Shadow of Vengeance Returns

Chapter 4: Inside the Tower

When Marcus woke up, he was in a cell.

Not a prison cell with bars and locks. This was something far more advanced. The walls were made of some kind of reinforced glass, and outside he could see a vast laboratory complex. Scientists in white coats moved between workstations. Machines hummed with quiet efficiency. And everywhere, there were soldiers in black tactical gear, all of them bearing the same glowing markings that Kade had on his arms.

Marcus was lying on a simple bed in a small room with minimal furniture. His clothes had been changed to plain gray pants and a matching shirt. He felt weak, drugged. Whatever they had used to knock him out had affected his cultivation abilities, slowing his metabolism and healing.

He tried to stand, and the effort nearly exhausted him. His body felt heavy, sluggish. He tested his cultivation, trying to access the energy that normally flowed through him, but it was like trying to push through a wall. Something was blocking his abilities.

The door to his cell slid open silently. A woman entered, and Marcus's breath caught in his throat.

She was older now, twenty-seven instead of seventeen, but he would have recognized her anywhere. Her face was the same, though marked with a cold precision that hadn't been there before. Her body was lean and muscular, shaped by years of combat training. And her arms were covered in the same glowing blue markings that all of Viktor's enhanced soldiers bore.

"Sarah?" Marcus whispered.

His sister looked at him with no recognition, no warmth, no emotion at all. It was like looking at a stranger wearing his sister's face.

"Hello, Marcus," she said, her voice steady and controlled. "Welcome to the Iron Tower. Welcome to the future."

"What have they done to you?" Marcus tried to stand again, but his legs wouldn't obey him properly.

"They've made me better," Sarah said. She walked closer, studying him with clinical detachment. "When I was ten years old, scared and alone, I was ready to give up. But Viktor found me. He took me in. He trained me. He showed me that I could be more than the broken little girl crying in the rain."

"You were my responsibility," Marcus said, his voice breaking. "I was supposed to protect you."

"And you did," Sarah replied. "For two years, you protected me. You starved yourself so I could eat. You fought people much older and stronger than you just to keep me safe. But you couldn't protect me from grief. You couldn't protect me from the fact that our mother was dead and there was nothing either of us could do about it."

She gestured, and guards entered the cell behind her. But they didn't attack. They simply waited.

"Viktor told me the truth about what happened to Mom," Sarah continued. "He explained that grief is a weakness that needs to be purged. That attachment to the past is a chain that keeps us from becoming what we're meant to be. He taught me cultivation. He taught me how to unlock abilities that most humans don't even know exist. And he made me strong."

Marcus could see the glowing marks on Sarah's arms intensifying, responding to her emotions. She was far stronger than Kade, far more advanced in her cultivation. She was dangerous.

"Agatha White is still out there," Marcus said, trying a different approach. "She killed Mom. Don't you want revenge for that?"

For the first time, something flickered in Sarah's eyes. A moment of doubt, a crack in her perfect control. But then it was gone, replaced by the same cold calculation.

"Revenge is a child's emotion," Sarah said. "I'm not a child anymore. I'm a soldier. And my enemy is not Agatha White. My enemy is anyone who stands against Viktor's vision. Anyone who tries to stop the evolution of humanity."

A man entered the cell behind Sarah. He was older, probably in his fifties, with sharp features and eyes that seemed to calculate everything they saw. He wore an expensive suit and carried himself with the authority of someone accustomed to absolute power.

"Marcus Vale," the man said, extending his hand. "I'm Viktor Harmon. Welcome to the Iron Tower."

Marcus didn't take his hand. He remained sitting on the bed, watching the man carefully.

Viktor didn't seem bothered by the rejection. He withdrew his hand and smiled.

"You're wondering why I brought you here instead of killing you," Viktor said. "The answer is simple: because you're wasting your potential. I've read the reports of your combat skills during the border war. You were magnificent. You fought like a god. But you were fighting for nothing, for a country that doesn't even know your name. You were serving masters who would have executed you if they discovered what you really were."

"What do you want from me?" Marcus asked.

"I want you to understand," Viktor said, sitting down on the small chair across from Marcus. "Cultivation is the future of humanity. Right now, most people are limited by their biology. They're weak, fragile, dependent on technology and systems. But with cultivation, we can transcend these limitations. We can create humans who are faster, stronger, smarter. We can create a new species of humanity, and that species will inherit the world."

"And you're the one who gets to decide who becomes part of this new species?" Marcus asked sarcastically.

"Someone has to," Viktor replied. "Talent like yours shouldn't be wasted on revenge fantasies. You should be building the future with us. You should be leading the new humanity."

"And if I refuse?" Marcus asked.

Viktor's expression didn't change, but there was something cruel in his eyes. "Then your sister will have to kill you. And she will, because she understands that personal attachments are weaknesses that must be eliminated."

He nodded to Sarah, and she stepped forward. Her hand moved to her side, drawing a weapon that looked like no gun Marcus had ever seen. It was sleek and advanced, humming with barely contained energy.

"I've been trained to execute anyone who threatens Viktor's vision," Sarah said, her voice completely emotionless. "That includes family members. That includes people I once loved."

She raised the weapon, pointing it at Marcus's chest. Her finger moved to the trigger.

Marcus closed his eyes, not in fear, but in disappointment. He had failed. He had come back to save his sister, and instead, she had become his enemy.

But then, there was an explosion.

The entire tower shook, and alarms began blaring throughout the facility. Sarah's weapon wavered, and for just a moment, her perfect control slipped. In that moment of distraction, Marcus felt something change inside him.

The drug blocking his cultivation suddenly started to break apart, as if the shock of the explosion had disrupted its chemical composition. Energy surged through his body, raw and wild and powerful.

"What's happening?" Viktor demanded, but his calm was starting to crack.

A guard rushed into the cell, breathing hard. "Sir, we're under attack! Someone breached the northern perimeter! They've disabled the weapons systems and—"

The guard didn't finish. A figure came through the doorway, moving faster than Marcus could follow. When the dust cleared, the guard was unconscious on the floor.

Detective Sarah Chen stood in the cell, her body marked with the same glowing cultivation marks as everyone else. But they were different—stronger, more vibrant, a different color.

"Sorry I'm late," Sarah said, looking at Marcus with urgency in her eyes. "We need to go. Now."

But before anyone could move, Viktor raised his hand, and the floor beneath them began to glow with that same blue energy.

"You made a mistake coming here," Viktor said, his voice now layered with power. "You see, I didn't become the leader of the Cultivation Syndicate by being weak. I've spent fifteen years perfecting my abilities. And unlike my soldiers, I've gone far beyond their limitations."

The energy explosion that followed was massive, throwing everyone backward, crushing them against the walls.

And in that moment, Marcus finally understood the truth: Detective Sarah Chen was not huma

n. She was something else entirely. And she had been lying to him from the very beginning.