A/N: Yes! Here's chapter four! And to those you are wondering why this story is rated M, you are going to find out in this chapter! *Evil grin* (I'm smiling, this should terrify you ;P) Thanks for all the reviews. Another special thanks the Squiggles for betaing for me!

P.S. Sawyer's new name is Reid. (pronounced 'Reed')

Disclaimer: I understand that there are remarkable similarities between my story and Faint Hearted, by Scorpia710. (Squiggles forced me to read it a few days ago...) I would like to reassure everyone that this story will be headed in a different direction. (I will also be changing Sawyer's name because after reading Faint Hearted, the way I wanted to take his character wouldn't work...sigh)

DISCLAIMER: I am still not a man, and still do not own Alex Rider. If I did I wouldn't be writing this annoyingly unnecessary disclaimer.

CHAPTER FOUR

Alex awoke on a stone cold floor, his body screaming in pain. The room around him was dim, and he vaguely wondered why Jack wasn't yelling at him to get up. His eternal clock that had developed during one of his missions told him that it was six in the morning...

That was when he noticed Snake above him, a worried look on his face. Why was Snake in his...oh. That was when he remembered. Jack was dead and Scorpia had captured them. He had been talking to Yassen, the not-so-dead dead assassin, when they had come in and attacked them. Alex mentally chuckled at the look on K-unit's face when they learned his name.

It was what had happened afterward, when he regained consciousness, that was replaying all to vividly in his mind.

ARARARAR

FLASHBACK

Alex was worried. Extremely worried. This wasn't unreasonable as he had woken up missing his shirt and shoes. Thankfully he was still with his pants and boxers, but Alex couldn't decide if that was something to be relieved about or not.

Before he could decide, a man walked in. He was a large, bulky man, with a abnormally large nose and caterpillar eyebrows. There was a large scar running down his cheek, and what looked like a bullet wound scar on his neck. Alex knew immediately that this was his torturer.

"My name is James. Where you like it or not, I will be the only person outside of your cell that you will see during your 'stay' here. Our sessions will not be pleasant. There is no escape. Answering our questions may bring you less pain. Maybe. Do you understand?"

It was a rhetorical question. Taking a look around the room, Alex could make out various different types of torture devices. Alex was almost positive that there was still blood on some of them.

Without warning, a slash of pain came from his back. When he failed to fall to the ground, Alex realized for the first time that his feet and hands were bound to the ceiling and floor.

"Now, what's your name, you little brat?" Another flair of pain appeared, located in his back.

"Cub."

This was followed by the man whipping his back once again. Alex had decided that it was a whip, since a knife didn't act like that. Since he could feel the blood running down his back, Alex was fairly certain that the end of the whip had been sharpened like a knife. This was making the experience more painful, but there was no way in hell he was going to answer these people's questions without a fight.

"Now, what is you name?" James sounded pissed, but also slightly gleeful. Sadist.

"Cub." Alex felt a tinge of satisfaction when the man let out an annoyed hiss. That satisfaction was quickly replaced with pain as another slash entered his flesh.

This repeated until Alex knew his back was bloodied beyond recognition. Finally the man switched to other tactics.

A knife pierced his skin on his arm. Alex could feel something coated on it, he assumed it was a poison. Shit, they didn't care if they killed him to get the information or not. That just wasn't right! Then again, this was Scorpia that he was talking about, so he really shouldn't have been surprised.

"Who do you work for?" Ah, decided to try a different tactic.

"No one. I'm bloody fourteen, you loon! Who the hell would I work for?" That was better. Even in pain, sarcasm was his escape route. If he was going to be in pain, he was going to have as much fun as he could.

Alex could feel his mind becoming fuzzy. There wasn't a lot that he could do, but give them a smug smile. This earned him another slice with the knife.

"Where is the Headquarters of MI6 located?" The man was starting to become pissed.

"MI6? Why would I know where MI6 headquarters was? Are you really that fucking insane? What do you think I am, a fourteen year old spy?" It was true, but they didn't need to know that.

In an all out fury, the man sliced the knife deep into Alex's arm. Shit! Alex could barely keep back a tortured scream of pain. The room was blurry and James's face was nothing but a blob in front of him.

"I know exactly who you are Alex Rider. Don't you ever forget that!" With that last warning, Alex let the darkness engulf him.

END FLASHBACK

ARARARAR

"Dear god, Cub! What did they do to you?" The was Eagle's voice. There was a large amount of disgust and absolute shock in it.

"Whip...knife...poison..." Alex could barely get the words out, his voice felt like fire on his throat.'

"Shit!" That was Snake, Alex noted. "What did you do to piss them off so badly?"

"Wouldn't...tell...anything..." Alex cursed his inability to speak at this moment. Looking around the room, there was no sign of Yassen. Alex decided that he had been the second one taken. He had the feeling that Yassen was not going to look much better than him when he got back.

"They interrogated you? Why you?" It seemed the Eagle had forgotten their earlier conversation.

"Work...for...MI6...know...a lot..." Alex decide that James was going to die a very painful and horrid death. This being unable to talk correctly was not on Alex's to list of things to do.

The door to the cell opened and Yassen, not nearly as bad as Alex, was thrown back in. There was a silence as the door was slammed shut, leaving them alone for now. Yassen looked only fairly beaten. It seems that since most of his knowledge was of Scorpia (who were their captors) they had only tried to find out what he knew about anything else. Obviously, that wasn't much.

Yassen took one look at Alex and narrowed his eyes. They all could see the look of rage that was hidden there.

"You really work for MI6, Cub?" Wolf asked, having trouble believing that this small teenager was a spy and a high ranking one at that.

"Yeah." Alex was pleased to find that the word came out without much effort.

"Alex. Who. Did. This?" Yassen's voice was deadly calm, making all but Alex shudder.

"Said...name...was...James..." Alex scowled. Yassen seemed to understand what he was thinking and nodded.

"James is one of Scorpia's top interrogators, and was also Julia Rothman's brother."

Alex felt his eye's grow wide. "Bastard...Had...right...to...kill...killed..." Alex trailed off. Yassen nodded once again in understanding.

"Yes, you did have the right. She was the one who ordered their deaths." Yassen thought for a moment. Everyone in the room noticed that his wounds didn't seem to bother him in the slightest."I wonder how they managed to do it. Hunter knew everyone in Scorpia..."

"Not...Ash-sh..." Alex stuttered his godfather's name. There was pain laced in his voice, pain that didn't come from the poison or torture, but deep betrayal.

"Ash?" Yassen looked curiously.

"You...stabbed...day...captured..." Alex forced out. If not for the emotional pain of the moment he would still be planning James's demise. Even more so now that he knew why MI6's negations were being ignored.

"Ah. But how did he know Hunter?" Yassen's cool demeanor didn't fade or even flicker.

"Best...friend...and...g-god-f-father..." It took literal effort to speak to last word. At least he could think straight, he reasoned. He looked pointedly at Fox, who looked as if he wanted to jump off a cliff.

"That man at Dragon Nine! The one who you seemed to know and tried to kill you! He was...I shot...'' his voice trailed off, horror clear in the SAS man's voice.

Alex nodded, happy that Fox now knew. He had felt bad for keeping it from him. He thought that maybe MI6 would have told him, but he supposed not. K-Unit looked like they had been slapped. They had treated this kid like hell, and his life was more dangerous than theirs.

Alex drifted off to sleep, exhausted from the effort it took to speak. He knew that the poison wasn't serious, but it still affected him greatly. Especially with the wounds that now covered his back. He was pretty sure that they were going to scar. Not that that was going to be the biggest problem. He already had a good number of scars.

While Cub slept, Snake decided to check for other major injuries on his front side. Enlisting the help of Wolf and Yassen, they carefully turned the sleeping boy onto his back, then nearly dropped him.

The front of his body was covered in scars, looking like they were from various kinds of torture. But one scar stood out from the others. Snake felt a cold rage as Eagle and Fox came to see what the problem was.

"Is that a bullet wound?"

A/N: Cliffie! Don't you all hate me? *grin*