Chapter Eleven

"Hey, have you seen Sydney?" Weiss asked Vaughn as they got up to leave the debriefing room. The meeting had ended a few minutes ago and the room was almost deserted. "She didn't show up for the meeting."

"Didn't you hear? She's still interrogating Max," Vaughn informed him, gathering up some folders.

Weiss threw up his hands in the air in frustration. "What? Why don't I know this? No one tells me anything around here!" he cried.

"I just told you something," Vaughn pointed out.

His friend let out a resigned sigh and promptly got over his small outburst. "Whatever. Anyway, do you think she's onto something?"

"Most likely. I mean, she skipped the meeting to stay back with Max, didn't she?" Vaughn contemplated slowly. "Maybe she managed to make Max talk."

Weiss nodded in agreement, and then put his hand up to stop Vaughn from walking out of the debriefing room. "Hey, wait a sec."

Vaughn frowned, pausing at the doorway. "What?"

"Have you got anything on Syd's evil twin?" Weiss asked in a hushed whisper, taking Sydney's absence as an opportunity to talk about her mysterious look-alike. It had been a little over a week since Dixon had ordered them to keep what Vaughn had seen at Manticore from Sydney and Jack. Since then, Vaughn had been authorized to search for any information on the "evil twin's" identity, leaving the others to wait impatiently as their curiosity grew.

Vaughn shut the door and motioned for Weiss to sit back down at the tables again. As they took their places opposite each other, he leaned forward slightly, prompting Weiss to do so as well.

"Well?" Weiss demanded eagerly.

Vaughn paused, and finally admitted, "I have nothing."

"Nothing? Damn," Weiss cursed after gaping at him for a few seconds. He slumped back into his chair, deflated. "It's been killing me, lying to Syd. I hate it. The sooner we find out who this woman is, the better."

"I know how you feel. It's hard for everyone," Vaughn sympathized. "I'm trying my best," he added truthfully.

Weiss looked back at him. "I know," he replied apologetically. "I wasn't implying that you don't think this is important or that you're not doing a good job. I know you care about Sydney. I'm just -"

"Worried," Vaughn put in knowingly. "Yeah. I get it."

"Exactly. I mean, seriously, who is this chick who looks exactly like Sydney? Is she a threat to her? Is she dangerous?" Weiss pondered aloud, his concern for one of his closest friends evident.

"That's what I'm trying to find out. But so far, I've had no luck. I mean, even Lauren came up with nothing," Vaughn told him.

"Lauren?" Weiss echoed. "Lauren was allowed to help you and I wasn't?"

"Hey, she offered, alright?" Vaughn said quickly, holding his hands up in surrender before Weiss fired up again. "I thought two heads would be better than one, so -"

"OK, fine, whatever," Weiss interrupted. "So......nothing?"

"You could say that. There's no information about this woman anywhere. I used Sydney's photo to do a search on her – because they look the same, obviously – but all I got was some stuff on Sydney." Vaughn paused. "Now, I know what you're thinking – how am I supposed to know which woman is Sydney and which woman is the "evil twin", right?" He looked at Weiss expectantly.

Weiss rolled his eyes and drawled in a monotone, "You read my mind, Mike."

"Yes, I know," Vaughn stated proudly, satisfied with Weiss' answer. "I got a list of all the aliases that Sydney has used, including the ones she used at SD-6, and they all matched up with the results I got."

"Well, that's just great," Weiss muttered. "There has to be something, man, anything. I mean, maybe she's an agent in another intelligence agency, or an assassin, or something -" He stopped in mid-sentence as he heard the sound of the door opening. The pair quickly ended their conversation and turned around as Sydney entered the room.

"Hey," she said softly. "Have you guys seen my dad?"

They both shook their heads. "The last time we saw him was at the meeting," Vaughn told her. He exchanged a nervous glance with Weiss, both of them hoping that she hadn't heard what they had been talking about.

"Oh," Sydney said, casting her eyes downwards in disappointment. There seemed to be something on her mind, something that she desperately wanted to talk about. Suddenly, on impulse, she came and sat down at the tables with them. "I got some information from Max," she blurted out.

Weiss straightened, stunned. "No. Way." he exclaimed, sounding like a teenage girl in the middle of a juicy gossip session.

"It's not what you think," Sydney informed them hastily. "I'm not sure if it even has anything to do with the Covenant. It might not be relevant to what we're doing." She paused, as if she was still coming to terms with what she had discovered.

Confusion began to mingle with their curiosity. "What is it, Syd?" Vaughn prompted her, frowning.

As Sydney recapped her conversation with Max, the two of them visibly paled as they realised that Sydney had stumbled upon their secret – without even knowing that she had – and, in a period of an hour or so, she had discovered more about her "evil twin" than Vaughn and Lauren had after a week of fruitless searching. But now the mysterious woman from Manticore had an identity – Julia. Which made the whole situation all the more eerie.

"It's sounds crazy, I know," Sydney finished, unsure of what to make of their shocked silence. "I'm not even sure if this is a real lead, or whether it's worth telling Dixon." She shook her head. "And I guess I can't exactly be sure that she looks like me at all, considering Max hasn't seen her for the last fifteen years but........."

Again, Vaughn and Weiss looked to each other, hoping to find the answer to a difficult question – should they tell Sydney the truth, or lie to her face? Neither option was particularly appealing – or safe, for that matter. If they told her that they had already known about Julia, then they would most certainly have their asses kicked by both Sydney and Dixon. If they lied to her.........well, then their guilty consciences would do the ass kicking.

They didn't get paid enough to do this job.

Vaughn took a deep breath and decided to take the plunge – he couldn't deceive Sydney any longer and he knew that Weiss couldn't either. She'd be furious but Vaughn took comfort in the fact that at least she'd have some reassurance.

"Syd," Vaughn began carefully. "This woman you're talking about – Julia – Max is right, she does look like you. Exactly like you."

Confusion crept into Sydney's eyes. "How do you know that?"

"Because I saw her at Manticore," Vaughn explained regretfully. "She walked past me, and I could've sworn she was you."

A moment passed as Sydney processed this information. Then her expression darkened as she repeated fiercely, "You saw her?"

"Yes," Vaughn concurred quietly.

"And it never occurred to you that maybe you should tell me that there's a woman out there who looks exactly like me?" Sydney hissed.

"We were under orders not to tell you," Weiss jumped in.

"Under orders? So Dixon knew about this too?" Sydney said angrily. "I suppose I was the only person who didn't know."

"Actually.......you're father didn't know either," Vaughn told her, and he couldn't help but notice the relief that washed over Sydney's face. At least my father has been honest with me, her expression seemed to say.

"Is this why you guys have been acting so weird lately?" Sydney sighed tiredly. The tone of her voice was now more frustrated that angry.

Weiss looked dumbfounded - he obviously thought that she hadn't suspected a thing. Sydney's acting ability was clearly more accomplished than theirs. "We were trying to protect you, Syd," Weiss stated lamely.

"Protect me? From what?" Sydney said incredulously. "I don't need your protection, anyone's protection. You know very well that I can handle far worse than this. I should have been the first person you told." She stood up abruptly. "Here's a tip, guys – when you discover something that affects me, don't leave me in the dark, alright?"

She turned and left them, closing the door softly behind her.

"Wow," Vaughn murmured, feeling slightly numb. He wasn't sure what to make of Sydney's reaction. He had expected to be yelled at, or have his life threatened, at the very least. But disappointment?

That was more than he could take.

OK, so maybe she had acted like a complete cow, but Vaughn and Weiss had asked for it.

Why they would keep something so trivial from her was beyond Sydney. Well, the issue wasn't exactly trivial. It was rather important, actually. For all Sydney knew, Julia could possibly have information the CIA could use to take down the Covenant or even be the key to her missing two years. And there was still the issue of why they were completely identical. Now that was something Sydney had to know.

So why did Dixon order them to refrain from telling her about Julia? For crying out loud, she could have saved a lot of trouble by helping them find information about her – which she had done already without even realising it.

She walked into her kitchen and opened the cupboard, searching for some alcohol – preferably tequila – to rid her of the exasperation she was feeling towards her colleagues. After a few minutes of rummaging around she triumphantly produced a bottle of tequila and headed to the living room, deciding to spend a quiet night in her pyjamas watching FRIENDS reruns. Which was something she usually did with Weiss, but tonight she felt like giving him a small punishment by leaving him out.

Not very mature, admittedly, but Sydney didn't care.

She had expected more from him, actually. Weiss was one of the few friends she had left and she trusted him to tell her about the things she needed to know about, orders or no orders. And Julia certainly fell under the category of things she needed to know about.

It really irked her, the way they treated her like she was emotionally delicate because she couldn't remember the last two years of her life.

But after all the pain she'd experienced not only as an agent but as a child, anyone would've thought that Sydney would become a mentally stronger and tougher person because of it. Instead, they were tip-toeing around her as if she were a fragile piece of glass. She understood that they wanted to protect her, but this was bordering on ridiculous.

Sydney slumped back onto her couch and set a glass of tequila on the table. Maybe I should forget about this whole Julia fiasco for tonight, she thought to herself.

Although there was one thing she couldn't get off her mind – something her father had said to her when she'd finally gotten the chance to tell him about Julia. She had hoped that maybe he'd have some answers, that maybe he'd kept Julia a secret from her just like he had with Project Christmas – but no. It was news to her father as well, which, strangely enough, both comforted and disheartened her.

"Sydney. This woman – Max told you her name was Julia, is that correct?" Jack asked her.

"Yes," Sydney replied, watching her father frown as he recalled something. "What is it?"

Jack's expression was stoic, as it always was when he spoke of his ex-wife, Irina. "This may be irrelevant, but I can't help but remember........when your mother and I discovered that she was pregnant with you, she was having trouble picking out a name. There were two names that she had fallen in love with, you see, and she found it hard to pick between the two. The first name was Sydney."

"What was the second name?" Sydney whispered.

"Julia."

With this new information, Sydney couldn't help but wonder if Julia was an identical twin sister she and her father didn't know about. Yes, it was ridiculous - not to mention impossible - but she couldn't bring herself to rule out that possibility.

Anyway, coincidence or not, it was still weird.

So much for forgetting about Julia, Sydney said to herself.

She finally switched on the TV, fully intent on carrying out what she had planned to do tonight – be lazy. At least she would have, if it weren't for the strange feeling in her stomach that told her there was someone else in her house. Someone that wasn't supposed to be there.

Reaching for her gun, which was resting on the table next to her forgotten glass of tequila, Sydney stood slowly and began to search the house for the intruder. Thankfully, the TV drowned out the sound of her footsteps, but it also meant that she couldn't hear theirs either.

Sydney crept through the house, checking every room and finding no one.

So I'm losing it now, she thought as she let her hand with the gun fall to her side. Great.

Suddenly, there was a firm tap on her shoulder. Startled, Sydney whirled around, and came face to face with –

Herself.

Sydney's eyes widened as she stood frozen to the spot. Unless she was mistaken, Julia was standing right in front of her. And she didn't look at all surprised that they looked exactly the same. It was like looking into a mirror, and yes, it was completely bizarre.

"Hi," Julia said brightly, with Sydney's voice and with Sydney's smile.

Unable to speak, Sydney didn't reply. Nor did she spring into action as she usually would. There were so many questions running through her mind – why was Julia here, and why did she seem to already know Sydney?

She didn't have the chance to even contemplate the answers to those questions as Julia whipped out a tranquilizer gun and shot her, causing her to slip out of consciousness.

Julia knelt in front of the unconscious Sydney Bristow, amused. She had thoroughly enjoyed seeing the shocked look on her face. What had worried her though, was the recognition she saw in her eyes. It wasn't just that Sydney had realised how much she looked like her – Julia was certain that Sydney had known exactly who she was. Did that mean the other CIA agents knew who she was too?

She straightened up abruptly as three or so Covenant agents filed into the room, ready to take Sydney into their custody.

"Very good, Julia," one of them said to her. "You'll now assume your identity as Sydney Bristow."

Julia nodded. "One question. I need to know if the CIA agents are aware of my existence. Because if they do, this mission could be in jeopardy."

"Lauren Reed will be briefing you on all you need to know regarding the CIA's investigation of the Covenant and Manticore, including the information they have on you and the other X5s – if they have any at all."

"Alright then," she replied, satisfied. She watched quietly as the Covenant agents cleared out of the house with Sydney, leaving no evidence to suggest that they had been there in the first place.

And so her mission began.

Julia felt slightly uncomfortable living in someone else's home, touching someone else's things and wearing someone else's clothes. But she had to convince herself that now this was her home, her things, and her clothes.

She was Sydney Bristow.

So she quickly got changed out of her black outfit and decided to acquaint herself with the house that was supposedly hers. If one of Sydney's friends suddenly decided to come over, it would be more than suspicious if she had no idea where everything was.

And then, as if on cue, there was a knock at the door.

Already? Julia thought furiously. Isn't there some rule that says I get some time to settle in first?

Then she drew in a deep breath, ordering herself to be calm. She had always been able to adjust to unpredictable situations, and that was exactly what she was going to do now.

Expertly slipping into her role as Sydney, she walked towards the front door, ready to greet whoever was there.

From what Julia knew about Sydney's life, it was most likely that it would be Eric Weiss or Jack Bristow that had come to visit. And that was who she had expected to see when she opened the front door.

But the penetrating blue eyes that looked back at Julia were certainly not Weiss' or Jack Bristow's.

"Sark?" she gasped.

Hope you liked it.....don't forget to review! : )