So I'm here at a coffee shop, trying to finish a love story between two women, and I've just overheard a cell group discussion at the next table. One said, and this is exactly how he said it, "These homosexuals; they are sinners. How can we heal them?" And so now I'm like 'Heh. I'm still shipping Bechloe. I'll probably go to hell anyway.' Going back to business, how are you, crickets? It's going to be hard to say goodbye. At least for me.

Guest (Sep 10): You're right on time. :)

Tofu9162: Believe me, I don't want Rem to die. If I were God, I'd totally make her immortal. About Skyler, well, I kinda wanted to dedicate an entire chapter to Stacie. I really missed her presence in the story, and the idea that she actually almost had Beca. And I too am saddened that there's no third installment, but I feel like a sequel is already enough.

oilzz and stuff: I wonder if you've read the rest of the chapters.

frenchyloop: Most of the fanfics I've read portrayed Chloe as the stronger one. I don't know, like, maybe because in the movie she has the overly-confident bubbly personality so I decided to reinvent her in this story, you know. She's fragile but not so much of a weakling. Don't worry, there'll be an end to all these heartbreaks. PS. Thanks for the joke! LOL.

avidreader: You guys really like Rem's character, don't you?

AnonTheWriter: I knew, of all people, you'd be the one who would enjoy that chapter the most because of the Stacie feels. :)

Rennie Laroche: I won't, don't worry.

madness2013, Guest (Aug 16), Yan, asdfg, aimeekiwi93: I guess we all loved Rem, huh?

BeChloeFan01: Thanks for lending me your character. It would have not been the same without her. She made one of the biggest twists in the story. So yeah, I owe you one. Breakfast? Lunch? Dinner?

Kartoffel: In one LONG chapter, apparently.

MysticFalls94: That's the idea, actually. Considering it all happened in a single night, I think it's only proper to set the pace in such swift motion. Oh and I really did take my time writing this last chapter. I hope you guys don't mind.

crystalsoda1: Sorry it took me a month. Please forgive me.

And here we go. Is everybody ready for the last chapter? Because I don't think I am. (A/N: I've never been abroad, never left my country even for a vacation, so the descriptions of the places might not be as accurate as they are in real life. Please bear with me.)

CHAPTER TWENTY: Home

Paul entered the room and was automatically met with anticipating faces. He sadly shook his head as he closed the door behind him. Bad news. It had been hours and he still had nothing good to report back which meant Rem was still in a critical condition and under the strict surveillance of an entire FBI department. Thud who was left at the hospital to personally monitor her medical progress must be clinging on to that tiny brink of hope to recovery.

"How are things doing over here?"

"I'm almost done clearing up the bugs." Jesse had not left his seat since he discovered the irregularities in the system. The cup of coffee placed right next to the keyboard an hour ago was completely forgotten.

"And Beca?"

Stan, attending to his worried mother, shook his head. With every second passing by, the chance of rescuing Beca was getting slimmer. Who knew where they could have taken her? Worse, Bumper could have killed her already. Her girlfriend was growing anxious, restlessly pacing back and forth and biting her nails in fretfulness. She was completely lost; if Beca was here, she would know exactly what to do, and she should have been half-way through the plan, but she wasn't. Perhaps, the Syndics were learning from their previous mistakes. Between the two, they decided to let the idiot one free. Everybody was too busy protecting a helpless ladybug when the real target was the mighty Phoenix, coincidentally defenseless.

"Chloe," Aubrey muttered, hoping to earn her best friend's attention. "Chloe!"

The redhead was not responding. It was not normal considering the kind of personality she had.

"Hey, go easy on yourself. It's going to be fine, Beale."

"They have my girlfriend, Aubrey! Anytime those crazy brothers could have a gun pointed at her head, pull the trigger whenever they feel like doing it, and blow her brains out. And look at me! What am I doing? I'm being useless here when I'm supposed to be saving her since forever ago! I shouldn't have believed her! I shouldn't have let her stay in the first place, her and Rem! This… This is… Ugh! Stupid, stupid, stupid cricket!"

"We get how stupid the midget is already," Fat Amy mumbled to herself, stuffing her mouth with unhealthy chips, and resumed to monitoring for any signals on her computer. Eating was the only way she could cope with all the stress.

Sick of watching her best friend in misery, the Posen heiress turned to the current Head Phoenix. "What are our options?"

"Wait," CR answered with an apologetic regard. "Just wait. That's pretty much all the choice we have. I'm sorry."

"But there has to be another thing that we can do," insisted Chloe. "I mean, if this is Beca, she's not going to stop here. Whatever the constraints would be, she'd do everything to save our butts."

"We'd love to help," the Head Phoenix spoke in behalf of her people. "We're talking about Beca here, for Christ's sake! If we have to use all our remaining resources down to the very last cartridge just to get her back, then sure. We'd never think twice to do it. But, Chloe, I'm terribly sorry… we don't even know where she is, and that's frankly where we should start."

"We haven't located the Syndics' safe house on the map," Paul added a very important detail.

"CR's right," Stan agreed while his mother went to console the upset redhead. "Until we find the safe house, all we can do is to wait."

"Wait for what?" his girlfriend questioned. "Some kind of a miracle?"

He lowered his head and avoided her fiery gaze because yes, they were indeed waiting for some kind of a miracle. The Syndics would be very careful not to commit the moronic mistake of giving away their location. Bumper would murder his own people if that happened. So, it's theoretically hopeless and logically a lost cause. Only a miracle could save the mighty Phoenix as of the moment.

"I found her," Jesse, in disbelief, whispered in a string of air. He just couldn't believe it himself. On the computer screen was a flashing red circle on the map. Mouth hanging open with a smile of disbelief, he turned to his friends who clearly were oblivious of the meteor of miracle that had fallen over them. "Guys!"

"What, Padawan? What?"

He rolled his eyes at his teammates and revealed, "I found her! I found Beca! I'm getting signals from her communication device!"

"What?"

Startled, they all gathered around him to see the same flashing red circle on the screen. Jesse typed in some codes and soon Beca's picture was on display and the system was automatically searching for and providing in the necessary information.

"Way to go, Padawan!" Fat Amy playfully hit his back a little too hard he could feel his bones in agony. "I knew we could make use of you."

Call ASAP. Sky.

"Wait a minute," he paused, puzzled by the message that came along with the emergency signal. "It's Skyler. She was the one who sent the signal using Beca's device."

The group instantly turned to the Head Phoenix for the decision-making process.

"I don't know if we can trust her," CR truthfully shared her judgment. "This could be a ploy, for all we know. What if she's really working for Bumper now?"

"I trust her," Chloe stepped in to place her bet. "Asking whether or not we can trust Skyler is like asking the same thing with Stacie. Stacie betrayed us too, remember? She turned me in to Phil, but we all know to whom her allegiance would always belong. I trust Sky would do the same for Beca."

"I trust Skyler too," Ronie seconded, seeing the doubts painted on the others' faces. If there was one person in the whole wide world who she knew would never betray her daughter, it would most definitely be this particular redhead.

"Okay," the Head Phoenix nodded her head. It was a positive declaration in itself which meant whoever was on the contrary could already keep his mouth shut because the rules permitted CR to kill anybody who would disavow her decisions. "Then we need one great plan, people. Considering the situation, the danger and our limited supplies, we only have one shot to do this. There's no room for failure."

"Molotov cocktail!"

Stumped, the rest of the group waited until the Australian would elaborate on her random idea.

"You know, petrol bomb… old empty bottle plus combustible liquid… a rag serves as the fuse… I figured it might help. Who says we can't improvise, eh? Plus it's easier to steal gas than legit ammunition."

"Good thinking," Paul stamped the idea with a thumbs-up.

"Great, now I need a real cocktail! Anybody bring me some fruit salad?"

It was a drag having to endure an entire trip facing Bumper and having been forced to look at his fucking sneering face the whole time. Beca and her babysitter sat side by side opposite the McDouglas brothers; that alone was enough torture already if that was the point of this whole thing. Ben grabbed a backpack and passed it over to Skyler. She knew they wanted her to unzip it and bring out whatever the content was to view, and so that's what she did.

"Bomb," she heard her own voice as she stared at the band of explosives in her hands.

"Put it around her," Ben glanced at his greatest nemesis, the spite in his gaze was too obvious to ignore. He couldn't even hide it for a brief moment. He was clearly very eager to see the young Mitchell dead.

"You will never have Chloe." Beca, in those very rare instances, put on a smirk especially for him. Watching his gorgeous face curl up into a scowl brought forth a different kind of satisfaction. She was enjoying it, quite honestly.

"Neither will you," was his meek response. He looked over at the other brunette and repeated his previous instruction. "What are you waiting for? Put it! Put it around her now!"

She had already discussed about it with Beca – show no resistance and prove her allegiance. Hence, in haste, Skyler reached underneath the black leather jacket and wrapped the band adorned with explosive devices around her friend's body. If one of them grew a wicked brain and decided to malfunction and explode before one of the enemies could push on the button of fate, the Syndics would be scraping bits of their flesh and massacred organs later on.

"Looks good on you, dude. I'd totally do you. The fact that you are into chicks, that's so fucking hot!"

It wasn't the thick metal chains around her wrists that stopped her. She could easily swing it around his neck and choke him death. It was the stupid plan that kept her from launching a punch at him through his perversion. Several minutes more and the automobile finally came to a full stop.

"Here we are," announced Bumper, kind of excited. "Welcome to CNN Center, Phoenix."

Of course, it's exactly what he needed – a public venue and an instant access to the media. It's a win-win thing; the Syndics would get the free coverage while CNN would get the free exclusive scoop because who could resist some real action live on TV? Soon, the door opened up; X stood outside and began to unlock and untangle the chains off the hostage's hands.

"See this?" the Head Syndic showed the detonator that was fashioned in a small black box before securing it into his pocket. "One wrong move, dude, and I'll push the button, so don't even think about trying to run, or you'll go... boom!"

She merely huffed in response, unafraid and unyielding. If he expected to witness her shiver in fear, a great disappointment was rightfully awaiting him. Beca then was freed from her restraints; she could barely rub the pain off her bleeding wrists when X dragged her out of the car, purposefully disregarding the fact that she was a petite woman deprived from the gift of even the average height. She looked up to the mountain towering over her and shot him a death glare.

"Why don't you go and pick on someone your own size, Bigfoot?"

"You're the girl who killed almost the entire Syndics population in one night. Twice, I was told. That practically makes us of the same size."

He made an additional grunting noise to impose just as monstrous he was – was it supposed to scare the horrible monster? Nevertheless, he pushed her to move, vigilantly on guard as they marched right behind his boss with Skyler maintaining a close distance. Ben, meanwhile, was left in the car; after all, his familiar face still had a good public reputation and a family name to protect from unnecessary humiliation. Still, his nemesis thought it was a coward choice.

"Are you ready for your spotlight, Beca?" teased Bumper as they blended into the crowd.

"So I die, then what?"

"I win."

"I have the rest of the treasure, so I guess I'd still be the champion."

The Head Syndic was prompted to make a halt and took a deep breath to cool off his head. Oh that treasure he so desired, and she had it. Riled, he turned around to face the little rat who just seemed to love refusing to give up. One sly flick of the hand and X fired a shot in the air; everybody in the building was caught up in frenzy much to Bumper's amusement. The security personnel on duty immediately tried to regain control over the situation and pacify the intruders, but Bumper's men were quick to shoot whoever dared to ruin the plan. The entire establishment was in a lockdown, and everybody lay down on their stomach covering their heads for dear life. The drama was absolutely newsworthy.

"Take that stupid treasure to hell with you," Bumper hissed at Beca, "because it won't matter anymore when you're dead, Phoenix. I will be the King of the Underground. Everything you've worked for, everything will be mine."

The mighty Phoenix pursed her lips and shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly. "Then you would have to kill me first… dude."

"You bet I-"

The electricity, from out of the blue, was completely shut down – it wasn't part of the Syndics' plan, and there would be no media coverage with the power cut out. The whole building was fenced in total darkness as a result of the codes Jesse sent to Skyler had worked perfectly well. Before the Head Syndic could give out new directions, it started raining fireballs, or that's what they thought. It was like magic; the Syndics were backing away, leaving a wide gateway for the Phoenixes to execute their surprise attack.

"You, bitch-"

No further deliberation needed, Beca threw in a hard punch to knock the young McDouglas down. While he was too busy pressing on his nose, she seized the opportunity to rip off his pocket and steal away the detonator.

"Beca, watch out!"

Skyler tried to warn her as soon as possible, but X had already grabbed hold of the short brunette, tossing her away as if she was a football. Beca crashed into one of the tables; no bomb went off in the process, thankfully. Really, he should pick on someone his own size. That was when Thud came rushing to tackle him down. Otherwise, the two hundred and six bones in her body would have surely multiplied to infinity.

"Skyler, go!"

Recomposing herself, the taller brunette mindlessly nodded her head and ran to fetch the trapped civilians and guide them out of the danger zone. Beca forced herself up and realized that the detonator had slipped away from her grip when she had been flying in the air. How hard could it be searching for a black box in pitch black? It's as if it's in camouflage!

"Why couldn't it be freaking yellow?" she mused. Never mind that she was starting to appreciate other variety of colors; it's totally Chloe's fault! "Or pink with Hello Kitty all over!"

The burst of huge flames brightening up the area worked in her favor. There it was! However, as she began to crawl towards it, the wrestling giants incidentally kicked the box away. Beca cringed, anticipated for her body to be blown up to bloody pieces just like Clarence. Fortunately, nothing exploded and she was still in one whole piece. The bad news though was that the box came closer to Bumper.

Their eyes met before they both jumped on their feet and raced to the device. This is one of the few moments that Beca was grateful for her small physique – her lightweight allowed her to move faster than him and then slide across the floor in a flash. She struck his legs and knocked him down again; he involuntarily dropped the box with no one else to catch it but her.

"Get her, you idiots!" The Head Syndic called for assistance and so as the mighty Phoenix stood up, a hundred bullets stalked her every move. She ran for cover behind the nearest concrete pillar. "You're not going to win this, Phoenix! Your team can't even outnumber mine!"

Who said it was a contest of quantity? But, sure, sometimes number mattered because while three Syndics were there to attack her, Beca had nobody to back her up. She pulled one hand and pressed the nozzle against his chest where his heart was and pulled the trigger. Dead. She then tossed the box up in the air, pulled a knife from the dead guy's belt, threw it quickly right at one's throat then shot the other in the head just in time to catch the detonator again.

"Hey, Branson!" she recognized Paul's voice. "Just take the bomb off of you!"

And he thought she had not tried it yet? It wouldn't come off! And that's why she just couldn't let the enemies have the box! But before she could explain the situation, she went flying again when a grenade exploded near her position. How Rem would have loved to witness all these aerial stunts – Tinker bell seemed to have brought lots of pixie dusts with her, she would have joked.

"Let's see how fast you can run, Phoenix!"

Bumper, already furnished with a couple of uzi guns, was heading towards her direction. Shit. She didn't even have the time to think things through; she went straight to running from Rambo. Of all the days she could tumble down a dead body, it had to be this evening. Thankfully, as she hurried to get back on her feet, more Molotov's cocktails stunned the enemies. Her brother came to her rescue, firing back at Bumper's group. Stan clutched her arm and dragged her away to a safer area while Paul and the rest created diversion on the side.

"Let's take it off." He started to remove his sister's leather jacket, a manner that was a little too inappropriate. Beca shot him a look. Okay, it was awkward especially when he made her face the wall a little too aggressive in the state of urgency. Boy, they sure appeared like they were about to… the siblings both shuddered in disgust. "We shall never speak of this ever again."

"Absolutely," she replied in agreement.

"Now stay still," he warned as he prepared to shoot the defective buckle. He just wasn't as accurate as his sister when it came to gunning skills. Luckily, the bullet didn't pierce anything else but the metal instrument. "Okay, let's get out-"

Stan was suddenly struck with a butt stock on the back of his head; he dropped the band of explosives. Beca, too, was attacked and lost the detonator and so, with a pinch of rational sense left in mind, she swiftly kicked the bomb away. CR tried to retrieve the box while Thud made a run for the band. Both, however, were pounced on. Even Skyler came to help to no avail. Amidst all the scuffles, Paul somehow ended up on top of the infamous longstanding escalator with the bomb in his possession and hence a pack of Syndics chasing after him. It was a dead end.

"Throw it!"

He did as instructed, and with some luck, the explosives landed right by Bumper's feet while the detonator was just a few meters away from Beca. She dove for it, and despite of the efforts to stop her, she was able to push the button to make it all go off.

"Boom!" the Head Syndic exploded into a fit of laughter.

It couldn't be right. The brunette pushed the button one more time yet still with no effect.

"I'm so sorry to disappoint you, but you are not killing me tonight."

He had his signature smirk on as he directed his mocking gaze at the mighty Phoenix. He knew. He knew that the detonator would not set the bomb off. He had been playing them all along. They could shoot him, but the Syndics would surely shoot them dead first especially when they were all cornered already. It's Team Pura against the world.

"Oh oh," his face lit up even more in great excitement. "Look who decided to join us, by the way."

At the signal, a Syndic came into the scene, carrying a defiant hostage upon his shoulder before setting it next to the Head Syndic. Bumper removed the cloth off the head, freeing the shade of red hair from concealment. It was Chloe. Beca immediately stood up, ready to sprint to her girlfriend's side when the devil pulled the redhead in front of him so she should be serving as a shield, encircled an arm around her neck, and held up a threatening gun directed towards her temple; the mighty Phoenix sensibly froze in place.

"One wrong move, Phoenix. What did I tell you?"

She slowly raised her hands to commemorate her surrender. "Bumper, leave her out of this. You want me dead, right? Well, here I am. Just… don't hurt her. Please."

"Ah, the look on your face." Bumper chuckled, taking pleasure from every second of it. "God, this is priceless!"

"I'm so sorry." Chloe looked at her girlfriend apologetically. This was exactly what she had been dreading about, the moment that she became a liability for being Beca's one and only kryptonite.

"It's alright," the brunette forced a reassuring smile while reminding herself to breathe. "It's going to be alright."

But it never was. Chloe, of all people, had already learned that by then.

"Let her go."

Following the source of the voice, Bumper turned to his side to see his younger brother holding up a pistol directly towards him. The older McDouglas simply laughed at the act, knowingly ignored the coward who suddenly decided to show up. He was no threat anyway. He was just ridiculously pathetic, that's all.

"I said let her go."

"Or else what?" Bumper wasn't even looking at him anymore. "You're going to whine about it?"

"I will kill you," was the simple answer from Ben.

His brother merely scoffed at the fair warning. Chloe utilized such distraction to draw a knife from her pocket. She pushed Bumper's arm away from her neck and thrust the knife towards him, only he was fast enough to swerve her hand back to her direction. She looked down moments after to see that the knife had stabbed her on the abdominal region.

"No!" Ben hurriedly fired away at his brother at the surprising turn of events, racing against time. But it was too late. The damage had already been done. Consequently, the Syndics fired at the younger McDouglas until he collapsed on the floor dead.

Notwithstanding his wounds, Bumper still had the nerve to press the knife further into Chloe's body and then purposely pulled it off; she could feel her own blood bursting out of the opening. He held the victim in place to create further injury until was stopped by X who carried him to fashion their escape; Beca was already running as fast as she could and arrived at the scene in time to catch her girlfriend's fall.

Another shootout between the opposing parties ensued as the Syndics fled the vicinity, but nothing else mattered anymore. Cradling Chloe in her arms, Beca effortlessly shut everything out. It's as if they were in a completely different universe, soundproof and bulletproof, just her and her. She instantly tore a piece of cloth from her own shirt and applied it upon the gunshot wound, genuinely hoping that the amount of pressure would stop the bleeding. Unfortunately, it was just too deep; her most precious ladybug was losing too much blood, fast.

"I'm sorry…" whispered the redhead. "They came and… We tried to fight, but…"

"Ssh…" the cricket pressed her head against the love of her life's with tears streaming down her face because if there's someone who had to be sorry, it should have been herself. It was her fault. If only she had truly quit like she said, then none of this would have happened. She failed. She wasn't able to keep Chloe safe. "Promise me you'd stay awake. You're better at keeping promises. Please, Chloe. I need you to stay awake, babe."

Truth be, Chloe had never seen Beca cried like this, never so miserable like this - the horrible monster was trembling in fear, fear of losing what made her life worth living. The bait reached for the brunette's face and smiled, "I love you."

"You have no idea," the brunette shook her head, burying her face on Chloe's hand, savoring the touch and kissing her skin probably for the last time. She helplessly watched those bright blue orbs disappear behind those eyelids, not knowing if she was ever going to see them again.

It already felt like forever since Rem was first brought into the ICU. She was yet to wake up which made it feel like she was in hundred worlds away. Stan could only stay at the other side of the glass door, watch her unconsciously struggle to fight for her life. He had exactly ten minutes until the two agents assigned to guard her would return from their coffee break. Man, she still looked so beautiful even with all the cuts, scrapes, and abrasions on her face. She was Sleeping Beauty, only she was slowly dying inside and not even a true love's kiss would magically break such curse.

"There you are," he heard his girlfriend's voice closing in. "I've been looking all over for you."

"I… I-I was just checking on Rem," he replied. It didn't seem to look good when your boyfriend was spending an awful lot of time thinking about another woman, but he wasn't going to lie to Aubrey about it. "I'm sorry."

The blonde heiress wore a smile and reassuringly rubbed his bulging biceps through the sleeve of his shirt as they both looked over the patient. "Don't be. It's not a secret that you have a crush on her. Everybody knows!"

"Right," Stan chuckled at how foolish and embarrassing it sounded then put an arm around her.

"So how is she? She's going to wake up, yes? She practically destroyed everyone singlehandedly. I mean, it's Rem. She has to wake up."

"Well," he breathed out. "The doctors don't report to me, but judging by her current appearance, she's going to be here for a long while."

"She's a fighter," was all they could hope for in the meantime.

Stan thoughtfully nodded his head then led Aubrey away from the ICU before the feds could find them there and possibly detain them for interrogation for apparently visiting a suspected criminal of high profile status.

"How's Chloe?" he inquired. The mood suddenly changed into gloom. "Has she woken up yet?"

"Not yet," she meekly shook her head. "But she's already been transferred to a private room and Beca's all glued on her side, so my best friend should be fine."

"She will be," her boyfriend guaranteed with a smile.

Before he could give her a kiss, her phone started ringing. Her father was calling, probably to hark back again and again that he already owned her forever and ever. It was only adding to the dusk on Aubrey's face. Stan, without hesitation, snatched the stupid phone away and threw it into the nearby trash bin, then turned to her like nothing happened. "So, breakfast?"

"I love you," she beamed.

"You too, my princess." He finally gave her a kiss as soon as they had stepped into the elevator. Mornings like this were always a perfect way to commence any day. It made the Posen heiress forget even for a short period of time that she would still have to go work for her father. Perhaps, one just couldn't get everything one wanted.

Balancing breakfast for two with one hand and a medium-sized Hello Kitty stuffed toy locked under the other, Ronie turned the knob open to let herself into the room. It was no surprise that her daughter was still wide awake, spending all her waking hours literally keeping an eye on the unconscious redhead. The older brunette hurried to the table to set down her things at last, making sure Chloe's favorite iconic character had a special room beside the patient.

"Should we tell her it's not actually a cat?"

When no response came, she turned to the quiet cricket and sighed sympathetically at the miserable portrait.

"You look like you need some coffee."

But it was as if Beca didn't hear anything.

"At least change into something… nice, you know." Ronie remembered she still had her bag on her shoulder. She opened it and unloaded the fresh clothes she brought for the guard dog. "You don't want to smell like shit when she wakes up."

Not even a scoff or a glare came from the other.

"Hey, cheer up. The blood transfusion was successful, surgery went fine… Chloe's far from danger now. We just have to wait for the sedatives to wear off and she should be fine by then."

"It doesn't change the fact that I did this to her," mumbled Beca.

Her mother sighed and gave her a look. "That 'dude' guy did this to her, not you. None of these is your fault. Not even Stacie's death is your fault, you understand, young lady?"

"Sure," was the senseless reply.

"She's going to wake up soon, honey."

Beca looked over to her unconscious girlfriend. Chloe was so still, even her breathing was barely noticeable. All that could be heard was that annoying beeping sound indicating that the patient wasn't a lifeless creature yet. So no, her mother's word was kind of difficult to believe. Upset, she grabbed her jacket and stood from her seat.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to kill Bumper," the murder machine that she was replied as she headed for the door.

"What?" It took Ronie a second to process the big revelation. She rushed to the door, trying to stop the horrible monster. "Wait! Stay right there, young lady. Let's not be a war freak, please? Let's take a moment to think about it."

"I'm going to kill him," insisted the other.

"It's over!" her mother exclaimed. "I know exactly what's going to happen next. You go to him and kill somebody. A few days later, they'll kill one of us too. Don't you see it? It's an endless loop if you don't stop it now! Isn't it enough that Chloe and Rem ended up in the hospital? What for anyway? A goddamn treasure? Well, is it worth all these? Is it?"

A pair of blazing blues, burning and flaring up. She hated it when her mother made a strong point, yet Beca still wanted to kill Bumper Allen so bad. She had her fists balled up in an uncontrollable anger; she could feel her face burning up in a great deal of hatred when a faint groan tainted the sound waves inside the room. She exchanged glances with Ronie who had the same confused look on her face. Neither of them was making the noises. The younger brunette dashed to the side of the bed to find a pair of eyes slowly fluttering open.

"Chloe?"

"Hi," replied the redhead in a hoarse whisper.

The daunting beast couldn't help but chuckle. She was just too happy, ecstatic even. Ronie also smiled to herself and opted to leave the room for a little privacy; she wasn't about to ruin this moment.

"Promise me," Chloe quietly spoke once more and so her girlfriend listened closely. "No more killing, Beca. Just stay here with me."

Taken aback a little, the mighty Phoenix merely stared at her girlfriend. That one person she would do anything for was telling her, in the clearest sense possible, not to do that one thing she most certainly desired. The fact that she was still thinking about going after the Head Syndic wherever he might have been only proved how much of a monster she still was within. That's it, she would never deserve Chloe. But it didn't change the truth that she loved her, too much that she'd rather lie to her than let her go.

"I'm not going anywhere," Beca selfishly convinced the other, planting a loving kiss on top of the ginger hair to break yet another promise.

Jesse slid the strap of his backpack further to his neck to make room for the strap of his laptop bag on his shoulder. He grabbed a gym bag filled with other electronic devices and hung it on the other when he realized his favorite jacket was still on his seat. How could he be so stupid? Carrying the weight of his bags, he struggled to keep them in place as he bent over to reach for the jacket. Unluckily, all the straps slid down to his arm and knocked a glass of red wine, spilling the liquid all over the jacket.

"Damn it!"

He picked up the jacket – maybe he could still salvage it – then hung the straps of his bags on his shoulder again with great difficulty. It was too late to appreciate the idea of bringing a roller bag, better yet a trolley, for this trip. He held on the handrail to keep him steady for a moment. His companions were already at the foot of the airstair.

"Welcome to Singapore!" Mr. Davis, the old British man they met at the Chunnel and provided them with the private jet, laughed at the nerd. "Need help with those bags?"

"N-Nope," Jesse declined the offer. He was not going to be a weakling in front of a very old man with grayish hair. That would be too embarrassing. "I-I think I can handle this."

"So here's the key to your car," Mr. Davis handed the item over to the pale brunette along with a neatly folded green bandana. "There. I'm sure you want to keep it too."

Beca clutched the piece of cloth in her hand. Maybe it would have been easier if she had Rem with her in this mission. That bitch seemed to have a way to everything. Or maybe if she could wake up from comatose so the mighty Phoenix would not have to worry about who should take care of Chloe. Chloe. Beca had simply left her again. Was there still any more room for forgiveness and acceptance?

"So how did the weird lady die?" he asked much to his guests' bewilderment. Rem's dead? How did he even know when they were all together miles high in the sky? "Well, it doesn't matter now, does it? She used to say, 'We're all gonna die anyway. It's just a matter of purpose.' I guess she got what she wanted, huh?"

The cricket was out of words without meaning for it to happen. They always knew the cheat code was one big mystery, but they never thought she was this complicated and confusing.

"Oh bloody hell. I'm here helping you out overseas. I sneaked you into a national territory with a private jet, so she must have crossed 'the greatest adventure' out on her bucket list. Bless you for granting a dying woman's wish. I suggest that you hold on to that hanky. I'm guessing she must have saved more lives than we knew. Lucky you."

A dying woman's wish?

"And I sure hope you're almost complete with his list," he looked up to Jesse. "I've never seen a man this clumsy."

Hearing the poor evaluation on his manliness, Jesse was determined to prove to them that he wasn't as clumsy as they thought. Yeah, and he would rub it on their faces. So he straightened his back, chin up, then took his first step down the airstair. Forget about determination, he went straight to tumbling down causing Thud to snicker in hilarity.

"We have to go before he kills himself," Beca told the old man. "Thanks again, Mr. Davis."

He smiled in return and bid them goodbye. Thud deliberately collected Jesse's things then slump the reluctant one onto his broad shoulder like the way Grug carried Guy on The Croods. There were just the three of them; they couldn't afford to lose a member. Besides, the IT expert's role was far too important in this mission. With his expertise, he sure would find Igor Kosoglad.

"I'm going to kill your sister!"

Stan could only scratch the back of his head while his enraged girlfriend crossed her arms on her chest and tapped her left foot impatiently. She clearly was not happy about the situation. Stupid little sister for going M.I.A. without hinting any explanation.

"I'm sure she will show up today," he tried to sound as convincing as possible.

"She better be! She hasn't been here for days! And today, her girlfriend's getting out of the hospital! So yeah, that dipshit better be here."

"Of course, honey." What else was there to say? "Uh… but if Chloe asks, I-I'm not telling her, hmm?"

Aubrey heaved out a long sigh. Where on earth was Beca Mitchell anyway? One moment she wouldn't leave the hospital, then the next thing they knew she's just gone, gone with the wind. The blonde heiress put a hand on the door knob when another instantly held it in place.

"CR?"

"Please tell me Beca's here," was the Head Phoenix's panic greeting while Fat Amy paused to catch her breath. Stupid stairs.

"Um, no."

CR's face fell, distressed. She turned around to give a signal to Paul who was at the end of the hallway; he automatically left his spot to follow the silent order.

"What is it?" questioned Stan because there was obviously something off about it especially when she barged into the room startling the patient waiting inside.

"Why is there an untouched food in here?" Fat Amy complained, seeing the meal on the tray. "It's food!"

"Get the bags."

"Are we leaving?" asked a confused Chloe. "But the doctors have not cleared me out to go home yet. And I still have my dextrose on."

The Head Phoenix approached the patient and cautiously took her hand to inspect the area with an inserted IV. Before long, she was carefully pulling it out of Chloe's vein with a couple of facial tissue to substitute for a cotton ball; there's no time to abide by the protocols. Paul consequently came in with a wheelchair.

"Skyler is ready to distract the nurse station," he reported as he began to assist the redhead climb off the bed.

"Wait!" Aubrey exclaimed. "What the hell is going on?"

"We need to get Chloe out of here," was the very serious response. "The Syndics are on their way."

"The Syndics?"

"They know about the treasure."

"What treasure?"

CR groaned and stared at everyone before fixing her eyes on Chloe. "Beca's missing, isn't she? So are Thud and Jesse."

"I-I don't understand. Bumper already has the treasure."

"Someone from the old Council realized that Bumper only has the partial amount. He must have figured that out by now. And I think… your dearest Beca knows where the treasure is… and there's this great possibility that she's actually going for it."

"I knew it," the redhead murmured, mentally cursing herself. Of course, the best liar in town would always mean the opposite.

Aubrey, furious, turned to the only Mitchell in the room. "I am so going to kill your sister."

"We have to go, people!"

Paul reminded them about the ticking clock, wheeling the patient out to the hallway hurriedly followed by the rest of the group. Fat Amy deliberately returned to the room to claim the entire food tray from the table. Seriously, it's food!

The three idiots awkwardly sat on one of the chairs in the lounge. It turned out they had not thoroughly planned this whole thing. Jesse's hardwork pointed out that there was only one sole bearer of the name Igor Kosoglad in the entire face of the earth, and they would find him here, working in a major bank in Singapore. But how? They didn't even know what this person looked like.

"We are not going to die here, a-are we?" Jesse nervously glanced at the boss.

"I know I'm not," answered the brunette. "I can't speak for you though."

Sometimes, she should really just stop talking because her words were never a source of comfort. Swallowing the big lump in his throat, he turned to Thud. "You have my back, right, buddy?"

The big guy simply stared back at him. It's always fun to mess up with Jesse. But waiting for nothing definitely wasn't. Beca checked the time on her watch; they had been there for five minutes without doing anything. It was bad enough certainly when they didn't want to raise some suspicion, so it was like an answered prayer when a Chinese banker took the seat across the table, facing the mighty Phoenix. She looked up from her watch to see him eyeing the bandana tied around her arm. Odd. He seemed to be interested into something meaningless to the ordinary citizen.

"Igor Kosoglad," she called him. Never mind the disturbing fact that the Russian name did not suit his Asian appearance. She wasn't going to miss this chance.

He ran his eyes over the rest of the party then stood up. "Gēn wǒ lái."

What? The Americans exchanged looks. Jesse was harboring the biggest sweat factory on his forehead. So what were they supposed to do exactly? Beca left her seat, walking a few steps behind the stranger.

"You know what? Just pick me up when you're done here. I'll be at the Universal Studios, or maybe I'll see you back at the hotel. Okay, bye."

Before Jesse could head for the exit, Thud grabbed him by the back collar and pushed him forward. If the boss was going in, they had no other option but to follow. They were soon led to a private office; the Chinese man sat on his chair while the three took their seats as well. He typed something on his computer then discreetly pointed at the CCTV installed on the wall, assuring his visitors that the room was protected. Jesse's pocket PC confirmed so.

"Benjamin Applebaum sent us here." Beca wasted no time, immediately laying out the background and establishing the idea that a No Mandarin setup would be highly appreciated. And was it safe to start talking about a multi-billion treasure to a stranger?

Igor Kosoglad, or whatever his real name was, gave a small nod with a professional smile and leaned forward with his hands clasped together. "The key?"

There's another thing she was grateful to her cheat code. Use the key. Hence, Beca reached for the old renaissance key in her pocket and presented it to the banker. One problem though, he seemed to be a little puzzled by the gesture. Was it an American thing to do?

"I'm sorry, but what is this?" he humbly inquired.

"The key."

He let out a chuckle. "I meant the password… to open the vault."

"Password?" It was Beca's turn to be baffled.

"You do have the password, right?" Jesse looked at her intently. She better have the password, otherwise this whole thing was a total waste of time, effort, money, lives, everything. Judging by the look on her face, however, she had no idea. "Aw, man!"

"I believe the vault can only be opened with the password," the apparent vault keeper revealed. "Mr. Applebaum distinctly warned me that if opened in any other manner, the contents of the vault will be lost forever."

"No!" exclaimed the IT expert. That's not fair!

"But Benji gave us no password," Beca reasoned out. "Are you sure there's no other possible way to open it? Anything?"

"I'm afraid if you don't have it, I can't help you. I'm sorry."

"What about the key? Can we try it? Maybe it'll work."

"I don't think so."

"Just try it," appealed Jesse. "Please. We came all the way from another continent for this."

"Well, I'd love to, but that would be physically impossible to do," clarified the Chinese banker. It's not that he didn't trust these strangers. He was so sure they were the right people, the ones he had been waiting to come to him all these years. He swore to help them, but there was only so much he could do. He opened his drawer, retrieved a small hardware, and lodged it into his desktop computer. A few seconds later, he showed his guests what was displayed on the screen. A username, BackToBasics, was already typed in as a default; all that's missing was a password to gain access. "This is the vault you have been looking for."

How the hell did Benji weave out this entire treasure hunting map in the first place? There was never an easy puzzle! Igor Kosoglad sympathized with the trio, witnessing the disenchantment on their faces. They certainly wanted to open this vault so badly.

"Why don't you bring it home with you?" he proposed, detaching the device from the computer and then offered it to the brunette. His mission was complete – secure the vault and personally confer it to the mighty Phoenix. "Take all the time you need to think about it."

Beca stared at the item for a while before she half-heartedly accepted. What's next? A big 'dead end' sign was right around the corner because without the password, it's a futile undertaking. "But I really don't know the password."

"You do," he guaranteed with a persuading grin, feeling almost too confident about it. "Mr. Applebaum assured me that you do."

Somehow, it was some kind of a relief. As it turned out, Beca had the answer after all this time. She just had to find out what it is; maybe sort all the words she knew and had encountered in her lifetime, list them all down on a piece of paper, and weigh in their relevance to the subject matter. That's a start. Not a piece of cake, but a start.

It's 1:38 AM; Fat Amy could barely keep her eyes open. How long had she been staring at the monitor? Times like this that she truly valued the Padawan's attendance. If Jesse was here, she could be sleeping in her room already.

"Pizza!"

Such announcement momentarily woke up her sleepy soul. She wheeled her chair away from the working station to the center table of the Communication Center to meet the boxes of pizza that Aubrey and Stan brought for the crew.

"Take a break," the Posen heiress told the fatigued Australian as she walked over the working station. "I'll take it from here."

Her best friend, finding the opportunity, was keen to approach her. "Uh, Aubrey? Why don't you teach me how to do the monitoring? I mean, you just got back from this big meeting with your dad. You need some rest too."

Skyler who was posted nearby gestured a subtle 'no' behind the redhead's back. It wouldn't be healthy to teach her how to search for her missing girlfriend especially when the monster didn't seem to want to be found like before. It would be like feeding the melancholy that came along with the feeling of presumed abandonment camping out in her chest.

"Oh hi…" Aubrey's voice trailed off as she led her away from the computers. "Uh... why are you still awake? You should be in bed now."

"Come on, I want to help."

"And yes, you're helping… by sticking to the doctors' orders. Beca, when she comes back, would be really happy to know that you've been taking good care of yourself, sweetie."

The skeletal blonde made the mistake of pronouncing the name out loud.

"She's not coming back, is she?" questioned the other, freezing in place. This looked so familiar. This happened before. Beca was just gone,and last time, she had all the intention to never return. A surprise birthday party ruined the plan without meaning to. What's the difference this time?

"Chloe…" was all her best friend could offer. Who knew what was going on in Beca's head?

All of a sudden, the door swung open revealing the unexpected presence of Ronie. She was acknowledged with odd stares; she also wasn't supposed to be in the underground facility that was old Pandemonium.

"What's going on?" she quickly raised the question before they did.

Chloe exhaled rather in exasperation then, in surrender, headed out for the door to leave. "Fine, I'm going home."

"What did you, kids, do to her?"

"Wait! Chloe!" Aubrey was about to go after the redhead when Ronie stopped her immediately, blocking her way to the exit.

"I'll go with her," promised the brunette. "And we will bring some guards. Don't worry."

"Okay," the Posen heiress was convinced. "Thanks."

Ronie hurried to the hallway, scanning the view for a particular reddish shade. She caught a glimpse of the curly hair at the very end of the corridor and so she walked as fast as she could to catch up. It was both exciting and nerve-racking at the same time knowing that she was about to give the young lady a pleasant surprise.

"I take it back! I take it back!" Jesse screamed as the cable car started moving. They would have been back at the hotel with a nice cold beer if it weren't for his constant nagging that he wanted to experience the ride. "I want my feet superglued on the ground! Now! Now! Now!"

"Oh shut your vagina!" Thud shot back at the guy who turned out to be afraid of heights. They should have known since he's scared of everything. "This was your fucking idea."

The only flower among the thorns, meanwhile, ogled silently at the pocket PC device on her hand where the hardware was installed for portable usage. Password, password… what could it be?

"Still got nothing?" Thud's overly manly voice interrupted her thoughts.

Oh there were some things in her mind. Truth was she had come up with this short list of possible candidates that could work as the password. There were phoenix, fidelity, cheatcode, and youwillneverguessthismotherfucker.

"Try 'password'. It could be that easy."

Except that it wasn't.

"It has to be something that only you would know."

Wrestled with the neighbor's family dog and slaughtered it right after when she was four years young and blamed it on her brother - that couldn't be it.

"O-Or something the Syndics wouldn't," Jesse added. It's astounding how he could still be useful through the trembling pair of knees and tiny drops of tears and pins and needles forming on the side of his eyes. "T-That way, even if the vault ends up with them, you know, the treasure would still be out of their reach."

So scratch everything on the list, in short. Damn it. Why did it have to be Benji when it could have been Fat Amy? It would have been a lot easier to guess the password. burritos, and that's it.

Boom. The three of them flew to the right as it felt like the entire planet crumbled. The explosive left an enormous hole on the opposite side and tilted the cable car out of balance much to Jesse's horror. From out of the blue, an abrupt increase of weight on the left lessened the sharp angle. It was X, jumping in from another cable car passing from the reverse lane.

He gripped Beca's hand and attempted to snatch the device away, but she was stronger than she looked apparently, holding on to it with all her might. Thud hurried to render help, but a couple of Syndics jumped into the car in time to restrain him. Gathering whatever was left of his bravery reserves, Jesse hit X's back with his balled fists only to be pushed off the car. Beca let go of the most important tug of war in her life in the spur of the moment, hoping to save her friend from a two hundred-foot fall. Unfortunately, he already made a big splash below as his body crashed into the waters of Keppel Bay. No head popped out afterwards. Not good.

Thud caught X by surprise when he tackled him down, rocking the cable car terribly in effect. The hardware was rolling over the floor, heading towards the unobstructed edge, so Beca speedily dived for it before they'd lose it in the wilderness as well. The strongest Syndic managed to get away from his giant counterpart and hauled the brunette over by her feet. Recomposed, Thud put his arms around him, only to be rammed against the corner. X held the bald head in place and thrashed it against the side of what should have been the door. Left unconscious, the Phoenix lost his sense of control and collapsed off the car, leaving Beca with nobody else to rely on but herself. X drew out his pistol and aimed for her; he fired away and her body synchronized with the shattered debris as they all plummeted into the water. There was no other sign of life other than the blood staining the crystal clear bay.

Chloe set a glass of milk on top of the table and silently joined her girlfriend's mother across the kitchen island; both still clueless as to what to do with their little secret. Maverick held a bacon and egg grilled cheese with both hands and bit a mouthful of it for breakfast. Chewing adorably, he giggled at the two adults standing on guard. They looked too silly for his standards. Anyhow, both produced a small laugh to hide the evident qualms from the child.

"Thanks for letting me stay here forever, Chloe."

The redhead flashed a smug and rapidly nodded her head in affirmation. If the others would ever find out that they - technically, it was just Ronie - stole the kid away from his real family in Baton Rouge, they would hear an earful of it. Excusing themselves, the adults went to the next room for a private conversation.

"So isn't this great?" Ronie grinned at the young woman.

"Ronie," Chloe started. How do you tell your girlfriend's mother that you were not on the same side of the game? "This is so wrong. We have to return him."

"No! I'm not returning him."

"But we don't have the right to keep him away from his family."

"Can't you see how happy he is with us?"

Chloe glimpsed through the small opening at the kid enjoying his meal. He was even humming as he ate. If it wasn't the face of happiness.

"But we can't keep him," she shifted her gaze back at the brunette, frowning. "Really, you have no idea how much I want that kid to stay with us, but we have to drive him back to Louisiana, to his family. That's the right thing to do, you know that."

Defeated, Ronie sighed heavily. Fine, maybe she was being crazy here, but she wasn't about to back down yet. She held the young heiress by the arm and proposed a deal. "Let's go back in there where you can take a look at him. Just look at him. After that, try telling me that you're not on board with this. If it still doesn't change your mind… alright, I'll drive him back home."

"Okay," the other agreed. Bizzare, but it would only seem fair to give it a chance if someone this smart would insist on such thing.

And so they walked back in the kitchen; Chloe quietly watched the kid as arranged. So what was it that she needed to see here exactly? What was it that could ultimately change her view on the matter? There it was; she could see him looking very happy. But it wasn't going to be enough. Nonetheless, she kept looking until she found something that absolutely caught her attention. How could she not have seen it before? Right on the side of his left ear was a bruise. A bruise! The redhead straightened up, feeling uneasy about it. She made a quick scan of the kid, and peeking out of his sleeves were another sets of bruises and scars and... enough! She turned to Ronie questioningly. The brunette already knew. That explained why she stole Maverick away once she had the chance - nobody to could have noticed her disappearance and nobody to could have stopped her before she could do the job.

"I'm calling Kimmy," Chloe listened to herself. "She would know the best family lawyer."

X hopped into the black limousine where the Head Syndic had been waiting. There was no time to ask about how the long flight was; the stolen device was passed on to the boss without further delay. It was put under inspection; BackToBasics plastered on the username box while a password still in the offing.

"What is this, dude?" inquired Bumper. He was after the treasure, not some network account.

"The vault," his Right Hand simply answered.

"Vault?"

"According to the Asian, that vault needs to be cracked open for you to get the treasure."

"Well, do you have the password?"

The colossal figure remained silent. He didn't. If it would help his cause, the mighty Phoenix was clueless also. But it didn't matter. They wanted the treasure, so the password would be necessary.

"And Beca?" Bumper moved on with his list of agenda.

"Dead."

"At least we have that one to celebrate for," smirked the Head. He handed the device over to another Syndic. They had an entire IT department to handle it later on. Bumper took a deep breath and leaned back to his seat, closed his eyes in relaxation when a beeping sound echoed inside the car. His eyes were shut wide open, troubled in realization. "She's here."

"It can't be."

Bumper already had his gun on hand, vigilantly conscious of the surroundings. The beeping noise went on and on; the intervals were growing shorter signalling that their predator was drawing closer to her target. The anticipation was building up faster than the speed of light ending with a loud bam when a white SUV crashed on the side of the limousine, powerfully driving it against its will. The Syndics instinctively fired at the potential danger, emptying their magazines until everything came to a full stop.

Silence and darkness followed. X kicked the door open and was greeted by a cloud of blinding and choking smoke. Guided by the tracking monitor, Bumper led the way to the search for the mighty Phoenix. She couldn't always hide behind her props. They stopped right by where the monitor told them she should be, but all they found was the micro tracker lying on the ground, covered with blood and flesh – so she discovered the tracking device secretly implanted in her forearm.

"Argh!"

As the smoke steered clear, they found the IT staff by the limousine bathing in a pool of blood and the vault no longer in his possession.

"Find them!" Bumper was fuming in anger.

The pack of Syndics scattered out on the busy street, promptly scanning through the landscape of running civilians for familiar faces. They had completely forgotten to check on the adequate space under the cars where people could crawl into. Caught off guard, X was startled to feel a thick metal chain locked around his neck. Thud pulled as hard as he can, never letting go until the last breath of life had slipped away from the other.

Meanwhile, Jesse sprinted towards the white SUV with the hardware on his hand. Bumper went after him, firing at the panic-stricken Phoenix. Beca jumped into the car and pulled her friend in and drove the automobile in reverse to fetch the third member of the small team. Per the Head Syndic's order, the back-up party tailed the runaways.

"Take my gun," Beca told Jesse because she was no longer allowed to kill anyone. "Help Thud."

"What?" his heart exploded. "I can't!"

A truck pestering them on the side interrupted the conversation. A man had a shotgun aimed right at them.

"Swanson!"

No time to deliberate whatsoever, the frightened brunet took Beca's gun and raced to shoot the enemies. Who cared if he used all the loaded cartridges to kill a single person? The other Syndics were stunned anyway. Beca took advantage and pressed on a little to the side before swerving back, causing the enemy car to hurtle into a fire hydrant that burst out a rush of water.

Going against the traffic, the cricket maneuvered through the narrow gaps, avoiding the incoming vehicles honking noisily at them as if to make them disappear. She kept the incredible length of a semi-trailer truck as a shield from two or more Syndic mobiles on the other side. As soon as the truck passed by, the Syndics swerved towards the other lane only to slam into a line of unforeseen permanent bollards. The next car also fell for the trick, stepping on the brake too late; another vehicle collided into the mess and was soon swarmed by fire before exploding in the middle of the road.

"Watch out!"

The white SUV bolted in the air, tilted in a 45 degree-angle after one side passed by a ramp. Caught by the top of a fast approaching truck on the intersection, the car was set into a brisk spin before landing upside down. Thud was the first to get out of the wrecked transit. Ignoring his own injuries, he carefully hauled an unconscious Jesse out while Beca crawled her way out, dragging her almost certainly broken knee. The broken shoulder all the more made it more difficult to stand on her own. It was going to be useless anyway; they were already trapped by a dozen of enemies pointing a weapon at them. Also, Bumper had picked up the vault from the concrete surface.

"So this is how it's going to end," he began, the trademark smirk on the side of his mouth. "I like it, dude."

Beca refused to let him get into her head.

"You know, Phoenix, I just have one question in mind right now. See, if nobody knows what the password is, why would you come all the way here risking your life again to retrieve a good-for-nothing kind of vault?"

But he was easily sliding in, this manipulative bastard.

"You can't open it, I can't open it. There's nothing else we can do but to let the treasure go, right? But perhaps… could it be that you do know the password?"

Her silence only nurtured such suspicion.

"I will kill you tonight, Phoenix. That's going to happen. Well, because you never ceased to amaze me, I'll be merciful man and give you the chance to leave a legacy."

We're all gonna die anyway. It's just a matter of purpose. It's possible. She would die, but The Secret Society would still have the chance to recover the treasure from the Syndics so long as she could crack the vault open. That could work, so here she was about to strike a deal with the devil once more, although this time around, she wasn't going to let Bumper win.

"The password is-"

"No!" Thud exclaimed as he made an attempt to attack the Head Syndic only to be shot down by his puppets. "No… No…"

Beca threw a death glare at the mastermind. "Nobody else has to die."

"Sure," grinned the other mockingly. "Your death alone will be an ample satisfaction."

She glanced at her two fallen soldiers, weakly lying on their stomach, waiting for grim reaper's verdict. And it was her fault that they were put under such misery. This had to end here. She turned to Bumper, face as vacant as a blank canvas. "Home."

"Home?"

"That's the password."

Home. It's something the Syndics was never aware of. Home. It just made the perfect sense. Find home and you'll find the treasure. That's the goal, all this time. And only Beca was privileged to receive such hint when Benji left the note to Ronie. Everything, all of these, was part of his plan.

Helpless, she watched Bumper raised the device to his view, tapped on the corresponding keys with intent care. h-o-m-e. All that's left to do was to press Enter. And he did. He'd won. The only problem was there was no treasure. The screen was pitch black. He typed in the wrong password, and so the treasure was gone forever. So was Beca's legacy.

"You-"

Gunfire filled the atmosphere in full chorus. One by one, the Syndics fell dead on the ground, leaving their ruler to watch his empire collapse into ruins. He dropped on his knees, tears clouding his vision. He was the only one left, and he was empty with a treasure lost.

"The police are running late," CR approached her predecessor. She drew another gun, fully-loaded, and presented it to her while she looked on the dazed McDouglas. "Do the honors, Mitchell."

However, the brunette simply nodded towards the two fallen Phoenixes and started to limp away. She told them she was done, right? No more killing, as her favorite ladybug would say. They could capture Bumper and torture him to death, it didn't concern her anymore (although, if Lilly was alive she would have enjoyed that part.) The game was finally over.

"Where have you been, kiddo?" her brother welcomed her back, disregarding the whole point of being a gentleman and offered nothing to aid the limping and twitching in pain. She was suffering from cuts and bruises and lacerations, by the way. "You got us all worrying about you!"

"Where's Chloe?" was her only response.

Caught unprepared by the completely different topic, Stan stammered, "Uh… s-she's at her house, I think. Mom's with her, I think."

"Thanks."

It was like no mayhem ever happened. It was as if she was leisurely crossing the street on an ordinary day with her eyes fixed on something she found interesting. Never mind that the remaining few civilians in the area was staring at her, scared and curious at the same time; all her attention was rendered on the nearby flower shop. There was an entire basket of roses as red as the painted lips of a seductive bitch. Maybe it was the universe telling her one important message.

"How much is this, sir?" she politely asked, her heart set on one beautiful long-stemmed rose.

He seemed to have swallowed his tongue at first until he saw the green bandana tied around her arm, applying the needed pressure to contain the bleeding after she cut herself to remove the implanted tracking device.

"Consider it a gift," he answered. Good, because as it turned out, she had no money to pay for it. Perhaps, Rem would always be her cheat code.

The quiet cricket soundlessly closed the front door behind her. She could see the flashes of light coming from the living room. Chloe must be in there. But when she reached the place, she found her mother and Maverick in deep sleep; a cartoon show on mute. She wasn't even going to question the kid's presence here. She fixed the messy blanket over the pair and switched the TV off. She checked on every room for the redhead and found all of it clear. Bedroom, she finally figured.

Beca stood by the closed door, holding on to her free single-stemmed rose. Her hand was about to reach for the knob when that annoying little voice came eroding her faith once more. Her heart is no place for a monster like you. Suddenly, she couldn't do it. She couldn't go in as the horrible monster that she was, afraid that such monster would constantly hurt the love of her life. The trace of mighty Phoenix was still all over her being. Who was she kidding? It wasn't over until the mission was accomplished. Sighing heavily, she reached for her pocket, retrieving her communication device with more than half of the screen already cracked from all the previous action. She pressed a button and so it lit up; BackToBasics was on default, waiting for the goddamn password once and for all.

She knew what the password was, truth be. And she knew it wasn't home. It was just a clue. Yes, it's something the Syndics would never figure out. Yes, only Beca would know. For what it's worth, Benji had predicted this love story even before it happened. So if he meant only the mighty Phoenix to find the treasure, the password would rightfully be something personal to her. Find home and you'll find the treasure. It was Chloe. Chloe was the only treasure she needed. Without realizing, she had been guarding the vault all this time. And yes, she did happen to know the password by heart. It was the same as the passcode to Chloe's old room, 9-4-2-1-4.

She pressed on Enter, and as she had expected, the password worked. A brief congratulatory note flashed on the screen, followed by a dialog box where hundreds of billions of dollars just one click away to be utilized. But it wasn't her business anymore, right? So she tossed the device away and ultimately walked into the room.

The brightness of the walls was radiating despite of the darkness. There's Chloe, her back facing Beca. Nevertheless, the brunette limped towards the bedside table, replacing the wilted rose with the fresh one. It was her symbol for vindication, for a brand new life ahead. She kicked off her shoes and wore off her jacket – it was damaged beyond repair anyway – and slowly climbed into the bed.

"I'm home."

Still fully awake, the redhead turned around to face her girlfriend. Chloe gasped at the sight of an injured face, reflexively placing her hand on the wounds as if it could magically heal them. Well, the touch was kind of a relief for the brunette; that even though she could never truly deserve her, Chloe still had loved her just the same.

"What happened?"

"Nothing." Which meant there was a whole lot of event that did happen. "I found the treasure."

"Really? Where?"

Beca kissed Chloe's hand pressed upon her cheek. "Right here."

"Oh you…" the redhead giggled she could actually cry.

"Close your eyes."

Without question, the other did as she was told.

"Now do you still see all those terrible things? All those unhappy memories?"

There was a small nod in response.

"What if I try to make them all go away? What if I try to make one great memory while you close your eyes? But my childhood wasn't the best, so I might screw this up."

"Fair warning."

So how was she going to do it to begin with? Beca had no idea what she got herself into, finding herself clasped Chloe's hands as she stared at the angelic face for a while. She still couldn't believe it, the fact that she was hers and only hers. It's crazy. But fucking awesome. This, and nothing else, was everything she never even thought she wanted. This crazy little called love rudely jumped in and swept her off of her feet. The memory of that night, that particular night when it scared her to realize that she was falling for this redhead.

[We watch the season pull up its own stakes
And catch the last weekend of the last week.]

She could hear the song in her head. It's like they were standing side by side again in the majestic hall like an imperfectly perfect pair of wallflowers.

[You have stolen my heart.
You have stolen my heart.]

And there's the same urge to kiss those lips. It's like a pull of gravity with no escape. It was sweet and gentle and romantic, the kiss. It felt exactly like the very first time. Well, maybe it could be another first time.

"Marry me," whispered Beca. It wasn't a question.

The smile on Chloe's lips, bit by bit, disappeared; her eyes took their time to flutter open in utter surprise. Did she hear it right or had she been dreaming things all along?

"I made a little research," added the person who used to have the reputation of never settling down. "There are 19 states and 13 other countries to choose from, plus Mexico. I'll go wherever you go. Just… if you let me, I love you so much, Chloe, I'd love to spend the rest of my life trying to make all your nightmares go away. And basically fall in love with you over and over each day. I swear I'm not lying."

Chloe couldn't help but chuckle at the last sentence. It didn't matter. She believed the cricket anyway. Grabbing hold of Beca's face, breathing in the same air as the other, she pulled her face in for one long kiss. "Yes."

The End of Vindicated

I don't know why, but since the beginning, that's how I've always pictured the very last scene. Maybe I'm so much of a cliffhanger fan, but I strangely felt resolved with it (especially while I had the Stolen piano cover of Nuetful on the background). So... that's it, crickets. For the curtain call, I just want to say how much I'm going to miss this story and the characters. Seriously. And I'm going to miss you too, dudes and dudettes. I hope to see you all on my next projects. You've all been amazing, thanks for joining me once more in this incredible journey! Love, thesecretsociety.