Their alliance was forged in the crucible of shared pain and righteous indignation. Lira became Mark's shadow, his silent partner, his strategic advisor. While he unleashed raw, devastating power, she navigated the intricate web of government deception, using her unique abilities to extract information, manipulate lower-level officials, and create diversions. She used her Emotion Resonance to calm the panic in public spaces after his attacks, subtly influencing narratives, ensuring pockets of truth seeped into the media.
Mark, in turn, began to trust her, a concept entirely alien to him. Her presence was a grounding force, a calm amidst his internal storm. He found himself relying on her insights, her ability to predict Vanguard movements, her understanding of the human element he had so thoroughly disconnected from. She was the only one who could get close to him, the only one who didn't shrink from the golden light in his eyes.
Their targets expanded. They focused on Vanguard's deeper, more insidious operations: hidden Aurora harvesting facilities, clandestine human experimentation labs, the black-market networks fueled by stolen Awakened DNA. Each strike was a thunderclap, exposing more of the government's systemic corruption.
One such target was a remote research outpost masquerading as an energy farm. Inside, Lira and Mark discovered not only more Project Genesis files, detailing the horrific extent of the experiments, but also a network of interconnected facilities, all feeding into a central hub. And within those files, a chilling diagram: a massive, pulsating energy core, annotated with Dr. Voss's meticulous handwriting. It was a fusion chamber, designed to integrate and amplify various Aurora energies. A "god engine."
And then, a name. Not Project Genesis, but 'Project Chimera.' A new, terrifying phase. The true purpose of their betrayal of Atlas and Seraphina was revealed: not just to 'contain' their power, but to extract it, to synthesize it, to replicate it. Dr. Voss had been working towards this for decades, perfecting the process using Mark's unawakened form as a test subject. His parents' powers, their very essence, were not gone. They were being recycled, amplified, used to create the next generation of super-soldiers, a new wave of 'Awakened' under the Vanguard's absolute control.
The realization ignited a new, colder fury in Mark. His parents weren't just murdered; their very souls had been stolen, their legacy desecrated. The destruction he had wrought so far felt like a mere tremor compared to the earthquake he now planned. And Lira, witnessing the depth of his pain, the horrific truth of his lineage, knew that their path was now inextricably linked, for better or worse. The world was on the precipice, and they were the ones pushing it over the edge, hoping to clear away the rot before it consumed everything.