Jason raised a brow when Liam suddenly said this, and he asked Liam what he needed help with. Liam looked a little hesitant to speak for a moment, but he eventually sighed and decided that it would be best to just spit it out.
"The higher-ups have been speaking about Katarina’s recent arrest, and we’ve all decided that it would be a great loss to the superhuman population if we took her away from the active fighters and kept her in prison. So we were wondering if there wasn’t a way to make sure that she could continue participating in a guild while also being kept in line. The only thing we could think of was to ask you to allow her to join your guild. I know this is insane, and I even told them that there was a high chance you would refuse. But, you see, you’re the only superhuman that we can trust to keep an eye on her while she’s on active duty. You’ve proven that you can handle her without issues, so we believe that taking her into your guild would be the best course of action. She’s a powerful superhuman with very useful abilities, and we want to make sure her skills don’t go to waste."
Jason frowned once Liam was done talking, and he was silent for a while as he thought about what to do. Jason knew that Liam was right about him keeping Katarina in line. Katarina was a powerful supporter, but the only real danger she possessed was her ability to force other people under her control. She couldn’t hurt anyone above mid-level S Rank physically, and it wouldn’t be difficult for Jason to keep an eye on her since he could make his Legion watch her every move. But did Jason really want someone like her to join the guild? Not really. The guild was still young, and the members weren’t even that familiar with each other yet, so adding a wildcard like a national criminal to their ranks might make things even more complicated.
’But her abilities would be useful. She was the reason we were able to defeat so many Dragonborn without any major casualties, and her support also helped me keep my mana usage low. She’s a useful asset.’
Jason huffed as he thought about this, and he finally decided that he would take Katarina. It was better to have her as an ally that he could keep his eye on than to leave her to rot in a prison where she couldn’t help anyone.
"Fine, I’ll take her. Just send her to me later. But keep in mind that if anything happens to my guild members when she’s with us, I’ll kill her, and nothing you do or say is going to stop me this time."
Jason’s warning hung threateningly in the air, and Liam nodded before he thanked Jason for considering it. Liam knew that it was his intervention that made Jason hesitate to kill Katarina during the BloodRaevn raid a long time ago, but it was obvious that something like that wasn’t going to work a second time. Liam told Jason that Katarina would be on her best behavior. They had been putting her through therapy for a while now, and from what the therapist had seen, Katarina was truly remorseful for what she had done, and the chances of her relapsing were near zero. Liam would process the transfer as quickly as possible, and Jason just nodded along and told him to send any paperwork to Juliet. Once that was done, Jason finally got down to the real issue. Liam could literally sense how the atmosphere became tenser, and he wasn’t surprised when Jason asked,
"What the hell is that New Order the man spoke about? Are they some sort of superhuman terrorist organization?"
Liam ran another tired hand through his hair before he looked around to make sure that no one was watching or listening to them. Liam walked closer to Jason so that his voice wouldn’t be heard by others before he began to speak.
"I actually don’t know a lot about them or what their motive is, but I heard that one of the five rulers had gone out of his mind recently. He attacked civilians in a major city in Germany and ended up killing more than a thousand people with his attack before he vanished. The agents on the ground said that the man kept shouting about Primordials and the existence of other worlds before he vanished, and then a few months later, a terrorist organization known as the New Order appeared in Australia. We don’t know what their aim is, but all the members also talk about the Primordials and the other worlds, so we’re sure the New Order is related to this man somehow."
Jason’s eyes narrowed when Liam finished telling him this. The first thing that Jason noticed about what Liam had been saying was the fact that Liam spoke about the Primordials like they were something that he already knew about, since he had been there with Jason when Jason was interrogating Katarina, but Liam didn’t speak about the existence of other worlds in the same way. Liam spoke about other worlds with a small frown on his face, like the mere concept of another world was foreign to him, and Jason knew that this was the same thing that had happened with the journalists earlier. Jason asked:
"Liam, do you remember what I went to do inside the Yellow Gate?"
Liam hummed curiously at that question, and he seemed to be a little surprised by it. Liam’s brows furrowed, and he answered easily,
"You went to fight against the Dragon magical beasts, didn’t you? Why are you asking me this?"
"Were there just dragons? What about the dragonborn? Don’t you remember the people who attacked us?"
Liam looked visibly confused by this question, and Jason felt a surge of anger rising from deep in his heart when he saw this! Jason was going to fucking kill Cersai for this! It was obvious that someone had manipulated everyone’s memories somehow, and Jason could only wonder what superhuman would even have a gift powerful enough to do something like this!
’But Luthor and the other Enforcers weren’t affected by this. Does that mean it’s only affected those who were on Earth, or is it only affecting the civilians and weaker superhumans? Is this some sort of memory manipulation ability that affects anyone below S Rank?’
Jason narrowed his eyes as this thought crossed his mind, and he finally decided that he had to talk to Cersai. Jason put his hand on Liam’s shoulder and spoke to him seriously.
"Liam, I don’t want to scare you, but you need to know that someone has manipulated your memory. But it’s not just you — the memories of nearly everyone in the world have also been manipulated. There are other worlds out there, and it wasn’t just dragons that attacked us from that Yellow Gate. There were dragonriders there as well. People from another world. And I went into that other world to help them fight a civil war. Do you remember any of these things?"
Liam’s eyes were wide in shock as he heard everything Jason was saying, and he felt an intense headache pricking the side of his head as a strange image suddenly popped up in his mind. The image of a man riding a dragon and chasing him across New Jersey flashed through his memory, and Liam groaned as the headache intensified! Liam bowed his head as more images began to surface, and Jason helped Liam stay on his feet as he stumbled.
"What... what the hell is this? My head fucking hurts."
Jason frowned as he watched Liam trying to get himself back, and he just waited patiently until he saw that Liam was slowly starting to stand on his own again. Liam’s entire face was painted in shock, and there was a look of realization in his eyes as he turned to Jason and spoke.
"I... I remember. I remember what happened in New Jersey. The dragonborn, the other worlds, the fighting. I remember... what the hell happened to me?"
Jason released a relieved breath and nodded to Liam. Alright, this wasn’t so bad. This just proved a theory that Jason had earlier. The gift that had been used on the civilians wasn’t a memory wipe, but rather a memory lock. Someone had locked the memories of all the dragonborn as well as the other worlds and had only left the dragons in their memories.