Author's Notes
Disclaimer: Everybody you recognize is... not mine.
Ok, this story is going to require a little bit of explanation. :)
This is kind of a mesh of two completely different plot bunnies that have been clunking around in my head for weeks now:
Plot Bunny 1: This is just one of those AU's where Reid doesn't join the BAU but attracts its attention in a bad way. I'd seen several of those, but hadn't seen any where Reid's becoming a killer actually fit, given that the only real deviation from canon is just that he didn't join the BAU. This is my attempt to write a serial-killer Reid that actually fits his canon background and personality, at least to a certain extent, and to explain the reasons for the differences between that Reid and the one we all know and love.
Plot Bunny 2: This is a supernatural story, involving mythology, and gods, and Reid. It originated as a totally different crossover story with Buffy, which I may yet write, went through several evolutions after I read l. marie benjamin's "Those Campbell Boys," (a crossover with "Supernatural" which I highly recommend if you like both shows), and finished here.
This morning, this mesh occurred to me, and I decided to try, once again, to get back into the swing of writing with this story. Hope you enjoy! :)
Some notes:
This is a supernatural story. You can't tell from the first chapter, but the story will involve a lot of mythology and supernatural elements. If you've read "Those Campbell Boys," this is a little like that. A little. :)
Also, there is a "main" alternate universe (the one introduced in the first chapter), but there are several other AU's as well within this story; the concept of alternate universes plays a huge part in the plot.
Because alternate universes play a big part of the plot, please be sure to read the "Chapter ?" chapters, which are written in italics. They won't make a whole lot of sense at first, but hopefully they will eventually, and they're important to the plot. Especially read the headings – the universe numbers aren't terribly important, but the dates and the notations are, in order to understand what's going on.
You will, hopefully, eventually notice just a little bit of OOC-ness with the other main characters in the "main" AU. This is on purpose. I feel that our Reid, like all of the BAU members, has made a particular lasting positive influence on everybody else in the team, which would be absent in the "main" AU. Morgan and Hotch, in particular, should be a little harder and less forgiving than the Morgan and Hotch that we know.
Spoiler notes: This story contains major spoilers for 4x7 "Memoriam," as well as minor spoilers for, well, Seasons 1 and 2, as well as 3x16 "Elephant's Memory."
Rating note: This story is rated M, mainly for disturbing material in the first "?" chapter.