Chapter Text
Disclaimers: I do not own hero academia
People who knew Izuku when he was little would say that he was a bright boy with the quirk to breathe fire.
But that wasn't his quirk, it was his dad's.
His mum told him that his quirk manifested when he was two, and she realised it's manifestation when objects were moving towards him instead of her.
His quirk was the ability to steal other people's quirk.
When he was old enough to understand, his dad made him promise never to use his ability outside of his house.
"Why?" Izuku asked. He understood that stealing was wrong, so taking other people's ability without their assent was bad. After all, heroes like All Might would never steal people's abilities but shouldn't it be fine if his ability was used for heroic purposes like suppressing villains?
His dad told him that long ago, someone in their family manifested the same ability and used it for evil purposes. If that person were to know about Izuku's ability, he would be in danger.
Dad looked so serious then so Izuku nodded his promise. It wasn't as if he could not become a hero anymore. His parents said he could still use their quirks and the abilities to breathe fire along with telekinesis were still cool.
Since his mum used telekinesis for housework, he took his dad's quirk – since breathing fire in workplace was a no no - and was registered as someone who could breathe fire.
Kacchan's bullied him for having such a 'lame' ability – something he entirely disagreed, breathing fire was totally awesome. But sometimes, he wanted to ignore the promise he made and use his true quirk.
The first time he did, he got his dad killed.
He was nine when it happened.
It was break time and everyone was playing in the playground, though most were surrounding Kacchan as he did those flashy firework tricks when a black portal suddenly appeared.
A vest wearing figure trotted out from the darkness, followed by a monster-like thing with brains sticking out of its head.
It was a scary sight and his friends were screaming in terror. Izuku wasn't any better, his legs were shaking and any attempts at telling them to move failed.
When dark figure ordered his monstrous follower to take all the children into the black portal, everyone was running and screaming. Everyone but Kacchan, who ran towards one of the monster as he activated his quirk. Yet explosions later, the monster remained unhurt while Kacchan was in it's grip, supporting a pained expression on his face.
Kacchan looked at Izuku with those pained eyes, probably from the strength of the monster's grip and Izuku ran.
He ran towards the monster, blowing fire at it's face but it wasn't working either and within moments, he was being held in the monster's other hand.
Izuku felt it the moment his hand contacted the monster's skin. The monster had a number of quirks from flight, regeneration and the ability to turn itself to stone.
There were no other choices.
The monster let out a screeching scream of pain before it started contracting in size, and in its' place was a ragged looking man who immediately fell onto the ground.
Black Mist turned his gaze towards Izuku sent chills throughout his body.
"Interesting." He heard the figure said before Black Mist disappeared along with the portal.
School ended early and Izuku quickly ran home. Kacchan was sending him evil gazes promising pain and Izuku did not pain nor did he want to answer any question.
He broke his promise to dad and would probably be banned from watching Heroics channel for a while among other chores.
The house was eerily dark and quiet when he entered. Calling for his parents, he slowly walked into living room, turned on the lights. His eyes met red and Izuku screamed.
Dad was on the floor, blood seeped out of his body and without noticing anything else, Izuku was running towards his dad, nudging him in hope that he would answer.
"He's dead." A familiar voice spoke.
Izuku looked up to find the same black misty silhouette that attacked his school.
It wasn't hero-like but this was the man who killed his dad and that was something Izuku could not forgive.
He felt the power of flight inside him and he was flying towards Black Mist, hands reaching out.
Izuku wasn't fast enough. Back Mist sidestepped his path and with a smack, Izuku crashed onto the floor in pain.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Black Mist said as another dark portal appeared. Within it was his mum.
He shouted for his mum, but his voice made no difference. She lay without movement inside the black portal.
"She's not dead but will soon be if you do not follow my orders. Follow me."
Izuku should have listened to his father, he should have ran when Black Mist appeared.
It was all his fault.
The other side of the portal was a laboratory-like room. A figure connected by many tubes was sitting on a black leather chair.
Izuku nearly threw up when the turned to him.
From his lips upwards, the man's head was deformed, reminding Izuku of Voldemort, a villain from a famous novel long ago. Two tubes were connected to his neck and Izuku shivered as he realized that the man was looking at him.
"Come closer." The man voiced but Izuku shook his head.
"Come closer now unless you want me to kill your mother."
As Izuku moved closer to the man, his arm was seized. He felt a static feeling buzzed through his body and felt it pull away his abilities. He had tried to resist the ability, but each resistance gave way to pain until it reached the point where he couldn't take it anymore. When the pain ended, all of the abilities he'd taken were no more. All he now had was his stealing quirk. The last memento of his dad, the fire breathing quirk was gone.
"W-What did you do." Deep down Izuku knew. It was this man that his dad had warned him about. This man was the reason why his dad asked him to keep his ability a secret.
"You know what I did. After all, we share the same ability. Fortune truly is on my side, I simply wanted a medical quirk yet the attempt led me to you, my cute little great grandchild."
"Will I get to see my mum?" Izuku asked fearfully as he was shown to his room but received no reply was the door closed.
It was larger than his old room and was certainly much more lavish, yet all it did was reminded him of what he'd lost.
Walking to the large bed, he remembered the similar sized one at home which belonged to his parents, the bed he sneaked in every time he had a nightmare. It was a bed filled with overflowing warmth from dad and mum. A bed which he could never have back.
He cried himself to sleep.
Izuku awoke by the knocking of the door.
Black Mist was waiting. "Sensei is calling for you. Follow me." Somehow 'sensei,' was the term Black Mist used when talking about the man who called himself Izuku's great granduncle.
He was led to a room filled with ragged looking prisoners tied in chains. There were children as well as adults, and some of them were heroes that were reported as missing in action.
Their eyes moved towards him as if pleading help. Their lips were moving but Izuku couldn't hear a single thing, it was as if their sound were muted off from the world.
The deformed man was there, sitting in his chair, IV tubes still connected to his body.
"Take their ability."
"Why can't you do it yourself." Izuku said, shaking his head.
"Take their ability!"
"No! You won't get away with this. All Might will come and you'll be put-" His face was smacked and he fell to the ground with a loud thud. He could hear strange cackles coming out of the man.
"All Might won't come. After that fight we had, he will be dying soon." Izuku's hair was pulled and he was forced to face the scarred man.
"And you. Ungrateful little grandchild will do as I say or be punished." He said as a black portal appeared to reveal his mum once more.
"This is her heart." He held up a gelatinous black box that he squeezed.
His mum was screaming from the other side of the black portal and Izuku cried loudly for her as streams of his tears fell.
"You'll listen now won't you?" The man said and Izuku can only nod.
"Now, great granduncle is rather a mouthful, I'd much prefer uncle. Do you understand?"
When Izuku said nothing, the man squeezed the box and his mum was screaming once more.
"Yes Uncle. Please stop! I'll do everything you say."
"Good. Now that's a good boy." He said smiling as he patted Izuku's head.
"You'll be the container for these abilities as well as the tools for my experiment." The man muttered as Izuku moved from one prisoner to the next, whispering sorry as he stole their abilities while they made their soundless screams.
At the tenth, Izuku felt as if his head was going to explode. He felt his muscles screeching and he slumped onto the floor, huffing in exhaustion.
"Only ten? Disappointing" The deformed man started squeezing the black box once more and his mum's voice caused him to released a wail of his own as he forced his body to stand up and moved towards the next prisoner.
At fifteen, all he could see was darkness, exhaustion had blurred his sight but it least his mum's scream had stopped.
"We'll continue tomorrow." He heard the voice said and he collapsed into darkness.
It was a life without a hint of light. Years after Izuku had been taken to the complex, he'd never been allowed outside.
He was referred to as 'young master' by the maids and villainous visitors but he knew that they were all watching him, reporting his actions to uncle.
Tomura Shigaraki who was a frequent visitor often glared at him with envy and hatred, probably due to Izuku's ability and association to uncle. Yet if he could have his family back, he would trade all his abilities for it.
His mum was alive in a state of stasis through one of his uncle's ability. He wanted to talk to her, wanted her back, wanted to tell her how sorry he was but he knew there was no negotiation with his uncle.
Teleportation abilities appeared with the inflowing prisoners and Izuku wondered if he should take the chance and escape.
He knew by now that he could steal any of his uncle's ability other than the same stealing ability that his uncle had.
His uncle's storage of abilities had been reduced after his fight with All might but it was still a large storage. If he were careful, Izuku could probably steal two within a short contact. He could steal the ability that tortured him mum and they could escape….
But the risks were too big.
He'd lost his dad because of his own stupidity and he couldn't stand to lose his mum as well.
And because of that he would follow his uncle's orders. He would create those monsters,
He would give quirks to humans in the doctor's lab. Quirks which caused their skin to blacken, muscles to expand and brain to bulge out of their head. He would listen to their screams as they turned monstrous and deformed and he would whisper 'sorry' continuously while watching the whole process.
He thought of the time when he wanted to be a hero. The time when he shouted his dreams for his parents and hear daily, the time when days were more bright and hope remained. The time that would never return for he knew that he would do anything to keep his mum alive.
Mickey