Chapter Two – "Let's Lose Ourselves"

Alex, or rather Cub as he tried to remember to refer to himself as, and Fox returned to their unit's hut in silence. Fox was obviously disheartened by this – he'd found that Cub was a friendly, engaging person in Australia, and he'd ended up feeling no small amount of respect for him. To see him so quiet and withdrawn tugged on his heartstrings to say the least. Musing on these changes inwardly the trek back was over quickly. Snake, Wolf and Eagle were all sat on two beds facing each other playing cards over a flimsy trestle table; Fox went to join them, eager to remove himself from Cub's increasingly awkward company. Cub, on the other hand, simply ambled to his bed where he started rummaging in his bag. Snake, seeing this as a way for Cub to hide his nervousness around a group of people he was slightly less than comfortable with, spoke up.

"There's always room for one more in a game of cards," he said, his tone friendly if not slightly awkward. "You up for a game of cheat?" Cub swallowed a giggle at how apt the game was considering his profession, instead opting to shake his head.

"Thanks for the offer, Snake, but I'd much rather have a shower." He felt grimy and oddly dry all over thanks to the car's air conditioning on the trip up; it didn't matter how long a journey was – travelling would always make him feel dirty.

"You're lucky then, Cub, 'cause we're moving up in the world!" Snake threw an arm vaguely in the direction of the direction of a door that Alex had presumed had been a back exit. "The whole barracks has been upgraded – each hut has their own en suite bathroom, a real five star experience." He grinned wryly at Cub, suggesting it was considerably less than that.

Functionality ruled over form in the army, and their bathrooms were no exception to the rule – Alex wouldn't have been surprised to see it in a cheap motel room somewhere – with a meticulously clean but minimalistic shower unit which was his sole focus at the moment. Alex had gained a frightening attention to personal hygiene rituals over the two years MI6 had forced him into working for them thanks to his various wounds and injuries – most of them had been sustained on enemy soil with no proper healthcare available and in those cases infection could lead to death. It was with this thought that Alex stripped himself off, throwing his clothes to the floor on the way, before hurling himself into the shower's freezing cold spray.

The slightest touch of water on his abused back hurt, the still healing scars still incredibly sensitive, so the cold water's numbing effect was welcome to him. He didn't even notice when the water warmed up so caught up was he in his machinations. Then men out in the main room had seemed like they were genuinely trying to be nice to him, which made his job harder. He didn't know what he could do to make them dislike him that much other than generally being shit at everything and dragging the whole team down like a dead weight, but that idea wasn't conducive to his aims and so was thrown out of his mind. It was as he was mindlessly and methodically disinfecting the lacerations on his back that he realised how exactly he could make K-Unit back off.

ARARARARAR

A rather dramatic cloud of steam billowed out of the bathroom as Alex flung the door open, striding into the main room as if he owned the place. Nobody looked – nobody cared. Alex heaved a sigh.

"Where do you guys keep the towels?"

Eagle looked over and recoiled, but not before catching an eyeful of Cub–crotch.

"Oh, Jesus, Cub. Put it away!" Eagle flailed in his direction, eyes scrunched up to avoid another glimpse of Cub's not-entirely-unattractive-but-most-definitely-underage-and-out-of-bounds body. "They're over there, in the linen cupboard-y thing."

Cub grunted his thanks and moseyed over to it, outwardly unashamed. Inwardly, he was, for lack of a better description, a nervous wreck. His body was always kept firmly under wraps if possible, and while he'd been trained to endure 'sexual humiliation' via RTI sessions there was a difference between psychological torture and displaying your flaws yourself. However, he just heaved a sigh and decided to own the pants-less look. He needed to get stronger for Jack's sake, and if he had to walk around showing off his mutilated body to people who would hold it against him then so be it. His hands found thin white towels – the kind of type you'd get from a cheap hotel – and he resisted the urge to drown himself in folds of fabric, instead just wrapping one around his waist and draping another over his shoulders, carefully hiding the bright purple scar tissue criss-crossing his back.

Here we go, he thought. The big reveal.

"What're you guys playing over there?" Cub moved closer to the table, leaning over Wolf's shoulder. They'd stopped playing Cheat while he was in the shower, and while it was obvious to Alex that it was poker, he needed a question to make his plan work.

"We're playing Texas Hold-ems, y–" Wolf had been turning around to look at him incredulously, and was rendered speechless for the second time that night as he was left face to face with the scar over Cub's heart.

"Cub." Snake's face was grave, his voice even more so. "Is that what I think it is?"

"Yeah," Alex grinned. "Pretty cool, huh." He cringed inwardly, this act made him feel dirty. He noted Fox's mouth opening and closing redundantly, and while Eagle and Snake both looked shocked, Snake managed to get spit some words out.

"What happened?"

Alex toed the ground, looking both embarrassed and proud.

"…Gang war."

Wolf's face became red with anger.

"What the fuck?" he roared, "It's not 'pretty cool', you imbecile! I didn't take a bullet for you to go and get yourself involved in some fucking feud over drug money or some shit!"

Eagle's head snapped to Wolf.

"When'd you take a bullet for him?"

"He was in the fucking school I was at that time, Point Blanc." He scowled at Alex. "I thought you were some kind of official operative or something – god knows why – but it turns out you're just a fucking rich kid with a rich dad getting special treatment!"

Alex plastered the most confused look on his face that he could muster up.

"What, like you guys don't have some killer scars you're proud of?"

"It's different," Wolf spat, suddenly so close to him that their noses were almost touching, "When it's something you did yourself. We–" He gestured at his unit. "–get to be proud of our wounds because we got them fighting on the front line, for justice, not in some fucking gang war over fucking drug money, you shitty little prick." Alex had never realised how intimidating Wolf's small stature could be. It scared him. "You… I can't talk to you. Put a fucking shirt on before I hurt someone."

That certainly did the trick, Alex thought to himself, admittedly somewhat saddened. They'll be leaving me alone now… He pushed the angst he felt over people's reactions to his marred body to the deepest recesses of his mind, hoping to avoid it but, much like Scorpia, Alex Rider does not forgive, neither does he forget.

ARARARARAR

He was in chains. His wrists burned with a passion. His back he could no longer feel but for the pain shooting through it, and the bed he was laying on did nothing to help the pain. His arms were sore from hours in the same position over his head, handcuffed to the headboard. Tremors of pain emanated from his knee. He didn't need to look down to know what would happen next – the silk sheets and overly soft mattress told him where he was.

A figure in the darkness placed their hand gently on his ankle, playing with the shackle that rested there.

"Alex." The voice was deep and dark and sent a shiver down his spine. His toes curled. "Look at me, Alex." Alex looked, but he couldn't see. He could never see. "You've been a very bad boy, Alex." The hand continued caressing, moving to gently touch the underside of his foot. Alex knew what was coming, and jerked away. "Are you resisting me, Alex?" The hand left him; Alex tried to tell him through the gag that no, he'd never do that, but he knew what was coming, he knew and he couldn't stop it, could never stop it.

"Alex." His head jerked up, tears forming in his eyes. "You're mine, Alex. You're mine and you let people look at you." No, I didn't. "You just put your body out there, you let them look at you. You made them look at you, you slut." No, I'd never do that; I know what's coming. A single tear rolled down his face, soaking into the cloth gag stuffed into his mouth.

"Alex. You're mine."

And that's when the real pain started.

Actually, yeah. So I typed this one up real fast for you guys and I don't like withholding chapters so have fun with this. Thanks to all my reviewers, I replied to you all personally except the people who disabled private messaging. Constructive criticism welcome and appreciated.

Edit: I got a review telling me they thought that Wolf's swearing was out of character. On the one hand, I agree. He'd never swear in the books because it's written for 14 year olds mainly, and swearing would reduce the target audience significantly. However, on the other hand, in England (I feel like the culture is different in other places) in normal everyday conversation we swear for every other word so it's really not that big a deal for people over here to do that, although I see why you'd think it strange if you lived in a different, slightly more reserved culture.

Any more questions? I like explaining things and I next to never get offended so come at me, bros!