⸻
The bell echoed twelve times.
Each chime rolled through the ancient clocktower like a heartbeat.
Rasheed stood frozen, the silver pocket watch still clenched tightly in his hand.
“Elias…”
He turned.
The tower was empty.
No footsteps.
No voices.
Only the slow creaking of gears that hadn’t moved in years.
Had he imagined it?
No.
The watch was still there.
Cold.
Heavy.
Real.
He slipped it carefully into his pocket.
The instant he did…
The ticking throughout the tower stopped.
Silence.
⸻
Outside, a cold wind swept across the hill.
Lagos shimmered below, unaware of what had just happened.
Rasheed took one last look at the clocktower before beginning the walk down the winding road.
Halfway down…
He stopped.
Someone stood ahead of him.
Perfectly still.
A tall man wearing a charcoal-grey coat that brushed against the ground.
His hands rested behind his back.
His face remained hidden beneath the shadows.
Yet somehow…
Rasheed felt those unseen eyes studying him.
“You’ve been searching.”
The stranger’s voice was calm.
Measured.
Almost kind.
Rasheed instinctively stepped back.
“Who are you?”
A faint smile crossed the man’s face.
“I’ve carried many names.”
His eyes slowly opened.
Crimson.
Deep enough to swallow the night.
“But history remembers one.”
He paused.
“Kronis.”
The name struck Rasheed harder than any punch.
His father’s voice echoed inside his mind.
If you ever hear that name… walk away.
Every instinct told him to run.
Instead…
He stood his ground.
“You knew my father.”
“I did.”
“What happened to him?”
For a long moment…
Kronis simply watched him.
Then he answered.
“You are asking the wrong question.”
Rasheed frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“You ask what happened.”
Kronis tilted his head slightly.
“When you should be asking…”
“…what he chose.”
⸻
The air changed.
Not with wind.
Not with electricity.
With something older.
The leaves around them stopped drifting.
The breeze disappeared.
The distant sounds of the city faded into absolute silence.
Only Rasheed and Kronis remained.
“What are you?”
Rasheed whispered.
For the first time…
Something like regret crossed Kronis’ face.
“I am what remains…”
“…when time refuses to forget.”
⸻
Without warning…
Kronis lifted one hand.
The world fractured.
Not into broken glass.
Into moments.
Countless fragments floated around them.
Each reflected a different possibility.
A family eating dinner together.
A city consumed by crimson storms.
A young scientist standing beside a completed Chrona Core.
A boy running through empty streets.
None lasted more than a heartbeat before another replaced it.
Rasheed turned in every direction.
“What am I seeing?”
Kronis’s voice echoed from everywhere.
“Possibility.”
The fragments collapsed.
Reality settled once more.
Rasheed staggered, struggling to catch his breath.
⸻
Kronis looked toward the lights of Lagos.
“I wanted to see you for myself.”
“Why?”
“To know whether history intends to repeat itself.”
“I don’t understand.”
“No.”
Kronis said quietly.
“You aren’t meant to.”
⸻
He looked back at Rasheed.
“If you could save one life…”
“…or protect countless others…”
“…which burden would you carry?”
Rasheed lowered his eyes.
Faces filled his mind.
His mother.
Adesewa.
The little girl who had called him Red Pulse.
His father.
He looked back up.
“I’d keep searching until nobody had to be sacrificed.”
For the first time…
Kronis laughed.
Softly.
Almost with admiration.
“So did he.”
Rasheed’s heart skipped.
“You really knew him.”
“Long before you were born.”
“Then tell me where he is!”
The smile disappeared.
“I cannot.”
“Why?”
“Because there are truths…”
“…that only become bearable when they’re discovered.”
Silence settled between them.
Then Kronis slowly turned his head toward the sky.
“He found us.”
Rasheed looked up instinctively.
“What are you talking about?”
⸻
A deafening crack split the night.
Blue lightning slammed into the road between them.
The blast scattered dust and broken stone.
When it finally cleared…
Another figure stood there.
A dark suit traced with glowing blue lines.
Electric arcs danced across his arms before fading into the air.
His face remained hidden behind a full mask.
His posture tensed the instant he saw Kronis.
“So…”
the masked speedster said quietly.
“I finally found you.”
Kronis smiled.
“You’ve become much faster.”
Neither speedster looked away from him.
For a brief moment…
The stranger in blue glanced toward Rasheed.
His eyes narrowed behind the mask.
Rasheed instinctively stepped back.
Neither knew who the other was.
Just another impossible person standing in the middle of an impossible night.
⸻
Kronis looked between them.
His smile widened.
“Interesting.”
The air around him shimmered.
His body dissolved into drifting crimson particles.
His voice lingered long after he had vanished.
“The board is set.”
“And the first move has already been made.”
The night became still once again.
⸻
The two masked speedsters remained where they stood.
Blue.
Red.
Neither moved.
Neither spoke.
The stranger in blue gave Rasheed one final look before disappearing into the darkness in a flash of electric light.
Moments later…
Rasheed accelerated in the opposite direction.
Neither knew the other’s name.
Neither knew the face beneath the mask.
But both left with the same question.
Who was that?
⸻
Far beyond Earth…
Beyond ordinary time…
A lone man walked across an endless crimson horizon.
He stopped.
Closed his eyes.
Then slowly smiled.
“My son…”
David Adewale whispered into the storm.
“…our time is running short.”
The crimson winds swallowed his voice.
And somewhere, deep within the endless silence…
Something listened.
⸻