Killer Instinct:

Chapter 4: You Can Run, But We'll Find You

Sydney stared at the window, watching the rain drops trickle down the glass, each racing the other towards the end. The street lights beyond were a blur of colors. She could see the world continuing on beyond the window, continuing on without her. She was a prisoner, stuck in that cold room, imprisoned by the people that she worked for, the people she trusted and one of the people that she had loved. She wanted to hate him, but really she knew that she hated herself more. The pictures, the reports, as much as she wanted them to be a forgery, deep down she knew otherwise.

Have you, have you been keeping secrets from me?
Hoped I wouldn't find out
And you'd just go free
There's a whole world outside your window pane
And I've got scars to prove it

One night had passed since she'd been with Vaughn, since he'd shown her what she had done. She'd seen his disgust, she'd seen how cold he could be, and she knew he wasn't the Vaughn she used to know and love, just as she wasn't the same person she used to be. Two years changes a person, she'd realized that earlier. She still had so many unanswered questions, and that pile of questions was gaining some friends.

What the hell had she done since that meeting with Simon? Since the day she'd warned them, since she'd risked her life to save Simon and his men? She'd risked it all then just for the possibility of finding out about those years, she was certain she would've done a whole lot more to secure that information. But the more she thought about it the more certain she became that she hadn't committed the crimes she'd been accused of, the crimes she was being held for. She knew someone who could help her. The same person who held the answers to her two years, the same person she'd been prior to her arrest….Simon.

---------------------

Simon sat at the large wooden dining table, maps and various documents spread out in front of him...the perfect plan. He breathed in deep, filling his lungs with fresh air, hoping that the oxygen would reduce the feeling in his stomach. He wasn't sure what it was, whether it was nerves or excitement, or maybe a mixture of both. Either way, there were only 20 minutes until this plan would be initiated, until he'd have what was his back in his possession. He gathered the papers and locked them away in a black leather briefcase. He called his men, Alistair and Gabriel, his newest recruits since the unfortunate and untimely death of Javier and Avery, and double checked that everything was in place. He smiled, knowing that within the hour he would have what was his, and things would go back to the way they were before.

---------------------

Sydney leant against the head of the bed and stared directly forward. She could still picture the vague images of people, the vague memories that were somewhere, trapped within her mind. She needed to find them, she needed to remember, and she just didn't know how she could do that. She'd tried to sleep, to dream about the past but she didn't recover anything new. She fought the urge to break down into tears. She couldn't help but remember those photos and one photo in particular. The one of the blond haired girl stuck with her, just one of the innocent faces of those she'd helped to kill, whether she liked it or not. She drew her knees to her chest and hugged them as tightly as possible. Had she become what she'd feared for so long? Had she become her mother?

She tried to clear her head, tried to think of anything but this. She rested her head against her folded arms, trying desperately to sleep. At least then she might be left alone in the darkness. She closed her eyes. A loud bang. Her eyes snapped open as muffled voices yelled commands, another few seconds and gunfire rang out throughout the house. She sprang from the bed. What the hell was going on? Suddenly it went quiet. Then she heard the sound of bodies hitting the floor, and then footsteps. The footsteps grew louder, before shadows moved beneath the doorway. She moved back, away from the doorway and behind the wardrobe.

The door was kicked open and they entered the room. She watched two masked figures go directly to the bed, guns drawn, ready to fire. A third entered the room.

"Alright boys." He said, that familiar accent sending chills down Sydney's spine.

She suddenly realized what had just happened. She felt a cold sinking feeling in her stomach. Simon moved into view, his balaclava in his hand and his gun at his side.

"Hello sweetheart," he said coolly, as though they'd just happened to have run into each other.

"What did you?" She asked, almost unable to bring herself to ask.

"What I had to." He replied simply, "Now come on, we've got a plane to catch," he said as he reached for her arm.

She pulled it back.

"Oh come on love. You want to stay here? With a bunch of corpses? They can't tell you what you want to know…they can't show you…"

She glared at him. "How dare you." She couldn't believe he'd done this for her. And how he expected her to run, to leave this house full of dead CIA agents where she was being held as a suspect. She couldn't do it, she couldn't leave.

"You need to come with us. You can't stay here, you know what they'll do to do." He said, knowing that she'd eventually break, she always did when it came to him. He just needed to be patient. "Don't you want to know why you can't remember our, recent little time together?"

She narrowed her gaze. He was blackmailing her. She knew it. But right now, he really was the only one that could help her. The CIA wasn't going to. Who else did she have? She didn't even know where her own father was during all of this. She looked past Simon at his two, unfamiliar henchmen. One held a white cloth. She didn't need 20 questions to figure out what it was. She could go willingly, or they'd have to force her along. She sighed.

"Fine."

---------------------

Vaughn glared out the window as the world continued on outside. He watched the cars go past and the clouds slowly creep across the sky. Time continued, although it felt like all time had stopped within that safe house. Agents had died that day. Good agents, truthful, trustworthy, loyal agents. Unlike her. He almost growled. He knew it all along. It was all there in front of him, in print, in pictures, it was staring him in the face and he still allowed himself to try to ignore it. Of course Simon and Sydney were working together, the facts were there, and yet he had hoped that it had been false. Sitting in that room earlier, watching her reaction to the information he was feeding her, it had been hard for him, harder than she knew. Her reactions were so real, so damn real. She'd tricked him, he honestly had begun to think that she didn't remember it at all, that maybe he'd somehow tricked her into it, maybe drugged her, hypnotized her...but stupid him for believing that anything about her was true.

He shifted his weight and winced. The sudden movement caused a rush of blood to his wounded shoulder. That bastard had shot him, a simple flesh wound, but it had immobilized him. It had prevented him from stopping them...from saving the others...He took a step away from the window and went back into the tiny world within that house...the world that had stopped. Blood stained the walls and floors. Agents crawled the interior, taking photos and evidence, questioning those lucky enough to still be alive. He couldn't stand to be in that house, not anymore. It was killing him knowing that she was with him, that all along it had been the two of them, and both of them were responsible for the deaths of those agents. He looked down at the bandage around his arm where a bullet had clipped him. He silently made a vow as he crossed the threshold of the house. He'd get them. He'd find them, and he'd make them pay for all that they'd done.

But you should have known,
you should have known,
you should have known,
you should have known

You can run, but we'll find you

If you couldn't tell, I almost gave up on this, not because I lost interest in this story but just because of my lack of interest in Alias anymore. But receiving reviews even now after not updating for so long, it made me want to get interested again, so I re-watched my fav eps and started writing again. For those of you who were waiting for this, I'm sorry for taking so long, hopefully it'll end up being worth the wait. Lemme know what y'all thought of this chapter. / Britt