What just happened? What just happened? No, no, no, it didn't just happen. A dream! It must be a dream. A very vivid dream, that's all. Just a sigh in the face of reality, just a flower in a field of dead, just a singular cloud floating up in the sky all by it's lonesome. That's all this is. A dream. And for a moment, the young Izuku Midoriya closed his eyes and relished in the dream. Since it was only that. He stood there like that a moment, and then another, before opening them again. Everything was still the same. He wasn't waking up.
A dream, but dreams don't end up this way. Dreams are hopes, dreams are fantasies, dreams are clouds of wonder in a sky of dark truth. Dreams are happy things, this is reality. And with that, Izuku Midoriya, the newest member of the League of Villains, young, sixteen-year-old kid, former doctor-in-training, son of Inko Midoriya, snapped back into existence. He blinked a little, as if waking up from a dream, and then acted.
He checked the pulse of Tomura Shigaraki. He let out a staggering breath of relief he wasn't aware he was holding. He checked Dabi and Toga next, and both of them were fine too. That meant they were all only knocked out. Not dead. Not dead, but...
The harsh reality set in on Izuku's shoulders as he realized that he must now achieve the impossible, he must now do something he never thought he could do, he must now carry out the plan, but carry it out alone.
He was alone.
Midoriya tried not to think about that. He focused on sorting what he saw in front of him out. His brain processed through it all in a matter of seconds. Midnight. She was a pro-hero and teacher at U.A. She must've used her quirk on the league. She must've seen that they were all in a meeting, all the members, in one place at one time, and acted accordingly. Now, where was she? And she couldn't be alone.
In this first second of thought, Izuku wasn't sure what to do about the situation now that he knew what the situation was. He was a single person, the weakest of the villains it seemed like, and he didn't know where his enemy was at all. He didn't have a plan, for their previous plan would now not work well at all. He wasn't prepared like he should have been. He thought he would've been prepared, he thought they were all going to be prepared, but they seriously underestimated the heroes.
Then the next second progressed better. A plan started to trickle into his mind. He had to get the prisoners away from the heroes and quick. He had to get himself away from the heroes and quick. He had to act as though every second was his last. He had to run as though fire burned at his feet. Then, he got an idea. It was far off but well put, and he decided to go for it. All of this formulated in his mind in the span of one second.
The third second, he put his thought into action. He turned on his heels and sped off through the halls, glancing up at the crack in the ceiling that was still there. It was odd how so much could happen, everything could change in the span of a few minutes, but even so, that crack was still there. And will always be there, until this building's end. The world doesn't stop spinning. The boy pushed his limits of speed, ignoring his rasping breath. He didn't care for the beads of sweat running down his light red face. He didn't care for the pain that shot through his legs.
Because he was the only one who could make this right now. He entered Todoroki's chamber again. The metal door was left open. Izuku entered in a rush but quickly skidding to a halt by what he saw there. Nothing. He saw nothing. No white folds of hair in the dim light that shone through the open door. No glowing icy gray and blue eyes staring up at him with hate. No rise and fall of his somewhat ragged breath.
Shoto Todoroki had escaped.
The only thing left was his chains. They were covered in ice. He must've seen this as a perfect opportunity to escape. And Izuku the left the door wide open for him to. He seized his chance. He could be freeing Bakugou right now! Or leaving with Midnight. He could be long gone. If only Midoriya had acted sooner. If only he hadn't been so caught up in his dream state.
Izuku slowly turned back to leave and gather Kacchan, if he was still there at all. Better one prisoner was taken than neither, right? He knew he couldn't take on Todoroki on a one on one battle, especially with his current state of mind. He thought it'd be best not to go after him. He took his first step back to the door successfully. But in his second, he suddenly froze.
No, he was frozen. Ice encased his whole body, excluding his head, in a matter of seconds, He fell to the floor with a harsh thump. Stabs of sharp cold ran through his body. It felt as though he was being stabbed over and over by coldness itself. With blurry eyes, he saw a red-and-white figure pick him up and drag him away. He couldn't see much but the ground and he was growing numb from the ice surrounding his body.
Izuku would shiver if he could shiver, but he couldn't move at all. He was cold. Like he went outside naked in the snow or jumped into the Arctic ocean. At first, the pain was unbearable, and he screamed in agonizing pain. But his body quickly grew numb and he then couldn't feel anything. The blurriness of his eyes only grew in intensity until he could hardly see anything at all except the fast-approaching unconsciousness. The last thing he thought before he allowed himself to go under was-
What's Shigaraki going to think?
-
"WAKE UP!"
Izuku was slapped in the face, forced into an awakened state. He flickered his eyes open to see two boys standing in front of him. Katsuki Bakugou and Shoto Todoroki. He was sitting in a chair with his arms and legs tied to it, much like when he first arrived to the league of villains on that day over two months ago. He looked around. They seemed to be in something of an abandoned warehouse. He expected to be in a jail cell, or an interrogation room, or even surrounded by heroes, but instead, here he was.
"I wanted to take you to the police like the rest of the villains." Todoroki seemed troubled by his decision. He bite his bottom lip, not meeting Izuku's eyes. "But Bakugou wanted to talk to you first. And I have to say, I'm interested, too."
"I'll get the quirkless loser to tell me everything he knows!" Bakugou muttered angrily.
"You're more of an idiot than you used to be, Kacchan!" Izuku threw back his head and chuckled. "To think I'd tell you anything about the league." Instead of responding, the spiky-haired boy grunted and kicked him in the gut, causing his chair to fall to the ground. He coughed up blood onto the floor, and then looked up at Kacchan with a grin.
"WHAT ARE YOU SMILING AT DEKU?!"
"You're falling apart over me," he smirked. "Aw, are you that guilty? I know you are. You turned me into this, after all. Picture that; Kachan: the pro-hero-to be, the one who bragged about his quirk since he was four, created the world's worse villain."
He paused for effect before finishing his little monologue.
"The villain who will kill All Might."
Bakugou's face lit up in surprise, surprise that he quickly tried to mask, but didn't go unnoticed. He pretended not to care about his words, not letting him see how much they affected him. "Damn Deku! You wish you could kill All Might. Your plans failed, what are you going to do now?"
"Shut up, Bakugou," Todoroki warned in a low, serious voice. "Deku, I want you to tell me why you joined the League of Villains."
"What?! This is a waste of time-," Bakugou began one of his rants but was quickly cut off.
"He had his knife out but he didn't hurt me," Shoto said in a distant tone. "When he first caught me he said he'd hurt me but he never did. Why? I think there's good in him. I want to find it."
"There was good in me!" Izuku spat, losing his composure. "There was but then you heroes decided to take it from me!"
"What do you mean?" the multi-haired boy furrowed his eyebrows.
"Kacchan... All Might... Even my own mother. No one thought I could make something of myself without a stupid quirk. Well, look at me now? Wouldn't I make a good hero now? It's too late for that, though. Heroes aren't real. Villains aren't real. Only humans with sides to pick. And I've picked mine."
"Deku-,"
"It's not fucking Deku! It's Izuku Midoriya."
"Izuku," Todoroki made his voice gentler. He lifted up the chair and put his hand on his shoulder, putting sincerity into his words. This only made Midoriya angrier. "You can still change. You-."
The boy suddenly broke out of his restraints with force and swung his leg up in a powerful kick towards Todoroki's face. It connected, sending the hero falling to the ground. Bakugou threw one of his blasts at all, but he was all too experienced with those and leaped out of the way with relative ease.
"You think you're so much better than me!" Midoriya said through gritted teeth. "I'll show you how wrong you are!"
He punched Bakugou in the face, and he almost lost his balance. But only almost. He sent a blast into the face of Deku sent him falling to the ground. By then, Todoroki was back on his feet. Two against one. He was outnumbered. He was outmatched. He couldn't beat them with strength, he needed to be smart about this. He had to win now. He had to prove his worth. He needed a winning strategy.
"You're strong, for a quirkless loser," Bakugou stepped forward and smiled a little, showing his teeth. He had a long-shot idea then, one that would wipe the grin straight off his face. ONe that would tear down his ego, and return his guilt.
Izuku Midoriya started to cry. He started to cry like he always would, when they were in primary school and Kacchan would make fun of him. Or when he would beat him up for no particular reason. One specific thing he would always tell Kacchan popped into his brain in the moment.
"Kacchan! How could you be so mean?" Izuku wailed as though he were five. "You know I've always thought you were the coolest, Kacchan!"
Bakugou looked flustered as he took a step back from the poor boy. "...What the hell?..." He looked at Todoroki, he mirrored his expression.
"I just wanted to be like you!" He sobbed. "I thought I could be mean, too. I thought you'd understand, Kacchan..."
Deku walked forward quickly until he was standing no more than a few inches away from Bakugou. He lifted his face up to meet Kacchan's, who could now feel his warm breath on his skin.
"I'm sorry," his voice was no more than a whisper. "Do you... forgive me?"
He hugged him, sobbing on, muttering things like, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry... I didn't mean to... Please forgive me..." Bakugou wasn't sure how to feel about this, in fact, he didn't understand what was happening in the slightest.
"Kacchan! Please say you forgive me. I'll be good, I promise."
Bakugou didn't reply. He wasn't sure what to say, he was still getting his thoughts into line.
"Kacchan, you may have made me into this but I'm willing to change if you forgive me. Please, Kacchan. Say you forgive me. Please!"
Bakugou put one hand on his back in an awkward return of his hug. Guilt gnawed at the back of his mind, and he wanted nothing more than to forgive him. To let things go back to the way they were when Deku was an enthusiastic kid who aspired to be like him. "Okay, okay, I'll forgive you," he muttered, a single forbidden tear running down his face that he was glad Deku couldn't see. "Just... knock the whole villain shit off, okay?"
"O-Okay, Kacchan," he sniffled. "I promise."
Oh, I promise.
Stab.
Bakugou fell to the floor with a knife lodged into his back and a stunned expression on his face. Blood pooled onto the ground around him. He wasn't dead, but without medical attention, he very well could be in a few hours.
Todoroki reacted with skilled speed and sent a herd of ice spears hurtling his way. Izuku blocked it by stepping to the side. He was standing next to Kacchan, stepping in his blood. He bent over his body and pulled the knife from his back, sending more blood spilling out of it.
Shoto attacked him with more ice, careful to avoid hitting Bakagou. The vigilant boy dodged with quick gymnastics he had been training on all this time. After a while, his skills get slightly sloppy, and Todoroki finally lands a hit on his shoulder. Scarlett blood drips from Izuku's wound as he falls to the floor. He's quick to get up and continues the endless cycle of dodging. He had more stamina than Todoroki, who was beginning to slow his movements after awhile. Time went by, how much, he doesn't know. An hour? Two? How long it went on, no one could tell.
Todoroki still, after all of this time, refused to use his fire. His left side. He aimed at Izuku, he was the one being affected by it. Ice started to grow onto him, causing him to shiver and stumble with effort to ignore it. Still, he didn't use his fire.
"Where's your fire now, Shoto?"
Midoriya was growing tired too, though. He was exhausted from dodging time and time again, and the wound on his shoulder certainly wasn't helping. Just as he thought he would fall over and cease to dodge, Todoroki fell instead to his knees, coughing and breathing deeply. His knees gave way and he hit the floor in defeat. His body was covered in clumps of frost, and he was shivering so hard it seemed as though he could hardly breathe.
"Oh, how the mighty have fallen," Deku laughed as he approached his freezing body and lodged the knife into Todoroki's leg, making sure not to kill him. He wanted him alive. He went over to Bakugou's body. He aimed for a rib, but not the heart, and had succeeded with scary accuracy. He'd live with medical attention.
"I told you, Kacchan," Izuku whispered into his eyes, although he knew he couldn't hear him.
"You'd regret it."
A/N- So I finished editing this chapter, hey, on my birthday too! (12/07/19) And I remember I actually wrote a different version of this chapter where Midnight was interrogating Deku I think? I don't know, this was forever ago. Well, I like this version better, that's for sure. I wonder how differently this would've turned out had I not rewrote it.