A/N: This was a bit shorter than what I wanted, but it's a look into the past of some of the members of Skulls and Miscreants. The OLD Skulls and Miscreants, that is.
Gibbs arrived at the hospital the next day. He walked down to Shadow's room and knocked on the door.
"What?" came Shadow's sharp reply.
"It's Gibbs," he said.
"Oh," Shadow said and opened the door. Gibbs took in her groomed appearance. Her hair was pulled back in a slick pony tail, and she had gotten into something clean. One of the other teenagers must have brought it over. She bent down and picked up a backpack. "Okay, let's go."
"You're ready?" Gibbs asked, catching up with her. She had started walking ahead.
"Oh, yes," Shadow said. "I talked to the nurse. You just have to say you're bringing me with you, and you can question me or whatever."
Gibbs nodded and approached the desk and talked to the nurse for a second. Shadow shifted from foot to foot, nervously looking around. They left and got into Gibbs' car. He started off towards the Navy Yard.
"Any idea where he could have gone?" he asked.
"No," Shadow replied, bouncing her leg, looking out the window.
"No parents?" he asked.
"Not Skull," she answered. "No family at all. We don't have family, 'cept the twins. They've got each other."
"Do you know everyone's real names?"
"Yes."
"Alright. Now we're getting somewhere. When we get back, you're going to talk with Tony to get down everything."
"Tony...?
"One of the agents."
Gibbs showed his idea, explained why Shadow was there, and went on to the NCIS building. They got out, and Gibbs led her in. They went into the elevator, and when the doors opened, Gibbs walked straight over to his desk. Shadow followed after, looking around. On one wall, there were photos of wanted people, some crossed out with red, diagonal lines. Many different people sat around desks, and there was a set of stairs going up to the next floor. She was now standing awkwardly by Gibbs's desk, looking at the other people around her.
One was chubby and had the general look of a geek. Another was a tan woman who spoke with an accent and didn't quite have her English completely right. The last was a man who appeared to have a snobbish air about himself.
"Shadow, meet McGee, Officer David, and Tony Dinozzo," Gibbs said, pointing them out.
"Ziva," David said, sticking her hand out. Shadow shook it, giving a half-smile for a second.
"Tim," McGee said.
"And I guess now would be a good time to tell you me real name is Megan Zimmerman, but you will still call me Shadow. I like the name, after all," she said, shrugging.
"So, you've decided to go good?" Tony asked, popping a piece of gum in his mouth.
"More or less," Shadow said, smirking. She crossed her arms over her chest.
Tony opened his mouth to say more, but Gibbs interrupted.
"Tony, you're getting everything you can out of her, names, addresses, parents," Gibbs said. "Now."
"Alrightie then, Boss," Tony said. He started going through the drawers of his desk, looking for something. "Pull up a chair, Shadow."
Shadow grabbed a rolling chair from one of the unoccupied desks and wheeled it over. She sat on it, crossing her arms over the back and leaning her head down.
"Where shall we start?" she asked.
"Everyone's names," Tony said, flipping to a clean page in the note book he had just pulled out. He clicked the pen, and looked at Shadow. "Let's start with everything you know about Skull."
"His name is Brandon Jade. You know what he looks like, and he can't read or write," Shadow explained, running the hair in her pony tail through her hand. "From what I know, he grew up in a damaged family where his mother left when he was three, just old enough to remember, and his father worked ten different jobs during the week. He was the youngest of four kids, all boys, I think. There could have been a fifth child that the mother took with her, I dunno. His brothers weren't home much either, and he somehow got a hold of weed when he was thirteen and started growing it. That's how he started making money. But when he was fifteen, he just left, taking his Mary Jane plants with him.
"I met him about a year or so after that, when my mom was forcing me to try to find some weed for her. I was on the bad side of town, like always, and ran into him. Literally. He shouted at me and then realized I was a customer. That I had money. I got the marijuana from him free for the first three times. Then he made me start paying. And one day, I ran out of money. My mom ran out of money. And this was within a month or two of when I met him. My mom went crazy, and that was the first time I got hurt by someone else. I turned back to Skull for help, but at the time he was still Brandon Jade.
"He took me back to the place that is currently - was - our hideout. He gave me a room and taught me about caring for the weed. But then, that winter, all the crops died, and we had to find a new source of work. But, that's also when Skull started to abuse me. The first few times he apologized and laid off for a while. But then...not so much. Anyway, we started wtih having me fake being a poor girl, begging for money. Then, if someone wealthy would come by, Skull would mug them. One time, I had to help him 'cause the guy had a cane, and he was swinging it around. That's when we learned I was a fighter.
"Christmas Eve came around, and we were on the streets again, looking for food, handouts, money, whatever we could find. Neither of us could afford a present for the other. But we both doubted the other would give us something. We were walking along the beltway, when we saw a car pull over and a girl get kicked out. We looked at each other and went. That's how we met Raven. Becca Day, as she was called then. She's naturally got black hair. Raven shortly became my best friend.
"We started going into deeper jobs then. Now that there were three of us. Raven would be on guard, ready to tell us if anyone was there. We started robbing places, selling the goods off. And then came the day when we met the twins. Olive and Oliver black, soon to become Dragona and Drachen, the artists. We called them 'dragon' because they each had a dragon tattoo around their wrists. Never said much about where it came from other than they got them a year or two ago." Shadow paused to think. She shrugged and went on.
"Since we had them, we decided we needed a name, and since Skull was our leader..." Shadow shrugged again. "Well, we became Skulls and Miscreants. Dragona and Drachen - by the way, that's German - created our symbol. We started getting into fights with other gangs, and it was fun to say the least. I know, you're probably wondering how that could be fun. But to us, teenagers with NOTHING anymore, it was. And in one of those fights, I got set up with the runt of them. And he's no runt. But he was to the rest of them.
"Necro joined us after that fight. They said that if a girl could beat him, he couldn't stay. So we took him in. That's how he got a name that meant dead or death, depending on how you look at it. Because he was dead to them. They never wanted to see his face in their "territory" again. Oh, and his name is Issac White.
"Shortly after our first robbery at a connivance store, we met Dusk and Vlad. Or Macy and Jason Stone as they were then. Vlad took an instant liking to me, and as you saw, Gibbs, he held my hand a lot. He's really affectionate...Like a puppy almost. He helped Raven watch the house, the store, whatever. And his sister Dusk pick-pocketed people. Once we got them, we started getting on base. Dusk and Vlad are kids of a...oh, what was she? I think she was in the army, but I can't remember what her rank was. Anyway, we found the Rear Admiral's house one day, and their lives haven't been the same.
"You know everything about what we've been doing, but you don't know the last member of the group. Her name's Felony, and she's not really a criminal. We found it to be an oxymoron, and deemed her that. She kept track of what money we had, what it's being used on, who got their cut out of it, and she wrote down anything any of us wanted. She could easily become a writer if she had finished high school. None of us did."
By the time she had finished, the entire team was paying attention. Tony looked up from his notes. He had written down their names and what he could catch, but he didn't have much.
"Do you know any of their parents?" he asked.
"Mine," Shadow said. "That's it. I have no names, nothing, but I know that we're all unwanted at our old homes. Raven got kicked out, as I said."
"Next step," Gibbs said, walking over and placing a hand on Shadow's shoulder, "is finding Skull. But it's a long road that we've gotta walk."
"And that's everything you know about them?" Tony asked.
"Everything," Shadow said, nodding. But she was keeping one secret to herself: Felony knew where Skull's hideout was.