Chuck vs A New Day

by WillieGarvin

A/U story. What if Chuck and Sarah were a couple from the very beginning? How would that change the evolution of the stories? Here's my take on answering those questions. This story is, internally, broken up into arcs which (sort of, mostly) conform to episodes of the show. There's a rough table of contents on my profile page. Reading them in order is suggested.

187. Chapter 187--1st Orion Arc (Sept '08)

A/N: Ownership of Chuck has been in hiding for a long time. Ok, not really, but it just seems that way.

A/N2: Welcome to the twenty-eighth arc of our story, based upon Chuck versus the Predator (season 2, episode 17). I'm calling it the 1st Orion Arc. As is usual for New Day, it's going to be barely recognizable.

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I KNOW YOUR SECRET. YOU'RE THE INTERSECT.

Chuck stood stunned and mumbled "Who?"

The words on screen disappeared and a single word took their place.

ORION

Chuck stared at the screen without moving. His first thought was how the hell did someone access his computer? He had truly believed that to be impossible. But he put that disastrous and upsetting thought aside for later, as someone obviously had. Someone claiming to be Orion. Someone who knew he was the Intersect or someone who merely suspected that he was the Intersect? What if it was someone from Fulcrum phishing for confirmation?

First things first, he thought, I cannot confirm my status as the Intersect. (Mentally, he questioned why they were using the word "the" to describe the Intersect, when logically it might very well be "an" Intersect. Unless someone knew the whole story, it was absurd to assume that there was only one.) He considered and discarded the notion of claiming total ignorance of both Orion and the Intersect. Instead, Chuck said, "Bullshit. Orion's dead and the Intersect hasn't progressed to human trials yet."

I AM ORION AND YOU ARE THE INTERSECT.

"You don't listen too well, do you?"

Sarah came up behind him. "Who are you talking to, Sweetie?"

Chuck gestured at the screen. "Someone accessed my computer claiming to be Orion. Thinks I'm an Intersect. I told him, or her I guess, that Orion's dead and the Intersect hasn't advanced to human trials yet."

Sarah was shocked and looked it. "Oh, shit. And he can hear us?"

"Yes," said Chuck.

YES, Orion wrote on the screen.

Sarah took her phone out of her pocket and began to record what was happening.

"Do me a favor, Sweetie, tell Emma to stay in her room with Molly with the door closed and then go get Ellie," asked Chuck.

Sarah spun from the room.

YOU CANNOT TRUST HER. YOU CANNOT TRUST THE GOVERNMENT

"You're an idiot, Orion," said Chuck.

I KNOW THINGS YOU DON'T

"If you think you know that I can't trust Sarah, you don't know half as much as you think you do," said Chuck.

SHE'S AN AGENT. NONE OF THEM CAN BE TRUSTED

Chuck gave a short bark of laughter. "Oh, please. Are you going to tell me which agent stepped on your toes a decade ago? Is that why you left the Intersect Project unfinished? If you're even Orion."

I AM ORION. THE INTERSECT IS NOTHING BUT A DISASTER. THE PROJECT SHOULD BE SHUT DOWN BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE. PEOPLE COULD DIE.

Ellie and Sarah arrived in the room.

"Claims to be Orion?" Ellie said.

I AM ORION

"Easy to say," said Ellie. Turning to Chuck she said, "What do you think?"

"I think the IC has been looking for Orion for years. If this is really Orion..."

The words on the screen began to flash on and off. Ellie looked at the screen with a frown of annoyance and said, "We're trying to have a conversation here. Stop interrupting."

The words stopped blinking, but reminded on the screen.

"If it's really Orion, we have a ton of questions for him about the original architecture of the Intersect. A better understanding is necessary to figure out how to remove it before we can test it on people."

IT CAN'T BE REMOVED

Ellie looked at the message and said, "Well, hate to tell you, but I'm working on a removal process and not ready to throw in the towel just yet. So, what you really mean is you haven't figured out how to remove it. Just because you haven't figured it out doesn't mean it can't be done by someone else. Hubris much? If you are even Orion."

I AM ORION

"I know. You said that already," she replied dryly.

Chuck said, "Is there anything you can ask him that would tell you if he's actually Orion? Something only Orion would know?"

Ellie thought about it for a moment and said, "Orion, when you set up the original architecture why did you pick 1 to 35,000 as a compression ratio?"

There was a long pause. I TRIED OTHERS. ANYTHING HIGHER RISKED OVERWHELMING THE OPTIC NERVE.

Ellie looked at the screen for a few moments, thinking about his answer. "Well, that makes sense. I still don't know if you're Orion, but that was a reasonable answer." She turned to Chuck and Sarah and said with a shrug of uncertainty, "Maybe."

Chuck said, "Ok. Let's assume you are Orion. You must know the IC has been looking for you."

AMONG OTHERS. MOST RECENTLY FULCRUM.

"Yes," Chuck continued. "I expect Fulcrum would like to get their hands on you too. But the question of the moment is why did you reach out to me? What do you want?"

I WANT YOU TO RECOMMEND THE SHUTDOWN OF THE INTERSECT PROGRAM

With a short bark of surprised laughter, Chuck said, "If you know anything about the program...the current program...you know that those decisions are outside my paygrade. Way outside. Why don't you make an appointment with DNI Malone? I'm sure he'd love to chat with you."

IT'S NOT SAFE FOR ME TO COME IN

"Why not? The IC want to ask you some questions. They can protect you."

"Hell," said Ellie, "I want to ask you some questions. If you are really Orion, you can be a tremendous help to me on the Intersect."

"Are you worried about Fulcrum?" Sarah asked the invisible person behind the computer screen.

FULCRUM ARE MANIACS AND VERY DANGEROUS, BUT I'M ALSO WORRIED ABOUT THE IC ITSELF. SPIES CAN'T BE TRUSTED.

"Hey," said Chuck in a scolding tone. "Watch that. Some of my best friends are spies. But anyway, I think you're barking up the wrong tree if you think that having us recommend shutting down a billion-dollar program on the word of someone claiming to be Orion and only communicating with us anonymously is going to have any effect. Hate to break it to you, but the world doesn't work that way."

Again, there was a pause.

YOU'RE RIGHT. I'LL HAVE TO GET IT SHUT DOWN ON MY OWN

"What do you mean by that?" asked Ellie.

YOU'LL SEE

GOODBYE

"Well then, thanks for stopping by," said Chuck with a frustrated sigh. "Hey, before you leave do you care to tell me how you broke through the security on my computer?"

NO

The screen went dark and remained so.

"Shit," murmured Chuck.

Sarah, clearly upset, said, "We should call Malone, Beckman and Graham. This is a disaster."

Chuck moved the three of them into the living room, in case Orion was still listening.

"Yes, but that's not the most urgent thing. El, I need you to call the Intersect scientists. I know it's the middle of the night back east, but you have to tell them to make sure that all their work is backed up and air gapped, but don't tell them why. They have to do this immediately if not sooner. If this guy can get through my security, he's a real risk to the Project, whoever he is."

Ellie nodded and ran back to her apartment to get her phone.

"Casey," Chuck said, touching his watch. "Come here, please."

"On my way," said Casey.

Chuck turned to Sarah and said, "No time to get Bryce or Z. We'll just have to fill them in later."

Chuck moved to set up the call with the bosses. Malone, Graham and Beckman were just getting on the video conference with Casey, Sarah and Chuck when Ellie got back to the apartment.

Graham said, "What's going on, team?"

Sarah said, "Sorry to rouse everyone so late. We were contacted by someone claiming to be Orion. I used my phone. I was recording what happened from when I came into the room. Chuck, can you put this up on the screen for them to see?"

"My smart girl," said Chuck with a grin. She gave him a loving smile.

As the video ran, Sarah said, "Here's where I ran out to get Ellie."

Chuck said, "When Sarah was gone he told me I couldn't trust her."

Sarah looked at Chuck with surprise and said, "Son of a bitch. What did you say?"

"I called him an idiot." Casey and Ellie puffed out quiet laughs. "He said he knew things I didn't know. And I told him if he thought Sarah couldn't be trusted he didn't know half as much as he thought he knew. He also said the Intersect is a disaster and should be shut down before people die."

Sarah's recorded video resumed and the bosses watched it through to the end.

Chuck said, "We have alerted the Intersect personnel to make sure their work is backed up and air gapped. Whoever this guy is, he's world class to get through my computer's security. To be honest, I'm a little freaked out by it. I really want to know how he did that."

"I understand, Chuck. I don't blame you a bit. Overall, though, good job, team. Good job," said Malone. "We don't know how much he knows about the Intersect, or, as you indicated, if he's really Orion, but he certainly knows something."

"Yes. And he knows Chuck's the Intersect," said Sarah with obvious concern. "That's really, really bad, guys."

"Agreed, Agent Walker, but if he was a danger to Chuck, if he was working with Fulcrum, he wouldn't announce himself. He'd attack by surprise," said Graham reasonably.

"We have to find him and make sure he hasn't told anyone else about Chuck," said Sarah. "This is an emergency now."

Beckman said, "Agent Walker, we've been looking for Orion since you were in a training bra. No question that we have to find him. Chuck, what kind of computer magic can you do to backtrack on his location? If he's just someone who learned about Chuck and the Intersect, that's important and scary enough. But if he's really Orion and we can convince him to help us, that's huge. We've been looking for Orion for years and this is the first real lead we have. Albeit tenuous."

"I'll get started right away, Ma'am," said Chuck. "I'm going to take a look at the file on Orion for starters."

Beckman sighed, "Go right ahead, Chuck, but you'll be disappointed. There's barely anything there. When he left the program and disappeared, he erased all digital records of his identity. Totally scrubbed. But you have a knack and sometimes can see things others miss, so have at it. A fresh pair of eyes if nothing else."

"Thank you, Ma'am," he replied.

Malone said, "Good luck, Team. Let us know if you need anything. Find this guy."

"Yes, Sir. Goodnight, Sir, Directors," said Chuck.

He blew out a sigh and looked at his computer. It had been a long day and he was going to need a lot of coffee overnight. This really sucks, he thought.

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A few hours later; Abu Dhabi

Vincent Smith sat in his living room on the 48th floor of a luxury skyscraper and looked out over the sparkling turquoise waters of the Arabian Gulf while he sipped his whiskey. He had been studying the reports he'd gotten from his agents around the world. Still no solid leads on Orion.

For three years he'd been searching for the man, ever since the Sachem himself had given him the mission. Find Orion to give us the shortcuts we need to complete our own Intersect. But, that was harder than it might have seemed. No physical description. No name. No history. He could be a myth for all the tangible evidence Smith was able to assemble. The only thing he could work with were digital clues. And those were as fleeting as a wisp of mist. Often, the clues amounted to no more than a lacuna where there should have been some data.

During all that time, Smith had come close twice. The first time was the Fulcrum raid on a Russian hacker compound in Kaliningrad. But with the only men there in their late teens and early twenties, there were no possible suspects. The second time, just recently, had been in an internet café in Dubai. The barista had described a middle aged American or European man who had left moments before the Fulcrum raid. From there, the trail had gone cold again. All surveillance and traffic cameras had been wiped clean. The man in the café had ghosted them.

So, Vincent was sitting in Abu Dhabi (not Dubai, of course, it was easier to get booze in Abu Dhabi), reading reports and waiting for some leads to develop somewhere. His gut told him one might just have done so.

He had gotten a call a few hours ago. Fulcrum watched the IC's Intersect Project and its progress carefully. Sabotage it where they could. Steal its work product when the opportunity arose. And, always, keep as up to date on its goings on as possible. When the Project scientists were advised to back up and air gap their work, Smith decided that it must be a sign that Orion was active. The cyber security around the project was just too strong for that level of concern otherwise. The IC must have gotten word of an Orion threat and acted accordingly, at least that was his theory.

Which led Smith directly to his next assumption. If Orion was now on the gameboard, what would the IC do? The answer was simple. They would task Carmichael and his team with looking into it. The Intersect was just too important to trust to any other set of agents. That team had earned the momentous reputation of doing the impossible with ease and grace. It was the among most dangerous groups Fulcrum faced, neck and neck with whoever had been abducting and torturing to death the patriotic men and women of his own organization.

Fulcrum had agents in Castle Studios who could generally keep an eye on the Carmichael Team from a distance. Smith would task them with notifying him when Carmichael left Los Angeles. If he could ascertain where they were headed, he could utilize their intelligence and connections to find Orion. After that, the task was relatively easy. Shadow the Carmichael Team and outmaneuver them to get to Orion first.

Smith sipped a glass of whiskey and smiled to himself. He could see a path to the end of this frustrating and so far fruitless search.

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The next morning; Castle Studios

Jeff Barnes was excited. He knew it was only a probationary job, but he'd been selected by the Mattocks to be the second unit director for a new TV show. He wouldn't have a lot to do with the main cast and would spend a lot of time with the stuntmen and whatnot, but it was a great opportunity for a newbie director.

And the show sounded fun. A criminal mastermind out on parole helping an experienced FBI agent solve crimes. As he walked through the Studio clutching the scripts for the first few episodes he had to stop himself from laughing out loud at his incredible luck.

He turned a corner into a somewhat out of the way alleyway and suddenly realized that he was lost. He chuckled at his own distraction and turned back to return the way he had come.

But then he heard a woman sobbing and he stopped. He said, "Hello. Hello? Are you ok? Is anything wrong?" He didn't see anything or anyone. He stepped forward a little further and saw a figure pressed against the wall hidden by a few boxes. "Hey," he said to her gently. "Are you ok?"

Her back was to him, as she was facing into the corner formed by the wall and the boxes. He reached out and touched her lightly on the shoulder to get her attention. She jumped as if he'd burned her. He immediately withdrew his hand and stepped back a foot or more.

"Are you okay?" he repeated quietly.

She turned to him and tried to wipe the tears from her face. He recognized her as Marjorie Something. He had shot a TV commercial with her a few weeks earlier. She was a pretty 19-year-old girl originally from the Midwest someplace, come to LA to be a movie star. He remembered thinking that she had been lucky to get work as quickly as she did.

"Oh, hi, Mr. Barnes. Yeah. Everything is fine," she lied. "It's nothing. Nothing."

"Now, Margorie, you don't have to tell me anything and I don't want to pry, but it sure doesn't seem like nothing."

She tried to smile at him and failed. "It's nothing. Thanks, Mr. Barnes. Thanks. It's nothing."

She hurried away, leaving Jeff less ebullient than he had been moments before.

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A/N3: In the episode in canon, Beckman was a bit of a hardass about Orion, but she was 100% right. She said Chuck couldn't be sure that the person at the other end of the computer connection was actually Orion. You can't believe everything you read on the Internet, after all. (You should read my profile from any dating site – ok, just kidding, but you get the idea.) So, I had Chuck and company much more suspicious of Orion's identity. Furthermore, in canon, Chuck was desperate to get the Intersect removed so that he could be with Sarah and, in my opinion, that added a tinge of desperation to his dealings with Orion. My Chuck is much less so. The Intersect doesn't dominate his life to the same extent and he's not reflexively in awe of the anonymous man on the other side of the computer. And mostly, Ellie is interested in talking to Orion as a top scientist on the project. Finally, what was Orion doing contacting Chuck in Predator? What was his goal/plan? We know that Orion hadn't built a removal device at this point, so it must have been something other than that. I'm pretty sure canon never gave us a satisfactory answer, just to build the Orion mystery over several episodes. My Orion just wants to kill the project, for reasons we all understand in hindsight.

A/N4: The body of water Smith was observing from his apartment is alternatively known as the Persian Gulf or the Arabian Gulf, depending on who is referring to it. If speaking to an Arab, it would be wise not to refer to it as the Persian Gulf (although just about everyone else calls it by that name). I've been told that one of the major oil companies had two conference rooms with maps on the wall of each, one map with each name. Woe to the company executive who met with either Iranians or Arabs in the wrong room. As Smith was sitting on the Arabian side on the Gulf, I chose to use that name.

A/N5: What do you guys think? Just curious.