1 part Ongoing Shadow of Destiny by Astraeus Rise
Reza is an ordinary man-a devoted father, a thoughtful teacher, and a quiet soul haunted by a question he dares not answer: If the moment came, would I have the courage to stand?
Living a simple life in Tehran with his wife Narges and young son Arash, Reza teaches ethics and human values to teenagers while privately wrestling with the weight of sacrifice. A recurring nightmare leaves him paralyzed by unseen chains, and a distant voice whispers, "You can..."-a promise or a warning he cannot decipher.
When a long-awaited trip takes the family to Berlin to visit his sister Mina-a woman who has quietly distanced herself from tradition and faith-Reza is confronted with the quiet prejudice that shadows many from their homeland. Mina's pain, raw and personal, plants a seed he cannot ignore.
Then, in the bright chaos of a Berlin shopping mall, terror strikes. Four extremists take hundreds hostage, and their leader-armed with an explosive vest-moves toward Reza's hidden family.
In a single heartbeat, everything changes.
As fear grips the crowd, Reza steps forward. In that run toward certain death, the chains of his nightmares shatter. A fleeting, impossible vision overtakes his wife's eyes: her husband transformed into a rider in radiant green, facing a red-clad tyrant on an ancient plain.
With a final cry-"You are not Muslim! I am the Muslim!"-Reza embraces the bomber and hurls them both from the balcony. The blast claims him, but spares the innocent.
In the gentle fall that follows, Reza finds himself descending not into darkness, but onto a lush, verdant Karbala-nothing like the barren desert of legend. There, among the martyrs he once watched on the news, a figure in green awaits. An embrace. A whisper near his ear:
"I told you that you could..."
A poignant tale of doubt, love, and the quiet heroism that lives in the most ordinary hearts.
