~O~

There was a strange fog clogging his mind, it felt as if he just woke up after a very long, long sleep. It reminded him of that one time Recovery Girl had him on some strong anesthetics after he had gotten severely injured in a training exercise, injured enough to the point the pain successfully brought tears in his eyes and made him agree that, yes, it did indeed hurt and it hurt a lot. What he was feeling was quite similar to when he had woken up after that drug induced sleep.

Wait, did that mean he got hurt again? Oh no, that was bad. That was very very bad. He definitely did not feel any pain but when had he ever if we were to go by that. Recovery Girl and Aizawa would both kill him if he got hurt like that again, regardless of whether or not he was feeling the pain. Okay, okay, deep breaths. Optimism time; maybe he just overslept and a drug induced sleep probably had the same after effects of oversleeping. No wait, he wasn't going to fool anyone with that explanation. Least of all himself when he knew just how stupid of an excuse that sounded to be. So, what was the next course of action?

Soon his initially blurry vision began to clear out gradually and he was able to see his surroundings better. There was a screen in front of him, everything else was pretty much dark. But where was he? This place was neither his dorm room nor the infirmary — to which, thank god. He rubbed at his emerald green eyes before letting out a groan. His head was beginning to hurt, what was going on? The slight headache soon evolved into a migraine and his eyes could no longer tolerate the light coming through the screen. He shut close the laptop sitting in front of him without a second thought in one frustrated attempt and began to look around a bit more without moving from his sitting position on the floor.

Undoubtedly, he didn't recognize the place. From what he gathered, it was a building. A big building. He was probably in its lobby or something, hiding in a corner for some reason with a computer. But why? What was the reason? Was someone after him? A villain attack? Did he sleep walk his way here? Was this a kidnapping? Did he sleep while working on an assignment? Had he finally lost it? Midoriya concluded that he might actually lose it if he kept asking himself questions he did not know the answers of. Stupid brain, think of useful things, tch.

Ignoring the sudden icy feeling crawling up the back of his neck, the green haired boy opened the laptop again. Searching its contents was one of the fastest ways to figure out what was happening here. The screen brightens up again and the sudden light almost made the boy hiss in annoyance before he realized that he could potentially be in an enemy's range and hissing at a computer didn't sound like a very smart way to give your location away.

The clock on the task bar suggested it was late, like four in the morning very late. His network connection suggested he was still in UA, good to know. Lastly, the main window suggested he was a hacker or something. Weird... Before he could think of anything else, darkness shrouded his vision and he fell unconscious. Was it truly unconsciousness though? He didn't know.

The next time he opened his eyes everything seemed normal. He woke up in his room, the day went as normal as it could with him and there was not a single instance that could prove that last night actually even happened. Perhaps, it had been one of his dreams.

It wasn't.

It happened again. The green haired boy woke up — or gained control of his consciousness in the middle of the forest that surrounded UA. Darkness was all over him before he could realize anything else. He woke up in his bed the very next day, no one had consulted him of any strange behavior from him so he noted down two possibilities; his dreams were getting weirder or no one saw him in the hours those events took place if they were real. It happened a few more times, Midoriya started keeping a new journal for them. Writing down everything he could remember.

Nothing strange happened for days once the first page was filled with those little foggy memories but soon he found that the journal he was keeping was no longer there. He had no memories of a 'dream' last night, he always got at least something but not that day for some reason. Nobody knew of the new journal, he didn't bring it with him anywhere unlike the one for quirk analysis. It always stayed underneath his pillow and nobody came in his room without him knowing. That meant he himself was the only one who was responsible for the journal's sudden disappearance.

'Jokes on you my mystery journal robber self, I keep a copy of all of my notes,' Midoriya thought as he pulled out another journal from his yellow backpack and began writing.

There was a pattern in those events. He knew it. He just couldn't narrow it down to what it exactly was. But he would be blind not to notice something was seriously wrong. He started pulling all nighters, there couldn't be any 'dreams' if he didn't sleep to begin with. That might give him a clearer view of things. He started training more in his room, completing assignments midnight, taking small quick naps during the day. Nothing big happened for a while.

Last Sunday night, he made a mistake and dozed off. But could one really call it a mistake since it was what actually paved the path for him to realize what was truly happening? Of course, it didn't come all at once. But it was enough for him to realize it. With the help of his journal, he managed to keep a fine record of all the 'dreams' he had and with that one, on that Sunday night, it had hit him.

He was betraying UA.

He was sending information to the League, directly to All For One.

All For One was in his head, controlling him like a mindless puppet.

He found himself in Ground Beta that night, it was past three in the morning and just like the first 'dream', he had the computer and everything connected to UA's system. He forced himself with every last bit of strength in his body to stay awake, to let anyone get control of his head again, to keep his eyes open long enough to know what exactly was he doing. He did, he managed to do it somehow. But it wasn't too long before All For One took over again, supposedly. He didn't yet have a real confirmation for that.

Apparently, he was transferring files to Nezu's computer that had been sent to him by an unknown person. He quietly thanked Kacchan for pulling him along in those tracking and coding classes a few years ago saying these exact words, "Real heroes don't need some shitty extras to do this kind of thing for them, they do it themselves." And then he proceeded to call Midoriya a nerd. Which, okay fair, but he green head hoped he would soon realize that he was also just as big of a nerd.

Nevermind, he went a bit off topic. The boy began to work on the unknown person who had sent him the files. Surprisingly it didn't take long for him to confirm it was indeed the League and as far as his observations went — which went very far — he was right in thinking All For One was controlling his actions... Which was becoming to sound more and more concerning by the second. But he couldn't waste his time here thinking about all that. For all he knew this chance might never cone again.

He read every last word in those files thoroughly, all of the villain's plans and jotted down as much information as he could in his head — shame he didn't have his notebook on him. Midoriya cracked his knuckles and began to type in a different window. The files were being sent directly to Nezu. Nezu knew about One For All too which meant he didn't necessarily have to worry about his position as All Might's successor being revealed, for all he knew All For One could be controlling him through One For All. But just in case, he took precautions and coded his already coded message a bit more. He stopped the transfer at once, opened the files and pasted his own at the end of it. Then he resumed the transfer. Part of him cursed at himself that he wasn't sending the message across right but his head was already beginning to hurt, his eyes heavy and breathing was becoming hard. The villain was trying to get in again.

He did but not before the files were fully sent.

~O~

Midoriya quite expectedly woke up late next morning but still managed to get to class before his homeroom teacher luckily. He didn't need twenty extra laps around the campus on top of everything.

"... There is a traitor," If it wasn't for the fact that Aizawa was explaining their upcoming training session, the green head might have jumped out of his skin at the sudden claim. How wonderful was his luck? He just found out he was the UA traitor and the very next day; traitor hunt! Just what he needed...

Although, he had Bakugou on his team. Someone who knew about One For All, someone who could understand his situation. But he couldn't just straight up tell him that he was the traitor, the real traitor. Aizawa had specified that they were looking for a faux traitor but Midoriya being one step away from figuring out everything knew better. The first case was quite similar to his last night's 'dream' — was it even right to call it a dream anymore when he confirmed that he was being controlled in those periods?

He needed to play his cards right or else it was over for him before he could even get a chance to free himself of All For One's control.

So, Midoriya took his team back to the dorms. Aoyama and Kirishima wouldn't be much problem if he used his words right so he just needed to lay it out for the ash blonde that this wasn't just an exercise, the traitor wasn't some extra and things could go out of hand very easily. Thankfully, over the years the ash blonde got used to the boy's intense mumbling so he understood then and there in the middle of Ground Beta on the first day that something was wrong and got the idea that they needed to talk about it somewhere away from prying eyes: their dorms. Funny how he had said, "I never wanna hear your traitor theories again, fuck off!!" As if it was something blasphemous he was mumbling about, heh.

"You see, Kirishima," He had hid his distress behind a nonchalant smile, he was subtly giving himself away after all. He hoped he got the message across to his childhood friend with his next words, "The core of this hunt is; watch who you trust." It's me. Be careful, he's controlling me...

He dropped more hints afterwards, how he addressed the traitor as a 'he' and how he made the others believe it was a 'student'. He didn't manage to get anything out of Bakugou other than, "How do you plan to find someone who's not even hiding?" And boy, was there a lot of ways that could be interpreted as. It could be seen as a reassurance of sorts. How the teachers wouldn't be able to find you if you don't even know you're the traitor or they haven't yet caught you because of your obliviousness. But that was just his mind speaking, what it most ikey meant was that Bakugou figured there was something big behind the exercise, the green head most likely knew who was the rat and he needed to be on guard but he didn't know the traitor was right in front of him.

He didn't yet know it was Midoriya.

That was fine, it wasn't like the green head had specified it was him either. He just said it was a male student, in their class. It was fine, they'd get there. Soon, hopefully.

The rest of the day went by and Midoriya didn't drop any other hints, he focused on the faux traitor like his classmates for a while. Though he was a bit distracted on the field but he managed to get a grip on himself when school was over.

Then it happened at night, hours after the blackout.

Midoriya didn't come to his senses in the midst of that one of his 'dreams' — 'Note to self, get a better name for it.' He woke up perfectly fine, in a good mood and everything. That was until his feet hit the carpeted floor.

Blood oozed out from where his pinky toe was supposed to be, the way his flesh and bone poked out from the abused skin made his stomach churn in horror and disgust. The pain he had expected of a severed appendage never followed. Instead, his entire foot decided to remain numb to everything. Funny, he thought he would feel happy if his most hated appendage was gone but All For One being involved only sent panic through his body. It wasn't until he began to search for his first aid kit when he realized a bloody knife was clutched tightly in his scarred hand.

With a first aid kit in one hand and the knife in another, Midoriya couldn't get himself to move for a good few minutes. Panic overrode his system, his breathing became uneven and cold sweat began to line his forehead. What was he doing? What the hell was he doing? What had he already done? Was it just himself  — What if he had harmed someone else too?

'No... No, no, no, no. Stupid brain. What did I tell you about thinking of negative alternatives all the time? Dummy. Think of what to do now!' The green haired boy scolded himself as he wiped the sweat off his forehead and began to take in deep and slow breaths to calm his nerves.

Midoriya buried the knife deep into his closet for the time being, 'It surely has my fingerprints... I need to remove them before someone finds it.' He shut close the closet and hopped to his bed with the first aid kit in hand. With impulsive and irregular movements of his hands, he made haste to stop the bleeding and bandage the wound. Sloppy work, but it would suffice for now. 'I can do it later... I can remove them later. I've made a lot of noise, someone definitely knows I'm awake. They know I don't stay in my room long after waking up. I need to catch up to my routine as to not look suspicious.' He thought as he stuffed the kit underneath his bed, quickly put on a pair of socks, did a few stretches and left the room.

It was in the middle of the hallway when he had felt the anxiety and panic coming back to him but he was quick to brush it off. He needed to look fine in front of his classmates after all.

Still, the third case broke him, something inside snapped immediately.

Did he ruin the room? Did he fight a villain in the room? Or did he fight himself? Was he even responsible for the destruction there? Or did Nezu do it? That was undeniably his appendage Aoyama found but why? Why was it there? Why did he severe it? Why? Why? Why? Was he truly even the traitor or was someone just playing with his head and this was just a harmless exercise?

It was a miracle he managed not to freak out in front of everyone because he didn't know what was happening anymore.

He even slipped and said it was the traitor's, 'Idiot! What are you doing?! You can't just tell them that! There are a million different people it could've been of!'

He didn't do anything remotely useful during day three because what was even the point? He couldn't care less about the fake traitor when he basically gave himself out in front of everyone. The entire purpose of him being subtle and deliberate was because he wanted either Bakugou or Nezu to pick up what the real problem was but now, thanks to him, it was all gone down the drain.

(It wasn't. Everything was fine. It was just the anxiety and fear speaking. He could've fixed things but his head wasn't in one place anymore.)

Now what the hell was he supposed to do? There was no purpose left behind trying to drop more hints. No, he needed to end it. He needed to stop things right there. This couldn't possibly continue. They would know regardless if he did something or not. They had his appendage, his DNA. They would know it was him. He would get labeled as a traitor and what would be his excuse? Hey, sorry, a centuries old supervillain with multiple quirks had been controlling me like a puppet probably through the quirk which was passed down to me from All Might? He would get himself into a mental asylum.

So, when he arrived back at his dorm room there was only one thing left to do. Free himself from All For One's control and end this before anyone else could.

Midoriya was at war with himself in his head. His thoughts came as a massive swirl, an uncontrollable typhoon. All the while he robotically removed the fingerprints and the blood from the knife, his thoughts attacked him left and right with do this and do that. End it now or go tell someone, anyone. Who would believe you and All Might will listen, Nezu can propose better solutions than you. What if this is All For One talking and what if he hurts them when he asks for help.

In the end, he came to no proper conclusion. But the last one of his thoughts echoed in his mind till everything else blanked out and he lost track of all at once. Just that one possibility remained. All For One could hurt others through him. All For One could kill his friends and teachers through him. All For One could kill All Might and Nighteye's prediction would come true and only he would be responsible for it. What if he hurt Kacchan? Or Uraraka or Iida or Todoroki? What if he already had and Midoriya was still under his control? What if — Midoriya was just a puppet...? But that was not a 'what if'... It was true... Then— Then were all of the other 'what if's true as well?

He took in a trembling breath as he stood up from his bed,

And the boy stabbed himself in a desperate attempt to end it all.