Ochako leaned against the nearby wall as she caught her breath. She hadn't fought this hard or been this battered since the duels she and the other angels had had with Shigiraki, or when she had been forced to fight a High-End Nomu on her own. Whoever this woman was, she was absurdly strong for a non-modified human, at least she hoped she was unmodified. So, with a final breath, she collected herself and readied for a finishing blow that put the woman down long enough for members of the QSU to restrain her. She hoped it would be enough. She had her doubts that her attempt at snapping the woman's neck worked since she hadn't actually felt or heard any of the bones break.
Then the woman spoke, it was like a whisper but hoarse and raspy. As if she hadn't spoken in many years.
"Please... kill... me..." she rasped out.
Ochako felt herself stop in shock.
"If... you... do it... they... will... believe it..." she rasped out slowly.
In a sudden flash of insight, Ochako understood then, truly understood this woman, and why her eyes reminded Ochako of her own. She was what Ochako had been only a couple of years ago. Broken, and beyond feeling anything but anger, hate, apathy, and hopelessness. Ochako recalled the terrible months following the death of Hikari and Gentle. It had all seemed so meaningless to her, fighting, living, and happiness; her last dregs of duty the only thing keeping her going. So long as there had been a mission (the more dangerous the better) she could put it all out of her mind. She didn't know when it started, but at some point, she had wanted to die on a subconscious level. Her sense of duty, however, prevented her from contemplating suicide, for a time anyway. She would storm entire bunkers and hideouts solo, fighting dozens of villains and terrorists, skirting the line of life and death every time.
It wasn't quite the same with this woman though, it wasn't loss that weighed on her soul as it had with Ochako, she could see that. But whatever it was had thoroughly broken her, the woman no longer saw a way out of whatever kind of pain she was in, and now death had become preferable. With that realization though, came a newfound sense of purpose. Ochako knew what needed to be done. Perhaps it wasn't too late to save her, perhaps Ochako could even save her in this very fight. Her resolve hardened, and she prepared herself for what was to come.
"I'm sorry, but I won't." Said Ochako
The woman turned her head towards Ochako from where she lay to stare at her. Up close, Ochako noticed that the skin had small hairline black cracks stemming from around the eyes that faded back to normal skin and had two small studs for earrings that looked be a gold color but were so worn and dull it was hard to tell.
"Why... " she rasped in an emotionless voice.
"Because I know what you feel, and because I know, I have to save you from whatever binds you. If not for your sake, then for mine." Ochako said quietly.
The woman didn't say anything, just turned her head to face the ceiling again. Eventually, she moved though, slowly standing up, and facing away from Ochako but within striking range with her massive claws.
"You... can't... save me..." she rasped out one final time.
"I can, and I promise you that I will," Ochako said.
There was silence again save for the odd noise of rubble falling to the ground. Ochako tensed, ready to move at a moment's notice. The tension in the air was palpable, and Ochako felt a bead of sweat trickle down the side of her face. Then the woman twitched and in an eyeblink and explosion of movement, was swinging another clawed hand at her throat. Ochako glided backward already ready for it and countered with a lightning-quick finger jab right at the ulnar nerve of the elbow as it passed by.
The woman screamed as the shot through her arm and into her shoulder, the arm going limp. Ochako pressed her advantage, ripping the entire oaken bar from the floor, she slammed it against the woman. Pushing her deep into the opposite wall so her good arm was trapped between her and the wall, while the giant bar table was steadily pushed into her side. With the woman restrained, she shot forward and went for her throat. She'd been watching the woman carefully their entire fight, and the reprieve had allowed Ochako to chance to study the woman without the distraction of battle. With the epiphany earlier, she now knew what this women's weakness was.
As she rushed forward, she saw a faint glint of silver. Then pain exploded from her side; stumbling, she looked down to see a silvery spine-like tail with glowing red blood vessels and a wicked spike on the end retracting from her side, letting a wash of blood gush from the wound as it did. As dire a wound as it was, it only reaffirmed Ochako's assessment that she needed to end the fight asap. This woman at her full strength could have probably rivaled her using QUEESS. She didn't really have a chance of winning a dragged-out fight like this; especially now that she had a hole in her side. She grit her teeth and planted both her hands around the woman's neck and then dug her hands into the flesh and around the rim of the collar fused to the woman's skin and flesh, just barely visible as the flesh had grown around the collar. Using the full force of her quirk, she pulled in opposite directions right as the tail stabbed into her back. She strained for a few seconds, pushing through the pain, feeling the veins in her arms bulge, and for a moment she feared even her strength reinforced by her quirk would not suffice. Then with the groaning and wrenching of metal being pulled apart and a spurt of blood, the collar was torn in half and cast to the sides. She released her quirk and fell backward, the table smashing into the floor and the woman falling on top of it. Ochako was having trouble moving and she started to feel cold from loss of blood and shock. She tried to get up but her exhausted muscles failed her and she blacked out.
Aria got up from the destroyed bar and looked first at the heroine in front of her, then at the remains of the collar to either side. The electrical spikes and hooks on the interior of the collar sparking wildly. She felt her neck, and she could feel the raw bleeding muscle of her neck as intense pain coursed through her entire body from the injury. Despite the pain, a flood of different emotions rushed through her until just as suddenly they simply ceased to be. She dispersed and re-absorbed her claws back into her body in a small explosion of blood so that she could interact with the heroine properly.
She got up, channeled some blood through her arm to give it a jump start, covered her neck wound in black muscle, and then climbed over the debris to the heroine. She was still alive but was rapidly bleeding out and would die shortly. She used her tail to rip open the palm of her hand and then pressed it against the holes in the heroine's side and back. The blood from her wound flowed out and into the heroine's wounds and congealed quickly, forming a seal and preventing any more substantial blood loss. It would break down over time but for now, it would suffice. She just hoped it would be enough to keep the heroine alive until she could get her actual help.
Then she ripped all of the restraints off her body leaving her nude except for the metal chain around her neck and her scarf. She had never felt so free before, and it was odd to realize that such a sensation wasn't wiped from her moments after feeling it. The emotion dampening wasn't quite as perfect as it would seem.
She reached down and picked up the girl in her arms, and walked back out of the building following the trail of destruction the two of them had wrought throughout the house. The first thing she saw when she clambered out of the house back into the pool area was that apparently, her "handler" had called in reinforcements. A squad of soldiers was restraining the unconscious heroes in quirk-canceling cuffs and prepping them for transport. Now that the whole plan had gone sideways and stealth was out, protocol dictated that they take them all back to the facility.
"Ahhh, my sweet bloodletter returns and with that irksome hero, alive I hope?" called out her "handler" to her.
She didn't say anything, merely kept walking forwards towards the group. A mercenary walked up to her with a set of cuffs open and ready to restrain the heroine. He never made it within 5 feet of her.
She had lashed out with her tail and in a blur of motion the mercenary crumpled over with a hole through his heart. The rest of the mercenaries all leveled their assault rifles at her but didn't open fire. Others readied wicked-looking melee weapons, while others readied their quirks.
"You'll have to forgive her I'm afraid, she is likely on the verge of frenzying, she likely regards anyone that isn't me or the hound-master as an enemy at the moment." Said her "handler".
"Aria put the heroine down on the ground for me." He said with all the authority he could muster.
She hesitated at first, but eventually, she put the heroine down and then started forward again.
"That's far enough my dear, just stay there." He said sharply.
She just kept walking, and she could feel her fury building, the experiments and conditioning only amplifying it. Her blood was pulsing through her body, booming in her ears, and before long it drowned out everything else. She saw her "handler" press a button on his controller, then his confusion at why nothing happened, and finally his utter terror as the truth dawned on him.
She smiled, her teeth had become razor-sharp and her incisors had become larger, a tad longer, and deadly tapered points, like that of a tiger. She saw him shout something and then the dozens of flashes of assault rifles being fired at once, accompanied by flashes of varying color as quirks were sent at her as well. The bullets ripped through the air towards her, they hit her skin and penetrated a little bit, yet, as they made contact with her blood they were stopped by her blood forming a barrier. Others sent a variety of quirk-related attacks at her, which she either smacked aside or just shrugged off, then she launched herself forward. The blood in her veins exploded through her pores and in an instant had formed a massive claw made of vibrant black fur and muscle and red blood vessels that glowed slightly in the darkness with the actual claw bits being constructed of bone-like materials shining silver.
As she ripped through the first of the mercenaries, as she felt the blood in his body slide over her claws, her eyes dilated and pure ecstasy coursed through her. Whatever Chisaki's people, then the Leagues, and then finally Zeus's people had done to her, they had made the wanton slaughter of life a more than thoroughly enjoyable experience. Perfect, her creators had figured, for what they had called "The first in a new line of Nomu" whatever that was. While it normally horrified and repulsed her, this one time she gave in to all the pleasure and power it offered, this one time she welcomed the blood frenzy.
She tore them like paper, their armor, weapons, and quirks doing little to slow her. In 10 seconds she had wiped out the entire squad of mercenaries. In that time, her form had shifted and become truly monstrous. Her body consisted of inconsistent patches of red and black fur and black muscle all over, with bony structures of silver running along with the muscle; all of it glowing with a sinister dark light. She still retained a humanoid shape, though, the temptation to descend into her true bestial form was strong. Her face already had taken on a horrifying fusion of human, tiger, and wolf, with snake-like eyes.
She forced herself to revert though, the muscle, bone, and blood all seemed to be sucked into her with a horrid noise. After the shifting was over, she took a few seconds to collect herself. Then she turned towards her "handler" and stalked towards him, her hands still retaining their claw shape and her razor-sharp, spine-like tail swishing behind her, dripping blood.
Her "handler" was backed up against the wall of the mansion, shaking all over. She walked up to him and for a moment just stared at him as blood dripped off of her face, hair, and claws. He was saying something, but she couldn't hear anything, her blood still pulsed through her ears loudly. Every once of her being was telling her to rip him asunder slowly, to make him suffer as she had. Yet, she forced her blood to calm through a supreme focus of will. The techniques she had been taught to strengthen her mind to ward off psychic and mental quirk effects coming in handy to stave off the frenzy. Then she leaned down till her face was mere inches away from his.
"Where... are... my... husband and child," she demanded, in a raspy whisper.
"I... I... I don't know... They never told me where exactly but I know that they were kept in the same place you were... please don't kill me... I-" his begging was cut-off suddenly as her claws had sunk deep into his chest. Now that she knew roughly, where they were, she could no longer resist her savage, bestial nature, and the unnatural pleasure it caused her. She felt through her claws, his organs rupturing and blood pouring out. Pleasure beyond anything she had ever felt in her life rushed through her and she purred from deep within her chest. She lifted him off the ground and held him aloft above her and let his blood run over her. Watched, as the life in his eyes faded, then she reached up with her other claw and ripped him in half. Then she kept ripping, she ripped his body to literal shreds until his blood ran over the concrete and into the pool, turning it a dark pink.
She didn't know how long she stood over the tattered remnants or how long she had been shredding them, but eventually, her blood cooled. Now at last, fully calm, human, and sober, she blinked. She looked at her handiwork, then she staggered back. She started to hyperventilate and fell to the ground. She curled into herself and started to rock back and forth. Hands clamped over her ears as the screaming echoed around her. She didn't know who the screams belonged too but they had been haunting her for as long as she had been imprisoned. Every time she lost control, she always awoke in a pool of blood and viscera. Panic was overwhelming her, the screams reaching a fever pitch and eventually, she passed out.
When members of the QSU arrived along with heroes, they didn't know what to make of the naked woman curled up and lying in a pool of blood and gore. Covered so thoroughly that it was as if she bathed in it. Not to mention being surrounded by bodies in various states, with the unconscious forms of some of the best heroes in Japan set to one side and all restrained in quirk-canceling cuffs, save for Uravity who was lying on the ground separate from everything else.
She was floating on the surface of an endless ocean. She simply gazed upwards into the blue sky, the lazy drifting of clouds the only thing of note. Some of them were pure white, some grey, and in the far distance black clouds. It was peaceful, pristine, and unchanging. She liked it like this, she didn't want it to change.
IT had other ideas though. IT always wanted change within her, wanted things that Ochako would never allow herself to have. She felt herself being flipped over against her wishes so that she was gazing into the endless black and the deepness of the ocean below her. She felt herself sink into the water and slowly drift downwards into the depths.
Then she was at the bottom, just floating and looking down at the gate before her. The chains binding it together holding firm, but she could see the chains had been weakened. The links bent and warped, as if by some great force. As she just floated, as she stared at it, she saw an indistinct figure form on the other side. It had no features, no face, no ears, but it was female proportioned and all black. Just like the darkness in which IT lived but even blacker, so black it stood out against the rest. She did note the difference from the last time she had seen it though, it had short-cropped hair now. She felt disturbed at this development.
"yo, long time no see," IT said.
"..."
"you really can't keep going like this. It's not healthy, the Doctor has been over this with you. The longer I'm stuck here, the worse it will become."
"..."
"You've already felt my influence, I won't be trapped here forever. So just get it over with and just open this gate."
"No."
"..."
"..."
The figure shrugged and started to fade back into the blackness. "Well, it's your choice I suppose, but remember Uraraka Ochako, I love you, and I always will."
She felt a brief wave of warmth and love from the gate suffuse her as she started to drift back towards the surface.
"And I will always hate you," she whispered into the ocean.
The warmth recoiled as the ocean trembled at the whisper.
