AN:

That's my contribution to SpyFest fic exchange 2019. The prompt was:

Join the dark side, we have cookies. Something that includes 'the dark side' wooing Alex to change sides.

This is a "A Difference of Time" AU (fanfiction s/12401393/1/A-Difference-Of-Time (remove the space)). I would like to thank Zyzyax for allowing me to use their fic as a base for this OS. Also, a lot of thanks to Zyzyax for betaing (making it reader-friendly) and helping me to write this!

Alejandro Pérez. A new player in the field, perhaps? Brendan Chase (not to mention the good doctor) was very interested in anyone who managed to catch Yassen Gregorvich's interest, especially if they existed outside their usual crowd. It was a medicine student this time. Was Yassen scouting for Doctor Three? It was interesting that the assassin was seriously looking for potential successors now. About time, as well; assassins don't get old in the field, after all. However, Chase wondered how it was that Yassen had found that many potential candidates in less than a year. First Rhea, then Pierre, now Pérez. The latter two had a given name that is a variation of Alexander. Maybe Yassen was a sucker for that name. Come to think of it, wasn't Hunter's son's name something like that? Alex? There might be some lingering attachment, even if there shouldn't be. SCORPIA had heavily discouraged attachments of any kind and Yassen was usually as detached and professional as it got. Then again, Hunter had been a very charismatic man; even Kurst had liked him until they had discovered that he was an MI6 agent.

At a cursory glance, Pérez' papers seemed in order. There was a legitimate ID, a bank account in London (after digging a bit, ok, a lot, deeper another, far more doggy one in Switzerland under another name Alessandro Pellegrini; different bank than Pierre, though), elementary school records in Spain, middle and high school records in England. The kid had even won some kind of karate tournament when he was younger. There was a picture, too. Even a form to apply for children's benefit had been found. There were travel records fitting to an average civilian. The parents' and grandparents' records seemed legitimate, too. Only the great-grandparents' records were a bit sketchy, which might be because of the unrest in Europe during the world wars, revolutions and whatnot. From that sheer detail alone, one would guess that this was a real person, not a fake identity. However, his gut told him that there might be something wrong here.

For someone Yassen, of all people, was interested in, this man was a bit too average. Hell, apart from the karate tournament this was the perfect example of a Joe. Too average, too normal and too boring or just extremely good at hiding their tracks. Which, given how hard it had been to dig out the second identity of Alejandro, was entirely possible. That meant that this was either a potential contact, a recruit Yassen had found who might have cleared their record, or possibly the real identity of Alec Pierre. There might be a naming theme there. It could also be another more elaborate identity of the same person that was Pierre or a (false) identity of another entirely unrelated person. Chase didn't believe in coincidences, however, and neither did the rest of the executive board. This meant that the first two options were the most likely.

Either way, he refused to let such an opportunity slide.

Now, Chase knew that people were generally very hesitant about joining SCORPIA, particularly after they had worked so hard to stay under the radar. He decided that easing the kid in was probably the best way to recruit him. The best approach would probably be a student job. It would work to acclimate the kid into the ranks and nobody got suspicious if a student left to work for a company that they had previously interned for. It was even encouraged.

Since "Alejandro", apparently, was a medical student, the good doctor might be convinced to show Pérez the ropes. The man was fond of teaching students, provided they were actually dedicated and attentive.

One of their subsidiary companies would be the best way to initiate the first contact for the job offer. After all, what university student didn't need a job?

Dear Mr. Pérez,

Are you looking for a summer job? Then we could be the right company for you! Join our temporary employment agency to get access to a wide variety of jobs that have flexible working hours and incentive pay. We also offer many opportunities for further education if needed. To keep our employees safe and healthy we have fitness and self-defense courses. Join now to benefit from our summer special fitness and self-defense program!

Yours Sincerely,

Bernand Achse

Head of Recruitment at Pia Cors

Alex was at home with Fenir when he decided to check his brand new mail account (with some fake mails in it) of the very detailed identity Maddox had made for him. That program had apparently analysed a lot of real Spanish and English IDs and created his best attempt at a perfectly average person from the agglomerated information. He had shown it to Yassen, who had looked it over and deemed it sufficient for a university application. Alex had wanted to enroll himself in a university to get some more advanced materials that Ian didn't necessarily need to know about. His application had needed to hold up to a college-level background check, so he'd had to rely on Maddox. Ian knowing about these particular reading materials was not going to be particularly troublesome, but Alex liked his privacy. Plus, he wanted to make sure this was the degree he wanted before he got his real identity involved.

Alex had applied to, and been accepted at, a nice university. His letter of acceptance had been difficult to hide from Ian, but not impossible, thanks to Fenrir. The email was otherwise pretty sparse. Mostly because "Alejandro" was not exactly a popular quarterback. In general, Alex didn't have too much issue with social interaction, but he was supposed to be a mildly awkward teenager who could get into medical school a little early. Alex knew you had to make some changes to avoid too much suspicion. It wasn't very average if you were basically excellent in every part of your life. Apart from the admission notification and the one that he had been given access to the facilities for upper years he found a suspicious job offer.

The names of the recruitment officer and the recruiting organisation caught his eye. Grabbing a pen and some paper he played around with the names. After he found out that "Pia Cors" meaning pious cooperation in Latin could be easily reformed to "SCORPIA" one of the organisations on his hell-no-never-ever-list (the other being MI6), rearranging "Achse" to "Chase" and "Bernand" to "Brendan" was a piece of cake.

What in the world? And for god's sake, how? This ID was barely a week old and the only ones knowing about Alejandro were MADDOX, the university, the bank (not the Royal General) and of course Yassen who had checked this identity for flaws. Latter might have caught SCORPIA's interest. It was really damn creepy. What did they do? Stick a key-logger in Yassen's computer? It all slowly, but surely, caught up with him and he freaked out again. This guy was perfectly goddamn average. There was no way in hell he had anything SCORPIA looked for. If this went on he would be hard pressed to get an identity NOT compromised by SCORPIA. It definitely didn't help that Yassen had helped with the current two.

They were supposed to be good identities. Alex took a deep breath. Panicking wouldn't help anything. Last time, Yassen had recommended waiting for two weeks and answering with a polite, but firm, no. Alex wondered if that would apply this time. Probably not, because this time there was an email address he could respond to. In any case, he decided to go with his when-in-doubt-ask-Yassen-tactic.

-Y

Alejandro got a job offer. From SCORPIA. Via email. They found me again. WHAT DO I DO NOW?

-A

Yassen would have sighed if he wasn't so well trained to keep is reactions in check. It was, once again, proven that Alex had the worst luck sometimes. Albeit, he had known that checking Alex's second (surprisingly thorough) identity might attract attention, he supposed that it could serve as a lesson for the future. Alex really should learn to check those things himself and stop depending on others. The whole idea was that Alex would come to trust and depend on him. It was interesting. Yassen was still surprised that Alex hadn't betrayed him most days. This had the added benefit of letting him keep an eye on Alex. Ian was thoroughly incompetent at keeping Alex in line and under supervision. It was a bit sad when Yassen knew more about Alex's activities than the spy living with him. Honestly, that man was next to useless when it came to spying on his nephew. Anyway, trusting someone too much could—no definitely would—cause problems in the future. Maybe he could hold a lesson for Alex sometime?

-A

Keep calm. A polite and firm no within the week should suffice. You won't want to appear too hostile by replying too fast. Replying later or not at all might make the board take more persuasive options.

-Y

Alex could do that. He was also going to subtly let them know he knew exactly what they were up to. The scam-like email was practically begging for shade to be thrown, but Alex resisted the urge to put too many snarky replies into the letter. It wasn't a Pierre letter, after all.

Pierre was the one who would raise Chase's blood pressure. His composed his letter after taking a few days to sulk about his bad luck.

Dear Mr. Achse,

Thank you very much for your generous job offer, but no thank you. I am financially stable enough and my studies demand so much of my time that I barely have enough time to relax with my friends. Additionally, I am a pacifist and I aspire to be a person that helps the sick and saves other people's lives. As a future doctor, I take the Hippocratic Oath very seriously.

Yours Sincerely,

Alejandro Pérez

When Brendan Chase found Alejandro's reply in his inbox he was delighted. It was not the content of the reply, of course, but he knew a no could always be turned into a yes. The response had a suspicious touch of Alec Pierre. He might even check with Dr. Steiner. However, two could play a game. Whoever this really was, Chase was sure he was worth the effort. Anyone who Yassen was interested in was almost certainly worth recruiting. The man had obscenely high standards, after all. A short time later, a reply was sent.

Dear Mr. Pérez,

Thank you for your charming reply. I assure you though, that joining our summer camp at least will certainly further your studies and broaden your horizons. Apart from fitness and self-defence courses, there are also courses on biology, human anatomy, psychology, pharmacy etc. which would comply nicely with your chosen profession. Additionally, our teachers are masters of their respective fields and provide our students with some of the best educational opportunities on the planet.

Besides, don't you think that the Hippocratic Oath is a bit old fashioned? There are a lot of policies and ethical standards that are very outdated. Did you know that assisted suicide which is legal in Switzerland? And deemed ethical under certain circumstances monitored by a judge. I hope you will reconsider your decision and find the time to join us.

Yours Sincerely,

Bernand Achse

Head of Recruitment at Pia Cors

Alex stared in horror at the (admittedly prompt) reply to his email. Biology, his foot. Learning about dangerous plants and animals and how to weaponize them, more like. Human anatomy? Well, that was one way to look at the course in torture they offered. Psychology? Alex honestly doubted there was an ethical way to psychologically torture people and conduct negotiations in the fashion SCORPIA was used to (read: at gunpoint). Pharmacy? Alex didn't even want to retake the course in how to make and get the correct amount of poisons and antidotes for them to work. It would be an easy A (he had his own health hazard garden, for god's sake), but Alex was with Ian on this one. Sometimes, the easy A elective just wasn't worth it. Alex could safely say he was not interested in this 'internship'. Alex wasn't even interested in using this to mess with Chase. One troll in the man's life should absolutely be plenty.

Plus, it would keep him way too busy. It was difficult (but fun) enough to deal with Yassen and Nile mostly undetected, but dealing with the board? Twice? He loved screwing with their heads, but there were only so many hours in a day and Alex did actually have better things to do with his time. Like real medical classes that weren't for assassins. Also, Alex felt that being Alec and Alejandro at the same time would get dull. There was no need to do the same spiel twice. Definitely boring as hell.

For now, he was going to ask MADDOX to send Alejandro to some rural region in the US. With no reception. Absolutely none. Alex would rather count dead daphnia than deal with this. At least with dead daphnia, there was no chance of him being stalked by said lifeforms. Yes, a nice rural spot should do the trick. Chase would have to wait a long time for his answer. Alejandro might have an unfortunate fatal accident. Such a tragedy. He would be miles from the nearest hospital, after all. It was definitely an option. Alex thought it was a bit of a pity since "Alejandro" was a very detailed identity, but sacrifices have to be made. He was not really in the mood to deal with more stalkers. This identity was supposed to be clean. Oh, well. He'd come up with a plan later. Or ask Maddox to make him a new one and check it himself.

AN:

Thank you for reading! And a lot of thanks to cuby18 for the prompt!