You awakened to darkness. Your limbs ached, and your body felt heavy. You looked around, but the movement shifted the piles of rubble that glued your body to the floor.
You panted, winced, and cried out as you arched your back and tucked your knees under your body to help yourself sit up.
The cement that once subdued you tumbled off your body, allowing you to properly sit up and leaving you with dirt coated skin and tattered clothes.
'How did I get here?' you thought to yourself. 'What happened? The last thing I remember is Chisaki yelling...something.'
You squeezed your eyes shut and rubbed your temple in an attempt to remember something, anything, but it was no use.
'I gotta find someone. Where're the guys I was with?' you mentally questioned as you looked around. 'Bakugo, Shinso, Aizawa. Where are they?'
You looked around in search for your previous companions, but all you saw was rubble, chunks of cement. However, with the help from the bright sky hovering above you, you managed to catch sight of a piece of fabric.
It was tattered, but you could make out the colors: orange and black. They were the same colors of the costume belonging to a familiar face.
'Bakugo,' you thought shortly.
You jumped to your feet, halting when a sharp pain jolted throughout your entire body, but you forced yourself to ignore it as you dragged yourself over to the fabric poking out from between two ginormous pieces of fallen cement.
You used the little strength you had to push the pieces of rubble trapped the fabric out of the way, so you could dig further down into the pile.
You pushed, pulled, dug, and shoved as you searched for Bakugo. Some part of you hoped you didn't find him crushed beneath hundreds of pounds of cement, but another part hoped you did find him. If you didn't find him now, when would you?
Eventually, you saw a patch of dirty blond hair, and you immediately began to be more careful with your digging.
You gently removed the remaining chunks of cement and soon revealed the wounded boy that laid beneath them.
Bakugo laid limp with his skin coated in layers of dirt and a tattered costume like you. However, the only difference was that he didn't seem like he would be moving any time soon.
Blood trickled out of his mouth and down his chin. Patches of the red liquid littered his body. His chest was unmoving. His shoulders didn't heave. You moved your hand in front of his nose, and you felt no air, no sign of breathing.
Katsuki Bakugo was dead.
Your chest ached, or maybe it was your heart. You find yourself unable to shed a tear, but you felt a sort of agony deep down inside that refused to let you believe the fact that he was gone.
"No," was all you could mutter, "no, no, no, no, no."
You maneuvered your arms beneath Bakugo's armpits and dragged him out of the crater he laid in. You laid him on top of the layers of rubble that covered the once tiled floor and leaned down to press your ear to his chest.
Nothing. He didn't have a heartbeat, and you couldn't bring one back, but someone else could.
'Eri,' you thought, remembering the girl was somewhere in the vicinity.
You jumped to your feet and brushed off your clothes before stretching your aching limbs and relieving your muscles of any tension they held. Then, you leaned down, lifted Bakugo onto your shoulders with a pained grunt, and proceeded to search for an exit.
When you found one, a gap between two collapsed walls, you squeezed your way out of the crumbled building and outside where the sun blinded you.
Once your eyes adjusted, you were able to see what was playing out in front of you; Midoriya was hovering above the ground with Eri on his back, still helping him as they watched Chisaki crumble to the ground, defeated.
You dragged yourself a few more yards until you were close enough for Midoriya to see. When you were in his line of sight, you slowly kneeled down and lowered Bakugo to the ground.
Midoriya came to your aid as soon as he was able. He landed on one knee beside you and Bakugo, Eri still clinging to his back.
"Is he?..." Midoriya began, his wide eyes glued to Bakugo's limp body. "Kacchan?"
You looked over at Eri, who had her face buried in Midoriya's neck. You reached out and brushed your fingers against her shoulder, causing her to lift her head and glance at you with teary eyes.
"You can save him," you stated, opening your arms. "You can bring him back."
Eri sniffed and shot a hesitant look at Midoriya, who was staring at the child over his own shoulder. He nodded, and Eri crawled off his back and into your arms.
You set the young girl on your folded legs to avoid her bare feet touching the debris covered ground and held her gently.
"Focus," you instructed. "Do that, and you'll save a life."
Eri nodded slowly and averted her eyes to Bakugo. His motionless status clearly startled the girl, but you could tell she was determined to help.
She leaned forward and placed her small, gentle hands on Bakugo's chest, right above his heart, and closed her eyes.
It remained calm and quiet for the next few seconds until Eri's hands slowly began to emit a golden hue, signaling her quirk was surfacing.
As Rewind took over, Bakugo's chest puffed out, his skin returned to its normal color, and his shoulders heaved. His cuts and bruises healed, and, as you moved your hand near his face, you felt a puff of air leave his nose.
Once Bakugo seemed fully healed, you carefully placed your hand on Eri's shoulder, saying, "that's enough. You did good."
Eri opened her eyes, leaned back, and craned her head back to look at you, which revealed the bright smile on her face.
"I did it," she said quietly, amazed with her own abilities. You simply nodded in response before looking at Midoriya, who caught the pleading look in your eyes and took Eri from your arms.
You threw your leg over Bakugo's torso, so you were hovering over him and tapped the boy's cheek once, twice, thrice.
"'m awake. Stop fuckin' hitting me," he suddenly muttered before spitting out a wad of blood.
"You'd know if I was hitting you," you stated, and the sound of your voice caused Bakugo's eyes to shoot open.
He turned his head, and, as soon as his eyes fell upon you, he shot up into a sitting position, nearly knocking you off your feet, wrapped his arms around your waist, and yanked you into his lap.
His strong arms felt familiar as they enveloped you in warmth, yet you couldn't remember a time when these arms held you.
Instead of retaliating with a hug, you simply patted the boy's somehow still soft hair and cleared your throat.
Upon feeling your lack of affection in return, Bakugo pulled away and looked up at you with a conflicted expression.
"Sorry," you apologized, yet you didn't seem to feel any actual remorse of any kind. Were you even capable of feeling sorry anymore? "I still don't really remember you."
"Yeah," Bakugo agreed, his voice gruff and raspy. "My bad."
You awkwardly climbed off his lap and stood. You extended your hand down to him, which he stared at for a few seconds before taking and allowing you to pull him to his feet.
"So?" Bakugo questioned, looking at Midoriya. "Did the bird bastard go down?"
"Yeah," Midoriya nodded, looking over at where Chisaki was laying in rubble, defeated. "At least, I hope so, but that's not what we should be worrying about. There's ambulances here to tend to the wounded. You should get checked out, Kacchan."
"I'm fucking fine, Nerd," Bakugo snapped. "Some chunks of cement can't take me out."
"They did actually," you budded in, earning a small and somewhat familiar glare from the blond. "The only reason you're alive is because of Eri."
"Whatever," Bakugo scoffed. "I need food. Come on."
"Kacchan!" Midoriya yelled as Bakugo placed his hands on your shoulders, turned you toward the crowd gathered in front of the scene, and gave you a small shove, urging you to go.
"You're a handsy one," you commented as Bakugo moved to walk beside you. "Were you always this handsy with me?"
"Don't fucking word it like that. Sounds wrong," Bakugo cringed.
You couldn't help but chuckle. Bakugo's annoyed expression faded away, and a small grin appeared on his face.
"Hey! Stop right there!"
You perked up at the sound of a booming voice and turned around to find the source of the yelling, but, before you could properly identity the person, you were tackled to the ground.
"Get the hell off her!"
Your face was pressed into the dirt as something circular and cold curled around your wrists, which were pinned behind your back.
Handcuffs. You were being handcuffed.
"What's going on over here?"
Pressure was relieved from your back, which allowed you to look over your shoulder to find Bakugo manhandling the police officer that had shoved you to the ground and Aizawa rushing over with a confused expression.
"You said to find her," the police officer said, grunting as he shoved Bakugo off of him, who scowled at the cop before moving to help you off the ground.
"Yeah, find her, not throw her to the ground and handcuff her," Aizawa stated. "Take 'em off."
Bakugo helped you to your feet, and the police officer walked over to you with a look of shame and embarrassment as he pulled out a small key from his pocket and removed the cuffs from your wrists.
"You both okay?" Aizawa questioned, examining you and Bakugo closely.
"Fine," Bakugo said, "but what happens now?"
Aizawa sighed, saying, "technically, [Y/N] is a criminal. However, that's only due to brainwashing, which isn't something she could've controlled. She will not be arrested, but she's still highly dangerous. The people of this city are terrified of her."
"So?" Bakugo spat out. "Tell them she's conscious now, that she's not under anyones control anymore. She's fine."
"Unfortunately, that's not how life works," Aizawa replied. "Just because you tell someone something doesn't mean they're gonna believe it. For now, she needs to be contained."
"Don't you think if she wanted to kill us, she would've done it already?" Bakugo questioned. "She could've thrown this dumbass cop off of her easily, but she didn't—"
"Bakugo," you interrupted, "it's fine. I'm an outsider in the city now. It's not like I would benefit from being free anyway." Bakugo huffed, a frustrated expression taking over his face.
"You'll be charged, of course," Aizawa continued, "but that's just for the records. You won't be arrested, but you will be contained in solitary confinement."
"Lovely," you commented sarcastically.
"It won't be too bad," Aizawa assured. "There's a TV."
"I don't think it counts as solitary confinement if there's a TV," you stated.
"It was adjusted for you," Aizawa said. "We're gonna need you to watch some things."
[EDITED]