The moment passed in a breath.
That sharp, feral gaze Daniel had felt a second ago? Gone—vanished like a shadow in the wind. He blinked and looked around again.
Beside him, Betty Ross leaned in, frowning slightly. "I feel like… I just saw someone familiar."
Daniel glanced in the direction of her gaze. Under the shade of the large tree nearby, only a few golden leaves fluttered down lazily. There was no one in sight.
But Daniel's spirit sense stretched farther than sight.
Far down the path, just at the corner of a distant building, a man was retreating swiftly—his presence masked to the average observer. But not to Daniel. No, this man radiated a barely restrained, ancient fury. He looked like any other tired stranger. But beneath the skin was chaos.
Dr. Bruce Banner.
The man the world would come to know as the Hulk.
He hadn't been seen in years. Not by Betty. Not by the U.S. military. Not even by S.H.I.E.L.D. And yet here he was—on the same campus, within spitting distance of the one woman who had forgotten him entirely.
Daniel sighed to himself.
So it begins.
In this timeline, he knew Banner's only significant emotional anchor would be Natasha Romanoff. Not Betty. Not anymore. The future held no peace for the two of them.
But some futures… were not set in stone.
"Let's go get that cake," Daniel said casually, steering Betty away from the tree with a smile, hiding the storm brewing behind his eyes.
She cast one last glance back, then nodded and walked beside him, laughing at some silly comment he made. She hadn't noticed a thing.
During the walk, Betty's questions turned again toward magic. She remained fascinated by Daniel's world—even if she couldn't touch it herself.
Of course, Daniel didn't give her the real truth. Instead, he spun a cleaner version: the structure of the Nine Realms, with Earth at its center.
He spoke of celestial realms and elemental dominions—of gods and giants, of realms forged from fire, encased in ice, bathed in light or drowned in shadow.
– The Realm of Gods above: Asgard
– The Underworld below: Helheim
– The World of Light: Vanaheim
– The World of Darkness: Svartalfheim
– The World of Fire: Muspelheim
– The World of Ice: Jotunheim
– The Realm of Elves: Alfheim
– And the Realm of Dwarves: Nidavellir
He described the inhabitants as elemental beings, as elves and dwarves and divine bloodlines—not as Norse myths, but as civilizations beyond Earth's reach.
To Betty, it sounded like something from a high fantasy novel. Had she read more Chinese web literature, she might have caught on that Daniel was borrowing liberally from genre fiction to mask truths far more dangerous.
"This is it! Stanley's Cake Shop," Betty chirped as she pushed open the door. "Best cake in the city. You have to come here at least once a week."
Inside, a white-haired man looked up from behind the counter.
"Hey Stan!" Betty waved. "Brought you a new customer. I expect rewards!"
Stan looked up.
His smile faltered.
His gaze shifted—past Betty—and landed on Daniel. His eyes narrowed. He crossed his arms.
"This your new boyfriend?" he asked gruffly. "You going to introduce him, or do I have to guess names too?"
Daniel raised an eyebrow. Ah, so it begins.
Stan wasn't just a baker. He was Banner's friend.
He hadn't always operated in this neighborhood. After Betty's memory loss, General Ross had—requested—Stan move his bakery close to Empire State University. Why? Because Betty's mind, shattered by trauma, still remembered the shop. Two words—"Stanley's Cake"—had survived the amnesia.
A military psychiatrist had advised that giving her access to those fragments might stabilize her emotional state. So General Ross, ever the controlling father, ensured Betty could have Stanley's cake any time.
And Banner? Banner had been hiding here for weeks, slipping in and out in disguise, working part-time as a cake deliveryman just to keep an eye on Betty—and gather information on his condition. The quiet man from the back kitchen… had never left her.
Stan's attitude wasn't about jealousy. It wasn't even about morality. He simply… hoped they would find each other again.
And today, Betty had shown up with someone new.
Daniel understood the old man's frustration.
But he didn't care.
Betty leaned closer to Stan. "This is Daniel Zhou. A student in the biological sciences department. He's, uh, new."
"Pleasure," Daniel said, offering a polite nod. "Call me Daniel."
Stan's grumble was all the response he got. "We're out of the good stuff. Either wait, or take the Italian strawberry."
"Anything you make is perfect," Betty said sweetly.
Stan sighed and went to box the cake.
That's when it happened.
A voice called from the back kitchen: "Stan, hey—about the…"
The door swung open.
Half-dressed in a delivery uniform, Bruce Banner leaned halfway out—
—and froze.
Betty turned. Saw him.
And everything shattered.
She didn't recognize him from photos. She never had. Her amnesia had rewritten his features, dulled his memory.
But now?
Seeing him in the flesh…
Hearing his voice…
Smelling the scent of baking flour and motor grease on his jacket…
It all came back.
Like a wave breaking through a dam, Betty Ross remembered everything.
The smiles. The pain. The love. The accident. The blood. The monster.
She staggered.
Then without a word, she turned and ran.
Daniel exhaled slowly, eyes narrowing on Stan. "Well done, old man," he muttered.
Stan said nothing. He hadn't stopped Bruce. Maybe he hoped it would spark something. Maybe he didn't think it through.
But this? This was not going to end cleanly.
Daniel followed Betty out the back door.
She was standing in the alley behind the shop, eyes wide, body trembling. Bruce Banner was already gone, vanished into the maze of the city.
When she turned and saw Daniel approaching, her entire posture changed.
Her expression hardened.
"You knew," she said coldly. "You knew I lost my memory."
Daniel stopped a few paces away. His voice was calm. "It looks like everything's come back."
"Answer me!"
"I did suspect," he admitted. "At first, I thought you just shared the same name. But when I saw the photo of you and General Ross, I knew who you were. And yes… I knew you'd lost your memories of Dr. Banner."
Betty's jaw clenched. Tears shimmered in her eyes.
"You could've told me."
"You think it's that simple?" Daniel's voice was quiet. "You had post-traumatic amnesia. The kind that protects the brain from reliving trauma. If those memories came back too quickly, they could destroy you."
Betty froze.
He wasn't wrong.
She remembered now—what had happened.
The moment Bruce transformed.
The screams. The chaos. The soldiers crushed under fists like wrecking balls. Her father, bloodied and broken. Herself—hurled across the street, bones shattered, heart stopped.
She had been comatose for a month. And when she woke… her love for Bruce had been scrubbed from her mind.
Her father had been relieved.
With help from a private psychiatrist, he reinforced the wall in her mind. They even assigned her a stand-in boyfriend for the next few years. A quiet, stable man. Controlled. Forgettable.
It all made sense now.
Her voice trembled. "Why didn't you help me wake up properly?"
Daniel tilted his head. "Because we've only known each other for days. I had no way of knowing what your relationship with Banner even was. Or what that trauma did to you. And now, look at what happened—your memories returned all at once, brutally, without warning. That kind of shock can lead to long-term cognitive damage."
He paused, watching her. "You could forget again. Permanently. Or worse."
"I don't care!" Betty snapped, stepping toward him. "I need to find him. Now."
Daniel let out a long breath. "Then don't waste time talking to me."
He turned, gesturing back toward the bakery. "Go talk to Stan. He's the only one who knows where Banner is. But you'd better hurry."
"Why?"
"Because your father," Daniel said grimly, "has had agents watching you for two days now."
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