Chapter Text
Hawks wakes up slowly, noise filtering in over what feels like hours. He usually shoots up no matter what. For some reason though, he feels safe here. What happened? Everything's still fuzzy and drifting. Eraser and Mic wanna save me, Sumi didn't leave me? I went to meet Dabi and he-
The avian's eyes fly open, it's dark in here. He barely gets up before realizing he's not alone. The room is familiar, I'm at Mic and Eraser's place again. He turns to the other person in the room and finds Spinner from the LOV waking up from where he was sitting next to the hero.
They both flinch at each other but refuse to look away. The villain is the one to break the silence, looking away and ducking his head.
"I'm so sorry- What Dabi did, I should've done more to stop him. I didn't know the League was that bad. If I had- I'm just really sorry and I understand if you're uncomfortable with me around."
Hawks blinks, once, twice. Why is he apologizing? The lizard (gecko?) quirked person goes to leave, bowing low in apology. A cold tingling fills the avian's body, not unfamiliar of a feeling.
"Hang on." Spinner stops, fidgeting lightly. "I got myself into that, it's not your fault. I mean, you seemed to have helped the hero's find me too so in my opinion? You did great."
"I stood by while he pulled that shit, I could've-"
"You're no match for his flames. The only thing you could've done other then get killed was tell someone who could help, and you did. You did very well-"
"Why are you praising me?" They both pause at the question. "Why are you comforting me when you're the one who just got ra..? You know."
Hawks relaxes. He's uncomfortable, I can work with that. "Look kid. That kind of stuffs been going on to me for longer than I can remember. It's normal to me. You seeing it is not."
Instead of calming down the ex-villain, he looks sick. "You've had that happen before?"
"Normally it's not a villain or if it is I'm doing it on purpose but ya know." Hawks shrugs. "Shit doesn’t always go the way you want it."
"You were raped." Something in Hawks coils at the words while Spinner seems to struggle getting them out. His voice whispered the words, horrified.
"Yeah, well... It happens-"
"You've been raped before, for a long time if you find it so normal." The reptilians frill fluffs up a bit. "And Dabi must've known or something-"
"Oh yeah, speaking of Dabi knowing things. He must have my files, I need to get those back before he does something with them. Do you know..." From the way Spinner is staring at him, it seems something already happened.
"It's too late for that I'm afraid." They both whip around to the voice only to find Rumi entering the room.
"What does that mean?" A hint of confusion tints the avian's voice, he's being naive, he knows exactly what it means. Did he hurt the president? Is she okay-
"He released all of your files to the public. The Commission buildings are surrounded by protesters and a warrant has been put out for the President's arrest. Of course, she and a ton of high level workers have locked down the main building and nobody can get in so far-"
"She's in danger?" Hawks voice is cold, detached. Miruko and the villain give him a weird look. The hero can feel as everything slips away. She's in danger, I have to take out the threats-
He's lunging toward the door before he can even process anything around him. Miruko's arms wrap around him tightly. Too rebellious, danger to the Commission, kind, do not trust. She was right near the doorway, the only way she was able to catch him on time. The rabbit hero's shear strength holding him back.
"Kami Ke, what is-" She's cut off by a faceful of half grown wings, just barely moving back before they go sharp.
"I have to protect her I need-" He's just rambling so he cuts himself off. I have to get there, she's in danger. How many threats to eliminate?
"Ke, they did stuff to you there that altered your thinking, okay? We can't trust you to be yourself around the Commission, especially the president." His blood goes cold as that deep static fills him. They're taking her away, won't let me see her, prey is holding me back. I'd make a good gift to madame. "Hawks?"
The threat's voice is solid but he knows fear when he sees it. He goes still, waiting for the grip to soften. He doesn’t have to wait long. The second he's free, the avian sends a feather to slit the threats throat. It falls to the ground before reaching it, unresponsive.
Red eyes glow from the hallway, hair fluffed up in a challenge. The last bits of Keigo- who is that? Who's name is- fall away, nothing but getting to his mate left.
~
Shouta holds his glare at the young hero as he springs for the elder. Hawks pupils are pinpricks, the colour in them clouded over, where sharp fangs should be is bared. Miruko struggles to hold him back. The only reason she stands a chance is with his wings disabled. That's pretty clear from what just happened.
"We're gonna have to knock him out. I can't see a way to pull him back from this. Not right now at least." The underground hero had read all the files, taking the lead on the investigation.
They used his instinctual reactions to a mate in order to set the President as his. So what happened with Nagant could never be repeated. They literally forced him to imprint on her so his first reaction would be to do anything for her, to protect her. So he'd always listen to her orders. Would push far past his limits to please her, for a lick of touch. A pat on the head every occasionally that he always flinched away from anyway because she raped a child.
Shouta shoves all his feelings down for now, the horror and nausea is not helpful in this situation. "But-"
"No 'but's' Miruko." He cuts her off. "He's not in his right mind and the only person who could fix it is likely to choose to make it worse."
He peeks past them into the room. "Spinner."
The kid looks up to him over staring horrified at Hawks. "Go get the sedative I have in my hero costume. It's not enough to hurt him, just knock him out for a few hours."
The ex-villain nods and runs off, fearfully looking at Hawks. A bit of guilt is there too. Shouta looks closer to see a tint of awe too. He supposes it is a little impressive how terrifying Hawks can look.
It had been surprisingly easy to get medical power over him for treatment from whatever Dabi did. It's not whatever, it's clear what he did. Luckily, Hawks had set Miruko as an emergency medical caretaker. Even more luckily, he was mostly fine. From the rape at least. Just some small burns, a couple of bruises and slight anal tearing. He would make a full recovery physically from the kidnapping.
The problem was his past injuries. It makes sense why he was never allowed to go to a real hospital. Any medical personal that gave a single shit about their oath would flag this as a problem. As the abuse it is.
Whip scars forever carved into his back. The HPSC logo branded between his wings. His fingers are stuck crooked unless he chooses to re-break them on purpose to have them set right. Which would take months on end and plenty of pain. The scars from the number of times his fingers have been broken are stark against his pale skin, his hands rarely seeing the daylight. The lack of sun has given him a terrible vitamin deficiency. His talons are horribly mangled and may never be fixed. The skin around his nails hacked away at.
He used to have a tail but it's been fully removed. The feathers on his chest and arms were lasered off and might never come back. The worst part is probably his heart. They clearly didn’t intend for him to live longer then thirty. The training they put him through, plus his long untreated anxiety has caused it to shrink and if they had went on ignoring it he wouldn't be getting enough blood flow soon.
He had both sex organs, now both damaged so he couldn’t have children without the stores of his eggs and sperm they had kept in a facility. His multiple sets of vocal cords are atrophied from years of not using any avian language. The outside of the throat didn't have it much better with the electro-scars from years of shock therapy.
Hawks' knees have been landing too hard with no support equipment for far too long. They're liable to break at any point and the bones have been rubbing on each other for years. Probably causing a lot of pain. His tear ducts were different then most humans because of his mutation but the Commission fully removed them.
Years of starvation have ruined his temperature regulation and stunted his growth. The experimental drugs they pumped in him could do just about anything and the lack of proper sleep for the past decade have caused fainting spells that might never go away.
They weren't just trying to break him, they shattered him. To even keep living past the next few years, the avian is going to need heart medicine. When the head doctor for his case had tried to give him this report verbally they didn't make it half through before leaving to throw up. He had decided to read it instead when he looked at the doctor's shaking.
Spinner rushes back in, it's only thanks to his scales that a chunk of the reptilians arm isn’t taken out. The blonde goes limp quickly, eyes slipping closed. They lay Hawks out on the bed again and head to the kitchen. Hizashi and Best Jeanist are both hanging back in the room, looking worriedly in the direction of the guest room. Ryukyu, Nemuri and Gang Orca had all gone off to try and get into the Commission's main building without endangering civilians.
"Was he..?" Shouta nods at his husband's question before he takes they're hands together. "We'll find a way to undo what she did."
"I can't imagine how." Spinner says, dejected. His head is down as he shuffles around nervously. The hero's haven’t quite decided what to do with the ex-villain yet so he's on a sort of house arrest right now.
"If he's sure she's his mate that can't be broken. Mating bonds are forever with his mutation. Even if she dies he'd just kill himself to join her." Miruko remarks, a bit of anger in her tone but mostly despair.
"Surely if he found someone else he actually likes, that would override it at least?" Jeanist tries, the edges of his sleeves drifting around in a self-comforting response. "I mean- We can't just leave him like a ticking time bomb for both himself and anyone who threatens the President."
"Yeah! They medically inducted the coupling, can't we just... medically un-induce it?" Miruko asks, slamming her fist down. Hizashi shoots her a dirty look for almost cracking his countertop.
"I don't think that's how it works..." Spinner folds into himself when the rabbit hero's gaze sets on him.
"No it wouldn't. There was still a physical component to it, no matter what setting it up started." Shouta is just reasoning but he is glad it defends the ex-villain. The reptilian shrinks a bit less into himself.
"Oh yeah, we'll just reverse what they did!" Hizashi happily screams, a little manic sounding. He clearly wasn’t listening to how that wouldn’t work.
"What Hawks needs is all this dealt with as soon as possible. We deal with the President and don't tell him yet, till we break the hold she has over him." Jeanist throws out. The underground hero's teeth grind down a little as his eyes flicker red. The thread's on the blonde's coat stop flowing for a second and he looks up.
"We should break this as first priority, nobody should be controlled like that. We can put the President in jail easier with his testimony anyway." Miruko shoots back, stomping her foot in worry.
"It would be easier to deal with breaking if we knew she couldn't get to him." Spinner pipes up, taking Jeanist's side. His tongue flicks out, tasting the air. When Miruko looks over again, his small tail starts waving too.
"I think we should free him before anything else. Otherwise she could use him in court to cover stuff up." Hizashi agrees with the rabbit hero.
"There'll be a time between when she's taken and tried-" Jeanist barely gets out the sentence before Miruko cuts him off.
"We need to free him first! He's a person, not a puppet!" Her grip on the counter is pale and Shouta thanks his husband for getting the extra strength marble. He never paid much mind to the decorating.
"What we should do is-!"
"ENOUGH." Everyone looks over to red eyes and a loud shout. They all quiet down the fighting as the ravenette glares at each and every one of them. Only once he's sure he has their attention does he drop his quirk and start speaking.
"Hawks has been abused and controlled his whole life. The last thing we're doing is lying to him." He glances at Jeanist. "While we should prioritize freeing him as soon as we can for both his own good and legal reasons, we also need her brought in as soon as we can."
The room is silent as everyone takes nervous glances around, Spinner's tongue flicking out again and Miruko stomping. "We can deal with both, there's enough of us."
Hizashi speaks up first. "Right, no more fighting with each other."
"This is Hawks threads, not ours."
"We can do both, kick all their ass's."
Spinner is the first to say something different. "But how can Hawks make the choice? Anything evolving her might set him off and it certainly won't be his true beliefs."
"Then we propose a hypothetical with another person. Figure out what he would do if it wasn't him." Shouta shrugs, offering the best idea he has from the top of his mind.
"Alright." Miruko agrees, releasing her tight grip. "I'll handle it."
She leaves the room, heading for where Hawks is sleeping. Jeanist nods at them before heading out as well to help the others and check on his agency. Spinner and Hizashi both hang around with him. The ex-villain is squeaking under his breath, half hiding in a corner of the kitchen, his scales almost look pale.
"Hey kid?" The reptilian looks up. "I have to go get Eri and Hitoshi. Will you be okay here or do you wanna tag along?"
He grabs the keys, getting ready to go. He needs to check in with the UA staff and Nedzu about this whole situation. "You shouldn’t take me to UA. I'm still technically a member of the league."
Shouta watches Spinner curl further into himself with guilt. "Okay. But you aren’t a part of them, we just need to prove it."
Damn all these kids, making me go soft. Spinner looks up with teary eyes.
"Thank's 'Raser." Shouta smiles lightly and ruffles the kids hair.
"Anytime kiddo." He relaxes under his hand and nods. "See you later."
"Bye bye."
~
Rumi stares at Ke's sleeping body for all of five minutes before getting bored. Breathing? Check. Restful? Check. Conclusion? He hasn't so much as moved this whole time. She pulls out her phone to check on public opinion. It's going to be essential for getting him free.
I AM NOT RETIRING YET STOP ASKING (@YoroiMushaOfficial)
Can everyone stop arguing. @HawksOffical will show up soon and disprove everything. There is no way the Commission would do something like those files describe. #ProtectOurGovernment
The dolphins didn't try anything weird today! (@GangOrcaOfficial)
@HawksOffical is not available right now. He is safe, please allow him to rest.
I sMeLl pENies (@IAteMyGrandma)
Is he okay? Why wouldn’t he be able to talk?
The Commission is innocent (@NotAGovernmentSpy)
Are the pro hero's hiding him away or something? Why can't he come talk?
Stop the Wildfires (@NativeOfficial)
#ProtectOurGovernment This is a villains lie, we will not stand for this. Release the board members from their building.
Punch a bitch, now deserve one get one free (@BurninOffical)
Umm, they locked themselves in there man...
I should be in a musical (@MonomaNeito)
#FuckTheHPSC Something's sketchy about all this. Why would the Commission board be hiding if they're innocent?
MHAWAHA (@Nedzu)
There is an official investigation going on right now. Please calm down until we can solve this. Rioting is not helping other then preventing hero's from getting in to arrest them.
Smack a bitch into Christmas eve (@LunkersOfficial)
Thank you for being sensible about this Nedzu, with your team on this it'll be
solved in no time!
Should I release a perfume? (@MidnightOfficial)
Just let me know if I need to start knocking out the crowd. If they get too rowdy someone could get hurt.
Free Hawks (@TokoyamiFumikage)
#FuckTheHPSC My mentor doesn’t deserve this, he should be able to be free.
Handjob's got the account (@LeagueOfVillains)
THIS IS WHAT OUR GOVERNMENT DOES. COVER UP THEIR MISTAKES AND MAKE CHILD SOLDIERS. THE VILLAINS WOULD NEVER!!!!
Pink is cute but red is hot (@TogaHimiko)
Shiggy, I think you need a break from gaming. Also who cares about Hawks, although he did look pretty in those pictures, all covered in blood... I wonder if he tastes good...
Endeavor's kid is terrifying, I'm now glad that's not my sibling (@EndeavorShouldAdoptMe)
This is getting so confusing. Which side is right? The evidence against the HPSC seems true but Hawks is completely AWOL.
Having a bad hair day (@UwabamiOfficial)
I thought these were just lies that would be disproved quickly. With the amount of time being put in though I'm starting to wonder if maybe the files are true. #FuckTheHPSC?
We won't stand for this (@HatanakaKoichi)
#FreeHawks #FuckTheHPSC Those files are dark and twisted. Doing those things to a person, mean less a child is sick. I hope the Commission suffers a long time for this.
Du-dudu-du-dudu-dudu-du (@Michi)
I can't believe that Nagant might be involved with this. Just what is the Commission doing to their hero's?
Rumi clicks the phone off. Good, they're swaying over to his side. She ignores the rage at those who think it's false, or just don't give a shit. Her page is customized to her. She's glad it keeps the one's who blame him off of it.
I will not murder a bitch, I will not murder a bitch, I will not mur- Her affirmations are cut off by the door creaking open. She looks over to find Mic staring worried at Ke's sleeping self. "You good Mic?"
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't be crying. Hawks went through more anyway and-"
"Oh shut up." She cuts him off. "Hawks may have had it shitty but you're still allowed to be affected."
"Right. Thanks." He smiles shakily and wipes at his tears ineffectively.
"Alright, spit it out." She says after a moment of silence.
"I just- We had him here, safe. And I just let him leave. I let him go off without any safety measures and then waited to go find him. I should've done more to protect him." Mic slides down to the floor of the doorway, head rested against the frame.
"Yeah. You probably should've done more." She agrees. "But he wouldn't have liked feeling suffocated. You might have even made shit worse. And he's back now, safe with us. That's what matters. The future is what matters."
"You're right." He nods to himself.
"I always am." She smiles smugly, waving her hand. Mic grins back at her.
"To the future?" She nods and gets up to pull him up too.
"To the future."
~
Kaina wakes up to the sound of shouting and a fight. She silently gets off her cot and peaks out of her jail cell. Two guards are fighting, her guards.
"They covered it up and lied! We have to free her!" The other guard barely holds him back.
"I agree but we should wait for the legalities, we don't even know if those files are true."
"She's always been good. If it was anyone else she would be free by now. Her crimes weren't even that much." The other guard lets him go.
"Maybe you're right, we should free her."
She backs away to her desk when they turn toward her cell. The locks open and they peek in. "Come with us Nagant?"
Kaina can hear the question in their tone, heard the fight. They're... Breaking me out. Which means they have to know something about the Commission. There's only one person who could've realized what happened to her, and who would do something about it.
"Of course." She follows them straight out. Every guard they pass duck their heads and dart away. Only one tries to do anything, opening their mouth before slamming it shut and nodding, a fire in their eyes.
This was a sign, wasn't it? The assassin steps out into the sun and fresh air for the first time in years. Her arm comes to cover her eyes at the bright light, the constant tightness in her chest easing up. She thinks her jaw might have unclenched for the first time in ten years.
I'm coming Keigo.