Still don't own.

Chapter 4

The two groups met up in a small park a short way from the jump point that Ziva's information had said Jackson would be using. The sun had almost set, sending orange rays of light across the grass, but it was summer, and so would stay warm for several hours yet. The place was buzzing with people, families having a relaxing day in the park. They spotted the other three members of their group sitting on a blanket, looking for all the world like a group of friends having a picnic. Gibbs and Abby walked up to join them. As they sat down Gibbs felt his knee's click, this is really not doing any wonders for my health, he thought, I'm getting too old for this.

"You got through okay?" he asked the others.

"Apart from the border guard recognising Tony, yes," Tim replied.

"This Black Lung or whoever is good," Abby said admiringly. "We went through the checkpoints without a hitch."

"You have our clothes don't you?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"And your guns?"

"The guy didn't even search our car," Ziva sniffed, "Not a very good security guard in my opinion."

"You just didn't like him because he called you 'darlin'" Ziva paused.

"That too."

"Okay, quick rerun over our plan. The fact that Jackson will be coming in at night works to our advantage. Less people around to confuse the issue. It also means less chance of civilians getting hurt."

"We're civilians."

"We are NCIS" Tony looked at Gibbs and his mouth quirked into a little smile.

"Exactly. Tim's computer skills should be able to nullify the alarms and set up the video cameras on a loop."

"Then we go in. I have some knockout gas; the guards will be unconscious for about an hour. If we're not out by then we probably never will be. Abby stays behind us at all times, we shoot Jackson, send the child back, and then get out of there." A silence fell over the group.

"I guess we have some down time for a few hours then, make sure you aren't caught on any cameras. Meet back here at 21:00, ready to go. That means in the proper clothes as well."

"Yeah""Okay," they chorused. The team grabbed their bags with their gear for that night in, and then split up and went there separate ways. Tim was thankful of this time to be alone, to process what was going to happen. Things had moved so fast, last week he had never even seen these guys, hadn't even known there names, just email addresses.(moviebuff, ninjagirl, boatbuilder) It had never been quite real, Timothy McGee was the one of the leaders of NCIS? No way.

And he had never been on one of these missions before, he'd helped organise them sure, but he wasn't naturally inclined to fighting, unlike Gibbs and Ziva. The majority of his work had been with computers, hurting the government through cyberspace, and of course, his writing. Tim wandered along the streets of Washington DC, it was the first time he had ever been here, and probably would be his last. People bustled by him, just going about their lives, normal people. All technically Necroths, although he doubted that any of them had jumped in their life. He sometimes dreamed of being like them. Just normal, accepting, not having to fight at every turn. It would be such a relief just to give in, but he knew he never would. He would keep fighting for as long as he could, it was in his character. Sometimes he had doubts, after all, so many people thought necropothy was right, the majority of humanity in fact. But every time he even tried to think that necropothy could be right, something within him cried out. His heart told him he was doing the right thing.

He checked his watch, 7:00. He started walking back towards the park, and as soon as he found a public bathroom, he went in and changed his clothes. When he walked out he was wearing a black jumper and black jeans. A black mask was stuffed into his back pocket. All in all the outfit wasn't that unusual, but it would help him blend into the dark. He found the park, and the rest of the team already waiting.
"Ready to go?" Gibbs asked him.
"I'm ready."

Jumping was first invented in secret by a team called Dynamite. Experiments were conducted in underground facilities, only people with top level clearance were allowed to know there was a project going on underground that could change history. Until someone, still to this day anonymous, tipped of the media. At first it was brushed off as a hoax, but the evidence provided was too strong and the government realised they couldn't keep it a secret anymore. They admitted that, although it was very dangerous, traveling to other universes was possible. At first people where shocked and skeptical. Traveling to alternate universes? It was the kind of thing only seen in sci-fi. Months went by and the public interest began to fade slightly, no detailed information was provided by the government, and so things went back to normal. Of course it was of great interest to the scientific community but the government kept all details under-raps, and very few people were ever allowed to travel. That was until someone found the universe of the dead. Monica Henderson came back from a jump with a dead person in tow. She found that when she was touching the dead power flew through her, kind of like and electric shock. She could do things she couldn't before. Tests were run but soon the amount of power coming from the dead person began to fade, until eventually none came through at all. The person just sat there. Now the government were stuck, what were they going to do? Around this time the powers of enablers where becoming more understood and some bright spark, Jordan Graham, realised that the power coming through the dead was not unlike and enablers power, that maybe and enabler could send the man back. And it worked, jump points were set up in several major cities and became more common. Not everyone understood all the principles behind it, like most people use computers but couldn't tell you how to put one together from scratch. Since then the dead have been used frequently to bring a source of power to those who were born without it. I sometimes wonder if those born without it weren't meant to have it, and using the dead for power is not an acceptable thing in my book, both literally and metaphorically.

The story of jumping is a fairly common one, and so I'm sure you're all wondering why I'm re-hashing it? The very first dead person brought back, we don't even know his name. We know about team Dynamite, about Monica and about Graham. What about the ordinary person who was brought back? The Necroths try to tell you that the dead aren't alive, and technically they have no body. But they are still human. And the deserve more respect than to be used as fuel for the power hungry. So even if you're just an ordinary person and have never jumped in your life, you are responsible for what is happening to the human race. Even if you think there is nothing you can do...there is always something you can do. Pass this book around. Try to get the message out. Necropothy is not okay. Be active instead of passive. If you want change to happen, you have to make it happen.

An excerpt from 'What is Our World Becoming' by Thom E Gemcity.