The engine rumbled in the distance—low, steady, familiar. The kind that made the air vibrate in your bones before the machine ever appeared.
Inside the bar, conversation died. Glasses froze mid-air. The jukebox clicked off on its own, like even it knew better.
All that remained was breathless silence.
The door creaked open.
Echo stepped through the haze of smoke and old sweat, dust clinging to his coat like a second skin.
He looked unchanged. Untouchable. A ghost made of iron and grit.
Outlaws shifted in the corners. No one spoke.
He walked in slow. Boots thudded on warped floorboards, each step echoing like a countdown.
He passed the bar without a word. Just tapped once on the counter.
The bartender poured with shaking hands.
Echo took the rum. Drank deep. Then turned toward the pool table.
His eyes scanned the room. Calculated. Measured.
And found him.
Grave sat in the corner, half-shrouded in shadow, a single bulb above casting light like a halo—mocking or warning, no one could say.
He didn't move. Didn't flinch. Just watched.
The glass in Echo's hand paused mid-air.
For a moment, the years vanished.
The rides.
The blood.
The betrayal.
Just two boys in a room too quiet.
Then Echo smirked.
"Been a long time," he said.
Grave didn't answer. Didn't need to.
The silence said enough.
Echo reached slowly into his coat.
Not fast—no twitch. Just enough to shift the air.
Enough to make every hand in the room inch toward steel.
But Grave didn't move. Didn't blink.
He just grinned.
That old, knowing grin. The kind that said:
I've seen you bleed before.
I can do it again.
Echo's fingers brushed something inside his coat. Leather creaked. A pause, long and sharp—
Then—he pulled out a matchbook. Flicked one loose. Struck it on the heel of his boot. Lit a half-burnt cigarette.
He exhaled. Smoke curled like ghosts between them.
Grave's grin widened. "Still dramatic."
Echo took a long drag. "Still alive."
The tension didn't break. It just simmered. Hotter.
Like a fuse running short.
Outside, the wind howled across the Wastes.
Inside, two legends sat in the eye of the storm.
.