"Perhaps one day we will meet again as characters in a different story, maybe we'll share a lifetime then."
~ pavana
Track 60; Other Side by MIYAVI
This was a double update. Make sure to read chapter 58 before this one!
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"You killed him."
Hawks can do nothing but wait as the rest of his feathers burn up across the expanse of his back. He isn't prepared for the next wave of flames that blows him through a door. He lands on a balcony with a railing separating him from the ground below. He rolls to the side, the pathway already crumbling in his path of direction.
"HOW COULD YOU?!"
It splinters underneath him, erasing the lack of oxygen he already had in his lungs. He slaps at the fire on him, the temperature continues to rise. He doesn't make it far before Dabi's heel slams into his rib cage.
"How dare you kill Twice like that!"
Hawks looks up, finding a monster looming above him.
Dabi's seams are splitting, blood streaming and collecting at the point of his chin before slipping down his neck and towards his collarbones. Steam erupts from the corners of his mouth and his eyes.
"Is that..." Keigo coughs. "The face of a man who just watched a friend die?!" Dabi stomps on him yet again.
"Hey now!! That was rude!" And again. "I haven't cried since my tear ducts got all burned. With Twice around my dream had a way better chance of coming true! So of course I'm sad! You should be too, seeing that I burnt that pretty little birdy of yours to a crisp." The man bursts into flames, and the previously-winged hero shields his face from further damage. "SO, SOOO SAD!"
Hawks can't let himself falter at the news of your death. He doesn't have any reason to believe it's true, anyway. He would know. He had that wicked sense of intuition, and it had never led him astray. It hadn't surfaced at all after your disappearance, so he tread carefully on the assurance that you were alive.
"You and the League..." It was hard to speak under the searing heat, but somehow he managed, probably out of spite and stubbornness more than anything else. "I looked into your backgrounds, but I came up with nothing! I found out about Shigaraki eventually. Only you..."
A blink sent him to a flashback of his childhood, the moment where he was informed of his rough training. All he had asked was if he could be like Endeavour. Then to you, and the moment you told him that your father was a hero that 'disappeared'. You wanted to find him.
With a low chuckle, Dabi answers him.
Hawks heart plummets through the floor. How had he not figured it out sooner?
"More than Twice. More than anyone, you should've been keeping both eyes on me. The League? Shigaraki? I never gave a crap about them. A single person...with a single conviction...has the power to change the world. There are no "true heros". I...plan to make my will a reality." He laughs, tilting his head back to look up before it drops again, hanging low like he had no bones in his neck. His turquoise eyes lock with Hawks golden ones.
"See ya, Keigo. Say hello to that little bird for me, will ya?"
Keigo's eyes widen as Dabi's entire body bursts into flames.
"Your life's another thing I don't care about."
Before he meets his fate like he expects, a large rumble causes the burning villain to stumble backwards.
"Hawks!"
It's his hero name, but the voice he hears doesnt match the person he sees...a Phoenix?. Tokoyami is behind you, he catches sight of the students head over your burning, blue wingspan. He can't look away from you. To him at that moment, you look like an angel. How did you know where he was? He's so happy to see that he was right, that you are alive.
"St..ar....dust..."
You shush him, gathering him up in your arms the best that you can, using your telekinesis as an aid, and huddling over him protectively. He groans at the movement.
"Sorry, sorry." You apologize, looking over his wounds. Your hands are trembling. "I've got you." You blink back the tears. His wings are gone. You draw the flames that linger into your own wings, soothing him from that further pain. The entire right side of him is burnt, including a majority of his face; he can barely keep his eyes open. Immediately, the pocket in your tool belt holding burn salve pops open and a small jar of it hovers millimeters from your hand.
"You..." Your voice is shaking, barely a whisper as you gently kiss his cheeks. "You did so good. I'm proud of you; just...hang on for me, okay? To..." You swallow the lump in your throat when your voice catches. You do your best to be gentle while lathering as much as you could onto any burns you could reach. "Tokoyami is going to get you out of here."
Hawks goes to argue, but he chokes and swallows instead, his eyes closing for a brief second before opening them again. "He told... me... his name." They're heavy, but he doesn't want to stop looking at you. "You...have to...leave."
No. You can't. He completed his mission, and he was in no condition to try and complete yours, either. You shake your head, and are about to reply when Tsukuyomi shouts a warning to you. Already in a squatting position, you leap to the side with him in your arms.
Dabi's flames catch the tail end of your feathers, but it only fuels your mana.
"I've got this." You give him a soft smile. "I'll see you soon, okay? I love you." Then, with a soft, tender kiss, you let Dark Shadow envelop him and guide him back to the bird headed student.
To give you an advantage, Tokoyami takes your husband in his arms and jumps off the top balcony; Dark Shadow uses a large claw to bat Dabi away. You jump up and dive after the villain. Your mind is plagued with fear about the idea of facing your mothers killer, but you can't think about that now. He was millimeters from killing Keigo and taking the one person you couldn't live without from you before you and Tsukuyomi had intervened. If it hadn't been for the U.A. student backing you up, you don't think you would have been able to pull off such a stunt. You were thankful for his assistance, because now Hawks was out of harms way and you could finally get some answers.
Before Dabi can drop down to unleash a blast of blue flame onto the pair a few stories below, you tackle him midair and crash through the wall on the opposite side of the courtyard. His breath is stolen from his lungs. With quick enough timing, you use his chest as a springboard to tuck your legs underneath you and kick off of him. He blasts through the next wall before leaving an indent in the third layer. Had he gone through, he would've been blown through the building entirely. You don't want to give him even a second. You flip over again, and unleash another devastating kick to his rib cage.
"Second Quarter!"
A support beam gives way under the impact, and the two of you finally break through the other side; 150% mana. While he plummets to the ground and the hero's scatter to avoid being crushed, you tilt your wings up and glide on the draft to watch him from above.
You catch Tokoyami in your peripherals, he's carrying Hawks in his arms with the support of Dark Shadow. "Get out of here already!"
All of a sudden, a large wall of ice with deadly points forms from thin air. One barely misses with a sweep of your wings, it slices through the fabric of your hero suit, leaving a mild gash across your upper torso. You grit your teeth and attempt to ignore the pain, flying up above. Through the spikes you spot Dabi using the wall as a chance to get back up on his feet. Before you are able to drop another attack his way, you watch him melt the spikes separating the two of you. You avoid the flames with a spiral upward, knowing the only part of you that could tolerate such heat was your wings. He leans back with a wicked grin.
"Why don't you come down and play, little bird? Are you looking to become a charred drumstick just like your husband? Too bad I didn't cook him as much as I did dear old Mommy, eh?"
Something within you snaps.
"Waxing Crescent!" A palm sized right crescent moon began to circle around you. You could probably keep it up for about a minute, but it would drain your mana. You're already down to 100%.
He barely had a chance to blink before he watched a streak of blue follow you. He narrowly misses your stomp, stepping to the side. He's inches away from where he once was, and meets the murderous glare you throw out of the corner of your eye with a smirk. 92%. You sweep your left leg out to knock him off his feet, he jumps up to avoid it and sends a flaming fist towards your face. You dip backwards, letting yourself bend into a c-shape. Your support device, the tail, catches fire. Without thinking twice, you unhook the belt from around your waist and let it fall.
When your left foot plants firmly on the ground, you pivot on your right and deliver a nasty punch right to Dabi's ugly ass face. He's stunned, and you follow the momentum with a war cry and a kick to the right side of his rib cage. You let out a deep breath you hadn't realized you were holding when he crumples through another wall of the manor. You let the crescent fall. 86% left.
How dare he talk about your mother like that.
"Well..." You hear coughs occur from the dust billowing from where he landed. "You pack quite a punch, don't ya, stardust?" Slowly, he rises to his feet. His hands are flaming when he raises one to wipe the blood seeping from the corner of his mouth. 83%.
Your stomach rolls uncomfortably at his use of your husband's nickname for you. "Shut up, you overcooked kebab. I think it's about time you get locked up for the rest of your pitiful life. If you're not willing to do that peacefully, I'll kill you just like Hawks did your friend."
Even from a distance, you can see his turquoise eyes dilate. His upper lip curls back in a sneer. "You talk a lot of shit, stupid bitch. Especially for someone who's husband married them only for a mission."
Your heart twists in your chest, and you furrow your eyebrows. Don't let his words get to you. He'd already fucked up so many things in your life, now wasn't the time to let him obtain the upper hand with just some manipulation tactics. You were smarter than that. Your mana is starting to top off again thanks to his constant generation of fire; 89%.
"You talk a lot of shit for someone whose body can't tolerate his own flames. Yet I can handle them?" You shoot back venomously.
That seems to really piss him off. Something glints in his left hand, and you see an obscenely large knife—something out of a butcher's shop—be drawn from his coat. You wondered where he'd gotten that from—perhaps Toga. At least he was making it a bit more interesting?
"Start contemplating your final words, (Y/N)." His voice is light and taunting as he tosses it from hand to hand. "The first time we met I burned them off, but they grew right back, didn't they? So this time I'll cut them off."
He charges forward, and this time you aren't prepared for the tsunami of blue fire charging your direction. You attempt to use your wings as a shield and direct the rest of it off of you. It works, but using them like a fan how you intended exposed your front side entirely. It does fuel you back up to 100% mana, at least. Dabi saw this and delivered an uppercut to your ribs. It knocks the wind from your lungs but you recover quick enough to catch the oncoming hand holding the large knife with your own. Your tool belt catches fire. You can't take it off; 101%.
He pins you to the ground, his free hand clapping down on the ground next to you before taking hold of your hair. You cry out in pain when he yanks it to the side, and your arms holding the knife inches from your throat begin to shake; slowly it starts nearing you as his strength overpowers yours.
"What's wrong? Can't think of any words just yet? You're running out of time~"
You tilt your head back and try to take a deep breath, activating Disengage with a silent cry: 36% mana now.
He takes a large chunk of your hair with him at his sudden departure. He blitzes through the same hole you'd sent him through previously. Your peripherals are blackening when you scramble to your feet, swaying slightly. You finally ditch the tool belt. Your hips and lower torso are burnt.
The knife is on the ground.
Before you can even think about it, you grab it with your telekinesis and everything else you can that's in your midst; including the remains of your support items and the rubble surrounding you. When you see his outline appear in the dust, you launch yourself into the air and send it all—minus the knife—in his direction. As you predicted he obliterated them with another rolling wall of fire. The sudden increase of light reveals to you that he himself is now ablaze. He's given you another boost; it probably infuriates him.
The smell of burning flesh reaches your nose.
Before you can blink, he's up in the air next to you. You collapse your wings and drop down just enough to avoid a sweeping arm of flames. It singes the end of your already torn hair and brushes the edge of your feathers. You rotate quickly and deliver a roundhouse kick to his head, fully intending to kill at this point, 80%.
"First Quarter!"
He falls back to the ground, and this time he grabs your wrist. Immediately, the flames begin to crawl up your skin and you're unable to get away. The ground is closing in. You don't have enough mana for Disengage yet. You only have 39%. By the time you have enough, it'll be after impact. You could activate your telekinesis to catch yourself, but you want Dabi to suffer the fall. Unless...
You tuck your wings in and use the momentum of your fall to flip forward and force yourself out of his grasp.
It works.
Simultaneously to his landing, you rebounded off of your inertia back into the sky, 70%.
You notice him already beginning to get up. He looks like nothing more than a walking skeleton at this point, fueled by his flames. You wondered what was driving him, but you didn't care. If he wasn't willing to give in, you'd have to kill him. You're running low on energy, but the fire Dabi produces is somehow also a booster to your quirk. It gives you enough mana to reload yourself entirely, though it definitely isn't the overload you felt after being freed from your restraints back in the morgue; 96%.
You raise your arms above your head before collapsing your wingspan. It's not enough for a full two minutes. You'll take any opportunity you could get, though. You just wanted this over with. Your body aches when you begin your fall. With a deep breath, you let your mind go blank except for one thing: land on or near Dabi. That's all you wanted to do. You'd give your own life as long as you could have that.
"Full Moon!"
Your legs are numb when you hit the ground, leaving a shallow crater where you landed. Dabi isn't directly underneath your feet, but he is within a foot of your collision. He's in the hot zone, right where you needed him. Your eyes are heavy, and you tilt your head back to look up at the sky when you notice dark clouds overhead. It looks like it's going to rain, or maybe that's just your quirk turning everything around you grey. You look back down at Dabi, now standing over his form.
He's pushing himself up with both of his arms, chest open and exposed. The remains of his coat are nothing but tatters now after being ruined by his flames. Even they are grey in this frozen point in time. Subconsciously, you are upset with yourself at your lack of strength up until now. Why had it taken until this point in time for you to overcome your past? Would you even get the answers you desired at this point?
You doubted Dabi would have a final confession.
You wondered what his last words were going to be when you plummeted the knife into his chest, piercing straight through his heart.
You're out of mana.
Only fifteen seconds pass before time returns to its normal rate of frame. You are standing next to him, hands still around the knife.
You want him to know that it was you who killed him.
Turquoise eyes lock with (e/c) when he crumples back, his arms giving way. You don't have enough energy to remain standing, and continue to hold onto the knife when you land. You grunt when your knees hit the ground.
"You know....I was adopted?" Dabi's laugh was interrupted by his cough, blood slipping from the corner of his mouth. "My parents gave me up when I was born."
"What does that have to do with anything?" You asked, hands shaking as your last strains of adrenaline kept you from passing out.
"I had a sister." His voice was very faint. "They...chose her over me..." He tried to swallow but blood caught in his throat, making him choke.
It didn't take long for your mind to connect the dots. The phone call from Takagawa.
"No..." Your grip loosened on Dabi, though he wasn't in any shape to go anywhere. Your peripheral vision darkened which caused you to fall back. The extent of your injuries were catching up to you—the shock of what he was implying snatched the lasting energy you had. "What are you saying?" You questioned him. There was a faint smile on his face.
"You had wings." He struggled to breathe. You sat up again and did the decency of wiping the blood from his mouth. Your wings fall limp against your back; they feel...wrong.
A million thoughts crossed your brain at once, but nothing could come out of your mouth. If you had known what your parents had done, you would've said something or tried to find him. This was what your father had told you about.
The choice that your parents had made.
"I'm...I'm so sorry." Your lips quivered and you wiped at your eyes with your non-injured hand.
"It's not..." He took a deep, shallow breath. "Your fault."
"Why did this have to happen?" You questioned out loud, knowing that Dabi didn't have the answer either. Here you sat thinking that your parents had been diamonds in the rough yet they kept this dark secret from you.
Only for you to discover it in such a terrible way.
His voice was raspy. It was probably the most coherent thing he'd said in the last thirty minutes. "Sorry for fucking up your life."
Your tears fell since you were unable to hold back the painful lump in your throat. "What's your actual name?"
He chuckled, though his skin was turning pale. "Touya (L/N) ."
Knowing these were probably your last moments with your fucked-up brother, you took his hand in yours. "I wish things could've been different."
"Our...grandparents." He swallows the blood in his throat, though he chokes on it instead.
"What about them?" You ask. You know he doesn't have much time left. If you're going to get any answers from him, now was your only chance.
"They tried..."
His turquoise eyes began to fade.
Your heart leaps into your throat, and you grab the collar of his jacket. "Da—" You stop short. That's not his name. "Touya?"
"Touya." You say it with earnest this time.
It's foreign to you.
And it shouldn't be.
It sits weird on your tongue, yet it rolls off so smoothly that it makes you want to scream.
"TOUYA!"
You shake him, desperate now. "Wake up! Please! I need answers!
"You can't just—just LEAVE after everything!"
Reality hits you like a freight train when you realize that he's already cooling.
You attempted to crawl away, unable to do much but hyperventilate before your arms gave way.
You choke out a sob of pain and arch up to wrap your arms around your stomach, rolling over onto your side so you're further away from Dabi.
No...that's Touya.
Your brother.
When your eyes close without your consent, you feel something drop on them. It's mild enough that you almost mistake it for a tear.
But it is a raindrop.
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words; 3621
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~evixtus