Chapter 1

It was the first day of spring and the birds outside were singing, but in the cold dark cell that held Sydney Bristow, there was no sound except for her cries. She had been in that cell for ten months straight, and had only been let out for breaking down and brainwashing. Her life had been smashed into thousands of tiny pieces, and the only person who could put it back together, thought she was dead.

The door of her cell opened slowly and with the small squeak that she had grown accustomed to over the past year. A familiar figure stood in the doorway, framed by the bright light that in the past had only caused pain and suffering to her battered sole and weary body.

The same voice that she had heard everyday and night of the past year filled the cell once more, "Julia, are you ready to co-operate?" the same words that he had said every day for the past month rolled over her once again. Was she ready? Was she ready to live a lie?

Her answer was different today, though in the same quiet voice, the same emotion showing through. "Yes," there she had said it, she had finally sold her sole to the devil himself.

School, a place for learning, the dictionary describes it as the time for teaching, teaching it's self. But what you learn in school is the most important thing, but it may not be the thing you expect.

Today, the first day of spring, the day that Eric Weiss had been dreading for the past month, the day that all the memories would come flooding back in one big rush. It was only 8:45am and the realization had hit him like a ton of bricks, it had been one year since an angel had returned to the heavens and left a gaping hole were she had been. He had not been the one to find the mess and mayhem that night, but he had been the one to comfort the broken men that had once loved that angel. And now, he suspected, that he would have to pick up the pieces again.

"Hay dude, what's up?" yelled Eric with his best fake smile plastered on his face as he walked into the French room but what he saw caused the smile to slide from his face instantly.

There, in the middle of the classroom, sat a broken man. The same man that Erick had seen exactly one year ago, sitting in the ash and rubble of his angels' house. Hunched over, with his hands on his face, possibly concealing the tears gently rolling from his eyes.

Vaughn took his time looking up, he seemed to be enjoying the small state of ignorant bliss he was in. "one year," said Vaughn looking straight in front of him, by the way his eyes were so intensely focused on the wall, Eric could have sworn that he was not really seeing the wall at all.

"I know" Eric said as he went over to his friend and sat on the desk next to him, ready to give him a shoulder to cry on.

"She has been gone a year and I can still remember the way she smiled at me the last time I saw her, I can still smell the light sent of lavender that came from her hair as we kissed, she wont let me go, she wont let me move on," Vaughn sighed as he let his head drop slightly

"What do you mean, she is gone, we all know that, but how is she stopping you from moving on with your life, after all it is yours to live,"

"She comes to me, almost every night, sometimes she just lies there in the dark crying softly, sometimes she is in a room filled with equipment and screaming in pain, it's like she wants me to see her like that, like she wants me to suffer for not protecting her, for not being able to help her." He sighed as he got up and walked over to his desk and leaned on it, hanging his head in the process "I know that she is alive man, I know that she would not want me to go through this if there wasn't some way to help her"

"How do you know this?" Eric questioned, terrified of what the answer might be. What would he do if his friend gave him the answer he dreaded? And what if he didn't?

"She told me last night, she was in the dark and I could only see her face, she told me the words I have been wanting to hear for the longest time, she told me she loved me and that she wanted me to come and get her, she wanted me to save her," Vaughn was clearly struggling to keep himself calm, and Eric could see that it wasn't working. When Vaughn lost control of his emotions it wasn't a pretty site, no matter what the emotion was.

Being an agent for the CIA taught Eric many things, how to shoot a gun, how to withstand the strongest forms of torture, but one thing they never even think to teach you is how to deal with a friend like Vaughn, a friend that has been through the worst and still comes out on top. But when you least expect it they turn into something that you fear, something that you cant control and probably something that will never go away and that is what probably what scares you the most.

"Mike, you know that I would never suggest this if I thought there was another way but," Eric said hoping beyond hope that Vaughn wouldn't explode at his idea "I think you should go see Barnett, she could really help you get over this"

Just as Eric had feared Vaughn straightened up suddenly his head jerking towards Eric with such force that he was surprised that his neck didn't break, in one swift movement he had crossed to Eric and pulled him up off the desk by his tie, "I will not have some psycho shrink poking around in my brain, and as for getting over Sydney, I will never get over her, and I will never stop looking for her"

"I know that," choked out Eric, and Vaughn released him and started walking toward the door but as he reached for the doorknob Eric called out to him "but what about Lauren, she has a right to know what's going on in your head"

"Why?" Vaughn said still facing the door "just because she is my fiancé, just because she is in my home and in my life, she is not Sydney, and only Sydney would understand, Lauren doesn't need to know everything that's going on in my head, because I don't think I even know what's going on, and I think that I like it that way." He said as he wrenched open the door and strode off down the corridor.

Eric just stood there for what seemed like hours after Vaughn left, but he knew that his friend had left this place a long time ago.