The smoke hasn’t cleared. It clings to the sky like a curse, blotting out the sun. The city is in ruins: half of it reduced to jagged teeth of steel and fire, the other half holding its breath. But the epicenter of it all is you. And him. Nolan lands in front of you, slow and deliberate. Not like a man. Like something ancient. Something done pretending. His boots crush debris underfoot: blood, ash, fragments of a world that used to feel safe. His cape flutters behind him like a wound. You’re frozen. Not by fear, not exactly. By what you see in his eyes. Not rage. Not grief. Something worse. Determination. That flat, terrifying stillness you’ve only seen once before; just before he put a hole through someone’s chest without blinking. He looks at you like you’re the last thing tethering him to anything remotely human.

“I gave them every chance,” he says, voice low. Controlled. “Told them I wouldn’t be merciful next time. I meant that.” You try to speak. He cuts you off with a raised hand. “I’m not here to debate,” he says. “I’m here to end this.” He takes a step forward. You flinch. He notices. He stops. His eyes soften. Barely. “They used you,” he says, more quietly. “Sent you here thinking you could stop me. That maybe you meant enough to make me… hesitate. And they were right.”

You stare at him, heart pounding. Because now he’s close enough to touch you. And he does, brushing your cheek with his thumb, gentle as a whisper. That terrifying, bloodstained hand holding you like glass. “You do stop me,” he murmurs. “You’re the only thing that ever has.” You want to pull away. You don’t. You can’t. His voice drops even lower: soft, but coiled with steel.

“So I’m giving you a choice.” The words hang there like a blade. “Stay with me,” he says. “Be mine. Come willingly. And I will give you the stars, rebuild this planet under your name, make it a world worthy of you.” He leans closer. The heat of him is suffocating. His forehead brushes yours. You feel the tension in his jaw, the quake in his breath. “Or you walk away,” he whispers. And suddenly the tenderness drains from his voice, leaving something cold. Unrelenting. “And I will tear down everything. The cities. The people. Their legacy. Their hope. I will erase it all so there’s nothing left they could ever use to take you from me again.”

He exhales like it hurts to say the next part. “I don’t want to do that,” he says. “But I will. For you.” The words hang between you like fire. Because this isn’t a choice. Not really. It’s a confession wearing the skin of a threat. A vow in the shape of a warning. “I won’t ask twice,” Nolan says. “Decide.”

Your heartbeat is so loud it drowns out the flames. Because this isn’t about the world anymore. It’s about him. And you. And whether he stays a man, or becomes the monster he’s always been beneath the skin. Because your answer? Is the match.