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Darkness surrounded Tony as night descended across the street. He had a perfect view of Gibbs’ house through his cat eyes. No one at NCIS knew this, but Tony had the ability to change into a black panther.
There was a hillside behind Gibbs’ house that was perfect for watching Gibbs. It was just the right height for Tony to be able to see in Gibbs’ windows at night. If he did this as a human, it would feel creepy, but somehow in his panther form it just didn’t feel like that.
Gibbs had no idea that Tony was here. Tony liked it that way. Eventually, he would claim Gibbs as his mate, but not yet.
Gibbs may be the bellwether of the MCRT, but Tony knew that in this he would lead Gibbs. He wouldn’t say it was fate or destiny. He didn’t believe in such things despite knowing with a certainty since Baltimore that Gibbs would be his mate for life.
He couldn’t explain how he knew this. He assumed that his panther side had told him the person that would make it happy, but Tony had no idea how his cat would know that. He’d been watching over Gibbs at night for years.
He had seen the seasons change before his eyes as he watched and waited. He couldn’t really say what he was waiting for, but he knew the time wasn’t right to reveal himself or his transformation, yet. It was one day as the season turned to fall and the leaves fell in red, orange, and yellows that changed everything.
A bunch of men, who looked like Air Force to Tony, entered Gibbs’ house in the dead of night. He knew that didn’t bode well for anything, especially since he was pretty sure whatever reason they had to see Gibbs was really about him. After all, there were others who could shift into panthers or various other animals.
They just weren’t in this galaxy for the most part. Gibbs was a Marine, so the Air Force shouldn’t want anything to do with him. If they did, there could only be one reason and Tony was sure it had to do with the Stargate.
He couldn’t help wondering who had actually figured out that Tony DiNozzo was really Athon Mystos of the Pegasus galaxy. Tony would never admit it, but he loved fall on Earth. It reminded him of home; made him feel like he had a bit of home here on Earth.
Tony watched the military men enter Gibbs’ house. Tony wanted to rush in and scare them away from Gibbs. Gibbs was his, damn it.
He knew that would only make things worse, however. For now, he would watch and see what happened. Only if they tried to take Gibbs away would he intervene.
Otherwise, he’d simply talk with Gibbs after they left to find out what they wanted. Of course, he hadn’t counted on Major Lorne who had somehow managed to sneak up on him while he watched Gibbs’ house. When he realized Lorne was behind him, he knew the jig was up.
He sighed as Lorne pointed to Gibbs’ house, but slinked toward it as commanded. This was definitely not looking up. He wondered what the hell was going on.
This seemed an excessive number of people just for him. Though clearly it had something to do with him given Major Lorne’s demanding presence. Major Lorne opened the door for Tony and Tony silently prowled into the house with cattitude.
Tony made his way over to Gibbs, settling down at Gibbs’ feet to make his loyalties clear and wait to find out what this was about. He didn’t expect O’Neill and Sheppard to announce that the wraith had wiped out his entire species and he was the only one left. Given they'd outcasted Tony, he wasn’t sure what to think about that.
He’d managed to talk an Asgard ship into taking him to Earth and had kept an ear to the ground for anything related to other galaxies or the Stargates. That was many years ago, now. Compared to fighting the wraith or genii, the training to be a police officer had been simple and Tony had passed it with blazing colors to join the Baltimore PD where Gibbs found him.
He’d made Earth his home and cared more for the people he knew on Earth than any of the shifters back home. Still it was a shock to find out that he was the only one of his kind. He didn’t even begin to know where to start.
What questions should he ask? What did this mean for him? What was the SGC going to do in regards to him now?
Despite knowing Gibbs was his mate, he had no idea what Gibbs was thinking about all of this. Did Gibbs know that the panther next to him was actually Tony? Tony had no idea.
“Why are you telling me this?” Gibbs demanded. He felt bad for the shifters, but he didn’t understand why all these people were in his house to tell him this.
O’Neill gestured to the panther in front of Gibbs. Gibbs glanced at the panther and then back to O’Neill with a raised eyebrow. O’Neill glared at the panther and Tony sighed, but turned back to his human form.
“DiNozzo?”
“Hey Gibbs.” Tony scratched the back of his head sheepishly.
“That’s why.” O’Neill wryly stated.
“Are you saying DiNozzo is one of these shifters that were wiped out?”
O’Neill grunted.
“And what do I have to do with this?”
“We’re not stupid, Gibbs. It’s obvious that where DiNozzo goes, you go.” O’Neill glared.
Tony glanced at Gibbs to see if that was true. He shook his head when he realized it was. How much time had they wasted?
“So what now?”
“Now, you sign a bunch of forms so that we can send you over to Atlantis.”
“Why?” DiNozzo crossed his arms and glared. He liked his life here. He had no desire to go back to the Pegasus Galaxy.
“We hope that you’re not the last of the shifters and that the others are in hiding somewhere, but we need your help if we’re to confirm that.” Sheppard butted in. It had been his idea when McKay discovered the records of all the shifters and put two and two together and got one Anthony DiNozzo. Something about looking for a particular anomaly in physicals that matched the anomalies their shifter friends had had before they’d been wiped out.
Sheppard had only followed half of McKay’s explanation. Apparently, once he’d identified the anomaly and found someone with it, it had been easy to trace the fake identity back to the real shifter. Or at least, that’s how Sheppard had interpreted the technobabble McKay had offered that supposedly proved Athon Mystos was one Anthony DiNozzo.
“I would help how?” Tony questioned.
“Well for now you and Gibbs would take over agent afloat duties on Atlantis while you help McKay and Sheppard investigate your homeworld and what/if anything remains there or where they might have gone if they left.”
Tony exchanged glances with Gibbs. He really didn’t want to leave NCIS and he really felt no pull to figure out if anyone from his homeworld was alive. “We didn’t exactly part on good terms.”
“Of course, you didn’t,” O’Neill muttered.
“What are we talking here?” Sheppard interrupted.
“I’m surprised I’m still listed on their ledger. They outcasted me about twenty years ago.”
“That’s when you made your way to the Milky Way?”
Tony nodded. He wasn’t about to go into details about how exactly he had made it onto Earth without anyone noticing until now. There was no reason to drag the Asgard into his troubles.