Midoriya staggered backwards, one arm to his face as the wave of heat hit him. It felt like the control room in the powerplant, the heat trapped in the small space enough to make his skin bead with sweat. Through the flames he could make out the dresser and the mirror on the wall, both still intact, though the television that had shown Uraraka and her studio audience was half melted, hanging from the wall. Somewhere down the hall a fire alarm sounded, dull to his ringing ears as he stepped forward.
"We need to get Todoroki out of here," Midoriya grated, voice hoarse from the heat. "He needs a doctor." He forced a smile onto his face but he could see in the mirror that it was more of a grimace, like All Might's face after the vinegar river incident. It was a mad sort of smile, lined with pain and desperation. Would people want a hero that smiled like this?
"That makes two of us," Lemillion quipped from the floor behind Midoriya's feet, though it was a surprise that he was even conscious. Toga's rekindle seemed to have cauterised his torso at least. Power crackled electric around his body, his remaining fist clenching as he tried to get up, but the number one hero didn't rise to his feet.
Midoriya gritted his teeth. He needed to stop Toga, before she escaped, and did the whole thing over again. He couldn't let her keep another hero in a basement, another ordinary citizen tied up in a cupboard. He stepped forward, putting his body between her and the injured heroes.
"You really care about those two?" she asked, tilting her head to the two men behind him. She still wore Midoriya's face, the grin wide and deranged. Was she still Toga underneath, Midoriya wondered, or had Rekindle reformatted her into a copy of him? "Why? They're just heroes."
"It doesn't matter, Toga." said Midoriya, knowing in his heart that it was true. "You don't need a reason to save somebody. If you were a hero, you would know that." He swallowed, and he felt as if he was about to scream. "If you knew me at all, you would know that."
He stepped forward, and she took half a step back as his insult sank in. She'd been stalking him, as Sir Nighteye, as his neighbour. She was interested in him. She probably thought she knew everything about him.
"No," she said, wiping soot from her freckles. "I know you, Izuku." She gave a soft, low laugh. "You want to be like them. You want to be like them so bad that you let it burn up every aspect of your life, ever since you were a kid. You want to be them so bad that you never even stopped to question what they were actually achieving by being heroes. You want to be them so bad that you never dreamed of anything else."
"And what do you dream about, Toga?" Midoriya snarled. There was one path out of the dressing room currently- through Midoriya. Though the temporary walls in the studio were thin enough that someone could break through them and into the adjoining room. If he could stall her for long enough, help would come- Uravity or one of her sidekicks. "What do you want so badly that you'd hurt people to get it?"
Toga spread her hands- his hands- scarred like his own. "A better world. A different world. A world where people like us can be free."
"There is no people like us."
Toga smiled, taking another step back, and too late Midoriya spotted the briefcase on the dresser behind her, a briefcase there that Midoriya recognised as one of Sir Nighteye's. She was carrying other blood. He didn't know if she could ingest multiple types of blood at once, but she'd been full to the gills with Midoriya's when she left.
Would she still have access to her own quirk after using Rekindle? Midoriya had no idea, but the minute she transformed, took on another face, it'd be too late. He didn't have time to weigh the odds. He had to act.
Midoriya leapt towards her, the rubber soles of his ill-fitting shoes burning and stinking as he crossed the crater.
Toga brought the briefcase up like a shield, blocking his strikes neatly- one, two, three- before her fingers reached the clasp and her gear spilled out, looping to the floor like a mechanical snake.
Toga wore Midoriya's body like a suit but Midoriya was one death ahead of her, his form one step closer to whatever it was he was becoming. He kicked the briefcase from her fingers before bringing his heel slamming down onto her.
He screamed as his heel came into contact with her raised forearm and his shoe melted, fusing to the skin of his foot. Of course, he thought as the pain coursed through him, the superheated regeneration phase would have kicked in right after the rekindling.
"So many notes but you forget your own quirk," said Toga, shaking her head as she rolled to one side, arm glowing as it healed. "Shame on you, Izuku."
Midoriya froze, stumbling as his burned leg struggled to bear his weight. How was it that he'd been preparing to be a hero his whole life and yet he felt like he'd just stepped into an exam he'd not prepared for?
But he knew pain. He could handle pain. The burns were nothing compared to death, to burning alive or bleeding out. He forced the reaction down, forced his body to stand. The moment stretched long and agonising.
"I'm not done yet."
Toga turned to look at him, and her eyes widened with desire. She was looking at him, at his burns and his scrapes, the way his legs shook under his weight, like a starving man might look at a roast chicken. "Izuku-" she murmured, gaze going to his torched leg, the way it shook and threatened to give way under him.
This was good, Midoriya decided, under the dull roar of pain. Every moment she was brawling with him was one more chance that help would arrive. And anyway, it wasn't as if he could die.
The duration of the regeneration phase of his quirk was only a few minutes. That was likely longer than Midoriya could hold out, but Toga'd had to take a lot of his blood. That meant that if she was till using her quirk to maintain his form, there was a finite amount she could maintain the transformation. He just needed to force her to keep using his quirk, and she'd run out.
A right hook, and then a left, enough to seriously hurt someone. They landed, leaving his knuckles a bubbling, steaming mess as Toga's superheated flesh burned off the skin. He was beyond pain now, teeth gritted so hard that they might have been welded together.
"So stubborn, Izuku," she said, and he forced himself to block her path again. He felt her green eyes on him, her expression a psychotic mirror of his own.
There was one path out of the dressing room currently- through Midoriya. He glanced behind him, at Todoroki and Lemillion on the floor. There was a lot of commotion in the building but no sign of back-up. Where was Uraraka? Or Sir Nighteye, for that matter? If no-one was going to turn up, he'd have to prioritise medical attention for Todoroki, and likely let Toga escape.
Toga followed his gaze. "What do you see in these people, huh? That makes you so determined?"
Midoriya struggled to slow his breathing, the pain in his leg making his vision swim."They were there for me when I needed them. Todoroki is my friend."
"I'm your friend, Izuku," said Toga. "I was there, when you needed me. They would have arrested you at the memorial, but I was there. Your wife left you, everyone left you, but I was there."
"You locked my neighbour in her own closet so you could impersonate her!" Midoriya protested, his voice cracking. "You locked me in a basement! What kind of friend does that?"
"Izuku-" Toga's eyes widened, and Midoriya knew he'd hit a nerve. She shook her head. "Don't say that."
"You're not my friend, and you don't know me," Midoriya growled, feeling her eyes burn into him as he shook her head.
"No," Toga snarled, grabbing him by the collar and forcing him against the wall. Her hand was cooler than it had been, but still hot enough to scorch his shirt and the skin beneath. "I know you. I know you better than anyone."
Midoriya's eyes filled with tears as his skin blistered. "If you knew me at all," he croaked, tasting smoke. "You'd know I'd never accept what you'd done."
Toga's face turned cruel, and Midoriya resigned himself to his next death as she raised her fist.
"Hands off my intern, you leech."
Midoriya looked beyond Toga's shoulder to see Uraraka at the doorway, visor up and finger pads forwards. A pair of medics hurried in behind her, crouching to tend to Lemillion and Todoroki.
"Uravity!" Midoriya choked out.
"Ochako!" Toga smiled, grip tightening on Midoriya's collar. "It's okay. I caught her."
"That's not me-" said Midoriya, twisting frantically as Toga lifted him up.
There was a quiet click as Uraraka lowered her visor, and Midoriya barely registered what happened next.
Uraraka touched the ground with her fingertips, and the direction that was down changed. But it was more than just down; a crushing pressure several times the force of regular gravity. Suddenly both he and Toga were falling sideways, through the plywood wall of the studio building and out into the car park, Uraraka shooting after them, along with the ruined furniture, the floorboards, and most of the contents of the room. Toga was quicker on the uptake, scrabbling at the walls as they were hurled through them, and just as quickly they were being hurled upwards, into empty air, and Midoriya choked at the coldness of it. The city spread below them, Toga's knuckles still burning grooves into Midoriya's chest.
"I win." Midoriya whispered through cracked lips, the high altitude air burning in his throat. He watched the red and blue lights assemble beneath them like distant LEDs, the ruined furniture from the room floating around them. "You can't hurt anyone anymore, Toga."
"I can still hurt you, Izuku," Toga hissed, her breathing shallow. Uraraka hovered nearby, too far to be hit by a rekindle if one of them died. It'd be a matter of minutes before both Toga and Midoriya passed out from lack of oxygen, but Uraraka had an ample air supply.
Midoriya closed his eyes, welcoming the dizziness that ate the sharper edges of his pain."You can't do any worse than you have already."
"Tch." Toga's grip loosened, her fingers cooling. "That doesn't mean you win. The the world of heroes is still done for."
Midoriya had no answer for her, slipping into a darkness that was close to death.