Chapter 18:

Zach Sazaki slowly opened up his eyes. Everything in front of him was blurry, and he lay with his head turned to the side. His eyelids lifted and he saw a short woman sitting next to his bed, her stretching lips pulling back to her face. She looked at him in surprise though when her lips were out of the way, despite the heavy treatment she just lay on him. "Sazaki," Recovery Girl began. She smiled for a moment, then the short old lady shook her head at him. "I have treated many students in my years, but your class needs to take it easier." Recovery Girl had her hands on her knees, and she questioned, "How are you feeling?"

The school nurse looked in the boy's eyes to make sure that he was understanding what she was asking him. Zach blinked a few times, then he glanced around while turning his head a bit. His back hurt and he winced, while he gazed around the white walls and recognized it as a hospital room. Aunt Maye will be mad again, he thought, an odd thought to have he realized after everything that had caused this situation rushed back to him. His eyes started opening wide and he turned back to Recovery Girl fast. "All Might?" He asked, his face full of worry.

Recovery Girl sighed at his response to her question, then she smiled a bit as he seemed alright enough to her. "He's fine," she said, though she also sounded a little sad to him.

Knock- "Hey, oh Recovery Girl…" Zach recognized the voice at his door, and he smiled while trying to lean up farther, but his back really did hurt and he just winced after the attempt. The boy in the door saw the movement though and he ran inside next to Recovery Girl who sat on a chair at the side of Zach's bed. The teenager with messy and spiky blond hair ran up to Zach's bed and he looked at the black-haired boy who stared back at him. "You're awake," Kaminari Denki said.

Zach nodded his head, then Recovery Girl said to him, "Stay where you are." He turned his head back to her and Kaminari looked at her as well, and Recovery Girl started describing to him the injuries in his back that were the worst he received. A few simple treatments were not going to be enough, and Zach grimaced at the idea of something really damaging his spine.

At least it doesn't seem permanent, he thought based on what she was telling him, though that made him think back on Grappler and wince at the thought. His gaze then shifted back to Kaminari who looked to him again too. Zach's lips were curled down, and he opened his mouth to say something, then he closed it and frowned again. Recovery Girl let out an extra loud sigh this time and then said she was going to go check on another patient in a nearby room.

Kaminari and Zach watched her go, and Zach said when she had almost reached the door, "Recovery Girl, thank you." He tried bowing his head, but that hurt his spine and he winced only for the nurse to snap back at him to listen to her orders if he really wants to be grateful, and Zach promised to stop moving around as much. Once she left the room, Zach looked back at Kaminari and he began in a quiet voice, "So, what happened?"

Kaminari stared at him in some confusion, and Zach grimaced as he knew that was too vague. "I- I don't remember much at all, after I saw you guys," he said. "I'm sitting here trying to think, but- what day is it? How long-"

"Two days," Kaminari replied. Zach nodded his head, leaning his head back and staring up. It feels that long, he thought to himself. "And, as for what happened afterwards." Zach lifted his gaze again, and Kaminari was shaking his head while pursing his lips in a huge smile. "Ohh man, you are so unlucky you missed it."

"Huh?" Zach muttered.

The door to his room opened back up, and Zach looked over to see two other classmates walking into the room. They had just heard from Recovery Girl who they passed in the hall some news, and the two headed over fast. "Todoroki, Yaoyorozu," Zach said, looking at the two who he also remembered being there that night. As he saw them, he lowered his gaze down and stared at his bed in shame. He had a guilty look the others did not really get, and he began in a low voice, "You all, went out into that dangerous situation-"

"We saved Mt. Lady," Todoroki said. Zach lifted his gaze, then his eyes opened huge and he suddenly remembered what he tried telling them right before he passed out.

"What about-"

"That other guy was fine," Kaminari cut in. "He bounced back, apparently he was just out cold for a bit from All Might's punch, but All Might must have still been holding back even then because you were still there."

He was fine, Zach thought in some relief. "Mt. Lady," Zach whispered. "I don't remember anything about it," he added.

The others glanced around at each other, then Todoroki stepped closer to Zach's bed and he began, "We got you over to her, staying out of All Might's way and going around the outside of the area. But when we tried to wake you up, you started fading in and out of consciousness. You were saying that you'd save her, but as you knelt next to her, your broken arm wasn't moving."

"You guys didn't-" Zach began, a scared look in his eyes.

"No, you warned us not to try and force your arm on her," Kaminari said. "And none of us, really wanted to try that," he added, thinking about how it had been considered for a moment while Zach had knelt there mumbling to himself.

Zach lowered his gaze, thinking hard but finding his memory too hazy to even recall warning them. "So then, how?" Zach asked.

Todoroki frowned some more, then he said, "There was someone else there who you did not see. He, copied your power," Zach's eyes started opening wide, and Todoroki finished, "And he used it to save Mt. Lady."

Zach's bottom lip dropped, and he thought about all the pain he felt trying to bring back Kirishima after he had just died. "Monoma?" He whispered, just to make sure. The other three nodded, Kaminari looking as surprised as he did and the blond boy already knew about it.

"I know," Kaminari said at Zach's look. "Crazy, right?"

"I almost stopped him when he started yelling in pain," Todoroki admitted. "But he stopped screaming, to tell me that it was 'normal.'" Zach's eyes opened wide, and he muttered that he figures it could be considered 'normal' if the two times it had happened they both hurt. He had already expected it, but the fact that Monoma picked up on it as well surprised him, though not much as he thought about the other boy's strategies and tricks in the Sports Festival.

"Then, we tried to escape there quickly," Yaoyorozu continued. Zach looked to the girl with a spiky black ponytail who smiled at him as he made eye contact with her. "And All Might took care of the villain, All For One."

Zach shivered as he thought about that monster, but he smiled at the idea of All Might beating him. As he lay there smiling though, he saw some hesitation on his classmates' faces. "What else?" He asked.

"When All Might was fighting, this weird thing happened," Kaminari said. "On all the cameras, he just, kind of, deflated…"

"I am worried about-" Yaoyorozu continued, then her eyes widened at the expression on Zach's face.

Zach took his eyes off the others and shifted to a tv in the corner of his room. "Everyone, saw?" He whispered in a quiet voice, then he really wished he had just thought it in his head. He closed his mouth fast and did not glance back at the others who he wondered if they were staring at him with wide eyes at the moment. Instead, his eyes lowered to his right arm, an arm he felt strapped to the bed. He looked at it, and his eyes opened wide as he saw a black glove over his right hand with only the bottom of it sticking out of the larger white mitten over it. "No, box?" He wondered in confusion.

Kaminari was confused at what Zach was talking about when he turned and whispered the first thing, but he grinned at the sound of that confusion. "The principal went back and did another press conference," he said. Zach turned back and looked into his blond friend's eyes, and he saw Yaoyorozu smiling brightly and even Todoroki with a small smile on his face too. "We all saw that other press conference on our way to help, and it really pissed me off. But, the principal went back on and told people how he had been working with the police and couldn't say anything. He made another press conference to let everyone know that they got "both" of the students back, and then he added that he would now deny the rumor that you joined them."

Zach's eyes grew huge and his eyes shot back over to his right hand, then back to Kaminari and the others next to him. "So- I'm…" he whispered, then his lips started trembling too much for him to say anything else. He turned ahead again and he bit down hard, so hard as he stared at the wall across the room. He rose his left arm and started rubbing it across his eyes fast, "I thought- I thought I was done for. I thought, I don't know, I just thought the whole world would-" he pursed his trembling lips again but lowered his arm, and when his left arm lowered past his mouth, it was lifted into a huge smile that he turned back to his classmates with.

Kaminari had his phone out and was searching for something, and he turned the screen after Zach looked back at him. It had a small recording and he saw the principal in the middle of the screen, zoomed in on Kaminari's phone. The time marker at the bottom was pulled more than halfway towards the end of the video, and he pressed play for Zach at the fifty second mark. "…Zach Sazaki is an aspiring hero and a bright student- Not a villain." Kaminari pulled the phone back and then smirked at Zach's wide and teary-eyed expression.

"Could have fooled me though," Kaminari said. Zach looked up at him and stared with wide eyes, and Kaminari then narrowed his gaze and put a creepy smile on his face as he said, "This society overgrown with fake heroes…" Todoroki spun to Kaminari with wide eyes, while Yaoyorozu just looked a little confused. Kaminari leaned his head back and called in a mocking voice, "Someone must be dyed in blood!"

"What are you doing?" Todoroki asked, as those words sounded very familiar to him.

Kaminari pointed at Zach who eased back in his bed with red cheeks and an embarrassed look. "It's what he said when the villains came to take him. Totally creeped everybody out."

"I, had to make it believable?" Zach offered, saying it as a question though since he felt like he was making excuses for scaring his classmates.

"Dude, I saw the video so I even knew what you were doing, and you still scared me," Kaminari said, laughing again as Zach looked at him. Zach had a hesitant expression on his face as he saw Kaminari laugh, then he glanced back towards Yaoyorozu and Todoroki, the latter of whom started frowning at him only to nod in understanding after a second. Are they right? Zach wondered. I knew, that quoting him would get those villains to believe me. That's the only reason I said that stuff. Does everyone really believe that? Do I really not, have to explain myself to anyone?

Zach started sniffling and he had to rub his face again. The official statement by the principal, the looks on his classmates' faces, it was all too much. He had thought his world was ending. After he woke up with Recovery Girl in front of him and felt the restraints on his right arm, he suspected the worst. The restraints just seemed to be so he didn't accidentally move it in his sleep though, or while the doctors were working on him, since they didn't put the big protective box over his hand. Zach wondered how they got the gloves on in the first place, then he turned as Yaoyorozu started in a soft voice, "Zach." He looked at her, and the other two guys looked left at the girl farther towards the foot of Zach's bed.

Yaoyorozu hesitated, then she looked at the boys on her right before turning back to Zach. "We agreed, not to tell anyone-" she paused. "We don't know, if All Might will," she faded off again and then got a nervous expression like she did not know how to finish telling him this.

"Your scary transformation thing," Kaminari said, and Zach grimaced while the other two shot him looks at the way he worded it. "What? It is scary," Kaminari said, shrugging at the two who continued to frown at him.

"I know," Zach whispered, looking back up at Kaminari himself. "Did you, hear-"

"How you said you thought it wasn't even real?" Kaminari asked, and he nodded his head. Zach thought about what else he had talked about in that moment, but he was glad Kaminari was answering like this without bringing up how he had tried killing himself. The blond boy continued, "If I looked in the mirror and saw that I'd rather think of it as a nightmare too."

"Kaminari," Yaoyorozu started.

"It's fine," Zach said, and he really meant it as he looked over towards her. She seemed surprised, then Zach turned back to Kaminari and nodded his head, adding, "Were my eyes glowing? I always looked away fast, but I always noticed-"

"Yes," Todoroki said. Zach turned to him and Todoroki nodded his head while saying, "Your eyes glowed red."

Zach nodded his head, and he leaned back on his pillow again. He wanted to listen to Recovery Girl and stay as still as possible. His right arm still hurt a lot, which he only noticed when he tried testing how tight the restraints on his arm was, but it was his back that was really killing him. He lay flat and he listened as Kaminari continued on about his crazy transformation, and the other two added in things about the rest of the night. Todoroki mentioned how Bakugo was alright, and then as Zach opened his mouth to ask about someone, the door to his room opened up.

Todoroki looked back and spotted the person he had texted when Recovery Girl told them about Zach. Zach looked towards the door, Kaminari moving a bit so he could see, then Zach started scooting back so he could sit up better. He needed to get up so that he could bow his head, but the boy who walked in rushed over at the look of pain on Zach's face. "Don't move on my account," he said, waving his arms around in a worried way.

"Midoriya," Zach began, pulling back as he saw Midoriya waving his hands like that apologetically. He caught a glimpse under Midoriya's right sleeve, he saw some scars on the hand and did not know if they were already there or recent ones. Either way, Zach lowered his head and he said while looking down, while he felt pain in his back. "I'm sorry. Your arm," he said, his teeth grinding after it came out. Todoroki's eyes widened at the first words out of Zach's mouth as Midoriya arrived, but he also nodded after a second as if Zach said anything else he would have still felt upset at him over that. "It was, so destroyed," Zach lifted his gaze a little, and he saw Midoriya looking down at his right arm with a hesitant look, one that told Zach all he needed to know. "Can you, still use it?" Zach asked.

"Yeah," Izuku Midoriya replied. He clenched his right hand into a fist to show it, then he lifted his gaze to Zach and said, "So, thanks." Zach's eyes started growing wider, and Midoriya lowered his head back down to look at his hands. "I, I didn't want to lose Kacchan. I was so desperate, I would have jumped right through that portal…" Midoriya hesitated, then he lifted his gaze to Zach's shocked wide eyes. "But, if I had," Midoriya continued. "I- I probably would have died."

"Though that doesn't mean you should have gone in instead," Todoroki said, frowning at Zach who turned to him now. "You should have run, we all could have gotten out of there together."

"I'm sorry," Zach said, looking into Todoroki's eyes and seeing the other boy really was upset over how things went back then. "I thought-" Zach began, then he stopped himself and shook his head. "It doesn't matter. The things I thought I needed to do, none of it mattered in the end. The heroes came, and I just got in the way," he said, lowering his gaze back down to his lap which was covered in a thin white blanket. He brought his left hand down over his stomach and clenched a fist there while laying back and staring at the ceiling. "In the end, I couldn't even help Bakugo. You guys were awesome by the way," he added, turning his head to the group next to his bed.

"I can't believe-" Kaminari began. He stopped himself, then he shook his head and asked, "Did you really go with them, to save Bakugo?"

Zach's eyes widened a little, then he looked away and got a hesitant look on his face. Among, other things, he thought. "Mostly," he muttered.

Todoroki hummed and nodded his head once. I don't know why I believed he would become a villain so easily, he thought, frowning to himself at the thought. He imagined Hosu City, when Zach had sprinted to the edge of the alley he was walking down while dragging Stain behind him. He thought about the look of relief on Zach's face as he dropped his hands to his knees and started panting there.

Zach glanced around at the others when he looked back up, keeping his gaze off of Midoriya. I wonder, if the other four saw? Midoriya, Iida, Kirishima, and Bakugo might have been far enough away. I didn't transform into, didn't touch myself with… Zach grimaced deeper. I need to come up with a better name for that. Nightmare, doesn't fit something I'm going to start using more. In his mind he saw Ganeshi, shattering his right arm and running for the portal, even after Zach had slammed into him with his whole body covered in that black coating. Did he survive? Even if he didn't, it wasn't instant death. That means there could be ways to make my Quirk not kill people. It could be this super amazing Quirk that I've just never been able to control!

Kaminari lifted his phone, and then he looked at Zach with a grin and said, "The others are all heading here now." Zach's eyes widened and he felt a little nervous at the sound of that. "I told them that-"

The door of Zach's room slid open and everyone spun towards it. They all expected to see someone in Class A after what Kaminari just said, but instead they saw Recovery Girl there with her back to them and speaking in a frustrated voice. "I cannot allow this. He still needs-"

"I don't like it either," another voice said, and a man walked into the doorway who all of the students recognized.

"Aizawa sensei?" Midoriya wondered, while the man in the entrance turned to look over Recovery Girl and into the room.

Zach made eye contact with his homeroom teacher who was frowning more than usual today, which was saying a lot. Oh, that could be how they got the gloves on me, Zach wondered, glancing back to his right hand again.

"Hey, what's going on?" Kaminari asked, his voice raising with some panic in it that made Zach spin back the other way.

Recovery Girl hummed angrily under her breath, but she had to move out of the way for the men in the doorway with Aizawa. "Aizawa sensei?" Yaoyorozu questioned, stepping back towards the man with long black hair.

"You four need to get out of here," Aizawa said.

"What is this?" Todoroki asked, not moving from his place next to Zach's bed as he glared at the other men who walked in with Aizawa.

"Zach Sazaki," the man who walked in directly behind Aizawa began. Another two police officers behind this man walked in and towards the foot of Zach's bed, and the kid's eyes opened wide as he saw one of them carrying a large black box with him. Zach spun back towards the other man, spotting Recovery Girl with a frustrated look off to the side, looking down and shaking her head. The police officer with a full brown beard and a stern demeanor continued while holding up a piece of paper, "I have a warrant for your arrest. Please come quietly."

"For what?!" Kaminari shouted at the cop.

"Kaminari," Aizawa snapped in a harsh tone.

"And what are you doing here sensei?" Kaminari asked, turning angrily to the man who just told him to be quiet with that scolding voice.

"I just learned about this myself," Aizawa replied.

"Wh-What about the school's…" Zach started, spinning to the men on his right who stopped before reaching for his right arm. He spun back to the officer who held up a warrant and he said in a panicked and confused voice, "The school statement? The press conference?"

"This matter is out of your school's hands," the officer said. "Besides, you are not under arrest for joining the League of Villains. We currently accept U.A.'s statement on that matter. However, in the cases of the deaths of Atsuhiro Sako, and Shindeki Buda, you are charged with unlawful use of your Quirk, use of a Quirk without a Hero License, and thereby, two counts of homicide." Zach's bottom lip dropped, and his eyes darted from the cop to Aizawa, to Recovery Girl, over to the other police officers on his right and then the ones at the door.

All at once Zach's four classmates started arguing with the cops. Aizawa started yelling at them all, but Zach's mind was filling with white noise and he just lay back with huge eyes. His head turned to the right again and he did not move his arm as the two officers put the black box over it and then shut it over his hand. They undid his straps next, before pulling the blanket over his body down. He heard Aizawa yelling at the others, scolding them and saying that this was not a guilty verdict, but that they had enough evidence for a trial. Am I- Zach thought. The relief, the waves of relief he felt when Kaminari and the others told him the good news, it was all reversing and panic was pushing down on his whole body.

He kind of noticed some cops helping him to his feet, and though he winced as he got up, the fact that he could move meant that they could take him from there. His wrists were cuffed behind his back, and Aizawa walked up to his left side as they started outside and down the halls of the hospital. Doctors and nurses moved off to the sides along with other patients, and Zach saw other police officers farther down the hall. What is happening? He thought, his heart pounding and his head turning to face Aizawa. "Don't say a thing. They're vultures out there."

What? Zach thought in confusion. He heard a cop reading him off his rights behind him, and then he saw the front doors and through them. They were led down to them, out the doors, and then Zach's eyes opened wide. He stared down towards the street just in front of the hospital's front doors, but around the cop cars that were there, other vehicles had just pulled up. There were not many of them, but reporters were rushing up towards him and some of the cops moved out to intercept and keep them back. "I don't, I was just-" he spun to Aizawa, then the cop on his right who he thought might see what he was trying to say.

"Zach Sazaki! Why did you do it?"

"Did you really get captured, or did you…"

"How does it feel to have killed two people now?"

Zach spun around and looked at the reporters calling out and trying to get a statement from him. He was being led down the steps towards the cop cars that seemed so close, but he could hear and see so much before he reached them. He saw to his left over the heads of some cops and reporters he was about to walk to, a few people who had just arrived at the hospital together and were staring over with wide eyes. Asui, Aoyama, Uraraka, Zach's lips trembled as he saw them, staring at him with his hands cuffed, being led away like, like a villain.

"Why did you kill another person?"

"Do you think it's okay to kill villains?!"

"Do you think yourself above the law?!"

The door to the cop car slammed shut and Zach sat there with a dropped jaw and shocked expression on his face. He turned and looked back out the windows, seeing flashing cameras and the looks of so many people facing towards him. There were tv cameras there too, and Zach's eyes started shaking at the sight of them pointed towards the cop car. He turned back forward as the vehicle started driving, taking him, somewhere. What just happened played over and over again in his mind. It all felt like a blur. It happened so fast. His back hurt. He stared straight ahead and through the divider where there were two cops in the front seats, then he turned left and looked at another officer who had gotten in the car with him. He looked down to stare at his hand, but then he remembered that his hands were cuffed behind his back as he felt the shooting pain of trying to pull his right arm to his front. Zach winced and then just stared down at his lap with huge eyes and a terrified and stunned look on his face.

Oh shit.

A/N Thanks for reading. Zach's, in a bit of trouble... Hope you enjoyed. Leave a review telling me what you think, or predictions for the coming trial!