Hey, just to let you all know there is no major secret behind Hex's actions; it'll become obvious why he's acting strange, it should be obvious already but…yeah- just don't expect major gasps.

:D

Pedro opened his eyes; when he'd heard the shot he instinctively went to the floor. His body froze, partially from the shock that Lily had actually fired the gun. But looking around he saw the shattered remains of his mobile phone; she had just stopped him from calling her father. He stood quickly and went to the window; looking down he saw the figure of Lily climb over the wall.

"Lily?" Pedro looked around, a maid had come into the room; it was evident she had just woken up. She gasped at the sight of Pedro who checked his watch; 6 am; everyone in the house would be waking up now. Pedro shouted some instructions to the maid in Spanish; she nodded quickly and left the room. A few minutes later, after Pedro had scooped up and thrown away his phone, Lily's father walked into the room.

"Where is she?" He snarled and walked up to Pedro who mumbled something. Lily's father hit Pedro's face with the back of his hand. Pedro stumbled slightly but regained balance. Hector put his hands on his hips and sighed. The young boy in front of him rubbed his cheek; his olive skin flushed. "…perdóneme.," (A/N: "forgive me,") Hector held up his arms and embraced Pedro. He let him go and Hector sat down on the bed, Pedro knelt in front of him.

"What're we gonna do?" Pedro asked and Hector glanced at him.

"You are going to get her back. Follow her, wherever she's gone. Just get her back here." Hector stood up and Pedro did too, "I have a meeting this morning at the factory," he walked over to the door and was about to leave but he turned back. "Her friends, do we know where they are?" He looked Pedro in the eye and Pedro averted his own. I think you love me enough not to do it.

"No." Pedro shook his head as Lily's voice could be heard within him. Hector nodded;

"Well, get on with it; I'll phone you later-"

"I don't have a phone." Hector raised an eyebrow.

"Why don't you have a phone?" He asked plainly, Pedro took a moment to answer.

"Lily broke it." Pedro nodded towards the bin; Hector looked in it and swore.

"How the hell did she do that?" Pedro was silent, "just go." Hector waved a dismissive hand. Pedro nodded and left the room after him.

"Li don't fall asleep." Paulo whispered and nudged her; she awoke with a start and looked wildly around before relaxing back onto his shoulder. She brushed dark hair from her face and they both shivered; it was around sunrise, 6. 20 am, and it was colder than usual. Around 10 minutes ago they had seen the van leave the area; it was probably driving back to the house. They both knew that the town woke at seven am, they had 40 minutes until the museum opened and people entered it; they had those 40 minutes to get everything they needed from this place. They just had to wait for-

"Amber!" Li shouted and put a hand to her mouth quickly. Three figures emerged from the morning mist, they walked slowly in the distance but Li and Paulo knew their friends well enough to be sure it was them. "Hex…" Li looked at the figure next to Amber, "Alex…" She shook her head. "Nope, no Lily." She said tentatively. Amber ran forwards to her friends, Hex and Alex walked on after. There was a look that passed between Alex and Hex that did not go unnoticed by Li. "What's happened?" She asked, Amber sighed and told them what had happened, omitting the angered moments between Hex and Alex. Paulo said something in Spanish that sounded like a swear word.

"…Mierde…" He kicked a rock by his foot and looked over to Alex, he could tell by the look his friend gave him that there was nothing left to say.

"Sorry, Alex." Li whispered but Alex shrugged indifferently.

"We need to get inside." Alex said and walked away, everyone stood for a few moments in silence, perhaps waiting in vain hope for Lily to turn up. "You coming?" Alex had come back and everyone nodded. They moved off.

This had to be in the top ten of the most stupid decisions ever made. She had no money, no other clothes apart from the black dress she was in, all she had was a gun, some random items from her room and the key ring Hex had given her, which she carried in her hands now; it was quite big for a normal key ring; about double the size. She had no idea where she was walking too; she hadn't even phoned her mother who was abroad. But then, would her mother even care that much? Now that Lily thought about it she couldn't really picture her mother's face. She remembered she was a good, kind, beautiful person; she cared in comparison to Lily's father.

Lily patted her thigh; she had placed the safety catch of the gun on and tied it with a red ribbon to her leg. Peru was not the kind of place you want to be found walking around openly with a gun in your hands. She glanced down at the key ring Hex had given her, she smiled, it was a nice little gadget. It showed the time (6.24 am), the temperature (6ºC), a map of Peru and a little red light that showed the capital; Lima. She stopped walking along the dirty and rocky road and walked to a palm tree that was a little way off; she sat down and the helplessness of her situation overwhelmed her for a moment. Tears entered her eyes but she stopped them from spilling; it was her fault she was here, she couldn't just cry about it.

At least she had a map of Peru; she could get to Lima, or….she glanced at the key ring again…Li. Whatever town that was. On second thought, she'd never heard of that town. She peered closer at the key ring; she looked at the tiny inscriptions there and laughed out loud. What she had taken to be a map of Peru was a map of Abancay; the little red lights were not major cities: they were people. Their names overlapped now because they were all in the same place. She didn't need to read the name to know where they were; she knew this place too well. She stood; a sudden excitement ran through her veins as she ran in the direction of her friends. Clutching the key ring in her hands she smiled as she ran, thinking all the way: Hex really is a brilliant boy. She made a mental note to hug him when they met again.

Alpha force walked with caution around to the back of the museum. Alex was at the front, leading the rest of the group while Paulo remained at the back. They all walked as quietly as they could, although the sounds of the morning were already beginning; trucks were starting up in the distance and the music that usually inhibited the place was coming back too.

"Did you see where they put the boxes?" Alex whispered to Li who was behind him.

"No," she said slightly ashamedly, "it was too risky-"

"But you're sure they came into the museum?" Li nodded. They came across a back door, it was bolted shut and they could see it was too secure to get open. They all sighed in annoyance; they'd come all this way to be shut out?

"No," Amber pointed to something lower and beside that door, "there's another one." They all looked and could see that there was another, smaller, broken door that seemed a lot easier to get into. They all glanced at each other. Li took a step towards the door and peered in.

"Perhaps we should send someone in first alone." She moved the door aside, "it'd have to be someone small just in case…" She turned back to them and they all smiled. "Alright, alright," she held up her hands in defeat.

"What do you see?" Paulo asked as Li crouched at the door, she looked back at them all.

"There's enough space for anyone to fit, the stairs here will let us go down into the factory." They all shared a quick glance of shock before wanting to see themselves. "Whoa whoa!" Li said as they pushed her out of the way.

"Oh my…" Amber peered through the door to see, below them, lines of plants beneath long, low lights. At the sides of the room, on long tables were bags of white powder, and in the far corner a machine that was built into the wall. "How can all this be in the basement of a museum that people come into so often?" She gasped.

"We need to get evidence." Alex said and everyone nodded; they took out their cameras, Hex had a video camera. They all walked down into the dimly lit room, they were silent as they worked, taking pictures, gaining as much footage as they could to stop this.

"This is insane." Hex said quietly and, although no one replied, they all agreed.

"What was that?" Paulo whispered and they all froze to listen. Footsteps. Getting louder, coming to this room. They looked at one another in horror before realising that this room was so open there was no where to hide. They stuffed their cameras into their bags and all ran towards the stairs but it was too late. The double doors to the room opened and Hector and a few others entered, equally as shocked as Alpha, to find other people in the room. Three men in dark suits entered after Lily's father.

"Get them." He said quietly and Alpha force knew not to run as the men took out guns. One man grabbed both Li and Amber, another took Paulo and the last one grabbed Alex and Hex's arms. "Take them to different rooms. I'm busy now; I'll deal with them all later." And so Alpha force was dragged away from the factory. They walked out of the basement of the museum and were surprised to find the there were more corridors and rooms under the museum. Li and Amber were thrown into a room, the boys shouted and Paulo shouted something at the men in Spanish; it earned him a punch in the stomach to which Hex and Alex remained silent as they saw the man lift his gun to them; daring them to say something. Their heads fell in defeat and the men smiled; after they had taken Paulo into a room, Hex, Alex and the last suited man walked away.

They entered another room, empty apart from a bench that became illuminated by lamplight as the man turned it on. He threw them to the middle of the room and knelt beside them, he twisted their arms back and tied them together, the pain subsided after a while and no one said anything. Alex looked up at the man with angered eyes but all he got in response was a smile. Hex and Alex sat back to back and he man then tied the rope he used to the bench which was nailed to the floor, he threw their bags to a corner of the room and left them. Hex and Alex struggled silently for a few minutes with the rope but they gave up.

"Maybe I can get my knife…" Alex said but tried in vain to reach it from his pack. He gave up and almost shouted in frustration.

"Alex, chill out-"

"Chill out?!" The usual calm ambiance Alex held left him as he tried to turn around to look at Hex.

"Why're you acting so weird?" Hex asked quietly.

"I'm just….I'm just angry ok?! I'm just tied up on the floor in a foreign country! I'm…" Alex's head slumped forwards, "I don't even know."

"That's not why you're angry." Hex said and again Alex realised a change in his character too; an air of confidence came to Hex as he spoke.

"How would you know what I'm angry about?" Alex retorted; realising now that he had lost his cool. He felt slightly ashamed; it was situations like this people usually looked up to him in.

"You're angry that we left Lily-"

"Will you leave Lily out of this?" Alex asked in a dangerous whisper.

"No." Hex said and tried to turn to Alex. "Not until you stop being such a…"

"Such a what Hex?" Alex turned and they could just see each other now. There was an anger in Alex's eyes that unnerved Hex; an anger he'd never seen before.

"Why don't you just admit it hurt you when you saw her kissing Pedro?" Alex looked away. "I mean, I know you're not like that Alex, you don't like to talk about it. But why can't you just show it, for once-"

"Since when were you into talking about it?" Alex asked quietly.

"Since I saw the way that she looked at you." Alex shivered; this was awkward. Of all the people to talk about this to, he wouldn't have guessed it'd be Hex. "I just…you can't let something like that go Alex." He said to the wall opposite, "Will you for once tell someone how you feel? Just tell her-"

"You make me sound subhuman." Alex laughed and stared at the blank wall opposite, "as though I'm incapable of showing emotion."

"That's not what I mean mate, I just don't want you to throw it away." Alex laughed.

"You're one to talk; not telling a girl about how you feel-"

"What do you mean by that?" hex whipped his head round so fast he got a crick in his neck. He winced from the pain and heard Alex laugh again.

"It's not exactly a well kept secret hex." Alex taunted him, "When exactly is Amber going to find out how you feel?" Alex waited for the fireworks to come but nothing happened; Hex was silent.

"Don't change the subject." Hex said eventually, "this is about you and Lily." Alex said nothing and Hex sighed. "I see Amber loads; you might never see Lily again-"

"Perhaps that's best." Alex said and Hex was shocked. "Lily and I come from completely different worlds. Anyway, how the heck can I be with Lily and hang out with you guys? She doesn't know what we do Hex…she wouldn't want to hang around, waiting for me to get back."

"Dude," Hex whispered, "have you never read Harry Potter? Or seen Spiderman?" Alex laughed.

"This isn't a book or a film." He sighed, "I'm sorry Hex-"

"For what?"

"For getting angry, I was just-"

"Mad because you realised, actually you just think, that you and Lily could never be together?" Alex cringed at the statement but nodded. "And you regret not saying anything and jsut blanking her the last time you saw her?" Alex nodded again.

"Yeah," he said, realising Hex couldn't see him.

"I think that's rubbish-"

"At least I have a vaguely credible reason not to say anything to her! You've got no good reason not to tell Amber!" Alex shifted to become more comfortable.

"There are SO many reasons not to tell her Alex," Hex said, refusing to deny it to one of his best friends. Alex put his head back and hit Hex's head. "What was that for?" Hex asked, even though it had not hurt him at all.

"Yeah, reasons as in: I don't think she'll like me back? That's ridiculous." Alex said.

"It's not!" Hex said, suddenly angry, "there are more reasons!" He tried to think of them, "what if she didn't; then how awkward will our friendship be? It'd ruin everything cause…for one stupid moment I thought she could like me." Hex hung is head.

"Whoa….Hex." Alex turned to him, "I reckon she likes you-"

"you do?" Alex nodded.

"We've been friends long enough to know what each others thinking." Alex said. "Is that why you've been acting so weird?" Alex asked suddenly and Hex looked at him.

"What?"

"All the sudden confidence gaining?" Alex laughed, "I get it now. You saw me and Lily together-"

"And it just reminded me I should tell Amber…yeah, yeah….you got it in one." Hex sighed, "so I tried to act a bit more….you know, confident, to get her to notice me a bit more." Alex laughed again.

"Dude, she's never not noticed you."

"Really?" Hex looked over to Alex in earnest and Alex nodded. They sat in silence for a few moments, "I'll tell Amber, if you tell Lily." Alex contemplated.

"No Hex," Alex shook his head, "she'll know I lied. She won't want to know me." He gritted his teeth, "its better if she doesn't get involved with me; I'd just let her down; travelling around with you guys and then seeing her what? Once a year or something?" Alex sighed, "long distance relationships don't work." They both laughed.

"So I'm guessing you're no longer angry at the fact we're tied up in a room in a foreign country, in the grasp of a drug dealer?" Hex asked and Alex shrugged.

"I've had worse days." They smiled and looked around as they heard the door open.