A/N: One chapter after this. And then a Postscript. Thanks, everyone.

Don't own Chuck.

CHAPTER 16 Apocalyptic

Orion indeed had power.

He was a master of Caster lore, of spells that no one any longer remembered, of spells from so long ago everyone had forgotten that they had been forgotten. He was able to 'translate', as he called it, the entire group from LA to a safe house not far distant from Pungo. The spell was not a teleportation spell, and it was not like the power Chuck had used when moving Sarah and Casey and Kamon in Thailand. According to Orion, the spell moved the destination closer to the departure, folding up space like an accordion, so that the group could step from LA to Virginia. However it did what it did, it got them safely to where they were going.

The hope was to lay low in the safe house during the day and to begin an attack on the caverns below the base at around dusk. One problem with the plan was that it took a large amount of Orion's power to cast the spell; it was unclear how much he would have left for the battle. But they could not wait: waiting might mean missing their opportunity, and allowing Graham to begin whatever he had planned.

Orion and Carina had been into the caverns before and would lead the group inside. Once in, the team would split into two groups, one, Team A, to go to the Seers' labs and to take or to destroy The Convergence technology. Orion, Beckmann, and Carina would take on that task.

The other, Team B, Chuck, Sarah, and Casey, would attempt to find Graham. Orion was reasonably sure that Graham had two rooms he most often used, one above ground that he used at night and one below for the day. He evidently did not like the confines of the caverns but was unhappy about exposing himself above ground at Pungo during the day. He did not keep to a very strict schedule, so Team B was planning to begin by checking for Graham above ground and then working down into the caverns if that was necessary. Orion and Carina had seen enough to know that Graham normally traveled from the caverns to the above-ground office, and they had a good idea of the route he took, at least as he got into the upper caverns. Orion and Carina had had no luck locating Graham's rooms in the deep caverns. From what they had been able to work out, Graham emerged to the above-ground office to conduct certain business.

Casey was had knives in his belt and a pistol he was carrying in his hand. Sarah had her usual set of knives, some for throwing and one for combat. Chuck had nothing. Sarah had tried to convince him to take a tranq gun, but he was not interested. He seemed set on facing Graham as the Reader, and nothing more.

The only member of Team A who carried weapons was Carina. Orion and Beckmann planned to make do with Casting, foregoing any extra encumbrance. Because Carina knew Orion had already expended power with no real time for sleep, she was carrying a couple of flashbangs and a couple of regular grenades along with a pistol and a bandolier of knives and extra ammunition. She had a rifle slung over each shoulder and a high-powered flashlight in a holster on her waist. Orion had consented to take a rope, and he had it coiled over one of his shoulders. It was hard to tell what they might encounter in the caverns. Orion seemed rather happy about the whole situation. Evidently, he had brooded over Graham's dark machinations for so long alone that he was glad to finally be doing something about them and to have the help of others.

The other person whose reaction to it all seemed surprising was Chuck. Sarah noticed that instead of preoccupied worrying and fidgeting, he was calm, prepared. It was clear that he was concerned about everyone's safety, especially hers, but he did not seem excessively worried. Given all that he had to despise Graham for, and rightly so, Chuck did not seem pressed to avenge himself. He had been sad about his parents and still was. He had been outraged by Graham's abuse of her, and still was. But his primary concern was simply stopping Graham, keeping him from doing whatever foul things he had planned, preventing him from depriving other children of parents or manipulating the lives of others. Chuck had changed since the episode with the Belgian. Not toward her - he was the devoted, attentive, wonderful man she was going to marry - but he had changed toward himself and toward the larger, public world. His dithering, his diffidence, his self-doubt, had, if not vanished, then become controllable, and mostly controlled.

Chuck no longer seemed like he had made the world promises he was failing to keep, and so no longer seemed mottled with apologies, excuses, and explanations. He was keeping the promises, keeping his promise; he was becoming the man he was and could be. He had attained his unattained but attainable self, and Sarah knew he would keep on doing that. He was not a man to be satisfied with himself, who would consider himself and pronounce himself finished. He was the sort of man who would spend his life trying to make himself better by conscious endeavor.

No doubt some hand-wringing and second-guessing and spiraling would always be a part of Chuck's being-in-the-world, but Sarah found that endearing. Chuck was careful with others, but also with himself. Caring as he did occasionally required his peculiar process. But mostly these days she just felt a squeeze and a flip deep in her center when she looked at Chuck and he looked back out of his brown eyes, bottomless and lovable, but also centered and settled and collected.

Sarah found Chuck's calm an aid to her own. She had faced long odds before, and gone into danger - that was nothing new. But she was doing it this time with a ring on her finger that promised her power, but much more importantly promised her a future, a future she wanted so badly she could nearly taste it. She had so much to lose now. She owed Graham. She would collect if she could. But her primary aim was to stop him while protecting her future, while protecting Chuck. At this point, for all the rage she had felt and still sometimes felt boil up in her toward Graham, her concern for Chuck and their life together was more constant and more important to her. She wanted them to survive this - for it all to end. She wanted to get married. She wanted their future.

Casey was Casey - except that he too had a bit of the same look in his eyes that Sarah did. Or he guessed he did. Wanda was back at home (and yes, Casey was inured the use of that word). Wanda had not talked with Casey about marriage, and Casey was still too afraid to bring it up, but she had gone out of her way to let Casey know that she wanted to date him exclusively - there was no one else and she was not looking. Casey was happy about that arrangement and hoped for more. Graham was in the way of that hope. Casey was determined to move him.

They reached the edge of Pungo just as the Virgina countryside darkened, just as the sun's final light was snuffed behind the horizon. Carina led them, Orion trailing just behind her, followed by everyone else. They moved silently and quickly, a heavy sense of dread as well as a desire not to be seen causing them all to bend low as they ran.

They reached the small opening that Orion and Carina had used before when doing recon on the caverns beneath Pungo. Carina stopped a few feet from the opening and cast a spell. Chuck had moved to stand beside her and he watched as a sprinkling of orangy light dotted the opening, ground, and walls. The light faded quickly. Chuck looked at Carina and she grinned at him.

"Just checking to see if anyone has warded it. I guess they still must not have found it or cared about it, if they did."

Sarah joined them. "So, down the garbage compactor chute, Han?"

"'Fraid so, Leia." Chuck and Sarah giggled together, despite the tension in the air.

Carina looked at them and rolled her eyes so hard she got dizzy for a second. It struck her that despite the fact that she knew more about Sarah's Enforcer history than Chuck did, maybe more than he ever would, he had figured out who Sarah really was in a way that Carina had never done.

Carina had always thought of love as blind, blinding, but she was now realizing that love was a kind of vision, a way of knowing. Sarah's curly-haired nerd had loved Sarah's inner nerd into the light. Carina smirked. Her best friend had not only married a nerd, she'd turned out to be a bit of a nerd herself, and to be willing to climb to higher nerd heights.

Carina laughed to herself then, both with her friends and just a little at them. Carina was not about to start watching sci-fi movies with them or to take part in their discussions of Jane Austen. Even in all this craziness, they were both re-reading Northanger Abbey, a book Carina had come to understand had a special significance for them as a couple. Sarah enjoyed calling Chuck 'a rattle' and that he would smilingly dispute the title - but Carina wasn't in on the joke.

It didn't matter. Nerd or not, she loved Sarah and was beginning to understand Sarah's feelings for Chuck. They were a match. Carina now knew that matches were possible, and happiness, too. It might not be easy, and you might have to fight for it - fight with yourself for it, among other enemies - but it was not a will-o'-the-wisp. She wanted to end this business with Graham, and start living her own life anew, making places in it for other people as they really were, and not only as she imagined them to be, making a place in it for herself as she really was, and not as she had imagined herself to be. Imagination is a good thing, no doubt, but it is a hungry thing, and if it is left undisciplined, it can consume the life of the imaginer.

The two teams parted company. Team A went down into the depths of the caverns beneath Pungo. The labs were down near the dungeon. Team B went down too, but only to the top level of caverns. They were going to wait for Graham.

Team A

For what seemed like an eternity to Carina, she and Beckmann and Orion crept downward through corridor after corridor. They met no one. But there were constant strange smells and muffled noises. The smells were fainter versions of the smells in the Dungeon of Stenches, and they turn Carina's stomach.

Finally, they were outside the labs. They could hear voices. Carina managed to peek through the door and saw three Seers at work. The room was full of machinery and computers and magical supplies. In the center of the room was a chair that looked like a nightmare version of the old-style hairdryers women would sit under at the hair dresser's. Evidently, the chair was used by the person sitting in it and then pulling down the large hood. It had to be The Convergence. Carina gestured to Beckmann and Orion, then she took a flashbang and pushed the lab door open quietly. She tossed it in. After it went off, she followed it, and Beckmann and Orion followed her. The three Seers were stunned, either immobile or moving aimlessly. Beckmann cast a spell that sent the three of them spinning across the room. Their bodies glowed reddish gold for a moment, and then they were simply gone.

"Hated to do that," Beckmann said through clenched teeth. "But we don't have time to dally."

Carina and Orion hurried out of the lab. Orion stood in the doorway and cast. A blast of incredible heat flashed from his hands and into the room. In a moment, he has slagged all that was in the room, leaving only molten lumps of metal and clumps of ash. Everything was destroyed. No one else would become The Convergence.

Carina heard Beckmann cry out and she turned to see her in the grasp of a tall hooded figure, with an ornate robe over a cassock. The Gobbler.

He had Beckmann's hands in his. She fought but she could not cast and she was not strong enough to free herself. The Gobbler twisted her violently and yanked her hand to his mouth. Beckmann screamed. She pulled back her hand in a splash of blood. The Gobbler had bitten off two of her fingers.

Orion cast as Beckmann fell back, clutching her bleeding hand against herself. Orion's voice rang out strong and clear as he shouted instead of muttered Latin. The time for concealment was past.

The spell erupted from Orion's hands, a jagged bolt of lightning. It struck The Gobbler in the chest. The power was massive. Yet, the Gobbler stood against it. It hurt him but it did not fell him. As Orion's spell ended, The Gobbler cast. The hallway was filled with brown oily insects that moved toward Carina and Beckmann and Orion like an expanding pool of sewer water.

Carina grabbed Beckmann and pulled her away from the insects. Orion stood firm. He cast. The hallway grew instantly cold, and a heavy sheet of ice formed over the insects, locking them in place, flash-frozen fossils. The Gobbler cursed. He sprang onto the ice with dizzying, unpredictable speed, and crashed bodily into Orion before Orion could cast again. Orion, weakened from all the casting, when down hard beneath The Gobbler. Carina could think of no spell to cast that would not also harm Orion. Beckmann was watching but her eyes were glazed with pain and shock.

The Gobbler forced Orion's arms down and pinned them to the ground. He bent down, opening his mouth to show two rows of yellowed teeth and fangs. Just as he was about to bite Orion's face away from his head, Carina jumped onto The Gobbler's back.

She clicked on her powerful flashlight and crammed it into The Gobbler's mouth with such force that it lodged deep in his thick throat. He began to gag and to claw at Carina. She could feel his claws lacerate her flesh, but she would not let go, would not let him get his hands into his mouth. The Gobbler was suffocating.

Suddenly, light shone from The Gobbler's throat. The flashlight was on and the light was burning deep into The Gobbler's coal dark insides. The light began to move downward, even as The Gobbler continued to gag. He was now alight from the neck down to his legs.

Without warning, The Gobbler exploded, blowing Carina back onto the floor of the hallway and covering all of them with chunks and spray of flesh and blood. Orion, covered so completely in fragments of The Gobbler that he was unrecognizable, got up unsteadily, looking around him in disbelief.

"You killed The Gobbler! With a flashlight. With a flashlight?"

Carina wiped the thick black blood from her face and grinned a bit madly at Orion. "'May it be a light to you in dark places'…" When Orion gaped at her, Carina continued. "And if you ever tell anyone I know that line, I will cut you, Orion."

Orion hurried to bandage Beckmann's hand and staunch the bleeding. He started to dig around in the debris of The Gobbler for her fingers, but Beckmann, more in control of herself than she had been during the battle, told him not to look. She would survive without them. Carina was cut in several places. None of the cuts was so deep that it demanded immediate attention.

Together, they moved as fast as Beckmann could back toward the surface of Pungo.

Team B

Team B was waiting for Graham. They wanted him above ground. A battle under the moon would give Sarah and Chuck an advantage. She was casting the spell to draw power from the moon, the spell Chuck had seen her cast atop the building at the end of their first date. He watched her again, falling in love all over.

So far as they knew, Graham had not been able to find a way to transfer that from any female caster, since it did not seem to be a power per se but a feature of female Casters that affected their powers. They settled in. If Graham was coming above ground, it would be soon. If not, then they would have no choice but to go down to find him.

They waited for a long time. Just when they were about to give up and go deeper below Pungo, they heard a noise. They stepped back into the small hallway whose mouth they occupied. A moment or two later, two men came into view. One was ordinary looking, other than being remarkably handsome. Chuck felt Sarah's hand grab his arm. He looked at her and she mouthed Bryce.

The other man was Graham. He glowed a dark green, almost black. No one needed Chuck's power to see the glow, although Chuck could see more, could see the way that the green-black around Graham swirled and stirred as if itself alive. As it moved, it gathered into the faces of men and women and monsters, all screaming, before the green-black moved again and the faces disappeared, replaced soon by new screaming faces. Graham was hell and damnation afoot. Except he wasn't exactly afoot. He was floating a few inches above the ground; he no longer deigned to walk.

In a moment, Bryce and Graham had progressed up the main tunnel and out into the moonlight. Chuck and Sarah and Casey crept along behind them, waiting for Bryce and Graham to get far enough from the entrance to the tunnel that it would be difficult for them to return. Casey nodded in the direction of Bryce. He gestured for Chuck and Sarah to take Graham. He began to cast, as did Sarah.

Sarah's spell smacked Graham hard. But it seemed to do little except to bring them to his attention. Casey had moved away from them as he cast so that they were not all close enough to be targeted by one spell. Graham cast and the ground beneath Chuck and Sarah exploded. It was like they were standing on a geyser of earth rocked by an earthquake. The impact was severe. Sarah was knocked backward, and rolled over and over again before stopping. It turned out though that Graham had actually targeted the spell on Chuck. He was thrown up high in the air and then came down with a sickening thud. He did not move. Graham casually looked away from them and at Casey.

Casey was locked in a battle with Bryce. Each had cast an initial spell and damaged each other. Bryce couldn't use one arm; Casey was hobbled on one leg. Bryce had drawn a knife and they slammed together. It was clear to Casey that Bryce was the faster, particularly with Casey effectively fighting on one leg. But the inability to use his other arm deprived Bryce of some balance, and so of some speed. Still, the fight depended on whether or not Casey could manage to get Bryce on the ground. If Bryce remained upright, he would eventually recalibrate for this limp arm and his speed advantage would intensify, with deadly. Casey got hold of Bryce's knife hand and then drew Bryce into a clinch with his other arm. He hooked his leg behind Bryce's and then pushed his much greater body weight into Bryce. They tumbled to the ground, with Casey on of Bryce. Casey drew his own knife, knowing that Bryce could not stop him since Bryce's free arm was the limp one. Casey raised the knife over his head and prepared to finish Bryce.

At just that moment, Graham unleashed a massive volley of flames at Casey. Clearly, Graham simply did not care about Bryce; the conflagration would kill both men. Sarah shouted Casey's name just as Graham cast, and Sarah saw Casey start to roll, but then flames exploded all around him and Sarah could see him no more. All she could see was empty, charred ground.

Her fear for Casey rooted her in place for a second. It was long enough for Graham to get to her and grab her. He squeezed her from behind, his strength titanic. Sarah could not break free. Graham squeezed still harder, and she felt her body begin to give way. Burning, stabbing pains shot around her ribs and up and down her back. She could not breathe. She was going to blackout. Graham leaned in close and began to whisper in her ear. "Ah, Sarah. I hoped it might end this way, getting to kill you up close and personally, while your useless boyfriend watches. Maybe it is not all that I hoped for," Graham's tongue wet her ear, "but it will be enough."

Sarah could see Chuck. He was struggling to his feet, beginning to recover from the blast of Graham's spell and the fall. She saw him understand what he was seeing and then saw the pure panic on his face. He knew he could not get to her in time to stop Graham from crushing the life from her. The pain on his face was so deep that for a moment, Sarah actually regretted that he loved her so much - if he loved her less, or not at all, what he was about to see would not destroy him. Graham tightened his grip again and Sarah lost her grip on the world. After a moment, Graham dumped her.

Graham's dark green glow intensified. With a casual wave of his hand, he blew Chuck backward several yards, slamming him into the side of an old barracks. Before the blow had dissipated, roots had risen from the ground and wrapped themselves, serpentine, around Chuck's feet and then around his wrists, pulling his arms out, and trapping him against the barracks.

Sarah regained consciousness just as it happened. She managed to get up. She feared her Graham had broken ribs or her back, but a quick twist, while painful, assured her that he had not. She stumbled in Chuck's direction. Graham seemed amused by Chuck's plight, and, not noticing Sarah, was taking a moment to enjoy the tableau before administering the coup de grace.

"This is what comes of mortals having power. Nothing. You are useless, Bartowski, a failure. You and your humility, your generosity, your investments in other people - all are a colossal delusion, Bartowski. God is hate. Hate is real. Darkness wins. The sun was created for eclipse!"

Chuck, although he had been hanging with his head down, was evidently not unconscious. He looked up, straining to lift his head. But he did. He looked squarely into Graham's green-glowing eyes and shook his head slowly. "Let this go, Graham. Let us help you. You cannot contain the hate and darkness inside you. All those evil minds creeping around in yours, Graham; that is not a formula for sanity. Let us help you."

"I had hoped Bartowski, that you would end this like a warrior, like a man. Like Walker. Not like a sheep, bleating stupidity to me about sanity. I have transcended sanity, boy, and I now see all of time and eternity. This world, your world, is a small, damp, crowded room in a mansion of rooms. I am the mansion's lord and master."

Sarah had gathered herself and she ran past Graham to Chuck. Her reappearance shocked Graham; he faltered in the midst of his monologue.

She got to Chuck just as she was impacted a new spell by Graham, the most virulent spell she had ever experienced. There were no words for it. It was tap-rooted in all the hate that Graham now contained, and was the hate's pure distillate. It was like her soul was suddenly steeping in sulfuric acid, being eaten away. Her mind filled with images of horror, of the unspeakable things done by the Casters Graham had drained. And just as she found it unbearable, as it started to break her, it was gone.

She knew Chuck had somehow redirected the spell onto himself. She heard him gasp and moan, and then she heard him begin to sob. She looked into his face. He smiled wetly at her.

"Attack him, Sarah, hit him with everything you have."

Sarah spun around and went down on one knee as she cast. She poured all that she was into the spell, all the pain and fear and betrayal of her childhood, the lonely terrors of her life as an Enforcer, but all of it reshaped and refocused by her love for Chuck, by her newly won wholeheartedness. She felt the moonlight aid her too. She hit Graham hard, harder than he imagined possible.

Graham roared in fury and pain. Then he doubled-down on his spell. Sarah did not stop. She would not stop. Graham would kill Chuck. She was his only chance. She could not fail.

But she knew she would. Graham was so strong. The moon could only help her for so long. She could tell that Graham's spell intensified in power and horror. She peeked back at Chuck. He had his eyes squeezed shut as he wept, and a black liquid, ichor, ran from them and from his nose and his mouth.

"More, Sarah."

The enormity of her predicament struck Sarah.

The only way to defeat Graham, if he could be defeated, was for her to keep attacking him. But that meant that Graham would keep attacking, and so keep pouring hate into Chuck, deluging him in darkness. Chuck was drawing power from the moon, but, as was true of her, it could only help him for so long. Not for much longer.

"More, Sarah. More. I love you."

She heard Chuck speak from behind her, and she joined him in weeping, her eyes streaming her clear tears as she renewed her attack on Graham. Just as her strength was about to fail her, just as her power began to flicker and the edges of Graham's mouth to lift in an anticipatory smirk, Sarah's engagement ring began to glow blue-white. At first, the glow was tiny but hard and bright, a star in a distant sky. But then it grew, pulsing and spreading until it had surrounded her, and then had surrounded her and Chuck.

Graham screamed his rage. He unleashed his full power. Sarah heard Chuck gasp in despair. The look of horror and pain on Chuck's face was complete. She knew that Graham was about to win.

And then she saw Graham begin to...melt. His extended fingers began to drip. Initially, it looked like sweat, but then it became clear that each of his fingers was becoming shorter, as if each was made of wax and exposed to a sudden heat. His feet began to puddle, then pool. His head began to sink into his shoulders and his shoulders to slump into formlessness. In a few seconds, Graham was gone and all that was left was a tar smear, smoking foully on the ground. Sarah was left with the image of Graham smiling as his head melted into his slumping shoulders.

Sarah held stock still. She feared to breathe, to move.

Graham was gone. Good riddance. She heard Chuck crumple to the ground behind her, released by the roots no longer enlivened by Graham's malevolence.

She spun to Chuck. He was covered in ichor. It still dripped from his eyes, his nose, and, Sarah noticed, even his ears. She bent down beside him and Chuck convulsed, vomiting up ichor as if he had been drowning in it. It splashed on the ground and all over Sarah. It smelled vile. Chuck collapsed, supine. For a moment, a long infinite moment, Sarah thought he was dead. But then she found a pulse, weak and erratic. She could not revive him. She contacted Orion telepathically, calling for help. And then she dropped her head onto Chuck's filthy chest and she wept.

Orion had run ahead when Sarah contacted him. He left Carina to get Beckmann back to the surface.

He ran as quickly as his deepening exhaustion would allow. He ran to Sarah who was weeping into Chuck's shirt. He grabbed her shoulders gently and pulled her up into a seated position. He asked her to tell him what had happened as he quickly examined Chuck. She told him. Orion could find no physical injury to Chuck. Whatever had happened to him was the result of Graham's spell.

Carina arrived with Beckmann and sat her down next to Sarah. Sarah sent Carina to the scorched patch of earth where Sarah had last seen Casey. She unearthed Casey from beneath Bryce's burnt corpse. His forearms were badly burned and the spell had knocked him unconscious. But he revived quickly and was able to carry Chuck in his arms when Orion used the last of his strength to cast the spell taking them back to Beckmann's headquarters.

Sarah knew they won. But to her, the victory felt like a defeat.