So It Begins Again

Summary Sydney is pulled back into the CIA when a young woman walks in with a story that is not much different from hers ten years earlier.

Prologue

She groaned as she woke to find herself tied to a chair in a dimly lit room that had water dripping somewhere nearby. Her whole body ached. Her head pounded from the hit she took on it. She had no idea how much time she had spent unconscious but it couldn't have been too long. She looked up when a door opened and man walked in dressed in a suit. He sat down across from her. That was also when she noticed the table with a tray of different instruments that could be used for torture. The man was Asian which was not a surprise considering that she was in Hong Kong. She blew a strand of her purple hair out of her face as she looked at the man.

"Tell me who you work for."

"Yeah right I tell you and I get to go free. That is so not going to happen."

"If you tell me then your death will be fast and relatively painless. Other wise it will be slow and you will wish for death to end your pain."

The young woman just looked at him and then spit in his face. He glared at her before smacking her face and grabbing a tool and used it to hold her mouth open. He then picked up a pair of cruel looking dental pliers and began to pull one of her molars. The pain shot through her body as tears fell from her eyes. Soon the pain became too much as she passed out.

Three mouths earlier

Serena Turner smiled as she walked across the quad on campus with her boyfriend. Josh Kent was a fourth year medical student. They had met two years earlier during Serena's senior year of college. She was not trying to get her masters in history in order to become a history professor like her father had been. Her father had died when she was eight. Less than two years later her mother remarried and she and her younger brother gained not only a stepfather but a stepsister who was the same age as Serena and a stepbrother who is three years older than Serena. Josh stopped and dropped to the ground and started to dig into his backpack for something. He finally found it and turned to face Serena. He the broke into a very out of tune version of Josh Groban's "You Raise Me Up." Serena could see other students and even some professors stopping and laughing as they stared at the two.

"Serena will you make me the happiest man alive and marry me?" asked Josh

"Yes."

The two of them kissed then Josh slid the diamond ring onto her hand. They then headed back to their apartment and made love. While laying in bed Serena realized that she could not marry the man she loved unless she was honest with him about what her job really was. She leaned over to him and told him to meet her in the shower. She then turned on some music much louder than she normally would listen to and went to join the man she loves in the shower making sure the water was turned on full blast the two of them got in the shower. Serena then began to tell Josh that she didn't work at bank but for an off the books black ops division of the CIA. Josh was understandably shocked. After talking Josh told her he had to think and left. She reminded him she was leaving the next day for a business trip and wouldn't be back for a couple days. He just nodded. While she was gone Josh left a message on her home voicemail that she hadn't known was tapped. He told her he didn't care that she worked for Den-16 the name of her unit. Which proved to be a fatal mistake for him. She returned to find him murdered in their apartment. It had been staged to look like a break in. But Serena knew the truth he was killed because she couldn't lie to him. After the funeral she took some time off from her job. She put all her focus on her schoolwork. It had been two and a half months since she had reported to Den-16. She knew that her boss Ivan Lentz would not put up with her not coming in much longer. But she could not deal with the man that showed no remorse for the fact that he ordered the murder of the man she loved. She was walking through the parking deck at the mall when she noticed that she was being followed. As she reached her car her cell phone rang seeing her stepbrother's name on the caller id she ignored it. She was about to get in her car when she saw the red dot of a laser sight on the door. She hit the ground as bullets rang out. Her phone rang again this time she answered.

"Steven, now is not a good time."

"Serena, not coming back was a big mistake. Lentz has sent people to find you."

"Are their orders to bring me in or kill me? Cause I am leaning more to kill!"

"You at the mall?"

"I am not even going to ask how you know that. Third level of the south parking deck."

"Damn. I am two minutes out. Try not to get shot."

The phone went dead. She shoved the phone into her jacket pocket and made her way to one of the support pillars while dodging bullets. She glanced around the pillar as a black mustang skidded to a stop and she saw the driver start shooting at the gun men.

"Serena get in!"

She ran to the car and got in. She looked at her stepbrother who tossed a gun into her lap. Steven hit the gas and raced out of the parking deck and made his way to downtown L.A.

"Serena, what do you know about the Pack?" asked Steven

"They are a terrorist organization and enemy of the United States."

"Den-16 is part of the Pack. You are working for the very people you thought you were fighting. You don't just leave the Pack. Your only way out is to die."

"You knew?"

"Yes only half a dozen people in Den-16 know the truth."

"So you are one of the half dozen? That means you are a terrorist."

"Serena, not everything is what it appears to be. Now I have a way to get Lentz to trust you again. Now you are on your own to get to Hong Kong. There is someone there that has files that Lentz wants. I have all the information you need to get it. Open the glove compartment and take the file and flash drive. Can you find a way to Hong Kong and an alias on your own?"

Serena looked at the file. It seemed like it wouldn't be too hard to get in.

"Yeah. I can do it."

"Serena, I know that you have never been happy that our parents got married or that you hate me and Stacey."

"I don't hate you Steve. I just never wanted an older brother."

"Serena, be careful. I don't want to have you tell your mom you were killed."

"I will."

Steven dropped Serena off two blocks from the pier in Malibu. Serena headed to a café and placed a call.

"Hey Brian, I need a major favor. Jessica has a passport right? Good. I need to borrow it and a credit card with at least a 5,000 dollar limit. I can't tell you why I need this. I promise I will pay Jessica back."

Serena told her friend where to meet her then headed to get what she needed to change herself into Jessica Carter her best friend's twin sister. One thing she knew she needed was a purple wig. Jessica had dyed her hair about five years ago purple and kept that look. Jessica also had a bit of a different style of dress. Once she had the passport and credit card she transformed into her new identity and made it onto the plane easier than she thought. So much for the tighter security. Once the plane landed in Hong Kong Serena made her way to a warehouse that had been converted into a punk club that she had learned had a tunnel that led into the warehouse that held the computer that had the information she was going to steal. She made her way to the computer with little trouble. Getting out was where it got more dicey. She got caught and that is how she found herself with the man posing as the dentist from hell. She was woken by a shock to her ribs by what she could only guess was a cattle prod.

"Tell me who do you work for."

"Ok I will tell you. Write this down. LLEH OT OG. Now reverse it."

The man did as he was told and read what he wrote.

Go To Hell

He glared at her then hit her across her face hard. Serena could feel blood running down her face. During this time Serena had been working at freeing her hands. Whoever had tied her to the chair had not been very smart. They had used rope rather than hand cuffs which she could have gotten out of as well. But that would have meant dislocating her thumbs. Which is something her preferred not doing. Zip ties would have been only a little better than the rope. Those she would have had to find a way to cut. But with the rope she had been able to work first one hand free and then it was easy to get the other free. Though there was still a strap across her chest that was easy enough to get out of. Once she was free she grabbed a scalpel off the tray and stab the man who had been trying to torture her. Then ran knocking out guards as she went. She made her way out and headed to where she had stashed her bag and then to the air port. She never noticed the two people watching from the window on an upper floor.

"We are just going to let her go?" asked the man in Russian

"Your daughter and my son are key players in the destruction of the Pack. He is already CIA she will join them once she gives Lentz the files she took."

"You let her take the files?"

"Alexi, do you really think I would let her get anything that can really harm our plans?"

"I should have more faith in you Katrina."

"Yes you should brother."

Serena walked through the office of Den-16 and right into Lentz's private office. She dropped the flash drive on his desk.

"You will find the files that you want on there from the warehouse in Hong Kong. I am taking the next week off. I have finals."

Lentz just nodded. She walked out met Steven's eyes then left. Steven hid a smile as he watched her go. He had a good idea what her next stop was going to be. Serena left the bank that held the secret offices of Den-16 and after making sure she wasn't being followed headed into a building in downtown LA. She walked up to the desk.

"I need to see the director."

"Do you have an appointment?"

"No."

"You need to make an appointment and come back."

"Tell him he has a walk in."

Serena listened as the receptionist spoke into her headset not taking her eyes off her.

"Come with me."

Serena followed the woman through the lobby walking over a seal on the floor that read Central Intelligence Agency.