Hello hello!

It's been a while and I hope everyone is doing great. For those who have waited, this is an extra long chapter and hopefully it was worth the wait.

Without further ado...

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Hopeless. That's what I felt. For the first time since Alexander brought me into the investigation to find my parents, I just felt utterly hopeless. Every path we tried to follow to find them lead to a dead end.

Firstly, my parents were good at what they did because there were no tracks we could follow. Not even one. Another was that my father's file on his newest case was still blacked out after we asked for access. Most importantly, the location that we looked for was nothing but an utter disappointment.

While I was looking for it, I tried not to build up hope thinking I could find them, but I couldn't help it.

Hope wasn't just taken away. It was ripped out of my body and shattered.

"They're not here," I said steely, simply stating the fact to anyone who was still listening in on their earpiece, as my hand unconsciously touched the dog tag around my neck.

I looked around at the empty basement as the feeling of utter despair seeped into my veins and my brain began to slowly shut down. The pools of blood on the ground and the smears on the walls only crushed my soul further. There was no way for sure to know who these belonged to unless we did a DNA test but in the back of my mind, I knew clearly.

Alexander walked cautiously in front of me as if I was the wounded animal that he didn't want to accidentally scare off. He used his hand to gently tilt my face up so that he could take a better look at me.

While he stared into my icy blues, I stared into his dark grey eyes. His emotionless mask cracked and I saw a quick flash of remorse flash across them before completely disappearing and concern for me took over his features. He cupped my face with both hands and stepped closer, so close that we were chest to chest. Slowly, he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me to his strong chest.

Normally, I wouldn't let him be step this close to me, but today, nothing he did registered inside my head from the shock and failure of this break-in. All I felt was warmth inside this chilly basement through the fog of my brain.

No. There was no time for me to act like this. I had to quickly find another plan. They must be still alive.

I snapped out of my daze and pushed Alexander a solid arm's length away from me. My resolve returned full force.

"It's not over yet," I murmured quietly to myself, only loud enough for Alexander and me to hear.

Alexander opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something but I turned away from him. Taking a silent deep breath in and exhaling to calm my emotions that were going haywire, I walked back upstairs, unable to take the sight of this place anymore.

As much as I wanted to think that I might have found the wrong place, I knew I didn't. My parents were here. Now, they're gone. However, I refuse to give up and believe that this was the end. If there is a way, I'll find it soon.

*

I checked out the rest of the modest cottage, looking for anything these people may have left behind.

"There's a device on the coffee table." An unknown voice spoke and I quickly went towards the coffee table.

When I arrived, I saw that Victor and Alexander were already there. The other special forces were walking around the area and inside the cottage, on lookout.

An odd look passed over Victor's face but he didn't say anything as both of them made room for me in the middle to look at the device. The device was actually a medium sized tablet. The screen was already turned on and it displayed a video that was ready to play.

I pressed play and we all watched in silence.

*

When the video finished, no one talked in the room. My features stayed blank but inside, my heart threatened to beat out of my chest. My father, one of the few people in the world I loved with everything I had, being treated like dirt ripped my heart to shreds. Everything around me began to disappear as I couldn't think of anything but what I saw. Every detail running through my head.

Whoever they were, they were all wearing black, including ski masks, beating him up mercilessly. My father was standing in the beginning of the video but near the end, he had collapsed to the ground as if his legs couldn't hold him up any longer.

"Simmons." I heard Victor and saw the shadow of his hand reaching towards me.

"Touch me and you'll lose that arm," I growled deeply. My threat resonating in the silence.

Victor's hand retreated slowly and he soon stood up.

If only I was faster in finding the location-

My thoughts broke off when I heard Victor's voice once again.

"Do you hear that?" Victor spoke up.

Alexander and I froze absolutely still in place and tried understand what Victor meant.

In just a few seconds, I began to hear a consistent ticking noise in the room. Distinguishing that the ticks were coming from underneath the coffee table, I crouched down on all fours and checked underneath the table. Ice seeped into my veins when I saw red numbers counting down.

"Bomb." I warned everyone through the earpiece as I tried to examine the contraption right in front of me.

The homemade bomb looked small enough that it wouldn't obliterate everything within miles, but there was no time to try and figure out the wiring. So, we only had one choice.

"Everyone out!" I yelled and Victor grabbed the tablet. Everyone seemed to trust my judgement because they followed my lead. We all sprinted out of the cottage and into the forest.

Everyone stood behind the trees, using it as cover from shrapnel. Moments after everyone found cover behind thick trees, the house exploded and was soon consumed by flames.

I looked around the forest and counted heads. Everyone seemed to be present and unhurt so I let out a silent, deep breath of relief. Looking over at Alexander, he had pulled out his cellphone and was calling someone. The call was very short and the moment he finished, his eyes met mine for a second.

"Back to the vehicle." I heard Alexander order.

I looked around and saw that there was no way we could stay here any longer because the flames were beginning to lick the trees of the forest. All the special forces unit members and Victor followed Alexander's order immediately and ran back towards our bulletproof van. I took one last look at the burning cottage. Knowing there was nothing left for us here, I followed closely behind.

*

Alexander slipped into the driver's seat while I went into the passenger seat. The others opened the back of the van and sat down on the bench-like seats. I slipped off the earpiece and saw Alexander do the same. He passed his to me and I put both of ours into my pocket.

Leaning back into the cushioned seat with my eyes closed, my heart continued to pound from the long sprint back to our vehicle.

I had this gut feeling that something was off the moment we infiltrated the cottage. Everything felt suspiciously wrong the moment we stepped in.

"They purposely made their bomb tick. It started as soon as the video finished." I stated the facts quietly to myself as I tried to analyze what had exactly happened the whole time we were there.

No one commented but I knew everyone was listening intently on every word I was saying. When I came to a conclusion, I let out a humorless laugh.

"Unbelievable," I muttered, pissed and utterly furious at myself for falling into their perfect trap.

"Vita?" Victor called out from the back, peeking through the small window screen that separated the front of the van from the back. The ones that usually existed in limousines. Alexander also tossed me a rapid, questioning gaze as we soon as we reached a red light.

Waiting for a moment, I tried to form the smoothest way I could break the news to them. "Didn't you think this whole thing was weird from the moment we walked in?"

No one answered me. They quietly waited for me to say my conclusion out loud even though I knew they had all most likely came to the same conclusion that I had.

"Bombs these days don't necessarily tick, but theirs did. It started the moment the video finished." I snorted. "They wanted us to find it. The bomb gave us enough time to make it out alive if we found it on time."

"They knew we were coming so they set everything up perfectly the way they wanted us to find it. We were their shiny new toys." The humorless smile vanished from my face and a vacant mask covered my face.

I looked over at Alexander's profile. "We were played, Alexander."

He didn't comment as his fists tightened on the steering wheel and he continued to drive with his jaw clenched tight. The entire ride back to headquarters was so silent that I was consumed by my thoughts once more.

Whoever we're after, they're good. But sometimes, even the best will fall. I've seen too many people who were examples of that.

*

Alexander parked in the underground parking area and we all got off. Alexander, Victor and I thanked the five men that cooperated with us today and they simply nodded in response then left.

When we got back to our unit room, no one talked. No one dared to breach the subject of our failure or the fact that our team has now met a dead end or that the chance of us finding my parents alive has greatly diminished and there was nothing more for us to go on. I knew we were grasping at straws for anything since the beginning, but we didn't even have those now.

"You guys can go home." Alexander spoke up, his voice much more distant and icier than usual.

Emmaline eyed Alexander cautiously. "Alexander-."

"Go home." He closed his eyes and leaned into his chair. If anyone walked by, they would have thought that he was relaxing, but I knew he was anything but that.

"I can-." Victor began but he was also cut off like Emmaline was.

"Now." There was an underlying strict command in his voice.

Emmaline and Victor got their things and watched us both carefully while doing so. There was no expression on Victor's face as he left but Emmaline paused in front of me before she reached for the door. Her face was an open book as it easily portrayed the sadness she felt. Emmaline opened her mouth to say something but she quickly pulled her lips into a tight line. With an uncharacteristic, brisk nod, she ran out of the room with her bag.

Once they were gone, Alexander grabbed out a pile of files and began to read over them. I didn't know exactly what he was checking over and I didn't try to question him either. He was in one of his rare moods and I knew that it was best if I didn't try to talk to him.

While he kept busy, I quickly grabbed all the cellphones of the criminals that captured me a few days ago, and yanked out the batteries. I checked the wiring of the phones to see if there were any bugs that might have spied on us without me knowing, but there wasn't any. The fact that they knew that we were coming is still a mystery.

A few minutes later, I saw Alexander grab his things so I copied his actions and did the same. We vacated our office, both of us lost in our own thoughts, as he us drove home in absolute silence.

The team was at a dead end but I couldn't wait around to find out a different approach. I had to do something now. For me, there was only one other thing I could think of.

*

I didn't even spare a glance at Alexander as I headed straight for my room.

When I got to my room, I quickly got out a small backpack and shoved in the necessities then stared at the large rectangular case for a moment before gritting my teeth and grudgingly picking it up. The familiar weight of the case only caused memories that I didn't want to remember to resurface. Remembering everything I had done, the feelings of disgust and disappointment at myself came back full force. Suddenly, the dog tag felt heavier against my chest.

Just when I thought that there would be no more reasons for me to pick up and use this again, I didn't know the day would come so soon.

Heading straight for the door of my temporary bedroom, I saw Alexander leaning against the door frame. His body completely blocking my exit.

"Red," I began emotionlessly, "move."

Alexander narrowed his eyes a fraction, looking over at the backpack and rectangular case, before returning his dark gaze towards my face.

I walked closer to him so that we were simply a few feet away from each other. "Move."

"Going somewhere?" His face became blank, but I could hear the displeasure in his baritone voice.

"Leaving," I answered back, hiding my emotions equally as much as he was hiding his.

"What did you say?" He enunciated every word slowly and carefully, like he didn't want to believe what he just heard.

"You heard me."

"To do what?"

"Something I should have done from the beginning."

He eyed the rectangular case specifically once more. "What's in there?"

"I think you know." There was just no way that I believed that he didn't know what I was holding in my hand. "In fact, I think you searched me up, did a thorough background check."

There was a quick frown that flashed over his features. "I didn't."

Staring deep into his piercing dark grey eyes, I saw that he was telling the truth. "Seems to be a gift from the military," I snorted.

There was no answer from him.

"I was a marksman, Red. A sniper." I refused cower back from what I did and Alexander didn't so much as twitch from what I revealed. "Inside this," I lifted the case, "is the exact sniper rifle I used and purposely left behind. Seems like they didn't want it either because they sent this back to me."

"We're at a dead end, Red." I continued. "With no access, no clue, nothing to follow, we're utterly stuck. Whatever we're doing right now isn't working and I can't sit still to await more failures."

Alexander visibly narrowed his eyes at me. "You're going rogue?"

I tilted my head up, gazed up at him with unwavering confidence and stepped closer to him. So close that we were less than a foot apart. "I'm taking every single one of those bastards down."

"I'm not letting you walk into a suicide mission." The fierce order only made me madder.

A sardonic smile made its way on my face. "How are you going to stop me this time?" I placed the case on the ground by my side and pulled out my handgun. "Because I," I flicked off the safety and pointed towards Alexander's chest, "am prepared to do anything it takes."

His eyes were challenging me as if he thought that I wasn't going to actually fire a shot at him.

"Don't test me, Alexander." My index finger tightened slightly on the trigger. Even though I wouldn't shoot to kill him, there would be many places on the human body that could do temporary damage and take him out of commission long enough for me to escape.

Alexander tested my sanity as he wrapped his hand around the tip of my gun and aimed it at the center of his forehead. If the gun did fire, there would be no way he would survive. He was giving me an ultimatum through his absurd actions and I froze as I realized what he was trying to say. It was either I kill him to get through or stay.

He must have seen the hesitation through my eyes because he slipped the gun quickly out of my hand with quick precision and after putting the safety back on, he dropped it on the ground and kicked it away from both of us. He did all of this without taking his eyes off of me.

No matter how much I didn't like him or how desperate I was to get my parents, there was no way I was going fire and he knew.

"I will be leaving today unless you give me one good reason to stay, Red." My voice was reinforced with an unbreakable wall of determination because I couldn't show him my hesitation again.

"I promised your parents-"

"To protect me?" I let out an empty chuckle, "Thanks, but your services are no longer needed. I don't know how many times I have to say this, but I am capable of protecting myself. Try again."

Alexander didn't answer for a while and my gaze never wavered from his face because if it did, he would take it as a moment of weakness. Then, I saw an odd look in his eyes.

"You're hiding something from me, aren't you?" I glowered at him, narrowing my eyes fiercely. Nothing could describe the fury that was building inside me. I dropped my backpack on the ground, grabbed the lapels of his jacket and pulled his face closer to mine, diminishing our height difference greatly. "What?"

Alexander's hands came up and each covered mine fully. I tried to fully ignore the fact how nice his hands felt on my always cold ones.

"Damn it, Red. What are you hiding?" Heat rose to my face from anger and my hands shook slightly from how tightly I was holding on to him.

Alexander sighed and opened his mouth slightly to answer but I cut him off.

"Don't you dare tell me to calm down." I growled at him through gritted teeth.

He sealed his lips shut once more and it wasn't helping me in reigning in my temper.

"Tell. Me."

He tightened his grip on my clenched fists and pried my hands off of his suit jacket, but he didn't let go of them. "Do you remember one of the men that had hazel eyes from- "

"When I was captured? Yeah. Why?" I yanked my hands out of his grasp and crossed my arms over my chest, my left hand absently playing with the wedding band on my ring finger.

Alexander paused for just a second. "He's willing to talk."

I didn't even bother to hide my surprise as my eyes widened visibly. "Really?"

"But only to you."

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He finally said it :D

That was chapter 11 and I hope you enjoyed it :)

Please don't forget to comment and vote if you liked it!

Until next time,

InvincibleBunny