Title: Visible Sword
Author: You'reNeverTooYoungToDie
Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction using the characters from Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider, the rights of which belong to Walker Books. I do not claim any ownership of the series and/or characters. The story I have written using the characters is my own invention for entertainment purposes only, and it is not shown as or believed to be part of Alex Rider's story canon. I am not profiting financially from the publication of this story in any way, shape, or form.
Trigger Warning: Character Death
Author's Note: This is my first fanfiction, but please do not let that deter you. I have been reading fanfiction for a while now and am in no way new to this website. I am well aware that my writing skills have a lot of room for improvement, and I am open to constructive critism. If you think my writing is awful, could you please let me know what it is about the story you didn't like and offer me some advice on how to improve it for next time instead of just sending a review saying "this is useless"? Time-wise, this is an AU set at the end of Scorpia. Enjoy!
Thank-you to Eloquence Deceptive for talking me through the Beta system and to Dragon Silhouette for checking this over and coming up with the title.
Alex Rider was sitting in an office on the sixteenth-floor of the Royal & General Bank on Liverpool Street, London. The head of MI6 Special Operations and his deputy were also in the rather bland room, but no-one spoke. The time was one minute to four on a Thursday afternoon. The room's occupants could hear the ticking of the clock. Each second that passed filled them with more dread than the last. It wasn't surprising really. Very, very soon thousands of London schoolchildren were going to die. They had a reason to panic.
Thirty seconds.
"I'm sorry." It was Alex who had spoken. He wanted the others to know just how sorry he was, even if he wasn't sure the two had any emotion to sympathise with. Alex felt so guilty. His failure would cause the deaths of too many innocents, including his own. Although he wasn't innocent. Not really.
Alex had set off the alarm in his brace as soon as he entered the Church of Forgotten Saints and saw the satellite dishes Scorpia would use to activate Invisible Sword. The SAS troops arrived quickly after, one of them managing to pull him aside in the midst of the fight and take him to a black car waiting outside. It drove off after the teenager got in. When he had arrived at the bank, Mrs Jones escorted him to room 1605, where Alan Blunt was waiting. It was there that they broke the news.
"We were too late."
Ten seconds.
Time seemed to both slow and speed up for Alex.
Five. Four. Three. Two. One.
Alex suddenly grabbed his chest, an expression of pure pain crossing his face.
"Is this some sort of joke?" Blunt demanded. He had immediately recognized what was happening. The only response the man received was a strangled gasp. The two Special Operations executives shared a glance. There was no doubt about it, really. Alex Rider was a victim of Invisible Sword, too.
The aforementioned teenage spy was jerking in his seat. In an action that would've been comical in any other situation, Alex fell off his chair and onto the floor.
A medic rushed into the room, supplies at the ready. But it was too late. No matter how quickly the man reached the room, no matter how close to the heart the antidote had been administered, it would be too late. The poison had been in the boy's heart from the start. Now there was no stopping it. Some might say there never really was a chance. Scorpia were too good. But they'd get them next time. They'd make sure of it.
When asked later, Mrs Jones would reveal that she was the one to call for help. She wasn't heartless. She had been a mother once, until her children went missing. Blunt would say they were foolish to have not expected the poisoning. The dull man would then call Jack Starbright, Alex's American housekeeper, guardian, and best friend, and ask her to come in. He had some news to deliver. The young woman would be devastated. She would cry for hours on end. Other parents and guardians would too. Alex wasn't the only child Scorpia had killed in the ruthless massacre, after all.
But none of that mattered now. It hadn't even happened yet.
The medic had two fingers pressed to Alex's neck. He mouthed numbers to himself silently, frowning sadly as the gaps between whatever he was counting got longer and longer. The medic brought his other hand up and placed it lightly on the teenager's chest. After several long moments, the medic pulled himself away.
"I'm sorry." There was no need to say anything else. Blunt and Jones already knew. "Here, let me just–" The medic reached into his bag for a notepad, taking a pen from his front pocket. "Sorry, what was his name?"
"Alex Rider." Mrs Jones' voice didn't break.
The medic nodded, writing it down. "Alex Rider. Time of death 4:02pm."
A/N: Thanks for reading! Please leave a review telling me what you thought :)