Very short prologue; please review and tell me if I should continue with it!

I feel like I should be writing something serious and mature - but hell, this is much mroe fun. I hope you enjoy it!

Alex hated going to the Royal and General Bank. It wasn't like he was ever told anything he wanted to hear while he was there, anyway; in that respect, it was rather like school. He always came away from the Royal and General feeling just as tired as he did after a long day of school – with football practice. Organised sports generally didn't end up with death counts, though.

The unsmiling agent who met him gave him a brief once-over, asked for ID, then took him up to the office where Alan Blunt and Mrs. Jones would be waiting for him. If Alex didn't know better, he'd swear that they did nothing but wait for him.

"Alex." Alan Blunt nodded. Alex nodded back – and then realising that the man was merely dismissing the agent who'd brought him up. "Sit down."

Sighing Alex took the seat that he'd been offered.

"You did very well in your last mission, Alex." Mrs. Jones offered. "Despite all the drawbacks of your situation. If we'd known, of course, we would never have sent you with…"

"Yes, you would." Alex said, dispassionately. "If you'd known how dangerous it was, you would just have told me that I was going, rather than asking. Children like Paul and me, we don't figure. You'd have manipulated both of us."

"Come on, Alex." Blunt said, and for one wild moment, Alex believed that the man was going to try and argue with him, when they all knew it was true. Mrs. Jones was flustered, embarrassed by the truth of what Alex had said. But Blunt and Alex were staring at each other, and the moment Alex met the man's flinty eyes, he knew that they both acknowledged the statement for what it was. "You can hardly call yourself a child any longer."

Alex bowed his head. "No." he agreed, bitterly. "I would suppose not."

"Which is exactly why we've decided to lighten the burden somewhat." Mrs. Jones jumped in. "We've all decided that this is a little much for you. So we've been training another agent like you, and he'll go with you on any missions that you're needed on from now on."

Alex's head snapped up. "What the hell are you talking about!" he said, angrily. "You've forced some other poor guy through what I've been through?"

"Obviously, he doesn't have the quite the experience that you've had." Blunt agreed, analytically, "But given time…"

Alex looked at the pair of them, safe behind their desk, with cold dislike. "What did you get this kid on? How did you make him join you? What, did you kill his parents, and hold a gun to his head?"

"Matt volunteered." Blunt replied, coldly.

"Then he's probably insane." Alex returned, equally coldly. There was a pause. Finally, Alex spoke up again. "If you want to ruin someone else's life, fine. I don't care anymore. But don't pretend like you're doing it for me, because it's a lie – you've done screw all of nothing for me so far, but you haven't outright lied to me yet. Half-truths, yes, but no lies. Use this Matt kid. But don't tell me that he's here for my benefit."

He stood up, fully intending to leave straight away.

"Sit down, Alex." Blunt ordered.

Mrs. Jones, seeing that Alex wasn't taking to this too well, said, softly. "We're sending you to a re-evaluation camp. Matt passed his training two weeks ago – it was more extensive than yours, as we had more time…"

"Oh, so you got him in cold-blood then, did you?" Alex asked, coolly. Mrs. Jones ignored him.

"So you should be of a level standard. We want to compare you."

"Hargreaves…" Blunt began

"Matthew." Mrs. Jones explained. "Matthew Hargreaves."

"Hargreaves is two years older than you, so he may have the edge on you." Blunt said, softly. "We just want to see which of you performs best."

"Sure. Performing animals." Alex stood up, and shook his head. "I'll do it, because you're not going to give me a choice. But no matter how this goes, you're not going to know how he acts under real pressure." He walked to the door. Thinking of something else, he almost didn't say it, because he would sound so childish. But then, there was no harm in being honest with these people, even if they weren't honest with him. "I don't like this." He said, softly. "And we won't work well together." The twisted the door handle. "I'll see myself out."

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