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AvalonReeseFanFics
A/N: Hello there my wonderful readers! So guess what? I've officially finished writing season 6! Isn't that exciting? As of today, I'll be starting on rewriting season 7 and getting Rowan and Steve back together. And, even better, I'm still on track with getting them back together for chapter 298. We are almost there my wonderful readers! I'm also to a point where I have enough chapters already written to start posting 3 times a week again. Don't forget to leave a review and I'll see you guys on Monday.
Chapter 275
Kong knew, once Sin Nombre left, that Steve wouldn't be far behind. And he wasn't. Maybe only half a day. This time, however, he very gratefully didn't kick down the door to his office. He knocked and waited for Kong to tell him that it was okay to come in.
Steve came in with a general look of distrust but there was something else, something behind his eyes. A sort of sadness that Kong came to attribute to Rowan. God, this was going to be bad.
"As I'm guessing you know, I got a visit from someone yesterday," he started and Kong nodded, no point in lying now. "Sin Nombre came to my house, stole something very, very important to me and then skipped town. I missed the flight he left on, but I know he's heading to Japan. I need to know where he's going, so I can find Rowan."
Kong stared at Steve. He felt… he felt bad. Steve was so clearly upset about this, so desperate to find Rowan again. But he knew he couldn't tell him anything, Wo Fat would be livid and a threat from the Great Sin Nombre was not to be taken lightly, even if he had gone slightly soft being Rowan's bodyguard. Besides, Rowan was missing at the moment, adding Steve to the list of things Wo Fat had to worry about was not something Kong wanted to do.
But he knew from experience that if he kept to the story that Wo Fat had given him, made it believable and like Rowan was better off with Wo Fat, Steve would believe anything. That was how Wo Fat had been getting away with keeping Rowan as long as he had. Maybe… maybe he could tell a few lies that would help the man feel better. But first he had to lie about who was had broken into McGarrett's house because if he didn't, and Steve found out the truth, he fully believed that Sin Nombre would come back to Hawaii just to kill Kong.
"The man you met… I don't know why he had the rabbit mask, cause he just works with Sin Nombre," Kong lied. Steven looked up. "Sin Nombre… as you know… he's the head of Rowan's security detail. Every now and then, she might send him to do something, but he only goes if he's bored and he knows that she's safe. Usually though, and more recently, he's with her… in Colombia."
"He had the mask though."
"Yes well… I'm guessing if he sent someone down with the mask, then he can't leave Colombia but Rowan wanted something done and wanted them to think it was Sin Nombre behind the gun."
Steve sharply inhaled. "Alright, fine. Where in Colombia is she?"
"No one knows," Kong said. Steve scowled at him. "No it's true. Something bad went down. Wo Fat stopped their travels to go down to Colombia to help Armando. Then something happened, some sort of gun play. The guy Armando was having trouble with got obliterated, barely made it out alive and Fat took her underground. Hasn't resurfaced since. And Sin Nombre hasn't left her side."
She had pulled him to an unknown jungle to help with a gun-fight. That must have been Colombia. But… she was using her powers. If she used her powers it must have been… bad. But Steven couldn't say that to Kong who probably didn't know about her powers. "Was she… did she…"
"No, she wasn't hurt… at least I don't think she was. No one really knows what happens. The only survivors were Fat's small little crew, and they haven't talked about it. But something happened, and it was enough to scare him. Sin Nombre's job is to make sure that she doesn't get into it again. Keep her happy, keep her busy, but most importantly keep her safe."
Steve looked down to his hands. "Do you know if… if she… does she… miss me?"
Kong had a decision at this point. The kind of lie he told would determine how Steven reacted. He didn't want to be overly cruel but he definitely wanted the man to maybe start moving on. Especially since Wo Fat clearly had no intention of letting her come home.
"She's in a paradise surrounded by attractive men that cater to her every whim… what do you think?"
That part wasn't all that much of a lie. She was surrounded by attractive men and they very much did cater to her every whim, it was just that she thought of them both as brothers. She was travelling the world and according to Wo Fat's last update, she had reached the sleep with new guys part of the getting over the break up. The girl wanted for nothing, including companionship. But she what she really wanted was Steven. Everyone knew that.
"Well… as long as she's happy," he murmured, though tears were shining, unshed, in his eyes.
"Hey! 'Hele's looking forward to seeing you this weekend, he's been talking about this camping trip for weeks!" Kong said with a smile trying to get something that resembled Steven McGarrett back into this room.
"Yeah."
"Aw come on, Commander, it's not all bad," Kong said with a frown.
"No? I lost the woman I love, the kid we were raising and the family we were making. Wo Fat sent people to get all of her things, nothing I have left smells like her," Steve snapped. "All I had was that keychain, the last little reminder of the little piece of happiness that was almost mine and it's gone now. All I have now it work. Which is not going to bode well for people like you."
He stood quickly and Kong stared at him. "Thank you for the answers," he growled. "And if I don't catch a case I'll see you and 'Hele this weekend."
As he left Kong let out his breath. God. He sure hoped Fat knew what he was doing, cause at this rate both Steven and Rowan were going to come apart and take them all down with them.
And Steve better show up to this camping thing, cause he was the only one who knew about that outdoorsy stuff. If he bailed, there was no way Kong was going up that mountain on his own. No way.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
It took Conejo almost an hour to go through all the data Wo Fat had on Rowan ad Steve's disastrously abusive relationship. He took Con through it form the beginning, and how yes, everything took a turn for the worst with Steven after she met him, but the only reason Rowan met him in the first place was because Steve chose Catherine and told Rowan to get out of his life. When Rowan had nowhere else to go.
Wo Fat went through everything that he had done. From kidnapping her, to letting her get under his skin, to his eventual shooting of her and everything after he did to make it up to her. He went through how Sandy was created and why. In great detail he described each and every time that Steven put her in harms way, each and every time she took on people she had no business going up against to help him. Each and every argument, each time she called him afraid and crying, each time he had to step in to save her from Steven.
Through each explanation came the questions. Conejo just couldn't understand how there was two years of this nonsense. That after being alienated, drugged, kidnapped, and made to feel inadequate every time Steven chose Catherine, why the hell had she settled into a relationship with him? An almost year long relationship where that man flat out refused to give her a label or call her his girlfriend like she so desperately wanted? Why did he slide back into dating Catherine? Simply because she wouldn't kick Wo Fat out of her life.
Had Rowan not meant anything to him? How could she not have? When any man would be more that lucky to have a girl like her in their lives.
With each question Wo Fat could see it finally settling into Conejo's mind. Rowan and Steve were toxic and that toxic relationship was why Rowan had been out at the airfield the night she had been grabbed. That it was Steve's fault that they had an argument that he should have never ended that argument with him threatening to marry Catherine if she didn't drop Wo Fat. And it was Steve's fault that seventy-two hours later, Wo Fat's getting a video of Yakuza torturing Rowan.
With all the sordid details laid out for him to see, Conejo understood why Wo Fat had kept them apart. Yes, Steven was remorseful and repentant now, but he never stayed that way. He was always like this when Rowan did one of her runners. A few days after he got her back, they'd be back to the same old ways.
"She can't know, Con," he told him. "If she knows she'll go back and… I can't pull her out of another basement like that… I can't go through that again. And I know I will because if they get back together, the first thing he'll do is make sure we never see her again. Then the second I'm out of her life he'll do something stupid and chase her away again and then what? What will happen then?"
"Well… I unno… for starters… she has better control of her powers now so she'll probably get away easier."
That was true. Now that she had her a lock on her powers, she'd probably be able to get out of the basement before he knew she was even there.
"Powers or not, I don't want her to ever be in that kind of situation again."
Conejo nodded. "I get that… and you're right… the two of them… they're bad together… but maybe… maybe we just need to make sure that they're… together, together."
"What does that even mean."
"He only gets her back if he marries her," Conejo said with a shrug. "Like I put a shotgun to his head and tell him he either marries her or he never sees her again."
"You put him within arms reach of her and he's not going to leave without her."
"Then I'll fucking shoot him."
Wo Fat shook his head. Rowan would never let him kill Steven, and there was no way that he wanted Rowan legally bound to the man that wanted to keep them separated for all eternity.
"Well I'll think about it. But until we figure it out… we're not telling her."
"Oh no, that's a given."
Well at least Conejo mostly understood. He hit Wo Fat with a deep sigh. "This is fucked up. Why couldn't she have just loved a normal guy, huh?"
"I ask that everyday, but Rowan's never done anything the easy way."
"Do you think Shioma really lost her?"
"I would believe it if she wasn't concussed. Rowan isn't very mobile when she's concussed."
"You think she did something to Rowan?" he asked.
"I don't think she's stupid enough to have hurt her. But she might have… given her to someone else, maybe until things die down."
"What happens when you find out that she betrayed you?"
"It wouldn't be a betrayal it's not like I have any real loyalties to her or vice versa. But uh… I will be quite vexed if this was her doing, especially since Rowan was so kind as to send you down to help her father in the first place, and I was nice enough to come through on Rowan's I.O.U. I didn't have to do that."
"Quite Vexed," he echoed with an amused chuckle. "So proper. Care to translate that to slang?"
"If she did it, both you and I are going to have a little fun showing her what happens when people mess with our sister."
Conejo grinned at him, and despite the seriousness of the situation Wo Fat found himself grinning back. "How big was that I.O.U.? Does she even know?" Conejo asked.
"12 million yen," Wo Fat said with a sigh, sinking back into the couch.
Conejo was adequately surprised. "Holy shit… can we even cover that?"
"Sure, it's just a hundred and twelve thousand dollars and some change. I rounded it up to a hundred-fifteen to make up for anything Rowan might have done in the jump or anything she might do later."
That was a smart move, Rowan was notoriously clumsy and she was often getting into trouble like that. The computer between them chimed and Wo Fat lunged for it.
He read over the email and groaned. "Kong's got her. She's on a plane."
"Heading where?"
"Russia."
Now it was Conejo's turn to groan. "One of the Stepanov's is still alive."
"Obviously the younger. We'll have to get to her en route. Which means I need a smaller faster air craft."
"This is going to be expensive, isn't it?"
"For me, yes." He quickly got up and moved towards door where his suit jacket was waiting for him. He quickly began to unroll his sleeves. "Get your mask. It's going to get bloody."
The grin on Conejo's face was practically demonic and Wo Fat was certain that it matched the one on his face.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
When Rowan woke up, not only was her head in absolute agony but everything had a fuzzy tint to it. Almost exactly like the time that she had woken up on a plane on the way to Japan after Steven had drugged her. She sat up, forcing her stomach to stay where it belonged, and got a good bearing on where she was and nearly screamed in frustration.
She was on a fucking plane.
A plane!
Dear god, if she was waking up on that plane to Japan on the way to interrogate Riku Sato to find Adam, she was going to fucking punch Steve in his beautiful fucking face. Then she might tell him that she loved him and maybe get things right this time.
But when she finally managed to get herself up, she found herself looking into several face, none of where were familiar, so she doubted that they were friendly.
"Good morning, sleeping beauty."
Rowan just blinked her eyes at them. She wasn't certain where that voice had come from. Until a man with the unkindest face she had ever seen waved at her.
"Over here."
Rowan just glared at him. All the men were in black outfits, variations of black dress pants and white shirts. The leader was the only one that was in that combo and wearing a jacket. As if the tacky, way too big dinner jacket was what made him leader material. His face was thin, his eyes beady and narrowed in her direction, his smile yellow and almost animalistic. He meant her to be afraid of him. She wasn't.
"I. Hate. You."
The leader and his cronies cackled at her and for a moment her head felt like it might explode.
"No, Seriously. I absolutely loathe you. I don't care who you are. As soon as I can calm my head all of you are dead. For you I'll be monstrous."
The cackling continued and Rowan flopped down to the seat she was in. She assumed she had a whole row to herself. It took a while of deep angry yoga breaths to clear her head.
"Don't you want to know where we're going?"
"To hell. You're going to hell. I'm going to take you there myself."
She tried to focus on the void but everything was swimming and the strings wouldn't stay put.
"No, my friend, we're going to Moscow. Good ol'Russia. We have someone who can't wait to see you again. Settle an old score. Willing to pay quite the pretty penny for you… alive."
Rowan didn't have to guess who that was. Irina clearly didn't succumb to her injuries like Rowan had wanted her to. That's what she got for not checking to make sure she was dead.
It took all the anger in her to get her onto her feet. To turn that ice in her eyes onto the men across from her. Though the leader grinned there was a shakiness in his followers.
"I'm not going to Russia," she told him, holding herself as straight as she could, hoping to emulate the authoritative presence that Wo Fat held and the dangerous aura of Conejo.
Again, the men in the cabin with her laughed.
"I'm going to give you one chance, one chance to land this plane and let me go… or I will make you wish that hell was where I sent you."
The leader stood, but he didn't come near her. He was amused, no doubt. "And what are you going to do? You are unarmed, unbalanced and alone. Your brother and your bodyguard are not here. You can't take all of us and I doubt you can fly a plane on your own. So… again… what are you going to do? How are you going to stop me?"
Rowan knew better than to use the word magic, especially since she was still having trouble harnessing the strings, even to just open a portal beneath their feet. Let them drop out of the sky for all she cared.
And then she remembered what her father had said. That her power came from her emotion and that part of her controlling her powers had been harnessing those emotions. And what had started the Colombia incident? Fear and anger.
Well, she was pretty fucking afraid and she was definitely angry.
She donned her brightest grin and turned her eyes up to look the leader square in his face. "Did you know… in Colombia… they call me La Bruja. Do you know what that means?"
"No, why would I?"
"It means witch," she told him, pulling on that anger at ending up here when she had been so nice to Michelle. She pulled on that fear that she wouldn't be able to get out of this one. And lastly she pulled on all that heartbreak she had harboured in her broken heart.
She focused on the anger of loosing Steve to Catherine, the pain and agony every time she saw those wedding pictures in the darkness behind her closed eyes. The anger she felt for Gabriel who had ruined her, mind, body and heart over money and pride and despite her best attempts was still alive. The mourning she felt for the family she lost, for the family who would never know her, for the family a whole universe away she couldn't get back to. She held onto it all tightly, sending the fragments of it's power back into that starburst scar on her back. It was going to be their ruination.
"Didn't your mother ever tell you? Never piss of the witch!"
She spread her arms wide and screamed, just like she had in Colombia. And just like in Colombia the door to the void opened. Except this time, she was in control.
Tendrils of orange electric flew from her, surrounding her in one giant bubble that she sent forth throughout the plane with the command to destroy all that it could.
For a second everything blinked, everything shuddered in the wake of that static shock. And then the plane fell out of the night sky and into the jungle below.
