Chapter 8

As the Sun dropped down toward the horizon and the day turned to night, Idalu suddenly had another of the fits that seemed to weaken him, the times when he seemed more at the mercy of the body rather than the body at the mercy of him.

He didn't seem disturbed by it, though. Instead, he simply stood, arms out and closed his eyes.

Ducky didn't know what to do at this point. He knew that others had died or been injured at the least. He didn't know if the government was going to try to end it just by destroying the palace or if they had been persuaded by his demonstration of power. He also had no idea whether or not his text message had got to Jimmy. There were so many unknowns.

Then, suddenly, just as the Sun disappeared below the horizon, Ducky saw a very welcome sight.

Vardr was carefully picking his way over a pile of rubble and Ducky could see that something was tied around his neck. With a glance over at Idalu, Ducky gestured for Vardr to come to him. The dog walked over and, for a wonder, remained quiet. Ducky knelt down and opened the bag Vardr carried. He wanted to shout for joy when he realized that he had not one but two syringes. Now, he had to assume that Jimmy had got what he asked, but at this point, he was ready to be a little reckless.

"Thank you, Vardr. Stay here," Ducky said very softly, hoping the dog's keen ears would hear him.

Then, he got up and walked toward the evil thing. It was the first time he'd voluntarily approached him. He had the syringe in hand, ready to inject. The other was securely hidden in his shoe. Gibbs might want everyone to have a knife, but Ducky was happy to have a backup syringe.

He took a long, almost-silent breath. Then, he took a huge risk and plunged the syringe into the shoulder of the possessed body. He sent the antibiotic into the system, hoping for a result. Then, he withdrew it and threw it away. The eyes flew open and in an instant, the red eyes narrowed and he began to advance on Ducky. Ducky backed away as quickly as he could, never turning his eyes away from the advancing figure.

"What have you done?" he asked.

"Whatever I can do. It may be nothing. It may be something, but I've tried," Ducky said, ready to die in defiance, if necessary.

For a moment, it looked as though that was going to be his fate. Those dangerous hands came up and the red eyes began to glow, but then, Idalu stumbled and slowed and then fell to his knees. He reached out once and then fell to the ground.

Could it be that easy?

Ducky didn't know, but he ran over and turned the body over. It was shaking and very hot.

"Timothy? Can you hear me? Are you in there?"

Slowly, the eyes opened and Ducky celebrated when he saw that they were their usual green color.

"Timothy!"

Tim appeared to be trying to talk, but all that came out were strangled gasps. Vardr ran over and began licking Tim's face, whining.

Ducky pushed the dog away.

"H-Help...Du... Help...me..." Tim said in between his gasps for breath. "K-Kill... S-S-Stop... No..."

Then, suddenly, he seemed to seize up and his back arched. Ducky backed away, knowing that if this was a seizure (a possible side effect of some antibiotics at high doses), he could do nothing, and if Idalu was coming back, he would be better served out of reach.

The body slumped down to the ground and was motionless for just long enough that Ducky thought he might be dead or Tim might be back again. Vardr began growling.

The eyes opened again, and they were red.

Red and almost glowing with fury.

Idalu pushed himself up to his feet.

"I should kill you, now, and be finished with you," he said.

Ducky scrambled to his own feet and watched without comment.

Idalu took a couple of steps forward and then made a strangled sound and stumbled again. He stopped and the sound did as well. For just a second, he seemed almost surprised, but then, he covered the expression and looked at Ducky angrily.

"What did you do?"

"What I could."

"It was not enough."

"So I see," Ducky said, but it seemed that, while it wasn't enough, it was something. Idalu seemed much less confident, and instead of berating Ducky any further, he stalked away from him. Inwardly, Ducky was celebrating. It was a small victory, but it appeared to him that Tim was not quite as suppressed as he had been. He thought that Tim had stopped Idalu from taking his revenge in that moment of fury.

He wanted to use the other syringe, but he would have to get closer to do that, and he wasn't likely to manage it anytime soon. That kind of tactic would work only once.

However, he had done one thing, even if it hadn't killed Idalu. He had confirmed that Tim was still alive inside his body and that meant that, if they could somehow evict the invader, Tim could come back.

It was just a matter of doing it.

Somehow.

Idalu suddenly collapsed to his knees and began to vomit. Then, he fell over and began to shake.

Vardr ran over and began whining. Ducky took a couple of steps but was unsure about getting too close. The antibiotic was still in his system. In fact, if he could get the second larger dose administered in the next few hours, it would only intensify the effect. Would it be enough? He didn't know, but he was glad to see the continuing reaction to the antibiotic, even as he ached for what Tim must be going through.

"V-Vardr..."

Tim's voice.

"N-No."

Vardr began growling. Another seizure and Idalu was back. He got up and kicked at Vardr.

"What is this dog doing here?"

Vardr growled once more and then ran over to Ducky and hid behind his legs, drawing Idalu's attention to Ducky once again.

"He cares about Timothy, obviously," Ducky said, interested that Vardr seemed to have no difficulty in determining when it was Tim and when it was Idalu.

Idalu spat on the floor and then stood up again. He looked shakier than ever, and Ducky suppressed a satisfied smile. The antibiotic was clearly having a more powerful effect than Idalu was ready for.

Suddenly, Idalu turned around and focused on a distant light. He launched a fireball at it, and whatever it was exploded.

"This body is mine! No mortal will take it from me!"

Then, he turned back to Ducky and launched a blast of power at him. Ducky was thrown back against a wall and he was dazed.

"Do what you want to this body! I am more powerful than any mortal!"

A wind sprang up and swirled around in the open space, pushing Ducky against the wall. Vardr was braced against his legs.

Ducky wanted to help the dog, but he was hard-pressed to keep himself from being flung over the edge by the wind.

"You will die! All will die!"

Ducky could see the end coming and he closed his eyes in anticipation.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"I will wish you luck," Zin said. "I cannot stay."

"You think we'll fail?" Tony asked.

"I think it is a possibility."

"Wait!"

"Yes?"

"Can you free me from this existence?"

Zin nodded and Tony watched as he approached the faint glow that was Porphyrogene. He made a strange gesture with his hands and whispered so softly that Tony couldn't hear him. Then, he turned to them all.

"I tread through this world as softly as I can. Those of us who live long must keep our steps quiet and hidden. I will hope and pray that you are able to do what you have planned. Know this one thing, however. If you do not succeed in destroying this evil thing, it will not be a failure if you save a life. The evil thing will be weakened by defeat and if it experiences defeat over and over, it may eventually be destroyed for good. Focus on saving life over destruction. It will give you strength."

"Wait!" Abby said. "Where are you from? I know I've heard your name before! Please, tell me."

Zin smiled gently at her curiosity, almost as a parent might.

"I called my land ki-en-gir, although our land has had many names since that time. My home was Shuruppak. Many years ago. Now, I must leave, but I leave you with my blessing and my hope that life will triumph."

Then, he left them.

"Are we going to do this, Boss?" Tony asked.

"No other choice, DiNozzo," Gibbs said.

It was true enough. The only other option was to leave and let Ducky and Tim be killed by some kind of air strike which would surely be coming sooner rather than later.

And that wasn't an option.

Carefully, they began to pick their way through the dark twists and turns of the strangely-assembled palace. There were pieces that were still NCIS as they knew it, but much of the building had been distorted and shifted by pieces of other buildings and simply by whatever power it had been that had constructed the palace in the first place. At one point, they were walking through the bullpen, but then, suddenly, they were in the Navy museum. Once, they thought they were in Autopsy, but then, they were in Cybercrimes.

A set of stairs nearly tripped Gibbs up because they came out of nowhere and all they had were flashlights to lead them through. The Sun had set long ago and it was dark inside and out. The occasional windows gave them little help.

Up they went whenever the opportunity arose. The building was significantly taller than it had been and it was best to try to keep going up until they couldn't any longer. It was like walking through a multi-layered maze. Every time they thought they'd figured out where they were, something else loomed up before them that messed them up.

It felt like they had to be getting close to the top. The most recent flight of stairs stopped as suddenly as it started and they were walking on the level. There was a long hallway which turned around a sharp corner. Faintly, they could see some light. The end of the road?

Then, they felt a shaking and they all stopped.

"He is using his power, now. We are feeling the backlash of it."

"Are we in danger?" Ellie asked.

"No more than we were before."

"Keep moving," Gibbs said.

Then, Tony thought he heard a voice. It was a strange voice, though. It sounded like Tim if his voice had been run through a distorter.

"You will die! All will die!"

Gibbs pulled out his gun.

"Boss! That's not the plan!"

"If I shoot, it won't be Tim I'm killing," Gibbs said, grimly. Then, he gestured for Tony to go ahead of him. Abby and Jimmy were behind, ready to be called on for their part...if they got that far. Ellie was beside Gibbs. Both were ready to cover Tony.

"Go," Gibbs said.

Tony nodded, determined to hit on the first try. There would be no need for Gibbs to shoot and kill Tim (if he was still in there).

They moved down the hallway quickly. The closer they got, the stronger the shaking and the wind got. By the time they reached the corner, it was like walking through a gale. It was so loud that they couldn't even speak to each other.

Gibbs tapped him on the shoulder and counted down from three.

When he pointed, Tony ran around the corner and found himself on a wide, open platform, There were high walls on three sides, but one whole side was just open. Ducky and Vardr were pinned against one wall, and Tim...or whoever...looked ready to kill someone.

And Ducky was the only person there.

"Hey, dirtbag!" he shouted as loudly as he could, straining to make himself heard over the wind.

The being turned toward him. And Tony finally got a good look at possessed Tim, and he could see right away that Tim was not there. This was someone else, and those red eyes were blazing. He could see what Jimmy had meant. There was no mistaking this for Tim McGee. It might be his body, but it sure wasn't him, and that body was in a terrible state already. Tony regretted that, if they succeeded, he'd be making it worse.

"You will die, too!"

"You, first," Tony said.

Then, he raised the dart gun and fired.

He hit perfectly. The dart hit right in the torso, just beside the shoulder.

The person who was not Tim, looked down at the dart in confusion. He pulled it out and looked at it, disdainfully.

"What is this, human?" he asked.

The wind ebbed as he stared at the dart. Then, his already-pale face seemed to go completely white and he fell to his knees.

"What have you...done..."

"Stopped you, I hope," Tony said.

He almost growled at Tony, but then, he fell forward onto his face and the wind stopped completely.

Instantly, Ducky was running over, Vardr on his heels.

"Turn him over, Anthony. Quickly."

Tony did as he was told.

"What are you going to do, Ducky?"

"Give him more antibiotics and hope that I don't kill Timothy in the process."

"Antibiotics? He's possessed, not sick."

"He is. What is a possession but an invading organism?" Ducky said.

He grabbed a syringe from his ankle and brought it up.

Then, Tim's eyes open and they were still red.

"You will not!" he shouted, although his voice was strangely strangled.

He surged to his feet , pulling away from Ducky and Tony as if they weren't even there, and started to run toward the edge.

"I will kill this body! You will not stop me! I will still destroy!"

Before any of the humans could stop him, Vardr leapt at him, seemingly from nowhere. He wasn't a huge dog, but he appeared to be all muscle. Growling, he collided with the evil thing and knocked it to the floor, his weight keeping the weakened being from going on.

"Grab him!" Ducky said.

Gibbs and Ellie ran over and grabbed an arm each, holding him down, but he had recovered enough to fight back and was too strong for them. Jimmy and Abby joined in holding him down. Vardr was growling.

"Vardr! Back!"

"Vardr?" the being repeated, breathlessly. "No!"

Ducky knelt down and dosed the evil being with the antibiotics. He screamed out a wordless protest and began seizing.

"You can't stay in this body and live," Ducky said. "We will not let you. It's your choice. Leave it or die yourself within it!"

Another bestial scream and red flowed out of Tim's eyes.

"Now!" Gibbs shouted.

The red mist began to coalesce when the faint purple glow of Porphyrogene swirled around it. There were shapes and bursts of light and then the two colors streamed upward into the sky and vanished.

There was a moment of total silence and then the palace began to shake.

"I think it's time to get out of here," Tony said.

"I think we don't have time," Ducky said, looking around.

He seemed strangely calm with that statement.

"Stay here."

"What? Are you crazy?"

Ducky smiled. "I may be, but wait. We won't make it out. So why bother?"

The shaking increased and the rubble that had created the palace began to spiral up and around, the pieces of the buildings separated out and, within a minute, they were back in Vance's office. The wall was still missing, but the building appeared to be intact.

"What just happened?" Ellie asked.

"It was Idalu's power that built the palace. Without that power, it returned to its former state," Ducky said.

"Did you know that would happen?"

"No, but it seemed a valid guess."

"Idalu?"

"That is what the being told me to call it."

"What does that mean?"

"Evil, he said."

"Oh."

Then, they heard whining and looked down. Vardr was licking Tim's face and whining worriedly.

"Can we be sure that this is Tim?" Tony asked.

"Yes, because Vardr knows it's Tim. He has known each time," Ducky said. "He needs a hospital. He has too many drugs in his body, to say nothing of what the possession may have done to him, and he is very weak."

Gibbs nodded and pulled out his phone.

"Vance, we need an ambulance."

There was a pause as he listened to whatever Vance was telling him about what the rest of the world had seen.

"Tim is back to himself, but he needs to get to a hospital. Now."

He listened for a moment longer and then hung up.

"It's coming."

"Good," Ducky said. "Timothy, can you hear me? Wake up, lad."

Tim's breathing was loud, fast and irregular.

"Come on, Timothy. Fight back now that you can."

Finally, Tim's eyes opened, just a little bit. Enough to see that they were green, not red.

"Very good, Timothy. He's gone now. Gone for good."

"H-Hurt...y-y-you?" Tim whispered.

"Not at all. I'm just fine."

"G-Good..."

Then, his eyes closed and he began to seize. Knowing there was nothing they could do about it, they let Tim go until the seizure stopped. When it did, the irregular breathing resumed, but Tim didn't regain consciousness.

Vance came through with getting help there. While the EMTs who came in were incredibly nervous, they did see how serious Tim's status was and they got him out quickly. Ducky gave as much information as he could, but then, they took him away and left everyone to stand, staring at each other in the middle of Vance's office.

"Duck, what can you tell us?" Gibbs asked.

"Not much, except that when I gave him the first injection, Idalu, the thing inside him, was affected. Drastically. I actually was able to speak to Timothy himself for a few moments. When Idalu resumed control, he was not as strong as he had been, but he was angered by it. I don't think he understood what had happened."

"No such thing as antibiotics the last time he was active," Gibbs said.

"What? How do you know that?"

"Because we had help from a spirit that was inside Vardr," Tony said. "And I can't believe I just said that out loud and meant it."

"A spirit?"

"Some guy that had his country destroyed by...that thing, only centuries ago. He didn't know how many."

"Where is he, now?"

"I don't know." Tony looked at Gibbs. "What do you think, Boss? Do you think he won?"

"I don't think we'll know," Ellie said. "If he won, he was going to be able to die, finally. If he lost, that...Idalu...probably was really weakened by everything and we won't see him again. Maybe not ever in our lifetime."

"While I don't like that much," Tony said, "if it means we never have to deal with him again, I'm all for it."

"Me, too," Abby said. "Is Tim going to be okay?"

"I don't know," Ducky said. "He's received an overdose of antibiotics. His body was reacting as if he had sepsis and what did you shoot him with?"

"Fentanyl, as high a dose as we could get without killing him."

"It shouldn't interact with the antibiotic, but all in all, Timothy's body has been severely weakened and I have no idea what to expect from his...soul."

"I should have known you'd end up in my office in the end, Gibbs."

They all turned and saw Vance standing in the doorway.

"I'm glad you're all right, Ducky," he said.

"I am. Thank you. How are you?"

Vance grimaced. "I've been better."

"I think we all could say the same."

"And McGee?"

"I don't know. We freed him from his captor, but he was very weakened by it. What the end result will be..."

Vance sighed. "Might be easier if he didn't make it."

"What?!" Abby asked, almost screeching. "How could you say that Tim would be better off dead? How could you even suggest it?"

"Do you know what the world is going to have seen? They won't know that he was...possessed or whatever happened in here," Vance said. "They'll see a man who killed multiple people for no reason, caused great destruction and lived through it. I'm not saying that I wish McGee was dead. I'm saying that he might feel that way by the end of all this. You have no idea how much it took to keep them from just bombing this whole place and reducing it to rubble."

"I doubt a direct assault like that would have succeeded," Ducky said. "Even in his weakened state, he would have known how to take on an attack like that. It would have led to more lives being taken. As it was, I did what I could to reduce the number of casualties. I can only hope that Timothy does not know what his body did."

"I don't think that will happen," Vance said. "Even if he doesn't remember, the world will."

"True enough." Ducky sighed and stared out at the river. "What now?"

"Now, you all can do what I know you want to do and I'll try to clean up this mess in the best way possible."

"What way will that be, Leon?" Gibbs asked.

"I don't know, Gibbs," Vance said, a little stiffly. "If you're asking whether or not I'm going to throw McGee under the bus, the answer is no. I just don't know what it will take, but I will be shooting for the best end to this. Now, get out of here before the government and media descend and you can't get away."

Tony looked at Gibbs and waited for his decision. He would probably want to go to the hospital, but there was no way of knowing with Gibbs.

"Which hospital?" Gibbs asked.

"I told them to take him to Bethesda, no matter what."

"Thanks. The way clear?"

"Clear enough."

Gibbs nodded.

"Let's go."

Whatever else they knew, Tim would need them.

If he survived.