{A/N – thank-you for reviewing people! I love you all!! I have decided that my quest for the ownership of Alias has gone a little too far. I know I shouldn't have held the cast and crew hostage and I know I should have given them back all of the props I stole but I'm thankful to JJ for not pressing charges – I now realise that I need a better plan!!! Any ideas are welcome and appreciated.}

Jack approached a door from which he could hear voices. He could tell one of them was Sark but the other was almost a whisper. He heard Sark laugh and then there was a scream. Jack waited no longer and barged into the room. He saw Irina on the floor blood oozing from a wound in her side. Sark stood over her holding a knife glinting with blood. Suddenly everything went black and all Jack could remember was a dull thwack to the back of his head. He awoke to find himself on the floor but tied to the wall with Irina lying in the opposite corner.

"Irina" There was no movement. "Irina." This time he said it louder and she stirred.

"Jack? is that you?" She stared up at him.

"Yes it is. Are you ok?" She struggled to sit up. Someone had dressed the wound in her side with rags. It was only a small flesh wound and was already closing up.

"I think so. Are you hurt?" She asked worriedly as Jack tried to move.

"I'm fine, just a little groggy."

"They hit you with one hell of a blow. Let me take a look at your head." She slowly rose and moved over to him. She reached up with her one good arm and pulled Jack forward. "Its ok. Just a small cut." She pulled him free of the ropes and levelled him as he fell to the floor. "Easy now Jack. you just need to rest up a little and you'll be fine."

"How about you? Your side?"

"Its ok. Just a flesh wound. I'm more worried about my shoulder. There's been a bullet in there for about seven maybe eight hours now. I think it might be infected I know it hurts like hell."

"Mom?" A small voice came from the shadows. She sounded just as lost as she had just before Irina had shot her in Taipei

"Sydney is that you?" Irina rushed over to the other side of their cell to Sydney. She was sat on the floor.

"Hey mom."

"Hi. Are you ok?"

"Actually I feel like crap." Irina reached forward and pulled a small dart from her daughters shoulder.

"Here's the culprit. They don't last long. You'll be ok in a while. What happened?"

"Where's Vaughn?" Jack asked as he began regaining strength and stood up. He moved over to join them and sat back down examining Irina's shoulder.

"Well we were walking through one of the corridors trying to find you when we realised that it was a set up. There were guards everywhere. Too many for us to manage on our own so we entered one of the smaller ducts and crawled through to the room you were headed. I fell through a rusty one and guards emerged from everywhere. I shouted for Vaughn to go get help and he stayed in the ducts. Then I remembered waking up and you and dad were unconscious. I saw you were bleeding and patched up your wound. I leaned back and I must of pushed the dart in further because the next thing I remember after that was waking up to see you looking at dads head."

"Thank-yooouch Jack!"

"Sorry honey. Your shoulder's in pretty bad shape. I need something to get the bullet out with."

"I know." Irina reached down and slid a small blade out of the heel of her shoe.

"Will this do?"

"Perfect. Now lie back onto me and find something to bite down on." Sydney pulled her belt off and handed it to Irina. She put it in her mouth as Jack ripped her shirt open. He pulled it down over her arm and carefully cut the closing skin back open. Irina Winced but was not yet biting down on the leather. Sydney watched as Jack forced the knife down and wedged the bullet out of the muscle in her mothers limb. Burning pain tore down Irina's arm as she bit down waiting for Jack to finish. She was now longing for the drowsy dizzy state she had previously been fighting to get out of. Jack carefully but with quick precision pulled the small piece of metal from the gushing wound. Sydney was ready and put her shirt around it. Irina was now wearing two pieces of Sydney's original ensemble. She lay in Jacks lap as he gently stroked her hair soothing her pain until it became a dull throb.

Vaughn had waited in the ducts until the security had disappeared and then made his way outside. He ran as fast as he could towards the van. He heard shots fired from behind him but simply carried on as fast he could force himself to go. When he reached a safe distance from the warehouse, Vaughn pulled over and grabbed the emergency cell phone from the glove compartment.

"Weiss."

"Eric its Vaughn. Sydney and for all I know Jack aswell have been captured by Sark and his men. It seems as though he's heading up his own branch of the covenant here in L.A. I need back up and a lot of it also... look don't tell Dixon but Irina's here. Its kinda how they got captured. We were rescuing her."

"Mike. You know how dangerous that woman is. She..."

"SHE was the mole inside the covenant that they got the information on Lauren from. She risked her life to help the CIA so I think its about time we paid her back the favour."

"Ok but I'm not telling Dixon. You can inform him of that little detail when we get there." Eric paused to think for a minute. "Ok. I'll get two teams prepped. I'll tell Dixon you were captured on a simple reconnaissance mission Jack sent you on. Just remember to tell him to collaborate the story later. Tell me where you are and I'll get started."

"Marshall knows. Just tell him he's not in trouble but, we are and you kneed to know where we went. Send the one team right out but wait for me to get to the second. I'm on my way back now." Before he could reply, Vaughn had hung up and was driving like a mad man. Weiss made his way to Dixon's office.

"Ahem." He cleared his throat. "Director? I have something to tell you and your not gonna like it."

Irina lay in between a worried Sydney and a worn out Jack. she knew she had to think of something. They were the three best spies in the world and in the same cell. They had to get out. Jack was tired but he knew he had to hold on. He had been so worried about Irina these past few weeks that he had gotten little sleep. Since she was captured he had gotten no rest at all and now she lay in his arms all he could think about was closing his eyes for just a few minutes. He knew they weren't safe but as long as they were together, he was relieved. Maybe it was concussion...

Sydney had been thinking about Vaughn and if he had gotten out safely. She had wanted to tell him how she felt in those last few minutes but he already knew. They had been crawling through the ducts for a few minutes and she felt them creak underneath her. She looked back at Vaughn and noticed his eyes were fixed on something beneath her. Sydney glanced down and saw the rust. Why hadn't she noticed when she knelt on it. Vaughn looked horrified, he tried to pull her towards him but as soon as he ventured anywhere near her they began to creak even more loudly. They both knew that the vent was about to give way and Sydney would land within sight of the hundreds of guards that they had seen suddenly appear out of nowhere earlier.

"Vaughn, I'm going to be captured no matter what so all you have to do is wait until I'm taken then find your way out. Get some back up and return for us."

"Sydney I cant let you g..."

"Vaughn." She started as the metal began to split. "You're my family's last hope. Besides I don't want you to get hurt. Sark'll just use you to get to me because he knows how I feel about you."

"How you feel?"

"On the plane. What I said I didn't mean it. You know i..."

"Shhh Syd. Save it until we get out. I don't want you saying things just because you think your gonna die."

"But Vaughn I lo...aahhh." Sydney fell through the ducts and landed in a heap on top of a guard. Vaughn watched as she struggled to fight the rising number of guards off. Some one shot her and he felt his heart jump into his throat until he saw the red dart poking out of her shoulder as she fell and he realised it was a tranq gun. She wished she had gotten the time to tell him before she fell. Now she was locked in a cell and felt as bad as her mother looked. Irina was pale and tiny beads of sweat were forming on her head as she got up and began to pace.

{A/N – I couldn't find a good place to end this chapter so I just thought I'd leave it here ready for the action of the next few chapters. Only if you really want them that is... Do you?... I cant hear you... Maybe you'd be better off writing it in a review and telling me!!}