Chapter 19: The End?

Cammie's POV

The red lights flashed on their faces as the group stood, gaping at me. Aunt Abby snapped out of it first, gently grabbing my arm and pulling me into a quick, but tight hug.

"Hey Squirt."

I smiled and everyone else snapped into motion. Solomon led the way down a hall and I followed after with the rest of the group. Bex passed me with a nod, and then Macey, who was carefully watching Liz did the same. Liz gave me a smile although I could see the uneasiness in her eyes from being in this situation. She was a lab kind of person.

Zach filed in beside me, smirking, as Abby walked faster to catch up to the lead. "Hey Chameleon, you look a bit rough."

"Well, a day or two with your mother tends to do that to a person, Blackthorne Boy." The smirk vanished and he nodded in empathy.

"The boats are on the south side of the island. There is rappelling equipment behind a couple red and purple bushes near the edge."

I nodded curtly. "Where are we going right now?"

"Towards the west doors. The alarms have gone off, but since you disabled the locks on the doors, it will take them awhile to turn all of them back on."

We were all quietly running now.

"Is anybody getting Catherine?"

"We do have a team of people looking for her, but she isn't our priority." He cleared his throat, "I'm really glad you're alive."

"Me too."

I could see the doors in the distance, the faint outline of the two small windows filtered in a minimal amount of moonlight. The sirens were screaming in our ears as we raced towards the doors.

When we reached them, Solomon pushed open a door and we all filtered out. On our left side, I heard a commotion as a group of our spies filtered out and then again on the right side. The leaders of each grouped ran towards Solomon as we all tried to stealthily make it back to the south side.

"Couldn't find Catherine, sir. We went towards the exit once the alarm sounded." I heard one of the men who exited from the right side of us say.

The one on the left added, "There were only a few guards. Something is wrong here… We should get a move on before we get caught it whatever they're planning."

As we all turned the corner towards the south side of the building, we stopped short as we came to face the compounds full force of guards.

The huge men stared us down, their group was bigger, or at least seemed bigger with the body mass of each individual man. There were maybe 30 of them and 20-25 of us. We were outnumbered but possibly not overpowered.

A laugh traveled over the masses of men and reached us. "Too late."

Catherine's devilish smile was shown from where she stood atop the hill behind her small army. In the distance, there was a helicopter sitting on the next hill and I immediately knew who it was for. I couldn't let Catherine escape.

The guards took a step forward and before I knew it, we were all fighting.

"Go!" I pointed to the rappelling equipment as I pulled Bex, Macey and Liz aside.

Liz looked completely relieved as she scurried in that direction, pausing when no one was following her.

Bex turned to Macey, "You go, Liz needs someone to help her and I'm of better use fighting." She gave a reluctant Macey a shove towards Liz.

As two of my roommates scurried off, I turned on Bex. "You need to go too. You haven't gotten enough training to be in this situation."

She only gave me a smirk, "Everyone needs some real experience training."

Before I could argue, she dashed off into the fight. I was still uneasy about that, but she was stubborn and trying to sway her decision was only going to waste my time.

"I need to go stop Catherine." I finally addressed Zach.

"I'm going with you."

I opened my mouth to once again argue, and then shut it as I shrugged. "Well, let's go then." I said before blending into the shadows.

Zach trailed behind me as I slunk along the outside of the fighting. A big burly man stepped into the path as he noticed us and I watched as one eye widened, as the other one was swollen from a punch. He reared back his hand and slung it toward my face. I caught it and twisted his arm in a way that he toppled to the ground. One sharp kick to his ribs, he was gasping and another came from Zach's boot clad foot and landed straight on his temple, knocking him out.

With a mutual nod, we crouched as we briskly made our way closer to the helicopter. Catherine was surveying the fight in the small valley below her, hair whipping in the wind as she reached the step into the helicopter. The pilot started the rotors and they created more wind, slowly picking up speed.

I started to run forward. I couldn't let Catherine get away. She would stop for nothing but death until she found HHS-19. The amount of devastation she could do with that substance… and I was the only person on Earth who knew how to find it. She could never know. Catherine would create irreversible destruction that could bring the world into chaos..

"Stop." I snarled at her.

She slowly turned around and eyed my gun that was pointed at her face and smirked, looking so much like her son beside me, "Cammie, Zachary. It's especially nice to see you, son."

Zach's face melted into a disgusted expression, "You stopped being a mother to me a long time ago."

"Don't be like that, Zachary." Catherine's face still held a certain note of delight, "Now for you Cameron, would you like to come along with us and help us find the key?"

I spit in her direction.

"I thought so. Well I'm sorry we have our differences," She cackled, "Boys, please assist Ms. Morgan to the second helicopter."

She turned her back to us and started to walk away while the three thugs that had been standing in the distance advanced on us. They were not your average thugs. "Thug" wasn't even the right word… bodyguard, maybe? They were definitely not huge but they were very toned with wide shoulders, big chests, and slim waists. These were the ex-KGB sort of people.

I ground my teeth, "Zach, watch your back."

"I know, you too." He glanced over at me, "Cammie, I don't know what you know or what exactly Catherine wants from you, but they won't kill either of us. But they are going to do everything possible to get you into the second helicopter." He paused for a second before adding, "We can't let that happen."

We were outnumbered, but only slightly. The men couldn't overpower me, so Zach was the weak link here. I needed his help in order to stop Catherine from lifting off. Even now I could feel the gentle breeze increasing in speed as the helicopter rotors got into a condition to takeoff.

One man jumped forward and threw a punch at my head while I dropped and swept a leg out, bringing him to the floor. The other two approached both me and Zach as their comrade rolled into a standing position.

A fist flew at my core and I brought out a palm to knock the fist away, it narrowly missing my torso. While I was distracted a hand from behind grabbed my shoulder and I grabbed it while bending over to flip the body in front of me, hitting the bodyguard who was already standing there. The body thudded off of him and then to the ground as the standing man brought his arms to throw me over my shoulder and to the ground to knock me out in a wrestling move. My knee came up and jammed into his stomach causing him to lose his breath.

All of sudden my feet were knocked out from under me. I fell to my back, spotting the malicious smile from the man who was still on the ground from when I flipped his body. I twisted my legs around his arms and torso and brought my elbow to his temple knocking him out. One guy to go.

I was running out of time while I trade punches and jabs with the man in front of me. The wind was whipping more violently around us as the helicopter rotors gained speed.

From beside me, I heard "Go!" As Zach screamed through the loud whistling of the air, his words seeming to be carried away from him. He stepped in between me and the last man standing and I took off in a sprint after swiping the gun I saw Zach had mounted on his belt..

My legs felt wobbly and my arms pumping at my sides ached in protest. It was all a mental game that I couldn't afford to lose. My right arm brought up the gun I was holding while I still sprinted closer to the vehicle. Keeping as steady as I could, I pulled the trigger twice.

The first bullet zoomed away from me, finding its target in the side window of the helicopter cockpit. The second bullet zoomed through the hole in the window and into the side of the pilot. He fell out of his seat and the rotors of the helicopter started to slow down.

Catherine swung herself into the cockpit and threw the man's body into the back like discarded waste. Alive or not, she would dump him into the ocean, that is if she got that far anyway.

"I can't let you leave Catherine!" I yelled to her as I jumped to the door of the helicopter and swung it open hopping in and pulling her out of the cockpit.

She brought up her foot and shoved me back as we both tried to knock the other unconscious. As we traded jab with the absence of weapons, Catherine managed to make conversation.

"You make everything much more difficult than it has to be, Cammie." She giggled while blocking my punch, "Stubborn just like your brother... And look where he ended up - six feet under."

I gritted my teeth, determine not to falter over her manipulating conversation, "Don't talk about Ryker."

"Do you remember what happened after I carved into your ribs?" She asked while jabbing me right in my injury.

Oxygen flew out of my lungs and I gasped for air while clutching my midsection with one hand and blocking her with the other. "Stop talking."

She only smiled, "You have a loose mouth while you're delirious."

I hesitated for a moment long enough for me to get knocked on the side of my head. Exhaustion creeped to my bones despite the adrenaline that still rushed inside of me.

"You see, my next stop is to Europe - Rome and then… France, was it?"

I gaped as I was hit again in my distraction.

"But I know I still need you… and whether you come with me now, or I force you to later - I won't stop until you give me what I need."

She smirked at me as I heard a familiar voice, "Cammie!" - Zach.

Big, burly arms circled around my waist and I was yanked out of the helicopter and pulled to the ground below. In my confusion, I allowed the mysterious arms to drag me away from the helicopter a few feet.

I untangled myself from the arms to face a huge man. Not one of the Ex-KGB that Zach and I had fought before, but a huge human block that was sent to help Catherine escape. The one arm that still latched onto me held me in place as the other was brought up to a pressure point on my back. I squirmed trying to release myself from the hold, but I was too slow and his hand was too fast.

My knees buckled as I fell to the ground, still conscious, but without use of my limbs for a period of time. Limp, my head lolled to the side where I could see both the helicopter lifting off and Zach running and tackling the man above me who was about to crush my skull with his boot.

My arms started to tingle and I brought my neck up. The helicopter flew low across the ground as it fell over the cliff, only to resurface seconds later, flying away rapidly. Catherine was gone.

Zach's POV

After the dust had settled, everyone was busy on the secluded island, assessing injuries and calling for rescue helicopters for an unlucky few. The guards had surrendered as Catherine had left the island and they had no place to go. Lowering to their knees, dropping their weapons and putting their hands behind their head - clean and easy, off to prison.

As soon as my mother, Catherine, took off to who knows where, the fight had drained out of Cammie. Once she regained control of her body, she picked up a gun and shot the man who was tumbling around in the dirt with me, giving me a heart attack. Her aim was so accurate that she predicted the direction we were going to go in and shot at the exact place where she knew the bullet wouldn't go through him and hit me. The famous Chameleon indeed.

When we got back to the main scene we found the able agents tying the guards up and secluding them to certain areas. We found Bex, scraped up and bleeding, with a wicked smile on her face as she gushed to us in a flurry of words too fast for either of us to understand.

"And I elbowed him, boom and then he brought up his knee but I stepped to the side and pushed into his standing foot and then," She took a deep breath, "He totally fell over and he was like twice my size and it was crazy and he brought out a huge fist and he almost smacked me but I-..."

Cammie interjected, "Bex - Bex, here tell me later, I need to help check the injured agents."

Bex frowned but nodded because she understood, only slightly put-off that her ass-kicking story would have to wait until a later time.

I followed Cammie around as she scanned each of the agents, probably looking for her godfather, or aunt. A few times she stopped to pat an agent on the back and was greeted warmly.

"Chameleon!" The southern accent came from a man in his mid-20's eagerly waved a huge hand in our direction.

She smiled, "Wolf. It's been a long time… Since Lebanon, right?"

I recognized the code name from some large missions and scanned him again with new respect. This guy had almost as high clearance as the Chameleon.

He nodded and then looked to me, "We went on our first missions together, me and this girlie. Well... our first post-agency training missions." Wolf guffawed, "You should've seen my face when I found out that my partner was a 13 year old girl."

Cammie bent down giving him a small hug and a pat on the back. "It's good to see you."

Wolf nodded his head at our departure giving us a small smile as we walked away.

A minute later of agent scanning, Cammie dropped to her knees beside a woman, about 30. She was clutching her shoulder with a grimaced face.

"Agent Simmons, right?" Cammie asked.

The woman looked up at us and right as she said yes, she yelped as Cammie popped her shoulder back into place. Her wide eyes relaxed and she nodded in thank you.

After trudging down to the very end of the line with no more interruptions did we finally see the Headmistress with Agent Townsend's head in her lap. Abby Cameron was silent as she looked down at the unconscious man's face while another agent held cloth to the gaping red circle of blood that had soaked down the sides of his shirt. Edward Townsend's face was deathly pale and when I looked beside me, Cammie's face looked stoic but was starting to lose its color. A chopper landed 50 feet from us and two agents hurried to pick up the stretcher that I hadn't noticed he was lying on. They carried him away from us, only being joined at the helicopter doors by two other figures on stretchers.

Headmistress Cameron turned around, wiping her face, "Go get checked out, Squirt. You've been through a lot in the last few days - either let someone clean your wounds or attend to them yourself." She lingered a hand on Cammie's shoulder as she walked by.

"Zach, you should come too. Let's go."

Two hours later I emerged from the makeshift first aid tent that sat by the walls of the building. The few cuts I had were patched up and I was fed and ordered to take a nap.

It was dusk - about 4:30 AM. The sky was a pretty purple color and the ground around me was littered with the bodies of sleeping agents. I scanned all of them, not sure what I was looking for until I saw a small silhouette standing not 5 feet from the edge of the cliff.

"Zach." She greeted me without turning around.

"What are you doing out here?"

"Do you ever think about normal?"

The question surprised me, "Not really. I don't even know what that's like."

"The Circle will never stop hunting me. Catherine will never stop hunting me. This lifestyle has made me the key to access one of the most dangerous substances in the world!" Her posture slumped in resignation.

"Gallagher girl," I started, moving a little bit closer, "We can do this together. It's not all on your shoulders - you have the headmistress, Solomon, Townsend, our roommates. Me."

She only gave me a weary look, "That's more people to kill, Zach! The Circle tortured and killed my brother, and they tortured me. Townsend is somewhere trying to hold onto his life, and Solomon? I saw him in the first aid tent - unconscious and bloody." Cammie sighed as she continued to pierce me with her blue eyes taking a step forward, "I'm not a Gallagher girl - I'm the Chameleon."

"You have another identity now," I countered. "You don't have to do this alone."

"Yes I do, Zach. I'm the only person that they will think twice before killing. Catherine still needs me, and she won't be able to access HHS-19 without me."

We now stood nose to nose. Her blue eyes pierced my green eyes with a desperation I had never seen in her. I rested my forehead against hers as we breathed in the chilly air. We stayed silent, but the world around us was alive - the water hitting rocks, shouts from the first aid tent, the spin of rotors from a helicopter touching down.

She tilted her head and leaned forward and pressed her lips to mine. Cammie was kissing me.

When she pulled back, she was still looking intensely into my eyes. Cammie stepped backwards and gave me a small smirk, a grin.

"Until next time, Blackthorne boy."

And with that, Cameron Morgan, The Chameleon, Cammie and Gallagher girl leapt off the side of the cliff.

I hurried to the very ground that she was standing on moments ago and looked down. Nothing. No matter how long I looked, I wouldn't spot her - She was the Chameleon. I turned around with a sigh and started to walk back to the makeshift camp.

"Until next time, Gallgher girl… Until next time."

AN: OH WOW… I can't believe I'm all done with this. WOW. I'm really glad I finished this. I had to finish it for myself and everyone who still reads it after that super long hiatus I took. Thank you so much for reading and reviewing and giving me ideas to keep me going. I really enjoyed this.

Also, I will probably never write a sequel. I'm too old and the Gallagher Girls Fanfiction base is slowly withering away. It's been ten years since the first book. With that said, REVIEW if you want me to post one more chapter - an alternate ending that ties everything up really nicely. If a lot of people want it, well I'll get to writing and have it to you before my school starts. It will probably be about 3-5 pages long, so we'll see.

-S as in Sucky Cliffhangers