A shorter chapter than usual, but I think it's the one you've been waiting for ;)

Chapter 8 - First Confrontations

"If that's McGee...then who in the hell just left with Ziva?"

Tony stared at the image of his dead partner on the screen, still not quite able to wrap his mind around what had occurred. What exactly had happened to McGee? Who had taken his place, and why? And more importantly, how long had they been deceived by an imposter?

"How old are these pictures?" He turned to Abby, expecting some sort of answer, but she was still wrapped up in her own freak-out. "Abby!"

She gasped and turned to him, her red-rimmed eyes wide with shock and horror. "W-what?"

"The pictures, Abby, when were they taken?"

She continued to stare at him for several moments before collecting herself and focusing on the images.

"The time and date stamp says...six months ago? That can't be right! Tim can't… He can't have been dead for six months! We would have noticed something…"

"We did," Tony replied, barely able to keep the boiling rage he was experiencing from reaching the surface. "McGee hasn't been the McGee we know for a long time, has he? And it was about six months ago that he started acting 'off'. Damn it!"

"Oh, God!" Abby cried. "It's my fault! I knew something was wrong! I should have told Gibbs, he would have-"

"He should have known. But that doesn't matter, now. We need to find McGee... the imposter. Can you track his cell phone?"

Abby's reply was to start frantically typing. "It's on… Moving… Heading towards the Potomac… An industrial area."

"What about Ziva?"

Abby opened a new window and started typing again, a worried look crossing her face when she obtained the results. "She's with him."

Tony swore and started to run for the elevator. "Call Gibbs. Tell him what we found, and keep us both posted."

She ran after him. "Tony, are you-?"

He slammed the button for the elevator. "I'm going to find the bastard that killed my Probie."

XXX

McGee guided his car to a halt in front of the warehouse that served as a gym and training area for the new Immortal. Once he had placed the car in park and turned off the engine Ziva exited the passenger side and headed for the door of the warehouse to unlock it. It was a routine they had established over the past six months on those occasions when Amanda was not available for training. Ziva had declared that he needed more than just swordsmanship skills in his new reality, and she had been helping him in her own, unique way.

McGee climbed out of the car himself and went to the back to grab their gym bags and his wooden training sword that he used in his sessions with his mortal teacher. She had told him it wasn't necessary, that she was perfectly capable of avoiding harm, but he felt better using it instead of the extremely sharp and unyielding weapon he used in his practices with Amanda.

After shutting the trunk of the car he started towards the warehouse and paused when felt the familiar Buzz that signaled the presence of another Immortal. He surveyed the area, expecting to see that Amanda had returned early, or maybe one of the three Immortal FBI agents-known for occasionally dropping by unannounced to 'spar'- but it remained deserted.

"Ziva? Is Amanda there with you?"

"Not Amanda, no," an unfamiliar, accented male voice replied and McGee felt a trickle of fear slide down his back.

"Who are you? What do you want?"

"Oh, I think you know the answer to that second question," the Immortal answered and he stepped out of the shadows. He was tall, with shaggy dark blond hair, and wearing a black trench coat. McGee barely noticed, as he was more concerned with the fact that the man had his arm tight around Ziva's neck as he dragged her, struggling, along with him. "As for the first, Eli Aguillard, at your service."

"I don't care who you are. Let her go!"

"I will. I just thought you might need a little incentive. Sometimes the new ones are reluctant to join in the Game. You are new, aren't you?"

"I don't want any part of the Game," McGee snapped, ignoring the taunt over his status. "Just let her go and we can both walk away."

The man laughed. "One of us will walk away, that is certain. Do what you were meant to do-fight-and I'll leave her unharmed."

"Please. We don't have to do this."

"I think we do." He tightened his grip on Ziva's neck until she slumped in his arms. He let her fall to the ground, silent and unmoving.

"No! Ziva!"

"Don't worry your pretty little head," the man smirked. "She's just unconscious. Humane of me, really. She won't need to watch me kill you."

Tim quickly backed his way to the car and retrieved his real sword. "You can try."

The Immortal laughed. "That's the spirit! But I'm sure you won't take that much effort." He made a show of checking his watch. "I might even have time to catch a movie afterwards." He advanced towards McGee, his sword at the ready, and Tim raised his own sword. His heart was hammering in his chest as he tried to remember everything he been taught and he circled the other Immortal, waiting to see how the other man would fight. When the first attack came he was prepared and able to parry to blow, but before he could launch an offensive he was defending himself from another strike.

"You're not even trying!" the man mocked and McGee felt a surge of anger. He hadn't wanted to do this in the first place, but he was damned if he was going to let down everyone who had helped him.

McGee began to more faster, putting more force behind each parry and strike. He soon realized that they were more evenly matched than he had expected. He started to force his opponent back towards the warehouse and had advanced a couple of yards when his foot hit a patch of oil and he slipped, painfully landing on one knee. He saw the man smile in triumph and raise his sword to deliver a killing blow as Tim desperately tried to raise his own sword to defend himself.

Suddenly the night was shattered by the sound of gunshots and McGee saw the other Immortal pause, his eyes widening in shock before his sword fell from his hand and he dropped to his knees. He tumbled forward to the ground, landing in a heap just a few feet from Tim. McGee sighed in relief and looked up, expecting to see his Watcher, unrepentant for breaking one of their rules, but it wasn't Ziva who had come to his rescue.

"Tony?"

The senior agent stepped forward, his gun pointed at Tim and his expression far from friendly and he growled a question at the startled man.

"Who are you, and what in the hell did you do with McGee?"

XXX

Tony's finger started to tighten on the trigger as he fought against the adrenaline rush brought on by what he had just witnessed. When he had reached the warehouse where Abby had tracked McGee's phone, he had expected to confront the imposter. He hadn't expected the man to be engaged in an honest-to-God sword fight, and even more surprising was that he had been forced to save the murdering bastard's life.

After felling the opponent, Tony had felt a surge of rage when the imposter called him by name, still trying to play the part of the innocent, befuddled Probie. Tony struggled to keep that anger in check as he studied the man who had taken McGee's place so convincingly and wondered how he had been so thoroughly fooled.

"Tony, what-?"

"Drop your weapon," he snapped as he eyed the heavy blade in the imposter's hand.

"What?"

"Now!"

Wide-eyed, the man slowly lowered the sword to the ground.

"Now back away from it."

The man winced as he carefully rose to his feet with his hands out to the sides and took several steps backward away from the sword.

"On your knees, hands behind your head."

The man complied, his gaze flicking between Tony and the dead body as Tony stepped past it, his attention focused on the imposter.

"Answer my question: what did you do with McGee?"

"Tony, I-"

"Special Agent DiNozzo to you, dirtbag." Tony saw a flash of hurt in the man's eyes and glared at him in return. "Where is McGee?"

"I'm McGee. Why would you think-?"

"Because I have some really compelling evidence that McGee, the real McGee, is dead."

"You...what?"

"McGee… Tony… What are you doing?"

Surprised by the look of utter relief that crossed the imposter's face, Tony glanced towards the source of the voice he had just heard and saw Ziva stumble out of the shadows near the warehouse, looking quite disoriented.

"Ziva! Are you OK?" the imposter blurted out and immediately shut up when he caught Tony's furious glare.

"I am fine. I cannot believe…" She noticed the body on the ground. "What happened?"

"Tony shot him."

"But… That is against the rules."

"Hey! Someone want to tell me what in the hell is going on?" Tony barked.

"I am wondering that as well."

"Tony…" The imposter glanced at the senior agent and winced. "Uh, Agent DiNozzo thinks that… I'm not McGee."

A puzzled expression appeared on her face. "Why would he think that?"

Tony surged forward and kicked the imposter in the chest, knocking him to the ground.

"OW! What-?"

"Don't try to play me, you son of a bitch! You killed him! You shot my partner in the chest and then you took pictures of his dead body and kept his bloody shirt as a souvenier. I found all of it in your… in McGee's apartment. Why? Why did you kill him?"

Ziva turned to the imposter, clearly surprised and annoyed. "You kept that? I told you to get rid of it. The pictures, too."

For a moment Tony felt as if he had been doused in ice water.

"You knew? You...you're in on this?"

"Tony, I do not know what you believe happened...or what was happening here, but we can explain."

"Oh, I sure as hell hope so! And you better not tell me it was extreme LARPing!"

A vaguely amused look crossed the imposter's face. "You know about LARPing?"

Tony pointed the gun at the man and the expression vanished.

"Yes, Tony, we can explain, if you would just put the gun down."

"Forget it. I want an explanation, and I want it right now." He barely noticed the look of fear that suddenly arose on the man's face, which soon morphed into panic.

"Uh, guys, we really need to get out of here-"

"You're not going anywhere until you tell me-"

"Tony, look out!"

Instinctively Tony ducked and turned, nearly dropping his gun in surprise as the man he had shot rose from the ground and charged towards him, sword raised and murder in his eyes. Tony stumbled backwards, lost his footing and fell. He looked up to see the sword swinging towards his head and let out a cry of alarm when its downward momentum was blocked as it met a second sword with a clash of metal. Ears ringing, he looked up at the owner of the second sword.

"Leave him alone," the imposter growled at the other man.

"He shot me," the man replied as he stepped back, separating his sword from the other.

"You'll get over it."

With surprising swiftness the man attacked, sending the imposter reeling backwards. He quickly recovered and the fight began in earnest as Tony scrambled to get out of the way, training his gun on the two men after he had reached a safer distance.

The men exchanged several blows, sparks flying from their blades as the clash of metal against metal rang in Tony's ears. For a few moments, it looked like the imposter might be on the losing side but suddenly the other man overbalanced and the imposter swung before the man could recover...or duck.

Tony watched in horror as the imposter's blade sliced through the other man's neck, separating his head from his body and sending the head tumbling into the river. The imposter froze, seemingly shocked by what he had done, then slowly turned, sword in hand, towards Tony. On reflex Tony's finger tightened on the trigger and he fired, catching the imposter in the chest.

A look of surprise, and then pain crossed the imposter's face as Ziva let out a cry of denial and rushed towards the two men. Dropping his sword, the imposter fell to his knees and then forward onto his hands. He raised his head to look at Tony and for the first time what Tony saw in those green eyes looked nothing like his partner. The imposter stared at Tony for a couple of heartbeats before he uttered a single word.

"Run."

Tony felt someone grab his arm and he turned to see Ziva, her eyes wide with fear.

"We must go! Now!" She turned and ran, dragging him with her and giving him little choice but to follow. They had almost reached the warehouse when he turned to look back and froze, unable to comprehend what he was seeing.

The imposter was still on his hands and knees, head hanging down, and an eerie, glowing mist had started to surround the body lying a few feet away. The mist was expanding and soon surrounded the imposter. Suddenly, a flash of lightning emanated from the body and struck the imposter, drawing an agonized scream from his throat. Several more bolts of lightning surged from the body, striking the imposter and inducing more screams which raised the hairs on the back to Tony's neck as he watched, mesmerized...until a bolt of lightning struck the streetlight over his head, sending a shower of sparks down over him. He immediately ran for the safety of the warehouse where Ziva was already crouched, watching the spectacle with wide, frightened eyes. He fell to the ground next to her, his gaze locked on the strange scene in front of them.

More lights were taken out by the lightning that arced across the space between the river and the warehouse as more bolts struck the imposter, jerking his body with each stroke as if he was being controlled by some sadistic puppeteer. Finally the lightning seemed to dissipate and their target collapsed in a heap, silent and unmoving.

"What in the hell was that?" Tony breathed, not sure if he even wanted an answer. Ziva said nothing, so he staggered to his feet and carefully approached the silent form of the man who so resembled his probie. When he reached the man he knelt down and checked for a pulse-not finding one-and sat back on his heels with a soft groan. He wanted, no, he needed answers as to why sanity seemed to have suddenly taken a vacation and he turned back to confront Ziva. He was surprised to discover that she was no longer hiding in the shadow of the warehouse but had started to drag the other, headless body towards the river.

"What are you doing?"

"My job," she grunted as she gave the corpse another tug, bringing it another couple of feet closer to the water's edge.

"Your job? Your job is to preserve a crime scene, not to-"

"My other job, which entails making sure no one… No one else knows what happened here tonight." She dragged the body the last few feet to the river and unceremoniously rolled it in. The resulting splash pulled Tony back to reality.

"Damn it, Ziva, that guy had to be wearing a vest, and the bullets from my gun are embedded in it!"

"He was not wearing a vest. You do not need to worry about that."

Feeling as though his world were tilting on its axis, he could only stare at her for several moments before turning towards the body of the imposter.

"What about him?"

Ziva sighed. "We will just need to wait for him to wake up. I hope he is quick about it."

"'Wake up'? He's dead, Ziva!"

"As was the man I just rolled into the river, after you shot him. He woke up, did he not? McGee will wake up as well, in time."

Before Tony could respond to that statement he heard a gasping moan and turned to see the imposter roll over and sit up, a pained expression on his face.

"See?" Ziva walked over to the previously dead man and helped him to his feet. "Are you alright, McGee?"

He shook his head and stumbled over to a stack of pallets where he sat down, resting his elbows on his knees and his head on his hands.

"How…?"

The man raised his head and looked at Tony, who had unconsciously raised his gun and pointed it at the imposter.

"Please don't shoot me again."

For one of the few times in his life, Tony was completely speechless. He stared at the man, the first tendrils of an idea working through his brain that this might just be…

"McGee?"

He nodded, a sad, shameful expression on his face.

Tony shook his head. "No, you can't be… Prove it. Tell me… Tell me something only McGee would know. Tell me…" He struggled to think of something. "Tell me what happened the first time I shot at someone."

The man glanced at Ziva, then at Tony. "You told me if I ever told anyone else about it you'd slap me silly."

Tony's jaw dropped. There was no way…

"McGee?"

"That is what we have been trying to tell you," Ziva exclaimed, but Tony's attention was fixed on the other man.

"What in the hell are you?"

McGee dropped his gaze as Ziva angrily answered for him.

"He is your partner, Tony. That has not changed."

"My partner? No, my partner is...was a mild-mannered computer geek, not Conan the Barbarian who goes around chopping people's heads off! My partner doesn't get shot and come back to life!"

"Actually, he does. That is what started this whole thing."

"What 'thing'?" He glanced back and forth between his two silent companions. "OK, right now. You two have some 'splaining to do!"

Before either could answer the rumble of an engine reached their ears and they all turned to see an old, full-sized pickup truck approaching. The truck stopped a few yards away and Gibbs stepped out of the cab. He silently surveyed the group before walking over to where McGee was sitting. To Tony's surprise, Gibbs put a hand on McGee's shoulder and spoke to him in a low voice, too soft for Tony to hear. McGee shook his head in response and Gibbs spoke to him again, this time receiving a weak nod in reply. Gibbs patted his shoulder briefly before turning to Tony.

"McGee will ride with me. The two of you can meet us back at the Yard." Without a word McGee removed his keys from his pocket and tossed them to Ziva as Tony sputtered in indignation.

"Boss, what's going on? How do you-?"

"We're going to get company soon, DiNozzo. The local LEOs have been called. Do you really want to wait around and explain this to them?"

"I want someone to explain it to me!"

"At the Yard. There are some other people who need to hear this. Got it?"

Tony started to protest but one look from the lead agent derailed his argument. "Yes, Boss."

"McGee." The younger man raised his head to look at Gibbs. "You better grab another shirt." McGee nodded and rose to retrieve his bag before he pulled a plain dark green t-shirt from its interior. He carried the bag to his car and tossed it in the back seat then removed his bloodstained shirt, momentarily revealing his unblemished chest, and pulled the t-shirt over his head. He carried the shirt with him to Gibbs' truck and silently climbed in the passenger seat.

"Boss, what about-?"

"The Yard, DiNozzo. Try to keep up." Ziva had already climbed into the driver's seat of the Porsche and Gibbs was almost to his truck before Tony had collected himself enough to dash to his own car. He gunned the engine and followed the other two vehicles out of the industrial park and back towards the highway, sincerely hoping that either he was going to get some real answers… Or that he would wake up from this extremely bizarre nightmare.

TBC…

A/N - Next up: Reluctant Confessions

LARPing = Live Action Role Playing