Izuku slammed himself against the metal door for the thousand time, his shoulder and side aching. He'd found the spot where the lock was in the dark, and he had the tiniest of hopes that it might give way. At least, that's what he told himself. He'd checked the walls, the floor, and the door, and there was absolutely nothing for him to work with. The tiny space was completely empty, except for a tiny prison-like toilet in the corner. Everything was either made of concrete or bolted down solid, and Izuku knew there was no way out.

He kicked the door, growling. Curious had just left him there with a book and the clothes on his back and Izuku had no one to blame other than himself and his damn pride. No, that wasn't quite right. This wasn't his fault. Was it?

He hissed, taking a few steps back and charging at the door once more. He threw himself a few more times before his nose started bleeding again and, finally, he allowed himself to slide down the wall. He placed his head in his hands, feeling how blood flowed past his mouth and onto the floor. He was breathing noisily, now fully incapable of breathing through his broken and swollen nose, and the fact that his own breathing and the screams coming from the end of the hallway mixed made him feel horrible.

His adrenaline started to simmer down, giving way to the numb emptiness that comes before a storm of emotions. He sighed, shaking all over, and suddenly he didn't want to do anything anymore. Down the hall, the screaming went down a little, morphing into animalistic growling and cursing. Izuku wanted to cover his ears, he wanted to isolate himself from whatever was happening in the other room, but he just didn't have the strength for it anymore. He just stared at the darkened wall, his eyes barely adapting to the dark, and said nothing.

Tears started stinging his eyes, and he hugged his knees to his chest. He was unable to hide his face due to the broken nose, but that was as small as he could get. He was just about to start openly sobbing, the part of his palm that was below his thumb already between his teeth to keep himself from making noise when he heard it.

Whispering.

He exhaled softly, unsure if it was his imagination or not. But the soft voice was soon followed by a tapping noise of stone on metal, and Izuku knew it was real. He looked at the darkness outside his cell and waited.

He heard the voice again, soft and fast.

"What?" He whispered himself. He started inching his way closer to the door, finally able to identify that he was being asked something by someone in one of the other cells.

"...?" The voice was just saying one word, nothing more, and then they tapped away at their own door, but Izuku couldn't make out the words.

"W-what?" He asked louder, pressing his hand against his cell door. The metal wire barely allowed his fingers to pass through, and the space in the middle of the door wasn't wide enough for even his arm to pass.

"I can't… hear you," Izuku said.

"Name?" The voice was a little louder now, but that didn't help him understand.

"Name?" Izuku echoed dumbly, eyes squinting. No matter how hard he tried, the darkness was just too absolute for him to see anything. He only knew the voice was coming from one of the cells on the other wall because of the direction of the sound.

"Name?" The voice repeated, apparently unable to say anything else. It sounded like a woman, or perhaps a young child. The tapping restarted, methodical.

"What?" Izuku asked, mostly to himself. And then, louder, "Who are you? Wha-"

The sound of the door opening shut him up. The tapping and whispering also stopped, and Izuku was left blinded by the lights suddenly coming on. The cheap bulbs on the ceiling buzzed, filling the room with the aura that you would expect from a horror movie. His eyes were shut tightly as he heard something being dragged down the hall, the cell next to him opening and closing with a thumping sound in between. He was able to open one eye a little, just in time to see three people walking past his door. The figures went to the very end of the hallway and opened up another cell. The fighting started immediately. Whoever they were taking to the end of the hallway was kicking and screaming, trying desperately to put up a fight. They begged and cried, but they were still dragged past Izuku's cell and towards the end of the hallway, where that ominous white door was. The door slammed shut and the lights went out once more.

Izuku felt as if he'd just watched a murder, the sounds of screaming barely muffled by the door. A few seconds went by before the whispering started again.

"Alive?" The voice asked, anxiety clear in their tone. Izuku frowned, somehow even more confused at the new word. The tapping started with a vengeance, and Izuku was about to mumble something when the person on the cell next to his started coughing violently.

"Alive?" The voice asked again, reminding Izuku of a broken record.

"Yeah," The person on his left answered, still coughing as if he'd been drowning. "I'm okay. See?" And then they tapped at their own door, spacing out the hits a little. "I'm good."

The tapping seemed to reassure the other person, and their own sounds went down from frantic to a more steady beat with regular ups and downs, the sound of not-so-distant screaming not matching it. The coughing stopped and, a few minutes later, the whispering voice was back.

"Name?" Silence. "Name?" Izuku frowned. He shook his head as if someone would be able to see him. "Name?"

"She's asking for your full name, genius." The guy to his left spoke up and Izuku swallowed. He waited for someone else to respond, but no one did.

"Mine?" The teen finally asked.

"You the new guy?"

"Y-yes."

"Then yeah, your name. She won't stop until you tell her."

Izuku swallowed, feeling awkward. The tapping went on like a dripping faucet would and eventually he just sighed in resignation.

"Midoriya Izuku. That's my name."

He expected an answer, another question, perhaps even an introduction, but nothing came. The tapping was replaced with the sound of scratching on the wall somewhere and Izuku breathed through his mouth slowly.

"Who… what's your name?" The teen asked.

"She's not gonna answer you," The person to his left told him, the sounds of movement telling him that the person was dragging himself in his cell. When he spoke again, he sounded closer and he was keeping his voice much lower. "She only wants to know who everyone is and whether they're still alive or not."

"Why?"

"Who knows. She's been here a lot longer than the rest of us." The person coughed one last time and then spat forcefully. Izuku swallowed the questions and doubt brewing in his chest. He didn't even know where to begin, but he knew he couldn't waste the chance of talking to someone. Sure, this person might just be a setup, but Izuku was willing to, in the very least, ask some things.

"They keep prisoners for long here?"

"You two shut the hell up! You're gonna get us all in trouble!" Someone else whispered harshly at them and Izuku bit his lip; he didn't want to make any enemies just yet but he also wanted to know what the hell was happening.

"Yeah, yeah, you old dog." The young man on the cell next door answered, clearly not giving a damn. "You smart, Midoriya Izuku?"

Izuku frowned. Was he being mocked right now? He asked as much, but the other man didn't respond. At least, not verbally. He started tapping away at his own door, the crisp sound of metal against metal making the little taps very easy to differentiate.

Tap. Tap. Taptap. Tap. Taptap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

Izuku was in a lot of pain, so for the first few minutes, he was at a complete loss. His whole face ached by this point, the simplest of touches telling him that his nose was severely broken and slightly deviated to the right. He felt entirely covered in his own dried blood, though most of the feeling was probably his imagination, and his lack of sleep was inviting a headache to take residence on his left temple. It wasn't until the young man next door whispered one last 'Come on, Midoriya.' that Izuku really attempted to pay attention to his surroundings.

Taptap. Tap. Tap. Taptap.

Izuku inhaled sharply through his mouth, though the action was entirely silent. He attempted to tap at his door with his knuckles, but his hands hurt and the sound was pretty weak. He searched around the floor of his cell with his hands, and though it took him almost ten minutes, he eventually was able to dislodge a tiny piece of cement from the corner of the room. He returned to the door and, as quietly as the other man was tapping Izuku's name, the teen responded.

"Morse code."

"There you are." The man responded and Izuku heard him chuckling on the other side of the wall that separated their cells.

"Was getting bored. No one to talk to." The man tapped and Izuku frowned.

"The girl?"

"Understands. Does not speak."

Izuku looked across the darkened hallway as if by pure power of will he could somehow see what lay beyond his door. He could still hear the soft scratching noises coming from one of the cells in front of his own, but he didn't have enough information to even try and guess what that sound was.

At the end of the hallway, the screaming turned into anguished crying.

"Who are you?"

Izuku hesitated, not knowing why the question was asked.

"Why?"

"Your name sounds familiar."

Izuku toyed with the rock in his hand. Doubt started to claw at his heart and no matter how hard he tried to shake it off, the feeling remained. He'd been surrounded by nothing but horrible people for over a day now, of course he wanted to reach out to someone. But was that wise? He knew nothing of the person on the other side of the wall, didn't even know what they looked like or why they were here.

"I'm nobody." Izuku finally responded, deciding to keep most of his plans close to his chest for the time being. After his infuriated outburst, he was definitely more aware of how much emotion he showed or how much he shared.

"Who are you?" Izuku asked back, noticing that the other guy also took some time to answer. Knowing that he wasn't the only one hesitating made him feel strangely better.

"Call me Hara."

"Time locked?"

"In here?"

"Yes."

"Six weeks."

Izuku swallowed. Part of his plan was getting as much time as he needed, but six weeks down here were much different than six weeks up there. Would he even last that long?

"The others?"

"Some months. The girl much longer."

Izuku was halfway through another question when the white door burst open. He held his piece of stone to his chest and closed his eyes, relaxing his body to look like he'd passed out from the pain of his broken nose. Someone walked past his cell and out the main black door. They returned a few minutes later, making quite the ruckus and slamming both doors behind themselves. The screaming reached its loudest point and only then did Izuku dare move again.

"Torture?" Izuku's hand trembled as he tapped the metal bars.

"Yes." Hara responded and Izuku let out a shaky sigh. I mean, what else did he expect? This whole place reeked of nothing but pain and suffering, but he still didn't want to believe it. Izuku swallowed, suddenly not in the mood for talking anymore. Whoever this Hara person was, he either was a trap from Curious or a mere prisoner like Izuku himself. His hopes withered a little more, though the exact cause wasn't very clear to him. He crawled back into the bottom of his cell, feeling impossibly tired all of a sudden and yawning. The sound morphed into a groan of pain immediately, his nose hurting horribly.

"Advice. Sleep while you can." Hara said, and Izuku felt something stirring in his stomach. He tapped the concrete wall to not move back towards the door, the sound softer but still there.

"Why?"

"Your turn soon."

Izuku only managed to sleep in the most basic sense of the word. His consciousness switched on and off intermittently, the only sign that it was even happening at all being the fading of sounds and his change in position. He'd be sitting against the wall one second, the broken sound of screams around him, and the next second he'd be flat on the ground listening to the girl in the other cell asking someone if they were still alive.

Neither his body nor his mind rested at all and by the time the sound of sharp steps stopped in front of his cell, Izuku was highly tempted to throw a shoe at his visitors. He settled for flipping them off for a brief second before the light turned on.

"How are you enjoying your new room, Midoriya?" Curious asked in a purr and Izuku gave her a look of pure unamusement.

"It was wonderful before you arrived." He said evenly, despising the tiny smile that adorned Curious' face. There were a few people behind her and the man at the front unlocked his door. A tiny part of Izuku's brain told him to jump at them, to attack and attempt an escape, but the most reasonable side of his mind told him to just stay put; he was an impulsive idiot, but not even he was desperate enough to find out if there was a lower point than here. Curious motioned for him to stand and reluctantly did. He followed in silence as the woman walked towards the white door on the back, the rest of her party following along.

Izuku spared a glance at the cells around his own. He noticed that the one in front of him had a curtain hiding the inside, the fabric moved aside by a pale white hand. He could see a pair of wide, pink eyes staring at him shyly. He was pushed forward and the hand behind the curtain disappeared. He looked to his left, towards the cell where he had guessed Hara was. There was a figure huddled in the corner, and immediately green eyes locked onto a single brown eye. Hara's face was half-covered with bandages, bruises and cuts wherever the skin showed. His hair was dark and messy, tied back in a ponytail, and his hands were encased by quirk suppressing cuffs. He looked at Izuku with tired sympathy, and the teen suddenly felt very nervous. His nose ached in the way old wounds tend to do.

He was shepherded through the door at the end of the hallway. The room was small, white from floor to ceiling, and it smelled of bleach and blood. There was a dentist-type chair in the middle of the room, and there were cabinets and tables pushed against the walls. Izuku immediately wanted to run.

"Please, Midoriya, take a seat." Curious instructed and Izuku did as told after a few seconds of hesitation. His limbs started to get secured with thick leather straps and he had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep himself from fighting back.

"Midoriya, this is my colleague, Dr. Gurin. She's in charge of quirk research here in the Meta Liberation Army. And this is Oshiro, one of our new recruits." Curious introduced the two other women in the room. The former was a tall woman with black hair and four eyes, and the latter was a teen about Izuku's age who looked furious for some reason. Izuku greeted neither of them.

"Thank you for helping with my work, Midoriya-kun." Dr. Gurin bowed and Izuku narrowed his eyes. He looked at Curious and she smiled, busy placing a camera and a microphone on the closest table.

"I told you, I have to share you now. But worry not, Dr. Gurin is a complete professional."

That made Izuku worry even more, but he tried not to show it in his face. He managed, for the most part, up until the part where his head was tied against the back of the chair to keep him from thrashing; by then he was sweating and looking around worriedly. Curious stated the date, time, current participants, and place for the camera, and then she moved out of frame so that Izuku was the sole focus.

"Are you ready to continue our interview, Midoriya?" Curious asked gently and Izuku swallowed. Against his better judgment, he let out a sarcastic chuckle.

"Isn't this a little much for a few questions?" He cursed the fact that his voice shook, hated how his broken nose made him sound like he had a cold. For a while, he felt much younger than ever; younger than when he met Stain, even.

"Well, we're multitasking. Dr. Gurin is responsible for teaching our new recruits the best way to get the full potential out of their quirks. Actually, doctor, would you be so kind as to explain for the camera and our lovely subject?"

"Gladly," The other woman replied. Izuku hadn't noticed, but they were also hooking up the other girl to some other machines, though she wasn't nearly as constricted as Izuku was.

"Oshiro here joined our ranks a week ago. Her quirk, which we call 'Emotion Remembrance', hasn't been able to be used to its full potential giving that we need another person's account of the effects. Normal schools refused to train her quirk, and thus we must make up for lost time here. Oshiro's quirk has the ability to bring forth any emotion she desires out of her subject, making them relive whatever memories and fantasies are most tied to said emotions in their minds."

Dr. Gurin got close to Izuku, starting to hook him up to the same things that Oshiro was connected to: a heart monitor, amongst other things to keep an eye on him. Izuku had to fight back the urge to bite her hand.

"Today we will see how long she can keep an emotion in the forefront of her objective's mind, along with the clarity of the visions brought forth. This first test requires both of your cooperation, so anything you feel that might be relevant, I implore you to say it."

She smiled and Izuku wanted to throw up. He clenched his teeth together, already losing control over his breathing. Oshiro still looked angry, a great contrast to the calm the other women seemed to feel.

"Ready whenever you are, Curious-san."

For a moment, the entire room disappeared. It was only Izuku, tied to that chair, and Curious. She was leaning against the wall, her trusty tablet in her hands. She looked like she was reading something, her finger leisurely swiping up and down on the screen. Then her eyes locked with Izuku's. He wanted to scream, but he bit his tongue.

"Tell me, Midoriya, when have you felt afraid whilst traveling with the Hero Killer?"

And then Oshiro closed her eyes and clearly said:

"Fear."

It was both instantaneous and eternal. It was as if someone was counting down from three before hitting him, only they waited an extra second after reaching zero to strike him. The anticipation itself was horrible enough. Then the first image came and he started cracking immediately.

-TRIGGER WARNING BEGINS HERE-

He was surrounded by fire, the chaos that had been Hosu exploding before his eyes. His skin felt as if boiling oil had been thrown on it and he started screaming without even realizing it. He was on the floor, face down, and everything hurt. There was glass and debris and fire and screams, so many fucking screams of terror. He felt glass shards digging into his stomach, blisters everywhere, smoke stinging his eyes. His head was angled to the right and he could see someone coming closer to him.

Kacchan looked taller, sparks flying out of his hand. There was no Shoto there to even try and stop him and Izuku couldn't drag himself away.

"No," Izuku croaked, an abnormal amount of panic taking over. "No, you're dead. Stain killed you."

"Oh, you mean him?" Bakugo asked, pointing behind him.

Izuku saw Endeavor, his entire figure spewing out flames. At his feet, there was a scorched mass of smoking flesh. The hand of the body was still somewhat intact, a katana firmly grasped even in death.

"No!" Izuku cried. He wanted to close his eyes, but he couldn't "No, no, no! Stain made it out of Hosu alive! Y-you two are dead! You died! This isn't real! You're not real, Bakugo!"

"You sure about that, Deku?" Bakugo crouched next to him, grasping Izuku's hand in his own and summoning forth a small concentrated explosion. Izuku screamed, the feeling in his hand telling him that it was damaged way beyond repair.

"He died trying to protect your sorry ass, Deku." The other teen spat out and Izuku started feeling tears running down his cheeks.

"Shut up! Stain is alive! He… H-he saved me! He didn't… He…"

His heart was beating too fast, his lungs wouldn't take in oxygen, he was dizzy and afraid and in pain and and and-

He felt as if he was being slammed on the chair, screams of pain and anguish still escaping his throat. The room was white and spotless and not on fire and Curious was there and Oshiro was sneezing, an embarrassed look in her eyes.

"Sorry," she apologized, frustration clear in her voice. She sniffled and Dr. Gurin wrote something down in a file.

"Worry not, every piece of information and possible variable is relevant."

"W-wha… Wh-" Izuku looked around frantically, his dilated pupils letting in way too much light. He was hyperventilating, tears and sweat running down his face in equal measure.

"I'm good now," Oshiro said and Izuku looked at her as if she were a demon crawling out of hell. He started shaking his head, at least as much as his bindings would allow him and he surprised himself as words started escaping his mouth.

"W-wait, please, wa-"

"Fear."

He was running. Doors rushed past him in his mad dash, the sounds of destruction echoing along the hallway. He wanted to stop, wanted to try and figure out where he was, but there was something behind him. His legs carried him without his permission, the hallway bending and twisting but never ending no matter how far he ran. Was the ceiling crumbling? The walls? The entire building? Dust fell upon him like snow and pink smoke started seeping in through the cracks forming all around him.

He tripped on something, the sound of his body hitting the floor threatening to leave him deaf with how loud it was. He looked back and there she was; he'd tripped over the nurse's bloodied body, bullet holes ridling her chest. She looked at Izuku with terror and despair and Izuku whimpered like a kicked dog. The puddle of blood underneath her was getting bigger and bigger with each passing second.

Izuku scrambled to her side, slipping on the blood and getting soaked as he kneeled next to her. No matter where he placed his hands, there were too many wounds and the bleeding wouldn't stop. The nurse's eyes stayed glued to Izuku's face.

"Look at me, you'll be fine, okay?" He told her desperately, putting pressure on the wounds with both hands. "I-I'll stop the bleeding, I swear."

"Why are you here?" She asked him, her voice a peaceful monotone. "Why would you shoot me?"

"I didn't! I didn't shoot you, I didn't hurt anyone! I… This wasn't supposed to happen like this! I planned everything, no one was supposed to get hurt!"

"You know his room is empty." She told him but Izuku just shook his head. His hands were covered in blood, her white uniform was a mess, there was nothing to do but he kept pressing. He had to save her.

"You'll all get arrested, and he'll never forgive you. You know that:"

"That's not… He'll… I'm gonna save you, you don't die here. You didn't die, I remember, I remember, I..."

"He'll never forgive you." She repeated. Izuku pressed on her abdomen harder, a desperate attempt to keep her from bleeding out, and his hands effectively went through her. He hit the wall hard, a darkened ceiling above him. The creaking of the wooden floorboards under him made him blink. He tried to straighten himself, tried to get his weight off the wall he was leaning against, but he couldn't. He tried to turn to the side, and that's when the blade digging out of his chest knocked against the wall, sending agonizing ripples of pain throughout Izuku's entire body. He gasped, blood spilling past his lips, and his hands tightened around the hilt of the sword sticking out of his chest.

"Stay down, Izuku," Stain told him from where he was at the top of the stairs. He was armed with a katana, his eyes cold and unforgiving. "Just be a good target and stay down, okay?"

"S-Stain?" Izuku murmured, despair flooding through his veins. He was choking on his own blood, he could feel it, but he still managed to speak. "No… N-no, you didn't… you w-would nev-ver… Y-you s-s-stopped me…"

Stain turned his back on him and started going down the stairs. Izuku reached out his hand, unable to even lift a foot to try and follow his mentor.

"Stain, wait… It… It w-wasn't their fault. Th-they just wanted t-to meet you... Wait... D-don't hurt them!" Stain was gone. Screams came up from downstairs and Izuku yelled out. He tried to push himself off the wall, but his body felt like lead. The shine of fire could be seen. Growing by the second.

"Please, don't hurt them! Please! Stain! Please, just let them go!" Izuku begged, finally getting his arms to cooperate. He pushed himself off the wall, his body struggling to lean forward. The light from the fire downstairs was getting brighter and brighter, the sounds of screams melting and mixing into a single, horrid sound. It was a car honking, the lights coming closer and closer as the vehicle flew off the side of the road and hit the tree and-

-TRIGGER WARNING ENDS HERE-

"Are you alright, Oshiro?"

Izuku gasped as if he'd been hit by freezing water. His voice escaped his mouth in a terrified, confused scream, his eyes looking at everything but seeing nothing. He fought against his restraints like a wild animal, his body and mind telling him to run. The white of the walls around him suddenly felt much more fake than he remembered and he feared he'd just transported into another vision. But Dr. Gurin was there, checking up on a frowning Oshiro, and Curious was looking at him with a pleased smile.

"Y-yeah. Just a migraine," The girl said, her eyes narrowed. "I've never used my quirk so much, but I can keep going! I-"

"No, no need. It was a very good first session, don't you agree, Curious-san?"

Curious grinned, clapping once. Izuku shrunk away from the sound, tears streaming down his face without any control. He started begging under his breath, words struggling to be heard past his frantic gasping and sobbing.

"I think we're done for today. Doctor, take Oshiro upstairs and get her some tea. Make sure she rests."

As the other two women got ready to leave, Curious walked closer to Izuku. The teen pressed himself against the chair, his nails digging into the palms of his hands. His eyes were as wide as they could go.

"Please, no! Please, I, Please!" Izuku begged, terrified of Curious' stretching hand. But the woman only patted his cheek. Izuku whimpered and Curious smiled.

"Shhh, it's okay Midroiya. We're done for tonight and you did just wonderful. Get some rest and you can explain everything you said to me tomorrow, alright?" She patted his cheek once more and then, without another word, walked away to get her camera. The one other man in the room undid Izuku's bindings, dragging him down the hall and throwing him in his cell. Curious walked past him a few minutes later, fully ignored Izuku's curled up and shaking form, and then the lights went out.

Izuku could barely breathe, his whole form trembling desperately. His hands dug into his hair, tears streaming down his face. A single shriek escaped his mouth but after that it was all just silent sobbing and breathless gasping.

From another cell someone was asking him if he was still alive and, in his broken state, he wished he wasn't.