Zero
'This is humiliating!'
That was the only coherent thought Zero could form as another strong gale made the world spin around him in a sickening grey blur.
He was being tumbled through the air. The air pressure was crushing him, making it hard to breathe, while the centrifugal force threatened to tear his limbs from their sockets.
'Calm down. Even if Kenji is messing with my control, I can still use the Quirks', Zero thought, gritting his teeth as he forced his internal equilibrium to recalibrate.
He activated Gearshift to kill his rotational momentum, then used a burst of wind and Float to stabilize himself in the air.
'Now, time to deal with this little bird.'
Fifty meters above, Wendy looked down at him. She floated in the moonlight with the casual grace of a deity, her hair drifting lazily as if she were underwater, while the chaos raged inches from her face.
"Running away already?" Wendy was speaking normally, but her voice was echoed throughout the air around them. Making her voice boom through the sound of the tornado.
Zero wiped a streak of blood from his cheek. He placed a hand around his abdomen, where Kiana had shot those odd bullets.
While the poison was all but gone, he still felt something wasn't right. The bullets weren't in his body anymore, they dissolved.
There was something more to them than just poison.
"Don't get cocky, little bird," Zero spat, his voice lost in the roar of the wind. "You're just a distraction."
This entire debacle was a complete miscalculation on his part. His mind was still adjusting to the body, so he didn't realize his judgment was compromised.
He had to put all his power into his healing factor to deal with Cocolia's experimentation, which had already slowed down his healing a ton and affected his control.
Along with Kenji and The Flamechasers tampering, his mind was being swamped with a dense fog that took too long to clear.
If he had to describe it, it was like being too sick to think clearly or deeply.
To add onto all of that, Theresa's poison and chains had messed with both his body's control and recovery speed.
'Enough of this.'
He kicked off the empty air with a burst of kinetic force and shot upwards.
He tore a hole through harsh winds. Closing the gap between them in a heartbeat, his eyes locked on her throat.
He could see the surprise widen her eyes—she hadn't expected him to be this fast in a vacuum.
She may be a Herrscher, but she was still the second weakest of the rescue team.
'Still just a scared girl in a wheelchair.'
He clenched his fists and prepared to strike. Even with a weakened OFA, he still had Gearshift. Just one touch from him, and he could send her flying to another time zone.
His hand lashed out, aiming for her neck.
ZZZZZT.
'What the?!' The sensation was wrong.
It wasn't soft skin. It felt like grabbing a belt sander.
His hand skidded. A violent, high-frequency vibration repelled his fingers, forcing his hand to slide harmlessly off her neck. The friction burned his fingertips, smelling of singed skin.
Zero's momentum carried him forward, past her. He flailed, trying to hook his arm around her waist, trying to grab her ankle as he flew by.
Every point of contact was rejected. It was as if she were coated in constant vibrations. He couldn't latch on.
"My turn," Wendy whispered.
Zero's eyes widened.
BANG.
The air around her detonated outward.
Zero took the blast point-blank. He was swatted out of the air like a fly, sent tumbling back down toward the tornado.
He smashed through a layer of floating debris, shattering a wooden pallet with his spine before recovering his drift.
He gasped, clutching his chest, staring up at her with wild confusion.
"A shield?" Zero hissed, forcing himself to hover. "No… An air barrier?! You can do that?!"
Wendy descended slowly, drifting closer.
"Close enough," Wendy said, pride evident in her tone. "But it's not really a barrier."
She clenched her fist, and the air hummed with a menacing whine.
"Fu Hua told us about the condition for Gearshift. You have to touch the object to change its speed."
Zero's eyes narrowed.
"High-frequency vibration. You're repelling contact before I can bridge the gap." Zero realized, spitting blood. "Constantly moving wind around yourself to redirect my attacks…"
"If you can't touch me," Wendy said, "you can't hurt me."
She swept her arm to the side.
The walls of the tornado groaned. Hundreds of debris chunks—glass, steel, concrete—peeled away from the vortex and aimed themselves at the center.
"You're in my domain," Wendy stated, the debris circling her like a halo of shrapnel. "And up here, the laws of physics are merely suggestions that I choose to ignore."
Zero looked around at the firing squad of debris. He looked back at Wendy, encased in her invisible armor, untouchable and supreme.
He cracked his neck, the red lightning around him flaring up with a desperate, manic intensity.
"Okay," Zero laughed, a jagged sound that scraped against the wind. "Playing hard to get. I can work with that."
/ — /
Wendy
"Work with this, asshole!"
Wendy flicked her wrist, and the arsenal of floating debris responded.
Chunks of buildings and twisted steel launched themselves at Zero from every angle. It was a chaotic omnidirectional assault, a storm of shrapnel designed to overwhelm his senses.
Zero spun in mid-air, a blur of motion.
"Too slow!"
He kicked a car door, accelerating it back at her with Gearshift. He punched a building, shattering it into dust.
He weaved through the barrage with terrifying agility, his red eyes leaving trails of light as he closed the distance again.
'He's adapting,' Wendy noted, drifting higher to maintain their distance. 'He's using the debris as stepping stones. He's closing the range.'
She watched him tear through a sheet of metal like it was paper, his face twisted in a feral grin.
'Don't panic. You just need to hold him long enough for everyone else to finish preparing. I just can't let him touch me.'
Wendy flew to the side, dodging a burst of wind Zero sent her way before sending a barrage of wind blades to keep him back.
"You're fast," Wendy said, using the wind to make her voice louder. "But you're still not a complete Herrscher, aren't you?"
Zero glared at her, irritated at the comment. "So what? You're also in the same boat, albeit much weaker." He finished with a taunt.
She didn't let his words get to her. He just gave her the info she needed. Usually, Herrschers weren't bound by the limitations of man.
Food, rest, breathing. None of them applied to the beings akin to gods. But incomplete Herrschers on the other hand…
She raised her hand, fingers splayed.
"Don't hold a grudge for this, Kenji!"
She clenched her hand into a fist.
Zero was in mid-lunge, his hand outstretched to grab a piece of rebar, when his body suddenly convulsed. He opened his mouth to roar, to taunt her, but no sound came out.
He grabbed his throat, his eyes bulging.
Wendy winced at the sight. She hadn't attacked his body. She had attacked the space around his head. She had manipulated the air pressure to create a localized pocket of suction.
Zero thrashed. He clawed at the air, trying to inhale, but there was nothing there. His lungs pumped frantically, trying to draw in sustenance, but he was drowning on dry land.
Wendy watched the realization hit him. The arrogance vanished, replaced by the primal, animalistic terror of suffocation.
He tried to activate Gearshift to fly out of the sphere, but his coordination was failing. His brain, already taxed by the complex calculations required to run his quirks, was starving.
The red lightning around him sputtered and dimmed. The lack of oxygen was affecting him as she thought it would.
He fell.
Zero crashed onto a large, floating slab of pavement caught in the updraft. He writhed on the concrete, his nails scraping against the stone, his mouth opening and closing in a silent scream.
'It's cruel,' a voice whispered in Wendy's mind. 'But I have to do it. If I don't, I can't save Kenji.'
She descended slowly, hovering just beyond his reach, maintaining the vacuum with a flex of her will.
"Give up," Wendy ordered. "Let Kenji take control, and I won't hurt you anymore… Please."
Zero rolled onto his back. His face was turning a bruised shade of purple. He looked like he was about to pass out, but she knew better.
Then, he smiled.
'Oh come on!'
He tapped his temple as if to say: Think you're the first one to try this?
Zero's eyes flared black.
Seven tendrils exploded from his back. They didn't aim for Wendy. They aimed for the vacuum itself.
They thrashed wildly, glowing with Gearshift's blue light whipping through as they swung through the air at supersonic speeds, creating chaotic shockwaves that disrupted the delicate pressure seal Wendy was maintaining.
WHOOSH.
The vacuum collapsed. Air rushed back into the void with a thunderous clap.
Zero sucked in a massive, ragged breath. It sounded like a drowning man breaking the surface.
"Hah... Hah..."
He coughed violently. He pushed himself up to his knees, his chest heaving.
"Didn't think you had it in you!"
Wendy prepared to re-establish the sphere, but Zero raised a hand. He wasn't attacking. He was pointing at her.
"Look at you," Zero rasped. He wiped his mouth, glaring up at her with a hatred so pure it felt colder than the wind.
"Floating up there like a god, forcefully taking my breath away. Trying to cage me." Zero laughed. "Does it feel familiar, Wendy?"
"What are you talking about now?" Wendy didn't let her guard down even a little. He could be trying to catch her off guard.
"The glass walls," Zero hissed, struggling to his feet. "The containment… The asset. The scientists looking down at you, taking notes while you suffered."
He took a step forward. "You hated them. You hated Schicksal for turning you into a lab rat. You hated them all for putting that Gem in your leg."
He pointed a clawed finger at her chest.
"But look at you now. You're doing the exact same thing."
"This is nothing like that," Wendy said, "I am saving my friend."
"All I want is to live!" Zero screamed, the sound tearing at his throat.
His shout made her freeze.
"You're trying to trap me in a dying cage! You don't think I matter, do you? Because I'm the side effect. The evil Herrscher who took control of your friend!"
He spread his arms wide, gesturing to the tornado around them.
"He'd be dead without me! All I want is to live freely. I want to see the sun without the constant fear of death! And you..."
He looked at her with genuine disgust.
"...you're treating me just like how Schicksal treated you."
Wendy flinched as if he had slapped her. The wind armor around her flickered.
The image flashed in her mind—the wheelchair. The white room. The feeling of helplessness when she was promised it was for the greater good.
The feeling of being something less than human.
"I..." Wendy faltered. The winds of the tornado slowed, the roar dampening to a mournful howl.
Zero saw the crack in the armor.
"You're a hypocrite," Zero whispered, his voice carrying effortlessly in the sudden quiet. "You broke out of your cage just to build one for me."
Wendy's voice caught in her throat. The wind howling around them seemed to dull, mirroring her hesitation.
But then, she remembered the hangar. She remembered the way he had mocked Theresa. She remembered Fu Hua's broken body embedded in the bus.
Wendy's eyes hardened.
"You're good," Wendy said, her voice sharp. "You almost had me."
Zero paused, his expression flickering.
"You talk about cages," Wendy continued, the wind pressure around the platform intensifying slightly as a warning.
"You use my own experience to make me lower my guard. You're my enemy. You hurt the only people who have ever reached out to me."
She narrowed her eyes.
"How do I know this isn't just another trick to get me to lower my guard?"
Zero sighed. "Think what you want," his voice stronger now as strength returned to his limbs. "But I am telling the truth."
He took a step toward the edge of the platform.
"I didn't ask to be born, Wendy. But now that I am here... I refuse to go back to the dark. I refuse to die just because I'm in his way."
Wendy bit her lip. That was the part that stung. The desperation in his voice... he couldn't fake that. She knew what it felt like to be disposable.
"I can't let you leave," Wendy said softly. "Because this body isn't yours."
She floated down, landing softly on the opposite side of the concrete slab. She kept her distance, her Wind Armor humming with readiness.
"But... I understand."
She placed a hand on her chest. "So I'll make you a deal. If you stand down... I will protect Kenji with my life. I won't let Schicksal take him. I won't let Anti-Entropy touch him. You won't have to fight for survival because I will be his shield."
She extended a hand.
"You can rest, Zero. I will protect him. I promise."
Zero stared at her hand. The red lightning around him crackled, no longer sputtering, but burning with renewed intensity.
Then, he laughed.
It wasn't a triumphant laugh. It was a hollow, bitter laugh.
"Safe?" Zero shook his head, looking at her with genuine pity. "You think the threat is outside?"
"What?"
"You promise to protect him from the world," Zero whispered, his eyes darkening. "But who is going to protect him from himself?"
Wendy frowned, her suspicion rising again. "What are you talking about?"
Zero stepped closer. The killing intent was returning, sharper than before.
"There are people... Kenji's predecessors, who are going to ask him for something."
"Predecessor?" Wendy asked, confused.
"They will ask for a sacrifice," Zero hissed, his voice dropping to a growl. "To bring back what was lost, they need fuel… They will ask for his life."
"And he is going to hand it to them."
Wendy froze. "Kenji wouldn't—"
"He would!" Zero shouted, his composure cracking. "He is willing to throw away his life for a bygone era! He walks toward the slaughterhouse with a smile on his face because he thinks it's heroic!"
Zero's red eyes blazed with fury.
"I'm not the villain here, Wendy! I'm the only survival instinct he has left! I'm the only one who screams no! If I let him take the wheel, he's going to kill himself!"
Wendy stared at him. She wanted to call him a liar.
But the desperation in his voice, the conviction. It wasn't something someone could fake.
"So now you understand… I can't accept your deal. Because a shield can't protect a man who has already signed his own death warrant!" He screamed as a blue light enveloped his body.
'Shit, Gearshift!'
He summoned the black tendrils again, coating the seven tendrils in red lightning, preparing to tear through Wendy's wind armor and the tornado itself.
"I WON'T LET HIM KILL US!" Zero roared, launching his tendrils at her.
Wendy's eyes widened. She raised her arms to block, but she knew she had hesitated too long. The poison was gone; he was faster than before.
The black tendrils lashed out, inches from her face.
The attack froze in place.
The black tendrils didn't hit her. They stopped in mid-air.
Zero froze, his face twisting in confusion.
"What...?"
He tried to push forward. He tried to swing his arm. But his body refused to obey. The red lightning sputtered, not from weakness, but from resistance. The Blackwhip tendrils dissolved into smoke.
Zero gasped, clutching his chest. His eyes widened in panic.
"No… Not now! Don't you dare!"
Wendy's breath hitched."Kenji?"
Zero grabbed his own head, screaming in frustration. "Get out of my head!"
Kenji's will pushed back, locking down the quirks. Zero fell to his knees on the concrete slab, paralyzed by the internal war.
Zero looked up at Wendy, his eyes pleading, desperate, and furious. "He's going to kill himself! Wendy, don't let him—!"
"Wendy, we're ready!" Theresa's voice suddenly boomed through her comms.
She looked at the boy—both of them. The terrified herrscher and the selfless hero.
"I'm sorry, Zero," Wendy whispered, "But I have to trust him."
She raised both hands high. The tornado responded.
"And if he does try to throw his life away..." Wendy declared, her voice echoing with the full power of the Wind Herrscher. "...then I'll just have to save him from himself!"
She slammed her hands down.
[Hammer Of Judgement.]
The air pressure inside the eye condensed. A massive, vertical column of downdraft slammed into Zero with the force of a hydraulic press.
Zero didn't have time to scream. The wind blasted him through the concrete slab, shattering it instantly. He was launched downward, accelerating past terminal velocity.
He plummeted through the clouds, a streak of defeated lightning, crashing back down toward the surface city below.
Wendy hovered alone in the silent eye of the storm.
She lowered her hands, trembling. The wind howled around her, but all she could hear was Zero's words.
"You better be lying," Wendy whispered to the empty air, clenching her fists. "Please be lying…"