Disclaimers disclaimed.

Chapter XXIII - Second Location


Tali laid on the dirty floor, staring at the ceiling. It was the first time in a long time that she had woken up in the dungeon like cell without being restricted by rope or chains. Still she didn't move about the room. What's the point? She hated how she felt so helpless one second then so determined the next.

"Hunter was right", she absently spoke out loud to herself. Her mind drifting to what her once captured roommate had told her about being mentally broken. Her wide range of emotions proving that she had become unstable in so many ways.

She let out an exasperated sigh and turned her head to see the all too familiar piece of bread and cup of water sitting on a tray on the other side of the room. It must had been days since she'd eaten but she wasn't hungry.

At the moment, she just wanted to die. A harsh and cruel death, if anyone had asked her, so the pain as her life slipped away would cover the current pain she felt in her heart at the thought of her father being killed ... and, to be honest, the pain she felt for Hunter too.

"I'm so sorry Abba", she spoke absently again as her eyes filled with tears. But she quickly forced the tears back, feeling as though there was no point of crying anymore. It's not like he'll magically come back if I cry. It's not like I'll be rescued either.

She sighed again and shook her head while finally sitting up to lean her side against the wall for some bizarre feeling of comfort as she felt a tinge of pain in her back. Reaching her hand back to the small of her back, she felt the welts and cuts that Lucifer's latest form of torture had delt her. She could only imagine what the top half of her back looked like ... probably worse than Jesus' 39 lashes.

"That's probably going to get infected" she though aloud. "Well, I guess death by infection could be harsh and cruel", she rub her face with her hands.

Am I really sitting here hoping for death ... really Tal ... Ima and III are still out there.

"But with Abba gone, are they even looking for me?" There it was, the hopelessness washing over her without any sign of letting up. The deafening silence causing her to slowly drift back into a nightmare full of chaos, pain, and death.


.


Ziva sped down the highway with McGee and Bishop following behind her. Behind them was a myriad of FBI and Homeland vehicles and a few NCIS armored trucks that held the extraction and tactical teams.

Once Torres had given them the exact location to the warehouse, Ziva had sent him to lockup. McGee had convinced her to do so instead of her killing him on camera inside the interrogation room. Not before it took everything in his power, and two other agents as well, to get her to release him from the death grip she had placed him in after he made a sly comment about Tali when she was exiting the room.

An hour after that, they had checked the validity of the warehouse location and geared up to go rescue Tali. Now, 40 minutes later, they were just a mile away from where Torres had told them the location was.

A few minutes later, they all pulled up and exited their vehicles. The lead agent of the extraction unit ran over to Ziva to get insight on how to proceed, "ma'am, unlike the other location, there's no other buildings around. Do you want my snipers on the top of the trucks or would you like them to set up on the roof of the building? The better vantage point in this scenario would be for them to setup on the truck, but it's your call."

Ziva trusted his judgment, "let them setup on the trucks Agent Holmes. Then have the rest of your teams split up into four groups. The blueprints of the warehouse show four entry points, I want them all covered. Let the agents from FBI and Homeland know as well."

"Yes ma'am", he nodded as he ran back over to his team to set up everything and relay the message to the backup agents.

McGee and Bishop then walked over to Ziva. Bishop, with a thermal scanner in her hand, looked at her with a worried face.

"Something wrong Agent Bishop", Ziva asked, noticing the look on the younger agent's face.

"I can't get a read on the building at all. We're basiccaly going in blind", she responded in a defeated tone.

"They probably have the entire warehouse jammed then", McGee chimed in. "I'm not surprised since the other one was partly jammed. There's more at stake within this location."

"Uhn huh", Ziva responded absently as she looked off into the distance. What was that?

McGee looked at her as he noticed she was spacing out. He placed his hand on her shoulder, "Ziva, what is it?"

"There's something back in that tree line", she pointed in the direction she was looking.

"Those woods go on for miles", Bishop responded. "Maybe it was just a deer peaking out for a moment, you know, hearing us out here might of drawn it out."

Ziva shook off the odd feeling and looked at them, "you're probably right. We need to get in that warehouse now, no more delaying."

Both McGee and Bishop nodded as they watched her signal everyone else to get in position. In just a few short moments, they had the building surrounded. After getting confirmation that all teams were ready and in place, she counted down from 3 to 1 and they stormed the building.


.


Tali woke up to a loud thunderous noise coming from outside the room. She blinked hard as she tried to focus, but felt etremely dizzy. The all too familiar burning sensation coursed through her arm and she knew exactly why.

They drugged me again. Lucifer must be on his way.

She shook her head widly, trying to knock out the haze that clouded her mind. Apart from feeling anxious about her captor returning, the noises going on outside made her all the more afraid.

Before she could register her emotions though, the door swung open and a cloud a smoke filled the room. There was no time to react as two men securely lifted her from the floor and wrapped her in a sheet that covered her entire body and face.


.


Each team swept through the warehouse but kept coming up with nothing. What the hell, where are you Tali? Ziva had just cleared another hidden space and walked out to the main corridor when her phone started buzzing in her pocket. She ignored it, however, as she heard Bishop's voice come through on her earwig.

"We found the jammers, McGee is disabling them now. We should get a better read on thermals when he's done."

"Good", Ziva called back over her mic. "There has to be something like the other building that's underground. She has to be here."

"Agent DiNozzo", Agent Holmes called over his mic. "We found another entry point that wasn't on the blueprint."

"Where is your location Holmes?"

"We're on the south side of the building, an old emergency stairwell that looks to lead to a basement accessed through the last room on the left", he informed.

"Okay, hold your position. I'm on my way to you now." Ziva turned and started heading in that direction. Just as she got to the door of the room as discribed, she felt her phone again. She let out an annoyed sigh and pulled her phone from her pocket. "What Abby", she asked harshly.

"Ziva it's a trap!" Abby yelled into the phone in a panic. "I finally ran the tracking and messages from the two burn phones we found in Torres' bag, the location he sent you to is where Johanson was making the bombs NOT where Tali is!"

"What", Ziva looked up at Agent Holmes who had come to meet her at the door. "Abby we haven't found anything looking like any bombs were made here. The place is pretty much empty except for one area we haven't checked."

"You guys have to get out of there NOW Ziva! There's a hidden stairway that leads to an explosives room in a cellar, I don't know what kind of shit is down there, but Torres' messages clearly say that that location is a dummy location, just in case! Zi, please, get out of there!"

Ziva's face turned as she heard a commotion in her other ear through the earwig. It was McGee panting as if he was running, "Everyone get out of the south side ... jammers disabled ... detection scans show explosives ... get out now ... Agent Holmes, get your men ..."

Silence fell over everyone as the blast sent a shockwave through the building. Ziva and Agent Holmes were blown back through the hallway wall and landed hard on the floor on the other side as a single bomb blast went off in the hidden basement below them.


Abby had heard the blast then the immediate silence through the phone before the call disconnected. She screamed then let out her frustrated pain by pushing one of her computers onto the floor. The screen of the monitor instantly shattering, almost poetically showing how her heart felt the moment she heard the explosion.

Her knees weakened and she buckled down to the floor as the weight of guilt washed over her. Thoughts of why she hadn't figured out how to access the information on the burn phones sooner plagued her mind ... that and how she almost definitely felt like Ziva was dead and it was her fault.


.


Tali was thrown into a pool of water while still wrapped in the sheet. The feeling of the ice cold liquid causing her to gasp through the sheet and take in some of the water, choking in desperation.

She then felt a sharp pain as she was chained by her wrists and yanked out of the water. The sheet being unraveled off of her, making her to roll across the floor. She tried to gain her bearings and control her breathing again as she looked up to see Lucifer and Amadi hovering over her.

There was no point in trying to mask her fear and confusion while the room was still spinning around her. It seemed as if a dark cloud was looming over head. They were talking and pointing but everything was slurred and blurred together.

Then, there seemed to be a flash of light, brighter than the summer sun. Tali found a moment to smile while hostility began to reign down on her. That is until the world quickly shifted after a blow to the back of her head and everything went dark again.


.


The muffled sounds of emergency responders, quick flashes of reckage and carnage, blood stained walls and lifeless bodies all surrounded Ziva as her eyes fluttered open.

Tony.

Everything was chaotic and nothing stood still. Her head was pounding and her heart raced. The muted tones around her caused her to be able to hear the thumping of the cadence in her chest.

Tali.

Nothing else in the world mattered to her as she tried to stand up and balance herself. The pain was bearable, the cuts and scrapes on her arms and face didn't deter her from the mission.

Anthony.

No more games. No more false hope. No more traps. No more curveballs. No more lies. No more waiting. She was done with it all. It was time to end it. The nightmare had become too much. Once and for all she needed her peace back.

I'm getting my family back by the end of today.

Determined, she looked around for her cell under the rubble. It didn't even register to her brain that she'd been in an explosion. Had she been ten more feet inside the room, she would probably be dead. Her thoughts weren't there though. Torres had played them again and now she was beyond furious. Adrenaline pumped through her veins causing her to almost feel nothing. She started thinking about how she was going to torture him for setting her up to almost kill her but was immediately distracted by McGee.

"Ziva, are you okay? We need to get you check out now", he tried to move her but her feet were planted firmly on the ground.

She looked at him, "give me your phone?"

"What? Ziva, I need to get you to a hospi ..."

"GIVE ME YOUR PHONE", she demanded while holding out her hand. McGee looked at her like she was crazy, but reluctantly gave her his phone. She dialed Abby's number quickly. Come on pick up. Pick up!

"NCIS Forensics, this is Ab ..."

"Abby", Ziva yelled into the phone, "send the other location you found on Torres' phone to me now!"

"Ziva! Oh my God, I thought you died! Are you okay?" Her voice was laced with concern and also relief that her friend hadn't seemed to be affected by the bomb blast. "I was so worried about you! Is everyone okay? How bad is it over there?"

"Abby, please, I don't have time. I need to go! Just send the location to McGee's cell.", Ziva insisted then hung up before Abby could ask any more questions as she was quickly losing patience. Part of her appreciated her friend's concern, but now was not the time to address it. Her mind was focused on one thing and one thing alone.

A text message popped up on the phone with the second location. McGee looked over Ziva's shoulder and read it. "That's like 15 miles from here", he commented.

"Good, not far at all, let's go." Ziva walked off swiftly with purpose in her step.

McGee stood for a moment dumbfounded, then he ran after her. "Go? Ziva we CAN'T go! You were just in an explosion. You need to go to the hospital."

"I will go to the hospital AFTER my daughter is back by my side", she yelled back not once breaking her stride. "Bishop can manage this scene while we go get Tali."

He grabbed her arm and brought her to an abrupt stop. "Zi, this is crazy. We can send one of the teams there while you get checked out."

Ziva looked down at his hand gripping her arm then looked back up with a glare. "Either you let me go and get in the car to come help me save Tali or I drop you on your ass and you stay here, your choice McGee." Knowing how real her threat was, he let go instantly. "Good, now let's go!"

Again she started walking with purpose through the unaffected parts of the building then outside to her car. She popped her trunk then tossed the keys to McGee to signal that he was driving. Going to the trunk with McGee following behind, she pulled up a hidden compartment and called over five other agents— one from FBI, one from Homeland, and three from the extraction team.

Pulling out serveral different weapons, she handed them out to each as well as new radios and earwigs. "We are going to the another location. I don't want to risk taking a large team again. We go in two cars, that's it. The plan is simple: we go in, take down these bastards, and get my daughter. There are only three rules to this mission: 1. No one on this team is allowed to die. 2. Don't kill our terrist trio, you are to only take non fatal shots on them, if you must, and then cuff them. Finally, 3. No one touches my daughter except me. Any questions?"

The agent from Homeland spoke up, "Yes, just one." Ziva nodded for him to proceed with his question. "Why can't we kill the three main suspects?"

"Because ... they are mine."

All six men swallowed hard as they watched Ziva load her back up weapon, check her vest, then walk to the front passenger side door of her car. She was purely intimidating and they all made a mental note not to break any of her rules, lest her wrath come down on them with fire. Yes, even rule number one. They couldn't help but think that she'd some how be able to bring them back to life just to make them die a slow miserable death for disobeying a direct order.

Ziva looked back as she opened the car door, "I've already given you boys an invitation, so let's go!" With that, they all snapped out of their thoughts and piled into two different cars. Ready for the next wave of battle, McGee led the way to the second location.


So is it another setup or will we find Tali?

You'll see in the next chapter ... PLUS:

Someone wakes up ... Tony or Hunter?

Someone dies ... Torres or one member of the terrorist trio?

Maybe there's another bombing ... who knows?

Ohhhh and a few flashback scenes to fill in some gaps as well.

Stay tuned my friends! Oh, and REVIEW please! =)