Authour's Note: Thank you MorallyTwisted for the fine review you gave me in Chapter 2. And also, thank you mprmusings for wishing me luck on my russian homework which I still have not done.

Enjoy!

The floor smelt distinctly of blood and mud, mixing together to form a rather unpleasant smell for one Timothy McGee's nose. He would rather turn away from the odour and maybe even sit up for a change but then it'll all have been a wasted effort pretending to be unconscious while Tony made quick talk and infuriate Saleem.

He took another quick scan around the room and, once again, found nothing of use to help aid their escape from the psychotic man who seemed rather fond of hearing himself talk. He also seemed fond of shooting DiNozzo up with truth serums. Not quite according to plan, thought McGee as he quickly glanced at Tony to see how he was holding up before shutting his eyes and evening out his breath again as to seem knocked out. Tony seemed to be holding out well, spewing out words with a tint of sarcasm laced within them.

But then again, nothing really went according to plan. They both got captured while trying to make their way over to the base of the terrorists. They were bound and blindfolded and bought somewhere inside the maze that the terrorists called headquarters and dumped inside a room. After a while, their captors seem to have deemed them worthy of their attention, for they were bought into another room and demanded to know where they came from, how they found them, and just who the hell they were.

Thus the predicament they were in now. Both had stayed quiet at first until one of their captors got impatient and decided that beating the snot out of McGee was going to get them talking. All it did was give McGee some bruised ribs and made Tony even more tight lipped.

That's when Saleem ordered his men to leave. And out came the truth serums. Joy.

They were nowhere closer to finding out where Ziva is in this lovely establishment and clearly, tempers were running thin on both sides with Saleem visibly getting more irritated as time goes by and Tony in full blown sarcasm mode. At one point, Saleem actually left the room, leaving the duo alone, during which Tony assured 'Timmy' that everything was under control and that he 'got this.'

Just as McGee was thinking that perhaps, it was time for Plan B, whatever Plan B actually was (improvising always works), he heard shuffling coming from the hallway. Pretending to be unconscious again, McGee barely managed to conceal his surprise when Saleem burst through the door, dragging a thin figure behind him. He plopped the person, who had a bag over his or her face, onto the chair opposite of Tony's and said, "Now I am giving you an option here. One of you will tell me all the information concerning NCIS. And the other will die. Choose wisely," and stormed out of the room, but not before ripping the bag harshly away, revealing the bony and tired face of one Ziva David.

Well, if things weren't complicated before, they certainly were now.

Saleem must have drugged her.

That was the first thought running through her mind when she was so kindly 'escorted' into a room with a bag over her face like a common criminal. She only thinks this because when the bag is lifted from her head and she can finally see again, in the chair opposite of her, grinning like a maniac, is Tony DiNozzo.

"You shouldn't be here," she manages out, not trusting herself to really believe that this is real. Out of the corner of her eyes, she spies McGee behind her chair, bound and bruised, but still in relatively good health.

"Well, then I'll just be going now," said Tony and he made an attempt to get out of his chair before his restraints pulled him down again. "Oh, forgot. I can't." And then he chuckled and smiled that little smile of his that irritated her beyond anything else right now because can't he see the situation he's in right now? It was no laughing matter.

"You shouldn't have come," was her response because really, she was not worth saving and she spoke this out loud. McGee replied with a "We're just glad you're okay," which almost made her burst out in insane laughter because nowhere is she okay. She had been held and tortured daily for an indefinite amount of time and had resigned herself to a quiet and desolate grave when all of a sudden, the boys, the family, she wanted to protect so badly that no matter what Saleem and his men did to her, she still did not yield information, was standing right in front of her.

Her mind circulated quickly, trying to find a way where it can all end pretty. Considering the options Saleem has so graciously offered, she knew what she had to do.

"Tony," she said, cutting of DiNozzo's rambling about truth serums and plans. "Tell them what they want to know."

DiNozzo's eyes narrowed, a dangerous sign. He took a breath in, probably to yell at her for being stupid and for being heroic when she wasn't trying to be when the door was once again opened and Saleem practically came running in, holding a machete.

Eyeing the machete, she gulped when it was raised against her neck, her head pulled back when Saleem harshly yanked her hair backwards.

Tony's eyes flew wide and he made an attempt to say something, anything, but Saleem had already cut him off. "There is no time left. Tell me your decision or I will make the choice for you."

Tony seemed to have found his voice at this point for he said, "What's the matter," trying to act nonchalantly while desperately praying for Saleem to not have a short fuse and cut Ziva's head from her body right now.

"My men are telling me that an American agency has been asking around about us. This base has been compromised. We must leave and we must leave now. Now, tell me your choice!" The machete inched closer to Ziva's neck and she knew that there was no time left. The words left her in a slew of rapid breathe.

"Kill me! Leave the Americans alive! You will need them for leverage!"

Saleem looked at her in faint puzzlement just as Tony yelled out "No!"

Ziva tried to catch DiNozzo's eyes, conveying that this is how it was going to work. She was only a tool, to be used and discarded when the time was needed. And the time was now. If it meant that her boys were going to be safe, were going to live, she'd do anything. So she said again, with more power aimed at Saleem.

"Kill me! Kill me now!"

And so, she was utterly surprised when Saleem toppled over, courtesy of McGee who decided to kick out the terrorist's feet from underneath him and made a fool's attempt to grab for the blade that flew out of Saleem's hands.

"Wait," bellowed Tony. "There's something I haven't told you yet!" This effectively stopped Saleem from blowing McGee's brains out and Ziva sighed a breathe of relief at that.

"And what is that?" Saleem asked, angrily, his face twisting. Ziva also snuck a look at Tony who was straining against his restraints and craning his neck to see if McGee was all right.

"Well, I've told you about the..." he shifted his chair a bit, "the brains, I've told you about the guts, and I've told you about the muscle. The scientist, the politician, the leader. I've told you about every member of the team. Except myself. The part I play."

Saleem and Ziva both stared at the guy who was clearly working himself up to something but which left them both confused. Well at least Ziva was confused. She thinks maybe Saleem understands an inkling of where the conversation is going for he asks, "Which is?" without moving a muscle away from the trigger on his gun.

Tony continued onwards to say, "I'm the wild card. I'm the guy who looks at the reality in front of him and refuses to accept it. Like right now, I should be terrified right? But I'm not. " At this point, Ziva thinks the truth serums that he had been rambling on about has truly made him insane for she was terrified. But not for herself. But for him. For McGee. For her boys.

"…Cause I can't stop thinking about the movie True Lies, you know where Arnie's strapped to the chair and shot full of truth serum? Then he picks his cuffs and kills everybody?" Tony's words were capturing all the attention in the room and so what he said next was like a bomb unleashed. "You have thirty seconds to live Saleem."

Saleem snorts at those words and Ziva was tempted to do the same. "You're still bound. You're lying."

To which the clearly insane man sitting in the chair opposite of Ziva replied, "I can't lie. And I didn't say I was going to be the one to kill you. Remember when I told you my boss was a sniper?"

And that's when everything exploded into a million tiny lights as glass shards rained upon them all as Saleem toppled over one last time with a bullet to the head.

Sand. Sand, sand, and more sand, as far as the eyes can see. Gibbs shifted uncomfortably as he felt the grittiness of the sand grains embedded themselves even further into his camouflaged outfit. He had been lying under the shadows of an over crop of rocks with his sniper rifle trained at the barely visible window that was at least three football fields away for the past three hours and counting.

Through the scope of his rifle, he had been taking note of the situation his stupid team had gotten themselves into and was just contemplating to himself if he should just shoot the guy, who was clearly having too much fun pricking needles into DiNozzo, the next time he appears in view again when his stomach dropped out of his butt.

For in full view of his scope was Ziva David.

He clenched the scope of his rifle closer to his eyes, hoping beyond hope that this wasn't a hallucination induced by the blinding sun that had been beating upon his back for a good part of the day.

He watched the exchange that happened between Ziva and Tony and noticed the expression of horror that passed over her face so quickly, he would have almost thought it wasn't there if he wasn't observing that closely.

That's it. He can feel it now. The plan was coming to a close.

"Go." He pronounced into the microphone as the man who was the ringleader to this whole shenanigan appear in his scope again. He was taking no chances this time. He fired away.

Annnnd... it's now 12:55 AM. And I have class tomorrow (or is it today?) at 10. Screw me for having an epiphany at this time of night.

But yay for you guys for two chapters in one day! Or well... almost one day!

But this also means that I really must do homework and actually start on my papers and so, the next update might not be that soon.

Review please! It really helps!