AN: This is a continuation of my Mentalist/Max Ride crossover fic, Prophecy of Blood. While Fang (from Max Ride) will be included in this story, this, the second part of the Red Reality Trilogy, will primarily be a crossover with Dollhouse instead.

R&R and enjoy!

Slinky Red Number

Chapter 1

May 31st, 2020

"Is that her?" Jane asked, looking down at the street below.

Lisbon peered through her binoculars, then compared the woman in the red dress to the photo she had on her phone. "Yes," she said. "Caroline Farrell. Finally, we have her."

"Do we really?" asked Jane. "If she is in fact a brainwashed assassin, we may get more than we bargained for if we try to engage her."

"Speaking of engaging her..." Lisbon pointed down to the street, where Fang had emerged from the building across the street and purposefully bumped into Farrell, surreptitiously injecting her with a tiny needled capsule full of sedative. Farrell continued walking on for a minute before she grew tired and fell to the ground. Nobody gave her a second's glance, believing she had passed out drunk. Fang then lifted her up by the arms and took off into the air, flying Farrell up to the roof on which Jane and Lisbon were perched. Luckily, it being nighttime, nobody noticed the genetically enhanced aberration of nature that was Fang's enormous black wings.

"What do you know," said Jane. "Well done, Fang."

Fang brushed some dirt off his hoodie. "Let's just pump her for information and then kill her already."

"She needs to face justice, you know," Lisbon pointed out. "We can't just kill her." She shot a dirty look at Jane. "You haven't been telling him it's okay to get revenge, have you?"

"Of course not," said Jane. "I don't want anyone following my lead."

"You'd better not," grumbled Lisbon.

Two miles away, clear across the downtown district, Topher Brink clacked away frantically at his keyboard, trying to activate the remote wipe before Echo could wake up and be tortured by her unknown captors. Adelle DeWitt entered the room and demanded to know what was happening.

"We have, uh, a situation," said Topher.

"How do you know?"

Topher pointed to the screen. "It's situation-y," he said. "Listen to this." He rewound the audio feed from Echo's hidden mike.

"Let's just pump her for information and then kill her already," said a male voice. He seemed to be in his twenties. Probably a private soldier of some kind.

Adelle froze. "Tell me you have the remote wipe ready."

"Naturally," said Topher, typing a final sequence on his keyboard. "Remote wiping...now."

On the rooftop, Farrell jolted awake with a gasp. "Did I fall asleep?" she asked. Nobody answered. She repeated the question, and only after properly looking around at her surroundings, she backed against the wall with a shudder. "Who are you? What do you want?" she asked fearfully.

"Is she trying to fool us?" asked Lisbon.

Jane looked at Farrell while she held her hands up to her mouth and started chewing her fingernails nervously. "I don't think so. But then she may not have been properly brainwashed lately."

"Brainwashed? What..." Farrell burst into tears.

Fang ran up to her and brandished a picture of Max in her face. "Why'd you kill her, Farrell?" he yelled. "Answer me!"

"Who's Farrell?" Farrell asked. "I don't know any Farrell. My name is Echo. Shall I go now? I fell asleep, didn't I? Didn't I?"

Lisbon and Jane exchanged glances. "She doesn't seem like she's sane," said Lisbon. "What should we do?"

Jane looked down at her. "We'll take her with us," he said. "Maybe when we get her to Sacramento she'll be better. And Fang, no murdering her, please. We need her alive."

Farrell, alias Echo, started crying even harder as Lisbon led her down the stairs and into Patrick's car. "Where am I? What are you doing to me?" she asked.

"We could tell you," Jane said, "but you'd probably never believe us. Would you believe us if we said you're a wanted murderer?"