Death

by tmb1112

Death is a Quirk that can only kill. A perfect Quirk for a villain, but what if the boy who manifested that power just wanted to be a hero? Enrolling in U.A. might not be enough when all your Quirk can do is kill people. Follow Zach Sazaki from his first day in Class A on a story that spans years, as he learns to be a hero, finds out more about his Quirk, and too much to summarize!

111. Chapter 111

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 111:

In a valley between two mountains of the Crescent Mountains, The Cloak of the Army of Death was still in the snow. A white hare ran out from behind a tree and looked towards the snow on its right that dipped down in a huge area. It started hopping over, sniffing and turning its head to the side in confusion at the smell of the air in front of it. Then its head bumped into something as it moved forward more towards the pushed-down snow, and the rabbit spun and booked it from the invisible ship in the valley.

An invisible camera camouflaging into the snow shifted, and a chubby man with a soda and a hamburger on his seat tray watched the rodent scurry away. Rebel took a sip of his soda that was almost empty, making a slurping noise and then tossing it to the side where it landed near an overflowing garbage can. He sat in a comfortable relined seat that he leaned back in while keeping his eyes on the monitors in front of him. Behind him on his right sat another dark-skinned man who was more pitch black with his eyes glowing green and his mouth just a thin line that spread across his entire face from temple to temple. Directly behind Rampart on the other side of the room behind Rebel, a short, younger figure still in his mid-teens was leaned close up to his screen. He had sweat on both sides of his red-shaded face, and he lifted his hands and wiped his forehead and cheeks again in the hot support room he was working in that felt blazing, steaming, blistering.

"A nuke," Cherasaw whispered, his sweaty palms moving back down to his keyboard only for his fingers to tremble over it. He looked to his right over at Rebel's back, and he bit down on his bottom lip before asking because he had to, "How are you so calm?"

Rebel kept leaning back in his recliner, but he did not turn to one of the guys he had recruited on his own to help him out at his command post. He just kept staring at the screens in front of him and chowing down on the last of his burger. He finished it and lifted a hand to wipe his mouth with, and he subtly wiped the sweaty sides of his face too before replying in a cocky tone, "I'm used to shit like this. You'll get used to it too."

"Get used to it?" Rampart muttered while tapping away at his computer too. He had security footage up of traffic cams in nearby cities and towns in Arkistan, and a map on one of his screens was binging red lights in the Crescent Mountains that he analyzed on a third screen next to the blinking map. "You seriously dealt with something like this before?" He asked half-sarcastically without looking back at Rebel.

"…No," Rebel said after a few seconds. His voice was lower, and he got out of his reclined position while staring harder at the screens before him. Rampart and Cherasaw looked over their shoulders at him, and Rebel's expression was dark as he scooted in towards the computers. In the headset on his head which he had the mic pushed away from so he could eat and drink, he was listening in to a different conversation. His hands clenched and unclenched a few times and he put them down on his keyboards with an intense look on his face. "I ain't ever done this shit before. This, is next level. So don't fuck up, don't slow me down, and do what I say. We mess up here and…" Rebel trailed off and he ground his teeth for a second. I was doing this shit for fun. Got a kick out of it. "And we're gonna have millions of bodies on our hands."

"Fuck man," Rampart said, straightening up and tensing at that serious and dark tone from a man who was never like that. "Way to put on the pressure-"

"The pressure is on," Rebel said. He had to shift the mood in his own command quarters, because of the conversation he was listening to just got so intense he could not keep a relaxed expression anymore.

Across the world from the Army of Death's support team leader, inside the ship that Rebel was keeping an eye on the exterior of, in the war room Rebel was listening in on, a dozen people stood around a rectangular table with their helmets off. The soldiers all in their black costumes had their faces exposed to each other, which made it clear they could all feel the pressure pushing down on them. Zach stood at the head of the table, pressing his hands down on it and leaning forward as he spoke to the others in there with him. Gentle was closest on his left side, and Exodus on his right, then down from Exodus stood Darling, Mark, Akhmed, and Hank. Next to Hank at the far end of the table from Zach stood Access, then on his right was Grabble, then Michael, followed by Cee and La Brava who was on Gentle's other side.

There were maps down on the table, lists of their soldiers, and blown-up photos of enemies splayed about. Some pictures were pinned to the large board behind Zach covering an entire wall too, and there was a projector screen on his right side behind half of the members at the table that currently had up a large picture labeled at the top in pencil, 'Dragon's Den.' The mountains in the picture were covered in snow, but the one in the center had a huge opening that looked like a cave mouth near the top with an overhang sticking out of the mountain above the dark hole, icicles sticking down and sharp rocks around the entrance making it look like a protruding mouth.

On the board behind Zach, dozens of reports and lists and maps were pinned on top of each other. There were strings connecting pieces of paper far from each other on the wall, and one of the strings was red with a pin in it attached over the word 'SYNDICATE' with a question mark on the yellow sticky note the pin went through. That note was connected by the string over to the far corner of the wall where another name spread across labeled 'Fergus Conglomerate.' Below the Fergus Conglomerate's label were a dozen different company names, all with reports scattered around below them, all with strings connecting back across the wall, and another red line connected from up at the board area's main name to a specific report about one of the subsidiary companies that had a headquarters in Arkistan, where they currently were.

In between the Syndicate and the Fergus Conglomerate, in the center of the wall, there was a map of the surrounding area with lines drawn on it with arrows cutting in towards a black X in the middle of the Crescent Mountains. And above that map was a black and white picture of Hiroshima in 1945. It was enlarged and nothing else covered it, no notes nor strings nor any writing. The photo was near the top of the wall, meaning that everyone looking towards Death who stood in front of that wall, could constantly see that image while they talked. It hung over their heads and the air felt heavy as they talked. Some of them had been gulping or making fidgeting movements as they stood there, and the fact that there was a big red 'December 25th' on the wall behind Zach above that picture, and that it was currently the 21st of December, had every person in the room in a mood that had Rebel leaning forward in his chair across the planet.

"…Since we've been taking down so many of their guys, I know they'll expect us to locate their headquarters soon. So if they already suspect we know, the defenses will be strong. They didn't just run on the hunch that we could come though, and they probably would not even run if they knew we were coming. They know how many of us there are. They know our capabilities. But we know they're still here. Thanks to Cee's sacrifice, we were able to find the Dragon's Den. And we also know, that the Syndicate has the weapon they purchased."

"The nuclear warhead," Gentle said, not liking the phrasing of 'weapon' when they all knew what it was. His eyes were dark as he looked at the boy on his right, "Our number one priority."

Zach nodded at the man, and he said, "The nuclear warhead will be transported soon to their intended… to Paris. The longer we wait, the bigger chance they move the weapon. So there's no time left. We couldn't stop them from getting the nuke, and- and we don't know enough about the situation. We shouldn't be going in there, to face the entire Syndicate all at once. Not without the right reconnaissance."

"I should have gotten more out of them," Cee started in a low voice, her fists clenching at her sides. "And, I shouldn't have-"

"No one blames you Cee," Michael said next to the girl at his side. She turned to him and frowned, but he just said to her while lifting up the right corner of his lip, "Welcome to the club."

She shook her head, and then she stopped with the depressed look she had on her face for a moment there. She turned the other way while muttering in a low voice, "I'm not getting your stupid tattoo." Grabble and Access both cracked smiles despite their sweaty expressions, while Michael fake-groaned that she was not going to do so.

"The Syndicate is as big as we thought it was," La Brava said, turning from Cee who just looked back to her right. The short woman looked towards Zach and said in a low, serious voice that got them all back on track, "How many of their members are at the HQ when we move in could vary, but the inside of the Dragon's Den is huge. The entire mountain is man-made."

"A whole mountain appears out of nowhere, and no one checks it out?" Akhmed asked, his eyes shadowed over with the question. He shook his head and got a darker look on his face while his fists clenched tighter over the table. "I just- wish we could tell heroes."

"Arkistan is one of the most corrupt countries in West Asia," Zach said. Some of the pictures on the wall behind him had that corruption shown: lines from villain names to photos with them and with politicians, even with heroes in Arkistan. "We can't risk going to heroes, not this time. Too much is at stake. And we don't know enough about the Syndicate, not whose pockets they have hands in, whose wallets, or even just who they might be threatening too." Zach's expression darkened and his hands pressed harder onto the table, "If we mess up and they slip away with their nuke, millions will die. Ten million in the first minutes, upwards of fifteen million total when the fallout clears." Zach stopped for a moment and his eyes shifted around the table to each of the people around him. I can't. I can't ignore- even if I know, we're heading into a battle we can't win without losing people.

"It shouldn't be us, but it has to be. If we fail, Rebel will do his best to evacuate Paris, get it on guard with bomb threats… but they wouldn't be seen as credible." Zach paused and he said in a lower tone, "Everyone thinks the world is rid of nuclear weapons. Deactivated by Quirks and destroyed safely, and, and there shouldn't be any left in the world. But we know there is one here. We know, somehow the Syndicate got their hands on it. We know a couple of the Syndicate's leaders' names, and the Quirks of a few of them. It isn't enough. It isn't safe. This is why we're here though."

"You don't have to convince us," Michael started. He looked seriously over into Zach's eyes, and Grabble nodded on his left in agreement while Michael finished, "We're with you."

"We're the Army of Death," Grabble said. "No one ever said it would be safe." His eyes narrowed and he said over to his leader, "I'm not afraid to die for this."

"Well be afraid," Zach said, narrowing his eyes in a more upset way back towards his comrade. Grabble lifted his eyebrows and pulled back as he had said that with all his conviction and he meant it. Zach gave him a serious look though and shook his head once, "I don't want to lose any of you." He looked around at the others at the table one by one in their eyes. "So be afraid of death, but don't let it stop you. Stay alive, it's always your… no," Zach stopped and he closed his eyes for a second. "This time, it's not the priority. Make it your number two priority. Stay alive. Before destroying the Syndicate, and discovering who paid them to suddenly nuke Paris, because it's not their usual M.O., just stay alive. Gentle's right though, and we all know what comes first, before any of our lives."

"Stopping that nuke," Mark said. I'll do anything to stop it. I have to be willing, to go as far as possible. From the start. I won't let millions die because I was too weak, or because I wasn't willing to do what was necessary.

"In a few days, as the world celebrates Christmas," Exodus started. He lifted his head and looked straight into Zach's eyes, "It will be a joyous occasion. A celebration. Not a day for sorrow."

"Let's keep going over the plan," Hank mentioned down the table before everyone could keep saying motivational stuff. He had sweat over his face, and the former EMT gripped the table in front of him while gulping again at the thought of how risky this was. I'm the only one in this whole army with real medical training. And I'm going to need it so much tonight. Miraculu's power is too unpredictable. Oh fuck me, fuck fuck, a goddamn nuke?!

"Disposal of the nuke once we have our hands on it is going to be difficult, and we need to be very careful about how we do it. Each team will split up and spread out through the Dragon's Den as fast as possible to ensure the bomb doesn't get taken away…"

---

"What's the catch?" Dorgon the Dragon asked. Dorgon faced a woman wearing a white cat-face mask, who had a team of ten mercenaries behind her. "They going to kill me in my sleep or something, is that it?"

"I assure you," the woman began in a professional tone, matching the professional-looking black business suit she was wearing. "Atlas Corp. solely wants to protect you. They have already been paid, and they are some of the strongest arms-for-hire in all of Asia. We know the Army of Death has been taking down Syndicate outposts and interrupting your cash flow," the woman froze and leaned back as the entire room around Dorgon shook. Her head turned a bit to the right, and she saw a giant troll man stepping out from a dark tunnel with his face twisting in rage.

"Did someone just say-"

"Down boy," Dorgon snapped, and the troll-looking man's face covered in fear. He dropped down to his hands and scooted backwards into the dark tunnel he just came out of in the Dragon's Den. Dorgon kept facing the woman in front of him, and he noticed some of the soldiers behind her had stepped back when his "pet" stepped out of the shadows. Most of them stayed where they were though, some barely looking interested at all. "You say they're already paid?"

"To do whatever you say, to a certain extent, for the next week. Their main goal is to protect you as we have reason to believe the Army of Death may know about your, Den."

"Oh, that's some good information," Dorgon said with a grin, nodding at the woman in front of him in a satisfied way. "If a Company girl like yourself says it's so, I'm not going to be the one to-" Dorgon trailed off. He stared at the white mask in front of him, and he felt strange as the room got shaky itself. A man in the center of the group of ten hired soldiers behind the masked woman snapped his head to her back with his eyes opening wide.

Phinx stared at the woman he thought was just a representative for whoever hired them, who he immediately felt a murderous intent coming from as soon as 'Company' was emphasized in Dorgon's sentence. Dorgon narrowed his eyes after trailing off his sentence, and he bared his teeth at the woman before him, "Don't forget where you are, Company girl. I can be as civil as I want, and you're making me not want to continue this any further as a conversation."

"The Army of Death are not the only ones to know your location," a deep modulated voice came out through the mask which had Dorgon leaning back in confusion. "If you continue to imply that you know who we are, you would be wise to speak with more caution. Dorgon the Dragon." The woman speaking in that creepy deep voice shook her head around and then stepped back from Dorgon. In her old voice she said in a more hurried voice, "Please do utilize these soldiers to, the best of your ability. And all of you," she turned to the men behind her who she hired and gave specific orders before arriving at the Dragon's Den. "Do kill the Army of Death should they arrive here. If someone gets a hold of Zach Sazaki's head, they would receive a paycheck three times what has already been delivered."

"Zach Sazaki?" A brutish man on the left of Phinx asked. Charles had a cigarette in his mouth as he sat on top of a heavy cannon pressed into the floor below him so hard it broke through the floor. He blew smoke while looking towards the man who got him this job and then lifted his eyebrows at his response.

"Death," Phinx said.

"You know it's him then?" Dorgon asked, having done his research into his enemy himself. "For sure?"

"Yes," the woman in the white mask replied. "Do be careful," she added, looking back towards Dorgon again. "And should Death attack with his army, I must request that everyone here refrain from mentioning the Atlas Corp. to any of-" BOOOOM!

The woman stumbled around, some of the men snapped straight up and stared at the ceiling with their eyes opening huge, and Dorgon himself snapped his head up with shock spread across his face. Phinx narrowed his eyes at the ceiling, and he reached up and grabbed the hilt of the sword strapped on his back. "They're here."

"Well that didn't take long," Deathclaw cracked his neck back and forth and then started transforming. He turned his head towards the woman in the white mask who was still staring up at the ceiling. She had a black ponytail dangling below her head as she stared straight up with her head snapped back, and Deathclaw smirked and said to her, "Thought maybe you really knew exactly when this was coming, but guess they got you off guard too."

"They're fucking here!" Dorgon roared, and he turned and yelled to the tunnel near him. "THE ARMY OF DEATH! GET THEM!" The room started shaking again, and Dorgon snapped his head back to the hired guns in front of him. "Half of you, go up and fucking kill them! The other half on me! We're going deep in the Den."

"What's down there?" Phinx asked.

"Something you need to protect…"

---

BOOOM! Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch

Bang-bang-bang- Ka-BOOOM! Brrrr-dt-dt-dt Clank!

"Ten bogeys directly below us!" Fillian shouted to his right.

"Step back," Exodus said, lifting his arms above his head while a team of twelve stood around him.

DOOF- CHHHH

"Above!"

"Oh fuck!"

"We need backup!"

"Ashan shish ka-palooska!"

"Shoot them!"

"Take them down!"

"AHHHH!"

"Where is the nuke?!"

On the other side of the Dragon's Den but on the same level inside the mountain, six men and two female villains were speaking with one of their leaders in the deep basement of their headquarters. "Yeah, we got it! Let's get down there."

"The whole Army of Death is here?"

"There are only around sixty of them total. Those fuckers are underestimating us for the last time. Couldn't stop me in Mongolia, and now they're going down."

"How'd they find us?"

"Someone must've snitched- fuck! The wall!"

Crash! The cracks the man saw on the wall next to him widened and completely broke through, flames flying through them as Jetflame blasted his way through the wall with Jackhammer and Jughead. The team of eight running around the base panicked as a team of twelve soldiers in all black armor wearing helmets busted through their walls. Some of them started lifting up rifles or pistols, and then all of them saw the dark form flying through the wall engulfed in a fiery black aura.

"It's him!"

"Death's here!"

Zach swung both hands forward, and out from the ends of his arms as he dropped to the floor extended much longer arms with bigger hands that each had three sharp fingers. "Death Claws!" He swept his menacing arms through the enemies, aiming for the ones who looked most composed first. One of the ones who had risen a rifle at him flapped wings out through his clothes and shot into the air, and he fired down at the menacing figure wrapped in darkness. Bullets flew down at his enemy, only for them to hit the ground and not collide with Death, or something.

The enemy firing at Zach was so confused as he tried hitting him and kept missing, and then he flew straight into a wall and fell backwards with pink light in his eyes. He fell right into a black arm reaching up at him, and then Zach pulled his extended Death Claws back to his body and he let out a deep black breath. It hung in the air in front of his helmet and Zach started marching forward in a long dim hallway with flickering lights and seven unconscious villains in it. "Everyone, find that nuke."

Zach stomped right towards the one man on the ground who was not yet unconscious. He kicked away a pistol the man was reaching for, and Zach warned while leaning down, "Don't even try your Quirk." Zach's fully dark appearance wisped around and grew as he leaned towards the terrified enemy. "And tell me," he said, focusing a thicker aura of Death around his head specifically in two points where they might be considered as eyes. Those two pitch black centers of swirling Death bored into the terrified villain's eyes, as Zach growled, "Where is your fucking nuke?"

---

"Everyone keep moving down. Sweep through the entire Dragon's Den. We have to get to the bottom of the mountain, maybe even below it. It's in the core of the mountain, and it's still here."

Zach took a deep breath after saying all that in his normal voice. His aura of Death was off of him for now, while he led five people in a sprint down a staircase. Gentle, Darling, Jetflame, Cee, and Seraphim ran after their relentless leader who was not slowing down for anything. I can't let them escape. Akhmed and Juno are patrolling the exterior. Stay hidden and only attack if anyone's trying to escape. No one escapes. As many mission goals as we have, we need to succeed at all of them. Destroying that nuke without it going off, staying alive, taking down the heads of the Syndicate, locating all of their other bases, and their associates in the criminal underworld, and every part of the underworld I don't yet know. So much. All of it is possible. All of it is necessary.

A door on Zach's left swung open as he was about to sprint right by it to continue down the stairs. "Dea-" Jetflame started shouting down, only for his eyes to widen inside his helmet and his arms to stop rising.

Death was not wrapped in his Nightmare aura, so it looked like he was caught off guard by the man who threw the door open. Death's helmet turned to the door while the man on the other side opened his eyes wide then started shoving his right arm forward. Zach spotted a larger man behind the one in front, and the bigger guy also started for the stairs to rush out at him at the same time. Zach's body pulled back while the arm extending out at him was transforming into a sword. The sharp blade passed by the front of Zach's chest and he grabbed the man by the middle of his right arm and yanked it farther out into the stairwell. At the same time he yanked the first man in, he stepped towards the bigger man who was not expecting the distance between the two of them to suddenly shorten so much as they were heading towards each other.

Zcah slammed his left hand up into the bottom of the big man's chin, then he ducked and let the man he pulled past him swing his other arm around looking like a long sword. It slashed over the top of Zach's head and skimmed through the shirt of the big man whose head just snapped up so he did not see the blade coming. Blood spilled out the shallow gash across the big man's stomach, and as he yelled out in pain, Zach slammed an elbow behind him into the side of the man whose arm was still hyper-extended over Zach's back. Zach whipped out a knife from his belt while elbowing back, and he dropped down and slashed it across the big man's legs, cutting right through his shins and then slashing the other way across just below the first slash.

He reached behind him and grabbed the face of the man who hunched over when he was elbowed in the side, and he spun around and threw the man back into his bigger friend who already stumbled away to try not to get slashed in the legs again. Then Zach jumped up and slammed both feet out into the smaller man's face and knocked the big man on the other side of him down with the blow. As the big man fell with his comrade screaming on top of him, another figure ran into the doorway already with a gun risen towards the dark figure outside. Zach's heart rate skyrocketed as the gun pointed at him, and his body snapped to the side and then the other side as he dodged two bullets. At the same time as he was dodging, his eyes bright red inside his helmet, Zach was whipping a grappling gun up at his right side. He fired and nailed the man shooting at him straight in the gut, and then Zach yanked backwards and slammed his left arm out to the side, clotheslining the man getting yanked towards him.

Zach flipped the man over, and the guy slammed down hard on the back of his head. Zach slammed his right hand into his chest and then swept it in front of him before hitting himself in the chest again. He turned and started sprinting down the stairs, and he called out, "Jetflame, Darling, take the floor."

Gentle started sprinting down the steps after Death, and then Darling shouted, "Understood Commander!" She ran for the floor Zach just took three guys out on in seconds, and Jetflame shook his head around before running down after her.

Seraphim ran after Gentle and Death. She stared down towards the back of her leader's head, her eyes wide as she had thought like Jetflame that he might need some help not being surrounded in his dark aura. He dodged bullets like it was nothing. From point blank! No hesitation. That's what I need to be like, right now.

Outside of the Dragon's Den, The Cloak's weapons systems all popped out of the top and bottom and sides of the huge airship. "There are the defenses," Rebel said, lifting his tone like he was laughing though he did not actually laugh. "Fuckers could'a done some work if they'd seen us comin'-"

"Rebel! Stop fucking talking!" Access shouted, while grabbing the sticks in front of him and yanking to the right, as a dozen anti-aircraft turrets that popped out of the mountain were firing at The Cloak.

Raylei slid to her right and had to grab the equipment in front of her to steady. She typed with her other hand and then pressed a red button above her keyboard, and she snapped her head to the left, "Aim Scotty!"

"I'm trying!"

Machine gun turrets and rockets fired from the sides of The Cloak. Explosions blew up on the sides of the Dragon's Den, and the main entrance itself that had the most fortifications (which was why none of the Army of Death had gone in through there), collapsed as rockets slammed into the turrets and cannons set up inside it. The huge icicles fell and the sharp rocks broke apart, as the Dragon's face shattered and fell and then started tumbling down the side of the mountain.

"Don't tear the mountain down on top of them!" Cherasaw shouted as he watched on one of the drone's cameras he was controlling from across the world.

"That thing's a lot sturdier than you're giving it credit for!" Access shouted back. "These rockets are-"

"Listen up," Death's voice interrupted the support team's comms, and every one of them shut up instantly. "I'm giving you a target. Blow a hole, send in the cavalry."

Zach tapped a button on his helmet and returned to normal comms. "Seraphim, give me your gun," Zach turned and caught the gun the woman behind him with a purple ponytail stuffed under her helmet had already tossed his way. Zach tapped a button on the front of the barrel just below it where there was a laser that he pointed across the enormous cavern he just entered.

"Everyone ready up on Fillian's level. He's at the same point we just reached. Call it the central cavern." Zach aimed across the enormous room bigger than anything he thought would be in the mountain. The stairs continued down the wall on his left that he had stepped away from to get up to the single metal bar railing keeping him from falling a hundred and fifty meters to the ground. There was a fortress at the bottom of the enormous cavern in the mountain, and there were spikes sticking out of walls and the ceiling and up from the floor around that fortress. A base inside the base. Down there has to be where they're keeping the nuke. We have to get it away from them. No one should have that much power.

Zach locked the targeting and he tossed the gun back to Seraphim behind him. "On my signal. Exodus, Jetflame, Jackhammer, get ready to break through and breach. Everyone get your ropes ready to rappel. Those three let me know when-"

"My helmet's elevation matches the level Fillain said-"

"I am ready here, Commander."

"'Bout to bust down."

"Do it! Access! Fire the cannons!"

"DEATH!" A menacing, deep voice roared from down at the fortress. Huge steel doors started opening outwards, lowering like a drawbridge out of the huge fortress in the center of the cavern. A giant over twenty five feet tall with a bumpy head and carrying two huge steel clubs started storming out of the castle right over the metal door, and the troll-like guardian snapped its head up and let out a furious roar, "RRRAAAAA! THIS IS MY-"

"Here we go!" Access shouted. He and Raylei started firing all their weapons at the same spot on the outside of the mountain that their ship's front windshield showed marked with bright red flashing over and over.

"Fire everything!"

Ba-Ba-Ba-BOOOOOOOM The room shook over and over, and the guardian of the fortress who just sprinted out started spinning around and looking at the ceiling and then the wall on its left with its one eye huge. The cyclops troll took a step back, as a massive hole blew in the wall with chunks of rock flying inwards in huge explosions of flames. Three holes ripped in the ceiling, and a man surrounded in orange flames and one surrounded in white light started flying out of the air. Some of the spikes sticking off the top of the cavern broke and started falling, as did a large chunk of the ceiling around the hole Jackhammer blasted through the roof.

Zach looked into the middle of the huge cave, and then he snapped his head down and looked to the top of the fortress where he watched five large circular panels open up and turrets pop out of them. He snapped his head back up and saw Jetflame flying down with flames coming out of his hands and feet, and Exodus had light shooting out the soles of his shoes too to keep him up. "Here we go!" Zach yelled. "Everyone move in!" He slammed his right hand into his chest and then threw himself over the railing next to him.

"Oh my-" Seraphim started, running up to the rail where Death just leapt over.

"Use your rappel, Seraphim," Gentle said to the woman he walked up next to, motioning at the railing for her to hook up and drop down using. Then he leapt right over the railing himself, and he elasticized the air in front of him angled down towards the fortress. He bounced himself down after Zach who had his body pointed straight down with his arms at his sides, surrounded in a flame of darkness that rippled around him and grew stronger on his back every second. "Not the smartest move there-" Gentle began.

"Move away from me," Zach said.

Gentle looked at the boy oddly, but he swung a barrier in front of himself and blocked bullets flying up while bouncing himself away at the same time. Flames shot out of Jetflame's hands and feet, and he spiraled himself around the air in his descent while Exodus pointed his arms down and started firing bursts of light straight towards the turrets firing at them. Falling faster than all the others, just turning his vertical-pointed body left and right to dodge anything flying up at him, was a boy surrounded in Death who took in a huge breath. Zach narrowed his red eyes towards the huge monster that shouted up at him, and then he swung his arms out to his sides.

Out from Death's back ripped two huge black wings that spread ten feet in either direction, giving him a twenty foot wingspan. Zach pulled his body up, slamming his arms down and flapping the wings he just created with his Death in that motion. He rose his body up out of his straight descent, and he swung down huge wisps of Death at the same time which he angled towards the screaming brute of an enemy below. BANG! Zach spun his body in a spiral, narrowly dodging a fast and heavy caliber round. He snapped his head up and looked to the top of the fortress, but there was no one up there where the round just flew at him from.

"Damn, Death's a fucking monster," a sniper who was part of a team of hired mercenaries slid out of the ceiling and dropped down between four of his comrades. He shook his head and said, "Dodged a round from Sheila aimed directly on his head.

"You ever heard of the Army of Death losing?" Charles asked him, taking out his nearly burnt-out cigarette and flicking it to the side. He glanced over at a squad of four guys sprinting by and screaming at each other not to let Death reach the deep basement, then Charles looked down himself. "Phinx says he beat 'em once, but I never heard those bastards taking an L."

"What shall we do?"

Charles put another cigarette in his mouth, then he lifted up his personal cannon that once again broke through the floor and he rested it up on his shoulder. The ground beneath his feet broke down, and Charles said while lighting up his new cigarette, "We kill 'em of course. Just take them seriously. These are pros we're up against."

Through the hole in the wall of the central cavern, a team of eight flew inside and shot down over the falling rocks. Four members of the Army of Death had wings, and each of them were carrying another member pointing rifles down as they were flown into the base from a new entry point. Mark yelled at his team to move, and then he fired down towards the top of the fortress where there were still two firing turrets left. Exodus blasted some more white light over right as Jetflame spun around in the air and then threw a fireball down at one himself.

High above the teams flying down at the fortress, Darling slid down the rope faster than was safe out of the hole in the ceiling that Jetflame blew open. She was staring down a hundred meters with her eyes huge, ignoring the people above her shouting at her to slow down on her descent. He did it!

Zach flapped his wings again and again, and then he curled himself up and dropped into a roll that he sprinted straight out of and ignored the pain in his right leg as he ran it off. He slowed himself almost as much as he wanted to, and he acted like nothing was wrong while running past the huge oaf that had run out to face him. Zach leapt over a metal club on the floor that was meant to smash his head in, then he charged across the open doorway of the fortress. As he was about to run inside, a thud slammed down on the door on his right side and Exodus sprinted forward with him without missing a beat.

Zach focused Death down on his feet and sped farther in front of Exodus. He brought Death from his back down his arms and focused on each of his index and middle fingers. Zach sprinted through the fortress and into a giant entrance hall with twenty people in it, and Zach's extended flaring arms snapped back as he spun them directly towards as many people as he could as fast as he could without slowing down his sprint. Bursts of darkness shot out of Zach's hands and at the villains who yelled out and dove away or fired back.

Two men up on a balcony aimed down towards the floor of the hall, and then the wall behind them exploded inwards with a squad of people in black uniforms busting through into their fortress. "Storm the castle!"

"Find the nuke!"

"They're everywhere!"

A light flashed in the room, then an explosion of flames blocked an exit as a cluster of the Syndicate members tried running away down another hallway. "Tell me!" Zach yelled out in his scariest and most scratchy deep voice. "Where is your nuke?!"

Exodus lifted a man by his long tongue and pulled his face close to his own helmet. Exodus' visor glowed white while he lifted his other hand and put the searing hot palm up close to his foe's skin, making the man mumble out in terror while trying to pull away with a busted up face and blood all over it. "How many more basements do you have?" Exodus asked, his voice modulated and coming out deeper through his helmet.

"You don't want me asking again!" Mark yelled, three spikes of water lifted over his opponent who already had three big gashes on his body from their short fight so far. All the blood on the villain's body and clothes pulled away from him, and that blood turned into the biggest spike of all aimed right back at the terrified man feeling woozy at the sight of all that should be inside him. The man started to babble in Arkistanian, and Mark pushed all of the spikes closer and then yelled out in the same language, "WHERE IS THE NUKE?!"

"It's still farther down," Zach announced through all the headsets. "Everyone keep descending. We don't stop until we have it!"

Exodus clenched his open glowing hand, and he slammed his huge fist into the face of the man with a long tongue. He tied him up and then threw the unconscious man to the side, where Mark just dropped a man he had strangled to unconsciousness with his own blood.

"Some of them escaped. They're probably heading to some stairs farther down," Mark said, running up to Death and pointing down a hallway they had not blocked off.

"You eight, go with him," Zach said, looking around at individuals filling into the hall or already in there. Mark started running off without another word and shouted at the others to follow him. Zach turned to Exodus, "Straight down."

"Search the fortress!" Zach shouted. "If they don't surrender, take them down!" He bellowed it and dozens of soldiers charging into the room through doors and holes in the walls spread out. They ran down hallways, putting out flames their comrades had made themselves, sprinting up staircases covered in bullet holes and motionless villains hit by blasts of Death. Zach said only in his helmet instead of screaming out this time, "Even if they do surrender make sure they can't move, knock them out after too if you see it necessary."

Exodus fired white beams out of his hands into the floor, digging deeper and deeper until he finally blasted through to another hollow level below. He turned to Death and nodded, and Zach nodded back at him, and then they looked over at Gentle who was standing nearby and nodded his head once at their looks. The three of them dove into the hole, Zach and Gentle right behind their larger comrade who fired light ahead of him and lit up the massive basement below as wide as the central cavern instead of just the size of the fortress above. It was not as tall as the huge cave system above, but in that dark floor were several enemies. Only the enemies gathered on this floor were a different breed than the types they had been fighting above.

Five mercenaries lay still in the darkness that light started to fill down from a hole in the ceiling. An explosion on the outside of the mountain shook the entire Dragon's Den, and yet each of the figures in the darkness stayed still without so much as moving a muscle. Yet as three of the strongest and most experienced members of the Army of Death fell down through the roof, into a huge room that looked completely empty, they were not fooled for a moment.

A perfect place to lay a trap.

They're behind the rocks. Over there is a perfect ambush spot for the far wall doors we might've come through. That rock too. There's a tank, probably not occupied, but behind it is good cover. There. There too.

Professionals. Gentle flipped himself over and bounced across the room with his night vision on in his helmet. He stared down over the rock he just shot above, and he was already swinging his arm down, so the cannonball fired at him bounced straight back down into the floor where the man who fired it was just standing. The merc jumping away crossed one arm in front of his face to protect from the explosion, then he slammed his heavy cannon into the floor and dragged it backwards making a huge trench with rocks flying up in the air as he skid fifteen feet. He lifted his cannon and swung it in front of him, blowing away the smoke and then aiming up at the man who flipped around again and bent his legs against thin air, before blasting himself straight at his opponent.

But then again, Gentle thought, while opening the fist he had started pulling back like he would punch it forward as he rocketed at his opponent. He made the air at his side elastic and pushed his hand against it, changing his trajectory instantly so he would be nowhere near the mercenary swinging a cannon at him. It was not the cannon he was dodging, but his comrade's sphere of darkness that crashed into their enemy an instant after Charles smashed his cannon into the ground. So are we, Gentle thought smugly, and he spun around and put up a wall to protect himself from a sniper Zach just warned him about. A huge sniper round slammed into the elastic air in front of Gentle and pushed in close to him, the tip of the bullet skimming against the front of Gentle's chest armor for a moment, right before bouncing back so fast that it tore apart some of the cover Gentle thought the sniper was hiding behind.

A scream rippled out through the room from over at that cover, and Gentle smirked as he discovered the sniper's Quirk. The man stumbling out of his half-destroyed cover that he was actually hidden inside of barely kept a grip on his sniper, and he rose his head with his night vision goggles on and snapped it back and forth. He watched as the rest of the team was fighting a man surrounded in white light and one shrouded in darkness, then he snapped his rifle up and fired five times in rapid succession at the one sprinting at him. The man he fired at bounced side to side to side to side and dodged his bullets time and time again. Then Gentle bounced himself up in the air and started flipping while putting up protection in front of him. While he was in mid-flip though, he twisted around while upside-down. He spun so his front was facing his enemy again, right as he was passing the top of his Gently Rebound that only he knew the extent of, and he fired the pistol he had drawn when his back was to the opponent.

Bang

---

"RrrrRAA!" Zach tightened the white bandage around his left thigh. He pulled it tight and then tied a second time to make sure it stayed that way and would not fall as soon as he started running. Zach slashed the ends of the bandage instead of trying to tuck it in below as he had just tightened it and did not want to loosen the wrapping by pulling it out to get the bandage underneath. He lifted up his knife in his left hand and flicked it around through his fingers, then he started running forward and grinding his teeth through the pain he felt in his left leg where he had been stabbed through his dark body armor.

He ran in complete darkness with a helmet on his head that showed him his surroundings in a tinted green view. He slammed his back up against the wall next to an open doorway, and he peered through it before turning the corner and running down a new hall. "Stay off comms if you have nothing for us," Zach snapped, shutting up Michael instantly before continuing with, "What did you just say Tyene?"

Zach slowed, then he checked down the hall on his right that was also pitch black. There are lights, but they cut them. Haven't seen anyone for a while. No one else this far down's reporting movement either… "Keep moving down everyone. The nuke has to be farther." Zach ground his teeth and added, "I'm not going back up. Bring his body down to me. I'm going farther."

"Georgia's dead too-"

"Bring her too. We can't turn back."

"Just heard two of our enemies shout about how they have to hold off until they can get the nuke out of here."

"How can they transport something like that at the drop of a hat?"

"What does that mean?"

"That nuke doesn't leave the Dragon's Den!"

"Everyone move down!"

"They've got a guy with crazy strong ice powers back in the central cavern!"

"I'm heading back there," Jetflame shouted as soon as he heard that. The former British hero turned his head from the two burnt villains in front of him in a dark hallway only illuminated because of his flames. Deep in the villains' lair, the red-haired man shot himself back the direction he came as fast as he could. "Hold him off for a minute. Ice villains are my forte."

As Jetflame flew as fast as he could back towards the central cavern, he listened to the other voices shouting information and orders at each other. "You have to believe me Brick, it was real! I don't know what happened to the place! I know there's no evidence, but you've gotta believe me! Please!" I didn't believe you, and for that I'm sorry. The moment I heard you were dead I knew, it was the truth. I didn't need to hear Death say it. I didn't need to see something like it for myself. Sandlot, you were right about it all. The Army of Death are the good guys. And I won't let them lose- I won't let us lose.

"Move! Keep moving down! Use the holes or head to the stairs down that hall and to your right!" La Brava yelled at a team running into a fiery and destroyed hall in the central cavern's fortress. She had been brought in with the "cavalry," or the team of flight-Quirks and the ones they had carried in. Mark and the others were already almost all farther down, but she shouted at a pair she saw sprinting into the building carrying someone between them, "Hold on a minute!" La Brava put her hand to her helmet and got back on comms that were full of noise. "Everyone shut up! Death, what's your location? I've got Yusef here-"

"I'm…"

Zach turned off his night vision. He opened the air vent and dropped down into a white room, and he looked to the open door and into a long white hallway that looked clean and pristine. "What is-"

"Death!" Gentle snapped.

"The- the mountain- the lower basements are clean. Different! They're, clean, and white and very illuminated. Oh shit," Zach whispered and shot to the side of the room. He did not know why he was suddenly hiding after charging through so much of the enemy base, but he continued in a low whisper, "Whole lot of guys down here. Is no one else on this level yet?" The fact that no one had given him any warning about this strange change in atmosphere told him that he was on his own for the moment. He heard some positive responses from the others just above him though which he could tell as they gave him their elevations and Zach let them know what the translucent number on the bottom left corner of his visor said.

We need to keep moving fast. Never give them time to rally, to set up, even if they're already setting up. Those guys who just ran past were nervous. I can't let them relax. Shouldn't just run out if they don't know where I am though. Used a lot of Death already too. Haven't killed anyone yet, and I shouldn't do it just to power up. Use Trigger first. Always. Where?! Zach leaned harder into the wall and strained to listen, but the people he just heard mention something about "nuclear" got too far out of range for him to hear. As Zach strained to listen he found himself looking around the room he was in closer, and he did not like the look of the medical tools on the counter or the fact that there was a cushioned operating table on his left side either.

An unsettling feeling Zach had felt several times over the past few days stirred in his chest again. And once again Zach pushed that feeling down as deep as he could. This isn't Scotland. I'm still high in elevation technically. And I have to be here! I need to stop that nuke. Zach shook his head around and took in a deep breath, then he covered himself in Nightmare and sprinted out into the hallway. His red eyes darted back and forth in it, then he shot down the direction of an intersection he heard some shouting voices around a corner of.

A group of people sprinting down a hallway were planning on going straight, and they were in such a rush that they were not looking around them, so the first two in the group just kept running as a dark mass barreled towards them. The third person in the pack turned his head to the left, and as much as he was steadier than the others because of his ability to feel the caution he needed to at the moment, he was in no way ready for the form of flaming darkness sprinting his way at fifty miles per hour. "RRAAAAA!" Zach yelled out too, his voice scaring everyone else around the man who had yet to yell out at them all to look. Some of them fell at the scream, all of them spun and some screamed themselves, and the man raising his arms that had purple goo dripping from them froze with his arms only half up.

"I-I give-"

Zach slammed a black fist into the man's chest between his arms. He slammed the guy back into the wall behind him, then he swept a Death Wind behind him into four others who tried diving or rolling away only to collapse unconscious.

Then Zach pulled all the darkness he could away from his left hand which after just using a lot made it easier. He reached his left hand down out of his dark aura, while everyone else who had been touched by it so far was no longer moving in the hall. The villain he grabbed by her white tank top had a look of sheer terror on her face that started getting confused too as she was not dying or even falling unconscious as she hoped the others had.

"Which way to the nuke?" Zach growled, and he brought his right hand towards the woman's head with so much more flaring Death around it as he forced the excess Death trying to go down his left arm over to his right. The woman Zach was holding had sweat all over her face, but though she managed to keep her mouth shut and not tell the monster interrogating her a thing, Zach saw which direction her eyes had twitched over to for an instant. It was not even a complete dart of her eyes to one side, but his red-tinted vision caught the slightest movement in her terrified eyes that signaled something when it happened directly after Zach's question. He let Death slide down his left arm and finally she opened her mouth to scream, though only half of one came out.

Zach dropped the unconscious woman and turned the direction he decided the nuclear warhead was in. Crash! Zach heard something crashing ahead of him and to the right down another hall, and ash and dust blew into his hallway with a flash of white light. "Exodus, this way!" Zach kept sprinting straight ahead, and he only darted his eyes over for a moment to see the big man running his way and then following behind him.

"A place like this, so far down…" Exodus began.

"Keep your mind off it," Zach warned, already past what Exodus was now noticing for the first time.

Exodus nodded his head and he rose his right hand. "Flare!"

Zach closed his eyes, then he snapped them open and forced more Death out the soles of his feet. He sped up and down the hall at a man and a woman who just came out around the corner and were starting to use Quirks aimed at them. The man managed to fire his off first, only to aim it straight into the wall at his side instead of where he thought he was looking, and the spikes that pierced out of his body into the wall moved so fast that it threw him farther into the hall and into the woman next to him. She spun as she was slammed into, thinking someone was attacking her, and she grabbed her bubbling green hand around the face of the man pushing into her.

Right as she started poisoning her own comrade though, both her and the other blinded villain she was attacking fell to the floor with Death sweeping past them. Zach took a deep breath and he turned off Nightmare form this time as he ran by the two, Exodus sprinting past their bodies just behind him.

An explosion above shook the floor that Zach and Exodus were on, but no cracks formed on the ceiling or walls showing the place was still structurally sound. Zach glanced down below him as he kept running, and he frowned deeply with his eyes narrowed behind his visor. The deepest basement, or the direction that woman looked? Is this the deepest basement already? We're around the surface level where the base of the mountain should be.

"Let us stay together from here on," Exodus suggested behind his leader. "We must be getting close to the Dragon."

Zach nodded once but his mind was straying from what Exodus said. There must be more forces in the mountain. The Cloak will keep others from returning, and Akhmed and Juno can keep any from escaping. What is it? What is this?! "The nuke is close," Zach said, running to the end of the hallway and slamming his foot into double doors that flew open and gave him a view down another hall to a huge white wall that had glass windows on their side showing them into a control room of some kind. Zach's eyes narrowed and he glared that direction, spotting two figures through the glass facing the opposite way as him, and both of them were wearing baggy yellow suits that looked to be to protect from radiation.

"Exodus, get everyone here," Zach ordered, and then he shot forward as fast as he could. He whipped out a knife and a grappling gun, and he shot himself down the hall faster by hooking through a panel on the ceiling and retracting himself while in mid-sprint.

"Death has located the nuclear warhead. Elevation level and coordinates…"

"Everyone converge on that position! We know they're going to be protecting the bomb with their strongest forces!"

"Move on your Commander!"

"Get the nuke!"

"For Paris!"

"For Death!"

Zach sprinted straight through the connecting hallway at the end of the long one he just sprinted down. He jumped up and lowered his shoulder into the glass wall, and he slammed straight through it which had the two on the other side spinning from their equipment and yelling out in panic at him. One screamed in English and the other in Arkistanian. Zach flicked a knife forward and slashed through the right sleeve of a man's hazmat suit. "You're not protected now," Zach said, his voice modulated and deep out of his helmet while he stood there clad in all black armor.

The villains looked at the dark figure standing there, a katana on the back of his waist, sword hilts sticking out above his shoulders, knives strapped all over his body. "D-Death!"

The entire mountain shook, worse than the last time Zach felt the place shake. He heard shouts in his helmet and then cheers of victory from a few people including Jetflame who others were calling out in amazement over. Yet as they all cheered, Zach saw the two in front of him spin around and look at the high-tech equipment and sensors. Red lights started blinking, arrows on readers shot up towards red areas where the numbers were much higher. The man who got the gash in his sleeve and was bleeding snapped his head up to a steel door on the wall between the equipment he and his partner were at. "This is bad- Hey!"

"No! You can't go in there!"

"Fanza kunbarak! Kunbarak!"

Boooom… A rumbling shook the entire mountain, and the people shouting at Zach spun back to the room next to them with terrified looks in their eyes.

Zach stormed at the door and he slammed it open. "Get out of here!" a man screamed at him from behind the mask of his yellow hazmat suit. Zach was not in there for a second, and the man who screamed at him was not afraid at all of the ominous figure in dark clothing while he backed up in his protective suit.

"Calm him down!"

"Ashis! Ashis!"

Zach froze in the doorway and stared straight towards the middle of a large light-blue room with a soft carpet on the floor, a bed near a wall ahead of him, and a kid in the center of the room who looked his way and then stepped back with a look of terror spreading across his face. And as that kid stepped away from him, the three people in the room with that boy all backed away from the child too, because his bright face started glowing brighter orange in a way that had Zach unable to breathe. There aren't any nukes left in the world…

Zach's eyes shook, and he heard a shout behind him as Exodus attacked the two at his back who were about to try and catch him off guard. Zach just kept staring straight ahead, and he did not notice that Gentle ran into the room behind him either. Zach stared into the eyes of the child glowing orange and making everyone else in the room shout at him to calm down. He's, a boy. Doesn't look older than, eight years old.

"Death," Gentle began in a low voice behind him. "We can't let them keep-"

"We are not hurting that child," Zach said. He took a step forward towards the glowing kid, and the boy rose his arms up fast at Zach which made him stop where he was. Zach froze, and his eyes opened huge inside his helmet. The kid waved his palms at Zach, only for his terrified eyes to dart down to his shaking palms in even more fear as they glowed so brightly. He pulled them back away from the dark figure, pulling towards his chest and trying to take deep breaths as he stood there wheezing in terror, his eyes darting up in fear at the dark figure ahead of him.

Zach could not take a step closer at the sight of those eyes. He froze completely, and then he lifted his hands up. He slowed down the movement of his arms when they were halfway up, as the kid pulled back in fear of the dark figure covered in so many weapons. Zach stared at a kid looking at him in so much fear that it hurt him, a look of pain he remembered so well. A different time, a different costume, but dark and in a place so terrible for the person in it he was trying to save. He stared at a kid half the age of the girl he just imagined, naked and scared and pulling away from him with such fear in her eyes. Thompson's face faded though, as Zach took his helmet off and lowered it down to his waist where he clipped it on.

The three adults in the room with Zach all stared at Death with their eyes huge inside the super strong glass coverings of their suits. The boy staring Zach's way lowered his bottom lip too. The kid had short but messy black hair, and he had light brown skin that Zach was finally able to tell as he said in a strong but soft voice, "It's okay now. I'm here." The boy's orange glow faded down, as he stared at the smiling face looking towards him. And Zach kept that smile on his face even as he felt his chest ripping with pain at the sight of the child's shocked eyes full of confusion. There was no recognition in them, but the child leaned towards the man who just took his helmet off with that confused look still on his face.

"Ashin. Pupao ka- ka ka! Ka ashin!" The boy called out towards him in words he did not understand.

"I'm only going to tell you this once," Zach said, speaking in the same soft but strong voice he just used towards the child. He made it more strong than soft and turned his head to look at one of the men in yellow hazmat suits. Zach did not make his expression intimidating. He kept the look of a hero on his face for the boy still staring towards him in shock. "Explain to me what you've done to this child. If you lie, I'll know. If you don't tell me, or if you lie, I am going to kill the three of you in the most painful ways you can imagine." Zach's voice was calm and questioning, then he turned back to the boy across the room from him and started walking his direction.

Gentle spun his head from the teen whose back he was staring at, looking behind him and down a hallway where he spotted three people all the way down through a set of double doors. They pointed his direction, and then Gentle heard a voice yell, "Get me my nuke!"

Gentle turned back and looked into the room behind him again, then he spun forward and rose a hand quickly up to his helmet. "Everyone listen up. This is now an extraction mission."

"Are we getting the nuke out of-"

"It's a child," Gentle said. He ground his teeth for a second and then snapped, "We need a direct route from our position down here. Our sole objective is to now escape the Dragon's Den." Sazaki thinks too much with his heart. The clear, safest option is right in front of him. He, he couldn't- nor could I. Gentle's eyes darkened and he growled in a low voice, "We do not kill children."

"The fate of an entire city is-"

"Do you have such little faith in our ability to win? Are you that afraid-"

"Of fifteen million people dying?! Yeah!"

"What if they escape with the kid?!"

"What if the kid blows us all up when…"

"He was with the Syndicate…"

"Shut up all of you…"

"If Death thinks it's what we should do…"

"Gentle, is this Death's order?"

"Everyone get your asses down here!" Exodus bellowed. "This is Death's command and you must-"

Zach tapped a button on the earpiece in his right ear, and he increased the sensitivity of his own microphone so the others speaking in the room with him could be heard. As everyone kept moving around through the Dragon's Den, they heard the terrified man on Zach's right saying, "…we don't know. I swear-"

"Don't look too afraid. I don't want to scare him," Zach commanded.

"…We just bought it. It's a weapon the bosses bought to carry out the… well, you know right? You already know."

"He's not a weapon," Zach said. Zach stared over at the kid he walked closer to, and the boy pulled back, but Zach smiled at him and held out his left hand in front of him.

They bought him. Where has he been? What happened to his family? I, I have no right to ever, ever complain about my life. "It's okay," Zach said, and the kid looking at Zach's outstretched hand took a step forward. Bought and sold by villains. Used, by monsters. That look on his face a minute ago… He, he's never seen anyone- anyone look at him like that. Like they genuinely wanted to help him! I can't let this kid… because, because he doesn't deserve this. He was cursed, with a horrible Quirk. Just like I was. He's innocent. As scary as I looked coming in, he waved his arms not so I wouldn't hurt him, but so I would stay away… He must have hurt so many people with his power. He must know how easy it is, to hurt. "You won't hurt me," Zach said, as the boy in front of him was hesitating to get any closer.

The child looked around, at the hazmat suits the others were wearing and then back to the figure with messy black hair in front of him. The smiling teenager, holding out a hand and crouching down as he held it out. The boy pulled his body back for a second, a look in his eyes of fear both that he would hurt the man before him, or that this was all just a trick to take him somewhere else. And Zach could see those expressions cross the boy's face, and his own started to look sadder from it but he forced his smile up anyway. "Come," Zach said softer. He ushered his head behind him, "I came to get you. No one, will every use you again."

"Ahin yu-tanka. Kuku paorroro."

"It's alright," Zach said, just nodding his head at the boy whose words he did not understand. The boy did not seem to understand him either, yet they stared into each others' eyes and Zach got the boy to move closer to him. And then the kid ran the last few steps and he reached out both arms and grabbed Zach by the hand. Zach squeezed the kid's hands back, not too hard but strong enough that the boy would understand it as Zach said, "I've got you."

The kid clenched his eyes shut and took in a deep breath through his nose. He let it out through his mouth, and the boy lifted his head and looked up at Zach's face while the teen was still crouched so they were at eye-level with each other. "Shin Ashin. Kama ya rez."

…They were going to do what with this kid? It, wouldn't have been hard to make him freak out, make him explode. If that's what his power is. If his stress is directly related to how close he is to exploding, then, then all they'd have to do is put him in the middle of a city. A kid like this. So scared to hurt people. Afraid everyone would keep looking at him like a monster. Afraid he would hurt so many more. First would be the glow, then when people got hurt from that, it'd freak him out more. Was that the plan? They're sick. The worst kinds of monsters. Pure evil. "Everyone," Zach said, and the boy looking into his eyes got a more confused look on his face. Zach stood up though and yet kept a strong hold on the boy's right hand at least with his own left.

Nearly seventy people listening to Zach were silent. Even the ones who had argued with Gentle just closed their mouths even as they continued sprinting or flying or dropping down deeper into the Dragon's Den. They shut up and listened as their leader said, "There's a kid down here. We're getting him out. It'll stop the Syndicate's plans too, so this is our sole objective starting now. Make as few explosions as possible, and keep bodies out of the path on our way out. I'll save Georgia and Yusef as soon as I can, but we can't freak the kid out-"

"Shit- Death!" Gentle spun and yelled back into the room that Zach was nearing the door of with the child by his side.

Exodus snapped his head back and forth, then he shot into the huge room with Death and right past him. Zach held the kid's hand tighter in an even stronger and more reassuring way, and he pulled the boy forward a bit so he would not look behind him into the room where Exodus charged at the three in hazmat suits he saw planning something. Zach at least thought that was why Exodus sprinted straight behind him, until he heard the cracks, and he turned his head sideways just as the boy next to him did.

"Get behind me," Zach pulled the kid backwards and spun to face the wall ripping apart.

A blur of white shot up and the falling light-blue wall, and Exodus shot through it all and slammed a fist into the face of a man whose vibrating hands were still slowing down while outstretched in front of his twelve foot tall body.

"Fwweeeewhip!" A mercenary down below Exodus and on his right whistled, and a swirling vortex of green opened up on the floor below where the Army of Death member was dropping. Two orange hands pulled out of the vortex, and at the same time a half dozen men started firing at the soldier who threw both arms up and fired white blasts into the ceiling. An explosion of white light and debris showered around the man, and then a muscular arm wrapped in black armor slammed forward into a chunk of ceiling falling in front of him, sending it down a hallway on the other side of the thick wall that had just come smashing down. The debris slammed into the middle of a group of Syndicate villains, but one man slammed a fist into the huge debris himself and shattered it to bits around him.

"If we can't have that weapon!" The one who just smashed the debris apart roared, his voice echoing around the halls of the white floor. "NO ONE CAN!"

He doesn't understand it, Zach thought while pulling the boy next to him forward some more. He froze though, seeing Gentle up ahead shake his head back his way and then motion another direction. The double doors down ahead of Gentle opened up and three soldiers in Army of Death uniforms started sprinting down, and then from either side of Gentle up ahead of them, a dozen Syndicate villains converged and started attacking the man and bouncing off of the bouncy walls he had put up.

The Syndicate, is no joke, Phinx thought from behind a cracking wall of a huge central room of the Dragon's Den where he was sent to protect. They understand as we do, that the Army of Death is not a joke either. They're a menace. A threat to our way of life. All of our ways of life. With their hands on a weapon like that, we'd all have to be a lot more afraid of these villain-hunters. Phinx looked to his left and at a shard of glass leaning on a wall perfectly placed to give him a good reflection back in the room behind him on his left. He stepped to the right, and more of the wall behind where he was just standing broke apart. He looked over and saw one of his only three guys on this floor with him was laying unconscious on the ground from the one Light-powered punch to the face he received.

It isn't about you people. And we were never hired to protect you. We were hired to protect the weapon you were granted for this at a very low price. I heard the rumors. The woman in the white mask, the Company, the League, a whole lot of people invested in this. A lot of time and effort and money. Phinx took in a deep breath, and short brown spikes started sticking out of his palms. But that doesn't matter to me, Death. I just like the way I live. I enjoy fighting for cash, and the time we live in is great. A lot of buyers. And, admittedly, I've already been paid. Can't let you take that nuke with you, whatever your reasons are. Because I have my strict orders. I didn't understand them at first, "Protect the weapon, and if the time comes it may fall into the wrong hands, destroy it." How was I going to destroy a nuke? Phinx took another huge breath, ignoring the sounds of the Army of Death swarming onto the floor, fighting his comrades and the Syndicate all around him. He drowned out different languages, and he kept a close eye on the glass showing him the reflection of the room behind him, where a teen without his helmet on was sprinting his way while holding the hand of a child at his side.

Phinx's eyes narrowed and his tensed arms loosened for a second, as he saw the little kid he stared at look up at the teen running with him. There was a look in the child's eyes Phinx had never seen before that almost shook him out of his focus. The second passed though, and Phinx said, "Do it."

One of his remaining comrades still conscious on the floor spun his head away from Exodus who he was in the middle of fighting with three others. He spun, and he shot away by pointing the engines sticking out of his palms behind him. An orange monster stepped in the way when the man who summoned it with his Quirk Demon-Cast ordered it to, and Exodus yelled out, "Death!" right before he was shot in the back and in the left leg.

"Exodus!" Other voices shouted behind the Syndicate shooters who all spun from the man who just fell to his hands and knees.

Death heard Exodus' shout and froze before the hole in the wall. He turned his head and started pushing the kid on his left back, "I'll protect you!" He called out, not wanting the boy to panic even as he shoved him away. Have faith in me! Zach thought, and he whipped out a grappling gun to hold with his knife. He fired the hook out right at the first sight of the man with Jets on his hands. The mercenary was quick though, much quicker than Zach thought he would be. His reaction time let him flip fully upside-down in the air and keep jetting himself forward at the same time. Zach whipped up a knife and pulled out another one he flew the direction he intended the man to dodge in by the aiming of his first knife.

The second throw hit as even the speedy merc was not ready to change his direction again that quickly. He got grazed across the right side, which was still not exactly what Zach was hoping for. I can't go Night- Zach thought, while grabbing another knife with his right hand instead of bringing it to his chest. His eyes started darting down though, as the man he slashed above him flipped away instead of back down towards him. Distraction! Zach's eyes made it down, but there was already someone else in the hole of the wall who made Zach's heart start racing so much faster just from the look in his eyes.

Zach's eyes were in the process of turning red. His arms were lifting, and his head was turning to the side to look behind him.

Jet used his Jet Quirk to push away, then his Jets sputtered and he started dropping out of the air.

Phinx had stepped out when the leader of the Army of Death was looking up. He rose his arms and the child he aimed at looked down from the figure who had flown in first. The boy had been pushed behind Death for safety, but the child stayed close to the back of the man who he thought would protect him. The kid saw Phinx step in, because he was not as completely focused on Jet, because he did not need to fight him at the moment. He looked towards the hole in the wall and he saw the man step out and aim his hands towards him. Phinx met the boy's eyes.

Everything happened in seconds. Jet's sputtering Jets fired back up and he pushed himself into the air, though he stayed back while staring down towards the center of the room with a shocked look on his face. He spun towards Phinx who he had spotted out the corners of his eyes in that last second when Death turned away from him too. He had spotted Phinx's arms shifting, so by the time that Zach Sazaki had looked Phinx in the eyes both of Phinx's arms were aligned with Death's head and torso. The brown spikes were several inches thick, sharpened at the ends, made of material powerful enough to pierce through bulletproof armor. They fired from Phinx's hands, but as they were leaving his palms, his eyes were already shifting back off of Death who he had just turned his eyes onto.

Zach felt the hands on his sides, and he darted his reddening eyes to his side with them opening so much wider. Phinx had decided in the last moment what his priority should be. He had changed his objective not based on the utility of taking down Death first and then deciding what to do next, be it protect the kid or kill him. He had changed it in a split second based on the look in the kid's eyes when they had made eye contact. So he aimed at Death instead, while Death looked down from Jet and towards him, and he fired, while the boy who saw Phinx's aim change made his own split second decision. The push was not very strong, but Zach was not expecting it at all and he got shoved to the left a foot away. A big brown spike flew by the side of Zach's head, blocking his vision down to his side where a loud Squel-crnch! filled the room.

There was blood all over the side of Zach's black costume, but he did not feel any pain. He turned his body and stared down, and he reached at the same time and grabbed the boy who just pushed him out of the way of that spike the bare minimum amount. The front of his body was slashed through, and Zach heard a breaking noise in his chest as well which made the boy who just pushed him cough and blood to splash out of his mouth.

"Ohhhh fuck!" Jet realized in sheer terror, and he spun and fired his Jets out of his palms and out of the room in the middle of the Dragon's Den.

Phinx took a step back. He started lifting his right arm with another brown spike pulling out of his palm, but he snapped his head to the left and heard a shout in his direction from a short girl pointing arms that looked like rifles. She started firing at him and he jumped away while firing a spike back towards her, but others in the Army of Death ran out behind Darling and started charging at the leader of the mercenary team. Phinx drew the sword off his back and slashed apart attacks flying at him, and he called out, "Retreat."

Zach dropped down to his knees and caught the boy falling backwards. He grabbed him, and the kid's face went from dim yellow to darker yet still brighter yellow. It got brighter, while at the same time turning to a shade of orange that made Zach's face start sweating and his lungs clenching up. His mouth felt dry, and he stared down with eyes getting red at the boy who just pushed him out of the way of that attack. "You-" Zach began. "You're just a- you shouldn't-" He's eight! Or seven, or nine or- why is… Zach's black sleeves on his arms started to break through, and he clenched his teeth in so much more pain as he felt the burns forming on his skin.

The scared boy in Zach's arms started opening his shaky eyes wider. He stared up at Zach's face, and he said in a scratchy and high-pitched voice, "Aki- Aki forn… Porvafor. Aki."

Zach held the boy in his arms tighter. He closed his eyes, "I won't let you go." I can't let you go. He opened his eyes and looked down at the face of the kid he was holding. His arms felt like they were on fire, and his heart was racing faster and faster while his throat dried out and his eyes watered down his face. If you know, that me holding onto you here is going to kill me. "I'm so sorry," Zach whispered, as that thought alone broke his heart watching the boy bleeding out in his arms. The kid's face was so frustrated, and his orange glow was getting brighter, and he took in a deep breath through his nose. The kid started coughing, bloody coughs and gurgling on them short for breath. He spat out the blood though and curled his tiny hands into fists at his sides.

"Ashin, aki re- reka…"

"Death!"

"Stay back," Zach said. "Don't come any closer." He said it softly, and he just held his own melting arms into the boy's back harder. He felt his skin ripping apart, his flesh gooey beneath the boy's back, and yet he saw the glow dimming. He coughed himself, but then he forced his lips up into a smile. He smiled despite the tears spilling down on his face no longer solely on account of his bloodshot and bloody eyes. He sat there holding the boy who looked back at him, blood spilling down his face from the corners of his mouth, corners that were lifted up to his cheeks as he calmed himself down from the panic of dying.

"Hashin. En, kamana. Hashin aki re."

"I don't, understand," Zach whispered. Tears spilled from his chin down onto the face of the boy he was holding, and his arms squeezed tighter through all the pain he felt in them. "I don't-" Zach froze with his mouth open and he let out a gasp. He held the boy tightly, and but he saw the boy's tightened fists opening up and his arms going limp at his sides. I couldn't… protect him. And I couldn't leave him. Because he saved me! That was why. It, it wasn't so he wouldn't set off a nuke. That was the ulterior reason! THAT WAS IT! I, I'm not like… Zach lowered his arms down, and he had to pry them off of the boy's back. He pulled his arms back, and he slid his knees away from the body of the child who just died in his arms, covered in blood.

"Zach," Darling whispered, staring in from the hole in the wall with a couple of others while more of them guarded from in the nearby hall. Across the room back at the main door, Gentle was staring inside with four Army of Death soldiers behind him guarding the control room and watching the hall they had just fought in. The Syndicate members were all down or had scattered, and the floor was under the control of the Army of Death who had more and more arriving each second. Darling stepped closer to Death from the hole in the wall, and she said, "Your arms. We have to…"

Zach stared down at the body in front of his knees. He looked down at his right arm, the one he had been so careful grabbing the boy with that whole time. His glove was partially shredded, even though he had kept it away from him in fear that it might happen. He stared at his glove, then down his arms that were covered in such horrible radiation burns. He coughed a few times, then he turned his eyes back up to the face of the child. What am I supposed to do? Zach lifted up his left hand, but his arm was in too much pain to bring his left hand to his hair and run it through. He just stared down at the kid with his face scrunching up and so much anger and confusion filling his eyes.

He died for me! I can't just… Dryout's face appeared in Zach's mind. Bringing him back, was a mistake. Just so he could die again, in such a pain. This kid just died in so much- Zach stared at the face of the kid. He stared at the lips pulled up at the corners despite the blood coming down them. And Zach pulled his head back, thinking about how he had felt when he died. After saving Momo was- that was the best way I could imagine feeling as I died. I really- my entire life felt like it had meaning. I was so happy I was able to save her… And this kid! He- Zach clenched his eyes shut as he felt tears welling up in them. He's smiling. As he died, he was smiling. Because he felt like he had saved the one person who ever held him like that. The one person who ever cared enough to cry over him!

Zach pushed his palms down on the ground at his sides. I've done things to save just one person before. Zach got to his right foot, and he was shaky but he strained himself and got to his left as well. Taking my helmet off to save Thompson, might have killed the thousands who the anti-heroes couldn't save… or who wouldn't have been saved if I never did this. Their deaths did have meaning. What is the meaning in this? Zach balled his fists at his sides while standing on as steady legs as he could. If I saved him and he woke up in a panic, and blows up. It's too risky. That's the ultimate factor. He rose up his left arm and turned it so he had the back of his arm to rub against his face. That half of his sleeve dangled, and all the skin on that side of his arm was shriveled up and gone too. His skin was red, and it hurt while he rubbed it against his face, though it hurt more on the other side just moving his arm at all.

"They don't have their nuke anymore," Zach began. He lowered his arm and stared towards Darling, his eyes still bloodshot but some blood smeared to the sides of his face now. The knees of his costume were ripped through too and revealed reddened and ripped skin there from how close his arms were to his knees while he had held that dying child. "But we don't have a reason to leave anymore," Zach added. His narrowed his dark eyes, and he looked past Darling at the others out there in the hall. He turned his head and looked back at Gentle and others behind him, and he said, "Bring Georgia and Yusef in here. Set this up as a forward base. Hank, get to work on Exodus and the other injured. We're not yet at the bottom of the Dragon's Den."

"Death, you should stay here," Miraculu began. Zach looked back towards Darling and the tall woman behind her with long curly red hair hidden inside her helmet. "I'll use my Quirk when all the injured are together and hopefully-"

"You do not give orders," Zach said. The floor fell silent, and Zach started glaring towards the hole in the wall. "I gave a command. Everyone gather up on me. I'll bring those two back, and then we're moving down. The Syndicate isn't finished yet. They might not have their nuke, but they're still villains. We saved Paris. We saved Christmas. Now," Zach's fists clenched at his sides and his teeth bared in fury. "We destroy the Syndicate."

---

In the lowest floor of the Dragon's Den, the Syndicate stood on one half of the enormous cave that dipped so far below the actual surface and was even bigger than the central cavern the Army of Death had gone through. On the other half of the cave at a slightly lower elevation and looking up towards the spiraling rock pillars leading to a massive tower of stone, stood the Army of Death in its near entirety. A large number of Syndicate forces had retreated back down to this floor during the battles above, and a whole lot more of them had gone straight there or had been there from the start.

The Syndicate had defenses set up on the walls, literally merged into them. There were villains on the walls hanging there or standing on rock outcrops looking like balconies. Dozens stood scattered around the lower sections of the rock pillars, with stronger-looking ones standing on top of the pillars or sitting on the edges of them. Dozens of villains had guns with them, dozens of others held up knives or swords or clubs or axes, melee weapons of all kinds. Yet more than half of the villains in the room full of hundreds were unarmed. Their defenses were established, and weapons were trained on the Army of Death who stood in a formation behind their leader who had his helmet back on as he stood before his army.

"Don't look so surprised!" A voice called out from the top of the central tower raising highest up in the deepest cavern. "You look like shit, Death! What happened? Are you tired already?!"

"Dorgon, the Dragon," Death said. His voice should have been modulated, but that function was messed up as was his dark visor. Most of his helmet got messed up while strapped to his side while he was holding the dying boy upstairs. Death spoke loudly, and clearly, and he glared up towards the top of the tower at the leader of the Syndicate. "Death has come for you."

"No need for the helmet!" Dorgon called down, cracking a grin and then laughing as he shouted out, "We all know it's Zach Sazaki beneath that-"

"I am not Zach Sazaki," Death said. He lifted his head and glared straight up towards Dorgon through the cracks on his visor, his arms visible showing burnt and bloody, others behind him sharing bloody and extensive injuries. Most of the Army of Death were undamaged, yet there were some who had cuts in their armor that looked like they should have been fatal. Two people in particular behind Death had blood all over their costumes just as Death did covering one side. Death glared violently up at Dorgon, and he snarled, "What are you doing so far away? Going to send all your subordinates to their deaths before facing it yourself?"

"Haha, hahahaha!"

"HAHAHAHA!"

"AAHAHAHA!"

"Eeekeekekekeke!"

Laughter filled the cave gradually after Dorgon started. The Syndicate did not sound very afraid, though the slow rate of increase of laughter did stay slow all the way until it started quieting down. The Army of Death had stayed silent during the laughter. An army of figures in dark costumes wearing helmets and holding weapons, covered in the blood of Syndicate members while so many of their comrades were missing on the floors above. They were at the bottom of the Dragon's Den. Below the surface. The laughter only sounded genuine for some, hollow for others, nervous even. Many did not laugh at all, their hands just tightening on their weapons, their eyes narrowing with sweat dripping down the sides of them and down their cheeks.

"We're in your Den, Dragon," Death said. "And we're going to take you-"

"It's not just his Den!" A high-pitched but male voice rang out, and Zach lowered his head to look straight at the center of the cluster of villains at the bottom of the pillars where the majority of them were. A muscular, tall man, with long green hair, stepped forward with long white strings sliding out of his fingers and dragging behind him on the floor. "I expected more from the infamous Army of… what was it again?" The man with black eye shadow below his eyes shrugged his shoulders and then let out a cackling laugh.

"You didn't even know," another voice boomed, coming from the closest of the pillars ahead of the Army of Death. It was to Death's right and one of the shortest rock pillars in the room, and no other villain was around the hulking form who stood up at the top. His body was so muscular that it spread nearly the whole surface of that pillar, his skin purple and the man only wearing a tattered pair of green shorts that stretched at the waistband. He glared down with glowing dark blue eyes towards Death who turned to him now. "I had higher expectations myself."

"It's not the Dragon's Den, singular possessive!" The man with long green hair called out with a laugh. "It's the Dragons' Den you fools!" Dorgon started laughing behind his comrade and fellow leader of the Syndicate, while the purple muscular Dragon at the top of the shortest pillar just lifted up his muscular arms and crossed them in front of his huge pecs. Flygorn the Dragon stepped forward, and he brushed some of his green hair back behind his shoulder while still laughing so hard. He looked towards Death incredulously and called out with a huge smile, "You really think the Syndicate is run by a single man? We are the biggest-"

"RRAAAAAA!" Death roared. He stomped forward and everyone behind him stepped forward too, and Zach yelled out straight at the man who just froze with his mouth open and his eyes bulging huge. "You think any that matters to Death?!" Zach roared. Zach stomped his other foot forward, and villains all aiming at him tensed up, their weapons shaking more and some of them stepping back from the ledges of pillars they stood on. No one wanted to fire first. None of them wanted that army to charge at them. And they all stared at Death in fear as the figure started reaching up for one of his sword hilts, only for his right hand to brush his head as he pulled the sword out of its sheath. "Death comes for all villains!" Zach said, his voice coming out darker and louder and more menacing while a black flame wrapped around him. It wrapped straight down his arms and covered his wounds, and it stretched straight off the end of his right hand and onto the blade he slashed out to his side.

The muscular purple-skinned Dragon uncrossed his arms and tightened his fists as he leaned forward. Dorgon stopped laughing a few seconds ago, but he bit down in fury as he realized his right foot was suddenly farther from the edge of the central pillar of stone in the room. Flygorn took a full step back though as red shone through the cracks of Zach's visor under his black aura, giving Death who had always been just a pure black darkness an ominous red glow on his head while he held a flaming black sword to his side. "It doesn't matter how strong you think you are, the Army of Death will destroy all villains in this world and return it to its days of peace." Zach brought his sword from his right side out in front of him and pointed it at the Syndicate's forces. "SURRENDER OR DIE! THOSE ARE YOUR ONLY OPTIONS!"

No sooner were the words out of Zach's mouth, that the army behind him charged. Shields flew up and blocked a storm of bullets flying down, beams of light and flames shot away, the cave shook, and Death sprinted forward before his fastest soldiers could reach his sides. He sprinted at the front of the Army of Death, swerving back and forth and dodging bullets and whips of vines and rocks, and he jumped up over a slash of five white strings, then he slashed his sword down into another five slashing up at him. His sword covered in Death pressed against the white strings extending from Flygorn's hand, and the Dragon pushing against him felt his strength draining as those black wisps touched his weapons that had brought him to the top of the Syndicate. Flygorn stumbled backwards, and Zach threw his black sword down out of the air before bringing his left hand up to his right.

He held his hands close together in the air, and white beams shot around him as an injured Exodus fended off all attacks aimed at him while Zach charged the giant sphere of Death between his palms. "DEATH…" Villains all over the floor around where Flygorn was stumbling away from started running, dropping their weapons and turning to sprint away, somewhere, anywhere. Death slammed down and he smashed his huge sphere of darkness bigger than his whole body down into the floor. "BOMMMMBBBB!" The Death Bomb flattened out on the floor below Zach, then it erupted around him in a wave that blew away like the explosion of an actual bomb. A Syndicate member looked back, and in a moment of irony that he realized immediately, he imagined that this was what it would look if he was trying to run from a nuclear explosion. There was no hope, no chance, and all he could do was scream like the others around him as the wave of Death swept through them.

---

Chh-ch-ch "-terior team." Chhh "-o you copy? Akhmed? What's happening over there? Come in."

Crreeaak- CHH Tssss Steam rose from the snow, and the steel plate that just fell into it kept bubbling and melting the snow around it. Fire flared around the wreckage of the vehicle no longer hidden on the side of the mountain. A body lay slumped through a broken window of a door half melted and in flames, another lay in the snow not far from it also covered in flames and burning up. There were footsteps leading away from the burning wreckage, three sets heading farther from the Dragon's Den.

"Sure we should leave?" Lee asked, walking farthest back and on the right of the three heading away from the Dragon's Den. The ground below him glowed green and swirled with dark colors, and a huge serpent covered in orange flames flying in the sky behind him dipped down and sank back into the floor. He looked ahead and to his left at a muscular man with a sword strapped diagonally on his back with the hilt up over his right shoulder. "Left a bunch of the guys back inside."

"Flygorn offered Jet more to stay. Gribke wants to take Death down himself, personal reasons," Phinx kept walking without looking back at the only member in the team of ten who made it out of the Syndicate's headquarters with him. "You going to risk a rescue for the others, when we've already been paid?"

Lee looked back at the mountain behind him again. He stared through the smoke closer to them and to a mountain that shook and some snow higher up started sliding down, looking on the verge of another avalanche. "I think we could have taken them," he began, but he turned back forward and cracked his neck with a small grin on his face. "But guess you're right. Why risk it?"

"We did what we were paid to do," Phinx said. He said it and his eyes shifted in front of him and between him and Lee. The woman walking away from the Dragon's Den glanced over her left shoulder, and Phinx added as he looked at the white indents of her cat mask over where her eyes should be, "Never got paid to kill Death."

"It wasn't exactly, what we paid you for," the woman began, though she turned back forward and kept moving into the wooded forest of the valley between the mountains. "But you are right. You disposed of the weapon when it was clear Death would be taking it. You succeeded where the Syndicate would have failed, meaning this was a smart investment on our part. I would say at least-"

Phinx had lowered his eyes down to the snow in front of him with a serious look on his face from the moment the woman said 'weapon.' He froze though, and Lee stopped behind him for a second as the woman kept speaking, only in a different voice like she just interrupted herself. "Many people will be upset with the loss of that weapon. Some very powerful people have spent a lot of time and resources planning that attack. They will not risk carrying it out with a new plan while the time is so close at hand. The Army of Death clearly does not care about who they are angering, and it would have been foolish to stay in there and try to fight those with such strong convictions."

"They've been after the Syndicate for some time, sir," the masked woman started again, not breaking stride as she continued into the forest. Lee glanced over at Phinx who just nodded back at him, and they walked after the one who hired them with more intense looks on their faces now than a moment ago. "Should they win here, then with the Syndicate's main forces wiped out, the Army of Death will be able to focus on other things. There is no telling what they were able to take from Facility Delta before I was able to destroy it."

She paused for a few seconds, and then the lower voice replied through her white mask, "We will put new plans in motion. Do not worry, Mysti. All will be handled. I will contact you with your new mission soon."

"Understood, Mr. Fergus."

---

Dorgon's eyes flashed green and his pupils narrowed into thin vertical slits. He rose up the top half of his body as it extended and got thicker-skinned on the outside. Arms broke out from his thick skin, two above and two below his regular arms, then four more, then ten more, and his body kept rearing back more. He reared up, glaring down with glowing green eyes at the dark mass that rushed up to the top of the tallest pillar in the room with no one able to stop him. Dorgon's lower half that extended too with more arms sprouting out of it started sliding back, but he slammed more hands down and brought his huge reared Centipede-like body down so his face wider than Zach was tall was closer to the dark mass ahead of him.

"You think this will do a single thing?!" Dorgon shouted. Stone pillars fell behind Death, the smaller ones collapsing down from violent attacks from the Army of Death, ones that aimed higher up and slammed into points on the ceiling where Syndicate members were still trying to attack from. Outcrops on the stone walls in the deep cavern broke apart, cracks going up the walls straight into their shooting positions, and Syndicate villains fell screaming towards the ones attacking them. Dorgon's dark opponent in front of him did not say a word, just breathed out a heavy breath of black air that pushed through his cracked visor seeping red light out for the "Dragon" to see.

All of Dorgon's very many hands started shaking, clenching into fists while his huge face backed away from the monstrous foe in front of him. His long body started curving around the top pillar, and he twisted his mouth up into a vicious smirk as he snarled, "What you do here means nothing. HahahaHA!" Dorgon slammed half of his upper body forward and smashed all those fists into the ground, though they all opened up fast with his fingers digging into the stone to get ready to move. He leaned twelve feet of his body forward still with dozens of arms on his sides, and he yelled at the dark figure before him, "The payment we received to set off that nuke is so high that even if we fail, someone else will carry it out in our stead."

"Ah hah, ah hah… This does nothing! You can't stop it! You can't stop villains!" Dorgon shouted it and he smirked tauntingly at the dark monster in front of him. "A nuclear blast will revert the world to a time before! When who had the strongest weapons and the most of those weapons mattered more than anything! When weapons proliferation was off the charts! People have forgotten the fear that caused them to create those weapons rapidly, faster and faster until the world was at the brink of destruction!" Dorgon panted a few times, then his huge mouth curled farther up spreading across his whole huge face. "And now, once a nuclear blast goes off and some countries decide they need huge weapons to use as deterrents that heroes just aren't… other countries will need to beat those weapons and will create stronger ones."

Dorgon opened his fists and he held all his arms out to the sides as he laughed at the ideas he was saying with so much glee. "Using Quirks now unlike before, which ultimately results in leaving weapons of mass destruction in the hands of individuals. Someone will take the first shot with their new weapons, probably out of fear, or to test them, and the world will enter a dark age of destruction and turmoil! And those of us who have always worked in the shadows will benefit the most! Selling weapons and working across borders while the rest of the world is focused on each other. They'll slaughter each other, start wars and destroy the world they live in, and it all starts with a single blast! A weapon that no villains could possibly obtain, which will make the world assume it was another country who did it. Who has France been at odds with for a few months now, after that Chinese citizen died on French soil in a supposed villain attack with little information? An attack set up MONTHS in advance! You think you'll stop this?! You think you can do a thing, about the PLAN?!"

"When a nuke goes off in Paris, who will everyone turn to as the ones who were so hesitant to give up their nukes back when the rest of the world tried to get rid of them? The ones with the greatest motive? The ones who fucking conspiracy lunatics have been-"

"He wasn't a nuke," Zach said. He stared through red vision that was so dark and shaking so violently while he glared in rage at Dorgon. "None of that even… right now I don't care…" Zach's hands balled into tighter fists at his sides, and black flames rippled out of his back and shot behind him despite how drained he felt for power. He shot those flames of Death behind him and raced forward, and Dorgon scrambled back and then down the back side of the pillar as that dark monster flew at him way faster than he was ready to fight. Dorgon turned and slammed all of his hands down, sprinting down the pillar as fast as he could, and then lifting his head and looking back towards the top of it as he heard a roar down at him and saw a monster of darkness diving off the central stone column. "That kid you, bought?! You used him- you were going to make him kill, millions?! And if he survived, he would have had to live with that- you would have done that to a child?! You killed that kid! That's why I'm going to destroy you! THAT'S IT! FUCK YOU!"

Zach swung his arms out to the sides, and the dark flames ripping out of his back as he fell morphed out sharper behind him. They swung out to the sides and broke apart at the bottoms to look like huge wings, and then Zach slammed both of his arms back down to his body, whipping those huge wings behind him and sending him flying down twenty times faster than falling with normal gravity, and much faster than Dorgon could run. "NO! NOOOO-" Zach slammed down into Dorgon's back, digging his feet into the long hardened back of the centipede at a speed that still dented him down and slammed him into the floor, though Dorgon managed to stay up on his arms as he was slammed down. His arms shook, all of his hundred elbows shaking from the pressure of that slam, but it only took a few seconds for the shaking to stop entirely, and for Dorgon to just collapse down on his ridiculously long stomach.

"Boss!"

"Kashira!"

"Shinka po!"

"Dorgon!"

Zach turned his head at a voice he recognized. He saw a figure with huge purple muscles charging his way, and he saw blood dripping off the hands of one of the other Dragons. His Death retracted back to his body a lot while he jumped off of Dorgon's shrinking back, yet he started jogging forward as soon as he touched down on the ground. Other villains running towards Dorgon to try and help their leader slowed down or pulled back, all of them looking towards Death in fear as he immediately turned his attention without waiting a second after taking down one of their bosses.

"It is them or us!" The purple hulking villain shouted behind him as he saw people hesitating at his sides. "They would kill us all-"

"Like I killed Mongoloid and all his men?!" Zach roared. He stomped towards the Dragon as he shouted it, and soldiers in dark armor flew down or sprinted up behind him. He brought his arms forward at his sides and yelled at the forces amassing before him around their last remaining leader, "I always give the chance to surrender, but if you'd rather choose Death then so be it!" Swirling masses of Death rose over Zach's hands, pulling away from his back where his armor started showing more. His armor showed on his waist and upper legs too while darkness surrounded his knees and his feet. He pressed his front foot forward and the ground cracked below him, and his yells brought the others around the huge cavern running up towards him.

The Syndicate's members were backing up, but some of them stepped forward with their leader who roared out, "Capture is no better! THIS IS THE DRAGONS' DEN! We are the Syndicate!"

"Fuck the Syndicate!"

"You're nothing!"

"Lowlifes!"

"Villains."

"Fiends."

"Monsters!"

"Come on then!" A villain on the purple Dragon's left shouted. Blood dripped off of the four katanas he held in each of his four hands, and he bared sharp teeth towards the dark figures while stomping their way. "Come and DIE!"

Sagitus ran up on four legs towards Death's right side. Jetflame stopped hovering above and pointed his hands behind him, blasting himself forward while Death kicked off the floor and cracked the ground beneath his feet. The Dragon let out a roar of his own and jumped up in the air, making a crater below him from the force he used to jump. The four-armed villain near the Dragon sprinted forward and threw a katana ahead of him, only for a tall man with a purple visor and cape to zip in front of the slender woman sprinting his way. Gentle swung up a Gently Rebound and bounced away the katana, then he bounced off the back of the wall he just created, formed another barrier behind him, bounced over the top of the first and flipped in the air while making one more above him, then he rocketed himself down towards the enemies. Zach sprinted forward and he leapt up while the purple boss of the Syndicate came flying down, his fist pulled back behind him and the air pushing away to his sides at the speed he was descending.

Bullets flew and swords clashed. Fists collided and darkness exploded on the battlefield. And the Syndicate's villains already on their last legs turned from their front forces who got bulldozed by the enemy, and they tried to flee. Not one of them would escape.

---

"Haaa, ahh, ah," Zach panted and lowered his right arm to his side. He closed his mouth as soon as he could. Zach stared through the cracked dark visor in front of his face, and he shook the man next to him with his left hand when the tired man's opening eyes started to close again. "Get up, Skater," Zach said. He got up and kept looking down for a second while Skater's eyes opened wider and wider realizing where he was. "There's work to do."

Zach turned and started walking away, each step of his right foot making his whole body slump to that side with a jolt. Behind Zach, Mark leaned down and held out a hand for Skater who stared at it with shocked eyes for a second before lifting a hand and taking it. Mark helped Skater up to his feet, then Skater turned back towards Death's back and watched his amazing leader limp away. Zach walked as straight as he could despite the limp, and he called over, "Put him down. Go help the injured."

Sagitus and Seraphim looked towards their leader who they had rushed forward with in the final attacks only a few minutes earlier. They were both exhausted, and they both nodded at the figure still wearing his black helmet unlike either of them. Half of the Army of Death had taken their helmets off, which made it easier to call around to each other for help as they could recognize easier who was walking near them. Zach had enough weapons attached to his body, or just sheaths as he had lost many of his actual weapons today, that he was easily recognizable as were a few others with strange body shapes like Sagitus's. He walked towards them and did not say anything about Sagitus taking off his helmet despite it not having any utility to do so considering everyone could recognize him with it on, as they only had one half-horse man in their army.

Zach bent down next to another comrade, and the two who lowered him down turned and headed off to go help their injured friends. The eighth, tenth really. Georgia and Yusef weren't bad… I can't bring Georgia back again though. Why'd she have to wake up back upstairs? She could have just closed her eyes, stayed with Hank and- "Ahhhh AHH!" Zach bit down and then let out a louder scream. His fingers sticking out of his glove turned black, then his arm started doing the same which he could see considering his sleeves were gone. The pain of bringing back the man in front of him did distract him from the pain of the burns on his forearms though, so he managed to clench his teeth and fight through the pain to even stop screaming after the first sharpest pains of the revival.

"Death, we found Akhmed and Juno. They're dead out here. Some tracks lead away in the snow. Should we pursue-"

"No," Zach said, gasping it out and then clenching harder on his comrade for another second before feeling what it felt like to die. He lowered his hand from the man before him who was quick to snap up, a panicked look on his face and his arms raising as if to protect himself. "You're alright," Zach said.

"Death?"

I didn't see the one who killed the kid. Something was off about him. Different from the Syndicate members. "Just get them inside," Zach said. "I'll-"

"Death, it's not-" The voice over Zach's comms paused, and Zach froze after standing next to his comrade. He stood still and he lowered his head to stare at the floor. His eyes were wide behind his visor, and he scrunched his face up in pain as he heard, "It's beyond recognition. We found their vehicle but, it's- gah, it's going to be tough to get them out of… They're skeletons. Inside flames and, and there's no way."

Zach closed his eyes. Akhmed trained up his Quirk. He was able to mask even small vehicles in movement. And, how could Juno get killed with an Air body? It doesn't make sense. They're strong. We're tired. They managed to escape in all that. It's not as simple as just sending a small team… "Get back inside. If they left tracks, they're not afraid of being followed. It's likely a trap. Just come back here."

"Understood, Commander."

"Death," Zach turned as his name was called out. He looked over and saw Jetflame looking towards him still with his helmet on. He would be a difficult person to differentiate from others if Zach had not just heard him call him out. Jetflame's voice with that one word was grim though, and he turned and looked towards the area where they had gathered up most of their injured.

Zach started speed-limping his way over. A comrade who had snapped up behind Zach collapsed down to his back after his revival, but Zach did not care to wake him up. Zach sped towards Jetflame who said in a soft voice while turning and watching him go by, "She's dying. It's just, too much."

In front of Zach on his right, he saw Sagitus put a hand on Seraphim's shoulder while the woman with a purple ponytail rubbed her eyes. Seraphim just heard about Juno, and she sniffled while trying to pull herself together. She lowered her arm though and watched as Death limped by her, heading towards the injured and specifically the girl who currently had Hank kneeling at her side. Zach moved to the edge of the injured patients, and Miraculu was staring at him with her face pulled back and an apologetic look over her face.

"I tried," Miraculu whispered. She had her helmet off and her curly red hair falling behind her back to nearly her waist, and she looked at Death's cracked visor with her eyes filling with water. "I- I tried. Two of them it worked with, but she…" Zach put his left hand on Miraculu's shoulder as he stepped to her side. He had no words for her right now, but he squeezed the woman's shoulder and then dropped his hand down to his side while stepping forward again. She turned and looked at Death's back in so much pain, and she bowed her head as she didn't want her comrades to see her tears.

"Ack, gah-" Hank lifted a cloth and wiped around the mouth of the girl he was trying to help. She reached a hand up and pushed the cloth away though, and Hank clenched his eyes shut for a second and then just nodded his head as she said, "Death."

Hank turned his head and glanced at Death before backing away on his knees. He bit down so hard, and then he turned and moved over towards Exodus who was sitting cross-legged and awaiting further treatment as Death ordered him to. Exodus was staring over towards the girl laying on her back though, trying hard to push herself up so she could talk to the boy who just walked to her. "Don't-" Zach began, and then he lowered down to a knee next to her. He bit down, and he rose his hands to his head and took his helmet off. Zach dropped the helmet at his side, and he lowered to his other knee. He stared into the light blue eyes of the girl below him that looked so dim, as did the small red pupils in the middles of them.

Zach brought his hands over to the blonde's right, and he grabbed it with both of his. His eyes shifted from her uncovered face down to her body for a moment, and his forehead scrunched, his eyes narrowed, and his lips twisted at the corners. "Cee," Zach whispered. "I'm sorry," the top half of his face shadowed over by his bangs, and he held her hand tighter as she gripped it back in so much fear. He looked up from under the shadows and into Cee's eyes, and he saw her looking back into his eyes so much more afraid than she had looked when Hank was right there and she gave him that strong look.

Twenty feet away, Michael ran his left hand up through his hair, his right arm limp down at his side and covered in blood. He took a step forward, and then he felt a hand on his shoulder and he spun his head. Michael looked back and saw Mark standing behind him, and the man with brown hair falling to his shoulders before curling back up shook his head once. Mark shook his head and then looked into Michael's eyes with a look that showed he shared the pain he was feeling. Mark turned away from Michael and back over towards the blonde girl on her back a second later. Cee, I'm so sorry. This is twice now, I couldn't protect…

"I can't, hold on," Cee whispered in a scratchy voice at the boy who just knelt next to her. "And it's my, second time… ack, ack agh- ag-ak-ak," she coughed and coughed in a fit causing blood to splash out of her mouth. Zach held her hand tighter, but he let go with his left hand and rose it up to her face. She was shaking so hard with those coughs that blonde hair lifted and fell in front of her face, and he pushed it out of the way of her eyes which stopped shaking as much as she looked up into his hazel ones. Cee whispered to him, "I really do, believe in you. In all of it. You made me…" She stared into his eyes, and then she said in a stronger voice that was still soft though, "It's not your fault."

Zach shook his head, then he whispered, "I know. You, chose to come here. I-" Cee shook her head back, and Zach looked down confusedly but stopped talking so she could.

"You, have to forgive yourself," Cee whispered up at him. The blonde girl older than him by only a year stared into his eyes, and she continued after pausing to take in a deep breath, "For everything that went down. With the anti-heroes." Zach's eyes widened for a second, then he nodded at the girl below him who frowned at how quickly he gave her that nod. Idiot. Like I'd, believe… "Ack- I mean it," Cee said, and she squeezed Zach's right hand tighter with her own. "Fingers," she whispered in a much softer breath.

Zach slid his fingers out of his right hand's half-glove. He curled his fingers in, and Cee turned her hand and squeezed Zach's so much harder with a pained look on her face. Fear spread over it for a second, then she made it strong again and she snapped, "It was Raijin." She glared into Zach's eyes. She glared at him, because even after she told him how she forgave him, she knew he never did the same. "As long as you keep blaming yourself for it, Raijin's winning," Cee said.

Zach's eyes widened fast, and he felt his heart freeze for a second before speeding up just as fast as it had been as a trail of blood trickled out the right corner of Cee's mouth, down through the cut on her chin and to her bloody neck. "Even when you beat him," Cee said. "And you will, I know it. I know that you'll, ack- ag- you'll keep, ack… You'll keep our promise." Zach nodded his head at her, then she said in a softer voice, "Even after I'm gone." He clenched his teeth and shook his head once, but then he nodded again while looking down into Cee's eyes.

He felt her hand slipping, and he tightened his grip on it, and she tightened hers right back with her eyes snapping wide like she realized she had been slipping. "Even if you take him down," Cee said, biting down hard and glaring into Zach's eyes at his frustrated and scared and sad look. "As long as you're still plagued over that, Raijin wins. And fuck that." Zach cracked a smile which showed how hard his teeth were clenched, and Cee laughed once after saying it before coughing again. She stopped with her lips curled up, and she said with that smug look on her face, "You told me how much Raijin cares about winning, so don't give him the satisfaction."

Zach nodded at her again. He nodded, then he held her hand tighter as he could see that smug look lowering off of it. Just die. Die now! No, Zach bit down on his bottom lip, because Cee pulled her eyes off of him and looked straight up.

She looked up with her lips curling down, and trembling. Ms. Calico. I- "I'm so," she whispered. Cee wanted to lift her arms to cover her face, not wanting to be seen like this in her last moments. She couldn't move though. She felt so weak, and she knew she was dying, again, despite all of the promises she had made. All the hundreds of reasons she had for joining the Army of Death, the promises she made to herself and to her dead mentor to stop Raijin. "I'm so… frustrated," she gasped out, blood spilling out of her mouth and her eyes shaking in rage and despair, and sheer terror. Zach grabbed her harder with both hands, "I was, supposed to- to be a great… one who I could tell Ms. Calico- one… I'm so…"

"You're amazing. We saved so many people. Today, without you there was no way we could stop the Syndicate. No way we could have stopped that nuke. It was thanks to the information you got us. Cee, you saved millions. So many! Ms. Calico would be so proud. She'd, she'd think you were an… come on Cee listen. She'd think you, she'd be so… Cee." Zach shook her again, but the girl he was desperately trying to tell this to was not moving. Did she even, hear any…. Zach let go of the hand he was grabbing so hard despite not feeling anything back. He let go and he slouched down on his calves, his head bowing and his eyes shutting so hard. And six months of his life flashed behind his closed eyelids.

Behind Zach not too far away, Darling lifted up a hand a bit towards his back. "Zach," she whispered, feeling a huge amount of pain as she saw him sitting there next to someone he cared so much about. Then Darling's eyes shifted to the blonde in front of Zach's knees, and only then did the tears welling in her eyes start to slide down her face. Cee.

Over leaning against a part of a stone pillar that had been broken apart, Gentle put his right arm over the shoulders of the woman at his side and he grabbed the shoulder farther from him. The short woman staring over towards the infirmary watched as Zach's arms fell limp at his sides, and she bit down so hard on her bottom lip. She leaned to her left into Gentle's side, and La Brava tilted her head back against the rock. She sniffled, and sniffled again, and then she started to cry with her lips trembling and sobs coming out of her mouth as she could not hold it back.

Mark lowered his hand from Michael's shoulder. Michael stared over in shock towards Cee, the girl he had so much fun teasing, and who had more than Grabble or Access, been his best friend. He took a step towards her with his jaw dropped, while Mark lifted up his right hand and put it over his face. Mark pressed his fingers into his forehead with his pinky and thumb on the sides of his eyes, his palm covering up those eyes as his head bowed so no one could see them.

Michael's hands shook. He started stepping towards Cee again, then he almost fell as he tried pulling it back since there was no point in getting closer but he was so hesitant to do even that. His arms started to raise, then his fists started to clench, then they loosened and his teeth bared in rage. I don't know what to- Michael's fists re-clenched, and his head started turning. His eyes focused across the cavern and he shook in rage while glaring over towards the captured villains.

Zach lowered his limp arms down to the floor. He pressed them into the ground and started getting up. No tears, he lifted his head, and under the shadows cast by his hair his face was clear of anything except his dark expression. His face was so intense, that Hank leaned back and Miraculu opened her squinted eyes still pushing out tears. Darling stared in shock at Zach's face, and then she turned with him and looked towards the villains they had captured who were mostly unconscious. All of the conscious ones were gathered in the same area though, more of a priority put on getting the ones captured in ways that did not require knocking them out to a separate and guarded position.

Zach started walking towards the villains. Michael was just starting that way himself, but he froze and turned his head to the left and back as Zach spoke in a dark, scratchy voice. Zach's right hand lowered from his chest, as he said, "We are the Army of Death." Seraphim lowered her arm from in front of her eyes, and she and Sagitus turned to watch Death move for a second. Then the two of them started after their leader surrounded in a dark veil. Darling and Michael walked with them, and Hank got up from next to one of his patients to stare over at Death's back with his eyes huge.

Gentle lifted his arm from La Brava's shoulders. He pushed on the wall behind him and got up to his feet, and he stared over at the skull face of the dark figure walking by. The red flaring eyes, his boney fists and arms showing through his black veil. Gentle opened his mouth to say something, but he could still see Cee out the corners of his eyes and his mouth closed instead. La Brava stood up with pain covering her face and water all over it, but she started walking after the others and Gentle moved forward with her. Mark stepped forward not far from them, his face shadowing over and his lips spreading in a snarl.

"Any groups like the Syndicate, any villains who would use people, children like this…" Death's scary voice got louder, and others hanging around or doing things in the deepest cavern started towards him. There were a large number of Army of Death members around the prisoners, and Jetflame had gone back over there to check on things once he had gotten Death to head over to the infirmary. Jetflame looked towards Death and his eyes opened wide. The former hero grit his teeth for a second, as he realized what could make Death look like that and he had already known when he went to get him. Jetflame glanced behind him though at the prisoners down on their knees, wrapped up in ropes and vines, pushing back on their butts or knees to get away from Death.

Jetflame turned back forward, and his open mouth froze like that while his eyes shot to Death's right hand. There was no weapon in it, but a black blade started extending out from Zach's clenched fist. A dark sword of Death extended down from Zach's hand, and he got louder, "There are millions of people living in Paris. Tens of millions. These villains would have killed them all, for nothing more than a paycheck." Zach spat it out, and he stepped forward again but slower, while staring down towards a man who was captured conscious who he had fought himself earlier on.

The mercenary known as Jet was staring at Death with his jaw dropped and a terrified look on his face, and he started shouting just like the Syndicate members around him. "I'm not even one of them! I'm- I'm not in the Syndicate! I was just hired to-"

"Yeah I'm not either!" One of the Syndicate members shouted, and Jet spun towards him in shock then spun back and yelled that he really wasn't.

"You can't do this!"

"Quiet," Zach said, and there was silence. There were over thirty conscious Syndicate members before him, but Zach walked up and towards the closest body of an unconscious member. He walked up to the smaller version of Dorgon the Dragon who his comrades had tossed in front of the Syndicate villains to scare them into not trying anything. Zach glared down at Dorgon and he lifted up his sword of Death. "Villains, are a plague on our world. An affliction, a scourge…"

Jetflame darted his eyes around him, but he realized that the others who were guarding the villains had all moved away. He closed his mouth and backed up too, though his eyes narrowed at Death and then around at all those who were following him.

Zach held up his Death Sword. He held it with dark flames flaring off of it. "You corrupt. You make the people of this world afraid." He turned his sword and pointed it down at Dorgon's body. His red eyes shook, and his teeth bared so all the villains staring at his skull face felt the worst fear in their lives. They regretted so many life choices, every decision they had ever made to lead them to this spot right now. All of the soldiers around Death who had their helmets off had such intense looks on their faces. Some looked hesitant, but they were all getting motivated by every word out of Death's mouth as they stood behind him.

"You are evil, and," Zach paused. He clenched his sword tighter and he ground his teeth. His hand tightened, his red eyes flared, and everyone watched as he brought his arm up. "And we, will not let you spread your evil into this world any longer."

"Do it," Michael growled.

"Take him out!"

Zach slammed his arm down. He swung his sword, and the blade slammed into the ground next to Dorgon's body. Zach's hand opened and the blade lost its solid form, getting thinner and wisping away, leaving just a small mark in the stone below. "No," Zach said. His army around him, and the villains in front of him, all stared at the dark figure with their eyes wide while he brought his right hand up to his chest and turned off his Nightmare form. His eyes closed, and he opened them when the darkness left his face, before saying, "Georgia. Akhmed and Juno… Cee. To honor them, what they stood for and died for, we need justice."

"This is justice!" a scream rang out behind Zach.

Michael stomped forward on Zach's right side, and he glared down at Zach's face with rage plastered all over his own. "You can't be- that's the guy who killed Cee!" Michael pointed his arm to the right at an injured villain who pulled his head back in terror at the looks of the people all staring towards him. Other villains scooted away from him, and he just stared with shaky, terrified, and hopeful eyes towards Death. He pulled back more though as Death glared at him in almost as much anger as the bigger man at his side. "This is justice," Michael said in a low voice, claws extending out of his right hand.

"Maybe for us," Zach said. He glanced to the corners of his eyes and his expression stayed steady, intense, and Michael froze at the sight of those eyes looking into his. "But not for all the others that villain wronged." Zach turned and he looked down at Dorgon's body in front of him. He stared at Dorgon in rage, and how he wished he had stabbed his sword straight into the villain and just killed him. His right hand shook at the thought, ready to turn back on Nightmare and do it for real this time. He ground his teeth again though, and he continued louder, "All the terrible reasons we came after the Syndicate for, before we ever knew they had a plan like this, before we ever lost anyone against them… We need to have him tried and found guilty," Zach clenched his teeth after saying it, and his fists balled at his sides in fury too.

His comrades stared over at his back, and they saw how hard his hands were shaking at his sides. They could see the corners of his lips spreading apart and how tightly his teeth were clenched behind them. "Put before all the people he hurt," Zach said, glaring furiously at Dorgon's back. "He's wanted all over the world. One of the world's most wanted and, and he has hurt so many people. So many others are waiting to see him be punished. They need justice, and they won't get it if Dorgon's just killed off in secret where no one will see what happened to him. As much as I too want to finish this guy off, that's selfish of us to only be thinking about our own thirst for revenge for a fallen comrade!"

"Death," Shang started. The short Chinese man who was recently brought back to life glared at his leader and said with frustration covering his face, "We are not heroes. We do not have to follow the rules, the restrictions, all that they must!"

"I know," Zach said. His fists clenched harder, and he kept glaring forward at the villains who were still easing away from him at how terrifying his angry look was. Zach ground his teeth and then said in a loud voice, "It's not about whether or not we can kill them." Zach's head turned and he said while looking towards Shang, "It's about how much good comes out of killing them compared to putting them on trial." Zach turned the other way, and he looked into Michael's frustrated eyes. He stared with a strong and determined look on his face at the taller man, and Zach said, "That's what we do. That is what the Army of Death, makes its decisions based on. Every decision. Every fight, every villain, every single thing we do, there is one question I have to ask myself. How much good will come from each choice?"

He turned his head more and looked back at those behind him with the intense look covering his face that they all stared at with such wide eyes. "And right now, they're finished either way. But taking them all down right now doesn't do anything for us! It doesn't help us, and it doesn't help the world, because the other option would have taken them all out of the picture anyway! And it would do it in a way that helps so many more people. Instills faith in the heroes we hand them off to, who we give the credit for this, who are willing to accept our help without telling people that it was us." Zach clenched his hands in even harder fists so he felt his nails digging into his palms, then he turned back to Michael who was one of those just staring at him in shock now.

Michael bit down as Zach looked back into his eyes, more frustration than ever as he had so much rage that he did not know what to do with. "I thought about it," Zach said in a softer tone to the man who looked about to burst with all his feelings right now. Michael opened the eyes he had clenched in fury, and he pulled back as Death said to him, "And I know the right answer. The answer, the others died for." Zach turned from Michael and looked down at Dorgon. "If we kill this man now, while knowing what the right answer is and deciding against it anyway, then we've become villains."

The Army of Death stared at their leader in silence. No one spoke up against him, and they stared in amazement, and frustration, and most of them in awe. Gentle and La Brava both stared in shock towards Zach Sazaki's back. Neither of them had said a word when Zach rose up that sword ready to stab down into Dorgon's back, and yet neither of them said anything as he stopped himself either. They stood among an army wearing the same outfits as them, staring towards their leader with the same looks on their faces as everyone else. "Sometimes the right thing to do is also the hardest," Zach finished.

The doubts that had just risen in Jetflame's mind vanished. The former hero who did not know what to do, who was questioning his own morality and what it meant to be a hero, just stared at the side of Death's face with his eyes huge in shock. Then his fists balled at his sides and he got an intense look on his face to match the one on Death's. A kid only seventeen years old, and I've never wanted to follow anyone else this much.

Mark stared at the back of Zach's head with his dropped jaw closing. Six months flashed through his mind. Nearly six months he had spent with Zach, and he had felt this feeling before but never once this strong. The powerful and confident tone Zach just used as he said that was not the tone of the boy he had met on the run back in July. So soon after losing Cee, Mark thought, as those six months of memories flashing through his mind always had the same blonde girl in them. He could feel his heart still breaking over that, and yet he saw no hesitation on Zach's face with what he was saying. I never got why we changed, to become the Army of Death. I was so afraid when you declared war on Eziano, and I was the voice of caution against charging into Saudi Arabia… And yet you, you never hesitate. Always thinking ahead. Always, planning the big picture. Mark's eyes narrowed and he bit back his fury, You're strong, Zach.

"You're right," Michael whispered. "I know you are, but that doesn't make it any easier-"

"Haha, if you aren't going to kill us then-"

Zach turned from Michael towards the villain who was interrupting, and he stepped over Dorgon's body. "Who would miss one of you?" Zach asked. Villains in front of him pushed themselves to the sides in panic. All of them gave him a berth, and Zach's comrades behind him stared at his back with their eyes opening huge again, almost as wide as the smirking villain's. "No one would care if you died," Zach said, and he ran right up and slammed his left hand down into the man's throat. He dragged the man off his knees and lifted him up. "But how about I give you a choice?" Zach asked the man who had been so confident he was not going to die a few seconds ago and was nearly shitting his pants now.

"Tell me who hired you to nuke Paris," Zach said.

"I don't know!"

"Wrong answer-"

"I know," a voice said behind Zach and on his left. He turned, and he clenched down with his left harder for a second before slamming the choking man with a red throat down to the ground hard. The man gasped out as he slammed down on his back, then Zach stepped towards a man who had engines sticking out of his palms that were covered up by hardened goo at the moment. His arms were tied behind his back too, and his ankles were tied as well to keep him from running. "And I'm sorry, for what happened upstairs-"

"I will kill you," Zach warned. "Since you really aren't in the Syndicate, I wonder if there's even a point in arresting you with the others."

Some of the Army of Death staring forward wondered what Death was talking about, since they assumed the man was just lying to try and get out of death like the others who had pleaded for their live a minute ago. Zach knew though. Because he had seen this man with the one who had killed the kid, working together in a way that the Syndicate villains, as strong as some of them were, just did not get how to do. "I'm sorry for that," Jet repeated. He did not get scared as easily as the others, and he was not as shaken by that threat. He already told Death he was going to talk though, and he said, "We were just hired help. I had worked with a couple of the others before, but most of us don't know each other either and even then just by codenames."

"Then how do you know who hired them for this?" Zach asked while glaring down into the man's eyes.

"Rumors. Whispers. I'm a merc, which means I'm all over the villain world. And word around was, the League hired someone for a big job. I asked around, which is how I wound up getting this-"

"The League of Villains, wanted to nuke Paris?" Zach asked in confusion and with his eyes narrowing as he was having trouble believing it.

"No, not that League," Jet said. He shook his head once, and he looked at Death in a bit of surprise before grimacing as his eyes darted around at the others around him. His nervous eyes shifted back to the boy who he realized he could not stop talking to at this point, and he said in a darker voice, "The League of Shadows. Bigger than that tiny League of yours in Japan. And they have existed for much, much longer."

He emphasized "much." Fuck. Alright. Fuck. All of them. Zach kept his face steady. He stared at Jet and asked in a low voice, "Is it Eziano's?" Hunter said there was an organization. Eziano's been around for so long, centuries if he wasn't lying-

Jet curled his lip in regret, but he said, "Well, Eziano Mozcaccio is rumored as one of the Shadow Bosses."

"One of?" Holy shit. Oh, oh fuck! That means there are others like Eziano there? Is that Eziano's organization… or, is Eziano in control of his own, and the League of Shadows is just a, a bigger combination of huge villain groups? How big is that thing?! How have we never heard about it? And, this guy is regretting telling me this stuff. He thought I knew, and he was just trying to get out of… how much does he know? He's been hired by others, which means, he- no- did he say that on purpose? He doesn't want to be arrested. He wants me to ask him for more information, and he's going to try and make a deal. Or he'll try and escape when he thinks I've let my guard down after acting like a friend for a while. This guy, is a real fucking pro. And he knows a lot. How much?

"What's your name?" Zach asked. His voice was dark, and he glared into the eyes of the villain before him who got unnerved by the sudden expression change on Death's face.

"Jet," the man replied. It was the name of his Quirk, and the only name he had to give.

Zach glared into Jet's eyes, and he brought his right hand up to his chest again. "Well Jet," Zach said, his voice getting darker and scratchier as he spoke. "I have some more questions I'm going to ask you when you wake up." All of the darkness on Zach's body spread to his right arm, and the villains in front of him let out screams while Zach swept his arm forward. "Death Wind!" Zach yelled in a scary voice, the last thing he expected most of those villains would ever hear him say.

He turned off Nightmare form after knocking out the rest of his conscious prisoners. Then Zach turned his head and looked at his army behind him. He looked at just under fifty people who had gathered at the area they brought most of the villains. "Now we have to figure out how to get them into the custody of heroes," Zach started. His face was focused, and he said, "We'll figure out what heroes we can trust, who in the government too. We aren't heroes, so the villains will be quick to snitch to us about all the Syndicate's other locations. They'll tell us where each of their smaller operations are, and then we'll hand them over to heroes of countries where the Syndicate has operated. Wanted villains will go on trial, and even in places where vigilantism means that captured villains have to be released, the villains won't argue when the heroes we get to work with us bring them in. Because they'll have talked. And we will spread it on our own, that when the Army of Death catches villains they always snitch. Even the villains who don't, will be too afraid to say that they were caught by the Army of Death, knowing that all other villains will assume they ratted. We'll tell the villains the same thing, in case they're too stupid to figure it out."

Zach looked around at his soldiers. He stared some of them in their eyes and just looked at the visors of others. "We do this smart. We find out information, and we use that information to find villains, and we go in with more power than they have. I won't let this happen anymore…" Zach pursed his lips and then said louder, "I will do my best to keep every last one of you alive. I will always try to protect you, but our mission is too important to stop for anything. We lost people today, but that doesn't mean we're slowing down. We're not taking a break because some of us are injured. We don't celebrate this as a victory, and we wouldn't even if we had made it through with everyone still alive. There's no time for that. There's no time to allow villains to come up with new ways to destroy us, or new ways to break this world, or new ways to make an attack like what Paris would have been." Zach started walking forward, and the crowd in front of him split to the sides to give him room to walk through.

His soldiers looked in towards their leader. More of them than ever looked at Zach the way he always saw Exodus staring at him. He marched between them with conviction covering his face, his fists clenched at his sides and his eyes so intense that they gave his men chills. Deciding to step right over the bodies of their dead comrades, and keep moving forward. To do what would bring the most good to the world. Not slowing down for anything. Not even to bury the dead. Zach looked to his right, and he said in a low voice still loud enough for everyone behind him to hear, "We'll burn the bodies of our comrades. They were Army of Death. No one will ever know their sacrifices. No one will ever know their names, or their faces. Remember them in your own ways. And always remember what it is they died for, for as long as you are here."

Zach turned away from Cee's body and looked in front of him instead. "Hank," Zach said. His expression was darker than Hank had ever seen it, yet at the same time it was the strongest the EMT had ever seen too. Zach lifted his arms to show the man and said in a serious voice, "Get me patched up as best you can."

There's no time to break. No time for rest. Too much to do. I need a healer. I need to question the Dragons, they'll know the most. More than Jet probably. I might have to make a deal with Jet. I won't torture… That's too much. Too far. I will threaten torture though. And Rebel will help make it known that it is not beyond me. The villains will know it was us who took down the Syndicate. That's good. The world will hear that heroes did it. The public will gain faith in their heroes and government. Villains will gain fear, as they confirm that we do not care about glory, as they realize that we have the power to control even heroes. Every time a hero accepts the Army of Death's actions, it'll terrify villains who think we have to fight on two fronts. I have brought the Army of Death into the shadows. I will not make as big a scene anymore. Saudi Arabia was the start, and the most public time for the Army of Death. That was the plan. Now I've reached the point where I have the ability to back up my actions with the big picture. Back up my plans by following through, and not getting swept up in my overwhelming feelings of rage and grief. Cee… Akhmed, Juno, Georgia… Cee! I won't let you down.

The villains of this world will pay. Peace is an attainable concept. I will make it so. No villain will escape my reach! I will create... peace in our world.