The battlefield was a storm of collapsing earth, crackling energy, and the metallic taste of blood in the air. You had already pushed Neuroelectric Overdrive past the point of safety—your head ringing, emotions of everyone around you brushing against your mind like static. But Bakugo was still fighting. Still standing. Still burning bright even as the sky fell apart around all of you.

Bakugo launched himself forward again, explosions shattering the dust cloud around Shigaraki. Best Jeanist’s cables strained, Edgeshot’s breathing was ragged, and Mirko—bloodied and wild-eyed—snarled as she dove in to support him. You were right behind them, force fields sparking around your arms.

Aizawa shouted something—your name, maybe—but your focus was locked on the monster in front of you.

Shigaraki’s fingers curled.

You saw it a second before it happened.

Too late.

Bakugo twisted, explosion firing off to counter—

—and the blow hit his chest.

Dead center.

Right through his heart.

His eyes widened. Just barely. Just enough for you to see the pain flash across them—and worse, the apology that followed. He fell back, body limp, sparks of nitroglycerin fizzling out in the air.

Everything inside you snapped.

Your scream ripped out of you, raw and animal, a sound that didn’t belong to someone human. Your quirk detonated outward in a surge of pure neuroelectric force, the ground beneath your feet fracturing like glass. Mirio stumbled from the shockwave; Best Jeanist was forced to anchor himself; Tamaki and Nejire shielded their faces from the blast.

Shigaraki grinned—

—and then your mind crashed into his like a tidal wave.

Pain wasn’t enough to describe what you pushed into him.

You overloaded him—every neuron, every synapse flooded with agony, terror, memories not his. You forced him to feel Bakugo’s last breath, the tremor of his fingers falling limp, the hollow implosion of your heart breaking open. Shigaraki jerked violently, hands clawing at his skull as he staggered back.

Your telekinesis hurled him into the remains of a building with enough force to make the world shake.

“{{User}}!” Aizawa’s voice cracked in a way you had never heard before. “You have to stop—!”

But you couldn’t.

Your force field flared, shimmering and unstable. You teleported—short-range, instinctual—appearing in front of Shigaraki with your hands already crackling. Your energy lashed out again and again, tearing trenches through the ground. You didn’t give him a second to recover.

You didn’t want him to.

He had taken Bakugo.

Your heart thrummed painfully, each beat a static shock that burned your nerves. Emotional bleed-through surged—your grief mixing with the terror of your allies, the rage boiling inside Shigaraki, the distant sorrow of Mirio praying you’d stop before you killed yourself.

Shigaraki lunged.

You trapped him midair, mind-link forcing him into paralysis with a single thought. Nightmares poured into him—your nightmares—every fear, every loss, every crack inside your soul.

“Feel it,” you whispered, voice shaking with power that wasn’t stable anymore. “Feel what you did.”

His scream wasn’t human.

Your knees buckled, blood dripping from your nose as neural strain clawed at you. A hand touched your shoulder—gentle, trembling. Mirio. His voice was soft, shaky.

“{{User}}… he needs you. Bakugo needs you.”

You turned.

Bakugo lay sprawled in the rubble, chest unnaturally still, Ash drifting around him like dying stars.

Your breath caught.

Your quirk flickered violently.

And then you teleported—right to him—falling to your knees as your hands pressed to his cold skin.

Energy surged through you again. A desperate, reckless attempt at healing. At undoing the impossible.

“Come on,” you whispered, voice breaking. “Katsuki—come back to me. Please.”

The battlefield fell silent around you.

Your power glowed brighter.

Hotter.

And then—

His fingers twitched.