It was more than a rough night to say the least. Kept inside the same room where he watched three people murdered. Hour after hour his blank stare watched the room change as if nothing happened. People entering and exiting with body bags, water, and rags. Limp flesh hastily tossed around the room and dragged out.
Between the subpar attempt at cleaning up a murder scene and a night to sleep, Geus had time to freakishly think. This job, this career was something he didn't want to be part of. He wasn't ready, whoever he needed to prove to wasn't worth it. This life and the ideology he set himself up to be in wasn't who he truly is. After all this was over, he was out.
Any measly person with a decent enough quirk could take out a bad guy. He wasn't meant to be one. There was another way to go about his goals. His quirk could still come in help to others in other ways.
Geus grabbed the new mask at his feet and chucked it at the door. Almost immediately it swung open and pushed the mask with it. "Careful now, I don't want to waste the energy to rebuild her." Chisaki moved his hand from his face and continued through.
Geus jumped back into the chair, his body flipping over the chair and tumbled to the back wall. The entire time his body engulfed with the smoke and buried inside a cloud of gas. It burned like hell as every inch of his skin melted down. The last image of what Iroh had of him became true.
"Helping people, what a joke." Geus mumbled to himself. "I can't help anyone with this guy in the way!" His arms shot to the sides and blasted twin jets of gas at the stone.
Chisaki's hand waved in front of his body. "Please calm down before you really get hurt." He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a long syringe. "Just take this and calm down." He went down on one knee and rolled it over to him.
Geus looked down at the syringe with his face now exposed out of the smoke. His skin was blistered and melted down to his skull. "Let me out." He demanded.
"Just take the syringe, I know the medication you're on and the mixture you take for daily intake. I don't plan on killing the newest edition of my army."
Geus rolled up the gas from his arm and reached for the syringe. He pulled back his other arm and pointed it forward at Chisaki. He flipped the needle toward his body and stabbed it straight through his clothes and into the hole in his body.
"Now pull yourself together and allow me to help you. It's the least I can do." Chisaki came inches from Geus.
Geus pulled back his gas fully. His skin was fully down to his muscles and bones with blisters puffed everywhere. "I just want to go home."
"I told you just enough to keep you here." Chisaki pointed to the door and snapped his fingers. "You aren't leaving."
Two guards walked into the doors and between them was a small little girl. Geus's arm swung and pin his arm across Chisaki's throat. His other arm jabbed into his gut and backed him against the wall.
"Why the hell is there a child here?" Geus shouted and made sure his face was to the right of Chisaki's mask.
"Watch where you speak." Chisaki warned. "And who you touch."
Chisaki's arm slashed straight up through Geus's shoulder. The moment froze in time in Geus's eyes. His eyes locked down at the blood-soaked spot on his body. His muscles and tendons tensed up for the imaginary arm his mind acted of.
Chisaki back slapped Geus off of him with his other hand. Geus fell back and slammed straight into the ground. "Consider that as a warning." Chisaki straightened his tie and walked over to the small girl. He forcefully grasped her wrist and forced her forward at Geus.
Geus's eyes met with his own mask at the leg of his chair. He moved over to his mask the same time Chisaki moved toward him. Chisaki realized in his own mind what Geus aimed for. Chisaki swung the girl in the air and tossed her directly into Geus.
He wasn't ready but still caught her in his arms. The small scared child that gripped his jacket with whatever strength she had. The grip was still weak even with her constant shakiness of it. Her breath was also as irregular as his except she didn't risk hurting anyone.
His arm moved almost from instinct to the top of her head and brush her hair aside from her face. His heart skipped a beat at the sight of her horn.
"What the hell is this?" Geus fixed the girl around his back and flowed the gas out of his mouth. He looked back with a grin at the child. "It's a little hot but hang in there."
"Be careful with my daughter."
Geus's eyes filled with the purple smoke. He felt his power increase with every word Chisaki spoke. It was disgusting, her hands were bandaged and her face was bruised. Her damages and the fear she had of this man hit Geus hard.
In his mouth Geus curved his tongue. The second split of gas maneuvered around his arm and created a spike to the ground. "What the hell did you do to her?"
"Why would I hurt my own daughter without reason? And what's with this sudden passion? Thought I broke your spirits."
"I'm not going to lie, I did give up. I never tried to kill myself with my own quirk before but I was ready to today. You can blame your daughter for this you fucking sicko. Call it 'hero's intuition' or whatever it is."
It was more than sudden when his muscles all slammed into each other. His legs twitched and crushed them down to his knees. One by one his fingers curled up and bent into the other.
"Whether you want to kill yourself or not." Chisaki squatted down to Geus's level. "I'm going to fix you, that's what I owe to your family for all they did." He poked Geus's forehead and lifted his head up. "I'm going to remove all those voices in your head and make you pure."
Everything went blank, there was no sight or sound. It felt more empty than any seizure he had to endure. A new feeling of bliss unlike any other. Geus was in a blank space of peace.
Though it was only for a moment. Every memory and feeling rushed into reality. It was different than a minute before. This time was more clear than before; his breathing felt strong and full, he breathed for the first time out of his nose. And the constant headache from weeks before was gone.
"What did you do to me?" Geus asked. Even his throat felt free from the gas. "Why do I feel different?"
Chisaki pointed behind him. "In your own words, 'blame my daughter'."
Geus looked at his arms, both were there and thicker than before. He leaned back on his legs to Chisaki's equal level. Geus opened his mouth and breathed out, and nothing came out. It finally hit him, his body reverted to a time before his quirk.
His hands slapped his mouth, it felt like a normal jaw with lips, curves, wet gums, normal. Geus leaned forward past Chisaki and grabbed his mask. He turned around on his way back and looked at the frightened little girl. Her eyes were like a demon's but her hair was white as an angel.
Geus's hand was weak and his arm struggled to throw itself onto Chisaki's jacket. "Am I quirkless?" Geus huffed. There was no doubt on how defeated his body was right now. Any attempt to run or fight became impossible, he was Chisaki's slave now.
"For now. You're still worth something to me as an abomination to this world. Later, as a final thank you to your grandfather, I'll make you permanently quirkless."
"What's the point?" Geus fought to say.
Chisaki grabbed Geus's face and pushed him against the wall. "In a matter of hours your quirk will return to you. I made sure my daughter didn't go farther back than when you originally got your quirk."
Geus eyed after the little girl. There was a new bruise on her cheek, deeper and fuller than the others. He eyed back at Chisaki. His perfect poker face showed no remorse against the actions against her.
His muscles twitched against the pain of his body and molded around the barriers of his skin. His eyes opened up and dived into his mind. This pain his body opened up to happened once before. Over a year ago, when his internal organs modified all at once. Such unbearable pain.
It felt like all his internal organs exploded open at once. Each blood filled organ stretched out and tore open his walls. His heart started and expanded out of the gashes. His blood boiled and burned against the insides of his flesh and intestines.
His heart grew a second piece connected to it. Except this one was much hotter and burned as it continued to stretch out. More of the second piece stretched out of himself and tore open more holes in itself. It expanded out and stabbed into multiple parts of his lungs. Both blood and oxygen filled inside his lungs. Certain parts crushed inside itself and widened out others.
On the outside his skin became thin and pale. All his veins and the blood inside them showed itself. Purple overtook the color of his blood. Hundreds of degrees of heat ran through his blood and burned his insides.
He had to shove all his strength in his arm. He reached out and grabbed his mask, the original one built by Hatsume. He flipped it over to the inside and clicked a small hidden button.
'I remember when you told me Izuku. You had to send your location to others to help you. I hope you understand this time.' Geus smiled through all the pain and weakly pushed the mask into the small girl's hands. "Hang onto that and I can save you." He quickly turned his head to the other side and coughed. Puffs of purple smoke came out of his mouth and burned his lips. "Shit."
Chisaki rose his hands and clapped them. Half a dozen guards in those plague suits rushed in at once. Each of them carried some medical instrument. Bandages, scalpels, needles, blood bags, all were meant for Geus. Two of them dropped their carryings and moved Geus around to the flat ground.
He knew exactly what they had planned. All he wanted to do was scream out the pain that they produced. The long blades touched the tip of his skin and dragged down to their endpoints. Exposed flesh poured blood from them and burned the top of his skin.
"My plan will go through with you no matter what." Chisaki fixed Geus's head to focus on him. Geus couldn't cry or speak, gas filled all ports of his body and burned them. Chisaki didn't care, his blank face burned more than any of his gas. "All Iroh knew how to make you unstoppable was to burn out all the pain. Now I can take that research and perfect it, perfect you. I'm going to keep your flesh open and burn all parts of you equally, your flesh, organs, eyes, skin, you're going to be pure." He released Geus and want for the girl.
Geus could only watch the girl try to free herself from him. Yet no matter how much she struggled for freedom, Chisaki was stronger. With one hand clenched to the mask and the other inside Chisaki's grip, he left with her. Now it was just him and a group of masked individuals. All had full intentions to make sure he went through all the torturous pain.
It was hours of nothing but pain. His blood constantly flowed out of his of his wounds and evaporated from burning heat. Any time blood wasn't flowed out, the men pushed up against the wounds and forced more out. A mobile x-ray machine was placed in and watched his body mutate. The layers of his organs puffed out and continually moved around into other organs.
He found his own way to endure the pain since he had to be awake through all this. It was a slight bliss in his own right, all the memories he locked away into his subconscious awoken. They weren't anywhere near pleasant as he would hope but that didn't matter. His mother came up with the abusiveness he always knew about and the small hints of love she gave. His father was nearly the same, he destroyed anything Geus got and constantly locked him inside his room. He was tough and hard to love anytime there wasn't a story of a hero being dethroned.
His earliest memory of them loving him finally resurfaced. It was a paper he wrote in middle school about how many people heroes murdered. With facts from before quirks and after them, they supported the views of his parents. A luxurious dinner was thrown for him by all his family and they all cheered at his out of school suspension. To others this would've raised a villain when their quirk's came in. To himself, he never wanted to see this again.
Geus saw the strangeness in his forgotten past. The happy moments only appeared through a great tragedy. The suppression was his own doing to try to seem normal. His happiness connected with other's pain and his pain connected with other's happiness. It was clear that his life remarked as a hero. He sacrificed his own happiness and well being so that everyone else could be safe and happy.
That's when she showed up right at the entrance of his childhood home. She stood there with a smile on her face and her fingers calmly caressed the ponytail of her orange hair. Her peaceful and innocent manner took Geus's attention throught the memory. 'Another boy trying to rescue you needs your smarts. And don't let him down boy.' He grandfather shouted before he slammed shut the patio door.
Her small child hand reached out for him. 'It's not your fault.' She bent forward and pull him up herself. His mind blurred around the massive smile on her face. All the problems he had was lost in her teal eyes. Even in this memory she felt that there was truly nothing wrong in his world. Thst her eyes held onto him and guided them both through the yellow path in thw dead forest 'Come on, the rally is in town lets go see it. Come on Gaz, you need another hug.' Her tiny body tugged him into hers and wrapped her massive hands around his back.
Geus regained his conciousness into the real world. "Itsuka." He grumbled. Geus reached around his body and pulled on his arm to crack his spine. "At least there isn't any pain." The strange feeling through his veins was familiar with how much times he went under the knife. "Morphine, thank you."
He smacked his lips, Geus scoped the room confused with zero knowledge of where he was. Dozens of toys for anyone under the age of 10 enjoyed scattered around the room. Most were still in boxes or wasn't at all played with. Such a clean and beautiful room compared to the other.
The small twin bed had fresh sheets neatly tucked under the bed spring. A freshly painted white bad frame free of any scratches or ware. The small girl from before poorly hid behind the metal bars. Her red eyes peering out from the pillow.
Geus felt his face, the clean and smoothness of his jaw. 'At least I don't look like a monster.' Geus grinned and held out his arms. "Come here." He whispered while his fingers curled in and out of his palm.
She dug under the pillow and held close a small piece of metal the size of her chest. She rolled from the bed and landed on the ground. Her movements were fast and yet cautious. Her eyes were comoletely scared and followed with the rest of her body. She was slow to crawl over to him, like she was redy to bolt backwards at any time.
Now he really got to see how damaged she was. The gown she wore wrinkled and covered in blood and sweat. Her arms bandaged, fresh and clean but wrapped in the style to cover open cuts.
When she got close, Geus grabbed her the same way Kendo did in his memory. His finger joints rolled around her armpits and pulled her into his lap. He was surprised how soft her bed ridden hair was and how her skin matched. She was a fragil flower on its' last wilts.
"You know." Geus had to clear his throat. It was coarse and dry, almost hurt to speak in a regular voice. "Until I saw you I was ready to quit all this."
"You have really soft hair." She softly broke out.
"Hair?" Geus felt the top of his head. He froze at the soft touch of what he wasn't used to. His hair curled around to the right and pulled back slightly. The sides were probably a quarter inch shorter than the top. Deep divits of nothing baldness seperated the top from the sides of his hair. "I have hair." Geus wrapped his arms around her and fitted her into a hug. "I'm going to get you out of here. I promise."
"He's going to hurt you if you save me. He hurts everyone."
Geus saw her panic in her quiet words. How her hands figeted around with his mask. Geus released her and went to work on her hair. Pulling it back and straightening it with his finger nails. "I know what he's going to do. I can't stop him, I'm not strong enough. But I can save you, do my duty as a hero. Just hold onto that mask and never lose it."
"I almost killed you." Geus paused. "I kill anybody I touch, it's my curse."
Geus chuckled, he leaned over her head and opened his mouth. Purple gas flowed out and ran down his arms. "Look. Days ago this wouldve burned and melted my skin. With you, you saved saved me. I'm sure you're talking about your quirk. Back in the day I thought my quirk only killed and that I must supress my true power. Hell, today I still believe it. But anyways. Geus closed his eyes and fixed around his gas. A small pointy heart formed in the center between his hands from the gas. "But how you use your power decided your future. Perfect it and shape it to bring love from others." Geus sent the top two points of the heart up through the ceiling of the room. "Leave it out in uncontrolled chaos only brings destruction."
"It's pretty."
Geus snapped his mouth shut and disintergrated his creation. "Trust me and just hang out for a little while longer."
"No one's going to come and get me."
Geus dropped his bed back against the wall. His eyes closed and allowed his body to relax. "Just trust me."
The silence of the room brought an undisturbed pressence. Both knew the torment outside that door and the horror the future had for it. Yet this moment was pure tranquility. Free from Chisaki's grasps and anyone else attsched to him.
For once through this encounter she felt comfortable. The slight shake to her body subsided along with the stiffness of her arms.
That moment didn't last. The small clicks of the door handle caused her body to jump into defense mode. Her body sprang from Geus's lap and dove for her bed. The light colored blanket flew into the air and her small body slid right under. Quiet whispers came from the bed cries for her own safety.
The door came open fully with Chisaki through. He didn't say anything and threw the broken plague doctor mask at Geus. "Come on."
Geus eyed the child as he placed the mask on the magnets in his mouth. Geus grabbed the back wall and lifted his body to his feet. "You should've just killed me. The second I get out with this new power I will end you and free that girl." Geus got up to Chisaki's mask.
"I can make you as strong as your new body will allow you too. But you will never be able to stop me or take my daughter from me." Chisaki swiveled around and entered the hallway. "Follow me."
Geus glimpsed at the girl one last time and followed behind the monster. "Where are we going?"
"I want you to meet some of my associates. Prove to me your worth and that none of this was a waste of time."
"Waste of time? You already know I want to kill you and want to rescue that little girl. What makes you think I won't?"
"Because you're still too weak against me. Any attempt on my life is futile."
"So what? I can easily escape you and take the girl with me."
"Your hasty decisions blind you from the truth." Chisaki stopped at a door and placed one hand on the metal. "You're foolish if you think that touching you is all I need to do."
He shoved the door wide open and stepped through. It was another massive concrete room. Equal in all lengths and lighting. Eight men in different forms of the mask scattered around the room. Some stood in groups while a few were alone.
One of them really freaked out Geus, a man with a bagged face with eyes bloodshot and bulging. Another was drunk and one of them massive in muscle. They were special from the typical men here, probably more powerful than Geus imagines.
"Welcome to the Eight Expendables."
