Hey guys, so this chapter is a little short and I don't know when I'll be able to update again so expect new chapters to be slow.

Also, fair warning that while I don't plan on putting in anything graphic this fic is a little darker and the concepts are a bit mature. I didn't think there was enough to up the rating to 'M' though.

And this fic will completely ignore the last book. Mostly because I haven't read it yet.

Disclaimer: I do not own Alex Rider.

Wolf wasn't sure how to feel about this particular assignment. He'd been sent to protect high security witnesses and politicians before but it had never been in this manner. Always had he taken them to some sort of safe house or had simply safely transported them from point A to point B. Never before had he been sent to their personal residence for what could possibly be weeks if not months.

The briefing had stated quite plainly that he was not to reveal anything about himself-as per usual-nor was he allowed to ask the witness any questions-also usual. However there was a small tag underneath these warnings that was not usual. He was also not allowed to let the witness engage in any after school activities without express knowledge of said witness's location and possibly his own presence during said activity. This caused him to raise his eyebrows and look at Mrs. Jones with a rather perplexed expression.

"How old is the witness?" he asked. He hoped she would answer. It wasn't like he wouldn't be able to figure it out once he met the witness but MI6 had curious policies when it came to need-to-know bases.

"The witness is fourteen," she replied blankly.

"A teenager?" Wolf repeated surprised. It wasn't impossible for a teenager or even a full-blown child to have sensitive government secrets. He'd seen it before in Iraq and Afghanistan when orphans would sometimes turn up at the base with far more information than they should have for someone so young. But it was relatively rare for a teen in London to have sensitive government secrets.

Unless it was Cub. He hoped it wasn't. While their tentative truce had gotten them through the debacle at Point Blanc he was not particularly interested in seeing that kid again. The blond boy had, after all, kicked him out of a plane and gotten him shot, and while Wolf was man enough to admit inside in his own head that he deserved it, he wasn't willing to admit it out loud. Even if he was the only one in the room.

"Unfortunately," the woman replied and Wolf could tell this genuinely bothered her. Not that she showed any outward sign of conflicting emotions. Her choice of words would be the only indication he got that she wasn't yet dead inside. "You must tread carefully with this job Wolf. I know you have had dealings with SCORPIA in the past but they are going to be particularly vicious on this account."

"Would it be beyond my clearance to know why?" he asked, wanting to know but not interested in causing a stink about protocol either.

"It is," she replied. "We cannot currently tell you anymore than what is in that folder." She nodded to the file. "You may take that with you. I have a feeling you will need to reference it several times. All of the witness's information is in that file. Any questions?"

"No, ma'am."

"Dismissed."

Wolf poured over the file when he got back to his small flat in Birmingham. He hated the drive to the Royal and General. The near three hour trek always seemed to be despicable whenever he had to make it. Once he was back on his couch, beer in hand and feet on the coffee table, he flipped to the section that detailed the witness. General appearance descriptions were left out, of course, but everything he ever he needed to know about this mysterious fourteen year old was there.

He played football, his grades were horrible, he was allergic to tetracycline and pineapple, and he had a clean record. He didn't appear to be some sort of thug or anything but Wolf wouldn't know something like that for certain until he actually met the boy. Continuing on he found an interesting section that caused him to raise his eyebrows. The psyche evaluation MI6 had on him wasn't too pleasing. In fact, it was downright weird.

The kid was suffering from mental health issues that would manifest themselves in a strange form of obsessive compulsive disorder. Apparently if the colored paper clips weren't in the right order the boy could potentially have a meltdown. There were other things in there as well. The boy wouldn't touch eggs with a ten foot pole and he had an unnatural distaste for staplers. Wolf couldn't help but leak a strange expression onto his face as he read through that section. What the hell?

The soldier kept reading and found himself face to face with a police statement. Apparently the kid had been arrested once before but the charges had been dropped. There were no significant details in the statement other than he had been arrested for destruction of property.

Despite not truly caring about the details in the file beyond how they could help him do his job, Wolf was suddenly torn as to whether or not meeting this kid was a good idea. He seemed more than a little messed up. Not to mention the fact that SCORPIA was no joke and if they were determined to end this boy Wolf wasn't entirely sure if he could do it all by himself. He was thinking he might need a team. He should have asked Jones. Although, the kid did live in London. If anything came up, meeting with her to request back up wouldn't be too big of an issue.

Wolf was so caught up in his file that he didn't hear the door open as his roommate came in. The other man-an SAS soldier as well-walked into the living room to find him with that strange expression still plastered onto his face.

"Interesting reading?" he asked loudly, causing Wolf to jump violently and his beer to slosh out of the bottle and onto his hand. Closing the file and leaving both it and the beer on the table, the man wiped his hand.

"You could say that," he said as the taller, lankier soldier sat in his favorite chair.

"Got a new job?" he asked, scratching at the back of his head and his blond eyebrows crinkling.

"Yeah," Wolf told him. "Witness protection detail."

"Joy," his friend replied sarcastically. He never had enjoyed those jobs. "What was with the funny look?"

"The psyche eval," Wolf told him honestly. "It was a little weird."

"Aren't they always?" he asked.

"This one more so," Wolf said offhandedly his brain already back in the file. "Is there a name for being afraid of eggs?"

"Ovophobia," the other man said immediately and Wolf shot him a weird look.

"What?" the blond asked raising his hands in surrender, probably hoping to ward off a ruthless round of teasing and taunting.

"How the hell do you know that?" he asked.

"Discovery Channel," the other man replied. "They did a special on phobias."

"Well could you at least pretend that you can't pull that type of stuff off the top of your head?" the soldier beseeched. "This is why you never get laid."

"And what's you excuse?" the other soldier shot back.

Wolf just rolled his eyes and picked up both the file and beer. He flipped it back open and ignored the blond as he turned on the TV. When he heard the sounds of the Discovery Channel fill the room he wondered what it would be like if he didn't have a roommate who was as dorky as his was. He would know a lot less useless information, that's for sure.

Early the next morning Wolf packed his bag and gathered a few weapons and his work mobile. He left his personal mobile in his room, like he always did when he left for work. His roommate was still sound asleep and Wolf could hear the other man snoring through the thin walls of the third-floor flat. He loaded his car and pointed it back towards London or more specifically, Chelsea.

He made good time and was at the kid's house by eight. Grabbing his duffel and making sure the file was still inside he made his way to the front door and rang the bell. It didn't take long for someone to answer but he was nonetheless surprised by the door suddenly swinging open. Although it was really surprise over who had opened the door than anything else.

"Snake?" he asked more than a little thrown to see the man. Wolf hadn't seen him since training had finished nearly a year ago. Had it really only been a year?

"Wolf?" the Scottish man retorted equally surprised. "So you're the second soldier?"

"What do you mean?"

"I was originally the only one who was supposed to be working this detail," he replied and stepped back to let the other man in. Wolf quickly followed him inside and Snake shut the door. The soldier found himself in a small mudroom and through the second door he could see a small hallway that ended with the kitchen. There was a door halfway down on the right that led the rest of the small home.

"What happened?" Wolf asked recognizing the fact that something had clearly changed in the situation.

"Kid got worse," Snake replied.

"How long have you been here?"

"About three weeks," the other soldier said and led him through the doorway and into a small living room where he gestured for Wolf to sit. The darker soldier took the hint and sat down on an armchair. Snake took a seat on the couch nearby. "They sent me here because of my medical background. There was a poisoning attempt three days ago. The job just got too big for one person."

"So they sent me to help you out," Wolf finished not at all surprised that they hadn't let him know ahead of time that he was going in to help someone else. Not that he expected Jones to really care about forewarnings.

"Looks like it," Snake replied. "How have you been? I haven't seen you since training ended."

"Nenh," Wolf mumbled. "You know how it is. I'm fine. What about you?"

"I'm fine too," the medic replied but even with Wolf's limited caring capacity the other man clearly didn't look fine.

"I read the psyche eval MI6 did on the kid," he told the other man who looked up in interest.

"I actually did that," he said. "They didn't have one for you and I wanted to make sure whoever was coming in was at least halfway aware of the boy's mental problems."

"What do you mean 'halfway aware'?" Wolf asked cautiously.

"They only had two lines for phobias," the other man said with a forced half smile. Great.

"How many does he have?"

"Six," Snake told him firmly. "But they're weird ones. I'd never heard of most of them until I came here."

"What are they?"

"Cataptrophobia, Octophobia, Hypnophobia, Peladophobia, Ovophobia, and then the thing with the stapler. They don't have a name for that," the medic said momentarily forgetting that Wolf had absolutely zero psychological training in his background. He had no idea what any of those words had meant except for ovophobia and that certainly wasn't by choice.

"I have no idea what you just said to me," Wolf told the other with an amused smirk. "English?"

"Oh sorry," Snake said looking momentarily embarrassed. "Um, in order, he has a fear of mirrors, the figure eight, sleep, bald people, eggs, and staplers."

"I didn't think any of those were even possible," Wolf replied getting the same strange look on his face as he had the day before.

"Neither did I but here we are," Snake said holding his hands out momentarily to indicate the house and then dropped them back to his knees with a slap. Wolf suddenly caught sight of the bags under the man's eyes and wondered if taking care of this kid had driven the other man into the ground. "You should know that there aren't any mirrors in the house, we can't buy any eggs, and you'll need to grow your hair out if you're going to be here for awhile."

Wolf nodded. Snake's red hair was a lot longer than the typical military cut and while Wolf's was cut short he certainly wasn't bald.

"Is there a reason he has these phobias?" Wolf asked perplexed. This was quickly shaping up to be the strangest job he'd ever had. Unfortunately, Snake just shrugged.

"I'm sure there is," he said. "It's clear something happened to him. When I got here he was pretty banged up. Cuts, bruises. Somebody worked him over pretty good but I was never told what happened."

"And we're not allowed to ask," Wolf finished.

"Exactly," the other man agreed. "Whatever happened we know it has something to do with SCORPIA."

"Then it was bad," Wolf said recalling the book he'd once seen that had been written by a member of the broad. The one on torture. Poor kid. "Have there been any other attacks besides the poisoning attempt?"

"No," Snake replied. "The house has a twenty-four hour guard and so does his school."

"He goes to school?" Wolf asked eyebrows raised. He was honestly surprised. What if the kid walked by a mirror? Were any of his teachers bald?

"Sort of," Snake said. "They have a special tutor that works with him, but he still has lunch with his friends and he still plays football. Although his coach always has to wear a hat during practice. The school's been pretty good about working with him actually."

"Yeah? Where does he go?"

"Brookland High School," Snake told him. "It's not too far from here. One of us will have to be in the building when he's there though."

"I'll go with him tomorrow," Wolf said immediately. "You look exhausted." Snake snorted at that.

"I am exhausted," he said. "Kid's deathly afraid to sleep and when he does he gets wicked night terrors. Screaming, flailing, the whole nine. It's been rough."

"Sounds like it," Wolf replied, feeling sorry for the other soldier but not showing it. It wouldn't be appreciated. Snake looked ready to say something else but the creaking of the steps stopped him cold. Wolf heard footsteps and soon enough the kid came into view. His eyes were bloodshot and he had dark circles under them. His skin was pale as if he was sick. He looked a little frail and it wasn't helped by the many bruises Wolf could see on the kid's bare arms, legs, and neck. They were healing but they were a nasty green-yellow color and Wolf just knew they were painful.

He also saw several healing gashes on the kid's right bicep. There were three of them and they were perfectly parallel. Wolf recognized them instantly for what they were. They were Dr. Three's mark. This kid had probably been tortured by SCORPIA's worst. It made the soldier sick.

"Hey, buddy," Snake said calmly as he stood up. Wolf followed his example and did his best not to look intimidating. The boy looked ready to flee at the drop of a hat. "Wolf's going to be staying with us for awhile."

"Hi," the kid said softly, sounding much younger than he was.

"Hey kiddo," Wolf replied giving the boy a small, awkward wave. "How you doing?"

The kid didn't answer, just raised one shoulder in a half shrug.

"Oh! Um, Wolf you probably don't know his name yet," Snake said suddenly remembering that he hadn't said it yet and Wolf shook his head to confirm. "Right, um, this is Tom Harris."