Chapter 10: Knock Down The Pillar

"Thanks for listening Shoto…" she wiped her tears sniffling. "I'm sorry for suddenly calling you out here and then balling on you like that."

"It's okay, Izumi. You know i'm always here for you no matter what." He gently brushed a tear away.

"I know." She smiled. "The crying jag helped me calm down and see things clearly. I know Kacchan is right. It's a special day for us, and it should be spent with each other."

"Not necessarily. Plenty of people spend their anniversary with family and friends, but this is your first so you should enjoy it as a couple." He pet her hair. "When he comes back just…" he trailed off and Izumi tensed up when her phone signaled. She saw the readout was Bakugo and sighed.

"Well time to face the music… hello, Kacchan?"

"Usagi…" Bakugo's voice came over the other end. "I'm sorry for being such a dick."

Izumi's eyes widened in surprise at the apology and she smiled warmly.

"No I'm sorry Kacchan I haven't exactly been the ideal wife. We should spend our anniversary together. No one else. So you pick what we do, I'll do whatever you like."

"I'm glad...I rented a cabin up in the woods, I already text you the address. Let's spend the weekend there, just you, me, and the baby."

The romance of it had her heart squeezing and she wiped a stray tear giving a thumbs up to Shoto who offered a gentle smile.

"Sounds perfect, a little quiet family time is just what we need."

"Good," Izuku started crying in the background. "You'd better hurry, Usagi, Izuku is starting to get fussy."

"Alright I…" she trailed off, her eyes lit with realization. "Izuku?"

"Something wrong, Usagi?"

Her eyes narrowed. Yes, something was very, very wrong.

"Who is this?" Her voice was cool now and she had her hero face on which made Todoroki tense up. Izumi was met with a long silence but then a slow chuckle rolled into the phone making her blood go cold.

"Storm is on its way. You better get up here before it hits." Kacchan's voice twisted with a clash of thunder and Izumi went into a full panic as the line went dead.

"Izumi what is it?" Shoto took her shoulders seeing the stricken look on her face. "What happened?"

"I don't know, I don't know if Kacchan is playing some kind of joke or if he…" She was up and grabbing her coat before she could stop herself. "Shoto, I need you to get ahold of All Might and your dad and any other hero who might be available for backup." She looked at the address sent to her cell phone. "I'm forwarding you the address. It'll take me a half an hour to get up there if I use my quirk instead of a car, tell all the reinforcements to meet me there."

"Got it…" Shoto went serious and took her shoulders before she could go out the door. "Izumi, be careful." She nodded and hugged him tight her mouth pressed so close to his ear he could hear her rapid shaky breath.

"I'm counting on you." She whispered to him. Not a second later she released him and out the door. Activating her quirk she took a running leap from her driveway and leapt across miles in just one jump.

~Andor Mountain Range~

The forest was dark, and above overhead storms thunder and rain soaked the ground making it muddy and slippery. Bakugo tried to stay conscious as he crawled his way back towards the cabin, his arms and legs completely sliced up and bleeding profusely.

God he was pathetic, Bakugo cursed himself. How could he call himself a hero when he couldn't even protect his own son. His whole body hurt, and he could feel the cold sink in causing his muscles to stiffen. He was losing a ton of blood and wished he could just lay there and wait for death.

No! No he wasn't that weak! Get up, damn it! He shouted at himself and inched across the ground a few more feet. He had to get help, had to find another hero or a healer so he could rescue his son.

"Kacchan!" Izumi's voice echoed with the wind and he thought for a moment her imagined it but when she called him again he let out a shudder of relief.

"Usagi!" He screamed at the top of his lungs hoping she could hear him over the raging storm.

It had had taken her half the time she'd expected. She was fired up and filled with worry. Sweat beat at her temples but was quickly washed away from the rain. She saw the cabin and looked all around the area near her husband's car.

"Where are you Kacchan?"

"USAGI!" She heard the scream and her head jerked in the direction it came from.

"Kacchan!" She raced towards him, his voice sounded so desperate and pleading that it frightened her more. When she saw her husband lying on the ground in the middle of a clearing, relief and worry finally caused tears to fall.

"Kacchan! Oh god, Kacchan!" She knelt on the ground turning him over. Bakugo bled heavily and tried to sit up, but his wounds were too great.

"Usagi…" He tried to speak, his voice raspy from screaming.

"Kacchan don't, stay down, you're bleeding!" She tried desperately to cover his wound with her hands and fumbled with her phone to call an ambulance. "Hello? Yes this is the pro hero Usagi, I need an medical assistance at the Forks cabin located in the Andor Mountain range. Villains may still be in the area. My husband has been stabbed several times and it looks life threatening, major blood loss and his color is very pale…"

"Baka Usagi, forget about me and call for backup... It's Doppleganger, he's mnng, he's got Deku." He coughed up blood. "Call Todoroki… call your dad... hurry!"

"What?" Izumi's blood ran cold at the mention of Izuku. She dropped her phone and before she had time to think or Bakugo could stop her she was rushing into the dark.

"Damn it, Usagi, wait it's a trap, KUSO! Call for backup! Izumi!"

Izumi didn't listen, she could barely register Bakugo's voice anymore. All she could hear now was her baby crying.

"Izuku!" She skid to a stop when she spotted the shadowed figure at the edge of a steep cliff. He cradled the baby in one arm and a shining silver blade in the other. Izumi froze with fear as rain poured down drenching her head to toe. The ledge he stood upon overlooked the wide woods and ragged rocks of the mountain. She couldn't see his face in the shadow, but saw those familiar haunting blue eyes, and the sick and twisted glee in them.

"I hold your entire world in crook of my arm, Usagi… your love, your lineage… your everything." He pointed the knife at her his smile twisted.

"Doppleganger…" her breath came out shaky and her voice pleading. "What's happened to you? Why are you doing this? Give me back my son."

"Why should I?" He slashed the knife through the air. "Thanks to you and your cowardice I've been cast aside from hero's society. Those media tabloids labeled me as a villain, so I'm merely taking on the persona you shove me into."

"What are you talking about, I've done nothing! I thought you were an amazing talent. I tried to tell you that day not to fight, not to use my power with your quirk but you wouldn't listen to me. Please, Doppleganger this isn't the answer. Please just come with me, I won't press charges I'll help you, just-"

"Enough!" enraged that she was treating him like some kind of victim he spat at her. "You stole everything from me! Now I'm going to do the same to you!" He held the knife to the kid and Izumi's heart just stopped.

"Stop it!" She pleaded, her legs shaking and lips trembling. She took a step closer but he stepped back. "Please! Don't hurt him! He's just a baby! Please!"

"Stop me then, prove yourself a hero and stop the big bad villain, Usagi!" The infant wailed as the shadow tossed him over the cliff.

"NOOOO!" Izumi shoved past him and ran over the edge of the cliff. She leapt up and stretched out her arms to grab the baby.

"Die hero!" Wanting to make sure the deed was done he floated up several more knives and sent them flying at the two falling figures. Izumi felt the knife go through her hand, blood seeping and another slashed across her side. Still she reached, her eyes focused on that sweet crying face. The child was so frightened, and her mother's heart bled. She felt more blades cut into her but nothing hurt more than seeing the confused terror on her baby's face.

"Izuku! It's okay, baby! Mommy is here! Mommy is going to save-" Just as she grabbed the warm blanket a knife struck her between the shoulder blades and she passed out from a critical hit.

~Todoroki~

"Katsuki!" Shoto raced to Bakugo and called the medics over to his location. "Dad! All Might! He's over here!"

"Todo...Doki." Barely alive let alone conscious Bakugo eyed his friend pleasingly. "Help...Usagi...save...my son."

"Izuku?! Are you telling me he-" lightning flashed across the sky and Shoto's eyes lifted up as he caught sight of the figure in the shadows. "Who's there?!"

The shadow zipped away and Shoto jerked up torn between going after him and looking after his friend.

"Go…" Bakugo gripped his ankle staring up with hard crimson eyes. "I won't die… paramedics will be here soon. Go help Usagi!"

Shoto grit his teeth but nodded and ran off in pursuit of the shadowy figure.

~Izumi~

The first thing Izumi felt when she came to was the cold, and then the pain. She could hear the murmur of voices, one of them calling her name. She slowly sat up wincing at the stabbing pain and she yanked out the blades in her side and back and tossed them. Her head was fuzzy, and for a moment she fogot where she was. Everything around her was disorienting. She could smell the stench of blood… feel the sick wet of the muddy ground under her hands and knees. Her fingers numbly fumbled around, and brushed against the softness of the empty baby blanket.

Her eyes went wild with fear as they slowly traveled the ground… and saw her son just a few feet away. At first glance she thought he was just sleeping his tiny body cradled in a pile of leaves. Her first thought was to wrap him up, protect him from the rain.

"Izuku…" She lifted him up into the blanket and held him to her chest. His eyes were closed and his body limp. "Sleeping… you're just sleeping aren't you sweetie?" She whispered it even as tears stung her eyes. This wasn't real… it couldn't be… he was sleeping, Izuku was always a heavy sleeper.

She bounced him a little and pressed her head to his.

"My baby… it's time to wake up now. Come on… open your eyes for mommy." Tears slipped out one by one. "Izuku please… please wake up… please." her voice cracked and she clutched the baby to her chest as reality sank in. The cry that ripped out of her throat was inhuman… and terrifying.

"IZUKU!"

The pain was so fierce and so harsh Izumi couldn't control herself. She sobbed and stroked her baby, smearing his skin and hair with her own blood and the mud from her hands.

"Ah, what a lovely sight…" Doppelganger's voice crooned as he approached the grieving mother. "How I've longed to see you like this. Helpless, pained… it's so delicious."

Izumi sobbed and lifted her head staring up at the former hero. Her eyes were red with tears and she stare down the point of a knife.

"I've done what I've set out to do. I've knocked the pillar of hero's society off her high horse… and now." He licked his lips those blue eyes slitting like a cat. "Now to make sure you never rise up again."

Izumi didn't hear any of his words… all she saw was the man who'd injured her husband, and killed her baby. Any sympathy she had left for him was gone…

...and was replaced by rage.

Before Doppleganger knew what she was doing Izumi's hand was up and gripping the hand that held the knife. Her fingers clenched around it and she snapped the wrist like a twig. He cried out in pain taking a knee and glaring at her.

"You bitch!"

"Unforgiveable…" Izumi's voice was low and threatening. She set Izuku back down into the bed of leaves, covering his face with the blanket, but kept her other hand tight around the wrist of her enemy. "What you've done is UNFORGIVEABLE!"

"Tch! DIE!" The knives launched from behind him, but stopped short when izumi's fist plunged deep into his gut. The form he'd taken came undone instantly and fell into default. He stammered back coughing up blood and saliva and he reached for another sample. "You'll pay for that you-"

She wouldn't let him finish. Izumi's quirk was on high gear and she crossed to him in a blink of an eye, crushing the vial he'd drawn and using that same fist to slam into his jaw and knocking him back another several feet.

"I felt bad for what happened to you. I hated the fact your talent was going to waste over a petty disagreement that we had… but now I feel nothing for you!"

That wasn't entirely true, she had a moment to think to herself as she stood over him. She felt hate. She'd never hated someone before. Not even All for One had pulled this kind of sick twisted hatred out of her. Her eyes lit with that hatred, and her body glowed intimidatingly with her quirk.

Her fists flew again, beating into him over and over. Each time he staggered up she just slammed him back down again taking out all her grief, and sadness and just channelling it into the hatred she had for this man.

Doppleganger could no longer fight back. She tossed him around like a ragdoll, bloody and broken. That's how Shoto found them, Doppleganger limp, bloody, and barely alive, and Izumi holding him up by his neck her fingers threatening to snap it clean.

"Izumi…" Shouto whispered, not believing what he was seeing. "What happened?"

"Shoto…" She turned her eyes to him, the hatred had made her gone numb to everything else around her… but his voice, his face brought her back just enough to have tears brimming her dull green eyes. "He killed him…"

"No… Bakugo is alive he's-"

"NOT KACCHAN! HE KILLED IZUKU!" She shouted at him and she tossed Doppleganger into a tree his body making a sicking crack against the wood.

"Izu… No…" his eyes looked down at the brush of leaves and the bloody baby blanket and the sickness rolled up in his belly. "Dear god… Izumi I'm so-"

"Don't apologize!" she snapped at him, those eyes going fierce again as new raged build up. "You did nothing… it was all him." She pointed a finger at Doppleganger. "He killed my son. He killed Izuku, and he's going to pay for his crime." She channeled One for All into her fist, the clothes ripping along the arm. "With his life…"

"Izumi no!" Shoto rushed and grabbed her when she turned to aim that fist at the limp villain. "No don't! Don't kill him! Don't stoop to his level."

"He has to pay! HE HAS TO PAY!" She struggled against Shoto, dragging him with her as she stepped closer to her target. "LET GO OF ME!"

"NO! Izumi look at me! Listen to me!" He came around stepping between her and Doppleganger. "If you kill him he wins! Don't you remember what we all went through in Hosu? Don't you remember what Iida went through with his brother? You've already beaten him." He took her fist, the sting of her power singing his palm but he made her lower it. "Now let justice take it from here."

"Justice?" Tears fell one by one down her cheeks, but Shoto could see the fight start to die. "What justice is there that could possibly make this right?" Izumi sobbed and her quirk died. "He's dead… my baby is dead. I couldn't save him… I said I would, but I couldn't." She collapsed into his arms.

Shoto fell to his knees with her and for the first time in his life truly grieved for someone else's loss. Izuku wasn't his son, but shoto had been there the day he was born, watched as that small thing slowly grew in size and personality, taking on the best of his parents. He'd wanted to continue to watch him, he'd wanted to be a part of that child's life… but now he could only silently comfort Izumi while they both mourned his death.

~The Following Day~

"In other news, the Lucky Hero Usagi and her husband Ground Zero are both hospitalized after taking on a mysterious villain in the Andor Mountain Range. No recordings of the fight were documented, but a 911 call came in at 8:30pm from Usagi saying her husband had been stabbed several times and that villains were still in the area. Former Pro Hero All Might, and Number Four hero Best Jeanist who were both on the scene refused to comment on the matter until the conditions of their proteges were confirmed. As for the villains in question only one was recovered from the scene, identity remains unknown."

The newscaster on the TV screen announced catching the attention of everyone watching. At the hospital All Might, Inko, Eiko, and Shoto watched in the small waiting room as they awaited the results of Bakugo and Izumi's conditions. Bakugo had been rushed in late last night and after emergency blood transfusions, and surgery, had finally stabilized and was recovering in ICU.

Izumi, while less physically harmed, had gone catatonic after crying herself to sleep. Izuku's tiny body lay in the morgue, and everyone grieved the sudden loss.

"Mama…" Eiri looked up at Inko with big teary eyes. "Is Izumi and Ka-kun going to be okay?"

"Of course they will be, Eiri-chan." Though grief and worry filled her own eyes Inko made her best effort to smile. "They're both amazing heroes, they'll pull through, I'm sure."

"Nice work on covering up the full extent of the story." All Might murmured to Shoto as they stare at the TV screen. "If the media had figured out just how much Little Midori had beaten into him, it wouldn't have been good. This will be hard enough on both her and Young Bakugo without having to worry about saving face."

"I doubt saving face is what Izumi will be worried about when she wakes up." Shoto clenched his fists at his side and lowered his head. "We were all too late. If I'd gone with izumi from the getgo I might have been able to help save Izuku. The three of us, me, Izumi, Katsuki… we failed as heroes."

"Todoroki…" All Might placed his hands on his shoulders. "The three of you may have failed to save Izuku… but you're not failures. Bakugo protected his son to the point he was cut to ribbons and nearly gave his life in his efforts. Izumi remained calm enough to send for reinforcements which probably saved her husband's life… and you kept Izumi from killing Doppleganger. He may have deserved it, but the act of killing someone even for a just cause would have ate at her just as much as the loss of her son."

"All of that may be true, All Might… but I'd hardly call this a win."

"Mmm this is true… but you can't let that failure beat you. Little Midori and Bakugo will need to face their grief when they awaken… and it won't be easy."

"I know…" Shoto's head rose up to meet All Might's eyes. "When they do I'll be there for them. In times of grief everyone needs support. You have my word I won't let them be beat by this. No matter how dark things get I won't run from it. The two of them are my best friends and I won't abandon them." Shoto clenched his fists and looked up at the TV again seeing Izumi and Bakugo's pictures displayed. "If they get lost in that dark place, then I'll be there to guide them back to the light. I swear it!"

~Ask Briry~

Briry: *Drained* UGHHHHH! This chapter nearly killed me Too much sadness… I hate it… but it's necessary. *Sniffles* The things I do for a good review.

Next Chapter: Marital Grief