Prologue
Northwest Washington, D.C.
The restaurant and parking lot, and surrounding area, overflowed with federal agents and DC Metro police officers. Federal and Metro vehicles ringed a five-block radius around the property.
The Expedition carrying Director Leon Vance stopped thirty yards of the restaurant, and the director stepped out of the vehicle, slamming the door behind him.
Vance strode towards the entrance with purpose; the men and women that NCIS and the rest of the intelligence community had been searching for were found, here, in the basement.
Based on what he was told on the phone, Vance wasn't going to like what he would find.
Before Vance could part through the Metro officers and FBI agents to get inside, he was spotted by Leroy Jethro Gibbs.
A Leroy Jethro Gibbs - not the one Leon had known for years, not the man he and the entire intelligence community was looking for along with 14 other men and women. Another Gibbs.
From another reality.
So much about this mess was unbelievable to Vance, but it was real.
NCIS learned of this Gibbs, and his team and their associates, shortly after confirming the identity of the man who spearheaded the kidnapping of the 'main' Gibbs, and Gibbs' team, and the L.A. team tasked with finding them.
Honolulu, weeks ago
"I've spoken with the governor and he's signed off on this," Vance told Steve McGarrett, Lieutenant Commander, United States Navy Reserves, and the team leader of the Hawaii Five-0 Task Force. "Your background in Naval Intelligence, as a SEAL, with Five-0 makes you the right person to lead this team."
McGarrett, sitting behind his desk in his office at Five-O headquarters, reflected on everything Vance had told him.
The Washington team, hunting for a terrorist named Benham Parsa, ambushed and kidnapped. The Los Angeles Special Ops team, pulled from their assignments, ambushed in D.C. after a harrowing rescue of one of their team members. Criminal and serial killer Marcel Janvier escaping from prison. Clues emailed and mailed to Vance and FBI agent Tobias Fornell. NCIS databases hacked.
The Homeland agents, the head of the Joint Chiefs, Secretary of the Navy Porter, and finally the President himself, telling Vance of something that was both history-altering and unbelievable.
"Alternate reality?" McGarrett told him. "You told them it was unbelievable."
"You could have told me green men from Alpha Centauri and I would have said the same thing," Vance admitted. "Had to see it for myself."
"What did you see, director?"
"Ever watch 'The Day After'?" Vance asked; McGarrett nodded, told Vance it was one of those movies you watch once and forget about.
"What I saw, through a heavy radiation suit, was a bunch of servers in Virginia, set up under a car dealership west of Charlottesville," Vance continued. "Remember how the movie ended, right before the doctor staggering back to his home in Kansas City? Lawrence, the nearby college town. Filled with refugees, still alive."
"And?"
"Except for us, and the Delta Force teams trying to extract those servers? Nothing. Not a damn thing alive, McGarrett. I'll remember it as long as I live."
It was necessary background for the mission Vance was about to tell McGarrett he could not refuse. He could take three of his best people with him - Governor Denning had already arranged for his, and their, replacements.
Thus, Steve McGarrett, Danny 'Danno' Williams, Chin Ho Kelly and Kono Kalakaua found themselves on an Air Force C-130, headed out of Honolulu towards Andrews Air Force Base in Washington.
Northwest Washington, present
"We'll take the back of the building," Chin Ho said to Danno, Kono and one of the other members of their team - Ziva David, a former member of Gibbs' team, recently reinstated by Vance and the second-in-command of the task force.
That Gibbs was somewhere downstairs; Ziva had barely seen him, before being pulled back by McGarrett and the other Gibbs.
Against her will, and under orders, she went back upstairs, and tried to avoid eye contact with the doppelgangers of her former team.
She couldn't avoid it, and found sympathetic eyes glancing back at her. They weren't the cause of this...atrocity...they are helping us.
Finding the 'other' Gibbs team became Priority One after the Homeland and FBI agents told him and the other agency directors that the kidnapper was looking for them.
Vance's task force got to them first, and they were eager to assist the task force in finding the kidnapped agents.
Ten days before, Fairfax, Virginia
"They traded in gold for cash at a bank in Baltimore, then brought clothes and food, then paid 500 bucks for that hoopdie in the parking lot, and then brought a laptop, then hacked into NCIS?" said Danno, as he and the rest of the task force - backed two dozen Marines - converged on a second-floor room at a Days' Inn.
"You are almost as annoying as Tony," replied Ziva.
"You through?" said Gabriel Vaughn, ex-Delta Force, and third-in-command.
"Just going over the timeline," Danno said, as McGarrett turned and gave him a 'shut up' look, before turning to Vaughn.
"What's that computer chip in your brain telling you, Vaughn?" McGarrett said.
"Regarding the targets? Not a thing. Last incursion into the database from this location was 14 minutes ago. Last phone call was two minutes afterwards. Someone ordered two supreme pizzas, was told they closed in five minutes, said McDonald's and White Castle were open down the street."
"Have to assume they're on to us, Steve," said Chin.
"Maybe those people think everything here's open 24 hours," said Kono, who held up her smartphone, which showed 2:22 a.m. on its display.
"You're right, Chin," Steve said. "I really don't want to stay here all night. Let's bring these people in as peacefully as possible, and get them back to Home Plate."
Both flanks converged on the apartment from opposite sides of the hallway.
"Danno," Steve said, as he, Danno and Ziva crept up on Room 327, weapons ready.
Danno knocked. "PIZZA," he shouted.
The door opened, and Ziva - despite her years of training - found herself gasping.
Tony?
A moment later, the sound of another door opening opposite her brought her back into focus.
Task force and Marines had their weapons aimed at the men standing in the doorway of both rooms.
"Boss," said the man who looked like Special Agent Tony DiNozzo. "I think we've been made."
"Ya think, DiNozzo," said the man in the doorway of Room 328 who looked like Leroy Jethro Gibbs.
Northwest Washington, present
Everything regarding this doppelganger team moved at a lightning-quick pace; at SecNav's assistance, they were granted special agent status, and the team was more than eager to assist in finding the missing agents.
A tip off surveillance footage, an email and some hacking teamwork by Vaughn and McGee led to the missing agents being found captive in the basement of a recently opened "family" restaurant in NW Washington.
Now - an hour and forty minutes after the discovery, just after 2 a.m., Vance saw altGibbs looking grim.
"Director."
"Gibbs. Sitrep."
"All of your - our - people are accounted for, and alive," said Gibbs, glumly.
"Should be a cause for celebration," Vance said, knowing it wasn't.
"Should be," Gibbs replied, "but it's not."
"How bad."
"Bad, director...lighting's bad, they may not be as...rough as they looked downstairs. I don't think any of them are getting out of the hospital soon."
In the short time the two men had known one another, they had developed a mutual respect, comfortable enough to occasionally joke around, even when "Gibbs" questioned the director's directives. It was a much better rappor than Leon had with his own Gibbs, when he took over for the late Jenny Shepard as director.
It took years for Vance and his Gibbs to fully trust and respect one another and to become friends. Vance hoped he wouldn't have to bury him now nor anytime soon.
As both men were about to go in the front door, two people opened it from inside.
"Director," McGarrett said. "Doctors are looking at all of them now."
"Will they live?" Vance blurted out.
"Doctors and nurses say they should survive the trip to the hospital," McGarrett replied.
Vance nodded, then looked at Ziva. "Director," she told him. "You should steel yourself."
Ziva never was one to exaggerate, Vance thought. He nodded, walked through the patio and into the lobby, with Gibbs, McGarrett and Ziva following right behind.
The director walked into a dining room full of feds and NCIS agents, old and new. Near the entrance to the back, Vance noticed three of the newer agents, members of Gibbs' team.
Probationary Agents Tim McGee and Ziva David.
And, Special Agent Kate Todd.
The first two were - like Gibbs - ten years younger than their counterparts, and Kate was a year younger than the Kate his Gibbs knew was when she died.
Vance had already dealt with the shock of seeing the two Zivas together, and of seeing this version of Kate alive and well.
At the moment, he was prepping himself for the worst.
"Where are they?" Vance said.
"Downstairs," Kate said; Vance saw that her mascara had run, and that she was obviously putting on a brave face. "Ducky, Jimmy, and Jeanne are looking at them now. Dr. Cranston's down there with Agents Borin and Dorneget. Mike Franks is keeping tabs on it all."
"Tony's still down there?" Gibbs said.
"Yes," said the other, younger Ziva. "With Agent Fornell. Waiting for you, Gibbs."
"They'll get me," Vance said. "Lt. Commander McGarrett, follow me; Agent David the senior, let me know the moment Assistant Director Granger arrives on site."
"Yes sir," said the older Ziva, as Vance and McGarrett went in the back, heading towards the stairs leading to the basement.