Chapter 13 – Chuck vs. the Ring
A.N.: Disclaimer in Chapter 1. Makes sense that this is unlucky 13, when it all falls apart...or does it? This is the last full chapter! Got a three-part epilogue to go, and then...AU Season 3?
(Oh thank goodness.) "Bryce! Casey and Sarah are pinned down outside." (You gotta help them, I don't know what else to do or who else to trust...)
"I'm on it," Bryce acknowledges. As he starts to twist, he grimaces, drawing Chuck's gaze down.
"Oh my god."
(No.)
(Oh no.)
(No, no, that's not blood, that's not...) "Oh my god, you've been shot!" (Not good, not good...)
"Yeah," Bryce groans, raising his eyebrows as if to say, obviously.
(Oh my god, what do I – can I – should I -) Chuck swallows hard and reflexively reaches towards Bryce, before snatching his hands away. (Would I do more harm? Could I help?)
"I'm really sorry about this, Chuck," Bryce whispers.
(He can't be dying, he can't.) Chuck finds it hard to swallow as he protests, "No, no, it's okay, it's okay, you're going to be fine, it's not that bad." (You can't give up, Bryce, they need you.)
Chuck sees the effort it takes for Bryce to speak. "Take care of her," Bryce finally says.
(What? Me? Sarah?) "Don't...don't say that. You're not dying." (You have to believe that. I have to believe that!) "She needs you, man, okay? You...You guys are going to go on missions together, and, and, and do exciting things, and save the world, you'll be a team again, it'll be great." (She'll be alive and so will you and without me she'll be fine. You'll take care of her.) He grabs Bryce's ankle and shakes it firmly. (Snap out of it!)
Bryce frowns at him. "She wasn't gonna come," he protests, shaking his head. "She wants..." A wave of pain assails him and he grimaces.
(She - what? She wants...? ) "Hold on, hold on, hold on," he firmly tells Bryce. (Oh god, if that's what she was gonna tell me at the reception...)
Bryce reaches into his pocket and extracts a circuit board. "This'll destroy the Intersect. This new computer is too powerful. It's too dangerous."
(What? No! Destroy...?) Chuck looks at the blood-coated card and nearly recoils in horror. (We can't destroy the Intersect!) He takes it from Bryce's unsteady hand. "But you need...you need the computer to fight Fulcrum."
"Fulcrum...doesn't matter, all right?" Bryce forces out. "They, they're just..." He gasps in pain.
(No-no-no-no-)
"They're just one part of the Ring."
(Oh god, Fulcrum isn't it?) Chuck frowns, confused, as Bryce continues.
"They'll use it against us, Chuck. You have to do this. All right? You have to destroy that computer and then you get out of here."
(I can't...) "Yeah, but you can beat them." (That's why you're Bryce Larkin.) "You're...a real...hero, Bryce." (Oh no.) "Bryce?" (Please answer.) "...Oh my god."
Bryce's head lolls to the side, and his eyes just stare off into space.
(Oh God. Oh no. What do I do now? You can't be dead...) He looks down again at the card in his hand, and glances towards the door. (Oh God.) He runs to the terminal in the center of the room. (Bryce is dead. How can Bryce be dead? He can't be dead. This can't be real. If I just do like he says, maybe this will be a bad, bad dream.) He looks down at the screen, the green lettering seeming to scream. "Do you wish to activate?" it demands.
(Oh God. If I destroy the Intersect, it's all gone. All the data, any chance of using it to take down Fulcrum, any information about whatever the Ring is...)
"Do you wish to activate?"
He looks down at the handprint pad on the console, again, asking, "Activate?" (Bryce just died over this.) A flash unlike any he'd known before happens in a heartbeat.
Talking to Sarah about not understanding why Bryce chose him
Sarah saying he can do anything
Chuck looks down at the card again. (Bryce's blood. That's Bryce Larkin's blood. And he's dead.)
Bryce on video, protesting that Chuck won't survive in the field.
(Bryce died over this, the Intersect. Over what it can do, what information it holds.)
Beckman declaring it was time for him to become a spy
Protesting that he's just Chuck Bartowski
'How many times do you have to be a hero to realize that you are that guy?'
(Sarah believes in me, Beckman even, and Bryce is dead. There's no one else.)
He places his palm on the pad and watches as the "Do you wish to activate?" becomes the words, "Intersect Activating..." The cube whirrs to life as the lights shut down bit by bit throughout the room.
(Oh god, Sarah...I'm so sorry, I have to...)
The Intersect upload is nothing like before. The subliminal coding is almost soothing, hypnotic. Chuck rocks slowly back and forth as his eyelids flutter. When he comes out of it, he staggers, but catches himself on the console, remaining conscious this time.
(For you, Bryce.) He slides the board into the input slot, watching as an angry red "Power Surge" warning appears on the screen. "System Failure," it protests, as the screen cracks and the cube burns itself out. Chuck backs away from the console as the circuits between the myriad of screens that comprise the vault sizzle and break. (Holy crap.)
The door opens and a man --
(Miles Phillip Lt. USMC; unit led by Casey John C. Col. USMC, NSA; Fulcrum Affiliation Unknown Holy crap was that a flash?)
-- walks into the room, gun drawn and pointed at Chuck. "What did you do?" he demands, nodding towards the Intersect console.
(Hopefully the right thing.)
His silence is apparently the wrong answer as Miles advances further into the room, the question repeated with a firearm alarmingly close to Chuck's face. "What did you do?!" Miles repeats forcefully.
"I destroyed it," Chuck replies, disgust lacing his voice. "You're too late." (Please don't let him realize I'm slurring my words...)
"For that, you'll die last," Miles promises, circling around Chuck to the defunct console as his men enter behind him. Two of the men push two prisoners into the room.
(No!) Sarah enters first, and at the sight of her, Chuck can't help his gaze from dropping to his departed friend.
Sarah follows his gaze and spots Bryce staring off into space, denial leaping to her defense. "Bryce?" she prompts. She moves to his body and shakes him desperately. "Bryce!"
(Oh god, Sarah, I'm so sorry...) He watches despairingly as she struggles with her captors and screams, "Don't you touch him!" (I'm not so sure Bryce was right...) His heart breaks slightly as she kicks and fights to get to Bryce's body as they drag it away down the hall. The Ring agents shove Sarah into the corner with Casey, leaving Chuck to share a pained glance with Sarah as the agents take position on a one-to-one guard of the captives.
"I'm sorry," he mouths silently. (I'm so sorry, Sarah, I don't know what I was thinking, asking you to stay, or what Bryce was thinking, believing you weren't gonna go. But I just got the love of your life killed and I hope you can forgive me for that, someday...)
"There's nothing left!" Miles bursts out, ceasing his futile attempts to activate the destroyed Intersect. Sarah and Casey turn their attention to him, Casey's eyes taking on a satisfied predatory gleam.
"So, you lose," Casey says with supreme satisfaction. Miles straightens and moves towards Sarah and Casey, as all four underlings move to surround Chuck.
(Oh crap.) Chuck's eyes dart between all of the guards and settling on the scene unfolding with Miles and his former handlers, panic sending bursts of adrenaline shooting through him.
"You should know this," Miles declares firmly. "No one stops us. No one ever has."
(Oh no, Sarah, don't...) Chuck sees the look in her eyes and his stomach starts to drop. He swallows hard as he hears Sarah speak.
"Who are you?" she asks, raking her horror-filled eyes up and down the man before her.
"Spies, Agent Walker," Miles nods with satisfaction. He raises his gun to her forehead as he concludes, "The best."
(Sarah!) Chuck's adrenaline spikes and suddenly a thin film drops over his vision. He slips back into the soothing hypnosis of the upload as an alarmingly Terminator-esque calculus takes place. The Intersect communicates with Chuck's conscious mind, telling him what needs to happen. (But I don't know how to do that!) As if prompted by his protests, signals tingle along his synapses, filter through his nerves, muscles lightly twitching in preparation for action. His mind absorbs thousands of years of technique and strategy, the feeling like fireworks exploding through his brain.
And just as suddenly as it had begun, it was over.
(Holy crap.)
"Sir, you should look at this," one of Chuck's guard's calls. Miles turns to look at Chuck while Sarah watches in horror.
"Chuck, did you just flash?" Sarah asks, her voice sounding strange and panicked.
(Oh crap, damn it, Sarah!) Chuck's gaze focuses and he looks down at the ground, not answering Sarah or meeting Miles' gaze. (You had to say it.)
"He uploaded it," Miles declares.
"Oh, Chuck me," Casey murmurs from the corner, looking at Chuck assessingly.
"Kill him," Miles orders, turning away to return to his quarry in the corner.
(Now!) Chuck can't tell who gave the command, but his leg snaps out, along with his arms, to disarm all five men surrounding him. (Gotta get control-)
He kicks, punches, flips, all the while fighting for conscious control of his own head and limbs. (I couldn't even scratch my nose if I wanted to.) He executes a reverse cartwheel into a backflip and looks down at his hands as he lands. (Holy crap!) He pauses for a moment and looks at the enemies arrayed in front of him, then spares a moment to look at Casey and Sarah. Casey has a looks amazed, but Sarah seems torn between shock and horror.
(Can't worry about that now. Immediate danger passed, Intersect override standing down -- standing down?! -- now I'm in control...) He quickly plots strategy and a forward roll gets him back into the fray. He kicks and punches and dispatches of the enemy agents until only Miles – whom the Intersect had identified as the most senior – remains. (Come get some, sucker.) He meets Miles blow for blow, arms circling and deflecting, blocking and counterpunching, until he lands a straight blow to Miles' chest, his fingers seeking to break skin and bone. Miles recoils and Chuck follows with a straight kick to the stomach, letting out a guttural "ki-ai" as Miles hits the wall and bounces to the floor.
(Holy crap!) Breathing heavily, Chuck looks around the floor to see the five spies he managed to lay out, while still in karate stance. (I...did that?) Casey looks like a kid at Christmas, eyes wide and darting around to absorb everything. Sarah's face is inscrutable. Chuck finally releases his fists, lowering his arms and still struggling to regain his breath.
"Chuck?!" Sarah questions, her voice an octave higher in panic.
(Holy crap. Oh my god.) He swallows hard, trying to get moisture back in his mouth as he answers. "Guys...I know kung fu." (I really, really hope I did the right thing.)
(I really, really do.)
To be continued...
A.N.: And there you have it, my darlings. Chuck vs. the Ring, as retold by me. :) I have an epilogue to come, and then...AU Season 3...Unless, of course you don't like this. Which I will take your lack of reviews to be telling me. And then no AU Season 3. So, seriously. Please. Review??