Breaking Down Part 4.
Okay, finally. Exams and school finished for the year and updates should be more frequent.
WARNING: This chapter might be uncomfortable/not pleasant for some people, as it tells what happened to her in Saleem's camp.
Anyway, hope it was worth the wait. Please review.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Somewhere near the horn of Africa -8.5 months ago
"What are we going to do? The missions screwed." Malachi asked, the three of them were still on the ship
"And you're injured. You'd be even more useless in a fight than normal." Shalev points out and Malachi growls
"Cool it. Both of you." Ziva interjects "We have three objectives. One, complete the mission. Two, get rid of the ship and the bodies, explosives might work. And finally, you two have to disappear for a while." She waited while they figured out the full implications of her words. Malachi nodded, while Shalev looked horrified. She picked up her stuff and moved towards one of the lifeboats
"You cannot fail, Ziva, or you will pay with your life." Malachi remarked
"I already have." She stepped into the lifeboat, Malachi turned away and didn't look at her again
"But Ziva, you can't! It's suicide!" Shalev yelled and she whipped around
"It is what it is!" She cut the rope, "Goodbye Gibbs."
Ziva's apartment.
Gibbs stares for a moment, watching her eyes as she replays the memory.
"I lost all faith. In my father. In you. In myself. I knew in that moment, that I was ready to die, I had no intention of coming out of Somalia alive." Her voice shakes with each syllable and it breaks his heart to hear her say it so openly, be so blunt. He stands to go to her, and wrap her vulnerable form in his protective embrace. But she only retreats further
"Ziver…" His voice is laced with all the heartache of a father who has lost his daughter, but she shakes her head
"I ran blindly to Saleem's camp and I fought my way through to his inner sanctum, where he was waiting for me. The trap had been sprung, he… overpowered…me."
Saleem's Camp- 8 months ago
Hands grabbed her, slapped her, hit her, pushed her and finally threw her into the dust. She knelt and defiantly met his eyes. Saleem Ulman grinned the vicious gin she would come to know so well, and grabbed her chin, turned her head and examined her.
"Who are you? Too pretty to be here." She snapped her head around and bit his fingers, holding on until she draws blood. He retaliated and hit her, hard, her light form left the ground and landed on the other side of the room. "Bitch. Check her for weapons, bind her, gag her and put her in my favourite cell." Saleem yelled and stalked out. His men frisk her then drag her by her hair to a windowless cell and tie her to a chair. Once they shut the door she is left alone in complete darkness, with only her own haunting thoughts to comfort her.
The door opened and light came from somewhere beyond. She watched Saleem approach, a syringe in one hand, a water bottle in the other. He tore her gag off, stating facts about the truth serum in the needle, and injected her. Immediately she felt the serum begin to scramble her mind and she fought to hold on, succeeding, but only just.
"We'll start with a simple question. What's your name?"
"Ziva."
"Last name?" He prompted her, and she fought harder to not tell him
"I have one." She forces through clenched teeth. He growls and marks her with his knife before injecting more serum, she loses her control
"Last name?" He asks again
"David."
"Who do you work for Ziva David?"
"Jethro and Eli David." She is pleased she did not give Gibbs away, but scared as she watches Saleem realize she is Mossad, and a relation of the Director. In the next hour he tries everything to break her, without killing her, making her suffer. He uses every weapon on her, including himself.
Ziva's apartment
Ziva stands still and watches Gibbs' imagination play over his face. She waits against her wall while his fists clench and fury dances across his face and through his eyes, darkening their colour. After he exhales she walks over to him and leans into his chest, she feels his arms enclose her, his lips kiss her hair and his tears on her. He feels her shake, her tears dampen his shirt and he feels her wince as he gently rubs the still-painful scars covering her back and neck. He feels new tears spring to his eyes, realizing he hurt her, no matter how accidental. He wants so much for her to stop, for it to go away. But he knows she needs to finish her story and he knows she needs him to hold her and fight away her fears, "You didn't come out alive Ziva. A part of you died out there."
Saleem's camp- Time unknown.
Time passed and nothing changed. She was still trapped in her lonely crypt. No food, no water, no room to move. She had already determined it was about the size of the elevator.
The elevator
Gibbs.
Home
It was all gone now. There was nothing left for her. She had been betrayed and in return she betrayed the only people who really cared. Ziva David was finally broken.
She hit the ground hard, the burns on her bare torso stinging as they made contact with the rough sand. She heard him laugh as he carved a Star of David into her back. Wryly, she thought it represented something. The star on the back symbolizing the life she was trying so hard to leave behind and NCIS burnt on her stomach, the life she had so desperately fought for.
Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
She couldn't feel anything. She couldn't hear anything. She couldn't see anything.
Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
Somehow she knew they were yelling and screaming. Somehow she knew they were torturing and beating. Somehow she knew they were breaking her down.
Nothing. Nothing. Nothing
No cares. No thoughts No hopes
Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
No past. No present. No future.
Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
No family. No team. No Tony or Gibbs.
Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
That was all she was.
She was tied to a chair again, this time in a literal cage outside, the burning sun beating down on her, aggravating her injuries. The sound of a large convoy broke through her reverie, and she turned her head slightly. The cars approached the compound. Probably Saleem's Caf POW delivery.
"Americans. Apparently we caught some." One of the more human of her captors tells her, sensing her interest. She suspected the reason for his kinder treatment of her was his half-Israeli ancestry. But her thoughts were focused on the possibility of Americans.
No. They wouldn't. She had betrayed them.
Another tear fell down her cheek.
