In the dim room, Benjamin and Holander looked down at Vogelbaum, who was slumped on the floor.
This chief scientist, who had once wielded imnse power within the Vought Group and single-handedly created countless Supes, now had eyes clouded with regret.
He had just admitted his mistake.
And yet.
Looking at Vogelbaum’s display, Benjamin smiled.
"Vogelbaum, look in the eye."
Benjamin slowly crouched down, his hard face drawing close to the old scientist’s as he said in a low voice, "You don’t know you were wrong. Deep down, maybe even subconsciously, you’ve never thought locking an infant in a cold laboratory and tornting him was a sin."
"The only reason you’re admitting it now is because, in your own mind, you ran an experint that failed completely..."
Benjamin’s gaze was ice-cold as he continued, "From what you just said, you still think my son, John, is nothing but a failed asset."
"You’re afraid... You think he’ll beco like in the future, break free from Vought’s control, and turn into a monster who hurts people. Isn’t that right?"
Those words laid Vogelbaum’s heart bare.
That really was what he feared.
So his admission of guilt was not because he thought what he had done to Holander as a child was wrong.
It was because the experint had failed, and because Holander had beco uncontrollable. That was why he admitted his mistake.
If Holander were a normal superhero now, would Vogelbaum have admitted anything?
Impossible.
Edgar and Madelyn were dead, and Vought’s upper ranks had been wiped out.
Now Vought belonged to this father and son.
Vogelbaum could only hope that the monster he had raised with his own hands might, under Benjamin’s restraint, retain as much humanity as possible.
At that mont, the old scientist’s lips trembled slightly. He wanted to defend himself, but not a sound ca out.
Benjamin’s smile grew colder.
"So you’re afraid. Maybe you aren’t afraid of us snapping your neck right here. After all, those damn old bones of yours have lived long enough. But..."
Benjamin paused, a cruel gleam flashing in his eyes.
"You’re afraid we’ll go after your family."
"For example, right in front of you, we tear your wife, your children, your grandchildren apart with our bare hands, one by one, while they’re still alive."
Vogelbaum’s face turned deathly pale. All color drained from it as he muttered, "No... no! You can’t do that! They’re innocent! Please, Benjamin, you can’t..."
"Of course I fucking won’t!"
Benjamin kicked Vogelbaum aside and let out a cold snort.
"I don’t go after people’s families. I’m not that vile."
Benjamin was only trying to scare Vogelbaum. As for laying a hand on his family, he was not as low as Butcher.
"But you have to pay for everything you’ve done."
Benjamin stopped looking at the damned old man and turned his gaze to Holander beside him.
At that mont, Holander understood exactly what Benjamin ant.
"Buzz!"
Almost by instinct, a blinding light flared in Holander’s eyes.
As long as he lowered his head even slightly, those two red beams, powerful enough to cut through steel, would instantly split the old man’s head open like a waterlon.
But...
In the final second before that deadly heat could burst forth, the red light in Holander’s eyes flickered almost imperceptibly, and a mory of a cold, sealed laboratory surfaced in his mind.
Young John, dressed in a thin hospital gown, was curled up on the cold tal floor. Tubes covered his body, and he had just endured another agonizing extre test.
When he was at his most helpless and in the deepest pain, a figure appeared beyond the laboratory’s heavy bulletproof glass door.
It was a younger Vogelbaum.
He stood outside the door, looking through the glass at the battered young John inside, with a gentle smile on his face, almost kindly.
"Well done, John. You are my most perfect masterpiece."
In his mory, that faint voice passed through the glass.
For young John back then, a child with no parents, no hugs, not even a single toy, that smile beyond the glass was the only sunlight in his frozen world.
Naively, he saw the man in the white coat as his father.
Even though behind that smile there was nothing but cold data, and that so-called fatherly love had been a sickening lie from beginning to end.
"Hah... hah..."
Holander’s chest heaved violently.
He stared hard at Vogelbaum on the floor, the red glow in his eyes brightening and dimming.
In truth, Holander had spent his entire life desperately searching for the illusion of a "father."
Vogelbaum, who had given him life but treated him like a lab rat.
Stan Edgar, who had controlled him through corporate interests and power gas, looking at him like he was nothing more than a product.
And now, this biological father who had truly given him his bloodline, yet was so forceful that he inspired awe in him, along with a faint longing. Soldier Boy, Benjamin.
This was the father who truly loved him.
Vogelbaum and Edgar were not real fathers.
The muscles in Holander’s face twitched slightly. He wanted to do it.
However, at this mont, he had not yet reached the point he would in the later parts of the original series.
The Holander of the present had not yet been completely swallowed by endless power and arrogance.
He had not yet fully abandoned that last trace of "human" weakness in his heart.
Naturally, he could not bring himself to act like his later self in the original series, cruelly slaughtering every experinter in the laboratory.
Besides, even that completely corrupted Holander from the original storyline, who had abandoned his humanity, still hesitated when facing Barbara, the woman he saw as his mother, didn’t he?
He only welded the laboratory doors shut with his lasers, leaving Barbara to wait for death in loneliness and despair.
Why didn’t he just use his heat vision to cut her in half?
Was it because he really wanted to be cruel and make her feel the terror of waiting to die?
Or was it because... in the end, those eyes did not dare fire on the woman who had once given him a trace of false motherly love, could not kill her by his own hand right in front of her?
Benjamin frowned slightly. It seed the psychological pressure Holander carried from the laboratory was far too heavy. Was it hatred, a faint trace of love, or both?
Perhaps later, he would have to find a chance to take Holander back to the laboratory.
Only by completely dealing with the source could Holander’s psychological problems perhaps be resolved.
The room fell into deathly silence, broken only by Holander’s heavy breathing.
Vogelbaum, who had been lying on the floor the whole ti, seed to realize sothing.
The old scientist slowly raised his head.
First, he looked at Benjamin’s cold expression. Then he turned toward Holander, whose eyes were red and whose face was twisted in pain and struggle.
Seeing that Holander could not bring himself to act, understanding appeared in Vogelbaum’s clouded eyes. Then it turned into deep self-mockery.
It was as if every last bit of strength had been drained from the old scientist in an instant.
He slowly closed his eyes and said softly, "Do it, John."
"I owe you this."
"It’s ti... to end this sinful life of mine."
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