Hello people! I'm back with the edited prolouge for Masked Dancers! Chapter one is in progress and I think the old chapter one is going to be something like chapter two or three :O I have to give a huge thank you to ShibuNoNeko for their wonderful reviews on every chapter and for their awesome tips :) I also want to give another HUGE thank you to AnyAlways for being such a great friend! My last thanks goes to LaviLane, my ever faithful, slash-loving BETA!

Yeah, I thought the plot was getting shaky on chapter four and chapter five, I was almost in a state of writer's block on what to do after chapter six. Now, I think there's going to be this huge chunk of time (or not so huge) between chapter, like one and four. Whew, I have this huge ramble of an Author's Note. On with the story that you've all been waiting for!

Disclaimer: Hmm, let's see. Boobs, check. Long hair, check. No dick, check. Yup, I'm pretty sure I'm a girl, not a guy, so obviously, I DON'T OWN ALEX RIDER!!! I really wish I did though, cos then YASSEN WOULD STILL BE ALIVE :D

Looking into the mirror, he could see a handsome face looking back at him. His shaggy blonde hair was, as usual, neatly combed with a few strands of fair hair hanging down over his eyes. His serious brown eyes stared back at him with cool indifference and complete self-assurance.

With a glance down and straightening his emerald green tie, Alex smiled at himself in the full-length mirror. Said boy was dressed in a neat white suit with shiny black dress shoes to match. He looked in the mirror again and frowned at his hair. It's a little too neat. So he mussed it up a bit, giving it a naturally messy look. Alex grabbed a feathered mask off his desk and arranged it on his face, effectively concealing his identity.

The mask was a thing of beauty even though the main body of it was white plastic. Dark green and ocean blue feathers adorned the edges. Holding them in place were a few rhinestones and sequins, but nothing overly fancy. It molded exactly to his face, for it didn't have a strap to wrap around the back of his head. There were two holes for his eyes, shaped like the rough outline of the human eye.

Alex sighed. He didn't know why he was attending the ball in the first place. "ALEEEEEX!" a loud, feminine voice screeched. Oh right, Jack. She practically begged him to go with her to this stupid ball. But hey, at least he got to look awesome, even if he had to wear a stupid mask. Feeling up to giving Jack the shock of her lifetime (excluding the possibility of being shot at), he made sure the mask was secure on his face before complying with Jack's impatient yell and walking downstairs.

"HOLY SHIT! Who are you and what have you done with Alex?!" Jack screamed again. God her voice was loud. Maybe it was because of Alex taking her gloved hand and lightly brushing his lips on the silky fabric.

"Having fun already, Jack? Though I must say, you look rather stunning tonight," Alex gently teased. And Jack sure did look amazing. She was wearing a stunning beige colored cocktail dress that was diagonally cut off at the bottom. Her red hair was tame for once and in a stylish bun with a few strands hanging out. A silver necklace with precious diamonds hung around her neck, matching with her silver high heels. Of course, on her hands were satin white gloves, and one of those hands grasped a silver mask with green rhinestones studding the edges.

"Don't tease me like that!" Jack huffed, "Though you should dress up like that more often, you look good," she complimented.

"Well, are we going or not, 'cos you're the one who wanted to go," Alex said.

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"Whoa . . ." Alex murmured as he saw the mansion the ball was to take place in. The thing was chuffing HUGE! Who actually needed a house that big? Light shined from the windows and glimmered on the trees. The trees that were lit up with lights were planted alongside the road, guiding cars up the long driveway to the front door.

After Jack's car was parked and the pair was standing on the front step of the mansion, Alex and Jack looked up at the architectural structure in wonder and amazement. Of course, Jack was the first to lose interest in the rather large house and dragged Alex through the open double doors and into the unguarded hallway. Personally, Alex felt that a giant group of terrorists could storm the place at any minute and take whoever was hosting the ball as a hostage until a designated amount of money was paid to them.

When they entered the mansion, Jack and Alex were in for a whole other surprise: a long corridor filled with painted portraits of the family living in the mansion, meaning mums, dads, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and the whole kaluha. Beautiful glass chandeliers hung from the ceiling giving the room a bright, but comfortable lighting. The hardwood floor was brilliantly polished, undeterred by the many feet walking upon it.

The handsome sixteen-year-old blonde and his American, red-headed guardian made their way down the hall, through the heavy oak double doors and into the ball room, which elicited a gasp from the both of them.

The ballroom was practically sparkling with all the glass and crystal inside it. The high domed roof had crystal and silver chandeliers hanging down, with light bulbs instead of candles obviously. The drapes were a lovely mauve, pink color that shimmered in the light. The tall windows were clean as can be, with a view of a primly trimmed, moonlit garden with many nooks where people could have some privacy. Pillars of marble were lined against the wall ten or so feet across with pale blue glittery ribbons decorating them. The wallpaper was surprisingly attractive in this area, for a faint crisscross pattern with soft, barely noticeable flowers on the design was very attractive.

A brightly polished floor spoke of its owner's riches with its pale white marble floor and gilded grout. A stage at one end of the humongous circular room held a band which was playing music at the moment. People milled about, eating food, drinking champagne and fine wine from the champagne and wine towers that were stacked on the banquet tables that bordered the edge of the room. A few breaks between the tables didn't have windows, but pairs of glass French doors that led out to balconies.

"Oh my Lord," Jack whispered, "Now aren't you glad you came?"

"No, not really, but I must admit, a beautiful ballroom full of well-dressed people in masks is quite a sight," Alex replied casually, "Well, see you later. I'm going to find someone to dance with."

Jack was about to retort to his blunt dismissal, when suddenly, a red-head with green eyes asked Alex's guardian to a dance. Shaking his head slightly and smiling at the man's hair color, he made his way into the throng of dancing people, searching for a dance partner. Someone gently laid a hand on his shoulder. Alex quickly whirled around, surprised. What he saw was a taller young man behind him with crystal clear blue eyes framed by a plain white mask and black hair. He appeared around twenty or twenty-one.

"Are you looking for someone?" he asked in a kind voice.

"No, but are you looking for someone?" Alex cheekily replied.

The stranger gave him an amused look and said, "Actually no, I'm not looking for anyone."

"'Kay then. Um, bye," Alex awkwardly said.

"Wait, um, can I have this dance?" the blue eyed stranger politely invited before Alex disappeared.

"Do you often repeat yourself?" Alex wondered out loud while pondering his decision to the stranger's invitation. Dance with stranger that might kill me or don't dance with stranger . . . "Sure, I'll have one dance with you," Alex said.

"Then let's get onto the dance floor!"

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As it turns out, Alex danced more than one dance with the black-haired, blue-eyed man and never had as much fun waltzing around as he did that one night. The man who asked him to dance was surprisingly skilled at it and very good at leading. The pair settled on just swaying around in a small circle while they talked about themselves. What struck the blonde as interesting was that the black-haired guy was in the army and always ate take-out when off duty.

The black-haired man found out that the blonde guy he was dancing with had no living relatives and was cared for by a housekeeper and ate 10 minute meals. Interesting. Usually, a guy would protest to being led around the dance floor, but this guy looked like he was having too much fun to care. He smiled gently down at the shorter young man with his serious brown eyes and fair hair. The man was surprised that the younger man accepted his invitation to dance. After all, not many people in this room were bi, or let alone gay.

Alex and his dance partner waltzed over to a balcony and strode out onto it. The large balcony was blissfully empty with a soft breeze blowing. The person who so kindly invited him for a dance didn't remove his mask, so Alex felt no inclination to remove his. They stood together, leaning against the balcony rail, in a comfortable silence. Then the silence was broken by: "You know you're pretty good at dancing in the girl's position."

Alex replied by blushing and muttering out, "Well aren't you gay?"

"Nice comeback, but actually, I'm, uh, bi," Mr. Blue-eyes awkwardly muttered the last part. Alex looked up in surprise that a guy actually admitted that.

Alex muttered, " 'Kay." He looked over the gardens bathed in moonlight. The night sky was perfectly clear with millions of stars blazing down on Earth. A full moon, pure and white, hung in the sky like a glowing diamond. Quietly, he murmured, "Tonight really is beautiful isn't it?"

"Yeah," the masked stranger said. The couple didn't realize how much time had passed, for the perfect moment was shattered when, over the now softly playing music, Jack's voice calling:

"Alex? Where are you? It's time to go!"

The black-haired man chuckled and said, "So your name's Alex, huh? Mine's James." Alex looked up at the taller of the two and asked, "James, can we see each other again?"

Hesitating for a second, James appeared to think about something, then decided to do it, for he bent down and gently nuzzled his lips to Alex's mouth. Alex rather quickly responded to the kiss and started to kiss back. Before the kiss could get passionate, the pair of men broke apart.

"I have to go," Alex whispered. Jack's calls were getting more urgent.

James took Alex's hand, which made the fair haired boy blush, and slipped a dog tag into his open palm. "Keep this, and I'll find you."

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"Alex, where were you?" Jack shrilly screeched. Alex winced and tried to calm her down.

"Jack, relax, I was just talking to someone and lost track of time," Alex reassured. Immediately after he said it, he regretted it, for Jack's eyes lit up with a mischievous light.

"Who's the lucky girl? Did you kiss?" Jack bombarded Alex with questions.

"Um . . . H-her," Alex winced at the pronoun, "name is . . . Jaimee." Lies. "Yeah we kissed." Truth, sort-of.

"You have GOT to introduce me!" Jack squealed.

Alex looked extremely grumpy as she said this. When his caretaker asked why, he replied, "You called me away before I could get her number!" She looked extremely apologetic, but didn't seem to dwell on it for long.

"Did she give you anything to remember her by?" Jack wondered out loud.

"Nothing except the feeling of hi-her lips," Alex embarrassedly mumbled. This was of course another lie. James gave him a dog tag and said he would find him. "Can I go change now?"

"Oh sure, honey!" Jack called from the kitchen. How do women move so damn fast? Alex thought. The boy could have sworn Jack was standing there in the living room with him. Shrugging, he went up to his room, sat on his bed and examined the little metal tag he got from his mystery dance partner. All it had on it was the SAS logo with Special Air Services printed under it.

So he's in the SAS . . . Alex mused. Oh shit . . . The disgruntled boy thought about his last experience with the SAS and winced at the mere thought of K-unit. His thoughts were disturbed by the phone ringing downstairs.

The spy was brought out of his thoughts and sprinted down the stairs before the answering machine could take the message. "Hello?" Alex said breathlessly.

"Mister, you have some problems with the settings for your bank account. Can you please come to the bank tomorrow?" a secretary said over the line. Alex took a guess that it was probably a desk-worker, seeing the late hour at night.

"Okay," Alex sighed, "I'll be there tomorrow afternoon." He hung up the phone and slowly walked back up the stairs, pondering on how to reject Blunt's and Jones' offer, whatever it will be.

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The blonde, in his pajamas, flopped on his bed and sighed. He didn't want to leave Jack alone; he knew she would just worry. Also, there was Tom, school, and blah. As if he didn't have enough on his plate without having to deal with a K-unit that hated him, except for Ben.

Alex fished the dog tag out of his pocket and stared at it for a few seconds. He still couldn't figure out the identity of the person due to the mask. When the teen sighed again, he realized he'd been sighing a lot lately. Stupid stress.

Before going to bed, Alex had looped some string through the hole at the top of the dog tag, making it into a rudimentary necklace. He slipped the string over his head, snuggled under the blankets. However sleepy the teen was, he couldn't help but wonder: why did Jack want to leave so early? He apparently didn't think about it too much, for Alex was soon was lost in the world of dreams.

There you go people! The first edited chapter (prologue) of MASKED DANCERS! If you're happy about this, please REVIEW!!!