely."

"Of course I do," she teased. "But thank you all the same."

It was a rare night off for both of them. There was no school the next day, to allow the students one last chance to study before the final exams. Rex had agreed to babysit Eri, though it had been rather cute when she had complained she wasn't a baby.

'Cute… and a good sign,' Obi Wan thought. 'It means she truly is healing.' He was deeply concerned that all the trauma Eri had gone through would affect her… while she didn't like to talk about it she had night terrors and could be rather clingy if she was upset. It was part of the reason why it had taken so long for Obi Wan and Nemuri to go on a proper date; they didn't like to be too far from Eri. But she had been getting better the last few months and they had decided to chance it; Ahsoka would be one room over and Inko Midoriya had apparently decided to come and cook for all the teens as they studied at Anakin and Padme's place, so there was at least one person who had raised a child there if something happened. Ahsoka could handle any Force issues and Inko would the rest.

So Obi Wan and Nemuri had been able to get dressed up and go to a restaurant that Nemuri had been dying to try out.

"I normally don't like to get so dolled up," she admitted. "Teacher's salary and all that." Obi Wan nodded; while he really didn't see the need for money on a personal level he understood it made the world go round and he'd starve without it. Frankly being a Jedi was far easier. "But it is nice to sometimes get to look smashing." She flashed the smirk she normally used when she was Midnight. Sultry. Dangerous.

"Usually when I see that smile its right before someone tries to stab or shoot me," he replied only to suddenly realize that might not be the most flattering comment to make.

But thankfully Nemuri laughed at that. "Oh, I can imagine, based on some of the stories Padme has told me. What was your little enemy lover's name? Ass-Aj?"

"Asajj," Obi Wan corrected, not quite sure if Nemuri actually did know the dark side user's name and was messing with him or didn't. "And she wasn't my lover. I just flirted with her to put her off her game. She was far too used to Jedi that were stilted and emotionless… teasing her like that caused her to become either reckless or playful. I was able to use both."

"You are preaching to the choir," Nemuri said.

"Yes, I suppose you would know something about that."

Nemuri considered him for a moment. "Does it bug you? Me flirting with… well, everyone?"

"Not in the slightest," Obi Wan told her. "I can tell that you don't actually mean it. Just another tool in your arsenal. It would be like me getting mad at Padme for complimenting someone's outfit. Words win wars and all that."

"I know we preach de-escalation and all that but be honest…" she lowered her menu a touch, "…it has never worked."

"…no, it has not," Obi Wan admitted. "But it is fun to do."

"Oh, utterly."

They chuckled at that.

It was a rather nice restaurant. Not one of the grand places that was sending Padme constant letters about, asking her to dine there. Or, rather, asking 'Star Might' to dine there. Padme kept ignoring them, pointing out that All Might didn't go in for the celeb thing. While he had a ton of posters and action figures and the like he had made clear he wouldn't personally waste time on such things. No… he was rather focused on actually doing good.

It reminded Obi Wan quite a bit of what they had begun to do to him and Anakin…

"You know," he said after the waitress had come and taken their orders, "they were trying to make me famous. Back where I came from. Anakin too. We would have been like All Might."

"You mean it?" Nemuri said. She didn't sound surprised or shocked. It came out more that she wanted to know the truth of it all.

Obi Wan reached over and sipped his water. "Oh yes. It made sense, now that I have a chance to ponder it. We were both rather young so that was a plus. Many in the galaxy saw the Jedi as being old. Like stuffy librarians."

"I've always thought librarians could be rather sexy," Nemuri stated. "While there is something to flashing one's skin I always preferred a person who hid away much of their body. It was like a present you wanted to unwrap." Her tongue darted out to wet her lips and it took all of Obi Wan's control to focus. His…

His…

'Your girlfriend,' his mind supplied, half scolding him for his pause.

…his girlfriend was an evil evil tease.

"Well, the Jedi were all seen as old. Or beings that were separate from the rest of the galaxy. Unapproachable. Anakin and I though were young and we were friendly and we were more open to talking to others even if we disliked it. And-"

"You were handsome."

That made Obi Wan sputter.

"Come now, you must have realized it. Your flirting wouldn't have worked if you were hideously ugly."

Obi Wan shook his head though. "Rather I am startled to think that the Chancellor thought I was handsome. I… I must admit I am not sure how to feel about that."

"How about you feel nothing for that and focus on our date,"Nemuri said with a smile.

Obi Wan chuckled. "I suppose I could do that…"

~MC~MC~MC~

Nedzu smiled as he looked over the plans for the final exams. They were rather well done, he had to admit, and far better than anything they had come up with for the last few years. It was, perhaps, a touch cruel to force the third years into such a thing, as they had grown use to their robots, but it would still be a grand way to prepare them for what was coming next.

'It is better this way anyway,' he thought, rather pleased with himself. 'Robots are predictable. They must be programmed and they must act a certain way. But heroes? Oh… they are just so utterly chaotic!' He rubbed his paws together. 'This will be so delightful!'

With that settled Nedzu decided to look over some of the forms from the internships.

Things had gone well enough, he supposed. Better than the last few years, that was for sure. Thanks to Obi Wan and his efforts. Honestly, if Nedzu could find someone just as skilled as him to take over Heroics he would make the man his Vice Principal.

'Will have to wait though until Eri is a bit older… the child needs time to grow and heal.' He might not like most humans but that didn't mean he was needlessly cruel to them. Especially those with the best chance of understanding what he had personally gone through.

He pushed those thoughts aside. That was for later and even the most brilliant being on the planet couldn't focus on too many things at once.

Nearly all of the post-internship reports for the heroes were what he expected. Some more detailed than others and those he earmarked to receive special attention from UA. Take an internship seriously and you deserved a reward, after all. That wasn't to say anyone slacked off… thanks to Endeavor's little stunt many heroes that had never been able to get a UA student as an intern had suddenly been given the chance and they had been desperate to prove they would deserve another one.

'With Endeavor paralyzed his little rebellion has ended and now the higher ranked heroes think they will be able to act as if nothing happened. But I am too pleased with these results so I do believe I will simply keep going with them.' He hummed happily to himself as he went through the documents.

Oh yes, he knew all about Endeavor's medical problems. Even if Rex and Skywalker hadn't told him he would have been able to figure it out based on the Hero Commission's actions. Endeavor was most likely never going to be a hero again and that meant that his little attacks on UA, his feuding with them because of his son's actions, were now… well… paralyzed as well.

It was a cruel joke, of course.

But Nedzu was a cruel being.

Thinking of Rex he pulled out his report on the internships. 'Hmmm… young Aoyama certainly didn't have the easiest of times,' he thought as he looked over the report. It spoke of the teen's lack of focus mostly. Not in actual training, mind you… merely when it was his off hours. 'I suppose someone that was bred only to fight in a war would be confused by such things…'

And yet he found himself unable to let go of that idea. There was something wrong. Something that didn't quite fit.

He went to Skywalker and Kenobi's reports and looked them over, passing by their comments about their own interns. Those were all rather positive. Young Ida had adjusted to Anakin's methods and he had made note that Power Loader needed to see about getting some time in with the boy so that he didn't develop bad habbits. Obi wan pressed for young Midoriya to see Hound Dog more but that he was deeply pleased with how the young man had handled the situation in Hosu.

But… each of them had included notes on Aoyama.

That wouldn't have been too unusual, as it was common for Hero Agencies that had multiple heroes to have brief write ups on other interns. Another set of eyes and all that.

Except there had been nothing from Obi Wan about young Ida and nothing about Midoriya from Anakin.

Just Aoyama.

Nedzu narrowed his eyes at that.

'A puzzle,' he thought to himself. 'A complex one. Normally one I would enjoy very much trying to solve. Except I get the sense that this is a puzzle whose solution I won't like at all.'

~MC~MC~MC~

It was taking all of Anakin's strength not to head to the Nighteye Agency.

Leaping from one roof to the next, cape billowing behind him, he looked around to see if there was any trouble before moving to the next roof. The benefits of the Vader costume over his standard hero outfit were numerous. The helmet allowed him to see perfectly in the dark, especially when he'd figured the issue that tinted everything red. He couldn't imagine going through life only seeing that. While the weight of it had been a problem in the past it was actually to the point now where he was debating adding a bit more weight to the boots, to help build up his muscles. It was something he'd never considered, as Jedi were supposed to be focused on using the Force for so many things, but Anakin rather liked how toned his body was getting.

It… certainly had nothing to do with wanted to prove to Padme that he could match her. Strong parents stayed together, after all. That was known. And if the idea of working out together came up weeeeeell…

The black of the outfit allowed him to blend in perfectly with his surrounding ensuring that criminals never saw him coming until it was far too late. And being able to shut off the amplified breathing meant that no one heard his grunts as he moved, allowing him to be utterly stealthy… until he struck.

Anakin forced himself to turn right, even though he wanted to turn left, towards the direction of the Nighteye Agency.

'How dare he talk about her like that!' he mentally fumed as he fantasized about being an actual Sith Lord. They would be able to just march up to nosy bastards who thought they knew better than everyone else and could command people to give up quirks. 'His ability is seeing briefly into the future. Briefly! Its not even a proper vision! And he gets off saying that Padme is incompetent and stupid?'

Padme hadn't actually said that Nighteye had called her those terms. In fact she had been rather vague about what he had said when she'd been complaining to Anakin about it. But after she had gone to bed and he'd gone out to patrol as Vader his mind had begun to fill in the blanks and make the situation far worse than what it was.

'This is just your anger issues and your need to protect others,' he thought to himself, going over some of the things he and Hound Dog were still working on. It was a touch frustrating they hadn't been able to simply fix the problem but Hound Dog had explained that some things weren't like swapping out a bad motivator on a hyperdrive. It was more like when the wiring had been run through multiple systems because, even though it was complex, it had been the best way to do it in order to get the life support systems to work at the time. It could be changed however, now that you know better ways to do the wiring than when you had first attempted it, but it required time and patience. Because you still needed the life support systems and the fighter needed to be able to fly.

Still, he wasn't happy at all with how Nighteye had acted and it was taking much of his willpower to keep himself from going after the bastard and shaking him until he agreed to apologize.

'Padme can handle it,' he reminded himself. 'She doesn't need you to fight all her battles.'

That was another thing he was working on: trust issues. Anakin had to admit that he had them in spades. He couldn't help it though. He and Hound Dog had discussed it and he'd narrowed in on three things that had contributed to him feeling that way. First and foremost was the podrace. Qui Gon and Padme and everyone else had been in a lot of danger and trouble and Anakin had saved them. He had done the impossible and he had saved them.

Second was Qui Gon's death, which tied into the third which was his mother's death. Both times Anakin had lost someone he loved because he hadn't been with them. He had been told to wait, to stay behind, to not interfere. And it had cost them their lives.

According to Hound Dog these three moments (more the first and the second, with his mother's death just reinforcing everything) had caused Anakin to come to the conclusion that he was the only one that could fix things for people. It meant he didn't trust others if he wasn't involved. He tended to micromanage. He needed to be kept informed of everything.

He knew it was unhealthy so he was working on it… but it was so very hard.

Anakin cursed suddenly when he realized he'd changed directions and begun to head towards Nighteye's Agency again.

'Padme can handle this,' he thought. 'She's stronger now… literally. Stronger than you.' He honestly didn't know, if the two of them got into a full on fight, which would win.

He suddenly heard the sound of a window breaking and Anakin tensed, turning towards the direction.

It was time to get to work.