A/N: I don't own Chuck. This story is written with entertainment purposes and I don't get anything from writing it.
A/N: This story adapts the story of The Handmaid's Tale (which I also don't own) using the Chuck characters we all love. The story however is darker and with themes that may not be appropriate to everyone so before you start reading: Warning: This story contains elements that may affect you emotionally!
A/N: And I am back with another chapter. This chapter marks the downfall of Jill and Bryce, the start of Charah and Alex and Zondra escaping. I know it has been a while since my last chapter, so I went all out on this one. I hope enjoy it. Thanks nevr for being my beta.
Days became weeks and weeks became months. It was now summer, and the news Zondra's escape became a thing of the past. Still, it wasn't in Gilead interest to forget, in fact the silence wasn't a good sign. It meant that retribution was coming. Chuck could notice as the handmaids in his house - Sarah and Amy - became extra careful, fearing retaliation for Zondra's escape, but in reality Chuck had other plans. The handmaids will be sent to their place as Chuck will put in motion his plan of getting rid of all resistance forces. But for now that wasn't his priority, the real problem stood in the form of Bryce Larkin and Jill Roberts who formed their own little ring of traitors who planned to take over what Fulcrum built. To stop this internal threat, Chuck,Stephen and Roark stopped from working on the Intersect, they kept appearance, but they didn't really made progress, as they feared they were compromised by a mole in their team. Shaw and Justin worked in secret to uncover the conspiracy's roots.
Today Shaw met with Chuck in his study.
"Jill is busy, meeting with the other handmaids. My sister will keep her busy." said Chuck.
"Good, it means we have time to talk. I just got news from Justin and it's not good." said Shaw
"I am listening." said Chuck looking bored.
"The conspiracy is bigger than we taught. They have a few high ranking people inside the regime. Commanders,scientists,wives, Eyes, and even camp overseers. But their most large numbers stand in the public population." said Shaw
"So common folk?" asked Chuck. "Well in that case I don't see a problem in executing them, I mean who would care about a nobody? The wives could easily be made into handmaids. As for the rest we can always find a way to punish them. Maybe use them to send a message even." he continued
"This would reduce our population drasticaly." said Shaw.
"Well, the reason for Fulcrum not being challanged until now was fear. They need to remember that fear. And I am glad to remind them." Chuck said with a sharp but calm tone.
"Very well. How do you wish to proceed?" asked Shaw
"You are sure you got everyone who conspired against us?" asked Chuck
Shaw nodded.
"Good, arrest everyone with the exception of Bryce." said Chuck. "Before I kill him, I want to have a talk with him."
"Of course." said Shaw, then he left.
Next Day…
Chuck sumonned a meeting with Bryce. Shaw was present at that meeting. Everything had place in Chuck study. Meanwhile a few Eyes were instructed to keep an eye on Jill until Chuck ordered her arrest.
"Well, Chuck, I have to say I am surprised. You are one of the most powerful commanders. And Shaw one of the elite of the Eyes. So what do you guys want from me?" said Bryce
"I know about you and Jill, as well as of your little conspiracy against the regime." said Chuck calmed.
"I… I don't know…" started Bryce.
"Don't try to lie. It doesn't suit you." Chuck cut him. "I also know you know what this is." said Chuck as he took from his desk a pair of glasses.
Bryce didn't had a reason to lie, it was over. "That is the Intersect." he said.
"Yes, a prototype. You see the Intersect was build initialy as a teaching tool, but Fulcrum made some alterations. Now is meant as reeducation tool. In simple terms it will make you submit to every command I give you, become a shell of who you once were. Become docile. Something that is just there in the background." said Chuck
Bryce started sweating. He feared that Chuck was planning on using the Intersect on him. If Chuck knew about the conspiracy it also meant he could've worked on the Intersect in secret and making it to work.
"Relax. Your little conspiracy stopped me from making progress on the Intersect. Still, while I can't use it to make you my slave, I can however use it to kill you." said Chuck
Bryce was pale.
"You see The Intersect is unstable, it can't link with the mind as well as I want it to. This causes the Intersect to release a massive shock to the host's brain during the upload. Shock that will bring you close to death. You will still be alive, you will still hear,smell,see, but you wouldn't be able to move. You will be stucked in your own body with no way back." Chuck added.
If Bryce wasn't already scared, now he was ready to pass out. He thought of running, but knew that as long as Shaw was there, it wasn't possible.
"I will give you a choice. You can either upload the Intersect and live… or kill Jill." said Chuck
"And if I kill her?" asked Bryce
"You will keep your commander status and remain free, but you will lose the privilage of having a wife or handmaids. You will join the Eyes, under Shaw's command and do everything he tell you to do. You will help the regime infiltrate Texas." said Chuck
"And I just earn my freedom and privilages back ? That simple?" asked Bryce
"Hmph. You think you can earn your place that easy? No youll be an Eye forever, but depending on the results of your work, I may agree to let you have an handmaid, I know you love to have fun with them." said Chuck.
"Ok." said Bryce,sighting.
Chuck gave Bryce the pair of glasess. "This is how you will kill Jill" said Chuck. "Shaw will help you put them on her." he added with a sinister smile forming on his face.
Shaw took his station and called his men."Bring Mrs Roberts in here." he said.
Sarah was in the dining room serving Jill her breakfast when Shaw's two eyes appeared. For a moment both Sarah and Amy become statues due to their fear of being dragged to the camps or worse.
"Mrs. Roberts you need to come with us." said one of th Eyes.
"Excuse me. My name is Jill Bartowski." said Jill surprised.
"Not anymore." said Chuck as he entered the living room. "I wanted to avoid the show, but I should've know you're too stuborn for that." he added.
"Dear, what are you talking?" asked Jill playing innocent. She knew Bryce was here, but didn't meant Chuck knew what was going on. It surely was a coincidence.
Then Bryce appeared with Shaw. In his hands Bryce had a pair of glasses, but Shaw was actively watching his every move.
"Don't play the fool Jill, it doesn't suit you. I know of you and Bryce and the many allies you've gathered. Today the Eyes are arresting them and sending them to execution. For the wives that betrayed Fulcrum I made an exception, why waste their perfectly good hands… and warm bodies." Chuck smiled cruedly. "I offered Bryce a choice however. Since both you and he were so interested in the Intersect I decided to show you. One of you became the test subject, and Bryce chose you." he added.
Jill paled. "You bastard!" she said as she was ready to attack both Chuck and Bryce, but the eyes kept her from doing anything.
As Jill was kept from moving by Shaw's Eyes, Bryce slowly aproached her and put the glasses on her eyes. The glasses activated and a bunch of moving lights invaded Jill's eyes as her body started to have seizures and blood begin dripping from her eyes and nose.
Despite the fact she hated Jill, Sarah was horrorfied by what she saw.
As the process ended Jill body slamed on the floor, her muscles weaken,her body paralyzed, but aware of everything around her. Chuck smiled coldly. "Take her out of my house!" she said towards the Eyes.
The Eyes did as instructed. After that Shaw also took Bryce and left, leaving Chuck alone with Sarah. He saw her look and said "I thought you will be happier. I think many handmaids would've jumped of happiness after Jill… well she's no technicaly dead, but she may as well be."
Sarah wanted to answer but she didn't. Chuck saw that and said "Really? I thought we established I'm not like Jill, or other commanders as a matter of fact. I do want to hear why you think Jill fate was too cruel for her? I mean she did conspire against Fulcrum and if she succeded, the new regime she and Bryce would've implimented would've been worse. Well worse for handmaids like you."
At this Sarah couldn't stop herself. "So you think what you did is right? You and your stupid regime enslaved a bunch of people. For what? To torture us daily! You're no better than Jill. Just a monster like her"
"If I really was the monster you think I am do you think Jill would've got off that easy? I could've sent her to the camps,made her into a handmaid. Would that have been better? Tell me that every day you wake up is not another day when you wish to be dead. Jill could've had part of the same treatment." said Chuck.
Sarah stood for a seocnd surprised. He did have a point and it was hard to argue with it. Being a handmaid is worse than being just a body unable to move. But a part of her wanted Jill to have endured at least a week as a handmaid for shallow wives and cold commanders.
And then it was like Chuck read her mind.
"Or you wanted Jill to become a handmaid? To suffer the same way you have?" asked Chuck.
She could feel the shame in her body rise as she answered "Yes". The answer was near silent but both her and Chuck heard it.
"You don't have nothing to be ashamed for. The world is made from the people who survive by any means necessary and rule it, and the ones who are weak and bow to the strong." said Chuck. "You are clearly not the second. Maybe tomorrow we should go to a walk and talk." said Chuck. He left and gone into his study.
After Chuck left, Sarah was left alone in her thoughts. "What did he mean by walk and talk?" she asked herself.
Zondra and Alex have got to a secret bunker near near a field. There they waited.
"So this Cole guy?" asked Alex "How do you know him?"
"I was his handmaid." said Zondra
"What?" asked Alex shocked.
"Calm down. Cole is an MI6 agent undercover in Giliead." said Zondra.
"And he is?" asked Alex
"An Eye, so nobody would ever think he is a spy for the brits." said Zondra. "But to be honest, he usualy is more punctual."
"Yeah, well love, some bloody idiots just made things harder for me." said a man in a commander uniform who just entered the bunker.
"I presume you are Cole." said Alex
"Ah, yes. And who you may be? Zondra here doesn't have many friends." said Cole cheerful.
"Not easy making friends during a regime, Cole." said Zondra. "This is Alex, she works for the Gouverment resistance. What left of them at least."
"Ah. Heard of you guys, you stay at the Canadian borders. I think you guys may have met some of my contacts from home. Jason Milbridge?" said Cole
"You know Jason?" asked Alex surprised.
"Yeah well, Jason was my partner, well before I got this bloody assigment." said Cole. "Pretending to be one of this jerks every single second is harder than you may think, not to mention that now the Eyes are pretty careful."
"Yeah, you said that. What happened?" asked Zondra
"I don't know much but some idiots tried to go against the regime and take over. They took a lot of wives and sent them to the camps, while the rest got executed. Chuck Bartowski's wife had a special treatment through, she got her brain fried somehow. A superweapon or somenthing." said Cole
"I was an handmaid at the Bartowski household until they got wind of me being from the handmaid resistance. I have to say I am not sorry for Jill, through is concerning they are working on something that can do this." said Zondra
"Yeah well, what can I say? Another day in hell for us, ever since Orion sided with Fulcrum." said Cole
Zondra rose her eyebrows questiongly.
"Stephen Bartowski was CIA. He worked on classified projects for US, I'm guessing this weapon is one of them. In any case he betrayed US and sided with Fulcrum and that's how they won. Orion is a high class hacker. He can access any system in the world." said Cole
"You got to be kidding? They didn't tell us anything about it." said Alex furious
"Don't be surprise darlin', one thing you should know about spies and politicians. They all lie like there's their second nature. I only found this from listening on one conversation of a high ranking commander in Washington." said Cole
"Can you help us get to Texas?" asked Zondra
"Straight to business, heh, love?" asked Cole. "Unfortunately there's too much heat right now. I can give you a secured link so you could talk with your resistance contacts, but if you go out right now, you'll be caught." he said
"Great, so we're stuck!" said Zondra
"Well, you have my company, at least." said Cole
"Can you bring us that secure phone, please?" asked Alex
"Sure, love!" said Cole as he exited the bunker and returned with a encrypted sattelite phone.
Next day…
The morning let the sun pretty quick, but for Sarah that was not a thing she enjoyed. She loved sleeping and waking up late, and Giliead took that from her, as well as many other things. Today however she hoped that without Jill in the house, it will be less work. On thing she learned since she got here, Chuck wasn't the typical commander. He didn't put the handmaids work just because he could. He also didn't forced them to sleep with him, which he could, after all handmaids role were to please their commander in any way they could. Sarah had the luck she never stood with a commander long enough for them to remark her, but that changed of course, because if Chuck didn't remarked her until now, yestarday she made herself noticed for sure. She wondered what cruel punishment had in store for her, only because she had the nerve to stand to him, which was extremely foolish of her.
She got herself dressed and got in down the stairs, but she didn't saw Amy, she saw Chuck. She decided to stay quiet and be as obidient as she could.
"If you are looking for your friend Amy, I had to let her go. She became a bit too annoying, so noisy…"said Chuck. Then added "Anyway, because this house is made now from only two people, you and me, I don't see why couldn't eat at the same table with me, it will certanily give us the chance to talk."
In Sarah's mind that raised a lot of alarms, she certanly didn't want to go through with what Graham did to her again,if Chuck decided to force her in his bed, she couldn stop him and she certanily knew nobody will. She was his propriety after all. Sarah followed Chuck in the living room and sat at the table. She had to admit, it was weird, she got used to eat in her room, and she certanly didn't got the food that was on the table.
They ate in silence, until Chuck stopped and spoke.
"I am going to say it right now. I like you, you are smart,you know how to handle yourself and clearly able to speak your mind, if push comes to shove. Clearly, you are not typical handmaid." said Chuck. "So I have a proposition for you. What would you do if you had the chance of leaving the handmaid for good?"
Sarah was surprised by the question. "And how exactly would I do that?" she asked.
"Well that will depend entirely on you. You could choose to leave Giliead and go at the Canadian border, I will make sure nobody will stop you, you'll be free to move there and stay with the resistance of what's left os the US or…" said Chuck
"Or what?" asked Sarah
"You could become a Wife. As you may have noticed Jill left a empty place." said Chuck
"You want to marry you?" she said. Sarah was shocked.
"Or leave to Canada. Your choice. Here you could live like a queen, by my side, there you would you suffer through hours of interogations about how you escaped and then they will place you into a tent where you'll live for the forseeable future." said Chuck. "Think about it."
Sarah stood a second considering her options. She had two choices, both of them meant an escape from the handmaid life. One of the choices would give her a hard life ahead of her, and probably would be risks. The other… the other option was to become one of the women that rule the society. And not just any Wife, the Wife of the most powerful Commander in Giliead. She would become one member of the elite who ruled over the twisted society. She was tempted, not just for the fact of she will get to live a normal-ish life, but also she thought about the posibility of her reuniting with her sister Molly, who she got separated from her when the two got captured. She hoped Molly didn't go through the camps, and they wanted her to become a wife as she could easily be molded into what was needed from her because she was a child, but there was no way to be sure, and then Sarah reminded herself, if she became Chuck's Wife, it would be expected from her to act like the others. She wandered if she could become as cruel as other Wives,be what they expected her to be, let herself be molded like that. She did it once, and certanly being a Wife would be easier than being an Handmaid.
"I..." started Sarah, but then stopped and asked "What would you get out of it?"
"If you choose to go to Canada, you can act like a messager, tell them what I did to Jill, tell them that I'm just getting started and if they will continue to fight Fulcrum, they will be crushed." said Chuck
"And if I become your Wife?" asked Sarah
"Well, I need someone I can count on by my side." said Chuck
"You will be better than the other candidates. You can think for yourself. And through you don't crave for power, like others… you have a darkness inside you. You don't have to deny it, after all you already confirmed it when you said you wanted Jill to suffer the same way you did. And not to mention you are considering the offer I gave you."
"So no strings attached?" Sarah said leaving a small smile as she got relaxed a bit.
"Well, I wouldn't say no strings. I won't force you to sleep with me, that will happen only if you want to, but I do expect to start acting like a Wife, after all you can't be a sheep among wolves." said Chuck
This surprised Sarah, he didn't wanted her for her body, which to be fair it wasn something amazing by her thoughts, her appearance wasn't amazing, but all commanders expect sex, if not from a Wife from a handmaid, that if not from both. Chuck was different, she could see it, maybe it was her naivity or her inner darkness as Chuck putted, but she found herself considering it.
"I will have to think about it." said Sarah
"I didn't expected the answer today, so I don't see a problem." said Chuck
In Washington, Stephen and Roark started working again on the Intersect, knowing that they were no longer compromised.
"So your son's plan about the handmaid, do you think it would work?" asked Roark
"Well, I don't see why not, and if it does she'll be our most powerful asset yet." said Stephen
"Let's hope so…" said Roark. "If the rebels learn of what happened, they will see us as weak and attack us. And while sure, we can deal with their pathetic attacks, I will prefer to crush them once and for all."
"Getting rid of Diane Beckman would surely make everyone's day!" said Stephen.
"I agree, that little bitch is the only person on earth that could deray our plans. Which is why she needs to go!" said Roark
"Roark, what did you do?" said Stephen clearly unpleased by what Roark said. "You know very well that we are not ready. If we make a move too fast we may lose the advantage we have."
"The resistances are starting to unite. If we don't do something to put them in their place they may get bold. We can't have that can we?" said Roark
"I know you Ted and anything you put in montion better not fail." said Stephen
Back at the Canadian borders, Casey was meeting with General Beckman after his attack on the Minesota camp with Verbanski's men.
"I reviewed the operation's reports. What exactly went wrong?" asked Beckman
"I don't know. We had everything planned out and the plan was solid. Verbanski's men were there as well… The only thing that would make sense was that we had a mole." said Casey
"Major Casey, I have to agree with your assesment, but the problem is that we can risk the already weak alliance we have. We just can't point the finger at Verbanski's men without proof." said Beckman. "That being said, we need to be careful with what we tell to our friends from Texas."
"Yes, ma'am!" said Casey as he left the room. He still remebered the screames of his men as they were shot. That was all his fault. He had a bad feeling about the mission, ever since that Brian idiot spoke for the first time. Now, Brian was Verbanski's number two so this brought a lot of problems. But the biggest problem was the question if he can trust Verbanski.
"Major, you are needed in the comunication center." said Thomas, one of his few men that succeded to keep his life during the operation on Minesota.
"Yes,Thomas. What's going on?" asked Casey
"Your daughter just contacted us. And you may need to hear what she has to say." said Thomas
Sarah was in her bed. Though nights were always difficult to sleep through, tonight was a special night. The offer CHuck made her was stuck in her mind and anything else was nonexistent. She wondered what she will do. She had two options, each with their drawbacks. COuld she support the very society that ruined her life? COuld she really become one of the people who she once hated?
A/N: My beta pointed out that Jill's fate was actually worse than being a handmaid. That technically may be true, but the from Sarah's perspective Jill got a get out of jail free card. While she was tortured and enslaved for nothing, Jill will stay unable to move for the rest of her very short life, because I don't see Gilead making sure Jill continues to live. So when I wrote this chapter I had that logic in mind. Anyway thank nevr for being my beta. And when it comes to the next chapter I don't make any promises but I hope I will get the time to start writing the next one by the end of this week. I have a few ideas but I have not mapped the next chapter completly, but I promise to have ready faster than this one.