Chapter 1: Prologue
No one is born equal. That was a thing Izuku Midoriya had learnt at a young age.
"L-leave him alone, Kacchan!" Four-year-old Izuku stutters out fearfully through his clattering teeth, tears barely held back as he fights his body to stop shaking in fear.
His best friend, or former in this case, laughs at the pitiful sight in front of him, and the rest of his followers do the same.
"Really? And you think you can stand up to me without a quirk? " Bakugou finds the very notion of asking ridiculous. He slams his fist against his palm, erupting a small explosion that made Izuku take a step back in fear. His healed burns from previous assaults suddenly flared up again at the sight.
"K-kacchan, please!" he pleads, nervously glancing back. The kid his age that he had been defending had taken the opportunity to run away. It was just him now, with a target painted on him instead.
There was no one else in this playground beside them. He doubted anyone could hear him call for help. He tried to stand his ground, but the closer they got to him, the weaker his knees felt, so he did the only thing he could.
"Help me! Over here! " He shouts and directs it behind the trio, and they glance back quickly, the two lackeys with fear in their eyes, and Bakugou only looking annoyed that he will possibly be interrupted as he shows Deku his place.
But they turn to find an empty playground, with no one passing by. Bakugou scowls and turns back to punish Izuku for this trick, but instead of seeing Izuku standing there shaking, he sees his back turned to him as he runs away as fast as he can.
"Oi, Deku! Come back here! " Bakugou screams as he runs, chasing the greenette as he sets off explosions on his arms.
All Izuku could do was run from his former friend. A friend who once swore that they would be heroes together, albeit with Izuku as his sidekick, but still the only friend that Izuku had now turned into a bully. All because of how he was born.
Quirkless, lacking a special power that makes him unique in the world, might as well be synonymous with the word cripple with how the word is used.
He curses himself for that. If only he had been born with a quirk, maybe he wouldn't be treated this way. If only he had a quirk, maybe he wouldn't have lost the only friend he had. If only he had a quirk, he wouldn't have to run.
He approached a familiar road and did some quick thinking. If he took a shortcut, he could make it back home quickly, forcing Bakugou to call off the chase. Then he won't have to explain to his mother about the new burns across his body.
Hearing the explosions behind him getting closer, Izuku increased his pace as best he could, but as luck would have it, his foot was caught in the curb, tripping and sending him flailing on the road.
Ignoring the scrapes on his arms, he tries to get up but cries in pain when he tries to apply pressure to his leg, looking to see his foot bent in another direction.
"Aw, what's the matter?" Bakugou asks mockingly as he flashes his quirk for intimidation. "Just one fall and you're already crying?" And you still want to be a hero without a quirk? What a joke.
He and his lackeys laughed as Izuku gripped his injured leg with tears. Bakugou was right; he was a joke. Heroes didn't run at the first sight of trouble. Heroes don't cry when they get scratched up. They stand their ground against villains and always save those in trouble. All he could do was run away.
All those emotions within him, the loneliness, helplessness, fear and anger piled up. Anger at Bakugou, but mostly at himself for being weak. If not, he wouldn't be in this position in the first place. Within him, he feels something burning.
But then he was snapped back to reality by a loud honk, turning to see a truck speeding down the road honking for him to get off the road. It takes him a second to realise it's moving too quickly to brake and stop, and it's too close for Izuku to limp away.Time seems to slow as Izuku sees the anger in Bakugou switch to fear and his eyes widen with the realisation of what would happen, but even if he were to help, he would be too slow.
In his mind, Izuku can think of no way he could make it out; despair and pure panic engulf him. The emotions in him spiked and that burning sensation amplified.
No one was born equal, if only he knew to what extent he was right. For every million lifeforms born in the vast, infinite, and ever-expanding multiverse, one is born with a special spark within them. Dull, faded, and weak. But if circumstances are willing, that dull spark may be ignited and set ablaze.
Everyone in the area became blinded by an explosion of blue light as the truck driver swerved from the sudden blindness and into a nearby building. It was fortunate to be unoccupied, and the ambulance arrived quickly for the driver. But despite their efforts and the police combing the area, none could find any signs of a four-year-old Quirkless child.
Izuku Midoriya had vanished without a trace.
***
"Mom!" he cries, no longer trying to stop the tears from flowing. The pain, the fear, the confusion about where he was, was all too much for the young boy. The pungent stench of rotten eggs was eye-watering as he glanced around, trying to make sense of his environment. In one moment, he was on the road about to be struck by a truck when, in a flash of blue light, he disappeared.
"Somebody help me!" He cries as loud as he can before finally sniffing, about to wipe the tears from his eyes when he realises they're all muddy. He was in some sort of swamp, something he had only seen in pictures in books before, surrounded by mangrove trees and drenched in mud. He winces at the sight. His mother was going to have trouble cleaning it out when he got home.
He doesn't even know where he is right now. It was night, but when he was on the road it was in the afternoon. The moon is his only source of light, piercing through thick clouds in the sky.
Was he even in Musutafu? Japan, even? Could this be the work of a quirk? Could it have been him?
Excitement sparks within him at the thought. He had done research in the desperate hope there could be some way for a quirkless person like him to get a quirk, but all he found were just scams and urban myths. Could it be that in his anxiety, he awoke his quirk to save him?
A snap of a branch alerts him to the fact that he may not be alone. He spins around quickly and pales at the sight of an enormous wolf standing on bipedal legs, barely reaching its knees.
"Could it be a villain?" he thinks to himself in dread. Compared to this thing, being burnt by Bakugou's quirk paled. The wolf creature growls as it gets on all fours and slowly makes its way over to Izuku.
"P-please... I just want to go home, "he begs the villain/monster/creature who seems to ignore his pleas. Then it breaks into a sprint and Izuku tries to push himself up to run, but in his fear he had momentarily forgotten about his injured leg, screaming in pain as he tried to stand on it.
Fear greater than he had ever felt before surged through his body as he screamed, the wolf creature pouncing on him with jaws wide open.
Once again, the spark within him responded to his urge to run, to leave the plane for somewhere else, and it did so. An explosion of blue sparks occurs, and the werewolf slams face-first into the mud, scowling as it sniffs for its prey but finds it has disappeared, much to its confusion.
***
He was dead. That was the only explanation for this. The truck must have struck him and he died. He had heard that people who did bad stuff would go to a bad place, but it was worse than he thought. His tears froze the second he was there. The blood coursing through him slowed from the cold. He could barely see or breathe. Moving an inch was a humongous effort.
The bright side was that he could no longer feel the pain in his leg. He can barely feel anything at this point. He prays to anyone who could possibly be listening. Someone, please help him. He begs for a hero, anyone to find him and save him.
He collapses, barely half a minute after entering this frozen landscape, the snow already building up and threatening to engulf him. But out of the corner of his eye, he sees something. Through his near-frozen eyes and the harsh blizzard, he saw what could possibly be movement.
Logically, he should be wary, but logic goes out the window when one's survival is on the line. He was mustering all the strength he had left when he raised a hand in desperation and spoke as loud as his near frozen throat could allow.
"Help…me…"
Seconds passed and the only change was that the snow finally rose to cover half his face, and soon his entire body would be frozen. But still, he holds up his hand, desperate for someone to see and find him.
Then his head was completely engulfed, and he had all but lost hope. His arm goes limp but he is held up by the snow. He can barely think and breathe.
"Please..." he mutters to no one in particular, struggling to keep his eyes open.
Then all of a sudden, it was all washed away. The snow, the cold, and the darkness vanished in a flash of bright light. He was now wet and cold, but less so than moments before, and was suddenly feeling warm again, like in the afternoon sun.
"By Oketra, I knew I had heard something!" A baritone voice declared as Izuku felt himself getting picked up. Despite the warmth, the cold and the stress had taken their toll on his energy and he was feeling exhausted. With all the strength he has left, he opens his eyes to gaze at his saviour.
His first sight was that of an armoured chest. The person who saved him was a man with black hair and light brown skin. A look of concern was evident across his face as he placed a glowing hand on Izuku, who felt warmer by the second, and miraculously he felt his leg moving back into correct formation, fixing it with no pain. He was safe now; he knew it in his heart.
"Best to keep your eyes open, child," he says soothingly. "What's your name?"
"I... zuku..."He mumbles tired, but surprisingly not as much as before. Was it this man's quirk?
"Are you... a hero?" he asks as the man cradles him and lifts him up from the ground.
"Some call me that, yes." The man admits, and soon Izuku's vision was filled with a burst of light and a golden storm, "Call me Gideon."
*10 Years Later*
"Gideon, what would you think of my actions?" Izuku mused to himself in thought as he lay across the deck of the Mana Rig in a pool of his own blood. He smiles ruefully, 'You'd probably have called me an idiot and knocked me over the head, even though you'd have done the same.'
With a wave of his hand, he draws the red mana in the area and focuses it into a wave of fire, incinerating a bunch of Phyrexian. To say it had been a terrible day was an understatement.
At the Battle of the Mana Rig, he fought with the Planeswalkers and the Coalition against the Phyrexians, and despite all their enemy's efforts, despite the compleation of the Weatherlight, despite their saboteurs, they had earned themselves a reprieve from the army.
But just when they thought they were saved. just when the Yavimayan elves arrived, just when the Phyrexian army was retreating. Their sleeper agent awoke.
Izuku had been in another area reinforcing the soldiers of the Coalition, but he saw it. He saw a trusted friend revealed as the sleeper agent. He saw Ajani bury his axe into Karn and then grip Jaya's neck. He saw her fight with her last breath and cover him in flames. He saw the thing that wore the skin of his friend throw the body of the woman he considered to be a second mother off the edge of the Mana Rig, dead before she touched the ground.
It all happened so fast, in just a few seconds, that his mind struggled to process what had happened, leaving him open to the Phyrexian stabbing him in the back. At the same time, it was happening that the Praetor of the Phyrexian army, by the name of Sheodred, had made a counterattack, pushing the Mana Rig between herself and a mountain.
Hordes of Phyrexians dropped from the mountains, and once again the Mana Rig was a battlefield. Benalish, Keldons, Yavimayan elves, goblins, humans, and viashino fought with all their might. Izuku himself was lying in a pool of his own blood, having no time to heal himself amidst the battle, throwing off spells that incinerated entire squads of enemies.
Then he hears it. Ominous ticking from the rig's central structure Someone had activated the self-destruct mechanism, he realised with a laugh. Denying the enemy the rig even if they are losing.
Portals open up across the rig, likely Jodah's work, sucking up allied soldiers and those too stunned to realise they were pushed in by their allies.
Except for him, he had been too far from a portal to be sucked in. A handful of soldiers tried dragging him to one, but there were too many Phyrexians. He was priming white mana for a healing spell, but faced with the chance of being overwhelmed, he used it to send the soldiers through the portal. That was how he got the second stab wound and the third.
That's how he ended up here, lying against a railing on the edge of the Mana Rig, slinging fire and lightning at any Phyrexian that dares get close. Moments later, the portals begin to close as he sees the last soldiers leap into their nearest portals in fighting retreat, the one next to him closing shut.
He was too injured to drag himself to it, and even if he could, it left the possibility of Phyrexians following through it and killing many soldiers before they could be stopped. So he grits his teeth and fires out another lightning bolt, determined to hold the line.
The portals finally closed and he could see a red planar bridge open out of the corner of his eyes, and Sheoldred dragged Karn through it, taking him to god knows where. Another friend lost, to his dismay.
Izuku assumes the order to retreat was given to the Phyrexians by the way they were rushing past and ignoring him. They are likely trying to get as many of their troops away as possible to avoid wasting too many. He was fine with it. He could use some rest.
The mechanism ticks down and he feels his eyes getting heavy, no longer able to focus enough to cast a spell. Was this how he was going to die? He supposes that as far as dying moments go, it wasn't bad.
He struggled to stay conscious as memories flashed through his mind. Simpler times chess with Jace, training with Gideon and the rest of Gatewatch. Jaya, Terferi, Kaya, everyone. Even memories of Liliana before her betrayal. Ajani before his compleation. He wonders just when the Phyrexians got their hands on him, what pain he had to endure. He entertains himself with images of Sheoldred paying for all the pain she has caused.
And then he sees a woman in his memories. This confused him for a moment, as he did not recognise her. But then he makes the connection when he sees the matching green hair. His mother
He had tried his best, but he could never truly remember her face. He curses himself for that, his failure to remember his mother, his failure to find his way home. But here, in his dying breath, he could see her face as clearly as day.
He sees their small apartment. He sees her bending down to his level to wipe dirt from his face. Yes, he remembers this. He had just come home from the playground and she was admonishing him for getting himself dirty. Her voice, that once eluded him, was as clear as day, as was the concerned look on her face.
He tries to hold on to the memory as long as possible, wanting it to be the last thing he sees. He hears the sound of the self-destruct finally activating, engulfing the entire Mana Rig and the horde of Phyrexians in fire, as the force of the blast launches him off the edge of the Rig.
He was fine with this, he thought to himself as he clung to the memory as he fell, oblivious to the blue sparks that were engulfing him before the flames and heat of the explosion could reach him.
Once again, Izuku Midoriya disappears without a trace.