A/N: So, the good news? Japanese won't kill me! I'm actually picking it up pretty quick, plus my roommate's a Japanese major! XD The bad news? Endo. Endocrinology is definitely going to kill me. Sad thing right now is, I started writing this chapter two weeks ago when our wifi was down, but kept getting sidetracked since then. Sorry, though you'll probably be glad to hear that what's been keeping me sidetracked is finishing up this story. It's gonna be about ten chapters, chapter ten also including an epilogue of sorts. And my roommate and I have been trying to set up our cable, so that's been taking up my time, too. Also, be on the lookout for a one-shot collection called Falling Is Easy. It'll be telling the story of Danny's two years on the road before Red White and Dead.
Playlist for this chapter: "Under the Knife" by Rise Against, "Bleed Like Me" by Trapt, and "Absolute" by Thousand Foot Krutch.
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Reid was pacing. He had been for the past five hours since discovering Danny's disappearance. Somehow, he'd managed to down about seven cups of coffee before Morgan noticed and hid the coffee maker.
Of course, Reid wasn't the only one affected by the loss of their youngest member. Hotch was in his office, watching the news feed of the crash and its aftermath over and over. Rossi sat off to one side, elbows on knees and leaning forward. Prentiss and JJ had gone down to see how Garcia was doing. Morgan walked back in after hiding the coffee maker, massaging his temples in frustration.
Yassen Gregorovitch seemed to be the only one not worried. He leaned against a wall, arms crossed as he watched the team panic. At one point, he even checked his watch like he was waiting for someone.
It was a quarter to eleven when three people burst in through the main door. The whole team—sans JJ, Prentiss, and Garcia—turned to stare at the apparent family that had suddenly appeared.
Hotch was the first to approach them, noticing as he did that the teen seemed to be the one in charge. "May I help you?" Hotch didn't ask so much as demand.
The black-haired man reached around the teen to shake Hotch's hand. "Ben Daniels," he announced happily. "Someone requested Alex's help, so here we are!"
Hotch's eyebrow jumped up. "Alex?"
Reid blinked, remembering what Yassen had said earlier. "Alex Rider?"
The blond, brown-eyed teen nodded. "Are you the one who 'requested' I come?"
"Ah, n—no, that was—" Reid paused, glancing around. "W—Where'd he go?"
Alex frowned. "Who?"
Morgan answered as he helped Reid look. "The one who did ask your help." He glanced at Rossi, saying, "Wasn't he just here?"
Rossi shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine."
Alex rolled his eyes, whispering to Ben, "I suppose this means we're now looking for two missing persons."
Ben snickered, composing himself quickly when he realized Hotch was staring—glaring?—at him. "Ah, well, we were hoping you could tell us a bit more about the situation?"
The group exchanged introductions after Hotch called the women up from Garcia's office, and Jack Starbright, the redhead who'd come in with Alex and Ben, excused herself to go to their hotel.
Alex turned back to the BAU team. "Why were we called in?" he demanded.
There was a moment where the team found themselves wondering if this was what Hotch had been like as a teen, then, a voice came from the hallway. "Scorpia kidnapped my nephew during a car crash. They wish to exchange him for an agent of theirs."
The two MI6 agents spun to face the darkened hallway, unable to see who spoke. Alex cursed under his breath, then called back, "So, we have this agent captured?"
A chuckle echoed out from the dark, followed by footsteps. "No, Alex, not really." Yassen stepped out of the shadows, adding, "After all, I'm supposed to be dead."
The whole room was tense for a moment. Then, Alex moved, suddenly aiming a gun at the former assassin.
The team and Ben blinked, then Ben checked his holster, realizing Alex had taken his gun. The MI6 agent quickly grabbed back his weapon, telling Alex, "This is why Blunt doesn't allow you to carry weapons. Er, well, guns, I mean." He glared at the huffing teen as he holstered the gun.
Alex's arms were crossed as he leveled his own glare at Yassen. "Why are you here?" he bit out.
Yassen smirked, obviously pleased to have thrown the young spy off-balance. "Not going to ask why I'm alive?"
Alex shrugged. "You're a professional assassin and spy. Of course you'd know how to stage your own death. Why are you here?"
"I quit Scorpia by staging my death. They found out. I was coming to America to see my family, and Scorpia attacked my nephew."
Alex frowned. "I thought your parents died in Russia. What do you mean by 'family'?"
"My sister, Madalina. Once I had enough money, after our parents died, I sent her to America. A family there took her in, and she's now known as Maddie Fenton."
This threw both Brits for a loop. "You have a sister?" Ben gaped, trying to imagine what the sister of an international assassin must be like. His mental image made him dangerously pale.
"Does she know what you do?" Alex wondered, thinking that if Yassen went to such lengths to keep her from being connected to him, she couldn't have known or heard from him much.
"She knows everything," Yassen replied to Alex's shock, "as do her children, Jazz and Danny. I don't believe she's explained it all to her husband, but he does know she's Russian and has spoken with me."
The BAU team was now also showing their surprise, but Reid, Hotch, Rossi, Morgan, and Prentiss found themselves recovering first. "That's how he lasted twenty months on the streets," Reid commented.
Yassen nodded. "Maddie made sure her children knew how to take care of themselves. They each were taught many forms of martial arts, as well as other necessary skills."
Alex sneered at Yassen. "You had her train them for going into your line of work!" he accused.
Yassen shook his head. "Maddie taught them on her own. She knew that they could be in danger one day just for being related to me. Her lessons came in handy for Danny, or so I've heard." He locked eyes with Reid, and the two nodded.
Alex bristled, unable to trust the man before him. "So, this 'Danny' was trouble to begin with? How do we know he really was kidnapped and didn't just join Scorpia?"
"Because Danny and Jazz both have a far better developed sense of mortality than anyone in the spy business. Jazz is going to college to become a psychiatrist, and Danny always wanted to be an astronaut. Maddie is not forcing them to go into my work, and I am glad for that. But I believe the better question is, where are they holding my nephew?"
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Danny was pacing. He couldn't help it, there was nothing else to do! His overactive mind kept throwing thoughts and ideas at him, half of which made no sense and the other half were impossible. One such idea that kept cropping up screamed for him to Just Phase the Hell Out! But he couldn't leave the blond here, not when he was in worse shape than Danny himself.
That was part of the reason Danny had begun to pace. The man from before had come back, grabbing Alex and dragging him away, Alex kicking and screaming. Before leaving the room, though, the man—a platinum blond, Danny realized—glanced back, grinning, at him.
"Your turn will be next, nephew," he'd stated, then he and Alex were gone, the heavy door slamming shut behind them.
That had been about an hour ago, and Danny had found out quickly that the door and walls of his cell did little to block out the sound of Alex screaming. He'd actually plugged his iPod headphones into his ears, blaring the music to drown out the shrieks from down the hall, but it wasn't doing much besides destroying his eardrums. He simply continued to pace, wondering idly for a moment whether Reid might've (for the millionth time) been right when he said Danny's ADHD was coming back with a vengeance.
Danny shook his head. This wasn't the time to be thinking about that. He needed to find a way out before—
If Danny had been listening, he would've heard the screams stop. He would've heard the door opening. He would've heard someone walk in, boots clunking against the ground. Instead, Danny was oblivious until the shadow spread over him.
He glanced up, seeing a flash of red hair before everything went dark.
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Alex sat off to one side, still annoyed at being forced to work with Yassen Gregorovich, who, apparently, never really died. Over the past year of no missions, Alex had often found himself wondering about the Russian. The most prominent thought was always why did Yassen send him to Scorpia, but the relationship between Yassen and Alex's own father was a close second.
Yassen had told Alex that he loved John Rider and that that love was extended to Alex himself. At the time, Alex was utterly confused by this confession, but after a year of contemplating it, Alex decided Yassen was probably playing him, trying to trick him into doing something stupid like contacting Scorpia—which he had. While Scorpia taught him skills MI6 never would have, they still used him (like every other intelligence agency) and were ready and willing to kill him once his job was done. He'd shut down their project, though, saving thousands, maybe millions, of lives and in exchange got shot.
He scowled, remembering his near-miss at death. But then he looked across the room and noticed Yassen pacing and slowly dialing a number into his cell phone. For a moment, all ill-thought was forgotten as Alex watched the unshakeable Yassen worry over a phone call.
Curiosity peaked, Alex snuck behind a few desks to be in hearing range. Something was bothering him, but he pushed the thought away.
"Yes, it's about Daniil." Alex's brow furrowed at the name before realizing that must be Danny's full name. "They want me to pick him up from work."
It was a code, Alex knew. Admittedly, a fairly simple one, but a code just the same. Alex crept a bit closer as Yassen resumed his pacing.
"They want to know when I'll be back in," Yassen continued. "My letter of resignation has gone ignored, it seems." There was a long pause, then, "An old friend dropped by. He has some ideas about how they could run shop a bit better."
That was a little more complex a code, but Alex quickly figured out that Yassen was speaking of him.
"Tell Sam that I'll let her know when Danny turns his phone back on. He's forgotten to charge it this week."
That last threw Alex, but only until he realized that Yassen had dropped the code. Well, other than the charging thing, but most of the last exchange was honest.
"I'll speak to you again soon, lyubimo." Yassen added something in a low, smooth voice which Alex realized must be Russian. Then, he hung up and tilted his head before turning to face Alex's hiding spot. "You can come out now, Alex."
Alex fought down a blush and crawled out of his cover. He stood, unrepentant, before Yassen. "You spoke English on purpose, so I knew what you were talking about," he accused. This was the thought he'd pushed away before, after hearing whom Yassen was speaking to. "She knows Russian, and I doubt anyone here knows it."
"Emily Prentiss does," Yassen replied, "but, yes, I wanted you to hear. My sister is worried to death about Danny."
"You called him Daniil. Why?" Alex's curiosity was definitely getting the better of him today.
"Daniil is his given name. Jack named Jazmine, so Maddie named Danny. Most just assume his full name is Daniel, or that there was some spelling mistake on the roster." Yassen smiled sadly for a moment before his stoic mask fell back into place. "His best friends don't even know his real name, or where his mother is from. They do know she was adopted, though."
Alex studied Yassen's face. He took in the man's stance, noticing how he was tense, more tense than he'd ever seen the usually relaxed man. And where Yassen normally would be leaning casually against a wall, he was stiff-backed, unsupported by anything other than his own two feet. He'd even been pacing before the call. "You're worried," Alex murmured, knowing without any confirmation that he was right. "You're actually nervous about this."
"He is my nephew," Yassen stated, "and I know what these people are capable of. After all, I trained many of them." He glanced sideways at Alex. "You know what they've learned, too."
Alex stared at the floor. The two stood in silence for a long moment, ignoring the agents rushing around them. Finally, Alex looked back up, meeting Yassen's gaze. "How do we find him?"
Yassen smirked. "It's about time you asked."
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Danny was thrown roughly back into the cell, crashing against the far wall. He groaned as the movement pulled at the cuts and bruises he'd gained in the past few hours.
Alex was sitting in the corner farthest from the door, watching in silence as Danny rolled, trying to find the strength and leverage to push himself up. As the door slammed shut, Alex stood, moving to help Danny onto the cot. The raven-haired boy moaned, hugging his stomach as more red seeped slowly into his already bloodstained shirt.
"Pull your shirt up," Alex ordered. "We need to see if we can stop the bleeding."
Danny shook his head, pain stabbing through his temple from the concussion he'd received in the crash. "It'll… stop," he gasped. "It'll… stop on its… own."
Alex frowned. "What's wrong with you? Those cuts could get infected if you leave them be!" He tugged at the bottom of Danny's shirt, the other boy unable to fight Alex off.
The blond gaped as he read the words carved into Danny's chest. They obviously didn't start there, seeing as the first phrase made no sense alone. Alex could see the scar tissue on either side of each cut, proving that these words had been there and healed before Danny had been taken by Scorpia. Someone—and Alex had a pretty good idea who—had sliced them open again.
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Danny squeezed his eyes shut tight against Alex's piercing gaze. He knew what had caught the blond's attention.
When he'd come to earlier, he found that he couldn't move. His hands were fastened down above his head, and he couldn't feel his legs below his knees. A quick glance towards his feet showed why his legs went numb. The lower half of the table he'd been placed on was elevated so no blood flowed to his feet, probably to keep him from running if he somehow got out of the cuffs. He spent the five minutes of waiting for his captor to come in by studying the room he'd woken in.
He was facing the far wall, the door behind him, out of view. The whole room was extremely sterile, which confused Danny. He'd been expecting something closer to a dungeon than a hospital based on the cell he'd been locked in. There was a specialized fridge in one corner, filled with small jars and beakers. On the other side of that wall, he could see a sheet pan with various medical instruments, laid out on a counter. Scalpels and needles lay next to a stethoscope, light, and blood pressure cuff.
Danny fooled himself for a moment, thinking he might be in a hospital after the crash and the whole being-locked-in-a-cell-with-a-blond-equally-locked-up-teen thing was just a nightmare brought about due to his concussion. Then he felt the metal restraints digging into his wrists and remembered that most hospitals don't lock up a patient.
It was then that he heard the door behind him open. There were a few thunking footsteps, then the red hair he'd seen before passing out was swinging into view. He turned his head to glance at the gray-eyed woman before him. She smirked down at him, lips pulled away from teeth that had been filed into points. "You woke up early," she spoke quietly, but something in her voice made Danny shiver involuntarily. "Now I have to change my schedule." Her smirk flipped into a scowl as she reached over and grabbed something from the sheet pan. "I don't like changing my schedule."
Something slammed down right below Danny's knee, and he jerked before realizing it was a reflex hammer. The woman had just used so much force, he was surprised the hammer hadn't gotten lodged in his leg. His knee throbbed, having been pushed uncomfortably up when the hammer had hit. Danny bit back tears, but he did hiss in pain.
The woman grinned, showing off the fangs she'd made out of her teeth. "You and I, we're going to have some fun. I really hope your uncle doesn't come for a while. After all, Alex is amusing, but knowing Yassen is worrying over you somewhere… that makes it so muchbetter."
This time, the hammer fell on his right arm, and he shrieked, almost drowning out the sound of the bone fracturing. He felt the pain screaming down his arm, the forced position of his arms over his head becoming even more awkward and uncomfortable thanks to his new injury.
Those gray eyes blinked at him before sparkling mischievously. "You've broken that arm before," she murmured, "haven't you, Danny?"
He flinched away, not responding. The hammer flashed out again, this time catching him in the side, right between two ribs. He grunted, barely able to draw in air.
The redhead huffed, rummaging through the items on the sheet pan again. Danny had a split second debate, trying to decide whether or not to phase away—but remembering that he wasn't the only one trapped here. He couldn't leave Alex here with these—these monsters, so he wasn't going to leave until he could bring the blond along.
With that decided, he focused his attention again on the woman—and realized she was staring down at his chest. She had pulled up his shirt, revealing the scarred words Vlad had left him. Her head tilted, the red locks falling to one side before she brushed them out of her face and glanced back at Danny's. "You've been broken before," she whispered, but her voice seemed too loud to Danny, who could feel the panic welling up inside of him. There was a long, quiet moment before she stood up and grabbed a scalpel from the sheet pan, saying, "It's always easier to break a bone twice. I wonder…." She lowered the blade to his chest, the tip brushing against the scar of the first letter. "How long did it take for you to be broken before?"
Danny hissed in a breath as the scalpel easily sliced into his flesh, the woman carefully tracing over the letters.
"How long, Danny, before this other person broke you?"
The knife dug in deeply, deeper than Vlad's had in the first place, and Danny cried out.
Her fangs flashed once more in an awful mockery of a smile. "Let's see how fast you'll break again."
Danny's eyes burst open, he moaning as Alex checked him for any other wounds and went over his bruising ribs.
"Sorry," Alex muttered.
"'Sfine," Danny mumbled back. "Who… who was she?"
"Myrina Drake," the blond replied simply. "Her brother Samael's the one who tossed me in here last night."
Danny nodded, storing that information for later. "Are you… okay?" he managed, still unable to get much air.
"'Mfine," Alex grumbled. "I'm more worried about you, really. You were bleeding a lot. Did she hurt you anywhere else?"
"Ribs, knee, and… arm, all… on… the right side." Danny hissed as he forced himself into a sitting position. "The… bleeding'll… stop soon. I… heal quick."
Alex leveled a stern, skeptical look at Danny. "I'll believe that when I see it."
They settled into a semi-comfortable silence for a few moments, then Alex sighed. "We've got to find a way out of here," he grumbled. "They took all my gadgets, and I can't find any weaknesses in the walls or floor. I can't even check the ceiling since it's too bloody high…." Alex flopped back, glaring up at said ceiling.
Danny bit his lip, thinking for a moment whether he actually should say anything. Finally, he glanced over at Alex. "What if… if I said… I could get us… out of here?"
Alex pushed himself back up, staring at Danny. "...How?"
"I… can phase… through stuff." When Alex scoffed at that, Danny shoved his hand through the wall. That earned him wide eyes and Alex's full attention. "I'm half-ghost. We can… get outta here… using my powers, and… they'll never know."
Alex turned the idea over in his mind, slowly nodding. "Okay, yeah. But we'll have to wait for morning." He cut off Danny's protest, stating, "You're still hurt, and you'll need to heal some if you're going to get us out."
"I told you, I'll… heal fast!"
"I know. But we'll just wait until the bleeding stops, alright?"
Danny scowled, but nodded, knowing Alex had a point. After all, it wouldn't help them escape if they left a trail of blood.
Alex grinned at him. "Good. Now, you get some sleep, and I'll wake you when the bleeding's stopped."
"Fine. But… wake me as soon as… it stops, okay? I don't… wanna be here… any longer than I… have to." Danny lowered himself slowly down to lie on the cot once more, hissing when the movement pulled at the cuts and his ribs. Once his head met the cot, his eyes fluttered closed, drifting off easily and completely missing the twisted smirk on Alex's face.
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The blond tapped cautiously at the door, glancing back at the blue-eyed boy to make sure he didn't wake up. Luckily, he didn't, and the door swung open, Samael Drake quickly tugging the teen along with him.
They quickly reached another door, and Samael threw it open, shoving the teen into a chair before moving to sit next to his distracted sister. He pulled the needle from her hands and directed her attention to their guest.
"What did you find out?" Samael asked.
The teen grinned, but it couldn't be described as happy so much as insane. "He has a plan for us to break out," he stated. "He trusts me, more than we thought. It's possible his uncle told him to look for Alex Rider." The boy grimaced in disgust as he spoke the name. "He's told me how we can escape."
"How?"
"He's half-ghost. He proved it to me by putting his hand through one of the walls."
A smirk slowly spread across Myrina's face. "That's just perfect for us, then, isn't it?" she purred. "Especially with the, ah, gift that we received last year from that billionaire-turned-mayor."
The two men frowned, brows furrowing before they caught on. Samael grinned. "Yes, it will be, won't it?" He turned to the boy. "We'll need you in on this, Julius. The nephew trusts you, and we can use that trust to break him further."
The blond gave a smile that looked more like he was baring his teeth. "Leave it to me. This guy's way too gullible. I'll make sure he never trusts me—oh, I mean Alex—again."
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A/N: So, that "time skip" where Alex ends up captured already? It's making a lot more sense now, isn't it? Sorry about that, but let's face it, Scorpia would probably love the chance to use Julius to screw with someone's mind, especially if it would get back at one or more of their enemies, in this case Yassen and Alex. Anywayz, I'd best get back to Endocrinology (ick!), so read and review, please!