I couldn't remember fainting.

I couldn't remember being cut either.

But when the sharp, wet pain in my side dragged me into consciousness, I realised that both must have happened.

Begrudgingly, I opened my eyes, finding myself lying on the floor.

The fact that I wasn't dead brought me to the quick conclusion that I must have been set down on purpose, rather than having fallen.

As soon as I get up, I'm going to kill the guy who thought abandoning a wounded maiden on the cold hard floor was kosher...

There were dull echoes of sound, vibrating as if I were submerged underwater. People were talking, but my ringing ears couldn't make sense of it.

All the strange sounds going on, yet one was missing. The Alarm.

The power must have gone out. I noted, staring at the dead fluorescent lights above, which had once lit the dark lobby.

Even so, the room wasn't completely dark.

A glaring white light shone into the room, sending sharp shadows across the walls like knives. It came from the direction of the street, like a searchlight peering in.

Not only that, little particles of what looked like glitter floated in the air.

How pretty. Too bad that the rest of the room looked like a bomb had hit it.

Tentatively, numbly, I turned my head, surprised to feel tiny fragments of glass crunching in my hair.

Looking across the room, I saw that the wall of windows had shattered in completely, covering the floor in broken glass.

And people.

My vision was blurry, unable to focus on the giant figures spread across the room. Some were kneeling, while some seem to lay motionless.

Through sheer will power, I forced my eyes to work, and as my sight sharpened, sound came rushing it.

"We have to take it out, Havoc." I recognised Peri's voice, speaking quietly from somewhere in the room. "Our tech doesn't know your body well enough to be able to recognise the foreign object. It's just reacting to your brain signals. If we don't act soon, it will heal around the glass."

"I know. Just... Hurry..."

"On three...One, two...three."

Havoc gave a strangled sound of pain, snarling a scientific-sounding word that I suspected was a swear in smart people language.

I tried to sit up, only to feel something holding me down at the waist.

Frowning slightly in confusion, I turned to see Nigel kneeling beside me.

When did he turn up?

... Then again, he's probably been there all along.

Dully, I realised that Nigel was pressing a ball of white fabric into my side, probably the torn sleeve of a lab coat or something, and as I finally met his gaze, I saw that he was silently crying.

How embarrassing. Minions shouldn't cry.

"Don't worry." He told me, his voice obviously fighting to sound reassuring, but holding a trace of the tears in his eyes. "Peri said that they are fixing it. He and Winkle are fixing everyone with nanotechnology, so it will be better in just a moment. So please..."

Of course, the idiot would overreact, seeing all the blood that now stained the compress he held to my side.

He still freaks out when I just get a blood lip after all...

I wanted to tell him that it didn't hurt.

That I've had toothpick scratches waaaay bigger than this thing.

But all the blood that was supposed to be in my brain was making a run for it while it had the opportunity to escape. Traitorous slime...

I took a deep breath, about to severely traumatise Nigel with a really bad period joke or something equally horrifying.

Anything to wipe that terrified look off his face.

But that was when I heard the cheerful, appreciative whistle.

And the crunch of glass as someone approached.

"Wow. We made quite the mess, didn't we brother?"

No.

"Shut up Alan."

Not again.

"No need to be so grouchy Alex. We are just doing our job after all."

I turned my head, just in time to see Alan stroll casually over the threshold of the broken window, hands in the pockets of his thigh-length black jacket.

How had I never noticed before?

He looked around curiously, smiling slightly as he studied the bloody scene before him.

That ever-present cheerful smile.

Alex followed his brother into the room, his eyes fixed moodily to the floor.

That irritable glare.

Alan and Alex stood framed in the remains of the glass doorway, the white light behind them casting their shadows across the floor.

How terrifying they both were.

Nigel's hand convulsed at my side, but I couldn't bring myself to look away from the twins.

"I don't understand...." Nigel whispered."It doesn't make sense."

For once, no flash of brilliant understanding came to explain, no epiphany gave me the answer.

Had my mind blocked this information from me like last time...?

Or had I just never seen it coming.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Reece stand up from the floor.

"You did this."

It wasn't a question.

Alan and Alex both looked up, both focused their gaze on Reece at the exact same moment. One face scowling, the other smiling cheerfully, but their eyes were identical.

Empty.

And completely System Blue.

"If you are referring to that whole window explosion thing just now, then yea, that was us." Alan took a step forward, meeting the wounded man's gaze with an amused smile.

"For future reference, using nanotech in the glass is pretty clever, but maybe you guys shouldn't have put it in all the glass in the building. Not only is it stupid." Alan waved a hand at the glass on the floor. "It's just plain arrogant. As you can see, it tends to backfire when you lose control of your toys to someone like us."

"Like you?" Reece's voice shook slightly, the only trace of emotion. "You could have killed someone."

"Oh, I know," Alan replied sincerely, closing the distance between them, standing only inches away and forcing the much smaller man to tilt his head back.

"In fact, I know that we could have killed every. Single. Person in this room."

He rested his hands on Reece's tense shoulders, smiling down at him as if speaking to a child. "But the important thing here is that we decided not to."

How had I missed this?

"After all." Alan continued conversationally. "We had to do something to keep your little Periwinkle busy. With his Link system forced into mass repair mode, he won't be causing us any... Annoyance."

Reece didn't react to the touch, didn't react to the nonchalant words, just continued to meet Alan's gaze calmly.

"And the system? I'm assuming that you two are the ones who hacked into it? Seeing as you seem to be controlling it quite freely now."

"Oh no, not at all." Alan quietly chuckled, letting Reece go and taking a step back from him, "I'm afraid that our mother takes all the credit for that."

Every supervisor listening froze, staring at the boys in horror.

At the looks, Alan raised a questioning eyebrow, a mischievous smirk on his lips. "Don't tell me you didn't realise? How many genius nano technicians with no sense of ethics do you think there are in the world?"

He tilted his head. "Or perhaps you still thought she is in jail?" An amused grin came over his face, but I could see the malice just beneath the surface.

"Now now, did you really think that they would let such a brilliant mind rot away in such a place?" His eyes grew cold. "No. Not when they could auction her off to the highest bidder."

What..?

"Enough chatting Alan," Alex said, his voice devoid of emotion. "Let's just get this over with."

Alan tsked in disappointment. "Such a killjoy Alexander. Making me do all the dirty work and not giving me even a moment to enjoy it."

"Unfortunately gentlemen, none of us are here to play." Jack interrupted, suddenly stepping out of apparently nowhere to stand next to the twins. "You're late."

"That's not my fault." Alan sniffed. "Alex was being... Difficult."

"We wouldn't need to be here if you hadn't screwed up." Alex sent Jack a dark look. "Now get out of here before I decide that you are more trouble than you're worth."

"Why the rush? You haven't even had the chance to properly introduce yourselves yet. No, never mind, allow me to do the honours." Ignoring the dangerous tone in Alex's voice, Jack turned, addressing the room with a pleasant smile. "For those of you who don't know, these two brothers here are Alan and Alexander Floid."

He waved a hand theatrically, taking a bow.

"The ones who watch over the Hill, reporting all they see to their masters. The ones who recruit, test, assess and judge the cardholders."

He looks up, his soft purple eyes landing on Nigel and me, as we watched everything we knew unravel before us.

"The undercover scouts of the Underground."