Warnings for this chapter: None I think, except creepy Deku... but I think we established that in the last chapter.

Enjoy,

"Listen… er, me, we don't have time to play." Izuku said sternly. "We're here because of a villain's quirk right now, and we have no idea how it works. People could be in danger back home, so we have to go now. We have to figure out a way to get back home, so we can save everyone."

Deku tilted his head, frowning. "Save everyone… oh yes, you do. You save everyone, you do, you do." Deku giggled then and said, "You have plenty of time, so let's play!"

"We have to go."

"You WILL stay here and play!" the snarl in Deku's tone was unmistakably meant to threaten and Izuku found himself clamping his mouth shut. "What game to play I wonder… oh, I haven't played tag in a while!" he said excitedly. "How about this. Let's play tag. You have the whole castle to play in, and to win, all you have to do is escape the castle walls. Not too hard, right? If you win, I'll help you find a way back home!"

"Why would we ever need your help?" Katsuki sneered.

"Because it's not nice to leave people out, Kacchan, you could hurt their feelings."

"What about if we lose." Izuku asked.

"Hm, I think we both know you won't lose. Kacchan never loses after all! Oh, but then again, he is stuck with me…" Deku trailed off. "Never mind that! If I win you have to stay and play with me!"

The cheer in his voice never faltered even as, "Forever!" rolled off his tongue. Eyes still bright and happy Deku pivoted on his foot and walked back up to his throne, stepping over Todoroki's body as he went. "I'll give you a five-minute head start~." He sang happily and smacked a red button Izuku had failed to notice before, that rested on the arm of the throne. Almost immediately, the windows barred tightly shut with steel that looked almost impenetrable. "Time to prove you always win, Kacchan, and time for me to prove I'm not as useless as you thought." Deku said, for the first time, eyeing Izuku with an expression he couldn't quite name. "Well hurry up, time's a wasting~!" Deku sang. "Your five minutes have already started."

Izuku and Katsuki glanced at each other, and then made a break for the only open door in the room.

Deku watched them go, a pleasant smile on his face. Todoroki was stirring at his feet, weakly pushing himself into a sitting position, arms trembling. "Todoroki-kun, you're awake!" Deku cried. "Do you feel okay?"

Todoroki nodded silently. "Very, very good! That means you can stand up."

Todoroki obeyed the silent command and crawled onto his knees, then feet. "Do you need something, Deku-sama?"

Deku gave an exasperated sigh and said, "No, I don't! Just do whatever it is you do all day, Todoroki-kun!"

And yes, despite him spending almost every minute with Todoroki, he had no idea what the boy did all day. And it was strange to think that Todoroki spent all day doing whatever Deku commanded, and he didn't even realize it. "Yes sir…" Todoroki said, and stood there, staring at the ground.

Deku rolled his eyes and turned his gaze to the doorway. "Do you think it's been five minutes yet, Todoroki-kun?"

"Yes."

Deku then, hopped up from his position. "Then I think it's about time for me to chase them~." He sang happily. Todoroki watched as the menace skipped out the door.

Todoroki found it very odd that he was serving a villain who thought himself to be the greatest hero of all time, though he suspected Deku hardly even knew what the word "hero" truly meant anymore.

"Where are we supposed to go?" Izuku muttered as they simply tried to put as much distance between themselves and Deku as possible.

"I don't know." Katsuki grumbled. "But I'm not playing his stupid game. He's a little psychopath, you can't give him what he wants."

"Well the only way to get out of this is to give him what he wants."

"Not if I beat the living crap out of him." Katsuki said it reasonably, like they weren't talking about a live person who had the skill set to ultimately kill them.

"Kacchan, we have to think reasonably." Izuku said. "We don't have any idea who this person is, other than the fact he looks like me."

"Seems to be the only similarity."

"Exactly. His entire personality is almost opposite from mine. It's like we're completely different people. He has the advantage in this situation. He knows this place like the back of his hand and he has us running like scared rodents."

"Exactly! If we don't give into his crap, then we aren't scared, and we're not running like rodents! Boom, one advantage taken away!"

"But we don't know his powers, his strength, what he's capable of!"

"Well then don't we have that advantage too! We don't know what's going on here, you think he does? We're strangers to him too!"

"Kacchan, that's true but you aren't understanding! He's not the one who cares about whether he lives or dies." This gave Katsuki pause. "You see the look in his eye? He's ready to kill us, and he's ready to die trying. I know you've seen that look before, Kacchan, I have too! It's the look of a villain."

Katsuki didn't argue, because he knew Izuku was right. He also knew that they were wasting time by standing around, talking about how much of a disadvantage they were at, rather than trying to turn the tables.

"… Okay, fine then. Let's go." Katsuki said.

"Exactly, we can talk more on the way. I can hear him."

It was true that Deku was making his presence very known with the way he was humming, his footsteps loud and careless. He wasn't the one being chased; he had all the time in the world.

"I don't like running away." Bakugou said, gritting his teeth.

"Neither do I, but we haven't much of a choice. We have to find out more about him first, test him. If he's really like me, then he's probably trying to figure us out too, trying to come up with a plan."

"Deku, I think it's safe to say that the two of you are nothing alike. There's nothing that suggests he has the same IQ as you, or that he has any of your habits."

Izuku knew this was true. He was going out on a theory here. "It's better for us to think of the worst-case scenario in this situation. That scenario is that he already has a plan to beat us, and if we let him corner us, we're done for."

"I guess so…"

"You know what's funny." The echoes they heard because of the virtually empty castle, gave them a very nervous feeling. "It's that this is just like a game of cat and mouse!" he said cheerfully. "The mice are running away when the cat comes out to play, so funny, isn't it? Just think; the rodents never realize they have friends who could help! Because their brains are too tiny!"

"WHAT'D YOU SAY!" Katsuki shrieked.

"Calm down, Kacchan. He's goading you on!"

"DON'T YOU THINK I KNOW THAT, STUPID DEKU!"

"If you know that, then please stop shouting, Kacchan." Izuku whispered softly. "You're leading him right to us."

"I KNOW!"

"Then stop raging!"

"SHUT UP!"

"I think I hear a Kacchan~!" Deku sang. Izuku watched in silent horror as he saw himself round the corner. And right after they'd just agreed they couldn't let Deku find them… how disappointing. Izuku thought it was a rooky mistake, and while they weren't exactly masters at being heroes, or even good heroes, he had thought they'd gone through enough scares that they weren't complete rookies. Arguing about absolutely nothing, though, contradicted that theory.

"Kacchan we have to go!"

"I know that, stupid Deku!"

"I'm not stupid!" Izuku and Deku both cried exasperatedly, frowns on their faces.

"I'm not so sure about that." Katsuki grumbled. Izuku decidedly ignored this, and instead gazed around to find a possible escape route. But, as he'd expect from himself, all escape routes were cut off.

Deku's frown, quickly turned into a smile when he saw Izuku's eyes darting wildly about. "If you're looking for an escape route, then I'm afraid you're looking in the wrong place. You see, I've taken very careful steps to ensure that there is only one way out of this place."

"And what way is that?" Katsuki asked.

Deku giggled softly. "Oh, Kacchan, no matter where or when you are you always manage to crack me up."

"I'm not trying to be funny, Deku!"

"I'm aware, but you're failing rather miserably. Now then, little Deku, you're as smart as me, aren't you? We're the same, after all, you and I, so how exactly is it that you would be able to escape. I'll give you a rather large hint to help things along; it doesn't include running away~!"

"But that's how you escape, genius." Katsuki snarled.

"Go ahead and think that, if you want to lose."

"Kacchan, we don't want to lose." Izuku muttered. "I don't even know what it means when he says we're going to 'play', but I do know that nothing good is going to come out of it."

"Well obviously."

"Playing with me isn't bad it'll be so much fun!" Deku cried. "And if you could please hold still."

It was a good thing he didn't listen to psychopaths, otherwise Izuku suspected he'd have his head impaled with a knife at this moment. "No fair, dodging!" Deku complained.

"How old are you, Deku?" Izuku asked.

"I'm seventeen~!" he sang happily. "Why, how old are you?"

Izuku wasn't even sixteen yet, was this a clue to helping them figure out where they were, and what this place was? "I want to know, Deku, where are we?"

"Japan."

"Yes, but this isn't OUR Japan. So, where are we?"

"Well, if you consider all the information, I'd say you're experiencing the future!"

Izuku choked on nothing and began to cough violently while Katsuki glared and said, "The future? That's stupid. This can't be the future because Deku would never be like you!"

"Oh, but he's me to begin with, so that must count for something, right?" he plucked another knife from his belt, twirling it in between his scarred fingers.

"No, it doesn't." Katsuki said.

"What…" Izuku started, his head spinning slightly from this new information. If Deku suspected they were in the future than that meant that Izuku was destined to become the person standing in front of them, laughing maniacally and twirling knives in his fingers. "How… I… why?" he finally settled. "Why did you become this?"

"You should be asking, why did I become this." Deku corrected. "And the answer lies within us. You know EXACTLY why I became this; you just have to think about it." Izuku frowned, furrowing his eyebrows in deep concentration.

"Why… I don't know."

"We don't need to know WHY! Let's just blast him with our quirks and get the hell out of here!"

"Your quirks…" there was calculation in Deku's eyes and then a slow smile came across his face. "Oh, I see. It hasn't happened yet." He said.

"What's happened?" Izuku asked.

"Think about it, little Deku. What would cause such a catastrophe? What would cause me to turn out like this? What would cause me to strive to become the greatest hero in the world!"

"Greatest hero? More like villain!" Katsuki spat.

"You always were jealous, Kacchan." Deku stated mournfully. "That's why it happened."

"Why what happened?" Izuku pushed.

"I always was curious, wasn't I?"

"Let's just blow him up!" Bakugou shouted.

"Shut up, Kacchan!" Izuku shouted, the first time he'd shouted since they'd gotten there.

Deku clapped softly, "Already taking charge." He said, his tone praising.

"What happened?" Izuku asked himself. "Why did I become like this."

"Think of the most important thing in the world. What is the most important thing they could take away from you?" Deku probed. Katsuki only stared at Izuku incredulously. "What could they take away the only thing you thought you could always have if you tried hard enough?"

Izuku only frowned because he didn't know. He knew everything was expendable, he knew everything could be taken away in an instant, which was why he had to appreciate what he had.

"It was your dream, little Deku." Deku said. "It was your dream, and they took it."

A/N Well here we are. I wonder what will happen next! Thanks for reading you guys, really appreciate all the support I've gotten. Reviews motivate me to update faster so I might be able to update before Friday with your guys help! I personally love theorizing stories, so, any theories on anything in this story and I'll happily read them. (Also, I hope this entire story isn't too obvious... I plan for a total plot twist, so look out!) but yeah, reviews appreciated, I'll see you soon, bye!