Title: Esoteric
Summary: A woman goes to the CIA offering information on Rhambaldi, but only if she can speak with the agent she has a drawing of. (Femslash in later chaps)
Disclaimer: I don't own Alias or any of the characters from the show.
Rating: PG (will be PG-13 later on)
A/N: Set after Crossings but AU after that.
On the third ring of her cell phone Sydney Bristow groaned and snatched it from her nightstand. "Bristow." She answered groggily.
"Sydney, it's Dixon. We have a situation I need you to come in straight away." He hung up without giving her any more information. She groaned as she looked at the clock, it was after two in the morning.
When she arrived at the CIA base of operations Dixon and her father ushered her into Dixon's office straight away. "What's going on?" She asked.
"An hour ago a young woman walked up to my front door and told me she wanted to see a woman, she held up a drawing of you. She told me she had vital information on Rhambaldi, but she refuses to disclose it to anyone but the woman in the drawing."
Vaughn sat in an interview room with the young woman who had entered the CIA building with Dixon and requested to speak to the woman in her drawing. When Vaughn had seen it was Sydney he had asked to speak to the woman.
"Hello. I'm Michael Vaughn, and you are?" The woman's gaze lifted from the table to meet his.
"You are not the one I'm looking for."
"You're looking for a close friend of mine, I'd like to know why." Vaughn replied.
The young woman ran a hand though her loose ebony hair and sighed, a look of sympathy settling in her pale blue eyes. "You love her, but she is not your wife." Vaughn's eyes darted to his wedding ring. "And she can't love you anymore, I'm sorry Agent Vaughn."
"Who the hell are you?" Vaughn was loosing his calm exterior. The woman looked up as Sydney approached the door.
"This does not concern you Vaughn."
Sydney and Dixon entered the room and the woman's eyes brightened as she saw Sydney and a grin spread over her face. "You're finally here." Sydney was taken aback by the stranger. She had never met the woman in her life and yet something inside her warned her to fear the woman and flee as fast as she could, unfortunately Sydney rarely listened to her irrational fears.
"Who are you and why do I concern you?" Sydney was blunt, she wanted to get away from the woman as fast as she could.
"I will speak to you alone." She replied. Dixon nodded at Vaughn and the two men left. Sydney took the seat that Vaughn had occupied and waited for the woman to talk.
"You're tired aren't you?" She asked. Sydney had not been expecting the question.
"I've had very little sleep tonight as I was woken up by my superior informing me that someone I have never met will only talk to me. I was told this was about Rhambaldi."
"I didn't mean tonight. I meant in life. You're so very tired of trying to hold everything together, work, love, your mind. So much pressure on one woman…"
Sydney stood up to leave and the woman spoke again. "I will tell you my name if you tell me yours."
"You seem to think you know how I fell yet you don't know my name?" Sydney quizzed mockingly. The woman gave her an odd feeling in the pit of her stomach, a feeling usually reserved for extreme fear.
"I know of you, I know you work for this agency because of your pride for this country and your need to keep its people safe."
"My name is Agent Sydney Bristow." The woman smiled and nodded.
"A beautiful name."
"And yours?"
"You already know it Sydney." The woman replied, staring into Sydney's gaze. "It's haunted you for so long. It destroyed your life, lost you Vaughn, your mother, your father, everyone is so obsessed with it that they all forget about your pain, but my name won't leave you alone. It is your pain."
"Are you quite finished? Because if the answer is not 'yes' followed by your name this conversation is over."
The woman smirked. "You fear me Sydney, but you, nor anyone else knows why. You fear I'm evil and through you could bring the world into utter desolation." Sydney crossed her arms and went to walk out of the room.
"Milo Rhambaldi." The woman called out.
"What?" Sydney asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.
"My name."
Sydney scoffed and felt her fear of the woman leave. "Well you're looking pretty amazing for a man who's been dead for four hundred years."
"You know that's two things history gets wrong about me. I'm neither male nor dead. I am Milo Rhambaldi, my DNA would have proved it if someone had not destroyed the sample contained in the box that you recovered. But there is another sample of the DNA of Milo Rhambaldi. Arvin Sloane is in possession of it. It will prove who I am. Then we can talk more Sydney, because I've always been very interested in getting to know you."