Red Skies at Dawn (COMPLETE)

A/N: The next update! Yay! Enjoy :woot: :D ;)

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Part XII



He typed away furiously at his computer, trying to find something, anything, he could use to help Sydney. He couldn’t let her go down like this. He researched Camp Harris for anything that might indicate where, exactly, she was being held.

“Here’s something,” he mumbled, pulling up blueprints onscreen, “A separate wing in the cell block, occupied as of yesterday night.”

That had to be where she was being held. It made perfect sense. Now, how was he going to get her out of there?

“And where are we going to go?”

Without a doubt, the CIA would track them down and bring them both back in. They had the resources to do it, and with him in enough trouble as it was, things weren’t looking good. They had revoked his clearance and his password, which was why he sat in a dimly-lit warehouse, logged in as someone else.

“Then, there’s the Covenant.”

There were two possible scenarios, both of which he wasn’t fond of; first, they assume she’s dead and if she’s not, come to finish her off once they discover she’s disloyal, or the second one, they come back to take her away again for some more… reprogramming.

“How can we outrun them both?” he thought, shaking his head.

He hated this. After all they’d both done for the world, they deserved their happy ending. Hell, they deserved their own personal fairytale, but there wasn’t a chance that was going to happen.

“Why her? Why me? Why us?”

It frustrated him to no end, but he knew being frustrated wasn’t going to change anything. He remembered something Sydney had said to him, all those years ago;

“Being angry may help you feel better… or worse… depending on the situation. In the end, it doesn’t solve or satisfy anything; the root is still out there and the only way to eliminate the anger is to hack away at it. We need to find our root and cut it down.”

“Heh,” he mumbled, almost laughing, “So we’re supposed to take on the world? How’s that going to work?”

“Things will work out. Just you wait and see, I know they will. They always do.”

“Not this time, Sydney,” he said, slumping in his chair, “Not this time.”

----------

She was dropped on the familiar floor of her cell, her body exhausted. Electroshock therapy would be effective on any other person except for her. One, because she was trained to withstand it, two, because she had a will of steel, and three, because she didn’t know the answer to any of the questions they asked her.

They expected her to know about the Covenant’s inner workings, when she really knew nothing more than a low-level operative. She was just an assassin who they called in to do their dirty work when things got too rough, and she never had a problem with that. To be honest, she never wanted to know what was really going on within.

“Perhaps if I did know…,” she thought, sliding her body up onto the steel bench.

She might have been able to use it as some sort of leverage. But, it was too late. She had walked in, but she couldn’t exactly walk out and charm her way out of this situation.

“I only hope that they’ve given up by now,” she thought, closing her eyes.

----------

“What’ve you got for me?” he asked, drumming his fingers across the large, oak desk.

“Thorne was apprehended by a CIA tactical team yesterday night.”

“Oh? Is that so? What an interesting turn of events,” he thought, an evil smiling crossing his face.

“Get this; she was seen with Michael Vaughn,” the man on the other line added.

His smile turned back into a frown, “Then I guess its safe to say that the mission was a complete failure,” he said, a word foreign to his lips. He sighed, “I guess that means we’re back to square one.”

“They’ve taken her to Camp Harris for interrogation. It could be dangerous to gamble with her like this, sir,” the man added.

“I don’t think so,” he replied, “She knows no information that could threaten our organization. The only thing we have to worry about is losing our greatest asset.”

He rubbed his chin between his thumb and forefinger, wondering where to go from here. It was true, she may have defected, but that could easily be taken care of. After all, things were always easier the second time around.

“Assemble a team,” he said, gruffly, “I want her here back in Moscow by tomorrow.”

----------

“Your name is Julia Thorne.”

“No, we’ve gone over this a dozen times; my name is Sydney Bristow.”

She was rewarded by a back-handed slap to the face, knocking her off the chair she was handcuffed to. Her lip was busted and she could taste the familiar, metallic taste of blood in her mouth.

“Your name is Julia Thorne.”


She tossed and turned, trying to block these memories out of her head. Meeting Vaughn again not only caused her to remember moments with him, but everything leading up to this very moment.

She could feel the drugs, coursing through her veins. She wanted to fight it, but you couldn’t fight what was in your body.

“Your name is Julia Thorne.”

“My name is…,” she left him hanging, before cracking a smile, “Sydney Bristow.”


She moaned, rolling off the metal slab and onto the grown, reaching for some invisible handle to hold herself and regain control.

Images flashed before her eyes; a little girl with her family, enjoying her birthday party, a fire, dead bodies and a picture of her.

“Your name is Julia Thorne. This is your life.”

“My name is Sydney Bristow and my life’s back in LA.”


“Stop! Stop it already! I get the picture!” she shouted, gripping her head and praying for the invisible Angel of Mercy to make its descent.

“This is Michael Vaughn,” the man said, holding up a picture of a man who’s face she’s memorized, “This is his home address; this is where he works; this is where one of our many Los Angeles assets is located; this is how long it would take to bring the body back here to show you.”

Out of all the torture she had endured over the past few months, this was the worst and the only to elicit a reaction from her. These people weren’t the kind to make empty threats so she knew they weren’t bluffing.

“You love him,” he said, kneeling in front of her broken body, “Protect him. Give him his life by giving us yours.”

She couldn’t hold back the sobs, repeating the phrase, “I’m so sorry,” over and over again. She couldn’t let them hurt Vaughn, but she couldn’t knowingly participate in such evil… but she couldn’t let them hurt Vaughn.

“Your name is Julia Thorne.

“My name… is Julia Thorne… under one condition.”

The man cocked his head, waiting to hear her proposal.

“I’ll be Julia Thorne… if you can eliminate Sydney Bristow and Michael Vaughn from my head; I don’t want to remember anything,” she said, having difficulty saying these words through the tears, “And he’s not to be harmed. Not him, or anybody else I love. If you can promise me that… I can be anyone you want me to be.”

The man nodded, “I can promise you, Julia, that we’ll meet your request.”

The door was slammed leaving her to whimper in the darkness. She could hear muffled voices outside the steel door, “It doesn’t matter,” he chuckled, “By tomorrow morning, she won’t remember any of these promises anyway.”


She screamed again, wanting these memories and visions to stop. She had had enough; she wanted no more pain.

“But now I know…,” she uttered, “How this happened.”

The very reason for her life was the reason for her demise, and even now, what little solace she had left was stemmed from the greatest pain she had ever known.

More effective than electroshock therapy, than beatings, drugs and hardcore brainwashing was Michael Vaughn.
 
I want them to somehow get out of this and be together in the end, but it's gonna take a lot to make it happen...Where is Jack and Weiss?
Thanks for the pm.
 
omg that was so good
ogm that was so sweet
the ultimate love
she really loves him but we all know tht
cant wait for more
 
I just found this story and caught up. (y)

Poor Syd, I hope Vaughn can help her out soon. :(

And where the hell is daddy Bristow?

Please update soon and PM me when you do. :smiley:
 
A/N: I'm working really hard to get this fic done in time for the deadline, so I haven't had time to update my other fics. This is by far one of my favourites, completely different then anything I've written, which is why I like it. Anyway, thank you all once again for your wonderful responses, and I'm glad you like it as much as I do. Enjoy! :woot: :D ;)

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Part XIII


The sound of an explosion awoke her from her surprisingly peaceful slumber. The memories and visions had finally faded away, but now she had a whole other nightmare on her hands.

“Oh, God,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper, “They’re here.”

She thought that they would have given up, but she should have known better. One thing was for sure; she’d rather stay here and continue to be tortured for the rest of her life than to be made into a monster again.

The footsteps were loud and heavy, becoming even louder as seconds flew by. There was no place to run. She had shot herself in the foot with her previous idea that the world’s worst evil would give up the chance to destroy more lives… yet again.

“Thorne!” a large man with a black mask and gruff voice exclaimed, slipping the cardkey into the slot and releasing her, “Lets go!”

She knew she had no choice, like so many other things in her life, lately. If she was going to make her move, she’d have to wait for the opportunity to present itself.

She was escorted by one arm, past the two guards who had been watching her, who now lay dead in a pile on the floor. She felt a pang of guilt, thinking about their families, or if they even had any. Yes, Sydney was definitely starting to make her return.

“Which means I’m slowly starting to fade away…”

Not that any of it really mattered.

The light shone brightly in her eyes. It had only been two days, but it felt like two years since she had last seen the light of day.

“Get in!” another masked figure said, pulling up in front of them in a large, black van.

Three of the assailants ushered her into the vehicle and the door was slammed tightly as they sped away, exchanging one hell for another.

----------

“What do you mean, “Camp Harris has been compromised?”” he asked, not believing was his ears were interpreting.

“About an hour ago, a Covenant team hit the base and extracted Thor… Bristow. They’ve vanished off the map since,” Peterson explained.

Could things get any worse? What were they going to do with her? Kill her? Turn her again? How hard could it have possibly been to find a location on these monsters?

“I have to do something!” he shouted, jumping up off his chair.

“You’re off this case, Vaughn. Let the NSC handle this,” Peterson replied, pushing him back down.

“Sir!” an agent said, running into his office, “We’re found the vehicle and the team!”

“Where?” both men asked at the same time.

“Dead. All of them. It looks like the Covenant was ambushed while trying to escape through the mountains.”

“And Bristow?”

“Missing. A team is already there, cleaning up the mess and searching for her. What should they do once they find her?” the junior agent asked.

Peterson was silent, “I want her back in our custody, dead or alive.”

----------

Disposing of the guards was almost too easy. She didn’t know if it was Sydney’s expertise or Julia’s ruthlessness that contributed to it. She didn’t have time to worry about that, because she was making her way through the mountains and out of sight. Dawn would break soon, the sun’s light rising with it and tearing away her one chance at salvation.

“I need to find a way out of here,” she thought, “Safe from the Covenant and the CIA.”

Going back was not an option now. Even if she turned herself in again and tried to explain the situation peacefully, they’d still kill her for trying to escape. Evidence and time weren’t on her side.

Luckily for her, she had some contacts in the United States that were loyal only to her and not to any other organization. She would have to make some calls from someplace secure.

“The only way to go is forward… to Moscow.”

A rainbow shone brightly and illuminated the sky in such dreary weather, sketching out an inhuman course. However, what most people didn’t know was that at the end of the rainbow, at the end of the light, at the source, was darkness.

“I’ll reach the end; the darkness, and kill it.”

And once the source was gone, the rainbow would disappear.

----------

“Sydney, what are you up to?” he thought, pacing throughout his house.

Maybe it wasn’t Sydney. He was always pretty good at understanding what was going on inside her head, but this was Julia’s mind now. Sydney, he knew. Julia was a stranger.

“Michael,” Lauren said, stepping into the living room and handing him a cup of coffee, “Sit down. Relax. Tell me what’s going on.”

“There’s no time to sit,” he said, placing her coffee on the table.

What if the Covenant team wasn’t hit by an unknown third party? What if it was Sydney, trying to escape? There were no signs of other vehicles in the area, so it was the most reasonable explanation. If that was the case, he needed to find her before someone else did.

“No time for what? Michael, please, be honest with me!” she exclaimed, grabbing his arm, “What is this about?”

He couldn’t lie to her face. Not anymore, when he was risking his neck to protect someone outside of his vows, but further inside than even her. He needed to be straight with her.

“Sydney’s alive.”

She was silent, then sat on the couch. He could tell she wasn’t feeling upset, but… threatened.

“I see.”

She really didn’t, but there was no way he could make her understand. If he had more time, maybe, but not in this world. He needed to find Sydney and stop her before she did something she regretted.

“But she’s in trouble. Her life is in danger and she needs my help. That’s why I’ve been so antsy these past few days,” he explained.

She nodded, like she understood what he was saying, “Then go to her. Save her life.”

He smiled, glad he hadn’t hurt her with his confession. When he turned to the door to leave, he caught the last part of her sentence, “But don’t come back.”

He stopped. He knew this moment was coming. To be honest, he wanted it, but he feared it.

“Lauren--”

“I don’t want to make you choose. I don’t like to, but I don’t have to, either way. You’ve already made your decision.”

“But--”

“Don’t worry about it,” she said, smiling a sad smile, “I can’t begin to imagine what it must be like and I’m not even going to try to. I understand that I’ll never understand.”

He hated to end it like this, but he had to worry about his other ending. An ending that he wanted to postpone, with Sydney. If he didn’t move quickly, it would all be over. She walked over to him, placing a gentle kiss on his cheek.

When she opened her eyes, he was gone.
 
Wow great update. I was afraid that she'll be captured again by the Covenant, but thank god she can escaped.

And now I guess she'll be going to Irina ?

Thanks for the PM.
 
She's free. But now probably EVERYONE will try to find her :mixed:.
I'm croosing fingers for Vaughn, but i'm almost sure you won't make it that easy.
So i can't wait for next update :D
 
omg great update and i love this lauren for letting him go without a fight when there was no way she could win
not against sydney
 
Glad she got away ans i okay...
Hopefully vaughn will find her, cause I think that Syd is coming back,
and if that's the case Vaughn will be able to find her...
Great update...
Thanks for the pm.
 
A/N: Second last chapter! :woot: I'm so excited to end this fic! I'm excited to hear all of the reviews! But, it isn't the end quite yet, so just watch and enjoy while you can (man, I'm starting to sound like Syd in this story :P )

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Part XIV



She waited in a rundown motel room, which was the farthest from five stars that you could imagine. She knew that she shouldn’t have, but she couldn’t help herself. She had to call Vaughn. She had to see him, incase she never did again. She needed to bask in the comfort he gave her and use it to carry out her will.

Now, she drummed her fingers anxiously on her thighs, waiting for the knock on her door. Sure enough, it came, and she sprung from the bed to peer through the peephole. He was staring back at her unknowingly, a weary look upon his face. Without the hesitation that she knew she should have had, she opened the door, letting him in.

“Syd…”

His voice sounded almost as drained as he looked.

“I know.”

She felt it, too. She wanted it to just end. At this point, she didn’t care if it was the ending both of them wanted. She wanted it to just end.

She grabbed his hand, intertwining her fingers through his. She brought her other hand to his cheek, resting it against his stubble, rough beneath her unusually warm touch. He hadn’t shaved in days, she could tell, which was unlike what she remembered of him. She smiled a sad smile, though. She liked this small, seemingly insignificant change. It proved that they really weren’t the same people that they were two years ago. It wasn’t bad or good, it was just… different.

“Help me end this,” she whispered, her lips barely touching his.

He could taste her words, tingling and teasing him, leaving him wanting to pull her closer and push her away, both at the same time. The closer she came, the farther he’d have to push. But, if he pushed, then he’d just want to pull her back.

“I’d rather have her for a second than to not have her at all,” he thought, closing his eyes and meeting her kiss, “No matter how painful it is. It can’t be as bad as never knowing.”

It was the last thing they had; the most primal yet powerful way to consummate what they shared. It was the only thing both felt was left unsaid, and if her plan was going to work, she had to put her feelings out there in the open, for him to mend back together, only to have fate rip it apart later.

It wouldn’t last forever. Perfection never did. She’d live it for what it was worth, as long as she could.


---------

She awoke a couple of hours later, with him by her side. His hand was snaked around her waist possessively, claiming her for what little time they had. It was oddly familiar. Julia always awoke alone, while Sydney always had him with her, much like this. It felt so right, which was the odd part. The final pieces of Julia that were left were slowly deteriorating.

Careful not to wake him, she slipped out of his grasp. Checking her watch, she was right on time. She had to meet her contact in an hour, so it was impossible to stay any longer.

She found her clothes scattered all over the floor, picking them up and redressing with the stealth of… well… herself. Once she was sure she had everything she needed, she looked over to his still sleeping figure. His face still wore an exhausted expression, but there was more peace to it than when he had first entered. She smiled, happy that she could give him that; just that little piece. Hopefully, she’d be able to give him so much more.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, walking over and kneeling next to his side of the bed, “I need to make amends now.”


----------

The memories were less painful now, returning to her as she flew to Moscow for her final encounter. She could call upon them at will, instead of them sneaking up on her and attacking her in the dark, like the boogeyman. She was nearly herself again.

With her newfound knowledge, she thought about her mother and father. Were they still alive? How about Marshall and Dixon and Weiss and Will? She had never asked Vaughn, never knowing about them, until it was too late.

“I guess I’ll never know.”

That’s what pained her the most; the fact that she’d never know what was, or what could have been. Now, as she loaded her guns and cleaned her blade of choice, she fed on that pain. She may not have known what happened to them or what would happen to them, but she knew what didn’t and what wouldn’t, which was all the reason and supplied her with all the courage she needed.

She had been to headquarters only once before; when she had first become Julia Thorne. Security would be tough to get through, but she had a feeling that getting in wouldn’t be the problem. Getting out was going to be the worst part of it all.

“Give me the power to carry out this one, final mission,” she silently prayed, closing her eyes.

The hour was at hand. Ready to go, she jumped into her car and sped towards the end of the rainbow.

----------

“Sir, Julia Thorne requests a meeting,” his informant explained.

He cocked his head in wonder, a smirk crossing his aging facing. He exhaled a puff of smoke, curious to see where this was going. Julia wouldn’t come here, unless…

“Send her in.”

Licking his lips, he placed the cigar back between them, inhaling as he waited for the door to open. With one hand on his cigar, the other lay concealed by his desk, holding his gun.

----------

As she expected, she was permitted entry. Either he expected her arrival and knew what she was planning, or he was just getting sloppy. Either way, she was going to go through with this.

Guards were stationed outside of his office, eyeing her cautiously as she stopped before them. They moved, letting her enter through the large, oak doors, still having their guns trained on her.

She stepped in, closing and locking the doors behind her. She then turned to face the man responsible for everything that had happened to her. The man responsible for her death.

“Julia,” he said.

It wasn’t a question, more of a rhetorical statement meant for himself. He smiled that sickening grin, blowing smoke in her direction and motioning towards the chair in front of his desk, “Sit.”

She obeyed, wanted to continue the charade until the time was right. She said nothing, just stared into his eyes, peering at his blackened soul. This man was the face of evil, more so than Arvin Sloane, she believed.

“You killed my team,” he said, eyeing her up and down, “Why?”

“They were unnecessary.”

He chuckled, is voice raspy, “Ah, of course. I should have expected nothing less of you.”

She said, nothing, waiting for him to ask her the right question, instead of playing his trivial game.

“Why are you here?”

“You tasked me to kill a man; Michael Vaughn. Why?” she countered his question with her own.

He laughed again, this time, she wanted to punch him out, “So you’ve figured it out, have you? I thought you might have. No matter. I suppose you deserve your answer.”

All was quiet as he took another puff of his cigar, then growing more serious, “Shall we begin?”
 
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