The facility was a smoldering ruin, its once-imposing walls reduced to jagged skeletons wreathed in flame. Fire licked at the edges of shattered doorways, casting flickering shadows that danced like specters across the scorched floors. Glass crunched beneath Kael's boots, each step a deliberate, grinding reminder of what had been lost. The air was thick with the acrid stench of molten metal and blood, curling into his lungs with every ragged breath, as if the world itself were trying to choke him.
Voidflare was gone.
The man who had trained him, believed in him, shielded him from the world's cruelty—gone. The one who had seen something in Kael beyond the rage, beyond the storm of Quirks he carried like a curse, had been snuffed out. His absence was a wound that didn't bleed, a hollow ache that gnawed at Kael's chest until it felt like his ribs might collapse inward.
Something inside him had ruptured. Not like a wound. Like a dam. A pressure he'd held back for years—through every fight, every loss, every moment of self-doubt—now surged through him, uncontainable. His hands trembled, not with fear but with a fury so raw it felt like it could burn the world to ash. DarkBind, his Quirk, slithered through the air around him, its inky tendrils deeper and darker than ever, pulsing with a life of their own. They lashed out without warning, skewering a mutated villain that stumbled from the shadows, its grotesque form barely registering before the tendrils pinned it to the wall with a sickening crunch. Kael didn't hesitate. His hand shot forward, gripping the villain's throat, his fingers digging into flesh that was more monster than man.
Balancekeeper pulsed within him, a stolen Quirk now woven into the growing storm inside his soul. Another power. Another burden. Another piece of someone else's life he'd claimed in his relentless march forward.
He released the villain's throat, letting the body slump lifelessly to the ground, and kept moving.
Room by room. Hall by hall.
The screams were brief, swallowed by the crackle of flames and the collapse of weakened beams. The resistance was shallow, the facility's defenders broken by whatever Voidflare had done before his final stand. Kael was a force of nature now, a storm of grief and wrath carving through the remnants of this place. He didn't stop to think, didn't pause to mourn. There was only the next step, the next enemy, the next piece of this wretched facility to reduce to nothing.
He entered a circular junction chamber, its emergency lights flickering like dying stars. The air here was cooler, the flames held at bay by the chamber's reinforced walls, but the stench of destruction lingered. Kael's face was unreadable, his eyes hollowed by a cocktail of fury, fatigue, and something deeper—something that felt dangerously close to despair.
Then he stopped.
She was there.
The girl from before. The one he'd fought in this very facility, her healing Quirk a fleeting prize he'd ripped from her in their brutal clash. The one who had left scars on his body and his mind, her attacks precise and relentless. She stood in the center of the chamber, her silhouette framed by the stuttering red glow of the emergency lights. Her body was tense, her shoulders hunched, her eyes fixed on the ground as if she couldn't bear to meet his gaze.
Kael's hand twitched, DarkBind coiling in the air like a serpent ready to strike. But she didn't move. Didn't reach for a weapon. Didn't brace for a fight.
Instead, to his shock, she lowered herself—slowly, deliberately—until her knees touched the scorched floor. She bowed deeply, her forehead nearly brushing the ground, her hands pressed flat against the cold metal.
"…I'm sorry," she whispered, her voice soft but steady, cutting through the distant roar of flames. "For your loss."
The words hit Kael like a physical blow, jarring him out of the haze of his rage. A tendril of DarkBind shot toward her, instinctive and lethal, stopping an inch from her face. It hovered there, trembling in the air, its tip sharp enough to pierce through bone.
She didn't flinch. Didn't raise her head. Didn't even breathe.
Kael stood frozen, his jaw clenched so tightly it ached. The tendril pulsed once, twice, then slowly retreated, dissolving into the air like smoke. His voice, when it came, was low and cold, edged with a bitterness he couldn't hide.
"Why are you apologizing?" he asked, each word sharp enough to cut. "You don't know me. You don't know what I've lost."
She rose slightly, just enough to sit back on her knees, but her eyes remained downcast. Her hands rested in her lap, fingers knotted together as if holding herself in place. When she spoke again, her voice trembled—not with fear, but with the weight of memory.
"Because I know what it's like," she said. "To lose someone who means everything. To feel like the world's been ripped out from under you, and all you're left with is… rage. The kind that burns so hot you think it'll consume you. I was on that path once. The same one you're on now."
Kael's eyes narrowed, his grip tightening on the hilt of the knife at his side. "Don't pretend you understand me," he said, his voice a low growl. "You fought me. You tried to kill me. You don't get to stand there and act like we're the same."
Her head tilted up slightly, just enough for him to catch the glint of her eyes in the flickering light. They were raw, unguarded, shimmering with unshed tears. "I'm not saying we're the same," she said softly. "I'm saying I know what it's like to lose yourself to grief. To let it twist you into something you don't recognize."
She paused, swallowing hard, as if the words were fighting to stay inside her. "I watched my sister die in front of me," she continued, her voice breaking on the word *sister*. "A Hero killed her. A Hero. Smiling the whole time, like she was nothing. I was twelve. I didn't have a super strong Quirk back then, not one worth anything. I couldn't save her. I couldn't do anything but scream and hold her lifeless corpse."
Kael's breath hitched, a flicker of something—memory, recognition—stirring in the depths of his chest. He pushed it down, his expression hardening. "And that's supposed to mean something to me?" he said, his voice colder now, almost cruel. "You think your sob story changes what you did? What you are?"
She flinched at his tone, but she didn't back down. "I'm not asking for your pity," she said, her voice steadier now, though it still carried the weight of her pain. "I'm telling you because I know what happens when you let that rage take over. I wanted the world to burn for what happened to her. I wanted blood. I wanted everyone to hurt the way I was hurting. And then… he found me."
Kael's eyes darkened at the mention. "All for One," he said, the name like poison on his tongue.
She nodded, her expression tightening. "He saw my pain and offered me strength. Said I'd never be weak again, never be helpless. I believed him. I let him turn my grief into a weapon. He gave me this Quirk—" She gestured vaguely at herself, as if the healing power he'd taken from her was still a part of her identity. "—and pointed me at his enemies like a loaded gun. I thought I was strong. But I was just his tool."
Her voice cracked, and she looked away, her hands clenching into fists. "I hurt people. I killed people. Because I thought it would fill the hole inside me. But it didn't. It never does."
Kael stared at her, his chest tight, his mind a storm of conflicting emotions. Her words were a mirror, reflecting pieces of himself he didn't want to see. The rage. The loss. The desperate need to make someone pay for the pain.
He thought of Voidflare, of the man's steady hand on his shoulder, his quiet belief that Kael could be more than a weapon. He thought of Hana, his sister, and the promise he'd made to protect her, to keep her from becoming what he was now.
"Why are you telling me this?" he asked, his voice quieter now, though it still carried an edge. "What do you want from me?"
She looked up at him then, fully, her eyes meeting his for the first time. They were fierce, not with defiance but with a raw, desperate sincerity that caught him off guard. "Because you're different," she said. "You're not like him. You're not like All for One. You fight for something more than revenge. Or at least… you used to."
The words hit harder than any blow she'd landed in their fight. Kael's breath caught, his fingers twitching as if he could physically push her words away. "You don't know what I fight for," he said, but the conviction in his voice faltered, just for a moment.
"I know you saved someone," she said softly. "I heard about about your time as Equinox. You saved countless people, one being a woman on the verge of suicide. You pulled her out of the darkness when no one else could. That's not revenge. That's purpose. That's something I never had."
Kael's jaw tightened, his eyes burning with something he couldn't name. "You think you can just talk your way into my trust?" he said, stepping closer, his voice low and dangerous. "You think a few words about your dead sister and your regrets make us allies? I don't even know your name."
She didn't back away, though her hands trembled slightly at her sides. "It's Mira," she said, her voice steady despite the fear flickering in her eyes. "And I'm not asking for your trust. I'm asking for a chance. A chance to be something more than what All for One made me."
She extended her hand, palm up, a gesture of vulnerability that felt almost reckless in the midst of the ruined facility. "Take me with you," she said. "Or take me away. Lock me up, kill me, I don't care. I just… I don't want to follow monsters anymore. If I'm going to follow someone, I'd rather it be someone like you."
Kael stared at her hand, then at her face, searching for a lie, a trick, anything to justify the rage still burning in his veins. But all he saw was a reflection of his own pain, his own desperation, his own fragile hope that there was something worth fighting for beyond the bloodshed.
He thought of Voidflare, of the man's quiet strength, his unshakable belief in redemption. He thought of Hana, of the way she'd looked at him when he'd come home from those long nights of Vigilantism. And then he thought of himself, of the boy he'd been before the world had broken him, before the Quirks and the battles and the endless cycle of loss.
"You want to follow me?" he said finally, his voice low and hollow. "You want to help me destroy All for One? Tear down everything he's built?"
Mira nodded, her eyes never leaving his. "I will if that's what you want," she said, her voice firm, unwavering. "Whatever it takes."
Kael studied her for a long moment, his expression unreadable. Then, slowly, he stepped past her, his boots echoing in the silent chamber. "If you're useful, you can stay," he said, his voice like frost, sharp and cold. "But if you betray me, Mira…" He paused, turning his head just enough to meet her gaze, his eyes glinting with a promise of violence. "I'll kill you without batting an eye."
She nodded, her expression resolute. "I'd expect nothing less."
No more words were needed. Kael turned and started walking, his steps steady despite the weight of his grief. Mira fell in beside him, her presence a quiet shadow at his side. Together, they moved through the ruins of the facility, the air thick with smoke and the echoes of what had been lost.
Kael's vengeance burned behind his eyes, a fire that would not be quenched until All for One was nothing but ash. But for the first time, he wasn't alone. Mira, the girl who had once been his enemy, now walked with him, her own pain a silent echo of his own.
She was the first to follow.
She would not be the last.
The storm of rage was far from over.
…