A/N I know I said I had this one done already on Saturday when I posted the last chapter, but I had two finals yesterday on my birthday so it took be a bit to get this up. Starting editing on Thursday at 2 A.M. though, and maybe I'll get 156 that I spent all day today (yesterday technically now, I meant Tuesday for my birthday- it's a weird time of night), out also today! Anyway done with the rant, on to the chapter. Hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 155:

"So, how was your weekend?"

Yaoyorozu gave Zach a look with a raised eyebrow. "It was, uneventful. I'm sorry I didn't come with the others."

"Well I'm glad you came today," Zach replied. "Though you could have shot me a text first."

"Are-" Yaoyorozu paused. She frowned and they stopped walking for a second. The tall, dark-haired girl turned and looked into Zach's eyes when he faced her. "Are you testing me?" Yaoyorozu questioned. He got a confused look on his face that made her frown, and say accusingly, "Why aren't you?"

"To see if it's really you?" Zach asked, specifying what he thought she was asking him.

"Yes," Yaoyorozu replied. People were coming up behind them so she started walking again, and Zach continued down the sidewalk with her. "Why don't you test me to see if it's really me?"

Zach got a small smile on his face and he looked ahead as they walked. "It wouldn't matter, so I'll just believe it's you."

Why wouldn't it matter? Did he do something? Is he doing something right now? Yaoyorozu hummed to herself. I guess I shouldn't ask. He's staying vague without saying why it wouldn't, which makes sense. She still frowned deeper even as she tried to convince herself that what Zach was doing made sense. "You still have to make sure you're being careful."

"I am," Zach said, smiling more and replying almost as if in a mock exasperated tone that she was so worried about him. He continued in a casual way while smiling like that, "I didn't even drink my coffee with my friends back there. Since it could have been poisoned," Zach explained when Momo turned to him in surprise.

"Really?"

"Yea," Zach replied, nodding his head in a slightly more serious way though his lips stayed in a small smile as they continued to walk.

"Zach," Yaoyorozu started softly. He turned more to her, as they walked close together in a random direction through Yutapu City. "I won't say anything to anyone, about what we talk about."

"I don't-" Zach started.

"I'll never say a word," Yaoyorozu cut him off. He stared at her in semi-confusion, though that look faded from his face with a hesitant and conflicted one emerging, his eyes shifting away from the tall girl beside him. "I heard the others talking about their visits with you, and I get that maybe you didn't want to tell them to keep secrets. You knew they would talk later, and so you were censoring yourself when you talked to them. Saying things carefully," Yaoyorozu gave Zach a stern yet somehow still softer look as she finished, "but you don't have to with me. I won't talk about what we talk about. Not to anyone."

Zach sighed, and then his lips lifted at the corners into a smaller, more distant smile this time. "You get me too well," Zach whispered.

"I feel like I don't understand you at all," Yaoyorozu countered in just as soft a voice. Zach's lips curled back down flat, and his eyes lowered to the floor for a moment before rising back up to keep a wide view of his surroundings.

She's giving me an out. The chance to talk without fearing other people learning what she says. Might not be her. Can't just assume that though. People will see the two of us together right now, and if the real Momo saw it she'd freak out and text me probably while we're still together. She just wants to talk. And she's giving me the option to speak freely. I know Momo won't say anything, because she said she wouldn't.

"You can say anything, and you don't have to be afraid of it going to someone else," Yaoyorozu promised in a quiet voice as she watched Zach's conflicted but thoughtful expression.

I'm glad she came. "Thanks," Zach said. He looked to his side at her and nodded, and he motioned ahead with a nod, "There's a park up ahead that'll be less crowded. We can walk and talk over there."

"Okay," Yaoyorozu replied. Her look was still soft and somewhat serious, as she wanted him to feel comfortable talking yet at the same time had to make him know that she wanted him to share and not just feel it was okay to keep to himself.

Zach started talking before they reached the park. His voice stayed low, and no one else was staying close enough to him that at that volume he was afraid of being listened-in to. "…Those weren't the last assassins to come after me. I know there will be more, but I promise I'm being more careful."

"Do you think the ones you ran into last week were involved with you getting shot upon your release?"

"Hmm," Zach hummed like he was thinking about it, but he had a bead of sweat on the side of his face and looked away from Momo as she turned to him. "Probably not," he admitted. In his head appeared the look on Momo's face as she leaned over him, then Sero and Mina's too. "Sorry about that, by the way. I shouldn't have-"

"It's not your fault," Yaoyorozu said with a shake of her head, using a tone telling him to stop apologizing for something she did not believe he needed to apologize for. There are other things…

Zach hesitated while looking to the side at her, and he looked down as they were nearing the entrance into the park. It was though.

"I'm worried about you, Zach," Yaoyorozu said. The two of them walked into the park, and Zach lifted his eyes back to the girl next to him. She looked at him in a concerned way and said softly, "Are you taking care of yourself?"

Zach laughed as for a moment he thought she was going to mention something else about future assassination attempts. "I'm doing fine," Zach replied. "Spent a lot of time on my own during those months. And I know how to live alone."

Yaoyorozu had opened her mouth there but she closed it slowly and glanced away to her right. She was going to mention how Zach said he had comrades and an entire army for a lot of the time he was gone, but the second part of what he said reminded her that he had been alone for a long time before he left too. Zach's whole family. His neighbors. All those who helped him before are gone now. Or at least, not longer by his side.

Zach darted his eyes to his left side and looked between some trees of the park they were walking through. His eyes narrowed and he watched the movement of some bushes past the trees and over a hundred meters away from him. I don't like this. I was right getting nervous about spending that day with Mina, even if she hasn't been attacked yet. This is too dangerous.

"The people after you," Yaoyorozu started, making Zach turn back to his right at the girl on that side of him. She saw the way he was looking around, checking to make sure no one was around as she could see there weren't. "Do you know who they are?" Zach looked ahead and he hummed for a second in a low tone, his eyes shifting down and then around again as he saw people on the sidewalk up ahead coming his way. "Is it, Eziano Mozcaccio?"

Zach turned back to the girl next to him again. His eyes widened for a second and then he said in a lower voice, "Be careful, Momo." Her eyes widened too at the concerned tone in his voice right there and how quietly he spoke to her. "Don't feel so comfortable saying that name. Not even with me."

"Why not?" Yaoyorozu asked, though she did keep her voice softer this time.

"It's just dangerous," Zach replied with a shake of his head. He frowned when she did the same, looking like she was going to tell him that she was fine with danger as she was a hero after all. "I made a mistake, saying his name in the forest like that. Just, refer to him by his initials."

"What's so dangerous about saying his name?" Yaoyorozu asked. She quieted down and they walked silently past a couple old people taking a stroll in the park who barely noticed them, apparently not recognizing the two. Zach's eyes narrowed on their sides and then at their backs as he turned sideways to watch them keep going, suspicious of their lack of recognition, and doubly suspicious due to Momo's current line of questioning. The girl next to him could see how paranoid that look was, and she said in a more steady voice less trying to hide it, "If you know who is after you, then you should work with heroes to give them the information you know, and help them stop EM before he can hurt you again."

Zach shook his head, a deeper frown though more just conflicted this time at what she said. He looked back to the girl next to him, She won't talk about anything. She said she wouldn't, and Momo's… "It's not that simple." He continued fast as she opened her mouth to argue, "I've tried, to stop him. But back when I said his name, I didn't know anything. I didn't know anything about him, or who he really was. The amount of power he really had." Zach paused for a moment and then whispered, "While I was gone, I thought I needed the Hunter's help again. So I called him, and EM picked up."

Yaoyorozu's breathing got faster, though she kept her expression steady and nodded for Zach to continue after he paused. Zach kept his voice low as they walked slowly through the park, "I don't know how he knew, but he was angry with me for saying his name in that forest. Maybe he looked at the police records and some of you mentioned what I had said. Maybe some of the villains who escaped let him know. I don't know. But he had killed the Hunter, and he was waiting for my call." Zach lifted his right hand and rubbed his forehead for a moment, a look of regret on his face, "And I stupidly challenged him. I told him I didn't care that he was after me now, because I was going to destroy him and his whole organization."

A grin formed on Zach's face, sarcastic and like he was taunting himself with it as he let out a single laugh. "It was a stupid thing to do. I challenged him before I knew any of the secrets of the world. Before I knew about who he really was, about Fergus, the real League, the corruption that went deeper than anyone knew… the labs, Quirks, I didn't know anything about them. And I challenged possibly the most powerful man in the world." Zach ground his teeth for a moment and then muttered in a lower voice, "He was right when he called me green. I didn't know his power, but I would come to."

Zach looked back at Momo and his heart fell. What am I doing? Fergus is General Faraz. I'm not supposed to say anything about Eziano! This is just stupidly dangerous to do- and so why am I?!

"The secrets of the world," Yaoyorozu whispered, giving Zach a serious but soft look at the way he had just talked there for a minute. "So it really was, all on this-"

"Just because I fought here, for a long time," Zach cut in. "Doesn't mean I wasn't on those other worlds too," he finished.

"Alright," Yaoyorozu said. She said it quietly and without confrontation in her tone. She just gave Zach an 'okay' so that he wouldn't feel he needed to convince her here. It wasn't what she wanted to talk about anyway. I know, some of what you say are lies. But in the lies you treat as truths, and in the truths that sound just as unbelievable, are things that terrify me. "If someone like that is coming after you though, Zach." He looked away with a deep frown, still angry at himself for saying anything in the first place. "Then I'm even more afraid for you. You need more help. I know things are bad, but-"

"'Bad?'" Zach snorted. His lips curled up at the corners as he asked it, and then he shrugged and let out a sarcastic laugh. "There are just trained assassins coming for me at all times. And not to mention the heroes following me around too, trying to catch me slipping up so that they can throw me back in prison. And cameras and press waiting for me behind every tree and around every corner and in every restaurant and grocery store trying to catch me not looking like a hero." Zach started lowering his lips from the fake smile as he ranted all of that, as his eyes shifted to Momo who looked like she pitied him, and he reminded himself that it was not all bad. His smile got smaller but looked more genuine as he took a breath. "But I can talk to people."

Momo's eyes widened for the first time since that rant started, as she figured Zach needed to let off that steam. She understood why he would be overwhelmed by all of that, but she got confused and stared at him closely as he mentioned that last part. "Regular people like talking to me because they think I'm one of them. The 'Hero of the People' they call me on the news. And villains, they don't hold back when I talk to them because they think I'm one of them." Zach shrugged at Momo's confused look, and he added, "I can play the part of a villain very well after so many infiltrations." His eyes narrowed a bit and the corner of his lip lifted up in a smirking way that he thought would look villainous, but Yaoyorozu did not get surprised by the look or even pull back. She just lost the confused look as he explained it, making Zach get surprised this time and look away, feeling hesitant about what he just showed her.

"Heroes too," Zach added. He paused after saying it then muttered lower, "Though they're the hardest for me. Out of everyone, some heroes openly just don't like me. I get why they don't. I get why they're not supposed to accept me, and why it might be hard," Zach got more hesitant in his speech, and he looked up while letting out a sigh. "But I thought I needed to do something about what was happening, and I couldn't do a thing about the… not from school."

"What was happening?" Yaoyorozu asked.

"The rise of villains," Zach replied. He looked at her in a hesitant way, but his look steadied at hers that just wanted to hear him. The way he really felt back then, that he had kept from her. And Zach didn't want to stand there lying to her either. "I thought, back then," Zach started. "I could see the world, falling into… chaos." Zach's voice lowered and he shifted his eyes forward, but they were looking so far ahead of him his expression got distant. "A world descending into chaos is a world with lots of opportunities."

Opportunities? That's not, Yaoyorozu started thinking in an anxious way, but she stopped herself with how Zach continued.

"To villains, chaos is a ladder. Heroes were expected to deal with all their own villains first which allowed smart, international ones to gain ultimate power." Zach paused for a second and shook his head, "Allowing the smaller ones who heroes thought were the biggest around to deal with heroes and occupy them, while in the meantime plans for much, much bigger operations took place. The opportunity arose to take advantage of weakened states and the distracted focus of heroes. But, even though this was happening, even though I could see it coming, people didn't want heroes to change. They wanted things to go back to normal, so heroes had to do things the same way, and the world teetered on collapse." Yaoyorozu stared at the side of Zach's head, frozen in place which had him subconsciously stop next to her as well.

Time and time again, I stopped the collapse of the world. "But, why were villains the only ones allowed to take advantage of the chaotic world?" The world that was so weak, with a faith in heroes that was about to be destroyed forever. It would have been if they had failed to stop the things that I needed to stop on my own. "I had the ability to. I knew, how to use villain tactics and the anti-hero tactics, while still making people see the heroic nature of saving the world…" Zach trailed off and turned to Momo with a pained and hesitant look in his eyes. I revived that weakened faith by ending the age of villains so quickly. I did it. I, did I? That's not how it will be remembered. That was the point. I wasn't even here. I don't remember doing that. I was on a different world. What am I saying to her?

"But I couldn't translate what I thought I could do, into action," Zach muttered, and he started walking again with a frustrated look covering his face. "And when I got back, it had already reversed without me."

Yaoyorozu took a second to start walking again. She watched the side of Zach's face with anxiety covering her expression. That look in his eyes. That wasn't- that was Zach, but it isn't- it isn't the side of him he shows… It could just be something that hurt to think about, or… or what?

I stopped people from feeling like things might need to change in regards to how heroes do things. Even if I was fine with them pushing for change in other directions, it couldn't be with the morals and foundations of heroes. I, I came back here to make that concrete! "I was wrong about it all though. The way I wanted to do things, I was wrong." And I came back so they would think it was wrong. So no one would doubt that what I did was wrong, but then they released me! They got me out of prison without even knowing! That the entire state of the world, how everyone thinks and considers the world and how it was made, their mindsets and morals, they're all due to actions I took!

Zach lifted his left hand and grabbed into the side of his head. I can't say any of this. The entire world would be so different though… So much has happened. Compounding on top of itself to give people opinions and then strengthen those opinions and confirm their beliefs… and all of it is built on lies. "That war, in Arcasia," Zach whispered, his voice getting stronger after the start of the sentence. His eyes cleared and he got an intense look on his face as he stared less far away ahead of him. "The things I was doing, the way I was doing them, were accepted by people as a legitimate way to fight." Zach looked back at Yaoyorozu and his voice got lower, "But that was in a violent world. That was in a world at war, and it might have been necessary to fight that way in a world like that, but it isn't here."

"To fight like what?" Yaoyorozu asked. He turned to her and she looked at him trying to hide the fear of what kind of answer he was going to give her.

"Like victory was all that mattered," Zach replied. His voice stayed steady, but when he saw the look in Yaoyorozu's eyes after saying it he hesitated. "We were fighting for what was right though. My comrades and I fought for a world free from Arcasian rule but also a world of law. Of better morals, without discrimination, built around respect and the good nature of the people who lived there. And victory towards those values meant fighting in a heroic way- or at least, more heroic than they were used to…"

What is he talking about? I don't understand at all.

"…Entire kingdoms were ravaged by the wars of conquest before I got there. Arcasia's expansion needed to be stopped, the conquered people had to be freed, and I needed to do it without turning into my enemies or I would have lost my right to fight. In that strange world, where I didn't belong, I couldn't fight them for one side or another unless one side was right. I needed to make sure I wasn't just picking sides because of my preferences, and that was hard sometimes. But when I knew my enemies were in the wrong… when they wiped out villages and towns, kidnapped and enslaved hundreds, raped and murdered innocent women, and children… Then victory was most important. Not becoming my enemies, was less important the worse my enemies were, and there were some who I considered less men and more monsters."

Yaoyorozu paused for a few seconds. They were walking slowly, and Zach led down a sidewalk off a split that seemed less used so they could stay isolated from other people. All that Zach just told her bounced around in her mind, but the final part had her heart clenching up and chills resting at the top of her spine. She didn't want to assume, and so instead she asked, "And what did you do, to the ones you considered monsters?"

Zach's eyes lowered to the floor at her question. I can't even- even with these stories I can't… "I defeated them," Zach said. His eyes were steady, staring forward, and his lips were flat as he responded. The chills ran down Yaoyorozu's spine and she clenched her teeth at his vague answer that she felt was both the truth and yet not a real response to what she wanted to know. Even if it's just you. Even if I trust you, Zach's expression was unshaken and his breathing steady once more. There's no need to go into the Siege of Razmatan, or the Battle of 6 Armies, or the horrible things of that world. If I'm telling you it should be coaxed out, at a later point not the first time you've asked. Zach's expression got darker and he felt a pang of something faint in his chest that he pushed farther down. How will Momo react to what I'm saying? What will she do with the information? Except… she's said- she won't say anything- so I can't just, focus on her future reactions…

"But as much as I think I left Terra in a better state than I found it," Zach started again, smiling and getting into a story-telling voice. "I never defeated the Empress when-"

"Zach, I don't want to hear, about those other worlds," Yaoyorozu cut him off and made Zach turn to her with his eyebrows raised and a confused look on his face. Yaoyorozu frowned back at him though, making him get a hesitant frown on his own, looking away like he knew she would find it hard to believe him. Yaoyorozu sighed at that look he showed her, and she continued walking but stepped with a few inches wider of a gap between them. "The things you said about this world. About here, with EM and the secrets that you say you know," Yaoyorozu looked at him seriously which had Zach looking farther away to his other side. "We're going to be heroes together, Zach. If you know so much that you feel is important, then tell me some of it."

Zach looked back at the girl next to him with a hesitant expression on his face. "Even if you think it's too 'dangerous' for me, I want to know," Yaoyorozu said. She looked into his eyes and said sterner, "I want you to tell me."

You want to know everything? There's too much. You want me to tell you, because you don't want to hear it from someone else. You don't want to catch me in a lie that I could have told you when I had the opportunity, and right now I have the opportunity. You're trying so hard for me, and I can try- I can, if it's only right now. Zach's pursed lips parted and a heavy breath slipped out. "Alright, then. While I was, being a vigilante out in the world…"

In Musutafu, on the way back to U.A. High School, Midoriya Izuku and Bakugo Katsuki walked at each other's side after leaving their internship for the day. A lot had been said and was stuck on their minds, making for a mostly quiet trip back to school which Bakugo preferred rather than Deku's usual annoying conversations. Bakugo had just a focused look though as he walked, his eyes straight ahead while everything he heard at that meeting echoed in his head.

"What do you think?" Midoriya asked. Bakugo shifted his eyes to the corners and looked at his childhood friend's deeply conflicted expression. Midoriya had his head turned more towards him and asked in that conflicted tone, "About Zach? Lemillion's plan… Of all of it?"

"It's stupid," Bakugo said, but the left corner of his lips closer to Midoriya rose up when his classmate mentioned 'Lemillion's plan.' He smirked, and Deku's eyes opened wider as Bakugo looked to enjoy the idea of going after Zach. The focused look Bakugo had had was replaced for a moment as he considered an actual fight, and he could not hide that smirk of excitement from his face.

"You shouldn't-" Midoriya started, then he frowned deeper and just looked forward instead of finishing that sentence. He knew Bakugo too well to try and change how he felt about the fight or even to try and tell him why he shouldn't be feeling a certain way. He spoke quieter after a second's pause though, "If we do it, and we catch him, Zach will go to jail for the rest of his life." Midoriya had an upset look covering his face and his eyes were dark but scared and sad rather than angry. He shifted them towards Bakugo and whispered, "I don't know-"

"Zach knew the consequences when he left," Bakugo snapped, keeping his voice low too as the two of them headed towards U.A. He walked down the sidewalk with his hands down in his pockets and without giving Deku a look as he spoke. "He shouldn't have come back," Bakugo said flatly. "He knew what it would mean to come back after how he left. Zach knew that he could never come back because if he did then everyone'd all be against him, and it would be the end of the line." Bakugo ground his teeth and the corners of his lips curled down more. "He had that conviction before, and yet he's back anyway."

I don't know who this fucker is, Bakugo's spiky blond bangs shadowed over his eyes for a moment. His expression darkened even as he smirked again, but his expression was angry and fierce despite the smile. But the Zach I knew who left wasn't ever coming back, and the one who returned isn't the same guy or he wouldn't have. Bakugo rose his head back up with less passionate a look, more just staring ahead with a smile of an anticipated fight. If it wasn't Zach he was even thinking of, then the person he was going after really was just another strong opponent and it took some of the feelings behind that last look away.

"But something must have changed," Midoriya started. "And we don't know-"

"That doesn't matter," Bakugo growled. It wouldn't have. Not with something like that. "We all knew he was never returning. You knew, and I knew," Bakugo darted a look at Midoriya for a moment telling him to counter if he was wrong, but Midoriya didn't. Bakugo continued in a low, pissed-off voice, "I knew it from the start that the conviction Zach showed that day, he was never returning. And yet he's back. It's stupid. It doesn't make sense." Bakugo sounded more annoyed than angry as he growled that. He shook his head once and then snapped, "And I'm not letting him get away with that. Whoever…" Bakugo's teeth ground again, his mouth snapping shut for a moment while Midoriya looked at him in confusion.

I thought, Bakugo's own thoughts cut off as he growled deeply in his own throat. I thought the world, of the guy in that forest. That fucker who- "Whereas Kurogiri, you're, you're the biggest threat to peace in our world." That fucker! The one who said that was, he wasn't coming back. He laid it all on the line, and he had the balls to give up everything for that. For what he believed. I fucking- that shit was… Bakugo ground his teeth harder, biting down with more force as he stomped across Musutafu back towards his dorm. Every second he thought about the times in the year after Zach left, when he would think back on those words and actually feel, inspired, he just got angrier now. I was fucking wrong. And stupid, to think he was really going to just leave it- except he did. The one who left that night, wasn't going to come back! That was real. That was all fucking real, and the one here now is just some… some bastard acting like he's Zach.

"Bakugo," Midoriya whispered.

"That's not him," Bakugo growled. He heard what Midoriya's annoying tone was asking or saying, and he just snapped in a pissed voice, "Don't feel fucking bad about going after him. That's not the person we knew anymore, even if that's still his body. And even if it was," Bakugo snarled. "Then he knew what would come of coming back here, and he did it anyway. He's gotta pay for that."

Midoriya looked at the side of Bakugo's head for a couple more seconds then he turned forward when Bakugo snapped at him to stop staring like an idiot. Midoriya looked ahead and he rose his head up, his expression steadying and hardening as Zach's face appeared in his mind. All the recordings Lemillion had shown them echoed around in Midoriya's head, and his fists balled down at his sides in frustration. It sounded like Zach, he thought.

Midoriya was confused as he thought to what Bakugo was saying that made sense, yet also what Zach had told him sounded real too, and how he felt himself. He's a good actor. He used to joke that he could, as a fall-back job, be an actor. Is he just acting with me now too? Or was he always acting, and we never really knew- no, that's not true. But the version of him back right now, I don't know. Bakugo's right.

The day he left, I never thought we'd see him again. Not by his own decision at least. That wasn't even… Midoriya curled his fists tighter at his sides. So something must have changed so much in him for him to do that. Something changed so much, that what if Bakugo's right? What if that's not even Zach? Midoriya's heart ached and his eyes lowered down to the floor in such an upset way. Then the Zach I knew is really gone. He's gone for good, replaced by… by someone I need to stop.

"RUN!" Bakugo imagined Zach screaming at him in Camino Ward. He saw Zach's face when he looked back down after flying up to the others, and he grit his teeth at the memory. Never got to fight him. Not at the Sports Festivals. He was always on my teams in class. I never considered him, a threat. Bakugo grinned again thinking back on the Enudora Forest, and the fight between Zach and Raijin. But he's going to be even stronger now. And I'm going to wind up fighting him. One way or another, it will come.

Zach and Yaoyorozu neared the edge of the park and Zach glanced up at the darkening sky. There was thin gray cloud cover above them, but there was some orange cutting through the clouds too showing how it was getting late. Zach looked next to him at the girl he had been walking and talking with in a low voice. "Momo, would you like to get some food?" Zach asked suddenly, making Yaoyorozu turn to him in surprise at the shift in conversation.

In public. Where we can't talk freely like this, Zach thought, wondering if that was what she was thinking as her expression seemed to sour after the initial surprise.

"I'm just here-" Momo started. She stopped herself, and Zach kept his expression flat like he did not know how she was starting that anyway, though his chest did start pounding. The girl in front of Zach glanced away for a moment, feeling something similar in her own chest despite being the one to start saying that. "I don't have a very late pass out from U.A.," Momo continued quieter. "So I'll have to go soon."

"In that case let's sit over there," Zach said, and he nodded his head towards a bench behind Momo that she looked back at.

He walked past Yaoyorozu and for a second his hair shadowed down over his eyes when his face was out of sight of her. Still privacy, if that's what you're mad about… Unless she's not even mad. She just, doesn't want to go out to dinner. That's what she thought I was asking. Was that what I was asking? Zach's expression lifted back up as he turned and took his seat down on the bench. Yaoyorozu was right behind him, and she sat on the bench keeping a foot between them that neither of them addressed.

"Where was I?" Zach asked, smiling softly like he had forgotten and then nodding as he got back into that story-telling mood. "Yeah, Amaterasu. That corruption I heard they were in charge of ran so deep that trying to tell some corrupted official's superior about the corruption wouldn't work. I kept making calls, trying to get things going, but it kept going under the radar. The calls kept getting ignored, and it made sense because the sheer number of people in positions of power who Amaterasu had bribed or blackmailed must be higher than anyone knows."

"And Fergus?" Momo asked.

Zach paused and stared at her for a second with is mouth closing and his semi-smile lowering down. "You mentioned that name earlier," Momo continued at the way he reacted. "Are you talking about the Fergus Conglomerate?" Zach stayed quiet for another second, his eyes shifting away and his frown deepening. Yaoyorozu watched as he sat there thinking of how to respond, how to lie to me. Her own expression shifted but did not look betrayed which Zach saw as he looked back to her. He saw her expecting to hear him lie or give some half-truth, and yet she wasn't even disappointed.

She expects it. She doesn't believe, in me. Momo… She's right not to. I can't even- why not?! I- I destroyed them, didn't I? Did I? I never, really finished.

"If you can't, that's fine-"

"I don't mean the Fergus Conglomerate," Zach said.

Yes you did, Yaoyorozu thought even as she gave Zach a single nod showing it was okay. Starting with the Atlas Corp., lots of Fergus subsidiaries eventually were investigated for corruption and-

"I was talking about Fergus himself," Zach continued after waiting a couple of seconds. He stared at Momo as she shifted her eyes back to him, having looked away after giving him that accepting nod. He had seen how fake the nod was, and Zach cursed in his head as he said it but told her anyway. They were sitting alone in a park at dusk, and it was getting darker and darker around them the longer they were there. A cool breeze flew in and blew by them after what Zach just mentioned, and his eyes darted around before settling back on the confused girl in front of him.

"Fergus?"

"Mr. Fergus," Zach stated in a low voice. "All the way back when I first heard about the Fergus Conglomerate, what kind of things they were really doing in the shadows, I knew someone had to be in charge. Even when we discovered Fourth Eye, I knew there was someone on top of it all. Why was it called the 'Fergus' Conglomerate? There was no explanation, which meant there had to be someone named Fergus out there."

"Kind of loose logic," Yaoyorozu whispered. Zach smiled briefly as she mentioned it, as her tone bounced it back off of him without seeming as distant as she had been starting to look a minute ago. He had told her something true though, and he heard in her tone a voice that knew that what he said was true compared to the one she used when he discussed other worlds. Even as she told him his reasoning was loosely founded, it sounded better to him than the dry questions about Arcasia.

"Maybe," Zach replied back, and his smile dropped back down completely. "But I was right. And yet, Fergus was too powerful to just try and reveal what his conglomerate was." Zach paused for a moment, I can't mention myself in this. Nor anything I did with my comrades, lest any of that ever come out. "His companies couldn't just be shut down. His conglomerate was too big to fail, and Fergus knew it. He knew that the world would collapse if he chose to make it so." So I stripped him of his power when I killed him.

"How do you suppose that?" Yaoyorozu's voice was skeptical and she shook her head as she asked the question.

"The companies of his conglomerate helped the world in so many different sectors," Zach began without hesitating. "Agricultural, political, industrial, technological, financial," Zach paused and he rubbed the back of his head with his right hand. "He employed hundreds of thousands of workers who had no idea that the group at the top pulling the strings were doing evil things too that some of the money they made went towards. Those people were innocent, and they had no idea how it all started in the first place. They didn't know who at the top was part of the secret society. They were just workers who would have been laid off by the thousand if investigations had shut down all those companies, and even worse, all the good things those companies did would have stopped. And despite the evil, Fergus had made advances in all those different fields he had businesses in. Medicine that helped millions and was re-tested on animals-"

"Zach," Yaoyorozu cut Zach off as he was moving too fast. He was skimming by things that she needed to delve farther into, but something he mentioned during all that had made his expression shift for a moment. It was why she had to stop him, because everything he said after it seemed to just slip by her as all she could focus on was that look he had a moment ago. "What do you mean, by 'how it all started in the first place?'" Zach's face flinched and he looked at Yaoyorozu in surprise, like he had forgotten he had said something like that to her. Her own chest started pounding faster, as she had felt like his voice picked up speed after he mentioned it too, while his expression shifted back to normal.

"I don't…" Zach trailed off before finishing that he didn't know what she was talking about. He frowned deeper and he spoke in a low but fast voice, "The human experimental facility in Virginia. It was the worst thing I'd ever seen before. And it was how Fergus started off over seventy years ago. All those medical advances," Zach paused for a second but then sped up quickly. "It got re-tested on animals, and then passed off as always having been tested on animals first to see if it was safe for people. That would work, get it certified, and they could sell it to drug companies willing to fund them. Even the tests on animals had to be humane for them to get funded though, and there were a bunch of rules to be followed in that public sphere, but not with the secret labs."

"You saw these places?" Yaoyorozu asked.

"One, at least," Zach replied with a shake of his head. "They were as bad as anything-" Zach hesitated. The others worlds are supposed to be so much worse. I'm not supposed to say- why? BECAUSE! There's a fucking plan! Why am I- why with her does this always-

"Why waste time on tests on animals that might not translate, when they could see if it works directly on people?" Zach asked. He posed the question while looking at the girl next to him on the bench with a sad look and serious eyes showing he meant what he was saying. "They could use cultures on a multitude of subjects without…" Zach shook his head again and he leaned his head back for a moment, looking up at the darkening sky. "And it was huge. A massive place. All in secret. A place that no one knew about. Completely in the shadows of this world, as it could never exist here in reality." General Faraz's torture sites. His camps, with the worst things I saw in the war. Some of the workers at the camp had powers to regenerate subjects or to reverse things back on them like Eri's power. The clones, the torture, the darkness…

Zach's closed eyes snapped open when he felt Yaoyorozu's hand on his shoulder. He looked at her with a troubled expression, his face twisted in confusion and shaking eyes. His look was disturbed, and he shook his head again fast, "I couldn't describe these secrets to people. I shouldn't," Zach whispered.

"You can to me," Yaoyorozu said.

"I can't," Zach countered. She opened her mouth again, and Zach ground his teeth and snapped lower, "I don't mean, I don't trust that you won't repeat it- I can't tell you. I just can't, talk about-" Zach darted his eyes away from Momo's when he saw the look in her's shifting. "Fergus, took things from me," Zach said in a low, dark voice. "And I'm not talking about my friends he killed, or the innocents I promised I'd protect and who I failed. He took things from me. Things I can't ever get back."

Zach looked into Yaoyorozu's eyes and focused on her expression and the way she was reacting to him. The idea that she was not going to repeat this to anyone though, and the fact that she was just sitting there allowing him to speak, made it hard to focus on either the present or the future. "People don't want to believe that certain things exist," Zach said in a soft voice. "And certain things, I think, would destroy our world just by people knowing they were possible."

"What happened in that place?" Yaoyorozu asked.

I told you! I can't say. I won't, even scratch the surface. I can't explain that to you though. I can't tell you why, I can't even-

Zach's eyes softened as he stared back into Yaoyorozu's light gray ones. "I don't want to think about it," Zach replied. He said it while looking straight into her eyes, and he whispered softer when she started to get more of an understanding look in those eyes, "There were things I saw there beyond my imagination. And I had been able to imagine a lot by that point but still…" Zach's head turned to the side, his eyes squinting in pain as his own voice echoed in his mind. His heart clenched up and his hands balled into fists down on his thighs. He could picture the face of a man in a white lab coat with a pair of horn-rimmed glasses on, staring up at him in terror but with a twisted smile on his face, a face with tears streaking down it.

I had seen places like it before. So why? Why was it that I couldn't even- Zach's own voice echoed in his mind again, in a tone that gripped at his heart and made his head physically hurt. A single sentence that repeated as the only clear detail he was letting himself think of while pushing so much else away while sitting on that bench. One sentence he spoke that day in a voice that cracked halfway due to what he was seeing…

"What is this place?!"

A/N Thanks for reading! It's so late the sun might start rising soon, so I'm just going to finish up here. No responses today, but thanks to all of you for the many many reviews to this story! Huge chapter coming next time that I just finished before editing this, so look forward to it! I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and leave a review below telling me what you thought!