"Nothing personal." the girl mumbled. She jerked the knife out of Sabina, letting the girl fall to the ground. She didn't particularly enjoy murder, although you might not believe it, seeing as she was an assassin. No, the importence of all this was, the message had been sent. Alex would have no choice now.
She turned coldly and walked away, leaving Sabina on the ground to bleed. She could hear Sabina trying to control her breathing. It wouldn't be long. Someone would find her. It wouldn't be long. It was all simply a question of whether they got there in time to stop her from bleeding to death.
"Nice and clean." she said to herself. "The way it always is."
Carnelian Rhapsody
by
Frazee
Chapter 2
Her Life and Yours
Alex rushed to the hospital when he heard the news. Sabina had been attacked. She'd been hurt. His heart ached. It seemed he never had a moment's piece. First himself, now Sabina was in trouble. Fear was emotion Alex Rider had come to know well, he had felt it so often in the past year. Right now, it threatened to engulf his entire existence. Alex Rider had never been so scared in his life.
The only thing that mattered now was reaching Sabina. He ran through the doors in the emergency and asked for her.
"I'm looking for Sabina Pleasure." he said, trying to catch his breath. The nurse looked bored.
"Are you family?" she asked. Alex thought it through. If he said no, he wouldn't be able to see her. The answer to that question was fairly obvious.
"Yes." he replied. The nurse stared at him, watching him carefully for a sign that he was lying.
"Well, in any case, you can't see her." the nurse said, dismissing him.
"Why not?" Alex asked. Before the nurse could answer, he ran past her and through the doors to the many rooms, looking in as he ran past for a sign of Sabina. There wasn't any. He continued to look, through every room in the ER. He finally found her, in the last place he had ever wanted to see Sabina Pleasure. In the middle of a room, lying on a bed, surrounded by doctors with looks of disappointment and defeat on their faces, was Sabina Pleasure. "SABINA!" Alex shouted. He ran into the room.
"Hey kid!" one of the doctors said, making a grab for him. Alex pushed the doctor off, running to Sabina's side. He stared down, tears stinging his eyes.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" he screamed. "HELP HER!" None of the doctors moved. They watched him with sadness as he began to cry over the girl. "Help her." he sobbed. One of the doctors came over and put a hand on his shoulder.
"She's gone." he said softly. Alex shook his head.
"I don't believe you. You have to help her. Please, help her..." he sobbed. The doctor wrapped his arm around Alex's shoulder and Alex let the doctor lead him away. Sabina was gone. She was actually gone.
Jack found him sitting in the waiting room in ER, staring down in a cup of something evidently very hot, judging by the steam rising from it. He didn't move, didn't glance up at her, he barely even breathed. When Jack came and sat beside him, all he did was stare into that cup.
"A woman named Mrs. Jones called for you." Jack said silently. Alex didn't move. "She said- she said, she was sorry for your loss." Jack watched him for signs he was even still alive. There were few. "Alex, I know everything. About MI6. Your uncle Ian. Where you've been." she said. She waited for Alex to acknowledge her existence. "Alex?"
"How long have you known?" he asked, making his voice impassive.
"Since you came back." Jack told him. Alex still didn't move.
"Why didn't you say anything?" he asked. Jack sighed and stared down at the floor
"They told me not to." she answered. Alex took a sip of the drink, what Jack could only guess to be coffee.
"Are you here to recruit me too?" he asked. Jack looked over at the teenage boy. Back before his uncle had died, he had seemed so much like a kid. The boy she was staring at now was not that same boy. He was some one else. Someone mature, aging, this boy was someone tired.
"I'm not going to try to make you do anything you don't want to." Jack whispered. He swallowed, trying to choke back tears.
"But they sent you, didn't they?" he asked, already knowing what the answer would be. Jack nodded.
"They said I should go to you. They gave me a message. They said you'd understand what it meant." Jack told him.
"What's the message?" he asked. Jack hesitated. That was Alex finally looked at her. His eyes were worn and bloodshot from crying so tears, that they would no come to his tired eyes.
"You know who's responsible. You know what to do." Jack told him.
"Is that all?" he asked. Jack opened her mouth to speak. Alex stared at her, waiting. Jack sighed, tears coming to her eyes.
"They said, her blood's on your hands."
The message was clear. Sabina had killed because he refused to accept the mission. Whoever was leaking information from MI6 knew who was, and these people wanted him on the case and undercover. Sabina's blood is on his hands.
Alex stood and set the cup of coffee down on the table to the other side of him. He walked towards the doors.
"Alex?" Jack asked. "Where are you going?" Alex didn't even turn around. He didn't even answer her question. He simply walked out the doors of the ER.
The service was held a week later. Alex didn't attend. Jack was worried about him. He hadn't come home since the night at the ER. Alex didn't care. He had left. He also figured that he was probably not coming back. The thing was, none of it seemed to matter anymore. The school. The friends. It was all for nothing. In the end, they would end up dead. Or he would.
He lay on a bed in a cheap hotel room, papers and files scattered beside. He had been staring at the cieling in thought for the past three hours. He had read the files five times. He had commited everything he could to memory. He was tired, and he was hungry. But most of all, he was completely and utterly alone. Alone and Hurt. Alex didn't like feeling alone and hurt. He didn't like feeling that his world was falling apart. He definately didn't like the feeling that Sabina's blood was on his hands. Hell, he didn't even like the feeling that she was gone. There was no one to understand. No one to help him through. For the first time in Alex Rider's life, he felt as if nothing matter and that he would be better off dead.
A kind of sadness Alex had never before known ripped at him. Pain he couldn't describe. A new kind of hurt that was so horrible, Alex was sure he would never fully feel the effects. He would too numb to notice. He would be too gone to care.
Sabina was gone. She was gone, and she was never coming back. She was gone, and it was his fault. The need, the feeling, the want of revenge after his uncle's death... that still weighed on his shoulders. This didn't only add fuel to the fire, however, this was the turning point. There would be no missions. There would be no more saving the world. After this, he was done - and this time, he wasn't planning on playing MI6's bloody game. It would be on his own terms. His own rules. He would get revenge for Sabina's death, and his uncle's.
He would bring down whoever was behind this operation. And he would take everyone else with him.
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"He's accepted the mission."
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A/N: Gomen nasai! I got caught up in massive biology homework, then when I tried to write, I got writer's block. When I finally got off my butt and started up on another fanfic, I forgot I had this chapter on my computer entirely. It's kinda short, but I'll have chapter 3 soon! GOMEN NASAI!