To say that he was surprised was an understatement.

He was shocked, astonished, flabbergasted, startled, all of those words and more as Shigaraki watched the weapon they had spent years working on to kill All Might be torn apart by some mystery bastard.

But, most importantly, he was scared.

He didn't notice it before but, this glitch as he has come to call it, gave off the same pressure that he had only felt once before. It felt like that of an unending abyss that threatened to swallow it all, like he was just a small ant in front of a mountain, incapable of reaching it, the disparity between their strengths as obvious as how the sky was blue.

And the only other person that ever made him feel like this was… Sensei. But he is a one of a kind existence, so how? How was it possible for this thing to exist? All he could do was stumble back as he watched the glitch jump around group to group and… and drained them of their quirks, he could even do that? If he didn't already know that Sensei was stuck back at the base he would have thought that it was him.

That monster kept moving around faster than anyone could keep up, unleashing a barrage of different quirks on whoever was on his way, ripping and tearing while the million of voices that came from it laughed like a bunch of fucking kids in a candy store.

"K-Kurogiri…" Shigaraki whispered, the bloodlust from the monster making the words get stuck in his throat, hoping that the cloud of mist would hear him and get him out of there "Kurogi-ugh!" He wanted to try once more but something pulled his arm back and pushed him to the ground.

"Don't try to resist, you've already lost" Eraserhead said, his hair floating above him and a faint shine of red coming from inside his goggles.

"What the hell are you doing!? Don't you see the bigger threat over there!? Why the hell are you aggroed on me!?" he complained as he struggled to get out of his grip, tapping the ground with his hand but his quirk wasn't reacting.

"That threat is on my side, so for now, I'll focus on you" The hero said as he tightened the bandages that wrapped around his arm making him grunt

"Oh Eraserhead" the sudden cacophony of voices that spoke with a sickly sweet tone made the two of them stop as a cold shiver ran down their spines and they both looked to the figure that slowly walked to them, one of its black tentacles dragged a lifeless corpse of a grunt behind them "You already wrapped up our little present, how kind of you"

The hero glared at the glitch, his hold on his scarf tightening "Remnant, it's over, you've done enough" Glitch (or is it Remnant?) lets out a boisterous laugh "Enough? Oh my dear hero, this was just the beginning, this was just a small step in our plan, how could we ignore such delicious buffet that was waiting for us" as they said it, the tentacle tossed the body it had speared before as if it was trash " And that one, Shigaraki, he is the next step that we need to take to reach him " their words were covered in venom as they looked down at the scared villain.

"Him? Who are you-" Eraser wanted to ask more, he had thought of the vigilante dead and they suddenly appeared alongside a villain attack almost as if they already knew it was going to happen but the two of them had sadly forgotten about the third party in their conversation.

"As if I'd let you beat me that easily!" Shigaraki bends his arm back, too fast for anyone to react and he takes hold of the hero's leg, the clothes age and turn gray before falling off, then his fingers sink and touch his skin and it begins to crumble off like dirt.

"No!!" A flash of green replaces the red for a second before Glitch lunges at the villain as the hero jumps off him to free his leg, the smoke covered lunatic was only inches away from touching him before a purple gate opened beneath Shigaraki and made him disappear.

"Kurogiri, what took you so long!?" The well dressed villain stood next to where the portal left him and looked at the hurt hero and the angry vigilante "I see that our plan has… fallen apart, it is imperative for us to retreat"

Upon hearing them talk, Glitch could only grind his teeth "AS IF I'D LET YOU!!" In a second, they had already left the ground, with a single jump closing the distance between them as they pulled back their hand and slashed at them but Kurogiri was faster as they covered them both and teleported away.

The vigilante slashed at the empty air but the air pressure that ripped through left the marks of claws across deep in the ground and ripping out of the ground anything in its path. Glitch just stood there looking at the spot where the villains had once stood, his expression unreadable because of the curtain of smoke that covered them but, from the bloodlust that they exuded, their anger was obvious.

"Remnant… why? Why are you here? What did you want from that villain?" Eraserhead asked as he tried to stand only to fall back onto the ground with a grunt, his knee was broken from what Shigaraki had done to him.

The hero looked back at the vigilante only to flinch back as they found them standing right in front of them, the red light from their eyes shining through the mist that surrounded them glaring down on him and he felt the same pressure he had all those years ago when they had first met face to face.

Slowly, they began to raise their arm "that quirk is wasted in a man with dry eyes like you" they said in a flat and empty tone of voice, their hand slowly coming closer to their face, and all Aizawa could do was watch, watch as the predator finally caught his prey.

" HEY!! " The smoke covered hand moved away from his face and caught something that had been thrown at the vigilante, the two of them look to who had intervened and Aizawa felt his stomach drop as he saw an angry Himiko being held back by a scared Jiro and Yoayorozu " GET AWAY FROM MY TEACHER!! "

Glitch clenched their fist and opened it letting the now bent knife fall to the ground, they fully turned to look at the girls and they must have felt the pressure as they all took a step back " you little - shit!" The vigilante had taken a few steps toward them before pain exploded in their head making them hold their head "he's faster than I thought, but… I already lost what I came here for" the vigilante didn't waste any more time as they raised their arms as red lighting enveloped them and slammed the ground with all their strength.

The ground shook from the blow and then exploded sending everyone back and making a cloud of dirt around them, faintly through it they could see the figure of someone covered in lighting jumping away.

"Teacher!" Himiko was the first one to react as she tried looking around before stumbling and falling down the massive crater that the explosion had caused, thankfully she didn't break anything but she was able to hear someone else grunt "Aizawa-sensei!"

"Shit, over here!" When she heard his voice she rushed over to where she heard it although the dust made it hard to see him but after a while she could finally see him laying down on the ground.

"Teacher!" She rushed to his side and winced at the open wound on his leg "what happened!? What did that villain do!?" Aizawa just let out a sigh as his whole body relaxed after the ordeal, villains attacked the USJ, Remnant came back and now there are more than a few corpses that they have to clean up but first "When we get back, you will be in trouble Himiko"

"What!? why!?"

--

It's cold, Izuku thinks.

He opens his eyes and finds himself in a black void.

He's dreaming again.

There's a glimmer somewhere far ahead, his feet begin moving on their own leading him to what he saw but with every step he feels his a pit in his stomach grow and grow.

With every step, something wraps around his heart, a cold and tight chain that pulls at him, tightening with every step.

He wants to stop, he doesn't want to see what awaits him, he shuts his eyes and struggles but his body doesn't answer, it keeps moving.

He's become a prisoner to his own body.

He curls up into a ball inside of himself as he feels every step that he takes, he feels as the air he takes is less and less, the trembling in his hands worsens and he closes them, the pain of his nails digging into the palm of his hand being the only thing he can hold on to.

Then, after what seemed like a lifetime, he stops.

He stops and he can feel the fear wash over him, his skin feels clammy, his neck is covered in cold sweat and he doesn't want to look.

(But he doesn't have a choice, does he?)

His eyes open.

The boy smiles and it's strange. He feels like he should know him, but he doesn't. His eyes stay locked to his and the longer he stares, the dizzier he feels. He wants to get away from him, seeing him makes him itch all over.

There's some primal animal clawing at his chest. He feels blood welling in wounds that will never be there. He's choking, drowning on it. fuck. fuck. fuck. fuck.

Izuku lunges and wraps his hands around the other boys neck, both of them fall to the ground, his hands push and blood begins to stain his hands. Whose blood is it? He doesn't care but. the. boy. doesn't. stop. smiling.

Then he's gone.

Izuku is on his knees and the mirror is broken and there is blood dripping from his fingers, but hasn't it always?

--

The world finally stopped spinning for Izuku as his consciousness takes the wheel, and it hurts. He may be able to heal any wound in seconds but the pain stays, his muscles burn from the stress, his throat feels as if someone had made him drink lava and the pounding headache he has is not helping. He was sitting on the floor, his back laid against a cold rock, his hero suit barely holding on as the top only covered half of his chest, thankfully, his pants were mostly intact.

Taking in his surroundings, he realized that he was in the mountain zone, the muddy puddle that was his mind told him that All For One had brought him here after the fight ended, but one question remained, why was it so quiet?

He couldn't hear the sounds of fighting around him, was it over? If so, for how long had he been out?

"Izuku" It was second, Izuku let out a groan as he looked at the ghosts face, he probably looked like shit. "The others are trying to take care of your copy, lock it up even deeper than before, but… we're not sure it'll work" Izuku just nodded. Silence fell between the two, the vestige thought that the boy had fallen asleep before they spoke.

"It's hard you know" they began, his voice hoarse "I hate doing it, letting them take control I mean, but I just get so… angry " the last part came covered in more venom than he had wanted "It happens so fast that when I realize it, it's already too late"

"and I can feel them" his words could not express the amount of disgust that threatened to make his stomach flip "all those quirks, the old and new ones, I can feel them crawl under my skin, like insects that are trying to find a way out even if it means tearing me to shreds"

"But the worst thing is… how exhilarating it is" he could feel thousands of tiny hands scratching at the back of his brain "Everytime I took a new quirk, I felt complete, I felt better than I have in years and it made me think of the millions of possibilities it offered me" countless whispers flowing into his ears as if the wind itself was speaking to him.

He hated it.

He hated how much they sounded like him.

Second couldn't say anything, he didn't understand how Izuku felt, he and the other users were nothing more than spectators to this, and they knew this, their time in this story had ended a long time ago and so too should it have for the small boy.

"Finally found you lad!" a new voice drew their attention as they saw Snipe walk over to Midoriya and knelt beside him "You had us all worried there for a minute"

"Snipe-sensei, what happened? Is everyone okay? what about the villains, did they-" Snipe let out a tired chuckled "Calm down lad, everyone is safe, you were the last one we had to find and the villains… we've arrested the ones we could" Izuku didn't need to hear the rest.

Letting out a sigh of relief, he slumped further, all that mattered was that his friends were safe "That's great…Can… can we go home now?" he whispered and it almost sounded like a plea.

Snipe nodded as he helped the youth stand up "Yeah lad, we'll get you home"

--

And just like that, the USJ came to a close, except this time around, the teachers and All Might had arrived too late, only able to pick up the scraps that Midoriya had left for them. The students of class 1-A had come mostly unscathe, but the same could not be said for their mental health, the battlefield this time around had become much more gruesome. The amount of black bags that were spread along the ground almost looked like it had no end.

The metallic smell of blood stung their noses and twisted their stomachs as they were all escorted out of the building. Himiko was relieved when she saw her brother, weak but unharmed, and almost brought him to the ground when she hugged him. Since there were no major injuries, the students were allowed to go back to their dorms to rest.

Izuku wished to do nothing more than to rest and leave this day behind.

But things were never so easy.

A sharp pain shot through his spine making his mind go blank for a second making him fall to the ground, it felt as if someone had inserted a burning steel rod into his spine, it was as if it had connected to all of his nerves, the pain ate away at whatever resistances he had as he could only gasp for air on the ground. It was eating away his body and mind, leaving in exchange a white void of burning agony.

With one final jolt of pain that left him grasping at air, the pain subsided until leaving, almost as if it had never been there to begin with. Izuku stayed on the ground taking greedy gulps of air as his heart beat slowed down, the cold sweat that covered him worked as a reminder that he wasn't burning, but just what the hell had happened?

Carefully, he got back up to his feet using the wall to stabilize himself, he wobbled to the bathroom in his room, where the only mirror he had was, did he have something stuck in there from the fight? No it couldn't be, if he did then one of the paramedics that looked him over should have noticed.

His feet faltered when he saw himself in the mirror.

He remembered the night he struck down Stain.

His face was pale and clammy, the eye bags under his eyes stood out even more but what worried him the most was his hair. The once invisible strands of white had now multiplied and could actually be seen as small streaks through his hair, but it wasn't bad enough that he couldn't just dye it green.

He slowly pulled at his sweat stained shirt, the pit in his stomach only growing as he heard the soft gasps from his ghostly companions, taking a deep breath he put the shirt aside and ignored the weight of the stares of the other users. He stood in front of the mirror, his heart beating wildly as he turned his back to it.

A deep breath.

He turned to look.

His heart stopped.

Right in the middle of his back, the one thing he had hoped to never see, as if his skin had been replaced by glass a black scar-like crack that looked like a small spider web stood out on his body.

Hands trembling, cold sweat covering his face again, he turned to look at the person with the most conflicted expression, Hikage, the fourth user, looked at Izuku with pity and sadness.

--

"We've done everything we could, the results were the same" Tsukauchi fiddled with his hat as he gave the two pro heroes the bad news "their quirks were taken"

All Might didn't answer as he let a dark shadow cover his face, his fist clenching hard enough to turn his knuckles white, Aizawa only turned to look outside the window, the bandages on his leg itched but the doctors told him to not touched it, it was a miracle his leg hadn't disintegrated when Shigaraki, the name Remnant had called the villain, grabbed it.

"It doesn't make sense" Aizawa began "You said All For One was more than four hundred years old, and Remnant is at best 17, so how the hell could he have his quirk?" the detective and number one hero had to agree, in the timeline they had created it didn't make sense.

"It could be… their kid? a clone maybe?" they were pulling at straws, those theories sounded insane. "It doesn't matter who they are, but their actions at the USJ make things… more complicated" All Might stated "Are they on our side or not? They somehow infiltrated into the USJ without any of us noticing but when the attack happened, they seemed to only focus on the villains and ignored the kids but, by what Aizawa learned from their small exchange, it seems to be because of a grudge"

Aizawa nodded, every time Remnant came into the picture it was as if they were looking at a puzzle with missing pieces, they couldn't make heads or tails of the vigilante (villain? hero?) "For now, we should treat them as a dangerous individual, and if the day comes where they get in our way, then we should not hesitate to eliminate them" All Might said as he got of his seat, he patted his yellow suit and walked to the exit of the room only to stop before closing the door behind him "You said that Himiko Midoriya helped you even when she could have gotten hurt, right?"

"Yeah?" is all Aizawa could answer as he looked at All Mights small back, the blonde man only brushed some of his hair still not looking at any of them.

"What splendid spirit, maybe I should talk to her one of these days" with that, the symbol of peace left.

--

In a dimly lit bar hidden deep inside the city, a small ball of smoke formed in the air before an agitated and tired Shigariki crawled through it "Our underlings were torn apart, the kids were strong too and our Nome was done in by that damned Glitch…" Kurogiri helped the still trembling young adult sit on one of the cushy red seats of the bar "It was a complete loss for us…"

"We didn't even manage to lure All Might to us…" Shigaraki could only grind his teeth as he heard the soft click of the computer that turned on in another corner of the room. Silence covered the room as they waited for something to happen, finally, a voice came through the speakers of the monitor "It seems like things got out of our hands"

That was an understatement, if Eraserhead had not intervened, Shigaraki would be long dead by now "What of our dear Nomu, they must have at least caused some damage, I loaded them with enough power to rival All Might" Shigaraki only grimaced as he remembered how Nomu was swatted to the side as if they were a fly "Our damage dealer was torn to shreds by that Glitch"

"To shreds you say, and by some… Glitch, you called them? So an unexpected variable has joined, this has changed thing quite a lot" Shigaraki looked at the blank monitor, Sensei, even at the bad news, always sounded amused and right now, it was pissing him off but he had something else in his mind, something bigger that was biting at his confidence.

"Sensei" He began "The one who ruined it all, Glitch, there is something else about them I need to tell you" The computer didn't answer, so he continued "They… they can do the same thing as you"

"Same thing?"

"I watched them, when they jumped on one of the other villains like some kind of animal but then… I watched as they stole their quirks only to use them against the others" Shigaraki gulped as he waited for an answer. A heavy silence fell over them, the tension making it hard to breathe.

"They… took their quirks?" That was the first time Shigaraki had heard Sensei's voice missing any kind of amusement, genuine confusion colored their voice and Shigaraki couldn't be more scared.

For a minute, no one dared speak or move, wild variables had appeared before but Sensei always found a way to take care of them but now, he couldn't help but feel like they were out of their depth "I… Don't worry about it for now Shigaraki, stick to the plan while I… take care of this small problem" Sensei sounded serious which only managed to assure Shigaraki that this was much bigger than him so he just solemnly nodded as he watched the computer turn off.