Disclaimer: Even on my 200th story, I still don't get to own even a smidgen of Criminal Minds!
A/N:Another day, another chapter! Thanks for the reviews, alerts and favourites... I hope you all continue to enjoy this!
Right, rating changes from here on out as we take everything up a notch... Beware!
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Fate's Monster -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"No," Penelope said as she woke up to someone looming over her, "No, please," She begged as he bent down to put his hands on her arms. "No." Her throat was still sore and she literally felt like it was a crumpled mess now. She knew it was a new day immediately, but she wasn't ready for any form of round two to begin just yet.
Derek woke up and instantly thrashed against the chains on his wrists as he watched the man picking Penelope up enough to drag her away from her place in the corner. He hadn't realised that she had had the gag removed and she had been unbound whilst they had slept. He just watched her be slammed down onto the concrete floor, her head connecting heavily with the hard ground. Still trying to get free, he watched as the man dropped down on top of her.
Punching up, Penelope fought back whatever was coming to her, but she was still stunned from her head hitting the ground and she was frozen with fear like she was every time he entered the room. This time, however, the man picked her up by her shoulders and slammed her head to the ground once more and smirked as the desired effects were to be had. Penelope's eyes dropped a little as she began to lose consciousness. Having studied pain receptors, he leaned in towards her neck and bit in hard to her warm flesh.
Penelope couldn't stop the tears of pain from seeping from her eyes. As she felt the man bite into her skin harder she let out a blood curdling scream and could just about hear Derek's bellowing tone as he attempted to halt this session of torture. She felt awake all of a sudden, her body coming alive with the sensation of pain as it coursed through the top half of her body.
Ripping away, he spat out and looked down at Penelope, blood lining his lips and teeth like a cannibal lapping up his latest feast. He grinned at her as he watched her battle the pain and then flickered his eyes to the deep wound to her neck and laughed.
He knew he would be back for more of this soon. The taste of her blood as it lined his mouth could only be described as divine. The way it trickled down the back of his throat made his innate instincts fire up and the yearn to taste more went into overdrive.
He scolded himself, he had all the time in the world to literally drink her dry and, oh man, did he have plans to do exactly that.
"I guess I've neglected you," He commented as he finally took his attention off of Penelope. Seeing her occupied with pain in her semi-conscious state he decided that he wanted to show Derek that this wasn't all about the woman in the room.
He gave Derek no time to acknowledge what was happen; he just unleashed a brutal beating. His anger showing more and move by the second. He didn't relent on the kicks or the hits he administered to Derek's body, he just threw hit after hit.
Derek knew he would take the hits, rather than see this happen to Penelope.
However, that didn't seem to be the case as Penelope flung herself onto the man, regardless of her injuries. She just wrapped her arms around the man's neck and fought him. The man didn't take too kindly to this and reacted fast.
Grapping her wrists, Derek could only guess he was trying to break them to get her to respond to his will. Angered all the more, Derek watched as Penelope was thrown back to the other side of the wall, impacting with it only to slump to ground.
"You do that again, little girl, and I'll make sure I break your fucking legs so you never walk again!" The man literally bellowed at Penelope's unmoved form and then turned back to face Derek as he literally went ballistic again his constant restraints. "What have you got to say?" He asked as he stalked his way back to Derek and tore the gag from the man's mouth.
"You fucking bastard! When I get out of this I will kill you!" Derek spat out, his mouth completely dry, his anger sticking in his throat as it crept up like venom. "You signed your death warrant the moment you laid a hand on her!"
"You're going to what, Derek?" The unknown man asked back with the upmost glee. "Kill me? I could kill her and leave you there, like you are right now, for you to watch her rot away." He snickered evilly, "I could do so much and you wouldn't get a chance to touch me." He continued and laughed again as Derek jumped at him, only to fall back at the pressure of the chains, "I will torture her and do what the fuck I like and when I get Jennifer here and maybe Emily then I'd do the same with the others of your team watching from the same position as you."
"They'll kill you before you even get a chance!"
He laughed again at Derek's obliviousness, "I pretty much killed JJ and Aaron earlier. Shame they're a little too resilient otherwise JJ would be here with you too."
"Liar!" Derek spat back, "You wouldn't have had a chance. Between getting me and Pen and then-"
"You really think it was me that got you here?" He asked as he interjected Derek's sentence, "I'm not alone in this. I'm not stupid. You and Penelope were the easiest option last night. Emily and Dave were still in the bar with Spencer so we cancelled them out and followed you two. Then I got a heads up that JJ and Aaron left together and the rest is history." He told Derek with absolute glee. "For now, I'll let you rest," He finalised and turned his back on Derek's yelling.
Derek and Penelope were left alone, the sounds of the man's gleeful laughter echoing out behind him. When that resided, it was just the stillness of the room and their beating hearts to fill their hearing.
Groaning, Penelope blinked a couple of times to adjust back to reality and she realised she felt like someone had trampled her skull and ripped out her carotid artery. She couldn't stifle a moan of pain as she brought her arm up to stop the bleeding that she could feel washing over her shoulder. Pushing a hand on her open wound, she pushed herself up with a grunt and collapsed against the wall.
"Pen," Derek called out to her, his body a low thrum of pain from the beginning he had received. His main concern was Penelope and he was worried about the damage he had seen already enacted.
Penelope looked at Derek wildly, "I don't want you to be nice to me now, Derek." She told him and her eyes watered for an entirely different reason. She was struggling with being here in the bowels of hell and with Derek. "Just be-because we're he-here in whatever this is. It doesn't make us okay." She began to sob as the last fortnight suddenly hit her full throttle and she realised how much she had missed her best friend – and with it her heart. "W-We're not-t okay."
"I'm sorry, Baby," Derek told her truthfully and he wished he could get to her, to wrap his arms around her, but then he wondered if the distance that he was being made to keep was one of their saving graces. He knew getting back on track was not a simple and easy move, it was going to take time, but he was going to make sure that Penelope knew exactly why he had reacted the way he had.
"I never meant to humiliate you that night, but you assumed that was my only reason and ever since you just shut me down," Penelope remarked and couldn't hide the hurt that she still carried from that night.
"We need to talk about this," Derek told her forcefully as his instant reaction. "I need you to know some things."
Penelope bit her lip as her headache increased and the idea of being trampled on spun into the idea that she had taken on a high flying train and lost – multiple times. "Not right now, I just want to sleep."
He knew letting her sleep wasn't a good idea, especially after he had seen her head connect with the ground, but Penelope was her own force and she had decided that that decision was final.
Sighing, he slumped back down, the chains going lank as they crashed to the floor. He wasn't sleeping tonight, he was keeping watch over his baby girl and he was going to force himself to exact a fool proof plan to get them out of this.
Even when the lights shut off, his eyes remained in exactly the same spot.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Fate's Monster -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"I'm fine," JJ told them as she shook of their attention. She slid down onto one of the chairs in the conference room, never noticing how uncomfortable they were before. She guessed that unlike before she had never been a mess of bruises from a car crash.
"What do we know?" Hotch asked as he stood in his normal stoic position, his arms crossed him, his spot still near enough to JJ to keep her in close range.
"Strauss received this an hour ago," Emily commented and pushed a bagged letter across the table toward Hotch and JJ. "Spencer already looked it over and thinks we're dealing with a dominant male, no signs of sexual behaviour, but he is showing signs of escalating anger"
Reid cleared his throat for a moment, "From the way his penmanship is heavily pressed it shows he has intense anger as it is, but what he writes about shows how willing he is to use it as a weapon and to deliver punishment. When someone writes, it's their ego becoming the most active than ever before. Our Unsub is telling us what we want to hear and it seems he is almost setting up his game. He wants us to play."
"What are the stains all over the letter?" Hotch asked as he observed the paperwork before him.
"It's whiskey," Rossi spoke up, "And it's fresh. Which indicates that he's a drinker."
"If he gets drunk often enough though, surely his prone to mistakes. He will slip up," JJ interjected quickly, her hope gather.
Reid shook his head in disagreement. "That is unless he has a dissociative disorder," Reid pointed out with slick concern. "If this is the case, when he drinks..."
"Another personality comes out," JJ continued on, her voice lacking any enthusiasm to this being an easy case to crack.
JJ snatched the letter up and finally began to read with Hotch reading over her shoulder. She couldn't stop her shaking hands and she could only resent the tears that pooled in her eyes as she read the script of what was to happen.
BAU team, we meet at last!
You don't know me, but I know you all very well. Aaron Hotchner, the leader, the one that saved the lovely Jennifer Jareau from my clutches. Then we have David Rossi, who is besotted with the gorgeous Emily Prentiss and finally we have Spencer Reid, the genius of you all. The only reason you final three didn't get an invitation to the party was because you stayed in that damn club. Had it been anyone else but Penelope to walk out first then you would be in her pretty predicament rather than her.
I don't want anything from your team, Aaron. Just its defamation. I have for a while and let's just say when one soldier falls in a platoon, the rest are sure to follow. You think you're formidable, but you couldn't stop my brother and in turn my life got ruined because you made it so public. You ruined his life, and killed him when really you were after me all along. You killed an innocent person and for what? Nothing.
Hey! That's a story I'll save for another day mind you.
Derek and Penelope are okay as a can be. Penelope, the poor love, has hit her head quite a few times since being here and let's say she tastes mighty good. Derek, on the other hand, has quite the level of stamina! Takes a beating and is still standing – well kinder!
My main concern is JJ. I hope I didn't hurt you too much, Jennifer! Well, scratch that, I do hope I hurt you and I hope to hurt you lot more in the future. I will get my sweet, sweet Jennifer one day. Not all the FBI agents in the world can stop that from happening let me tell you that now.
However, I'll let you know how Derek and Penelope are keeping in my company, but only on my terms – Not yours, mine.
Speak to you soon. You never know I might send you a souvenir of my time with Penelope and Derek.
JJ looked up at the team, "Why do I feel like this letter was aimed at me?"
"JJ," Emily started sympathetically, "He is after you now and we can't run the risk of him managing to get to you."
"I'll stay with her," Hotch demanded as an almost instant reaction. "I can protect her as much as any of you and he expects us together. I know what he looks like, I'll know him if he comes for either of us. If you three stick together when we are outside of the bureau then he might feel threatened by three of you."
"I can take care of myself," JJ fought back, she knew she could. She wasn't some weak woman. "I just need to know that Henry is going to be safe."
"We can get a watch set up," Rossi indicated to her, knowing that Henry was a bigger importance than her own life.
JJ ran a hand over her forehead, "I'll ring Will and tell him to keep him with him and to stay inside. Just in case." There was a moment of thoughtful silence. "What do we do now?" JJ asked as she stood up gingerly and grabbed her cell from her pocket as she went.
"We back track and go and tell Lynch to hurry up with getting CCTV from the bar," Hotch ordered and knew they were working against a clock even if the Unsub hadn't given them one.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Fate's Monster -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-