A/N: Sorry about the long time it took me to post this up. I hope you all enjoy this chapter. This chapter is the bridge to some new developments in the story so let me know what you think.

Chapter 17: A Savior

"Albert Hyman pays well to make sure that he is protected. He's the man that Sydney was supposed to steal the key from. It's likely that someone gave him the heads up about Sydney. He owns an old abandoned warehouse that he uses for interrogations and things of the sort. It's likely that if he has Sydney, he'll be keeping her there." Jack informed Vaughn.

"What's the game plan?" he asked.

"Surveillance tells me that he doesn't keep more than twelve armed guards. I've already hired a few free-lance agents to accompany us. We'll infiltrate the warehouse and extract Sydney. We'll disarm the guards in the front door first, as quietly as possible. The only entrance is through here, it'll be heavily armed so we can expect to have a difficult time passing through there. Once we get past that it should be a fairly simple extraction. The warehouse isn't big, I have an idea of where they would be keeping her. Once we have her there will be a car waiting for us, they'll take us to a helicopter near by which will take us to a safehouse I have."

"When do we do this?" Vaughn asked.

"Tonight. The plane leaves in two hours to Algeria, we should be there by midnight. It'll be easier to attack at night."

"Good." Every minute that passed by felt like an eternity to him. Having no news from Sydney was a torture. He feared that she was hurt, that she was being tortured or even worse that she was dead. He desperately needed to know how she was. He couldn't sleep at night, he hadn't been able to sleep since she had left for Algeria. Knowing that he was only hours away from finding her gave him peace.

In a warehouse in Algeria-

Jack ran quietly towards the side wall and waited for the other three men to join him. On the other side Vaughn led the other three. They walked quietly towards the front wall holding their guns in position. Jack quickly glanced to see the position of the two guards in the front door and signaled to his men to attack. They had all synchronized their watches and had planned the attack down to the last second. He swiftly left the safety of the wall and faced the guard nearest him, and with one quick move he shot him with his tranquilizer gun, just as Vaughn did the same.

Once the two guards were down Vaughn signaled to Jack that they were ready to enter the warehouse. They quickly and quietly entered and found that the warehouse was not as heavily guarded as they had thought. There were three men sitting at a table reading magazines and drinking coffee, by the time they had noticed the presence of the eight men they had already been shot. They quickly fell to the ground and the eight men continued walking down the hall. They walked down the long hall and stopped in front of a room that would lead them to the holding cells. Jack peered through the small window on the door and suddenly opened his eyes wide in disbelief at the sight of his daughter lying on the floor bruised and broken. He could tell that she was sleeping, either that or she was unconscious. Without any prior thought he quickly opened the door, not expecting to hear the sounds of the alarm that he had tripped.

Sydney awoke at the sounds of the alarm, she looked up to see several men dressed in black wearing ski masks running toward her. The men worked fast at unlocking her cell door. As soon as the door opened a man ran to her side. He picked her up in his arms and carried her out of the cell.

"Simon." she said softly. She had realized that they were only there for her, she couldn't leave Simon behind, not after all they had been through. The man carrying her signaled to the other men and they quickly took Simon out of his cell as well. Sydney used all her strength to look at the face of the man who was carrying her. All she could see was his eyes, because the rest of his face the ski mask covered. She looked at his warm brown eyes and instantly recognized him. It was her father.

"Dad." A great sense of relief came over her as she realized that she was safe, because she knew that her father would protect her. She rested her head on his shoulder and for the first time in days she felt safe and loved. She closed her eyes and rest became a blur. She heard guards yelling followed by gunshots but she continued to rest her head on his shoulders. Perhaps it was because she was too tired and too weak to realize that she was in danger, or perhaps it was because she knew that her father would protect her.

In Jack's safehouse-

Sydney woke up and realized that she was lying down in a comfortable bed. The first thing that she noticed was Vaughn. He was sleeping uncomfortably in the chair beside her. She smiled at the sight of him, it had been the first time she had smiled in two weeks. She continued to lie there watching him, it was peaceful to her.

Vaughn slowly opened his eyes and realized that she was awake and watching him.

"Hey." he said.

"Hey."

"How long have you been awake?"

"Just a little while."

"How do you feel?"

"A lot better now that you're here."

He smiled at her and stood up to sit right next to her. He lightly kissed her forehead and held her in his arms for some time. When he had first seen her last night he had felt his heart break. She seemed so different, nothing like the Sydney he had always seen. Even in her toughest moments she had been strong, last night she was barely alive. She had cuts and bruises all over her face and body. She was thinner than the last time he had seen her and for the first time in his life he hadn't seen the strong Sydney, he had watched as Jack carried a broken Sydney. A Sydney who had spent two of the worst weeks of her life at the hands of torturers. He wished he had been able to help her, to protect her but he had failed her once again.

"I'm sorry." he whispered into her ear. Upon hearing these words, she pulled away from him and looked him in the eye.

"This was not your fault Vaughn. There was nothing you could have done."

"I wish there was something that I could have done."

"Vaughn, you did do something, you gave me the strength to not give up, and you and dad... you saved me."

Vaughn closed the space between them once more and continued to hold her in his arms. "I love you."

"I love you too." she said as she moved her head to kiss him. He kissed her back slowly and softly and she followed his rhythm. She wrapped her arms around his neck as she lied down making sure that he followed her. She unbuttoned his shirt and began to caress his chest and abs.

"I've missed you so much." she whispered in between breaths as his kisses moved down from her mouth to her neck. Just as she began to slowly move her hands down to his pants, the door suddenly opened. Sydney felt the blood rush to her face as she realized that the person who had opened the door was no one other than her father. Jack cleared his throat and pretended like he had seen nothing. Both Sydney and Vaughn quickly sat up.

"I'm glad you're feeling better. We have some things to discuss, whenever you're ready just come outside." He walked out the door and closed the door behind him.

As soon as the door had closed Vaughn and Sydney burst out laughing.

"What a mood killer." Vaughn said.

"Come on, let's go." she said as she tried to hold back her laughter. They stood up and walked outside where Jack sat looking over some files. Sydney walked over to him and hugged him.

"Thank you dad."

"I'm just glad you're alright."

"You said you needed to talk to me." she said as she took the seat next to him, just as Vaughn did the same.

"Last night's extraction was made to look like a personal attack on Hyman, not as an extraction of you and Simon. The covenant was aware that you were being held there, I got my information through a mole that we have set up. He has minimal access but he was able to find out the information that they had on your disappearance."

"If they knew, why didn't they free us?" she asked.

"You're a new agent, you haven't proven yourself to be valuable to them yet. They were keeping an eye on this facility, most likely to find out if you leaked any information to Hyman. The attack last night can't be kept from them."

"What does that mean?" Vaughn asked.

"It means that Sydney has to go back. If you don't go back they'll take this as a betrayal and they will stop at nothing until they find you."

"What am I supposed to do, just waltz in there like nothing happened? As if I didn't spend the worst two weeks of my life when they could have come in and stopped it at any time? Dad if I hated them before getting captured, I absolutely abhor them now. I can't go back there."

"Sydney, listen to me. They believe that you were able to escape during the madness of the attack, they don't know that this was an extraction team sent for you. They don't know that you know who you are or that you're helping the CIA against them. You are our most valuable asset there. With you we can take them down in half the time."

"You want me to be a double agent again? I don't think I can go through that again, not alone, not after all of this." she said as she began to lose her composure.

"Sydney this is all up to you, but think about this rationally. They aren't going to leave you alone, let you go back to your old life. They'll do everything in their power to get to you. If you stay you can help us bring them down. You can get rid of them. Think about it. Think about what your life will be like having to hide all the time, wondering when they'll get to you, to the people you care about." After having spoken the last word, Jack left the room. He knew that his words were manipulative. He wanted nothing more than to have his daughter home, safe, away from all this madness. He couldn't have that though, not as long as the Covenant was still out there.

Jack walked into the burnt down apartment that had once been his daughter's home. It was nothing like it had been. The walls were black, the furniture was now dust, everything that his daughter owned was gone. As he came in he watched the EMTs carry Will out into the ambulance. His face was dark and although he had inhaled a lot of smoke, he was going to be fine. He continued through what was left of the apartment and spotted Vaughn sitting on the floor. The man was on the verge of a breakdown. He could see it in his face, he had lost hope. Even so Jack couldn't do so. There was no way that his daughter, his strong, smart and beautiful daughter had gone down in flames. She was too stubborn to die that way. There simply was no way that she had died here.

"Jack." He heard someone behind him say, it sounded like Director Kendell. Jack turned around to face him and found that he was indeed right.

"Kendell, any word on Sydney?"

"Jack, we found remains... in Sydney's bedroom. As of now, we believe that this may be Sydney."

"You don't know that."

"Jack, she hasn't contacted us. She's nowhere to be found. If she were alive she would have come to us by now, don't you think."

"Until you have proof that that body is the body of my daughter, don't presume her to be dead. You underestimate her and I don't appreciate it." Jack quickly walked past him and left the place without another word. She wasn't dead. She couldn't be dead. She just couldn't. He sat quietly in his car thinking about his daughter. Kendell was right about one thing, she would have contacted them by now if she were safe. There must be something preventing her from contacting them. Perhaps she was hurt, unconscious somewhere, perhaps someone had taken her. He knew that he wouldn't be able to sleep until he had some answers. He turned on the ignition and drove away, he knew what he had to do, and he knew the perfect person to help him do it.