Chapter Text
Something had snapped inside of him.
It hurt, and it hurt, and it hurt so much. It hurt more than the days and weeks and months of hurting that he has gone through. The experiments, the pain, trying to pull something out of his body, putting lots of things in it, filling him up with power and wonder. Making his body crave the power, crave the quirks he had been given.
Then taking everything away, putting him in the white room, everything empty, everything cold. His dad had been angry that nothing had happened yet, he did not simply want to give his son a quirk. That was cheating, he also didn’t feel like he had any powerful enough. His son deserved the best, and the most powerful ones were born out of trauma, but it was taking much longer than he was expecting. Yet now, it had worked.
Feeling his throat grate at his screaming and crying the pain stopped suddenly. The memory of the pain stayed with him as the heart low voices making their way towards him. He just wanted his mum. He hadn’t seen her in years.
Something was replacing the pain; he could feel it.
It was like something was filling him up from the inside out, something that was forcibly changing his DNA. The pain caused this. This was caused by the pain. It hurt and it hurt, and it hurt so much.
It was filling him, filling his brain with feelings. It was almost like he could feel everything around him. The filling feeling would not stop, it just kept on expanding, on and on and on. He had never felt this full, not ever in his 10 years of life did he ever feel this content. The feeling curled around his spine, walking up it like a curious cat. He could feel when it got to his brain, when it settled.
Lights, he was surrounded by clusters of lights, they were calling to him, begging him to be released. The lights called to him as everything else did. He could feel their connection to everything else as well. Pulling everything towards him in the last effort of protection of pain sent shivers down him when he heard the dark and low laugh.
It wasn't mean, it wasn't evil, it was rather a nice sound, proud sounding and familiar in so many different ways. It tickled the edge of his consciousness, still trying to pull everything towards him. It reminded him of times when he had a family.
And for the second time that day, something inside of him snapped. He felt the needle leave his neck, as blessed cold flooded through his body. He didn’t even feel it go in. The lights feel dark, and he opened his eyes.
He was aware of the doctor, laughing over his prone body. The man in the dark suit, brushing his hair back and whispering words of encouragement and congratulations. A kiss on his forehead and filled him with such familiarity he could not stand it. It was the old promise of something better. Something unobtainable.
“There, shhh, it’s done now, don’t cry. This is what you wanted isn’t it Izuku. You have a quirk now. Although I am disappointed that it is a simple telekinetic quirk, I would have liked it if you inherited my quirk, I thought that the signs were there. But no matter, it’s yours now. Go on, little one, sleep I can see it calling to you sleep little Izuku. Shhhhhhh. You were always my favourite anyway. A little mini-me.”
He went back down to the dark place; he did not want to be there. He didn’t care if his father activated the sleep quirk on him now rather than when he was in pain. All he wanted to do was follow his voice into the abyss.
Falling asleep to the murmuring of his father, like normal.
(x)
He woke in a large furnished room, on the sofa. It was comfortable, but definatly new.
Aching limbs pushed him to a sitting position as he looked around the room, he didn't know where he was. Without even looking around, his eyes unfocused on the white smooth walls, he could feel everything around him. Facing forward on the sofa, pulling his legs off of the pillows sent shooting pain through his spine. And the moment he tried to look for the lights, the moment he reached out to pull anything. A low humming echoed in his ear, when he tried again the humming grew louder, fluctuating in time with him trying to feel out. He could feel something buzz around his neck.
Moving to stand up from the couch a sharp stabbing pain in the back of his neck shot through him, reaching up to rub his neck his fingers brushed on a large piece of metal. Following it around his neck he frantically tried to find a seem or a place where he could take it off. Breathing increasing, a suffocating, dark feeling fell over him. Not being able to get enough air in he fell boneless against the back pillows of the seat.
Giving himself a moment to breath was difficult. Focusing on the placement of the room calmed him. Following the hidden seams of the walls, and floor gave him something to focus on.
“Breath Izuku, its ok, its ok, its ok.”
Trying to pull himself of the sofa as he tugged at the collar, tugged and tugged. He could feel his throat closing in panic again despite his desperate attempts to breath. Tugging himself to a standing position in the process, adrenaline keeping him standing.
Desperately trying to activate that pull to get the collar off he felt a large bolt of pain go up and down his spine, he fell boneless to the floor. Shuddering as more pain went through him as his vision tunnelled and went black as he heard a sound of distant screaming.
He woke moments later, the buzzing had stopped, and so had the pain. But the echoes were still shooting through him. Shaking arms lifting him up beside the sofa he rested his spinning head against the pillow.
A loud click echoed through the room, and a familiar voice echoed along with it.
“Izuku, don’t try that again. You can’t control your quirk it’s for your protection, we are just preparing a solution that will help to supress it. You’re like me the modern ones don’t really work on us anymore. You don’t want to visit the Doctor again, do you? If you try to use your quirk like that again, without me supervising I’m sure the doctor would love to work out a way to supress it without drugs.”
The speaker cut off his father’s voice and Izuku lay on the floor panting, phantom pain shot through him as he lay still. His head slowly clearing, and his whole body feeling heavy and frazzled. If anything, he needed to take stock of his surroundings. Then he can sleep. One step, just one.
One and one and one, he slowly made his way to the wall to keep his weight steady. Falling onto the smooth wall, leaning on his back. Heroes push through pain; a hero would focus on reading the situation and finding an exit.
Yes, an exit.
Today he would focus on his surroundings, but tomorrow he would focus on getting out.
Looking around what looked like a furnished apartment, Izuku soon found what was bothering him about this place. It didn’t have any doors, and it didn’t have any windows. Seems like unless he suddenly discovers he had super strength he wouldn’t be getting out. No exit means no way out.
Means he just has to focus on mapping out the large rooms from his strange feel sight alone and build up stamina. Heroes have a lot of stamina.
That seemed to be the hardest part. While he was fed, it was never enough to truly fill him up. He got the feeling that he was being under-fed to prevent him from being able to fight back.
It didn’t help that his hope of a rescue was slowly dwindling, the fact that there were no doors, anywhere, not even a front door frame was hard on his mental state. Not even being given the illusion of privacy, or safety. Smooth walls with doorframes, for each room.
The solid cement flooring was always strangely warm, and something had told him, as he padded around the room. It helped when his legs started to ache, and lethargy settled over him. The warms reminded him of something he remembered from a long ago.
Just another thing that his father took away from him. The list was growing.
He just had to behave until the heroes got here. But that was hard when he didn’t know what he kept on doing wrong.
(X)
Visits from his father grew in regularity when the man had realised just how powerful Izuku’s quirk was. Training became harder and harder, and his body was starting to build slow stamina and muscle as the food he was getting was more and more nutritious.
He had also, one day, opened the cupboards and empty fridge to find them full of fruit and veg and lots of other food types for him to snack on and eat.
Getting a wrapped-up cookbook after he burnt rice was a little humiliating. As was the handwritten post-it note above the oven detailing exactly how long to cook the rice, as well as exactly how much water was needed for different types of rice.
Hoping it was Kurogiri was a hope in disaster, he knew Kurogiri wasn’t able to hold a pen properly, let alone write a passive aggressive note. It’s his dad’s fault anyway, he was too young when he lived with his mum to have learnt how to cook, and since he was taken by his dad, he never had the opportunity. Being turned into a weapon was time consuming enough.
Even starting to cook for his father during his visits. The disgusted, mistrusting look he sent to a Onigiri that Izuku had made told Izuku enough about who had sent the note.
Izuku decided that he didn’t like cooking for his dad, but for a completely different reason. The shot of pride and warm fuzzy feeling that shot through him when his father had complimented his cooking, then sent a bolt of nausea through him. His father pride wasn’t something he particularly wanted.
The last time he had his father’s pride was when he was delirious with pain having freshly mutated a quirk.
It was a mistaking trying to stop after his father started eating his meals. A couple of days of sensory deprivation, and then overload changed Izuku’s mind, and his father again raved about how much better his cooking had gotten.
The shaking of his hands from that sensory attack hadn’t left Izuku for days, and as it carried on Izuku began to realise it probably wasn’t from the stress of the attack. It was a force of will to keep his hand steady when he was cooking. His father hated imperfection much more then rebellion.
The one time he had made a mistake when cooking, his shaking hands losing control of the pan and sending the contents across the floor. Hot sauce and bits of the meal splashing on his fathers well pressed and clean suit trousers.
Breaking a few of Izuku’s fingers was good enough punishment that All for One was willing to go without Izuku’s cooking, his vanity winning over his love of his sons cooking. Especially after letting Izuku know, freshly re-set and wrapped, that he would be away for the month.
Izuku learned how to cook with tremors after that. Constantly on the edge, and his constant need to have everything perfect was draining. Despite his father not being there. The tremors never did get better, getting worse and worse after each electric shock.
The cooking helped him gain the confidence to start trying to get the collar off. After several large electric shocks that left him paralysed on the floor for hours and the shakes that didn’t leave him for days, he was making progress. It was risky, but his father wasn’t there to punish him, and whoever was manning the cameras and cooking him food didn’t seem to mind.
There was no sensory punishment, and the heating stayed balmy and warm. It was nearly enough to put him on edge.
It took from when his fingers were broken to when he was able to unwrap them to learnt how much of an output of his quirk, he could use without causing the electric strike. It was much less power than he had hoped, only able to pull small items, but it wasn’t no power like he feared. Wires and small things were the only things that wouldn’t cause a strike. Nothing that would help him escape.
Nothing, except the small circuit in the collar around his neck.
It took him the better part of two weeks to be able to work out the system of the collar. It was too long and when he finally, finally worked out and started taking out the circuit when a dark portal opened to reveal his father. The needle in his spine disconnected, it would be unable to tell when he was using the higher output. But the electricity output section was still there, still poised to shocking him.
The month had gone so quickly.
The quiet click of the machine as it started to fall apart under Izuku’s quirk, was the only thing he could hear. It wasn’t stopping.
“Just a flying visit, little Zu, you must have been so lonely. How has the cooking been? Better I hope, your fingers look better.” He grasped the fingers lightly, spreading them out and observing them, “not crooked, good. Don’t worry about cooking anything I won’t be here long. Now what have you been doing while I was away.”
Izuku could barely concentrate on the conversation in his worry, the needle was moving and was irritating his neck. Nothing he was doing was stopping whatever was happening in the collar. Enough of his concentration was focused on his father that he couldn’t stop and ‘see’ what was happening.
The clicking got louder and louder, Izuku just hoped it would slow down. It was going to fall off while his father was still in the room. That was not part of the plan. It needed to stop. He was going to get punished.
His father kissed his cheeks, the centre of his freckles and ruffled his hair.
He couldn’t stop his power, his own quirk – Kacchan would be so happy, it had been so long since he had seen him – was cracking in his body, pulling and pushing at the internal workings, trying desperately to stop it falling apart. Even if for a few moments longer.
Talking, he had to focus on his father’s voice had to say goodbye to him, he couldn’t let the call of his quirk let him fuck this up. Couldn’t let his plan go to waste. He would use everything his father had forced onto him.
It was pushing and pulling, pushing and pulling. He could feel everything unlocking, the quiet clicking’s got louder as the needle rattled around in the collar. It wasn’t stopping, and he couldn’t get it to stop. It wouldn’t stop, why wasn’t it stopping.
The hand left his hair, tugging lightly on one of his curls and offering him a smile. It was almost soft and full of pride.
He needed to slow down, it was going too fast, but the smile on his father’s face shot something dark through him, something angry.
Offering a goodbye his father turned to leave, pulling out his phone to contact his warp gate.
CLICK
The pieces of the collar fell from around his neck, several pieces flying away from him, the internal locking system and needle flew away and hit his father’s back as he had turned to leave. His anger had overridden his sense of preservation, if he didn’t get angry, he would have gotten it off.
Standing frozen he could do nothing as All for One turned around, the anger draining to fear. There was nothing of his father in that dark, red stare. Driving into fearful green eyes, rooting him to the spot. He did even dare to move, didn’t want his father’s wrath to worsen.
Looking down, then at Izuku’s neck his gaze deepened into a glare and Izuku started sweating. The shaking in his hands started again. They did say that no plan survived contact with the enemy. Frozen in fear, All for One made his way slowly to Izuku.
“Hmmm, seems practice is going to well, isn’t it Izuku. Very well we can continue this conversation.”
Raising his hand, he lifted his palm to Izuku’s cheek, laying it flat on it, right where he had earlier kissed his cheek.
“But considering what I told you about the rules, you shouldn’t have done that Izuku, and I’m going to have to punish you. No quirk use unless I condone it, and since that collar was supposed to be on, you can probably guess that I. Did. Not. Condone. It.” His voice went harder, “especially since that collar is now on the floor.”
The collar lay around Izuku’s feet, and he felt a buzzing pulling feeling rise in his body, it wasn’t his quirk it was just a bright awareness of something dangerous coming.
One bright light lit up behind his open’s eyes, other than the sun that resided in his father. It travelled along his father’s arm and was coming towards him; he knew if it reached his father’s hands it would hurt. Bad. So, he pulled it. And it settled into him.
Gasping his father’s head shifted slight, tilting like a cat as his finger shifted to cover more of Izuku’s face, grasping tightly. Covering his eyes and the majority of his face with one palm.
“Interesting, you pulled it away. I guess you do have more to your quirk then just telekinesis. Very interesting. I guess you did inherit more from me then just love of quirks.”
Izuku tried to jerk back when it tightened but his father’s other hand came and rested at the back of his neck. Immobilising him. Not used to having power, Izuku stayed still, his fear was enough of a suppressor to keep his new power dormant.
“Now let’s see if you can give them back huh. Forced quirk activation.” Izuku saw a red pulse travel down his father’s arm that held his neck, as well as seeing another quirk travel into the hand resting on his face.
He felt the moment the quirk activation quirk activated he viciously pulled the smaller quirk into him. As well as many of the unbolted down objects in the room. Pulling and pushing things went everywhere. When his father was finished, he dropped him like a sack of potatoes.
“No, but that doesn’t matter, if my theory is correct, you can pull anything towards yourself, as long as you can see it. The telekinesis as well as an adapted form of my quirk will suit you nicely. Well done, Izuku.” He let go of Izuku suddenly, letting him flop onto the floor in exhaustion, “but you still took the collar off, so I am still going to have to punish you. Kurogiri, another collar please, the one with the drug in this time. The shock collar alone wasn’t effective enough.”
A portal deposited one into his hand, he knelt next to Izuku, who was trying to draw in shuddering breaths and clicked the collar around his throat. Gagging at the sudden thing around his neck, All for One grabbed his hair and drew his head back. Pulling his shoulders over his lap as he sat on the sofa, moved across the room towards them, and pinning between his shoulders down with one hand and slotting in the needle into his spine.
Shuddering and shaking he couldn’t stop. Feeling the moment, the needle was where it was meant to be when his senses closed down. Muted, and his hands shaking his father stood him up. Standing over him, still holding the collar. He still wasn’t done.
“Taking those quirks back should be painful enough. I’m so disappointed that you made me do this Izuku. Hopefully this won’t be so painful in the future.”
The pain contorted his body a hand resting on his curls pushing him onto the floor, not that he would have been able to support his weight. The shaking of his hands had moved on to his legs. He could feel a stronger force taking away the stolen lights, it wasn’t natural. No amount of pull back was letting him keep them.
“Father, please I’m sorry,” he gagged again in pain, screaming a moment later when one of the quirks went into his father, who was slowly taking them back, “dad, dad please I’ll be good. Dad, Daddy please.” The second one was painstakingly pulled out of the shaking white-haired boy, the moment it was done his father stepped away allowing Izuku to lay on the floor shuddering, he had never felt so empty.
“You’re such a good boy. My little Izuku, rest. I’ll come back later when you aren’t feeling so rebellious. All I want Zu is for us to work together. I love you, my son.” Taking his hand stroking his hair away, All for One ran his hand through his hair calling on Kurogiri to exit.
There was no door, Kurogiri was the only way in or out. Johnny as well, but he was just in stage one. Very temperamental. Not good enough for anything other then prototype travel just yet.
He just wanted his mum.
All for one caressed his head, cooing and preening promising safety and protection from all that would do him harm.
He was still in a vault.
And he was still All for Ones pet.
All-might would never save him.
(x)
The days spent in what Izuku could only call a vault were, nice?
His father didn’t visit all that often, but when he did he allowed Izuku to practice with his quirk, allowing him to take some and taking them back without inflicting agony on Izuku. He was allowed to ask questions and theorise with his father if he successfully worked out what the quirk was.
Most of the time he didn’t manage to figure it out, and the next visit would be him finding the same one in his father’s hoard and trying again. They were easier to figure out a second time, Izuku’s ability to work out quirks, and to analyse them was, as his father theorised, a latent example of his quirks possibility while it was still dormant.
They had worked out as well, that he wasn’t able to use the quirks he pulled, he was just a storage device for them. All for One even considered getting a copy quirk just to test whether to see if he pulls the actual factor into his body, or if like his own quirk factor, it just remains dormant in his body.
The man, after weeks of Izuku begging to hear about it, told Izuku about the development of quirks and genetics. It would have been simply impossible for a person to not have a quirk now. Lack of toe joint, in of itself was a mutation that was developed in the womb the same time the quirk factor did.
Going on to explain that Quirklessness was not a thing, everyone had a quirk, even if dormant. Izuku’s ability to analyse and pick out quirks, he explained wistfully, would have been a mutation in his brain to pick out the most suitable quirks for himself. Despite his main quirk being dormant and its potential only being able to be unlocked with enough stress to the body to force it into action.
Being told that he was only picked by his father to raise just because of the possibility his quirk was connected to his love of analysis was hard to hear. But not really that surprising.
A small shiver of satisfaction shot through him when is father told him that it was the same for him. Being able to pick out people with quirks, being drawn to them, despite not having a quirk himself, developed into a quirk when the government organised a strike against Hisashi and Yoichi, and their following of ‘specials’. Well before they fell out.
Hisashi developed a quirk during the process.
It really was a dark satisfaction thinking his father went through the same thing as he did.
The satisfaction he felt melted away when he was told about his uncle’s own quirk manifestation. It seemed his father had a habit of bringing family members quirks to the front through pain, even if in that instance it was through giving another quirk to a body not strong enough.
He was even in the same vault, his father even called it a vault, that his uncle had stayed in.
Then he complained about some nonsense that some, Overhaul, was spewing about Quirklessness and how people who were quirkless were clean.
The only true quirkless people were people who All for One visited.
The vault was nice, compared to the lab and surgery room where he had been kept prior this.
The floor was heated underfloor, turned off with the heating when he misbehaved, and the library was amazing, it was only full of scientific quirk books and fiction books, and was the only way that he was able to pass the time.
There was a sound system, going off when he was bad to cause confusion, as well as bright white lights, that can either cause a black out or overwhelm and disorient him with flashing lights – again when naughty.
A large bathroom with a large bath, free of punishments his father didn’t want him dead, full of all the toiletries he could need, would ever really need.
A large bedroom, plush bed, fluffy duvet and pillow. It was sometimes too soft, when his arms were shaking, and his fingers ached.
It was difficult getting out of bed sometimes too, when the weight of isolation weighed on him and all he wanted was the half-forgotten hugs of his mother. Thinking about her made his heart ache with every beat.
He could barely even remember her smile anymore. The green of her hair, and her smell. Sometimes he thought he got hints of something that felt similar, but it was never enough to bring it back. It would all go one day, and there was nothing he could do.
A wardrobe, empty of anything Izuku would willingly wear, and a chest of draws full of khaki shorts and polo shirts. Soft, but unworn and not entirely comfortable. He wished it was stocked with tracksuits hoodies. All-might ones, preferably.
What always confused him was the bolt of pain, not from the collar it was a pulsing migraine that stayed for the next couple of days, whenever he mentioned or thought of all-might, worse than the electric shots of the collar. Whispers in some of the books he read mention the word. Conditioning. Association through pain.
It really hurt when All-might came crashing through the ceiling one day.
Wait… ALL MIGHT.