Several blocks from the ruined facility, Arden lay slumped against a rusted dumpster, chest rising shallowly. The glow beneath his skin had dimmed, his body more crystal than flesh now. Still, his hand had never let go off the boy's wrist not even after they escaped.
The boy, who still, crouched beside him. His breath steamed in the cool night air. He wasn't strong, not in the way people imagined. But cold could burn too. And right now, he felt his insides cracking like ice under strain.
"You saved me," he said, mostly to himself. "You shouldn't have done that if you couldn't get away too."
Arden didn't respond. His eyes were open but unfocused, pupils flickering like static.
A sound snapped through the alley a flutter, a vibration. The boy's breath hitched.
Cassie was coming. No screeches. No roars. Just air parting too fast. She was near, and she'd be on them in seconds.
The boy gritted his teeth and hauled Arden over his shoulder. He was heavier than he looked cold like metal. The boy staggered, frost blooming beneath his shoes, biting into the concrete.
"They want me. Fine. But they're not taking you," he whispered, voice rough.
He ran.
Not fast. Not gracefully. But fueled by something deeper than the surface.
Behind him, shadows bent and flickered. A.I.M. strike teams cut off the street behind with drones and stunners. Cassie's silhouette blurred between them, moving too fast to catch, too fast to fight.
But he didn't stop.
He ducked through alleys, broke through a locked gate with a blast of frozen air. Arden groaned once, quietly, and the boy tightened his grip.
"You're gonna be okay," he muttered. "You have to be."
He kept running.
And somewhere behind him, Cassie came to a stop just for a second as the trail of frost slipped into a maze of old buildings and broken tunnels.
The boy was vanishing, like a shadow slipping into morning.
Cassie clicked her tongue.
"Interesting."
Then she followed.
The boy didn't know where he was going. Just away. Away from the lab, from the screams, from the green-glowing rock burned into his memory. Every step was agony, but every step was freedom too.
Then a voice sharp, and entirely unexpected cut through the cold.
"Kid! Over here!"
He spun, frost coiling off his shoulder, ready to defend himself. But the woman who stepped out from behind the rusted chain-link fence wasn't from A.I.M.
She was older than anyone he'd ever met in. Silver hair pulled tight beneath a black cap. Leather gloves. Annie Walker.
She holstered her pistol before he could flinch. "I'm not here to hurt you. I'm SHIELD. At least I used to be I'm here because he called me."
She pointed to Arden slumped over the boy's back, barely conscious.
The boy nodded slowly. "You know him?"
"I knew him before most people even knew what year it was," she said dryly. "Get in the truck. They'll be sweeping this quadrant in under five minutes, and I don't feel like getting riddled with tranquilizer darts today."
He didn't argue. The truck was old, government gray, with faded logos under cheap spray paint. The back seat was already cleared, lined with thermal blankets and something that looked suspiciously like a field generator.
"He planned for this," the boy said as he laid Arden down gently.
Annie climbed in and started the engine. "He always plans. He just doesn't tell anyone until after it goes sideways."
They were already peeling off before Cassie arrived at the intersection. The Red Death slowed for once, eyes scanning the frost prints leading nowhere.
She frowned.
She had felt him, Arden dropped out of the main stream entirely during the escape. Now he was moving again, but just barely.
She touched the ground, reading the scattered particles of frozen vapor. Something had masked their trail a familiar pulse signature.
SHIELD.
Cassie stood, eyes narrowing. "Clever."
She didn't chase, not yet.
Because now it wasn't just about retrieving the kryptonite.
Now it was personal.
She had underestimated the Chronobit.
And that would not happen again.
-
The facility was carved into the side of a canyon a forgotten SHIELD black site known only to ghosts and legends. Annie Walker had dusted off the access codes herself, overriding the system with her own clearance. Some places, even time had to ask permission to enter.
She pulled the truck up to the hidden blast doors. A retinal scan confirmed her identity. The doors groaned open like some beast waking.
Inside, the boy helped lower Arden onto a padded table. His skin was pale, flickering faintly with fractal light. The kind of glow that meant he was still shifting still caught between the stress of the technique he used to escape and the time he had nearly lost himself to.
"He's fading," the boy said, panic creeping into his voice.
"He's not gone," Annie replied. "Not while we still have fire left."
She tapped her comm.
"Howard," she said flatly, "get your ass here now."
Howard Stark arrived in less than twenty minutes clean suit, scuffed briefcase, and a look like he hadn't slept since '72.
"What in God's name did this idiot do?" he asked, immediately scanning Arden with a wrist device that pinged softly. "He's just like when I found them but the opposite not too fast but too slow."
"He forced himself into a deep-state slowdown to save a kid from A.I.M.," Annie said. "Now fix him."
Howard sighed. "You can't fix a Chronobit with tech alone. He's too entangled."
Annie already knew the name.
"You called Auggie?"
"I never stopped calling him."
Auggie Anderson entered like a monk wrapped in street clothes weathered leather jacket, bare feet despite the chill.
He didn't speak at first. He simply looked at Arden's body, placed a hand over the Chronobit's sternum, and closed his eyes.
Not unnatural. Not elemental. But alive. Something primal, deeper than ice or fire. Chi… no. More than that.
Nature energy.
Auggie's hand began to glow faintly, not with light, but with movement the motion of flowing rivers, trembling leaves, expanding lungs.
"He's not broken," Auggie said softly. "He's just... gone too deep."
"And?" Annie asked.
"I'll bring him back. But it's not just healing it's guiding. Like calling a diver back to the surface. You go too fast, you break everything. You go too slow... and he stays under."
Howard raised his hand slightly, his eyes flicking toward the monitor. "I might have something for that. Remember how I said this isn't the first time it's happened? Well... I kept that. The energy we extracted back then we used it to stabilize him once. If we feed it back into him now, it might just bring him back into sync."
Annie folded her arms and watched the glow pass from Auggie's hand into Arden's chest. "Then take your time. But get our friend back."
Outside, the boy stared at the stars through the reinforced window, the green crystal pulsing faintly in his pocket.
The world wasn't safe yet. But for the first time in years, it felt like someone was fighting for it.