Sydney walked into the bar of the hotel she and her father were staying at. Sighing to herself, she took in her surroundings. The bar had a super modern feel to it that made Sydney feel like they were trying to hard to be cool and appeal to the younger crowd. The bar was surprisingly full for three o'clock in the afternoon on a gorgeous day in Miami. Sydney began to scan for her contact. She really wanted to get in and out of this situation before Jack realized she had slipped away from their hotel room. She absentmindedly fingered the note she had discovered on her pillow the night before when she came back from dinner.

"It says be here at three o'clock. It's a matter of national security," Sydney thought to herself as she took a seat at the bar. She couldn't help but mutter out loud. "Sounds like a really bad Hollywood movie. Now all we need is for me to fall in love with someone that, tragically, I can never have. Angst, angst, angst. We get together. Happily ever after."

"I think that already happened," whispered an extremely familiar voice in her ear.

"Vaughn!" she said turning around. "What are you doing in Miami? I would have thought Kendall would have chained you to your desk to keep you from interrupting my vacation."

Vaughn ordered a brandy and sat down on the stool next to Sydney. "Did you like my cryptic note?" he asked.

"It was rather strange," Sydney said with a smile. "I mean 'a matter of national security'?"

"I had to make it strange. Otherwise you wouldn't have come. You like investigating strange situations. When I was your handler, I feel it was my duty to know these things." Vaughn smiled and took Sydney's hand. "So what were you muttering about happily ever after?"

"Oh, it was nothing. God, I missed you," Sydney said pulling him in for a quick but heated kiss. "Why couldn't Kendall have given you time off to come with us?"

"How has the vacation been going? Have you and Jack been able to adjust to the new development in your life?

"It's been pretty unreal. I mean, isn't it only supposed be on movies and soap operas that the sister I never knew I had comes into my life intent on beating the crap out of me and running my life?" Sydney joked.

"Well, you're life is pretty much a soap opera. You were a double agent. Feel in love with the one man you couldn't have if you wanted to keep your job. Almost got him killed numerous times if I remember correctly." Vaughn laughed as Sydney poked him in the ribs. "Your mother came back from the dead and shot you in the shoulder. Your father put you into a program when you were little that guaranteed you'd grow up to be a spy. One of your best friends had to pretend to be a heroin addict just so he wouldn't die, and the other one still has no idea what you really do. One of the world's top criminals considered you almost like a daughter before you destroyed his whole world. If your life were a TV program, I'd watch it."

"Funny," she replied. "So what's with all the subterfuge in meeting? You do know we can talk in public now that SD-6 and the Alliance has been destroyed."

"Just wanted to see you, I guess." He gave her a weak smile along with his blatant lie.

"Why are you here?" she asked noticing the shift in mood.

"There's been a new development in the investigation. Kaylee Derevko has resurfaced."

"Finally!" Sydney said leaning back on her bar stool. "It took the CIA two weeks to find her. I've been going nuts here in Miami. You guys shipped me off to a place where I couldn't even help with the investigation. And because of the investigation, I've been too on edge to relax. Do you have any idea where she's been?"

"As far as we can tell, she was just on vacation. There were no new thefts or any other type of movements having to do with Rambaldi and his work. We don't know why she dropped off the face of earth for two weeks or where she's been. We can only assume it was somewhere in Europe. Irina Derevko wouldn't let her daughter out of her sight for that long."

"Not that daughter," Sydney whispered.

Vaughn paled realizing what he had said. "I didn't mean it like that Sydney and you know it. It's just your mother gave you and her life as Laura Bristow up years ago. She's cut away that part of her life. It seems like she's built a completely new life in Paris with your sister. I would bet a thousand dollars that she is trying to come up with a scheme that gets you closer to her. Your mother would never let a talent like yours go to waste on any other agency except her own. She might not have wanted you in the past, but she wants you now."

"Her life is with Kaylee, Vaughn. That's a life I don't fit into," Sydney said as she stood up. "Why did you come here, Vaughn? I mean, really."

Vaughn stood up and led Sydney over to the elevator. "Listen, Syd. The CIA has gone back to their original theory on Rambaldi."

"Meaning they now think that once again I'm the woman in the prophecy. It's impossible for that to be true, and the CIA is crazy to even consider it. I saw Mount Subasio. You know that. You helped me get there. Remember? Why would they think that I was the woman in the prophecy again?"

"That wasn't their original theory, Sydney," Vaughn admitted. "Originally, they thought that the woman in the prophecy didn't truly exist. That she was never really meant to be a real woman. They had no documented records of any woman who had the potential to grow into the genetic anomalies that Rambaldi listed. They now think that Rambaldi created this prophecy as a distraction. A distraction from his real prophecy."

"Do we know what that real prophecy is?' Sydney asked.

"No. We have Marshall and the others working on it right now. He thinks he can develop a program to analyze all the Rambaldi artifacts in existence that we know of. The CIA believes that there's some connection we're missing in this investigation."

"So, what does this have to do with Kaylee and my mother? And why did you have to meet with me in private to discuss this? Why isn't my father involved?" Sydney paused to unlock her hotel room door. Turning back, she looked at Vaughn waiting for his reaction. Instead of looking lost in thought on how to answer her questions like Sydney thought he would be, he was staring rather intently inside her hotel room with his mouth slightly agape.

"You owe me a thousand dollars," he whispered.

"Hello, Sydney." Irina Derevko said as she stood up for her seat in the room. "Do come in."