Nudge woke to complete darkness. The scientists had broken her and Iggy apart, shoving needles into their arms and dragging them away to unknown locations. She was scared to say the least. Sitting up carefully, she wondered how Iggy could ever stand being blind. Anyone—or anything—could be in the room with her, and she wouldn't have any idea.
As if the room itself had heard her thoughts, blinding, cold white lights flickered on with a distant boom, click, click. "Hello?" Nudge's voice echoed off of the walls, weak and hoarse, almost sickly sounding. No reply. Once her eyes had adjusted to the harsh light, she scanned her surroundings frantically, searching for a threat. White walls, white floors, no doors or windows. The room was completely empty except for a black lump about ten feet away from Nudge. The lump shifted and moaned in a familiar voice.
Upon closer inspection, the lump was not a lump at all. Nudge recognized two pigtails, a black and red plaid skirt, a black t-shirt, and pale skin. "Abby?" she whispered cautiously. The tangle of limbs rolled over to reveal the young forensic scientist.
"Nudge?" Abby mumbled groggily. Nudge rushed to her side, relief flooding through her at the sight of a familiar face.
"Are you alright?" she asked.
"Yeah, fine," the older woman whispered, sitting up slowly and rubbing her eyes. "Where were you guys?"
"I don't know. Some hospital room, somewhere in the building. Iggy and I—we—uh…" Nudge stuttered, blushing fiercely. She hadn't had much time to think about what had happened between them, with all of the worry that pressed against her chest.
"Kissed? Yeah, I heard some idiots talking about it," Abby answered, smirking. Nudge smiled back but realized that Abby couldn't see it, as she still had her eyes squeezed shut.
"Is there something wrong with your eyes?" she asked.
"What? Oh, no. They must have—uh done something to them," she answered vaguely, turning away from the younger girl.
"Abby, what did they do to you?" Nudge asked, her eyes widening, her stomach churning.
"Nothing." But the resident mutant's raptor-vision caught the tear running down her cheek. Something felt horribly wrong about this situation.
"Abby?" she asked shrilly, grabbing her hand. "Please, look at me."
"I would… if I could," "Abby" replied, her eyelids flying opened to reveal empty black sockets.
Nudge's stomach fell to her knees, causing them to tremble pathetically. She pushed down the bile that rose in her throat and pulled her hand away like it'd been burned. Backing away hurriedly, she tripped over her own feet and fell on her butt. She began crawling on all fours. "A-Abby?" she whispered.
"No," whatever it was replied, its upper lip curling into a cruel imitation of a smile, "Abigail Scuito is dead, along with her pathetic team of investigators and your bumbling band of freaks."
"I-I don't believe you." Her voice came out weak, almost sickly-sounding, and she hated how vulnerable she was.
"You don't?" Fake Abby asked mockingly, her voice twisting into something like screeching tires. "Well, maybe this will change your mind." She snapped her fingers, and the room fell back into darkness. A click sounded from somewhere in the distance, and suddenly there was a flickering projection covering the walls, floor, and ceiling of the small room. Surrounding her was the blurry image of Abby, the real Abby, seated on a small wooden chair in the middle of a small room, not unlike the one Nudge was in now, next to a tall man in a sharp black business suit. Her eyes were opened and filled with tears, her pale skin was spotted with purple bruises, and her pigtails were messy and uneven; but she was otherwise unharmed and completely alive.
"So, brave little Abigail, why don't you tell me everything you know about your friend, Leroy Jethro Gibbs?" the man requested.
"I won't betray Gibbs," she whispered, "not in a million years."
"Very well," said the man, almost remorsefully. He pulled a shiny silver object from his pocket, and before either Nudge or Abby had enough time to scream, he'd slit her throat.
The image changed. Iggy sat alone in a damp, dark, dungeon-like place, huddled against the wall his leg was chained to. Though his eyes were closed, as if he was sleeping, Nudge knew better. His face and body were stiff, like he was waiting for something. It didn't take long to find out what he was waiting for. Two Erasers emerged from the darkness ahead of him. They poked at him experimentally, and before they had time to react, he jumped up, sticking out a leg to sweep the first Eraser off of his feet. All the stupid lug could do was look surprised. He fell hard, right onto his head, on the stone floor.
The second Eraser was faster. He reached out an arm to grab Iggy's, twisting it at an unnatural angle. Iggy's face stiffened even more in pain, but he didn't cry out. He kicked back with his other leg, but in his current state, it missed its mark, enabling the Eraser to catch it with its paw.
"You're dead, now, little freak," it said, releasing Iggy's limbs to grab his face and bring it close to his.
"And just what makes you think…" Iggy coughed, splattering blood on the Eraser's face, "… that you have any room to call me a freak?" he asked, making one more desperate attempt to escape while the Eraser was distracted by wiping his furry cheeks clean of blood.
But it was too fast for him. It picked him up by the neck.
"Alright. No more funny business, freak," it announced. "Don't you wish," it began, as it started twisting his neck at an unnatural angle, "that you had just a little more time to talk to your little girlfriend. Maybe you could have told her that you loved her, or that you were sorry that it had to be this way. Well, you're time is up now, Iggy." Then there came a terrible crack that meant the Eraser had broken his neck.
Nudge screamed. "No! NO! Stop, please stop!" Tears sprouted from her eyes, and her whole body crumpled to the floor.
But it didn't stop. The image changed once again. Max, Fang, Gibbs, and Angel stood alone on a hill in an open field. Far behind them was a winding road below the small, grassy hill; far ahead was a huge barb-wire fence. The sky above them was gray, threatening rain.
"Guys! It's all clear!" Angel called behind them, and five more familiar faces emerged from the shadows. Gazzy, Angel, Tony, Ziva, and McGee greeted the others solemnly. Nudge wanted to scream, "Trap!" but she knew they wouldn't hear her. All she could do was watch, without the willpower even to close her eyes or cover her ears, for she knew what was going to happen.
"So-o-o…. what now?" asked Gazzy.
"Yeah, how do we get in?" asked Tony. They all looked around expectantly.
"We don't," said Max.
"They come to us," finished Gibbs. For a few moments, everything was quiet, and those in wait looked anxious and ready for a fight.
Then, all of a sudden, they came. There had to be hundreds of Erasers, armed with machine guns, racing over the hill from the direction of the fence. Some called out with ridiculous battle cries, others looked determined and serious.
The Flock instantly sprang into action, the others following. Angel used her mind powers to make the Erasers shoot each other and themselves. Max and Fang flew up to meet the Erasers and stole their guns, shooting blindly at clusters of the creatures. Gazzy crept along in the shadows, tossing bombs strategically at certain points, as if he'd had this practiced for some time. Gibbs, Tony, Ziva, and McGee used their hand-guns to take down the Erasers in front, one at a time. Ziva took out her knife when one got close enough, and slashed its throat.
But it still wasn't enough. There were too many of them. Soon enough, the Erasers overpowered them. Gazzy went down first. One of the Erasers found the source of the random explosions, and came up behind him. The little pyro was too caught up in the excitement of the battle to notice until there was a bullet in his back. Angel screamed, losing focus long enough for her victims to recover and aim their guns at her forehead.
"ANGEL!" shouted Max, Fang, and Gibbs at the same time, running to her. Fang reached her first, just as the bullet left the Eraser's gun. It hit him right in the chest, as he jumped in front of the small girl. She wailed, sobbing over his still body. Max caught up with them next, collapsing next to Fang's body, throwing herself over him.
"C'mon! C'mon! Wake up, Fang! Wake up! You can't just die on me like this! WAKE THE HELL UP!" she screamed, shaking him. The clouds finally began to shower them with cool rain, but it was no relief to any of them.
"Max!" Gibbs shouted, running up to them. "We have to keep moving! You're making yourself an easy target! What the hell are you—Oh, God."
"Gazzy's gone too!" Angel sobbed. "They-they snuck up on him from behind, and sh-shot him right in the back!"
"We have to keep going, Max," Gibbs persisted. Max glared at him.
"I can't just leave him here!" she shouted, though the rain and sweat streaming down her face began to mingle with another liquid. Tears.
"We have to! He's gone, Max!"
"No," she growled. "He-he promised he'd never leave me again," she whispered broken-heartedly.
Gibbs, having had enough, attempted to pull her off of the body, but she wouldn't budge. Defeated, he grabbed Angel's hand and fled before they could get shot, too.
Tony and Ziva were the next fatalities. Tony had spotted a bomb near where Ziva was battling with an Eraser. Weaving through the maze of fallen bodies and fighters, he reached her just in time for the bomb to go off on all three of them. Both agents and the Eraser were lost in the explosion. McGee, who had seen it happen out of the corner of his eye, froze, eyes widening with fright. Caught like a deer in head-lights, he had made himself an easy target for the enemy, and soon fell beside his friends.
Meanwhile, Gibbs and Angel fought their way through, desperately struggling to make it to the fence on the other side. But their energy was spent, and their spirits were drowned by overwhelming grief. It didn't take long for the Erasers to surround them, and with pleasure, put bullets through both their hearts.
The projection faded back into blackness. Nudge couldn't move. Couldn't breathe. She didn't know how long it was until the lights flickered back on. She didn't care. Honestly, all she wanted was to lie down and cry, but the tears just wouldn't come. Numbness engulfed her whole body.
"Why? Why kill all the others and keep me alive?" she asked.
"Well, my dear, we already had you in our grasp. We didn't need to kill you right away," she answered, surprisingly.
"Then why take time to torture me like this first?" Nudge asked. By now she was just stalling for time. She wasn't sure why. No one would come and save her now. Everyone she knew was dead. Come to think of it, the thought of joining them in peace didn't seem like such a bad option anymore.
No, said a voice somewhere inside her. It was her inner Max. You are going to stand and fight. Kick her ass, and do it Max-style, with killer smack-talk.
"My mother always told me not to play with my food… but I never listened," Creepy-Fake-Abby-Thing replied.
"Er… Do you think we could… ya know, postpone the part where you eat me? I'm—uh—not ready to die yet," Nudge requested casually. I said smack talk, not small talk! scolded Inner-Max.
"I don't think so. Any last words, Nudge, before I cut your throat out?" asked CFAT, pulling a knife out of nowhere.
"Uh—yeah. Ya know, I'm really sick and tired of being the damsel in distress. It's about time I learn to rescue myself." With that, she kicked the knife out of CFAT's hand, and caught it in her own. Kicking out with her other leg, she swept the monster off its feet. It landed with a thud on the hard floor. Before it had time to get up, Nudge sat down on its stomach, pressing her knife to its throat. "Now, would you like to tell me how the hell to get out of here, or should I just kill you now and find out for myself?"
Iggy felt like a monkey had just pelted him with a thousand coconuts. Weird simile, he knew, but accurate. There was a terrible pounding in his head, and he felt achy all over. When the scientists had come and separated him from Nudge, they'd shoved needles with a strange sedative in their veins, and it seemed to have a strange affect on his brain. It felt fuzzy and his memory was blurred.
Opening his eyes, he remembered with a surge of satisfaction that he could see again. Looking around, he realized he was in a dungeon-type room, chained to a wall, and he was not alone. Two other figures, both obviously female, were huddled together against the wall opposite him. With a start, he realized that one of them was Abby. Her lips were the same pink as the average human being, her pigtails were frizzy and uneven, and her pale skin was bruised all over; but it was definitely Abby. She was definitely alive. Her eyes were wide-opened and staring at him, and her breathing was normal.
The woman next to her was unnaturally thin, wearing a blue, blood-stained shirt that hung off her body. She had flaming red hair and an attractive face that could have been any age from early thirties to late forties.
"Iggy!" exclaimed Abby. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Who's your friend?" he asked.
"Oh, yeah. Iggy, meet Jenny Shepherd, the former Director of NCIS," Abby announced.
"Former Director? What happened? Did she quit?" Iggy continued to question. They both grimaced.
"No, she died."
A/N: Yeah. I know. I really suck at foreshadowing. I think it's a disease. Anyway, wasn't that a creepy and depressing chapter? Did you guys really think I'd kill everyone off like that? Tell me what you think! Don't worry, that wasn't just a random thing I pulled out of my butt. This was planned from the beginning, along with Vance being a baddy. Oh, and how do you think I pulled off the action-y stuff? It was really fun to write. Was it as fun to read? Please let me know what you think!