Hey guys thanks for all of your reviews, they really do make my day. I have finally reached the first goal I made which was 10,00 words. My ultimate goal, however is 20,000 and I hope you will all tag along until I get there. I would like to say thanks to Tenacious D for inventing the song Tribute to which I tribute this chapter to.

Disclaimer: I do not own Alex Rider

ALEX POV

My 48-hours of rest were up. Today I would be slowly integrated into the life of an SAS soldier, where I would remain until I was 18. I smiled as I looked at the messy bunks and to the SAS soldiers still asleep on their bunks.

Usually SAS bunks are quite neat but after what happened last night the mess was quite understandable. Ben had told the rest of the unit that I turned 15 and they threw me the best party they could muster up.

It was surprising because for an SAS party is was pretty good. I don't know how they got hold of some of the tings they did but we had balloons, cards, sports drinks (no alcohol on base) and chips and cards for gambling.

We stayed up way past curfew playing cards, wrestiling eachother (well they did, I sat here and watched laughing my head off as four burly SAS soldiers rolled all over the floor) and singing not only happy birthday but other ridiculous songs that were on Ben's Ipod.

I slowly went around and woke the others up. Thye were surprised because usually was usually the one who slept. We slowly went down to get our morning session of mush. I sat with K-unit and looking around at them all talking and smiling, well it made me feel like I belonged. Which was strange. Even when I was with…Jack, but I wasn't with her anymore. I never would be. Because she didn't want me. Left me at the mercy of those we BOTH despised.

These thoughts put me seriously off my food so I sat there in silence for another few minutes before Ben noticed.

"Alex, you start your training today, even though it is just a lecture, an hour of lessons with me and shooting practice you still need to eat, jeez, do you want to pass out in the middle of the day. So come on, eat up," Ben said cheerfully, with a smile on his face.

His smile faded, however, when Alex didn't respond and continued staring at his food as though he wasn't really seeing it. It was like he wasn't even here, probably didn't even gear me, thought Ben.

Suddenly Alex's head shot back up. He looked around and continued eating as though nothing had happened. No-one noticed but Ben.

When the enitre unit was finished, I offered to take everyone's tray's and dump them in the bin. They all gave me their thanks and went back to their conversation when I had gathered their tray's and moved away, I went outside once I had dumped the tray's. I wanted, no needed, some time to think.

BEN POV

When I noticed Alex wasn't eating I told him cheerfully to keep eating, hoping he would take a joke out of it and start eating. He was thin enough already and I was going to try and improve that. When he didn't respond I started to grow anxious.

When he suddenly looked up and began eating as though nothing happened, I was glad he was eating but still worried about what had happened.

When he offered to take the tray's for us I was grateful and thanked him along with the rest of the unit, grateful in a different way than they were.

Once I saw him leave, presumably to go get ready for the day, I quickly got the units attention.

"Guys, I still think there is something wrong with Cub, and I have to tell you a few things," I said quietly to the other.

"Something wrong with Cub, you mean aprt from being shot, abused by his bosses, and sent to the place he probably wished he would never see again, with people he would probably condemned to hell if he could," said Wolf, though even though what he said was gruff, he said it like he actually WANTED to know what was wrong with Cub. It was surprising to see that look on the other two's faces as well. It was nice that we were all obviously concerned and ready to help Cub when we had to.

"Well, first off, he has nightmares. A lot. He always has them, I think maybe every night. I have only heard him twice. If you hear him, rub his back, or do something soothing and he generally goes back to a quiet and restless sleep. Also, the other night when he had a nightmare we went for a walk. A we talked, a lot. I learned a lot and some of it is really sad, and scary and I am so sorry Cub ever had to know it," I said

The other's looked shocked so I continued.

"He confirmed what I already suspected. He at first, never wanted to be a spy, never wanted to work for MI6. He was blackmailed into doing it. He was sent on some of the most horrible and dangerous mission I have ever heard of. He even did one with me, though I probably shouldn't be mentioning it. He says he has seen people die, kill themselves and he himself has killed. No boy his age should have gone through that. "

"You can tell by his eyes as well as his circumstances that he will never be normal again, so I think we should all pitch in to help him, to protect him and give him a sense of normalcy. Most importantly we need to give him a family, because I know even though he tries to conceal it from us, that he really and truly does miss his family, and I think it is sad that because his actual family is dead he has no hope of seeing them, his housekeeper who by the sounds of it was like a sister to him, is simply in another country, abandoning him without leaving him with the hpe of never seeing her again."

" So I think we need to fill in the space, be the family by the sound of it he really never had. He will be with us for 4 years, unless he is kille don one of his missions which I pray he isn't , so we should try to get to know him and become what he needs us to be. Agreed?" I finished, proud of my long speech.

I looked at all my unit members who all looked like they had a path laid out in front of them and they were ready to take it and let nothing get in their way.

"Agreed."

We all got up and went outside to go find Cub so we could go to the medical lecture that was starting in 20 mins.

ALEX POV

I wasn't going in any particular dirction, instead I was wondering around. I wasn't even thinking like I originally thought I was. I was just walking around, I didn't even know where I was going. I was just wandering through the camp.

I heard my name being called and looked over my shoulder to see K-unit running towards me. They reached me and stopped to catch their breaths.

"Where have you been Cub, we have been looking for you everywhere, we only have 3 minutes to get to the medical lecture and its on the other side of camp," Eagle said clutching his sides as he regained his breath.

I was shocked, I had been wondering around for about 20 minutes now. Seemed like only a few seconds really. "I am sorry guys, I didn't realise the time, I was just walking and thinking you know," I said, actually smiling as we began walking to the lecture hall. Ben looked happy at the fact.

Wolf growledplayfully at me and said " Next time when you forget where you are suppose to be we will just go there without you, you little rat," he said elbowing me in the arm at the same time. I grinned and replied

"You'd miss my presence and then you would jump up at run away from whatever manly soldier stuff to come find the one you truly love, for you all cannot live without your Cub," I said slapping Wolf and Eagle on the back.

Wolf tried to shove me but I stopped so he ended up pushing Eagle into the mud. We were all laughing as he picked himself up and carried on towards the lecture hall.

When we got there there were only a few seats here and there. There were two at the back, which me and Ben took, and the other three sad haphazardly around the room.

The lecture was being given by one of the instructors. It was about what to do to treat the symptoms of exposure and blood loss. I was actually quite interested in what the instructor had to say because I realised it would be good knowledge to have on a mission.

The lecture only went for 45 mins but I sat there the whole time listeniing intently so that it was a surprise when everyone got up to leave. The time had really flown by.

At the door, the rest of K-unit met up with us, they had combat training and I was to go with them. I wouldn't be participating but I would be watching them and learning using that method. We walked up to the dojo and they all got ready to fight. It was Eagle vs Snake and Ben vs Wolf. I had my bets on who was going to win but wasn't saying anything out loud.

I want and sat down at a strategic angle where I would be able to see the majority of the fight techniques they used.

First up were Snake and Eagle. They were both good fightres but hand-to-hand combat obviously wasn't their specialty. I already knew this though, of course. Eagle was the best shooter ( I was looking forward to seeig how he compared to SCORPIA'S shooter's) and Snake's talents were his medical knowledge and skills.

Though they were both good fighters, I could see the minute signs that told me what move they were going to make just before they actually did. My guess was right, though, Eagle won though it was a close fight.

As with Snake and Eagle, Ben and Wolf were also failing to completely hide those tiny signs that gave away their moves. It was also a close fight but Ben came out on top. I was proud of him, and glad to see Wolf have his butt kicked.

After lunch we had shooting. We were walking down and I was feeling a great deal of apprehension. I wasn't sure how the unit would react to my shooting.

As we got there I et my apprehension melt away. Yes, I was nervous about showing them but they were my unit, and would be for the next 3 years, I needed to start trusting them. We all took an open booth after we grabbed guns and some ammo.

I was in between Eagle and Ben, I took comfort from tha, I didn't know why. I reassembled my gun ad checked for any faults and fired off a couple of practice shots.

I was the first one finished so I watched the rest of the unit for a minute or so before waiting for the targets to come in. I had hit every bullseye save for two. It was a bit unimpressive for me but seeing as I beat Eagle the unit for eccstatic. They didn't, however question where I got my skills. Either they had read my file or were eing polit to me. I chose to believe it was the first option.

K-unit went of for the jog while me and Ben went to the bunks to do my tutouring. We did some math and chemisrty, which Ben was really good at. His easy going nature actually helped me and encouraged me to learn, and so I did. I found Ben to be a great teacher and was feeling great as we went to go meet up with K-unit to get dinner.

We grabbed our evening slush and sat down at our regular table, which was next to the wall in about the centre of the room. Everything was going well, I was eating and talking with the unit, and they were doing the same with me. The happy scene came crashing down, however, when the screams started.

Then there was the smell of smoke. The kitched doors swung open and everyone could see and feel the heat od the fire in there. There was a massive scramble as just over 200 soldiers were trying to get out of the room.

I was running, I could see the door ahead of me. Just as I was passing the bin something hit into the side of my head, hard. I was knocked down by the force of the impact. I was stuck between two tables that had been pushed togather just after I fell. No-one would have been able to see me.I saw two of everything, or at least I thought I did, with so many soldiers running around it was hard to tell.

My vision was blackening and I knew I had to stay conscious if I wanted to make it out. But I just couldn't. I had almost sat up when suddenly my eyes rolled into the back of my head and I slumped to the ground, condemned to lay here as the room burned.

BEN POV

Shouting. Pushing. Running. That was all there is. In the scramble I had lost track of my unit. Once everyone was out, a couple of instuctors calmed everyone down enough to check if anyone was missing. Every unit was to check their members and yell out if no-one was missing. I stood with my 3 unit members so we waited to see if anyone would shout out. Something was nagging at me as soon as I thought it. There was dead silence until my realisation hit me. We had 5 unit members!

"CUB!" I yelled not seeing him anywhere. Oh my god he must still be inside. I turned to look at my other unit members who were all wearing identical looks of horror.

I turned back to the burning building and took maybe 3 steps towards it when suddenly there was an explosion for the kitchen side of the building.

The building had exploded and Cub was still inside!!

Hey Guys!! This is my longest chapter ever. More than 2,000 words I am so happy. Thank you to all my reviewers every one of them count.

Love Mad