Author: AquarianLady/Waterdancer

Email: jch114@hotmail.com

Feedback: Yes. Constructive crit or positive feedback.

Archival: Yes, but please email me with your link.

Rating: PG/PG-13

Classification: AU, Drama/Angst

Summary: "For there is no friend like a sister."

Disclaimer: Alias and all its elements are owned by ABC and Touchstone Television. It is the creation of JJ Abrams and Bad Robot Productions. You want to sue me? Do you? It’s not worth it.

Author notes at the end.

******

For there is no friend like a sister

In calm or stormy weather;

To cheer one on the tedious way,

To fetch one if one goes astray,

To lift one if one totters down,

To strengthen whilst one stands.

- Christina Rossetti -

******

Anna es muerto.

The letter you are holding falls to the floor. You catch your breath as the phrase replays in your mind.

Anna es muerto.

Your only sister, your only connection to your real family is dead. You’ve known that you were adopted since you were ten years old. On your eighteenth birthday, your "parents" told you that you had a sister named Anna who wanted to meet you. You asked them why they hadn’t told you before, and they simply said that they didn’t know about her. You didn’t meet her until your twenty-third birthday.

Hola, Francesca. I am your sister, Anna.

And you stared at her. She was everything you weren’t. Tall, athletic, beautiful and regal. You told her that there was no way she could be your sister; you didn’t match.

She laughed heartily and showed you a picture of your mother and father.

You look like our father, Cecil, and I favor our mother, Maria. See the resemblance?

You told her that you did, and that you were glad that she had come to see you.

I am as well, hermana. I am as well.

As your friends thought you spent the summers being bored at your "grandmothers" house, you visited her in Berlin, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Chilé. You had asked her about her profession. She was only two years older than you, but she talked to you as if you were still four and she was six.

"I am what you would call a research analyst for the Russian government, little sister."

You knew she was lying. You had become aware of her nuances over years. When she was lying, she would blink her eyes three times ever so slightly. So you asked again about her profession.

The way she repeated her answer frightened you. She had narrowed her eyes and stepped toward you menacingly.

"I’ve already told you, I’m a research analyst for the Russian Government. Please, don’t ask again."

And you didn’t. You "believed" she was an analyst until you overheard a phone call she had made.

"I’ve taken care of Donato. Yes, Sydney Bristow got away. I won’t fail again, sir."

You walked into the room, startling her. You asked her so many questions. Who was Donato? And how did she know Sydney? She’d held her fingers to her lips, told you to put on your jacket, and to get ready for a walk.

The walk that changed everything. The walk where your sister told you who she really was.

"I know Sydney because of my profession."

"And what is your profession?"

"I’m an operative for a group called K-Directorate."

She looked at you and waited for your response, and you laughed because there was no way that your sister, Anna, was a spy. The look on her face told you that she was telling the truth.

"You’re lying, Anna." But she wasn’t. She proceeded to tell you that Sydney Bristow, your best friend and roommate, was also a spy working for an organization called SD-6. That awful bank was just a front. "For how long? Just how long have you and Sydney been spies?" you managed to spit out.

"Since I was twenty years old. Our intelligence tells us that she has been a spy for seven years."

And you believed her. You listened to her tales of her life, and she made you promise never to get into that life. Her life. You told her that you wouldn’t as long as she and Sydney stayed out of each other’s way.

That was six months ago.

You pick up the tear-stained letter from the floor, and read it again:

Francesca,

Anna es muerto. Sydney Bristow y SD-6 debe culpar. Usted necesita venir a Rusia enterrar a su hermana.

You learned Spanish earlier this year, so the translation unfortunately comes too easy.

"Francie, are you here?"

She’s home. The person who killed your only sister-the woman who has been your best friend for most of our life--is home. You brush away the bitter tears as you shove the folded letter into your jeans pocket, and walk out of the bedroom.

"Francie, are you okay?" She asks with what appears to be genuine concern, and you want to believe that she is.

"I’m okay," you reply, pushing the letter further into your pocket. "I’m going on vacation," you announce as you walk into the kitchen towards the refrigerator.

"Oh, really? Where are you going?" She asks with such innocence.

"Atlanta," you respond, knowing that she won’t ask again. Actually, you’re going to Russia to bury your sister. Your only sister. Anna es muerto.

****

You sit back in the sleekly decorated office and wait for Anna’s superior, Mikhail Aleksandrov, to come in and offer his condolences.

"Ah, Ms. Calfo, let me be the first to say that your sister was a great asset to our organization, and she will be greatly missed," he says as he walks into the office holding a black folder in his hand.

"Thank you, Mr. Aleksandrov." You butcher his last name. Anna said that she was going to help you with your pronunciations.

"I was deeply distraught by the news as I imagine that you were as well." He sits down at the desk and looks at you with pity in his eyes.

You don’t want his pity.

"We are aware that Anna told you of her profession."

"She did."

"This is good to know. So, I am able to speak freely with you." He slides a black folder towards you. "Please. Open it."

As you open the folder, three eight by ten pictures fall out, and with trembling hands you pick them up. Pictures of Anna’s body sprawled on a dirty concrete floor, her neck bent at a horrible angle stare back at you.

"Why are you showing me this?" You want to scream, run out of the office, do something.

"It is necessary for what I am going to tell you. K-Directorate needs your help. We know that you share an apartment with Sydney Bristow. By all accounts, she is unaware that you know of her real profession. We need you to gain information about her and her job within SD-6. We must take revenge on them for what they’ve done to us and to you. An eye for an eye."

You look over the pictures again and feel hot tears come to your eyes. You had imagined that one day Anna would give this life up, and do what she always wanted, which was to go back to Cuba and open a restaurant. Funny how cooking ran in the family.

You can now almost hear her laughter from when you had first tried to learn Spanish.

"It’s a shame that Spanish isn’t your first language."

You already miss her.

"Don’t get involved in this life, Francesca. It sucks you in. It becomes second nature. Promise me that you won’t get involved."

"I promise."

"Francesca, will you help K-Directorate take revenge on SD-6 and Sydney Bristow?"

Something inside of you protests betraying Sydney, but something reminds you that she betrayed you first. She’s never told you the truth, she has lied to you for years, and the friendship you once felt isn’t really there anymore. She killed your sister. Your only sister. You can’t let this go. You won’t let this go.

Clearing your throat, you look at her superior.

"Will I need to be an agent?"

He nodded. "Your training can begin immediately. You can start it here, and there can be someone in Los Angeles to continue it. We would like you to be ready within the month. What is your decision?"

You trace the outline of Anna’s face. She had your father’s eyes.

Anna es muerto.

"Yes, I’ll help K-Directorate."

**********

Author Notes: Special thanks to Celli, Robin, and Karen for doing the beta for this fic. Thanks to Thorne for the quote. Thank you to everyone in the Alias fanfic community who have been just great friends as well as great fanfic writers. I value each person’s opinion no matter what it may be. Those of you who have been very supportive of anyone in this fandom, thank you.

Spanish Translations

Anna es muerto: Anna is dead.

Sydney Bristow y Sd-6 debe culpar. Usted necesita venir a Rusia enterrar a su hermana.: Sydney Bristow and SD-6 are to blame. You need to come to Russia to bury your sister.