Chapter X

They glanced into the room. Inside, Sydney was sitting up and legs spread apart. Her face was a bright red and she was breathing quickly. Irina stood in front of her, coaching her through the child's birth.

Jack was the first to enter the room followed by Vaughn, Nadia, and Rachel. Irina didn't even look to see who entered. Sydney was squeezing her hand.

"Irina, get away from her," ordered Jack as he aimed a gun at her.

"Jack, your grandchild is being born. I think your desire to shoot me can wait," said Irina. Jack and Vaughn both approached Sydney and Jack put his weapon away. Sydney was crying.

"Breathe, Syd," said Vaughn. He held her other hand.

"I didn't want it to happen like this," explained Sydney. "I wanted to be a normal mother and have a child in a hospital."

"Sydney," began Vaughn, "Don't worry about it. Our lives are far from normal anyway and you know I wouldn't want it any other way."

"Yes you would," she insisted.

"Sydney, I love you and I could not care where you had our child as long as I'm with you," he assured her.

"Alright Sydney," said Irina, slightly interrupting the moment but for a perfectly excusable reason. "I want you to push when I say." There was a short pause. "Push."

Sydney clenched her teeth. Sweat poured down her forehead. Through her cries and pain, the baby was removed from the womb crying. Irina cradled it. Jack took a step back but did not aim his gun. Sydney was still alive.

"Irina," Jack said, "hand over the child."

"Oh, but Jack," she said, "this is Rambaldi. This is no ordinary child."

"The prophecy isn't real, Irina. Everyone is dead," informed Jack.

"I don't care. This child is Rambaldi. The great Milo Rambaldi."

"Mom, please, just give me my child," pleaded Sydney tiredly.

"Don't you all want immortality?" asked Irina. "Don't you want to live forever?"

"Mom," said Nadia who had remained silent this whole time. "The child's a girl."

Irina turned to the child in shock and saw that Nadia was right. She turned away from everyone and the baby began crying louder.

"Mom," said Sydney. "Could I please have my daughter."

Irina walked slowly over to Sydney. "Congratulations," Irina said. She handed Sydney the child and it quieted down. Irina took a step back and stared at her grandchild. She began crying but nobody could decide if she cried because she had failed or because she was a grandmother. Vaughn touched the child's cheek and Nadia came over to it. Everyone's eyes remained on the child.

Irina, still silently crying, looked to Jack afterward. He noticed her gaze and he turned to her. They stared at one another for a long while.

"I suppose you should kill me outside this room," suggested Irina. "The gun shot will scare the child. It might ruin its hearing." There was a long silence. Sydney, Vaughn, and Nadia all looked up and waited for Jack to say something. He turned to his grandchild and without looking at Irina he spoke.

"Leave."

The word was mumbled but Irina had heard him. She did not stay to thank him nor did she kiss her daughter or granddaughter goodbye. She walked to the door and stared at a family she wished she didn't have to leave behind. A family where her daughter was an act, a piece of evidence that made Jack Bristow believed she was in love with him. And now that child, the child she never wanted was a mother and a wonderful person. She fell in love with her child but Irina knew that Sydney would learn being an agent and mother simultaneously is impossible.

Sydney was the only one who saw her mother smile before exiting the room. Whether the smile was directed toward her or accidently exposed, Sydney did not know. She watched more tears flood in her mother's eyes as she stared at a family she could have been apart of. And Sydney cried.

Through her whole life, she wanted a mother-figure but she never got one. She never had the experience of getting her nails done for the first time with her mom. She never went shopping with her mom. Her mother was not there when she fell down and scraped her leg. Her mother was not there to tell her how to be a lady. Instead, she ended up going on life threatening missions with her mother and watching her father aim a gun at her. She saw and learned about her mother's murders, about her lies, and she realized that she had become a better person without a mother figure but she would not have her daughter grow up without one.

Irina left.

Jack returned to the storage closet to find Elena still there. He brought her to the dock and tied a piece of cement around her leg.

"Sydney named her child Isabelle," he told her as he did it. Elena made no response to Jack's statement. Jack then dropped her into the ocean.

Jack then called for an extraction. Two helicopters arrived. Sydney, Vaughn, Jack, and Nadia went in one and Renee, Tom, and Marcus went in the other. Before leaving, Jack attached an explosive device to the boat and when the helicopters were quite a distance away, he blew up the ship.

Tomas Grace, and Marcus Dixon were both given the proper burial. Dixon and Tom were buried in a cemetery. Renee was treated at a CIA hospital. Sydney made sure that she was no obtained as a criminal after through a great deal of arguments with Langley, Renee was eventually let go from the CIA and she flew back to Europe. Sydney had little contact with her but from what she learned, Renee was doing well.

Two weeks later it was discovered that Julian Sark was alive and he was up to his crimes again. Three days later, Kelly Peyton was spotted and the following week she was spotted again with Julian Sark. A week after that sighting, Alexander Derevko was seen alive. Several times he attempted to bargain with Jack for the location of his sister but Jack told him it was best that she wasn't found. He threatened Jack.

Christoph Madeira was spotted with Alexander Derevko. The CIA later discovered that they were selling nuclear weapons to countries for a great deal of money. They quickly made their way up the CIA's most wanted list.

Unfortunately, so did Ivan and Sylvian. The two were at first assumed to be the conductors of several terrorist attacks in Europe. Later, they confessed in a video which they sent to MI6. After their attacks in Europe they made their way to North America. Their damage in the United States was not as big as in Europe, luckily but they were never caught.

Geoffrey also did his share of crimes in the United States, western Europe, and eastern Asia. He obtained a great deal of wealth by sending blackmail around the world. He also managed to buy off Rambaldi artifacts from his cousin, Christoph, and he sold them generously to Asian historians. The artifacts soon became lost.

Cecilia also was found on the CIA's most wanted criminals. She at first was her own agent but had soon developed a group known as the Call. Their work mostly focused around southern Europe and Africa but have recently been involving South and Central America.

The last Mariska was seen was with her brother but she had not been accused of any crimes. She had gone missing and Sydney never heard from her again. Sydney hoped that she had taken a good path in life.

Sloane died in his cell of old age. He ate very little and did not speak at all after he discovered the Prophecy was a lie and that Sydney had gave birth to a girl. Sydney told it to his face herself.

Nadia and Weiss married and the two had twins. They bought a house in Hawaii because it was the closest thing to a Mexican Island without actually being on one (Weiss loved Nadia but he never wanted to go south of the border. She vacationed there once with him and he got food poisoning). He continued his work for several years with the White House and then he got a job in Hawaii involving the government. Nadia stayed at home with the twins.

Rachel continued to work with the CIA after APO closed down. She attempted to stay away from field work and remain at a computer but she constantly offered to help on missions. She had a boyfriend, the last time Sydney talked to her, who she was dating for almost a year.

Sydney retired from her work with the CIA and settled down with Vaughn. The two bought a house in Santa Barbara right on the beach. It was secluded and beautiful. Jack retired two years later and bought himself a house down in Florida. He frequently visited Sydney and stayed for months at a time.

Sydney had not heard from Irina directly. Frequently, Sydney received Christmas cards from her. Sydney, in return sent Christmas cards to her to an undisclosed location so she could watch Isabelle grow. Irina also never forgot Isabelle's birthday. Sydney had a feeling she'd see her again.

Life was perfect which Sydney did not believe could be possible at all. She was married to the perfect man and she had a beautiful daughter. She knew that life would still come with its conflicts but she felt that she had survived and withstood the hardest ones. She had saved the world a number of times but she learned that not just that made her a hero. Sydney Bristow was a hero because she cared, loved, and would do anything for her friends and family and she admired herself for it.

Author's End Note: This chapter is not the last chapter. I have a short Afterward Chapter that I will update with. I apologize for the short length of the last chapters. Thanks everyone for the reviews!