11 Bye Bye Baby

"W-well it would be safer if you, um, y-you know, just sort of-"

"I'm not leaving," the other man said and Midoriya bobbed around him like a nervous rabbit. He kept wringing his hands together and he hunched his shoulders a little.

"J-just let me take care of it, Tomura! We're going t-to be waiting for a few hours anyway a-and you'll just get bored." Tomura glanced up (she thought, it was hard to tell around the hand on his face) and shrugged. Midoriya looked like he was going to rip in half he looked so stressed out. "But you'll get hurt!"

"Izuku, give it a rest," The smoke man said this time, and Midoriya visibly flinched. He worked his hands together nervously as he started mumbling again, trying to mash words together into a cohesive argument. Kyouka ground her teeth over her gag as she glowered at him, considering his interactions with the rest of the villains. He was speaking more freely with them than he did in class, and even for all his nervous sputtering he seemed visibly more comfortable with the two of them. He had even let the smoke creep touch him without jumping out of his skin and screeching! His interactions were uncomfortably familiar with the villains and if there was a shred of guilt within him she couldn't see it.

She was terrified. But she'd be damned if she showed it.

Kyouka worked her sleeve out of her lips before she raised her chin sharply and said, "HEY!" Let them see she wasn't afraid. She would spit in Midoriya's stupid baby-fat round face if he got close enough. How could she have ever thought of him as cute? If even for a moment.

She was glad he hated himself.

Midoriya jumped and squeaked before he whirled around to look at her with wide eyes. The other two villains barely even glanced at her and it pissed her off when Midoriya glanced at them as if he was worried that she had made them mad. "Let me go, fucker!"

"U-uh, sorry Kyouka. A-after we take care of All Might y-you'll be free to go, I promise." Handsy weirdo groaned and Midoriya gave him a look before he turned back to her. "Unharmed." He adjusted his mask and shifted nervously.

"I'm not a-" was as far as she got before the outer wall of the warehouse ripped apart and exploded inwards. Kyouka screamed as her chair tipped over hard and her head cracked against the floor. From her angle she could see Izuku had thrown up an arm to shield his eyes as debris shattered before they got close enough to cause harm, coating him and Tomura in a fine layer of dust and concrete fragments.

Tomura and Midoriya both lowered their arms and looked out and Tomura actually giggled. "That was faster than I expected," Midoriya said, his voice wavering a little with some mixture of nerves and excitement. Tomura giggled again and bent his knees a little, clearly tense and ready to move. They were ready to fight, and while she couldn't see the man in the metal mask and Smokey Kyouka could only assume they were prepared as well.

Kyouka shimmied a little and saw the man who had come to her rescue, the same one that Midoriya was planning on helping kill. "HAVE NO FEAR! For I am here!"

All Might's face was twisted into a furious scowl and he hadn't even bothered to change out of his tacky yellow suit before coming to her rescue. "All Might!" Kyouka shouted, and tears welled up in her eyes. He had come for her! His gaze laid across her, and through the anger she saw concern before he looked to Tomura and Midoriya. He seemed to recognize the costume Midoriya wore and confusion flickered across his face for a moment.

"Release my students now, villain!" All Might boomed.

Kyouka saw Midoriya shift closer to Tomura and heard him whisper, "I don't see anyone else, so he must have run here. I give us ten, fifteen minutes before more heroes get here and half an hour before the cops get here too." Tomura nodded briefly but he was otherwise motionless. He hummed as though Midoriya hadn't spoken then addressed the man of the hour himself.

"Sure thing," Tomura said, "after we kill you, of course. Noumu." The huge creatures that had been standing motionless at all corners of the lab seemed to suddenly come to life, and all four sprang forward at impossible speeds. In a quick motion, Midoriya was standing in front of Tomura with a defensive stance, and the reason soon became clear as All Might and the 'Noumu' made contact. The wind throw back from the fight almost knocked them off their feet. Kyouka squeezed her eyes shut and lowered her head, trying to hide her face and keep breathing.

From the corner of her eye she saw Tomura dart forward and Midoriya sprint after him, leaving her on her side with a throbbing shoulder. Kyouka started to squirm again, trying to work herself free as the fight raged on behind her. She had no idea what was happening but she knew she needed to get the hell out of dodge. At the very least if she got free All Might wouldn't have to fight to rescue her and he could focus on fighting the villains.

She screamed when she felt a hand grab her shoulder, but when she looked up she saw the big, scared face of Mina looking down at her. She had more horns than usual, and her skin had been painted an ashen gray but it was still Mina without a doubt. Kyouka stared at her in shock. "What are you doing here!?" She hissed as Mina pulled her head back and looked at something over her shoulder.

"Shut up! They haven't seen me yet, let me get you out of here!" Mina hissed, and Kyouka felt cold, wet acid drip onto her skin from around her handcuffs.

XXX

The three mostly-completed Noumu were, as it turned out, almost completely useless. The winged out only took a single punch to the jaw to rip it's head clean off, artificial muscles ripping like tissue paper and showering him in thick, black-brown blood. Even through his mask Izuku could smell the creature's decay and he dragged his sleeve across his goggled so he could see again.

"You," Izuku shouted at the weakest Noumu, a low standing beast with arms thicker than tree trunks, "watch Jirou – the prisoner! Don't let any harm come to her and keep her from running off!" The Noumu's large eyes rolled listlessly with jerky movement unrelated to one another as it processed Izuku's order. It seemed to have a hard time figuring out if Shigaraki or Midoriya took priority but when Izuku barked, "NOW!" it flinched then trundled off to stand guard over the girl. All for One had an authority here, and All for One was what he had become. All Might had started with a dive for Jirou, and he wouldn't let All Might get away before Tomura was done with him.

Good. Izuku wouldn't have to worry about her now and he turned his head to focus on All Might fully. Tomura was positively vibrating with elation at seeing the object of his obsessive hate so close by and Izuku snaked out a hand to grab the corner of one his sleeves. 'Please don't do anything rash,' Izuku begged silently. Tomura lived for being rash but Izuku didn't think his heart could take much of it.

"Hahaha . . . he really is faster than I can make out. But I think our intel was correct." Tomura grinned and Izuku held his sleeve a little tighter. He spoke a little louder and his shrill voice took a mocking tone as he addressed the hero, "you're getting weaker!"

"BAH!" All Might spat as he destroyed the second Noumu, and Izuku had to bodily haul Tomura out of the way so he didn't get taken out by a severed, buff arm. "This isn't anything, villain!" The final Noumu got in a heavy punch right between All Might's shoulders and bashed him down into the ground. Izuku yelped as he shredded a hefty chunk of rubble flying towards his head.

All Might lurched upwards and went to throw a punch at Noumu's head, only for his fist to go through a warp and break through the empty air on the other side of the creature's head. Noumu blinked dully before it took All Might's lack of balance to lurch forward and dig its thumb into the hero's damaged side.

"Let her GO!" Jirou shouted from behind him, and Izuku looked back just in time to see Ashido crunch into a fallen table of medical equipment. She screamed as needles prodded into her soft skin as the steel cold table fell on top of her. Izuku winced, and hoped they were clean before he realized that Ashido was there. Ashido should NOT be there.

The Noumu was crouched over the fallen Jirou, one hand encasing her head as it leered after Ashido (who was gray. Since when was she gray???). Noumu snarled and raised itself just as its other side burst into a shower of sparks. That was . . . unfortunate. Kaminari's electricity was weak on its own he had picked up a metal rod to act as a conductor and he had swung it like a bat. Noumu howled as electricity burned through its weak, rubbery skin and it lurched around, smacking Kaminari with its tail and sending him flying into Ashido as she struggled to her feet.

Izuku let go of Tomura and ran back without a second word. Tomura and Kurogiri could cover the fight, he needed to take care of his classmates.

He bolted towards the two class idiots, but barely got within three yards of them before another pair of feet rammed into the side of his head and sent him sprawling. "DEKU! You piece of shit, I knew you were garbage but you actually fucking kidnapped someone!?" Izuku barely heard any of it over the crashing of glass around him and his own grunt of pain.

He snapped his head up and glared at the boy he'd grown to despise, standing over him with smoldering fists. Izuku rolled up so he was perched on the balls of his feet. "You wouldn't understand," he spat.

"I don't WANT to understand you!"

Izuku sprang back and out of the way of another punch, moving with the easy fluidity Tomura moved with. He wasn't muscular, and his quirk didn't rely on strength. He just needed to be fast enough to get his hands on his opponents without getting snapped in half first. It pissed Kacchan right the fuck off though. He was a guy who thought bashing things made him strong, and he hated different kinds of strength. Izuku would have laughed at his furious expression on any other day.

He heard the crunching of glass behind him and Izuku bellowed, "Noumu!" right before Kirishima got close enough to land a direct hit and the creature sprang to his defense by bodily protecting him. The red head yelped as his arm sank into the electrically singed flesh, catching between two ribs before the Noumu whirled on him, snapping his trapped arm backwards at the elbow as it started trying to paw at his face.

Kacchan's eyes widened as he turned his head but Izuku didn't give him time to try to rescue his friend from the beast trying to gut him. Izuku gave Kacchan a mean kick to one of his kidneys and the boy in the black dress wheezed painfully. Before he could recover, Izuku put his hand around his neck, his bare fingertips digging into the thick cords of muscle at Kacchan's throat. Before he could break free Izuku squeezed hard and activated his quirk, using All for One to ball his long time bully's power into his hand. "I don't think you know how much I hate you," Izuku said softly. Kacchan's eyes stretched wide and he let out a strangled, painful sound as Izuku twisted the balled power into his fingertips, and began to pull it into himself.

It felt good.

God, it felt like he was walking into a cool stream in the middle of summer. His fingers felt hot and fuzzy all at once and Izuku grinned under his mask. Kacchan had NEVER deserved what he had. He was a bully who got what he wanted just because he was born stronger than everyone else and Izuku was going to end it. Forever. No one would ever be lifted higher than everyone else because of undeserved power, not when he could give and take.

The last thing he expected was for the world to suddenly turn up as two muscular arms wrapped around his middle. The connection was severed, and the power was torn out of his hands right as his shoulders and neck slammed down onto the lab floor. Izuku coughed weakly as the teary face of Uraraka swam into view. She looked hurt, confused, but mostly determined. It sure fucking felt like she was when she slammed her foot down into the soft part of his belly.

"N-Noumu," he wheezed, and in a second Uraraka was in its jaws, being shaken back and forth like a ragdoll. Doing the right thing for once in his life, Kacchan rushed to her aid before he could fully recover himself, landing such an explosive punch on the creature's neck that he burned through it, ripping apart the skin and muscle so it's jaw went slack, and he caught the bloodied Uraraka before she could land on her face just as Kirishima used a hardened arm to hack off Noumu's head completely.

Izuku rolled onto his back and saw Ashido had finished using her acid to free Jirou, and she was carting both her and Kaminari away as the more combative students covered them. Well, Kirishima was at least. The other two were distracted.

Uraraka was drenching both herself and Kacchan in her own blood, deep gorges from Noumu's fangs made it look like she had been hole punched and her body was limp. "Cover me!" Kacchan shouted and Izuku had to roll to avoid a kick to the face.

From the corner of his eye he could see Kacchan lying Uraraka out, and using tiny, very controlled explosions to stop the bleeding from the giant holes in her body, clearly too afraid of her dying then and there to worry about escape.

Izuku used the rubble to form a shield just as Kirishima threw another punch, this time carelessly with his broken arm. The boy howled in pain and Izuku side swiped his legs out from under him, laying him out flat on his back. For good measure Izuku cracked his shield in half and reformed the severed chunks of concrete into cuffs which he used to fix Kirishima's wrists to the ground. "Stay down!" he hissed.

Kirishima writhed but Izuku got to his feet and turned his back on all of them. He had allowed himself to get distracted so easily! And on top of that he had lost their hostage. He wasn't interested in capturing the rest, All Might was beating the shit out of the remaining Noumu and he needed to get to Shigaraki's side before things could get worse.

XXX

"TEXAS SMAAAAAASH!" All Might bellowed as a final hit landed on Noumu's exposed brain and the creature went flying, crashing through the wall he had already blasted open and rolling out of sight. Certainly too far to return from with any great speed. Good, that gave All Might enough time to take care of the apparent real villain. The one who had been lurking with the Young Midoriya (who surely wasn't a villain himself, there must have been an explanation) and had been giggling through the fight.

"Well done," he giggled even now, seemingly unworried about the loss of one of his strongest men. "Hhhhuh, are you really weakened? I can't imagine what you were like when you were still at full strength." All Might ground his teeth. How did this kid know about that? And that Noumu had known exactly where to strike him too, digging into that old wound on his side with effortless precision.

"What kind of man takes children hostage?" All Might demanded and the other cocked his head as one red eye sparkled.

"We didn't have another choice, did we?" He said airily, "We needed to get you to crawl out of hiding some way."

All Might tightened his fists and hunched his shoulders. For that reason his students had been targeted? After he had so selfishly become a teacher to find his heir? This villain needed to be taken care of! He wouldn't let people go about thinking his students were some weakness they could take advantage of. They were strong heroes in training and he wouldn't let harm come to them again, not for so long as he drew breath.

All Might kicked off from the ground and ran forward at his top speed. "Baltimooooorreee-!" All Might reeled his curled fist back. "-SMAAASH!" He swung and made full contact with . . . Young Midoriya's chest as the boy threw himself in front of the villain.

It was lucky that All Might had altered his strength to just subdue the villain, or his hand would have gone right through the boy's chest. As it was, although he felt the child's ribs snap he knew this wouldn't kill him. The force of the punch threw Midoriya backwards, making him crash hard into the villain who wrapped his arms around Midoriya as they both took a nasty tumble across the floor of the lab. Midoriya was clearly knocked out cold, and even from his distance All Might could see an obvious deformity to his chest as he struggled to breathe. The young man scrambled out from under Midoriya and leaned over the boy, terror coming off him in waves.

"Izuku!?" He wailed shrilly as he shook Midoriya by the shoulder. "Izuku? Izuku! Hey! Izu-Izuku wake up!" He was shaking and clearly terrified before the villain with the warp quirk appeared at their sides, hunched over Midoriya as well and feeling the boy's vitals. Both of them were clearly far more concerned with the boy than they were with him, and he took the opportunity to look for young Jirou, only to find she was long since gone. Good girl, with any luck she would go straight for the police rather than wait around by the destroyed warehouses.

He turned back to the villains, only to see a fourth had appeared. A man he knew all too well.

He looked fine in his polished suit, even with his face hidden under a metal mask. Surely it was one of the only things keeping him alive after the fight they had not so long ago.

"All for One," All Might said, his voice dangerously low, "I should have known you would be behind something as despicable as kidnapping students."

"Really now? So high and mighty for someone who very nearly killed his 'student' not a second ago. Although he was hardly ever yours." He turned his head over his shoulder, gesturing towards the crumpled Midoriya with unseeing eyes. "May I introduce Midoriya Izuku and . . . Shimura Tenko; you may know him as the grandson of your beloved teacher. But you will come to know him as the heir to the new world." There was a mocking tone to his voice, as though he knew the impact his words would have on All Might and found it amusing. Not that he bothered to look at how the hero reacted.

"Kurogiri!"

"Yes sir?" The warp quirk asked without looking up.

"Take them somewhere safe. This fight is going to be . . . destructive." All for One looked back at him and held out one arm that rapidly began to mutate, quirks layering to give him a strength to match All Might's own.

XXX

They didn't talk about Deku. No one talked about him anymore, and Ochako had to keep reminding herself not to think of him with that cute pet name.

They didn't talk about Deku but they all knew he was a villain. He had set that thing on her . . . and Bakugou of all people had been the one to save her life. Because Deku – no, Midoriya Izuku – was a villain. He had chosen 'Shigaraki' over his class mates, teachers, and any form of morality she thought he might have.

They didn't talk about Midoriya because everyone was still in shock. A person like that had been among them all this time, hiding who he was behind a dazzling smile and a gentle voice. Who could know what information he had gathered during his time among them? He had damaged them all in ways they hadn't imagined possible in just a simple betrayal.

No one trusted each other anymore, at least not fully. Something ugly had happened and all of them had been shaken to their very core.

Those who had gone to save Jirou were particularly bad. Ochako herself now had ugly circular dents filled with scorch marks all across her body, a constant reminder that she had trusted the wrong person every time she looked at herself naked. Bakugou had dark red finger marks around his throat, the top half of one of Mina's horns was missing, Kirishima's left elbow had a scar where his bone had burst through his skin, Kaminari had burns from superheated metal across his hands.

Every time she looked at them she saw Midoriya smiling at her, wishing her good luck the day of their exam. She saw the mask he wore with the hand over his face, one that seemed to parody the ones Shigaraki himself wore. He had asked for a symbol of his true allegiance on his hero costume and no one had thought twice about it. They had even joked that Midoriya looked like a bad guy the first time they had seen it! And he had laughed! Not at their jokes and teasing, she realized now, but at THEM. They had called him what he was and he had laughed at them for being so stupid, so utterly blind o his true self.

She . . . she wanted to hate him. Ochako wanted to hate hum the way Bakugou did, like a firestorm in dry grass. But there was a part of her that so wanted to believe there was a reason for it. That she hadn't been wrong and that somewhere, deep down, there was still a good person trying to get out.

If there was anything of a good person inside him, Ochako would find it. And if there wasn't? Then Ochako herself would do everything in her power to stop him alongside Bakugou. Because like it or not, he had become one of her closest friends.

XXX

Izuku woke slowly, over what felt like a year. He felt the pain first, cutting through his uneasy sleep as every motion he made caused a new wave of nausea to press inwards and threaten to boil him from the inside out. He was confused, and in too much pain to rifle through his memories. He was floating in a state without no past or future as he tried not to feel.

He was dragged back into himself by the florescent light flicking on, and afterwards the feeling of someone leaning over him shortly before he felt something unbearably warm lock into his chest. It lasted for nearly ten minutes before it was pulled away and he jerked fully into consciousness with a small cry. His throat was too dry to get much out and he shoved off the hand on his chest as his eyes rolled wildly.

He was in one of the rooms over the bar – his room, actually. He knew the old futon and the dust colored walls well. What he didn't know was the doe-eyed boy leaned over him with a surprised expression. He looked like an ugly blue lizard hastily cobbled together into a vague humanoid shape composed by someone who had never actually seen a human before. "Oh. You're up," he said blandly. His black tongue flicked out and licked one of his big eyes and he shook his hand without waiting for Izuku to offer it. A foreigner, then? "Water's on the bedside table, can you get it for yourself?"

"Who are you?" Izuku asked but the boy just stood up and stalked off, slamming the door hard behind him. Izuku struggled to sit up as he heard footsteps thumb down the stairs then distant voices from just below. The voice of the lizard, followed by the calm voice of Kurogiri. Then lizard. Then Tomura. He got himself a glass of water, wishing the lizard had actually stayed around long enough to help him drink. His fingers were each throbbing to a different tempo and he felt like his hand was going to spasm and send the glass crashing to the floor.

He flinched as he heard footsteps came storming up the stairs before his door exploded open and Tomura practically pounced on top of him. "You're awake!" Tomura sounded accusatory and Izuku struggled so he was propped up by the wall as he sat down his glass roughly, ignoring the violent tremors in his hand.

"I'm awake. W-what happened?" He blinked hard. "Who was that lizard guy?"

"Kurogiri found us a healer, finally."

"In a way, at least. He undoes 'time' to repair your injuries a little bit at a time." Izuku looked up and his face lit up as he saw Kurogiri standing in the doorway. The angle of his eyes were gentle and soothing as he looked down at Izuku. "Not the nicest of men, I admit. But he gets the job done." He sighed and shook his head, "I had hoped to be here when you awakened. How are you feeling?"

"Like I got punched by All Might." He did get punched by All Might. It was then that all his memories decided to come back in crystal clarity, right up until when his her idol had crushed his rib cage. His face drained of color and he raised a trembling hand to his throat. "Oh god."

"You've been out for three weeks," Tomura said sullenly, "I've been waiting for you to get it together before we move on."

Izuku licked his dry lips and coughed painfully. "M-move on? What? What's going on?"

"All for One has been . . . killed. In his fight with All Might." Kurogiri sat down on the empty space of his futon where Tomura wasn't. He leaned forward and wrapped his arms around the stunned Izuku, seeming to know Izuku needed the contact before Izuku himself did.

Three weeks . . . Sensei had lost . . . Sensei, the most powerful man in his life. The man he owed everything to. Izuku didn't want to believe it.

Izuku buried his face in Kurogiri's vest and wrapped his arms tightly around the man's neck. He had been exposed for his true alliance. He had tried to take Kacchan's quirk knowing full well he could kill Kacchan in doing so. He had been so afraid to become the man Sensei knew he could be and now . . . it was his fault. It was his fault!

He started to cry and Kurogiri soothingly ran his hand through Izuku's shaggy hair. "This is overwhelming, I know. We have a lot to go over but worry about resting up for now, okay? A lot of things have changed, Izuku, it'll take some getting used to." Izuku trembled as a sob tore through him. He turned his head a little to look tearfully at Tomura's own face, but he was looking at the ground. His face was twisted in hatred and for a moment Izuku was certain it was directed at him. It was his fault. He had to make himself into a man like Sensei had been. He had to . . . but . . . if Tomura hated him now then how could he?

His fears were heightened as Tomura raised his head and glared daggers at the overhead light. "Izuku," he said frostily.

"Y-yes?" Izuku said, not letting go of Kurogiri.

His fault.

His fault.

It was all his fault he hadn't finished the Noumu they had been too weak he had gotten distracted it was him it was all his fault-

"Do you understand now? What All Might – what those fucks who call themselves heroes – will do to us?" Izuku turned his head again, and buried his face in Kurogiri's vest again. "He took Sensei from us. He took EVERYTHING from us!" Tomura lurched to his feet and struck the poster on Izuku's wall, the only All Might paraphernalia in Izuku's room. He was glad to see it go.

Violence is violence. Why was All Might in the right? Shigaraki Tomura, Sensei, Kurogiri . . . no hero could have done for him what they had. And All Might had ripped that from him. And that made it okay?

He had always clung to what Tomura said. But now he understood it. Now he wanted to live by it the way Tomura and Kurogiri did.

"Y-yes," Izuku muttered, his voice muffled by the shirt. He swallowed dryly and Kurogiri hugged him a little tighter. He wanted his Sensei alive. He wanted him to be silently watching from the other side of the screen. He slumped lower and started truly sobbing with gut wrenching wails. He understood. And he wanted All Might dead.