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!

227. Chapter 227

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 227:

"Put on your mask! If they see you rushing in they could release the-"

"I don't need it!"

"Zach!" Midoriya yelled to his side as the two of them shot through the air at the same speed as each other. Blurs of black and green zipped across the darkening sky of China back over the Gangwe province now. "You need to-"

"I can't die from it!" Zach yelled back without turning his head.

"You're not invincible," Ectoplasm growled over the comms at one of his two students who had flown away faster than he or Dragon Shroud could follow. "The disease isn't something you can fight-"

"Ectoplasm sensei is right-" Deku continued to argue to his left at the black blur that shook its head in disagreement.

"I revived people with my mask off," Zach growled. "I spent time in the morgue with it off. A lot of time." Zach's red eyes flared and his teeth ground back and forth as he spotted a city skyline in the distance. He changed his trajectory to head to the south of that city, while growling in a deep scratchy voice, "No disease is going to kill me. Even my weakened self after reviving hundreds of people in a row today alone. I'm not afraid of it…"

Something's really wrong here. Deku darted his eyes from Zach back to the direction Zach was leading him. Lifebringer had barely waited a few seconds after a short meeting they had inside Yuanbo before flying off and making Deku chase after him. The group of heroes had left the villains behind with the Chinese officials, but Zach had been so eager to fly off and not waste any time to allow the villains to flee when they might have been tipped off about their group finding the villains' base. Deku heard the tone that came out of Zach's dark form and kept his expression steady and even more serious as his priorities were splitting. We'll stop the terrorists. I have no doubt that the two of us can handle them.

"We're almost there," Zach snarled, his eyes locking on a plateau off in the distance that his head turned straight towards with his body descending in altitude some.

"Zach," Midoriya snapped towards him. "We need a plan of attack!"

Zach flapped his wings in front of him and slowed his momentum, shocking Midoriya whose eyes opened wide. He kicked forward and stopped himself as quickly as Zach did, then he turned to his friend who turned his dark head and looked in his eyes with red ones swirling with black lines. Midoriya lifted his hand up to his head and turned off the earpiece he still had in, and Zach did the same while glancing back towards that plateau himself they floated a mile and a half away from. The two of them each did what they needed to to stay in one spot in the air, barely moving up and down as they faced each other in insane focus.

Ectoplasm snapped a few more times the hero names of his two students who stopped responding to him. He, Rin, and Sheshou were in their jet that was just lifting off now as they tried to chase after the others. "Damn it," Ectoplasm moved his hand from his ear and yelled down at the tablet he was in the middle of a different call with. "No! You don't have time to gather a team-" Ectoplasm yelled at the American hero who frowned darkly back at him.

"The TST is scattered all over the region, but if we move in just with who's here now-"

"Lifebringer and Deku are already on the scene!" Ectoplasm yelled at the man whose eyes bulged immediately before he turned and started sprinting. Star-Spangled Man darted his eyes back down to his ERT's screen as the Japanese hero yelled, "Get there, NOW!"

Is it really just his focus on the mission? Midoriya approached the plateau with Zach. It had a steep cliff face that Zach told him a few seconds ago he had been warned to look out for as inside it was the exact location of the Fabu's main base. The city of Weiling was back behind them only a silhouette in the fog closer to the city that kept it mostly out of sight from their angle. He glanced back for a moment and then down to the left at his classmate who had listened to him and stopped to make a plan in the first place, two things Midoriya doubted would happen. He knows time is short. He's just worried and wants the cure as soon as possible. And he's angry because these villains have killed so many people- they've killed him hundreds of- over a thousand times! He's mad. He's so mad I'm not sure he's thinking straight!

If we don't find a cure in there, Deku's expression hardened and his heart that was racing settled just a little as he stopped hesitating over what he knew he would need to do. If he accuses them of having a cure anyway when they say they don't… If he tries to get them to confess- and they don't even have it! And he doesn't believe them! Midoriya's teeth clenched harder. Or even if he does believe them! If they really don't have a cure, then Kendo will be- Midoriya darted his gaze towards his friend again then to the wall in front of him. He grit his teeth harder and then nodded his head, Stop thinking of the worst case scenario! That's what Zach does. And his attitude messes with your head! Focus!

Take down the Fabu. Midoriya's fists clenched and his arms crossed. One For All pulsed through his entire body, sparks coming off of his glowing form as it coursed through his veins. Find out what their plans are and where the rest of their members are hiding. The one who releases Sleepless is most important! We find him, we stop the virus today! RIGHT NOW! "Fifty percent… CAROLINAAAA SMASH!"

The wall was as thin as he said. How did they get the- Midoriya's distracted thoughts were focused by the interior of the hollowed-out plateau he just entered into. The huge hollow space just inside of the cliff wall appeared to be a garage of some sort, and far down below him at the base of the cliff's level there were over two dozen vehicles parked. He noticed some that were running down near a huge set of steel doors that were camouflaged on the outside. Vans. Did they see us coming?!

The steel doors opened quickly out to the sides. The first of the vans sped forward to get out of there, the same time that turrets up at the top of the garage all snapped their barrels to the hole in the wall that debris started raining down from causing villains on the ground level to scream at others about moving out of the way. Midoriya darted around dodging the bullets in midair, his focus switching onto the turrets that emerged from the walls that high.

"Go go go!"

"Get us out of here-"

Zach slammed his feet down on top of the hood of the first van as it was one foot out the doors. Stop them from escaping. Zach glared into the windshield at the villains, and the driver yanked the shift into reverse and slammed his foot on the gas to go backwards. The engine was making loud noises and smoking though, and the driver gave up after a second of the wheels below his vehicle spinning in place. Zach dropped off the side of the hood and walked forward.

He turned his head to the left and looked at the writing on the side of the van. An air conditioning company? Zach read the Chinese writing on the side of the van then turned his head and looked after the driver of the first van who sprinted faster away from him without looking over his shoulder once. Others got out of the vehicles near the exit, staring towards him in terror as the dark form with glowing red eyes looked their directions. Measure the shock. Looks like they expected me. Not now though. An expectation but not preparation. They didn't receive word of Yuanbo, they just knew I'd be coming for them. Some look like they actually want to fight. Not anymore.

Death crawled out of Zach's legs. Tendrils of it slithered out of his legs, dragging themselves from him and snapping forward and upwards. They seemed to be stuck on short leashes though and pulled taut when they jumped towards specific enemies, slamming down onto the floor and splashing outwards before pulling back into thinner lines that vibrated with bloodlust. They curled forward like worms that stretched farther and farther from Zach, sticking to the ground and then snapping out and getting farther from him with more of them moving out from a dark mass that expanded from where Lifebringer's body just was. His humanoid structure became harder and harder to see, and dark lines separated the red spheres of his eyes to make it look like there were four red dots, then eight.

"Go." Zach said the word and sent the dark tendrils shooting forward at the enemies who all turned and ran away. Some of them shat themselves on the spot as they had already lowered their weapons or stopped readying their Quirks at what they were seeing. The ends of the dark lines opened up and then curled upwards and downwards at the openings in sharp spikes looking like teeth. A hundred dark tendrils shot forward and chased after the villains who screamed in terror as they fled.

That one looks like someone in charge. Where is he running to? Zach leapt up in the air over enemies getting wrapped up by tendrils of Death and dropped to the ground. The black lines caught them by the feet and tripped them, and the opening mouths of Death chomped down on screaming villains' necks and faces as they wailed in horror. Zach slammed down ten meters behind the villain who looked powerful and commanding when he first saw the enemies, and the vibrations on the cracked floor made the man dart a gaze backwards before screaming louder, "RENJIN!"

"Lifebringer!" Midoriya slammed down next to his friend and yelled to the side at him. The smell of crapped pants filled the lower level of the garage where only one enemy was left standing by the time Midoriya dropped down to the ground with all the non-personnel defenses taken care of above.

"The enemies' leaders are this way," Zach replied with a glance at Deku. He nodded towards the back of the enemy who stumbled into a hallway and slammed a door behind him that he locked using a keypad next to the double doors. Zach and Midoriya each looked through the glass windows on the doors at the man on the other side who froze after already locking them, all three of them questioning why he just did what he did.

Not like a door can hold us back, Midoriya thought, almost feeling bad for the villain who he saw realize that himself in dread on the other side of the glass.

I could slip through rather than knock it down. Probably more terrifying. Then I'd have to waste time opening it for Midoriya though. Zach nodded his head at the door again while looking back at Deku who lifted his left hand with a specialized glove on it.

"Oh fuck today," the villain whispered in a cracked voice, turning and running down the hall to get away from the doors about to crash down.

---

The sunset's over, "aahk… uk- kuh…"

"Just hold on girl," Fu flapped her wings again and soared through the sky of Gangwe back in the direction of Fundong. The orange-haired girl in her arms needed equipment that Yuanbo did not have, as everything necessary to treat Sleepless patients had already been donated by their neighbors hoping to mitigate the disaster. Kendo's coughs were quiet as they shot through the air, and Fu darted a look down at the girl's partially closed eyes while her head was turned to the west and the slightly more lit-up part of the sky. The sun was down though and Kendo's face was getting harder to see, but Fu grimaced at what she could see.

"Your classmate, Zach Sazaki. He's a real amazing guy, you know?" Fu continued speaking, asking a question to get Kendo to keep talking as well.

"Yeah…" Kendo replied hoarsely, her voice barely reaching the woman flying too fast that the wind nearly took it away. Fu smiled nervously though as she did hear a response before feeling some more tremors like the girl in her arms started coughing in her chest and throat without making any noise.

"Found out who the people trying to kill us all are, and he found out where they are," Fu smiled more even as she stared out in the direction of Fundong with her heart pounding violently. An ominous feeling surged in her chest that she hated as she thought of all the good the boy on her mind had done for them. Her voice got louder, "Keep talking! Stay with me, Battle Fist. Hey!"

"Ack- uck-" Kendo opened her mouth but just sputtered while her eyes closed and then opened back up partially again.

"…He always been like that? The way he handled…" Kendo could hardly hear Fu's voice anymore. She stared out to the west where darkness was falling. The vibrant colors of the sunset had faded, and her heart ached for more than just the pain filling her. He said… What was it he said, to me? Looking out like this though, Kendo frowned and her squinting eyes shook with her vision getting blurrier. It's not over? It feels…

"…There no limit to the number of people he can revive? Hours after death he can just- and he can fly anywhere in the world. Ha, haha- it's crazy really, when you think about it for a second. The same guy could use that Quirk to- to wipe us all… Not that he ever would- Hey! Hey Battle Fist-" Fu looked back down after ranting mainly to herself there for a minute, staring out into the distance with shaking eyes as she did. Her heart fell the instant she looked down at the girl she continued to carry through the sky. "Hey- no no. Open your eyes girl! Open-"

Fu shouted but Kendo's eyes remained shut. She's out. She has Sleepless and she's out, Fu's eyes squinted themselves as she bit down in frustration. She thought about the first coughs she heard on the plane, and then she imagined even earlier as they were leaving Fundong and she watched as Kendo wiped her brow while panting. At the time she had imagined it was in the fatigue and exhaustion all of them felt. How long did she have it and hide it from the rest of us? She's unconscious. And they said she's died already, like Heiping had.

Fu looked at the still face of the teenage girl whose pale skin got darker as night continued to fall over them. Blood was dripping down that pale face from the corners of her cracked lips, and Fu slowed for a moment in the air to remove of her claws from under Kendo's right armpit she held gently. Fu brushed over the girl's lips and then turned her around to put Battle Fist's head up on her shoulder. What am I talking about? Fu thought, as she wrapped her arms back around Battle Fist to protect her as she flapped her wings twice as hard to speed up their return to Fundong. Lifebringer's going to find us a cure! He'll save us again… Tears splashed off the corners of Fu's eyes and she slammed them shut while flapping harder behind her. He has to!

---

"Smash!"

"Deku!"

Midoriya Izuku turned his head and looked confusedly towards the sound of that angry yell in his direction. He was confused because the one who shouted at him was his own comrade who had an enemy lifted up by the throat and was currently strangling him with his left hand that squeezed like a vice. The villain's legs flailed inches above the floor while he used his muscular arms to try and pry Zach's fingers from his neck, not that Zach's arm was budging in the least. "We need them conscious! You're going too hard!"

Zach threw his left arm to the side and slammed the villain into the wall twelve feet to his left. He turned at that same moment he tossed the villain away for safety, and he glared towards the woman who just fired the attack she was charging between her right and left shaking hands. The blue beam of energy slammed Zach in his right shoulder and the side of his chest up to his neck. His body was currently nine feet tall and the blast took a good few square feet out of his dark form, though Zach just tanked it like he had been tanking all of their enemies' attacks without flinching. He lifted his left arm as Death recoated it, then through the veil he fired a blue blast of light of his own back towards the woman and hit the ceiling above her head.

She looked up then clenched her eyes shut before the dust shooting down first in the debris could get in them. The woman started crossing her arms and raising them for protection, but those arms got grabbed by the wrists and pulled to either side which caused her eyes to snap back open. In the middle of the rubble falling down on her, the dark being was standing before her with normal arms sticking out of his huge mass disproportionate to the thickness of the human arms. Zach brought his normal knee up through the hulking body he had too, his larger legs staying where they were as he kneed his right leg up out of his aura and slammed her in the face with it.

"I'm going just… You knocked out dozens of villains back-"

"And now there aren't enough of them left!" Zach shouted in annoyance, be it at Midoriya or himself his friend could not figure out. Zach flung the woman gasping for breath to his right and slammed her into the wall next to him. "Those villains were close to the exit and clustered together," Zach started explaining his reasoning in less frustration and in a calmer tone. "Higher chance of one of them killing another if I went too soft. They were also mainly grunts who wouldn't have all the information. Farther into the base, higher up the villain in their ranks. Or so I'm hoping."

Midoriya sped to one of the villains Zach had taken down who was not unconscious like the last one he just Ohio Smashed in the side of the face. He pinned the man back to the ground as the guy was starting to get up while using his Quirk, then Deku darted his eyes the other way as he saw Zach grip an open steel door with both hands. Zach tore the door off its hinges then walked back to the woman slouched against the wall who started telling him that she gave up. The man below Midoriya struggled and the ground below him started shaking, and he darted his eyes over as he saw a bright blue glow in front of his comrade from the supposedly surrendering woman. "Zach! We can't-"

"We can't knock them all out," Zach snapped. "You want to capture them and process them then interrogate them in a police station? How long is that going to take?" Zach asked the question while glaring down into the terrified woman's eyes that kept darting Deku's way nervously. "Kendo doesn't have that time. I don't…" Zach shook his head down at the villain who lowered her arms and allowed Lifebringer to do what he was going to do, as fighting him was even more futile than she imagined it to be.

Zach bent the steel door and kept doing so using one pitch black arm and his steel left one. He reached with his right hand over the steel and pulled the woman towards him in a harsh jolt that she yelped at then started complaining at him in Chinese that she had already surrendered. "Be glad I'm not tearing you apart," Zach responded in Chinese while she was mid-yell, and her mouth froze open with sweat covering her face. She even held in any noises of pain that she wanted to make when he curled the door around her and pressed her arms tightly into her ribs. He pushed her over and let her fall on her side where she finally let out a yelp this time before quickly slamming her mouth shut.

Midoriya grit his teeth for another couple seconds then pushed off the villain right as the tensed man flipped himself over. The Fabu member darted his eyes up expecting to see Deku there, but the image of the boy he looked up at was fading away. After-ima- SshrrRRII The villain's thoughts were cut off as he felt the ground under him shake harder than he had made it to flip him over while still leaving his hands free. His head started turning to the side to look behind him where Deku was ripping the steel floor up with his bare hands. Deku stepped forward and bent the floor up into the enemy he pushed down to the ground before curling the floor over him and pinning it on his other side.

This is inefficient, but we don't have enough ties and cuffs for everyone here. I'm out already and I don't think Zach has any. "Lifebringer," Deku started while jogging towards his classmate who was leaned down closely to the villainess's face and hissing something at her in Chinese that he did not catch. She started frantically motioning with her head as she could not point though, and Zach nodded back at her as the woman rambled at him.

"It's a good thing they're not all fanatics," Zach growled while standing back up straight and glancing to Midoriya. "Come on. There is a secret escape tunnel. Their boss and the member named "Contagion" are back farther in the base, and she thinks they're probably trying to run. No one here has a Quirk that can teleport them though so escape from us won't be happening. Let's do this quicker."

"We need to be…" Deku trailed off. You don't need to be careful. I watched you fight Ares. I've seen you do, so much. "You need to use restraint, Lifebringer."

Zach focused on his friend's face and the heroic look staring seriously back at him. In Midoriya's mind he saw that first garage they entered again and he glared harder at his classmate and comrade who did not answer him yet.

I'll do what I need to… I have to. If I have to- only if! But if I do and I'm under your supervision- I can't let them die. So many are dying right now? What do those lives matter? The three of them? Zach could only imagine Su-Jin, Tai, and Kendo in his mind. So many died six hours ago, and I did nothing. But I'm thinking about torture so that I could save three… Kendo's my friend- who I last saw looking at me in a horrified way.

He imagined the look in her eyes as she realized all that had happened. The way he had interacted with her during their ambush had not been very fake at all so he knew she would understand it quickly. I couldn't find it in me to lie to her. Telling her it wasn't her fault. I didn't even look that disappointed when I let him get away. It was all just an act, but I acted poorly. She could tell I was- or she would have noticed earlier, if she was alright. Instead she's dying right now and thinks I had Shunfeng torture… I did. I knew what I needed and- Zach sharpened his gaze back at his comrade. "Deku-"

"You're a hero, Lifebringer." Deku stated it harshly while turning away when Zach began speaking in such a dark voice to give a response to the last thing he said. He marched the direction their spectating villainess had motioned in, and he said resolutely without looking back, "Now start acting like one." This whole country looks up to you. Midoriya's breathing was steady as he focused on the doors ahead of him where he knew more villains were sure to be behind, and then somewhere past that was their main target. You've done so much for these people. Far more than I have. To them, you're already their hero. Your arrival in China brought hope. But…

Zach shook his head around then jogged forward towards the doors that Midoriya just sped up for as well. His body bulged back up with darkness while Midoriya's glowed, and the two of them smashed their way into the next room. Awaiting them were fifteen villains who were prepared for a fight and worked together against the boys who separated to different sides of a much larger room than what amounted to just a hallway behind them now that they saw this room for comparison. It clearly looked like the main area of the base. There were a few trucks in there down on an elevated section that Midoriya shot towards near a tunnel which extended back the direction they came but off to the side of the last hallway.

There were some doors to other areas of the base but nothing in the direction that their captured enemy back behind them had motioned at, though Zach saw a section of wall that looked to him like a place for a secret exit. He jumped to the right and threw smoke bombs down to shroud himself inside a cloud of smoke while already inside his Death shroud. It also kept him out of Midoriya's view for a little, which he needed. Midoriya's right. He always is. I did it. I found them. We're so close and I can't… I can't lose it and do something that will make this something that can't be considered victory. If I get myself in trouble to save them all it will only turn me more into a- I know that!

You saw the way they looked at you back in Yuanbo. The way they looked at those villains when they saw how you looked at them, Midoriya darted to his right and hit up near the top corner of the room farther from the doors he and Zach busted through a few seconds ago. He shot back across the room and flipped to crouch on the opposite wall, then he flew down in a blur and hit the floor between two enemies who had been right next to each other but jumped away fast when he was coming down the next time. They had spun with him, but neither were ready for the long Blackwhips that wrapped around them as they aimed their different Quirks back Deku's way.

Midoriya pulled together while jumping up. He dodged the attack of the enemy charging at his back whose legs were connected and looked like a yellow cloud with sharp edges, and his hands were covered with hypodermic needles tied to each finger. The villain was charging with a mask over his face and he darted his eyes up and aimed his right hand to where Midoriya rose above his other enemies slamming face-first into each other just below him. The Blackwhips faded while Midoriya flipped in midair, and he kicked his right leg out while flipping to create a force of air strong enough that it knocked away the five needles flying up at him while also slamming the enemy who fired them from his special gloves down flat into the ground.

Then Deku darted his gaze back towards Zach to keep an eye on him as he had been. At that moment he saw Zach facing a huge dark room that was getting more visible as massive garage doors lifted on the right of the room from the doors they busted down earlier. He felt no fear for his friend no matter what could be behind those doors though, and it did not even shift the thoughts in his mind at the sight of the giant form behind them. People look up to you. They see how you act and, many want to act like you. I was amazed when I saw you in Saudi Arabia but not that surprised. Shocked, at how you had done so much so quickly but, but not shocked that people had followed you in the first place.

What you did was controversial. People argued about it for so long and they pardoned you. They pardoned you for murder. Straight-out murder. You injected with drugs and killed six people in cold blood. And people accept that, because they believe in you. I… Even I, believe in you so much that I forget that so often. I forget that the bad things really were bad. That you are capable of anything. And my one comfort is in the knowledge that you understand how much influence you have, Midoriya spun around and created a wind force around him so strong that the air became visible as it spiraled and pushed away his two attackers charging at him when they thought he was distracted. His lip curled though in frustration even as he darted one way after the powerful villain who recovered quickly from being sent flying, But you forget that influence when you're in the heat of it. When you get emotional, that's when I see you lose focus on everything.

I did it again. I keep losing focus, Zach ground his teeth while imagining a talk show where he could not keep it up as he saw that girl brought out. And he saw himself out in front of his apartment, taunting Eziano in such a menacing voice. I'm a hero. I showed them Lifebringer as a hero! Told them that anyone could be a hero. That we could all be pillars to hold up society! I TOLD THEM! And now I'm- Zach saw those villains in Yuanbo asking about their friend who was missing. He thought about how little he cared about that fear in their eyes, Because they're villains. And I'm supposed to be a hero! He pictured the looks of the heroes around him who saw him talking on the phone to his contact who had gotten this base's address. A hero? Who cares?! Those citizens- they wouldn't have cared if I killed those villains right then and there! They wanted me to!

They wanted me to? Zach's eyes shook as he stared at the huge beast of a man standing up out of a chair and breaking the restraints wrapped around his arms and legs. Wires pulled off of his arms and splashed green liquid out of them, and he grabbed all the tubes connected to his back and tore them off with one tug to disconnect himself from the machines all around him in that darker room. "…the Fabu's secret weapon, surviving Sleepless even because of his enhanced…" Zach retained what he was hearing from another villain near him yelling about the monster stomping forward out of that room, but his focus was hardly on it at all. Did they really want me to? If I had been smiling. If I had looked around and smiled, and I told them that we captured terrorists and were close to a cure, then they would have cheered. They would have smiled and applauded and they would have felt so relieved.

I didn't do that. Why didn't I do that? I didn't need to be so terrifying. I knew that Shunfeng was already getting me the information. I could have just, walked away. I could have smiled. I didn't! WHY?! Zach's teeth clenched and his lips pulled apart as he glared furiously up at the monster ahead of him. The teen's body bulged, growing twice its size, triple- as tall as the enemy who stopped in that doorway and then lifted its head as Zach grew the height of the room and three times as wide as the villain himself. Zach's body was rippling in black muscles but also shrouded in a mist of black wisps that pushed and pulled and put fear in the hearts of his enemies. I don't like this. I don't like when they look at me like… Like I'm the monster. I'm what villains are afraid of. The Symbol of Fear- NOT ANYMORE!

I'm in the light. People can see me. And they, are influenced by me. Zach heard the sounds of the people of Yuanbo around him screaming and yelling at the villains they had captured. He saw those people in his peripheral vision creating a crowd around them. He saw them looking his way while he was only focused on those villains in front of him. How must I have looked to them? So, so furious at the villains. My rage must have been tangible in the air. I wanted the villains to fear me. Like that's an acceptable way to act. I wanted to rip them apart for information, and those people saw me wanting that and the- the thought that I couldn't save them because I wasn't allowed to! They thought that I was being constrained and- And I made them feel that way! I made them feel like the system was wrong. That they should just allow me to do whatever I want. I didn't even realize I was doing it- NO! It's not that I was doing it subconsciously.

I don't want that power. I don't want them to think that. I just assume the worst. And the worst scenario is that I meant for it to happen so I could do whatever, but that's not what I want. I just hate myself enough to think I'd do that. Zach started shrinking back down which made the terrified and furious looks of his enemies start getting way more confused than anything at his actions. It's not intention. I think too much of myself, and I forget that I make mistakes. I forget that I didn't mean to hurt Himazuri. It wasn't intentional to make her stop reading my mind, it was an accident through reflex. And when I started using those tactics, and seeing my old contacts again, and accepting that torture might be necessary for the greater good! I got too deep into it and forgot the simplest thing.

Zach turned back to normal and all the Death around him faded away as he clenched his eyes shut and pushed the water to the corners of his lids. I'm not Death. His eyes opened and he looked forward sadly at the three enemies still watching him in disbelief at what just happened and confusion as to what Lifebringer was doing. They assumed his reactions and actions were based on what they had been saying and doing, which is why they did not match up in the least bit and even had the strongest "secret weapon" of the Fabu sweatdropping and staring down at Lifebringer hesitantly.

I hid Death for a reason. I hid the things I did as Death, because it didn't matter that I got results. I knew that people would accept the things I did. I knew how powerful my message would be. I knew that people would see me and accept those things as a part of what's right, and what's necessary, and I don't want that to happen! "Just tell me," Zach started, shaking his head and looking painfully at the insane villain more on his right who had been the one shouting the introduction about their weaponized comrade. "Where your leader is, and the man who released Sleepless. Where are they?"

"Like I'd tell you! You insane FUCK!"

Ten seconds later, the three who Zach was facing off with were unconscious on the ground. I can't be so scary. We're creatures of pattern. I do it over and over and then I let it slip when I'm in public. When people can see me who I'm not supposed to let see that side of me. But that's just who I am, because I can't stop myself from doing it.

"Zach," Midoriya whispered, and Zach turned his head around after already dropping both arms limply down to his sides.

Zach looked back and his eyes were wet but holding back any tears. If they don't have a cure. If the people running the Fabu don't have a way that I can save them, Zach's eyes trembled as he looked back into Midoriya's. I don't know what I'm going to do.

---

Zach and Midoriya stood in a tunnel in the back of the Fabu's base with two men down on the floor in front of them and between them. They each looked down at their enemies, while parked vehicles were up against the walls to their sides and going down the tunnel for a quarter mile before stopping. Each van was identical to the others to a point that even the scratches on the right side front door were the same, indicating some sort of Quirk use had provided them with so many copies of the same company van.

The two villains had not run away like others in the Fabu's base thought they had. They were simply awaiting the arrival of Deku and Lifebringer when the boys rushed at them. Under a second after they saw the teenage heroes, Contagion was unconscious on the floor and The Invisible Hand was down on his knees. The two heroes could not risk Contagion releasing Sleepless after capturing him, as much as they each wanted to interrogate that villain and demand answers from him. The leader of the Fabu was as good a person to get answers from though, and they could see he was clearly a talker by the way he was taunting them in English already despite being captured.

What's his Quirk? He hasn't shown us and he seems confident. Does he think he'll escape, or is he just insane? Midoriya could not tell just by looking at their enemy if The Invisible Hand actually had a method for getting out of here. The base was conquered and the ringleaders of the operation on the ground in front of them. Neither of the heroes sustained any injuries, and although Star-Spangled Man had yet to arrive, the fight was already over. It did not feel over in the least to Deku or Lifebringer though.

"Did any of your men just leave?" Zach darted his eyes past his enemy whose words he ignored to look down the long tunnel full of artificial lights instead. There was a turn a half mile down the line that he could not see around and tell if other vehicles just left and this was a way to stall them.

"No," The Invisible Hand shook his head and continued to smile at Lifebringer in a taunting and mischievous way. "But it is too late for you anyway-"

"What do you mean by that?" Zach's voice was dark and his eyes cold as he glared straight into their enemy's eyes. "How were you releasing Sleepless? You were using those vans and, and what?!"

"Contagion does not need to be there when Fabu releases its message into the world," the Fabu's leader chuckled under his breath then lifted his hands up at his sides in no threatening way to the teens who could tell this was not an attack but just a gesture he was making. His hands opened up wide with all his fingers curling out like he was mimicking an explosion. "We can fill up gas tanks of Sleepless. All of those you can see, are already full and waiting for delivery."

Around the tunnel, near the back of some of the vans, there were long steel tanks with biohazard symbols on them the boys already suspected the worst from. They still felt so much dread at the sight of so many of those tanks already filled but in no way protected or even loaded up in the vehicles. Like there are so many that they just have it laying around, Zach's breathing got heavier as he darted his eyes right back onto their enemy who did not appear to care to fight them at all. He's not just waiting for an opportunity. He understands he can't win but- but why then? Why does he look like, Zach's face scrunched up at the expression of victory and smug joy on the villain's face when he saw the realization on Lifebringer's mug.

"And we can spread it using ventilation systems," The Invisible Hand started to the boy who looked to get it quicker than his comrade. Deku darted Lifebringer a worried look which only made the villain grin more at the sight of as he continued, "Using timed releases from the trunks of our vehicles and spraying it all over the city streets. Or even Contagion himself, just releasing it casually from his body while in the middle of, let's say… a baggage claim?" He chuckled and then laughed harder at the looks on his enemies faces, "You never even got close. Hours behind us every time."

"You killed thousands of innocent people-"

"And you couldn't save them," The Invisible Hand mocked which caused Deku to freeze with his mouth open. "You couldn't save any of them. All you heroes come to save them and the world is watching as you let so many die." He looked back at Lifebringer who was doing his best to keep calm and his breathing steady as he judged how best to get information out of this enemy without losing his mind on him and screaming with Death filling the entire tunnel. He doubted that would even work on such a man who looked so clearly mad. "I wonder if you didn't find it weird? That the particles of Sleepless did not linger for long in the air and yet the release periods were never exact, always a guess between several hours?" He glanced back at Deku to see if that boy had ever wondered about that himself.

"It's because it was released slowly over hour-long periods. Going to be even longer for the new ones now that we're certain of how long it takes for the release to be detected. Imagine it," he said with a huge grin as he thought of it himself. "6 hours of uninterrupted Sleepless release in ten busy intersections of, Beijing? Or Shanghai? Huangdoo or Qingxiao?! AhhahaHAA!" He cackled and tilted his head back before shaking it around in amazement. "Tens of millions infected by the end of the night!"

"We stopped it-" Midoriya started yelling.

"In the garage?! That was a whole new wave we were getting ready, for tomorrow," The Invisible Hand laughed with a shake of his head at the retort the hero just had for him. Midoriya's heart skipped a beat and his eyes grew slowly as the villain did not sound like a man lying for no reason.

The Invisible Hand's head tilted back down with his eyebrows narrowing towards his nose so he could watch closely the reactions of the two before him. "Already, our fleet is out there about to launch the largest attack on a nation seen since Mongoloid conquered the Saudis!"

"I don't care about that," Zach snapped. Midoriya spun to his side as he was still only getting hit by the shock when Zach said that, shocking him even more as to how Zach could feel that way. The Invisible Hand looked surprised as well though he kept smiling and just looked curiously at his black-haired enemy who apparently cared nothing for his attack. Zach grit his teeth at that curious look not angered at all by his choice of interruption. He ground his teeth back and forth then growled, "It doesn't matter how many people get infected as long as we have the cure."

The Invisible Hand rose his curled eyebrows and looked at Lifebringer confusedly. Then he started laughing. The other laughs sounded more taunting and planned out even, but he just started laughing this time heartily from his chest and even rose his right arm to cover his mouth at the hilarity. "Give it to me," Zach demanded from the hysterical man. "I know you have it!" His voice got louder and his fists clenched harder at the look on his enemy's face making the pit of dread in his gut tighten and grow exponentially. "I know you do-"

"Do I need remind you?!" The Invisible Hand called out as he stopped his laughter for a moment. He smirked at Lifebringer while looking like he was having a great time, and he reminded the boy, "That this is the first time Sleepless has ever been released?" He wondered it at the heroes and then continued through more laughter, "We, haha, couldn't test it without using it on a broad population. Couldn't get trustworthy results otherwise, and even on a small test sample we'd draw attention and make it harder for when we really wanted to act! So this was all a first for us too!"

"You had to have done tests here! Research!"

"His Quirk is a disease! We may have an old Triakuza safehouse Digger once dug up that was repurposed for the Fabu, thanks to the generous donation from some benefactors of ours," The Invisible Hand shook his head and kept grinning at the enemies who felt fear creeping up ever more present in their minds. "But we have little cash flow. Barely enough for upkeep and staying in the shadows. Not nearly enough to properly research Sleepless on a molecular level-"

"I saw the experiment back there! Your secret weapon-"

"Karmile's project! Not even affiliated with us!" the enemy laughed even louder with his response that made the boys stare at him with huge eyes. "He just shared the building, and we allied together to pool our resources as he was happy to work underneath me! The Fabu couldn't have made a cure for a disease we never released before! Contagion knew he had it but couldn't risk people knowing how dangerous it was, not after what they did to him last time! After he was captured by heroes and handed off, to be experimented-"

"ENOUGH!" Zach roared, the tunnel around him seeming to tremble for a moment at the shout that made the Fabu's leader stare at him with eyes growing massive.

The air around Zach was visibly darker. No Death had emitted from his body and yet the air was getting blacker. "I don't believe you," Zach hissed. His hands trembled and his feet cracked the ground below as his body tensed even harder while holding back all the Death inside.

"Zach," Midoriya started, his voice hoarse as he said his friend's name.

"We couldn't risk testing it, so we never got the data to make a cure of our own," The Invisible Hand shrugged his shoulders and chuckled under his breath now as he watched Lifebringer's look of sheer rage exceeding anything he could have imagined seeing on that face. He smirked and tilted his head forward with the mutation bumps on his forehead shadowing over his eyes, as he yelled at the top of his lungs, "We don't have a cure! No one does! AHH hAHAHAAA! Hahaha HAA! HAHA…"

Zach's heart pounded faster in his chest. He could hear it thumping in his ears while his vision tinted red. It did not tint that color quickly. Rather his vision pooled with red mist that covered different parts of his irises first and swirled around, darkening his vision and tinting it more so he was staring through a thick translucent veil of blood red. Midoriya was looking to his side and watched as the red pooled into his eyes, mixed with the hazel, then got ten times darker before spreading through the whites of his eyes with red lines. Those lines spread and connected to turn his whole eyeballs red, and Midoriya opened his mouth but spun back to the laughing enemy who leaned his head forward farther as if daring Zach to try something.

"I knew I might be caught soon! Once the legendary Zach Sazaki came to China, it was only a matter of time! Our former Triakuza funders and allies have already left with the virus to spread all over the nation. And it's happening right now!" The Invisible Hand laughed louder as he watched Lifebringer's twisting expression so ready to murder him. "I won't tell you where they really are! I never will!"

"I've heard that be-fore." Zach's voice shook with every syllable. It cracked but while so deep just got a few notches higher and made the air around him shake in those moments it looked like his body was flinching. His skin did not pool with darkness and yet it was tanner than a few seconds ago.

"ZACH!" Midoriya yelled at his side and his friend who turned back to him. Zach showed no shock or surprise like he was being shaken out of a trance or anything. He just turned and glared back into Deku's eyes with the rage still spread over his face like Zach rarely ever showed and always seemed so regretful over when he would stop it or hide it afterwards. "Whatever you're thinking," Midoriya continued, his expression fierce and his fists clenched as he glared right back into Zach's blood red eyes. "You can't-"

"It's happening now. Tonight," The Invisible Hand taunted over Midoriya who was desperately trying to save his life. "HAhaha- I wonder if we'll be able to infect everyone? The entire nation? After a few days the bodies will pile so high and there won't be enough people to deal with them, leading to secondary releases, and tertiary as people die at different times- Until the air all over China is infected. In every city and every town. The dead will kill the rest!"

Zach's heart pounded one more time then broke apart into darkness as it hurt too much and he did not care about needing to continue feeling that pain. I don't need a heart for what I need to do now.

"You shut up!" Midoriya yelled, wishing he could knock out the villain now. He knew they still needed him to keep talking as much as possible though, but it was a thinner and more fragile line every second over what was more dangerous; letting him keep speaking or shutting him up. Deku's eyes darted to Zach and then to their enemy who he yelled at, "If you give us-"

"The air-dispersement systems we'll be firing this time will fire his Quirk out of the vans as they drive. Spraying block after block, city after city, and every town in between! Millions- BILLIONS will die in days. And no amount of foreign intervention will be able to stop it!" The Invisible Hand yelled louder and more confidently, "And people will escape from China, and they will die and spread the Sleepless virus to other nations that will be attacked vehemently as people realize that the disease will not end with China's destruction."

I have to stop this. I have to kill them. I won't let this happen. Zach's insides bubbled with darkness. His restraint to keep it on the inside was getting weaker each second. Midoriya's gaze on him faded more and more into the back of his mind, and his breathing stopped as he no longer had any lungs or need to release breath at all. Nothing else matters.

"…ach!" He faintly heard the yell directly at the side of his head, but Zach's focus was solely on the man in front of him whose voice became so loud as it bounced around in his mind.

"…And when the disease starts to spread outside of China, because of those who fled and brought it with them, the rest of the world will come to an early agreement on one thing in particular!" The Invisible Hand shouted.

I know that, Zach thought. In his mind he could see it as The Invisible Hand described it loudly. The villain was only describing it for the other of the two heroes he turned to as he saw Lifebringer was already imagining it and he wanted Deku to picture it too. Zach watched in his mind as an army of heroes and police and soldiers stormed into China. Preemptive. To stop them from getting out. Laws first then enforcement. He saw hordes of people fleeing for the borders to try and get out before they were infected too. They wanted to get somewhere with doctors to save them as there would not be any left in China to help. He pictured those people clashing with the foreign authorities, fighting to get out, and those who came to keep them in shooting. First just the soldiers, then he saw the heroes using their Quirks as the citizens with strong Quirks attack their countrymen just doing their jobs…

War. Zach imagined millions of people. Larger than any battle yet. All of them untrained. They won't know how to restrain themselves. It'll be… It'll be a massacre. Hundreds of massacres. Endless destruction in all directions!

"…until they get their orders to annihilate all of the Chinese. To assume that they're infected. That the entire nation is. A country of over a billion and a half," The Invisible Hand smirked at the terror he could see even in those red eyes.

It won't even be the virus that wipes most of them out, Zach thought while his hands stopped shaking at his sides.

"The Earth will turn into a dark and horrible place as the heroes of the world set China ablaze," the Fabu's leader's voice made Zach's reddened vision tremble in fear at the certainty in his voice. "It is inevitable. Those heroes will try to help but when they fail, the dogs of war will be released. People will look to other measures, and in their fear they will accept any sacrifice. You know it is true."

It's huge. Barreling forward and I'm an ant in the way as I am now. No amount of revivals can stop it. This is the reality we face. Zach's clenched right fist started to open, his fingers twitching as he curled them out…

"None of that is going to happen." Deku shook his head while glaring down at The Invisible Hand who smirked back at his naive enemy. Deku continued without looking to his side at his classmate whose hand froze and whose red eyes darted to his left at his comrade standing there. Deku spoke calmly, causing Zach's entire being to just pause in place with his eyes locked to the side on Deku's form standing firm. There was no despair in his green eyes nor the defeated rage that Zach felt filling him to his core.

"You can't stop it-"

"That horrible reality isn't coming," Midoriya said, denying that he even needed to stop it with a firm shake of his head. He stepped forward and denied the villain plainly, "There is no possibility of that happening."

Midoriya sped around his enemy and pulled both of his arms behind his back. He pushed the man to the ground and used Blackwhip to cuff his hands before yanking him up to his feet. "The Invisible Hand, you are under arrest."

"Midoriya," Zach's voice started low. What is he saying? I need… I need to-

"You don't understand human nature, Deku!" The Invisible Hand yelled, snapping his head to the side and screaming it back at his enemy. "Nature that we will reveal to everyone is hidden within us all! The darkness of humanity! What humans are truly capable of! I will release it!"

Midoriya pushed The Invisible Hand to the side and held him there with one hand that had the Blackwhip extending from it. He looked back at Zach and saw his friend darting his red eyes from Midoriya back to the enemy, his dark face almost black still showing enough features that Midoriya could see him questioning who was right. "Lifebringer," Midoriya began. "I know you have seen some horrible things that make you believe their plan could work. But, you also know how good people can be too."

Zach's insides jolted and he gasped out a breath of black air that he sucked quickly back into his body like he just accidentally coughed out Death. Midoriya ignored that and continued on, "No matter what happens, Lifebinger, we won't let that reality come to pass."

Zach's body lightened back up but he shook his head and darted a furious glare back at the Fabu's smug leader who just chuckled under his breath. Zach whispered back to Deku, "I can't revive that many people." His voice cracked as he said it, and he shook his head back and forth at the thought of what would be needed of him to save the day as Lifebringer. In his head he imagined a mountain of bodies stretching city blocks wide and piling as high as a skyscraper. Corpses of tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of civilians just piled up in his mind and his voice cracked as he gasped out, "It's too much."

"We don't know if the Sleepless has been released yet!" Midoriya yelled back, his voice stronger and without the defeated and agonized tone that Zach's had. "He said it will be released tonight, but that also means even if it has been released it's still just at the start of those long releases! We've seen the vans!" Midoriya yelled and snapped his free arm out to the side to point at one of them. "We can track the vehicles that left from this place using nearby cameras and figure out where they've gone! We can get thousands of people to work with us to locate the villains, and stop them from releasing the gas! Or at least stop them from releasing as much as they can!"

"It's not over," Deku snapped. "Not until we give up, and Lifebringer can't give up that easily on what he believes in!" Midoriya's face twisted and his lips curled down so far at the look he had seen on Zach's face that looked so ready to do things he had thought for a minute there he might have to stop. Fighting Zach isn't the answer. That doesn't save anyone. I'm right here. I don't need to beat you. I just need, to change your mind. You're still in my reach!

What I believe in? Zach thought while staring back silently at Deku. What are you-

"'This world is beautiful,'" Deku said. He stared Zach in his eyes while the villain off to his left twisted his body to look behind him and at Deku's face in shock of his own. "'That is a truth I accepted long ago. It's something I believe in, with all my heart.'" Midoriya was speaking words that Zach recognized well. His breathing hitched and his red eyes turned back to normal and shook as he looked back into Deku's that looked so angry all of a sudden. "In the world though, there are worse things than you ever dared to imagine. Things that almost shook your faith in the world's beauty, but they didn't! All of that and you still held on. You said that not so long ago on Inazuma Island."

"Zach, you still seemed confident in the world's beauty then. Those deep-seeded beliefs you had always, beliefs that made me believe that I could still trust you despite everything you said that night." Midoriya's teeth clenched in anger as he said it, thinking about that 'everything' and how much he struggled every day with letting Zach continue to do as he pleases despite the truth he knew. Midoriya's face showed all those conflicted feelings he had been struggling with in that moment, things he tried to hide from his friend so Zach would not see how much it hurt him to live with.

Then Deku continued softer, "'Those who want to do harm and wrong, will never outnumber the people who want to help and do good. I believe-"

"People are inherently good," Zach whispered. Words he had spoken so many years ago echoed in his mind as Midoriya spoke them back to him verbatim.

"'Good?' Ha- HAHA!" The Invisible Hand started losing it in laughter at the thought of that.

Zach's eyes darted anxiously towards the villain then snapped right back to Midoriya though. They were shaking and his fists that tightened again for a moment just loosened at the disappointed and angered look in Deku's eyes. Deku nodded back at him while keeping a stern look but also easing it a bit as Zach finished that last line for him. He continued on, "And if given the chance to stand up and protect each other, if given the freedom to stand by heroes and fight villains by their sides, you said that those people could all become heroes in their own ways."

"Words of an ignorant child-" The Invisible Hand started.

"He's wrong. You were smarter than all of us. You knew it wasn't just talk, not if enough people believed in it," Midoriya countered. "You were the one who taught me that! People are inherently good! You believing that made me believe it, for years now!" Zach's eyes widened and he stared at Midoriya with his mouth going agape. "I've believed in that, and I need you to keep believing in it too."

"You said once that you did not believe anymore because of what Raijin did to you," Deku said. His voice got shaky for a moment as he imagined Zach in Class 2-A talking in such a dark and angry voice about Raijin to the point Mother Russia had to kick him out of the classroom. He shook his head and continued at his friend though, "But that was a version of Zach who lied about everything for the two weeks I knew him. A version I do not believe speaks for Zach Sazaki!"

"He doesn't," Zach whispered. "I do, believe." His voice cracked as he tried to raise it a little louder.

"People won't turn on each other, Zach. Not if we continue to show them a better way. Not if we act as heroes, for them!" Midoriya called it out and stepped towards Zach, pulling The Invisible Hand with a yank so the man stumbled forward as he was busy darting his gaze in a nervous way from one teenager to the other who actually started looking convinced by this argument. "People aren't willing to turn to that kind of violence. They won't consider it as an option, because to them it isn't something to turn to."

Zach's eyes shot open huge and his bottom lip dropped farther. His heart raced at the realization that Midoriya hit him with that erased the realizations he had before when The Invisible Hand described the future that he imagined. Deku reminded him though, "It's not an option in their minds, and it only is in yours because you've seen it. You have seen enough to believe that what he is saying could happen, forgetting that the people of the world are not warriors like you."

The Invisible Hand was opening his mouth to argue but his mouth closed slowly and his eyes bulged now as he darted his gaze back to Lifebringer and then to Deku who was speaking knowledgeably about something that had his heart pounding. Deku continued strongly at Lifebringer, "You kept them all from turning into soldiers! Even in the darkest time of this world, you kept it from turning to the worst case scenario! You kept everyone from realizing what was happening. You kept them all from accepting necessary evils for the sake of the world! Remember?!"

"I do," Zach replied. His eyes narrowed and darted over to the enemy before shifting to the floor in anger. His anger was directed at himself now in more frustration as to what had just been happening, all due to the words of that villain he glared at for a moment.

"The Fabu's perspective is wrong," Midoriya reminded his friend as if it was simple as that.

"In the face of certain death people change. They'll turn on each other. You know it to be true," The Invisible Hand spoke disappointedly at Lifebringer for looking to be forgetting that truth.

"It's the opposite," Zach whispered.

"They're selfish creatures!" The Invisible Hand yelled. "They'll do anything to survive!"

"That isn't true," Zach said more firmly. He looked back at Deku and rose his gaze up without the kind of drowning darkness that had surrounded him before. There was no dark aura around him anymore, and Midoriya panted for a moment as he saw Zach's expression was completely different now. "It isn't true," Zach repeated. "Because I made sure it wasn't. That was my goal- one of my goals." He shook his head and looked down but rose it back up to Midoriya again and continued, "A goal that I accomplished. I succeeded, and they aren't warriors," Zach agreed. They aren't willing to do anything for survival. They wouldn't turn so quickly to it… but-

The small relief Zach felt did nothing but keep him from acting on his rage. I'm not in a world where losing it in my fury is okay, Zach realized. Because to do so might reverse that goal I hold so dear. To act in rage here and do terrible things, an eye for an eye! Fighting fire with fire, or being evil to combat evil… It would create the kind of world that The Invisible Hand is describing! One that would facilitate that kind of violent response that could lead to war. I kept that from happening, and right here I was about to go back on it… BUT-

I know I can't go back on it now. I know I need to stop myself but, but yet that means I can't torture The Invisible Hand. Zach's hazel eyes shook and filled back up with water. The restraint he had felt before back in the larger area of the base had made these feelings appear, but he had quelled those feelings as he still had hope for a cure. And he still had a choice too where it was not hopeless. The choice was gone now though. His enemy was in front of him but the choice to do something more had faded as he imagined himself in Midoriya's shoes. He never considered it. And he's right. I know I can't, and yet I know I have to or else… Or else!

Zach's eyes slammed shut and his teeth bared with his lips pulled so far apart. "Ah-" his voice leaked out and revealed his emotions as he fell into despair. It was different from the rage but again his body looked darker. Midoriya could see it as Zach's face got older. His despair was tangible and Midoriya could not breathe for a moment as The Invisible Hand started laughing at that same time. "I-" Zach breathed out, his entire body aching as the composure he found was lost by the understanding of how little hope there was. So many people, Zach's eyes snapped open and his head tilted back as he stared with a trembling gaze to the ceiling. "It's too late…"

We stopped it from going any farther, Zach shook his head around while tears that filled his eyes spilled off. Damn it! I can't even knock him out so it's only Midoriya who sees this. Ivory is on the TRT and can read his mind soon to get us to those vans faster. There's nothing- Nothing I can do though! It's going to be too many! So many- and I'll have to die. I'll have to die so many- I can't. I can't do it. "I can't do it," he gasped aloud. "I can't keep reviving and- and I-" I can't do anything, and I can only make the situation worse now. Picking and choosing. Like a God. And Kend-

"I promised her!" Zach snapped his head down and looked through wet eyes at his friend who had a tear of his own rolling down the right side of his face.

Midoriya did not know if it was for Kendo who he just thought about or for his friend right in front of him whose despair had made The Invisible Hand fall quiet himself. That villain so intent on showing the weakness of heroes and their inability to stop the virus, so eager to prove how weak heroes are and that people will turn on each other at the drop of a hat, watched Lifebringer's despair in confusion. The boy's face looked so wrinkled and old as he clenched his eyes shut and let out an agonized sob.

Deku did not know what to say this time at what Zach just shouted. Making that promise, you had to know that this could happen-

"They're all counting on me," Zach gasped. "They all believe I can… And I can't. It's something I can't do-" His eyes parted and two more tears fell right down his cheeks over the scars on them and dripped off his ripped-up chin. "I promised her!" He shouted. "I made a promise, and there has to be a way… We had to-" Zach looked back at The Invisible Hand, but nothing he could do to that man would make it so he could keep his promise to them.

Midoriya started shaking his head and Zach looked back to him. "You can't save everyone," Midoriya whispered softly to him.

"I promised," Zach hissed back. "I made that promise, knowing I might not…" he admitted what Midoriya was just thinking Zach had to know himself. It confused Deku for a moment, but Zach's eyes shook as more tears fell from them in agony. "I knew I might not be able to keep- but this time, this time when I made it I thought-"

"'This time?'" Midoriya asked in a breath.

Zach shook his head side to side. "I've broken that promise more times than I can count," he rasped back in so much pain. "I make it to push myself harder. I promise directly to people, without knowing if I really can but- but I know that if I make the promise I'll take it harder when I fail…" Zach rose his hands up to his face and grabbed over his eyes then pushed into his hair with his face scrunching up in fearful panic. I need- I need to not break down this time. I can't! I'm not Him. I can't just break a promise like that and- "I promised her she wouldn't die. I remembered bringing her back but, but I swore I wouldn't let her die anyway. And I'm going to break that promise again." Like I have so many times. I told all of them…

Zach's phone buzzed. His and Midoriya's ERT's had been going off over and over again. Zach reached down though and Midoriya finally pulled out his ERT as they had the villains stopped and needed to focus on the next steps now. Midoriya rubbed his eyes with his left hand while pulling out the tablet to move on and focus on their mission rather than their friend in Class B. Zach lifted his phone though that had an unknown number calling him on it, though one that actually showed the number and not just 'UNKNOWN' as Shunfeng's caller I.D. had read. "What?" Zach asked, his tone scary dark as he responded to someone in English.

"Life-bringer?"

The weak voice that responded made Zach feel sick. It felt like dying from Sleepless, his insides melting as he heard Su-Jin's voice rasp out his hero name. She's still conscious? Why haven't they put her under? Do I have to- tell her? Zach felt like puking and his expression showed it as Midoriya darted his eyes back towards him. "Su-Jin," Zach whispered, his vision blurry as water completely filled them.

I need to focus! The name of the air-conditioning company- I'll take a picture! Midoriya turned and lifted his ERT to get a shot of one of the vans, pulling The Invisible Hand with a yank of his right hand that he had him attached to by the Blackwhip that stayed tightened on his enemy's wrists. He kept The Invisible Hand right next to him, though that villain was looking the other way at Lifebringer who lifted his left hand to his forehead and gripped it tightly as he listened to the woman speaking back to him.

"They're going to, put me under," Su-Jin whispered in Chinese that he understood. At her side was a student who had given her Zach's number, and the girl with long earlobes continued looking away as the Chinese woman glanced at her then past her and to the bed where there was already an unconscious boy laying next to her on life support. "Nn-nn… Lifebringer," she whispered after muffled and painless coughs in her throat. "It's alright. If you can't save me, I understand."

"Ah, haa, ahh, hahh," Zach pulled his mouth from the receiver as he knew his panting would be heard on the other end. He sucked in a sharp breath but could not hold it in.

His eyes clenched shut as her voice came through the phone, "You don't need to keep, your promise. It's okay." Su-Jin was in critical condition and could feel like she was getting close. Zach heard in her voice a tone that only he knew. A tone that the people he had revived before had taught him when they spoke while close to death a second time. The recognition in their voices that they were feeling the same thing they felt last time… he could hear it as clearly as sadness or anger. And it made him sick.

He opened his mouth. What am I doing? His lips shook as his mouth failed to make out any sound. All he wanted to do was tell her to stop talking like that. Tell her it's alright. Tell her she'll wake up. That she can be with her son- that her son will have a mother! Tell her! Zach's eyes squinted and he choked on nothing. I can't make another promise I can't keep. She won't believe me anyway. Not as I am now- Not, when I know it isn't true.

"Thank you… for trying."

"I'm sorry," Zach gasped into the phone. "I'm…" he blinked and another tear fell down from his right eye over the scar and down to his lips it got caught on the corner of. The shaking corner of his lip shook it off though and made it drip to his chin that it dangled on as he imagined how her face must have just twisted in learning that there really was no hope. "I'll revive him," Zach just whispered, not knowing what else he could say.

"Please do," she whispered back, and then she pulled the phone from her own head as she started a coughing fit that splashed blood onto the inside of her mask. She moved the phone off to her side and just shook it, the pain too much that she wanted to go under now.

Jirou took the phone from the woman's hand and pulled it closer to herself. It was the Chinese woman's phone, so Jirou knew the person on the other side of the line did not know that she was holding it. Her right hand started lifting the phone up, her expression shaken as she saw the despair on the patient's face who she was now responsible for putting into a coma. Jirou lifted the phone a little more and then watched as the call cut off before she could bring it to her ear and speak.

Zach hung up and his right arm dropped down limply at his side.

"…We're going to find them all anyway. If you tell us now, at least, you won't get the maximum sentence. If you cooperate to help us end this now," Midoriya's voice gained a hint of pleading in it as he saw The Invisible Hand look back at him with a more human expression than just taunting and evil. The villain smirked after a moment though when he had looked away from Lifebringer for long enough to forget the boy's responses that did not make sense to him the way he saw the world.

"You may find them," The Invisible Hand replied. "But it will be too late. I can't stop it myself, even if I tried," the villain added with a dry laugh. He saw out the corner of his eyes Lifebringer looking down over towards the unconscious Contagion, something that had Deku staring over nervously once again. The Invisible Hand mentioned louder, "Even if Contagion's unconscious, even if he's killed, it won't stop." Zach turned his head and looked back over in nothing but sadness. "It won't become inert," The Invisible Hand assured. "It's not connected to him now. It will kill everyone. Once it infects them, it will kill them, without fail. Ahhahaha- AHAHAHA- HAAAHAHAHAHA!" His voice rose back up and he started laughing like mad like he just remembered that he had won, and he ignored the fact that for some reason it had not felt like that for a minute or so.

His examples were all cities outside of Gangwe. I told Star-Spangled Man that he said Beijing, Shanghai, Qingxiao, and Huangdoo anyway. Those are just examples of huge cities, but he didn't sound concerned about our quarantine, Midoriya thought quickly as he tried figuring out from their current information where the next attacks could be. Yet that's not true! He taunted about them releasing the gas at the baggage claim, because Contagion was at XAX! That probably means that he was trying to get out of the region but we stopped them in time. And those air conditioning vans shouldn't be able to make it out of the province. They aren't essential and the business itself isn't even real- or it may be real. It could be a front. And it could have locations where other Fabu members are located. Ones who may be willing to give up locations… Only if they know. Would The Invisible Hand tell all the members where the targets- they might demand to know! Worried that the virus would be released near them. Alright, it's worth looking into!

I was here. Deku, Star-Spangled Man, Lifebringer. We were here. And we're going to fail. I can't breathe, Zach's right hand rose to his chest but he had to raise it higher and put it over his eyes. He gasped out, This mistake. Waiting an extra day. I could have acted sooner. People will watch as villains kill millions and heroes can't do anything. Midoriya's right though! Things won't just suddenly break down to the worst possible scenario, but that doesn't mean it won't have consequences. The evil it will breed. The enemies- and in the short term all those families will feel despair. Because the worst kind of despair is when you feel hope first. Hope when they hear that we defeated the Fabu, and hope because Lifebringer is there… can I revive them all? The thought of it made him perspire and his hand could feel it on his head even through his glove as the surface of his skin got slick.

"Lifebringer… Lifebringer! Zach!" Midoriya yelled his friend's name as Zach was not responding to him. "Come on," Midoriya motioned back towards the main base area that they had to go secure all the villains in. "Let's put them over there and then search the rest of the base and make sure it's safe before others arrive."

"I can't do this, Midoriya," Zach whispered. He lowered his hand and stared in dread to his classmate who kept his expression straight even while looking at the aged and hopeless look in Zach's eyes.

"You have to. Hold it together for-"

"I'm helpless," Zach's voice cracked as he cut off his friend whose eyes widened as Zach looked down at his open palms. "All this strength means nothing if I can't save one person."

"You can," Midoriya said. "You can save other people-"

"You can't save them all-"

Midoriya yanked his Blackwhip towards himself and kneed up into The Invisible Hand's gut. Zach's eyes just stayed locked on his friend's though and he responded hoarsely, "I decided to save her though. I need to be able to choose."

Midoriya looked confusedly back at him for that statement. You, want to choose? I thought that was harder-

"Just saying that I could revive someone else trivializes the value of a single life," Zach continued. "I could always just save someone else. Other people, than the ones I'm currently saving… That's always an option. But I can't use that as an excuse. It's why I couldn't let that little girl die, even though she was Cayman's daughter. A trillionaire's kid. It didn't matter, that I could have been saving someone else. Like they all said… she was in front of me, and I chose to save her. That was all!" Zach yelled it angrily for a moment before cracking again and looking away as he could not maintain eye contact with the guilt he felt. "I just needed to… to save someone."

"And when I saw that woman dying, again," Zach hissed. "I decided that I was going to save her. That, was how I was going to be a hero, and I failed. I failed and she doesn't even blame me." Zach ground his teeth frustratedly and Midoriya flinched thinking of who Zach had been on the phone with.

All that power and you couldn't save a single person. You could save so many, but you can always save so many. To you, reviving people isn't even heroism- or does it just hurt too much that you can't feel any gratification from it? Deku ground his own teeth at the thought, You needed to save someone where it didn't hurt you to do so. And instead, all you did was act like a villain and… and now it's too late. It's not though! Midoriya shook his head around. He's making me feel like this! It's not just other people who your negativity influences- so I'm glad! I'm glad it's just me here to witness it! "How many people have you revived in China?!"

Zach lifted his pained eyes and just stared at Deku silently for a moment. "How many of them could be in Gangwe about to get infected?!" Midoriya rose his voice louder, shaking Zach this time and making his friend lean his head back with widening eyes. "You failed! Sometimes… sometimes we fail! We let people down, but we can't stop! We can't-"

"You're right. Let's make up lost time," Zach shot to Contagion's side and yanked the unconscious man off the floor. I've wasted time. People are dying. What am I doing? FUCK IT! Kendo's never going to open her eyes again. RAAAAA! "We're the fastest in China right now. As much as we need to deal with cleaning this up and handling our own mess here, we're of more use to everyone as the ones actually searching for those vans and taking them out. The way he said they're distributing the gas means we just have to search every road in the province."

"Every-" Midoriya started. His surprised eyes at how quickly Zach adjusted started getting back to normal only to widen again at what he just said.

"Every road," Zach repeated with a dart of his gaze to Deku's. "The two of us are fast. Fast enough to search entire cities in minutes, right? It's a vast area. Star-Spangled Man can help. Ectoplasm can split up too, and there are so many heroes who can help with this." Zach had his ERT out and was already calling Mulan, Tea Master, Szechuman, Jake Long, Coola, and Star-Spangled Man before his sentence finished. If we could figure out the number of vehicles we need to catch up to and stop them all- Returning to U.A. and seeing Class B- even Class A, after letting Kendo die. Letting her succumb after she didn't tell anyone she died. My failure as tens of thousands die and I did nothing for 90% of them…

"Lifebringer, Deku, I'm approaching your position now-"

"We've taken the base and all the Fabu members here," Zach interrupted the American. "Deku's about to do a sweep and make sure it was all of them. This is the enemy's leader, going by The Invisible Hand. Anyone recognize-"

"You captured them?!"

"You boys did it!"

"He claims they already sent out a fleet of vans all stocked with gas tanks ready to deploy Sleepless tonight over a six hour period. He says they're already releasing them all over the place in a plan to kill millions." Zach continued moving forward with both enemies now as Midoriya raced around to double check the safety of the base before Star-Spangled Man could arrive. They did not want to assure him that it was safe and then have an enemy in hiding ready to jump out at him, though it had been a few seconds and Zach still had not felt a huge rumbling sensation from anywhere else in the base so he figured they had probably captured them all.

None of the FLICC commanders or other high-ranking heroes could speak for a few seconds after what Lifebringer just reported in. Zach continued after a moment of his mind racing faster to try and push his focus onto the current issues and not all the painful thoughts he was having. "Deku took pictures of the vans that are all identical to the scratches on the door. Assuming that the lockdown is working and their targets are all inside of Gangwe, that gives us a huge area to cover in the next hour to stop this-"

"The next hour?" Mulan asked.

"A time table I think we should set for ourselves not to go over," Zach replied, indicating it had nothing to do with what The Invisible Hand had said. "He taunted like the attack was already underway but also that it was occurring tonight, and the night has just begun. We have no time. This will be their biggest release yet-"

"And you won't be able to-"

"Just shut up already," Zach muttered, roughly tossing The Invisible Hand forward before lowering Contagion down softer.

The Invisible Hand tried to stop himself from hitting the ground hard, but his arms wobbled as he put them out in front of him and after a second he collapsed onto his face anyway. "Huh?" The villain's voice came out hoarse as for some reason he felt so weak all of a sudden. Zach had touched him with enough Death to keep him barely moving on the floor in the middle of the biggest room while he went around to gather up the other Fabu villains nearby.

"Base is cleared," Deku landed down on Zach's side and finished saying that before his feet touched the floor. "Tell everyone showing up to be careful though while they're here. There are canisters full of what I believe to be Sleepless laying all over the place."

"Did you catch the villain whose Quirk-"

Deku and Zach each nodded and Zach pointed the ERT back at the second of the captured villains the other heroes had seen them moving with initially. He turned the ERT back to himself, "We should take some of his blood and send it to labs, see if he's immune to his own disease and try to reverse-engineer his-"

"Did you locate a cure, or a vaccine that could-" Szechuman started.

"The don't have one," Deku replied. His voice was low and his expression darker in his response, though he kept his eyes forward on the tablet without looking next to him.

Szechuman shifted his focus onto Sazaki though after Deku's response that he did not feel like questioning to see if the teens made sure of it. "I see. I'm, sorry."

"The two of us are the fastest in the region," Zach replied without commenting on Szechuman's apology to him. It's all of our tragedy. I'm not the only one who- who promised he'd save! Of course I am! No one else is that- Damn it. He grit his teeth for a moment as he gulped, then he continued quickly to get right past that as his thoughts were slowing him down again when he had decided already that he was not going to allow that. "I don't want to leave this place without anyone here, so… Deku and I will transport heroes from nearby Weiling and contact the officers there to come here."

"Zalung is leading Weiling's quarantine," Mulan informed.

"Then we'll have him take over here-" Zach replied but got cut off as Coola snapped at them.

"Wait! Just because you two are fast- what are you going to do? Do you have any information on where the attacks are taking place? Any leads-"

"As I said, it's a huge area to cover," Lifebringer stated.

"The entire region?" Tea Master wondered, her British accent raising up skeptically at what she thought Lifebringer was suggesting.

"We can do it," Deku replied this time. "We'll move as fast as we can."

"I will as well," Star-Spangled Man agreed, even though he could see the cliffside base with a huge hole in it just ahead of him.

Zach nodded his head gratefully at the TST's leader and then added intensely to all the heroes, "Tell your teams what's happening and have them closely examine the pictures we send of the vans and the release tanks. Have the teams searching for them wearing masks, and make sure they know what to do if they find one releasing Sleepless. Get Encode and G-Man to coordinate search patterns with support teams to make sure we don't waste time lapping each other in the same cities while others don't get searched at all. We might be too late already, but any one of these vans we stop before it's released all of its Sleepless is thousands of lives saved."

"I'll relay it across the board," Mulan replied. She was in charge of the entire command structure and her response to Lifebringer eliminated any reason for the others to mention how he was not in charge here, not that any of them considered it for more than a second.

Szechuman turned his head to the side again on his end of the call as people behind him were making a lot of noise. "Sir, a call-"

"It can wait," Szechuman snapped.

He had been trying to ignore the commotion growing behind him in the command center, but as he turned back to the call, the support member behind him insisted, "It's urgent sir. They need to talk to you right away-"

"Fine!" Szechuman moved with the ERT in hand as Star-Spangled Man, Deku, and Lifebringer started discussing how they would search most efficiently while everyone else was still getting notified of the situation. He grabbed the phone that the support member was holding for him and he answered a call that he had been denying on his ERT for the past two minutes every time it popped up. "What is it?" He snapped, frustrated as the call on his ERT was far more important…

Deku's eyes shifted towards the top left corner of the ERT Zach was holding as he noticed a shift in Szechuman's expression. Szechuman's lips flattened out as he nodded to the person speaking to him on that line, and he muttered, "Uh huh?" Szechuman nodded, and nodded, then he asked with his eyes widening a little, "It does?"

The ERT call got one box smaller as Szechuman's line cut off. Coola rose her eyebrows in surprise as Szechuman had a moment ago seemed to be trying to ignore the other call in favor of this one, but he apparently just hung up on them. "What was that about-"

"We'll find out later," Star-Spangled Man replied to the number 2 of his country. "It's time to act!"

"Go," Mulan told the three who finished their quick discussion of where to go and how to keep in contact where they had searched. It was possible for the villains in their moving vehicles to drive into streets that were already searched before so they were going to struggle with that issue as well, but they had decided to work out more specifics on the go while staying in contact constantly through their earpieces.

Zach had been the one to suggest constant radio contact, darting a look to Midoriya as he said it which his friend saw and made him nod back seriously as he got why Zach would give him that look. Part of the reason he needed me here with him, Midoriya thought after they broke eye contact and then started running for the exit together. They were heading to Weiling together to pick up authorities as was the first step of their plan, but after that the two of them would be splitting up. It's why you didn't just leave Fundong on your own. You know what we'll assume you did if you aren't under supervision. And after seeing what just happened back there… did I stop you?

If I'm on the call with them I'll make sure to keep myself from getting too dark in potentially very public places. Finding these terrorists after they've already started releasing Sleepless on an unsuspecting population though, I don't want the others to hear me when I reach them. I could mute the call- What was the point of saying anything then? They need punish- Justice! Is throwing them in prison for the rest of their lives enough punishment for what they're doing? Why? Why?! Why do I want to watch them shit themselves? Is it because they made me… Revenge. If my reasons are revenge, then I can't. Zach pictured himself holding up a dark sword over Dorgon the Dragon's body, and he watched as he plunged it into the floor instead. I'm not that strong. I'm not Him-

No, Zach's expression hardened and he created two black wings that spread slowly out of his back as he sped up in his run to the exit of the base. I'm Lifebringer. I'm a hero, which means I have to be even stronger than Death. I need more restraint and better judgement. That's the job of a hero. And not just letting one bad incident, and one mistake, tear you down. Make you turn against everything you once believed. That's why I failed at being a hero last time. I can't give up this time though. No matter how much it hurts…

"Thank you." Zach winced as he heard Kendo's voice at the Yuki Yama Ski Resort. When he was about to leave after lunch he pictured her standing up so fast because she did not want to let him go without first saying it. "Thanks… for coming back." He imagined her bloody corpse laying in the base of villains that he had cleared out. And he saw her eyes opening back up, then shifting into eyes even more afraid as back then that he saw only hours ago on the street of Yuanbo where he knelt down next to her as their target got away. Finally he could see it as he soared through the air, the tiniest gasp she had let out and the awed look on her face as she stared out over the city below as he held her…

"Don't leave again."

I'm sorry, Kendo. I won't go off the rails for this. I'll hold it together, because that's what you wanted. I'll stay here and do the best I can to make things right. From the light.

---

"Van." Zach's visor scanned the side of the vehicle and gave him a 100% match between the one he was looking at and one he had scanned inside the Fabu's base.

"How are you going to-" Star-Spangled Man began. It was the first van discovered by any of them searching, and it had been over twenty minutes already.

CRSSHH! Zach's feet pressed the engine of the van through the bottom of the vehicle and into the pavement below. The street cracked and Zach's entire body tensed up as he could see in his peripheral vision the road under the van he had just incapacitated. His black wings were the only Death on his body, at least intentionally. He could feel the black lines creeping in the sides of his face though like veined branches. His eyes flashed red as he glared through the windshield at the woman whose airbag went off but she pushed it down afterwards.

"What was…" she was reaching to her side for the glovebox, but her hand froze as she shook out of the disorientation and saw who was staring through her windshield. "Oh," her voice cracked and she smiled ear to ear at the sight of the teenager. "That's not good."

"Lifebringer?!"

"What's going on?"

Zach turned his head left and right with his face returned to normal. "Evacuate the area in a calm and orderly fashion. Cover your mouths-"

"AHHHH!"

"FUCK!"

"WE'RE DEAD!"

That was unavoidable. I can only hope it saves more lives than costs them through the panic. Zach knocked out the villain inside the van while dropping off the side of it and moving around the side of the vehicle that got dented just from the impact. The wheels below the front were flattened and broken off their axel, and Zach tore the back doors of the van right off to see a tank with a biohazard symbol on it in the back with tubes strapped down into the floor and he where he knew they connected to the exhaust port of the vehicle. It's already on. Disconnecting it might just spray it all out here. Zach slid under the back of the van.

His body distorted as it shrunk down and slid underneath the white vehicle. He pushed up with hands that stuck out of the dark mass, then he pressed his legs down into the floor. "Up we go," he pushed up and lifted the van over his head, then when he had enough room he unbent his legs in a jump and flapped down a pair of wings below him. "I've got the villain and gas in the vehicle that I'm taking out of Exing-Hua. I'm bringing it up high in the sky before dealing with it."

"You think turning off the ventilation system early may trigger a total release? Or an explosion?" Star-Spangled Man wondered.

I wasn't, actually. Zach frowned deeper but determined a moment later, If it does it does. It won't kill me. Out from his back emerged a dark form that climbed over the back of the van from where Zach continued to hold it underneath. The dark form stood up in the vehicle and stepped forward with two glowing red eyes forming on its face as Zach closed his own from underneath in the crushed-up undercarriage. He added after a moment, "Those detailed schematics we were sent didn't show anything like those safety measures."

"Not in the vans that hadn't left yet. It could be they're put in at the end," Deku countered.

"It's possible, but not with this van at least," Zach replied. "I've sealed the tank. Looks like it's been releasing for, ten minutes?" Zach's eyes opened up underneath the van and he grimaced for a moment but then kept those eyes open anyway. It felt weird considering he could still see inside the vehicle where a condensed mass of Death was checking the reading for how filled the tank was. A meter on it was almost at full but closer to 97% full now, and with 360 minutes, 3 percent of that was around ten minutes.

"That's great news," Star-Spangled Man said in an optimistic tone.

"It would be better news if it hadn't started releasing at all yet." Zach grimaced deeper then said in a dark voice, "We have to make an announcement about the attack. Get everyone in masks and off the streets. It's already started. Our announcing it won't make them start the releases early."

"What if they release it all at once though?" Star-Spangled Man questioned the plan of action Lifebringer suggested.

"They can't," Deku countered the top American hero. "It doesn't stay in the air for very long. If they release all the Sleepless at once it will still only last ten to twenty minutes before settling. The most dangerous thing about this release is that it's going to go on for hours."

"If they panic and release it all at once, it might actually help us," Zach admitted. "But most of all, I'm seeing the public panic that our appearing and stopping one of these vans in a populated place causes. We need to make an announcement before traffic accidents of people trying to flee Exing-Hua exceeds-"

BZZ BZZ Zach's earpiece got cut off as his ERT that the comms were connected to buzzed to indicate he was getting another call.

"Hold on, I'm getting a call," Midoriya started.

"Same here."

"Keep moving while you talk to them," Star-Spangled Man told the boys who both responded positively before jumping into the other call.

Zach flew off to lower the vehicle in a safe location far from the city that he hoped the release was not going to be too bad in after how quickly he located the Fabu. Unless there's another van in this city alone. Do I check? "Lifebringer here."

"Deku as well."

"Hi boys," Recovery Girl started. She sounded exhausted, but the tone of her voice also made the two heroes imagine her smiling. There was a heavy relief in her tone as she spoke to them in a soft voice, "I just heard what you're doing, and I know you don't need anything to distract you from it."

What's wrong? It doesn't sound like she's calling with bad news, Zach felt his whole body paralyze with fear again. What would distract us from our mission?!

"But I believe you each should hear the good news now," Recovery Girl said it with a half-smile but her eyes were still sad. She imagined how they currently felt with all she had just been updated on about their mission. Then she told the two she pictured working as hard as they could despite how horrible they must feel, "We've made great progress since you left. Not us, specifically. But lots of assistance has come in that is helping us right now, and there's hope that a new treatment is what we've been looking for."

"A new treatment?" Zach wondered while flapping his wings behind him again to zip through the streets of Exing-Hua, keeping watch for any potential accidents while searching at the same time for more vans. He darted his eyes over to a huge tv billboard on the side of a building that was normally used for advertisements but now just had messages from the transitional government telling everyone to stay safe and wear masks. The screen suddenly shifted to show Mulan in the middle of the Xing Command Center, and Zach looked away as he figured Star-Spangled Man had relayed his suggestion and Mulan was acting on it already.

"Yes," Recovery Girl responded to the student whose tone did not rise as optimistically as she wanted it to. She had hoped her tone would get it through alone, but she more quickly got to the point now, "Samples of Sleepless were sent all over the world to different scientists and specialists who were experimenting to come up with treatments. In Costa Rica, it seems that they have had success with a treatment that counteracts the effects of Sleepless on the body. Upon closer inspection, their success was confirmed. The blood infected with Sleepless particles, after being injected by the serum, comes out without any Sleepless particles in it."

"What, are you saying-" Zach started while Midoriya froze in midair for a moment with his eyes bulged huge.

"We believe it is a cure," Recovery Girl said. Zach fell out of the sky and flipped himself over right before hitting the floor. He landed on his feet but had too much momentum and stumbled forward before falling into a tumble that he jumped out of. "A man in Costa Rica who had been training his Quirk since last year discovered many healing properties to a mildly acidic serum that his body produced. He only realized it after Costa Rica changed its laws to allow people to train their Quirks regularly and use them in certain jobs. Combined with the efforts of the scientists who he offered his help to, they developed a serum that when injected into infected blood has killed the Sleepless cells while sparing the normal blood cells. We don't know for sure yet if it works the same for cells of all organs, but it appears that Jon Juan's Quirk specifically targets the foreign Sleepless particles. Under magnification the scientists reported even infected blood cells had the Sleepless embedded in them killed without those cells being destroyed. Only cells in the final stages of infection were still destroyed…"

"Recovery Girl," Zach started hesitantly. His heart was pounding in his chest and he did everything he could to keep himself calm in the moment. "How long will it be before they can make enough-"

"The Twin Jaguars are protecting him and bringing him to Fundong as we speak. When they saw the first signs that their efforts were succeeding they prepared to send him and their lab team-"

"How long?" Zach repeated through a strained voice.

"They're making more on the flight. I've heard up to a hundred doses are already prepared, and they plan to speed up production as soon as they arrive at the FLICC and have a proper lab again. Their cure has yet to be used on any sick patients because all are inside of Gangwe but the evidence is starting to mount in our favor…" Wumm wmmm wmmm Zach heard a low whirring in his ears that made it harder to hear Recovery Girl over. Could this really-

"At the moment, all of us not currently assisting in your important measure to stop the exponential increase of infections, are doing what we can to extend the lives of those in the worst stages of the infection. A new invention of a different kind of life support machine, the KO-14, is currently being mass produced by Creati as it has already started showing signs of slowing the death rate. That is not to say that the pile-up of bodies here isn't bigger than it's ever been. The rate had been constantly rising, but though the production of these machines has not lowered the death rate, for the first time since we arrived the death rate is rising at a slower pace in the past hours than it was before that. More people have died this hour than the hour before, but that was not as great an increase as from five hours ago to four. The machine is working, and as news of the potential cure is starting to spread we are also beginning to see a surge in volunteer offers as people seem to want to flood to the FLICC's to give their support in knowledge that it's not a death sentence anymore."

All of this is happening right now? Midoriya thought in amazement, his lips curling up in a smile before he shot back off in the air to make sure to keep those infections down to a level they could handle.

"Those people can assist the doctors and nurses on their last legs. We need to transfer everyone onto KO-14's, and inject everyone with the Quirk-based cure that targets Sleepless and kills it. It's something we hadn't tried here in Fundong, despite the virus itself being Quirk-made. But after all, a Quirk like this that can cause so much damage, you'd imagine that somewhere in the world there was someone with a Quirk that could counter it." Recovery Girl said it softly and with a nostalgic smile on her face. She tried to picture Sazaki's face that she hoped reacted to what she just said to him.

My counter to Principal Nezu? All the way back then. That's… you're saying that I… Zach's face scrunched up more and his heart did not stop pounding at the bones in his chest that felt like they were bruising from it. The Fabu are caught. Even if some escape now- even if there are remnants! Zach's lips trembled and then slowly, the corners of his lips started to rise too. And Su-Jin, Kendo, all of them have- they have a chance?! How?!

The response to the Sleepless Outbreak in Gangwe, China changed overnight. Many people went to bed and woke up to a different world than the one they had gone to sleep in. What had seemed like a desperate and near hopeless situation had turned into one that inspired hope. New technology and a cure appeared out of nowhere and saved a region descending into chaos. Simultaneously, the UN's largest-ever response team arrived all over Gangwe and helped out in every way they could. All those waking up also came to learn the name of the terrorist group attacking China, and how Lifebringer and Deku had captured the villains' leader and the one responsible for creating the Sleepless virus as well. The two teens were also being credited with stopping the next massive release that heroes could not hide had been coming all over Gangwe as well as outside of the region even, as two vans were located driving off-road far from any border checks. Those vans had made it out of Gangwe's border but were stopped by Deku around midnight of the Failed Sleepless Release, a name that Star-Spangled Man wanted the Fabu's last act to be known as.

Not many of the releases were stopped completely. Only a few villains in the Fabu seemed to question their orders or were given different times to release the Sleepless than their comrades. Either way, only one release made it the entire six hours to empty out its entire tank. The city and neighboring towns it had been released in was informed of the massive release though before the first people started showing symptoms. Heroes got ahead of the chaos and prepared an entire FLICC before the first of the sick arrived. Unfortunately, the speed at which the cure was being made while directly linked to one man's Quirk meant that those who were most sick were given the cure first, and there were thousands of them who needed it. The most sick were also the first ones transferred onto KO-14's, leaving tens of thousands to deal with the early stages of Sleepless just waiting for more assistance that they were promised was on its way.

Reports of Lifebringer, Deku, and a few other heroes' actions in stopping the Fabu around China spread rapidly. Other reports also spread though, and rumors became confirmed by witnesses, until the fact that Deku had been with him and that other heroes also did help take on the Fabu started to be looked over. News of Lifebringer stopping the terrorists spread far and wide much faster than Sleepless could ever transmit. That news was mixed with the unconfirmed rumors that he had been the one to track them down. On top of that, the badly infected patients who could not be saved by the new cure or by being put on machines to extend their lives… were once again being revived by the hero who returned to the Fundong FLICC after defeating the terrorists known as the Fabu.

---

A/N Thanks for reading. The ending here comes a bit ambiguously and I know there are some questions left unanswered... for now. Sleepless arc has one more chapter left in it so don't think I'm just ending things here, though... well, no spoilers as to what's to come as much as I want to talk about it. ;) Guess you'll just have to wait and see. I hope you enjoyed the chapter though. Zach and Midoriya take on the Fabu pretty effortlessly, with the main struggle of the chapter rather being what to do when all hope seemed lost. Zach struggled between Death and Lifebringer, and Deku helps him as much as he can. Leave a review telling me what you thought of the chapter and the developments, questions you may have, comments, or predictions of what's to come... as well as predictions as to the biggest question there is at the end of this chapter...

Simon Giel chapter 225 . May 14

Happy birthday Tmb!

Thanks!

GrayReader chapter 226 . May 15

Hands down the best birthday present I could have asked for, Zach'a showing more of his death side every chapter and I can't wait until everything climaxes. Once again, a great chapter, stay safe!

And happy birthday to you Reader! Zach's Death side nearly erupts this chapter as he goes off on the Fabu, but he manages to hold onto the light throughout the ordeal. Thanks for the review and hope you enjoyed!

Guest chapter 226 . May 16

For some reason I read "I didn't ask" and my brain automatically read it in the voice of the kidnapper from Taken who says"good luck".

Haha no way! Zach's more like Liam Neeson if anyone from that movie. Lol still a scary line though, glad it made you think of it!

The black Kight chapter 226 . May 15

hello, I don't really do this but I couldn't help but give you the songs that make me think of this fic. I know that most likely you won't watch them but I can hope no?
「Nightcore」 Cost Of The Crown
Nightcore Wrong Side of Heaven
CoD: Modern Warfare RAP "The Price of War" by JT Music (LYRICS VIDEO)
No Hero By JT Music (A Venom Rap Lyrics Video)
Jack savoretti Soldiers Eyes Lyrics
Karliene - Become The Beast [LYRICS] - A Hannibal Fan Song
Shape-Shifters [AMV] I'm Dangerous
Nightcore Savages (lyrics) (the one with wings)
I hope you get the chance to watch them but I won't be too sad if you don't. I know you are very busy :) thank you for all of your hard work its not often that writers like you pop up :)

Hey! Pretty cool list you've got. Haven't gotten to 'em yet, so I started playing them in the background as I respond to reviews! XD Thanks for the list and review, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Tigracho chapter 226 . May 17

Petition here to make this fic get a tv trophes page. It's criminal it doesn't have one.

I agree! Heard this a few times in the reviews now but still don't see one out there. Someday though! It'll come. XD Thanks for reviewing!

WomanSlayer chapter 226 . May 19

Absolutely haunting... Holy cow dude...

What I was going for. Thanks!