Chapter 4: The Explanations Part Two

DISCLAIMER: I get sad every time I do this. But I promised my unicorn that I would. So, I don't own Alex Rider or Maximum Ride. They belong to Anthony Horowitz and James Patterson. Sigh…. I think I just died a little.

Fang Pov (Finally!)

I believed he was Max's brother. Who wouldn't? They're identical. Same dirty blonde hair, warm but serious brown eyes. They even had the same colored wings. But I had to be cautious; he could be an act working for the school.

Angel had just squashed all those suspicions when she read his mind.

But why hadn't I or anyone else in the flock known of him? The great Maximum Ride had a big brother. A British big brother. I was pretty sure Max was American. I wanted answers, and I was sure everyone else did too.

"It all started when our parents decided to take us on a trip to America", Alex began. " Our father worked for the government and had just gotten back from a serious deep cover mission. And to celebrate his survival, Mum had suggested a family vacation. It was a good way to relieve stress and spend time with his family, so he agreed."

"I remember that", Max said. " I still had my accent then."

"I bet you can't talk like Brit without embarrassing yourself now", Alex teased. " But back to my tale of adventure."

"We went to California. The Golden State. Fun in the sun, right? A place where you don't expect a bunch of crazy scientists to nest."

"We had just come back from another day at the beach. Mum was cooking dinner and Dad was setting the table. I remember chasing Max around the beach house because she took my toy soldier and wouldn't give it back." Alex looked nostalgic. " She was four and I was five. We had no idea what was going to happen

"They just stormed the house. The Erasers, I mean. Broke down doors and smashed through windows. Took Mum and Dad by surprise, and before our parents knew what was going on, they…." Max said this. Her and Alex's faces were pained now. Alex engulfed her in a brotherly hug.

"They were dead by the time we got to the kitchen. The Erasers surrounded and tranquilized us, stuffing us into separate burlap sacks. Next thing I knew, Max and I were at the Death Valley School, stuffed in a cage."

Then Max said, " The scientists told us that they killed our parents because of their bounty. SCORPIA, the organization my father went deep cover in, was offering a lot of money for their deaths. Enough money to fund a lab, full of experiments. They thought it was only convenient that they kidnap us. More test subjects, right?" She sounded thoroughly disgusted. Not that I didn't agree with her.

"We were there for weeks. The scientists couldn't decide what to do with Max and I. Enhance our hearing or our strength? Stick a tail on us or give us the ability to control atoms? Back then, the School didn't have as many test subjects, so they had to be careful with the ones they had. "

"They succeeded in increasing my speed, strength and intelligence a bit. Had me running around mazes and sparring with Erasers every day. It was Hell. Good thing they hadn't done anything to Max yet, or I'd have massacred every single one of them." Alex spat. "The halls would've been painted in blood and flesh."

"Not to be rude or anything, but all of us here have been in the clutches of the School at some point, but we wouldn't even go that far. They're still human beings." Iggy said. I thought that he of all people would side with Alex's statement.

"You've no idea what I went through before I got captured" Alex quietly said. " What I was forced to do." Then he chuckled. "I've been at both ends of the gun. I've shot, been shot at, seen others get shot. I'm used to death by now."

Everyone shifted in his or her seat, disturbed. What had this guy been through? We've been through some tough shit, but killing someone, even one of those scientists, seems a bit too far over the line.

" So, as I was saying, they had experimented on me. Increased speed, strength, intelligence. Then one day, one of them thought of creating a super soldier program. I was to be a part of it, along with some other physically enhanced experiments."

" The program was back in England." Max said. "They were planning on separating us. Alex didn't want that and tried to smuggle me on board the plane to England. His plan was to escape from the England School with me and head to Uncle Ian's house in Chelsea. But we got busted. One of the other experiments tattled and we got separated. I made him promise me that if he ever escaped, he'd never go anywhere near a School ever again."

" I got experimented on and became a bird kid after he was sent to England. I never talked about him with you guys because I thought they had turned him into a mindless super soldier, someone like Omega, and someone who wasn't my brother.

"We actually knew Omega, who was back then Anthony. He was another who was sent to the program. Max and I shared a room with him." Alex said "He isn't Anthony anymore though, just some School drone.

" The top School drone, actually" Nudge said. " Went all ninja on Max once and she was all like 'oh no you didn't' and Omega was all like ' oh yeah I went there, then-" She was muffled by one of Angel's stuffed animals.

"Back to my story, now." Alex said. "I did, eventually, escape. Tom, a fellow experiment that I had befriended in the program, and I hid in a shipment of cougar DNA headed for London. There, he reunited with his family, and I found my Uncle Ian's house. That place was home for nearly ten years."

"How is Uncle Ian? Still a 'lonely bachelor', as Dad would've put it? Oh, and how about Jack?" Max asked.

Alex's face dropped at this. " They… They're dead. Ian for nearly a year, and Jack a few months."

Max's sobered up. " I see"

"That still doesn't explain why you were at the Death Valley School" Gazzy questioned. " You said you escaped, and you promised Max that you'd never go anywhere near a School again."

"I'm getting to that" Alex said, " I told you guys that our father worked for the government right? Our uncle did too, and after his death MI6 approached me. They wanted me to finish the mission that Ian died on. I had no choice,though, since they threatened to deport Jack, our housekeeper, back to America and send me to a boys home. "

"So I successfully completed the mission and was employed by MI6. I did mission after mission, gaining a reputation as an agent with a 100% success rate.

"But your only a year older than me" I said. " Isn't employing kids to do espionage, I don't know, illegal?"

"They were the government." Alex said in a bitter tone. " They made it legal, for my case anyway. I couldn't do anything about it."

"Did they know about your mutations?" Iggy asked. "Is that why they used you?"

Alex chuckled "They just thought I was a very fit boy. Of course, even before I was experimented on, I was fit. They used my fitness to their advantage. I was trained to do their bidding. Infiltrations, investigations…. Assassinations. It was my job till I was captured investigating Itex for one of my missions.

"Of course, I didn't want to do that mission, but I was blackmailed, again. They usually pulled out the 'We're going to deport your housekeeper if you don't do as we say' card, but since Jack had been murdered by SCORPIA they pulled out the 'You've no choice, because your under our jurisdiction and you have to do what we tell you to do' card."

"So here you are now Alex" Max said

"I'm happy though. If I weren't captured, I wouldn't have escaped MI6 and reunited with my only remaining family member" He hugged Max then.

"I've missed you Al"