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AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Hello my wonderful readers. I'm just not even going to say anything. The chapter's late, I'm still an unmotivated disaster, still working on it. We've got an informative chapter here and Rowan's going to agree to something that is a long time coming. After Monday's chapter we're going to the next episode which will also be a fun one so I hope you're ready for that. As always don't forget to leave a review or drop a fav or follow and I'll see you guys next week.

Chapter 357

Rowan had been exhausted after that display. Once the otherworldly void left her, she practically collapsed into him. She had mumbled something about saving the puppies, which Steve was going to assume were the dogs that Carlos Diego was planning to feed her to. He promised to, at the very least get them out of the pit they were barking from, but then Wo Fat shooed them away for clean up purposes, though Steve had no idea what that would mean.

And he didn't want to know either.

He walked back in a direction that he assumed would take him back to the car, only to have Sin Nombre jogging after him telling him that he walked in the wrong direction. Damn the void messed with his sense of direction something fierce. However, this time, when he portalled he wasn't dizzy, but he figured that was because he was in control this time.

They got back to the car and suddenly Rowan was awake. Her eyes just whipped open and then she whispered: "You brought our son."

"I didn't bring him!" Steve had told her. "He stowed away!"

But Rowan wouldn't listen to him. She made him put her down, made herself walk the rest of the way to the car, where Nahele got out and rushed to her, hugging her tightly. Yeah at some point there was going to be a whole conversation about what the proper protocol would be for Nahele the next time something like this happened.

Because there was no point thinking it wouldn't happen, he had a feeling that no matter what he wanted, Rowan was always going to end up in situations much like this one.

And Nahele would have to be expressly told that it was not up to him to help, it was up to him to stay out of the way and to stay safe. Which did not mean sneaking into the back of heavy loaded trunks filled with guns and ammunition. And Rowan better be on his side about that.

When he got his family into the car, he noted right away that Wo was offering up the driver's seat to Steve, but Steve didn't want to drive. He wanted to sit the back with his wife leaning against his shoulder and his son on the other side of his wife holding her hand. And that's what he did.

By the time they go back to the Morales' his friend were all there to gather round and ask if Rowan was okay, and to make sure that Nahele was okay too because they hadn't been made aware that he was missing until they got back to the Morales' and found the bodyguards all freaking out, none of them wanting to tell Wo Fat and Sin Nombre that they lost the kid.

Rowan ha fallen asleep the second the car started moving. Steve hadn't woken her up when they arrived to the house, so his friends had to silently peer in at her to see for themselves that she was fine. Once everyone was sure that everyone in their little makeshift family was safe and present in the house, Steve tucked her into the bed in the guest room, then tucked his son in who had gotten into the bed beside her and taken a hold of her hand. Even before he left, he had Sin Nombre climbing into her bed to make sure she didn't disappear while she was sleeping again. It should have raised red flags but Steve was tired himself, the only thing that was keeping him going was that he wanted a question answered.

He went outside and found Armando and Wo Fat standing shoulder to shoulder by the gazebo, cigars in one hand, glass of amber liquid, probably whiskey or bourbon in the other hand.

The second they saw him coming towards them both of them frowned at him. Yeah cause that made him feel good about himself.

"This looks like uh… a private matter," Armando said before Steve even stopped walking, excusing himself to move towards the house.

Wo watched him go. "Coward," he muttered as he took a sip on his drink he then turned back to Steve.

"She okay?" Wo Fat asked, a single eyebrow cocked. That meant he knew that Rowan was fine, and that Steve was just there to bug him. Wo was giving the option to get everything out in the open right then and there, but the face he was making told Steve that he really didn't want to deal with Steve anymore.

Steve didn't even acknowledge the question past a sharp nod, he just got straight to why he had sought Wo Fat out.

"I uh… I think it's time you told me about the Colombia incident."

Wo Fat immediately made a face and Steve knew right away that he was going to argue with him

"Yeah but Ro…" "—has already told me that you would know more about the situation then she would."

Wo Fat frowned at that, clearly not expecting Steve to either know that, or realize that that meant that he would have to get the story from one of the men who were there when it happened.

"I don't like talking about it, McGarrett."

"Okay but all of this happened because of that goddamn incident, you might as well tell me," he said but when Wo Fat just stared at him Steve sighed and said: "Alright, well about this. You had a file on the drop box… highest level encryption and when my hacker got it open it corrupted itself… it was called…"

"The Colombia file. What about it?"

"Well if you don't want to tell me… why don't you show me? Cause I'm guessing… I'm guessing that's it. Just unlocked it let me watch it…"

"You don't do well with the void stuff, McGarrett."

"Hey, I let Sin Nombre shoot me with the energizer to send power to my wife. I'm doing must better with the void."

"I know. I was there."

"I wanna see that video, Wo," he said carefully. "I want to understand what happened."

Wo turned to him a sort of nervousness about him that Steve had never seen before. "I will do my very best not to tease you, but like… you harass me all the time so…"

"Yeah making a pretty strong case for not showing you, Steven," Wo said startling him with the use of his first name. Steve should have said something reassuring but he couldn't wipe the cheeky smile off of his face. Wo gave him a frustrated huff before pinning him with a warning glare.

"If I do this you better not say a single thing, I'm serious," he said and when Steve nodded, he went into his pocket and then pulled out his phone.

He pulled up something and then handed it to him. "That's uh… that's it," he said. Steve took it from him and then pressed play on the video.

It was a camera set up similar to the one Diego had set up for Rowan's execution. No doubt he had a similar plan for that one as he did for this one. It was set far away so Steve could see everything in full view. Every inch of this situation.

Steve turned to him, wondering why Diego was so obsessed with shit like this. "Yeah I don't know, and usually, usually her powers knock out electronics. This had been set up far away so I think it missed her powers, Armando found it in the clean up. I'm also assuming that he wanted the video to flash around, to prove to everyone that he had taken us all down, that he had bested all of us."

Except it hadn't worked like that, Steve already knew that.

He pressed play and the video started. Everything was already in motion, it was just Diego, he had two men holding back Rowan set aside from the rest of the group. He had Wo Fat, Armando, JC and Conejo on their knees, hands behind their heads, an army of guns trained on them.

Steve paused the video suddenly understanding what the situation really was. It wasn't really Rowan who had been in the most danger in this situation. It had been them.

"Holy shit… he was going to execute you?"

"Will you just watch?"

"This why she said the Colombia incident is an embarrassment to you!" he cried and then he turned a serious look onto Wo Fat. "How did he get the drop on you, Wo?"

Because Steve BARELY got the drop on Wo half the time. And half the times he had, Wo had let him get the drop on him. And he was twice as detail orientated and careful where Rowan was involved, so for this to have happened… it was surprising. Especially since Steve always assumed that it was Rowan who had gotten herself into the trouble, it never occurred to him that it was a rescue.

Though, now that he thought about it, it made sense. Because Rowan didn't care about herself, she cared about her family and her friends.

"Fine, give me the phone, you don't get it to watch it now," he said but Steve swatted Wo Fat away.

"come on, I just wanna see what happens, I won't tease you I promise."

Wo Fat took his hand away with a sigh and then Steve pressed play.

"What is happening?" Rowan asked with a large amount of sass. That was pretty on par for Rowan, she was never really afraid when she was supposed to be.

"You're going to witness an execution."

That had been Diego and he sounded so smug. So sure that he had this in the bag. Rowan didn't look impressed though clearly, very clearly, this man had the upper hand.

"I'm not going to sign off on that paperwork."

Oh god, Rowan and her sass, even though this was just a video and a situation she had clearly survived, Steve still winced. It was funny, her comment, he might have even snickered at it, but there were two men holding her back, a semi circle of men surrounding Wo Fat, Sin Nombre, Armando and JC, all with guns trained on them. Rowan should not have been giving sass, she really was about to witness her brothers' execution.

"Oh, you and your snappy comebacks. Well, you won't be annoying your way out this one… nor will you be slipping any more ropes."

Diego had approached her, he took a single finger and dragged it down her cheek which just had Rowan's eyes narrowing.

"I'm going to have fun beating that willfulness out of you before your sold."

Oh, hot fucking damn.

Steve turned to Wo Fat finding that he wouldn't even look at his own phone and that video. He was carefully sipping his drink, quite quickly no doubt agitated. The cigar that had been lit was no longer smoking but lying dormant in his fingers. Fingers that were tightly gripping both that cigar and the glass.

It must have killed him to see that, to hear that and not be able to do anything. Because it was killing Steve and it was a year ago.

There was a beat of silence where Diego turned back to Wo Fat and Rowan's eyes searched the men in front of her, no doubt realizing just how much trouble they were in.

"Not going to bed?" Diego had asked Wo Fat. "We thought you cared so much for your little puta."

Once against Steve's eyes flew to Wo Fat who must have been seething at this point of the video only to find that Wo Fat still wasn't watching the video. His eyes were on his drink as it was empty and he was staring at the bottom of the glass like he had no idea how this had happened.

"Just watch," he hissed without even looking at Steve.

Steve turned back to the video to see that Diego had walked right up to Wo Fat, the gun flush to Wo Fat's forehead, neither man had flinched but Rowan, Rowan looked panicked as all shit, which meant Steve knew what was going to happen next.

"No!" she shouted. "No! Just no1 You're out of your mind if you think I'm going to let this happen."

It was so ridiculous that Steve understood exactly why Diego turned back to her, surprise on his face.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me!" she growled. Her most dangerous of glares on her face. "Let us all go or… I'll rain hell down on you."

She was bluffing. Up until this point Steve knew she hadn't been able to get the void to answer her.

But she got what she wanted. The man had turned away from her eldest brother and was heading back to her.

"And what are you going to do, puta? You're being held by two men twice your size and you're not armed. Unless you've managed to hide a gun in your short shorts, you've got nothing."

Rowan rolled her eyes, pretending to be braver than she really was. "Okay, firstly, stop calling me a whore."

God Rowan and her sass. Like she had any right to be bossing anyone around.

"And for your information… I've got magic."

She said it with a tilt of her chin as if it were a completely natural thing to say, as if she wasn't lying through her teeth.

For a moment Diego just stared at her and then he broke out laughing. "She may be too crazy to sell," he announced to all that were there. "But I'll still be able to have some fun with her."

Wo Fat was staring at her, mouth open, clearly confused as to why she had said she had magic, because, again, at this point he had no idea. He didn't know what Steve knew.

Diego turned, clearly back to business. Leveled his gun to Wo Fat's head again and that was exactly where Steve saw Rowan lose her shit.

She just started screaming. And not a scared scream, she wasn't pleading, it was this primal guttural, throat ripping scrim. It started off small, and then it grew, it grew it something more than just her, into something more like the cry of a bird.

And it was when all of it started.

Steve watched as Rowan crumpled, the ripping that came from her, the glow that opened up from the starburst scar she on her back in-between her collarbones, as she forced the void back open before she vanished completely in a ball of black. Steve had never seen anything like that before, she had never done anything like that before but he recognized one thing.

An absent hand when to his sternum as a phantom pain ebbed as if watching the video had brought back that pain in his chest right before a bullet took him off his feet and he tumbled into the void.

"That's what I felt," he found himself whispering. That was why his chest felt like it was going to crack open, that was how he got shot by Gabriel.

The chaos that followed all the hopping and jumping, the portals that opened right left and center. At one point he was there too, and he can now safely say that it was not a dream, it did happen, he had helped Rowan save Wo Fat. By the end of it all nothing was left. The camera washed away by a literally wave that washed out the front doors, heralded by Rowan. Like she was Moses parting the sea, except she was bringing the water to wash away the evil before them. All the bodies on the ground and all evidence that this shit had happened all gone. The last image was the sky before the water claimed it.

And that was it, the end of the video.

Together they stood in silence. Steve digested that video, both wanting to watch it again and destroy it so it never saw the light of day again. But that only lasted so long.

"I'm sorry… Diego survived that and still tried to take her on?" Steve asked handing the phone back to him.

Wo Fat laughed. "Yeah," he said. "He was not a smart man."

"So that's it then. Rowan did that and you took her to Canada."

Wo Fat nodded. "Yes I did. Once she made it clear to me that she had no idea what was happening, she had no idea how to control it, I realized that we needed her to know how, or we'd live in constant fear of something like that happening again. You see, for this instance, Rowan had no idea what she was doing, she doesn't remember any of that day. Once she forced that void to open, that's it, it goes black for her, because she let the void take over. I wanted her to be in control."

"Yeah how did that work for you?"

"Well there have been draw backs. Like you always showing up whenever she goes full void, or how you have the ability to pull her into the void, thanks for that fucking terrifying half hour," Wo Fat growled and Steve had to look away to hide his snicker.

He figured Wo Fat must have been very panicked to have Rowan ripped into the void when Steve got shot in that plane. Steve had been freaked out the first time she flickered, imagine if she had fucking vanished on him?

"Then you know, we had other issues, like her father recognizing her followed closely by her brother recognizing her. Took some digging and talking to her brother uh… you should have at least told me that her father and brother had performed an experiment to pull her here, that you had sent them away..."

Ice flooded Steve's veins. Wo Fat knew about that?

"Did you tell her that?"

"No. I had a really hard time pulling her out of Canada. To be honest I don't trust Trevor or her father. I don't trust them to not have ulterior motives for wanting her. And I knew if I had told her that she had been pulled to this world specifically to fill a void in their family, that you had sent them away when they came to Hawaii to find her… she would have wanted to stay. And I couldn't have that. Not after what happened with the Stepanovs and not after she called you. Being stationary with you on and off sniffing after her would have been stupid."

Steve let out a nervous breath. Good he was safe… for now.

"I'll leave the telling her all to you," he said. "Though to be honest once I got her out I had other problems to worry about. I can tell you that I didn't think she'd get so addicted to it, to be honest. And then, of course, electronics can't go through the void, so Sandy can't track her. Well they can't go through unless they're protected… and I mean he gave us cases but I unno what they're made out of. Some kind of special glass and stainless steel. She had to get an extra case, to protect that phone that was hers before… you know that we stole from you."

Yes. Yes, Steve did know and it pissed him off to realize that if he wanted phone cases, like Rowan and her brothers, for him and Nahele he'd have to ask her dad who no doubt hated him.

"So like… that was it… that was the moment you believed her about being from an alternate reality?'

Wo Fat narrowed his eyes. "No. honestly that video… all of that went down and my first thought was that she wasn't human. Just something that looked human, which I figured explained a lot about her inability to be human sometimes."

Steve half chuckled yeah, it would.

"When she woke up, which uh… was a good twenty-four hours after that video ended, by the way, she gave me the story. And well, after that… yeah I just believed her."

"And uh… was she… was she bleeding…"

"Yeah the electric bolts were coming out through her skin, being charge stops that now."

"Oh good, I'm glad we fixed that."

"So uh… just so I know… with the owl, and her powers… do you have… do you have any theories?"

"About her? And what's happening to her?"

"Yeah."

"I uh… I think she was supposed to be here. I think I got stuck in a world without a Ro, and she got stuck in a world without a Steven and… we found a way to each other anyway."

"Hmm…"

"And I think it works the same for you. Her world she never had a Wo to protect her, and if she hadn't fallen in you never would have found her… cause you know… she's dead here… so… I think… I think our love for each other brought her here and is keeping her here."

Wo Fat nodded.

"Why what do you think?"

"I think… well… that owl thing of hers. It's a creature of the void. And Rowan has it's abilities. It's entirely possible that she's a creature of the void too. Maybe she doesn't know it, maybe she doesn't think she can tell us yet. But I mean… I wouldn't care if she was."

"Neither would I."

"I guess we'll see."

Steve glanced at wo Fat to find him relighting the cigar that had burnt out while he was waiting for Steve to finish watching the video. "Seriously you're going to get lung cancer."

"You sound like Rowan," Wo Fat said with a wry smile.

"Well, she has a point." The two were silent for a moment before Steve said. "Wo… thank you for showing me that…"

"You're welcome…"

"But seriously, how did he get the drop on you."

And then Wo Fat sighed, and told Steve the story from the beginning. But when it was done, when Steve knew all that had happened, knew all the bits that Rowan had left out because she didn't want to upset him or because she couldn't remember doing it, Steve returned to the house.

He found his wife asleep, across from her was their son, having stretched out a hand in the distance and gripped hers. Sin Nombre in the place where he usually was behind her. He kicked the assassin out of the bed, took his place behind her, and then when she was against him and his pulse was slowly returning to normal, he reached out and put his hand over his son's and his wife's and let his own exhaustion finally take over.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

The following morning, The Morales were glad to finally be getting all of these people, especially the criminals, out of the house. Maria had been horrified to find that Rowan had woken up before all the other guests and was in her kitchen making pancakes. And with her was Sin Nombre, sitting on the kitchen counter behind her polishing up all the pieces of a rifle.

All while Wo Fat sat at the kitchen table with a black coffee and a newspaper as if this was a completely normal morning.

Armando had already gone home.

After breakfast was served and everyone was ready to go, and they were actually finally going to leave, Jorge pulled Chin aside.

Wanted to talk to him, he had said. Chin had a feeling he knew what was going to happen next and he was dreading it, no matter how deserved it was.

"Actually, Jorge, I wanted to talk to you too," he said to the man once they were alone and everyone had already filed out of the house. "I wanted to say I'm sorry. I shouldn't have blamed you for what happened."

"No, I'm the one who should apologize. And thank you for bringing Sara back," Jorge said. "You know Maria and I, we just want what's best for her… which is why we've come to a very difficult decision."

"These are documents of legal guardianship. We're relinquishing custody to you."

Chin looked to the papers and then to Jorge. Joy filled him for all of two seconds and then the icy fear took over.

"Did Ro put you up to this? Cause you can say no, I'll go get her. Ro! Rowan!" he cried and Rowan popped her head back into the house.

"What?"

"Did you do this?" he asked, showing her the papers Jorge had handed over. "Did you make them give me Sara back."

"Ohh… right, I was supposed to do that," Rowan breathed out. "Uh… hold on… I'll just get… Con! Come here and bring the mask!"

"No! No!" Chin cried, and Jorge put a hand to him.

"Rowan did nothing," he said. "Though it warms us greatly to know that she'll be in Hawaii with her. Best God-mother our Sara could ask for."

Chin just stared at him shocked that this was happening. "Yeah, Juarez is not a safe place for her. She should return to Hawaii with you. All you have to do is sign."

Chin practically ripped the pen out of Jorge's hands.

"I don't know what to say. Seriously, if this is about Rowan and her connections… I promise I would never use her against you… I mean I totally could have to begin with…"

Jorge laughed at that. "Well thank you for not going that route with us," he said warmly and then sobered up. "No, as I said we just want what's best for Sara, and we think that'll be with you. Just… promise me that we can come and visit from time to time."

"Oh of course, any time you want," he then took Jorge's hand to shake tightly. "Thank you, Jorge."

Outside, Rowan, who had never intended to send Con back in there, walked back towards the jeep the Five-0's was going to take back to the airport. Steve was standing there, right beside Nahele, waiting for her. Their goodbye, which according to Danny too way to long had been interrupted by Chin.

As soon as she was in arm's reach and was immediately scooped up into Steve's arms. Where, for a while, Steve held her tightly to his chest. There was tremor going through him, and he had been staring at her funny all morning. Something was upsetting him.

"What's wrong?"

He took a deep breath, kissing her forehead and then whispered: "Wo Fat talked me through the Colombia incident."

"Oh geeze."

"He said that they frog marched you to him, Ro. You must have been scared."

She knew he meant that she must have been scared when those men marched her through the house, but all she had been thinking was: "When Wo and Con find out about this these people were dead." She didn't really get scared until she realized that Wo and Con were both pinned and it would be up to her to help them.

"Yeah… I guess."

Steve pressed a kiss to her neck. "I hate thinking of you being that afraid. What… what were you thinking?"

"Uh… well… honestly… I didn't think much to be honest. Wo Fat and Con… they've always seemed impervious to me and we had bested Diego before… and he was supposed to be there for a truce agreement… and then… well… they were on the ground…"

"On their knees, all these other guys around them."

"He said he was going to kill them, and he kept saying all these things he was going to do to me, you know to hurt Wo. And… they all looked so upset I knew this wasn't some joke so I… I unno I… I didn't just get scared… I got mad. Then I called for the void and it answered."

"You nearly killed me Rowan, Gabriel shot me…"

"I knew that was coming Steven. I saw it in the strings and I went and got you because I knew Gabriel was going to get the drop on you. I protected you…"

"You used me as a weapon…"

"I honestly barely remember it Steve. I opened the void and things go fuzzy after that."

"I think… I think now is the time for you to tell me everything. Answer all of my questions."

"Do you even have anymore questions? What else haven't I told you, Steve?"

"Victoria. The Stepanovs. England. How you escaped MI6. What happened in Russia, or in North Korea, that wasn't really you was it. Why MacGuyver? How did you even meet MacGuyver? The concert, why were you at the concert. Did they… when they had you… those four days… did they sexually assault you?"

Rowan stared at him. She took a long deep sigh and then said: "I think we're going to need my brothers for this. Can… I mean we have to go… can I do this when we get home?"

"Rowan, I'm serious, you can't put this off."

Rowan nodded, she understood. She did.

"I know, but you have to fly back, and I still have to jump back with Nahele and Con and Wo and… I will Steven, once you land, me and you we'll talk it out. But they're going to need to help me. Is that okay? Cause some of the things that happened, some of those things they know more about than me."

That was fair, so Steve nodded. He kissed his wife goodbye, hugged his kid tightly, was pulled in for a bro hug by Sin Nombre, got a stiff handshake from Wo who looked like he might go in for a hug but didn't, and then they were leaving.

Steve had them open up the portal in the garage and away from prying eyes, and let them walk into it. He wasn't the least bit worried about her going into that portal, because now, now he knew that he could go after her.

You know. If he really had to.