Amy knocked softly on Sydney's bedroom door the next morning. Everyone had come stumbling in with their half-asleep looks and morning coffees in the past fifteen minutes, and Amy didn't want any of them hearing what she had to ask Sydney. She really didn't want anyone to know about the crazy request she was about to make.

"Come in," she heard from behind the door.

She pushed the door open and smiled to see Sydney sitting in bed, surrounded by mounds of papers. She had obviously been up half the night working on research. "Did you sleep at all?"

"Not really," Sydney said with a smile, pulling off the glasses she wore. "It's a little hard without him here beside me."

Amy was thrown back a little. It was hard adjusting to the amount of love Sydney had developed for a man she had never met, but only hear of. She had heard non-stop from both her brother and her handler about how this was the kind of guy she would run in to when she was out in the field. He wouldn't hesitate to use her or even kill her to further his plans. And this was the man Sydney loved.

"What's up?" Sydney asked.

"I had a small idea last night. It was too late to tell you about it then. Though you probably wouldn't have been sleeping by the looks of this room. Anyway, I wanted to throw it past you, and maybe give you some of the reasons why I think it's our only option."

"Go ahead." She motioned to the papers surround her. 'Because none of this stuff is really that good."

"Obviously, you're going to leave for Tokyo sometime today."

"Obviously."

"I want you to take Will with you."

"What?" She shook her head. "There is no way I'm taking Will to Tokyo with me. He's a civilian. He's never had any field training. This is the kind of thing I spent years protecting him from. And it's just too dangerous."

"You keep forgetting that Will knows his way around the spy world. He spent quite a few years working as an analyst with the CIA before he got back to journalism a few months ago. He isn't as naïve as everyone makes him out to be." Amy took a deep breath and kept talking. "Now I know you love Will as much as I do, Syd. And you want to protect him. But I think he would be an asset to you. I've been in that building. It's chock full of Covenant agents ready and waiting to kill you at the blink of an eye."

"Not convincing me here, Amy," Sydney said, leaning back onto the headboard of the bed.

"All I'm saying is these Covenant agents have probably seen both you and Vaughn in action firsthand. They know you. There's no way you're not going to Tokyo. That's not even an option."

"Damn right, it isn't."

Amy sat down next to Sydney. "I just thought it might be better if you left the other person who might get recognized out of it."

"You want me to leave Vaughn here in New York?" Sydney asked, shocked. "You are acting so strange."

Amy smiled. "I'm always acting strange. You know that! And I wasn't telling you to leave Vaughn in New York. I know that he's probably the one person here who you trust the most." She held up her hand when she saw Sydney begin to object. "It's not an insult, Syd. He is my handler. I know how dependable he can be. Which is why I think you should give him that job. Keep him on comms and in your center of operations. Worst comes to it, he can come in and save my brother's sorry bum."

Sydney smiled at her old friend. "Does he give you the pep talks, too?"

"All the time. It's so annoying."

"But nice."

"Yeah, but nice." Amy paused. "So are you going to take my advice?"

"I don't see the benefit of taking Will instead of you or getting Anna to come back. Or even taking Marshall! Marshall's been on a few missions before."

"You're actually contemplating bringing Marshall over my brother? Come on, Syd. It's not like Will's a complete amateur. He might not have gone on any official CIA-sanctioned missions. But he did go with you to that hotel in Warsaw... and held up his own, I might add."

"You wouldn't say that if you had heard his accent."

"That bad?"

"Worse." Sydney sighed and got up off the bed. "All right. I'll take Will. Now let's see what exactly everyone's come up with in terms of mission strategy. We have the players. We just don't have a plan."

Amy stood up and followed Syd out into the other room.

"Hi, everyone," she said with a small smile.

"You look like hell," Will said from his seat.

"And thank you, Will, for being the every present source of my joy." She shook her head. "Makes me want to rethink my decision to take you with me to Tokyo."

Will spit coffee out as he choked. "You're taking me with you to Tokyo? Where'd you get that crazy idea?" Something clicked in his head. "Amy, what did you do?"

"I didn't do anything, Will," she lied.

"You're taking Will?" Vaughn asked Sydney directly.

"It makes sense. And I need you and Lauren to come, too. As backup and as our mission handlers."

Vaughn nodded and relaxed. He was just satisfied that she was taking him. There was still a lot for him to make up for. Getting Sark back would be the first step in the apologizing process. Plus he was just happy to be going with her in some form. No matter what had changed, knowing she was out there risking her life would still keep him up at night.

"So?" Sydney said, turning to the group as a whole. "Does anyone have any ideas?" No one answered her. "Someone must have thought of something."

"I have a few contacts in Tokyo," Jack said. "They could get you fitted with munitions or any other gear you may need."

"I'm going to need some climbing ropes and a few rappelling clips."

"And why would that be?" Jack asked, suspicious already.

"I had a phone conversation with Anna last night. She gave me a few routes of escape or entry if I need them. One of them involves a little drop."

Jack nodded, wishing he hadn't asked her what they were for. He had come to realize through the years that, with Sydney, no information was better than just some. In fact, no information was better than any information.

"What is Anna up to?" Irina asked.

"She has a few things of her own she's working on, like I said before. Though she was definitely interested in what we talked about Mom."

Vaughn squinted his eyes at Sydney. "What is going on that we don't know about?"

"Nothing," Sydney said. "Trust me. You don't want to know. It would only compromise your objectivity to this mission."

She stood up and scanned the faces in the room again. "Okay. Here's how it's going to go. I need Marshall to go over the op tech and create aliases if they are needed. Vaughn, Lauren, and Will, you all get ready to leave in about five hours."

"I can watch out for Tyler," Marshall interjected. "While you're gone, that is."

"Thank you, Marshall," Lauren replied.

"Dad, I need you to return to Los Angeles. Let Dixon know how things are going. Make sure he knows that this whole thing isn't actually happening or at least it's not happening for the CIA to know about. The last thing I need is the government swooping and running everything. Amy, go with him. It's too risky for me to take you with us to Tokyo. You're an active agent with the CIA. And I'm sure they're missing your presence at the Agency. Word on the street is that you might be as good as me one of these days if you keep working at it."

Amy nodded. "If there's anything I can do..."

"I'll let you know. Thanks. You've been great through all this."

"What should I be doing while you're running around Tokyo?" Irina asked.

Sydney handed her a card. "This is Anna's number. Call her. There are some things you two need to discuss."

Irina smiled at her daughter. "Thank you, Sydney."

Sydney hugged her mother and whispered in her ear, "If you can't have the first and second best agents, the third one isn't too shabby."

Irina laughed. She had always considered her daughter and Sydney's chosen lover to be the two best spies in the world, but it was funny to hear her daughter actually admit it. It was nice to know that some of her own self- confidence had worn off on Sydney at some point the past few years.

Elsewhere...

Sark heard his cell phone ringing in the other room. Cursing, he got up from in front of his laptop and went to pick it up.

"What?" he hissed.

"Everything's set up. It took a little persuading but it seems like everything's in place," said the voice on the other end.

"And she doesn't suspect you at all?" Sark asked.

"Sydney Bristow is a smart woman. I wouldn't put anything past here. But honestly I don't think she picked up the fact that I was setting a few keys points into place. Do you have the plans straight for when she arrives at the facility?"

"Simple. I find her. I kill her. Problem solved. Now don't call me again." Sark snapped the phone shut before the other party could get a word in edgewise. He flung the phone onto the table in front of him and went back to his work in the other room. There were things to be done before the events of tomorrow.