Thank you to everyone who read, favorited, followed, and reviewed the first chapter. That was the most feedback I've gotten on a story that only has one chapter posted, so thanks for that.

I've decided to skip to the main point in my story instead of writing Alex and Spencer's training and introductions to the team since I figured it would be best to get the plot rolling. Sorry if that disappoints anyone, but there is a high likelihood that I will post those as connected one-shots at some point after the story is finished if people are interested, and I can make them interesting.

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds, Alex Rider. Yeah. Totally not mine.

Current Status: Alex - 23 ½ years old. "Jaxon" - 29 years old. Spencer - 27 ½ years old.

Enjoy…

June 13, 2009

Alex was sat at his desk, trying to ignore Spencer and Morgan's bickering and accomplish his paperwork at the same time, when Hotch came out of his office with JJ.

Alex looked up when he heard the door click open, and Spencer, noticing his shift in attention, followed his eyes to where Hotch was standing.

"We have a case," he said flatly, and he and JJ entered the conference room.

Alex met Spencer's eyes as he stood up, straightening the papers on his desk as he did so. He flicked his eyes towards the conference room, wondering where this new case would bring them. Alex had done a lot of traveling when he'd been with MI6, too, but working for the BAU was nothing like MI6. With the FBI, he was given the information he needed, and most importantly, to Alex at least, he had his team to watch his back.

Said team started to move in the direction of the conference room. Alex jogged towards them and fell into step with Spencer. "Where do you think we're headed?"

"No clue," was Spencer's reply, before lowering his voice so that only Alex could hear him. "Was it just me or did Hotch look especially worried about this case?"

"I thought we weren't supposed to profile each other, Spence?" Alex teased. He stopped walking and looked Spencer in the eyes. "But, you're right. Only one way to find out."

It was a testament to how long the two had been with the BAU that their teammates barely even glanced back at the two of them. The whole team was close. That was a fact; it was hard not to be close with the people you relied on to watch your six. But, none of them could measure up to the trust that Alex had built with Spencer. Spencer knew things about him that the team couldn't even begin to fathom, and that was the way Alex preferred it. If he got his choice, he would just finish his FBI career and forget all about his beginnings in the world of espionage. Unfortunately, Alex knew that secrets like his rarely stayed buried for long. Sooner or later, the team was going to find out. Alex was just hoping it would be later.

When the team was all seated in the conference room, JJ started with her presentation of the case. "June 8, local law enforcement officers in Brandon, South Dakota found the bodies of Kate and Matthew Michaels (both 23 years old) stabbed to death in their cars by what appeared to be model planes. Their one-month-old son, Jacob, was left alive in the backseat."

JJ clicked a button and the photo of the couple's bodies appeared on the screen. She clicked again and the body of a young man. "June 10, they found the body of Ian Moore (36) in an old car at a scrapyard. Cause of death was a single gunshot wound to the head.

"And finally, last night," JJ clicked and the body of a severely burnt woman appeared on the screen. "Lyla Cooper (26) found burnt to death inside her home."

"What's the connection between the bodies?" Morgan asked.

"Here's where it gets strange," JJ responded, "First off, this city hasn't had a murder in 12 years, making the four within 6 days shocking to them. But after this last death, they recognized a similar symbol left at each crime scene."

JJ made three images appear on the screen. She gestured to the first, a plastic scorpion model placed beneath the hands of the first to victims, "Toy scorpion found between Kate and Matthew," She gestured to the tattoo scorpion, "Post-mortem tattoo found on Ian Moore's foot, and a brand of a scorpion on Lyla Cooper's back. The locals are still unsure what the symbol means, but it's a clear connection between the three cases."

Emily had an odd look on her face as she looked up at the three pictures JJ had pulled up on the board. She squinted her eyes in thought. Where did she recognize that symbol? It was important. She knew that much, but where had she seen it? She looked over at Jaxon in time to notice a fleeting expression of surprise and pain. Did he recognize the symbol as well?

Before she could ask him, Hotch stood up."Wheels up in thirty. If the Unsub sticks to his timeframe, we'll have another murder tomorrow."

She turned to Jaxon to ask him about the brief-expression she had spotted on his face, but he was already out the door to grab his go-bag, and she decided it would probably be in her best interest to grab her own bag and get ready to go. She could always ask him later if she herself didn't remember.

Alex left the conference room as quickly as he could to remove himself from Emily's curious gaze. He hadn't been able to contain his horror at seeing the sign of the terrorist organization he had brought down when he was fifteen. There was no way this was SCORPIA. SCORPIA was gone. At most, this was an ex-member who wanted revenge on Alex. The reminder didn't do anything to curb the panic that grew in the back of his mind whenever SCORPIA was mentioned.

It wouldn't be the first time. There had been one other case the team had investigated that Alex took time off to solve himself, but this one was different. This one clearly had some intimate information on Alex's life. Information that they shouldn't be able to know unless they were high up in SCORPIA, which Alex was fairly positive all of them were either in jail or dead, or they had gotten the information from someone on his so-called side, which was also unlikely; it had been a long five years since he'd seen any of them but Joe.

Each killing so far was mocking a death that had either led to his career as a spy or happened as a result of it, and whoever it was, Alex was going to make sure they were stopped, even if he had to tell the team his secret. Though, he would prefer, if it didn't come to that.

"Jax?" Spencer's voice called out to him, "You good?"

Alex contemplated telling Spencer about his suspicions but decided to wait. It would take a long time to explain, and that was time they didn't have. "I'm fine, Spence."

The look in Spencer's eyes told Alex that he wasn't believed, but Spencer didn't call him out on it, for which he was thankful.

Spencer knew the look in Jaxon's eyes, and he knew that he wasn't going to get his answer just then. Jaxon told him he'd see him on the plane, and he pulled out his phone. "Joe? It's me…"

Something was going on, and Spencer's gut told him that it wasn't going to be anything good. Not for the team. Not for Jaxon. And especially, not for whoever had come up with the bright idea to put Jaxon in this mood.

The team was seated on the plane, going over the contradictions of the case, when Emily finally remembered where she'd seen the Scorpion symbol before.

"SCORPIA," she murmured.

"Sorry? What was that Prentiss?" Rossi asked, slight amusement leaking into his voice.

Emily looked up at her team, noticing, dismissing the tension in Jaxon's shoulders, and said, "The Scorpion is the symbol of SCORPIA - a terrorist organization that I was under the impression has been gone for eight years."

"Could it be someone with ties to the group?" Morgan asked, "Maybe they're trying to make a statement that they aren't gone."

"Maybe," said Hotch, "But that doesn't account for the variation in MO. First case: clear overkill. Second: a simple gunshot. Third: signs of torture."

"Multiple Unsubs?" Rossi asked.

"Or the way they're being killed means something," Reid said, his eyes flitting to Jaxon as he spoke.

The team looked at him in interest, and he continued, "Think about it. Maybe the Unsub is personally connected to the killings, and they relate in some way to his past. Or maybe the Unsub is taunting someone else using events from their past to draw their attention for some reason."

"Interesting thought, Reid," Hotch said with a hum of appreciation, "It could definitely explain the variation in MO. What do you think, Tucker?"

Alex startled from his thoughts when Hotch addressed him, but luckily he'd always been able to react on his toes so his response left his lips instinctively. "I'm with Reid. A group of Unsubs wouldn't deviate this much from each other."

For a second Alex considered telling them that he knew Spencer was right, but he decided against it. With any luck, he'd make it through the case without the team discovering the truth of his past. He wasn't going to bank on it though. Luck of the devil was great when it saved his life, but it got him into far too much trouble for it not equally be considered a curse.

Government SUVs were waiting for them when the plane touched down in Sioux Falls Regional Airport. After a twenty-two minute drive to the police station in Brandon, they were greeted by the captain of the police force, "Thanks for getting here so fast. I'm Captain Cutler."

Hotch shook the man's hand and introduced the team. "Senior Supervisory Special Agent Aaron Hotchner and these are Supervisory Special Agents Reid, Tucker, Morgan, Rossi, Jareau, and Prentiss. Is there somewhere we can set up?"

"Of course," Cutler said, leading them to a nearby office, "I hope you all can catch the person doing this. It's been twelve years since we've had a murder, and everyone is starting to get scared. We got under ten thousand people in this town. This case is personal for a lot of people."

"Do you have any suspects?" Hotch asked.

"No," was Cutler's reply, "We only just managed to tie the three together. I don't know anyone here capable of doing something like this though."

"We don't want to rule anything out yet, but there is a good chance they are from out of town."

"Here's your office. Sorry, it's so small. We don't have a very big station here."

"It's no problem. Thank you, Captain," Hotch replied, and the man left. "Alright, Prentiss and Morgan go check out the first crime scene. Rossi and Reid go to the second. JJ, stay here and filter calls from the media. Tucker, you're with me to the most recent crime scene.

Alex nodded at Hotch letting him know that he heard what he said. Hotch's gaze lingered on Alex a bit longer than typical with a look as if he was trying to work out a particularly complex puzzle, or since it was Hotch, a particularly complex case.

Hotch pulled up at Lyla Cooper's house and he and Tucker got out of the SUV. Hotch resisted the urge to ask Tucker why this case bothered him so much. It wouldn't do to make the younger man even jumpier than he was. Though, it would probably be in his best interests to never admit to Jaxon that he called him jumpy. It was doubtful he would appreciate the description.

When the two entered the house, Hotch immediately turned his attention to the officer standing inside the door. "I'm Agent Hotchner. What have you found so far?" He noticed out of the corner of his eye that Jaxon had wandered into the center of the room and was observing everything with a critical eye. That kid had one of the sharpest eyes on his whole team, even if he was paranoid as hell and kept more secrets than anyone else Hotch knew.

The officer looked relieved. "FBI, right? I'm Officer Gregor. Thank goodness you guys are here. We got nothing. No prints. No weapon. No signs of forced entry. None of us know what to think."

"Did you know the victim, Officer Gregor?"

"Yeah. Sweet kid. Her father used to be on the force 'fore he died in a car crash." The man paused briefly and glanced cautiously at where Jaxon had been standing last Hotch checked. "What's your partner doing?"

Hotch looked at Jaxon to see him standing on a table looking down at the crime scene. He couldn't fault the officer for his surprise. The first time he saw Jaxon do this at a crime scene, he had been equally as confused, and his reaction had been a slight overreaction if Spencer's snickering had been any indication. "He's trying to get a different perspective. Now if you'll excuse me, officer. I'm going to give him a hand with that."

"Of course, Agent Hotchner. I need to get back to the station anyway. I hope you guys catch the bastard that did this." Officer Gregor left the room with only a slight glance back at Jaxon. He scrunched up his eyes as if it pained him to see someone standing on a table at a crime scene, and Hotch had to hold in his amusement. The kid was unorthodox, but his methods worked, though Hotch did wish he'd keep his feet on the ground when local law enforcement was in the room.
Hotch looked up at Jaxon. "Find anything?"

"I don't think she was killed here." Jaxon didn't look at Hotch as he responded, eyes locked on the scorch mark on the ground. He crouched down so that only his toes were balanced on the edge of the table.

Hotch drew in a sharp breath. Jaxon was going to give him heart failure someday whether he fell off something or not. "Why not?"

"You saw the crime scene photos. If she was killed here there would've been more damage done to the ground. This fire was controlled. Planned."

Hotch looked at the ground where Jaxon was pointing. That wasn't something he would've noticed if Jaxon hadn't pointed it out. Unsubs didn't usually go to the effort of pretending someone was killed in a certain location if they weren't so why did this one. Hotch was about to ask Jaxon his opinion on that very question when his phone rang.

Alex looked at Hotch as he answered the phone. "Hotch… What?" Hotch's face went blank as he listened to whatever the caller was telling him. "We'll be there in a minute." Hotch hung up the phone with a grave look on his face. "Time frame changed. We got another crime scene."

Thanks for reading everyone. I hope you enjoyed it. If anyone has suggestions to better write any of the characters, let me know your thoughts. I love to hear all of your opinions.

Dobby and Padfoot: Out. :)