Well, again I can only apologize for the long gap between the chapters... I can't promise to never do it again, but I'll try!

Thanks to those who reviewed! I can't tell you guys how glad I'm about each one of your reviews! I hope you'll tell what you think about this chapter in another one! ;-)

Special thanks to my beta C.J.0608 again, who makes this story legible... If any one of you find mistakes that disturb you, just pm me and I'll fix it! ;-)

Disclaimer: I don't own Alex Rider, although I dream of it... ;-) The characters belong to Anthony Horowitz, I just changed the circumstances in this FAN FICTION! :P

Have I forgotten something? I don't think so... ;-) Now read and enjoy (and review)... :P


Yassen was bound to a chair in the middle of the gloomy cell. His whole body seemed to consist only of cuts, gruesome burn wounds, and colourful bruises shimmered from under dried blood.

The torture left his body as a battlefield and his mind lost in fog. His thoughts were only pain, sole imbued with words, which would be engraved into his heart forever.

The incarnation of his nightmares appeared to walk around him while talking at Yassen with his astonishing smooth and rousing voice: "Betrayal! Is there anybody whom you can trust a tiny little bit? Some who understands you and loves you for whom you are? Your own father tried your whole life to make you into someone you aren't. He only wanted an obedient little doll that does everything he wanted. And your mother. Has she ever protected you when your father beat you because you didn't match up to his expectations? Or when he encouraged your ruthless teachers to do everything necessary to break you... although you tried so hard to please your parents, you couldn't do anything right. They always told you how much of a failure you were."

"That's not true," whispered Yassen quietly. "You're lying!"

"I'm not lying, my dear boy, and you know it. You've always known. They betrayed you. Had anyone ever told you that you are in fact a real genius? I've seen your coursework. You speak four languages fluently and have limited language skills in at least two others. In every normal school your grades would have been exceptional. And you do as good in sports. You would have been popular in every school. You would have had friends!"

Dr. Three paused to let his words sink in. He was kind of surprised about the child's answer. Fighting against his almost unbearable pain Yassen looked up and tried to see his tormentor in the dark cell. "I don't need friends. They are an unnecessary weakness!"

A joyful laughter filled the air. This child just wouldn't stop to amaze Three.

"Yes, they are. But do you really want me to believe that you have never wished for friends? That you've never felt lonely? Don't kid yourself. If it weren't for your father, you would have lived a normal and happy life without the need of thinking about weaknesses. He cheated you out of your childhood, your happiness."

Dr. Three stopped behind Yassen and stroked an almost gentle hand over his shoulder before he whispered in his ear: "And then those you did everything for, those you loved betrayed you again. They left you to be tortured, to die an agonizing death. I've sent your father the videotapes of our meetings. He only had to help us a little bit to stop your suffering, but he didn't want to. After everything you did to please him, you weren't worth it."

"Lies," screamed Yassen with his hoarse voice.

"Do you really believe that?" asked Three before he suddenly grasped the child's arm and twisted it cruelly. An agonizing cry escaped the boy's throat already sore from screaming.

"Don't worry! I've only dislocated your shoulder. You know that I don't like you interrupting me. I'm going to reset it soon. After all we don't want you to suffer permanent damage, right? I was really careful to avoid that. It all depends on the right pressure, which has to hit the right position. But even so it will take some time until it will work like before and you will have to do some rather unpleasant physiotherapy I'll help you with. But now I'll have to leave...don't worry, I'll be back soon to ease you from your pain!" he said, slamming the door of Yassen's prison cell behind him and leaving the boy alone to deal with the aftermath of their conversation. Leaving him alone with his unbearable pain and his thoughts about betrayal and deception.


"Yassen? Yassen!" The loud voice entered Yassen's tormented thoughts. It took a few minutes, before he was finally able to shake off his haunting memories and take in his surroundings, but then he could have banged his head against something because of his own stupidity. He wasn't allowed to let slip his alertness. NEVER!

So he looked almost sleeplessly at his accompanist, who was his new "mentor". The man he only knew as Hunter examined him with his serious brown eyes while continuing to walk towards their destination. Yassen was sure that there wasn't much that he failed to notice.

"What was it that you thought about? Are you worried about the other students?" Hunter asked his handsome slender face emotionless.

"It's nothing," repulsed Yassen, uncertain about the motives behind Hunter's question and quickened his steps.

It really was like he had said to his mentor before. He couldn't judge the man. On the face of it he was a strikingly good-looking man with fair hairs similar to Yassen's, a man in his late twenties whose charisma was thrilling. He seemed to be the type whom others would follow even in the depths of hell.

His tall, slim and well-built figure always walked with an air of confidence and recklessness as if he wanted to tell everybody who dared to oppose him to go to hell. He could have been an athlete, a surfer maybe, if it weren't for a certain feature around his slightly hard, narrow mouth and the determinate look in his eyes. A determination that could and would kill.

Hunter was a man that disturbed Yassen more than his sadistic tormentor because of his own uncertainty regarding Hunter. He just didn't know what to except and what to prepare for.

Although he had treated him with nothing but a cold indifference mixed with hidden fairness up until now, it could all be a trap laid out by his tormentor to deceive him. After all, the torturer had warned him that he would keep sight of him...

Yassen shook his head to free himself of his thoughts. He couldn't let himself be distracted. This place was dangerous. Everybody here was dangerous and perhaps could kill him in a heartbeat. And he was here to learn to be like them. A fact that was as much thrilling as disturbing. He did want to be strong like them, but killing people or torturing them like it had been done to him...

Yassen fought his budding panic like he always did and buried it deep inside. In the end, panic was a weakness like everything else.

"Ready?" asked his mentor and Yassen nodded slightly annoyed about himself that Hunter was able to tell that something was disturbing him.

"Good! Then keep your head up and fight until the end!" he said pushing open the door of the training hall and leaving a dumb founded Yassen behind. Had he really heard the cold man imitating a general of a past century while hiding a smile? He had to be mistaken.

The hall was rather small, especially since the ten soon-to-be assassins that were spread out around the whole room were engaged in a rather vicious fight with another trainee. The twin sisters he had briefly seen danced almost through the entire fighting space while evading the other fighters and exchanging brutal punches and kicks. Their movements were so flawless and fluent they could barely be seen, nevertheless each one was successfully blocked as if they could read the mind of their opponent.

Desire for their strength flashed through his mind. They didn't have to be afraid...

Suddenly the man dressed in black, who had stood motionless in the middle of the sparring whereas only his eyes moved quickly observing every breath of those around him, flicked out his foot and tripped one of the sisters up. Totally absorbed in her duel the woman didn't see this movement and fell to the ground severely. A mistake her sister immediately made the most of and threw a punch that would have killed the fallen woman if her attacker hadn't stopped it inches from her carotid.

The man nodded slowly and the fighter, whose attention drawn by the fall of the woman, stopped this instant.

"Well reacted, Nisha. Exploit every opportunity or weakness you see in your opponent after analysing instinctively, if it's only a subterfuge," he explained his students with a slight Russian accent, "Aruna's inattentiveness showed how easy even an expert martial artist can die if he lets his surroundings escape his attention! You can never decrease your vigilance. An enemy could be everywhere. Even in the form of your own instructor or the form of a hole in the ground over which you stumble... Calum, Aaron, Ethan and Miguel," he looked at the two pairs of sparring partners who stood out due to their muscular built, "practise your coordination during a fight as a team. Aruna will gladly be your sparring partner since she has to practise watching her surroundings." The instructor didn't even glimpse at her and continued talking to the men.

"You have to act as a unity. Each one of you has to know the movements of the others, before they do them, and adapt his own. Even assassins fight in teams sometimes. The rest of you will watch and analyse this fight while working through the karate Kata. Don't dare to miss a movement of one of them or make a mistake in your own."

Although his voice was quiet, it contained a terrible power that promised hell on earth upon those who dared to resist him.

His students obeyed immediately and focused on their two tasks. Their bodies instinctively performed the well-known moves, forced time and time again upon their muscles, while their eyes followed the fight in the middle if the hall.

The four men circled Aruna who stood there in fighting stance, seemingly ready to counter every move. But even Yassen could see that they were experienced fighters. A punch from one of them had to feel like a clap of thunder. And it would be impossible for the woman to dodge or block every single attack from them. He knew it was her punishment for being unobservant or maybe for only being here. He promised himself to keep this lesson in mind.

But contrary to his expectations Aruna managed a long time to evade being hit. She moved like a blade of grass in the wind, flexible yet strong. The gracefulness and precision of her movements impressed Yassen. She seemed to be the equal of her opponents.

But it wasn't long until she didn't see a punch coming. Aruna blocked a kick from the Mediterranean guy whom the instructor had called Miguel, while simultaneously evading the attacks of his two companions. She failed to notice that the last one was approaching behind her until the whole power of his punch connected with her head and knocked her to the ground.

Even though she managed to get up quickly before being kicked, there was a change in her desperate fight, which had been destined to be lost since the very beginning. Still dizzy and heavily hurt because of the earlier hit, her reactions were rather slow. The whole fight turned into simply beating the shit out of her. Another powerful blow knocked her down again. Knowing that she couldn't do anything anymore, Aruna curled up in a ball to protect herself as best as possible from the vicious attacks.

The Martial Arts instructor turned away disinterested in her soft cries of pain and seemed to acknowledge Yassen's presence for the first time. He scrutinized him and then referred to Hunter: "You think that he is ready?"

Hunter gave Yassen a brief look, then he nodded and answered: "His injuries are healed. The board is eager to see if he is able to live up to Dr. Three's expectations. He better be ready!"

Yassen understood it as a warning to not disappoint his mentor, to not follow the example of the broken woman on the ground, who was observed by her sister with a blank face.

Then Hunter left without a second glance and left Yassen to the unscrupulous instructor.

His feelings were mixed. He looked forward to learning more, to being strong. But then again he knew that it would be hard. Especially considering what he had just learned.

There was always someone stronger, someone more vicious. And yet Yassen was determined to beat them all, even if he had to become the worst monster the world had ever seen.