He smoothed a slow hand over the paper, enjoying the texture of the expensive stationary against his finger pads. Piercing dark eyes darted from the blank sheet, to the onyx-plated pen gripped loosely in his other hand, to the monogrammed silver cufflink at his wrist, before scanning the five words printed in small, elegant black script across the top of the cream-colored page.
-From the desk of B.C.E
Those three simple letters were the most anybody knew of him, he'd seen to it himself. It was too risky to make anything else public, not that he ever would have in the first place. The imbeciles who worked for him could barely manage to polish his silverware. He forced his focus back on the paper, hurriedly scratching out one of his few coherent thoughts before it slipped away.
'Aside from a few hiccups, things are going just as I had expected. The experiments are proceeding as planned, and my agents are completely ignorant of the deeper truth. It hopefully won't be much longer until I finally find what I've been looking for. I'll admit to not being entirely sure what that is, however, or why I'm feeling so pushed to search for it, but I'm sure I'll recognize it when I see it. If, indeed, it's something that actually can be seen.
But whether it can or not doesn't change my goals. I'm going to turn this sad little world on its head, just like it did to me all those years ago, and I'm not going to let anything stop me. No matter what happens, I will not allow myself to fail again. This will be my last chance.'
He let the pen clatter to his massive oaken desk, turning to stare at the picture, framed in pure silver, gracing the gilt corner. A beautiful young painted dog with brilliant blue eyes, her slim arms wrapped so lovingly around her heavy stomach. It was the last photo he'd taken of her, before she'd been so cruelly torn from him. Soon, the experiments would give him everything he needed to get her back, and it would be like they had never been apart. He would make sure of that.
I'll see you soon, sweetheart, I promise. He smiled sadly, running his fingers lightly over the polished glass that protected her. Please, wait for me!
Suffice it to say this is going to be yet another AU fic, I just find them so much easier to write than canon-compliant ones.