Summary: What's good what's bad? Is it a cover when it's all you got? Is it still an alias if your real life is dead? Julia or Sydney, lines are crossed when reality is fading. In the end is a tornmenting decision. S/V and Sarkney.

This is my first Alias fic. I'm writing a few other fics too, so I don't know how quickly I'll update, sorry ;). But I just had to get this out. I hope you like it, be nice :) and review! Please. Reviews totally make my day and increase my update-speed.

It's post season two. There's gonna be Sarkney but also Syd and Vaughn.

This is a repost of the first chapter, now after my great beta (cadeeo) has read through it and corrected it^^

Enjoy reading!

Chapter 1 – The Assignment

"Julia Thorne was just asking for entrance. Should we stop her or something?" A man asked his supervisor.

"No, let her in like always. No need to send her running. Send her to my office when she arrives," the man said and walked away.

"All right, whatever you say, Mr. Farrell,'' the man replied to himself, knowing very well that Mr. Farrell couldn't hear him. He was curious about what his supervisor wanted from Julia; after all it didn't happen everyday that the boss of the whole Rom office and a very important person in the Covenant waited especially for one normal agent. He was just the security guy, not a field agent and he hadn't paid much attention to Julia Thorne, an operative who had been transferred to that particular office two month ago. Maybe now was a good time.

Julia Thorne, formerly known as Sydney Bristow walked into the office. She nodded to the security guy and waited slightly impatient when he motioned for her to hold on.

''Miss Thorne, Mr. Farrell wants to talk to you in his office," the man said to Julia with badly concealed curiosity in his voice. He hadn't noticed her before but she was pretty beautiful, maybe because she didn't come into the office often.

"Of course, thank you. I'll go right there," Julia said with a polite business smile. She nodded good-bye and went to said office. She could feel the security guy's eyes following her, but she didn't care. She was used to male attention and she used it to her advantage. It wasn't her fault that men's train of thoughts just seemed to stop in the presence of a beauty. Julia wondered what Farrell wanted from her, she hadn't had much to do with her supervisor and she hadn't done anything wrong or anything else she could think of. Although she had no idea what was awaiting her; Julia didn't hesitate one moment or showed any sign of nervousness. She knocked quickly and strode in confidently in a way that was purely Julia. She never backed down and she was always ready for everything.

"Miss Thorne, good to see you." Farrell greeted her, motioning for her to sit down on the only chair in front of his desk. The room was large, but it wasn't decorated very much. A desk, a few certificates and some unidentifiable abstract paintings hung on the walls and two shelves had a large amount of folders stacked in neat rows. On the desk were multiple papers, a computer and some picture frames, but those were placed so well that whoever visited the office could not see the photographs.

"Good to see you too, Mr. Farrell. I was told you wanted to talk to me?" Julia replied sweetly. She saw in Farrell's look that the guy wanted more from her than just conversation. But she wouldn't give him what he wanted, and he seemed to know that, too. Farrell was good-looking and highly ranked inside the Covenant, but Julia had a certain reputation to maintain, she only dated the best. Her men needed to be dangerous, deadly, and they had to fight to win her attention. Nothing of that seemed to fit Farrell. From what Julia had heard about him, he was sneaky, smart, fake through and through and most of all a coward. Not her type, definitely.

"Yeah. Let's get straight to business then. It seems like our leaders have much faith in you and your… abilities. There's a new job that needs to be done, it's important and not that easy. This is a job for the best only and the Covenant thinks that you're the right one to do it. So are you ready to go on to the next mission? I heard the last one was a little bit rough, but this needs to be done pretty soon, so…" Farrell told her politely, but his tone left no room for discussion.

"I'm ready for everything. As long as it's paid good enough."

"Well then I'd suggest that you go home and pack your stuff because your flight to Germany, is going in four hours. The assignment and everything else you need will be handed to you on the plane." Farrell explained, turning his attention back to his computer, a clear sign that he was done with the conversation.

"Ok. So I'll see you when I get back, I assume." Julia said, standing up and walked walking to the door.

"Oh, Miss Thorne?" Farrell asked without looking at her.

"Yeah?" Julia replied while turning around.

"This is important. If you fail there is going to be serious consequences. This mission should better go as planned. If you're successful you might even get some days off."

"So it's gonna be some time until I see you again, I guess. You know, I think I'll just go straight on vacation after I complete the mission, if that's ok?" Julia asked innocently. Farrell laughed in a way that made her hair stand

"Miss Thorne, don't get too excited. First you gotta be successful and get this job done and get out alive." Farrell said arrogantly.

"Well, Mr. Farrell, you don't know me very well. If you did, you'd know that I'm always successful." Julia said confidently with a daring tone, no one messed with Julia Thorne. Then she left the office and let the door slam shut behind her. It was just the way she was. She didn't back down or got intimidated by some guy who mistakenly thought she couldn't accomplish a mission. Julia had no fears. Sydney did, but Sydney wasn't important now, not while she was in the Covenants office.

Sydney was heartbroken because she had just seen the love of her life kissing his new girlfriend two days earlier. Sydney was dying inside and hating her CIA handler, Kendall, for telling her that she couldn't go back to her normal life. But Sydney wasn't important, not for the next few days anyway. After all Julia had a mission to handle and Sydney was dead and buried. Because though she wasn't really dead since she had only changed her identity, but everyone Sydney had loved thought she was dead, the CIA had closed her file, to the world Sydney Bristow had died in that fire. So the facts were: Sydney was dead and Julia was alive.

In the end that's what counts. Because if I'm not Julia, what's left of me? Sydney's dead and there's no going back.Because there's no life for me to go back to, everybody moved on and so should I. So will I.