Chapter 8: To Punish

Disclaimer: This is getting old. Alias does not belong to me. I'm NOT trying to usurp it, this is just wishful thinking. So get over it!

He hardly recognized himself, the disguise was so complete. His face seemed longer and was covered by a thick, short beard, and with a little well placed padding he looked thirty pounds heavier.

No one in the CIA would ever recognize the nameless janitor as Julian Sark. Not even Sydney Bristow. He'd get in, take back his child, and be gone before Sydney ever knew he'd been there.

A small grin stayed on his face as he passed agents he'd encountered before in the halls, and none of them even so much as glanced at him.

Vaughn did, though. Vaughn stared, Sark thought with a smirk, committing a face to memory he'd never seen before and would never see again.

A few snipped security lines, and agents scrambled to check on their newest and most important guest. Sark followed deftly behind the security team and, as he expected, they led him right to Kelly. Once assured that she was safe and not finding anyone else there--Sark slipping into whatever shadows were available--the agents left Kelly to return to more important things, like resuming the downed security feed.

Sark darted into the cell where his child sat and quickly stabbed her with a shot of a drug that would calm her, but not knock her out. He couldn't be sure she'd come willingly any more, after all. Kelly gave a strangled little cry and stared up at her captor in a dazed sort of terror.

She'd been bad. And he'd come to get her. To take her back. To punish her for being bad. All the nice people…he'd been watching all along, she decided.

Kelly hung limply within Sark's grasp.

He looks different, she thought vaguely, distantly. But the eyes are the same. Those eyes hurt me.

That it was bad for him to hurt her was a novel thought to her, but it was quickly squashed when she realized the only people that hadn't wanted to hurt her had been working for him, too.

It was all the same in the end, she decided fuzzily.

Vaughn made a mad dash for the cells. He was stupid, so stupid! That son of a bitch probably had Kelly by now, and it was all his fault!

He was only vaguely aware that somewhere along the way Sydney joined him in his sprint, calling out, "Vaughn, what's going on?" as she ran. He couldn't tell her. He couldn't say he'd seen the bastard that wanted to steal he daughter before he'd done it. Her daughter, for Christ sakes!

His thoughts flashed instantly back to the doctor's words.

"There's no doubt Kelly is Sydney's child," he'd said just hours before.

"How is that possible?!?" Vaughn had shouted.

"May be you better ask her that," had been all the reply he'd gotten.

Vaughn gritted his teeth. He would ask her, right after he saved Kelly from Sark and informed Sydney that she had a daughter, he amended cynically.

He saw movement up ahead, and a flash of blue material that all the janitors wore. Vaughn drew his gun and thumbed off the safety as he dashed after the fleeing figure.

Sydney gasped when she rounded the corner just behind Vaughn and saw the figure holding Kelly.

"Who is he?" Sydney cried.

"Sark," Vaughn said shortly.

"Vaughn, this hall leads to the parking garage!" Sydney shouted. "We have to stop him!"

Vaughn knew she was right; if Sark got to the parking garage, they'd never find him before he got away with Kelly. Gritting his teeth, he took aim. If he hit Sark in a leg, may be Kelly wouldn't be hurt…

The shot echoed hollowly in the empty hall and ripped through Sark's left leg. He stumbled and Kelly's limp body created enough dead weight that Sark couldn't hold onto her. She tumbled to the floor and rolled several feet away from Sark, then remained motionless.

Sark shot off a few rounds, but apparently realized he stood no chance of leaving with Kelly as he stumbled to his feet. He dragged his bloody leg and hobbled out the door as fast as he could while still shooting.

As the door closed behind him and the torrent of bullets stopped, Vaughn and Sydney rushed forward.

"You get Kelly. I'll go after Sark," Vaughn assured.

Sydney never heard him. She dropped to her knees and felt for a pulse, her first fear that Kelly was dead. Then she went over her arms and legs for injuries, and when there seemed to be none, Sydney pulled the little girl into her lap. Kelly's whole body was limp, and she didn't respond at all to being moved, but Sydney hugged her tight all the same. Then she noticed he small droplet of blood forming where the needle had stuck her.

"He drugged her," she muttered, not hearing Vaughn come back in. Nor did she realize she was crying until she heard her own voice break. "The son of a bitch drugged her.

"He had to drug her? Is that why she's out cold?" Vaughn asked in concerned relief, kneeling beside Sydney and taking one of Kelly's cold hands into his own.

"I don't know," Sydney said, the worry that had been fogging up both her eyes and her thoughts clearing. "She could have hit her head. We should…"

"Sydney! Vaughn!" Dixon's voice echoed.

"Over here," Vaughn called back, and Sydney quickly wiped at her eyes.

It turned out that Sark had done better with the wire trick than he'd thought; he'd cut two main wires, wiping out half the building, including the part they were in, which was used mostly for storage and abandoned.

"What in the hell happened?" Dixon demanded, seeing Kelly unconscious in Sydney's lap.

"Sark," Vaughn said. "The bastard managed to get past security and get to Kelly."

Dixon looked about ready to spontaneously combust.

"He drugged her," Sydney added in a carefully controlled voice. She was a professional, after all.

"He couldn't manage to get a three-year-old out without drugging her?!?" Dixon exploded. Then he stopped, closed his eyes for a moment, and Sydney could almost see him fighting for calm control. "We should take her to the doctor," he managed in a soft tone.

Sydney rose to her feet, half dragging Kelly with her.

"Let me get her," Vaughn said quickly.

"No, I…"

"Syd."

Relenting, she relinquished Kelly to Vaughn's arms. She found out fast that she had to search way too deep to find that part of her that could analyze Sark's move without too much of a biased fury.

"We know how important she is to him now," she offered her companions.

"I'm ordering full security on her from now on," Dixon replied. "That means locks on the doors, at least an agent with her and one watching security cams at all times."

"I'll stay with her," Sydney offered readily.

"Actually, I was in the process of scheduling a briefing when Sark created chaos," Dixon said. "We'll talk in the conference room in one hour. I'll arrange for Kelly's protection."

"What's going on?" Sydney demanded.

Dixon fixed her with a knowing, all too perceptive stare.

"Nothing you're going to like," he allowed. "Let's just take care of Kelly and deal with Sark first, then we'll get into the rest of the intel. It'll keep for an hour at this point."

Damn them. How had they found him, anyway? There had already been agents to check on Kelly, why had Sydney and Vaughn shown up? Sark was positive Vaughn hadn't recognized him; who would? Yet he'd shown up and known exactly who he was after.

They'd even gotten the kid. While Sark felt no parental obligation to the child, he had developed a certain affection for her. It was either that, or wait an eternity for possession of some awesome power Rambaldi warned of.

Sark would definitely have to rethink his strategy a little. An armed team, may be, as a distraction. Of course, considering the amount of blood currently soaking his pant leg, he'd have to send someone else in after Kelly. His leg was fairly numb as of yet, but it'd hurt like hell tomorrow.

Yay! Sarky got his wittle leg shot off...lol. Okay, so I exaggerate. But I've never been partial to his character. Shooting him, even only by controlling the fictitious trigger-finger of my own personal Vaughn, feels good! lol. Review, please!