Rewrite

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Happy Friday my wonderful readers! We've got an interesting update in this chapter. For the next couple seasons there are certain plot points I'm messing with and for this season in particular I'll be messing with the timelines. And for this chapters I'm messing with the time line like immediately. So, at the current moment the first scene is from episode 8 but we're still in "Summer" which is the down time between the seasons. We're skipping forward because I'm changing some things. You should be able to tell by the end of this chapter what I'm switching up. Anyone got any theories about what's going on with Rowan and the dead body? We find out what's going on with that too! Don't forget to leave me a review and I'll see you guys on Monday.

Chapter 209

In the week after finding out about Rowan, everyone dealt with her death in different ways. Chin spent a lot of time on his motorcycle, Kono spent a lot of time surfing while Grover spent all of his time at home. Danny spent a lot of his time trying to help Steven who was floundering at the loss, and had taken time off work to deal with it. And by deal with it, they meant crying and drinking. The man was a fucking mess.

Adam on the other hand was so fraught with guilt that he actually climbed back into the Yakuza world to get more info on the matter.

He learned a lot.

Like Gabriel was credited for coming up with the plan to grab Rowan, having executed it from a hospital room. Like Gabriel had escaped custody at the hospital, despite his injuries, days after Rowan was taken and had been missing ever since. Like Wo Fat took down Riku Sato who had been Gabriel's partner and had been the one to hold and torture Rowan in Japan. Like Wo Fat had gone dark after hitting that building Rowan was in and pulling her out. Like Wo Fat had taken down her app and it had not come online since. Like there were conflicting rumours about Rowan's status of life, which made no sense because they had a DNA proven body in the morgue, that Max would have finish autopsying by now if they hadn't had a bunch of burnt corpses to deal with from the last case with Duclair.

On top of that, he learned that though his money was gone, locked into an account that only Rowan and Wo Fat could access together, Shioma, who had been expecting payment long before now, had not been bugging him for it. Which had been surprising. Shioma had been contacted after all of this went down to explain what happened, and he had given Adam a certain amount of time to figure his shit out. Then Wo Fat his Riku Sato and Shioma went quiet… all the way up until his men grabbed him, shoved him in a car, and gave him no choice but to go wherever they were taking him.

He was taken to a small sushi and dim sum restaurant in China Town, forced out of the car, through the restaurant and into the back a private tea room where, clearly, the meeting would take place.

There Adam was forced to sit down in front of Goro Shioma, who he now knew was the new Oyabun. The man had replaced Riku Sato the second he was proclaimed dead and maybe even before. He stared at Adam impassively as he took his seat, and his two men stood behind him. In front of him was a plate of sushi untouched, as if Goro had been waiting for Adam to start. Adam figured that, Goro's friendship with his late father was the only reason he was still alive, and he knew he couldn't mess this up for himself and Kono.

Out of respect Adam spoke to him in Japanese, their native tongue.

"If this is about the money, Shioma, I'm not sure how you want me to get it," he said. "When I gave Rowan that money, it was to keep it safe until it could be transferred to you. With Rowan… dead… and Wo Fat in the wind… I'm not sure how to…"

Goro raised a hand to silence him. "That is not why I brought you here," he said softly. "You're in luck, Adam, your debt has been paid."

Adam blinked his eyes. "Uh… by who"

The door opened again and Adam turned. He watched as Gabriel, who was moving slowly probably due to the beat down he got from NA less than a week ago, took a chair and brought it to him, so he was sitting beside Adam.

Gabriel Waincroft sat there beside him, smiling warmly at him despite looking hellish with all his purpling bruises and cuts on his face. Adam was officially worried for his health.

"Hello, Adam," he said patronizingly. Adam could only glare, he was shaking he was so fucking angry. This was the man who directly responsible for Rowan's death. How dare he just sit there and smile like he hadn't taken Rowan, tortured her and killed her.

"Five-0's looking for you," Adam warned him. "You think they were bad now? Rowan's dead because of you, if they find out you're on this island they'll come for you hard. That's if Wo Fat hasn't already sent someone after you."

Gabriel just laughed at him. "Once I get Shioma that money, I'll be untouchable, even to the great Wo Fat. And to do that we need the kid. Everything that was Rowan's went to him, so you're going to…"

Wait, did he say he had to get Shioma that money? But Shioma had said that it was already paid. And Gabriel thought that Steve would let Gabriel even touch Nahele? The man just lost Rowan, like he was going to take loosing Nahele well. The man would probably go full Rambo.

The door opened again and someone new walked into the room. Immediately Gabriel went silent and ramrod straight.

Adam recognized the man who had walked into the room simply because it looked like he hadn't changed since either of them had last seen him. Same worn black jeans, same white tee-shirt, same black leather jacket, the only difference was the mask. The mask was the same rabbit as before but it was no longer blood flecked but a pristine white plastic. The same bunny mask that had saved him and Kono from Gabriel just under a week ago, the man who had saved them for Rowan. A man Rowan had called Nameless Assassin or, NA. Gabriel went a stock white when he saw him and jumped to his feet only to have Shioma's men shove him back down in his chair.

Goro stood to greet him, which made this a very big deal. He moved forward to shake NA's hand and instead had a brief case thrust into it. Once Goro had accepted it, NA slammed a second briefcase into Adam's lap. He grunted at the contact even though he tried to hide it.

Goro stared at it confusion clear on his face and then turned that confused look up to NA. Adam could feel the frustration through the mask. "That is your amount. This is his."

"That wasn't the deal."

"Do you want to call him and argue? He put you in power, Shioma, he can take you out it."

Goro shook his head, no… he wasn't going to argue with that clearly. "What the hell is happening?" Gabriel growled, trying to shrug the grasp off but failing.

"Unfortunately, while your plan had devious promise, I did not invite you here to help me convince Adam to help kidnap the Pierce boy," Goro said to him. "You see, after the regrettable incident that led to Sato's death, I was given an option. I could have the power, I could have the title but I had to give Wo Fat something in return… and Wo Fat… well… he wanted you. He wanted you bad, and I needed that man to back me. He was ready to raze us, the whole organization simply for our involvement in what happened. I bargained him down to a cash settlement and… you…"

Gabriel paled. NA was behind him now. He grabbed his shoulders and whispered in his ear: "You should have fucking run…"

"No," Gabriel shouted. He managed to throw the bodyguard's hands off of his shoulder, he turned, hand going for his gun. Adam flinched, Goro's men moved to shield Goro, but NA punched him. He had slipped brass knuckles on when no one had been looking but Adam saw the glint as he swung. The hit shattered Gabriel's jaw, Adam heard the crack of the bone.

NA swept the chair aside, got on top of Gabriel and then wailed on him. He hit him over and over, the crack of the bones getting louder and more frequent. Adam just watched it all in horror.

When NA felt he had done enough he stood up, wiped the blood from his hands onto his leather jacket and said: "I want him in a room, I want him held down and I'm going to need pliers, a towel, water, jumper cables and a car battery."

This was over Rowan. Kono had told him what she had endured had shown him a three minute video that he could barely stomach and gave him nightmares. This man was going to make Gabriel live through what Rowan had. A poetic revenge.

"Did… did Wo Fat do this for me?" Adam asked, because the two of them had never been on the same page, they barely spoke or interacted. It seemed out of character for him.

"No… his girl…"

NA whirled around and slammed his fist down on the table stopping Goro from finishing his sentence and sending the untouched sushi flying. They shared a bit of a show off, communicating with just their eyes before NA turned back to him. "It was her dying wish to free you from the shackles of your family's legacy," he finished for Shioma but the look on the older man's face made it clear that was a lie. "From now on, you're free. They won't touch you… they won't even look at you the wrong way… will you?"

Goro stared up at that white rabbit mask that had turned back to him with abject fear on his face. "No… of course we won't."

Adam felt like he could feel the dangerous glittering grin under the mask, so he stayed quiet and watched as NA and a few of Shioma's men hauled Gabriel up and dragged him away. Adam sat there, a briefcase of money in his hands.

"It was a pleasure doing business with you," NA said, his tone slimy and cool. Sending shivers down both men's spines. But as soon as he was gone Adam turned to Shioma.

"How about you tell me what the hell is going on and I won't tell Steven McGarrett of Five-0 you're connected to Rowan's death."

He still knew how these people operated, he knew that there was no way Shioma wanted to stare down a grieving Steven McGarrett. And if his hunch was right, he wouldn't be able to wait to tell Kono and McGarrett that Rowan was still alive.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Max had called him in the middle of the night. Said he had news about Rowan's body. Steve had called Danny. After being emotionally shattered for the last week or so he needed Danny there as comfort, because he knew he wouldn't be able to handle a long winded description and blow by blow of Rowan's injuries and whatever else she had suffered at the hands of those people.

Steve wasn't even close to over what happened in Japan. He was furious. Furious with himself for letting her get taken, for not noticing that there was something odd about her being just gone and leaving Nahele behind. Furious with Rowan for not getting a hold of him sooner. Furious with Wo Fat for stealing that money from Gabriel Waincroft and then putting it in Rowan's name. Furious for with Rowan for taking Adam's money and putting it in Wo Fat's name so no one could get it back. Furious with himself because this was killing him and he didn't know how to save himself from this kind of loss. Furious for being the reason she had left that night. Furious for not telling her the truth of his feelings. Furious for making her relationship with Wo Fat his hill to die on… or in his case the hill for her to die on.

They made it to the M.E.'s office in record time. Danny had asked what Max had found, what was so important that at two in the morning they had been called down. Because Steve hadn't known and been too afraid to ask.

Max was waiting for them around the mostly preserved body of Rowan, they hadn't had a chance to bury her yet but he was hoping to put that off as long as possible. The thought of having to put her back in the ground made all of this too real to him. He couldn't handle any more degrees of realness.

"I have completed an extensive autopsy on the victim," Max started. Steve straightened. Max had said victim, not Rowan. "I have compared the video to the injuries on the body and have come up with some anomalies."

"Anomalies?" Danny asked.

Max pressed a button and instead of Rowan's smiling face they were looking at stills of the video. First of when they were water boarding her. Then images of blows that had landed and even more as they electrocuted her with cattle prods. Just seeing them sent his blood boiling, had his stomach roiling and the guilt crashing through him.

"The chaffing on her wrists are not as extensive as seen in the videos, they are also made by different bindings. These were done by ropes, in the video you can see they have leather straps holding Rowan down. There is no water in her lungs or stomach and there would have been seeing how fiercely they were waterboarding her, and she had no broken bones and the contact burns on this body are not as extensive as they should be judging by what they were doing in the video. I can also conclude that these burns were made by a jumper cables and not cattle prods," Max listed.

Steve turned to him. "What does that mean?"

"Combined with this knowledge I ran another DNA test and found that this body belongs to a Melissa Court, a high end call girl that worked in Osaka and was reported missing a week ago, around the same time you found Rowan's body," he said.

A picture of the real victim popped up on the screen of a girl who looked an awful lot like Rowan, right down to the hair, but Steve couldn't focus on that. His heart was welling up with joy, with hope he couldn't bear to lose.

"This isn't Rowan?" Steve asked pointing at the body.

Max donned one of his rare smiles. "It is with great pleasure that I assure you that this is most certainly not Rowan Pierce. The tattoos, while good copies are henna and can be removed. The red and blonde fade has recently been applied to her hair. So while I see at a cursory glance you might have confused the bodies, I'm at a loss as to how a trained M.E. could have botched a DNA test."

Steve let out a loud whoop of joy. "I knew it! I knew!" he cried, but that joy faded when he realized just what Wo Fat had done. "That bastard, I'm going to kill him. I'm going to find him, put a bullet in him and then take Rowan home. If he thinks I'm going to sit by and take this then he has another thing coming. Renew that No-fly ban, put BOLOs out everywhere. She's badly injured he can't have gotten her out of Japan yet."

"There's one more thing," Max called and pulled out an evidence bag. "I found this in the skull cavity, camouflaged well. I believe it's still transmitting."

Steve looked down at the small black camera no bigger than a dime. Easily missed if one was not looking for it. He realized then that Wo Fat had planted that to make sure that his lies were bought, to see Steve's reaction. Anger rolled through him in every growing crashing waves. Wo Fat had not won this.

He lifted the camera to his face and glared down at it. "Listen here you sick bastard," he growled. "I know she's alive and I'm going to find her. I don't care if I have to spend the rest of my life hunting you down. You're not keeping her from me."

He then threw the camera down and stalked away. "Where the hell are you going?" Danny called after him.

Steve had already made up his mind. "Back to Japan."

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Danny was trying to talk him out of going alone when Adam and Kono showed up with Chin. They all took in Steve's determined face and decided not to ask any questions.

"Adam has something to tell you," Kono said, her eyes imploring him to talk.

Adam stepped up and cleared his throat. "Uh… so, today, I got pulled in by the new Oyabun for the Yakuza, and was told my debt had been paid," he said staring at Steve like that news was gonna shake him or something.

"Okay? And?"

"Well… it wasn't just the Oyabun who was there, Gabriel was there and so was… Nameless Assassin…"

Steve perked up immediately. "Nameless Assassin is still in Hawaii? Why?"

"He uh… okay, this is complicated, but essentially he's here for Gabriel."

Steve stared at him. Gabriel Waincroft, the man who started it all?

"Explain."

"I had to threaten them for the info, they really didn't want to give it up, but essentially, Wo Fat brokered a deal between himself and Goro Shioma. The deal was for my debt to be paid off, for the Yakuza to get off our back, and for Gabriel Waincroft. In return, Wo Fat didn't take down the Yakuza himself for what was done to Rowan, and Goro got Wo Fat's backing for Oyabun."

"Why did Wo Fat want Gabriel?"

"He was working with Sato, his men were the ones who grabbed Rowan and tortured her. According to Adam, NA said he was going to do everything they did to Rowan, to Gabriel. We sent HPD to him, NA got away but Gabriel's in the hospital… again. We don't think he's going to bounce back so quickly from this one. But that's not what's important right now," Kono said "You should ask why Wo Fat returned the money and paid off Adam's debt."

"Alright why…"

"Because Rowan told him to," Adam finished. "Steve… we think she's still alive."

"I know."

At this Kono, Adam and Chin collectively frowned and exchanged glances. "Wait… you know?"

"Yeah, heard from Max a few hours ago that the body we have in the morgue is not Rowan. We immediately jumped to the conclusion that she was alive and this was all some crazy diversion. Steve is going back to Japan… alone."

"I've already told you, the Governor won't approve ALL of us going, so it has to be just me. Besides, I will not be alone, Joe White is going to meet me there…"

"The man faked her death, very convincingly. We know he took down Sato and his whole family over this, and now he's gone for and successful grabbed Gabriel. He's clearly playing for keeps, he's not just going to give her back to you. You don't think he won't hesitate to kill you if he thinks you're getting too close?"

"I'm not leaving her with him, do you understand? We're not doing this, he doesn't get to take her from me, not again. I lived through this, Danny, remember when she was his hostage? That was shit for everyone, I was completely disaster. And you think I don't know how bad I've been this time? I've been… I've… I know I've… I've been bad. I couldn't handle her death and now that I know she's alive I need to see her, I need to feel her or this feeling isn't going away. Now can you please, PLEASE, watch Nahele for me while I'm gone? Okay? She's going to want to see him when we get back."

"Who's watching me?"

Steve looked up and Nahele stood there on the stairs staring at him bleary eyed in his pyjamas. He noted everyone around, noted Steve's packed bag and he was suddenly wide awake.

"Where are you going?"

Steve smiled, he had been switching between livid and giddy since he found out that Rowan was still alive. "I'm going to Japan, I'm going to get your mom back."

Nahele blinked his narrowed eyes at him. He took a few hesitant steps down. "Mom… Rowan… who's dead?"

"Turns out it's a look-alike's body in the morgue. We're operating on the theory that she's alive and he's lied to go on the run with her and the body was a distraction. So uh… yeah. Steve's going back to get her, you're going to stay with me until he comes back."

"Wait… so she's like… really alive?" Nahele asked finally getting off the stairs and going to Steve's side.

"Well… that's what I think so far…" Steve said.

"And if she is you're going to bring her back?"

"That's the plan."

Nahele's lips twitched back and forth. Steve could tell that he was trying very hard not to get too excited.

"How long are you going to be gone?"

"Not very long, I promise, upside of week maybe. Actually it depends on how well he's hiding her," he said absent. "And I'll check in with you before and after school every day, okay?" when Nahele nodded Steve added: "As soon as I get her back here, we'll go back to being a family again, okay? I promise, I'll be better."

Nahele nodded eagerly and let Steve pull him in for a hug. Steve ignored the covert looks that his friends were exchanging. They hadn't known about that, hadn't know that, to him, Nahele and Rowan were a family, his family, but they knew now. He ignored the pity shining in their eyes all that mattered now was bringing Rowan back.