Sydney awoke with the slight sense that something was off. It took her a moment to release that she was still in her hotel room with her mission party dress on. Her whole body felt like it was on fire, though. The heat around her was unbearable.

"What's going on?" she asked groggily.

She got her answer as a man burst through her hotel room door. The sound of splintering wood echoed in her eardrums, but she couldn't seem to comprehend what was going on. And it was at that moment that she realized that the heat wasn't coming from her body. It wasn't just the fact that she had had a bad dream which made her sweaty and hot. There were actual flames all around her.

Looking up at the man, she screamed, "What the hell are you doing here, Sark? And what the hell is going on?"

Sark didn't say a word. He just walked over to the bed and scooped her up in his arms.

"Would you put me down, you big brute?" she yelled.

"Syd, the whole building is on fire if you didn't notice. We need to get you out of here and fast."

She sighed as she realized that he probably wasn't going to put her down anytime soon. "I don't see how carrying me is going to help the situation."

"It's going to help the situation quite a bit actually. Three reasons. Number one, you're not wearing shoes. The ground is either going to be extremely hot or covered in flames. Burning your feet is just not an option."

"My feet can take a little pain. I've been through worse."

He ignored her as he carried her into the hallway. "Number two, I know where the main parts of the fire are. So I know the best way out. If you were to follow me, I would have to be constantly shouting instructions back to you. That leaves the small problem of massive smoke inhalation."

"I'm not some blind little schoolgirl. I know how to successfully get myself out of a burning building. I've done it multiple times. In Kabul. Orlando. Copenhagen. Kinshasa. And those are only off the top of my head. So don't give me that bullshit as an excuse."

"Would you stop fighting with me for once, Sydney? I am not going to put you down, and that's the end of this discussion."

Sydney glared at him for a minute, but finally admitted defeat. She managed to stay silent for a few seconds as he rushed down the hallway and turned right. "I'm curious. What was your third reason as to the necessity of this?"

"You want to know number three, huh?" he said with a smirk.

"Yes. Tell me before I start arguing with you again. I only have so much self-control, and I'm about maxed out for the night."

"I kind of enjoy carrying you."

"Figures. The whole building's on fire, and you still find a way to flirt with me."

"Enough talk. Remember number two."

Sydney bit her lip and tried to relinquish control of the situation completely to Sark. In the back of her mind, she was floored by the fact that this was so easy to do. One month earlier, you couldn't have forced her on pain of death to turn everything over to him. Things had changed so fast for her.

She pushed her head into his shoulders as the heat started to increase and make her face painfully tingly. They seemed to be walking towards the worst part of the fire. That made her a little nervous, but she just kept repeating over and over in her head that the only way to get out of this was to let Sark have her trust. It was just something she was going to have to make herself do.

Sark carried her all the way into the stairwell before putting her down. "There shouldn't be that many hot spots from now on. The fire was started on your floor."

"As much as I know it would kill you, we should stop by Vaughn's room and let him know what's going on. The hotel is going to be evacuated soon, I suppose. He's going to want to know that I made it out safely."

"Vaughn isn't your concern anymore," Sark said distantly.

"What the heck is that supposed to mean?"

"Please, Syd. For once just trust me when I say that Vaughn is not your main concern right now. Your main concern is getting yourself out of that bloody inferno and to a safe place."

"And I'm sure you know a great safe place to take me. Hell, you'll probably tell me that we spent a whole year of our lives there in a quaint little love nest." She noticed that her words seemed to hurt Sark. The expression on his face changed a little. "I'm sorry. That was too harsh even for you."

"You're going to have to trust me. I won't ask anything else of you ever. But I just want you to know that the fire was set with the purpose of killing you. I can't explain it all to you, but I will. When we get you to safety."

Sydney nodded, and Sark took that as a full-on okay. He grabbed her hand and started pulling her down the street. In the back of her head, she remembered thinking that she still wasn't wearing any shoes and the streets were filthy. But her head wasn't what was in charge at the moment. That would be her heart. And her heart was telling her head to shut up and follow this man.

Sark had her running through the streets for a good fifteen minutes before he pulled her into a small alleyway.

"If this were a slasher movie, you would be about to kill me," she babbled.

"Good thing this is just your typical action movie," he said sending her a wink as he pulled open a random door. "Go inside. I'll be there in a minute."

"Don't leave me alone," she begged him, surprised at the very fact that she was begging him. "I'm a little freaked out right now."

He nodded and followed her in the door. "I was just going to call a few colleagues of mine and iron out the situation before I laid the whole thing out for you. But if you're scared, I won't leave you."

"Thank you." Sydney looked around and found herself staring at a nicely furnished apartment. "What is this place?"

"This is one of the safe houses I keep operational for times like these. Make yourself comfortable." He went over to a set of drawers and pulled out a few items of clothing. "You might want to change."

That was when Sydney noticed that her dress had seen better days. There were tears up and down the sides and one whole strap was missing. She turned back to Sark and recognized that he hadn't fair any better. Most of his clothing had smoke stains and burns all over it. The most discouraging part of his appearance was his right forearm. It was burned at least slightly and bleeding rather badly.

Without thinking, Sydney ripped off a section of her dress and walked over to him. "We need to put a little pressure on this to stop the bleeding. How did this happen?"

"I was breaking down the door to your hotel room, and it wasn't most obedient thing I've encounter. Plus there were the huge flames preventing me from even touching the doorknob."

She nodded and pulled the mock bandage tight. When he stiffened noticeably, she flinched. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay, Sydney. It's better that I feel the pain. If I didn't, we might have a lot bigger problem on our hands." He looked into her eyes intently.

"What?" she finally asked, breaking their mutual solemn gaze.

"You were happy, right? When we were together?"

"Sark, you know that I don't remember the two years we spent together. I can't answer that question."

"No, Sydney. Not the two years we spent together. The week we spent together in our old house. You seemed happy."

She broke eye contact with him. This conversation was beginning to make her feel uncomfortable. "I was happy. For whatever reasons, I enjoyed my time with you."

He nodded. "I just wanted to make sure that I hadn't dreamed that up, that you really were happy. Thank you for admitting it. I know it took a lot of courage."

"What do you mean by that?" Sydney walked back to where she had left the clothes he had handed her. Knowing that she probably didn't have to be shy around Sark, she pulled off her dress and stepped into the sweatpants and long-sleeve t-shirt.

"I know that you don't trust me completely. You still see me as a killer, which I have to admit I still am. And I know that I scare you a lot of the time we're together. I don't want to, but I do."

"You haven't scared me that much lately," she said as she leaned against the wall. "You've been too busy being an indispensable help to frighten me."

He nodded again but didn't say anything in return.

"So what exactly is this problem we have on our hands?" she asked. "You promised me that you would explain when you got me to safety. I assume that this place is as safe as it comes in Russia."

Sark smiled weakly and motioned for her to sit down. "You're not going to like what I'm about to tell you, Sydney. In fact, I'm one hundred percent positive you won't believe me. That was part of the reason I wanted to make sure that you were happy in the time you spent with me. Knowing that you trust me at least on a small level enough to be happy, that'll probably be vital to you accepting what I'm about to tell you."

"Remember what I said about you not scaring me? I take that back."

"I'm sorry if this is scaring you. I'm just trying to ease into this gently. Like I said, you're not going to believe me at initially. Which is why I was in St. Petersburg in the first place. I had to get some concrete proof to show you. Though judging by what happened, I probably shouldn't have waited so long to show you."

"Okay. Slow down. Start from the beginning."

"When we were living together, during your missing two years, you told me about your struggle to come to terms with who SD-6 was, with who your father was, with who you were. You pretty much told me everything that had gone on in your life from the death of Daniel Hecht to realizing that you were in love with your handler, Michael Vaughn."

"I really told you all of that?"

"You trusted me then. Just like I believe you trust me now. Which is why this is going to hurt so much."

"Tell me," she insisted.

"I had a hunch by the stories you told me that something was wrong with your job at the CIA. So I started investigating it. You found out and told me to stop. I realized that you were probably comparing this situation to when you told Will Tippin to stop investigating Danny's death. So I did. I never found the answers I was searching for. Then, you turned back up in my life a few weeks ago. You seemed so willing to give our love another shot. But there was one roadblock."

"Vaughn," Sydney supplied. Her face paled. "You didn't do anything to hurt him, did you? You weren't the one that started the fire?"

"No," he answered honestly. "I know that hurting Michael Vaughn would wound you too much. Though at times I've really wished that I had just killed him and ended your pain."

"That's a horrible thing to say."

"Not so horrible if you knew what I knew. I wasn't the one who started the fire, Sydney. Michael Vaughn was."

She stared at him in shock. "I don't believe you. Why would Vaughn set a fire that you claim had the purpose of killing me?"

"Because technically Michael Vaughn didn't start it." Sark took a deep breath and sat down next to Sydney. He grasped her hand and looked her straight in the eye. "Michael Vaughn doesn't exist."

"I don't understand. Vaughn has been my handler for years now. Of course he exists."

"The man you know as Michael Vaughn isn't really him. A drunk driver killed Michael Vaughn when he was nine years old."

Sydney shook her head furiously. "This makes no sense. Why are you doing this? What do you have to gain from telling me this?"


"I have nothing to gain and everything to lose. Which is the one thing going for me. The one thing that might actually make you calm down and listen to all that I'm about to say." Sark reached into his pocket and pulled out a disk. "Thankfully, the fire didn't effect this. Do you recognize it?"

"That's the disk that you made during our mission yesterday."

"Right. This is the proof I had been searching for about my hunch a few years back. I continued my search when I realized that you were going to chose Vaughn over me."

"I never said I was going to chose Vaughn."

"You were, Sydney. He was the easy, comfortable choice. And that's exactly what you need right now. Which is just another reason why this is so hard."

"Obviously, I'm pretty damn rational right now. So explain to me how the Vaughn I know doesn't really exist."

Sark nodded and placed the disk in her open hand. "Michael Vaughn got killed when he was nine. At the time, his mother, William Vaughn's wife, was working for the KGB along with your mother. That was the reason your mother was ordered to kill William Vaughn. He had begun to suspect his wife of working for the KGB. Their superiors decided he needed to be eliminated, and Antoinette Vaughn shouldn't have any physical part in it."


"So, my mother killed Vaughn's father so that his mother wouldn't be pinpointed? This whole thing isn't that believable."


"Nothing in our lives is believable. Which is why you should believe me now. The real Michael Vaughn's death was innocent and had nothing to do with any organization. However, Antoinette was pulled out of her assignment. Her son's death was covered up completely, and she was taken to a KGB safe house in France. She lived there for eight years without anyone being the wiser."

"Eight years in a safe house? She must have gone nearly insane," Sydney joked.

"I would be mad at you for your inappropriate humor if I didn't know it was one of your defense mechanisms." Sydney glared at him. "After eight years, she was assigned a young agent by the name of Dmitri Renaldi. By this time, your mother had faked her death, and Antoinette had become a member of the Man's organization."

"Everything you're telling me, my mother already knew about?"


"No. She had no clue that this was going on. Antoinette was keeping her own side operation. Your mother only knew that her old friend had become unquestionably distraught all of the sudden about her late husband's ordered assassination and chose to leave the country. She didn't know about Michael Vaughn's death."

"My mother was innocent of this all?" she asked.

"Completely. Antoinette Vaughn's side operations concerned the CIA. She wanted to plant a mole in the CIA to filter back useful information to her. This was her way of moving up in your mother's organization."

"Basically, you're telling me that the man I know as Michael Vaughn is really Dmitri Renaldi."

"Yes." Sark looked at Sydney concerned as he saw tears begin to fall down her cheeks. "Are you all right?"


"It's a little hard to process. The man I loved was a double agent. And I never once realized it."

"Renaldi is an exceptionally good agent." He sighed. "I'm sorry to have to tell you this, Syd. He took it upon himself to get close to you. To even start a romantic relationship with you. He saw it as advantageous."

Sydney turned away from him and took a moment to try to recompose herself. When the tears finally stopped, she turned back towards Sark. "So, this man started the fire tonight? The fire that was meant to kill me?"

"Yes. The information I stole from the Covenant tonight explained that he was working for them. And that he was being ordered to take you out because you were a proven asset to the CIA."

"Glad to know my work is appreciated," she said.

"I came to the hotel to stop him from achieving his objective. His hotel room was empty though. It looks like he set some sort of timer device to cause the fire and left. By the time I realized this, it was too late to stop the fire. The only thing I could think of was getting to your room and getting you out."

Sydney nodded automatically to let him know she was listening. She wasn't sure she was actually processing this new information, though.

"This is too much for you," he declared. "I shouldn't have laid it all on you at once. I apologize."

"It's just a lot to process," she replied. Breaking out of her small trance, she noticed that he had gotten up from the couch and was heading to the door. "Where are you going?"

"You probably want to be alone with your thoughts right now. There's a lot for you to sort out."

"Don't go," she insisted for the second time that night.

He turned back towards her. "I don't think it would be a good idea for me to stay right now."

"I don't care if it's a good idea or not. I want you here." She gave him a smile. He noticed that it was rather weak, but at least it seemed genuine.

She got up from her seat on the couch and grasped his hand, leading him over to the bed. "Just stay with me through the night. That's all I ask."

"Sydney, you should know by now that I'd willingly stay with you for as long as you wanted me, too. You're my top priority."

She lay down while pulling him next to her. He smiled to himself as she pulled his arm around her midsection. There had been many times in their two years together that she had done this very action in the middle of the night. It was surprisingly nice to realize, then and now, that she didn't want to lose physical contact with him.

"I think you're processing this whole thing amazingly well," he whispered in her ear.

She shifted her body so that she was facing him. "Can I tell you the real reason why that is?"

"You can tell me whatever you want."

She leaned over so that her head was snuggled in next to him. "I was going to tell Vaughn that it was over."

"That what was over?" Sark asked, not understanding.

"That our relationship was over. That it wasn't working. You see, there was the little problem of me being in love with another man." Sydney looked up into his eyes. "I was going to choose you, Julian. I was always going to choose you."

Sark looked at her in awe. He had no idea what to say.

"I figure that I've gotten through a lot of hard stuff in my life. I can get through this. I'm not going to deny that I'm not hurt. Because I am really aching inside. A man I trusted with my life was using me." She laughed. "I think I finally know what my father was talking about when he tried to explain his feelings towards my mother."

She smiled at him again and sniffed his neck lightly. "I always loved the smell that was distinctly yours. I can remember that from our two years together."

"You're getting your memory back?"

"Bit by bit and rather slowly, but yes, I am. And I'm happy. Happy to finally be able to know what it was like to be with a man I loved and trusted completely. A man who was so willing to give everything up just to be with me."

"I'm still willing, Sydney," he said, smiling down at her.

She sat up and looked at him. "We're going to figure this out, you know."

"Figure what out?"

"How to make this work. Figure out how to live our lives together. It won't be easy. But I'm willing to try if you are."

"You know, those were the exact words you said to me after I proposed. You said that we were going to figure out how to make this work, how to live our lives together."

"Listen to me. I'm extremely intelligent."

"I know that," Sark said as he pulled her in close again. "I love you, Sydney. There was never any one else in the world for me but you."

"It took me awhile, but I think the same goes for me. I can honestly say that I love you, too. And this time I'm not going to let that feeling slip through my fingers." She leaned in and kissed him softly and slowly. "You are mine forever."

"I've been waiting a long time for you to realize that."

"Well, I know it now. And nothing will ever be the same. Not now that I found you."

She could feel her eyes begin to droop shut. And she wasn't scared of what was to come in her dreams. Because she had made her choice and she couldn't be any happier.