Hello fellow Chucksters! So this is it. The last chapter of a story that started out in 2012, and not in an epic "this-story-has-500-chapters"-way, but the "this-story-has-a-busy/lazy-author"-way... ;) So, the last chapter. I hope that you will be happy with the way it ends as I've had this ending in mind for quite some time now. Please leave me a review, seeing as it is the last time you'll be able to do so. :)

Chuck

They'd been running for at least twenty minutes but there had been no sign whatsoever of the President's office. The palace was no easy place to play seeking-games in, all of the rooms looked the same and the whole place just felt like a giant labyrinth where the office was the centre; A labyrinth with no ending were death was lurking behind every corner.

"The guards will be back from the cell block any moment now Chuck. If we don't find that office soon we're going to get caught." Sarah panted as she tried to keep up with him.

"I know. I'm not even sure if we're in the western wing! What if we try upstai...?" A loud bang on the other side of the door, which they were just about to step through, silenced him, and he silently motioned for Sarah to step away from the door and hide. Once they were positioned safely behind a huge bookcase in the room, the door opened. Chuck slowly moved his head to be able to see the person who had entered the room.

"Morgan!"

The little bearded man turned white as a sheet and for a few seconds it looked as though he would collapse to the floor.

"Christ Chuck is your one goal in life to scare me to death?" He managed to say as Chuck rose from behind the bookcase and rushed to embrace his friend. "Here I am walking down these creepy halls more scared than I've ever been in my whole life and you decide to make a jump-scare at me!?"

But Morgan's face quickly returned to its original yellow-pink colour and he smiled.

"But you're alive, that's good news my man! My mission was to bring you back, so I suppose that you can call me an agent now. Plutarch will be very pleased indeed to hear this."

He picked out his phone and was just about the enter Plutarch's number as the door once more flew open. But this time the people that came in were no friendly faces, instead it was the palace guards.

"I wouldn't think so. Drop that phone and put your hands in the air. We have you surrounded."

Mary

Getting to Snow's office had been easy; maybe too easy. But standing here with her hand on the doorknob leading in to the man she had always dreamt about killing, she felt... Could it be called disappointed? She'd always envisioned herself bursting through this door, weapons in her hand and a plan in her head. She'd always thought revenge would feel so good, that it would somehow set back time. Bring back all those years with her husband and her children that she had lost. But right now she just felt empty. Sure she was here. She'd managed to steal a gun from a guard that she'd knocked down and she had something that could be called a plan as well. She was going to get her ultimate revenge, but she had never before realised that that wasn't what she was craving. As she turned the doorknob and stepped through the door she realised that she was craving her family.

She found him sitting in his big fluffy chair by the oak desk, staring out the window. He didn't even turn to look at her as she stepped in.

"I've been waiting for you Mary." He simply announced as she locked the door behind her, clicked off the safety on her gun and stepped closer to him. He finally turned around to face her and the absolute calmness in his feature infuriated her. What did he know that she didn't?

"There is no need to be so informal Mary, why don't you sit down?"

"You don't get to tell me what to do Snow" She spat back at him. "You can say whatever you want, you can try and manipulate me just like you've manipulated everyone you've ever known, but this is it. You're going to die today, right here right now, even if I have to go down with you."

"Well well, no need to be bad-mannered." He smiled at her with a smile so hollow and cold that she almost shivered. "Honestly I'm a little bit disappointed with you Mary. I thought you'd come here for information."

She blinked a few times, angry with herself that she had let him see her uncertain. She carefully rearranged her facial expression to her previous brusque one and tried to act as though he hadn't surprised her.

"What are you talking about? Don't play games with me Snow, don't forget that I know all your tricks."

"Your husband, Stephen. I thought you'd come here because wanted to know what happened to him all those years ago."

She felt her heart sinking in her chest. No, not him, not Stephen. The pain was immediate and inevitable, he had found her sore point and he knew it.

"What about him?"

"Oh, but Mary. I have overestimated you all this time. Don't say you never understood? A mining accident, really?"

"No". She was trying so hard to stay strong, but her trembling voice gave her away. Hot tears were piling up in her eyes and she tried to blink them away. "When?"

"Oh I don't remember really, one of the years that you were here working as a game maker. Just think of it though. You two here in the Capitol at the same time, him in a torture chamber and you at a fancy party. What mustn't he have thought of you? He must have hated you so much at the end."

Fury hot as fire, mixed with all those feelings of love, loss and guilt that she'd supressed for so many years came rushing back to her system and she completely dropped her calm facade.

"Don't you dare! Don't you dare talk about my husband like that!" She was barely able to breath, the revelation being too much. He had been there, so close and dying. Maybe hoping for her to save him, to come and release him. All in vain. "My husband and I knew what we were getting into when we started all of this. We knew that it wouldn't be easy, but that it would be worth it. Stephen J. Bartowski gave his life to stop you, and don't think that you're going to stop me from finishing what he started by making me feel like I killed him. It is your fault that he is dead, you're the only person with his blood on your hands!" The fire was raging through every cell in her body. She would not rest until this man had stopped breathing.

"Well then Mary, if that's how you feel. I was hoping that it wouldn't come to this, but I see no other way. Come in!" The last two words were obviously not aimed at her, and she spun around to see to whom they were. In through the door came a guard dragging Chuck in front of him whilst pointing a gun at his head. Sarah and Morgan, both in the same position as Chuck, later followed with their guards. "So sad to think that little Charles here has to go the same way as his father, and even in the same building! It makes quite a good story though, don't you think Mary? I like it when there's symbolism."

"Chuck." She whispered, the fire slowly dying out inside her.

"I'm sorry mum." He whispered back, his face pained with anger and hopelessness.

"Such a tragedy really, they are so young." The president said dramatically, his face revealing that he didn't really think it a tragedy at all.

Slowly she bent down and forced one finger at a time to drop the gun she'd previously held as a lifeline.

"I'll do whatever you want Snow, just let them go."

Snow smiled. "I know you will Mary, no one knows better than I just how far you are willing to go for the people you love. You had me fooled for a lot of years before I understood that you were working to take me down, if you remember."

He rose from his chair, walked over to one of the huge windows in the room and stared down at the city over which he ruled.

"Our country is in turbulence Mary, a very bad turbulence at that. I need you to help your country."

"With what?" She said through clenched teeth.

"I need you to pose as a double agent again, but this time for me. I need you to call off this uprising, tell Plutarch that you need to wait, that you aren't ready for this yet. Then I need you to keep passing on information from thirteen to me."

"That plan is never going to work, everything has already been set into motion."

Snow smiled.

"Perhaps that is true, but I really do suggest that you do your best, for the sake of the children." He motioned towards Chuck, Sarah and Morgan. "And you will play your role with outmost excellence if you know what's..."

A loud bang interrupted him and the stillness that had previously filled the room was gone within a few seconds. One of the guards intercom sprung to life and a man's voice filled the room;

"They're here. I repeat thirteen is in the building. Code black."

Snow's had turned a bit paler than before, but was till as calm as ever. He turned to his guards.

"Well we'll have to change the plans then. Kill them, start with the son."

He grabbed something on his desk and turned to leave the room, but stopped with his hand on the doorknob. "Actually, let Mrs Bartowski live". He looked at Mary as though the sight of her gave him great pleasure. "My final revenge, I hope you've learnt that one should never betray me Mary. You've brought this one on yourself". He opened the door and disappeared through it.

The guard holding Chuck pushed Chuck away from him so that they were facing each other and turned off the safety on his gun.

"No! Please I beg you!"

Mary rushed forward but the guard holding Morgan grabbed her and smashed his gun to her head. She fell to the floor.

"No!" Sarah was trying desperately to free herself, but without luck.

A shot was fired and then chaos erupted in the room. The door flew open and at least a dozen of thirteen's people came bursting through it. Multiple shots were fired and bodies covered the floor. In a corner of the room Morgan Grimes' heart stopped beating.

One year later

Chuck was sitting alone by a small lake in the woods outside of District twelve. He often found himself sitting there when he needed to get away from everything. All the memories, everyone they'd lost, the responsibility and guilt that he still felt from time to time. He heard something creaking behind him and turned around just in time to see Sarah coming out of the grove behind him.

"Hi."

She sat down next to him and pulled her knees up to her chest.

"Your sister is looking for you"

He did not answer.

Although a lot of time had passed since they'd taken down Snow and the Capitol, the country's wounds were beyond deep and it would take a long time before they were healed. To make the country into a real democracy, to change the school-system, laws and district-system were not something you did overnight.

"Where are we supposed to meet for tonight?" He asked instead.

"I'm not sure, somewhere Morgan can access with his wheelchair I suppose."

She noticed the pained look that flashed across his face.

"You need to stop beating yourself up about that Chuck."

"The shot was meant for me, and now Morgan is paying the price."

"That shot would have killed you and Morgan jumped in front of you and took that bullet to save you. He is not sad about it and neither should you be."

"He almost died Sarah."

She sighed.

"He is here. He is alive and happy and the doctors say that he might even walk again. Chuck the war is over, Snow is dead and we came out victorious. Plus don't you think Morgan would rather have his best friend alive rather than being able to walk?"

She reached out her hand and he grabbed it.

"I'm sorry Sarah. Some days are just extra though."

She moved closer to him and leaned her head against his shoulder.

"I know Chuck, I have those days too. But we have each other, forever. When the memories become too much we'll help one another."

They sat in silence and looked at the picturesque lake. By sitting there looking at it, it was hard to imagine that there had been a war raging just a few minutes away from it. The memories from the games and the war would eventually fade, but never disappear completely and Chuck thought that that might be a good thing. With those memories they could build a new society that was the complete opposite of the previous nightmare. He looked down on his and Sarah's linked hands. "A society based on this." He thought.

It feels really weird to finish this, seeing as it's been here for such a long time. When I first started writing this story I was in my first year of High School and now I've graduated. But it also feels very good to actually have an end to this story. I think both the story and you readers deserve it! Please leave a comment with your thoughts on the ending!

/Rebecca321 3