Vaughn watched the fight below in growing horror. Sydney had held her own for a remarkable period of time, but it was beginning to look like her luck had run out. His chest constricted as he saw a man club her from behind. The quarters were far too close for guns, but that worked against them as well as for. Neither he nor those with him in the helicopter could risk shooting at the K-Directorate men for fear of injuring Sydney. Davenport had picked men trained for aerial search-and-rescue, not hand-to-hand combat with K-Directorate forces. Nothing short of a miracle could save Sydney now, and oh, what agony that thought brought him . . .

Agent Weiss came to sit beside him, watching out the open door of the helicopter. "K?Directorate may still be planning to ransom her to SD-6," he offered. His usual joking tone was gone.

Vaughn didn't spare him a glance. "Shut up," he said, but there was no bite in the words. Only weariness. "They're aiming to kill her, not recapture her," he went on, sounding broken.

Weiss couldn't reply to that. Then: "She's amazing, Vaughn," he said quietly. "I never blamed you for becoming to attached to her. I don't think anyone did." He bit his lip. "I-I wish I could do something . . ." He broke off as Vaughn looked at him. When the other man said nothing, Weiss took the hint and turned to go. Vaughn sighed and shifted his attention back to the ongoing fight below.

"Eric!" Weiss turned around. Vaughn was gesturing fervently to the trees below, eyes wide, so he crouched down by the door obediently and watched. For a moment he could not make sense of what he was seeing.
"What in hell is going on?" Vaughn echoed his thought, sounding bewildered and, despite his best efforts, hopeful.

"They're splitting up," Weiss said in disbelief. "But why?"

* * *

Suddenly the commotion around her ceased and two-thirds of the K-Directorate men headed off into the forest, hot in pursuit of-what? Sydney didn't have much time to think about it, because those who were left were more than enough to finish her off if she wasn't careful. She saw an opening to her right and darted into the shadows, moving her wrist close to her mouth.

"I'm heading into the forest. If it is you guys in the helicopter-" she took a deep breath, "-I'll circle back to the clearing right behind Idlabmar's house. Pick me up there. And I hope you have a medic or someone there waiting, because I don't feel too-" She stopped abruptly as she spotted someone else creeping through the brush. The other person noticed her at the same time and swung around, revealing a slender young woman about her age. Both their eyes went wide.

Sydney stood up slowly, watching the other woman with a mixture of awe and fear. The faint sunlight filtering down through the trees was just enough to illuminate her features. Her own bronze eyes stared back at her, set above defined cheekbones and framed by light brown hair identical to her own. She could have been looking in a mirror. She reached up automatically to touch her own cheek, half-expecting the other woman to do the same.

"You should take the chance to escape. They're coming nearer." Even her voice was a fair imitation of Sydney's. The double agent felt a trace of dizziness. Was she dreaming? She hardly knew where Sydney Bristow stopped and this other woman began. Maybe she wasn't even Sydney Bristow at all . . . Her mind, trained to focus through shocks just like this, screamed at her to run, and as fast as her identity was taken away from her, it was returned. She touched the other woman's hand gratefully.

"Thank you," she whispered, as her doppelganger stiffened. The other woman stood up and Sydney could see that she held the steel box Sydney had discarded, which caused her brow to furrow in puzzlement. Then her companion took off through the trees, letting K-Directorate catch glimpses of her while skillfully dodging their efforts to catch her. Sydney herself spared no more thought to wonder and sprinted in the opposite direction, hoping the house was close by.

When she burst into the clearing, the helicopter was waiting. She cried out in joy and relief and reached up for the rope ladder that Vaughn flung down. The wind from the propellers whirring overhead whipped her hair around her face and neck as she climbed, but she could still see Vaughn's concerned face above her.

The helicopter began to move forward slowly and Sydney clung to the ladder, looking down at the trees. She grinned at the K-Directorate men who helplessly watched her escape, bewildered. Ana was only an outraged dot standing at the edge of the trees, but Sydney waved down at her triumphantly before quickly steadying herself on the ladder again. The trees dwindled to mere specks behind them. Sydney knew she had no hope of seeing her mirror image among the forest, but she stayed on the ladder a little longer anyway, watching.

"You coming up, Sydney?" Vaughn's voice drifted down to her and she turned her face up to smile brilliantly at him.

"Yeah. Give me a minute." As she prepared to continue her climb, she glanced back one more time at the forest, where she'd left a mystery behind. *I will see you again, and I will find out why you wear my face,* she vowed silently. Then she stepped into the helicopter.