"Let's go," Sark said gently touching Sydney's shoulder. "We have a job to do. You can figure out Irina later."

Sydney nodded at him but still kept that far off look on her face. Sark grasped her hand and practically dragged her out of the room. "We're out in the open now, Syd. I need you to stay with me."

"Okay." She scrunched her face up in concentration. "This way."

She led him back to the elevator lobby they had originally been in the first time they were on this floor. Instead of pushing a button and waiting for any of the elevators, she opened a door marked Maintenance. What was inside didn't have anything to do with maintenance.

The room was about the size of a phone booth. Straight in front of them were an elevator door and a keypad. Sydney punched in some numbers swiftly, and the door slid open.

"Explain," Sark said as they stepped into the elevator.

"The sub-basements are the location of most of the top secret actions of the Covenant. It makes them incredibly hard to get to. This is the more obscure entrance. I sent my parents to the one that is easier to access. Figured you and I are young. We can handle a challenge."

"So we're on our way to the sub-basements. Where to from there?"

"Let's cross that bridge when we get there." Sydney heard something crackle in her ear. "Vaughn?" she asked.

There was no response.

"Our ear pieces aren't working," Sark said as he realized that he couldn't hear Vaughn either.

"It must be a security feature I didn't know about. There must have been a frequency blocker somewhere on the way down to the sub-basements."

"Will the feed come back when we reach the second sub-basement?"

"I don't know," Sydney admitted. Suddenly, she got a confused look on her face. "This elevator ride has taken an awful long time. A lot longer than I would have thought."

Finally, the elevator doors slid open revealing a man with his back to them. Sydney recognized him immediately. "Oh no."

"Miss Bristow, you haven't forgotten me," Simon Walker said as he turned around. Noting their bewildered faces, he added, "Don't tell me you thought you were actually being sly. The Covenant has known you were here since the second you got into the elevator."

Sark couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"What is so funny, Mr. Sark?" Simon asked.

"You are a bloody moron. That's what is so funny." Sark smirked at him. "We've been in this facility a lot longer than you think."

"Oh. Good to know." Simon motioned for a couple of the men who were standing off to the side. "Tie these two up. And do a good job about it."

Sydney was pushed up against the wall by one of the men, and she could feel him wrapping some sort of rope tightly around her wrists. When she was turned back around, she saw they had done the same to Sark.

"Don't you think you're being a little overzealous in the tying?" Sydney asked. "I mean why don't you just tie us back to back like they do in the movies and get it over with?"

"I like that suggestion," Simon said with a devious grin. "Do it," he ordered his men.

Sydney winced as her already rope burned hands were jarred. Within seconds, her tied up hands were tightly secured to Sark's. The duo was ushered to a nearby cell where Simon said they should make themselves at home.

Sydney flinched as the door was slammed shut behind them. She waited a minute before muttering, "He really is a bloody moron. He actually captured us and then left us with an opportunity to form a plan and escape." She tried to look over her shoulder at Sark. "The pack, Sark."

"Do it," he said forcefully.

Sydney took a deep breath. "I follow my instincts when I'm on a mission, Sark. You know that."

"What are you trying to say? And why are you trying to stall?"

I'm not stalling," Sydney said viciously. That was when Sark knew she was trying to tell him something extremely important. "Listen, I don't think both you and I are going to make it to where Kaylee's being held."

"How the hell can you know that?" he practically screamed. Calming down considerably, he added, "You and I are the best spies this world has to offer right now. We're both going to make it out of this one alive. And that's my gut feeling."

Sydney opened her mouth to say something else, but Sark interrupted her. "Listen, Bristow. We're not going to die. Stop trying to stall. It's time to use that nice pack that Marshall gave us."

"Are you sure?" she asked. The hesitation was thick in her voice.

"Positive. We knew that this might happen when we were planning out this operation. I can take the pain if you can."

"All right." Sydney moved her hands, and consequently Sark's, up to the middle of her back. She fumbled to lift her shirt up, and when she finally did, she was happy to still feel the small black pack secured tightly to her body. "Brace yourself."

Sark felt a sharp pain in his back as Sydney unhooked the latch that was holding the CIA device to her body. It had specifically been designed as a last ditch effort to cut an agent's bonds. Before giving it to Sydney, Marshall informed her that the pain would probably be a lot worse than she could imagine. He was quick to tell her to make sure she pointed the pack at the wall. The brunt of it would be absorbed, and it would decrease the pain inflicted upon her greatly. Tragically, Sydney wasn't up against a wall. She was up against Sark.

The small blades that were as sharp as razors cut into Sark's back and stayed there. Sydney ignored his growls of pain and lifted their arms up to where the blades were sticking in his back. She heard her partner give a small cry of pain as the movement shifted the blades slightly.

"Are you all right?" she whispered.

"I'm fine. Just get it over with."

Sydney began to rub their bounded hands against the razor blades. Because of their position, it normally would have been hard to guess if the blades were even cutting the rope. However, she could feel them cutting through her hands and arms, so she figured that at least every once in a while they must be cutting through ropes.

Sark cried out a little in pain again, and Sydney realized that if she was cutting her hands and arms, she must have been cutting his as well.

Thankfully, the rope snapped, and she pulled away from his back. Turning around, she saw the extent of the damage and almost passed out. His whole back looked like it had been thrown through a grinder. She knew he would bear scars from this for the rest of his life.

"You did me a favor once," Sydney said as she gently ran a hand over his face. He had fallen face down onto the floor when the rope broke. "I'm about to return it. And for that, I'm sorry."

Sydney rammed her bloody right hand hard into Sark's temple. He lost consciousness almost instantly. She got to work pulling out the razors from his back. When she got the first one out, she was glad that she had knocked him unconscious. The razor blades, so they could stick into a wall or other surface, had a rounded hook on one end. Sydney was almost afraid that she was doing more damage taking them out than what had happened when they had gone in.

She stopped a moment to get her bearings and then proceeded with her difficult task.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Sark felt himself slowing pull his mind and body back to the real world. He realized that he was lying on his stomach on the floor of what was probably the same room that Walker had thrown him and Sydney in. He could feel the throbbing pain in his back and arms, but the only thought on his mind was why did she hit him. "Syd…" he mumbled.

"I'm right here, Sark." He could feel her hand rub the back of his neck.

"Why the hell did you hit me?"

"Because of this." Sydney lifted Sark up into a sitting position, careful of where she placed his back. She held up one of the razor blades for him to see.

"Oh," he said. "Thanks."

"Anytime you need it, you know I'll be there to knock you unconscious." Sydney looked him over. "Are you going to be all right?"

Sark tried to stand up and felt his head explode in pain. He winced and leaned back against the wall, but he didn't sit back down again. "I'll be okay in a moment. I can work through the pain."

Sydney held out her left arm for Sark to lean into. "Someday you and I are going to live in a world where we don't have to say we can work through the pain."

"If we pull this off, it just may happen sooner or later." Sydney helped him hobble over to the door. "Isn't that door locked?" he asked.

"I utilized the time you spent unconscious. Did a little lock picking with my last birthday present from Marshall." Sydney pulled out two of her bobby pins from her hair. Sark saw that they were cleverly disguised lock picks. "They come in handy."

Sydney pushed the door open and helped Sark out of their temporary prison. By the time they had reached the end of the hallway, Sark had managed to push off of Sydney and start walking on his own. Granted he was still wobbling and had to stop a few times to lean against the wall, but he made it to the other end walking by himself.

He was thrown when Sydney stopped and threw her hand up to her right ear. "What's wrong?"

"My ear piece is working again," she said. "Vaughn, can you hear me?"

"Syd!" His voice was thick with worry. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, Sark and I are both fine."

"You had me worried. The last time my comlink to you died, you disappeared for two years and both our lives went to hell."

"Isn't going to happen again," she answered confidently. "Sark and I had a little run in with Simon Walker. He momentarily captured us, but you know there isn't a prison that can hold me."

"Great."

Sark tried to figure out what was happening on the other half of Sydney's conversation. Either his earpiece hadn't gone back online or Sydney had hit him a lot harder than she intended and he was now deaf in one ear. He was going with the ear-piece-not-online theory.

Sydney turned and smiled at him after he heard her thank Vaughn.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"Seems like my parents held up their end of the operation and then some. They made their way to the main computer and extracted as much information as possible. It was lucky I sent them in because Gray's location was changed a few hours ago. He's no longer being held with my sister."

"We have to split up, Sydney. We don't have time to go save one and then get the other."

Sydney got an I-know-something-you-don't-know smile on her face. "That won't be a problem. Grayson was being held in the same hallway where the main computer terminal is positioned. My parents wiped the computer's memory and picked him up on their way out of the building. All three of them are sitting with Weiss and Vaughn right now."

"So our goal is half accomplished."

"Sark, do you remember what I said about both of us not making it to Kaylee?" she asked hesitantly.

"You're not getting all fatalistic on me, Bristow," Sark said with fire in his eyes. "Not now, not ever. Both of us and Kaylee are going to make it out of this one alive."


"Oh I know that," she replied. "I was just trying to say earlier that I think one of us might have to hang back to create a distraction."

"Why didn't you just say that?"

Sydney smiled at him and began to explain where the computer had said Kaylee was being held. They weren't that far from it. The couple rushed through the hallways, no longer concerned with keeping a low profile, and Sydney continued to inform Sark. Just as she was finishing telling him the codes that should open Kaylee's prison door, they heard someone clear his throat behind them.

"Seems to me that this operation was a lot bigger than I thought," Walker said. "Word is that Spy Mummy and Spy Daddy were here too."

"Nice choice of words," Sydney said with a smug smile. "They were here. They're not anymore. Lucky for you, we still are. Two lefts and then a right, Sark." Sydney winked at him.

He laughed and walked towards Simon. When he was shoulder to shoulder with him, he leaned over and whispered, "Hell hath no fury like a Bristow woman. I would wish you good luck because you're probably going to need. But truth is I've always thought you were a prick. And you sort of pissed me off when you sent you sent your little woman to kidnap mine. So, I'm going to do you a favor."

Sark made a move to continue walking away from Simon but changed his mind. Instead he punched him hard in the face. He wasn't surprised when Simon hit the floor and didn't get up again.

"Sorry, Syd," he apologized.

"I was really itching for a fight," she replied.

"You'll still get one," said a voice from behind her. "And by the way, Mr. Sark, I'm not his little woman. It was the other way around."

"Go. Now," Sydney said harshly as she turned to face Anna. Sark obeyed her command and left her and Anna in a stare down.