Chapter 16- Revenge

Ziva was woken up by Michael roaring in pain just moments later. He ran after her at once. She weakly started to crawl toward her knife. She could see the silver glint that was just a few feet away. Ziva reached for it but came up an inch short. Michael grabbed her ankle and started to pull her back. She dug her fingernails into the floor for a stronger grip, but could feel herself being pulled back to him.

"You're not getting away that easily," he growled. Ziva kicked at his hand with all her might. He suddenly released her, cursing under his breath. Meanwhile, she had gotten hold of her knife again. Time for some sweet revenge against her betrayer. She struggled to her feet, but Michael pushed her to the ground again. She continued the momentum by executing a backwards somersault toward where she thought the doorway was. She had long since adjusted to the minimal lighting in here, but she doubted that he was even remotely close to doing that. Ziva went over to a wall and touched a star. Just as she thought. A glow in the dark sticker. It could peel off like a bandage. They were only on the walls. A plan started to form in her mind. Slowly, she started to peel off the stars one by one until they lay in a small pile in the middle of the room. Other than the tiny glowing mountain of sticker stars, it was completely dark. Victoria was nowhere to be found.

"Where are you, Ziva?" Michael shouted, twisting this way and that. Ziva was trained to work in the night, so the darkness did not bother her. She could clearly see his silhouette running around the mid-sized room. The knife felt cold in her hand, but that hardly bothered her.

"I'm right here," she muttered, watching his shadow move about. "Come and get me," Michael was at least twenty feet away now. Ziva threw the knife with all her might at his chest. Her aim was perfect. He fell to the floor with a loud thud and screamed in pain. The door opened again and suddenly Victoria was back. She strode toward Ziva and whipped out her own knife. Michael whimpered, but was now starting to quiet down. She wondered if he'd die soon, but pushed the thought away. There were more important matters at hand.

"You are useless to me," she spat, bringing the knife to her throat. "Any last words, Agent David?"

"Go to hell," she croaked, struggling in the woman's grasp. The knife pressed harder against her skin. She could feel blood starting to trickle along her throat. She twisted Victoria's arm backward. The knife clattered to the floor. Ziva glanced at Michael. He wasn't moving. She had killed him.

"You are gonna-" The door, which had been closed behind her, opened once more. A shadow blocked the incoming light. Victoria gasped and ran out of the room to evade capture. The figure shut the door and approached Ziva. She froze, uncertain if it were a friend or foe…until the person was embracing her in a rib-cracking hug.

"Oh, Ziva!" Abby cried out. "I finally found you!"

-Later-

Back in the lab, Ziva examined her injuries. Bruises lined her arms, which had healing gashes that nearly exposed the muscle they were so deep. Of course, her left arm was broken and was probably starting to set wrong. Someone would have to rebreak it. She gulped at the thought and tried not to think about it. Dried blood was all over her clothes, but that would be easy to take care of. Abby came in, hesitantly smiling at the ex-Mossad.

"The clues helped, but you'd have to thank Gibbs for telling me that the place actually existed. I hope the Director doesn't mind that I know the password on her computer. Well, it was for a good reason, so she'd have to forgive me, right? I mean, you're impor-"

"Abs," Ziva sighed wearily. She stopped talking at once, realizing that she was rambling.

"Sorry," she muttered. "You look like a mess. Why don't you clean up?"

"I need a hospital, Abs. My arm is broken," Abby looked more closely.

"I see what you mean. Why don't you let Ducky take care of it?" She was steered down to the autopsy lab where the beloved medical examiner happened to reside. Ducky wasn't there, but Palmer was, cleaning up the last bits of a recent autopsy.

"Hello, Abby," Palmer called out. "Dr. Mallard isn't here right now. What can I do for you?"

"Ziva's arm is broken. I need you to make sure that it didn't set wrong so that a cast can be set up for her," Abby explained. Ziva quietly came forward and showed her injury to Palmer.

"Hum…it looks like a clean break on the forearm here. This shouldn't be too much trouble. Hope the Doc doesn't mind if I borrow his X-ray machine. You two wait here," He scurried off into the other room. Ziva sighed. She wished she had gotten the time to kill Victoria as well. Maybe that wasn't her job…

"Are you all right?" Abby asked her. "I mean, other than the broken arm,"

"I'm fine," she lied. "It's nothing, really," Palmer returned with the Z-ray machine just as Ducky came in, holding a box of takeout Chinese food.

"Mr. Palmer, what are you doing?" he demanded, setting the box down. "I thought I told you not to mess with that when I'm not here," He sheepishly stepped aside.

"Sorry, but I needed to take a look to see if Ziva needed her arm rebroken," he explained. "I thought that made an exception," Ducky looked over at Ziva, who was watching the scene as if it was a dream or some performance taking place. Her face was mostly blank.

"All right," he said quietly. "Let's fix you up, Ziva,"

Abby's lab, thirty minutes later

Though Ziva was cleaned up and wearing a cast now, the images of what had just happened were fresh in her mind. She had no doubt the last four days would haunt her for some time. She sighed, putting her head down on the keyboard. Maybe all she needed was some rest. The door slid open, and she sat up in surprise.

"McGee just went home. I told him I'd meet up with him later," Abby said, coming to sit by Ziva. "Now tell me, what happened down there? You've hardly said a word since I rescued you,"

"The credit goes to Gibbs, remember?" she mumbled to the keyboard. "He was the one with the information," And more, Abby thought but remained quiet. She sat there for a minute. Ziva had almost fallen asleep when she spoke again.

"You don't have to tell anyone else, but I want to know. I saw the bruises and gashes all over your arms. It looks like pain just had a field day with you…or maybe four,"

"I was tortured," Ziva whispered, wincing at the memory. "S-She wanted to know where McGee was. I wouldn't talk, so Victoria had to make me talk. It didn't work, but some things happened that I wish that wouldn't have,"

"Like what?" Ziva lifted her head, feeling her controlled mask slip slightly. Some emotion showed, and she knew that Abby was seeing the past four days in her eyes.

"I…okay…" she said, looking away. "I can see you don't want to talk about it," She started to leave, but Ziva grabbed Abby's sleeve.

"Michael betrayed me…he tried to rape me! I-I don't know how I managed to fight him off, but I did. And when Victoria called you weak and useless, that was when I found the strength to fight back because I knew it was a lie. She threw everything she had at me in an attempt to break me but it did just the opposite. Abs, the whole time I was down there she tried to get me to think you guys were afraid of me. I knew that wasn't true…but I had moments of doubt," Abby gaped at her in shock. She had never known Ziva to open up like this before.

"I think you used to scare us," she said, "but that was before we knew you. And you are more trusting of us now, so you're not quite as closed off from the rest of us. Emotionally, I mean. You can still intimidate the heck out of any one of us, but…we all see you in a different light now," Abby glanced at Ziva, who's expression was unreadable. Was it her imagination, or did that make her…happy?

"Thanks, Abby," she whispered, smiling a little. "That means…a lot,"

"I'll take you home," Abby murmured. "You've had a rough time,"

A/N: There should only be around seven to eight chapters left, to those who have been paying attention to how the plot's going so far. I might make a sequel. Let me just see how the rest of this turns out first. Hope you all have a Happy New Year in 2011!