A/N- A very special final chapter with a very special dedication to I Read Not Write, because she deserves it ;)

-Grey.


The nurse consulted her sheet quickly before answering the girl;

"Your friends Liang and Alexander have made it through the surgery without any complications. You can come see them now if you wish."

Dark murmurs encroached on Ambers mind at the mention of only two of their friends, she pushed through her deepest fears to approach the nurse and ask about Hex.

Seeing her concern, Camilla decided it was best that she wake up Paulo to go see the others.

"Hey Paulo, wake up." She called to the slumbering South American gently.

The tired boy on the bed rolled over to put his back to the bothering noise, lazily he mumbled something about letting him have just five more minutes sleep.

Camilla went closer to him and this time spoke right in his ear, "Li and Alex are out of surgery, we can go see them now."

Paulo's eyes flicked open in an instant, having been given the right incentive to do so. He quickly sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed, his bruised and swollen face warped into his indomitable wide grin.

"Well what are we waiting for then?" He asked innocently accentuating his accent as he always did when he tried to charm.

Paulo sprung off the bed and advanced towards the door where Amber was still captivated in a quiet conversation with the charge nurse.

As he got closer fragments of their conversation reached him.

"….A very difficult surgery…. High risk of…." The nurses soft voice drifted over, followed by Amber's, shrill with concern.

"But Hex is he….."

"…a little more time then the others… should be done soon." The tired looking nurse reassured the younger woman with a hand on the shoulder as Paulo and Camilla finally joined them.

"Lets go see Alex and Li." Amber declared in a false cherry voice that verged on breaking and without another word she lead their small party down the hallway and over to the elevator.

"Amber, what's happening with Hex? Why isn't he out of surgery yet like the others?" Paulo asked the dark shaking girl, whose presence seemed to fill the elevator.

Amber focussed on the numbers flashing by in the dial above their head, as she forced courage into her throat.

"His ah.. His surgery was a lot more difficult and precise then the rest so it takes longer." She finally uttered.

"Ah." Paulo grunted as if it made all the sense in the world and didn't quite explain why she was so upset.

"And," Amber continued sniffing back tears, "There were some complications."

Paulo felt his world crashing down around him as he considered all the different possible outcomes for his best friend. His mouth felt bone dry and his bouncy spirit was quickly suppressed by the thought of how empty his world would be without his friend, the quiet hacker.

Rasping on his words he felt compelled to further press the one other person who cared about Hex as much as he did.

"What sort of…complications?"

Paulo reached for Amber's hand to squeeze it in support, reminding the girl that she wasn't alone.

"They didn't say.." She mumbled at barely a whisper, closing her hand on his, grateful for the comfort of companionship.

In complete contrast to the mood in the elevator, a light ding sounded to signal they had arrived at their desired floor.

The three teens linked hands and walked out of the elevator to find their friends.

Or whatever remained of them…


In the recovery ward of the hospital, there was a double room with two young patients who had just came out of surgery and been extubated. Gossip from the nurses on the ward suggested that the two teens in the room were very badly injured in some clandestine affair. Exact details of the injuries and conditions in which they had occurred were confidential but one of the doctors was able to confirm that it was a knife or a gun that inflicted the terrible wounds. The infamous status of the two new residents made it relatively easy for their three able-bodied friends to find them.

Paulo entered the room first with silent footfalls, unsure if the inhabitants were asleep or not.

"Hey." Li rasped from the bed nearest the door as she spotted him.

Paulo turned to face the girl as the others sauntered into the pale room.

He was visibly shaken by how waxy Li's skin looked, so similar to the crisp white sheets she was cocooned in. Her eyes watched him in a lazy unfocussed manner, her senses held at bay by the multitude of analgesics she was dosed up with. Li's wounded leg was hidden from view by her sheets, presenting only as a cumbersome and elongated lump in the bed.

Across from her bed, the teen from Northumbria was still out to the world in a fretful sleep, his intense expression absent for once.

The three friends gathered at Li's bedside but Camilla continued darting her eyes to Alex instead.

"Hey Chica." Paulo cooed in a hushed tone as he brushed a hand to smooth her relaxed brow, before following it with a light kiss on her forehead.

"How's the leg?" He carefully asked, as the friends observed the various bags of fluid that hung from the hooks on the ceiling and connected to a pole mounted electronic syringe-driver.

"I'm part machine now," Li mumbled in a drug fuelled joke, "they stuck two metal pins in my leg."

"You're not in pain are you?" Amber asked her friend in concern, having noted Li's strained expression after releasing her from a reclined hug.

"Na just numb and fuzzy feeling," She slowly described and sighed deeply, "and I guess it's just going to be a while before I can walk again."

"Hey you'll be back on your feet in no time, all your gym work is bound to help with that." Paulo encouraged her; he knew the thought of staying still for so long must burden her greatly.

"Sorry guys I won't be on any missions with Alpha Force anytime soon." Li concluded dejectedly, her head bowed sadly at her imprisonment to rest.

"That goes for me too," A small voice added in with a Geordie accent.


"Alex." Camilla squealed at her boyfriends return to consciousness and rushed around to his bed.

Awkwardly she hugged the haggard teen around his elevated arm and pressed a light kiss on him, which he weakly returned. Paulo and Amber bustled around to add their embraces before returning to a neutral standpoint between the two beds.

Alex's drawn face split in the ghost of a smile at seeing his friends again, a smile that was however, marred by a pending secret and a notable absence.

Alex seemed like he was going to say something more when the visitor's eyes were drawn to the door by a squeaking of wheels. Emerging through the doorway, in an oversized wheelchair, was a certain beloved hacker and the final member of the group. His right arm was snugly housed in a pink plaster and a tidy looking nurse pushed him along, flanked by two stern looking men in surgical scrubs.

Hex's face was transformed from a nauseous, downcast frown into the smallest of hopeful grins as he was reunited with the rest of Alpha Force.

"He insisted on coming straight here rather then returning to his bed after the surgery." The nurse behind him explained, with a fleeting look of knowing as Amber exploded forward from the mark to draw him into an embrace.

"Nice cast, very manly." Amber taunted the hacker, as she pushed herself away from him and tried to put up her preppy façade of strength.

Hex played along for her sake and shot back a pseudo-glare, which masked his own sadness and insecurities well. Secretly he feared what was left of his arm encased within the bright pink plaster shell. To him it represented weakness, the fragility of the human body and the distinct possibility that he may never regain full function. The cold virus that was every able-bodied persons nightmare threatened to overtake him.

"Did you pick that colour for him?" Paulo asked Amber from his perch on the end of Li's bed.

"Na it's probably payback from Alex for last time." Li suggested groggily from her sedate, semirecumbent position.

Alex chuckled remembering the amount of grief he had been given after famously receiving a pink cast when he broke his arm on their last mission. He had no pity for his friend's current circumstances and despite the low feeling Alex wore, he decided to get his digs in too.

"It's just fabulous!" Alex informed his friend, emphasising the final word with a camp lilt and an outrageous wave of his hand.

The room burst into laughter at the ridiculous homosexual stereotype that Alex was perpetuating. Hex laughed along with the rest of his friends and was glad for the light-hearted banter since it distracted him from the more serious issues at hand.

"You had better watch it," Amber warned the group as they suppressed the last of their giggles. "He might Hex out on the lot of you if the teasing keeps up!"

This brought about a whole new bout of laughter, as the teens observed the look of confusion and shock on the young hackers face.

"Wait have you guys been using …?" Hex started in outrage, his colour boiling over to match the shade of his cast.

"Your name as a synonym for raging out?" Li finished for him with a giddy giggle.

"Your name as a verb for performing an act of great violence in said rage?" Amber suggested with a wry grin.

"Your toothbrush because I forgot mine?" Alex confessed guiltily.

"Your palmtop to watch dodgy movies?" Paulo denied once again, with a pseudo-shocked expression at the implied accusation.

It was impossible to stay straight faced at the final two admissions and the ward was drowned in hysterics, which was only ceased as the two stern looking men in white coats cleared their throats loudly and held their arms up to draw silence.

"With all your group here we can now inform you of some serious recent developments." The first strict looking doctor gravely informed the room. At this, Amber looked up from her hold on the hacker, who was still fuming over the unlicensed use of his name.

Crouching to stay at Hex's height Amber dropped back on her heels to witness the doctor's news.


The second doctor consulted his clipboard before coughing uncomfortably and carrying out his unpleasant announcement with a rigid formality.

"At approximately 4:48 this morning John Richard Middleton ceased breathing, resuscitative efforts were commenced but at 5:12, Mr. Middleton was declared dead by the doctor on scene. Cause of death has been ruled as cardiac arrest secondary to massive head and chest trauma from a recent assault."

Looking up from his notes the man's firm expression softened to one of sorrow and pity, "I am sorry Ms Middleton but your uncle is dead."

Silence held the room in a stranglehold as the group absorbed the leaden news that had been laid on them. The contrast could not have been stronger from the minutes of earlier mirth.

Amber felt a distinctly familiar emptiness open in her once more, déjà vu of her parent's deaths and the moment that she had been informed of it. Her eyes held dry with no more tears left to forfeit, as she hung her head in despair. A large hand forced it's way between hers and she clutched to it like a lifeline, the only thing keeping her afloat on a suddenly overwhelming sea. Amber felt every ridge and whirl of the hacker's only good hand as it gently increased its pressure on hers supportively. Her shoulders heaved with sobs for the final member of her fallen family while the rest of the able-bodied members of the force huddled in to provide her with comfort.

The doctor carried on at a hurried pace to quickly deliver his remaining news so he could escape the uncomfortable grief of the survivors.

"Also, at approximately 5:20am the body of one Miguel Corboda was found in hospital examination room six. The obvious injuries present would suggest that the man died of exsanguination after his carotid artery and throat were slit with a bladed weapon. The Police have been called and security tapes are currently being reviewed in investigation of his murder."

This news was not greeted with any further grief, indeed for some in the room they had no grief left to spare. A pang of guilt wrought its way through Li's chemically slurred brain, as she remembered her promise of amnesty and protection to the former gardener. Another casualty at Alpha Force's hands.

With that final parting news the medical professionals departed the room, anxious to leave the intense teens to their own affairs. A recent message from a department of the Central Intelligence Bureau had discouraged them from asking further questions about the nature of the injuries that had been sustained by this particular group.


Amber's eyes hung dark in her face as her friends held her and spoke comforting words. The sound reached her slow and distorted; incomprehensible. Her friends seemed to realise her addled state and backed off to their respective locations in the room to cope with the latest revelation.

All but one.

The hand holding hers squeezed gently before its owners voice rang through loud and clear in her head.

"I chose this colour," Hex quietly confessed in a whisper right beside Amber's ear. Her gaze followed his to see that he was referring to the hi-lighter pink cast on his injured arm. Her sorrow-laden expression softened at his admission and Hex brought his jade pupils to meet hers.

"It's your colour I chose. To me it represented two hopes." Hex's voice cracked almost under the emotional strain but he continued all the same. "That I may someday regain use of this hand and that I can be right here beside you until I do."

A glacier of guilt tumbled into the depths of her sorrow. Wrapped up in a world of her own sadness, Amber felt like a terrible person for having forgotten about the fears and needs of the man she depended on. Her normally stoic friend was facing the prospect of losing the use of one of his hands and needed her support and strength for once.

Hex couldn't help but think he had overstepped the line this time, his timing terrible. With the short silence that followed, his powerful mind internally berated the more impulsive parts of him. What the hell Hex? How can you be trying to have this conversation with her when her uncle has just died? He was about to speak again, say something to redeem his hasty words when she beat him too it.

"I guess I'll just have to keep holding this hand until the other one heals." She decided softly, lifting his strong left that still encased hers.

Hex's body swelled with fulfilment as he used the grip to draw Amber closer to him, at the barest volume he spoke again. "You know that I'm here for you?"

"Always." She uttered, sinking into their first and long overdue kiss.

It was simple in its origin, such a light sweet contact that two sets of lips had hungered for. Pressure and passion climbed as Hex released her hand to carefully cup her jaw; Amber reciprocated by sliding her arm around his neck. Her weight descended onto his seated form, slowly, with infinite care to protect her broken ribs.

Making out with swollen, split lips and bruised, broken bodies was a painful way to play out teenage passion and the two compromised with a tender embrace, in the now shared wheelchair instead.

From her position at the tail of Alex's bed Camilla smiled sweetly, happy for the new couple as she watched them settle into their joint position.

"About time." She heard Li mumble from her bed, Paulo leaned casually against wall beside her, beaming at his friends.

Flushed with the warmth that radiated from the happy pair, Camilla turned in her seat to enjoy her boyfriend's reaction to the fluffy moment.

She was surprised to find him standing beside the bed half dressed, struggling to pull on a pair of jeans one handed. His eyes were hard and set on the task; he didn't even notice her attention.


"Alex what are you doing? You should stay in bed!" His plucky girlfriend accosted him.

Alex looked up with leaden eyes as he buttoned his jeans and knelt to retrieve items from his daypack, his thin hospital gown lay on the ground where he had discarded it. While she watched, he looped and tightened his ever-present survival belt before awkwardly pulling on a t-shirt. His knife, she noticed was not hanging off of the belt for the first time she could remember.

Alex's left hip seemed bare without it's usual dark scabbard.

"I'm done. I'm out. I said I wouldn't be on any missions for a while." He explained neutrally, throwing his small bag over his good shoulder and making for the door.

He had made three steps before he hit his first obstacle.

Camilla.

"You're not well right now," She insisted determinedly, "Lets get you back into bed and we can discuss this more later."

His resolve faltered as he met her concerned eyes, tearing from the implications of his actions.

Alex shrugged off her wellmeaning hand from his chest.

"I'm well enough for this. Healthy enough to leave." He replied, hiding a wince and stepping past her to continue his path to the door. You've always got to be strong. For Alpha Force. For them. For her. For you.

Camilla fell by the wayside, brushed off by his simple callous move. Discarded like debris, she stood sadly to one side reeling in the aftermath of his decision.

Alex found Paulo blocking his way.

The second obstacle.

"Amigo, you really want to leave Alpha Force? Can we talk about this?" Paulo enquired earnestly, his hands held up palms exposed to his friend.

Alex's eyes were flint as he cut down the South American with words.

"A lot of people dead because of us lately Paulo. Does that make you want to carry on?" He asked the teen dejectedly, his tone burdened with regret and sadness. That was a low blow, the ones we killed weighed as heavily on him as the friends we lost.

Killing, for any cause never sat right with Paulo, so why didn't it bother me? Alex contemplated, even as he spoke the words.

Paulo slumped back as his friends truthful response hit dangerously close to home. He stumbled backwards to sit against the wall, unable to block Alex's path with a reasonable defence.

The Northumbrian took pause from the blow he had to deal on the sensitive Argentinean, before continuing for the door.

Li called to Alex from her bed, her tone enough to draw a halt from him.

The third obstacle.

The most physical of his friends creating a barrier with just her voice.

Guiltily he turned to face the Asian girl who was now sitting forward in her bed. Her eyes were sharp, not hazed by the drugs as they had been a moment ago.

"We've had to go to war Alex, I hate to say it, but people die in war, it's what happens." Li rationalised trying to provide some riposte to his earlier comments that had put Paulo down.

"Are you just going to give up on the fight? What happened to being a soldier?" She demanded.

Alex sighed again; hating the pain he was causing his friends by leaving but still adamant with his choice.

"We're teenagers Li, should we really be the ones having to fight the war?" He asked of her. "Maybe I was a little too eager to grow up and be a soldier."

Maybe I discovered that being a soldier and taking another mans life was something that just came too naturally to me.

Like Paulo, Li found herself without an answer and wordlessly she sunk back into the bed, surrendering to the drugs once more.

Laden with anguish as he watched her slump, Alex turned on his heel and found Hex and Amber standing in his way in his way with linked hands.

Confrontation sparked from Amber as she forced her gaze to meet Alex's. Her russet pupils, still stained with sorrow bored into his, the better guarded.

Amber's sadness-tinged tone presented their argument and stopped him in his tracks.

"My uncle died tonight. We all almost went the same way and you think now is the time to pull the pin on Alpha Force?"

The raw emotion of loss was still strong in the couple and Alex fought the impulse to hug the pair.

Drawing on the reserves of his legendary determination, Alex answered her.

"Maybe if I had been a bit better at leading us.." He conceded to Hex with a bow of his head. Hex matched the position in shame at his actions and accusations from earlier that night.

"Maybe if I had left the group earlier, none of that would have happened." Alex admitted in dishonour, his head hung as he walked around the couple he could no longer bear to face.

He was at the doorway when a hand on his shoulder physically stopped him. Alex's resolution was fading with each intervention and he turned one final time with a good idea who was waiting for him. He was not disappointed to find the tenacious blonde with her eyes fixed on his in determination. The room full of friends watched in anticipation at their final chance of stopping Alex.

"Take me with you then Alex, I love you and I want to be with." She demanded of him, reaching up around his neck slowly, to draw her body tight up against his.

Alex took in the scene of surprised faces behind him before finally noting the daypack slung over his girls shoulder. He burned the feel of her curves pressed against his body into his mind, the sweetest pressure they created on him. Alex drifted his eyelids shut and breathed in her intoxicating honey scent, steeling himself for what would come next.

Camilla's lips sought his again once more, like they had downstairs, with a desperation born from need. Sweet mumblings tumbled from her mouth as she tried to reach his.

"You don't have to do this alone… I want to help you through whatever this is."

Feeling his body and mind responding to her words and touch, Alex tensed every muscle in his body. Feeling this change Camilla forced through his defences with one final effort and met his lips. Alex savoured the taste of her, a sweetness, like her smell that would always linger in his mind. It was with the last of his will that he broke the kiss and gently forced Camilla's face back with his good hand.

"I'm sorry Cammy, but I need some time away from everything and everyone to sort my head out." Alex whispered, his lips moved to touch her forehead instead as the sobs started to spasm her body.

Having effectively broken the girls heart, disavowed his friends and forfeited love and happiness Alex looked up.

"Goodbye my friends." He spoke simply and sadly, before stepping out the door quickly before they could see his own tears falling.


A/N- Finished :) Jeez a bit longer then the last one wasn't it? I apologise on the long wait for the update I had a bit of trouble getting the ending how I wanted it. It may still be tweaked a little. So what did ya think about the ending anyway? Hated it? Loved it? Wanted a twist ending where Camilla turned out to be a man? ;p let me know if ya want to.

Questions over, here are some answers to some of yours.

-More? Some of you actually want more? At this stage I'm saying maybe, a couple of ideas banging around at the moment. The end, in my mind does leave room for another, perhaps even a challenge fic? Any ideas for projects or works let me know I'm happy to consider.

-The what do I do thing again? Those of you that I have talked to and wanted to know about my occupation I will message about it like I did last time.

-Realism? Yup I vouch for the realism behind injuries sustained and the practicality of techniques or weapons mentioned in the text. I have used all the techniques/weapons, usually on real people and either seen, treated, incurred or delivered the injuries written about. And yes for the most part it was fun ;p

-I understand there are a few minor mistakes across the two fics so I'll be spending the next wee while fixing them up, it's a professionalism thing.

A big thanks to all those who have been following, even the quiet ones who are too shy to comment, that's cool too. A special shout out to my reviewers, critics and sometimes fans ;p DammitimmaD, Elledreamer, emmadactryl and I read not write. Makes it easier to write when ya know someone else is reading and enjoying it too ;)

Until next time…?

-Grey.