Wrath and Willpower

The air tasted like sulphur and char as bright blue flames billowed into the night sky. Fire from the bellows of hell scorched the air itself as the air waved with heat so immense it was hard to breathe.

Against it clashed ice so cold that the landscape had become a frozen hell, pillars of ice towering into the sky like frozen hands seeking to pull down heaven itself. The ice reflected the blue flames that sent billowing clouds of fog pouring over the land hiding the shattered landscape beneath.

The reflecting light danced in shimmering patterns over the wasteland that had become the field for the battle.

Screaming from within the pillar of flames a burnt corpse of a human roared from within the scene from a blue hell.

Crying with all his might flame coiled from the edge of his mouth as he felt his flesh burning away, the ash coiling of his skin floating into the air, the last specs of one that was once weak.

With a scream from the heart itself, a beat was heard resounding through the earth itself as a wave of energy passed through the stone sending waves of earth crashing through the air, deconstructed stone drifting, motes of fragmented ground.

With the heat pushing over the edge of what should be possible Nick felt the will of Dabi resist his own, his own golden thread wrapped around the bright blue flame that tethered the will of Dabi to this world. Feeling his own thread start to burn as the hatred that Dabi bore for this world gave birth to indomitable will Nick felt his heart beat once more.

A powering resounding fire in his chest as his veins flared a primordial blue, his heart blaring a blue light that shone with the intensity of a second sun. Heat washed over the field in another wave sending the ice pillars crashing down as the waves vaporized their structure.

The ice queen herself standing amid the fog looking at the boy she was holding still, having frozen the space around him. Amusement flared in her eyes that shone the same blue as the fire that danced in them. Her expressionless face cracked into one of amusement as she said, "Show me you're will oh unexpected variable. Show me how strong that heat of yours really is."

As Nick screamed he felt the heat pour from his being, it was so so hot. Without his quirk, he would be little more than ash already.

Feeling the thread of Dabi start to shake violently, the will of another desperately resisting Nick, Nick tried a last-ditch effort to gain control of the unwilling soul.

'Please Toya, I can make things right, I can make your father suffer!' His thoughts were as wild as the flames that coiled over his skin. His fingers twitched as the frozen space around him began to thaw. Time flowed as he felt it should.

In a flash of a moment, the brilliant blue soul of Dabi froze, he could feel the emotions… shock, confusion… Rage.

But that brief moment was all that Nick needed. In that moment he did something he didn't think he would ever do. He severed a thread. The snapping of the string sounding through his mind as the will of another was split, Toya ceased to be for that moment. Feeling the thread coil into his own he told himself something, although he knew the comfort of his thoughts was just that… comfort. 'you can bring him back… you haven't taken his life.'

He honestly felt sorry for the person that was Toya Todoroki, he had no room for sorrow right now. That rage that Toya had felt in his last moments washed through Nick in blazing white hot. Wrath.

With time and space before him thawing Nick felt his movements return as his quirk flowed into the already shattered ground. The deconstructed particles drifting in the air suddenly condensed down into lances of steel that hovered in the air, blue lightning coiling down their shining surfaces.

The burnt corpse straightened. His eyes were pure blue blazing orbs with heat as flames coiled from his face, cracks appearing over his body as he slowly floated into the air. Deconstructed earth around him swirling around the eye of a storm. Blue fire washed from his body and turned everything it touched to ash.

Standing straight Nick glared at the Queen of Ice. His voice came out raspy and broken as the flames shifted with his words.

"You will die here 'variable,'" His own words have meaning to him. Feeling around through the lashes of fire it was as if his senses were washing through the flames. His body adapted, his body growing used to the heat as his skin grew over the burnt corpse, his muscles returning as bones once more grew from that wildly hammering heart that stayed in a rib cage open to the world to behold the horror.

The flames of wrath and willpower melded into heat uncontainable.

With a blast of fire barreling towards her, he felt a wave of ice respond in kind meeting in an explosion of temperatures. The wave created by it turned everything behind her into ice and everything behind him to ash.

He didn't care about All Might, All for One or the League, hell he didn't even know where they were right now all he cared about was killing this bitch in front of him.

Flying forwards he crashed into the wall of ice she made. His fist sent cracks shattering across its surface as he felt waves of power blast from its surface. Even the brief contact was enough to make his fist start to freeze before he sent a burst of fire through his fist and into the ice causing the wall to explode. Her shocked face on the other side morphed into a sickening grin.

As she let out a breath the billowing fog that coiled from her mouth horridly steamed against the waves of fire that washed from Nick as he felt their powers clash.

Watching the fog drip from her mouth he felt the space between them begin to freeze as his movements became slower and heavier. Turning the heat up again he felt his skin start to burn off, ash floating away from him as he moved towards her again.

Getting blasted by another wave of ice he waved his hand to the right channelling his quirk through it, he tried to break the ice down but it was too cold. He just… couldn't something about it was unnatural. The matter was frozen where it was.

Staring at her through the wall he saw her face reflected as she said mockingly. "You think you can control my ic-" Her voice cut out as a spike of the earth beneath her feet tried to impale her chest but she blocked it by freezing the space behind her.

"You talk to much." Nick growled as he blasted heat through the wall sending her flying through the air with a blast so intense that the air itself burnt from the heat of the attack.

As Nick's grin almost split his face he felt his arm being torn apart by the heat. But he didn't care. As he slid back his arm instantly condensed from the stone hanging in the air around him. The floating deconstructed matter formed a stone arm before it converted to the same cracked carbon as the rest of his body.

Standing straight he waved a hand dispersing the blast as he saw her standing there frozen in a jagged ice crystal so clear it was almost as if she was in a cage of glass.

With a spike of ice blasting at him at speeds faster than most could react he just waved his hand knocking the attack aside with both air and the floating stone as more ground broke apart to take its place.

Dashing forward he tried to put his hand against the ice to blast it with heat and then try to deconstruct it but his eyes widened as he felt the air already freezing his arm. The cold that radiated from this crystal she was in was unlike anything he had ever felt.

He had felt cold before.

How it worked on matter slowing vibrations. There was nothing from this ice. No movement. It was as cold as cold could get.

Staring at her in shock he grinned, where was this monster in canon. She needed to die.

Flashing forward he threw his hands out as long blasts of fire hammered into the ice but the damage rolled off like it was nothing. The surface remained frozen as a blast of ice slammed into his chest.

Flying backwards he slammed into the ground with enough force that his body was turned to paste upon impact but he was already healing before the impact finished. His body was reconstructed as he stood up.

Launching forward he felt the ground around the crystal and caused it to explode upwards, the crystal she was in suddenly floated as he sent a wave of fire out from his body melting the ice attacks she sent at him. As he got close to her he got the ground to form into multiple drills. Fire coiled around their constructed matter as they slammed into the crystal.

He saw it happen, cracks were beginning to form. As she suddenly started to condense the crystal making it harder, as she tried to attack the drills but he blasted fire from his body once again getting close and hammering the attacks she made with attacks of his own.

The crystal was starting to break down.

Slamming his hands together he started to condense the air into his palms gathering as much heat and air into his hands as he could as a small blue ball flickered into existence. Looking at her he waited for the right moment. Just as a crack formed directly down the centre of the crystal he felt the air start to rush into the crack. The smallest gap was enough that he could do this.

Throwing his hand out the small ball shot forward. A laser thinner than a hair through the crack in front of her as the inside of the crystal suddenly was filled with a blinding light.

The light was so intense for a moment it was a second sun. A white-hot furnace roaring with such intensity the ground shook once more.

As the fire calmed down he saw her there. In the crystal just as she was before the attack. Floating there unharmed. Her skin was a pale blue, her lips frozen. Hair slowly drifting.

Looking up at him he saw what had happened. She had frozen herself in time for the briefest of moments. Freezing her entire body in that one moment becoming practically invincible.

"You are certainly a strong little variable… I will be coming to find you again. But my purpose here is complete." She said as she looked at him. A smile on her face, almost warm as she looked at him. Their eyes were alight with interest as she watched the panting form of Nick start to prepare another attack.

Focusing all her power into her core time froze for a brief moment. Nick couldn't move but he felt it, a sudden absence of everything as for him in that same moment it resumed.

Suddenly the space around her twisted. In that single moment he roared as he sent a blast of fire at her with all his might vaporizing half his body with the attack as with a swirl she vanished from where she was standing.

Suddenly standing in a field of ice and fire without her there the ice thawed and melted as he stood alone in a pillar of flames.

Staring at where she had been a moment ago he watched as the last of his fire died down. His face morphed from one of shock to that of anger. She had escaped.

Cursing he stood up straight and looked around the broken battlefield. Kurogiri's portal was gone, as well as the rest of the league. Staring at the wasteland around him. Ash drifted in the air around him as the last licks of fire licked over his burnt carbon skin he clenched his fist.

As his body started to heal, the right side of his body growing back from the last desperate attack he didn't even notice a finger from his left hand growing back.

Was it over?

It couldn't be, could it?

Staring at the space before him he looked around once more only to see some way in the distance were All Might and All for One, the former was standing over the latter holding his fist in the air as a few solitary cameras from the edge of the battlefield focused on him.

There was no helicopter. And that made sense, with the wild currents of hot and cold air it would have been out of control long ago.

Letting the matter he was holding in the air drop Nick looked around at the shattered ground. The pools of frozen lava and the billowing clouds of ash. He had just done that…

Feeling the other thread inside him he was about to bring it back to life but stopped… no this wasn't the right moment. He would do it later. He would let Toya go later, the man needed help anyway.

With a grim face, Nick shifted his appearance back to his normal self, using his gigantification quirk in reverse so that he could condense down the matter into a smaller space.

Walking towards All Might as he saw the man point at the camera he saw his lips move. "You're Next." Was all he said, his body was still buffed up though but a large wound ran down his chest. A horrid gaping wound… All Might had lost his cool and had been hit head-on by a strong attack, the fool had let his emotions win again… then again, Nick basically did the same.

Moving forward saw the cameras shut off but he just sat down on some rubble waiting for everything to move on. The deathly quiet of the battlefield was… calming, compared to the intense heat fight from before.

---

The post-battle clean-up was a dreary and grim task. Nick walked around helping reconstruct buildings to pull people out of them. Opening paths for those to leave and healing those that were almost dead discretely. The cameras were only rolling at the edge of the field showing cleanup… no one wanted to film a corpse half crushed being dragged from underneath the rubble.

Standing up straight as he held a pillar in the air propping it up with some reconstructed earth he watched a bunch of small-time Heroes make their way inside the building.

Bodies were being gathered. The rain had started to pour, thematically on time for what Nick could only say was a horrid scene.

He had never seen so much death.

Walking towards All Might who had just finished helping and had left the rest of the work to more capable hands. The hulking figure was standing at the edge of the field talking to a detective, the rain running off his shoulders. Blood from his wound slowly stained the ground around his feet.

"Want me to heal that?" Nick offered as he watched them both turnaround. All Might wasn't smiling, his face grim.

---

'I wonder if your heart will remain unscathed after you hear this… you see… Tomura Shigaraki is Nana Shimura's grandson.' The words of that devil were still echoing in his head, bouncing around in his skull like whispers from the tongue of a snake.

Hearing his name again he looked over at Naomasa his old friend he saw the man was looking at him concerned. "-gi. Yagi. Don't think about those bastard's words, whatever he said it was to get in your head. You saved people today… that is all that matters. The symbol of peace must stand strong until this darkness is vanquished. I am sorry I cannot bear this responsibility with you…" His old friend said, hanging his head in shame at his inability to make a difference in his eyes.

"Thank you old friend… but." All Might started to respond but his voice was cut off by the words of a boy behind him.

"Want me to heal that?" Hendrix said, his skin still bearing traces of patchwork and his hair white at the end from traces of ash that clung to it. His eyes were a bit colder, filled with directed rage. He had seen the boy deconstruct and absorb Dabi just before he engaged with the unknown woman.

"Who was that women… where is Dabi." All Might found himself asking as he turned to look at the boy who was walking towards him. Seeing his feet freeze in place All Might remembered the words that All for One said… something about Hendrix. No, they were just to make him doubt one of the strongest allies he had. Nothing else, All for One was sowing the same lies he always did.

"Sorry… questions can come later. Yes please Hendrix my boy, that would be most appreciated. Are you alright? Your battle seemed intense?" All Might asked as he looked at his ally before him. Forgetting at that moment that he was just a boy and his student that had broken multiple laws.

Despite that, however, without him, he didn't know what would have happened, that women's quirk was… strange.

"It's alright, this is a… stressful situation. I have never seen so much…" Hendrix said, his voice cutting out as he looked over the ruin before them, his gaze settling on a field of corpses covered in soaked blankets.

"I remember I saw something like this for the first time… this is the dark side of the world young Hendrix… this is why we fight like we do. So that no one else must bear witness to that which we see before us today..." His voice was quiet. Mellow.

Nodding Nick just turned away as he put his hand on the shoulder of All Might, the wound coming apart before resetting back to a healed state.

Nodding his head in thanks All Might turned away to keep on talking to Naomasa.

---

Nick was soon going home that day, he had managed to avoid the line of questioning on what happened with Dabi until Naomasa was called away to help with other things. He had just said that he didn't know where Dabi was as he was forced out of the merge with his final attack just like he had been forced out of the Nomu. All Might seemed to believe him…

Nick felt some concern, he hadn't felt much for seeing the bodies, sure there was some Sorrow but… it wasn't that much. It was more grief at the mood of the scene than sadness for seeing those that passed. Some part of him felt used to it… was… he. Was Dabi changing parts of him? He had bound his thread around another… it would make sense.

Shaking his head he put those issues aside for later. Looking up at the rain clouds as Nick made his way towards the station he had insisted that he could get home on his own but he was forced to promise that he would meet with Nezu the next day. All Might seemed to know that the chimera bore some fondness towards the young student.

Nick was mad at himself, and he decided that the thing he hated most about this world was warping quirks. Fuck he would make one himself if he had to by combining quirks. He would make a quirk like Kurogiri's if it was the last thing he did. Or a special locking quirk, that would be useful.

Sighing at his already rampant thoughts he just kept on walking. The splashing of his feet against the puddles sounding through his ears as his clothes were… dry?

Feeling heat radiating from his body he cut it off in an instant. His body became soaked by the rain. Ash washing from his hair as it stuck to his face.

Dabi must have done that unconsciously…

---

I have sown the seeds of doubt, self-hate and mistrust.

You've lost, All Might. The way you floundered and gave to rage was truly unseemly. And you made a mistake. At the end of the battle, you desired to stay with your disciple.

You misread the perfect moment to leave him and lost the perfect moment to die.

The reason why a teacher, a master exists. Is to eventually let the disciple stand alone. The master he'd relied on has left him, gone to a place that his hands cannot reach.

He's stroking his hatred. He's truly walking forward, at the head of the pack. He has comrades now too. And he's actively learning how to gain more.

You'll do well Tomura Shigaraki. Just take your experiences, your hatred and your regret. And let them fuel you.

You're Next.

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Thanks for all the support and the love on the pervious chapter! I hope that this one is a worthy follow-up!

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