Izuku stood, looming over Izumi — who had been laying on the ground just a few meters away from me. I watched as Izumi glared daggers into Izuku, and how he returned the favor. I heard Izuku as he laughed darkly, whilst eying Izumi with a deranged grin. I listened to the soft breaths that escaped his lips and felt the pounding of my heartbeat as the guilt rose in my throat like a lump — restricting me from breathing.

I had seen Izuku at the Kamino Ward, but he looked much different now. The way his eyes — clouded with hatred and despair — glowed a toxic color of green. The way his hair — fluffy on the top and trimmed in the back — was gently lifted in the wind. The way his lips curled upwards in a menacing grin — as his insane expression only grew.

He looked so much different than he did back when we were kids. From the way his hair looked — compared to even just two years ago — to the expression behind his smile, but through all of the anger and hatred, I could see pain and sadness.

It was faint, but it was there.

I knew it was my fault. I was the one who had told him to jump, and I knew he did it because of me. I knew I was to blame for the creation of the person he was today. I knew I was responsible for the birth of this monster, and I knew that I could never fix what he's become. Despite how much I wanted to, I would never be able to fix what I've done. It was too late now, and we're far past apologies.

I wanted to get up from my place on the ground. I wanted to walk over to him. I wanted to open my arms and give him a hug. I wanted to tell him how sorry I was. I wanted to tell him how much I missed him. I wanted to go back in time and fix everything. I should have protected him, rather than hurt him, I could see that now.

I would have given up my quirk if it meant that he would get to live even just a day of the life he should have lived. I would have given up my life if it would let him have a second chance. A second chance at life. One where he wasn't hurt constantly. One where he was accepted. One where he was loved. One where he was happy.

I couldn't move. I couldn't get up and give him a hug. I was too scared to do anything. Scared of what he would say. Scared of how he would react. Scared of the expression that he would wear. One full of loathing hatred. One full of disgust. One full of sadness. I've stared into his emerald-green eyes — drenched in fear and despair — too many times now. I didn't want to be the one to make him wear such an expression ever again.

I kept my position on the ground and watched attentively as Izumi pushed herself off the ground. She jumped up with lightning speed and decked Izuku in his lower jaw with full power, breaking her unbroken arm in the process. She jumped backwards — smirking — after her fist collided with Izuku's face, but to her surprise, he was completely fine.

"You done?" He asked with a bored expression, as he intensified his glare.

Izumi looked ready to murder him as she yelled out in anger that she was only getting started. As the two siblings fought and screamed words of abuse at one another, I couldn't help but remember how close we all used to be. Before everything went south. Before any of us got our quirks. Before everything got complicated.

Before I made everything complicated.

I couldn't help but let my mind drift off to the days we spent, under the sun, without a care in the world. The hours we wasted, with our backs against the grass as we cloud-gazed. The countless nights, where we stayed up late and told scary stories to each other.

All the time we spent, together, thinking we'd be best friends for the rest of our lives. The days before we forced all that toxicity onto Izuku. It was so simple back then. The only fights we'd ever had, were about who would become the number one hero.

Now, watching my two childhood friends, fighting on different sides of an underground war, I couldn't help but feel like this was all my fault.

But this was all my fault.

It never should have ended like this.

Izuku should have been a hero.

"You should have been a hero!" I yelled out in anguish as I stood up from my place on the ground. "So why...?"

Tears pricked my eyes as the two stopped fighting to look at me.

"Why are you the villain?!"

The waterfalls of emotion that had been locked inside my eyes finally fell. The gentle streams that flowed subtly, soon turned into raging rivers as Izuku ground his teeth at me.

"You... You! You don't get to ask me that!" He screamed at me with a look of complete resentment and hatred.

His face was twisted and psychotic, making me think back to how he looked before all of this. Before all of the crap he went through. Before we got our quirks. Before he didn't. His smile as it faded over the years; his eyes as they clouded over with despair as time went on; all of the subtle changes; all of the signs that this would — one day — be the result of all of our ignorance and abuse.

Thinking back, I saw it all. I knew that he wasn't okay — despite the smiles he wore. I knew he was hurting, and deep down, I think I knew that — one day — he might have taken his own life.

I could see the signs, yet I chose to ignore them, right up until the day he finally broke. Right up until the day that I saw his body, bleeding out on the concrete of the school. The day I saw his flesh, mangled and smeared across the ground. The day I saw his dead smile, as he laid — cold and alone — on the concrete.

He died alone that day.

This wasn't the Izuku I knew.

This was the one that society twisted and molded.

This villain was the result of the cruelness of the world.

This Izuku is the one that society corrupted and broke.

This Izuku is the one that I corrupted and broke.

I killed him that day.

"I'm sorry!" I yelled out in vain — tears still streaming down my face — as he walked towards me. "Please, Izuku, I know you're still in there!"

"You don't get to call me that after all these years!" He snapped at me, as he picked me up by the collar of my shirt.

At that moment, I remembered the look on his face when our roles were reversed. How terrified he seemed. How sad he looked. How the tears rolled down his face. He looked how I must have.

Broken, and miserable.

The world had beaten him down so many times, yet he still stood. He had lost his way. He had become this monster — this monster that people feared. The kid who helped everyone, and didn't even ask for so much as a 'thank you' in return. The kid with a heart of pure gold. A heart of a hero. His heart was brutally ripped out over the course of ten years, and now he was just a shell of who he was.

I could see it in his eyes.

He was sad. I didn't know if he knew it or not, but I could see the pain behind his eyes. He threw me across the battlefield and began to run at me as Izumi used her Psychokinesis to launch boulders at him.

"Please, we can fix this! Just let me fix this!" I cried out to him. "Let me make this right!"

"You can't!" His voice was unwavering and angry as he loomed over my form on the ground — as he did with Izumi. "I'm not some broken doll!" He began, getting on top of me. "I have a family now!" He said, slugging me after every statement he made. "I have a brother now. I have a home now..." His voice faltered as he went on, and I could see the tears welling up in his eyes as we heard a raspy voice, faintly speaking out to Izuku.

"Why... Izuku..?"

I heeded Izuku's words and went on to battle the villain — as instructed. Taking the villain's quirks into account — along with the power of each quirk — I'd say this was the guy we had been looking for. The test-subject, that had escaped the other day. The man we had been trying to track down.

Earlier today, I would have offered to recruit him, but right now — after seeing what he had done to those poor kids — I realized I would not work well with him, nor would I want to. He had no morals and seemed like a power-hungry psychopath. I had no intention of letting someone like that rule the world, even as an ally.

I stood in front of the villain — blocking his path to the children and my brother — and waited.

"You were the man the Doctor was using as a test-subject, weren't you?" I asked.

He didn't answer my question however and simply told me to move out of the way. I ground my teeth at his dismissive tone and glared at the villain standing in front of me. He began stalking towards me — bound for the kids — but I stopped him. I leaped forwards and reached out my hand to clasp his face; however, he dodged just before my fingers could come into contact with his face.

"If you get in my way, I'll have to eliminate you." He spoke with a bored tone.

"Not going to happen," I said, dodging as he fired lasers at my body from his fingertips.

I ran at him, still wary of avoiding his lasers and the two, blue dragon-like beings attached to his back. Izuku was right when he instructed me to watch attentively as the villain used his quirks against the brats in their battle. I dodged the attacks of the man — swiftly — as they came until I heard the man say something that caught me off guard.

"So, that boy was telling the truth after all..."

As he glanced back towards Izuku my brain went dead. I stopped moving, and as a result, one of the man's lasers hit me in the leg.

"What?" I asked aloud, with a shocked tone and a confused expressin.

"Your friend, Agony or whatever he's called, informed me that your League had plans of eliminating me..." He spoke in a rather bored tone as I watched the kid battle.

I felt my soul-shattering. I wouldn't believe it. I couldn't. This stranger was saying that the man I thought of as a little brother, had leaked our plans to him. How would that have even been possible, though? We had only decided to intervene with this man's plans last night, and I had been with Izuku the entire time we were here.

Unless...

He was lying this whole time...

My mind wandered back to my fight with Overhaul as I continued to dodge the attacks being fired at me. How he reacted when I mentioned that Izuku had deceived him. The way his eyes widened, and his voice raised as I said, 'You made a mistake telling my little brother about your ploy to murder me'. The way he responded with 'Wait what' right before I disintegrated his body.

Now, taking this into account, the truth was so painfully clear.

Izuku had been trying to get rid of me this whole time.

I remember I found it odd how he seemed so sure of himself that the test subject — who had escaped us — was on the island; however, I trusted his instincts — seeing as he'd become like my little brother. Then, when Izuku had told Kaminari that we had come to get rid of the villain on the island for him, I noticed that he looked confused. His expression looked both shocked and confused that Izuku had even brought up a villain in the first place.

I felt tears welling up in my eyes as it all began to make more and more sense.

I saved his life.

I took him in.

I taught him everything I knew.

I let him be a part of my family.

I loved him.

My eyes couldn't contain the tears as I glanced towards Izuku. I felt my eyes widening as an excruciating pain struck my chest, and then I looked down. Blood began pooling out of my mouth as I felt my body becoming colder and colder by the second.

This was the end.

This was where I was to die.

Even though he was the one to lead me to my death bed, I didn't hate Izuku.

I had come to love him, and nothing would change that.

He and I shared some of my brightest moments together.

I wouldn't have changed my time with him in any way.

The memories of the times Izuku and I had spent together played through my head like an old movie — in black and white. The times we ate dinner together. The times we sparred together. The hours we spent, watching bad movies, and making fun of them. The times we spent, playing video games. It all flashed through my mind as I was coming to terms with the reality I had been faced with.

I guess I won't get the chance to beat Izuku in Halo 3 after all, huh?

Although I wasn't angry with him, I still had questions. I wanted to know what I did. What happened to us? Had he been pretending with me this whole time? Faking all those memories we shared in the bar? All those dinners? All those laughs? All the smiles?The hours we spent, stargazing?

When did it all go wrong?

"Why..." I started as my vision began to darken.

"Izuku..?"