The Flap of a Butterfly's Wings

The Destruction of Hell

Six hours earlier...

His theory was that Jude's quirk's primary weakness was the knowledge of its existence. It was far fetched, but if enough people knew about his quirk, it might be enough to cancel it out.

Not even the guards knew about the leader's quirk. A few months back he had overheard them talk about the theories of his quirk, and what it could possibly be. Izuku even took some into consideration, such as the manipulation quirk. It had been a good idea, especially since he had so many loyal followers.

Tomura and him knowing isn't going to be enough. Their goal is to gather everyone in the serpent stage together and tell them. That has to be enough.

It has to be.

"Once we escape from the stage, we'll have to separate. It's not ideal, but your quirk will help free the other prisoners faster than if it was me. I don't think the cells are an illusion, and finding the right keys and then unlocking every single cage would take too much time. It'll be best if you just disintegrate all of the cells instead." His voice was barely above a whisper. Izuku could hardly see the black outline of Tomura, but he knew the older boy was listening.

"And you? What are you going to do?"

Izuku smiles sheepishly, "I know this is selfish, but while you're freeing the prisoners, I'm going to pay Jude a little visit. I want to be the one to take him down."

They both lay down to try to get some sleep. Hopefully the last night they'll have to spend in this sordid place.

"What if plan A doesn't work?" The grey-haired boy questions.

Plan A was to destroy the walls of the arena in hopes of it to collapse on itself. It would serve as a good distraction and get rid of a lot of the possible obstacles.

"Well, we have a plan B for a reason. Remember to meet up at the entrance of the arena once we do what we complete our parts of the plan."

They're going to escape tomorrow. Izuku will get to introduce Tomura to his mom and Kacchan. He'll finally be able to start on fixing the timeline once again. All he needs to do is survive and fight with every fiber in his being.

The weight of the ribbon on his wrist is the only comfort he needs to be lulled into the shadow of sleep.
The rest of the night is silenced. Even the rage of Izuku's dreams are quited into a fragile whisper.

_____________

One hour before breakout...

"Rise and shine sons of bitches." Keres wakes them up (and the rest of the prisoners) by slamming their cage door open. Hato jumps to his feet swiftly, who is soon followed by Tomura. They walk out of the cage, both briefly catching the other's eye and nodding furtively.

Once they get to the platform, Keres turns off their quirk suppressant cuffs. Hato takes a deep breath, trying to detach from himself. This is part of the plan that he didn't practically like, but leaving him just unconscious would be too risky. He had to do it this way.

He reached for the invisible string and imagined snapping it in half. The string broke, and so did Keres's neck. Hato made sure to keep the evil man standing so they wouldn't draw attention to themselves. He'll let go of the string once he makes Keres walk back to the dungeon into their cage.