Chapter 1: Once In A Blue Moon
"Fate is like a strange,
unpopular restaurant filled with odd little waiters who bring you
things you never asked for and don't always like."
—
Lemony Snicket
Disclaimer: I don't own it…yet.
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It was very strange to think of but they had once disagreed; clashing to the extreme. She had even considered improbable measures when she was younger. Once thought that the man had needed to go. It took lives to cast the revulsion of Blunt away. The closer she grew, agents started to resent her, treating it as a personal betrayal. The abrupt isolation changed her. She grew calmer. She saw herself turning into Alan Blunt. But she exceeded him in nearly all actions except one. And that more than anything else, scared her.
Then came Alex.
In one of those rare instances, Alan Blunt had shocked her; truly shocked her. He had seen the pain on her face when young recruits came in with heads full of adventure and patriotism.
And then they were beaten down, broken, murdered in cold blood.
She would debrief them, watching the innocent faces that were so eager to please; completely in confidence at her direction.
But Alex was different. He was harder to look at.
Sometimes she glimpsed her someone else looking back with hate. She could see his eyes accusing. Always accusing. Yet somehow the impassion of Blunt kept her distanced from the truth. The truth was; she had made a mistake and he would never let her forget it. He used her weakness for his own gain. Manipulation. It was a word she was all too familiar with.
It had relit the internal distrust of her mentor. But there was also confusion. There was always confusion.
But being the well-tempered, loyal second hand she was supposed to be; Mrs. Jones stayed. She was lost. She had nowhere. The insecurity in her heart went to deep to start over new.
-Which led her here to his house, though she couldn't ponder the reason.
Holding her head up high, she wrapped twice against the solid oak.
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The church belonged to another age, a time when it was filled with people seeking sanctuary from their chaotic lives. For Alex this idea was taken quite literally as he hid with his companion in the once great architectural ground. He couldn't force himself to say 'father' yet. It felt odd on his tongue after so many years of embarrassing exchanges. He had a general idea of what fathers were supposed to be. Tom would be complaining about his dad one minute and sweet-talking him the next. Parents were loved and hated.
Yet he could not place a direct emotion towards John Rider. Just looking at him scared Alex. He could now understand Yassen's ease to recognize him when they had first meant.
When they had first met.
It was forbidding thinking about the regressive pattern in his life. He pulled his arms together and shivered.
"Are you cold?" Someone said. Alex jumped at the voice and turned to see John Rider walking up right behind him. The older man was so very quiet in everything he did to the point where Alex felt pathetic when he heard his own footsteps.
"No…" He started, mortified at yet another under action on his part. John acted like he didn't hear him and reached to hand over a wool blanket.
"Here."
Alex flinched when he felt John hand him the layer. He avoided the hurt look on John Rider's face and the attempt to start conversation. "I've been here before," John Rider said suddenly.
To his aversion John sat down beside him and shrugged, "Twice actually. First time was on an undercover assignment. I was watching the antique book shop across the street. It was a very boring job. I ended up playing cards with my best friend and missed a robbery across the street. Imagine that!" He laughed; remembering the moment.
Alex pursed his lips in discontent. John continued, oblivious;
"The second time I was just looking for a quiet place to think. I was trying to decide whether or not to propose to-"
"My mother," Alex finished quietly, sounding very disappointed.
John sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "No Alex. I was going to marry Helen Palmer, a girl I had gone to school with and had been friends with through the years", He frowned," But I knew that a friend of mine was in love with Helen, so I ended our relationship."
"What was your friend's name?" Alex asked, knowing well the answer. The idea of Ash suddenly made him queasy.
"It doesn't matter now", His father said simply and kept his eyes focused on the boy beside him. Alex could feel him trying to size up his younger counterpart. Here were the questions coming. Alex mentally tried to think of excuses of explainable scenarios. Anything but-
"Look, Alex," The older man started, "I hate to ask you this, but there are some things we need to talk about."
"-About my entire life or the consequences of my father being in a comatose state for fourteen years?" Alex answered uncharacteristically strident, much to John's awe. His son had been silent, for the most part, since he had been recovered.
"We have to start somewhere."
The man waited and was about to repeat himself.
"I don't like this church," Alex said suddenly and caught John off guard.
"You don't like churches?" John asked carefully, confused. He was fully aware that impatience would go nowhere with Alex and so he humored his son for the moment.
The boy considered and looked up at the ceiling. "I had bad luck in a church a lot like this once." He flinched at the memory of Julia Rothman's bloodlust. He frowned in realization and turned rigid as he faced his father. "And I was going to die because of you…"
"What?"
Alex was not listening. "I reminded her of you. She hated you. She wanted to kill me because she didn't get to watch you die. I was just the second best thing," He bitterly confessed to himself for the first time," Don't look at me like you don't know who I'm talking about! Julia. Rothman. Head of Scorpia. Or do you know too many women to keep track of now?"
"Hey-"John started.
"No! It's the truth! What kind of person lies to everyone he knows! Who are you, really?" Alex yelled.
"I'm sorry Alex. Does that mean anything to you?"
Alex closed his eyes. He gradually appeared calm. "How do I know I know if I'm talking to the real you, right now? How do I know you aren't lying to me?"He asked miserably.
"I'm here now and I want to be your father. My only concern is you. I can't help you if you don't tell me what's going on."
"What makes you think I need your help?" Alex's eyes flashed annoyingly.
"Besides the fact you're fourteen years old?"
Shows what you know about me…
"…what about Julia Rothman? How did she find you?" The man asked, almost reluctantly.
"I found her."
"How did you find SCORPIA?"
"…someone knew you had been there. They knew I was your son"
"Who?"
"Someone," Alex said simply, "Julia Rothman showed me the tape of you on the Bridge, dad. I watched you die-"
"They taped it…"John muttered to himself.
"-Then Julia Rothman convinced me to join SCORPIA and kill -a MI6 agent. But I couldn't do it," he breathed, "MI6 made me go back to SCORPIA and pretend I had actually shot…the agent. She had been planning to kill me the whole time though. And-"
"Alex." John stopped his son and watched the boy look up. "You…you aren't serious?" His son's eyes widened, and then glanced off.
"Out of all people, I thought you'd understand."
"MI6-"John started but couldn't finish. "…they-you….?"
Alex looked on, waiting for the truth to sink in. His older companion was becoming anxious.
"MI6…and you… Ian wouldn't let MI6 breathe the same air as you! Much less make you walk back into your own death trap."
Alex didn't say anything.
And John knew it. It was not logical, but Alex could swear by every fiber of his being that the man knew it without being told.
"You knew Yassen…and Julia Rothman, and-Ian…he..."His eyes followed Alex's, begging them to not mean what he thought," No!" He breathed. "That's not possible, Alex. Where is Ian?"
Silence.
"Where is my brother?"
The hazel eyes bit back at him, no remorse whatsoever. "I'm sorry, John…Does that mean anything to you?"
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"What's wrong Alan?" She asked, but knew without being told. She had never been in the man's house before and most of MI6 were convinced that Blunt never left MI6 Headquarters. Mrs. Jones knew better. People could hide their lives very well and reveal them twice as easy.
The man across from her sat in a comfortable chair, three feet away, in a dark oak room. It was pleasant, but was missing something very important she couldn't quite put her finger on, not unlike Blunt himself.
"Tulip," He said. He was the only person who called her by her name-much less knew her name. "I'm glad you came."
"You sounded fine on the phone but now you look-"She stopped herself, finally really looking at the grayed man sitting in a plush chair in front of her.
"…old? " He finished.
"No-", She started, embarrassed.
"Yes, I am, much older than I care to be honestly. But I suppose that is the godly justice that I receive for what I did."
Mrs. Jones moved closer, hesitant, and put an arm on the man's shoulder. He stared right through her. "Are you okay?" She asked, softer than she had meant it to come out.
"I am fine, Tulip. Always fine. It is you whom is not well.-Alex Rider was kidnapped recently."
"What?"
"Crawford was the one to discover it. We might have known it earlier had he informed us" A pause caught the room. Mrs. Jones waited. "…It appears that when he was training a senior doctor discovered a misplaced file that led them to a comatose patient in an old research laboratory."
"A misplaced patient?"
"No. Never misplaced. Tulip," He breathed," Have...you ever done something extremely…stupid?"
"What does this have to do with Alex?" Stepping back, she frowned upon the inquiry coming from the man.
"Everything. You see, fourteen years ago, I started doing something…stupid. I lied to you. I told you that John Rider died in a plane bombing. I told you that Alex's mother was Helen Rider. And then I fed you many foul explanations after your children died."
"Stop it!"
"Please don't get jumpy. I am a very old man."
"Do not mention them."
"You need to hear this."
"No, I do not." Her face was red and Tulip felt her eyes redden. She turned to leave, afraid that she might choke the man right there; if you could call him a man.
"Yassen is alive, if you can handle that truth."
She stopped.
"I know. Why believe a pretender like me? I have beaten you down every day since you started working for MI6. I have done horrible things to you and made you do horrible things, correct?"
She did not move. Blunt took it as affirmation.
"But what did you do then? Did you join up with SCORPIA and seek revenge on me like Howell did? No. You stayed here."
"Like a coward," She said, looking at him.
"No. Not a coward at all. You were young and brilliant. You could have gone anywhere. You even could have killed me, had you really wanted. But you stayed. Why is that?"
"I was weak."
"You stayed because you knew that while some of my actions were questionable, the intentions were good. You wanted to do good. You are not a bad person, Tulip. You and Alex Rider are not as unalike as you might think."
"And you still made him go through all that."
"At first I did it for you."
"For me?" She raised an eyebrow.
"I did think you were weak. I wanted you to get over your children. A leader in MI6 can't have a soft spot like that. You had to let go of that fear and Alex was perfect. But then, when he revealed himself to be so…useful, I made a lack in judgment and couldn't stop using him."
"Like Ian."
"Yes, but I did not tell you to come here to spell out each of my countless sins."
The woman felt anger rise in her chest." You wanted to tell me about Yassen…"
"No. That just happened to come out actually." He looked up at her, "I am through. I'm quitting MI6."
"You're…retiring?" She asked in disbelief.
"I put your name to be in place of my position and gained clearance for it last month."
"You don't mean-"
"It's all yours. The most horrid job on the planet to be sure, but it is yours."
"I don't want it."
The man closed his eyes and breathed a sigh. "But you'll take it nonetheless."
"You don't tell me what to do. You aren't in charge of me anymore!"
"If you don't take this, then someone else will, Tulip. Someone like me. Someone who would lie to you and use Alex Rider. There are many people like me in the world."
It was true. She did not want another Alan Blunt. She could not take another Alan Blunt.
She could resign.
But then Alex would be-Alex. Alan Blunt had made a final demand of her, she realized. Even as he retired, his deception had still remained to order her around.
"I…will take it."
"I know."
"I never wanted it."
"I know you didn't. But we seldom want anything life gives us."
"Yassen is my problem now?"
"You should not be talking about him with a civilian, Tulip." He answered and Mrs. Jones almost thought she saw a twinkle in his eye.
"Ah, there is one thing I should tell you… You see the patient that saved Alex was hidden but not misplaced."
"Is this supposed to make sense to me?"
"Not at all. Not yet. You see, MI6 found him dying, in pieces. In guilt I felt I should do something for him, anything. He had done us a great favor. I put scientists-who are no longer living, I am afraid to say-over the job of keeping him alive, anyway they could. They made a mistake and put him in a coma."
"And he just now woke up?"
"Death comes quickly. Life…takes time."
"Who is he?" She asked, a deep foreshadowing dread overcoming her.
The man tilted his head and looked through a foggy window. "You'll find out soon enough." Without looking at her, he continued, "You can leave now. That is all I wanted to tell you."
"You can't be serious-"
"Good luck on the job, Tulip."
"I can't just leave right now! I need…answers."
The man was silent. Mrs. Jones waited a few seconds before backing away. "Why must you be like this Alan? Is the truth really that bad?"
Silence.
"Fine then", she said, expressionless. Moving to leave, she tightened her fists. The man hadn't even apologized. A simple apology. Was that too much? He could rot in his lonely house for all she cared.
The door slammed shut behind her and the man inside remained unmoved.
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One Week Later…
The head of MI6 was getting into her car when the mobile rang. It was strange. She already knew what they would say. That day had been windy, giving her a chill down to her bones. The feeling was familiar. Death was familiar.
"Jones here," She answered, listening to the earnest reply.
A car drove in front of her, blocking the view briefly. The person on the other line was asking her if she was okay. She wasn't answering. Mrs. Jones brushed her lips, thinking. The person on the other line eventually gave up trying to talk to her and the dial tone rang in her ear.
She felt alone. He was dead. She had known it, but tried to convince herself otherwise of his aging process. She hated the man, but she still needed him. He was her crutch and now she was falling.
Grasping the handle of her car, she pulled herself into the driver's seat and shifted gears. When she reached for the handle, she saw a note.
It was small and neatly taped onto her steering wheel. Gently, she unfolded the little white piece of paper and read.
A few seconds later it fell to the floor and reality kicked in.
Blunt was dead. And know she was being blackmailed. What else could possibly happen?
"Mrs. Jones!"
She nearly bumped her head into the roof of her car when the young man popped up beside her door.
"A young lady at the hospital wants to speak with you immediately."
Jack.
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A/N- I hope no one fell asleep here ;) I ended up making this chapter longer out of pure guilt for updating slowly. (Haha.) There will be action coming, now that I've got the first chapter out of the way.
Review and tell me what you want to see/think! Heck, even one word will let me know if someone's still reading
