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Chapter Ten:

Into the Unknown

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The world beyond the foggy windows was a blur, vanishing swiftly behind the wheels of the car. Jack drove automatically, eyes fixed on the road but barely seeing the lines as they vanished under him. All he could see was Sydney. Images of her face consumed him, like the photographs he had seen on Vaughn's coffeetable months ago. He could see her in his mind, a baby crying for comfort, a child bereft of love, a woman whose eyes held secrets as deep and dark as his own. He longed to go back and change it all, to see joy in her eyes instead of fear.

It had begun to rain. The cold drops sliding down his window like the tears he had shed far too often in the past months without her. The world outside was dreary and grey but there was light in his heart again. He could see the ocean in the distance, a looming body of grey that shimmered beneath the clouds. She was out there, coming closer to him with every passing moment, he could almost feel her presence drawing near. He had bypassed the safehouse, finding it empty, and proceeded directly to the harbor. He was early, having sped the entire way from the airport to the sea. He couldn't wait in the silence of the safehouse for them, the yawning emptiness mirrored what he felt inside of him for so many long months. He needed to see her, to touch her, to hold her in his arms.

He pulled up to the harbor as a ship was coming into dock, passengers were departing from the ferry in small groups. They shielded themselves from the onslaught of the rain, hands covering heads, rushing quickly to meet family and friends who stood waiting for them. Jack stepped out of the car, cautiously. He checked the gun at his side and scanned the faces of the crowd. The mist veiled his eyes, transforming the crowd of people into shapeless figures that rushed around him. But when she appeared at the top of the ramp, his sight cleared and fixed on her.

His heart caught in his throat at the sight of two figures walking down the ramp together. They stood tall, disregarding the rain that fell in heavy curtains on their exposed skin. Her hair was dark, her face was pale and turned toward the man beside her. He had one arm tucked protectively around her, hugging her close to him as they walked. She wore dark sunglasses despite the grey light of the day and loose clothing, a bag slung over her back. She may have been unrecognizable to anyone else, but the way she carried herself, the way she took each step with a confidence that was unique to Sydney.

Her gaze lifted to look out over the harbor, scanning the area as Jack himself had just done, wary of any threat that might face her. Her eyes drifted over him and then snapped back with clarity. Her eyes widened as Jack slid his sunglasses off and stared at her, heart pounding in his chest.

Sydney faltered and Vaughn turned to her in concern, the crowd rushed past them like water over stones. Her eyes were locked on his and for a moment, she couldn't breathe. Jack could see her lips forming one word, could practically hear her voice calling him.

"Daddy," she whispered. He felt something unfamiliar break over his face, a smile. Gripping Vaughn's hand, Sydney strode down the ramp quickly, rushing to meet him, Vaughn trailing after her.

Tears burned Jack's eyes as his daughter ran toward him, he found himself moving closer to her though he had no memory of moving his feet. Some force of nature propelled him to her and the moment when she crashed into his arms, the tears broke free. Her arms locked tightly around him and a cry of joy escaped her lips.

"Daddy."

Jack hugged her close to him, pressing his face into her hair and breathing deeply. She held him in a death grip, he had forgotten how strong she was. She was shaking with the force of emotion that gripped her body. Burying her face into shoulder, she broke into childish sobs. For a moment, Jack was transported back thirty years to the day she had learned of her mother's death. If only she were six years old again and he could do it all over.

"Sydney," his whisper was that of a dying man who had finally attained salvation. For the first time in months, he could breathe without smelling the smoke, his heart beat without hurting. He could hold his daughter in his arms again.

He closed his eyes and memorized every detail of this moment, swearing silently never to let any moment with her go to waste ever again. He had already missed so much.

Sydney stood still in his arms for a few moments, pouring her heart out through her broken sobs. She had been on an emotional rollercoaster for days, had become to accustomed to the feeling of tears staining her flesh. Jack just held her in his arms, rocking her gently as if she were a baby again and he could simply lull her fears away.

After a few moments, she pulled back and looked him in the eyes. She reached out and wiped away his tears with the palm of her hand, smiling gently as she did so.

The cracks in his heart smoothed away at the sight of her dark eyes shining up at him. She was so beautiful, he could scarcely believe he had ever created something so beautiful.

"Sydney, you're a sight for weary eyes," he frowned and traced the delicate contours of her face gently. There were bruises rising up to form on the surface, marring her pale flesh. There was a slit of dried blood on her lip from a recent cut. He inhaled sharply and put aside his rage.

"Who did this to you?" He looked up abruptly to Vaughn, who had been standing quietly to the side, watching them and yet, still watching the crowd around them. He was on alert, as if anticipating danger at any moment. Jack could see the bruises on his neck and blood staining the sleeve of his jacket. Vaughn's eyes snapped to Jack as soon as the words left Jack's mouth. He grimaced slightly and shook his head.

"I take it that you didn't arrive entirely without incident."

Sydney smiled lightly, in attempt to quell his fear. "You know me, dad. I don't arrive anywhere without incident."

The way she said it, the casual way she tossed her hair as she did so, overwhelmed him with another wave of love for his daughter. He had missed her so much.

Vaughn's eyes flickered from Sydney to Jack, to the crowd beyond and finally to the bag slung over Sydney's shoulder. Jack could see the way his eyes hardened as they glimped this last object and he wondered at what they might have found.

"We need to move," Vaughn said quietly. He placed a hand on both of their shoulders, wincing in pain as he moved his injured arm. Sydney anticipated this movement and slid smoothly under that arm, one hand sliding around his waist. The familiar way they moved together, the way they anticipated each other's every movement, the way his eyes landed on hers in silent thanks, it was as if they had never been seperated. Instead of the contempt he had always felt for this man, Jack now felt a sense of gratitude, relief, that his daughter had found such a man to match her in every way. Together, the three of them moved quietly through the crowd, making their way back to Jack's car. Vaughn's arm was slung around Sydney's shoulder and she had one arm looped around his waist, as if supporting him with her own weight. Her free hand clasped Jack's firmly and he marveled at how small her hand seemed in his. Like a child, clutching her father for safety. He tried to remember if he had ever held her hand this way after her mother had died, he had years of neglect to make up for.

Vaughn opened the door for Sydney, sliding the bag from her shoulder and dumping it on the seat. She smiled up at him and time seemed to slow as Jack watched her hand come up to touch his face gently. He touched her face in return, holding a silent conversation with their eyes and she blinked, time snapping back into place, her eyes fell once more on Jack. There seemed to be too much to say so she said nothing at all, pulling gently away from Vaughn and sliding into the backseat of the car. Vaughn shut the door and looked up at Jack, nodding slightly, a small smile playing across his lips. Jack reached out to clasp Vaughn's shoulder and swallowed the lump in his throat.

"Thank you," he whispered, his words lost on the wind. Vaughn nodded and Jack could see him blink back tears, a motion he had become accustomed to. Without any words, Vaughn circled around to the other side of the car and got into the backseat with Sydney. Jack took a deep breath, struggling to return his heart to its normal heart rate and got in the car.

They drove for a few minutes in silence, speeding away from the harbor. Jack adjusted his mirror to look back at the two young people in his back seat. Sydney was leaning against Vaughn heavily, her head resting on his shoulder in exhaustion. He had his head bowed to hers, forehead resting on the top of her head. He was murmuring soft words into her hair that Sydney did not respond to, but her fingers were laced through his, drawing on his strength. Her eyes flickered up to the mirror and met Jack's eyes there. Her eyes were filled with tears and Jack smiled at her.

"What happened on the boat?" The words were spoken quietly into the stillness. Vaughn turned his head to look up at Jack, and then back to Sydney, speaking once more without words. She nodded slightly at him and she looked up at Jack.

"A woman named Lauren Reed was tracking us. She is an assasin for the Covenant, much like I was for the past month."

"The Covenant?" Jack's mouth twisted in disgust. "They were behind your disappearance?"

"Yes, they faked my death, burned my home, stole my life, my identity." The bitterness in her voice stabbed his heart, if only he had paid more attention to the Covenant, followed the clues more carefully. Vaughn smoothed a comforting hand across her hair and she squeezed his hand in thanks.

"They tried to brainwash me, mold me into a woman named Julia Thorne."

Jack sighed and shook his head, "They couldn't brainwash you." He muttered.

Sydney shook her head, "They didn't. They tried to break me for months but in the end, I pretended that I had broken. I became Julia Thorne to escape them." She shuddered with the memories of what she had done to prove herself.

"Project Christmas," Jack muttered with slow realization dawning on him. He had done it to protect her and in the end, he had no regrets. He could have lost his daughter for good had it not been for her training.

"What about it?" Sydney asked. Jack met her questioning eyes in the mirror.

"Your training during Project Christmas contained a failsafe to protect your mind from any form of torture or brainwashing. I knew that as your mother's daughter, you were at risk from KGB operatives who might want the daughter of Irina Derevko to work for them. I would have died before I let that happen."

Sydney was silent for a long moment, eyes lowered as she recalled her anger at her father when she had discovered what he had done to her. In the end it had saved her life, her identity. He had been protecting her even when he thought she was lost.

"Thank you," she whispered. "If I had never undergone that training, I would be Julia Thorne right now. I would have broken long ago."

"You don't need to thank me, sweetheart. I would have done anything to protect you." Sydney smiled at the reflection of his eyes as they flickered back to her. Despite everything that had happened between them, she knew that her father loved her.

"Michael," Vaughn's eyes snapped to Jack's at the sound of his name. "How did you find her?"

Vaughn shook his head, "I didn't. She found me."

Jack frowned and his eyes slid back to Sydney, there was something hidden there, tangled between the two of them. Some dark secret that they were reluctant to share just yet.

"The Covenant sent me to France to retrieve a Rambaldi artifact," Sydney explained. There was a note of hesitation in her voice and her eyes slid to the bag on the seat beside her. "A painting that had been hidden for thirty years, a key piece in the Rambaldi puzzle." There was pain in Vaughn's eyes as she spoke and she brushed her lips against his cheek, nuzzling his face softly in comfort. Jack wondered again at the unfolding mystery before him.

"The Covenant had recently received intel informing them that this painting was hidden in a house on the beach of Normandy. The house was supposed to be empty, they sent me. But the house wasn't empty. Vaughn was there."

Jack frowned in confusion, the pieces were tangled and he could not see how they fit together quite yet. Vaughn spoke quietly, a deep pain hidden in his voice.

"It was my house, my father had left it to me in his will. The painting was hidden in a safe in the bedroom, I never knew that it was there."

Slowly, the pieces began to fall into place. Jack did not like the picture he was forming. "Why was a Rambaldi artifact hidden in your home?"

Vaughn and Sydney exchanged a long look, filled with deeper meaning and an undercurrent of fear. Jack's heart rose up in his throat, choking his breath.

"That is the mystery," Sydney said softly. "It's better if we show you rather than tell you, once we get to the safehouse."

Jack nodded slowly, his mind whirling with the information he had just been given. "We should be there in an hour or so, rest while you can." He smiled gently at his daughter. "I'm here now, sweetheart," his voice broke on the last words and he whispered softly. "Daddy's here."

Sydney smiled through her tears and slumped back against Vaughn again, falling into him for comfort. He wrapped his arms around her, not even flinching at the pain his shoulder caused him though he could feel the bandage ripping, the blood seeping out. It didn't matter. Pressing his lips to her hair, he closed his eyes in relief.

Jack continued to speed down the empty back roads. A terrible weight had been lifted from his heart, but he felt another descending on his shoulders. A grim portent of something to come, that even he could not predict.

The world rushed by beyond the window.

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Lauren pulled herself up onto the dock, eyes darting around for anyone who might be watching. She had sunk the tiny boat along with the body of its captain a mile out and swum the rest of the way to shore. There was no one left in the harbor save for a few milling passengers, waiting in the cold rain for their loved ones to come and take them home. No one saw her as she slipped into the shadows of the large boats, docked in the harbor. The grey clouds hung thick over the water, engulfing her in a fog that blinded her. She hated this feeling of helplessness, of failure. They had escaped her, but not for long.

Reaching into her wetsuit, she pulled out a small device, a red light blinking steadily on the screen. She silently issued thanks to the Covenant tech man who had devised this tracking device and made it waterproof. It had been strapped to her flesh, beneath the lace of her bra, the entire exhausting trip from the ferry to the harbor. But she had what she wanted, the tracking device she had slapped onto Michael Vaughn's neck was active and they had not discovered it.

Her eyes lit up and a smile of triumph crossed her face as she analyzed the coordinates on the screen. They were moving fast but she would catch them faster. They had been running for days and would be weary by now. She would spring upon them when they least expected it, when they thought they were safe.

Now, all she needed was a mode of transportation. Glancing down at her attire, she wrinkled her nose in disgust, make that transportation and clothing. Glancing around the empty dock, she saw only one person remaining. A woman, about her height, was getting into a car on the other end. She smiled. Sometimes her work was just too easy.

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They arrived at the safehouse in under an hour, Jack certainly breaking the speed limit the entire way but Sydney was grateful. She longed to be able to relax, Vaughn at her side and her father taking care of them. She knew that she wouldn't get that chance for quite some time yet. There was still a chance that Lauren was after them and if she was not, the Covenant would certainly be sending more agents after her. They would not stop until she was recovered, or killed.

The house was nondescript, hidden in a corner of the forest, surrounded by towering oak trees. Vaughn's arm was around her once more as they slid out of the car. He hooked the bag over his bad shoulder, wincing at the pain but ignoring it with all of his will. Sydney was not sure anymore if she was supporting him or if it was the other way around. They switched roles of protector so easily that the lines had long ago been blurred. They were constantly supporting one another, each standing as a pillar of strength for the other.

Jack slid a keycard in the door and spoke quietly. They waited a moment for the voice recognition scan to go through and the door clicked open. They hurried inside out of the rain, the door locking behind them.

The three of them moved to the kitchen, shaking water out of their clothes. Vaughn dropped the bag on the table and collapsed heavily into a char beside Sydney, his arm resting on the back of her chair. Sydney's eyes were fixed on him, his eyes were fixed on the bag. Jack watched them both quietly as he began to boil some water for coffee. For a moment, it seemed like they were normal people, coming home after a hard day's work, out of the rain to share a cup of coffee and stories of their day.

Jack let the two of them sit quietly for a few minutes, giving them time to relax and let the fear slip from their minds. They had to be alert and ready for anything and in this state, he feared for them. When the coffee was done, he poured them each a cup and set it down in front of them. Sydney wrapped her hands around the mug, the steam rising in waves from the surface and she smiled at him in gratitude. Vaughn did not move, still focused on the bag. Sydney glanced at him, concern in her eyes and whispered softly. "Ready?"

Vaughn leaned back and met her eyes, tension seeping from him at the soft sound of her voice. He nodded, scrubbing his face with his hands. "As I'll ever be."

Jack watched them with mounting curiousity, Sydney turned to look at him and slowly opened the bag. She removed a black box, the wood was corroding from what appeared to be water stains and it was very old. Carved on the top was the symbol of Rambaldi, that Jack had long ago become accustomed to recognizing. All the same, the sight of the symbol sent a shiver racing down his spine. This made all of them very uneasy.

"This painting was hidden thirty years ago in a safe in France, by William Vaughn." Sydney told him. Jack's eyebrows raised in alarm as the plot thickened. Sydney saw the expression on her face and nodded. "We asked ourselves that same question. Why would William Vaughn hide such an important artifact from the CIA? An artifact that cost him his life?" Sydney sighed and opened the box.

Jack retrieved his glasses from his pocket and watched carefully as Sydney unrolled a thin piece of parchment. She lay it in front of him, avoiding looking at it as much as she could. Jack stared in astonishment at the prophecy.

The silence was thick in the room. Vaughn dropped his head into his hands, refusing to look up at Jack. This was the moment of truth and he couldn't bear to hear his doom. Jack analyzed every detail of the drawing, the words sprawled acrosss the face on the paper. He could not read them, he had never been as deeply involved in the hunt for Rambaldi artifacts as Sloane and had never bothered to learn the ancient Latin dialect the prophecies were written in. But he had seen enough Rambald artifacts to recognize that this was genuine.

"This prophecy was hidden beneath the painting," Sydney told him, her words were gentle and her hand stroked the back of Vaughn's neck soothingly. "The painting was that of the sky behind Mt. Subasio. The title of the painting is written on the back, it is called 'My Sky Behind Mt. Subasio.'"

Jack looked up at her words, realization dawning on him as the full impact of this prophecy hit. They had read so much into that prophecy about Sydney, but it had been all wrong. He had never fully believed in the prophecy about his daughter, but this paper in front of him killed his doubts. It could not be a coincidence that the man her daughter loved was also prophesied.

"We believe that my father was trying to protect me," Vaughn spoke for the first time, pulling his head out of his hands. There was a steely look in his eyes that took Jack by surprise, a look of contained rage and betrayal. "My father was a smart man, he would have recognized that the man in that picture was not him, but his son. But we have no way of knowing what any of it means, until we know what it says."

Jack shook his head and leaned back. The puzzle pieces had fallen into place now but there were still large gaps in the picture it formed. "I can't read it, I don't know this dialect." Vaughn sighed softly and raked his fingers through his damp hair, the black strands stuck up in random points.

"There are a select number of individuals who have studied Rambaldi long enough to learn the language and how to decipher the prophecies. The DSR, who translated the prophecy about you, Sydney. Clearly, the members of the Covenant can read it or else they would not have wanted it. Sloane is another, obviously, who can read it." Jack grimaced at the mention of the man's name. "And the last is the only person who we might be able to trust at this juncture. Someone I never thought I would trust again but who has proved invaluable to me in these last few months when I was searching for clues to your death."

Jack looked up to meet Sydney's eyes, there was desperation there. She had to know what it meant, she was frightened for Vaughn's life, that much was obvious. "We have to take our chances, if you know someone who can decipher this, we have to find them. We can't trust the CIA at this point, not with this information. You saw how the DSR tried to cage me when they found the prophecy about me, I won't let them do that to him."

Jack nodded slowly, biting his lip. Neither of them were going to like what he was going to say next, but it was the only choice they had left. "Then that leaves only one person we can turn to." He met Sydney's eyes, without flinching as he spoke.

"Your mother."

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