A/N Ah hahaha, I'm back. Again. Miss me? Thought not. I'm not one for writing huge A/Ns in the beginning, because I know no one reads them when they're too long. Just wanted to say one thing: Thanks for putting up with me and my writer's block. Thanks, a lot. It means a lot to me. I should probably reply to your reviews... Soon. Heh, sorry if I don't reply right away. Just rest assured that I read them!

Disclaimer: Okay. My eyes teared up from the strong A/C in my mom's car and looked like a wimp. And my dog is really dirty right now. I'm supposed to shower. I'm supposed to be in bed. So, I'm currently too lazy to come up with a halfway decent disclaimer, so I'll just say this: A little birdy told me that I do not own Alex Rider. I felt hurt, but I knew it was right.

"Memento Mori."

A Latin phrase that roughly translates as:

"Remember your mortality."

"Remember you must die."

or

"Remember you will die."

"Cub, there is someone that would like to see you," the Sergeant ground out, tone frustrated.

"Yes sir," Alex said, walking meticulously over to the office door that the unhappy sergeant had pointed out, knocking cautiously on the door.

"Come in," a much too familiar female voice called from the other side of the door, voice muffled. There was a faint, but still unmistakable lisp to her words that was caused by her peppermint sweet.

Alex turned the handle, entering the room warily, for every time he came inside a room with Mrs. Jones or Mr. Blunt, unfortunate things happened—missions, blackmail, so on and so forth.

Sure enough, there sat Mrs. Jones behind a wooden bureau. The only thing that surprised him—even a minuscule fraction—was that Mr. Blunt, the unnaturally grey head of Military Intelligence Sector Six.

"Alex, do sit down," the peppermint-lover said, hands gesturing casually to the chair that was pulled up parallel to the desk. Alex, obviously, obliged.

Common courtesies were exchanged, and Mrs. Jones got straight to the point.

"Alex, there is a new terrorist group lurking," she started testily, and Alex could guess what was coming next. "We have had a spy planted inside, but he died as soon as he found out that they were planning to assassinate the Russian leader, staging it so it looks like the United Kingdom did it, so there would be something alike to war—perhaps even a full out war—between us and the Russians. We have to send in someone that the group, Caliginous, doesn't know about."

Which is why we want to send you in, Alex finished in his head mockingly.

"Which is why we want to send you in," she said, sure enough. "It won't be dangerous. We just want you to prowl around, keep an eye on them."

Ha, right. That's what you always said, wasn't it? Alex thought bitterly, mind automatically flipping through memories of missions.

"If it helps your decision any, I'd like you to inform you that Ms. Starbright's visa is expiring soon."

Of course, she'd just have to add icing on the cake, didn't she? A new terrorist group that can't come up with a halfway decent name, planning to start something alike to war between us and a powerful country, a glaringly obvious lie about the safety of the mission, and now, to top it off, blackmail. Nothing better to freeze up the atmosphere than blackmail, he scoffed mentally.

With a defeated sigh, he grumbled, "Can I go see Jack first, though? Pack, and… stuff."

"Yes. Smithers shall provide you with the gadgets after you meet her, then. Please drop by the Bank after you visit your housekeeper so we can tell you a more detailed version of the mission, and also so Smithers can hand you the gadgets."

He knew there was a hidden dismissal, and walked out of the office.

K Unit knew something was wrong when Cub didn't return in an hour. They eyed the general direction the Sergeant had led their youngest teammate to, unexpectedly concerned.

Once they had gotten the trainees started on the exhausting assault course, they opened their mouths, and…

"Do you think Cub's okay?"

Telepathy. Yes, that had to be it.

Wolf grunted. Snake quirked an eyebrow. Eagle snickered. Fox grinned.

"We'll see later, won't we?" Wolf said, answering their question. The rest of K Unit—minus a certain teenage boy—nodded their agreement.

As soon as Alex arrived at the barracks, he packed up, gathering the small amount of personal belongings he had brought.

Clothes, books, school work, iPod, a Smithers gadget disguised as a common item, more clothes, Smithers gadget, his phone, another Smithers gadget.

He snapped his wristwatch to his right wrist—an illusion. Most would think that he's left-handed—and started to head out. When he turned back, there wasn't a trace that anyone had slept in the general area of the small, uncomfortable bed that was stuffed against a corner. The bed was made neatly, area cleaned.

With that comforting thought, Alex Rider headed out.

Still no sign of Cub.

The depressing thought echoed and bounced around in their heads as they made their way to the mess hall. He had to be there, to eat, right? Yes, he had to be.

Alex walked to the entrance of the SAS training camp, to look for a dark jeep screaming Espionage! Spies! James Bond!

He was surprised to find that there wasn't a suspicious jeep waiting ominously at the entrance, waiting for a teenager to enter it to whisk him off to his Chelsea home. Alex frowned, genuinely puzzled. He had thought that there would be a vehicle waiting for him. A bus, a car, a motorcycle, anything. But the muddy land was empty of such modes of transportation.

Still frowning, Alex waited. And waited. And waited.

His hunger finally getting the better of him, he decided that he could come back later, after he ate the disgusting, yet stomach-filling mush. After all, a little food couldn't help, right? It was a 3 hour-to-4-hour ride, anyway.

Or so he repeated to himself as he sulked to the mess hall.

With his stuffed duffel bag on his back, he entered the place where edible things were served. As usual, the lunch menu was: monochrome mush or somewhat colourful mush. He chose the monochrome mush.

When he accepted his tray of his unappetizing lunch, he headed over to the table of K Unit, only to be greeted with icy stares.

"…What?"

"Where were you?"

"I was talking to someone at the office."

Wolf was about to open his mouth to rattle off a question, when he was interrupted by a baffled Eagle.

"We had an office?" He was ignored. After all, this was normal.

"Who were you talking to?"

"Someone. Why? Did you miss me? That's sweet," Alex said with a sarcastic roll of his hard brown orbs.

"No, we didn't," Wolf growled, speaking defensively for the rest of the men.

"What's with the duffel bag? You running away?" Ben grinned, trying to lift the mood. Instead, it spiralled downwards.

"Yeah, Cubby, what's up with the duffel?" Eagle.

"Spill." Wolf.

"Cub, you know you can tell us, right?" Snake.

"It's nothing, really. No, Fox, I'm not, ahem, running away. I can't. You guys would catch me too soon, it wouldn't be worth it," Alex countered.

"Right. No, seriously. Spill."

"Why?"

"We're your unit," Wolf tried to reason.

"I wasn't before," Alex murmured, rolling his eyes.

"What? I didn't catch that."

"Nothing you'd like to know."

"Children, children. Let us all solve this one big mystery together, shall we?" Eagle chided.

"Where'd you hear that line? Some crappy movie?" Ben snickered.

"Hey! I came up with that all on my own this time! That comment hurt!"

"This time," Ben parroted, mocking Eagle.

"Cub. Are you leaving?" Snake, the most sane of them all, nudged them all back to the original topic.

"Eh… Would you believe me if I said that I was camping?"

"No."

"What if I said that I was going to go visit my surrogate sister and housekeeper because a bank—that's secretly MI6—told me that I had to go on an important mission because there was a terrorist group with a lousy name that wants to assassinate the Russian leader to cause a mini war between Britain and Russia?"

"Er… No…"

Ben raised an eyebrow at Alex because he knew that the bank part was true… But of course, he thought the rest was fake. Of course.

"What if… I said that I was going to your house, Snake?"

"No."

"Are you going to believe anything I say that's different than, I'm leaving to visit my family?"

"No."

Alex sighed irritably, shoveling the gravely substance into his mouth. "Okay, Snake. Let's have it your way. I'm leaving to visit my family."

Snake scoffed. "I didn't mean that you should tell me that if it's blatantly obvious that it's a lie."

"How do you know that I wasn't telling the truth on my other ones?" After all, the one detailed one was true.

"I know because they are not possible."

"You don't know that. Okay, fine. I'm going to go visit my surrogate sister—also my housekeeper, guardian, and… No wait, that's it—because her visa is expiring soon, and because I got a call that there have been problems with my bank account." That was the half-truth, so it technically counted.

"You could have told me that from the start," Snake grumbled. Alex shot him a flat look that Snake didn't notice.

Suddenly, his eyes snapped open from their unimpressed-half-open-look that was directed at the man named after a reptile and he scrambled up, gathering his things. After throwing the food away without as much as a second thought, Alex hurried out of the mess hall, calling a hasty goodbye to his unit-mates. He was stalked by confused looks until he exited the busy building.

He jogged to the entrance of the SAS training camp, expecting a stereotypical vehicle to be parked there. And sure enough, there it was: The black tinted windows, sleek car, driver with dark sunglasses. Yes, the vehicle that wanted everyone to know that there were suspicious things going around that was related to the vehicle.

When he neared the car, he demanded to see the man driving the automobile's ID. He wasn't going to jump into the car of a stranger naïvely with no proof that he was the right man. When the ID was confirmed with a quick once-over, Alex hopped in, bracing himself for a long ride back.

Alex opened the door to the house he had called home all of his life. The hallway was dark.

"Jack?"

The kitchen had some light streaming in, but that was because of the window.

"Jack?"

The living room was alight with sunlight, but there was no sign of his guardian.

"Jack? I swear… If this is a prank like last time, I… This isn't funny!" Alex exclaimed, getting more agitated by the second.

He trashed the house swiftly, looking for any signs of his apparently missing guardian.

"Jack?" His voice seemed to echo in the empty house. Worry was brewing in dark clouds over his head as his brows creased uneasily.

He looked to the fridge, where Jack would usually put reminders, and where she was heading to if Alex wasn't home. It was the same as ever, seemingly undisturbed. But things were ruffled up quite a bit… Although, that could have just been Jack or him, right?

He looked around for clues. Anything. Anything.

But then, he found it; a note. A hastily scribbled note informing him of his surrogate sister's whereabouts. But he knew that the handwriting wasn't that of Jack's. And now that he looked around the room, there were signs of struggles.

The hand clutching onto the piece of paper trembled.

"…Jack?"

Mmkay. Can you guys do me a favour? Just a tiny one, I swear. But only if you want to.

So... for those who want to:

Can you rate this chapter from 1 to 10, one being the absolute worse piece of Fanfiction that you've ever read in your whole entire life,

and ten being... No wait, you can figure it out, I bet. I don't expect a ten, so don't pressure yourself. Please give me your honest opinion, I will not be offended.