Tokyo – 4:18 A.M.
The city was breaking under their feet. Asphalt tore like paper. Buildings cracked as the shadow wave radiated from Cruelight, warping light, sound, gravity.
Ben—still as Four Arms—was barely upright, one knee to the ground, his shoulder bleeding where dark energy sliced through skin.
"I'm getting real tired of fighting space ghosts…" he coughed, wiping blood from his lip.
Above, Cruelight levitated—arms extended, chest pulsing with a dark beacon that distorted reality. A screamless roar echoed, felt more in the chest than heard by the ear.
Sharim, somewhere buried inside that towering monster, was at war.
The memories of Kinet, of Scorch, cut deeper than any blade. He'd buried them long ago. Or thought he had.
And now, they burned through his mind.
Flashback – Kinet's Last Hour
Screams tore across the skyline. Fires of unnatural color danced through Kinet's skies.
Scorch and Sharim sprinted side-by-side through their crumbling city. Buildings collapsed in slow-motion as time fractured.
Scorch turned to him, eyes wide.
"The reactor—it's gone critical! We need to evacuate now!"
Sharim skidded to a halt, his arm extending.
"No! You go. I'll help the others—"
"No!" Scorch grabbed him by the faceplate. "We do this together!"
He hesitated.
Then the explosion.
A blast of alien nuclear force ripped across the continent. Sharim's body was lifted, warped, mutated mid-air. He heard her scream—her name ripped from his throat—
And everything went dark.
Present – The Shadow Tears
"SCORCH!!"
Cruelight reeled back, voice no longer monstrous—but shattered. A scream of broken memory.
Scorch's head snapped toward him. Her eyes glistened.
"Sharim...?"
Cruelight turned violently, now completely fixated on her.
"You… left me."
His claws pulsed black lightning, shadow light erupting from every pore. It wasn't rage—it was grief. Mutated, infected grief.
Scorch braced herself.
"Then hit me, Sharim. If that's what it takes."
But before Cruelight could strike—
Feedgrade blinked in between them, electric arms forming a shield.
"Not on my watch."
He absorbed the blow—barely—and launched a shockwave back through the cables in his arms, pulsing like Feedback and spreading like Upgrade.
The impact cracked Cruelight's mask.
The Omnitrix beeped.
Green light swallowed Ben's large Four Arms form, and he collapsed—back in human form. Breathing hard.
"Okay. I really hate that thing."
He crawled forward and reached the Omnitrix.
"Let's see if XLR8 can keep up."
The dial spun, clicked—and Ben slammed it down.
Blue light erupted.
XLR8 exploded from the flash—a blur of speed that raced up debris and circled Cruelight, creating a spiral of centrifugal force that pulled at the shadows cloaking the mutant.
"Come on, emo-tentacle-villain!" Ben shouted. "Try catching me now!"
Cruelight screamed, slashing wildly—but couldn't track him.
Feedgrade channeled energy into the air, feeding arcs of feedback through the storm Ben created. Scorch joined the loop—running opposite Ben, magnifying the velocity field.
Scorch. Feedgrade. XLR8.
A triangle of sheer kinetic power. For a brief moment, they were a perfect unit—past, present, and future converging.
Sharim, buried inside Cruelight, screamed.
He saw Kinet again.
He saw her hand.
He saw himself—reaching—failing—changing.
Scorch broke rank, diving straight into Cruelight's heart.
She skidded beneath a strike, leapt high, and placed her hand against the cracked part of his chest.
"I found you again, Sharim."
Cruelight's body convulsed—flashes of white and pink flickering inside.
Sharim's voice echoed, distorted:
"I'm… sorry…"
Then—
BOOM!
A massive pulse blasted out from Cruelight. Time itself stuttered.
Ben was thrown. Hikaru was knocked from his Feedgrade form midair.
Scorch and Cruelight fell—locked together in a cocoon of shadows and energy.
Silence.
The dust cleared.
Ben groaned. Hikaru stirred.
Where Cruelight once stood—only a crater remained.
Ben stumbled forward.
"Did we… win?"
Hikaru coughed.
"We did something. But I'm not sure what."
Sharim's form was gone.
No body. No fragments.
Only a faint pulse remained, echoing from deep underground.
Like a heartbeat.
A distorted voice whispered through the city static.
"The final run… is not over."