Chapter One – City Of Devils

Man once sang to me
Look at you saving the world on your own
And I wonder how things gonna be
'Cause the time here it passes so slow
In a city of devils we live
A city of devils we live
Find somebody to learn
Boy you gotta love someone more than yourself
I can feel the fire of the city lights burn
It's hard to find angels in hell

"I never fully understood what your mother told me that night," Jack started. "She was trying to explain to me what she and the others all saw in Sark. What we couldn't see in him."

And he took an audible breath in, before he began …

…

"You knew I had an agenda, Jack. I always do, after all," she said, her accented voice reverberating off the walls surrounding them.

And Irina let out a short bitter laugh then, before it ceased and she spoke once more.

"Jack, you've seen Sark. You've worked with him. You know what he is capable of. When I told Sydney where to find him, I didn't just do it so the CIA would gain Sloane's whereabouts. I did it for his protection."

"What are you talking about?" Jack questioned.

"Ever since that day, Sark had become so distant, so cold. At first, I accepted it. He had just lost his wife, his infant son. He had just come to your attention, had just become a major target to you all. It was to be expected, I rationalised, he was simply resorting back to his training for his own survival – it was smart, tactical."

Flying along, and I
Feel like I don't belong and I,
Can't tell right from the wrong, why,
Have I been here so long

She took a visible breath in then, before carrying on, "But after a while, I began to notice that the man Eden married, the father of her children; he was slowly slipping away. He rarely saw Avalon then, a safety precaution on both our parts, and to be expected given the current circumstances. But as his visits with her became less and less frequent, he started to become colder and colder. He was slowly turning into the perfect spy – no attachments, no feelings, nothing."

And at this, Irina looked down to the floor briefly, before meeting Jack's gaze once again.

"I arranged for him to see Avalon not long before Stockholm. It was fine for a short while, but soon Avalon became angry – understandably so. She saw more of Mars than her own father; she saw more of the maids and other house-staff than she saw of Sark. She was young, Jack, she still is, but she's the daughter of both her parents; and Eden was not a woman to be taken lightly when provoked. An argument broke out. She ended up telling Sark that she hated him and that she wished Mars was her father instead of him."

"How did Sark react to this?" Jack asked then, his face stoic, but his eyes betraying his curiosity – if only to her.

"Like the emotionless killer we'd trained him to become," was Irina's matter-of-fact response.

In a city of devils we live
A city of devils we live

After a few moments, she took a breath in, met his eyes, and said, "Mars told me he'd managed to straighten things out between them, but I doubt even he was certain. Shortly after, my team intercepted communications between the members of another group we had been surveiling. One of my properties was mentioned. It was the one Avalon was currently staying at. Obviously I had her taken elsewhere, but they were getting closer, Jack. No one knew of her existence and that was how it was to remain – for all their sakes."

Irina's use of 'their' did not go unnoticed by Jack, but he chose to ignore it for the time being and simply focus on what she was really telling him.

"And, in the end, it benefited them all," she finished.

"After his stint in custody, Sark changed – again. When he came out, as soon as it was safe, he made contact with Avalon. It may be hard for you to believe, Jack, but we're not completely incapable of feeling, and despite all that he has done, Sark loves his daughter – even you cannot deny that," she said, her lips turning up at the corners in the slightest of movements.

"I know," Jack answered, cutting her off with his low-toned words.

Questions I can't seem to find
To the answers I already have
And you can't see the sky here at night
So I guess I can't make my way back

"Earlier, when I walked in on Sark with Avalon, he … " but he stopped himself short just then.

"The way he looked at her … It's … It's the same way I look at Sydney," Jack carried on.

He raised his head and as their eyes locked, he let the admission pass his lips, "I see parts of myself in him."

"I cannot deny that he loves her, Irina – and I'm not going to. For whatever it's worth, I suppose. And no matter how much I disagree with the life that child has been forced to live because of you both, and the actions you have taken, she appears well adjusted. Clever, even. And what's more, she seems to be able to have fun without it involving shooting someone through the head," Jack said, with the smallest trace of a smile playing on his lips.

Irina smiled at him then; not being able to help herself as she heard these words and the look on his face that accompanied them.

"Now Jack, just because you don't seem to share our sense of humour, doesn't mean that Avalon doesn't," she answered him amusedly.

"I never said I didn't find that fun, Irina, merely that she didn't – which, considering who her guardians are, is something quite remarkable, wouldn't you say?" he replied, the corners of his lips twitching upwards even further.

Irina inclined her head slightly, her smile playing across her features notably, as she murmured, "Indeed."

Flying along, and I
Feel like I don't belong and I,
Can't tell right from the wrong, why,
Have I been here so long

"Sydney," Jack turned to her then. "I will not deny that Sark is a killer, that he has done terrible things; things that even his behaviour of late will, no doubt, never absolve. But I saw him at Irina's. I saw him with his daughter, Sydney. And we all know what he did in Italy. He has changed, Sydney, for whatever reason, he has changed."

And stepping forward then, he placed his hands on his daughter's shoulders, and said to her seriously, "I'm not saying we should suddenly forgive him for all the wrong he has done, or that we simply forget it ever happened. We cannot erase the past, Sydney, no matter how much we may want to."

And then their eyes locked once more as he said, "But what I am saying is … 'lay off him' for a while, Sydney. Try and see him for what he is now, not what he may or may not have been before. Because, no matter what you think of him, he just watched his child die and that is something no-one, not even someone like Julian Sark, should have to witness."

What if I wanted you here right now
Would you fall in the fire burn me down
If I wanted you here right now
Would you fall in the fire burn me down
If I wanted you here right now ...

Her father had left to go on a 'short' and "inexcusably important" trip, and with Sark having been holed up in his room for God knows how long, Sydney had been left alone for the past four days with only her thoughts, which after being restricted for such a extensive period suddenly seemed to bombard her all at once. She stood over the sink, everything else forgotten, and suddenly sobs racked her body.

She thought of Danny, of Noah, of Francie, of Will; of her mother. She thought of Sark, of his wife, of his sister, of his son; of his daughter. She thought of how such tragedy could touch such innocence as that of his young children. She thought of how such tragedy could touch such ignorance as that of her oblivious friends. She thought of how such tragedy could touch such individuals as that of an Intelligence Agent and a freelance mercenary. She thought of how such tragedy could connect two people such as themselves.


In a city of devils we live
In a city of devils we live
A city of devils we live
In a city of ...

"Bristow, are you crying?" Sark's voice cut in; his tone of slight disgust breaking her from the words and images racing through her mind.

Sydney, still hunched over, wiped at her eyes angrily with the back of her arm and straightened up furiously, questioning, "And if I am?"

"So what? What about you, Sark? What dark terrors are you hiding from? Your daughter's dead, isn't she? Why? What happened? Huh? What happened Sark? Tell me!" she stopped, breathing hard from her rant, a little surprised at both her actions and the words that had suddenly just flowed from her mouth.

She glared down across at Sark. Who, for his part, was stunned. And angry. Very angry.

How dare she? he thought. He was the one who was supposed to make the unfounded claims. She had no right…

"That's none of your business, Bristow," Sark said in a deadly, soft voice.

Apparently, the warning didn't register with Sydney, because she stuck her hands on her hips and demanded, "Why not? What are you hiding, Sark?"

Sark saw the thought forming in her eyes before she could even voice it.

"How dare you?" he hissed in that same low tone. "How dare you think that? No matter what I have done or what you believe me to be, Bristow, I did not kill my daughter."


Flying along, and I
Feel like I don't belong and I,
Can't tell right from the wrong, why,
Have I been here so long

"I'm not afraid of you," she told him unyieldingly, watching him through shielded eyes.

Sark raised an eyebrow and glowered wickedly.

"That's all very well and good, Sydney," he replied, "but perhaps you should be."

And he turned on his heel then and exited the room, leaving her; back pressed up against the counter, an audible breath escaping from her lips, and relief suddenly flooding through her system.

A moment later and she had grabbed her purse, keys, phone and gun and had left the house, not caring if he heard the thud of the door on her way out or not. She just had to get out of there.

I don't belong
Don't belong
I've been here too long
Too long

TBC ...

Song: 'City Of Devils' by Yellowcard

Thank you for reading, an please leave me a wee review to let me know what you thought - con.crit is welcome too, always helps me to improve, which is good :)
Thanks again
Steph
xxx