"Blood Moon"
The screams were faint inside the building, the wordless cries of delirium and terror filtered out by brick and mortar. Still, she could hear them and they haunted her. She kept working, forcing the fear from her thoughts. It was a struggle and the realization scared her all the more. She'd felt fear before, it was a constant companion on missions, but never like now. This felt different. There was no quick escape off a roof or out a hatch. She couldn't shoot, kick or blast their way out. Beyond the flimsy safety of the walls, people were dying.
Her sister possibly among them.
The reminder made her hands falter.
"We'll find her." Her father reassured. "Your sister knows that. She'll plan accordingly."
She looked over at him, caught the briefest flicker of doubt in his eye before he could hide it.
"You don't believe that." She accused quickly, angry gaze pinning his. "You think she's already dead."
He looked away, confirming her suspicions, guilt in the air. "We have to prepare for such an eventuality, however remote we hope it to be."
"She's alive!" Even to her, the fierce insistence felt just a little...hollow. Nevertheless, she showed no sign. "She will be fine. She can take care of herself." She didn't wait for his patient, logical assurances. Instead, she shut her eyes against the hot sting of traitorous tears and spun away from him. She just couldn't bear to hear him say it. She wasn't ready to lose her sister. Not for this. Not to Rambaldi. He had already laid waste to two years of her life. She refused to surrender anything else, anyone else, to him. The prophecy could say what it would. Her sister was going to be fine.
She hated him. Rambaldi. She'd never hated anyone so much in her life. It should have surprised her, the strength of her hate, but it didn't. Before, he'd been little more than a fictional character. A Da Vinci-esque old man, scribbling on a parchment half a world and centuries away. Now he was anything but that benign. Now he was someone who played with lives like proverbial pawns on a chessboard. The lives of her family...
"Hey."
She stopped short, hands landing on her shoulders halting her, and looked up. "Hey."
Tom didn't miss her turmoil. She knew by the reaction in his eyes. He chose not to comment on it. Asking instead, "Any word on Sydney?"
She shook her head and let him pull her into his arms. She needed him close. "No." She hid her face against his chest. "My father's trying to prepare me for the worst." Nadia spat the words, uncaring of how they sounded. She was angry with the world and she didn't care about irrationality. "He doesn't think Sydney will survive - " Her voice cracked and she had to fight to whisper, "The prophecy..."
Tom didn't argue. Rather, he held tighter, rested his chin on her head ...
"She'll be fine."
A lie.
finis
AU for the Season 4 finale obviously.