Chapter Three

"DiNozzo!" Gibbs snapped. "You gonna tell us what you need help with or not?"

Tony bit his lip, turning in a full circle while pulling at his hair. "Technically, Boss, I'm not really the one needing help. My friends, however, are."

"And your friends?" Ziva asked. "Who are they?"

Tony grinned. "Max. And Dean Winchester."

Gibbs frowned. "Dean Winchester is on the FBI Most Wanted list."

Tony's grin grew. "Actually, Boss, as of last week they, Dean and his brother, have been pardoned by the president and made federal agents in the newly formed group, H.A.U.N.T."

For what it was worth, Gibbs didn't look all that shocked. But, then again, he was Gibbs. "And you're friends with them?"

"With Dean," Tony shrugged. "Mind you, he went by Alec at the time. I've never met his brother."

McGee took that moment to speak up. "You still haven't told us what's going on."

Tony glanced at him, opening his mouth to answer, but a timid "Logan?" from near the elevator stole his attention. They all turned to see a pretty girl with dark, curly hair staring at them. She caught sight of Tony and with a grin ran forward, giving him a forceful hug. Tony caught her and spun her around, laughing softly. "Hey there, Max," he whispered. "Long time no see."

Max stepped back, looking her old friend over. "You look great! No pain or anything?" she asked, much to the confusion of the others.

Tony smiled, holding his arms out wide and spinning in a small circle. "Only when I overwork myself," he answered truthfully, knowing better than to lie to her. "But, hey, I'm walking. And running. And jumping. And everything they said I'd never do again."

"You get contacts?" she asked, looking up into his face and feeling a little sad at seeing him without his glasses.

"Laser surgery," Tony shrugged. He placed warm hands on either side of her face. "Alec's on his way. We'll fix this."

"Of course we will," Max whispered. "We have to."

Tony then took a deep breath and turned to his teammates. "Everyone, this is Max. Max, this is Special Agent Jethro Gibbs, my boss. Officer Ziva David, and Special Agent Tim McGee. Be nice to them, I happen to enjoy working with them."

Max gave a small wave, and then gave Tony a wide eyed look. "You know, I'm still not used to this standing in front of federal officers and not being arrested thing."

"You used to being arrested?" Gibbs asked, taking a sip of his coffee with an arched look.

"White doesn't really work for the FBI, Max," Tony interrupted. "In fact, as far as I can make out, the US government doesn't know anything about Manticore."

Max shook her head. "I was always told it was a government run military facility."

"A Russian government run facility," another voice joined in, and everyone turned to the elevator again in time to see two young men walk out.

"Alec!" Max yelped, running over to hug him as well. She pulled back, looking up at the tall man beside him. "Who's this?"

"Hey Max, Logan," Dean grinned. "This is my little brother, Sam."

Sam gave a slightly uncomfortable smile, kind of agreeing with Max on being uncomfortable in a government building. "Nice to meetcha."

Tony raised an eyebrow, "Dude. I'm Tony now. Please remember that."

"Sorry," Dean shrugged. "So long as ya'll remember that I'm Dean."

Max sighed, giving a small smile as she leaned against Tony's desk. "It's great to see you two again. It's like you were pretending to be dead or something."

"Some of us weren't pretending," Dean muttered, giving Sam a sheepish look.

Sam rolled his eyes, but refrained from saying anything as everyone currently in the room turned to stare at them. "Pretend he didn't say that," Sam smiled disarmingly.

"What, exactly, have you gotten into?" Tony asked, raising an eyebrow.

Dean shrugged. "The Apocalypse?"

"You're kidding," Max said, not even bothering to question his comment.

"I wish," Dean replied. "Unfortunately, it's the only reason I'm alive right now, and not cooling my heels in Hell."

Ziva raised an eyebrow. "And, why pray tell, would you be in Hell?"

At that Sam grunted. "Because the idiot sold his soul to a demon to bring me back to life."

"And it was worth it, Sammy," Dean retorted.

"It's Sam," Sam snapped. "Jerk."

"Bitch."

"Enough!" Gibbs yelled. "What is going on here?"

"Well, Boss," Tony started. "I have no idea what Dean and Sam are talking about, but Max and I are talking about a military program that is highly illegal and is now kidnapping people. Again."

"And?" Gibbs prompted with a wave of his hand.

Tony took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "You know those three years you keep asking about? Well, we've gone up against them before. And almost didn't live through it."

Dean gave him an impressed look. "Hey, man, at least you're walking again."

McGee frowned. "People keep mentioning that."

"Logan, sorry, Tony," Max stated solemnly, "Was shot in the back. They said he'd be paralyzed for life."

Tony shrugged. "I'm hard to keep down."

Max bit her lip for a moment, her eyes falling shut. "I have reason to believe that Manticore is going to be using us transgenetics to take over the government."

"Transgenetics?" Ziva asked, obviously confused.

"Genetically enhanced human weapons," Dean muttered, running a hand through his hair. "We don't know exactly what they're up to."

"McGee," Gibbs snapped. "I want you to hack their system. If this is what it sounds like, we need to know."

McGee blinked. "I can't hack a system of a group I've never heard of Boss."

"Eyes Only could," Max said pointedly.

"Eyes Only?" McGee blinked. "You know Eyes Only?"

Gibbs shook his head, once again out of the loop and feeling really annoyed. "Who's Eyes Only?"

"Only the greatest hacker of all time, Bossman," Abby said from where she was walking up with Ducky. "The man's a legend. And no one knows what happened to him. He disappeared a couple years ago. Why?" She blinked. "And who are these people?"

"Tony?" Dean asked, raising an eyebrow.

Tony sighed, running a hand down his face. "Okay, fine." He moved towards his computer, dropping into his chair and pulling something from the sole of his shoe.

"A flash drive?" McGee asked softly from where he was standing next to Gibbs and Ziva.

Tony grabbed his desk phone, hitting the intercom for the entire building, excluding MTAC. "NCIS employees, this is Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo. I'm hijacking the computer system as of right now." He hit a few keys on his computer, plugging the flash drive into the USB port. "Sorry for the inconvenience." He hung up, turning to quickly type something on the computer.

Every screen around them was suddenly displaying the 'Freedom Streaming' clip that Eyes Only was notorious for using. Tony quickly rolled his chair over to McGee's desk, his fingers flying over the keyboard, much to the amazement of everyone who worked with him. They always thought that he couldn't type. At all.

And, as it turned out, Anthony DiNozzo was Eyes Only. "You asked what my 'mother of all secrets' was, Abs," Tony muttered, as the plasma screen changed from 'Freedom Streaming' to quickly strolling code. And then Tony sat back. "I'm in."

Max took a step forward. "See if you can get the security cameras."

With a few more key strokes, the plasma showed a few different views. "How'd you do that?" McGee muttered, completely gobsmacked.

"Dude, Dean?" Sam said suddenly, going slightly pale as he stared at the screen. "Who's that look like to you?" he pointed out a woman walking down a hallway.

Dean took a look and then swore viciously. "Kate."

"Who?" Tony asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Woman who went missing at the age of thirty-two back in forty-five."

Abby blinked, staring hard at the screen. "That would make her…ninety-five. She doesn't look ninety-five."

"Because she's a vampire," Sam muttered. "Who really, really hates us."

"Crap," was all Dean could really say in reply.