It's been two and a half years since he got a call from the school telling him that Sara didn't go to class that day

Even though he didn't know where she was at the start, it didn't take long to find out where she went, and why she didn't come back. He cursed his stupidity when he found out

He was an information broker, so he didn't just find out who took her and why, but why she was looking for them in the first place. When he found out that she went to look for them, trying to find her missing family, he deeply regretted never telling her the truth

It's not like he never had to tell a crushing truth to someone before. As an information broker, he sometimes found out some pretty nasty stuff and had to tell the truth to his clients. The thing is, he got attached to Sara and now both were paying the price

He was afraid she would break if he told her the truth, but she ended up being kidnapped thanks to his lies. He could only curse at the irony of hurting her more by trying to protect her from harm

The guilt was also the reason he went from drinking a glass of whisky from time to time to a bottle every day, and sometimes two. The curses and crying sound of Cat over the phone when she found out didn't help with his guilt, adding another reason to go back to the bottle

The worst part was that he had his hands tied. Shortly after he found out the gray cult were behind it and was in the middle of finding out as much as possible about them, they sent him a message of their own telling him they had Sara as a hostage. They sent him a picture of her sleeping in a chair and a message saying they would kill her if he kept digging information about them or tried anything that could bring them problems

The moment he received the message, he stopped researching and waited, expecting some kind of ramson or something like that. Instead, all he got were more pictures without any message. He was sure they send them to prove she was alive, but they never made any demands, just send the pictures

He waited a month for some kind of reaction or word or something, without any result, so he lost his patience and started digging

He wasn't obvious about it, but he wasn't discreet either. He wanted to know how they would react. It may have been a gamble, but he couldn't just leave it alone and wait forever

He didn't wait long for an answer

The next picture was one of Sara full of bruises and a cast on her arm. It was a simple answer. You do nothing and we stay quiet, you move and we hurt her

It was probably there where he started to drink a bottle or two of whisky a day

But he didn't give up. He stopped for a time, but shortly after, he started looking for information about them again. He did it more discreetly, but he still looked for anything important about them

He asked friends, he hired third parties, he collected favors, and even took a risk or two, but he didn't get much. One reason was that he couldn't be too open about it or the next picture would be her getting hurt, and if too many of those accumulated, they would just get rid of her and hire someone to take him out

He wasn't too worried about the assassin since he knew he was hard to kill, and so did everyone else, that is why he understood it was more effective to have a hostage against him than trying to kill him. It was a lesson he learned years ago, and the main reason he left the cape business

He hated that kind of thing, even when he was a criminal, but there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn't even find good information about that cult, even if it was a cult. It was weird

In cults like that, there were always parents looking for their brainwashed children, or family complaining about how they were conning their relative of all their money or they were used to gain popularity or do big things. Instead, this cult kept a low profile, did small thing, barely made a buck, but had the resources to move all around the country, the numbers to have people all around the country, and the discipline so nobody talk

They didn't advertise, they didn't cause problems, they didn't bring rich kids and for what he could see, they were in the red. For a cult that looked low level, their level of security and how well they managed information leak were also pretty weird

Still, the weirdest thing was the number of low-level powered they had in their ranks. It is true that a low-level power is barely equal to a trained military person, but if you have 200-300 of those, it should be considered a small army, and no one was saying anything about it

In this day an age of powered people, having an organisation with power equal to an army wasn't weird, but it was weird that an organisation like that wasn't famous or well known. The only possibility he could think of, it was that the organisation was well connected. Too well connected to his taste, and that made it even harder to look into

It was at the moment he was between leaving it alone or make some risky moves that he came with an idea. Analyse the photographs he had being getting so far

Usually, the photographs only showed her doing something or sleeping, but if he sends them to an expert, they may find out something from them, and they did. Thanks to the photos, he found out she was trapped in some kind of bunker, and not only that, it turned out it was a big bunker with a lot of kids. That information came from the artificial light (windows would produce a natural light that never showed on the photographs) shadows of people and reflections that sometimes were accidently captured by the camera

Thanks to the information of being a bunker, and that they had a lot of kids, he started searching information related to those clues. Thanks to working with super villains for years, he knew what was necessary for a secret underground base, and the usual contractors

The problem was getting the information discretely without them finding out. Well, he had to visit a couple of them, steal the information by different means and eliminate the different possibilities, but he ended up finding out the location

The problem was, what to do with it

He couldn't just hand it over to the heroes. Not only was he pretty sure they had someone on the inside, they wouldn't trust it. Who would believe he would give it for free?

The other option would be to do it himself, but he couldn't. He didn't have the resources to attack a base like that fast enough. HE could do it, but it would take time, and it was more likely that he would be found out before he got close enough, and they would not only run away but kill Sara on the way

He was in the middle of debating how to proceed with the information, when an angel suddenly appeared at his doorstep, literally

Ok ok, it was actually a hero that called herself Angel, and she called before arriving, but you get the meaning

He heard a rumor of a little girl asking questions about Sara a few weeks ago, and shortly after, Angel started digging about the Grey Cult, unsuccessfully. He wasn't 100% sure it was connected, but his guts told him it was, so he started considering her a good candidate to hand over the information

Of course, he decided to cross-examine her before doing it, and after a few questions and seeing her reactions, he decided to gamble on her

It was a good choice. If someone asked, he actually had an excuse for handing over the information without looking suspicious, he was sure she would do her best in taking care of the group and rescuing the kids, and he even added an insurance

An old rival

Legend was one of the oldest heroes around, and even though they didn't like each other, there was a great level of respect among the two of them. He was sure that if he sends Angel on Legend's way, Legend would do his best to take care of the situation, and in a way, he was owing Legend a favor by doing this. It was a price he was willing to pay

He considered sending the information to him from the start, but it was the same as handing it over to the Hero Association, there was no way Legend would believe he would hand it for free

But now, all that speculation was over. No one would doubt he handed accurate information to a paying customer, and the customer owed him a favour big enough, he would probably get Sara away from them if they tried to keep her for some reason

Still, he wouldn't leave things to chance. He did know a couple of heroes bent the rules enough to allow slip of information about something(And a couple that did more than that). He was sure he could find one or two that would be called to the subjugation, and get information on how things were proceeding with the attack

At the end of the day, he was an information broker. The first step was always being up to date with the information, and only after that, he would choose what to do. All he could do was wait, hope everything turned out alright, and do his best after that

At the day of the attack, he was informed by one of his hero sources 1 hour before they started. He would have complained about the sudden news, but he also found out they called all the heroes at the last moment, so he couldn't complain

He sent some money as thanks for the information and asked him to kept him update on the attack on the base

The hero couldn't call during the operation since he would look suspicious and was a little afraid someone might hear him, but he did send text message to Frank(Uncle Muscle) with updates of the attack

It was a simple text every 5 minutes telling him where they were at. It started telling him they were getting ready, they were about to start, Legend went in first, other heroes follow, healers went in, support went in, resistance was meet, taking care of resistance, capturing resistance, taking care of defense, searching for traps, taking care of more resistance, etc

The text went like that for around 2 hours, when suddenly, the text stopped

That is when he started to suspect something went wrong. The first option was that someone caught up what he was doing, and he was being arrested, and the second option would be that something bad happened, and he had to deal with it

Usually, someone finding out the leak would be the worst case scenario for him, but in this case, it might actually be the best. At least it meant nothing really bad happened in the bunker

He got his answer later, with a phone call instead of a message

*Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing*

"Hello?"(Frank) answered his phone

"Frank, everything went to sh-t!"(Seer) Said the "hero"

"What do you mean?"(Frank)

"They blew up the place!"(Seer)

" Is everyone alright!?"(Frank) Said, actually worried for Sara

He didn't really care about anyone else

"The heroes are alright, we had a couple of precog like me on the team, so we could get them before the place blow up. Everyone else in the facility should be dead. We send a team shortly after and they reported that all that it left is a big black hole now"(Seer)

Frank turned completely pale when he heard all that, and started to panic like never before

"Why!? Why would they do something like that!? It doesn't make any sense!"(Frank) Lost his cool

"How the f-ck should I know!?They are a suicidal group! We already knew they prefer dead than being captured, that is why they brought so many precogs like me! You think there was anything we could have done about it!?"(Seer

Frank stayed quiet for a minute, trying to figure out what to do. Meanwhile, Seer cool down a little

"It is over anyway. I kept my end of the bargain, so don't take too long in sending the money we agreed"(Seer) Said and hang up

Frank went in automatic, and send the money to Seer secret bank account like usual, but after that, he just stopped

He just stared at the ceiling thinking about nothing. Or more like he refused to think, because he knew where his mind would go

He would start blaming himself for all the wrong decision he made, leading to Sara's death at the end. He just stared at it, for who knows how long, and when he finally looked like he would move, he just opened the already familiar cabinet, took a new close bottle of expensive whisky, and poured over into a glass like he had done so many times this last two years

He tried really really hard to stop the whispers on her mind telling him over and over again "You killed her", "Everything you did to do to help her ended up killing her" , "It is your fault she died"

He tried to stop the voices of blame with alcohol, but he knew it wasn't working. He knew a little girl was death because of him, and there was nothing he could do about it

*Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing*

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Note: Long chapter [th_083_v2.gif] Thanks again for the help editing it Neiden :)