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!

138. Chapter 138

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 138:

Just one camera. That's all they need. Covers everything in here. Zach Sazaki lay back on his bed deep within Tartaros. Wonder what it would have been like to be out with the other villains? He turned his head from the camera in the corner he was staring at to just the ceiling right above him. His eyes closed again but he was not tired so he just stayed still and thought some more. They'd probably try to kill me. People who are scared are always the first to lash out. It's happened a thousand times, that to stop fights from happening that one party sees as inevitable, they'll start a fight on their own. Why not strike me first, when they know that I must be planning to kill them sooner or later?

Zach breathed calmly while opening his eyes again. Not that it matters, since I have my own cell and no complaints about the arrangements. He lifted his head up a bit and looked down to his feet. He stared past them and to the Cyn wall that a pair of guards were standing on the other side of. Oda and Neo this morning. Wonder how long until breakfast? Wonder what story I should tell today, once I get up. He focused on their backs which were to his clear wall, then he lay his head back again and stared at the ceiling thoughtfully. Let's see…

---

12 Months Ago

"That was Lavamander? How'd he get in contact?" Cee asked.

Zach leaned back on the wall of the small room he and his blonde comrade were standing in. "I told him back in Kazania to stay in contact with Rebel at least even if he wasn't going to stay with us. I wanted him to be able to get some stuff done, like the old way." Cee hummed and shifted her gaze away with a dark look on her face. "You don't like it?"

"If he's not going to come with us," Cee started, then she grimaced more but let out a low sigh. "No it's fine. I'm just pissed at him. Getting labeled as terrorists 'cause he can't hold back. If we're going to let Rebel help him out, then won't he still be killing-"

"I think he'll settle down a bit," Zach countered. "He knows how we do things, and once he's become accustomed to getting Rebel's help he'll know that I could stop it at any time if it comes out he's straight up murdering all the villains. I wouldn't normally allow this, but Lavamander's- well, he's really strong."

Cee nodded after a few seconds. She glanced at her leader and then questioned at the thoughtful look on his face, "You think you could beat him?"

"I don't know," Zach replied. Could I have beaten Hawks without the others' help? Gentle, La Brava, and Darling all helped beat him. I couldn't take Mongoloid and Arma on my own too, I needed Gentle to come in and split them apart. There are still, people I can't beat on my own. As strong as I got in the forest… even on Trigger, Mongoloid was countering me and fighting back. And he was just strength based.

"No need to think so hard about it. If he was ever going to fight you seriously, it would have been that night," Cee said. Zach looked back up at her and he nodded his head in agreement. She continued while turning and looking over towards a window of the small cabin they were in, "How're things with that base coming along? Rebel's been awfully vague about it. Intentionally so," she added, glancing back at him out the corners of her eyes and demanding an answer though saying it in a questioning tone.

Zach scratched the back of his head with his left hand and he stared darkly out the one window of their room too. They were in a campsite that was usually empty for the winter, and they had appropriated all the cabins for the night. It was snowing outside but Zach stared out through the flakes and could see into the window of the neighboring cabin that there was some light illuminating the place more than theirs. Brightside's in that one. The new recruit Flare too, which is what those red lights mixed in are. They shouldn't draw attention like that… not that there's anyone around for kilometers. "It's, going well," Zach started to reply in a hesitant way. "And yeah, I've got him being pretty vague about it. It's just, if anyone's captured," Zach looked back towards Cee who he doubted he could lie to about this. He also did not want to after she had just forgiven him recently about what had happened to all the anti-heroes.

Cee stared at the younger boy by a year and she hummed before shifting her eyes back out the window herself. "I get it," she replied. "You trust us though, right?" Cee asked. "Trusting Raijin is what got all the anti-heroes killed. We aren't him though."

"I know," Zach replied. "It's not about trust. I know, no one can hold out during torture forever. I just want to keep everyone safe."

"By keeping us all in the dark?" Cee asked with an eyebrow raising. "Seems like a shit idea if you ask me. If someone's captured, just change things up after that. If something happened to you and Rebel," Cee continued, and Zach's eyes widened for a second before his teeth clenched and he turned back to Cee at what made sense as much as it was going to frustrate him. "I'd keep going. Some people here are just following you, but I'd push forward even if everyone else fell. So let me in on whatever's going on." Zach stared into Cee's light blue eyes with tiny red pupils, and he nodded his head at the intense look in her gaze telling him she really wanted to know it all.

Zach started telling her about things he had been keeping secret from the majority of the Army of Death. He kept his voice low as there were other people in their own building in other rooms of the cabin. Most of them were sleeping but that was not the reason Zach was staying quiet as he explained what he and Rebel were really planning. "…L isn't our only donor anymore though, and we've gotten a lot of money. I thought the flow would slow after what Lavamander did, but instead we got more donors. Rebel's keeping things anonymous, and we want to protect the people funding us. They're willing to let us do things our way to stop villains without restraints. I won't change up how we do things based on what they want, but we will take their money and move forward more efficiently. The headquarters is going to be mobile…"

"How would it even work? Radars would be able to pick up on something moving even if it's invisible…"

"Scientific advances especially in military have been kept mostly a secret for decades, centuries even. There hasn't been a big war using technology in hundreds of years, and no one wants to fight wars when the existence of Quirks would mean Quirk warfare. The things that Quirk war would bring, the intensity of those battles-"

"Is what we're heading towards," Cee cut in. Zach hesitated while looking at her, but he nodded his head after a few seconds. "We're an Army for a reason. I know why you picked the name, and it's more than just to spread fear to the villains. Everyone around here still considers us just vigilantes though. You've got to change the way our own forces think about us before we can actually become an Army. As much as Saudi Arabia was a success, it took too long for La Brava to gather everyone from around Gorran to get them to group back up. You need to be commanding."

"Sheesh, I get it," Zach rose a hand at the girl who was starting to scold him. "But everyone not be so keen on switching things up. I don't want them leaving because the Army of Death becomes so different from what they originally signed up for. It has to be gradual-" Zach's eyes darted to the side of the room and a dresser that Cee also spun to at the same moment. The tablet laying on the counter next to Zach's helmet and his belt of knives, a couple of swords, and two grappling guns, just illuminated. The glow did not look like he just got a message from Rebel, but instead was a blue glow that partially illuminated the room in blue for a second before disappearing and leaving the device turned on with the normal open screen facing up.

Cee stepped closer to the tablet and gave it a suspicious look. "What was that?" She asked, looking back to Zach to see if it was something else he had not told her about. The look on his face told her that it was not a secret message or code though, and she turned back to the device with a darker look on her own.

Zach stepped over to the dresser and he picked up the tablet. He shook it around and looked around it for a second before raising it and grabbing either side with a hand. He brought it down and slammed the screen into his knee, only surprising Cee a bit at his lack of hesitation there. "Better to be safe than sorry," he said in a dark, low voice. We were just talking about real secret stuff there. Is there a correlation between Cee asking me about it and what just happened? Don't get suspicious of her over this. If there was a spy, they wouldn't do something so stupid as getting caught like this. And I just told Cee I trusted her too, and I do! I do trust her. I know I can. I think I can- "We don't need any information about the headquarter's construction getting leaked," Zach muttered.

"I'll get everyone ready to move," Cee said. "Tell them we just decided to head out earlier than expected."

Zach turned to her and he paused for a moment before nodding in agreement with that decision. If something just pinged the tablet, trying to track us or… shit maybe I shouldn't have broken it. I'll get in touch with Rebel and figure out what that was. Have him on the lookout for it happening again… That blue glow, was weird. What the hell was that?

---

9 Months Ago

In the middle of a field in northern Canada, a small girl trudged through over a foot of snow at a snail's pace. She had on boots but her socks were soaked, and her toes were freezing. She only had a pair of pajama pants on, a coat that was several sizes too big and that her arms did not go all the way through, and her long black hair was disheveled and flaked with ice. The child had dirt on her face and her coat had a burn mark on the back of it where it had caught fire some time earlier.

The young girl walked in the cold air with her breath hanging in front of her face, her face that was getting gray the longer she was out there. Her breaths were getting ragged and slow, but her breath caught completely when she heard a noise behind her. The child turned her head and some black strands waved around her face dangling over and getting loose snow stuck to her skin. She stared between black hair strands into the distance on the field, the direction she had come from. Her eyes darted down to the ground behind her and the line in the snow she had made trudging through it, and she spun back forward and started running, trying to take her feet up out of the snow with each step to make less of a trail.

She was panicking, and despite trying to speed up she could not raise her small legs that high each time. She tried anyway though, and it caused her to trip forward and face-plant into the snow. Her arms flailed out to her sides as she was falling, but they became still after she hit down. The thought crossed her mind that they would not be able to see her if she did not move. Then the thought hit that maybe she should just close her eyes and they would never find her. And then her fading thoughts of just laying there forever were snapped back to reality by a very real crunching noise of snow behind her. The girl's arms struggled to move in the thick snow, and she dragged her knees up and pushed down to try and lift her head.

Zach looked down at the figure pushing up to crawl in the snow. The trail he had followed ended here, and he ran forward as he realized who he had followed. "Hey," Zach started, getting behind the girl and reaching down for her burned coat to grab it. He grabbed her and pulled back, to hear no noise come from her which confused him. When he turned her around, he loosened his grip into her coat and pulled back at the sight of her disheveled face and the terrified look on it. Before she even got a look him she already looked as scared as anyone Zach had ever seen before. "Hey, hey," Zach's hand shook on her coat as both of her hands, gloveless and red, pushed at his to try and get him off of her. He reached up his free hand and she pulled away in even more fear, but Zach grabbed his helmet and he dropped it to his side. "You're alright," Zach said, smiling at the girl from the second his helmet started coming off.

The girl stopped pulling away from him as hard at that look on his face. Despite the scar under his right eye and his split left ear partially showing under his wavy black hair, she felt herself calming down and Zach felt that too which relieved him. He lowered the hand he had taken his helmet off with to the girl's other side, and he pulled her in towards him before rubbing his hands up and down her back quickly. "Bring a truck to my position. There's a little girl out here." His earpiece was still in his right ear, and he heard some affirmative voices in his ear though the girl he was trying to warm up tried pulling away from him again. "Listen," Zach pulled back from her and looked down at the girl who he was speaking to in English. "You're going to be, alright," Zach had to purse his lips but only for a second before smiling at her again. The girl was dirty, scared, and cold. She looked up at him with shaking eyes and then past him and in the direction they had come from.

Zach looked over his shoulder in that direction too. Did she come from that town? Villains, destroyed the place. We should bring her back there… but even with Canadian heroes there, if she really did live in that place, Zach's eyes lowered while he brought his hands down and grabbed the girl's with them. "Here," Zach said, as the outsides of his gloves had snow on them and he knew he wasn't doing much for her like this. Why doesn't she have gloves on? Did she run when the villains showed up? She didn't get too far, but for a girl her size this is, she's been out here for so long. She might have frostbite. Zach started sliding his gloves onto the girl's tiny, cold hands, and then he grabbed around the outsides of them and stared down while squeezing and trying to force her blood to move around. "Bring the Cloak here. I need Hank right now, I- I don't know how…"

The girl looking at Zach was staring at him with shaky eyes, watching his expression of worry as he tried to warm up her hands that she had not been able to feel for a while. She could start to feel them though, and her fingers moved inside his gloves responding to his touch. His eyes came back up to hers, and Zach tried to keep the smile he needed her to see even as horrible thoughts flew through his mind. Everyone in that town. She was from there, wasn't she? Those villains were horrible. We got information out of them, but the majority of them hit the town and left. We have to go after them before they get away, before they can do this to anyone else. "What's your name?" Zach asked, continuing to keep the girl warm as best as he could despite them still being surrounded by snow. He glanced over his shoulder when he heard a truck on its way, but he spun back as the girl he had not let go of tried pulling away again with fear covering her expression again. "It's okay. It's my friends. No one can hurt you anymore."

Zach bit down behind his lips as the look of fear would not leave this girl's face. "Do you understand me?" Zach asked, his voice soft and trying for her to understand even if she did not understand the language. Is my English off? Does she only speak French or something? Or is- is she even… what else could she… "Are you alright? Where are you from?" Zach looked at the girl carefully, and he rubbed his hands up and down her arms a few more times before standing and scooping her up in his arms. He had a thin black glove on his right hand but nothing on his left anymore, and he was feeling the cold after taking his helmet and gloves off only for a couple of minutes. She's so cold. Please be alright. "You're going to be okay," Zach assured the girl who struggled weakly in his arms but not very much. He looked down at the top of her head wondering if she was not pushing back too hard because she couldn't or if she might have been starting to trust him.

"Oh my God, is she alright?" The back of the truck opened and Icefall leaned out to help Zach inside. Zach started handing the girl up to Icefall, but the girl who was not pushing away from him opened her hands and curled her fingers into Zach's heavy black uniform. She grabbed him and her hands shook so much that Zach stopped trying to hand her off. Instead he looked up at Icefall who was frozen staring at that girl through her dark helmet, then she lifted her gaze to Zach and said, "I'll get your helmet." Icefall jumped out of the truck and she ran over to Death's helmet, while at the same time taking her own helmet off.

"Theo," Zach said, and one of the other four soldiers in the back of the truck came over towards him. Zach held one hand up while keeping the other wrapped around the girl he held close to his chest. Theo helped him up onto the back of the vehicle, and then the man lifted his right hand and snapped his fingers creating sparks over them. He snapped over and over, and Zach sat down on a bench in the back of the truck on the right side. "Hey, look. You've got to warm up." Zach turned the girl and made her face away from his chest, and then he looked up and said, "Helmets off, guys."

"But Death-"

"Understood, Commander," Mark replied. He took his helmet off and headed back in the truck from the front. "Icefall, take the wheel," Mark said to the woman getting back into the vehicle. He motioned behind him after taking his helmet off and releasing his brown hair. Mark walked past the woman with long light blue hair jogging the other way, and Mark sat down on the small girl's other side as Zach though leaving a space between them. "Can you understand me?" Mark asked the girl in French, and she turned to him with a scared look on her face at his. Mark winced internally at that look, but he gave her a small understanding smile and eased away at her afraid expression.

"Keep asking," Zach whispered. "Use other languages. She, isn't talking."

"It might not be about the language," Mark said softly, so quietly it was only meant for their earpieces and not for the girl to hear. "Certain things, seeing some things, she could be in shock. Let's get her to Hank. See if we can't help her out."

"Alright, but keep trying anyway," Zach said, nodding that what Mark said was possible but still hoping it was just a language gap. The truck started driving across the snowy landscape again, the back of the truck closed leaving the small team of Army of Death soldiers with one extra passenger. The girl looked around at the group, and even though they had all taken their helmets off, she ducked her head back down and pulled her legs up under her long coat up onto the seat. Zach stared down at the girl on his right side and he turned the other way to look at the back of the truck, which finally allowed his expression to darken and get sad. Mark kept whispering to the girl between them but was getting no response, and Zach thought about the town they had gone to not too long ago. There shouldn't be enough Canadian heroes there already that it would be a big problem for us to bring her back, but they have seen us already. They could call in the Task Force meant to deal with us, and there are members of it in Canada and the U.S. who wouldn't let us escape like regular heroes. I can't just leave this girl with someone without making sure she's alright though.

Zach felt a small touch on his right arm. He turned back and looked down to his forearm, where the girl next to him's left hand had moved over and grabbed tightly onto his sleeve. His expression was so close to turning grim but instead he kept it strong and just let the girl hold him in that scared way without him moving. He did not know if holding her hand would help her or if she just needed to gradually get to a point of trusting him on her own. He did not know what he was supposed to do like this. "Let's get on the Cloak, get away from here. Then we'll figure out what to do about her." Zach felt the hand on his arm squeeze a little tighter and his eyes lowered back down to the top of the girl's head that was bowed and facing the floor. Did she-

---

"Physically, she's alright," Hank started while in The Cloak's infirmary with just Zach and the child they were talking about. "If she had been out there for any longer, the frostbite would have been too bad. She would have lost her fingers and toes."

Zach stood in front of a medical exam bed that the small black-haired girl was sitting on. As soon as he had come back in there after leaving her with Hank for a while, she had grabbed him by his arm and was holding it with one hand while staring nervously at Hank. Zach had intentionally moved to her right side so this time she would grab his left arm if she needed it. He was not in as heavy a costume anymore as he was back in his usual tight one he wore around The Cloak with his helmet pinned down to his belt. He felt her hand tighten into his tight left sleeve and he darted a look to the side at her head again before refacing Hank. "Do you think she'll be alright?"

Hank hummed and he nodded his head while looking into the girl's eyes. "She's strong," Hank said. He tilted his head to the side while saying it, and he continued, "I think with time she'll be able to heal. Not talking, might have been something she has had to deal with since she was young. I checked her vocal cords which are fine, though sometimes there are cases of mutes who seem able to make noise but just cannot." Hank was looking for a look of recognition on the girl's face as to what he was saying to confirm it to him, but he started shaking his head and turned back to Zach when she was not reacting to it. "What are we going to do?"

"We don't know her name so we can't bring her back anywhere," Zach started. "She might have relatives somewhere, and maybe if her picture went on the news someone would recognize her and come. And if that doesn't work, I guess bringing her to an orphanage-"

Hank's eyes widened and Zach darted his eyes to his left when he felt the girl's other hand grab his arm at the same time that her first was already tightening. He stared at the girl whose face got really scared and who lowered her head with tears in her eyes while grabbing him as hard as she could. Why? What's wrong with what we said? "Listen," Zach started. He turned himself and crouched down so his face was right in front of the girl's. She lifted her head and stared into his eyes, and Zach took a deep breath while looking back into her coal black irises that somewhat glimmered despite being dark. I can't bring a kid with us. Where do I send her? That village was, if it was her home then she doesn't have a home anymore. I can't bring her along, but I can't just leave her without knowing she's alright. The way she's holding my arm, the way she looks at everyone but at me just a little less, I have to help her. I might be the only one who can. Maybe not- but just a chance that she needs me is… I need to…

"I know you understand me," Zach whispered in English while looking into the girl's soft eyes. "And you haven't told me your name yet, but that's okay." He nodded at her, and he smiled more and continued, "So I'm going to call you Snow." The girl's eyes started growing wider and her hands loosened up on Zach's left arm at the look on his face. "'Cause that's where I found you." He brought up his left hand and he rubbed it on top of her head, tousling her hair for a second in a way he remembered his dad used to tousle his own a long time ago. "This place we're in is called The Cloak. It's sort of like a plane, maybe a spaceship? A boat that flies," Zach glanced back at Hank and shrugged while smiling like he was asking if that was the best way to describe it.

Zach turned away from the older man watching him with a surprised look that made him feel a little weird. He refaced the girl and said, "You'll be safe on The Cloak for now. At least, until we find out where you belong. Okay?" Zach asked, and he started nodding at the girl. It took a few seconds, and then the girl in front of Zach nodded her head up and down once. She does understand. She's still so scared. I have so much to do. Saving her should be a priority though, and yet everything's a priority. We have a lot of leads, and we have to cross back to the Eastern Hemisphere tomorrow. There has to be someone else who knows how to do this more than I do. Someone like Softy would be better for… better…

"Come on, Snow," Zach reached down and took Snow's right hand with his left. He smiled while saying her name, though he lifted his eyebrows as if offering her a chance to tell him that was not her name. She did not say anything to counter him though, so he just shrugged and then motioned for the door with his head. "Let's go get you settled. You must be tired, and hungry. I'll show you to your room." Her hand tightened into his, and Zach continued, "Don't worry, you won't be alone. The rooms here are all shared with a bunch of people. They'll all be like your sisters. Do you have any sisters?" Zach asked and searched the girl's expression as he headed out of the infirmary and down the hall with the girl. He glanced back one more time towards Hank who watched him go with a hesitant look like he was unsure about this whole thing.

I know, Hank. It's not ideal. But I can't do it. Maybe I'm getting too attached already, but I'd care even if she was still just a stranger. She is! This is just a little girl I'm trying to help, and what if… what if I leave her somewhere and she isn't really saved yet? Stopping someone from dying doesn't mean saving them. Shit, she's looking at me. Zach smiled and he held her hand a little tighter before turning down a hall and raising his right hand to wave at a couple guys down it.

Zach brought up his smile extra far when Snow looked down to see who he waved to. Grabble and Michael looked back towards him, then the two started smiling themselves and glanced down at the girl who gazed hesitantly towards the two muscular men in black body armor. Grabble's tall pincers with bumpy spikes on them and his bald head, and Michael's sharp teeth that were all too clear in his wide smile, made Snow pull to the side closer to Zach in an afraid way that had the two men trying to smile for her get unsure looks on their faces while feeling pained themselves at that look. "It's alright," Zach assured the girl, continuing to walk forward without slowing down to show he was not afraid. She continued walking his speed to stay close to him, and she rose her head as he looked down and said, "You can trust everyone here. No one's going to hurt you on this ship. We'll all protect you."

The door up ahead of Zach was open into one of the girls' barracks, and Darling leaned her head out when she heard his voice just out in the hallway. She stared at Zach's smiling face in shock for a moment before he lifted it to look at her, and Darling's face lit up with her cheeks getting red before seeing him give her a flash of a serious gaze. "Snow," Zach started while heading right into the doorway Darling pulled back inside of. "This is going to be your new room. Girls, this is Snow. She's going to be staying here for, for at least tonight and," Zach looked back down at the girl who grabbed his arm tighter but allowed herself to be led into the room. "Well, can I just leave her to you? I'll let you know how long later, but let's get her settled in here first."

Seraphim looked over towards Death and she nodded her head at her commander. A smile crossed over the purple-haired woman's face and she looked around the room as if searching for something. "Oh! There's an empty bed. We can get you set up there." A couple of the others looked over at the bed that had belonged to a young blonde woman from the day they had first obtained The Cloak. No one had taken it since Cee had passed, but no one disagreed about letting Snow take it.

Flare started smiling too and she ran up towards the girl with an excited look on her face. "Wow, you're actually really pretty now that I get a good look at you. I saw you earlier when we were getting back on The Cloak… oh, sorry," Flare pulled back a little and glanced up at Death, but Zach gave her a nod and motioned back at the girl showing he wanted her to continue even if the girl did look hesitant.

"I'll take care of her, Death," Darling said, using her softest tone while walking right up and getting on a knee in front of the two. "She could use another shower, this time no need to start off cold and work your way warm. This time just a nice hot one. Then we'll go get some food, okay?"

"I'm leaving it to you, Darling," Zach said. "Now I need to go take care of some things," Zach started while looking down at a hesitant Snow. "But I'm only going to be a few rooms away. If you need me, I'll still be here." He moved his left hand forward and he handed the girl's hand off to Darling who Snow looked back at nervously and with scared eyes.

Darling did not get dismayed by that look as many of the others had been though. She was very sweet and nice from the start, and she thought even while talking to Snow about what kind of food they had, Zach wants the girl to get better, so I want that too! That way you'll be happy! "Here, you want to see your bed area?" Darling stood up fully and tried to lead the girl over to her bed as Zach was leading her before, but Snow pulled her hand out of Darling's grip as soon as she felt it loosen. Snow ran across the room towards the bed Seraphim already motioned at, and she got onto it and pulled a blanket up fast to her face.

"Oh," Darling whispered, her heart panging a bit and her eyes lowering to the floor. She started over to the bed to keep trying, while the other girls in the room looked over in sad ways too.

Iblis and Indra walked over with Darling and sat on different sides of the girl's bed. Snow occasionally lowered her blanket down below her chin, darting a glance towards the door as if looking for Zach to return, or to look around the room at the women around her who were all trying their best to help out with this new situation. The two dark-skinned women who sat down on the bed tried talking to the young black girl poking her head out to look at them, wondering if maybe she would be more comfortable with people who looked more like her. Snow's reactions did not change much, though she stopped hiding under the blanket and kept watching as the different women started talking to her.

Don't know what he's thinking, La Brava thought while sitting on the edge of her bottom bunk and looking towards the one across the middle of the room from hers. La Brava thought about the best friend she had made since Gentle, who she did not really consider a friend at all. She stared at Cee's bed and then lowered her eyes down at the sight of the scared girl using it now. Cee wouldn't mind. Cee wouldn't have let him bring her… no, she would have. She and Zach were always, on the same page. This girl though. She- La Brava watched as the girl pulled back towards her pillows with a scared look as Flare showed off her Quirk to try and impress and make the young girl smile.

Darling stood right in front of the foot of La Brava's bed, and she turned her head to the side as the shorter woman behind her said softly, "Something horrible must have happened to her." Darling lowered her lips into a deeper frown and shifted her gaze back with more pity for the child. La Brava turned her gaze to Darling for a second at the sight of that sad expression she only caught a glimpse of. Thought she's just doing this for Sazaki's-

Darling smiled again and headed away from La Brava back towards the small girl. She began right past everyone else in a cheerful way, "Come on. You'll have time to sleep later, but you don't want to go to bed on an empty stomach. Let's show Snow around The Cloak, right girls?"

"Sounds like a great idea to me," Seraphim agreed, nodding with Darling and looking back to the girl who hesitantly started lowering the blanket from her neck. "I'm Seraphim. I heard you don't talk, but that's alright." Seraphim turned from the younger girl who the others stopped crowding too while Darling got close to take her hand and bring her around. The older woman with a long purple ponytail glanced sideways back towards her and smiled softly, "You don't need to say a thing. We'll look after you."

---

Present

Alright, I know who I'll talk about. I made this story a while ago, I didn't know exactly where to put it in the grand scheme of things. I guess I could just shove it in here though. Zach lifted up from his prison bed and he let out a loud yawn. I could make it like a flashback story, bring Docy up and then ask 'I never told you about Docy?' Then the story.

Zach got up and he walked over to his sink, noticing in the mirror that the guards both looked into the cell to see that he had woken up. Neo and Oda both gained excited looks on their faces that they could not hide as much as they tried just turning back forward and pretending not to notice yet that he was up and about, or just pretending they did not care and were not hoping he would come over and talk. The two guards would not usually get excited just to hear a story told by some teenager, but tales so fantastical that were apparently true were just too interesting that they had become hooked on them. Zach splashed some water up on his face from the sink, and then as he was putting toothpaste on his toothbrush he asked, "Time?"

"7:15," Oda replied behind him. "Sleep well?"

"Yuh," Zach responded, mumbling it through the toothbrush he just started using. No one attacked me at least, so I only woke up a couple times from the guard shift and Jenkins moving around too much while he reads. What's he doing reading so late anyway? Zach gargled some spit and darted a glance to the side wall connected to the cell he had walked past on his way in a few months back. I should get some studying done today. Maybe find out what kind of books high schoolers have to read and get those in here too. Foreign languages aren't all that matters. Zach washed off his toothbrush and left it next to his faucet, then he started stretching and jumping around a bit to warm himself up.

"Ha!" Zach kicked his right leg out, then he slammed it down and spun his body sideways kicking his left behind him. His eyes narrowed and he jumped off the right foot he had planted while his left leg was still up. His left looked like it was coming down, but then he kicked it up instead and spun his right that he just jumped off of to do a roundhouse while his body did a three-sixty spin in midair. He came down and landed with his legs spread apart, his right straight and pushed to the side and his left bent with his toes pushing against the floor ready to spring off already. He shot forward and punched his left with the first stomp from his left foot, then he hooked with his right before ducking and weaving the invisible man he just imagined swing back at him. Zach flipped backwards and landed on his hands then flipped again and he landed on his bed that he dropped to his back on facing straight up at the ceiling. "Ahh ha, ah, so you know," Zach started, and the two guards who had been watching him opened their eyes wide as he was apparently finished already and starting up a conversation with them.

"The Queen had these 18 Generals, the tops of her Armies which were mostly made up of different races though each of the Elf clans had a General too."

"Yeah, you've mentioned a few of them already," Neo started back to the boy, glad he woke up before her shift had ended and was wasting no time at all.

Zach flipped over on his bed and he started doing push-ups. He kept his head lifted for better form and to look at the guards as he continued, "Well most of those Generals, no matter where in the kingdom they were initially from, they lived in the central region. The original Arcasia. I think the Queen wanted to keep them close, so that they wouldn't gain too much power in the outer regions that they had command over. She had to keep a close eye on a lot of them, as they were plenty powerful and could have started revolutions with the amount of men just loyal to them."

"So when you moved into the central region," Oda started. "Fighting these guys got more frequent?"

"Yeah, sometimes I'd fight a few of them at a time," Zach replied. The two who had heard him talk about the Generals at different points remembered how strong those people had been, and they looked at their prisoner in surprise hearing him say that so casually like it was no big deal. Zach's mouth was open like he was going to keep going, but he closed it and responded to their looks, "The first time, I had to face three of them at once. That had never happened before, we hadn't even faced two yet, and I didn't have my forces with me. My comrades were scattered so it was just me and Fraisha, and there was no escape, but Docy appeared while we were being cornered. He teleported into the-"

"Docy?" Neo asked, shaking her head as she did not recognize the name.

Oda had darted her a look first to see if his fellow guard knew who that character was, but then he looked back towards 1667 himself and added, "Who is that? You've never mentioned him."

"I haven't?" Zach asked, sounding surprised and stopping his push-ups for a second. He pushed down hard with his hands and spun around to lay on his back for some sit-ups now. "Well that's a fun one actually. See Docy, was a leprechaun."

"A leprechaun?" Neo asked, a huge smile spreading over her face partially in disbelief and yet mostly just in an excited way. Oda's bottom lip lowered and he stared at the prisoner for a few more seconds to see if he was serious before dropping his jaw father. Neo questioned though, "What'd he look like?"

"Exactly what you'd think," Zach replied. "I mean, down to the ginger beard and green top hat. I did a double-take the first time I saw him, but so did the others with me. Apparently, leprechauns are as rare there as they are… okay, not as rare, but no one I was with had ever seen one before. Docy was… unique…"

---

9 Months Ago

Death sat on his chair at the front of the bridge of The Cloak. He was on the right side of the station that spread across the front left of the room, putting him just on the aisle in front of a comfortable captain's chair that remained unused since The Cloak's first liftoff. "I'm tired of this," Zach growled in a low voice.

On his left just a seat away, Darling turned towards him in confusion at the tone in his voice after they had been having a normal conversation for a while there. She did not think it was directed at her, and she looked at the black haired boy next to her oddly at his dark look straight at his computer screen. Darling glanced back and saw La Brava still resting with her head bowed at the station behind them as the only other person on the bridge. "Death?" Darling whispered, glancing back at the boy angrily glaring at his computer.

"Show yourself," Zach snapped, turning his head to the right and glaring over at the station on the right side of the room. Darling pushed her chair back and her right hand started turning into a gun as she glared that way just as harshly as Zach was. "I've seen you before. A hundred times it feels like."

Darling glanced at Zach's head and then back over at that station, and she snapped, "Come out!"

"What are you two doing?" La Brava muttered, glaring forward at the two who were staring at the wall and waking her up with whatever this was. She shook her head and sat up at her seat anyway as she figured she should either keep working or go to bed. "There's no one there," La Brava said.

"There is," Zach said, and his voice was so assured that La Brava actually sat up and got alert at the serious tone of his voice.

"An enemy?" Manami asked. The short, pink-haired woman started reaching for a button on her console that would turn on an alarm for the whole ship. Zach held up a hand for her to wait though, and she hesitated confusedly while Darling gave Zach a confused look too.

"I've seen these blue lights," Zach started. He glared at the screen where he saw the flash out the corner of his eyes just a few moments ago. "And I know I'm not just being paranoid. I know someone's listening in," Zach glared at the screen and thought back on the first night he had seen it, the only other time someone else with him had caught sight of it. Cee saw it too. I know this thing is real. Zach ground his teeth and he said in a low voice, "Following us, I've known it for a while. Didn't want whoever it was realizing I was onto them, so I pretended not to notice and leaked fake information in front of them only for those traps to never pan out with anything."

The two girls in the room with Zach stared at him in shock that he had been making traps without any of them realizing. La Brava started glaring his way as he had left out that someone was listening, but she got more surprised as he continued, "Which means, that whoever's listening isn't trying to get us. Or maybe they're just too smart and could tell what I was doing." Zach stood from his chair and stomped towards the computer he had seen that blue glow from. "I will find who this is though, and I will-"

The screen turned blue. Zach froze, his voice cutting off as a different voice spoke over him, "Sorry-" Darling and La Brava snapped their heads over to the screen from the boy they were watching with wide eyes at his intense speech. They gawked at the computer that was glowing blue and where that scratchy male voice just came out of sounding robotic but also too smooth so it was like a human's.

"Sorry." So they're playing it this way. Don't trust. Give it easily though. "Who are you?" Zach asked, holding up a hand towards La Brava again to keep her from doing anything rash. "What are you doing here?"

The blue screen started to get brighter, and then the front of the computer started to bulge outwards. "Hey hey-" La Brava started in an angry tone towards the device.

"Sorry!" The bulge pulled back into the computer, its voice going from more human-like to a more robotic one when it flattened back out.

Alright, was not expecting that. Zach had to calm his breathing after seeing that bulge on the computer screen. He's actually here? "Explain yourself," Zach demanded.

"I'm sorry-"

"Stop saying that and speak," Zach ordered, his voice stern and his eyes narrowed at the computer man speaking in English back to him.

"Uh- I-" the hesitant voice took in a deep breath which sounded very weird coming from a computer. The blue light on the screen bounced to the next screen down, then to the station in front of Zach where it stayed illuminated as the boy who did not back off just stared at it. "I heard about, the Army of Death and I wanted to see it for myself and… and I kept coming back because, you were helping," the voice was low-pitched but sounded very hesitant and Zach narrowed his eyes at the screen which made the voice speak faster. "I was hoping you'd help me but you were always so busy and other people needed…"

Doesn't sound very old. I can't tell through the screen either, Zach examined the screen in front of him closer, then he stepped back away from it which had the voice stopping. "Come on out of there," Zach said, motioning at the floor in front of him. "Let's talk face to face. You've been watching us all this time? Until I see you, this is too one-sided to continue the-"

"I can't," the voice started, then it cut off fast at the glare Zach gave the screen. "Here," it said, getting lower and sounding darker to the three looking at it. "Watch," his body started to bulge out of the screen and at first he slid out with each. His blue face covered in thin white lines that seemed to move around, his shoulders and upper body sliding out slower and then his hands reaching out and grabbing the sides of the screen. Darling and La Brava both backed up as he did this, but they were both staring towards the figure with awed looks too. Then as his waist stuck out, he looked to get jammed. He struggled to pull a leg up, and the three in the room in black uniforms could see the pained look flash over his data-like face.

"I get it," Zach said, after watching him struggle and fail for a few seconds. Could be a trick. Kaminari showed us a very weakened form of his powers. The speed at which he jumped between screens. The fact that he can't get out of the screen which gives him a quick escape route at any time. It's too convenient-

The man in the screen slid back down to halfway out, keeping his hands on the sides of the screen as he slid back and then letting out a breath as he stopped. He panted a couple of times and then rose his head with his blue eyes only distinguishable because of the contour of his face looking straight back into Death's hazel ones. "Death," the man began, his voice strained and hesitant, but his expression mustering up the courage he had been lacking for a long time now. "You can call me Virus, it's my Quirk's name. Or what I renamed it, after I got… Death, I can't get out of here."

Zach stared into Virus' eyes with his face slowly shifting and looking back at the screen behind him that was merged with his body. La Brava started walking forward, and Darling saw this and moved back closer to Zach herself. Virus glanced back and forth at the two of them, then to the pink-haired girl who was giving him a harsh glare and spoke up, "What do you mean by that? I just saw you moving back and forth between the systems. You can leave any time."

"I can leave here," Virus said, shaking his head at the short woman. "But I can't get out of the computer," he ground his blue teeth behind his metaphysical lips. A frustrated and sad look covered his blue face, a bland face with short hair on his head also made of blue light particles.

"Are you, human?" Zach asked.

The girls glanced at him oddly, feeling like that was a strange question. God. An existence like that was… Created. It's not impossible… Zach felt like the look the strange computer man was giving him looked similar to Darling and La Brava's, but also more pained as the man's humanity was just questioned.

"I, don't know anymore," Virus whispered. His head bowed then his eyes rose up and he said in a more robotic, disconnected voice, "I'm more like a computer program at this point. Just, a program-"

"But you were human?" Darling asked.

Zach darted her a look and then back at Virus. "You are human," Zach corrected Darling's question, and trying to get the clearly depressed computer person to stop having this crisis in the middle of their introduction. "But how did you get stuck in there?"

"Are we seriously buying that?" La Brava asked, giving Zach a dark look at why he would be so trusting so quickly.

"Maybe," Zach replied. He looked into the blue man's eyes that shook for a second while staring back into his. "If I believe what he has to tell me. Virus, what happened to you? And why are you here?"

Virus nodded his head and pulled himself out of the computer some more before leaning his back on the top of the screen and speaking softly. "My Quirk let me jump into electronic devices. I could control them but only if I went inside." He shifted his eyes over to La Brava for a moment and then down to the floor, "I realized if the devices were on a system, I could move between different devices on that system. That meant shared I.P.'s, a WiFi zone, and even the internet I found out. Once I figured that out, I- I didn't make very good, decisions. I messed around."

Zach grit his teeth behind his lips while listening to the person in front of him talk. No one taught him. He just, did it on his own. And now…

"The longer I was in there, the harder it was for me to get out. I started, losing more and more the ability to get out after I had gone in. But it wasn't a big problem for me yet, because I figured since I was getting stronger using it that I'd be able to pull myself out even if I were… but it didn't work like that. I was in for too long, and it hurt too much trying to get myself completely out, so I didn't. I got my whole body out except for my left hand, which I kept inside a tablet and, and for a while that worked out. My body still looked normal, and I could use my Quirk while still being me. I couldn't use it perfectly though, and I stupidly kept- even if I didn't though, it was sucking me back in. The screen, tugs at me." As he was speaking, his hands had gripped back on the outsides of the computer like he was holding himself out of it.

"What are your abilities?" Darling asked, thinking farther ahead than either of the others just staring at this man.

Zach glanced at her again knowing what she was already thinking about. Virus started before he could say anything himself, "I used to just be able to target places where I knew the I.P. addresses, but then if computers were connected over just messages, different apps or…"

"And people knew you could use this Quirk?" Zach asked.

Virus turned back to him and his blue eyes started opening wide at the look he was getting. He turned away for a second, reaching over to his right arm with his left hand and grabbing at it. "They came after me," he whispered, admitting what he saw that questioning look was for. "When I was still normal, when I could still walk around as a person. I knew going deeper would make me into more of a computer, that it would suck away my life force and transfer my mind into data. My body is programming, code, but I had to run from them. I- was scared. They chased me and when I went to a hero, she- she said that if we worked with them I could hack into big banks and companies and steal millions without leaving a trace. They tried kidnapping me, but I could escape at any time I just- I was just scared to go back in. And now, this is as far as I can get out. And even this is, straining my processing system." He said the last part with a small nervous grin, wanting to laugh about the way he said it yet looking afraid of how serious that actually was.

"Well," La Brava started. The man sticking out of his computer looked at her, and La Brava shrugged her shoulders before saying with a small amount of pity in her voice, "That sucks."

"You ever find out who came after you?" Zach asked.

"And what are your powers now?" Darling questioned.

"I tried avoiding looking for them. If they were still coming after me, I figured they might have a way to lock me in, stop me from escaping their systems if I got into them. As for what I can do, a lot. I mean, I can scan the internet really fast. Jump around to a lot of different places across the world, look through webcams and phone cameras, street cameras, and my consciousness when I'm in the web is scattered." The others stared at this strange being in some more confusion at that sentence which Virus already knew he had to explain further. "Since the web isn't a physical location, I think that's what kept me from ever pulling back together completely. I scattered too far across a space that doesn't even exist, the internet's just floating all over the place and I- I'm between places too often. It's, not real. It's not a place that I spend most of my time."

Holy shit, that really, really sucks.

Cameras. And he mentioned their desire to use him to steal. Rebel never mentioned anything about this. He's good. Probably just paranoid about the people chasing him if Rebel couldn't find him out. We should use this, Death.

Zach was thinking more along the lines of what La Brava was, though he could not help Darling-like thoughts of Virus' uses in the Army of Death from crossing his mind. He came here though. He came to help us. That's what he said, he didn't want to bother us because we were too busy and now he's mentioning how he can help- "I just," Virus began. "Need help. Please Death, help me get disconnected." I never expected this. I thought maybe someone wanted to help us. I did consider that. I didn't think the one watching me wanted my help. Why wait so long? Was it really because he was nervous, or did he want me to be the one calling him out so he'd think it was more of my idea?

"I'll help you," Zach started. "If I can. I promise, I'll help you get back to normal. If it's possible," Zach added that at the end with a darker look on his face, not wanting to make the person in front of him too optimistic. "Virus, how old are you?" Zach asked while the girls on his sides looked in at him wondering why he wasn't mentioning anything about his powers yet or asking for stuff in return. The two of them looked back at the blue figure sticking out of his screen who started slinking back in.

Virus' body pulled slowly back into the computer, until the screen was flat once more. Then a picture appeared on it as his voice spoke from the speakers, "This is what I last looked like. Here's a picture I can generate of what I would probably have looked like, aging a few years…" His voice got softer at the end as he mentioned how long he was in the computer for, and the three in front of him watched his preteen photo turn into a boy looking around 15 or 16 years old.

He's been on the run for years, stuck in the internet. He can look through webcams? He's a teenage boy, Darling's eyes started narrowing after her initial pitying thoughts. That look softened though as she thought about the regretful way in which he mentioned the bad things he had done on the internet back then, and the picture on the screen that showed how he was just a kid when he did those things he was talking about. "If we're going to help you though," Darling started. "Can you help us too?"

Zach started frowning at what the brown-haired girl was starting with, but he nodded when she finished it as more of a question and didn't demand anything from him. Virus quickly started agreeing, talking about how he had wanted to help for a long time, but Zach cut in, "We'll have you work with our support team, and I'll work with you too. We'll try to get you disconnected from there. I know, it must be hard. But Virus, I need to know that I can trust you. You were spying on us for a while, and this is a dangerous thing we're doing. You're still a kid-"

"You're only a year-"

"Quiet," Zach said, his voice low and commanding. Virus froze with his mouth open on the computer screen his head poked back out of, his eyes opening wide as he stared at the older man in front of him. "If you stay though. If you accept our help and really want to help us out too, as I think you do. Then you will be a part of the Army of Death. Virus, you don't need to help us for us to help you. I'll do what I can to save you, to find a way-"

"I want to-"

"Don't interrupt your Commander," La Brava snapped at the teenager whose head spun her way and then back to Death who was glaring at him as that was the second time he got interrupted in a minute.

"You've seen how we operate. You won't be coming in there to fight with us, but if I need your help I will ask. Virus, listen to me. You're still a kid, but this isn't a game. There are people's lives on the line here and if I give you responsibility, any responsibility at all, even the smallest things we do, people could die. I need to know that you understand what you're offering when you say you want to help me. I want you to say it. Tell me that you understand, and I will trust you."

An anxious look spread over Virus' face but at the same time it started nodding up and down. His expression got more understanding, his lips flattening and his look hardening to that of someone he thought would look like someone they could trust. "I understand."

---

Snow walked around the halls of The Cloak in a set of black clothing not as tight as the uniforms of the other people on the ship with her. There were less people than usual around the ship, which Snow had noticed since she woke up but only saw the number get smaller as a couple of teams of people headed to the hangar earlier to leave. She was starting to get scared as the ship emptied out of people, including most of the girls in her new room who had shown her around and been acting really nice to her.

The small girl with long black hair moved for the front of The Cloak. She walked past empty rooms in the barracks and glanced into the cafeteria where she saw a group of three sitting at a table with tablets lifted in front of them and headphones in. Snow continued towards the bow, and she slowed down in the hallway with a nervous look covering her face as she stared ahead towards the corner wrapping around to the bridge's doors.

"We need Miraculu back at the entry point. We're setting up an infirmary there."

"There are more villains than we expected inside. So far Access is the only one who's taken a hit, but any bad injuries send back here."

"I'm on my way," Miraculu's voice came over the speakers inside The Cloak's cockpit. Raylei and Maelstrom typed away quickly into their computers to keep up with the teams out in the field all at the same location. Other reinforcing teams had been sent out earlier when the decision to attack had been made, and seventy of the Army of Death were out there attacking a huge villain base together.

Snow took a step closer to the bridge, her eyes growing wide at a voice she heard shout in that direction. "Villains!" Death's voice came through his helmet in a modulated tone, but loud and commanding as he roared through the base he was attacking. "Death has come for you! You thought you could destroy so many lives, kill so many people, and nothing would come of it?!"

"Kill him!"

"Get Death and the rest will run!"

Zach's eyes narrowed at the men deciding to charge at him and fight. He glared at them through his dark visor that his eyes glowed red behind. They darted around and kept track of who was activating their Quirks fastest, who was running quickest towards him, which Quirks were the most dangerous, and who he was going after first. He kicked off the ground with his right leg covering in darkness before the rest of his body followed suit in the eruption of Nightmare. He sped at the man not expecting that sudden burst of speed or the palm that slammed up under his chin and knocked him into the air while also knocking him out.

As his right hand was coming down after that pop, his left rose with a grappling gun held in it that he fired at a man trying to change directions to keep distance and fire off his mid-range Quirk. The hook of that grappling gun wrapped around his left leg while Zach's right hand that was coming down pulled a knife off a cross-strap on his chest and flicked it to the side into the stomach of a man who collapsed instantly from the black knife. Zach whipped the gun he had taken a man down with to the side, and he used enough force that he rose up the man he had caught and slammed him into a comrade trying to run at Death while both of his hands were being used to attack the villain's comrades.

Zach pulled his head to the side while slamming one villain into another with his grappling gun, and he dodged a bullet aimed for the middle of his head that slammed into the wall behind him instead. Then two black wings ripped out of his back while his arms were still moving back into a fighting position, and they flapped behind him while he jumped off the floor. Zach shot across the room and down the next hallway to the man with the rifle who was leaning backwards and dropping his rifle, his mouth still opening in shock when the black elbow caught him in the jaw. Zach continued down that hallway, hearing shouts behind him of his comrades chasing him after the rest of the villains.

"You will not have your way with this country any longer!" Zach burst into a wide open room and his body covered in a thicker Death, allowing attacks to pass right through him. He knew they were coming and took the traps straight on, then he continued straight through to a man who he recognized as one of the ones in charge and who was smirking and opening his mouth to call something back at Death. The villain let out a scream instead as Death's foot slammed into his face and sent him flying. "All of you will pay for your crimes!" Death's head turned to the right and then around to the left at all the villains who just watched their leader taken down in an instant. The Army of Death came charging into the room after a panting Death who had to focus a lot of his power to let attacks pass through him like that. Zach stopped his panting though and yelled out at the men trying to either run, fight, or escape, "There will be no escape! If you choose to act villainously. If you knowingly bring pain to those who have done nothing to you, intentionally causing harm to this world for your own gain, we will stop you. Death comes, for all villains!"

Snow took a step forward with her eyes huge back in the hall outside of The Cloak's cockpit. Her heart was racing, and the small girl started panting while her hands trembled at her sides. The voice was dark, scratchy, and deep, but she recognized it nonetheless. The motivational speech that had his comrades yelling out in agreement and the villains running in fear echoed in her mind. Snow's eyes shifted around the halls of this strange place again. She looked at it in a different way than any of the other times before. The fear was gone from her eyes.

This place…

---

8 Months Ago

"I know," Zach said, nodding at the taller man in front of him. Gentle looked back into his eyes, and Zach sighed before looking back forward in The Cloak's cockpit out the glass windows covering the front of the ship. "You're right. We're moving faster now, and if I don't take the time out for it… I was never planning on keeping her here."

"We are lucky The Cloak's defensive capabilities are as strong as they are," Gentle brought up. The two of them were on the bridge with Access, Raylei, La Brava, and a couple others just sitting at computer stations as they flew across the dark night sky over Europe. "However, it is far too dangerous a place for a child."

A screen turned blue to Gentle's right, and the man with white hair glanced at it with a lifted eyebrow wondering if Virus was going to make a remark there. Virus seemed to think better of it though and popped over to another screen in the room which Gentle rolled his eyes at as the computer boy decided not to loop himself in to defend children being on the ship. Zach grimaced at the moment but he shook his head and looked seriously back at Gentle anyway. "The last run over Canada I tried to convince her, but she wouldn't say a thing and just got so, scared. She's definitely doing better now though."

"It'll only be worse the longer she stays at this point," Raylei began, glancing back to add in her opinion. "The more Snow gets connected to everyone, the more it's going to feel like she's lost us."

"I'll find an orphanage that will take her. A good one," Zach said. He assured the others with him, and then he sighed and looked back towards the windshields again. "A place where the people will be as good to her as we've been, better even. A place where they can actually spend a lot of time with her. A safe place…" he said that and then fell quiet, a darker look covering his face at the look that always appeared on Snow's face when he would try talking about this with her. I can't leave it up to her. She's just a child. She doesn't know what's right for her, and I can't keep letting her stay because she-

"Hey Death," a voice came on over the speakers to the bridge. Zach looked back at the intercom at the sound of Darling's voice and he started over there as she sounded a bit frantic or worried. Before he reached the intercom to speak back though, Darling continued, "Can you come to our room? Snow suddenly just burst out crying. It's bad, I think you need to-"

"I'm on my way," Zach replied with a press of the intercom button. He rose his left hand to his head and started rubbing it while jogging out into the hall and around to the barracks' rooms.

How didn't I notice already? I'm an idiot. Zach ran over to the door to Darling's room and he went right in and looked towards Snow's bed. The girl was sitting on the floor next to it with her back against it and her left hand holding the bed tightly while the other was just hugged across her own chest. "Snow," Zach started, as he jogged across the room towards the kid who glanced at him and then turned away fast to look at the wall through teary eyes. Zach walked up to her right side, then he sat down next to her. She pulled away a little but did not let go of the bed with her left hand so she wound up just squirming where she sat in a fearful and angry way. "I'm sorry. I didn't know you could hear me."

The girls who had watched Zach walk over and sit down looked at their leader in confusion and then surprise as the girl turned back to him with wide eyes too. I don't believe in coincidences. Not like that. "But I mean what I said in the bridge, Snow." The girl's surprised look started to scrunch up again and tears formed in her scared eyes. She let go of her chest and reached over to his sleeve with her right hand, but Zach's expression did not change at the soft touch. He only steadied it more and said in a more stern voice, "I can't put you in danger by having you here. We're at war, and it's no place for a kid."

Snow's hand curled into his sleeve tighter. She grabbed at her arm but Zach gave her a harsher look at the one she was giving him that he had folded under too many times already, "We're going to bring you back to Canada, to your home. To a place where you'll be safe-"

"This is my home!"

Everyone in the room shot their eyes open wide and stared towards the small girl whose voice was higher-pitched than they imagined. Zach's bottom lip lowered and he was staring in shock at the girl next to him whose voice was strong and loud despite her not having spoken in so long. He had always expected to hear a quiet whisper the first time she ever spoke if he managed to get her to, but she started off yelling from the start. Tears spilled from her eyes and down her face, and her lips twisted down as she started panting through hard-taken breaths. "Please," she whispered, her voice scratchier after that shout though she coughed a couple of times and then said again, "Please. Please!"

A few others made their ways over to the doorway of the girls' room and looked in. Seraphim gazed down at the girl and she had to look away as she found herself wanting to tell Death that maybe they should consider it. Darling kept a steady look on her own face, and she stayed closest to Death and Snow out of the others in the room. Out in the door, Grabble looked past Jughead in surprise and then to the right at Mark as he was approaching asking what was going on. "Snow just talked," Grabble mentioned. "Pretty loud-"

"Please!" Snow cried, letting go of the bed with her other hand and grabbing Zach's same arm with it. He glanced down at those small hands holding his arm then started shaking his head and looking back at the girl to tell her why she couldn't. "I'll- I'll clean The Cloak!" She exclaimed, turning onto her knees and looking at him in a desperate way as she said it.

After not speaking for so long, hearing the girl say all this had Zach's heart hurting that it was what she felt she needed. "You can't," Zach began.

"And the dishes!" Snow exclaimed. "Everyone hates them. They always, they always complain about it. Everyone hates doing them but I'll never complain! And I'll- I'll fight villains too! Like you!" She stared into Death's eyes and the teenage boy sitting next to her pulled his head back and started shaking his head at that optimistic and serious look on her face. What did I do? I should have, the very first day, found a better place for her…

"I can hear really well so I can help you! Right?! Right?" She looked past Death and around at her roommates who all looked hesitantly and sadly down at the girl begging on her knees to be allowed to stay with them.

"No," Zach whispered. "You can't," he shook his head even as the girl looking at him so hopefully started to lose that look to one of despair instead. Why not? Cee, Cee started when she was Snow's age. She started as an anti-hero as a kid, going under Ms. Calico's wing. That's not okay- but Cee loved Ms. Calico so much! And I- I don't know if it was wrong of that woman to raise Cee as an anti-hero. Cee helped save millions. If not for her, Paris would have been destroyed. And if all Dorgon said came to be, billions even. Snow's not Cee! And I'm not Ms. Calico, I can't- I don't want to put Snow in danger… and I can't raise a child.

"I don't want to go someplace else," Snow said, her chest hurting and her hands curling tighter into Zach's arm. Her frown trembled and she leaned closer, looking into Zach's eyes with shaking eyes, "I want to follow you, stay with you. I'm afraid," she whispered softer, her eyes shaking even more and Zach's expression flinching at that look.

"Of what?" Zach asked quietly back to her.

Snow's lips pursed and she shook more where she was kneeling. She looked away and Zach asked her again, lifting a hand and putting it on her shoulder to get her to look back at him. Snow's eyes closed and she started shaking her head, her whole body trembling that Zach felt below the hand on her shoulder. Her voice was quieter than it had been since she first spoke up, and she whispered, "The bad men."

Zach's heart stabbed and he held his hand on her shoulder stronger so she'd stop shaking. Bad men? "Who? What do you mean?"

Snow just shook her head more, but her body wasn't shaking as much after Zach tightened his grip on her shoulder. Her head turned back and she stared into his eyes with a look of desperation that had Zach's resolve breaking, and then shattering as she whispered, "Please don't leave me."

What am I supposed to do? Zach turned his head sideways and looked back at the group who had gathered behind him. He looked back down at Snow's head that bowed in front of him, and he brought his other arm around and placed it on her back. How- How could I leave her, if there are people after her? It's what I thought the other times, but I was convinced it was for nothing. Her Quirk could be useful though; a Quirk that others might want to abuse. If people go after her, if she gets hurt after I leave her with other people who can't protect her like we could, it would be like I handed her right over to them. Especially when she's begging me not to do it. I don't know- I don't… except, I do. "Alright," Zach said. He held his hands strongly around the girl and he smiled when she rose her head and looked back up at him.

Snow's expression shook and her eyes widened in shock at the look he was giving her. "You can stay, for now," Zach said, adding in the last part while looking her in the eyes so she knew this was not going to last forever. "Just until I find somewhere I know for sure is safe-"

Snow's hands reached under Zach's armpits and to his back. She buried her face into his chest and Zach cut himself off as the girl whispered 'thank you's over and over into him. He glanced back in a hesitant way again as he suspected the others behind him would be looking at him in disappointed or disapproving ways at how he folded. Instead though, all Zach saw were people nodding back at him or smiling as the person they followed comforted that sad little girl. Zach nodded once back at them in a grateful way for those looks, then he looked back down at the top of Snow's head and he let out a long exhale. Thought the plan was not to get too attached.

---

7 Months Ago

"Delta Squad report to the war room for immediate briefing. Beta and Epsilon are returning to the hangar shortly, medical team prepare for their arrival."

The Cloak sped across the sky at its top speed that it could keep while cloaked from radars. The invisible ship raced through dark clouds and the ship shook a bit as the storm outside rocked them around. Maelstrom was not on the ship, but out with Alpha a few hundred miles away, and Access had flown The Cloak into the storm himself for some extra cover. He decided they should hide more from the advanced nation below whose technology could believably have gotten better since Endeavor had made reports on their headquarters' cloaking systems.

Snow hurried across the hall and pressed her back up against it as a group of four came running her direction. Three of them looked too intense to focus on her at all, but Fillian did glance to the side and give her a small greeting smirk before turning and continuing to run off. Announcements continued to be made over the ship's speakers, and Snow clenched her eyes shut before shaking her head around to drown out some of the excess noise in her head. She turned and jogged herself towards the cafeteria to quicker get out of people's ways.

Snow ran into the cafeteria just before another few people running down the hall were about to reach her. She let out a breath, then she quickly moved to the side in the doorway to let some people who had hurried through meals to get out of there. "Hurry it up Barboon!" One of them yelled back at a slower eater still shoving food in his mouth.

"Arrival of Beta. Clear the hallway from the hangar to the med bay. And stay out of the med bay for the next hour, or until I say something actually. We've got some surgeries coming in."

"You guys hear who got hit in Beta?"

"Wasn't Replay, that's all I heard," Flare mentioned while moving up to get a tray and some food from the line. "Had to check since it'd be her second time."

"Fwew," Faye let out a relieved breath as she was the one who asked in the first place. "I know, I was there," she mentioned.

"In the submarine- oh yeah," Flare realized what she was asking and chuckled as it made sense the Amphibious-Quirk user would have been there.

"No one died though," Faye corrected, since they were just talking about someone getting injured. "Still don't know who-"

"It was Iblis," a voice spoke behind the two women who glanced back and then down at the short girl behind them at the new back of the line. Snow looked up and then glanced to her side at a man walking over to his table who turned in surprise as he had been wondering himself. "She's the most hurt, it sounds like," Snow continued. "But Switch got shot too, in the right leg."

"They going to be alright?" Flare asked.

Snow hesitated for a second, listening in across the ship as Hank started whispering to someone next to him about Iblis' condition. "I don't, know," Snow replied, as Hank sounded just as unsure as she did.

"Iblis is strong," Faye said, turning back forward and continuing to the food line as some others up there had finished serving themselves. "I'm sure she'll be alright."

"Hope so," Flare agreed.

Snow got her food and she walked with the older women over to a table with some others already sitting at it. "They just, walked right into the police station?" Seraphim asked the man on her right side, her eyebrow lifted at the story he was telling them of his squad's last mission.

Blackjack nodded his head and he smiled at the look of disbelief on Seraphim's face. "Once I convinced them all the cops wouldn't be there, they came up with the idea of stealing all the weapons and police files. I tried to convince them that it wasn't the best idea," he started smirking and the others laughed as they could imagine a bunch of villains hilariously shouting about storming into the police station. "But they said I didn't have the guts to switch up the plan and go through with one so unheard of. They- haha, they called me an idiot, for not- ha- not seeing the opportunity."

Snow was smiling through Blackjack's story, but she turned her head and glanced towards the bow of The Cloak where she was listening as well. Her head hurt a bit as to listen that far when the ship was so crowded meant she was hearing through a lot of different conversations with her Quirk, All-Sound. She spun back around though as something else caught her attention and made everything between her and the bridge she was trying to focus on turn into a lower buzzing noise. "Can you even digest food?" Sagitus asked, stopping on one side of the table and looking at the blue figure half-sticking-out of a tablet down the bench who was looking at his neighbor's food and mentioning how good it looked.

Virus looked behind him then back around the table as others were all looking at him interestedly for an answer. "I could eat it," Virus said, turning back and looking at the food in front of Rippler's plate. "But I don't need to. I'm not hungry, but luckily with my body pulled out this far I still have tastebuds."

"You don't need to eat though?" Blackjack asked across the table.

Virus shook his head and his eyes stayed locked on the food next to him as he did not have a tray of his own. "Lost my stomach a few years ago. Same time, I lost my heart. I just eat data now to fuel my core processor. I am made up of code, not flesh. Beep, boop… beep boop," Virus rose his head with a crazy dark look covering his blue face, then a smirk crossed over it and he started laughing in a less robotic voice than his tone had just dropped into. The others who were looking at him in pity started laughing along, though a couple still had unsure and sad looks on their faces.

Seraphim was getting up from her seat, but she looked back and said, "You didn't lose your heart, Virus." The blue figure turned his upper half towards the woman with long purple hair who shook her head at him when they locked eyes. "It's still in there. Might not be made up of muscles and blood, but you've got a bigger heart than most people do. Don't forget that, kid." She turned and started away, motioning over at another table where some soldiers stood up from and headed their squad leader's direction.

Snow looked over towards Virus then around at the others as a couple started to laugh and tease Virus for what Seraphim just said there. Virus laughed back and played it off as nothing, but the small girl saw what her older comrade did that many of the others glossed over. She looked over towards Virus who she knew was the closest one to her age at the table, He started to joke, but when he mentioned his heart he was not joking. That's sad. He looked happy when Seraphim said something. Before the others had to ruin it…

"All squad leaders make sure your teams are prepared for today's missions. Start going over siege plans for the assault on Wampajawa with your squad members as well. That's right people," Access' voice on the speakers quieted down most of the cafeteria and The Cloak in general at what he just said there. "We're done using the city to find more villains. That place is going down. Get yourselves briefed and prepped, it's going to be a tough one."

While Access was speaking, one of the soldiers at the table Snow was sitting at lowered his head and gained a more intense look on it than the surprised others. Virus looked back down and across the table, and he questioned the man with short blond hair, "You already knew?"

"Didn't you?" Blackjack asked, looking back at the blue figure who he figured was always in The Cloak's computers so would know this already.

Virus shook his head. "Death didn't tell me I could," he said, explaining why not like it was that simple.

I knew, Snow thought, though she kept her mouth shut too as just like Virus she had not been told she could. It's not my fault if I overhear though, she looked down as she felt from Virus' answer she should have been doing more to avoid learning about it beforehand.

"Why'd you know?" Flare asked over at a man who had joined after her, and who she remembered joined as a villain not too long ago.

Blackjack glanced around and then back at the short woman with a serious expression. After hearing Access just announce it like that, he knew there was no reason to hide the plans anymore as the time was coming soon. "I'll be going after the defenses before the attack," Blackjack explained. "I'm going to sabotage the city, make it easier for the Army to storm in."

"Nice," Rippler said, nodding his head as that sounded like a great idea to him. "The city's going to be swarming with villains. Hundreds of them-"

"Thousands," Blackjack corrected immediately. Rippler's smile lowered down a bit and the others all got more serious looks on their faces too. "The city's never that low on population anymore. They know they'd be a target for us, so the bigger we got, the exponentially bigger they had to make themselves."

"And it's obvious they know we know their location already," Faye mentioned in a low voice. "So those defenses are going to be strong."

"Which is why I have to take them down beforehand," Blackjack said. "And I will," he assured, in case anyone at the table doubted him. He looked into their eyes and repeated, "Whatever it takes, I'll shut the turrets down and get everyone into the city."

"When's this happening?" Virus asked.

"Don't know the exact date yet," Blackjack replied with a small shake of his head. "I don't know what Death's waiting for at this point, but we have been recruiting faster recently. And gathering up old allies- I think the fact that they're telling us now means it won't be long. This week most likely."

Snow nodded her head in an intense way, and Blackjack glanced to his side for a second as he caught that in his peripheral vision. A bead of sweat formed on his face but he avoided saying anything, since after all the small Canadian girl had been there longer than him.

At the front of The Cloak, Zach was speaking in a low voice to those around him. He did not know if someone was listening or not, but he was not speaking too quietly that she would not be able to hear him if she was. He just did not want to draw attention to him in case she was focused on something else, and this time luckily the girl was too focused on the conversation with the others at her cafeteria table. "She's been asking more often to help out. I think seeing us going so much harder lately is making her feel she should be doing more, but even if we have to call in every last bit of reinforcements Snow is not coming on the raid."

"Good," Jetflame said, nodding his head with Death's decision. He was getting worried there for a minute when Darling was talking over the radio, since she was not on The Cloak's bridge, about how Snow's All-Sound Quirk would work well for countering the plays that their enemies would make after the initial attack of Wampajawa. He had to admit that it did make sense to bring her along, but he was glad Death was as strongly against it as he was. She shouldn't even be on this ship anymore.

"I know," Zach said, while looking at Jetflame's expression that gave away what he was thinking. "But I don't trust others to protect her. Not yet."

"Listen Death, I like the kid too," Michael began over comms where he was with Darling and another squad doing recon. "But we gotta be careful when it comes to her. She's not just getting more into this with you. Everyone can see she's trying to actually start being one of us. I'd be cool with it if she was just a few years older, but I'm betting we're done with this long before that."

"Always the optimist," Access scoffed over the line from the cockpit of The Cloak. He glanced to his side though at Death and then added, "I agree though. She's nine, can't we just leave her somewhere? Maybe just for a couple weeks even, until after Wampajawa and things blow over a bit?"

"Not a bad idea," Spiral agreed. "And if you tell her like that, she probably wouldn't freak out this time. As long as you say it's temporary-"

"I'll think about it, but we'll talk more about this later. I'm heading out. Which recon team feels the most confident they're ready to attack?"

"Alpha is finished-"

"Charlie awaiting your arrival." Darling spoke up over La Brava to be heard first.

"Omega could, wait until the others are finished. We could use Alpha and Charlie's help too, it seems. Don't think just you Death is going to be enough."

"I heard your primary report and have Delta prepping to meet you out there. By the time they arrive I'll be finished with the other two and on my way to meet you." Zach turned and he started for the doors of the cockpit to head back to the hangar. "Darling, I'm on my way to you first. Prep for immediate assault. I'll be there in ten." Zach reached down and he grabbed his helmet, lifted it up while jogging into the halls of The Cloak, and he put it down over his head. 152. I hit the mark I decided on for Wampajawa, but their numbers have risen too… I'm not going back on it. If I keep pushing back they'll just make themselves stronger in preparation. It's time to tear down everything. The Shadow Bosses are all down except for one, but Eziano's just an assassin. Now the Capos of Wampajawa are the clear leaders of the Underworld. The final safe haven run by 5 men just as the League of Shadows was. I'm not the only one who makes that comparison.

Zach's fists clenched tightly and his feet covered in darkness as he sped up his sprint to the hangar. "Open the hangar bay door," he ordered before he arrived. I'll destroy them and their city. And I'll, make a new place for all these people we've been saving who have nowhere to go. I'll have the time for it once- I won't though. After Wampajawa, if we win- when we win! All those villains, all the places they will give us, I'll find time for it anyway though. I'll create the place I imagined. A place for people who don't have anywhere to return to. A new home for victims. For all those test subjects. And somewhere, I can finally feel right about leaving her…

---

Snow pushed a bucket full of water and soap with the map handle she was holding to roll it across the floor. She was in one of the boys' barracks rooms, and she leaned down and grabbed a black shirt off the floor and tossed it onto a bed next to her. The ship sounded pretty quiet, which made sense since every single team was off of it currently. There were some scattered members who had not been put on teams for the missions that day, whether because they had been overworked in recent days, they asked to take a break or were told to take one, or because they had sustained injuries. Some of the soldiers who were hurt were not necessarily in the med bay but moving around the ship with non-leg-wounds that Curalia had yet to heal for them or her healing had only done a certain amount that still did not have them combat ready.

There was also the support team up in the bridge, and Snow could hear someone in the mens' shower as she mopped up the floors in the barracks. She started speeding up after listening out for that when she picked that shirt up off of the ground. "You know, the floor's not going anywhere," Snow looked towards the door and she saw an older woman leaning inside it. Indra had her right side leaning on the doorway while her left arm was in a sling in front of her body. The older dark-skinned woman nodded at the mop and said, "Don't let me stop you from your chores. You offered to do them after all," she reminded in case the girl had forgotten.

Snow looked back down and she kept mopping around though a bit slower than before after the older woman's original comment. "Scotty's in the shower," Snow whispered softly. "I thought I should mop quickly, before he comes back in."

"Scotty huh?" Indra glanced over her shoulder and humphed. Never thought I'd see him again. Hybrid and Icefall came back though, now I'm just waiting on Sparky to pull through- Indra's thoughts cut off as the girl in front of her dropped the mop handle she was holding.

Snow's face trembled with fear and she stared towards a wall with a terrified look in her eyes. "What is it?" Indra asked in panic.

"People are here," Snow whispered, her face graying and her foot stepping back from the one door in the room.

Indra stepped into the room and she pressed the intercom button next to the door. "Who's here?!" Indra shouted over at the girl who she was not doubting but needed to speak fast.

"A-Assassins. Assassins!" Snow's eyes were wide with shock but she managed to stutter and then shout at the intercom.

"What's happening?!"

"Put The Cloak on full alert!"

"Stay in here!" Indra yelled at the girl in front of her.

Snow shook her head around out of the shock, and she stumbled forward as Indra made to leave the room. "W-Wait!" Indra looked back in. Snow kept shaking, then the girl leaned forward desperately and called out, "I can help! I know where-"

"Use the intercom!" Indra shouted back, right before that room went into lockdown and the steel door slammed shut locking Snow into the room by herself.

Snow's bottom lip dropped as that happened and they shut her out, and she ran forward all the way up to the door that she banged on with her small fists. "Let me help! Let me-"

"How many of them are there?!"

"Call Death back to the ship!"

"They're in the middle of a fight-"

"Hideaway's down!"

"Just get him up here!"

"We're landing The Cloak!"

"How'd they get onboard-"

"Everyone listen. I'll take command. If you know where in The Cloak they are, tell us right now. Death's been informed and is heading back, but we need to hold them off."

Snow turned her head and looked to the intercom below the speakers she just heard Access' voice come out of. Death's coming. He's coming back here. People are dying. Wh-What would he do? What would any of them do- they are doing! It's not about what they would do, they're doing it right now! I need- I need to-

"There are three of them in the training rooms," Snow called out, pressing her hand hard on the button in front of her and yelling it out at the top of her lungs. "Another two in the hangar! Indra! Look out at the end of the hall just around the corner!"

"The flight squad is heading back to The Cloak at max speed!"

"It's Eziano! He's actually here!"

"Wait a minute, aren't you… I know you!"

Snow listened closely as she heard people shouting around The Cloak, and she repeated information that her comrades started saying aloud knowing that she could hear them. She repeated it over the ship's speakers, and every time she said something the others on board realized what was going on and started speaking aloud directly to her telling her what to relay to everyone else in case they did not have their earpieces on them or wanted the enemies to hear misinformation that they would then relay to each other what they were really saying. As she was relaying misinformation, Snow realized that this wrong information would affect the people who did not have their earpieces as well though, and the pressure hit her all at once causing her mouth to freeze open like it was.

"It's the guys from the Dragon's Den! Those guys Fergus hired!"

"A guy with a strength enhancing Quirk, a teleporter who can phase through walls it looks like-"

"Snow! We need you to keep relaying! Can you hear me?!"

"Someone check on her!"

Indra, Snow backed away from the intercom with sweat covering her body. She listened to the sounds of the woman she was just talking to, dying with a blade plunged into her chest. And she listened to the voice of the man whose blade was sticking through Indra's heart, "Bringing a child into this. Very irresponsible of you, Sazaki. And yet, I did not think you had it in you. Your Quirk is a nuisance, girl. Stay quiet and I will spare your life. Say another word and-"

"The assassin's leader is in the barracks' hall! He just killed Indra! He's coming for me!" Snow's voice cracked as she screamed all this into the intercom, tears spilling out of her eyes in sheer terror.

"GET HIM!"

"Everyone converge on his position!"

"We're coming Snow!"

"RRAAAAA!" The entire Cloak shook and Snow stumbled backwards from the tremors.

"I got here as fast as I could," Zach's breath came out ragged and staggered. He had injected with Trigger, he came from the middle of a fight against strong people who he suddenly blew through without stopping and with such speed that he was bleeding badly on his right arm and the right side of his body below the ribs. The Cloak was not that far off from his location, but from what he heard over the comms thus far alone he was livid. He was fuming and his whole body shook in rage, but he said in as calm a voice as he could muster while his vision was dyed red and wind blew in behind him from the hole in The Cloak's wall, "I'm here now. It's going to be okay."

"Death!"

Zach kicked aside the assassin in front of him and the man came out from beneath the chunk of wall he had been pinned beneath, and he slid out of The Cloak to start plummeting with a faint gasp escaping his lips as the darkness on Zach's foot failed to put him to sleep.

"You came," Snow whispered, putting her hand back on the intercom button and saying it in her shaking and scared, but relieved voice.

"You're doing a great job, Snow," Zach said as he started jogging down the hall to his right. He spoke in a regular calm and scratchy voice, but he knew she heard every word he said. "Now tell me, exactly where they all are."

"Two just ahead of you! They're scared!"

"Just took down one near the bridge! We can do this!"

"They're falling back-"

"Don't let them off this ship!" Zach yelled.

Snow slammed her hand flat onto the button for her intercom and she repeated in a yell everyone knew just came from Death, "DON'T LET THEM OFF THIS SHIP!"

---

"There were complications with the surgery. They tried, Death."

Death's head was bowed and his eyes closed as he stood on the bridge of The Cloak. His hand gripped down hard on the left armrest of an unused chair in the middle of the room, then his eyes opened and he nodded towards Raylei who was reporting this information to him. "Have Hank and Curalia get back here. Tell them to bring any injured who may be combat capable within two weeks, they'll continue treatment on The Cloak. All others, tell them they'll need to inform that they're being left behind. We'll have them transferred to different hospitals we set up every couple of days, keep them moving but also keep them in the dark as to what we're doing. Just in case," Zach turned his head and he started back across the room.

"Leaving already?"

"You should get some rest," La Brava said, looking to her side at Zach as he was walking past her. He hesitated and glanced to the side at the short woman, and then his eyes shifted down from her face and to her stomach. La Brava's eyes widened at the way he looked at her, then she said in a softer voice, "Have you slept since the attack? It's been two days-"

"I'll sleep when I'm tired," Zach replied. "I'm not tired," he turned back forward and continued out of the room. His eyes clenched shut for a second as the door was closing behind him, as he saw La Brava's body flying backwards down a dirt road with a hole blown through her small body. He heard Gentle's screams and then felt the same hole ripping through him while the flames from the burning buildings on either side of him licked his body. His own wounds stung and he felt bullets slamming into him and explosions knocking him off his feet, and he could feel the current wet feeling of bandages damp from sweat and blood beneath his dark uniform.

Spiral jogged down the hall towards the bridge, but he slowed down when he saw Death come around the corner and start walking towards him. "Death. I heard you were back. Where should I-"

"The new Beta squad," Zach replied. "They're out there already. Take a helicopter to them."

"Got it," Spiral replied without questioning his leader. He reached down and put his helmet on, turning and running back to the hangar while asking the support where he had to go more specifically so as not to bother Death with it.

Zach walked down the hall and turned into the cafeteria. Who's here? Who's still alive? Spiral's up and moving again, but half of the others are still… "Grabble, Tama," Zach motioned to the side with his head, and the two in the cafeteria talking to each other at a table jumped up and jogged his direction. "Got a mission. We're going to do some recon in the Tusukan Desert 160 miles east of here. There's a meeting scheduled for three hours from now. We'll take a Super-Jet."

"Understood, Commander," Tama said with a nod at the young man before her.

Grabble jogged out and into the hall behind Zach on his left side, allowing Tama to walk behind him on his right as they started down the hall towards the hangar. "Heard about that prison break in Kazakhstan?" Grabble asked in a dark tone, glancing to his side at Death who nodded his head just as darkly. "Those two guys, the ones who escaped the Dragon's Den. Killed Juno and Akhmed," Grabble grit his teeth and he said in a lower voice, "Not a great way to start the world loop."

"Phinx, and Lee escaped?" Tama asked, looking to Grabble in surprise as this was the first she heard about it.

"I told them what would happen next time if they escaped," Zach growled, his voice chilling to the other two who just got more dark and serious looks on their faces too. Should have expected guys that Eziano would bring here were too dangerous to just send to prison. Everyone wanted them dead, but I made that call. That it was better to show people that even assassins could be thrown in prison like common street toughs. If only I had captured the boss. Eziano, Amaterasu, Fergus is still out there though we're closing in, so many are trying to rise with the ones in Wampajawa gone. I have to move faster! FASTER!

Zach's fists clenched hard at his sides then they loosened completely and he stared forward at a girl standing at the railing inside the hangar closest to the front half of the ship. Through the opening Zach could see her standing there looking towards him, and he slowed down a bit before glancing to either side at the two walking with him. "Get a jet ready. Be right behind you," Zach turned and walked over towards Snow when they made it out into the hangar, and he stopped in front of the girl who he had not talked to one-on-one for a couple of days. "You doing alright?"

He did not bend down in front of her. He just stepped in front of her and asked while looking down into the girl's eyes. We lost a lot of people, Zach thought, and he checked out the girl's expression to make sure she was fine even as she nodded back at him. "Good," Zach said. I've started on Life City too. You saved this place though. Would Eziano attack it again? Don't see why not. He sent his men after us in Wampajawa, among all that chaos the assassins were there. Everyone was there. Every villain group, everyone I was hunting had a hand there. "Keep an eye on things here."

"Are you alright?" Snow asked, seeing he was about to turn and go, and not wanting him to leave. She asked him because he had asked her the same thing but she could not tell if he was doing alright either. He lost so many people. I can help him! He needs-

Zach smiled, and he lowered his left hand down and placed it on top of Snow's head. He tousled her hair and pushed down on the front so she closed her eyes as some strands fell over her face. "Be good," Zach said. When Snow opened her eyes at the feeling of his hand off her head, his back was already to her as he walked away. She opened her mouth and took a step after him, raising a hand towards his back that got farther away but still looked so wide. Then her hand clenched into a fist and she lowered it back down. The idea that he needed her help faded from her mind, as the idea that he would ever need help from anyone seemed strange at how strong he always felt to her.

"Bye," she whispered.

---

6 Months Ago

Snow sat at the foot of her bed with a sad look on her face and a mop inside a bucket to her left side. She stared forward at a couple of women new to the Army of Death who were getting situated on some beds that had been empty for over week now. Snow watched those recruits but she pictured a woman with long purple hair standing in front of her bed leaning down with a smile and talking to her. And even as she saw Seraphim there smiling at her, instead of hearing her voice she could only hear the one she was focused on across the ship.

He's back. He slept while he was gone at least. On helicopters between attacks. This "world loop" is too much. I need to talk to him before he leaves. I have to! What if next time- he left with Tama and Grabble, and the things people said… he says they're true? Snow lowered her head more and she clenched her eyes shut as she listened to the man who had not mentioned her name once since getting back on the ship. He's busy. Too busy. Too much. When will he leave again? Will it be the last time he…

Snow got herself off the bed and she grabbed the bucket and mop to push them across the ship. The women who had just come in for the first time stared her way hesitantly, looking unsure about what they were seeing like they disapproved of the girl being there. Snow ignored their looks though, not able to care less about them at the moment as she heard the tone in Death's voice. She sped up and she left her tools behind, losing interest in even pretending like she was going to just head somewhere to clean it so that she could talk to him.

Snow ran across the ship that was nearly empty compared to a few weeks ago but did have a good thirty or forty people on it at the moment. The Cloak flew across the sky in the wide loop it was doing, but in this section of the world they had called in tips for the majority of villain locations they had discovered, enabling some of the Army to get some rest. It was not going to last long, and Snow knew The Cloak would get back to being mostly empty once again the next day if not in a few hours. She ran past Michael whose face she glanced up at for a moment only to look back down fast and continue running at the expression she did not recognize him to ever have before.

The girl kept running and she scooted to the side when two other men were coming out of a room to turn and follow after Michael. "Out of the way Rookie," Snow said, glancing to the side and up at a man who dropped his jaw at what the girl just said to him.

Fillian chuckled darkly and behind Snow, Michael actually looked back and lifted his dark frown a small amount at what he heard her say. A second later his lips had dropped back down though, a conflicted and worried look flashing over his face for a moment which made him turn away before Fillian or Blackstar could see it.

Snow kept running, and then she slowed down as she was nearing the door she wanted to run straight through. She hesitated, then she could not hold herself back and she ran up to it with her hand pulled back to knock. "… I couldn't stop. It was like something had taken over. Grabble was down, and Tama… They ripped her apart so I couldn't… And I slaughtered them."

"It's okay."

"It's not, Darling. I massacred them. I keep pushing forward and I have to keep moving. There's so much, but- But I've never lost it like that before. Not like that. I turned into, in that desert I-"

"You did what you had to to survive. That's what we all believe-"

"Not everyone. People are leaving-"

"Scotty left before. He'll come back again when he cools down. And those recruits probably weren't anything much-"

"You didn't see their faces. When they landed there. When they saw… Darling, I did- I became a monster-"

Swoosh Zach's door opened up to the side, and Snow ran inside while the boy on his bed jumped up ready to tell off whoever just barged in.

Zach's eyes opened wide though, and Darling's angry look for the person who just rushed in like that when she had just come to talk to Zach herself calmed down fast. Darling still had a bit of an annoyed look on her face, but she smiled too as the girl who ran in and hugged Zach called out, "You're not a bad person."

"Snow," Zach whispered, and he cursed himself internally at speaking so freely and forgetting she could hear every word of it.

Darling opened her mouth but hesitated, then she closed it slowly and she frowned but turned to the door of the room. "I'll let you two talk," she said softly. Snow turned in surprise and watched as Darling headed for the door, while Zach turned with an appreciative look as he watched her back. Darling neared the door and thought while glancing back, Since you won't have many more opportunities to.

Thank you, Darling. Zach thought at the girl he just made eye contact with. "I'm glad you're up on your feet," he told Darling before she could go. "If you can get Hank to tell me that you're combat ready I'll take you with me on the next missions-"

"I'm ready!" Darling exclaimed. Then she held her tongue and she backed out into the hallway. "Hank will tell you the same thing," she said in an assured tone, before the door closed and she lowered a hand down to her chest and started rubbing it, before raising that hand to her neck and then the other to her waist which made her wince extra hard. Just turn those areas into fake skin and flesh for when he does his check-up. Not completely fake, but maybe half of each so I don't flinch while he checks. Call it an amazing recovery. Darling smirked while turning to head towards the medical bay. I'm not sitting out the whole loop. Not while you're taking on everything…

Back in Zach's room, he sat down on the edge of his bed again and Snow climbed up to sit on his side but very close to him. "Are you okay?" Snow asked, her tone worried which had Zach smiling again just as he did the last time she asked him. "You're tired, aren't you? And hurt. And-"

"You've gotten strong, Snow," Zach said. He looked at the face of a girl who was trying to help him, and he saw over it the translucent face of the same girl so afraid with her lips pursed unable to say a single word. Snow's lip curled in frustration at his answer, as she had realized it from a few days before but he had not answered that question the last time she asked it either. He did not say if he was okay or not, but he was smiling softly at her which she could not tell if it was fake or not behind that exhausted expression.

Snow lowered her left hand down over Zach's right that flinched when her hand touched it. He pulled away, and Snow lifted her hand up to his sleeve instead and grabbed around his forearm. "Zach," Snow said quietly, and his eyes widened a bit while his head turned fully to face the small girl.

"It's Death," Zach told her. He shook his head when she stared up at him with wide eyes, as it was the first time she was calling him it. She felt like she sometimes heard people use it in really serious situations with him, when the people who had been there before her were dying and talking to him over comms, or sometimes someone would just scream it. Villains called him it, she knew it was his real name, but she looked away apologetically when he corrected her so quickly. "But what is it?" He asked the girl who just turned from him.

Snow turned back and the short, nine year old girl spoke in a strong high-pitched voice, "I want to stay." Zach's eyes widened for a second and he cursed internally, then he stopped doing that as the girl in front of him continued, "Not just as, what I have been. I want to help more. I want to stay in the Army of Death, or I want to join since I haven't really been in it- except I have been! I've lived here just like everyone and eat with everyone and I wear black and, and I helped when Eziano attacked- I want to stay!"

She doesn't know. I've kept all mention of her in those plans private and off The Cloak. This isn't because she thinks I'm abandoning her. This is just, what she wants to do. Zach leaned back a bit and he pressed his hands down hard on the bed at his sides. He looked up at the ceiling and then glanced back to his right side at the girl looking to his face in a hopeful but serious way like she did not want to be seen as too childish while asking, or while making this intense request. "So 'the bad men.' You aren't afraid of them anymore?" Zach asked.

Snow lowered her gaze from Zach's and she twisted her right foot off the edge of the bed. Her eyes shifted down and away, and her lips pursed while Zach watched her face from up close. He shook his head once while she was not looking, and his eyes darkened now that he did not have to keep a lighter expression for the girl to see. If it's no, then I'd have my reason for sending you to an orphanage. If it's yes, then how could I let you help us fight if you're too scared? Quite a pickle you're-

"That doesn't matter," Snow said, spinning back to Zach and leaning towards his face again. "I want to help you!" Or she can just avoid it altogether. Snow's lip furled and her eyebrows narrowed down, then she tightened her grip on Zach's sleeve. He had felt that small grip tighten before but in a scared way, not the strong grip she had now. "I'm staying with you," she told him, this time not a question at all. Zach's look darkened again, much more this time and he let Snow see it all. Everything weighing down on him all at once, and Snow's grasp on his arm only tightened more. "I'm staying with you no matter what."

---

Present

"You can't be serious," Oda Bunogawa started. The man shook his head at the boy trying to continue his description, and he scoffed at the boy's look and said, "There's no way there were leprechauns."

"I know," Zach started nodding with the guard in agreement and a look of disbelief on his own face like he understood the guard's skepticism. "That's what I told the shaman who warned me what I kept seeing, but when I finally called out for it, there he was. He'd been watching me, ever since I traveled back from Rainland."

"Rainland?" Neo asked, shaking her head and getting a more confused look again as that was a place she had not heard of before.

Zach got a confused look on his face himself and glanced back and forth between the guards. "Ah, must have been a different shift. Well you can ask them about it, but all you need to know is that under the bridge to get back from Rainland, there were trolls, and those trolls would do anything to get their hands on a leprechaun's beard."

"Not their gold?" Neo asked, smiling and looking surprised by the turn the story was taking. Oda decided to just listen in and try and get over the leprechaun thing already, as insane as it sounded to him, to just focus on what the prisoner was continuing with.

Zach chuckled darkly at Neo's question though and it made the guards lean towards him at the way he looked there. The look that showed asking about their gold was ridiculous to him but he understood why she would ask, yet also that he did not want to laugh because of how dark it really was. They started thinking more about what it would mean to be after their beards too, and Neo gulped before the teen even continued just from his chuckling alone. "The leprechauns don't have gold, but their beards are softer than the softest lambs' wool. And in that world there were enough bad people that the black market was hungry for them."

"The leprechauns were small and quick though, so it was tough to catch them. Yet they weren't invincible. They could still be hurt, but this one wanted to help. After seeing what I did in the Rainland, this leprechaun followed me. Unfortunately, Arcasia's hunter-class trolls have great senses of smell. Soon after leaving the Rainland when I met the leprechaun, Docy, they were already hot on our trail…"

---

6 Months Ago

Zach was panting with one arm bloody and down at his side barely holding onto a knife, his other completely limp and swinging back and forth as he ran up a flight of stairs. Darling lifted up Zach's limp left arm and she swung it over her shoulders, and she continued running up the stairs at Death's side as fast as they could after the long fight. "We can't lose, we don't lose," Zach muttered in a low voice as they continued up the flight. He shoved Darling away with a bump of his body, since that left arm really was not working at all.

Zach turned and his right arm covered in pitch blackness that flared and rose to the ceiling of the stairwell. "Rrraaa RRAAA- RAAAAAA!" Zach's arm bulked and the darkness spread to cover more and more of the stairwell around him. Then he punched his right fist down at the first sight of the forces charging up the stairs after him. "SINK INTO THE OCEAN OF DEATH!" Zach roared down in a horrifyingly scratchy and deep voice that echoed through the dark pulse he fired downstairs.

"Come on," Darling grabbed him by his right arm this time and started tugging farther up the stairwell. "That's not going to stop them," she turned Zach around and continued running, and she slowed down only for a second to swing his arm over her shoulders again to make sure he kept pace instead of lagging behind as he was doing even more after that last attack.

"Ack- gah," Zach lifted his right hand a bit to wipe his mouth but his helmet got in the way and he grimaced in frustration and exhaustion. I've never run out. Not since- when? Wampajawa? After the Tusukan Desert, I didn't know if I could get this weak again. Zach stumbled on the steps and he cursed as he took Darling down with him. They fell and started pushing back up with the strength they could muster. "Keep going," Zach started to the girl standing with him slower than he knew she could.

"Not without you," Darling replied, pulling him up with her and then continuing towards the top of the stairs of the massive building they were in. "Everyone else is out already. Their reinforcements came earlier than they should have, but this still isn't a loss. We didn't lose. We just need to go for now. They lost this base. They'll know they can't stay here, and we'll have drones follow wherever they head to next. They're through."

"Might not even come to that. Heroes are heading there right now you two," Rebel called out into their headsets. "Get to the roof and we can send an extraction-"

BOOOM!

The whole building shook, and Darling spun her head around to look down the steps as she heard more yelling coming from down them. "Police and heroes arriving, but the villains are flooding in there. Y'all have to get out of there!"

Zach and Darling stumbled onto the top floor of the building, and then they spun towards one of the walls where some windows broke and bullets flew through. The bullets slammed into other walls or into tables and computers, and there were still unconscious villains laying around from earlier before the massive force arrived made up of different groups of villains all there for the same reason. Zach lifted back up his right hand that he just pushed down on hard, allowing Darling's head to rise back up as he had forcefully ducked it when those bullets flew too close.

Even his red vision seemed dim though, and Zach was panting hard after that huge attack of Death he tried to flood the whole staircase with. They know I'm not all powerful. They still aren't that afraid. Rumors haven't spread far enough yet, not of recent events. All they believe is that I'm going to destroy, this way of life. They believe that I'm coming for all of them, and they're not all getting ready for one big attack. That's good. They're not that organized… but this alone.

"They're setting fire to the building, and they have fuckers flying around the outside of it. Heroes don't know what's going on and they're setting a far perimeter for now to let the villains fighting it out inside deal with each other first. You're not getting any help there!"

Bangbangbang bang! Doof-dododododo- brrrrrRrRrCrash! CHH chh The building filled with the sound of breaking glass and walls, bullets flying and explosions going off.

"We know he's inside!" The shout came through broken windows, and Zach ducked down while moving across the top floor with Darling.

He tried to keep them out of sight, but it did not seem like being seen was going to matter that much at all. "Burn it down!"

"Watch all the exits! Kill him the second he tries to escape!"

"We've got him now!"

"Death! Should we come back?!"

"No!" Zach shouted back.

"I'm going-"

"I will get us a way out. Just get farther away from here. Send them an evac support team. And where is mine?"

"It's not close enough," Rebel replied, calmly but in a low and intense tone. Zach's eyes widened at that serious voice coming from a man who rarely took one. "You're going to have to find a way to either protect that location until I can get it to you, or find a different way out. There's a sewer under the building-"

"There's no way we can get back downstairs," Darling snapped, her tone nervous despite the angry way she said it.

"Screw this. Death, I'm coming-"

"I order you to stay away from here. Do not think me so weak that I can't survive- ack ack, ack," Zach started a coughing fit and he cursed hard in his head that it had to happen while he was trying to calm his troops. He opened his mouth to continue that it was fine, but the building shook and really wobbled this time as it felt like an entire wall down below broke apart. More bullets flew through the walls, slamming into computers and splashing up blood from some unconscious villains laying nearby.

Zach and Darling got down low and crawled across the floor. Zach stayed close and he turned his head to look at the girl next to him as bullets whizzed by their heads and voices screamed around them about how much the villains wanted them dead. Darling kept crawling forward fast on her hands and knees, and Zach clenched his teeth hard as he ground them back and forth but pushed forward right after her. I need to find us a way out. Something. Anything!

"Death! Darling!" A voice the two of them recognized called out to their right, and they spun their heads and looked over at a computer laying on the floor. The screen turned blue, and the two of them stared at the face that appeared on the flat screen with a panicked look on it as he stared out at the two of them. The walls around them were getting hit by projectiles, carving off chunks and sending paint and wood and cement splintering out through the air. Flames caught the outer walls, and a fireball flew through an open window as someone shouted about burning them out of the top floor.

"Get out of here, Virus," Zach ordered the boy in the screen who was putting himself in as much danger as they were in by jumping in that computer. "Help the others get a-"

Ka-BOOM! The whole building shook, and cracks spread across the ceiling while more of the walls covered in flames.

"There's no time!" Virus shouted. His face was reluctant but he leaned out of the computer and stretched his arms out to the two who fully turned to him now with their eyes opening huge. "Grab on!"

"What?!" Darling shouted at him, then she ducked down as she heard something fly by her head so close that strands of brown hair started falling to her left side. She rose her head up a bit and looked into Virus' blue eyes as he extended his hands closer to them. "What are you doing?"

"Will it work?" Zach asked, looking at Virus' hand and then at his face worriedly.

"It's not safe. It's not a good idea," Virus grit his blue teeth and shook his head, then he shouted, "But there's no other option!"

Zach could see how hesitant Virus was about this, and he could understand in that expression alone why his comrade had never mentioned this ability before. There are risks. But, he's right. There's no time to come up with a better option. We'll be dead by the time I come up with anything. "Do it Darling!" Zach yelled, and he reached his right hand out since his left was not working.

Darling reached her left out for Virus' left, and Zach clasped his gloved right hand into Virus' blue one. The floor below them started to crack, the walls creaked and more flames poured in around them. And the two soldiers in all black stared through their visors at their arms that were turning blue from where they were grabbing onto Virus' hand up to their elbows, then their shoulders… Their arms started getting pulled back into the screen, Virus tugging back fast as the ceiling right above the computer was breaking more and they had to go. He pulled back and the blue light surrounding Zach and Darling's bodies spread faster to engulf their entire beings at the same moment that they were being squeezed into the computer together.

This is… ABSOLUTELY FUCKING INSANE! Darling fell through blue nothingness with her body glowing a more solid blue, her form taking shape in a blocky, cube-y way. 1's and 0's passed by her in streams, pushing off of her body and bouncing away or just going straight through her. She lifted an arm and looked at it as she continued to fall with nothing holding her in place, and she saw in her blue arm there were small white lines that branched around and looked to constantly be moving so that her entire body did not seem constant.

"Are we code?!" Zach yelled towards Virus who he spotted falling near him. He yelled it so loud because he did not know if he would even be able to make sound as he was right now. He thought about using his Quirk, but he could see the way his body looked and had a horrible feeling in his gut about what would happen if he used it while being affected by Virus' Quirk. If the power holding me inside this… place? Space? Stops working while I'm inside it, what would happen to me? To Darling? "What's going-"

"Shit! The computer broke!" Virus yelled, and he spun around before slamming his arms down at his sides and diving down like he was skydiving.

Both Zach and Darling had jumped out of planes before, and the two of them saw Virus do an action that needed to be done in order to go faster. The two of them followed suit, turning after him and pressing their arms into their sides to try and keep up. Zach's eyes darted to his left side for a moment as he felt all ability to move his left arm again, and he also realized he did not feel any of his injuries at all while inside the computer like this. He also realized when he looked to his left and down at his side behind him, how dark the space above them was. His glowing blue eyes started to widen in panic as he saw the darkness spreading down after them, and he snapped his head back forward and dove faster after Virus.

"Over here!" Virus called out, spinning his body and then shooting towards a glowing white square in the middle of open space that seemed to just be floating around. His body slammed into it and went straight through into a different space, as they could see below that white square to more of the blue void that was getting darker farther down as much as it was above them.

"Don't miss," Zach said seriously towards Darling. Even though he had no idea what would happen should she miss it, he did not think it would be good. He aimed for the white square himself and fell through just before Darling, and Zach's perception of reality shattered for a moment at the sight before him. He thought the space he was just falling through had been wide but empty, yet as he entered into the access point into the next space over, his understanding of what was happening to him was tossed on its head.

"Grab hold you two!" Virus yelled behind him, and he swung his arms back behind him that extended two long blue whips from his hands. Zach gladly grabbed onto one as fast as he could, not wanting to get lost or knocked away by the constant invisible wind he felt slamming into him.

"Where are we?" Darling whispered meekly behind a boy freaking out in a similar fashion.

"The longer you're in here, the harder it's going to be to get you out!" Virus shouted back at the two who were too busy staring around in shock at the place so vast yet so empty. Yet, every thing they did see was something their brain understood what they were looking at. The two of them looked back towards their younger comrade when he shouted that though, and Virus turned away with his teeth clenched and a hurried look on his face. "We have to find somewhere safe to emerge from!"

"Can't you get us to The Cloak?" Darling shouted his way, while Virus started flying them forward through the blue space. He had no means of propulsion and he was moving them horizontally, but there no longer felt to be any gravity inside the realm they had entered into. Darling felt disoriented and scared, and she ducked when she saw something flying her way almost too fast to notice. She spun her head with her bottom lip dropped, wondering if she really did just see a picture of a man's privates zipping past her. "What was-"

"Like ninety percent of the internet is just dick pics!" Virus shouted back. "Look out for them!"

"WHAT?!" Darling shouted in shocked frustration and anger at the boy who she was ninety percent sure was fucking with her.

"Just get us out at the first exit you can find," Zach called up to Virus a few meters… spaces… a length away from him that Zach's eyes were having trouble judging in a physical way. The disorienting nature of the space they were in was only matched by the way his body currently felt to him: neither hot nor cold, and yet he could use all his senses. He could feel the blue whip Virus had thrown back for him, and he could hear his own words that he was speaking with, and though he could not tell if he could smell or not as there was no scent where they were, he did have the shape of a nose protruding from his face. "It's dangerous for us to be in here for too long, because we might get stuck like you are, right?"

"I think so," Virus replied. That response only made Zach and Darling want to get out of there faster as it seemed he may have never done this before. Neither wanted to ask him though, and they just decided to believe that he knew it was possible because he had some experience. "But we can't pop out just anywhere. It's not safe-"

"No safer than being stuck in here!" Darling yelled.

"What if we emerge inside a deep underground prison, and they cut off the systems so we can't go back in?! Or what if I pop you out of the American president's phone and all the hero secret service attack you while you're already weak and the Army's across the world-"

"Aren't we in the internet around where we just were?" Darling snapped in confusion. "Shouldn't openings around here just-"

"'Around here?' There is no 'around here.' Nothing in here matches up with locations outside! Space doesn't exist in here! Only time and fake matter. Waves and- alright there's a message board! Come on!"

Virus started pulling the two of them across the vast space, or non-space, and the two behind him held on much harder as they moved away from what felt like the wall as it was where they came in from. The farther they moved from it though, the more the space behind them just looked like anything else in this blue wasteland of code. Pictures flew by moving so fast they could barely catch glimpses of them, and Virus pulled back and cut around a couple of times so it looked like he was navigating a ship through an asteroid field.

"Almost there!" Virus called out, hope and relief in his voice that relieved the other two.

"AH!" Darling yelled out, and Zach spun his head with is eyes opening huge in shock at the sight of a dangling blue whip with no one on it. The girl holding onto that whip had just been slammed into by a giant square with a white 'U' in the middle of it over a bright red background.

"Shit!" Virus spun around and he shot after that square, and Zach let go of the line and started shooting after it too. Virus darted his eyes over for a second but Zach was flying just as fast as he was through the space towards the girl who kept screaming even as she finally got herself off of the app that hit her. "It just got released," Virus called out while Darling spun herself around in the space and turned while floating there in front of him. Darling looked in Virus' eyes then down at her hands while she stayed in one place, only she started to look around in more understanding as the wind pushed into her and the distant walls of the space slid by as well.

Everything seems like it's moving, but maybe there is no motion in here? Zach swung his right arm around and he looked at the blue that made it up. I'm in flux. This is in itself an entirely different world from our own. I can't think of it the same way. But I, understand how it works. I can move around in here as long as I can think it. I have a certain amount of control… for some reason.

"Listen! If we can get over to that message thread over there," Virus pointed and the other two looked over to see green bubbles flying across the cyberspace. "We can check who's sending them and try and get out-"

"Sounds good," Zach called out, not needing him to explain it any further. He pointed his hands in front of him and urged his body forward, and he started flying through the strange blue space without much effort. Faster? Zach pushed his arms harder in front of him and started shooting across the space much faster than before.

Darling sped up too while chasing after him, but Virus sped up faster and flew up to Zach's left side as they made their way towards the bubble thread moving the same direction as them. "We're catching on fast," Zach said, his voice low while he glanced to his left at the boy next to him whose full appearance he was seeing for the first time even if it was still in a bright blue glow inside the system. "Virus," Zach said, his voice more serious as the boy did not turn to him after what he just said. "What's-"

"AH!" the two spun around and stopped flying forward at Darling's shout behind them. "What is that thing?!" Darling yelled, curving away and flying up to dodge what came flying out from below in the blue space.

A giant yellow face came flying past Darling laughing so hard that it was crying, its laughs echoing around the void which had Virus backing up with a nervous expression on his face. "Things are about to get crowded," he warned, and he turned back forward the way he and Zach had been going. "We need to get out of here faster… Oh shit," Virus backed up and he spun around. "Other way!"

Zach looked back towards the message thread they had been chasing, but something had gotten in their way after the thread got too far. He saw it spinning over there and looked closer instead of turning at what Virus said even though he was feeling the urge to escape rising inside him. Zach stared closer and his eyes bulged while he started sliding back in mid-void too. There were pictures of dogs, and cats, celebrities, actors, and world leaders, and all of those pictures had text on them in big bubble letters. They were spinning around with more text bubbles flying around them, and hundreds of those same giant yellow faces that had flown past Darling a moment ago were mixed in and spinning around in a vortex. Zach and Darling spun and started flying after Virus with panicked looks on their faces, and Darling shouted at their blue comrade, "What is THAT?!"

"Meme Tornado!" Virus yelled over his shoulder, and his blue eyes opened wide as the tornado was racing across the space in their direction. "DIVE!" He ducked his head and shot down through the void deeper into the stream towards the walls that seemed to just get farther away the more they swam down towards them. 1's and 0's flew past them as a white wind moved around their bodies faster at the speed they were picking up to. The faster they picked up though, the more Zach and Darling realized that the place was full of stuff that they had not noticed as much while staying in one place or even just flying around slowly.

"Not there!" Virus called out as a link came near them. "Avoid it!"

"Is that tornado chasing us?!"

"We're on the same information pathway!" Virus yelled back, then he turned and shot towards where Darling was starting to fly over. "I told you not that way!" He grabbed her and pulled back as they were moving fast and they could not wait long enough for Darling to look closely at what she had just been drawn towards. Darling was stuck with her head snapped that direction though, her blue cheeks turning pinker as she looked through that dark red hole she had moved towards where groaning and moaning noises were coming from the other side of. A shriek of pleasure came out of the hole and Darling spun her head back forward with a huge grin on her face, only for her expression to get panicked again as she looked over towards the Meme Tornado that was bigger than ever and approaching them with thumbs ups spinning around the outside like electrons around a nucleus.

Barking and meowing came out of pictures flying too close, the gifs moving around and getting louder the closer they got with a tug like they were going to suck Darling right into the tornado which was a pathway of its own of messages and pictures flying back and forth across the internet. New images were appearing and flying in from other directions, and Virus had to duck down and pull Darling's head down to avoid a counter-meme to one of the ones they were running from.

"Zach!" Darling called to her right when she saw him fly across the front of her body towards what he thought was another message path that they could enter.

"NO!" Virus yelled, and Zach stopped short before pulling back and diving down. The messages he had seen in front of him started turning to the side showing they were 2D and on a bigger window with a red X at the top right corner but a smaller black x in the middle of that one. When the 2D image started to turn, Zach saw a horrifying sight of thousands more images right behind it all stacked up and covered in commercials and naughty images and so many warnings. And he also saw a red glow between two of the flat images far back in the stack, and a dark head poked out between them with glowing red eyes that looked towards him in a menacing way.

"Are we, alone in here?" Darling asked and came to a stop as she looked towards that creature.

"Hidden in ads are almost always a virus! I can fight them, but some are too strong. I can't-" Virus spun his head back and forth from a scared Darling to a panicked Zach at how what he thought was an exit turned out to be a trap in this completely unknown world to him. "I don't have the time, to explain to you all the pathways and intricacies of the internet! It's dangerous in here! I told you it's hard to infiltrate computer systems and jump around the world-"

"I'm sorry, but you never said it was…" Darling slowed down and then shook her head. "You didn't say anything about this!"

I wondered why he didn't do more though. Thought he should be so much more powerful with this Quirk, Zach looked away from Virus who had just turned to look him in the eyes as he was thinking that. "I get it. You have to get us out though. We'll trust you, and follow you to a safe pathway. Okay, Virus?"

Virus was nodding there, but he lowered his lips down into a frown at the end with a glance back at the ads floating by and the virus sliding back into its hiding space. "Yeah, let's go," he said, looking back at Zach and then flying forward and past him in the direction of a more open space in the void.

Darling glanced back once more at the Meme Tornado getting smaller in the distance, and she let out a sigh of relief that it was not coming after her. Then she looked back forward and her eyes shot open wide as another small cube with a picture on it like the one that had slammed into her before was coming straight at her. This time, she got her hands up in time to try and block it. Zach and Virus snapped their heads down as hundreds of white and black keys just shot out below them and extended into the void.

"Two seconds," Virus muttered. "I turned away for two seconds!"

"What's happening?!" Darling yelled, while her body was frozen and she was stuck at the start of the piano keys extending far into the space.

"You entered an app-"

"I know this game," Zach whispered. He looked around at the keys and then looked back to Darling and shouted right as a red 3 appeared in front of her face, "It's Phone Piano! Hit only the black keys and you'll be fine!"

The three turned into a two, and Darling shouted, "What happens if I hit a wrong one?!"

"I don't know!" Zach yelled back, as he had never played it in this way before.

"Get below," Virus told his commander, and the two of them flew to the sides and then down below the keyboard. Darling started running forward when the countdown ended, jumping from black key to black key across the keyboard. "We'll have to catch her when she messes up! It'll knock her off the-"

"I can do this!" Darling shouted down when she heard what Virus was saying.

"It just keeps getting faster," Virus snapped right back. "And it's a high-score based game, not something you can beat! Sooner or later you'll have to fall, and-"

"AHH!" Darling screamed in pain, jumping on a white note as what Virus was saying made sense. The white note flashed red and flashed her entire body red, and the piano vanished with Darling falling through out of empty space right into Zach's arms as he shot towards her and caught her. "Death," Darling whispered, opening her clenched blue eyes and smiling up at him.

"Pay attention, and follow closer behind Virus," Zach told the girl he let go of but stayed closer to afterwards as they flew towards Virus.

"Over there," Darling pointed down, and the two boys with her looked down after her point.

"An email," Virus said, with another voice overlapping on his. Zach stared at the white envelope and ignored the bad feeling in his gut at the fact he just spoke over Virus about something he had never seen before.

How did I know that was a good thing? Darling wondered. She was close to Zach and Virus, and the three of them started flying down through the empty space clustered up but keeping a small gap between each of them. Virus, how did I know? Darling thought, and she grimaced as she saw Virus' head flinch in front of her on her left. She did not follow up with anything aloud after seeing that flinch, having a bad feeling in her gut and shifting her eyes around in a hesitant way at the space around them. It's not really space. Which means, we're not really physically here. Even if there is this gap between us… Whose Quirk are we-

"Everybody grab onto it fast!" Virus called out. "The pathway's opening up!"

A round hole ripped open out in front of the letter that was shooting across the space. Darling and Zach gulped together when they stared through that hole and saw more white letters shooting past, fast. They were racing the envelope to the hole, and the three of them reached right before it and extended their arms out to grab hold. It yanked them forward, but each of them held on as they were sucked inside. "Don't let go!" Virus yelled out as they flew in. "The internet is full of pathways, but the Email Stream is one of the most packed and dangerous-"

Virus was standing up as he said it, but another letter flew up over the one they were dragging themselves onto. The letter slammed into his midsection and knocked him right off of their letter. "Virus!" Zach and Darling shouted after him.

"It's okay!" Virus yelled back, and then a shredding sound came from in front of them and to their right where that other email curved. Virus tore the email in half with his bare hands and then folded up the halves quick in what looked like origami. He turned the email into a pair of wings that he slammed into his back and controlled with blue tendrils wrapping around them, making the other two gawk at him as he started using them to fly over just at the side of their letter.

"How do I do that?!" Darling asked.

"It's too hard! Just surf the email and I'll find us an exit port!" Virus yelled back, then he flew in front of them and held his right hand out in front of him. A blue glow extended from his hand and his arm was changing shape as he created a bladed weapon going half a body length in front of him. "I'll cut down anything in your path!"

"It's alright, Virus," Zach called in front of them. The internet wind was slamming into him faster than ever and it felt like they were soaring through the sky with no windshield in front of their faces, but a pair of blue goggles started to appear in front of Zach's face while Virus looked back at him and Darling looked to her left. Zach turned his head to Darling and then to the left himself as another envelope was flying towards them but just up a little bit. It felt like theirs was moving slower because of all the weight on it, and Zach ran to the edge of their letter and leapt up towards another one that he slammed his feet down onto and then swerved back and forth trying to get balance and not fall off.

Virus stared up at Death with his eyes full of shock, but Zach turned his way and looked into them with an intense look that made Virus lose his shocked one. You know why it isn't taking me as long to learn, Zach thought right at his comrade who spun fully forward, the same moment that Darling gulped and started surfing her own email by herself. Zach started turning one of his arms into a long blue blade while thinking, Get us out of here, Virus. Find us an exit now!

Zach, Darling thought. A smile spread over her face and she swerved to the right on her own letter as Virus left her to fly ahead. She dodged other emails and then leaned forward and sped hers up, shooting past other ones that had flown by her and keeping up with Zach as they raced after Virus. We're surfing the web!

The right corner of Zach's lips curled up at the thought he just had. He looked ahead at Virus and watched as their comrade opened up letter after letter and slid a piece of it out only to read the top address bar. "Anything?!" Darling called up ahead. She had to struggle to pull her letter harder after Zach's, and she finally jumped off to a different one which was dangerous but could not be avoided as her email was trying to exit out a different port already.

"No, no, no!" Virus threw another failed envelope to the side and he cursed under his breath before spinning around and flying back towards his comrades. "We've been in here-"

"For too long, yeah," Zach said, finishing his sentence and gritting his teeth afterwards.

"What about the Information Highway?" Darling asked, pointing over towards one of the access ports on the side of the Email Stream that several new emails were flying in from.

"It might be the only way to get to The Cloak," Virus began in hesitant agreement with Darling. "At least, quickly. Too many of these will pop us up in dangerous places, and with you not at full strength-"

"I can get us-"

"No, he's right Death," Darling argued back when Zach tried to counter. "Even just popping out of someone's phone on the street right now, if heroes come after us and we don't have any support, and we go back to how hurt we were-"

"You'll never make it to safety before heroes-"

"Then the Information Highway it is." Zach decided, saying it firmly as the leader of the Army of Death and stopping them from saying anything else afterwards. "Virus, you get us out of here-"

"As fast as I can."

The three of them raced towards the access port that spam emails were flying in from all parts of the internet, and they shoved their ways through and into a void so much wider and more crowded than anything else they had seen before. It was not as dense as the Email Stream they exited from, but there was so much more of everything there, all over the place and in every direction so much of it. Virus said in a low voice as they flew up towards a series of bright lights, "The main space for all the search results to shoot through at lightning fast speeds, trillions of results shooting back and forth to different devices a million times a minute. It'll definitely give us a few good locations I'll try to narrow down. We're moving fast but a single search we get in the way of could dislodge us- I'll try to slow the internet speed, make everyone's devices buffer so I can try and pick out a good I.P. address…"

I understand everything he's saying, Darling thought. "Won't that be too much of a strain?" She asked, flying up more towards Virus' side. "To take on that much of the internet-"

"Your processing capacity is high," Zach agreed as he came up on Virus' other side. "But it'll be too much for you. You'll get stuck."

"I can handle it," Virus said, his voice steady and calm. And then a wall of search results fell from above them and came down on their heads. And right as it touched the space directly above them, the internet paused for a second so they could move out of the way. Then the results started lagging down slower, and screens around them turned white when they were in the middle of changing, and apology notices popped up only for those screens to start shaking as they were attempted to be refreshed while Virus continued holding them off. "I can handle this!" Virus shouted, even as his blue body started shaking in the space and making all the screens and results and images around them tremble.

Zach reached a hand out and he held Virus by his left shoulder. Darling grabbed him by his right, and Virus opened his mouth to yell at them to let go so he could flood them out of the system as soon as he found a space to send them. He did not need to shout though, and they did not listen but just squeezed their hands harder. "Alright," Virus whispered. "Here, we, go!" A bright blue beam slammed into them and shot them across the Information Highway like a missile. All the rest of the space around them started moving fast again in an instant, everything shooting by so fast that it was so blurry.

And then Zach and Darling shoved through a computer screen. Their bodes bulged out of it shifting from blue back to their normal colors, black returning to their costumes and light shades to their skin. Their bodies wretched and both of them felt sick, having to take off their helmets as their stomachs were just squeezed like the rest of their bodies when they were pushed from the screen. Zach hurled on the floor a couple times and then grabbed at a wound he got back at their last mission, and he lifted his head and looked at the computer screen in front of him that had a webcam on that had told Virus there was no one sitting in front of it when he pushed them out.

There was a window in the room showing it was dark outside, and Zach heard Rebel's voice shouting in his ear after he had thrown up violently right there. "Yeah," Zach muttered. "I'm alright. Track, our position. Send us an evac…" Zach lifted a hand and took his earpiece out, dropping it to the floor and gasping again.

Darling curled her hands into fists and then she turned her head to the right just as Zach was turning his head left to look at her. They looked into each other's eyes, and then the two of them started standing up and stepped towards the computer that had a blue screen with Virus' face on it. The face was trying to push out of the screen, but even just making his facial features appear out of it strained him too much and his face got pulled back inside leaving the screen flat. "Virus," Zach whispered.

"Cody," the boy stuck in the screen, holding his palms against it but unable to push them out at all, whispered in a hoarse voice. "My name's, Cody."

"We're going to find a way," Darling began.

"To get you out of there," Zach finished for her, and then he glanced back at the shorter girl next to him again who looked right back into his eyes. Darling's lips curled down, and Cody looked out and up at Zach's face with his own getting sadder too. "I promise," Zach said, turning back to Cody and assuring the boy in the screen who just told him his real name for the first time.

"Death," Cody whispered softly. "I don't mind, getting stuck in the computer. Not after that…" The other two looked at him and he smiled inside the glass. "I feel more human, having saved you two than, than I have for a long time." His voice was slow and filled with emotion as he got it out, sounding human even stuck completely inside the computer. "It's something Seraphim told me once," he said to the two who got more emotional and softer looks on their faces hearing her name. "I never lost my heart. Even trapped like this with no real physical body anymore. It may not be made up of muscles and blood, but my heart's still there. I'm not going to forget it."

"Good, because you're right," Darling said. "You do, have a heart."

Zach looked at Darling with surprised eyes for a second, then he looked away when she turned back to him, and Cody did the same with those same looks on their faces again that he saw a minute ago. I get why we were all able to use Virus' power. Why we all knew how to use his Quirk and what we needed to do in there.

"We just," Darling began, but she frowned at the way Zach looked away at hearing her start that. She looked down as he did, and Cody frowned inside the screen before lowering his blue eyes down to the keyboard just outside it.

They were in an office in the dark, and the three of them stayed silent for a few moments before Cody started, "Pulling you in like that, we merged. Our minds were separated a bit, but…"

"Our bodies, and brains," Darling looked back up at Zach who turned to her as well. "Our hearts," she whispered, tears in her eyes while she looked at the boy who she just felt how he always felt for the first time. They had been in a hurry, but the longer they had been there the more of each other they had felt, and Cody and Darling both looked so sadly back at Death. Zach opened his mouth to respond to their looks, but Darling stepped towards him and wrapped him up in a hug before he could get out a word. "I'm sorry," she began, and she pushed her head into his chest with her eyes closed and her fingers curling into his back.

The last few weeks, months… It's been hard. Zach put a hand on Darling's back and held it for a second before patting it down and stepping back from her. She lifted her gaze up into his and Zach stared seriously down at her that made her pull back and try to get a more intense look of her own. "The world loop has to go on as scheduled," Zach said, looking back and forth at his comrades who nodded at him albeit hesitantly. "We'll take a short break to recoup, but we have to move faster now than ever before. Don't give them any time…"

---

5 Months Ago

"I know you're going to like it here," a small girl with long black hair falling in braids assured the other children in front of her. They were on the third floor of an orphanage in Life City, and after the tour that showed off how nice the building actually was and how few people were still there, the girl who had led them there and around the place stepped back from them to say goodbye. "Not that many of you will be staying here for long. Everyone who comes here usually gets a place of their own, with people to watch over you as new foster parents-"

"Are you not staying with us?" One of the older girls in front of Snow asked, looking down confusedly at the nine year old speaking to them.

Snow shook her head and gave the girl a soft but also proud smile, "I'm not. I have to get back to the Army."

The others gawked at the girl in all black who said that, and Snow smiled more internally at their looks. She opened her mouth to continue, but a younger boy asked her, "But, they're leaving?" He pointed behind Snow and she looked back and out the window, to see an Airbus lifting up into the sky.

What happened? Was Mark called back to The Cloak? "I have to go," Snow said, spinning around and running for the stairs. "I leave it to you," Snow told the older woman who had come with her for the tour but allowed Snow to do most of it. The woman in charge of the orphanage watched the girl run off with her bottom lip lowered for a second before smiling and even letting out a chuckle at how serious that sounded from a child.

Snow ran out of the building and down the busiest street in Life City. It was still early days, but only a month after they created this place and the most built-up streets were packed with people in the middle of the day. Snow ran past a man on a bicycle and then past a few kids walking with parents who had different shades of skin as them. There were some monstrous people standing on the side of the road and talking to a man in a black lab coat who pointed at some of their extraneous extremities while discussing how to reverse effects of the experiments done to them. Snow ran by and around a corner towards the Main Square that the Airbus had landed in before to let her off with the group of orphans she was tasked with bringing in for processing.

The small girl ran down into the square and she looked up for the Airbus but it had already disappeared. She closed her eyes and focused more in the direction it had vanished in, but she did not hear Mark talking despite hearing the low hum of the ship up there. Snow brought her head back down with a frustrated look on her face and gazed around the square for a sign of what had happened to make him leave so suddenly without her.

Snow saw a couple of people looking her way from across the plaza, and she started jogging towards them and then running when she was sure that they were looking at her. "Hey!" Snow called out at the elderly couple who looked in their seventies or eighties. They were fair-skinned and covered in wrinkles, and the old man had one chipped brown horn sticking out the right side of his head while only the stub of his left one on the other side. "Did someone leave a message for me with you?" Snow asked, as that seemed like it made the most sense the way they were looking towards her.

"Oh my," the old woman started at the girl's question. She turned away and got a nervous look on her face, and then she looked down while reaching for her pocket. "I thought we would have a little more time. I didn't expect you to be here so fast."

"It's alright, honey," the man began slowly. He put a hand on his shaking wife's shoulder which calmed her down so she could steady her hand and actually pull out the envelope in her pocket.

"Here you are, deary," the old woman held her hand out and Snow took the envelope from her feeling a much deeper pit in her chest now.

She took the envelope and felt a piece of paper inside it that made her gulp. She looked back into the sky, and then back at the old couple in front of her, "What's-" Snow froze at their looks and then looked back down at the white envelope. Snow gulped and turned away from the old pair, stepping away while ripping it open and sliding out the piece of paper from inside. Snow unfolded it and got an even deeper feeling of despair at how much was written and who it was clearly written by, showing her it had been written beforehand, before she had even come down to Life City. "No no no no…" she started whispering under her breath but faded off while reading the letter she had gotten.

'Hey kid,

You've really gotten strong…'

This isn't fair! Snow clenched her teeth and her fingers started curling into the sides of the letter but she stopped herself before risking damaging it. How could he do this?! She had not even read more than a line of the letter but her heart was pounding so hard and her eyes were watering up so she had to clench them shut to stop herself. After China! After, I risked my- I was a full member! The others… I- I helped out in the tunnels because Fillian… and then when Slipspace sent me up, I helped! I helped the injured escape the burning Cloak and got them away with Curalia- I can still help! Why? Why would- Snow looked back down at the letter and lifted it in front of her face again.

'You've really gotten strong these past several months, and you can protect yourself now. I know you can. Life City is the safest place in the world. That's what we made it to be. What you helped to make it be, and you can keep helping, but not with me. You're a kid. You aren't in the Army of Death, and I don't allow kids to join me. I told you that from the start. I know you don't believe those bad men will be able to get you. The ones you were talking about were the ones I defeated the day I found you, but I always convinced myself there could be others just so I could have an excuse for bringing you along. That was irresponsible of me, but I'm fixing that mistake now. You could have died so many times, but you didn't. And that's not because I protected you, since I was the one putting you in that danger in the first place. You protected yourself. And I know, you'll not only be safe in Life City, but I know you'll protect that place and all the people there. The victims of the worst crimes, broken people who are just like you were when I first found you…'

Snow sniffled and she lifted a hand up to her nose and rubbed below it with teary eyes. She breathed in hard through her nose and then sniffled harder, panting for breath while telling herself to keep calm. She turned her head a little and looked back at the older couple behind her who were watching her with nervous looks, then she turned back and looked down at the letter. I'm not strong. You're- you're wrong about me.

'…first found you. You didn't tell me your name that day, and you never did after, but you don't need to keep that name I gave you. That could just be a codename. A codename for when you were in the Army of Death.'

Snow's eyes opened wide as she read that line in her head, in Death's voice.

'I said you weren't one of us all that time, but that was another lie I was telling myself. Now though, you're not in the Army of Death anymore. Choose your own name, or go back to the one you had before. I'm sure you remember it. We will be back. Since we go to Life City often, but you won't be allowed to come with me again. When you're 18 if you decide you want to join the Army of Death then you can, but until then I want you to live a normal life. One that you never should have lost. The people I left you with lost their children, stolen from them by their government because of their special Quirks. The two of them were almost killed too after undergoing some testing themselves, and to silence them. They've lost hope on their kids, and they're too old to have more of their own, so I'm leaving you with them. Just as you lost your parents, they lost their kids, so could you help them?'

Snow lowered the paper and stared at the letter that ended there. She sniffled in again and rose a hand to rub her eyes, then she lowered that hand and carefully folded back up the letter before turning her head to the side and looking back at the elderly couple. Maybe they're not as old, as I first thought. Snow turned her body to face them. He didn't even say goodbye. No! Snow could feel the tears coming back but she kept herself strong instead. He, probably told them the same thing. Snow looked at the couple who were looking at her like they wanted to help, but were also nervous about what they could say to her.

He told them to take care of me, and me to take care of them. We'll take care of each other, or at least he probably thinks that. But I'm… except, he believes in me too. So he knows I would be the one- He's treating me with that note like I'm responsible. Like I can make a difference! For the first time, not treating me like a kid or just… Those other times, I fought because of necessity not because he actually left anything up to me if it was up to him. This time though, he left this solely up to me…

I wish I had more time with you. I wish you had said goodbye. You could have made me stay here, so even though I would have fought you on it you could have… But you're busy. You're always, so busy. Snow's expression got more determined and she started forward to the older couple who got hesitant looks on their faces at her serious one. The girl softened up her look at theirs, and they seemed to relax a bit at the more child-like face she showed them. I promise, I won't let you down. "Hi," the child said, and she laughed nervously while putting the letter away down in her pocket. "So, um…" she got more nervous after starting in a confident way, but the older woman smiled down at her and started bending down which was easier for her than the young girl expected.

"It's very nice to meet you," the woman said to the girl before her. "Death told us, so much about you."

"He actually talked to you-" she cut herself off not wanting to sound too upset about that.

"Yes, he did," the older woman replied. "Though he was slow to hand off that letter. I think he really wanted to give it to you himself." The girl the woman was speaking to lowered her head at the sound of that, smiling down at the floor while a tear formed back in her right eye again. "Though, through our talk he would only give us a description of you. I asked him your name, but he wouldn't say…"

"Could you tell us, what we can call you?" The old man asked, sounding more nervous than his wife about this set-up.

The girl looking down at the ground rose her head up and smiled brightly at the pair who were so relieved by that look. They smiled back at their new daughter as she looked into their eyes and said, "Snow. My name is Snow."

---

Present

"…See leprechauns are an endangered race in that world. Long ago they were hunted to near extinction by other races and horrible people who locked them up like cattle to get their hair that grew so fast that each day it could be sheared from their chins and… well let's just say not everyone knew where their leprechaun hair clothes were coming from," Zach smirked through the Cyn glass and cupped a hand to his mouth to whisper, "(pubes)."

Neo chuckled and Oda rolled his eyes, but Zach continued in a lower tone as this was serious and he figured he should not have his tone be too joking. "And that wasn't all, as leprechauns were also a delicacy to the orcs and trolls back a few thousand years when they were still considered monsters and not associated with the other sentient races. Some of those brutes still ignored the rules even after they were grouped together with the intelligent species of the world, with their own civilization and laws forbidding them from eating other intelligent creatures. So even the small leprechaun villages and towns that remained were gradually waned out of existence as their people were kidnapped or entire villages sacked and destroyed so larger more powerful creatures could sell them on black markets to wealthy buyers."

Zach leaned back while sitting down just inside the strong glass of his cell. He lifted his head and looked up, changing the subject a little, "The world was big, and there was no international group stopping these atrocities from going on across kingdom lines. Not like our UN, no heroes at all really. There had never been a force strong enough since the 8 Kings of the Silver Reign, seven thousand years back, that could unite the entire world of Terra. Even back then though, that golden age was only for specific groups as not all creatures were recognized as intelligent yet. Only one race of elves, human males, and giants were part of that kingdom's equal species while there was slavery and widespread subjugation of lower races to horrible work conditions, which ultimately caused the Cataclysm and the divide at the start of the Ancient War…" Zach looked for recognition on the jailers' faces but they were staring at him with big eyes locked in to everything he was saying yet confused at it all. "Which," Zach continued, speaking of the Ancient War, "is agreed on is not the first war, but because the current world of Terra that I lived in had risen out of the ashes of the Ancient War's result, they considered it like a restart of their history."

"But the 'Silver Reign' was before it?" Neo asked confusedly.

Zach nodded his head. "Yeah. There's a little known about them since there's knowledge of the Ancient War and what happened around it and right before. Not much is known about the Silver Reign though or how long it lasted before the Cataclysm, or if the time before it was more or less chaotic. Most people I talked to thought things had been getting calmer and more civil leading to that age before the Cataclysm reset everything. All the revolutions and wars that merged into one giant war covering all of Terra, where the world population for every race was seriously ravaged." Zach got quieter and his eyes darkened while lowering down to the floor between him and the glass. "I caught a glimpse of that war in books, stories, in a time travel Quirk that only sent my mind back…" The two guards stared closely at the prisoner's face in amazement as he mentioned that without breaking stride like it was not a whole other story they needed to know now. "…And I discovered that the land had looked completely different than it did in the present. World landmarks, mountain ranges, entire oceans were created during that war. No war since had come close to that kind of devastation, and those signs I've told you about that made me think that technology really had gone backwards at some point, I think that it was the Silver Reign that the peak probably came. Before the Cataclysm."

Zach rose his head back up and spoke with a half-grin though it was not very real. He said though in a somewhat more upbeat tone, "It's like that old saying goes. 'I don't know with what weapons World War Three will be fought, but World War Four will be fought with sticks and stones.' That world, because Quirks had existed in it for so much longer than ours, I can see what Quirks had done to their history. The way, our history could very well turn out in a few hundred, thousand of years."

"You really think-" Oda began skeptically.

"Maybe even that world's races," Zach started, cutting him off and looking to the guard through his visor right into his eyes. "Maybe they were originally all just the same species, but you've seen people in our world who get married to people with similar Quirks. Two people with horns and red skin having a kid, will likely have more kids with red skin and horns. And in a world where history is wiped out, and technology reset to a point that traveling to different places and spreading information becomes harder, how many generations would it take before humans started believing we were all different races? If there was a technology reset and-"

"Whoa whoa whoa," Neo started waving her hands in front of her and shaking her head. "Our world's not going to 'reset' or whatever. So we don't need to worry about this, okay?"

Zach nodded back at her and let out a sigh himself. "Yeah, you're right." What am I getting off track for? Why am I freaking myself out with hypotheticals that I made up?! It could happen though. That's the weirdest part. "Anyway," Zach said, trying to get back on track. "There had been other huge world-encompassing wars since, some that wiped out entire races of creatures and others that created new sects, new divides inside the races that in some cases were stronger than divides between them and other races. Like the blood elves who had good relations with most races but were hated by all the other elf species…" This isn't my original topic. What was I- Cody!

"But anyway those were mainly just stories I heard while trying to understand the histories of the people I was helping, as understanding people was necessary to be able to convince them to make peace with old enemies. Understanding was necessary to bring peace to that world that had been so constantly at war with itself over issues that I could compare to things I had seen in this world. Things that I could relate to and try to push solutions that we found on Earth, ways that they could actually get past their bad histories. The leprechauns were a tragedy though, and considered it by many of the races who would not take the blame for what happened but said that it was a shame that they never recovered from the horrible atrocities committed to them in the past." Zach paused and he shook his head darkly, "Even while those same things were still going on in the present."

Zach stopped shaking his head and he smiled though in a more nostalgic way, "I only ever met the one, but Docy was no different from any of my other soldiers. No different from any other sentient creature with feelings and a will to do good despite all the horrible things he'd been through in his life due to purely bad luck of the way he was born. He didn't hate the world for what it had done to him, nor did he curse his fate. Instead he came to me and asked for my… we helped each other. He wanted me to help him, and he helped us with his great powers. On top of the powers he had as a leprechaun, there was a reason no one had ever been able to catch him for long."

"He could teleport, right?" Neo asked, having heard the prisoner mention something about it earlier.

"That's right. And one day, we got in a really bad situation. Fraisha and I were trapped. Enemies on all sides of us. Three of Arcasia's Generals at the same time. We had taken the enemy castle at Bordham, but they had more allies than I thought would come and we wound up trapped inside the castle we had just taken control of. Docy appeared there in that dark moment though, and he opened up a portal for us to go through. Until then we just assumed he could pop in and out through normal teleportation, but when we went in to the portal he opened, we did not just pop up at an intended location. The portal led into a completely parallel world to the one we were in-"

"Another world?!" Neo shouted in shock.

"And if you thought Terra was weird," Zach started while nodding at the woman outside his cell. "This world was like an entirely new dimension…"

---

A/N Thanks for reading! Sorry for such a long break, probably the longest one I've ever taken since I started this story. My senior thesis is due in two weeks though and I'm only 2/5 chapters through it, so that's going to be my focus for a while. Just had a job interview last week I had to fly into NYC for... anyway, def not done with Death yet just wanted to explain the reason for my absence. This chapter though... fwew, that took a while. It's easily one of the longest ones in Death, maybe 2nd or 3rd longest. As Zach thought at some point in the present times of the chapter, he had come up with Docy's story but just didn't know where to put it in the scheme of things... XD A while back I had the idea for these two characters and wanted to add them in during the Army of Death, but it kept feeling like a weird time and that I wouldn't be able to flesh out their full characters or arcs unless I just gave them their own chapter. Snow and Cody. I had some mentions of them in the AoD chapters, mainly the later ones once I figured out exactly what I was doing with them giving them this flashback chapter while Zach was in jail. In the chapter after the fight in China that Zach thinks about in bold dialogue, he starts off by telling Cody to get off the ship before telling Whiteout to use her EMP, and he has Darling get Snow to bring her into the tunnels to listen above for locations after Fillian had to leave after his breakdown. Anyway, hope y'all enjoyed those characters and the new chapter! Sorry after that wait that it didn't advance much, but it was a real fun one to write. Leave a review telling me what you think, predictions, comments, questions, etc!

DarkJokes chapter 137 . Jan 27

Orc,Elves and Dwarves. Jesus Sazaki sure has a wild imagination but what is he trying to achieve with these rumours? Does he want to lure in someone or is it something big? Damn mate you really leave us at the edge of our seat.
Awesome chapter

Let's not forget leprechauns! Zach's going all out with what happened to him while he was gone, denying everything and creating a whole new story for where he was and what he was doing. We'll see what he has in mind with all of this... Glad you liked it and hope you enjoyed the new chapter!

Anime Profile Picture chapter 137 . Jan 27

Ah trying to win over the guards through bed time stories huh? Not something I would have thought of. I'm more surprised that the guards are breaking so easily. Then again, if I was stuck hearing this man talk for two months straight I might've given in a little too.

As we've seen, Zach can be a great actor when he wants to be. He had a whole lot of practice before AoD, and we saw him going undercover before too in Korea and Italy. Zach's got the guards twisted around his finger, eating up everything he tells them in amazement XD Thanks for reviewing!

Todorokiii chapter 137 . Jan 28

Lol, thought at first he went crae crae but noticed he's totally sane, just planning something big that it would take 6 years of his life. I'm amazed that Zach Sazaki was able to tell a bullshit story so amazingly. And here I am laughing at every word that comes out from his mouth, mentioning a queen, some mystical creatures, a war, comrades, a master with a similar quirk like his. If I was a guard, it seems impossible not to believe on his bullshit (especially when quirks exist). I just love how Zach developed and became who he is. From a scared, loner, loud, and weak, emotional guy who seems to be heroic to a cunning, mischievous, wise, skilled and a great actor. He deserves an Oscar's. Hehe. Still hoping for Zach and his classmates to reunite.

Glad you're liking it! Zach's acting and story-telling skills are proving their use, though he's still training them with all this practice in the first place just for once he's out. Some more fantastical stories this time, though we see the counterpart to what it really was in his life that he's switching over. We'll see about the reunion... possibly, maybe soon?! Who knows? Thanks for the review!

Guest chapter 137 . Jan 28

Read this thing in 2 days, no regrets except reading the horror arc at 3am, and isn't Wrath or that British guy from the horror arc dead? Thought I saw him alive again. Btw if you end up having Zach vs 3A or Midoriya or Raijin or Shigaraki Toumura or the AoD vs LoV, I expect Zach (and AoD if the latter) to win. He has experience being a strategist/commander for 1-2 years for the AoD, he has evolved his Death so now he has wings and can make blades and can move at the speed of a rocket (might be wrong, pretty sure I read it somewhere) and lots more, has way more battle experiences against villains around 10x stronger than the villains class 3A fight (including Cult of Stain) and for the AoD, they have state of the art tech and are trained professionals and have no qualms killing people except for some and quite frankly I'm getting sick of people getting nerfed so that they can lose giving way so that the power of friendship can have a key message. Can't wait for the guards' reaction when they find out that his stories are metaphors, replace the names with real places and real people and it's not a fantasy story, it's about a real story of a 16-18 year old kid who creates and becomes the commander of a group of people with members usually being older then him and goes around the world in an airship with state of the art cloaking devices and technology and fights villains and helps heroes and citizens despite their status as terrorists in dangerous situations like flooding and nukes and horrifying human experiments and freeing a country from a dictator with only 1 casualty and fighting alongside famous heroes like Endeavour. Did I get off track, probably...
P.S: Please don't kill Gentle, La Brava, Darling, Exodus, Rebel, Mark, Michael or Maelstorm or anyone in the AoD at that, but mostly the first 8, the ambush in China was so sad. I will always remember Seraphim and Access and Grabbler and Cee and lots more. I figured that Zach and the 3A class (except for All Might and Raijin) would have plot armour... oh and ZachxDarling for the win, sorry Momo but Darling is more loyal and has been with him through situations that are more emotional than high school stuff (granted I know that Momizaki moments aren't filled with high school stuf, it was a joke but it's still true)

Awesome. Haha I'm happy to hear you binged this though I'm amazed you did so fast. I mentioned a character 'Wraith' in that final scene of Zach with the AoD, but Wreck'd was the Brit who got killed in the horror arc. We see Zach keeping in form this chapter while in prison, and I'm sure any fight that's coming is not going to be easy for whoever he's up against. Nice call on Zach's stories actually being 'metaphors,' as I showed with this chapter how Zach's completely transitioning what had happened into new stories. The ambush in China, and Wampajawa, the Dragon's Den, and that mission in the Tusukan desert... there are a lot of bad days for the Army of Death losing all those comrades and some characters I really liked too. We saw some Seraphim, Access, Grabble, and Cee in this chapter as they come back for flashback visits, along with a lot of the AoD who aren't around anymore. ;( And as for ZachxDarling or Momozaki... well you'll just have to wait and see. No spoilers! Again, really glad you got into this story, and I hope you enjoyed the new chapter!

Polw3 chapter 137 . Jan 30

You madman, writing a story within a story.
Not only that, but you keep up a blistering pace on updates. I really enjoy reading every new chapter, but don't be afraid to take a break if you need one. The last thing any of us want is for you to become burned out on this story after coming so far. Anyways, just like the guards I am eager for each new installment of Zach's Sweet Life in Wonderland.

A story inside a story, based on the original story with another world inside the world of the world... Kind of fried my mind with this chapter a bit I guess, getting too complex even for me to fully follow. Hope you enjoyed the new installment of Terra/Wonderland... and thanks for the review!

Raidenff chapter 137 . Feb 7

I hope you get back soon, this fanfic is the best I've ever read and I'd hate to see it die.

Aaannnd I'm back! Sorry it took a while, and don't worry I'm not letting Death die that easily!