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PART FIFTEEN

The group navigated their way steadily through the tree-tops, Sark still shaky on his feet but holding his own. Weiss could periodically be heard murmuring a mantra - 'Height won't hurt you...'

I'm not good at thank-yous, but... Sark tried to express his thanks.

I would have done it for anyone... Sydney tried to remain blasé.

Sark half smiled, he had anticipated she would say that. It was interesting how much he understood her, how well he knew her... how much he felt for her.

Sydney, reading his thoughts, turned her head slightly and smiled secretly at Sark, the kind of rare smile that was reserved only for someone with whom one shared the deepest bond - knowing something together that no-one else knew, feeling something that no-one else felt.

Suddenly a loud breaking sound rang out, instinctively Sydney ducked, gripping onto the large branch she was walking on. She looked around to see Vaughn swinging helplessly from his with one hand, a crack down the middle revealing the source of the disturbance.

"Vaughn!" Sydney whispered to him, hoping that their position hadn't been given away.

He struggled to pull his other hand up to grasp the branch.

I'll get him...

Sark was closest to Vaughn and darted around the highest branches to reach him.

He sat on the branch next to Vaughn, gripping its width with his legs. He reached out to Vaughn, who grabbed Sark's hand with his free one. Slowly, Vaughn released his grip on the branch and grabbed hold of Sark's other hand.

Sark smiled at Vaughn. "I could let you go now, and you would die..."

A look of panic crossed Vaughn's face.

"... but I'm not going to. That's gotta tell you something, so trust me, I'm not exactly on your side, but I am definitely not on Moore's"

Sark pulled Vaughn up onto the branch but as he did so the tree began to sway and Sark lost his grip and was swung upside down, his arms and legs gripping the top of the branch from the underside.

Can you get back up?

Sark smiled and let go of the branch with his hands - the only thing fastening him to the tree was his legs which were crossed over at the front, his arms dangling toward the ground precariously.

"Height won't hurt you" Weiss breathed in and out rapidly.

In one fluid movement Sark spun himself back onto the top of the branch, accidentally knocking the small silver disc from his temple.

"Limber..." Weiss nodded his approval.

Sydney exaggerated a silent applause.

"Thank-you" Sark grinned. "Thank-you very much".

Vaughn nodded his thanks to Sark.

They could hear the disc clattering as it every branch on the way down.

"Don't worry about the disc..." Sydney looked to Sark. "Let's keep moving."

***

Sydney, Vaughn, Weiss and Sark reached the river without further incident. The covenant soldiers, searching unsuccessfully for them amidst the forestry, had been oblivious to their travels in the canopy above them.

"How the hell do we get down there?" Weiss looked at the sheer drop down the cliff face to the river.

"Marshall?" Sydney roused Marshall on coms.

"I've already thought ahead, check around, I air-dropped some parachutes before I launched the assault on The Farm 2... there's no need to say anything... you know..., I'mm good, but I was just doing my job."

"You're a genius Marshall." Sydney smiled as she imagined the red blush creeping over Marshall's face.

"Well, not quite, well nearly cos my IQ is at a level far beyond most regular-smart people but, not quite genius level yet, maybe in afew more years, if I can get some time to study, you know, I was thinking about going back and doing some classes..."

"Thanks Marshall" Vaughn cut him off.

"Got 'em!" Weiss held up a parachute triumphantly.

"Let's move!" Sydney put on her chute and the others followed suit, Sark flinching as he attempted to put his on.

Vaughn jumped first and Weiss next, the chutes opening with a thud as the air scooped them up and carried them onto the waiting boat gently.

Sydney Sark were left alone on the cliff top, the wind flicking about their faces dramatically.

"I won't tell them you tried to escape..." Sydney looked to Sark earnestly. "You can keep working for the CIA, you won't have to go back to prison..." Sydney smiled hopefully.

Sark smiled back, but it was a smile etched with a deep sadness, his eyes reflecting the look she had seen in them so long ago when she had observed him in his cell. It was the look of a caged tiger or a wild animal at the moment it realizes it has been captured - that it realizes it will never be free again.

"Sark..." That look made Sydney's heart ache.

Sark winced as he struggled to pull on his chute.

"Don't say anything Syd... there's nothing to say."

She could feel tears prickling at the back of her eyes. But she had to bring him in. She had to do her job.

Abandoning his parachute for the moment he stepped closer to her, his hand tracing a gentle line down the side of her face.

She took one last look into those brilliant blue eyes, eyes she could have sworn were misting with tears, before he reached in and kissed her passionately, deeply, almost desperately.

Sydney felt every aspect of her being, and every aspect of his, melding, entwining, percolating into each other until they were one entity, one being standing atop the edge of the earth at the edge of time.

She felt that if this moment were to ever end, she would most certainly die, for how could she live knowing that part of her was gone.

"Well isn't this romantic!"

Sark and Sydney turned at the sound of Moore's voice Sark's hand around Sydney's her waist protectively.

Moore smiled at Sark and licked her lips like a cat about to devour a trapped rat.

"Don't waste my time, Tarra, kill me or let me go."

A gunshot rung out, the strong wind quickly ripping the sound away.

Sark dropped to one knee as the bullet tore through his calf muscle.

"Uh-uh, I'm gonna kill the skinny American first..." Tarra narrowed her exquisite eyes. "So you get to watch..."

Sark closed his eyes and whispered to Sydney sadly. "I'm sorry..."

"For the kiss?"

He shook his head.

"For this..."

At that Sydney felt herself lift up. Sark's arm around her waist reached for her chute cord and he pulled it as he threw her over the cliff.

"Sark! Sark what have you done?!!" Sydney looked up at the cliff top through tears, calling to Sark. But the wind carried her and her voice away from him and toward Vaughn and Weiss.

"How gallant of you, trying to protect Sydney... how brave." Moore sneered sarcastically at Sark.

Moore stepped closer to him, her gun sitting comfortably aimed at his chest.

Sark stumbled backwards, another bullet wound allowing the little blood he had left to stream from his body.

"So this is it..." Sark's Irish accent faded to one far closer to that of his homeland.

"C'mon now Sarkie, Julian, you always knew one of us was gonna end up killing the other, it was inevitable."

"I just never thought you'd be the one doing the killing and I'd be the one doing the dying."

Moore tilted her head to the side as she took one final step towards him, her gun touching his chest.

"Yeah, it's funny how these things work out."

Sark closed his eyes and sighed, his final words no more than a long, elliptical sound resonating sorrow and regret. "Yeah, it is..."

Sark grabbed hold of Tarra Moore's waist as he fell backwards, their bodies tumbling over the cliff face.

Sark smiled characteristically. Poetic, he thought, that they would die together, holding each other, two entities, so different, but unequivocally the same wretched thing, bound to each other forever as they descended from the world of the living and into the eternal depths below.

Sydney tried to scream as she saw the two figures flung over the cliff and onto the rocks below, but no sound escaped her throat.

This was the end, she thought. The end of everything. And she guessed that it was elegiac that there would be nothing - no sound - no feeling, at the end.