A/N:FYI, This may be the last chapter of this fic that I post here.Cover Me should be back up soon and posting here can be time
consuming, especially when the site is glitching out.Now, they're making me change my penname.So, if anyone wants me to keep
posting here as opposed to visiting SD-1.com or Cover Me, please speak now or forever hold your peace…..(I'll have to admit that
5 reviews for ten chapters worth of work may also be affecting my decision.…)
Part 10 – A Family Reunion
Sydney woke up several hours later in what appeared to be the captain's quarters of some sort of ship. Daylight was pouring through the portholes. She was a bit nauseous and the rocking of the boat was making it worse. Will Tippin was sitting beside the bed. Looking over at him, the events of the previous night came flooding back to her.
She was frantic. "Will! Are you OK? "
"I'm fine, Syd," Will answered. "You need to take it easy though," he said as he encouraged her to lie back down. "Your Dad hit you with a tranque dart. I think he's a little worried though. He didn't realize that you'd already been sedated. You've been out for a while."
"My Dad's here?! Where?" She sat up again, this time with Will's help.
"I don't know exactly, but I'm pretty sure he and Vaughn are off screaming at each other. Vaughn's pretty pissed at your Dad."
"It was Vaughn I saw!" This time Sydney nearly leapt off the bed.
"Yeah. He's fine, Syd. Sloane did try to abduct them, but your Dad intervened. The marshal was a mole. Vaughn and your Dad are the ones who raided the boat."
"I don't understand. Why would they raid the boat?" Sydney sat back down, confused.
"They realized that, after what happened to Vaughn, Kendall would immediately move you from the island and most likely keep you a virtual prisoner while he hid you from Sloane and your mother; that plus the fact that the other guy missing from Justice was a mole too. They didn't know if there were any others with JTF connections."
"What about the others on the boat?"
"They should be OK. Vaughn just tranqued them. Although I don't think Kendall will be waking up and sitting down any time soon," Will snickered.
"Why?"
Will tried to stifle a laugh. "Because Vaughn nailed him four times in the ass."
"Oh My God…," said Sydney stunned. She knew six would have been lethal.
"Yeah, I'm thinking that Mike's looking at a little anger management after this is all over…"
Sydney shook her head, still a bit confused. "How did they pull it off? Where are we?"
"Believe it or note, they used Zodiacs. Vaughn told them to tie a bunch together and fill them with some kind of special foam so that they'd look like whales to the sonar and the other surveillance. They used chemical propulsion canisters so that they couldn't be heard. When they got close, Vaughn used the same type of canisters to swim over. Then, he climbed aboard, tranqued everybody and got you and me."
"After we left the yacht, the Zodiacs took us to a speed boat which took us to a seaplane which took us here." He paused for a moment to shake his head in disbelief before continuing, "Here, I think, is some kind of fishing trawler out in the Pacific. Thank God for GPS."
"Why did they take you?"
"They gave me a choice. They didn't realize that I was going to be there. I came up on them as they were trying to load you in one of the rafts. They explained as best they could and then gave me a choice – get tranqued with the others and cover for them, or come along. I really didn't want to be there when Kendall woke up, so here I am."
Just then, Vaughn entered the cabin. Sydney jumped up off the bed and ran to him. As they held each other, she uttered, "Thank God you're okay".
"The feeling is mutual", he whispered into her hair as he kissed it. "How are you doing?"
"I'm fine. Where's my Dad?"
"He'll be along in a couple of minutes. He said that he had to go talk with someone on the bridge."
Then, something occurred to Sydney. Remembering that Vaughn was no longer truly hers, she asked uneasily, "Where's Alice, is she all right?"
Vaughn pulled back at his wife's name, the betrayal still fresh in his mind. Looking down, he said, "She's fine. We've got her holed up in Vancouver right now."
"Vaughn, what's wrong?" Besides the obvious, she thought to herself.
"It's complicated."
"You should tell her, Vaughn. Better it should come from you than Jack," Will interjected. With that, he headed out to give them some time alone.
"Tell me what?"
Vaughn shook his head and sat down on the bed. Sydney sat down beside him, eyeing him with concern. He finally spoke, eyes cast downward, his voice barely audible, "The baby isn't mine."
Sydney sat there astonished. "What? Whose is it then?" Given the limited size of the enclave, she felt the list of suspects was small.
"That's a very good question," he bit out. "Unfortunately, it would involve asking your mother."
"Excuse me?" gasped Sydney, stupefied.
He continued, unable to contain his bitterness, "Pretending to be a CIA agent, she convinced Alice to seduce me and then get implanted, with God knows whose embryo, so that I would go into protection instead of joining your father. Alice thought she was doing it to keep me safe. Your mother did it to keep her secret safe."
"What secret?" asked Sydney, now completely bewildered.
Vaughn looked up and met her gaze. "You."
Sydney was stunned. "What?! I don't remember anything about my mother being in Hong Kong. What are you talking about?"
Just then, Jack entered the cabin with Will and Sydney got up to embrace her father. "Dad!"
"I've been waiting almost two years for this," Jack whispered as he clutched his child to his chest.
"Dad, I'm so sorry for what I must have put you through," Sydney started while still hugging her father. "I still can't believe everything that's happened."
"Sshh, it's all right, sweetheart. The important thing is that we're all together now."
"I have so many questions… How did you know where Vaughn was? He said Mom knew about me being alive. How? How long have you known?"
Jack sighed heavily, still holding his daughter tightly. "I know you have a lot of questions, Sydney, but they'd best be answered by your mother. She's the only one who knows the full story."
They heard her before they saw her. She was talking with Marco. Jack looked up from his embrace with Sydney to check on Vaughn. He could see the younger man freeze at the sound of the overheard conversation coming down the hallway. He let go of his daughter to turn towards him. Vaughn, however, had already started towards the door. Jack found himself having to chase the younger man down, tackling him at Irina's feet.
"Get off of me, Jack! Why the hell didn't you tell me she was going to be here?"
Jack refused, pinning him down with a knee in his back and leaning over him with his hands on his upper arms. "Would you have helped me to get Sydney if I had? Sydney is going to have questions that only Irina can answer before she makes her decision. We also still need her to help us get Sloane. I swear, after that, I may even hold her down for you!"
"Vaughn", Irina purred, "I'm surprised at you. I always thought that you were such a gentleman…"
"I stopped thinking about you in those terms a long time ago!" He sniped as he struggled to get Jack off his back.
Irina looked over at her daughter, who was watching the scene play out before her in abject horror. "Let him up, Jack," Irina commanded, unperturbed. She continued as Vaughn pulled himself up off the floor, "I would have thought you would be a little more… grateful. After all, I busted my ass getting you back from Sloane."
"You and he aren't so far apart in my world right now," countered Vaughn as Jack stepped between them and grabbed Vaughn's arms again to prevent him from getting any closer to the source of his rage.
Irina nodded, considering his words, then started again in a quieter voice, "Perhaps, but before you judge me, ask yourself something - If Sloane hadn't found you and you didn't know about Alice, would you have been so terribly unhappy? You had a new life, a pleasant one, with a family. It was the best that I could do for you, given the circumstances."
"Circumstances that you created!" Vaughn spat back.
"Enabled perhaps, but I didn't create them. Sydney did, or rather I should say Suzanne did." Irina paused for a moment before continuing, "She was safe from all of this Vaughn! You should be able to appreciate that now. Do you really think that you could have left her that way – safe, content even, in the arms of another man?"
Vaughn hated that she was right. He hated her, period. He couldn't concede the point. Slowly, he stated, "You had no right. She deserved to know the truth."
Irina paused momentarily, reflecting. Then, while locking her gaze with Vaughn's, she replied deliberately, "That's the problem with you and Sydney. You value truth and honesty a little too highly. It mars your instinct for survival."
"ENOUGH!", screamed Sydney, causing everyone in the room to shift their focus. "Would someone please tell me what the hell is going on? It seems everyone here knows except me!"
After a stunned silence, Irina was the first to speak, "So it's true. You barely remember a thing about the past two years?"
Sydney hesitated, steeling herself for the conversation she knew must take place. Observing her mother through narrowed eyes, she replied, "Yes, but from what I hear, you remember plenty. Care to share?"
"Marco", Irina commanded, "could you please escort Mr. Tippin to his quarters." Then, she turned to Will and stated calmly, "I hope you don't mind, but this is family business."
Will cast an eye towards Vaughn and Irina caught the gesture. She justified while looking straight at Vaughn, "Special dispensation. Vaughn gets to stay if he promises to behave himself and sit quietly".
Vaughn was still seething, but knew that he had to stay to hear whatever Derevko was going to tell Sydney. Eyeing Irina suspiciously, he begrudgingly nodded, pulled away from Jack, and headed over to sit down on the bed. Sydney immediately went over and joined him, grasping his hand and giving it a gentle squeeze to silently acknowledge how difficult the situation must be for him given recent events. They gave each other a small smile and kept their hands clasped, fingers intertwined. Irina noted how quickly they had re-established their solidarity and knew that she was going to have to answer for everything right now.
As Will and Marco left, Irina pulled up a chair and motioned for Jack to do the same. This was going to take a while. Then, she turned back to Sydney and asked, "Where should I begin?"
"How about when you found me? Why didn't you tell me who I was and help me get home?"
Irina turned to Jack, exasperated, "You really have told her absolutely nothing, have you?"
Jack retorted, "There wasn't a chance. I told you up on the bridge less than a half hour ago that she wasn't even awake yet. I told Vaughn most of the story last night, but you're just going to have to tell Sydney the whole thing yourself. Why don't you start from the beginning, when your little friend ran amok?"
"Jack, you know as well as I do that I had nothing to do with Doren's placement. It happened while I was in custody. Sloane and Sark put her there. I couldn't pull her without raising their suspicions as to my motives before that night. Once Sark was in custody and Sloane knew that I had already betrayed him, I immediately went to LA to pull her from the field. After Mexico City, I knew I had to get her out of there quickly before she heard about Sark's incarceration or Sloane gave her conflicting orders."
Irina paused and turned towards Sydney. "I came as fast as I could to pull Allison, but everything had gone to hell by the time I got there. She wasn't answering her cell and I went to stake out your apartment, waiting for an opportunity to signal her somehow. However, what I witnessed changed everything."
Irina was across the street from Sydney's apartment in her car. She had only been there a minute or two when suddenly she saw Sydney and Alison come crashing through one set of French doors out onto the patio. This was followed within seconds by them crashing back into the apartment through another set. Irina immediately equipped herself and headed toward the apartment. When she got there, she entered through one of the smashed bedroom doors and found Allison dead. She searched the rest of the apartment and found Will Tippin in the bathroom, but not Sydney.
She then ran to the living room and saw that the front door was open. She noted a blood trail on the floor and followed it to see Sydney getting into her truck and driving off. She ran as fast as she could to her car and followed. Sydney drove for about a half an hour up into the hills north of LA near the ocean, the Pacific Pallisades. She pulled into a small parking area for an overlook and got out of the truck. Irina got out of her car and followed Sydney as she stumbled towards the cliffs. When she caught up with her, Sydney was just standing there, staring out at the water.
The moon was fairly bright and Irina could see for the first time how badly Sydney had been injured. She approached her daughter and gently called her name, but Sydney didn't respond. She just stood there motionless. Irina grabbed her daughter's arm, afraid of her intentions, but Sydney tried to pull away.
Irina called her by name once again and begged Sydney to come with her so that she could get medical attention. Sydney refused, pulling her arm from her mother's grasp, and told her to leave her alone, that she had no idea who Irina was and that her name was Suzanne, not Sydney. Irina didn't know what was going on, but wasn't going to leave her daughter there in that condition. She asked her daughter one more time to come with her so that she could get her to a doctor. Sydney refused once again and Irina shot her with a tranquilizer gun.
"And then you kidnapped me?", Sydney cried.
"It's not that simple, little girl", Irina rejoined. "I didn't know where Sloane was, but I knew that the JTF had failed to retrieve Il Dire in Mexico City. I also knew what it was supposed to be capable of. He showed me the manuscript which he had retrieved from Tibet. When I saw what it would purportedly do, that's when I decided to contact you and give you the location of the artifacts before he could assemble the device."
"As I was the only one besides Sloane who knew the true power of Il Dire, I decided to perpetrate a fraud to keep you safe until you could recover. If anyone other than I knew where you were, Sloane could discover your location by using Il Dire on them. I needed to protect you. I staged the scene to fake your suicide. Then, I carried you to my car, making sure that I left no trail."
Irina called some old contacts who were in the LA area, currently affiliated with the Russian mob. They helped her to get medical care for Sydney and smuggle her out of the country. They originally went to a private hospital in Mexico for Sydney's convalescence, but it became apparent as soon as Sydney was awake that it was not going to be straightforward.
Irina had planned on telling Sydney everything when she awoke – what Il Dire actually was and why she thought that Sydney had to be Rambaldi's Prophecy Woman. However, Sydney still contended that she was some woman named Suzanne. Irina brought in experts and explained the situation in sanitized terms. They claimed that she appeared to be suffering from something called a psychogenic fugue. They told her that it could last anywhere from a few days to a few months. Irina decided to indulge it so that Sydney/Suzanne could recover peacefully. Irina knew that, as soon as Sydney was herself again, she would likely try to contact Vaughn and her father.
Suzanne claimed that she had come home in the midst of a home invasion and that her two best friends were already dead. She had been injured by the fleeing attacker. She wanted nothing to do with LA anymore. She said that her family, friends, and fiancé were dead and that she just wanted to start over. She didn't even realize that she wasn't in the US anymore.
Irina brought Suzanne travel magazines that featured cities where she either had operations or significant contacts. To her delight, she picked Hong Kong. It was a city where Irina had both. It was a marvelous place to 'disappear'. Irina arranged for all of the paperwork for Sydney's new identity and flew her there in a private jet. She even arranged a job interview for Suzanne at St. Bartholomew's. One of her financial advisers was on the board there and was happy to introduce Suzanne to Monsignor O'Shea. After meeting with her, he offered her a job on the spot.
Irina concluded, "Your father told me that Mr. Tippin has informed him that you now remember some things about your life in Hong Kong. Should I continue?"
Sydney was feeling a bit overwhelmed by what she had just heard. As her mother had explained things, she had started getting flashbacks and knew what her mother was telling her was indeed true. However, she still needed a few more gaps filled in. "You said that your experts told you that I should be fine in a few months. That's the same thing that the CIA doctors said. You did nothing to prolong my condition?"
Irina shifted uncomfortably in her seat before answering. "After several months, I actually tried to break you out of it to see whether or not you had permanently split with your old personality. The experts had raised that as a possibility. Although I had left Hong Kong to make sure that Sloane couldn't trace me to you, I had my people there keep an eye on you. One of my contacts had a son who bore an uncanny resemblance to your fiancé. He had been itching to join my organization so I gave him the opportunity. I gave him the dossier that I had compiled on Danny while you were dating."
She looked over at the shocked expression on her daughter's face, but before Sydney could say a word she continued, "I may have been an absentee mother, but I can assure you that I was well aware of every major event in your life, including every serious boyfriend you ever had."
She continued with her story. "David joined the teaching staff at St. Bartholomew's. He was just supposed to get to know you and spend time with you while acting as much as he could like Danny. I wanted to see if we could jog memories of your former life and break you out of the fugue. The whole exercise had unintended consequences for the both of you."
"What do you mean?" Sydney managed, still in shock.
"I mean that you fell in love with him and he you. After several months, he came to me and told me that he no longer wanted to be part of my organization. He was going to permanently join the staff at St. Bartholomew's and ask you to marry him. I was speechless. The exercise had failed and I believed that you were never going to recover. I had had the two of you followed and my operatives claimed that you appeared to be truly in love with him. I gave him my permission to ask you to marry him. I felt that, even if you never recovered, at least I would have someone close to you who would protect you and alert me if anything ever happened. I decided that I must have been wrong about you being the Prophecy Woman and determined that I was going to do everything in my power to give you the safe and happy life that you should have had from the start. Perhaps Sydney couldn't have that life, but it looked as though Suzanne could."
Sydney looked over at her mother, not knowing what to say. She then looked to Vaughn who was sitting next to her, staring intently at the floor at his feet with his jaw clenched, the muscles in his neck clearly visible. She understood now why her mother had done what she did with Alice, however misguided, but it in no way justified her actions. She was at a loss, though, for how to respond to it. So, she decided to ask the last question she had for her mother right now. "Why were you convinced that I was the Prophecy Woman and not you?"
Irina looked to Jack, looking for support. Jack decided to answer the question for her. "Before you disappeared, when Sloane and your mother stole the artifacts from NSA, they got a hold of Page 47. Your mother and Sloane immediately realized that it was either you or her. They ran the physical tests on your mother to confirm it. She matched, but they also realized that you probably would too. They also read the part about Mount Subasio."
"Right before your mother came to visit you in LA to tell you where to find the artifacts, she climbed Mount Subasio. She actually stayed several days in Assisi to make sure she ascended every path to the summit, saw the sky from every angle. I didn't believe her when she first told me three months ago and I made her do it again. I had told her that you too had climbed Subasio. I had come to believe that Sloane was the Greatest Power, so I was discouraged to think that we would be unable to bring him down. That's when she told me that you were alive, but not quite yourself…"
Vaughn finally spoke, "Jack, how is this possible? How could both of them have climbed it?"
"After Irina had tried to break Sydney out of her new personality and failed, she went back to Rambaldi's manuscript concerning the Prophecy, which she had stolen from Sloane, trying to see if there wasn't some way that she might truly be the Prophecy Woman. Irina was able to determine through carbon dating and by dates referred to on previous and following pages of the manuscript that it was most likely written in the winter of 1472. At that time, one of the great comets, Regiomontanus, was visible across Europe for six weeks."
Jack paused before continuing, "The exact wording of the Prophecy says, "never having seen the beauty of my sky behind Mount Subasio". She consulted with several astronomers who concurred that, when looking at the mountain from Rambaldi's home, the comet would have indeed been in the sky behind Subasio. Neither you nor your mother has seen the sky he spoke of. The next sighting won't be for almost thirty years and, even then, it won't line up like that again. We've checked as many comets as we could to see if any would line up like that again in the near future, but with no luck. I'm afraid that line of the Prophecy is just Rambaldi's way of saying the Prophecy woman can't avoid her fate."
Irina went over and took her daughter by the hands. She articulated her next words carefully, "I have given everything I could over the past two years to try and stop Sloane. I may have stagnated and annoyed him, but nothing I have done has brought an end to this. I don't know for sure that you're the Prophecy Woman, but I do know that, if we join forces and both go after Sloane, the Prophecy Woman has a chance of ending this. We can pursue the Prophecy or wait until it finds us. I'll leave the choice to you. Why don't you take some time and talk it over with Vaughn."
They were all silent for a few moments pondering Irina's words. Then, Vaughn looked over at Jack. "Jack, what are your thoughts about all of this? How do you see this ending?"
Jack shook his head. "I really don't know. I stopped asking myself that question years ago. I'm not a religious man, but I do believe in Fate. If we bring all of the elements together, perhaps the path will become obvious."
With that Jack and Irina got up to leave. However, Vaughn got up and pulled Irina aside. Jack advanced, but Irina waved him away. When they were comfortably out of earshot, he hissed in her ear, "Before Sydney and I talk about anything, you and I need to come to a little understanding. You and I have unfinished business. However, should she and I decide to stay and go after Sloane with you now, we won't be able to deal with that right away. Until we can, you will make sure that Alice is kept comfortable and out of harm's way."
"And why exactly should I do that?", Irina returned. "I didn't force her to do anything. She's a big girl. She knew what she was doing."
"Because Sydney only knows part of the truth. She only knows that the child isn't mine. As for the other part, how you got my cooperation, I personally don't relish the thought of telling her. I'll keep her blissfully ignorant and tell Jack to do the same unless you let something happen to Alice. Do we understand each other?"
Irina cast an icy glare towards Vaughn. She was not in the habit of being blackmailed. However, her eyes soon warmed and a small smile crept onto her lips. "I take back what I said before, Vaughn. You're learning. You may survive this yet."
Vaughn glowered at her, letting her know that he didn't appreciate her sense of humor.
The two held each other's stare for a few moments longer until they both felt comfortable that an understanding had been reached. Then, Vaughn finally relented and let go of Irina's arm. She rejoined Jack and they left the cabin.
"What was that all about?", Sydney asked as she reached for his arm and led him to sit down on the bed.
"I just needed to have a little chat with your mother before we discussed things."
"About what?"
Vaughn peered into her eyes which were full of concern and chose his next words carefully. "About making sure Alice stays safe while we sort all of this out. It could take weeks or it could take years. I needed some assurance from her that Alice would be protected as she's the one responsible for the predicament Alice is in."
Sydney looked down at the floor and shook her head, "You're a lot more forgiving person than I am."
"Listen Sydney, I may not owe Alice the rest of my life, but I have an obligation to her. She knows that I wasn't going to stay in a marriage based on a lie, especially this one, but I owe it to her to get her out of this safely. None of this would have happened to her if she weren't trying to help me. Can you understand that?"
Sydney nodded begrudgingly, "Of course, I do. Nobody understands that concept better than I do, but you're actually going to trust my mother? After everything?"
Vaughn exhaled sharply. "I don't see as I really have any choice in the matter. I just wanted to make sure she knew where I stood on the subject."
"You know that you don't have to do this, be involved with this. What you said about Alice… That goes for you, too. I just want you to be safe and away from all this," she said as she reached up to caress his cheek and stared into his eyes. "I want to be free of all of this, but I think that it's obvious that it's just not possible."
Vaughn took her hand from his cheek and kissed it and then brought it to his lap, intertwining her fingers with his. Looking down at their hands, he spoke softly, "Neither one of us is going to be free from this until Sloane's gone. Now that he knows something's up and that I'm involved, he's not going to stop until he finds out what it is. Our choice really is whether to wait until he comes and finds us or go after him ourselves. I don't know about you, but I don't feel like spending the rest of my life trying to hide from him. I've tried it and that strategy hasn't exactly proven successful. The one advantage we still have is that he doesn't know you're alive."
He paused and looked directly into Sydney's eyes, "It's time to force Fate's hand."
