Abel stood in the alley near the Technology Pioneer building, looking around to make sure no one was watching. He drew his wand and took a deep breath.
The difference between having superpower abilities and not having them often came down to simple tools. In this case, his wand.
"Caecus*,*" Abel spoke clearly, focusing his magic output into the spell at full strength.
The wand tapped his head lightly, and Abel felt something like an egg cracking on his skull. Invisible cold liquid seemed to flow down from the top of his head, cascading down his entire body. He looked down and saw... nothing. His hands were gone. His body was gone.
He was completely invisible.
The invisibility spell worked perfectly. Better than he'd expected, actually. His magic reserves were recovering faster than he'd anticipated.
Without hesitation, Abel walked toward the Technology Pioneer building. It was still evening—not midnight, but late enough that most of the regular staff had gone home. There were a few overtime workers still inside, which made passing through the gate and security checkpoints surprisingly easy. The guards couldn't see him, the cameras wouldn't catch him. He simply walked through.
The building's layout was posted on a wall in the lobby—a helpful detail that saved Abel considerable time. He found what he was looking for immediately: floor 21, Research and Development.
The elevator arrived just as he was considering the stairs. Two researchers stepped out, talking about their work, and walked past without realizing there was an invisible person already standing in the elevator with them.
Abel pressed the button for floor 21.
The elevator rose smoothly. When the doors opened, Abel stepped out into a corridor flanked by laboratories on both sides. Two guards stood at their posts, but they looked straight ahead and through Abel as he walked past them.
Most of the laboratories were dark. Empty. But at the far end of the corridor, one lab still had lights on. A single researcher sat hunched over a desk, working late into the evening.
Abel entered silently.
The researcher looked up suddenly, as if he'd felt something, and glanced toward the door. He frowned, seeing nothing, then shook his head like he was overthinking things. Probably just the fatigue from overtime catching up with him.
He went back to his work.
Abel moved carefully to the edge of the laboratory, then around to the desk at the back where the computer was running. He quietly moved the mouse and woke the screen from sleep mode. File after file appeared—research notes, experimental logs, data analyses.
Abel scanned quickly, absorbing the information.
The picture became clear very rapidly.
Someone—higher up in the company—had assigned a research project to the team: they'd been given biological cells and genetic material from an individual, and they'd been tasked with understanding what made those cells special. The goal was to create a serum that could grant a normal human those same special abilities.
And they'd succeeded.
In just a few months—barely any time at all after Kilgrave's death—they'd already completed preliminary research. They'd managed to create a functional serum that could grant users Kilgrave's mind-control abilities.
But there were complications.
The serum had serious side effects. Users experienced hormonal imbalances and physiological dysregulation that was difficult to control. From that point on, they'd likely suffer from chronic illness.
The duration was also limited. Depending on the individual's physiology, the serum lasted anywhere from less than a week to about a month at maximum. Some people felt barely any effect. Others could match Kilgrave's power almost exactly. But nobody maintained the abilities for long.
It was crude. Unfinished. Which explained why Technology Pioneer hadn't gave it to their sponsors. It also explained why Tessa had been able to steal a copy—they hadn't considered a preliminary version worth securing properly.
But then Abel saw the critical detail.
The source material. The cells and genes came from the corpse of "a deceased superhuman individual." The name wasn't listed in these files, but Abel knew. He was certain.
It was Kilgrave's body.
Relief flooded through him. Kilgrave was definitely dead. No resurrection. No escape from that fall. The man was truly gone.
But the question that followed that relief was more troubling: how did anyone get Kilgrave's body?
Abel's mind worked through the possibilities. Technology Pioneer was a moderately-sized company—competent, but not massive enough to extract a body from a high-security location. If they had Kilgrave's biological material, it meant someone more powerful had provided it.
The most likely answer was Hydra.
And if Hydra had provided the biological material to Technology Pioneer, that meant... SHIELD must have recovered Kilgrave's body. SHIELD must have it now.
The implications were staggering. When Abel had killed Kilgrave months ago, it had been a quick, violent action. He'd acted on instinct, driven by anger and the need to protect Theresa. He hadn't thought about what would happen to the body afterward. He'd been too focused on the immediate problem.
But of course SHIELD had picked it up. Of course they'd analyzed it. And apparently, and Hydra had stolen the results themselves.
Abel stood in the quiet laboratory, invisible and watching the oblivious researcher work, and made a decision.
He had two options.
First: he could leave now. Kilgrave was dead. That was what mattered most. The serum was crude, incomplete, and its effects were temporary. Even if Hydra continued developing it, it would take years to create something truly viable. That was a manageable risk.
Second: he could destroy the research. Delete the files. Corrupt the data. Set back Hydra's timeline and make their work significantly harder. It would buy him time, would prevent people like Tessa from having easy access to serum copies.
But destroying evidence might draw more attention. Might make Hydra suspicious that someone knew what they were doing.
Abel reached out and almost touched the computer screen, then pulled his hand back.
He needed to think about this carefully. This wasn't just about a dead enemy anymore. This was about larger forces—SHIELD, Hydra, the MCU's shadow organizations—and what they were willing to do with dangerous biological materials.
And for the first time since arriving at Technology Pioneer, Abel realized something important.
His war with Kilgrave wasn't over. It had just changed shape.
END CHAPTER 19