Prologue: Twilight
"Tony, take the fire escape! Kate, with me! McGee, start jamming!" Gibbs called as yelling began to erupt through the alley. Tony broke off from Kate's left, and she could hear him hastily climbing the rickety ladder has Gibbs pulled warehouse door open.
Kate entered first, and she and Gibbs barely had time to duck behind an old patrol car before shots rang out and they were engaged in fire. All around them, glass was breaking. Kate was fairly certain all four windows of the car had been shot out, but she wasn't going to take the time to check. After only a few seconds, they were ducking back behind the car to reload
McGee could hear gunfire inside the building, a lot of it. He briefly wondered who it was, but he didn't really have time to think about it too hard. He tapped furiously at the keyboard. Then, he heard a noise overhead, like a rollercoaster with boosters being launched.
"Boss, they fired the drone," he said.
"Jam it McGee," he heard Gibbs reply through his ear wig, as if it was that easy. He returned his attention to the computer.
"I can do this," he muttered as a progress bar appeared on the screen. "I can do this."
Tony was making his way up the rusted ladder as quietly as possible. He inched his head above the ledge of the roof.
"One down," he reported at the sight of the body sprawled limply along the ledge on the adjacent side of the building. "No visual on anyone else."
"Let's do it," Gibbs replies, sliding through the door and onto the roof. Tony flipped himself over the ledge, immediately drawing fire. That was when Kate appeared in the doorway.
There was scream in a language Tony had no time to process. He could see one of the terrorists around the roof tiles he was crouched behind. Gibbs and Kate were apparently focused on him too—though Tony couldn't see either of them—because at the same time Tony got his shots off, he could hear gunfire from several other directions, and the terrorist went down in a hail of bullets.
Tony turned and hurried across the roof toward the man at the computer, and he could see Gibbs doing the same. They both fired several times, and the man collapsed to the side and began to roll down the slant of the roof.
"Clear!" Tony called.
"McGee, this thing is still flying," Gibbs said as they reached the computer.
"Okay, one freq down, two to go," Tony heard him answer.
That was when they heard shots from the next building and, a few moments later, what they could only assume was McGee returning fire from the alley. "Boss, one of them shot my transmitter!" his panicked voice transmitted over the ear wig.
Confident that McGee was fine and that there were really more pressing issues at hand anyway, Tony and Gibbs both returned their attention to the computer.
"You know how to fly this thing?" Tony asked.
"No," Gibbs replied. "But I know how to crash it."
Realizing what Gibbs was impying, Tony backed away from the computer, and Gibbs quickly put a shot through the screen before hurrying over to the ledge.
"McGee, you okay?" he asked, looking over the alley.
"I got one terrorist inside," McGee reported. "I don't know if I got him, but he stopped shooting."
"Hold your position," Gibbs instructed. "We'll flush him."
"Okay," McGee replied.
"I'm out," Gibbs muttered, after checking his clip.
"Me too," Kate called, approaching them. Tony vaguely wondered where she'd been, but he pushed the thought to the back of his mind as he handed out ammo.
"Shooter!" Tony jerked his head up in time to see Kate throw herself between Gibbs and the rooftop door of the warehouse. Tony heard a thud as her head his the ground. Gibbs put three bullets through the man's chest before Tony even had time to draw his weapon.
"Kate?" Gibbs called once the shooter was down. Kate was in a heap on her side on the cement. Gibbs rolled her over and unzipped her jacket as Tony hunched over them, and both of them breathed a sigh of relief. Her vest had stopped it.
"You okay?" Tony asked, smiling gently as Gibbs brushed some hair out of her face.
"Ow," Kate moaned, finally opening her eyes. She rolled her head towards him. "I just got shot at pointblank range, DiNozzo. What do you think?"
"You're not going to be going to palates class tomorrow?" Tony guessed. Kate would have punched him if move didn't hurt so badly. She groaned as Gibbs and Tony each grabbed her by an arm and pulled her up. She put a hand to her head and took a deep breath to try to counter the wave of dizziness that had washed over her from standing up so quickly.
"Protection detail's over, Kate," Gibbs said.
"You did good," Tony added. Kate was facing away from him, but she could hear the smile in his voice.
"For once," Gibbs replied, smiling at her. "DiNozzo's right." He clapped her on the side of the arm, and—still dizzy—the light impact caused her to lose her balance. She side stepped several times to the right.
At the same time, a crack rang out in the distance, and not a second later, Gibbs hit the ground.
Author's Note
So, before you all come hunt me down with pitchforks, hear me out, because this author's note is going to get a little bit lengthy. As you've probably guessed, this fic is going to explore how the series would have been different if Gibbs had taken the fall at the end of Twilight instead of Kate. So here's what I'm thinking. I'm going to go through every episode and rewrite it-basically rewrite the series-as if Gibbs had died instead. As you can imagine, this is going to change a lot of things about the characters and plot lines, so a lot of things are going to be different. Rest assured that I will be introducing Ziva and Jenny next chapter when I do Kill Ari, Part 1.
I did entertain the idea of not killing anyone, because my main question has always been how the show would be different if Kate was still alive, but in the end I decided that someone had to die, not to mention that I allowed me to evade a lot of issues I was having to the effect of "What the hell am I going to do with five agents when they barely have enough material for four?" and "Where am I going to put another desk?"
That being said, I am going to reiterate what I said before about things being different. Something that comes to mind right now that will be drastically different is Ziva's relationship with the rest of the team. I'm also contemplating really big plot points such as if Jenny Shepherd is still going to die, and it's not so much about what I want to do as what I think would happen. That is somewhat subjective, I know, so even if you don't agree with me on something, please address it in a constructive manner. I know every author says this, and I've never had a problem with flames before, but I just wanted to throw it out there.
Last, and probably least also, I'm not positive what exactly will happen with anything yet, and nothing will happen if it doesn't seem right in the context of the show, but those of you who read my oneshot, The Riddle, last summer know that I am inclined towards Tony and Kate. Just saying.
No promises on when the next chapter will be up because it will probably take a couple of days for me to figure out how to do Kill Ari with Gibbs already dead, let alone write it, but I am someone who likes to sit down and write an entire chapter in one go, so it shouldn't be too long. Reviews always make my day!
