Just a little one-shot on how I would have written the very end of the season 2 finale (Chuck vs. the Ring), instead of the way the show did. No betas this time. I'm just shooting from the hip on my alternate ending. We join the story most of the way through Chuck vs. the Ring, in the Intersect room.

"Who are you?" Sarah's question was tinged with just a bit of awe. The man, the ex-Marine that Casey once thought he knew, truly was fantastic at what he did.

"Spies, Agent Walker." A ghost of a smile crossed his face. "The best." He raised his gun and pointed it squarely between Sarah's eyes.

At that instant, Chuck felt a sensation which was both familiar and disconcertingly different, in a truly nauseating kind of way. Some blocked-off part of his brain was feeding his conscious mind data – a flooding rush of sensations which was less random but harder to process than his earlier flashes. Despite his very recent promise to himself to not let flashes show physically, the impact of the new flash was like a boxer's punch. He couldn't stop the brief period of disorientation or the slight quiver which buckled his knees.

One of the men forming a ring of guns around him noticed the slight change. Though he wasn't the only one to notice, he was the first to speak. "Sir, you should look at this."

Sarah, more intimately familiar with Chuck's mannerisms, recognized the symptoms immediately, even though they were subtly different. "Chuck," she nearly whispered, though it was clearly audible throughout the room, "did you just flash?" Her voice was laden with emotions. Was it fear that the intersect wipe hadn't worked properly? Awe of the danger he'd put himself in with a new intersect? Disappointment that her visions of a normal life were now as shattered as Chuck's had been? Even she didn't really know, at that exact moment.

Everyone took a quick breath while the enemy leader finished his walk back to the men surrounding Chuck. Chuck himself was thinking furiously, trying to ascertain why the Intersect had provided him with schematics to the room they were now in. What possible good could it do? His mind was racing, knowing that he, Casey, and Sarah would be joining Bryce in moments if he didn't act quickly and correctly. A sudden inspiration had him glaring piercingly at his erstwhile handlers, shutting his eyes tightly and willing them to understand.

"He uploaded it." The Ring's spy spoke again. The implications were obvious to everyone. The man's tone gave no clue as to his thoughts about the matter, however.

Casey captured the moment as only he could, though his eyes were now firmly shut. "Oh, Chuck me."

"Kill him." Apparently the Ring needed a living Intersect less than FULCRUM or the CIA/NSA did. If it weren't for the already-crushing level of terror pressing on him, that fact alone would have made Chuck whimper.

Chuck's eyes furtively took in the men around him, their overlapping angles of attack and the presence of his body as the only shield preventing them from shooting each other. His eyes opened wider as a thought hit him. In a fraction of a moment, Chuck was typing on his wrist supercomputer. He plunged to the ground as the room plunged into complete darkness.

Most rooms would have had multiple sources of light beyond the direct and omnipresent light from windows or from overhead lights. Reflections from other rooms, LEDs on electronics, or even starlight spilling in would normally have provided some light by which to see. Not so in this room. The Intersect room was as tightly sealed as a spacecraft, with the additional precautions of being completely electromagnetically separated from the outside world. The darkness that fell was the darkness of a deep cave, completely untouched by any glow.

A shot rang out, followed by an exclamation of pain. The Ring's spy called out "Block the exits! No one gets out. Take them out hand-to-hand." These words muffled the nearly imperceptible sound of fingers ghosting over a keyboard.

Two impossibly dim lights sprang into existence. The first was a dull blue spark that cast the faintest of lights into an unoccupied corner of the room. It looked for all the world like the light in an old digital watch – the kind that didn't provide enough illumination to read all the digits. The second was a strobe, with the brightness of the ember of a freshly blown-out candle, flashing to each of the eight bodies in the room. A few keystrokes later and only five forms were being intermittently lit, moving slowly and uncertainly through the still-dark room.

Chuck's advance warning had given Casey and Sarah a few seconds head start adjusting to the dark. Being the only two able to see, it was a simple matter for them to glide noiselessly from victim to victim, even in marine combat boots and heels more suited for a wedding than for combat. In short order, four guards were taken down and either unconscious or dead. By coincidence or some plan, the lead spy was still standing, as he had separated from the others and was nearly the full length of the room away.

Now permanently bathed in a soft light, he glowed like an angry spirit as he finishing crossing the room to the corner where the blue light had grown and was now flickering angrily, casting enough light to allow hints of vision to return. As he neared it, he spun, drawing his gun and pointing it right at Sarah. "Nobody move!" he called out. "Or she dies."

"You're bluffing," Casey called out from the darkness, near enough to be a threat but distant enough that he couldn't act before the trigger was pulled. Sarah was moving, too, very slowly and cautiously, trying to not make a sound. But the gun never wavered from its target.

"That's enough. Stop now, both of you." The voice was Chuck's, in an unmistakable assertion of command. Both agents obeyed, though the muttered growls of Casey's threats against Chuck's life and future offspring were hair-raising.

A half-grin showed on the enemy's face, looking particularly gruesome in the dimness. "You love her, don't you? What weakness. It'll be so much fun to watch her die."

"You first." Chuck responded while pressing a button. An explosion of blue shattered the darkness. Lightning exploded from the flickering blue light, completely obliterating the Ring agent and passing outwards. Shock registered on his face only briefly before his torso pumped and exploded outwards, as the room plunged back into total darkness.

Casey blinked his eyes repeatedly, the afterimage of the flash still burned into his retina. "What the HELL just happened?"

No answer greeted his query. He could hear soft sounds of breathing in the room, so not everyone was dead, but the complete darkness had returned. Muttering profanities in his mind, though not letting them reach his lips, the newly-minted Colonel found his way to a wall. Feeling his way along it, he eventually was able to reach the exit.

As the heavy door slowly opened, light spilled back into the room. The mess was smaller than Casey would have anticipated. He growled again, "I said, what the HELL ...." His voice dropped off as he saw Chuck and Sarah, lips and bodies pressed together tightly, well removed from the messy corner. "Oh." He paused, the anathema of retreat warring with all his other sensibilities. The latter won, though narrowly. "I'll just stand guard out here then." He harrumphed as he exited and the room returned to darkness, just before Chuck's hand, which was pulling Sarah's skirt up, reached an indecent height.

END SEASON 2