1| Ophelia

26

-CHAPTER TWENTY SIX-
•

“It’s not looking good,” Blake said in a low voice. Sebastian gave him an indifferent look, “How much?” Blake shifted in his seat, “Two percent more than last year.” Sebastian leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.

Their business had been having a loss of total two percent more than it had last year. Normally such a loss wouldn’t make much of a difference in an empire as big as the Morgenstern's, but it wasn’t about the losses. It was about the reason of those losses. 

Since their only source in the NYPD was taken out, busting of the shipments had now become an occasional news. Cops were able to scout out the port and take in any drugs or ammunition that came in from different countries in the world. Though Sebastian had long moved the docking stations, what was gone, was gone. 

And the reason? They didn’t know yet. 

Jessica Spade had been a dead end. When she brought to the warehouse for questioning, her reason for exposing Walker was a personal agenda. Revenge against Sebastian for not giving her the time of the day. But everyone in the room knew it was a lie. Yes, Sebastian hadn’t given her the time of the day, but that wasn’t the reason why Jessica did what she did. 

She was just a pawn.

Someone else was the real deal, the real person who had exposed Walker and used Jessica as the bait, knowing well enough the lengths the girl would go to, to hurt Sebastian and his business. 

Getting answers out of Jessica had been useless since the girl herself didn’t know whose work she was doing. Her answer was the same as Wesley’s had been. They didn’t know who it was, just some bribe and promises sent through and what would happen if they did their job. 

At least that gave the brothers the hint that the person after them had been planning this for a long long time, and they weren’t going to stop until they saw the entire Morgenstern empire down in the water. 

“I’ll be back in a few,” Sebastian muttered before he left, giving Blake no chance to speak.

When Sebastian opened the door to the roof, he had the chance to see a masked figure shooting four holes into the body of another masked figure, which had been lying down on the floor, coughing up blood. 

Sebastian’s hand automatically found the gun attached to his hip and he aimed at the standing masked figure. The figure, noticing the gun, held their hands up, a sign of submission and slowly began to retreat. Sebastian walked closer, the grip on his gun tightening. “Move again and I’ll shoot you,” he said in a firm voice. The figure stopped. 

“I’m not here to make any trouble,” it said. Sebastian knew determining whether it was a man or a woman would be useless since the voice was automated, but considering how small the figure was, he was assuming it was a girl. 

“You made trouble the moment you killed someone on my roof,” he said. The figure stayed silent, its dark eyes blazing. When Sebastian was close enough, his jaw clenched. 

Right on the mask, which covered the lower half of the figure’s face, was the symbol of fire, and a bird emerging from it. The Phoenix. They were supposed to be dead. News of their supposed death had circled in the underworld days after the Trinidad incident. 

But then again, such news of their death had circled many times before, each of them proved false the moment The Phoenix would rise up again mere days after. And so here they were again, killing someone on Sebastian’s roof. 

“What are you doing here, Phoenix,” he asked for the first and last time. “Doing you a favor,” they retorted. Sebastian noticed the hint of English accent in their voice. “I don’t ask for favors,” he nearly growled. They seemed to smirk under their mask, and their eyes twinkled in amusement, “And yet here I am, saving everyone’s ass.”

Sebastian was close, close enough to overpower this assassin, and so without further ado, he pulled the trigger, aiming for their abdomen. The figure jerked back as the bullet hit their stomach. They hissed, “You idiot.” 

A knife appeared in their hands, and they attacked Sebastian, aiming for his gut, but his height and speed gave him enough time to dodge the knife as he lost the grip of the gun in his hand. Not giving Phoenix a chance to regain their posture, he took hold of the figure’s hand with the knife in it, twisting it from the wrist.

A cry escaped from their lips, and Sebastian took hold of the figure by their neck, firmly choking them. He pushed the figure until they reached the edge of the roof, his body dangerously close to Phoenix’s. 

They struggled for breath, but managed to keep their mask intact every time Sebastian tried to remove it. Taking as much of a deep breath as they could, the figure pushed their knee up right in the middle, but Sebastian was quicker.

He let go of them and blocked the attack, before quickly slamming the figure against the rail of the roof. Their hands pushed against his shoulders and Sebastian tried to regain the upper hand.

But it was nearly impossible. They were both equal in hand to hand combat.

In the midst of heavy breaths, the figure lowly said, “He was here to kill Blake Morgenstern. I killed him before he could reach the target.” Sebastian was utterly confused, “Why would you kill one of your own people?”  

“I am not your enemy. I never was,” they said. Sebastian jerked, pushing the figure hard against the railing, “Considering how you’ve been murdering my allies, I beg to differ.” Phoenix’s stormy grey eyes darkened, a detail Sebastian didn’t bother to remember since he knew they’d used lenses to avoid identification. 

“You know as well as I do why I killed those people,” they replied. Sebastian knew. Though they were his allies, they were involved in businesses that disgusted him to no end. Selling of innocent girls and boys, using them as mules for transporting drugs and so much more. Sebastian had himself wanted to kill those lowlifes, but he couldn’t risk their alliance. In a way, by killing those bastards, the Phoenix had done him a favor. 

He let go of them and stepped away. An unspoken agreement to never mention this to anyone took place between them. 

Before they left, the Phoenix gave Sebastian a dramatic bow, saying, “This won’t be the last you’ll see of me.” Sebastian ran a hand through his unruly hair, “I’m counting on it.” He watched as the figure leaped down the roof without looking back and sighed before taking out his phone. 

“Get some men up. There’s a body here that needs to be ID’ed. And find out what we have the Phoenix,” he ordered. “Weren’t they dead,” Blake asked from the other side and Sebastian sighed.

“No. She's very much alive. And she just saved your ass by killing one of her own. I need to know why she’s going rogue. And I need to know now.”

-
btw, the song does not correlate to the chapter at all i just added it because ive been hearing it on loop for the past week or so :D

this entire freaking chapter is a huge easter egg, and im betting my non existent money no one will figure out what it is 🤑

fav ship? mine is the one ive set up with sebastian *wink wink*

also i know the fight scene sucked pls cooperate (─.─||）