Chapter Two

Zena's voice is not steady despite her best efforts and the more she speaks, the more unsteady it gets.

But Viktor's brain had switched off back when Zena had muttered "'Ria and Vestia has been taken by the Hero Committee." He does not hear more than that.

Before he even realises it, he is out of the door, and halfway to his office. He ignores how he is shaking and focuses his all in not crashing his car.

By the time he reaches his office, his shaking has lessened, instead taken over by a tide of rage, and he has to take a deep breath so to not do something stupid and endanger his family any further.

He sighs shakily, exiting his car and throwing the key to one of his other assistants before he runs inside. Predictably, Zena is already there, file in hand, and furiously yelling into her phone in an uncharacteristic display of anger.

Seeing him, she hastily cuts the call and passes the folder over to him, immediately starting her briefing on the situation.

From her words and the information collected in the folder it seems that hero agents disguised as supervisors and went inside her office to discuss some matters, after which she disappeared, without a doubt being teleported to the Hero HQ.

Similarly, Vestia had been picked up from school, her guardian knocked out and her smartwatch disconnected.

After that, by the time Morrigan's assistant realised something was wrong and contacted Zena, it was already on the news.

The news being that he had disguised himself as a businessman and wooed her, and once she had agreed to marry him, he had locked her up and forced her to take over his duties in the Villain Association, threatening her with the safety of her maiden family.

That, he would not have minded. He knows for certain that those words are the cover he and Morrigan had prepared in case. Nothing out of the ordinary there.

What he minded was how they described Vestia. They, these nosy media anchors, called her the product of—they described her as a mistake, as if he and Morrigan had not held each other and cried for over an hour when the pregnancy test came positive.

They even speculated that Vestia, his and Morrigan's miracle, was not even theirs but instead stolen from a hospital or even that she was one of his illegitimate children, legitimized for the sake of having a secure heir.

It made him numb with rage to the point that Zena had to pinch him to get him back in his head.

But even that was not his the biggest worry.

Oh no.

For it was his wife's cold, steely gaze, as she was bombarded by questions from the journalists present. It was the flash of cruel mania in her eyes, the beginning of a long forgotten hysteric attack that terrified him.

She had not had a breakdown since they married. She had been well and happy and far from the tragedy of The Incident.

Now not only was she kidnapped and brought to the place she had avoided at all costs, but she was also forced to sit there and take every invasive question, every slander directed toward him and their daughter.

The press conference was live, and she sat there numb and unfeeling, answering every question with a bland tone, which in turn made the media dub her as "abused and terrified."

Oh, if they only knew the fire they are fuelling.

Then—

Then Morrigan tilted her head upwards, lowered enough that the rolling cameras still has an uninterrupted view of her expression but upward enough that the ceiling light flashed on her face and—

Mind numbing relief flooded Viktor and his feet almost gave under him.

What else had he expected from his brilliant wife?

Morrigan had prepared for this situation for her eyes caught the light and flashed red. This only had one meaning: the heroes were unaware of his wife's disability and his wife had easily used to use it to her advantage and securely activate the defensive mechanisms of her bionic eye.

Despite the reassurance, Viktor reached behind his ear, activating his smart lens, ignoring the tide of emails that was definitely a consequence of the currently ongoing press conference, searching Morrigan's contact info in hopes she had left him something.

She has.

A coded message, the cipher they had developed during their courting days spells out two sentences.

One assures him of Vestia's safety, the other reads:

It is about time everyone learns of the truth.

Uh oh.

Viktor has no doubt about the "truth" Morrigan refers to, but he knows his wife the best and he has no problem imagining the wicked grin that speaks of mayhem on her face as she writes the message.

Zena leans over his shoulder, and the violent flinch that results once she finishes reading the message makes Viktor come to a horrifying realisation.

Oh no.

"Oh no." Zena says out loud, expression panicked. "Viktor."

Viktor.exe has stopped working.

"Viktor." Zena repeats, pinching him hard, "The world isnt prepared for Morrigan."

Viktor, who knows his wife best, glares at the woman. "You think I don't know?"

"No," Zena replies, fearless at the face of his glare. "I think our overestimation is underestimating her." She rubs her forehead.

Her eyes widen suddenly, "And she has Vestia with her."

Okay.

Viktor inhales loudly.

The situation is an underestimation of the chaos that his wife and daughter can cause when together.

Finally, all that comes out is, "So many kids will have their dreams broken."

Zena nods mutely beside him, eyes on the press conference airing on her tablet.

"I think we should call an emergency meeting." Viktor says, "To try and salvage the situation."

Zena nods again.

"We should also do something about the media."

Another nod.

"Upgrade our suits."

Another nod.

"Come up with a plan to infiltrate the Hero Committee. She's going to need some help."

As if that was what she was waiting for all this time, Zena grins wickedly.

"This is going to be fun."