URGENT!

Heya! Just letting you know: I've changed Chapter 2 towards the end; Alex takes his file which is lying on Blunt's desk. And REVIEW! Disclaimer: I do not own Alex Rider.

K-Unit hovered by the door, staring in silence. Alex didn't see them; he was still too caught up in his own thoughts. Angrily, he threw the gun to the ground with a snarl and watched it clatter around before it lay still.

I never should have let SCORPIA get anywhere near Jack. She'll be scarred for life... And not only by the burns on her back... Alex knew just how much burns hurt. He could still imagine the aviation fuel raining down his back in Kenya. He sighed, still staring at the floor, still oblivious to K-Unit. She could have died because of me! He yelled in his head. Alex stopped staring at the ground and sat down on it instead. He threw the gun at the wall in rage.

Wolf jetted into action. He snuck along silently to where Alex was sitting, dejected. He used the clatter of the gun against the wall to cover up the sound of his footsteps. Alex, meanwhile, was reliving that horrible night in Razim's lab. He hated Grief more than words could describe. Why? Why? Killing him still hurts! Even though, even after... all the things he did to me... Sometimes I just look in the mirror and see a bullet hole in my own head! I wanted my life back... But instead I truly went past a point from where there is no return...

Fox was getting very agitated looking at Alex. How the kid could manage to look so pale and depressed, he didn't know. Exactly what had MI6 done to him? Ben had never even seen adults in that state. He'd been through so much himself, but to be that depressed... What the hell had Alex Rider been subjected to? Then Wolf's roar broke him out of his trancelike state.

"WHAT IN THE WORLD HAVE YOU BEEN PUT THROUGH TO LOOK SO DAMN DEPRESSED, CUB!" Wow. That must have been Wolf's new loudy-shoutython record, reflected a sombre Eagle.

All of K-Unit apart from Wolf flinched in surprise when Alex jumped up into fighting stance the moment Wolf's 'greeting' reached his ears, a mask sliding into place. Then the teenager relaxed and put on an expression of bemusement, panic, dread and embarrassment all rolled into one. He shifted,

"Hi guys..." Started Alex quietly before trailing off, and refusing to meet their eyes. Then his eyes flicked over to the gun which had fallen into pieces on the ground after impacting the wall, "Uh... I'll go, uh, put the gun away..." He continued, picking up all the parts.

With the notion that it would take a teenager ages to assemble a gun, Tiger offered help,

"I'll do that."

"It's okay," replied an awkward Alex, who hastily reassembled the weapon before anyone in the unit had time to blink.

There was yet another stunned silence before Ben Daniels spoke up, suddenly livid,

"How did you do that so quickly! And this!" He raged on, pointing at the targets Alex had shot, all with a perfect bulls-eye, "Who taught you how to do that!"

Alex was getting pretty scared at this point. Even Ben had blown at him and was fuming. Ben wasn't meant to be like this! He was meant to understand!

"I-I- I... my Uncle k-k- kinda t-taught me..." Stuttered the nervous spy. Unfortunately Ben could see right through him.

"Don't give me that, Alexander Rider! You can't just learn. You don't just get lucky! That standard of shooting could only be achieved by someone who trained with SCORPIA! ..." Then the agent faltered, seeing Alex's face pale dramatically. He added a hint of steel to his voice, "SCORPIA taught you...?" Alex flinched. And flinched again How could I have let them hurt you, Jack!

"Don't EVER mention SCORPIA to me EVER again!" He yelled, thinking all the time of how SCORPIA had ruined his life: killed his parents, tried to shoot him, almost killed Jack! Alex stormed out of the room, leaving his unit completely bewildered.

"I can't believe it. I just can't believe it," said Ben in a raspy voice, "I just can't believe Alex trained with SCORPIA..."

Eagle had never been the sort to hate anyone, but now he was just overwhelmed. He couldn't believe over half the camp had been worshipping Alex Rider when he was, in fact, SCORPIA vermin!

"I hate that kid," growled the usually hyper man, " I can't believe all this time he's been acting innocent, but he's actually SCORPIA scum!"

Everyone's breath was taken away by the knowledge that Eagle could ever say something like that. He was always the soft one, telling the others not to hurt their enemies too much in interrogation! Wolf was quick too agree.

"Yeah. Let's exclude him from the group deliberately and make his life as miserable as possible. It's only what he deserves."

Both Ben and Wolf had nagging voices in the back of their heads that asked them how Alex could be working for SCORPIA when he had successfully completed missions for MI6. Wolf came to the conclusion that the kid was under deep cover, and the mountain had been a one-off, as it hadn't involved Cub's organisation. Ben, however, was slightly more confused. He and Alex had been working against SCORPIA... It was always possible that Ash's death had been faked- Kevlar vests and blood sachets were easy enough to get hold of... And all that stuff the 'dying' man had said about Alex's parents was made-up. Maybe the kid's parents were higher-ups in SCORPIA...

The Unit stood in silence, tense. Then Wolf gave some orders,

"We won't disturb the kid tonight. We'll just let him sleep. But the next day, we'll really start laying it on." Every person nodded in approval and left for the hut.

It was the middle of the night and Alex Rider was having another of his nightmares. Luckily in this particular one, he wasn't saying anything, just watching in shocked silence.

He was standing in the middle of nowhere, watching the images flicker by. He couldn't run. He couldn't scream. Short videos of his encounters with SCORPIA flashed past, and other more abstract paintings of his imagination:

Trying to shoot Mrs. Jones. Being injected with the poison shell. Climbing onto the hot air balloon. Him landing. Nile falling. Grief displaying a twisted grin. Diving down the Bora Falls. Major Yu crumpling up. Ash's betrayal. Getting shot outside the Royal and General. Watching the video of the car blowing up... On and on they went, in a completely random order. Then came the strange imaginings.

Ash ripping up the photo of his parents. Looking in the mirror and seeing Grief dying. Himself reaching out to press the button and the car exploding again and again and again...

Alex woke up sweating and hyperventilating. It was 4:45. 15 minutes before they had to go to the mess hall. The others would probably be up in ten. Alex could almost feel himself going into shock at the notion of himself pressing the button... He drew out a long, shaky breath. A film of sweat covered his body, and the teenager figured he should take the opportunity to shower before the rest of the unit woke up. Then he had an idea and grinned maliciously...

Alex was out of the shower and dressed in four minutes. Normally K-Unit would be waking up to the alarm six minutes later... But not today. Anyway, a friendly joke was bound to keep them off his back, wasn't it? Alex lifted up the bucket of cold water, gave an evil chuckle, and began.

Unceremoniously, the blonde proceeded to dump some freezing cold water onto the sleeping faces of K-Unit. Ben first, then Tiger, Wolf and Eagle. As they all sat up in their beds with shocked expressions, spluttering, Alex began to snigger,

"Wakey-wakey, little fairies!" Alex was laughing now, but not splitting his sides either, as the astonished but angry men all turned their heads to glare at him. Simultaneously. It was pretty freaky, actually. There was a sudden awkwardness in the room, which Alex tried to break, "Uh... Hi?" When he got no response, he slapped a hand to his head and said in mock-horror, "Oh God! I forgot Wolf's not a morning person!" Still none of them moved or even chuckled lightly. Finally losing his temper, Alex shouted, "Oh, come on! It's pretty freaky watching you guys all staring at me like mannequins! And you turned your heads to glare at me at exactly the same time!"

The men seemed to finally be broken out of their trance, as they shifted. As usual, Wolf was the one to roar first,

"CUB!" Damn, that man needs his caffeine, thought a wary Alex. Wolf continued ranting, "Why! The hell! Have you got us soaked through?"

"Uh... It's joke? I thought that would be obvious..." The spy's voice was dripping with annoyed sarcasm. Eagle cut in,

"You are a SCORPIA agent! We can't trust you! This could have been acid for all we knew!" Alex glared dangerously,

"I do NOT work for SCORPIA!" Then he ran off, yelling over his shoulder, "I'll be in the mess hall!"

All the men glared at the doorway, while trying to dry off their faces.

"Not only does he work for SCORPIA, but he's a liar," growled Tiger. Everyone else nodded in general consensus.

"I'm not sitting next to him in the mess hall," added a betrayed Fox.

"Too right," grumbled a caffeine-deprived Wolf, as everyone scrambled out of their beds, finally noticing that they only had two minutes to get ready instead of five. No showers today...

A forlorn Cub picked at his food before wiggling it into his mouth. The Sergeant looked on worriedly, then watched as the kid's unit walked in, purposely ignoring him and sitting at a different table. Cub sighed. The Sarge was not normally a man to be soft, but he had read Cub's file, and if something was bothering him, it had to be big. Besides, he felt sorry for the boy, what with him having been deceived by SCORPIA and his Uncle dying. And his missions... They were incredible. No man should have to take those on, let alone a fourteen-year old- now fifteen- the Sergeant reminded himself. He made his way over to the solitary kid's table, and sat down next to him,

"Why are your Unit avoiding you?" Asked the muscular man, ignoring the sight of K-Unit narrowing their eyes at him. Cub looked up surprised, and shrugged,

"Um...Uh... Cuz I threw water at them to wake them up. Cold water." The Sarge didn't believe that; no SAS soldier would get so worked up by that- They pulled jokes like that on eachother all the time."

"Cub, I know that's not true. They would probably just laugh. Tell me the truth." The fifteen-year old shifted a bit, and mumbled,

"Uh... uh, um, well... You see... um..."

"Look, Cub, you can tell me. I've read your file." The boy jerked around, alarm written on his face, so fast that K-Unit winced just to watch it,

"You what? Asked the panicked spy, who was smart enough to shout quietly. How is that even possible? Wondered the Sergeant.

"C'mon Cub, spill." Alex sighed,

"Okay. They think I work for SCORPIA." Before the man could interrupt, Alex pressed on, "They saw how good I was at shooting, and how quickly I could assemble a gun."

"You did go to SCORPIA, though, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but you must know about Yassen and Rothman..." The Sergeant nodded,

"If I was in your place, I probably would've done the same," he admitted.

"Really?"

"Really. Now, I won't tell your Unit anything about you and SCORPIA, but I'll just tell them to lay off..."

"No! Don't! I'll look soft..."

"Fine. But if it ever gets too much to handle, just ask, alright? It's a horrible accusation you shouldn't have to deal with." Then the Sarge walked off and resumed scolding anyone who annoyed him.

Alex watched him go, and feeling slightly more confident, finished his Okay-ish cereal, then got up to put his plates away and exited the mess hall, aware of K-Unit's glowers on his back.

Alex had just finished a quick one Kilometre sprint when K-Unit made their way out of the mess hall. Pretending not to see them, the spy jogged towards the obstacle course and was just about to start when the others caught up to him,

"Hey, Cub!" Yelled Wolf. Alex sighed inwardly and wiped all traces of fatigue off his face. He was totally sick of them treating him like some kind of SCORPIA dirt. The teenager turned around,

"Yeah?"

"What was the Sarge talking to you about, traitor?" Snarled Wolf, causing Alex to flinch.

"Why we were sitting at different tables."

"And what did you say?" Asked Tiger.

"Nothing," said Alex, who was now quite interested in the ground. I can't believe they don't trust me. They don't understand how much SCORPIA has hurt me, but I'm not just going to blab my heart out to people who can turn on me so easily. Trust has to be earned.

"Yeah, right," snorted Ben, and this time Alex couldn't keep a brief spark of hurt out of his eyes, which instantly startled the rest of the Unit. I thought Ben trusted me... Eagle was kind of concerned by now. He'd never seen a kid look so betrayed.

"Cub?"

"Just leave me alone," replied an impassive Alex, as he turned back to the obstacle course.

I was thinking of ending on a major cliffie, but luckily I'm a humane person. REVIEW! Please. So... I was thinking that when the school gang turns up, Alex gets captured by none other than... SCORPIA! See ya.