Sydney stared Anna down as they began to circle around one another. "I've been waiting for this for a long time," Anna said.
"I aim to please," Sydney said as she took a halfhearted swing at Anna's head. She wasn't surprised to watch Anna duck out of the way in plenty of time. Hitting her wasn't the goal right now. Sydney was focusing on sizing her up and deciding what it was going to take to win this fight.
"Syd, what's going on?" Vaughn's voice rang through her earpiece.
"Can't talk right now. I'm getting reacquainted with an old friend. I'll fill you in when I've kicked her ass."
Taking full advantage of the distraction Vaughn caused, Anna kicked at Sydney and struck her square in the chin. Sydney was propelled back into the wall but swiftly recovered. She kicked Anna right back in the stomach.
"You really piss me off sometimes," Sydney said as Anna shook off the blow.
"Same here." Anna made a move to slam her fist into Sydney's head. Sydney blocked her and knocked her feet out from under her at the same time.
"Bet that pissed you off," she said as she backed up. She didn't want to end this fight quickly. Anna need to stay occupied until she was sure Sark had had enough time to save her sister.
Anna glared as she stood up. She subtly reached into her pocket and grabbed something. With Sydney momentarily distracted by her thoughts, Anna was able to fling the small knife at her face.
Sydney felt a small pain on her right cheek and put her hand up to feel it. Her hand came away with blood on it. The wound wasn't that deep, though. "Was that supposed to stop me?" she asked.
"No," Anna replied. "Only slow you down."
Sydney felt her head start to spin a little, and her body started to feel really heavy. "You drugged the tip of that knife? Nice touch."
"I thought so," Anna said as she punched Sydney a couple times. "It also conveniently severed the link to whomever you were talking with before."
She held her hand up to her ear. The knife had nicked the part of the earpiece that was sticking out slightly from her ear. She couldn't hear Vaughn's reassuring voice anymore. Hopefully he would trust her to make it out of her alive. They were so close to accomplishing their objectives that she'd really hate to have it ruined now.
Sydney took a few more punches and then kicked her opponent in the side and used the momentum created by her kick to fling Anna into the cement wall. She heard the crunch of bones breaking and saw Anna wince in pain.
"I've been waiting to hear that sound since Mount Aconcagua."
"Oh?" Anna said through her pain. "You didn't appreciate when I kicked you up the ladder and left you for dead?"
"That was your mistake. You should have made sure I had stayed dead." Sydney gave her a hard uppercut. "I have a bad habit of coming back from the dead. Ask everyone." She threw another few punches before the effort of movement with the combination of whatever drug Anna had sent her way made her black out slightly. Seizing the moment of weakness, Anna kicked her effectively sending Sydney sailing into the wall.
She fell into a heap at the bottom of the wall. The blow had stunned her so much that she could only helplessly listen while Anna strolled over to where she was laying. She felt a hard tug on her hair as Anna grabbed her hair viciously and picked her up.
"You're slipping," Anna whispered in her face. She had Sydney pinned up against the wall and was holding her hands against her throat.
"Wait," Sydney whispered in a small, defeated voice.
"Want to beg for mercy?" Anna asked, smirking slightly.
"No, I just wanted to tell you that we're really sisters. Seems my father really got around back in the day."
Anna looked at her in confusion. Sydney took the moment of opportunity to smile wickedly at her opponent right before she headbunted her as hard as she could. Anna collapsed into a pile, unconscious.
"Idiot," she muttered. As she walked away from her fallen adversary, she called, "I learned that one from my sister. Remind me to thank her when I see her next."
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Sark ran through the halls trying to desperately remember if it was two rights and then a left or one right and then one left. Or maybe it was two lefts and then two rights. Normally, he would never make a mistake like forgetting directions in a mission. The possibility of what would happen if he screwed this up was overpowering all his senses, making him a lot worse at what he did.
Sighing, he hoped he remembered correctly and took the next left.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Sydney made her way through the front lobby of the Inganno Corporation, exiting the same way she entered. If her mental concept of time was pretty accurate, she expected to see that everyone had made it to the van slightly. She had meant to defeat Anna in a little less time than it had taken. So that meant there was no way that Sark wouldn't have rescued her sister already.
There were people running everywhere in the front lobby. "Guess Mom and Dad did an amazing job of screwing up their computer system," she thought to herself. She tried to walk slowly and stay inconspicuous; though her battered and bruised body might give her away.
She noticed that there was a person standing in front of the main door with his arms crossed, scanning the crowd. The drug Anna has poisoned her with was still doing a job to her system so she was unable to focus on the person's face. "That's strange," she thought to herself. "Everyone else is panicking, and this man is just standing calmly at the door. No care in the world. How the hell am I going to get him to move?"
"Ms. Bristow," the man said turning to look at her. "Sydney."
She still couldn't make his face get into focus, but she would know that slimy voice anywhere.
"I should have known you'd have something to do with this, Sloane," she hissed.
"You can stop trying to act tough, Sydney," he said. "I know that Anna drugged you. Don't try to pretend you're in any condition to fit me."
"But I am," said a voice with a thick Irish accent that Sydney placed to her right. She saw this second person, or rather blob, hit Sloane squarely in the jaw. As soon as he hit the floor, her rescuer was slapping a pair of handcuffs onto his arm.
"Hello, Syd," the man said.
"Who are you?" she squinted her eyes but the face didn't come into focus any better.
"You don't recognize my voice?" the man asked. "We worked together for two years to bring down the Covenant." The man paused. "If I tell you, will you promise not to hit me?"
"I promise. I won't hit you until you have time to explain why I would want to hit you."
"My name's Colin Meyer. But you know me better under another alias. Simon Walker."