"Mom?" Sydney reluctantly let go of her father and stared at the woman standing before her.

"Yes, Sydney. I'm so glad to see you're alright." She stepped forward awkwardly, unsure weather she should reach out to her daughter. Sydney was not unsure. She boldly stepped forward and embraced her mother. It had been too long, and too difficult, not to take the chance to hug her mother now. Jack watched, sighing. He wasn't truly sure of his feelings. A lot had happened since Sydney's disappearance, and much of it he wasn't sure he could tell his daughter.

"Sydney, do you remember anything from the time you were missing, anything at all?" Her father asked, as her mother loosened her hold on her, but still held her by her shoulders.

"No, I don't." She looked at her father. "I can't remember one thing. And all the regression therapy had shown is what I remember from after my memory was tampered with."

"And what is that?" Her mother asked.

"Well, I remember being transported, but I was still semi-unconscious. There were at least three men with me; we were on a plane; they spoke a language I didn't recognize. Then they carried me off the plane and into a car, and dropped me where I woke up. That's it." She couldn't read her father's expression. Well, she barely ever could so it wasn't really a surprise.

"Sydney, I'm sorry you had to go through all of this." Her father stepped forward and embraced her once again. This time Irena stood and watched. Usually their family was so cold, so disconnected. But here they were, all of them, and they were truly a family. She realized that Sydney must have found out about her brother. It hurt Irena that she'd had to lie to Sydney, and to Jack for so long. But it was the story of her life. Nothing was real, everything was a lie. But not the love for her family. Her love for her children was never a lie. And her love for Jack, well that had not been a lie twenty years ago. No, she loved them all very much, she'd given up everything for the three people in this room with her; she just wished she could have done more to keep them from pain. Instead she had only caused them all so much more.

"Dad, where did you go after I disappeared? What have you found out about my disappearance? Tell me you have some answers, because I sure as hell have a ton of questions." She looked at her father. She peered deep into his eyes. She wanted to make sure he told her the truth. She could tell when he lied. It was the whole Santa Clause thing, and she wasn't about to go through that again.

"Sydney there are a lot of things that I need to tell you, that we need to tell you." He looked at Irena. "But first there are some very important issues we need to deal with."

"What do you mean." She looked at her mother, and then her father. She felt like a child seeking answers that she wasn't ready for.

"Sydney, we are still very uncertain of all that's happened to you over the last two years. We are not even sure who was holding you. What we are sure of is that Arvin Slone and his men are following you're every move. We will deal with him, and the others, later, but for now we need to ensure your safety above all else." Her mother spoke bluntly, and honestly, as far as Sydney could tell.

"Do you think that Slone was the one who. was he the one who took me?"

"We're not sure Sydney, but right now we need to know why he is following you, and make sure that he's not planning to take you again." Her father said as he led the way toward a table in the corner of the room. Sydney marveled at the way her father and mother were working together. Her father wasn't giving her mother any suspicious glares, or second guessing every word she said, like he used to do. He nodded in agreement when she spoke, and only added to her comments. They were working as equals, as partner, and this told Sydney much more about their relationship, than either one of them was willing to let on.

"Damien, please explain to Sydney what you've seen in your surveillance." Her mother's use of his name brought Sydney back to the present. She had not fully thought about what it meant that her father and mother were there, along with her, and her brother. She didn't have any more time to contemplate this before Sark began to speak.

"Sydney, for the last six months I have been following Mr. Arvin Slone around the globe. He has changed locations every four days since I started to trail him. There was no evidence that you were with him, at all. However his globe trotting did seem quite odd. In all the time I followed him he did not go to the same location twice. He did, however only travel to large cities of villages, and not into the wild or anything like that. I have to assume of course that this has something to do with Ramballdi, but I have as yet been unable to figure out what exactly this is. After you made contact with the CIA from Hong Kong, I began following you instead of Sloane. We of course wanted to ensure your safety. I then lost track of Slone after I left him in Helsinki. However in LA I discovered several of his agents surveilling your safe-house. What this means I am again quite unsure. But these agents have, very covertly I might add, followed you everywhere you've gone; From the safe-house, to a Mrs. Charles Vaughn's house, and so on and so forth. I am very sorry that I was unable to apologize for intruding on your time with Will, however I was afraid that Slone's agents were up to something, and decided to make my presence known to them."

"Sydney, for some reason these agent's were sent here by Slone to watch you. I have exhausted my resources in trying to find out why, but no intel on this matter has surfaced, and I'm afraid that the reasoning behind this will have to remain a mystery. However, I would like to get rid of these agents once and for all. If Slone wants to watch you, then he can show up and do it himself." Her father spit out the last bit, as if it was hurting his mouth.

"Sydney, we need you to lure these agents to secure location, where they can be questioned and neutralized. However, you will have to do this alone, and you will have lose your security detail." Her mother said very matter- of -factly.

Her father waved her forward to the table and pointed a spot on the map. "Here is where we will have you lure the agents to. They have almost always maintained a distance of one hundred meters from you, so you will need to drive to the very edge of thisfield." They had chosen a very large deserted field about twenty miles outside of LA. "The surveillance team should remain in the cover of these trees when you drive out on to the field. Once the team is in position we'll take them out and bring them here from questioning."

"Is it just going to be us, or will we have a team?" Sydney was worried that the four of them might not be able to handle Slone's team.

"We will have to additional agents with us, which will make it a one to one ratio. On my signal you can drive back across the field and help us to transport the team back here." Her father traced the route with his finger, and Sydney studied it closely. "There is a hidden-underground entrance to this hangar from above. It uses a very large lift pad, which was once used to hide airplanes in this hangar." Her father explained as he opened another map. This one was more of an aerial picture of the warehouse above ground. He pointed to a spot on the picture just slightly to the northwest of the warehouse. "This is where the lift-pad is. It is just like an elevator. We enter the pad from the western most side, and then drive straight onto the lift, and in will bring us down here through that," he pointed to the opposite wall, "entrance. It this clear." He looked up at his daughter.

"Yes." She said not taking her eyes off the maps. She was worried by the amount of time it was taking her memorize the information. It used to take her only a few seconds to memorize every detail of a map this size, but she had to blame this on being out of practice.

"Sydney are you sure you are up for this?" Her mother asked, with more that just a hint of worry in her voice.

"Yes. I'll be fine. When is all this set to go?"

"Tomorrow, at three o'clock be at the gas station off of exit 116 on 1-80. Once you are there I will use aerial surveillance to make sure the team is still following you, and you will proceed to the op. location."

She nodded. She was about to speak when her father handed her a set of keys. "These are for you. It's parked outside the safe-house. You can use this," he handed her a vile, "to knock out your security detail, and this is set only to connect to the phone's each one of us carries." She took the keys, phone and the vile and pocketed them. As she did this Sark turned and walked toward the wall adjacent to the table.

"Time's up," he said walking back toward them. "Agent Dixon has made his way into the warehouse, and is apparently searching from Sydney. I assume this means more agents are on the way." He said bluntly.

"Alright, take Sydney back upstairs, quickly. Sydney tell Dixon that you were hit from behind, and knocked out for a while. Go!"