Title: The Real Julia
Rating: PG, for now.
Pairing: Sark/New Character
Summary: Whilst Sydney and Vaughn are on a mission investigating Project Manticore, an organisation funded by the Covenant, they come across a woman who may be the key to Sydney's missing 2 years - and who also happens to look exactly like Sydney. This woman becomes a mystery that everyone wants to solve, including Sark.
A/N: This is an Alias/Dark Angel crossover. You won't need to have watched Dark Angel before to understand the story; I will try my best to explain all the Dark Angel aspect of things. However, for Dark Angel fans reading this story, you'll probably know that Dark Angel was set around the year 2020. For this story I'm just pretending that Dark Angel is set in the same year as Alias, and that the Pulse never happened.
Disclaimer: I don't own Alias, or Dark Angel.
Chapter One
"State your designation, soldier."
A blinding white light shone into Sydney's eyes. She squinted and struggled against her restraints, saying nothing.
"Your designation, soldier!" the voice barked again.
"Look, I have no idea what you're talking about!" Sydney snapped, frustrated.
Someone slapped her sharply across her face. "How did you escape?" her interrogator persisted, clearly unconvinced that she had no clue what they were asking of her.
"Escape from where?" Sydney yelled back. "Where am I?"
"Sydney? Syd! Wake up!"
Sydney jolted awake at the sound of Weiss' voice. The familiar noises of the CIA Operations Centre surrounded her – rustling papers, phones ringing, people panicking. A half typed report on Sydney's last mission to France stared at her, abandoned, from her computer screen.
Weiss peered down at Sydney, amused. "Asleep on the job. I'm shocked, Syd, really," he said with mock disgust. "Although I don't really blame you."
Sydney flashed him a grin, adjusting her awkward position in her chair. "Wow. I can't believe I actually fell asleep."
"Luckily I found you before someone else did, huh? Come on, Dixon just called a meeting." Weiss motioned for Sydney to get up. "Looks like you're going on another mission."
"Great, more jet-lag." Sydney complained good-naturedly, offering an excuse for her unprecedented midday nap. She rubbed her eyes, trying to shake the sleepy haze clouding her mind.
"You ok, Syd?" Weiss asked as they made their way to the debriefing room. "You look a little creeped out."
"I'm fine. I had a weird dream, that's all." That didn't surprise her anymore. Lately her dreams had become a regular occurrence, and were more mysterious and vivid than ever before. Whether they were linked to her missing two years, she didn't know. But she knew that she couldn't make sense of any of them.
Weiss placed one hand on her shoulder as a comforting gesture. Sydney sent him a quick smile to reassure him that she was alright before they entered the CIA debriefing room.
The usual group sat around the circular tables – Vaughn, Lauren, Marshall, Dixon, and Jack Bristow. "What's going on?" Sydney asked, promptly taking a seat next to Marshall.
Dixon stood, addressing the whole group. "Sloane has recently uncovered some new intel on the Covenant. This is Liz Renfro," a picture of a spiky blonde haired woman in her mid-thirties appeared on the large screen at the front of the room. "She is the director of Project Manticore, an organisation that the Covenant has been funding for quite some time. Unfortunately we don't know much about Manticore, only that they conduct research on genetics."
"Is this organisation a threat to the CIA?" Vaughn inquired.
"The fact that the Covenant is funding it is reason enough to believe that Manticore is a threat. The CIA's knowledge of the Covenant's endgame is non- existent. We need to stay informed. That's why I'm sending you and Sydney to find out more about Manticore."
Sydney and Vaughn made brief eye contact. No doubt awkwardness would ensue on this trip.
"You leave tonight for Gillette, Wyoming." Dixon stated as he handed the pair a folder each, containing more information on the mission.
"Wyoming?" Sydney glanced up from her folder, surprised. She had been expecting to be shipped off to somewhere on the other side of the world.
"Yes. Manticore's main facility is located right here in America." Dixon confirmed. "Alright, you're all free to go."
"Look on the bright side, Syd. At least you won't get jet-lag." Weiss murmured to her as everyone stood up to leave, subtly referring to the fact that she would be working with Vaughn on this mission.
"I know," she sighed. He always seemed to know when she needed cheering up.
They were late.
Sark checked his watched and sipped his drink impatiently. The Covenant was never late, especially when it came to meetings that they themselves had arranged. Finally, when he had become so bored sitting in the Italian café by himself that he almost fell asleep, the Covenant agent arrived.
Without a word of apology for his tardiness, he sat at the table and placed a folder in front of him. "The Covenant has an assignment for you."
"I assumed as much," Sark said simply. The Covenant obviously hadn't called him up for a chat. "What do you want me to do?"
"We want you to take this woman into your custody," the agent said, motioning for Sark to open the folder.
Sark frowned slightly as he read through the file containing the woman's details. 'Designation: X5-475, a.k.a "Julia Thorne"', it said. Curiously, he flipped the page over to reveal two mug shots of Sydney Bristow. One was of her face; the other of the back of her neck, which sported a very permanent looking barcode.
"I wasn't aware that Miss Bristow had a tattoo," Sark remarked casually, his mind reeling slightly at the thought of kidnapping the infamous Agent Bristow. She was the only opponent he had faced that proved to be a challenge to outsmart.
"You are mistaken, Mr. Sark."
"Pardon me?"
"That woman is not Sydney Bristow."
Sark remained silently shocked, staring at the picture. He had assumed that this was the Covenant's file on Agent Bristow, which accounted for the part which stated her name as 'Julia Thorne'. Apparently not. Sark, of all people, knew changing someone's appearance to make them identical to another person was not impossible. Allison Doren was living proof of that. And that was the only reason he could come up with to explain why this woman looked exactly like Sydney Bristow.
"I can imagine that you have lots questions, Mr. Sark," the agent began.
"You have no idea," Sark murmured.
"Yes, well, I'll ask you to refrain from asking those questions for the moment. This woman is vital to the Covenant. It is imperative that this mission is a success," the agent instructed him. "You will go to a facility called Manticore in the US. She will be there. Tell her superiors that the Covenant wants her; they won't question your taking of her and she will come willingly."
Willingly? Sark thought. No, this was definitely not Sydney.
"You will keep her with you until the Covenant contacts you," the agent concluded.
"And what exactly do I do with her in the meantime?" Sark demanded. What did he look like, a baby sitter?
"That is not our concern." The agent gave him an infuriating smirk – quite similar to his, actually, which he didn't like – and walked off.
"This certainly will be interesting," Sark muttered to himself.
Manticore wasn't a nice place, Sydney decided as soon as she set foot in the place. It wasn't just its outward appearance – the endless stretch of mangled barbed wire fences enclosing a group of ugly grey building and a vast expanse of lonely forest. An air of unfriendliness seemed to hang about the desolate halls that the gaurds were leading her and Vaughn through.
They walked past closed door after closed door, until finally a familiar blonde woman met them at the end of the corridor.
She greeted them, extending her hand, which Sydney and Vaughn shook in turn. "I'm Liz Renfro. I've been expecting you." She paused as she shook Sydney's hand, looking at her curiously with a hint of recognition on her face.
"Something wrong?" Sydney asked, not appreciating the way this woman was blatantly staring at her like a long lost cousin.
Renfro finally let go of her hand. "No.......you just seem very familiar. Have we met?"
"I'm sure we haven't." Sydney flicked her fake black hair over her shoulder. "I would have remembered you." Maybe I should have worn a better disguise, she thought. Though posing as a rich business woman didn't offer many options in terms of disguises. A suit and wig was the best she could do.
"We've been interested in your research for quite some time, Ms Renfro," Vaughn interrupted, cutting straight to the point. Clearly this place made him as uncomfortable as Sydney felt, and he wanted to get out quickly.
"Yes, I'm aware of that," Renfro responded, sneaking one last look at Sydney before letting the incident past. "And Manticore is very grateful for the funds we have received from your employer. The Covenant can be assured that they will benefit greatly from our research."
Sydney didn't let the surprise register on her face, although she was definitely taken aback. This woman thought they were from the Covenant?
Vaughn, realising what an opportunity this would be, said, "The Covenant has given Manticore plenty of time to do what you need to do. We need to see some results."
"The Covenant has also instructed us to bring back copies of all your files – every detail of the procedures that take place here at Manticore," Sydney lied, playing on as well. Maybe their mission would be easier than they had expected.
"Certainly. I assure you, you won't be disappointed."
As soon as Renfro turned her back to the pair, Vaughn raised his eyebrows at Sydney in disbelief.
"I know," she mouthed, nodding. Things had definitely taken a turn for their benefit.
Renfro led them to a small room with a two way mirror. On the other side stood a man and a woman, standing at attention the way a soldier in the army would, their faces eerily blank as they stared straight ahead. They wore grey T-shirts with typical army style camouflage pants, and couldn't have been older than 25.
Sydney and Vaughn silently exchanged curious glances.
"This is X5-494 and X5-452, two of our best," Renfro indicated to the two unmoving people.
"Those are their names?" Sydney asked, trying to hide her surprise.
"They don't have names. Those are their designations." Renfro replied, as if this was perfectly normal.
"So, what are they, exactly?" She felt callous referring to them as objects, but she managed to convince herself that her alias required her to be that way.
"They are the first of our successful experiments. For many years Manticore has been trying to design the perfect soldier – a soldier that is stronger, faster and smarter than any normal human. A soldier that will never fail to complete their mission."
"And how exactly did you go about doing that?" Vaughn said.
"Have you ever noticed how animals have certain abilities that normal humans lack, Mr. Danes?" She didn't wait for an answer. "Cats can see in the dark, fish can breathe under water, cheetahs have amazing stealth. We wanted our soldiers to have these abilities. So we manufactured them with a combination of both human and animal DNA. The X5s have cat DNA inside of them. Manticore's scientists have also used genetic engineering to give them advanced healing, immunity to most diseases, the ability to go without food and water for almost a week. Amongst other things."
"What do they do?" Sydney suspected where this was heading, and she didn't like it. It was extremely clichéd, but she had been expecting – or hoping – a white lab with a bunch of whack-job scientists. But it seemed to her that Manticore's research was much more than a bunch of test tubes.
"They can do whatever you want them to do. Deep cover ops, assassinations, undercover work – you name it. They've had extensive combat and weapons training since they were three years old."
Three years old? It was painfully reminiscent of the children subjected to Project Christmas – including her. Only the X5s weren't merely a group of extremely smart kids plucked out of millions of American children to see if they were suitable to become spies. The X5s were born spies, grew up as spies, and would always be spies – for the Covenant. Sydney now understood why the Covenant was funding Manticore – they wanted to use the X5s to make them invincible.
"Well, I think we've seen enough for the meantime," Vaughn said after a pause. "This was impressive. We'll be sure to tell the Covenant what a good job you've done. Now we have another meeting to get to, we'll leave just as soon as you give us the files we requested."
Renfro folded her arms. "I'm afraid we can't give you those files. They're confidential."
"You do realise that you don't have a choice, the Covenant wants those files." Sydney replied darkly.
"I don't see why the Covenant needs –" Renfro began to protest.
At that moment, Vaughn's phone rang. Sydney took the momentary distraction as an opportunity to execute a swift kick to Renfro's head, knocking her out.
As she helped herself to the contents of Renfro's suit pockets, she heard Vaughn say into the phone, "Thanks Marshall. You were right on time. Feed the loop into the security cameras." Then, to Sydney, "Here, take her fingerprints."
"Looks like we'll have to do it the hard way." So much for an easy mission, Sydney thought as she stood with Renfro's keycards and copies of her fingerprints.
"You just had to be difficult, didn't you?" she said condescendingly to the unconscious director of Manticore.
"Come on, we don't have much time. You take the rooms upstairs and I'll take the ones downstairs. Download as many files as you can from Manticore's computers and we'll meet back here in ten minutes," Vaughn instructed.
Sydney nodded, and they went their separate ways.
Sark approached the two Manticore guards. "I'm here to see the director of Manticore."
"And who might you be?" one of them replied, eyeing him suspiciously.
"I'm Mr. Sark, from the Covenant. You knew I was coming."
The other stepped forward authoritively, sizing him up. "The Covenant, eh? Well that's funny, because Director Renfro is in a meeting with two Covenant agents right now. And as far as I'm aware, we're only getting one visit from the Covenant today."
"Really." Sark stared back at him calmly. "Then perhaps you should call on the director and we can sort this out."
The guard shot him a glare; he was not impressed that Sark didn't seem at all intimidated. Reluctantly he said through his comm. link – "Ms. Renfro? There's someone here claiming to be a Covenant agent."
A pause as they waited for an answer. Silence.
"Ms. Renfro?"
Again, nothing.
Sark raised his eyebrows.
"Very odd -"
"Baines!" a voice barked through the comm. link. The two gaurds jumped, startled.
"Yes, Ms. Renfro?" Baines replied timidly. Obviously afraid of this woman.
Sark groaned inwardly. A pair of bloody fools, these two were. He could feel himself getting impatient with them already – his deepest sympathies went out to the poor sod who had hired them.
"Sound the alarm, right now! They're not Covenant agents. Find them!"
The two gaurds gawked at him.
Sark resisted the temptation to laugh. "You better hurry up, then."
An alarm went off suddenly, sending Vaughn into a frenzied panic. "Dammit," he cursed, willing the files on the computer to download faster.
91%
96%
100%
He breathed a sigh of relief, whipped out the disk and prayed that Sydney would be at the rendezvous point.
She wasn't.
He ran through the hallways, searching for his partner.
"Syd!"
There she was, finally, walking calmly towards him. Vaughn frowned, confused. Her clothes were different to what she was wearing before and her chestnut her flowed freely around her shoulders – why had she changed? He didn't bother to ask. They had to get out of here, pronto.
"Syd, let's go." He called to her.
Sydney glanced at him briefly, her eyes oddly cold. And she kept walking, ignoring him completely.
"Sydney!" Vaughn repeated, louder.
No response.
He grabbed her arm as she passed him. "What the hell is up with you, Syd?" he said angrily. "We have to go before they get us!"
Sydney shook him off violently. "Get. Off. Me." her voice was deadly quiet, her eyes glowering at him menacingly.
Vaughn was momentarily stunned, unable to do anything as she turned a corner and disappeared from sight. What had happened to her?
"Vaughn, where have you been? I've been looking for you everywhere!"
He turned to see an agitated Sydney standing beside him, wearing a suit and a black wig.
"What the........." he muttered.