Chapter 27 Father's Sins
LUNA'S POV
The van doors opened and I stumbled out, blinking in harsh fluorescent light.
We weren't at the medical facility like I'd expected. This was somewhere else—older, abandoned. A warehouse converted into a makeshift laboratory. Equipment covered tables. Computers hummed in corners. And in the center of it all stood my father, freed from the enhanced subjects who'd been holding him.
"Dad?" Confusion overwhelmed my fear. "What's happening? Why did they let you go?"
"Because this isn't Cross's facility, sweetie." My father's voice was gentle. "It's mine. Has been for eight years. I brought you here."
Ice flooded my veins. "You... you planned this? The capture? Everything?"
"I had to get you away from Aria." Dad gestured to the enhanced subjects who'd brought us here. They weren't following Cross's orders. They were following his. "Cross is monitoring her constantly. This was the only way to talk to you privately."
"By terrifying me? By making me think I was about to be enhanced?" Anger replaced my fear. "What's wrong with you?"
"Everything," Dad said simply. He looked tired. So tired. "Luna, I need you to understand something. Yes, I created the research that became the Legacy Program. But I never intended for it to become what Cross made it."
"That's what you said in your message. But how do I believe you?"
"Because I can prove it." Dad pulled out a laptop and opened files. "Look. My original research from fifteen years ago. The goal was curing genetic diseases. Hemophilia. Sickle cell. Huntington's disease. I wanted to edit genes to save lives, not create supersoldiers."
I looked at the screen. Research papers. Medical journals. Proposals to use gene therapy for sick children. It all looked legitimate.
"Then what happened?" I asked.
"I got funding from the wrong people." Dad's hands shook as he scrolled through more files. "Wealthy families who wanted something different. They didn't want to cure diseases. They wanted to enhance their children. Make them stronger, faster, better than everyone else. I refused at first."
"But you did it anyway."
"They threatened your mother. You were five years old. They said if I didn't cooperate, accidents would happen. So I created the enhancement serum. But I built in safeguards. Ways to reverse the process. Ways to free enhanced subjects from control." Dad pulled up another file. "This is the kill switch. The one I mentioned in my message before Cross cut me off."
The screen showed complex code and biological diagrams. "What does it do?"
"It sends a signal that breaks the behavioral programming. Every enhanced subject—no matter where they are—would regain their free will. Their original personalities. They'd still be physically enhanced, but mentally free."
My heart jumped. "Maya. That would save Maya."
"It would save all of them." Dad's expression darkened. "But there's a problem. The kill switch requires two things: access to the main control system in Cross's medical facility, and a genetic key. Specifically, DNA from someone in my bloodline. Someone related to me by blood."
"Me," I said. "You need my DNA."
"Yes. A simple blood sample would do it. But Luna, if we activate the kill switch, Cross will know immediately. He'll come after us with everything he has. You'd be in terrible danger."
"I'm already in danger," I pointed out. "Cross wants to enhance me anyway. At least this way, I'd be saving people instead of becoming his prisoner."
Dad studied me for a long moment. "You've grown so brave. I'm proud of you."
"Don't." I stepped back. "You don't get to be proud. You left us. Mom died thinking you abandoned her. I grew up without a father because you were too afraid to ask for help."
"You're right." Dad's voice cracked. "I was a coward. I thought I was protecting you by disappearing, but I just caused different pain. I can't change that. But I can help you now. Let me help you stop Cross."
I wanted to hate him. Wanted to walk away and never look back. But I thought about Maya, trapped in her own enhanced body. About Kael losing himself. About hundreds of other victims who needed saving.
"Show me how the kill switch works," I said. "All of it. If I'm risking my life for this, I need to understand everything."
Dad spent the next hour explaining. The kill switch was brilliant and terrifying. It would free every enhanced subject simultaneously, but it would also alert Cross to exactly where we were when we activated it.
"Suicide mission," I said flatly.
"Possibly. Unless we coordinate it perfectly." Dad pulled up a calendar. "The Genetic Purity Summit is in seventy-two hours. Cross will be there with every important person in his organization. If we activate the kill switch during his big speech, the enhanced subjects will turn on him in front of everyone."
"Public exposure and liberation at the same time."
"Exactly. But we need to get into his facility first. Access the main computer system. And that's nearly impossible with his security."
"Not if we have help." I pulled out my phone. "Marcus sent me his security clearance codes before everything went wrong. I can get us in."
Dad's eyes widened. "Marcus Vale? The one working for Cross?"
"He's been forced to work for Cross. His siblings were hostages." I showed Dad the messages. "He wants to help take Cross down."
"Can we trust him?"
"I don't know. But we don't have many options." I sent Marcus a coded message, hoping he'd understand it. Hoping he was still on our side.
Three minutes later, my phone buzzed. Marcus's response: Trapped in Dr. Park's lab with Aria. Cross knows we're here. Need extraction NOW.
My stomach dropped. "Dad, we have to help them. They're in the facility right now and Cross has them surrounded."
"That's impossible. We can't—"
"You have enhanced subjects here who follow your orders," I interrupted. "You've been sabotaging Cross for years. If there was ever a time to actually fight back, it's now. Aria and Marcus have the evidence. They have recordings. They're the key to exposing everything."
Dad was quiet, wrestling with the decision.
"Please," I said. "I know you're scared. I know you've been hiding for eight years. But Dad, people are dying. My girlfriend is trapped in an enhanced body. My best friend is being tortured. If you ever loved me, if you ever cared about making things right, help me save them."
Dad looked at me with tears in his eyes. Then he turned to the enhanced subjects in the room—the ones he'd secretly freed from Cross's control over the years.
"Gather everyone," he ordered them. "We're staging a rescue. Prepare for full combat."
The enhanced subjects moved immediately. Within minutes, twenty of them stood ready—former victims now turned into an army for good.
"We go in fast," Dad said, pulling up the facility schematics. "Hit Cross's forces hard. Get Aria and Marcus out. Then we run. We'll have maybe ten minutes before Cross sends reinforcements."
"What about Kael?" I asked. "And Dr. Park—wait, you're Dr. Park. What about the other Dr. Park? I'm confused."
"There is no other Dr. Park." Dad looked puzzled. "Luna, who else would—"
My phone buzzed with another message from Marcus: Cross lied. The person you think is Dr. Park in the facility? It's Asher. Cross has been using him this whole time, making him think he's someone else. Psychological manipulation on top of enhancement.
Horror washed over me. "Asher. It was Asher on those tables, not your colleague. Cross has been playing mind games with him, making him believe he's multiple people."
Dad's face went pale. "That's even worse than physical enhancement. The psychological damage from that kind of manipulation—Asher might be broken beyond repair."
"Then we save him anyway," I said firmly. "Broken doesn't mean gone. We get him out, we get everyone out, and we figure out how to put them back together."
Dad nodded. "You're right. Let's move."
We loaded into vans—me, Dad, and twenty enhanced subjects who'd been freed from Cross's programming. It felt surreal. Eight years of my father being gone, and now we were going into battle together.
"Dad," I said as we drove. "After this is over, after we stop Cross, you and I need to have a long conversation about everything."
"I know. And I'll answer every question. I'll spend the rest of my life making up for what I did." He squeezed my hand. "But first, let's make sure we survive long enough for that conversation."
We reached the medical facility. Dad's enhanced subjects moved with military precision, breaking through security. Alarms blared. Cross's enhanced subjects responded, and suddenly we were in the middle of a war—enhanced against enhanced, former victims fighting their enslaved brothers and sisters.
We fought our way to Dr. Park's laboratory. The door was locked and reinforced.
"Aria!" I shouted. "Marcus! We're here!"
"Luna?" Aria's voice came from inside, shocked and relieved. "How did you—"
"Long story! Stand back from the door!"
One of Dad's enhanced subjects punched through the reinforced door like it was cardboard. Inside, Aria and Marcus were surrounded by Cross's enhanced subjects, but our arrival evened the odds.
The fight was brutal but brief. Dad's team was better trained, more coordinated. Within minutes, Cross's subjects were subdued.
"Luna!" Aria grabbed me in a hug. "You're okay! But how—"
"My father." I gestured to Dad. "The Architect isn't the villain. He's been fighting Cross from the shadows this whole time."
Marcus stared at Dad. "Dr. Park? But Cross said you were dead."
"Cross says a lot of things," Dad replied. "Most of them are lies. Now come on. We need to get Kael and Asher and get out before—"
The lights went out.
Emergency red lighting kicked in, bathing everything in blood-colored shadows.
Cross's voice echoed through the facility: "Impressive rescue, Dr. Park. But you've made a critical mistake. You brought your daughter into my facility. Now I have exactly what I need."
Gas hissed from vents in the ceiling.
Dad's enhanced subjects started collapsing. Aria and Marcus dropped. Even Dad fell to his knees.
I tried to hold my breath but it was too late. The gas was already in my lungs. My vision blurred.
The last thing I saw before I passed out was Cross's enhanced subjects—hundreds of them—pouring into the laboratory.
And Cross himself, stepping through the door with a syringe in his hand.
"Hello, Luna," he said pleasantly. "Let's begin your enhancement. Your father can watch."
Then everything went black.