Title: No White Flag

Disclaimer: As if I was cool enough to have thought up "Alias!" I wish!

Rating: PG-13

Pairing: Sydney/Sark

Author's Note:  This chapter, "Waltz #2 (XO)" is based on the Elliott Smith song. He committed suicide the other day, which was very disturbing to me, as I had been a big fan. He is best known for his Academy Award-nominated song, "Misery," from the "Good Will Hunting" soundtrack.

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The next morning:

Sydney woke up disoriented, in an unfamiliar room. It was hardly the first time. She looked around and it came back to her. She was at Simon's hideout. More surprisingly, she looked to her left. There was Simon, still asleep.

She didn't remember much about the previous evening after Sark had left. Simon had soon entered, and there had been some drinks. The rest was a blur, and her current, pounding headache wasn't making things any better. There must have been a lot of drinks. In a way, she was glad her memories were so remote. Were they even her memories? Or had she reverted to Julia?

Thinking too much isn't good, she thought. Especially before coffee and Advil.

She rose from the bed. Simon turned over, but still seemed to be asleep. She was in his room. So she tiptoed out the door and went to her room, down the hall, entering the attached bathroom to take a shower.

The one thing she did remember from the previous evening was her encounter with Sark. Funny, how he always managed to get under her skin, she thought. She couldn't think of anyone else with the same capabilities, save Sloane.

Sydney didn't realize that Simon had woken up and heard the water running down the hall. He was watching her shower, behind the fogged glass.

My God, he thought. Julia is so heartbreakingly beautiful. But she must have no emotions at all. She always seems to be staring into space as if she were a dead paper doll. He was afraid he'd never really gotten to know her, even if he was somehow falling in love with her.

Sydney never heard Simon, even when he left the room, shutting the door softly behind him.

Later that day:

"Now that we've got the serum, the Covenant has given us a new assignment," Simon told the group. "I'd like to introduce you to Mr. Sark, who has the details," he said, gesturing to the door where Sark entered, with his signature all-black clothing and dark sunglasses.

He removed the sunglasses. Sydney tried to hide her shock. She thought Sark was going to stay away while she gathered intelligence on Simon's group. Apparently, he was more involved than she thought.

"Hello. As Simon has told you, I am your contact at the Covenant," Sark told the group. "After your last two successful operations, we have decided that your cell is quite useful. Therefore, my superiors have assigned you another task. You are to infiltrate an international relief organization owned by Arvin Sloane, a former member of the Alliance, and retrieve his private files on the Covenant. We believe he has been sharing information with the CIA and the NSC about our organization and wish to find out what exactly he's been telling them."

Sloane, Sydney thought. It's always about Sloane. She still didn't trust him. He must have some ulterior motives for running the relief organization. She would be happy to comply with the task assigned by Sark, if only to find his even more private files, which she suspected contained evidence of his larger plot.

"I have already given more specific instructions to Simon," Sark said. "However, my employer has asked me to meet with each of you individually."

Sydney thought that was rather abnormal, and looked straight at Sark.

"Ladies first," he said, motioning for him to follow him.

She looked at Simon for approval, which she got with the nod of his head, and followed Sark out into the hallway.

If this meeting was anything like last night's, she thought, this was going to be interesting.