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Chapter Thirteen:
Into The Fire
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Drifting through the clouds, Sydney felt as though she were weightless. An odd sense of calm settled over her, blanketed her in a peaceful shroud. Vaughn's arms were wrapped tightly around her, his head resting on her shoulder as she stared out the window at the vast expanse of sky beyond. The knowledge of the truth she had learned seemed to wash over her like a tide, pulling back and then consuming her once more. Only now the pain had receded, the sorrow, the anger, all had faded away the moment she had made her decision. She would end it now, once and for all, and then she could be free. Vaughn would be free. She didn't know how it would happen or what she had to do in order to achieve it, she would not know until the time came. She felt this knowledge settle deep inside her, emerging from the depths of all else she had learned. The final lesson in all of this was that she had made her own choices, many of them had been wrong, but she could still choose to make it right.
Irina and Jack had left the two of them alone to gather their thoughts, the two of them had retreated to the back of the plane where they seemed to be discussing her decision in hushed intensity. Sydney ignored them, all that mattered at this moment was that she and Vaughn were safe. They were together and she was going to do everything in her power to keep it that way.
"Are you sure about this?" Vaughn's voice drifted into her ear, his lips hovering over the flesh before dropping down to plant a kiss beneath her earlobe. His grip on her tightened unconsciously and she knew that he was more frightened than she was, of what she had to do.
"I'm sure," Sydney whispered. Her breath fogged against the glass of the window, creating a distorted reflection of the two of them. His eyes sought hers out in the glass and she smiled gently. "I don't want to run anymore, Vaughn."
A sigh drifted from his lips, caressing her gently and he nodded imperceptibly against her shoulder. Dropping his eyes, he pressed his lips to the curve of her neck and seemed lost in thought. "I'll be with you every step of the way," he assured her, though she knew he was really reassuring himself. As long as he was with her, he believed that he could control the circumstances around them. He believed that he could protect her. Sydney knew that he was more than capable of doing so but in her heart, she wondered if he could withstand this kind of power. The power that Rambaldi had created. They had both seen what his power had done, the extent of damage that could be inflicted.
There remained only one difference between them now, Vaughn still could not fully believe in the Rambaldi prophecies, he never trusted them. Sydney had not either, until this moment. In this moment, she knew that this was what she was meant to do. She felt a certainty in her heart that if she did not fulfil this role, all would be lost.
Sydney's hands drifted onto Vaughn's arms, where they clasped her tightly across her breast. She gripped the folds of the black cloth that shrouded his skin from her sight and sighed softly. He was still trying to protect her, he had let her go, not once, but twice in the past two years. He was not going to lose her again. He had promised her that all the way back in LA, only then she had not known the underlying implication that lingered there. She had not known what had transpired between them during her missing time, now she knew.
Only now he was powerless, he could not change her mind, he could not change their circumstances. All he could do was hold on to her and shield her from harm, fight for her. He was already waging an internal battle, they both were, it was only a matter of time before those battles were lost to the larger picture. There were more battles to be fought, she knew what she was fighting for but she was beginning to wonder who she was really fighting. Rambaldi, the CIA, the Covenant, Lauren, Sloane, the list ran endlessly in her mind. She was engaged with foes too numerous to keep track of. Many were faceless, others were far too familiar.
Sydney was stirred from her musings by Irina, who approached quietly and took the seat across from the two of them. Sydney's eyes shifted slightly to her mother who was watching them with cool eyes. There was mystery that stirred in those depths, Irina was a calculating woman. Sydney knew that she did nothing without a purpose. There was a larger picture in Irina's mind that Sydney could not yet see. Every time she caught a glimpse, Irina threw her off track with a warm smile, a loving touch, a kind word, a gesture to prove her love.
"What is the Rambaldi device?" Sydney asked suddenly. Irina did not seem surprised by the question, her eyes only brightened slightly at the sound of her daughter's voice and she smiled. Her smile was filled with intrigue, a secret knowledge that nobody else held.
"That is the strange part actually," Irina shook her head. Vaughn's head turned slightly, glancing from Sydney to Irina but he did not speak. He merely studied the woman before them just as Sydney had been doing.
"When you retrieved the Rambaldi artifact, it was not assembled. It was in pieces and contained a key to the assembly. When I put the pieces together, it formed the most unlikely object." Sydney frowned as she mentally ran through a list of all the bizarre Rambaldi artifacts she had uncovered while working for SD-6. What could be stranger than an artificial heart?
"What was it?" Sydney asked cautiously, studying her mother for any sign of deception.
"It formed a doorway, only there was no door. A gateway of sorts, but what it leads to, I do not know. I do not have the power to activate it, only you can do that."
Sydney frowned, her confusion increasing as well as the sense of foreboding that hung over her. "A gateway to what?"
Irina shrugged and shook her head, "I don't know," her dark eyes sparkled with sudden anticipation. "But we'll know soon enough," her eyes darted out the window. "I believe that we're here."
Sydney turned her gaze back to the window to see the clouds clearing as they descended, coming back down to the earth. She felt the burden that had hung on her shoulders returning, only to be slowly eased away by Vaughn's touch as he rubbed her back soothingly. He seemed to know exactly what she was thinking, how she was feeling, at all times. He was always there to support her, even when she did not realize that she needed it.
Sydney met his eyes with a smile of gratitude and was transfixed by what she found there. His face was carefully composed, a mask of courage and strength, but his eyes revealed the truth. Those swirling green depths were filled with fear and the depth of love he had for her, she felt herself getting lost in them, pulled into his soul where the roots of his love lay waiting.
He squeezed her hand and she forced her eyes away, her body moving without thinking. Standing upright, one foot in front of the other until she came face to face with her destiny.
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The Rambaldi device had been assembled, and then hidden, by Irina in the city of Barcelona, where she had long ago purchased one of her safest facilities. The compound sprawled out before Sydney, Jack, and Vaughn now as they stepped off the jet into Irina's private airstrip. An immense structure, it seemed to jut out against the horizon, contrasting oddly with the warm Spanish twilight as it slowly faded to black. It would then be swallowed by the night sky, unseen by any traveler who might bypass the high fence and rough terrain.
Perched on the coast of the Mediterranean, Sydney reveled in the feeling of the breeze as it swept in off of the sea. She drew in a deep breath and laced her fingers through Vaughn's. Every moment took them closer to the final step. She could feel it in her bones, she could smell it in the sweet air. They were so close.
Vaughn paused beside her and she glanced at him questioningly, he was gazing out toward the sea, brow furrowed. She followed his gaze out to where the sun was slowly sinking into the clear waters, bathing the world around them in a soft glow. The sea was calm, almost too calm. It was like the breathless moment before a storm hit, when the wind slowed to a stop and the waves pulled back. It would only take a moment for the water to rush forward, for the rain to hit, for them to be swept away by the tide.
Sydney stepped closer to him and touched his face gently, "What is it?" Her words were soft, they had both learned long ago to trust their instinct. They would have been dead many times over if they had not.
Vaughn shook his head and scrubbed a hand over his face, smoothing away the wrinkles. "Nothing."
"Vaughn," Sydney's voice held a warning tone as her gaze swept the area once more. She did not need to say anything further to convince him.
"Something doesn't feel right," he admitted. His eyes narrowed as he studied the horizon, as if searching for something that he could not find. At length he sighed and let his eyes drop, "I'm probably just paranoid."
Sydney was not so easily convinced, her eyes remained on the horizon, oblivious to Vaughn's eyes landing on her. His breath tangled in his chest, smothering him, at the mere sight of her. The warmth of the twilight lit her skin with a soft pink glow, she seemed to radiate love. Her hair fluttering around her face in the wind as she lifted one hand to shield the sun's glare from her eyes and gaze out more intently at the horizon. He felt his love for her surge up inside of him, from the secret places where he had hidden it for far too long. It was almost instinct by now, to hide his love away, but moments like this reminded him that there was no reason.
He memorized the moment, the way her hand felt wrapped in his, the way her eyelids fluttered as she scanned the horizon, the gentle sway of her body that moved in time with the slightest of breezes. He had never loved her more.
Sydney shook her head and sighed, turning back to him. The look on his face, stopped her in her tracks. She was startled for a second, the cool mask had dropped away to reveal every emotion, it was written on his flesh. For a split second, she could only stare at him, and then she smiled. It warmed him from the inside-out, filling him with hope.
"Come on," she leaned forward and kissed him softly, attempting to assuage his fear and fill him with the hope that she was struggling to hold onto. "Let's end this damn thing once and for all." He grinned and turned away, the sunlight warming their backs as they followed Irina and Jack into the compound.
Neither of them could see the dark shape of a boat that appeared on the horizon once they turned away, sailing straight toward the compound.
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Three silent figures followed Irina through the twisting labyrinth of the compound. Irina walked the halls with an ease borne of years of experience and familiarity with the place, but the twists and turns were baffling to Sydney. However, she knew that her mother would settle for nothing less intricate. She was a woman with many secrets that she prided on keeping hidden.
At length, they came to a wide hallway filled with doors. Irina strode purposefully to the door in the center, elaborately carved mahogany that swung open on silent hinges. Sydney thought that she could recognize several Rambaldi symbols carved into the wood as she passed into the room.
What she found inside halted her in her tracks. Vaughn and Jack stepped aside wordlessly. Irina approached the structure with a sort of reverence, and stood to one side. She looked at Sydney expectantly, but Sydney could not tear her eyes away from the artifact.
The room was sparsely furnished, a large desk occupied one corner, littered with various layers of parchment and ink. A few chairs were sporadically placed on the far wall, but in the center of the room stood the Rambaldi artifact. It dwarfed everything beneath it, the huge oak desk was nothing more than a stool beside it. It stood easily twenty feet high, grazing the tall beams of the ceiling. It was no more than six feet wide however, a large archway that created a portal in the center of the room. Where the portal led, Sydney could not begin to fathom. From where she stood, before the structure, she could only see the opposite side of the room through the hollow center. There was a tingling in the back of her consciousness however, an understanding that this was indeed a gateway and that once she entered, she would never be able to return.
Carved from a deep red stone that was reminiscent of freshly spilled blood, the arch was covered with intricate carving and ancient text. At the top, where the two sides of the arch met in a point, the familiar symbol of Rambaldi was etched deep into the stone. Sydney approached it silently, circling around the arch and inspecting every inch of it. She could not recognize many of the symbols, nor could she decipher the ancient text, but the sight of this structure gave her an eerie sense of deja vu. A cold chill ran down her spine, prickling her skin, raising the hair on the back of her neck. It was almost as if she had done this before, or she had always known what this structure was. The passage to her destiny.
The symbols on the stone appeared to be moving slightly before her eyes, changing as soon as she looked away, morphing into new images just out of sight. She could feel herself coming closer to the structure, or perhaps the room was getting smaller, perhaps the artifact was moving toward her. She could not be sure, everything around her suddenly seemed to be shrouded with a thin veil of mist. She could not turn her eyes away from the Rambaldi artifact, it seemed to thrum with a quiet pulse of power. As if it were a living entity, just waiting for her to walk willingly into its open jaws. It would swallow her whole, and at this moment she did not care.
The red stone seemed to be glowing now, red-hot heat like coals on the fire. She could practically feel the flames licking at her flesh. The world around her faded into darkness and she was alone with only her own soul and the gateway to what seemed to be the end of the world. Or perhaps it was the beginning.
She was enthralled by the pulse of the power, it hovered just beyond her touch and she reached forward. Her body seemed to respond slowly to the racing thoughts that filled her mind, as if she were moving in slow motion, walking through water to reach the oasis on the other side.
Her hand hovered above the red stone, her foot was inches away from stepping through. She could feel the power radiating through her, rattling her bones in her flesh, filling her with a white-hot heat that almost blinded her. Her fingers inched closer to the red stone, seconds away from touching the Rambaldi artifact.
It was then that the world around her exploded, angry voices shattering the dream that she had lingered in. Reality rushed in around her, screaming in her ears. She fell back away from the stone structure, blinking in a daze, her hand automatically reaching for the gun at her side.
She whirled around, gun in hand, stretching out to level instantly on the first foe that met her. Instantly she knew that everything had gone wrong, she should have trusted Vaughn's instinct. But it was too late.
She found herself staring into the cruel eyes of Lauren Reed, past the barrel of a gun. A gunshot exploded through the air, freezing the room into stillness. The only movement was the arc of the bullet, speeding faster than the space between a hearbeat. It struck flesh, dove into a body and Sydney felt blood spray onto her numb skin. Time snapped back into place and with it, came the swirl of chaos.
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