10 minutes earlier…
"I don't think you realise how much pain you've caused me and my family, Agent Gibbs." Sandy scorned, her blank, unseeing eyes filled with a balanced mix of long lasting pain and mocking. "You drove my family to insanity, leaving my parent's minds in tatters and mine like this forever- corrupted. All of this," she gestured around the room to him and his team, held back by armed guards, "Is your fault."
The teen nodded to one of her henchmen, who obliged by disappearing through another door. Minutes later, he reappeared, now escorting Tony DiNozzo into the room. Gibbs felt his mind flood with relief upon seeing his agent alive. Tony was handcuffed and wearing clothes that would never fit him in a million years. Though they were fading, Gibbs was quick to pick up on the bruises and scabs that decorated his arms and face. Tony appeared to have not shaved in days, as unmaintained stubble covered his chin and upper lip. Overall, the senior field agent looked rough as hell, and that made red hot anger boil up inside of his already frustrated boss.
"You and Agents DiNozzo, Todd and McGee shattered my childhood into millions of broken pieces: my father killed himself after being sentenced to time in prison, his guilt becoming too much for him to handle. Even before that, my mother was struggling on her own, and I didn't need my eyesight to know that, but after she got the news that was it. She lost it completely. I would only have to smell her to know that she was taking drugs she shouldn't and drinking too much alcohol. Day after day she grew more and more depressed and angry until one day I was being attacked by the woman who'd loved me since before I was even born. She was screaming and crying, hitting and clawing at me as if I was a monster to her, and I couldn't do anything to stop it. She fell into unconsciousness and died right in front of me, on our own kitchen floor before I even had the chance to think about calling 911.
"I went to numerous foster homes, but half of them didn't want me because I was blind or 'too much for them to handle', and after being rejected so many times, I found myself unable to love or trust anyone. My inability to care about anyone made me stone cold, and the pain that I once felt morphed into anger, which became an overwhelming desire for revenge. I constructed my own empire, mostly centred around harming those who shared similarities with the people who'd blown everything I'd ever known to smithereens until I could find the perfect way to do it to the people themselves." Sandy threw back her head and let out an almighty cackle. "And it wasn't too long ago that I found out some news that would allow me to do just that!" She waved a hand at a second henchman, and Tony visibly stiffened as the guy strode purposefully through the door that he'd been brought out of. He silently watched his colleagues reactions as he returned, holding Kate by the arm.
McGee's jaw dropped and his eyebrows shot up in confusion. He blinked, his brain trying to make sense of what was happening. Kate Todd stood before him, well and truly alive. Her dark hair was longer that it had previously been and her face and body slimmer. Like Tony, her skin was also adorned with marks of physical abuse. Firing a sneaky glance at his boss, he was relieved to find that Gibbs' actions mirrored his own, except, Tim could practically feel the volcano that was his boss' anger beginning to explode Still trying to comprehend what he was witnessing, he almost jumped out of his skin when Sandy began speaking again.
"I found out through an acquaintance that one of the agents that had helped incriminate my father had faked her death. I'm still unsure on how she did it, but all that matters is that I tracked her down, and brought her here. I'd heard tales of how a rogue agent attempted to kill her just to get at the team, and the extreme effect that it had on the people on it, so I thought I'd play that to my advantage. Agent Todd has been here for a while, so I thought that now was the right time to put my plan into action.
"I disposed of my father's replacement, knowing that NCIS would be the ones to investigate the death and that your team would follow up any links to me that they could find. When you sent your agents to my house, Gibbs, I had some of my employees meet them there to move your new girl," she shot a look in Ziva's direction, "out of the way and retrieve DiNozzo. One thing that I remember from my brief time at NCIS was thinking that Tony and Kate would make a great couple, and hearing that he had a lot of held back romantic feelings for her. Naturally, I played into these feelings, and made them reunite before watching each other suffer at my men's fists- hence some of the bruises you may have noticed. Now this lovely pair have discovered that they share the same for feelings for each other I'm going to put the final stage of my plan into action."
The guy holding Tony took a key from his pocket and unlocked his handcuffs while Kate's guard did the same. Sandy walked over to Tony, a sig sauwer in hand, her mouth still rambling.
"You see Agent Gibbs," she smirked, "my theory is if watching someone else kill Kate sent Tony into turmoil, shooting her himself would cause his heart to shut down, and ultimately destroy him." Tony began to shake, his expression settling into one of pure terror, "and then seeing him shoot himself afterwards would do the same to all of you. Do you agree with my theory?"
Gibbs shrugged, determinedly hiding his inner worry, "DiNozzo's loyal to all his teammates," was all he said by way of agreement.
Sandy grinned, "Exactly!" The henchmen holding Gibbs, Ziva and McGee tightened their grips and drew guns from their belts, pressing them against their temples. She handed the sig she was holding to Tony and adjusted his arm so that it was pointed straight at Kate's chest. "Which is why it's either her, or all of you."
A/N: I'm a couple of days late, I know! I'm going on holiday for a week, so I won't be uploading for a bit. The next chapter of this fic will be identical to the first, so don't expect anything special for my next upload! This fic is really close to being finished, so I can't wait to start thinking of new stuff to upload!
Louise :)
