Stephanie smirked. "Exactly. Trust no one."

Weiss clutched his chest in pain and hit the floor hard. Everyone went into action. Sydney drew a gun out of her jacket and pointed it at Stephanie. Will kept his gun trained on Sark, who was still lying on the floor. Stephanie had shifted her gun away from Weiss and onto Will as she inched her way over to where Sark lay. She placed a boot defiantly on top of his back, keeping him pinned.

"What the hell is going on?" Will yelled finally after they all spent a minute or two staring at each other's guns and the situation at hand.

"That's what I'd like to know," Weiss said from the floor.

"Shut up," Stephanie hissed at her boyfriend. "You were never the one in control of this situation. I can only carry you so far, Eric."

"What is the matter with you?" Weiss managed to spit out even though his voice was getting a little shaky.

"Save your energy," Stephanie said as she watched his eyes dip down. "You're going to need it if you want to get through this."

"That was not part of the plan," Will reminded her. Hesitantly, he shifted his gun off of Sark's pinned body and held it halfway between Sydney and Stephanie, prepared to move it in whatever direction was needed.

"The plan changed a long time ago, Tippin." Stephanie looked over at Sydney. "And might I ask why she has a gun in her hands now? Were you going to double cross me, you naughty boy?"

Will ignored her question. "There wasn't supposed to be anyone getting shot. I was supposed to lure Sydney and Sark here under the pretenses that they could take down your Covenant cell. Then, you were going to fix whatever the hell your doctors did to my head."

Sydney looked over at Will in shock and betrayal. He hadn't mentioned the fact that the Covenant knew he was coming. She had believed in him when he agreed to pretend to be turning her and Sark into Weiss and Conway. They were supposed to get the advantage from that. Now he was claiming that everything he was doing was just to fix his own little problem. She didn't know whether to switch her gun over to pointing at him or keep it in its present position.

Without taking her eyes off of Will, Stephanie threw a length of rope at Sydney. Sydney let the rope hit her chest and fall to the ground in front of her.

"I need you to tie up Will," Stephanie instructed. "That shouldn't be a problem considering your friend was about to betray you. And Will, you shouldn't object considering you got yourself into this mess. Like we have all been saying, trust no one, honey." When Sydney didn't move, Stephanie added, "If you don't, I'll shoot your little man on the floor."

Will and Sydney both realized that they really didn't have any other options. Will lowered his gun and allowed Sydney to tie his hand securely behind his back. She took the little window of opportunity to take her last little glimmer of hope and whisper in his ear, "I still don't believe that you're betraying us, Will. We'll get out of this."

If there was any little bit of the Will she knew inside of the man in front of her, if he had been telling her the truth and the things he had just said were all an act, then he would be happy to work with her to get out of the mess they were in. She got no hint as to whether this hope was in the right or not.

Will just glared at her words.

"Now, Sydney, I need you to put this on." Stephanie tossed two pairs of handcuffs over to Sydney. "Handcuff yourself to that radiator with one and to Will with the other. I don't want either of you getting loose and trying to kill me. It doesn't really fit in with my master plan."

"And what is your master plan?" Weiss spit out. He was still leaning against the far wall, drifting in and out of consciousness. "Because I'd like to know."

Stephanie smiled and waited to hear Sydney click the handcuffs in place. She lowered her gun and took her foot off Sark's back. Walking over to Weiss, she began to chuckle. "You see, it's a funny thing. I'm not going to tell you."

She hit him across the face with the butt of her gun, knocking him unconscious. "Don't people ever pass out from loss of blood anymore?" she asked the rest of her captives.

Sydney and Will just glared.

"Call it a moment of weakness, but I think I'm going to take pity on him. He really tried hard to be an evil genius. But hey! Some things just don't work out." Stephanie picked up the phone on the desk and hit a button. "Could someone come in here and get Eric Weiss to whatever appropriate medical facility is around?"

Within seconds, a pair of burly men came in and grabbed Weiss's unconscious body without looking around the room. "They're so loyal, aren't they?" Stephanie said with a smile. She turned to tell the men exactly what she wanted done with Weiss.

Will took the moment to lean in a little closer to Sydney. "How are we going to get out of this one, Syd?" he asked.

She looked at him in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"I mean how the hell are we going to get these handcuffs off and get out of this building?" When she continued to stare at him, he rolled his eyes. "I wasn't really going to turn you in. You told me out there in the hall to make it seem convincing. Yes, the Covenant wanted me to lead you two into a trap. So, I made it seem like I was just following orders."

"So you weren't going to betray me?"

"No," Will said with a smile. "I might be a little screwed up with my priorities right now, but like you said, the CIA managed to fix it so I have a little free will. I would never choose to put you through this, Sydney. Never."

"Are you two done with your heartfelt chat?" Stephanie asked as she waved the two men away with Weiss's limp but still breathing body. "Because I have things to do."

Sighing as the door clicked shut again, she walked over to Will and stuck her hand into his jacket pocket. With a smile, she extracted the keys to the handcuffs Sark was wearing and jingled them in front of his face. "Thank you so much."

Sydney couldn't understand what had happened. Two minutes ago, their plan to take down Weiss and Conway was working like a dream. All she had to do was wait for a window and then fire off a quick shot to take down Conway. Will would have taken that as his cue to take down Weiss. And now Weiss was shot, she and Will were handcuffed to one another and a radiator, and Stephanie was letting Sark out of his pair of handcuffs. It was all too confusing.

"What's going on?" she asked weakly as she watched Sark sit up and begin to gently rub where the handcuffs had dug into his wrists.

Stephanie began to laugh again. "You were never quick on the uptake, were you?" She handed Sark a gun, and he winked up at her as he hobbled to his feet. "I started out being truly sincere with dear Eric over there. He showed me that the righteous path of the Central Intelligence Agency was not as righteous as they would have liked everyone to believe. The true path was with the Covenant. And if he wasn't unconscious and on his way to get medical care right now, I'd thank him."

Stephanie sighed and sat down on the desk. "After a few weeks, I sort of realized that Weiss wasn't really going to be the man I needed to get things done. I needed someone a little more brutal, a little crueler."

"Description ring any bells, love?" Sark said with a sly smile.

"So, I got good ole Julian here to help me out. Turns out he didn't really like his happy little life with you. Imagine that! Someone actually isn't willing to give up the world for Sydney Bristow." Sydney stared at the man she loved who was looking so cruelly at her. The tears welled up in her eyes once more.

"Aw, don't cry, Sydney," Conway said with an exaggerated frown. "It'll all be okay. I promise, we're not going to kill you today."

"I don't understand," she managed to spit out.

"I planted the idea of stealing Sark away from you and brainwashing him into Weiss's head. He actually thought it was his plan. When we got Sark in our custody, it didn't take me long to figure out that not that much brainwashing was necessary. He didn't really want his normal life with you, Sydney. I pitched this plan. Let Will Tippin take all the heat for betraying you. When the perfect opportunity arises, we'll just kill you all."

"I thought you said you weren't going to kill Sydney," Will pointed out.

"And I really thought you were on our side," Sark said. "I told you a long time ago that if you did what I said, you wouldn't get left out when the rewards were being distributed. But you couldn't betray Sydney completely in the end, could you? You had to be her knight in shining armor once more."

"Obviously you weren't getting the job done."

"Enough, boys," Stephanie said, standing up. "You're making me mad. And when I get mad, the only thing that calms me down is someone's head on a platter." She turned to look at Sydney. "I think I'm changing my mind. I don't want you alive anymore. You annoy me too much with your innate goodness and your ability to make the whole world bend to your needs. I mean, it's disgusting."

"Shoot me, and get it over with then," Sydney spit out. She had gotten control of her emotions, and now she was just pissed off.

"Oh, I'm not going to shoot you," Stephanie said with a smirk. She turned to Sark. "He is."

Sark took the gun in his hand and clicked the safety off.

"Julian?" Sydney said softly. Her voice was noticeable shaky as he pointed the gun at her. "Is this really what you want to do?"

"More than anything," he said with a smirk. In an instant, he shifted his position and pointed the gun straight at Stephanie's heart. "You stupid bitch."

The sound of the gun going off echoed through the room. Sydney and Will watched in amazement as Stephanie crumpled into a heap. It was almost as if the world had gone into slow motion, and nothing happening was real. After a moment, Sark reached down and pulled the handcuff keys off of her body. His face devoid of expression, he unlocked the cuff connecting Sydney and Will. Standing up, he walked over to where Sydney was attached to the radiator and crouched down next to her to unlock it.

Sydney rubbed her wrist and looked over at him. He was wincing in pain, but he was smiling at her. She touched the side of his face hesitantly and whispered. "Julian?"

He winked at her. "Don't ever tell me that I'm not a good actor."

She laughed and flung herself into his arms. When he gasped in pain, she pulled back and slugged him hard in the arm. "Don't you ever do that to me again!"

"It worked, didn't it?" he said. He turned to Will. "Are you all right, Tippin?"

"Yeah," Will said. He was leaning over Stephanie's body. "Nice shot. She won't be as lucky as Weiss."

Sydney nodded, understanding what he meant. Without taking her eyes off where Stephanie lay, she asked, "Now can somewhere explain to me where we stand? Who was betraying me and who wasn't?"

"As near as I can tell," Sark began, "the plan we went in with never really got betrayed."

"I was pretending the whole time like I told you before. I guess the Covenant wanted me to lure the two of you in at the first possible moment. I wasn't aware of that," Will added.

"So, you were acting when Stephanie shot Weiss?" Sydney asked.

"I had no idea she was going to do that."

"Did you?" she asked, turning to Sark.

"No idea. Like I said, I was making it up as I went. I figured the only way to get you two out of this mess was to pretend like I knew her master plan."

"Oh, we were the ones in the mess, huh?" She rolled her eyes. "And you were just fine tied up on the floor with her boot digging into her back?"

"I had it under control," Sark lied.

She rolled her eyes again. "So neither one of you meant to betray any of us. Stephanie did betray Weiss because she had developed a little thing for you, Julian. Weiss was just a complete moron and had no control of the situation. And I never shifted in my, and I quote, 'innate goodness'. That about sum it up?"

"It'll do," Will said with a smile.

"Do you think we can go home now?" Sark asked. He was tired to talking.

"I think our job is done." Will stood up. "Without Conway, this whole facility should just self-destruct as every little underling makes a power play for control. If that doesn't happen, if someone actually does assume power, it shouldn't be that hard to take them down again."

Sydney was about to also express her desire to go home when a cell phone started to ring. Looking sheepish, Will reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his phone. "Hello? What the hell are you doing call me now?" He paused. "Yes. It's all over. No more Covenant cell." Another pause. "A business proposition?"

Sydney strained to hear who was on the other end, but she couldn't tell.

"That sounds mighty convincing, but I can't say yes to you right now." He paused again to listen. "I agree."

Sydney looked at Sark in confusion. "Who is that?"

"I don't know," Sark said as he also strained to hear some sort of clue. "What I want to know is how whomever that is knew we had finished taking down the Covenant. Our mission has only been complete for a few minutes."

Will snapped his cell phone closed. "Are you guys ready to go?"

"Aren't you going to tell us who that was?' Sydney asked as she and Will began to walk and Sark hobbled out of the facility.

"It would be better if you didn't know. Anyway, I kind of like knowing that I have a secret from you."

"Just as long as it doesn't involve brainwashing, you can have any secret you want," Sydney admitted.

The three walked over the destruction they had caused coming into the building with another word. There were more questions that still needed to be answered, but they were too tired to do that right now.