Chapter 53 - 53: Emotion Control
Xander and Flourance were shocked when they saw the footage of the inhumane torture on a ten-year-old kid. They could see the boy's body twisting and turning in pain before he ultimately stopped moving.
Xander was clenching his fist uncontrollably. Flourance was also shocked.
"This is torture! How can they be so inhumane to a little child?" Flourance commented.
"So they killed the boy, and now he's back for revenge. There is no Dark Variant Uprising angle in this anymore. It's all a tragedy made by humans," he further added, still enraged. "Because of their stupidity, they put the whole world in danger."
Xander hadn't spoken anything. But his face was saying everything. He seemed enraged, as if he wanted to destroy something.
However, something strange happened. All his anger disappeared as a calm and serene look returned on his face as if it was nothing shocking.
His other ability had started acting. It was his Emotion Control that kept his emotion in control and prevented him from losing emotions whenever he was about to.
Now that the ability was acting, it was as if he had no emotion.
"That makes things more clear. I did talk to the real Lucifer. The way he talked about the facility, I could feel his disgust, and now I know why," he said calmly.
"Of course. I don't blame him. I feel disgusted at them too. How about we have some fun with them? We already have proof. Let's cause some explosion there?" Flourance suggested, talking about using violence against the facility.
Unlike Xander, his emotions were still unchecked, which were overwhelming his decision now.
"No. We can do no such thing as that. You forget the purpose of APF. We are to protect the people and stop Variants from misusing their powers. We can't involve ourselves when it's humans against humans or humans against Variants."
Xander was speaking calmly, but it was unclear if his words would have been the same without Emotion Control or not.
"It's not you speaking but your Emotion Control. You're only thinking about the law. You know it's wrong as well," Flourance said.
Xander didn't reply and ignored the words. It was as if he didn't care. He wasn't going to break the law of APF.
"Sigh, you're really stubborn. Sometimes I hate your Emotion Control," Flourance said, sighing. He knew that nothing he said was going to change anything.
"We can at least use this footage, can't we? Let's give this footage to the guys that can do something. There are many human-related organizations," he added, trying a different approach.
"We can't. I got this footage illegally. I can't use this, and even if I did, the trouble for us would be much bigger than it would be for them," Xander let out, shaking his head.
Even though Flourance heard his words, he didn't understand. How could the trouble be more for them?
"How?"
Flourance decided to ask.
"As I said, it's illegally obtained footage. Release it openly, and the origins will be traced to us. I don't care about myself, but Beta Team and Ayn will also find themselves entangled because of us. But that's not the reason," Xander said. "We can release it anonymously as well. The actual reason is something different."
"Then what is the reason?"
"The Variant Uprising. If we release this footage anonymously, they'll use it as an excuse to rile Variants against the humans. They can even claim that they released this footage and that humans and we hid it. Since it's anonymous, we can prove nothing. They'll have the moral high ground. And if we say that it was us that released it, Ayn will be in trouble."
"In the long run, it's something that can throw the world in an insane struggle that wouldn't benefit anyone. A war between the neutral Variants and the humans... The distrust... You know how it can turn bad."
The calm mind of Xander wasn't affected by his emotional side at the moment. So he could only think of pros and cons logically. At the moment, the cons of releasing the footage outweighed the pros.
"So it's basically useless, isn't it?" Flourance let out with a wry smile. "We can't do anything about them."
After hearing everything, he believed that the footage was not very useful if they couldn't use it to hold anyone accountable. He just shook his head in disappointment.
"Not really. It's not entirely useless. It gives clarity on the situation and tells me where I need to keep my focus. I also don't need to hand over the case to Alphas now," Xander muttered.
Xander continued watching more of the footage to see what else the people did in the labs. He noticed them doing the same thing that they did to Lucifer with other kids as well. It seemed like they were trying to do something, but no test subject survived.
Kids entered that room on their feet, but only their dead bodies left the room, carried out by the nurses.
"Are they even humans? Not just Lucifer, they keep doing the same thing to others as well. It doesn't look like they have any empathy for human life." Flourance let out with a disgusted look on his face as he continued watching the videos.
"But we're going to let these monsters live because of rules. I wonder, is Lucifer wrong, or are we?" Flourance asked sarcastically.
"You're a bit emotional now. Take some time to calm yourself," Xander replied. "I know what I'm doing. Don't worry; they will get punishment. They won't go free. It'll just be a bit different. Have faith."
The Helicopter had started flying, and it was carrying Xander and the others towards Erygas.
Even though the actual Dilion Research Facility was situated in a different place, Xander had lied to Lucifer and told him that the facility was in Erygas.
Xander believed that there was over a ninety percent chance that Lucifer would go to Erygas in search of the facility to get his revenge.
He had already placed his trap around Erygas for Lucifer. He had also commanded his men to get citizens to vacate the town and plant decoys there that would actually be the agents of the Delta Team, waiting to catch Lucifer unaware.
His team was already there, doing the preparation, and now Xander was going there as well to be a part of the final struggle.
... to be continued.