Covenant's Fall
Summary: Sydney and Vaughn head off to find Irina, but old enemies haunt their steps. Alternate Season 4.
Rating: PG-13 at the moment.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything included in this story except the occasional concept.
Chapter Three
Back in the bowels of the Credit Dauphine building, Eric Weiss appeared beside Jack Bristow as he signed yet another irrelevant memorandum.
"We need to talk."
"What about, Agent Weiss?"
"I have news. Do you want the good news first or the bad news?"
Weiss' smile faded rapidly under Jack's stony expression, and he held up his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay. They've finished digging through the rubble of the Rotunda, including the detention cells."
Jack nodded. "What did they find?"
"No more dead officers. There was one body in the cells – Katya Derevko." Weiss' shoulders slumped. "No sign of Sark. As usual, the British guy escapes captivity and near certain death. I would really like to know how he does it."
Jack was unsurprised. "I expect that we will find him before long." He turned to go, and noted that Weiss looked uncomfortable. "Was there something else you had to tell me?"
Weiss leaned in closer. "They also finished digging through the rest of the Rotunda. When they had finished in the morgue, there were body parts everywhere. Someone had tried to disguise how many people were in there. But the diggers think that there is one missing." He lowered his voice. "Lauren."
Jack frowned. "What would Irina Derevko want with the body of a dead Covenant operative? And why extract Sark and leave Katya to die? Something is wrong here."
Before Weiss could answer, a shout came from what had been Sloane's office. "Jack!" Dixon stood in the door looking grim. "Could you come in here for a moment?"
"Certainly." He turned to Weiss. "Excuse me."
Weiss stopped him. "You should know that there is an unconfirmed report that a number of suitcase nukes and the corresponding activation codes were stolen from a Ukrainian facility yesterday. The Ukrainian government is denying it, but our source says that it was Covenant troops. There were no survivors."
"Jack." Dixon was looking somewhat impatient.
Jack looked back at Weiss. "I will tell Dixon."
And with that, he disappeared inside the office, followed by Dixon. Weiss watched for a moment, then shook his head and returned to his desk.
Michael Vaughn returned to consciousness slowly, the drug induced stupor yielding only slowly to the pleasant warmth spreading through his body. His vision, when he opened his eyes, was blurred, so that all he could discern of the figure that stood before him was the blonde hair. Vaughn recoiled, thinking that it was Lauren, back from the dead to torment him once more. He discovered that he could not move far, as he was chained upright to a concrete slab in the middle of the cell. The figure advanced on him, and he tried to move through solid concrete. Suddenly his vision swam into focus, revealing the figure to be not Lauren, but Sark, something that Vaughn considered to be only a minor improvement.
"Agent Vaughn." Sark's dry British tones cut through the remainder of the fog, clearing it from Vaughn's mind. The cell he was in was made of concrete, and featureless aside from the bars that comprised the door. The heavy shackles that bound him to the slab in the centre of the chamber reduced any notion of escape to an academic question, for the moment at least. Over Sark's shoulder, he could see Sydney, who was similarly restrained and also conscious.
In front of her stood the unmistakable figure of Irina Derevko. A guard stood on either side of the cell door. He could not see what Irina was holding in her hands, and what seemed to be the focus of Sydney's attention, as both her hands were in front of her body, blocking his line of sight. Sydney's expression was unreadable.
A polite cough brought his attention back to Sark. "I must say that your capture did not present much of a challenge Agent Vaughn. Skills slipping are they? Or is it just that the finely tuned instinct that saw Lauren for who and what she was so quickly just not working today?" He smirked at the anger on Vaughn's face. "You need not worry, Mr. Vaughn. My associate will be along later to converse with you. I am to leave you alone until then."
"Busy with her daughter is she?" Vaughn's gaze flicked from Sark to Irina and back again. "I always knew that you would end up clinging to Derevko's shadow again Sark."
Sark looked over his shoulder. "You might say that." He returned his gaze to Vaughn. "I stand in no one's shadow, Mr. Vaughn, and you would do well to remember that. After all, you are next."
Beyond Sark, Vaughn could see Derevko leaving Sydney's cell, and going down the corridor, escorted by the two guards. Vaughn couldn't help but think that there was something odd about her posture and the way the guards flanked her, but he could not put his finger on it. He returned his full attention to Sark, who was just leaving.
"I will leave you alive to contemplate your fate. You owe me a debt for Lauren's death, the only woman I ever loved, and I intend to collect on it." Sark let the silence linger for a moment. "In full."
"You never loved anyone Sark. You wouldn't know the meaning of the word."
Sark paused in the door, facing away from Vaughn. "And there, Mr. Vaughn, you are gravely mistaken." He exited the cell, and strode off down the corridor in the opposite direction to Derevko. A moment later, two guards followed him.
Vaughn sagged back in his chains and waited.
Later, after an interval that in the artificially lit cell could have been anything from hours to days, they came for Vaughn. Two guards unchained him and led him through the sterile facility until they came to a room that was as bare as his cell, except for a trio of chairs. He was pushed down into one of them, and chained to it. When Vaughn tried to move the chair, he found that it was bolted to the floor.
One of the other chairs was much the same as his. The other was an ornate chair that looked far more comfortable than his own.
The guards left, leaving Vaughn alone. He looked quickly at the chair, trying to find a weakness. Before he could, he heard the door opposite to the one through which he had been brought open.
Vaughn heard footsteps clicking on the concrete floor, then a chair being pulled back opposite his, then nothing. He risked a glance upwards. His eyes widened. This was much worse than he has ever expected.
"Hello Michael." Olivia Reed. His mother in law. The mother of the woman that he has shot. Vaughn slumped in his chair. He would probably be lucky if he lasted long enough for Sark to have a chance at. He was definitely going to die. If by some miracle he did get out alive, the first thing he was going to do was shoot Jack Bristow. Bring him closure, the man had said. If only.
A/N: Sorry about the delay, but as I suspected outside factors intervened. The next chapter is underway as I write, although it will mostly be exposition on Covenant history, with a little plot advancement on the side. In the chapter following, expect the return of McKenas Cole, and some Rambaldi fun. Not for Vaughn though...