A/N - This story starts around 3pm after Day Three. Changes to the story are that Nina has not been killed, and Tony has not been arrested. Also, the story was made up as I wrote it – it's based on an idea that the Nina who killed Jack's wife etc was not the Nina he had seen as a friend. A future fanfiction may use a similar idea.
Now that the threat was over, there was one last thing to do before CTU could finally finish off the mission – transport Nina to Division. The agents who were still left looked at Nina as she was escorted through the bullpen and towards the exit.
Alex looked at Nina as she passed by and noticed that there were subtle differences in her appearance, and as he examined her, he began to contemplate the idea that he was not looking at his sister at all. Asking the guards that were escorting her to stop for a moment, before walking closer to her, he got her attention and decided to find out for sure.
"Do you understand what I am saying?," Alex asked her in Ukrainian, the mother tongue of their maternal grandparents and a language both were fluent in. However, Nina just seemed confused, as did everyone else in CTU. Alex was now almost certain that this Nina was an imposter, but decided to give her one more chance.
"What language am I speaking in?," Alex asked once more in Ukrainian, but Nina's confusion was evident. Nodding, Alex turned to Jack.
"We're going to need a DNA test for her, Jack. This woman is not Nina Myers," Alex announced, and Nina looked at him, startled.
"Alexander, I'm Nina," Nina spoke, before Alex turned around and looked at the woman.
"Maybe you're a Nina, but you aren't my sister. I don't know what they've done to you, but I think they're using you in Nina's place," Alex replied, but Nina shook her head, before looking down.
"Besides, you just called me Alexander, and Nina hasn't called me that since we were little," Alex informed her, and Nina nodded slowly, before lifting her head up.
"They gave me plastic surgery, and afterwards they told me all about your sister. I don't know where she is, and I've never met her," Nina replied, but her voice was different - unlike the Midwestern accent that Nina had, she had a more Southern accent more like that of someone from Georgia. Jack walked up to her and examined the woman closely.
"When was this?," Jack asked, unsure of whether to believe her or not. After all, he knew what Nina Myers was like.
"In 2001, Jack. They said they took her a few months after they kidnapped me. I may be the woman who killed your wife, but I'm not your friend, and I'm not his sister," Nina replied, and Jack stared at her in disbelief.
"2001? So you replaced Nina a few months before you were arrested?," Alex asked,
"Yes. According to them they took Nina in early January 2001. My name is Sarah Aylesworth, I was born February 16th, 1980 in Atlanta, Georgia," Nina replied, and Chloe checked the information on her computer.
"She's telling the truth, Jack. There's a missing persons report from 2000 regarding a Sarah Aylesworth from Georgia," Chloe informed him, and Jack looked at Sarah.
"Why did you kill my wife? Why not give yourself up so you could tell us this back then?," Jack asked, and Sarah couldn't look back at him.
"I'm sorry, but they would have killed me, and probably would have killed Nina as well," Sarah spoke, and a solitary tear ran down her cheek, before Jack gently wiped it off.
"Do you know where Nina is? Is she even still alive?," Jack asked, his voice softer and quieter.
"No, but I can tell you where they took me. They kept me in a building in some Serbian town, I know because I saw a sign. Say-jee-kar or something, I don't know how to pronounce it," Sarah replied, her head back up but still looking at no one in particular.
"Zajecar, it's in the east of the country," Alex informed them, and Jack began to think for a moment.
"I think Drazen had a base in that city. Chloe, can you find any intelligence that links Drazen to Zajecar?," Jack asked, before turning back to Sarah.
"I can't let you walk away, but I can make it so you can get some sort of deal, if you help us find Nina and bring down these people, OK?," Jack asked her, and she nodded in agreement.
"Jack, I've found an abandoned farm that once belonged to Victor Drazen on the eastern outskirts of Zajecar," Chloe announced as she looked at her screen.
A few hours later, with Sarah back in a holding room, Jack and Alex were waiting anxiously for the results of the DNA test. As Chloe came out of Medical with a piece of paper in her hands, she walked up to the pair.
"DNA testing has confirmed it, the woman in the holding rooms is Sarah Aylesworth. Her family has been contacted," Chloe informed them. Thanking her, Jack looked at the piece of paper she had just handed to him.
"Have you told Kim yet?," Alex asked. He himself had the job of telling Tony, and he had reacted badly, which wasn't surprising as it meant that Sarah was the woman he had been in love with. Alex had asked him to visit Sarah sometime and talk to her.
"No, it's not something I want to rush into. Besides, she's got Chase to worry about right now. As far as she knows, her mother's killer is in custody," Jack replied, before he became pensive, as if something was bothering him.
"If she's right about when she was swapped with Nina, then it was Nina who gave Wald those schematics six months before her arrest," Jack spoke, hoping that Nina wasn't truly corrupt anyway.
"Maybe it wasn't. I mean, Sarah could be wrong about the dates. According to the missing persons report, she went missing in October of 2000, which could mean that she was the one who sold the information," Alex replied, trying to find an explanation for the mystery.
"Perhaps, we should ask her. You go in and talk to her, I'll watch from the surveillance room," Jack told him, and Alex nodded.
Sarah was alone in Holding Room 1. It was where she had been taken when she was first arrested, when she had been brought back to CTU to help stop the nuke, and now it was where she was waiting to help the very organisation she had betrayed and attacked find the woman she had replaced all those years ago. She had not wanted to kill anyone, and had been able to justify most of her murders by remembering that they were terrorists or federal agents, and not civilians, but this all had to change when she killed Teri Bauer. That was something she knew she would never forgive herself for. Hearing the door, she looked up and saw the man she knew as Alex, the man she was supposed to call her brother. The first time she had seen him, she realised that the plastic surgery must have been quite accurate, as he neither suspected anything was wrong nor did she look anything other than exactly like Nina.
"We've confirmed your identity, Sarah, and we've informed your family that you are at CTU Los Angeles," Alex informed her, and she nodded slightly in reply.
"I wanted to show you this," Alex continued, and he placed a photograph of Nina on the table close to Sarah. Examining the photograph, Sarah traced a finger around her face as if she were looking in a mirror.
"I hope she's going to be OK," Sarah spoke as she placed the photograph back onto the table. Nodding before sitting down, Alex looked at her.
"It was Ukrainian by the way, that language I was speaking earlier. My sister and me, we're partly Ukrainian and know the language fluently," Alex said, before placing more photographs on the table, this time of Wald and his group.
"You recognise any of these men, Sarah?," Alex asked, watching Sarah's face closely for any guilty reaction, and he found what he was looking for.
"No, I've never seen them before in my life," Sarah replied, her voice calm. Alex looked at her for a second before speaking.
"You sure? Never seen any of these men before in your life?," Alex told her, and she shook her head, hoping that he would change the subject.
"Why are you lying, Sarah?," Alex asked, his voice becoming angry, and Sarah looked at him with widened eyes.
"I'm not, I'm telling the truth!," Sarah spoke, her voice panicky.
"You're lying! This picture was taken a few months before you were arrested, Sarah, and it's you!," Alex said, his voice loud and even angrier than before. Jack, who was watching behind the mirror, wondered if he should intervene. Knocking on the mirror slightly, he watched as Alex turned around, before standing up and walking out of the interrogation room.
"Alex, don't you think you're being a little hard on her?," Jack asked him, but Alex just scoffed at him.
"Look, if she was the person who gave Wald those documents, that proves that Nina is totally innocent of everything, Jack!," Alex replied. Jack looked at him and sighed. He too wanted Nina to be innocent, but he knew that it was plausible that Nina had sold the information to Wald before she was kidnapped.
"Alex, for now let's assume that it was Sarah and sort this all out later. Right now, we need to find Nina," Jack told him.
"Fine," Alex replied, before returning to the interrogation room.
"Look, I'm sorry about that, Sarah, it's just been a stressful couple of days," Alex spoke as he sat down , and Sarah nodded. She knew why he was angry, that if the woman in the picture wasn't her, then it would have been Nina.
"It's OK. What else do you want to know?," Sarah asked, and Alex cleared his throat.
"Why did they choose you to replace Nina? I've seen a photograph of you from the missing persons report, but you looked nothing like her," Alex enquired.
"I have no idea, although I am an actress, so I guess that helped them. The night I was kidnapped, I noticed a blue van following me, and so I tried to get home quickly. They just jumped out of the van, grabbed me and the next thing I know I'm in a car on a road in Serbia," Sarah replied, her voice breaking and her eyes welling.
"Are you feeling OK, Sarah? We can have a break if you feel you need it," Alex asked, but Sarah shook her head.
"I'm fine, I know it's all over now. Look, I need to help CTU find Nina, not just because it'll help cut my jail time or anything, but because I've stolen her life, her identity and I need to give it back to her," Sarah replied.