"We've got eyes on the truck!" shouted Lori into her headset.

"Bad news, though. This here bird's not real good at dodging trees, and if they make it into dense foliage…well, I dunno if we can set 'er back up." The helo pilot pressed on, making Lori clutch the arms of her seat. "How are you with the big guns?"

"What?!"

"You ever shot a missile before? Because I reckon that's gonna be our only shot of stopping this crew."

Lori swallowed deeply. "Never done it before, but there's no time like the present, right?"

"Good girl," nodded the pilot. "It's no different than a regular gun; just point and shoot and you'll do fine. I see a bridge up ahead; we take that out, they'll have no choice but to turn around and go back."

She tore her headset off and clambered to the back. Her hands were shaking before she picked up the bazooka, and the whole gun trembled like a newborn calf. Easy there, Lori, she thought. This is our last chance to save Steve. You get one shot.

"GO!" the pilot shouted. Lori swallowed again, aimed the bazooka, and fired at the first truck in the convoy, praying that she wasn't killing Steve.

She shouldn't have worried.

"You missed?!" asked Danny for the twelfth time. "You were shooting at a close-range target. With a bazooka. And you missed?!"

"Leave it, brah," Chin said quietly. Danny made an exasperated noise and turned his attention to the forest floor below. Lori nodded her thanks and pulled her legs closer to her chest.

The kickback from the gun had been heavier than she had expected. A lot heavier. Her shot had gone so far off course that the trucks probably hadn't even noticed the resulting explosion. Hell, she had barely noticed the explosion, though that was mostly because she was watching a caravan of trucks steal her friend into the North Korean jungle.

Joe's friend had turned around long enough to pick up the rest of the crew, and though they were searching for the trail they all knew the caravan had had plenty of time to reach the airfield by now. Even if they knew the precise location of said airfield, they would never reach it in time to seize Wo Fat and rescue Steve.

"We need to go back." Joe's sudden bark startled everyone aboard. "At this rate, we're making ourselves a target. We aren't going to be able to help Steve by getting ourselves caught by the North Koreans or by crashing because we've run out of fuel."

"So you're just suggesting we run like a bunch of little girls?" sneered Danny. "Screw you, I'm staying."

"I don't think so, buckaroo," said the pilot. "Joe's right. We're starting to run low on fuel as it is."

"But we can't just leave him!" Chin said. Joe grunted from the cockpit. "Look, we came all the way out here to save him, and we aren't going home until we do. It's as simple as that."

"It's many things, kid, but this ain't simple." The pilot turned to smile, and Lori knew from the expression on his face that no matter how much Danny and Chin pled, he wouldn't be leaving them in North Korea.

"Think of it this way," Joe said. "If Wo Fat wanted him dead, he'd be laying back in that complex with Jenna Kaye. The fact that he went to all this trouble to keep him around is a good thing."

"No, Steve being with us, here, in this copter, that would be a good thing!" Danny shouted. "You can't possibly expect us to blithely go along with this and pretend like we weren't one fumble-fingered attempt away from saving him!"

"No one expects you to. But you can't go yelling about him being in North Korea. He shouldn't have been there in the first place," Joe said patiently, "and he's probably already en route to a new paradise altogether."

"Prepare for landing," said the pilot. Danny shouted in outrage as the copter landed in the middle of the chicken coop. Kono ran out from the house, beaming.

"Hey, Steve, welcome…where's Steve?" She and Chin exchanged one of their silent communiques before she turned to Joe. "What happened after I lost communication with you guys?"

"Doesn't matter. The point is, I won't be returning with you guys." Joe smiled congenially, and Danny started to fly into another rage.

"Danny, just stop." Lori uncurled herself and stared at him dully. "You have to go back, you have Grace. Besides, we have to explain to the governor why our boss isn't our boss anymore. This is going to be a nightmare."

Aside from Chin and Danny's glares, no one responded to Lori.

She couldn't blame them.

Steve closed his eyes as the truck shuddered to a halt. Any last hopes of a rescue were gone now. He was alone.

Utterly alone.

The door opened, and heavy footsteps echoed across the metal to him. One sharp blow to the face opened his eyes. Wo Fat was staring down at him gleefully. Evilly.

"Your friends came close, McGarrett. That pretty blonde one? The girl? She was, as you Americans would say, within spitting distance."

"What did you do to her?" Steve asked quietly.

"Do to her?" Wo Fat chuckled. "No, my friend, it's what she tried to do. She tried to take out a bridge, presumably to make us turn tail, but she didn't expect so much kickback. She missed her shot. And now here we are."

"Here we are indeed." Steve held Wo Fat's gaze for a split second before attempting to tackle him. The other man was too nimble, too uninjured for Steve to be successful; he dodged and swept Steve's feet out from under him.

Before Steve knew exactly what had happened, Wo Fat had a needle in his neck.

And then everything became fuzzy. Blurred. Warm.

Steve was vaguely aware of being stood up and led from the truck, and even less aware of falling flat on his face from the truck. The last thing he remembered seeing was a cushy jet, and then everything disappeared except for a sinister voice that intruded his mind, forcing its way in and becoming a part of him.

Can't fight.

Weak.

Shelburne.

Who. How. Why.

Shelburne. Shelburne. ShelburneIDON'TKNOWShelburne

Nothing.

Author's Note: I'm actually pretty new to the Hawaii 5-0 fandom, having only discovered the show in mid-March of 2013. However, I fell in love with the series by viewing only the last half of a Season 3 episode, and so immediately devoured all the seasons available.
I actually had a dream about a confrontation between two of the characters (I'm not going to say who, because that would totally spoil the story), and when I woke up I wanted to figure out what would lead to that scene. I worked with a couple of scenarios before I realized the perfect AU start place would be Ki'ilua, specifically the last ten minutes or so. And thus, this story was born.

If you like this prologue, review or fave or follow it or do something so that I know people are paying attention, and I'll continue publishing it...eventually. I have other writing obligations, unfortunately, so I'll have to balance stuff out.