Chapter 12
He heard the balcony door open and shut before someone descended the fire escape on the side of the building. Touya still had a slight limp to his step, making the soft clang clang on the metal uneven.
Hopefully nobody saw him. The back of the building faced an alley, but there was always the possibility of somebody noticing the villain. Especially when commission officers were in the area.
Keigo buried is face into his hands, resting on his pulled-up knees. He shouldn't have sent him away like this, with just some cryptic word and no real explanation, but he was afraid. More than he would ever let him know.
From the moment the commission officer at the hospital had mentioned his career adjustment plan, there had been a knot in his stomach. The nightmare had reminded him once again what the commission cared about, and what not.
And he had meant it when he had said that they were at war, and they needed every soldier. Shigaraki was a force nobody could stand up against.
They were sending literal children to fight him, for god's sake. They wouldn't let him choose.
His thoughts wandered back to the day on the rooftop, where he had asked Touya to take his wings. Now that he thought about it, he'd been so naïve. Had he really thought that it would be so simple? That the commission would let one of their top undercover agents go, just like that?
And Touya... the fact that he had revealed his identity to Endeavour and the whole country... had this made him a villain or a victim in the eyes of the public? Would they ever have a future?
"Fuck..." Tears were dripping down his cheek now and a cough creeped up his throat. He sat there on the floor, leaning against the door and wheezing until his throat burned again.
He probably should put on the mask again. And some other clothes. It was nearly time...
Keigo was sitting on the couch, dressed in a button-up shirt and a pair of jeans, when they knocked on the door. He didn't question how they got inside the building without ringing the doorbell, he just got up and opened the door.
"Mr Hawks, good afternoon. May we come in?"
A man with salt and pepper hair and a brunette woman entered his apartment before closing the door behind them with a click. Keigo felt trapped.
He'd never seen the woman before, but the man seemed vaguely familiar.
"How are you feeling?" His voice was nonchalant, and he looked around the apartment as if searching for something.
"Not great, but I can manage." Hawks smiled, but they couldn't see it through the mask on his face. The vapor coming out of the little tubes traveled down his throat, making it comfortably numb. The woman looked at him with interested eyes. She was carrying a bag and a yoga mat over her shoulder. So she must be the physiotherapist.
Keigo was actually surprised they had brought someone over. He'd thought the appointment was just a façade.
"This is Ms Fujikana. She is a doctor and will evaluate your healing process today."
So no physiotherapist, but a doctor. A shiver ran down Keigo's spine. This meant they were authorized to administer drugs.
"Hello Mr Hawks. If I may, I will set up in the living room here and do a quick check of your bandages." He nodded, and she set town the bag with an audible clank, before putting down the yoga mat. What the hell was in that bag?
The commission officer sat down on his couch without asking and looked at the empty coffee cup on the table. Shit. He hadn't put Touya's cup away.
"Okay, if you could remove your shirt for me, please?" The doctor's voice was quiet, but professional. No underlying cruelty or hidden motifs as far as Keigo could tell.
He opened the buttons and slid the shirt over his shoulder, revealing the fresh bandages underneath.
"Oh, did you change the bandages yourself?" He could feel the gaze of the commission officer fixed on him as the doctor moved to remove the gauze with a pair of scissors.
"No, I had help." The officer perked up at that, so Keigo added hastily: "I spent the night at Best Jeanist's place. Got help with the dressing." This was no lie. Just not quite in the right order...
"Ah I see. You did a very good job, even though the gauze could have been wrapped a little tighter. But that's no problem, we'll handle that today. Could you please lay down on the mat for me."
Keigo felt strangely exposed as he lowered himself onto the floor, arms under his head. The doctor began to dab at the burns on his back, using something wet that stung slightly on the raw skin.
"How does it look?" The voice of the other officer sounded bored, but had an edge to it that Hawks didn't like. Like he was asking for feedback on a project he had no knowledge of.
"It's healing well, no infection." No infection... should heal well. Touya's words from last light popped up in his brain and he bit his lip. This was a good thing, wasn't it?
"Good. How long until we can start?" He man sounded more interested now. Hawks could see him type something on a phone from the corner of his eyes.
"I think we can start today. Asclepios is ready, and we can arrange a transfer right away."
Keigo froze. What was ready? Where did they want to transfer him to? He wanted to sit up, but the woman was holding his shoulders down with unusual strength.
"Careful, we don't want you to hut yourself."
The speaking device was laying on the coffee table, Hawks hadn't noticed them taking it away from the floor beside him.
"-at...-uo... -ean?" His voice was barely a whisper and muffled by the mask on his face.
"Very well." The man stood up from his couch and walked over to the yoga mat.
"Hawks, you will be transferred to a rehab facility in order to help you heal from your injuries."
Keigo had expected as much when the officer at the hospital had mentioned it, but he didn't quite understand why, as apparently his injuries were healing well on their own already.
"Wh...ere...?" It was had to speak when somebody was pushing your face and shoulders into a yoga mat. The man didn't seem to register his question, as he was typing on his phone again. The woman released the death grip on his shoulder for a second to reach for her bag. Keigo used it to turn his head to the side, even though the mask was painfully pushing against his cheek now. He felt the hands return to his back, something cold pressing against his bare skin.
"Don't do that here. We have plenty of time there to prepare and check the premises." The man's voice sounded distracted, and a moment later lifted the phone to his ear.
"Hello? Yes, we're ready to transfer him to the clinic. Send a car to the apartment, park in the garage. Yes... No, nobody. Make sure Asclepios is ready when we arrive."
There was that name again. Who was Asclepios? What did they want to do with him?
The woman had finished rummaging through the bag and pulled out a metal box. She set it beside Keigo onto the floor and opened the lid. Syringes, filled with a clear, lightly pink liquid. Hawks knew immediately what they were.
"I need you to hold still now, okay?"
Hawks body began to tremble. Whatever they were planning to do with him, it required him to be unconscious. Why had he sent Touya away? Why had he thought that they would just take him to rehab and give him a desk job? Why had he been naïve? They'd never let him go, they-
There was a prick on his arm, a burning sensation, and the world around him went black.
He woke up to a monotonous beep and his first thought was that he was in a hospital again. But these walls were not white, but light blue and the telltale smell of disinfectant and microwaved food was absent as well.
He was laying on his stomach, his head in a hole cut into a stretcher or a massage bed, his arms spread wide left and right on extension plates. It reminded him of those chairs in a blood donation clinic he'd visited once on a press tour.
It was also much hotter than in a hospital. He could feel sweat forming on his forehead and upper body, which was still exposed. A tingling sensation crawled across his back, making him want to reach behind his neck and scratch at the burned skin. Were they giving him something to accelerate the healing process?
Keigo turned his head and saw an IV stand with several clear bags hanging from it, all containing a different colored liquid: pink, white, blue and golden. The first three were half empty, but the last one was not yet dripping into the tube connected to his arm.
"What the hell..." He paused. His throat didn't burn anymore when he spoke. His voice was also much clearer, with only a little rasp remaining, like he had slept too long.
"Hawks, you're awake I see."
He lifted his head high enough to see the brunette woman from his living room enter his field of vision. She was wearing a white lab coat now, hair tied back into a high ponytail and holding a clipboard.
"Where am I?" It felt good to be able to speak again without pain. His voice was shaking, but he wanted answers.
"You're in a private clinic of the HPSC. We were able to fully heal your injuries, which you might have already noticed by the lack of pain and restoration of your voice." She wrote something down on her clipboard and Keigo did a mental onceover of his body. The pain in his back was nothing more than an itchy sunburn now, his throat felt normal, albeit a little dry, and his muscles were relaxed. He felt well rested, like he had slept for a longer time.
"How long have I been here?"
"A little over two days. You have slept through the most of it, letting our healing potions and -quirks do their work."
Two days. He couldn't remember anything after the fake physio session.
"This facility is one of the most advanced medical centers of the country. We would have brought you here right away, but the situation at the time required out whole attention." She probably meant Shigaraki and Dabi's – Touya's – reveal.
What happened to the league? Where they still sticking to Shigaraki? What about Touya? Had he left him behind after he had basically thrown him out of his apartment? A small part of him wished Touya would search for him after his disappearance. But he knew that this probably wouldn't happen. Would he even know he was gone? Who would tell him? It's not like they would announce it on local tv like they'd done with his first hospital stay...
The woman checked something on the IV stand and wrote it down on her clipboard before she continued: "Aceso is not only a medical facility, but also a testing ground for quirk enhancing drugs. After your unfortunate fight at the Gunga Villa, they've reviewed the recordings of your wiretap. You were proven loyal to our cause, despite your little slip ups here and there. Your information procurement tactics were a little unconventional, but they've all turned out to be valid."
Keigo's breathing picked up. What did this mean? He wasn't seen as compromised after all? Did they know about Touya and chose to ignore it or did they see it as a successful honeytrap to get information? His head was spinning. This could change everything.
"What are you trying to tell me?"
The woman was adjusting the pack with the golden liquid now, checking the tube and the needle leading into his arm.
"Here at Aceso, we've managed to realize project Asclepios."
There was this name again. He had heard the man in his living room say it, too.
"What's that?" Keigo bit his lip. He wasn't sure he wanted to know. He would learn soon enough. He tried to look closer at the IV stand, but he couldn't turn his head enough. Only now he noticed the straps that were tying his hands to the bed he was laying on.
"Asclepios is a special form of a quirk enhancer. We've been working on it for years, but the breakthrough came with the quirk deleter bullets and that child."
Eri. Keigo remembered the girl being held captive by Overhaul and the way he had used her quirk as a weapon against heroes.
"Now, it is nearly out of the clinical test phase, and you will be one of the first people to field test it."
Keigo's blood ran cold. He was forced to be a human guinea pig. His heart was racing but he feigned nonchalance when he stated: "Sorry lady, but you might have missed the part where my quirk was burned away by a few thousand degrees hot fire. There's really not much left to enhance here."
"Restore."
"Sorry?"
"We'll up the dosage of Asclepios in your case, hoping for it to restore your quirk in the process. If this works, we'll have a foolproof weapon against the quirk deleter and future heroes losing their quirks in battle. You'll be the poster boy of medical advancement."
No.
No no no no.
Please.
They couldn't do this. If they did, they would own him in the literal sense of the word. His quirk would never again be his own, but always a reminder that he had to serve, to make it up to them for giving him his life back. Or whatever they deemed to be his life. His purpose.
"No..." His voice was quiet at first, struggling to comprehend the implications of what the woman, the commission, was about to do.
"No, I don't want this." He tried struggling against the restraints, but his limbs were getting heavier by the second. The pink IV liquid. There was again some of it dripping into his arm. "Please..."
The woman said nothing but pushed the little plastic switch on the other IV bag. Gold liquid was beginning to drip into the line. He could see black spots entering his vision.
No. He couldn't let himself be put under again. Couldn't let them give him that drug that wasn't even tested properly. That would steal away his freedom and make him a puppet again. Push Keigo under to make room for Hawks.
He couldn't...
His arms began to tingle, the sensation spreading over his shoulder onto his back. His fingers began to twitch. It felt like a thousand little needle pricks were entering his bloodstream, traveling through his body, making it harder to move, to blink, to breathe, to stay awa-
