Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I've tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I knew enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

Astrid certainly seemed happy to have Tony back. Her green eyes grew wide and an exhilarated smile appeared on her face when Gibbs had explained to the village Elders (who were essentially the mayors of the community, Astrid had whispered to them). The Elders listened with unreadable faces as Gibbs had told them that Ziva and Tony would be staying in the village to see if they could weed out the killer.

"And why," one of the Elders asked, turning his light blue eyes on Ziva, "could you not just send someone undercover, to be more inconspicuous?"

"Actually, it really doesn't make much of a difference." Tony said, walking forward. "After all, these are people that they've lived with their whole life. Someone's going to notice if a friend or relative they've known for forever is acting weirdly. And it's best they know to come to us for help. If someone tries to run away from the crime, then someone will notice they're gone and, again, come to us.

"Or, if worst comes to worst, we'll just interrogate everyone, and hopefully that if someone in this community did it, they'll just confess." As Tony was speaking, Ziva shifted from foot to foot, feeling uncomfortable. There was something about the Elders' eyes that seemed to bore into her, staring into her soul. She wondered if Tony was feeling the same discomfort, or if she was just overreacting.

Suddenly, all of the Elders stood up as one. As if on some unspoken agreement, they were crossing to a door next to them. One of the Elders stayed to address them.

"Agents of NCIS, we need to have a few moments to discussion on the possibility of you staying with us."

"Who wants to tell the guy our bags are already here?" Tony whispered to her, resulting in her heel slyly pressing down on his foot. "Ow."

"Please wait for us. In time, we shall inform you of our decision." The man gestured to Astrid, and it was only then that Ziva noticed that his shade of snow white hair exactly matched Astrid's. "Daughter, come." Ziva watched Astrid flounce into the door after her father, shaking her hair and giving Tony an alluring smile.

Ziva tried to ignore Tony smile back.

"Ducky, have you seen Gibbs?" Abby skipped into Autopsy, nimble even in her heavy combat boots. "I sent out my telepathic "I've found evidence" signal a half hour ago, and he still hasn't come to my lab. I even went tried to call his cell, but no response. And I'm running out of Caf-Pow energy. I need more."

"You're a bit late, my dear." Ducky looked from Lisa Kurgon's body to address the forensic scientist who was dancing around the room. "He left for Haven a little while ago."

"Haven?"

"That's the official name of the community that they are investigating." Ducky pressed his lips together in frustration as he stared at Lisa's bare arm, covered in the cryptic marks. "What are you hiding from us, my dear?"

"Hiding? I'm not hiding anything? Except for that new tattoo I just got and I was waiting for the right time to mention it and-"

"Not you, Abigail. Miss Kurgon."

"Oh." At this, Abby flitted over to examine Lisa with him. She stared at Lisa's arm, then her eyes widened and she looked over to Ducky.

"I've seen these marks before."

Ziva looked around the cabin room that was currently her new home for who knew how long. The Elders, after forty minutes of unknown discussion, had agreed to let Tony and Ziva stay in their community. They looked a bit uneasy still, and Ziva didn't blame them.

After all, she thought to herself with a smirk, they probably think that Tony is going to marry Astrid by the looks she was giving him this afternoon. She shook her head and in an effort to try and distract her thoughts from Tony and a besotted young woman, Ziva once again turned her attention to her surroundings.

In all honesty, they weren't really that bad, just simple. It was just a one room cabin, furnished with a large bed, a bedside table, a dresser and a table with chairs. One whole wall of the cabin was covered with a huge stone fireplace. It had already been lit, and Ziva could feel the heat radiating from it.

"Not bad, huh?" Ziva spun around, gun in hand, to find Tony grinning at her.

"Haven't you ever heard of knocking?" Ziva asked crossly, moving to the door to shut it. A cold breeze blew in, chilling her to the bone.

"Freezing, isn't it?" Tony plopped himself down in one of the wooden chairs, putting his feet up on another chair. "Astrid says that because they're so close to the mountains, it's always cold up here, even in summer. That's why they have these huge fireplaces," he gestured to Ziva's, "everywhere. Other than that, we're just gong to have to get used to the climate."

"Wonderful." Ziva sighed inwardly as she began to unpack. If there was only thing she hated, it was the cold.

"And by the way," Tony smirked, "have you seen our bathrooms?"

Ziva raised her eyebrows at him. "You should not be insulting our hosts, Tony. You will get off on the wrong boot with them."

"Foot, Ziva, foot." Tony closed his eyes folding his hands behind his head. "And have you seen our bathrooms yet?"

Slowly, Ziva took our her bag of toiletries, so as not to make it look like she going to inspect her bathroom solely on Tony's advice, and walked over to a small door built into one of the walls.

And groaned.

"Bad, isn't it?" Tony said with relish.

Everything in the bathroom seemed normal. A wooden shower stall, a basin and a stall for the toilet – that was a hole in the ground.

"Our lovely hosts don't have any running water or electricity. They get all their water from the river near here – and they use fire when night comes. No phones, no cable television, not even any flashlights, and those run on batteries. Nothing."

"Rather primitive." Ziva wrinkled her nose as stared down the hole that was her new toilet.

"We believe it helps us stay closer to the Earth, Agent David." Ziva and Tony turned to see Astrid smiling at them from the doorway. "It also helps us appreciate what we have all the more."

Astrid stepped away from the door, motioning for the agents to come with her.

"The Elders want to present you to Haven."

"I'm telling you Gibbs, I've seen that symbol before!" Abby pressed her lips firmly together and continued drawing the markings onto the piece of paper.

"Abby, even my computer couldn't find anything on those markings." McGee tried to chime in but Gibbs and Abby ignored him.

"Where do you think those markings come from and how fast can you find them?"

"I'm sure I can find those markings – but as for how long it will take? That'll be a problem." She was struck silent as Gibbs laid a hand on Abby's shoulder. It was a subtle movement, but Abby knew that he was trying to say he trusted her abilities, and more importantly, her.

"Do it as fast as you can, Abbs, before we have to get these marks off of Tony and Ziva's bodies."

"Don't you think they can handle this, Gibbs?" Her brow wrinkled in worry.

"Ziva and Tony are good fighters, and they can get a confession out of almost anyone, but they can't go up against a whole village."

Ziva and Tony stood at attention in front of the Elders' meeting hall, where they had first stood with Gibbs. It was a huge room, with the usual stone wall fireplace. However, this room was now filled with the entire community of Haven. On one end of the room was an elevated platform on which a long wooden table sat. Behind the table sat the Elders.

Tony's gaze moved from Elder to Elder as he watched them talk to each other in whispers. Some were young, with strong muscles and youthful complexion. Others were older, with graying hair and hunched backs. However, they all held themselves with pride, and Tony could see that they took their duties seriously. Suddenly, Astrid's father rose up and immediately the entire room fell silent. It was obvious that this man was the leader of everyone, Elder or no.

Clearing his throat, he began to speak.

"These agents of NCIS…" Astrid turned to Tony, looking at him as her father went on and on.

"…dedicated and loyal…" Her sparkling green eyes shone with mischievous glee.

"…here to stop the person who committed this heinous crime on our lands…" Her sweet pink lips pulled up into a crooked grin.

"…we will give them our full corporation…" Her silky white hair flew over her face like moonlight.

And then her lips were on his and he was running his hands through her hair…

"Tony!" Ziva's brown eyes gazed into his, locks of her midnight black hair drifting into her face… "Tony, the meeting is over."

"Oh." He blinked and shook his head. "I zoned out, didn't I?" He grinned guiltily. "Did it show?"

"Not much, I doubt anyone else saw."

"Only you with your super-ninja skills."

"And me." Astrid suddenly brushed by Tony, smiling at him. "But then, I always notice too much."

"Duly noted." Tony smirked at her, only to be pushed to the side by Ziva, who walked past him, determinedly not looking at him. He grimaced at her disgruntled expression. Why couldn't he even flirt with someone without receiving Ziva's wrath? Maybe he should talk to her…

But why couldn't he flirt with Astrid? What was he doing wrong? If Ziva had a problem with it, then she should just tell him. So she obviously didn't have a problem with him if she didn't talk to him about it. Right?

Right.

Ziva stomped over the mossy green rocks as she made her way through the forest. She stumbled slightly over a root and fell onto the ground. She should have known never to come out here alone in the dark. She couldn't see a thing out here. She looked up to the moon for some help, but only caught a silver of it through the tree branches. It shone brightly, the exact same color as Astrid's hair –

She shook her head and began to move forward. Walking always led to somewhere, and even if that somewhere wasn't back to her cabin, it might be to a person who could help her.

But a half-hour later, Ziva was more lost than before. She wasn't worried, because she had plenty of outdoor experience, and people of Haven where sure to look for her – even Tony, if he could tear himself away from his new girlfriend.

But she did want to be back in her soft bed, with a small fire warming every frozen inch of her body. She groaned in longing. Every part of her was tired, sore and cold. Maybe she should try to find some shelter and lie down for the night… She was jolted out of her thoughts as she heard the most wonderful sound in the world.

Water.

Ziva stumbled forward, finally finding her way out of the woods. She looked around the empty place, where grass replaced trees. Her eyes caught on an area of the ground where the grass faded away only to be substituted by craggy rock. Looking around, she still didn't see any water. Carefully, she walked to the edge of the rock and looked down.

A magnificent waterfall flowed out from rock just a few feet below here, out of her reach. It streamed down in perfect white foam to a river below, where she could just barely see small gray rocks standing unmoving in the current. Maybe if she could find her way to the river below she could get a drink…

Before the thought could spread in her mind, Ziva felt something hard grab on her back. Then she was flying through the air, suddenly hitting the water, the feeling of panic not having the time to rise before the current pulled her under…

"C'mon you slowpoke, it's just a few more minutes!" Astrid laughed.

"Go on without me, I'll just die here." Tony fell back against a tree dramatically, letting his eyes shut and his loll forward.

"You big baby!" Astrid grabbed Tony's hand and pulled with all her might, but he didn't move an inch. "I promise the view will be worth it. It's so beautiful."

"Fine. But if I came out all this way for nothing, you're going to have to drag me back to my cabin."

Astrid giggled. "I think it would take me ten hours to do that."

"What do you mean? I'm not that heavy!"

"That's debatable - We're here!" Astrid and Tony ran out of the forest into a small clearing. He looked around, unimpressed.

"Wow. This really is something. Ok, you're dragging my back to the cabin."

"That's not the surprise, silly. This is." Astrid ran forward onto a bit of rock and looked down. "Check this out!"

Carefully, Tony edged his way out onto the rock, too. Looking down, his breath caught.

A waterfall tumbled and churned, rushing and crashing down below to the river. Mesmerized, he followed the line of white foam, seemingly stretching and pointing to only one thing- His breath suddenly stopped. Astrid turned her head in Tony's direction and let out a scream.

"Is that?"

"Oh my-"

"ZIVA!"