The final chapter is here! I sincerely hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Chapter Nine

"That is why we decided to focus on stress over anything else. It's even more of a bother in America." Haibara smiled, although anybody who knew her well could tell she didn't mean it. She was sick of using the same line over and over to summarize her work to people. All she wanted was to give her speech and go home. Being a celebrity was NOT for her, she thought wryly. She made an excuse to go to the bathroom to lose the crowd, but when she returned, she found that the lobby was positively swarming with reporters. They fell on her like a swarm of bees.

"How does it feel to be in Japan?"

"We heard you used to live here. Have you talked to your friends?"

"Do you have a boyfriend?"

All these questions and many more were what Haibara was subject to. When the University President suddenly appeared and led her away to prepare for the speech, she was very grateful, even if she was slowly inching closer to a possible sniping.

"We're on in ten minutes," said the President, fidgeting nervously. He was starting to bald, and he wore thick glasses. He glanced around nervously. "I've been a big fan of yours ever since you graduated high school," he said suddenly, making her look at him in surprise.

"How? I only became famous a few years ago."

"To the world maybe, but to me, you've been famous for over twenty-five years! How about that, Sherry?" Haibara stood up, fear flooding her, but the President pulled a gun on her. "Now, now," he said, waving his index finger back and forth like a mother might for a child, "I can't have you running away and calling the cops, or your old boyfriend. As of now, he's probably still at his Agency, wondering why his front door has been jammed shut."

"Who are you? What do you want?" asked Haibara, straining to keep the fear out of her voice. Her senses had dulled in the years since the Organization's defeat, but they were sharp enough for her to realize that this man was indeed a member. She wondered how he'd found her. Then the answer came, the only logical answer. "You're Vermouth," she said slowly, hoping against hope that she was wrong.

"Very good, Sherry!" said the President/Vermouth, ripping off the latex mask to reveal Vermouth's still youthful face. "No detective to bail you out this time," said Vermouth happily, watching as Haibara's eyes darted around the room.

"Why now?" Haibara asked, her mind already forming a plan. "You've had over twenty years to kill me, so why the wait?"

"Thank the Boss, dear," said Vermouth sweetly, removing the remainder of her disguise to reveal her full frame, which looked even younger than she had back in the day. "He was always cautious, and he was always had a contingency plan in case the Silver Bullet succeeded. Knowing the end of the Organization was near he took the DNA of several high-ranking members, excluding his own, and put it in storage. Should the Organization headquarters crumble to the feds, the clone was programmed to be activated. However, the technology of the time didn't allow control over aging like we have today, so I had to grow up the hard way. On my twentieth birthday, the memories of my former self, the first Vermouth, reactivated."

"So you're not the real deal?" asked Haibara. She smirked.

"I have Vermouth's memories! I have her skills! Don't smirk at me girl!" Vermouth shrieked, waving the gun around hysterically. Haibara saw her chance and snatched it from her before she could react. She aimed the gun at Vermouth without missing a beat.

"I knew you were fake the moment you showed yourself," said Haibara calmly. Vermouth looked at her with loathing.

"You just wait until Gin gets hold of you! He's already promised not to hold back! You're dead!" she spat. Haibara continued to smile, putting Vermouth on edge. Then Haibara took a silencer out of her pocket, affixed it to the gun, and fired.

Vermouth fell to the floor, bruised but not hurt, her bulletproof vest having absorbed the brunt of the attack. Her eyes narrowed. "You're not Sherry, are you?"

"Nope," said Haibara, crouching down so her face was an inch from Vermouth's. She reached up and pulled on her hair, and her face came with it.

Vermouth found herself stunned, not comprehending the fact that the face she was seeing was her own.

XXX

Haibara woke up in the back of a car, a bit groggy. She'd been hit with chloroform in the bathroom and had been transported out here. Then she noticed that someone was in the car with her and that she wasn't tied up.

"Who are you?" she demanded, reaching up and gripping him hard on the shoulder.

The man looked back and smiled at her warmly. "Long time no see, Haibara," said Conan Edogawa, enjoying the look of pure shock spreading across the girl's face.

"Kudo-kun!" said Haibara, totally shocked by his presence. "What are you doing?"

"You called me last night, remember? Just because you used your old name doesn't mean I didn't know it was you," he elaborated in response to the confused look on her face. "You obviously were trying to be anonymous, so I didn't press it. Once you sent me that letter, I knew at once it was the Black Organization after you. After all, who would be an enemy of you in a country you haven't visited for a decade? So I went and asked a former member to confirm it."

"Never mind that, HOW did you get your memory back?" Haibara exclaimed.

"I didn't. I asked Hattori and Hakase about it, and they told me everything. Then I took their explanations and filled in the details for myself."

"Fine, go on," Haibara conceded.

Conan continued, "Well, the member we were on best terms with was Vermouth, so I went to her and asked who it might be."

"And she helped?" asked Haibara.

"She'd done a lot of thinking and agreed to help. After all, I doubt she wanted to stay in that cell until it crumbled from age. She even knew who it was that wrote it. So we formulated a plan and put it into action. She took your place inside and is even now subduing your would-be killer."

"So you broke Vermouth out of jail to act as a vigilante?"

"Not…exactly. It's complicated. I've got Kuroba taking her place in the cell for a few hours, at least until she takes down the perpetrator."

Just then, a police officer appeared from a side exit, walking towards their car and dragging an unconscious girl behind him. Conan got out to greet him and Haibara followed his lead. She was stunned when she realized the girl was Vermouth.

"You can go back in now," said the officer in a distinctly female voice. Haibara stared at him until he took off his mask, revealing a Vermouth approximately five years older than the unconscious one.

"This should wrap everything up, said Officer Vermouth, handcuffing Young Vermouth and putting her in the back of Conan's car. "She said there were other clones, but I was the only one cloned. Against my will, I might add."

"Wait, so if you're imprisoning the new one in the original's place, then what's going to happen to her?" Haibara pointed at Vermouth, who was determinedly looking up at the sky. Despite her fear of her, Haibara could tell Vermouth was fully enjoying being out in the open again.

"She'll take on a new life," said Conan. "We've already talked it over. She'll go back into acting as the daughter of Chris Vineyard; the police will never suspect that she's the same as the imprisoned Vermouth. She's given up a life of crime, and wants to live an honest life."

"Exactly," said Vermouth, cutting in, "I've lived for over fifty years, and I think it's time I see how the honest half lives. See you, Kudo-kun," she said as she walked away, her long blonde hair, foreign to Japan, blew in the breeze.

"I hope you stay, Haibara," said Conan as he got back in his car. "You always kept us honest. But now you've got to give that speech of yours. So good luck." He shook her hand, revved the engine of his antique non-autonomous car, and drove away.

Haibara stared after him and said, "You bet I'm staying, Shinichi." After the car disappeared, she turned tail and walked back inside, ready to put a new spin on her life once again.

So, is this a proper wrap-up for this story? I'll let you decide.

In case you're confused, I should probably elaborate on some of the background for this chapter. Clone Vermouth had no memory of Vermouth teaming up with Haibara and Co. to rescue Conan and Ran during the final confrontation, nor of the atrocities performed on them, which effectively turned Vermouth against the Organization. Anokata, when he realized Vermouth had turned, activated the clone machine, but Vermouth destroyed the age controls, leaving Clone Vermouth a baby. The baby got put in an American orphanage in LA and was forgotten about. Although Vermouth helped with the Org.'s defeat, she was still sentenced to life in prison, the same as all the other surviving high ranking members. This chapter was Conan's way of repaying the favor. Clone Vermouth took Vermouth's place in jail and Vermouth started an honest life.

Just to clarify. :D

Now, I'm going to finish my Family Guy crossover, and then I'm going to start two new stories. One will be the next part of the 'Minami Edogawa' series, and the other I haven't decided. Feel free to submit ideas of your own, and don't forget to review!

Signing off for now,

CoolKid94