Hey everyone! I'm back and here's a new chapter of Descent Into The Void. This chapter was supposed to be up by thursday but because of your nice reviews I just couldn't leave you waiting for long so here it is, hope you enjoy and review.

Special thanks to: Blissful Winter, Mythomagic-Champion, Albany, Bastet'syoungestkitten and my two guest reviewers for your encouraging reviews. They made me update this so soon. Also thank you to everyone to everyone who had put me on their Favourite/Alert list and to you readers! (BTW this story has 126 hits, for the first chapter WOW!)

Disclaimer: I have a dream, that one day I'll own the rights to Alex rider! (As if...)

Warnings: Blood and after effects of torture.


Ben Daniels was fast asleep when the doorbell sounded in the house. It was the second ring that woke him up, however. He looked at the alarm clock on his bedside table and saw that it was 3:00 a.m.. Who the hell is it? Ben thought in alarm, now wide awake. He was out of bed when he heard one more ring. Anxiety started to creep into him and he decided to fetch his gun just in case the ringer wasn't a lost tourist asking for directions.

He opened the bedroom door, waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness and tiptoed carefully down the short hallway till he reached the stairs. The house was eerily quiet except for the constant clattering of raindrops on the roof and windows. Ben held the gun readily in front of him as he slowly descended the wooden stairs, step by step pausing at any creak before continuing with even more caution. As soon as his foot touched the ground, a bolt of lightning illuminated the house in a harsh white light, before plunging it back into near darkness. Milliseconds later the roar of thunder followed. It was so loud that Ben thought that the storm was actually inside the house. The storm is definitely getting worse, Ben noted grimly.

He checked the living room for intruders even though there was no sign of forced entry and the intruders wouldn't ring the bell before bursting in. However, it was a habit he had obtained from being an SAS soldier to an MI6 operative, never leave anything to chance. After he was done with his inspection he proceeded to the door with a slight feeling of dread. He held his gun at the ready, before slowly unlocking the door and opening it.

The first thought that ran into his mind was about how fierce the storm had become. The sound of the wind alone was enough to make him clamp down on his ears for fear of being deafened. There were pools of rainwater all over the loan and the concrete pathway leading to his house was being pounded so mercilessly by the rain that he wouldn't be surprised if he saw it cracking under the pressure.

The second thought was Oh shit! A boy, probably a teenager, was collapsed, most likely unconscious, at his doorstep. He could barely make out the boy's features in the dark, but he could see pale skin and what seemed to be dirty blond hair. The boy was soaked from head to toe in rainwater and mud and he was extremely cold to touch. Ben placed his hand on the boy's neck to check for pulse. It was there, faint but thankfully steady so he wasn't as bad as he looked.

Without thinking about the consequences, Ben leaned down and picked the boy up into his arms. He was light for a boy in his teen years, like he hadn't had a proper meal in a while. Sympathy and pity flared inside Ben as he carried the boy inside, locking the door behind him. He ignored the lights and hurried to the downstairs bathroom, to get a towel or something to dry the boy with. He wasn't worried by the prospect of tripping on anything in the dark because he had memorized the house's layout by heart.

He opened the bathroom door and turned on the light. Quickly, but gently he laid the boy down on the white tiled floor near the tub and turned to get a towel from the hanger. He stopped in shock and disbelief when he looked down the way he had come from. The floor was wet and most likely to cause him to trip, but that wasn't it. Drops of blood made a trail from the door to where the teen's body was lying, ending in a pool underneath him. Ben looked down and realized that the wetness he had felt while carrying the boy wasn't just from the water but the blood too. His hands were stained red and his clothes had blotches of blood from where the teen's body had pressed against his as he carried him.

Ben forced himself to calm down before making his way to a small cabinet on the wall where he kept his medical kit, grabbing a towel with him on the way. He opened the cabinet's door, thankful that he always made sure that it was well stocked, and retrieved the kit. He was by the boy's side in seconds and immediately started to strip the boy of his jacket and top. What he saw made him gasp in horror. The boy's torso was littered with cuts and a rainbow of bruises. Some of the bruises and cuts had started to heal and faint, but most of them looked painfully recent. Ben looked at the boys left arm and found one of the main sources of the blood flow. There was a cloth wrapped around the boy's upper arm. It should have stopped the bleeding but the cloth was saturated with the red liquid, making it virtually useless.

Ben tore off the cloth and cleaned the large gash that extended from the boys shoulder to his elbow using antiseptic cream. It needed stitches and Ben was suddenly glad that he had taken that medical course when he was with the SAS.

After he was done, he wrapped the boy's arm firmly in thick white gauze then proceeded to treat and bandage the boy's neck, paying special care to it, seeing as it was so close to his throat. Ben started to clean the boy's chest with the damp towel to remove all the dried blood and mud that was crusted on it. When he was done he examined his handiwork, making sure that all the wounds were clean without any trace of mud or anything else that could cause infection.

His sharp eyes spotted a scar, it was hard to make out with the discolored skin from the bruises and he would've easily missed it if it weren't for his trained eye. It was undoubtedly from a bullet wound and the scar was directly over the boy's heart…

Ben suddenly turned his head to examine the blonde's face, fearing the worst. It was caked with mud but he used a new towel to clean it. Seconds later the boy's features were clear for him to see.

It was Alex Rider, just as he had guessed.

The realization brought tears to his eyes, how much pain did this poor had to endure? He asked himself. It was evident to him now that the gashes and bruises were most likely obtained through torture. Unintentionally, he found himself gazing at Alex's face. He looked so innocent, almost peaceful. Ben cursed Blunt and Jones for what they did to the kid. Turning him to a spy and ruining any chance of him being normal. Ben had read Alex's file after what happened at Dragon-nine, he had been impressed by what the boy had accomplished in just one year, but secretly thought that his boss should've been shot for what he did to Alex before his retirement.

Ben forced himself to clear his mind before returning to the task of bandaging his previous partner's injuries. He moved lower down the boy's body when his torso was taken care of. He took off Alex's black jeans, leaving him in just his black boxer shorts. There was another cloth tied around the blonde's thigh this time, just above the knee. Ben unwound the cloth, noting that Alex had made this one especially tight. The sight underneath wasn't pretty, with yellow pus oozing out of the puckered hole that he recognized immediately as a bullet exit wound. This means that Alex was running away from whoever was holding the gun when he got shot. Ben concluded as he tended to the wound. Luckily the bullet did not hit any bone and made it cleanly through without damaging any major blood vessels or nerves, however it would make it extremely painful for Alex to walk for the next month or so. The only problem was that the wound, despite Alex's efforts, had gotten infected. Hopefully after adding antiseptic cream and wrapping it in clean gauze the wound would heal without complications. Ben continued cleaning Alex's body from all the mud and the dirt till he was clean then hurried upstairs to get him some clean clothes. When he returned, he dressed the boy in dry underwear, a pair of grey baggy sweatpants and a white t-shirt that was a couple of sizes too big.

Ben carried Alex's unconscious body up the stairs, this time with the lights on, he couldn't risk falling and injuring the boy further. He passed the hallway and stopped in front of the guest bedroom, pushing the door open with his body. He turned on the light and stepped in. The room was medium sized, with dark blue walls and a double bed. There was a dresser on the wall opposite the bed. And a nightstand on each side of it with a lamp on top of each one. There was also a small light blue sofa facing the bed underneath a curtained window.

Ben lay Alex gently on the bed and tucked him in. For some unknown reason he felt his lips lift into a smile as he watched the boy sleep. The only sounds in the room were those of the storm, but in the safety of this room they seemed to be muffled and unthreatening. On impulse Ben sat down on the sofa and watched over the boy as he slept.


Alex woke up the next morning feeling very warm and cozy. He opened his eyes feeling more and more confused with each passing second. He was in a bedroom. Well this is odd; the last thing I remember is running on a gravel road under the rain. How did I end up here? Alex pondered while his eyes surveyed the room, memorizing all the details and noting any escape routes. He wasn't tied down, usually a sign that he wasn't a prisoner but he still had to check the closed door to see if it's locked to make a final decision. Alex was about to do just that when the door swung open.

Alex stiffened. A tall figure with pale skin, black hair and calm blue eyes stepped inside. "Ben." Alex greeted emotionlessly when he recognized the man.

"Alex." The curt reply came. Ben was carrying a tray, with what Alex guessed to be breakfast on it. He laid it gently on Alex's lap then took a seat on the sofa to his right. There were some fried eggs and two pieces of toast on the plate along with a glass of orange juice. However even though he was starving, he couldn't bring himself to eat. He sensed that something was definitely wrong with the Liverpudlian, because he was never this 'professional' with him. "Um, do you mind telling me where I am exactly?"

Ben looked taken aback slightly then his mask of indifference slid back on before replying. "You're in my house, which is about ten miles from London. I bought this house a few years back. Coming to the countryside always helped after a mission, be it with the SAS or MI6. I still have an apartment near 'the bank' in London in case you were wondering." He paused, "I answered your question as best as I could, now you should answer mine." Alex nodded albeit hesitantly. "Where were you in the past month? The agent that we sent to watch you when you moved in with the Pleasures… It was only meant for a couple of months." Ben replied reassuringly to Alex's raised eyebrow before continuing "Anyway, he reported, exactly thirty one days ago, that you had vanished without a trace one night. The house was set on fire and the whole family died in it. The firefighters who put the blaze out said that Elizabeth and Edward Pleasure's room was locked from the outside with no means of opening it from the inside. The windows were also tampered with. Sabina's room was the same."

Alex looked down his expression contorted in anguish and misery. He knew already that they were dead. Zeljian Kurst had taunted him quite a lot of times with it, made him watch the video feed from the cameras that they had secretly installed in the rooms. He had watched Ed and Liz clutching each other, with scared hopeless eyes that knew that they were about to die. Sabina had screamed out his name, begging him to help her as she took her last breath and died from lack of oxygen. He had watched her skin and hair as it shriveled under the intense heat before he could take it no longer and succumbed into the merciful darkness. He couldn't do anything to help them.

Finally he spoke in a quiet voice that was so very unlike his usually calm and confident self. "We went out for dinner that night in a fancy Italian restaurant, Ed said he had a surprise for me, but he wouldn't tell me what it was until after we finished eating. When we were done, he presented me with a ticket to go and watch Chelsea play Barcelona in Stamford Bridge for the semi-final match in the Champions League. I was speechless with gratitude." Alex allowed himself a small sad smile, which disappeared when he started speaking again. "When we got back we were all too exhausted to do anything so we just headed to our rooms to sleep." Alex paused, his hand clenched around the sheets, his food ignored. "When I entered my bedroom, Scorpia was waiting for me. Four agents wearing balaclavas attacked me, I couldn't fend them off. They injected me with a hypodermic syringe and I was out cold a few seconds later. I woke up in a cell the next day, shackled to a wall. And that is where I have been in the last month, now if you'll excuse me I must leave."


The bit about Chelsea and Barcelona is actually real, I can't remember when it happened or who won but it took place last season. I think I even watched it... urgh! I can't remember a thing now. Anyway, my long term memory is horrible. However, please take the time to review and tell me what you think.

Oh and one more thing, would anyone like to be my beta? It won't be alot of work, I just need someone to re-read the chapters before I post them and point out any spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, that sort of thing. In addition, to giving me ideas and suggestions relating to the story. That's not much is it =p? If you feel up to it please PM me?

Thank you all so much!

RBR