"Government Involvement" Chapter 08: Safety Reasons

Summary: Dark Angel/Alias Crossover

Dark Angel storyline: Mid Second-season, somewhere around "Love in Vein" - Max burnt down Manticore and freed all the transgenics, including the extremely-hot-yet- playfully-annoying Alec (*sigh*). The virus is in effect, but it's really not relevant to this storyline.

Alias storyline: Mid second-season as well, after "Salvation." Although Irina Derevko probably won't play into the story that much. Sark hasn't come to work for SD-6 yet, though he may enter the storyline later ;)

Alterations.. The year is 2002 (Just pretend Dark Angel was set in that year). The pulse still happened, though the only place that was really affected was Washington: especially Seattle. Seattle is still like a third-world- country, sort of excluded from the rest of the U.S.

Enjoy the story, and DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW!!!!

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"They're right, you know," Vaughn said as he and Sydney exited the interrogation room and stood in the hall.

Sydney got a puzzle look on her face. "About what?"

Vaughn folded his arms across his chest and leaned against the wall. "About not telling us anything. Our Manticore research confirms that they were trained to withstand torture, among other things. So our methods would be useless."

"Well then we'll just have to outsmart them. We'll use their own talents against them to make them tell us what we want," Sydney replied with a determined look in her eye, though she sounded much more confident that she felt.

"So what are you proposing we do?" Vaughn asked in a hopeful tone, raising his eyebrows in question.

Before Sydney could get a chance to reply, her father walked up to them. "Well that's actually a good idea, Syd," Jack Bristow said. "How do you plan to carry it out?"

Sydney whipped around to face her father. "Dad! Why are you here? I thought you were going to be at SD-6. . . " she let her voice trail off in confusion.

"That's already taken care of. I called Sloane and told them that a family friend was in the hospital, practically on his deathbed, so we were taking the day off to go visit him. Agent Weiss is making up the file as we speak, in case they decide to check our alibi," Jack explained in his usual, unexpressive manner.

"Good, that will buy us some time here," Sydney said.

"There's more," Jack continued, his voice impending a pessimistic tone. "When I told Sloane that we wouldn't be able to help retrieve the x-5, he told me not to worry, and that he had some 'people' coming in. I checked with Marshall, and he told me that none of the other SD blocks were called in to help us. So I can only assume the worst. . . " he finished.

Vaughn stood up straight. "You mean you think he called that Ames White guy?"

Jack nodded grimly. "So we have to move fast."

"That's the problem," Sydney stepped in. "We can't get Max and Alec to talk. It's basically encoded in their DNA to not tell us ANYTHING!"

"Then come on," he put his arm on the handle to the door of the interrogation room. "Let's make them talk then."
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Max was running through possible escape plans in her head while she and Alec sat in silence, when the door to the their room was thrown open and in walked Sydney and Vaughn. . . followed by the infamous Jack Bristow.

A smirk decorated Max's face, as she was ready to have some more fun with these guys. "Back so soon?" she asked.

Ignoring her comment, Jack leaned across the table and looked the girl directly in the eye. "The fun and games are over," he said in a commanding voice. "You guys are going to tell us what we want to know, and NOW."

Max tilted her head and gave him an antagonizing look. "Hmm yeah, Syd and Vaughn already tried that approach. It's not gonna work with you either. Sorry, Jack," she answered, emphasizing his name for effect.

"Could you stop being sarcastic for just ONE SECOND?!" Sydney asked, her voice growing angry.

Max shrugged. "It's in the genes," she replied as sardonically as she could to the girl, looking her directly in the eye.

Jack turned to his daughter. "Syd, I've got this under control," he confirmed before turning back to the two x-5's that were seated in front of him.

Max and Alec gave each other a knowing look. This was going to be fun

Their former argument was momentarily forgotten as Jack addressed the two. "I have a deal to make with you," Jack began. He paused to see their reactions.

Alec nodded. "We're listening," he said simply, his voice devoid of any sarcasm or acrimony for once.

He took a deep breath, then continued. "You tell us who Eyes Only is, and who works for him, and we'll make sure Ames White and anyone else quits hunting you transgenics down."

Alec raised his eyebrows. "How do you figure you can pull that off?"

Jack gave the younger man a small smile. "We have our ways," was his simple answer.

"And what if we don't agree to this?" Max inquired.

"Then we turn you over to White and his men, and he can continue hunting down the rest of the x-5's." he replied immediately.

Max shook her head with a knowingly look. "I call your bluff," she accused. "The CIA wouldn't do that."

Jack shrugged as though he didn't care. "Go ahead and doubt us. If you don't mind Ames White killing you, then so be it."

"He's not as big of a threat to us as you think," Max continued, now unsure whether he was trying to deceive them or not. "We've both dealt with him several times before."

Alec turned to his fellow x-5. "Max, maybe we should just tell them," he proposed quietly. He quickly continued after her expression turned to one of pure anger. "I mean, think about it: all we have to do is tell them some shit about Eyes Only, and they get White off our back. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me."

"Are you kidding?!" Max asked disbelievingly. "Even if they do get rid of White for us, another bad guy is just going to take his place. And we can't just put Eyes Only in danger like that. Who knows what these people will do to him!"

Before Alec had a chance to refute that, Sydney stepped in, interrupting their fight. "He wouldn't be in any danger," she said to the two. "The CIA just wants to enlist his help in a very important mission of ours."

As soon as she finished her sentence, Vaughn stepped up to her. "Syd! We're not supposed to tell them that!"

"I know. . . but it's the only way they're going to understand why we want to know the identity of Eyes Only," she explained, turning to him. "If they think we want to hurt him, they'll never reveal who he is."

"She's right," Jack added. "They at least have the right to know what we want with him."

Unaware that all eyes were on her, Max sighed inwardly, unsure of what she should do. The last thing she wanted to do was cooperate with these people; they could be playing here again, setting her up for another trap. How could she be sure that they weren't going to send out a team to kill Logan as soon as they revealed that he was Eyes Only?

As they were all waiting for Max to come up with an answer, the silence was broken by the shrill sound of a cell phone ringing.

"It's mine," Jack said, digging through his pockets before finding and flipping open his phone. He turned his back to them as he began to talk. "Hello? . . . yes, I am right now . . . All right, I'll be there in a few minutes." With that he hung up his phone and turned back to the group.

"Kendall needs to meet with me in the conference room," He addressed Sydney and Vaughn. He motioned with his head towards Max and Alec. "Can you guys handle them on your own?"

Vaughn nodded confidently. "We've got the situation under control," he confirmed.

As soon as Jack exited the room, Max sent Vaughn a pouty look. "Is that all we are to you? Just a 'situation?'" she asked in mock hurt.

"Max," Alec reprimanded. "This is up to you. . . . you know the guy better than I do, so this is your call." He smirked. "Though I think at this rate, I'll end up winning that bet of ours."

Max rolled her eyes at his comment. "Well I'm not deciding anything or saying anything else until you guys untie the both of us," she complained, the tightness of the rope starting to cut into her wrists.

Sydney and Vaughn exchanged a hesitant look.

Before Vaughn could talk her out of it, Sydney walked to stand behind Max. She quickly began to untie the ropes that held Max to the chair.

"Syd we can't . . . " Vaughn began, but knew it was no use: Sydney was going to win this argument. Instead of refuting it, he let out a heavy sigh, then began to aid her by untying Alec.

As soon as the x-5's were untied, they jumped to their feet. Max rubbed her wrists where the ropes had chafed her skin.

"One more thing. . . " Alec said walking over to one of the walls. He reached up and grabbed the small camera from its place and threw it to the ground, smashing it. As he did this, Max jumped up to grab the other one on the opposite wall.

She drew back her arm to throw it to the ground, but Vaughn grabbed her wrist. "What do you think you're doing?!" he asked her angrily.

"Making sure you guys don't have anymore of us on tape than we can afford," she replied before yanking her arm out of his grasp. She then tossed the camera to Alec, who forced it to meet the same fate as the other one had.

Max was relieved to see that the pen which held the microphone was no longer in Vaughn's shirt pocket, so, unless Alec detected anymore bugs, they were safe.

Stepping over the debris of broken security cameras, Alec smirked at Sydney. "Safety reasons," he quoted her from earlier, using the same tone of voice.

"Look we're not gonna try anything," Max comforted, seeing the looks on Sydney and Vaughn's faces. "We just don't want to risk any more exposure."

"Whatever, let's just get down to business," Sydney said with a shake of her head as she sat down in the chair she previously occupied.

Vaughn, Max, and Alec all followed suit and took a seat, with Alec propping his feet up on the table and leaning back in his chair.

Sydney opened her mouth to speak, but Max saw this and cut her off. "Before you demand that I decide whether we should tell you who Eyes Only is or be tossed into White's custody, I have a proposition of my OWN to make," Max said, resting her arms on the table.

Vaughn raised his eyebrows at her. "Oh really? And what's that?" he asked, almost skeptically.

"You said you needed Eyes Only's assistance in a mission of yours. If that's what you guys are looking for, Alec and I will help you in place of Eyes Only. We can steal whatever it is you need to steal, or destroy whatever it is you need to destroy," she proposed. "We do most of his field work anyway, so you'd be getting the same deal."

Upon hearing this idea, Sydney and Vaughn turned to face each other.

"What do you think?" Sydney asked her handler.

Vaughn paused for a moment, thinking. "It sounds like a good plan to me. . . they don't have to turn over their friend, but we still get the help we want."

Sydney lowered her voice, trying to speak so that only Vaughn could hear her, though her attempts were useless. "How do we know we can trust them?"

"Well we haven't tried to kill either of you yet. . . that's a good sign, right?" Alec piped up in response to her question. His remark was only met with a round of eye rolls from everyone.

Shaking his head, Vaughn turned his attention back on Sydney. "We can check everything with Kendal, he can make sure proper measures are taken to ensure that they do what they're supposed to," he reassured her.

Vaughn's speech seeming to comfort her, Sydney nodded and once again rose to her feet. "Then it's a deal," she said, sticking out her hand to Max, "You're aid and assistance in trade for your freedom from the CIA and White."

Max pushed her chair back and stood. "Deal," she said as she shook Sydney's hand.

After releasing Sydney's hand from her own, Max leaned forward across the table so that she was face to face with the CIA agent.

"But I wanna make one thing clear," she said in a very serious tone, narrowing her eyes. "If you backstab me again, I'll personally hunt you down and kill you myself."