Ayy, not dead.

Also just realized that we are at chapter 6 and we aint at Yuuei yet. God fucking damn it.

"You're awake."

If he was still before, he was now stone.

Stiff and quiet like a hatchling bird fallen from its nest, hoping it would be overlooked by the roaming predator. But for Izuku there was no place to hide, nor to run. His room had no balcony and there only entrance and exit was the bedroom door -the very same one that is currently blocked by the bulky figure holding the knife.

The man shifts on his feet, furtive dark eyes darting across the room, searching for someone other than Izuku. The grip he had on his weapon was tight enough that his fingers were pale and his tendons stood out against the dim lights of the hallway. Izuku tries to keep his eyes off it.

Just seeing the blade was enough to make his nausea worse.

At first, neither of them talk. Maybe the man was expecting him to yell, to panic, to do anything a normal person would do in this situation -but in this case Izuku can't even find it in himself to speak. Nor a croak or a wheeze left his lips, for there was something clogging his throat, tightening around his neck like a noose.

screaming, loud and shrill as the metallic gleam of the knife catches in the light

oh god the boy was choking that man was going to kill him

blood was spreading in a pool

the sickening crack of a neck snapping as his head hits the step

ice spreading across a hallway, cold crawling up his legs where did

too late too late Izuku had counted on him and god he'd failed

The urge to be sick is back, barely held at bay by the blind terror crippling Izuku, keeping him still like a deer in the headlights. Omniscience claws at the back of his head as paths split and twine and melsh again, endless and vast . There was no end in sight, the new paths warping his sight of the timelines until it all melded together into a mass of crisscrossing roads and information.

At another time, at another date, he would have sat down and carefully gone through each and every one of them, pulling apart what Omniscience provided to form an reliable picture of the future.

Here, he had no such luck.

The man took his silence as permission to approach. Izuku makes no move to run or fight back -terrible, terrible idea, Omniscience tells him with flashes. His stomach and head hurt.

He lets the man wrap his hand around his left arm, eclipsing his wrist in a massive hand. "Don't make a noise, or things will go bad for you. Got it?"

Truly, horribly wrong, Izuku thinks numbly as he's tugged forward.

Omniscience agrees with a lazy eye spin and more images.

Sharp coldness pressing against his chest brings him back to awareness, reminding him that the real world was still a thing. The man's staring down at him with narrowed eyes, disatisfied by his lack of an answer.

"Got it?"

Izuku nods slowly.

Satisfied, the man turns around and leads him out of the room. Numbly, the green haired teen allow himself to be dragged out of his bedroom and into the pearly white halls. They're empty.

(Not for long.)

Bright lights and doors pass by Izuku's eyes as he's hauled along.

Omniscience squirms like a eel at the back of his eyes.

right turn left hall

And then it happens; a figure comes out from around the corner and nearly walks into them. There was no stopping this. Feeling like a bound prisoner walking the plank of a boat, Izuku watches on.

There she was.

Dark brown hair, blue eyes. Slender, with bags under her eyes and a nurse uniform. She's not someone he knows personally per say, but she is another face in the crowd he sees every day through his Quirk. Just a random person…and yet, one who could change everything.

(This was what made humans so hard to predict. Just the action of one, no matter how small, could do so much more than they'd originally thought.)

Upon noticing her, the man holding him freezes like a deer in the headlights. Izuku's eyes connect with the nurse's. She falters, gaze shifting in confusion between the two of them, clearly wondering what they were doing at just a ungodly hour of the night.

Then her eyes lands on the knife, barely hidden between their bodies. Just like in Izuku's vision, the metallic gleam of the blade catches on the hallway lights, too bright to be overlooked.

She screams.

Izuku's blood runs cold.

The man holding him jolts at the sudden sound, knife swinging instinctively. Large, thick fingers tighten around Izuku's arm to the point of bruising, and he can't stop the quiet sound of distress as he hauled closer like a ragdoll, the knife rising up to press against an exposed collarbone.

"Quiet, you bitch!" The man hisses, startling the terrified woman into stifling her shriek.

There's a moment of silence. Izuku hopes she's not going to scream again because if she did the man would-

sharp knife red panic

There's the faintest phantom burn across his neck.

The path his timeline is on splinters again, every new road just as bright and important and calling to him like a shiny light to a firefly. He can't stop his back from arching slightly at the sudden sensation that comes with it.

Stop!

It's no use trying to reign his Quirk in; the weak reigns he has on Omniscience phase through his fingers like water. It almost seems to sneer at him, shoving a newer, stronger deluge of information that sends him reeling.

He is nearly swept away, his head barely stays above the water. Heart pounding, stomach lurching, Izuku weathers through it.

The last thing he needed was to slip under; he really didn't want to even think what would happen if he did.

(Would he even wake up this time?)

The man mistakes his flinch for a feeble attempt to struggle and tightens his grip, pulling him close so they're chest to back, with little to no wiggle room. Distantly, Izuku feels the warmth of his breaths against the nape of his neck. It makes the hairs at the nape of his neck rise.

Upon seeing this, the nurse snaps into action.

"Okay." She -Akano likes cat friendly no stop - says lowly, hands raised in front of her in surrender. Her panicked eyes constantly shift between Izuku and the kidnapper. "Okay, it's okay, please think about this. He's just a k-"

The knife digs against Izuku's skin. He winces as a droplet of blood trickles out, burning eyes squeezing shut as Omniscience rises up like a tidal wave, demanding attention.

Through the nurse's eyes, Izuku sees himself. In rumpled pijamas, he's practically dangling from his kidnapper's grip. There's a steady dribble of red running down the front of his shirt, staining his clothes.

"Shut up." The man growls, low and dangerous.

So dangerous.

If he thought he was cornered, there was no doubt that he would do something terrible. Izuku's fingers twitch at his sides.

Useless.

Think, Think.

What was all this knowledge worth if he couldn't do anything with it?! There had to be some way he could...he could-

He's suddenly rattled like a doll, making him choke on a gasp. The knife accidentally digs into his skin more. The cut stings and the green haired boy is only barely able to restrain himself from wiggling away.

The man's snarling at the nurse. "Keep your mouth shut, woman, or I'm splitting the kid's throat open."

I don't doubt that.

Like the sea after a tide, the nausea came back at the threat -with force, accompanied burning fingers digging into his skull, digging in cruelly, leaving his mind exposed to more of Omniscience's endless bounty of knowledge. It's too much -he's being swept away. Izuku squeezes his eyes harder to the point of borderline pain, a muffled sound not unlike a sob forcing his way out of his lips as he fights to limit his reaction.

(He could almost feel that knife running across his throat, over and over again, different angles and different times, ripping his trachea and carotid arteries open-)

Then Izuku hears it, piercing through the fog and slamming him back into his mortal body.

Shouting.

Multiple people, shouting from somewhere on the floor below. And the sounds were growing louder.

The man freezes again, head spinning around as if he's expecting someone to suddenly materialize behind them. The curse he lets out is muffled and before the nurse or Izuku could try to do anything, he's moving. Izuku feels his hold shift, a thick arm wrapping around his shoulders into a death grip as the man shoulders past the nurse who scrambles out of the way, heading towards the back of the hospital.

The woman says nothing as they rush by, eyes wide and expression unsure.

As he's hauled along like a doll, Izuku takes the opportunity to squeeze his eyes shut and try to calm his breathing, which had grown sharp and ragged from a mixture of fear and nausea.

Experiencing things and feeling them through Omniscience was very different, Izuku thinks dazedly. There's always been some barrier between the two -being and simply experiencing. Only on extremely rare occasions did Omniscience threaten to shred through this veil.

This was one.

Izuku had only once experience an outburst of this magnitude, and he still had the nightmares of missing organs and choking on his own blood.

He had been under at the time, though.

This was different.

This was real.

He's right in the middle of it, exhausted and under assault from his own Quirk. Not to mention, the knife against his throat. It's very different from laying in his bed and letting the visions drown him, he thinks numbly.

The hallways rolls by, each as white and empty as the last one. The lights dig into his eyes, forcing Izuku to close them again. It doesn't alleviate the pain.

Distantly, he registers that the sound of shouting was growing louder. He thinks he hears sirens. Were they sirens? Police sirens? Or the hospital's alarm system? His ears feel like they are stuck underwater. He can barely hear the ragged breathing of the man dragging him away in a rush. The crushing grip around his shoulders and neck feel far away, too.

Omniscience writhes like a snake against the back of his eyes. Turn left. Then right. Pass the alcove. Paths shatter into millions of little pieces only to reform into something even more fragile.

So close…

"Izuku!"

Rough and desperate. Blue-green eyes snap open, fractals blazing.

Naomasa.

The kidnapper comes to a abrupt stop, jerking Izuku froward. The sudden movement shoves the knife harder against his neck, though Izuku barely registers the new cut. The pain was but a nick compared to the steady built up of warm at the back of his eyes.

God, he feels like they were going to burst.

"Fuck, it's him." He hears his kidnapper mutter lowly. Eyelids fluttering, Izuku peers over the thick arm threatening to strangle him.

It was Naomasa. The detective looks a bit wild-eyed as he stands in front of the exit door. His coat is wind-swept and his hair was a mess -though all of that is filed away at the sight of the gun he has pointed at the head of Izuku's attacker.

Huh.

At the endpoint of his friend's gun.

This wasn't a position he'd ever expected to be in.

Naomasa's gaze strays down to Izuku. Even with several feet of distance between them, Izuku can see the reflection of his eyes in the older man's, bright and spinning wildly out of control. They look like little full moons; the white of his corneas looks almost grey next to it.

"It's okay, Izuku." The detective intones, weapon lowering slightly. He offers Izuku an attempt at a reassuring nod. Despite the squared shoulders and determined expression, the dark, wild gleam of his eyes betrayed his nerves. "It's okay."

Because of the arm digging into his trachea, Izuku can only nod dumbly. Then the arm around his neck clenches. Izuku can't stop the wheeze from leaving him even if he wanted to; his throat felt like it's getting crushed.

Naomasa's gun rises back up at the sound of him choking.

His lips are curled back into a half-snarl. Fury dances in his eyes; his brows are set low, twisting his face into something determined and angry that the attacker doesn't fail to notice.

"Don't step any closer," The kidnapper above Izuku growls like a cornered animal, tilting his knife against Izuku's skin to show it off. It glints silver under the light fixture. "...or the kid gets it."

"Actually," Izuku croaks through the hand choking him. Air was becoming a luxury and Omniscience roaring in his eyes like it was going to pop them out of his skull certainly wasn't helping his case. "-you came here for me. I don't...I don't think your employer w-will be very happy with you if I died."

There's a rumble next to his left ear, low and threatening.

"I'll do it, you brat."

Knife.

Red.

Ice.

Too late.

His eyes burn.

I don't doubt you, he thinks numbly.

"You know who I am." Izuku replies quietly, voice low and somber. The grip constricting him to the man's chest wavers. Slowly, he turns his head to meet his attacker's gaze. "You can't hurt me."

The world twists and Izuku's suddenly looking at blue-green eyes he knows too well.

fuck what do I

he's right can't

there's no other option

that brat Shigaraki-

The familiar fractals were spinning wildly out of control, almost fast enough that the green in the corners and the darker blue of the fractals meshed into a pale blue color. There's blood in the corner of his eye sockets; it drips down his cheeks in two little rivers, overtaking the freckles on his pale skin.

Omniscience was too rattled up for his body to handle the strain.

A blink.

Now he sees the dark brown of the man's eyes, the same he'd just accidentally borrowed. The kidnapper swallows. His own terrified gaze darts around, looking for an escape. Izuku sees where his eyes rest -the hallway doors of the patients' bedrooms, a janitor closet. A closed, barred window. The exit door under which Naomasa stands.

He can almost hear the gears in the man's head turning. The mounting panic. The wavering resolve.

The knife slowly pulling away from his clavicle. The arm curled around his throat slackens, if only slightly. Izuku breathes-

Then Naomasa's eyes lock onto something behind them and his eyes widen with panic as he shouts:

"Don't!"

Crap.

Just like that, the spell is broken. The kidnapper lets out a snarled yell. Izuku chokes as the grip on his throat tightens to the point of choking. He rasps, legs kicking in the air as Omniscience buckles and shrieks-

He's suddenly the tree in the hospital's garden, great and ancient, heavy branches stretching to the night sky.

He's the floor under their feet, solid waxen tiles that shone under the lights.

He's the warmth of Naomasa's fingers around his gun, tight yet lending yet firm.

He's the woman hiding terrified behind a locked door, hands clasped over her head as she overhears the shouting.

He's the gleaming knife pressing against thin skin, insistent and cold. Digging in.

He's the cop standing on the other side of the hallway, frozen stiff at Naomasa's barked order.

Izuku shudders, gasping and rasping for air as the sting of the new cut drags him back from the edge.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Nothing. It does nothing but remind him that he needs more air and fast unless he wanted to fall unconscious. Omniscience continues to dig into his brain, insistent and ever scorching. His flimsy reigns had long crumbled to ash. There's warm wetness in the corner of his eyes.

It drips down his cheeks.

Maybe if he just closed….just for a moment…if he could relax…

No! He forces his eyes open, fighting through the heaviness of his eyelids. Don't you dare, you dumb idiot.

"Boy's right." Naomasa's lips are pressed thin. His eyes don't stray from Izuku's upper left, where the man's head is. "You can't afford to kill him."

Izuku feels the kidnapper shifts restlessly behind him. "Yeah, I can't." The knife shifts location, pressing against his side. Omniscience buzzes at the back of his eyes, alight and almost excited. New paths splinter off into the unknown, a mess of threads he cannot hope to untangle. New knowledge flows in, and the only thing Izuku can do is bear the brunt of it. "I can still mess the kid up, detective. Step aside." Izuku can hear the smirk as he speaks next. "Those big glowing eyes of his make a pretty good target, don't you think?"

Omniscience latches on to that like a ravenous dog.

red knife burn scream

Izuku has to bite his tongue to fight the nausea. He wants to scream in frustration. The one time he needed his Quirk to quiet it down, it decided to got crazy.

At the threat Naomasa grits his teeth, but he doesn't move from his spot. Feet planted firmly on the ground, a unmoving wall between the man and his freedom.

Izuku's had enough.

"Still damage to the cargo, Momoru." Izuku speaks up, tired. Had he always sounded so raspy? The man jolts against him, breath hitching at the unexpected use of his name. "He won't like that you injured me."

There's silence.

It's probably not the smartest him to say, but it was the only card he had left to play. Izuku watches through Momoru Zakaza's eyes as Naomasa shifts on his feet, gun lowering slightly.

"Listen here," Naomasa pauses, swallowing as he mulls over how to deescalate the situation. Izuku only listen to him halfheartedly. There's spots in his vision that he's certain shouldn't be there. ".. I got All Might right aside surveilling the area." At this, Izuku jolts -though he's not the only one, as the man holding him does, too. "Your accomplices are long gone. You're alone." Then, harsher, more desperate. "For the love of god, do the right thing."

Panic bleeds through Izuku, one he numbly registers as not his own.

There's a yell.

"You're bluffing!"

"Do you want me to bring him inside?!"

"Please don't." Izuku croaks out in between them, squinting through a blurry eyesight. Naomasa shoots him a furtive glance that even with his wavering vision clearly spells shut the fuck up, Izuku.

"I don't care. I have-" A Naomasa's eyes, Izuku watches as Momoru shakes his head furiously, looking almost feral. "I have to do this. I don't have a choice."

Naomasa's expression darkens even further. "There's always a choice." He takes a breath. The air hangs stiff over their heads, a silent danger about to come down toppling on the three of them. "Just, think about it. He's just a child. Do you really want to do this?"

The kidnapper snarls, pulling the knife away from Izuku's side and jabbing it towards Naomasa. Izuku's heart jumps. "Fuckin' lies, I know who he-"

Omniscience's scream rise to a single sharp pitch, so loud it fills his mind with cold static.

Several things happen at once.

With the man focusing on Naomasa, Izuku takes the opportunity to twists in his grasp and bites down on his left cheek. Hard, forcing every bit of his helpless anger into the muscles of his jaw. It's enough for warm blood to spill.

The kidnapper howls, dropping him.

Izuku has only a moment to celebrate his short-lived victory -and then his head connects with the smooth tiled floor with enough force to send him reeling, a bitten off cry leaving his lips. Omniscience stutters at the back of his head, momentarily stunned into silence by the blow. He has to squeeze his eyes to stop himself from passing out. He can't afford to.

There's shouting. Or at least that's what Izuku thinks he hears. It's really hard to think, actually.

His mind feels foggy and full of static.

But he's more than aware when he hears a loud cracking sound.

Thump.

Was that-

There's silence.

"Izuku? Kid!?"

Naomasa.

"...I'm alive." Izuku exhales as he opens his eyes, shaken. "Not hurt." His face is half mushed against the cold floor. There's blood on his tongue. Strangely, his breath was coming out as a white mist, visible to his eyes. He blinks.

Oh. He muses, lightheaded. So things went that way.

The man had fallen over a few feet away, limbs spread wide. He's not moving -the top of his hair is matted and darkened with a familiar scarlet liquid. The floor under him gleams -and it's not just because it's clean tiles.

No, there was something more to it.

Wincing, Izuku props himself up on his elbows. A tan blob rushes past him -Naomasa, he remembers- and kneels over Momoru's prone form, forcing his arms folded against his back. From this angle Izuku can't see what he's doing, but there is no need to -at the back of his mind Omniscience lets him see what was going on through Naomasa's gaze. He's cuffing the man roughly. The policeman that startled the kidnapper darts over to help.

Then his eyes turns around and meets green-blue. It never got any less stranger, Izuku thinks, to see himself through another's eyes in the most literal of senses. It's dizying. It's not helping his mounting headache.

"Izuku, stay where you are."

"Hmm." Izuku would be more polite, but that would require more working brain cells than he had in working order so that, regretfully, was not something he could offer at the moment. Thankfully Naomasa was too busy securing the kidnapper to pressure him into saying something more coherent.

That's good. By now Izuku just wants it to be over.

He's not sure his heart could take this amount of stress.

But then something pulls at the left corner of his eyes, demanding his attention. Omniscience quiets just long enough for Izuku to understand what it was showing him -and he turns his head around, heart swelling with something warm and grateful.

As expected, one of the doors by his left was halfway open.

There's no light from inside the room -they'd been turned off- but a woman sat on the floor, knees tucked in under her body, a pale lender hand pressed against the floor. Ice bloomed from her fingertips in a perfect halo of glittering white.

Their eyes meet. Spinning cold blue versus silver grey.

His savior hesitates, wilting under his gaze. Izuku watches her retract that tiny, delicate hand against her chest. A worried, conflicted expression takes over her weary face.

"...thank you." Izuku tells her gently, not wanting to scare the woman who just saved his life.

Rei nods shyly, her snow white hair bouncing with the jerky movement. Then her nerves get the best of her and she closes her door quietly, eager to shield herself from the chaos outside. He doesn't feel miffed by this.

Izuku wishes he could do that.

Because with the pain of the blow wearing off, Omniscience was slowly crawling back to the forefront like a rising tide. Ugly, jittery like a kid stuck in a sugar high, pressing against the back of his eyeballs hard. It's not the first time Izuku had gone through Quirk backlash, by now he was intimately familiar with it, but he'd never had such a reac-

Wait.

No.

He had.

His left side throbs with phantom pain. The blood in his mouth didn't help the matter. Izuku's eyes sting something fierce, so he closes them.

"Izuku?"

No, leave me alone.

The universe has no time for his whining, however. There's a hand on his shoulder, the pressing warmth startling him into letting out a pained groan. Since when did Naomasa get so close?

And more importantly, why did he hear his own heart pounding in his ears?

The hand shifts, reaching over behind him and pulling him off the floor. There's more warmth. Only distantly he registers that the warmth is due to being wrapped in familiar arms.

"Come on, Izuku." He hears the detective say soothingly somewhere above him, but when he opens his eyes, Izuku finds that he can't see too well. There's a blob shaped like Naomasa's dark mop of hair, but he's not sure it's him by sight alone. "Snap out of it. I've got you. You're fine now."

I know, Izuku wants to croak, but his tongue has more important things to do. Namely, do a stupid and sit inside his mouth acting like a dead weight. I knew I would be fine.

It's a stupid lie he tells himself.

(Because there had been a million different ways this could have gone wrong. There were a million different ways this went wrong.)

He'd always thought he was in control of things. Beyond his slips, beyond the huge margin of error his Quirk made when considering humans, Izuku always had some sort of hold on the future. It was the only thing he could do.

It was the only thing he was good at.

But as Izuku was reminded today, there was a difference between knowing something and experiencing it, firsthand.

Naomasa smells like stuffy office air and coffee, a familiar combination that for once, does little to soothe Omniscience. The Quirk just kept digging and digging, forcing things into his head; pushing the dam of knowledge to the brink of what it could hold.

Just the reminder seems to spark the Quirk into movement, the pressure that had stopped with his head acquainting itself with the floor picking up steam once more. Paths split and twist and fade away faster than he can grasp them, and yet he can't look away from the chaos this new development had thrown the timelines into. The groan that leaves Izuku's lips is done through clenched teeth.

God, he just wants to sleep…

Almost angrily, he shoves his face into what he hopes is Naomasa's chest and just sags there, defeated. Yep. If he could just stay here for a bit, that would be perfect.

There's shouting above him.

"Hey, hey! Izuku?" A muffled sound. He's jostled, and it makes his injured chest hurt enough to make him hiss. Immediately, Naomasa stops. "I need some help over here!"

Footsteps.

"Is the-"

"Yes! Now get me Midoriya's doctor, now!"

There's more shuffling and shouting, though it seemed distant. Everything felt distant, to be fair.

After what feels like hours, Naomasa shifts around him. Hands reach for his left arm; Izuku stiffens when feels a familiar sting on his forearm. A needle.

When did they-

"It's okay, it's okay Izuku." Naomasa whispers into his hair, holding him loose yet tightly enough that he could feel it, but not feel restrained. It's a nice gesture, Izuku thinks faintly with what little of his brain was still functioning. "Just relax. It's over. You're safe." The detective says gently.

A large hand rests on side of his head, cradling the mop of green hair protectively.

Dumbly, Izuku nods against the soft fabric of his shirt. He's pretty sure he's smearing blood into the man's coat.

I'm safe.

Relax. He could relax.

Right?

It wasn't that hard.

Cold stabbing pain at the back of his eyes remind him that Omniscience was still writhing. Right. He still had that to deal with.

Now that he thought about it, it doesn't feel all that painful anymore -there's a creeping cold spreading through his limbs, a detached sense of relief hanging over his mind. A blunt realization that oh shit, I lived that did little to alleviate his racing heart or Omniscience's trashing but worked well in dragging him down into a familiar abyss.

Fuck. His eyes hurt so bad, they felt like they were about to burst right out of his eye sockets. Could they just do that so it was done with?

"Sleep, kid. You don't need to keep fighting."

Maybe it's because of the needle, maybe due to the shock, but somehow, he manages to forces his body to relax. Nevertheless Naomasa continues to hold him until the sedative kicks in and the world fades away to darkness.

It's only then that Omniscience relinquishes it's hold and falls silent.

So, that happened. I gotta say this chapter was hard to write overall. Omniscience is such a bitch of a Quirk to figure out how to write. It's dizzying keeping track of what it decides to do. Urgh. I'll probably edit this chapter later on once I get my ducks in a row. Still not really satisfied with it.

I kept the Rei surprise pretty close to my chest per say, but I tried slipping in some hints during the previous chapter. The last one, especially.

Also, I think you can figure out the extent of Omniscience's power tho with this chapter.

Anyhow, next chapter is more planned so that's gonna be better. Next up in the schedule for updating is Stygian Fire tho, so that's gonna have to wait. And for those wondering, that sucker is coming out in two days ish top. Prepare the fucking tissues, friends. Writing that chapter actually made me cry.

Next Chapter:

Omniscience is explained. Katsuki is not happy. Toshinori is confused. Naomasa just wants another damn drink at this point. No Izuku, you can't have any.