Alarm. Loud. Shrill. An automated voice telling him to WAKE UP.

Izuku, feeling as if he'd had a bucket of ice water poured over his body, scrambled out of the bunk and half-rolled onto the floor. Others were stirring at similar speeds around him, the shining white lights harsh over their heads.

The guards swept through like a tornado, banging their weapons against the metal rods holding the bunks upright. "UP, YOU MAGGOTS! BIG DAY TODAY! BIG BIG DAY!"

"It's a big day every day," muttered the woman who wasn't Nagant. Her name is Mitsuri.

There was a pitiful breakfast awaiting Izuku on a tray, attached to the end of his bunk. He ate it at lightning speed.

The workers of the Company Town fell in line between the two long rows of bunks. Izuku joined the other members of Team 6, who he'd been woozily introduced to late last night…

"Oh my God," he croaked. "I fell back asleep. How long was I…?"

"As long as you needed." Kaina Tsutsumi lined up in front of him, her wavy two-toned hair longer than he'd ever seen it. "You looked terrible."

"I…didn't mean to end up inside the barrier…"

"But you collapsed just outside and they spotted you." Kaina shrugged, her mouth flat. "That's still less embarrassing than how they caught me."

"Quiet, you two." Mitsuri joined the line in front of them. Then came Kubo and Tomiyasu, two men who both seemed in their thirties. Lastly was Faulkner, a foreigner. All four of them had ghosts behind their eyes. "You need to learn how things work quickly."

"We need to get out of here quickly-" Izuku was cut off by Kaina shushing him. The lady villain nodded toward the guards, who were still sweeping through the rows and waking people up, violently and loudly.

Other people from other teams fell into line. "Another replacement?" a big man sneered, looming behind Izuku. "And he looks just as young and scrawny as the one that bit it."

"Shut up," Mitsuri snapped at him. She seemed to be the leader of their group. The three men were all quiet, withdrawn, forlorn.

"Did people die?" Izuku whispered to Kaina.

Kaina nodded. "That's why they put us on this team."

Izuku swallowed, taking a longer look at these four companions. Then he looked back at the big man behind him. This team's an outlier. While all the workers looked plenty exhausted, and some were scrawny and frail, most had a hardened look about them. How long have they been forced to work here? And without their Quirks, no less…

"Hell you looking at?" the big man growled at him.

Izuku narrowed his eyes, then remembered he was without One for All. He squeaked and turned back around. Work, Naru Hojo's voice reminded.

The guards came back to the front of the line, still shouting, and began to guide them outside.

Izuku walked with the rest for now, his eyes darting everywhere to take in the Company Town. A gravel yard between sets of industrial factory buildings. Hojo's Quirk-barrier stretched skyward. If I ran for it…

I'd be shot. All the guards had guns. But they can't use their Quirks either.

The awful shoes they'd put on his feet barely protected him from the sharp gravel. Izuku took shallow breaths, antsy. "This is…"

"Horrible?" Kaina finished for him at a mutter, without looking back. "Yeah."

"I can't be stuck here. Shigaraki will be complete in three days. The villain army is going to attack Japan again."

"That so?" Nagant snickered. "What a relief."

"Are you crazy? What about the bomb? Your mission was to capture me before the battle started, and you've all but failed to do that. All For One could blow you up anytime now."

"He can't. He doesn't have access to me while I'm inside this barrier. I can feel it." She rubbed her stomach and looked toward the shimmering wall gravely. "He doesn't know where I am. Or where you are. No one knows we're here."

That isn't true. Nejire knew he was here, and she had the address as well. But he'd told her he'd come back himself. They won't be able to come for me while they're preparing UA for siege.

"We have to escape," he whispered, as the guards led them inside a building. They were in a brightly lit hallway with smooth steel paneling on the walls.

"The voice won't let us." It was the man Tomiyasu, who'd overheard from just in front of Kaina. "You may as well put that part of your brain to bed."

"The voice won't let you." Kaina scoffed. "For us, work means something a little different."

Izuku considered that. For me, work should be doing hero stuff, right? Which means…Quirk use! So, then, why can't I…

He tried to activate One for All, and nothing happened. It reminded him, frighteningly, of when he was little, and Quirkless, and trying really hard to concentrate and move things with his mind like his mom did. Just a bunch of tensing muscles and effort for something that wasn't there.

And the vestiges had been blocked off by some kind of mental wall. He could not reach them one bit.

"So you do agree, then," he said to Nagant. "We have to get out."

"Yeah. But…I hate to break this to you, Izuku Midoriya, but it's not gonna happen today. Or even in three days."

"That's not an option. We cannot miss the battle."

"I told you, new kid. You gotta understand how things work," said Mitsuri.

"They have guns and knockout gas they can leak from pipes behind any surface in the facility," Tomiyasu added.

"Any potential escape plans or workarounds are way too far off from our usual path. It's physically difficult to even move toward them," explained Kubo.

Izuku realized it was true. It was like his feet were locked into the line, going straight forward at the same pace, with barely any ability to slow down.

"And even I, who used my Quirk in my work, have had trouble activating it," Nagant told him.

"But that's not…we can't…" His despair was rapidly beginning to set in. No. I refuse to accept this.

Then the teams were led into the room where they would work, and he saw what they were building.

"...Cannons?" he asked, numbly. Down some steps on the messy factory floor, the devices could be nothing else.

Tomiyasu nodded. "For launching chemical weapons."

Mustard. This was the master plan. Izuku saw it clearly now. Meant for UA, no doubt. At the same time that All For One and Shigaraki were bearing down.

The villains were racing each other to kill all his friends, and he was stuck here.

Work.

"GET TO WORK!" the guards roared. A gun pushed Izuku in the back, down the stairs, causing him to stumble and let out a frail sound, the type he would have made when Bakugo blew him up on the playground when they were eight.

Quirkless again.

His body led itself toward the work station with the other members of the team. Mitsuri, her eyes still making her look as dead on her feet as he felt, gestured to the tools and said, "Buckle down. Time to join the process. Better hope you're a quick learner."

"He's still not here," said Endeavor. "Why is he still not here?"

The chief teams of heroes had all arrived at UA, and gathered in a backstage area. On one side - the major hero commanders and leaders of teams that had been out in the field. Endeavor, Hawks, Jeanist, Edgeshot, Mount Lady, Kamui Woods, Mandalay (now reunited with the other Pussycats) and a mute Gang Orca, among others. Mirio had joined Tamaki and Nejire, back from his own mission.

On the other side were the UA teachers and staff and heads of police. Principal Nezu, All Might, Present Mic, Eraserhead (eyepatched), Detective Tsukauchi, and the rest.

Notably missing was Deku.

"Is there really no way to communicate with him?" Mount Lady asked.

All Might shook his head. "He…turned off or destroyed his transponders."

Hawks swore. "We should have been following him. I knew something seemed off when we captured Overhaul. He wasn't in good shape then, but I just-"

"I'm not sure he would have let us do that, regardless," Best Jeanist put in.

Beyond their discussion area was a big black curtain. That curtain divided them from the open staging area, formerly the UA auditorium, which was filled with civilians who were awaiting the heroes' announcement.

Tamaki Amajiki could hear them simmering out there. Like a volcano preparing to blow.

"You three have immense responsibilities," said the principal, standing atop a box. "Don't let this get to you as well. He was our student."

"My student," muttered Eraserhead.

"Has Class A been informed?" asked Mandalay.

"They're receiving their assignments for the battle and doing hard training, like the rest of the hero students." Present Mic put his hands on his hips. "You'd be hard-pressed to take them away from that training, to be honest. Since they found out they're not gonna get to leave, all they've wanted to do is train."

"Did no one see him leave Kijimi?" Tsukauchi asked. His eyes bore into them.

"No, sir," Tamaki answered, honestly…at least for himself. "We lost Maboromicamie too. She was a Shiketsu hero student on the run."

"We can see if Shiketsu has the means of contacting her. We are connected to them physically now, after all," Nezu suggested.

"I may know where he could have gone," Tamaki continued, recklessly. "Perhaps both of them. The Company Town. It's a Hojo-operated factory in Minami Ward. We have the address. Officially it's for manufacturing recreational equipment, but the rumor was that they were doing…villainous stuff down there."

"Why would he bother?" All Might groaned. "What could he possibly think is so important there that…"

"I couldn't really say." Tamaki had his own suspicions, but Nejire next to him was remaining critically silent.

Hawks flapped his wings. "So like…let's go?"

"Don't be a fool!" Best Jeanist admonished.

"What? It's not like we can do this without Deku-"

"We have to," Endeavor said. Gravely. His face reflected everyone's feelings - no one was happy about this. "Shigaraki may be as little as three days away. Our plans and preparations cannot wait. We don't have time to go all the way to Minami on a suspicion. We've got to start building our strategy without him. And hope he shows up on his own."

Silence around the room.

Nezu sighed deeply. "Well. I suppose we'd best inform the masses."

They drew back the curtain and took the stage.

As Tamaki could have predicted, it went poorly.

The civilians were not shouting and heckling today. A few small protests had been staged in the courtyards the last couple of days since all the heroes had returned, but they had gained little traction. Tamaki didn't really know the exact reason, but he suspected, based on their pale, despondent, almost sick faces, that the fear had grown too great for them to be angry.

Their only thoughts now were on the enemies approaching them.

"...As we have no way of knowing when he'll show up, we will move forward with the defenses and slot him in when he arrives," Nezu finished.

"But…what if he doesn't show up at all?" someone called out, weakly. A few terrified murmurs of assent echoed the statement.

"We will deal with what we literally have to deal with. Not what ifs," was the principal's answer. In his head Tamaki was thinking, isn't this what you all wanted? For Midoriya to stay away?

He'd seen the protests. They thought Deku was a curse. He'd brought ruin to Seiai and would do the same thing here. Now, on the edge of doom, opinions seemed to be more mixed. Perhaps they realize that the lack of Midoriya isn't exactly making things any better.

He picked out faces he knew in the crowd. The Todoroki family. Iruka Kitsune, impossible to miss toward the back. Nova, standing in the center, the night sky on her face drifting left-to-right. They were all blatantly afraid.

The announcement was over. Heroes and civilians alike scattered to their tasks.

Tamaki turned to face Mirio and Nejire. "It's…nice to see you in your costume again," he told his blonde friend, trying to at least neutralize the mood.

Mirio frowned. "After all this time, I wish I felt more ready." He looked between them. "You two have been through a lot, haven't you? I've heard some, and believed even less."

Nejire's face was blank. Tamaki watched as she obviously forced herself to smile, a false sparkle in her blue eyes. Then, with an energetic hop, she began a question assault on Mirio. "Who cares about that? What have you been doing? I heard you were guarding a train? Or, some farms or something? Helping with civilian transports? How did that all work? Did all those people come back here? How was working with Edgeshot and all those guys? Did you…?"

Mirio chuckled and began to try and answer, even though he saw through it just as Tamaki had. I don't have the energy. If Nejire wanted to lie and mask her feelings, she was welcome to it.

He turned away from his two friends and hopped down off the stage to go talk to Nova.

To his surprise, when he reached her in the rapidly thinning crowd, Eri was with her. "Come oooooonnnn!" the little girl was complaining, tugging on Nova's pants. "We can't leave Mrs. Midoriya like this! She's obviously sad!"

"What's going on?" Tamaki asked.

Nova looked up at him and smiled hastily. "Oh, hey babe. I was just…well. I wasn't supposed to be watching Eri right now. She was with Inko, but then she ran over to me…"

"Mrs. Midoriya is sad," Eri repeated. "Because Deku isn't coming back. And I'm sad too, but she's more sad. We need to help her."

"I'm…not sure she'd want my help," Nova told the girl, sweetly enough.

Eri turned her piercing amber gaze toward Tamaki. "What about you then, Suneater? You've made everyone else cheer up. Can you help?"

"I…what?" Tamaki did not understand what she meant.

Nova tilted her head. "You don't know?"

"Know…what?"

"Everyone on the heroes' side talks about you. When you stood up against that guy who was trying to escape the shelter, remember? The people who were there spread the story around. I…may have played a part. So did that woman Rei, but…your actions were basically how it all started."

"How what started?"

"Well, all the people who were mad at the heroes and constantly shouting and protesting and stuff…we kinda…fought them? Well, not physically, but we argued with them really hard. All Might came and broke everything up, but…since then it's been quieter. That's more or less thanks to you. I mean, I'm sure there were people on the heroes' side already. It only makes sense to be." Nova gave him an affectionate smile. "But you kinda gave us…a voice? I think?"

"Oh." Tamaki felt light-headed. He'd thought it had just been the fear that had silenced the dissenters. This…this was better. "I…didn't mean to."

"Doesn't matter what you meant to do. You did it," she told him softly.

"Everyone's still sad, though," Eri put in. "Because Deku's not here. After they were all mad at him, too." She crossed her arms. "Hmph. I wish people listened to me."

Tamaki ran his hands through his hair in frustration. "Okay, Eri. What would you want me to do, then? Honestly? I'm literally all ears."

The girl's eyes widened. "Go get him."

A shiver went down his spine.

Behind them, Mirio and Nejire had arrived.

"Eri!"

"Lemillion!"

The two of them had a happy enough reunion, Mirio picking the girl up and spinning her around, while Nejire gave Nova a weary greeting.

"Do you still have your power? It's not gone back, has it?" Eri asked the blonde boy concernedly after he put her down, wringing her hands.

Mirio laughed. "Nope! Your work on me appears to be permanent, doc!"

"That's…good." She shifted her gaze to Nejire. "Your hair is almost long again."

"Good to see you too, little sis." Nejire managed a chuckle. Tamaki could practically feel the fakeness in the air.

"I heard you were there when you guys captured my…" Eri sniffed, her voice lowering to a whisper. "Overhaul."

"Hey-" Mirio warned, but he was cut short.

"I asked Hawks and even the big scary fire man about what happened but they wouldn't tell me anything."

"Oh." Nejire scratched her neck. "I mean, I was there, but I wasn't there. Sorta. I kinda got stuck in a power plant for a bit. I was…well. You'll understand in a few years."

Eri raised her eyebrows, but didn't question further.

"So, what were you guys talking about, then?" Nejire asked, looking from Tamaki to Nova. Her facade of innocent curiosity was very thin. I wish I knew what was really going through her head.

"I was telling Suneater to man up and go get Deku," Eri told her, plainly.

Mirio chuckled, a bit more nervously. His smile was almost as fake as Nejire's. "Eri…we can't really…I mean…there's no time to even find him, let alone…"

Nejire made a show of clutching her stomach. "Excuse me. Tummy troubles. Sorry." She waved apologetically and ducked out of the conversation.

As Mirio tried to explain the situation to Eri, Tamaki just stared at his girlfriend. Nova was giving him a comforting look, and even stepped forward to rub her hands on his arm and shoulder.

How can you be the one comforting me? They'd been in entirely different spheres for so long; apparently he'd become the voice of a movement in the shelter without even realizing it.

He looked out further into the crowd, at all the other civilians. How much do they realize, really? Do they know how doomed we are without Midoriya?

Three days. Three days to wait and hope for him to return.

Izuku could hardly believe what his body was doing.

"Spin it," Mitsuri told the team, and he put his hands on the chassis with the rest of them. Obeying the command. It was heavy. His arms flexed. The Quirk fought through the effort to make him continue.

"Alright, Midoriya, pull that down?" Tomiyasu pointed at one of the power cords hanging from the ceiling above them. His tone as mild as if they were working on a class project. His eyes telling a different story.

Izuku reached up for the cord and plugged it in. They had been at it for how many hours now? Two? Three?

"Efficiency updates!" a guard shouted from the balcony. "Team 1, up 2! Team 2, down 3! Team 3…"

Izuku tuned it out, not understanding and not caring to.

Until the guard announced, "Team 6, up 12!"

Murmurs around the room. Izuku blinked. "Big number? That's a big number, right?"

"Yeah…" Mitsuri whispered, glancing at the other workstations. Several other teams were giving them the stink-eye, including the big man from earlier. "I knew you two would be better than the old man, but…you guys are freaks."

Izuku looked down at his own hands attending to the work, and then at Lady Nagant's, which were going at a similar speed and ease.

Kaina shrugged. "Can't imagine why."

So she's going to be coy to these civilians about who we really are. Izuku felt the angry gazes from the other tables. "What are they so jealous about? Is there some kind of reward for being efficient?"

"No," muttered Faulkner, "you just don't get punished."

That baffled Izuku. He'd been in enough UA hero exercises to know how naturally competitive people could be, but in a place like this…? No rewards, just tension.

They continued for what must have been a couple more hours, Izuku continuing to be appalled at the civilians' lack of resistance, Kaina's apparent apathy, and his own inability to break the cycle. His body just…kept going.

Until he had to pee really bad, that is.

"My legs want to go to the bathroom," he said aloud, as they finished welding two pieces together. "Is that…?" he allowed himself a moment's excitement, wondering if he'd found a breakthrough.

"Normal," Kubo told him. "When it gets bad enough they let you take piss breaks. Bathroom's over there." He pointed, not even looking up from his work. Then, all five team members lifted three fingers. "You too."

Izuku obeyed.

"Now point at yourself."

Izuku obeyed.

The guards nodded.

"You're free to go piss. Congrats."

Izuku's heart sank. He trudged off toward the bathroom.

It was tiny and quiet, and as he relieved himself, his brain became instantly aware again of the Quirk. Wooooork. Yawning at him. Like tinnitus. It was awful.

But it lets you do stuff if you're desperate enough. That's why they can't starve us or thirst us. He'd first used One for All to save Uraraka from a giant robot, because he'd been desperate enough to do so. Was his desire to save Nagant and all these people and get back to UA not desperate enough too?

I have to put myself in danger. It was in those moments where One for All always came through.

Izuku flushed and left the bathroom. He had no plan. These guards were functionally Quirkless. If he regained his power then he could handle this in a matter of minutes.

His legs walked back toward the workstation. They passed within a few feet of the stairs that led up to the balcony, where the guards watched.

They'll shoot at me. And my power will re-awaken. It will have no choice.

He forcefully shifted his legs toward the stairs. For a moment, it worked. He was stepping in the wrong direction. Elation. Come on, yes! I have the determination to see this through!

But as he tried to go up onto the first step, his legs tangled beneath him and he fell forward on his face. CLANG!

"Huh?" the guard at the top of the stairs looked down in confusion. "The hell are you doing?" He didn't even lift his gun.

A bunch of the workers laughed.

Izuku, furious, stood himself up and balled his fists, but then Nagant was behind him, pulling him back. "I told you," she whispered in his ear. "Not yet."

Then when?!

The embarrassment, and despair at the fact that the workers all seemed to be against him, caused the fight to drain away. He felt his mind get pulled back in, magnetically, to the work.

So he returned to the station, red-faced and angry. The work continued.

"How can you all stand for this?" he hissed at the other members of his team. They hadn't laughed, but they hadn't cheered for his effort, either.

"I was like you before," said Kubo. "Nothing good came of it."

Hours and hours later, the end of the workday came, and an exhausted Izuku couldn't believe he hadn't escaped yet.

As they fell in line and trudged back toward the other building, he shook with sheer exasperation. It was a travesty. After all I've done, I'm not strong enough to break out of this?! How can that be possible?!

It certainly didn't help that he was completely alone.

He got even angrier a few minutes later, at the shower setup. It appeared that the women didn't have proper privacy. The guards went in there with them?!

"Hey!" he protested, as two guards took him by the elbows and pulled him into the men's shower area. "That's not right! They can't rebel anyway! You guys are scum!"

From the other male workers, all he got for his efforts were some snickers and looks of discomfort, as if he was causing all the trouble.

A tepid shower and a jumpsuit change later, he was in the bunk room once again, angrily chomping on the awful dinner they'd been served.

"Up twelve, huh?"

He glanced up. The setup of the bunks was like this: from top to bottom on his side, Tomiyasu, Faulkner, Izuku. On the opposite side it was Kubo, Mitsuri, Kaina. And in the aisle between them stood a bunch of larger guys. Some of them had mutant features, remnants of Quirks they couldn't use. Izuku could see from the numbers on their jumpsuits that they came from a few different teams.

"What do you want?" Mitsuri asked, chewing.

"We wanna know how you did it." One man pointed at Izuku. "The kid's too much of a clown to be contributing at all, so it has to be her, right?" He pointed at Kaina. "Let's trade. Join our team, bubblegum hair."

"I have a name," Nagant said. Her face was half-obscured by the darkness of being on the bottom bunk, leaving her eyes to shine out from a silhouette.

"What is it, then?"

"Why would I tell you?" She spat.

"What good does it do to have a better team?" asked Izuku, annoyed. "We're all in the same shit right now." At least, it seemed that way to him.

"You understand nothing, newbie. The more efficient we are, the quicker we get out of here. Once all these cannons are done…"

"They'll be used to attack people outside." Izuku stood up and faced the men in the middle of the aisle. They were all taller than him. "Doesn't that bother you at all? That you're building weapons?"

"I never said it didn't bother me, kid."

"You really think they're gonna let you out when they finish this project? They've got an easy, complacent workforce here." He made the word complacent sound like an accusation. "They'll start you on a different project."

"You? Shouldn't it be us?" The man leaned forward and flicked Izuku's nose. "You're stuck here too, peabrain. And a late thing. What the hell were you still doing out there that they managed to catch you by yourself? Isn't the whole country like, abandoned?"

Izuku almost told the man that he was a hero on the outside, but he got the suspicion that they would all just laugh, and not believe him. "Doesn't matter," he said. "I'm getting out of here the only way it's gonna happen. By force of escape."

They all laughed anyway. "Right. Whatever you say, kid." The men turned and walked off.

Izuku growled and lifted his fists, wanting so badly to activate his power. I've been brainwashed before, and you guys broke it, he spoke into the void, hoping for the vestiges to hear. Can't you do it again? Please?!

Nothing.

He returned to his bunk.

Lights out happened some time later. The large room went dark and hushed.

Izuku hardly paid attention. He was thinking of solutions, any solution.

There's no guards in here with us. His feet let him walk as far as the exit door, but it was locked, and he did not have the strength to force it open.

He returned to his bunk again.

He laid on his back, trying to wrack his brain, trying to concentrate and bring back One for All. Work was all he could hear. This is a truly horrible power. How could hero society have let this man build an empire for so long?

No, it was me. Hojo was in hiding before the war. They were very careful not to overstep. It's only now, after I failed to stop Shigaraki the first time and destroyed the country, that they are able to build things like this…

And he was only a couple of days away from failing again, if he didn't escape.

The bunk above him was shifting repetitively. Izuku wasn't an idiot; it was the sound and movement of two people stealthily having sex. Faulkner and Mitsuri.

He took his shitty pillow and put it over his face, wrapping it around his ears to try and block out the sound, but that of course only made the whisper of work more prominent inside his head. He silently screamed into the pillow fabric.

"Hey," a voice whispered. A hand gently removed the pillow.

Izuku turned over on his side and blinked into the darkness.

He was face-to-face with Kaina.

Somehow, she had quietly slid onto the narrow space on the edge of his cot, and was now lying parallel to him. He could barely see her, but it was unmistakably her. Her hair still smelled like that length of it he had captured after one of their fights, a million years ago.

"What do you want?" he muttered.

"Just thought you could use the company." Her eyes twinkled in the shadow. "You didn't tell any of them who you are."

"Neither did you."

"That…would be significantly dumber. I'm a villain, after all."

"They don't seem to care one way or the other."

"Well, I seem to recall us promising to finish our business here."

Izuku propped himself up on an elbow, annoyed. "What do you wanna do, have a fistfight? Neither of us have our powers."

"If that would make you feel better…"

"I get it. You don't want me to try and escape because you want All For One to get to UA first and win. To create that world you think will be good, for whatever reason. And you don't want to escape because he'll be able to access the bomb again. As long as you're in here, you're still alive."

"You promised to free me, remember?" she whispered. "Could I not have counted on that? Did you come here with a plan to take the bomb out at all?"

"...No," he admitted. "There was no time-"

"So you rushed in, and now you feel you have to rush back out. It's not gonna work that way, Midoriya. Now listen." She leaned in closer, close enough for him to see the contours of her pretty, mature face. "There are no cameras or microphones in here. We can plan freely. There's some kind of major control panel for the facility just a few turns ahead of the door into the work room. What we need is an excuse to go there. There's more people working here than just us. Cooks, cleaning people, maintenance people. If we make it so they can't do their jobs-"

"Is this something that can be done in the next twenty-four hours?" Izuku interrupted.

Nagant sighed. "Oh, Midoriya. No. That's what I keep trying to-"

"Then I don't want to hear it." He turned over to face the wall, putting his back to her. "You can plan your own long-term escape if you like, but I'm getting out of here tomorrow. I have no choice."

She did not respond. But she did not leave immediately, either.

Above their heads, Faulkner and Mitsuri were still going at it, just barely audible.

"Funny that the voice lets sex happen, of all things," Kaina mumbled.

Another long moment, and then Izuku felt his cot shift, indicating that she had gotten up. Silent, shuffling footsteps faded across the aisle. She had returned to her own place.

As much as he wanted to be fitful, angry, awake…cumulative exhaustion was catching up to him, and he fell asleep.

The next day began as an infuriating repeat of the previous. Izuku hated himself for how quickly his body had fallen into the routine, as the guards rushed them through their breakfast and pushed them into the line. This is not your type of work! he screamed at his own mind. YOU ARE A HERO! YOU DO HERO WORK!

For all the good it did.

Then, when they reached the factory floor, things were…different.

A long table had been set up at the end of the room, away from all the circular workstations. Strange-looking nylon, rubber, and metal parts, all black, were piled up on it.

"Today, some of you will be assigned to making helmets," a guard announced. "One person from each team will go, to maximize continued efficiency on the main project. The instructions are on the table. Your body will learn the rest."

This caused a good deal of stirring discussion from the workers. Izuku stared at the other table. Helmets. They must be critical to the Hojos' plan, whatever they are. "I'll go," he told the other team members.

There were no arguments.

His feet did not agree to the new task at first, which he found intriguing. There was a moment of subconscious indecision. But then, when he got closer, the table's pull overtook him, and before he knew it he was standing there and preparing to build some helmets.

The others were unknown to him, all from different teams. At least, until a tall man shuffled into the spot opposite him. It was one of the men from last night. He had shark-like features, with sharp teeth, faint gills on his neck, and a fin sticking out of his back through the jumpsuit.

"I told you," Izuku said to him, vindictively. "New projects will replace the old. You'll never get out of here the way you think."

"Shut up," the man growled, averting his eyes. "This is just a side thing." But he sounded unsure.

They all read the instructions. Izuku's eyes and mind processed the information practically for him. Then, his hands were moving, constructing a helmet. There were lots of wires involved, and there was a computer motherboard inside it. Programming. For communication? Or something else? The actual frame of the helmet was made of alternating layers of material. Whatever this was meant to protect the wearer from, it was certainly strange. What is your plan, Naru?

Then he realized there was a gas mask component. Of course there was. This is meant for attackers to wear while Mustard's Quirk is active in an area. But that didn't tell the full story. This helmet had more than one function, but he couldn't figure it out.

The woman working next to him, a blonde in her thirties, nudged him. "I know you," she whispered.

Izuku gave her a dubious look.

"I was there on the day All Might fought the villain made of sludge." She pretended to hold up a microphone. "I was a reporter, you see."

Izuku looked back down at his work. "How'd you get caught?"

"My employer still had broadcast access for a couple of weeks after the blackout. Said they'd pay me a huge bonus if I came out here to do some field journalism." She spat. "And now I have a new job."

"I'm sorry you see it that way. I'm not going to make a career out of this."

"No, you wouldn't." The former reporter smiled a little. "I've seen your bravery. Why not say who you are? If everyone knew there was a hero here…"

"...They wouldn't believe me. I've always been better with actions than words, and I can't use my Quirk."

"You didn't use it when you tried to save your friend from the sludge," she pointed out, softly.

I didn't have it. Throwing that backpack to rescue Kacchan had been his first, last, and only heroic act as a Quirkless person. Now he was functionally that again, and…

Ugh. He didn't want to think about his past. The whole point of all this was to leave it behind.

"Quiet, you two," said the shark-man across the way. "Keep working."

The blonde woman hummed and obeyed, though her eyes kept dancing to Izuku. What does she expect me to do?

The day continued. Izuku's frustration gave way to bargaining, as he tried and failed to resist, to call out for the vestiges, to think of any plan that would make him powerful again.

As the work day ended, bargaining had given way to despair.

The line of workers shuffled back toward the showers, Izuku having rejoined Team 6. He was in complete disbelief that he was still here. One day left. One. And it would take that much time just to get back to UA.

The shower sucked. The dinner sucked. Everything sucked.

Izuku, upon finishing his meal, felt a surge of helplessness so sharp that he growled and threw his empty tray across the room.

The others all looked up sharply as it clattered against the metal frame of the opposite bunks. Izuku tensed his arm and made a fist, preparing to punch the wall…

"Please relax, man," Tomiyasu requested from two bunks up.

Izuku shot him a look of pure venom. "Relax? Do you find this relaxing? Being worked to death day in, day out?"

"That's not what he meant-" Mitsuri protested.

"Shut. Up. You don't get it." His voice shook, as even people from other teams further down the aisle were drawn to listen to the scene. "The world is two days from ending. None of this matters. The villain army is about to attack again."

"The…villain army." Faulkner paled. The civilians on his team all exchanged glances. "That's…that's not the one that controls this place, is it?"

"No! Now do you understand why I'm rushing?! Whatever happens out there, whoever wins, you think any of those will be a good outcome for you here?"

"If the heroes win-"

"They can't." Izuku almost said not without me. But why bother? "Some of you must have family or friends still on the outside. They're about to be in more danger than you. As in, if you're happy staying here, then you've probably already seen them for the last time."

"Christ," Kubo muttered, "it's not like we're happy about this-"

"You have no excuse. None."

Lady Nagant picked up Izuku's tray and brought it to him. "Don't bother," she told him, in what he supposed was meant to be a reassuring tone. "They're used to watching the fights, not picking them."

Kubo and Tomiyasu both glared at her, surprisingly. "What do you know about picking a fight here?" the former snarled.

Kaina blinked up at him, unafraid. "Nothing yet. But I will."

"The reason you two are with us at all is because we tried to pick a fight. And we got an old man and a young boy killed. You wanna join them?" challenged Tomiyasu, trembling.

Izuku had guessed that was what happened. He had no more words for them. I try so hard to save them and they don't even want it. They just want to suffer and be miserable. They were welcome to it.

He rolled over and ignored the last few bits of the argument behind him.

Eventually the lights went out in the room. And the lights went out on his hope of making it back to UA in time.

After about twenty minutes, he heard Mitsuri and Faulkner going at it again. Annoying. He didn't want to think about Camie right now. It was hard to think of anyone on the outside, knowing that they would die because of his stupidity and lateness.

Arms wrapped around him from behind.

Izuku stiffened. He could feel her breasts pushing against his back, could hear her breathing. "Sorry," Kaina whispered. "Heh. Did I startle you?"

"If you're here to try and lecture me, then you may as well just-"

"I'm not." She snuggled closer. "I'll be quiet as a mouse. I just thought you might not mind the company."

Izuku didn't know what to do. What are her motives? Quirkless, he probably had the strength advantage, but she was certainly the more trained combatant. Was she trying to let his guard down so she could snap his neck or something?

And even if that wasn't it, even if she really did want to cuddle or whatever…here I go again, knowing nothing about love. Or what I want.

As his despair settled, so too did his concession to anything that might happen. I don't care anymore.

Instead of being the little spoon like she'd tried to trap him in, Izuku turned over so they were face-to-face, and wrapped his arms around her waist to pull her close. Their legs tangled. Kaina Tsutsumi inhaled rapidly in surprise, her slightly parted lips just barely visible, her eyes shimmering at him.

"Oh," she breathed.

Izuku held her tight. "Go to sleep, Lady Nagant."

She leaned in and kissed his mouth. Her eyelashes tickled his face. "You first," she countered at a whisper.

In the end, it was hard to tell. But the sleep Izuku did find was like drowning in the deepest, blackest lake - dark, cozy, yet hopeless all at the same time.

Three days became two. Two became one. One became zero.

And the horrible tension at the UA shelter, so sharp and defined it could split hairs, was reaching its peak.

The general population were rarely seen outside their rooms, hiding and quiet, awaiting their fate, terrified.

The heroes maintained their positions.

Nejire steered clear of Class A, unable to face them knowing she'd failed to bring him back. In advance of the battle, she reached the lowest point mentally she had ever been at.

We're all going to die was a common recurring thought.

Then, at one point, as she paced on one of the high platforms near the top of the UA fortress, searching for enemies in the kilometers of cityscape she could see in any direction along with the other sky fighters…

…Someone came up the lift.

Nejire looked around, hearing the sound of the lift disengage. Someone had come up to her platform.

It was Mirio.

"You're not supposed to be up here, Lemillion." Her voice came out as a squeak-croak; she had not used it all today.

His face was hard to read. "Shigaraki tried to attack from the ocean," he said. "He was…halted. Badly wounded, we think. The villains may have to fall back and regroup."

Nejire's world spun. She nearly fell over. "Halted…by who?"

"It was Star and Stripe. The best hero from America. She went ahead in defiance of the bureaucracy, even though the foreign heroes weren't due to get here yet. She died to delay him." Mirio waved for her to follow him back to the lift. "C'mon. They want everyone down for a big meeting."

Nejire's heart was pounding. She could not quite believe her ears. It was slow going to follow him. It didn't feel right to abandon her post. It's…it's not coming today.

They're not coming today. Shigaraki was weakened.

As the reality of that set in - after all, Mirio could not be lying - it was like a single pin being removed from the overpricked cushion that was her brain. The slightest leeching of tension.

There was time. There was hope. A little of both. Maybe.

At least a hundred heroes gathered in the meeting space, an air of uncertainty and buzzing over them. No one dared speculate about anything.

Endeavor, Hawks, and Best Jeanist all arrived last. Behind them, a group of people Nejire didn't recognize filed in. They were wearing combat gear, and all looked worse for wear.

"Sorry to spring this upon you so late," Endeavor announced with his booming voice. "Star and Stripe's actions went against the orders she received. When we received contact, it was on very short notice."

"We tried to reach her over the ocean," Hawks added. "But Shigaraki got there first. We believe his - and All For One's - goal, was to steal Star's Quirk, New Order."

Whispers all over the room. Everyone knew at least a little bit about America's number one, and her strange Quirk, but no one knew exactly how it worked.

"We heard Star died and Shigaraki survived," someone called out. "Does that mean he took the Quirk successfully?" Fear struck their hearts, Nejire's included, at the possibility.

"We think not," said Best Jeanist. He let those in combat gear step forward. "These are the surviving pilots from Star's strike team."

Nejire saw now: all these people were in mourning. But despite that, their commander made his announcement steadily.

"Our aircraft gathered biometric data during the battle. We know the following - after Star was…" He took a moment to compose himself. "...Defeated, Shigaraki's body sustained massive internal damage. The data suggests that the addition of Star's Quirk factor was the cause of this."

"So he won't be wanting to use it anytime soon?" someone asked.

Jeanist nodded. "He may have gotten rid of it already. We can only speculate on his motives and choices, but…what we do know from the data is that his development as a human weapon has been set back by at least a week."

That caused the most whispers and chatter so far. A week. We have another week. Nejire slowly exhaled.

"What about Deku, then?" spoke up Mount Lady. "At least seven days is a lot more time. Time enough to go look for him, surely."

Endeavor shifted uncomfortably. There was dissent in the crowd, mixed opinions. "We…aren't sure what this means beyond the facts we just told you. Does All For One intend to attack UA right away when Shigaraki is complete? They went after Star, yes, but only because she showed herself."

"But isn't Deku an even bigger target for them?"

"We don't know if they know he isn't here," said Hawks. "If they do know, then it's possible they might attack UA while we're out looking for Deku, even before Shigaraki is done. It's an even enough fight, with both the strongest players off the board."

Some louder protests erupted at that, but Principal Nezu broke through them. "We've made no decisions yet," he said. "For the time being, sit tight. We should have a new plan by the end of the day."

The meeting adjourned.

Mirio and Tamaki both glanced at her, as if expecting her to say something. Nejire pursed her lips. "I need to think." She left them.

She could have gone anywhere for a bit of peace and contemplation, but something drew her to the old Class 3A dorm.

The dorm buildings for the students had been altered and re-integrated into the overall construction of the UA fortress, and so things looked different - they were not outside and well-spaced on paths through green lawns, but now instead smashed together and partially inside the grander shelter concourse, like those hotels inside of airports.

Still, when she went up the steps and opened the door, the interior was entirely the same. Spooky. The entire building had been picked up and moved, but all her memories of the months she'd stayed here were intact.

Nejire walked into the common room. It was empty. Did they not refill this building with refugees? Her class had all graduated, so there was no one using it right now.

She went up the stairs to her room. She had no key to it any longer, but all the doors were open anyway.

Inside the room was cleared out. All her stuff had been moved to the shelter pod where her family was staying, elsewhere in the fortress.

She walked over the carpet, feeling the indentations where she'd had her chair, her bed, her desk. The room's decorations had followed the, in her opinion, excellent color palette of her hero costume and hair, but now they were all gone, leaving a grey shell.

Nejire opened the window and sat down on its edge, putting her feet on the sill and hugging her knees, balancing. She stared out at the fortress. There was a distant, curving roof overhead instead of the sky. Everything was weird and different.

"Hey, space cadet."

Nejire turned with some surprise. Only one person called her that.

Her old mentor was standing in the doorway, a nostalgic smile on her face. The woman's arms were crossed and bandaged, but she was back in her hero costume. Nejire's heart lifted.

"Ryukyu," she greeted. "Hi."

"It's been a while, hasn't it?" the blonde dragon woman walked into the room, surveying the abandoned space. "I wish I'd gotten to see your place when you had it decorated up. I'm sure it looked snazzy."

"It did," Nejire insisted, a bit haughtily. "I'm…glad to see you're better."

"Yep. Just in time for the big rematch, too." Ryukyu whistled. "Though I didn't manage much in the first battle, in the end."

"That's not true! Aizawa-sensei told me you were right in there with Endeavor and Deku! That without even one of you, he would have probably been killed! I know I only showed up at the end, but-"

Ryukyu laughed. "Thanks, space cadet. Sorry, that was just me checking something. I was a little worried when I saw your face. It was like the Nejire I knew wasn't in there at all, but I can see she still is."

"My face?" Nejire reached up and touched her burn scars. No, she wasn't talking about that. I must look sad. "A lot of stuff…happened. Since then."

"So I've heard. A little bit, anyway." Ryukyu joined her by the window. "Mission commander, my goodness. It makes me proud to know I taught you well enough to do something like that. Though part of me is ashamed I couldn't be out there with you."

"You certainly couldn't have made things any worse," Nejire muttered.

That got her mentor's attention. Her slitted eyes gazed deeply. "Talk to me, space cadet."

"Well…I ended up working a lot with Midoriya-kun. Deku. The junior that the villains are targeting."

"...Yes. I heard he's still missing."

"He's not." Nejire swallowed. "I know where he went." The others speculated, but I know for sure. Because he told me himself.

Ryukyu raised an eyebrow. "Have you…told anyone?"

"No. They asked if anyone saw him leave, and I stayed quiet. Even though I did see him leave."

"Now Nejire." The dragon woman leaned her shoulder against the wall and tilted her right eye forward. A penetrating look. "Why would you do a thing like that?"

"I…don't know."

"Yes you do, dear."

Nejire hugged herself tighter around the knees. She had to look away from her mentor to even begin speaking. "One of the heroes I was working with…shot someone. Shot a villain and killed him. I heard the gunfire and saw the immediate aftermath."

"What does this have to do with-"

"I knew she was going to do it. She basically told me. A few days before that, we were both riding on a motorcycle going somewhere, and she gave me the opposite advice to what you always gave me. She said I shouldn't try and contain my powers. Be deadly were her exact words. I tried it, and it didn't exactly work out…at least I don't think it did."

"Do you…wish you had stopped her from killing someone?"

"No…well, maybe, but that's not the…" Nejire jammed her eyes shut and swallowed, hard. I will not cry. "If anyone should have stopped her it was me. I was the leader of the operation. I was commander. But I don't know how I managed to do anything, Ryukyu. I was failing upward the whole time. I only got the position based on a lie in the first place. I couldn't save Gang Orca from losing his voice. I let one of the villain leaders get away, and only caught the other because we pretended to be prostitutes, and Midoriya-kun had to do something…kinda bad." It was all spilling out now. "And don't get me started on trying to help Midoriya-kun find this bomber I'm sure you've heard about. Every time I did, I was completely dead weight. My period cramps came and I left him to fight an assassin on his own. Twice I've been distracted by this bounty hunter…guy…I don't know how to describe him, but I haven't managed to really defeat him, either. I've tried to be a hero and a leader in so many different ways and don't think I've really succeeded at any of them. Even be deadly doesn't work. Every time I lose my temper and let my power go crazy, nothing comes of that, either. I couldn't defeat Dabi, I couldn't stop Shigaraki from escaping at the first battle, I couldn't…" She was taking shallow breaths, her heart rate increasing rapidly. "I can't…"

Ryukyu hugged her.

"Nejire, shhhh. It's okay."

"I'm a failure," she muttered. "If I told them I let Midoriya-kun go, that would just be another thing to add to the list…"

"You are not a failure, dear girl." Her hands rubbed warm circles on Nejire's back. "I worked with you for long enough to know. There's no way you're telling me the whole story. Some of those things were not just your fault, and I'm sure you're leaving out many things you did right."

"It's the whole story as I see it-"

"Is it? Why did you let Midoriya go?"

Nejire slowly backed out of the hug, sniffled, and wiped her face with her arm. "Um, it's complicated. Our relationship…got complicated."

Ryukyu's expression was hard to read. "I see. You had your reasons, but you felt that if you told the other pros, they would not be able to understand."

"None of them understand," she hissed. "Certainly they don't understand what he is going through. What they allowed him to go through by letting him loose. He had unfinished business. If he came back here without finishing it, he wouldn't be in the right headspace to fight Shigaraki anyway. We would have lost everything."

"And now…?"

"Now." Nejire took deeper breaths, trying to calm down. "Now…I'm worried…the business he had to take care of shouldn't have taken this long. I'm worried something happened."

"You know where?"

She nodded. "It's an address the heroes have. A place called the Company Town. We could get there in a day if we-"

"So you do want to go after him." Ryukyu's eyes looked triumphant.

Nejire was shocked at her own subconscious agreement. "...Yeah. Yeah, I guess I came here to think about that, but…it didn't really take much thought at all."

"What was he trying to do there?"

"He agreed to meet All For One's assassin there and help her defect. There's a Quirk trap inside her. It's supposed to make her blow up at his command. Izuku wanted to free her, and free all the people working at the factory. They're enslaved by the Quirk of the villain boss we let escape, you see."

"That's a lot to handle. The opinion of Endeavor, Hawks, and the others in charge seems to be that we should remain here as planned and hope for Deku to return on his own. Of course, they're not as certain of his position as you. Perhaps if they had that information…"

Nejire blinked. "You want me to try and convince them." She laughed miserably. "That's not gonna work. Why would they listen to me?"

"Endeavor has a lot of respect for you. He and I spoke about you at length."

"He doesn't know everything I've done wrong. If I go back out there now, Ryukyu…this bounty hunter guy will find me. He told me he'd never leave me alone unless I kill him. That he'd always come after me when I'm weak and vulnerable."

"That's quite an excuse," Ryukyu tutted. "Have you been using that as a reason for not doing the brave things I know you're capable of?"

Nejire scrunched her shoulders sheepishly. "Well…"

"Listen. You said earlier that the be deadly advice ran opposite to mine. That's not necessarily true." Ryukyu brushed her blonde hair off her face. "I have to contain my own power, yes. The…dragon instincts inside of me can go haywire if I'm not careful. It's possible that when teaching you, I used too much language that would better apply to myself. Your Quirk is your own, Nejire. I never wanted you to contain yourself. I wanted you to be smart. To minimize collateral damage, and maximize your stamina for battles when you really need it."

"I don't think I can even do that anymore. I'm so wound up now, I feel like…" Nejire stared at her own gloved palm, where her spirals would come from. "If I try to hold back, I'll just get my ass kicked. That's what this Asano guy has done twice. And if I don't hold back, then…I just make a mess. And it's like that's what he wants. He wants this to end with one of us killing the other. I don't want to give him what he wants."

"You said he comes after you when you're perceived as vulnerable?"

"Yeah…"

"Then don't go out there vulnerable. Don't go alone."

"I already said, I don't think I can convince Endeavor and Hawks that a rescue mission is a good idea-"

"Who said anything about those geezers?" Ryukyu wrinkled her nose. "You have people you trust. Ask them."

Nejire swallowed. That…was true. But…

"Even if I were to go get Midoriya-kun. I don't know what he needs. He didn't have a plan on how to get the bomb out of the assassin when he left. I still don't have a solution to that-"

Ryukyu leaned in close and narrowed her eyes. "I think you do. Stop making excuses, space cadet."

Nejire bit her lip. "The solution…" I can't ask that of the girl. "It's really stupid and reckless and might not even work. The person in question isn't even a hero."

The dragon woman leaned back, appearing almost smug. "But you're considering it. You're considering a crazy plan that involves endangering a non-hero, all for helping Midoriya."

Nejire blinked, not understanding.

"You've got the biggest case of lovesickness I've ever seen." Ryukyu openly laughed.

How do people keep figuring it out? First Yuyu, then apparently Tamaki's girlfriend, and now…is it that obvious?! What am I doing that makes it so obvious?!

She pouted. "Even if you were right. Which I'm not saying you are, by the way. Is that really a good reason to go rescue someone?"

A pause. A breath.

"Nejire." Her mentor took her by the shoulders and gazed at her with the weight of the world in her eyes. "It's the best reason."

Nejire Hado was unable to contain herself. The tears flowed openly down her cheeks. "Ryukyu…"

"Go get him, space cadet."

Kaina could feel All For One searching for her.

It was like being in a room where extremely loud music was playing, and there was someone behind a locked door in the next room over, banging on it and trying to get your attention. All For One was the person banging on the door. The loud music was Hojo's command. Work. Effectively drowning out AFO's access to the trap inside her stomach.

She knew, regardless of whether or not her mind had really "given up" on the mission, that she was a goner. The instant she exited the Company Town and returned to AFO's radar, he would kill her. Why not? She had been useless to him. Even now, with Izuku Midoriya trapped and weakened, she had no way of contacting him to come here. They had taken her weapons and equipment.

Kaina had made peace with her death long ago. That wasn't why she moved forward.

The days at the Company Town passed. They woke, they ate, they walked, they worked. The others never noticed, but the guards watched Kaina closely. They all knew who she was, and clearly considered her the biggest danger. She gave them glares right back, even as her body did the bidding of the voice.

Kaina learned more about the other members of Team 6, as they continued to build weapon after weapon together at that workstation. Mitsuri had been a mechanic, which explained her proficiency and natural leadership in this environment. Kubo had been caught swiping old produce from a nearby store along with some other raiders. Tomiyasu had been scammed and lured in by Hojo agents. Faulkner was from Czechia, and had worked at the factory as an expat before the war, making miniature golf clubs. He had been inside already when the barrier went up. From employee to slave, at the whims of a mob king.

Kaina wondered how many of the other people on the floor with them were previous paid employees, and how many had gotten caught and dragged in. She was careful not to talk to the other teams too much. Every day, Team 6's efficiency numbers went up, thanks to her, and every day, the jealous glares grew sharper and sharper.

I should have taken Izuku's job. The crew making the helmets, of which there were now dozens and more completed every day, was all mixed together from different teams. Kaina took note of a few of them: a blonde woman who'd tried to get Izuku's attention a few times. A towering man with shark features. A person of ambiguous gender whose hair grew straight up from their head (it was nearly a foot tall). An old lady with a bird's beak and completely black eyes. At least three other white people, besides Faulkner, at least one of whom was Australian (Kaina recognized the accent).

She had made educated guesses at many of their Quirks, based on features, personality, and pure conjecture. Many of them were useless, others perhaps less so. The Company Town had old, young, male, female. Some were bolder, some were more demure, but all were at least a little spiteful. And all were exhausted.

They would be of little use to Kaina's plan, other than as data. Her own Team 6 showed some potential, but they were a shadow of their former selves. She still had not gathered how their initial rebellion had truly panned out, but the results of it had broken them too much.

The main work team had a total of thirty teams of six. One hundred and eighty people. It was hard to tell the number of guards, as they rotated in shifts, but based on repeated faces Kaina saw, she estimated that there were no more than forty.

The teams behind the cooking, cleaning, and maintenance of the facility were harder to gather. She had never seen either of the former, and had only caught a glimpse of a maintenance worker once or twice. But upkeep for the Company Town was surely no small feat. Kaina estimated that there were at least several dozen more people being kept here that the workers knew nothing about.

This complicated her plan considerably.

The day of Shigaraki's scheduled completion had come and gone. Izuku had settled into what Kaina could only call a waking comatose state. The other workers at least had their wits about them; Izuku appeared to have totally succumbed to the voice, letting it guide his actions almost entirely.

This was unfortunate. I'm doing this for you, she wanted to tell him, but she knew words would do nothing. She could only keep silently plugging away at her plan, a day at a time.

Izuku clearly believed that Shigaraki and All For One had immediately attacked that day. Kaina was less sure. Why would All For One still be probing for her if he'd already won? Or even if he was busy fighting?

Something's up. In here, where time seemed to hang frozen, it was impossible to know what it was. But the Company Town had proceeded like usual, so the world outside clearly had not ended yet.

It was only after lights out where Izuku seemed to come alive a little. That fiery spirit, the one that had made her dare to risk all this…it came back to him when she slipped into his bed every night.

"Why do you do this?" he whispered to her, in the midst of one of their long cuddle sessions.

"A woman has needs too, you know," she replied coyly, before silencing him with a deep kiss.

That was partially true. Kaina had not received real affection in years, and Izuku was surprisingly adept.

During the day, he was on blatant depression autopilot, his self-perceived failure to escape and save the world biting into him.

At night, his resistance had broken, and he gave into what she desired. Even when he was making out with her, it seemed…disconnected, somehow. But he was such a natural lover that it almost didn't matter. He was worryingly addicting to her.

Kaina knew it was messed up. She could never quite bring herself to have sex with him, even though their other team pairing did it above them, and probably assumed they were doing the same.

But this was who she was. She was a villain, and she didn't care about taking advantage of a younger man like this. She'd kiss him for hours every night if she wanted. In a vacuum, she wouldn't even find Izuku that attractive, but their cat-and-mouse buildup, their uneven power dynamic, their trauma both separate and mutual, their understandings of one another…it was all so indulgent and taboo that she couldn't help herself.

You feel that, All For One? she thought toxically as she rocked against Izuku, pulling his tongue toward hers with her lips. Can you tell what I'm doing? The guy you told me to fight and capture and bring to you? She felt up his muscles and sighed into his mouth as he pulled her hair, making them kiss even harder. I'm doing this instead! And there's nothing you can do about it! You cannot reach me! She grabbed his hand and let him cup her breast through her jumpsuit. She knew he liked her breasts, and couldn't blame him. Maybe I'll have sex with him after all! I can do whatever I want! Her head spun; she was almost giddy with the sense of control. She'd gone without it for so, so long.

A few minutes later, Izuku pulled back for a bit of air. She could see her own saliva dripping down his chin, glistening in the dark. One of his hands had gone to her butt. "You're supposed to kill your target after you seduce them," he told her in that flat tone he'd adopted in the past few days.

She giggled and tapped his lips. "But you can't do this for me anymore if you're dead."

"Yeah. Guess we better enjoy it while it lasts." There was no emotion behind his words. He simply returned to kissing her and feeling her up, and she let him.

He is being indulgent in his own way, too. Kaina knew he didn't really carry any special emotion for her. In fact, there was almost an aggression to the way he handled her, as if he wished he could fight her instead. He hates that I'm doing this. He hates that he's brought himself this low. But that just made her more excited, and she wasn't ashamed to admit it. If this is what it takes to bring the fire back out of him, then this is what I'll keep doing. She could not carry out her plan with Izuku moping around. There was a glimmer of a spark when he fooled around with her - and regardless of that spark's origin, whether it was just him doing what he believed a lover should or not - she needed to cultivate it. Because he, at least, needs to escape.

The next day she managed another one of her little strays.

The guards thought they were watching her closely, but they weren't. They were barely lucid themselves. And why should they be? They have the easiest chattel to guard possible. She took full advantage of their laziness, and managed to slip away for less than a minute at a time, every once in a while.

Kaina suspected she likely had the greatest resistance to the Quirk-command of anyone there. Why? Her former job was the most dissimilar to this one. When other people heard work, they had no trouble at all associating it with factories and machine parts and hard labor. Most jobs for common civilians were at least adjacent to those concepts.

But Kaina's work was in killing people. She was an assassin, and she found that when she really dug down into that side of herself, she could tear away from the routine.

Never for more than a minute, though. And that was the kicker.

Nevertheless, today she managed to track down three more switches. That made eighteen in total that she'd found, along the path to the supposed control panel that Kubo had told her about. The switches activated the mustard gas system in the walls. They were never spaced closer than twelve feet to one another, but a guard was pretty much always within a few seconds of reaching one.

An escape plan required a three-pronged solution: how to counter the guards, how to counter the Quirk, and how to counter the gas. All three on their own made the other two harder.

But Kaina was cooking something up.

If I actually intend to do something I interpret as work when I stray from the routine, I can resist returning for longer.

That would mean she had to break formation with the intent of killing someone. It was the only thing strong enough for her brain to latch onto.

I am a villain. I am an assassin.

"Funny," she breathed, quickly between kisses, that night in Izuku's bed. "How the intent…kiss…returns before the Quirk."

He was caressing her tits gently through her clothes. "I see you walk away sometimes-"

His sentence just barely finished before she smothered his mouth again. "Yeah," she confirmed in a short separation, "I can resist and…mmph…do something that my Quirk would…aaah…help me with, but…mmf…my Quirk itself still won't…kiss…activate."

She was trying to goad him into asking her about what she was up to, but he didn't take the bait. Instead he backed off her for a moment and…

…And pulled her jumpsuit top up.

Stunned, Kaina could only lift her arms and allow him to declothe her. He had never done this before.

Beneath, she was wearing a poorly fitted grey bra, which they gave to all the women after the showers.

Izuku scanned her like a starving man in a desert who had his least favorite food in front of him. She could see the delicious conflict in his eyes.

"You too then," she whispered, and helped him slip out of his own shirt.

They pressed together with renewed arousal, the increased skin-to-skin contact making Kaina's head spin. She couldn't help it; she released a stifled moan as he claimed her lips.

His chest was firm and heavily scarred. He doesn't realize it, but he's been getting physically better this whole time. Even as his mental state deteriorated, she had seen shape and volume return to his body slowly from the regular meals, sleep, and exercise. How screwed was his schedule before? Whatever the case, she was happy to indulge herself in his strong arms.

His hands roamed all over her as they made out sloppily, that balance between desire and disgust in him giving his actions a perfect mix of gentleness and firmness. Kaina wasn't afraid to admit that she was in heaven. He's so dutiful. I could sit here for years and keep asking him to do this and he'd oblige me. She shifted a little against his crotch, something she hadn't dared to do very much. Should I just do it?

No, now there was a tinge of guilt entering her. She wasn't sure why he was so dutiful, like some kind of love robot, but she couldn't imagine that it was for a healthy reason. Even if she was partially manipulating him for his own good. Something about his past has made him like this. If I keep this up, he'll never be able to have a normal relationship. And that definitely made her feel a little sheepish.

Still, apparently taking her top off had pushed him a little. He was definitely getting a bit more aggressive, both with the kissing and the cuddling. She responded in kind, biting his lip a little, daring him to get worked up.

It was like they were arguing mentally, almost telepathically.

Come on, Izuku. I know you're still in there. She ruffled his hair, making it a mess. His hand pawed her ass and pulled it toward him, so that their hips crashed together. You want me to stop? Or do you want to rip the rest of these clothes off me and have your way?

Izuku growled into her mouth as she rocked against him, faster, more desperately, more closely…

His growl reached a fever pitch, and he broke the kiss.

Stunned, Kaina drank the air, her heart racing as Izuku retreated from her. His sweat glistened in the dark. Their heavy, deep breathing synchronized. They slowly took their hands off one another.

Oh my word, she thought, coming to her senses, a blush forming on her face. She'd nearly succumbed to the atmosphere herself. Dizzying.

"What…do you want from me?" Izuku asked. His voice cracked with pure desperation.

It was bad to see him like this. The person she'd danced with at the charity ball had possessed the inner strength to defeat All For One and build the better world she dreamed of. This was not that person. He believes he already failed to do it. She had to bring the old Izuku Midoriya back.

"Tomorrow I need you to snap a power cord on the work floor and cause a short." It was a gamble. Izuku was the only one she currently trusted to find enough temporary brain resistance to do this…but not in his current state.

She'd wanted to ask it for days, because it was the only way for her plan to move forward, but…she'd never been sure he would agree. Had she riled him up enough with all the kissing? Had she sparked the fire enough?

The answer was yes.

"Fine."

Just one word, but it was all she needed to hear. Kaina smiled and stroked his cheek. "Good boy."

That was, again, intended to rile him up, and it worked. Izuku growled again and pulled her toward himself, giving her another long, deep kiss. She hummed happily, feeling the wheels of her plan in motion.

This time, their kissing slowed down naturally before ending, instead of reaching a fever pitch. She felt their mutual tiredness deflate their arousal steadily, until they were just giving each other light pecks, rubbing up each other's sides.

"Last one," Izuku whispered, kissing her.

"Mmmhmm." She could barely keep her eyes open.

"Okay. Last one, ever. I mean it." He kissed her just once more. She held his chin in place, forcing him to linger, trying to ingrain the memory of all this into her brain forever. Probably my last kiss before I die, may as well make it count.

Then they separated.

Silently, Kaina rolled over and pressed her bare back against his chest. His arms came around her waist from behind and held her. They fell asleep.

The next day, as planned, Izuku found a window of strength inside himself and forcibly broke a piece of electrical equipment.

There were a few minutes of confusion, as apparently this had never happened before. Work on the helmets was briefly halted. Some of the civilian workers even looked…indecisive.

Eventually, the guards called in the problem, and then came down the steps to punish Izuku. Kaina did not stay to watch. He'll be alright.

She slipped away from the factory floor and into the hallway. Heading for the control panel. Trying to maintain her intent to kill. This time, it was real, which made it easier. I am an assassin.

Work, Naru Hojo told her, flagging her steps.

I am a killer. This is my work.

The maintenance worker was on his way to the control panel when Kaina found him. It was like seeing a fox in the woods; a rarity, and when they made eye contact, the fox in question froze in terror at being spotted.

There was a struggle. Not a long one. She knew plenty of ways to handle it bloodlessly.

Kaina leaned the body against the wall, not bothering to hide it, wishing that her Quirk would have somehow come back during that. It remained suppressed, and even now, her villainous deed complete, she could feel her brain drawing her back toward the factory floor. Running out of time.

She stole as many of the tools from his bag as she could fit in the pockets of her jumpsuit, and headed back. She even managed to whistle a tune.