The city never slept.
It just twitched.
Neon lights buzzed like dying insects, bleeding colors onto wet asphalt. Sirens sang in the distance. Somewhere, a gun coughed twice and went quiet. Normal night. Normal hell.
Maxruell kicked a pebble down the alley and sighed.
"Man, this place smells like piss and broken dreams."
Juvy snorted beside him. "You smell like broken dreams."
"Wow. Betrayal. From my own twin."
They walked fast, shoulders tight, hands shoved in hoodie pockets. The slum streets didn't forgive slow people. Every shadow was a mouth with teeth.
Their apartment block stood ahead half concrete, half rust, all misery.
Then Maxruell felt it.
A pressure.
Like something inside his chest just… knocked.
He slowed. "You feel that?"
Juvy frowned. "Feel what?"
The air smelled wrong. Not garbage. Not smoke.
Blood.
They heard shouting upstairs.
A man screamed.
Then a gunshot.
Juvy froze. "That was…"
"Dad."
They ran.
Stairs took them two at a time. The hallway light flickered like it was scared. Their apartment door hung open, bent inward like a broken jaw.
Inside.
Their father was on the floor.
Chest torn open. Not shot. Torn. Like hands did it.
Their mother knelt beside him, blood soaking her clothes, shaking. Three men stood over her. Gang tattoos. Knives. Smiles that didn't belong on humans.
One of them looked back. "Oh. Look. The kids."
Juvy screamed.
Maxruell didn't.
Something in his chest burned.
Not pain.
Not fear.
A voice whispered inside him.
It's time.
The gang leader stepped forward. "Sorry, brats. Wrong bloodline."
He raised his knife.
The world cracked.
A red light exploded from Maxruell's chest.
Not fire.
Not electricity.
Crystal.
A jagged, crimson crystal tore through his hoodie and skin like it had always been there. It floated half outside his body, pulsing like a second heart.
The men backed up. "What the hell…."
Maxruell lifted his head.
His eyes were black.
The shadows on the walls moved.
They crawled.
They wrapped around the first man's legs and yanked him down. His face smashed into the floor. Bones popped. He screamed until the darkness slid into his mouth and shut it forever.
The second man fired his gun.
The bullet stopped midair.
It fell.
Like it forgot how to be violent.
Maxruell raised a hand.
The man's shadow rose up… and strangled him.
Crack.
Drop.
The last man ran.
Juvy screamed, "Max!"
He didn't hear her.
The crimson crystal glowed brighter.
The man reached the door.
A black hand burst from the floor and grabbed his ankle.
It dragged him backward, screaming, fingernails ripping off against tile.
The shadows swallowed him.
Silence.
The crystal sank back into Maxruell's chest.
He fell to his knees.
Juvy ran to their mother.
But she was already gone.
Eyes empty.
Hands cold.
Juvy shook her. "No, no, no, no"
Maxruell stared at his hands.
They were clean.
But he knew.
Something inside him laughed.
Something else cried.
The floor cracked.
Light erupted behind Juvy.
Not red.
Prismatic.
Colors folded into her like glass melting into skin. The air bent. The blood on the floor lifted into the air and crystallized into floating rubies.
Juvy gasped. "Max… I can hear them."
"Hear who?"
"The souls."
Wind howled through the room. Water leaked upward from the pipes. Fire sparked from broken wires. Metal groaned inside the walls.
Everything answered her.
Maxruell forced himself up. "Juvy… what did we just become?"
Sirens wailed closer.
Outside, men in masks watched from rooftops.
Phones buzzed in dark rooms.
Deep underground, something ancient smiled.
A whisper moved through the city:
The Significants have awakened.
Juvy looked at Maxruell, eyes glowing with fractured light.
"Everyone's coming."
He swallowed. "Then they better come armed."
The building shook.
Footsteps thundered downstairs.
Maxruell stepped in front of her.
Shadows gathered.
Crimson pulsed.
And the world learned their names in blood.