A/N: This is an Alternate Universe story inspired by, well, a lot of things. I've taken a lot of liberties and I've done a lot of research so all errors are mine. Crossover with L&O and SVU.

Pairing: B/A

Rating: T (M for selected chapters)

Warnings: All the usual; if a certain chapter requires additional warnings for subject matter I'll pre-warn.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters created by Dick Wolf. However, I do own what I've created.

Summary: Bobby, at the time, didn't understand why the tycoon wanted him when he could have hired anyone, even an entire law firm, to represent him. All the man said was that he wanted the best, and the best was him.

Prologue: South Korea, 1988

It took one strand of hair found on the last victim that finally lead them to their killer. They had been tracking the serial killer for six months and now they had him. At the moment, he was bunkered down in small wooden shack only fifty miles from the border that separated South Korea from the communist North.

Bo-Jing Tao was a taxi driver in the city and he would use his taxi to hunt. Finding women, and even men, and killing them. He performed sadistic rituals with their bodies and organs, and then he would disappear, back up into the hills, to this house, and out of the police radar until he was ready to do it again.

He tapped the magazine into the magazine well of the rifle, gave it a tug to make sure it was secure. As he took aim he heard someone coming up behind him. Turning his head away from staring down the barrel of his rifle, he saw Declan kneel down two feet behind him.

"You got him, Bobby? In your sights, I mean?"

Bobby nodded before returning to his task. Steadying the butt of the weapon against his left arm, he got down into the prone position. Fitting the butt of the rifle high on his left shoulder, he took aim once again. Switching the rifle off safety and setting it for semi-automatic, he took a deep calming breath and then waited with his finger on the trigger. He was the best marksman out of the twelve men who went up into the hills of South Korea to take down Tao.

"I hope we're able to take him alive," Declan was saying. "He's still a mystery to me. I would like to study him more, talk to him, find out his story…His arch."

Bobby couldn't help but listen to the man he had for the past six months he not only called his colleague, but also his friend and mentor. The FBI Agent had found his way around his defenses and implanted himself in his life. He had shown him a whole new light and with that a new way of living. A life where he could use his knowledge, his instincts, and his obsession to profile a person's mind. Declan taught him how to tune his already keen intuition into his most powerful tool.

"What if we don't have to kill him, Bobby? I don't want you to kill him."

Bobby blinked back as his focus blurred downrange. The sun was setting and the light was fading all around them. Looking over the front of the house, he told Declan, "We've already set the plan in motion, Dec. We can't just suddenly change it. There are ten other people here set up all around this forest ready to take this guy down one way or the other. It's up to Tao whether or not he lives or dies."

"But, what if we can talk to him? I can talk the FBI guys down, and you can talk your men into waiting as well, all that's left are the locals."

He felt the heat pulsing through him as Declan asked him that. This was ridiculous. "Why didn't you bring this up sooner? I'm not talking my men down; it's too late."

"You're their superior, they'll listen to you."

"And as their superior I'm going through with what was planned by not only the FBI but CID as well. I'm not putting my gun down to go out into the fatal funnel to tell them to do the same so that you can possibly talk to him. Fuck talking, Declan. He killed fourteen people, and God knows how many more who are unaccounted for."

"Yes, exactly. If we kill him think of all the families that won't have answers? Who won't get justice?"

Bobby had to admit, Declan had a point. It was just at the moment, time wasn't on their side. The sun was almost completely set, soon there would be no light in the thick forest. "It's too late. I'm sorry, but there's nothing we can do about it now."

As if on cue, the radio broke its silence. "Tiger One, Tiger One, this is Tiger Two, over."

Bobby lifted the radio up as he answered, "Go for Tiger One."

"We're approaching on the east bank, Tiger Three on the west. Keep the front secure. If anything goes down and you get a shot, take it, over."

"Roger that, Tiger One out." Bobby dropped the radio to the ground as he took aim once again; he took deep breaths to slow his adrenaline as he waited.

"We're the only two out here in the front. If Bo-Jing comes running out, we can get him without killing him."

"I'm not abandoning my post. If he runs out here, I'm firing." Bobby didn't say anything else as he kept his attention on the front of the little house that was settled down in the valley below him.

His position was up on a hill, above the valley, so he had a clear shot at Bo-Jing at almost any angle. Plus, it kept him out of the line of fire. He heard movement behind him and then nothing. Bobby figured that Declan had resigned in defeat and had moved to a safer distance.

A few minutes later, he saw movement down in the valley to his right and when he looked his breathing stopped. Declan was approaching the house. There was one of two things he could do: keep his position and hope the other units get to Tao before Declan made it to the house, or abandon his position and get Declan out of there.

Getting to his feet, he slung the strap of his rifle over his shoulder as he took off on a dead run down into the valley; hopefully he could get in front of Declan because that stupid man was going to get his fucking head blown off by either Tao or a stray bullet from friendly fire. Once he was on level ground in the valley, he pulled the rifle off his shoulder he set it for burst. As he was gaining speed and ground on Declan, the front door banged open.

Tao was running out, a gun in hand and was firing backwards into the house as gunfire exploded in the night. In the darkness, he could see the ignition of fire from the bullets leaving the gun as he collided with Declan, sending him to the ground. Losing his footing, and tripping over his friend, he tumbled into the side of the house and right into Tao's line of sight. Up until that moment, Tao hadn't noticed them in the darkness and in his frenzied tunnel vision eyes.

Bobby brought the rifle up the moment Tao turned to him. Gunfire rang in his ears, burning his sense of sound. He watched the fire from Tao's own gun as he emptied everything he had left into the air, the ground, and the wood of the house. All the bullets from Tao had miraculously missed him and he watched as the killer flew backwards onto the ground. He didn't think Tao was still breathing when he hit the dirt. But the bullets from inside the house kept coming, splintering the wood and sailing into the darkened night.

He reached for his radio and felt the empty spot on his gun belt as he took a step back. "Declan-"

The moment it took his mind to register that he had left the radio on the hill, he saw it. From the light of the moon which broke through the foliage of the jungle, he saw the grenades strapped to Tao's chest. Pins in hand.

Before he could get out a breath, an explosion knocked him off the ground, throwing him backwards as gunfire still erupted into the night. The unmistakable feeling of shrapnel ripped through his body and legs. Then a pain exploded in the back of his head as he screamed out. He hit the ground hard, landing on his back as everything went black and his hearing stopped.

He felt dead. He couldn't hear or see a thing as he struggled to get out a breath. As the fog of sound filtered back into his head, he heard the faint blasts of gunfire ceasing as a pain unlike anything he had ever felt filled his head.

"Bobby!" Declan yelled; the sound of it was muffled in his ringing ears. "Bobby can you hear me?"

Bobby tried to open his eyes, tried to see something as his body began to shake from the intensity of pain that spread in his chest, back, and head. There was nothing in his legs. He couldn't feel a damn thing in them.

"Help! Sergeant Goren needs medical, now! Get the chopper up here! Bobby, Bobby, stay with me. We'll get you out of here."

Bobby didn't know if he gave any indication or not; he was growing weak and tired as he searched the darkness for some light. There was too much darkness around him that he couldn't see Declan or the sky. He couldn't see anything. The weight of fatigue was pressing down on his eyelids, making it hard for him to keep them open. That was when he realized that the reason he couldn't open his eyes, was because they were already open. The burning pain he felt was easing, numbing, as his body's shaking stopped.

He was dying. That was the last thought he had before slipping into a dark abyss of unconsciousness.

TBC…