A/N: You all have permission to slap me at least once for every day that I failed to post, since my last update. Go ahead. Right cheek? Left cheek? Go!

Alright, after you're done with that, please hear me out. I just finished my exams, and my marks haven't been very satisfactory, at least, for me it isn't. So, it took me a while to write this, because on certain days, I just felt like crap. This is by far, the longest chapter I've even written, and I hope it answers questions and it is somewhat fulfilling for you, my dear readers. As this is the last chapter, I've tried my best to make this an exciting chapter, and I do hope that it is! Reviews would be amazing, but I'm content with reads (: Thanks for sticking through this story, and just to let you know, there will be an epilogue to come! Oh, and it would definitely help if you re-read the previous chapters, cause I definitely had to...

theprincess1511 has come through for me yet again, and has helped me so much with this chapter! Also, mhyj has helped with some ideas in this story as well! (She'll be posting her story soon!)

"INTERSECT!" She screamed, her voice cracking slightly as her lungs burned with each syllable that escaped her lips, hoping that Chuck would be able to hear her past the heavy metal doors that separated the room from the hallways.

Her arm throbbed achingly as she tore a piece of her shirt off and wrapped it tightly around the gunshot wound. Sarah winced as the pain developed from a burning sensation into a full blown inferno in a matter of seconds as the makeshift bandage acted as a tourniquet that applied pressure on the wound and eventually stemmed the bleeding.

"You alright, Walker?" Casey asked, to which she replied with a weak nod, as a stray bullet sailed past them and made a faint imprint on the wall adjacent to them. Casey and Koh immediately sprung into action as they began firing in random directions, eager to hunt some hiding cowards in the shadows.

Obviously, the other Ring agents did not entertain the idea of going against their former trainer and sensei, Agent Koh. Unlike Casey's case with Ty Bennett, these agents weren't afraid of disrespecting their senior agents. They were simply afraid of the Chinese secret agent, having witnessed her amazing potential firsthand. She was a force not to be reckoned with, and they were all well aware of that.

Another reason was probably since their former superior, Diane Beckman, whose wing many were under, laid in a bloody pool on the ground in plain sight – the result of two bullet wounds to the chest and head, courtesy of Koh, who had immediately retaliated after Beckman had fired the first shot.

Almost as if the entire battle had been planned out in detail and was being performed with near perfection, a full-scale gun-war had been initiated, and the three agents were pinned down under heavy gunfire. Unseen agents perched on the upper levels of the huge room that was meant to house the Ring leaders, began to open fire on the agents, as they moved swiftly from place to place on the ground, scattered around like panicked ants in the rain – professional, trained super ants, that is.

The dim fluorescent bulbs that hung above the heavy metal door – the only entrance and exit to the room for the ground level – were the only lights that illuminated the pitch black darkness. The echoes that sounded throughout the room, were proof that it was a big room – huge, in fact. As Koh, Casey and Sarah deftly dodged bullets, their guns were aimed high and firing at precise spots where they thought the assailants were.

The tactic was highly impractical and ammo-wasting, but they had no choice but to do just that, if they wanted to live. Several lucky shots resulted in bodies falling from their perches, but there were simply too many agents firing at them, and they were forced to raise their white flag, lest they were content with bullets in their brains.

The enemy operatives approached with extreme caution – Koh still had a gun in her hand, but truth was, she had a maximum of two magazines left. She still had the blazing look on her face; the face that could spell demise for any living being that crossed her path. Casey and Sarah felt like trainee agents as they fought by her side, and they decided that if Koh felt that they should surrender, they would do just that.

"Run."

Koh snatched Sarah's gun away, and lifted her own. In the span of a few seconds, all guns were aimed at her, and her guns were firing on their own accord. Enemy agents fell to the floor with bullets to their brains, as blood stained the cold marble floor. Koh yelled for Casey and Sarah to run, as she pushed them toward the huge metal door, allowing her to lose focus momentarily as a bullet penetrated her thigh. She grimaced in pain, crying out at the splitting pain that shot up her leg.

Yanking open the heavy door with as much force that she could muster with one hand, she pushed the two agents of Team Chuck out the door, and slammed it shut, while simultaneously taking down more agents.

"No!" Sarah screamed, as the distinct sound of a lock being activated could be heard clearly as the metal screeched – Koh had bolted the door on the other side. Sarah punched the metal futilely while Casey tried his best to restrain her. The sound of gunshots increased with as seconds passed, and stopped abruptly when a sickly thud was heard, signalling a lone body falling to the floor.

"Control yourself, Walker! Agent Koh sacrificed herself for us, and we are not going to simply sit here and let her efforts go to waste!" Casey chastised his CIA partner; he was always one to admire self-sacrifice and bravery.

Sarah nodded, and grabbed one of Casey's guns from his waistband.

"Time to find Chuck," she declared, before bolting down the hallway, followed closely behind by Casey.

"Oh, wrong room, sorry about that!" Chuck whispered, as he walked into yet another room with resting Ring operatives in them. He shut the door softly and tiptoed away from the room, while making sure that the enemy operatives remained sound asleep.

"Find help, find help, gotta save Sarah and Casey!" Chuck reminded himself, his promise to Sarah long forgotten.

Once out of earshot, Chuck sprinted down the hallway, praying earnestly that he wouldn't run into any other agents. But unfortunately, Chuck had the worst luck humanely possible.

Two burly, severely pissed off men rounded the corner, just in time for Chuck to run straight into their heavily armored bodies. For a moment, time seemed to slow down, as the three bodies collided together, propelling Chuck backwards, and sprawling him flat on the cold, marble tiled floor.

"Ahhh!" Chuck yelled in pain, as his chest ached from the painful and forceful collision. Noticing that the two men were approaching him, guns in hand, he figured that the best way to keep his life was to play dead. Right as the agents stepped within a foot of him, he pulled out his tranquilizer gun, and proceeded to impale each Ring agent with at least ten sleeping darts each.

Soon, the two agents were curled up on the ground, fast asleep with their thumbs in their mouths. Chuck took a moment to smile at his handiwork. He grinned a grin so evil, that even Fulcrum would've been proud, as he stripped the agents of their clothes and dressed himself with all their gear including a helmet that hid most of his face, although he decided to leave their weapons be. After he strapped on his bulletproof vest, he reloaded the tranquilizer gun, placing the remaining ammo into a pouch that hung on his waistband and was easily accessible. He then continued his trek through the stupid labyrinth that he had gotten lost in so many times before, trusty tranq in hand and humming the 'Mission Impossible' theme song softly out loud.

Wearing his trademark Chuck Taylor's proved to be a liability, as with every step, the rubber squeaked loudly against the polished granite floor. He decided that he couldn't afford to have enemy agents running after him with every step, and chucked the Chucks, holding them with one hand, while the other gripped the tranquilizer gun.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing down here?!"

Chuck whipped his head around, to spot at least four guards heading his way. Thinking on his feet, he flung the handheld Converses into the air, which amazingly, slapped two of the agents in the face and forced them to the floor. Chuck lifted his other arm and shot at least two darts into the two remaining Ring agents, when a shot rang out. He flew backwards as the full force of the bullet rammed into his vest – which was, of course, bulletproof.

A resounding grunt echoed through the corridor; a grunt that was vaguely familiar. Quickly finding the strength to remove the obstructing helmet, he recognized the agents who were now recovering from their battle with a converse shoe.

"Sarah? Casey?" He managed, still coughing from the impact of the bullet on his chest, as he eyed the familiar faces of his handlers, except both of them had red shoe prints on their cheeks.

"Chuck!" Sarah's eyes brightened noticeably as she ran up to hug him tightly. "Oh God, I shot you… I'm so sorry!" She apologized, ripping open his shirt to remove the bullet from his vest. Chuck's cheeks burned a crimson red, as he re-buttoned it.

"Good job, Bartowski. You ready for a real gun yet?" Casey teased as he retrieved his confiscated gun and put bullets into the slumbering Ring agents who had previously captured them. Grabbing Sarah's gun as well, he tossed it to her effortlessly. He also picked up the two ring agent's massive guns for extra precaution.

"Thanks for keeping your promise, Chuck." Sarah smiled gently, as Chuck massaged the sore spot where the bullet had barely broken skin.

Casey cleared his throat when Chuck and Sarah's exchange of smiles became slightly uncomfortable for him, jerking the two lovebirds out of their own little Chuck and Sarah world.

"Get your ass moving, Bartowski. We need to get out of here." Casey stated firmly, eliciting brief nods from Sarah and Chuck.

Pulling Chuck off the ground with one hand, Sarah held on for a second longer than necessary, before the three took off, yet again, trying to find an exit.

"Sarah! You're hurt…" Chuck's voice cracked with concern, as he spotted the bloody makeshift bandage around Sarah's arm. Sarah smiled and shook her head, "it's fine Chuck, it's not the first time I've been shot."

Without warning, Chuck flashed violently as he came across the familiar blue glowing symbol on the wall. It was Agent Winnie Koh's room. Only then did he realize that Koh was no where to be seen. Stopping abruptly as the flash brought a blinding pain in his head, he knelt down, attempting to absorb the abnormally huge rush of information into his brain.

Casey and Sarah stared in horror, as their asset began writhing around on the ground, gasps and grimaces of pain escaping his lips. His hands wrapped themselves around his head as he muttered, "Koh… Intersect… She knew…"

"Casey, help me get him into this room, quick!" Sarah picked up his feet, as Casey grabbed under his arms. Together, they hauled him into Koh's former room. The room was large – enough to keep a bed, a desk, dresser, and a weapons closet, which occupied nearly half of the room. Placing Chuck gently down on the bed, his fits of pain failed to subside. Sarah kneeled down next to the bed, and held his hand in a tight grip.

"Do you think it's a relapse from his injuries?" Casey asked, worry present in his voice – although he'd never admit that he was actually concerned for the nerd.

Sarah shook her head, "He flashed, I saw it."

"What did he say about Koh? He said she knew that he was the Intersect?"

Sarah jumped slightly as Chuck jerked forward violently, coughing and retching onto the bedsheets. He fell backwards onto the pillow, and went very still.

"Did he die?"

Sarah glared daggers at Casey, who shrugged nonchalantly.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Check his pulse."

Sarah sighed, rolled her eyes, and placed two fingers right below his jaw, eagerly searching for his heartbeat, just for good measure. Her fingers jumped with joy as she felt the rhythmic thumping of his heart, and she briefed a sigh of relief.

"Chuck?" Sarah whispered miserably, her hand caressing his face, and heart pleading for him to wake up.

"Walker, I think you'd better see this."

Sarah stood up and whirled to find Casey absent from the room. She walked towards the sound of his voice, which was strangely coming from behind the mirror. She figured that she should do something vaguely intelligent, and knocked on the reflective glass. Immediately, the mirror detached itself from the wall, and opened a passage through the wall, where Casey currently stood, awestruck at the sight of hundreds of blocks of C-4 stacked together.

Sarah, too, was struck dumb by the sheer amount of explosives that had been stored in Koh's secret room. Casey rubbed his thumb over a smooth metal shaft that he clutched in his hand.

"Casey, that's not a –"

"Yes, it's a dead man's switch." He replied, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. A loud groan caused Sarah to bolt back into the room, back to Chuck's side.

"Sarah?" Chuck cried out, he struggled to open his eyes, eyelids fluttering wildly.

"I'm here, Chuck, are you alright?" she asked, concern etched in every aspect of her voice. His eyes finally cracked open, as his swirling pools of chocolate peered into turquoise ones. A smile lit up on his face, as he realized that his hand was in hers, grasped tightly, as if he were her lifeline.

"My… my head, it was burning… It was so painful." He sat up on his elbows, looking from Sarah to Casey, and back to Sarah. His eyes widened, "Where's Koh? Why wasn't she with us?" He asked, looking around the room.

Sarah took on a pained expression while she recounted Koh's earlier heroics to him, all the while facing the floor. Chuck deflated visibly, and so did Casey. The Chinese agent had really left an impact on them.

"She knew I was the Intersect. She edited the Chinese symbol, and it unlocked something in the damn computer. I don't know what she did, but it told me details –

Details about her plan, her bomb," he explained, grimacing from the splitting migraine that he had.

His eyes drifted to Casey's clutched hand, and the silver tube in it. Jumping out of bed, he sprung over to where Casey stood, leaning against the wall.

"That's it! That's the detonator! She has a whole stash of C-4 behind the mirror, and she was on a suicide mission. She spent 5 years gathering the C-4, not wanting to attract attention to herself when she brought the explosives in. She was going to blow the place to the high heavens…" he trailed off, amazed at Koh's astounding perseverance.

"And that's what we're going to do. But first, we need to get out of here."

Casey reached for the door, but retreated backwards and hid behind the door, as Marshall Kiley, the leader of the Ring stepped into the room, flanked by four armed guardsmen.

"I'm sorry, am I interrupting something?" he sneered at them, failing to notice that Casey was safely hidden from view.

"You," Marshall pointed at Chuck. "Why are you still alive?" He paused to glare at his guards, and spat through gritted teeth, "Why is he still alive?"

Chuck spoke to one of the guards, "He really wants me dead, doesn't he?" Shaking his head, he spoke again, trying his best to stall them, "do you ever get tired of this?"

But the guards were expressionless stoic super soldiers with no sense of conscience, and they raised their firearms on Marshall's command. Chuck was marveled at the amount of authority that the man had on his men. Marshall couldn't have been any older than thirty, and yet, he controlled legions of agents that would probably form a human shield around him if the situation demanded it.

His dirty blonde hair didn't help to promote fear much, but it made him look like the young, over-ambitious type of rich man's son – handsome, smart, and pure evil. And judging by the success of the Ring, it was a completely legitimate ambition that he had chosen.

"Why are you doing this?" Sarah asked, anger seeping into her voice.

Marshall raised his hand, and his men lowered their guns. Instead, they split themselves into pairs. Two men stood behind Chuck, tying his hands with rope, while the two that stood behind Sarah did the same. They then returned back to Marshall, once again aiming their guns at Chuck and Sarah.

"Why am I doing this?" Marshall repeated, an expression of pure hatred quickly blossoming on his face. "How about, because my parents abandoned me when I was a kid, for their jobs at the company… how about that?"

"How about, because I had to grow up without a dad or a mum, because they were somewhere in the world assassinating someone, instead of being at home, spending time with their son… Is that a good enough reason for you?" Marshall began to laugh, as tears began to fall from his eyes. He channeled his pent up anger into chortles and soon, his booming laughter began to escalate.

"I saw my parents get killed, right in my own home, by their own agents, when they tried to leave the CIA…" He hissed through clenched teeth, as tears continued their way down his cheeks. "I hate espionage. I fucking hate you bloody spies!"

He took a moment to compose himself, retreating behind his calm and collected mask. He shifted his head from left to right, cracking it in the process, and very coolly wiped the tears away with the back of his hand.

"I thought… what if there were no more spies in the world? What if I wiped them all out, one by one? That way, only the best spies would remain and you have to admit, we are the best." Marshall grinned smugly, the previous five minutes completely forgotten in his eyes.

Chuck felt a slight tugging in his chest for the man who stood before him – the man who held his fate in his hand; the man who could very well spell his death. But beneath that façade was an angry and broken soul, someone who was stunted from the love any child should have been given. For the ever emotional and feeling Chuck, he couldn't help but have an inkling of pity for the man in front of him.

Chuck understood what Marshall was going through, with his own mother's departure and his dad's eventual disappearance. Somewhere deep inside Marshall, was the same lost and unloved child that had witnessed the death of his parents, scarred by their seemingly negligent attitude for him and their attachment to their jobs as secret agents. Clearly he had never experienced the care and love of a sister such as Ellie, and Chuck knew that he would never have made it without her.

"Sir, we just recovered Agent Koh's body from the Elder's room." A helmetless soldier walked into the room, informing his boss of the current situation. Chuck immediately flashed upon seeing his face, and had no problem recognizing the right-hand man of Marshall's, Miles Nathanson.

Something was off about Marshall, however, as his face slipped into a mask of pain, before he recovered himself. To an unobservant eye, it would seem as if Marshall was simply twitching his features, but Chuck recognized that face, as did Sarah, Casey and even Miles. It was pain; deep, excruciating and agonizing pain.

It didn't take long for Chuck to figure out that the leader of the Ring had been in love with Agent Koh.

"You loved her…" Chuck breathed, his voice barely audible in the silence that engulfed the room. Marshall's eyes flickered briefly to Chuck, his face, a pale resemblance of what it had been not five minutes ago.

"You were in love with her and you ambushed her!" He finally found the voice to yell fiercely, but he was treated with a hard slap to the face. Sarah squirmed in her place, feeling like she had been slapped herself.

"I didn't ambush her!" Marshall roared into Chuck's face. His voice immediately softened. "She… She wasn't supposed to be there. I didn't know she was working with your team."

"But she was trying to infiltrate the Ring, like we were. You stopped her from doing that, didn't you?"

Marshall signalled for his men to exit the room, and sighed when Miles stubbornly refused to leave with the rest of the agents. A silent exchange went on between the Ring's two top agents, and Chuck and Sarah sat nervously, unsuccessfully tugging on the tightly knotted ropes that bounded them to their chairs.

With eye contact established with Casey, who had earlier immersed himself in hiding behind the door, Sarah began to saw on the rope with the knife that she kept in between her waistband. As the ropes loosened around her wrists, she shot a subtle look at Casey, and their silent ten second countdown began.

As their mental timers went off inside the crevices of their minds, Casey leaped out from behind the door, catching Marshall off guard, and successfully head-butted him into the wall. Sarah, on the other hand, engaged Miles in hand-to-hand combat, using the remainders of the rope to her advantage.

Dodging a blow to the head, Sarah could understand why Marshall had picked Miles to be his second-in-command. The man was a tactical genius, always dodging her blows and countering her every step, just by observing her style of fighting. If she concentrated on him well enough, she could see his eyes following her flurry of limbs whenever she advanced on him, deflecting them with ease. She knew exactly what he was doing. It was a good method of fighting – always let your opponent do all the work. All he had been doing was to deflect her blows, and he never overstepped the imaginary line between them to squeeze in an attack or two. It also didn't help that Sarah was fighting with a wounded arm.

In a matter of minutes, Sarah was tiring, limbs already aching from her continuous straining, and bruises from where Miles had forcefully deflected her arms and legs with his fist. In the corner of her eye, she could see Casey struggling to keep up with Marshall's amazing agility as the Ring agent encircled him with his punches.

Her loss of focusness allowed Miles to land a hard punch to her jaw, causing her to cry out in pain and stagger backwards like a drunkard. Blood trickled from her lip, and she felt a dull ache from the blackening area around her jaw where a bruise was already forming. Closing her eyes for a second or two, she opened them to an unusual sight. Miles was already on the floor, unconscious, and the remains of a broken chair rested on the ground beside him.

Chuck Bartowski stood by the side, a smug look on his face and hand clutching a wooden slab so tightly that his knuckles turned white. He offered her a dazzling smile and one of his slender hands which she accepted gratefully. As Chuck aided her in tying Miles' body up, she noticed that Casey was also busy hog-tying a slightly groggy Marshall, whose nose and mouth were leaking blood.

"Nice one, Bartowski," Casey commented as he tied the last knot, ensuring that Marshall couldn't move a muscle even if he tried.

"Hmm… Maybe I should tie you up whenever we tell you to stay in the car."

"Don't get any ideas, Casey!" Chuck replied with a huff, folding his arms at the older man, who simply shrugged, while Sarah let out a little laugh.

Marshall, who was still partially conscious, growled and struggled against his bonds. He eventually gave up, and laid completely still on the ground. A soft sobbing echoed through the room, and Chuck's head snapped towards his teammates. When he finally deduced that his partners were, in fact, not crying or sobbing, his eyes roamed towards the restrained leader of the Ring, coiled up on the dirty ground.

His eyes darted nervously to Sarah and Casey, while both their eyes told him only one message, "We're spies, not babysitters". Chuck let out a deep sigh, and immediately squatted down so that he was slightly levelled with Marshall. Patting the agent on his head, he comforted him with a tentative smile, "Hey, it's alright, I mean, you could go to the NSA bunker… it's supposed to be great! I mean, I was even offered a spot there! We could be roomies if you'd like."

Marshall snarled at him, and squirmed around even more. The sight reminded Chuck of Peaches 2, when they had first purchased the beloved Springer Spaniel. Peaches the Second, duly named after the original Peaches had "run away", had almost bitten his hand off when a ten-year-old Chuck had first tried to pat him on the head.

Casey reached into his pocket and held the dead man's switch tightly in his hand, making sure that his finger never came close to pressing the switch down. Sarah stood beside him, an expression of anxiety in full bloom. Chuck's eyes widened with each passing moment, as the decision had to be made. One of them had to stay behind to push the button, and destroy the entire base of operations, along with their self. It was simply inevitable.

"I'll stay behind." The three of them spoke in unison, bravery marked on their hearts.

"No, Chuck, you can't."

"Yeah, Bartowski, you're too 'valuable'." Casey emphasized the last word with air quotes.

"Well, too bad, cause I am!" Chuck snatched the dead man's switch from Casey's hand and ran a slight distance from Casey himself.

"Chuck!" Sarah glared with such force that his lower lip quivered, and for a split second, he almost relented.

"Bartowski, if you don't get your ass back here this second, I'll make you eat the damn switch!" Casey growled in anger.

"What difference does that make? I'm still the one who's dying!" Chuck retorted, feeling his wall of bravery suddenly tumble down.

"Chuck, where is all this coming from? Why won't you just listen to us?"

"I don't know! I mean, I'm the one who dragged you guys into this, I should've just refused Marshall's offer in the first place." Chuck sighed, exasperated.

"I'll do it."

The faint whisper came from the floor, which took all three of them by surprise. Chuck's eyes grew wide with shock, as Marshall rolled onto his back. His eyes were bloodshot, and his expression forlorn.

"Give it to me, I'll do it." Marshall called again from the ground, completely deadpanned.

"No." Casey said immediately, as did Sarah. "We all know that he's not even going to push the damn button."

With one look at the wrecked person on the floor, Chuck decided to speak up, recalling Marshall's earlier rant and feeling the familiar tugging of pity in his chest. "Hey, guys? Maybe we should hear it from him."

Marshall looked up expectantly at Chuck, fresh tears glistening in his already red-stained eyes, a silent word of thanks screaming in the gesture. Marshall drew in a shaky breath, preparing himself for the speech that would take him through the darkest alleys of his life.

"When I first met Winnie Koh, we were both seasoned agents working together on an operation in Singapore. We were supposed to find an escaped terrorist and we were working together for a while. We found him trying to swim across to Malaysia, and that was about a year after he had escaped. I was NSA, and she was MSS but this guy was threatening international security, and we were called in to aid the Singapore forces in re-capturing him." Marshall paused, taking in a few deep breaths.

"She was… the most amazing person I'd ever met." Marshall smiled in reminiscence of his deceased girlfriend, breathlessly ending the sentence.

"I asked her to join the Ring. We were the founders, and we trained together for years. That was until I began to fund Fulcrum, and before I started straying from our formal plan of "saving the world". She broke up with me, but she stayed on to train the agents that I recruited." Tears were cascading down his cheeks now as the resonating ache in his heartless chest continued to worsen.

"I knew that she would rebel someday. It was in her headstrong nature." He smirked. "I wasn't going to let her destroy everything that we built up. But I wasn't going to let her die like that, she wasn't supposed to die." His fists clenched unintentionally.

"Please, just… give me the switch. A world without her…it just isn't a world that's worth living in for me," he pleaded, eyes once again filling up with tears. Chuck was on the receiving end of his gaze, and in Marshall's golden orbs, he saw pain; deep incredible pain.

"Give him the switch, Casey." Chuck spoke, his voice laced with pure sympathy for the Ring agent. Casey looked toward him in shock.

"Bartowski, tell me you aren't believing this crap?" Casey spoke through gritted teeth.

"Casey, I understand that you are an unfeeling asshole, but you have no idea what love is. And this," he gestured towards Marshall. "This is love. And if I've lost someone who meant the world to me, I'm not sure how I could survive too." Chuck's eyes darted towards Sarah, who had a ghost of a smile on her lips as she caught his gaze on her.

Casey gave a typical grunt, but it was an unrecognized one. It struck Chuck as more of a whine than a grunt, but it was an unidentified grunt that Chuck decided to name the "I-don't-want-to-do-this-but-I'm-actually-doing-this-and-don't-know-why" grunt. Casey handed their fate – in the shape of a cylindrical metal tube – to Marshall, who closed his eyes tightly, letting more tears fall.

"I'll press this in exactly five minutes, get out of here." Marshall looked up at Team Chuck with shining eyes that spelt the never-ending thanks that he wished to express.

Just as they were about to exit the room, Chuck paused in the doorway, straining his neck to face Marshall again.

"I'm sorry for your loss, man. She was a great girl." Chuck was treated to a genuine smile from Marshall.

"That, she was." The restrained agent breathed, revelling in the fact that he would be with her in a matter of minutes.

"Oh, and, how do we actually get out of here?" Chuck asked nervously, fearful that he would be pushing Marshall too hard.

"Just run straight. I designed the place so that if you kept going straight for long enough, you'd be out. Everyone else would typically go through doors and stuff. No one runs straight." If Marshall could shrug, he would have. Chuck thanked him and wished him well, patting him lightly on thee head before darting out of the room.

True to his word, Chuck, Casey and Sarah found themselves surrounded by sand and withering shrubs in a matter of minutes after travelling down the oh-so-familiar corridors of the underground complex. They were above ground now, and it so happened that night had fallen. Finding the familiar jeep that Chuck had been confined into hours earlier, the three agents drove until they ran out of road – which was basically downtown LA – with Casey at the wheel. After a few seconds of driving, spirals and pillars of orange flames shot up into the sky like fireworks, accompanied by a deafening explosion that rendered all of their ears temporarily deaf.

Chuck clasped Sarah's tightly in his own, as she rested her head on his shoulder and his head on hers. The flames that rocketed into the sky illuminated their road, and Chuck could swear that he saw two figures rising through the flames, eventually disappearing into the night sky.

Thank you so much for reading!

Venillashiz(: