I hate A-levels. They take up too much time, time I could spend writing. I've fallen behind on nearly all my other fics because I'm having to be selective due to my A-levels and so I've chosen this one. You should love that.

Sorry but I don't know when the next update will be because of exams, but bare with me. I might be able to get this done before this year is out. And then you might have to wait for the last fic.

On a lighter note, I've finished plotting my last fic (yay)! I've reworked it so it fits with the TV series' finale and I hope you enjoy it when I get around to writing it.

Oscar hit the ground heavily, but Lizzie landed on the balls of her feet and was through the wall before Oscar could call her back. Groaning, Oscar climbed to his feet and ran through the door after her, snatching up the fallen file as he passed. He emerged on the second floor corridor. He could hear Lizzie racing towards the entrance, but also people approaching from his right. Luke and Jessica hurried around the corner.

'We heard something…' Jessica started before getting distracted, 'why are covered in dirt?'

'Lizzie decided to perform her plummeting-elevator-trick without warning me,' Oscar said, dusting himself absentmindedly, 'but she had reason. Alex has found us.'

'Alex,' Jessica repeated in a faint whisper. She clung to Luke and turned to look up at him. 'Here?'

Luke kept his eyes fixed on Oscar. 'Where's Lizzie?' Oscar pointed behind him in the direction that Lizzie went. Luke began to run and Jessica and Oscar followed. All the while, Luke murmured, 'Lizzie, don't. Please Lizzie, keep your head on.'

They dashed into the entrance hall. Just below them, at the point where the stairway split, stood Lizzie. She was glaring at the great doors that were rattling on their hinges as the SKUL agents the other side tried to batter their way in. Luke skidded down the steps to Lizzie's side.

'Think before you act, okay?' was all he could say before the doors were smashed open and the SKUL agents poured in like a multitude of ants.

'Think,' Lizzie said coldly, 'don't I always?'

Luke opened his mouth to reply but Lizzie dived down the last remaining steps. As she straightened up, the ground beneath her seemed to come with her. The separated earth formed disks in her hands which she threw. The first one collided with a group of SKUL guards, but the second disintegrated as it reached the edge of Lizzie's manipulative range. Not disheartened, Lizzie kicked up balls of stone and launched them at the retreating group, only to watch her creations fall short.

Back at the split, Luke muttered, 'thinking? Yeah right.' The three spies descended to group level and Luke caught hold of Lizzie's arm as she paused for breath, a dangerous move in Oscar's eyes.

'Lizzie, calm down,' Luke ordered.

'I am calm,' Lizzie growled.

'There was no need,' Luke said calmly, 'they haven't done anything yet.'

'No,' Lizzie snapped, roughly pulling her arm out of Luke's grasp and pointing towards the entrance, 'but he has.' They all looked.

Leaning against one of the giant doorframes, Lizzie and Jessica's elder brother smiled. 'Ah, at last,' he called across to them, 'dearest sister. Are you not going to welcome me in?'

'You know I'd never,' Lizzie shouted back.

'Who said I was talking to you?' Alex sneered, 'I was talking to my real sister.'

Behind Luke, Jessica took a deep breath and moved to stand beside Lizzie. 'Lizzie is a real sister,' she said, placing her hand on the other's shoulder, 'she's been much more of a real sibling to me than you ever have.'

Alex put his hand on his heart and faked a cry of pain. 'Your words hurt me so much,' he mocked. He took a couple of paces towards them and smirked as Lizzie's anger reached boiling point. 'Nice place,' he said coolly, staring up at the crumbling angels above him, 'I bet it has an interesting history.'

'Why are you here, Alex?' Jessica said levelly, 'because I'm guessing it's not for the archaeology.'

'In many ways, I am. I'm here on the Grand Master's orders to search for a very specific artefact,' Alex said. He raised his eyebrows and continued, 'and here comes a little messenger, baring good news I hope.'

Carrie had appeared from round the back of the staircase where the basement steps were found. She stopped and stared at the SKUL agents gathered around Alex, before turning to the four on the stairs. 'Success?' Luke asked. Carrie shook her head and apologised. 'Never mind,' Luke said, trying to keep his voice low, 'we'll keep looking.'

From the opposite side of the entrance hall, Alex stared to clap. It wasn't applause, the pauses were too long and the claps too short. His patronisation was fuelling Lizzie's rage; Oscar could see her beginning to shake with anger. He leaned forward and touched her arm. Lizzie looked around and all the fight seemed to vanish. She slumped and Oscar put his whole hand on her shoulder.

'So glad to hear your optimism,' Alex said, 'I hope we can all benefit from it.'

'We'll benefit more if you get out,' Luke snarled, jumping the banister to get to Carrie's side.

'Ah,' Alex said, 'there seems to be a flaw in that thinking because we're not planning on going anywhere. Not until we get what we came for.'

'The formula?' Lizzie asked. She tilted her head and continued, 'that's what you're after, isn't it?'

'Why should you be the only ones to be gifted?' Alex hissed, a hiss that rose steadily until it became a roar, 'why should others have to put up with constantly being in your shadows? Why should you be "chosen"? How is that fair?'

'Fair?' Lizzie repeated incredulously, 'Fair? Life isn't fair, Alex! I thought you were aware of that! Believe me when I say that I would rather be anywhere else than here! I'd rather be someone else. But I don't want to have to let someone else have to deal with your crap.' She shrugged off Oscar's touch and stepped forwards. As one, every SKUL agent other than Alex stepped back.

Alex only smiled. 'You're right,' he said softly, 'life isn't fair. So it's our job to even it out.'

'What do you mean?'

Alex clicked his fingers. A SKUL guard lurking near the back of the group jumped and scurried forwards. From within a pocket in his bag he retrieved a sealed scroll which he placed in Alex's hand. Then he scuttled back into the safety of the group. Meanwhile, Alex unstopped the top of the scroll's container and slid out the weathered papers.

'Do you know what these are?' he asked, cradling them in his hands. The spies remained silent. Alex sneered and said disbelievingly, 'you don't know.'

'We can guess,' someone said and Max and Rose emerged from behind the main staircase, the other side to Carrie and Luke. Max finished wiping his glasses, but them back on his nose and said, 'and my guess would be, that those are the plans that were stolen by the traitor within MI9.'

'The know-it-all still knows it all,' Alex laughed, 'that's right. I have a lot to thank Paul Batson for. If he hadn't stolen those plans from the fools who called themselves my parents, the Grand Master would never have welcomed me into SKUL. If Batson hadn't taken the plans to SKUL after being booted out of MI9, my plans to create an army of "perfect" beings would have sounded like the talk of a madman to the Grand Master.'

'It is the talk of a madman,' Lizzie said, but Alex wasn't listening.

'I have waited my whole life to step out of your shadow and become someone my parents would love better. But when that was never going to happen, I had to find another way than simply being the perfect son they wanted.'

'I do cast a very big shadow,' Lizzie said. Jessica gave her a warning look and stepped forwards.

'Alex,' she whispered, 'you needn't have done what you did. Mum and Dad loved you for who you were, not because you were better than Lizzie. You… that's not what they wanted…'

'I don't care any longer,' Alex said. He rolled the papers back up and slid them back into the metal cylinder. 'I'm going make a new form for myself. One that I will be proud of. And it will be soon, very soon.' He sealed the cylinder and slid it into his belt. 'Paul Batson did not please the Grand Master as much as he wanted to because, although he had the plans for the machine, he had no formula.'

'Yeah,' Luke interrupted, 'we know.'

'I suppose you got all that from Batson himself when he was caught by MI9 less than a year after he betrayed them. He would have gone down a hero to SKUL if he had fully completed his task.'

'What happened?' Carrie murmured.

'Paul Batson was arrested when he tried getting through Germany, to here we believe. The MIA intercepted and arrested him. He was brought back to Britain to be put on trial. He was found on the morning of his first hearing in his prison cell, dead. It is believed that SKUL managed to slip him poison so he couldn't give anything away,' Luke explained. 'We believe that he was trying to make his way here to search for the formula. No doubt he was accompanied by other SKUL agents who followed him back to Britain and assassinated him when they realised that he was not going to escape.'

Alex smirked. 'That's pretty close actually. Did Mr Know-it-all come up with that?'

'I wish you would stop insulting my friends,' Lizzie said in a dangerously low voice.

'I wish you would make my life simple and hand over the formula,' Alex said lightly, 'we both know that each other's dreams are nothing more than that: dreams. But I want so badly to make my dream a reality.'

'It can stay a nightmare for a while longer,' Lizzie said. She caught Max's eye and nodded. Max nodded back and inhaled deeply. Oscar knew what was coming and reached forwards to grasp the back of Lizzie's top. Beside him, Jessica was doing the same. Max opened his eyes and time stood still.

As Oscar's fingertips brushed Lizzie's back, a shiver ran down his body and he groaned. Jessica's hand grasped his wrist last moment, but she got the same cold feeling. They stared at one another and then at Lizzie who was now running across the main hall towards her frozen brother. Her fist was raised as if she was going to punch him.

'Lizzie!' Luke's warning stopped Lizzie in her tracks. He had appeared between Oscar and Jessica, grasping them tightly around an elbow, which made them realise that they must have been frozen for at least a moment or two. 'You know if you touch him he can unfreeze.'

'He'll refreeze as soon as I let him go,' Lizzie argued. 'I'm going to have to. He has his hand on top of the plans. He knew we were going to try the time freezing technique. There is no way I can get them now without touching him.'

'That's what he wants,' Jessica called out, 'leave him Lizzie. We can get them some other time, when we will have the advantage.'

'If we let those plans leave this room,' Lizzie yelled, 'we could lose them for good! We have to take them now, whilst we know where they are!'

'Now is not the time, Lizzie,' Max came to the foot of the stairs and said, 'there is a time ahead of this when we can take them. When the idiot arrives. Until then, we will be at a disadvantage.'

'Come on Lizzie,' Luke said, 'now's our best time to retreat.'

There was a pause as Lizzie thought through everything that her friends had said. Finally, her shoulders slumped and she resigned herself to the fact that they were probably right. But she could still do one thing. 'You go,' she said, a small smile creeping onto her face, 'I have to show our guests from the building.'

Luke and Max exchanged glances. 'Alright, Lizzie,' Luke said eventually, 'please, try and control yourself, okay?'

'Alright,' Lizzie called back. Luke and Max nodded at one another before Luke led the way towards the basement. When they neared it, Oscar pulled out of Luke's grip. The next thing he was aware of, he was alone and someone was shouting. Intrigued, Oscar backed up behind the staircase and peered around it.

The first thing he saw was Lizzie dropping from her position on the ceiling into the midst of the SKUL crowd. Several agents fell at her first blow and others were soon dropping like flies as she lashed out at them. Alex, who had been laughing at the cowardice of the Trio, turned to discover what the yells were about and launched himself at Lizzie when he saw who it was. Oscar was certain that Lizzie was suffering under the onslaught of agents and Alex but before he could act, Lizzie trust outwards with her hands and a great gust of wind blew all attacking agents away from her. She jumped and flipped her way over the groaning bodies into the centre of the room.

SKUL agents were backing out of the door now. Lizzie would take a couple of steps in the direction of some dazed agents who would hurry away from her as fast as possible when in a stupor.

After a while, it was only Alex left. He glared at Lizzie as he backed out of the doors. 'This isn't a retreat,' he snarled, 'I will get that formula.'

'Keep dreaming, brother,' Lizzie said and slammed the doors in his face. She kicked up a chunk of rock from the ground and slotted it in between the doors to hold them shut. She turned quickly when she heard someone applauding her.

Oscar emerged from the staircase's shadow, beaming. 'Impressive,' he called to her, 'you've got better.'

Lizzie tucked a stray hair behind her ear and smiled. 'Thanks.'

Oscar gestured to the wall. 'I didn't know you could run up walls.'

'Another of my specialities.'

Oscar lowered his gaze and said softly, 'you did have me worrying at moments.'

Lizzie took a deep breath and cross the hall to him. 'You should stop doubting me,' she said, 'I can take care of myself.'

'I know you can,' Oscar said, 'but…'

Lizzie placed a finger on his lips. 'Not now,' she said softly, making Oscar blush slightly. 'Come on,' she took his hand and dragged him in the direction of the basement. 'We need to work out what to do now my brother has arrived.'

Exciting I hope. Look out for the next chapter, whenever it may be. Sorry but that will probably be a long talky one, but the one afterwards definately has some action.

Over and out!