"Lily?" Amnias looked from her to Alex and back again, evidently thinking they had been plotting something but that couldn't be; he had had Lily all to himself for the past few days. There was no way they could be in on something. "Why aren't you with Matt and Eva?" For once the crazily over confident man was lost for words.

"I left Eva with Matt," she looked over at Hex and Alex and there was something reassuring in her gaze that meant both Matt and Eva were fine. "Your brother's playing a game even he doesn't understand," Lily addressed Hex, "you weren't a good brother to him." She spoke plainly and looked away for a moment as Hex's face saddened. Hex would have retaliated had it not been for the simple fact that what Lily said was true. "You need to win him back," she said quickly, "it'll be easy; he's been wanting to get back on our side for a while." She smiled but Amnias moved, hardly an inch, and she had her gun pointed back to him in an instant.

"Lily," Alex said; it had been so long since he'd seen her he really didn't want to ask her this question but he knew he had to. "What do you mean…you suggested you were the one who handed Amnias over?" Lily's eyes began to tear up as she heard the almost pleading, desperate tone Alex used, but she couldn't lie to him anymore.

"I didn't suggest it," she replied, "I confirmed it." Amnias looked at her with scrutiny.

"You liar!" Amnias shouted at her, "you didn't….you couldn't have…." He took steps away from her as if she were insane before he stopped and thought about it. "Well actually I suppose you could have." He muttered to himself. "Explain!" He just shouted the one word at her and she sighed, she also lowered her gun.

"What's happened to Paulo?" She asked as she looked to the floor.

"Damn!" Hex and Alex shouted before kneeling down to him.

"Paulo, can you hear me?" Hex asked as Alex pulled the man up into a sitting position. Paulo nodded with a groan.

"But I want to hear Lily more." He croaked and they all looked back up to her.

"I work with MI5," she said simply and Alex's hands dropped from Paulo's shoulders and he stood up, leaving Hex to hold up their friend.

"You're a spy?" Alex asked and shook his head.

"No, no she's not." Amnias said and for the first time since they'd met him he seemed sane. "I know this part of the story," he said quickly, "Lily is a shadow." He looked at her and she could see from the way his eyes danced around her frame that he was reaching the conclusion. Alex laughed in disbelief and shook his head at them both.

"Shadows don't exist; they're a joke!" He said and gestured to Lily, "Please tell me this is a joke." She shook her head.

"A few years ago I was recruited as a shadow but they had no target for me so I waited, carried on with my degree-"

"Will someone explain what a shadow is first?!" Paulo shouted at them and they all jumped.

"A shadow is supposedly someone who follows a member of the Ministry of Defence, known as their target, and makes sure they don't get killed, that their missions run smoothly, that their friends aren't their enemies." Alex explained but Hex raised an eyebrow at him as he had talked in a sceptical tone. "They don't exist!" He protested. "They were a violation of human rights so were abolished-"

"Alex you work for the Ministry of Defence, they could make you believe Gordon Brown is really an alien if they wanted to." Amnias interjected. "Shadows exist, I know because I dated one before she got her target." He muttered and this time even Hex gasped.

"Wait," he said and held up a hand to signal the conversation to stop for a moment, "you two," he pointed to Amnias and Lily, "dated?" He said the word as if it were the most disgusting thing he'd ever heard. Lily nodded.

"I was dating Brad, training and finishing my degree when I was told a new kid at joined us," she nodded to Alex and smiled suddenly. "I couldn't believe it when I heard it was you!" She laughed. "So Brad, your colleague, was assigned to help me out for a while because I was pretty new to it too." Alex looked to Amnias who smiled guiltily. "But then something happened that I didn't think would happen-"

"What?!" Everyone shouted at her and she jumped.

"I fell in love with you." She said to Alex and looked away.

"Awwwwwwwwww." Amnias said to fill the silence, Lily cleared her throat.

"So Amnias and I broke up, went our separate ways." She shrugged. "And I went with you on all your missions without you knowing, making sure everything went according to plan." Alex looked to the floor, working everything out.

"So that means," he said slowly, "my first mission you were-"

"Second sniper on your left." She said with equal slowness, trying to remember.

"When I was in Brussels?"

"Taxi driver." She smiled at him; she'd driven him everywhere and he hadn't even noticed.

"So missions that went horribly wrong but turned out fine, that was because of you?" Hex asked for Alex, Lily nodded.

"First one of those cases was Kuwait-"

"We got the wrong guy at first," Alex commented and Lily nodded again.

"But I captured him back from you and gave you the right one," she said and smiled slightly guiltily.

"So all this time," Alex didn't even know how to put it, "when I came home and you were just," he thought of the most mundane activity Lily did, "cleaning the house, cooking dinner-"

"Mere moments before you walked through the door I was on the phone to HQ," she muttered, "talking of you to whoever I needed to report back to."

"So when you were making cookies-"

"I bought the cookies on my way back-"

"But I love your cookies!"

"I think we've strayed a little off topic," Amnias said quietly and Lily and Alex were silenced.

"The mission with him," Alex jerked his head in Amnias' direction, evidently he disliked him more after finding out about Lily's relationship with him, "what did you do?" There was a moment of silence.

"I was in the field too, looking after things." Lily took a breath before walking towards Alex quickly, "you were an idiot, foolish, naïve- whatever the hell you want to call it- but the truth is you shouldn't have ordered that mission to go ahead!" She shouted at him, "it wasn't planned and you were stupid!" She said, "I had to give away Brad's position to the other side if I was going to save you!" Lily shook her head.

"Was it a difficult decision to make?" Alex asked and there was something sinister in his voice that made Lily think before answering.

"Of course it was; this was someone's life!" She said exasperatedly, "what do you mean?" She asked because she noticed Alex's sick smile.

"I've heard of shadows," he muttered, "I thought they didn't exist but I know how they play. They follow you, get as close to you as they possibly can but you know what's the worst part about it?" Lily shook her head, "it's all an act, they could be your best friend, you wouldn't know their your shadow, but they could hate your guts. They could say they love you but not mean it-"

"You better not be saying what I think you're saying." Lily whispered dangerously and Alex's blue eyes looked up at her.

"You were still in love with him weren't you?" Alex pointed to Amnias who looked just as surprised as everyone else. "When we married?" Lily looked away ashamedly.

"Yes," she admitted, "I was. But-"

"Lily," Alex said seriously, "do you think Eva looks like me?" He didn't even have time to blink before the back of Lily's hand met his face. He stumbled back in surprise.

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean!?" Lily shouted at him and advanced. Hex had helped Paulo up finally and took a step between Lily and Alex.

"Is Eva mine?!" Alex shouted back and for the first time in what seemed like forever; Lily finally let her feelings show. Tears crept out of her eyes and she shook her head at him, fighting down the desire to hit him again.

"Have you seen," Lily whispered, "her eyes?" She looked up to Alex as though it were he who had betrayed her. "No one else, I have ever met, has eyes like yours Alex." She wiped away tears hurriedly. "So what, you think that because I'm a shadow my feelings for you aren't real?" She asked scathingly and now Alex was too ashamed to look at her. "You really need to shut up." She concluded. "And now, you don't even know what it means, what I'm going to suffer for telling you this-"

"What?" Alex asked quickly and looked back at her but now it seemed as though Lily was regretting what she had said. Amnias put a hand on her shoulder and addressed Alex.

"Usually shadows do end up in a relationship of extreme intimacy, perhaps in a romantic or non-romantic way, with their target." Amnias shook his head and remained silent for a moment, "but if their true mission is ever found out by their target then…the shadow must leave the target's life completely, never to be seen or heard from immediately." He finished and sighed. "Tough break." He said to Lily.

"Is that," Alex pushed Hex aside softly and went straight up to Lily, he held her face in his hands so she'd looked at him, "is that true?" Lily bit her bottom lip.

"Yes-"

"Then why did you tell me?!" He shouted at her.

"Because everyday I saw you wake up with that rain cloud over you; with the guilt that you'd murdered your best friend!" She shouted back, "when you didn't even know it was actually the person in the bed right next to you that was responsible!" Lily blinked away tears, "I couldn't stand to see you miserable," they laughed.

"So by revealing you're my shadow and separating us, you don't think that will make me miserable?" He asked and she sighed.

"When you're taking lives for a living you kind of learn to forget how other people are feeling." Alex nodded as she spoke; he understood what she meant. It was just a job but it meat sacrificing a lot.

"Taking lives?" Hex said uncertainly.

"People who were a threat to Alex need to be…taken out." Amnias explained.

"Oh," Hex said, mildly impressed.

"It's nothing to be proud of." Alex whispered to him.

"We'll talk later." Lily said quickly before turning to Amnias. "Right now we have to save the others. In all the time we've been talking water's already seeped in." Indeed when Alex looked down water reached his ankles, he hadn't even noticed.

"That reminds me." Amnias got back to his usual crazy self as he smiled at them all and began to walk away. "The first detonation is in about," he checked his watch, "thirty seconds." His men jumped onto the stage and followed him as he ran to the door Lily came through. "Here!" He threw the key to Lily but Alex grabbed it before she could, "It's the key to that door," he pointed at the one Hex came through. "Have fun!" He shouted and into the darkness he and his men were gone. Everyone stood in silence for a few seconds.

"Did he say thirty-" But Hex didn't get to finish his sentence for the entire wall to their right collapsed in a heap of rubble and dust. They all put their arms over their heads to shield their heads from the pieces of concrete that flew away from the small explosion that had caused massive damage to the wall and the walls around it. They shielded their ears for the sound of falling brick was so deafening it hurt their heads to listen to it. After a moment they all opened their eyes and ears once more. The building was slowly crumbling away and a fire was beginning to consume the wreckage. They all looked over to the broken wall in shock and stood, paralysed as the sound of the huge crash fell to silence. All they could hear was their own breathing, heavy and irregular from shock. But then another sound came, one that made the hair on the back of their neck stood up. They all watched in horror as a huge wall of water came forth from behind the wreckage.

THERE WERE NEVER ANY COOKIES ALEX!

Why can't he just accept it?!