The water was filling Alex's lungs, the ice water burning his skin and his insides. He struggled and bucked and kicked to no avail. The sets of muscular arms holding him down hardly even shifted. Just as his vision was starting to go black he was ripped from out of the water.

"Ready to talk yet, Alex?"

Alex coughed up water and gasped for air. Relishing the oxygen that was filling his lungs once again. "Go. To. Hell." He wheezed, in between his loud and painful breaths.

He was unceremoniously shoved back under the water. And the pain once again consumed him.

...

Alex shot out of bed, gasping for air and clutching at his chest. He looked around the room, wildly waving a gun that he had now idea how it had even gotten into his hands. His mind quickly processed that he was at home, in his own bed, in his own room. He wasn't being tortured, he was safe.

"It's not real," he muttered to himself, bitterly. Alex hoped that he hadn't been screaming during the night to wake up Ben. Ben's room was down the hall, but he slept lightly, and seemed to sense whenever Alex had had a bad night. That's what they had both decided to call them. They weren't nightmares, or flashbacks, or PTSD, just bad nights.

Alex glanced across at his alarm clock - 6:47. A whole four and a half hours, he thought sarcastically. He clambered out of bed and then made his way out into the kitchen where he could smell coffee.


"Morning, Al'!" Ben cheerfully called from where he sat at the table, reading the newspaper.

"G'mornin', Ben," Alex yawned, as he filled up a mug with coffee. "This," he said, pointing to his full mug, "is what I miss most when I'm on a mission."

"Aww Al', and here I was thinking you missed me most." Ben looked up at Alex doe-eyed.

Alex scoffed and playfully smacked Ben on the head.

"So how was your recon? We ready to roll out today? Ben asked.

Alex shoved a piece of toast in his mouth, and said, "Yep. I figured it all out last night. We're going to meet with Jones first thing today to get everyone briefed and to work out the final details, then we'll free the hostages at nightfall."

"You sound confident that your plan will work," Ben arched an eyebrow. "Do you really think it's going to be so easy as to just free the hostages from Scorpia?"

"Well, we're not just going to free the prisoners, we're going to destroy Scorpia's base and deliver them a major hit to their organization." Alex said fiercely.

Ben threw up his arms. "We're going to take out a Scorpia base with what - 6 hours of preparation?"

"Yes, we are! Scorpia doesn't know we're onto them! They've gone completely underground because of the huge loss we dealt them this past year. They don't know that the agents they captured have tracking devices implanted into them. We have the element of surprise, and because of that we will take them down. What other choice do we have?"

Ben sighed, "We could leave the hostages be for now, and hope our surveillance leads us to other branches of Scorpia that are still operating. It doesn't do to take out one head of the snake when there are tens maybe hundreds more that are going to pop up! And the captured agents know that, and they would gladly die if it means we can take down Scorpia once and for all."

Alex tensed, a minuscule movement, but not to Ben's watchful eye. "Ben, we have to save them. We don't have a choice! Scorpia has been struggling to stay alive as of late — this will be a massive blow to them. Plus, we can get some clues as to where the rest of the organization is and then we can take them down too! We can't leave those agents there to die. I won't let it happen."

Ben knew better than to push it any further. He knew that Alex had been captured by Scorpia not even a year ago. He can't even imagine the burden that Alex must feel, to not let people suffer as he suffered in his 3 months of torture from Scorpia. Ben still wasn't used to the scars that littered Alex's torso and then eventually travelled to below the waistband of his pyjama bottoms. Ben pictured all of the angry red burns, and knife wounds, not to mention the now nearly unnoticeable limp that Alex still had from when he had been shot in the knee by Scorpia.

"You're right, Alex. We do have to save them."


Alex was standing a couple kilometres away from the warehouse that held Scorpia and the captured agents. Ben was by his side looking at a laptop that held the blueprints to the building, and K-Unit was standing a short distance away going over their guns and ammo one last time. It had become more and more common for K-Unit to back up Alex and Ben, as they were used to Alex's often unconventional ways of doing things, and it kept the number of people who knew Alex well to a minimum. Alex knew he could trust them with his life, and over the years they had grown into a kind of brotherhood.

"Hey, K Unit," Ben called over from where he was standing. "Let's go over this one last time."

Wolf, Snake, Eagle, and Bear all jogged over to join Alex and Ben.

Alex turned to face them. "Okay, so there are three hostages, Agents Hawthorne, Edwards, and Taylor."

Ben noticed the way Alex's eyes flashed at the name Taylor, and decided to store that information at the back of his brain for now. He knew that Alex had done the odd mission with her, but hadn't known them to be close.

"K-Unit, you're going to go in first, clear out some of the guards and try to make a clear path here, "Alex gestured to a piece of the map on the screen," through to the control room. "Ben, you're going to access any files you can on their computers to gather as much intel as possible. I will be going in through the back entrance and through to the Western side where they are most likely holding the prisoners. Our best guess is that our three agents are in one of these two hallways here. I'll get them freed and then hopefully they're in good enough condition to be able to get out on their own strength. Once we're all out, we'll blow the building and all the Scorpia agents left inside. Sound good?"

A chorus of "Yes sir," was the response.

"Oh - one last thing to remember, K-Unit," Ben added. "We need at least one Scorpia agent alive to question. Based on our research, there's a good chance Andrei Boytsov is in charge of this base, his picture was in your file. If you find him, don't kill him, he probably has the most answers to offer us."

Alex nodded in agreement. "Let's head out and hike the rest of the way to the warehouse now," he said, strapping on his bullet proof vest.

"Hey Alex," Wolf smirked, "try not to do anything too moronic this time, yeah?"

"No promises," Alex called over his shoulder.


AUTHOR'S NOTE:

So there you go! This is my first fanfiction. :) I haven't yet decided if I'm going to continue it, so if you do like it then please leave me a review. How people receive the story is how I'll decide if I'll continue. Also, any constructive criticism is greatly appreciated! Let me know what I can improve on, what you like, etc.

Thanks for reading you lovely reader you!