For days after her arrest, Izzy said nothing. She answered no questions, didn't respond to anything anyone told her, and didn't act out.

At least, in the interrogation room.

When she wasn't being prodded, she was herself. The effect wasn't quite the same without her disguise and costume, but she really couldn't help it. It was so much fun, creeping men out and turning them on at the same time.

Old habits die hard.

She didn't expect to stay for long - Matthew Downs, the love of her life, was a former Marine, and he'd do anything for her. He'd rescue her. She just had to wait.

After a week had passed, however, she decided to throw the cops a bone, just for fun. So, the next time she was interrogated, before the idiot who was trying to get something out of her could say anything or even sit down, she braced her arms up on the table, laced her fingers together under her chin, and asked, "What part of 'I'm not going to talk to you' don't you idiots understand?" She widened her eyes for a moment in her signature creepy way.

The cop (or whatever) froze, his mouth hanging open slightly - her sudden words surprised him.

Izzy smiled nastily. "I'm not going to talk to you," she repeated. "Why don't you go get someone I will talk to?"

The cop shook his head slightly, recovering, and asked, "Who will you talk to?"

Izzy's evil grin widened. "I want to talk to that bitch cop who arrested me," she said. "Do you know her name?"

The cop checked something in the file he was holding. "That would be…SSA David Rossi?" he asked.

Izzy rolled her eyes. "No," she said with mock patience, "I mean the bitch cop. A woman? Straight blond hair, down to about…" She lightly traced her fingers from her neck, down across her chest, and lightly stroked the peak of her breast. "…here?" The cop's eyes widened slightly, and Izzy smiled wickedly. "Maybe longer," she amended.

The cop blinked a few times, then tore his eyes away from her and looked back in his file. After a minute, he shook his head. "I'm sorry, I'm not sure," he said; "I'll have to ask."

"I'll wait," Izzy said in her trademark seductive voice, widening her eyes momentarily again for a creepy effect.

The cop stared at her for a minute, looking more confused than anything - like he wasn't sure what to think of her. Then, he shook his head slightly again, as though to clear it, turned around, and left.

Izzy smiled evilly after him.

So. Much. Fun.

~X~

When JJ learned that Izzy Rogers wanted to talk to her, her first instinct was to say no. Being requested to speak with by a criminal was never a good thing, and she and Will agreed that they wanted nothing more to do with her.

After a little while, though, JJ started having second thoughts. Henry had been having trouble sleeping since her wedding, and he was acting strange in other ways - he seemed damaged, somehow. JJ knew he'd seen her fight with Izzy, and that he'd spent time with the woman beforehand - lord only knew what that psycho bitch could have done to him. Besides, Izzy was refusing to speak with anyone else - someone had to get her to talk.

Finally, against Will's protests, JJ made her decision.

I'm going to give her a piece of my mind…

~X~

When JJ saw Izzy through the one-way mirror into the interrogation room, she paused. The woman sitting inside didn't look anything like the monster she'd fought to save her son. Without her wig, makeup, lipstick, and outfit, she just looked like a disheveled young woman in a prison uniform. Her hair was light brown, curly, and messy, and her face looked completely different.

That was quite a disguise she had, JJ thought; but this is still her.

She opened the door and walked in.

Izzy looked up, and her eyes immediately found the wedding ring JJ was wearing.

"You got married?" she asked mockingly without any sort of preemption, smiling her evil smile. "Didn't take long for you to get over your boy's father, did it?"

"I didn't get over him," JJ said without thinking, unprepared for the sudden question; "I married him."

Izzy chuckled. "You married a dead man?" she taunted.

"Will isn't dead," JJ replied; "he's at home with Henry right now."

Izzy blinked, then smiled again. "That's impossible," she said; "Matthew was going to strap the bomb to a person, and we both knew, when we parted, that it would be your boyfriend."

"It was," JJ said, sitting down across the table from Izzy; "a colleague of mine deactivated the bomb."

Izzy shook her head, still smiling. "Not possible," she practically sang.

JJ met Izzy's eyes coldly. "The first detonator was protected by a four-letter password, to be entered on a cell phone," she stated. "The password was your name - 'Izzy'. Deactivating it triggered a second detonator with a thirty second timer, and had three colored wires: red, blue, and yellow, as was always the case with you - the colors of the national flag of Chad, where you and Matthew met. The only color different from the American flag's colors was yellow, and cutting the yellow wire deactivated the bomb permanently."

As JJ spoke, Izzy's eyes slowly widened with shock. When JJ was done, Izzy was silent for a moment, too stunned to speak.

"…How did you know…?" she finally asked.

"We know the whole event was a retelling of your story," JJ said; "we know you two met in Chad, around the time you two detonated a bomb in a train station there in 2008. We know that before that, you worked as an assassin, then a bank robber, which was what all the robberies you did as the Queen of Diamonds represented."

"You say 'we'…?" Izzy questioned.

"Me and my team," JJ said. "We figured you out. We know the whole thing was your sick and twisted way of celebrating each other and your connection-"

"Connection?" Izzy exclaimed, looking uncharacteristically angry all of a sudden. "That's what you call it? A connection? No - we love each other!" She blinked, took a breath, then went on in her more typical manner, "Do you think I'm not capable of love? Please. I'm a sadist, not a psychopath…and I love him." Her eyes flared open for a moment in her trademark, creepy way.

JJ couldn't resist. "You love a dead man?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at her coolly.

Izzy blinked, shock crossing her face again. Then she narrowed her eyes. "What do you mean?" she asked icily.

"Matthew Downs is dead," JJ told her. "My boss shot him in the head when he tried to murder another colleague of mine."

Izzy shook her head slowly, her eyes wide with something like horror. "No," she breathed. "No, it can't be. You're lying."

"It's true," JJ said; "he's been dead for over a week."

Izzy blinked, then smiled nastily again. "Oh, I see what this is," she said mockingly; "you're trying to hurt me because I spent some time with your little boy. Are you jealous?" she taunted, widening her eyes momentarily again.

It may be that I'm doing this for Henry, JJ thought, but it's true, too. "Would you like me to get the coroner's report?" she asked. "I can do that."

Izzy smiled her evil smile. "Go ahead," she said. "I know you're lying. Matthew isn't dead. I know he isn't, because I'm still alive, and he can't be dead without me being dead, too."

This seemed like an odd thing to say, but JJ didn't bother trying to decipher it. She stood up, walked to the door, and spoke with one of the agents behind the one-way mirror. "I need the coroner's report for Matthew Downs," she told him.

The agent nodded and walked away. JJ went back inside the interrogation room and sat down again.

"And now we wait," JJ said.

Izzy gave a small, somewhat-sexual sound that implied laughter. "Do you really think you can break me like this?" she asked teasingly, smiling her nasty smile.

"We'll see," JJ replied.

"Hmm," Izzy said, tilting her head. "While we wait, can I ask you something? How did you and your 'team' find out all those things about me and Matthew?"

"That's what we do," JJ replied. "I'm part of the Behavioral Analysis Unit. We get inside killers' heads and learn their backgrounds so we can track them down and stop them."

"That must be hard," Izzy said with mock sympathy. "Getting in our heads…That sounds like a very traumatic job."

It can be, JJ thought but didn't say. "Can I ask you something now?" she asked.

"Of course," Izzy said in a seductive voice (for some reason). "This interrogation is supposed to be about me, after all."

"You called yourself a sadist earlier," JJ said, Izzy's creepy charm holding less than zero appeal for her; "why?"

Izzy smiled wickedly and shrugged. "Well, that's what I am, isn't it?" she replied. "I get off on killing people slowly and painfully…" Izzy's voice got husky as she neared the end of the sentence; JJ suppressed a shudder. "Isn't that textbook sadism?" Izzy finished.

"I don't know about textbook," JJ said, "but that is sadism, yes. But sadists don't think of themselves that way."

"Hmm," Izzy chuckled softly, still smiling nastily. "Most of them try to pretend it's not true, don't they?" She laughed softly again. "I know what I am. I accept what I am. I've accepted it for a long time." Her evil grin widened. "And I'm not ashamed at all."

JJ closed her eyes and put her hand over her face; clearly, there was no reasoning with this woman.

A knock on the door signified the agent's return. Izzy smiled, thinking she was right. JJ smiled back, knowing she was right. Then, JJ stood up, opened the door, took the file from the agent, and sat back down. She opened the file, looked up at Izzy, took out a photo, and slid it across the table.

"Your boyfriend is dead," she said coldly.

Izzy picked up the picture and looked at it. It was a simple head shot of Matthew Downs's dead body, lying on a metal morgue table. Unmistakeable.

"No," Izzy breathed, her eyes widening with horror. She shook her head manically. "No. No, no, no, no-"

"Yes," JJ told her firmly.

Izzy let out a whimper; tears welled in her eyes. "No!" she wailed. "No, it can't be! NO!"

Then she buried her face in her arms and started sobbing.

JJ didn't buy it. She rolled her eyes and waited a minute. When Izzy's sobs didn't subside, she snapped, "Oh, enough with the crocodile tears! You're not fooling anyone!"

Izzy lifted her head - the areas around her eyes really were wet. She sniffed. "Crocodile tears?" she exclaimed tearfully. "I loved him! Our love was the only good thing I've ever had in my entire life, and now you've taken him from me!"

"I didn't kill him," JJ pointed out.

"Your people did!" Izzy spat, still crying. "Your boss!"

JJ shrugged, her glare ice-cold. She felt no compassion for the evil woman before her.

Izzy blinked her tears away, sniffed again, and within two seconds, only the aftereffects of her tears remained.

"You got over that crying fit pretty fast," JJ commented coolly.

Izzy glared at her, her cool and seductive air gone. "I've had a lot of practice," she snapped. She blinked once more, and a mask of cold fury came across her face. "You'll pay for this," she declared in a hiss.

"Is that a threat?" JJ asked.

Izzy's evil smile returned, colder and creepier than ever. "It's a fact," she said, a bit of the sexual undercurrent of her voice returning. She tilted her head, smiling very evilly, and added, "In fact, you're probably already paying for it…aren't you, Jennifer?" she asked, her eyes flaring open for a moment again.

"I don't know what you're talking about," JJ stated.

Izzy's evil smile widened into a grin, and the look in her eyes was very scary. She propped her left arm up on the table and leaned her head against it, then started slowly tracing a circle on the table with her right index finger. JJ ignored the movement, not understanding its significance.

"I did spend a fair amount of time with your boy, you know," Izzy began.

That was all it took - JJ's gut clenched, and she got a very bad feeling.

"He was so young," Izzy sighed reminiscently, looking down at the table, her eyes lidded. "So pure and innocent…" She smiled and looked back up at JJ. "He trusted me, you know," she told her. "I even tried to scare him, but…" She shrugged, looking down again. "He just…didn't…get it." She sighed again, almost forlornly. "I looked at him," she went on softly, "and all I could think was, 'Poor boy. It's going to be so hard when reality comes crashing down on him. It'll break him. He's too old to be so innocent; the longer this goes on, the worse he'll be hurt when it happens.'"

"Too old?" JJ interrupted angrily.

Izzy looked up at her and smiled again. "Well, he's, what, four?" she asked.

"He's three," JJ snarled.

Izzy blinked. "Oh," she said. "Well then…" She smiled nastily again. "I guess I made a small error. Oh well." She chuckled wickedly. "I suppose it doesn't make too much of a difference. Anyway, I could only think about how damaged he would be when he learned through experience about how cruel the world is…" Izzy's evil smile widened into a grin. "…and after a second's thought, I realized that I could…do something about that," she finished sinisterly.

JJ's eyes widened, and her breath started coming harder.

Izzy kept smiling. "Tell me," she said in her mocking, seductive voice; "has your boy been having trouble sleeping lately? Has he been having nightmares - maybe waking up in the middle of the night, screaming for you? Does he not smile much anymore? Has he seemed shy and withdrawn, exceptionally afraid of strangers, not playing games or having fun nearly as much as he used to? And when he does play, is it almost half-heartedly?" Her eyes flared creepily again.

JJ's fists clenched, and she was breathing hard - all those things were things she had noticed about her son's behavior during the past few days. He had been fine at her wedding, but less than a day later...

Izzy laughed softly.

Only the fact that the interrogation was being recorded kept JJ from lunging across the table and wringing Izzy's neck. Instead, she stood up, slowly and furiously.

"What did you do to my son?" she demanded with barely-surpressed rage.

"Do?" Izzy repeated with mock innocence. "Why, I didn't 'do' anything to that little boy." Her wicked smile returned. "I mean, he was still in diapers - and like I told your husband, I don't do those."

JJ was shaking with wrath.

"I didn't hurt him," Izzy told JJ, her wicked smile not fading but a trace of honesty entering her tone. "I didn't even touch him." She tilted her head, as though considering her words, then amended, "Well, okay, technically I did touch him, but not in any way you would consider bad. I'm a sadist, not a pedophile." Her eyes widened momentarily again.

"What…did you do…to my son?" JJ demanded again, needing to pause for breath twice before she could finish the sentence.

Izzy looked down and started tracing the circle again, clearly enjoying JJ's anger and helplessness. She took a whole minute before looking back up at JJ again and answering:

"I saved him."

"What do you mean, you saved him?" JJ exploded, slamming her fists down on the table, knowing she was giving Izzy what she wanted but not caring.

Izzy chuckled nastily. "Do you want to know my story, Jennifer?" she asked wickedly. "Do you want to get inside my head?"

"Don't change the subject!" JJ roared.

"I'm not," Izzy said, still smiling, clearly in her element. "But that's what you came here for, right? That's what all these stupid cops want when they interrogate me. But you see," she said, leaning forward slightly in a mocking gesture, "the thing is, Jennifer, I don't share my story with just anyone. I only tell it to people I trust…and in all my life, there have only ever been two such people." She gestured down at the picture of Matthew's dead body, her smile fading. "One of them is dead," she said.

"TELL ME WHAT YOU DID TO MY SON!" JJ shouted at the top of her lungs, slamming her fists down on the table again, tears of frustrated rage welling in her eyes.

"Be patient," Izzy said, slowly and tauntingly, her evil smile returning. "You see, there's only one person left alive, in the whole world, that can tell you my story." She tilted her head, the gesture somehow sinister. "Children like being told stories, don't they?" she asked with mock innocence, widening her eyes for a moment again.

JJ's eyes widened, too - with fear.

"Your little boy was just so pure and innocent," Izzy taunted, her voice slightly husky. "How could I not have trusted him? Trust was all he knew." She grinned, all her evil showing in the expression. "So, if you want to know my story…" She chuckled sinisterly. "…ask your son. I guarantee he remembers it," she finished.

JJ was completely still, save for the heaving of her chest. Her eyes were wide with horror.

Izzy laughed. "In fact," she added nastily, "I wouldn't be surprised if every word of it is permanently engraved in his mind."

"You…" JJ breathed, barely able to speak. "You…bitch…"

Izzy moaned softly - even JJ's emotional suffering was enough to turn her on. She tilted her head from side to side, grinning like the evil lunatic she was.

Neither of them spoke for a minute.

"Well, go on," Izzy finally taunted; "ask him. I won't tell you my story. If you want to know it, go home and ask your son to tell you." She flared her eyes again.

JJ took a breath, then slowly shook her head.

"But don't you want to know?" Izzy asked with mock indignation.

JJ swallowed and pulled herself together. "Go to hell!" she snarled, and she turned for the door.

"If such a place exists, Jennifer, then that's where all humans go," Izzy said softly. "So I guess I'll see you there, if not sooner."

JJ spun back around, her hand on the door handle. Izzy was still smiling at her.

"What makes us so different, you and I?" Izzy asked in a soft, mocking voice.

"I don't kill people," JJ snapped.

Izzy's smile widened. "Yes you do," she said in a singsong voice.

"I don't torture people!" JJ spat.

Izzy raised an eyebrow at her. "You don't call what you just did to me 'torture'?" she asked, gesturing at the picture again.

JJ rolled her eyes. "I don't kill innocent people!" she said exasperatedly.

"Neither do I," Izzy said.

JJ blinked.

Izzy's smile widened. "Every human has evil in them," she said; "some try to fight it, but a lot of people don't. You can't tell me that all of the people I've killed were in the minority of relatively good ones. I may have saved a lot of people from unnecessary pain. You see, I know I'm evil, but at least I try to use my evil to fight evil…and no one, save for the smallest child, is innocent."

JJ shook her head. "I only kill for justice!" she shouted.

"So do I," Izzy replied.

"I'm not evil!" JJ exclaimed.

"Yes you are," Izzy said with an evil smile; "everyone is."

"I don't enjoy killing people!" JJ tried, exasperated.

"Yes you do," Izzy said.

"No I don't!" JJ retorted.

"Yes, you do," Izzy said. "You know you do." She smiled nastily again. "Come on," she said; "you can't tell me it doesn't make you feel good when you kill a monster. You can't tell me that you and your 'colleagues' don't celebrate after one of you shoots what you perceive to be a 'bad guy'. You can't tell me that any of you lost any sleep over Matthew's death!" She took an angry breath, then added, "Maybe you don't get off on it, like I do, but you do enjoy it." She widened her eyes in her signature creepy way again.

"I only do it when it's the right thing to do!" JJ yelled.

"And who's to say what's right or wrong?" Izzy countered. "When 'ordinary' people kill someone, it's called 'murder', but when cops kill someone, it's called 'justice'. And what about in war? A group of soldiers goes out and kills people belonging to another group of soldiers, who are almost always simply under orders, and society praises them?" She shook her head with something like disgust. "You don't know what's right or wrong," she spat. "You don't know anything. You think murder is the most terrible crime? Ha! Murder is one thing - once someone's dead, it's over, they're done, they're not in pain anymore! Torture, on the other hand - forcing someone to live with unbearable pain - that's the greater crime, because it doesn't end."

"You torture your victims," JJ pointed out.

Izzy glared at her. "I may make them suffer, because that's what every human deserves...and because I enjoy their suffering," she added nastily; "but you see, I'm also kind enough to give them the release of death before too long."

"Every human deserves to suffer?" JJ repeated, raising her eyebrows. "What do you think you are?"

"I'm a human who paid for my evil in advance," Izzy replied. "And again I say: If you want to know what I'm talking about, ask your son."

"I will not let you use my son as leverage," JJ spat.

Izzy shrugged. "Suit yourself," she said mockingly. "But from what I can tell, the only difference between us is that I accept that I'm evil, while you try to pretend that you're not." She smiled her evil smile again, back to her normal self. "You see, Jennifer?" she taunted. "You're not the only one who can hurt people with the truth." She flared her eyes for a moment again.

JJ shook her head. "I'm nothing like you," she snapped, and she turned back around, furiously opened the door, and left…not quite in time to not hear Izzy's taunting response:

"Keep telling yourself that…"

~X~

All six other members of the BAU team watched the recording of the interview back at Quantico. When it was done, there was silence for a moment.

Agent Hotchner turned to JJ and opened his mouth.

"No," JJ said firmly before he could speak.

"I haven't asked you anything yet," Hotch said.

"You're not using my son," JJ stated. "Whatever she told him traumatized him - I'm not going to let anyone make him relive it!"

"JJ, we may need the information he has," Rossi said gently. "A strong case could be made for a plea of 'innocent by reason of insanity' with this video - the court may need her story to prove that that's not the case."

"I don't care what you say, I will not let my son become her pawn!" JJ snarled.

"JJ, I understand your wanting to protect him," Hotch said, "but-"

"But nothing!" JJ spat. "We're done with this case! Let the jurors crucify her - in all her trials! She's not our problem anymore!" And she stormed out without giving Hotch a chance to reply.

There was a stunned silence for minute - the outburst was unlike JJ.

"Um, Hotch?" Garcia finally asked in her nervous way.

"Yes, Garcia?" Hotch asked, turning to her.

"Um, this case is over, right?" Garcia asked. "Like, she's not getting out, right? She is done…right?"

Hotch sighed and looked away.

"I hope so," he muttered.

~X~

Time passed, with no alerts involving Izzy Rogers cropping up. Days became weeks, weeks became months…nothing.

Emily Prentiss left the Behavioral Analysis Unit to take the job her former boss had offered her: the new head of the London Interpol team. Other than that, life went on at the BAU. Serial killers cropped up, the BAU hunted them down. Business as usual.

At first, Hotch tried to keep an eye on the proceedings with Izzy when they started, but she was strangely quiet. She didn't even try to make a case in her own defense. No defense attorney, no presentation, no attempt at an "innocent by reason of insanity" plea…nothing. Hotch decided she must have given up when she learned of Matthew Downs's death, and put the whole matter behind him.

Try as she might, though, JJ couldn't get through to her son, no matter what she and Will did - she refused to ask Henry about Izzy's story, though it clearly haunted him more and more with each passing day. "…I wouldn't be surprised if every word of it is permanently engraved in his mind." Izzy's words haunted JJ day and night. As a mother, though, she couldn't give up on him.

Then, about five months after Izzy's arrest, Hotch was working at his desk late one night when he got the call he had only just begun to stop dreading:

"SSA Aaron Hotchner, we have a situation: Izzy Rogers has escaped."