Disclaimer: obviously I don't own anything

Note: this is pretty much my take on how Yassen Gregorovich came to meet John Rider and MI6. I know this is most likely not how it happened in the books, but…I wanted to play with these two characters. Obviously this is before Alex Rider!

Being stuck in a deserted alley in Vienna really sucked. Especially for a fifteen-year old assassin employed by the world's leading assassination organization. Yassen Gregorovich stood waiting in the shadows of a nightclub for his next target to come out. He had his gun equipped with a silencer. Yassen straightened up as he heard the loud voice of his target in the nightclub entrance. About to step out and pull the trigger, he was suddenly grabbed from behind. Yassen instinctively twisted around and fired at his attacker. The tight grip pinning his arms loosened, but Yassen heard a second gunshot and realized it wasn't from his gun.

In horror, Yassen looked down at his side. As he touched it, his fingers came away bloodstained and sticky. He holstered his gun, forgetting about the target and started to run down the alley, away from the nightclub. He paused for a moment, stopping to rest against a dumpster. Yassen whipped around, hearing silent footsteps behind him. A slim figure stood there, silhouetted by the street light.

'Who are you?' snarled Yassen.

The figure didn't reply and only came closer. Yassen could see that the man was carrying a gun. Yassen tried to raise his own gun, but let out a pained gasp as the swift motion aggravated th bullet wound in his side.

'You're hurt' the man said in surprise.

'No. I'm fine. Just walk away' responded Yassen through gritted teeth. The man was already examining Yassen's side. He muttered something under his breath and started to pull something out of his pocket. Yassen tried to stand up fully, but immediately returned to tightly grasping the dumpster. His breath was starting to come in short, sharp gasps. The man looked up worriedly.

'Hey relax. You need to keep breathing.'

Yassen actually looked at the man for a moment 'who the hell are you anyway?'

'Rider. John Rider' was the swift reply 'I'm going to give you something now, okay?'

To his horror, Yassen saw that John Rider was pulling a loaded hypodermic syringe from the same pocket. He started to struggle and let out a pained cry as the sudden movement irritated his wound even more. Yassen finally gave in, as his knees buckled and he collapsed. He had expected to feel the asphalt coming up to meet him. Instead to his surprise, he felt an arm around his back.

'You're okay, relax, you're okay' said Rider.

Yassen felt a prick in his skin, and everything started to go black. The last thing he remembered before fully losing consciousness was John Rider lowering him to the ground and calling for backup.

John looked in the back of the van at the unconscious teenager.

'How is he Dan?' John thanked God that there had been a medic on their backup team, so at least Gregorovich would be able to hold on until they got to the hospital.

'He's still hanging on. Looks like he's in stable condition for right now' Dan replied, carefully adjusting the oxygen mask over the teen's face.

As the van pulled up to the Emergency Room entrance, doctors and nurses ran out. John sighed in relief; it looked like Mrs. Jones had gotten his call and made sure the hospital was prepared. Dan threw open the back doors as the doctors rolled over a gurney. They carefully eased Gregorovich's limp form onto the gurney, attached a new oxygen mask and inserted an IV. John hesitantly followed the doctors into the ER.

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