A/N: Hi, we're gonna try again with this one. I wrote this back in October, and my beta but it on the back burner to get some other ones out. This fic is still being worked on in my head. I haven't forgotten it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck

"So, dad had a Nemesis?" Mary was silent as Chuck thought.

"Is that who wants this place destroyed?" Sarah asked Mary.

"Of all our enemies, that's the one I would think," Mary told Sarah.

Those words kept playing through Chuck's mind, over and over, something about them bothering him. Eating at him. Everyone was having dinner, talking about what they were going to do the next few days, until Chuck's program found something on Manoosh.

Chuck used his fork to push his mashed potatoes around his plate, the conversation still replaying in his mind. What was it? What was he missing? He was supposed to be the leader, but he had no idea what to do next.

"You know, you have a team to talk it out with." Chuck looked up, shocked to see Casey, the larger man having sat down beside him. "Don't start, Bartowski. Something is eating your shorts, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out what it is."

"Call me crazy, but things seem to have been wrapped up in a neat little bow, where Roark was concerned," Chuck muttered, continuing to agitate his mashed potatoes. He looked up at Casey. Casey was quiet, thinking.

"You're right," Casey muttered. He straightened and looked around the room. "Larkin, do you have the footage of me talking to Bennett, earlier?" Bryce nodded. "Come on, we need to go look at it, ASAP."

"What are we missing?" Chuck asked.

"Bennett has a lot of sayings he followed, from different historical leaders," Casey began, rising from his seat and hurrying after Bryce. Chuck fell into step beside him, neither of them noticing that everyone followed after them. "He called me the Great Lion earlier, and I thought it was because I had defeated him."

"You think it meant something else?" Chuck asked. Casey nodded. "Can you explain to me what it means?"

"Bennett read a lot of that Machiavelli crap," Casey explained. "The King… no, the ruler… no, crap, what was that thing called?"

"The Prince?" Chuck offered.

Casey snapped his fingers. "That's it!" They entered the room, and Bryce had the footage pulled up. Bryce fast-forwarded it, until Casey had him stop.

"It seems you have the strength I only wish I could have," Bennett said to Casey on the film, a knowing smirk on Bennett's face. "You are truly the Lion, and I the lowly fox."

"Crap," Casey muttered. "It's been a while but there's something in that book about a lion can't recognize a trap, and a fox can't overcome great numbers. And that's why you shouldn't aspire to be one or the other, or some mumbo-jumbo like that."

"Your take on the classics is stunning," Chuck muttered. Casey shot him a look. "So basically, there's a trap." Casey straightened and nodded. "That one question has brought us several more." Casey gave him a look. "Where is the trap? Why is there a trap? Why would Bennett set a trap?"

"Uh, guys," Bryce said, getting their attention. "Bennett is talking to himself." Everyone turned to the monitor as Bryce played with the audio, amplifying it so they could hear.

"If an injury has to be done to a man, it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared," they heard Bennett say.

"More mumbo-jumbo?" Chuck asked. Casey nodded. Chuck blew out a breath. "There's something Sarah said earlier that is bothering me."

"What did I say?" Sarah asked. Chuck and Casey turned around, finally noticing everyone in the room with them. "Well?"

"You asked something about is that who wants this place destroyed," Chuck began.

"Holy shit," Bryce breathed, going pale. "Chuck, we're in a different HQ than before. He helped destroy the first one. What if that's their goal, to destroy us once and for all?"

"Okay, but…" Chuck trailed off. "Bryce, I need you to check all frequencies to see if a signal is being broadcast from here." Bryce turned to the control panel and got to work. Chuck saw Bryce's face go white before Bryce could speak. "Jam it!"

"On it," Bryce said.

"Where is it coming from?" Casey asked.

"Bennett's cell," Bryce told them.

"How the hell is that possible?" Sarah asked.

"I don't know," Chuck admitted. "I just don't know."

}o{

"I don't think enough of a signal got out," Bryce said a few minutes later. "I don't think so, anyway."

"We'll just have to be on alert," Casey said, nodding. "My guess, that phrase activated a transmitter."

"But from where?" Casey turned to Sarah. "I know I haven't known you long, but Casey, I know you checked him."

"Thoroughly," Casey confirmed. Chuck winced as he thought how thoroughly Casey might check him. "Yup, there," Casey added. Chuck shuddered.

"So, whoever made this device did it knowing Casey, did it needing the words spoken to activate it," Bryce began.

"Or the vibrations," Chuck said, staring at the monitor. "Would Bennett die for a cause?"

"No," Casey said quickly. "I used to think he would, but that guy in there? No. No way."

"Chuck, what are you thinking?" Ellie asked.

"If you were going to put a beacon on someone, to transmit something, where would you do it, Ellie?" Chuck asked.

"Under the skin," Ellie said with a shrug. "But we don't have to wonder, we could run some scans on him." Chuck stood there, silent. "What is it, Chuck?"

"I know how we can get him to talk, but we don't do that sort of thing," Chuck replied, not looking at her. He stared out into nothing. "He and Amy are the reason that Anna is dead, that Dad is unconscious, and Skip…"

He was silent for a moment.

"But we don't do that sort of thing," he said softly.

"We don't," Ellie agreed. "But we can make him think we have." Chuck looked up at her. "We can make him think someone has gotten revenge."

"Me," Bryce told Chuck. "What are you thinking?"

"I think there's a transmitter in his tooth," Chuck told them. "That phrase was a lot to say to be caught perfectly, if a transmitter is under the skin. But if it's looking for the right vibrations to set it off in his tooth…"

"That's a good idea," Bryce agreed. "Okay, so how do we use that?"

"Bennett doesn't know that his boss didn't put in a poison pill in the tooth," Chuck told Bryce. "But to do that, we'd have to… do stuff we don't do." The entire room was quiet. "No, we're not going to do this."

Suddenly, the door slammed, and everyone turned. On the other side stood Sarah. They heard a crunch and the outside circuitry was destroyed. "Sarah!" Chuck yelled.

"I'm sorry, Chuck," Sarah told him, and she took off.

"Get that door open," Chuck hissed.

"On it," Bryce said, trying everything he could to override the door. Casey began to kick the door. "You're gonna break your foot!"

"I gotta do something!" Casey snapped.

"Sarah!" Chuck yelled into the mike. Sarah had entered the detention center holding a syringe in one hand, and a bag in the other. "SARAH, DON'T!"

"It's the only way!" She yelled back to Chuck.

Bennett chuckled. "You think I believe that you're going to-" His eyes went wide, as Sarah jabbed a catheter into the crook of his arm, setting the IV. As Bennett watched in horror, she shoved another syringe into the access port of the IV tube, and pressed the plunger. She then squeezed the bag, forcing the injected fluid through the catheter and into his arm. "HOLY HELL!"

Sarah sat the bag down, opened it, and pulled out another syringe. Bennett winced. "Headache?" Bennett nodded. "That's the first sign."

"Sarah, you have to give him the antidote!" Chuck yelled into the mike. Ellie placed a hand on her brother's shoulder and with the other, she turned off the mike. Chuck turned to her. "What do we do?"

Ellie shook her head and grinned, confusing Chuck.

"Any problems breathing?" Sarah asked calmly.

Bennett's eyes went wide. "I don't think so," he replied. "I mean… okay, maybe." Sarah just nodded. "You're going to sit there and watch me die?"

"Why not?" Sarah asked. "You obviously have some type of tracker on you. You've hurt the man I love, in so many ways."

She leaned forward. "I'm not one of them."

"Listen, I can help," Bennett began.

"I don't care," Sarah said. "I'm only here for one thing, to bring that bitch Amy to justice for what she did to me and my dad."

"I know how to find her," Bennett said. Sarah snorted in disbelief. "I do!" Bennett insisted. "She's dating that idiot Sullivan, and he has Manoosh."

"Who's Manoosh?" Sarah asked.

"The guy that can possibly make the Intersect my boss wants," Bennett insisted. "I don't know who he is, only that he paid me… well."

"Guess we'll be able to give you a fancy funeral then," Sarah said with a shrug.

"I can tell you where Sullivan is," Bennett said. He looked up at the camera. "I can get you Sullivan!"

"Where is he?" came Chuck's voice, emotionless. Bennett quickly told him. "Okay," Chuck replied, and the mike went dead.

"What are you doing? You're going to let her kill me?"

"Sarah," Chuck's voice came from the speaker. She twisted her lips, looking a little ashamed. "In the future, we don't just push IV fluids into someone's arm without their permission. Although, it should help his kidneys a great deal."

"What?" Bennett said.

"Sorry," Sarah replied, looking up at the camera. "I had to get him to believe I wasn't like you and your family."

"We both know that is something that my mom would have done," Ellie said over the mic.

"So I'm not gonna die? What about the headache?" Bennett asked.

"Sarah pushed the IV too fast, and it was probably too cold. After that, everything else was just suggestion," Ellie told him. "When I get out, we'll do some scans to make sure you're okay." Bennett slumped in relief. "Sarah, you need to go find Mary." Sarah nodded and took off.

"I can't believe she did that," Chuck said, shaking his head.

"Chuck, she would do anything for you, for this family," Ellie reminded him. "Sarah will do anything for those she loves."

"I know, I just don't want her to," Chuck told Ellie. Ellie nodded, understanding.

}o{

"Come on, Curls, we need to talk," Carina said, grabbing his arm and pulling him away from the others. Ellie nodded at Carina, causing Chuck to wonder what was going on. "Don't worry, I know you have your one-and-only in Walker and, for once, I'm going to do the right thing." She shook her head. "Damn that feels weird."

"Your conscious telling you that you're doing something right for once?" Chuck asked. Carina shoved him over to one of the tables in the mess. "Are you always so rough?"

"We're not close enough for you to know the answer to that question," Carina purred at him. Chuck glared at her. "Fine," she said, holding her hands up in surrender. "So, Blondie…"

"We're together," Chuck told her.

"I am aware, but you have a stick up your ass about what she did tonight," Carina began. "Zip it, we both know you do."

"It's not that she did it, it's that she feels she had to do it, for me," Chuck told her.

"No, Curls. She did it for the team. I know you read her file, and I know you think you understand it, but you really don't. You don't live in that world. You don't operate like me, your mom, Zondra, or even Blondie. You've never had to. And that's not a shot, but this… this is the family she's always dreamed of, and she'd do a lot to protect it… and I don't mean sexually."

"Is that the most honest you've ever been in your life?"

"Yeah, and again, it feels so weird," Carina said, shaking her head. "Chuckles, if it would keep you safe, she would kill for you."

"As I would for her," Chuck blurted out. "But only as a last resort. And we had other ways to-"

"Chuck," she said, cutting him off. Chuck stopped talking. "Answer me honestly; if that was your mother…"

"Yeah," Chuck said, nodding. "If it was my mother, I'm not sure she'd use an IV bag and saline. She might have used real poison."

They sat there a minute, silence between them, Chuck looking down at his hands. "I know what you're thinking," Carina said. Chuck raised his head, doubt on his face. "You're thinking you helped her out of one God-awful situation, only to drop her in another – or worse – God-awful situation, and she's doing this because of you."

Chuck didn't say anything. "It's her choice, Chuckles, but think about this: What did she really do?"

"I wouldn't have done it," Chuck began.

"Besides Morgan, you, Ellie, and Devon, would you be shocked if any of the rest of us did it?" Carina asked him. Chuck sat there a second, then slowly shook his head. "Do you think less of her?"

"God, no, I love her. It's just…" Chuck trailed off.

"You found out how far that woman would go for this team, and it scares you?"

"No," Chuck whispered. He looked at his hands in front of him, his left over his right, that one closed into a fist.

"You found out how far she'd go for you, and it scares you?" Chuck raised his eyes to look at her. She leaned forward, and lowered her voice. "You have no idea how far that woman would go for you." He lowered his eyes again. "Scares the shit out of you, doesn't it?"

"No one should do that much for me," he muttered.

"Would you have done that to save Sarah?"

"In a damn heartbeat," he told her. Carina grinned, tilting her head. "I get it."

"What do you get?" She asked, amusement in her voice.

"I'm in what you would call a big-boy relationship, and also in a very intense job, where some decisions have to be made," Chuck began. "There are going to be moments where decisions have to be made, and we have to trust each other, or…"

"Or you'll lose each other," Carina finished for him. Chuck nodded. "She's not Skip, Chuck."

"She's not," Chuck agreed. "Thank you, Carina."

"You're welcome," she said, proud of herself. "I did have something I wanted to talk to you about." Chuck nodded. "I mentioned before about how a Special Agent In Charge could pull Zondra off her mission back when we first started this whole thing."

"You did," Chuck said, sitting up. "But I doubt you would bring that up just to remind me. So, what are you thinking?"

"Can you get photos of SAICs, let Zondra look at them, and then make an ID?" Carina asked.

"You're a damn genius," Chuck said, hopping up, kissing her on the head and running off.

"I know," Carina said with a self-satisfied shrug.

}o{

Sarah stopped him before he found the others. "We need to talk."

"That's usually my line," Chuck muttered. She couldn't help but grin at him. "Listen, I need to say one thing, and then I'll shut up." She nodded at him to go on. "I don't want you to lose your innocence, either."

"Chuck, whatever innocence I had left, I lost in your bedroom," Sarah said, batting her eyes at him. He nearly choked, and she burst out laughing. "I'm sorry. But baby, one, I wasn't going to kill him. Two, I've been doing things like that – conning people – my entire life. I know how to do it better than everyone here. I know how to play a role, be the person they expect. I was literally the only person here that could do what needed to be done."

"Is it okay if I don't like it?"

She rubbed her hand against his upper arm. "It is absolutely okay. And honestly, preferred. Chuck, I would do anything for you."

"I know, and you shouldn't have to," Chuck began.

"But with this job, this team… I may have to, and I need to know if I have to do something… are we gonna be okay?"

"Of course we're gonna be okay," Chuck told her. "I just don't want you thinking you always have to do stuff, so that I don't."

She squeezed his shoulder, and smiled at him. "You would be able to put a needle in someone?" Chuck winced. "I didn't have time to explain it to anyone else."

"I know, I know," Chuck told her. He pulled her in for a hug. "Hey, will you go do something with me."

She pulled away and looked up at him. "Absolutely."

}o{

He placed flowers in the urn by Skip's grave. "Seems like a lifetime ago that Amy and Bennett betrayed us."

Sarah took his hand and squeezed it. "And then you let me go, letting me make my own decision. Very brave of you, Chuck."

Chuck shrugged. "Wasn't brave. Was the right thing to do."

"That was the choice he made, you know," Sarah told Chuck. He nodded. "There may be more decisions that have to be made, by all of us, that may leave some of us hurt or dead."

"I don't want to lose you," Chuck said softly. "Morgan lost Anna, we lost Skip, and my dad…"

"They started this, Chuck, and we are going to finish it, okay?" Chuck nodded, and she squeezed his hand again. "It's time to go find this Sullivan character, and save Manoosh."

"We also need to see about having Zondra look through SAIC photos, to see if she can identify our mystery CIA agent," Chuck added.

"We also probably need to make love in there, at some point," Sarah said. Chuck turned to her, his eyes wide, but she was staring straight ahead, looking at Skip's grave. Her mask cracked, and she started smiling, making Chuck laugh. "I wasn't joking," she told him.

"Okay," Chuck replied. "Any idea in which order we should do any of this stuff?"

"I have an idea of the first one," Sarah told him, bouncing her eyebrows at him. "Say good-bye to Skip," she told him, turning, and heading to the car.

Chuck knelt, placing his hand on top of the headstone. "Good-bye, Skip. We're going to get these bastards, I promise."

With that he stood, turned, and headed to the car.

"We're coming for you, Fulcrum."

A/N: I would give you a sneak peak of next time, except…I haven't written anything. Take care, stay safe, and I hope to see you back here soon.