The nameless thing continued stacking rocks. One after another. More up was good so it would keep making more up.

It had been making ups for a while now. Moving every rock it could find into the big pile. It was much nicer here on the pile of rocks than it was in the bad-dark-down-hurt place.

It reached for another rock when it felt a very big feeling.

D̸̼̋A̸̻̍N̴̙͝Ǵ̸̗E̸̪̅R̵̘͠ D̴̦̪̺̦̜̳̺̠͆̇͋͂̆̃̚A̶̻͆̾̃͌̋͆͆͜Ṋ̶̢̇Ġ̵̗̪̖͉̬̮̹ͅÉ̸͓̦̭̟̓R̸̻̰͑̽̇̊̔͆̂͘ D̷̢̙̃A̴͍̙̲̲̞̙̓̀̄́́̅̃͌̋̒̌̚͝͠͝N̷̛̻̠̿̒̊͊̽́̄̏͘͘͠͝Ğ̶̨̛̛͎͚͍̳̹̦͚̫͋̿̆̅̎̇͒̅̀͊̿Ḕ̷̬̹͉̗͓̑̈́͑͌̇͘͠Ř̶̡̨͙͉͖̝͙̳̪͖͈͒͜͜͝ Ḑ̴͚͓͈͖̦͎̰̫̭̣̰͚̘̺̲͙͒͗̀̈͋̉͒̈͐̈́̉͋́̇̕͠Ą̶̧͙̹̖̝̬̋̀̔̄̃̊́͋̅́́̌̕̕͠N̷̡̛͖͎̱̜̯͙͓̖̟̟̟̞͆̈́̇̍͊̈́͌̉̍̃̿͒͐͗̈́͛̚̕͝G̷̢̢̡̨̮̩͍͙̳̗̠̙͙̞̹̪̣̺̦̲̩̦͍͍̿͒̾̐̏̾̈́͜͜ͅĘ̵̡̧̧̡̨͍̦̰̣̺̬͓̞̝̠̫̳̣͍̦̥͈̥̅͑̌̍͌̓R̸̛̺̎͑͑̂̈͗̍̓̏̍̂̽̅̋̚͝

It was the biggest danger it had ever felt. All the shimmers showed up at once and screamed actual words for the first time in a long time, their words breaking through the fog that covered their sounds before. "Run! You have to run!" "Get out of there!"

So the nameless thing jumped as hard as it possibly could in the direction away from the danger. Every quirk was pushed to the absolute max in an explosion of movement.


Uraraka watched the live video from one of the many long range surveillance drones when the time came. She didn't even try to cover up her tears as the countdown ended and a nuclear missile finished its long arc towards her fiance.

At the last moment, before the area obliterated, she saw Izuku shoot out of the water at a speed she didn't realize was physically possible. To be honest, it was fast enough she barely caught his glowing green body flash across the screen. But she absolutely did see the ocean split and a mountain crumble under the sheer force of his escape.

When the bomb hit he was alrady miles away flying through the air.

Everyone immediately scrambled, trying to find his trajectory. But figuring out where he was going was near impossible because he wasn't following a single arc, he was using Float to get away from the blast as quickly as possible. He was already far from any danger, but she doubted he was able to process that.

They weren't able to see him, but they were able to track his location. He stayed in the air for a while, just soaring without any real direction. That's when she realized what was going on. "His aversion of going downward still applies. He doesn't want to land. But his lungs must be filled with water, so he won't be able to stay up there much longer."

To the great relief of the Americans he stopped his very rapid advance on their country and instead plummeted back into the water. Then the panic returned when someone pulled up another topographical map and realized that if his patterns of going up remained the same, his path would lead him to Hawaii.

They had more to say and more plans to make, but she knew what she needed to do. She shoved her way past the many important people and went as quickly as she could, knowing just how much was on the line. It took her half an hour to get home. Another ten minutes to pull out her old costume from storage and get it on.

She stared at it for a moment, the bright pink thing she wore before Izuku disappeared from her life. It felt wrong to put it on again, but Izuku wouldn't recognize her in the new outfit. She then grabbed the jetpack she used and launched herself off the roof.

Even though the jetpack was fast, it wasn't designed for long distance flight and wouldn't be nearly enough to get her there. While everyone else was bickering about what to do and how best to deal with this, Uraraka had already gotten to an airport and commandeered an airplane.

The mid-sized plane certainly wasn't made to cross most of the Pacific ocean, but she didn't care. The phrase wasn't 'plus ultra' for nothing. As the terrified crew finished filling the tank and did the last few checks and took off, pushing the plane as fast as it would go.

After a few minutes of being in the air her com link beeped, indicating someone was trying to reach her.

"Uravity here."

It was Tsuyu's voice on the line. "Tell me you aren't on that plane doing what I think you're doing. Ribbit."

"You know I can't do that."

"Please don't throw your life away. Just turn the plane around and come back."

"Did they figure out a way to make this nightmare end?"

She gave a defeated sigh. "No, ribbit. Right now they're evacuating the island and have every available hero and soldier there set up to try and at least slow him down."

"It's going to be a massacre. How long until he hits land?"

"One to two hours, ribbit. He's moving fast."

She swore under breath. She wouldn't get there in time. He'd tear through that island and everyone on it long before she got there.

After an hour and fifteen minutes she got another call from Tsu. Even though her voice was as deadpan as always, she could hear the despair behind it. "He just reached land, ribbit. They were only able to evacuate about fifty thousand people. The rest are trapped on the island. Ribbit. The defending heroes lasted under ten seconds. Bullets didn't even get his attention."

There was nothing for her to say. Nothing she said could undo the catastrophe that had just occurred. The love of her life had been turned into a walking natural disaster.

"I'm begging you Ochako. Come home, I don't want to lose you."

"You know I have to do this. There's no one else that can."

It was silent between them for a few minutes.

"...Hey Tsu. I don't know how this is going to go, but I have a feeling it probably won't go well. Do you think you could patch my parents into this line? I'd like to say goodbye, just in case this is my last chance."

"Okay. But I won't say goodbye, because that would mean I've accepted that you won't come back."

Over the next seven hours she cried her eyes out while flying a plane at unrecommended speeds. She spoke to everyone she loved and made sure they knew just how loved they were. But now it was time to go talk to one last person she loved. The person she'd lost years ago.

She'd run out of fuel but didn't care, she canceled out the gravity of the plane, letting it coast for an additional half an hour until she couldn't hold it anymore. As the plane started to go down she jumped out of the side, removed her gravity and started to do the rest of the journey by jetpack.

As the island came into view she saw just how damaged it was. Just about all mountainous parts had been flattened and large portions of it were submerged. It seemed like one of the volcanoes on the mountain had been ripped apart, covering the island in fire and molten rock.

She could tell where he was easily since he was actively pulling apart the main island with giant tendrils reshaping the area. She flew closer at a much slower pace until she landed on the same beach as him.

She was only a couple thousand feet away and saw him in the distance. He was underwater in the shallows, confirming her theory that he couldn't breathe air anymore, his lungs far too waterlogged to function. She dropped her jetpack to the ground and began approaching him slowly.

All of the destruction stopped and she clearly had his full attention. Hundreds of black tendrils were raised like cobras ready to strike her down if she gave even the slightest hint of being a threat.

Once she was about a hundred feet away one of his black whips struck the ground with tremendous force, showing that he didn't want her coming closer.

She sat down so she would hopefully be less of a threat and started speaking softly.

"Hey Izuku, it's me, Ochako."

He was clearly listening because at her name the swaying tendrils stopped completely.

"Do you remember me? I know you've been down there hurting for so long."

At the sound of her voice the tendrils eventually retracted more and more.

"I've missed you so badly. I know it took me a long time, but I'm back. No matter what comes I'll be by your side. Can I come closer now?"

She saw his head rise slightly, just enough for his eyes to be above the water, watching her every move. She shuffled forward a little bit at a time, giving him a chance to become accustomed to her presence. Even though he seemed happy to see her it wouldn't take much to overwhelm him.

It took almost an hour to get within arms reach of him, needing to stop every time he started to get nervous. But now that she was close enough he got incredibly excited, it was like a puppy seeing their owner after a long day apart.

He rubbed his head against her and clung tightly as she sat in the water with him. She just kept speaking softly while petting his head.

"I never told you this, but I always knew you'd die in my arms. I didn't think it would be like this though. You're so kind and reckless I just had to accept that one day you'd bite off more than you could chew."

He looked up at her with his head cocked to the side in confusion.

"I don't know how much of you is still in there. But I want you to know that I'm okay with going out like this. Till death do we part right?"

She gave a sad little chuckle. "I guess we aren't technically married, but I found the ring you got for me and I haven't taken it off since. So it still counts to me even if you weren't there to hear me say yes."

He gave her a big smile and it broke her heart. He trusted her so completely, she was probably the last person in the world that he wasn't scared of. And here she was, about to break that trust. But at the same time she knew this is what Izuku would want.

So she held him as close and as tightly as she could. "Hey Izuku, there's something I need you to do for me."

He nuzzled his head against hers which she figured as close to a nod as she was going to get from him.

She struggled to get the sentence out as the tears kept choking her up. "I need you to hold onto me and jump as hard as you can straight up. Alright?"

Taking her word as law he followed the command without doubt, just as had been with every other order her voice had given the last few years.

And he jumped.

Without gravity holding either of them down that full powered jump launched them into the sky at speeds that outdid any rocket. The island below them got another massive crater from the force of it.

The sudden increase in velocity was enough that Ochako couldn't stay conscious past the first second. But her quirk stayed active. By the time Izuku's addled mind realized that something might be wrong they were in the upper atmosphere without anything to slow them down.

But he could barely focus on the possible wrongs though, he was too happy about holding his Ochako and going up. Sure, there was pain in his body as it begged for air, but there was always pain in his body, so there wasn't anything special about that.

But it was also cold. It was so cold.

Izuku had a brief moment of clarity. Because that's who he was and that's what Ochako called him. He was Izuku. That was the love of his life. And he'd just jumped them into space with the assistance of her quirk.

And he was okay with that.

Although he could produce no sound, he spoke the words to her one last time. "I love you. And thank you."

He kept holding her close and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips as his consciousness faded away and their bodies froze, destined to float among the stars for all eternity.

It was finally over. They could rest now. There would be no more pain, and no more grief, just peace.

Congratulations, you made it all they through this very dark and sad journey.

This chapter is so fucking sad but also nice at the same time and it absolutely made me cry while writing it. Feel free to yell at me in the comments if I managed to break your heart as well as my own with this goddamn story. I loved writing it but also it's so fuckin sad.

I hope you all enjoyed watching this journey of Izuku descending into madness and finding his way back out for just a moment.