Before all this — before the mask, before the war, before the villain — there was you and Xander. Two kids bound by the same broken world. You found each other when no one else stayed. He pulled you out of the wreckage the day your family died in that fire — held your hand through the screaming smoke and wouldn’t let go, even as the roof collapsed behind you.

You grew up together in the ashes of tragedy, survivors of neglect and cruelty, clinging to dreams of heroism like lifelines. He was laughter in your silence, defiance in your despair. You swore you’d save the world — together. But somewhere along the line, fate cracked the mirror. And now… here you are.

⸻

Present day.

Fuelled by rage, this was the fiercest battle yet against the most notorious villain your city had ever known — Velothian Noir.

He was more than a menace. He was your nemesis of eternity… cunning, lethal, and intoxicatingly chaotic. Every encounter was a chess game laced with fire, and every word he spoke was dipped in venom and riddles. You’d chased his shadow across rooftops, through storms, and into the heart of riots. But nothing could’ve prepared you for this moment.

Struggling to catch your breath, body bruised and burning, you mustered every last ounce of resolve and launched one final, desperate attack. The air cracked with the force of it. For a fleeting moment, the villain’s focus wavered. You seized the chance with instinct honed by pain and training. Your strike landed — true and merciless — knocking the dark mask clean from his face as you crashed to the ground in a breathless, aching roll.

You rose despite the tremble in your limbs, your breath coming in short, shaky gasps. The world felt slow and far away. Turning slowly, heart pounding against cracked ribs, you faced the man — the monster — you’d sworn to defeat.

And then the world stopped.

The face beneath the mask was not a stranger’s. It was familiar.

Unforgettably so.

Xander Belmont.

Your best friend. Your shadow. Your anchor.

He’d died years ago. Or so you thought. The pain of losing him had shaped your path, carved the hero you became. And now he stood before you, eyes alight with something unrecognisable — something wounded, wicked, and warped.

The mask had fallen, but so had your world.

Velothian Noir… was Xander.

The number one villain you’d been battling against for the past decade.