*This chapter contains some violent scenes.*

“...So you're still going to watch instead of act.” Monkey, the shadow Kage resurrected about eight months ago quietly sat on her shoulder while she sat on a black cloud in the sky.

“If she saw me right now, I know that she’d probably go crazy and shatter herself trying to shatter me.” Black tears dripped from her face as they watched the drone rise into the sky. She thought back to some memories of the two before forcing it all down. Around the area, she spread out her shadows to defend the household, but they were hesitant to come out when Teka came. “This is all my fault. If only stopped them just once then maybe…”

Her face scrunched up. She felt a sense of worry coming from Midoriya, but she responded quickly by telling him not to.

“I’m not going to lie and say you’re not to blame.” Monkey jumped off her shoulder and formed a tiny cloud of his own. “In fact, all of the beasts who sat by and watched are too. With you being the one who she trusted the most. Now, would ya mind getting me some of that ice cream you're always talking about?"

None of the shadows would dare talk to her like that. They had infinite respect for their queen and would stand by her side no matter what. Monkey was different though. He spoke his thoughts without much care. Which led to Kage taking a liking to him.

Humans are bold.

*

Reports of the assault on I-Island reached not only Japan but the rest of the world. They saw it all. The drones that suddenly appeared above each city. The blizzard rained snow from nowhere. The Ice wolf that rampaged against the security robots and the small A.I that broke through the endless security protocols.

To say it was a disaster would be an understatement. This island had technology that rivals Tartarus. They got away with some of the most classified data that the worlds’ top scientists who developed it couldn’t even touch. It was a catastrophe.

The next morning, the news across the world all reported on this issue, stating that what he did was grounds for imprisonment for a lifetime. But Kori honestly didn’t care. He got what he wanted, and he did it in the most law-breaking way possible.

“I am so fucked,” Aiko, who had tagged along with them, let out a loud sigh while getting everything ready with Mei and Kori. The hologram in front of her collapsed. “Kori, did you really have to storm I-Island? One of the most secure places in the entire world?”

He shrugged and did a final check on the production of the nanites. The metal that Aiko made was perfect for this. They could bind themselves to the user, becoming one with their body. The creation of new Ether veins would take a bit, but it still worked properly.

“It’s not my fault that their security was meant for humans. I wanted to bring David Shield with me, but he was already pretty upset that I was stealing his life’s work.” Kori said. “I did meet his daughter though. She was interested in Luna too. But I didn’t let her get too close.”

“Mhm,” A small yawn escaped from Mei’s lips while she and Luna processed the blueprints and data from Kori’s heist. “Kori. For energy purposes, what are we using for this?”

“Magma,” Teka replied before Kori could say anything. All eyes turned to her, who had been silently staring off this entire time. She was quiet before speaking again. “After spring passes and when the stormy season starts. We’ll use both lightning and Magma.”

“…I was going to say cause a forest fire, but this is better. The question is where do we get the magma from?”

“According to Luna, the last time Mount Fuji erupted was a few centuries ago. Problem is that only ash and other shit came out.”

“Wait, Mount Fuji? The supervolcano? Teka I understand what you mean, but don’t you think this is too much?” Aiko quickly became worried. "Just how would you even manage to pull that off? I mean, can you even do it?”

“…I unlocked my final state, Aiko. Adusta Tellus.” She looked towards Kori before looking toward the container. “And it was unlocked in the worst way possible. As for if I can do it... if I’m careful enough, I can pull the magma from the Earth. That can power the nanites and heal my core.”

An awkward silence filled the room. But it was snuffed out just as quickly as it appeared. With a small flash of green from the screen, Mei turned to Teka. “Everything is set Teka. Are you ready?”

“Is it possible for me to be awake during this? I could just stay in my void.”

Kori and Mei looked at one another. “It’s possible… but it’ll hurt. Why would you want to do that though?”

“Books. Since technology doesn’t work in voids, I want to learn as much as I can. Sleeping for months would just be a waste of time.” Teka stood up and dropped off the blooded clothing she’d been wearing. It was already loose since she’d lost a lot of her weight, so she didn’t really want to wear it. “Everything is ready, right? So let’s begin.”

With that response, everything was set in motion. Right after she got over a hundred different books.

“…Alright.” Kori slowly lifted her up and placed her on the bed next to the container. The bandages fell one by one, revealing how bad the cracks truly were. He put a mask over her mouth, placed her in the capsule, and nodded towards Luna and Mei. A clear fluid started to fill the capsule and needles rose and injected themselves into her.

“For a few days, you’ll have to be asleep for the process to even begin. After that though, you should wake up in your void.”

“Yea.” The darkness closed in on her from all sides, snuffing out any light. The pink and blue glow of Mei and Kori’s eyes was the last thing she saw before she slipped into darkness. “Thank you for this…”

…

…

…

“Please Hato! Please! You don’t have to do this.” Tears streamed down Teka’s face. Ribbons held her down from all angles as a younger Sora grinned. He raised a sickle sword and slashed it across her body. A scream ran out from deep in the Aether, but no one could hear it. Or rather, they just didn't care.

Red ribbons covered her mouth to block the screams as her mind flashed back to when Kage pretended not to notice her when she was being dragged off by the others.

A snicker could be heard in the background as more of the other beasts appeared from behind Sora. All smiling while holding their artifacts.

“It's good to see you again Teka,” Noe spoke while holding a thick ball of purple gas, a wide smile on her face. She didn’t hesitate to launch it straight as Teka’s mouth. She couldn’t even scream as the poison seeped deep into her body, ravaging her organs and poisoning her from the inside out, and killing her. It didn’t last for long though as blue flames broke through, bringing her back to life.

Hato loosened her ribbons for a second, but that was all she needed before she dashed through the forest. Unfortunately, she didn’t get very far as her screams could be heard loud and clear. Her still body was dragged back by more beasts before being tossed into a pit. The cracks of bones could be heard as she regenerated, snapping her body back into place. Ribbons wrapped around her neck and limbs, restricting her movements from all angles. “Please… Hato!”

“Tch, damn bitch,” He raised his artifact once more and slashed her arm off. Blood decorated the dirt in the pit as they laughed at her misery. Whenever she tried to heal her arm, Sora tightened the ribbons, draining her Ether before releasing it back at her. “You should remember that I told you never to talk to me so casually!”

He snapped his fingers, and the first onslaught of many began. No matter how much she screamed. No matter how much she begged for them to stop, they never did. They took out all their anger on her over and over again.

Until she reached her breaking point.

Steam rose from her body. Noe picked her up by her hair with a heinous smile on her face. A crack stretched down over Teka’s left eye and a faint trail of purple embers could be seen rising from her hair. Just as Noe formed another ball of poisonous gas, purple energy shot out of the crack as the ground shook.

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Noe moved as a lava-like pattern spread over her limbs and eyes, stretching out like branches from a tree. A twisted look appeared on Noe's face as she shot another round of poisonous gas at Teka. It was useless though. A lava shield formed and blocked the attack. She lept into the air as her gauntlets materialized. Her thrusters let out a purple hue and she pointed the ends at the beasts.

“Eruptio.”

Purple magma shot out from the ground, catching the beasts off guard and burning through their bodies. With purple eyes, she watched as they died. Repeatedly. The screams fill her ears but there wasn't a hint of guilt on her face.

She didn't stop there though.

The gauntlets exploded and reformed into a fury of weapons. Without a single hint of hesitation, she slaughtered all of them. Every time they rose again, there would be a blade waiting to kill them again.

For three hours, she released everything she’d experienced back on to them. And she did it with a wild look on her face. She laughed and laughed, taking in their screams as the weapons fashioned from the lava tore through their bodies. Until the sound of cracking cores filled her ears.

Then she came back to her senses.

If you see the purple, you must run. Not for your safety, but for theirs. Promise me this Teka.

With shaking hands, she realized what she’d done. The artifacts reformed and fell to the side as she powered down. Hato whistled as Nana and Kori appeared onto the scene, both looking on with a look of horror. And as the other beasts cried out in pain from having their cores cracked, Teka exploded in a burst of embers.

*

Akako quietly watched the news reports. All the countries that had invested in I-Island labeled Kori as a top villain that needed to be captured. And that they would confiscate all of those drones of his too. The only problem was that they had no idea where to search for them. She thought it was funny that they mentioned the drones out of all things.

The creaking of a door could be heard as she looked back. Izuku Midoriya, dressed in sleepwear. He rubbed his eyes with that beautiful green smoke rising off his body. Inko had gone to stay with Mitsuku for a few days. Akako took this chance to stay with him for a bit. Partly because she was tired of staying in her void for so long. Mostly because she wanted to be close to her bond.

“Akako, it’s late. What’re you watching?”

“Okami did something reckless,” Her chibi shadows quickly moved out of the way once Midoriya sat down next to her. He’d gotten used to them. Not because he like them, but because he had no choice. They would come out whenever they wanted with or without his command. Even appeared in his dreams sometimes. She pointed at the screen. “Um… Islynd?”

“Island. I-Island to be exact,” His eyes widened as he read the headline again. A clip of the sudden appearance of the drones and an ice wolf decimating security bots replayed itself on the tv. “Wait… Kori did this?”

Kage nodded and looked down with a sad look. “I guess it’s for Teka.”

When Midoriya was... 'healed' by Akako's smoke, he saw some of her memories. Memories of Teka and Akako when they were young. Before the killings started.

Before Midoriya asked her about it, a knock at the door made them jump. The chibis around them all turned towards the door. They froze for a second. “Mom said she’d come back in a few days…

Akako didn’t wait and began moving towards the door, her shadows moving out of the way. Without a single hint of hesitation, she reached for the handle. Midoriya quickly reached and grabbed her hand. Akako moved back into the room with the rest of her shadows. He placed a finger over his lips and opened the door. Though it was still chained.

Looking through the side, he could the faint figure of All Might peeking through. “Hello there! I apologize for coming at this time of day. I’m guessing you're Izuku Midoriya, right? Is your mother home? We’d like to ask her a few questions.”

“…”

He shut the door and dropped to the floor, nervously shaking and excited at the same time. Akako smiled a bit at his reaction since she could feel it. “You ok?”

“A… All Might is at my house! How could I be ok?!” He blurted out. “I mean, this is the number 1 hero! And he’s at my house and…” His stomach dropped once he realized that Akako was technically a villain. And he was housing a villain. “Oh, yea… and you’re a villain too.”

“...Well then we might as well do something about that.”

*

Two months. Two months had passed since Teka had gone into ‘hibernation’. Two months since Kori had been labeled a high-end villain. And two months since drones had begun dropping black particles on top of the core above Minato before disappearing. Impossible to trace. Impossible to predict when they would appear. Even if heroes were on the scene at all times, they were just too fast to catch.

This was news. The nanites that had been locked away had started becoming public knowledge. The particles flowed over the core, sinking into the cracks and filling all the gaps. The flowers began to change. This time with circuit-like patterns decorating them.

In a café under the core though, a different story was brewing.

Tsukauchi requested to meet with Ryuku at a café. She obliged mostly because she’d been around Minato for the past few weeks anyway. Eyes fell on her as she took a seat in the corner. Some pulled out their phones and snapped quick photos. It’d been happening a lot recently since Kori’s reckless stunt. Not that she really cared.

“Look, I already know what you want,” She didn’t waste any time as she got straight to the point. “Yes. I do know where Teka is. But you need to understand that I cannot tell you where. Not for her sake, but for the heroes and for all of Japan’s.”

“That’s what I expected,” He sipped on his coffee and handed over a pile of twenty documents that consisted of what he very loosely knew. She looked through them and realized it wasn’t much. Besides the profiles of herself, Aiko, Kori, Akako, Hato, Teka, and some others, nothing really stood out. “There are more things I would like to know about beasts.”

“Ask away.” Ryuku’s sharp eyes danced over the covered documents. Tsukauchi pulled out a recorder and placed it on the table. “I’ll tell you as much as I can.”

“Let’s start with the place Aiko called the Aether. Could you talk more about that?”

“A world separate from Earth. It has around the same feeling and atmosphere as the Earth. If I had to guess, it would be about as big as the moon,” It had been a while since she left so she couldn’t guess the exact size. “It ain’t all that different from Earth. Except for the fact that the cities are intertwined into the Aether though.

“Could you elaborate on that?”

Her forehead tightened a bit as she thought back to it. “Hmm… think of those living cities I'm always seeing on tv. ...It would be easier to show you.”

Without waiting for his reply, she quickly placed her hand onto his. In less than a second, the café exploded into a burst of colors before reforming into the landscape that was the Aether. =

The café flashed back to reality once Ryuku pulled her hand away. Tsukauchi, stunned for a moment at what he just saw, tried to realize what just happened. “…Did you just?”

She nodded. “We can share our memories with whoever we choose. Even if it’s just a touch.”

He gulped again and recalled Aiko’s warning to never touch those flowers around the core. Tsukauchi thought back to when Hawks looked a bit shaken up after watching the scientists study the flowers. Ryuku seemed to read his mind once he looked out the window. “You should listen to Aiko. You should never lay a finger on those flowers.”

“But why are there so many?”

“You’ll have to ask Teka why. It ain’t my place to speak for her.” She didn’t want to come off sounding harsh. It was just that she didn’t want anyone to experience what those flowers did. “So. Next question?”

Tsukauchi quickly regained his composure and almost blurted out a question. “Their parents. I know the King has been shattered but do you have any information on their mother? A name? Power? Anything is useful at this point.”

She reached out and again, the world changed, and the colors shifted. This time, to a much more gruesome scene. Still, bodies littered the ground. Blood decorated the surroundings as Tsukauchi eyed two familiar faces. Ryuku and Aiko when they were much younger.

“…Is it over?” Aiko and Ryuku collapsed onto one another as the Ether around them died down and the air became calmer. Slowly, the wounds on the bodies began healing. It would be some time before they woke up again. “Hey Ryuku, that was fun right?”

“Fun my ass,” She got up and spit out a loose tooth. “Is Princess Teka alright? She ran off in that direction right?”

Aiko nodded and got back up. They nodded at one another and ran in the direction where they last saw her. They shifted into their beast forms, a dragon for Ryuku and a wyvern for Aiko, and flew in the air.

It didn’t even take a minute before the Ether in the air thickened. One harsh and another soft. Deep down, they both knew exactly who’s Ether it was. The Queen’s and Teka?!

Dropping down onto an abandoned building, they silently stalked Teka and The Queen. Tsukauchi froze up a bit once he got a look at The Queen. She was just as pretty as Teka and Ryuku. Maybe even more but that wasn’t what got her attention. She looks familiar.

The Queen glared at Teka; the rage clear as day in her eyes. “What the hell do you want?” Her voice was so sharp but soft at the same time. It felt like it was piercing Tsukauchi’s body in a gentle horrifying way. “I told you to leave me alone. Go play with Nana if you want someone to take care of you.”

Teka’s little face darkened a little, her clothes torn but her body 'unharmed.' “…Did I make you mad? You never act like this whenever Akako or Hato is around.”

“…”

A slap rang out across the Aether. Teka shot back into a tree while gripping her throbbing cheek. The Queen’s hand was glowing a soft purple and her eyes were most twisted than before. Teka’s body shook as she confirmed that part of her cheek was cracked and tried to sink into the tree; to make herself disappear. But she couldn’t escape the words that her own mother said to her. “Unlike you, they actually have talent that’s worth something. You’re nothing more than a failure of a child.”

Tsukauchi didn’t know what to say or do before falling back into his seat, back in the cafe. “The Queen’s name is Haru Shimura. As you saw, Teka never really had the best relationship with her mother.”

Bombshell after bombshell. His eyes widened at that. “What?”

“Haru Shimura. She’s the queen of the Aether,” She placed her free hand on her chin and looked out the windows. A drone suddenly appeared and dropped another load of black particles over the core before disappearing again.

“There is one more question I want to ask Ryuku. What exactly did Teka do that made her mother hate her so much?”

She shook her head. “I can’t tell you that. Not because I’m being forced to. But because it’s something that I shouldn’t say.”

“Thank you for your time Ryuku.” He didn’t wait for a reply as he quickly gathered his things, paid, and stepped into his car. There, he sat for a couple of minutes, replaying the memory over and over again in his head.

A long sigh left his mouth, his finger hovering over All Might’s contact information on his phone. “Just what the hell have I gotten myself into.”