Chapter Text
Thin leather comes down on exposed skin once again. Another repeat of the same 3 questions are barked aggressively at him once again. And besides the half bitten back whimpers and screams he stays silent. Once again.
He had given up trying to tell them the truth hours ago. They didn't believe him so what was the point?
As he kneeled on the cold floor, wrists chained in front of him and suppressor collar locked around his neck he reflected on how he got to this point. It had to have been a few days at this point. All Might, his mentor, his idol, All Might the former number one hero, had intercepted him on his way back to the dorms, asking if he had the time to meet with someone. For All Might? He had all the time in the world. That's why this situation stung so much, so deep in his heart.
He was led out of the school gates and a bit down the road away from cameras and Nezu's prying eyes. They were met by two generic looking men in forgettable suits. All Might had introduced them as handlers from the commission. He said they had some questions they wanted to ask him. And would he please go with them for an interview?
An interview. Bullshit. But at the time he had trusted in his hero whole heartedly, and despite the sinking feeling in his gut he went with the two men. Besides, a hero shouldn't be scared of answering a few questions right?
Wrong. So very wrong. As they turned the corner away from the skeletal man his memory blanks for a while. When he became aware again he had a splitting headache and he was completely restrained. Situated in a chair, with his arms locked down tightly to the piece of furniture. A suppressor around his neck and some sort of excessive blind fold contraption locked around his face.
The Voice had started in on him quickly after that. He couldn't tell if it was male or female. All he knew was that it could be very loud and very terrifying. They had started off slow. Just asking questions, about his connections to Midoriya Hisashi, his notebooks, his friends. He had answered truthfully. He hadn't seen his father since he was 5. They were a hobby, the desperate hope of a late bloomer, a force of habit. He loved them, would do anything for them, trusted them with his life.
But these answers didn't seem to be what they wanted. The first punch caught him by surprise, coming from the opposite direction of the voice. He hadn't even realized that there were others in the room. That first round had lasted for hours. Eventually they decided to take a break. Izuku was lifted out of the chair and dragged harshly away. Tossed into another room with his hands cuffed together in front of him. This was when he realized the thing on his face wasn't coming off unless he wanted to rip his ears off with it.
Since then he has had 4 different rounds with the voice, each one bringing a different kind of pain, when he wouldn't, couldn't give them the answers they were looking for he was tossed back into his little room down the hall.
Another lash brings him back to his unfortunate current situation. He heard the Voice let out it's rough, irritated sigh, and he flinched. He had learned quickly that the sigh never meant anything good for him.
"Take him back. Put him in position 4, let's see how he handles a little stress." His wrists were unlatched from the floor and his arms were wrenched behind his back, cuffs locking with a loud snap. He was dragged up from his kneeling position and away. He assumed 4 guards were escorting him, judging from the shoves and round elbows he received as he was 'guided' to his 'room'.
A door was slammed somewhere ahead of him and he was dragged through a turn, the dank smell alerted him to where he was. Home sweet home. But instead of leaving him sprawled on the floor with cruel laughter like the other times he had ended up here he was pulled into the center of the small space. A guard stood in front of him both of his shoulders firmly in their grasp. His right ankle was grabbed roughly and pulled to the side. He felt cold metal lock around it. The same treatment was given to his other leg until he ended up stood with his feet a bit more than shoulder width apart. The chain of his cuffs were grabbed next, something snapped around it. And then the guard holding his shoulders stepped away as, with a metallic clatter, his arms were wrenched up towards the ceiling.
He yelped as lashes that had just started to scab over were ripped back open at the sudden movement. Then he focused on trying to keep his balance on the balls of his feet, core tightened to keep some of his weight off of his now screaming shoulders. The door slammed. And he felt dread sink into his soul. They weren't really going to leave him like this were they?
They did. It only took a few minutes for the muscles in his bruised and battered torso to give out, sending all of his weight slamming down onto his shoulders. He screamed. And tried to force his shaking muscles to support him again. His breaths were coming out in pained gasps as he did his best to balance to the best of his abilities.
This sucked. Bring back the wip, the electric shocks, anything but this.
_______
Aizawa Shouta was a patient man. He had to be. He worked with super powered teens on the daily for fucks sake. That being said, there was one person on this planet that ate through his patience within two seconds of his existence in the same room.
And here Shouta was, marching to Nezu's office where the big lump was supposed to be meeting him. The things he does for his class.
The door swung open as he neared. Oh good. All Shite was already there. They could get this over with quickly. He tossed himself into the second chair in front of the desk, accepting the tea his boss slid across the wooden surface. He knew nothing would happen until the furry menace got through his little routine. After every one of them had taken a sip he knew he was good to begin.
"Yagi-san." He said, locking eyes with his target. "Do you know where Midoriya has gone? His classmates said they saw you leading him off the grounds two days ago. He hasn't been seen since, and his school ID has not been used to come back through the gate."
The blonde himbo jumped a bit at the question. "O-oh! Yes! Did I not inform you? I must have forgotten!" To say his heart sank into his stomach was an understatement. At those words the sense of unease he had been feeling kicked up to 100. "Tell us what? If you sent him somewhere you should have informed me, as his current guardian and homeroom teacher, and his mother. BEFOREHAND."
The idiot scratched at the back of his head with a sheepish laugh. "Ah well, it happened kind of fast. You see the commission caught wind of his parentage. And when they told me I thought of his Notebooks and one thing led to another…"
Nezu held up a paw to interrupt his tangent. "Yagi-san. Why would his parentage matter to the commission? Midoriya-kun is under UAs protection. They have no reason to be looking into our students?" The retired symbol's face dropped. "Ah. You see, this is kind of painful for me to talk about… they did a DNA test on All For One. And it matched up with Young Midoriya's medical file… to think… he had been the UA traitor this whole time…"
There was a moment of silence before Shouta burst out in incredulous anger. "What?! What are you on about?! Midoriya is NOT the traitor. Have you MET the kid?!"
It took the better part of an hour, with Aizawa and Nezu both arguing vehemently for Midoriya's innocence, before the brightly colored dumbass finally admitted that he had handed the kid over to the commission for interviews to determine if he was guilty or not. With that statement sucking the souls right from their bodies the two heros snapped into action.
The principal dived for his computer to hack the commission servers. And Eraserhead made for the door, yanking a communicator from his utility belt and sliding it into his ear. Before texting an SOS alert to the teacher group chat. Telling Present Mic to meet him in the underground garage. The cascade of quiet beeps in his ear told him that all of his fellow staff members were tuning into their private channel.
"Sho, what's the SOS for? Is it the little listener? Is he hurt?!"
"Unknown. All Might left him in the hands of the commission under the suspicion that he was the traitor. Nedu is getting us a location now. We are going to get the kid and bring him back to the safety of the school's grounds."
He ignored the sounds of anger and shock that came across the line. And powered though All Might's stuttered excuses, interrupting brusquely. "Midnight, Cementos, Hound Dog. You will be team A. Take one car and head to the destination. You will be responsible for getting us in and finding the kid. You might also have to stay behind once we get him for clean up. Mic and I will be team B. Hound Dog, once you get us to Midoriya you will go to back up the other two. Mic and I will get the kid out and to base. Understood?"
He got firm confirmations from the heros in question. And then spent the next minute it took to get to the garage spreading out whoever was left to keep watch on the dorms. Which Nezu had sent into lock down.
As he made it through the door from the stairwell the rodent was confirming a location. The car with team A was peeling out of the exit instantly. Shouta jumped into the passenger seat of the van Mic had chosen and they were tearing after the other car before he had even closed the door.
He pulled up the coordinates on the GPS system. It was all the way across the city. Great. He continued coordinating the other teachers with Nezu's help now that the principal could turn his focus to something else.
Even with Mic driving like a crazy person it still took them 15 minutes to get to the location. That was 15 minutes too long. But he unfortunately didn't have a teleportation quirk.
As they pulled up to the nondescript building he was conferring with team A who was already forcing their way into the building. Mic tossed the gear shift into park and the keys onto the dash board
Then they were racing eachother to the door, as they got close they could hear Midnight giving a speech, punctuated by Hound Dog's menacing growls. As they drew even with team A Midnight looked over at them with a smirk. "Hey Eraser. They think they can stop us."
"Take care of it."
"Sure thing cutie."
He snapped his haze to the hulking man beside him who had his nose in the air. "Hound Dog."
"This way."
And they were off once again, winding their way through maze like halls, Shota quickly marking the path with his knife, fuck their paint job. At some point the man in the lead balked a bit, wrinkling his nose a bit. "Blood. Burnt flesh. He's hurt." Present Mic swore colorfully under his breath as they redoubled their speed.
They skidded to a halt outside a door. Honestly with the blood trail leading down the hall Shouta could have figured out which room it was by himself. He waved Hound Dog on to keep going to the end of the hall. It wouldn't do to be ambushed from that side. Cementos was following the trail Shouta had left and blocking all other entrances onto that path and Midnight was turning the rest of the building into an absolute chaos zone. He really appreciated his fellow teachers.
Mic put his hand on the doorknob and looked to Eraserhead for confirmation. He nodded, hand wrapped up in his capture weapon. Bracing for who, and whatever they might find.
____
Izuku had been hearing weird commotion for a while now. He wasn't sure when it started but he latched on to trying to make out what was going on as a distraction to the absolute agony coming from his wrenched shoulders and cramped muscles.
Eventually he heard running footsteps. And then the door to the room was slammed open and he couldn't suppress his whimper. They had come back for him. He heard quietly cursing and flinched back as much as he could. "Please. I'm sorry. I don't know. Please!" He knew he was crying again. And he probably looked pathetic, begging and whining like this. Some hero right? But he couldn't help it. Couldn't stop himself. He had a high pain tolerance for sure, but the constant relentless agony of the last few hours was unbearable.
As he sobbed out another platitude there were suddenly hands on his face, tilting his face up, and he froze in fear. But with his silence he could hear the voices around him. There were two. And they were familiar. "S-sensei?" He whispered.
"Hey there little listener. It's ok. We're here to get ya out ok?" At those words Izuku feels himself go boneless, ignoring the added pain in his shoulders even as who he recognizes as Aizawa curses behind him. He distantly realizes this could possibly be some sort of trick. A voice mimicking quirk, used to lure him into a false sense of security. Or that the two teachers might be in on his torment, in agreement with whatever judgement All Might had made about him.
But he just couldn't find the energy to care.
He drifted a bit as his teachers conversed quickly with each other. He felt a shoulder and arm slot themselves under his chest, bracing him and raising him up a bit. He whined again at the slight relief that brought him. His ankles were released and he did his best to stabilize himself but his cramped muscles were really in no shape to hold him up and Mic just ended up taking even more of his weight as his knees gave.
"S-sorry…" he mumbled miserably.
"Shh. It's ok. You're ok listener. You've done so well. You're alright." His teacher kept whispering quiet platitudes to him while the other man was apparently checking his shoulders and the chains holding him up. The gruff voice behind him was pretty much constantly cursing. So it probably didn't look too good. He tried to pay attention, he really did, but it was really hard once Mic started to gently run his fingers through the curls not pinned down by the contraption on his face or matted down by blood.
But he did catch snippets. "Dislocated… shouldn't undo… here... lacerations… carry… in the van…" Apparently they decided on their next steps because Mic was shifting him to lean more against his chest and was reaching around him to grab onto his forearms. Like some weird pseudo hug. And then he felt Eraserhead messing with the cuffs and chains keeping his arms suspended.
Something clicked, not the cuffs they were still firmly clasping his wrists, and his arms lowered slightly. He couldn't hold back the scream as the bones in his shoulders grated together. He was aware of his two teachers talking to him calmly as his wrists were guided oh so slowly to rest against his lower back. But he couldn't really make out what they were saying over the burning, stabbing, blinding pain. It seems now that he was technically free to be moved; they were in a hurry.
He was still gasping through tears and aftershocks, his fingers twitching as the muscles spasmed. The two men were shifting him around, he wasn't sure what they were doing at first, but then he was lifted up. Supported against a hip. With a hand on his lower back, apparently trying to avoid the whip marks, and another looped under his thigh. And then they were moving, he did his best to keep from unbalancing himself. He really didn't want to fall and make things worse. He quickly ended up with his face buried in rough cloth. This was what clued him in that Aizawa sensei was the one carrying him. At any other time he would have been mortified. But right then he let himself be soothed by his solid presence and the scent of coffee that hung around him.
He was vaguely aware that he could hear voices coming over the comms unit in the man's ear. But he was too exhausted to even try and decipher anything they were saying. He let himself sink into the haze at the edge of his mind for a while. Distantly knowing when they stepped outside by the feeling of the sun on the back of his neck and the shouts of what he assumed to be reporters. But then he was being laid down gently, face down on rough carpet and a car door was being slammed shut.
He hoped they were going home.
____
Shouta looked his problem child over once more. The poor kid looked even worse in the bright light of the sun. Bruises, cuts, burns, welts, the whole nine. He was going to kill All Might. There was no getting out of it at this point. He took a deep breath to ready himself for the next step. He had to get those shoulders back in their proper places before the damage became permanent. He settled on a plan of action and got to work.
Bracing the kid's right wrist with his knee the got out his lock picks once more. Making quick work of the cuffs he gently grabs Midoriya's left wrist to keep it from moving as he slid the metal away. He met Mic's eyes in the rear view mirror. "It might get a bit loud." He warned.
With that he grasped the wrist in his hand more firmly, placed his other hand on the teens shoulder and guided the limb quickly back into place. He ignored the wails of his student as he just as quickly did the same for his right arm. He could get sick about all of this later, when Midoriya was safely under the care of Recovery Girl.
With the most pressing issue taken care of he turned from the shuddering mess of a kid and quickly drug the large first aid kit kept in all UA vehicles out of its compartment. He was getting ready to a start field dressing wounds when he heard a slurred, "'zawa… off?" He whipped his gaze around to see the kid gingerly moving his hand up to the thing on his face. He winced, knowing that moving would only be hurting him worse he gently tapped his hand away. "OK problem child. I'll get it off. Stop moving ok?"
Logically he knew he should work on first aid. But he was a softie at heart. He snatched his picks back up and got to work. The mechanism was weird so it took longer than a lock normally would but, eventually, the thing popped open and he gently worked the straps out of tangled curls and over his ears. When it was completely free he tossed it away. "There you go kid. Don't open your eyes too quickly, yeah? I'm going to work on stopping the bleeding ok?"
He did his best but they still got to the school before he was even halfway done. Recovery Girl met them in the garage with a stretcher and medibots already prepped to start scans while they headed into the school. As he helped shift the small teen from the van he met his eyes and almost broke at the look of them. Dulled with pain, tormented with experiences, but still so open and grateful. Grateful to Shouta for doing the bare minimum and getting one of his kids out of trouble. This kid. This sweet, kind, pure hearted kid. How anyone could ever think he was a traitor was beyond him.
They made it up to the nurse's wing in record time as Recovery Girl fully took over the situation Shouta took a step back. He looked at Hizashi, having a quick, silent conversation with his husband he was quickly waved off as the voice hero continued on following the green haired kid.
With that Aizawa spun on his heel. Now that he knew Midoriya was as safe as possible it was time to check on his other heathens.
The moment he stepped through the door of heights alliance he was accosted by crying teens. He sighed, as soon as he saw the reporters at the scene he knew there would be no easing his kids into the situation. Like they needed more trauma.
He did his best to soothe them. But he did not hide the situation from them. The world is an ugly place, they are all well aware of that by this point. And as future heros they would have to deal with things like betrayal and human nature's horrible suspicion and despicable precondition for inflicting pain.
As he talked them through it he did his best to ignore the blood still splattered over his hands and down his front from carrying and caring for Midoria. He could have his own break down later, once he was sure all of his wonderful demon children were ok. Once he knew for sure they would all make it through this fiasco as unharmed as possible.