Q had just about managed to clear the pain away after his brutal assault only to witness R's boot smash mercilessly into Mallory's head, he winced as he saw M go still and lose consciousness. Q held his breath as R reached down towards M, what if the madman wasn't content with the damage already wrought? The traitor grabbed a hold of the taser spikes and ripped them violently from M's chest, Q could see the nasty puncture marks and the blood seeping through Mallory's dress shirt. The quartermaster felt guilty as hell as his eyes were drawn to the nasty gash on the side of M's head, the one R had just brutally inflicted. Mallory had drawn R's attention away from him because he just couldn't resist being a smart-ass; the violent treatment M had just received was meant for him.

Q breathed out a sigh of relief as R finished his search of M's body and moved away to deposit the man's belongings on a nearby table. He heard a moan escape his lips as his shoulder flared up again, and he felt more blood trickle between his fingers and suddenly felt very light headed. How had James always walked off gunshot wounds? They were bloody awful.

Q opened his eyes again and tensed as he heard footsteps heading towards him. He watched warily as R made his way to Q's defenceless position, the gun pointed firmly down at his chest. Q didn't move. R crouched down so he was eye level and met Q's gaze, he could see that his old friend looked different; calmer, clinical, detached. Suddenly R hauled Q upright and pushed him back against a filing cabinet until the quartermaster was sitting up, Q hissed against the pain and valiantly fought off the encroaching darkness.

He couldn't hold his tongue when R actually started poking and prodding at the wound; he allowed a strangled cry to escape his lips. His shoulder felt like it had been set alight. Q groaned as the traitor attempted to pry his hand off the wound, but he fought to keep his hand in place knowing he might bleed out otherwise.

"Let me look at it." R growled impatiently.

Q finally relented as the agony of his shoulder shifting under the struggle became too much, he allowed his old friend to look at the wound he had inflicted. Q scolded himself as he realised what he had just called R; the man had clearly never been his friend. Q let his head thump back against the cabinet as R's inspection sent shockwaves of misery through his body.

"The bleedings slowing, I'm going to wrap it."

Q barely paid attention as R busied himself finding some bandages from a nearby first aid kit. He was soon back and the quartermaster watched detachedly as R applied basic gauze, padding and finished off the treatment by wrapping a bandage over the blood-soaked pad tightly. Q breathed deeply throughout the procedure to ensure he didn't black out, when the bandage was tightened it took all of his strength to not collapse there and then.

He looked at R as the man wiped Q's blood off his hands, why on earth was he giving him medical attention after doing this in the first place? "Why patch me up?"

R simply stared down at Q, gaze void of emotion. "I need you alive."

R had already moved away from Q's seated position, and was replacing the bloodied packaging in the first aid kit. Q snorted as he heard the answer, he then thought he might be a tad delirious from the blood loss. "Then why shoot me?"

R shot him an incredulous look, one of the looks that made someone feel small as if the answer was obvious. "You were going for the computer, I couldn't afford to have you alert anyone."

Q mulled over the information and supposed the answer made sense, although how R planned to keep this madness a secret for much longer was a mystery. It was true the location had been well planned out, the gunshot wouldn't have caused any alarms as the R&D team frequently tested equipment in the basement. Q's brain kept falling to one thing though, Bond would find him. James would become worried at the quartermaster's absence and after failing to answer phone calls would come looking, he imagined Mallory would probably be missed sooner by Eve. It was only a matter of time. How much time did R think he had brought by shooting Q?

Q watched warily when R moved over to the computer Q had been heading for, he was most probably checking Q hadn't tampered with anything or got a message out. After a brief satisfactory check R suddenly stalked back over to Q's seated position, seemingly remembering something important. Q tried not to flinch as the pistol was aimed at his head, he almost didn't hear when the traitor demanded Q's phone and told him to empty his pockets. He had completely forgotten about his phone.

The quartermaster painfully reached into his pockets and handed them over to R's waiting hands, smearing blood over all the items as he went making him feel really queasy all of a sudden. He watched absently as R placed his phone next to Mallory's, those bloody phones. Q felt so stupid that he had listened to the text without checking with M, they had been too paranoid to talk on the phone incase anyone overheard so they assumed their texts were safe. Q had underestimated R entirely. The betrayal hurt, Q vowed not to show it.

"Lift him up." R motioned with his gun to M who hadn't stirred once since he had been kicked.

Q blinked away the fog in his mind as the words filtered through, surely he was imagining things. Couldn't R see he barely had the strength to pull himself up let alone M. Any thoughts about making a wise-ass comment went out the window as R's face grew angry, Q wouldn't make the same mistake again. M had already paid for his last stupid outburst.

Q blocked out the agony and slowly made his way to his feet using his good shoulder and the desk for leverage. He felt unbelievably dizzy for a few seconds and had to stand deadly still to stop himself from simply tumbling to the ground again; he swallowed down the nausea and focussed his energy on moving towards M's prone body.

He began to walk stiffly over to Mallory and watched warily as R gathered two chairs from the back, and dragged them to stand near the computer away from the door. Q understood where he was supposed to be lifting Mallory too now. The Quartermaster gritted his teeth and gently gripped M's shoulders mindful to not injure his friend further.

Q slowly dragged M's body towards the chairs as gently as he could manage; he guiltily looked down into his friend's face as he watched blood dripping from the fresh wound. As if M didn't have enough injuries to deal with, he still hadn't finished healing from their last ordeal. A sharp twinge in Q's ribs helpfully informed him that neither had he; he felt so stiff and every pull at his shoulder was like liquid fire. Just a little further…

He finally made it over to the chairs grunting under the strain, and he could already feel blood trickling out from under the bandage R had tied for him. Q looked up at R who was waiting patiently beside the chairs pistol trained on the pair without a flash of remorse crossing his features.

He really doesn't care about what he's done.

"Put him on the chair." R directed stiffly completely unsympathetic to Q's gasping breaths.

Q glared up at R and bit his tongue to stop some very colourful words from tumbling out. He steeled himself for the agony and cried out as he took Mallory's weight on his shoulders; he managed to haul M's still body up and into the chair without passing out. Just. The important thing was that Mallory's body didn't receive any more bruises or abuse, he imagined if R had done it then it would have been a different story. The man was proving to be callous.

When Q stood up he felt his world spin sharply and his vision darkened suddenly at the edges, the exertion was clearly too much for his head. He felt himself stumble towards the empty chair for support and fought the entire way there for consciousness. His shoulder was burning. He was abruptly aware of a body near his and turned on instinct. Q didn't see much when he spun, only the descending metal gun moving too quickly towards his face. He distantly felt his nose and face erupt in an explosion of pain before nothing. Q fell happily into the awaiting darkness where the misery promised to leave him be.

Mallory as it turned out was the first to awaken, a repetitive tapping sound echoed around his skull forcing his mind to wake up. He groaned quietly as the pounding in his head reached a crescendo, R's kick had been powerful. His hearing returned first, next his taste as he sensed an awful coppery flavour. He knew immediately it was blood and realised he must have bitten his tongue at some point; reacting to the offending material he spit the nauseating substance out of his mouth.

M felt a shiver run through his body and his muscles all ached, he reasoned it was probably the after effects of the taser. Mallory finally opened his eyes and glanced down at his chest quickly, hoping the damned thing wasn't still attached to his chest. He let out a sigh of relief as he noticed it's absence but frowned at the duct tape wound around his chest. He quickly saw the same adhesive holding his arms in place, and after experimentally trying to move his legs discovered they were also bound. He was tied to a chair in the exact same way as…

Don't think about that… It won't help you or Q.

Gareth shook away the damaging flashbacks and focussed on the present. What was important now was to assess the situation. He obviously wasn't dead so R needed him alive for something, and Q. Mallory only had to glance to his left to see the quartermaster he was bound on a chair next to him.

Henry was still unconscious and M fought down the anger he felt when he saw all the blood. Q's face was plastered with the sticky substance all originating from his nose which looked broken. His eyes drifted to the more serious wound, and he felt a small amount of relief that the wound had been bandaged and appeared to have stopped bleeding. Q would not die from the injuries any time soon but that would not stop the pain and effects of blood loss; the quartermaster did look incredibly pale which was a stark contrast to the blood. M sympathised the pain Q would be in when he returned to the land of the living, and he doubted R had given his old friend any painkillers.

Now that he knew Q was alive the assessment continued to their surroundings. The tapping sound that had woken M was soon sourced to a keyboard at a nearby desk, at the desk was R who looked rather busy. The traitor had chosen a work station that put himself between Q, M and the door, the only exit. He also had full view of his captives which was probably not a coincidence. R had full control over them and the ability to retain control.

M stared at R for a few moments to see if the man was going to acknowledge him, he appeared to be deeply absorbed in whatever he was doing so perhaps he hadn't noticed M waking. Mallory's gaze returned to Q and he decided to try and rouse the young man. He whispered urgently once before almost jumping out of his skin as R spoke.

"He's out cold I'm afraid." R didn't even tear his gaze from the many monitors he was working with.

He knows I'm awake then.

"What did you do to him?" Mallory spat out bitterly, unable to keep the heat from his tone. His concerned gaze remained fixed to Q who at least was breathing easy, but Gareth still couldn't get over how pale his friend looked.

R stopped typing and looked up to meet M's glare. He smirked nastily. "He looked like he needed a rest."

Mallory felt his blood run cold, god help R if he got his hands on him. "You heartless bastard."

R ignored the comment entirely and simply got back to whatever he was doing. M watched as the man's eyes darted between multiple screens; his fingers flew deftly over the keyboard. "He's fine. A bit of blood loss but the bleeding's stopped and I even wrapped up his shoulder."

Did R want a medal for attending to the wounds he caused?

"He doesn't look fine." M replied coldly, biting back the words he really wanted to utter.

R pondered for a moment then simply shrugged, completely detached to the hurt and pain he had caused.

M didn't react well to the callous action, he was far more than just pissed off at R for betraying Q's trust. "How can you be so indifferent? He was your friend!"

The comment succeeded to get R's attention, he stopped typing abruptly and turned to the pair with fire raging in his eyes. M saw his own hatred mirrored in the glare.

"He took what was rightfully mine." R cruelly spat.

The confession only brought confusion. "What?"

R slammed down his hand on the desk with a thump, his fingers twitched towards the pistol that was not lost on M. "The job! When the old Q died I was meant to become the quartermaster, I was already second in command but then this kid with next-to-no experience leapfrogs to the top."

By the time R finished his rant he was growling, in that instant M saw insanity in the other man's eyes. The jealousy had driven R to this madness and turned him into a traitor. His jealousy had twisted out of proportion and had unfairly landed at Q's door, Henry had only ever shown his second in command respect and he was repaid by this? M felt angry at the injustice of it all. Even though Q was young, he was a genius. M had read up on all the branch managers and had never questioned Henry's appointment. The interview records proved that the correct quartermaster was chosen.

"Q earned that promotion." He fiercely defended his friend as he couldn't do so himself.

R held M's steely glare for a few moments and Mallory saw the man struggle to contain his rage. Eventually R turned his attention back to the computer and huffed in annoyance. "That job was mine and he stole it from me."

"So you turn traitor against your friend, against MI6, against England all because you were passed up for a job?" Mallory felt anger take control over his tongue before his brain could stop him; on reflection he really shouldn't be riling up the guy with a gun.

R's only outward reaction was to bristle at the comment. "I knew then that my loyalty wasn't appreciated here." He smiled proudly. "You could say I decided to branch out."

"You disgust me." Mallory meant it, he felt sick listening to the coward's words and wanted nothing more than to wipe that stupid smile of the man's face…

M tensed as R stopped typing, maybe he had pushed too far. He could almost see the gears working in R's brain as he eyed Mallory menacingly and fought a battle in his mind. M felt his body tense as his senses reacted to the danger, he eyed the gun out of the corner of his eye and felt relieved when R's hands stayed on the mouse and keyboard. R's gaze flicked up and down Mallory before he finally returned his attention to the screens with an audible sigh. M had recognised the look in R's face, the man had wanted to hurt him. Something had held the traitor back though and he was almost certain it wasn't mercy or compassion, so what then?

Very curious…

M's eyes were ripped from the hateful being when he heard a noise from his left, Q had just groaned. Mallory's full attention was on the quartermaster immediately as he heard R return to typing. He saw agony flash across Q's face and felt a pang of sympathy for his friend. He grimaced as he eyed the bloody wounds and tried to imagine the misery Q was experiencing now. M couldn't help but feel at least partly responsible, he had failed to keep Q safe.

Mallory waited patiently for Q to come round, eventually he opened his eyes and assessed the situation just as M had. They locked eyes for a few moments and M read the relief on Q's face as he saw Mallory was alive. M stayed silent as Q got the reassurance he needed; no doubt the quartermaster's mind had gone back to past horrors when he had awoken bound to a chair.

He watched as Q switched into quartermaster mode eyes analysing the screens he could see and he began to scrutinise R's movements. Mallory hadn't bothered when he was the only one awake; R could have been hacking into China for all he knew about computers and coding.

"What are you doing?" Q finally asked voice hard and suspicious.

R didn't stop working to answer Q's question. "I'm getting everything I can get my hands on."

Shit.

Mallory knew Q had put failsafes around their most sensitive data; he had the utmost confidence in the quartermaster but Q was not the only one to know the system inside and out. R may not have been able to get the data without setting off the traps and alerting Q to his identity but now that hardly mattered, R could simply force his way through.

"Why?" Q's voice shook subtly, R may have missed it but Mallory didn't. The question was laden with emotion, Q was asking every question with one word.

"Well, I can hardly turn up to my employers empty handed." R replied absentmindedly, answering the question literally.

R had finally peaked M's attention, the mention of the mysterious employers reminded him of the bigger picture. Someone was pulling the strings behind the scenes and they desperately needed any scrap of information on them, disappointingly so far they had nothing.

"You don't have to go through with this R. We can make a deal, we can protect you." M hated himself as he muttered the words. He didn't want to even consider it after what the man had done to Q, but he couldn't discount the danger of who was really behind all this.

R barked out a laugh. "Please M. You can't even protect yourselves." He looked pointedly over at them.

R suddenly swivelled a screen round so M and Q could see it. "I do hope you weren't relying on your protectors to come to the rescue."

On the screen he soon realised why R looked so giddy. It was a CCTV feed which clearly showed Eve and Bond stuck on one of the floors behind a security door. Bond was currently using his knife on the panel and Eve had her hands hidden in a bunch of wires, both looked angry. R had trapped them.

M gulped and felt hope flee him. He had been inwardly counting off the minutes knowing that Eve would find his absence suspicious soon especially if she couldn't get a hold of him. He had also known it wouldn't take Bond long to miss Q, seeing their friend's predicament he realised there wouldn't be any help coming. They had to take care of this themselves. At least R hadn't harmed them, he felt a horrible feeling well in his chest as he thought of Eve in danger. From Q's reaction he was obviously feeling something similar for Bond.

R revelled in their despondent reactions and proceeded to show security feeds from all around HQ, there were similar scenes everywhere with people stuck behind doors. R had clearly hacked the system and turned it against everyone, security were running down corridors and M realised the cleverness of the plan. Everyone would be so busy dealing with the crisis that his and Q's disappearance wouldn't even be noticed; they would probably just think that the pair were stuck behind a security door somewhere.

"That's the problem with having a secure building, it doesn't just keep people out." R smirked before going back to his work.

M hung his head in resignation R was right. The doors were bulletproof and could withstand a huge force. The only person who was capable of reversing the attack was taped to a chair; the situation wasn't great.

Q broke the silence first. "Why now? We didn't know it was you."

R ignored the question for a few moments as he typed in more commands, he then stood from his seat and sauntered over to his captives. M noticed Q holding his breath as the man came close and they both tensed as he stopped between them. To both their relief R leaned back against a table and crossed his arms non-threateningly.

"I started planning the day you returned. I'm not stupid Q, I saw the way Moneypenny and Bond stuck to you two like glue. It was clear you knew of my existence even if you didn't know my identity. It didn't take you long to put your bloody traps in place, I knew you'd be on to me in no time if I tried pushing past them. I put my plan into action today because you were getting far too close with your investigation, it was only a matter of days before I was discovered and I wanted to do this on my terms."

M felt like a fool as he listened to R explain his actions, he had been one step ahead of them from the beginning.

"So you lured me here so you could get all the data you wanted without worrying about the traps." Q sounded as resigned as Mallory felt they had let this happen under their watch.

R grinned. "You were too paranoid for your own good Q, you four are the only ones who know about a mole and you were the only one who would know the identity of the traitor when the traps were sprung. With you here I'm free to do as I please."

With R spelling it out to them M realised it was a stupid move; in their effort to keep information from the mole and prevent leaks they had given the traitor this opportunity.

"Of course I knew I had to take care of Bond and Moneypenny, they would notice your absence too soon."

M had a sudden thought. "Why am I here?"

R tore his giddy expression from Q's defeated form. "Security are on alert, Q's traps have alerted them to a breach. You are the only one that can walk me out the front door during a security breach."

M laughed darkly. "What makes you think I'm going to walk you out the front door?"

R smiled dangerously then reached into his pocket. "Because of this."

He placed a cylindrical object on the table with a dull thud. The object reminded M of a speaker but it clearly wasn't that; he stared at the device but drew a blank. He almost laughed again at the stupid joke when Q gasped.

"You wouldn't." Q whispered.

Mallory felt his heart race as he witnessed the horror etched on Q's face; whatever this thing was it was clearly very dangerous and most probably destructive.

"Try me." R relied seriously.

The confusion must have been signposted over him as R asked Q to explain what exactly the thing was and how much damage it could do.

Q spluttered at first as he tried to wrap his brain around the latest development. "It's an explosive." He paused and composed himself. "It's one of my latest inventions, still in the prototype stage."

That answered M's question to why he had never seen the device before. R was threatening them with a bomb. Did he think his and Q's lives meant that he would just let him escape with information that could endanger dozens of agents? A nagging sensation didn't leave him though, why was Q so worried?

He eventually asked the question he wasn't sure he wanted the answer to. "Why is it still in the prototype stage?"

"We couldn't control the damage, the catalyst always overpowered the explosive and caused a sort of cascading effect. Just one of those devices placed in the correct place could level a building, it was too unpredictable."

Mallory felt his stomach drop as he heard the terrifying damage that thing could cause, he realised Q still hadn't taken his eyes off the one on the table and if possible the quartermaster looked even paler.

"I have 5, scattered around the building." R added helpfully.

Q's panic took on a whole new level, his wide eyes stared directly into R's face hoping for some sign of a lie. There wasn't one. Mallory felt his fear grow as he saw the horror etched into his friends features.

"Q, how much damage will that do?" M asked urgently desperate to snap Q out of it.

Q looked dazed as his brain worked through the calculations. "It would level the building, kill everyone inside and most probably cause death and injury in a radius outside MI6."

M stared at the small device with disbelief. How could something so small cause so much destruction? It was almost inconceivable.

"Civilian casualties." R clarified completely unnecessarily.

M felt stunned as he watched R pull another device from his pocket' one that Mallory recognised with a growing dread. A dead man's switch.

"You will walk me out the front door or… Boom!"

Mallory's mind raced as he realised the inevitable, R had all the control and had planned out tactically a flawless plan. No matter how hard M thought he couldn't come up with any way to stop the traitor. Q hadn't spoken a word and was still looking at the device on the table; M was worried that his friend was lost within in his mind.

He swallowed the sick feeling as he imagined the devastation that was potentially just seconds away. "How do we know you won't let go of the switch once you get outside the radius?"

M was expecting R to simply say that they'd have to trust him but surprisingly he didn't. He actually indicated for Q to explain why.

Q blinked and visibly returned to his body which was a relief. "The building is protected from external electromagnetic waves. R can detonate the bombs from any where inside the building but that switch becomes useless as soon as he's outside."

Mallory realised this meant unless R was suicidal, which he didn't seem to be, he wouldn't detonate the bombs. The blast radius extended to outside the building so the traitor would have no guarantee of living if he detonated whilst still inside.

"That's another reason I need you M. I need leverage when the bombs become redundant."

M made the decision in a matter of seconds, there was only one choice really. He couldn't sign the death warrants of 100's of people including civilians and R knew that. Besides R had left himself open for attack once he was outside the building, M would order everyone to stand down whilst the bombs were a threat but when it was only his life on the line then everything would change. His life wasn't more important than the information R was stealing.

"So, what's your answer?" R smiled down with a knowing look, he already knew he had won.

For now…

"I'll get you out." M replied quietly, shoulders slumped in defeat. He needed R to remain cocky and sure of himself, he needed the man to let down his guard later.

R beamed and clapped M on the shoulder. "Good man."