EVENT HORIZON

By: lucy2point0, email: wendy@devil.com

Rating: G-PG for this chapter

Spoilers: Almost Thirty Years

Disclaimer: This fantastic Alias world is SO not mine, but it does belong to JJ Abrams, ABC and everyone else who is involved with the show.

Notes: Told from a Vaughn-centric POV. Thanks very much for the all the enthusiastic responses to the first chapter. This chapter's an interlude of sorts pacewise before the action picks up again. :D

Feedback: Sure...

He turns slowly around in the driver's seat and is greeted by a ghastly and bloodied version of Will Tippin. It's all he can do to keep his face impassive at the sight.

He quickly assesses Will's physical state. The left eye is half-shut and the mouth swollen and bleeding. Cuts and abrasions are all over the rest of his face. His grey sweatshirt is stained, matted with dark streaks of blood. Upon closer scrutinizing, he realizes that some of the blood stains are newer and fresher than others. Whatever Will had endured, he had endured it for a considerable amount of time.

He suddenly realizes that Jack has not told him everything about the nature of the operation. No hostage for ransom would be treated like this...unless the hostage had information the kidnappers wanted...at any cost.

All the information that was given to Will, as he explained when being debriefed at the safehouse in Los Angeles, was fed to him by his mysterious source. And the source, according to Jack, was more than likely Khasinau himself or someone close to him. It didn't make sense. What other information did Will know that Khasinau might want from him?

"I said, who are you?" Will asks the question again, this time a bit more loudly.

He shakes himself out of his thoughts and looks at him, not sure exactly how much to tell him.

So he tells Will he works for Agent Bristow and that he volunteered for this operation. It is the truth, of sorts, he tells himself. Let him think that it's Jack that he is working with. The less Will knows about his connection to her, the safer he will likely be in the long run.

Will seems to be satisfied with his answer, and is silent for a few seconds, staring into space.

He wonders if he is having a flashback of his ordeal and tries to snap him out of it. He tries and goes for the obvious by saying Will looks a little worse for wear. Will focuses on him then, and lets out a small sigh.

"Yeah. I guess...I am..a little banged up."

He turns around and leans over to the right to rummage through the glove compartment. Finding a first-aid kit, he turns back around and extends it to Will. He suggests to Will that maybe he should get cleaned up before Agent Bristow gets back.

Will takes the first-aid kit and opens it, looking for a roll of gauze and a bottle of antiseptic.

He turns around again and shifts in the seat (it's not comfortable sitting in cold, clammy black leather), and turns the comm unit on.

"Thank you." The words, from Will, are said with quiet gratitude.

He looks at Will from the rearview mirror, and nods in acknowledgement.

For the next half-hour he studies the street maps in his lap and attempts to stay focused, but the dead silence coming from the comm unit is starting to worry him.

Will clears his throat. He turns around to see him looking markedly better than before, bandaged and cleaned up somewhat, returning the first-aid kit.

"Thanks."

He takes the kit and puts it back in the glove compartment.

"Uh, this might...sound lame, but where...in God's name are we? I have...no clue...where we are. Jack, I mean, Agent Bristow wasn't...exactly forthcoming...with details after he came...and got me."

He tells Will that they are in Taipei, Taiwan and that he's been held in the city for almost 3 days now. Will looks surprised, and lets out a hoarse laugh.

"I was...halfway across...the world...in Paris like...2 days...before that. Being interrogated and then...being rescued by a Bristow." He lets out a breath and winces slightly, and tries to talk a bit more slowly. "I should be...getting used to this."

He smiles at Will's self-depreciating brand of humor.

"In Paris she was...I don't know how...to explain it... she just came into...the men's room and absolutely beat the crap outta...those men. And then in the club...she did this... this Matrix-like...thing from a table in...mid-air...and kicked this guy's head from here to...next week to save me. And then she just...hauled and threw...this guy against and down...the stairs on the way out like she does this all the time." A pause and then a small laugh. "Well of course...she...*does* do this all the time. Agent Bristow's...daughter...I mean. She does...the same thing...as he does."

He tells Will that maybe he's been running around with the wrong crowd of people, as a jest. Will shakes his head.

"No. I know...I'm running...with the right crowd...of people now. Now that I know...what they...really do. Even if it meant losing a few teeth in the process." Will says this with a quiet assurance. A pause. "I'm sorry...I'm just running...at the..mouth...probably distracting...you...from your job."

He tells Will it's okay, he's used to having his ear bent by other people. Will nods.

"Well...thanks. For letting me...bend your ear."

He nods. They settle back into a comfortable silence again.

Another half-hour passes and still no word from Jack. By now he has figured out and memorized at least 4 separate routes to get from the alleyway to just outside city limits where a CIA plane bound for Los Angeles awaits. But even with knowing how to get out of the city, it still doesn't alleviate the anxiety that has been building inside him for the past hour.

He starts to think of contingency plans and worst-case scenarios. If Jack wasn't going to be able to get her out...

The comm unit suddenly comes alive with a small burst of feedback, followed by background noise.

"This is Marlin. I have Freelancer. Repeat, I have Freelancer." A burst and a following exchange of gunfire, both near and far, erupts through the comm unit.

He can hear Will shifting around the back of the van, alert now.

"What's going on---"

He picks up the comm unit and speaks into it, saying he copies. He asks Jack what his estimated ETA is. He starts up the mini-van, waiting for Jack to reveal his current location.

"5 minutes...no—" A loud gunshot, too close for his liking, comes through the comm unit. He jumps in his seat, his heart racing. Jack comes back online almost instaneously. "Dammit..."

"Sydney! Is she all right?" Will's voice is getting much louder now.

He yells into the comm unit, asking what's going on, over Will's shouts for her.

"There is a plaza up the street from the alleyway, three streets over. Meet us there, in front of the youth hostel. ETA 5, maybe 10 minutes. And get Tippin to lie low and keep quiet. Marlin out."

Will is clearly agitated now. "How is she?"

He tells Will he doesn't know and then orders him to sit back down in his seat and to hang on for his life.

And with a loud screech of tires the mini-van peels out of the alleyway, towards the plaza.