Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Here's the next chapter where we'll be diving in to the past lives portions. The two "villains" of the story also show up in the past lives, so hopefully you'll see how they connect with the overarching story ;) Thank you for the reviews and readership so far!

Note: These POVs for the past lives are not necessarily one hundred percent historically correct.

Egypt – 3000 Years Ago

The Pharaoh's Queen stared out over her balcony at the rapidly chilling desert sands. The sun had sunk below the horizon, painting the sky an inky black. She stared at the kingdom her royal husband ruled, a cold pit forming in her stomach. As she stood at the ledge, a hand fell on her shoulder. His fingers trailed down her arm until his hand rested atop hers. She leaned into him, sighing with pleasure as his arm wrapped around her belly.

"Will you be sleeping alone tonight?" he murmured in her ear. His hand slid up her belly to grasp one of her breasts.

The Queen inhaled sharply as his calloused fingers tweaked her hard nipples through the sheer fabric of her gown. Reaching up, she grasped his hand. She held him tight, never wanting to be released from his arms. A fire lit up in the cold pit of her stomach, warming her very being.

"The Pharaoh sleeps with another wife tonight," she murmured, turning to she could gaze upon her lover's face. He was a guard in the Pharaoh's personal militia, and no one would suspect any wrongdoing if they caught glimpses of him near the Queen's chambers. They would merely assume he was protecting their queen. "We will be alone."

The guard lowered his lips to hers, brushing his mouth over hers in the gentlest of gestures. She felt warm in his grasp, looping her arms around his neck so she could kiss him back. She wanted to drown in him, to lose herself in another human being. The Queen hated being married to the Pharaoh. She felt no love toward the man she was bound to.

But the lowly guard who held her in his arms, she would be willing to abandon all her royal garbs and duties to be with him.

Yet she could not. There was no way they would not be killed if they ran.

Her lover pushed her against a column, their lips never breaking apart. Fire continued to blaze in her belly, forcing her pulse to go faster. A moan escaped her throat as he started to kiss down her jawline. His hands grasped her breasts, sending lightening bolts of pleasure through her body.

Moving her sheer skirt out of the way, he held her thighs and lifted her off her feet so she could wrap her nimble legs around his thick waist. He carried her to her bed, both of them falling backwards in the linens. They kissed with a feral passion they could not deny, even as they tried to stifle it.

As the Queen's chambers filled with the sounds of their lovemaking, a figure watched from the darkness. She remained concealed behind a pillar, her shadow appearing occasionally in the torchlight as she slunk between columns. Her eyes turned to narrow slits as she glared at the form of the Pharaoh's Queen writhing beneath her lover.

These chambers should have been hers. The current Queen did not deserve her power, or the Pharaoh. The other wife pressed her hands to the stone pillar, watching as her royal husband's guard rocked his hips against the Queen's. They kissed deeply, a kiss so full of love and desire the other wife could see their passion for one another from across the room.

Clenching her fists, the second queen turned on her heel and stormed from the room. She was done watching this Queen defiling her body with that of the lowly guard. This would end now.

The Pharaoh would find out if the second wife had anything to say.

XXXXX

Penelope snapped awake at the dream. Something about a dark featured man making love to her. She looked nothing like herself – she looked as if from the Middle East, with olive skin and dark hair – but she knew it was her. And oddly enough, the man she was having sex with was…well, it felt like he was Derek. He looked nothing like Derek Morgan either, but a sense of being with him told her he was her best friend.

But why? Why did they look different? And more importantly, what had caused them to have sex? Her relationship with Derek was nothing like that.

Beside her, Sam remained slumbering. They had sex that night before falling asleep, so maybe the sex dream was a reaction to that. Only the fictional sex her subconscious had come up with had been even more mind-blowing than the real sex with her boyfriend.

Flopping back against the pillows, she stared at the ceiling. She wondered if she would be able to fall back asleep after this. Sighing, she turned to look at Sam once again, grimacing. Guilt filled her stomach. She should not have been dreaming about sex with another man, certainly not after just having sex with Sam.

Did this count as being unfaithful? Definitely not physical cheating, but certainly emotional.

"Jesus, Garcie," she scolded herself. "What are you getting yourself into?"

XXXXX

Spencer sat at his desk, chewing on the tip of a pencil as he did his morning crossword. He had timed himself at seven minutes yesterday, and he was determined to take it down another fifteen seconds this morning. His eyes scanned the last word, and he quickly jotted down the word. He halted his stopwatch.

Fourteen seconds less. He was pleased with himself.

"Good morning, Boy Wonder," Penelope yawned, coming up and sitting down at JJ's vacant desk. Their teammate would not be there for another half hour at least, so it seemed Penelope intended to spend some time with him. She leaned her elbow on the desk and huffed at him.

Spencer set his paper down and arched a brow. "What is it?" he asked. "You're lacking your usual sparkling nature."

She smiled at his description of her. "Aww, thank you," she murmured. "I'm just really tired."

"Anything I can do to help?" he offered. Anything he could do to help Penelope or Derek he would do. These two were the most important people in the world to him, aside from his mother. If anything he could do would save them in anything, he would do it.

Looking up at the ceiling, she sighed. "Well, I guess I just want to tell someone about this weird dream I had last night," she said. "I knew if I got here early I would probably run into you."

He gestured for her to continue, and she did. "Well, see, I think it took place in Egypt. There were pyramids and the desert, and the palace I was in looked like one you would see in a movie about it."

He gulped. The dreams and visions were beginning? This was a sign the cycle was starting. Could he really be running out of time, now, after ten years of fruitless research?

She scrunched her face up. "Alright, maybe it wasn't me," she said. "It felt like it was me, but she – or me, I guess – looked nothing like me. I think she was a Queen."

Yeah, he thought. The cycle is starting. She's seeing the first life they lived.

"And see, there was this guy there, but he wasn't her husband," she went on. "And…" Her voice trailed off. A blush lit up her face, and she cleared her throat. "Well, they were in love. And that's about it."

Spencer knew what she had seen. The affair and sexual relationship between the Queen and the Pharaoh's bodyguard's was the event that caused the two tormentors to place the curse on them.

As Penelope continued telling the story, he nodded along.

"But what was weird was…" She paused again, biting her lip to contemplate her next words. "Well it just seemed like Derek was there, too." Her eyes widened and she looked at Spencer with a frantic gaze. "I mean, it wasn't like anything serious that I thought about, and I don't know why… but he was there." She laughed nervously. "It would feel weird to be in love with him, which is why the dream was so…weird. I mean, I could never be in love with him."

Not true, he wanted to say. You two are meant to be.

"Reidykins?" she asked after a long moment of his silent thinking. "You in there?" She waved her hand in front of his face.

"Huh?" he mumbled.

"I asked if you had any ideas about what this was," she said. "Anything my subconscious is telling me that I should figure out based on the dream?"

Spencer feigned ignorance. "Not a clue," he said. "Probably nothing to be honest. It's actually been shown that dreams really don't mean anything your subconscious is trying to 'tell' you."

Frowning, Penelope chuckled. "Wow, I can't believe I would think that it meant something," she laughed. "Silly me, right?"

He just smiled. If only she knew, he thought.

"Morning, Baby Girl," Derek said, entering the bullpen. He went over and dropped a kiss on the top of her head. He grinned at her. Glancing up, he added to Reid, "Hey, Pretty Boy." Addressing Spencer was like an afterthought.

Penelope gave him a bemused smile. "What, no hangover this morning?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm surprised about that, too," Spencer observed.

Derek gave them a bright, cheesy grin. "Oh, I'm just faking it," he said. "My head is killing me."

Penelope rose to her feet and rubbed his shoulders. "Oh, my poor baby," she said, sympathetic.

As they droned on together, flirting and talking without taking notice of Spencer, he watched them. Derek complained of a headache, as if it were the most painful experience in the world. That could never compare to Spencer's concerns, though. If the cycle had started, it meant he was running out of time.

And to make matters worse, he had no idea where the souls of the two who had cast the curse upon them were. They could be anyone in their lives, part of the curse being that their souls would follow the souls of Derek and Penelope and be their downfall. Like his friends, these two would have no recollection of their past lives. Nevertheless, they would somehow lead to Penelope and Derek's deaths.

Spencer needed to find them. It was vital to his quest.

He needed find a way to break the curse. Fast.