Nudge's sparkly silver converse were annoyingly loud on the concrete floor. The hallways in the School were eerily uninhabited and suspiciously lacking in security. Still, she traveled them warily, constantly glancing over her shoulder and not allowing herself the freedom of letting the sobs escape her aching throat. The time for crying would be later, when she'd escaped. Then, she could cry on Ducky's shoulder when she told him the news. Ducky, she thought, I still have him. If nothing else, Ducky, Palmer, Total, and Elizabeth still have a chance of being alive. That was the thought that kept her going and kept her heart from completely breaking.
"… escaped, sir. It was a mistake. I'm sorry, sir. It won't happen again." Nudge jumped as a voice carried around a corner. Searching desperately for a hiding place, she threw open a door labeled "Custodian's closet," and slipped inside.
"It better not! Find it, if it's the last thing you do! And if you don't, it very well will be!" barked a second familiar voice. Nudge stifled a squeal.
"Yes, sir, Director Vance," said the voice of the weasely scientist that had slapped her and taken her to die in the white room. Then his footsteps scurried off down the hallway. A door opened and closed.
Nudge waited, biting her lip in anxiety, until Vance's footsteps, heavier than that of the scientist, receded down the hall. She then cracked the door and edged quietly out of the dark closet. When she started back down the hallway, she made more of an effort to be silent.
Finally, she skidded to a stop in front of a plain wooden door labeled "Dungeon." Normally, she would have giggled at how normal the door with such an ominous name looked. But the memory of what Abby's creepy clone had shown her was still too sharp in her mind, and before she could stop them, tears were rolling down her cheeks. This could have been the place where Iggy…
Nudge found her hand on the doorknob before she'd consciously decided to go in. There was a long, dark stone stairwell whose darkness, had she not had raptor vision, would have blinded her completely. As it was, she stumbled a bit and missed steps.
After several minutes of seemingly interminable downward travel, Nudge spotted a rectangle of dim light ahead of her. Her pace quickened with the beating of her heart. It was reckless, she knew. An Eraser could jump out and surprise her any moment, and she wouldn't be in the right mental state to defend herself. But she couldn't bring herself to care.
However, when she reached the end of the stairs, a surprise of a completely different sort hit her like a ton of bricks. In front of her, having a hushed conversation in the corner of the dungeon, were two people she had just watched die and a third that she didn't recognize. They looked up when she gasped.
"Nudge!" Iggy cried, standing and limping as close to her as the chain that tied him to the wall allowed. She ran the rest of the way to him and threw herself in his arms, sobbing hysterically.
"Y—you're alive!" she gasped, looking up into his eyes and pressing her lips to his frantically. He kissed her back, though with a little less ferocity, and pulled back first.
"Wait, you thought I was dead?" he asked, his blue eyes widening as he stared at her.
"Uh, it's a long story," she replied, peering behind him. "Abby!" she squealed, running to her older friend. The forensic scientist pulled her into a tight hug.
"Nudge! Are you alright?" she asked, wiping a tear from the young girl's cheek maternally.
"Um, yeah, I am now," Nudge replied. "Who's your pal?" she whispered, glancing pointedly at the red-headed woman who was watching the scene awkwardly from her position on the floor.
"Oh, this is former-Director Jennifer Shepherd. Jenny, this is Nudge." The two greeted each other with small waves and muttered "hi"s.
After a moment of thought, something occurred to Nudge with a surge of hope. "Wait! If you guys are still alive, then the others might be, too! But… you're here… They must have been planning on doing those things… which means… Oh my goodness! We have to get out of here. Fast. We have to help the others!" she yelled, bustling around the dungeon to examine the chains attached to her friends.
"What? What's going on, Nudge?" asked Iggy.
"I—I was in a room, there was this fake Abby, and a projection, showing all of your deaths…" she struggled to explain.
"What are you talking abou—"
"Shhhh! I have to focus!" scolded Nudge, concentrating on the metal that anchored their restraints to the walls. She imagined calling them to her and their landing on the floor in front of her. When she held up a hand directed at the metal anchors, they did just that. With a deafening BOOM, her friends were free.
Iggy smiled. "You've been practicing," he commented appreciatively.
"A little," she said, blushing. "Now, we have to go. We need enforcements, fast."
Getting into through the door marked "Recently Tested Experiments" wasn't the hard part. Nudge just hacked into the security system, and in a record thirty seconds, they were inside. The tricky part was getting the other mutants, at least eighty in dog crates lining the walls on all sides, out. Their cages had heavy duty locks, all with separate codes to unlock them. Nudge watched as Iggy's bubble of excitement, which had gradually built up when she told him her plan, burst before her eyes.
"It'll take you forever to unlock all those locks," he said, deflated.
"I'm not so sure," she said, winking at him knowingly. Confused, her three companions stared at Nudge as she tried to focus her powers on the series of locks. She pictured each of their gears turning and clicking, and the locks themselves opening and flying off. Then she imagined a magnetic force pushing off of her body and towards her target. With a series of clicks and clangs, she succeeded. Smiling, Nudge opened her eyes to examine her work.
All of the mutants, Abby, Jenny, and Iggy, were staring at her as if they'd never seen anything like her. Her smile widened.
"Hello, fellow experiments," she began. "You've been turned into mutants, treated like animals, and tested on like lab rats! Now, who's ready to fight back?"
While the others pulled guns from their belts, I aimed my first knife straight at the first Eraser, putting it right between its eyes. As soon as the first blow struck, the clouds above us broke in a shower of icy cold rain. I looked at Ziva just in time to see her drop me a mischievous wink, before launching into action, sending knives and bullets through unsuspecting Erasers with professional speed and accuracy. Seeing that the others were doing alright, I whipped around, sending another blade flying toward another Eraser. When one got close enough, I grabbed hold of the barrel of its gun, yanking the weapon out of its hands and thrusting the butt towards its head.
Soon enough, the world became a blur of punches, kicks, flashes of silver, disorienting curtains of rain, bullets to dodge, and an undying will to survive. So when Angel screamed, the sound came from another planet, far away, and took a millisecond longer than usual for my brain to process. A millisecond longer than I had. Thankfully, the Eraser I was fighting was distracted by the scream as well, giving me time to see what was happening.
"GAZZY!" I shrieked, but my yell was muted by the sounds of battle and the roar of the downpour. An Eraser had sneaked up behind him, pointing his gun to my little pyro's back. It was too late, though. I would never get to him in time. The Eraser's finger was squeezing the trigger, slowly. Angel was screaming. We were out-numbered. They were going to kill Gazzy. They were going to win, and I could tell by the evil grin stretching across the Eraser's face that it knew. All hope was lost.
That was, until the Eraser fell to the ground with a thud in a flurry of sparkly silver, fur, and blood. His bullet whizzed past Gazzy, who finally realized what a dangerous situation he'd been in and jumped back a few feet.
"Not this time, Wolfy," growled our savior, standing up and wiping her bloodstained, dirty hands on her designer jeans. Nudge gave the Eraser one last kick for good measure, turning and smiling sheepishly in my direction. "Sorry we're a little late, Max. Hope we didn't miss the party."
My heart nearly burst with pride. If we'd had time for gushy reunions, I would have cried with relief. But, in light of the current situation, I decided it wasn't the best time.
"We?" questioned Gazzy hopefully, looking almost in tears himself.
"Oh, yeah," said Nudge, as if she'd simply forgotten until now. "Guys! It's time!" she yelled over all of the ruckus in the direction of the hill. Confused, we and even a few of the Erasers turned to look.
Marching obediently up the hill like a makeshift army, were at least eighty mutants, looking vengeful and bloodthirsty. There was everything from part bird to part lion with long, pointed fangs, to indescribable kids with huge claws and scaly skin. Leading the charge, a bit battered but with determination set in their eyes, were Iggy and Abby, along with an attractive but sad-looking lady with long red hair. Oh, brother. At least she was too old for Fang.
The Erasers, a bit dazed by the new turn of events, finally came to their senses and charged at the oncoming troops, who seemed to be anticipating the attack. They fought like deadly warriors, always predicting their opponent's next move before they even twitched a muscle. The rest of us stood back in awe of their amazing skill.
"Breeding a whole army of warriors then locking them in cages and mistreating them before they brainwashed them? Not one of the white coat's brightest ideas," Nudge pointed out, coming up to stand beside me on my left, her busted lip turning up in the corner.
"Yeah," I agreed. Then, something occurred to me. "How did you…?"
"Later," she replied, cutting off my question.
"Right." Now was not the time to play catch-up.
At that moment, Abby, Iggy, and the mysterious red-haired woman emerged from the battle, Iggy with a gun in his hands, grinning his most devilish grin. Abby and the woman were also armed, but they didn't look as happy about it. I didn't even know Abby knew how to shoot a gun. I guess I never thought to ask.
"Who's…" I began, but I was cut off once again by Gibbs, who was charging toward us like his life depended on it.
"Jenny?" he panted, once he'd reached us. The look on his face and the tone of his voice suggested he'd just seen someone he knew to be dead.
"Hello, Jethro," greeted the woman in a small voice, looking anywhere but at Gibbs. I frowned.
"What the Hell is going on?" I demanded, but I might as well have not spoken at all. Gibbs was staring at the woman, apparently Jenny, with great intensity, as if he had to commit every line of her face to memory before she disappeared.
"A-are we dead?" he asked, and there was a softness in his voice I was sure Leroy Jethro Gibbs was incapable of on a normal basis. As he spoke, he finally acknowledged the rest of us, frowning mournfully.
A flash of a smile crossed Jenny's face. "No, Jethro. You're not dead. We're not dead," she replied cryptically.
"How?" Gibbs asked. She looked down.
"Um, sorry to butt into whatever's happening on your side of the planet, but there's kinda this war thing going on over there that I wanna get back to," I interrupted. Hey, I wanted answers just as much as the next girl, but I was pretty sure now wasn't a good time, considering we had a much larger problem on our plate.
Unfortunately, my practical plan was interrupted by the appearance of McGee, Tony, and Ziva. Pushing past the others and sloshing clumsily through the mud, McGee launched himself at Abby, pulling her into his arms.
"Oh, thank God you're alright," he said with a sigh of immense relief.
"I'm fine, Timmy," she assured him quietly, standing on her tiptoes to plant one right on his surprised lips.
Alright, am I the only one wondering why everyone can't just save all their gushiness until after we're done fighting evil scientists? These people and bad timing. Jeesh.
After McAbby were done having their moment, McGee turned around and, along with his two partners, finally noticed the extra person.
"Jenny?" they all shouted in unison. Weird. I must admit, my curiosity got the better of me.
"Okay, I just have to know now. Who the Hell is she?" I insisted. Our group went silent, leaving the sounds of battle in the background to fill in the space. How pleasant.
Seeing that no one else was feeling rather chatty on the subject, Nudge stepped up to the plate. "Max, uh, this is Jenny Shepherd. She was the director of NCIS before Vance," she explained. "She, er, was shot and killed a few years ago." Ah. There it was. The look on Gibbs's face, the tone of surprise in all of their voices. She was dead. Well, that made sense.
"Well, now that that's all cleared up, I think we've got more important matters to attend to," I said. The others gaped at me.
"You don't even want to know how she's here?" asked Nudge incredulously. I shrugged.
"Sounds like a 'later' problem to me. I think it's best if we live in the now," I suggested, and with no further argument, we threw ourselves back into the battle.
I was totally on a role. I'd just taken down five Erasers in a row. The first had been easy. It'd backed away from another experiment, and all I'd had to do was pull a long, curved dagger (my personal favorite from Ziva's collection) from my belt, and swing at its legs. With a cry of outrage, it went down. The second had been more thought out. I'd flown over top of it stealthily, and waiting for just the right moment, I dropped straight down on it with all my weight, knocking it to the ground. Once it was down, I stole its gun and tossed it to a grinning Gazzy. The next one went down in a flurry of flailing limbs and bullets, so fast I couldn't keep track, the next two following suite. So you can imagine my surprise and annoyance when Tony called me over to him.
"Hey, Max, Gibbs! Cover us for a sec, will you?" he yelled over the shouts and gunfire surrounding us on all sides.
Sharing a quick look with Gibbs, I literally fought my way over to where he and Ziva were standing. I shot him a questioning look, which he returned with a wink. Then, he turned to Ziva, like the battle and Gibbs and I didn't exist.
I didn't have time to ask him what he was doing, because I had a much larger problem to deal with at the moment. Gibbs and I left opened a small clearing for Tony and Ziva to have their conversation while we fought off Erasers left and right. I had a terrible suspicion of what he was going to say, but surely he wouldn't. Not here in the pouring rain while we were all fighting and bodies of mutants and Erasers were falling around them.
"Tony, what are you doing?" I heard Ziva ask.
"There's something I have to tell you," he replied.
"Can't it wait?" she questioned impatiently.
"No… it can't. I realized something, when I heard you singing last night. No, wait, it was earlier than that… I think it was when you left, when I thought you'd died in Somalia, and I was so sure I was never going to be able to tell you. But when we saved you, I decided I had to tell you while I had the chance, but every time seemed like the wrong time…"
He wouldn't. Not now.
"Just get on with it, DiNozzo!" yelled Gibbs, a blow from an Eraser on his left.
He was going to do it. Oh my God. He was going to do it right here right now. He wouldn't, would he?
"I-uh- I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me, Ziva David?"
He did it.
A/N: omg! That took sooooo long! I'm so sorry! I started writing it the day after I put up the last chapter and I thought to myself "Oh yeah, self! You're gonna get up this new chapter the day after the last one!" But I failed. I had trouble putting it all together and trying to make it interesting, 'cause it was the long-awaited climax. I don't know if I like it or not, but this is what I came up with.