Rewrite

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: It's another late chapter my wonderful readers! I'm so sorry about that. I keep leaving my school work to the last possible minute and therefore needed to spend all my time yesterday creating a pitch presentation. In this chapter we have the end of Rowan's crime spree, we have a new song that she's written and a couple of big decisions in this chapter. We've got some more interesting chapters coming up but we're not really going to see the Five-0's for the next little bit. Don't forget to leave a review and I'll see you guys on Friday.

Chapter 267

They took a break from heisting, just for a little bit. A week actually.

Rowan didn't know if it was for a lack of job, or if it was because they were trying to slow her down. But Conejo knew that the real reason was so they wouldn't raise suspicion. Either way, the trio hadn't been on a heist in days. Wo Fat hadn't even wanted to take other jobs where Rowan would throw him somewhere else and then pull him back.

For a while that was alright, Rowan was working on a new song. One that she kept saying Conejo would love. He just hoped that meant that it would be a happy song for once, so he could report that Rowan was feeling better and therefore stop this nonsense about bringing her on jobs so long as they were heists.

But that was not what he got.

Been through some bad shit, I should be a sad bitch. Who woulda thought it'd turn me to a savage? Rather be tied up with calls and not strings. Write my own checks like I write what I sing, yeah.

My wrist, stop watchin', my neck is flossy. Make big deposits, my gloss is poppin'. You like my hair? Gee, thanks, just cut it. I see it, I like it, I want it, I got it. yeah.

The song was sort of happier, it was more upbeat, just like he requested, but it did not show that Rowan was getting better. No. It showed that she was getting warped by this influence. He had taken a short video of the song and how she looked when she was singing it and took it straight to Wo Fat who needed to know about this. So he knew it pull the plug, just like he said he would if they saw this happening.

"Wo!" Conejo cried letting himself into Wo Fat's room. The man was shirtless, wearing his black dress pants, hair unkempt and out of place and on the phone. He held up a single finger to silence him, and then he leant over his desk to write something down.

Conejo waited almost patiently until the call was over. Once it was, Wo Fat threw his pen down and then turned on him. "Alright, what is so important that you had to barge in here?"

He was reaching for his polo of the day. A black to match his black dress pants. "We have a problem with Rowan."

Wo Fat froze, shirt still not on, and turned a look on him that sent chills up Conejo's spine. "What kind of problem?"

The stillness in the man was freaky, like he was ready to pounce, but Conejo had no idea what it was that Wo Fat could have attacked at that moment. To distract himself from Wo Fat's intense behaviour he pulled out his phone and played the snippet of the song for him.

When it was over Wo Fat turned unimpressed eyes to him. "Okay, so she's writing a new song…"

"You know as well as I do that Rowan doesn't care about material items. She never has."

"Okay, I still don't see…"

"You said if we saw evidence of these heists changing her, we'd stop," Conejo reminded him. "Rowan writes what she feels. And right now, what she feels is this."

He played it again and he hoped that Wo Fat caught onto the lyric that worried him the most.

Been through some bad shit, I should be a sad bitch. Who woulda thought it'd turn me to a savage?

Wo Fat sighed and finally put his shirt on. "Do you think it's really bad?"

"I think if we let it continue, yes, it will get really bad," he said. "I think if we catch it early enough it will be easier to fix, easier to stop her."

Wo Fat nodded. "Alright, one last heist…"

"No!" Conejo snapped. "We stop her now."

Wo Fat turned to him again. "I just agreed to one last heist, it's in the country so less of a jump for her. We get what the buyer wants, we send me to deliver it and get the money and then I will sit her down and talk to her, alright?"

It wasn't alright but he knew he wasn't going to be able to stop Wo Fat and he knew if he and Wo Fat went on a heist, Rowan would want to follow even if they talked to her about her distressing new habits.

"Fine, but last heist, okay?"

"I promise."

Conejo nodded and shoved his hands into his jean pockets. "What are we stealing this time?"

"The Crown out of the Palacio Real," Wo Fat said and Conejo nodded this time smiling as he did so.

Yeah. He was down for that and he knew Rowan would be too.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Luckily Rowan had gone to visit the Palacio Real before. Something the boys were unaware that she had done.

Despite being unhappy that she had jumped somewhere while they were out on their own perspective jobs, leaving the contractors alone in their new house, they were quite happy that she knew the layout of the place well enough to open a direct portal to the room they wanted to be in.

This room was bigger than the others she had hopped them to before, but she wasn't bothered. She was more interested in what they were going to steal. So she completely forgot to send a secondary pulse through the room to thoroughly take out the electronics.

"Wo, Wo, Wo," she said skipping after him as he made his way towards the throne and to the where the crown and sceptre of King Charles III were kept. "Can we take pictures?"

Wo Fat paused and turned to her. "Excuse me? This is a heist not a photo shoot, Rowan."

"Oh please, I bet we'd look great in it. Just one picture, me, the crown and the scepter sitting on the throne. Please?"

"It would make for a good photo," Conejo added. Wo Fat's eyes whipped to him, almost accusingly, but between Rowan's whine and Conejo's infectious grin, Wo Fat rolled his eyes but agreed.

They got the sceptre and the crown out and then took turns taking pictures. Rowan got some good pictures on the throne, both with the crown and without. Both boys took turns taking pictures and then disaster struck in the form of a roving guard.

It was his laughter that gave him away. The fact that he was only a short way behind her as she took the picture of Wo Fat, that they were having so much fun that not even Conejo had noticed him approaching. Rowan turned, the man across from her was middle aged, maybe older. His black hair was thinning on top of his head, his moustache was thick and she was certain there were crumbs in it. He was maybe her height or smaller, and his little beady eyes were trained on her. Which made no sense, because Wo Fat was wearing the crown and Conejo had the sceptre.

The two boys moved forward, putting themselves in between her and him, but their guns had not been drawn and she didn't know why.

"Saw you three on the cameras. Well, the one camera, you stupidly missed one of them," he said pointing to the back. Rowan had hopped them in closer to the throne, the hop must have taken out all the others but missed that one in the back. Apparently, her pulses had a range. That would have been good to know before this.

"You haven't called the cops," Wo Fat said. "We would have heard the sirens by now."

"No. I haven't."

"What do you want?"

Rowan took a breath, they weren't supposed to be in the land of the corrupt, but it looked like they might be able to trade their way out of this. Which was great because she didn't want to use the void in front of this stranger.

"Oh, not much," he said with a shrug. "I'm willing to let you guys go for a small fee."

"How nice," Conejo growled.

"I just want the girl. One ride should be good enough."

She knew what he meant when he said it. And with it came the echo of all the other threats. Of Paris and Ares, of Japan and that basement.

Rowan lost whatever it was Wo Fat or Conejo said in response to that. Rowan sort of lost herself entirely, everything sort of went hazy. She wasn't aware when she slipped Wo Fat's gun out of the hiding place behind him, nor was she aware when she stepped out behind him.

She became aware of what she's doing when she pulled the trigger. It was the terrible bang that jolted her back into reality… partially. She felt like she wasn't quite in her own body at that moment as she watched the guard in front of her jolt backward, stagger half a step and then drop. A red mist spraying out behind him from his head.

Did she just… did she just get her first head shot?

She couldn't help it, it all seemed so strange to her that she just started laughing. She turned to her two brothers and found both of them clearly panicking. Wo Fat surged towards her, he took his gun back from her and wiped it down. Conejo took the crown off of Wo Fat's head and put it in the bag with the sceptre.

"Open the portal to home. Now," Wo Fat ordered and that sort of knocked her out of the haze she was in. She opened the portal and he practically threw her through it.

But neither Conejo or Wo Fat followed her after. "What are you doing?"

"Clean up," he said. "Close the portal I'll call you when it's time to pull us through." Rowan opened her mouth to argue but he rounded onto her, his eyes filled with rage. "Close the portal. NOW!"

Rowan did as she was told, closing the portal in front of her and then slowly sunk to the floor.

What had she done? And why… why didn't she feel bad about it?

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Wo Fat came to her room in the early morning, not that it mattered because she had not slept a wink. With him came Conejo with a plate with chocolate chip toaster waffles, and a cup of tea. Oh it wasn't good news if they came bearing chocolate and tea.

"Kong managed to get into the secure server. Wiped it clean," Wo Fat told her and she let out her breath in one long relieved sigh. She flopped down to her bed, finally tired, but Wo Fat was not done with her.

"We need to talk about what happened."

Yes, she figured they did. Wo Fat and Conejo were alone at the Palacio Real for two hours before she got the call to pull them back home. She figured she'd like to know what went on while she was at home alone.

"Did you hide the body?"

"No, we uh… we made it look like he interrupted burglars," Wo Fat answered. "And that's not what I want to talk to you about."

Rowan drew her knees up to her chest, she didn't like the look on his face. She knew he was mad at her but she wondered how mad. Was this going to be another repeat of her family… of Steven telling her to leave when her antics got to be too much?

Wo Fat turned back to Conejo, took his phone and played a few brief chords. The newest song she had been writing. The first song written because she felt good about herself for once.

"Uhm… I'm calling it Favourite Things," she told him as if that answered whatever unasked question lay between them.

"This song… Rowan… it's not you. What happened at the Real… it wasn't you. It shouldn't have been you."

Rowan continued to stare at him, she didn't understand what he was saying. Wo Fat put the phone down on the bed, his hand carefully reached out to touch her fingers.

"I'm worried about you. About what this is doing to you."

"We both are," Conejo added.

"I don't understand, what it is it doing to me?"

"Warping you. It's turning you into something you're not. You're not like me and Con, and that's… that's a good thing. I know you're hurting right now but I don't think diving head first into a life of crime is how you're going to get over Steven McGarrett."

Just saying his name was like a punch to the gut. Con walked around my bed until he was sitting beside her.

"Hey, hey, don't you hang your head like that," Wo Fat said. "You're strong, remember, you're strong and we believe in you."

"Yeah, this, this isn't because we're mad at you. We're just worried about you, kid, we want that halo to stay on your head, huh?" Conejo told her and she just stared at him and for a while he just stared back.

"I'd honestly rather us go back to drinking the pain away," he said and she half smiled. "That's good, keep that smile because sooner or later it's going to hit you that you just killed a man in cold blood."

Rowan should have felt her blood run cold. She was a bad guy now. That was what she had done, wasn't it? She had just shot that man, no warning nothing. She should feel bad. She should have some sort of acid reflux thing happening like all the times before. But nothing came.

"I mean it was a very impressive head shot considering you haven no idea how to shoot. In another world I'd be proud… oh who am I kidding? I'm proud. Like really proud!"

Wo Fat slapped his shoulder. "It was your idea not to encourage the behaviour!" he hissed and Rowan went about carefully breathing trying to will her panic away.

"You think… you think I'm a monster?"

Both boys stopped arguing and turned to her. "No," they said together, but it was Wo Fat who added: "But you're on the path to becoming a monster and neither of us want that for you."

"So… so we're not going to do anymore heists?"

"Well…"

"It's not fair if you go on heists and I have to stay home alone and bored. You know what I'm like when I'm bored."

Wo Fat inhaled sharply and then glanced to Conejo. "Alright," he said slowly despite Conejo's raised eyebrows. "Alright, we'll stop going on heists."

"And jobs…"

"That's a little too far Ro, we have to make money somehow," Wo reminded her and she sighed.

"How about… no job when you're with me then," she offered and he offered her a hand to shake that she took easily.

"Deal. But you have to throw me to my jobs when I need you to."

"Naturally."

They all turned big smiles onto one another and the two boys shifts so they were sitting on either side of her.

"Movie night?" she asked them. "I'll even watch an action movie for you Con."

"Sounds like a plan, why don't you throw Conejo for pizza, you can get the popcorn started and I'll pick the movie huh?"

With the plan made they scrambled off her bed. Even though Rowan was still disheartened by her brother's change of mind about her character she felt a little better. Yes, she had done something awful, yes she had shown them a little bit of the monster she had the capacity become, but her brother's still loved her. Which meant there was still a chance that someone else could love her too.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

That night Rowan bolted up out of bed, not gasping, not afraid, but angry and a bit confused. She looked around her room, waiting to see if the shadows would move, if the vision would repeat itself except clearer now that she was awake.

But nothing came to her.

Rowan forced her stiff legs out of the bed, forced herself to stand and thought very hard about the dream she had just had.

Burning hills in Cartagena. A little girl holding a white stuffed rabbit. Gabriel's haunted brown eyes, blood leaking out of his mouth.

Gabriel was supposed to be dead. Conejo had shot him. Three times. In the chest. People don't just survive that kind of shit. Except… Didn't Victor Hess survive the same thing in the first season? The villains of the Five-0 universe were notoriously hard to kill.

She left her room, heading for Conejo's wing and his room. She had promised that she wouldn't ever void into her brother's rooms, a bit of agreed privacy. But they never knocked on her doors, both in this house or in the hotel rooms they had shared, so she wasn't about to knock on his.

She let herself into the darkened room and then held her breath. "Con?" she asked softly. As a highly skilled assassin with trust issues he slept lightly unless black out drunk. This meant her entering the room had awoken him, and if she was lucky her voice would get him out of attack mode and into caring brother mode.

Conejo sat up in bed, his bleary eyes shifting from that dangerous honey yellow to the light brown she was used to. "Ro? Did you have another nightmare?"

Rowan found herself climbing up onto the foot of his bed, crouched by his feet, in a position she once took on Chin Ho's bed before his first round against Coughlin and IA. "Did you really kill Gabriel Waincroft?"

"Yes Rowan. Someone doesn't just walk off getting shot four times in the chest," he said throwing himself down to the bed again. She heard him mutter: "Can't believe she woke me up for that nonsense."

"Did you check his pulse?"

Conejo bolted up again, a glare on his face. He was grumpy due to be woken up at that hour of night, but implying she thought this famed assassin failed to his job twice was probably what had him making that face at her. "What is this about Rowan? What, you don't believe me?"

"I… I think he's still alive."

"He can't be!"

"But you didn't check his pulse! I'm pretty sure I saved Steve from him when I had my first void incident with you guys. And… and… I had a dream."

Conejo groaned again, throwing himself back into his many pillows. "Yes, the evidence mounts against me. Dreams and a pulse. Nancy Drew cracks the case!"

"I'd feel better if I could go see, see that you're either right or wrong." Conejo groaned at her. Well at least he understood that she expected him to come with her.

"Alright, let me get changed and we'll head out."

Rowan sat back and waited as he got changed and got his boots on. When he was ready, she opened a portal into the void and then wrapped them up in their own little pressure safe bubble. She asked for Gabriel's string what she got was a red string, striped so solidly with black that she knew if he wasn't actually dead at that moment, he was gonna be dead soon.

His string curled around her wrist and she let it take her to where Gabriel was. She had asked for a little ways away so she ended up in a building across from where Gabriel was. And he was there, in some dingy little apartment, hobbling around. He was very much alive.

"Son of a bitch. How is he… how is he…?"

"I don't know… and I'm pretty sure I used my void powers to shove him out of a very high window."

"And he's still alive?!" Conejo thundered. He shook his head. "No, that's it, I'm gonna go kill him. Now! Right this second. Throw me into that room, I want the element of surprise."

"What? You don't have a weapon!"

"I'm trained in hand-to-hand combat. I can take him out with a toothpick and a fork, which I'm pretty sure is the only things that man has in that apartment." Rowan pinned him with a dry look and he sighed. "Fine, you're right. There's no point in kicking him when he's down. Looks like that man's on his last legs anyways. He has no people, no money… hell I don't think he has a place to stay tonight I'm pretty sure he's squatting."

"Yes, but he's alive, and he's not supposed to be alive." Even she heard the ice in her voice as she spoke. She felt Conejo's eyes on her, no doubt wondering where this was going to go. "His string is striped with black."

"What does that mean?"

"Black means death. Judging by the space between the stripes, it's gonna be soon, but I don't think… I don't think it's us that kills him, which is probably why it never works when we try."

"You're telling me the strings are keeping that man alive to die at a certain time? That's fucking cold."

It was. Fate was like that. Fickle and cruel. "Doesn't mean we can't have a little… fun… while we wait for the strings to do their thing."

"I'm not sure I wanna know what that means."

Rowan turned a smile to him. "It means we get to go home and write a song… and then film a little music video."

Rowan didn't miss the look of confusion on Conejo's face. Already the wheels of inspiration were turning in her head. She wondered if Conejo would approve of dark and creepy songs in replacement of her usual sad songs. Well, they were going to find out.