"Well one thing hasn't changed, he's still an asshole" Casey grumbled, glaring towards the hallway where Shaw was being placed in one of the holding cells.

Sarah wanted to smile, to agree, to say something. But she couldn't stop herself from shaking. She thought she'd been prepared, but seeing Shaw, hearing his voice, and knowing the personal information he had just taunted her with, had been too much. It felt like he'd instantly wormed his way into the darkest corners of her soul and was preparing to take up a permanent residence there. The familiar feeling of helplessness only Shaw could cause, washed over Sarah like a wave. She was only vaguely aware of Chuck putting his hand on her back in an attempt to comfort her. She could feel herself retreating into the deep recesses of her mind, trying to find some semblance of stability... or was she really just trying to find a place to hide?

Chuck said something, but Sarah didn't hear it. Her mind swam with the awful images of what Shaw had put her through. She felt like the air had suddenly gone out of the room. Her chest felt tight, and she began to feel dizzy, even nauseous.

"Sarah!" Chuck exclaimed as she jumped out of her chair, dashed to the nearest trash can, and promptly threw up into it.

"Well whattya know" Casey said with a smirk. "Seeing Shaw again made me sick, but Walker actually tossed her cookies."

Sarah wasn't amused as she very nearly hurled again. Chuck was immediately at her side, gently rubbing her back, a look of concern on his face.

"Sweetheart, is there anything I can do to help? Are you sick? If you're not feeling well-"

"I'll be fine, just get me something to wipe my mouth with, and something to get the taste of vomit out of my mouth."

Chuck made a beeline for the supply room, and momentarily returned with a couple of paper towels and a little travel sized bottle of mouthwash. Sarah gratefully made use of both, and after spitting a mouthful of the minty liquid into the trash, she looked up to find all eyes were on her.

"Sarah, are you sure you're going to be okay working with Daniel Shaw while he's here?" Gertrude asked, concern in her voice.

"Look, I'm sorry for the mess in the trash and I'm embarrassed you all had to see it. I guess I just wasn't quite prepared to see him in person. But I'm okay, really."

"He certainly didn't waste time making things personal" Chuck responded with a bit of a sigh. "I don't think anyone here can blame you getting caught off guard by that entrance."

"Like I said" added Casey. "He's still an asshole, not to mention a traitor to this country. Personally, I'm hoping he tries something while he's here. I'd enjoy the chance to snap his neck."

"Easy John" Gertrude soothed. "Save the energy in case we need to beat information out of him later."

By the look on his face, everyone could tell that's exactly what Casey was hoping for.

Sarah took a deep breath, still trying to fully calm her nerves, as well as her still agitated stomach. After a few more deep breaths she felt her heartbeat slowing, and her calm returning. Her stomach settled as well. Chuck was watching her closely, and seemed to relax a bit as she calmed. She gave him a small smile as reassurance.

"You sure you're ready?" he asked in a low voice so only she could hear. "We can always do a round of questioning without you and you can join later if that helps."

"That's a really sweet thought Chuck, but avoiding Shaw will only show him that he can still bother me, and I'm not giving him that satisfaction. I say we bring him out now and get started. No sense wasting time, especially if the Overseer really can make Flash cards to mess with the Intersect. A little discomfort in exchange for making sure you're safe is worth it."

Chuck smiled and gave her a quick kiss.

"Thank you Sarah, and not just for using the mouthwash before I kissed you."

Sarah couldn't hold back a chuckle, and wrapped her arms around his waist, drawing herself close to him.

"Let's see if we can make Shaw uncomfortable this time."

Chuck leaned back in his chair, attempting to get himself into a position where he might look intimidating and powerful. He heard Casey snicker and shot him a look. He then turned to Sarah, who seemed much more calm and collected now. She flashed him a quick grin which he returned. After another minute or so of waiting he heard the jangling of metal from Shaw's shackles, and a moment later Shaw and his contingent of guards came into view, Carina bringing up the rear as she had when he'd first arrived.

"Please sit the prisoner at the seat on the other side of the table and make sure he's secured properly" Sarah said, no trace of hesitation in the authoritative tone she used.

Shaw's expression was blank as Sarah's instructions were carried out, but his eyes moved back and forth between Chuck and Sarah, never once turning to Casey or Gertrude. It almost seemed as if Shaw didn't even notice they were there, but Chuck knew better. Shaw knew, he just didn't care. He was clearly only interested in the two people he probably hated more than anyone else in the entire world.

Once the guards had finished their task, no one spoke. Chuck had made the call that he would be the first to say something to Shaw, making it clear he wanted there to be an extended silence to begin unless Shaw spoke first. Chuck hoped the silence would unnerve Shaw a bit. But Shaw's expression never wavered. He just stared at Chuck in stony silence. Chuck met his gaze and didn't waver. Their eyes remained locked in a silent battle of will.

After waiting what he felt was an appropriate amount of time to show Shaw he wouldn't be intimidated, Chuck cleared his throat and made a show of opening the binder he had sitting on the table in front of him, pretending to take his time studying a couple of pages before looking back up again.

"Daniel Shaw" he said, in what he hoped was a powerful and slightly mocking tone.

"Chuck Bartowski." Shaw responded, matching Chuck's tone.

The energy in the room was palpable. Out of the corner of his eye, Chuck noticed even Casey was riveted to the conversation.

"The last time we met" Chuck said, maintaining his firm tone, "You were, shall we say, relieved of your Intersect, and then sent to prison with a life sentence."

"Yet here I am again" Shaw replied evenly.

"Which brings me right to the point, which is quite simply, why? Why are you here? Why even agree to help? For that matter, are you even able to help, or are you just wasting our time?"

"I'm not here to waste your time Chuck. No, see, I'm here because I know you're after the Overseer. I also know you've hit a dead end. Don't try to deny it Chuck, it's obvious you're stuck since you're asking me for help. As for why I'd help you? Let's just say I made a deal with General Beckman. After all, I don't do charity work. Especially for you."

"What kind of deal?" Sarah asked, leaning forward. "There's no way on earth the general would release you from prison."

"No, you're right, she wouldn't Sam" Shaw responded, emphasizing the name, and shifting his gaze to her. "But there are other things I can get besides freedom. A lower security facility, for example. More comfortable accommodations. Access to computers. You know, perks like that."

"Monitored access I assume" Chuck commented.

"Of course. It's still a prison after all. But it allows me to keep up with the outside world. It's nice to be in the loop on what's going on outside the walls I'm living behind."

"But still, why help us? You and I aren't exactly pen pals, and we both know how you feel about Sarah, so why help the people you despise most? I'm sure there are other things you could have done for the general to earn your precious prison perks."

Shaw smiled, but it was a cold smile. Condescending even.

"How little you actually know Chuck. Yes, I've been beaten by you-"

"Three times by my count" Chuck interrupted, grinning smugly.

Shaw breathed in deeply, and made a barely audible growl or snarl.

"I still wake up every day knowing my wife was killed by yours, and that the two of you are responsible for my lifetime imprisonment." He paused for a moment, then leaned forward, a smirk forming as he did. "But that still doesn't make you the people I despise the most."

Chuck sat up straight in his chair in surprise. He noted Sarah looked a bit shocked as well.

"Make no mistake, I despise the two of you. I may have agreed to help you, but I don't like you any more than I did before. But there is one person I detest even more than the two of you. During the time that I had the Intersect, I was contacted by a man who identified himself only as the Overseer. He revealed he was the one behind The Ring, and offered me anything I wanted, provided I gave him as much information about the Intersect as I could. He supplied me with anything I needed, whenever I asked. He even stayed in contact with me after I was arrested, right after the fall of The Ring. Even while I was in prison he helped me, and ultimately helped in my escape. But once you took the Intersect from me Chuck, the Overseer cut all ties with me. All the methods we'd used to stay in contact were suddenly dead. He left me to rot in prison. Since the Intersect in my head was gone, he saw no use for me. He cut me off and left me with nothing. What he did was worse than anything."

"Worse than killing your wife?" Sarah asked cautiously.

Shaw fixed Sarah with an icy stare.

"He promised he would help me avenge her death. He lied to me to get my help. You know quite well how I feel about betrayal. But more than that, you killed my wife, but he used her. To him, she was simply a bargaining chip to get what he wanted." His voice rose in anger. "He treated her like currency, like she was nothing. Like she wasn't even a human being!"

"I think I get it." Chuck replied quietly. "In a way, he desecrated her death."

"He could have promised me anything! But he chose to use my DEAD WIFE to get my help!" Shaw was almost shouting and was trembling with a rage Chuck had never seen before.

"Isn't that exactly what The Ring did to get you to turn?" Sarah asked calmly.

Shaw's lips twisted into a snarl. He lowered his voice and stopped trembling, returning to a disturbingly calm demeanor.

"Now do you see why I hate him even more than you? The Overseer was the creator of The Ring. That means he was behind their plan. He used her death to manipulate me twice."

Chuck shook his head in disbelief. He tried to imagine being in Shaw's shoes but he couldn't bring himself to think about losing Sarah.

"Let me make one thing very clear" Shaw continued in his icy cold tone. "I will help you to the best of my ability, but once the Overseer has been dealt with, we're done. I never want to see or hear from or about either of you ever again. Oh, and don't expect me to make this easy for you."

Sarah wasn't sure how to feel. Shaw seemed sincere enough, but with all the history between them, she wondered whether or not he would ultimately help or sabotage their efforts. The revelation that Shaw had been in contact with the Overseer had been a shock, but she had suspected there was some special reason Shaw had been chosen to help them besides being a former Intersect.

Shaw had been taken back to the holding cells for a lunch break, and Sarah was aimlessly wandering through the Buy More, both to kill some time, and to have a few minutes to herself to clear her head. She had gotten over her initial reaction to Shaw's arrival, and felt firmly in control of her emotions, but she was still embarrassed that everyone had seen her heaving into a trash can. At least Shaw hadn't seen it. Sarah had the distinct impression he was going to continue trying to get under her skin, whether he was helping or not.

As Sarah stopped in the movie section and looked at a couple of movies she thought might make for good date nights with Chuck, she was interrupted by an all-too-familiar voice.

"Sarah, you have no idea how good it is to see you shopping here again."

"Hey Morgan" she said, turning and smiling.

Morgan was decked out in his store manager suit as usual, and was carrying his store keys like he was trying to show them off to everyone.

"I see you're checking out our fine selection of movies. If you wanna buy a couple, I can totally sell them to you at the manager's discount price."

"Morgan, Chuck and I own the store, remember? So technically I already own them. Besides, I'm not really shopping, just wandering around for a bit."

"Right, you're busy with our old buddy Shaw downstairs" he replied, stepping closer and speaking low and conspiratorially. "How's it going so far?"

"So far, not much to say" Sarah replied, glancing around quickly to make sure they wouldn't be overheard. "We're on a lunch break at the moment, and we won't get to the real questioning until we pick things back up."

"Well at least tell me how Shaw looked. Did he look miserable? Think he got a prison yard beat down?"

"Morgan if you don't mind I'd rather not talk about him right now, okay?"

"Oh, sure no problem. But I wanna hear all the good stuff when you and Chuck are finished with him. Especially if he cries. Please tell me you guys are gonna try to make him cry. Especially Casey. Oh! Oh! If you can, definitely try to get it on video!"

Sarah couldn't hold back a chuckle at the thought.

"No promises Morgan, we have bigger things to worry about...but we'll see what happens."

Chuck sat across from Daniel Shaw once again, in the midst of an intense interrogation. So far they had discussed when the Overseer had first contacted Shaw, the methods that were used to make contact, and what information Shaw had provided him. To this point it had all led to frustrating dead ends. The Overseer had used clever methods of reaching Shaw, but nothing that could be traced: burner phones, specially wired Ring phones that fried their own circuitry after a single use, messages sent over computers that self-deleted with no chance of retrieval, even devices sent to Shaw while he was in prison, one piece at a time, that he had to assemble piece by piece, but which undercover guards were ordered to destroy after a certain amount of time. The guards belonged to another of the Overseer's subsidiary groups, and had no contact with the Overseer, and would have had no idea he even existed, just like members of The Ring and FULCRUM had been unaware. The lone contact in that group who communicated with the Overseer was confirmed dead by suicide, and the group itself had already been dismantled by one of General Beckman's task forces. The Overseer had once again closed all loose ends, remaining as elusive as ever.

The only area where Shaw seemed to have information that might prove useful, was regarding the Intersect itself. He hadn't heard of Flash cards, but he did recall several instances of unusual Flashes when he still had the Intersect in his head. But the real breakthrough came when Chuck asked Shaw if he knew anything about Nicholas Quinn.

"Quinn? Yeah, I met him after my escape from prison. The Overseer wanted us to meet before I went after the two of you. Apparently Quinn needed to interact with a working Intersect for a project the Overseer had him working on. I got the impression Quinn wanted the Intersect for himself."

"Do you remember anything important that Quinn did, or maybe said? Anything that might give us a clue about the Overseer?"

"He ran some tests on my Intersect, on combat skills and information retrieval. He was trying to see if he could affect different parts of the Intersect, shutting parts down or programming new information into it. He had a computer program that ran the actual tests."

"How did he know he wouldn't damage the Intersect?" Sarah asked.

"There were safety protocols built into the program. If they detected anything in a test that would potentially damage the Intersect, the protocols would activate and stop the test before it could be run."

"Did Quinn create the program?" Chuck interrupted.

"He created the tests, the safety protocol came from the Overseer, though I don't know if he created it, or just sent it to Quinn."

Chuck sat back in his seat, puzzled. Why would Quinn be testing the Intersect? he wondered. He was interested in acquiring it, not altering it.

Before Chuck could ask another question, Shaw leaned forward as much as his restraints would allow, the look on his face showing he had figured something out.

"Chuck, if Quinn adapted his program into those, what did you call them, Flash cards? If he did that, and the Overseer had access to that information, then I have a suspicion."

"What?"

"Chuck, when was the last time you flashed?"

Before Chuck could answer, Sarah suddenly stood up and grabbed him by the arm.

"Chuck, come with me for a minute."

"What? Why? What's going on?"

"Just trust me. Come on, let's go"

Chuck followed Sarah, completely at a loss. She led him to the training room and had him stand on one side while she stood on the other.

"Alright Chuck, I need you to Flash a skill we can use to spar."

"What, now? You suddenly have an urge for a workout? Sarah, this isn't really the right time..."

"Just do it Chuck. Martial arts, boxing, singlestick, fencing, anything. I don't care, just pick one."

"You sure? You're not exactly dressed for it" he replied, gesturing to the pencil skirt and silk blouse Sarah was currently wearing.

"Chuck, you should know by now it doesn't matter what I'm wearing. It's about skill. Now Flash and show me yours."

Chuck tilted his head to the side slightly, signaling he would do it. He balled up his fists, held them up to his face, and focused on Flashing on Jujitsu. No Flash. His brow furrowed in confusion as he tried again. Still no Flash. He tried his typical martial arts Flash. Still nothing. He tried sword fighting, disarming techniques, nunchucks, even simple athletic moves like backflips and various types of kicks, but no matter what he tried, there was no Flash. Across the room he saw Sarah's shoulders sag.

"What...what's going on?" he asked, unable to hide the fear in his voice.

"Exactly what I was afraid of. Let's try one more thing."

Chuck followed Sarah to another room where some of their files were stored. She opened a file cabinet and flipped through a few folders, finally selecting one and taking a paper out of it.

"Take a look at this" she told him.

Chuck looked down at the piece of paper. It was an image of a piece of older artillery. Chuck immediately flashed on it, and images of the artillery and its history showed him it originated in Russia and had been built in 1956 for use in the Hungarian revolution then stolen by U.S. operatives six years later and ultimately dismantled. He relayed the information to Sarah who seemed at least partially relieved.

"Why did you need me to Flash on that? That is entirely irrelevant information as far as I know. And what the heck just happened in the training room?"

"Chuck, I didn't want Shaw to know, but your Intersect's been compromised."

"How did you-"

"When Shaw was telling us about his connection to Quinn it suddenly occurred to me that the Overseer may have been attempting to find a way to remotely turn parts of the Intersect on and off like a light switch, and that the Flash cards could be used as a delivery system if Quinn passed along how to make them. I think Shaw was coming to the same conclusion, and I didn't want to show our hand in case you'd been compromised. Unfortunately, you have been."

"But how?"

"I'm guessing the Flash sign we ran into at the factory did it. You can still flash on information but the fighting and physical skills part of the Intersect is either switched off or erased or something. I don't really know what happened to it, and I'm guessing only the Overseer does. I'd also bet that it was a test to see if it would work."

"So the gunfight at the factory-"

"Was a setup to see if you could use your skills after seeing the sign. He obviously didn't know who the Intersect was when we first arrived, so he added the little greeting to identify you. Then all he had to do was sit back and see what you did when the shooting started."

"So he knows."

"He knows."

"Oh God, Sarah I didn't even think about it until now. Everything happened so fast at the factory, the fact I didn't Flash didn't even cross my mind."

"And since then, we've been so busy we didn't notice you hadn't done any skills Flashing. It was right under our nose and we didn't even notice."

Chuck suddenly realized there was one other question he never asked Shaw. He turned to confront him, a determined look on his face.

"Where are you going?" Sarah asked.

"Back to Shaw. There's one more thing that's been right under our nose, and I have a feeling he knows something about it."

Chuck stormed down the hallway back to the main conference room. Casey was asking a question when Chuck interrupted.

"Shaw, I need to know one thing."

"Bartowski this is an interrogation, not a playground. You don't just run in and out whenever you feel like it." Casey barked.

Chuck held a hand up, indicating that Casey needed to stop talking. Casey's eyes blazed with anger but he didn't argue.

"Shaw, in your time with The Ring or the Overseer, did you ever develop technology to send a message to an electronic device, specifically causing the device screen to turn black and a message to appear in green letters?"

Shaw smiled smugly.

"Yes, during my time with The Ring actually. We planted microchips with wireless receivers in devices that would override the device's basic functions and do exactly what you just described. I assume you got an unwelcome surprise on your computer? Or at one of your little video game tournaments?"

"And on my television"

Shaw frowned.

"That's not possible."

"Why?"

"We never placed one in your television."

"I assume you got the chip back?"

"Yes Mr. Overseer."

"Good. You know how I feel about loose ends."

"Yes sir."

"And you're certain your cover is still intact?"

"Positive. They don't have any idea we're in contact. I'm still positioned perfectly."

"Excellent."

A/N: Everything is about to come to a head. Hope everyone is ready because there are plenty of twists and turns still coming as everything begins to come together. Hope you're enjoying the ride!