The forest was silent.
Only the faint hum of the engine filled the car, blending with Clara's uneven breathing.
Luca drove with the headlights off, the road ahead swallowed by fog that seemed almost alive.
"We can't stay here," he muttered, tightening his grip on the steering wheel.
Adrian stared out the window, lost in thought.
"Something doesn't make sense," he said quietly.
"What do you mean?" Clara asked, turning toward him.
"The car. The one we found outside my apartment. It wasn't yours, it wasn't mine. And Luca… "
He looked toward the driver's seat. "You never saw it before, did you?"
"No," Luca replied without hesitation. "When I arrived, you two were already gone."
Silence. Thick and heavy.
Then Clara heard it.
A whisper, soft, distant, like a voice carried through water.
"Don't be afraid. I'm not a threat."
Clara froze. Her pulse skipped.
"Adrian…"
He turned sharply. "You heard it too?"
She nodded, her eyes wide. "A voice. Calm, inside my head."
Luca slammed the brakes. The car skidded to a stop, tires screeching on the wet asphalt.
Standing in the middle of the road was a man.
Drenched clothes. Still as a statue.
He wasn't threatening, yet something about his stillness was terrifying.
"Stay in the car," Luca ordered, drawing his gun.
But Adrian had already opened the door.
"It's him," he whispered.
The man didn't move as Adrian approached.
When he was only a few steps away, the stranger spoke, his voice deep and unnervingly calm.
"Put the gun down, Inspector. You won't need it."
Luca froze.
"How do you know who I am?"
The man slowly lowered his hood.
Dark, rain-soaked hair clung to his forehead. His eyes were pale, silver, almost luminous.
"I know many things about you," he said.
Then his gaze shifted toward Clara.
"Especially about you."
Clara took a step back. "Who are you?"
"My name is Elias," he said.
"I escaped from the Sanctuary a few days ago."
The rain thickened around them.
Adrian's chest tightened. "How did you find us?"
"I didn't," Elias replied. "I followed you."
Adrian frowned. "Followed us how?"
Elias looked at him steadily.
"By protecting you. I've been shielding your minds since you left the city. They've been looking for you, every second. But they couldn't locate you while I was blocking their scans."
Luca's jaw tensed. "Protecting us from what?"
"From the Sanctuary's psychic trackers," Elias explained calmly. "They scan for anomalous frequencies, people with powers. You and Clara shine like flares in the dark. Without me, they would've found you days ago."
Clara's voice trembled. "Why risk your life for us?"
Elias's expression softened.
"Because when I was inside, I heard them speak of you. They called you the Pandora Vessel."
Her breath caught.
"The… what?"
"They say you carry the sum of every psychic ability they tried to isolate in others," he said, his tone quiet but sharp.
"You are empathy, telepathy, projection, control. All in one mind. You are their obsession, Clara. Their experiment's heart."
Clara shook her head. "I don't have all those powers, Elias."
He tilted his head slightly, eyes glowing faintly in the rain.
"Don't you? You've already read thoughts, altered will, projected energy, and connected across distance. And when you lose control, everything around you stops. Tell me that's not all of them."
Adrian's heart hammered. He remembered the hospital, the immobilized doctors, the silence that followed Clara's scream.
Maybe Elias was right. Maybe she really was the Vessel.
"What about Aurora?" Adrian asked, his voice cracking.
Elias's expression darkened.
"She's alive. I heard them talk about her before I escaped. They call her the Key. The only child born from two enhanced minds. Her potential terrifies them. They want to use her to amplify the Sanctuary's neural network."
Clara's eyes filled with tears. "Where is she?"
"In a place called The Sanctuary Core," he said. "It's not a fixed base, it moves every few days. Hidden in the mountains. The only way to find it is to connect to the central signal. But doing that exposes your minds… unless someone shields you."
"And that would be you," Luca said flatly.
Elias nodded once. "Yes. But I can't do it alone. I need Clara's power to stabilize the link. Only her energy can withstand direct contact with the Core."
Clara hesitated, trembling. "And if I refuse?"
Elias's voice dropped to a whisper.
"Then they'll keep using your daughter until there's nothing left of her. Please. Don't let that happen. I escaped to find you, for this."
Silence fell. Heavy, suffocating. Even the rain seemed to fade.
Adrian took Clara's hand.
"I trust him," he said softly. "Not completely, but enough to try."
Luca's voice was ice. "If you're lying to us… "
"I'm not," Elias cut in. "You know why?"
Luca's eyes narrowed. "Why?"
"Because the Sanctuary already took everything from me. Now it's my turn to take something back."
For a moment, all three men stood locked in each other's gaze. And Adrian realized something, Elias didn't just look like them.
He felt like them.
The same resonance. The same spark.
The rain stopped. And in that fragile silence, Clara understood: this man hadn't appeared by chance. He was part of the same thread binding them all. And maybe… the key to finding their daughter.