God Shuffled His Feet: An Alias/Buffy Crossover
By: Sam Lincoln

Rating PG-13

Summary: An ancient evil stalks Agent Sydney Bristow

Spoilers: General spoilers for the current seasons of Alias, and Buffy, but nothing specific to any storyline.

Disclaimer: All characters from Buffy and Angel are property of Mutant Enemy. All characters from Alias are property of Bad Robot and Touchstone Television. All characters are used without permission and no infringement is intended.

God Shuffled His Feet: Prologue

-Sri Lanka-
Agent Sydney Bristow of the CIA cautiously walked down one of the many side streets that chris-crossed the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo. She was in Sri Lanka tracking down an arms dealer who had business ties to Arvin Sloane. IN the weeks following the destruction of the Alliance Sloane had proven to be an elusive target. On several occasions he had successfully slipped through the CIA's nets neven though his capture seemed inevitable. The longer Sloane remained free the more frustrated Sydney became; because Sloane was all that stood in the way of Sydney leaving the CIA and resuming a "normal" life.

"Are you sure al Shareef is here?" Sydney asked into her radio.

"Positive Freelancer," Vaughn replied from the comfort of the CIA Operations Center. "We have both SIGINT and HUMINT confirming al Shareef is in that neighborhood of Colombo."

"Understood," Sydney sighed. She continued down the alley towards the bar her target was known to frequent. It was approaching midnight in Sri Lanka and the dark shadows that lined the alley made Sydney jumpy. Something about this assignment did not feel right to Sydney and she checked to make sure her gun was readily available underneath her tattered disguise.

She turned a corner and promptly stepped into a deep puddle of muck. "Oh gross," Sydney whined. "Boy Scout, when I get home you owe me a new pair of boots and a dinner at the restaurant of my choice."

"It's a date Freelancer," Vaughn replied. Sydney felt that she could hear Vaughn's smile over the radio. Her mood turned serious when she saw the bar she was looking for. "Objective in sight. I'm going in."

"Copy that," this time it was Assistant Director Kendall addressing her. "Freelancer activate your eyes please."

"Roger," Sydney replied as she turned on a small video camera nestled in her hat. "How's the reception?" she asked.

"Freelancer, we're reading you five by five," Kendal answered. "Initiate your sweep of the objective."

"Acknowledge," Sydney squared her shoulders and walked into the bar. She was disguised as an iteinterant worker wearing a tattered and baggy set of overalls and a nondescript baseball cap pulled low over her eyes. The interior of the bar was about what Sydney expected, dark and smokey. She slowly scanned the bar, letting the camera get a good look at the patrons. "She him yet?" she asked Vaughn.

"That's a negative Freelancer, start mingling," Vaughn told her.

Sydney nodded to herself and walked over toe the bar. She ordered a beer then headed for the back of the room. Half a word away technicians were frantically analyzing the take from Sydney's camera. Each face was run through a facial recognition program to see if the person was al Shareef.

"Keep it up Sydney, you're doing great," Vaughn told Sydney.

Sydney took a sip of her beer and saw a large man standing guard in front of a door. "Are you seeing this?" She asked Vaughn.

"We're running a check now," Vaughn replied. A tech handed him a piece of paper. "Ok that's Ahmed Faisel, a former Tamil Tiger, and a current Al Shareef bodyguard." He looked at Kendall "Is this enough?"

Kendal stared at the monitor for a long moment, "It is for me. Send the capture team in and tell Agent Bristow to get the hell out of there."

Vaughn put his headset back on, "Freelancer, be advised, Bravo Team is inbound. Recommend you vacate the objective."

"Copy that," Sydney replied. She casually finished her beer then made her way to the bathroom. Sydney didn't want to arouse any suspicions by leaving right after seeing the bodyguard.

Once inside the cramped bathroom Sydney crawled out a window and dropped onto the street below her. She watched as a large covered truck roared past her and came to a stop in front of the bar. "Bravo team's in position," she told Vaughn.

"Roger Freelancer, the commandos can handle things from here. Your job's done, it's time to come home Sydney."

"You're not going to have to tell me that twice," Sydney said as she watched the commandos storm the bar. She turned and began to retrace her steps as gunfire erupted behind her.

As Sydney approached the corner with the puddle two figures dressed in heavy brown robes suddenly blocked her way. "Uhm, excuse me," Sydney said in an attempt to get the pair to move. Instead of stepping aside both of the figures drew curved daggers and advanced on Sydney. "Uh, Base, I have a bit of a problem."

"We see them Freelancer," Vaughn replied as he stared at the feed from Sydney's camera. "We're working on an alternate route, but for now get the hell out of there!"

"I'm way ahead of you," Sydney told Vaughn as she turned and started to run away from the mysterious pair. She was cut off by two more robed figures that appeared out of the shows. "OK, now it's a little more serious."

"Do the best you can Freelancer, Bravo Team is still engaged and cannot help," Kendall said.

"I copy that," Sydney drew her gun. "All right, let me get by and nobody gets hurt." The four figures did not reply. Instead they continued to advance on Sydney.

Sydney took a deep breath and fired off two rounds. They both hit one of her opponents square in the chest, knocking the person to the ground. The other three ignored their fallen comrade and continued to close in on Sydney. Sydney fired again, taking down another of the cloaked shapes. However, but the time she turned to face the last two they had closed the distance and attacked.

The gun was knocked from Sydney's hands and she was forced to defend herself unarmed. She caught the arm of one of her attackers and flung it into a wall. She used the moment from the throw to give added force to a roundhouse kick she delivered to the other attacker. Sydney followed the kick up with a punch to the head. The force of the blow was enough to knock the hood off of the attacker's head and for the first time Sydney got a good look at who she was fighting.

"Oh my god," Sydney breathed in horror. Unfortunately, in her shock she forgot about the attacker behind her.

"Sydney look out!" She heard Vaughn shout, but she knew that it was already too late.

"No, don't kill her," Sydney heard a familiar voice say. She spun around and saw Khasinau emerge from the shows. "I need her alive, for now."

"But you're dead," Sydney said in disbelief.

"You'd think I would be wouldn't you? But there is no time for explanations, we have a schedule to keep. Bring her." He ordered the minion who promptly knocked Sydney out then slung her over its shoulder.

From the CIA Operations room Vaughn watched in silent rage as the hooded shape walked out of the satellite's field of view. "Damnit!" he swore, "What the hell just happened?"

"What I'd like to know is what was Agent Bristow talking to," Director Kendal noted. "There's nothing from Agent Bristow's camera or any of the satellites."

A somber-faced tech walked up to Kendall and Vaughn, "Uh sir, we were reviewing the feed from Agent Bristow's camera and we found this. It's a clear visual of one of her attackers." He handed Kendall a black and white eight by ten photograph.

"Mother of God," Kendall exclaimed. "What is that?" He handed Vaughn the picture.

Vaughn stared at the image of a human face with horrific scars in place of eyes. "I don't know what sir, but I know who can tell us. I'm going to need to keep this." He turned and walked towards the door.

"Where are you going Agent Vaughn?" Kendall demanded.

Vaughn stopped at the door. "Sunnydale," he replied before walking out of the room.

-To be Continued-