A/N Wow. Last chapter. First off I would like to thank all of you who reviewed throughout the course of this story. You are the reason there was more than one chapter. I would also like to apologize to Sydney and Guest along with anybody else who my request for reviews may have offended. I am sorry. Also, Sydney and Guest, you will notice that your reviews where deleted. The reason for that is that although I appreciate constructive criticism (or even just insults) about my writing, I do not appreciate having my personality insulted especially seeing as you have never met me, there for have no right to insult myself as a person. There for, thank you for your opinions but in the future please don't say anything. Other than that, enjoy and please feel free to review one last time. Thanks for letting me right for you!
XOXO - You-Just-Might
I feel the falling glass cut my upturned face. I can smell the sharp tang of blood but I don't shield my face. I don't try to protect myself but instead smile as I see my friends and teachers spill into the room that just moments before I thought I would die in. The gun in my hand feels hot but I don't drop it, only tighten my grip and hope for the best. When the glass stops falling and my allies feet hit the ground, I know that we might have a chance after all. I look around and see the majority of my class looking back at me as I point a gun at the shocked group of Circle leaders, not to mention a man who's supposed to be dead.
"Hi," I say as though I do this everyday, which lets face it, isn't a far stretch. I take in who came and see all of the faculty excluding Dr. Fibs who must have stayed behind to watch the younger students. Even Joe is here. Most of the senior class is here as well, I see Tina, Anna and many others but my heart almost breaks when I see Liz, Macey, Preston and Bex standing off to the side, their eyes boring into mine. I smile at them and silently thank whoever made it so that they got my message in time. I try to ignore the fact that somebody as undertrained as Preston is standing with them.
"Hey," says my Mom. "Anything we can do to help?"
"Actually, if somebody could make sure Zach is okay, that would be great." I say, my eyes trained on the men and women I have at gunpoint.
"I'm good Cam." Zach says, coming up beside me, a gun in his hand as well. "Thanks for killing my mother baby." He adds, squeezing my arm with one hand.
"Anytime." I grin. "So," I say to my dear friends from the Circle. "You have made the last year of my life a living hell and although I would love to thank each and every one of you with a bullet to the brain stem -and believe me, I would like that very much- I have to hand you over to the CIA so that they can do with you as they see fit. Whether that be torture, death or a life time of imprisonment, I don't care. I've gotten my revenge. Catherine is dead and I got to kill her. Although I would love to continue with that theme, I don't feel like explaining that as I debrief so all thirteen of you are going to come peacefully with us and you will be delivered in one piece to the CIA headquarters in DC."
"I don't think that'll fly sweetheart," says a voice I recognize well.
"Will," I gasp. Of all the people in this room, I'm only truly afraid of him. I can't let him see though. "I take it you where a spy. How is it that Catherine didn't realize who you where?"
"Oh well, you know…" he grins wickedly. "Rape a few captives and you win trust easily enough. I can't say I didn't enjoy it though, god you where good. You fought me every step of the way, the way you twisted and kicked and screamed, it was great." He steps forward and touches my face, running his fingers over my jaw. I'm paralyzed. "Lets do it again sometime." He says. Then a gun goes off, not mine, and he falls to the ground, blood running down his side.
Zach steps up to him with his gun raised. "That's my girlfriend you bastard," he says, a homicidal gleam in his eyes. Then he shoots him once more and he dies.
I want to sit down and cry, to have Zach's arms around me, but I can't. If I show weakness, it is over. I tear my eyes from Will's corpse and look at the group of Circle leaders again, wondering why they haven't attacked yet, Do the enjoy banter? I try for a peaceful no death or fighting solution one more time. "Correction, the twelve of you will come peacefully to be detained by the CIA."
"What Will said," Mr. Winters grins. "That's not going to fly sweetheart."
After that its a blur, I throw punches and bullets, I kick and I twirl, always making sure Zach is beside me. Then I hear an agonized scream and whirl towards it, knowing something is wrong. You know how some people swear that when a loved one died, they felt it, that they knew it happened? I knew. I knew before I saw that curly blonde hair turned red with blood, before I heard those gasping, hysterical sobs that I didn't know I was capable of, before I turned on the woman standing over my little Lizzy with blood on her hands and beat her until her body was unrecognizable, fuelled by a rage that came from somewhere deep inside of me that I didn't know existed. Before strong hands pulled me away and a voice I love told me over and over again that she was dead, that they where both dead. Before I sobbed into Zach's arms as people fought around us. Before it ended and before we won. At least they said we'd won, but they never said what we lost.
I knew before they handed me a medal and called me a hero. Before the world found out that an agent of the CIA had brought down a terrorist organization that had plagued our county for over a hundred years. I knew before I was named valedictorian of the graduating class of 2013 and before my boyfriend forced me out of bed to go to my best friend's funeral. I knew when Elizabeth Sutton died. Nobody will tell me why. Why my best friend is dead. Why for weeks afterward it was a struggle to get out of bed in the morning. Why when it seemed like I might finally beat them, the Circle took one of the things I'd been fighting to protect, the lives of the people I loved. Why when the rest of the world called me a hero, I was perpetually stuck in an abandoned warehouse standing in front of curly blonde hair turned red with blood. Day after day, month after month, I knew. It got easier though. They washed Lizzy's hair for her funeral and it was just blonde curls again. They buried her in her favourite E=mc2 pyjama's. Her strictly civilian parents became not so strictly civilian parents and her younger sister came to Gallagher as a seventh grader. I got out of bed every morning knowing that Zach would be waiting on the other side of the door to help me through the day and one morning, I realized it didn't hurt so much. Bex and Macey slowly healed as well but both of them did their best to hide their grief from me. My mother spoke at Liz's funeral, she said that even though Liz wasn't the first sister we'd lost, she brought the worst grief in her passing. That she had been a genius with a mini van that could go over 500mph, that she'd been a loyal friend and had given everything to protect her country. There wasn't a dry eye.
The Circle leaders have been imprisoned without trial and are all on death row. Although we are still meeting some resistance from the tattered remains of the Circle, they've pretty much crumbled without direction. Mr. Winter's had had a heart to heart with his son from opposite sides of bullet proof glass that had ended with Preston making a rude hand gesture and vulgar comment about what his father could do with his apologies and honor and then walked out of the room. Joe's been reinstated as Covert Affairs Prof. and shares the job with Abby. And me? I'm trying to patch up my relationship with my mother and enjoy the one I have with Zach... in between seeing my friends of course. We graduated last week, but there was an empty place at our table. A hole in our hall. In the end, there was a grave, a defeat and a victory. I never saw it coming.