Max_Striker
patreon
Ch-28 Light in the Ash
🕑 Added 2025-05-18 11:36:44 +0000 UTCThe wind howled through the shattered towers of Metropolis, but it wasn't natural. It was torn free by motion—by something moving too fast for the human eye to track.
Raj stepped into the storm's eye; his expression grim but determined.
Across the cratered street, the creature that had once been Barry Allen screeched toward him—skin charred black, crimson lightning flickering from cracked veins that glowed with unnatural energy. The infected Flash didn't slow. He couldn't. The Speed Force that once made him a hero now trapped him in perpetual motion, a prisoner to his own power.
Raj didn't blink.
He raised a hand, fingers spread in a precise formation. Kinetic Force Negation. And Equation Insight to remove Flash's connection to the speed force
The moment froze. The lightning died mid-air; crackling sparks suspended like frozen fireflies. Barry's body, halfway through a super-speed strike, staggered as if he'd hit an invisible wall—tripped on gravity itself.
"Sorry, Barry," Raj said softly. "You were always one step ahead... but now you're out of time."
Raj formed a rotating Motion in the air—intricate geometries of light that pulsed with temporal energy. Chrono-Stasis. The air shimmered and folded around the Flash. Barry collapsed into the distortion like a memory being folded up and packed away.
The Dimensional Storage field closed with a resonant hum.
Only silence remained in the devastated street.
Earth-55. January 3rd, 2010. Refugee Church, metropolis.
Inside the church—once sacred, now scarred with battle—Raj appeared in a flicker of light, carrying a woman in his arms.
Her skin flickered white, then dark blue, then white again. Her breathing was shallow, her energy signature unstable and fluctuating between states of existence.
"Clear space!" Lieutenant Eliza Chen ordered, waving the last of the refugees aside. "Give him room!"
Raj knelt, laying the unconscious woman on a scavenged mattress.
"Kiran," he said softly, "You need to wake up."
He placed both palms above her chest, not touching—channeling Light Manipulation through one hand, Shadow Infusion through the other. Golden warmth flowed from his right hand, stabilizing her energy core, while shadows from his left cooled the dangerous flare of her powers. Carefully, he added META Healing, his energy synchronizing with her's.
Slowly, her fractured aura stitched together, pulsing like a heartbeat returning to rhythm.
She inhaled sharply and opened her eyes.
Bright light filled her vision. Then shapes. A roof. Cracked windows. Blurred faces in the dark.
Kiran sat up, gasping. "Where... am I?"
"You're safe," Raj said.
She flinched at the unfamiliar voice.
"Hey, hey—easy," he added, voice gentler. "You passed out. I brought you here."
She looked around, disoriented. "What happened to Jump City? The Machine was—there was light and then..."
Raj's brow furrowed. "Jump City?"
"I was at the Titans Tower. It was 2016." Kiran's voice grew steadier as memories returned. "Then Harvest showed up, and... I stopped him. I think. I used everything I had." Her voice broke. "Then—nothing."
Raj's gaze sharpened. "2016?"
Kiran nodded. "Why? What year is it now?"
"...2010."
She froze, eyes widening in disbelief.
"That's not possible."
Raj activated Time Stamp and Limited Meta Awareness, mentally scanning through his knowledge of the Source Wall and multiversal distortions. The conclusion hit him with stunning clarity.
"It is," Raj said gently. "Because I don't think you're from here. Or now."
She blinked. "What are you talking about?"
"I checked your energy signature. It's out of sync with this Earth's multiversal alignment. You're... displaced. Like a ripple from a different Phase of the multiverse itself. From before the Flesh-Point"
Kiran shook her head. "No, I'm just—there must be some mistake."
"There's already a Kiran Singh in this timeline," Raj said. "A teenager on Earth-1. Still figuring herself out. You're older. Stronger. You remember events this multiverse hasn't lived."
Kiran's voice was barely a whisper. "Then what am I?"
Raj met her eyes.
"Something rare. A light that survived being erased."
A scream cut through the church.
Eliza Chen stormed back in; rifle slung over her shoulder, face tense with urgency.
"They're grouping up again. We're all packed up."
Raj stood, eyes already glowing with power.
"Time to move."
They moved like instinct.
Raj summoned Force Constructs, shaping energy walls to divert the infected. His shields flowed like liquid glass—curved precisely to direct force away from the convoy path.
Kiran stepped in beside him. Her aura pulsed back to life—this time under control. Her hands shimmered as she summoned Hard Light Barriers, guiding civilians between fallen buildings and overturned wreckage.
Lieutenant Chen coordinated evac teams, leading the refugees to the secured tram tunnel. The air was thick with rot and ozone, but the path stayed open.
Raj paused only once—to press his fingers to Kiran's shoulder.
"You're still unstable."
"I feel it," she whispered. "Like I could slip any second."
"It's called Time-Slipping," Raj said. He reached inside himself, then outward—connecting to her essence.
Temporal Anchoring.
A ribbon of golden thread materialized between them, pulsing in rhythm with both their heartbeats.
Kiran's breath slowed. "It's... quieter now."
"You're linked to this timeline. You won't fall out of sync while I'm here."
She looked at him curiously. "You always talk like you got solution for anything."
He smiled faintly. "I do."
Earth-55. January 3rd, 2010. S.T.A.R. Labs, metropolis.
The entrance opened and volunteers begin rolling out just as the last civilian stepped through. Raj and Kiran followed Eliza into the reinforced tunnel.
Inside, the bunker hummed with activity—reactors running on salvaged core fragments, emergency lighting flickering to life as biometric locks engaged around the perimeter.
"Safe," Eliza Chen muttered, checking perimeter readouts. "For now."
Raj walked to the stasis vaults and placed three containment pods using Dimensional Pocket.
Inside were;
Superman, locked in mid-roar, cape tattered and frozen like torn velvet, veins darkened with infection.
Wonder Woman, gauntlets shattered, tiara askew, eyes clouded by whatever plague had corrupted the Justice League.
Flash, caught mid-sprint, jaw clenched, corrupted Speed Force lightning snared inside the glass.
Kiran stepped up beside him, stunned.
"You trapped them?"
"I couldn't destroy them," Raj said quietly. "But I couldn't let them roam free either. They'll provide valuable data. Help us understand how the infection spreads through metahuman physiology."
Later, in the command alcove, Kiran leaned back against a pillar.
"None of this makes sense," she said softly.
"It rarely does," Raj replied. "You just have to focus on what's in front of you and keep moving forward."
"I still don't know how I got here."
"You don't need to know—not yet."
She glanced at him.
"What about you? Who are you really?"
Raj looked down at his open palm. Light flickered across his fingers—then shadow. Then nothing.
"...someone who shouldn't exist here either."
She smiled, tired but honest.
"Then maybe we're both anomalies worth keeping."
He met her gaze and said nothing.
But for once, the silence didn't feel like the end.
It felt like a beginning.
