… "I Love You."

Chapter 2, everyone! I'm glad I generated some interest with the start-up chapter, and I got a few prompts! I think I answered all of your comments, so I guess I'll go ahead. This one is submitted by musicnotes093: "Lie to me." "I love you." It had the additional tag of Bree/Sebastian. It's set sometime after On The Edge. I included a few headcanons of mine,vwhich I think a lot of people share, so… yeah. Without further ado!

"I'm sorry."

"Stop lying to me." She shook her head, wringing her hands. Why did those have to be the first words between them, after so long? "You're not sorry. Was this… was everything—us—a lie?"

"No."

"You're lying," she murmured, shrinking away until her back hit the wall behind her. "I can see it in your eyes."

"Sure," he replied, lazily tilting his head to the side and letting his gaze just barely rest on her. "I'm lying, and you're smart enough to know it, Bree. I know what you've been taught."

"Sebastian, I defended you," she said, almost to herself.

"Don't call me that," Sebastian replied sharply. "It's a human name, a weak name. I'm S-3."

Bree ignored him. "I told my brother how amazing you are, I told you I could help rise up, and this is what you chose instead?"

The bionic boy glanced around idly at the vaguely glowing glass surrounding him. "I suppose I did."

"Can you at least even talk to me?" Bree finally exploded, pushing herself off the wall and stalking forward. "I came all this way to see you, and you won't even actually answer my questions!"

In answer, Sebastian shrugged, pointed to the cell to his left, and brought the finger to his lips. "Shh. You'll wake Lexi."

"Oh, so she gets a human name? And anyway, what do you care?" Bree demanded, nearly touching the bionic-proof glass with the tip of her nose by now. "You dragged her into this. She had nothing to do with it, and now she's stuck here—because of you."

"Ah, she's quite angry," Sebastian laughed ironically, taking a few steps forward as well. "She's made that quite clear. And she has every right to be, I acknowledge. Plus, she says she likes 'Lexi', and won't respond to her soldier ID anymore. I don't like it, but she's my sister, and she's all I have left—besides Tank, of course. But he's not one for conversation. So I won't stop protecting Lexi." He held up a hand, cutting off her retort. "Yeah, yeah, I didn't protect her when I was getting her into this mess, blah, blah. I know. But Lexi's not why you're here." He was at the glass now, too, and he was staring down at her. Nose-to-nose. Like at the Academy… but this wasn't the Academy anymore.

"No." She took a step back. "She's not. You are. But you already knew that."

"Of course," Sebastian chuckled slightly. "You made that clear with your first sentence. 'Stop lying to me', I believe you said? Okay, fine. And, see, maybe I didn't answer your questions before, but I think I will now. You're not completely a traitor to me like Spin or Bob or Chase." He sneered when he said her brother's name. "You haven't changed at all, Bree, and so I'm going to trust you here."

Of all the thoughts racing through her mind, the only one she could blurt out was, "How did Chase betray you?"

Sebastian laughed without humor. "You know that already, Bree, you were there. He killed my father, and you and Adam helped him." He paused for a moment, thinking. "Then again, he's the one who fired the blast, you and Adam just supplied him the power. So I suppose I really am mostly mad at him."

"What were we supposed to do?" Bree demanded. "Let Krane destroy the minds of every human on the planet?"

"I'm sure my father had a good reason."

"Your father?" Bree repeated derisively, laughing almost maniacally. "Sebastian, we looked in to how he got you all. You don't even know, do you?"

"He created us, genetically engineered us."

"Wrong," she said, jabbing a finger at him. "The timelines don't match up. Krane only received the genetical engineering equipment in time to make all the soldiers under fourteen. You're sixteen, Sebastian. Don't you get it yet? He stole you."

Sebastian's face didn't change, other than tensing up slightly. But Bree knew the look in his eyes. She'd been trained to recognize it, she knew what he was thinking. She could see the horror and terror in his face. The disbelief and denial.

He stumbled back and slid down the wall, sitting on the floor. "No," he said. "That… that's not true. You're lying, you must be lying."

"Well, you'd know all about lying, wouldn't you?" Her tone, fiery and angry seconds before, turned icy and harsh.

"I suppose I would," Sebastian replied weakly. "And, from what I know, you're being truthful."

"Were you?" Bree's voice was stiff. "All those times you said… anything to me, I just thought… maybe you would understand me more than anyone else ever has." She laughed sarcastically. "Oh, but of course not. You never didn't lie to me. At the very least, you believe you were never honest with me."

"There were times when I… hesitated because of you," he admitted, looking up at her. "But the end goal was always the same. I knew I would hurt you, and I… did it anyway."

"That's all I really wanted to know," she said. "And I should go, I was supposed to help Leo train some of the younger students."

"So go."

She turned and began to walk, to the doorway that led to the maze-like hallway that no one without bionics could possibly escape. To freedom and honesty and something other than the loneliness that always seemed to find her. "Sebastian…" he didn't respond, so she took that as an invitation to continue. "Just… one last time."

"What?"

She took a breath. "Lie to me."

There was silence for a moment. Then he broke it. "I love you."

There are a lot of "Bree visits Seb in jail and they sort of re-bond but not really" fics, and I decided I didn't want them to be even slightly happy. Whoops. I'll attempt to write a happier/funnier one of these soon.

Anyway, reviews and submissions are always appreciated! Thanks for reading, everyone!