Last chapter and I'm already writing my next Alex Rider fanfic but I'm not sure if I can finish it before I'm on vacation (without computer and I need another movie for this story, if you'll read it, you'll understand). So I think I won't upload any more stuff in the next three weeks... :(

So please review so that I can get good memories with me on vacation and that I don't miss too much. Two weeks without it will be pretty hard and I will only be able to speak Spanish in these two weeks...

Chapter 7

Alex was glad when he was sitting in his own little room again. He had expected more trouble but the guy from MI6 had brought him and Sasha back to the orphanage and they told some kind of invented story for the leaders and the NCIS agents.

Of course, this cover story was also told to Sasha because nobody should know that she knew the truth which – of course – she had already known before. He already was aware of the fact that telling Sasha the truth would bring him into further trouble but he didn't care anymore.

He wasn't even surprised anymore how less he cared about other people. He just lay on the bed and stared at the ceiling, hoping that he'd know enough for the Maths class test tomorrow.

The death of Wolf has not been a coincidence. Someone was still following him, planning something and wanted to show that he is there. They eliminated the MI6 agent spying on Alex so that he was unprotected now. Of course, Mrs. Jones was concerned now and Alex was sure that she sent some more agents to watch after Alex and to be more careful this time.

Although it was around two o'clock in the morning, Sasha was sitting in her bed with her laptop and watched a video of the CCTV surveillance camera inside NCIS headquarters.

What she saw, she didn't like at all and she directly informed Keith that Gibbs and his team have not only found out who Alex really was, but also suspected Sasha being involved into some revenge plan concerning the former MI6 agent.

She suddenly got a call from Yassen and grabbed her cell. 'It's two in the morning, you know?' she answered in Russian.

'We'll start tonight. As planned' her father shortly answered.

'When exactly?' she asked shocked that she was informed so lately.

'We're in front of the building. We come in now. Stay in your room in case something goes wrong. You'll be the back-up plan then' he said and ended the call.

Sasha sighed and lay down again. She was quiet and listened. Three minutes later she heard silent footsteps, only noticeable when knowing that there were some. She knew that they would get Alex unconscious with chloroform and Yassen would bring him into an old factory building in the industrial area where they could keep him for a while until they decided who and how to kill him.

In the meanwhile, Julius would take Alex' place. Julius had learnt everything to replace his lookalike and Sasha would help him, too. She and Yassen already knew that Keith Collins, Zeljan Kurst's son wanted to kill Alex with his own hands and therefore was exactly right now entering the ground of the United States of America for doing so.

Alex woke up and immediately knew that he wasn't in his bed anymore. He touched the ground where he was lying on and felt cold stone. Disorientated he sat up and looked around. Black.

There was nothing to see and no light. He stood up and walked around like a zombie, after two steps, he touched a stone wall and walked along it.

He estimated a little cell being four meters wide and three meters long. He sat down on the wall again and waited. He knew that the door was in front of him and he expected somebody to enter every second.

He waited a little while, he had lost his sense for time, until the door was opened and bare light came in. A man he didn't know was standing there. He was tall, muscular and somehow reminded him of someone Alex knew.

'Stand up' the man ordered with a slight accent and Alex did as he was told.

The man pointed a gun at him and ordered him to walk. Alex got out of the tiny room and saw that he was inside an old and abandoned factory. He was pushed on a chair and a second man tied him on it. 'Who are you?' Alex asked unfriendly and impatiently.

The unknown man only smiled. 'My name is Drazen Kurst' he answered and stared into Alex' brown eyes.

There was only little light in the room but enough for Alex to recognize the madness in his face. 'Ah, Zeljan Kurst, I remember…' Alex said. 'Is he your daddy?' he asked provokingly.

'He was!' the man hissed evilly. 'He was executed.'

'I thought there was no death penalty anymore?'

'He was arrested by Interpol. He died through injection—'

'And you want to revenge him?' Alex completed the sentence. He had heard this too often before and he didn't want to fight anymore against it.

Drazen smiled. 'Exactly. And believe me, you'll beg that I'll kill you when I'm finished with you.'

'I don't doubt that.'

'Oh, you tiny son of a bitch' he screamed and stumbled forward him. He took a knife and started to flay Alex' skin.

Alex screamed in pain he had never had, well, physically never had. It took ages until Drazen stopped again and looked at his work. Alex felt the tears running down his cheek and saw his left foot. The matching skin lay on the floor next to it. Alex yelled and cursed which only pleasured Drazen even more.

'I think you'll have a nice night, Alex. Good-bye and see you tomorrow' he said and left the hall.

'No!' Alex screamed and repeated thousands of times. 'You can't do that to me!'

The next morning, Sasha and a boy looking like Alex were going to school again. She was a bit nervous in case they were still followed and someone would notice that the boy on her side was Julius, Alex' doppelgänger. But everything went alright and Julius had learnt his role perfectly well and finally could replace Alex as ever wished, since the Gemini project had failed.

On the way back to the orphanage Sasha got a phone call from her father. 'Ya?' she asked, of course, in Russian again which she was always speaking when talking to her dad.

'We've got a problem. CIA intervened in one of the old training camps three hours ago. They arrested all of Collins' men and also found Jack alive. It won't take long until they add one and one and inform British MI6.'

'So, what do you suggest?'

'I will tell Keith right now. And you and Julius should make that you get out of here.'

'Okay…wait, wait, dad. Don't tell him!' she said and looked aside.

Julius didn't know what they were talking. 'Don't tell him. You know you made the mistake of choosing a wrong client a year ago. I bet he planned to kill you anyway after the mission was over. Let…let MI6 arrest him and we're out of it. I could make Julius vanish and we disappear again.'

Julius looked up, having noticed the name, but not having understood the meaning of her words.

'Aleksandra…'

'Dad, I'm worried about you every day. I want a life in which I can count on that my father comes home again…or in which I at least can do everything with him together.'

'I know what you want but you also know that it's impossible–'

'It's not. We can straight go back to Russia and you can continue being a normal hit man and I could help you in everything. But MI6 is appearing far too often in my eyes and we know that every try to kill Alex Rider has failed yet. Mostly because you insisted on keeping him alive.'

'I never protected him!'

'You did, dad. Just because his father has saved your life and you owed one to Alex. But the bill is paid now, dad. Leave Alex be Alex and let us disappear as long as we still can.'

She heard her father sighing.

'Okay, I'll book a flight back to Russia for us. But promise me that you finish Julius and Keith off, first.'

'Keith, too?'

'Yes. I want you to go to the fabric, kill everybody there and free Alex. I want him to get back to a normal life as much as we will, okay?'

Sasha hesitated a moment but then nodded. 'Alright. I know that you always liked John…You were best friends and you can never forgive that he died…and that Ian died, too. But you couldn't have prevented it, dad?'

'Just do as I told you' he said and ended the phone call.

Sasha sighed and looked at Julius who wondered what she had been talking about. 'Where are we going?' he asked surprised when she altered the direction.

'To Alex' she said and explained that all their guys have been arrested and that Jack was free and alive.

'Damn shit' he cursed but also looked forward to the possibility to see Alex suffer and being tortured.

'Gibbs! Gibbs! Gibbs!'

'I'm hearing you, McGee!'

'I just hacked into a very secret server and –'

'McGee!'

'Interpol arrested forty-five people in an abandoned Al Qaeda training camp in Saudi Arabia and found a hostage.'

'And?'

'The hostage's name is Jack Starbright.'

'Isn't that…?' Tony asked and stood up. Ziva and Gibbs were walking over to McGee's computer as well.

'Oh my god. She's alive. Alex needs to know this!' Ziva said.

'He doesn't answer his phone' a voice suddenly said and they all turned around. Abby was standing there, holding up her own cell.

'What?' Gibbs asked surprised.

'Well, I found that with Jack out as well and thought he would perhaps needed to know that. I know, I shouldn't have tried calling him to tell we know everything about his secret, but he doesn't answer anyway.'

'Can you locate his cell?' Gibbs asked suddenly.

'Yeah, why?' McGee asked and turned back to his computer.

'My damned gut instinct telling me something's wrong!' Gibbs shouted.

Sasha took the gun from under the car's seat and worried looked at Julius. That childish boy only looked as happy as if Christmas and Easter have arrived on one day when they were entering the road to where Alex was hidden.

He opened the big front gate and shut it after them again. They recognized a dead body, one of Drazen's men, and Drazen standing in front of an Alex Rider, tied up on a chair.

'What are you doing here?' Drazen asked when he looked up and saw the two children.

'Didn't want to miss the party' Julius said when he got closer. 'How are you, honey?' he asked Alex.

'Fuck yourself!' Alex hissed through all the pain he was enduring.

'Has anybody called you?' Sasha asked casually.

'No, why?' Drazen asked in surprise.

'Oh, just asked' Sasha said and pulled out her gun. Without hesitating she pulled the trigger and a nanosecond later the man was lying on the floor, seriously hurt and nearly drowning in all the blood. The red liquid flew out and formed a great puddle of blood on the floor.

'You bitch!' he shouted but she only stepped closer and fired two more times, one into his chest and the other shot between her eyes.

'What the hell are you doing?' Julius asked and came nearer.

Sasha turned around and smiled. She put the gun back into her jeans and started to untie Alex.

'I would ask you exactly the same' Alex said when he was freed. He looked at his doppelgänger.

'Haven't I killed you?' he asked.

'You wished you would have killed me. So that I can't kill you now' Julius shouted. He moved forward, at the same moment in which Sasha tried to get between those two boys, but exactly a second later, they all heard a deep voice shouting: 'Freeze!'

They all stopped in the middle of their movement and looked at the door. Special Agent Gibbs was just coming out of there, followed by Special Agents DiNozzo, David and McGee.

'Who the fucking hell are you?' Julius asked and Sasha noticed the confused glances in the Agents' eyes when noticing that there were two Alex Riders.

'First tell me who you are' Tony said and came closer.

Neither Alex nor Julius spoke but Sasha: 'He's a lookalike. He was made by a mad scientist about a year ago.'

'Yes' Ziva said. 'But you died in the fire of Brookland school' she added toward Julius.

'You…know?' Alex was the one who said in surprise now.

'We've read your file' McGee informed.

'It's classified!' Alex responded.

'Ya, we…hacked into it…well, he did, in case MI6 finds out' Tony said.

There was a moment of silence in which everybody stared at everybody else, the Agents all pointed their guns at one of them three, not able to decide which one was the dangerous one.

'Okay, but what I don't understand is why you wanted to save Alex' Ziva told Sasha.

'Well…' she started but Alex intervened: 'And what do you have to do with Drazen and Julius?' He pointed at the two dead bodies on the floor.

'Well, let me explain this' Tony started and seemed to like the situation of total confusion. 'Sasha is the daughter of a Russian hit man, Yassen Gregorovich.'

'That name rings a bell' the boy said and turned to Sasha. 'You lied to me.'

'Well, not exactly' she answered.

'By the way, we suppose Yassen's still alive' Tony added.

'What? I saw him die!' Alex said in surprise.

'No, he managed to get away, he was only shot seriously' Sasha explained.

'See' Tony said and smiled.

'And he helped Drazen to find a way to kill you. Therefore Drazen also hired Julius, who also did not die…' Sasha said.

'I shot him!' Alex tried to protect himself.

'No, she brought me to the next hospital' Julius explained and side-looked to Sasha.

'Why?' the MI6 agent asked again.

'Well, when we knew the mission failed, by the way I was working for Scorpia, we needed a back-up plan and therefore we needed Julius, so I saved his life.'

'Just one question: Does anybody still look through this?' Ziva asked.

'Nope' McGee added.

'Let's just arrest all of them and call MI6' Gibbs decided.

'How did you find me anyway?' Alex asked.

'Well, Interpol and CIA recently arrested up to forty members of Scorpia and a hostage was found. We wanted to inform you and worried when you didn't answer you phone' McGee said.

'A hostage?', Alex was more confused than before.

'Jack' Sasha muttered.

'What?' he asked in surprise.

'By the way, she was the easiest one to pretend her death' Sasha mentioned.

'Pretend her death?' the school boy asked.

'Well, the car you saw blowing up wasn't the car she was driving' Julius said with a mean undertone in his voice.

Alex rolled his eyes. So many emotions inside of him. Jack was not dead. All the sorrow, all the tears, wasted. He had blamed himself so often, thought about other possibilities how this could have ended and now he was told that everything had been for nothing.

And just because Sasha had helped to pretend three deaths, Yassen, Jack and Julius. They all were believed dead and were still alive. Alex felt anger coming up to him.

Everybody had lied to him. 'Okay, I don't get who are the good guys and who are the bad guys' Ziva said and looked at her colleagues.

'Cupcake. That's Julius, Alex' evil lookalike who wants to kill him' Tony explained and pointed at Julius. 'That's Alex, a British spy. And Sasha is the daughter of a Russian hatchet man who wants Alex dead.'

'Not precisely. Yassen sent me here to protect Alex' life' she answered.

'Why?' Alex asked in surprise.

'Your father has saved my father's life once, remember he told you. Therefore he never wanted you die' Sasha explained.

'Great, so you changed sides' Tony answered.

'Then we only have to arrest Julius, don't we?' McGee asked and tried to express it more simple.

'Yep' Gibbs decided and wanted to move forward.

But Julius stepped backward and stood next to Alex and Sasha. 'I'm not giving up that easily' he answered and threw himself on Alex' body.

Both fell down on the floor and started to scratch and kill each other. 'Oh my fucking god' Sasha muttered and rolled her eyes.

The other agents gathered next to her and watched the boys fight. 'They do that often?' Tony asked.

She nodded. 'Far too often' she decided and stepped forward.

She was glad that both were wearing something different or it had been difficult differentiating them. She pulled at Julius' shoulder and threw him backward. While he was falling, he grabbed the gun Ziva was holding and also pushed away her legs.

But before Julius could slacken the gun and point it toward anybody, there were three single shots fired and he lay down backward again. Ziva looked up and saw Sasha's angry face. She held her own gun, pointed at Julius and it was clear that she had been the one who had pulled her trigger first.

Alex stood up and walked next to her. He looked down on the dead body of Julius and felt nothing more than pure satisfaction.

'God' Tony muttered and relieved, he put back his gun. The other agents did so, too, but Sasha didn't.

She slowly walked over to the door.

'Where do you think you're going?' Gibbs asked suddenly.

She turned around and smiled. 'My father's waiting for me.'

'You're not going anywhere!'

'I'm the one pointing a gun at your MI6 agent' she said and targeted Alex.

'You were the one who said your father didn't want him dead' Ziva shouted.

'Yeah, that doesn't mean that I won't kill him' the girl answered smilingly.

And before the agents could pick their own guns, she turned around and ran out of the hall. Nobody was running after her, they didn't care that she escaped.

Alex only cared for seeing the long-time-dead-believed Jack again and was hugging her deeply when meeting her in the airport after her flight back to America, her home.

They were hugging so emotionally that Alan Blunt had to nudge Mrs. Jones so that she wiped away a single tear.

Tulip smiled at her former boss.

'I'm so glad that this operation ended with a happy end' she whispered.

Blunt nodded. He would have gotten more than only trouble if this got into publicity.

'No more experiments' he swore and slowly walked away.

Mrs. Jones followed and Alex, when opening his eyes, still in the hug of cute Jack, saw the two MI6 leaders walking away, finally walking away out of his life and leaving him alone forever.

Well, Yassen and Aleksandra got away, too and are now happily working as contract killers together in Russia. And Alex and Jack have to tell each other a lot, too.

I'd like as much reviews as possible, please!