A/N: These next two or three chapters might seem fast and confusing, but...I was actually under a time constraint by this time and had to get the story done for a deadline.
Chapter 7:
Tandel listens from her standpoint by the window; she hadn't been immobilized by Corellon's spell as Gibbs had thought. She just hasn't turned around yet. She's still upset that it's taken this long for Corellon to contact her and even now, he's addressing Gibbs before he is her. Has all her years of loyalty meant that little to the god?
"Do you honestly believe that, beloved cleric of mine?" The whisper in her mind almost brings her to tears yet again, but she blinks the moisture away. Ten years of silence has taken its toll on her; she doesn't know what to think or believe anymore.
Gibbs sees the rapidly blinking and crosses the room to where she's standing. He puts a hand on her shoulder and she turns to him. He frowns when he sees the unshed tears in her eyes.
"Hey, do you want some privacy to talk with him? I can go work on some project downstairs if you do."
Tandel sighs and shakes her head. Gibbs smiles at the determination in her gaze as she straightens her shoulders and looks him in the eyes.
"No, he put me here and we both deserve to know why."
Before man or god can reply, there's a knocking at the door and Tim McGee enters the hallway. He comes bustling into the living room with a small duffle bag in one hand and two plastic bags full of basic food supplies in the other.
"Hey boss, I have those clothes and some groceries for you and Tandel."
Tim just places the duffle bag on the couch when both Gibbs and Tandel see him stiffen slightly. Gibbs is momentarily confused and about to ask Tim what's wrong when the younger man turns and in a slightly altered voice says, "I don't have much time left before I must return to my own realm. The God here is tolerating my presence just long enough to explain what is going on."
Gibbs can feel his anger starting to rise but before he can say anything Tandel has gripped his wrist. Gibbs senses something, some sort of protection hovering around him as Tandel spats,
"Get out of him! You can take corporeal form! You've done it before! Quit playing the coward and face me!"
"Tandel!" Tim's voice takes on a booming quality and his eyes are blazing with an unholy green light and Gibbs instinctively tries to step in front of Tandel. Her hand slips from his wrist, into his hand and she squeezes his fingers in a subtle message, saying without words that she knows what she's doing and to stay where he is.
"You're not Corellon Larethian! Get out of McGee!"
Gibbs can sense more than feel Corellon's presence and slides closer to Tandel. Whoever or whatever has possessed McGee glares at the couple and Gibbs shivers slightly at the implication that his young agent has been taken over by an evil deity. Tandel's grip on his hand tightens even more.
"Trust me, Leroy Jethro Gibbs?" the question is not from Tandel but Corellon. He's asking permission to take over Gibbs body and mind similar to the way that the other deity has taken over Tim McGee. Gibbs is about to refuse when he thinks about the young man in front of him.
Tim McGee might pretend to be an elflord online, but he's still a human and one under Gibbs' protection. Tandel's magic is protecting Gibbs but she can't protect Gibbs and fight at the same time. Gibbs doesn't know how he knows this, but figures that Corellon is trying to save Tim the same way that Tandel is protecting Gibbs.
"Do it." he says softly. Just before Corellon takes over, Gibbs growls out, "You don't have permission to die Tim. Fight him!"
As Corellon enters his mind and body, Gibbs can feel the subtleness of the deity as the god tries to prevent any shock from occurring to him. Tandel knows immediately when Corellon has entered Gibbs but doesn't break contact with Gibbs. She also keeps eye contact with the deity possessing Tim.
"You're not Corellon Larethian," Tandel says again, "who are you?"
"You've fought against me and my minions many a time Tandel Yestreen. Why don't you come into my parlor and I'll show you who I am."
"Lolth…Demon Queen of Spiders and Darkness. Listen to me, Elflord McGee. She is a spider. Use that knowledge to your advantage. Bring light to the darkness Elflord. You have the ability."
Gibbs can see from Corellon's standpoint the pride he has in Tandel. She's not fighting Lolth from a god's point of view but from a fighter's. And yet, she's using words to fight. Nothing magical is coming out of her hands, aside from where she's connected to Gibbs.
"She's fighting for him, isn't she? Somehow, what she's saying makes sense to him." Gibbs isn't sure how he's communicating with the deity, but knows that no one else can hear them.
"She is not a fighter in the strictest sense Gibbs. She has been fighting for me against Lolth for over a hundred years now. Yes, her magic could work but she does not want to harm your agent."
"Lolth is the reason you sent her here. Only somehow the dark queen managed to come here anyway." Gibbs muses as he watches Tandel continue talking to Tim, trying to break through the web of the Spider Queen's dominance in Tim's mind and body. He listens abstractedly as she keeps mentioning items that to Gibbs sound a bit odd but seem to be working as he sees a familiar glint start to form in Tim's eyes.
"Yes. I knew that you would protect her."
"But why me? Why not Tim, he's the elflord!"
"He is indeed, but you are the man that Tandel needs, not Agent McGee."
Gibbs can see that he's getting no real answer out of the god. He sighs with frustration, and Tandel breaks her eye contact with Tim just long enough to glance up at him in concern. That's all Lolth needs to attack.
The Spider Queen however isn't counting on two very important things: Leroy Jethro Gibbs and Timothy "Elflord" McGee. The former Marine's combat training takes over and Corellon is the one "standing on the sidelines" as Gibbs simultaneously throws Tandel to the floor and tackles Tim.
The younger man for his part caught on instantly to what Tandel was saying to him and as Tandel falls, he imagines his Elflord counterpart touching the webs that are encompassing his mind with fire. Hideous, high pitched shrieks of pain assault his mind just as Gibbs tackles him. Corellon doesn't wait for an invitation; he pushes out of Gibbs and into Tim healing the younger man's mind before it becomes a blazing inferno.
With the god gone from his mind and body, Gibbs turns his attention first to Tim. The young man is passed out, whether it's from pain, exhaustion or the force of Gibbs tackling him Gibbs can't immediately tell which brings his gaze to the elf woman who is lying disturbingly still beside him.
He lifts himself off of the floor and kneels down next to the elf woman and gently turns her over. Her face is ashen and there is a small bump on her head. He traces her eyes with his fingertips as he whispers her name,
"Tan?"
