Sark poked his head out of the other room, his eyes intense and his voice heavy as he spoke.

"Sydney, Irina… I think you'll want to come see this."

My mother and I exchanged worried glances before hurrying down the hall to where Sark stood. He gave me a precautionary look before pushing open the door to the room he had investigated. I quickly passed by him, but stopped in my tracks as I saw what had drawn his reaction.

"Oh, Sydney…" my mother breathed softly. I shrugged off her hand and slowly moved further into the room, quietly kneeling next to the motionless body. Sark silently left the room, shutting the door behind him. I continued staring at my lifeless partner, finding myself unable to cry despite the pain.

"Why am I so shocked?" I whispered. "I knew he was… I knew."

"There's a difference between knowing and seeing, Sydney," my mother said softly, gently touching my hair. I reached out and took hold of his hand, but quickly recoiled. The kindness and warmth I had always known was replaced by a cold stiffness which I knew, logically, should have been expected. But still, it shocked me.

"I'm so, so sorry…" I paused, searching for the words I needed. "I will have revenge. He won't get away with what he's done… to you, to me, and to everyone else. I promise you he will pay, even if it kills me."  Taking a deep breath, I resolutely stood and faced my mother, who gave me a sympathetic look. I shook off her attempted comfort.

"Not now," I said brusquely.

"Sydney, you can't repress your grief like this."

"Right now, yes I can, because if I don't, I'll be grieving for Dad and Vaughn next." I resisted the urge to turn back to Dixon, knowing that my strong front would crumble if I did. Instead, I purposefully strode past my mother and out into the hallway, where Sark was on alert.

"Are you all right?" he questioned.

"Which way?" He gave me a look of concern, but indicated the left side of the hall.

"This way… the other path is a dead end." I flinched at his choice of words, though he didn't seem to notice.

"Fine. Let's go." I once again took the lead, Sark directly behind me, the backup agents trailing after him, and my mother bringing up the rear. After a few minutes of walking in silence, we came to another split in the hallway. One option was to continue straight; the other branched off to the right. I hesitated, taking a step to the right before pausing again and looking the other way. Flooded with uncertainty, I turned to face my mother, searching for guidance.

"We have neither the time nor manpower to split up at this point," she stated.

"I agree, we don't quite have the manpower… but we don't have time to waste exploring each path either," I argued.

"Splitting up right now may be precisely what he wants us to do," she noted.

"Or he could be banking on us all going down one way, therefore wasting precious time that we don't have to waste."

"We can't very well stand here debating this," my mother pointed out sensibly.

"No, we can't… so what do we do?" Only then did I notice that Sark was no longer standing behind me. I looked around frantically, gripped by sudden fear. "Where'd he go?"

"While you two… discussed the options, I took it upon myself to inspect this direction," he answered as he reappeared from the shadows of the right wing. "There's only one room down there, a security room from the looks of it, but all of surveillance equipment contained within is no longer in working condition," he reported. I sighed in relief at his safe return, and noticed that my mother had also been worried. I glanced back to Sark, giving him a grateful nod.

"Thank you. Well, since that's settled…" I turned and continued down the hallway, knowing that my allies would fall in line with me.

"What's the plan when we find them?" Sark asked a short time later. I silently sent him thanks for saying when, rather than if.

"There is no plan," my mother said. "We have no idea what to expect between now and when we locate them, so there's no way of preparing for whatever may be to come." One fleeting look at Sark's face was enough to tell me that he didn't like the idea, but he didn't protest it verbally.

An eerie, offsetting silence descended upon the hallway, instilling a new form of paranoia in all of us. It had been quiet before, but at that point one could easily hear a pin drop. I slowed down, looking back nervously. Sark and my mother were both on edge as well, and I was glad I wasn't the only one. Suddenly, Sark seemed to see something ahead of us. I whirled around, trying to catch whatever it might have been, but saw nothing. I turned back to him curiously.

"I saw… a light, a small one, up ahead," he informed me.

"Are you sure?" my mother asked cautiously.

"Yes. I take it neither of you saw it?" I shook my head; my mother said nothing, merely looking beyond me as if expecting the light to appear again.

"Any idea what the source may have been?" she questioned.

"It was small, as I said, so perhaps a flashlight?" he suggested. My mother nodded and faced me again.

"Sydney, please, be careful," she said worriedly as we again moved forward.

"Dying's not part of the plan, Mom," I replied tersely.

"Many things have happened of late that weren't part of any of your plans, I imagine," Sark noted. I shot him a glare, but didn't reply. There was no further sign of the light he had spotted, but we soon came to a closed door with a small window towards the top. Standing on my toes, I attempted to peer through it, but was unsuccessful. I sighed in defeat.

"What now? Do we just bust it down?" Sark glanced to my mother, allowing her to field the question.

"Are we absolutely sure we didn't miss anything else on the way over here?" she asked. "No hidden doors or hallways… nothing?"

"I don't believe we can truly be 100% certain of that, Irina, but I'm fairly sure we noticed everything there was to notice."

"I agree," I stated, internally noting how ridiculously absurd it was for me to agree with anything said by Mr. Sark.

"Which leaves this as our only possibly recourse," he concluded. I cautiously tried pushing the door, and was more than a little surprised as it swung open with ease.

The interior was dark, and I couldn't see anything or anyone… but I felt it. Looking around cautiously, I tried to locate whoever else was in the room. I spotted another door across the way, but no sign of anyone else in there.

"I don't see anything…" I whispered uncertainly.

"Hardly surprising, considering how dark it is," Sark replied in the same tone. Before I could speak again, there was a slight movement from within which drew both of our attention. Moments later, a mocking voice echoed off the walls.

"Sydney, Sark... and Irina. What took so long? We've been expecting you."