Title: Death be not proud 7/7
Author: Ceindreadh
Email: Ceindreadh@eircom.net
Website: n/a
Permission to archive: Yes
Fandom(s): NCIS
Genre (general, hetero or slash) Gen
Pairing/Characters: n/a
Rating: FRT 13
Summary: What happened after Twilight
Warnings: Death fic (duh!).
Notes: This is a sick and twisted idea that I got after reading a post regarding Twilight. I apologize in advance but I just couldn't help myself
Acknowledgments: I don't own them, I'm only borrowing them and I promise to return them in minty fresh condition when I'm finished.
[Part 07]
"Party or no party," snapped Gibbs, "We can't sit around here forever." He groaned in annoyance. "What the hell are the odds of the entire team dying on the same day?"
"Um, probably somewhere up in the millions or maybe bill..." McGee shut up quickly when Gibbs glared at him.
"Does anybody have anything constructive to say?"
"Well I can find Ari no matter where he is," said Kate. "Plus I know the license number of the car he's driving."
"And that's going to help us how exactly Kate? We can't exactly set up a roadblock and catch the bastard. Now maybe if you hadn't dropped a boat on my head..."
"Hey, I was trying to write the license number on the side so you could do something about it," snapped Kate.
"Gee," whispered McGee to Abby, "Gibbs is just as cranky dead as he was alive."
"That's probably because he hasn't had any coffee for ages. Course now he's not gonna be getting his caffeine fix any more. Boy, this could get interesting."
A look of horror passed across McGee's face. "Isn't there anyway we could get him some?"
"I don't know," said Abby. "Maybe we could kill a mug of coffee or something."
"We could always torch a Starbucks," said Tony who had been eavesdropping.
"DiNozzo, if you have something constructive to add to the discussion then feel free to enlighten us," interrupted Gibbs.
"No Boss, I'm good."
"Right then, we need to figure out some way to take down Ari, has anybody any suggestions." Gibbs saw Tony start to open his mouth, "Any *useful* suggestions."
"I was only gonna suggest we haunt him a bit," said Tony. "Maybe shake him into making a mistake or something that'll get him caught."
"You know DiNozzo, that's not a completely bad idea."
"Probably because it was Ducky who suggested it before," said Kate.
"Well whoever thought of it, it's the only workable plan we've got so far. All right everybody, listen up. This is how it's going to work."
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Ari looked over his shoulder as he armed the bomb. His hands were not quite as steady as they used to be. Four weeks since he had shot Caitlin and he had been more affected by her death than he would have thought possible. It seemed like every time he looked in a mirror, there she was looking over his shoulder. He was getting very little sleep at night and what little sleep he *did* get was disrupted by voices telling him long rambling stories about how murderers always got their comeuppance.
Days weren't much better. Ari kept seeing figures in the shadows. Sometimes it was Kate, the bullet wound prominent in the center of her forehead. Other times it was Gibbs, his face looking like thunder.
Once Ari had woken in the middle of the night and was sure he'd caught a glimpse of that Doctor Mallard he had once held hostage. The Doctor had been dressed in surgical scrubs and looked like he was ready to perform an autopsy.
The worst hallucination though had got to be the half naked man wandering around. "I'm not gay," Ari had told himself the first time he had seen him. "It's just my imagination." It hadn't worked, and the dreams and hallucinations had increased in number until Ari was barely able to tell illusion from reality. That was why this was going to be his last assignment. After setting this bomb to blow up, he was going to go far far away and take a well-deserved period of rest. All he had to do was set this bomb.
It was a delicate operation, one that Ari would trust to nobody else. One mistake while arming the bomb and it would blow up in his face instead of being ready to be placed in position for later detonation. All Ari needed to do was connect the blue wire to the explosive charge in just the right position...
There was a sudden sound behind Ari, almost as if six people had suddenly yelled, "BOO!" Ari's hand slipped. "Oh no," was all he managed to say before the bomb detonated.
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Gibbs and the team stood round their fallen enemy. For the last four weeks they had worked in shifts to make Ari's life a living hell. The original plan had been merely to observe what he was doing and figure out a way to disrupt any acts of terrorism he was going to perform. That or communicate his plans to somebody in a position to stop him. Direct contact with anyone from NCIS had been ruled out, Gibbs having no intention of increasing the size of his team.
The plan had changed however once Abby discovered that with a bit of concentration, the ghosts could make themselves appear for short spaces of time. And it was Ducky who noticed that when Ari was asleep, he seemed to be able to hear them talking.
Ducky had whiled away many a night sitting at Ari's bedside and regaling the sleeping man with tales of the most gruesome autopsies he had performed.
And now their plans had worked and Ari was dead. And as the eyes of his ghost opened, Gibbs stepped up to him and said, "I've been waiting for what seems like an eternity for this."
He was about to say more, when Tony spoke up, "Um Boss, you know what Ducky told us about how when you die all your victims show up to get a piece of the action?"
"Yeah, so?"
"Look around you Boss."
Gibbs turned around. The once empty warehouse was filled with ghosts. Most of them looking at Ari with revenge in their eyes.
"Come on Boss, I think we should let these guys handle it. I mean, we died in the line of duty so to speak. This lot, most of them were innocents. Figure they should get to do the honors."
Gibbs hesitated only slightly before a smile came over his face. Stepping aside he said, "Be my guest," to the crowd of ghosts before him.
As the NCIS team walked away, they could hear Ari begin to scream.
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"So what happens now?" Abby asked as they walked through the walls and into the twilight.
"Well since Ari is dead, then that should break the chain," answered Ducky. "So I suppose we'll all move on to whatever plane of existence awaits us."
"But what about Tony?" asked Abby. "He's not really part of the chain. Does that mean he's stuck here on his own as a ghost?"
They all looked at Tony. "I think that Tony as part of the team had his destiny inextricably linked with the rest of us," said Ducky, finally. "All for one and one for all."
"Ducky's right," said Gibbs decisively. "We're a team and we always will be." He held out his hand. Ducky put his hand on top of Gibbs, followed by Tony, McGee, Kate, Abby and finally Gibbs' other hand.
And slowly they all faded away.
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The End
Author's Chapter Notes:
Finally reunited, what will the team do next?
Chapter End Notes:
This was my first NCIS fic, written soon after Twilight. If I was writing it now, I'd have probably included Jimmy in the dead pool!