A/N: Wow, thanks for the reviews guys. I really appreciate it! And yes, Max will definitely appear in the story ( not just in the flashbacks ) but I'm not sure about Logan, though. Just to let you know, there will be hints of Sark/Lauren in this chapter, but it'll eventually become Sark/Julia.
Black Rose: This will probably be mostly Alias, that's why I put it in the Alias category. But there will be quite a lot of Dark Angel too. It's not really in any season of Dark Angel – I kinda screwed it up a bit to suit my story. : )
Chapter Two
Her first mission.
Only a few hours to go. So many times she had watched her brothers and sisters leave for missions, sitting up at night wondering whether they'd come back – sometimes they did, occasionally they didn't – but it was her turn now.
"Hey." There was a screech of chair legs against tiles and a bowl of food was dumped next to her on the table.
She glanced up from her own bowl of food to see her dark haired brother Krit, grinning down at her. "Hey. Don't smile too much. They're watching us." She motioned to the guard standing at the corner of the cafeteria.
Krit rolled his eyes and sat down. "Right. We're soldiers. Not supposed to be happy. Got it." He picked up his spoon, stirring the sloppy, greyish contents of his bowl in disgust. "Like we can ever be happy when we've got pureed cardboard for breakfast!"
A heavy sigh came from behind. "Tell me about it." Their sister Max joined them at the table. "After all we do for Manticore you'd think they'd give us actual food."
Max turned to her suddenly. "So, today's the day, huh."
"Yes, I know."
"Excited?"
"Yes." And scared too. Scared she'd fail Manticore. She'd been brainwashed enough to actually care. Or maybe it was just the punishment that awaited her if she did fail.
"Don't be nervous. You'll be fine." Max assured her quietly.
She was momentarily stunned at her sister's random act of kindness – they had always been taught to be unfeeling.
"Maxie, don't read my mind like that, ok? It's creepy."
Although it seemed that she had dismissed Max's comforting gesture, the two sisters shared a smile that remained unseen by the guards.
That night she left.
Her mission was a success – three shots to her targets chest and he was dead. Easy. Never even knew what hit him.
She wanted to tell her brothers and sisters all about it, but when she returned they were all gone.
Escaped.
Without her.
Years later the hurt still hadn't gone away.
Sark was taking her to London. He wasn't entirely sure if it was the right move, but he had some business to finish off with Lauren, and no, it didn't involve the bedroom. For once.
He glanced across the aisle of the private jet. She was sitting on the seat opposite him staring out the window, fascinated, as if she had never looked out the window of an airplane before.
Sark watched her curiously. As the photo on her file had suggested, she was a mirror image of Sydney Bristow. That didn't surprise him so much – he'd seen much stranger things in his lifetime – what he wanted to know was WHY she was a mirror image of Sydney Bristow. But of course, the Covenant had conveniently left out that little detail.
"So what shall I call you?" Sark queried, speaking to her for the first time. "X5-475? Julia?"
She whipped around, visibly stiffening at his question. Frowning, she stared at the floor in front of her almost angrily.
Five minutes passed and Sark didn't get an answer from her.
Ok, fine.
"Perhaps you should get changed," he tried again. "You'll stand out like a sore thumb with those army fatigues on. There are some clothes in the bathroom; I'm sure they'll fit you nicely."
She immediately left without a word and Sark didn't know whether or not to be insulted at her eagerness to leave him.
To be honest, Sark was disappointed. He had expected – what had he expected? Someone more interesting? Or someone more like.........Sydney?
Sark had always been fascinated by Sydney Bristow. He wouldn't go so far as to say he liked her, or had feelings for her, but she certainly had been a thrill to work with during his limited time at SD-6. Part of the thrill was her dismissive attitude towards him and the rude remarks he'd receive every time he tried to strike up a conversation with her. She was a feisty thing, Agent Bristow. Had he assumed, because she was identical to her, that the woman in his custody would be just like Sydney?
He mentally slapped himself. Why did he care? He hastily put it down to him needing someone to make his increasingly repetitive job more exciting.
Ah, but hadn't Lauren already filled that position?
The bathroom door opened, relieving Sark from his thoughts. She came out wearing a tight fitting black turtleneck and faded blue jeans, and did not look bad at all. In fact, she looked quite good.
She caught him staring at her. She met his gaze steadily, challenging him, and for the briefest moment Sark was unsure what she was going to do next.
Then a smirk flashed across her usually stoic features, and disappeared just as quickly.
Sark blinked.
Interesting, indeed.
"She looked just like her. Her voice sounded the same, and she even walked like her. I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference if it weren't for the fact that she was wearing different clothes and that she didn't seem to recognize me at all."
Weiss shook his head in disbelief. "I don't believe this. Are you sure you just didn't drink one to many beers at the hockey game last night, man?"
"I don't believe it either. And no, I was perfectly sober when I saw her," Vaughn informed his friend.
There was silence as the two agents tried to get their heads around the fact that there were two Sydney's walking around.
"Did you tell Sydney?" Weiss said after a pause.
"No."
Weiss shot him a disapproving look.
"What?" Vaughn defended himself. "What was I supposed to tell her? 'Sydney, guess what, you have an evil twin'? I think she'd had enough shocking revelations to last her two lifetimes. I don't think she needs another."
"Well, we can't keep this to ourselves. It's too big. We have to tell Dixon, at least," Weiss said testily.
"Tell me what?"
Weiss and Vaughn froze in their chairs.
"Well?"
They turned slowly to see Dixon and Lauren standing before them. Vaughn sighed uneasily and silently motioned for all of them to go to the debriefing room, where he told them about the woman he saw at Manticore.
Dixon sat down slowly. "Who do you think she is?"
"I don't know," Vaughn replied. "The only explanation I could come up with was Project Helix."
"Didn't Sydney destroy that device?" Weiss put in.
"Yes. But it's possible that there was a second device, or maybe someone made another one after Dr. Markovic died," Vaughn suggested.
"Then what was she doing at Manticore? Is she part of the Covenant?" Weiss fired back, knowing that no one in the room would know the answers to his questions.
"I already said that I didn't know."
"Was I talking to you?"
"Vaughn, Weiss!" Dixon interjected before a brawl started. Clearly this woman had the pair slightly spooked – they rarely fought with each other. "I suggest that we not pursue this lead until Marshall recovers the files Vaughn and Sydney stole from Manticore. They might have some information on this woman."
"And what if they don't?" Lauren asked, speaking for the first time.
"Then we'll withhold the information Vaughn has given us from Sydney and Jack and find out who she is some other way."
"What?" Vaughn and Weiss exclaimed together, although they had both heard him perfectly.
Dixon's concern for the Bristows was evident. "We're not going to tell Sydney and Jack about this. They've both got enough on their plates already, especially Sydney," he said calmly, expecting resistance from Vaughn and Weiss.
"We can't do that," Vaughn objected, making it clear he didn't like the idea.
"They'll both be furious when they find out we've been hiding something from them," Weiss agreed. "They deserve to know what's going on. And besides, they'll figure out that something's up."
"I agree with Dixon," Lauren interrupted. "Sydney and Jack are two of the CIA's most valuable assets. This will undoubtedly affect them and we can't afford to have their judgment impaired. Manticore is important in revealing the Covenant's endgame. We need Sydney and Jack if we want to take down the Covenant."
Typically, Lauren was looking at the business side of things. Sure, Weiss liked Vaughn's wife, but he doubted she cared much about Jack or Sydney's mental well-being.
And he couldn't help thinking that Sydney and Jack had worked brilliantly when the CIA was hunting down Irina Derevko – which, he thought it was safe to say, was much more personal than this was. But needless to say, the Bristows always worked brilliantly. There was no doubt about that.
"None of this is to leave this room, do you all understand? That's an order, Weiss," Dixon pressed when he got no acknowledgement from him.
Weiss nodded reluctantly. "Right."
Lauren left the debriefing room after a short conversation with her husband. She discreetly slipped into small room by herself and took out her cell phone, punching in the number of her Covenant superior, McKenas Cole.
"Yeeees?" McKenas answered comically in his usual cocky drawl.
"The CIA's got the information on Manticore," she told him shortly, less than impressed with his unserious manner.
"Good. Just as planned, huh?" He sounded pleased.
"There's one problem, though. Agent Vaughn saw X5-475 while he was there."
There was a thwarted pause. "Was he suspicious?"
"Of course he was," she retorted impatiently. "He reported it to Director Dixon. Agent Weiss and I are the only other people who know about it. We've been ordered not to tell Sydney Bristow."
"Good. Keep it that way. And make sure they don't find out anything more about 475."
"Fine."
She hung up and dialed another number – Sark's.
"Change of plans. We're going to Washington."
Lauren dumped some disks on the table in front of Sark. "These are the disks that Agent Bristow and Vaughn used to copy some of Manticore's files. I borrowed them from Marshall's desk; he's gone home for the night to look after his baby. We need to work fast and get rid of any information there might be about 475 on those disks so I can get it back by tomorrow morning."
"Well, hello to you too, sweetheart," Sark replied casually, showing no indication that he had paid any attention to what she just said.
Lauren merely glared at him and began loading up the files on the laptop, knowing Sark would join her soon enough. Eventually, she said, "Where is she?"
"In the next room," he leaned back into his chair, "I told her to stay there."
"I assume Director Renfro didn't give you too much trouble about taking her away."
Sark laughed dryly. "There was no trouble at all. She practically threw the poor woman at me as soon as I voiced my request. Maybe it was to make up for mistaking Sydney and Vaughn for Covenant agents. She must have apologized a thousand times."
"Does she look as much like Sydney as everyone says she does?" Lauren asked, her eyes fixed on the computer screen.
Sark nodded slowly. "Yes, very much so. But I'm beginning to think that she's mute."
Lauren looked up sharply. "Mute?"
"She has not said a word since I took her into my custody. Or responded to anything I've said to her." Well, there was that split second where she had smirked at him, but Sark was beginning to think he had imagined that incident. "She's very obedient though."
"Well, she was designed to obey orders," Lauren speculated. "Perhaps she thinks that she's not supposed to talk back to you."
Sark frowned, considering it. "Possibly."
Lauren rolled her eyes. "Now shut up and help me, will you?"
Obediently Sark moved to sit next to her. For two hours they worked on the files picking out anything they thought would reveal the fact that the woman was an X5.
"I'm going to get a drink," Sark muttered wearily. He got up and walked to the kitchen of the penthouse, deciding to check on 475 on the way.
Opening the door of the room he had left her in, he found that it was quiet and empty.
She was gone.