SO. We're finally here. FINALLY. The chapter I think a LOT of you have been waiting on. The chapter where, finally, FINALLY, Izuku gets his shit together. Or at least starts too.

I won't drag this out, cos I know y'all are biting at the bit, so let's dive into it.

ENJOY YO!


Time passed.

For that first day, Izuku trained with Azrael, showing him what he knew, what he could do and what his limits were when it came to Nemesis. It took almost all day, and all the while Azrael had asked him the odd question about his life, his opinions, even his favourite foods.

It was a mix of a meet and greet and an ass-kicking, and by the time Izuku went to sleep, he was exhausted and sore all over. Though at least he had texted his friends and told them all was fine and it was possibly even going well.

On the second day Azrael had pulled him back into his personal gym before the sun had even risen, where he began to teach him the basic tenants of both morning meditation, which he was ordered to do every day of his life from that day on, and then an extended lesson in Tai-Chi, which he was also to do every day of his life from that day on.

The meditation, Azrael insisted as they sat crossed legged, looking out to the vast windows waiting for the sun to rise, was to help calm and balance his soul. As Izuku's soul was basically at war with itself, it should go a long way to helping bring some peace.

It didn't.

Izuku found it impossible to focus with fire coasting through his blood and Nemesis loudly complaining about how boring it was to just sit in silence and try and focus on nothing. In the end, Azrael had called the session early. Probably because he could see the boy scowling constantly at the comments his Fallen-self had been taunting through his head.

The Tai-Chi came next.

And it went about as well as one might expect.

Azrael had made it seem like it was the most natural thing in the world. He talked gently through each motion with slow, deliberate footsteps and arm movements, and even his wings gently shifting in motion with his body. Izuku could suddenly see why Azrael moved so gracefully, like the air itself.

Izuku had fallen over several times and seemed incapable of keeping his feet in the right positions. Again, this was mostly, in Izuku's opinion, down to Nemesis kicking up a fuss and finding it a pointless exercise.

For someone who already knew some martial arts, he was pretty sure it was a complete embarrassment to his uncle, who again called it early with no amount of hidden exasperation.

It was odd though. Izuku didn't quite feel as though he was getting annoyed at him, but rather that the techniques he was trying to get across seemed to be having, if anything, the opposite effect to what he was trying to get done.

The rest of the day was spent with a usual run of training, then some talk about what it took to actually be a hero while hiding his supernatural elements. Izuku had tried to press his uncle for more answers about the world of the divine and undivine, but Hawks had mostly brushed the answers aside, telling him until he mastered himself there was little point in learning about the greater world of angels and demons.

Though he had learned some snippets, like how, apparently, he should never mention the Archangel Gabriel around Lucifer, that Metatron was a 'math nerd', and that while demons were gathered from the sins of mortals, angels were gathered from 'volunteers'. Whatever that meant.

By the time night fell on the second day, Izuku had felt as though he hadn't moved any closer to his actual goal.

Then Azrael had gone out on patrol but had not taken Izuku with him, telling him he wasn't ready, and besides, until he could fly there was no point coming along anyway.

To say Izuku went to bed disappointed that night was an understatement.

They went through the same routine the next day, with similar results.

"Alright, let's just… not continue with this for now," Azrael announced as he looked down to Izuku, who had again fallen on his ass trying to master some of the most basic movements of Tai-Chi.

Izuku blushed from shame and felt his tail slump behind him.

"Besides," He announced with a hand to his chin, "I've been thinking, and I want to run a quick test." He smiled and something devilish, despite his divine nature, was within it.

"W-Wait, don't you need to sleep or something? You were out all night."

It was true. Azrael had come in the next morning and had only changed out of his work clothes into more comfortable gym gear. They had eaten a shared breakfast together, but Izuku hadn't actually seen his new uncle take a wink of sleep.

"Sleep is for mortals," Azrael waved a hand, "We don't need sleep."

"We?"

"Fallen and Archangels," Azrael continued, "I'm actually surprised you sleep, but you're only half-Fallen so," he shrugged, "Can't get all the perks, right?" Izuku had no idea what to say at that so he simply kept quiet. "Back on topic, basically the Tai-Chi and meditation isn't working like I thought, so, I think I need to see you in sync to get a better idea of how to approach the problem."

Izuku frowned in thought, "Well, the only time we've been in sync is when we fought Ibara."

"And that was only to destroy her," Nemesis hissed out, "We've had no such threat since."

"Nemesis says it was to destroy her and we've not had any kind of threat like it since," Izuku repeated back to his mentor, "So…"

"Yeah, so, I'm thinking maybe if you're put in an extreme situation-"

"Wait, what?"

"-You might become in sync again," Azrael continued, utterly ignoring the look of panic that had come across his nephew's face. In fact, he grinned at it, "Hope you're not afraid of heights!"


The balcony ledge had never been so terrifying. The wind whipped around the boy, ruffling his messy hair and battering his body. It wasn't even a strong wind, all considering, yet the extreme height he found himself at was enough to terrify him with thoughts of falling to his death.

Though Nemesis growled through his blood, reminding him that they did indeed have wings, though Izuku similarly reminded his Fallen-self that the last time they used their wings they'd faceplanted right into the ground.

Azrael, however, stood at the very edge of the balcony and looking for all the world like he owned the place. Well, he did, but still the image was one of extreme confidence.

The sky above was bright and sunny, shining down onto the world below. The city under them buzzed and barked and beeped and babbled with the sounds of life.

"Look at it, Izuku," Azrael called out without looking back to his nephew, "Look at this world we made. Isn't it a miracle? A true vision of the Almighty's will?"

He looked over his shoulder, perhaps expecting the boy to be right behind him.

Instead, he frowned when he saw Izuku practically cowering next to the sliding glass door. Izuku had kept his workout gear on, a pair of black shorts and a dark grey t-shirt that had plenty of burn marks and holes in it. On his feet were the pair of flame-proof trainers he had bought during his shopping trip with his friends.

"What's wrong, kid?"

"W-What's your plan?" Izuku called out over the sudden rush of wind, which caused him to grip the door tighter, "I mean, you know I can't fly, right?"

"I saw the footage of you at the festival," Azrael announced as he turned back to Izuku, his own wings fluttering and ruffling in the breeze, "You do have wings."

"But I- I can't control them!" Izuku called out, suddenly feeling a jolt of fear as to where this was going, "I can't fly!"

"If we let go, we could fly all we wanted," Nemesis cursed through his brain, "Perhaps that is what this is. He wishes us to give in, we should listen."

"Shut up," Izuku hissed, "We're not doing that."

Azrael watched this with a raised eyebrow and a small smile. He took a step towards the boy and held out his hand, "You said yourself you need something to focus on. Well, this is it. Focus on flying and find synchronicity in that," Azrael said as he again took another step towards the boy, "Come on, you'll be fine."

"I won't!"

"We will!"

"Shut up!" Izuku squeezed his eyes shut for a moment and pushed the sudden rush of fire down. Yet when he opened his eyes, Azrael was right on top of him. Before he could even react, the hero grabbed Izuku by the arm and, with a strength that shocked the teenager, he began dragging him towards the edge.

"AZRAEL! STOP!"

"You're doing this," Azrael suddenly demanded, his voice a strange mix of firm determination and almost laughing mockery, "And you're doing it today."

"We- I can't!" Izuku began suddenly trying to scrabble back, though it was of little help.

Before he knew it, he was at the edge, as there was no barrier to the balcony itself, and with wide eyes, he caught sight of what lay below him. He had never been one to suffer from vertigo but being that high up caused him to almost lose his lunch.

"Azrael p-please I-"

"Izuku." The teenager suddenly locked eyes with the hero, and Izuku found himself stalling at those sparkling brown eyes which had seen more of the earth than any being born onto it. "Trust me. You'll be okay. I'm not gonna let my nephew fall to his death."

Izuku knew it was the truth. It didn't cause his fear to go, but at least now he had the shield of belief to hide behind.

Slowly the boy nodded, then looked back, creeping slowly, ever so slowly to the edge. He gulped as he glanced over, then looked back to his uncle, "A-are you really sure?"

"Positive," Azrael replied with a smile, "Here, I'll go with you."

He moved right to Izuku's side and guided him to the very edge of the balcony so that the tips of their shoes were dangling over the edge. The entire time Izuku kept a tight grip on Azrael's coat.

He could only guess at how many stories up they were. Enough that if he didn't use his wings, he'd become something resembling a pizza the moment he hit the asphalt.

"Let's not think about that," Nemesis quickly urged, "It's not going to happen."

"R-right," He mumbled to himself as Azrael carefully let go of his arm.

Izuku wobbled, and again almost lost his lunch, before steady himself once more. The wind howled around him for a moment like a dog trying to jump up on its master, before darting away.

"After three," Azrael smiled as he held his hands up, "Okay?"

"O-Okay," Izuku gulped and began repeating to himself that Azrael was there, that he'd make sure he'd be okay, that this was all part of his training, that-

"One. GO!"

Izuku barely felt the shove that smacked into his back, and suddenly he was in the air.

And he was falling.

He couldn't scream because the air was torn from his lungs and almost instantly Nemesis was in his blood, roaring through him like a wave of napalm, setting his scars on fire and his limbs alight.

Within a heartbeat, his back spiked with pain as a pair of wings sprouted suddenly and grew to their full size, all unlight black shadow and thin membrane.

And yet he didn't stabilize. The unlight rushed along his arms and to his legs and Nemesis stormed through his blood and bones, taking more and more as it tried to devour everything within him.

Izuku turned and stumbled in the air as he fell, floor after floor of the building beside him rushing past his vision in a tumbling spiral of glass then ground then building then sky then glass.

"STOP! HELP!" Izuku breathlessly half-screamed out both words at once as he tried to internally pull Nemesis back without losing his wings, though it resulted only in his wings flapping and failing to even do so in unity, forcing his spin into an almost literal twisting nosedive.

He was a missile clad in unlight black and blue flame, rocketing towards the ground. And nothing could save him.

"HELP! I CAN'T- HE-"

Something suddenly rushed under him, grabbing his whole, burning body and vaulting him up so suddenly he had a momentary dizzy migraine.

The air moved passed him so quick that he could barely take a breath, and then, just like that, he was on solid ground.

He almost blasted his uncle back in a shock of fire as he was unceremoniously let out onto the gravel of whatever building rooftop he now found himself on. Izuku instantly curled his control inwards, grabbing whatever he could of his inner Fallen-self and hurling it back. He screamed in pain as fire bit at his scars and he felt the thrashing of the monster within him before it faded back into his blood.

And he curled up there, crying from fear and horror and panting out his breaths.

He heard footsteps, then someone stopping and squatting down beside him.

Through gasps he managed to look up between his arms at Azrael frowning down on him, cocking his head a little.

Just in that moment, Izuku hated him.

"Hm."

"WHY DID YOU DO THAT?" The boy screamed at the Archangel as he finally gained some measure of control back over his shaking, terrified limbs, "I told you I couldn't fly!"

"And I told you I'd save you," Azrael replied indifferently, "Yet you still panicked."

"Because Nemesis tried to take control!"

"We were trying to save ourselves!"

"SHUT UP!" Izuku snapped, closing his eyes tight and balling up his fists, "STOP SAYING THAT! YOU ALWAYS LIE!"

"WE ARE NOT LYING!"

A sudden burst of flame along his scars, and a sudden rush of pain to go with it.

Azrael barely reacted, other than a soft sigh. "You know I was hoping that with your life on the line, your two sides would come together, even for a little moment," He shook his head, "But even that's not the case," Then he raised a hand to his chin, "I feel like I'm missing something, but I just can't see it…"

"YOU ALMOST KILLED ME!" Izuku snapped, forcing his body into sitting up straight, "WHY?"

"It's like it's right in my face," Azrael mumbled and stood up, all but completely dismissing the boy.

"Are you listening? Nemesis could have killed someone!" Izuku snapped again, finding his immediate anger starting to fade, but a deep-seated frustration setting in. His mouth tasted like bile and his heart was still hammering and Nemesis was still boiling in his blood and he was sick of it all.

"And? It didn't, right?" Azrael snapped suddenly, looking to the boy with narrowed eyes, "So what's the problem?"

"I- I- I could have- Nemesis could have-" Izuku couldn't believe how easily the Archangel was brushing over what could have happened. Didn't Lucifer send him all the info? Didn't he understand how terrible Nemesis was? "Don't you get it? If Nemesis takes over than- all those people- and I-"

"Takes over?" Azrael paused suddenly, frowning at the boy, "Takes… over."

"Yeah, you know, like, takes control of my-"

"No, no, shut up for a moment," Azrael, seemingly in one fluid movement, went from standing a few steps from Izuku to being right up in his face, "Takes over. You said Nemesis takes over. Like you, Izuku Midoriya, take a backseat to the controls, but usually, you're the one driving the car."

The shock of this sudden movement caused Izuku to blink, and some of the anger to fade from his voice, "I- well- yeah?"

"And are you always in control? Like, all the time? You, Izuku Midoriya and not Nemesis?"

"Y- well, yeah, I guess?"

Something was dawning within Azrael's eyes. Some great revelation that he was only now just starting to understand. "I… I don't fucking believe it. Oh Father, Oh Father," He stood back suddenly, turning on his heel and raising his hands up to the sky as his great red wings stretched wide, his voice rising in almost reverent praise, "You cunning, blessed genius! Praise be your annoying, complicated BRILLIANCE!"

Izuku was now completely lost. Utterly, completely lost. He slowly scrambled back to his feet, his ragged t-shirt flapping around him and, thankfully, his shoes still on his feet. He tried to brush his hair back, though in the wind it was a losing endeavor, "A-Azrael?"

"Kid!" He turned back to him suddenly and moved to grab him by the shoulders, "Kid! You're a miracle! You're a fucked up, intricate miracle."

"I am?"

"Yes! Come on, let's get back to the agency, I've got some work to do. I can't believe it was this- I mean just- AGH, Lucy's gonna be fucking- AAAH HAHAHA!" The Archangel was grinning like a madman, and Izuku really wasn't sure he liked the look in his sparkling brown eyes.

He turned, grabbing Izuku by the arm in an iron grip. Izuku gingerly followed as they headed back towards the edge.

It took him a moment to realize what Azrael was about to do, "Wait- Wait Uncle- Uncle I- AAH!"

Several onlookers from the street looked up as they heard Izuku screaming, only to smile and chuckle as they saw the hero Hawks giving a lift to what was obviously some lucky child who was being given a quick and lovely flight by their local pro-hero.

How nice for him.


Izuku had been left on his own for several hours. In that time he had tried to do more of the training Azrael had tried to teach him, the flowing movements of Tai-Chi and meditation techniques, but he failed at getting any further with either. Nemesis seemed to pull and resist at the attempts to calm his mind, and he constantly found himself stumbling and falling like an idiot as he tried to balance his body through the movements.

In the end, as the day had sunk into night, he found himself simply giving up and deciding to call it a day. It wasn't like Azrael was even there to provide any advice, after all. He was starting to realize his new uncle was rather prone to this. Simply vanishing on the spot to go chase some idea, only to return hours later.

Yet he knew he was just trying to help, and he had promised Izuku that this time it would work.

And yet Izuku still felt doubtful. It had been three days already and he felt he had gotten nowhere.

It was hard to keep his optimism up when faced with such a fact, and as such, he simply took to watching videos and trying to text his friends to see what they were up too. Not that he could get in touch with any of them. Tenya was wrapped up with his own family agency, Ochaco was apparently on patrol which caused a huge bolt of jealousy to rush through him, and Fumikage, who had interned with an underground hero duo called Tanjiro and Nezuko, was even harder to get in contact with.

Either way, the impression Izuku got was that they were all having a great, and educational, time.

All except for Hitoshi, who had sent him a rather mysterious text saying that he 'really needed to talk to him' when they got back. Izuku had been startled at this and had almost called him, but Hitoshi assured him that he should simply focus on himself for now, but they really did need to talk, in private, as soon as possible.

Izuku had agreed, and that was that.

It was almost twelve midnight and Izuku was sitting on the comfortable couch in Azrael's penthouse living room. The room was the picture of a bachelor pad with dawn curtains, clothes scattered on the floor and trash piling up by the door. The kitchen, while well-stocked enough, was also messy with dishes needing to be done and surfaces to be cleaned. He didn't bother nosing into the Archangel's bedroom, though he could only guess it was just as chaotic.

His bored face was lit by the screen from his phone, where he watched Mei Hatsumi's latest live stream. A few days early according to her schedule, but then again, he wasn't surprised Mei was rushing to get out whatever news she had. She had struck him as that kind of person.

"-So they've got me working on their next-generation hardware for the upcoming Membracelet!" Hatsumi gushed into the camera which was situated above what looked to be the corpse of some poor machine. Metal pieces and bolts and intricate circuitry were scattered everywhere on the work desk, and there seemed to be even more chaos behind her. The girl was dressed in a pair of work pants and a tank-top, with most of her covered in oil of some kind. "I'm so excited you guys! This is gonna be amazing! I can't tell you what runs it or anything, but trust me, from what I've seen this is their most amazing work yet! Way better than the PAK system!"

Izuku twitched a smile at this and, without thinking, typed into the chat, 'That sounds awesome, Mei.'

There were a few seconds where she read the messages before she suddenly grinned, "It does sound awesome, DevilBoy777," She paused suddenly, then quickly asked, "Wait, is that thee Devil Boy?"

Izuku chuckled and sat up a little, typing out, 'Hey Mei.'

"AAAH! DEVIL BOY!" Mei practically jumped for joy and almost knocked the camera over, "You're watching my stream! Talk to me when we get back to class, okay? I've got sooo many ideas for your costume, dude!"

To his surprise, the chat also suddenly filled with comments as they realized who 'DevilBoy777' was. It wasn't a name he had originally wanted to choose, of course, but it was one he had eventually settled on deciding he could change it when he thought of something better later. And besides, he had a feeling Mei might recognize it.

He also had a slight bolt of pride when he saw many of the comments were about how they felt he'd been robbed in the festival, and that they hoped he did better next year.

"That your girlfriend?"

Izuku almost jumped in shock and fire burst through his system as he scrambled to grab his phone from his suddenly stumbling hands.

Once he had caught his breath, he turned around to see Azrael standing in the dark, yet somehow he seemed brighter than his surroundings despite the shadow and his brown eyes sparkled even more. He smirked and folded his arms, his wings already having been put away, "She's cute. Didn't think you had it in you."

"She's not- She's just a friend!" He quickly stammered back, "From the-"

"Yeah, I know, kid, you fought her in the festival. It was a joke," He chuckled and waved a beckoning hand at him as he turned, "Come on, it's ready."

"What's ready?" Izuku called back as he closed the app, feeling a little bad that he didn't even say goodbye.

"Hopefully? The key to setting your soul free," Azrael replied with a smile, yet with the seriousness of one who had accomplished something great, "The key to balance."

"The key to balance…" Nemesis whispered through Izuku's blood as they stood in the darkness a moment longer. He could feel its fire pacing through his blood, curious and weary yet… yet hopeful.

Just like he was hopeful.

Just like he also knew this could very well be his last chance.

As he got up and went to put his phone into his pocket, Azrael shook his head and pointed to his hand, "Leave that. In fact, empty your pockets, you won't need any of it."

Izuku obeyed and then he followed after Azrael, nerves already starting to flood into his stomach. Yet they passed the elevator to begin descending flights of stairs, turning at each corner and continuing to descend lower and lower into the building.

"S-So what are we-"

"No questions," Azrael replied suddenly, giving his intern a quick glance. His eyes had changed, they were now hard and serious, "Not until we're there."

Fire again paced at Izuku's scars as he felt his Fallen-self arch within his blood. It didn't like this. It didn't like not knowing, nor did it like the look in Azrael's eye. The one that was somehow more divine than his usual look.

Izuku only gulped and continued to follow.

Down and down they went until they passed the ground level and were soon descending into the bowels of the building. The darkness grew deeper, heavier, thicker. The air seemed to curl through his lungs and he swore that while he could see no unborn, as he had seen no unborn anywhere within Azrael's building, he could feel the watchful eyes of something on his back.

Yet down they went. Further than Izuku had thought any building would even go. So far down that soon the only reason he knew Azrael was there was because of the strange golden glow he seemed to give off, just faintly, in the dark.

Then, suddenly, the floor evened out. Izuku almost fell over himself as he scuttled forward, and soon came up behind his mentor, who in the shadow seemed large and hulking and inhuman.

Fear was curling in his stomach, yet he had to trust his uncle knew what he was doing.

He hoped.

"A-Azrael?"

"Almost there, kid," Azrael assured him, though he did not look back.

The walk could have been ten minutes, or two hours, Izuku had no idea as all time seemed to have faded in the cold, damp underbelly of the building. He swore he could almost feel the darkness pushing against him as he walked, and he was reminded of the vast plains of empty oblivion outside the great unholy gates of Hell.

It certainly felt the same.

It was that same, all-consuming darkness that simply stretched on forever, unreal and beyond the scope of what should be physically possible. He swore he could even taste it on his tongue, a bitter ash that reminded him too much of the air within the throne room of Pandemonium.

Were they even on Earth anymore? Or had he crossed into that damned realm on his walk down those unlimited stairs?

"Azrael, please, where are we going?" Izuku stammered after he just couldn't take the silence any longer.

The Archangel stopped. And before him, in the dark, silhouetted against the all-consuming shadow, was a door.

A simple, grey, wooden door.

"Do you know what we used to call your father? Back when we were young?" Azrael asked without turning to Izuku. He took the boy's confused silence as his answer, "We called them the Morningstar. The brightest in the sky, the brightest in heaven, the first amongst us all." His hand moved to the door, grabbing onto the knob. His voice became heavy with the ghosts of past sins, "They were the best of us, of all of us. But now… now I think it's your turn. Within this room, hopefully, is the key to placing you in the heavens, where you belong."

And with that, he opened the door, and stepped aside.

Izuku walked cautiously past him into a room filled with… a mirror. One gigantic wall covering mirror, and the others nothing more than bare stone. Wait, no, not bare, but covered with a strange, ornate, gilded lettering that he swore he could understand if he just focused hard enough.

As he stepped further into the room, he felt a strange tingling across his skin. It was faith, yet not faith as he had ever known it before. It was faith that, he quickly realized, was being generated by the letters around the room. It was neither aggressive nor calm, it was simply… judgmental, watching, waiting in the air around him.

The ceiling was the same blank stone as the walls, as was the floor. In each corner of the room was a tall metal stand, upon which rested a candle, lit with a flickering red flame. Oddly, they seemed to give no smoke.

"What… what is this?"

"A test," Azrael replied, and Izuku turned his head to find his uncle had not followed him into the room. Instead, he stood by the door, arms folded across his chest, "The final test I intend to give you."

Izuku gulped.

Azrael pointed to the mirror, "In this room, there is only you, Izuku. You and Nemesis, both of you, one and the same being. You see, I realized what I've been doing wrong, what I think everyone has been doing wrong." He paused, then sighed, "I've been treating you as though you were like me. One being, whole but unbalanced due to the temptation of darkness. But you're not. You're two beings, in one. One body shared and divided. One mind shared and divided. One soul shared and divided. You are a creature of two worlds, Hell and Earth, Fallen and Human. And quite frankly, until you come to terms with yourself, you will never progress."

"S- So what am I-"

"You're going to sit down and both sides of your soul are going to talk," Azrael commanded softly, "No more one seizing control over the other. You're going to find a path you can both walk, and walk it together, or not at all."

"A-Azrael," Izuku felt a worried smile move across his lips as fire jolted in his blood, "I- I can't just talk to Nemesis."

"There is no common ground!" Nemesis snapped in unison with the protesting boy, "We either are or are not!"

"Izuku, Nemesis," The hero's voice softened, and he leaned against the door frame, "You're my nephew, and I know you've not known me for long, but I like to think you trust me."

"I- I do."

"Then trust me. Both of you," Azrael added with a small smile, "Come together," He moved his hands to link his fingers, "You can do this, Nemesis-who-is-Izuku, Izuku-who-is-Nemesis. Find the middle ground and balance your soul."

"I-I-"

"Good luck, nephew."

And with that, the door closed shut.

And Izuku was alone, or rather, he was alone with Nemesis.

He stood in the center, looking to the mirror.

He saw himself. Izuku Midoriya. The boy with the pointed ears, the spear-tipped tail, the pale skin, and tired eyes. The boy with stubby horns poking just slightly out of his dark green hair.

The boy who shared his blood with the King of Hell.

He was pathetic. He felt pathetic. He felt as though this too would just be another failure, that he was too divided to unite, too broken to repair. He was a monster and the son of a monster. He had the help of an Archangel, yet he felt as though he was damned forever.

Blood was blood, nothing could change that.

Yet he screwed up a fist and took a deep breath. No, no he was so close, he just needed to… to try. Even if this was the last try.

"This is stupid," His Fallen-self echoed through his blood, "The Archangel wastes our time."

"We- we could give it a shot," Izuku replied as he moved a little closer to the mirror, focusing on his own dark green eyes, "I mean-"

"What shot? What can we do?" Nemesis snarled suddenly through his blood, and Izuku felt fire spike at his scars, "We find focus only in battle, and even then, we hesitate and falter."

"Because you go too far," Izuku growled, frowning at himself in the mirror, "You always go too far."

He didn't like the way he looked. He didn't like his fangs or his horns or anything about himself. He especially didn't like the way his eyes seemed to darken just a little whenever he heard Nemesis in his blood.

"Too far," Nemesis mocked through his brain, "There is no too far. We are not one of them, those pathetic mortals, why be bound by their morality?"

"Because I- we live in a society," Izuku replied sharply, "Because I- we're trying to be a hero."

"We have already taken a life before, it would be nothing to do it again."

"That was an accident!" Izuku snapped.

"That was self-defense," Nemesis snapped back, "That monster would have murdered us!"

"But we can't- we can't do that for every opponent!" Izuku replied with a deep sigh, turning away from the mirror. He didn't want to keep looking at himself. "We can't-"

"Why not? Why can't we be free to do as we wish, to kill who we want and ruin those who-"

"BECAUSE!" Izuku roared as he turned back to the mirror, looking to himself but trying, trying, to glare at the monster he was inside, "Because I don't want too!"

"We do, and we are Izuku Midoriya," Nemesis demanded, and Izuku saw his own lips moving just softly in the mirror, "We are Nemesis, we are shadow and flame. All we have to do is give in to us, to be the being we were born to be."

"That's not going to happen," Izuku spat back, turning away from the mirror and walking a few steps into the room.

"Because we refuse to be happy," The voice now echoed through his head… and yet he swore it was coming from behind him too. "Because we'd rather be weak than powerful. Because we'd rather cower in shame than rise in glory."

Izuku turned back, only to see himself snarling back in the mirror, teeth bared and eyes violent, "It's your fault!" He shouted to his mirror-self, "It's YOUR fault everything is like this! If you weren't- if you weren't so fucking-!"

"How is it our fault?!" The mirror self-snapped back, causing Izuku to blink in shock. It took a step towards him, though it did not come through the mirror itself. It poked at its own chest as it continued, "We have always protected us! We have always fought for us!"

"You want to hurt people! To kill people!" Izuku argued back, watching as his reflection, no, as Nemesis glared at him, "I can't even use you a little bit without you always demanding more, more blood, more violence, more-"

"More glory, more proof we're the strongest, more power for us to achieve greatness," Nemesis began pacing back and forth, and Izuku noticed that their legs were not human, but wolfish in their gait, "We hold back because we are afraid of what must be done."

"That is not what must be done!" The teenager snapped at the monster in the mirror, "It never has been! That's not what a hero does!"

At this Nemesis stopped pacing and paused. It flexed talons of unlight and narrowed its gaze at its human self, "… a hero conquers and wins."

"A hero saves and helps," Izuku counted, looking up at the increasingly taller monster in the mirror, "A hero is good."

"Good," Nemesis snarled mockingly, "What is good?" It stretched out its arms, and along with it, their vast shadow-black wings, "Look at us. Look at what we are. How can we ever be good?"

Izuku paused for a long moment as he looked to the creature that had slowly changed and grown from within the mirror. The hulking wolf-dragon-beast made of unlight black and flowing blue flames from scars of blasphemous linking patterns across its skin. Their eye color was the same. That same old pagan green, the color of dark, foreboding forests and lost rites of horned gods.

He looked at the monster he kept in his blood, to the monster he shared his soul with.

No.

To the monster he was.

He looked at himself. The part of himself he wished didn't exist but did.

Izuku knelt down in front of the mirror, his knees hitting the ice-cold floor but barely feeling a thing through the pulsing fire in his blood. Nemesis continued to stand over him, huge and imposing, like the wolf about to devour the lamb.

How could they ever come to any kind of balance? How could he ever find a middle ground with a monster like Nemesis? A thing of blood and fire?

A thing that was within himself, that was part of himself. The shadow in his own soul.

In that moment, he thought about what he had done to Katsuki the second he'd had his chance at petty revenge. He thought about the USJ and the maddening chaos he had unleashed upon that now unhallowed ground. He thought about all the pain and horror and terror he kept within himself. He thought about… he thought about… his mother.

His mother who loved him still. He thought about All Might, tall and strong, forgiving him for his sins and asking for forgiveness in return. He thought about his friends, rallying and supporting him despite what they knew about who he truly was. He even thought about Lucifer, about the sacrifice the devil had made to save his life.

He thought about all those things. Then he curled his hand into a tight fist and gave it all one last throw of the dice.

"Because I care. Which means… which means a part of you cares too."

"We do not care."

"Yes, you do, because I am you, you are me, which means somewhere in there you care just as much."

"Then that means, we care about shedding blood, about using violence and force and power to overwhelm our foes."

Izuku looked to the monster he was. And slowly, carefully, admitted the truth.

"Yes. Sometimes, when I'm fighting, I do want that."

Nemesis could have crowed its victory, but instead, the monster cocked its great horned head.

Izuku spoke now in a low, quiet tone, his legs crossed under him, his head down as he spoke to himself and only himself, "I- I love fighting. I love feeling the rush of battle, I love seeing someone beaten down in front of me and- and sometimes I just want to spill blood just to see it flow." He paused. "But I also want to help people. I see innocent people in pain and I want to stop that pain. I want to save lives and do good, I want to prove the world wrong."

There was a strange, low, almost thoughtful growl from Nemesis.

Izuku looked back up again, his eyes dark yet glowing in the candlelight, "What do you want?"

He half expected his Fallen side to rant about wanting blood and slaughter, fire and shadow, glory and power.

But it didn't.

Izuku's tail twitched and swayed, and Nemesis's copied the motion perfectly as its great eyes locked onto its mortal-self.

"We want blood and fire. We want to stand above all and bask in their fear and awe. We want…" Its claw tensed into a slow fist, "… we want to win. We want people to see us and know victory has arrived. We want to ruin our enemies and punish the sinful, but… also to leave those who deserve it in peace. We… we want our allies to be safe at our side," Something unreadable, something mortal, crossed its wolfish face, "We want mother to be proud of us," It frowned, "And we want to be nothing like father."

Izuku, despite it all, smiled at that.

Slowly he leaned forward until his head touched the cool mirror. Nemesis, despite its huge bulk, did the same. He swore he could somehow feel the heat of the beast, though it could have just as easily been coming from his own blue-lit scars.

"Nemesis, I know that… this has never been easy for m- for us," Izuku sighed, "Either of us. But… but I'm willing to start over again."

"Start over?"

"This might be it, you know. Well, of course you know, you're me," Izuku let out a small, sad chuckle, "This might be our last chance to sort this out. To come to… to a balance."

"A balance."

"We don't have to always agree on everything, I mean we're one being but we're still two sides, but maybe we can…" Izuku chewed his lip for a long moment, "Maybe we can make a deal."

"No deal." Nemesis hissed, causing Izuku to look up, only to see an unexpected amusement in the monster's eye, "An Oath, perhaps."

An Oath. What was it that his mother had said? That they, the Fallen, take Oaths very seriously.

And if he was half-Fallen, well, perhaps that was a part of his heritage he could adopt.

"An Oath to… ourselves?" Izuku raised an eyebrow, almost amused at the notion before nodding his head, "You know what? Sure, why not."

"But we must work out our parameters," Nemesis demanded, reeling back and pointing an accusing, talon-like finger at its human self, "We cannot be so afraid of what we are, of what power we wield, of shadow and flame. We cannot fear our blood any longer."

It was a lot to demand of him, Izuku knew that. But this was a vow he was making to himself, and for the first time in his life, he knew he had to trust the monster within him.

After all, Nemesis too must have known the consequences of this moment. What it could mean to them both.

Izuku stood up, and somehow, he felt as though Nemesis was suddenly shorter. He felt the heat starting to rise in his blood and his heart begin to pound in his chest. This… this could be it. This could be their last, their only, shot at balance.

But dammit, Nemesis was willing to try, which meant he was willing to try too.

"You- we can't demand that everyone die, we're not going to kill anyone," Izuku demanded back, "And we can't just use all our power any time we get mad or upset. If we go into full Fallen mode again, it'll kill us."

"We agree. Last time we fell too far to our own hatred, too far to the Hell within us," Nemesis looked to one side, and for a moment, Izuku wondered if it felt guilty.

Maybe it did, after all, Izuku certainly did.

When it looked back, it had somehow become eye-level with the teenager and had lost some of its more bestial features, "But we should not pull back every time we need to use more than just a few seconds of flame."

"Alright, I- we- we can learn to measure it out, to… to sustain it properly. It'll take time, maybe a long time, but we can figure it out bit by bit as we learn our limits."

"We desire blood, we want to punish the sinful."

"We can do that without murder," Izuku replied darkly, feeling his scars spark with flame, "No killing, but… but villains are villains, and they do deserve punishment. Broken arms, broken legs, broken ribs."

The beast- no- the teenager in the mirror nodded, "Blood can be shed without ending their lives."

"We should show restraint, but also make sure our enemies know our strength."

"They will fear us," It raised an unlight clad fist their eyes still the crushing oblivion black of the darkest realm of Hell, "And those that don't shall learn to fear us."

Izuku found himself grinning. Nemesis was grinning back. Their smiles were perfectly matched.

"Do we accept our blood?"

"Yes and no," Izuku replied with a heaving breath. He was shaking, though no longer from fear.

It was from excitement.

As he looked to his double in the mirror, the dark reflection of his own self, he finally, finally, he felt he was getting somewhere. They were getting somewhere. The old fear was there though, that it was all some kind of trick, that they'd trip and fall as always but… but hope was greater. This time, hope was winning out.

Because this time, they both wanted this.

"We are the son of Inko Midoriya, and we are the son of Lucifer, Lord of the Fallen. We are both, but…" He paused, then gritted his sharp teeth and curled his hand into a tight fist before shouting out, "We are both, but we are defined by neither!"

"Then we will define ourselves!" Nemesis bellowed from behind the mirror, its voice a multi-echoing joyful roar that seemed to shake the world, yet Izuku wasn't cowering. He felt his blood rushing through his heart, and he felt energy like nothing before storming through him, "We will be free at last! Free from the shackles of our blood! Free to be who we are! THIS IS OUR OATH! HERE AND NOW!"

He wanted to roar with it, and indeed, with their voices mingling together, he did just that.

"WE SWEAR THIS OATH! WE WILL FIND BALANCE! WE WILL BE FREE! WE SWEAR IT!"

Their voices were no longer a screaming and crying and moaning chaotic mess but something closer to harmony. Not perfect harmony, but a start.

A beginning.

The fire in his blood was flowing now, not spiking or prickling but flowing like thick oil. Unlight rushed up his arms, covering his hands and growing his fingers into talons. His wings suddenly erupted from his back and spread out, the spike of pain drowned in the cover of his damned power and even his horns seemed to grow longer from his forehead. Cursed blue flame flowed from his scars, lighting them the corrupt azure of the damned realm and even gathering within his throat.

Yet he didn't pull it back. He didn't let fear override his senses.

He let it flow, he let the fire reach every inch of him from his toes to his brain and he let the darkness of his hellborn power mix with the light of his mortal soul.

Whatever it made was him, him. Perhaps he could not be loved like All Might, but did he ever even want that? No, not anymore. He would be feared, but through that fear he would punish the wicked and bring hope to even the lowliest soul caught in the dark.

Because he was the dark. And he was the flame.

He was both.

Finally, he was both.

Izuku heard the hand on the knob of the door before it even opened. He turned his head suddenly, only to see Azrael standing in the doorway.

He looked… he looked more defined somehow. Izuku's senses, already enhanced by the power flowing through his blood, seemed to see the Archangel for the first time. All the tiny, inhuman perfections of his eyes and smile and… it was like he could almost see the cloak he was wearing over his face, to mask the Divinity behind it, like a bright light hid behind a translucent window.

His uncle smiled slowly, a true, genuine smile. "I heard the shout through the door. I got worried, but I'm thinking I shouldn't be."

Izuku didn't reply, he simply grinned with a mouth filled with shark-teeth as his tail whipped out behind him and his wings flexed.

"So, did you come to an arrangement?"

Izuku nodded slowly, "Yeah, I mean-" He looked to the unlight claws he now sported and curled them, "There are some details to iron out, and it's gonna be hard work but- but-"

"You're finally going to come together in the middle," Azrael finished for him, again with a nod of approval, "Good." There was a small pause before he pushed himself from the doorframe, "What's say we go take that flying lesson again."

Izuku didn't lose his wolfish gait or his claws the entire time he and Azrael had practically raced back up the stairs. He had almost taken flight there and then, such was the overwhelming energy he now felt within him.

Power. Dark, cruel, vicious power, yes, but his power. Power that belonged to him, and him alone, and no matter what he felt he could do with it, he only knew what he should do with it.

He would win. He would become hero.

He spotted a clock on the wall as the two sped through Azrael's office, the Archangel's wings quickly growing and spreading from his back in a shower of golden flakes and gore-dyed feathers.

It was almost five in the morning.

How long had he been in that strange outer-place below the agency? Had it even been below the agency at all, or had it been within some other, less solid world? Izuku brushed it aside, it didn't matter. Only this mattered, here and now.

Azrael hurled aside the glass door to his balcony and quickly ran to the edge, stopping barely on the heels of his boots.

Without a second thought, Izuku did the same, though he indeed wobbled for a moment and had to move a foot so that he was standing at the corner of the balcony. The wind hit him hard, blowing through his hair and t-shirt and tearing at the fire that flowed from the bright blue scars along his arms.

"Follow me, Mini-Morningstar!" Azrael cried out to him as his own great wings spread wide, "Meet me at the top of the building!"

And then he simply jumped, dived, and within a second, he zoomed up past Izuku, again almost blowing him back.

The boy paused at this, then glanced over the railing. Below him was the neon-light cityscape, waking and alive, even at this late, or perhaps early, hour. Cars moved and horns honked, though he could also hear the early morning song of birds carried on the breeze.

And he heard all of this with more clarity than he'd ever done so before. His pointed ears practically twitched as he took it all in, as his eyes picked out individual details of the pavement several stories below with ease and he could even smell the early morning scents of the bakery just across the street.

He stood taller, and yet even as he did so, he felt nerves bite at the very base of his stomach. He could drop, he could fall, he could plummet to his death and-

"No." Nemesis hissed through his blood, through his brain, through his ears more clearly and more defined than it'd ever done so in the past, "This time we take flight."

And Izuku nodded, "Right."

He stretched out his own wings, feeling the strange motion of the wind hitting against them, almost lifting him from the balcony there and then before he took a deep breath.

And jumped.

For just that split second, he hung in the air, weightless and motionless with nothing beneath him.

Then he plummeted down.

But this time, this time, he did not panic. He did not fear as he felt power again rushing through his blood, as Nemesis stormed over the barricade in his heart and took the controls in his brain.

He let it happen, he trusted his inner monster.

His wings beat once in a great and mighty effort. And then again, then again, and suddenly Izuku was not heading down, but across, flying straight towards the building on the other side of the street. He almost hit it, and indeed he had to pivot his body to suddenly run, animal-like, along its wall before bouncing off again and soaring upwards.

Suddenly, he was laughing. Suddenly, he felt free.

Nemesis was in charge but was not in charge. Izuku's free will had not been robbed from him and he could almost feel his Fallen-half keeping itself back, keeping itself from rushing with fire and hate.

Nemesis was keeping its end of the Oath.

And furthermore, he could feel its hope and its joy mixing and sharing with his own. No, not his own, their own.

And he was laughing. They were both laughing.

The building vanished from beside him as he rushed upwards, the wind whipping his hair back and forcing him to squint against the pressure, but he didn't care. He turned in the air, as he had seen birds to before, and pivoted, even twirling as he danced through the sky. He dived and looped and spun, all to his own will, all to the glory of his vast wingspan, all to the gift of his power.

And he had never felt so good in his life. Nothing could fully describe the freedom of flight, true flight, to know one is unbound by the world, by gravity, by almost anything. To be utterly free in movement.

It was like nothing he'd ever felt before.

"Nephew!" He heard the call as easily as if it had been said in a quiet room, and he turned his head to see Azrael standing, almost leaning off, the top of his agency tower, on hand wrapped around a great pointed rod that served as the building's ultimate finial.

The hero waved to him, and Izuku quickly dived towards him, coming to a stumbling landing beside Azrael. This forced the laughing Archangel to grab him by the scruff of his neck and he planted Izuku's hand onto the rod for support.

"How do you feel, Izuku?" Azrael shouted over the whipping wind.

"AMAZING!" Izuku practically screamed back, his voice still echoing slightly with the voices of the damned of Hell, "THIS IS AMAZING! WE'VE NEVER FELT SO AMAZING!"

Azrael grinned as proud as any parent would of their child. He slapped Izuku on the shoulder and pointed suddenly to the horizon, "Look, nephew! The sun rises on a new day! Your new day! Greet it! Scream your name to the Heavens so that my Father and this whole world will know who you are!"

As the bright light of the sun peaked over the horizon, rushing forth and greeting the world with its radiance, Izuku roared. He roared as they finally, finally hit him with the light he had spent his whole life searching for. It washed over him in a baptism of sunlight. His scars burst with blue flame and his body felt it would shatter from utter joy.

And as the light of the first day of the rest of his life dawned, Izuku roared his name into the sky, "WE ARE IZUKU MIDORIYA! WE ARE NEMESIS! AND WE ARE SHADOW AND FLAME!"


WE ARE SHADOW AND FLAME. Izuku and Nemesis are finally working together at last! That ending scene was one of those 'in my head from the beginning' deals, and it was so satisfying to write it out.

Now, don't be fooled, this isn't a perfect union. As Izuku pointed out, there's work to be done. But they're on their way AT LAST. In the meantime though, THE BOY CAN FLY. What this will lead too, well, that's for me to know and y'all to find out.

So next chapter we're gonna skip away from the green bean and maybe find out what that text from Hitoshi was all about, as well as perhaps drop in with the villains...

Thank you all for reading and I'll see all of you next time!