skycloud86

Afterlife
By skycloud86

Summary: For the characters of 24, there is life after death.
Rated: PG-13
Characters: Nina mainly, plus almost every other major character at some point
Status: In Progress
Chapter One: One Bloody Day

She didn't expect this at all. Then again, she didn't expect to wake up. As she sat up, Nina noticed that not only had the bullet wounds disappeared, but she wasn't even on the dusty floor of CTU anymore. She was floating in a sea of tulips, with the sun caressing her ivory skin and a sweet breeze flowing through her ebony hair. Unsure of what the hell was going on, Nina looked around, a look of pure confusion on her face. Standing up slowly, she stretched her arms and legs and noticed a cluster of buildings close by. Walking towards the buildings, which appeared to be houses, she heard a female voice calling her name. Looking around to see who it was, she was shocked to see that it was someone she had assumed she would never see again.

"Hello, Nina. I see your time finally ran out", said Teri to a shocked Nina. Nina looked at her with confusion, and gently touched Teri's arm, as if to prove she was more than an hallucination.

"I guess it did, Teri", Nina replied, trying not to show any emotion in her voice or face. She had no idea why a long dead woman and herself, who was almost certainly dead as well, were stood in a field having a conversation.

"Did he do it, Nina?", Teri asked, and Nina wondered which answer Teri wanted.

"He shot me, once in the shoulder and then three times when I was lying on the floor. That's the last thing I remember, but the bullet wounds are gone", Nina explained. Teri's reaction was to sigh sadly.

"Lovely. Nina, I never wanted him to kill you to avenge me, even in my last few minutes", Teri told her, her eyes welling up with tears. She had died violently and certainly didn't want or need Jack to kill Nina in revenge. Noticing Nina looking down at where the bullet wounds had once been, she explained their situation.

"We're dead, Nina, and now we live in what is known as the Afterlife", Teri spoke, to which Nina raised her head quickly. Although not religious, she had assumed that if there were an afterlife, that she would never be in the same place as Teri Bauer, or any of the many people she had slaughtered.

"We all come here? No matter what a person did in their life?", Nina asked, shocked at the fact.

"Yeah. Everyone who has ever lived and died is here. We're in Nueva Los Angeles, in the Nueva California region", Teri informed her.

As Nina's body was respectfully placed into a black body bag, Jack sighed quietly to himself. He took one last look at Nina's now grey face before the bag was zipped up, and tried to put Nina out of his mind, telling himself that he could obsess over her after the virus threat was over. Making sure he had wiped all emotion from his face, he walked back into CTU and returned, as determined as ever, to his job.

Nina and Teri had walked into the town, with Nina looking at the faces of everyone they passed. Knowing that these people were now dead, she wondered if she would find anyone else she knew in her life. That was answered when a small and angry young woman came up to her.

"Nina Myers! So you finally join us in the Afterlife, then?", Jamey Farrell asked, her voice full of anger towards the woman who had took way her life and tore her away from her son. Nina looked at Jamey and decided to be sympathetic in her reply.

"Hello, Jamey. If it's any consolation, it was because of you that I was caught. There was a camera in that room, and even though I deleted the footage, I didn't know of the digital backup", she explained, and was glad to see that it calmed Jamey down somewhat.

"I know why I did what I did, Nina, but why did you?", Jamey asked. Although she had died hours before Nina had been discovered as the mole, she had been given information from Teri as well as CTU agents who had died after her.

"I made some bad choices, some bad mistakes, Jamey. I don't think I could explain it much more than that", Nina told her. She had indeed made some bad choices and mistakes, but she also knew that a normal life was not what she wanted. She craved excitement, and killing people just happened to have been part of that.

The car lit up the early morning sky as it burst into flames, completely incinerating Amador and his driver. Saunders had managed to place a bomb into the briefcase of money he had given Amador, and the plan to get rid of the greedy worm had worked. As for Amador and his driver, the biggest shock was not when they first discovered the bomb, or when it went off, but when they woke up surrounded by flowers.

"What the bloody hell is this?!", Amador spoke in his English accent, catching the attention of Nina, who made a beeline for him.

"Amador! Nice to see you again", Nina shouted, her voice dripping with sarcasm. Amador looked nervous as she approached, and closed his eyes in fear and as soon as he opened them, Nina gave him one hell of a slap.

"Are we dead?', Amador asked, the question sounding strangely normal.

"Yes. Let's swap death stories, shall we? Jack killed me when I attempted to escape from CTU because you double crossed me. Now, who can I thank for killing you?", Nina spoke, one of her famous smirks growing on her face as she finished.

"Saunders, the man who was going to buy the virus from me", Amador explained. Nina snorted at the irony.

"So, the double crosser becomes the double crossee, Michael?", she replied, with no effort to hide her amusement.

Gael Ortega groaned in pain as the virus ripped the life right out of him. Praying silently in Spanish, he thanked God that his suffering was over and that he had been strong enough not to kill himself, being a devout Catholic and therefore a strong believer in the sanctity of life. As he closed his eyes for the last time, he thought of his wife.

As if he had just taken a nap inside the hotel, Gael Ortega woke up in the field just outside Nueva Los Angeles. He wondered if the place was Heaven, if he had been rewarded for his faith. Recognising Nina Myers, however, he began to doubt that.

"Hello, I'm Nina. Long story short, you're dead and this is the Afterlife", Nina told him. Gael stared at her for a few minutes in shock.

"I assume this is neither Heaven or Hell?', Gael spoke. He didn't know Nina personally, but he had heard of her and had been horrified at what she had done. Even so, he was angry at Jack for thinking he was God, thinking he had the right to take life for his own selfish reasons. Even so, he had not voiced his anger to Jack because he was not just a Catholic, but also a CTU agent and he knew that innocents needed his full attention.

"No. Who are you, by the way?", Nina asked. She had seen him at CTU, but had no idea of who he was.

"Gael Ortega. I'm, well, I was, a CTU agent. I was trying to deactivate this device that would have spread the virus through the air ventilation system of a hotel, but I was too late and I was one of the first to die", he replied. Nina looked at him and allowed herself to feel sorry for him

Ryan Chappelle looked down at the gravel with fear in his eyes. he was knelt down in the train yard, with Jack Bauer standing behind him. Saunders had ordered him to be killed and he was trying to be brave, trying to not let himself look weak or cowardly in his last few moments, although noone would have blamed him id he did. Offering to kill himself rather than place the burden on Jack, he placed the cold gun against the side of his head and tried to build up the courage, but to no avail. Handing back the gun, he closed his eyes and prayed for a quick death. The last words he heard were those of Jack pleading with God to forgive him for the sin of murdering a innocent.

Ryan Chappelle looked up at the cloudless blue sky with a mix of confusion and joy. He was still apparently alive, although the last thing he remembered was falling towards the gravel. Now, he was lying on his back in a field of flowers, with no bullet wound evident in his head. Someone staring at him caught his eyes, which widened as he recognized Nina Myers. Thanking her as she helped him up, Ryan looked around and Nina could guess what his first question would be.

"I'm sorry, Ryan, but you're dead. What happened?", Nina spoke, and both of them were shocked to hear the sincerity of Nina's words.

"Jack, he killed me. He had to, though, the terrorist who has the virus demanded my death because I was getting close to him", he explained. Noticing Amador, and then noticing that Nina had no bullet wounds and that Amador didn't have severe burns, he wondered what had happened.

"It seems that when we die, we all come here, to this place. This town we're in, it's called Nueva Los Angeles", Nina explained, pre-empting Ryan's question.

"I suppose Jack is off the hook for my murder?", Nina asked, a look of sadness as well as anger in her eyes. She couldn't care less about vengeance, but it angered her that Jack could get away with some much more than everyone else, that he didn't have to live up to the high moral standards he imposed on everyone else.

"Yes. I'm sorry, but there were no other witnesses, and Jack blocked the camera", Ryan informed her. Although he didn't really have any sympathy for the terrorist and mass murderer, he didn't believe that she deserved to be murdered.

Theresa Ortega was silently crying as she took Gael's possessions out of his desk. She had been told about his heroic actions inside the hotel, and this had comforted her greatly. Noticing the gun and a chance to take it without anyone seeing, she stood up and made her way down the stairs. Watching the man responsible for her husbands death, she looked at him with angry eyes, before pulling out the gun and shooting him twice in the chest. Dissolving into tears as she was apprehended, she screamed out that he was a murderer, that he had killed her husband and, as Stephen Saunders passed away, even though they had not identified the last courier, noone in the office blamed Theresa Ortega for her actions.

Glad to be out of his shackles, Saunders stretched his arms and closed his eyes as he did. When he opened them again, four people whose deaths he was ultimately responsible four were gazing down at him. He recognized Nina, the victim of Amador' greed and Bauer's angry vengeance. Ryan, a dedicated and very by the book government employee, whose death was supposed to slow down CTU's efforts to find Saunders but in reality had little effect. Amador, the greedy and vile arms dealer who Saunders had very little sympathy for. The fourth, he didn't know, but he knew that the man had died in severe pain because of his plot.

"Welcome to the Afterlife, Stephen", Amador stated.

skycloud86

Afterlife
By skycloud86

Summary: For the characters of 24, there is life after death.
Rated: PG-13
Characters: Nina mainly, plus almost every other major character at some point
Status: In Progress
Chapter Two: Discovery

It had been a very strange few days, to say the least. Nina still hadn't gotten used to the idea that not only was there an afterlife, but that she wasn't burning in Hell like she had assumed she would be. Not being religious in life, she didn't really believe in Hell, but she had known since the day she killed for the first time that she was definitely on her way there and no amount of redeeming herself would help. So far, she liked the Afterlife, but she was troubled by a small part of her that constantly told her that she didn't belong there, didn't deserve to be living free of suffering. The scars from her numerous encounters with torturers had vanished, her porcelain skin free of the man-made blemishes she had proudly considered trophies -after all, she knew that torture was used by angry people, people who lacked the intelligence or wit to extract the information in any way that didn't involve inflicting unnecessary violence on another human being. Chuckling to herself as she realised that, in some way, she herself was a torturer - not of terrorists, of course, but of souls - she looked around the busy street she was standing in. Nueva Los Angeles was populated by people who were so different in so many aspects that the only constant was that they were dead. Noticing the CTU agent known as Gael, she wandered over to him and sat down on the marble bench next to him.

"You seem conflicted", Nina asked him, sounding strangely like a psychiatrist. She knew almost everything there was to know about psychology, but she had never imagined herself playing the part of a contemplative shrink. Gael looked at her with some confusion - the Nina he had heard about didn't seem to have time for the feelings or troubles or others, and why should she be any different now that she was dead?

"When a person lives his whole life as a devout Catholic, when he attends church regularly, when he places faith in an all mighty and all knowing God, he expects that people like him will be rewarded after death, in Heaven. People like you, at least according to my religion, should burn in Hell, suffering for their sins, but I am not in Heaven, and you are not in Hell. I have never questioned my faith, but when the good and the bad live together after death in the same place, it feels like a cruel, cruel joke", Gael replied, his eyes fixed on the cross he held in his hands. He had fashioned it out of two sticks and a string. Nina looked at him and contemplated her answer. Even though she would never understand the fervent faith religious people had, she did understand that Gael's whole belief system had been shaken. Hell, even hers had been too, what with the existence of an afterlife and all.

"Maybe this is just temporary, maybe it's like a second chance, even for the most faithful", Nina suggested, hoping that it would comfort Gael in some way. She didn't know him at all, and didn't really care much about him, but she had seen him praying, seen him holding the cross in his hands as he whispered a Spanish prayer. Gael looked at her and couldn't help but smile. Maybe he had misjudged Nina Myers, maybe there was a human within that shell.

Back in the Living World, and Jack Bauer was stood outside CTU. The sun was setting on what had been one of the more peaceful days Jack had experienced in recent years, and he was enjoying the sight of the sky and it's performance art, as the colourful clouds floated past the retreating sun. Memories of the events of a few days ago were forgotten, and he couldn't care less. Since that day, it had been painful. Trying to keep off the heroin, his crutch for months. Trying to repair the damage he had caused between him, Kim and Chase. Trying to be a friend to a distraught Michelle after Tony's arrest. Trying not to remember the few moments he had shared with Nina before he took her life from her. Although he didn't enjoy murdering people, he told himself that her death was necessary, that innocent lives could be saved if she was gone. He knew that he regretted it but then again, he had a lot of regrets when it came to Nina Myers.

The Afterlife had shorter days and nights than the Living World, and it had been night-time for a few hours now. Although sleep was no longer a necessity, the vast majority of the population still indulged in a few hours of slumber, as if it were one of the few thin strands of the rope that connected them to their previous lives as mortal human beings. Gael had slept little since his untimely arrival, and tonight was no different. Walking along the side of the gentle stream that ran through the middle of Nueva Los Angeles, he held his makeshift cross in his hands and whispered to himself in Spanish. He considered the implications of the entirety of humankind coming to the Afterlife, not being judged by a higher power, not being punished for their sins or rewarded for lives well led. He looked up at the stars that illuminated his face - the Afterlife shared the same sky as the Living World, and he could recognise the constellations - and he decided that Nina's theory could very well be right, that it was a sort of second life, second chance. He could only wonder what he had done to require such a chance.

skycloud86

Afterlife
By skycloud86

Summary: For the characters of 24, there is life after death.
Rated: PG-13
Characters: Nina mainly, plus almost every other major character at some point
Status: In Progress
Chapter Three: Can We Accept This?

After a few days of being in the Afterlife, Nina had grown used to the idea of this celestial immortality, and had started to spend hours sitting beneath a huge palm tree that sheltered her from the often blazing sun that warmed the Afterlife. Most of this time was spent thinking, and most of these thoughts were about nothing in particular, although Nina found it hard to resist not thinking about Jack. She knew that by the end, he had grown to hate her with a passion few could comprehend, but that didn't stop her thinking about how it had all been when they had had the affair. Drunken nights of wild sex had been followed by mellow mornings of sweet love, and although both knew that they were never going to have more than a quick fling between them, it felt so much more special than that.

As for Chappelle, he had begun to love the Afterlife, and to his surprise found it much easier to make friends than it had been in the Living World. Maybe it was because he wasn't a bureaucrat anymore, or maybe it was because everyone was dead and everyone knew that they were going to spend eternity with each other. He had had an emotional reunion with his parents, a couple he had always admired and looked up to. He remembered his first day as a federal agent - his parents had been so proud and they had made sure that he knew about it. Rising up the ranks was easy for Ryan and he had soon found himself high up in a new federal agency, the Counter Terrorist Unit. It had been set up after the first Word Trade Centre attacks in 1993, and Ryan knew that terrorists were getting closer and closer to a major attack on US soil. Thinking back not his first day at CTU, but to his last both as a federal agent and a living mortal, he knew that he couldn't blame anyone for his death but Stephen Saunders. He had heard from people who had died after him that his death was pretty much unnecessary in the end, but he had seen and heard enough in his life and career to know that in times of crisis, sometimes you had to make hard decisions in the heat of the moment, in order to prevent a disaster.

Gael had decided not to give up his religious faith, and he had begun to construct a small church. It was actually a very impressive structure for something made by one man who had never even put up a shelf, never mind build a church. It was about the same size as a garden shed, with a wooden cross above the door and a window on one of the side walls. Inside was a bench and a notepad on which Gael was trying to write down as much of the Bible as he could think of. Although the Afterlife did have books from the Living World, it didn't have any religious texts as the Afterlife was pretty much the final destination for all of humanity.

Cale, who had met his fate at the treacherous hands of Nina in that old Mexican church, noticed her sitting under the tree, and decided to join her. Nina looked surprised as he sat down.

"Did it work out?", Cale asked. He hadn't been told about Nina's last few hours, and he didn't know for sure whether he wanted Jack to have been telling the truth or not.

"No, it didn't. I didn't have a choice, Cale. We would have both been dead in that church if I hadn't gone along with Jack", Nina replied. Although the decision to kill Cale was not one she really regretted, she had liked, and trusted, Cale a lot more than she liked or trusted her other bodyguards. Maybe it was because Cale himself was like her - he had betrayed a close confidant himself, had had to live a lie for years working undercover. Course, he was nowhere near her level, but he hadn't needed to be. Cale accepted her answer, and moved on.

"That Bauer guy, he still alive?", Cale asked, as if it were as simple as that. Jack wasn't the kind of person you could get rid of easily, and it was even harder to kill him.

"Yeah, as far as I know. He knows how to survive, it's one of the many things we had in common", Nina replied. They had been each other's other half, the yin and yang, the lightness and the darkness. Nina knew that Jack would never face any other enemy who was so like him, and maybe that was a bad thing for Jack. She knew that her being alive had given him a reason to fight, a reason for what he did for CTU and his country, and now that she was gone, he would have to find more fuel for his fire.

skycloud86

Afterlife
By skycloud86

Summary: For the characters of 24, there is life after death.
Rated: PG-13
Characters: Nina mainly, plus almost every other major character at some point
Status: In Progress
Chapter Four: After The Meltdown

Shot in the back. By his own son. For most people, that would constitute the ultimate betrayal. Although this was also true for Navi Araz, he had felt betrayed by Behrooz many times before and once more wouldn't matter a bit. As he died, he didn't think of his family, he thought of the cause he considered himself a martyr for.

A confused Navi wandered through the field, wondering if this was all just some strange hallucination. He considered the possibility of being in a coma, but he hoped that that wasn't the case. Feeling for the gunshot on his back, he was surprised to find nothing out of the ordinary. Heading for a nearby town,. he hoped that he could find some answers to the growing number of questions he was asking himself.

Looking at her oxygen tank with a sense of urgent determination, Lucy Stiles was fighting hard against a naive will to live. She told herself that death at her own hands would be far more preferable than death by nuclear fallout. Victory came and with shaking hands, she turned off her oxygen and closed her eyes to await death.

Opening her eyes, Lucy was pleasantly surprised to see not her home, but a field of flowers basking under a warm sun, and a sky of deepest blue. The scene was heavenly, but the secular Lucy was careful not to assume anything about this strange new place. Laughing with delight as she breathed unaided for the first time in years, she closed her eyes and laid amongst the flowers.

When something takes over your life and doesn't want to let go, it can cause great pain and anguish. For Dina Araz, it proved fatal. As she was shoved into another room and unceremoniously put down like a dog, she regretted only one thing - that her son had been dragged into this whole mess. Taking her final breath, she prayed that Behrooz would escape from the murky terrorist circles that he had been forced into.

A sunny sky and sweet flowers were a welcome change in scenery from the dank warehouse where Dina had met her untimely end. Standing up and surveying her surroundings, she noticed her husband. The romantic in her wanted to run and kiss him with all the passion she could find inside her. The mother in her wanted to hurt him badly for putting her beloved son in danger. As they met, both were unsure how they would react, before Dina swiftly slapped Navi hard across the face. Glaring at him, she walked away, ignoring him as he called out her name.

For Paul Raines, his death was a rather unremarkable event, seeing as he was unconscious at the time. For the people who loved him and the people who witnessed his death it was a terrible loss, one which only darkened an already bleak night.

Opening his eyes slowly, Paul quickly squinted as the light attacked his eyes. As his eyes got used to the light, he realised that it was not the light of the operating theatre, but was in fact the sun. Sitting up, he realised that he was sat in the middle of a forest of flowers, which made him think that he was high on some sort of drug. This misconception only lasted minutes, before he realised that his wounds were gone. Standing up shakily, he spotted a town and slowly made his way there.

Just inches from death, Habib Marwan was deciding whether his cause or his life should be spared. To him, the answer was never - could never - be in question and he would rather die than be captured by the Americans. Letting go of the concrete ledge, he couldn't help but laugh as he saw the shocked face of Jack Bauer as he hurtled towards the ground.

When Marwan awoke, there was no high rise parking lot in sight. All he could see as he laid on his back were tall flowers and a pure blue sky crowned by a glorious sun. Puzzled, he stood up, and the fanatic within him concluded that he had been rewarded by god for his actions and that he was in paradise. The religious man inside him was more sceptical. Islam's idea of paradise was vastly different from this place, no matter how peaceful and beautiful it was.

skycloud86

Afterlife
By skycloud86

Summary: For the characters of 24, there is life after death.
Rated: PG-13
Characters: Nina mainly, plus almost every other major character at some point
Status: In Progress
Chapter Five: Black Queen

Nina and Teri were sat at the large oak table in Teri's cottage, which was in the northern outskirts of Nueva Los Angeles. In between them was a chessboard and a gulf of anger, hatred and despair. Setting up their pieces, Nina playing black and Teri white, it was as if the last moments of Teri's life were wiped from their memories. They stole quick glances at each other, neither of them willing to break the silence and speak first.

Their first moves were solely concentrated on pawns, and it was only when Teri captured one of Nina's pawns that the conversation they had planned to have commenced.

"If I hadn't heard where you were going to go, Nina, would you have spared my life?", Teri asked, finding it hard to control her emotions as she did.

'Killing you, that is my biggest regret. Not because of Jack or because you were a civilian, but because it was unnecessary and overcautious. All you heard was one simple word, but you died because of it", Nina replied with sincerity.

Returning to their game, they began a long streak of movement across the ornately carved board. Each move was calculated well and, as both had a considerable talent for playing chess, it was proving to be a fiercely fought match. Eventually another piece was taken as Nina's queen captured Teri's knight.

"Can you forgive me for the affair?", was Nina's question, and Teri was shocked. Like Nina had done before, she took a few minutes to contemplate her answer.

"I still hate you for it, Nina, and I probably always will in some way, but when Jack comes here, I will certainly try to forgive you", Teri responded. She wasn't sure if she could ever truly forgive Nina, but knew that she had forever to think about it.

The next move was another capture as Teri's king took one of Nina's pawns, and it was her turn to ask a question.

"Were you always a terrorist, even before you worked at CTU?", Teri asked.

"I was approached in college and soon became a sleeper agent. i was activated a few times over the years whilst I worked both at Division and at CTU and I killed many people, but I never killed a civilian before I murdered you, Teri", Nina responded with great honesty.

The game continued, with the tense atmosphere now far more relaxed now that they both understood each other a little bit more. Nina's queen captured one of Teri's pawns.

"Are you glad that Jack avenged your death?", Nina asked, but the aghast look on Teri's face soon made her regret asking the question.

"Seriously, Nina? You think I'm glad that you were murdered to avenge my death? No, Nina, I'm not at all glad, and I'm upset that you could ever think that", Teri responded, anger in her voice.

"I'm sorry, Teri, I know I shouldn't have asked that question. I mean, you didn't even seem that angry with me when I first arrived here", Nina replied, and the change in Teri's features was a relief, and she and Teri silently decided to move on.

Carrying on with their game, the next piece to be captured was soon taken, as Teri's bishop moved in to grab Nina's knight.

"What if your cover was never blown? Would you have carried on working at CTU?", Teri asked. It was a far less emotionally charged question than the last.

"Yes, for as long as my employers needed me to", Nina replied, a rather mundane answer for a rather mundane question.

Returning to their game, it wasn't long before Nina's king captured Teri's rook.

"Were you and Jack happy again?", Nina asked.

"Yes, we were. There were still a few problems that we still needed to work out, but for the most part we were happy. We will be happy again one day, Nina", Teri replied. The Afterlife had a way of making mortal problems so insignificant, and both women knew that whatever happened on Earth did not have to be carried around like an albatross around the neck in the Afterlife.

The game was coming to it's conclusion and, a few moves later, Teri's knight captured one of Nina's pawns. She had held back so far, but Teri wanted so much to ask one question, and decided that it was now or never.

"Did you love him?", Teri asked, much to Nina's shock.

"In some way, yes I did, but I always knew that he loved you more and that the affair was just a way of helping preserve my cover", Nina replied. Teri smiled as she listened to Nina and, for the first time in so many years, she felt respect for her.

A couple of moves later, and Teri moved her queen to take victory.

"Checkmate", she said with a smile.

skycloud86

Afterlife
By skycloud86

Summary: For the characters of 24, there is life after death.
Rated: PG-13
Characters: Nina mainly, plus almost every other major character at some point
Status: In Progress
Chapter Six: Out Of Hiding

It was a fine morning and David Palmer was enjoying the sun soaked scene from the window of his brother Wayne's penthouse apartment in Los Angeles. Sadly for him, decisions made and secrets known struck him down in bullet form. Dead before he even hit the floor, on of America's greatest Presidents of recent times was the victim of a nameless, faceless assassin. As Wayne Palmer cradled his dead brother's head in his arms, he yelled for help.

Although he had been indoors and several floors up, David awoke to find himself lying in a field. Standing up and realising the impossibility of the situation he found himself in, he could only assume that he was indeed dead, and if any part of him was still unsure of this, it was sated by the sight of a small woman staring at him.

“David?”, Sherry called as she walked towards him. She knew that it had only been a few years since her own death, and that David Palmer was fairly young and healthy. Wrapping her slight frame around him, she couldn't bear to wonder what had happened to him.

“I was shot, Sherry, in the neck by a sniper. Oh God, what Wayne must be going through right now!”, David spoke, his voice tinged with sorrow and concern. Sherry lifted her head to look at his face.

“Wayne? Did he witness it?”, Sherry enquired. She knew that Wayne had witnessed her death, and wouldn't have wished witnessing two murders on anyone.

As David and Sherry walked into Nueva Los Angeles, people were astonished to see the former President. Those who had lived through his term in office had only positive things to say about David Palmer. Many people welcomed him as he passed them by, and David couldn't help but feel as if he were President again.

The assassination of David Palmer was now major news across America, if not the world, and Michelle Dessler and Tony Almeida had both been horrified by the news of his death. Michelle, ever the patriot, had decided to go to CTU and offer her help, even though the couple were meant to attend a meeting regarding the future of their private security firm. She knew that Tony would decide to go with her and she was proven right as Tony followed her out of the door. Seconds later, the explosion destroyed their hopes, their future and their lives. The last thing Michelle sensed was the voice of her husband. The last thing Tony Almeida sensed before losing conciousness was the sound of the distant sirens of an ambulance.

The front garden of her house was not exactly a gardener's paradise, and as Michelle opened her eyes, the first thing she noticed were the flowers. Groaning as she slowly stood up, she remembered the blast and collapsed back onto the ground, where she sat for a while, wondering what was happening to her.

“Tony?”, she called out, before repeating herself when he didn't reply.

“He's not here, Michelle', a female voice spoke from a short distance away. Recognising the voice, she stood up again and looked straight at Nina Myers, the women who had used Tony, betrayed him and hurt him when all he had done was love her.

“Nina? Where are we? What's going on?”, Michelle spoke in a neutral, emotionless tone. Although she would readily admit to detesting Nina, she reasoned that Nina could be of great help to her at that point in time.

“Whever we go when we die, Michelle”, Nina responded. It could only have been a few years since she was murdered, and already so many people she had known via CTU had come to the Afterlife since then.

“Is there a god, Nina?”, Michelle asked. Not that she was religious, but seeing as there was an afterlife, maybe there was indeed some sort of higher power at work in the universe.

“As far as anyone here knows, no”, Nina replied, and she couldn't care less, as she wasn't about to start believing in any such thing.

“Do you know what happened to Palmer, Michelle?”, Nina enquired.

“Yeah, I was on my way to CTU, to see if they needed mine and Tony's help”, Michelle replied. Nina nodded then pointed towards the town.

“Come on, I'll take you to Nueva Los Angeles. There's so many people there that have a connection to CTU”, Nina said. Michelle thought of Mason, Paula, Gael. The people she had worked with who had lost their lives and now were living free of the terrorist threat.

The terrorists had managed to gain access to the building, and they left a present for CTU – one whole canister of Sentox nerve gas. By the time people had managed to get to the airtight rooms made for such situations, it was already too late for many, who suffocated to death and soon found themselves in the Afterlife. Edgar Stiles was running through the bullpit, desperate to reach one of the rooms, but his efforts would go unrewarded. As the gas took hold of him, his eyes met Chloe's, and the gaze they shared together comforted him as he died

Having breathed in toxic gas, Edgar could only assume that he was hallucinating when he found himself in a field of flowers. Slowly getting up, he wondered just how much detail could be found in a hallucination when he noticed the town on the horizon, complete with people and vehicles. As he walked into the town, he passed people that he thought he recognised, and he was shocked to hear someone calling out his name.

“Edgar?”, Michelle called as she noticed him. She felt sorry for him, as he was harmless and had only done his best to help his country. Turning around, Edgar's face lit up as he noticed Michelle.

“Michelle? But I thought you were dead?”, Edgar spoke, before coming to the logical conclusion that he himself was also dead, before Michelle confirmed it.

“We both are. Did something happen at CTU?”, Michelle asked. There had been a large influx of CTU staff over the past hour or so, and it wasn't hard to assume that something had happened inside CTU.

“The terrorists got in and put Sentox nerve gas in the ventilation system”, Edgar explained, and Michelle could only think of the bomb attack that killed so many of CTU's best agents, the hotel where hundreds had died due to or because of the Cordilla virus.

“If we're dead, do you think I could find my mother?”, Edgar asked hopefully. His mother had had to take the brave decision to kill herself rather than suffer the effects of nuclear fallout just a year and a half before.

“Sure, Edgar. It shouldn't be too hard to find her”, Michelle replied, only too happy to help him.

Knowing that he was to blame for this whole mess, Lynn McGill died also knowing that he had no choice in the matter. Having managed to regain control of CTU's ventilation system, he felt redeemed in some way, but knew that he could never make up for the deaths of nearly 60 people. As the gas infected him, he told himself that it was the least he deserved.

Lynn rubbed his eyes as he struggled to comprehend his situation. Standing up and looking around his new surroundings, he could only wonder where he was. Was god so merciful, so forgiving, thet he would allowed him to ascend to Heaven, even if he did sacrifice his life for the greater good? Lynn noticed the nearby town and realised that any questions he had would be answered there.

For one short, sweet, blissful moment, Harry Swinton believed that he had been saved from a painful death. For one wonderful moment, he knew that he would see his family again, and that he had worried about death for nothing. Then he died, and Harry didn't believe in miracles, or anything, anymore.

Hearing Lynn mumbling to himself, Harry stood up and saw where Lynn was, before deciding to approach him.

“Lynn?”, he called out, catching the other man's attention.

“Don't ask me where we are, Harry. All I know is that we're dead for sure, and that the town over there may hold the answers to our questions”, Lynn replied. Both of the men continued on towards Nueva Los Angeles.

Standing on top of the submarine, Christopher Henderson was face to face with Jack Bauer. He knew that Jack was a tough guy to escape from under normal circumstances, but if you had killed someone he loved, or betrayed him, then you were dead no matter what. Knowing that if he wanted to live, he had to kill Jack Bauer, he raised his gun and fired at Jack. The problem for Christopher was that the gun jammed, and as Jack returned his fire from a gun that didn't jam, Christopher wondered if he deserved it or not.

When the last thing you remember is watching the stars whilst dying of gunshot wounds on top if a submarine late at night, the last thing you expect is to suddenly find yourself lying in a field staring into a sunny sky. Christopher had no idea how he was supposed to react to this place. Was this Heaven? Inspecting his body and finding no bullet wounds, he could have considered himself to be slightly crazy, or maybe dismiss the shooting as some twisted dream. Instead, he decided to consider himself a dead man, and that he was now standing in the life after death.