WARNING: Violence and some disturbing imagery ahead.
"I'm so sorry."
Sarah's voice is quiet and ragged, and while she's dressed beautifully, her hair up in intricate curls, she looks pale and worn down.
Chuck tries to go to her, but one of Vivian's goons grabs him.
He flashes instantly and twists the man's arm, breaking it and letting him slump to the floor.
"Very nice, Bartowski," Vivian says as she gives him a golf clap. "You've still got it."
Sarah gives him a confused stare and Chuck swallows.
"What do you want, Vivian?"
"You dead and my father out of jail," she chirps pleasantly. "But since killing you won't get him out, I'll settle for having his favorite play toy back."
"That's not going to happen," Leora snaps.
Vivian sighs. "Take those four out back and kill them."
The guards begin to move but she stops them at the last minute.
"On second thought, leave them alive. Chuck can deal with them later." Vivian smiles. "That is, unless you cooperate. Come willingly and we'll let them go."
Chuck swallows, trying not to show her that he's terrified. "Sarah, too?"
"Oh, I'm afraid not," Vivian says, mock regret in her voice. "No she's not only been under deep cover here as one of my most trusted guards for over a year, she's also a hunter, and my special demon friend here has an axe to grind with her father. Isn't the right, Meg? Or is it Jill?"
The demon grins and Chuck sees rotten teeth.
"The info I planted about Michigan must have left a dent. He's not seeing the ex-girlfriend I'm squatting in, he's seeing my true form."
"You...you're in Jill?" Chuck asks, confused.
"That's right," Meg drawls. "But don't worry. She's long dead thanks to your boyfriend here."
Chuck turns a shocked look on Bryce who struggles a little.
"She tried to kill me too," he snaps. "I'm just a better shot."
"Speaking of shots," Vivian says with a smile. "That gives me a great idea!" She pulls an unlabeled bottle filled with a gray liquid out and pours some into a shot glass.
Chuck swallows. He knows what it is. "No."
"Drink up, or I'll kill them both," Vivian says. "They'll die slowly. And then I'll let Meg loose on everyone at this party."
"What is that?" Sarah asks, hesitantly.
"Liquid Laudenol," Bryce says quietly. "It's Laudenol."
Sarah's eyes widen.
Chuck's hand reaches for the shot.
"Don't," Bryce says harshly. "Don't Chuck."
Vivian pulls a knife out and stabs through Bryce's hand, embedding the tip of the blade into the wood of the bar.
He yells in pain and Chuck grabs the shot and knocks it back quickly with his eyes closed.
When he opens them again his vision is blurred and he can feel all of his fear and anger and dread start to slip away, little by little.
Vivian refills the shot and Chuck stares at it.
"I'm so sorry," Sarah says again, brokenly. "I'm so sorry, Chuck. I...I got caught sending you that napkin and then-"
He looks at her and holds onto the feeling of seeing her again, finally, for dear life. She's so beautiful, and he's...missed...he's missed her.
The Laudenol make it hard to talk, and so he reaches out and takes her hand.
"Enjoy that while it lasts," Vivian snorts. "A few more shots and he'll be breaking your fingers, Walker."
Sarah shakes her head. "Please, Chuck. Please. It's not worth it."
He picks up the shot and downs it slower this time, and as the Laudenol slides down his throat, his world starts to go gray.
Vivian refills the glass and he stares at it again.
It's a different sensation than before. It's not as potent as having it injected into his bloodstream and while his mind is cloudy, it's not gone.
Not yet, anyways.
He looks from the shot glass to Vivian. Her smile is smug and her fingers tap the wood of the bar top gently.
"We're all waiting, Chuck," she tells him casually, as she reaches out and twists the knife in Bryce's hand.
He groans and starts to reel a fist back to punch Vivian in the head, but one of her guards grabs him.
Chuck lifts the third shot and knocks it back. His taste buds are going numb just like everything else.
Everything except his extreme curiosity.
He's not foolish. He knows what's going to happen. Vivian Volkoff is going to feed him a few more shots and then turn him loose on the room; on Bryce and on Sarah.
It'd be so easy, so simple, to kill all these people. To feel Sarah's neck snap under his hands; to take the knife out of Bryce's hand and plunge it into his heart, give it a good twist.
It'd be easy. Miranda's so tiny he could snap her like a twig. Eliot would put up more of a fight, but he could win. Christopher and Leora would be easy, too.
It'd all be easy.
He can still feel Sarah's hand on his; warm where his is getting clammy and cold and her fingers are slender and it feels...
Well, it doesn't. It doesn't feel like anything. Nothing feels like anything and he remembers what Vivian said before; that he'd be breaking Sarah's fingers.
But he doesn't. He doesn't want to break her fingers.
Vivian has helpfully poured more into his shot glass, and he only realizes he's been staring at Sarah when he looks to Vivian.
His head swims a little as he stares at her and she presents a new challenge. A new curiosity. The girl with the bottle and the big smile. She's slender, and while she obviously calls all of the shots for Volkoff Industries now, she's not imposing like Alexei; she's also dumb enough to let him sit there without any restraints.
It's all so easy.
He downs the latest shot and gets to his feet.
The guards ready themselves but he's so much faster; he's so efficient. They're all down in seconds, and then his hand grabs a fistful of Vivian's hair and he slams her head against the bar, hard.
In his peripheral vision, he sees Sarah get to her feet, and he can almost hear her call his name, but the sound is muddy. He vaguely observes Bryce wrenching the knife from his hand and he can sort of hear screams from the other party guests around and behind him but his attention, his complete focus is on Vivian.
He lifts her head and stares her in the eyes. Her lip and nose are bleeding, and she seems angry. She claws at him but he flashes and then uses his free hand to break her wrist. She screams and he yanks her over the bar and to the floor.
Chuck kneels down and stares at her appraisingly. People are so fragile.
Sound still rages around him; Bryce and Sarah's shouts, Meg's laughing now, watching, and there are more panicked cries from around him.
Vivian looks angry and terrified and she kicks at him but it does no good.
Slowly, carefully, experimentally, he closes his hands around her neck and starts to add pressure.
"Chuck!"
The voice rings out clear as a bell and while he doesn't move his hands, he does stop squeezing. He blinks rapidly and looks up.
Sarah is staring back at him with tears in her eyes, and a bottle in her hand.
He feels the bottle make contact with the back of his head, and while he can't feel any pain, he blacks out anyways.