Chapter Three: They Come for You, First

Hahaha! FINALLY to chapter three! WARNING: This chapter may be long, mysterious, surprising, and, depending on how you enjoy things, interesting and awesome (I don't like praising myself). Well, I don't think you would be reading this if it weren't for my reviewers!

Thanks to my reviewers! You guys are the best (don't be surprised on your birthday to receive a special present from me—well, don't expect any, jk!).

Ooh! Did I say I was going to dedicate this third chapter to the person who reviewed my story first? Well, yeah! So here it goes:

I hereby dedicate this chapter, Mind Over Matter, to Demonic Heaven Medium for being the first reviewer of my first two chapters:D

…And SPECIAL THANKS to all my other fabulous, awesome, cool reviewers!

Shaz (Unique name, almost like my friend's!)

monkeywithapen (Cute name, monkey!)

MistariaPotter (Harry Potter fan, if I'm not correct?)

MadzCheesyfield and (Funky name! How'd you come up with it?)

DentedHeart

You guys are the best! (Can I say it any more times?) You can be the best, too, if you review! XD

Well, on with what you came to this story to read… CHAPTER THREE: MIND OVER MATTER!!!

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Alex didn't have a good sleep that night. He kept on wondering how that girl –Lara Domovoi—knew someone related to him. He 'woke up', got dressed, and made his way downstairs where his nanny, Jack Starbright, was preparing breakfast.

"Come on, Alex. Sit here and eat." she coaxed. Alex shook his head.

"Not now, Jack." he said, waving the scrumptious meal of eggs, bacon, and toast away. "MI6 has something I need to get to, quickly." With that, he sternly walked out the door and hopped on his bike.

"Hmm. Strange. That's the first time I've ever seen him in a hurry to work." Jack muttered to herself. After a few moments Alex had gone, she pulled out her wallet to reveal a picture of a person, who looked a lot like Alex. Jack sighed, folded and put back her wallet, and ate Alex's breakfast for him. She couldn't let such a good breakfast go to waste. She would have to tell him soon, before it was too late.

…

Before they came for him.

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Later on at MI6

Alex drummed his fingernails nervously on his knee. Waiting in the whitewashed hallways of MI6 outside a door where Lara Domovoi was being prepared to talk, he couldn't stay still. He was just moments away from talking to her, the girl, who could explain to him how she knew Rachel Rider. Alex didn't know what to talk to her about besides that matter. How did she know Rachel Rider?

Alex sighed. Whatever happened to that ordinary, everyday schoolboy who was fretting about homework? Well, to Alex, that schoolboy disappeared long ago. Now, that schoolboy was replaced with a person Alex didn't know himself; he was replaced with a person who was bitter towards almost everything. He didn't know what he had become, only who he was supposed to be. He was Alex Rider, a spy for MI6, a teenage spy at that. But who was he really supposed to be? Could Rachel Rider be the one he's been waiting for to explain it all to him?

Alex gave a start when Mrs. Jones came out of the door.

"Alex?" she asked. Alex stood up from his chair.

"Yes," he said. Mrs. Jones looked sternly at him.

"I want you to know that this matter is not going to be taken lightly," she started, her voice monotonous, "and I want you to know that if you make Miss Domovoi panic or exhausted, it will prolong our investigation."

"Any suggestions?" asked Alex, internally trying to hurry Mrs. Jones.

"She's improved significantly since Mr. Blunt talked to her a week ago–which means a lot–, so she's a little out of the clouds, now."

"So she's only partially mental now," Alex joked. Mrs. Jones' didn't react.

"Still, I suggest you take it slow with her. She may blurt out a sentence or two in Dutch, German, or Portuguese, or maybe a sentence in a mix of the three, but she can understand and speak plain English. You can talk to her about anything, but whatever you do, don't mention Rachel Rider." Alex was stunned. That was practically the only reason he came here for.

"Why not?" he asked.

"Three days ago when we asked her about it, her heart almost failed before falling into a temporary coma." Mrs. Jones said abruptly. Alex gritted his teeth and grimaced, yet was just itching to ask the girl about Rachel Rider.

"So what do I talk to her about?" questioned Alex. Mrs. Jones' gaze turned thoughtful, and handed him a folded piece of paper.

"Here are the names of all her friends, family, teachers, and her school. Ask her about everyday life. Ask her how she's doing, what she wants to do in her life, just things to make her more comfortable talking. Ask her how Petals, her fish, is doing, or how she feels going into grade nine. Ask her how Larissa's doing."

"Larissa—her best friend." Alex muttered, looking at the unfolded paper.

"Also, take these," she said, handing him a black notebook and a tape recorder, "it may be useful if she starts rambling on about something important." Alex took the tape recorder and notebook from her.

"Not the kind of fantastic, mind-boggling gadgets I'm used to, but I guess it'll work about the same." he said. Mrs. Jones chuckled.

"I'm sure you'll do good." Mrs. Jones assured. Alex nodded.

"If I can escape a shark, avoid being adopted by a madman, and save the world, this is a piece of cake." he said. The side of Mrs. Jones' lip curled up.

"A rather thick piece of cake, Alex." she said, opening the door to Lara's room and letting Alex walk in. "A piece of cake where the surprise lies after all the sweet layers." Alex raised an eyebrow in confusion and turned around to ask her what she meant, but he only found a pallid door. Could she have said something in code?

"Hello?" came a frail voice from behind him. Alex turned around slowly, and was partially shocked about what he saw.

The girl sitting on the hospital bed that lay before him had black hair, alright—but it was dull, and only half as wavy as it was in her school picture. Her pale, delicate skin was scarred with bruises and cuts, and on her left temple laid a five inch scar. Her lips were cracked with dehydration and Alex could hear her raspy breathing from where he stood on the other side of the room.

Hallo, sind Sie gut?" the girl asked in German. 'Hello, are you alright?' translated Alex.

"Yes, I'm al…" he started, yet stopped when he looked into her eyes, eyes that were so broken and scarred from her recent events. 'What did Cobra do to her?' wondered Alex. In spite of her saddening, distressing appearance, she smiled warmly.

"Wat is uw naam? Have a seat!" she asked in a Dutch accent. Alex made his way to the school chair beside her bed.

"Alex," he said quietly, smartly leaving out his last name as not to remind her of Rachel Rider. The girl stirred in her bed, her eyes rolled back into her head, and for a moment, Alex thought she was going to pass out. But she didn't. Instead, she let out a long breath and lifted a white, bruised and cut hand to Alex.

"I'm Lara Domovoi." she said. Alex shook her hand. Alex may have shook hands with a dead girl, because Lara's hand was rough and cold. Alex shivered furtively. Silence introduced itself, while Lara looked intently at Alex. Alex tried not to look at her thoughtful gaze.

"You've been through a lot, haven't you?" she asked. Alex nodded.

"Yes, I have." mumbled Alex, kind of frightened at how this girl knew. Maybe it was evident that he had been through a lot. Maybe he was a more subtle version of Lara. Lara nodded, and then let out a small chortle.

"My mom used to always tell me that when I came home from school," she said emotionlessly, her head tilting to one side and her eyes drifting into a greater space, "she always said I had the look of a dying rabbit caught in a trap without knowledge of the trap itself." Alex cleared his throat, and tried to stifle a laugh. A rabbit without knowing it's in a trap? He wrote down her statement, along with a little bunny with it's leg caught in the jaws of a trap.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Well," started Lara forlornly, "she explained to me that it could relate to me." Lara smiled. Alex again tried not to chuckle. "I don't look like a bunny," she said, "but she said that I realized the snare I was in, but I didn't panic. In other words, I knew I was being bullied, but I didn't do anything to stop it." Alex was perplexed.
"You were being bullied?" he inquired. "At school?" Lara nodded slowly.

"But it was a group of male seniors that were always harassing me," she said leisurely.

"What were they trying to get from you? Your money?" he asked. Lara sighed, and shook her head.

"I wish they were," she said. Then her pupils turned into slits. "They were asking me for Rachel Rider, the cousin of Alex Rider" she sputtered, then looked at Alex with fear in her eyes. Alex's eyes widened. Rachel Rider! He was surprised Lara didn't pass out by remembering it. So Rachel Rider was his cousin! Alex's rush of excitement quickly shrunk into a depth of despair. The seniors at Lara's school were looking for Rachel Rider. Could they be a threat? Could they be part of Cobra?

"They found her," Lara continued, and then she let out a choking shriek and started jerking in her bed. Alex quickly pushed the emergency button beside her bed. So much for not making her exhausted.

A team of doctors and nurses came rushing in only seconds after Alex pushed the button. Alex just sat there in disbelief that Rachel Rider was his cousin…and at the fact that there were men looking for her.

"Alex," Lara rasped, grabbing the collar of Alex's shirt and pulling him towards her, "Ihr Vetter ist die Tochter des Meuchelmörders" she whispered hoarsely into his ear. She whispered another sentence, and Alex face turned dead white. With that, Lara fell on the hospital bed, limp and exhausted. A doctor shooed Alex out of the room. assassin

Alex, lightheaded and caught off guard, quickly walked down the hallway straight for the elevator, running past Mrs. Jones and Mr. Blunt. He wanted to go home and tell Jack everything, and then maybe they could move somewhere, go somewhere, do anything to get away from here. Although Lara didn't say it in exact words, he knew what she meant.

"Rachel can't be." he whispered, the phrase about his cousin, Rachel Rider running through his head; 'Ih Vetter ist die Tochter des Meuchelmöders. Then he remembered the last line about him that she whispered before she went limp.

"Sie kommen für Sie…" A shiver went down Alex's spine. Alex then remembered what Lara said right after that. It was the sentence that made him go blank white, a phrase that told him that he had little time left.

"Sie kommen für Sie,…"

…

"They come for you..."

He pressed the button to call the elevator up.

Then bullets rained on MI6.

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AHAHA! Well, left ya hanging, did I? I'll give you a hint; the sentence Lara said about Alex's cousin is in German, as is the phrase about him. The first person who finds it out and emails me what it is will receive a special prize…. a congratulations/'good try' from ME:D! JK, not that exciting, but you'll know. You'll get it if you know what the sentence means. You'll know why Alex is surprised at his cousin, and you'll know which a------n Lara meant.

HINT: Meuchelmöders means ASSASSIN, not MEUCHELMORDERS!! What the heck is meuchelmoders? JK.

Well, ta ta for now!