Chapter 4422: Prelude to Darkness (Part 14)

After leaving the base, Victor flew into the sky. He flew directly toward his mother's cemetery. On the way, he recalled his conversation with Bruce.

At that time, in front of his mother's grave, they had already discovered that the grave had been disturbed, and the dampness of the soil wasn't quite right. However, at that time, he had already locked onto a suspect, which was his father. He felt it must have been his father who dug up his mother's grave and took away his mother's remains.

But, what if the order was reversed? What if his mother came back to life, dug open the grave herself, and was then taken away by his father?

Soon, Victor arrived at the cemetery. He dug open his mother's grave again. Last time he just looked at it in passing, and didn't look carefully, his whole mind filled with confusion and anger at his father's behavior. He was overwhelmed by emotions, not realizing that the truth of the matter might be completely opposite to what he imagined.

This time, he dug up the entire grave, and even took the coffin out directly. He checked every part of the coffin carefully, and then discovered that there were some scratching and pushing traces under the coffin lid, the so-called coffin board.

This was thanks to the fact that Western coffins aren't nailed, and after the viewing session ended, they were directly covered and placed in the cemetery. Although some would have buckles and the like, they were actually very easy to open. After all, this thing was just a ritual vessel, not for preventing corpse fraud, no need to make it so seamless.

Moreover, generally such public cemeteries would be buried relatively shallowly. Because people believed that if buried too deep, it would hinder the deceased's path to heaven. So in many movies, one could see that the pit dug out was only a little deeper than the height of the coffin. When filling it with soil, one shovel of soil per person was about enough.

So, this creature in the coffin should have first unbuckled the left side of the coffin, then constantly pushed the coffin board, made a gap, and finally lifted the coffin and rose.

Then the problem came: if his mother crawled out herself, then why did she appear in the culture tank of his father's experimental base?

The relatives of others who resurrected all returned home directly, sitting properly in the house waiting for them to return. It wouldn't be that only his old mom ran out and then ran out of power, and was then coincidentally picked up by his father, right?

This was clearly full of doubts. Victor couldn't figure it out either, so he chose to ask his father directly. He flew to Florida again, arriving at the entrance of the Red Room experimental base.

Dr. Stone was somewhat surprised to see him come over. Victor punched the table angrily and said: "What exactly is going on? What are you hiding from me?!"

"What are you talking about? Victor?"

"Don't pretend anymore, those people from the Justice League already told me, these people resurrected from the dead are no different from normal people, there is no such thing as having no energy at all. And my mom clearly crawled out of the coffin herself, this proves she can move freely. Why did you put her here?!"

Dr. Stone was stunned, then sighed long, and said: "Sure enough, I can't hide it from you. Victor, I didn't lie to you. I really wanted to resurrect your mother. But it wasn't through someone else's hands."

Victor narrowed his eyes and looked at him. Dr. Stone said: "I was indeed the first person to discover your mother resurrected. But it wasn't through a phone call, but the surveillance camera of the old house captured her figure."

"For so many years, I have been under the control of the military. I know they might jump over the wall in a hurry. So every time I go home, I maintain the security system and repair the cameras, ensuring I can see all the things happening in the house, preventing them from killing you."

"But I didn't expect them to be so crazy as to use a car accident. However, the security system still played an important role. The first time your mother went back, it prompted me that the house had been invaded. When I saw your mother, I realized something happened."

"Although I don't know who exactly it was, I am very clear that the figure standing in the house at that time who was exactly the same as your mother, absolutely wouldn't be Eleanor. No one knows better than me that resurrection from the dead requires a price."

"Even you, Victor. You didn't resurrect successfully either; my son died long ago. The one who is alive now is the Mother Box carrying the consciousness of Victor Stone. I resurrected you, and it wasn't entirely to comfort my emotions. I just realized the military was getting more and more out of control, and I needed someone to sanction them."

Dr. Stone walked to the experimental bench and said: "This impostor who suddenly appeared in the old house, although she isn't the real Eleanor, her flawless appearance and posture, and the seemingly perfect memories and habits, still aroused my curiosity."

"Although perfect resurrection cannot be achieved, this sample is even closer to perfection than you. So, I used a taser to subdue her and brought her here. I need to figure out how the person behind the scenes managed to do this."

Victor listened, dumbfounded; he had never seen such a cold side of his father. Perhaps, it was the long-term oppression and control of the military that drove him crazy, or perhaps he was crazy to begin with. However, this kind of mad scientist temperament that ignored ethics and morality truly shocked Victor.

"You... how could you do this?" Victor asked, "This is disrespectful to her, this is simply blasphemy!"

Dr. Stone's eyes finally turned cold. He stood behind the experimental bench, stared at Victor, and said: "The person who destroyed the coffin I prepared for Eleanor, the person who let someone exactly the same as her crawl out of the grave and shamelessly invade the place where we once lived, the mastermind who wants to use a mother's love to deal with her son—his actions are the true blasphemy."

Victor was speechless.

He looked at his mother in the culture tank again. It was the face he had been thinking about day and night, looking so close, yet so far.

Victor didn't want to admit that this wasn't his mother. But he had no evidence. Although he could open the console perspective, he hadn't looked at her with such a perspective when his mother was still alive, and he didn't know what the source code of his real mother was, so he couldn't distinguish the true from the false.

And, Victor himself wasn't very able to understand many of the data in this perspective. This wasn't something an emotional life like him should see, so he couldn't analyze where the flaws of this resurrected impostor were based on this.

That's right, Victor had actually admitted in his heart that this one who crawled out of the coffin wasn't his mother. He just couldn't accept such a gap for a while. Gaining and losing, the taste of it is hard to describe.

Victor sat on the chair nearby as if drained of strength, quietly staring at the culture tank. After a long while, he came back to his senses, then looked at Dr. Stone and said: "You said you wanted to truly resurrect her?"

Dr. Stone nodded and said: "This is the final goal, although I feel the possibility of realization isn't high. But as long as a little progress is made, it is a great progress in exploring cosmic rules. Moreover, the Justice League will sooner or later find me, asking me to figure out who resurrected them."

Victor didn't deny this point. His father's scientific research level was extremely high. Let's put it this way: it wasn't that the military didn't know that killing Victor and his mother would very likely trigger a strong backlash, but even if they risked such a risk, they still wanted to control Dr. Stone, because there was truly no one who could surpass him.

Not to mention his research level on the Mother Box, just the fact that he could research it meant he had at least reached the level of observing truth. Except for Batman, he was probably the only one who could figure out the principles behind this conspiracy. The Justice League would definitely need his help.

Being able to use experimental materials exactly the same as his late wife for research, Dr. Stone's willpower was also shockingly strong. If he recited the Green Lantern oath once, he might have become a Green Lantern.

But this wasn't the first time. After all, he had resurrected Victor before. At that time, he was also facing his son's corpse alone.

Victor sighed long. He knew best how bad such a taste was, so how could he blame his father too much?

In the final analysis, helping the Justice League is helping this universe. What he is doing now is equally great. And he, this member who hadn't made any major contribution since joining the Justice League, didn't have the position to point fingers at him.

"I know," Victor just said, "If you have any new progress, you must tell me immediately."

"Victor." Dr. Stone called him again, then said, "Although your body is composed of the Mother Box now, you must remember that you are Victor Stone. Control it, instead of letting it control you."

Victor stood in the darkness in front of the door, nodding to Dr. Stone. He had long realized that the Mother Box had its own consciousness. Not wisdom, but consciousness, even retaining certain memories. The power of the cosmic origin is so powerful; once lost, it will inevitably be doomed. He must be doubly careful.

Just as Victor walked out the door, an image flashed before his eyes. Amidst the firelight, he was placed on the ground. A man lay beside him, and the figure slowly walking toward them looked very much like Wonder Woman Diana.

Victor woke up abruptly. He realized that something had happened.

When Barry and J'onn arrived at the Amazon, they found the atmosphere here was unusual. The entire country was under martial law, and there was no way to get in through normal channels. But now the situation was urgent, Barry had no choice but to take J'onn and break in, arriving at the Queen's palace.

When the two figures appeared in the palace, the personal guard shouted and surrounded them. The Queen was also startled, turning to look at them. Finding they were members of the Justice League, she didn't relax, but became even more nervous.

"What are you doing here?! You group of despicable thieves!"

"What?" J'onn asked.

"It's you who incited Diana to steal the Mother Box. Isn't it?!"

"What?!!!"

Barry and J'onn looked at each other. The Queen frowned tightly and stared at them, seemingly judging whether they were acting. J'onn hurriedly opened his mouth and said: "Queen Majesty, we are just here to find Diana. To tell you the truth, we discovered that the relatives of the Justice League members have resurrected..."

J'onn briefly introduced the events that had occurred to the Queen. Upon hearing the word "resurrection," the Queen looked somewhat dazed and suddenly said, "Steve..."

"What?"

"Diana might be trying to resurrect Steve," the Queen said, looking at them. "He was her lover once."