We're back! Things cleared up a bit earlier than expected, so I was able to get this out today. I hope you enjoy!

"It's finally the last battle of the UA High School sports festival! The top of the first years will be decided with this one match! The final, so to speak! From the hero course, Todoroki Shouto! Versus! Also from the hero course, Uraraka Ochako! Match… start!"

"You know you can put your homework down for a while and watch the final," Himari teased. "Most people are watching the sports festival instead of doing work, and they don't have a little brother that's participating in it."

Natsuo sighed, running a hand through his hair as Shouto engaged in yet another battle on live television. "I know. But I've been putting this off for a while, and it's due in two days now. Besides, like I've told you, he… well, he's my little brother, but he's not… I barely know him."

And wasn't that fucked up? That he could live with Shouto for most of his life and know absolutely nothing about him? He loved the kid, of course, but the boy on television was practically a stranger.

Natsuo might've been trying to focus on homework, but he also couldn't stop himself from checking every now and then, and everything he'd seen of Shouto had been wild. The wind, for example. Natsuo understood how Shouto could've produced it in theory, but he hadn't known Shouto could put that into practice.

He'd been using his fire too. Not nearly as much as his ice, but it had shown up several times at least. Hadn't Shouto been swearing up and down that he would never use his fire, the last time Natsuo had seen him?

And of course, there were those other three kids. The ones who had been kidnapped by that villain alongside Shouto. All of them, including Shouto, had immediately helped each other through the first two rounds. They looked like they'd gotten close. And Natsuo was glad that Shouto apparently had friends now! But… the Shouto he remembered was completely uninterested in making friends like that.

Natsuo had known that he would miss a lot, when he moved out. And he was fine with that - it was a small price to pay for getting out of that damn house.

But he should've at least called Shouto or something, when he'd been found. Should've done even a little more than watch the news and maybe cry a bit in relief. When Fuyumi had asked if he'd wanted to come and see Shouto, though, he'd turned her down. Shouto was alive, and since that was all confirmed, Natsuo wanted to focus on other things. He'd just left that house last year. He couldn't just go back like that.

Fuyumi had barely texted him, these past couple weeks. She was probably pissed at him. Natsuo didn't totally blame her.

Comforting arms wrapped around his chest, and Himari leaned forward, into his shoulder. "What have I told you about self-deprecation?"

"I didn't say anything!" Natsuo protested half-heartedly.

Himari snorted. "You're my boyfriend. You think I can't tell when you're thinking it?" She kissed his cheek. "I'm not gonna say all your choices when it comes to your little brother are perfect, but you also need to think about yourself, and your own mental health. You deserve to be safe and happy too."

Natsuo sighed and kissed her back. "I know, I know. I can't help but feel bad though."

She smiled and poked him gently. "Then the least we can do right now is watch him win the tournament, right?"

"Alright, alright, you win." Natsuo chuckled and turned back to the tv. There was a hole in Shouto's ice wall now - it looked like the girl, Uraraka, was attempting to throw him through it.

Shouto's hands lit up with - what? Natsuo didn't know he could make his fire blue-

The screen turned to static.

Himari frowned, grabbing the remote and trying to get it working again. "That's weird. Did a satellite cut out or something?"

From outside, there was a strange noise, one that rang out in Natsuo's eardrums, bouncing around in his brain. Like the sound when glass cracked, but even stranger.

"What the hell is that?" He ran to the window-

The sky was cracked.

Like something had split opened the heavens itself, a dark crack in the sky, red, yellow, and purple light shining through, slowly growing larger and larger as it continued to move outwards. Even with his window closed, Natsuo could hear the surprised shouts of students around campus.

There was one section of the crack that was slightly larger than the rest, and he looked up towards it-

A massive eye blinked back.

"You've been watching the festival more intently than you do most years," Centipeder noted, passing by with a stack of files in hand. "You did that last year too, before taking on Togata. Someone caught your eye again?"

"You could say that," Mirai agreed.

He'd certainly been curious. It had felt like a betrayal all over again, when he'd offered to introduce Mirio to Toshinori, only for Toshinori to say that he'd already found a successor - some quirkless kid he'd picked up off the street.

Mirai had nothing against the quirkless - Toshinori himself had been quirkless, once upon a time. But it had also seemed like Toshinori had chosen someone he didn't even know, a boy with no experience, just because he thought he could relate to the kid. Out of sentiment, essentially, rather than actual consideration as to the legacy of the Symbol of Peace and the continuation of One for All. With that in mind, Mirai had been practically predisposed to dislike Midoriya Izuku.

Then the boy had gotten kidnapped, alongside three other students, at the USJ. And while Mirai might not have considered the boy a proper successor, he was still just a child with only three days of official training, facing a villain with a warp quirk. One of the other students taken was Endeavor's son, who presumably had much more training. Midoriya couldn't be faulted for it. And Toshinori must've been going out of his mind with worry. Thankfully, all four students had been found only three days later.

So now Mirai was curious as to how Midoriya would perform in the sports festival, and whether Toshinori had made the right decision. How would the boy do when stacked up against the rest of his class?

Exceptionally well, was the answer. Midoriya had won the first round, not just because of him using a low percentage of One for All, but because of what seemed to be his own analysis and strategy to complement it. His team had made the cavalry battle a joke. He'd broken free of the brainwashing boy, and only lost in the quarter-finals due to going up against Endeavor's son, who simply seemed to have more training and a better handle on his power.

What caught Mirai's eye most of all, however, was his cooperation with the other kidnapped students. They had all helped each other in the first two rounds, and done so with a smoothness that came from a long period of trust. When Midoriya had been singled out during the cavalry battle, the other three hadn't hesitated to team up with him anyways.

If Midoriya could build that sort of loyalty in only three days… perhaps, despite the circumstances in which he had been chosen, Toshinori had actually come across someone worthy of his mantle.

Mirai did wonder about the fact that most of the time, Midoriya only seemed to be using a downplayed version of One for All, but if the issue was with controlling the quirk, that could certainly be helped with. Mirai had worked with One for All for years. If he could help Mirio with Permeation, then he could certainly help Midoriya with One for All.

And besides, having seen the boy in action, Mirai was curious. Would Midoriya live up to his expectations if they met in person?

"I'm going to offer Midoriya an internship," he explained to Centipeder. "I think there's a lot I can teach him."

"You got it," Centipeder immediately agreed. "He seems like an interesting kid." Then the man frowned. "Hey, did something happen? The sports festival just cut to static."

Mirai turned back to the screen, and saw that Centipeder was speaking the truth. "That is strange-"

There was a noise, one unlike anything Mirai had ever heard.

The next moment, he was doubling over in pain. He could hear Centipeder rushing towards him, calling out his name, and then everything was drowned out by visions, despite him not touching anyone.

There was his old vision, one of Toshinori's death, one that had haunted Mirai's nightmares ever since he'd received it. And then-

The vision glitched, and suddenly, it was different. Mirai watched, stunned, as Toshinori, in his small, broken form, battled an equally injured All for One using some sort of power armor.

How-

The vision glitched again, and changed once more. Now, Toshinori was standing there, still small, but noticeably more healthy than he'd been in the past five years, smiling on a wooden porch as he watched Midoriya sparring with someone on the lawn, the underground hero Eraserhead and an older man Mirai didn't know next to him.

Another vision popped up - a vision of himself. He watched himself die in the hospital while hooked up on tubes, the devastated face of Mirio-

And then the new vision glitched once more, and he was seeing a few days past the vision of his death. Now he was smiling, a young girl with white hair on his lap.

…That shouldn't be possible. His visions didn't change like that.

Do you think you command destiny yourself, Sir Nighteye?

Mirai shuddered, spinning around to try and identify the voice, but then he was back in his office, Centipeder hovering over him, with an expression that on Centipeder clearly displayed worry.

"Sir Nighteye! Are you alright?"

…Frankly, Mirai had no idea. He was still trying to wrap his head around what he'd just seen. But he nodded, and let his sidekick help him to his feet.

Outside, the sky was cracking apart, strange lights shining through. Slowly, ever so slowly, the tip of a massive claw started poking through one of the cracks. The television screen still showed nothing but static. There were screams starting by their agency, the beginnings of mass panic among the populace.

"This is insane," Centipeder murmured. "What do we even do about something like this?"

Mirai had no idea. A part of him was still distracted, by the visions, by the fact that something had happened at the sports festival, that he had no idea if Toshinori, Mirio, or Midoriya were okay. But he had to put all of that aside for now. The people clearly needed heroes to help calm them. He couldn't do that if he was panicking himself.

"We focus on the people," he said. "We make sure no one is hurt in the panic that clearly starting out there. We protect whoever we can."

That was their job as heroes, after all.

This year's bunch of hero students were rather fascinating as a whole, All for One mused, considering how they'd survived against Tomura's first assault. But it was the four students who hadn't that intrigued him the most, and watching them in the sports festival only confirmed these feelings.

"We should get our hands on them. Those girls especially," Garaki was saying, as they watched the final match. "Not only because of their multiple quirks, but because they could also lead us to Kurogiri."

Multiple quirks indeed. All for One knew their files. Midoriya Izuku had a power listed as super strength - and yet, during his first and second tournament fight, he'd broken bones and immediately healed them. Garaki might not have noticed, but All for One certainly did. Uraraka Ochako had a gravity nullifying quirk, and yet the entire festival, she'd been using an extremely strong telekinesis quirk.

The one who intrigued All for One most was Ashido Mina. Her quirk was acid based - and yet now she was displaying super strength. A young student suddenly showing super strength, right after All Might joined the UA faculty? That was something he certainly couldn't ignore. It was entirely possible that One for All had been passed on to Ashido.

And yet, that didn't explain why three out of four students suddenly had new quirks.

As for the youngest Todoroki, there was always the chance that he was hiding a new quirk as well, based on the other three. All for One wouldn't rule out the possibility. And considering the boy's older brother, he'd be remiss to ignore the potential.

"Indeed. Perhaps there is someone like you out there, Doctor, who modified them?"

"Not a chance!" Garaki scoffed, offended. "There is no one who can create nomus like mine. And if someone out there could transfer quirks like you, we would've heard of them by now."

"And yet, here these hero students are, at least three out of four bearing another quirk. And, perhaps, whoever did this to them has Kurogiri."

And there was someone. All for One had been furious at Kurogiri when he'd directly disobeyed orders and sent four students somewhere completely different. But when Kurogiri had returned, he'd admitted that he'd had no intention to send them anywhere but the USJ. Considering the circumstances of Kurogiri's existence, he was of course unable to tell them anything but the truth. Which meant that someone had been able to hijack Kurogiri's portals.

Then, as an additional insult, they'd had to sacrifice Kurogiri to the heroes in order to make sure Tomura got out alright. Tomura was still furious - he'd bonded rather nicely to Kurogiri, but the downside to this was his seeming protectiveness over him. All for One had made sure the boy was angry at the correct target - the heroes - but it was still an unwelcome loss. Kurogiri had made excellent transportation.

And then Kurogiri had seemingly broken out of Tartarus. The heroes had assumed that they'd underestimated the power of his warp quirk. All for One knew differently. He'd made Kurogiri to be powerful, but not powerful enough to escape Tartarus by himself. Kurogiri had been broken out of prison by an outside force, using his own quirk.

Considering his quirk had been hijacked once before, it couldn't be a coincidence. Whoever had sent those four students outside the USJ had now taken Kurogiri.

All for One would very much like to meet them, to determine how much of a direct threat they were, or if they could be reasoned with. And he was extremely interested in the new quirks they had given those students.

He had told Tomura to watch the festival carefully, but he himself was just as invested.

On the screen, Uraraka nearly threw Todoroki out of bounds - and then both of Todoroki's hands lit up with a blue flame. One that looked nothing like the fire he displayed earlier, nor did it look like his father or brother's fire.

Others wouldn't have caught it. They didn't have the quirks he did, the enhanced senses he possessed, even without actual eyes.

But right before static covered the screen, there was a flash of the same blue.

Even as the world cracked open, All for One smiled.

Whoever had given the youngest Todoroki a power like that, they were certainly no hero.

He'd let the heroes clean up their student's mess. Then, when the dust settled, he would swoop in and collect his prizes.

"A villain got Tensei."

His mother's words kept playing in repeat, over and over, as Tenya rushed for the exits. As much as he'd wanted to watch Uraraka and Todoroki's final match, he couldn't focus on anything else, other than the pounding in his head, and the fact that a villain had gotten Tensei.

This wasn't supposed to happen. Tensei was strong and brave and honorable. He led so many people, and was widely respected. He was Tenya's amazing big brother, and a villain had gotten him.

Tenya moved through the halls of the stadium, for once not caring about how many people he bumped into. He had to leave now. He had to go see Tensei, before…

No. No. Mother said he would be alright. He had to be. Tensei would never die at the hands of some villain.

Tenya's chest clenched painfully, and he picked up the pace, moving as fast as he could without using his quirk.

The air around him… changed. As though the universe had suddenly shifted into a different gear. Tenya blinked, and slowed, because it suddenly felt like he was moving through molasses. Around him, the people he was walking past were barely moving at all.

He didn't have long to wonder about it. Behind him, noises of surprise started, and then cut off so quickly that if time wasn't being strange, Tenya never would've heard them at all.

He turned around.

There was a… wave of sorts. Tenya had no other words to describe the steadily encroaching change in reality moving towards him. As it passed through people, they let out their startled exclamations, and then suddenly folded in on themselves, the places where most of the people had been now containing motes of starlight in different colors.

Most of them, because some became even more changed, twisting into different shapes and forms. Blobs of flesh with orifices in the wrong places, inanimate objects, concepts. And even they too, eventually glitched into starlight.

The wave continued towards him, and Tenya ran.

He should've stopped. Should've turned around, shouldn't have fled while all the civilians around him were… whatever was happening to them. It was cowardly, and Tenya knew it, and he hated himself for it.

But he also remembered the USJ, and how running for help had been what had ultimately saved most of his classmates. If only the stadium was affected, or even if only part of the stadium was affected, he needed to let people know. There were plenty of pro heroes around, including those inside the building. Getting help was a better option.

And, though Tenya wracked his brain, he couldn't figure out a way that he could fix this by himself anyways, or outrun the wave with even a single person on his back. The air still felt like molasses. It was all he could do to keep ahead of the encroaching madness.

Tenya desperately shook his head, trying to drown out the sounds around him. Took a single look behind him and watched a young woman with a fire quirk literally melting away into a puddle of water, her face contorted in fear, and forced himself to only look forwards after that.

And then - finally - an exit. The entrance to the stadium. Tenya reached the door and flung it open-

And almost fell into the void.

There was nothing outside the stadium. Nothing but stars and darkness and strange colors. In the distance, Tenya could see cracks of light, elongating but quickly drowned out by the void attempting to seep through.

Where the hell were they? Was it like this everywhere? What about his friends and classmates, back in the booth? What about Tensei?

The wave caught up to him, and Tenya braced himself. If this was it and he was just going to die here, at the edge of a void, folded into starlight or worse, then maybe he shouldn't have left the booth in the first place. He couldn't reach Tensei. If only he could be with his friends-

…And then, as the wave hit, a shield of blue fire covered him, protecting him from whatever madness had swept the stadium. Tenya could see the fire, could almost hear it, but could feel no heat. A part of him wanted to reach out and touch it, but he didn't want to risk disturbing it.

The wave passed, and the fire dissipated. Tenya was left there, alone in a hallway full of stars and shapes, staring out at a void. In the distance, he could see a large eye peering through one of the cracks, an eye that seemed to belong to some sort of inky dragon which had sixteen other eyes like the one looking through. One of the dragon's claws was slowly (but not really slowly, just slowly on Tenya's timescale, rather than its) piercing through another crack.

Tenya looked down. Right beneath the door was the concrete the stadium rested on, and below that was a constantly shifting earth, creating and discarding patterns over and over again.

He let out a slow breath and turned around to face the rest of the hallway, closing the door behind him.

Why Tenya? Why did that fire protect him, and no one else here? Was anyone else spared? What about Uraraka and Todoroki, who were fighting in the finals right now?

He certainly wasn't going to take his chances in the void. Instead, he ran back through the hallway, and towards his friends.

It was so sudden, Momo didn't have any time to react.

One second Todoroki and Uraraka were battling in the arena. It was hard to see what was going on, with the ice walls, so Momo was watching the screens rather than the battle itself. Uraraka attempted to throw Todoroki through a hole in the ice wall, and somehow, both of Todoroki's hands lit up with blue flames, before he and Uraraka suddenly switched places.

There was a split second where both of them seemed to… pause. Todoroki looked terrified.

Then the world fell apart.

Momo had barely thrown her hands in front of her head to protect herself from… whatever that was, before she was engulfed in the same blue flame that wreathed Todoroki's hands. Time seemed to stutter, the stadium contracting and expanding around her.

The fire dissipated, and Momo gasped, looking around. In the center of the stadium, where Uraraka and Todoroki were, there was a swirling rainbow of shattered reality, every color, including those Momo had never seen before, mixing together within deep indigo. In the booth with her, Kirishima, Ojiro, Ashido, and Midoriya were looking equally stunned.

Momo turned to Jirou, to see if she was still there, and a yell escaped her. Instead of her friend, there was some sort of… well, Momo wasn't sure how to describe it except as visible sound, which buzzed around in confusion.

In fact, most of their class was suddenly gone, replaced by different colored hovering lights. Aside from Jirou, the seat where Tokoyami was also stood out - there was an actual raven there now.

"What… what just happened?" Kirishima's voice shook. "What's going on!?"

"Hagakure!" Ojiro reached for the seat next to him, where Hagakure had been, and where nothing currently was. He drew his hand back, hissing - it was now covered in burns.

The stadium itself seemed to be fracturing. Parts of it were collapsing, others were dripping upwards into light. Their booth seemed to be fine, apart from the fact that most of her classmates suddenly were made into something else oh god what was going on-

"This - This isn't Cipher." Momo spun around. Midoriya was staring into the stadium, eyes wide, somehow ignoring all the colors that made her head hurt and her vision fuzzy. He looked up, and she followed his gaze. Instead of a blue sky, there was now nothing but an endless void of stars above them, with the occasional strangely colored bubble floating by. "When Weirdmageddon happened, it didn't look like this. It's not - it's not him."

"Who is he?" Kirishima asked, sounding as desperate as Momo felt. "Weirdmageddon? Has this happened before? Are Todoroki and Uraraka okay? Why are we safe and not the rest of our classmates?"

"It's… a long story," Ashido admitted, ducking down and retrieving from her bag a far more worn grappling hook than the one she'd used against Uraraka. "Um. Long story short, Gravity Falls was in Oregon, but it was Oregon in another universe. The apocalypse happened, caused by Cipher, and we stopped it. It didn't look exactly like this though."

"Shouto protected us," Midoriya noted. "Or - he protected you guys, Mina and I seemed to be fine. He must've felt something going wrong, he kept saying something here felt off. But Cipher could also be a problem - we need to get down there. Mina-"

"On it." Mina attached the grappling hook to the edge of their booth.

"W-wait, hang on!" Momo finally found her voice, shaky as it was. She'd suspected that there was a lot her friends weren't telling them about their trip to Oregon, but the apocalypse!? "So is or isn't this the same as when you were in Oregon?"

"And how can we help?" Kirishima added. "How many people can that hook hold?"

Midoriya was already shaking his head. "No, you guys should stay here. No wait," he cut off their protests. "I know that sounds bad, and I wouldn't want to if I was you. But please, trust us. This isn't the same as before, but it is familiar, and it's dangerous, and we know how to handle it."

"We'll be right back!" Ashido promised. She grabbed Midoriya and lowered them both with the grappling hook. A few seconds later, the hook unstuck itself from the booth and followed them down.

Ojiro ran a hand through his hair, looking around the collapsing stadium. "What the hell. What the hell."

"We've got to follow them!" Kirishima insisted.

And he wasn't entirely wrong but also… "Shouldn't we trust them?" Momo wondered. "Apparently they stopped an apocalypse."

"Yeah, but you heard them, that was different! They might need back-up now. And Todoroki and Uraraka are down there too, and we can't just leave them! Especially if Todoroki was the one who saved us." With that, Kirishima ran out of the booth. Momo exchanged a helpless glance with Ojiro, before they both followed.

The hallways were far worse than the booth. There were so many lights where people had been, just like their classmates. Amalgamations that made Jirou and Tokoyami look tame. Momo could feel herself on the edge of panicking, and judging by the other two's expressions, they were as well, even Kirishima.

She'd thought being attacked by villains at the USJ was terrifying. Apparently she hadn't even known terror then.

They ran into Iida in one of the hallways, who looked immensely relieved to see them. "You're alright as well!"

Momo let out a shaky breath. "It's good to see you, Iida." And it desperately was. Surrounded as they were by a place completely broken, at least one more person was alright.

"And you," Iida agreed. "Everyone else in the stadium…" He swallowed. "Is it just our class that was spared?"

Ojiro shook his head, eyes wide. "Not most of our class. Just us. And Midoriya and Ashido. Todoroki summoned some weird blue flames right before everything… broke, and apparently they protected us, but he and Uraraka were right in the center of things. Midoriya and Ashido went down to try and help them."

"Apparently they were in another world's Oregon," Kirishima stressed. "And there was an apocalypse that happened there."

Iida gaped at them for a moment. "I was protected by blue fire as well. And I'd suspected there was much more that they weren't telling us, but…" He shook his head. "We can worry about past dangers later. We must help our friends now!"

Hopefully, there was something they could actually do to help.

Ochako knew what was about to happen a second before it did. She could see Shouto's eyes widen in terror before everything shattered. And then, afterwards, she heard him laugh.

It was a familiar laugh, the one that invaded her nightmares every so often. It sounded slightly different, coming from Shouto's voice rather than Ciphers, but there was no denying that it was Cipher's laugh.

She'd only either heard about how Cipher took over Shouto's thoughts, or seen it from a distance, before. This was different. Shouto was in front of her now, in their space of broken reality, hands still ablaze, and he might've still been himself, but at the same time he wasn't. Shouto blinked, and Ochako could see a shine of gold in his eyes, his pupils seeming almost slitted.

From somewhere in the stadium, Mina and Izuku dropped down into the arena and ran over. Ochako had a moment to wonder how they'd gotten here so fast, and then considered the fact that time felt just as broken as everything else, and decided not to question it.

"You know, there's a lot of irony to be had here," Shouto said suddenly, and Ochako stopped cold. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the other two freezing as well. Shouto was smiling, and while it wasn't completely Cipher's smirk, it also wasn't his. "A commission for heroes, so determined to get one over on UA that they insist on experimental technology that tears this world open into the Nightmare Realm." His eyes flickered up towards the stands, taking in the horror show as though it were an interesting stamp collection. "And they screwed over every hero here because of it. And I thought the people back in Gravity Falls were idiots. Looks like these chumps take the cake."

Was that what had caused all of this? Some stupid experimental technology?

At least that meant it hadn't been Shouto himself, just him using his flames in a bad place at a bad time. When Shouto was himself again, they'd have to remind him of that.

Izuku was next to her, now. Somehow, he'd crossed the space between them in just a few steps. Now, he winced as he took in their friend, face pale. "Shouto? You still know us, right?"

Shouto rolled his eyes. "Seriously? You have to ask? You're supposed to be smarter than that, Sparks. Of course, then again, in another timeline you nearly broke your bones irreparably trying to beat me in a school fight. Isn't that just the dumbest thing? I wonder how much it would take to break your bones that badly here, considering those handy regeneration powers." His smile widened. "No, that's a lie, I already know what it would take. Want to find out?"

Oh that's definitely not good. At the very least, Shouto still responded to his own name.

Izuku let out a shaky breath, before trying again. "Shouto, we can fix this. I mean, I'm not totally sure how we're going to fix the whole "break in reality" thing, but we can definitely help you. We just need to find Ford. He's got a charm that can limit Cipher's influence, remember?"

Shouto was still smiling, and Ochako hated it. "What are you talking about? There's nothing to fix. I remember everything now!" He laughed again. "Well, maybe not everything. That's a bit too many memories to be stuffed into a meatsack like this. I remember enough, though! And I'll remember more soon!" He looked down at his hands, still on fire. "I'll really be me again soon enough."

An icy chill went down Ochako's back. "What's that supposed to mean?" She demanded, eyes wide.

Shouto looked at her, pupils definitely slitted, smile condescending and firmly in place. "You think a skinsuit like this is gonna hold on forever? When it has enough chaos energy to mold reality? Get real, Sunshine. Eventually it's going to burn out. Not that it matters. I won't need it by then!"

No.

If… if Shouto was telling the truth, would the charm even help for long? How much time would they have before Shouto's body gave out?

"It's your body," Mina reminded him, stepping forward. "I know that it probably doesn't feel like it right now, but it is. Are you really okay with leaving it behind like that, Shou?"

Something about the nickname seemed to resonate in Shouto, and for an instant, the smile dropped. Then it was back in place, like it had never left. "Of course! Things are already so much better. And what's a human body ever done for me, anyways? Don't get me wrong, I do like having a physical form, but these things are practically built to be painful and annoying."

Ochako blinked.

That… that almost sounded like Cipher. But at the same time, it didn't.

Shouto had described how much Cipher had enjoyed pain, when he'd first stolen Shouto's body. That was why Shouto still had those bandages on his arms, because Cipher had liked pain enough to experiment with kitchen utensils. For Shouto to say now that he didn't like the pain part of being human…

Most of his thoughts might be Cipher's. Most of his memories might be Cipher's. But Cipher hadn't completely taken over yet, even now.

If Shouto really was Cipher now, after all, wouldn't he have attacked them? Finished them off, like he'd so desperately wanted to, the last time they'd seen him? Or at least mocked them more than just the light bit he was doing?

Ochako shared a glance with Izuku and Mina, saw her budding hope reflecting in their eyes, and knew they'd caught it too.

"And you're fine with the rest of this?" Ochako asked gently, gesturing to the stadium. "With everyone here that we know being hurt like this? You say you remember everything, but did you forget about wanting to become a hero?"

"You saved Yaoyorozu, Kirishima, and Ojiro," Izuku pointed out gently, and Ochako startled, because she hadn't realized that. "Maybe even Iida as well. At least some part of you still cares. Are you going to let everyone else in our class suffer?"

Again, just for a moment, the smile dropped. Shouto flicked his head, as if trying to excise unwanted thoughts. "It'll be fine," he insisted, his tone more forceful than before. "It won't matter soon anyways! I thought everything was wrong, before, but now I realize that it's right! It's all good! And soon it'll be even better. No more feelings of wrongness at all, no more concern, no more petty mortal fears that won't go away-"

"No more Fuyumi?" Mina asked, pointedly. "Are you willing to condemn her to this nightmare hellscape too? After everything?"

The smile finally fell away completely. For a moment, the golden shine in Shouto's eyes was gone, and his pupils were round again. The fire in his hands flickered. Just for a second, which lasted longer and shorter in this space where time didn't matter, Ochako saw her friend again.

It made sense, Ochako realized. For all that Shouto wasn't attacking them, didn't seem to want to hurt them like Cipher did yet, Cipher still knew them. Cipher still had opinions on them. And Shouto was calling them by their zodiac signs, like Cipher did, so he was clearly affected enough by Cipher's opinion that they didn't seem able to reach him.

But Cipher had never met Fuyumi. She'd never even been in Gravity Falls.

There you are.

Fuyumi watched, heartbeat bouncing around in her eardrums, as Oboro and Wendy physically restrained Aizawa from leaving the room.

"Let me go!" Aizawa hissed. "Everyone in the stadium vanished! Present Mic, Midnight, my students-"

Ford looked like he'd finally had enough. "You won't be able to do anything for your friends and students if you leave this room! The protective enchantments against scenarios like this that I made only extend so far. If you leave the skybox, you'll fall into quantum uncertainty as well. Don't be an idiot."

"Shouta please!" Oboro begged. "We can't fix this by running headfirst into it. And that's coming from me!"

It was Oboro's words that finally seemed to calm Aizawa down enough for the two to let him go. He stared at the door for one long final moment, before turning back to them with a scowl. "Fine. Fine. You'd better have a damn good explanation for all of this afterwards, though."

"We'll explain as much as we can," Soos promised. "It's super weird, though."

"No kidding. Fucking hell." Stan stared out at the scene in front of them, the absolute chaos that had seemingly taken over, with far more annoyance and far less fear than Fuyumi was currently feeling. "Seriously? Again?"

Ford shook his head. "No, this is different." He checked over his instruments again, one of which had seemingly protected the skybox and everyone in it from whatever had torn the rest of the stadium apart. "This stadium is currently in both the real world and the Nightmare Realm. The lines between the two realities outside of this stadium are cracking, but they're still separate. For now."

"And Shouto?" Fuyumi pressed, because her little brother was down there, in the middle of the chaos.

Ford held up the charm. "We need to get this to him now. If Cipher takes over here, he'll completely shred the barrier between worlds himself, and we'll lose Shouto for good."

"So what are we waiting for?" Wendy practically snapped. "Let's get down there and get him the charm already."

Aizawa raised an eyebrow towards the elder Pines. "Judging by your expression, it's not going to be that easy."

Ford grimaced. "Shouto knows us, and if he's completely himself, he'll let us help him. If he's not though… Cipher probably won't let us come near him with this. Too much bad blood, even with Stan, Soos, and Wendy."

Stan pinched his eyebrows. "Dammit. You're not wrong. If that triangle bastard is in the driver's seat, or however this works, he's probably pissed about me punching him to death."

"And if I go?" Aizawa wondered. "I've never met Cipher before."

"But Shouto doesn't trust you." Aizawa turned to her, but Fuyumi had already moved on. "I'll do it."

"Are you sure-?"

"He's my little brother," Fuyumi stressed impatiently. "Out of everyone here, I have the best chance of getting through to him by a long shot. I'm going to help him." She turned to Oboro. "Could you please get me as close to them as possible?"

"You got it."

Ford tossed her the charm, and she caught it. "Be careful," he warned. "Holding the charm will protect you until you get to the center of the shattering place, but don't push your luck."

"I'll be careful," Fuyumi promised, although she had a feeling she wouldn't need it. Oboro's clouds surrounded her, and then a moment later, she was in front of the center of the fracture, with all its strange glowing lights and colors.

Shouto was in there. He needed her.

Fuyumi gripped the charm tightly and ran inside.

There Shouto was, standing slightly apart from his three friends, hands ablaze with blue flames that were so unlike Touya's.

His expression was all wrong, there was gold in his eyes, and his pupils seemed to change shapes every time he blinked, but he was still her little brother. And he still needed her help.

Mina seemed to notice her first, eyes lighting up. "Fuyumi!" She turned back to Shouto. "Like I said, would you really be okay with her being hurt? I know you care more than you're letting on, Shou."

Fuyumi's heart clenched at Mina's words. She could see the distress in Shouto's eyes. For a moment, he just looked at her, desperately.

Then his eyes fell on the charm she was holding, and that horrible smile was back in place.

Her little brother took a step back. "Hey, what's one more sibling in this family getting fucked over? It's not like we aren't used to it! Even though nothing about that is actually what it seems - hey, did you know Touya's still alive? He's calling himself Dabi now. What an edgelord, am I right? Of course, he wants to kill me if we meet. Wouldn't mind killing Natsuo either, apparently. I mean, I get having Daddy issues, but that's just ridiculous."

…Deal with all of that later.

Fuyumi took a deep breath and stepped towards him. "When you talk about another sibling getting fucked over, are you referring to me? Or to you?" She paused. "Or to Natsuo, if both of us are stuck here?"

Shouto blinked. "That's - why does it matter?"

"You were so angry and horrified when you found out Father hit me," Fuyumi recalled gently. She could see Shouto's friends' horrified reactions to her words, but in the moment, that didn't matter. "Do you not care anymore?"

There was a flash of indignation, of that old anger Fuyumi was familiar with when it came to Shouto.

"You told me how scared you were of losing yourself to Cipher, and hurting your friends," She continued. "Of hurting me. Remember? That was only a couple weeks ago."

"Shut up." He took another step back. "What does that even mean? I died a month ago! Touya's burns had nothing on me! I should rub it in his face if he lives through this-"

"Cipher died a month ago," Fuyumi interrupted gently. "You survived, Shouto. I can't imagine how hard it must be, to have memories like that. But you lived. Don't you remember the past couple weeks? Are you going to let Cipher take them away from you?"

The conflicted look lasted longer this time, Shouto shaking his head, looking lost in his own (or Cipher's) thoughts, then shaking his head again. "I… Hey. Don't bring that thing near me. I said don't bring it over! I don't want it!"

"You did though," Fuyumi reminded him. "Remember?"

"I was wrong!" He insisted, the gold in his eyes shining brighter. "I don't need it! Everything's fine now. It's better this way. No more pain, no more hurt or worry or fear or guilt-"

"And no more happiness? No more friendship? No more helping others?"

Because if Cipher thought he could get Shouto on board by appealing to the removal of all the horrible parts of his life, then Fuyumi was going to remind him that there was good in his life as well.

"SHUT UP!"

For a moment, the flames in Shouto's hands shone brighter, surrounding her and freezing her in place. She could hear Shouto's friends calling out in a panic, but she ignored them, eyes locked onto her brother.

A second later, the flames petered out, and Fuyumi was released. Shouto looked far more surprised than she felt, staring at his hands in confusion. "What the hell? Why can't I…?"

Fuyumi smiled. "Because you're Shouto, not Cipher. You haven't personally hurt anyone here, only saved them. You haven't hurt your friends, because you love them. And you're my little brother. You're not going to hurt me."

"I… no, no! That's not…" Shouto shook his head violently again, looking from her, to the charm, to his hands, and back again. "No, I…"

Fuyumi closed the gap and hugged him tightly.

For a moment, Shouto struggled to pull away. Then he stood stock still. Time seemed to pass for an eternity.

And then he melted into her arms, and the shuddering breath he drew was his. "Fuyumi."

Fuyumi beamed. "I've got you."

Shouto shook. "I. I almost hurt you. I almost hurt you."

"You stopped yourself," she reminded him gently.

"I can't…" He shook his head again, desperately. "There's too much. Too many thoughts, too many memories, too much… I can't. I don't know what's me anymore. And Bill's going to tear this break in spacetime apart, and he's going to use me to do it, and I can't stop him, I can't…"

"You can," Fuyumi insisted, her heart breaking once more. "Shouto, it's your power now, isn't it? Just like your quirk fire isn't Fathers, these flames are yours now as well. Cipher - Bill? - Whatever his name is, you might have his thoughts and memories, but deep down you're still you. You always will be. And you can fix this."

There was another long moment of silence. Shouto shook in her grasp, and Fuyumi continued to hold him tightly.

Then he sucked in a breath, and his flames rose up again.

Fuyumi wasn't sure if it was because she was holding her brother that she could feel it, but outside the stadium, things started to heal. Flames washed over the cracks, and they closed, forcing whatever hadn't yet made it fully into their world back into the Nightmare Realm.

(There were things that had already gotten in. One of which was the prevailing essence of weirdness. Things would never fully be the same after this.)

The stadium still hovered in and out of the Nightmare Realm and the real world, but even it seemed to stabilize, just a bit. No one who had already collapsed into quantum uncertainty returned to normal, but those of them who had survived were no longer in danger of it.

Shouto's flames died down, and he shuddered, legs weakening. "Fuyumi. Fuyumi, the charm… I can't…"

Fuyumi slipped the charm over Shouto's head.

Immediately, symbols burst to life around him. Shouto's eyes stopped wavering, the golden shine disappearing for good, pupils settling back into roundness. The flames on his hands disappeared.

He collapsed against her, and Fuyumi set him down gently, holding him in her arms as the miasma of impossible colors around them calmed down, and the others in the skybox, as well as four more students and two teachers who had somehow made it through ran over.

Izuku practically fell down next to her with a shaking sob of his own. Mina knelt down and held Shouto's hand, while Ochako grabbed Mina to steady herself.

They were still stuck in the nightmare realm. Most of the people in the stadium where gone, and Shouto still had Cipher lurking underneath the charm.

But, for now, things seemed hopeful.

Bill Cipher's greatest weakness, beyond unicorn hair or even zodiac prophecies, is the love between siblings.

They're all still stuck in the Nightmare Realm, of course. And they're still on a bit of a clock - that charm isn't going to hold out forever. But at least things are looking up!

As always, I hope you enjoyed, and please don't forget to leave a review, let me know what you think!