The train thundered into the station.
Wind blasted across the platform.
People stepped back from the edge.
Phones in hand.
Headphones on.
Nobody noticed the three men staring at each other across the tracks.
Tony's shadow stretched longer along the tile floor.
The second shadow stayed close behind him.
Steady.
Watching.
Across the platform, the stranger lowered his hand slowly.
"You're remembering."
Tony didn't answer.
His eyes were distant.
Something had cracked open in his mind.
Just a little.
But enough.
A hallway.
White lights.
A metal door.
Blood on the floor.
Tony's hands.
Someone screaming.
The memory shattered instantly.
Tony inhaled sharply.
"What did you do to me?"
The stranger shrugged.
"Nothing permanent."
Tony laughed once.
Cold.
"Funny."
The gray-jacket man shifted nervously beside him.
"You see it now, don't you?"
Tony didn't look at him.
"I saw something."
The man swallowed.
"That's how it starts."
Tony's eyes narrowed.
"How what starts?"
The man hesitated.
Then answered quietly.
"Your instincts coming back."
Across the tracks, the stranger nodded slightly.
"He's right."
Tony's jaw tightened.
"Instincts for what?"
The stranger stepped closer to the platform edge.
For the first time, the overhead lights hit his face clearly.
Sharp features.
Calm eyes.
Too calm.
"You don't remember what you were."
Tony's voice dropped.
"No."
The man smiled faintly.
"But your body does."
Tony didn't like that answer.
Inside his head, the voice spoke again.
Memory fragments detected.
Tony closed his eyes for half a second.
Another flash.
The subway platform.
The gray-jacket man.
Standing exactly where he was now.
Tony walking toward him.
Fast.
Purposeful.
A knife.
The memory snapped shut again.
Tony opened his eyes.
Slowly.
The gray-jacket man stared at him.
"You see it."
Tony didn't deny it.
"You were running."
The man's face paled.
"Yes."
Tony took one step forward.
"And I caught you."
The man didn't move.
"You did."
Tony tilted his head slightly.
"And then I killed you."
Silence.
The man nodded weakly.
Tony exhaled slowly.
"But that's not the part that bothers me."
The stranger across the tracks spoke again.
"No?"
Tony shook his head.
"What bothers me…"
He looked down at the floor.
At the second shadow.
"…is that I remember enjoying it."
The gray-jacket man looked sick.
Across the tracks, the stranger's smile widened.
"There it is."
Tony lifted his head.
"What?"
The stranger answered calmly.
"The real you."
The platform lights flickered again.
The second shadow stretched higher.
Taller.
Like it approved.
Tony looked back at the stranger.
"You buried me."
"Yes."
"Why?"
The stranger gave a quiet laugh.
"Because killing you once wasn't enough."
Tony's eyes hardened.
"So you tried again."
"Yes."
Tony stepped toward the platform edge.
The second shadow moved with him.
"You should have checked if I was finished."
The stranger's expression didn't change.
"Oh, we did."
Tony frowned.
"We?"
The stranger gestured behind him.
The dark tunnel.
Movement inside it.
Not one figure.
Several.
Watching.
Waiting.
Tony felt the pressure in the air increase.
The voice inside his head spoke softly.
Multiple hostile entities confirmed.
Tony cracked his neck slowly.
"How many?"
The response came instantly.
Eight.
Tony looked back at the stranger.
"You brought friends."
The man shrugged.
"We brought insurance."
Tony smiled slightly.
"Against me?"
The stranger nodded.
"Yes."
Tony looked down again.
His shadow moved.
The second one moved with it.
For a moment, Tony considered stopping it.
He didn't.
Something deeper inside him stirred.
Something old.
Something sharp.
Tony whispered quietly.
"I think you buried the wrong version of me."
Across the tracks, the stranger's calm expression finally cracked.
Just a little.
Because Tony's shadow had started spreading again.
Not across the platform.
Across the entire station floor.
And this time
Tony wasn't trying to stop it.