He Who Controls the Flame (001 fanfic)

Chapter Thirty One- A Phoenix and Her Ashes

Brenner's pants were loose around his waist. He frowned down at them, noticing that the cuffs of his shirt were looking limp as well. He had been loosing weight.

He sighed, running a hand through his white hair, letting it fall across his brow, slicing his vision into pieces. He was too lazy to fix it.

His daughter was gone. She had been gone for a long time and yet...and yet they knew nothing. He could remember the day she disappeared like it was yesterday. He had sent for the children to meet him in the Rainbow Room around ten in the morning. Everyone but two children had shown up.

He had looked at the Orderlies and they all shrugged, completely worthless, the whole lot. But then he noticed that a certain Orderly, in his wrinkle-free uniform and spotless shoes was missing.

He had expected the worst. He stormed out of the room and down the hall, his hands balling into fists. He expected his daughter and Peter to be in her room, with a door tucked under the handle, keeping them locked inside. He had been more lenient with her after the tank simulation. He had no idea...God, he had no idea what that boy had done to her.

He vaguely remembered her talking about a Robbie. And she only brought it up whenever he was there and she was going somewhere and had to ask permission to leave. He always gave it to her, trusting her. But if he knew...if he had known what that boy was. He would've sent a bullet through his skull the moment he found out. He didn't care if it was a fast death, as long as he was dead, six feet under, and far, far away from his daughter.

He had thrown open the door to his daughter's bedroom only to find that it was completely empty. He had frowned, half-tempted to peak under the bed, but he knew Juliette wouldn't hide from him. Maybe in the beginning, when she was terrified out of her mind to be in the lab, but it had been months since then. She had grown bolder, less afraid of him. Which he considered a good and bad thing.

When he couldn't find her or Peter or Seven, for that matter, he sent guards to trail the halls. He practically sprinted to the camera room, scouring the footage to find out what was going on. And then he saw it. His daughter and Peter had gone into the showers. First, he was pissed, as any sane father would be then...then he saw them emerge, but not conscious and not by themselves.

Sebastian was dragging them out, a set of guards, unknown to Brenner, following them out. And then there was footage of his new Orderly, Allison and Seven getting shot with what looked like tranquilizers and then crumbling to the ground.

So it was decided. Sebastian had betrayed him and taken the two people who were closest to his heart. He knew they both hated him, God he knew it, but he had known Peter since he was a boy and Juliette was his child. And he was supposed to protect her. And he hadn't.

After doing some thorough research, he had dug up that Sebastian's real name was Sevastyan Tarkvosky, figures, the boy was a genius, so it only made sense, with Brenners luck, that he worked for his Russian rivals.

He had sent dozens of guards out looking for their lab, tracking down the kids, but they had come up with nothing. His best and brightest spent hours at their computers, trying to hack out information on the Russians but, again, found nothing. It was as if they didn't even exist. They were completely off the grid, and Brenner felt completely helpless.

He sat on a chair in his office, staring at a photo of him and Juliette. He wasn't sure anyone knew that it was there, he didn't really want them to. He wanted the photo, the memory, to be his and hers alone. It was when they had gone camping. That's right, Brenner went camping, big surprise.

He had snapped a photo of them when they had hiked up one of the cliffs near their site. Juliette had been so proud of them, saying they conquered the cliff and should name it after themselves in their victory. They called it "Brenner Hill" and signed their names into the rock. He had caught the photo the moment they had reached the top. Juliette was about eleven, and her eyes had been wide, a smile just starting to turn her lips upwards, her cheeks flushed from the climb.