Chapter 34

Hisashi Shigaraki blinked for the first time in years. Hesitantly he raised his hand to his face. The matted knots of scar tissue where his skin had melted together and hardened into one shiny carapace of flesh were gone. His hand traced slowly, wonderously across his sharp nose, and strong forehead and the fluffy spikes of white hair that fanned around it.

He dropped the hand, looking around him. He was in a wide-open space, though it was impossible to tell how large through the thick clouds of smoke writhed and twisted around him. Jutting up from the smoke were doorways, wide, open and gaping with dark black shadows inside that he could not see through. In the background, the way that he always could hear the dim, distant humming of the stars above and the shimmer of timelines converging and separating and breaking and remaking themselves all at once. The dizzying twist of the planet beneath his feet and the universe around him. The steady burn of everyone's emotions still grated against his skin like sawdust and sandpaper and the uneven wailing of his stolen quirks writhed and pushed against the chains he had bound it in. Beneath it all the familiar, ever-present drumbeat of his heart throbbed.

"Hello cousin," Inko – how did he know her name? – her voice unbearable soft. Hisashi barely kept the snarl from her face.

"Cousin?" He asked, tilting his head to the side. The mist cleared around her and he could see her clearly. Still wearing that ridiculous pirate costume and a mask from Venice. He had never travelled to Venice. He had never travelled much of anywhere. He had always meant to. But his efforts in Japan had always seemed to take so much of his time. And then, of course, there was always little Tomura. He had needed him nearby.

"Well," Inko folded her hands in front of her. She was no longer holding the whip. "As you say, we are the last. Cousin is the least of it."

Out of the fog that…brat appeared, half hidden beneath his older sister, and green eyes peering around her, acidic and angry and pitying. Pitying! Careful not to be noticed, Hisashi curled his arm at his side, expecting one of his black spikes to form in his palm. Nothing happened. The quirk squirmed and strained and did not come to him. Hisashi sucked in a sharp breath, careful, careful not to let the panic form on his face as he tried to reach for a different quirk. This one didn't come when he called, either.

"It's not gonna work," The brat – Izuku – said, that same pitying look echoing in his voice. His sister put her arms around his shoulder and sighed softly. Mournfully.

"Where are we, exactly?" Hisashi asked. "What did you do?"

"We're inside your head," Inko said, finally taking off the mask. She was pretty. And young. With a round face and green eyes that were identical to her younger brother's. They reminded him of his sibling too. Tired. Knowing.

"Oh?" Hisashi quirked an eyebrow, and, despite everything spared a moment to relish the move. Absently he selected another quirk, attempting to summon it.

"Your parent never taught you this, did she?" Inko asked. "I imagine there was a lot that you never got a chance to learn. About yourself, about your heritage. About what exactly you can do?"

"And I suppose you propose to teach me?" Hisashi asked.

Inko laughed. The sound was wet. Her brother pressed closer to her side.

"No, not teach," she said. "but I can tell you."

"Well," Hisashi said, leaning back and crossing his arms as tough he was reclining in his chair. If she wanted to monologue long enough for him to figure out what was going on and stop her then fine. He wasn't going to stop her. "Why don't you go ahead?"

"A door, once opened, can be stepped through either way," Izuku said, as though he was reciting a lesson of great importance.

"You have a lot of open doors," Inko said, gesturing. "Your mother never taught you how to close them. For one of us, being connected to everything. Feeling it all. It can be overwhelming. Maddening."

"Oh," Hisashi's eyebrow twitched. It was not the first time he had been called mad. It would not be the first time he killed someone for calling them it. All he needed to do was wait until they'd finished expositing and snap her neck. He could do it over and over again until she finally stopped coming back.

The siblings shared a long look. His fingers itched with the urge to reach over and destroy them for ignoring him. And then they turned back around.

"There's an old punishment, back on Galliffrey," Inko began, swallowing sharply. "It's called the endless silence. It's…"

"Bad," Izuku said hollowly. Like a child remembering an old fear that they still somehow thought could hurt them. Inko fluttered her hand across his hair, not quite touching, but still enough to bring comfort if the way the child closed his eyes and leaned into it was any indication.

"And, I suppose, this unimaginative torture is one that you are going to impose upon me, is it?" Hisashi asked. "You are weak, and tiny and nothing. What exactly do you think that you can do to me?"

"We can't imprison you," Inko said, "and we can't…well we won't kill you. This…this at least lets the humans imprison you."

"Oh, oh really?" Hisashi snarled, he was invincible. What were they going to do to him? Just because they could be mystic and mysterious and pretend to be better than him because they had two Time Lord parents and grew up on Gallifrey. They hadn't stopped the planet burning had they. They hadn't grown up on this miserable hunk of rot with peoples thoughts and feelings and lives scratching and scratching and scratching against his brain. "You can't do anything to me. I will kill you. I will kill you right now!"

He lunged, hands outstretched, no quirks, just brute strength and felt a pang of bitter triumph as that bitch's eyes widened in panic. He staggered to a stop, hands swiping through her as though she were a mirage, his hearts stuttering in his chest as his breath stopped. There was a strange slamming noise reverberating through him. He shuddered. Shocked enough not even to try and reach for the siblings as the reappeared a few metres away.

He couldn't hear the stars anymore. He couldn't hear them.

"What did you do!" he demanded, rounding on them.

"We closed a door," Izuku said, tears blooming in his eyes.

"What?" Hisasahi snarled, charging at them.

Slam.

The spinning of the earth disappeared. The universe fell silent.

"Stop it" Hisashi snarled, reaching for his quirks that were still beyond him. "Stop it! Stop it now!"

The siblings vanished into the fog again and he heard another slam reverberating through him as the writhing glow of timelines disappeared. The wide-open space of his mind seemed stretched taut and creeping closer all at once. Parts of it disappearing into silence. He staggered, breathing heavily as he saw a flash of green.

Slam

He gasped as his connection to is quirks snapped. They were there. He knew they were there they had to be there. He just couldn't feel them. He couldn't – he couldn't.

"Get back here!" He howled impotently lashing out like a toddler, clutching at the smoke and desperately, desperately looking for them. The doors were gone now. All of them. All of them but one. The emotions. The beautiful, wonderful emotions and thoughts and feelings of the people around him, they were still there. They were still there. He had never realised how comforting they were against his skin. How loud and soothing and wonderful they were until they were all he had left.

His hand reached out and this time it caught something. Skinny, worthless something. He yanked his hand back and puled the squirming, wriggling irritant from the fog, his mouth twisted into a grin that showed all of his teeth as the child. The worthless, useless child hung in his grip. He brought up his other hand ready to snap its neck and end this. And froze.

The girl was standing next to the final door. As he watched she pressed her hand against it. And the final door closed.

He wasn't aware of the keening noise erupting from his throat, wasn't aware of falling to his knees, until he was there. The silence was oppressive. Deafening. Torturous. The only thing he had left were the bright glowing points of the two siblings. The one in his hands. And the one who had done this to him. He pawed uselessly at the boy's neck. He should kill him. He should kill him. But if he kille him. If he killed them both. This would be it. Just him nd the silence forever. Forever. The silence. The silence. The –

The girl moved closer, a swirl of pity and regret. She held out her hand and the boy took it. Hisashi lt it happen. Let it –

"Don't," he croaked. Mouth barely parting for the words. He could barely hear it. Not over the sound of the silence. "don't leave. don't leave. Don't leave."

They were hand in hand. Walking away. They were walking away. They were leaving. The two last spots of light in the fog and the dark and the silence were leaving.

"Don't leave." Hisashi said. To nobody at all.

Xxx

"Izuku!" Katsuki yelled, sprinting down the corridors. They were empty, everyone was already out front and fighting. There was no one to see him running through the corridors and screaming. And if there were e would explode their mother f –

"Bakugou!" Round Face shouted, sprinting to keep up with him and trailing behind. They were all trailing behind. Well. Half and Half was only a step behind him. But the girls were further back. And Glasses had stayed with them. Shouting about how they should stick together all the while. Katsuki didn't listen, skidding as he turned another corner.

There was an open door at the end of the corridor, and Katsuki saw a glimmer of green. He sparked an explosion in his palms, using it to push himself faster as he pushed himself to his limits, bursting through the doorway neck and neck with the Candy-Cane Freak.

The bald psycho that All Might had told them about was huddled on the floor, curled up like a child with his hands curled around is head and keening, keening like a child. A mindless, wordless noise that shuddered through him as he rocked back and forth.

"What the –" Candy Cane breathed, sliding to a stop and staring and the mess of the man.

Katsuki wasn't paying attention to that. Clutching each other, leaning over him, auntie Inko and Deku were clutching each other, sobbing as if their hearts were going to break.

"Auntie," Katsuki stuttered. He had expected a lot of things. He hadn't expected tears. Stupid really. He knew what Deku was like. "Izuku, are you alright?"

"Katsuki?" Auntie said, tilting her head up. He couldn't see her face behind the mask but he knew what auntie sounded like when she cried. Her voice was still thick and wobbly. "Shouto? What are you doing here?"

"Are you okay?" Katsuki asked again instead of answering.

"Yes," Auntie said, tucking an errant strand of green hair up beneath her wig just before Froggy, Glasses and Round Face skidded in.

"Midoriya!"

"Deku!"

"Midoriya, you are – ah!" Glasses chopped his hands through the air. "You are the vigilante from the USJ incident. I remember. You were described quite clearly."

"Shut up, glasses," Katsuki snapped, shoving him back and deciding to ignore the moaning villain on the floor in favour of more pressing matters. "Auntie, Deku, we need to get out of here. There are heroes outside. If you did this, we can't be caught here. They'll find out. They'll take Izuku to hospital and they'll find out."

"Find out what?" Round Face asked. "Is this about the spaceship?"

Katsuki winced and Izuku gave him a watery smile.

"Let me guess," he said. "You were in the house when I tried to summon the TARDIS."

Katsuki groaned, slapping his hand against his forehead. "We were in the damn ship."

Izuku gave a wobbly laugh, his eyes flicking over Candy cane and Glasses. "I did wonder when hospital pyjamas became the standard for rescue missions."

Glasses looked down and gave a loud yelp as he realised that he had been running around in the same clothes from the hospital. He started saying something but Katuski ignored it as a loud boom came from near the front of the building.

"We really should get going."

"Yes," Auntie said, lowering her masked face. "We should leave. Here." She handed Izuku something, a clock…hanging from a chain? "I managed to get a little more juice out of it. It should last long enough to get you through a hospital visit."

Katsuki wrinkled his nose. "What? no! The whole point of this is that he doesn't go to hospital." He shot a glance at the others. "People are going to figure 'it' out."

Izuku shook his head. "I think they'll figure some things out a lot faster if I'm mysteriously not kidnapped the next time they see me." He slid the chain over his neck and Katsuki blinked as he felt his eyes slide right past it. He knew it was there. He just…didn't want to look at it?

"Leaving aside, the issue of what people should and shouldn't know," Auntie said pointedly, and even behind the mask Katsuki could feel the full force of her parental glare. "We need to go."

She rolled the villain onto his side, into a more comfortable position. He was still keening, still sobbing, and her hand lingered regretfully on his shoulders as she pulled away. There was a splintered table in the centre of the room and Katsuki recognised Izuku's coat and a few chem-sticks amongst the rubble before Inko's back blocked it out. She scooped up everything on the floor that was Izuku's and secreted them into pockets that were way too small for them to fit. Then she turned around and clapped her hands.

"Right," she said, her white mask exuding determination. "Let's get you back to the hospital, and you back to your cell. We'll meet up in the hospital and then we," her masked gaze lingered on Katsuki and the stowaways. Katsuki cringed, trying to hide the movement by shoving his hands into his pockets. "we need to have a talk."