Unknown's expression contorted as she barely managed to suppress a scream, the explosion detonating mere centimeters from her ear, white-hot agony instantly tearing through her arm as she wrenched herself from his grasp. She had no time to process the blistering pain as she quickly spun on her heel and took off in a sprint.

Run.

It took her a few seconds of panic to realize she had no idea where she was going, but it didn't matter- she just had to lose him. Her heartbeat was erratic, her breathing already labored from her earlier failed escape, and the adrenaline made it impossible to do anything but race forward as fast as her feet could carry her. She grit her teeth as explosion after explosion went off behind her, barely loud enough to cover the furious shouts that filled the air. A flash of light shot past her as she recoiled sharply. Her eyes were still darting in search of the light by the time it cut through an enormous tree diagonally ahead of her. Alarms rang wildly in her head as she jerked back just in time to avoid being crushed by the massive trunk, the guttural thud shaking the earth as it collapsed.

Another explosion went off behind her, leaving her no time to think before she instinctively ducked. A glowing fist struck the air an inch above her head as she bolted off to the side, once again sprinting as if her life depended on it.

"Fuckin' stop!"

Run.

It wasn't long before her legs began straining and her lungs began to burn, the frigid air scorching her chest with each frantic gasp. Dread weighed like a boulder in her stomach as her mind raced for any way out. More explosions detonated behind her as they quickly grew closer, and Unknown leapt aside just in time to avoid a fist that nearly sent her flying. She landed in a crouch a few feet away, one hand with a vice grip on the suitcase while the other clutched at her chest, desperately trying to ease her ragged breath. The burn marks around her wrist were bright red, already showing signs of blistering and peeling skin, but she could hardly feel it over the rapidly growing strain in every part of her body. She panted heavily, brows drawn as she stared down her opponent looming not ten feet away, practically seething with rage.

"Why the fuck are you here?!" Bakugo demanded, his face twisted in a furious sneer as he charged at her once again, flashes bursting from both palms. She hurriedly leapt back, landing gracelessly as she nearly stumbled over her own feet.

"Wait!" she hissed, backing away yet again as he swung at her, "Stop! You can't be here! You have to leave!"

"Who the hell do you think you are?!"

"No, just-! Listen to me!" She narrowly dodged another blinding explosion, close enough for the heat to sear her skin, "You don't understand- you have to go! They'll hear you!"

"Keep your fucking mouth shut!" he shouted, lip pulled back in a deadly snarl. His pupils were mere pinpricks as he swung at her, a bright blast shooting out from his palm and narrowly missing as she once again leapt out of the way. He wasted no time in launching another one, then another, then another, forcing her further and further back with each lunge. Unknown could feel the panic begin to overtake her mind, a hundred incoherent thoughts racing all at once, muddling into a distorted mass of nonsense. She felt herself slowing down, her movements getting sloppier by the second.

She knew she couldn't keep this up much longer.

"Just listen!" she shouted between heavy breaths, hoping beyond hope he would snap out of his blind rage, even for just a moment, "I know you don't trust me, but you have to-!"

"Why the hell would I trust you?!" he snapped, his furious scowl growing even deeper, if it was possible, "Damn scum! You don't even fucking know what you've done, huh?! You don't give a damn about anyone but yourself!"

He could hardly hear the words spilling from his own mouth as he relentlessly pushed forward, powerful explosions detonating one after another. Unknown's brows furrowed; the burning in her lungs had now spread to her sides, causing sharp, terrible stabbing pains in her ribs and making it difficult to even stand, much less keep dodging his relentless barrage of attacks. She panted breathlessly as she jerked away from yet another blast that came much too close for comfort, but this time the sheer force of it was enough to knock her backward, sending her skidding across the rough pavement.

As she struck the ground, her body collided harshly with the frigid road, instantly knocking away the device at her hip. The clip snapped in half as the small rectangular transmitter clattered loudly to the ground, landing directly on the small red button on its side.

A loud beep sounded.

Unknown's eyes grew impossibly wide, her breath hitching as the device fell silent. A fist struck the ground mere inches from her, and she somehow managed to throw herself out of the way with barely a second to spare. She scrambled to her feet, leaping to the side just as another blast tore past her.

"Listen to me!" she shouted, growing visibly desperate between gasps of air, "You have to leave now! You don't understand- you can't be here! They're coming, they're-!"

"I thought I told you to shut up!"

The constant flashes of light left white blotches in her vision, and along with the sporadic hammering in her chest, it made her mind spin wildly as it fought off spiraling disorientation. The burning in her legs was agonizing, like they would give out if she didn't stop moving that very moment, but she couldn't. She couldn't. Her ears rang terribly, her lungs screaming at her to stop, begging for rest, yet she was barely aware of anything beyond the furious shape charging at her.

"They're not going to let you go... please- please run," she panted, no longer able to muster the breath to shout, "they're... going to hurt you-"

"Why should I listen to a damn thing you say?! Fucking villain- scum like you just exist to make everyone else miserable! All you ever do is lie! You don't give a shit about the people you hurt, do you?! And you have the fucking balls to show up here of all places?!"

Unknown hissed in agony, roughly biting her tongue as she nearly doubled over at the pain shooting up her sides. Her entire body burned with raging fire. None of her words were reaching him, and she was at her limit, finally able to run no more.

She had no other choice.

Bakugo felt a sudden force shove at his legs, throwing him off balance mid-jump. He had no time to react before a weight shoved him harshly to the ground.

"What the-?!"

He winced as he tried to push himself up, but to no avail. The invisible weight on his back instantly pressed down harder, drawing a painful groan as his arms quickly gave out beneath him. A string of curses fell from his lips as his cheek struck the frozen pavement, writhing stubbornly against what felt like a building on his back.

Unknown's knees buckled under her. She stumbled to the ground as overwhelming pain clawed at every inch of her body, a half-gasp, half-cry escaping her lips before she could stop it. The adrenaline was wearing off, the blistering burn on her right wrist only adding to her misery. She wanted nothing more than to lay down on that frozen ground, her body screaming for rest, but she didn't have much time left. She knew she wouldn't be able to hold Bakugo down for long; she could already feel the quirk-induced headache beginning to press against the base of her skull.

Shakily, Unknown forced herself to her feet, swaying unsteadily for a moment before forcibly regaining her footing. Gritting her teeth, she blearily glanced around, trying to orient herself. She quickly recognized the direction she came from, stumbling as she spun around to continue towards her previous destination. She moved as quickly as she could, though it was hardly faster than a languid walk, her legs still sour and tired from the strain. Each heavy, labored breath clouded the air in front of her, yet she could no longer feel the night's chill.

The others must already be on their way, she thought.

Damn that transmitter.

She had to put as much distance between herself and the now-broken device as she could before they arrived. She would have to release Bakugo before they found him too, but she wasn't much concerned about that as she could already feel her hold on him weakening with each step. The further away she got, the more difficult it was to maintain the pressure. She grit her teeth at the unfortunate predicament she had gotten herself into.

A few exhausting minutes passed, and she was well enough away from the transmitter. She hissed in relief as she finally released her quirk, instantly feeling the discomfort in her skull lighten. She knew it would take him a while to find her again, and he should theoretically be able to hold his own against the others if he were to run into them. Hopefully he was self-aware enough to avoid a direct confrontation, however, as Amnestica's memory-wiping quirk could put him in serious trouble.

The thoughts clouding her mind were soon all but forgotten as a familiar structure came into view. Unknown spotted the reflective walls of the main school building just up ahead, and she noticed the area around it was much more well-lit than any other part of the grounds.

It must be there.

She picked up her pace as she shuffled towards the building, reaching into her coat pocket to pull out her cell phone. They had all shut off their devices earlier, opting instead for the less-traceable transmitters, but considering hers was shattered to pieces, she had little other option. She hoped whoever reached the broken transmitter first would think to turn on their phone and try contacting her, but so far none of her calls were going through.

They must not have found it yet.

As she drew closer to the main building, a patch of light came into view. Numerous streetlamps lined the path ahead, surrounding a collection of buildings she had never seen before. She could make out large letters on one of the buildings: 2-B, Alliance.

A wave of relief washed over her as her chest tightened in anticipation.

It's almost over.

She glanced around, looking for a spot to hide in until she could reach the others. Careful to remain as innocuous as possible, she found a large grouping of bushes a distance away from the dormitories, ducking into them as she directed her attention back to her phone. She sent each of them a message with her location before attempting to call them once again.

Straight to voicemail...

Straight to voicemail...

Straight to voicemail...

Then suddenly, ringing.

"Hey! Are you ok?! What happened?!" The first ring was interrupted as Amnestica's frantic voice crackled through the speaker. Unknown pressed the phone against her ear, careful to keep the volume low, and noticed she was breathing heavily on the other end.

"I'm fine, just got into a little... scuffle, accidentally broke my transmitter. I just sent you my location; can you signal the others? I found the dorms."

"You did? Yea, ok, I'll let them know."

"Thanks."

"Did you take care of whoever you ran into?"

"Yea, don't worry about it. Wait for the others to get there and fill them in on what happened, then come find me. Let me know when you all get here. I'll be waiting."

"Well, I'm going to ignore the heart attack you just gave me, but ok. Be there soon."

A soft chime rang as the call ended. She locked her phone, concerned the light may draw unwanted attention, and held it in her lap as she took a moment to regain her senses.

The burning in her muscles had started to ease, though only slightly, and her headache had mostly dissipated by now. The sharp pains in her chest and ribs were duller than before, much to her relief, and her panting was steadily growing less desperate. Relief never came without consequence, however, as the burn on her wrist became more painful by the minute. Without adrenaline to dull the pain, the inflamed ring of skin had turned a bright purple-red with horrible blistering patches all over. It felt like her entire arm was on fire, slowly searing away her skin and flesh. She had to keep her arm off to the side of her body, trying shakily to make sure nothing touched the agitated burn as she bit down on her other hand, suppressing any noise from escaping as best she could. The others would notice as soon as they arrive, she was certain; she would have to find some way to explain it without rousing suspicion.

As the minutes ticked by, Unknown concentrated on ignoring the searing pain in her wrist, the piercing cold doing nothing to ease her silent agony. She remained crouched in her spot, hidden inside a group of bushes as she could do nothing but wait. Coming directly from the spot of her smashed transmitter took her no more than twenty minutes, even at her reduced speed; the others should take only a fraction of that time, meaning they would be here any moment now.

As if on cue, her phone's screen lit up with a new message just as she noticed rapidly approaching footsteps in the distance.

In her half-deluded rush, however, she neglected to notice there was only one set of footfalls instead of four, and she failed to read the message before eagerly rising to her feet, stepping out from her hiding spot.

Her eyes instantly landed on a figure standing mere feet away, and her heart nearly stopped as she saw the mess of ash-blonde hair and the familiar silhouette. He must have heard the rustle of leaves as she stood up, because he snapped around faster than she thought was possible, wild crimson eyes quickly locking with her own. A look of fury immediately twisted his pale expression, brows angling sharply, pupils contracting, lips curling into a snarl. She hardly had time to regret her decision before she leapt backward, dodging a blinding explosion by just a hair's width.

In an instant, her heart was once again pounding against her chest, a rush of panic shooting through her already disheveled mind.

This is bad, this is bad.

She was too close to the dorms; if people came rushing out now, everything could be ruined.

She had to get him to stop- distract him.

"Listen! The rest of Sacrosanct will be here any minute now!" she hissed, trying desperately to keep her voice down as she ducked away from another quirk-boosted punch, the blast detonating painfully inches from her ear, "If they see you, they will kill you!"

"Shut the fuck up! I'm taking you down one way or another- fucking villain!" He charged at her with unbridled fury, his palms crackling fatally behind him.

Bakugo had enough. He hated the way she was always plastered everywhere: the news, the internet, left and right she was everywhere. He couldn't go a day without seeing her face, hearing people talk about her as if they knew anything. They didn't know just how terrible she was, how cold and heartless, they didn't know just how much damage she could really do. He could hear her pleas for him stop for just a second, to listen to her, but they did nothing but make his blood boil even hotter. How dare she have the gall to show up here- at his school, where he lived, where his friends were, and think she had the right to tell him what to do? Not once did it cross his mind as to why she was here nor why she wasn't attacking him, and he didn't care. All he knew was that he would end this tonight.

He's had enough.

"You don't understand! There's more to this than you-!"

"I don't give a fuck what you have to say! It doesn't mean a damn thing to me anymore! Why don't you fucking understand that?!"

His fists tore through the air mercilessly as he pursued her, always barely missing their target as she hastily backed away. Each time his swings missed, he descended deeper and deeper into his rage, white spots slowly invading his vision as he could no longer think properly. All the pent-up, vile words he could not formulate earlier now spilled freely from between his bared teeth.

"I trusted you, worthless scum! I thought you fucking cared, I thought you were my fucking friend! Why'd you do it? Huh? What was it for?! Did you do it just to hurt me? Did you want to ruin me from the very beginning?!"

"Bakugo, you have to listen to-!"

"Answer me!"

"It had nothing to do with-!"

"Bullshit! Stop lying! You went out of your fucking way to make me like you! Wouldn't leave me the fuck alone! You acted all weak and pathetic to make me underestimate you, and I fucking believed it! I believed you were a good person, believed you were weak, believed you fucking liked me too! But it was all fake, huh?! It was all a lie, wasn't it?!"

"That's not-!"

"All you do is ruin everything! You're not even like those regular fucking villains- you don't need to kill or steal shit or blow shit up to ruin someone's life! You just have to worm your way into their fucking brain until they think you're their whole world, then rip it all away in a second because you never gave a shit about anything in the first place!"

"Just stop and listen to me for a-!"

"How many times do I have to tell you to shut your fucking mouth! I learned my fucking lesson, dammit! I'll never trust a single fucking word from lying scum like you!"

Poison spewed freely through the nighttime air, and, too far gone in his own fury, Bakugo couldn't notice her panicked eyes suddenly snap to something behind him, widening further in pure alarm.

In her distraction, her movements slowed just a sliver, yet it was enough for him to finally land a deafening blast directly to her chest. An unrecognizable noise erupted from her mouth as she flew back, a guttural crack splitting the air as she slammed into a wall behind her, instantly shattering a painful indent into the brick. Not a moment later, Unknown felt a rough hand wrap around her neck, dragging her upwards and pinning her against the wall as it squeezed mercilessly. She gasped, her hands flying up to clutch his wrist as her feet scraped in a desperate attempt to reach the ground below. Her head instantly grew light- she couldn't breathe- but worst of all, her vision was blurring rapidly. She could barely keep her eyes open, but she wasn't looking at him. Her hazy gaze was cast over his shoulder where four figures were running towards them, shouting something she couldn't hear.

They were too out of focus.

She tried to open her eyes a bit more, but the vice grip on her neck only squeezed harder, black spots exploding into the corners of her vision.

Her mind began to grow fuzzy, and she could feel her lungs becoming numb.

...distract him…

...just for a moment…

...a moment…

With what little strength she could muster, she turned her glassy eyes to him and slowly, shakily opened her mouth.

A broken whisper fell from her lips, and had it been any quieter, no one would have heard it.

"...'Suki…"

There are such few, rare moments in life where time slows down to a crawl. Some people say it's the human body's defense against perceived danger, some say it results from the mind working faster in the spur of the moment, and others still say it is a mere illusion; a phenomenon of memory, not experience. Those who have lived through life-threatening situations sometimes describe it like a hand-drawn flipbook, turning one page at a time, like they were moving faster than the world around them. It must take a lot for the mind to play such a trick on its owner: true life-or-death danger, something unimaginably frightening. Unknown was never one for speculation or theory, and so she never considered what might be enough to trigger this apparent time dilation, but now she longer had to, because the moment Bakugo's grip faltered, her eyes shot open and instantly zeroed in on the four figures rapidly approaching behind him. She had never activated her quirk faster, and in a fraction of a second, all four of them slammed to the ground, pinned helplessly by an enormous pressure digging harshly into their backs.

Trails of dark figures quickly began streaming out of the surrounding buildings, out of the trees, out of the shadows. They moved quickly, in careful formation, closing in on the group and completely surrounding them in mere seconds. Most of them remained back, the dull shine of their heavy weapons pointed at the four figures still pinned against the ground, while a number of others advanced towards them. The four, who all were momentarily stunned into docility, offered little resistance as the strangers secured their wrists with sets of handcuffs that gleamed under the light of the streetlamps.

Bakugo hardly noticed any of the commotion until someone forcefully pulled him back, yanking his arm away from Unknown before stepping in front of him, blocking his vision.

"What the- who the fuck-?!"

"Bakugo, calm down," a familiar voice commanded.

He glanced around the man in front of him, bewilderment evident on his pale features as he saw Aizawa kneeling next to Unknown. The girl was on her hands and knees, doubled over with her face nearly pressed to the grass, coughing and gasping uncontrollably as she clutched her throat.

It was only then that he noticed the nearly three dozen people behind him. They wore gas masks and donned bulletproof vests with heavy weaponry strapped to their dark uniforms.

"What the fuck is this? Who are these people?"

"Now's not the time," Aizawa dismissed with a deep frown, his gaze focused not on him, but instead on Unknown's sprawled and shaking form. He quickly turned to one of the men near him, ordering him to call a medic before addressing the bewildered boy once more, a weary sigh escaping his lips. "You weren't supposed to be here, Bakugo."

"What? What the hell is happening?!"

"I'll explain later, but for now I need you to stay back," he warned, shooting him a hard glare.

Bakugo glanced around for some clue as to what any of this was. He could only watch as the four Sacrosanct members behind him were pulled up, having been released from the immobilizing pressure at some point, and quickly forced towards the exit gate by a procession of armed men. It wasn't until now that he noticed there were flashing lights and sirens in the distance. He turned back to Aizawa, only to see him and another man still kneeling beside Unknown. He was saying something to her, whose breath had steadied just a bit; she was now panting heavily with only the occasional sudden coughing fit. He noticed one of her sleeves was partially shredded, a portion of the forearm seemingly torn to reveal her wrist, colored a terrible shade of red with small boils littering the skin. She was still hunched over, face impossible to see from where he stood. He noticed an odd shine to the back of her head, and upon closer inspection, realized it was dark blood matting her hair, enough to trail down the sides of her face and neck in deep red streaks.

Aizawa sat up with a heavy sigh, muttering something to the other man who simply nodded and uttered an indecipherable reply. Rising to his feet, Aizawa slowly approached Bakugo with the same languid walk he always had, finally coming to a stop in front of him.

"Let's go inside," he said, dark-ringed eyes glancing over to the 1-A Heights Alliance building behind them.

Bakugo followed his gaze and noticed a number of figures staring at the scene from behind the glare of the upper-floor windows. All the noise must have woken them up, their faces of curiosity and confusion matching his as they pressed close to the glass. The other dorm buildings saw the same situation, students crowding near the windows to try and see what was happening outside.

"I know you have questions, the others probably do as well. I'll answer them all, but I suppose you should be the first to know." His gaze was serious, more tired than usual. "Unknown was working as a double agent for the Hero Commission."