Back to the Old West

By Nabiki

Part One

At last Nabiki was back home. After weeks in a special mission, the only thing she could think of was her bed and maybe some downtime with Roy. They hadn’t seen each other in weeks, but they had stayed in contact through e-mails and a couple of phone calls.

As she entered the CLHQ’s, she watched as the moms were running around looking for something without talking to each other. Sherry, Trace and North really seemed worried.

"Hey there, moms, what’s up? You guys look like someone just ate the canary", said Nabiki trying to catch up with the girls.

"Hi, Nabiki and welcome back. We need you in Section ASAP; something has developed and we need all of our best operatives there. We’re trying to round up any one that wasn’t informed", said Sherry greeting her pal. Knowing that she wasn’t too happy, Sher gave her the perfect incentive. "Oh, by the way, I'm sure you'll get to catch up with Roy, cause he's back from filming".

Nabiki had thought that maybe she could bribe Sherry into letting her go up to her room, before heading to Section, now that she was a mommy for the last couple of weeks, but knowing that she might bump into Roy, made her change her mind.

"Well, my friend, what are we waiting for? Let’s head back to Section and see what’s up."

As North, Trace, Sherry, Rita, Sly, Dragonlady and Nabiki walked inside Section, they noticed a commotion coming from the Com unit. Birkoff and Curlly were having a major disagreement about something and her red hair was about to explode. Madeline and Avillion were having a battle of who could stay more into observing everyone but weren’t getting anywhere. They couldn’t keep their eyes of each other. Operations seemed amused with all the tension but anyone could notice he wasn’t very happy with the results. Michael was there too, standing beside Operations talking to Nikita.

"I think everyone is here, Operations. What would you like us to do now?" said Northstar looking at the girls and transmitting them it was time to be quiet and pay attention.

"I would like all of you to accompany me to the observation room. We need everyone’s idea and input about this matter. Please, ladies in an order of coherent ideas and leave the cheesecake out of this. Is this understood, Curlly?" said Operations, while Curlly had just fallen out of her seat while finishing her argument with Birkoff.

Everyone entered the room, looking at Walter who greeted the ladies, laughing and commenting about each one of them. Everyone loved Walter and couldn’t help flirting with him. "Ladies, nice to have my women with me. Now on a serious note, before Operations bites my head off, I’d like you guys to help me figure out what this thing is and does".

After 24 hours, no one knew what the thing was or what it did. Most of the girls were frustrated and couldn’t keep their temper in control. Nabiki was restless and upset. She was tired and hungry. She walked up to North and Sly who were having a cup of coffee. "North, I’m going to the cafeteria for a while. I need some quiet time and mostly a little breathing space. Do you guys need something?"

"No thanks, Nab, that’s OK. You should at least take a couple of minutes and relax. Just a question though, what to you think about this box?" asked Sly.

"I’m not sure Sly but I have a theory, but I’m not ready to reveal it yet. I just need some time to put my ideas together cause I’m sure that once I say what I think you guys are going to think I’m on drugs or something", Nabiki answered to Sly’s question as she walked through the door down the corridor.

Most of her thoughts at the moment were that Roy was somewhere but couldn’t be found. That was working on her nerves, cause she missed him and needed to talk to him about this theory of hers. She was so absorbed with her thoughts; she didn’t notice that someone was walking right at her. Bumping into that person, she looked up and there was Roy. They held on to each other, laughing and kissing. "My sweet Nabiki, I can’t believe that at last I have found you. You look tired, where are you headed?" asked Roy as he kissed her temple.

"Oh, Roy, I’m so happy to see you. I need to talk to someone I haven’t been talking or watching for the last 24 hours. Let’s go to the cafeteria and I’ ll tell you what’s in my head. Oh, you look so great", she said as they headed to a deserved time out.

After finishing lunch and heading back to the room, Roy wasn’t sure if Nabiki’s thoughts were coherent. If it was true what she said, trouble was on the way.

When they returned to the room, everyone was having a discussion, very hotly. Operations and Madeline seemed amused and worried as they watched their best operatives in action. Operations then demanded everyone’s attention.

"Well, your 24 hours are over. I want an explanation and your opinion, one by one and please, try to get to the point," he said while looking at Curlly.

"Well, Operations, we have a divided opinion about this situation. No one exactly knows what this thing is. Some of us think it’s a type of bomb device that can be set off from any location in the world using the Morse code or any type of Internet connection", said North taking the lead.

"Others, seem to think it’s a tracking device. Activated by the heat of the human body, which makes it easy to locate and it sends information back to the owner in were and how many people are gathered at the moment it has been activated", said Sherry, looking at Michael, while he winked at her, proudly.

"Umm, sorry to interrupt sir, but I have another idea about this device. I believe in my humble opinion that this machine is some kind of time traveling device. I’m not sure how it can be activated, but the most unusual thing that I could find was that it has different dates, running from the 18th Century, up to the year 2000. What I believe is that can be used to change the course of history or just eliminate any person so things are to the advantage of the user. I’m sure it must belong to the Radical Extremist group "La extrema derecha", located somewhere in Central America", Nabiki said as she watched everyone’s face. They seemed to think that she has lost touch with reality, but only Operations and Madeline seemed to believe her.

"Thank you Nabiki. That has been our Intel brought from Section Two. They seem to agree with you. Walter has been leading you wanting to be sure that we could see the same thing. The mission has been decided. North, Trace, Sherry, Sly, Dragonlady, Michael, Nabiki and Roy, sorry but we need you on this one, will be time traveling, cause we understand that it will be activated at any moment. Afterwards, Rita, Avillion, Aly, Curlly, Nikita and Nikita Fire will stay on top of this situation from here. They will have the responsibility to bring you back from where you have been sent. Do not worry, I’m sure everything will be handled correctly", said Operations, while turning around and leaving the room with Madeline and Walter at his side.

"Well, ladies and gentlemen, you have heard Operations. I’m not sure of this mission and how its outcome will turn out but we must try to do our best and come back alive. We will gather in 2 hours here to prepare for whatever this may bring. Trace and Sherry, at my office ASAP", said North, extremely worried. It was difficult to do missions on its own, but to time travel and for others to locate them in time and bring them back safely, was totally outrageous.

************

Part Two

Two hours later everyone was at his or her positions waiting for the mission to commence. Members were in total silence working their psyche cause it wasn’t easy. No one knew exactly what would happen or what each of him or her would be feeling. Roy and Nabiki had been talking about this mission, trying to reassure one another about how the outcome of this mission would affect them. They had promised each other that things wouldn’t change. Operations walked in at that precise moment. "Well, ladies and gentlemen, good luck on this mission and we will see each other again…’ just as he was going to say who knows what, the machine activated on its own.

The next thing Nabiki could recall was that she was behind a dark alley. It had to somewhere between 1850 and 1875, somewhere in the Old West. Now if she could find out where she was, and specially what year it was. She looked down herself and noticed that she was dressed not with her mission clothes but with a yellow walking dress with pearl buttons and a lace collar. Her black hair was fixed in short ringlets that hanged to her shoulders. She walked out to the street to find a deserted street, where you could find a couple of horses tided. She walked into the first building she found and it was a bank or at least that was what it seemed. She scanned the room to see if she could find one of her teammates. It was a small building, with smudged glass with fragments of dust hanging in the air. It was very hot and she could smell the sweat of a couple of men waiting in line for their turn.

She looked at the tellers, and was in total shock. One of them was Michael. He signaled her, for her to understand that he was as lost as she was but he was doing his job. Well, at least it was 1 down, 6 more to go. Where in the world were the others?

A few minutes had passed when 8 men stormed inside with dark bandannas concealing their faces. No doubt in her mind, it was an assault to the bank. Nabiki looked at Michael, who motioned her to hide, cause the men hadn’t seen her. She did as told watching what was happening. She didn’t notice that Michael had slipped from his position and was at her side. There was no way out of the bank, cause it had only one entrance. They watched as the men killed the bank official, walked into the bank’s safe and took all the money. Once the men had left, Michael and Nabiki proceed to walk out of the bank with the other people in total shock. Everyone was taking to the saloon, to talk with the sheriff.

As they entered, Michael and Nabiki saw North, Trace, Sherry, Sly and Dragonlady. The women were working as waitresses at the saloon. After been interrogated by the sheriff, they were told they could not leave town, cause with the others they were witnesses and were going to be needed for further questioning.

Late that night, everyone was gathered in Michael’s room to discuss the situation. Michael was the first to talk.

"Ladies, we now know what are mission is. We are in a small town named Reno in the Nevada Territory. We are to find the men who held up the bank and bring them to justice. We can’t blow our covers, so each will have to do as said", Michael said as he walked up to Sherry, placing his hand on her shoulder.

It was North’s turn to talk. "We still don’t know where Roy is, but I’m sure we’ll here from him soon. I heard that they are waiting for two US Marshals to come in tomorrow morning. I’m sure we’ll have a clear shot of what to do afterwards. Nabiki, did you see the men?"

"Yes, I did, North. The head of the group was a man who looked a lot like Perry Bauer. It could be one of his ancestors. They know there are witnesses, so I’m sure the will be back".

"Someone said that this gang always come back to the scene of the crime to take care of witnesses just in case, so we just have to be ready for action", said Trace.

"Then, it’s settled. Dragon and Sly, you two will be in charge of checking out the premises. If you hear or see anything not common, you will contact us. Until then, please rest and we’ll have a meeting after the US marshals come. Dismissed", said Michael.