My mind was in such a panic, I truly believed that the sudden blackness was the end of my life, and that 'Game Over' text would soon appear. Instead, I felt a heavy material against my skin.

"Hawks! Songbird! I'm here!"

T..Tokoyami..?!

Scrambling, I yanked the material, which I quickly realised was his cloak, away, choking up when I saw him poised and ready to fight between us and Dabi. Dark Shadow began to fuss over me, it's large, ghostly hands gently feeling me over.

"We were so worried! We saw the flames and feathers!" It explained, quickly moving to Hawks once it deduced that I wasn't as close to death's door. Carefully, it rolled Hawks further onto his stomach, beginning to lift his shirt up at the back. I could hear the way his skin stuck like glue to the material, and instinctively reached to brush a hand through his hair when he hissed. "H..his back, I..It's gone..!"

I didn't want to believe it, but the proof was right in front of me. Where his crimson wings had once protruded there was nothing but blistered, melting skin, seeping with blood. Not even the bases were left.
"Keigo..." His name was a whisper on my lips as I stared at the gore, my guts cramping and threatening another unceremonious release as bile began to creep up my throat.

"You're one of those Yuuei kids, aren't ya? They're sending students into this mess? How tacky..." Dabi finally spoke up, thick, silver smoke streaming from the splits in his face.
"Don't say that!" Tokoyami barked back, his form shaking as he stood his ground. He was just as terrified as I was, maybe even more so, but I couldn't do anything. I was frozen to the spot, glued to my husband.

Smirking, Dabi thumbed over his shoulder as he stepped to the side, revealing Twice's bloody, lifeless body, head jammed through the hallway rails.
"Check it out, kid. Your man killed this guy. He was just running off to protect his pals, but instead he got stabbed in the back." He explained loosely, our eyes briefly meeting as he spoke. It sent a burning chill down my spine.

Tokoyami can't carry us both...but...if I could just force my quirk to last just a little longer...then maybe...

"Why're you here, anyway? Came to do some saving? But saving who, exactly?" Tilting his head, the villain didn't show any sign of moving yet, just milking the tension in the decimated room. "These pros you look up to so much...Their hands are dirtier than ours..."

Hawks shifted beneath my hand, turning his head and attempting to wet his scorched lips.
"T..Toko...ya...mi..." He was growing weaker by the second, and I was helpless. My husband was closer to death than ever before, and I wasn't able to do a thing about it.

Tokoyami glanced over his shoulder to us, his eyes wide in terror. I could almost see every hair on his head shaking.
"Don't..." I whispered in the most pathetic voice. No matter how badly I wished that he could save us, Dabi was one of the poorest match ups for him.

Tearing his eyes away, Dark Shadow left our sides, curling around it's master and growing larger in size.
"I'm just...concerned about my mentors..." He wasn't going to back down, and I wasn't sure how to handle that on top of everything else. He was just a kid. Fighting Dabi would be a death sentence.

Tilting his head to the side, the patchwork ravonet grinned, and even through my hazy vision I could see the tips of his fingers flex.
"Tch...You've stopped thinking for yourself..." There was no need for me to warn Tokoyami, as he had already noticed. Just as Dabi moved to release his quirk, he and Dark Shadow leapt into action, scooping us up and diving out of the way of the cerulean blaze.

We landed hard on the ground, our intern clutching Hawks and his quirk enveloping me. The poor creature had already shrunk in size, and it trembled around me, sniffling and murmuring apologies.
"Y..you have t-"
"He'll...keep talking..." Hawks rasped, his forehead leaning against the side of the student's face.

"Think about it, you pair of roasted birds. Who is it who really needs saving?" Dabi's entire right side was engulfed with flames, but he didn't advance on us. Tokoyami crouched, frozen solid, gritting his teeth and waiting for something. An order. A miracle. Anything.

"H..he got to busy chat..ting...to kill us properly...It's not...because he has that much leeway...He's trying to rattle us...to buy himself time..." He explained, so low and distorted that it was difficult to make out. "He can't...fire off more in a row...They're weaker...So...you have to take...(Y/N)...and go..."

"No..! I can fly by myself..! I don't n..need to be carried..!" Squirming out of Dark Shadow's hold, I tried to stand, willing my quirk out. Stumbling, the sentient quirk caught me, slightly flinching from the faint, pathetic flickers coming from my back.

"I think...she's..." I couldn't quite hear what he had whispered, but Tokoyami sure had, and his head whipped around to me with shocked eyes. "...Go. Now." When Tokoyami sprung to grab me, I initially started to retaliate, but when I saw that he still clung to Hawks, I became limp with relief.

He's going to try to save both of us...

Even before Dark Shadow could completely wrap around him and we became airborne, I knew he was struggling. Our weights combined, I couldn't blame him. I just couldn't understand why they wouldn't let me try to use my quirk. Dabi sprung into action, reaching towards us, flames licking up the length of his arm, but before he could release the blast, the whole world shook.

Jagged pillars of stone crashed through the walls, knocking the villain from the walkway and over the bannister, and we barely managed to dodge.
"Dark Shadow! We need to gain altitude! If we start low we'll get caught in the mayhem of battle!" Tokoyami instructed his quirk as we escaped the building. "Hang in there, both of you! I shall get you to safety!"

His muscles were trembling, and every thought in my mind was telling me to let go and try to fly on my own. Exhausted as I was, I wasn't the one who had sustained the most damage. I wasn't the priority.

Just as Tokoyami had said, the outside grounds of the mansion were complete mayhem. Blood streaked the grass as heroes and villains fought against each other, quirks setting off left and right, and debris being shot in every which direction.

Dark Shadow had managed to reach a height that could avoid all of it, but I could hear the creature whimpering to itself.
"Tokoyami...I can do it! Let me go and make it easier on yourself..!" I insisted, tapping at his arm to try and get him to release me. It only tightened.

"I..I can do it..! Have faith! Even if we must stop just beyond the thick of the fray...I can do it..!" The teenager replied with gritted teeth, though all signs pointed to that being impossible. His continual readjustment of his grip on each of us, the way the veins in his arms pulsed. We were slipping.

Something flashed past, dangerously close to us, and for a moment, we began to sink lower towards the ground.
"S..sorry! I'm sorry! I'll try harder..!" Dark Shadow wailed, grunting as it tried to regain lost altitude. It wasn't working.
"Seriously! Please! Just let me-"

"Toko...yami..." Hawks cut me off in his weakened rasp, slightly tilting his head to lean against our intern's chest. "I really...am proud of you...You've come so...far..." For some reason, the moment he began to speak caused a lick of dread up my spine, but I didn't dare say a word. All I could do was stare at him.

"Hawks, Sir..! Just hang on! Your pride in me shall forever b..be cherished...but we must focus on getting you medical attention..!" Tokoyami replied, his voice strained. Again, our altitude dropped. We were still so high up, but much longer and we'd end up in even worse trouble.

"Let me go! I..I can fly! I ca-"
"There...aren't many people I would trust...their lives to...but...you, kid, are one of the f..few exceptions..." Hawks drawled, each intake of breath a painful crackle. When his eye moved to meet mine, I began to shake. I had seen many emotions in that honeyed amber before, and this was a mix of all of them, but at the same time, it was all new.

Wait...

Another projectile quirk whipped past us, and Dark Shadow yelped, very nearly dropping Tokoyami, who in turn came close to losing both of us. Again, we dropped further.
"You know...I was totally sp..spying on you the night we met...when I...followed you t..to the park..." He hacked out a faint laugh, lips set in a gentle smile.

"Keigo, y..you're delerious..." I murmured, staring at him in fear. Why would he bring that up now?
"Sunshine...in the dead of night...How could I...not want to get close..?" His hand, once lip and dangling, weakly reached up to touch my face, thumb trembling as it stroked my cheek.

Please, wait...

"We went...so fast...I wish I'd slowed down a bit...so I could bask in you...Your warmth...My sunshine..." Hawks tilted his head back, exhaling slowly, hand still against my skin. "S..see? The sky is grey...but you still make me happy..."

It was then that I realized what he was getting at, and my hand flew up to grasp his in place. There was no way I was letting go.
"Keigo...stop...We..we're almost out..." I stammered, my throat trying to close off the path of my words. "I..In and out...that's what you said...You promised..!"

Struggling to pull his head back up, he still held that same, bittersweet smile. I could feel his pulse through his hand, and it was level. Normal. Maybe even a little slow. Somehow, he was completely calm.

"All limits are self imposed..." He whispered, smoke-ravaged voice somehow still so soothing. "My limit...is now...Your lives come first...You'll always come first, (Y/N)...My Sunshine..." I could feel myself slipping in Tokoyami's hold, and I could see the same was happening with Hawks. The only difference was that, whilst I was dripping onto the student with my free hand, Hawks seemed to be pushing.

"No! Hold on! I can save you both..!" Tokoyami cried out, but his body, his tone, his quirk, they all pointed to the opposite.
"Keigo, no..! You're not-"
"You're still...hot to the touch...just like the first time we met...God, I l..love you...I need you to re..remember that. I'm always gonna love you, a..and you'll never know...how much..."

"S..stop...I love you t..too, Keigo...but sto-" When the turbulance hit, everything seemed to move in slow motion. Without breaking eye contact, Hawks used the momentary jolt to push himself out and away from us, that smile never failing for a second.

I WILL NOT LOSE YOU..!

"KEIGO..!" Screaming, I, too, shoved off of the hero in training, despite his desperate attempts to stop me, beginning to freefall after my husband. Facing upwards, he watched me, looking so horrifically graceful as the slivers of light touched his face.

My body burned as I tried to force my quirk to activate, desperation being given a newer, stronger meaning. Again, just like before, mere sparks and flashes flickered from my shoulder blades. It just wouldn't work. Reaching out, I tried to get closer, his hand mere inches away. Centimeters.

I CAN REACH YOU..! I CAN-

"Live...the life...that neither of us could..." Above the wind that drowned the rest of the world out, somehow, I could hear Hawks' voice, so deathly quiet and calm.

"Thank you, (Y/N)...for saving me..."

"KEIGO..! I'M NO-" My body was lurched backwards, my spine, my guts, my neck, all jolting into a rush of pain, but that didn't compare to the way my chest felt as I watched Hawks continue to fall. Tokoyami's desperate, shakin pleading was all white noise as we were dragged apart, me towards the sky, and Hawks, disappearing through the canopy of trees below, still quaking and filled with violent battle.

Th..this...isn't...

"KEIGO! K..KEIGO..?!" Was my voice even coming out? Could I even breathe? The more I struggled, the less my body worked. My left hand flew up to claw at Tokoyami's, trying to free myself again, but it was no use. I was shutting down, my it her hand reaching out towards where I had last seen my husband, and it quickly fell far behind us as Tokoyami continued on.

Faintly, behind the static of my screaming thoughts, I could hear Tokoyami sobbing, apologising, begging for forgiveness, but I couldn't respond. I wasn't there anymore. Everything around us became a blur of nothing.

Eventually, my arms fell limp against my sides, and I just stared downward, catatonic and only aware of the pulsing of blood through my veins. That was the only thing keeping me from completely passing out.

Over and over, I thought the same thing, like a chant or mantra. That was what I was holding onto. It was all I had left to hold onto as we passed above the death and destruction, even as it thinned out, becoming eerily silent.

I didn't see him hit the ground...He could still be alive...I didn't see him hit the ground...he could still be alive...I didn't see him hit the ground...he could still...be...

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***Next Time: Hope***