Author's Notes: Thanks again for the reviews so far everyone. As ever I don't own any characters other than Max, and in this chapter, Dr Dow and Agent Harry Gates.

Part Three:

Chapter 1- "Onslaught"

Jack and Max ran over to Chloe. "Is she?" Max asked. Jack reached down to Chloe's, battered, bloody and charred form and checked her pulse. "Yeah! She's dead!" he shouted at Max. "What happened?" Max replied. Seconds later he got his answer; a streak of smoke came flying past them and the rocket hit a parked vehicle a few feet away, killing the agent who was inside.

"We're under attack!" Jack yelled, knowing that with rocket launchers clearly at the attackers' disposal, taking cover behind a vehicle was pointless. He looked over at Max, who was thinking the same thing. They'd just have to run for the building.

"Ready?" he shouted

"Yeah!"

"Okay, on three. One, two, three!!!"

Max and Jack got up and sprinted across the concrete, coming under fire from a group of men who were advancing on their position. Jack fired back over his shoulder, taking out two of the masked attackers.

The attackers appeared to be very well armed with two using M-203 grenade launchers to take out the guard towers at the main gates of CTU. The hacker got caught up in the crossfire and his bullet riddled form hit the floor. Max and Jack just managed to dodge into the main gates and close them behind them.

Inside, the alarm had gone off to signal that CTU was being attacked. Tony, Michelle and the other agents were already gearing up. Michelle slipped a Kevlar vest over her tank-top, tucked an H&K .45 pistol into the back of her pants before picking up an M-4 carbine and placing spare magazines into the pockets on the front of her vest. Confident that she was ready, Michelle left the armoury and headed through the corridor, her finger ever poised over the trigger in case she met a hostile. Her radio crackled, she keyed the mic with her thumb and spoke into the mouthpiece on her head set. "This is Dessler, go ahead"

"Michelle, it's Jack, CTU is being assaulted by multiple hostiles, armed with rifles and submachine guns. The ones on the outside also have rocket launchers. Michelle, Chloe is dead, they took out her vehicle when she was about to get into it."

Michelle took just a few seconds to process the information, not even having the time to truly take in the fact that one of the people she worked most closely with had been killed; there'd be time to think of that later. "Copy that Jack, we'll meet in the bullpen and set up a central command area. Try and make your way there."

"This is Bauer, copy that."

As Michelle continued on she was just passing the corridor that lead from the bullpen to IT when saw movement behind the frosted glass of the double doors ahead of her. Suddenly the doors blew inward in violent explosion catching an agent who had been standing in front of them at the time. Two hostiles walked through the smoke; they looked eastern European, similar to the men who had assaulted the MI-6 office a few days ago. They were quickly scanning the room and both were armed with what looked like H&K-MP5s.

One of the men saw Michelle and raised his weapon to fire but Michelle was quicker to react. Her finger squeezed the trigger and let out a burst of automatic fire from her M-4, dropping the assailant instantly. Without a second of hesitation Michelle also dropped the second man.

On the roof above the break room, a number of hostiles were gathered around the skylight, one was prone and pressing plastic explosives into the corners of the skylight canopy. The others were hooking up rappelling zip-lines.

At the rear of the building several more terrorists were preparing to blow the windows. One man crouched down on knee and formed a stirrup for his partner. The second man stepped into his friend's hand and used it to reach the windows with a breaching charge at the end of a long handle. Turning his face away he squeezed the handle, blowing out the windows and sending shards of glass flying across the room inside, showering the two admin workers who had been in there at the time.

The two men clambered through and gunned down the shocked and disoriented agents.

Michelle encountered Carrie Turner as she came out of IT. "Carrie, these men are here to get Saunders back. We're going to have to try and get him out before they can and if possible move him to another location. I want you to go to holding and prepare him. I'll send Agent Gates to join you" Michelle informed the woman.

"I'm not going to do that Michelle. We really should be thinking of getting out of here and re-grouping."

"Oh yes, you damn well are! We're all in the shit here; everyone is going to have to do their part to repel this assault. This is not the time for you to start chickening out."

"I don't think…" Carrie began, but was cut off by Michelle firing a burst into the floor mere inches from her feet, scaring the hell out of her in the process.

"Go to holding!! Or I swear I'll shoot your right now myself. There's no way in hell I'm going to let you cower away, whilst everyone else stands together here" Dessler unwaveringly ordered.

"Fine" Carrie said defeated before shuffling off towards holding.

"I'll be sending Agent Gates to join you in a few moments. I expect him to find you there." Michelle called after her.

On the roof the men by the skylight blew the charges set around it. As the bolts holding it in place were obliterated the canopy crashed down into the break room. The terrorists threw the zip lines down in and rappelled their way down to the floor.

By now Michelle was with Tony and the others. "You okay?" her husband asked placing his hand ever so lightly against the small of her back for just a second. It was a very discreet and subtle gesture but Michelle still felt it. She smiled slightly at Tony and whispered "Yah" with a slight nod.

"Okay, everyone listen up" Jack began. "We have a major situation here; a group of armed men are attempting to assault the building, most likely in order to extract Stephen Saunders." Everyone who was gathered around nodded in agreement. "We all need to secure different parts of the building. Get yourself into teams. Agent Dessler will delegate different areas to each team"

Soon everyone had been organized. Extra equipment and weaponry had been dispensed and the teams selected.

Each team headed over to their designated area. Michelle and Tony headed towards the break room. They just rounded the corner when they came under fire. "Damn it!!" Tony yelled. They each stood at a different side of the doorway, their backs to the wall. Michelle slid to a crouching position and nodded, before taking out a flash bang and throwing it into the room. Tony did the same. Inside the hostiles had become disoriented by the blinding light and loud explosion. Tony and Michelle burst in and Tony dropped the first hostile, but the second fired wildly and caught Tony in the leg. Almeida hit the floor; simultaneously Michelle killed the second man. A fierce exchange ensued before she managed to drop the remaining three terrorists.

Michelle then turned her attention to her husband. "Jesus, Tony, Are you okay?" she inquired. Tony winced with the pain but responded "Yeah, it's not as bad as it looks; I think I took one to the knee, I'll be fine." Michelle inspected the wound, it wasn't too bad, the bullet probably hadn't penetrated very far, and the bleeding wasn't too severe. She wiped the sweat from Tony's brow before going over the vending machine and smashing it open. Michelle took out a bottle of mineral water. "You have mild shock sweetheart, I think that's what caused you to fall more than the injury itself. Take this it will help." As she crouched before him, Michelle kissed him lightly on the lips, and then handed him the water.

"Umm…Curly Head, this is hardly the time to play our nurse and patient fantasy" Tony said with a naughty grin. Michelle smirked a little and gave him a wink just before the medics came into the room.

"It's okay now we've got him Agent Dessler" Dr. Dow told her before inspecting the wound. "Looks like you got lucky, Tony. The wound is very shallow. My guess is that one ricocheted off the table or something, and as a result, its velocity was radically reduced and ended up in your knee without leaving much more than a flesh wound and bruising. I'm going to put a brace around your knee and in all likelihood; you will be okay to go home today." The doctor informed Almeida.

"I think you can leave now, Michelle" Tony said with a smile.

"Thanks Doctor" Michelle told the medic. "See you later sweetheart" she told Tony.

All of this had occurred in mere minutes. Now after a brief moment of tenderness as the doting wife, Michelle went straight back into agent mode, retrieving her gear and after a quick glance over at shoulder at Tony being treated, headed out of the room.

Meanwhile Carrie Turner was psyching herself up to go in and prepare Saunders to be moved away to another location in order to try and stop his men from rescuing him. Turner was terrified that the moment she walked through the door, from the observation room into the actual holding cell itself, Saunders' men would suddenly appear and kill her. However, she had stalled long enough and Agent Gates would probably be here soon. She wasn't much interested in being fired or worse if she didn't do what Michelle had asked of her so she took a deep breath and headed into the cell.

As he heard the door buzz Saunders quickly sat in his chair. He had no cuffs or shackles on as Brad Hammond having removed them after Saunders had told him something so distressing that it made him forget his duty and bow to the terrorist's demands.

Turner walked up to Stephen and was completely baffled when she saw his hands and feet free of their chains. Too late for her to react, Saunders stood up and punched her in the throat. Carrie was completely dazed and staggered backwards, dropping her weapon. Stephen picked it up and pointed it at her.

"No!!" Carrie screamed "Please don't kill me, just leave. I won't try and stop you. Just please don't kill me!!!!" Turner wailed frantically.

Stephen looked at the woman before him; he almost wanted to laugh at her. She was a federal agent and should have had more courage than this. "Okay," he replied simply. "Open the door for me, and I'll be on my way" he added.

Turner nodded punching in the key code to open the cell door. Saunders made his way through it. Carrie breathed a sigh of relief; her gratefulness at having lived outweighing the guilt for just letting Saunders get away so easily. However, just as he was through the door into the observation room, Saunders turned around and fired a single round into the back of her head.

Saunders then casually walked out of the cell. Agent Harry Gates was just walking into holding as Saunders was walking out; he went for his weapon, shocked to see Saunders before him. However, Stephen was quicker and had double tapped the agent before he had time to draw his side-arm. Saunders didn't even bat an eyelid before continuing down the corridor.

Michelle had just finished off a couple of other hostiles and was checking the pulses of two security guards she found slumped against the corridor walls, but they were dead. Whilst she had been crouched in front of the two men, Michelle had rested her rifle against the wall. Sighing, she was just about to retrieve it when she heard someone shout at her "Don't Move!! Stay perfectly still, Agent Dessler!" Michelle looked up to see Saunders at the end of the corridor, the same smug look on his face as he had worn earlier in the day. She tried reaching for the handgun tucked into her pants; however Saunders fired a shot that came so perilously close to actually hitting Michelle it virtually grazed the side of her head.

"Get on your knees and put your hands behind your head" Saunders said confidently.

Michelle, realizing he had the upper hand in this case, did as instructed, silently cursing herself for not paying attention to her surroundings when she was checking on the two dead guards.

Saunders walked up to Michelle, his gun still pointed at her. "Ironic, that you and I should meet like this" he started. "My men had orders to kill you the other day, either in the van with your husband watching on the video feed, or right in front of his eyes had he complied and met to exchange my daughter for you" he smirked at her, but the smile faded when he saw her defiant expression.

"Okay, I told a lie. They weren't simply ordered to kill you, they'd have tortured you and raped you several times and forced Tony to watch" Saunders added coolly. He watched Michelle's face seeing it start to change its expression, but was disappointed when she still didn't show fear.

Michelle's eyes burned with rage, she did feel an unsettling dread in the pit of her stomach at the thought of what could have happened to her. However, the strongest emotion she felt was anger, intense fury that the man she loved would have been made to witness it.

Saunders was right in front of her now; she could smell the stench of his breath. He pressed the gun against her head, and continued "But of course, they were incompetent, and allowed someone to take them out without even attempting to defend themselves. I guess the old saying is true, if you want something done properly you pretty much have to do it yourself." His finger hovered over the trigger.

Michelle, swallowed, realizing that this was it, she was going to die, but she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of going out showing fear. "I don't know why you're blaming them" she started, catching Saunders attention and delaying the final shot for a few seconds. "You're the one who allowed a CIA mole into your organization in the first place, dumb-ass" Michelle finished with a sarcastic smirk.

Saunders was livid, "Feisty little bitch aren't you?" he snarled.

"Yah." Michelle replied simply, her expression unchanged.

"No matter, you can only delay the inevitable" his finger poised over the trigger again, inching closer to pressing it, he was just about the squeeze when he saw something out of the corner of his eye.

"Hay!!" A voice shouted from behind him.

He whirled round for just a second and saw Chase Edmunds. Saunders fired at the young field operative hitting him in the shoulder causing Chase to fall. Michelle seized the opportunity and lunged at Saunders tackling him to the ground; quickly she got up and kicked his gun away across the corridor. By this time Saunders had also got back to his feet, he swung at her, Michele blocked his punch, and grabbing his arm she pulled him and kicked him in the groin. Saunders, however, wasn't going to give up that easily, he grabbed Michelle's wrist and twisted her arm, around working his own free in the process, and he soon pulled Dessler into a choke hold.

Michele felt the intense pressure being applied to her throat, unable to breath she felt her eyes sting and began to see stars from the lack of oxygen. Desperately she tried to get free but Saunders' grip was too strong.

With little time left Michelle quickly tried to think of another way out of this, noticing that she was facing the wall. She tried one last tactic, placing both feet against the wall and climbing it with them, before pushing off with her legs. Michelle toppled back taking Stephen with her. He hit the ground first, his head connecting hard with the marble tiled floor.

Michelle elbowed him hard in the ribs repeatedly, before he finally let her go. She clambered to her feet in an instant. Stephen got to his, but in his dazed condition he was still a little disoriented, he swung for Michelle, but she blocked his punch.

Dessler immediately followed with a counterattack of a palm strike to Saunders' jaw, which connected with his chin with such force that, she caused him bite off the tip of his tongue, which he instinctively spit out. Saunders staggered back; Michelle hit him in the stomach. As Saunders staggered around, Michelle shuffled until she was behind him. Reaching forward, she grabbed his fringe and pulled his head back, pushing him forwards towards the wall and slamming his face against it.

Michelle, had won the fight, but now she was enraged. The thoughts of what he had said to her a few moments ago, and even more, of everything that happened at the Chandler Plaza because of him, flashed through her mind. Michelle lost all of her self restraint, surrendering to a violent blind fury. She smashed his face against the wall again, and again after that, this time Saunders passed out, and Michelle lowered him to the floor.

Saunders remained unconscious Michelle retrieved her side-arm. However, the rage had not yet subsided. Michelle intended to make Saunders pay for all the lives he had destroyed or ended at the Chandler Plaza, and the various outbreaks across the city and for the grief he had brought the families of the victims. She checked the chamber of her H&K-45 and walked back to where Saunders lay.

As she watched his unconscious form, Michelle couldn't help but admit the irony of how a man who had become twisted and evil and caused so much carnage and tragedy, could look so peaceful; his eyes closed and his breathing steady.

Then images of the Chandler Plaza flashed through her mind, she felt her eyes grow moist with tears, as she raised her weapon, her hand was shaking, and her teeth were clenched with rage so hard that she could actually feel pain resonating through her jaw.

In a flurry of emotions, Michelle felt rage, despair, torment and bitterness all at once. Her finger connected with the trigger; agonizingly slowly she began to apply pressure. But then she heard a soft voice speak to her. "Sweetie, don't do it." Tony said. Michelle turned to see him with Max, the injured Chase, and Jack at the end of the corridor.

Tony turned his attention to the men who were with him. "Could you leave us?" he asked steadily. They nodded, Jack and Max each supporting Edmunds, and walked away, leaving just Tony and Michelle alone with the unconscious Saunders.

"Curly-Head, listen to me baby. Don't do it, he's defenseless. You'd go to prison." He walked slowly, on account of needing crutches for his bruised knee, over to his wife.

"He made toddlers die in agony, people with everything to live for kill themselves, and there are hundreds if not thousands of families whose lives have been destroyed because of him. The bastard deserves to die" Michelle replied, her voice choked with emotion. She still hadn't lowered her gun.

Tony placed his hand on the side of her face, brushed her hair back and kissed the crook of her neck lightly, before whispering into her ear. "I'm not saying that he doesn't, Michelle" he started, turning her face to make eye contact with him. "But if you kill him now, like this, you're the one who will pay. They'll put you in prison, no matter how much he deserves it, killing him like this would be murder."

Tony looked deep into Michelle's dark almond shaped eyes. "Honey, if you went to prison or were given the death penalty it would destroy me. I couldn't live without you, Michelle. If for no other reason, stop yourself doing this for me." Tony's voice remained soft. Finally, Michelle nodded and eventually began to lower her weapon. She clicked on the safety and placed the H&K-45 back into her pants. Tony squeezed her hand "You did the right thing, sweetheart. You're too good to kill someone out of nothing other than revenge" he said softly.

Michelle hugged him for a moment before reaching around to find the plastic-cuffs in her belt. She was just crouching down to tie Saunders' wrists together, when he sat up head butting her.

Michelle fell backwards and Stephen kicked Tony's legs, making him collapse to the floor also. Saunders pulled a second hand-gun that he had taken from someone he gunned down earlier and had been hidden under his pant leg. He raised it and pointed it at Tony.

"You should have killed me whilst you had the chance, Michelle" Stephen said, his voice distorted after biting off part of his tongue, but still with his trademark smirk "Now you'll pay for your indecisiveness."

Two shots rang out, followed by the sound of blood spurting from the mouth of a dying man.

Author's Note: For anyone who may be wondering, everything that went on between Saunders and Hammond will be revealed in the next chapter.