[Zhongyingmei] Who is my father?

Chapter 93 Driftwood

Zero was never a perfect experiment, as Joyce always knew.

For Hydra, such an obedient and easy-to-use killing machine is what they need. In this regard, he is indeed the only usable result of 'Project Z'.However, Zero has nothing else, he can only kill, he can't cry or laugh, and in the end it's just a human-like weapon, which was never the intention of the person who created him.If the finished product of the experiment doesn't even count people, then there is indeed no more failure than this for the target.

The past time is like a dusty book page, once opened, there is a way to connect with the present.Joyce looked at the yellowed paper in his hand, where he wrote stroke by stroke what he had tried his best to find.But he almost turned the world upside down and turned everything related to Hydra upside down, but he never imagined that the thing that made him think about it day and night lies quietly in the place where he was born, waiting for one day to wake up and serve him On the calm and bitter riddle.

It was a story that was too long and too cruel.

The origin of everything comes from an overly persistent search.Young and energetic scholars are obsessed with the complex genetic code of human beings, trying to touch the realm that only God can reach.He deciphered the most critical part of the gene sequence, took his own biological samples, modified them, and tried to cultivate them into embryos, artificially promoting biological evolution.And after failing hundreds of times, finally survived the only one experimental subject, who was carefully cultivated by him as the source of all the data supporting his research.

The research results of the target have been valued by Hydra, and they need power, and power over power to support their ambitions.However, the failure rate of this direct cloning of embryos was too high, so they had to find another way, and finally proposed the 'Z Project' based on the transformation of superhero gene samples, in an attempt to mass-produce killers with unique talents, and cultivate good Volunteers were selected from among the agents and the target was given a transplant experiment.

But they all failed without exception.

Ordinary human beings cannot bear the violent rejection reaction, and the terrible consequences of genetic collapse that follow.Almost all of them died in the middle of the experiment, and occasionally a few survived, but they were too useless due to the hidden danger of complete failure at any time.When the research was at a loss, the target activated the experimental body he had cultivated, and found that only the modified body could withstand the transplantation and invasion of those different genes.

Hydra was very interested in this subject, and after determining that he might be the most successful finished product they could have, they took the child away from the target, taught him all the skills of being a killing machine, and instilled in him The action principle of obeying orders and abandoning emotions.After all the transplant experiments were completed, they gave him the name 'Zero', creating the sharpest blade and the most obedient puppet in the hands of Hydra.

The target is unhappy about this.

Hydra just regards Zero as an easy-to-use rare item, and makes up its mind to ask the other party to create the greatest value for itself in a very short period of time.The target believed that turning Zero into an emotionless machine was a tarnish for his most perfect experimental body, and refused to provide research results for 'Project Z', and eventually, it developed into a later defection.

The target has a wife and a daughter, and Zero is nothing more than a failed experiment to him.Since Hydra couldn't provide him with the ideal conditions, he didn't mind switching to S.H.I.E.L.D. and took away all the information of 'Project Z' so far.Until Zero was ordered to infiltrate the guards of S.H.I.E.L.D. for surveillance, and was attracted by similar blood, the hard shell wrapped all year round finally broke, and a personality named 'Joyce' was born.

At the time, Zero didn't know that he killed the target, not only killing his only remaining past, but also obliterating the future that would allow him to live.

"I used to be very curious about what Zero was thinking, why he was bewitched in this mission alone, and had a yearning for feelings."

Close the diary, whirling the leather spine.Joyce looked down at the photo of the birth of Zero in his hand, and there was a softness between his brows, but he was quickly overwhelmed by the surging sourness: "Now I understand that he still remembers him...even if that person never I don’t feel like I’m still a father.”

"..."

Doctor Strange didn't speak.He is very clear that at this moment, any words and comfort are superfluous.He has no qualifications to comment on the experience of Zero and Joyce, and Joyce doesn't need this kind of mercy.

And Joyce still lowered his eyes, and even twitched the corners of his mouth, his voice was very soft.

"I was born out of his longing, and possessed the humanity he most wanted to hold in his palm. However, I didn't want to exist for such a humble wish."

He clearly deserves better.

"do you think so?"

Raising his head, he asked back.Strange was just about to answer, but was surprised to find that the other party didn't speak to him, but looked at the void in front of him, as if he was talking to someone who didn't exist there, his expression was calm, but suppressed the turbulent undercurrent .

At the same time, under the shocked gaze of the mage, the time gem suddenly automatically glowed with a soft light.In an instant, all the surrounding scenery became blurred, and time stood still, linking the past and the future, converging on the same intersection.

With the instant overlap of time and space, where Joyce was looking, the person he was focusing on also looked up, as if they were looking at each other from a distance through a mirror.

Joyce is well aware.

No matter at what time, in which world, he is the only one who will come here to persistently search for an answer.

'You must be able to understand that everything I do is for what. '

The former self set foot here alone, and there was no Zero who came back from the future to provide a comparison sample. All he could look for and use as a life-saving straw was the clue of the paternal gene.

But the answer he found shattered all his hopes.

"That's why you sent him back."

The voice began to become a little unstable, Joyce stared at himself in another time and space, his eyes were amazingly bright.

He already knew.

In any case, even in the most desperate moments.He will never abandon Zero for no reason and embark on a useless road to death.

'I will never leave.Even if I have to do it temporarily, I will eventually return to him. '

And that self just smiled like that, his fingers lightly brushed across his eyes through time and space, as if he wanted to just erase the water marks that never existed.

'Follow him, protect him, let him grow up. '

Joyce finally couldn't help frowning when he heard the other party say that.He used a reincarnation to pave out a way for them to survive together. As long as Zero is there, no matter what kind of gamble, he will definitely return again.

"Ding--"

The light of the time gem dimmed, and finally returned to calm, and the surroundings gradually returned to their original appearance.Doctor Strange watched dumbfounded as this happened out of his control, and then the curtain fell, taking a long time to finally find his voice.

"I think I'm still quite a friend."

He stuttered and said, he touched the gemstone on his chest with lingering fear, and made sure that he felt the breath he was most familiar with at that moment:

"Not only is there on call, but also willing to clean up the mess for you, and now I can even cheat me on different timelines... Don't you think you should treat me better in the future?"

"I can treat you to a pancake later." Blinking, Joyce put the photo back into the diary, took out a lighter from his pocket, and said slowly: "This time I won't I'll grab you, and I won't let Zero come out and beat you up."

"...Thank you so much."

Although it could be done with a snap of the fingers, Strange still watched Joyce put the diary on the flame and burn it up, without intervening.He understands that this is Joyce's way of saying goodbye to the past. This secret will always be sealed in the deepest part of their hearts. They all kept silent.

Burning ashes scattered, like a condolence, like a farewell.

Stomp on the last spark, and at the same time completely seal up the past related to yourself.Joyce patted the ashes in his hands slowly, and blinked at Doctor Strange's cloak. In an instant, Magical Red, who had been as quiet as a chicken, seemed to be inspired, and brushed the ashes on the other's face, completely twitching the corners of her mouth. The mages ignored it.

"Or you'd better come with me."

With the cloak covering his face, his voice sounded muffled.Joyce stretched out his hand and gave him an equally warm hug, and he didn't mind poaching Strange's corner in front of him: "I'm much better than that juggler."

Your face is so-so big, do you know that?

Even the corners of his eyes began to twitch. Doctor Strange pressed the center of his brows, and couldn't help but want to slap his hands on the other's face with a magic pancake.But in the end, he still resisted the urge to commit murder, looked at the opponent's figure submerged by Xiaohong, and sighed slightly.

"You know, I'm your first friend, right?"

"So?" Joyce raised an eyebrow.

"So if you are sad, you don't have to pretend to be so similar, and I won't laugh at you when you say it."

"..."

Joyce was silent for a moment, his tone sounded like he wanted to laugh.

"What should I be sad about?" He asked briskly, "Is it sad that Zero has never been treated as an adult by anyone, even his biological father? Or is it sad that Hydra let him kill his nominal relative?" father?"

"If this substitution can make you feel better." The sigh became more obvious, and Strange shook his head: "You know, you are obviously the same person as Zero."

"..."

This is a very ordinary statement, but at this moment it is like a stone thrown into the middle of a lake.Joyce stood there in silence for a long time. Even though Doctor Strange's cloak still covered his face, he could still feel the tightly intertwined eyebrows and the snow that had melted under his eyes.

He froze for a while, and finally stretched out his hand slowly, hugging the cloak in front of him that covered his head and face.I don't know if she felt his mood, Magic Xiaohong rarely stopped quietly in place, letting the other party bury her whole face in the soft fabric.

"I'll wait for you downstairs."

Throwing down such a sentence, Strange turned around and slowly walked out of the study door.Leaving the cloak behind with Joyce.

Among the ashes all over the floor, Joyce clenched his hands, like a drowned man grasping the only straw, his shoulders shook violently, he bent down, tears broke through the barriers of his eyes for the first time, and fell down.

He cried bitterly as he buried himself in the cloak, like a pine and cypress standing on an ice field, whose spine was finally crushed by too heavy frost and snow.