Fallen Angel: Shadow of a Dead Empire

by Z75

Quirks came to the world and brought only chaos and ash with them, they should be destroyed. This was truth, but despite this, only one group understood it. They were the rich, they were the powerful, they were the rulers of the world, and they sought to save their world. They failed. Now, 200 years later, a certain Izuku is about to stumble right onto something long thought dead.

Fallen Angel: Shadow of a Dead Empire

Where there is difference, there is divide. Where there is divide, there is disagreement. Where there is disagreement, there is argument. Where there is argument, there is anger. Where there is anger, there is violence. And where there is violence, there is a loss for mankind. Therefore it is in mankind's best interest to remove any dangers, different from us.

-Dice Akcret

-Shadow of a Dead Empire-

-Premonition-

People. Thousands of people, crammed shoulder to shoulder with barely any space to adjust themselves, let alone move around. With the sheer amount of people here, you would expect noise, be it idle chatter or just complaining about the cramped conditions, but strangely enough there was none. Thousands of people, ordinary civilians, stood crammed like sardines deathly quiet, creating a silence more deafening than any noise. Any onlookers, unaware of the situation, would most likely point to the guards lining the sides of the large stadium as the cause of this, each of their perfect stances accented nicely with the rifles they held pointed towards the sky.

I mean, it was a good guess, they had scarry guns and black military uniforms- and weren't black uniforms the standard go-to for the evil guys in movies and stuff? Although, if you ignored the Hollywood bias, the silver trimmings and white accents really did look nice, that along with the fact each suit was freshly ironed and obviously well cared for, and they did strike a, well, striking image. Very posh, a Victorian influence maybe? Granted they definitely looked modern, and weren't anywhere near obnoxious enough to call 'retro', but there was something that gave off a slight vintage-esq feel. A late 18th or early 19th century reference perhaps?

But no, the guards weren't the cause of the silence, in fact they had absolutely nothing to do with it.

Oddly enough, these people, every last one of them, had come and packed themselves shoulder to shoulder on their own volition. And these people weren't some strange occult minority either, as evidenced by the thousands more of them crowded outside the stadium. Who, despite arriving only to find themselves unable to fit inside, huddled as close to the entrances as they possibly could- desperate to, even if they couldn't see, at least hear what would be happening shortly.

But it didn't stop there, countless more were watching afar. Televisions, phones, computers, laptops, radios, there wasn't a device in all of Japan that the event wasn't being broadcast on- and further still, a decent portion of the world at large watched on with interest at what was to be said here.

All of them completely quiet, refusing to so much as hum.

This wasn't some mind control quirk as more than a few radicals had claimed in a desperate attempt to undermine what was about to take place. No, it was something much simpler.

They were waiting.

Suddenly the silence was abruptly cut by footsteps echoing from behind the stage. Closer, and closer they got, until a well dressed man stepped out from behind the curtain and onto the stage. Wearing black dress shoes, a tailored white coat with silver linings similar to the guards, and a bowler hat over a head of orange hair, he made a striking figure as he swaggered his way up to the podium.

"Hello, hello all, and welcome to this momentous occasion! Truly, I thank you all for coming." Smiling, the man waved to the audience, easing away the previous tension "Today is a grand day, and more importantly it is your day! It was you who took a stand! It was you who saw through the lies that the establishment had been feeding you! It was you who saw the rot and corruption that had corroded this nation from the inside out! And it was you who decided to do something about it! It was you who decided to vote, not for what you were told to, but for what was right!" Slamming his fist onto the podium, the man continued on his tangent, working his magic on the crowd.

There was no actual magic at work here obviously, he had no quirk to help his speeches, and even if he did, using quirks on people ran opposite to their group's message. No, the man was just a very talented speaker, as was plainly evident in how he was managing to turn a crowd that had been silent as the grave into a fiery audience that was currently cheering along with him.

"When your back was to the wall, when the wool was forcefully torn from your eyes, when the TRUTH was revealed for the first time, what did we do!? Did we sit back and let the powers at be continue to play us like puppets, like PAWNS in their games!?"

""NO!"" The crowd roared.

"NO!" The man roared back, matching their furiosity "No! You fought, you struggled for truth, for justice! You struggled for every Goddamn INCH! And Ladies and Gentlemen, I am here today to announce that your struggles have finally paid off! With your support we have managed to obtain a majority in the house!" He smirked as the crowd exploded in a cacophony of uproar "And more than that, we have managed to obtain an overwhelming three fourths majority, meaning we can pass any law and legislation we want without having to bargain with the corrupt politicians that have failed you for so long!" At this the crowd roared louder still. "Along with this, we have managed to staff every major political office with a man or woman loyal, not to the lining of their own pockets, but to justice- True Justice!"

Throwing out his arms the man practically feasted on the crowd's cheers "I am overjoyed to announce that with your help, The Silvermen's Party has achieved near complete control of the government! With your help we, The Silvermen's Party have taken back our bureaucracy, and we have taken it back FOR THE PEOPLE!" He paused for a moment, letting the sudden rise in cheering and applause calm back down to a level the speakers could overpower "Today I am here to announce to you, you proud, brave, people who stood up for what was right! That today the sun has set on the ROT of old, and has risen on the start of a NEW ERA! YOUR ERA!"

Leaning forward on the podium, he moved as close to the microphone as he could without hurting the audio quality "No more will villains wander the streets in broad daylight! No longer will we allow these blatant acts of violence to run rampant in the streets and neighborhoods of this great nation! No longer will Heroes be allowed to break the law they themselves uphold! No longer will we allow dangerous quirks to run unchecked! No longer will the people of this nation be RULED by FEAR!"

"Ladies and Gentlemen, a new dawn has risen today in Japan, and I am humbled to welcome the man responsible for all of this. The man that has led the charge in this movement! The man who INSPIRED A NATION! People of Japan, please welcome the chairman of The Silvermen's Party, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and Japan's newest Prime Minister!"

With the man's que, the black and silver curtains opened to reveal a lone figure. Relatively tall, with a thin line of stubble on his chin, the color scheme he was going for was easy to identify, mainly being blacks and greys with linings of metallic silver. His outfit was similarly easily identifiable to anyone who had paid even a passing glance to the news this past year- steel toed combat boots, a formal suit with a thick military long coat thrown over his shoulders, and a military peaked cap atop his head to tie it all together. This was the outfit he wore as the head of the D.I.A. and it was the outfit that had been plastered on frontpage after frontpage as he led raid after raid with the D.I.A.'s proto-military force, the same military force he had behind him in the capitol when he called for an emergency election just over a month ago.

But what caught the eyes of onlookers wasn't the outfit, it wasn't even the pride he carried himself with, it was the abrupt break of his color scheme. His dark green hair, and the long lock of bone white hair that fell down the side of his face, hair that grew discolored from a large scar on the top left of his head… there was a reason he wore a hat after all.

The newly elected Prime Minister took a deep breath, and stepped forward-

And the people erupted. All over the nation, people cheered. Men, women, children, it seemed as though every house, every apartment seemed to have some noise coming from it. Clapping, shouting, cheering, all of Japan was shaking with noise, and at the epicenter of it all, at the stadium… It was deafening.

Almost forced back from the sheer intensity of the noise, the Prime Minister forced himself to take a step forward, and the crowd, almost impossibly, seemed to scream louder. This was their savior, this was the man who had saved them, the man who managed to pull their entire nation from what was surely the brink of ruin. And so with each step he took, their voices cried louder.

But it was not only the crowd that was being overcome by their emotions.

Step.

This was what he had worked for.

Step.

This is what he had spent the past two decades working towards!

Step.

This was the crowning achievement of a vision that had seemed almost impossible!

Step.

This was his moment!

Step.

This was his DESTINY!

Step.

Today he would CHANGE the world!

Step.

Today he would SAVE the world!

Step.

And now NOTHING could STOP HIM!

But that's when it happened, one of the many guards manning the stands and securing the exits, got caught up in the sheer intensity of the moment, and made a mistake- a mistake that would help cement this moment as a turning point in history.

Slinging his rifle over his shoulder he stamped his right foot on the ground as hard as he could, and assumed the stance of the Silver Guard. Back completely straight, one hand behind his back and the other a fist slammed over his heart, palm facing upward.

… and then he began chanting.

"Hail!"

"Hail!"

The other guards, like dominoes, fell into position and copied their brother, beginning to chant with him.

""Hail!""

""Hail!""

""Hail!""

The crowd's cheering lulled in confusion, and the Prime Minister froze mid step-

No! Those idiots! He didn't care what stupid salutes they did in private meetings, but not here! They couldn't afford to alienate the people! They were so close, they couldn't COST HIM THIS!

But loyalty, true earned loyalty, wasn't something so easily broken.

A young quirkless girl, no older than 7 or 8 quickly fumbled to copy the guards who had helped save her and her family's lives a few months ago. With one arm behind her back, and the other over her heart, she stomped her foot alongside the soldiers, and cried out, completely ignorant of the significance of her actions.

"h-Hail!"

First her family, then other people that had personally been helped, then the people around them followed suit, then a tipping point was reached, and a combination of the electric atmosphere and unspoken peer pressure did the rest. Soon every guest in the stadium was saluting, fist over heart, chanting as loud as they could.

""HAIL!""

Step.

""HAIL!""

Step.

""HAIL!""

And while some onlookers watching remotely frowned with worry, many of them, especially in Japan, assumed the same stance as those in the stadium, standing straight up, fist to their chest.

""HAIL!""

And as the man took the final steps past the now saluting speaker and onto the podium, he couldn't help the genuine smile that grew on his face.

"All Hail the Supreme Leader of the Silver Order! All Hail Izuku Midoriya!"

""HAIL!""

-Shadow of a Dead Empire-

-End Chapter-

"Quirks came to the world, and brought naught but violence and chaos with them, they were not a gift, but a curse that should be destroyed. This was truth. But despite society being brought to its knees, despite chaos raging through the streets, only one group understood it. They were the rich, they were the powerful, they were the rulers of the world, and they sought to save that world. They failed. Those corrupted by the power of these quirks, these self-proclaimed Heroes had grown too powerful. The world fought back against its rulers, against its saviors, it tore apart their organization and erased them from history... they almost succeeded. Now, nearly 200 years after their fall, one of the scattered remnant cells experiences a turn of fate as a certain Izuku stumbles right into something long thought dead… something that most likely should have stayed dead."

Hello and welcome all to this wonderful experiment of a Fic I've cooked up!

*Sips Hot Chocolate*

You see, I was sitting down one day and I had a random thought go through my head.

'Ya know, cannon MHA is like, the brightest possible timeline isn't it?'

I mean Izuku gets to be the hero of his dreams, he gets the attention of a girl, Enri gets saved, Bakugo and Izuku reconnect and become friends(ish) again, no innocent civilians get killed in the fight between AllMight and AllForOne.

Take for instance the fight with Muscular at the training camp, the "ONE MILLION PERCENT SMASH!" (while one of my favorite moments) is very anime. You can dig deep and give more than you thought you had, but you can't physically give more than your body is capable of giving- especially not one million percent more.

And while my rational mind caught up with my half asleep mind and provided plenty of evidence for why the cannon MHA timeline might be a good timeline, but definitely not the "brightest" timeline, it still got me thinking.

*Sips Hot Chocolate*

What would be the single darkest possible timeline for the MHA world? Now I've read plenty of cheesy "Izuku is villain now and is crazy Joker parody and does the kills people and overthrows All For One somehow-due-to-plot and All Might dies or something" But that's all surface level, and really isn't any worse than what has happened in the lore and AFO's past reign of terror.

So i sat and thought for a bit, and thunk sum goud darn thinks.

And I came up with a realistic scenario that would qualify as the "TNO" of the MHA universe. Absolutely horrible.

*Sips Hot Chocolate*

-err, this isn't that fic. See I actually like writing stories with a satisfying(ish) ending, so this is the watered down version of that, one that the audience would actually enjoy and that wouldn't get me put on a no-fly list.

But I kept the core of that idea- An antagonistic force run by logic and reason, not evil for the sake of evil, but ideologically and fundamentally fowl enough that the people reading it could believe in what was happening- bonus points if they feel unnerved at the prospect that this doesn't actually sound too far from something that could happen in real life rather than some super villain romp.

One that would, through its triumphs, put the timeline on a path away from the color saturated land of pink ponies and rainbows.

And oh boy do I have some good notes to use! I did research on all sorts of authoritarian distopias like North Korea and the USSR. To the mass-surveillance state of China. To terrorist organisations such as ISIS and the KKK(at its height). To disorganised pseudo-terror groups that target political groups and the like, such as the KKK(modern) and Anti-Fa. To the violent SS sponsored anarchism that followed the German army's march east in WW2.

(Also yes, this is why I haven't updated ROS recently, on top of trying to get a new job, I've been mapping out the plot of this story for the past month, and working on the first two chapters (this short intro, and a second actual cahpter), but don't worry ROS is being updated here shortly, that chapter is almost finished)