Rewrite

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Happy Monday my wonderful readers! So what we have here, is another version of this episode and how it could have gone if Rowan and Steve had gone together. So since we're going to be restarting this episode about half way there are going to be some similarities to the last chapter. But I promise, this is going to be one wild ride. As always don't forget to review and I'll see you guys on Wednesday.

Chapter 345

"This is a sandwich fit for an Ali'I."

"Yeah, this veggie melt's out of control."

"Best steak sandwich I've ever eaten but if Beth asks you, I ate a salad."

Steve sat there the world around him hazy and white. Sounds were coming through but he hadn't managed to get a clear his vision. He was dizzy, his stomach was protesting the conversation swirling around him sounded off and stilted, but the panic was still alive in his chest, he knew that he had to get a hold of himself as soon as possible because Rowan was on her way, and he had to do something to save his wife and his son from the destiny they were tied to.

"Hey you okay?" Chin asked him tossing a chip at him to get his attention.

Steve nodded. His head was getting clearer now, he knew where he was. That he had gone back to a time where he could fix his mistake. And he had been dropped right back to where it had started. The very beginning at that poker table.

Which meant that Rowan would be calling right….

The phone went off in his hand and he stood up. "Hey," he said, going around the table and heading for the stairs. Rowan got half his name out in this frantic tone. He reminded himself that he wasn't supposed to know what was going on, so he just asked: "What's wrong, what's happening?"

"It's Nahele, these guys showed up at the banquet hall and took everyone hostage!"

"Okay, okay baby, where are you?" he asked. He got into his room. He went into the closet to find the energizing ray.

He could already hear the car in the driveway, but she said: "I'm home."

"Right I'm coming down, let me brief the others and then me and you will go. Do you want to call your brothers, see if they'll come with you?"

Rowan paused. "Really?" she asked softly. It was surprise, complete and utter shock. He had never been this supportive of her before and she hadn't been expecting it. She was expecting a fight, and that made Steve sad, and happy at the same time. Because now, for one last time, he could show her how great they could work together.

"Uh… yeah, I'll call em… uh… thanks…"

Steve hung up the phone and then went to the table. "Someone took the Formal hostage," he said and immediately Chin and Grover were standing. "You guys get HPD please, I'm going to be heading in hot with Ro and probably her brothers…"

"Is that a good idea?" Grover asked.

It wasn't and normally he'd say so, but he had just lived the alternative and he wasn't letting it go down like that.

"They've got, Danny, they've got Grace, and they've got my kid," Steve said. "I think who ever thought taking that dance hostage, didn't realize that wouldn't be a good idea."

He then left them there to get everything else settled.

He met his wife outside as she was hanging up the phone. He handed her the energizing ray. "I figured you'd need this," he said and she took it from him.

"You get yourself set, pull your brothers and then we'll go, okay?" he said and she nodded.

He pulled her close and kissed her, holding her closely to himself because, if he was doing this, this would be the last time he got to hold her, or kiss her, or be with her.

"Don't you worry babe, we'll get him out of there," he said to her. She nodded before moving towards the garage where they had less electronics so she could charge herself.

He should have gone into the house to get himself ready, get the Kevlar out of his truck, get his gun and badge out of his room and change into clothes that were easier to move in and his boots. But he paused to watch her, worry coming over him. She'd be alone, after this, and he really didn't want to leave her alone. But he knew he wouldn't be leaving her and their kid alone. She'd have her brothers, and his friends, and unlike him, she wouldn't fall to pieces when he died. She'd be strong, stronger than he ever was.

When she turned back to him there wasn't a single shred of worry on his face. He drew up a mask, one that would have to stay on, because if Rowan even sensed the briefest hint that something was wrong, she'd try to fix it. And she couldn't. Fate had practically said so.

It had to be this way, and to die for the woman he loved, and the kid that should have legally been his by now, well, there was no nobler cause then that.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Danny was pinned.

He had a guy coming at him with a semi automatic gun with more bullets in it than Danny had in his. Specifically, because Danny didn't have any fucking ammo left.

He was stuck behind a stack of wooden boxes, waiting for this person with the gun reach him. The plan was to hit him with Danny's useless empty gun, catch him off guard, get the upper hand and the gun, and then kill the asshole.

But there was a crackle, a pop, a sort of slicing sound followed by a gurgle and then a body dropped to the ground.

Danny poked his head out from behind the boxes and caught a glimpse of a man in a white rabbit mask standing over a body that was rapidly loosing blood.

Dear god he had never been so happy to see that psychopath before.

He had planned to lower the gun he was going to use as a bat and then approach Sin Nombre carefully and with great caution but…

"You okay?"

"GEEZUS!" Danny yelped actually jumping into the wooden boxes he had been hiding behind. Where the actual fuck had Steve come from?

But the portal he had walked through was still in the process of closing so that told him all he needed to know about that.

"You scared the crap out of me," Danny told him but Steve just smiled.

"What? Nothing, nothing? No hug?" he asked. "Just went through the void and I'm all dizzy and shit and I can't even get a hug."

"I'm so happy to see you right now, I'll give you a hug, I'll give you a kiss, pick a base!"

Steve's smile was, for some reason a sad one, but he still said: "Give me the hug."

As the two hugged. Sin Nombre approached them. "I'd prefer the kiss if we're being honest, but we're not out of this situation yet so let's save it for later."

Both Steve and Danny turned to him with surprised looks on their faces. He'd prefer a kiss? Yeah, if Steve got a chance he'd have to ask Rowan what Sin Nombre's sexual preference was, cause… maybe he was gay and they just didn't know. That would definitely assuage some of Steve's worried that the Sin Nombre and Rowan had slept together.

It then meant that if she spelt with someone between Venice and Berlin like he was certain she had, she had slept with Wo Fat and he was sure how he felt about that. Not that he had much time to really worry about that.

Sin Nombre's unfeeling brown eyes were on them now though, glaring out at them from behind the mask. "Where did Ro go? She not with you?"

"She's upstairs with Wo," Steve whispered and the two men turned to him.

"How do you know that? She tell you that before you came through."

She did not, Steve just knew. Rowan and her strings were waving wild in the void, her panic, Wo Fat had said when he too was pulled into the void with him and Rowan. She was fraying, he could tell, because he could see bits of her coming undone and turning into strings.

And he could see that short black string amidst the red strings that usually surrounded her. Her death string, short and stubby compared to what it was supposed to be.

She could still die, and he had to make sure that didn't happen.

"Yeah," he said instead, because he knew that no one else knew what he had done. They didn't know that he wasn't the right Steve, that he was a Steve from the future come to fix the mistakes of the past so his future would never come to be.

No Steve, in any version of the strings, should have to live without his Rowan… or his Nahele.

"We got Will coming," Steve said, stepping past the two men, heading towards the door. Rowan hadn't told him that either, he just knew.

Like when he accepted his fate, the strings just started talking to him. He wondered if Rowan felt like this all the time, because, if so, no wonder she got drunk on power. He sure as hell felt all knowing.

Like a god.

Will rounded the corner and then stumbled to a stop. "Mr. McGarrett."

"Steve, come on now, you know you can call me Steve," he said as he brushed past the kid. "Stick with the rabbit, he'll keep you safe."

"Hold on a second, no I won't!" Sin Nombre snapped. "I did not come here to babysit! And I don't take orders from you!"

And that wasn't true. Steve knew that both Wo Fat and Sin Nombre owed him favours, that if he invoked those favours Sin Nombre would, in fact, have to take orders from him. But he didn't want to argue with his brother-in-law right now. Steve was eager to get back to Rowan, he hadn't like that she had been left with just Wo Fat as her protector. Especially since this version of Wo had no idea of the deal Steve had made. Or close Rowan and Nahele were close to dying.

As they made quick time up to the first floor where all the action was, and where Rowan and Wo Fat were onto a more important phase of the plan.

Sandy had confirmed that the hostage takers had Nahele, and had him somewhere safe. So they started by ensuring that the bombs she saw being put on the front doors were gone. Wo Fat had started first by trying to disarm it, when that was taking too long, Rowan dropped the bomb into the ocean somewhere.

Then they went into the ballroom.

The second Nahele saw her walking in with Wo Fat he visibly relaxed.

As Sandy had said, they had Nahele away from the rest of the hostages, over by the snack table, and he had Grace with him.

The leader moved towards Wo Fat immediately. "What are you doing here?" he asked. "I thought… I thought you were in Japan."

"I was, but you have something that belongs to me," Wo told him. "So I came as quickly as I could."

"But… how did…"

The man was clearly very confused, which was fair because Japan was an 8-hour flight or more from Hawaii so there was no way he could have made It there in that short amount of time. But this guy didn't know about the void.

She tugged and in a muted pop, Conejo appeared, over by the instruments, behind one of the men. He moved instantly, gabbing the guy from behind, covering his mouth and slitting his throat. Rowan dropped them both into the void before anyone could notice.

Behind her she felt Steve appear but she felt no resistance from the void when he showed up. Like for the first time he was willing to work with whatever it was she was doing.

She opened another portal and Con and the body came out, he dropped the body silently as he went for the second guy. He tried to keep this one quiet but it didn't work, he got a bit of a yelp out of him before Sin Nombre slit his throat.

The leader turned, realized what was happening and then tried to turn, tried to shoot. Rowan pulled forward two shields, one in front of her son the other in front of her Wo and Steven and Danny.

The leader's bullets ricocheted off the shield and while he was distracted Sin Nombre opened fire and took out all the bad guys that were left.

And then there was silence.

Silence where Rowan lowered her shields and rushed to her son. She hugged him tightly as he began to ask her what was happening and what those orange shields was about.

Danny and Grace reunited.

Steve put an arm around her and an arm around Nahele pulling them close and telling them both that no matter what he always loved them and that was important for them to remember.

Then she spotted him. The man she had forgotten about, the bodyguard who was in on it. He had been watching the door locked out by a bomb she had removed, out of sight and not in her purview, but now he was in the room and he was angry.

Gun raised aimed for their little family, no doubt blaming them. Rowan raised a hand, trying to call forth a shield before this guy pulled the trigger but she wasn't fast enough.

There was an eardrum shattering bang that echoed through the quiet she had created, just as Steve shoved Nahele into her knocking them both out of the way. And beside her, Steven jerked, his body crumpling to the floor. There was this fine mist of red that coated her and began to pool around his fallen form, specifically around his head.

It took her a while to realize what had happened but when she figured it out, when it finally computed in her head, the fraying around her edges stopped being around the edges and started being all of her.

Then she screamed. A bone chilling, earth shaking, and heart wrenching scream only a wife who had just watched her husband and love of her life get shot in the head could make. A piercing scream that could be heard through all the planes of existence she was tied to.

A scream that gathered all the strings that it could and wrapped them around it.

And in a flash everything all went white with a great big booming explosion that took out everything in that room, all matter, all time, all being, and turned it all to strings.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Elsewhere and Elsewhen

She had no idea how long she had been there for.

She had no idea where she was.

She only knew where she wasn't.

She wasn't at home and she wasn't in the void.

Well, she knew she was somewhere in the void but it wasn't the void either, because the void was drifting along outside the window she was looking out of.

She was in a giant library. The shelves went as high as the eye could see and she couldn't see where the ceiling began or ended.

There was a desk filled with all sorts of oddities and floating orbs that showed different realities, or at least she figured were different realities, but they were all floating around her like bubbles.

She had come to on a leather couch. She had been covered in a blanket but no one had been there to greet her and she was too afraid to touch anything because she didn't know where she was.

Behind the great big mahogany desk, that was covered in papers and towers of tea cups was a single perch. Not a chair, a giant freaking perch, like for a bird, but for a bird that must have been people sized.

She sat there, with the blanket wrapped around her, not sure what she was going to do, but almost certain that if she had to, she'd jump out that stupid window and find her way back to Steve. All she had to do was follow the red strings, right?

And just like that, like the thought of jumping out the window brought it to her, there came this soft whooshing noise.

The sound of a wing flap on the wind. Except whatever was making that noise was straight up gigantic.

And with it came the wind, and the shadow that quickly descended upon her. From somewhere up in that far away ceiling she couldn't even see, came a giant bird.

Big gusts of wind came with each flap that sent papers flying and cause tea cups to tip over. Rowan lost the blanket, and her balance, ending up on the floor, as the bird came to a stop, landing gently on it's perch.

The wood of the perch creaked as it eased itself on it, and then it folded it's wings up and seemed to stare at her with it's swirling purple galaxy eyes.

The owl itself was all black with a face of soft grey. It had great feathered horns cresting out of it's head, and giant silver talons. IT was, however, entirely made up of strings. She could tell, she didn't know how because it looked feathered, but it was all strings.

It stared at her hard, and she stared back from where she had fallen to the ground.

The silence was deafening until Rowan couldn't take it anymore.

"Where am I?"

My humble abode.

It made no movement to actually talk but she heard words anyway. So it must have been talking in her head. Right, cause that wasn't terrifying?

"Cool, it's very… uh… cozy," she said because she didn't want to tell this thing that it was a bit of a slob. "And uh… where is your abode exactly?"

In the space between spaces.

Right so like, in the void. How had she not noticed this place before?

Mortals rarely travel through the spaces, they've lost the ability to do so. And those that do manage to slip through the cracks don't know how to determine where is what and what is where.

Kay so there were other people like her, and they too had no idea what they were doing. Already she felt better about herself.

"Okay… and… did I… did I fall here or something?"

No I brought you.

Okay.

Not sure what she thought about that one.

"And uh… are we planning to bring me back?"

Of course.

And that was good, you know… unless this owl thing was lying. But she wasn't about to believe it lying, she was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt.

"Great. Can we tell me why I'm here?"

You have derailed yourself. Again.

Rowan didn't know what that meant.

You are trying to put yourself on a path where you won't come out alive. Once again I am working to undo the damage you have caused and set you to rights. However, with all those strings you and your… what is his name again?

"Steven?"

Ah yes, your Steven. With all the strings you two create it's hard to sift through them all to find the right one. So I've taken you away from them in the hopes to find the right… path… quicker.

Rowan picked herself up off of the floor and sat herself back down on the leather couch.

"You said you've done this before?"

Yes.

"Like… when?"

Whenever you needed it.

Not helpful. Well helpful cause he saved her life but not helpful in the way of explaining.

Usually I can nudge you to the right path. I can send the right strings to guide you. More recently I've had to send your Steven to rewrite your strings. His heart, it's strong, strong enough to guide you, to bring the right strings to you or to himself as it were. This time, however, not even he can help you.

Well that wasn't good now was it?

"So… are you the thing that takes over when I panic?"

Yes.

"So, you're the thing that took over when I was poisoned."

Yes. That too was difficult because I couldn't bring Steven to you. I had to fix you myself. And your brothers were a hinderance. The eldest, he has the same abilities as your Steven, he just doesn't know it, nor use it. Well that's not true, he uses whatever ability he has to undo whatever his brother of another kind has levied against you.

Right, so Wo Fat had the same ability as Steven, he could shut her down he just never tried. But that must have been why she never wanted to take him with her when ever she was doing big void tricks, because somewhere on an unconscious level she knew he could do what Steve did.

But then again, he had just said that Wo had the power to undo whatever Steven did, which made sense to her too. Because whenever her void powers faltered because of Steve, Wo got them back. And the void had opened up again for her so she could save him.

Wo counteracted Steve's affect on her.

They really were ying and yang.

"So your name is Fate."

It is a name I used to go by, yes.

"Well, thank you for saving me, Fate, and for helping me when I needed it. Thank you for letting me open the void to save my brother and opening up the door to all my other abilities."

You screamed so loud to save him that I could not ignore you. It is rare to see that kind of love in any capacity but it seems that you're just brimming with rare kinds of love.

Rowan didn't know what that meant, was that a good thing? A bad thing? She had already said thank you, what else could she say?

For a second the great owl was quiet and she found that she didn't like that either. "Do you like being called Fate or would you rather a different name?"

My name doesn't matter.

"I think I'll call you the Great Owl, it's from a movie I used to watch when I was little," she said. "I think that suits you better."

Again he just stared at her.

"Do you live here all by yourself?"

I have been alone for a very long time.

"Where are all your people?"

Gone. I am the last.

Wow that was super sad. He must have been lonely. But, before she could tell him that he could come and visit her whenever, which she figured was fair considering how often he helped her out, he turned his face up to the ceiling.

Your brothers. He said. Your brothers are very annoying. He turned his eyes back to her and added: Stay here. Don't jump out of any windows, and don't touch anything.

The second he brought his wings out, his face angled back up at that ceiling Rowan grabbed onto the couch again. She was prepared for the gust of wind the giant flap created as it launched itself into the air, and she still fell off the couch again.

She too turned her face to the ceiling, that she still couldn't see, to watch it's great hulking form disappear in that ongoing whiteness.

Great she was alone again.

But she wasn't alone for long.

There was a scream, this deafening terrible scream, one that sounded an awful lot like her, that ripped through the library. It shook the windows, it shook the whole room, and outside the window there was a bright white flash and then the strings went crazy.

What the hell was that.

And because she put that thought out to the strings an orb came to her. One where she saw herself screaming.

Yes but why was she screaming. Why was she… was she holding a body? Who the hell had… was that… Steven?!

NO!

What?

NO!

She… she had purposely put that string away, like sent it somewhere dark where she'd never see it again because saving herself and Nahele by sacrificing Steven was not going to happen.

But how had it happened anyway?

She could already feel it cementing. She could feel it turning into Steve's path and she couldn't let that happened. Hawaii Five-0 needed him. She needed him and so did Nahele.

So, even though she had said should wouldn't, even though the Great Owl had told her not to she threw open that window and jumped right back into the void, and into that great writhing mass of strings, determined to save her husband and her kid, and if she had time, maybe she'd save herself too.