A/N: Closing on the end of our tale.

Spy vs. Spy vs. Spy vs. Spy

Chapter Twenty-One: Meccanik-Dancing

Shaw grinned at Chuck and Sarah — his grin chilled Sarah through, its indescribable teaming of the mechanical and the feral. Automated tiger.

Sarah felt Chuck's hand settle in the small her back, his touch light, warm. She kept her eyes on Shaw.

"I let you live before, Bartowski. Gave you a chance. But if you stand between me and Walker, I will dismantle you, limb by limb."

Sarah glanced at Chuck. He seemed calm, unruffled. But then she saw the strain in his eyes, hidden, perhaps, from Shaw — but Sarah could see it. She knew the man she loved — though she had fought that knowledge so as the keep him, to keep her, from knowing her. Chuck was still struggling against the Intersect, the newest download. He came back, back to her, but he was not free. The maze, the Intersect, was pulling him back toward it.

"You can't have Sarah, Shaw. You need help. Beckman. Go to her, let them help you. Beckman and Orion."

But the riot in Shaw's eyes did not quiet. He continued to grin his awful grin. "No, Bartowski, because I am going to kill them too. I am going to burn this town to the ground, every White House of it. Let them see if they can stop what they made, made of me!" Shaw kicked Bryce savagely and he moved in response; he was alive.

"They stole my world from me, Chuck. Evelyn. Walker gunned her down on a Paris street, not knowing that she killed me too. Two hearts, one bullet. Walker's a killer, Chuck, it's all she is and has been and ever will be. I'm sure she hasn't told you that."

Chuck shook his head. "No, she hasn't told me much, Shaw, not until...very recently." He gave Sarah the same smile he had when he got out of the car. "But she's not a killer, Shaw. I assume you had a Red Test? Who did you kill? Whose world did you destroy?" Chuck's smile had vanished as he gave Shaw a searching look.

For a moment, the chaos in Shaw's eyes changed character, almost as if his eyes changed color, to the color of guilt, if guilt had a color. Then he stiffened, the chaos became deathly once more. His posture was final, there was a finality in it: he was committed. Chuck's attempt had failed.

Shaw's hand whipped down and up, faster than Sarah could see. She just saw the hole of the barrel, a small dark abyss in the weak streetlight, about to call her into the larger abyss, into nothingness. But as Shaw's gun cracked, Sarah felt Chuck spinning her, pulling her to the ground. She was not dead; she felt the pavement scrape her knees, felt her elbow take the impact of it. Chuck landed between her and Shaw. He extended his feet, pushing her back toward the open rear door of the car. And then Chuck twisted and kicked: and then he was on his feet. He defied gravity.

Shaw gasped. "You...You too! An Intersect."

Chuck wasted no words in response. He charged Shaw while Shaw was reorienting, processing. And then Shaw grinned again and fired. Chuck had left his feet an infinitesimal fraction of a second before the shot: he covered the final two yards to Shaw in the air. Stretched out, as if he could fly. Sarah heard the bullet hit the car.

Shaw missed; Chuck anticipated the shot. And then Chuck sailed into Shaw and the two of them went down, blows falling even as they both fell. Shaw's gun hit the pavement and his foot kicked it as he hammered his head viciously into Chuck's. Sarah felt, not just heard, the dull thud. The two locked in a computer-human pile of surging limbs.

Sarah scrambled up to her knees, about to run for Shaw's gun, when she heard a voice. "The governor, Sarah." She turned. The front passenger door was open just a crack. Frost's face was near it, bloodied and gray. "It'll kill him, Sarah. If he fights it. He's not just...fighting Shaw…" Frost's face fell and Sarah could only see her brown hair.

She looked back at Chuck. Shaw was on top of him, strangling him. Sarah scrambled up. Her purse was on the ground. Scooping it up, she fisted her hand inside and grabbed the watch. The watch in her left hand, she dropped the purse from her right hand. With it, she snagged Shaw's gun, almost without breaking stride. But as she brought it up to kill him, Shaw was on her, the acrid smell of his sweat, his blood, all around her. He squeezed her to him. At the last second, Sarah tossed the watch toward Chuck.

She could not see where it landed or if Chuck saw it. If Chuck was alive. She tried to shout, but Shaw's boa-embrace was powered by his obsession, his madness, his lust for Sarah's blood, her death. She had been targeted for death before, but never this...personally. Shaw bent down and kissed her, his tongue the completion of his boa-embrace: he pushed it into her mouth, a fevered, fat snake. Then, squeezing somehow still more tightly, he pulled back, his eyes staring down into hers. His head loomed above her.

"I will watch your lights dim and die, Sarah, and you will feel me take everything from you," he hissed in triumph. She heard a crack that she did not feel, though she knew it was her ribs. Shaw's gaze intensified, no longer human; he was death, her death. Blackness coiled around the edges of her vision, squeezing out the light. Her last breath had been decades and decades ago. Shaw's lips stretched as her vision failed, she was limp, a breath that would not come, knees that could not support her weight. The abyss was swallowing her, another boa, infinite, levering her into its maw.

I love you, Chuck. I'm so sorry it won't happen for us, all of it, you and me…

And then Shaw's head exploded, red paint sprayed all around her but she could not feel it, only see it.

She collapsed to the pavement, her last memory Shaw's blood.

She woke to find Chuck beside her.

He was talking to her. No, no...not quite right...he was talking as if to her — but he did not know she was conscious, a little conscious. He was pleading, his face bloody, with more blood running down from a tear in the flesh of his forehead.

"I had to kill him, Sarah. He was killing you. The only shot I could be sure of was a headshot. I had to do it." He wiped the blood away from his eyes.

"And, about Amy. I didn't. She kept trying. She had her hands...places...and I wanted to, I did, damn it...because it had been so long— and because of what you did, and she was tempting me, showing me...things...putting my hands...places...But I waited so long for you, Sarah. I made that mistake with Jill, being with someone else when you were the one I wanted…But waiting only made me madder..."

She was unsure if Chuck's speech was itself fragmented or if her consciousness was.

She heard a distant whine. Eventually, it identified itself. A siren, siren singing, a siren song.

Chuck went on. "You saved me. Called me back, then gave me the governor. Mom's dead. I understand the Ring now, know their plan. They won't stop me; they think I belong to them. I'm going to finish them.

"The spy world won't let me have you, Sarah Walker. But I stopped Shaw. You can stop. Quit, please, if you can hear any of this, stop. Walk away. Be the real woman you were meant to be. Be happy. I love you; I can't help it, I just do. I tried not to, told myself I shouldn't, couldn't, that you didn't love me. But it's who I am, Sarah. I'm Chuck Bartowski — the man who loves Sarah Walker."

She felt soft lips on hers.

And they were gone and she lost the portion of consciousness she had.

"Agent Walker?" A soft, female voice.

Sarah blinked and opened her eyes. Beckman was standing beside her. Orion and Ellie were behind Beckman. They were in a hospital room, the three of them.

And then Sarah realized she was there too. The four of them.

"Chuck!" Sarah yelled his name and her chest became a circus of pain; she almost blacked out. Ellie stepped forward. "Don't, Sarah. Don't move. Breathe softly. You have several broken ribs. The painkiller's wearing off. They'll bring more soon."

Ellie's hand rubbed Sarah's shoulder softly; it felt like the touch of a friend. Sarah looked into Ellie's face. Sorrow was gathered deep in Ellie's eyes. Sarah felt a fear that eclipsed any she had ever known.

"Chuck," she whispered to Ellie, "where's Chuck?"

Ellie dropped her head.

A/N: Thoughts?