The first thing Dmitri thought to do was order his men to hold The Wall's defenses against their attackers.

"Go go! Get out the tanks and guns and hold them off as long as possible!" He shouted as loud as he could in the midst of chaos, then retreated into the complex building. Panic arose to the warden's head as he pondered what was going on.

"What is the government doing here? How did they-?" Then something clicked in his mind. "Oh no, don't tell me..." Dmitri then hurriedly ran off somewhere, eager to confirm his newfound suspicions.

Meanwhile outside, Henry was riding with Charles in his helicopter flying over the Wall, trying to find where the warden and/or Ellie are. The general's voice came through the walkie talkie. "Alright Henry, Charles will be helping you get a good look from above while we hold off everyone else. Good luck."

Henry nodded to himself. This is it, his chance to make things right. He's not going to mess up this time.

...

Ellie tried on her cell's solid iron door in an desperate effort to get it open, but of course it didn't budget. All she could see from her window was utter chaos, and she had to get out of there somehow.

"Come on, come on...just open!" She shouted.

As if on cue, the door slowly opened, making her relieved for a moment...until she saw who was on the other side.

"You! Come with me now!"

"Dmitri?! What are you doing? What's going on here?" The redhead questioned, and any hope she had immediately evaporated with the warden's next action.

"I won't ask again, girl." Dmitri pulled out a gun on her, his face showing a dead serious expression. "This is all your fault!"

Ellie was confused, but nonetheless did as she was told in favor of surviving and figuring out what's going on later. "Okay, okay..." She slowly raised her arms in surrender.

Dmitri allowed himself to smile smugly. "And now to meet up with our friend..."

Back outside, Henry and Charles were still looking for a lead on Ellie or Dmitri, and they were having no luck until Charles spotted something. "Henry! Look! I think I found who we are looking for. Both of them seem to be situated on the rooftop. You should get there as soon as you can."

Henry looked himself using binoculars and indeed, both the redheaded criminal and the warden were there. He nodded affirmatively to Charles, then the sound of button pressing was heard, and Henry was no longer in the chopper.

Back at the rooftop, Dmitri was vigilantly looking around while still holding Ellie hostage, while she was getting more confused about what's going on.

"I guess it's good that this is happening to this awful place...but what is HE trying to accomplish?!"

And right there and then, she got her answer.

"Well, if it isn't Henry." Dmitri growled. For a second, Ellie thought she must've misheard him. "What are you saying? Henry is dead-" She looked up and she saw him right there. The same Henry Stickmin she killed. He was alive.

While Ellie was left in a trance of frozen shock, the confrontation between Henry and Dmitri carried on.

"I knew this was all happening because of you! All because this pathetic little girl couldn't do one simple thing. If you're going to betray me and kill this honorless thief, at least do one of them right."

Keeping his icy assurance, Henry didn't waver and simply told the warden to surrender, but Dmitri wasn't having it. "There has not been an incident here in fifty years, and the day you show up, this catastrophe has been set in motion! You are going to regret this. If you don't tell the government to back off, your little friend here is not going to live for another minute."

This is it. This is the moment where Henry had to make a decision. Ellie's life depended on the next move he's going to make, so there's only one thing for it...

Dmitri's and Ellie's facial expressions would slowly change into a look of utter disbelief and bewilderment at what Henry was doing: He was making a face.

People below them were fighting and dying, Ellie was being held at gunpoint and there he was, making a stupid face like a little kid would do to another kid. Honestly, Ellie wanted to laugh, even a little, just to forget the horrible situation. Dmitri on the other hand, was unamused.

"Seriously, Henry? That's your ultimate plan? Make a stupid face? What, you think that will upset me? Oh, very mature..." Dmitri rolled his eyes, but he failed to realize immediately the brief window of opportunity he gave to Ellie, who wasted no time in instinctively knocking him down with a shove, then she tried to make a run for it to Henry but the warden recovered and took a shot.

"UGH! MY LEG!" The redhead shouted as she fell on the ground, though she still doggedly continued trying to get away.

Enraged by this turn of events, Henry launched himself at Dmitri before the latter recovered his footing, leading to the two getting into a scuffle over Dmitri's gun.

"Now you've really done it! I'm going to kill you myself!" Dmitri snarled. The struggle between the two continued for a few more seconds before the gun was tossed by a random kick away from them.

"No!" Dmitri yelled in desperation as he tried to push Henry away and run for the gun but...

"Don't move a muscle." Ellie had gotten to the gun first and was now aiming it towards both Henry and Dmitri.

"Come on now, Ellie. Don't do something stupid." The warden tried.

"The only stupid thing to do in this situation is either of you moving a muscle." She shot back venomously.

"There you go again, letting your selfishness taking a hold of you. Look at what this honorless thief did to my institution! It was all for your sake and yet here you are blatantly revealing that you're as willing to shoot him as you are to shoot me. At least do not let my kingdom die in vain!" Dmitri spat at her.

"It's called self-preservation, old man. And you're in no place to call me out on selfishness when you don't care about the law and only care about it to enhance your career."

Dmitri looked at Ellie pointedly, with a look that would kill her if looks could kill. "I only ever did what's right. You only ever do the selfish thing, but here, you have an opportunity to prove me wrong. Shoot him first then me, if you're still yourself. If you really regretted what you did, you only have to use one bullet."

Ellie pondered if this could even count as a conundrum. After all, both choices end with her finally killing two people who wronged her, and in the midst of this chaos, she could get away from all of this and enjoy her freedom...

But...she pondered something else.

Am I really that monstrous? Was my crying in the cell fake? Did I only "regret" what I did because I got caught? What am I supposed to do now?

The warden's snarky tone interrupted her train of thoughts. "Well Ellie? Is the decision too hard for you?"

Ellie looked away from Dmitri's questioning look to Henry. To her surprise, he had a small smile on his face, yet it spoke volumes of how much trust he was putting in her in this pivotal moment. The redhead was genuinely touched that some tears dripped down her face.

"There's no need to get emotional, girl. Just shoot-" Dmitri didn't even get to finish his sentence. He fell back on the ground, groaning in pain.

Ellie aimed her gun down, letting out a long-suffering sigh, while Henry, still smiling, patted her on the back.

"I knew I could trust you."

Ellie in turn smiled at the comforting words.

Before long, the government finally managed to contain the situation thanks to Dmitri's downfall.

General Galeforce approached Henry and Ellie. "Fine work indeed, you two. Thanks to you dealing with the leader, we were able to apprehend everyone working here, and all the prisoners are getting moved as well. We also contacted the CCC and settled matters with them." He then noticed that Ellie looked apprehensive. "Ellie, you alright?"

The girl nervously looked at Henry then back at the general. "Uhm, what's going to happen to me now? I mean after everything I did, I deserve to be jailed."

Galeforce chuckled. "Hehe, well, Henry here does not hold a grudge against you, and you did ultimately help us out, so you will be getting a pardon just like he did."

"R-Really??? Are you sure?"

"Yes, of course."

"Wow...thank you. I guess not all law enforcers are terrible." Ellie remarked.

"Certainly not. And speaking of terrible law enforcers..." Galeforce attracted Henry's and Ellie's attention to Dmitri being taken in, passing by them.

"Hold on. I have a few words to say to these two." The warden told the two officers escorting him, and they obliged. Dmitri then addressed the duo. "Henry Stickmin and Ellie Rose, I have to say I'm impressed. Really I am. For fifty years I thought I was unstoppable, but you two triumphed. I might have lost everything today, but I have gained respect for you. Well played." Then the officers continued escorting him.

Henry, Ellie and Galeforce looked on with unsure expressions.

"I will never understand that man." Galeforce remarked dryly.

"I second that." Ellie added while Henry nodded.

Much later, Charles was flying Henry and Ellie in his helicopter back to Henry's house.

"Yeah, the weird thing is that everyone we gathered from the Wall had a criminal record." Charles was telling them about the process of moving the Wall prisoners.

"I'm surprised...to say the least." Ellie commented, Henry agreeing.

"Yeah, I guess that guy wasn't all crazy, huh?"

No, he was. But I guess I'll give him this one. Well played, Dmitri.

The trio were soon at their destination. "Welp, it was nice flying you guys but I gotta go now. Have fun!" The friendly pilot started flying away, with the two ex-criminals waving to him.

"Hey, thanks for letting me stay with you for a while. I really appreciate it." Henry told her it was no issue.

"And Henry, I'm really sorry for what I did. I didn't deserve you putting your life on the line for me." Again, Henry reassured her that it's alright, and that everything is fine now. Then he suggested they get some sleep cause they had a long tiresome day, and she agreed.

Before they settled into bed, something popped in Ellie's mind. "By the way, how did you survive jumping into that chasm?"

Henry pulled a strange device that Ellie never saw before. He then pressed some of its buttons and disappeared.

"Woah! A teleporter!"

Henry reappeared in front of her and nodded.

"In hindsight, I'm really glad you had that on you."

Later that night, Ellie was lying on the couch, just about ready to go to sleep. She closed her eyes and peacefully smiled. "Thank you."

And so, it ended with a whispered thank you.