"Well...I can't say I expected this." Hawks commented with crossed arms and a semi-concerned expression on his masculine features. His black button-down t-shirt exposed the top half of his chest with matching sunglasses keeping his flowing gold hair out of his face. Keigo's cheeks had a light sheen of pink on them as if he was basking in the sunlight just a few minutes before. Knowing him, he probably was.
You and your misfit crew of mercenaries-in-training were in one of the Doctor's abandoned warehouses where he stole quirks from children in Okinawa some ten to fifteen years ago. Katsuki passed out after Vixen's mind control wore off and so Hawks arrived on the scene to carry him to the warehouse where Shinso met up with you with Vixen. The smug look on that purple-haired troll doll was absolutely contagious in every way. He knew he won...he knew he finally got back what that bitch owed him. Now Katsuki was bandaged up and resting in the observation room with you, Hawks, and Shinso and Miss Vixen was handcuffed in the prisoners' hold.
This warehouse was built almost exactly like the one they held you in, even using the same labyrinth of a layout. Your arms shook and your knees quivered the moment you saw the experimentation room...and the only reason you could stand now was because Shinso kept washing away the intense rolls of panic lacing within your veins.
"I'm getting a weird sense of deja vu..." Shinso muttered with an uncomfortable look in his violet eyes. Both Keigo and Shinso looked over at you to see your teeth chattering...and not from the cold.
"(y/n)...are you alright?" Keigo asked of you as he shortened the gap between you two. His wings were back to their full span now and he made use of them to wrap around your shivering body. You weren't cold...in fact it was hot as hell in the warehouse.
But the memories of what the Doctor did to you...the memories of what it was like to be tortured to the brink of death day in and day out...going weeks without seeing the sun or smelling fresh air...the thought that if you died then who knew what hell Eri would have suffered...
"Look at me kid...just me, okay?" Your eyes connected with Keigo's golden ones, his expression soft and affectionate. His crimson wings were a shield to hide away the pain of your environment...his warmth defrosted the frozen fear that entwined like thorns around your heart.
The heat also reminded you of beautiful cerulean flames...the same ones that cleansed the world of the Doctor forever. You were safe because of him...and the memory of the last thing he said to you pulled at your aching chest.
"Thanks, Keigo..." you whispered to your companion.
"You got this," he started with that infamous soft smile of his that always felt welcoming. It suddenly turned quite serious and you knew exactly what that keen glow meant. "Remember what she took from you...what she took from Shinso...Don't let her off easy."
For some reason, that sense of motivation calmed you more than Keigo's soft words or the knowledge that Katsuki was safe in the same room. Deep down inside, this moment excited you. You weren't looking at the face of your parents' killer, you weren't able to get them back, but this was close enough. Vixen had a major hand in everything and you knew it. That fear that once shackled you to a room far below the surface of the earth now was reborn as a spiteful rage that lingered as cackling energy on your fingertips.
It took you only a few moments to cross the room as Hawks stayed in the observation room with Katsuki, hidden away with earphones in to prevent Vixen from controlling his mind. He still kept an eye on you and a feather in the room so he knew what was going on, but truthfully he just wanted a free vacation out of this whole ordeal. Revenge was never really his style, but he did enjoy knowing that burden in your gut would get just a tad bit lighter.
Your face was exposed without the usual mask and Shinso took off his own. Vixen wasn't going to live through this night and you were going to make sure of it. She was in and out of consciousness as she was handcuffed to a stray water pipe just a room away. The metal bars reminded you of your pain and their cold metallic feel didn't get any easier being on the other side of things. Shinso waited silently behind you as you wandered into the room as if you had always owned the place, but he stirred when you gave Vixen a loud cracking smack across her already bruised cheek.
"Aw sleeping already? You're gonna miss the party, honey!" Vixen's bright jade eyes peeled open with a whimper escaping her hoarse throat. Her clothes were torn up, her once beautiful hair in matted knots, her million-dollar face coated in bruises and blood. "You look like shit by the way. Just thought you should know," you continued with a viper-like smile. When Vixen spit out the blood in her mouth, her pupils shrunk in recognition.
"S-Shinobi...you're Shinobi?" The shock lasted only a moment because Vixen switched to her typical snide smirk. "The number three pro-hero is nothing but a fucking villain. Fancy that. Can't say I'm too surprised. Stain had a point...he should have murdered all of you bastards." This time Vixen spat on your cheek and her red-stained saliva dripped down on your dirty skin. Your curt laugh erased her smugness and was a premonition for the pain to come.
"Cute." You wiped off the bloody spit with your hand and smeared it all over her face with no regard for how much it hurt her. "Shinso, how many fingers does one need when getting their quirk ripped from their body?" You asked while tapping your finger against your chin in thought. Vixen's eyes darted between you and Shinso only for him to uncomfortably answer your question. He wanted his revenge...he wanted Vixen dead...but he wouldn't say he was akin to the idea of torture. It felt...dirty.
"None...?" He answered back reluctantly. Your chesire smile stilled Vixen's heart for half a beat, only to have her violently press against her handcuffs and squirm as if her life depended on it.
"SOMEONE GET ME OUT OF HERE! PLEASE! CAN ANYONE HEAR ME! SOMEONE HELP ME!" She screamed with broken cries and cracks in her echoing voice. The panic fell on deaf ears however, and so her fate was sealed with the snap of her pinky finger going sideways. A shrill shriek of cries bounced off of the walls of the cell for no one to come to her rescue.
"How does it feel Vixen? How does it feel knowing that at any moment, your life could be completely erased from existence without anyone knowing you're gone? How does being chained up, broken, and aching with no way out feel? I'm dying to know," your icy voice spoke with no remorse.
"F-Fuck...y-you..." She sobbed between breaths. Vixen lived her whole life getting people to do things for her with the wager being either her body or money. Finding Shinso's quirk listed on the Doctor's 'candidate' list was a game-changer for her. Finally, she could not only break the people that refused her, but now she didn't have to lower herself to the standards of the people beneath her again. Her life was perfect, what were a few couple deaths to her if she was able to live a life of luxury?
"I'm sorry but I'm taken darling," you murmured in her ear. "Now -before I break the rest of your fingers- how about you talk?"
~~
Just as you thought the tangled and complicated web of the underworld of hero society loosened up, another knot formed in the strings. Vixen wasn't one to enjoy being a loose end, but she knew the only hope she had to not suffer more extreme torture was to talk. All for One had less to do with today's generation of villains and Nomu than you previously thought. The Doctor was the progeny of most of the agony that you suffered in life, not to mention the fact Endeavor and Hawks nearly met their own fate to one of his more prized experiments. The Doctor has been taking quirks for years after learning from All for One how to extract them. Truthfully, All for One didn't even have an extraction quirk...
"He would transfer energy...he called it mana or something. All for One mastered it and could take quirks and give them away...the Doctor never figured that one out and just did it genetically instead. All for One was studying the origin of quirks...how to obtain any quirk he desired...he wanted all of them...the Doctor's work was just a small sample size of what All for One truly wanted. Those of us that supported the Doctor's work were able to take a piece of the pie, but obviously, that's worth nothing if I have fucking Shinobi on my ass," Vixen helpfully divulged. You were pacing with your fingers gripping your chin in thought. This was deeper than you thought.
"Mana...that must be the same thing as chi..." You thought back to when you fought the Nomu alongside Hawks and you activated chi...how your wounds healed and lightning was crackling at your fingertips when you battled All for One...how things could dissolve at just a glance.
And the most dangerous man in the world knew of this ability to the point he was able to mass-produce artificial life and create a network of children to use as fodder.
"Fuck...fuck fuck fuck..." you cursed under your breath. Chi was life energy in its truest, rawest form...uninterrupted by any limitations or restrictions of matter. That is how quirks could defy logic and reason...why they were ever-flowing ' and changing. Those who mastered this were able to manipulate their own energy into something that they previously couldn't.
Like stopping a little girl from rewinding the people she loves into oblivion...like flames that wouldn't leave dark violet scars on the user...like an injury that destroyed pillar of good in this world.
"I have one more question for you Vixen." The woman perked her head up knowing that this would be her last question until she was stripped of her quirk and then her life. Dried tears stained her cheeks red...a few fingers bent out of place...
"What the fuck do you want?! You already have everything you stupid fucking bitch!" Vixen gritted out with a loud shrill voice. Your own eyes glowed a deep crimson read without you even realizing it. You squatted to her level while gripping her hair close to the roots and yanking upwards until her eyes met yours.
"What do you know about Touya Todoroki?"
~~
Katsuki's scarlet eyes slowly blinked open only to see that Hawks was keeping him company. Every muscle in his body hurt and thick cotton bandages made it difficult to move more than just basic functions.
"W...what the fuck...?" Katsuki rubbed his aching head and then sucked in a hissing breath when the forgotten bruise on his stomach made itself known.
"Good morning sleepin' beauty!" Hawks cheered while taking out his earbuds. "You look...well...you're alive! (y/n) went easy on your ass."
"This is supposed to be going easy ?! What the fuck are you on about?" Katsuki's memories were all foggy as if waking from a dream. He truly couldn't distinguish fiction from reality during his mind control state, but now all he had to remember it was a hangover-like state. A pounding migraine and stomach pain cemented in the thought that he never wanted that to happen again under any circumstances.
"Well you still have all of your limbs...and your head...and your dick...so obviously she still likes you. At least a little bit. Yanno, a smidge." Keigo lifted up his fingers like he was pinching something. Katsuki ran his fingers through his spiked blond locks in frustration only to realize where he was."
"Shit (y/n)!" He yelled in a panic as he jumped up, ignoring all aches and pains and bolding out of the room to find you. All he could think of was if you were okay...if he had to come to save you from a prison cell again.
He didn't realize that you were the one to fear this time.
"Touya Todoroki? Hahaha! Now that's a name I haven't heard in a while. Why do you care? Hm? What could a prissy little hero like you care about Touya Todoroki, the firstborn of the number one hero himself!" Katsuki froze hearing Vixen's voice and the name she said.
"Touya? Why the fuck is (y/n) asking about that fucking asshole?"
"I asked you a question Vixen. I expect an answer," you gritted harshly. Vixen grew bolder by the moment, especially when she knew you were desperate for the answer.
"You seem so much more upset about him than anything else...oh wait...I see that look in your eyes...Touya Todoroki, otherwise known as Dabi right? I turned him into the monster he is today! You're welcome!" She laughed maniacally as the end grew closer knowing that you wouldn't kill her until Shinso got his quirk back anyway. "And that look in your eyes Shinobi...you couldn't be more obvious. Woman to woman, I've seen it a thousand times. You love him, don't you? That broken, miserable heir to a long famous family has nothing to return to because of me. I broke the man you love." Her eyes darted to Katsuki who stood frozen at the entrance of the hallway, his bandaged body visible from the cell as Shinso shifted uncomfortably in the background. He hated all of this.
Vixen continued.
"Whoops...maybe I broke both of the men you love hm? I get it. It's hard to choose right? Especially since one's a certified villain and the other is just a villain in waiting. Maybe I'll do the same thing to the blondie over there that I did to Touya. I brainwashed him when he ran away from home. He was going to kill himself, you know. I was a sweetheart and took time out of my day to give him purpose...and get this! He was a natural. He cried the whole time when he was on his first job. It was fucking hilarious...you should have been there Shinobi! I remember hearing how he turned a village to ash overnight on his first job thanks to my talents at work...and that little fucker was feeling so guilty he gave himself scars as punishment! Hahaha! I'd do it again and again-"
Her voice was cut off by a violent push flying into her cheek. Vixen couldn't even defend herself as you pounced with tears in your eyes on Touya's behalf and flying fists that met Vixen's harsh facial bones. You couldn't stop, even when you broke three of her teeth or when you split open your knuckles and blood poured from your fists into Vixen's mouth. The beating was absolutely brutal and it wasn't like you at all.
"(y/n)!" Shinso tried to desperately stop you from killing her by holding onto you but you shrugged him off. "(Y/N)," he commanded with a much more dominant tone. You turned to face him and Katsuki with blood all over your fists and a few splatters on your face. Vixen was unconscious and close to death from your violent assault...but you didn't care.
"You heard what she said right?! She BRAINWASHED TOUYA! SHE RUINED HIS LIFE! Sure everything was fucked for him but SHE turned him into a fucking villain...because of her you lost your parents...he lost his humanity...and I lost-" You couldn't even finish your sentence you were so choked up and high off of adrenaline and rage. You wished you could kill Vixen over and over again for the pain she put the people you lived in. The fact she manipulated Katsuki of all people was a death sentence on its own...
"(y/n)...It's okay." You were shaking when Katsuki limped over to where you were locked in place. Shinso went to help Katsuki walk but the blond shrugged off the help as if he were insulted. "It's okay. You won. You kicked her ass...you kicked my ass...you don't have to listen to this anymore...let's get the quirk and go okay? I'm ignoring that stupid bitch anyway, she doesn't know us." Katsuki's voice was soothing and you did your best to listen to him. Your heart ached for him during all of this but now you felt more confused and conflicted than ever. His hand entwined with your bloody one as the two of you left Shinso to collect what he was owed...but you couldn't even meet Katsuki's crimson eyes because despite how painful Vixen's words were, she told nothing but the truth.
~~
A/N
I'm really freakin tired so this is a short chapter and Author's note.
Doin okay everyone?
Thoughts on the chapter?
I'd like to thank Moira for their cute art!! I realize I don't have your Wattpad username so I hope you see this! Thanks so much!
Have a great week everyone!
Love you!
Kiba