Brave of Tony to assume Gladio was merely taking their words for it. He'd had very long discussions with Steve about all of this. And Billy about some of it. Sometimes, though, society falls through and doesn't save you from the bad things.

Sometimes the worst thing to do is to assume society will account for everything and properly protect children. There are always places, and ways, that it fails. Society is not flawless. And Gladio has seen that first hand.

"They're hardly children, Tony," Gladio says. "They've faced demons. Hargrove is... Dead. Maybe not in this second, but once he goes home. Sometimes the world you live in forces you to grow up early, and even if we want to protect them, we have to understand that part of that is giving them the tools to protect themselves when they are going to throw themselves into danger.

"Honestly, that's part of what sold me on the school the more I thought about it. It's about giving them what they need to succeed. And perhaps teaching them, giving the structure of school, will mean they don't choose to throw themselves at things. Maybe they'll feel like they can trust adults."

But Harrington is ninteen, so there's no chance they're going to get him to back down. And Hargrove is even worse.

"I want them to have a chance."