Zephany noticed how Kendrick’s expression had changed. His eyes were distant, his jaw slightly tense, as though he had just heard something that tore through the walls of his calm. He stood frozen, staring at Cassius in disbelief.

She felt a chill spread through her chest. "Ken, are you okay?" she asked gently, taking a step closer.

Kendrick blinked, as if her voice had reached him from somewhere far away. He looked at her, then at Cassius, confusion and realization twisting together on his face. His lips parted, but it took him a moment before words came out. His voice trembled slightly.

"Are you... my father?"

The room went quiet. Even the faint hum of the wind through the cracks in the walls faded away. Cassius froze, caught off guard by the question that he had avoided for so long. For a moment, he simply stared at Kendrick, his chest tightening painfully.

He wanted to deny it, to take it back, but the truth had already escaped him earlier. He had said too much. He looked at his son, seeing in him the traces of Christy’s warmth and his own quiet determination. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

His throat felt dry. "Ken, I..." He struggled to breathe, the weight of the years pressing down on him. Finally, his voice broke through the silence. "Yes. I am your father."

The words hung heavy in the air. He could see the shock in Kendrick’s face, the disbelief, and the sudden flood of emotion that came with it.

Cassius’s eyes stung as tears welled up. He hadn’t allowed himself to cry in years, but now the emotions he had buried began to surface all at once. The memories rushed in—Christy’s laugh, Levy’s smile, Kendrick’s curious eyes as a child. He had lost everything, and yet here stood his son, alive, breathing, looking at him with a mix of pain and longing.

He wiped his face roughly, his voice low and uneven. "I missed you all so much. Christy, Levy, you... I missed everything. I wanted to come back, but I couldn’t. I thought staying hidden was the only way to protect you."

Kendrick swallowed hard, his heart pounding in his chest. "You... you’ve been alive this whole time?"

Cassius nodded faintly. "Yes. But not the way you think."

Reynold, who had been standing silently nearby, took a slow step forward. His expression shifted from disbelief to confusion. "Hold on," he said quietly. "According to every report, Patrick Montclair died twelve years ago. Along with my father. So how did you survive? What really happened before the explosion?"

Cassius turned to him, exhaling deeply as if preparing to relive the memory. "It was supposed to be a containment mission," he began. "My team went to capture Dr. Mystorium before he escaped with the Helix prototype. Soren was with me, along with a few others. We found Mystorium in the lower chamber. He refused to surrender. He had already activated the self-destruct mechanism before we could stop him."

The memories flooded back in vivid flashes—the alarm, the heat, the rising flames.

"The place was rigged to collapse," Cassius continued. "A fire spread fast, and the containment walls began to melt. We fought our way out, but Mystorium set the sequence to detonate. Soren told me to go ahead. He said he would stay behind to stabilize the corridor for the rest of us to escape. I wanted to stay, but he pushed me away. He said someone had to make it out to tell the truth."

Cassius’s voice cracked as he said the words. "I tried to go back for him, but the smoke—it wasn’t ordinary. The compound from the serum had mixed with the fire. It released a chemical vapor that caused hallucinations and memory loss. I barely made it to the exit before I collapsed."

Reynold’s jaw tightened as realization set in. "So that’s why you lost your memory. And my father... he sacrificed himself."

Cassius nodded slowly. "He did. He made sure we lived." His gaze softened. "When I woke up, I was in the care of my father—the Watcher of the Archive at that time. He found me among the ruins. He captured the president who had funded Mystorium and Barmon’s father. They had twisted the Helix Project into something monstrous. My father gave them a pill that reverted their cognitive state, making them appear insane. That was the only way to silence them without killing them."

Jeric listened quietly, disbelief in his eyes. "So they’ve been in the mental hospital ever since."

Cassius nodded. "Sophia was ordered to bring me home and make it look like Patrick Montclair had died in the fire. The Archive wanted to bury the case and end the project for good."

He looked away, his expression heavy with regret. "But it didn’t end. I spent five years in a coma. When I woke up, my memory was gone. My father trained me again, preparing me for a different purpose. Then, last year, an explosion near one of our safehouses triggered something in my mind. Fragments of memory came rushing back—Christy’s voice, Soren’s face, the fire."

Zephany’s hands clenched slightly as she listened. She could feel the weight of his words, the pain he carried in silence.

Cassius looked at her and Kendrick. "That’s when I remembered everything—and when I found out that both of you were working in the Archive. My son and Soren’s daughter. I was proud of you both; you were so excellent." His voice lowered, almost breaking. "But that pride turned into fear the moment I learned what had been done to you."

Zephany felt her stomach tighten. "What do you mean?"

Cassius met her gaze. "Both of you were injected with the Helix serum."

The world seemed to stop.

Kendrick froze, his mind spinning. Only now did it register—that information about him being injected. Earlier, his mind had been too occupied with the fact that Cassius was Patrick, his father.

"What?" he finally managed to ask.

Cassius nodded grimly. "The serum was meant to enhance regenerative capabilities, but the version used on you wasn’t pure. It was a corrupted version created by Dr. Mystorium. Meanwhile, the group behind Ted Frin’s case has been replicating unstable versions of Helix. My team wasn’t trying to harm him; we were trying to save him."