BEN 10 DOES NOT BELONG TO ME. MY HERO ACADEMIA DOES NOT BELONG TO ME. I TRIED TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD LAST WEEK, BUT THE VILLAINS I TRIED TO HIRE LAUGHED ME OUT OF THE ROOM.

Sometimes, no matter how hard you try to convince people that you're right, you just have to accept that most people think you're wrong. Your choices then become to find a compromise, or hit people.

Guess which option All Might is about to take.

My Alien Academia

Chapter 61

Unwavering

As All Might stormed through the halls of UA, he couldn't help but notice how the gleaming walls had been replaced by reinforced armor, the slots in the ceiling and floor that concealed retractable turrets, and the signs on the walls that reminded the inhabitants of the many safety measures now in place.

Even though he was on a mission, All Might reflected that much of the blame for how things were fell entirely on his shoulders.

First things first, he thought. I'll bring in young Midoriya, force him to tell me everything he knows about All For One and Shigaraki. Once I have that lead, I can end this nightmare, once and for all.

Sir Nighteye hadn't said a word since entering the school, but continued to dog his steps; All Might was reminded that the other man was far more athletic than he appeared.

He had passed through the doors of the USJ and was headed to one of the simulated urban areas—a good place for Midoriya to hide, he had to admit—when a figure stood in his way. Focused as he was on his objective, All Might needed a second to recognize Stars And Stripes, her arms crossed and her eyes narrowed.

"Stripes?" All Might blinked. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm trying to save the world," Stripes said bluntly. "And that involves stopping you from making a terrible mistake."

All Might had been kept out of the loop, but he wasn't stupid, and it took him only a moment to figure it out. "You were the one helping young Midoriya after he escaped."

"We all were," Gentleman Jack said as he and the other top Heroes All Might had come to know stepped into view.

"You would help him?" All Might's fists shook at his sides. "He's an agent of All For One!"

"He's a dying kid," Maccabee said, his voice uncompromisingly stern. "He's been doing everything he can to stop Shigaraki, and the only reason he wasn't trying to hunt him down directly is because you would have been trying to stop him the entire time."

"That's changed," Monkey King added. "We could hit the point of no return at any time now. The one-year date was just an estimate, and the sooner we find Shigaraki, the better our chances will be. Our odds will be even better with Midoriya on our side."

"And he's been fighting alongside us for a year, helping us take down the PLF," Geosynch said. "We would have known if he was a Villain."

All Might shook his head. "You can't be sure of that. What if he's been luring you around the world, chasing false leads to buy time for Shigaraki?"

"Do you know how ridiculous you sound?" Panzer asked. "We're all pretty good judges of character, Toshinori, and we haven't seen a single sign that he's anything other than a Hero."

"I don't have time for this." All Might tried to loom over Stripes, but she was almost as tall as him, and all she did was raise an eyebrow. "Where is Midoriya?"

"Not here," Stripes said.

"Nighteye said he was…" All Might paused, then turned to his former Sidekick. "Mirai, you lied to me?"

"You won't listen to me, to Gran Torino, or to Nezu," Nighteye said, his voice heavy with disappointment. "You respect these Heroes enough that you brought them into your circle of trust. If that is still the case, then you will believe them when they say that Deku is on our side."

"I have an order from the government to bring young Midoriya in," All Might said, but everyone heard the slightest hesitation in his voice.

"The warrant for his arrest was something you convinced the Prime Minister to sign off on," Nighteye reminded him. "It was on shaky ground then, and it's even worse now."

All Might took a deep breath. "I would still like to speak to him. Perhaps hearing him explain himself will change my mind."

"You'll have to convince us that you won't just attack him the moment you see him," Ranger said, and when All Might didn't immediately respond, he sighed. "See, this is why we had Nighteye bring you here. If you don't want to listen to reason, we'll make you."

"And they won't be the only ones." All Might whirled at the sound of Endeavor's voice; flames crackled around him as he stepped into the open.

"Even you, Endeavor?"

"I know from experience how badly an obsession can affect someone," Endeavor said, and instead of his usual antagonism, there was disappointment in his eyes, and that hurt All Might more than he wanted to admit. "Your obsession is driving you to destroy an innocent boy. If we have to beat that obsession out of you to protect our world's best chance at defeating Shigaraki, then we will."

All Might cracked his knuckles. "You don't want this fight."

Stripes sighed. "We don't, but being a Hero means making hard choices. You taught me that, Toshinori."

All Might scowled. "Fine, then. Let's go."

…

Izuku winced at the pain wracking his body; on his best days, he felt like a giant bruise, while it felt like his entire body was made of fire and broken glass on his worst days. Today landed somewhere in the middle, which meant it was bearable; he'd gotten used to that kind of pain.

"Izuku?"

Izuku's eyes snapped open; that was a voice he hadn't heard in almost a year. "Mom?"

Inko smiled through her tears and grabbed her son in a hug, but immediately let go when he flinched. "Honey, are you okay?"

"Not r-really," Izuku admitted. "Everything hurts. T-touching makes it w-worse."

Hisashi peered down at his son. "That stutter is getting worse. I thought that only happened when you got nervous."

"I g-get tremors now," Izuku said. "It's hard t-to have long con… conversations."

He decided not to mention the handful of times his body had practically shut down, leaving him comatose for hours. His parents already looked stressed out of their minds, and the last thing they needed to hear was how he'd become a prisoner in his own body.

"It s-stops when I go alien," he told them instead. "I t-try to stay that way for forty-five minutes out of every hour, except when I'm s-sleeping."

The Midoriya parents looked at each other worriedly; their son was implying that the majority of his days had been spent as an alien, and they weren't sure how that had affected him.

Izuku forced himself into a sitting position. "Am I in UA? H-how l-long have I been here?"

"A few hours," Inko said. "Izuku, I know you came back because you have things to do, but can we talk? Just for a while."

Izuku nodded shakily, and his parents started to speak. Sometimes they asked questions, and he answered what he could; for the rest of the time, they spoke about anything and everything, simply because it was the first time they'd spent time as a family in any meaningful capacity in a year.

After a while, during a lull in the conversation, there was a knock at the door. Izuku tensed, and the sheath formed around the Omnitrix, but Hisashi stopped him, and Inko went to check the door. A moment later, she turned around and smiled.

"Izuku, honey, Ochako-chan is outside. Do you want to see her?"

Of course he did; the idea of not seeing her made his heart ache. Still, part of him had hoped that their reunion wouldn't be tarnished by his sickly appearance.

"Y-yeah, I do." Izuku tried to adjust his pillows, but his arms trembled too much, and his father did it for him. "Th-thanks, Dad."

"Sure thing, kiddo." Hisashi gently ruffled his son's hair, while Inko opened the door.

"We'll give you two some space," she said, and she and her husband stepped outside.

Izuku nodded, and then worked up the energy to smile.

"Hi."

…

Uraraka had only changed into her school uniform, so she knew she didn't look her best right now. Still, after seeing what her boyfriend looked like, she imagined that she'd looked better even after losing her arm.

To say Midoriya was a mess was a massive understatement. The parts of his skin not covered in black-green scars were so pale that she could almost see his bones, and he was so thin; even with his costume on, she could see his bones pressed against the cloth.

But there was that smile—that goofy, awkward smile that she had fallen in love with almost two years ago.

Still…

"That's all you have to say? 'Hi'?" Uraraka stomped over, her expression thunderous. "Do you know how worried I was?"

Midoriya blinked. "Uh—"

Uraraka cut him off with a finger jabbed into his chest. "I had to scour the internet every day for even a rumor about you! So many people said you were dead, or on the run, or working for Shigaraki! And when I finally see you again, you're running around with a bunch of strangers, and then you cough up blood! When you promised you'd come back, I didn't expect you to come back as a zombie!"

Midoriya blinked again. "What—"

"And don't even get me started on everything going on here! I had to deal with every other person thinking you're the herald of the apocalypse, Villain attacks almost every day, and it hasn't stopped raining!" She grabbed him by the front of his hoodie and shook him. "I've been fighting criminals, taking classes, and raising Eri! I haven't had a good night's sleep in eleven months, Izuku!"

Midoriya shrank into his costume, almost like a turtle. "I'm s-sorry?"

"You… you…" Tears welled up in Uraraka's eyes. "Damn it, I can't stay mad when you're like that. It's like I'm yelling at a puppy." She wiped her eyes and took a deep breath. "Okay, done rambling. I'm sorry, I know it's not fair to you."

"It's n-not fair to you, either." Midoriya reached out with a trembling arm and took her metal hand in his. "Y-you're right. I was r-running all over the w-world, but you had to d-deal with everything here."

Uraraka sighed, and then sat down on the bed. "And if you had stayed to help, you'd be chased by All Might, or angry mobs, and we'd still be worried sick about you."

Midoriya nodded, and was quiet for a minute. "I missed you."

Uraraka thought that it wasn't fair; he was sick, scarred, and she wanted to stay mad for a little longer, but those three words made her heart skip a beat. "You're lucky you're cute."

Midoriya had started to smile, but stopped; his free hand brushed against his face. "I really don't think I am."

"Stars And Stripes mentioned you… you're on medication?"

"It's less of a cocktail of d-drugs, and m-more like a whole bar at this point."

Uraraka squeezed his hand a little tighter, but stopped when she saw that it was hurting him. "How bad is it?"

Midoriya sighed. "If I'm n-not an alien, I'm either in a w-wheelchair, or in bed. Some days… s-some days, I can't even sit up."

"Are you…" Uraraka took a deep breath, dreading the answer to her next question. "Are you dying?"

Midoriya closed his eyes. "Melissa tried to hide the doctors' findings a few months ago, but I found out. At this rate, I've only got a couple of months left." He opened his eyes again and smiled humorlessly. "Of course, it won't matter if I don't kill Shigaraki, because we'll all be dead."

Uraraka didn't like how casually he could speak about killing someone. "Is there really no other way?"

"There might be, but we haven't figured it out yet." Midoriya's eyes narrowed. "Even if I can stop him without killing him, is there any prison on the planet that can hold him? If he becomes as powerful as Ben and Azmuth said, he'll be a god, and at that point, there's nothing any of us can do."

Uraraka didn't know what was scarier—that Midoriya was convinced that the only way to end this nightmare was to commit murder, or that he might be right.

Before she could say anything else, they felt a shudder underneath their feet. It almost felt like an earthquake, but something told them that that wasn't the case.

"What was that?" Uraraka asked.

Midoriya frowned as he thought about it, and then his eyes widened. "Oh, crap."

…

"Oh, crap."

Togata blinked. "Um, no offense, Melissa, but that wasn't exactly what I was expecting you to say when you saw me."

Melissa scowled, but not at him. "I think we have a problem. We need to get to the USJ, fast!"

Bakugo, who had been trying to ignore the impending romance, seemed to figure it out at the same time as Melissa. "Hey, I'm coming with you. There's something I have to take care of."

…

All Might bit back a snarl as Maccabee hit him with a one-two combo that, had he been anyone else, would have broken his ribs. It still hurt, and from what All Might knew of the other man's Quirk, it would only hurt more.

"Final warning," Maccabee said. "Stand down, or this is going to get ugly."

"You're being misled," All Might argued. "Midoriya—"

"I swear to god, All Might, if you keep up that rhetoric, I'm going to hurt you," Endeavor interrupted. "You're the only reason people are against that boy, when he might be our best shot against Shigaraki!"

Endeavor then unleashed a wave of fire at All Might, who managed to push it back with a Texas Smash, but it took a lot more effort than it should have. Endeavor was stronger than he was—constantly fighting in the rain had pushed his Quirk to levels nobody had expected—but it was boosted even more by Maccabee's Quirk, which enhanced the power of anyone he saw as an ally.

And it wasn't just Endeavor and Maccabee who were fighting; it was just their turn, as the other Heroes attacked in turns. Just before All Might could counterattack, his current opponents fell back, and then it felt like he was suddenly trying to walk on Jupiter. He glared at Geosynch, who looked back at him with such disappointment—a sharp contrast to the starry-eyed infatuation of a couple of years ago. She merely turned up her nose at him, and then Monkey King leapt at him; even with Maccabee boosting his strength, Monkey King didn't have the raw power to really hurt All Might, but he didn't plan to, and slammed his staff into All Might's joints, driving him to his knees.

"All Might, you are being foolish," Monkey King said, as stern as All Might had ever seen. "You have the power to turn the tide against Shigaraki's organization, yet you split your attention between the Villains, and your hateful rhetoric against an innocent boy."

All Might opened his mouth, but no words came out; he was simply overwhelmed by his own frustration. With a roar, he forced himself to his feet, and even with Geosynch's Quirk affecting him, he still managed to move in a blur. Monkey King let out a simian shriek as he dodged All Might's punch, but the shockwave still sent him tumbling back. All Might then aimed one hand at Geosynch, and flicked out; the air 'bullet' caught her in the chest, which briefly knocked her out. Her Quirk faded as soon as she lost consciousness, and All Might practically vanished as he moved to engage his former friends.

For the first time since the fight began, Stars And Stripes intervened; she caught All Might's hands with her own, and even though she put her all into it, her former mentor was clearly in a different league than her. The pavement under her feet began to crack, and sweat quickly formed on her face.

"Just stop it, All Might," Stripes said through gritted teeth. "All you're doing is making it worse!"

All Might didn't respond; he was done trying to convince people with words. His forehead crashed into Stripes' face, breaking her nose and stunning her long enough to hurl her into Endeavor.

"I am done with this," he said, uncaring of Stripes' blood dripping down his face. "Let me be perfectly clear: if you are with Midoriya, you are against me."

"Then you're being an idiot."

All Might turned at the new voice, only to get clocked across the jaw by a punch easily as strong as any of his own. He staggered and spat out blood; across from him, Lemillion calmly crossed his arms.

In any other circumstance, All Might would have been shocked by his successor's attack, save for two things. First, Togata had already broken his jaw almost a year ago, and if that bridge hadn't been burned then, it certainly was now. The second thing was that he was too busy being shocked by Melissa's appearance. He hadn't seen her in a year, and he had to come to terms with how different she looked. In truth, she hadn't changed much, but there was exhaustion on her face that was out of place for a girl her age, and a bitter anger in her eyes that he'd never imagined would be aimed at him.

"You need to stop this, All Might," Lemillion said sternly. "This is your last chance to calm down, listen to reason, and work with us to stop Shigaraki. If you don't…"

"What will happen?" All Might demanded. "Will you all continue to fight me, while Villains run free to—oh my god."

Ranger facepalmed. "He finally gets it. He finally bloody gets it!"

"That's what we've been trying to tell you, you absolute tosser!" Gentleman Jack shouted as he helped Stripes to her feet.

Melissa walked over to All Might, completely unafraid of a man who could kill her with an errant flick of his finger. Before he could speak, Melissa pressed a button on her wristband; tiny red hexagons spread from the wristband and around her body, creating a formfitting suit of armor that even sheathed her long hair. Only her eyes were visible behind a thin visor, and All Might was locked in place by the intensity of her gaze.

"You are a complete moron!" Melissa practically screamed, and punched All Might in the chest.

There was a deafening crack as Melissa's armor briefly siphoned all the air within fifty feet into her arm, and expelled it into a single, focused point. Had her target been anyone else, the blast of pressure would have punched a hole clean through their body; as it was, All Might was knocked onto his back, gasping desperately for breath.

"Do you know why you've been so stupid lately?" Lemillion asked as he knelt by All Might. "It's not completely your fault, and I actually feel bad that I thought it was."

"I don't!" Melissa shouted.

Stunned as he was, All Might blindly lashed out, but his fist passed harmlessly through Lemillion, who sighed and put his hand over All Might's face.

"You guys take some time to recover," he said. "This might take a while."

…

In the entire history of One For All, there had never been anything like this—vestiges of previous holders meeting themselves. Of course, thanks to All Might, there were now two copies of the Quirk in existence.

"Welcome, Toshinori," the Ninth Shimura Nana said. "I'd say it's good to see you again, but you've been here this whole time."

All Might, as well as the Eighth Shimura Nana, stared at her in shock. Unlike the Ninth, the Eighth was bristling with aggression.

"How can you be so calm!?" the Eighth snarled. "All For One's essence is here! We swore to protect people from his evil!"

All Might could see the other vestiges on both sides; those standing near him were just as aggressive, but everyone seemed content to let the Shimuras do the talking. The only difference was that Lemillion's side had a golden silhouette of All Might himself—but this All Might was the skinny husk of a man he used to be, before Eri had healed him.

"This has been going on since Midoriya tried possessing you," Ninth Shimura said, and even as little more than a memory, she seemed tired and disappointed. "Toshinori, you should have remembered that we are here to guide your actions, to help you as you grow. Instead, you've practically lost your free will to people who are long dead."

"No!" Eighth Shimura put her hands on All Might's shoulders. "He wavered once, and not only did he fail to kill All For One, he was crippled for years! We cannot allow him to fail again!"

Lemillion shook his head. "All Might, do you believe I'm a worthy successor to One For All?"

All Might opened his mouth, but it was his vestige that spoke. "Of course I do, young Togata."

"Then why didn't you let me take up your mantle? Why did you have Eri heal you?"

The vestige sighed. "I can't completely speak for my current self. I can only say that I believed that the future would be safe in your hands when I passed on One For All. Either my current self lost that trust, or he has been manipulated to go to such extremes."

All Might knew his vestige was telling the truth; the vestiges might keep secrets, but he didn't think they were even capable of lying. They were the truest essence of the previous holders of One For All, stripped of anything that might hold back the next user.

But just because they didn't lie didn't mean they couldn't be wrong.

"Has…" All Might gently pushed his predecessor's hands off of him and turned to face her. "Has young Midoriya actually done anything wrong? He lied about his Quirk, yes, but has he actually committed a crime?"

"You've seen his wrath," the vestige argued. "When he fought Overhaul."

"He was fighting someone who had tortured a little girl, one he loves dearly," the Ninth Shimura reminded them all. "When I died, Toshinori was filled with that same kind of rage, which fueled his fight with All For One. How is what Midoriya-san did any different?"

All Might could tell that the vestiges on his side wanted to argue, but they were unable to say anything that wasn't the truth. He knew that they had been triggered by Midoriya's attempted possession, and made worse by the return of his power. Their gestalt will had influenced his to such an extent that he had become something despicable, and it shocked him to his core.

"Enough," he whispered, and stepped away, until he was standing next to Lemillion. "We've made a terrible mistake. I've seen it now, and I shouldn't have needed it thrown in my face by the people I respect the most."

All Might's vestiges tensed, as if ready to attack, but Lemillion's moved to face their counterparts. The All Might vestige merely stood by his much larger self, and nodded at him. The calm vestiges reached out to the others, and gently took their hands.

"It's time to rest," the Ninth Shimura said to the Eighth. "We are here to give strength, not rob the living of their will. Toshinori and Mirio will both fight All For One, not an innocent boy who is just as much a Hero as any of us were."

Golden light flowed from one vestige to another, and All Might could feel their influence on his mind fade away. He then felt drained, as if he'd been fighting for days without rest, and he fell to his knees in the mindscape. The last thing he saw before everything went dark was Shimura Nana smiling at him.

…

"It's safe to let him go, right?"

"I hope so, because I don't want to go through that again."

All Might opened his eyes, and saw a small crowd standing around him. Only Lemillion looked at ease; everyone else was ready to resume their fight. All Might blinked when he saw another familiar face in the crowd, sneering down at him.

"Young Bakugo? Why are you here?"

"Just making sure you weren't gonna pull some other dumbass stunt." Bakugo wasn't in his costume, just a T-shirt and shorts, but his hands were crackling with explosive power. "By the way, I told everyone here that you tried recruiting me as a spy to find out where Deku was."

All Might frowned as he rose to a sitting position. "You said you would do it."

"Yeah, I lied." When Bakugo saw that All Might wasn't planning to fight, he let his Quirk settle, and jerked his thumb in Nighteye's direction. "I told him all about it the first chance I got. I was spying for him, not you."

"I'm… thankful that you chose a different path." All Might no longer felt the pressure of One For All's vestiges on his mind; instead, he felt only the crushing guilt of what he'd done, and pressed his forehead against the ground. "I am so sorry for what I did. Young Togata might say that I was being influenced this entire time, but it does not change the fact that I have relentlessly targeted an innocent boy, and hurt you all in the process. I beg your forgiveness."

"It's not us that you need to apologize to," Stripes said; her voice was off because of her broken nose, but she still maintained an impressive glare. "And even if you really are sorry, none of us are going to let you be alone with him."

All Might sighed. "That's completely fair."

Before anyone could move out, Nighteye's phone began to beep in an odd pattern that only he recognized. Whatever it meant made his eyes go wide, and he nearly dropped his phone in an attempt to grab it, and nearly dropped it again when he read the incoming message.

"We need to move," he snapped. "Security has just located Stain."

"The Hero Killer?" Golden energy crackled around Lemillion. "Where is he?"

Nighteye was grim. "Inside the school."

…

Even with the experience they'd accumulated over the last two years, the students couldn't quite react in time to stop Stain from sitting down on the dorm couch. Despite having over a dozen almost-Heroes within striking distance of him, he seemed supremely uninterested.

"Anything to drink around here?" he asked.

The surreal nature of the situation faded fastest from Iida; his boosters flared up, and he kicked out at Stain's head. Despite the blinding speed, Stain managed to lean out of the way of the kick, and then grabbed Iida by the shirt and heaved him over his shoulder. Iida was smashed through the coffee table hard enough to leave a dent on the floor, and Stain used the momentum of his throw to roll out of the way of Kirishima's punch. He would have slashed the tendons in Kirishima's arms, but he could tell that the boy had used his Quirk to prevent that.

Instead, he was put on the defensive when spears of ice sprouted upwards, nearly impaling him through the chin. He rolled out of the way of Todoroki's next attack, kicked Kirishima in the ankle to knock him down, and then hurled a broken leg of the coffee table right at Todoroki; it would have caught him between the eyes, had Asui not snatched it out of the air with her tongue.

The students knew they couldn't fight at full strength in the dorms—not necessarily because they didn't want to cause too much damage to their home, but because they couldn't risk a stray shot going through the ceiling and into Uraraka's room, where Eri had been sleeping.

Yaoyorozu realized the dilemma, and made a snap decision. "Hanta, get Eri and get outside!"

"On it!" Sero had been looking for an opportunity to attack, but the close confines of the dorm limited his mobility. Getting Eri to safety was the best use of his talents.

However, before he made it to the stairs, Stain blitzed past the students and blocked him, sword raised. "I'm not finished, kid. You'll stay here until I am."

"Why are you doing this?"

"Because I need—" Before Stain could finish his sentence, Brainwashing took effect, and his arms fell limp at his sides.

"Nice work," Ashido said with a relieved sigh, and patted Shinso on the shoulder.

Shinso glanced mournfully at his coffee, now a stain on the floor and Iida's back. "I'm just glad it worked."

Asui glared coldly at Stain. "What do we do with him, ribbit?"

"We stop him the same was as last time," Todoroki said; he had told everyone how Stain had really been defeated months ago, and nobody had really cared. "Kaminari, fry him; I'll freeze him in place, and then the teachers can send him back to Tartarus."

Kaminari cracked his knuckles; with the rain constantly hampering his Quirk, he was always eager to be useful. "No problem."

Just before Kaminari touched Stain with an electrified hand, the door burst open in a cloud of red feathers. So fast that none of the students could react, the feathers pinned them to the walls, floor, or in the case of Shinso, the ceiling.

"You are an idiot," Hawks said as he entered the dorm and smacked Stain upside the head. "We had a plan. We went over the plan six times. You decided to ignore the plan and cause a scene."

Stain, now free of Shinso's Quirk, shrugged. "I wasn't going to hurt any of them, I just wanted to see how the next generation of Heroes was doing."

Hawks rolled his eyes. "Okay, but maybe you could have done that in a controlled setting?"

"What kind of test is that?"

Hawks was about to answer, but movement in the corner of his eye made him whirl; there, standing at the top of the stairs, was Eri, with a look of absolute terror on her face.

Oh, crap.

Hawks held out his hands. "Hey, kiddo," he said gently, like he was speaking to a frightened animal. "This isn't what it looks like, I sw—"

Eri chose that moment to scream, long and loud. Two seconds later, the front door exploded inward, along with a chunk of the wall, as Humungousaur crashed through, with Uraraka clinging to his back.

Double crap.

Humungousaur took one look at what was going on—his classmates, pinned down by Hawks' feathers, his former mentor acting chummy with a mass murderer, and his terrified adopted daughter—and gave Hawks a look of such intense rage that the Hero genuinely thought he was in mortal peril.

"You are dead," Humungousaur rumbled.

Triple crap.

…

"So, uh, Melissa," All Might said as he and the other Heroes ran towards the dorms. "What's with the suit?"

"It's for emergencies," Melissa said tersely as she flew—because her armor could funnel air through boosters on her feet and back to let her fly—overhead. "In case someone tried to go after Izuku, and nobody else was around."

All Might opened his mouth, but Lemillion gave him a fierce glare. "If you say something about her being Quirkless, you should stop right there. Even at your worst, you never complained about Izuku being Quirkless, and I think it's cool that Melissa made something so awesome."

"And you have no room to talk, Toshinori," Nighteye added. "After all, you were born Quirkless as well."

All Might winced; even though his mind was completely his own again, he was constantly reminded of all the terrible things he'd said over the last year. He had so many people to apologize to, and once this matter with Stain was over, he would start with Midoriya.

As if the universe heard him, the Heroes heard a loud crash, and an alien roar. All Might tensed, but the international Heroes and Melissa paled.

"That is bad," Geosynch said, her voice full of concern. "He should not have transformed for the rest of the day!"

All Might blinked, even as he kept running. "Wait, why?"

Panzer scowled at him. "Did you forget the part where we told you he's dying?"

All Might would have winced, but then they came into view of the dorms, and he saw Humungousaur trying to smash Stain. At the same time, Uraraka kicked out a window and floated outside with a crying Eri in her arms; to All Might's surprise, Hawks flew after them.

"Geosynch, go help the girl!" Stripes ordered. "Lemillion, secure the inside, make sure everyone is okay! Everyone else, we take Stain down!"

Hawks spotted the incoming Heroes an instant before they joined the fray; with a frustrated shout, he dived down and got between them and the fight, his wings outstretched.

"WAIT!" he roared. "I can explain everything, we just need to calm down the kid!"

Stripes almost hit him anyway; like everyone else, she knew what Hawks had done in service to the HPSC, and that included spying on Midoriya. However, she knew that what he had done was all to stop the Villains; she didn't like it, but he likely took a long view of the situation, so she held out a hand to stop her colleagues.

"Please tell me Stain isn't a threat," she said.

Hawks scratched his head and scowled. "He's a pain in the ass, if nothing else. Seriously, can you keep those two from trying to kill each other so I can explain? Oh, and maybe get Nezu to calm down before he drops UA's entire security on our heads, while you're at it."

Jack shared a glance with the others. "Should we trust him?"

"I don't think we have a choice," Ranger said. "If nothing else, we need to get Izuku to calm down; he needs a day to rest, remember?"

Hawks blinked. "He what?"

The other Heroes ignored him, and rushed in. Maccabee and Stripes grabbed Humungousaur's wrists and pulled him back; Jack copied Maccabee's Quirk, and then punched Humungousaur hard enough to unbalance him and knock him onto his back.

"Izuku, stop!" Stripes jumped onto his chest and grabbed his face with both hands. "Something else is going on, and not only are you making it worse, you're making yourself worse!"

Humungousaur growled and tried to throw the other Heroes off of him, but Maccabee's Quirk and Jack's copy of that same Quirk gave each other an increasing feedback of power, making Stripes temporarily the strongest person on the planet. Try as Humungousaur might, he couldn't free himself.

"If you think I'm just going to let Hawks get away with—"

"We know, kid," Stripes interrupted, though her voice was much gentler. "We all have to do things we're not proud of, and this is one of those things. But I promise you, that son of a bitch is gonna get what's coming to him, even if I have to drag him to jail myself."

Humungousaur finally let the tension bleed out of his muscles, and the older Heroes relaxed. They knew he could have turned into one of his aliens with intangibility to escape at any time, but since he didn't, they figured that he was either too angry, or he'd already subconsciously accepted their reasoning before they'd even said anything.

That, or even as an alien, he was too tired to fight them right now.

Stripes got up and helped Humungousaur to his feet. "What the heck are you even doing out here? You should still be resting."

"I haven't seen my friends or Eri in a year," Humungousaur said. "I was in a wheelchair, and Ochako was pushing me, but then we heard Eri scream, so—"

"Oh, right, I get it." Melissa had told the Heroes about how Eri had been kidnapped by the Eight Precepts right before the raid; it made sense that Midoriya would react the way he did, especially when the first people he saw were a mass murderer and a mentor that had betrayed him.

"Wait, Eri!" Humungousaur looked around. "Where is she? Is she okay?"

Stripes sighed. "Your girlfriend has her. I'm pretty sure Geosynch is still talking her down. Come on, let's get this whole situation defused."

…

Fortunately for everyone involved, Nezu didn't need much convincing to have the alarms turned off and his security back down. Some of the civilians had started to panic, but Nezu quickly assured everyone that it was a false alarm—it was even true. Nezu then had most of the Heroes acting as security out to reinforce the perimeter, while he joined the international Heroes in the interrogation of Hawks and Stain.

Despite being convinced not to try to kill Hawks anymore, Midoriya was in no mood to hear anything the man had to say, even if it was important. Instead, he was taken to the 2-B dorm to finally catch up with his class, while the 2-A dorm was repaired.

At first, his friends were unsure what Midoriya could handle, because as soon as he turned human, he nearly collapsed. Under Melissa's instructions, Midoriya was gently placed on a couch, though he was able to sit up without aid. As soon as that happened, Eri curled up on his lap, let out the biggest sigh, and fell asleep. The Rising Stars sat as close as they could to him, occasionally reaching out to put a hand on his shoulder, as if to reassure themselves that he was really there. The other students, 2-A and 2-B alike, gathered around so that they could catch up.

"I heard rumors that Detnerat was totally destroyed overseas," Ojiro said. "Was that you?"

"And th-the others," Midoriya said. "I d-didn't do m-much in Belgium. It w-was… a b-bad week for me."

"That was when I got to test out my armor," Melissa added. "I punched a guy through the ceiling!"

"R-Ranger told me about th-that," Midoriya said with a grin. "He s-said it was the f-funniest thing he'd ever s-seen."

Sero frowned. "Okay, dude, what's with the stutter? You're worse than when we first met you?"

Midoriya's smile faded. "I'm… I'm in b-bad shape. Nerve damage, my immune s-system is shot—I n-need about fifty different s-supplements every day just to stay alive. I'm only okay when I go alien."

"Izuku…" Yaoyorozu blinked away tears. "Are you dying?"

"Yeah." Midoriya wasn't about to start lying to his friends now. "At th-this rate… I've got m-maybe six months left, if I'm l-lucky."

The good mood that the meeting started with completely vanished. The other students might have been hopeful with Midoriya's return, but the idea that he was months away from dying, at best, was sobering.

Bakugo summed it up best. "Well… that fucking sucks."

Midoriya put his hands over the sleeping Eri's ears and glared at him. "Language."

"Bite me, pretty sure she's heard worse by now."

Midoriya blinked, and then looked at his friends. Ashido couldn't meet his gaze. "Hey, it's been a bad year, and sometimes we forgot when she was in the room."

"Putting aside th-that for later," Midoriya said, "we've only got about three w-weeks until the d-deadline. I'll b-be making daily p-patrols to l-look for Sh-Shigaraki."

"What, by yourself?" Uraraka asked.

"N-no, with Stripes and the others."

Todoroki crossed his arms. "And us. We're not going to sit this out, Izuku."

Midoriya wanted to argue. He wanted to keep the people he loved safe from Shigaraki. At the same time, he knew there wasn't much he could do or say to dissuade them. He looked to Melissa for support, but she just grinned wryly at him.

"I told you they wouldn't take no for an answer."

Midoriya sighed. "I g-guess you're right. We sh-should all get s-some r-rest, b-because we're going to b-be busy, unless w-we get a lead."

Everyone jumped when Melissa's phone made an annoyingly upbeat chime. She looked at the message that just arrived, and her eyes went wide.

"Ask and ye shall receive," she said. "According to Hawks, he knows where the League is hiding. We're launching an attack in two days."

…

Deep within the League's underground base, All For One sat at the table and briefly pretended that he was still the ruler of the underworld. Instead, his successor had usurped him before All For One was ready, in a way he had thought impossible.

The impossible was something that was happening a lot for him lately. Finding out that his obsession with Azmuth had been all about aliens this whole time was a little embarrassing, even more so when he realized that he had never been 'chosen'. Instead, his power was a random quirk of fate, which made him feel a lot less special.

What annoyed him even more was that he was the only one that was perturbed by this revelation. The rest of the League of Villains had been surprised, to be sure, but they had then gone back to business as usual.

"It's confirmed," Lady Nagant said, not looking up from her report. "It's not just Midoriya that's in Japan; seven top Heroes from other countries came with him."

"Do they know our location?" Nine asked calmly.

"We don't know for sure, but it's unlikely that he would come back so suddenly if they didn't learn something."

Re-Destro sipped his tea. "This base was created after the battle at Jaku, and it was never shared with any Detnerat branches. The only way we could be compromised is if someone leaked our location."

"We can't start a witch hunt now," All For One said. "If the Heroes are about to come for us, we won't have time for anything else. Our best option is to withdraw to a new location, until our power is unassailable."

"I think you mean Shigaraki's power," Nine reminded him. "And I spoke to him yesterday; he said that he couldn't be moved for at least two days."

"That's a short time period," All For One noted. "Is he almost complete?"

"I believe so, but without the Doctor, or even Twice to make a clone of him, even Shigaraki isn't completely sure."

All For One chuckled humorlessly. "Then it is a race against time. Let's see who crosses the finish line first, shall we?"

As many of you have noted, All Might's obsession with taking down Midoriya was dragging on for a little while, but it's been resolved. I kind of hinted at One For All influencing his actions a long time ago. I like to imagine that Deku accidentally triggered some kind of emergency defense when he tried to possess All Might, and when All Might got restored by Eri, that emergency defense got kicked into overdrive.

Also, yeah, Deku is dying. But he's determined to take Shigaraki with him.

I know you guys want some more information on how and why Stain is working with Hawks, but rest assured, that will be explained in the next chapter.

As always, please consider buying my book, Alpha Sanction, by Josh Gottlieb. You can find it on my website (link in my profile), and on Amazon in eBook and physical format. I'm trying to finish the sequel, but between two jobs that take up most of my free time, I can barely write anything. Seriously, I started writing this chapter almost two months ago.

You can help me pay my bills (god, California rent sucks) by supporting me on my P-atreon page (link in my profile). If everyone who reads this story donates at even the lowest tier, I could drop one of my jobs and have an extra two days to write! Plus, higher tier patrons get chapters early, and even a free copy of my book!

Speaking of which, I'd like to thank the following patrons now:

Serious Muffins: Nimrod009, Aaron Meek, Matthias Matanovic, Red Bard, Lokthar, Hakuryuken, Anders Lyngbye, Kristen Tyler, JackSlap23

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Next Chapter: Midoriya takes a gamble, and then has a few more long-overdue conversations.

Plus Muffin!