Requested by: 

Prompt: N/a

Warnings: Little swearing.

Extra: Lot of backstory, no explicit romance, and I'm in love with this. Fun fact, I have a story concept that's a much longer version of this.

~*~

No man is created equal to his brother.

The opposite was commonly said. "We're all born equal" and all of that. But I understood the truth.

Your worth was decided by your quirk. You were born without it manifesting, born as powerless as anyone else, but the gene was present, dormant. The day your quirk manifested was the day a price was slapped above your head by society. Future hero, government work, specialized field, normal worker, worthless. It was a silent rating system a select few could prove wrong.

I was worthless.

My parents were concerned. I hadn't shown any signs of a quirk manifesting. So they took me in, expecting to be reassured that I was simply a late bloomer.

The doctor was nice. He drew my blood, took a few X-Rays, and did a normal physical. He made small talk with me and my parents while the results were being processed.

Then the nurse came in, handed the doctor a stack of papers, and left. The room was silent as the doctor looked over the information in front of him. Clicking his tongue, he sighed. Setting the papers on his desk he turned to us.

"You're daughters quirk hasn't manifested because she's quirkless."

Knives stabbed through my heart. The temperature around me dropped and the air left my lungs. My formerly swinging legs stopped abruptly, hitting the examination table harshly. My parents had a similar reaction, pale and dumbstruck.

"Quirkless? Are you positive?" My dad broke the silence, voice strained.

"Positive, sir. It's interesting. She only has one joint in her pinkie toe like the average quirk user, but she doesn't have a quirk. Do her siblings have well developed quirks?"

"Yes. Her sister can turn invisible and her brother can control small pieces of metal. Both of them got one of our quirks."

"What likely happened was that both of you carry a recessive quirkless gene. While it was only a twenty-five percent chance, (Y/n) got both of those recessive genes making her quirkless."

Quirkless? Quirkless? There was no way. I was meant to have a quirk. I was supposed to grow up and do something. I wasn't even dead-set on being a hero. But that didn't mean a quirk wasn't important to me. Whatever it was, I would have learned how to use it to help me do what I loved.

All of that was stolen from me in that moment. That possible future full of light and confidence. But I didn't have a quirk. I couldn't train. I couldn't play fight with the other kids, or have them marvel over how cool my quirk was. I was plunged into a dark lake, with no lifeboat to save me.

"She's going to grow up ridiculed," my mom sighed, running a hand through my hair, "Society is going to look down on her."

"Perhaps as she grows up society will change to be more accepting of people who don't have quirks. There's not much else I can offer. I'm sorry."

"It's alright. Thank you doctor."

The day I learned I was quirkless was the day I understood how broken the world was.

Years later was when I finally reached my breaking point. Ever since the other kids had figured out that I was quirkless, I was doomed to intense ridicule. I despised them with a burning passion. Those who were 'nice' were only nice because they ignored me. Which is what drove me to run away.

There was talk on the street that a man could gift quirks to those who didn't have any. A man who pulled the invisible strings of the underworld. It was hard getting people to talk, considering I was eleven. But when I flashed a bit of the money I'd been saving since I'd decided on my plan, they were more than happy to talk.

That led me to a rundown bar where a man named Kurogiri was waiting for me. Word spread fast, and he was already aware of what I wanted. We had a long conversation that felt like a job interview. It likely was.

When we were finished, he used his Quirk which I put down to a warping based one, and took me to a new place. A room with a man inside. He seemed to be surviving off of tubes and machines, but as soon as I looked at him my heart filled with dread and I knew I was looking at All for One.

"And who might you be?"

He knew who I was. That, I was certain about. But he asked all the same, "My name is (Y/n) (L/n)."

"And why are you here, child?"

"I've heard rumors about what you can do. You give people Quirks. I want one."

"And why would I give one to you?"

"Because I'm smart, and willing to do a lot of things if it means changing society. People with Quirks are comfortable, too comfortable. I want to change that."

All for One's grin widened, "I see. An admirable goal, I'll admit."

"But I have terms."

"Demands?"

"Yes. One, I won't kill anyone who's innocent. And two, when I want to leave, I'm leaving. No strings attached, no debt left to you, no one coming after me. I'm gone."

All for One's grin became even wider, "I understand, and I accept. You seem useful. Come here, child."

I stepped closer, and his aged hand brushed over my shoulder. All at once I felt a rush of power, so intense that I fell to my knees with a gasp. When it was over I was tired, slightly drained but I was new.

"Kurogiri, take her to meet Tomura. I think they'll find they have a lot in common."

~*~

"Would you stop being a baby and hold still for two seconds?" I snapped at Tomura after he kept squirming around while I was treating his bullet wounds. Clean, straight through. Which meant disinfecting and a tight wrapping, "It's your fault for not recognizing how bad things were getting and getting us out of there."

"Yeah? And where were you during our failure at the USj?" Tomura hissed back, but stopped moving as much while I tended to him.

"I was watching, learning, like I always do and like you never do."

"And what did you learn?"

"That class is more powerful than you imagined, than we imagined. They have some powerful players that we'll have to watch carefully. Especially that green haired boy. I found him very interesting."

"Don't tell me your falling for the enemy," Tomura teased and received a splash of rubbing alcohol for it, "Bitch."

"You asked for it. And no, that's not the kind of interest I was thinking of," only half true. The boy was plain looking, but cute, "Didn't you sense it? The power? The drive? The only person who can match that is-"

Myself. But I didn't say that because it'd be admitting a similarity and Tomura would get all grouchy that I was like a hero. Both of us were driver, and powerful, and smart. I thought I'd never associate myself with a hero, but we were one and the same in more ways than I cared to admit. And that was after simple observation. Imagine what I could figure out after more time!

"What are you going to do now that the plan has failed?" I began on his last bullet wound, pressing the soaked gauze against it and starting the wrapping, "Master will not be pleased and you know it."

"I will make up for it in time," his voice was calm, but he reached up to scratch his neck and I knew he was panicking on the inside, "I have many ideas... have you heard of the hero killer Stain?"

~*~

Tomura's next plan didn't work well either. Stain and him were standoffish towards each other, and both were planning on killing the other when they no longer had any use.

So when Tomura released a pack of Nomu in the same city Stain was patrolling and planning on killing in, I wasn't surprised that it went down in flames. Literally because Endeavor and his son showed up. Tomura wanted to steal Stain's thunder, but then three UA students got into a fight with him, won, and drew the attention of the public immediately.

One of the three students was my favorite green haired boy. And I was itching to see him.

"I'm going to watch," I told Tomura and Kurogiri, bored after standing on the same water tower for two hours and watching the chaos.

"Be careful," Kurogiri warned. Tomura didn't acknowledge my statement.

Using the rooftops as my sidewalk, I took them across the city to the alleyway that the Stain fight had just ended in. The pros were on the scene, and dealing with the aftermath. The shock on their faces over the fact that three children had defeated the hero killer was amusing.

"Midoriya look out!"

A Nomu swung down and picked the green haired boy up. So Midoriya was his surname. Good to know. Stain leaped on the creature and stabbed it in the brain, but our Nomu were made to be more resilient than that, and it kept flying. Running along the rooftop to keep up with it, I held out my fist, aimed, and fired.

The Nomu screeched in pain, and fell to the ground, the last bits of green energy dying with it. Midoriya quickly ran to rejoin the safety of his group, while Stain began some rambly speech about hero society that I kind of agreed with. Then he froze, and that was that.

The EMTs arrived after that. The UA students' wounds were treated, and Stain was taken away on a stretcher. After being scolded by his mentor, Midoriya was bound to leave. But he stopped, and turned to my rooftop, and I knew he was staring right at me.

Raising a hand, I gave him a green-glowing wave, and took off. He'd chalk me down to some vigilante. An unregistered hero who wanted to help but didn't want to get caught and deal with the consequences.

How wrong he was.

~*~

The next time I saw Midoriya up close was during the final battle between All Might and All for One. The bar had been invaded, and the League of Villains - our new members were cool, I liked them and being the youngest- was transported to the battlefield, along with our resident kidnapee, Bakugou Katsuki.

He had the strongest will of anyone I'd ever met, and it was impressive considering Tomura was badgering him nonstop about joining the League. I knew he wouldn't, and I also knew that his friends would be there to rescue him.

A nice thing about energy manipulation is that the energy that people's bodies put out was something I could easily sense. So was it really a surprise when I sensed some people hiding behind rubble? No, and no one else seemed to know.

Running over to Bakugou, I slid under a right hook led by an explosion that would put me out of commission for weeks. The rest of the league was too enamored by All for One's presence to notice me.

"Bakugou-" I grabbed one of his hands and activated enough energy on my palm to make him wince, but that was all the weakness I'd get.

"Go to hell!"

I grabbed his wrist when he swung at me again and pushed it behind his back and between his shoulder blades to keep him from moving.

"Listen to me," I hissed in his ear, "Your friends are here to rescue you. You're going to let them, and escape. All Might is holding back because of you. When I let you go, you're going to hit me with an explosion and make it look like you opened a window. That's when they'll jump out, got it?"

"Why would you help me?"

"I don't know."

I didn't. It wasn't because I wanted to switch sides and suddenly become a hero and make up for my misdeeds. It was both because I knew we'd get nowhere with Bakugou unless we brainwashed him, and because I was exhausted. I had been a villain my entire life, gained a brother from it even, but I was done. All Might and All for One were fighting, and no matter how it ended, my goal would be complete. I would have changed society forever. It was my time to leave. So, maybe I did know.

"You're my age, aren't you?"

"What gave it away, my height or my voice?" I deadpanned, "Hit me now, Bakugou!"

I held my arms in front of my face to protect it, and screamed when searing heat scorched through my clothes and burned the skin on my arms. What a pain. I landed a good ten feet away, and when I regained my bearing and sat up, Bakugou was in the air with his friends.

There was Midoriya, staring down at me with acute recollection in his eyes. He knew who I was based on my attack on Bakugou. He knew I saved him, but he didn't know why. I stared back, as if he could see everything I wanted him to know that way. No matter, he'd learn soon enough.

~*~

Two days later, I shook Tomura wake while he slept on the raggedy bed in our hideout. My poorly bandaged arms screamed in protest, but I persisted. Tomura groaned, and rolled over to face me.

"What?" he snapped tiredly, "You should be sleeping, healing."

"I'm leaving," I shot out so quick fire that I couldn't change my mind about telling him. Maybe it would have been easier to leave without a goodbye, and let him find out what happened to me through a contact, btu I couldn't do that to him.

"What are you talking about?" He shot up in alarm, "Why are you leaving?"

"I'm done Tomura. I did what I wanted to do, and I'm done being in the league."

His hand shot out and grabbed my wrist, his pinky so close to my skin I could feel it shaking above me. It was a threat, an empty one.

"If you try to leave, I'll kill you," he rasped out.

Smiling sadly, I whispered, "If you can put your pinky down, then I'll stay, and I'll never try to leave again. Hurt me, and we'll act like this never happened."

Tomura's other hand reached up and scratched at his neck. A habit I always hated but could never get him to break. Finally, he hand let mine go. I pulled him into a tight hug.

"Good luck Tomura, and thank you."

"I'll win. And then I'll make you come back."

"I'll be waiting."

Tartarus was its name. They called it that because not only did they keep monsters there, but it was impossible to escape, and to break into.

I never believed in such myths, and I loved disproving them by breaking in within ten minutes. I'd been basking in the sun as much as possible for two days, storing energy and pushing my power to its peak. When I combined that with an immaculate strategy, then it was no problem.

Stepping through the door and up to the viewing glass of All for One's cell, I sat down in the seat across from him.

"(Y/n), how ironic that I told All Might this morning that this was the most secure place on Earth."

"I'm leaving," I got straight to the point, just as I did with Tomura, "No strings attached, and no tracking me down to kill me. Just like we discussed."

"Ah yes. Society has changed, hasn't it? And while I'm stuck in a cell, and All Might is no more, you sit on top unaffected, content."

"Wasn't it always going to be this way?" I asked with a small smile. I had a minute at most before guards burst in to arrest me. But I wasn't aiming to escape.

"I assume you didn't just come here to let me know you were leaving."

"No. I came to say thank you as well. I know you've never seen me as nothing more than a pawn, but you saw potential within me and you honed it until I became who I am today, and for that I thank you."

All for One couldn't answer. Guards broke down the door- which was dramatic because it wasn't locked- and surrounded me, guns drawn. I put my hands behind my head, and allowed them to put Quirk suppression cuffs over them.

As they hauled me out, All for One laughed behind us. About what, I didn't care to ask, or to think about. He had to know Tomura would murder anyone who would try to hurt me, so it wasn't about a hidden plothole I wasn't aware of. He found the situation genuinely funny.

~*~

The police tried for six hours to get me to talk with no results, and it was after those six hours that they gave me what I'd been requesting that entire time. A chat with Midoriya. Their human lie detector was going to be there, and Midoriya would be asking me the questions the police wanted to, but I would get to see him all the same.

I smiled at him when he entered, all nerves and shaking hands, but he smiled back and my heart warmed. He was kind. The human lie detector stood in the corner, watching, using his Quirk to see if I would keep my word.

Izuku picked up the paper in front of him, the questions. But before he began, he introduced himself. Izuku Midoriya. I finally had his full name.

"(Y/n) (L/n)," I beamed. The detective bristled, and looked to the two way glass behind me, where I knew everything was being monitored.

"Nice to meet you. Let's start... why did you want to talk to me."

"You're interesting," I shrugged, "I find that, while we went down different paths, we're very similar. And I like that about us, Izuku."

Flushing, and stuttering through his words, Izuku got out "You were the one that saved me."

"Yeah, I did. Like I said, I like you, and I didn't want you to die. I saved Bakugou too. I knew you were at the fight site, and I informed him and came up with a plan. So, you're welcome for that," before he could ask another question I continued, "And my tragic backstory is just that. I was born Quirkless."

I didn't miss the way Izuku's face softened, and his jaw cinched in understanding,. I tucked that away in my memory.

"And because of that, society drove me right into All for One's arms. He gave me a Quirk, and I trained with it for years. Then there was the USJ, Stain, the camp, and the final battle. You know all about that. Anything else?"

Izuku's eyes skimmed the paper. Clearly, I had answered a lot of their questioned in one go, "Would you be willing to cooperate with law enforcement."

'Sure. Everyone split up and is moving around a lot so I can't be sure about locations, but I can fill in the details about past incidents."

The detective in the corner spoke up, "You disappeared four years ago. Your family has been looking for you tirelessly." He must have had an earpiece in, and someone fed him the information.

"They have?" I smiled at that, "They were so kind to me, so loving. I felt bad leaving, and I feel guilty returning. But, that's the way things go isn't it?"

The detective have one, short nod, "Midoriya, your time with her is up. We have what we need."

'Yes, sir." Izuku stood and followed the detective out the door. Just before he left, he turned back to me.

"I don't think you're a bad person. I think you went down a dark path, and that you're turning away now."

He was gone before I could answer, but it meant a lot to me. More than I could say, really.

~*~

Izuku was always happy to spend time with his friends after a shift. He met up with them as often as he could, whether it was the entire class, or a smaller group. That day, it was Iida, Todoroki, Ochako, and Bakugou that followed him into the small coffee shop.

"Holy shit," Bakugou whispered as they stepped through the door.

It took Izuku a moment to figure out why he swore. But when he met their eyes, his heart stopped.

He asked about what happened to (Y/n), but all All Might said was that she was reunited with her family, and they moved under strict guidelines from the court. He never said where, and he never answered any other questions, so Izuku thought he would never learn anything else. That didn't stop him from thinking about her.

And there she was, a collar around her neck that Izuku just knew was meant to keep track of her Quirk usage and her location. His feet acted before his brain could catch up, and he was at the counter before he knew it. His mouth opened and closed a few times, but no noise came out. (Y/n) was the same way.

"The name's Bakugou Katsuki," Bakugou spoke first, his voice kinder than ever before. Bakugou always held some admiration for the girl that saved his life, whether he would admit it or not, "Don't forget it."

"I'm Ochako Uraraka," Ochako was next. Her and the rest of the class never met (Y/n), but they heard the stories.

"Iida Tenya. A pleasure to meet you."

"Shouto Todoroki."

All eyes were on Izuku, even hers. He smiled, as bright as he could, and said "I'm Izuku Midoriya."

(Y/n) smiled, "I'm (Y/n) (L/n). Nice to meet you all. Now, what can I get for you today?"

It felt nice to start over.