I had to do much research for this chapter and my brother was like- why do you want to know so much about cars? And seeing as he's the one in our family that's into racing, he was the only living thing I could ask, otherwise the internet doesn't find me weird :) And you guys are the internet and you don't find me weird, do you?

"So, Tom called last night," Sabina muttered as she opened the fridge to retrieve the milk, "and I told him you'd phone him back." She stopped to think about what she was doing; put the milk in the tea and then hand it to Alex. She held out the milk carton to him after pouring milk into her tea. "But you didn't." Sabina had kept her eyes forward as she stirred her tea and so did not see that Alex wasn't moving from the table. When he didn't take the milk, she turned around to him. He was sat at the breakfast table, engulfed by the newspaper he was reading; Sabina had very little patience when it came to Alex not paying attention to her. "Alex?" She asked loudly and he took a sip of his orange juice and replied without taking his eyes off the words in front of him.

"Yeah, brilliant." He murmured and she rolled her eyes.

"Then Hera called-" At the mention of her name, Alex's attention snapped over to Sabina. The moment of intense adrenaline was lost as Alex realized his mistake as she looked to the floor, a feeling of inadequacy seeped from her. Alex put down the paper.

"Sabina-"

"Call Tom back." She said simply and Alex nodded but when he kept looking at her she sighed. "Hera didn't call." She explained, "it's just the easiest way to get your attention." Sabina said quietly. They stood in awkward silence for a little while, in which Alex felt terrible because Sabina stood, straightening her skirt and putting hair behind her ear. Alex ran a hand through his hair wearily.

"When you mention her I automatically think it's about MI6." Alex answered her disappointed look. "Nothing else." Sabina looked to his eyes and saw he wasn't lying; a sigh of relief came from her. He looked to his watch before standing up, moving forwards and kissing her goodbye. "I have to go," Alex said and she put a hand to his face.

"What do you think of when you hear my name?" She whispered and Alex leant towards her ear to reply.

"The death of a cyclist, in Chelsea yesterday morning, has alerted police to possible terrorist suspects residing in the area…" The news continued with the woman with a painted smile and crisp, white suit, talking about matters that she had no idea of. Hera scoffed and continued to eat her bowl of cereal in discontented silence; MI6 had clearly done a rubbish job of covering up her escapades yesterday morning. She brought her knees up to her chest and held her bowl in one hand while checking her plaster on her forehead. Alex was always good at clearing up the wounds she got, he'd done it many times and she tried, so hard, to remember what his touch felt like. His hands weren't rough, but not soft either, a sort of firm confidence came in the way he touched her. Hera closed her eyes as she felt the warm, stinging flesh beneath the plastic and sighed. She looked over to her wardrobe; she'd have to pick out a hat with a low brim to cover it up. "We will inform you as this story develops." The woman on TV said and Hera put her bowl down on the bedside table and stood up.

She looked at herself in the full-length mirror opposite. Hera was in no way vain. Well, she was as vain as any woman but to constantly primp and pamper herself just seemed a waste of time. She often looked in mirrors, not to see how she looked at that moment or how she could look better, but she liked to see how much she looked like her mother. Over years she had seen her eyes, her lips, her face, transform into those that her mother had. And she was the only parent that Hera was proud of. She had passed away some time before her 13th birthday and even though Hera could not remember every detail, she could remember the warmth of her mother's embrace, the smile that would light her face and the kindness of that woman. Her father, on the other hand, from whom she had inherited her golden skin colour and darker hair, was a parent she was less proud of. Hera never thought about him, because he was the reason Alex left her, he was the reason for why misery seemed to love her.

Hera looked around the bedroom she had been given; everything was either cream-coloured or made of glass. She smiled as she saw the photographs they had made of her in different places with her "family." It was an amazing house but just too big for one person; Alex had never lived alone in one of these houses. As soon as Jack Starbright had left, he had a few weeks without her and couldn't hack living alone so went to Hera's apartment. Thinking about it now, Hera actually laughed as she had remembered waking up one morning and finding him next to her. She was so used to his presence that she never even asked him how he had managed to break into her apartment. Hera walked to her dressing table and let her fingers stroke the crystal perfume bottles and curves of glass that made up her mirror. She liked the cold touch of glass, like the smooth, frozen feeling of the metal of a gun. It was…comforting.

Hearing the first commotions of the morning traffic, she walked away from the table, past the bed and over to the window. Looking out she saw him emerge from his front door and when Alex leant back to kiss Sabina, Hera couldn't help but feel a small pang of disappointment in her stomach. He was on his way to college and she was supposed to make sure he got there, keep an eye on him all day and so had been assigned a regular job as a cover to stay near him. As she watched him walk from the house and along his street, she could no longer deny that the feeling of her heart slowly burning to pieces was just a reminder of how irrevocable and distressing and profound and painful, her love was for him.

Alex entered school with that familiar sense of boredom; school was just a reminder of his days with MI6. Even though he attended the sixth form here, it was still strange to see the same teachers, the same faces, the same buildings…it was just so mundane after his adventures as a teenage spy. He saw the school secretary, Jane Bedfordshire, walk into the building to start a new school day. She had always had a soft spot for him and waved when their eyes met, Alex held up a hand in greeting and continued to walk to the school's car park. It was incredibly early to be in school; lessons started in two hours, but Alex's friend, Tom Harris, had asked him to come in early. Apparently, Tom had something to show him in the car park and Alex was more than reluctant to find out what it was.

Tom Harris was Alex's best friend at school and was the only person, besides Sabina, who knew about Alex's affiliation with MI6. Like Alex, Tom was repeating his last year of school; he had never been the academic type but sport was his forte. And with an elder brother into extreme sports, Tom was also introducing Alex to dangerous and exhilarating things. Alex was just not in the mood for it right now; it's difficult to be optimistic when someone is trying to kill you. Alex passed the main building of the school and entered the car park. He stopped dead.

"Alex!" A voice said from behind him and someone hit him playfully on the shoulder. Alex jumped and turned to see the bright, blue eyes and spiky black hair that belonged to Tom Harris. "Now I know what you're going to say-"

"Tom," was all Alex said and gestured to the monstrosity that Alex had been shocked by. Tom had been bullied years ago and so had lost a lot of confidence through this, but when he became friends with Alex, his confidence came racing back and he'd even stayed on as Captain of the football team at Brookland. He was always trying new things. But this was just ridiculous.

"Isn't it amazing-"

"Isn't it illegal?" Alex interrupted. They were stood in front of a Toyota Supra, black with numerous scratches and dents but that's not what Alex was concerned about; the hood of the car was up and Alex could see the engine had been upgraded. "What is that?" Alex asked and the distaste in his voice did not go unnoticed by Tom who simply rolled his eyes at the other boy's tone and walked over to the car. His hands skimmed the edge of the metal and he looked at the engine proudly.

"This, is the Wartsila-Sulzer," Tom said with a grin, "RTA96-C, turbocharged, two-stroke diesel engine is the most powerful in the world…apart from the engines used in the F1." He exclaimed with great excitement that even made Alex smile. "My brother introduced me to it." He muttered under his breath and, with a thick-gloved hand, stroked the engine affectionately.

"So you can apply yourself to building this monster but when it comes to Maths-"

"Hey, hey, hey." He waved a warning finger at Alex, "this is no monster." Tom sighed as he saw Alex looked unimpressed, "what's wrong, mate?" He asked seriously for he knew Alex would usually react differently but Alex was not excited at all. The blonde looked to his friend, looked him in the eye before that common understanding of trust came between them and Alex walked towards Tom. He stopped a meter from the car.

"Someone is trying to kill me." Alex said and was so grateful, unbelievably grateful that Tom did not gasp, nor smile, nor look away and shake his head with a look of disbelief. Instead he folded his arms, adopted a look of interest, and waited for Alex to continue. "It's Scorpia," Alex said, wondering how much Tom remembered, "but I have people watching me so I'll be alright." Suddenly, Alex's serious voice changed to the one he used among friends, "this means government agents are following me. This means any illegal things going on around me…like street racing," Alex pointedly tilted his head to the car, "are better left behind closed doors for a while." Tom looked like a small child that had been told off before a lopsided smile crossed his face.

"Someone's trying to kill you?" Tom whispered, "cool-"

"No, it's not cool." Alex said sternly but couldn't help but smile as Tom grinned. Before Tom could beg Alex to join him in a test drive, Alex grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. "Listen, we have to go to Mrs Rum's house tonight; it's a welcome party for a girl that moved into our street," he explained quickly with a shrug, hoping to hide the importance of Hera from Tom, "do you want to come?" Tom thought for a moment and looked longingly to the vehicle, evidently he had wanted to work on it some more. But seeing Alex look of: it's-going-to-be-me-and-a-bunch-of-old-ladies, he couldn't help but agree to come.

Alan Blunt was stood at the window in his office that overlooked the part of London he liked. The part with the museums, Exhibition Road, that university that he lectured at once, South Kensington. It was a nice part, the best part, of London because he knew it well. He knew it's ins and outs, everything that was happening in every building, in every room. In ever place he had some sort of control, some power, some influence. Some of the biggest companies in this part of London had to do everything he ordered and yet, he could not control a nineteen-year-old girl. Where had he gone wrong? Why couldn't Hera just listen to him, what part of her made her so intent to rebel against him? A knock came from his door and he looked at his reflection in the window, straightened his tie and turned to the door.

"Come in," he called and was not surprised to see Mrs Jones enter his room. She seemed slightly surprised to see him stood up, not at his desk working, but she thought nothing of it as she approached with a sheaf of papers in her hands. There was no time for niceties.

"These are records of Hera's most recent exploits." As she said it she saw Blunt's lip twitch with annoyance; everything that girl did was just a hindrance. But Mrs Jones had no time to be polite with him; she had been researching Hera's files and could not believe what she had found.

"I know all her mission…" Blunt faltered as Mrs Jones gave him a knowing look and he held out his hand for the papers. "What am I looking at?" He snapped, and looked down to simply see the files of suspected terrorists.

"They were all under surveillance, soon to be killed, Hera was never ordered to assassinate them but she did." Mrs Jones said urgently and Blunt shrugged; he was not surprised by this. Hera had often silenced people and prevented future world wars before they had a chance to form.

"She can sometimes have very good judgment," Blunt tried to explain the girl's actions, "it saves us time killing them ourselves-"

"You aren't slightly concerned as to why she did this?" Jones couldn't quite get over Blunt's calm approach to the situation. Blunt looked up from the papers with a cold, hard stare that made Mrs Jones think twice about raising her voice again. Blunt sat down and gestured for Mrs Jones to do the same, she sat down opposite him.

"Explain to me, first," Blunt murmured quietly, "why this is of any importance?" Mrs Jones took a deep breath before replying.

"Hera silenced these men and women in the space of a month," she said as slowly as she could, "fourteen men and women." Blunt shrugged and waited for her to continue, "she did so without our consent-"

"They were on the list to be destroyed anyway!" Blunt argued and Mrs Jones shook her head.

"These were the members of the newly reformed Scorpia!" She exclaimed in a tone of desperation and Blunt's eyes widened. "Look at the dates they were killed," he did. They had all died three months ago. "Our first threat from Scorpia was sent two months ago," Blunt looked up to Mrs Jones and had a similar look of horror. "Who has been sending these threats?"

Ooooh, it just got interesting.

I guess I'll make my brother proud and use all my research in later chapters.

Hope you enjoyed it…it's Hera's welcome party next chapter! Fun times. I'm thinking she should just beat Sabina up…no I'm joking; Hera actually really likes her, believe it or not.

People who REVIEW are the coolest of people ever.

Cookies for anyone who guesses what the heck is going on!