Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

December 7, 2287

The SES Blade of Heroism

Unknown Region of Space

“HA HA HA HA! Fear not! Why? Because I am here!”

“Wow! All Mi-”

“Become a hero. Become a legend.”

“Become a Helldiver!”

“Become… a hero…”

Cold. Stiff.

Those are the first few things Midoriya Izuku felt as he opened his eyes for the first time in a long, long time. The door to the cryopod opened, letting him out into the catwalk of the Super Destroyer that he had so lovingly christened the Blade of Heroism. He stepped forward, the stasis fluid meant to keep his cells from crystallizing as he is frozen for however long it took now seeped away from his body by the pod’s intravenous systems. He still felt stiff, half-frozen, but that should wear off in a little bit 

He recalled what had happened just before he became frozen again. The Second Galactic War had ended in victory for Super Earth, just like the First had. He had fought in the jungles of Malevelon Creek and watched hundreds of comrades fall in the fight for freedom against robotic scum. He saw fellow Helldivers burned by Automaton Incinerators, torn apart by Terminid claws, and reduced to ash by Illuminate Harvester beams. He fought, and fought, and fought, for freedom and democracy. He survived where others did not.

He had survived all those battles. He wondered… just how he survived. Comrades gave their lives so that he would live. He never knew their names, but they never hesitated to be shields unto themselves. Bombs would fail to go off when they landed next to him. Laser bolts that should have killed them either just graze him or never connect at all. Voteless and Terminids that try to swing their claws at him suddenly lose their footing or get hit by friendly fire.

He was just so… lucky. 

And then, the Second Galactic War entered its final phase. 

Cyberstan was liberated by the Helldivers and SEAF from Automaton and Cyborg socialist oppression. The vast factory complexes of Cyberstan, though they were built by disgusting socialists, were repurposed by Super Earth to produce materiel for the greater war effort. The Terminid fascists (though one could argue that an average bug did not understand the concept, that didn't matter since they exhibited all signs of fascistic ideals, like opposing Super Earth!) were driven deeper and deeper into the Gloom, and eventually, their numbers were culled sufficiently. The Terminid Front ended, and the Terminids took their rightful place as the source of Element 710. They should be grateful that they're allowed to continue their existence!

The ones who came closest to truly threatening Super Earth were the Illuminate, who had returned with fury and vengeance despite the gracious mercy that the Federation granted to them when they were allowed to flee into the intergalactic void. The detestable squids didn't just deprive loyal Super Earth citizens of their minds and their freedom by transforming them into Voteless hordes. Nay, they propelled the Meridian Singularity towards the Sol System, destroying colonies one after another! Only after Alpha Centauri was destroyed by Singularity was it completely stopped and then thrown back. The Illuminate retreated after that.

With victory against all three foes accomplished, the Helldivers, like Izuku himself, were retired, but kept in stasis in case another war happened.

It seems that another has come for Super Earth. 

“Helldiver! You've awoken at a rather dark time!” The Ship Master called out to him as soon as he had stepped out. Izuku wondered for a moment why she sounded so… uncertain, unsure that democracy would prevail. Why wouldn't it after two times?

“A dark time?” Izuku asked. For all but four years of his life, service to Super Earth is all he’d known. Not since…

“Super Earth has fallen,” the Ship Master replied, and with that, Izuku fell to his knees. Super Earth, fallen?! How?! That was impossible! Super Earth is the bastion of Managed Democracy! The greatest power in to ever exist in the galaxy, no, the whole universe! They had defeated their enemies twice, why not thrice?

“What… happened?” Izuku managed to stand up after the initial shock. When he entered the cryopod, he had just bathed in the laurels of victory after the Illuminate’s seemingly final retreat after the Meridian Singularity was repulsed. Now, after Liberty knows-how-long, he awoke to defeat?

Madness! This is so undemocratic! Is the Ship Master speaking the truth, anyway?

“The Illuminate…” the Ship Master growled. “The Meridian Singularity was not just something that could destroy worlds. It was also a gateway.”

The Helldiver huffed from within his helmet. He was still feeling stiff from the cryopod, but that was slowly ebbing away. Emphasis on slowly. “Gateway? To where?”

“According to the Ministry of Science, it was a gateway to another universe,” the Ship Master replied. Izuku took a step back. Alternate universes? There had been theories… but he didn't think it would be confirmed to him this way. “One where the Illuminate was victorious in the First War. It would appear that the Illuminate here contacted their disgusting brethren… and brought them here.”

Izuku took a deep breath. “Where are we now?”

“Deep space. The Blade of Heroism fought alongside the rest of the Federation Super Fleet when the other Illuminate sent a massive armada against Super Earth. Much of our crew were slain in the battle. We were forced to flee… but that doesn't matter!” The Ship Master stood resolute. “We may have been separated from the rest of the fleet, but evacuation vessels filled with loyal, patriotic citizens were headed out to make a new Super Earth! We just need to find them.”

Izuku looked around. The Super Destroyer wasn't as clean and sleek as he remembered it when he last became frozen. It was worn by battle; if it really fought to defend Super Earth itself, then the damage was of little surprise. Hasty patch jobs could be seen all over the hallway, and some electrical panels were still loose, exposing wires and cables out into the open. Even now, technicians and engineers, whose numbers he could count with just one hand, were still trying to repair the battle damage that the Blade of Heroism had suffered at the slimy tentacles of the Illuminate fleet.

At least the Eagle Bomber and Pelican looked intact in the hangar behind them.

“Very well, we should just maintain course and seek out the fl-” Izuku would be quickly interrupted as alarms began to blare throughout the ship. He literally just woke up after more than a century and now they're already under attack? Damn bots, bugs, and squids, whoever they are!

As Izuku rushed towards the bridge, he found it alive with activity. The Democracy Officer stood beside the galactic map, though he was looking at the map instead of looking forward towards the Helldiver’s arrival in the bridge. The map was just completely filled with equal parts red, purple, and yellow; a horrifying indication that Super Earth had indeed lost the Third Galactic War. Instead of order and discipline befitting soldiers of the SEAF, there were crewmen frantically pushing buttons and scrambling all over view screens and holographic consoles. Their stations were placed below, beside the walkway that led to the Hellpod Launchers, so it was sometimes easy to miss their existence.

They did exist, however, and without them, this Super Destroyer wouldn't ever get anywhere.

“What is the situation?” Izuku asked as he stopped before the galactic map, not that it would do him much good. Now that he was awake, he was in charge. Helldivers commanded their Super Destroyers; the Democracy Officer and Shipmaster simply supported them.

Or so he was always told. It always did feel that way. 

Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he's one of the very, very, very rare Helldivers that have survived after years of combat.

An air of tension, one that Izuku hadn't really felt in over five years of diving and fighting, permeated the bridge. “Sensors are detecting… sweet Liberty… four Super Destroyers are vectoring towards us at top speed!” The radar operator triumphantly announced. “Perhaps they will be able to help repair our ship!”

“Are we sure that they're not dissidents?” Izuku asked. “Illuminari, Chaosdivers, Bot Sympathisers?”

“Not sure, but if they're loyal citizens of Super Earth, we'll know very soon. If they're traitors, they will be dealt with,” the Democracy Officer answered. The man looked around as the Super Destroyers more or less surrounded the Blade of Heroism. Being as damaged as it was, the ship was in no shape to flee at the moment. If these were traitors to Super Earth, they're as good as dead.

But surely, traitors to Managed Democracy would have just shot at them instead of bothering to approach, right?

“They're hailing us!”

“Open,” Izuku ordered. He didn't see it, but the Democracy Officer stared daggers into his back.

The galactic map’s holographic projection morphed, showing another Helldiver instead of the galaxy's sectors. The hologram then split, showing three more Helldivers, the ones in command of the other Super Destroyers. The map was multi-purpose, conveniently. “Greetings,” the Helldiver on the other side began. “This is the SES Patriarch of Traditional Family Values. Here with us are the SES Star of Stars, SES Hammer of Liberation, and SES Sword of Justice. It is good to see that the Blade of Heroism has escaped the fall of Super Earth. Aboard your Super Destroyer is one of the greatest Helldivers to ever live! Pray tell, are you him? Does the Number One Helldiver still live?”

The Number One Helldiver. Izuku was called that because he survived and emerged triumphant from so many encounters with the enemies of mankind. Almost unnaturally so. If not for the fact that he caused so many casualties amongst the enemy, one might even think they were intentionally sparing him. “Well, I wouldn't call myself the greatest,” Izuku muttered, though the other Helldiver could still hear him. “I just woke up a few minutes earlier. It was… heartbreaking to know that Super Earth has fallen.”

“Fret not. A new Super Earth is being established elsewhere as we speak! We will lead you there,” the Helldiver heartily replied. Cheers and sighs of relief erupted within the Blade of Heroism at that. “Now, my compatriots and I are going to board your vessel now, to assist in repairs. We have spare parts, regrettably taken from the wreckage of fallen Super Earth ships that we found in nearby sectors. But now, their sacrifice will not be in vain.”

“Helldiver,” the Democracy Officer suddenly growled. “Where is your Democracy Officer? I don't see them behind you. None of you are accompanied by your Democracy Officers as the Ministry of Truth stipulates.”

“He is currently in the sauna,” the other Helldiver curtly replied. “He requested not to be disturbed.”

Every Super Destroyer has a sauna aboard. Only the Democracy Officer uses it. It is off-limits to the rest of the crew. One Super Destroyer having its Democracy Officer in the sauna at this time wasn't unusual. All four of them, though? That was suspicious.

“None of you have your Democracy Officers present?” Izuku’s Democracy Officer suspiciously asked. He could see the man’s eyes flitting from one hologram to another. “Are they all in the sauna? I demand to speak to one of them at once.”

“They are indisposed at the moment,” another Helldiver, the one in charge of the SES Sword of Justice, cut in. “They have requested not to be disturbed.”

“All of them?” The Democracy Officer asked. It took him another moment to arrive at the same conclusion that Izuku would be coming to very quickly. “You're traitors, aren't you?! Your ships are undamaged so soon after Super Earth's fall… you traitorous fiends opened fire at your brothers and sisters when we made our final stand against the Illuminate!”

Izuku took a step back. Traitors? How? Why did they even bother to talk? This… this is unthinkable! “Weapons, destroy these traitors at once!” The Democracy Officer screamed. Immediately, the weapons mounted on the Super Destroyer visibly aimed for the other Super Destroyers.

At such close ranges, even a heavily damaged Super Destroyer would completely destroy four others. Missiles, railguns, and a laser battery all opened fire at once…

…just for energy blisters, characteristic of Illuminate warpcraft, to appear around the traitor ships and protect them from the ensuing barrage of attacks. The damaged systems of the Blade of Heroism quickly buckled from the strain and stopped working as power conduits overloaded. Circuit suppressors exploded, cables burst into flames, and the heat sink for the laser cannon simply exploded. The other Super Destroyers opened fire, but only at the Blade of Heroism’s engine section, crippling it.

“Helldiver!” The Democracy Officer turned around to face Izuku. “Prepare to fight the enemies of freedom! These Illuminari traitors obviously want to capture us and have their Illuminate masters devour our brains!”

The mental image of a squid scooping his brain out was… quite palpable. Izuku hefted his Double Edge Las-Scythe, prepared to repel any boarding action by these traitors. 

But, as fate would have it, these traitors knew what they were doing. No sooner had he taken up his weapon when four Helldivers appeared on the bridge in shimmering halos of blue light. Illuminate warping technology… they must have advanced considerably since the Second Galactic War!

The Democracy Officer tried to pull out his service pistol just for one of the traitors to fill his body with bullets. The body fell down with a heavy thud, tumbling into a screaming crewman’s workstation. The other two began gunning down the unprepared crew, bathing the bridge in crimson. 

Traitors.

The other Helldiver, armed with a CQC-19 Stun Lance, jammed his weapon into one of the joints in Izuku’s light scout armor, sending painful electric shocks into his system. Izuku was still stiff from being frozen. He wasn't as fast to react as he would like. That, and the Las-Scythe needed a moment to charge up and open fire. Curses. He should have armed himself with a Liberator.

The stun lance's voltage wasn't lethal, but it was paralytic. He fell down onto the floor, spasming and shaking. And now, completely at the mercy of these traitors to Super Earth.

“Illuminari,” Izuku spat, deeply offended that everything had happened so fast that even he couldn't react quick enough. Not that he could when he was still half-frozen. “Villainous traitors. You've condemned your whole planet to destruction!”

“On the contrary,” the Stun Lance-wielding traitor replied. “You brainwashed idiots speak of freedom when you don't even know what it means. The Squ’ith showed us the truth. They offered us peace, and we responded with war and bloodshed. My colleagues and I are simply correcting the mistake Super Earth did so long ago.”

“You've just been mind-controlled!” The paralyzed Izuku hissed. “What, you'll be feeding our brains to your masters, huh? Do you think they'll spare you after everything is said and done?”

“No,” the traitor continued. By now, the others had removed the weapons from Izuku’s body. Izuku wondered for a moment where his signature luck went. “The Squ’ith will guide our species to an age of true progress and enlightenment. And you… well, the Illuminate High Council wants you.”

“They want to eat my brain?” Izuku asked.

The lance-wielding traitor laughed. “Ha! No. You see, the Squ'ith came across a classified data archive in Prosperity City. You know what they found?”

He pointed at Izuku again. “Super Earth tried to hide it, but they failed.”

The traitor let that thought simmer for a moment. “You. They found you.”

"What are you talking about?” Izuku incredulously asked the traitorous squid-loving bastard. What the hell did he mean by finding Izuku? Did he have a clone all along, kept in a data archive in Prosperity City?

“Tell me,” the traitor leaned down low enough that Izuku could almost see the eyes behind his helmet’s visors. “What do you remember of your childhood? Of where you came from?”

Izuku was at a loss, not that he'd answer the questions of these traitorous scum. Either way, even if he was inclined to do so, which he wasn't, he didn't have any answers in hand. He remembered very little of his early life. He's only known service to Super Earth. Aside from that, there were just glimpses, echoes of memory that faded the moment he tried to focus on them. He vaguely remembered a woman with green hair… his mother, perhaps, but that was all he could recall. There was also a huge, muscular blonde man that evoked feelings of adoration; perhaps his father? A great general of Super Earth? Perhaps a president of Super Earth that he particularly liked? Izuku had no idea; as far as the records tell, no president of Super Earth had been as monstrously muscular and powerful as the man in the glimpses of memory he had. Of course, freedom will be the most powerful force in the universe. Not whoever this was…

…though he definitely remembered thinking of that man as the most powerful person ever.

Maybe a weightlifting commercial model, then?

“I remember nothing from before the accident hat orphaned me,” Izuku found himself blurting out. Curses! He didn't mean to say it that way. It should have been ‘I will not tell you anything, traitor scum!’ What was happening, really? Did these traitors have an Illuminate Council Member prodding at his mind from within the desecrated Super Destroyers? He wouldn't put it past the Illuminari. They were a cultish bunch, falsely believing that the Squ’ith were a truly enlightened race. No. Humanity is the real enlightened species. The squids can't possibly hope to compare to mankind's wisdom, no matter how ancient or advanced they were.

How else did those tentacle-molesters lose two wars in a row?

“I see,” the traitor backed off and looked down on Izuku. “A pity. You really don't remember. They locked away memories of your childhood. But then, you’d realize just how valuable you are. You'd realize that you've been used as a tool. Nay, you would have never become some drooling fanatic for the fascist regime that was Super Earth.”

“Lies!” Izuku spat. How dare they insult Super Earth like that? The bugs and the squids are the fascists, not Super Earth! 

“The truth will set you free, my friend,” one of the other traitorous Helldivers walked over to where Izuku was lying on the floor. “The Squ'ith will make you remember. They will bring you home.”

“Indeed,” the lance-wielding traitor added. “We'll be going now.” He tapped on his helmet Comms. “Ship Master. Tow the Blade of Heroism. Phase One is done. Now, we are heading to Earth.”

“Super Earth,” Izuku angrily muttered, though he appeared more content to just lie down there. There was nothing he could do now that his limbs were restricted with magnetic clamps. His weapons had been taken away, while the four traitors kept watching him intently. Why they didn't just shoot him and be done with it, he could not understand.

But… bring him home? What do they mean by that? 

As far as he could remember, he had no idea where he came from. Of course, he was born in Super Earth's bosom, but his parents died in an accident that also caused memory loss. He was sure of it. That is what the Ministry of Truth told him ever since he was 5 years old. That's what the orphanage authorities said. That's what everyone said.

If the Ministry of Truth lies, why would they call themselves the Ministry of Truth? It's in the name. These squid-loving traitors must be leading him to their masters so that they could consume his brain. It was puzzling how they'd spin such an elaborate tale, going as far as kill everyone else in the ship while sparing him and him alone. It made no sense!

Except that… maybe it did?

Chapter Text

When the five Super Destroyers arrived in orbit over Super Earth, Izuku's heart began to pound harder and harder. He could feel the blood rushing to his face as rage and fury came out of him in waves that threatened to overwhelm whatever composure he had left. One of the traitors, who had seemingly forgotten that the Stun Lance’s effects won't last forever, began pressing buttons on the galactic map projector. The map zoomed towards Super Earth herself, as if these traitors were rubbing the Federation's defeat on Izuku's helmet. Two other traitors began dragging the bodies out of the bridge, presumably to dump them into the airlock. Barbarians. They really are cultists. They have forgotten that any citizen of Super Earth should be afforded a proper funeral, especially members of the SEAF. Not unceremoniously dumped into the cold void of space.

That left the traitor with the Stun Lance, who stood over the still-paralyzed Izuku. But he won't be paralyzed for long. He could move his fingers now. The stiffness from the cryosleep was all but gone now. There were just the occasional spasms and pain from the Stun Lance’s attack.

There was something else, too. He felt… like something extremely was crawling up his spine. It was unnerving. Could it be that the Illuminate modified this traitor’s Stun Lance? Who knows. Questions or doubts were never allowed in Super Earth, after all. Izuku had many questions, of course. That was simply his nature, even if it had smothered beneath practiced silence and compliance.

He read from a briefing that the Illuminate could mind control even the most loyal of Super Earth citizens, even the most patriotic of Helldivers, by attacking and infusing them with nanites. Usually, this caused tactical blunders, like dropping the red strategem laser for an orbital barrage rather than a support weapon or automated sentry. Such underhanded tactics had caused innumerable losses for the Helldivers when they fought the Illuminate in the First and Second Galactic Wars. In the Third… well, Izuku could only assume that the squids had improved their methods even more in their pursuit of bending humanity into their slaves. Like these four traitor Helldivers keeping him prisoner aboard his own Super Destroyer.

Madness. He never thought he’d see the day where traitors to Super Earth would be the ones to keep him restrained against his will. They should have been sent to freedom camp and reeducated for their blasphemy against managed democracy.

Except that they’re making some se-

As the map zoomed towards the globe that is the homeworld of all humanity, Izuku resisted the urge to scream in rage and hate.

Super Earth had indeed fallen. One half of the globe was awash with fire as orbiting Automaton warships unleashed their foul socialist ordinance upon the hapless citizens of Sectors 7 and 6. Mega City 7 was nothing but a smoldering crater on the ground, millions of loyal citizens reduced to ash by the perverted, murderous intentions of the Automatons. 

The Automatons had made good on their promise, then. Super Earth will burn, said every Automaton Commissar that Izuku had encountered. He could hear their dreaded marching chant again, metallic feet and treads stomping and rolling over swampy ground in Malevelon Creek.

Heart. Steel. We. Kill. Get. Up. Onto. War. Cyberstan. Can't keep her down. Legion Go. A New Dawn.

He would never admit it to anyone, but he had nightmares about the Creek every now and then.

Thank Liberty for the Stims.

Everywhere else, an Illuminate armada with ship designs he'd never seen before orbited, occasionally beaming down… things. Must be Harvesters and Overseers and Warp Ships, dragging off the survivors to be turned into Voteless. Why else didn't they bomb the cities below? The damn squids are even crueler than the Automatons in that regard. The Automatons will at least just kill you where you stand. The Illuminate take away your mind and your freedom.

Horrific. Unacceptable. Impossible. This is a trick. It has to be. Furious, Izuku tried lifting a hand… and found the paralysis… gone?

Liberty has saved him!

He may have been stiff and slow to react earlier, but that was only because he had come out of a century-long cryostasis literal minutes beforehand. The veteran Helldiver stood up and grabbed the lance-wielding traitor’s Talon plasma pistol holstered on his side. He quickly took aim and pulled the trigger.

Except, he couldn't pull it. His mind ordered it, but his trigger finger refused to obey. Why can't I shoot? Izuku thought for a second as the traitor Helldiver turned around and looked at him. Even with the helmet covering his face, Izuku could feel the smugness emanating from the traitor. The way he stood there, leaning on the Stun Lance like it was a staff… it was infuriating! 

And yet, he could do nothing about it. Again and again, he grunted and strained as he tried to get his trigger finger to move. It just didn’t.

“We were prepared for the eventuality, no, inevitability that you would recover from getting electrocuted,” the traitor said with lackadaisical tone. He calmly reached out and took the Talon out of Izuku's hand. “As such, when I struck you, nanomachines designed by our new lords flowed into your nervous system. They have taken residence in your brainstem, just as they were supposed to.”

“You mind-controlled me? At the behest of the squids?” Izuku hissed. “How dare you. You truly are a bunch of villains. First you kill the crew, and now, you take my freedom?”

“It will prevent you from harming us. And yourself,” the traitor continued. He switched to a more somber tone, which surprised and confused Izuku; hadn’t he been such a smug bastard literal seconds earlier? “It is best that when you are returned to your home, you are whole and alive.”

“Home? Super Earth has always been my home.” Izuku glanced over at the windows, where half of Super Earth burned under Automaton bombardment and the other half suffered under Illuminate oppression. Whether or not the Terminids were actually there remained a mystery. Odds are, the Illuminate mind-controlled the creatures, too, and used them as attack dogs to destroy Super Earth. It only made sense that they’d do such a thing. If they could commit such a horrific act of mental terrorism towards citizens of the Federation, then it was easy to conclude that they’d do something like that to the Terminids.

Not that Izuku was sympathetic to the Terminids. They’re bugs that happen to produce Element-710 when they decompose. Nothing more, nothing less.

All Might would be disappointed by you.

Izuku paused, swearing that he heard a voice in his head. Beyond that, he just saw a glimpse of… something, someone. A muscular, blonde man clad in blue spandex with patterns of yellow, red, and white. Izuku shook his head. He felt a sudden surge of… admiration in that moment of sudden recall. Who in the name of liberty was that, and why is he remembering him all of a sudden? And more importantly, “Who said that?” Izuku muttered too weakly for the traitors to hear him. Instead, they would be fixated on his question earlier about home.

“It would be better if we just showed you,” Izuku could already see the traitor smiling underneath his helmet. He just sounded like he was smiling. Smug bastard. “Come on, now. Let’s board the Hell Pods and get down quickly. The High Council is waiting.”

The traitor Helldiver with the Liberator Assault Rifle walked up behind him and pushed him towards the Hell Pod Launchers. He planned to try to maneuver the Hell Pods away from whatever landing point the traitors would choose, but part of him knew that it would be a futile effort. With the Automatons and Illuminate now jointly occupying Super Earth, and with the three traitors following him around, he doubted that he would ever get anywhere far.

There was also the fact that the Illuminate nanites that the traitor implanted in him earlier didn’t allow him to do anything like that. Even as the Hell Pods hurtled through Super Earth’s oppressed skies, Izuku tried to press the buttons that would maneuver his own Hell Pod, just for his muscles to refuse to accept the commands from his brain. Damn Illuminate mind control, Izuku mentally growled. He at least had his mind; they didn’t take away that, yet, unlike the Voteless. Even then, he may have his mind…

...but he no longer had his freedom.

Inertial dampeners relaxed as the G-Forces the Hell Pods were enduring dropped at a precipitous rate. Thrusters slowed down their descent so that there wouldn’t just be craters with scrap metal and hints of human viscera left after they landed. The latter fate felt preferable, but at the same time not.

I’ve always wanted to go home.

Again, with the voices in his head. He hoped to Liberty that this was all just a bad dream born from his paranoias and his fears. Perhaps this was a test by Super Earth High Command, determining if he was truly loyal. Maybe, right now, he was walking in a simulator while officials and Democracy Officers watched whether or not he’ll make choices that would benefit the cause of spreading managed democracy throughout the galaxy.

If the latter was the case, then, they have made it exceedingly difficult for him to actually make a choice. His ability to choose was literally curtailed by Illuminate mind-control. What was he supposed to do as he was forced to do whatever these squid-loving traitors wanted him to? 

The Hell Pod landed, and Izuku emerged, this time bearing no weapon of any kind. Nor did he hear the Democracy Officer’s voice blaring into his helmet, commanding him and the rest of the squad to go forth and purge the galaxy of alien scum. He began looking around right then and there. They had actually landed in the middle of Prosperity City! The Presidential Palace of the Federation of Super Earth, a once proud symbol of managed democracy, was but a blackened shell of its former self. Where the majestic flags of Super Earth once flew, there was nought but the purple emblems of the Illuminate. The nearby Super Skyscrapers were ruins as well, some of them snapped in half by Illuminate energy weapons.

Strangely enough, the piles of human bodies that he had grown accustomed to when fighting the Illuminate were not present. The Illuminate themselves were different, too. Instead of the dark, semi-organic designs that had appeared during the Second Galactic War, these Illuminate were closer to the ones present in the First War. They were white-painted and sleek. Absent were the imposing Harvesters that towered over the battlefield and turned Helldivers and SEAF soldiers into ash. There were elevated Overseers, Illuminate warriors that hovered over the ground with jetpacks… but they didn’t look the same. Yes, they had jetpacks and rifles in their filthy hands, but they were sleek and white-painted, unlike the Elevated Overseers Izuku had fought in the Second Galactic War. 

Of course, it had been said that the Illuminate of old pretended to be a society dedicated to science and exploration when they were, in reality, a bunch of mind-controlling squids.

Why would Super Earth ever lie?

Izuku looked up. Illuminate ships ominously hovered overhead, though again, their designs were unfamiliar and familiar at the same time. They were, once again, sleek and futuristic in appearance, but judging by the amount of weapons they had, these were not the pathetically armed exploration ships of the old Illuminate.

These are warships. The Ship Master wasn’t lying. These were Illuminate from another universe that won the First Galactic War. Izuku had read in the Super Earth-mandated curriculum that the Illuminate sometimes grew perilously close to destroying Super Earth, but the power of freedom and democracy would always push them back.

The other Super Earth was obviously not weak. Super Earth can never be weak, no matter what universe it is. But the other Illuminate was obviously just too powerful. They were ready for their authoritarian conquest when the Super Earth declared war on them for their possession of planet-destroying superweapons, obviously. It is easy to conclude, then, that the alternate Illuminate had always been true to what they are: warmongerers. Not the pretenseful squids of this universe that tried to lull Super Earth into a sense of false security with their “missives of peace” and “diplomatic negotiations.”

Izuku would stumble and nearly fall when the traitor with the shotgun pushed him. “Move,” she ordered, motioning her weapon towards the presidential palace. The Illuminate High Council must have taken residence there, then. They had probably gorged their insatiable appetites on the President’s and High Tier Citizens’ brains.

Growling, he elected to simply follow the traitors. He wanted to try to grab the shotgun out of the traitor’s hands, but the nanites holding his actions hostage didn’t let him. He can’t do anything to harm these traitors, not for a lack of trying. Ah ah ah. Don’t even try it.

He would be led into the palace. The place had looked worn and broken outside, but inside, the marble floors were immaculate and spotless. The statues of heroes of the Federation had been shattered, reduced to dust. The flags had been replaced by symbols of the Illuminate, as well as another flag that he did not recognize. The latter was the flag of a movement of traitors, no doubt.

The veteran Helldiver hissed when he saw several high officials of Super Earth on a couch engaging in casual conversation with an Illuminate sitting on a hover chair. Traitors! They must have sold Super Earth out to the squids!

Rather surprisingly, the squid machines in his brain didn’t stop him from walking towards the dirty traitors. “Traitors,” Izuku hissed. “You’re officials of Super Earth. How could you have sold out your race like this?”

One of the officials stood up and dusted off her suit. She was an ageing woman with grey hair and features that spoke of her being from the former Indian subcontinent. “Ah, the Number One Helldiver, awoken from his sleep,” the official looked at Izuku from head to toe. “It’s a shame that you have yet to see the truth of Super Earth. You’ve spent your whole life deep in propaganda. But you will see the truth of this so-called democracy soon enough.”

“We are simply correcting the mistakes that we committed,” another official added. “Our problems with the Enlightened Ascendancy of Squi’bai, Free Collective of Cyberstan, and the Terminid Hive are of our own making. It is high time that we humans made up for our mistakes.”

“The Automatons are bombarding Sectors 6 and 7!” Izuku roared. “The Illuminate are turning the citizens everywhere else into Voteless! You are dooming us to extinction!”

“It is true that the Cyberstani are currently satiating their need for revenge,” the Illuminate chair-sitter spoke out, “...but these Voteless you speak of are not being created in the territories that we control. We of the Squ’ith would never perpetrate such atrocities. Of course, the Squ’ith of this dimension would very much like to wipe you out, but we of the Enlightened Ascendancy are merciful. We offered you peace once, and we have done so again. Humanity will live. The Cyberstani and the other Squ’ith can grumble all they want. We don’t care. We will guide you to true enlightenment, just as we had done with the other Earth.”

“Lying alien,” Izuku spat. 

“I can only pity you,” the alien replied, ignoring Izuku’s accusation. “You’re so oppressed, you never even knew that you were oppressed. You convinced yourself that you were free when you had never been able to make a choice in your short life so far. So many innocent lives, lost because of your fallen regime’s insistence on that foolish ideology. No matter. I am sure that the Redeemers accompanying you will ensure that your eyes are opened.”

They call themselves Redeemers? Izuku thought as he considered the Illuminate’s words. The squid wasn’t eating his brain, but that was because they needed something from him. Just what, though? What do they even mean by bringing him home? He was already home. They brought him back to Super Earth. Where else could home be?

The Illuminate then turned away. The treasonous officials returned to their talks with the alien, perhaps discussing how they could sell off Super Earth and her colonies to the Illuminate.

Traitors!

“You know,” one of the traitorous Helldivers suddenly said, “An entire company of Helldivers we served with were executed for wrongthink. All because a few of them began considering that our current problems were monsters of our own making. That all the wars after the first was just our sins coming to haunt us. Hah… can’t have anyone doubt the machine of freedom, right?”

Izuku remained silent. Of course, wrong-thinkers were supposed to be reported to the Democracy Officer…

…but he… didn’t exactly follow that rule himself.

132 years ago, in orbit over Estanu

“Can I tell you something, Midoriya? We’ve dived together more than ten times already. You’ve saved me three times. We talk a lot.”

“Of course, Crichton,” Izuku had replied back then as he and another Helldiver sat in the mess hall of the Super Destroyer. It was mostly empty, save for the cook. The crew were enacting preparations for jumping to another world soon to subject it to liberation. The Democracy Officer was relaxing in the sauna nearby.

“I think…” Crichton began, “...Super Earth is lying to us.”

“Crichton…” Izuku warned.

“Back in Klen Dath II, I overheard one of the illegal broadcasts.”

“You need to-”

“It said that if we just made peace with the Illuminate and Cyborgs back in the First War, we wouldn’t be fighting and dying in the Second-”

“You need to stop talking before anyone hears you!” Izuku hissed. “Just, stop. Don’t bring this up again.”

“...are you going to report me?”

“No. I won’t.”

‘Because you’re my friend,’ Izuku thought. ‘I would never let you be executed.’

Izuku wondered for a moment where Crichton had gone. They had gone to cryosleep at the same time. His Super Destroyer was called the Founding Father of Progress… maybe if these traitors were lenient enough, he could be allowed to look it up.

Soon enough, Izuku was ushered into what had been the Senate Chamber. Surprisingly, there were several dozen Senators present in their seats; like the officials outside, they were probably discussing terms of occupation and exploitation like the dirty traitors they are. Seated on their hovering chairs in the very front, however, was the Illuminate High Council. Or, three of them, at least. Izuku remembered that there were six members of the Illuminate High Council back in the First Galactic War. As for what happened to them in the Second Galactic War, well, no one had really found out.

All that’s known is that the Illuminate, that Illuminate, had become a horrifying nightmare.

These ones, well, if what the Illuminate from earlier said was true… 

…they would not be as bad.

He then remembered another thing Crichton let slip to him. “We turned the Illuminate, a peaceful race, into monsters.”

“I never heard anything you said.”

He never reported Crichton to the Democracy Officer. How could he? He just… couldn't.

They fought alongside one another; that was enough. As long as the ideological threat was contained, kept in a small space… it didn't matter.

“Greetings,” one of the Illuminate High Council members held out a three-fingered hand, “Child of the other world.”

Izuku blinked. “What are you talking about, alien?”

“Allow us to show you.”

Izuku’s world exploded into a corona of bright white light. And then, everything else.

Earth. Japan. Heroes and villains. All Might. His mother. Kaachan. Quirks. A man whose quirk made things disappear. Concepts and memories flowed into his mind like a surge of water rushing through an opened floodgate. 

Home.

This is what they meant.

And then, everything went black.