The room was like he expected from a woman of Mrs. Jones' profession. Perfectly plain without any discernible personal affects. In fact, it still looked exactly as Blunt had left it when he was forcibly retired by the newly appointed Prime Minister. Mrs. Jones was sat behind her desk and Alex took a seat directly across from her.

Mrs. Jones couldn't help but notice that Alex looked much happier to be here than he ever was before. She contemplated him for a moment, wondering what could bring on such a mood, than dropped her gaze abruptly to her hands, disturbed by his eyes. She didn't question him though, and tried to gather her thoughts to speak.

"So… Alex, I called you down here for an important reason-" Alex cut her off before she could continue, and, not used to being interrupted, Mrs. Jones looked quite shocked. "I know why you called me here, Jones. Let us discuss the circumstances of my status. We both know the Prime Minister has a strong dislike of me, even if he discovered he was wrong. He doesn't need to know about me, though. For now I think it would be best if you gave me a badge and gun and sent me somewhere for protection until you do something about Scorpia. I am far too entangled with them as it is and I think I'd rather stay away from them for now." Alex hated showing any kind of weakness, but he felt he could trust Mrs. Jones. He had to tell her, so at least she knew. "Mrs. Jones, I can't handle any more missions right now. I am taking a leave of missions. I can barely sleep and I just lost Jack. I think I have a solution to the Prime Minister though, if you're willing to listen, of course."

"Of course I am Alex, but first, let's make it clear. You are the best spy in the world, Alex. You are an MI6 agent; you don't need to have a badge to be one. We did not give you one because we could not risk civilians learning of your status, even if purely by mistake." Mrs. Jones said, reaching into a desk drawer and pulling out a badge, gun, and shoulder holster. "We didn't give you a gun for obvious reasons as well. If you were carrying a gun on you and it was found, you would be arrested and then your status would be revealed to the police, Alex. Can you blame us for being worried? What do you think the police would do if they learned that MI6's best agent was a child?"

Thinking about it, Alex could see from Mrs. Jones' point of view. He could imagine what the police might do, but he had been arrested once and when the police had learned of his status, they had said nothing, but it was still a risk if other law enforcement had caught him.

"I see your view, Jones." He said, slipping the badge into his pack. He fitted the holster onto him and then sat, fingering the gun. It was a familiar weapon. The same German handgun he had used not even a week before. He didn't like it, though. It was too familiar and he made the immediate decision to get a different gun as soon as possible. In the meantime, though, he slipped the gun into the shoulder holster and gave a small smile and nod of head to Mrs. Jones.

"As for your protection, Alex, you will be sent to the Brecon Beacons training camp to train with K-Unit. I will be sending you with your file. You are to read the file with the entire SAS camp. Ben Daniels will travel with you. I have sent word to the Sergeant, he knows you are coming. A car is waiting around front." Mrs. Jones placed a folder that was at least ten inches thick in front of him. His name was stamped across the front, along with classified in bold red letters.

Alex stood, put his jacket on to hide his gun. He swung his pack onto his back and picked up the file. With a sharp nod and a curt, "Jones.", Alex walked out of the office. He grinned as soon as he was out of the office. He could finally show the SAS soldiers what he could really do. Maybe they could become friends. It was a gut feeling Alex had. Somehow he knew he could trust them.

Ben and Alex met up in the lobby of the bank.

"Hey Ben, it's good to see the Fox up and about." Alex greeted the older man, smiling.

"Alex! What's up, Cub?" They chuckled and grasped arms, pulling into a manly one armed hug. "So, Alex, you're the senior agent they're partnering me up with?"

"We're not partners; you're going there because everyone that was there during my training needs to be there, okay? Plus, don't look so proud, Daniels, I'm still the senior agent, or did you forget that?" The smile fell from Ben's fast and he smirked smugly at Ben before walking around him and out to the car.

Ben smiled warily and started to imagine how the following weeks were going to be. He chuckled; those soldiers were in for a lot more than thought. Ben turned at the sound of his name being called out, watching the retreating back of the teenager. Then again, maybe that wasn't such a bad thing. They could do with a bit more than they could chew. They might learn how to have fun in the process. He followed, a silent laugh on his lips, shaking his head in amusement and resignation.

At Brecon Beacons

The serge hung up the phone with a heavy sigh and held his head up, rubbing his forehead in a vain attempt to rid himself of the oncoming headache he felt slowly gnawing it's way to the forefront of his mind. How was he going to handle this situation? He didn't want MI6 around again. The last time they were around, he got stuck with a kid for eleven days, and then his best soldier was taken.

He was suddenly struck with memories of Fox. The serge had liked him. He was certainly the friendliest and most open of the K-Unit crew. There were three people at the camp that Fox had distinctly never trusted. He had made his opinions quite clear with his attitude. He was never more than coldly polite to them the entire time he had been at this camp. The serge had noticed how certain Fox seemed in his distrust and how certain he was of trusting others. The serge had kept a close eye on those three for the first week, then promptly binned them, giving slacking off as his legitimate reason to them, though he had none.

Everyone thought Eagle was the friendly one of K-Unit. He was just so childlike by nature sometimes, but really, Eagle could be cold, unfriendly, and, well, you get the point. It all came down to a matter of trust. He knew that trust was something that would not, could not, exist with MI6.

At least, that is what the serge believed. He knew there were MI6 agents that were married. Some of them have children. In the sergeant's book, that was the biggest problem; the ultimate betrayal of trust; the worst thing you could do to someone. Love them so completely and lie to them anyway.

There were those few that chose to tell their husbands or wives. But most chose to keep it to themselves, their life a secret from those they loved. Most kept it a closely guarded secret out of that love, out of fear for their safety. Children were different, though. Children were notoriously bad at keeping secrets. Most parents never found the courage to tell their children, because, by the time their children were old enough to keep such secrets, if they told them, their children would be angry, and it was understandable that the parent or parents, depending, didn't want to face the reaction of the people they loved more than any others. Parents love their children more than their lovers or other family, and, therefore, it was harder to lie to them than others.

He had been sitting, thinking of all these things for about ten minutes, and decided it was high time to call K-Unit into his office and announce this news to them before any more time could pass, because, according to the head, Mrs. Jones, her agent would be here by evening and he wanted them to be prepared.

He unclipped the handheld communications radio from his belt and put it to his lips, twisting the nob to K-Unit's frequency. He chuckled at the thought of K-Unit's faces when they reacted to his news.

"Hey, Wolf, I need to speak to you and your unit." The sergeant barked into the phone.

"Okay, we'll be there in a – EAGLE! GET YOUR HAND OUT OF THERE! THAT'S DISGUSTING! PUT THE GUN DOWN! NO ONE GIVES A DAMN ABOUT THE BUNNY!" The sergeant heard muffled speaking and then the clap of a gunshot. Then, a shout came from Wolf, "AHHH! MY PILLOW!" he screamed girlishly. The sergeant chuckled quite loudly suddenly, clapping his hand over his mouth to try and stifle his laughter.

Apparently, Eagle was pissing Wolf off, who was clutching his fists, trying not to hit something or someone, and, the radio was in his hand, so it was clamped down on the button and the serge could hear everything, but, he hadn't been thinking and had left his hand clamped on the button, so they could hear him, too. He heard some cursing aimed at Wolf and an, "It's not funny!" tossed in his direction through the radio from Wolf.

"Yes it was, now get over it and get your asses down here!" He bellowed trying to regain his composure and sound intimidating through his chuckling laughter. He failed miserably and got in reply two laugh-filled 'yes sirs. He heard the crackling static of the radio frequency being dropped as Wolf took his hand off the button.

The sergeant sat back in his seat, hands behind his head, propping his feet on his desk and sighing in amusement a smile across his face as he thought of the various reactions he would receive from his, reluctantly admitted, favourite unit, when he told them exactly what was going on, which even he didn't quite know fully himself.

He had been sitting imagining the various possible different reactions from K-Unit for five minutes when the office door was slammed open and he jumped in surprise and his chair toppled backwards sending him spilling onto the floor.

He looked up at K-Unit, glaring, humiliated, as he tried to pull himself off the floor and composed himself. His glare was rather half-hearted, though, and K-Unit could tell he wasn't actually that angry, as he was laughing so hard there were tears coming from the corners of his eyes and he couldn't pick himself off the floor. The sight was so unorthodox and funny that they were soon laughing and had joined him on the floor.

They quickly composed themselves as they heard another soldier banging on the door, asking for entrance to speak to the sergeant. They settled in their seats and tried to look as if this was just another normal meeting with the 'oh-so-intimidating' sergeant.

"Enter!" Serge barked. He sounded angry, as usual, but, really, he was trying to hold back more laughter. K-Unit couldn't wipe small smirks off their faces as the soldier entered, looking extremely nervous and flustered. It was another one of the new trainees. He shot K-Unit a curious glance as they had only gotten here this morning. None of them could remember his name and he stood there, trying to force words out for a moment or two before finally stuttering out a simple, "They're here, sir.", looking quite terrified, not of the sergeant, but, of whoever 'they' were.

"Thanks." The sergeant said before turning back to K-Unit. Eagle was snickering uncontrollably and Snake had clapped a hand over his mouth to stop from laughing. Wolf, on the other hand, broke. His usual stern façade collapsed and he let out a snort of laughter from behind his own hand before he started laughing uncontrollably and the others, including the sergeant, were soon laughing with him. The soldier gave them a funny look and jogged away, letting the door bang shut behind him as he jogged towards the lake. It was almost dark out; he was probably headed towards the fire pit to tell his unit about what he had seen. They would find out he had a soft spot, yes, but they'd never get to see him like this for anyone but K-Unit, so what was the point of saying anything to anyone?

Once Wolf had settled down enough to somewhat be able to speak he glanced out the window in the direction the soldier had jogged off, and only chuckling lightly now, said, "Did you see how fast he booked it out of here? He probably thought the serge had gone insane. I mean, come on. Did you see his face?" They all howled with laughter.

It felt good to have K-Unit back, the sergeant thought, to have someone around that he could hang with, and it would be nice to catch up with them, but that's not why they were here and they probably wouldn't have a spare second once they commenced their training with the agent.

Wolf saw the sergeant get more serious and he quickly sobered up, shooting his team a look. Something was going on and Wolf had a feeling he wouldn't like it one bit. They eventually calmed down and straightened themselves out; suddenly aware that this wasn't just a buddy session with their old friend, something they had forgotten in the previous few minutes.

They watched curiously, slightly worried by the sergeant's nervous shuffling of papers on his desk. They sat there, looking uncomfortable. The sergeant was never nervous, so this had to be serious in a non-dangerous but intimidating to even the sergeant kind of way.

"Okay, don't get all excited on me yet because after the good news always comes the bad. Of course you all remember Fox, your old communications expert. I notice you haven't replaced him and have been using other soldiers as temporary replacements for missions. He must have been really irreplaceable. You guys obviously got very close during your stint here. God, I kind of miss him, too, and I saw him only two months ago. So it's been longer since you've seen him. Boy, he is something. One of, if not thee, best soldier I have had under my training."

"If he was so great then why'd you get rid of him?" Wolf snarled at the sergeant, balling his fists in a vain attempt to control his sudden anger. He sat there and talked about how he hung with Fox and how great a soldier Fox was as if nothing happened. How could Fox forgive him so easily, though? Fox should be the angriest of all of them, knowing how unfair his being binned was, yet he was getting buddy-buddy with the sergeant when he hadn't bothered trying to hook up with his own unit?

"You boys are probably wondering why you're here, as you were packed up and shipped back here without any explanation. I brought Ben Daniels into this conversation for a reason; don't go thinking I was just reminiscing on old times, soldiers. Fox was never binned. That was the most plausible cover story we could dream up at the time, because, even though I had no excuse for binning him because he'd done nothing wrong, I also knew no one would question it or me. He accepted the offer to work as an agent for MI6, though. It was his choice, so don't go around snapping at me. He's recently been injured on a mission with another agent about two months ago, who was made his partner earlier this week, after he got back from another mission. Now you might not think this is all that important, but it is. Fox is coming back here for recuperation training for a bullet wound to the shoulder. He's not important, though. What's important is his partner. Apparently his partner is a senior agent and, apparently, also the best MI6 agent in history. He'll be coming with Fox for training because he's been mixed up in a terrorist agency, Scorpia, and it's gotten bad."

"What do you mean, 'bad'?" Wolf asked hesitantly, unsure whether he wanted to hear the answer.

"I mean 'world's top assassins are after him' bad." K-Unit exchanged glances at this, unnerved. "That's how bad it's gotten. Basically, he's coming for protection, but he's also coming to tell everyone about his missions and train us in some of his skills, so, behave. His name is Agent Alex Rider, and, apparently, his security level outranks everyone, including the Prime Minister, except for the head of MI6, Mrs. Jones, because, apparently, Blunt has retired. Never thought he would, thank god. They'll be here tonight. I've been warned that Agent Rider is extremely young, but not to underestimate, he took down a man almost twice Wolf's size with karate, so don't push him around, because he doesn't take shit from anybody, and, apparently, we know him, but they're not telling us how. They said to to judge on past impressions and Agent Rider would explain when he got here. They should be here about now, let's go and give them the usual SAS welcome, lads!"

They all marched outside to greet the Agents and as they were headed over to the gate they talked and joked, shoving each other around and laughing. They weren't going to be laughing for long. They were in for a big shock when they reached the gate, Ben Daniels, and that mysterious Agent, what was his name, oh, yes, Alex Rider. Even his name sounded like it was made for a spy. But how did they know him?

3