Warden Cross, formerly known as Kreuz von Passchendale, was the Warden of the Furnace Penitentiary, given by the great Alfred Furnace himself. Cross attributed to the transformation of Alex into a Blacksuit and further onward.
Biography[]
'The Warden', as referred to by the inmates, was in his early teens. The same age of the many Blacksuits, when he was taken in by Furnace. He was a first lieutenant of the Nazi Party due to connections from his uncle and had suffered a major injury on the battlefield of World War II; when he was brought in and fed the recently developed nectar.
Cross responded well to the Nectar - extremely well. After being weaned larger and larger portions of the liquid, his blood was eventually was replaced by it. He had truly become Furnace's creation. To Furnace, the Warden was now his right-hand man. As well as heir apparent for the Stranger's blood; until Alex Sawyer was discovered to react to the nectar in a similar way[1]
Furnace Penitentiary[]
When the Summer of Slaughter presented a brilliant political opportunity to create a hell on earth prison; The penitentiary's creation was funded by the Furnace Foundation and possession granted to Warden Cross. By now, he was drinking the nectar raw to sustain himself, granting his eyes the appearance of deep, black vortexes. When capacity was reached the Warden began experimenting on the prisoners with a newer variation of the nectar speckled with gold flakes as described by Alex Sawyer. Through trial-and-error experiments conducted in the tunnels underneath Furnace's general population; Cross slowly gained his army of Blacksuits, Wheezers, and Bezerkers. Inmates that the Wheezers wanted were kidnapped during the blood watch and repurposed as test subjects. Since all furnace inmates were life without parole, and isolated from the rest of the world, their deaths or transformations were entirely unnoticed.
Death[]
The Warden was killed by the hands of Alex Sawyer with the help of Simon Rojo-Flores in the Furnace Foundation corporate headquarters. Cross was powered by the newest, most concentrated form of nectar yet. After 'powering up' by drinking the red-speckled blood of a Berserker, Cross was challenged by Alex. He took the encounter as a threat to his position alongside Alfred Furnace; while Alex meant merely to kill him for the horrors he inflicted upon the prisoners. After Alex shoved a grenade down his throat, effectively obliterating him, the Warden was finally dead. His record lifespan sustained by the artificial blood of Furnace was officially ended and Donovan's soul avenged.[2]