Alternate Existence
She was just sixteen. She never wanted this. She never wanted any of it. She didn't want to be an agent. She didn't want to even learn to fight. And most of all, she didn't want to learn her mother was a foreign spy.
Chapter 10: Future Position
Sydney sat in her lit class, still unable to really focus on the class with Jessie's seat sitting empty. Even then, she toyed absently with the chain of the heart shaped locket. She heard the teacher lecturing, she just wasn't very likely to remember any of it later.
"The idea of the passage is that the family bond was still as strong as ever, even though the narrator knows his sister is a criminal. He recognizes a moral obligation, but also a familial obligation to his sister."
That was all Sydney heard before her thoughts trailed to her mother. She knew she loved Laura Bristow. Laura Bristow had never showed her anything but motherly love.
But in the same was, she hated Irina Derevko. Irina Derevko was a mean, thoughtless person, incapable of any human emotion. Like another person entirely.
After a while of see-sawing back and forth like that, between Laura Bristow and Irina Derevko, Sydney shook her head at herself and leaned back with a sigh. She was going to have to reconcile these two women into one body, or she was going to have serious issues.
Sydney faked, dodged a kick, and threw one of her own. Her opponent lost his footing and she drop swept his feet the rest of the way out form under him.
"Okay. You can go."
Denosivich got to his feet slowly.
Sydney grinned, then grew sober. She tugged her locket from under her shirt and activated it. Denosivich glanced at her, then turned and waited.
"I've made up my mind," she said softly and quickly. "I want to see the director and to make my decision known."
"Why wait?" Denosivich asked carefully.
"Because I don't know I could explain it the same way twice."
She backed away a couple paces, then let Denosivich see her release the trigger on the bug-killer. She grabbed her stuff and left silently, as had become her custom.
She knew Denosivich would make arrangements. He had little choice anyway. He saw the Lina Derevko--the disillusioned spy--coming out in Sydney Bristow--the lost sixteen-year-old girl--more and more.
Denosivich had not expected to feel the sense of anticipation he experienced as he drove toward the safe house. He'd become too involved, he knew; he was too wrapped up in what happened to one sixteen-year-old girl.
Yet, there he was, as anxious as to her decision as if he was her father.
Sydney watched again as the rusty garage door opened soundlessly, and followed Denosivich into the living room. She possessed now a certain resolve, having usurped the confidence of Lina to use as Sydney. So, while Denosivich fretted and worried, Sydney was calm and confident.
She was even a little disappointed to find only the director inside, and she realized she'd been hoping the Green-eyed Suit would be there too.
The atmosphere of the room was hushed and solemn, but that didn't dissuade Sydney at all.
"You've come to a decision about what to do about your current position?" the director asked.
"Yes."
"Let's hear it."
Sydney inhaled a deep breath, showing the first sign of weakness since she'd arrived.
"I'm already in place inside the KGB, the daughter of one of their most trusted agents. My future position could hold invaluable opportunities for the CIA. I hate it now, and I will hate it every second that I have to lie to people I love, but I can't walk away and pretend I don't know the KGB exists, that the threat it presents isn't real to me. If nothing else, they killed my friend. If I can help take them down, then may be the fact that her death is ultimately my fault won't haunt me. I want to be a double agent."
She had barely concluded her speech when none other than Jack Bristow burst through a door to her left, shattering the quiet.
"Daddy?!?" Sydney gasped, gaping at him. "But you're dead!"
Jack shook his head vigorously.
"I'm not. Your mother lied to you, Sydney. She took you away before I could stop her."
"But…what are you…"
"Don't you see, Sydney? I can take you away from all this. You have choices, you don't have to be an agent!"
As Sydney realized he'd moved steadily closer so that he now stood nearly on top of her, she tensed, then took a definite step backward.
"I can't do what you're asking, Daddy. It's too late. I have to do this now."
Jack was speechless for an instant, and in that crack in time Denosivich started propelling Sydney toward the door, assuring the director that he'd handle the details with a short nod over his shoulder. For now, it was best to get Sydney away from Jack Bristow.
They drove around aimlessly for over an hour as Denosivich explained everything from protocol for a double agent to Jack Bristow's frantic appearance. When Denosivich finally dropped her off behind her building, Sydney's head was reeling so that she never knew how she made it up the stairs to fall into bed.