Shigaraki froze. "You...what...?"

He knew it already, but to hear it said like that...

"Of course she thought I'd go after her family," AFO said, in the same cold tone. "I hated anyone who has to do with OFA--and she was right, I would have... Her stupid husband died anyway, I didn't know about her son till later, but she was right to think I'd have gone after him...but in the end, foster care didn't save him, did it?" He laughed dryly. "He never forgave his mother for that...perhaps it runs the in the family. All Might made it so easy to take over there...Why if she knew what I turned her grandson into, she'd be furious...it was so much fun, really...you were the most promising of my creations."

Shigaraki didn't understand. "Your...creations?"

"I really thought you would do it, you would carry on my legacy," AFO said. "The perfect person, to understand...well perhaps it is not your fault entirely. They corrupted you, then took you from me! And they will pay, oh they will pay most dearly, I assure you. I will take every student they have from them. I will take their friends, their life's work, and once it's all gone, they can die too. I will treat them as I would have All Might. Since they chose to protect his own. I thought you would come back to me, but you chose them. Even now, I see, you intend to go back to them, don't you? Either with or without me."

"Only to save you," Shigaraki said.

"You, save me?" AFO scoffed. "Like I would ever need you help. Get it into you head, I am here of my own free will, as I wished it to be, and I will stay here. Nothing you say to me could probably sway me in any direction. I do not let my pawns make choices for me."

Shigaraki was now too stunned to speak.

"It's a real shame," AFO said. "I did have such high hopes for you...the look I wanted to see on All Might's face. Btu this will work too. In the afterlife..."

Shigaraki stepped back. "Are you...threatening me?" He said, in total shock.

"No, this is no threat," AFO said. "This is farewell." He stretched out his hand. "Lend me your power, now."

He was not speaking to Shigaraki, as it turned out.

Shadows seemed to rise up from the cracks in the ground, and shaking it.

Shigaraki fell back onto it, not having the resolve to even run for it, at the moment.

"What...what are you..." he sputtered.

Kali appeared out of the background.

"Nice," she said. "I mean, I was listening, and that was so harsh, it almost brought a tear to my eye," she faced Shigaraki coldly. "But why didn't you go a step farther? Tell him the part where he was just your tool the whole time, and you didn't really care about him or what he wanted...or, wait, tell him the part where you set up his girlfriend and that DJ to die, and it wasn't Ujiko's idea, it was yours--or tell him where you let Lethe take his memory so that he'd kill all his league and reaffirm just what kind of monster he was, the whole time,"

AFO turned to her coldly.

"I love that part," Kali put hand to her heart. "It's so conniving. One of the best, AFO."

"I was saving all that for later," AFO said. "But you can't control yourself, obviously."

Shigaraki was rendered totally speechless.

"I gotta be me," Kali said. "But my favorite part, by far," she smirked evilly. "Is how you taught him to hate All Might, and love you, but you never really were ever going to let him have his way...you hated him just as you hate them all, all those linked to OFA, because of you're rebellious brother...it was nothing but a lie the whole time, was it?"

"Quiet girl," AFO suddenly grabbed her by her head. Kali stopped talking, surprised.

"It's all of a piece," AFO said, cold as Ender himself.

Ender appeared behind him, but he did not move to help Kali.

"Master..." Kali said.

"Master!" Shigaraki yelled, "What is all this, she's lying, right?"

AFO sighed, such a woeful  sigh. "It was my wish that this was never going to come out, until we had already won...it's such a waste."

"These things happen," Ender said.

"He's controlling you," Shigaraki said. "He has been--"

"I'm not controlling him," Ender said. "Ask that woman, we can't force people to do things, Tenko Shimura, we can only aid them in doing it, did she not tell you that?"

Shigaraki gasped.

"But I will be glad to aid him," Ender said. "In destroying a failure, once and for all."

AFO tightened his grip on Kali. "And I have the perfect way to do it."

"Master," Kali said. "What is this?" She struggled. "I thought...you were giving me a chance to finish, to get what I wanted, you promised I would."

"And so you will, Kali," Ender said. "You were my first friend, you know, I am forever in your debt for that...AFO will use you to accomplish what you wished, never fear. A little part of you will be in all we do."

AFO made some kind of move, and Kali started to gasp, and then she seemed to change...her quirk must have been gone.

AFO exhaled and black dust came out...

"With my help, we should avoid any effect on ourselves," Ender said.

The black stuff swirled around Kali.

"With her quirk she'll be no different than anyone else," Ender said. "But Kali, this is a learning experience, the last one...you will find out what you put everyone else through."

Kali started to choke. "You..." she spat, "You b-----d!" She tried to swing at Ender, but he stepped out of the way.

Kali collapsed.

Shigaraki couldn't believe what he was seeing. He hated Kali as much as anyone else, but Ender was her master, and she was loyal to him, and he was just going to allow her to die?

"One final thought," Ender said, put a hand on AFO's arm. "We'll hide it."

The black dust seemed to form into something...

Was it a hand?

Shigaraki was not sure exactly what happened next.

It was like that hand shot forward and latched onto him, over his face. And it felt real...the sick feeling came with it.

At the same time, black dust was settling and things were contorting, and it was settling on him also.

"This fool will be able to pass to them," Ender was saying, distantly. "Trust me, in the end he will serve you purpose. It's fitting, is it not? They will not be blocking him. Perfect is it not? This is just the beginning of what we can do, AFO."

"Yes," AFO said. "But it is still a shame." He turned his back. "That this is the last use for him."

Shigaraki tried to speak but couldn't find any words.

The black shadows seemed to close in around him.

* * *

The group reconvened at Endeavor's agency very quickly, Shine and Wally took them there. Shine was able to portal there, she was right, the block was temporary.

They were about 20 minutes into organizing themselves, Eri was waiting in the coffee room with Mabui, who was doing the paperwork for the overnight.

Heroes were kind of short staffed at the moment, with the uprise in crime, and it was shockingly easy for Endeavor to get the go ahead with a few phone calls.

It was less easy to convince Endeavor the kids should really be involved, when he heard the threat level.

He was till saying it was a bad idea even now.

Aizawa really agreed, but the kids were the only ones other than the handful of Pros here, who knew what was going on enough to help.

Mirko stayed out of it, she was just walking around, restless.

Hawks showed up not too long into it, to hear about it all.

"So this is where all this leads, huh," he said. "When are we gonna face this guy head on."

"When we know more," Shine mused. "I still don't remember but I know I know the name Ender from somewhere."

"Sounds like a sci-fi movie name," Wally said, between eating snacks.

Shine looked up. "Ender...Ender's Game!" She grabbed Wally's arm. "That's it!...that's not a world walking story, is it?"

"Uh...I'd have to know what you're talking about first," Wally was confused.

"Ah, in your world it probably hasn't been made yet..." Shine mused. "Hang on, let me write a note to my siblings...."

She ran to a desk and started scribbling something.

"Huh?" Hawks said.

"She might just have got us a lead," Wally said. "I don't know what, but if it's a story, it could be real helpful. Stories are often just tweaked versions of the truth."

"No kidding?" Hawks said. "So somewhere, our lives could be a tweaked story, is that what you're saying."

"I bet they are," Wally said. "But the truth is usually either more, or less, depressing than the story, depending on the case."

"This one is looking to be more depressing," Hawks said. "I'd edit out a lot, anyway."

Wally shrugged. "But what was the original going to be? That's what we don't know, man."

***

Mirko saw Medea standing outside one office, leaning on the wall.

"You okay?" She said dully.

"Uhh, yeah," Medea said. "Lethe and Yin freaked out about being moved...I think they're okay now...Monama filled me in too, I heard that it was a teenager who warned bossman...I feel bad for her, you think she's maybe sorry she's in that group."

"If she is, she'll be more sorry soon," Mirko said.

Medea sighed. "Well...yeah,,..and bossman left again...it's...just not right." She looked up. "So are you okay?"

"Eh, you know me," Mirko said. 

"So that would be a no," Medea said with a straight face.

Mirko's ears went down. "Well, I'll be more okay if he actually comes back."

She always thought it was funny she said that right before something weird happened.

Medea looked up. "Did the room just get darker?"

Mirko looked around, the lights did seem dim, but then this agency was always dark.

"I don't know..."

Medea stood up straight. "I feel weird...prickly" She touched her arm. "It's...like when Lethe was attacked---they're here, Lethe!" She ran into the office.

In here it was full of cubicles, Endeavor's staff had spots to file things in here, but they weren't in use right now, it was a relic of when things were more analog and less digital, back when the agency was first opened. Right now it was being used as a room to keep people in who needed to rest.

Mirko followed Medea into it.

Medea was with Lethe and Yin, who were up, and gasping.

"Help me," she said.

Mirko plucked Yin up and bounded out of the room, the darkness wasn't following her this time, it was just...congealing.

She dropped Yin in the outer hall, and turned back, determined to see what this was.

Medea was running out with Lethe, but she tripped.

Mirko ran and helped them up.

Then they all saw the source.

Someone appeared out of the shadows in the far end of the room, by a window, that was covered up mostly.

It took a second to recognize it, Shigaraki!!!

"Bossman?" Medea said.

Shigaraki seemed to be in some shock as he didn't move...

There was black dust swirling around him, though. What was it? It was settling, sticking to things, to him, the room, the floor...Mirko's eyes narrow, the floor was corroding...

"Something wrong," she said, "Medea, quick, get out of here, warn the others."

"Lethe," Medea said.

"I'll take them," Mirko snatched them up, Lethe was kicking at her wildly. "It's him!"

Yin moaned from the hallways.

"Go Medea," Mirko said, bound over to Yin and then running.

As she went she thought...what's going on?

She only took the boys to the end of the hall before she stopped, because she felt like something horrible was happening.

Ender sent him back, she thought. Ender would only do that if he had a bad reason...

She dropped the boys and ran back.

* * *

Medea used her fire to phase through enough floors to find Shine still talking to Wally, Aizawa, and Midnight.

"Bossman just appeared, upstairs," she gasped. "Offices...Something's wrong with him..."

Shine's eyes gleamed, "I feel it..." she looked up. "I didn't notice for a moment...but...it's dark."

Wally shuddered. "I sense something too."

"Uh..." Aizawa said, "I'm not like you, but even I just felt a chill."

All over the kids started to look around.

"Everyone get outside," Wally yelled. "Shine, don't do anything crazy."

"I have to help him, Wally," Shine ran and opened a portal, it actually worked, she dashed through.

Medea almost did too, but Wally stopped her. "No kid you'll just get hurt...tell me what else you saw up there."

"Black dust." Medea said.

"Kali!" Camie yelled. "Mr. West, she's used her flipping quirk on scary man!"

"On him..." Wally's eyes got huge. "That would...it could bring this whole place down."

"Uh..." Miss Joke suddenly pointed. The color saturation in the ceiling was changing.

"I think it is," Aizawa raced for Eri.

"Iida, run," Wally yelled, grabbing as many people as he could carry.

Iida grabbed Kaminari and Jiro.

Ibara used her vines to snatch most of the teachers and students who Wally didn't grab, and shoved them out the doors, as she ran herself.

***

Mirko skidded to stop in the doorway, the floor under her feet was changing color...or was it draining of color?

"Shigaraki?" She yelled. "What's going on."

She peered through the door, trying not to step on the discolored floor, but the patches of it were getting bigger by the split second.

Shine appeared next to her suddenly, eyes gleaming.

"Oh my sweet cheese and crackers..." she said a very weird line.

They both could see Shigaraki inside, but he seemed unable to move himself from the spot he was in, all around him the room was decaying, but not normally, it was contorting and warping first, before turning to dust...the dust was black.

The floor was cracking too, after turning the wrong shade.

That's not going to last for long," Shine muttered.

"Look..." Mirko's ear were straight back. "It's hurting him."

Shine zeroed in on Shigaraki's actual person.

[Sketches by Onerose]

She almost was sick...the dust was causing his skin to corrupt too, and peel, and crack open.

It would kill him if it got much worse, Shine realized. If it got deeper than just the surface.

The floor gave away under him right then, before they could do anything, and it almost gave away under them, but Shine yanked Mirko back, and the ground under her feet seemed to solidify a bit.

Shigaraki fell through the hole that was under him, and hit the floor below. Luckily, no one was there either.

The decay was still spreading  even in this room, and now it spread more down there...but it was all over...

Shine's world walking honed sense, took it in almost in slow motion as she began to see what happened.

Someone had corrupted his quirk, Kali no doubt...and had accelerated it also, either through the corruption, or as another method in order to do this.

The dust was filtering their way too.

Mirko got up. "Someone has to help him."

"Rumi, don't touch it!" Shine yelled, but Mirko didn't listen, she jumped down the hole after him.

"Don't touch me!" Shigaraki finally found words, though his voice sounded very hoarse, like the dust was affecting that too--or he was just really really upset. He looked terrified, behind the deformities.

[Image was created by Onerose and edited by me. Haunting, isn't it?]

Shine drew her sword...

Mirko got close enough to try to help. She was clearly very upset herself. She reached out.

She didn't even get that close before the dust stuff settled on her hands...

She yelped suddenly, as the corrosion started to reach her.

Shine wanted to scream and cry and panic. She felt it coming up her throat... This was too much. It was too late. Ender...this man...not even a man, really...he'd...sent this...to kill them... She couldn't stop it... She was too weak...

"Stop it!" a voice said in her mind. 

Shine fell onto her knees. "I can't..." she whispered...

But she held out her sword.

"Lord, you can," she said, her voice barely coming out. "Please...stop this...now.... A miracle... If you don't, we can't...survive..."

A dreadful moment of waiting as she wondered if this was the time she wasn't going to get an answer. Was this it? Martyrdom it was, after all.

But that was just so unfair to them!

"No!" she yelled. "Stop! I command you to stop! In the name of my God..."

She felt something like fire pass over her, as the black stuff was settling on her also, and the black dust seemed to melt away like snow.

She plunged her sword into the floor itself. The fire seemed to go out from her hands, through the blade and into the ground.

She fell through it to the next floor, but somehow the fall didn't hurt.

Mirko was stumbling back, trying to brush off her hands wildly.

Shine reached out and grabbed her by the arm. For once her being so much shorter was a plus.

Mirko stopped struggling and gasped...then she sank to her knees also.

Over the floor, the black dust was melting away...in kind of a circle, as Shine's sword throbbed light...

Shine wasn't even controlling it anymore, she was just a conduit for it.

Shine really had no idea what was happening, but she felt like she should move, so she stumbled up and raced toward Shigaraki, who was already collapsed.

She grabbed him by the hands, of all things, which should have killed her at once, but instead, the dust pulled away from them also and seemed to fall off him like powder.

The decay in the room stopped.

The building stopped rattling. They hadn't even realized it had been weakening until it stopped, because it had been moving so subtly.

Mirko gasped, this time in shock. "Did... Was that going to come down on us... Ah..." She looked at her hands... "SOB..."

The floor snapped under them, and they all fell the rest of the way to the bottom floor.

Luckily it was only about an 10-foot drop, so Shine could survive it even without the resilience of a quirk, plus she had a chunk of floor under her to break the fall, but she still was sent sprawling up against the wall.

Mirko bounded up to avoid it.

Shigaraki didn't move at all.

Wally was racing back in. "I'm coming, honey-- Oh..." He rushed up to Shine and helped her up. "Are you okay?"

"He did it," Shine said weakly. "The Lord... I don't even know what just happened, Wally. It was horrible, but...it stopped..."

Mirko stumbled to her feet and raced over to Shigaraki.

He appeared to have fallen unconscious after that.

"Oh man, he looks awful," Wally said.

"Wally, quick, get...the kids...the healers..." Shine said. "I don't think I have any strength left after that...I inhaled some of that." She coughed.

"I'll be right back for you." Wally sat her down and ran back outside.

* * *

"What in the h--- is going on?" Dabi was watching the outside of the building as it changed color and then they heard cracking and crashing.

Mabui grabbed his arm in fright. "It's destroying it... I can feel such darkness, evil...from there."

Eri was crying. Aizawa was holding her. Miss Joke was trying to calm her down also.

The kids were praying or else just watching in fear.

Endeavor was dead silent.

Midnight was huddling on the curb.

But a few minutes later, Wally came dashing out.

"Healers," he yelled, "come on, it's okay. Shine stopped the decay, but she's totally wasted...and Shigaraki, I think he might be dying."

"What?" Dabi said running inside. Mabui and Momo followed him--Shoto too.

The others came to the doorway but were a little wary of entering.

Mirko looked up, eyes huge with fear. "It... his own quirk...it was destroying him." She was shaking.

"Here." Mabui grabbed her and put an arm around her comfortingly. "Let them help."

Momo knelt down, hand out. 

"I think he's still alive." Dabi was checking him over. "He looks bad, but I don't think the damage is too deep, but he'll bleed out or something if we don't heal him like right now... Princess, don't lose faith now."

"Shh, let me concentrate," Momo said. "I mean, it's not based on that, but if I start to think about how impossible it is, it's no good."

Dabi put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, you got this. We've seen worse than this."

"Yes." Shoto knelt down next to her. "He'll help you, just watch."

Momo nodded and began to murmur.

"Oh, gosh." Camie covered her face in the doorway. Bakugo awkwardly put an arm around her, and she started to sniffle. "Please, God..."

Everyone was listening, hoping this would work...

Mirko looked over. "You'd better not be dead," she said angrily. "If you're dead, I'll kill you, you hear me?"

"Just how do you think you'll accomplish that, Bunny Girl?" Dabi asked.

Mabui shot him a dirty look.

"Sorry...just...trying to lighten the mood," he said shamefacedly.

Momo closed her eyes.

Wally helped Shine up, then he came over and joined the others. "Come on," he said, "let him be okay... We've come too far for this."

https://youtu.be/IF-g1QiZOaY

The silence was terrible.

It was really only about half a minute, but it felt like hours to them all, before Momo opened her eyes and glanced upward, like she was hoping for some sign, before looking down.

Then to her great relief, she saw that the wounds and the cracks were closing, quite rapidly...

The dust was completely gone now...

Mabui let out a sigh of relief, and Dabi sat back, kind of shaky now.

In about a minute, there was no trace of any injury on Shigaraki's person. He was still out...but Momo said she thought it was the shock, not the injuries.

Mirko burst into tears, but she wasn't the only one. No one made fun of her. Half the girls were crying and a few of the guys.

Shigaraki wasn't a great favorite of the Heroes, but that had been so horrible, so inhuman, to see, that it being stopped and reversed was enough to get them all emotional.

Eri was finally persuaded to stop crying when she heard that it was all okay.

"Well..." Hawks said awkwardly, "so...you all gonna need a place to crash?"

* * *

Hawks' agency was the last place anyone thought they'd end up--but staying put was out of the question.

Endeavor was becoming resigned to his agency being targeted... He said at least no one was inside it this time, and no one had died, and that was as much as he could hope for.

"But I'll be out of a job," Mabui said.

"Nah, you can work mobile till we get it fixed," Endeavor said. "You have a phone."

"Actually I don't," Mabui said.

"We'll take care of that tomorrow," Endeavor said. "Crime won't stop just because our agency is destroyed."

"Hey, we can't tell anyone it was Shigaraki," Hawks said. "I mean...seeing as how it wasn't exactly on purpose, seems wrong to run the guy in for it."

"A far as I'm concerned, it was the fault of whoever sent him, and I don't care about anything besides finding them and making them pay for it," Endeavor said darkly.

Mirko glanced over at them, somewhat surprised.

Hawks came up and awkwardly put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey...I heard all about it... Look, I know it's late to say this, but I was wrong, okay? I was wrong about him. He's trying to be a good guy now...just has a lousy master... I guess that means nothing at this point, but I really...I am sorry, and I'm glad they saved him."

Mirko looked down at her hands, which were still damaged. "Yeah...well...it takes you forever to get an idea through that thick skull of yours, Hawks," she said, kind of hoarsely.

But Hawks knew she was going to be okay.

"You know me," he said weakly. "Bird brained."

"I'll forget about your idiocy if you get me some carrots," Mirko said. "I feel like I got run over, hung out to dry, and then run over again...like roadkill."

"Ew...but, yeah, we should probably go shopping..." Hawks eyed the huge amount of people in his agency. "It's weird how easy it was to convince everyone to leave for the day. They just said 'half day!' and ran for it."

Wally came up to Shine. "I got him settled, but he's still not waking up...he doesn't' seem hurt, so..."

"His mind maybe," Shine mused.

"I don't know, it's kind of odd, isn't it?" Wally said. "Just from that...we don't know what they did to him, but we kind of need to...I just think maybe you guys could try again."

Shine sighed and headed back.

Momo came too.

"I can't find any other sign of injury," she said. 

"He always looks sick," Dabi said helpfully. "So it's hard to tell."

Shine stared at Shigaraki hard.

"Well...given that it was  a Dark Walker...hmm...Wally can you fetch Camie in here?"

Wally left and came back with Camie.

"Yo, I am not good with medical drama," Camie said nervously.

"You saw Kali hiding in the shadows before," Shine said. "Just...take a look."

Camie uncovered her eyes and took a look at Shigaraki.

"Well, I dunno what's wrong with him," she said. "But like, why not take that ugly hand thing off his face? That's gonna make it majorly hard to help, isn't it?"

They looked at her oddly.

"What hand?" Dabi asked.

"Uh, the black ugly one," Camie said. "Duh...I thought they were blue before..."

"More like a gross yellowish--nevermind," Dabi said. "There's no hand there."

"Perhaps he hid it," Shine said. "Camie if you would come and point it out for me."

"You sure you're okay, Shine?" Wally said.

"Well, if I'm not you step in," Shine said.

Mirko and Midnight peered in. Midnight probably just out of curiosity.

"What's going on?" she asked.

Camie came up and pointed right to the same spot where the old hands used to be. "It's like, really visible." She said.

"Is that why he hasn't woken up?" Momo asked nervously. "The enemy can hide attacks now?"

"It's no surprise," Shine pulled out her sword. "But it should be simple." Her eyes lit up. "Ah...I can kind of sense something now...I think it was hidden so we would be able to sense it more than see it...because...ugh...this might be more the source of it than the dust was..."

She sliced her sword, which to everyone else looked like she almost cut his nose off.

Mirko jumped, and Midnight winced.

"Ew," Camie said. "It's like...dissolving..." she waved her hands in a grossed out way. "Yuck, no one else sees that?"

Momo and Dabi looked. "I see something now," Dabi said, "just shadows... But look, it's fading out."

And it was gone a moment later.

Shine drew a deep breath. "That...took a lot more strength than I thought it would..." She fell back. Wally caught her. "I really could have done it."

"Next time I'll let you do it," Shine muttered. "Too much excitement for one day, I think..."

"That was just weird..." Midnight said, creeped out.

"So...they can invisibly attack us now," Mirko said in a faint tone. "Wow...perfect..." Suddenly she slumped like she'd lost all her strength.

"Oh dear," Midnight said, trying to catch her. "Wow, she's a lot heavier than she looks...all muscle, no doubt."

"Oh my." Momo came up. "After Akume's attack, and all the other shocks, she's just had too much, I think."

"Well, good, I thought she was tougher than this," Midnight said.

Momo helped her support Mirko. "Normally yes, but right now.... Maybe some tea would help."

Mirko blinked. "I think my pulse is pounding again... This is not like me..."

"Side effects," Shine muttered. "I need to rest too..."

"And if she's saying she does," Dabi said, "it's for real. Hey, we'll keep an eye on these other idiots, just go lay down."

"Yeah." Camie shooed Shine and Wally out. "Take like, 5, and I mean 5 hours."

"Thanks kids," Wally said.

https://youtu.be/bXxLkWsWENU