"Nomu!"

The shrill, piercing alarm of Momo's scream cut through the air around him and it was razors on his skin. He grabbed for her, fingers reaching, and she was running through the warehouse to him. Her hand was outstretched.

Everything slowed down. The world went quiet. She was running to him and he was reaching out to her, and the hulking, black silhouette of the Nomu behind her swayed as it chased her down. He was reaching. Her fingertips found his, and Aizawa squeezed her hand tight, just to feel her ripped away when the Nomu wrapped its fist around her waist.

The noise came back, and it was screams. Blood curdling screams from them both as the Nomu smashed Momo into the ground. Her body was like a rag doll, helpless under its strength, and it bashed her down again. Momo raised her head from the ground. He saw the gash across her forehead. She was bleeding from her mouth, too. And she was screaming as she looked at him, hand still reaching.

Aizawa flinched hard, waking himself from his nightmare. The hospital room was bright even though it was the smallest hours of the morning now. The nurse had moved to turn off the lights after Momo had been situated in the tall hospital bed again, but he had resolutely ordered them to keep it on. She had been in the dark for hours and he did not want her to panic if she woke up in another dark room.

He'd pulled the visitor's chair around to sit by the foot of the bed, in her direct line of vision, and he slowly stretched his limbs now. He felt every bruise and cut. Knew he'd be feeling them for days to come. Momo was unconscious on the bed with her head elevated on a pillow. Her breathing was strong and steady. Her hands laid on top of the woven hospital blanket, and Aizawa watched as her fingers twitched.

She was reaching.

He could hear nurses in the hall — he heard All Might's name being spoken. He recognized Recovery Girl's voice. He wasn't prepared, however, for the hot, liquid rage that coursed through his veins. Aizawa's hands twisted into fists.

There was blame aplenty to go around; blame on the students for being so reckless. Blame on the Heroes for failing to maintain a fucking perimeter. But, irrational as it was, his anger channeled away into that deep, loathing resentment he harbored. The Number One fucking Hero, with his showboating and disregard for anything that wasn't his protege, Midoriya. Aizawa knew behind a shadow of a doubt that the reason Momo had been out there at all tonight was Midoriya. He saw All Might's favoritism toward the boy and how it blinded him to the rest of the students, and Aizawa took it fucking personal.

Because it was his protege who got hurt.

Midoriya and the rest of them would be fine. They would walk out of the hospital with some good lessons. Aizawa closed his eyes, turning his head to press his knuckles against his forehead, exhaling slow to simmer his emotions. He'd seen Momo's face when they pulled her up out of that hole, and he recognized something when it broke. That girl would never be the same.

What cut him deepest though, was that he'd tried to save her. He'd fought to get to her, had done everything he possibly could to reach her, because he wanted to save her. Somehow, she mattered. All that he'd done though and it still hadn't been enough. He failed. And that…that broke him.

Aizawa shoved himself out of the chair, shoulders bristled and hunched as he headed out of the room and looked both ways down the hall. He saw Recovery Girl lingering outside a door, and he waited for her to begin to walk away before he stalked toward it.

Plenty of blame to go around, but Aizawa knew where to lay it.

All Might — if he could even be called that — sat shriveled and small on his hospital bed. Still tall, even sitting, but it was like he'd fucking wilted. He looked small in the white hospital gown. The dark circles of exhaustion around his eyes were prominent.

Aizawa rapped his knuckles on the metal door frame, and All Might turned his head to look at him. The absolute dread in All Might's eyes was worthwhile.

"Come in," All Might invited anyway. Aizawa did. He considered shutting the door behind him; All Might might be the Number One Hero, but he had nothing fucking left, and Aizawa knew he could beat the shit out of him right now in this weakened state. Easily. "How is Bakugo?"

"He will be okay." Aizawa's lips pursed. Then, "I'm more worried about Yaoyorozu though."

"Yaoyorozu?"

The confusion on All Might's face made Aizawa want to hit him and not stop. He had no fucking clue, did he? Everything that had transpired over the last few hours and he was just as stupid now as he'd been before.

"Yeah. Yaoyorozu. It wasn't just Midoriya, Kirishima, Iida, and Todoroki who went to Bakugo's aide tonight."

"Yaoyorozu was there tonight, too? Is she alright?"

Aizawa derived no pleasure, no satisfaction or sense of vengeance, when he answered coldly, "No. All For One tried to kidnap her before he engaged in his fight with you."

All Might sat up straight, pushing himself away from the pillows supporting him, and the man looked stricken. Aizawa watched him, cold, as All Might processed what it meant. What the consequences would be. What kind of situation Momo would be in right now if they'd succeeded.

"Is she okay?" All Might whispered.

Plenty of blame to go around, and Aizawa laid it at the Hero's feet now.

"No. No, she's not okay. She barricaded herself in a freezer of dead bodies that All For One was saving to create more Nomus, and was nearly crushed in it while you and All For One fought it out over her head. She was trapped for hours with dead, mutilated bodies, Yagi. So no, she's not okay, and she's probably never going to be okay again. And you didn't even get Bakugo back — the students did.

"Your presence has put my students at risk. All of them could have been injured or killed at the training camp. Bakugo was kidnapped. Yaoyorozu will suffer irreparable distress for the rest of her life after tonight," Aizawa said, and he hated how All Might kept his eyes down like a coward. Because he wasn't man enough or to face what had happened on his watch.

"This is all because of you," he continued, the train at full speed. "And I warned you that this would happen when you first showed up at UA. You make a media spectacle of yourself and it puts a target on your back, and on the backs of all around you."

It felt good to get it off his chest. Even though all of that he'd told All Might already, maybe now the Hero would get the fucking point. See something besides that shallow vanity he was so dependent on for sustenance. Aizawa turned to leave, but left one final stick of dynamite behind as he began to walk away.

"If you have any self-respect left, you'll leave UA and let the real Heroes finish cleaning up your mess in peace."

Only silence behind him and Aizawa didn't look back as he returned to Momo's room. She was still unconscious, fingers twitching, and Aizawa settled himself back into the chair by her bed again.

He leaned his face into his hand, watching her. Hating All Might. Hating Heroes. Hating UA. He was better than this. She was better than this. They were nothing but tools in the hands of a broken Hero society that cares nothing of collateral damage. That cares nothing for their own. He thought of Shirakumo and the "red tape" surrounding his friend's death. It was enough to make him want to walk away — to leave Hero life behind completely. The last lingering ties he had to his identity as a Hero were nothing he couldn't sever.

Except her.

Aizawa frowned as he watched Momo from the corner of his eye. It was right there again at the forefront of his mind.

Protege.

It was less aversive now.

But what came to mind wasn't what he'd imagined before. Before, he'd imagined handing her the reins as he stepped away into the shadows. Letting her stay in the light, being the face, but that wasn't what he envisioned now. Tonight had changed that. There was a new deep-seated fear of leaving her behind in the care of these Heroes. They didn't give a fuck about her, and he could not entrust her well being to them. They wouldn't spare a drop.

Protege.

Maybe. If that was what she chose. Aizawa dwelled on the thought, weighing it. The idea of bringing her away from the Hero path she had originally chosen still left a sour aftertaste. He wouldn't force her. He wouldn't glamorize the life he led, Aizawa thought. He wouldn't try to sway or influence her decision.

But if she wanted to come to this path, he decided, he would show her the way.