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!

129. Chapter 129

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 129:

In a corridor of The Cloak, a soldier in an all-black costume walked alone up from the hangar towards the front of the ship. The invisible flying headquarters of the Army of Death was moving fast up into the sky, though staying below its top speed that it could not maintain while still cloaked. The soldier walking through the hall barely felt the ship around him moving nor could he hear the hum of the engines and propellers pushing them forward. He wore his black helmet and walked through the ship towards an open set of doors into the middle of the front half, where a few dozen people were gathered and having lunch at different tables around the room.

The lone soldier who walked in was the only one in the room wearing a helmet. He looked around and then turned to his right and walked up to the counter to get a tray of food. The soldier piled up his tray and then headed back across the room. He walked past a few tables and then over to a long one that a group of men were sitting at, lined up on either side of the table making it packed but with some space. The soldier walked up to the table and a couple on the side closer to him turned their heads back. Fillian looked back on the man's right and Spiral to his left, while across the table from them Michael just rose his eyes up a bit while continuing to shovel food into his mouth.

"What's up, Rookie? Need something?" Spiral asked, raising his tone and his eyebrows at the soldier who walked up still with a helmet on. It was a sign of a rookie soldier who was not comfortable walking around the ship without their helmet on in case of a sudden attack.

The soldier in the black helmet replied while reaching up, "Who're you calling a rookie?" He grabbed his helmet and took it off, and he lowered the helmet down to his right side with a small grin on his face as he looked around at the guys at the table. He had messy black hair and tan skin, and a few of the guys at the table recognized him.

Michael lifted an eyebrow for a second and then looked back at his food and took another bite. "Oh hey," Dead Silence nodded as he recognized the guy who came to their table. The Sardonistani man next to Michael looked back at his food again, "Good to see you're back, Rookie."

The soldier who just took his helmet off lowered his smile down at the lack of reaction from his comrades around the table. "You gonna stand there all day Rookie?" Spiral asked, turning back to his food and cracking a smirk as he said it.

"What's with the welcome? And who are you?" The soldier snapped at the guy who just called him a rookie despite him not even knowing him, which even with Dead Silence he was not that okay with having barely knew him for a few days before he left. Spiral narrowed his eyes and lost his smirk, turning his head with a glare at the guy behind him who was older and glaring right back at the twenty year old. The guy who just walked up continued while glaring down into the younger soldier's eyes, "I've been here since the beginning, sweeping through Saudi Arabia and taking Mongoloid's guys down. I don't even know you-"

"Lay off," Michael started, right as Spiral's hands started pushing down on the table across from him. The guy he spoke to looked over the table in surprise to Michael who looked up at him more this time and then added in a low voice, "Spiral's a good guy. And chill, Rookie's good too," Michael added with a glance at Spiral who loosened his fists but cracked a smirk at what Michael just said.

Rookie frowned more as Michael said that, though this time he cracked a smile and moved up more to the bench of the table. "What's up Mikey, haven't-"

"Michael," Michael corrected, his lips dipping down into a deeper frown. Rookie's eyes shifted around the table and he stared at the others in confusion and surprise at the looks on their faces. He looked back at Michael who was just frowning down at his food, Pastor. Michael reached down and took another bite of his food, while thinking about the comrade who had suggested he switch to that name a while back. "You know that," Michael muttered lower.

"What's with this welcome? You guys are bein' dicks after I just got back. I'm not a rookie-"

"It's 'cause you missed Wampajawa," Scatterbox said. He looked to his left past an actual rookie between him and Fillian, and he said lower when Rookie looked his way, "So it's like you're just another rookie."

Rookie looked around at everyone and even the others he recognized were not backing him up there. Spiral was frowning more up at him again for being so defensive over this, and Rookie snapped in a pissed-off voice, "I lost my right foot in Frunoco." He glared at Scatterbox who was looking at him darkly after what he just mentioned. The guy on Scatterbox's left though turned his body sideways, and he motioned with his head at his right side a bunch of times fast with his head.

Hyper smirked as he saw Spiral crack a grin on Fillian's other side at his head nods. Hyper pulled back though as Rookie snapped at him, "You can still fight with one arm, I couldn't even stand with the replacement. Soon as I could run though I got out against doc's orders-"

Fillian scooted to his right and pushed Hyper over a bit. "Sit down Blackstar," Fillian said. Spiral frowned but just grunted in acceptance and got back to eating, while Blackstar kept frowning as he felt like Fillian just moved over to get him to stop arguing about this.

Blackstar still sat down though. He took his seat and he put his tray down, and he looked around at the guys near him who were still looking his way with frowns as most of them did not know who he was. Fillian let him sit there but it was still a bit weird, and Blackstar lowered his gaze down to his tray in frustration. It was not the welcome he was expecting in the least. It wasn't that he was hoping for a big thing, but just some happier faces to see him. He already regretted walking over in the helmet and taking it off for a reveal, and he started while taking a bite out of his food, "I heard about Wampajawa, and I had to get back. Once I could run-"

"So then, Rookie," Spiral started, his voice sounding like a sneer as he turned his eyes to his right. "You came back after hearing about Wampajawa instead of joining the assault?" Blackstar glared back to his left and Spiral bit down at that look the older man gave him like he should be talking respectfully to his senior. Spiral growled at him though, "We lost half our army-"

"I know," Blackstar growled back. The two of them kept glaring at each other, and the rest of the table stayed silent. Then Michael picked up a chicken leg and took a huge loud bite into it and started chewing with his mouth open and sharp teeth visible inside his jaw. The two of them glaring at each other looked back at their own food, losing those angry looks and just getting darker ones like the looks on everyone's faces there. Skater, Blackstar thought, his fists clenching over the table on either side of his tray. I should've come back sooner. The prosthetic is hard to run on but I have to make do.

"So how'd you get back to the ship?" Fillian asked, glancing back to his left at his returned comrade. Fillian was one of the first to shake off his dark look. They all knew they could die at any time, and he decided to bring the mood back up because why live darkly? "You just got here, right?"

"Actually got on at the last stop," Blackstar began. He grimaced and caught a roll of the man on his left's eyes as it became clear he had tried to make a grand entrance there. "I was busy getting reacquainted with all the current situations around the world. Focused more on my PT while I was gone, and the docs didn't know jack about what was going on."

"Yeah yeah," Dead Silence said, cracking a smirk and nodding in agreement with Blackstar like he accepted what he was saying. He said it sarcastically too though and a few others grinned that Blackstar's story was being doubted as he tried to make it look like he had not gone for as much of an entrance as he had.

Blackstar opened his mouth to say something about it but he just got to eating again with a grumble of annoyance at the treatment. None of you were there in Saudi Arabia. You didn't fight the Demons. Treat me like a new member… He wanted to mutter that stuff under his own breath, but he just stuffed his mouth instead. Got the shit kicked out of me back there. If it weren't for Mark, me an' Skater would've been fucked. Wish you were still here man. And, I wish you had said something about Wampajawa in your last message…

Blackstar turned his head and his eyes opened huge as he saw a huge muscular Chinese man walking into the cafeteria. The nine foot tall figure was bulging at the seems, his costume pressed tightly to his skin. It was a hulking figure that Blackstar had never seen before, and yet he recognized the face of the man walking towards the counter covered in food. "Is that, Shang?" Blackstar asked in shock at the sight of the beast who should have been a small Chinese man.

Fillian nodded his head on his side. "It's Twin Power," Fillian began in a low voice. "The rage thing when one of them would die, always ended when Death brought the other back," Fillian continued and Blackstar nodded his head as he knew that already. He turned back the other way though as Fillian continued, "But he couldn't bring back Xia again in Wampajawa, and Shang lost his shit a lot worse than he did back in Korea."

"And I heard that was worse than Xia's in the Dragon Den," Blackstar muttered in a low voice. A few of the others at the table like Spiral who had thought Blackstar was making a big deal about being there back a while ago looked at him in surprise and some more respect too as he mentioned that. They did not know how long ago he had been injured before they joined, but for those of them who had not seen him before it had felt like he was trying to come in and take seniority over them without doing a thing. Blackstar continued in a lower voice to Fillian, "What happened when he went off? Death couldn't have knocked him out."

"If anything, we needed him to go off like that," Dead Silence started over from Michael's right side. Blackstar looked left across the table diagonally, and Dead Silence added after grinding his teeth for a second, "Right after I got brought back, a ton of villains pushed back and nearly swarmed us. Shang's rampage kept the pressure off enough to keep on the offensive."

"Xia was dragging Seraphim back to try and get her to Death to revive," Fillian added. He looked down at his food as he thought about the two women he had known and been friends with for a long time.

Blackstar grit his teeth at the thought of them too and he muttered, "But Seraphim never got to Death-"

"She did," Michael said. He cut in after being silent through most of his meal. He lifted his gaze as Blackstar looked at him with wide eyes. The soldier who had just returned spun his head to look around, but Michael continued, "She got brought back, she just died again in the final charge against the Capos."

Blackstar ground his teeth and turned back frustratedly as Michael had brought his hopes up there for a second. I saw the list. I know she died. Why did I even- fuck.

"Shang's in constant rage mode now," Michael added, looking back over towards the hulking man covering his tray in more and more food until it was a towering mass. "Haven't been able to cool him off at all, though we can't tell if that's part of his Quirk or if he's just that furious about Xia." Blackstar felt for Shang as Michael said that, yet he was also looking at the man across the table. Blackstar's expression darkened at the way Michael looked to him, so dark but speaking in a monotone voice like what he was saying was just one more thing.

Blackstar shook his head and he looked back at his food when Michael turned back forward because Shang was turning. "So," Spiral began, looking up and around at the others at the table. "Anyone heard anything juicy about Death recently?"

Blackstar lowered his fork and he got a confused look on his face as he turned more to his new comrade. "You know where he's been? I haven't seen him since I got back."

"He's everywhere," Dead Silence said with a shake of his head.

Scatterbox nodded his head, "Doesn't take a break that guy. The Commander's constantly fighting, been to every mission the Army's carried out in any part of the world the past few months."

"He's always there," Michael said, nodding his head and not paying much mind to what Blackstar and Spiral said. "He'll be there the next stop too. I guarantee that."

Hyper leaned in more and whispered to the left across the table, "You guys hear about the Tusukan Desert?"

"Stop," Fillian said. His voice was low and trying to end the conversation there, and he shoveled some food into his mouth with a dark look on his face.

Across from Hyper and two guys down from Michael on his left though, another actual rookie leaned forward and nodded at Hyper. "I heard," he started, a nervous look on his face and a hesitant smile too. A couple of the others at the table looked over his way including Blackstar and Spiral, while Michael and Fillian kept dark looks on their faces at the conversation starting. The man who just spoke up was young, a vigilante who had joined recently just after Wampajawa as a lot of others had been doing, which was why many of them assumed Rookie was a rookie right away. "I knew one of the two new guys who quit after it."

"He quit?" Blackstar muttered.

The rookie nodded his head fast. "What'd you hear, Darkcry?" Hyper asked, leaning in more and grinning at the man across the table from him. "That guy tell you about it?"

"Yeah. He was on the helicopter that was sent to pick up Death after a recent recon mission on this arms' deal," Darkcry leaned forward and spoke in a low whisper like this was confidential information even though it was just a rumor. "He told me, that when the chopper got there, the two who went with Death were gone, all the villains too." Darkcry got a more nervous look on his face and then added while still looking hesitant about saying anything, " Over fifty people, and he was the only one left."

"Tama and Grabble were killed," Fillian said in a dark tone, turning his eyes over towards the rookie and glaring at him which had the man pulling back fast over the table.

Blackstar had been looking at Darkcry with a shocked expression, but at what Fillian just said he froze and his heart clenched up. "Wh-What?" He turned to Fillian and he started shaking his head as the man next to him turned his way and nodded. "No, no that's not right," he said. "I know, Tama was still alive after Wampajawa, I asked the nurses…" Fillian's expression just got darker but pitying too.

Blackstar pulled back and he rose his left hand up and pushed it through his hair. "No way," he whispered. Michael looked across the table and his eyes got even darker. A few of the others at the table knew before the way Blackstar was even reacting, that he had been into Tama before he left. "I planned on, confessing to…" Blackstar ground his teeth and shook his head. And Grabble too? He rose his eyes across the table to Michael whose dark look he was starting to understand more even as the man gave him a nod and half-pitying expression. Fuck, everyone's dropping like flies. Access and Grabble both, and Seraphim twice, have any of the guys at this table not died before? Am I the only one still with my first life intact? I can't ask. I feel like, I've come back to an entirely different place…

Hyper looked around and saw the mood looked way too down from what it had just been at. He spun back to Darkcry and began in his own low voice, "It wasn't fifty though. I don't know what your friend told you, but I heard it was more like a hundred guys. And the desert was dyed in blood with arms and legs sticking out of the sand," Hyper cracked a taunting smirk at the man across from him who leaned back more at Hyper's look. "Those two new guys couldn't handle it, didn't realize what they were getting themselves into."

"Scotty quit again too," Fillian mentioned, bringing it up instead of getting annoyed at Hyper as he was tired of this dark mood too.

"'Again?'" Spiral asked past Blackstar who was still just darkly looking down at his tray.

"Scotty was here before just like Rookie there," Scatterbox started. "But he quit after Death killed Stain."

Darkcry's jaw dropped across the table from Scatterbox. "Death killed Stain?"

Over sitting near Dead Silence and Michael, one of the other rookies who joined a day before Darkcry only a few days back leaned forward too. The guy wore a pair of thick rectangular glasses, and though his muscular body countered his facial appearance, his attitude matched it as he had been holding back there a lot as much as he wanted to jump into this conversation. He started where he thought he found a gap, which was still at the wrong point in the conversation as he began, "Well I heard." A.J. had not actually heard anything about the Tusukan Desert, but he wanted to be a part of it and it seemed like no one knew enough to counter him on it anyway. "It was more like 500 guys in the Tusukan Desert, and they were all…"

The guys on the opposite side of the table as A.J. lifted their gazes up and stared at a couple men in black costumes walking past A.J.'s back. They were not directly behind the table and A.J. had not seen them, but one heard what he was saying and stopped where he was. The seventeen year old turned towards them and stared at the rookie's back while that man kept talking about the Tusukan Desert for a few more seconds, until A.J. noticed where everyone else was looking and cut himself off before turning his head around. A.J.'s jaw dropped, everyone at the table looked over towards the teen who had not kept walking with Mark over towards the door of the cafeteria yet. His eyes looked dark, but he spoke in a low voice that was not angry, just tired and without any emotion, "It wasn't five hundred."

The guy telling the story in a ridiculous way felt his heart skip a beat. His mouth was still open but he could not even make out words to try and take back what he was saying. Death's here?!

Had no idea he was even on The Cloak.

He and Mark might've just gotten back, Fillian looked over towards the door out into the hall where Mark was standing, and he nodded at the brown-haired man who gave him a half-nod back. Then Fillian looked towards Death and gave him a nod too. Death's eyes were not too focused on any of them, but he did glance towards Blackstar for a moment before turning towards Mark and starting for the exit himself.

Blackstar's hands shook at his sides, and then he stood out of his seat. "Death," he began. Death stopped walking away from him, and Blackstar grit his teeth for a second before asking in a pained voice, "What about Tama? What, happened to them?"

"They died," Zach said. He lowered his gaze to the floor and he bit down himself after managing to say that in a steady voice.

Blackstar's chest pounded as Death told him it. He hesitated for a second and then just asked across the table towards their leader, who everyone in the cafeteria was looking towards now, "Was it quick?"

Zach closed his eyes and his shaky expression settled. He turned his head to the side and nodded. Blackstar just got a more upset and frustrated look on his face though at that nod, "But, why didn't you bring her back? It was her first time right-"

"I couldn't-" Zach started and cut himself off as it came out right away without him waiting for Blackstar to close his mouth or finish. He grit his teeth and everyone in the room looking towards him saw their leader's face lose its steady look for a moment. "There were too many," he started again. He looked into Blackstar's eyes and bit his bottom lip, then said, "She was- her body was, and Grabble…" He kept trailing off, unable to finish the sentences he was trying to say. "They knew we were there," Zach whispered in a low voice. He turned his head and then said in a lower voice, "I'm sorry, Blackstar… I'm glad you're back."

Blackstar opened his mouth again as Death started walking towards Mark, but he saw the man past Death glare his way for a second. Blackstar's teeth ground in so much pain, and he saw Mark lose that glare too and then give him a nod too, welcoming him back before he turned to leave with Death towards the bridge. "Come on, sit down Rookie," Spiral said, getting back to his food himself. "He doesn't want to talk about it, so leave it alone."

Blackstar looked down at the younger man on his left and his fists balled so tightly at his sides. And then he unclenched them and sat back down. We all know, we can die at any time. I just, I cared about her. Death would have brought her back if he could… damn it. If I had come back sooner… Would it have made a difference?

After Michael heard Zach mutter Grabble's name behind him, his fists had clenched over the table so he slid them down onto his legs. Michael glared down at his tray that was almost empty, and his eyes were dark as he started ignoring the conversations starting back up around him. Grabble, Access, Michael felt the tattoo on his chest stinging and he stared closer at his food with darkness covering up any pain that could have appeared on his face. "I am not 'in love with you.' Now shut up, and chew with your mouth closed…" "Because you're an idiot, that's why you get your heart ripped out on an easy mission…" "Oh yeah, I def just got a kiss from Seraphim. After we stop this nuke I'm sealing the deal for sure…" Cee, Seraphim, Juno…

Michael looked over towards where Shang sat at a table by himself before. The man had just stood up and started for the exit, and he turned for the bridge after leaving to follow after Death. The only one he'll still listen to after Xia died. That whole group we went to the mountain in Switzerland that day. Everyone who remembers when I died. Fuck, why can't we… Damn it Grabble, you made it through Wampajawa, why'd you have to- fuck! Michael gripped his knees and then he grunted and loosened his fingers before his sharp claws could dig through the material of his dark costume. He rose a hand and grabbed a drumstick still with some meat on it, and he tore into it with a furious look on his face as he stopped thinking about the ones who had died, and instead shifted his attention back to others they had been talking about. Fucking deserters. Theo- God damn it Stain needed to die! The other three all realized it and came back- even if Scotty did bail again. And Hybrid kicked it in Wampajawa, but Icefall, Michael's eyes rose up and he stared across the cafeteria to a table with some of the girls sitting at it.

He looked past Maelstrom's easy-to-recognize orange spiky pigtails, to Icefall who was talking with one of the rookies on her right side. The woman with long light blue hair and icy blue eyes had a horizontal scar over the bridge of her nose stopping just on the inside corners of either eye. Not everyone's dead, but they will be soon- Clap Michael turned his head and looked up in surprise before darting his eyes back across the table. He would have been less surprised if it was Scatterbox who just appeared next to him and did that, but Fillian was the one standing there. His comrade just clapped his shoulder and shook him out of what had apparently been a really focused stare to have not noticed the man across from him getting up and bringing his tray to the counter already.

"We should go train," Fillian suggested. "Death might be heading that way around the front. We could learn something."

Michael nodded his head and he stood up from his seat. His tray was empty except for scraps, but Michael frowned at it and then looked to his right and glared at a man with square glasses. "Hey dumbass," A.J turned to him and leaned back at Michael's glare. "Take my tray up when you're finished. And don't speak so carelessly," Michael stepped out from the inside of the bench and turned towards the exit of the room.

"Ooh, you just got shredded," Hyper whisper-taunted across the table with a huge grin spread over his face. A.J. buried his head down farther as he already felt stupid enough, but he got up to grab his and Michael's trays and go bring them up.

"Hey Blackstar." Blackstar rose his head up from the table in front of him that he was still staring at. He looked to the exit and saw Fillian looking back at him with Michael waiting just ahead. "Come on, we've got a few hours. Come see how far behind you've fallen."

Spiral grumbled and he pushed some food around with his fork. "Call him Rookie," he muttered under his breath, though loud enough that he was still trying to fuck with the guy on his right side.

Blackstar looked at him, then back over at Fillian. He sniffed in once and rubbed an arm across his eyes, then he pushed it down on the table in front of him. "Yeah," Blackstar said, stepping out from the table and taking his tray with him. "I'll be right behind you," he said towards his comrade who nodded and then really headed out with Michael. Blackstar walked up towards the counter himself, and he tried to force a smile but couldn't as easily as he hoped. I wasn't lying. While I was waiting to make my stupid fucking entrance, I was checking on what we're up against now. And these next weeks, just these next few days alone, I could die. Any of us can die. And if I die tomorrow I'll do it knowing I died saving this world. The world Tama, Skater, Grabble, all of you died for. I'd rather live for that world though, and keep fighting for it. So training sounds good.

---

Mark flicked a switch on the ceiling above his head and then brought that hand back to the sticks to continue lowering the vehicle he was flying down to the ground. The cloaking mechanism on the large transport hover-jet turned off, and the thrusters on the sides of the thick ship pointed down and blasted harder to slow the descent. The hover-jet had a rectangular cabin shape and looked more like a bus, which was why the Army of Death nicknamed this class of vehicles as Airbuses. Mark was flying solo at the front of the Airbus with the co-pilot seat on his side empty.

He reached up and tapped a button on the side of his headset, then he cleared his throat and started in a clear voice, "If you look out your windows, you will see us making our final descent into Life City. We just dropped inside of the city's cloaking system, and we will be arriving shortly. Please stay seated until we are on the ground." Mark paused, and then he repeated the message in Spanish, and again in Portuguese before stopping as he had checked beforehand and knew everyone on board knew what he had said now.

By the time Mark was finished with his three messages, he was almost at the ground already. He glanced down at his side and rubbed a hand over his hip while gently placing the Airbus down in an open square near the center of the city. Damn. Need this to heal already. Mark stood up from his seat upon a successful landing. He stepped back through a narrow passage at the front of the Airbus before putting his hands on the walls at his sides at the front of the thirty-six people gathered in the back of the vehicle. "Alright, everyone follow me," the man in black armor had his helmet off, clipped down at the right side of his belt. He motioned with his hand to the door on his side, and he walked over to it while the passengers started getting up through the transport to follow him.

A couple of them grabbed bags from below their seats, but even those few who had things with them did not have much. A group of kids stood up as a teenager who was still only fourteen himself told them to follow close behind him. A family of three got up near the back, and an elderly couple across the aisle from them stood up too. A few young women got up behind the group of orphan children, and they hesitantly made their ways over towards the door of the vehicle with nothing but the clothes on their backs. They all walked to the wide opening of the Airbus that had a ramp sticking down gradually off the side of it to the flat ground of the square.

Some of the passengers had gotten a good look during the descent, but the city around them only uncloaked after they had gotten close to the ground anyway. The floor had just looked like a snowy valley with some trees in it from higher up, but after entering the cloaked dome surrounding the place, they were able to see how much worse it actually looked. In the area surrounding the square, there was one line of buildings that were set up looking complete. They had windows that were not cracked or broken like most others in the city, they were several stories high unlike all the one or two story buildings around covered in holes, half-collapsed (or fully collapsed), and they looked like actually stable structures. In the distance to the north, the people getting off the Airbus could see two black towers sticking up on the other side of the city. There was a third one that was a lot shorter, with the top of it cut in a slant revealing multiple floors by the way the building was broken. Even the taller ones that looked complete were covered in holes and only had shattered or cracked windows.

Mark stood to the side of the ramp after getting off the Airbus. He leaned his back on the wall and let out a long, deep breath. There was nothing more that he needed to do. He stood there and watched as the doctors, child-care specialists, and psychologists who had been brought in on other trips moved towards the Airbus at his side and started talking to the people he had brought to the city. The group of them were in dark cloaks, all wearing black clothes and yet smiling in warm ways at the people who just landed in the city. Mark watched as some people started going down the ramps towards those people greeting them and telling them about the city. Those shrinks said it was a dumb solution, but Zach knew what he was doing. Too many of the people we bring here are used to seeing white lab coats. But black, black is the color of the Army of Death. The ones who saved them.

Mark rose his right hand towards his side but he brought it higher instead of rubbing his wound again. He scratched his cheek and muttered under his breath, "He just had to convince me otherwise." Mark wanted to smoke a cigarette right there, but he had actually listened unlike Gentle when Zach told them a while back that they shouldn't be smoking them. Imagining living long enough that cigarette smoke is actually going to hurt me, is a nice concept. I doubt it's true. Haven't kicked it yet, not even once. Still, only really refraining so he thinks I'm planning for a long life. Mark looked to his left at an elderly couple who had pained and tired looks on their faces. They were hesitating on the ramp, looking around carefully and with nervous gazes at the destroyed city around them.

"Is, is this place safe?" The old woman asked the man on her right side.

Mark nodded and replied back in Spanish, "Yes. You'll be safe here. I promise."

Really hope I didn't lie right there, Mark watched as the oldest people who had been on his Airbus started down towards a caretaker who was waiting for them specifically. Mark watched as the different people with different specializations spoke to the groups they had been waiting for the arrivals of. We got a lot of good people here. The ones who will help them readjust. Give them a safe place… Mark smiled as he looked over and saw three people heading towards the group of children who were led away by some specialists who spoke to them first. Mark looked at the school teacher, and the middle-aged husband and wife who ran a foster home around there built a block down away from the square.

Mark looked at those parents who were welcoming the children with such happy and welcoming looks on their faces. The displaced orphans, kids who had lost everything, some of whom had had horrible things done to them, looked at the couple in front of them hopefully. The teenager leading them looked back and told the kids to trust him, and that they should follow those parents to the house they mentioned. Mark smiled over at that teen who he had pulled aside before the flight and gave some responsibilities both to help him and the other kids who he needed the assistance with.

As Mark stared over at those kids though, his eyes shifted past them to a road that broke off of the square. He looked down a road that had more buildings under construction, being rebuilt or completely built from scratch far down that block so there was actually looking to be an organized structure to the town. His eyes shifted down that road not because of the buildings he saw though, but because he saw a flash down that street. A bright white flash filled his mind and then that street was covered in soldiers in black, as well as dozens and hundreds of villains. Jetflame flew by over the tops of the buildings on one side of the road, his hands pointed down and firing flames out on an entire line of the wooden bars and taverns for the villains. Five villains with white wings on their backs dove down towards the street level and Mark flinched as he actually started ducking while leaning off of the Airbus.

Mark froze with his body hunched, and he clenched his eyes shut. His body straightened back out and he took in some deep breaths and let them out slowly. Sounds of gunfire and screams faded from his mind with his slow breathing tactics, and then he opened his eyes and flashed a smile at a psychiatrist looking towards him past some of the people Mark had brought for them to help. Focus on the ones who need it more, Mark thought towards that woman, turning away himself and looking back in the direction of the kids heading down the road. The people here all need help more than I do. Not that I need it at all. This place just, gets to me. But these kids. And the parents who lost their kids and blame their governments, or it really was their government's fault. People who can't believe in the places they were from because of the corruption that directly destroyed their lives. Test subjects and former experiments, walking around with war-torn orphans who Death stopped from becoming young vigilantes. Kids whose parents we couldn't save, kids who might be targets of villains, kids who need something better than the orphanages that already exist in their countries.

The dark soldier pushed off the Airbus and turned to get back on the ramp next to him. A couple of people started over to him and he said to them before they could begin, "Call Rebel, have him relay whatever you need. I'm just a bus driver."

"I know you're more than that, Mark," a doctor in front of him began. She narrowed her eyes at him and said, "The medical supplies you have gotten for me are great, but I still need somewhere to work. Somewhere sanitary and, and sterile! I need an actual hospital to work if I'm ever going to be able to-"

"Listen, doc," Mark held up a hand in front of him and winced which he immediately regretted as the doctor darted her eyes around his body looking for his hidden wound. "We don't have the manpower to stay here and build this city for you. We'll do what we can, but we brought in all of you volunteers because tearing this place down took everything we had. We're destroyers, not builders." Mark cracked a smile while saying it, and it was clear he was joking in his tone as much as he was also telling the truth. "We'll keep looking for some good people with Quirks that can help expedite the building process though, get this place looking less like a bomb just hit the city."

"We've been exploring the outer parts of the city near the cloaking dome's exterior," the man next to the physician began without waiting a second after Mark finished. "We've completed structural integrity tests on many buildings that looked stable, but there are still too many precarious structures through this city. Bringing in so many children in a place like this is a risky move as long as this place is still so dangerous-"

"Then make rules and keep the kids from going to certain parts of the city," Mark said, his voice serious and his eyes narrowed at the older man in front of him who froze at that look. "I told them they'd be safe here. I think some of them believe it, which means they might start acting like kids and exploring. That means you've got to act strictly, and make rules and punishments." The man in front of Mark looked increasingly nervous as Mark put the establishment of parts of society on his shoulders just like that. "Listen," Mark said, softening his voice. "We all want this place to work. We all want the people we're bringing here to have better lives. It's up to you guys though to make sure that happens."

"We could use more help," the woman on Mark's left said.

We all could, Mark thought. "You'll have to make do for now. The fact that we're even attempting this right now… The Army of Death's stretched thin and moving faster than ever. You can't rely on us to do anything more than we already are. Now, I have to go," Mark said that firmly and then nodded at the doctors in front of him who turned to head back over to some of the others who had arrived with the soldier. As Mark was going to finally turn back and get into his Airbus though, he stopped and turned to look at a man running his way down the road with the most completed buildings on it.

Now what? Mark sighed but he waited on the ramp for the man to run up to him. "Dr. Olsen, how are the defenses? Keeping everything ready-"

"Take me with you," Olsen said. The Norwegian man who was helping build defenses for the city looked determined and his voice was intense as he stated his request to the soldier before him.

"What?" Mark asked. "You mean, to the Army of Death? You want to join us?" This guy, Mark looked the man up and down and he started frowning deeper. "You'll do more here. Besides, you've got a wife don't-"

"I can't just, sit here," Olsen said. He started getting frustrated but he regained his composed and determined look fast. "Everyone, I knew. My whole life uprooted and- and that's the sort of thing that happens everywhere because of villains. I-"

"Nice rehearsed statement," Mark began. "But I feel like it might sound more convincing if you just tell me the truth, Doc Olsen."

"It is the-" Olsen started. Mark looked him in the eyes with no belief in his eyes. The former torturer for the CIA just stared into the scientist's eyes silently for a few more seconds, before Olsen hissed, "Everyone at the Sci-Psi lab, they were my closest friends. My colleagues. President Andersson was a great man. All of them were, and they were all killed for the Army of Death. You have to let me join. Please."

"Doc," Mark started. He hesitated and looked the man over again. I- I shouldn't. Fuck, this one's on me. We have so few people right now we're supposed to accept anyone. But this guy, "You are helping us already. If you keep up your work here we don't have to divert as many resources. I'm sorry, about your comrades. They didn't die for the Army of Death though, but for what we do. For helping people and this world and, and for you that means staying here. With your family." That we had to move here because all their families were being targeted too. Anyone known to help the Army of Death…

"That isn't enough," Olsen whispered. He shook his head and said strongly, "I want to do more. I want to fight!"

This guy, Mark thought, and he ground his teeth as he had to consider it more at the look in the researcher's eyes. "What's your Quirk?"

Olsen immediately hesitated and Mark knew that was not a good sign on his part. "Night Sight. I can, change my vision to a night shift and see clearly in the dark-"

"Well as you already know, our helmets-"

"I know that I already know! I make those helmets myself!" Olsen snapped it in frustration and anger at the younger man in front of him. "But I can still fight. Give me a weapon and I'll-"

"Have you ever shot a gun before?" Mark asked.

Olsen hesitated again and Mark sighed and just started shaking his head. "You can teach me. I'm smart, and I'm a fast learner, and right now you could use all the help you can get."

Mark rose his eyes up into the doctor's with a glare at the tactic the man just used there. He's right. We're so low, not just from losing half but everyone still out of commission from injuries. It's why I can't say anything to Blackstar even though I checked and he still can't run right. He'll fall behind and get killed in an instant in certain situations, it's not just about holding a gun! I can't say anything though, because we need him. He's an experienced soldier though. Even unprepared recruits though we can usually mold fast, but these next days, every day is so much fighting and so much death. A man like Olsen will die in a minute. We don't have the manpower to focus training on someone completely useless in a fight like him. Not now. They're coming for us. We're coming for them. The world loop is nearing its end…

"Olsen," Mark began in a low voice. "Ask me again in a month." Mark looked into the scientist's eyes and said in a dark tone, "But right now I need you here. We need you to stay here and build weapons to defend this city from villains who might try coming back to take it. This city's built in an easy-to-defend position, there are defenses already existing here that I need you to make sure are under the control of the ones inside the city to protect it from any invasion, because villains know this place's location. Your job is important. And I don't need you to fight, as much as you might think you want to. Doc, you're a smart guy. You know you can do much more here for us than you can out there. All that anger you've got welling up that you feel like you need to go hurt people over," Mark looked at him harshly and Olsen leaned back. Then Mark softened his look and nodded behind him towards some young women being talked to by a psychologist who was working her magic already.

Olsen looked behind him and his eyes opened wide, and Mark said at the back of the scientist's head, "We've got the best help in the world here. We asked the best in those fields to come here, and I know one of them can help you deal with this anger. Calm yourself down. Take some time to mourn those you lost." Mark turned and he stepped back higher up the ramp. "And don't worry, if you are, that Fergus is still gunning for all of you." Olsen turned back and stared at Mark in shock as the man stepped back into his Airbus. Mark turned from inside the doorway and looked down at the doctor who he spoke in a low voice to, "We got him. Found all his associates in the secret society he ran too. Weeded out all of the darkness in the companies he ran." Olsen's eyes were shaking as Mark said all this to him, things he had not heard about as they had not been reported on at all. Mark finished in a lower voice, "So your family's safe. You're safe now."

Mark turned away from Olsen and grabbed the door, and he shut his transport with a thud. Then he froze there with a hand on the handle and just grit his teeth in pain before resting his head on the inside of the door before him. Fergus' composite Quirk was too much though. Possession and Beams, it was a fucking mess. If we never found his real body he would have wiped us all out. Mark leaned back from the door and he turned to the cockpit of the Airbus.

The R&D department destroyed, City of Villains cleared, half of my closest friends killed, Fergus' inner circle wiped… Mark took a seat on the driver's side of the Airbus which was on the left. He started the ship back up and rose off the ground, cloaking himself again and speeding off faster and faster the higher he rose up in the sky, leaving Life City far behind him. With every victory we take heavy losses. And not all of them are complete victories too. Mysti escaped. That cat mask bitch killed Steamer and made it out while we were separated to keep Fergus from making us kill each other. She looked straight into the cameras like she wanted us to know it was her. Fucking whore. How'd she disappear without a trace?

Mark pushed the sticks he was holding forward more to speed up. I need to get to the meet point, he reminded himself. Vietnam in under two hours in a hunk of junk like this. Shouldn't be too hard, but I need to get to Curalia before we go in. My side's fucking killing me. She's more reliable than Miraculu ever was, but damn did her Miracles patch you up in an instant! When they worked…

Any faster and the cloaking won't stop me from being spotted on radars, even by people just looking up at the right time… Can I make it in time? I need to keep Death up to date on how the city's turning out too. We need to make it self-sustaining soon. Faster. I was worried about establishing it so soon after we took the city, but I know. It's the endgame now.

---

Three jets flew across a night sky in southeast Asia. They were black on bottom and blended into the darkness high above the ground, and even inside the jets there were barely any lights on. In the jet farthest south, on the right of the center one as they were flying to the east, Blackstar stood near the middle of a plane that had the quietest rumbling noise inside it as they shot through the night. It was so quiet that they were actually staying quiet themselves, as they felt their voices would be more likely to be detected by their enemies. They also all had their helmets on, with comms links connected so they knew to stay silent and keep the lines cleared from chatter.

Blackstar tightened his grip on the handle hanging from the ceiling that he was holding onto. Is jumping out of planes common now? Damn it. Don't say a thing about it. I can jump out of a plane. I can do it. It's no worse than that ferris wheel in seventh grade, that I never went on again. Everyone is doing it! And I need to master the controls on this suit, and I'm going to do that while in freefall?!

Fillian lifted up a hand and tapped a button on his helmet to switch comms to just their own plane's link. He leaned forward towards the back of Blackstar's head, "The display will do most of the calculating work for you. Just read it out and follow the directions. The suit will do the rest."

Blackstar glanced over his shoulder, and as he looked back at Fillian he noticed a few of the others in the plane with them looking tense and even shaking as they held the handles hanging from the ceiling. Seeing that he was not the only one relaxed him more than Fillian's reassurance even. He looked back forward towards the cockpit of the jet where the pilot called back that they were nearing the drop zone.

Ahead of Blackstar, a twenty two year old holding a shaky katana in hand leaned next to him to his comrade lined up in the jet on his right. "Places like this that are still so big, it feels like the villains are just as strong as ever sometimes."

"Ey don't say that," his comrade said with a glance to his left out his visor. His voice was more optimistic and he nudged his friend with an elbow, "We've got 'em on the ropes. We keep up the grind and we'll finish off the last of them."

Blackstar grunted behind the man who just said that. The guy turned his head more to the side to look back at the soldier he heard behind him, and Blackstar said with a smirk on his face, "That's how I know you've got to be a rookie."

"Hey, I'm not-"

"You still think we can stop all the villains?" Blackstar said again, lifting his tone at the end like it was a joke to him. "There will always be more-"

"Not so sure about that," Fillian cut in behind him. Blackstar froze and turned his head to the side, looking back in shock at his comrade who countered him.

Blackstar hesitated for a second and then asked while turning more as Fillian did not sound like he was joking, "You serious?"

"You didn't see Wampajawa," Fillian said, shaking his head at Blackstar and lifting the corners of his lips. "The City of Villains falling like that; thousands of them hiding in fear of the Army of Death, and still unable to survive." Fillian's voice got louder as he was saying it, and others in the jet around them found themselves steadying and gripping the handles harder. "They have nowhere left to hide."

"Drop zone in thirty seconds," the pilot called back to the group of dark soldiers behind him. The red light in the hold of the plane stayed that color and would only turn green once it was time to jump.

Michael walked to the door though and opened it up, sliding it away to make a big opening for them to jump out of. Behind him, Blackstar looked forward and away from Fillian whose words were still echoing in his head. That's crazy! I wish I had seen it. Though, it sounded horrible. They won though. We- no, it was them. I can't say "we" did it when I wasn't even there. Blackstar's hands tightened harder and then he let go of the handle off the ceiling of the jet. He lowered his arms to his sides and his skin turned silvery and between a solid and liquid form. The swirling mass of silver sharpened into two spikes out of his wrists while still leaving him hands too below those protruding blades. Blackstar rose his blade arms and slashed them over each other, and he listened to a countdown in his ear that just reached ten. But I'm here now. I'm going to finish what they started-

Michael leapt out of the jet. They were still several seconds until the drop time, but he dove out of the door and pointed his body down to speed up fast. "Michael! What are-" Blackstar stopped calling it out and just rushed forward as Icefall leapt out behind him followed by all the others near them. The light in the jet was still red and the countdown was still going but had not gotten to zero yet. Blackstar dove out of the plane, unable to even think about the fear of what he was doing while there were people right behind him trying to rush out too.

Blackstar flipped over and over, then he straightened out his body and swung his arms and legs out to slow his fall. He pulled his head back and stared down in fear for a moment, before spinning his head to the side and looking around at the other cloaked planes up near them. He could see them or at least where they were thanks to all the dark soldiers falling out of the sky in different directions. Blackstar looked back down and past Michael who he recognized as the person farthest down of everyone falling from the sky. There it is, Blackstar grit his teeth at the sight of the target location he had studied up on just like all the others on the mission had before they even left The Cloak.

They were dropping just over a channel between the mainland and an island off the coast of Vietnam. They were meant to drop right over the island, but everyone who jumped early was falling while angling themselves to fly down over the island anyway. The mainland had a large forest on it not too far from the start of the bridge cutting to the island. The forest of tall green trees had rain pouring down into it farther to the west than where they dropped. There were some roads in the forest, and the biggest one that cut out to the start of the bridge was easily spottable from the sky because of the gap in the trees. There was a car driving down that path from the jungle towards the island, though it was slowing for the guard post on the mainland side of the bridge.

Blackstar looked carefully towards that car they all spotted due to its headlights shining in an area that should not have been very lit up from what they had heard about it. The forest team has to hold. Stay in position and only show themselves once the villains try escaping one of their only two exits. It's why we don't come in through the front, to give them such an easy escape route they'll just be cornering themselves in. Blackstar dragged his eyes across the bridge to the other side where there was no guard post but just a continuation of a road onto an island that did not look suspicious in the least.

The island had eight buildings on it in total. There were a few greenhouses, a couple of storage buildings on the east side of the island close to the docks, a main factory, a processing plant, and the island itself just looked to be for some legal and boring agriculture business. The guard house down there and the building behind meant for the laborers in the greenhouses. The largest number of combatants will be concentrated there. Based on what their captured comrades in Wampajawa claimed, we should be up against up to three hundred villains. Their entire distribution line is reliant on this place though. The production, packaging, transport, it all goes out through here. And they keep up the front of a fertilizer, manure business well, the plants they actually make and can show off when inspections come. We have to destroy the Vine at its source. Stop the meth and opioids too. And the bastards who turned this place into their own private island, probably convinced people nearby the business was legitimate and recruited the villains we're about to fight from poor towns and villages around the forest. We're dropping so fast! I swear if I can't work this thing…

Blackstar curved his body more and he spread his arms out at the sides. He curled in his toes and tried pushing his legs down, and he shot himself across the air more horizontally but dropping lower to get closer to Michael's level. "What happened to the countdown?" Blackstar asked, flying closer towards Michael as they flew over the water between the mainland and island so they were now over the enemy base.

Michael pointed himself downwards more, and Icefall said over from Blackstar's left, "If we waited any longer we wouldn't be able to help Death." Blackstar's face covered in confusion, then he snapped his head down the same time the lights were turning green in the nearly empty jets above. An explosion of darkness shattered the windows in the main production building on the island. The largest building close to the middle trembled and lights turned on all over the place as the secret villain base realized it was under attack. He's already in there?!

"Attack the guard houses!"

"Don't give them time to react!"

"On your Commander!"

"UP ABOVE!"

"RRAAAAAAA!" Michael roared down at the villain who shouted while pointing something up towards him. His shout was like a massive roar of a lion, and lights shone up to show that roaring man dropping below a horde of dark soldiers all about to crash down into the long guard building where the majority of their enemies were gathered. Stabilizers turned on below many of the dark soldiers' legs and arms, and others slowed themselves using their Quirks, while some just smashed straight down through the ceiling of the biggest building full of villains they were attacking.

Shang smashed through the roof and dropped down into the middle of the floor between a bunch of bunk beds that were empty. The villains who had just gotten off of them and were reaching for weapons or putting uniforms on spun in shock and then horror at the huge monster of a man who just dropped there. Shang was facing a man in front of him who stared through falling debris in absolute terror at the sight of him, and Shang snapped his helmeted head forward and let out a roar much more monstrous than Michael's lion-like one outside. As Shang let out his horrifying roar, more dark soldiers flew down through the hole in the ceiling, smashed through windows on the sides of it or just made new holes in those walls themselves.

"No hogging the fun!" A doorway smashed inwards and two men who just ran out it came flying back with it.

One of those men flipped around in midair and flapped black feathery wings behind himself, but his body was bruised and covered in blood already. The Vietnamese man with blood all over him was gasping for breath, and he pulled back in the air as the man who just shouted stomped into the building. From one hit?! The beast of a man who just slammed him and his comrade back inside, and had knocked his comrade unconscious in that single blow, smirked behind his mask at the fear on the villain's face.

"You going to be a good fight?" Rappa asked, then he snapped his head to the right and yelled. "Hey! He's mine!" Rappa started running forward while Shang barreled down the middle of the room towards the winged man who started turning his way now.

A white beam crashed down on the villain between the two beastly Army of Death soldiers. Rappa skid to a stop, then another burly man dropped in front of him who was not as big as him or Shang but was just as intimidating to the villains around them who watched as one of their powerful comrades was dropping covered in black burns with smoke coming off his body. Exodus looked to his right at the villain who never got up after Rappa's hit, then he turned his head and said, "If you continue to hit too hard, you will be left behind for the authorities. Watch your power."

Rappa snapped his left arm out to the side and wrapped a hand around the face of a speedster who just rushed at him with his sword up in the air. Exodus had a hand raised his way and glowing white at the same time, but Rappa smashed his other hand up into the swinging blade and broke it, then he threw the villain who tried charging him while he was distracted. He tossed the villain right past Exodus and into the wall behind him, then Rappa turned and said, "I know. I ain't giving this gig up for anything." His voice sounded annoyed, and he glared over at the burnt figure to his right who he would have rather fought to the death right there.

Exodus watched as Rappa started off down the barracks, then he turned his head and called to a group of other soldiers behind him, "Overwhelm them." His voice was dark and menacing, and he turned his helmet a bit to look at a villain on the floor pushing himself back away. "And destroy everything."

In a different building, Fillian lifted his palm off the floor and then rose that hand into a fist. He swung the arm to the right and extended four fingers, then he lifted two more and pointed straight ahead at a wall. He motioned at the wall and clenched his fist again before opening it up in an exploding symbol. Two dark figures ran up at his sides and to the wall, while Michael yelled out at others to follow him and sprinted off to the right where there were four villains in the next room down that way.

Blackstar watched Michael head off but he stayed behind Fillian with his arms raised and transformed into silver scythes. He bent his legs and grit his teeth at the strange feeling of the prosthetic foot that he never really got used to fighting on before heading back to the AoD. On Blackstar's left and right were two more soldiers who he was just acquainted with earlier that day, all of them following Fillian as Charlie's Squad Leader for the mission. Upload and Incite both held their weapons steady, and Blackstar narrowed his eyes forward while letting out a long exhale to ready himself.

"On my signal," Fillian said to the two men who just stacked up on the wall and set charges. They moved to the sides and put their backs up against it, and Fillian lifted his rifle that he aimed towards the middle of the wall before saying in a steady voice, "Breach."

The charges exploded and the wall blew inwards. The debris was still in the middle of flying back, not even a second after the breach, when bullets flew through their side of the wall. The two men who had stacked up against the wall dove opposite directions as the side they were about to pop out in front of. Blackstar dove to his right while turning his arms back into arms, and he tackled Upload out of the way as he saw the man there had fully panicked in that second as the shots started from the other side. X-ray Quirk? Did they know we were busting in here-

"Fillian!" Incite shouted, and Blackstar spun as he hit the ground towards the middle of the breach area where he had not heard any shots of their own going off. Instead he just heard a thud louder than the rocks falling around them, and he stared at the dropped body of his Squad Leader with his jaw dropped inside his helmet. A group of six started rushing through that hole in the wall, but Incite's voice suddenly got a lot darker and made the air around them all vibrate as he snarled, "Fight." The first two men rushing through stopped where they were immediately, while the others farther back started shaking their heads around and trying to ignore that feeling brewing in their minds.

Incite's power did not work fast, but it did not need to as the two men who had dove to the sides of that exploding wall dove back at the group who were distracted by Incite's mind-altering voice. "Fillian!" Blackstar scrambled over to his comrade, then he picked up the rifle laying next to him and lifted it to aim at the villains ahead. As he picked it up, Blackstar felt dread at how wet the weapon was. He looked down at his hands and the blood on them, as he did not have black gloves on which made creating his Quirk weapons easier. Blackstar looked down at the unmoving body below him and the growing puddle around him. "Damn it!" Blackstar brought the rifle up and fired towards the legs of a man ahead of him turning to Incite and opening his mouth with a bright light blue glow coming from his throat. The man screamed out as he fell backwards, and ice breath shot up at the ceiling and froze a big patch of it.

"We need support back here!" Upload called out.

"And Death!" Incite added in a shout.

Blackstar kept firing towards the men but his breath hitched at the sound of that. He darted a glance over towards Incite, then back forward at the group of villains who had more than Fillian had indicated were on the other side of the wall. Was his Quirk wrong? Did more rush into the range after he had checked? So one of these guys knew we were on the other side and called for help, or did one of them just know how to mask their positions and led us into a trap by leaving two of them out of their cloaking?! Blackstar tossed the rifle to the side as one of the villains ahead of him had a hardening Quirk that turned his skin red and spiky, and bullet-proof. Blackstar rushed in and he slashed a growing silver scythe instead of his left arm down at the red-skinned villain.

He slashed his other scythe the other way and blocked a sword coming down from a figure who just appeared on that side of him. The man disappeared an instant later, but Blackstar still slashed back as he felt the force there on his scythe leave only after the man disappeared. Blood splashed out of thin air, and the villain fell backwards turning back visible again. Blackstar's distraction there gave the hard villain a chance to punch around the point their weapons were clashing, and a red fist smashed into the side of Blackstar's helmet. His visor view shook and got scratchy for a second, but the glass did not crack as much as the punch did rattle the man inside it.

Blackstar hit the floor but fell straight into a barrel-roll he came out of with both arms swinging up at the man trying to chase after him. He slashed into the man's torso, but it was still too hard for his weapons to break through. He pushed harder as the shocked villain who was not expecting to get hit so suddenly smirked again at the weak attack that could not break his guard. He put his fists together over his head, and then a thin line of darkness slammed into his right temple. The villain's eyes rolled back and he started falling to the side like he just got shot in the head.

Blackstar spun and he called out, "Death! Can you- How was he still on his first life?!"

Death dropped down to his knees and pressed his hands onto Fillian's body. Fuck. After everything. Damn it. "Get up," Zach whispered, and then he started grinding his teeth as he felt bullets riddling through his body in eight different places. "Ugh- AGH! AHHH!" Zach clenched his teeth again, and he pulsed out a wave of darkness from his arms into the man below him. Then he felt himself die. Zach dropped his arms to his sides and he stood back up. "Fillian! Take control of your squad and-"

BOOOM!

"Death!"

"They've got Trigger!"

Zach shot away leaving behind a trail of darkness in the direction he just flew so fast he was invisible to his comrades around him. All the villains nearby were unconscious on the floor, including the ones who had been hit in the legs who were no longer screaming. Blackstar watched as their leader left them and his eyes were huge at the thought of what he had just seen. He's so fucking- I mean, he was always strong but that-

"You guys good over here?" Michael called out, and Blackstar turned to see Michael rushing back their way with four others behind him. "Fillian!" Michael shouted, and he ran up to Blackstar just next to another Squad Leader like him who was slowly sitting up. "You alright?" Michael asked.

Blackstar shook his head in amazement again and he looked down with a grin on his face as Fillian sat up. "I can't believe after all this time you still never-"

"That's, what dying is like?" Fillian whispered. Blackstar froze and the others around them all looked at the man who turned his head and looked around at them. His hands were trembling at his sides, and inside the broken visor of his helmet they could all see the face of a man teetering on the edge. Fillian's lips were shaking and his eyes were huge, and he looked to Michael whose body visibly pulled back at the sound of Fillian's cracked voice right there. "That's, what all of- everyone felt that and they're still here?" Fillian's eyes shook more and he started pulling his head back as he looked straight at Michael while saying it.

Shame and guilt and horror covered Fillian's face, and then he thought about that fading into darkness and his shaking hands started raising up. "I- I can't…" He put his hands on the sides of his head and his face spread with so much more horror. I can't leave! The way I felt about the deserters- I can't- So many have died and stayed and I- AHHHH! I can't! I can't leave, I have to- I don't want to be a coward! I don't want to die again! I DON'T WANT TO DIE! AHHHHH!

Icefall stood on Michael's right side and she was staring down at what part of Fillian's face she could see through his broken visor. She ground her teeth at the sight of him, but she glanced to the right and saw Michael's head pulling even farther back and starting to shake back and forth at what he was seeing. Michael had a stunned expression on his face and his eyes shook as he stared at his comrade, who he could see like this was completely falling apart. "You sure you're doing alright? 'Dying isn't so bad?' You're full of shit. Glad you're good though. Come on, let's get off this fucking mountain…" Michael started lifting a hand, opening his mouth to say something to him too, but his hand clenched into a fist as Fillian lowered his from the sides of his head and looked unhinged at how conflicted his thoughts were at the moment.

Michael stepped towards Fillian and he put his hand down on his comrade's shoulder. Fillian looked up into Michael's dark visor, and his face fell with his jaw dropping and tears filling his eyes as Michael said, "We'll get you out of here." Fillian gasped at the sound of that, and he opened his mouth to shout that he didn't need that. Instead more air just wheezed out. "Icefall, take point," Michael said, turning his head and nodding at the woman behind him who nodded back intensely. She had never expected to hear such a tone come from Michael with what he just said to Fillian, but the fact that it was Michael saying it made everything so much more depressing and serious.

"Blackstar, Incite, up with me," Icefall called out. She started rushing through the hole in the wall ahead of them this team had never gone through themselves.

Fillian looked to his side and watched as Incite ran off, and then he looked into Blackstar's eyes and just looked down as he saw the man looking back at him with his helmet turned slightly. Fillian stared at the floor with shaking huge eyes, and he gasped out again, "I hate this." I hate myself. I hate feeling like this, for being unable to handle this, and I can't handle that I can't handle it! My Quirk's important! I've saved millions! I need- I'm letting everyone down! I can't do this! I need to get it together, but I don't want to die! Tears fell from Fillian's eyes and he just ground his teeth harder at the feeling of those tears sliding down his face, more hatred crossing it and a desperate look spreading over. I stay. I leave. I live. I die. I'm losing it. I can't break down! No one- barely anyone breaks down from this! Some people quit when they died but I- I hated them for it! They were COWARDS! Get up! I CAN'T!

"Come on," Michael started lifting his friend who spun back to him as he had forgotten anyone was still there holding his arm.

"I can- I can- fight?" Fillian's voice cracked at the end and his word just came out as a question instead of a declaration that he could keep going. He tried pulling away from Michael but he tried so weakly that it was like he was not trying at all, and Michael stared at his comrade feeling glad that Fillian could not see his face at the moment. The sight of his comrade who had been in hundreds of fights with him breaking down like this was too much for Michael to take with a straight face. Fillian rose up a shaking hand and he grabbed the front of Michael's costume. His mouth opened as he tried to say it again but stronger, as he tried to make a declaration that he was alright, but instead all that came out was a gasped, "I'm sorry."

Out in one of the greenhouses around the island compound, all of the plants in the room were getting brown and dying. Leaves blackened and drooped, then dropped down into the dirt as they were not strong enough to stay on their plants. Thick vegetation that some villains were hiding behind dried out, and those men lifted their heads and stared up at the water rising into the air and swirling around in a cyclone of water above them. That tornado broke apart and a bunch of water people were created from the swirls, and those people started dancing together while more water rose up to join them.

"Whoops! Ope- over here!" Hyper sped around three men, making laughing noises that he tried to cut off each time he shot one of them in the neck with darts that had them dropping to the floor in a second flat. His noises got the attention of some others who spun and saw a speeding blur taking out their comrades one by one, and when they started turning to Hyper though, all those dancing water figures turned into spheres instead that shot down and slammed into the sides of their heads.

Mark slammed a couple of men off their feet, while flooding his attacks straight into the throats and noses of others. He started talking while still drowning unconscious the villains, "Hyper, you've got to stop with those noises buddy. I know it's hard for you but- stand still for a second!" Mark snapped it at the man who was still running around back and forth in front of him so fast it was starting to make his head hurt. Fucking Adrenaline. He's full of it constantly, so when it's actually time when adrenaline would normally spike, he's like a coke addict on speed. "Alright. Follow me," Mark said, specifying who was leading so that Hyper would not rush far ahead of him.

Hyper started nodding, then he spun to the right super fast and jumped in surprise. Hyper calmed down though as the dark figure that just flew down through a glass wall of the greenhouse landed in front of them. "Mark. The back room in this building is what we're looking for," Death said, having gotten that information from one of the important targets he had just located and terrified into telling him. "On me, you two. Rebel, full comms. Delta team move in the back."

"Heading around, Death. Lots of fighting outside though-"

"Get there."

"Understood Commander."

Hyper ran up to Death and opened his mouth, but he slammed it shut and just rose back up his pistol with tranq-darts in his left hand. The one-armed man who had lost his other just a couple weeks ago stacked up close behind Death even with the black wisps of Nightmare coming off of him. Hyper ignored the dark tendrils of darkness as they would not affect him anyway, while Mark stayed a bit farther away on Death's right side as they moved through the dead greenhouse.

Mark trained a pistol into the darkness on his right where some lights had broken in the gunfire after he first entered the greenhouse. He aimed over at a pile of manure or dirt, though it did smell bad enough it could be manure. He aimed around the dirt looking for a sign that someone was hiding beneath it, but it looked clear and he swept his pistol around more while he continued forward. The most sensitive information is definitely being guarded. We need to rush, but we have to be careful here. Mark's eyes narrowed on some heavy-duty bags his gun swept over for a second, and he turned on the flashlight on his pistol before shifting his eyes away from the fertilizer.

"For a front," Hyper started whispering quickly as they moved towards the back of the greenhouse. The back wall looked normal enough, but they suspected there was a secret room back there now and were ready for whatever might be behind it. Hyper was looking around like Mark was though as they pushed through, and he continued, "They sure had a lot of business. I mean, did you really need to destroy all the legitimate stuff here Mark? Lots of food and plants and even the dirt you took the water out of could have been-"

"Hyper," Death said while continuing for the door ahead. "Shut up." Zach rushed at the door before the men behind him could say anything.

Stop doing that! Mark thought, and he sprinted after his Commander rushing in on his own first again.

Fillian's losing it. Fillian! Damn it. I need him- and, and God damn it, Fillian?! Zach slammed the normal door in front of him down, then he pulled back his right fist and his entire arm surrounded in a thick flame of black aura that bulked up huge. He stomped his right leg forward at the thick steel door and black flames shot out the back of his right shoulder, and he slammed that arm forward so hard that the steel dented out and the hinges blasted off.

Zach slammed the secret door through the entry into a wide room behind that had a lot of men training weapons on the door ready to hear enemies on the other side. The door suddenly blasting forward like that caught them off guard though, especially the two men straight out from it who were slammed into and knocked back. One of those two was the strongest warrior in the room too, ready to fight head-on against the attackers in the next room down. His fall made the rest of the others watching from more strategic positions start firing on the entry, and Zach rushed through fast before all their attacks started hitting.

Keep the aim away from the computers. Zach saw not all the men in the room were trying to fight him. Some looked back from computers they were typing away fast at, only for them to be the first ones in the entire room to collapse as precise dark lines slammed into them from the tips of Death's index fingers. Can't have you deleting anything else. What the- Zach's head had to snap to the right fast, but his heart rate started speeding up and he breathed out a heavier breath of black steam on the next breath.

Zach flew up in the air and rushed at one of the walkways on the side of the room but on the second floor. He flapped his wings behind him and made a wall of darkness that he broke off of his own back to block what he was about to do from the sight of everyone else in the room. He darted to the right after making that wall, and most of the shots coming at him blasted through the middle of it as the men thought he had kept going straight. Zach watched as bullets and attacks slammed into the two men he had been charging at, but he had already spun and was going for another man. That burly bald man opened his mouth though and fired a rocket out of his tongue as his jaw unhinged.

Zach backflipped in midair and fired Death out of his feet in the other direction to dodge the rocket. Heat seeking? Zach saw out the corner of his eyes the rocket turning and following right after him. No, he controls it. Zach swept a hand behind him while targeting someone else. He was already flying towards the next villain when the one who fired the rocket at him pushed his rocket through the black wind, which caused him to collapse and his rocket to start falling out of the air. Death dropped back to the floor and swung his right arm to the side, "Death Claw." His arm extended out and sharp nails formed at the end of the large arm of darkness, then he started sweeping that Death Claw across the floor.

The rocket hit the ground behind Death. He had been aware of its fall, but he did not expect the payload that just blew a crater in the floor and a mass of flames into his back that took him off his feet. Zach clenched his jaw tightly and then spun around in the explosion, dodging two sharp spikes that just pierced out of a villain's eyes. Zach started taking a deep breath as the back door of the room opened up before a running villain could reach it, but Zach grit his teeth in frustration as it was just more villains coming in the back who restored confidence in the ones trying to run too. "Delta where is that support?"

"We're coming!"

"Three trucks escaping on the bridge. Forest team get ready to launch the trap."

"On standby."

"We see them."

"Keep those flames down. We don't want to draw any more attention than we need to."

Zach sprinted into a cloud of smoke behind him as a dozen villains targeted attacks on him. He disappeared from sight and swept around the first floor of the room until he was running around the outer walls. He saw the cloud thinning out and he brought his right foot up onto the wall while running over forty miles per hour. He brought his left up, then he started sprinting faster and his acceleration sped him running up the wall. He had both hands lifted as he ran out of the smoke, and the villains who spun their aims towards him saw two black spheres of darkness on the palms of that dark figure. Zach spotted Hyper sprinting into the ranks of those villains as they were all aimed up on him, and he still shouted, "Twin Death Grenades!"

A sphere of darkness slammed into a villain right next to where Hyper was elbowing one in the face, and Death swept around them taking out the other four around him but not Hyper himself. A whip of water flew around and grabbed a man escaping from the spreading Death by his ankle. Mark yanked the guy up, and while he was being flipped, Hyper jumped and slammed a leg down into his gut to smash him into the floor. Taking him out meant that Death's second Death Grenade that he threw a moment later was able to be targeted on villains farther from the first attack.

Mark had swung an arm out to make his attack, but he was running across the floor without really focusing on the villains too much. He sprinted up to the computers and pulled a slouched villain off his chair and tossed him to the side. Mark leaned forward over the console and started typing fast into it, hacking into the system and searching for very specific files. He brought his head up to the computer screen in front of him and cursed, then he looked back down and started typing away again to try and crack a strong firewall. If only Access was here. I never said it because I didn't want to think he'd die again, but we should have had him make dozens of those panels as spares just in case… Damn it. Focus!

"Mark!" Hyper yelled, and Mark spun his head to see Hyper sprinting towards him. Between the two of them though, there was a man half-sticking out of the ground that looked like liquid around where his torso was sticking out of. Death started turning his head from where he had one of the targets he actually knew about gripped by the throat, and he lifted up his other hand to aim an attack over at the man sticking out of the floor. Mark pulled his head back fast, but the first shot hit him in the helmet and made him spin out with glass shattering out of his mask.

"HAA!" Hyper slammed a knee out at the back of the villain's head, but his knee pushed straight through the man and out his other side. Hyper's eyes bulged as he was falling through the man instead of hitting him, as Hyper assumed that the man had been merged with the floor or sticking out of it. Permea- The second shot fired, as Hyper was just finishing coming out of the man's other side, as the wave of Death was about to crash into the two of them that the villain still had yet to see.

Darkness covered the two of them, and then the Death faded. Zach stared across the room while a man with a red neck tried crawling away behind his legs. He stared at the villain who collapsed out of the ground, and Hyper who stumbled forward and kept trying to stand, before falling down to his knees. Hyper tried turning to stand, but his legs were wobbly and he just fell onto his back instead. "Oh man- oh gee, oh fuck fuck-" Hyper put his hand down at his sides while Death started running towards him.

Zach glanced to his side and he saw Mark grabbing a chair and pulling himself up. "I'm fine," Mark said, reaching up and pulling off his broken helmet, then brushing some glass out of his messy brown hair that fell below his shoulders once he took it out. "Hey Hyper are-"

"Behind you!" Zach yelled at Mark, as the older man was too focused on their comrade and not the computers. Mark spun, and he swung an arm out and made a fist of water that slammed into the face of a villain who had crawled over and leaned up over the computer systems. Mark's water fist knocked the man flying away from the computers, but the screen directly in front of where he had been flashed red. '60' appeared on the screen, and then that number started counting down.

"Oh fuck me," Mark ran back and started typing into the computer he had just smashed that man away from.

"Self-Destruct Sequence initiated."

Delta Squad was rushing through the back doors of the building as that voice called out from the computers. Mark spun and shouted at the team who were too late to help fight anyway, "Get out of here and away from the building!"

"You heard him!"

Delta Squad started rushing back out, and Hyper looked over and tried to push down harder himself. "Let me- I'll go too-" his hand slipped on the floor and he fell flat back down to his back.

Zach walked up to Hyper and he leaned down, holding a hand out for Hyper to take. Hyper looked up towards Death and he started reaching his left hand up, but his hand was shaky and Hyper pulled it back towards his helmet and right in front of his face. Then he lifted his head and looked down at the front of his armor, where he saw a hole on his chest despite having been shot in the back. "Wh-" Hyper's head snapped back up to look at Death, and Zach stared through his visor with his expression shaken at the look he knew Hyper just gave him. "I'm- no no no- No no no no no!"

"Get up Hyper, I'll get you to-"

"I felt this last time," Hyper whispered, his voice cracking and tears forming in his eyes. They spilled down his face and he brought his hand to his visor and grabbed it tightly as he gasped out again in pain and sheer terror. "No! I don't- I don't want to die. I don't- Ack!" He coughed and blood splashed out of his mouth it was already filling and onto the inside of his visor.

"Hyper!" Zach dropped down next to the man who reached his left hand to his helmet and started ripping it off to try and breathe easier.

"I can't! I don't want-" the frantic, panic-ridden voice echoed over the headsets of the Army of Death listening in to him. Fillian brought his head down and his hands to the sides of his head, his eyes clenching shut and a gasp of agony escaping his lips. Rebel cut off Hyper's comms, but it did not matter for him or for Death who had to keep listening as Hyper pulled his helmet off and started leaning up towards him. "I- I don't want to die- Death! Death!" Zach reached forward and his hands shook over Hyper's body as the man begged him for something, anything. Hyper's eyes opened huge and he reached a hand up and grabbed Death by the front of his costume, "Kill me! Kill me kill me kill me kill me!"

"I-"

"I want it to mean something!" Hyper shouted. Tears spilled out of his eyes and he gasped out more blood, and his face was paling as he felt his life fading from him just as it had last time. He thought of that last time and gasped in horror again, "I don't want- I don't want it not to mean anything again. I died for nothing last time. Why did I- I was stupid- that was on me. I made a stupid mistake and I'm gonna- just kill me! Kill me and it will make you stronger by killing me! Please!"

"I- can't," Zach whispered. He clenched his teeth and then said, "If I've already brought the person back, Hyper I can't-"

"Rebel! Can you help me out here?!" Mark shouted, spinning back from looking at Hyper to the computer in front of him that kept counting down.

"You'd have to get me in the system and that'd take too long for you. And there's no internet connection for Cody. Just get out of-"

"Not until we get the data!"

"Then do it fast! Use this code to…"

"Death," Hyper whispered up to the figure kneeling at his side. "Why? Why can't you, why can't I- it doesn't mean anything."

"Where's Curalia!?" Mark shouted as he continued to type.

"I'm sending her over!"

Hyper was wheezing, and Zach grabbed him tightly by his left hand. "It will mean something. I promise-"

"It won't," Hyper sobbed. Tears fell from his eyes and he tried saying more but he was losing breath. He looked absolutely terrified, and he whispered, "Why didn't I leave? Why did I have to- I hate this. I wish- Adrenaline- ack, life- please! You have to- but it won't make a-"

"Life City. All those villains you stopped. We stopped," Zach leaned his head down more towards Hyper's head. Hyper pulled his left hand out of Zach's grip though. His hand continued to shake and he lowered it down to his side, and his eyes lowered down and Zach's did too to a pistol that was not filled with tranquilizers.

"…that'll only give you a little more time. You need to get out of there!"

"Not yet!" Mark shouted back, then he smirked as the timer doubled. He slid the chair he had sat down on over and started typing at the computer he had gone to originally again. "Come on," he whispered, then his hands froze and his eyes darted to the corner of his visor with his eyes opening huge.

"I just want it to be faster," Hyper whispered. His face was apologetic, and he gasped it at Death who started shaking his head while looking down at Hyper's face, the blood trails going down from the corners of his mouth to his chin. Zach's teeth started grinding but he slowly nodded at Hyper whose hand tightened around the grip of his pistol. "I'm sorry. I wanted to do more. I wanted, I wanted to help you. I just wanted- I wanted-" his hand shook on the pistol that he started pulling from his side. "I wanted to make a difference. I just wanted-"

"You did. Hyper, everything you've done-" Clank. The pistol Hyper had pulled from his waist hit the floor. Zach's eyes shifted over to see the pistol Hyper wanted to put to his head was no longer in his hand. His fingers were uncurled and his arm flat on the ground at his side. Zach looked at that left hand for five seconds before his own right moved up and rested on Hyper's chest. His fingers came out of his glove and he pressed them hard into his comrade's body.

Please... Zach bowed his head and his unclothed fingers curled into Hyper's costume. Of course not, he thought, as he did not feel anything as he tried reviving a comrade for the second time. "I don't want to die…" Fuck. Zach curled his right hand into a fist and he started shaking his head. "Death! I got it," Mark spun from the computers and he ran over towards his comrade down on his knees. "Come on," Mark said, putting a hand down on Death's shoulder. "We've got to go."

"Hold on," Zach said. He stood up and turned from Hyper. He looked at the computers and around at the big screens around them.

"We don't have time!" Mark called at him. "Rebel could I-"

"A one time thing! Get out of there!"

"You heard him!"

Zach walked towards the screens and he looked around at numbers and pictures he saw up on them. His eyes were big and they darted around while glowing blood red. He stepped another foot up and ignored the countdown increasingly close to zero on his side. He ignored Mark and Rebel, and he started typing and then brought his head back up to look at a map and text that appeared above him. "Death! We need to… oh shit- fuck. Death! NOW!" Mark shouted.

"Are you seeing this-"

"That's why we need to go!" Mark grabbed Death by his left shoulder and spun him. Mark brought his face close and shouted, "WE NEED TO MOVE!"

Zach's eyes darted to the corner of his vision at the number in the low single digits. His head nodded and his eyes only shifted back to the corner of his visor for a second. Hyper.

"Where are they?!" Icefall shouted, marching towards Exodus who stood outside of a building that she just heard was about to self-destruct.

"Pull back!"

"Stay away from the building," Exodus moved in front of Icefall, no fear in his voice for those still inside.

In the next second, two figures came flying out of the building. A red and blue wave pushed behind Mark, while a black wave pushed Death out even faster. And a second after they came flying out of the building, a massive explosion blew apart the room behind them. Computers exploded and the room filled with flames that shot a fireball out at the two escaping it. They were too fast though, and the two of them landed down in front of the majority of the Army who were waiting outside for them. Zach dropped two unconscious figures on the floor in front of him unceremoniously. They were close to the door and he picked them up on arms he had to pull his darkness away from, and he clenched his teeth in frustration while glaring down at the men who he almost wanted to just leave in that exploding room with the others. Their own comrade had turned on the self-destruct, and Zach's obligation to save them had not been very high. Mark did not bring anyone out with him, and neither of them knew how many of those unconscious men back in that building were just engulfed in the explosion.

Mark turned his head back and he swung his arms towards the building, flooding the mixed liquids behind him back towards the greenhouse and secret room to put out the flames. He cursed under his breath as he did it and he started glaring through furious eyes at the building they just escaped from. His focus had been on the computers and not what was happening behind him, but with his helmet ripped off it did not matter that Rebel had cut Hyper's comms.

"Death," Heavy started, stepping forward from the rest of his squad and looking past the two who had landed before them. The Quirkless man covered in weapons and ammo looked back towards his Commander and then just asked in a deep, confused but pained voice, "Hyper?"

Death shook his head back at his comrade and a man who had been recruited the same day as Hyper. Heavy's fists balled at his sides tighter and he ground his teeth in fury as his eyes clenched shut. You always said I'd die way before you, idiot. Why'd you always have to be wrong?

"Heroes are coming," Rebel warned.

Zach shook his head and he looked around him. This is bad. The timeline is set. Zach's eyes focused on the broken and smoking buildings around him, then on villains who had fallen outside and were tied-up and unconscious around the compound. "Bringing in an Escape Storm," Maelstrom announced.

"Choppers are heading down. Keep the winds off them."

"Death, is something wrong?"

Mark turned away from the building he was finishing putting the flames out on. He turned at Exodus' question and stepped over towards Death who had seen the same things he did on those computer screens before the building exploded. "Death," Mark started, his voice low and in such a serious tone that Zach turned straight towards him instead of speaking as he was about to for all the others in front of him. "I know what you're thinking, but we can't."

"We have to," Zach replied just as low to Mark so it was just the two of them talking. Exodus saw this and turned, calling out to the others to finish clean-up and get ready for extraction.

Mark shook his head though at his leader's response. "We can't," Mark said, emphasizing the second word hard and in a hiss. "This is your plan. We don't slow down for anything, that's what you said."

"Things change," Zach whispered. "But we're still going to keep moving at-"

"'A single day,'" Mark whisper-hissed back at Zach again. "That's what you said. If we wanted to stop it for real this time." Zach grit his teeth in his helmet and he shook his head, which just made Mark grind his teeth more and then snap in a pissed-off voice, "We are on a tight schedule. There is no time to break from the current path. We need to keep moving faster, or the structures will reform and the organization will not be broken. Again. Beating the League of Shadows-"

"Every day is planned strictly. There is no time to break from it," Zach agreed. "But we can't ignore this." Mark opened his mouth to counter again, and Zach whispered back at him sternly, "Everything. It all means nothing if an attack goes off there." Mark closed his mouth and stared into the dark visor of his comrade, both of them thinking about the map they had seen inside with the red arrows moving from their area in southeast Asia towards Japan. The things they had been able to look at before the room exploded behind them, it had gotten the two of them panicked but they had calmed down now. Zach took in a deep breath and he said in a low voice, "I read it. My eyes, moved fast enough. To see it all."

"Can we stop it without breaking off the world loop?" Mark asked. Zach hesitated, and Mark started shaking his head again with his teeth clenched once more. "You know we can't slow down. A constant speed increase was your strategy, and it's working! They can't keep up, can't recover or make new trades and new-"

"I know but-"

"It's why we're out here even after losing half the fucking army, with another thirty still out of commission. We're risking it all for speed. It means nothing that- Hyper-" Mark's teeth ground even more and Zach clenched his too inside his helmet at the sound of what Mark was saying.

"I'll go alone," Zach said. "And no," he continued instantly while Mark's eyes widened while staring into his dark visor. "The attacks don't continue while I'm not there. But the ones we set up with more recon we won't need as many people at. I'll move faster too. To every fight after the gap in the schedule. Readjust it for my absence but try not to lose over four hours-"

"If you go alone," Mark started, cutting off the younger man in front of him who was trying to plan this out in the moment. "Right now. In this, the time that's most important… If you don't come back it was all for nothing. You know that right?"

"I can't let it happen," Zach whispered. He shook his head at the look in Mark's eyes, one that the older man was trying to hide but Zach could see in them. "Yeah, I want to save them. But that's not why. We don't let the villains win anymore." Zach's eyes narrowed and his voice got darker, "So we can't let them do this. The symbol they tried to destroy, but failed. This is a backlash at everything we've done to villains over this year. Multiple villain groups teaming up to make sure they can carry it out successfully and with a powerful message. It's their attempt at saying that nothing has happened. To get all the villains riled up again, to galvanize them, to make them believe that they're still the ones in control. And it will be a catalyst. And it will start another surge of villain activity with a force we won't be able to stop. And it…"

Zach's head filled with dozens of faces. His fists clenched at his sides as he trailed off from what he was telling Mark, though he could see the other man more than accepted what he was telling him now. "Then you have to stop it," Mark said. Zach nodded back at him. His fists clenched harder, and he looked out to the east. I won't let it happen. Fertilizer wouldn't be stopped at the border. The materials for the bomb are already there. The attack is planned with more organization than I hoped they would be able to get this soon after Wampajawa. I have to stop it though. Myself. The Japanese heroes aren't ones we have contacts with or any friendly connection. I've stayed away for so long… They did enough on their own though. They didn't need me. But, but if the Sports Festival turns into a disaster, the fear is gone. That I couldn't stop it? That heroes couldn't? Even though everyone should predict one is coming. If it comes, I won't be able to keep up. The current pace is faster than anything I've ever thought possible but, but it will work. As long as I can do this. As long as I can go back there and stop this. The Sports Festival needs to go on. I won't let them break this world…

Not again.

---

A/N Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed the newest chapter of Death! Been a long time since the last update, which I apologize for. Traveled to Florida then the day I came back I left for a 4 day ski trip. Probably going to wind up driving back to college in a couple days too... but until then maybe I'll be able to get back to a chapter a day? Hopefully. Anyway, a lot happens this chapter in one I've been looking forward to for a while. Bit of a time skip for the Army of Death, or at least we've missed a lot in the time since we last saw Zach. He's kept up that seemingly unsustainable speed we saw him at back 10 chapters, but at the peak of Army of Death action Zach has to leave, for Japan. Sports Festival comes for the third time in this story... and the last. XD Leave a review telling me what you think, comments, predictions, or questions about Death!

Naruffoku chapter 129 . Dec 24, 2018

I'm just amazed right now, well done for the consistent updates, you've kept to your absolutely insane schedule of a chapter a day without sacrificing quality and I'm grateful for that. Every time I get a notification for this story, no matter what I'm doing, I go straight to this sight. Not joking, I told my interviewer tooff while I read your chapter, then I introduced her to your story and I'm pretty sure she liked it.
All jokes aside, merry Christmas and thank you for this Christmas gift (even if you posted this chapter on the 24th)

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year's, and thanks a lot! I'm really glad you've enjoyed Death so far, and hope I can keep you excited about it for the coming year!

DarkJokes chapter 1 . Dec 24, 2018

While the idea seems nice wouldn't having death as a quirk fairly limit his future potential. Honestly having decay or Rot would be more appealing since you could do much with it. Good fanfic tho

Holy crap! Seriously, like how tf are you so good at writing so emotional and action packed scenes. The kiminari betrayal arc got me to tears and then when Zach goes off to kill the villains. Fucking EPIC!
As if that was not enough you spoiled us with some Resident evil type arc where they go underground. You're just too good at this.
P.S My fav anime fanfic so far epically the OCs they are awesome

So like I finally finished catching up and boi is it awesome. Sad how Zach accepted Darlings love and momos still out there and loves him. Worse part is Jirou is hiding The letter Zach wrote for Momo. And why do I get the feeling you'll kill off Darling soon lol. Love this fanfic

This is awesome. Looking at your first review from chapter one and then the more recent ones, I'm really happy to see how much you got into Death by the time you caught up! Thanks a lot for all the reviews and I hope you enjoyed the newest chapter!

mybigbook chapter 128 . Dec 26, 2018

whoo merry Christmas! Just binge reading this losing much sleep (worth it) and I love every badass Death's moment and how his comrades think about him.
Still frustrated at Midoriya when he reasoned with Togata there... kinda makes him a hypocrite with him spouting all those things about AoD.
I wonder why I hadn't found this work earlier since your writing is so detailed and fits my taste, especially with Sazaki's elaborate thoughts and plannings... Anyways, Nice Work! Got me pumped up all through the ride and lastly, Happy (upcoming) New Year!

XD Happy holidays! Thanks for reading and reviewing, I'm glad you've liked Death so far. Midoriya knew he was being a bit of a hypocrite there, but after the thing with Hawks he def started thinking more gray than just black and white. Tried to show he's getting a bit of that too with his talk with Uraraka, about how he admitted he was really just looking for Zach when he went and captured... Hyper ;( ... Anyway! Glad you're all caught up and hope you enjoyed the new chapter!