Disclaimer: Anything Booky; not mine AH's. My ideas and thoughts though…

Authors Note: So yeah this is my first Fanfic...umm if anything is technically wrong then, i'll try and fix it as soon as. Otherwise this is he story of What if ASH's betrayal was transparent? What would then consequently happen? and well you'll have to read the rest of the story to find out...

(ASH POV)

I stood impassively, my true thoughts and feelings hiding behind the mask that I was harshly forced to create recently, my other mask broken and laying in pieces throughout me.

My new mask still felt foreign to me, as if it didn't quite fit, or suite me. But maybe the real reason, that I subconsciously knew deep down was true, was that it would never fit, because it was dark and harsh and filled with pain and I knew I couldn't live with it, or the implications of it.

To anyone watching I would seem in shock, perhaps. Unable to comprehend the horror that was happening before me. But I fully understood what was going on. I just couldn't understand or grasp my own thoughts and feelings as the billowing ball of fire was imprinted upon my mind and eye. A permanent tattoo as a reminder of my treachery and loss.

How could I ever move forward from this? How could I allow my pain, my suffering, my spite to control, to morph my morals and blinker my own relationships? My own life?

But there was nothing that I could do about it now, it had been done. Now I had to face up to the consequences of my actions. I had to hold onto the pain and malice and let it fester inside me, otherwise I knew I wouldn't live long with the choice that I had made.

*At the same moment*

(John POV)

I stared passively through the scope, becoming one with my surrounding, my target centered within my sights. I had fallen seamlessly into my surveillance mode; of the stillness, silence and focus needed. All distractions falling from my mind, except that one part of my subconscious that would always be aware of the world happing around me, in case of any danger.

I couldn't believe it when Blunt told me that my best friend, the godfather to my child could even consider such a thing. I know he is going through a hard time at the moment, what with his injury, but to betray me. I wouldn't believe it. But I was harshly forced to believe it when the evidence was stacking up in front of me.

I watched as his hand moved ever so slightly, so slight that I almost missed it. I heard the unnatural silence as all the air was sucked away and the subsequent explosion that followed. I felt a slight shudder from the power that rippled out from the inferno. I saw the faintest flicker of emotion flit across my target's face before it formed into a cold, hard mask. Where the only thing that saved myself and Helen from that fate was Blunts untrustworthiness in others. And I will admit the only time that I was truly thankful for it.

But even though I saw all of this with my own eyes, I still couldn't comprehend where things had gone so wrong. To get to the stage where he would put a price on his friends…no my life, my family's life. I couldn't wrap my head around it. Even when I was sucked into the world, a lot further than he was, I still didn't succumb and loose the morals that I held so dearly. The only thing that meant I was able to keep my soul, my sanity and myself.

I slowly crawled back from the edge, tucking the scope into my pocket as I went. What was I going to tell Blunt, Ian or even Helen?

'Helen', I thought with a shiver, how close we came to dying and not being able to see our son grow up. Or even see his first birthday. His first steps. Hear his first word.

Anger billowed up inside me, indignation at what I almost lost, at what could have been. And it would have been designed by my friend.

'No' I thought to myself. 'You can't think of him as your friend anymore. He lost the right as soon as he even considered killing you. As soon as he considered even going to SCORPIA'.

I quickly glanced down at my watch, sighing as I saw the time, Blunt will want to debrief me before I go. I took a deep breath, ordering my thoughts before silently getting into a crouch and carefully making my way away from the roof I had occupied, making sure to be as inconspicuous as possible.

*Sometime later*

"What are you going to do?" I eventually asked emotionlessly

"Nothing" Blunt shortly replied

"Nothing? But you know he's a traitor. He's joined SCORPIA" I venomously state

"Yes, they do not know that we know. Besides he isn't a field Agent anymore. SCORPIA think that you are dead. All of this is valuable information and we are in control of it"

"So you're just going to let him go…with SCORPIA?" I ask, my emotionless mask finally slipping properly.

"Yes. Dismissed Agent Rider" Blunt said picking up a file on his right.

I stand, staring at the cold unemotional man, my thoughts still hap hazardously crashing through my mind of the events I had just witnessed. Of thoughts of what could have been.

"Dismissed Agent Rider" Blunt said again, although more tersely, not even glancing up from the file.

I curtly nod, my throat and chest suddenly tightening. I quickly leave the room, before my emotions break through. Only when I'm far enough away from the office, do I acknowledge the feeling and raise a shaky hand to my chest and gently rub it slightly.

Anger at the betrayal. Shock at what could have been. Loss for my friend. Fear of SCORPIA's reach. Worry of that life. Relief of it finally ending and being able to live my life away from all of that with my family.

A family. A home. A life. In France.