Archive of Our Own

Freddy Grey was about to walk out of the bookstore when the title of some books stacked on a table near the door caught his attention. The sign next to them read "Children's Bestsellers". He went over and picked up a copy from the top of the stack, smiled at the cover (which showed a boy skateboarding along a bridge towards a bright red car) and began to skim through the pages with an amused expression on his face. Freddy was an incredibly fast reader -- he had acquired that skill very early on in his life (yes, from the same place where he had learned his other exceptional skills...but fortunately the memories of those days had become much less traumatic with time).

When Freddy had gone through a good chunk of the book, his expression suddenly changed to one of quizzical disapproval. He continued reading a bit more slowly, a niggling suspicion arising at the back of his mind. By the time he got to the end, he was reeling in astonishment and shock. He went back and re-read a few pages, making sure that his eyes weren't playing tricks on him. He slammed the book shut and pulled out his mobile. His finger hovered over Alex's name. He hesitated briefly, then scrolled further down his favourite contacts list and pressed the call button.

"Hey mate, what's up?"

"Tom, do you remember when exactly the last time Alex talked to that Tony bloke was?"

"Er...must have been a while ago. After you both sat your A-levels, I suppose. Why do you ask?"

"Well looks like his newest book about us just came out...and you won't believe what that bloke's done -- he's killed me off at the end!"

"Are you serious Freddy? Why the hell would he do that?"

"Dunno...Alex says he sometimes takes liberties and changes things around a bit, like the timelines, but he's never done anything this drastic before. I mean, I read the book that came before this, Nightshade, and it was pretty accurate. Tony did forget to mention that MI6 put out a public message saying that Julius Grief had been caught and that the original photo was actually an AI-generated image, so naturally loads of readers were confused about how Alex could go on with his normal life when everyone still thought he was an escaped criminal. But other than that there wasn't anything noticeably wrong with that book, as far as I recall. In fact, I thought it captured the start of our friendship quite nicely."

"Have you asked Alex about this new book? How much of our story did he really tell Tony?"

"I haven't talked to Alex yet. I'm not sure it's a good idea to bring this up while he's away in America."

"Well ask him about it when he's back. I'm sure Alex wouldn't have deliberately misled Tony, especially not about something like this! I've got to be off to my rehearsal now, but I'll see you on Saturday for dinner after the show, all right? And listen, don't let some dunderhead's fake story get you down!"

"Right, I won't. Bye Tom!"

"Bye Freddy!"

Feeling a bit better, Freddy put his mobile back into his pocket and dropped the book unceremoniously on the display table. He looked around, grabbed a few copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (an infinitely better series finale!) on an impulse from a nearby shelf, and arranged them on top of the Nightshade Revenge stack. He walked out the door, shaking his head perplexedly and muttering to himself "Sabina, seriously?"

*     *     *

One week later, Alex Rider had returned from his visit to America with Jack. He was lounging on the sofa, watching a football match between Chelsea and Arsenal. He heard Jack open the door and greet Freddy. Freddy came into the living room, his iPad in his hand. He sat down next to Alex with a polite smile but didn't say anything. That was highly unusual. Alex felt at once that something wasn't right. He and Freddy knew each other so well and were so attuned to each other's behaviour that they could sense each other's state of mind without exchanging a word. Alex turned the TV off -- football could wait -- and put an arm round Freddy. When Freddy didn't reciprocate, Alex gently nuzzled the side of his head.

"What's the matter, Freddy?"

"Alex, did you tell that Tony bloke the full story of how we defeated Nightshade?"

Alex looked puzzled. "Er...yeah, why?"

"What was the last part you told him?"

"The part where we all got on the train and were on our way out of El Dorado, I think. Tony was being unusually impatient, and cut the interview short. He said he had another appointment right afterwards with his buddy Hawthorne. I remember wanting to suggest that the last chapter of his next book should mention all the fun things we did that summer, and how we started sixth form together at Brookland. But no, Tony wasn't interested in anything beyond Nightshade being destroyed...apparently he gets paid more for his books about that Hawthorne bloke than he does for his books about me, so I'm no longer his first priority like I was in the old days. Which is understandable, but at least he could have structured my interview better! You wouldn't believe just how much time he wasted in the middle asking me about Sabina. At one point he was literally trying to put words in my mouth, like he was hoping that I'd still be interested in going out with her or something. If that fool hadn't wasted all that time asking me pointless questions about my interactions with Sabina, he would've had time to hear about you and me at the end."

As he was talking, Alex noticed Freddy's face brightening and a slow smile creeping in at the corners of his lips. "So you didn't get a chance to tell Tony about how I got shot and had an operation in the San Francisco hospital?" Freddy asked.

"No...well, I mentioned that you were moving slowly and looking tired, and that I had thought you got hit but you said you were fine. But he was rushing me so much towards the end that I didn't get around to telling him about how you had only pretended to be okay at first and how William and the others took care of you until the ambulance came. I think Tony must have guessed that you had lied about your wound though, since the signs I described were pretty obvious. He was pressuring me to wrap up far too quickly, so I just said that the train made it out before the CIA bombed the place, and everything turned out all right in the end."

Alex paused and squeezed Freddy's shoulder gently. He still wasn't quite sure why Freddy was so keen to know about his interview with Tony, but he knew there must be an important reason behind Freddy's curiosity. "To tell you the truth," he continued, "I felt rather angry at Tony after that meeting. He just wasn't the same guy who interviewed me about my earlier adventures ... sometimes he seemed to barely pay attention to what I was saying, and he even kept forgetting things I'd already told him for his previous book. He is getting on a bit, you know, so I suppose I shouldn't judge him too harshly."

"Tony's new book is out now. It's called Nightshade Revenge," said Freddy, his voice conspicuously lacking even the tiniest bit of enthusiasm.

"Is it?" asked Alex, genuinely taken by surprise. "That's strange, his publisher didn't send me a proof this time!"

Freddy handed him the iPad, where he had downloaded an electronic copy of the book from the library. (He had momentarily been tempted to use his superb hacking skills to obtain a pirated version so as not to benefit the author even by a marginal amount, but he had promised himself that he would never use his special skills to circumvent the law again, except in a true emergency.)

"Have you read it already?" Alex asked.

Freddy nodded, and leaned his head on Alex's shoulder. He took a deep breath. "Alex, this book says that I died on the train."

A profound silence followed as the boys looked at each other intently.

"No!" Alex's face contorted with shock and anger and disbelief. Had he heard Freddy right? Could Freddy perhaps have misread something? That was impossible! Freddy had the sharpest eyes of anyone that Alex knew.

"Here, just read the ending," mumbled Freddy, scrolling to the table of contents and clicking on the second-to-last chapter.

Alex perused the pages, erupting in fury at the end of the penultimate chapter. "Bloody liar! I didn't tell him that! On the contrary, I remember hearing Andrew say that he could still feel your pulse after you had passed out!"

Freddy smiled. He found the look of sheer disgust on Alex's face very satisfying. He couldn't help feeling a little pang of self-reproach: How could he have ever doubted his best friend, even for a fleeting moment? He should have known that the idiot Tony was solely responsible for this mess, not Alex!

"Oh Freddy, I can't believe Tony would be so dumb and choose to go down such a horribly pessimistic route to fill in the ending! I thought it was obvious from what I said that everything was fine in the end, despite your signs of probable injury. Did that fool of an author really think I'd be sitting there happily telling him the story if it had really ended in my losing you forever? And it's beyond ridiculous that he just made you bleed to death like that in his book! He knew that the other Numbers had medical training -- he even mentioned it in Nightshade -- so surely he could have guessed that they would have helped you right away? I'm so sorry, Freddy, I just don't know what to say! If I'd known that Tony would do such an awful thing, I'd have made him stay longer and miss his next appointment with Hawthorne, so that I could hammer all the details into that thick head of his. I don't understand why that moron would deny us a happy ending. I thought he actually liked me and wanted me to be happy!"

Freddy snuggled closer to Alex and put his arms around him. "You want to know the worst part?" he whispered. "He thinks your happy ending lies elsewhere. He has you being very keen on Sabina and way too interested in whether she's still with Blake or not."

"Oh God, I knew he was going somewhere with those stupid questions! Does the book end with me and Sabina getting married and going off on our honeymoon or something?"

Freddy laughed. "Not quite, but he does have her family moving back to London and you really looking forward to getting together with her again. And look at this..." He took the iPad from Alex and scrolled through the last chapter. "He's even got Tom blithely laughing with Jack at the end, after I'm supposedly dead! It's like none of you cared about me and couldn't wait to get along with your lives. And he also wrote about your meeting with Mrs Jones in such a disappointing way ... as though you'd never see her or William or Sofia again!"

Alex quickly skimmed the parts that Freddy was pointing out. "That bastard Tony," he declared, pulling Freddy's head to his chest and affectionately ruffling his hair. "I am NEVER talking to him again, you can be sure of that. He's not going to make any more money by continuing to write my life story, not after lying so horribly about my most favourite person in the world." He dropped a kiss on Freddy's forehead. "I must say I feel very bad for all the readers though. They probably expected another great book like the Nightshade. Surely they deserved to know the truth!"

"Yeah," agreed Freddy. "I bet loads of them were hoping to read about me finally going home with Mum and Dad, and the two of us growing even closer," he said wistfully. "But thanks to that nitwit Tony, now they won't get to know about all our fun times at school and university, or about the amazing yearly reunions we have with our global family of ex-Numbers, or all the places we've travelled to and all the people we've helped together."

A sudden thought came to Alex. "Freddy, do you...do you reckon there's a chance that this wasn't simple stupidity on Tony's part? Do you think he deliberately wanted to avoid telling the world about our happy ending, and that's why he cut me off before I could tell him more? Perhaps he intentionally twisted the facts to make me have a "traditional" life? You know, dating a fashionable girl and being a "normal" schoolboy and all that. Maybe, just maybe, he thought that the nature of our special relationship was far too unique for consumption by the general public, and so he played it safe by fabricating such a depressing, boring ending?"

"Who knows?" replied Freddy, resting his head comfortably against Alex's chest. "That rascal Tony can write all the rubbish he wants -- it doesn't change the truth. But wait till William and Sofia hear about this...knowing those two, I wouldn't be surprised if they hatch some crazy scheme to make Tony get his comeuppance!"

"You know, there's one really sneaky, but innocuous, thing we could do," said Alex slowly, an idea taking shape in his mind. "I've come across this website called Archive of Our Own, where people write fanfiction about characters from books and movies they like. There's actually a lot of stuff about me on there already, but most of it involves me and Yassen Gregorovich being in weird relationships (Freddy raised an amused eyebrow) ... so obviously I'm not a fan. But maybe we could use that website to share our true story with the world. We'd do it under a false name, and people wouldn't ever know that it's actually us -- they're under the impression that we're all just imaginary characters in Tony's head to begin with. I think a lot of readers would be very happy to read the truth, even though it won't be the officially published version. They'll think it's just another piece of fiction on the internet, but at least it'll be far more satisfying than this drivel that Tony has churned out."

"Hmm...," considered Freddy. "You know, that could actually be a fun thing to do. We'd totally re-write the ending of Tony's book and fill in all the little details to show the world just how special our relationship is!" He raised his head and gave Alex an affectionate little peck on the cheek.

Alex grinned. "Sounds like a plan!"

Both of their phones pinged simultaneously. "It's Sofia," Freddy said, reading the message. "She's asking if we'd like to go swimming with her and William tomorrow at the Hampstead Heath ponds."

"Only if she promises to be nice and let me win at least once when we race freestyle."

Freddy chuckled as he texted Sofia back. He could always count on his friends to raise his spirits when he was feeling low. He switched off his iPad and reached for the remote to turn the TV back on. The match was nearing full-time, with Chelsea leading 2-1. Gazing at Alex's smiling face, Freddy felt a deep sense of bliss. Nothing could ever come between him and his Alex, least of all some silly author's false story. And this Archive of Our Own thing certainly seemed like a promising idea...