Safecracker, by Yahtzee (PG13)

[anenko.livejournal.com]

Fandom: ALIAS
Pairing: Katya/OMC, Katya/Jack, Irina/Jack
Author on LJ: yahtzee63
Author’s Website: Yahtzee!
Why this must be read:

Katya was an intriguing character, but not much was done to explain her motivation in season three. Yahtzee took up Katya after her first appearance in canon, and created a backstory for her, as well as fleshing out her connection to Irina, and her feelings towards Jack. Despite the pairings listed above, this piece is about *Katya* more than it is about any particular pairing.

Silence is Irina's shield, her armor, her sword. Katya sympathizes with this, even envies it. She thinks her sister holds onto her silence because it is the only thing the world will never have the power to take away. Irina doesn't let herself feel the pain of what she's lost -- or, at any rate, has become very good at not letting it show. But sometimes Katya's heart is torn thinking of all her little sister has lost.

Yes, torn -- like paper, like rags, like anything insubstantial, cast-aside. Katya feels it beating within her chest, imagines the fragile tissues fluttering like rosepetals with every pulse. She's watched a man's heart stop before, so she knows what a heart looks like when it's been destroyed -- a shivering thing, shrouded in a lace of vessels, fading from the color of blood to the color of death. That's what it sometimes feels like when she thinks about Irina, and Sydney, and Jack.

Other times, when she thinks about Jack, it isn't pain for her sister she feels. But that's what Katya prefers to dwell on. Pain is sometimes the better alternative.

Safecracker