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His pulse raced. Legs ached. Eyes chased. Shigaraki Tomura was ahead, and Izuku wasn’t letting him get away.
Shigaraki turned a corner, dragging his hand against the building. Clouds of dust rained down. Izuku didn’t let that stop him. He kicked off the ground in a swirl of green, darting after Shigaraki.
A civilian stumbled out of the dust cloud. One hand was clasped over their mouth and they were coughing desperately. She was right in the path of Shigaraki.
“Look out!” Izuku screamed. He launched Blackwhip forward. He tried to grab her, haul her out of the way if he had to, but it was too late.
Shigaraki had her.
Or did he?
His hand reached out, but so did hers. She grabbed him at the final moment. Izuku pushed further forward, dialing up One For All to his limit. Shigaraki was frozen and somehow the woman wasn’t dead.
Izuku grabbed Shigaraki. The civilian looked up at him, and just like that, he was frozen too. An icy wave crashed over him, and just like that, Izuku was gone.
Izuku woke up, mouth cracking with dryness and bones aching. His skin felt clammy, and when he blinked, all he could see was shadows. He pushed himself upwards. He was wobbling on his feet, but he was upright. He wasn’t hurt, just tired. Izuku knew how to push past tiredness.
He rubbed his eyes and some of the darkness cleared away, shadows forming into shapes. Rocky peaks and flat plains surrounded him. No buildings, no roads, no people. Just shadows of dark purple shades and the sky so deep a blue it was almost black.
There weren’t any stars above him.
That civilian’s quirk had done this. She must have transported them somewhere else. A desert at night, maybe? A very cloudy desert at night? The complete lack of stars was eerie. He searched for the moon up there, but could see nothing at all.
The cold was seeping through his hero suit.
Izuku set out, trudging over the rough terrain. There had to be something, somewhere. Some form of life.
As if in answer, a growl echoed over the landscape. Izuku froze. That was the kind of growl that come from a being with large teeth and insatiable hunger. The kind of growl that would chase Izuku through his nightmares and until only the brink of dawn and his mother shaking him awake would save him from.
Izuku turned around as slowly as he could. He kept his breathing low, harder and harder to control and his heart beat in his chest. If he could keep the animal from hearing him, from seeing him, he would be fine -
Claws scratched against gravel. A sonorous roar raced towards him. Too late.
Izuku took off. The green lightning of One for All illuminated the landscape. Rocks were blast into stark illumination, shadows shifting into uncanny shapes as Izuku ran.
“You!” a familiar voice came out of the darkness. Shigaraki was here too. That shouldn’t have been a surprise, of course that quirk had hit them both. And yet Izuku’s heart jolted, trapped between the beast chasing him from behind and the villain that lay ahead.
It didn’t look like Shigaraki had the capacity to try and kill at the moment. He was surrounded by those beasts of darkness, biting and clawing at his long coat. He was swiping his hand through them, but when one dissolved, another took its place so fast you could hardly tell the difference.
It was only in a matter of a second that Izuku decided what to do. He looked back, tracking the path of the beast chasing him. He raced towards Shigaraki and pushed One for All through his legs. His lightning brightened to a blazing glow.
Izuku leapt into the air. He forced all the energy he could muster to raise him up, to gain as much lift as he could. At the peak of his jump, he pressed his legs together and positioned himself like an arrow aimed straight towards the ground.
He landed with an explosion of green lightning. Energy crackled out from around him, destroying the beasts that had threatened Shigaraki and him both.
An unearthly silence pressed over them both.
“Eurgh,” Shigaraki groaned, breaking it. He shook his hands clean of the residue the beasts had left behind. Bits of black liquid slipped between his fingers. When they hit the ground, they dissolved into puffs of dust.
“That doesn’t look like any animal,” Izuku muttered. “But they’re sentient, they can track people and target them, so logically they’re alive somehow - “
“You mutter as much as the last time we met,” Shigaraki said. “You’re the one I took hostage in that mall, right?”
Izuku slammed his mouth shut and dug his heels into the earth, ready to hit the ground running. He hadn’t meant to say all that aloud, but he really couldn’t help it.
“Scared?” Shigaraki mocked. He waved his hand lazily at the sky above, the complete inky blackness. “I would have thought this would be a whole lot scarier than me.”
Izuku begrudgingly agreed. Villains, he understood. They were just criminals in the end. But this? A sky of nothing? Beasts that were animals made of darkness? That scared him because it didn’t make sense.
“It might be a cave,” Izuku said.
“You don’t believe that.” Shigaraki stepped towards him, and Izuku flinched backwards. He imagined dying here, no one knowing where he was. Only a pile of dust left behind in an unknown landscape.
He raised his fists, lightning crackling over his arms.
“Stay where you are!” Izuku yelled.
“Or what?” You’ll arrest me?” Shigaraki mocked. “And take me where? What prison?”
Izuku’s eyes flitted over the barren landscape. Even if he could manage to take Shigaraki down without dying, there was nothing he could do. He would be alone with an unconscious body.
“Let’s make a truce,” Izuku said. He was speaking before his brain had fully processed what he was doing, but as he said it, he knew it was the right choice. If he tried to fight, they could end up both dead. Izuku believed in the justice heroes could give, and that did not include murder.
“Work with me to figure out how to get back and then…,” Izuku shrugged, “I don’t know, we go back to hero and villain. I take you in then. But you have to see that's better than being stuck here, right?”
“I could figure this out without you,” Shigaraki snapped. He looked up at the sky, and despite his words, Izuku could feel his hesitation. It was eerily like Kacchan. He had to play the bravado to hide what he was really feeling.
“I’m sure you can, but it would be faster together,” Izuku pleaded. He curled his palms into fists to cover his cold sweat. The landscape itself was already fighting them, he couldn’t deal with Shigaraki on top of that.
Shigaraki huffed. He turned and jerked his head. Izuku stood there, frozen. Was Shigaraki just leaving?
“Come on already!” Shigraki yelled.
Izuku winced. He’d cottoned on too slow again. He quickly sped up to walk beside Shigaraki, still with a healthy distance between them. Just in case.
“There has to be an end to this place,” Shigaraki hissed.
Izuku didn’t have any way to tell the time, but it felt like they had been walking for hours. His whole body felt heavy, and his clothes were sticking to his skin. If he got back, he would need a day-long bath to get rid of all the dirt.
When he got back, Izuku amended. When.
“You would think we would be closer to dawn by now,” Izuku mumbled. Without a moon, there was nothing to track. The sky was as empty and bleak as it had been since they had arrived.
Shigaraki stopped in his tracks and looked up at the sky.
“It’s night. It will always be night. It’s a fucking perpetual night!” he yelled. Enraged, he kicked out at the ground. Clouds of dust puffed up at every motion.
Izuku coughed away the dust, blinking rapidly to keep it out of his eyes.
“Stop it,” Izuku hacked out.
Shigaraki’s furious red eyes were directed towards Izuku. “What? What great advice does the hero have this time?”
“I’m just trying to think, okay?” Izuku wiped his brow with his gloved hand. He felt dirt streak across his head, and sighed. Nothing he was doing was making this better.
“Let’s keep going a little bit more and then we can try something else,” Izuku said.
Shigaraki huffed. “As expected, a meaningless platitude.”
"If you want to keep kicking dirt, go ahead, but at least my plan is an actual plan," Izuku said retorted. And winced, when he remembered who he was talking to. Shigaraki didn't seem to care, turning away and muttering to himself. Well, if Shigaraki was content to ignore him, then Izuku would carry on himself.
He clambered up and over a rock pile. A cold wet feeling started to soak through his shoes. Izuku jumped back, disgusted at the sensation. He almost missed the dirt.
Either way, the landscape had changed and that surely must mean something. Izuku snapped his fingers with One For All, just gently enough that green sparks flew out into the air.
A glassy dark pool stretched out in front of him as far as he could see.
Strange… he could almost see shapes. Shapes that couldn’t possibly come from his surroundings. The edges weren't sharp enough, not blocky enough, to be the rocks that currently circled the pool.
It was almost like they were…
Something sharp dug into his leg.
Izuku buckled to the floor, screaming in agony. The pain was unreal, like a fire inside his blood, tearing his veins apart. He collapsed into the pool. His limbs weren’t listening to him, shaking uncontrollably. It could only be poison. Venom.
He saw something rise up from the water, liquid dripping off glistening teeth, ready to bite again, when Shigaraki’s hand shot down and destroyed the creature.
“The water,” Izuku rasped. It felt like there were shards of glass stuck in his throat, scraping at his insides as he spoke. No matter how much he hurt, he had to tell Shigaraki.
Izuku knew what this was. He knew how to get out. But the venom that creature had bit him with was turning his thoughts to slurry, and his body numb.
He reached out, fingers shaking. They caught on the edge’s of Shigaraki’s long coat. He was looking down at Izuku, not moving. It was impossible to tell his expression behind the hand that covered his face.
“Destroy it,” Izuku said. “Destroy everything.”
He coughed hard and loud. Liquid spat from his lips. The sky was no longer dark. It was a bright light, growing and growing and growing. Warmth travelled over Izuku’s body. He felt the pain lessen as his eyes slipped shut.
Tomura had no reason to trust Midoriya, and yet he had no reason not to try what he suggested. He hauled Midoriya’s body up onto his shoulders, careful not to touch him with his full fingers. With the full force of his power, he drove his fists into the ground.
The ground burst into dust clouds. Tomura drove further, forcing decay as far as he could muster. Decaying the ground didn’t feel like anything he had decayed before. He could feel the layers unpeeling, like bark slowly carved off a tree. There was a centre to this place, a core. And that too, was decaying.
Dust filled his eyes and he choked. He was floating, nothing left to stand on.
And suddenly gravity took hold of him and he plunged to the ground. His face smashed into the grass, fresh with the smell of rain. He shook himself up and looked around. They were in a forest, alone. This wasn’t just any forest, though. Tomura knew this forest. They were near one of Ujiko’s experimentation centres, one far enough away from population centres that they could test out some of the more extreme Noumus.
That stupid girl’s quirk had somehow moved them all the way over here. That world must have been a false layer over reality, and Midoriya had realised the way to get out was to destroy it all. It was only a piece of luck that it had gotten Tomura away from the heroes chasing him.
A ragged gasp broke the silence.
Tomura turned around. Midoriya had fallen off his back and landed a few feet away. That creature had bitten him, and he didn’t look good. His face was pale with a tepid shade of green. Eyes closed, he was breathing heavily. He wasn’t conscious anymore.
Tomura moved to pick him up again, but halted. Why? Why should he pick him up? He could just leave him to die here. No hero had ever helped Tomura. It would benefit the League of Villains much more if a hero as strong as Midoriya was dead. It wouldn’t have even been him that killed him. Technically it would have been that civilian girl.
Shivers overtook Midoriya and he moaned in pain.
It would be so easy to leave him to die here.
But Midoriya had helped him. Midoriya had told him to get out. He didn’t need to have done that. He was dying anyway. He could have left Tomura to be trapped alongside him.
Tomura hissed. The League had been on his back about solidarity recently. He needed to be a better leader, and Kurogiri had told him that reciprocity was part of that. He could show people that benefitting Shigaraki would benefit them too. Even if it was Midoriya.
Tomura hooked Midoriya by his arms and hauled him over the grass. The familiar grey concrete of Ujiko’s bunker came into view.
Not bothering to try and get Ujiko’s attention, Tomura decayed the locked door. He dragged Midoriya inside and swung him onto a hospital bed. He was barely moving now, skin devoid of colour.
“Ujiko! Get in here!” Tomura yelled. There was no response.
Fine. Ujiko wasn’t here. Tomura would have to do this by himself. Of course Ujiko wouldn’t be here when he was actually needed.
Tubes containing floating Noumus provided an eerie green light as Tomura searched for medical tools. He wasn’t sure what he was doing, but he’d seen Ujiko treat Sensei enough times that he was sure he could figure it out.
He attached a tube that he’d seen Ujiko use when Sensei complained from the pain. Midoriya twitched slightly, but that was all.
Tomura hissed. He needed something more serious. His eyes flitted back to the Noumus. They were creatures that came from dead things. Ujiko had the ability to bring things to life in this building, so there was no reason it shouldn’t work on Midoriya too.
He rummaged around and found a long piece of machinery with two ends. Tomura couldn’t remember what exactly it did, but he was pretty sure Ujiko used it in the final stages of Noumu creation. He touched one end and found it sharp. A small bead of blood rolled off his finger.
“What the hell,” Tomura muttered. He looked back at the fading body of Midoriya. Nothing he did could make this situation much worse.
He connected the machine to Midoriya. Now he had to figure out what the other end was for. It looked like an IV line, needing a liquid solution.
Tomura stared up at the Noumu vats, considering the vaguely green liquid they were suspended in.
Nah, he decided. Too gross.
He plunged the other end into his own arm instead.
He watched his blood enter the machine, where cogs turned and lights flashed, and then out the other side, into Midoriya’s body.
He didn’t consider if this was a good decision or not. He didn’t consider if any of this was worth the effort. He’d made the choice to do this, and he was committing. He wasn’t any of those hypocritical heroes who told the world they were here for everyone, and then quietly left out the runt of the litter to die.
Tomura watched the liquid pass through the bowel of the machine, and carefully didn’t wonder what Midoriya would have done if he’d been one of the heroes patrolling Tenko’s streets.
“Destroy it…” Izuku mumbled. He had to tell Shigaraki, had to tell him what to do, but everything hurt so much. “Look at the water, it’s a forest… it’s home…”
“Don’t try to talk,” a stern voice ordered.
Izuku cracked his eyes open. They felt so dry, so itchy. He wanted to scratch them but his arms felt like molten lead. The world was so bright, so blinding after that endless darkness, that it hurt.
There was a man in a white coat standing before him, fiddling with a screen. He had glasses on and a clipboard. It definitely wasn’t Shigaraki, even with Izuku’s fuzzy vision. He could only be a doctor. A professional.
Izuku’s heart leapt. Shigaraki had listened to him. He’d got them both out. And that venom, whatever it was, hadn’t killed him.
The doctor glanced at him. “You’ll be fine. What you went through clearly did a great deal of damage, but you hero types are strong. You’re healing up as we speak.”
“Thank you,” Izuku croaked.
“What did I say about talking?” The doctor sighed. “The venom in your body wrecked your insides, including your throat. Quite frankly, when they found you, I thought you were dead. We’re still not sure what fully got you, the bite on your leg or the marks on your arm.”
Izuku’s mind was hazy, but he wasn’t that far gone. He knew he definitely hadn’t been injured on his arms. The bite on his leg had been the only external injury he’d sustained.
Had… had Shigaraki done something?
“You have guests demanding entrance, but I’m not letting them in until you’re in a better state.” The doctor grimaced. “A few more hours of sleep before they can come in. If they choose to listen to me. Anyway, you’ve got water beside you. If you need anything, press the buzzer. Got it?”
Izuku nodded.
“Great.” The doctor closed his clipboard shut, and twisted a dial. Immediately, Izuku felt lighter. Whatever painkiller that was, he liked it…
The door to his room closed with a soft click. Izuku could feel sleep pulling at him, but he wanted more water first. He pushed himself upright as much as he could manage, and groped for the table. He grabbed at it, off-balance, but it seemed to move from under his fingers.
Izuku squinted at where he thought the table had been. The world was tilting, light fading into shadows. He forced his eyes to focus.
Sliding over the edge of his bed, he looked around.
And held in a gasp of horror.
The cup of water was on the floor, split into a slowly spreading puddle.
And the table itself?
Only dust remained.