lilacsigil: 12 Apostles rocks, text "Rock On" (12 Apostles)
lilacsigil ([personal profile] lilacsigil) wrote2013-01-14 07:11 pm

Fic: Make It Happen (Alias(TV)/Sarah Connor Chronicles, Sydney, Sarah, Cameron))

Title: Make It Happen
Fandom: Alias(TV)/Sarah Connor Chronicles
Written for: [community profile] fandom_stocking
Recipient's name: [personal profile] a_q
Rating: Teen
Pairing/Characters: Sydney Bristow, Sarah Connor, Cameron
Word Count: 1664
Notes: Thanks to [personal profile] st_aurafina for betaing. Content warning for violence.

Summary: Sydney Bristow and Sarah Connor collide on a mission.



The one thing Sydney Bristow could say for being repeatedly thrown out windows was that you quickly learned how to react. She spun in midair and threw herself onto a balcony just three stories below the floor she had been ejected from. The sliding door was unlocked – to be fair, they were 18 stories up and this was hardly the easy way in for burglars – and she sprinted through somebody's hotel room and back up the fire stairs.

Sydney had been briefed about Sarah Smith, aka Sara O'Brian, aka Sarah Connor: she was a dangerous anti-technology fanatic with a long history of sabotage and murder. Sydney had no information on Sarah's accomplice, though, the teenage girl who'd thrown Sydney out the window. The briefing had indicated that Sarah usually worked alone or, recently, with a Caucasian adult male who was yet to be identified; there had been no information on Sarah working with this girl, though Sydney had quickly assessed her as a well-trained and physically strong opponent.

Sarah and Sydney were in Mexico for the same reason: SD-4 was providing a sophisticated new stealth polymer to a Mexican drug gang. It could be applied to vehicles and prevent their detection by most modern systems, from radar to satellite. Sydney was here to stop the deal; Vaughan's briefing had surmised that Sarah was here to destroy the polymer and possibly assassinate the inventor, an SD-4 scientist, as she had assassinated other scientists and computer experts. While Sydney and the CIA were prepared to destroy the polymer rather than let it fall into the hands of a narco gang, it would be far better to get it back to Marshall for analysis. Even better would be to bring back the inventor, an American citizen and former DoD scientist. Unfortunately, Sarah and her sidekick had got to him first.

Sydney kicked open the door and came in low, ready for the teenage girl to hit her again, and she had guessed right: the girl reacted fast, but couldn't reach down to grab Sydney before she'd slid clear across the floor and cannoned into Sarah and the SD-4 scientist. Sarah must have been interrogating the man, as he was duct taped to a chair, and his face was swollen and bloody from repeated blows. Sydney was on her feet in a second, but Sarah – a muscular, dark-haired woman with faded blonde roots – was just as quick, tackling Sydney with a shoulder to the belly to get her away from the scientist.

Sarah was strong and trained, but being hit by her was no worse than Sydney expected, not like the truck-hit of the teenage girl. Sydney fell backwards with the momentum and threw Sarah up over her shoulder to slam her against the wall. She rolled away from Sarah and took stock of the situation: the scientist was lying on the floor, still taped to the chair and the blank-faced teenage girl was approaching Sydney with the kind of steady, measured gait that told Sydney that she was entirely, dispassionately confident that she could defeat any fight Sydney could muster. Remembering how easily she'd been knocked down and hurled out the window, Sydney tended to think the girl was correct. Best to circumvent a fight, then. Sydney could make dispassionate assessments as accurately as the girl could, and she wasn't going to pick a fight she couldn't win.

Sydney feinted back towards Sarah, then dove for the scientist. The girl must be prioritising Sarah over their prisoner, as she fell for the ruse and didn't manage to get to Sydney before Sydney put her gun to the scientist's head.

"Stay back or I kill him. You need information out of him, but I can take him back to the US alive or dead. He's a US citizen and you know how much the CIA loves traitors."

The girl glanced at Sarah, and stopped dead in her tracks. Sarah got to her feet and held her hands out, placating.

"You can have him in five minutes, do whatever you want then. Just let me talk to him first."

Sarah had moved forward slightly, masking the girl's actions – maybe to protect her, though there was nothing protective in her stance – but Sydney had no doubt that the girl could be on her in a moment, given the chance. She watched both of them intently.

"Sure. We can work this out. You're not a priority." Sydney was sure Vaughn would love it if she brought in Sarah, but it was true: she wasn't the focus of this mission.

"We need to know where the factory is. You're CIA, make him talk."

Sydney bent as close as she could to the scientist's head. The man was weeping quietly, tears and snot mingling with the blood from his nose. "You talk, I can get you out alive. Got it?"

He sagged, defeated. "They'll kill me."

"I can protect you from the Alliance of Twelve. I got most of SD-6 out and they're still alive and well."

"You're the Derevko girl!" The man relaxed a little. "The factory's in Luzon."

"No, it's not." Sarah's voice was flat. "It's right here in Mexico."

Sydney thought that was unlikely – SD-4 had little presence here, so close to SD-6 – but Sarah sounded entirely sure of herself.

"No, they told me Luzon!" The scientist squirmed under Sydney's gun barrel.

"He's telling the truth, as far as he knows," the girl said, her voice as emotionless as her face. Sydney had to agree with her assessment.

"Then he's useless," Sarah said. "Dammit! Kill him."

"Wait!" Sydney moved her aim onto the girl, who was the primary danger now. "Let me take him out of here. If he doesn't have intel on the factory location, you don't have to kill him." Or me, she thought. The list of people who had met with Sarah and lived was remarkably short.

Sarah thought for a moment. "Give me his gang contact and you've got a deal. No-one sets up a factory here without permission."

The girl showed the first sign of personality, glaring at Sarah. "But you said he'll just do it again. The knowledge of the polymer has to go along with the factory."

Sarah glared at her. "Shut up. We know what happens, but we still have to make it happen."

The girl subsided. Sydney had no idea what they were talking about, but it seemed they were ready to deal, and she was good with that. Their target was the factory, and the CIA would have absolutely no issue with Sarah taking it out rather than Sydney.

"I'll deal," Sydney told her. "His contact is an American who's married into the narco gang that controls this area. He travels under William Wallace. Mel Gibson's character in Braveheart. He's meant to be meeting our friend here at the restaurant of this hotel at noon."

This seemed to satisfy Sarah. "Good. We're going to walk out the door. Wait ten minutes then leave by whatever route you prefer."

Sydney nodded. She wouldn't wait ten minutes, of course, but it's a standard exit plan after hostile parties came to an agreement. Sarah has some military training in her background, then.

Sarah and her teenage enforcer moved carefully and calmly to the door, hands spread wide. Sydney keeps her focus, but they stuck strictly to the terms of the deal, though Sarah paused briefly at the door and looks down at the scientist.

"Sorry," she said, which seemed terribly incongruous to Sydney, then she was gone.

Sydney cut the scientist free. Her briefing had indicated that he'd never been a front-line guy, and he was completely out of fight now, the adrenaline from the beating and hostage situation drained away.

"Thanks," he said, just before Sydney zip-tied his hands behind his back.

"Don't think you're home free. My bosses are going to have a lot of questions for you."

He shook his head. "This is too much. SD-4, I mean. I'm not cut out for this. A nice safe jail cell is sounding pretty good right now."

Sydney hauled him to his feet, and heard a weird creaking sound from outside. She glanced over to see the teenage girl plummet from above and land on the rail of this room's balcony with a resounding crunch, crushing it as if she weighed half a ton. She swung up a shotgun longer than her arm and before Sydney could shove the scientist to the ground, fired twice, one-handed. The first shot broke the glass and barely missed the scientist; the second blew his head apart.

He crumpled without a sound as Sydney hit the floor. The girl nodded politely as if they were exchanging greetings, and, to Sydney's horror, jumped from the balcony. A massive bone-shattering thump issued from below, followed by a car alarm.

Sydney dashed over to the window but saw only the crushed remains of a parked car with US plates and a parking attendant running over from the hotel to see what had happened. There was no sign of the girl or Sarah, or the contact Sydney had given them.

Sydney pulled out her radio. "Dixon? Got a fix on my location? Send a cleaning crew. Thanks."

She sat on the least bloody of the armchairs and waited. She had no idea what she'd just faced, but she was sure that she could report that the stealth polymer factory wasn't going to be an issue for long. Sydney could recognise a programmed agent when she saw one – she knew what that felt like from the inside – but she had no idea how they'd managed the physical enhancements, or even which particular "they" it might be this time. If there was any chance that this girl could be saved, Sydney would have to be the one to make it happen. Her past with SD-6 was this girl's future with a terrorist, and that kind of future was no future at all.



Also at AO3

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