Sydney pushed her eyes closed trying to control the rage
of emotions and anxiety. She took a
deep breath and then looked up into her mother's eyes. Sydney set her jaw, "If you touch him again,
I'm going to kill you."
Irina laughed.
Another flash. A closed
casket draped in white roses.
"So, you and your father have a powerful bond it seems,"
she said. "He said that he had the
necklace to protect you. And now here
you are trying to protect him. How
sweet. Still Daddy's little girl."
Another painful jolt.
She was lying on the floor, feeling extremely sick. Her mother knelt over her, stroking her
hair. "You see Sydney, Rambaldi's
master work will give us unlimited power.
You and I hold the future in our hands."
Irina loomed over Sydney.
"The necklace please, my darling," she said as she extended her hand.
Sydney slowly moved her hands around to her neck, grabbed
the chain that had been hidden by her shirt, and pulled the pendant up for her
to see. Irina smiled and reached down
to take it. Sydney covered the pendant
with her hand.
"Let Dad go," Sydney said calmly.
Irina laughed.
"Dear girl, your father is not able to walk out of this warehouse on his
own. You will have to help him. But I assure you that you both will live to
walk out of here. And I suggest that
you enjoy your time together because very soon, you will be joining me."
"You're insane!" Sydney said coldly.
"There is a fine line between insanity and genius, my
dear. Now, the necklace," Irina said as
she held out her hand.
Sydney took the necklace off and handed it to Irina. Irina held the necklace up and examined
it. After a moment, she looked down at
Sydney and smiled. "Good girl. Now I can to return to my work.
"The page that you so quickly traded for Tippin has
changed the entire design. And I have
to repair the damage that you did. But
I'll be back for you as soon as I can," Irina said as she reached out and
cupped Sydney's chin in the palm of her hand.
Another memory.
Her mother with an unusually sad look as she said goodbye… the last time
she said goodbye. Sydney
was becoming immune to the anxiety and the flood of emotions.
A man appeared at Irina's side and started whispering in
her ear. "What?" Irina was
surprised. The man whispered some
more. "Well, bring him in," she said
dramatically.
The man left and Irina looked at Sydney with
admiration. "Remarkable, Sydney. It is just remarkable the way men are
attracted to you. It seems that they
would do anything for you."
Sydney could hear somebody approaching from behind
her. She watched the two men over her
shoulder as they came closer. They
threw another man towards her. Vaughn
stumbled forward and fell at Sark's feet.
One of the men stopped near Sark and pointed a gun at Vaughn.
A new avalanche of memories. Vaughn watching her skeptically as she filled out her initial
report. His silohette against the
moonlight at the pier. At their
warehouse. "Are you romantically
interested in anyone?" Wearing a black
leather duster following her through the club in Taipei.
Sark looked down at him.
"Agent Vaughn. What a pleasant
surprise," he said as he used his foot to roll Vaughn over on his back.
Vaughn moaned softly.
Sydney looked at him. There were
several cuts on his face, and his left eye was swollen shut. He held his right arm tightly against his
abdomen, a broken bone jutting up through the skin and muscle of his forearm. Sydney was overwhelmed with an urge to
scream out but knew that would only give her mother more smug satisfaction.
Suddenly, Irina was kneeling down in front of her, looking
her in the eye. "Sydney, I'd like to
give you some motherly advice. Men will
do nothing for you except hold you back.
You have very special powers, my dear.
All the women in our family have exceptional abilities.
"You cannot reach your full potential until rid yourself
of the men in your life. Your father,
Vaughn, Tippin, Dixon, Sloane, even that adorable little puppy Marshall. None of them can complement your power. They will only cause you pain and put you in
compromising positions, like this one here."
"That is very interesting advice coming from a woman who
has obviously surrounded herself with men," Sydney observed.
Irina looked sympathetically at her daughter. "There is a difference, Sydney. You have not come to trust your instincts
when it comes to men. If you would just
start respecting your intuition, you can be transformed." Irina sighed at the
look of defiance in Sydney's eyes. "You
will see in time, my daughter, that I am right."
Irina stood up and put the necklace around her neck. She motioned towards one of her men. He tossed her two hand grenades. Irina addressed Sydney again. "While you have followed our instructions
well, I need to guarantee that you do not try to follow us."
Irina bent down behind Jack. "Sydney, incase you haven't noticed, your father has had a tough
couple of days. He's very weak, and he
has a lot of injuries, including at least second degree burns on the palms of
his hands."
Sydney watched in horror as Irina removed the pin from one
of the grenades, and threw the pin towards the back of the warehouse. Then she placed the grenade in one of Jack's
hands, and wrapped his fingers around it.
Jack showed no emotion and no recognition of what was happening. Vaughn rolled onto his side and watched as
Irina repeated the process with the second grenade.
Irina walked around in front of Jack and pulled his head
up to look him in the eyes. She started
talking to him as if he were four years old.
"Jack, it is very important that you keep a hold on the grenades that
are in your hands right now. If you let
one go, you'll have killed not only yourself, but also Officer Vaughn, and our
daughter. And I have great plans for
our daughter, Jack. I would be very
unhappy. Do you understand?" Jack just stared at her through his glassy
eyes. "Tell me you understand."
Jack spoke softly and slowly as if each word caused him
pain, "I understand."
Irina smiled and released her hold on his chin. Jack's head immediately dropped to his chest. "Good," she said as she patted him
patronizingly on his head. "Once we've
left, Sydney will help you."
Irina stood up and started walking toward the door. As she passed Sydney she said, "Do think
about what I said, won't you dear?"
Irina and her entourage headed towards the warehouse
exit. Sark lingered just a bit
longer. He knelt down next to Sydney,
put a hand on the side of her face and turned her head to look at him.
"I'm counting the days until we meet again, love." Sark leaned in towards her as if he was
going to kiss her. Sydney was so
wrapped up in her anger that she didn't notice Sark pull the lipstick gun out
of his pocket. He flipped off the cap
with his thumb, pushed the barrel against Sydney's leg and fired a shot into
her left thigh.
"Aaaarrrrgggh!" Sydney yelled out more in surprise than in
pain. She fell sideways towards Vaughn,
ending up lying on her right side.
"Something to remember me by," Sark said as he stood
up. He quickly left the building.
Sydney looked down at her leg. "Dammit!" Based on the
amount of blood, Sydney was worried that the bullet had hit a major
artery. She desperately looked Vaughn
over.
"Dad, can you hang on a little longer?" Sydney wasn't even sure that Jack was able
to respond to her.
Jack raised his head with some difficulty and looked at
her. "Yes, of course" he said, his
voice much more stable than it had been previously.
Sydney sat up and moved closer to Vaughn. Without a word, she reached out and grabbed
his belt buckle. Vaughn watched with
wide eyes as she unbuckled his belt. In
any other circumstances, he would been thrilled to have her touch him like
that, but considering their current predicament, he was just confused. Within a few moments, it was obvious what
Sydney was doing and Vaughn scolded himself for being so dense.
Sydney pulled Vaughn's belt free, and wrapped it around
her left thigh, pulling it tight enough to slow her blood loss. She drug herself towards Jack.
"Vaughn, the pins!"
Vaughn got to his feet as quickly as he could and went in
search of the pins. By the time he made
his way back with the pins, Sydney was holding both grenades, and Jack was
lying on his side on the floor, fighting to remain conscious. Vaughn put the pins back in the
grenades. Sydney and Vaughn breathed a
collective sigh of relief.
Vaughn watched as the color suddenly drained from Sydney's
face "Cell phone?" Vaughn asked.
"In my purse, in my car," Sydney managed to say just
before she lost consciousness.
*****
Vaughn berated himself all the way out to Sydney's
SUV. He followed her there without her
knowledge. His plan was to monitor the
exchange from a distance and only go in if something went wrong. But something had gone wrong – two of
Irina's thugs had found him. How could
he have endangered Jack and Sydney like that?
Vaughn's arm throbbed as he dialed Weiss' cell number, but
not nearly as much as his ego. Weiss
dispatched and ambulance and EMT team to the warehouse, and then worked with a
technology officer to create a 911 call using Sydney's voice. When complete, the tech officer stored the
call in the 911 call log. No one would
ever know that it was not Sydney that made the call.
Vaughn returned to the warehouse with Sydney's purse and
cell phone. He made sure Jack was
conscious so that he would be able to ask the EMTs to take them to SD-6's
hospital.
Vaughn knelt down beside Sydney. He laid the cell phone and her purse near her. Then he gently brushed a few stray hairs off her face and looked at her one last time. He ran his hands down along her arm and checked her pulse. Reassured that she would be okay until the ambulance arrived, Vaughn took her hand in his and held it briefly then got up and walked out of the warehouse.