A/N: first chapter coming from me directly, i wanna expand the story on lena's quirk, so it will still be a, if not the, major focus, i intend to make it end at the end of the mha canon with everything neat.
i have everything planned in my head and i just need to write it down, so i will try a chapter a day till the end
The sterile tang of the infirmary still clung to Lena's clothes, a ghost of the past few days. Physically, her Quirk had, as always, knitted her back together with remarkable speed. But internally, the recent encounter at the training camp – the chilling touch of Moira O'Deorain, the shadowy presence of Reaper – had unlocked something new, something terrifying.
She sat hunched on her bed, trying to lose herself in a textbook on advanced Quirk theory, but the words swam before her eyes. The world around her had begun to warp, subtly, insidiously. A faint hum vibrated through the air, barely audible, but it felt as though it originated deep within her own bones. The quiet rustle of leaves outside her window echoed a second time, a split-second thwisp-thwisp. The distant clatter of a plate from the cafeteria downstairs repeated itself, an uncanny clink-clink. It wasn't the controlled manipulation of time she was used to; these were raw, untamed temporal reverberations, born from a power she felt churning uncontrollably beneath her skin.
A cold dread seeped into her. Déjà vu had always been a quirk of her Quirk, but now it was less a feeling and more a concrete, premonitory flicker. She'd just seen her desk lamp flicker before it actually did. A fragment of a conversation she'd had five minutes ago echoed in the present. Was this what her Quirk was truly becoming? A broken record of reality, looping and stuttering? She felt a vast, formless pressure building deep within her core, like a void expanding, threatening to consume her. It was her Quirk, undeniably, but it felt alien, monstrously powerful, and utterly beyond her control.
A soft, rhythmic knock pulled her from the swirling disquiet. "Lena? You in there? You okay?" Kyoka's voice, a familiar melody, cut through the temporal dissonance.
"Yeah, come in," Lena managed, forcing a smile that felt brittle on her lips.
Kyoka entered, two steaming mugs of tea in her hands. Her eyes, usually so sharp and analytical, softened as they landed on Lena. She crossed the room, settling gently beside Lena on the bed, offering a mug. As their fingers brushed, the simple warmth of Kyoka's touch was a powerful, anchoring force against the temporal eddies in Lena's mind.
"You've been quiet," Kyoka murmured, her voice a low, comforting hum. "Even more than usual. And… I don't know, my Jacks have been picking up strange… static? Like the air's vibrating wrong. Just around you." She reached out, her fingers tracing soothing patterns on Lena's arm. "What's going on, babe?"
Lena's breath hitched. Kyoka noticed it too. It wasn't just her imagination. "It's… my Quirk," Lena admitted, her voice barely a whisper, a stark contrast to the burgeoning power within her. "After… the camp. It feels like it's humming too loudly, and I can't turn it down." She hesitated, then leaned her head against Kyoka's shoulder, seeking the familiar comfort. "It's like I can feel… something about time, and it's… breaking." Kyoka wrapped an arm around her, holding her close, her presence a silent promise against the encroaching chaos. She didn't need to understand the physics; she understood the fear in Lena's voice.
In the common room, Mina and Momo exchanged worried glances.
"She's been so distant," Mina whispered, stirring her juice with a straw. "Every time I try to talk to her, she just… zones out. Or looks like she's listening to something that isn't there."
Momo nodded, a slight crease in her brow. "It's not just her behavior. I've noticed subtle things around her. My creations sometimes feel… odd. Like their molecular structure is briefly unstable, then corrects itself. It's almost imperceptible, but… it's there. A momentary dissonance, like a stutter in causality." She frowned, her scientific mind struggling with an unseen anomaly. "She says she's fine, but she's clearly struggling."
"We should do something," Mina declared, a determined glint in her eyes. "A movie night? Or just force her to talk. She needs us." They felt the frustration of being unable to truly help their friend, a feeling that gnawed at them.
Far away, in a sterile, dimly lit laboratory, Moira O'Deorain's eyes glowed with chilling satisfaction as she studied intricate data projections. The screen displayed fluctuating entropic signatures, eerily similar to Lena's own unique frequency, but far more pronounced.
"Excellent, Doctor Garaki," she purred, her voice devoid of warmth. "The data you provided on Lena Oxton's unique entropic signature, combined with the blood samples… it's even more potent than I anticipated. The recent catalyst events have indeed accelerated her development. The 'Hole' is expanding, just as my projections predicted."
Doctor Kyudai Garaki, hunched over his own console, chuckled, a dry, raspy sound. "A truly remarkable specimen, Moira. The boy's raw power is… impressive. But hers… hers is fundamental. A true anchor in the fabric of existence. The missing piece."
"Precisely," Moira agreed, a cold glint in her eye. "It's not just entropy. It's the key to temporal manipulation on an unprecedented scale. She is a living Singularity, a primeval force. And she is ripening. Soon, she will be ready for the next phase."
A dark, cloaked figure stood silently in the corner. "The girl's power is uncontrolled," Reaper's guttural voice cut through the air. "A risk. She could tear reality apart."
"A risk we will guide," Moira corrected, her gaze unwavering. "Which is why you will continue to observe, Reaper. Push her. Provoke her. We need to see the full extent of her capabilities, how she bends under pressure. And Sombra..."
A ripple of distortion shimmered in the air, coalescing into the form of a woman with vibrant purple hair, her face illuminated by the holographic screens. "Already deep in their networks, Moira," Sombra's voice was a playful rasp, devoid of true emotion. "UA's firewalls are child's play. I'm seeing… fascinating glitches. Data packets looping, security footage skipping frames, timestamps contradicting each other. It's almost like their entire system is on the verge of a temporal breakdown. Her power is truly… fascinating." Her digital eyes narrowed. "I'm embedding new programs, subtle ones. Malware that will feed on her entropic surges, giving us real-time, predictive analytics. And I'm cross-referencing all Quirk research, looking for similar 'Singularity' signatures. We'll know her next move before she does."
"Good," Moira said, a chilling smile spreading across her face. "The world is about to learn the true meaning of 'change'."
Back in Musutafu, Winston Oxton sat in his home lab, surrounded by intricate diagrams of temporal physics and energy signatures. He'd been getting increasingly unusual readings from his personal array of sensors – subtle energy fluctuations around Musutafu that defied conventional explanation. They were too sporadic to be a villain's Quirk, too… structured to be natural phenomena. And he'd noticed, with a growing knot in his stomach, that some of the more extreme spikes in these readings coincided with recent news of his daughter's involvement in difficult incidents.
He looked at a framed photo of Lena on his desk, her bright, confident smile. A pang of deep worry twisted in his gut. His daughter had always been special, her Quirk defying easy categorization. But after the USJ incident, and now the camp… he felt a burgeoning unease. Something was happening to her, to her Quirk. He had to understand it. He had to protect her. He picked up his phone, scrolling through recent data from obscure scientific forums, searching for any anomalies, any patterns. He was a scientist, and this was a puzzle. But this puzzle felt profoundly personal.
Lena, back in her dorm, pulled away slightly from Kyoka, a new resolve hardening her gaze. The echoes were still there, the unsettling glimpses, the vast, expanding presence within her. But the warmth of Kyoka's embrace, the quiet strength of her presence, had reminded her of what she was fighting for. She was scared, yes. But she wouldn't break. Not for them.
This power… it's me, she thought, a fierce determination eclipsing the fear for a moment. It's part of me. I have to control it. For them.
Lena closed her eyes, the temporal distortions swirling within her. She was Lena Oxton, an aspiring hero. And her Quirk was changing, becoming something even more unpredictable. She wouldn't let it consume her, or hurt anyone she loved. She wouldn't let them. Even if it meant facing it all alone, for now. But deep down, she knew she wasn't truly alone. She had Kyoka, her anchor. And her friends. And her father, working in the dark, trying to understand. Not yet. But soon, she knew, they would all be pulled into the growing dissonance.