A/N Wow, I'm so overwhelmed by all the interest in this little fic of mine! Thank you all so much! Also, I should probably include a trigger warning here for the rest of the story. There will be mentions of rape, but nothing explicit, I swear.
Miles Matheson ran through the woods as fast as his feet could take him. They needed to get away from that building, and they needed to do it fast. As soon as he saw the other rebels, he yelled for them to turn on the amplifier Rachel had managed to construct for them. Granted it wasn't as powerful, nor did it have the range as her first, but it was enough to send a radio signal to a detonator inside the armory. As they charged it up, he glanced back and saw Nora racing up behind him.
"Where's Charlie?" he asked.
"She's right behind me," she answered, but when she turned around no one was there. Miles glanced in all directions, but Charlie was nowhere to be seen. "Well where is she?" he asked, staring to panic, and he looked back at the armory in horror. No. She was right behind them, how could she not have followed him out? What happened? He thought back to their escape, tried to remember when he lost sight of his niece. It had to be after they left the stairway, when they were running toward the exit. How could she have fallen behind?
But that wasn't important at the moment. Right now, they needed to find Charlie and get her out of that armory before it blew to smithereens. "Don't trigger the bomb yet!" He yelled to the rebels. "Charlie's still inside!" He started to run towards the building again, but Nora grabbed his arm. "What are you doing, Miles? You're gonna get yourself killed waltzing in there without a plan!"
"But Charlie is-"
"I know, she's in trouble and she needs our help, but getting yourself killed won't solve anything. Just look, Miles." She pointed towards the compound. Now that he was really looking carefully, he could see the troops moving around the walls, securing all the exits. Obviously they knew there had been a breach, and the militia didn't take these things lightly. The entire armory was going on lockdown. Miles sighed and hung his head in defeat. There was no way he would be able to get in there now. He wouldn't be able to rescue Charlie.
Growing angry, Miles threw his fist against the nearest tree as hard as he could. Blood stained the bark as he pulled away, but he didn't care. "Hey, calm down," Nora said, and she reached up to touch his shoulder, but he roughly shrugged her off.
"Calm down. Calm down? How do you expect me to calm down, Nora? General Monroe has my niece captive! We spent so many weeks trying to get to Danny, and then we had him back for one day, one freaking day, and he died. And now? Now Monroe has Charlie. What the hell am I supposed to tell Rachel? What am I supposed to tell myself!"
Miles collapsed on the forest floor and put his face in to his hands, trying to think everything through. "I never should have let her come with us," he mumbled to himself, "I should have kept a closer eye on her. What was I thinking? I'm such an idiot, she's just a kid." His body started to shake, and Miles cursed himself for being so weak. Just a few months ago, he never would have been affected like this. But then he let that girl get in to his head, he started to care about her and things could never be the same after that.
Charlie had changed him, that much was evident. She had taken his messed up self and transformed him in to a good person, the kind of person he never thought he could be again after all he'd done. They looked out for each other, and now he'd failed her. But Miles couldn't live with himself if he just sat by and did nothing. He was going to do whatever was necessary to get Charlie back, even if it meant killing Sebastian Monroe himself.
Major Tom Neville looked back at the girl lying in the wagon. He'd been very lucky to spot her struggling to keep up with her friends, and thankfully he'd thought she would be more useful as a captive than a dead woman. After all, General Monroe has said that he wanted Miles Matheson killed. What better way to flush him out than to capture his only niece? He hoped that Monroe would be pleased when he delivered the girl. After his encounter with Matheson, the general had seemed for more on edge than usual. He didn't trust anyone, not even his high-ranking officials. Not even Major Neville.
Tom had never been anything other than loyal to Monroe, and he hoped that bringing him the Matheson girl would prove that to him. True, he had lied about the death of Jason, but that couldn't harm anyone. He was only doing what any good father would do. It wasn't as if his son posed any real threat to the Republic, especially with this girl out of the way. He glanced down at her sleeping figure again, trying to understand what Jason saw in her. She was pretty, he supposed, but not particularly striking. Nothing like some of the girls in Philadelphia who had tried to make a move on his son. So what was so special about her? He supposed he would never know, not now that he'd sent Jason away. It would be difficult not to see him again, but Tom knew it was necessary for his son's safety.
When they arrived at Philadelphia, he had the Matheson girl sent put in a high-security cell beneath the capital building. She would sure be in for a surprise when the drugs wore off and she woke up, Tom thought with a chuckle. Then he walked up the stairs to give his report to the General and tell him the news. He glanced at his uniform and straightened his jacket before opening the door. It could never hurt to ensure he made a good impression with his outward appearance.
"Ah, Tom. How did they inspection go?" General Monroe was sitting behind his desk, staring at the window with a distant look on his face.
"Very well, sir. Everything seems to be in order."
"Excellent. Then the matter is closed," he said, clearly dismissing the major. But Tom wasn't quite done.
"Actually, sir, there was something I wanted to discuss with you. There's been a development in the Matheson case."
Monroe's head finally turned to his officer at the mention of that name. He had a strange look in his eyes. Curiosity? Anxiety? He couldn't tell exactly. "Did you find Miles? Did you kill him?"
"Well… no, sir. We didn't find Miles, but we did manage to capture his niece. She's in a holding cell in the basement."
The general smiled a bit. "Charlie Matheson. This is good work, Tom. I appreciate your loyalty."
"Of course, sir," Tom answered, pleased that he had received Monroe's approval. Julia would certainly be happy to hear about this exchange.
"Oh, and Tom?" He turned to face his general once again. "Have Charlie brought to me as soon as she is able. I have some things I'd like to discuss with her."
The first thing Charlie Matheson became aware of was a splitting headache. Then as she grew more conscious, she noticed the feeling of cold metal against her skin, restrictions around her wrists, and the smell of blood. Carefully, she opened her eyes and took in her surroundings. She was lying on a metal table in the middle of a tiny concrete room. There were no windows, just a locked door with some bars over the tiny opening. She was in a cell. She was a prisoner of the militia. "No," she muttered and tried to sit up. This could not be happening, not when she'd just begun fighting these people.
Her head was killing her, but she managed to stand up. As soon as she placed weight on her right leg though, she cried out in pain, immediately sitting back down. She reached down and took a look at her injury. Clearly it was a bullet wound, and she now remembered exactly how that had occurred. They'd been trying to blow up that armory, and the militia had ambushed them in the stairwell. Charlie sighed and inspected the bandage around her leg. Obviously someone had cleaned the wound while she was asleep, and the idea of someone touching her while she was unconscious made her uncomfortable.
Speaking of which, where was she exactly? She'd been briefed on the schematics of the armory by Miles and she didn't remember a prison, so she'd been moved. Bracing herself, Charlie carefully stood up again. It hurt, but now that she was prepared it was a bit more bearable. She limped over to the door and looked out the opening. She was on a hallway with lots of doors similar to hers, but most of them were open. Empty cells were not a good sign.
She jumped back as the door opened before her. When she saw who had opened it, she grew twice as angry. "Captain Neville," she said coldly. He gave her a smile, which she knew was entirely false, just like everything else about that man. "Actually, it's Major Neville now." So Monroe had promoted him. Of course. That is the reward for killing innocent people like Danny and her father after all.
Forcefully, he grabbed her arm and pulled her out in to the hall. "The general has asked to see you personally. I suggest you try not to be too disrespectful."
"Really? Since when did he deserve my respect?"
"Since he had you in his prison and could order your execution at any moment." All right, so maybe he had a bit of a point. Charlie didn't want to be executed, but not because she was afraid to die. She just didn't want to die before she could truly avenge her brother. Before she could kill Monroe. After that, she didn't care. Honestly, she would probably welcome death once this was all done. She would get to be with Danny again.
Charlie glanced around at the building as she was being dragged through it. She tried to look for windows, doors leading to the outside, anything that she could use as an escape route. Nothing. There were guards posted in every hallway, bars over every window. This place was a freaking fortress. When Neville brought her before Monroe's office, she felt her heart skip a beat, and her stomach jumped. Here she was, about to come face to face with the man responsible for Danny's death. What was she supposed to do?
The doors opened and Major Neville pushed her inside, closing them tightly behind her. Charlie took a tentative step forward. There he stood, her mortal enemy. He was looking out the window, his back to the rest of the room. From this angle he didn't seem so intimidating. He was just a man. A bit taller than her and a lot stronger, but still just a man, and men could be killed. Then he turned, and looked at her with those steely blue eyes. Now he seemed immortal, angry, powerful. He seemed very dangerous, and she was beginning to be frightened.
"Charlie. So good to see you once again, and so soon." She refused to answer. She would not demean herself by talking with this snake. Monroe noticed this and smiled. "It's all right, no need to speak. I don't need to hear anything you would want to tell me anyway." He crossed over to his desk and poured himself a drink, not his first Charlie suspected.
"I must say I wasn't sure what to do with you when Tom told me that he had you in custody. I thought about executing you, but… that simply wouldn't do any good. You see, you're much more useful to me alive. Especially now that you and you're little family joined with the rebels."
Charlie shook her head. "I won't tell you anything about them, nothing!"
"Ah, so you decided to speak." Monroe smiled, making chills run down her spine. What was going on in that head of his? "No, Charlie, I know you won't tell me anything about the rebels. I could torture you, but I know you wouldn't talk. Nothing I did worked on your mother when I held her captive, and I think we both know that you're much stronger than she ever was. You wouldn't abandon your family like she did."
Charlie clenched her fists and Monroe smirked. How dare he say such things about her mother? They may be true, but he had no right. Not him, when he's done so many awful things. Her mother is a saint compared to him. Monroe continued, "Besides, I wouldn't need anything you could tell me in order to bring down the rebels. I'm capable of doing that all on my own."
"Not anymore. You don't have power now that Danny destroyed your amplifier."
"So he's the one that blew up my choppers." Miles turned his back, facing the window once again, and Charlie spotted a knife on his desk. He wasn't looking, she could stab him right now. Carefully she leaned over and grabbed the blade. "And how is your dear brother, Danny? Doing well I suppose?"
"No. He's dead. You killed him." Charlie moved to stab him, but Monroe was too fast. In one quick move he grabbed her wrists and forced the knife from her hand. She bit her lip as she felt him press the cold metal against her back.
"Did you really think it would be that easy to kill me?" he whispered menacingly in to her ear. "Please. You're not capable of bringing me down, and even if you did, my men are waiting right outside. They'd kill you before you could celebrate your victory." Charlie tried to move away from him, but he only tightened his hold.
"You want to know how I'm gonna defeat the rebels, you want to know how I'm going to kill them all? I'll use you as bait. They're going to come for you, you know they will, and when they do I'll be waiting. I'll kill every single one of them. I'll kill your mother, I'll kill the fat guy, and the hot chick, and best of all I'll kill Miles. I'm going to murder him for everything that he's done to me and this Republic, and there won't be a thing you can do to stop it."
"And then you'll kill me?" she asked nervously. Monroe laughed, and Charlie felt a chill run down her spine. Whatever he was about to say was clearly not good.
"Oh no, I won't kill you, not yet. See, you're still a Matheson, and that makes you important. Miles may have betrayed me, but he was still an integral part of the founding of this Republic. The Monroe-Matheson Republic. Yes, that's what it used to be called before your uncle left me, and I just can't ignore that going in to the future."
Charlie squinted her eyes. "The future? What the hell are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about the next general of the republic. I don't want the Monroe Republic to become someone else's once I'm dead. I want it to go to my flesh and blood, to my son. And you see, Charlie, I want my son to have some of that Matheson blood running through his veins, too. That way the Republic can become what it was always meant to be, a nation ruled by the combined power of the Monroe's and the Matheson's." Then he released her and pushed her away.
"Guards!" he called, and two men entered the room. Charlie looked back at Monroe in fear of what he was going to do. He turned to his soldiers. "Take her to my room."
