-Izuku's POV-
Fuzzy...
Sore...
Warm light filtered through my fluttering eyelids, a dimly lit room finally registering. But shivers ran up and down my spine like icy finger tips, leaving the tingle of fear in their wake.
"Ngh..."
"So, the prince is finally awake."
That voice...
My eyes opened almost immediately, nevermind the slight sting behind them, my throat growing drier by the second.
That's...
That's why everything's sore.
That's him.
What's he doing...
Tomura...
The camp...
Kacchan...
Kacchan!
My sore neck twisted side to side painfully, frantic in my search for my brother. The pain was rewarded.
Head lolling to the side, guard across his mouth, hands trapped in metal, strapped against a chair, was Kacchan.
I must look similar.
Panic began to filter through my system.
And so did the voices.
The voices I'd done so well to keep away, so much so that I know longer needed a soul catcher on me outside of heroism.
That's why it was still apart of my hero costume after all.
Voices clouded my focus. I couldn't hear anything but them, my vision going cloudy and shaky. Shaky? My breath, its speeding up.
My heartbeat began to join the voices and I vaguely heard strangled, muffled cries.
Were they mine?
I barely managed to register the black haired man crouched in front of me through the fog that covered my mind.
"H-help..."
No
No
No no
No no no no
Not this
Please not this
I don't want to
I don't want to
I don't want to be helpless again
I don't want to be held down again
Stop it
Stop it
Stop it
STOP IT
"HELP!"
"IZUKU! LISTEN TO ME!"
That voice...
Save me
Please
Help
Listen?
"Izuku listen to me. Calm down. Breath."
Breath?
What...
I...
I can do that
"That's right. In, out."
My thundering heartbeat began to obey Dabi's guidance, calming, slowing.
A buzz of the fog that was clouding my mind hummed, but did not spill over.
I could think.
There's no need to panic...
It's Dabi
Familiar...
My eyes flicked up to those sharp cyans. I know them. I know Dabi.
He wouldn't hurt me. Hurt us.
"K-kacchan..." I barely manage to pull out.
"Unharmed but knocked out. I don't know why you were taken." Dabi explained, understanding my need to know what was happening.
Without meaning to, a sigh of relief passed my lips.
There wasn't much good in our situation, but knowing that he was ok was enough to ground me.
I focused, forcing out the invading voices, those malicious haunts that infected my mind. They were my weakness. But people were my strength. I could hold them back. Forever.
My mind briefly flicked back. The attack...
"My classmates... are they ok?" I managed out through a parched, gravelly voice.
"The only damage should've been mustard's gas. Plus, its not deadly, it can just knock you out for a while."
So that was the purple gas.
"Dabi... why... why are you..."
The man grimaced.
"It's a side job of sorts. Vigilantism doesn't pay, so I had to get my hands dirty to get some sort of cash flow."
Oh.
That made sense.
He couldn't really get a proper job as a vigilante...
"Ok... what drew you to the LOV?"
He shrugged.
"Crusty's fun to mess with."
I raised an eyebrow.
"Shigaraki?"
"Yup."
That drew a few painful laughs from me.
"So a vigilante is working for a villain group for money, but also to tease their leader."
"That's right."
Sharp cyan eyes softened and filled with mirth as they met my own once more.
"Doesn't crusty like you or something? I am so confused why you were on the list."
My small smile dropped.
"So am I."
-third person-
Scarlet eyes opened groggily, widening once the room focused.
"Kacchan, you're awake."
Izuku had been talking to Dabi, keeping his mind off of why they were here but knew that Shigaraki wouldn't hurt them. He hoped.
Those burning scarlet eyes quickly surveyed the room and the man standing before them.
A growl ripped from his throat through his guarded mouth.
"It's ok Kacchan, he's a friend."
The look in those wide eyes: you're friends with a villain!?
Izuku sighed, emerald eyes slipping shut in exasperation.
"Yes, and he's a vigilante."
He just kidnapped us!
"I know, but he had to."
A grumble made its way through the guard but otherwise Katsuki looked sated.
Dabi was staring at them oddly.
"Did you just communicate with him, without him saying anything? And I thought he hated your guts!"
That caught Katsuki's attention. Izuku had talked to this guy about him?
Another sigh came from Izuku before he briefly explained their make up.
Dabi whistled.
"Damn, you guys have got some stuff to deal with."
Izuku went back to talking to the vigilante and Katsuki ignored their conversation, instead examining his restraints.
They felt way too similar to that sludge attack...
No, he couldn't panic there.
He wasn't there, he was here, with Izuku and the Vigilante.
Get a grip Katsuki!
His eyes roamed to Izuku's.
Instead of the bulky metal used to contain explosions, he had tight, sculpted restraints, designed to not let him move his hands whatsoever. The restraints went all the way up to his elbows, and straps holding him down to the chair were everywhere.
So they know he can manipulate shadows with even his body or the slightest twitch of his fingers. Not good.
But there was nothing either of them could do about it.
So they sat, and waited.
--------------
Shigaraki Tomura entered the room.
A hiss made it's way through hostile lips and nonchalant emerald green met dark scarlet eyes.
The colour of blood.
"Shigaraki."
"Midoriya."
"I thought we had an agreement, that we wouldn't get in each other's way."
"Unfortunately, it was not my will to bring you here. It was master's."
The blond head that was whipping between the two finally settled, hissing out a "master?".
"All for one?"
A single tight nod.
It Izuku's turn to hiss, a small curse uttered from under the teen's breath.
"Do you know what he wants with me, and Kacchan."
"Your dear Kacchan has been made my business, I do not know what Master wants from you, but you are still alive, so you are worth something to him."
Another curse made its way out of Izuku's mouth.
"What do you want with Kacchan?"
"That will be between Bakugo and I, Midoriya. I will not interfere with whatever plans you might've had for him, but he is now a part of mine too.
Share, won't you?"
Emerald eyes were blown wide. The clank of chains rattling as Izuku struggled echoed through the dimly lit bar as he hissed.
"He won't be, no matter what you convince yourself."
Shigaraki sighed.
"We have such similar goals, but I was foolish to think you could ever follow me, see my perspective. Join me? Never. For you anyway."
Shigaraki took a breath, grey-blue hair hiding those blood red eyes.
"I have the King in my hand, and a god who tries to change the errors of his brothers. Zeus did this. Why is Hades fixing the error in humanity, that Zeus created."
Those eyes. Those blood thirsty, blood red eyes, contracted and wide, stared into Izuku's green, purple-tinted own.
"If you return from master to me, maybe I'll be merciful and send you down to the underworld, where you belong."
A silence, a pause.
"No... if I let you go, master will never let me play with you...
Midoriya, you may have been a friend, but you are also my rival, no matter how similar our goals may be. Be grateful I'll make your death a quick one. I hope Master won't mind."
"Don't kill him Tomura."
A gravelly voice, coming from a purple-lit box in the corner of the room.
Those blood red irises disappeared.
Tomura was no longer in control.
"Yes master."
A scream.
A looming hand.
Sharp, sharp, pain.
Darkness.
--------------
Izuku's limbs were heavy, remnants of spiking pain still shaking through his body, but fuzzed over.
"Pathetic"
Izuku's head snapped up despite the protest received in the form of blurring vision, and his eyes landed on...
Hades.
That's Hades.
Izuku had found himself trapped in a dark plain. Nothing in sight except the looming figure in front of him, lounging on a throne of bones and shadows.
"So you're the pathetic human who inherited my name. My power, given to bless thee, yet you squander it trying to save humanity. The humanity that exiled you. The traits that exiled me."
"Hades..."
"What a pitiful picture you make, upon the ground like a defeated soul. Get up, boy."
Izuku did not hesitate in scrambling to his feet, despite his muscles' protest.
"Tell me boy, I saw so much conviction in you, a strong spirit. Where is that?"
"S-sir... i..."
"I am not patient boy. Why is it that you received my power. What did this name see in you? What did I see in you?"
"I... y-you are the ones who gave me this name?"
The bandage around his left wrist slipped.
"This curse?"
Spools of it fell to the floor.
"This burden!?"
"Do not test me boy-"
"NO! I'M DONE. IF YOU WERE WHAT GAVE ME THE NAME, THE POWER, THAT HAD ME TORMENTED AND EXILED MY WHOLE LIFE THEN I DON'T CARE WHAT THEY THINK OF ME!"
The once emerald green irises quickly transitioned to a brilliant purple before fading to a complete ink black.
The bandage fell.
Ink black eyes met the gold of the god sitting on the throne before him.
"YOUR POWER WAS WHAT I WAS HATED FOR. YOUR POWER IS WHAT BROKE ME! NOW YOU WANT TO KNOW MY CONVICTION!? FINE."
He took a deep, menacing breath.
"MY CONVICTION IS THAT I WILL FIX SOCIETY. I WILL CHANGE IT WITH THIS CURSE, THIS BURDEN. I WILL CHANGE THE WORLD AND THERE IS NO GOING BACK!"
Hades' chin shifted off of his palm as those golden eyes looked properly at the seething, glowing boy at his feet, positively radiating power.
He watched as sleek black wings tore from his back. They loomed, black as Nyx. Symbolic.
As the god-by-name, shook with fury, the black plain, mind scape, shaking along with him.
"Because the war has already started."
Because the angel had fallen.
And the demon within him thrived.
Yin and Yang.
Angel and demon.
Mortal and immortal.
No matter what, this boy was a God.
Hades' disciple.
And as new power coursed through his body, fatigue rolled in upon waves of exhaustion.
Izuku crumpled to the floor.
He faded, and disappeared.
Hades sighed, but a grin stretched across his face.
"Izuku Midoriya. You have proven your conviction. You are my disciple."
"Save humanity."
"Because a ghost can't."
A/N: whew, that was interesting. This took way longer than I thought, (and a lot of editing) but that's ok. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Stay safe.
- Shadow-san out.