"I knew it. I said Dr. Holland had a brilliant mind but his character was just… detestable. But I suppose we didn't have much of a choice," Wren said. "He was one of the few who was willing to do what was necessary to bring our vision to life." He shook his head and sighed. "I heard that after Himari left, I heard there were a few significant mishaps."
Benjamin stared at Wren, wondering how much he knew about the research.
"After that incident, did you go into the data repository by yourself?" Wren asked.
Benjamin shook his head, at which Wren asked, "Then how did you find out about the true nature of the research?"
"Initially, I gathered what I could from the documents in Dr. Holland's office. There were various results that seemed to be about botanical research, but the data didn't match any plants I knew. It wasn't until we went to the Data Repository that I was able to get a clearer picture of what was going on.
"He told me to retrieve the files from the last two weeks, box them up, and prepare them to be taken to the office. Since it was my first time there, he gave me a quick walkthrough before leaving to handle an urgent call with the superiors. He warned me not to look at anything unnecessary. But the moment his footsteps faded down the corridor, I worked through the surrounding files, sliding restricted reports into the folders I was already authorized to carry. Every sound felt amplified in that room. I kept my eyes on the door and listened for his return..
"Based on those records and other documents I read over the next few weeks as I assisted Dr. Holland, I was able to piece the entire project together."
Wren sighed. "And the safe?"
"I assumed the key Himari gave me was for the safe. Dr. Holland mentioned losing the key to the safe. But, I only went after… the incident," Benjamin replied, his voice barely a whisper. "When the facility was being secured by the Task Force."
A heavy silence settled between them. Finally, Wren broke it. "Why? Please, Benjamin, help me understand. Why are you so set against this research?"
"The research itself has potential. It could be put to incredible use," Benjamin said. "But the methods… were fundamentally unethical. Did you not see them, Wren? The children, the women, the men… held against their will? And the results of some of the trials? The deaths and their suffering. Did you not see the cruelty of it all?"
"A few lives sacrificed for the sake of millions?" Wren asked.
Benjamin could only stare in disbelief. "Are they not people to you?"
"A world without the divide of Alphas and Omegas is a world of true equality, Benjamin."
"How can you even say that? The purpose of science has always been the advancement of human life — its protection and its preservation. What you are proposing is not equality. It is the elimination of an entire demographic."
"And that is only part of it," Benjamin continued. "The same research that could liberate people from their secondary genders could just as easily be used to create them artificially. Zephyr alone could destabilize every kingdom in this Empire if they filled their military ranks with artificially created alphas and omegas. It wouldn't close the divide between secondary genders, Wren. It would deepen it beyond anything we have ever seen.
"Wren, science is meant to heal the world and safeguard its people, not to serve as a blueprint for a massacre under the hollow promise of a better future."
"A massacre, Benjamin? That is such a narrow, emotional word for what is effectively a biological correction," Wren said. "You speak of safeguarding people, but you are only safeguarding a status quo that keeps the world in chains. The Alpha and Omega hierarchy is a prison. It is the root of systemic abuse and injustice in our history."
Wren leaned forward, his gaze intense. "Science has always required a price. The vaccines you use, the surgeries you perform—how many unethical trials paved the way for those? I am not tearing the world apart. If a few thousand must be the foundation for a world where no person is born less than another because of their pheromones... then that is a price I am more than willing to pay."
Wren now crossed his legs and folded his arms across his chest. "You call it a massacre. I call it the only path to true liberation. And you, of all people, with your talent and those files... you should be standing at my side, helping me finish the work, not hiding the cure while the world continues to bleed."
"And I am not alone in this," Wren continued, his voice quieter now, almost conversational. "There are employers and institutions that have been asking these questions for decades. People who have watched equality legislation fail generation after generation and have quietly begun looking for another way. I am not forcing anything on anyone, Benjamin. I am offering a solution to people who are already asking for one. The Baek name opens doors. The science closes the deal."
Benjamin shook his head. His voice trembled with the weight of his conviction. "It's not our biology that dictates whether there is inequality in this world. It's the people who govern. We are changing and making progress through our choices, not through a lab deciding what someone's child gets to be."
"Thirty years of legislation and Omegas and Alphas are still turned away at interviews. The designation follows people everywhere they go — on their papers, in their scent, written into their biology. No law changes that." Wren shook his head.
"Humans, by nature, are greedy and corrupt. Our pheromones only serve to drive those primal instincts further." Wren said, dismissing Benjamin's sentiments.
"How can you say that when you yourself are an Alpha?" Benjamin challenged.
"It is because I am an Alpha," Wren replied, a dark, self-loathing shadow crossing his face. "Even I am a monster. That is how I know."
"That's not true, Wren. You are a good person. I've seen it." Benjamin leaned forward, his voice softening. "Is this because of Atlas?"
Wren remained unmoved, his expression turning cold. "He is no longer here with us. I don't wish to hear his name in this context ever again."
As Benjamin fidgeted in his seat from guilt for bringing up Atlas's name, Wren spoke. "You're being hypocritical, Benjamin. You speak of ethics, yet do you remember the state of the lab after the raid? Everyone died. The children, the women, and the men you grieved. And the medical staff and the researchers as well. All of them were executed by the Empire. Even those in your Task Force."
Wren crossed his arms. "The very people you claim are healing the world turned that facility into a graveyard. How do you justify that level of slaughter in the name of progress?"
Benjamin looked away at the floor. "There is no justification for that. I didn't know it would end in a massacre. I… I am to blame for that as well. I stood by. I couldn't—no, I didn't do anything. The only thing I was thinking about was that I needed to complete the mission. I wanted it to be over. And I—I ignored everything else. I have no excuse."
Benjamin paused before continuing. "But I know that if I could go back… I would have tried to change the outcome. The Task Force unit sacrificed themselves. Had I known, I would have vied for other options. Now… I have seen enough violence to know I would never wish it upon anyone, regardless of which side they were on. And you?"
Wren watched him, his gaze tracing the lines of grief on Benjamin's face, and his face softened, but only into something sadder and more dangerous.
"At least you have the grace to admit it," Wren said softly. "Most would hide behind the claim they were just following orders. But you? You carry the weight of those souls because you understand that inaction, doing nothing but standing by, is its own form of cruelty."
Wren stood up slowly and walked toward the window, looking out as if he could still see the smoke from the facility rising in the distance. "You ask what I would have done? I would have walked out just like you did. But, I would have continued the work to save lives, just as it was originally intended. Do you have any idea how many years of irreplaceable research were stored within the lab?"
Benjamin replied quietly. "Then tell me... how do you know all this? How do you know all the details of this research that no one should know?"