Title: Stigmata - The Path of the Righteous

Pairing: Sarkney

Rating: PG13 - R (Sexual content, Violence)

Length: Long (30 + Chapters)

Disclaimer: I don't own Sark. I don't own Sydney. I don't own Jack. I do own the entire country of Argentina, however. Don't cry for me.

Author's Note: Sometimes things might be in italics. Those things in italics might even be fantasies of the characters. It's a complex read, and not a light piece. Remember that.

Prologue

His eyes caress her soul. They don't pierce, like he'd probably like them to. Instead they're like the hand of a lover comforting the nape of her neck, in slow melodic movements. When everything in her world feels so chaotic, all she has to do is look at those eyes and know she has a place. Those beautiful, calming, blue eyes.

Her cheek stings heavy and hard from where one of Simon Walker's henchmen slapped her, seconds ago. It's an instant feeling of failure that gets to her. She can take pain. She can handle being hit. But this very real feeling of failure, as she stands in the dark empty room with the two other men, her hands bound behind her back, suddenly gets to her. And before she has the chance to suck it up the way her dad taught her, a single tear speeds down her cheek.

He watches it all the way to the floor like slow motion, where it pounds down. That's it. The line has been drawn. He can't control his actions any longer. His fists are clenched, his jaw is tight, and he's attacking the other man. He's brutally attacking this man, on top of him, pounding the back of his head into the cement floor.

She has only a half of a second to react before she has to open her eyes again, turn around, and rub the electrical tape used as bondage on her wrists up against a sharp edge on the counter. She can only make a sliver of a glance at her defender as she picks up a free weapon to use on the two men entering the room.

It's this surreal moment as she fights these men, like she's simply going through the movements. Sark is on the floor, blowing his cover, attacking this man and all for her. In the words of McKenas Cole, it's 'blowing her mind'. And she freezes, when she hears the third gun shot. One in each of the men who came at her, and one coming from behind.

End Prologue