Aria stumbled back from the sniper as the force of the shot rippled through the metal of the machine and up her arm and the sound of it nearly burst her eardrums. She gasped as the impact became too strong for her body to stand, her knees buckled and she collapsed onto the ground beneath her unstable feet.

Hearing someone yell desperately, her mind shot into action. "Mum," she whispered, crawling frantically to the place where she'd fired from and looked through the sniper lens to watch the aftermath of her shot.

Staring out across the alleyway down below, she surveyed the roof. A couple of members of the team had fallen to the floor, clutching their ears to protect them from the din that was the sniper firing. Only Ziva, Gibbs and Tony were still standing, though Tony was white as a sheet, blood spattered across his cheeks, eyes screwed shut; Gibbs looked shell-shocked, but Ziva was grinning from ear to ear, clearly relieved, looking directly at her.

As she stared at the rooftop even closer, she saw exactly what Ziva was grinning about: Benjamin Rowe was lying flat on his back, eyes wide open but lifeless, a single bullet wound piercing the centre of his forehead. A pool of blood was forming underneath him, staining his clothes, skin and hair.

Next to him was her mother. She had fallen to her knees, her arms wrapped around her own torso in shock. She was injured, but they weren't new injuries, just those that she recognised from back in the dark room. She was alive and moving, and that's all Aria cared about.

She let out a triumphant cheer that echoed across the many warehouses in the area: she'd done it. She'd hit the target in exactly the right place, and the people that she cared for were safe.

With a relieved smile, she packed up the sniper, tucked it under her arm, and exited the roof, heading off to join her family.


A/N: Hey! I hope you enjoyed this chapter of Aria; it's a short one, but it gives you the answer to the cliffhanger from the last chapter. Since there is only one chapter left to upload, I will upload it on Wednesday (as it is the usual uploading time for this story).

See you on Wednesday!

Louise :)