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Izuku was thrown unceremoniously into a cell, unable to catch himself with his cuffed hands. He grunted from the impact, the world spinning around him, still woozy from whatever they had put in his food. A strange fruit or something, one they had accidentally fed him and found out could sedate him.
He had known now, every time it was put with his food, to eat it. He had no choice. They always sedated him. Izuku hated it, not being in control of his mind, his body. They were all he had left that was truly his and yet even that was temporary until the next experiment.
They- the aliens, he had no clue what their species was called- were all scared of Izuku. It made no sense to him- he certainly didn't look intimidating, only 165 centimeters tall with a baby face and freckles that often got him mistaken for a middleschooler unless he was in his high school uniform. And yet here, surrounded by strange creatures no sci-fi or horror author could think of, he was the scary one.
He had known logically that aliens were real. Everyone on Earth knew. It was hard to deny the existence of intelligent life out there when spaceships fell out of the sky into the ocean, drifting into the Panama Canal, or when monstrous humanoid bodies were found in a twisted wreckage in the Brazilian rain forests.
First contact, as people called it, had happened when Izuku was an infant, so he didn't truly know a life before the theories and hopes became fact. It had been a distant truth, like learning about people in different countries. He had hoped, even wished, that if he studied hard enough, he could get into a good university and become one of those scientists and engineers studying the salvaged spacecraft. Or even flying it.
Little did he know he would get an up close and personal experience with aliens. Abducted, stolen away and thrown into a strange quarantine, hosed down until his skin was raw, treated like a dirty stray brought in, feral and unpredictable. He hadn't been able to do much beyond cry, scared out of his mind and barely aware of what was happening around him. Foreign sounds rapidly exchanged by monsters, all of them looking at him. Cowering away from him when he stared, when he tried to beg for answers, reaching for someone to help him.
He was tazed for that. It wasn't a strong electric shock, barely more than static gathered when shuffling on a rug in socks. He had kept trying, not deterred, only to apparently terrify his captors more.
They left him things when he finally slept, curled in the corner and crying himself to sleep. He woke to a tray of… something. It had been soft, and some of it smelled strange. Eventually he figured out it was food. What was actually edible and what made him ill was a constant trial, one that he hated. Who knew if he was actually getting the right nutrients. He didn't feel like it, losing weight from the lack of food and stress.
Then the experiments had started. Thankfully they had already figured out the fruit that acted like a drug, or else he would have had to be completely aware for what was done to him.
What aliens lacked in basic human rights and good food, they certainly made up for in their medical technology. They took him apart, studied how the human body worked, and then put him back together again.
It hurt. Of course it did, they didn't know how to anesthetize the human body. They wouldn't have done it even if they did know how. Izuku learned after far too long that nothing he did could evoke sympathy. No amount of tears or sobs or screaming pleas for mercy moved them. He wasn't a person to them.
He was little more than a dangerous animal. Every movement terrified any aliens who saw him, be they fellow prisoners in cages and laboratories or ones he figured out were guards of some kind.
Izuku didn't know how long it took for him to grow numb to it all. Depression set in, his anxieties giving way to apathy. No amount of fear changed his situation. He couldn't accept what was happening to him- he refused to- but he could survive it. With blank eyes and long hours wasted away dozing in the corner of his cell, not allowing his captors the satisfaction of his suffering anymore.
What sent him over the edge was the translator. A cybernetic implant, one that let him finally understand the various languages the aliens spoke, now automatically translated to Japanese.
They had known the entire time, able to translate what he said, how he begged, into their own languages. And they had ignored him, ignored the fact that he was intelligent enough for speech, sapient and able to bargain with them.
They still put him under their plasma blades and spoke about him like an animal, calling him 'it', or 'the deathworlder', whatever that meant, while he was on their operating table. Him being able to understand them only made it all worse.
This, being thrown into a new cell, was an irregularity to his newfound routine of sleeping and suffering that Izuku was disconcerted by. New things were bad. New things meant they'd make him try new 'food' and see how it affected him, or they'd find a new thing to examine about his body.
Izuku dozed, the intoxication from the alien fruit finally waning. His fingers were numb from the restraints, not really cuffs but some kind of woven metal, the only material the aliens had that he didn't accidentally break. His nails- ragged from biting- caught on the weave, dragging across it and thinking of how he had once handled steel wool as a child, unaware that it was so sharp until he squeezed, expecting softness and receiving the welling blood of sliced skin.
Things were quiet, here in this new cell. They usually were, wherever Izuku was. Other inhabitants- captives and guards alike- were terrified into silence by his very presence. There was a dull roar from somewhere, muffled like he was a few streets away from a sports stadium.
Izuku hated remembering his life on Earth in these moments. Remembering his life before all of this only served to hurt him, to conflate his peaceful life back home with his current hell. It tainted the old memories, blending quiet mornings in classrooms and the lull between every inhumane experiment.
And it reminded him of his mom. He missed her like a gaping wound, like someone had ripped his heart from his chest. Sometimes it felt like he craved the safety of her embrace more than he craved air, body aching when he thought of her constant warmth, the soft hug and the scent of their laundry soap when he pressed his face into her shoulder.
He couldn't quite remember the scent anymore. Her voice had become distorted in his memory, the exact tone no longer clear, the exact cadence of her saying his name off in a way he couldn't discern.
Every time he remembered the past, he was terrified of just how much he didn't know he was forgetting.
It was moments like this, where he was hurting and confused and alone, that he wanted his mom the most. She would make everything better, would tell him everything would be okay, and he'd believe her.
Izuku was jolted out of his reverie by disjointed shouting in alien languages. He was still getting used to actually understanding what other people were saying, disoriented by the automatically translated Japanese.
"I can walk on my own, you stupid motherfuckers. Get your hands off me before you lose them!"
Izuku glanced up from where he was collapsed in his cell- cage, really, now that he looked at it, surrounded by crude metal bars- and saw the approaching aliens. Two were large horned humanoids who carried the same kind of stun batons other guards had tazed Izuku with. They wore similar clothes, probably a uniform.
The alien between them, the one who had spoken, was entirely unlike anyone Izuku had seen before. It- they?- were insect-like. Much taller than the already large guarding aliens, they had a pale lime green exoskeleton, large insect eyes, mandibles… and an extra set of arms, protruding from the sides of their torso.
They had a similar jumpsuit to Izuku's- poorly made and with rough holes to let their second set of arms out, with multicolored stains and random tears in the fabric. They were a prisoner, just like Izuku.
Izuku blinked, finally taking a look around and absorbing information now that he wasn't drunk on weird alien fruit. This couldn't be in the same place as the laboratory. The floor wasn't actually a floor, but packed dirt in a strange lilac color.
They were on a planet. It certainly wasn't Earth, but that was all Izuku knew. He wasn't on the spaceship laboratory anymore.
He wanted to be relieved, that the experiments were over. But new things were never good. If the experiments were over, than what use did Izuku have, as they all saw him as a dangerous beast?
Would they bother keeping him around much longer? Was that why they put him somewhere new?
They were coming closer. The insect alien caught sight of Izuku, looking him up and down before making a chittering noise that didn't translate to anything. Izuku couldn't help but stare.
This new alien was… well, Izuku probably wasn't supposed to consider them 'pretty', but…
They were strangely elegant, the slim plated arms, the triangular head with big eyes, truly akin to an insect. Maybe a praying mantis? It contrasted with their harsh words in a way that entranced Izuku.
Izuku bowed his head, looking down at the strange purple dirt. He had forgotten, every alien he had seen so far was either terrified or unnerved by his staring. While Izuku was never a fan of eye contact even among humans, aliens seemed to hate it even more. Izuku pushed himself up into a sitting position, hands numb and tingling from being restrained for so long.
The guards opened the cell next to Izuku's, one that shared a wall of bars. They let the insect alien walk in of their own volition.
"Motherfucking cowards." The mantis alien hissed at them, mandibles clicking as they sat down on the floor, gesturing at the guards.
It was probably a rude gesture, from the way one of the guards returned the favor before slamming the door. Izuku would have to figure out how to do that with his hands too.
Izuku watched the guards leave, tracking their movements. As much as he was terrified, always on edge and prepared to be hurt by any aliens he met, he was still fascinated. They were intelligent, sapient life. People just like any human he had met on Earth. He couldn't understand why they didn't see him like he saw them.
"What are you?"
Izuku's head whipped around, startled at being addressed. He saw the mantis alien staring at him, mandibles twitching. They didn't seem unnerved by Izuku's staring, instead meeting his gaze. While Izuku hated eye contact among humans, with this alien's large insect eyes it was different, knowing that they likely had the same pseudopupil that Earth's mantises had.
"I'm… human?" Izuku said. "From- from Earth." He clarified.
The mantis alien made a chittering noise- sharper and more sudden than before. It didn't translate. Izuku got the impression it was laughter, maybe?
"Wow, I've never met a deathworlder from a planet more dangerous than my homeworld. Nice to meet you, human. I'm," The exact word didn't translate, sharp clicks overlaying garbled Japanese, "from the planet Eusokia, but these cowards," They jerked their head towards where the guards had left, antennae twitching, "Call it the Hive, a rank eight deathworld. Yours- I guess you call it Earth, but we call it Terra- is a rank nine."
"Ah- I'm sorry, I didn't understand that. Was it your… species? Or name?" Izuku flushed in embarrassment, anxious despite himself.
"Hmm." The insect alien had a purring hum, antennae tilting. "Translator tech is pretty good- but some things just don't work across languages, which is fuckin' annoying."
"Swear words work." Izuku offered. Most of what he heard before now was interspersed with untranslatable medical jargon from what he could tell, but it was almost comforting to know that cursing worked, in a weird way.
The same sharp chittering noise came from the mantis alien. Definitely laughter. "Yeah- that's pretty universal. Before- that was my species. My name is," A sharp chirp followed by three clicks wasn't translated.
"Um…" Izuku stared blankly. "Nice to meet you…" Izuku attempted to replicate the noise, but it sounded more like a cat's trill, and clicking his tongue or something wasn't the same as the mantis alien's sharp mandibles clicking together.
The mantis alien's antennae straightened up. "Shit, that was pretty damn close. I guess the stories of humans being vocal mimics are right, huh?"
Izuku ducked his head. "I-I can definitely do better, but um- it's not easy, and I'm not really good at- mimicry. Some people- humans- are definitely! But I've never really tried. Ah- I'm muttering, aren't I?" Izuku couldn't wring his hands or shake them out like he usually did, so he ended up digging his nails into the metal weave binding his hands. "I- my name is Midoriya Izuku. Does that translate?"
The mantis alien stared at Izuku. "… Not really… Zuku?" They tried to imitate Izuku and failed, most of it buzzing and clicking.
Izuku blushed. "Ah-" His voice had risen an octave without his permission, startled by what sounded like the use of his given name after just meeting someone. "Zuku is fine!" He said, voice reedy.
The mantis alien laughed again. Not at Izuku, at least he didn't think so. "We're probably gonna be stuck here for a while. If you want to come up with a name easier to say, that's fine."
"Okay!" Izuku's voice cracked.
"… Are you sick?" The mantis alien said after a moment. "You're turning red. If you're going to die on me, you should say so now or I'll be pissed."
"No! No- no, no. I'm not sick- this is ah- a human thing." Izuku ducked his head, wishing his hands were free so he could hide his face. "I'm… embarrassed, and overwhelmed." He said. "No one's really… talked to me since I was back home…"
"Hmm." The mantis alien shifted closer, leaning against the bars that separated their cages. "Well, you're stuck with me now."
Izuku laughed in disbelief, a small, fragile thing that barely left his mouth. He smiled at his cell neighbor, maybe his friend. A humanoid insect alien, who arguably could be said to be the most intimidating looking alien he'd met so far, and yet was the kindest.
He sat back, leaning against the same bars that separated them. "Please take care of me." Izuku mumbled under his breath, the familiar phrase strange on his tongue after so long.
Another buzzing purr left his newfound friend, and Izuku's exhaustion caught up to him as he was lulled to not just sleep, but truly rest for the first time since he had been abducted.
Once Izuku awoke, they ended up talking a lot. His newfound friend explained just where Izuku had ended up.
An illegal fighting arena on a desolate prison planet. A mostly empty deathworld that was only rank five- as it had no sapient life and little in the way of dangerous organisms- and so was useful as a planet to exile people onto. Instead of having someone take up space in a ship's brig, why not just drop them off and leave them to die?
The use of 'prison planets' was even endorsed by the Intergalactic Commission- the major governing force that upheld law and order in all affairs having to do with inter-species interaction. Said commission was also the organization that labeled deathworlds.
Apparently the ships and aliens that had landed on Earth and subsequently died were from the Commission. Oops.
The fighting arena, however, was not sanctioned by the Commission. It was illegal in nearly every way possible- sapient and sentient trafficking, murder, slavery if a fighter caught the wrong person's eye. It was the 'last stop' for most people in situations like theirs.
Or the first and last stop, in Togaru's case.
(Izuku had given his new friend the name Togaru, using the kanji for 'apex', or 'to taper to a point'. It felt appropriate, upon seeing that Togaru had hidden blades of chitin along his body that could be released and used at will, only to fold neatly back into his exoskeleton.)
Togaru's planet, Eusokia, was a lot like Earth. It had governments, technology, healthcare, agriculture… it was just that all of the people were humanoid insects. Izuku tried but failed at pronouncing the proper name for Togaru's species, but his attempts were appreciated, as other species rarely had any aptitude for mimicry and couldn't even try to use Eusokia's language.
That was part of why Eusokia was designated a rank eight deathworld. Togaru put it best, though it was cynical.
"Our societies were too advanced to colonize, and while we have our own wars, many people were able to unite against a common enemy."
The Intergalactic Commission's first contact with Eusokia was a generation ago, before Togaru's birth. Which, learning that Togaru wasn't even fully grown and yet was over two meters tall was startling.
He was 'just a nymph' according to him, and was abducted while out in the wilderness alone, on a rite of passage in his culture where he'd be regarded as an adult instead of a child if he succeeded. It was more like Izuku's idea of camping, with tents and tools and as many supplies as he could carry, not actually roughing it and foraging to survive or anything.
But they had found him alone. Just like Izuku had been.
Granted, Izuku had been moping at a beach turned dump when he had been abducted, not on some important coming of age journey, but still.
Upon the traffickers realizing that trying to keep a mantis adolescent who could sprout blades at will captive was not a smart idea, they dropped him off here at the arena, where he had been trapped for a while, forced to fight for others' entertainment.
"They can't send me out too often and risk people getting bored." Togaru had said, a derisive click following his words. "My guess is they feed us once a cycle, so maybe every ten cycles or so they send me up to fight."
He was more withdrawn on what the fights actually contained, until he spoke on it while they were both tired, nearly asleep.
"…They make me kill. I've always known what I'm capable of, and why they call us deathworlders, but that was like, history books and novels and shit. There's no mercy up there in the arena. When I didn't- didn't kill the Vinium I had been facing- they were begging me for mercy, and I never wanted to hurt them anyway, and… they didn't feed me until the next fight… and I've never gone hungry before, you know?"
"I know." Izuku had said, quiet and solemn. He hadn't gone hungry either, until he was abducted. He hadn't known what it was like- to feel his body growing weaker, consuming itself. Once they figured out what he could and couldn't eat, it was better. But he hadn't gained back the weight he lost, given only the essentials.
They had sat in companionable, melancholy silence. Izuku knew that Togaru didn't like feeling vulnerable, weak. It was why he still argued with the guards even though it didn't help anyone.
But Izuku was an open wound. He was always vulnerable, scared and prone to tears and an easy target even to these aliens who thought he was dangerous. They were opposites in that way, though Izuku didn't want to be. Seeing Togaru's will to fight was inspiring. It made Izuku want to do better, to find the same kind of inner strength.
Izuku treasured these quiet, vulnerable moments, because it reminded him that he and Togaru were the same. Just kids in a shit situation, who were in way over their heads. Who had no rescue coming, no way out but through.
And Togaru still found strength to keep going.
It made Izuku want to do the same. Maybe his courage wasn't as loud, as intimidating, as Togaru's. But it was his.
"We're just kids, Togaru." Izuku had said into the quiet, head leaning into the cold metal bars. "It's not our fault. No matter what happens up in the arena, the blame belongs to the aliens forcing us to fight."
"…It's different. When you're up there. With the crowds cheering… screaming for blood… and then the screaming- sometimes they're just- they're sentient, not sapient. Some poor animal poached from their home trying to survive… they don't know why this is happening, why I'm hurting them."
"And you don't want to hurt them." Izuku said.
"Never." Togaru's antennae twitched and he sighed, leaning against the bars.
His exoskeleton was cold where Izuku could feel it against his skin. It had been so long since Izuku had felt contact with another person without pain. It was overwhelming in its own quiet way, rushing through him despite the cold chitinous plates being distinctly inhuman.
"When you get back home," Because they had fallen into the habit of lying like this. It made them feel better, even if they both knew it was a lie. "they won't blame you, Togaru. They'll just be glad you came home safe."
"Yeah." Togaru said, but it was more of an acknowledgement of the lie than anything else. "You don't blame yourself for whatever happens up there either then, okay?"
"I won't." Izuku lied again, and they slept beside each other yet again. Two deathworlders separated by metal bars, dreading the inevitable.
The inevitable did come, closer than either were prepared for, but they were never going to be prepared for what ensued.
Both were pulled from their cells, with six guards surrounding Izuku and only two on Togaru. It was clear that they saw Izuku as more dangerous, which was ridiculous upon first glance at the situation.
Finally walking with Togaru, Izuku could truly appreciate just how tall his friend was. At over two meters, he towered over the horned guard aliens who seemed intimidated by Togaru and terrified by Izuku.
Especially because Izuku had been talking with Togaru when they approached the cell, and had been smiling. It turned out that most aliens did not like being smiled at. Togaru said something about the teeth before the guards opened their cell doors, barking at them to stand.
The dread settled in quickly once Izuku fully realized what was going to happen to them. They wouldn't be pit against each other, thankfully- Togaru assured him that it would be a waste, especially since humans were even more of a novelty than his own species.
But they still had to fight. To kill. All for the entertainment of those who saw them as less than people.
Izuku had never hurt anyone before. The closest he had ever come to actually fighting anything was wrestling with his friend Kacchan when they were little kids- and even then he usually lost. He was scrawny and unathletic, and didn't go around picking fights in school.
At most, he got a little roughed up intervening against bullies. Which didn't bode well when he was going to be sent to fight to the death against some alien. And they hadn't released his hands either.
Togaru made a sharp chirping noise, catching Izuku's attention and then making the same humming buzz he had made before.
The noise comforted Izuku, enough that his panic didn't threaten to overwhelm him.
No matter what happened up there, he and Togaru would have each other in the aftermath. That was the only solace Izuku had as the dull roar of a crowd whipped into a frenzy grew clearer, almost painfully loud.
They were separated, Izuku's guards slowing and Togaru being pushed forward. Togaru nodded at Izuku- a gesture Izuku had explained to his friend a few cycles ago. It had led to a lot of talk about body language, which was apparently a part of Eusokian communication that translators couldn't begin to pick up.
Izuku nodded back, taking a deep breath to center himself even as one of the guards manhandled him, forcing him to stay still while another finally released the metal bindings around his wrists, the rough movement ripping some of his arm hair out as they did it. Izuku rubbed at the raw skin and grimaced, gaze locked on Togaru.
The guards shoved him into a different cell, slamming it shut as soon as possible, backing away like they were dealing with a rabid animal. Izuku was used to this treatment.
He couldn't see Togaru anymore, his friend being taken down a different hallway. Izuku appeared to be in a hallway too, from what he could tell. The walls were patchy and seemed to be constructed of scrap metal, and the floor was still that strange purple dirt. Izuku began walking down the hallway, if only because he had nothing else to do. As he did, the crowd's roars grew even louder, and he turned the corner to see a barred entrance.
It was like those western movies with gladiator arenas, he thought. He could only assume some concepts- like forcing people and animals to fight to the death- were universal, unfortunately.
Izuku could hear an announcer, their voice loud and boisterous. They were toying with the crowd, teasing at a new deathworlder in the ring.
Oh, that's me. Izuku thought distantly, his knees weak.
"But before that, let's see our old friend, from the rank eight deathworld of the Hive, it's the bladed beast, the haemopod!" The announcer shouted, the crowd screaming with enthusiasm.
Izuku's heart raced and he fell to his knees before the bars, watching as Togaru walked into the arena, mandibles clicking in a way that Izuku knew now to be irritation, the tilt of his antennae betraying his annoyance.
Like calling his planet 'the Hive', referring to his species as 'haemopods' was blatantly untrue and rude. Togaru had told Izuku about this when Izuku asked if there were other names for his species that Izuku could try to pronounce. 'Heamopods' was what the Commission had called Togaru's species a few generations ago before slaughtering them in peace talks.
Izuku couldn't take his eyes off of Togaru now. Any doubt or vulnerability that Izuku had seen and heard before were long gone. His friend stood tall, not bowing or bending even with the onslaught of noise and jeers from the crowd.
"What will this deathworlder be facing this time?! It's a Nomu!" The announcer shouted.
Izuku grabbed the metal bars keeping him from the arena and hoped his translator would pick up everything from the announcer.
"Nomu are a parasitic species that take over the bodies of dead organisms on their planet, amalgamating them into unique forms! They're not sapient- but they're smart enough to provide a challenge with their overwhelming strength! And just think, if it wins it will parasitize the haemopod!"
Izuku's heart was in his throat. Togaru hadn't mentioned this species before. Did he even know about it?
Fuck.
Izuku was probably going to have to face a weird zombie parasite-alien thing too, wasn't he? They probably had an even more dangerous one waiting, just like they had him, a more 'dangerous' deathworlder, waiting for the next battle.
Fuck.
He was more worried for Togaru, if only because that was the immediate problem and he had no control over it, only able to watch. He remembered, vaguely, a parasitic fungus from Earth. It infected ants, and controlled their behavior and muscles to ensure the spread of spores in optimal conditions.
Izuku had to remind himself that was a matter of hosts and parasites, ones that evolved together to the point of specific species being vulnerable. A random alien parasite from a completely different planet wouldn't have that kind of evolutionary advantage. The announcer hadn't even said it was a fungus.
Unless that didn't translate.
Izuku was only reassured by Togaru's confident stance. Even in a blood stained (because that's what all those different stains were, Togaru had explained. Aliens had a lot of blood colors. Izuku wished he hadn't asked.) prisoner's jumpsuit, with no weapons and running on little to no food, Togaru was standing tall, watching his opponent as it was released into the arena.
The nomu was more horrifying than Izuku anticipated from the announcer's description. It was a sickly pale blue-gray humanoid with an exposed brain and a strange beak that seemed stuck onto its face. Its limbs were malformed and from different organisms. Its skin was taut over its muscles and bones in the way one expected from dehydration and starvation, yet the parasite likely didn't need that. It probably cannibalized its host.
Izuku really hoped that whatever organisms it was composed of weren't alive in anyway.
Terror locked Izuku in place where he was kneeling, grasping onto the metal bars. Despite all he had experienced, nothing could prepare Izuku for what he saw next.
The nomu lumbered forward, opening its maw and excreting a white substance that expanded into a spider-like webbed netting. Togaru didn't cut through it like Izuku expected, instead stepping aside and rushing at the alien at an angle.
He unleashed his blades, scythes of chitin that unfolded from both pairs of his forearms. He leapt up, far higher than Izuku thought possible, striking downwards at the nomu.
The nomu used its limbs to block, tanking the slices through its hide and shoving forward, sending Togaru flying. Togaru twisted in midair gracefully, landing on his feet and already running back with a harsh chittering noise.
Izuku was entranced by Togaru. The inhuman- because of course, he wasn't human- grace, the sharp elegant lines of his body, the lethal blades of his body. It was like his first impression, that Togaru was pretty, but now it was different. Togaru was beautiful in a way that Izuku could never describe a human, something about how he moved, how he fought, how he laughed and kept his spirits high even facing the most dire circumstances.
How he could be the vulnerable boy in the cage beside Izuku's one moment, and this dangerous warrior the next.
Izuku was breathless, fear falling away. He believed in Togaru.
The nomu's hide knit back together, regenerating from Togaru's attack. As Togaru approached, the alien opened its maw again, not releasing a web but instead screeching loudly.
Izuku covered his own ears, feeling the noise in his bones like he was standing next to a massive speaker. He checked his hands once the screech ended and was surprised they didn't come back bloody.
Togaru fell back, screeching as well. Izuku's translator picked up some of the cursing through the crowd's roars. Togaru circled around the nomu, his blades extended and whirling in deadly arcs.
He relentlessly hacked and sliced at the nomu's broad back while the alien was hunched over after its own screaming attack. While usually the sheer amount of violence on display would be unnerving, horrifying, it was the fact that the nomu didn't scream that unsettled Izuku. Even animals reacted to pain.
The nomu just took the damage without any reaction, straightening up and whirling around. Izuku could see its skin knitting back together already.
It couldn't regenerate forever, could it?
If it was a parasite that fused dead organisms together, it had to feed off of something, and that usually would be its host, right?
So expending the energy to heal itself couldn't last forever. If it were immortal, the announcer would've said, and it wouldn't be a real fight.
Togaru could win this. He had to.
He carved through more of the nomu's hide, chopping off a limb at one point which sprayed sickening black blood. Another web attack that caught Togaru's right arms that he shredded through easily. The nomu was strong but slow, its attacks limited. Its regeneration slowed as well, obviously eating away at itself as its muscles almost deflated in an attempt to heal the amputated limb.
Togaru was winning, and Izuku was elated. He was finally able to stand up, still holding the bars, but he shouted to his friend.
"Do your best!" Izuku shouted, heart racing, but not in fear like it had always done since his abduction.
He didn't know if Togaru heard him, it didn't really matter. What mattered was that Togaru was winning.
It wasn't easy, but Togaru wasn't the kind of person to give up when something got a little difficult. He slashed at the nomu unceasingly, dodging and weaving around heavy blows in a way that reminded Izuku of a dancer.
At some point, the nomu cannibalized too much of itself. It collapsed all at once, flesh sloughing off and pieces disconnecting. The parasite itself was too weak to hold its host, and so all that was left was dead flesh and eerie silence for half a second.
Then the crowd burst into screaming cheers, trills and screeches and noises Izuku had only heard from animals before now, things he barely understood. The announcer was speaking too fast, and Izuku was unable to process it, just staring at Togaru.
He stood tall, black blood dripping from his blades, contrasting against the green of his exoskeleton. To others, Togaru might've looked every bit the deathworlder they were so terrified of.
Izuku just saw his friend. Tired, worn from a fight he never wanted, but alive. That was all Izuku could have hoped for.
Togaru left the arena, and some alien came in and used a strange vacuum to clean up the viscera left behind.
Izuku almost fell to his knees again at the realization that it was his turn, now.
He wasn't like Togaru. He didn't have any strengths, couldn't unfold blades out of his body. For all the deathworlder terror and hype, he was just a weak kid who didn't want to hurt anything.
He felt a rumble, and let go off the bars, watching them rise up into the hallway's ceiling.
Was it enough to just want to survive?
The announcer was talking about him.
"Never before seen in our humble arena, from the farthest reaches of the universe, from a rank nine deathworld! It may look small, but never, ever underestimate it. Place your bets now, because it's a human!"
There were more screams than cheers as Izuku stepped out. The light was weak, colder than Earth's sun. He felt so small, staring up at all of the aliens. They were weird, brightly colored and many limbed and so… alien. Fur and scales and wings and beaks… all of it blurred together as the screaming made Izuku's ears ring again.
He wanted to scream back. He wanted to summon Togaru's anger, or imitate Kacchan, and ask them what the fuck they were looking at.
Izuku did not do that. He whimpered a bit, hands coming up to cover his ears as he told himself to just breathe.
The announcer was still talking, something about nomu again.
Fuck.
When he saw the alien he'd be fighting, the rest of the world faded away. There was no announcer, no crowd, nothing but Izuku and the thing that was going to kill him.
The nomu was larger than its predecessor. Its skin was black, taut over its frame and muscles. It had an exposed brain, but with eyes embedded in it. It had a wide mouth with gleaming metallic teeth.
It was a monster worthy of nightmares. It was at least three meters tall and a meter wide, far weightier than its predecessor, meaning it would have more substance to regenerate with.
It was coming right for Izuku.
Izuku ran, choking on a scream as the nomu approached him. There was debris around the arena, though Togaru hadn't used it. Izuku was using it now, running between massive plates of metals and broken crates.
He dove behind a large pipe, cowering and whimpering and trying to breathe. Why couldn't he breathe? He needed to breathe to live for the next few seconds before this giant thing squashed him like a bug.
…Was that insensitive? Well, he won't know if Togaru would hate it because Izuku was going to die right here and never get the chance to ask.
This nomu was slow too, but its steps made the ground shake as it neared Izuku, who covered his mouth and nose. If he didn't make a sound, if he stayed still enough, maybe it wouldn't find him.
It was a frantic, stupid thought, but it was all that could keep Izuku together.
Then he shifted from where he was crouched down, and heard the clinking of metal against metal and froze.
Izuku's heart was trying to escape his ribcage, pounding fiercely, worse than when he had initially been abducted, worse than when he realized what he was looking at and that they were aliens, worse than the blood draws and tissue samples and vivisections-
All he could think was I don't want to die. Over and over and over, I don't want to die. He can't die, not when his mom will never know what happened to him, not when Togaru believed in him, not when he was told he was so scary and strong only to cower like prey.
Fuck, he was just seventeen. He didn't want to die.
The nomu's powerful steps were moving further away. It hadn't heard the metal moving. And it wasn't smart enough to keep looking in the same place its prey had disappeared into.
That's right, sentient, not sapient. It couldn't think like Izuku could. It was acting on instincts, but only to preserve the parasite, not the host. And even then, that had failed when facing Togaru.
Izuku was steeled with determination, hand falling from his face and digging into the purple dirt of this prison planet.
He wouldn't die here. He had to survive. The nomu was bigger than him, stronger than him. But it couldn't think.
Izuku had the most important advantage.
First, he needed to scavenge for something to use. He crawled quietly through the debris around the edges of the arena, finding a small broken pipe, its end jagged as if something had bitten through it. It was small enough to hold like a baseball bat, not that Izuku had played much beyond mandatory gym classes.
It would be good enough. It had a weight to it, not enough to drag him down, but to put more impact behind his swings. He could do this.
Izuku peered over a large half destroyed escape pod, hands almost hurting from the tight grip he had on his weapon. The nomu was still stalking around, turning its entire body to look around, as it didn't seem to have a neck, which made its blind spots massive.
Its eyes had to be a weak point. And the brain, of course. Unless it looked like a brain did back on Earth and wasn't even close. Then Izuku might be screwed.
The thing was bulky. As terrifying as it was at first glance, it reminded Izuku more of a big dumb animal than anything else. Dangerous due to its size and instinct to attack, and difficult to kill when someone had to force it to cannibalize itself to death, but as long as someone was smart enough to escape, they'd be fine.
The problem was that Izuku couldn't escape. He was trapped in an arena and forced to fight. There was no way out but through.
He could try and creep through the debris all the way around the arena, but it would take too long. Who knew what they might release into the arena to spice up their 'boring' gladiatorial fight to the death?
Izuku knew it had massive blind spots. He knew it was slow to move, its entire body turning to see. And it couldn't hear well, unable to find Izuku when he had been hiding. It was massive, and that surely gave it the advantage when forced to regenerate, but it also gave its limbs less range of motion.
The problem was getting up to the alien's potential weak spots. Izuku ripped at his clothes, tying a makeshift belt with a loop to keep the pipe on his body, knowing he'd have to climb up the alien.
Once he was ready, Izuku moved before he could think, sprinting across the arena right behind the nomu. The crowd screamed, almost as loud as the blood roaring in Izuku's ears.
Izuku leapt up, ragged nails digging into the nomu's skin. He kicked off of its back, clinging for dear life as it turned, unable to see or touch the weight on itself.
The nomu reached back, but its shoulder was too muscular and so it couldn't even get close to Izuku.
All Izuku could say in hindsight was that adrenaline made him stupid. That was why he listened to his impulse and jumped, grabbing the nomu's forearm and scaling up the limb. His own body ached, unused to all the exercise after however long of being confined to cages and operating tables, and yet he pushed through, refusing to give up or give in. Refusing to die.
Once he reached the nomu's shoulder, the alien was screeching, still trying to grasp him. It was unable to lessen its bulk unless it consumed itself to regenerate, and so couldn't do anything to get Izuku.
If it could, it would easily wrap a single hand around Izuku's ribcage. It would squeeze and his bones would splinter and shatter into his organs, and he'd die instantly. It would be a single moment of agony before nothing. Maybe it would be a mercy, considering what Izuku had gone through, what he'd likely continue to go through.
And yet he didn't want to die.
So Izuku clutched at the nomu, the alien struggling underneath him, and climbed onto its shoulder, right beside its head. He felt the nails on his left hand tearing as they dug into the skin there, his right hand reaching to grab his weapon.
Izuku was nearly bucked off of the alien, but was able to steady himself by stabbing the ragged end of the pipe right into the nomu's brain.
Izuku felt more than heard his own screams, throat raw and aching from it. He felt flesh give way as the nomu lurched sideways, screeching again. Izuku's arms burned as he pulled the weapon up, only to stab downward again.
"Die!" Izuku shouted. "Just die!"
It was already dead, he knew that. It was a parasite puppeteering dead flesh. It couldn't suffer, couldn't do anything but act on instinct.
Izuku was begging for his own sake. Make this end already, he thought selfishly. Let me survive and see Togaru again.
It took several more stabs, black blood pouring over the nomu's head and onto Izuku, cold and sticky.
Finally the nomu collapsed, falling to its knees with a ground shaking boom, the movement so sudden that Izuku lost his grip on his blood slicked weapon and fell back, toppling off of the behemoth alien and onto the dirt.
Izuku could only grunt at the impact, all of his bodily aches coming back in full force now that he stopped moving. The adrenaline still raced through him, his heart pounding and hands shaking as he struggled in the dirt, scrambling for a moment before finally standing unsteadily.
The nomu fell forward, its body breaking apart like the one before it had.
The crowd was screaming and cheering and whatever else aliens did, the noise breaking through the haze that had overtaken Izuku in battle. The announcer was screaming as well, fast and garbled through Izuku's translator.
Izuku didn't feel safe. At any time they could send another alien, they could force him to fight for his life again. Izuku stumbled forward, towards the nomu, and grabbed his pipe again, pulling and letting his weight do some of the work. With a very gross wet sucking noise, the pipe came loose and it was in Izuku's grasp again.
The security the weapon gave him calmed Izuku down just enough that he fainted from the exertion, his body knowing the fight was over.
He woke to a hose blasting him with some kind of liquid, water and chemicals that seared at his skin from the force. Izuku choked on it, tasting chlorine, like he had been thrown into a swimming pool by Kacchan again. His eyes snapped open and he struggled, realizing where he was when he saw the alien guards outside of the cleaning pod.
It presumably was a quarantine airlock to keep aliens from bringing unknown pathogens or filth onto spaceships, but had been repurposed to keep their captives from dying of illness, ensuring they weren't coated in blood and dirt all the time.
The liquid was cold, blasting hard enough to bruise at times, and Izuku did not appreciate it, glaring at the corner of the ceiling where he knew a camera was. Nomu blood washed away from the pressure, black staining Izuku's jumpsuit irreparably. He still had the tied loop of cloth from his makeshift belt around his waist, but his pipe was gone.
Well, that tracked. They wouldn't let him keep his weapon, even if he already missed the safe weight of it in his hands.
Finally the hosing down stopped, and Izuku stood, soaking wet and shaking from fear and cold. The door to the pod opened, the guards watching him warily. There were ten now, instead of six.
Izuku laughed. It wasn't the nice, tentative laugh he had when talking to Togaru. It was raw, hoarse from his worn throat, and wry in a way no alien could decipher. Of course they were even more scared of him. They saw a parasite controlled undead alien, and yet were more scared of the highschooler who resembled a wet kitten more than a warrior.
He wasn't Togaru. He wasn't large and strong and confident. He was just Midoriya Izuku, just a human.
But that was enough to terrify them. Some part of him relished it. Finally, after so long of being afraid, of being treated like a lab rat and a feral animal, he wasn't the one who was afraid.
Izuku stepped forward, and most of the guards stepped back, wary. Izuku smiled with his teeth, knowing it would be perceived as a threat. The smile faded as they escorted him back to his cell.
Togaru was there, resting beside the bars they shared. Izuku walked into his cell, his hands left unbound and no shoving or manhandling, a testament to the guards' fear.
Izuku dropped to the floor next to Togaru, only the bars separating them. Togaru's antennae twitched, awake and aware but trying not to get the guards' attention.
Izuku's hands clenched around the ragged stained fabric of his jumpsuit, staring off into the distance.
"We need to escape." He said when the guards had left. His voice was broken from screaming. It hurt, but he couldn't afford silence, not when they only had so much time until the next fight.
Togaru sat up, looking Izuku in the eyes. His lower limbs grabbed the bars between them, his upper limbs reaching through to grab Izuku's shoulders. "Just tell me what to do, and I'll follow your lead, Zuku."
Izuku nodded, taking a deep breath, and beginning to think through just how they could escape the arena.
Because they could. Two deathworlders against a bunch of frail aliens who were terrified of them? Going out into an inhospitable prison planet with just their wits? It was terrifyingly possible. They'd be out in the unknown wilderness, on a barren planet with nothing but traffickers and prisoners.
But they'd be free. And that was worth anything else. Worth dying out there for.
Anything to not be forced to fight like animals and kill to survive.
Of course, the first thing that happened when they implemented their plan was that it went awry.
Izuku really should've expected as much.
Roughly eight cycles passed when they were taken out of their cages for another battle. Izuku had nodded to Togaru, both of them calm and collected. They had gone over the plan dozens of times, refining it until they had the least variables, the highest chance of success.
And then, instead of taking Izuku aside to wait for his battle after Togaru's, they were both brought through the entrance to the arena, shoved forward with the bars slamming down behind them.
"Fuck." Togaru cursed.
Izuku's heart dropped into his stomach as the announcer spoke, the crowd growing louder as they spoke.
"Two deathworlders, fighting to the death! Who will live, who will die? Will it be the haemopod, with its blades and natural armor? Or the human, just as brutal as the stories say? Only one of them will leave this arena, so take your bets now! Is a single rank enough to set the human apart, or will it be unable to face an opponent just as sentient as it?!"
Sentient, not sapient, they said. That was a lie. They knew Izuku and Togaru could speak and understand them.
"Fuck." Izuku echoed Togaru. They were so screwed. There went the entire plan.
"We can still do this, Zuku." Togaru said.
"Do what? Die?" Izuku's voice cracked, barely healed from his injury.
"No- Zuku, look at me." Togaru forcefully turned Izuku's body to face him, leaning down closely. "We can do this. We can escape."
"We can escape." Izuku murmured, nodding. "We can do this." He said, regaining his determination.
"Together." Togaru chirped lowly.
Izuku flushed, only able to nod.
They separated, the crowd discontent with the obvious lack of violence. Izuku paid no heed to the announcer's heckling and grandstanding as he and Togaru began going through the scraps and debris around the sides of the arena, intended for hiding spaces and makeshift weaponry but now their path to escape.
Togaru slashed through some of the softer metals, and Izuku gathered the materials they'd need. They could stack up the materials easily, and it would be enough to climb up into the stands. All of the spectators would be too terrified, and the guards would have to get through the spectators to actually stop them.
The bars from the other side of the arena opened, loosing an alien beast with interlocking plates of armor and a strange rat-like face. It was at least a meter tall, and it rocked in place before rolling into a ball like an armadillo and rolling towards them.
"Go go go!" Izuku shoved the partially broken hull of a ship towards the wall, feeling it dent the metal wall of the arena. He clambered up it, reaching higher and higher, able to follow Togaru and use the handholds he pierced into the metal, tearing at the skin of his fingers but it was worth it.
The massive alien armadillo slammed into their tower of junk like a bowling ball, and Izuku felt it falling out from under him. Togaru had swung up and over the railing, and was staring down, three of his four hands outstretched and a high pitched buzz leaving him.
Izuku fell onto the alien-dillo, twisting and clinging to the edge of its armor.
His weight was too much for it, and he already felt the plate of armor detaching from flesh, sickening in the ease he destroyed a creature's natural defense. He wanted to hurl, but was too busy trying not to die.
Izuku kicked off of the beast, falling gracelessly and scrambling to stand, seeing another barred gate lifting and a platoon of guards rushing in.
Fuck it.
Izuku sprinted forward recklessly, right towards the guards. He yelled, voice cracking in what would be a laugh worthy battle cry on Earth. But here, on a desolate planet full of aliens, it sent them scattering, terrified.
Izuku laughed, and it was a cackle that scared even him. He grabbed a baton from a guard, feeling their fragile bones snap as their digits broke under his grip. With a swing of the baton, he batted away the bravest of the guards who had stood their ground, feeling more bones breaking.
It wasn't nice. It wasn't kind.
But it was survival. They were slavers and traffickers and would love to watch him murder or be murdered by his friend.
And he refused. He and Togaru would both live. There was no other option.
Izuku raced through the arena's hallways, breaking open doors and never stopping. In a place with fragile metal and wood, built by aliens with fragiler bodies and fragile material, Izuku was a juggernaut.
Spectators and guards alike screamed and ran from him, no one trying to hold him again. No one would ever keep him captive again.
He smashed through another door, its paper-thin material shattering like glass.
There stood Togaru. Blades bloodied, but still standing, tall and strong and amazing as ever.
"Took you long enough." Togaru said, unable to hide his worry.
"Took the scenic route." Izuku blurted, rushing towards Togaru.
They embraced. Outside. Free.
Izuku could hear Togaru's heart thudding when he placed his ear against the cold exoskeleton.
Without words, they separated, one of Togaru's hands in Izuku's as they sprinted off into the wilderness.
It wouldn't be easy, but they'd be together. Free. They'd find allies, and escape the prison planet, and teach others that they were people, not just deathworlders.
And they'd do it together.