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Leon Vance (leon_vance) wrote in omega_reality,
@ 2012-10-01 18:51:00

Entry tags:

*complete, 2012 10, character: alexis castle, character: april kepner, character: brian kinney, character: bud hammond, character: claudia donovan, character: derek morgan, character: derek reese, character: dominic vail, character: douglas hammond, character: elaine barrish hammond, character: eliot spencer, character: emily prentiss, character: g callen, character: john connor, character: margaret barrish, character: marty deeks, character: nell jones, character: robert callen, character: sam hanna, character: savannah monroe, character: sean hanna, character: thomas hammond, character: tim riggins, character: travis marks, character: troy bolton, dead: eric beale, dead: jenna hanna, dead: leon vance, dead: mike renko, dead: nathan ford, dead: nick green, dead: sheldon cooper

RP: A tragic anniversary
Who: public
Where: the school
When: October 1, 2012
Summary: Leon isn't the only one who's been around for two years

Two years ago, Leon had arrived to this dimension. He had thought that he was the first one and only one to arrive that day, and for a while, he'd thought he'd be the only one. He'd been wrong on both counts, except he didn't know it yet. Hetty's arrival had proved that others could and would arrive, but he was still convinced that on that day, he'd been the only one.

He probably would have continued to think that if toward the end of PT he hadn't received an email.

Breaking News - ZNN

At 8:45 this morning, an explosion on the North Tower of the World Trade Center was felt. No further news is available at this time.

The timestamp on the email was 8:48 and Leon's phone was set to retrieve his messages as they arrived.

He didn't believe in coincidences. On a Monday morning, at the same time on two year anniversary. No, it wasn't a coincidence.

"Mr. Hanna, we're calling it a day. Everyone to the house, on the double. Mr. Beale, go to the office and get me a couple of burned phones." He didn't wait for answers, but grabbed his towel and ran the short distance to the house. He turned on the big screen TV, flipping through the stations, but they were showing the same image of the North Tower burning. There was no mention of a plane though.

Leon watched, knowing what would happen next, but they had no time. Even with their powers, they wouldn't be able to save all of them. 2977 innocent people dead plus 19 terrorists, between New York and DC, 2606 of those in New York, 343 NY firemen, 23 NYPD members, 37 Port Authority officers, 8 EMTs, 125 people at the Pentagon, 55 of the military personnel. He knew the numbers by heart, and now they were watching happening again.

The moment Eric returned with the cells, he opened one up. They might have been on the run for almost a year, but the year before that had been spent knowing people, understanding the different dynamics, learning who'd do what and when. There was one man that he trusted to do the right thing, or as much as Leon trusted anyone: Jack Bennett, Assistant to the President for National Security.

"Jack, it's Leon." He stopped as the questions started. "Don't, there's no time and you can't trace this phone, besides you have more important concerns. What's happening at the World Trade Center is not an isolated event. We've seen it before, in my dimension. There are four attacks. One on the North Tower, one on the South one, one on the Capitol and one on the Pentagon. Listen to me, it's vital that you evacuate everyone from the WTC and surrounding areas. That's where we lost-" He rubbed his head when he was interrupted by questions about their location. "I'll call you after the second tower is hit. It happens at 9:03." Leon hang up and waited, hoping to God that he was wrong, but they didn't have much to wait, barely another minute before a second explosion.

Leon made the second phone call. "It's not exactly like our dimension, but close enough- Yes, I think it's some of the people we didn't get- No it's too much of a coincidence. Same day, same exact time, same floors- Yes, I know I'm jumping to conclusion, but if you don't do something, you will have the death of thousands of people on your hands. Planes hit ours, but I'm telling you that those two buildings will go down. If any of the stairwells are still open, tell them to evacuate. Anyone on the upper floor... start praying for them, because there's nothing you can do to get them out if all of the stairwells are compromised. Make sure cops and firemen know to leave too. We lost plenty of those too. Pentagon and the Capitol were targeted too; the plane passengers overtook the hostages and crashed never reaching the Capitol, and there were 125 dead at the Pentagon. Get them out, get it done and I'll call again."

He shut off the phone. Nothing would be traced, but he wanted the connection open, voice mails could be left, messages could be exchanged while they waited to see what the terrorists next move would be.

They spent the next hour watching on television and making calls. They watched as the close to twenty thousand people in the World Trade Center were being evacuated. Leon found out that all six stairwells had been hit, a deviation from September 11 when one stairwell had survived, letting some people leave the south tower. Now, the upper floors were completely cut off, and they could only watch as people jumped to their deaths or were consumed by the fire, before the first tower went down. They listened as other tragedies were reported. At 9:38 a.m., the news reported a bomb going off at the Pentagon, in the nearby New Jersey. At 10:03 the news of the bombing at a school in Stonycreek, Pennsylvania, southeast of Pittsburgh, not far from where United Airlines Flight 93, under the control of four hijackers, crashed.

September 11th had changed the game for the intelligence community in their dimension. Today had changed the game in this dimension. They couldn't hide anymore. It was time for some political maneuvering; it was time that Leon did his job.

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Alexis

alexis_castle
2012-09-29 06:37 pm UTC (link)

Alexis was glued to the TV. She wasn't talking, wasn't looking for comfort. She'd seen it, back at the base. People understood, but not really. No one really got it, not the way Ross had. He was a NYer, like her, born and raised there, feeling the pulse of the city as much as her own heartbeat

No, there wasn't anyone who really understood.

So she stayed there, watching every image, looking on as people jumped to their death, because the heat was too much and even the certainty of their end wasn't enough to stop them. She watched and she cried, silent tears going down her face as she relived the events of that day, so long ago and yet impressed in her memory as if it were yesterday. She cried for the people who were dying now and their family. She cried because there was nothing they could do to save any of the.

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Travis

travis_marks
2012-09-29 06:59 pm UTC (link)

Travis remembered that day. He was still in bed when a phone call woke him up. It was one of his foster sisters, she was in the Air Force and was stationed in New Jersey. Most of the day was spent looking at a TV; it was like even the criminals were taking a break for the day.

He remembered the day well, but all of a sudden, there were other memories. A little girl with red hair in a classroom, Elaine Barrish watching from a hotel room, a young student at MIT, memory after memory seemed to assault him leaving a physical pain with each new memory. He shut his eyes closed, but it didn't help. The memories kept coming even more and the headache increased.

Unable to take it anymore, Travis left the room and locked himself in the silence of his room.

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m_renko
2012-09-29 07:37 pm UTC (link)

Few things ever really got to Mike. There were things he cared about, things he could fight about, people he loved, but outside events normally didn't face him at all. Especially in this dimension.

This was an exception.

Staring at the TV he silently relived every feeling he'd felt that day. The panic, the fear, the anger, the grief and disbelief. Last time he'd lost his brother. He'd looked for him in that rubble, hoping to find him alive long after his mind knew that he was dead. Every day he'd been there, and now others were going to go through that same thing and again he was helpless to stop it.

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Callen

g_callen
2012-10-01 03:51 pm UTC (link)

For all that he had joked with Sam about wanting to go back to their job and fight terrorists, something simple, G had never wanted to see that happen here. That people had come from their world and deliberately recreated this tragedy...it was unthinkable and unconscionable.

But, he stood there watching, just as helplessly as he had eleven years ago from a CIA safe house in the heart of the Middle East. And, just like eleven years ago, he wanted to be there, helping. He'd gotten into the Navy and then the Intelligence game to protect his country, give the people who lived there a chance at a normal life, untouched by the violence and evil he saw every day. To stand there and watch that war be taken to the very land he was trying to protect, while he was on the other side of the world had been gut-wrenching.

Watching it happen a second time was pure hell.

There was no doubt it had to be someone from their world. It was too perfect, too similar.

Vance was on the phone. They would have to do something. To stand back and let this happen without taking action against the people responsible was as unforgivable as the act itself. It would also be too dangerous not to distance themselves from those responsible. Without even speaking to his boss, G already knew it would be help or be hunted. They had no other options.

And G watched the others, watched them all take it in. He watched while Marty sat on the floor with his girls, playing with them to keep them calm in a room full of emotions. But, G knew the young cop well enough to know it was also to soothe his own thoughts. He hadn't been a cop yet then, if G recalled. Had that been part of the impetus behind the choices he made in life after that?

G watched Sean as he stared at the brief footage from the Pentagon. Turning to look at his partner as Sean moved to give his dad a hug, G remembered that Sam's family would have been in D.C. on that day, while Sam was likely out with his SEAL team who knew where.

He looked away to give them a moment's privacy and his eyes fell on Nell, who had gone to sit next to Alexis. The normally vivacious redhead was silent and subdued as she sat with her friend and watched, just there in case she was needed. G couldn't imagine how hard it was for Alexis, who had already lived through it once, there in New York, to sit and watch it play out again.

When he took his attention away from the girls, he found Emily watching him from the other side of the room. They'd compared notes on their CIA time once. He knew she was thinking the same things he was: they hadn't been there. Duty had called them overseas when they felt needed at home.

Nodding at Emily, he let his eyes roam over the others, the stoic faces of others like them: Robert, Dom, Morgan, Marks, Renko, Reese. John, who G knew had seen more than his fair share of death and destruction, even if he didn't know the details, watching in silent horror, the usual masks the young man usually wore falling every now and then to give a glimpse of something, someone, else G didn't think any of them had met yet. The Hammond family, who would have taken a hand in things after, he was sure, just as their politicians had moved at home.

Looking around at his team, he knew they would get pulled into this, both by choice and necessity. As it had eleven years ago, life had changed irreversibly that morning and what came next would be anything but easy.

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