CHAPTER 20: KILL ARI 3

Gibbs and Ari continued to stare at each other silently. No one was around. Nobody would intervene. Gibbs clutched his pistol tightly in his hand, his knuckles white around the grip.

"Am I supposed to beg you?" Ari asked. "Plead for my life? Pray that you show mercy?" Gibbs didn't respond–he merely continued to scowl. "Tell me, Jethro, do you think that's what Caitlin would have done?"

"I don't care what you do," Gibbs said. He raised his pistol, aiming it directly at Ari's heart. "It doesn't matter. You die either way."

Ari chuckled humorlessly, and his eyes darted back and forth between Gibbs and his pistol. "I'm impressed," he said. "For a moment, I thought you had been leashed by Jack Fosse. It's nice to see you haven't lost your bullheadedness."

Gibbs fired two shots, but Ari dove down as the bullets blasted holes into the living room wall. Ari scrambled across the floor into the kitchen, and he hid out of sight while panting. Gibbs marched towards him, aiming his gun.

"Are you going to kill an unarmed man, Gibbs?" Ari growled.

Gibbs didn't respond. He came around the corner into the kitchen, but Ari wasn't there. Ari closed in from behind, and as Gibbs spun around, his gun was kicked out of his hand. Gibbs swung his fist, but Ari caught it at the wrist and punched Gibbs in the mouth. Gibbs stumbled back, but he kicked at Ari as the latter jumped back.

Fornell came in behind Ari, his assault rifle raised, and he fired a volley of blasts. Ari saw what was happening in time to throw himself down as Gibbs and Fornell closed in. Fornell's shots knocked down several pots and pans that hung on the wall and sent them cascading across the kitchen floor. Ari swung his foot into a frying pan and shot it at Fornell, who was buffeted by the impact as his rifle clattered to the ground.

Ari shot to his feet and exchanged several blows with Gibbs. Gibbs was knocked into a counter while Ari engaged Fornell. Fornell swung his fist, but Ari ducked down before landing several powerful blows into Fornell's chest. Fornell grunted in pain, but his countering punch was parried as Ari grabbed a knife from the knife block on the counter next to him. Ari swung the knife at Fornell, and as Gibbs grabbed his pistol off the ground, Ari grabbed Fornell and pulled him into an armbar.

Gibbs aimed his Colt, and Ari held Fornell in his grasp, knife to his throat, keeping him between Ari himself and Gibbs's aim.

"Let him go," Gibbs ordered.

"No," Ari breathed. "Lower your gun."

"Oh, screw that, Jethro," Fornell grunted. "It's about time I joined Dianne, right? Come on!"

"Lower your gun!" Ari shouted.

"Shoot him!" Fornell screamed.

Gibbs stood frozen, his gun aimed at Ari's head, through Fornell's. Fornell clutched feebly at Ari's arm, but with the knife blade to his neck, he was unable to achieve much. Gibbs analyzed the situation, his eyes darting back and forth across the room for a solution. Ari made sure to not expose any part of his body to Gibbs's vindication. Finally, after all heartbeats in the room seemed to slow, Gibbs lowered his weapon.

"Oh, come on!" Fornell growled as Ari shoved him away.

Ari returned the knife to the block, and he glowered at Gibbs and Fornell, who returned his distaste with equal venom.

"Who knows," Fornell said, "maybe Sergei will pop over, and we can take both of you out."

Ari's eyes narrowed in suspicion and confusion, and he didn't respond as Gibbs and Fornell stalked away.

The two of them returned to the lab under the Fosse house, and Fornell watched Gibbs as he stormed towards his quarters.

"Jehtro," Fornell called.

Jethro stopped abruptly, turning around to face Fornell. "What?" he demanded.

Fornell seemed to hesitate before he said, "It's not the end of the world."

Gibbs stared at him. "It is for Cait."

Fornell shrugged. "Who knows. You might see her again, sooner than you think."

"Yeah?" Gibbs said derisively. "How do you think that's gonna go, Tobias? You think she's going to be ready to pal it up with Ari?"

"Of course not," Fornell answered. "But she might knock some sense into you about the situation."

"What's that mean?" Gibbs said, his temper rising. "You think I should just let him go?"

"You're putting words in my mouth, Jethro. That's not like you," Fornell said with a small grin. "I'm saying slaughtering him in the home of the man who's given you asylum for the last couple of weeks, after he explicitly told you no homicide, might not be the best way to do the job."

"Then what do you suggest?" Gibbs asked.

"Swallow your anger and your pride," Fornell said. "For now. We'll put together a plan that's not going to draw the ire of those around us."

"Yeah, well, you haven't told me why I should give a rat's ass what they think," Gibbs said.

"Ah, yes, excuse me," Fornell said. "All this time in the lab, I forgot how much you don't play well with others. You see, Gibbs, the whole working as a team concept means that you have to make decisions as a group, not just based on what your gut tells you."

Gibbs's eyes narrowed in frustration as he glared at Fornell. Fornell, however, didn't relent. "Jethro, I know you want the man dead. So do I," Fornell said. "But you had your chance and you failed. Drop it for now."

Gibbs didn't respond. He turned and stormed off down the hall towards his quarters as Fornell watched him.

JACK FOSSE:

I stood in an elevator as it ascended upwards through Northwestern Memorial Hospital. The elevator came to a stop, dinged, and opened. I marched out and down the corridor, and I smiled in greeting to several medical staff I passed along the way. I found my way to Sarah's room to find that it was empty aside from her. I thought she was asleep until she looked quickly around. She relaxed, smiling broadly with her eyes half-open.

"Hey, handsome," she said as she reached out her hand. I grasped it tightly and sat down in the chair next to her.

"They fed you yet?" I asked. "I heard they were planning on ribs for you tonight."

"Oh, don't get my hopes up," she moaned. "They're waiting for my tests to come back, but they're afraid I might have some internal bleeding so they're talking about keeping me for another day or two."

"It wouldn't be so bad if they'd just transfer you to Indiana," I said.

Sarah stared at me with an eyebrow raised. "Would you trust a hospital where we live?"

I shrugged. "There's gotta be at least one decent treatment facility near Veedersburg. What's in Indy? I've never looked."

"I don't know, but the doctors here don't seem too comfortable with sending me down there, and I'm willing to trust their judgment."

I chuckled as I observed her. Her color had only recently started returning to normal. Her hands still shook with the slightest physical exertion. The conversations with her staff were only slightly less intensive than when she first woke up after her surgery. `

"So," she said, straightening up to look at me at eye level. "Tell me what's going on with the Anomalies."

"Oh," I said in a slightly high-pitched voice. "You know, we just added another person to the group. He's a challenge."

"What kind of challenge?" Sarah asked, fixing me with a slightly bemused grin.

I took a deep breath, leaning with my elbows on my knees as I looked at her. "It's Ari Haswari. I know you're not familiar with him. He's an antagonist on the show."

"Oh," Sarah said, her grin evaporating. "How bad?"

"Very," I answered. "He killed someone on Gibbs's team. Someone he was really close to."

"Ouch," Sarah said. "That could become a problem. Is he at the house?"

"He is, I told him to stay in the guest room for now," I answered.

"That's probably smart," Sarah agreed. "Is he going to stay with us? Do we feel safe with him there?"

I thought about it. "I'm not sure," I answered. "It's one of those things where he had a reason for the things he did. It doesn't make it right, but I see where it started and why it led to here. I guess…maybe he could still have some good in him."

"Well," Sarah said, "not to be a dick about it, but you know a thing or two about coming back from destruction."

"Yeah," I agreed. "That's kind of what I was thinking too."

"Okay, good," Sarah declared. "So you'll play mediator, keep people from killing each other, and everything will be dandy."

"Yep," I said, trying to suppress an amused grin. "That's exactly how that'll work."

We both laughed, and I then fixed her with a grim look. Sarah appeared quite put off by this, and she said, "What's the problem?"

I shook my head. "I'm just feeling guilty for never checking in on you after Louisville. After you killed Salagath."

Sarah gawked at me. "Baby, that was over a week ago."

"That's my point," I told her.

"Okay," she said, very confused as to what my issue was.

"Look, dude, that's a lot," I told her. "You had to kill someone."

Sarah shrugged. "It was him or us. Not a lot of decision-making there."

I raised an eyebrow at her, and she held her determination for about ten seconds before she caved. "Okay, yeah," she said. "I had some issues with it for a couple of days. Nightmares, anxiety, you know. You were too busy with everything, I knew you didn't have time."

I laughed solemnly. "That's not very husbandly of me."

"Jack, it is okay," Sarah assured me. "Seriously, I'm fine. Sloane helped me with it."

I exhaled deeply, looking guiltily at my hands. "Look," I said to her. "We agreed that we wouldn't let this situation get in the way of us. And I feel like I'm failing."

Sarah caressed my cheek while giving me a deep, affectionate look. "Jack, I love you," she assured me. "We are okay. Go home and get some rest."

I nodded, and I got to my feet. I kissed Sarah on the forehead before walking out of the room.

IN THE EYES OF THE MULTIVERSE:

A portal opened in the lab, and Theas walked out. He looked around, and Sloane and Luca walked forward to meet him.

"What's going on?" Sloane asked.

Theas gave them a grim look. "Get everyone together," he ordered.

Fifteen minutes later, Theas, Sloane, and Luca were grouped together in the meeting room, along with Admiral McGee, Kyle, and Rob. Fornell, and Jackson Gibbs were there as well. Fornell looked around. "Where are Jethro and Ari?"

"I tried to get Gibbs to meet us here," Sloane said, somewhat miserably. "He, uh…he wasn't interested."

Fornell nodded. The door to the meeting room opened, and Jack Fosse walked in, taking a seat next to Luca. "Good, I was hoping I would find you all here," Jack said. "There's always good news when we're in here."

A couple people chuckled, and Theas called the room to order.

"There's no good way to deliver this news," Theas said, "but the Hunters are coming."

This claim made its way around the room with uncomfortable reactions and remarks.

"We knew they would come eventually," Admiral McGee said under his breath.

"Are they coming here?" Jack asked. "Like, to our house?"

"That's unclear," Theas answered. "They've sent another Kill Team to this universe in pursuit of the Macrobreach Anomalies. And since there are so many of them here now, it's hard to imagine they won't make their way here eventually."

"Do you know anything about who they've sent?" Sloane asked.

"I don't," Theas said grimly. "I tried to track them to get some intel, but they're…well, they're more careful than Algaltha's crew. I couldn't find any sign of them. I don't think they've made it to this world yet, but they'll be here before long."

"Then we need to prepare for them," Luca said.

"Preferably somewhere other than here," Jack suggested. "You only just got done with the repairs from Algaltha's attack."

"Yeah," Theas said. "I think the best course of action is to draw them away."

"So, you want to send us somewhere offsite to get them to go there instead?" Kyle said, catching onto Theas's train of thought.

"Exactly," Theas agreed. "If we go somewhere to meet the Hunters, that should be enough to keep them from uncovering our base of operations."

"Where would that be?" Sloane asked.

"Somewhere away from people," Theas answered, pulling up a map of the nearby area.

"Well, that's easy," Jack said. "Veedersburg is surrounded by not much other than farmland.

"Yeah," Theas said, observing the area surrounding the town. "I'm not sure I want to have us all in flatland without knowing where or how the Hunters will come."

"So, what would be your suggestion?" Admiral McGee asked.

"Isn't there a State Park south of here?" Sloane asked Jack.

"Uh, yeah," Jack said matter-of-factly. "Turkey Run. There's a decent chunk of woods out there. And it's not far from here either."

"Good," Theas said. "I think that'll work perfectly. It gives our fighters good vantage points for an ambush, and it allows our noncombatants places to hide."

No one raised any further objections, and Theas ordered them all to prepare to move out.

JACK FOSSE:

The room started moving, but Sloane grabbed Theas's attention. "I don't think there's any point of doing this without Gibbs here," she said.

"I agree," I stated. "Otherwise that just leaves, at best, the three of us to fight a whole team of Hunters."

"You're right," Theas said. "Talk to him. Get him to agree to come with us."

I then hesitated to voice what I was thinking, but after a moment I said, "Look." Everyone stopped what they were doing to listen to me, and I suddenly found myself very self-conscious. "I know nobody here likes it," I said, "and that includes me, but we need as many fighters on our side as possible for this. It might…it might be beneficial to bring Ari with us as well."

"Yeah, you try and get Jethro to agree to that," Fornell said. "I'll take my chances."

"I won't pretend to be comfortable riding in the same vehicle as a terrorist," Admiral McGee said. "There's no telling he won't shoot us all on the way over there. Or side with the Hunters."

"He's an Anomaly too," I reminded the Admiral. "They're not going to take any more kindly to him than us."

"Listen, Jack," Theas said, walking towards me. "You may very well be right. Haswari could be an enormous asset to us. He could also be a massive threat. And you can't blame the others for not wanting to take that risk. So, if you want to do this, I think it's going to be your responsibility to get everyone else to agree to it.

"Yeah, I kind of already figured that out," I told him. "Alright, just give me about a half-hour, and I'll catch up with you."

Theas nodded, and I turned and hurried off. It took me a moment to figure out how I wanted to play this. Which one of the two of them would be the more difficult to convince? I didn't figure either one would be enthusiastic about working with the other, but I needed to play this right so they both came with us. We would need them to take on the Spatial Hunters.

"Hey, Jack."

I turned and found Sloane walking towards me. She had her pistol holstered at her waist, and she had a deeply concerned expression. "Are you going to talk to Jethro?"

"Yeah," I answered. "We need him with us on this."

"Let me ask you something," Sloane said. I turned to face her completely, giving her my fullest attention. "You've watched us," she said. "You've seen Gibbs's life, his darkest moments. You saw what Ari did, how it played out and how it impacted Gibbs for years. Do you think there's any chance that he'll be able to swallow that?"

"I don't know," I told her honestly. "But if any of you want to get back to your own universe, or survive until that point, then we need him in this fight."

"You're right," she told me. "Let me come with you. I'll help talk to him."

I nodded, and we moved down the hallway towards Gibbs's quarters. When we arrived at his door, Sloane knocked.

"It's open," Gibbs grunted from the other side.

Sloane nodded to me, and I pushed the door open. Gibbs, who appeared to have just finished eating lunch, put his plate down to look up at us.

"What?" he asked, his mouth still full of food.

"The Hunters are coming," I informed him. "They're sending another Kill Team our way as we speak. We're moving out to meet them."

"Okay," Gibbs said, a half-smile on his face. He swallowed his food and said, "You bringing that son of a bitch with you?"

"Ideally," I answered honestly.

Gibbs chuckled dryly. "You have a good time."

"Gibbs, we need you," I told him.

"Clearly not if you're choosing to team up with Ari," Gibbs said, his grin beginning to fade. "I'm not working with him. It's not happening."

"Jethro," Sloane said. "You need to put your pride aside."

"It's not about pride," Gibbs said, much more calmly than I might have anticipated. "Do you know what Ari did? What he tried to do to me?"

"Yeah, he snuck into your house to try and kill you," I answered.

"Who's saying he won't try to do it again?" Gibbs asked. "How do you know he's not planning it right now?"

"I think if that were the case, he would have killed Tobias when he had the chance," Sloane said.

"No, because he knew if he did, he'd go right after," Gibbs said. "Of all the things that asshole is, a martyr isn't one of them. He isn't out to get himself killed."

"Then it's to his benefit to work with us," I told him. "Ari's not a dumbass. He knows he can't take everyone in this compound. Especially when he doesn't have any weapons."

"You checked on your 22A lately?" Gibbs asked.

"I did, and I moved it to the lab where he can't get to it," I told him. "Along with my old bow."

Gibbs nodded, seeming satisfied and somewhat impressed by this. "Look, guys," he said. "I've thought about it. Truthfully, I have. Hell, I've even almost considered it. It can't happen. And, to his credit, Ari would probably tell you the same thing."

"Gibbs," I said, sitting down on the bed across from him. "Let me just be honest here and say if you're not with us, we're all going to die. The Hunters are too powerful, and if we're not united, we don't stand a chance. So, let's let this play out, right? The Macrobreach is still happening, people from your universe are still going to pop over. We're all dead, the Hunters have killed us all. What happens when McGee jumps over? Or Ziva? Or Palmer? And we're not there to protect them? You think the Hunters will just let them walk away?"

Gibbs stared at me, considering my statement. Sloane stood off to the side, looking rather uncomfortable at the tense silence between us, but I didn't back down. Finally, after a few seconds, Gibbs scoffed. "You make a good argument," he said softly. I could still see the discontent in his eyes, but he nodded. "Alright," he decided. "Fine, I'll do it. But if Ari tries anything, I will put him down no questions asked."

"Good," I told him. "It's a deal."

Gibbs nodded. "I'll be out front. I'll have Tobias catch me up on the plan."

I nodded, and Sloane stayed behind with him while I stepped out of his quarters. I moved back into the lab and up the stairs to the house. I stepped into the living room to find Ari sitting on the couch, watching television.

"I never understood the fascination with television," Ari said. "So much senseless drivel. It rots intelligence."

"I don't know, but all I can say is that you just called yourself senseless drivel," I told him.

Ari glanced at me, but he didn't respond.

"We have a mission," I told him.

"And somehow this concerns me?" Ari said, not taking his eyes away from the television.

"Actually, it does," I told him. "It directly concerns you."

Ari muted the television and looked lazily up at me. "I'm listening."

"Have you heard anything about the Spatial Hunters?" I asked.

Ari folded his arms, observing me analytically. "I've heard some tidbits. Apparently they're dangerous."

"Deadly," I confirmed. "If you face them by yourself, you'll be killed in seconds."

Ari nodded, and he developed a scathing grin. "And I take it I'm supposed to become a member of the team and help fight them off?"

"If you don't feel like being butchered, yeah, that'd be your best course of action," I responded.

"And what does my dear friend Jethro have to say about that?" Ari asked. "Is he ready to jump up and be a team?"

"Well, he has his complaints," I told him. "But he knows there are bigger things at risk than the two of you."

Ari shrugged. "Everything that I care about has been taken from me."

"You care about yourself," I told him. "You care about your vendetta against the world, and you don't want to die before you finish it. Ari, the Hunters will find you, just as easily as we did, and they'll kill you. You have no idea what kind of power they have. The best way to keep them off of you is by helping us stop them."

Ari surveyed me, his signature bored expression that told me he would rather do anything than listen to me speak one more word. However, I saw in his eyes that he knew there was truth to what I said. Footsteps made us both look around, and we watched as Sloane walked slowly into the room, followed by Gibbs.

Gibbs, his eyes holding nothing but furious contempt, observed Ari as he slowly rose to his feet. Sloane and I both backed away as Gibbs and Ari faced each other, and they both glared silently at each other for almost a minute.

"I don't like this," Gibbs said quietly.

"I don't either," Ari assured him.

"We do this," Gibbs said, "you better believe I won't hesitate to kill you if you try anything."

"I would never doubt it for a moment," Ari said.

Ari walked slowly towards Gibbs, his guard up, hesitating to get within arm's reach.

"Remember, there are things that both of you want," I said cautiously. "Those things get accomplished more easily by working together."

"I will never like you," Gibbs declared. "I will never be friends with you. You are nothing but a terrorist, and not a single thing you do will change that. The only thing I am agreeing to is prolonging your useless existence for one more moment. And I would love any reason to take that back."

Ari scoffed, his grin having returned, and he said, "Then we move forward with an understanding."

Ari held out his hand to Gibbs, who didn't acknowledge it. His eyes were narrowed in clear hatred, and I expected him to execute Ari at any moment. I was just about to step between them and call this off when Gibbs reached out his own hand, and he grasped Ari's. The two shook hands, locked in a tremulous alliance that threatened to break at any moment. If this was supposed to alleviate my nerves towards what was about to happen, it didn't. I was as anxious as ever, but if this increased my chances of protecting the people I cared about, then it was worth it.

"Okay," Gibbs said, returning his hand to his side. "Let's get started."