Chapter 94: The Caretaker's Truth

They descended the spiral staircase, weapons drawn.

Jackson expected a laboratory, or a dungeon. But when they reached the bottom, he blinked in confusion.

It was a cozy, old-fashioned living room.

A fire crackled in the fireplace. There were floral armchairs, a knitting basket, and the smell of freshly baked oatmeal cookies.

Matron Helsing sat in a rocking chair, knitting a tiny pink sweater. She looked exactly as Serenity remembered her: stern, with gray hair pulled into a tight bun, but with a strange, intense warmth in her eyes.

"Close the door, Jackson. You are letting the draft in," Helsing said without looking up. "And put that gun away. If I wanted you dead, you would have died in the hallway."

Jackson didn't holster his gun. "Give me one reason not to arrest you."

"Because I am the only reason your wife is still human," Helsing put down her knitting needles. She looked at Serenity with a mixture of pride and pity.

"Sit, child. Eat a cookie."

Serenity stared at the cookies—the same ones she loved as a kid. "What did you put in them? Agent-X?"

"Just cinnamon and raisins today," Helsing poured tea. "But yes... for eighteen years, I spiked your food."

"Why?" Serenity’s voice trembled. "Why did you use me as a lab rat?"

"To hide you," Helsing said simply.

She stood up and walked to a chalkboard covered in complex chemical formulas.

"The Order has satellites that can scan for the Royal DNA markers. When you arrived here as a baby, you were a beacon. They would have found you in a week."

Helsing pointed to a formula.

"So, I masked your signature. The vitamins... the injections... they slightly altered your bio-frequency. To the scanners, you looked like a normal, boring human girl."

"I protected you by changing you," Helsing looked Serenity in the eye. "It was necessary."

"You made me sick!" Serenity cried out. "I had fevers for years!"

"Side effects of the cloaking agent," Helsing dismissed it. "But it worked. You survived. And more importantly... your body adapted. You developed a resistance."

Jackson lowered his gun slightly. "Resistance?"

"Why do you think Arthur couldn't mind-control you at the bridge?" Helsing looked at Jackson. "Why do you think Serenity's blood could cure him?"

"Because I prepared her," Helsing declared arrogantly. "I turned the prey into the predator."

She walked over to Serenity and touched her cheek.

"I am not your enemy, my dear. I am your gardener. I pruned you, I watered you, and now... you have blossomed."

"And Aurora?" Jackson stepped between them. "Why did you call her your granddaughter?"

"Because Serenity is my greatest creation. Therefore, her offspring is my legacy," Helsing smiled, a smile that didn't reach her cold eyes.

"Aurora has the completed mutation. She doesn't need to be hidden anymore. She needs to be awakened."

Helsing went to a drawer and pulled out an old, yellowed map.

"The Order knows you are here. My protection ends today. If you want to finish them..."

She threw the map on the table.

"You need to go to the Origin Point. The place where the first Element meteor fell."

Jackson looked at the map. It wasn't Montbert. It wasn't the Arctic.

It was a location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Specifically, the Mariana Trench (马里亚纳海沟).

"An underwater base?" Jackson asked.

"The Deep City," Helsing confirmed. "That is where the Council of Elders sleeps. Go there. Wake them up. And end this."

"Why are you helping us?" Serenity asked suspiciously.

Helsing picked up her knitting again.

"Because The Order has lost its way. They want to destroy the world. I just wanted to save you."

She pointed to the stairs.

"Now go. Before I change my mind and decide to keep you here for another ten years."

Jackson grabbed the map. He took Serenity’s hand.

"Let's go," he whispered. "This woman is crazy, but her intel is solid."

As they climbed back up to the surface, Serenity looked back one last time. The old woman was rocking in her chair, humming a lullaby. The same lullaby she used to sing to Serenity when she had those "fevers."

It was a twisted kind of love. But it was love nonetheless.