Title: Angel Dark

Author: DOKChairman

Time: No particular time frame. Assume everything that has happened up to Counteragent is fair game.

Disclaimer: I do not own Alias. If I did, Dixon would actually appear in an episode this season, Marshall would be in practically every scene (that guy cracks me up so much), Sydney and Vaughn would at the very least admit that they have feelings for each other, and most importantly of all, Sydney would wear even less clothes than she usually does. Unfortunately for my bank account, J.J. Abrams, Bad Robot Productions, and ABC own Alias. I own nothing so don't sue me.

Pairing: This will be a Sydney/Vaughn piece. As if there's anything else.

Author's Note: As your friendly, neighborhood fanfic writer, I feel like giving all you present and future fanfic writers out there some important, albeit unsolicited, advice. Never, ever commit yourself to writing three very different epic length stories set in three different genres. Not only is it unbelievably time consuming, but it's confusing as hell. I can't count the number of times I have thought of one idea for one story one minute, and then the next minute, think of something else for another story entirely. Just to show you how screwed up I can get, I once had the crazy idea/dream of aliens from the Uncharted Territories crash landing in Sunnydale, California, where double agent Sydney Bristow happens to be a vampire slayer. I tell you, it was like taking a really bad acid trip. Anyways, that's the extent of my advice. If you value your sanity, you will heed it. Now onto the story!!!!!



When Sydney Bristow had arrived in the city of Madrid, Spain, she had been confronted with the disappointing, and worry-inducing, knowledge that her handler would not be handling her for her current mission. And while her father was more than capable of doing the job, he was no Michael Vaughn.

Not that her father was a poor substitute, but the fact of the matter was that Sydney had gotten used to Vaughn always looking over her shoulder. There was a reason why she was so adamant about Vaughn being her handler, and while her father, along with pretty much everyone else, would probably assume it had to do with her personal feelings for the man, they couldn't be more wrong.

Sure she had feelings for the him. He was her friend, as well as the potential to be something more, but those feelings had absolutely nothing to do with her loyalty to Michael Vaughn. In Sydney's opinion, to put it simply, he was the best the man for the job.

Her reasons were purely selfish in origin. She wanted Vaughn to be her handler simply because she knew that he would do everything humanly possible to make sure she continued on breathing. He had shown on numerous occasions that she was his priority, and that made her more comfortable with him than with anyone else. In the past she would have readily given her father the benefit of the doubt when it came to her well being, but after discovering his part in Project Christmas, she was not so quick to depend on him.

Vaughn was someone that not only could she depend on, but he was someone she trusted implicitly. He was the only person that she knew that she could tell everything to, and in return, have everything told to her on the straight and narrow.

Vaughn was her emotional glue; he held her together and she knew if something were to ever happen to him, she may never recover. It wasn't that she was in love with him, because she wasn't. Or maybe she was, she wasn't entirely sure which yet; although she certainly knew she was starting to lean toward the was side of the situation. It was because she had put her emotional well being into the hands of one man, and if those hands were to suddenly disappear, she would be lost.

Naturally, that scared the hell out of her. But she had made the decision to put all her eggs in one basket, and she had to live with the consequences. Until she had met Alice she would have never even thought once that Vaughn could be taken from her. He had shown such devotion and loyalty to her that she had misguidedly thought he would never go anywhere. She had taken him for granted, intentionally or not, and now she faced the very real possibility of someone replacing her eggs with their own.

Unfortunately for her, there wasn't much she could do about the situation. She knew trying to start a relationship with him would be an exercise in futility. There were too many obstacles arrayed against them. There was the life ending threat of SD-6, and there was the potential career ending threat as well, although that threat applied more to Vaughn than to her. There was also the fact that Vaughn was a CIA "golden boy", and as such, was more prone to do things by the book.

There was a cynical part of Sydney's mind that constantly beat her over the head with the knowledge that Vaughn had shown on more than one occasion his willingness to bend, and even break, the rules, so maybe the reason why he hadn't tried anything was because he just wasn't interested. After all, it would say, he did have a girlfriend. Why would he be dating Alice if he was in love with her?

If she had asked herself a month ago if she ever thought she might have to compete with another woman for Vaughn's affection, she would have dismissed the thought as ridiculous. She knew that made her sound arrogant and self-centered, but she couldn't help how she had felt. She had seen too many looks directed at her to think that Vaughn was only thinking about her in strictly Handler-Agent terms. The fact that he had a girlfriend threw her for such a loop, that she had actually started to question her entire relationship with Vaughn.

When she did, she came to the startling realization that she knew almost nothing about the man that held her life in the palm of his hand. She knew next to nothing about his personal life. All she knew was that he had a girlfriend, he was friends with Weiss, loved hockey, and that her mother had murdered his father. These were not exactly solid blocks to build a serious foundation on. She did not know where he lived, what his favorite food was, what kind of music he liked, was he a paper or plastic kind of guy, or even what his favorite color was. It was very unfair that he knew everything about her, but she knew next to nothing about him.

She knew of course that if she asked Vaughn all those questions he would more than likely tell her the answers, but for some reason the idea made her uncomfortable. It wasn't that she didn't want to know about the man that occupied a large portion of her thoughts, it was that she was afraid to know. She needed to find out why that was before she could make herself ask the questions that she needed answered.

Unfortunately, none of the thoughts that were currently racing through her head, were of any particular use to her in her current predicament. Deciphering Vaughn's mixed signals were of very little practical use when she was hiding in the closet of a highly guarded and highly secure mansion.

She had just finished planting her bug on her target's computer, when she had heard two people talking outside the door of the richly furnished office. She had briefly contemplated just disabling the two men outside the door, but she had quickly tossed that idea out the window when she realized that being stealthy was her best chance at escape. Besides, she wanted to avoid acquiring any new bruises. Just once, she would like to get through a mission without having to shoot or fight someone.

As soon as she had heard the voices, she had quickly made her way to the small, coat room like closet. She had just closed the door when the door to the office had opened and the two men who were outside walked into the room.

As soon as the two men entered the room, Sydney could make out their conversation. To her mild surprise, the men were speaking in English. It soon became clear why.

One of the men spoke in slightly accented English, "Your account number please?"

The second man spoke up in a distinctly American accent. "7160054920." Sydney soon heard the sound of typing. One of the men must be using the computer. Sydney immediately jumped to the conclusion that the man on the computer must be her target.

Marcos Ramirez Francisco was an internationally known dealer in just about anything known to man. But his specialty, and the reason why both the CIA and SD-6 were so interested in him, was dealing in hard to come by information. It was rumored that on his hardrive a list existed. A list said to contain detailed accounts of nearly every SD branch of the Alliance. The Alliance paid Marcos to hold that information for them, and the CIA wanted access to what Marcos knew.

So naturally, the CIA sent her to get that information. She had done her job, and now she was stuck in a closet barely big enough to hold her slight frame. Fortunately, her curiosity was starting to kick in, taking her mind off her discomfort. She could be hearing some possibly damaging information right from the horse's mouth.

The man she presumed to be Marcos spoke up, "Five million dollars as we agreed, no?"

The other man spoke up, "Yes. That information you gave us proved to be as informative as we hoped. I have been authorized by my employers to add a slight bonus of one million to your payment for your quick response."

Marcos responded graciously, "Thank you. It is a welcome feeling to do business with people who actually appreciate the subtleties and nuances of a job such as mine. It was not easy finding the names of those six CIA agents, especially not in the time allotted for the job."

Sydney heard the sound of a chair being dragged along the ground. She assumed the second man must be sitting down. "My employers wanted me to convey their sincerest apologies for rushing you, but we ourselves happen to be on a deadline. Those agents needed to be eliminated as quickly as possible before they could interfere with our plans."

There was a lull in conversation before Sydney heard a rustling sound. Soon the second man asked, "Do you have a light? I seem to have misplaced my lighter."

A drawer opened and Sydney heard the metallic clink of a lighter being opened, and then a second later, closed. There was a brief pause before the second man said, "Thanks." There was another pause and then the second man said humorously, "My doctor tells me I should quit smoking these things. Says that they'll give me throat cancer or some other nonsense. I just tell him that if a man can't enjoy a good cigar, then what's the point in living? You know what I'm saying?"

Marcos laughed good naturedeley. "Si my friend. A man must allow himself a few pleasures in life if he wishes to be happy."

The two men grew quiet until Marcos spoke up a few seconds later. "It seems that the transaction is complete. Our business is over my friend. If you are in need of any more information, feel more than welcome to give me a call. My standard fee applies of course, but I'll be more than happy to make your inquiry a priority."

The second man spoke, "I'll be sure to convey your offer to my employers. You may still prove useful to us."

Sydney heard the sound of the second man's chair moving again and surmised that he was getting up to leave. "Oh, one more thing Marcos. You know that information you gave us on the woman, Tiffany Greene?"

"Yes. What about it?"

The second man responded, and Sydney could hear the friendly tone leave his voice. "It was wrong."

Marcos sounded surprised. "Wrong? But I was assured that the information was genuine."

"Apparently not. When our men arrived at the location you provided us, the location that you assured us was correct, she was nowhere to be found."

Marcos tried to defend himself. "Surely you don't blame me for this. I had no idea that the information provided to me was false. Besides, how important can she be? I provided you with accurate information regarding the rest of the team, did I not?"

The second man got angry, "How important? She was a close friend of the project leader. She has detailed information regarding the inner workings of the project. She was one of our primary targets."

Sydney could tell that Marcos was starting to get scared. "I'm sorry. I will be more than happy to pay you back the money. There is no need to let this incident escalate into something more than it is. This is just an unfortunate misunderstanding."

The second man's voice grew cold and hard. "Unfortunately Marcos, things are not that simple. The information you gave us caused my employers to be misinformed, and my employers hate being misinformed. And when my employers hate something, they tend do everything in their power to get rid of it."

Before Sydney completely understood what was happening, she heard the distinct sound of a gun being cocked. Less than a second later, she heard a low oomph sound, a sound she recognized as a silenced pistol being fired, and then she heard the sound of a body hitting the floor.

Sydney leaned back against the closet wall in stunned silence. Apparently, Marcos Ramirez Francisco was no longer in the information biz. She needed to report this information to Kendall as soon as possible. Marcos' death could cause a ripple in the entire Alliance framework. Losing a key figure in their organization was not likely to make them happy.

Plus there was the added knowledge that someone was eliminating CIA agents. That was something she was sure Kendall would want to know.

Sydney heard the sound of the office door opening and closing, and after waiting for about thirty seconds, she left her hiding spot. She immediately searched for Marcos' body, and sure enough, found it sprawled in a heap behind his desk. She could see a bullet wound in the center of his head. Sydney was impressed. Whoever the strange man was, he was obviously a professional.

Sitting in Marcos' desk chair, she activated her com. "This is Mountaineer."

Her father's disembodied voice came over the com line promptly, "Go ahead Mountaineer."

"The bug has been planted, but Francisco is dead."

She could clearly hear the surprise in her father's voice. "Say again. Did you say that Francisco is dead?"

"Yes. Executed; single shot to the head. Whoever killed him was a professional."

Her father asked, "So you don't know who did it?"

"No. I was hiding in a closet when it happened. I couldn't see who he was, but dad, he killed him because Francisco gave him bad information." Sydney explained.

"What kind of information?"

"I'm not completely sure, but I know it had to do with six CIA agents. Apparently, some of the information about a Tiffany Greene was wrong and the man killed him for it. That's all I know." Sydney paused before continuing, "I think that whatever happened in here is important. I got the feeling that whoever is responsible is planning something big."

Her father sighed. "We'll get right on it. If somebody is trying to get secret information about six CIA agents, it can't be good."

Sydney heard Kendall come on the line. "The death of Marcos Francisco changes things Agent Bristow. The Alliance will not be happy. Leave immediately and make your way to the extraction point. We'll have to debrief you on these new developments when you return."

Sydney acknowledged Kendall's orders, said goodbye to her father, and began making her escape of the mansion.


When Sydney walked into the Joint Task Force operations room after her debriefing, and saw that Vaughn was nowhere in sight, she really began to worry. It was totally against Vaughn's character to go missing for an entire day, especially a day in which Sydney was on a mission. She was really starting to wonder if something bad had happened to him.

She was just about to go looking for her father to ask him what he knew, when she spotted him walking towards her. There was a grim look on his face that she spotted right off the bat, and a chill overcame her body. Something told her that what he had to say was not good news.

She asked her father what was wrong, and to her surprise, he had a hard time answering. "When Vaughn didn't show up this morning, I knew that you would be worried, so I asked around to see if anybody knew anything." Her father stopped and looked sadly at Sydney.

Sydney felt her voice choke up and she barely managed to croak out, "What did you find out?"

Her father was silent as he stared at her. She was about to ask him what was going on when he finally spoke up. "There was an accident Sydney."

Sydney felt her knees grow weak and she had to reach out to the desk next to her to steady herself. "An accident?"

"Yes. After leaving Devlin's office, Vaughn was heading to his apartment. Apparently there was an accident, Vaughn lost control of his car and it slammed into the side of a building." Jack had to stop to gather himself. He could not allow himself to show weakness in front of his daughter. Not now. Not after what he was about to tell her. She would need him to be strong for her.

Jack continued after reigning his emotions under control. "Some people tried to help him, but there was an explosion." Jack stared straight into Sydney's eyes as he said as gently as he could, "Vaughn was still in the car when it exploded. Vaughn is dead Sydney."

Sydney just collapsed into the chair next to her and stared into space, as a single tear ran down her cheek. It seemed her fears about her basket being taken away from her were true after all.

To be continued...........................



P.S. Thanks for all the great feedback, although I was kind of disappointed that the responses tapered down instead of going up, but oh well. And thanks for all the responses on the Devlin question. While I was inundated with many different responses, they were all useful. Also, I wanted to say that as a writer, I received my very first death threat (made in jest, I know). Go me. It's a great feeling when people threaten your life because of something you wrote. Thanks all and don't forget to read and review.