Finally, a new chapter! I didn't mean to take so long writing but beetween my teachers drowning us in homework and virtual exams, it was hard to find the time to finish this. But thanks to the wonderful guest who asked for the recent one shot "Alex and Vict: Nobody had to know" (if you haven't read it yet, go check it out!), the muse was awakened and so I was able to finish the chapter.

Now, are you guys ready? There's some action coming your way in 3…2…1…go!

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Chapter 14: The boyfriend? He'd just be collateral

The moment Alex opened the door, a gun went off somewhere.

He felt Vict jump at his back and fist both hands into the fabric of his shirt. He also waited a fraction of a second to listen for incoming footsteps but the coast continued to be clear.

Before he could set foot outside the room though, Vict's hands squeezed tighter on his shirt and tugged him back into the room, most likely reluctant to walk towards the sound of gunfire in the inmediate vicinity. It hadn't taken long for the response fire to start and Alex could clearly distinguish two different parties firing at each other.

Making sure again that the hallway was empty, the blond turned around while putting the lock picking needles away in his pocket. "Okay, listen to me. Stay behind me at all times. If I say duck, you duck. If I say run, you run. No second guessing and no looking back. We only have one shot at this"

The older boy nodded grimly and reluctantly let go of his shirt when Alex pried his hands away. He was going to need his full range of mobility for what they were about to do.

He could still see the lingering panic hiding behind Vict's worried expression but he also saw a new determination that helped settle his own racing heart.

He'd promised the other boy he wouldn't get hurt today and he intended to keep his word.

It was time to go.

Instead of tiptoeing their way out, Alex figured there was no need to sacrifice speed for stealth. A whole battle was breaking loose downstairs, meaning escaping wasn't a surprise anymore.

He flattened himself against the wall by the staircase leading down to the second floor and held out a hand for Vict to do the same. When he picked around and saw the way free, they hurried along.

They reached the next floor without a hitch.

It was at the end of the second set of stairs that they encountered trouble, when they were about to reach the first floor. The man in question, no doubtedly on his way up to check on the prisoners, overcame his surprise fast enough to send the first punch. But Alex reacted on instinc, barely stoping to consider the best course of action and blocked the man's fist while ducking out of the way. A straight jab to the throat, a knee to the abdomen and an elbow to the face later and the man went crumbling to the floor holding his head in pain.

He wasn't unconscious yet and Alex was about to deliver the finishing blow when Vict warned him to turn around. "Watch out!"

The blond sent a blind back kick that didn't connect, too late to avoid being slammed against the wall when he turned around to face the new threat. But breaking out of the hold was easy. A weakening blow to the man's elbows and Alex could slid down the wall and sidestep away from him. A round house kick and the job was done.

He was breathing heavily by the time both men were taken down for good but was glad to notice that he wasn't either tired or hurt in the slightest. Adrenalin was such a great friend. His muscles would surely complain come tomorrow though... if there was a tomorrow.

The blond signaled for Vict to follow.

The older boy looked half impressed and half... something when he sidestepped the broken figures on the floor, but Alex couldn't spare his attention to ponder on it. Listening to the sounds of the fight below reminded him how close they were to Villanueva's small army and the flying bullets. He couldn't lose focus now.

The blond hunched down and stayed close to the wall, indicating Vict to copy his posture and stay low while they descended the last flight of stairs.

But he wasn't even half way down when a yelp made him turn around to the sight of Vict struggling to dislodge the arm around his throat. The blond internally cursed. The first floor hadn't been as empty as he'd thought.

Before the man could reach for the holster strapped to his side, Alex took matters into his own hand, "Fingers!" Well, Vict's hand.

The other boy was quick to remember their self defense lessons and searched blindly around until he clasped the man's fingers in his own and twisted with all his might. The man let out an animalistic growl while Vict twisted away from his hold. But Alex didn't have time to feel proud because next thing he knew, Vict's knees were kicked out from behind and the boy went barreling down the stairs with a surprised shout.

When Alex went to stop his fall, he failed to prevent the foot that connected painfully against his open chest and sent him tumbling down the stairs as well. The boys went rolling down with a mixture of flying limbs and pained curses until they landed in a hip on the ground floor where the noise was so deafening it didn't help with their disorienterion at all.

It was definitely not how he'd intended to crash their way into the battle ground.

Once he recovered enough, the blond hauled his aching body to move and threw himself over Vict, who was looking dazed as hell, to shield him from any bullet that might find its way to them. He was also aware of the person that had pushed them down the stairs appearing at the bottom as well to finish the job. But Alex didn't have to worry for long because a familiar figure stepped between the downed boys and the approaching man.

He let Ben handle the threat and urged Vict to get up on his knees. "Up. Up. Up. Behind that crater. Go!"

The other boy scrambled to comply with Alex hot on his heels. He peeked behind their hiding spot to get a sense of the layout and map an escape route in his mind. It would be doable if the freaking door wasn't on their exact opposite direction.

"Alex?"

He turned around to assess Vict's condition, dismayed to find a streak of blood slowly runing down the side of his head. One of the stitches of his forehead must have popped out on the fall. "You're okay" the blond asured him because he didn't like the uncertainty in the other boy's voice.

"Are you?"

"Of course. We're almost out of here"

Vict looked incredulously around signaling the ongoing battle around them and Alex had to concede the point. Not that he let him know that. He'd promised to get the other boy out of that mess and wasn't about to let it show just how dire he also thought their situation was.

A few seconds later, a heavily breathing Ben kneeled next to them and clasped a hand on Vict's shoulder. "It's damn good to see you kid. Okay, Ian and I made our way in. There's a lot more people than we realized. Are there any more upstairs?"

"There shouldn't be but I don't know" they both turned to Vict who silently shrugged his shoulders. He didn't know either.

Ben went back to giving instructions. "You'll stick to the wall. Follow it all the way outside. I'll make a ruckus over there to buy you some time. Stay down. When you're out, run to the end of the street. Wait for us there. We'll be right behind you"

"Ben, where's your gun?" Alex distinctly remembered seeing one in his brother's hand when he'd intercepted their stairs pusher back there.

"Lost it"

"Where's Ian?"

"Lost him too"

Great.

"Remember: stay low and get him out of here"

While Ben recovered his breath, Alex turned to study Vict's face.

The older boy's skin was ashen white and his eyes were darting all over the place, flinching every time a gun was fired and Alex doubted he'd caught every word Ben had just said. He leaned closer and forced Vict to hold his gaze by craddling his face between his hands.

"You with me?" he asked, shaking some focus into him. He smirked when annoyance replaced fear and Vict pried his hands away.

"You so owe me for all of this"

Alex's smirk grew wider and he let go of Vict's head in favor of grabbing one of his hands. "When we're out of here, I promise"

Alex was ready to start running and pull the other boy along with him when he noticed. The deafening silence.

He janked Vict behind the crate again and shared a worried look with Ben. The gunfire had stopped.

"Enough!" Villanueva's voice was strained and Alex heard some struggling before the sound of a body hitting the floor reached them. "If you don't want your uncle to die, again, step out so we can have a chat"

Alex's stomach dropped.

He locked eyes with Ben and they seemed to have a silent conversation.

You run, I'll distract them.

Alex shook his head. There's too many.

Villanueva taunted him again and Alex closed his eyes in resignation, stiffly opening his fingers and letting go of Vict's hand. The action felt like he was signing his own fate.

"Alex" the older boy hissed, eyes wide and head shaking in a silent plea to just stay put.

"I don't have all day!" the sound of a gun cocking straightened his resolve and he stood up, walking around the crate and ignoring Ben's pull on his arm.

Alex had thought guiltily that if anyone was going to be captured first, it would've been Ben, what with him being away for so long from anything soldier or spy related, so it was a surprise to see Ian kneeling with his arms raised behind his head and Villanueva's gun aimed at it.

It wasn't an image he could reconcile with the man he'd grew up with but, yet again, the fact that the man was there at all made everything hard to reconcile.

Villanueva waved the gun around and addressed him with an impatient remark. "See, this won't do. I want the boyfriend as well! And the brother!" he yelled at his men before speaking to him again "You do surround yourself with interesting people Alex. Now, wasn't I clear enough?"

The man threw a small object at his feet that Alex quickly recognized as the fake flashdrive. The blond had hoped they'd be able to get away before the bluff was discovered, maybe even before backup was needed, but when have things ever gone according to plan for him?

All he did was shrug apologetically as if asking the man what else had he been supposed to do. "You weren't gonna keep your word anyway"

"I want the real flashdrive"

"I don't have it. I never had it. How did you expect me to get something that important from something like the secret service?" right now his only hope was to keep the man distracted enough for Ben to get Vict out of that place. He really hoped his brother understood that nothing was more important than that.

"You're a clever boy. If you could think of a way to deceive me, you could've done what I asked"

"This is the government we're talking about. I'm a nobody"

"Are you? Because it seems to me-" both Alex and Villanueva turned when a slight commotion reached their ears and Alex was overcame by a sense of dread when Ben and Vict were led back to them at gunpoint. They hadn't even gotten that far.

Things were so incredibly out of control. He had failed. They had all failed. The dummy drive hadn't bought them enough time and Villanueva just had too many people on his side. Alex was beginning to realize that they'd never really had a chance in the first place.

"There they are" Villanueva strided casually closer to the blond "I thought I'd given you enough motivation. Now let me ask again, where is the real flashdrive?"

"I told you, I don't know-"

Pain exploded on his right cheek when the man's fist connected solidly against the side of his face. The blow startingly fast and unexpected. The strength behind the punch made him stumble a step to the side but he didn't lose his footing. "I told you- ugh!"

Another strike. This time the fist caught him straight in the jaw and when the blond inevitably fell to his knees, he spat a mouthfull of blood on the ground.

"I don't like being played Alex. Time is too important to be wasted"

"Then stop wasting it with me because it can't get you what you want" he spat through clenched teeth, his mouth throbbing in pain. In fact, the whole right side of his face was pulsing in time with his heart and he involuntarily flinched away when the man raised his fist, ready to strike him a third time when Ian's voice interrupted him.

"I have it!"

Villanueva walked back to where his uncle was still kneeling and regarded him with a sneering look. "I know you have it. That's why I sent him to get it. I just believed, considering your story, that you wouldn't come rescue your dear nephew. I'll admit you've proven me wrong. But I still don't see my flashdrive and he still couldn't hold up his end of the deal, so I'm not gonna hold up mine"

Before Villanueva could do anything else, like beat his anger into Alex again, Ian dropped his raised hands and signaled his pocket. "I meant, I have it here"

The blond stared incredulously when Ian reached inside his pocket after getting permission from their captor. He produced a rather standard looking drive and handed the device to the man which eyed it with a fair amount of doubt. Villanueva signaled someone and the odd looking laptop Alex had seen upon his arrival was fetched from the office.

For all the noise that had ensued during their failed escape attempt, the place was eerily quiet now, the clicking sound of Villanueva's fingers flying over the keyboard the only thing to be heard.

Alex took the time to study his surroundings better while trying to ignore the constant throbbing of his face. He found his uncle already staring at him with a look Alex couldn't even begin to understand.

Had he actually brought the real drive after all he'd begged for help that was met with denial after denial? Or was it another bluff? If so, then they were all dead anyway.

Then his eyes searched Ben and beyond him, Vict, who stood stiffly next to a pissed off looking BlackJacket. Oh how Alex hated that guy.

The blond figured if he moved slowly enough, he could get back on his feet without anyone making a fuss about it. As long as he didn't appear threatening it would be allowed. He wiped the corner of his mouth in the process barely wincing when a finger went too close to his split lip.

Not a minute after, Villanueva's eyes lit up and he signaled for the computer to be taken away. "Well, looks like you may have just managed to spare someone's life", he told Ian.

The flashdrive was real. Alex couldn't quite wrap his mind around that. Had his uncle finally caved? For him? The blond shook his head.

He was ready to start bargaining for their lives when Villanueva drew his gun again and took out all the bullets on the magazine except for the one in the chamber. Then he did the most unexpected thing after, he threw the gun at Alex who caught it by reflex and held it dumbfounded between his hands.

"Careful, there's only one bullet in there and you don't want to use it on me" Alex was amazed and rather put out by the way Villanueva could set his men in motion without so much as a word. One look BlackJacket's way and the man creeped up behind Vict to snake an arm around his neck and press the barrel of a gun against his temple.

Alex wanted to use the one bullet on him right then and there but another movement near him caught his eye, and then Ben was pushed forward to kneel right next to Ian on the floor.

"What is this?" he asked, voice firm but confused. He didn't understand what was going on beyond the fact that the level of danger of the situation had gotten up a notch or two.

Villanueva swung his arm in an arch as if presenting Ben and his uncle to an non existing public. "Choose"

Alex just stared at him, sure he hadn't heard the man right and was so baffled by the request he couldn't manage a proper response beyond a very thought out and articulate huh?.

"I told you I didn't like to be played. You tried to fool me and now you get to pay. But I did get what I wanted in the end, so I'm gonna give you a chance: kill one of them and the other one walks away. Don't choose anyone and the boyfriend dies a well"

"You can't do this!" it was Ben who broke the silence first, earning a kick on the back when he tried to stand up from the ground. "This is insane!"

"So who is it going to be Alex? The man who robbed me or the one who's probably killed a few of my men today?"

The blond shifted nervously on his feet. "Why are you doing this?"

Villanueva didn't sound like any of the mad men he'd faced before. His gaze didn't hold that extra shine of craziness behind them and his voice wasn't pitched with humour and delight. This man wasn't crazy, he was just plain cruel. "In this world, if you try to cross someone you get to pay a price. You tried playing at the big boys table Alex and I can't just let you walk away. The boyfriend? He'd just be collateral, he hasn't done anything to me. But these two? My day has already been bothered enough and time is money kid. So choose now before I lose my patience. The choice seems pretty obvious to me" he finished and Alex was left with an impossible task.

A few feet in front of him, Ben was desperately trying to make Villanueva see reason while Ian focused his gaze on Alex. Again, the blond was struck with how much of a stranger his uncle had become to him. The man was calm, a far cry from Ben's desperation and outrage. He was just kneeling there as if awaiting his fate. Did he look... understanding? Villanueva had said the choice was easy, but was it?

He turned to look at Vict, a silent shadow of the cheerful personality he'd long ago fallen for. The older boy looked about ready to lose it. It wasn't hard to notice how uncomfortable BlackJacket made him, which was understandable because that's what a mad man looked like.

He took all of this in: his scared boyfriend, his desperate brother, his calm uncle.

Alex shook his head and turned back to Villanueva. "I can't do this", his voice coming out as a whisper.

"People are gonna die today Alex, it's up to you to decide how many"

"You can't expect me to choose between my family!" rage, fueled by desperation, began to creep its way inside him. Wouldn't he ever have a normal life!? How much more did he have to sacrifice when all he wanted was to leave his past behind?

This is why you can't want things. This is why you don't get to love things.

Alex tried to bury those thoughts away.

"Alex, listen to me" his gaze turned sharply at Ian who had finally decided to break his silence, "This is my mess. It was my job"

What the hell was he trying to say!? That Alex should choose him because of that? That he should kill him?

"I can't do this"

"You have five minutes now"

Fuck!

The blond racked his fingers roughly through his hair, tugging on the dirty blond strands to try and jumble his thoughts into place. Choose one of them?

"Think of what matters most Al" this time Alex stared at Ben, who had stopped mouthing at Villanueva in favor of looking at him all pitying and understanding. His brother's eyes flickered over to where Vict kept quietly watching the scene unfolding in front of him and Alex's heart didn't just beat faster, it went off the fucking roof! Was Ben asking him to kill him to save Vict?

"There has to be another way" he told Villanueva but the man didn't cave.

"Three minutes now"

Alex's hand was shaking, the gun heavier by the second in his grasp. Oh what he wouldn't give to put the bullet between Villanueva's eyes. But as soon as he did that, they were all as good as dead, and Vict... Vict.

But Ben.

And his uncle.

The uncle who abandonned him for a job. The man who raised him practically on his own.

But Ben.

The brother who saved him from himself, who gave him a life and a home. Who gave up everything for him.

"Please don't make me do this" he begged, not necessarily talking to Villanueva but to the men kneeling on the ground acting like it was okay for Alex to choose between them because Vict was more important. Because Vict was an innocent civilian who had nothing to do with dead spies and criminal organizations.

Vict. The guy who had accepted Alex with his issues and his panic attacks and his paranoia over people. The guy that made him happy.

"One minute!"

Alex gasped and brought the gun up. He couldn't let Vict die. Nothing else mattered. Ever since the car crash happened, Alex's focus had been only one: don't let Vict die.

His hand trembled but his stance was ready. He held the gun aimed to fire between two of the most important men in his life, the other one being held at gunpoint just a few feet to his right. He still couldn't do it!

"I- I can't"

"Al"

"Please"

"You have to"

"No!"

Who was even talking anymore? His mind was racing, his breathing had stopped.

"Alex"

He heard a gun cocking to his right.

This isn't happening. This couldn't be happening!

"Time's up"

"Alex!"

But the blond took a step back and changed his stance. "I won't do it" he stated and then held the gun to his own head.

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So… maybe… don't kill me? You have to admit that a cliffhanger now and then is healthy for the soul, yes? No?

At first I wasn't happy with how the chapter was turning out but then I read the whole thing after putting together the bits I'd already written and thought it was good enough to post. I really hope you guys liked it and aren't too mad about the way it ended. Angsty much? Well… prepare yourselves for the angsty levels to go through the roof on the next one!

Any comments? Guesses as to what's gonna happen next? Remember I do take requests into consideration, being for one shots or scenes on the main story.

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed this story so far. I've made a resolution to start keeping more in touch with my readers, so send me a review or a message and I'll try to answer as soon as possible.

Stay healthy people!