Johnny Blaze had been through hell before, but daylight was still his biggest enemy. In the sun's warmth, the Ghost Rider slumbered, buried deep beneath his skin, and Johnny was just… Johnny.
Soren had helped him force the transformation once, briefly, but neither of them had stopped to consider that daylight would shut it down again. That oversight cost them the moment it mattered most.
Danny was torn away by a pack of desperate killers. And then came the grenade. Neither Johnny nor Soren had anticipated anything like that.
When Johnny finally drifted back into consciousness, he was staring at a hospital ceiling. Everything hurt. Every breath dragged fire through his lungs.
The body had painstakingly rebuilt had been shredded apart again by the blast, and the Rider's healing flames were nowhere to be found in the bright daylight.
He felt… empty. Angry. Helpless.
When Johnny limped out of the hospital, squinting against the sun, he almost ran straight into the woman from the night before… Nadya. The mother of Danny. The mother of the devil's chosen son.
She didn't come quietly. The second she recognized him, she pulled a gun and nearly shot him on the spot, fear and fury all tangled up in her eyes.
After a tense standoff, Johnny spilled everything… Mephisto, the Ghost Rider, the failed rescue. Nadya's expression shifted from disbelief to an exhausted desperation.
For her son, she agreed to work with him.
Meanwhile, far from them, Carrigan was having his own crisis.
He paced restlessly, face pale beneath layers of dust and blood. "Three of my men…" he growled, "Three became matchsticks. Burned alive by a flaming skeleton monster."
"I've seen some insane things, but—hell—that was a first."
Across from him, Mephisto's newly forged duplicate form flickered unsteadily, like a candle in the wind. Creating another body had cost him dearly.
His power was stretched thin, and Soren's interference had already forced him into humiliating retreats.
Still, his grin was sharp.
"Relax," Mephisto said softly. "Just deliver Danny to me, and our deal is done."
Carrigan didn't look convinced.
Mephisto leaned forward, shadows gathering around his form. "And here's a piece of advice, boy. "
"Run. Run far, run fast. When night comes, the Rider will hunt again. Follow the route I gave you, and don't stop."
He didn't mention his real fear, not to Carrigan. The idea that Soren might appear again. That the Ghost Rider might not be alone this time.
Mephisto was many things, but he wasn't stupid. He refused to walk blindly into what could be a trap.
Carrigan would deliver Danny. Mephisto would stay hidden until the moment was right.
Carrigan spat in the dirt. "Damn demon…"
But with only two men left, he didn't argue. He shoved Danny, still unconscious into a vehicle and took off.
Less than a day ago, they had been the hunters. Now they were the terrified prey, racing the sun and praying the night would never come.
The rendezvous point Mephisto chose was far from American soil, deep in Turkey, near Uzka Gökden.
Close to the edge of the abyssal plane. A place where demonic power seeped through the world like rising steam.
There, Mephisto was rebuilding his strength.
The altar was already in place… massive, ancient, lined with symbols that predated language. Influential figures from around the world, men and women who had sold pieces of their souls for power, had gathered at his call.
Black market kings, corporate giants, political sharks, his followers from every side of human society.
Before, he wouldn't have needed them. Before, he was whole.
After Soren struck him down twice? He needed bodies.
And time.
With Danny in Carrigan's possession and the Ghost Rider's connection to the boy temporarily severed, Mephisto began preparing the final ritual.
According to the prophecy and Mephisto's own design, he only needed to last until dawn after the winter solstice. Danny would turn thirteen that day.
Thirteen years old, on the morning after the longest night.
When the ritual completed, Mephisto's soul would slip into the boy's body, seize control, and wield the full power built for the child of the devil.
Johnny slammed the brakes, gravel spraying under the tires. Something felt wrong… deeply wrong. He closed his eyes, trying again to sense the faint spiritual tether that always connected him to Danny.
Nothing.
Nadya saw the panic flooding Johnny's face. "What is it? What happened?" Her voice was thin, shaky.
Johnny swallowed hard. "The connection… it's gone. I can't feel Danny at all."
Nadya staggered back a step as if the ground had been yanked out from under her. "Gone?" Her breath hitched.
"Johnny, if the connection is gone, does that mean… my son~"
"No!" Johnny rushed to cut her off. "No, he's not dead."
"This feels different. Mephisto must've done something… blocked me out somehow. Severed the link."
Relief and terror collided in Nadya's eyes. Not dead… but not trackable. Not safe.
"So what do we do now?" she whispered. "How do we find them?"
Johnny ran a hand through his hair, struggling to think. "Right now?"
"We rely on you. You know Carrigan better than I ever could. You know the places he hides. The people he trusts."
That snapped her out of her daze. Nadya's expression hardened, and her mind began racing. "I know his old contacts. His smuggling routes. His off-grid friends."
She pointed down the road. "Take that turn. Keep driving."
Hours passed in a blur of dust, interrogation, and narrow escapes.
One by one, Carrigan's old associates cracked. Maybe it was Nadya's fury, or maybe it was the lingering dread Johnny carried, the aftertaste of the Rider's presence still clinging to him like smoke.
Nobody dared lie to them for long.
Finally, they cornered the last man who had spoken to Carrigan. Under threat and panic, he revealed everything, where Carrigan had gone, who he'd spoken to, and the direction he'd taken Danny.
By the time Nadya and Johnny reached the final stretch, exhaustion pressed on both of them. And then Nadya saw the date on her phone and froze.
"One day," she whispered. Her hands trembled. "Johnny… tomorrow is the winter solstice. Danny's birthday."
She grabbed Johnny's jacket, voice cracking. "If Mephisto finishes the ritual before sunrise, he'll take my son forever. We, we're too late. We can't catch up in time."
The fear wasn't for the world. Not for the apocalypse.
Only for her child.
Johnny stood silent for a moment, staring ahead as the weight of it settled on him. Then something sparked behind his eyes…
"There is one more way," Johnny murmured.
Nadya looked up, desperate. "What? Tell me!"