Title: A Tangled Web

Summary: An alternate ending to 'A man of his word.'

Disclaimer: I don't own Alias or anything related to it.

Rating: PG-13

A/N: This is Syren, Sarkney, S/V, Lark and implied Vark. It's been a while since I wrote a Sarkney, but I used to be a Sarkney shipper under another name so hopefully I haven't lost touch with the ship.

Mr. Sark has told me about your...predilections. I have a room above this club. I'd like to watch that...for myself." At San'ko's words Sydney has to suppress a smile and act displeased, but it's all show for Vaughn.

She knows exactly what Lauren was like, her flirtations and her public shows and she knows exactly what she was like in bed. She could probably imitate her perfectly and have Sark begging for her but that would give the game away to both Vaughn and Sark.

Sark looks smugly at the thought of having Sydney and she knows she could easily wipe the grin from his face by informing him of Lauren's betrayal but it wouldn't help the mission or her renewed relationship with Vaughn. 'By the way Sark wasn't the only one who screwed your wife' wasn't likely to go down too well with him.

When she places the lime in Sark's mouth and then sucks it after downing her tequila she has to hide another grin from the curses she can hear Vaughn spitting from above them.

"I told you she was special." The lines are blurred now. Not even Sark knows if he's speaking of Sydney's earlier escapade or how he felt about Lauren. In the club there are three people who are stung by his words, Sydney, Vaughn and himself. They had all loved her to some degree. Sark felt he had loved her most and Vaughn tried to pretend that her death at his hands didn't haunt his dreams; all the while Sydney knew the truth. She had loved Lauren most. She had known of her affair with Sark and her loyalties to the Covenant but none of it had mattered to her.

At first it had been about the sex, pure and simple. The fact that Lauren had been a woman and her ex-lover's wife had not bothered Sydney. She had been a satisfying distraction from everything that was wrong in her life at the time and she had been thankful for it, regardless of who she would be hurting.

Then it had grown complicated. They had started meeting more often, they talked more before and after they had been together and eventually even Sydney couldn't deny that the sex she had craved had turned more tender and loving.

Sydney is almost thankful that San'ko is shot a few seconds later, it pulls her from painful memories and the distraction that, even though she is dead, Lauren is still haunting her.

After loosing Sark Sydney sits in the hotel room on her own as Vaughn reports to Jack. She stares in to the nearby mirror and she sees Lauren looking back at her. She tentatively touches the mirror as though it would allow her one last chance to have her lover back and then Vaughn walks in and the illusion is shattered.

Later she watches Sark and Anna with the bomb and then she is chasing them through a maze of corridors. When Sark locks Anna in one corridor and calls for her she knows there is something behind his actions. He is only giving her the pleasure of capturing Anna in exchange for what she did for him earlier. She gave him back Lauren, even if it was just for a few hours; it had been enough to help him as much as it had her and he was grateful.

"I'm a man of my word!" He shouts to her and it has a double meaning. On the surface he is referring to helping her acquire the bomb and Anna but she knows he is also referring to his love of Lauren and from his expression Sydney knows that he knew she and Lauren were lovers.

Later that night as she sits alone in her apartment, with Nadia still in hospital and Vaughn too haunted by his wife to even look at her after the mission, she receives a phone call and for a second the British voice on the other end could be Lauren's but Sydney can't fool herself for long.

"I need you to meet me Sydney. Now." Sark says simply as he stares blankly at the far wall of his hotel room.

"I'm not her Sark…"

"I know that…I just…need someone right now Sydney. I'm going to be honest with you. I am weak and vulnerable and I want you."

"You want her." Sydney mutters, knowing all too well the pain of longing for Lauren that Sark is experiencing.

"I wanted you first though." Sark's voice is plain and calm as he admits his desire for her. "Lauren knew that. In some twisted way we all got what we wanted through her. She connected us all together…"

"I didn't think you'd be happy to be connected with Vaughn." Sydney replied maliciously, desperately trying not to agree with his theory.

"Actually Agent Vaughn and I connected a long time ago, I couldn't have you so…"

"Sark!" Sydney shouted in disgust. "You and Vaughn? Oh god you're sick."

"Vaughn said that at first, but he soon rose to the occasion."

"I don't believe you." Sydney objected. "Vaughn would never…he…"

Sark laughed cruelly down the phone, his spirits rising from taunting Sydney.

"Ask him about Paris, 2002." Sark replied coolly as he resumed staring at the blank wall."

"This conversation is ending now Sark." Sydney snapped and hung up but not before she could hear Sark make some snide remark about calling Vaughn for company.

When Sydney arrived for work the next day, her gaze was held high and strong as she walked up to Vaughn, she no longer felt guilty about loving his wife after what Sark had told her. "Sark called me last night." Sydney informed his when they were on their own.

"Sark? What did he want? Did he threaten you? Are you ok?" Sydney realised for the first time that he played his Boy Scout routine just as she played her poor innocent Syd routine.

"He said to mention Paris 2002." Sydney watched as the colour drained from Vaughn's cheeks.
"Sydney I can…I can explain…" Sydney shook her head and a cruel smirk touched her lips as she replied.

"Ask Lauren about your bed, six months ago." She walked off as his jaw hit the floor, a self-satisfied smirk sitting on her features as reassurance replaced the guilt she had felt. Neither she and Vaughn, nor Lauren and Sark were innocent, no matter how hard they tried to pretend otherwise and in the end, living or dead, they were all the same as on another, caught up in a tangled web of lies, lust and love.

Fin.