Chapter Text
Chapter 1 - The Test
Val's POV - 10 years old
English
sign language
"Come on down kids!" My mom, Susanoo, called from her and dad's lab.
"Let's just get this out of the way," Katsuki said standing up from my desk chair. As he started walking out of my room Izuku and I quickly stood to follow him.
"What do you think they want to show us this time?" Izuku asked me while we walked down the stairs.
"Who knows Izu. Probably something else to hurt ghosts." I answer with a shrug.
"There you are!" My dad, Doyle, said loudly. "Come have a seat here." He gestured to the four plastic chairs.
"Where's your sister Valerie?" Mom asked after glancing our way.
"She's at the Library tutoring a classmate." I take a seat and wrap my arms around my torso.
"That's too bad. Oh well, we can always show her another day." Dad said messing with some panel.
"What are you showing us anyways?" Izuku asks as he and Katsuki sit down next to me. Katsuki has his arms folded over his chest, and Izuku is leaning forward slightly, trying to get a better look at whatever they are hiding behind a giant tarp.
"Just wait kiddo!"
"Have you finished the calculations, Doyle?" Mom asked dad, looking over her panel.
"Almost Su. And there we go. Ready to fire her up Hun."
"Okay, kids get ready!" Mom calls out, smiling oddly. A chill runs down my spine looking at her face, half covered with some off-white jumpsuit and blood-red goggles.
'She really looks like a mad scientist with that smile.' I sign to Izuku and Katsuki. Izuku nods in agreement, while Katsuki grunts his agreement.
Dad pulls the tarp off a tall round door embedded into the wall. Mom turns some dials and flips eight switches. When mom nods dad pulls a giant lever next to the door.
I hold my breath as it starts to open and grab one of Izuku and Katsuki's hands, holding them lightly. They grip back.
Dad walks back over to his panel quickly and presses a big button. Lights around the door sputter to life and start flashing until they get to the top where a big red warning light sits. Once it turns on and starts spinning an orb of some yellowish green color forms in the middle of the metal tunnel. It grows a few feet before swirling.
Then it vanishes, along with the blaring red light on top.
"What? But we had everything right!" Dad shouts moving to look at something, maybe a blueprint.
"Let's just take a break, Doyle. It hasn't worked yet and we've been working nonstop for a month." Mom says an air of disappointment in her voice.
"Okay, honey." They both leave the Lab without another glance at us.
"What the hell do you think they were trying?" Katsuki asks once the door closes.
"It's that project that they started before I was born," I say getting off the terrible plastic chair and moving to where dad had just stood.
Izuku follows right after me and leans around me to get a glimpse of the blue paper. I move it so it would be in between us.
"'Ghost Zone'? What's that?" Izuku asks, pointing to the words.
"They suspect that there's another dimension or something that ghosts can access freely. Or something like that." I answer reading dad's shitty handwriting. "How is his English handwriting worse than his Japanese?" I ask no one.
Izuku had moved to dad's panel, taking the blueprints with him. Then he moved to moms.
"It looks like they did everything right. Maybe something is wrong inside?" He suggests.
"Maybe, only one way to find out." I move over to where dad stores jumpsuits for me and my sister. I grab one and put it on over my clothes.
"You're really going in there?" Katsuki asks getting up from where he's stayed seated.
"I'm not letting you two go in. If anything happened to you I wouldn't be able to live with myself."
"Val…" Izuku started. "Is there anything we can do?"
"I don't know Izu." I zip the last zipper up and walk towards to giant portal. Stopping just before it I take a deep breath, trying to calm my now racing heart.
"You don't have to do this Val. You can let your shit parents figure it out." Katsuki says as he and Izuku join me. Releasing that deep breath I turn to them.
"I know. But knowing them it'll take them another month to figure out where the problem starts. Plus, maybe if I can get it to work…" I turn back towards the portal. "Maybe they'll take a real break from this shit. Maybe they'll spend time with me and Hikaru." I whisper the last part to myself, but I'm sure both boys heard me. "No more stalling boys," I say standing up straighter.
As I take a step forward both boys take a few steps back. I take another deep breath and walk over to the left wall, placing my hand on it to steady myself I start walking deeper. As I walk I let my eye run over every dip in the wall, looking for something that stands out.
Once I reach the smooth back I take my hand off the wall and walk over to the right wall. I take another deep breath and place my left hand on the wall before walking back down the tunnel. For some reason, I feel my heart rate pick up as I get closer to the middle of the tunnel.
I take a second to glance at Izuku and Katsuki and see them both watching me intensely. Izuku is wringing his hands and fingers anxiously, as Katsuki shakes his hands out and rubs them on his pants. Most likely to get the explosive sweat off them. I shoot them a soft -hopefully- reassuring smile before I feel something under my hand. Before I can turn to look at it I feel my body freeze up as my hand presses down on what I now know is some kind of button.
Within that second a few things happen. One, I lock eyes with Katsuki, two, his and Izuku's faces go through a few emotions -anxiety, worry, fear, and dread-. Three I feel all my muscles in my left arm lock up as something courses through them. Four, pain. Pure burning pain. And five. Screaming.
I'm sure it's mostly me screaming but I can't tell. I can't take my hand off the panel as electricity courses through my arm to the rest of my body. I'm sure I'm also crying but who knows. My head starts to hurt as I'm sure the electricity is finally getting to it.
And then nothing. Pretty sure that means I blacked out. I hope Izuku and Katsuki are okay. I think before all thoughts and the concept of thinking fades for me.
POV - Katsuki's
Izuku and I step back as Val walks into the portal frame. Izuku moves closer to me as Val walks over to the left wall, placing their hand against it.
"This feels wrong Kacchan," Izuku whispers once they get to the back wall.
"I know. But we can't do anything now." I say uncrossing my arms and shaking my hands, trying to get them to stop sweating. I see Izuku start to wringing his fingers out of the corner of my eye as Val starts to walk down the right wall, hand still on the wall.
I don't let my eyes move off of them as they look up and down the wall. I hear Izuku take a sharp breath as Val turns to look at us. Their hand goes over an open panel in the wall as I lock eyes with them.
Then the portal fires up, both Izuku and I go to move to try and turn it off but we both freeze as Val screams.
The screams are gut-wrenching, painful, dreadful screams. I feel my heart drop and I'm sure Izuku's did too. But I know he recovered before I did. For a few, terrifying, moments I can't move. Not until Izuku yells at me.
"KATSUKI, PULL THAT FUCKING PLUG OUT!" I shake my head and look where he's pointing from Doyle's panel. I see the plug and run over there. Falling to my knees next to the wall plug I grab it with one hand and brace myself against the wall with the other before ripping the damned plug out of its socket.
The portal shuts off.
'When did they stop screaming?' I think to myself as fear and dread fill my entire being. I get up and run back over to Izuku, where he now stands in front of the portal waiting for the last of the electricity to die out. His breathing is fast as his eye search for our friend.
"There." He says pointing into the tunnel before running in. I follow after him, getting a few static shocks as we come to their limp body.
"Are they?" I start but it dies off in my throat. We both kneel, hands moving to check for a pulse, Izuku checking their neck as I check their wrists. "N-nothing here," I whisper.
"No…" Izuku's voice is small, tears that had welled up in his eyes when Val started screaming finally start to fall down his face. "No…" His hands shake as he moves them around their neck.
"Izu…"
"They're already freezing Kacchan. They should at least still be warm, but they aren't. Why are they so cold?" He cries cradling their head to his chest.
"No. They can't be dead." I say as tears of my own form in my eyes. I try to blink them away. When I do I take note of how our dead friend looks. Paler skin, fluffy white hair, and the black and white jumpsuit is trashed. Having been brunt from the electricity, which gave them wired tree root-looking scars.
Wait. White hair? My eyes snap back up to their hair which was definitely black when they put the white and black jumpsuit on.
"Izuku. Izuku look." I shake his shoulder and point at their hair once he looks at me.
"Wh-What Kacchan?"
"Dumbass, their hair is white now."
"H-how is th-that possible?"
"I don't know, maybe they had a forced quirk activation or a trauma quirk?"
"Ugh." A soft groan comes from the possibly(?) dead Val.
"Did they just groan?" Izuku whispers.
"Yeah," I whisper back staring at Val.
"Ow… That fucking hurt." They said, tears slowly falling from their eyes.
"VAL!!" Both Izuku and I shout. Izuku pulls them into a tighter hug and I move to hug them both.
"Huh? What, what happened?" they ask softly hugging us back.
"I don't know. But I'm so fucking glad you're awake." I say leaning in closer to them.
"Can we get out of the lab? I really don't like being down here any more than we have to." They ask, their voice sounding a bit different from before.
"Yeah, of course." Izuku and I stand up before helping Val to their feet. They stumble for a second before we're supporting them.
"Thanks, guys, I must still be a bit out of it." They say. Now their voice sounds a bit more echo-y.
We walk up the Lab stairs, pausing at the door. Izuku sticks his head out and listens for a second. He nods to me and we continue to lead Val out of the basement and up the stairs to their room.
When we get there Izuku lets go of Val to close and lock their door, as I take them to their bed.
"Thanks again, guys. I don't know what I would've done without you both." They say falling back onto their bed with a deep sigh. They close their eyes and take a few deep breaths, rubbing at their chest a bit.
"Well, you don't have to ever think of that, because we aren't leaving your side anytime," Izuku says sitting on their bed with them. "Right Kacchan?" I nod before walking to the other side of Val and sitting against the headboard.
"'Course nerd," I say, crossing my arms over my chest again. "You should go change. That suit's fucked."
"I know. Just another minute. Something feels, different." Val says, rubbing their chest again.
"What?" Izuku asks as we share a worry-filled look.
"I… I don't know. Feels… I don't know how to describe it." They sit up with a sigh. "Whatever, I'll figure it out later." They run their right hand through their still white hair. "It's gonna be a bitch to take this damn suit off." They say walking over to their closet and grabbing a black shirt and shorts. "I'll be back." They say before closing their bathroom door.
"So how did we both not bring up the color change?" Izuku asks laying on his stomach now.
"Who knows," I say shrugging.
"Oh fuck." comes from the bathroom.
"Need help!" Izuku calls to Val.
"Yeah, can you bring some scissors too?" Val calls back.
"Let's go," I say standing up and walking over to their desk. Searching for a second I find the tall scissors and grab them walking over to the bathroom with Izuku behind me.
"It's open," Val says as Izuku knocks. Opening the door leads us to see Val sitting on their vanity.
"Where's it stuck?" I ask walking over to them and looking their left arm over.
"At the shoulder. Also where you guys gonna tell me my hair and eyes changed color?"
"Yes. Wait your eyes changed too?" Izuku said standing on their right side, as I took their left arm carefully into my free hand and slowly started cutting away the fabric.
"Yeah, they're bright green now."
"Holy shit! They're glowing as well. Do you have any idea how this happened?"
"I'm starting to piece it together, but I'm scared to say my theory out load here."
"Well, once we get this off we can go to my place." I offer, getting to their shoulder.
"Sounds good Kacchan!"
"Thanks, Kats."
"Whatever." I carefully pull the tattered fabric away from angry red skin. "Maybe we should take care of your arm first."
"Yeah. Ow. That sounds good. Medkit is in that cabinet Izu." Izuku nods and turns towards the cabinet behind him as I throw the fabric away, leaving Val without one sleeve and part of a shoulder and neck missing.
"Got it. Move over Kacchan." I move to where Izuku had just stood and move to sit on the counter with Val. "How bad does it hurt?"
"It doesn't. Only feels numb."
"That doesn't seem good." Izuku is careful with his movements, each being thought out before doing. He moves through the process of cleaning the wound and wrapping it with ease of practice.
'Right, Auntie's a nurse.' I think to myself.
"I can ask mom to look it over later," Izuku says finishing wrapping it up and putting away all the supplies, and putting the kit back.
"Thanks, guys, now out. I still need to get changed." Val says making a shooing motion with their hand as they slide off the counter.
"Yeah yeah." I get off as well and walk out letting Izuku go in front of me."
"I don't like that they can't feel any pain in that arm," Izuku says sitting on the end of the bed as Val closes the bathroom door.
"Maybe it's after effects of… Of what happened." I say, getting caught on trying to name what happened down there.
"Hopefully."
POV - Val's
I take a deep breath after closing the door again, closing my eyes tightly I try to block the bright bathroom lights out before just turning them off completely. When I open my eyes again I let out a breath of relief as my head stops pounding. I also notice a soft green glow lighting the room.
Forcing my lungs to take another breath I move to unzip the rest of the jumpsuit and take it off. Pulling the oversized dark grey shirt on, and the shorts I look at myself in the mirror.
Green eyes stare back…
I look down at my chest and see it still not moving. I force another breath into my lungs and watch as my chest moves up and down as air fills my lungs and leaves in an exhale, before falling back to not move. I look back up to my face and sigh.
"How do I go back?" I whisper to myself, leaning forward against the sink. "Can I go back?" I shake my head harshly. "NO, just focus Val. Think about how you looked this morning. We had black hair, almost pitch black. And bright blue eyes. Come on Val. You can do this." I whisper, closing my eye tightly as I imagen what I looked like this morning.
I suddenly felt two waves of cold pass over my body, starting from my middle, one went up while the other went down. After the chill went away I felt different again, like how I felt before going into that damn lab.
I open my eyes and instantly find myself in pitch darkness. Flipping the light switch on without thinking about my headache. I blink a few times at the sudden light, before finding my eyes in the mirror again.
Blue eyes stare back…