Katherine Ride: Battlefield *BOOK TWO*

Season Four- Easier Than Lying

Storm shielded Katherine from the fire with his wings, then shot a plasma blast at Dabi's feet. The burst forced him to stumble back. "What the fuck?"

The Black Death turned his gaze toward the rest of the League and roared, his fangs bared. For once, they all seemed genuinely caught off-guard—Toga and Giran held up their respective weapons but didn't act, while Twice, Spinner, and Compress seemed more interested in getting as far away from the dragon as possible. Shigaraki hadn't even moved. Storm growled threateningly again before he hooked his front paws around a very confused Katherine and took off. "Hey—woah, woah, woah!"

She squirmed slightly in the dragon's grip, but Storm gave her a warning huff, and she stopped, sighing and patting his paw. "Thanks for the rescue."

He rumbled in response but was noticeably more focused on flying. As they flew back to U.A., the minutes crawling by, Katherine blinked raindrops that mixed with tears out of her eyes.

I'm such a fucking idiot. Getting my hopes up for nothing.

We still got something useful out of that, though. Giran—the broker. You should ask Kio or Sora to do a background check on him.

And you got some of that anger out of your system, right? That's closure, in a sense. You're in one piece, which Shoto will be happy to see.

That's true. It did feel pretty good to see Tenko's jaw drop when I told him we were cousins. What a shitbag. He didn't even have the guts to tell the League the truth about what he did.

Yeah, that's a major asshole move. Time to start plotting his murder.

...You two are aware that we can't kill him if Katherine wants to be a Pro Hero, right?

She can make it look like an accident, easy peasy. Right?

Well, things happen in the heat of combat.

Katherine!

What? Don't tell me you'd rather he lives to hurt somebody else.

I never said that. But doesn't death feel like a cop-out? Tenko should live out the rest of his days in Tartarus, just like his master is doing.

That just leaves room for him to cause problems in the future. I wouldn't have minded if All Might finished off All For One in Kamino.

And considering what Nana's told us, that's what it'll come down to, anyways. All For One is too dangerous to be kept alive.

I see your points, but let's not start scoping out an assassination plot just yet. We wait till we're on the battlefield again, just like Katherine said.

Fine, life of the party. We'll put our homicidal tendencies on hold.

Thank you.

Katherine had wholly zoned out during her conversation with Fallen and Nightmare, which is why she yelped as she felt herself slip from Storm's paws. "What are you doing, you–"

But instead of freefalling through the air, she felt solid (if not a bit soggy) ground beneath her. As she got her bearings, she realized they had finally arrived in Ground Omega. She sighed heavily and sat on the ground, pulling her knees to her chest. Storm landed next to her and stared at her, then padded away.

Shouldn't we be getting to Heights Alliance? Shoto will be worried about you.

Yeah, I know. Just give me a second.

Katherine took a shaky breath and wiped her eyes, tears still falling.

Damnit, why am I crying over this? I knew what would happen.