A/N: So, the internet was down on campus all day today, so I was able to write more of this story for you guys! If all goes well, I should be able to post the next chapter later tonight, but for now, please read, review and enjoy Chapter 5!
Lisa had frozen with fear at the gunshot. She let out a scream, then felt a hand cover her mouth. She turned around to see her aunt Ellie looking at her with a finger in front of her lips.
"Shh. If we want to get away from Shaw, we need to be absolutely quiet." Ellie whispered. Confused, she looked just to her left and saw Casey holding a pistol with a smoking barrel. Lisa let out a sigh of relief.
"Cover your ears." Casey whispered. He let off two more shots into the air as Chuck and Sarah came around the bend. They paused a bit, but with their spy reflexes, they were able to put things together faster than Lisa could. They sighed heavily.
"I don't think I've ever been more happy to see you guys in my life." Chuck breathed.
"We gotta go." Sarah whispered. They all started running back to the Castle.
"Guys, what about Dylan? We left him with Shaw!"
"There's no time to think about that now, Lisa. We have to get to safety, then we can make a plan to get Dylan." Sarah said, pulling Lisa along. Lisa ran with her family to the Castle, where they were able to regroup.
Shaw, still in the alley relishing his victory as the last remnants of the pair of gunshots rang through the night air, was ready to make his escape when he noticed the still unconscious Dylan on the pavement. Another sinister smile came across his face. He picked up the boy and draped him over his back. He walked out of the alley and got into his car, laying Dylan across the backseat. He drove off into the night, satisfied with the Bartowskis fate.
Dylan awoke in a dark room with a single lamp for light to see by. He saw Shaw sitting across from him.
"Wha…where am I?" He said groggily. He tried to get up, but he had forgotten that he had been shot. The pain prevented him from standing, but he looked down and noticed that he had been bandaged with clean gauze. "Why bother curing me.? You're the one that shot me in the first place."
"Well, you startled me. I wouldn't have hurt you."
"But you were the one that took Mr. and Mrs. Bartowski! You were gonna hurt them. And Lisa, too."
"I wasn't going to hurt them. You see, I was arresting them. The Bartowskis were spies, Dylan, and they did terrible things."
"I don't believe you. The Bartowskis have always been the nicest, kindest…wait, did you say 'were'? What happened?" Dylan said, taking a while to process the words.
"Well, I'm so sorry that you have to hear about this way, but, back in the alley where you found us, a terrible misunderstanding led to…"
"They're dead, aren't they? Of course, you killed them."
"I would never do anything like that. I was just trying to bring them in, that's it. I warned them that if they tried to escape, that I had snipers stationed around the perimeter…" Shaw said.
"So you did kill them. Wouldn't expect anything less from a heartless lunatic like you." Dylan said, his eyes full of fire.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Such harsh words!"
"You think I believe a word of what you're telling me? The only reason Chuck and Sarah went with you was to save Lisa, and then she came to save her parents. And you killed them. In cold blood. " Dylan said, "Which begs the question…why bother curing me if you're just going to kill me? If you think I'll somehow turn against the Bartowskis, you're sadly mistaken. But I guess it doesn't matter now that they're dead. Lisa is dead…" Dylan said, his eyes softening at the mention of Lisa.
"Ahh, I see. You liked her, didn't you?"
"I like her. There's no need for the past tense on that one. And you, Mr. Shaw, are not going to like this." Dylan said, breaking free of the ropes that were holding him to the chair. The pain in his abdomen was bearable now, the pain killers that Shaw had given him were taking effect. Having escaped, he punched Shaw squarely in the nose, allowing him time to jump through a window and escape. He ran, but he didn't know what he was running toward. The only thing that he cared about was gone, and the man that killed her was still inside that facility, bleeding from the nose, but, for the most part, unharmed.
Meanwhile in Castle, the Bartowskis were hiding out, safe in their underground bunker. However, Lisa felt anything but relieved.
"So you're saying that Dylan isn't there? Shaw took him?" She asked.
"I went back to the alley after we were sure Shaw was gone. There was no sign of Dylan." Ellie answered, "But maybe Shaw didn't take him. Maybe he simply walked out."
"He was shot in the chest. He could barely stay conscious, let alone walk." Lisa said, "Shaw must have taken him."
"Honey, Dylan is strong. He'll be alright." Sarah said. She looked into her daughter eyes and saw that they were brimming over with tears. "I know it's hard." She added, taking Lisa up in her arms. Lisa's tears fell on her shoulder as her body shook with her sobs.
"I had finally found you. I finally had a home again. Now it'll never be the same." Lisa said through sobs. All of a sudden, Ellie's phone rang.
"Devon! I've been meaning to call you. Yes, everyone's alright. What? He's there? Has he said anything about… Oh, I see. I'll be there right away." Ellie said, hanging up the phone, "You'll never believe this. Dylan is in our apartment. He says Shaw had him. He thinks you three are dead."
"That's good." Casey said, "Means that Shaw thinks you all are dead, too. He won't be after you."
"But he'll find out eventually. He knows where the Castle is. This could mean trouble." Chuck observed.
"He knows where the Castle is, but he can't get into it, can he?" Lisa asked.
"He got into it to release the Omen virus and try to kill me. I get cold just thinking about it." Sarah said, shivering. "There's no way to say that he won't be able to do it again." She added.
"We need to get somewhere safe." Lisa said.
"This is the safest place we can be, Lisa. We'll stay in one of the bulletproof cells. If Shaw decides to come, we'll lock ourselves inside. There's no way he can get through to us. " Chuck said. Lisa sighed.
"Great, because I'll totally want to live the rest of my life inside of a 8 by 10 cell."
"Don't be so melodramatic, Lisa. We'll find a way around this." Sarah said. As the words left her mouth, the door opened.
"Guys? I don't think that's Ellie. There's no way she could have gotten back this fast." Lisa whispered. Chuck jumped up onto the cot in the cell, opened the vent hatch, and lifted Lisa into the vents. He helped Sarah into the vent, and then he himself climbed up into the metal ducts. They hid as a figure in black came down from the entryway, descending the staircase. He looked around for a while, then sat down on the cot in the cell directly below them. Lisa, closest to the vent, peered through, trying to see his face. If this stranger was simply going to be content with sitting on a cot, then it wasn't Shaw. The stranger put down his hood and Lisa could see his face clearly.
"It's Dylan!" She whispered to her parents, "We're safe." Sarah shook her head.
"We can't let him know we're alive. If Shaw finds him, he'll be more than able to get that information out of him." Sarah whispered. Sarah began to crawl forward through the vents and Chuck followed her. Lisa heard them whispering, but couldn't make out what was said. Sarah turned around and beckoned Lisa to follow her. Lisa inched forward, making as little noise as possible. She followed her parents through the vents, going through tight contortions on the way, and the three of them eventually stopped in front of another grate. Sarah lifted it open. Chuck jumped down, then Sarah, and finally Lisa, who required some help on Chuck and Sarah's part as not to break bones in the fall.
"I guess I'm not quite a natural at that, huh?" She remarked, getting up from the floor. She looked around and noticed that the room seemed bare for the most part, except for a large console in the dead center of it. Chuck started pressing some buttons on the console. He turned to Lisa and said, "Smile." A green light scanned her from top to bottom, and a holographic image of Lisa popped up from the console.
"Wow, what is this?" Lisa asked.
"It's our spy closet. The hologram allows you to try things on before actually trying them on." Sarah explained.
"So cool!" Lisa exclaimed. Chuck pressed some more buttons and the holographic Lisa was wearing a jet-black stealth suit.
"What do you think?" Chuck asked. Lisa nodded her head. Chuck pressed another button and the stealth suit was brought out of the closet. "Put it on." Said Chuck.
"Can't be wearing a ball gown when we go up against Shaw, right?" Lisa said, walking forward and taking it off the hanger. She stepped into a dressing room to put it on. Chuck's phone rang in his pocket.
"Hello? Oh, Ellie, it's you. Listen, we have a problem. Dylan's in the Castle. Wait, what? Why didn't you call us before? Oh, it's ok. We were able to get in the vents before he saw us. See you later, sis." Chuck told Ellie, who was on the other line.
"What did Ellie want?" Sarah asked.
"She said that she was going to warn us about Dylan, but he was with her the whole time and she didn't want to let on that we were still alive. He needed a place to hide from Shaw. Ellie brought him to the Castle and let him in. We need to get out and get to the Woodcombs."
"But how do we do that without being noticed by Shaw?" Lisa asked, coming out from the dressing room wearing the stealth suit. She looked so much like her mother that it almost made Chuck's jaw drop.
"Shaw is the director of the Ring now. He has eyes everywhere." Sarah said.
"The what?" Lisa asked.
"The Ring is the CIA's main enemy. It's a tight knit organization, and Shaw was turned by them a long time ago. Once we captured the director, he was next in line. It has spies all over the world, and it wouldn't surprise me if some of them are posted right outside the Orange Orange. That would be why Dylan would have been dressed like that when he came through the doors." Sarah explained.
"Well, maybe we can do the same thing to get out of here." Lisa suggested.
"Lisa, if Shaw is after Dylan like he is, how much more would he be wanting to get to us?"
"But he doesn't know we're alive. That gives us an advantage. Shaw and his men won't be expecting us to walk out the door." Lisa said.
"You know what, you're right. We just need some good disguises." Chuck said. He then went back to pressing buttons on the console, bringing up Sarah's virtual image and his own right next to Lisa's.
Meanwhile, mere meters away, Dylan was sitting on the cot in the middle of the Castle, painfully bored. There was nothing to do but think of her. The girl he had known long ago that he had just found again. And now he would never see her again. He thought of Mr. and Mrs. Bartowski, the nice couple that lived just below him and his parents. They had always been so nice. Even after Lisa went missing, they never seemed down or depressed; from the outside at least. Now they were gone. The Woodcombs would probably move away, too, seeing as they had nothing left here anymore. Clara and Dylan had been close, like brother and sister, ever since they moved back to Burbank when Clara was around 9 years old. Now they would move and be gone as well. Maybe I'm getting a little carried away, Dylan thought, It's not like we were actually going out or something. But he silently wished that somehow Lisa had managed to escape and was still alive somewhere, but he knew that it couldn't have happened. How could she have outrun snipers? And now, it seemed like he too was delaying the inevitable. Why bother trying to save himself?
The two Ring agents assigned by Shaw to keep watch over the Orange Orange were bored. Why had they been assigned to keep watch for people that were dead? Was Shaw worried about a zombie attack? The Bartowskis were dead. Dead, dead, dead. The only people they saw coming out of the shop was an elderly couple, led by what they assumed to be their granddaughter, a young brunette. The three got into their car and drove away, again leaving the agents with nothing to do.
The elderly couple and their granddaughter parked in front of an apartment complex in Echo Park. They walked up to one of the doors and knocked, and the door was opened by none other than Dr. Eleanor Faye Woodcomb.
"Um..hello. Can I help you?" She said, opening the door. The elderly couple and their granddaughter entered the apartment without a word. The couple looked around the room, closing shades and making sure no one from outside could see in. "Um…excuse me?" Ellie said. The three visitors stood in front of her. The two elderly people grabbed at their necks, removing plastic masks from their faces. The wrinkles gave way to younger skin, revealing Sarah's sharp blue eyes and Chuck's deep chocolate eyes. Gray hair gave way to Sarah's blonde and Chuck's brown locks, and the granddaughter took off her wig too, revealing Lisa's own blonde hair.
"Oh, it's you." Ellie said, "I almost called the cops!"
"Sorry, but we had to make sure that we weren't being watched or listened to before we could reveal ourselves." Sarah said.
"I'm sorry about what happened with Dylan. There was no way I could get a message out without him noticing." Ellie explained.
"It's no big deal. We were able to get out of there without him seeing us." Lisa said.
"So what should we do? Now that we're out, how do we put the final nail in the coffin?" Chuck asked.
"Nail in the coffin…I have it! We throw a funeral. Like what we did with Casey years ago. Shaw will come because he's a sick sadistic bastard, and then that's when we'll make our move." Sarah said. Everyone's eyes lit up at this suggestion. They thought this was brilliant. They started throwing things together, and a frenzy of activity began, planning a triple funeral that would, hopefully, not end with anybody ending up six feet under.
Meanwhile, in Castle, Dylan was still alone. He was still sitting on the cot. He couldn't move. He had been through so much in the past couple of hours, and he had simply become numb. Then, all of a sudden, a face came on the plasma screen.
"Hey Dylan, are you there?" Ellie asked.
"Yeah, Mrs. Woodcomb, I'm here."
"Dylan, call me Ellie. I think we've crossed that line."
"Ok…Ellie. Any clue what's going on?"
"Well me and Devon are busy right now planning…planning the funeral."
"Oh yeah. I forgot there's a funeral after someone dies… Are you sure it'll be safe, you know, with Shaw still out there?"
"Yes, it's safe. Trust me." Ellie assured, "Just stay down there for now, and then tomorrow, we'll go to the funeral together. You'll be there."
"But what about Shaw? What if he makes a move?"
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, Dylan. We're tracking Shaw and hopefully, he won't be a problem much longer."
"You're kind of freaking me out here, Mrs. Woodcomb…"
"Sorry about that. Would you like us to stay down here with you tonight?" Ellie asked.
"Sure, I mean, if it's okay with you guys."
"Yeah. I'll call Devon and Clara." Ellie said, stepping out of the room.
Later that night, the Bartowskis were alone in the Woodcomb apartment while the Woodcombs were spending the night with Dylan in the Castle.
"So, our funeral is tomorrow…" Lisa said, "How are we going to be able to pull it off?"
"We'll have closed caskets. Ellie will give a eulogy. Hopefully Shaw will be there by then. He'll go off on some rant, and then that's when we'll swoop in from another area of the church, and take him out." Chuck told her.
"And what makes you guys think we can do that?" Lisa asked.
"We'll have help. Our old CIA pals will be there. They'll bring guns." Sarah said.
"I just wonder what Dylan's thinking right now. I mean, what will he think when we come busting down the doors at our own funeral?"
"The same thing everyone will think. We've decided to let them in on our secret." Chuck said.
"Really? You guys are cool with doing that?" Lisa asked.
"Well, we've been skirting around telling everyone for years now. This is a serious situation, and it calls for drastic measures." Sarah said. It was about time that everyone knew. "Now let's get some sleep. We've got a big day tomorrow."
"Yeah, I have to be well-rested for my own funeral…" Lisa said, heading up the stairs to the bedroom. All three Bartowskis fell into an uneasy and restless sleep, dreading the day to come.
Meanwhile, in the Castle, the Woodcombs and Dylan were facing the same situation. Ellie was thinking of how she was going to give a eulogy tomorrow for people that weren't even dead. She would have to show the right emotions of course, or else people would catch on right away. She needed to lie. She needed to be like Sarah. Dylan, on the other hand, was worried about what could happen. He wanted to be there to say goodbye to Lisa, but he was worried about the funeral being out in the open. What if Shaw found out? He didn't want to think about it, but the thoughts would never leave his mind. He barely got any sleep that night, and neither did Ellie. Just like the Bartowskis, they were silently dreading what the next day would bring.