This is my entry for the death fic challenge.
When I first signed up for the challenge, I was praying for either Rossi, Reid or Gideon, as I knew how I would kill them off. My friend however, said that I'd get Prentiss. Guess who I got?
Considering that the closest I have ever got to writing Prentiss is by mentioning her once in a fanfic, this was a big task. Thoughts went through my mind, and nothing came to mind. Until, of course, I was randomly looking at the death tropes in the "TVtropes website" (Such a Godsend!) and I saw a trope called "Seen it all suicide"- and that basically is the gist of the idea. It is a trope which is slowly going out of fashion, and is commonly a comedy trope. So, took me a while to come up with the idea, and to write this, but I have finally done it. I don't feel as if this my best writing, but I tried.
Screw Prentiss' canon for this story. She lied about it to the BAU in this story. I am a cruel, cruel woman when it comes to writing death fics.
Anyways, I'm going to post it. Hope you enjoy!
She had seen it all. That was the worst bit about being nearly immortal. She had watched lots of people she cared for, family, friends, and lovers, die and abandon her, ever since she was born in the 1800s.
She hated her mother for this. Her mother had damned her to this fate from the moment when William Smith appeared. A year later, William her married her mother. Two years later, she was born. 5 years later, he was dead.
She never called herself by her real name- Anastasia Smith. Instead, she was always taking the name her mother forced upon her. She always had to be her mother's daughter, no matter what year, and what identity it was, she always had to be the daughter of the ambassador/politician/whatever job her mother took in each of their identities.
She thought about all those she had loved, but lost to time. Her first, and (probably) her only, soul mate, Alexander Johnson, who she had married and had two children with (both sons, luckily. She didn't want to damn them to the same fate as hers) before he had died in the trenches. Her name at the time was Scarlet Johnson, nee Woods, the daughter of the American ambassador at the time, Amelia.
Her many step fathers, who had married her mother. Some treated her really well, as if she was their own daughter. Others were cruel and overpowering. However, her mother expected her to love them all.
She smiled, thinking about the first true friends she made, after rebelling against her mother, and joining firstly Interpol, taking down a criminal known as Ian Doyle whilst being known as Lauren Reynolds. Eventually, she had joined the BAU, calling herself Emily Prentiss, daughter of Elizabeth Prentiss, who (surprise, surprise) was the ambassador.
It was easy to lie about her past to them, even though she didn't want to. She had lived for so long, experienced so many things, that she could easily make stuff up on the fly (She had photo shopped the image of herself looking like a Goth, to make sure that the others could think that she had been born more recently) and the fact that she could compartmentalize and was a good liar meant that no one ever caught her.
However, even though she had lied to them, kept secrets from them, they were like the family that she had never had. She loved them all dearly, and enjoyed being with them, even though she left the BAU eventually to head the London Interpol offices. Even though she had to fake her death as Emily Prentiss.
Eventually, though, she had to watch them all die, or leave.
Gideon left first, after watching his girlfriend being killed by an unsub, who (she thought) was called Frank. He went off the rails, before leaving his badge and gun behind, as well as leaving a letter addressed to his protégé, Reid.
Eventually, Hotch was the next to go, killed whilst on the hunt for a serial killer known as "The Replicator". She wasn't in the BAU at the time, having left to head up the London Interpol Headquarters, but she still kept in contact with them (Including Blake). She was heartbroken when she had found out that he had died, and she cried for the first time since her soul mate died.
Rossi was the next one. He had been diagnosed with Liver cancer (probably because of all the scotch he drank) and was given 7 months to live. He spent those 7 months finally admitting his feelings to Strauss, as well as making his tearful goodbyes to all of the team, before he had passed through the viel, and to the afterlife (if it ever existed)
The forth one to die was Morgan. At the time, they were investigating the most dreadful of crimes in Chicago, and Morgan had sacrificed himself to save a whole class of 1st graders. She had cried again when she had heard the news, as she was his partner whilst she was in the BAU, and she knew he didn't deserve that fate.
Of course, this lead Garcia to have a mental breakdown- Garcia was empty without her Hot stuff, who she had loved for years without saying her feelings. She had committed suicide right next to Morgan's grave. Emily pleaded the Church to bury Garcia next to Morgan.
As the years progressed, she watched her friends retiring, having families of her own (She was surprised, and happy to hear that Reid had met another girl after Maeve, and they had got married, and had 2 sons, one was called Derek and the other Aaron), and them being replaced with new recruits who she could never become friends with. Every time she heard the letters "BAU" mentioned, she always thought of her team. Not the new team.
Emily had to hide a small smile when she heard that Strauss had died because of cancer. The witch had tried to make her betray her friends, and she could never forgive Strauss for that. Still, Emily did show some respect by turning up secretly at her funeral, under another identity. She couldn't risk her living friends catching her.
However, Emily stopped smiling when she had heard that Blake had been murdered by an unsub who the new BAU had later caught. Even though she didn't know her that well, Emily still respected her, and was sad to see her go.
The next one to die was JJ, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's some years previously. JJ's misery was ended when she died in her sleep, 7 years after she was diagnosed. She had been surrounded by her children and her grandchildren (Will had died 4 years prior, due to an heart attack)
Finally, the last one to die was Reid. Poor, sweet, innocent Reid. He was probably one of the luckiest out of all of her old team- he had died in the hospital, surrounded by his children and his grandchildren.
Five years later, and Emily decided that she had had enough. She hated living forever, having to watch people come and go. She spent a couple of years doing research into her kind, desperate to know if there was a way of ending herself. Eventually, she found an ancient book in an old library in the middle of Istanbul. There was a way that she could kill herself.
This is how she found herself in a quiet graveyard one Friday morning; 10 years after the last member had passed away. She quickly saw what she was looking for- a small sprig of mistletoe. She quickly took the sprig, and got out her penknife, before sharpening the sprig to form a blade.
"Excuse me miss, are you alright?" One of the gardeners asked.
Emily sighed, "I'm fine, thank you."
The gardener smiled, and walked away, leaving her alone to carry out her plan. She carefully placed the blade of mistletoe to her neck, and quickly stuck the blade into her neck.
"Goodbye, Earth. Goodbye mother." Emily smiled happily, "I have seen what I want to see now. I don't want to live anymore. Please, I want to die."
Emily slumped onto the ground, and slowly, but surely, the life started to leave her. She saw the world around her grow black, and the world started to grow quieter and quieter.
"Hope to see you soon." Emily muttered quietly, before she stopped moving again, and died.
Meanwhile, the gardener had found Emily's carcass, quickly calling the ambulance and the police services. Her body was quickly collected, and the post mortem ruled her death to suicide. A week later, her funeral was held.
Unlike the rest of her friends and family, whose funerals were attended by many relatives and friends, Emily only had two people turn up at her funeral. The gardener and her mother. Her curse forced her to die alone, without the love of the members of the BAU.
The idea of the mistletoe comes from the Norse myth about the God of light, Baldr, who died from Mistletoe. Only females born to a female who is immortal can be immortal.