The Dawning Of… A New Night
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and NCIS belong to their respective creators, J.K. Rowling and Donald P. Bellisario. I’m not making any profit from this story.
Author’s Note: This story was written for EmyPink , her gift for the Secret Santa Exchange: 2009 Edition on NFA . I hope you enjoy it!
Chapter Four
Flash Forward…
Two months, three weeks, four days, five hours, and six minutes later…
Ziva David didn’t know what was going on in the realm of the living. She didn’t know that Ducky, Abby, and a team of Healers, were racing to save her life, to keep her in this realm. She couldn’t hear the Healers’ frantic movements or their worried shouts back and forth to each other of what charm to use.
She couldn’t see Ducky and Abby attempting to stem the bleeding in between all the magic being used, Abby’s voice getter higher and higher as the heart machine monitoring her heartbeat sent out loud, panicky noises, telling that its beats were too low, Ducky getting the magical paddles ready to restart her heart, if need be.
She couldn’t feel Tony’s agony at watching the woman he loved lying in a hospital bed, so pale and still that it almost seemed Ducky, Abby and the team of Healers were fighting for her, that she didn’t want to live. She couldn’t feel his pained, terrified, begging, to what every higher being there was to help keep her alive, to have her wake up and smile at him, she didn’t hear him saying he would do anything he had to do to help her find the will to live, if they only kept her alive.
She was unaware of Gibbs taking his pain, fear, and helplessness out on the hallway walls. She was unaware of his pleas to the God he had been feuding with for over twenty years, to bring his ‘daughter’ back to him, not to make him lose another one, he had already lost Kelly and Kate, he couldn’t lose Ziva.
She was oblivious of Jenny standing beside him, cursing Ari Hawari, Eli David, Bellatrix Lestrange, any and all Death Eaters, and the big bad, Voldemort. Jenny was used to dealing with things from behind the desk now, not in the field. The pain, the blame, the frustration she always felt when this happened, had faded in her mind a bit. She was less than pleased it was front and center again. Ziva, of all people, was fighting for her life, or rather, Ducky, Abby and the Healers were.
Ziva, the woman who, when she had barely known her, had antagonized their captors in Cairo, taking the attention away from Jenny, who could not have survived the torture Ziva had put herself through for her. Jenny had spent time in the hospital waiting for Ziva to awaken then too and when she asked if she could ever repay her, not bothering to ask why she had done that for her, already knowing she would not get an answer, Ziva had simply said, “Live your life, that’s payment enough.”
She couldn’t hear Tonks’ heartbreaking sobs, her hair now her natural mousy brown, instead of its customary, vibrant, pink, and tears streaming down her face, all the while whispering to herself, “It’s all my fault, it’s all my fault, Merlin, don’t let her die, please don’t let her die,” over and over again.
She couldn’t see Tim sitting far away from the rest of the group gathered outside the room where Ziva was giving up. He could admit that Ziva wasn’t fighting, if only to himself, and if what he had heard during the fight was any indication, he understood why. He had studied the human mind and body while at MIT, and while it certainly hadn’t included the effects of Dark Magic on a muggle, he could guess that with the stress Ziva was under, this might be the last straw.
He was farther removed than the rest of them, sure, he and Ziva were friends, but they had never had the father/daughter bond she and Gibbs shared, the best friend/sister thing she and Jenny had going on, the lover she had in Tony, the confidant that Ducky was to her, and the excitable little sister Abby was. He was just another friend, a good one, but not her first choice. That was fine by him, he was just glad she had someone, and if she had ever wanted to talk to him, he was all ears, as he knew she was for him, too.
Timothy McGee then did something he didn’t believe in, he was a man of science, usually, but desperate and strange times called for extreme measures. He put his head in his clasped hands and prayed.
Ducky, Abby, and the Healers, watched, aghast, as they had to stand by, for there was nothing they could do, while Ziva David, unknowingly, slipped into a deep and dark coma, soon to be lost in a place few would ever see.
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While Ziva may have been unaware of the goings on of the outside world, she was suddenly very much aware that she was no longer in the blissful darkness. Instead, she was surrounded by clear white lights, silver, gold, black, gray, and blue, all dancing around, all seeming to be trying to overtake the pure white of a glowing orb. She had a suspicion of what it might be, but she banished that thought to the back of her mind.
None the less, her hand seem to be moving toward the glowing, pulsating, little, round, orb of its own accord. She was mere inches from touching the beautiful ball of light, when a sharp voice rang out.
“Stop.”
True to their instructions, she did. She stepped back to look at the owner of the voice, and stopped dead in her tracks.
There were two people floating just above the ground, and she recognized them both. She had the feeling if she had needed to breathe, she would have suffocated. For floating inches away from her, were Caitlyn “Kate” Todd, and her baby sister, her flower, Talia “Tali” David. She swallowed, her throat was suddenly dry.
“I am dead, am I not? “ Ziva said calmly, much calmer than she felt. Inside all her emotions were running wild. She could feel anger at the fact she was dead, regret as to what had happened before the fight, what she had said, sadness that she would never see Tony, her beloved, again, Tonks and Jenny, her best friends, Gibbs, her surrogate father, better than her flesh and blood one had ever been, damn him to Hell, Tim and Abby her younger siblings, and Ducky, her Grandfather.
Not a single part of her was glad to be free of the pain, not like the other times she had been in the white lights, on a sandy beach before being ripped away. No, now she wanted, needed, to be back in the realm of the living, pain and all, for she had people she loved to be with, and a war to win.
“You’ll need that determination in the time ahead, Ziva. You’re right, you do have a war to win, which I failed to know was even a battle, you have to fight, Ziva, for all of us,” Caitlyn Todd could only be looking at her with what could called proud expectation, and Ziva soon found out why, as Tali, her baby sister, floated up to look her straight in the eyes, and her voice solemn, began to recite her sister’s fate from the Powers That Be.
“SINS OF THE FATHER… PASSED TO THE LIVING…WHO SHARE HIS BLOOD…ONE CLOAKED IN SHADOWS…THE OTHER TRYING TO REACH THE SUN…A GRACEFUL DANCER, SHE DIDN’T HESITATE … TO SHOOT WITH ONE LIFE ON THE LINE… NOW, SHE MUST PERMANENTLY DESTROY… HER SHADOW TWIN… FOR SHE WILL NEVER REACH THE SUN…IF HER SHADOW TWIN… STILL HAS HIS DARKNESS NEAR HER SUNLIGHT…”
Ziva David could say honestly say she had been scared, truly, deeply, scared to the depths of her soul, three times. The first had been when she found out her mother was dying, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. The second had been when she saw the bomb go off, and knew that Tali had not survived, that she missed her by seconds. The last had been when she had realized Ari was a traitor. This topped all three.
“What do I need to do?” She asked, needing to know how to ‘reach the sun’, to gather the strength to defeat one she had loved above all at one time.
Caitlyn Todd smiled gently at her. “We can’t tell you that, Ziva, you need to figure it out yourself. He’s your enemy; you knew him better than anyone else in the world, at one time, and you know what he’s capable of. The answer lies within you.”
Caitlyn Todd ‘walked’ over to her, and Tali stepped back. Caitlyn looked Ziva in the eyes, and told her what she thought. “I wish more then anything I could be back with them. Not as much as I used to, but the ache is still there, it always will be. The thing that sooths me, is that they have you. You love them more than you’re really comfortable with sometimes. And they love you. You have no idea how glad I am that it was you who took my place on the team, yet allowed me to still live in their hearts. You made your own spot. Ziva David, I am eternally in your debt. Good luck, and thank you.” Caitlyn Todd kissed her forehead, and faded back into the mist, smiling the whole time.
Ziva stood there, tears trailing down her cheeks, shocked to her core. She had always thought Kate would hate her and she considered her in her debt? Wow.
A light laugh startled her, and she spun around. Tali was watching her amused, from right behind her.
“One of the cool things about being dead is that you can move without making a sound,” Tali said, amusement clear in her voice. She looked at Ziva, and sighed. “I don’t blame you, Ziva. There was nothing you could have done, except also be blown to smithereens. I felt nothing, it was quick and painless. I love you, I always will, and I want you to live. Destroy the darkness, and live.” Seeing her sister’s face, she continued.
“Living, Ziva, is the true challenge. Anyone, anything can, and will, eventually, die. To keep going, to move forward, to keep fighting, to live just one more day, that is the true challenge. Live day by day, Gazette, and you’ll find what you never knew.” Tali gave her sister a knowing smile, Ziva always fulfilled her promises, and she would fulfill this one, or die trying.
Tali ran a cold hand across her sister’s cheek, and kissed her forehead, all the while softly singing the lullaby their mother had sung to them as children. “Live for me, Ziva, live for Mother, live for yourself.” With one more look at her hero, Tali gently slipped back into the mist, and watched as her sister’s soul disappeared from limbo. Now, all she could do was wait and pray, pray for Ziva not only to live, but to thrive.
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Ziva David awoke with a start, her heart awakening from its own time in limbo. Ducky Mallard, Abby Scioto, and the Healers were all smiling in relief at reviving the dark-haired beauty. Too many had died while in their care, or came into it already dead. Saving someone, especially a hero, made the sun seem to shine in their hearts for just a little while. That is, until she started sobbing from pain that no one living could fix. She had a war to fight, and she would win. Or die trying.
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Author’s Note: This is the prologue to what will be a series called The Dawning Of… I hope you enjoyed this, and will read the parts to come.
Happy Holidays, Emy!
Author's Chapter Notes:
Death Eaters attack a Navel base, and in doing so bring two very different worlds together.