Songs of the Dead Chapter 10: You Know My Name, an alex rider fanfic

A/N: I am so so so so so so sorry I've been AWOL from fanfiction for these past two years. No reason I can come up with could ever excuse my absence, so I won't even try. =) This particular songfic is my personal favorite so far that I suddenly thought up out of nowhere. Consider it a peace offering and please don't kill me? *puppy eyes*

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Title: You Know My Name

Author: Glissoning Raven

Genre: Tragedy/Angst

Song: You Know My Name

Artist: Chris Cornell

Note: Major AU. This is written to stand alone. This one brings in another character that I haven't killed…I mean…used yet. Enjoy!

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If you take a life
Do you know what you'll give?
Odds are you won't like what it is.

*Bang* *Bang* *Bang*

Three perfect shots. Three round holes clustered together in the center of the target's chest. The man's eyes were wide with horror as he slowly crumpled to the ground. The last sight he would ever see would be the gleaming Desert Eagle and the merciless brown eyes behind it. The last words he heard were the ones the man spoke into the radio.

"Target Number Eight eliminated. Continuing sweep."

When the storm arrives
Would you be seen with me?
By the merciless eyes I've deceived

K-Unit heard the shots echo through the corridors and heard the message over the radio. The voice was hard and cold, remorseless. None of them wanted to admit that the man on the other end of the radio scared them. What scared them even more was he was barely even an adult. He was only nineteen, nineteen going on forty, as Fox said.

"Let's move!" Wolf barked gruffly, breaking the tension.

The unit cautiously moved out into the corridor, gunning down anyone in their path. Everyone was a target. They were on a mission; take down what was left of Scorpia. After years after being at war with the organization, the group had finally crumbled. Now they were here to clean out the last stronghold the organization held. Their orders were to take no prisoners. Wolf didn't know how he felt about that and neither did his men. But there was one man on the mission who seemed to have no qualms about the slaughter and that's what scared Wolf the most.

I've seen angels fall from blinding heights
But you yourself are nothing so divine
Just next in line

Alex moved soundlessly down the concrete corridor. His grip on the gun never wavered. His steps never faulted. Blood flecked his black shirt and pants, but he paid it no mind. It was part of the job. His fluid movements were sure and calm. Gunshots echoed in the distance. Reports of two more enemies down flowed in, but he paid them no mind. He was on a mission. He was here for one person. He had never told anyone why he had requested this assignment. They had assumed it was revenge, closure. He let them assume.

Arm yourself because no one else here will save you
The odds will betray you
And I will replace you
You can't deny the prize it may never fulfill you
It longs to kill you
Are you willing to die?
The coldest blood runs through my veins
You know my name

He kicked the door at the end of the hall open with ease, bringing his favorite Desert Eagle up with practiced ease. The room was empty except for one woman standing at the far end staring out the tiny window that overlooked the narrow Venice street below. She had her back turned towards the door. She stood with her hands clasped behind her back, completely relaxed.

Silenced reigned for several moments before the woman spoke.

"You came," she said simply.

Alex paused before answering.

"Of course I came," he said coldly.

The woman turned to face him, blue eyes meeting brown.

"It's good to see you again, Alex."

If you come inside
Things will not be the same
When you return to my eyes

The relief on the woman's face was real, but it only sparked anger in the eyes of her old friend.

"Traitor!" Alex spat. "How could you?"

A shadow flickered across the woman's face.

"You were dead, Alex. I blamed them. I wanted to do everything in my power to make them pay." she trailed off, shrugging helplessly.

"By joining the organization I hated even more?" Alex hissed.

Something flashed briefly in the woman's eyes.

"You were one of them once," she said softly.

Alex stiffened.

"That was a long time ago and it was a mistake!" he snapped. "I came to my senses and have worked to bring them down ever since! You knew that!"

The woman simply looked sad.

"A mistake? Perhaps. But we're all young and foolish once. I was grieving, Alex, for you."

"That's a reason," Alex said, lowering his voice. "Not an excuse."

And if you think you've won
You never saw me change
The game that we have been playing

K-Unit barged into the room at the end of the corridor, only to find Alex face to face with one of the terrorists. Why he hadn't shot her yet, they didn't know, but something in his posture forbade them from interfering.

The woman at the other end of the room looked sad and worn. She couldn't have been much older than Alex, but her worn expression made her look at least fifty.

"What happened to us, Alex?" she whispered softly. "How did we get here?"

"You betrayed your country," Alex spat.

A spark of anger reentered the woman's eyes once more.

"Or maybe my country betrayed me first, by taking you from me."

Alex flinched. K-Unit looked between Alex and the woman on the other side of the room, trying to figure out what was going on.

"So you're just going to blame everyone else for your own mistakes?" Alex sneered.

"I've made mistakes, Alex. We all have. Hell, I know I've screwed up big time, but that doesn't change anything between us in the end, does it?"

Alex's eyes were cold. His mouth was set in a grim line, determination in every line of his body.

"At least my mistakes don't slaughter thousands of innocent people," he snarled.

The woman's eyes darkened.

"That was…regrettable. But your government forced our hand."

Alex paused for a moment.

"They really have gotten to you, haven't they, shoved all their petty lies down your throat, made you believe you were fighting for the right side, the good cause? Well, let me tell you this, it doesn't work. It only ends in tragedy for everyone. Give it up."

The woman looked sad and worn once more.

"You know I can't, Alex. I'm in too deep. You and I both know how this has to end."

I've seen diamonds cut through harder men
Then you yourself but if you must pretend
You may meet your end

Alex stared at her for a moment.

"So, that's it? You're just giving up?" he demanded.

The woman sighed.

"I've seen the end coming for a while now. I knew it was inevitable, especially once I found out you were alive and leading the fight against us. I knew it was only a matter of time."

"Why?" Alex asked softly, his grip shifting ever so slightly on his gun. "Just tell me why."

"What makes a good person?" the woman asked suddenly.

"Killing Scorpia agents," Alex answered promptly.

A shadow of a smile flickered over the woman face.

"I believe a good person is one who fights for a cause they believe, one who fights for their friends and will do anything to try and save them," the woman said sadly.

Alex smirked.

"Are you trying to convince me that you are a good person? I think all the families you've destroyed, all the orphans you've made would disagree. You are nothing but a murderer."

"What make a murderer?" the woman shot back.

Alex hesitated slightly at that.

"You kill people simply because it suits you," he said finally.

"And you don't?"

That threw him. But the woman wasn't done.

"You're government assassinates anyone who gets in their way. They slaughter us," she gestured at the building around them for emphasis and everyone tensed at the sudden movement. "Just because we are in the way. We oppose their views, so we must die."

"You are terrorists," Alex retorted.

The woman raised an eyebrow at that.

"And what make one organization terrorists on another organization the upstanding government?"

"You murder people and bomb innocents just to make a point."

"You murder people. I know for a fact that you've blown up buildings with people in them on more than one occasion. Does that make you a terrorist? Or just a loyal soldier?" the woman challenged.

"I only kill those who are evil and I never blow up innocent people," Alex snapped.

The spy really didn't like the direction this conversation was headed in. His mind was screaming for him to pull the trigger and be done with it, but some tiny part of him made him pause.

The woman laughed.

"No one is innocent, Alex. I've had to learn that the hard way. Everyone has the potential for evil."

"The potential, maybe," Alex admitted. "But not everyone lives up to that potential. There are good people in this world."

But his eyes betrayed him. He didn't believe it. He had stopped seeing the good in humanity a long time ago. The woman saw it too.

Try to hide your hand
Forget how to feel (forget how to feel)
Life is gone
With just a spin of the wheel (spin of the wheel)

The woman laughed again.

"Why do you lie to yourself, Alex? You don't really believe that. You see, you and I we aren't that different. We both see the truth in humanity, the evil. This world is corrupt. It needs to change."

Alex almost laughed this time.

"And you really though Scorpia could do that? You're delusional. We are nothing alike."

"Scorpia may have fallen, Alex, but make no mistake, someone else will rise to take our place. And you and I, we are so much more alike than you want to admit. We're both killers, murderers. It makes no difference who we work for. Murder is murder."

Alex's eyes hardened.

"You're wrong! I am loyal to my country! You are a murdering coward!" he hissed.

The woman looked like he had slapped her. She suddenly looked like she had aged forty years.

"Alex, what happened to us?" she whispered. "We used to be so close, so happy. How did we get here?"

Things had come full circle. Alex felt something in him start to give.

"I don't know, Sabina, I don't know,"

Sabina took a step towards Alex who immediately stiffened. She smiled sadly.

"You know I always loved you," she whispered.

Alex could only look at her, the words he couldn't say stuck in his throat. K-Unit could only watch in fascination at the strange exchange in front of them. Finally, Alex managed to speak, though he could only manage two words and they weren't the right ones.

"I know."

Tears glistened in Sabina's crystal blue eyes.

"We're more alike than you like to admit," she repeated softly.

Alex's eyes hardened.

"No, I'm nothing like you."

Brown eyes met blue, separated by the shiny black metal of the Desert Eagle. All it took was the twitch of a finger. He didn't hear the bang or feel the recoil. He only saw her crystal blue eyes widen slightly, a look of triumph lingering there. Her eyes said it all.

We're just the same.

Blood blossomed like a crimson flower across her white shirt. Three shots dead center, perfectly grouped, just like he was trained to do. Another perfect kill. Another job well done. So why didn't it feel like a victory?

As he looked down at the body lying at his feet, he reflected on things he had forced himself to forget for so long. His parents were gone. Ian was gone. Jack was gone. Tom was gone. Sabina was now gone, dead at his hands. This job, this life, it was all he had. Everything and everyone else had left him. He told himself he was fighting for them. But was he really? Or was he fighting because he didn't know how to do anything else?

In the end, it didn't really matter. This was his life now. This was who he was.

As he looked down at her body, he said five words that cost him far more than they should have.

"I am a loyal soldier."

As he turned and walked away, Alex felt another piece of himself die.

You know my name (you know my name)
You know my name

You know my name
You know my name

K-Unit could only watch in grim horror as their youngest teammate left them standing there with the body of the girl. They had no idea who she was, but as she died, they saw something within Alex die as well. The man who walked out of that room that day was not the same man who walked in and he certainly wasn't the boy they had met five years before.

The Alex Rider they knew died that day in that room with Sabina Pleasure leaving only the empty shell of a man behind.

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A/N: Sorry for those Sabina fans out there. I never did like her. I couldn't help but make her go dark side. Hehe. =)