Author's notes: Sorry for the delay but this is really bad timing. I'm right in the middle of my final exams and, being a 'soccer' fan, I'm following as many World Cup games as I can.
Summary: Katya is not happy about her sister's death, something that should have never happened. She's going to make things right again. She is a woman with a plan.
Chapter 6: Running scaredThe more time passed, the more scared Sydney got. What was she supposed to tell Irina if it worked? What if she came back wrong, sick? Would it start all over again then, and would Irina succeed in killing her this time? She knew her fear was partly irrational, but she couldn't quiet the panic that seized her and she brusquely detached herself from Katya.
"I can't do this." She briskly walked toward the stairs while being careful not to glance behind her at the pool in which her mother lay.
"What?" Katya asked, surprised and a little hurt. They'd lapsed into a comfortable silence ten minutes ago and she'd never felt closer to her niece. Or anyone else beside Irina.
"I'm sorry."
Sydney rushed out of the cave, almost tripping on her way up. Katya thought of going after her but stopped herself. Frowning to try and identify the source of her discomfort, she spun around as the feeling of being watched asserted itself. Irina's eyes were opened! Unfocussed, blinking, but very much open! Katya hesitantly made her way to the back of the room as to not startle Irina who seemed very much confused.
"Irina?" Her voice was barely a whisper, and Irina didn't seem to hear her. She was looking around her wildly, and made a gurgled sound when she finally spotted Katya. Her breathing was laboured and her eyes kept bouncing around. What worried Katya was that Irina wasn't moving. At all. She hoped it was simply the way the processus of regeneration worked, by focussing on vital functions first and muscles later or something of the sort. Oddly enough, the ugly little scars from Irina's fall seemed to be fading from her face and the rest of her body already.
Katya wondered if she should get her sister out of the pool or leave her in there until she could talk and move. Assessing there was no risk for Irina to drown, she hurried up to the surface to get supplies from her car. Upon her return, she immediately regretted leaving her sister alone. Irina appeared even more frantic than before.
Inwardly cursing Sydney for leaving, she weighed her options and decided Irina seemed to have improved in the few minutes it took her to bring back blankets, food and water. Her fingers were twitching. She wasn't expecting Irina to get up and give her a hug since she'd been dead for three weeks. She imagined it would be like waking up from a coma, with muscle weakness, difficulty to speak from throat disuse and so on.
"Let's get you out of here okay?" She had no clue if Irina was even hearing her and gave her what she hoped was a kind and reassuring smile.
Irina had always been the fanatic one while Katya was only mildly interested. But now, seeing her sister alive, when she'd been dead only twenty minutes earlier, Katya couldn't help but bless Rambaldi for the gift he'd given her.
She managed to lift Irina out of the pool and to wrap her in the blanket to keep the cold of the room from her sister's drenched, naked body. Her sister wasn't being much help but Katya wanted to take her to a doctor ASAP.
It had been several days since Sydney had walked out on her aunt and mother, without knowing the outcome of Katya's plan. She hoped her mother was alive but at the same time, she didn't want to burden herself with knowing. It was the middle of the night when she was awoken by the ring of her cell phone. Vaughn groaned and shifted in the bed. She picked up.
"Hello?" The caller ID indicated 'unknown caller' but she expected that call to come sooner or later. As expected, it was Katya.
"I need to see you. Now."
Sydney sighed. "I can't come. I'm sorry I left you hanging but I made a mistake, which I regret. Now I just want you to leave me alone, please."
"I can't do that Sydney. I am outside of your house. If you don't come out, I will come in."
The implied threat gave her pause, and she avoided Vaughn's questioning look. Her relationship with Katya was shifty, at best, it seemed. The both of them could go from hugs to threats in a blink. She thought they'd reached a new level of their relationship in the cave, but her hurried exit had apparently ruined that and they were back to square one.
"Give me five minutes," she replied dryly, unhappy about the fact she had to obey Katya and lie to Vaughn, again.
"You have two minutes."
She hang up and Sydney hurriedly put some clothes on and tucked a gun in her waistband.
"Syd what's going on?" Asked Vaughn, suddenly very much awake at seeing her jump in her clothes in the middle of the night and pack a gun.
"I have to go out for a little while, I can't explain. I love you." She gave him a peck on the lips and was out of the room, grabbing her coat to protect her from the heavy rain. She heard him follow her to the hall and quickly threw the door open and took the steps two at a time. She got in the passenger seat of a dark blue Mercedes parked next to her mailbox and slammed the door before Vaughn could see the driver.
"Go!" She ordered her aunt who spared a glimpse at a bewildered boxer clad Vaughn before stepping on the gas. She discreetly glanced in the backseat, worried that 'she' might be here.
"Everything okay with your Agent Vaughn?" Katya couldn't help but ask despite her anger toward Sydney for what had happened in the cave.
"What do you want from me now?" Asked Sydney with lassitude, decidedly not in the mood for small talk.
"Aren't you going to ask?"
"Ask what?" Sydney was playing dumb and they both knew it but Katya indulged her anyway. After all, she was the one who needed Sydney's help, not the other way around, so it was in her interest to play nice.
"After you left…she woke up. It worked Sydney. Your mother is alive."
Sydney inhaled sharply, biting her lips to keep from crying out. A few tears escaped her eyes though, but she couldn't pinpoint exactly what she was feeling. It was a mix of happiness, relief, and fear, uncertainty really, just like in the cave.
"Why…" she cleared her throat. "Why am I here, why are you telling me this?"
"Because Irina needs your help."
"I want nothing to do with her," Sydney snapped immediately.
"She's your mother!" Katya's voice rose substantially.
"I retired from the CIA to get away from people like her because I'm a mother now. I have a family to think of, and I'm happy. Why can't you people just leave me be!"
Her aunt brusquely pulled over to the side of the road.
"So this is your excuse? You just give up? Take the easy way out? Listen to me!" She forced Sydney to face her. There was desperation in her eyes. "She was captured by Yelena because of you! Because she was looking for you, worried sick, when you were just playing double agent again. You are as much responsible for her condition as Yelena is."
Sydney swallowed hard and was quiet for a moment, taking it all in.
"You owe her," insisted Katya, sensing she was gaining ground.
"I can't…I can't deal with her Katya." She shook her head as tears escaped her eyes.
"She needs your help Sydney!" Katya was adamant about that particular fact, Sydney wondered what exactly 'help' would entail.
"You're her sister, you help her!"
"I tried, but she doesn't want my help. She wants nothing to do with me."
"What are you talking about?" Sydney was confused, she thought her mother would have picked up her life where she'd left it but she'd apparently been wrong.
"She was confused at first, it took her some time to adjust. She fell Sydney, she knew she was going to die, and when she woke up, she knew she had died."
"My God! She…remembers dying?"
"She does. She remembers everything that happened before that too. How she got sick, and changed. She was mostly very angry at me for bringing her back. And then, it got worse."
"Worse?" Sydney gulped at the idea of her mother coming after her again.
"Not in the way you think. She wouldn't tell me anything but I felt it. She was afraid Sydney."
"Afraid of what?"
"Of what she'd become, of what had happened between you two in Hong Kong. The little she told me…she was so…horrified, disgusted by her behaviour. She wasn't making much sense, but she did mention something about a boat and torture?" Katya had hoped Sydney could enlighten her about that particular fact. The woman was determined to reconcile Irina with her daughter so the most she knew, the better she'd be able to convince them both that it was okay to take a step forward and not be scared of one another.
Sydney shifted in her seat uncomfortably. "What do you want me to say? You brought a lunatic back to life. At least for now she knows just how evil she is, but whatever she does next is on you."
"Don't call your mother names Sydney. She started on new medication as soon as we got back to Russia. She's mentally stable and healthy according to her physician. At least on the schizophrenia side of things. Her new treatment is working, that's why I didn't bother going after her."
"Going after…what are you talking about? You let her go?"
"She wasn't my prisoner Sydney. She wanted to be alone, she left." Sydney shook her head, bewildered at Katya's nonchalance. "She's in a remote village of Africa called Chawolo."
Sydney gave her a strange look. "Why are you telling me this?"
Katya shrugged. "I just thought you should know."
Sydney nodded slowly in unspoken acceptance. "You could have told me all this over the phone."
"I could have," replied Katya enigmatically before putting the car in gear and made a u-turn in the deserted street. "Maybe I wanted to see you." She gave Sydney a mischievous smile.
Her niece chuckled. "Maybe someday we could see each other just to get a drink and talk."
"I would love that." Katya had a warm smile on her face, and, embolden by Sydney's expression, asked, "how's Isabelle? Still keeping you up?"
Sydney smiled brightly, feeling more comfortable with her aunt than she had since she'd met her. "Yeah, but now Vaughn's here so we take turns. I just hope the day she'll sleep a full night is near!"
"Good luck with that! Your mother didn't until she was XXX months old (I DON T KNOW ABOUT THOSE THINGS), and I remember her telling me you were the same."
"Really?"
Katya nodded and slowed the car to a stop in front of Sydney's house. The living room lights were on. Sydney sighed, Vaughn was probably up, waiting for her, and he would demand explanations. She exited the car without a word and slowly made her way to the door. She turned around to give an hesitant wave in the direction of the car and entered her apartment just as Vaughn was about to open the door.
"Syd! Where were you? What the hell is going on with you?" He asked, angry and worried. He knew she'd been lying to him, but it hadn't felt right to question her when he'd lied to her for years. But now the time for waiting was over, he was too worried about her to keep playing nice.
Sydney sighed. She knew she couldn't tell him about her mother. He would hate her for what she'd done, and try and discourage her from doing what she ws about to do.
"Vaughn, I'm going to need you to trust me. It will all be over soon but I can't tell you what it is."
"What do you mean? God Sydney what are you doing?"
"I can't explain Vaughn, please, just give me time. I won't be there when you wake up tomorrow."
"What?" He asked, eyes bulging out of his head.
"I'm going to Nigeria, it could take a few days but I'll be back as soon as I can."
"Syd, no, I can't let you do that!"
"Let me? You can't let me?" She asked, eyes blazing.
He immediately knew he'd made a mistake by implying that he had a say in her decisions, but he was not backing out. "You have a family now Syd, a daughter who needs her mother. Your decisions don't affect only you anymore, but all three of us."
"I realise that, but this is something I need to do!" She ran her hand up and down his arm to try and calm him down. More softly, she added, "I'm not doing anything dangerous Vaughn, I promise you." She was lying but it was too important for her.
"Okay," he said softly, adding to her guilt. "Goodnight then. I love you." He kissed her on the lips and went into their room.
Sydney sighed and took a seat in the rocking chair by Isabelle's crib. She watched her daughter sleep until the sun rose. She went into her room and quietly packed comfortable clothes with a few bottles of water and other first necessities. What lay ahead of her was no picnic, Chawolo wasn't exactly a capital or a tourist city. To her chagrin, she couldn't bring a gun or even a knife with her since she was flying commercial. For once, she took her own passport with her. Sydney Bristow was going to Nigeria.
TBC
