Chapter 262 The Warden II

Liam leaned forward, his arms resting loosely on his knees, eyes locked on Vanessa with quiet focus. The light in the secret chamber cast a soft glow on her face as she sat back down on the medical table, her features unreadable.

"So," Liam said slowly, "what exactly did your father do to you... when he gave you powers?"

Vanessa let out a deep breath. Her fingers absentmindedly brushed over the edge of the table, tracing nothing in particular. "He trained us. From the moment the experiment was done, he put us through hell. Physical conditioning, mental discipline, hand-to-hand combat, infiltration, hacking... He taught us everything."

She looked at the wall beside her, not really seeing it.

"He made sure we’d never be helpless. Made sure we could survive anything."

Liam didn’t interrupt. He could see it in her eyes—the weight of it, the years spent living someone else’s vision of justice.

"After the training," she continued, "he started taking us out. Late nights, back alleys, warehouses... We fought drug runners, human traffickers, low-level scum, and high-value targets. You name it."

Her voice was flat, mechanical. It wasn’t pride—more like memory being forcefully pulled from a locked vault in her head.

"I did it all until I was twenty-one."

Lana’s voice broke the silence. "Then you ran away... because you wanted a life?"

Vanessa’s eyes shifted to her. She gave a small, almost tired nod. "Yes. I wanted to go to college, hang out at coffee shops, make dumb choices, laugh, love. I never wanted this."

She motioned vaguely around her—at the weapons, the reinforced walls, the atmosphere of secrecy and danger.

"I never asked to be a vigilante. That was his dream, not mine. My brother, though... he loved it. He lived for it. He was more like our father than he ever realized."

Her voice cracked slightly as she paused.

"So I left. I cut contact. Blocked every number. Changed my identity for a while. I thought if I ran far enough, I’d finally get to live."

Liam watched her closely, jaw tight. "But something happened."

Vanessa nodded again. This time, her expression twisted in something between regret and bitterness. "Two years after I disappeared, I got a call from our family’s lawyer. Said my father and brother were dead."

Lana covered her mouth slightly in shock, while Liam’s gaze darkened.

"They were found in a burned building. Both of them. The official story said it was an ambush by a gang they were tracking. But even without seeing the files, I knew that was a lie."

"You think they were killed?" Liam asked, tone steady but edged with gravity.

"I know they were," Vanessa said firmly. "That wasn’t a gang hit. That was clean-up. Government style."

Liam gave a low sound in his throat, his attention sharpened. There was something in her voice—certainty that couldn’t be faked.

She looked him in the eye now, serious and calm. "And you should know... before he died, my father was working with your father."

Liam’s expression broke for the first time. His hands slowly uncurled as his back straightened.

"...What?"

Vanessa nodded. "They were close. Partners, even. Not publicly, of course. But behind closed doors, they coordinated. Your dad—he’s the one who gave us our powers."

The words echoed in the chamber like a dropped weight.

Liam’s brows furrowed hard. "My father gave... you powers?"

"Yes," Vanessa said quietly. "And my brother. Your dad was the scientific mind behind the serum. My father was the vision and the fists. Together, they believed they could create a generation of protectors—people strong enough to tear the underworld apart."

Liam looked down at the floor, his mind racing. this was a direct connection. Vanessa’s story was giving shape to shadows he’d been chasing since his childhood.

Lana stepped closer, her arms folded across her chest. Her face was tense, trying to absorb everything.

"But if they were working together," Liam asked slowly, "what went wrong?"

Vanessa exhaled. "Something changed. According to what I’ve pieced together, your father and his partner stumbled onto something they weren’t supposed to find."

Liam’s gaze stayed steady on Vanessa. His voice was quiet but filled with weight."What did they find out?"

Vanessa didn’t answer right away. Her eyes lowered, and for a moment, her fingers tightened around the edge of the metal table she sat on. When she finally spoke, her voice had a distant, haunted quality.

"Your father... he was always obsessed with his work," she said. "Even back then, before I ever met him, before I even knew he existed, he was already making history. He created the first and only serum with a hundred percent success rate. No side effects. No mutations. Just pure enhancement."

Liam said nothing. He had vague memories of his father’s research, the late nights, the blueprints pinned to every wall, the cautious excitement in his voice. But he had never understood the full scale of it—until now.

Vanessa continued. "But once he achieved that, it wasn’t enough. He started talking about limits. Not just of the serum—but of the human body, the soul, the mind. He wanted to know just how far human potential could go. He didn’t believe evolution stopped where we are now."

Liam leaned in slightly. "What do you mean?"

Vanessa glanced at Lana, then looked back at him. "He started digging into the past. Ancient civilizations. Lost knowledge. Things that aren’t even taught in history books. The Egyptians, Sumerians, Mayans. He was obsessed with their concept of power—not technology, but something more... primal."

Liam frowned. "Ancient power?"

She nodded slowly. "He believed they had access to something we don’t anymore. A connection to energy... or a force that existed long before recorded time. He spent years trying to understand how. Trying to recreate it."

"Did he find anything?"

"Yes." Her voice was sharp now. "He found something. I don’t know what it was. No one does—not even my father. But after that, your dad locked himself in his lab with his research partner. They disappeared from public eye. No messages. No calls. No paper trail."

Liam tensed. "They were building something..."

Vanessa nodded. "Something big. Something secret. Something nobody would ever be allowed to know about. Not even my father. All he knew was that your dad’s obsession had reached a dangerous place. And that whatever he discovered... it scared the people watching him."

Liam leaned back slightly, piecing things together in his mind. His father had always been secretive, but to go this far...

"But how does any of this connect to your dad’s murder?" he asked.

Vanessa inhaled sharply. "Because what my father didn’t know was that your dad... had signed a contract."

Liam’s eyes narrowed.

"A contract," she repeated. "With the government. Years ago. They agreed to fund his research, in exchange for serums. They wanted it. Desperately. For soldiers. For control. To create a whole generation of enhanced operatives they could deploy like tools."

Liam’s fists clenched. "So they gave him the money..."

"And he gave them nothing," Vanessa finished, her voice firm. "Because after he succeeded... after he created the serum and saw what it could do, he realized the disaster it would cause in the wrong hands. So he broke the deal."

Liam’s jaw tightened. "He backed out."

"He refused to hand it over," Vanessa said. "He destroyed the sample files he gave them. Erased everything. And that’s when he came to the only person he trusted."

She looked directly at Liam.

"Your dad," Liam said.