United We Stand
A My Hero Academia Crossover Fanfiction
Chapter 1: The Darkness that Covered the World
Donned in a scarlet red gown, the young woman looked up at the darkness that covered the world.
"Tomoyo," the dark lord's calm and confident voice echoed through the night sky. With blood dripping down her face and making it hard to see out of her dominant left eye, she looked up at the tuxedo donned kingpin of darkness himself.
She quivered in fear at the realization that it did not matter what she once meant to him as his dark red eyes bore themselves into her in disapproval.
"Isn't it pointless to resist the inevitable? I know everything about your power. I have ensured that you would always be at your weakest," and he was right.
Despite all her planning to gather as much strength as she could to defeat him, she had failed. But that did not matter now. All that mattered is ensuring she kept him here for as long as she could so the others could carry out their last-ditch effort to defeat the dark lord known as All for One.
From his seat of power in Tokyo, Japan All for One effectively ruled the world with his quirk and those he granted to others who served him.
As he slowly descended from the dark sky above, he began speaking.
"From the moment I felt your quirk, I knew you were the only one who could ever stand against me," he stated mockingly, making Tomoyo chomp down and grind her teeth in anger.
Once again, he was right.
She was perhaps the only person in the whole world who could stand against him. For decades she had ignored that fact to the point she allowed herself to accept the comfort a life at his side had offered her. And oh, was it comfortable.
The finest silks filled her wardrobe, the sweetest wines had satisfied her pallet, and all worshipped her as the mistress of darkness whom All for One cherished above all others. And it was built on the blood of the innocents slaughtered daily. As a living breathing superweapon, All for One could have anything he wanted.
Even his minions enjoyed that same right since none dared to stand before his authority. For they had seen continents rattle, skies darken, and their cities reduced to ashes.
In all of Tokyo, only the Darkspire sat as the last remaining fully intact skyscraper above the grime and filth that the rest of humanity was forced to live in. a
Even now, Tomoyo could not help but grimace at the dead human body that All for One landed next to which even before death was nothing but skin and bones.
"That's the reason I kept you close. Not because I ever really cared for you but because I had all the time in the world to bide my time until the moment, I could take your quirk. A quirk that will make me the eternal god of this pitiful world and a quirk that for some reason you haven't been using at its full potential".
Tomoyo stiffened at All for One's words, but of course, he had noticed. She was foolish to believe he would not see through her, and now there was a chance it could cost her everything.
So, without a second thought, a sound like thunder resonated as Tomoyo vanished in a flash to charge at All for One faster than an average human could ever think of seeing.
Not without the right quirk.
But of course, All for One always had the right quirk, and as Tomoyo slammed into the dark lord, she found the fist aimed for his face now being crushed in his gargantuan hand. And her scream was mortifying.
So, blood-curdling was it that even the skin and bone citizens of Tokyo grimaced at the unimaginable pain of every bone in your hand simultaneously breaking and then some more until only dust and fragments of bones remained.
"No, what lies in you is nothing but a spark of the inferno that once existed within you," All for One said before slamming his knee into Tomoyo's ribcage just hard enough to break ribs and ensure the bones barely punctured her skin.
"So, where did you hide it"! All for One roared as Tomoyo was sent flying until she crashed as a lump against the wall. Despite the blood she felt pooling from her wounds, barely any could be seen thanks to the beauty of the scarlet red gown.
All for One, slowly began walking to her. Of course, he could fly, teleport, or even pull her towards him with a form of telepathy. But he was methodical. Every move he made, every twitch of his sadistic smile was made with a purpose.
She knew from the way he was dragging this out that he would heal her when he reached her. Heal her and continue the torment some more. She would not die by his hands. No, he would keep up the pain and agony for months, maybe even years.
She had seen it done, heard the screams from the lower levels of the Darkspire, had even laughed at their pain.
She knew she had this coming. Had expected it for at least a year now but had hoped that maybe a part of him really did love her and would not do to her what he had done to the others.
It was why she had been so brave in volunteering to fight him while her partner made his escape. Made the only escape that mattered.
All for One stopped and looked down at her, ticking his tongue in disappointment and shook his head.
"I do have to admit. Despite all of this, I never actually thought you'd ever rebel against me", despite her pain Tomoyo growled in anger.
"You were on such a short leash that your bodyguards were whatever lieutenant I had in mind. If only I had seen the signs that one of them was plotting to betray me, maybe I would not have made that decision. The funniest thing about all of this is that your futile plans to have me murdered using your power would've led to just another lord at the top of the Darkspire".
Tomoyo's eyes rose to All for One as her mind rambled about what he could be talking about it.
"Gora's entire plan wasn't to free the people from the hands of the dark lord but to simply crown a new one. Once I was dead, he'd have simply taken my place if only for a short while due to all the others who'd attempt to fill the black hole of a power vacuum I would leave behind. Honestly though, I must give him credit. To have enough ambition to wait for the decades under my thumb, the patience he needed to gauge his would-be allies, and the nerve to get you of all people to join his side. Well, it's practically biblical", and with that, All for One did just as Tomoyo predicted.
A long black and red tentacle extended from All for One's index finger and plugged itself into Tomoyo.
Before she could blink, all but her hand had been rapidly healed. Due to this, she immediately threw up as her body began pouring sweat. The amount of her body's energy to restore her was astounding and alone had nearly killed her. He would need to wait before he could torture her again, but until then, she would be nearly incapacitated.
It would make for a delightful hobby to keep his mind occupied every couple of days, and when she finally broke and told him what he wanted, then, at last, he would shatter what remained of her.
"But it's time for this pathetic rebellion to end. When I am done, the entire world will have felt the magnitude of this night. When I am done, no one will ever again question my power. When I am done, the sun will think twice before shining its light upon the third planet from the sun. Honestly, I want to thank you for all you've done. In a single solitary night, you have solidified in all those who would defy me that All for One is the supreme god of their world. In a way, I don't even need your quirk, but regardless you will tell me where it is and when I do find it, the heavens themselves will quake in fear".
And everything he said was right.
At nearly every corner of the globe, All for One's remaining lieutenants were spreading his glorious message informing the masses of what was transpiring tonight.
That tonight was a day of reckoning and not in the way the rebels had initially intended on this early day of May. For in each of those corners' men, women, and children were bowing. To them, All for One was king, All for One was glory, and after tonight they would worship his very name just for a scrap of bread.
But despite all of this, Tomoyo was laughing.
"Man, will you shut up already," All for One sneered at the audacity of Tomoyo's joyous tone. "Nearly a hundred years by your side listening to you go on and on and on. Dammit, I can't tell you how good it finally feels to tell you to shut the hell up".
But that was nothing to the joy in her heart as the bell chimed in the distance.
For as the clouds parted, revealing the full moon high above All for One finally noticed the sound she had been waiting for. The sound of the chiming bells signified the new day on a hopeless world. Though he was king, though he was glory, and though he felt he was a god.
He felt a very human chill travel up his spine.
"What have you done," he roared in fury as his body shook from the anger that told him he could not hurt her anymore without the risk of killing her at this point.
"Is that what they told you? That old Gora the Lightning who spent his time running from each corner of the world to the other acting as your messenger to all your other lieutenants is a power-hungry fool"!
For the briefest of moments, he thought Tomoyo had finally lost her mind in her pain, but then All for One himself was taken aback to the moment his other lieutenant Amanra, chief of his spies, had told him of Gora's true intentions.
It had come from her own lips, the lips of the lieutenant he was sure among all others would never deceive him, but what if?
All for One's eyes widened impossibly at the realization of what he had done. After learning the information from Amanra, he had immediately killed them, all the other conspirators. Hoping that this would weaken any slight change Tomoyo did have of defeating him.
So, to his knowledge, now only Tomoyo and Gora were left.
But now there was Amanra.
"He spent every second of his life running by but seeing the pain and the suffering you put the world through, and at last, he had enough. That is why Gora rebelled. That is what started the Boom Heard Across the World. The rebellion that led even some of your most loyal soldiers to turn their backs against you in the hopes of a better world and now at last".
But All for One didn't want to listen. To no longer hear the words coming from her traitorous mouth.
Because if it was true, it meant the impossible. It meant despite everything he had put in place, his armada at his back, and the god-like powers at his fingertips that. . .
"You have failed"!
And with those three words, All for One roared, and all of Tokyo was shaken by the earthquake he caused as his only release of unrelenting fury.
But Gora would not feel that quake.
For half the world away, he looked up into the daylit sky as the rocket blasted off towards the blue sky above. Because despite the fear that the darkness that covered the world had soaked into the spirit, there were still those with hope.
Hope that a sister named Tomoyo could defy her elder brother. Hope that Amanra would be moved once she was forced to look at things not from shadows but the light. Hope that an old man quickly approaching the end of his usefulness could do this last thing.
"Godspeed," Gora quietly muttered as he watched his success fly off into space, and he slit his throat triumphantly just as Amanra had done upon hearing the chime of the bells knowing that All for One could never get the secret from them.
"No," and when All for One roared, volcanos erupted, tornados spun, and the sky itself darkened with the darkest storm clouds.
"And now it doesn't matter what you do to me because deep down, you know you'll never break me. That I wouldn't risk the chance of you taking me alive if I'd known you'd break me", Tomoyo triumphantly grinned, laughing as she looked up at towards All for One and his deep red eyes she'd once thought of as beautiful.
"Well, we'll have to see about that now, won't we," All for One growled as he bent down and lifted Tomoyo to him mere inches from his face, and that is when she kissed him.
Pulling away quickly, Tomoyo felt ecstatic at the sight of the redness in his cheeks, the sign that deep down a part of him really did love her and that she could deal this final sting.
If he had not loved her, he would not have taken her as his wife. He told himself it was because he needed to keep her loyal and that he had seen the way she looked at him, but deep down, it was true. All for One had loved Tomoyo, his sister, more than anything.
Even more so than the cowardly brother born without but granted a quirk by All for One. The very same brother who was anxiously waiting back at the Darkspire for the dark lord's return.
"By the way," Tomoyo spoke with a grin that could brighten the night sky, "when was the last time you checked on our son"?
That is when the fear rose, and in an instant, All for One was flying. Before Tomoyo could take a single breath, she was being tossed at her brother Yaga's feet.
"Watch her," were All for One's only words as he once again vanished. The laughter from Tomoyo that echoed through the halls of the Darkspire shocked the frail and timid Yaga.
"Tomo, what did you do," he hissed with a fearful expression.
"I did it, Yaga. I finally got him".
And when All for One reappeared far angrier than anything anyone had ever seen before, Yaga knew it to be true.
"Where is he"!
This would be the resounding question burning in All for One's damned soul from this night to another hundred and sixty years away. It would be the last thought that crossed his mind when he would finally be smitten by the hope inspired into the frail Yaga that fateful night in the form of a young man named Toshinori.
And where would that son be?
Over two hundred million miles away, straight up into the very night sky that Tomoyo was genuinely looking at when she had looked up to her brother's face.
Space.
The last bastion of humanity that remained outside of All for One's control. A moon base and a satellite with less than a thousand people that All for One would let exist only as a reminder of how the former leaders of Earth were forced to flee to after he'd taken control.
For once she learned of what happened to her quirk when her son was born. Tomoyo knew what she had to do, and thanks to Garo, Amanra, and the only other friends she had ever known, she had succeeded.
The child would never see his father's cruelty, would never know the state of the world he had left behind, and would never return.
For just as Yaga had hoped with his quirk to pass on, other quirks had manifested.
Tomoyo hoped that one day it would be her descendant that returned to Earth. A descendant who, when the time came, and All for One was at his weakest, would return to Earth and deliver the final blow to end it all.
To end the suffering, the wickedness, and the fury of the darkness that covered the world.
For it was not only her son that Tomoyo had sent to space but a quirk.
The quirk, which was some strange variation of Yaga's original quirk and had been transmitted from mother to son upon his birth, and that would continue to pass on from descendant to descendant.
A quirk that, like All for One's, drained some power of those around its bearer but only the power of those who were willing.
A quirk so great that for someone like All for One with a million servants, the power could be limitless.
A quirk ingrained so deep that it would require consent to be transferred if ever to be done in such a way. A quirk that had given Tomoyo strength from the friendships she'd gained. From Gora, Amanra, and the many others who had helped her.
A quirk known as United We Stand.
Disclaimer: I do not own the original characters, storyline, or themes of My Hero Academia.
Update 9/5/2020: Grammar and punctuation edit.
Update 9/13/2020: Grammarly Edit.