A/N 9/20/12 -

Special thanks to somedeepmystery, uplink2, and BdaddyDL for previewing this and offering such great advice, encouragement, and tough-love beta. Plus a huge thanks to my wife for her enthusiastic proofing and patience when I disappear for hours, lost behind a keyboard. Love you, sweetie. Finally, thanks to you, dear readers, for your reviews, favorites, and follows. I really do appreciate it. It's the only currency we writers get for doing this here.

I don't own Chuck.

Chuck Versus the Lost Years

Act 9 - Rescue from the Evil Within

- I -

The taste of metal…a ringing in the ears, the smell of…nothing.

A pounding headache, everything dark throbbing oppressive tones of gray, and bright stabbing splashes of light. 'CAN'T move! No shoes. Bound at ankles and wrists…to a chair? Hard, cutting, tight…tie wraps?' She allowed one eye to open just enough to assess her surroundings. 'Dark! Pitch black…no blindfold!' Both eyes came open a fraction. All she could see were moving masses of gray interspersed with blinding jabbing explosions of…'It's GONE!'

She felt it coming on and tensed as a wave of suffocating anxiety flooded over her, and her breathing became ragged, shallow, and irregular. The flash hit her like a speeding truck, and her world turned topsy-turvy from the impact. She inhaled with a rush as she felt she was in tumbling freefall and she sightlessly watched the bright flashes of light. Hearing a low thundering sound swinging around her with a Doppler shift as it circled her picking up speed in her head, she felt the pressure build. And as she, Sarah Walker, panicked and struggled savagely against her bonds…an almost silent scream came from her open mouth.

"Sarah?…Oh, dear God… not again." It was a torn plaintive plea in the midst of a storm.

'Chuck?' She was spinning violently as she tried to reach for his voice, 'Chuck!'

"Oh, God. Please, Sarah if that's you please, baby, it's Chuck. I'm here…please, Sarah, calm down. I'm here," he said in a hushed calming voice, but a voice that was still filled with stress. "I'm here, baby."

"Chuck?" For some reason, the darkness now felt comforting as his voice came out of it and cut through the gray, turbulent, lightning filled cloud she was in with a slash, and then set her back down on solid ground. But something about it…"It's me, Chuck. It's Sarah," she gasped for breath, "Is it dark in here? Please tell me it's dark in here…"

"Oh, thank God. It's pitch black in here, baby, wherever here is. Can't see a thing. You're okay now, stay with my voice. Take slow deep breaths, clear your head, and concentrate on my voice."

Relieved that her eyesight hadn't failed her, Sarah concentrated on his instructions and took back control of her breathing, feeling it even out and deepen.

"Good, you're doing good, sweetheart. Slow, even, breaths. Now go to your happy place."

Her breathing suddenly shortened and rasped as she softly chuckled, and croaked, "My happy place?"

"Ah,ah,ah, my voice, Sarah. Slow, even, breaths. You know the drill. Find someplace you like to relax and go there."

She felt herself calming more, and her chest stopped heaving as she followed his directions, seeking that place outside her mind. Relief was sweeping over her, but she could feel a vortex tugging at her from the edge of her consciousness. In spite of it, "I'm in our happy place now."

"Our happy place?" His smile spilled into his voice. "That's good. Where is it?"

"Curled up together on the couch… doing… whatever," she said with a touch of whimsy.

"Just give me a couple of seconds and I'm there."

Sarah imagined herself and Chuck on the couch, his arms enveloping her in strong, warm, comfort. "They took it Chuck."

"I thought so," he said knowingly, keeping his answer short because the room was probably bugged. "It's not important, we'll get you another one soon."

"Chuck, it was a Rolex, and you gave it to me!" she covered, but meaning every word. 'Not important…jeez. Not important, okay, it's not important…slow, deep, even, breaths'. She tried to drive her missing governor from her mind. 'It's not important.'

"It's all right, Sarah. It's a minor setback and we'll fix it in the morning," he said with a comforting tone as she could barely hear him in the darkness adjusting himself in his bonds and his chair. "Mmmm, it feels so good holding you in my arms," he said, "I could stay on this couch all night."

Sarah concentrated on the image he was helping her create, even as she tried to shove back the one her own ears were conjuring. "MmmHmmm, no place I'd rather be, here, with you… don't you ever leave me, Chuck," she added, and amusingly, it sounded a little like a veiled threat.

He softly laughed, "You've got me for the duration, Babe. I don't think I'm going anywhere."

Sarah quietly returned his laughter, amazed at her husband's ability to find humor in the worst of places. "Yeah, I think this couch needs new cushions, too." She sat bound to the hard chair willing herself to stay in that soft comfortable place with her husband, and wriggled over in her mind's eye to face him, thoroughly entwined with him on the couch. "Chuck?"

"Yes, Sarah?"

"I'm kissing you through a smile right now."

- II -

She walked out of the door of the hotel, luggage in hand, looking for the sign; spotting it almost immediately in the hand of the limo driver parked next to the curb. "I'm Belle Boyd," she said, and the driver looked at her appraisingly as he stepped forward to take her bags before opening the limousine door for her.

"Miss Boyd," he replied, as he held the door for her, "Please make yourself comfortable, I'll have you at the airport in just a few minutes," the Mexican driver said in flawless English, "I understand your plane has just arrived and is waiting for you on the ramp."

"Thank you," she replied nervously as she slid into the comfortable leather seats and let out a deep shuddering breath. As the door closed she came to the realization that she was now 'all in' and completely committed to the decision she had made days ago. Looking around the interior of the coach as it pulled away from the curb her eyes fell onto several crystal decanters and glasses sitting in a small bar service between the club seating.

Removing a bottle of amber liquid and a glass she looked briefly at the ice bucket before pouring herself three fingers neat and downing it quickly, before filling the glass once more, and setting the bottle back into its space with a shaky hand. The burn of the liquid as she swallowed it went completely unnoticed. She took another drink and gripped the crystal tumbler with both hands, staring sightlessly out the window, thinking about the circumstances and events that had led up to this moment.

It had all started with a simple email. Well, there really wasn't anything simple about the way she had sent it, being as she had hacked the web portal servers to route the message through several other servers bouncing it halfway around the world and back before it finally ended up in the inbox of the recipient. And then to her surprise she had a reply the very same day also routed in a very convoluted way to her own mailbox with very simple instructions. First, to send the name of the hotel where she was staying, and second, to be out in front of the hotel at a specific time for transport, along with the name the driver would be expecting.

It appeared that even with the precautions she had taken, they knew almost exactly where she was, and the revelation unnerved her. If they so easily figured that out couldn't her former employers do the same? It had led to an almost endless round of second-guessing and worry up until she had stepped into the limousine. Now, the worry was approaching a panic attack as she wondered if this ride might take her to redemption, or destruction.

The car drove through a security gate, and a small, sharply drawn breath of relief passed her lips as a Gulfstream IV came into view with the Carmichael Industries logo clearly visible on the tail. The limousine pulled up to the front of the plane and a man and a woman in flight crew suits came down the stairs to greet her while the driver opened the door for her. The man took her luggage from the limo driver and stepped quickly up into the aircraft as the woman approached her with a very purposeful look on her face.

"Ms. Boyd, I'm Greta Hughes, your pilot for this trip. If you'll please step aboard, we're in a bit of a hurry and our departure clearance window is a little tight. Please relax and make yourself at home and buckle up for an immediate takeoff, I'll try to make the flight as smooth as possible."

She swallowed hard and nodded back to the woman, walking hastily up the stairs into the plane, trying to calm herself with every step. She had never been in an aircraft like this, and her gaze moved around the passenger cabin, taking in the tasteful and modern appointments as she entered. When she walked down the aisle toward the rows of executive club seating, she saw a flash of auburn hair above the top of one of the seats with its back to her. She walked cautiously toward the seat, and her jaw dropped as she stepped around and looked at the person sitting there.

"Carina!" she gasped, as she looked into the intense but unreadable aquamarine gaze of the woman in front of her.

"Hello, Jules. Fancy meeting you here," Carina said, as she casually waved to the seat across from her, "Have a seat. We need to have a chat."

- III -

Edgar Sloan rose from his seat behind his desk as Simon McKay entered his office, "McKay, I ought to have you drawn and quartered for what you did yesterday. Do you know how many men we lost and how badly you compromised us when you pulled this little stunt?!"

McKay regarded him with a cold smile as he strode to the desk, "Relax Edgar, I understand you're upset, and I'm not very pleased myself. If things had gone as planned Mr. and Mrs. Carmichael and most of the Intersect research team would be trussed up in a G5 on their way to Europe right now. I'm as mad about how this went down as you are. Even with the element of surprise we had, operational security was lost somewhere, and it wasn't my team in Burbank."

"Bullshit, McKay. Don't try to throw this back in my face. Tell me what was so important that losing some of my best agents, including Richard Watson, made it worth it?"

McKay pointed to the computer on Sloan's desk, "Fine, Edgar, I'll show you. May I?"

Sloan stepped aside with an exasperated look on his face, "Go ahead, and it better be good."

Simon walked around the desk and opened an application on the computer then typed a string of figures into a search box. Almost immediately, a window opened showing a man and a woman bound to metal chairs that were attached to the floor. The video image was showing in false color with annotations in the top corner indicating that it was shot in infrared light.

As the two men watched, the woman started to shake violently while gasping for breath; her eyes wide open in terror. She looked like she was having some sort of seizure. The man with her was extremely agitated, and futilely trying to get her attention to calm her down.

Sloan turned to McKay with a morbid look of curiosity on his face. "What the hell just happened there?"

McKay tapped a couple of keys on the keyboard and another clip played, but this time the man in the video was finally able to get the woman's attention and calm her down. Both men listened with interest to the conversation between the two captives. McKay looked back to Sloan evenly and said, "Those are the Carmichaels, also known as Mr. and Mrs. Chuck Bartowski. Mrs. Bartowski is also a human Intersect."

"What? Bullshit," Sloan, incredulously said. "Quinn said he had a working one, but I didn't believe it. Do you know how many test subjects we lost trying to make a human Intersect at Meadow Branch and Black Rock? The technology isn't ready for prime time. It fries the human brain, Quinn said so much himself."

"Well, after looking at this I'm inclined to agree with you," answered Sloan with a smirk. "But I'm surprised at you Edgar. I took you to be a man with a larger vision."

"Screw you, Simon. You know our goal is the same one that Ted Roark had, but we're still a ways away from realizing it. Maybe now that we finally have Quinn's tech, we can speed up the development." He looked back to the video, studying Sarah Bartowski for a few seconds, "What makes you think this woman is actually an Intersect? And if she is what do you propose we do with her?"

"I suspect that she downloaded the Ring Intersect. Why she did it, I don't know. Apparently Quinn found out about it somehow. He tried to program her as an assassin, but the Ring Intersect was unstable, and the mission failed. As far as what to do with her? Study her. Experiment on her… and her husband. Maybe even put the two of them to good use. Using them, I think we can push your timeline for a successful project forward by several months, maybe almost immediately."

Sloan turned to Simon McKay with a sudden look of realization on his face, "The video we took from Sanders; she was the one Quinn was torturing."

"I suppose you could call it that. But what he was trying to do was brainwash and program her using the Intersect. And that opens up a whole new set of possibilities to us for its use." McKay reached into his pocket and pulled out a thumbdrive placing it on Edgar's desk. "I suggest you watch this. Watson gave it to me before we raided Castle. The rest of the videos were at the JPL annex and he procured them a couple of days ago."

Sloan picked up the drive and plugged it into the dock on his monitor stand. As he watched it, even he couldn't see how it could be described as anything but torture.

In an empty office on the twenty-first floor of the Century East building, John Casey sat at a table behind a snipers screen. He examined the windows of the twentieth floor of the building across the street from him one by one. As he slowly panned the riflescope of the Barrett MRAD sniper rifle across the windows he listened for voices on his headset with a laser listening device mounted on the side Picatinny rail on the forearm of the rifle.

Most of the offices on the floor appeared to be vacant; some of them had the blinds on the windows drawn. Then he heard a fragment of a voice as the laser tracked across one of the windows, picking up the vibrations of a conversation on the glass originating from inside the room. He reached up and turned the magnification ring on the Nightforce Optics riflescope, zooming in on the window in question. He saw, then heard, two men talking as they watched a computer monitor on the desk.

At first his eyes went wide as he listened to the conversation. Then he reached up and rotated the magnification all the way up to 42X and looked at the monitor on the desk. The monitor was partially blocked by one of the men and at an oblique angle but what he saw on it made his blood run cold, as he watched and listened to the two men talk. His eyes then narrowed to not much more than dark slits on his face.

"Chuck me…"

It was all he could do to keep himself from sending the .338 Lapua armor piercing rounds their way, right then and there.

- IV -

Grim faces surrounded the conference table. Nikki Lawson sat at the head of it with her foot up on one of the extra chairs, a pair of crutches leaning against the table. Everyone was looking at a floor plan of the Tempest Industries offices on a monitor embedded in the center of the tabletop and listening to the voice of John Casey over the Polycom conference phone as he described what he'd seen and heard only minutes before in the building across the street from him.

He had sent Gertrude to the roof with Silent Suzy to act as overwatch. Lori Compton was on the roof providing cover and spotting for Gertrude, and Tony Carmichael was in the van monitoring the security camera taps, trying to isolate the feed to the room Casey had described seeing on the monitor through his riflescope. Morgan and Alex had gone to the airport to pick up Carina, the new analyst (no one really knew what else to call her at the moment), and Zondra Rizzo - who had flown in from Paraguay, after dropping a mission mid-stream to join them.

"Do we have any idea where Chuck and Sarah are in that building, Casey?" Nikki asked as she looked at the building layout in front of her.

"Not yet," the voice growled over the speakerphone, "but there are several security feeds on that floor we haven't been able to access yet. We can probably narrow it down to one of those."

"I'm not having much luck with that," Anthony interjected, "I think we're going to need an analyst here on-site. This isn't exactly one of my fortes."

Nikki looked around the table as all the analysts sitting around it raised their hands to volunteer. "Morgan, where are you now?"

"Just leaving LAX, Nikki. Why?"

"Because you have an analyst with you and you're the closest to Century City right now." Nikki held her hand up when she received several scowls from the analysts around the conference table. "What have we learned about Julie Peterson? Do you think she can be trusted?"

"Well, Carina says she worked with Jules on several DEA ops a while back that all ended up being very successful. And she appears to be pretty upset about what's happened. I think it's worth a shot."

"Then get to Century City as soon as possible. I'll be headed that way with Jose as soon as we're done here."

"We all better move damn quick," Casey's voice, growled again, "I don't think we have much time."

"Then we're done here," Nikki flatly uttered. "We're on the way, John. Do what you can there until we can assemble a team on-site."

A single, angry grunt came over the speaker.

Nikki Lawson stood with a grimace and hit the button to end the call. She grabbed her crutches and started to hobble towards the door before throwing one of them to the floor with disgust and pacing to the door supporting her weight on the remaining crutch. "Come on, Jose, we don't have a second to lose," she said through gritted teeth.

In the Chevrolet Tahoe, racing down the 405 with the emergency vehicle running lights on, Morgan Grimes keyed his vox circuit to his earbud, "Anthony, have tactical gear ready for the C.A.T.S. when we arrive so we can move right away if we have to."

"On it, Morgan."

Morgan looked quickly at the four women with him in the truck with a little bit of trepidation, "I hope you ladies don't mind me calling you that."

"Not at all, Morgan," Carina answered, looking at him with a mirthful smirk. She then turned to Alex, "How do you feel about being a CAT?"

"I don't even know what a CAT is," Alex responded, with a wary gaze.

"Well, you are one now," said Carina, exchanging a grin with Zondra.

Morgan stared straight ahead, not wanting to think about the implications of that statement, especially when he considered how Casey would respond to it. If the circumstances were different he would have taken delight in the thought and the fulfillment of a fantasy as well as the opportunity to speed down the freeway at over a hundred miles per hour. But all he was feeling now was a sense of foreboding dread.

- V -

Anthony Carmichael tapped away on the keyboard in the surveillance van still trying in vain to isolate the blocked security feeds. As he pulled a hand across his face in frustration the door to the van slid open and a short, attractive blonde haired woman stepped in with Morgan Grimes.

"Tony, this is Julie Peterson. She's here to help find Chuck and Sarah. Why don't you step aside and let her give it a whirl."

"By all means," Anthony replied, with an exasperated look on his face as he stepped from the seat at the console, "I hope you can make some headway with this Miss Peterson, I was getting nowhere with it."

Julie slipped into the seat wordlessly as Tony made room, and immediately started to rapidly type on the keyboard and watch the screens change in front of her while the two men looked on. After a moment of rapid keyboarding, she said, without looking up from her work, "They've firewalled these feeds from the rest of the system, but I think I can bypass them in a few minutes. As soon as I have something I'll shout."

"I'll stay here with her Morgan, Casey has your gear upstairs." Tony then gave him a warning look. "Be careful around Casey, he's not a happy camper."

Morgan paused as he started to open the door, "I don't think any of us are right now, but thanks. I learned to be perpetually careful around Casey a long, long, time ago." And he exited with a wry smile.

"What's the status, big guy?" Morgan asked as they walked into the vacant office where Casey was set up.

"Nothing's changed," came the gruff answer. Casey never looked up from his task. "No sign of Chuck and Sarah. Haven't heard a sound either. You better get your team ready; I've got a bad feeling about this."

"Right. Ladies, there's your gear," Morgan said pointing to several duffle bags on the floor. He reached into one and passed earbuds around to his team before donning a vest and holstering two tranq guns.

The women all inserted the earpieces and then started to strip out of their clothes to change into tactical BDU's and vests. Morgan was doing his best not to stare and quickly turned around with an uncomfortable look on his face when Alex caught him looking at all of them. Carina, standing there in her BDU pants and a bra, caught his eye as he turned and gave him a wry smile, which she then exchanged with Alex.

Alex responded with a roll of her eyes.

Casey finally looked up from his riflescope and turned around, "What the hell do you think you're doing?" he asked, looking at his daughter.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm going to help."

"The hell you are. Grimes, if you had anything to do with this—"

"Leave him alone, Dad, he had nothing to do with it. There is no way I'm not going to help. Chuck and Sarah are my friends, too," Alex defiantly answered as she pulled on her boots.

"Relax, Casey," Carina said brusquely, "If you want to blame anyone, blame me. I asked her to be a CAT for this one. She'll be fine. I'm not going to let her get into a firefight."

Casey's grinding teeth could be heard across the room, "So help me, Miller, if anything happens to her—"

"Nice positive attitude, John. We need all the help we can get, so deal with it," Carina retorted with a bit of venom.

"HMNG! Get you asses ready and get downstairs." Casey returned his attention to his riflescope with a glowering look on his face. He wasn't going to show it to anyone, but he was secretly proud of his daughter for making the decision to do this.

"Casey," Tony interrupted, "we have a video feed. I'm patching it through to your computer now."

Casey looked at the notebook monitor next to him and growled, "That's them. Do you have any audio?" He turned briefly to see four pairs of eyes staring at the screen, with emotions written in them ranging from shock and concern, to cold-blooded, murderous rage. He pointed to the door, "Get going ladies, you know what we need to do."

The CATS and Morgan all nodded solemnly and headed for the door.

"Still working on audio, Casey. Give us another minute for that. Julie says she thinks this is an outer room on the floor plan. It should have a window."

"Could it be on the other side of the building? I've seen no indication it's on this side."

"Stand by." After a short pause, "No, it's on this side of the building according to the plans."

"Hnmg, Give me a minute. Can you point me to a specific window?"

"It should be about five rooms over from the office you were watching…to your left."

Casey panned the rifle left, counting the windows, but didn't see or hear anything from the window they were directing him to. Then he looked closer. The window looked opaque, like it had been painted over. And then he thought he heard it, softly at first, but it was there; the soft sound of someone breathing laboriously. "I think I may have found something, stand by."

He reached up and removed the riflescope and exchanged it for a thermal imaging scope from the hard case at his feet. The thermal imager took several seconds to power up as he waited impatiently for an image to appear in the eyepiece. And there they were, visible in glowing white through the 'window', both of them bound to chairs. Casey's teeth clenched as he watched a door open at the back of the room and the overhead lights came on causing Chuck and Sarah to visibly react to the light by ducking their heads.

"Casey, four men just entered-"

"I see them," he said, cutting Anthony off, "Double-time it Grimes, time just ran out on us!"

"Roger, Casey, we're crossing under the street in the access tunnel right now," Morgan replied with worry in his voice. "We need the security feeds disabled to the basement and elevators."

"It's done," responded the new girl from the van after a flourish of her hands on the keyboard.

"Gertrude, alert your team. Be ready to send them in when I give the word."

"Roger that, Johnny, just say the word, the chopper is standing by five miles out," Gertrude Verbanski said as she and Lori Compton picked and prioritized their targets on the opposite roof.

Casey watched and listened as the four men approached Chuck and Sarah in the center of the room.

- VI -

Chuck and Sarah reacted painfully to the sudden light after so many hours of complete darkness, and they blinked at the glaring brightness that assaulted their eyes as they watched four men approach from a doorway on their left. Both of them focused their attention on three of the men, in particular, two of whom they both immediately recognized as Simon McKay and Allen Preston. Then Sarah winced and shook violently as she flashed on Edgar Sloan's file. It only made things worse for her when the file she saw in her mind yanked a memory from her past and she gasped as she recognized Sloan - or 'Winterborne' as he was known to Fulcrum - from a very tense moment years ago in an Opera House.

Chuck was able to hide the small refresh flash he experienced when he looked at Sloan/Winterborne, McKay, and the two other thugs that were with them. All of these men were very bad news, and all of them had their attention focused on Sarah when they saw how she reacted to them. His heart almost burst as he watched his wife convulse. "Sarah!" he exclaimed as one of the men stepped up to him and back-fisted him across the face.

"Shut up, you geek," the man shouted at Chuck, "You'll speak when you're spoken to!"

The assault on her husband ripped Sarah back from her flash, and she glared at the man through bright flashing stars with murder in her eyes. IT'S NERD, YOU BASTARD! Then her stare turned to Simon as he chuckled.

"Well, Agent Walker, I see you still have the Intersect and you're still flashing," McKay said with amusement.

"Leave her alone! Or, so help me, I'll kill every one of you with my bare hands!" The Fulcrum agent struck Chuck again in the face.

"Chuck!" Sarah jerked at her bonds and shot daggers with her eyes at all the men around her.

"So that was a, what did you call it, a flash?" asked Sloan looking at McKay with curiosity.

"Yes, at least that's what this one named it when he had the Intersect," McKay said, pointing at Chuck.

"Wait a minute. You're telling me this man had the Intersect too?"

"Oh, did I fail to mention that?" McKay said with a smirk. "Yes, Edgar, at one time he was the only human Intersect."

"But he doesn't have it now? What else have you not told me, McKay?"

"You pretty much know all of it now. Agent Walker was originally one of his bodyguards. That's why it was imperative that we capture both of them. Mr. Bartowski is probably our best test candidate for study and programming. I'm beginning to think his wife here may be a lost cause, but she is still useful to us."

Chuck and Sarah exchanged a brief look of shock.

"That's right, Mr. Bartowski, you're going to do exactly as I say or I'm going to fry your wife's brain. I might even use her to kill some people very important to you." McKay removed a leather bound case, which both Chuck and Sarah recognized, from his suit coat pocket, and unzipped it. He leafed through its contents and pulled out a flashcard. The fourth henchman stepped up behind Sarah and forcefully took her head in his hands, prying her eyes open with his fingertips. Chuck instinctively averted his gaze hoping it wasn't noticed, but McKay and Sloan's attention was on Sarah as McKay held the card up and Sarah screamed.

Looking away from them at the ground Chuck shouted, "STOP IT!" He hoped his averted gaze would be interpreted as not wanting to see Sarah suffer.

McKay lowered the card and held it to his side as he watched Sarah's head swing around in agony, and he then turned to Chuck and gave him a look of contempt. "I'm going to enjoy turning you into an assassin so damn much, Mr. Bartowski. That is, after you give us an army of Intersects." He then held up his cell phone in his other hand. "All you have to do is contact your sister and Dr. Depak and tell them to surrender themselves to us. Then maybe I'll think about not turning you wife's brain into goo."

Chuck glared at McKay, his mind racing a thousand mile per hour wondering what to do. All he could do at the moment was stare at him in defiance with the agonizing realization where that defiance would lead.

McKay then motioned to the thug, and the man seized Sarah by her hair and pried her eyes open again.

"Noooooo!" Chuck couldn't look away as Simon brought the card up and Sarah once again screamed. The sight of the card made him gasp, and Simon McKay and Edgar Sloan looked at him with surprise.

As he tried to blink the flash away he heard a loud pop as a .338 caliber armor piercing bullet punched through the 'wall' to his right and contacted Simon McKay's skull at the base of his jaw below his ear. The flashcard fell to the ground and shattered as McKay's lifeless body toppled over.

Casey swiftly recovered from the recoil, smoothly cycling the bolt on the MRAD rifle with his thumb and forefinger in the blink of an eye. Then he loosed another round at the man holding Sarah, striking him center of mass, the heavy high-velocity bullet flinging him halfway across the room. Sloan and Allen Preston dove to the floor and made for the doorway as another round pierced the window and struck one of the chair legs where the tie wrap was binding Chuck's right leg.

Finally, realizing what was happening, Chuck flashed as another round punched into the chair where his right hand was bound. Suddenly free, he twisted around, grabbing the tie wrap binding his left hand and twisted and yanked both arms with a loud grunt, cutting his left wrist in the process, but cleanly snapping the bonds. He rose to his feet to help Sarah, but toppled forward, caught by the tie wrap holding his left leg before it finally twisted and snapped and he staggered to his knees next to Sarah.

"GO, GO, GO!" Casey shouted on the radio as he panned the rifle across the room and fired another round at the wall next to the doorway. Sloan and Preston ducked when the bullet punched through the wall between them and they both quickly scrambled down the hallway.

Preston looked at his boss as they retreated and Edgar gave him a curt nod. He brought a radio to his mouth and gave the command to evacuate to the backup facility as they made their way down the hallway to the lab holding the Intersect Technology that had been recovered from Castle.

On the roof of the East tower, Gertrude sent a round from Silent Suzy into one of the Fulcrum agents guarding the helicopter. "Hit," Lori Compton exclaimed, "three right."

Gertrude swung the rifle three meters right and sent another one, "Hit, five right, three up…hit..." A Verbanski Corp helicopter swung into view with several men in the doors ready to Fast Rope to the roof as Gertrude continued to fire on the enemy agents below them.

Morgan and Alex exited the elevator in the building's main lobby and sprinted across the room towards the security desk. As they rounded the corner the woman behind the desk was rising from her chair, her handgun just beginning to clear leather. Morgan already had his tranq pistol up and skidded wide eyed across the floor on one knee firing several darts rapid fire toward the guard. As the guard started to bring the gun to bear, her arm went slack, and she toppled to the terrazzo floor with a bony thump, her Glock pistol clattering across the floor like a plastic toy.

Alex took a seat at the security desk so she could give directions to Carina and Zondra as the two CAT squad members made their way to the twentieth floor. "We've secured the lobby," she said into her watch transceiver. She watched Morgan starting to drag away the body of the security guard and caught his eye, "Nice shooting, Tex," she said with a grin. Dropping the guards arms, Morgan beamed back at her with his trademark thumbs up.

Back up on the twentieth floor, Chuck frantically examined his wife, his hands in momentary confusion alternating between the bonds on her wrists and her face as he looked into her glassy eyes. "Sarah, Sarah! Oh, my God," his forehead fell to hers as he fought back the tears threatening to take over.

"Chuck," came her very weak voice, "Chuck…my…watch…pocket. My watch pocket, Chuck."

"Huh?" He looked again into her glazed eyes, and he remembered. He immediately started to fumble with his hands into the watch pocket of her jeans hoping they had missed it. He couldn't get his big hand into the pocket easily so he ran his other hand down behind her jeans waistband to help him feel for it.

"Don't…get…fresh with me, mister," she weakly quipped as he fumbled for the object.

It was there! He quickly pulled it from her pocket with a forced grin when he saw her thin smile. He then pinched the emergency governor hard between his thumb and forefinger before he peeled the backing from it and pressed it to her skin behind her left ear.

Sarah let out a long, shuddering sigh of relief, and her head came up as she looked a little more lucidly into his eyes. "Check one of them for a knife," she said softly, jerking her head toward the two bodies on the floor.

Chuck scrambled over to the body of the dead henchman and patted his pockets down before jumping back to his feet with a Spyderco folding knife that he quickly flipped open to cut Sarah's bonds. As he cut the last tie wrap around her ankle, Sarah rose quickly from the chair and clasped her arms around his neck, burying her head in his chest under his chin.

They held each other tight for a moment, only to be snapped back to reality by the sound of suppressed gunfire somewhere outside the room. After looking at each other for a second, they moved toward the door but Sarah stumbled as they stepped toward it.

"Sarah, are you okay?"

"I don't know…feel woozy…terrible headache."

"We've got to get you out of here. C'mon, let me help you." Chuck slipped his arm around her and moved out into the hallway after peeking around the door frame to make sure it was clear. They heard footsteps running around the corner up ahead and Chuck quickly opened the door to another office and backed into it as the footsteps came closer. He turned to check the room they entered and thankfully it was empty. His eyes fell onto a map on the wall, and he flashed. The Czech Republic?

He peeked back into the hallway. It looked clear so he took Sarah around her shoulders again and moved down the hall, only to almost walk into two very large men as they rounded a corner. Forced to drop Sarah, he snap kicked one of the men in the groin and stepped sideways to the man's partner delivering a two knuckle punch into a pressure point on the side of his neck. As the blow landed he grabbed the enemy agents wrist with his other hand, locking the stunned agent's arm, and flung the large man into the wall headfirst.

Sarah had fallen onto one knee and was rising to her feet again when the Fulcrum thug Chuck had kicked grabbed her arm above her left wrist and tried to yank her back. But she grabbed his wrist right back and yanked down putting her weight into the motion as she turned into him and her right palm came up striking him in the chin, stunning him.

Her left arm then wrapped around his arm under his armpit as she trapped his wrist under her own armpit, and then stepped back and settled her stance, pulling the large man painfully back by his bent back and locked arm. Sarah then delivered a snap kick to the side of his knee and flung him to the ground by his barred arm as his knee collapsed, finally finishing him off with a hammer blow to his nose the instant his head hit the floor with a crack.

And just like that her fight was over. Fortunately, she didn't flash, and she looked up just in time to see Chuck deliver a final blow to the other enemy agent. The fierceness of the blow startled her. She had no idea Chuck had that in him, and as she stared at him she collapsed to the floor again on her knees.

Chuck rushed to her side and picked her up again, "Hang on, honey, we're going to get you out of here. We're going to fix this once and for all," he exclaimed as he started to half carry her down the hallway.

"So tired, Chuck. My head hurts so bad…"

- VII -

Carina and Zondra rounded a corner in the hallway after exiting the elevator and approached the glass wall partitioned entrance to the offices of Tempest Industries. As they quickly but cautiously moved up to it, the glass erupted into flying shards and bullet holes, finally falling to the floor in a shower of a thousand pieces of safety glass. Carina sprinted and rolled across the opening to come up on the other side.

Dropping to one knee, she threw a hand signal to Zondra and the two of them rounded the corners in unison and fired on two of the enemy agents with their short-barreled M4's mounted with integral suppressors. The Kevlar body armor the enemy agents were wearing was no match for the high-velocity 5.56mm bullets, and they punched through the vests like they were made of paper, dropping both of the men in their tracks.

"Remind me to thank your bearded gnome for giving us the right tools for the job," Zondra exclaimed from across the open entrance with a grin.

Carina rolled her eyes at her friend, "His name is Morgan, and I'll be sure to remind you!" Then she stood and fired around the corner again dropping another Fulcrum agent, only to quickly lower her gun when she saw Chuck carrying Sarah across a hallway in the background. She pulled abruptly back and looked at Zondra mouthing "Chuck and Sarah" with a wide-eyed jerk of her head.

Zondra mouthed back, "Where?" and Carina emphatically motioned with her hand toward the back of the room.

They both then turned the corners and laid down full-auto covering fire at the remaining Fulcrum agents as they saw Chuck and Sarah move toward a connecting hallway at the rear corner of the room.

So the CATS are here. Chuck allowed himself to smile at that. Maybe there was a light at the end of the tunnel after all. He moved down the hallway toward a stairwell entry only to spot more men in black tactical garb spilling from the doorway. Shit! That's what I get for thinking happy thoughts!

Opening a door, he backed into a private office behind him, looking around as he went in. There was a private entrance at the back of it and he made his way to the door to peek out into the hallway. He saw Carina and Zondra off to his left and an elevator straight to his front. Not wasting a second he hoisted Sarah into a fireman's carry and headed for the elevator.

Zondra looked past Carina, and upon seeing Chuck carrying Sarah, pointed vigorously down the hallway. Carina looked just in time to see Chuck carrying Sarah into the elevator and the door closing. "Morgan; Chuck and Sarah are on an elevator headed your way! And Sarah looks like she's injured!"

"Roger that Carina, we'll be waiting for them!" Morgan ran toward the bank of elevators and watched as two of them indicated their cars were descending toward the lobby. Damn, which one?

Alex ran up to his side and they anxiously waited for both of the doors to open. The door on the left chimed and Chuck stepped out of it carrying Sarah over his shoulder. They all locked eyes for a second as time froze before it was then put back into slow motion by the dragging ring from the other elevator door as it opened.

Alex McHugh spun around and saw a submachine gun barrel coming out of the door and reached for it, yanking it with all her might, causing the sling to snap hard against the enemy agent's neck, jerking him forward. As he came forward she slammed the butt of the weapon into his face and the man went down hard on the elevator floor as Morgan quickly drew a tranq pistol and shot him in the neck.

Both Chuck and Morgan looked at Alex with astonishment before Chuck came back to his senses and started to move toward the front entrance of the building.

"Where are you going, Chuck?" his short bearded friend asked as Chuck headed for the large glass doors carrying Sarah.

"I've got to get Sarah some help, Morgan! I think Ellie may be the only one who can help her now!" Chuck carried Sarah through the door and out onto the street looking around for some kind of transportation, finally spotting the spy van across the street.

No sooner had he started to step toward the curb when a Thunder Gray Cadillac CTS screeched to a halt in front of him and Nikki Lawson opened the driver's door standing up to yell at him, "Get in!"

Chuck scrambled to the back door of the car and opened it to place Sarah in the back seat while Jose Espinoza tried to help him. He was getting into the rear seat with Sarah when John Casey dashed around the car and jerked Jose from the front seat as he was getting back in.

"Out of the car, numbnuts, I'm calling shotgun," he brusquely exclaimed as he climbed into the passenger seat. Nikki shot Casey a wry smile as he slammed the door and pounded the dash. "GO!" She then dropped the clutch, and they roared away down the street leaving Morgan, Alex, and Jose standing on the sidewalk.

"That woman drives like a maniac," muttered, Jose, his face bleached white from the ride.

"Where are we going?" Chuck asked as they rocketed down the street and Nikki Lawson speed-shifted into another gear.

"Anywhere but here!" responded Nikki looking over her shoulder briefly at him with a worried expression instantly on her face when she saw Sarah.

"Take us to Castle! We have to get help from Ellie and Manoosh!"

"Are you sure, Chuck? Castle has been compromised," Casey said, glaring at him skeptically.

"We have to, Casey! Ellie and Manoosh are the only ones who can help Sarah! Not even the governor is helping now!"

"Calm down, Bartowski, we need you to keep a clear head," Casey snarled, "We'll get you there." The big NSA agent then pulled out his cell phone and punched Ellie's speed dial number.

Casey looked over at Nikki, and they both shared a look of dread as Nikki pulled onto the freeway and floored it while Chuck sat in the back seat holding his wife to him, rocking her in his arms. He closed his eyes when he looked forward to see the speedometer approaching 150 miles-per-hour.

- VIII -

"Chuck!" Ellie blurted, as she watched them descend the stairs from Cobra Holdings into Castle, "Thank God you're all right."

Chuck was following Casey as the big man carried Sarah down the stairs in his arms. Nikki was limping along bringing up the rear.

Ellie took a quick look at Sarah's eyes and checked her pulse when they reached the bottom of the stairs and turned to Chuck, giving him a brief bone-crushing hug before turning back to Casey. "Manoosh is waiting for Sarah in the lab, let's get her down there, stat." Ellie's face was clouded with worry as she looked at Sarah.

As they hurried down the bullet-pockmarked and blood stained corridor to the download lab Ellie turned to Chuck, "What happened, little brother?"

"Sarah was exposed to the flashcards again, Ellie. That sicko, Simon McKay tried to use her to coerce me into being a tool for his insane designs."

"He won't ever be doing that again, Chuck," Casey said with cold resolve as he held his partner in his arms, striding down the hallway.

Ellie looked at Casey wondering what exactly that meant when her brother spoke up again. "Not only did he use the flashcards on her, but they took away her governor for I don't know how long, and she flashed horribly a couple of times while we were held captive. I'm really worried, Ellie, I've never seen her this bad. Not even the governor is working now. What are we going to do?"

"The only thing we can do, Chuck," said Ellie holding his arm and leaning into him as they walked, "We're going to have to overwrite her Intersect with the Iv4 program."

Chuck stopped and gripped his sister's hand on his arm looking at her with alarm in his eyes, "Are we ready for that?"

"Probably as ready as we're ever going to be, little brother. Manoosh finished up the final scripting only about an hour ago. C'mon, we need to hurry,' she said as she tugged him down the hall after Casey who had never slowed down.

Chuck tried to absorb all of that as they hurried to the lab and Dr. Depak passed them through both the security doors without locking down the mantrap. Manoosh rushed to Sarah and opened her eyes with his two fingers to check her pupils before also checking her pulse at her neck. He handed Ellie a wrist-style blood pressure monitor, which she immediately placed on Sarah's wrist to check her blood pressure. Ellie and Manoosh exchanged a look as the numbers flashed on the unit.

"Is Sarah wearing a governor, Chuck?" Manoosh asked.

"Yes, she's wearing the emergency one you gave her behind her left ear. It doesn't appear to be helping anymore."

"Well, we're going to have to remove it for the Iv4 download," Manoosh replied as he reached behind Sarah's ear and pulled the governor away. Sarah's breath hitched, and her respiration immediately became sharp and shallow. "Well, it appears it was helping her somewhat," Manoosh uttered with an empathetic groan. "We're going to have to move fast. Take her into the download room, Casey."

"No, hand her over to me, I'll take care of her. I want to be with her," Chuck exclaimed as he reached to Casey for his wife.

"You can't both be in the download room at the same time Chuck," Ellie protested holding his arm.

"Yes, I can, and I will. Don't try to stop me, Ellie. I'll hold her eyes open for her while she receives the download, and I'll keep my eyes closed while it's taking place. Afterwards, you can update my Intersect. It will save time, and Sarah won't be alone if something goes wrong. I'm not leaving her alone, Ellie, period."

Chuck's sister looked carefully at him apparently attempting to assess his resolve, "All right, Chuck, we'll do it your way, but let John carry her in. The process shouldn't take long, and you'll only have to hold her eyes open at the very beginning. I'll let you know when you can open your eyes for your update."

Casey carried Sarah into the chamber, and Chuck took a seat in the padded recliner chair in the middle, motioning for John to place Sarah in his lap. Chuck held his wife reclined back in his arms, and Manoosh tilted the chair back before the rest of them left the chamber and the electronic doors closed.

"This is going to take about ten minutes, Chuck," Ellie explained while Dr. Depak typed rapidly on a keyboard. "Wait for our word before opening your eyes."

Chuck nodded back to her and gulped, "I'm ready."

"Okay. Open Sarah's eyes and close yours," his sister said, the worry obvious in her voice.

Chuck held his left arm around Sarah's head and opened her eyes with his fingertips, causing her to moan. "It's okay, Baby. Hang on, Sarah, everything is going to be okay." He scrunched his own eyes tightly shut.

"Stand by, Chuck," said Manoosh, "Download beginning in three, two, one…"

There was a low hum that resonated around the room, and a thump that he could feel through the chair, followed by a whirring sound that changed rapidly in pitch, and light playing across his closed eyelids. It took all his will power to keep from opening his eyes as he felt Sarah twitching in his arms. And for one of the few times in his life, he prayed as he held her. After what felt like hours, but what had only been the ten minutes Ellie described, the sound and light stopped with a low thunk, and Sarah abruptly went limp.

"We're done Chuck. Stand by for your update," Ellie said, over the intercom. "Okay, place your hands over Sarah's eyes and open yours. Update starting in three, two, one…"

The same low hum started, followed by the resonating sound and the thump, and his eyes were seized by the appearance of multiple three-dimensional geometric shapes that were projected in space around him. He couldn't move a muscle as the shapes flashed from one form to another in front of him holding him paralyzed for what felt like an eternity. He couldn't even think. And then it all stopped with another thunk, and he felt himself swiftly slipping into a state of relaxation he had never felt before, and everything went black.

A/N – And thus begins a new adventure. Chuck and Sarah have just stepped squarely into the realm of comic books. How fitting that is for a guy like Chuck?