Top pic credit: Birf.

Violet POV:

I watched blankly as Dabi shot a thick line of blue flames across Midas' forbidden hallway to Euphoria, watching him affirm the choice that he'd rather murder Euphoria and get us eaten alive by Midas' men, rather than plant a meaningless one second kiss on my lips.

Oh...

It's like that, huh?

I see.

So, basically I'm gonna kill him.

Seething anger bubbled around inside my chest as I glared darkly at Dabi's back, hearing him revert back to his villainous, maniacal tone with the low chuckle that reverberated from his throat.

"Right. As if you could ever force me into doing something I don't wanna do. Did you forget who I am? Or, were you just getting too comfortable? Doesn't matter either way. You won't live long enough to figure it out now." He stated to Euphoria smugly, keeping his back to me in a way that felt purposeful as he waited for his smoke screen to clear from the hallway.

Feeling my teeth grinding down on each other, I stormed over to Dabi and roughly shoved him in the back, causing his feral grin to falter and his feet to stumble as he turned around to face me.

"Huh? You watch it. Know your fucking place-" he attempted to order me, trying to put me in my place and failing as I watched my hand whip across his cheek.

Whoops. I've never slapped anyone before...

His eyes widened slightly as he got slapped back to reality by me, extinguishing the flames on his palms and instinctively touching his cheek to gingerly feel the area.

Neither of us said anything, glaring at each other and reflecting tensely on the moment-but refusing to verbally address the giant elephant in the room of Dabi's horrible decision here tonight.

I'm not lying when I say I'm furious. I'm angry that he betrayed my trust. I'm embarrassed. My pride is wounded. I'm stressed at the fight Dabi just started, and the possibility that he's already signed our death sentence. And many, many more things...

But, I'm also smart enough to know that our priority at this moment is de-escalating the situation with Euphoria. Whether that means fighting her, or stopping her. Knocking her out-I don't know. Dabi's smoke screen is going to clear any second to reveal the damage.

So, instead of getting into all my unresolved anger over the kiss-not-kiss right now, I decided to save it for a time where our lives are not in danger, pressing my lips together and burning my gaze into Dabi as I spoke calmly.

Who knows! Maybe we'll even die here tonight. Then we never have to talk about what happened.

"Do you know how much I hate you right now?" I asked him casually, watching Dabi give his slapped cheek another rub.

"Yeah." He said blankly, losing the mocking taunt that his voice held when he spoke to Euphoria.

He didn't sound humorous. He didn't think it was funny. He wasn't playing off the encounter as if it was uninteresting and nothing.

He sounded like he knew how genuinely angry I was with him. If anything, his eyes blinked a few times like he was nervous. Like he knew now how badly he might have messed this up-and I'm not talking about the mission.

He chose not to say anything else. Not meeting my gaze either as he looked straight ahead to the wall dryly.

I don't know how to take that. I don't know how to take his response. Everyone's mixed signals tonight are starting to drive me crazy.

"Good." I simply followed up, ending that conversation for now as I turned my attention to the smoke filled hallway ahead of us. "Now, how do you plan on handling this?"

I gestured to Dabi's disappearing smoke screen, already trying to reflect on possible ways this scenario could play out. I didn't want to underestimate the situation, and I definitely didn't want to underestimate Euphoria.

Dabi, on the other hand, seemed to go with the opposite approach-no surprise, letting a small snort escape through his nose as he looked at the smoke screen cockily.

"Easily. Her quirk is nitrous oxide, for fuck's sake. What's she gonna do? Laugh me to death?" Dabi taunted, as the smoke screen finally fizzled away to reveal the damage.

The damage of Euphoria still standing, grinning slyly as she pulled a small pouch from the holster on her belt.

Dabi and I watched like a couple of clueless clowns, tilting our heads simultaneously as Euphoria pulled a shiny, silver jewel from the pouch-Midas' jewel, to be exact.

Oh, great. She's got Midas' jewels to use against us, too.

I pressed my lips together in frustration, turning to Dabi in contradiction to his earlier sentence.

He felt my gaze on him, once again opting to shut up and roll his eyes in resentful defeat.

"Your mouth must get tired from running itself so much." I pointed out, quickly putting up a crystal wall to protect us as Euphoria threw Midas' jewel at us.

I grabbed ahold of Dabi's arm, yanking him down to crouching with me and pulling him close as I covered my ears.

"Brace yourself! If I remember from Club Norboru correctly, the silver jewels explode!" I called out to Dabi, squeezing my eyes shut and tensing my body as I waited for the boom.

Dabi didn't take my advice, unsurprisingly so, as he watched me through bored, half lidded eyes....lazily looking ahead and watching the silver jewel plop on the ground uneventfully.

I inhaled sharply and covered my ears tighter, hesitantly opening a single eye to see the silver jewel still intact.

My brows furrowed as I slowly removed my hands from my ears, hearing Dabi's condescending clap from next to me.

"That's embarrassing for you, huh?" He commented nonchalantly, making me fully remove my hands from my ears and look at the jewel in shock.

"What?! Oh. Damn. I really thought that one was supposed to expl-"

BOOM!!!

Whether I passed out, went blind, or shit my pants, I'm not entirely sure as black consumed my vision and ear splitting crashes blew out my eardrums. It felt like I got hit by a bus.

I'll admit, not the way I wanted to start off the fight!

I know my body rolled a few times, and I may have even hit my head as I realized I was on my back now....trying to clear away the pounding ringing of eardrums, but not knowing how.

The only thing to let me know I was still conscious and alive was the sound of Dabi's coughs and wheezes from next to me, feeling my hearing barely returning to normal as he spoke a few seconds later.

"Oh. My. God-" he groaned out with a surprising amount of pain, hacking a few more times before I felt his hand plop on my chest.

Ooo. I may be half dead.....but, hey, not dead enough to miss the fact that he's touching my boobs-

Clearly, Dabi's hand placement was unintentional as his hand frantically continued it's patting up my body, seeming as if he was trying to feel around for my face.

"Fuck. Violet! Are you okay?" He choked out again, still recovering from the blast as I felt his hand pat my neck before quickly cupping my jaw.

I groaned softly at his touch, feeling his quirk barely activating on his palm as he patted my cheek gently to bring me back.

"Hmggjd," I garbled out in pain, furrowing my brows as I slowly forced my eyes open.

Believe it or not, my crystal wall actually absorbed a lot of that blast. It could have been way worse.

"Come on. Stop messing around. Wake the fuck up. Your wrist is bloody, but that's it." He urged with impatient concern, trying to reassure me that I was fine and failing.

Luckily, I am fine. I'll be okay in a moment. I just need a second to recover. That's usually what happens after one gets blown up, I assume.

"Isjdjfd....I'll take five.....the square root of seven.....integers......math is cool..." I slurred out incoherently, feeling Dabi's thumb gently caress my jaw as I began returning to full living. "Sir...Isaac Newton..." my mouth babbled out unknowingly.

"Huh? Sir Isaac Newton? Who the fuck is that? Some guy you hooked up with?" Dabi questioned seriously, as my vision to slowly cleared.

I coughed a bit and groaned, feeling my sight and my hearing return to me dazedly as I slowly tried to sit up.

Dabi helped me, quickly smushing his torso against mine as he wrapped his arms around my back and helped me sit up straight.

I continued hugging him tightly once I was up, resting my forehead against his shoulder and hating how much better I felt in his arms.

I'm still mad at him...

His soft rubbing of my back did nothing to clear away the soft thoughts though, with his gentle actions once again contradicting his hurtful words.

Or, his previously hurtful words. It seems the blast shook Dabi up more than he'd like to admit.

"Hey. You're okay, sunshine. Come on." He murmured softly, sounding a bit dazed like he was still out of it himself as he hugged me tightly.

I slowly released him a few moments later as I sat up straight, feeling my full mobility returning to me as I looked at Dabi through clear eyes.

The blast honestly didn't change his appearance that much. He was covered in soot now and his hair was a windswept from the explosion. His expensive jacket was ripped and torn, and there was a small cut on his forehead, lightly dripping blood down the line of his nose. But, other than that, he's fine.

"Well," I croaked out through a raspy voice, clearing my throat softly as I continued. "That hurt."

"No shit, Sherlock." Dabi followed up distractedly, starting to look around the area to find out where we were.

I did the same, rubbing my bloodshot eyes as I surveyed the scene.

Luckily, we were still on the third floor. I could tell that from the deep red paint on the walls. Lucky-not-lucky, Euphoria blasted a hole right through the wall, sending Dabi and I to another part of the third floor. This is good, because now she doesn't have us cornered. But, bad, because she blew a hole through Midas' personal area of the mansion, and I really feel like that will come back to haunt us, somehow!

"Crap..." I groaned out stressfully, turning my attention back to Dabi in alarm.

He met my gaze expectantly, seeming as if he finally had his head in the game, and ready to listen for my instructions.

Ugh. But, why does it always take something astronomical, like an explosion, to make him help out. Not to mention, THIS ENTIRE THING IS HIS FAULT! I CAN'T STAND HIM-

"Clearly, Euphoria is looking for a fight, Dabi. That's tricky, because only one side of the mansion doesn't have cameras, meaning we can't extend the fight past this side. Plus, if the guests downstairs find out about this, we'll be exposed and probably ripped apart, before we have time to do anything else. There's hundreds of them down there." I started off, sitting on the pile of rubble to start removing my heels.

Why bother trying to fight in those, you know?

Dabi nodded in surprising agreement, continuing to keep a lookout for Euphoria as I took off my shoes.

"That explosion was loud as shit, and I'm sure that bitch has more jewels on her. The longer we fight in here, the more we're gonna fuck up and get caught." He added on, finally getting with the program of trying to de-escalate this situation.

It's too late for that now. But, better late than never, I guess....

Regardless, I nodded, looking around the area to try and figure out a plan.

And that's exactly what came to me as my gaze landed on the window, seeing the outline of the giant trees that were guarding the garden outside.

"Ooo. Bingo!" I fingergunned brightly, turning back to Dabi with a grin of victory as I prepared to explain.

He looked down at me with half lidded eyes, raising his brows uneventfully at my phrase.

"One day, you'll say something cool. Obviously, that's not today." He commented casually, yet I ignored him.

"The garden! Euphoria wants a fight? Fine. We can give her one. Just not in here. If we force her out into the garden, then those big trees will conceal our fight and the noise from the guests. S-Sure, Midas' garden will probably be destroyed. But, at least we won't be ripped apart by all his recruits tonight." I pointed out, not totally liking my own idea, but what other choice do we have-

"Or, we can call the portal guy, force the cunt into a portal somewhere else, and fight her that way." Dabi suggested with surprising intelligence, making my eyes widen at the revelation.

Damn. Call Kurogiri? Why didn't I think of that?!

"Oh-Wow, Dabi. That's strangely profound of you." I said honestly, not even bothering to hide my shock in the matter.

Dabi seemed to find complete pride in my back-handed compliment, grinning ferally as he took the credit.

"I have my moments." He drawled out, causing my nerves to ease slightly as I gestured to his pocket.

"I guess you do. Now, pull out your phone and call Kurogiri so we can fix this mess." I said lightly, tossing my heels on the floor before forming a pair of crystal combat boots around both of my feet.

More comfortable than you think. Definitely durable and good weapon, too.

Dabi cockily reached into his pockets, immediately losing the upper hand as he began feeling around.

"My phone's not here. Must have gotten thrown from the explosion. Who cares. Just use yours." He followed up, gesturing to the pockets of my jumpsuit.

Oh. Great!

I slapped Dabi's hands away as my annoyance returned full circle, throwing up my hands to emphasize his stupidity.

"What?!!! Well, I don't have my phone either, Dabi! I dropped it before you showed up!" I exclaimed, causing his eyes to widen in minuscule 'oh shit' mode.

"Huh?! Well, why the fuck did you drop your phone? Are you stupid, or something?" Dabi nagged, running a hand through his hair in irritation.

"No, I'm not stupid! I'm not the one who started this fight. You did!" I retorted, making him scoff and roll his eyes as we started to bicker.

"No, you didn't start the fight-Your fingers just don't work apparently, when it comes to holding things. Just like your brain." He countered bluntly, causing my jaw to drop on offense.

"Oh yeah?!" I asked threateningly, causing Dabi to come closer.

"Yeah. What, now you're deaf, too?" He followed up, making steam practically come out my ears.

"I'll make you deaf!!" I yelled, grinding down on my teeth as I balled my fists.

"You can't make me deaf if you're brainless." He snickered like a child.

"You wanna talk brainless?!!" I yelled louder.

"Yeah, I wanna talk brainless, brainless!" He retorted ferally as we began to bicker more.

"Why are you so annoying!? I hate you!"

"I fucking hate you more!!"

"No! I-"

My words trailed off as my brain turned to mush, along with Dabi's apparently, as we both suddenly looked at each other blankly.

....before slowly breaking out into laughter.

A laughter we didn't want.

Our laughter started soft, mingling together, before we watched the other's eyes glaze over in a drunken, half lidded daze.

Uh-oh. Nitrous oxide.

Euphoria.

"Oh.....fuck." Dabi chuckled dazedly, head starting to lull softly as the effects overtook us quicker than we could even process.

"We are so screwed." I giggled out, leaning forward and resting my hand on his shoulder as I felt full of blissed out glee.

I meant my words. And I probably would have screamed them in Dabi's face, if I didn't feel soooo relaxed and giddy.

"Ohhh, man. I'm gonna...fucking rip her throat out.....where is that..w-pffff-whore?" Dabi cackled out in between laughs, throwing his head back in euphoria as more nitrous oxide entered our nostrils.

My eyes wanted to close as I felt myself cracking up at Dabi's threats of murder, sliding my hand from his shoulder to his neck, before opting to sloppily shoving it over his face.

We both giggled at that, causing Dabi to lethargically fall over onto his back, grabbing my arm and bringing me with him.

"Stop messing around, you...damn imbecile. I seriously can't stand you." I wheezed out in a giggling mess, falling onto Dabi's chest and causing his laughs to get louder.

"Mm. I can't stand you either-can't stand how much I love you, that is." He drawled out playfully, causing a snort of laughter to escape out my mouth and nose as I gripped him tightly.

I hit his chest as if that was just the funniest damn thing I'd ever heard, plopping my hand over his face again before smushing his cheeks together.

"You love that you know you can't stand me?" I repeated in a jumbled cackle, watching Dabi's grin as wide as can be as he rested a hand on my hair.

"You know how much you love to know how much you know you love that you can't stand me?" He questioned incoherently, only confusing the conversation even more as both of us were completely lost in translation.

Well, I slapped my knee with that one, blowing a big raspberry from my cheeks, before slapping both my hands over my mouth and rapidly shaking my head.

"That's seriously not even funny! We're literally gonna die because of you!" I practically garbled in euphoric laughter, meaning every bit of that sentence internally.

"Mmmmhm, at least you'll die sexy though." Dabi slurred out in bliss, squeezing my waist between his hands tightly before throwing his head back on the rubble like he was giving up.

A mood, honestly-

"Having fun there, you two? Please, don't stop on my account. I don't mind...watching." Euphoria taunted smugly from above us, finally making her position known as she watched Dabi and I reacting to her quirk.

Both of us cracked up even more at her appearance, eyes starting to tear and faces going red as we couldn't catch our breath. Dabi even removed a hand from my waist, pointing a finger at her like she had something on her face.

"Shit, Dabi, shes here!" I whined out in a half laugh, half cry, gently slapping him in the face again to show my anger somehow.

"Who?" He hummed out gleefully, letting his eyes roll closed as he enjoyed the trip.

"Euphoria!" I reminded him in a slur, repeatedly hitting my forehead against his chest lackadaisically.

"Oh, yeah. I forgot about her." Dabi drawled out, before Euphoria gave his side a harsh kick.

Well, that seemed to knock some sense back into him as his eyes shot open in pain, causing her quirk to clear away from his brain as quickly as it came.

I looked at him in confusion, still high off my ass on the nitrous oxide-before the bottom of Euphoria's boot slammed down onto my cheek.

A garbled choke of pain escaped me as I was harshly jolted out of my euphoric trip, now feeling sober as ever when my body went flying off Dabi's and into the wall from the force.

Gracefully, I landed upside down with my back against the wall and my feet tangled straight up in the air....groaning slightly at the man-handling I was experiencing tonight.

But, it also gave me a revelation.

Euphoria's quirk is nitrous oxide. But, physical pain is what apparently breaks the cycle. Good to note in case it happens again.

"Wow. Now, you two are quite the bunch, sharing the same brain cell and all. Maybe you are meant for each other." Euphoria chuckled, suddenly pulling a new knife from her holster.

Only....this knife....was different.

Even upside down, my eyes widened out of my head as I recognized the decorative hilt of the knife instantly-only now also taking a better look at Euphoria's all black outfit and suddenly recognizing that, too.

Oh my god.

She's one of the people from the rooftop that night. One of the masked fighters who tried to attack me, when Dabi and I kidnapped Harima.

There were three attackers on the roof that night. Dabi killed one of them, with a death by fire. Now, I know that Euphoria was one of the others-the one with the knife...

And there's still one more attacker. It was the person with the nunchucks. The person who tried to stop me from jumping off the roof and held their punches, so they wouldn't hurt me.

It's all coming back to me that night. Euphoria's fighting style. Her swinging her knife at me with aggressive intent, trying to legitimately kill me that night.

And if she was on the roof that night, with me as her target...

That means, she must have already known about who I was, even before we were introduced at Club Norboru.

Meaning I was already on her radar, before she even knew I wanted to be 'recruited' into Midas gang.

Or...

I was already on Midas' radar, that is.

"Yeah. See it now, Vicky?" Euphoria questioned condescendingly, stepping over Dabi as he still tried to recover.

She doesn't even care about fighting Dabi?

Double 'oh crap.'

I quickly scrambled down the wall, trying to get myself upright as Euphoria twirled the knife between her fingers, slowly walking towards my position.

"I'll be honest, I was expecting more from you, during our little rooftop chase that night. Frankly, I was preparing for an all out war..." she drawled out, watching me pathetically stumble back up to my feet.

What the heck would make her assume that!? Has she not seen me?!

My gaze immediately went back to the window, to the giant trees, and the garden that was hidden by it.

Well, now that calling Kurogiri is out of the plan, I suppose we'll have to go with my original plan of luring Euphoria into the forest outside.

And, since she's currently only after me, and Dabi's still trying to recover, it appears that we'll have to split up and hopefully meet up again once we're outside in the forest-

"But, I wasn't expecting you to run that night. How pathetic. Whatever. There's nowhere for you to run now. So, it looks like you'll be forced to show me what the hell is sooo damn great about you." She stated bitterly, clenching her jaw upon saying the sarcastic words.

Ha! Bet.

I stared at her blankly for a moment, puffing out my cheeks in preparation, before I abruptly began my speciality.

Running the fuck away!

"Wha-huh?!?" Euphoria called out angrily, watching me turn on my heel and take off sprinting down the hallway.

"Set yourself up for that one, dumbass." Dabi gloated to Euphoria obnoxiously, seeming to know what I was doing as he let me run for my life.

Welp, see you on the other side, Dabi. Whether that's the forest, or hell, see you later, I guess.

Euphoria let out an infuriated growl, before I heard her heavy booted footsteps barreling after me at a much faster pace than I was running.

"Get back here, you little twat! You're not supposed to run away in the middle of a fight!!" She exclaimed, causing me to quickly turn the corner out of Dabi's sight and pick up my speed.

"I beg to differ!" I defended anxiously, shooting my eyes around every the premise to try and find a way out of here.

I need to figure out how to get down to the ground level, and to the garden, without simultaneously letting Euphoria kill me, or trigger the security cameras.

Nice. Easy. Not.

But, now I've committed so I gotta follow through unless I want to get carved up like a Halloween Jack-O'-Lantern. Maybe Euphoria can at least give me some nitrous oxide for that pain? I doubt it!-

I was brought out of my frantic thoughts upon feeling a blade of metal whoosh past my ear, barely missing it before it hit the wall next to me.

"Ahh!!! Ohhhh!!! What?!? I'm gonna hurl!!" I screamed, looking behind me just in time to see another knife coming point blank for my forehead.

I grit down on my teeth, holding my hands up to shield my face. Luckily, my instincts kicked in at some point, as I felt a shield of crystals permeate around my hands, clashing with Euphoria's blade.

The piece of metal dinged harshly against my quirk, before it clattered to the ground, causing me to feel a millisecond of relief, before I looked up.

"That was my left hand. And I'm right handed." Euphoria grinned slyly, reaching her hand into one of the pouches of her chest vest.

"W-Well, maybe you can keep using your left?!? A-After all, who doesn't wanna learn to be ambidextrous, am I right?!?" I called out frantically, looking behind me to see what she had next.

Out of her pouch came an array of mini daggers, with Euphoria holding one between each of her fingers.

Nononono-

"And, the tips are poison coated." She gloated once more, causing me to internally face palm.

I slowly began backing up again, having the ultimate goal of getting outside screaming loud in my mind, as Euphoria chucked the first poison blade directly at me.

Dragging both of my hands across my body, I immediately put a crystal wall barrier between me and Euphoria from the floor to the ceiling, trying to buy myself more time as I continued my sprint down the hallway.

"Come on. Come on. There's gotta be a way out, somewhere." I muttered to myself nervously, quickly turning another corner down this maze of a mansion.

Upon doing so, I heard another giant explosion sound from the area I'd just been in, assuming Euphoria used another one of Midas' jewels to blast my crystals to hell.

"You can't run forever!!" She yelled at me, before her footsteps were heard picking up their pace once more.

I don't plan to.

I mean....I don't necessarily plan to inflict that much damage on her either. But, enough to stop this mess.

Trying to be more aware of my surroundings, I looked behind me immediately when I heard Euphoria turn the corner of the hallway I was in, quickly throwing up another crystal wall when I watched her chuck the second poison blade my way.

Quicker than the first time, my crystal wall was immediately blown up by another green jewel, before I saw Euphoria barrel her way through the remnants and find me in her sights.

Rather than waste her remaining three poison blades, she held up her other hand and shot a line of nitrous oxide from her palms, trying to sedate me into ceasing my run.

Immediately, my hand went to my nose and mouth, causing me to hold my breath and continue my run through the forbidden hallway.

Already being high on adrenaline and the exertion of my sprint, I felt my heart beating out of my eardrums as I was forced to hold my breath, wondering if I'd pass out before I could inhale Euphoria's quirk.

She was closing in quickly. The only reason she hasn't caught me yet is because I keep stalling time with the crystal walls.

But, she'll catch up quickly if I don't-

I gasped as I watched a third poison blade jab into the wall next to me, hearing Euphoria laughing as she chucked a fourth one before I could put a wall up.

This one actually managed to hit the heel of my foot. But, luckily, my feet were covered by my crystal boots, making Euphoria's shot ineffective.

Thank goodness.

I could tell she was genuinely getting frustrated at the chase, and I couldn't blame her, turning another corner and wondering when this would end. When I would find a way out.

But, upon turning the next corner, I was met with a dead end, seeing nothing but a window directly in front of me.

My face paled as I turned around to face Euphoria, shooting her a nervous grin as I tried a new, failed approach.

"Soooo..................Why are we fighting? Studies have shown that talking calmly and not wanting to kill me, are actually much more impactful for the mood and the nervous system-"

"Ha!! Time to break that adorable face of yours!!" Euphoria yelled out ferally from behind, taking off towards me like a bull.

Goodbye, world.

"Waitwaitwait-letstalkaboutthis-useyourwordsuseyour-AHH!!!" I yelled out as Euphoria body slammed me like a football player, causing my back to hit the glass window and both of us to fly out of it.

Well. That's one way to get to the ground level, undetected by the cameras...

My eyes widened as Euphoria and I free fell three stories down, watching her hovering above me in the air with a psychotic grin of glee plastered on her face.

I quickly shot a line of crystals down my frame to cushion my fall, connecting it from the broken window to the ground like a slide.

I slid down to the ground unharmed a few moments later, forced to continue shooting crystals on the pavement so I wouldn't get road rash.

Euphoria wasn't so lucky, practically face planting into the cobblestone pavement in a way that made my, probably concussed, head actually want to laugh at such a clumsy action from someone like her.

Regardless, the plan is now almost complete with me still in one piece. The hardest part-getting to the ground is now checked off. Next, comes luring Euphoria into the forest, which is still a good fifty feet away.

I quickly halted my crystal slide when the pavement met the clean cut grass, turning around abruptly to check Euphoria's status.

As expected, she wasn't out of the fight even after her three story fall, groaning and holding a red jewel between her fingers as she slowly made her way to her feet.

Don't know what the red ones do, and I don't wanna find out. But, she just fell three stories, unscathed while holding it, so there's that.

Knowing she'd follow me if I kept running, that's exactly what I did as I ran for the forest, happy that the pitch black night and thick trees would conceal our fight.

Dabi should be there by now, hopefully. He can help me take down Euphoria.

Because I can't do it by myself. I'm not strong enough. I'm not good enough.

My chest heaved and my heart wracked in adrenaline as I ran faster than I thought I could. The night breeze kissed my face, and had I not been sprinting for my life, I might have actually been able to reflect on how nice the night was.

Not a cloud covered the sky, revealing a blanket of glowing stars that almost shined as bright as Midas' jewels. The smell of the freshly cut lawn brought a sense of comfort to such a dangerous situation, and the running fountains plastered along various parts of the place illuminated soothingly in my background.

But, I couldn't focus on that. Not when I have the row of trees within my sights, literal feet away from completing the task.

From completing a task. From succeeding at something.

Two more steps, and I did. I made it into the forest, not stopping my run as I wanted to ensure I'd travel deep enough to be concealed from the windows of the mansion.

The moment I entered the blankets of thick trees, the pitch black night suddenly became darker. The stars were no longer visible above me, covered by the outlines of leaves and branches, some of which stuck out in odd, creepy angles.

The temperature dropped a few degrees now that I was amongst the trees. The sound of the fountains suddenly became masked as the wooden bark insulated me in its confines, replacing the noise with the sound of grasshoppers and crickets humming softly instead.

My breath became louder in my ears as I continued running, and running, and running. Not knowing how far I went, or what I was searching for. Dabi, obviously. Euphoria, too.

But, it felt like I was alone in here. It felt like I'd suddenly become completely dislocated from the world. Like there was an aura these trees possessed that made alarm bells go off in my head, and adrenaline spike in my veins.

It feels similar to when I'd first entered the forbidden hallway. I feel a pull here, and I'm not sure why. Though, this time, I don't feel lost in a trance of beauty like I'd been before.

I just feel strange. Off.

Realizing my lungs felt like they were going to burn out my chest, I slowly stopped my run a few moments later.....coming to a gradual halt as I tried to look amongst the trees.

But, there were more trees than I originally thought. And, like I said, it's suddenly darker, making it harder to see.

Not wanting to stop walking in case Euphoria came up behind me, I slowly began to walk forward, hearing my boots crunching against the mossy ground with every step.

Knowing that this would be a time where I may have to fight, I quickly formed a crystal dagger from my hand, holding it nervously as I carefully made my way through the trees...waiting for a figure to pop out from the, already pitch black, shadows and attack me.

A few more seconds of anticipated waiting, and I faintly heard a twig snap behind me, causing me to gasp and quickly turn around.

I continued walking backwards as I held up my dagger, trying to look amongst the endless outlines of tree bark to spot anything. anything.

But, fuck, it's too dark!!!-

Upon continuing to walk backwards, my back immediately hit something hard, causing me to inhale sharply and quickly turn forward again.

I held back a scream, slapping a hand over my mouth as I saw the outline of a person-it was too dark to make out their appearance.

But, it didn't look like a woman's outline.

"Dabi???" I whispered hopefully, keeping my dagger locked as I waited for the person to answer.

But, they didn't answer. They didn't even move. At all.

And that's when it got me thinking.

Remembering what the hero commission Boss explained at the beginning of this mission...

Midas....turns people into statues.

My jaw dropped. My face paled and my stomach churned as I looked up at the pitch black shadow directly in front of me....daring to reach my hand out and touch it.

And while I could visually make out the outline of a person, the touch felt ice, corpse cold. It felt glazed with a pearly, smooth finish and I could tell it was probably shiny...

Like a statue.

A choked breath of horror escaped my throat as I quickly continued my walk forward to get away from the statue...admittedly still looking back at the thing-person-thing-when I immediately bumped into something else.

Another person-statue. A woman, I could make out in the outlines of the dark.

I held in another scream, feeling a cold sweat starting to coat the back of my neck as I quickly stumbled out of the way-

And hit another one.

My poor heart pounded out of control at the next statue-a man, no doubt, who looked as if he has-had a gigantism quirk, judging from how big he is-was.

I weaved away from the statue, hitting another one and becoming lost amongst the dark and the forest of bodies-statues.

A mutant-looks like bat wings-

A woman with three legs, instead of two.

A-a child?! Are you serious?!?-

Animals!!

"Make it stop. M-Make it stop-" I started to hyperventilate, trying to find my way out of the literal sea of statues-unable to make out any faces or appearances in the dark, which only made the entire sight more scary.

I felt like I was drowning. I felt like these statues had suddenly come to life and were trying to pull me into their clutches.

I felt like I would never get out of here.

That is, until I felt a hand on my shoulder a few seconds later, feeling the person abruptly turn me around to face them...

...and immediately come face to face with their fist, feeling their knuckles connect with my face.

Yeah. You were expecting Dabi weren't you? Not in this story!

My head whipped back from the force of the punch, causing Euphoria to chuckle darkly as she wrapped her arms around my waist and tackled me to the mossy ground.

I wheezed harshly as her body weight slammed down atop my chest, instinctively causing me to form a sheen of crystals around my arms, and cross them over my face.

For good reason, too, as I felt the pressure of Euphoria's wrist slam down atop my own crystallized ones, trying to adjust my eyes to the darkness and see what she was doing.

And there, directly above me, was Euphoria. Pitch black trees and corpse statutes as her background as she flashed me a wicked, eery grin...having her last poisonous blade pointed right at my eye, with her other hand helping her push the lethal object closer and closer to my face.

I grit down on my teeth as I fought against the resistance, using every ounce of strength in my arms to keep her blade at bay.

Even as I fought for my life, just seeing those statues in my background....I couldn't help but ask the obvious question I already knew the answer to.

"You were aware of this? The statues?" I questioned through a hiss of exertion, able to make out Euphoria's demonic face as she smirked.

"Of course I was," she said quietly, almost as if speaking louder would wake the corpses. "What do you think I meant when I told you Midas had a garden?"

I felt vomit churning in my stomach at her insensitive, disgusting words, knowing there was anger bubbling up inside my chest as I pushed back on her arms harder.

"I saw a child." I spat out in fury, watching Euphoria simply click her tongue.

"There's lots of children here, Vicky. Lots of women. Men. Animals. He puts them out of their suffering this way." She explained vaguely, grounding her boot into the ground to try and use her leg weight to help her drive the blade into my eyes.

He?

Midas.

Suffering?

"You think that by joining us, you'd be doing the world a disservice, when really this whole thing is about improving the world." She followed up, seeming to contradict her words as she grunted and came a few inches closer to my eye.

"But, enough about that. I wanna see, Vicky. Come on, if there's a time to show me, it's now." She growled out almost maniacal, causing my eyes to widen in fury and stress as I continued losing the strength-off.

I tensed my abdomen for help, trying to fight against gravity and Euphoria with every ounce of muscle I possessed. I could feel my strain practically tearing the fibers inside me apart, internally screaming as it still wasn't enough.

"Show you what?!" I snarled out, feeling my heartbeat wrack out of my chest as the pointed blade came closer in my line of vision.

Euphoria tilted her head mockingly, letting out a small giggle of insanity.

"Well, show me why you're so special, of course. You've yet to show me anything. No matter how much I provoke you, you can't seem to show me a damn thing." She seethed out angrily, causing my brows to furrow in confusion.

"What the hell are you talking about? There's nothing special about me! Cant you see that?! I'm just an ordinary girl, with an ordinary quirk!" I exclaimed honestly, feeling a vessel in my head about to burst from how hard my body was straining to save my life.

"I agree with you." Euphoria started off bluntly, only confusing me more. "So, prove us both wrong and fucking show me."

What? The? Fuck?

"I-I can't!! I-" I started off, before Euphoria cut me off once more.

"When people are on the brink of death-truly on the brink of death.....they either go one of two ways. They give up, or they dig deep and fight. They fight for their lives. Go to places in their physical and mental strength they didn't even know they were capable of. Well, this is your brink, Vicky. I'm not holding back. I will kill you if you don't fight back. Don't believe me? Find out. Do something." She stated impatiently, causing my gums to start bleeding from how hard my teeth were grinding together.

I said nothing, feeling my vision starting to blur in and out, as a wad of tears choked up in my throat.

Oh my god. Am I really going to die. I'm terrified. I shouldn't have ever signed up for this job. I shouldn't have ever come into the forest. I shouldn't have ever left Dabi-

"Do something!!! Come on!! Why are you so special!!?" She screamed at me now, causing me to start breathing heavy as my mind was a cluster fuck of conflicting emotions.

"I-I-I-"

"DO SOMETHING, YOU WORTHLESS BITCH!!! STOP BEING SO PATHETIC!!" Euphoria screamed out into my face, flecks of saliva flying off her lip and onto my face from how angry she was.

And it was my last straw. My brink.

She's right. There's two types of people on the brink of death.

And I guess you never know which person you are, until it really happens.

Without thinking, I jolted my entire body forward, sending my elbow into Euphoria's temple as hard as I could.

I know she wasn't expecting it when her head whipped to the side from the blunt force, causing her strength to weaken and me to take the opportunity.

Adrenaline like never before shot through my body. My vision going white hot and my breath not even working as I jabbed my elbow into Euphoria's head over and over again, starting to thrash my hips around from under her to knock her balance.

The scuffle began as she quickly tried to find an opening, going for a violent stab to my face.

But, I quickly maneuvered my arm on the inside of hers, elbowing her arm away before clamping my crystallized hand around her open face.

The poison blade flew out of her hands with the force of my hit. A gasp of pain emitted from her mouth when I clawed my crystallized nails into her face, causing her to blindly reach down and wrap her hands around my throat.

Shit. I need to get her off me if I have any chance of winning this fight-

"Don't think. Just do."

Wasting no time with hesitation, I brought my hand off Euphoria's face, only to wind it back at her, slicing my sharpened nails harshly across her entire face.

She yelped out in audible pain that time, causing her face to whip with my momentum.

I took the only opportunity I'd probably be given, feeling Endeavor finally become useful for something as his combat training kicked into my muscles.

Wrapping my legs around Euphoria's torso, I grabbed ahold of her shoulders, simultaneously pushing her and rolling myself to one side.

The momentum sent us tumbling over, with me being the one on top of her now.

But, before I could land a hit, she gave a sharp uppercut to my chin, causing my teeth to slam together and my head to shoot up towards the sky.

Not wanting to get stuck under her again, I quickly scrambled off her to compose myself, wiping the new blood from my mouth as I watched her get up.

She laughed lowly, stumbling a bit to her feet. I heard the sound of something dripping off her, and even though it was too dark to see what it was, I could tell it was blood from her face. Blood from my hit.

"It must hurt to be useless all the time, right? To always be the weak one of the group? Never be the one to light up a room when you walk in it?" She drawled out, spitting a chunk of blood onto the ground before becoming light on her feet for a fight.

I felt my muscles ready to go, paying close attention to Euphoria's movements as I knew one slip-up would get me killed.

"Joke's on you. I have crippling social anxiety, so I actually don't want anyone to see me when I walk in a room." I pointed out so not cool, not even caring about how lame that sounded as I wiped more blood from my mouth.

Euphoria laughed darkly, watching my movements carefully as she spoke.

"Yeah? Are you anxious now?" She questioned condescendingly, yet I answered honestly anyways.

"Of course."

"Good."

With that, she charged full force at me, seeming to have no more weapons on her as her gloved fist came barreling towards my face.

I quickly shuffled to the side, hearing her knuckles hit the tree bark behind me as I flattened my hand and tried to send the side of it into her throat.

She was quicker though, sliding backwards with ease before grabbing my outstretched wrist. I gasped as she yanked me towards the ground, meeting my stomach halfway with her knee, and causing the air to leave my lungs too quickly.

The bottom of her foot kicked me backwards, hard enough to send my spine smacking into thick tree bark.

Once again, the minimal air I had left my lungs, causing Euphoria to take a moment to wipe more blood from her face.

"Let me give you a little lesson on anxiety, Vicky. People like me? We don't have it. There's no reason for us to. Not when we're this powerful." She pointed out casually, letting out a huff of exertion as she sprinted towards me again.

Her feet were positioned left, causing me to quickly guard my left side as I waited for the hit.

However, it seemed to be a fake out as her right arm came barreling from across her chest, landing a hard hit to my cheek bone and causing me to grimace in pain.

Euphoria took my struggle, grabbing me by my shoulders, before slamming me into one of the statues, instead of the trees.

She was on me in a second, kicking me again in the stomach before knocking me back into another statue.

My mouth opened in silent pain as my abdomen ached. A wet cough escaped me as I gasped for air, unable to get any as Euphoria's hands locked around my neck.

With eyes wide open, I watched as she came into the sliver of moonlight that had been shining down on the area, shocking me with her appearance that looked like it could be straight out of a horror movie.

Her gaze was wild. Pupils blown to insanity, with skin pale and exhausted. She had a deep set of claw marks across the entirety of her face, thanks to me. They were marks that were dripping a river of blood, seeping into her mouth to show a smile of red as she strangled me roughly.

"But, you already know that, Violet. You know how powerful I am, don't you?" She started off in a whisper, causing me to grab her hands and claw my nails into them.

"Of course you know. How could you not, when I'm everything you wanna be?" She continued with a laugh, straining a vein in her forehead as she strangled me harder.

My eyes wanted to roll back into unconsciousness as I felt the oxygen completely cut off from my brain. I opened my mouth in a silent gasp, trying to remember my training and think of an opening-

"You can't ever be this, Violet. You can't ever be the person I am-or, even someone like me. It's not in your nature. You've proved yourself tonight. You've proved yourself to be the one who gives up-" she attempted to say, unable to finish as I stabbed my crystallized hand into her side.

She let out an audible gasp of pained shock, causing me to rip her hands off me and go as hard as I could.

I can't stop this time. No time to recover. Shes the type of person who will only go down with hard, consecutive hits.

"Don't think. Just do."

Wasting no time and ignoring the pain of my body and mind, I landed a crystallized punch on Euphoria's face as she clutched her side-already landing another one.

I was dizzy, but I gave neither of us a chance to breath as I landed a roundhouse kick to her side-not perfect form, I'll admit, but it was enough to cause Euphoria to stumble.

I could see in her eyes she wasn't done yet, causing me to sharpen the end of my crystal boot and kick her in the thigh.

She cried out in loud pain now as the sharp end jabbed into her thigh, quickly pulling my leg forward to throw me off balance.

I stumbled, hissing out in pain when she slammed her fist down onto my shoulder, yet I jolted up and slammed the top of my head straight into her nose, hearing a small crack from it.

Her eyes squeezed shut now as a faucet of blood poured from her nose, allowing me to tackle her down to the ground and land on top of her.

She didn't give up, reaching up and catching my throat in a death grip, not even stopping as I began landing hit after hit to her face.

Neither of us are giving up.

It's about who caves first.

It's not gonna be me.

Hell no, it's not gonna be me.

Euphoria choked the life out of me as I landed fist after fist to her face, feeling my vision starting to black as my knuckles became wet with her blood.

"Don't think. Just do."

Do it. Do it. Do it.

I felt my body working on its own as I repeatedly punched Euphoria, knowing her grip was already loosening around my neck.

My knuckles had gone numb, and the only thing to let me know I was still punching her, was the horrid sound of fist connecting with bone.

Do.

Her grip had loosened around my neck fully now, but my body couldn't come down from the moment. Too high on adrenaline. My muscles were trembling and my head empty as I continued slamming my fists into Euphoria's mangled face.

Again.

And again.

And again.

And-

Until I felt someone's hands come under my armpits and roughly hoist me off her.

I gasped almost horridly as I got dragged away from Euphoria, only now realizing I wasn't even breathing the entire time I was punching her-

"Violet! Hey, Violet! Calm the fuck down!! Relax!!" Dabi exclaimed with a surprising amount of feeling in his voice, seeming genuinely concerned as he sat me down on the grass.

My entire body was shaking with fight or flight, as I made out Dabi's figure in the shadows. He'd come in front of me now, kneeling and resting his hands on my shoulders as he, no doubt, assessed my appearance in the dark.

"Violet. Look at me, sapphire. Look at me." He whispered in breathy alarm, grabbing my face between his hand before turning me to face him.

I felt myself hyperventilating as I gripped both of Dabi's wrists tightly, able to see his eyes piercing my own in the dark as he tried to get me to come down from my high.

"Relax. Just relax." He coaxed softy, grazing his thumbs along my wrists as I gasped for air.

But, no matter how hard I inhaled, I couldn't get any air. It felt as if there was an entire building crushing down on my chest, suffocating me and cutting off my airways, even though they were perfectly clear.

I was sitting, but my body was shaking so hard, it almost looked like I was seizing.

I'm terrified.

"I-I-I'm gonna d-die. D-Dabi-oh my god-I-I'm dying!!" I whimpered as I felt my heart about to explode and my body going numb, causing Dabi to shake his head calmly in disagreement and explain.

"Shhh. No. You're not gonna die. You might pass out, yeah. But, your body's just fucked on adrenaline right now. Fight or flight stuff. Happens when you're in situations like this. You'll get used to it after awhile. Just let it run it's course. I'll be here if you pass out, and I'll still be here you don't." He said honestly, trying to ground me as he moved both of his hands to the side of my head and massaged my temples.

I couldn't do anything other than nod as I shakily planted my hands on Dabi's arms, blurting out the first thing that came to my mind.

"Don't leave me. P-Please, don't leave me, Dabi. Don't go." I gasped out, causing Dabi to curl one of his hands around the back of my head and pull me close.

"I'm not. I'm not going anywhere. I'm not gonna leave you. It's just like a bad trip, okay? Just try to relax." He murmured, caressing my hair softly as he focused on me.

So much so, that neither of us heard the shuffling behind us of Euphoria until she spoke, causing Dabi and I to look up and see her holding a purple jewel between her fingers.

The statue jewel. If she uses that, she'll turn Dabi and I into statues.

How is she still alive?! Why didn't Dabi want me to kill her?!-

"I have no problem taking us all down together. There's something kind of romantic about that, don't you think?" She questioned condescendingly, letting out a maniacal giggle.

But, Dabi and I never got to see if she would follow through on her threat as two beams of blinding light reflected off my crystal boots and straight into Euphoria's eyeballs.

Her blood curdling screech rang throughout the entire forest now as she dropped the purple jewel and collapsed to her knees, clutching her eyes that had now started to cry blood.

"Time's up, Euphoria. Looks like you've hit your limit." Akio stated darkly from behind me, causing me to look up and see my best friend standing above Dabi and I.

Without a word, he kneeled on my other side, giving the top of my head a comforting pat.

"She alright?" He asked Dabi, keeping his eyes locked on a sobbing Euphoria a few feet away.

"Physically, yeah. Mentally, she's fucked." Dabi stated matter of factly, continuing to hug me tightly as I tried to get my breath back.

Akio simply nodded and stood back up, slowly making his way over to Euphoria.

"I'll be right back." Akio said lowly, causing Euphoria to start freaking out as she realized he was coming over to her.

She tried to open her eyes and see, whimpering softly when she couldn't.

"I-I-" she tried, before Akio cut her off.

"You're blind, is what I think you meant to say. Permanently, not temporarily. My beams reflect stronger off Violet's crystals. That's why I angled them at her boots. To hurt you more. Because you messed with her." Akio explained, not stopping his calm walk to Euphoria as she writhed.

Realizing the predicament she was in now, she began clawing the ground, trying to crawl away from Akio like an injured animal.

But, the glowing man was too angry to let her get away, easily meeting her spot on the ground before grabbing ahold of her arm roughly.

Euphoria screamed horridly now as she weakly tried to shake Akio off, seeming legitimately scared for the first time tonight as she pleaded for her life. Also for the first time tonight.

"Please don't kill me!!! Please!!" She called out in a beg to Akio, trying to open her bloody eyes to no avail.

Without hesitation, Akio pressed his foot down on Euphoria's side to keep her grounded, yanking her arm out of her socket before bending it the opposite direction.

The bone crunching snap was heard from miles away, along with her shriek. But, Akio didn't stop there as he slammed his foot into the back of her knee, creating a loud popping sound that caused her to garble and choke on her blood, and saliva, and breath all at once.

Dabi watched unfazed as Akio broke Euphoria's other arm, and then a rib, seeming to approve big time of the torture as he gently caressed my back.

I couldn't even process the continuous, torturous mangling he was doing, still trying to come down from my adrenaline as I blankly watched.

Euphoria's body started to shake unnaturally as Akio broke her other leg, looking down at her seizing body like a dead bug as he lazily wiggled his foot under her stomach, rolling her over onto her back.

He kneeled down and looked at her, keeping his back to Dabi and I as he spoke his next words ruthlessly calm.

"Oh. I'm not gonna kill you." He chuckled, smoothly rising to his feet and smoothing out his jacket as he turned.

"Dabi. She's all yours." Akio smiled warmly, nonchalantly walking towards the two of us.

The softness in Dabi's eyes darkened down into a feral grin as he looked over to a half dead Euphoria, patting my back softly as he spoke.

"Stay with her. I'm gonna enjoy this one." He drawled out to Akio, switching places with the man as he walked over to Euphoria's dying body.

Unable to see him, the girl simply lay there and cried softly, whimpering pathetically when she felt Dabi's hand close around her throat.

"I always tell you...I like it better when you don't speak, don't I?" He asked Euphoria with smug darkness, lighting up his hand around her throat bright blue as he burned a hole all the way through her neck.

The three of us watched her stages of death, starting with fear....then pain...then choke....then struggle...before the light finally went out of her eyes a few moments later as Dabi landed the final blow and killed her.

And just like that...the blood of Midas' right hand woman is now on our hands.

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Thank you for your votes and comments, hope you guys enjoyed the double updates.

Next week's chap. Get ready. That's all I'm gonna say hehehehe

You'll know the title of the new chapter on Friday when it comes out ❤️