A/N: This was supposed to be a drabble, but it turned into its own short story. I apologize for any Americanisms and also for the Sergeant sucking and being OOC later on.

Disclaimer: Anthony Horowitz created Alex Rider; therefore I do not own him.

~Prologue~

Stupid bloody MI6. Who in their right minds would think it would be a good idea to send a sixteen year old to Brecon Beacons to train after being tortured by Scorpia a month ago? Whatever happened to nice, normal, grueling physical therapy in a comfortable and boring hospital? Paired with bloody K-Unit again, who were conveniently just coming back from assignment; Alex seriously considered doing the world a favor and murdering Alan Blunt.

Yelling was suddenly heard and there was pounding on their cabin door.

"Let's go K-Unit! Get your lazy asses to the lake in five!" the Sergeant screamed.

Alex groaned and reluctantly got up. 'Great a midnight swim, I'll have to keep my shirt on and hope like hell that my stitches don't reopen.' Eagle whined a little, but K-Unit woke up quickly and was about to leave when Wolf turned and said,

"You better keep up Double O'Nothing, wouldn't want your rich Daddy getting fed up with your failures and putting you in another boarding school, now would we?"

Alex inwardly grimaced at the cruel nickname, for in his life, if you were a bad spy, you were a dead spy, but kept a blank face and closed off eyes in front of his so-called unit.

Snake and Bear, Ben's replacement, shifted uncomfortably, quickly becoming unnerved at seeing that face on one so young. Eagle was rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet, looking at Cub eagerly for his response. Wolf would never admit that after Point Blanc, he respected the kid and that he felt bad that his rich Daddy was putting him in these situations, but he held onto his act and glared at Cub, silently daring him to respond.

"I don't know about my failures Wolf, but I know if we don't get to the lake in about a minute, it will be all of our asses, so stop being a git and move yours," the young spy responded calmly if not a tad bitingly.

The whole of K-Unit was shocked into silence, until Wolf nodded and gruffly said, "Let's go."

The made it to the lake with just seconds to spare and the four adults and one teenage boy snapped to attention as the Sergeant stared at them stonily.

"Next time I say five minutes, I mean to get your asses here in four! Is that understood?" the sadist shouted.

Wolf flushed slightly and was thankful he had tan skin and it was dark out.

"Yes sir!" K-Unit all yelled in response.

"Now get in that lake!"

Each member began stripping the unnecessary clothing and then jumped into the lake, all of them did notice that Cub kept his shirt on which they thought was odd. Was he hiding something? Snake was concerned, wondering if it was about his appendicitis; while Wolf was holding back laughter, thinking Cub was embarrassed being surrounded by fit older men.

Once all of the men were in the water, the Sergeant started the exercise. Eagle, being the best swimmer, was quickly ahead of the rest of his unit. Snake and Bear were of about equal skill and were at a steady pace behind Eagle. Wolf, being the worst swimmer (not that that is saying much) of the four, was lagging slightly behind Snake and Bear; that was when it occurred to him that Cub usually swims in between Snake and Wolf, but he wasn't there. Surely one piece of clothing wouldn't slow the boy down that much? Being the unit leader, unorthodox or not, each member was his responsibility, so the shorter Hispanic man turned around in the water to see what was keeping Cub. What he saw shocked him, to say the least.

Cub was sickly pale and could barely stroke with one side of his body. Wolf quickly swam back towards Cub and tried to grab hold of him, but the boy shrugged him away and mumbled that 'he was fine'.

Wolf snorted and said, "Cub you look like you're about to pass out, just let me help you to shore."

"I don't need help," Cub hissed.

Unfortunately for him, his strength seemed to give out at that point and he would have slipped underwater had Wolf not grabbed his waist. Wolf started towards shore pulling Cub along with him. When he finally managed to get on dry land, Wolf called Snake over and explained what he saw with their youngest member.

The Scot quickly got to work trying to diagnose the issue and realized that Cub had stopped breathing. He immediately started CPR and luckily after a short time, the boy coughed up the lake water and started breathing again. Snake sighed in relief and came to the conclusion that he needed to remove his shirt to try to find the problem; and gasped in horror at what was revealed underneath that innocent fabric. Bear, Eagle, and Wolf were instantly at Snakes side and blanched at what they saw.

A/N: Thank you for reading. This was my first attempt at K-Unit so I hope I did okay.

EDIT: I changed Alex's age from 14 to 16. This is now the prologue.

Another EDIT: I changed "a week ago" to "a month ago". Breacon is now Brecon.