Dancing in the Dark

Summary: A post apocalyptic investigation intertwines the worlds of team Gibbs and the Winchesters when a massacre on a marine base brings both groups together. Soon cut off from the outside world, they must work together to solve the case before it destroys them all. A story of the impossible and faith.

Chapter Two

A torrential down pour of evidence had assaulted Abby's lab since daybreak. She'd barely had a chance to get her baby's warmed up, hadn't even settled into the normal groove of tunes vibrating through her office when it began. She'd lost count of how many Caf- Pow's she'd downed so far. She'd already been back and forth with Ducky repeatedly just over the first few bodies. There were eight in all and it was looking like Ducky was going to have to call in some help. Abby was feeling the strain too, but she hadn't caved into asking for another hand yet.

The plasma screen was cycling through the latest bit of details that she planned to call Gibbs down for, but she was waiting for her Psychic boss to miraculously show up. It saved her a call. Plus she was hoping for another caffeinated beverage out of the deal. She looked over her shoulder just as the Mass Spec let her know that it was finished with the first set of tests and she spun giving the overworked piece of equipment an apologetic smile. "No rest for the weary..." She explained to it as she pulled up the analysis of one of the many small leather bound bags the team had found at the crime scene. She'd found a pretty confounding jumble of articles in the bags some still as of yet unidentified.

What she knew so far was that there were charred bone fragments from an infant's metacarpal, some metallic coins that looked Egyptian in origin, and a mixture of several different herbs and organic material that had been collected from around the globe. She was trying to narrow down some of the other compounds. The sulfuric residue alone had been off the charts but seemed like it was only a thick coating on the outside of each leather bag. After hearing about how the bodies of both families had been found and the symbols in blood around the room, she was leaning towards agreeing with Ducky's original assessment of some sort of ritualistic murder spree. Yet even with her repertoire of knowledge on differing religious and cult practices she couldn't narrow down any one to coincide with what they knew so far.

Hopefully the evidence would give them some more clues.

She looked to the door arching an eyebrow that Gibbs hadn't shown up yet before she began to pour over the analysis that the Mass spec had just pulled up. "Huh..." Her well trained eyes narrowed as she read over the list of chemical compounds trying to make them fit together in her mind in such a way that she could construct it into it's former glory. "What are you?" She mused to the sample in wonder.

She's never seen anything like it.

She frowned transferring the data to the main screen as she headed over to the computer to look for similar compounds, something that she could compare it to. The pounding of keys warred with the beat of the music until the sound of her phone broke through the wall of noise to halt her typing. She smiled and picked up the phone, not a question in her mind who it was. If he wasn't in the lab then he was calling to find out what she knew.

"You are not going to believe what I found, Gibbs." She didn't mean to sound so excited. It was tragic what had happened, scary even, but she couldn't help her excitement from a scientific stand point.

"Not now Abby." Abby's guilt ridden glee was shattered at that and her whole face fell in shock and disappointment. "You can explain it to me when you get here. I need you to bring one of the bags to make a comparison of an irremovable sample on site. It will look different then the others...Blueish I think." Gibbs explained. "I know you're up to your elbows in evidence already and don't have time, but I don't have anyone else. We're at the first crime scene, Abs." He didn't leave any room for her to argue before he ended the call.

She looked at the phone in shock but didn't question. This was strange and unusual and she had to wonder what on Earth would render something on scene irremovable given the teams ingenuity, but she sort of wanted to see the scene in person anyway. This had to be one of the strangest cases they had ever worked.

Abby turned to her lab table and the boxes of evidence bags and quickly located the one that he'd mentioned. She hadn't gotten around to opening it yet, but she'd already had her eye on it, because it stood out from the rest. The leather was a different color as Gibbs had pointed out, with a dark blue hue . It was larger too, heavier.

She signed the evidence bag out, hung up her lab coat, grabbed her normal coat, and made a bee line for the elevator. She was letting her imagination run wild, pacing the elevator, nerves frayed beyond belief with wonder and worry.

The doors to the lobby opened where McGee stood alone readying to get in. "Abby?" He asked in confusion to find her moving to leave. "Where are you going?" Surely she wasn't leaving yet. He didn't think anyone on the team was expecting to go home any time in the near future.

"Gibbs needs me at the first crime scene." Abby explained in a rush before hurrying past him, evidence bag in hand.

McGee wrinkled his nose in confusion as he looked after her, but finally shrugged it off. Dusk was turning to pitch black outside and he wanted to get a chance to drink the refill he'd just picked up on his coffee before he settled in for what would be a long night of desk work. He sank into his chair and took a long swig from the cup before trying to get caught up on where he'd been a moment ago.

McGee was just settling, tracing back through base records on both families when Gibbs, Tony, and Ziva came in from the lobby elevator. "What have you got, McGee?" Gibbs motioned towards the large screen between his and Tony's desk expectantly.

McGee hurried to his feet, working the keyboard to get the personnel photos up. "This is the Granger's...Lt. Granger, his wife Hope, 15 year old daughter Faith, and 8 year old son David." McGee began, taking them on the photographic journey as he went. "So far everything we have on file says that they were model citizens, avid church goers, with no skeletons in the closet. The Lt.'s service record is impeccable, Mrs. Granger's a prized pillar of the community, and Faith and David's school records show that they're above average with great recommendations from their teachers for advanced studies." McGee explained.

"There has to be something." Tony looked appalled at the idea that any one family could be so perfect even just for outward appearances.

"Get on it." Gibbs agreed with a nod in Tony's direction, prompting him to dig deeper. He looked to McGee to see if he was going to go on but McGee had stopped and took another look at the elevator realizing that Abby hadn't come up with them, not only that but there was no way that they had time to have met her there and then gotten back here. "McGee..." Gibbs sounded annoyed that he hadn't gone on yet.

"Uh Sorry, Boss." He started to go on but the nagging worry wouldn't let him. "Did Abby come back with you guys?" His stomach sank further when Gibbs narrowed his eyes questioningly, beckoning him to explain himself. "I ran into her on the way up, She had an evidence bag, said you needed her at the first crime scene for something."

It took Gibbs a moment as though he was weighing something and then he was on the move. Where he'd removed his gun and badge for storage in his desk a moment ago, he was now picking them back up. "Everyone...you're with me." They all fell in line with the same level of urgency. "What did she have?" Gibbs asked on the way to the elevator.

"One of those leather bags, the one that was different." McGee replied en route as Gibbs pulled out his phone and dialed Abby. He hung it up a second later when it went straight to voice mail. "McGee keep trying her." The level of frustration in his voice was unmistakable.

Tony took in a breath in worry as he watched McGee following his orders. What in the hell? They'd already closed off the crime scenes. No one was even there when they left. Who had called Abby in? Why? What was she doing? He could tell one thing for sure and he didn't even have to look at Gibb's face to confirm it. Something was wrong, horribly wrong.

OOOO

"Demon sign led us here...so..." Sam trailed off looking over the symbols against each wall, where the bodies had been nailed. "Some sort of demon ritual?" He took another picture of the symbols then turned back to Dean, catching his eye in the dim light of their flash lights. "This stuff is old. Sumerian, old." Sam clarified.

"Great." Dean scoffed as he surveyed the rest of the room. "We have to get a look at those bodies...the evidence...if we can't con our way in and you can't hack into their system, maybe Cass would do some recon." Dean hoped that Cass was even on the same playing field with the blow to his faith he'd just taken, the blow they'd all taken. "Get some of those pictures to Bobby, see if he can help."

"Already on it." Sam nodded quickly.

"So a demon breaks in and kills a bunch of animals on the stairs...then ritualistically kills four people...two of them kids..." Dean motioned to the spots on the walls where the outlines were smaller then the others. "Where is the end game here? What were they trying to do?"

"This doesn't scream apocalypse now like some of the places we've walked into lately." Sam summed up, finishing for him.

"Exactly." This didn't feel right. There was an air of evil about the place, sulfur was even in the air, but nothing about this seemed to fit the bill with what Lucifer and his followers were after. "We're missing something."

"Or maybe they need more sacrifices to complete the ritual?" Sam felt like he was clutching at straws.

"If that were the case they would have done it all at once. They're not exactly shy about exposure nowadays." Dean didn't buy it. Whatever ritual this was it had to have already been completed. But what did it do?

"I don't know, Dean...something about this just..."

"I know." Dean cut him off. "It's not right." Dean trailed off as a flash of lightning flickered outside, followed by a loud enough clash of thunder to let them know that the source was close. "What the..."

They both made a bee line for the window just as the power suddenly flickered on, lighting up the house as if to make it look more inviting. It came on suddenly and all at once. It wasn't exactly a natural occurrence. It was like someone had flipped every switch in the house to on at the same moment.

"That's comforting." Dean scoffed as he moved instinctively to get back to back with Sam, both of them moving to see if anything was out of the ordinary. "You see anything?" Dean's voice was laced with worry.

"Nothing." Sam kept his voice low, betraying how unnerved he was. He hated not knowing what was coming. He looked down the barrel of the sawed off in his grasp moving his aim with his line of sight as they both circled the room in anticipation.

Dean's patience wore thin before Sam's. "Come on! Show yourself!" He screamed out. The lights coming on wasn't going to afford them much time before they attracted the MP's attention. There was a loud creak as the front door opened from below them and both of them looked down, then over their shoulders to each other, giving a nod of acknowledgment that they were on the same page...moving in that direction.

"Gibbs?" A throaty female voice called from the foyer.

They moved in tandem, Dean waved Sam past him the both of them stepping silently, avoiding the blood that was soaked into the carpet, both aimed, at the ready. They trailed down the stairs with Sam in the lead, edging to get a clean shot around the banister. He caught a smidge of black in his peripheral and turned with lightning fast reflexes, aiming at the blur as it swam into focus. Sam covered the woman quietly waiting for Dean to catch up as he sized her up.

She was wearing her ebony locks in two plats down to her shoulders and there was an array of tattoos easily seen, like the spider web on her neck...at least the part that wasn't covered up with the black and silver spiked dog collar. She wore a black t-shirt with the screen print for what he could only assume was a band by the name of Brain Matter on the front. It was fitted tight to her form matched up with what could have been a red plaid catholic school girl skirt and knee high boots.

He'd met all kinds of demons in his time...but not so many that really embraced the whole Goth look. "Stay where you are." Sam called out in warning. The demon slaying knife was tucked away, within reach, but he didn't have to announce that. "Why are you here?"

Dean joined him, shifting his aim to her as he waited to hear the answer. He narrowed his eyes though when she looked like a doe caught in the headlights. She didn't really put her hands up but he could see the fear in her eyes. Did the demon know them?

"I'm supposed to be here." She replied with a tremor to her voice.

Sam picked up on it too but he was hard pressed to trust her. It could be a trap to take them off their guard. "You don't look like an investigator."

"I'm not." She replied as evenly as she could muster. "You're not either though...Are you?"

Sam managed a glance in Dean's direction not sure what their next move was. There wasn't a whole lot to go on though and if this girl wasn't the problem then there still was one. "Why are you supposed to be here?" Dean avoided the question as they edged closer to her frozen form.

"I got a call...my Boss is here." She explained as though that would put some fear into them or at least help them think this out better.

Unfortunately they were on the wrong train of thought. "So you work for this thing? What is it?" Dean asked angrily. What the hell? Some innocent girl was working for a monster because...what? It had threatened her somehow? Or she didn't know what it was.

"Whose your Boss?" Sam asked piping in with Dean.

"Well technically I have a few...but I was referring to Gibbs." She was still terrified and Dean knew they were still missing something here.

"Gibbs?" Sam had heard a lot of Demon names but...Gibbs.

"Me..." There was suddenly a surge at the door and four people rushed in with guns drawn...all training on them. The eldest held his aim steady focusing on Sam. Dean swallowed tightly and refocused his aim on the man, as the others filed in and aimed respectively the two brothers. "Drop 'em." the supposed 'Gibbs' told them quickly.

At that point it took seconds to put it together. If any of them were demons then they wouldn't even be having this standoff. Guns weren't employed by demons...not when they had a host of other powers that could flay you alive without lifting more then a finger. But that didn't change the fact that something was here...the lightning outside that was now keeping a steady beat – the lights turning themselves on...something was still going on.

The standoff stood for a moment before Sam and Dean came to the same conclusion and in sync they pulled their guns away from the others still weary that something was coming. "Look we're not the enemy... we're just trying to find out what happened here." Dean piped in as they moved together to put the guns down.

Tony scoffed ready to give them the ' Oh so your vigilantes ' speech but trailed off as another stroke of lightning hit very close to home, close enough to have everyone but Gibbs jumping.

"Someone else is here." Dean warned them. "That's who we should be afraid of."

"Who?" Gibbs demanded as Abby, realizing that she was safe from the two she'd just met, hurriedly ducked to safety behind Gibbs.

"I don't know yet, but they're not finished." Dean promised him. " And we're just trying to help."

A/N: I decided to end it with the stand off to cut the chapter short. I didn't want to make it so long. I focused on Abby because I wanted her to be here, but I guess I should say that I do want to focus on all the characters although Tony and Dean sort of take the forerunner's place in the story. I really appreciate all the reviews and people singing up for alerts it's great to see an interest in this story.

What's to come... By next chapter we should see the one behind the murders, see both teams cut off and having to work together, and some getting to know you moments as they investigate. I really hope everyone enjoys this! And again...Please Review!! =D