Thanks for your reviews! Sorry these opening chapters are a bit short, but it's all about setting a clear scene in terms of characters & events. Things will pick up pace very soon.

Lily – Thanks for commenting! Hope this update was quick enough for you.

Nyxelestia – I hope so. There are big plans for this fic!

Emmy-loo – Thanks. I have such a clear picture of what should have happened on that plane. I'm so glad I was able to share that image!

Zoeyua – YG will be a main character for this fic, so that should make you happy!

Buchworm13 – So glad you liked the start! Hopefully I can keep it up :).

XxXmaximuM-RideRXxX – Yup yup yup, you're on the right track!

Dragon Rider of Alagaesia – I can promise Yassen will be no sap. A little less superficial and more human, but hopefully still very much in character.

o o o

o o o

DURING SCORPIA

o o o

"Don't be too rough with him!" Mrs Jones pleaded with the special agents dragging Alex away. The commanding officer gave her a strange look, as if to remind her that this boy had just tried to murder her in cold blood; but it was as though Mrs Jones had already forgotten about that little detail.

What Tulip Jones remembered was the accusatory tone of Alex's voice as he demanded to know the truth about his father. She remembered the pain and betrayal flashing in Alex's eyes before he pulled the trigger … and then the confusion and the hurt as he realised what had done and was manhandled to the floor.

Alex hadn't even tried to resist his arrest – it was like he'd already given up. Mrs Jones wasn't used to seeing that side of her young agent.

She couldn't help how she felt about him, regardless of how dangerous he was turning out to be. Alex was only a child – too young to kill, and too young to die.

o o o

You're never too young to die.

Yassen Gregorovich had learnt this lesson from an early age. He'd nearly died several times before making it to adulthood. His childhood had not been pleasant to start of with, and had then become progressively worse after the death of his parents. Until he'd found Scorpia. Or rather, until Scorpia had found him, taken him in, become his new home and family.

But life didn't become safer. Yassen had almost died on his first mission for Scorpia, only this time someone had stepped in to save him. John Rider. It was the first time anyone had taken the burden of survival away from Yassen, and he had never forgotten it.

He still missed John …

The small cell where Yassen was now being kept alone with his thoughts was deep underground beneath the Royal and General bank building. No sound or light came in or out, and the halogen ceiling lamp provided only an irritating glow that gave the whitewashed walls a pale yellow tinge.

Yassen knew that MI6 could keep him here for as long as they wanted, even forever. They could also kill him, as they had killed John. Yassen stretched, wincing a little at the pain in his abdomen. The bullet had ripped through his intestines, but the surgeons had performed their magic and patched him up, good as new. The wound would hurt for a long time, but for Yassen it was just another reminder that he had, once again, survived the impossible.

Suddenly the metal door slid open with a grating screech. The usual guards were visible in the corridor, standing aside to allow a single dark-haired man to enter. The door closed behind him, sealing the man into Yassen's cell. Yassen recognised him as a senior agent in Strategic Operations, a long term internal security agent.

The agent cut straight to the quick: "Did you talk with Alex Rider on Air Force One?"

Yassen eyed the man suspiciously, but did not answer. He had been expecting to be interrogated about Scorpia operations and Malagosto, not about Alex Rider!

The agent continued. "What did you tell Alex Rider? How much did you tell him?"

Ah. So something must have happened. Something big, by the sounds of it.

Yassen smiled. "I told him only the truth." His words had a very slight Russian tinge.

The agent glared at him before turning to leave. It seemed as though Yassen Gregorovich had just confirmed MI6's worst fears.

Acting quickly, MI6 managed to convince Alex that Scorpia had told him only lies, that Yassen had sent him there to die … for revenge on Alex's double-crossing father. MI6 fixed Alex's body with medical care, and they fixed his young malleable mind with a new version of the truth.

And then they gave him a prep talk and sent him back to Julia Rothman to make up for his betrayal and save the country once again.

But Scorpia never forgives, never forgets, and only a few days later the Strategic Operations agents returned to Yassen Gregorovich's cell to inform him that Alex Rider was dead, gunned down in cold blood by a Scorpia sniper right outside the secret service headquarters.

"Well done," the agent said scathingly, "You sent him to them. You might as well have pulled the trigger yourself."

It was inevitable, Yassen supposed, but he refused to accept any blame for the boy's death. The fault lay with MI6 for using Alex in the first place, not with Yassen. He and the boy should never have met; they belonged to different worlds.

More than ever, Yassen missed John, who did belong in the same world as Yassen. And that night Yassen felt sad for the first time in years. He dreamt of Alex dying, his lips parted in a silent scream as his eyes begged with Yassen to save him. He dreamt of spiders and guns and aircrafts …

The next morning, Yassen Gregorovich stopped feeling sorry for himself. Pulling his emotions together, Yassen started paying more attention to his surroundings and routine. After all, he wasn't going to stay in a MI6 prison forever, was he?

o o o

To be continued …