Emily stares at the grainy image on the security feed in the gas station office. Because of where he parked, she can't see the license plate of the car but she can see the tattoo on his arm: it's the orderly Morgan had noticed.

"Very distinctive. So are you a priest of hers or what?" she questions under her breath.

She sees the man walk towards the bathroom. He pauses and looks to be speaking to someone. He glances down at his arm, then back up again. His face goes from calm to furious and he punches out at his unseen companion. He steps briefly out of sight, leaning down. When he stands back up Reid is over his shoulder, obviously unconscious.

"Please just be out, Spencer," Emily whispers. She turns and looks at the station manager. "Do you know that guy?"

The man nods. "Yes. He's my son."

"He's what?!" Emily stands when she sees what he is holding.

"My son," the man repeats, cocking the gun in his hand.

Emily glances at the weapon then back up again. "Then why let me watch this?"

"He was stalling so I could come back for you," the tattooed man explains.

Emily sees the large man. She contemplates her chances for getting away and knows there is none. Her only hope is her teammates are using lights and sirens to get to the store.

"Take her gun, son. Time to take her to Anput."

Emily's eyes narrow. "Anput? You mean Dr. Stewart?"

"SHE GOES BY ANPUT!" the man screams. His voice calms, a deadly lilt to it. "You will do well to show her proper respect when next you meet her."

Emily just stands as the younger man steps in and grabs her gun off her hip. He takes her phone, drops it and then steps on it. She rolls her eyes...Requisitions is going to be SO pissed. He grabs her arm and shoves her out of the office.

"Do anything stupid and the geek gets killed immediately," he warns her.

"And if I don't do anything, he'll get killed later. Tell me: what is my motivation here, Hulk?" she taunts him.

The man backhands her. "Watch your mouth!" He pulls her close and whispers menacingly in her ear. "You won't be so sarcastic once Pritchett finishes with you. With Gold gone, maybe I can help him with his games." He sniffs her neck, making her shiver involuntarily. "Yeah...I think I could enjoy that."

He shoves her out the door...


...and into the path of her teammates, Mares and Ambrose. Emily grins, spins around and slams her palm into the bridge of the man's nose. He automatically releases her as he grabs at his face. She dives to the ground and rolls out of the line of fire.

"DROP YOUR GUN!" Hotch orders the store owner.

The man stares at the five guns pointed at him, then at his son, then at Emily.

"Don't do it," Hotch warns.

The man spins the gun towards Emily.

Five guns fire, driving his body back into his store. The orderly turns in horror.

"DAD!" He spins towards Emily. "I'll fucking kill you myself!"

"DON'T!" Emily screams, raising her hand towards him. He pauses. "Surrender now and live. Make a move towards me or the cops and they will shoot. Do you really want to die here like your father?"

The man seems to consider that a minute. Then with a roar he leaps at Emily. Guns fire again, driving him into the wall, which he bounces off and lands on Emily. Morgan races forward and pulls him off.

"PRENTISS!"

"I'm fine. I'm okay. Where's his car? Reid may still be in it."

Morgan offers his hand and pulls her up. "Hotch and Rossi are checking it out."

Emily stoops and grabs her gun out of the waistband of the orderly. "What the fuck is going on, Derek?"

"Looks like you confirmed the theory of the priestess having a team."

"Yeah. Bully for me." Emily runs a hand through her hair. She stops as she notices the blood on her arm. She looks at her shirt and sees it is also stained. "Son of a bitch. Walk with me while I change." They go to the SUV and Emily opens the back to get an FBI t-shirt out of the back end. "They call Stewart 'Anput'. She is the goddess of funerals and mummification and consort of Anubis." She gestures towards the dead men. "These two are part of the deal. Junior, there, isn't one of the rapists. Yet. Based on what he said Pritchett and Gold were the ones raping the women. The rest of them, however many there may be, are obviously there to help with the rituals Stewart puts the bodies through for mummification."

"So...it's like a fucking cult."

Emily nods. "Yeah. We thought Alpha-Omega issues. Our profile was fucked because we weren't thinking cult."

Hotch and Rossi walk up. The chief is on his cell phone.

"No sign of Reid," Rossi states. "Well...except his badge and phone are in the car. Phone is smashed."

"He has to be close. We were only apart like 10 minutes," Emily states. "And the time stamp of the abduction was only 5 minutes before he came for me."

Hotch hangs up and walks over. "These two live on a farm just down the road. Mares is calling for SWAT support from the State Police. As far as we know they have Reid and possibly Frances Curtis. We need to get a covert look at the property and plan accordingly."

Emily nods. "Understood. But, Hotch, she is a cult leader with diehard followers. These two prove that. She won't surrender and neither will they. And...and Reid will..." She shivers, remembering her time with Ben Cyrus. "They will hurt Reid for information and for...for disrupting their plans."

"True. But they won't kill him. Not yet. Trust Reid to take whatever they throw at him," Hotch says. He steps forward and places a hand on her shoulder. "She is not Cyrus and this is not a compound filled with children. This will be over tonight."

Emily just nods, praying her boss is right but unable to shake the memories haunting the back of her mind.


Reid's first sense to reawaken is smell. He can smell the pungent odor of death, wine, and some sort of incense burning. These smells awaken his mind and all he can think is:

"Oh, shit."

He starts to feel the ropes on his wrists, which are pulled up over his head and secured to the slab of stone he is resting upon. Subtle movements of his legs tell him his ankles are bound to opposite corners of the end of the table. He fights the urge to shiver at how helpless he is. He lies as still as possible, trying to reach out with all of his senses to figure out if he is alone or not. He jumps as someone smacks his cheek.

"Stop faking it, Dr. Reid. Your breathing changed. We know you're awake."

Reid slowly opens his eyes and stares up at Stewart. He glances around and sees Pritchett as well as 5 other men. The only person he doesn't see is the man that had grabbed him. Considering the man was the size of a linebacker or 2, he thinks that may be a good thing.

"You're partner is in the room next door awaiting Pritchett and the rest of my priests."

Reid starts to struggle against the ropes holding him down. "NO! Leave her alone!" He is panicked at the thought of Emily suffering the same fate as the women in the photos he had seen.

Stewart grins maliciously. "Then tell us exactly what you all know."

Reid swallows. He wants to protect Emily but knows she would be angry if he gives up information on the case on her behalf. But could he ever look at her or JJ again if he lets her get raped and brutalized?

"Times of the essence here, Dr. Reid," Stewart states impatiently.

Reid takes a deep breath...and tells her everything the team had figured out so far. When he finishes Stewart grins, but there is nothing nice in the look.

"You all are very, very good. All that just because my darling Clay got testy when he was questioned." She turns and pins Pritchett with a deadly stare. "Sloppy, Clay. Very, very sloppy. Looks like you're the next mess to be cleaned up."

Pritchett's face pales as the other men all turn towards him. He starts to shake his head. "NO! Please, Anput! I'll...I'll fix things! I swear!"

The men pounce on him like rabid dogs. Pritchett fights desperately but soon he is bound hand and foot. Stewart walks over and stares down at him.

"Say hello to my husband Anubis, Clay."

Reid shivers as the men drag the still screaming man away. "What...what are you going to do to him?"

Stewart turns and smiles, for the first time seeming to be happy. "Time to feed the cat."

Reid is confused until he hears the crack of the whip and the screams of Pritchett. Obviously he was being flayed by a cat-of-nine tails, whose origin was in Ancient Egypt. He stares up at the professor.

"You're insane," he mutters.

She slaps him across the face. "Watch it, Dr. Reid...or Emily Prentiss will meet the cat next."

She gags him then follows the sounds of torture out of the room. Reid struggles against the ropes holding him, knowing if he and Emily don't get out soon they will both be facing horrible torture at the hands of what he now realizes is a cult, not just a murderess and her cronies.


"Well, Gary was fine until about 8 years ago. That's when someone murdered his second wife. She was a good bit younger than him but she just adored him and he her," a neighbor of the store owner explains. "Well, some bastard broke in, you know...assaulted her...then killed her. Cops never did find the bastard that did it. His son moved back in to help him take care of the land. Had to give up schooling but he got a good job. Then he started taking night classes. About...oh, 4 years ago we started seeing people visit. We thought it was nice that Gary was getting social again."

Hotch's studies the man as his voice trails off. "You 'thought' it was nice. What changed your mind?"

The man rubs his neck, clearly uncomfortable with judging his neighbor. "I just...I went by one night to let him know there was going to be an auction at the VFW hall. I figured he was getting social again he might enjoy it." He stares up at the ceiling. "The smell was...I don't know what it was but you could smell it before you got to his steps. I kinda figured 2 men living alone and, well, maybe things weren't getting cleaned right or something. I knocked a couple times before he came to the door. Gary was acting shifty."

"Shifty?" Rossi presses.

"Yeah. You know, like he didn't want me there. I mean, I didn't see nothing but, well, I get the idea that had I stepped in that house I woulda never stepped back out." He wags his finger at the agent. "Now don't you go quoting me on that! It was just a feeling; nothing to prove it."

Rossi nods. "You listened to that little voice in your head that said something was wrong. It was a smart move. Tell me, did you ever see them taking anything out of here? Anything at all?"

The man shakes his head. "No. I mean, trash to the road, but that's all."

"Is there anything else you'd like to volunteer about your neighbor?" Hotch asks.

The farmer thinks a moment then shakes his head. "Nah. Well, maybe one thing: he was a good man once, Agent Hotchner. Bronze Star and Purple Heart in 'Nam. But losing his wife that way...well, it changed him. It would change any man. Remember that when you arrest him."

Hotch nods. "I'll remember. You have my word."

As the two agents get outside, Rossi glance at Hotch. "You failed to mention Gary is already dead."

Hotch shrugs, his eyes emotionless. "He'll find out soon enough."

Rossi nods as they get into the SUV to drive back to the command van set up down the road.


Emily is pacing anxiously when Morgan returns from a quick reconnaissance of the property. She steps to him.

"Well?"

"No cover to the door. No way to sneak up in the light of day. Blinds on the windows so no way to see in. Hopefully no way to see out, either. Saw cellar doors on the back side. My guess is Reid and Curtis are in the basement."

Emily nods. "Right. Okay. So what's the plan?"

Morgan stares into his best friend's eyes. He sees the desperation clouding out the clinical. He takes her arm and leads her away from the gathering LEOs. He forces her to look him in the eyes.

"Emily, we will get him out of there," he says quietly. "But to do that we're going to need all of you here with us, not inside your head imagining what might be happening in there. So let me lay it out to you: Frances Curtis is in there being brutalized by 1 or more men. Reid is being taunted and mentally and/or physically tortured. We know those are facts." Emily shudders. "But if you want to get him out of there, you need to compartmentalize what we know about this case and what you remember about your time with Cyrus."

"I protected him from Cyrus, Derek. But I didn't protect him today," she points out. "I failed him."

Morgan thinks a moment, then sighs. "One of your first cases...your wife and Reid split up. You know what happened, right?" Emily nods, tears welling in her eyes. "That time they knew they had a suspect at hand. This time you didn't. Reid and JJ made it past that nightmare. We'll make it past this one, too. Back then JJ wanted me to tell her she did something wrong. I wouldn't do it to her. And I won't do it to you now. You did nothing wrong, Emily. Shut the negative away and help us get Reid's ass out of there, okay?"

Emily nods. Morgan squeezes her arm and goes back to the command station to give her time to collect herself. Emily takes a few deep breaths. In her mind she replays the events in the store. Nothing they saw, nothing they heard gave them any indication they were dealing with members of Stewart's inner circle. Could they have missed something?


Morgan is using a satellite view of the farm on his tablet to show Hotch and Rossi what they are dealing with. He is using his stylus to draw in cars and other obstacles that could give them slight cover as they approached. He looks up as Emily walks up to them. He gives her a slight nod when he sees her eyes are sharp and determined.

She is ready to get their friend and Curtis back.

"A helicopter is on its way to give us some real time views from above. If they can zoom in on some license plates we can also figure out who the other players are," Morgan concludes.

"Good. Stay in touch with them," Hotch orders. "I'm going to go speak to the SWAT commander with Ambrose and Mares."

Morgan nods as Hotch walks off. Rossi slowly turns and looks at Emily.

"You okay, kid?"

Emily shrugs. "Better than Reid. I'm solid for this, Rossi. I swear."

He gives her a half grin. "I know, Emily. I know."


Garcia is not waiting for the police helicopter. She is trying her best to find a satellite image clear enough to get plate numbers off the cars in the yard. Additionally, she has a computer running down the phone lists of all known suspects, both dead and alive. Anything she can do to help get Reid out safely sooner is being done. The phone rings and, expecting Morgan, she stabs the answer button for her headphone.

"Talk to me, Morgan."

"Pen?"

Garcia stiffens in her seat. She looks at the caller i.d. as if it will change the person on the end of the line.

"Penelope? Are you there?"

"Jayje...uh...hi..."

JJ swallows. In her mind she can see Garcia's face: eyes wide, cheeks flushed, lips slightly open. In other words: terrified. JJ had been hoping her wife was just out of signal range. Now she knows it's more than that.

"Pen, I can't reach Emily. What the hell is going on?"

"Umm...nothing?"

"GARCIA!" JJ demands.

Garcia winces at the anger and fear in her best friend's voice. "Damn my favorite beanbag chair," Garcia mutters. "First off: Emily is okay but her phone got smashed by someone. Reid's, too."

"Smashed? By who? Why?"

"Ooooohhhhh, Jayje...can't you just accept she's okay?"

"Garcia, talk or I will break speed records driving to the BAU," JJ threatens.

"No! No, don't do that." Garcia takes a deep breath. "Again, remember: Emily is okay. Pissed but okay."

As she manipulates the data and images on her computer, Garcia gives JJ a quick rundown of what had happened that day. By the end, JJ is thankful she is already in bed. She can feel her pulse pounding and is a little lightheaded. She rubs her temple.

"Will they...how are they...when..." JJ has too many questions fighting to get out. She has no idea where to start.

"Ooo! I got something that can help them! Can I call you back?"

"NO! Patch me through with the call." JJ takes a deep breath. "I need to speak with her, Pen."

Garcia bites her lip. "How about I call Hotch and you call Morgan. She'll be with him. You know that."

JJ slowly nods. "Right. Okay. I'll be calling you back, Garcia. Don't you dare ignore my call," she warns.

"I won't, Jayje. Promise."

Garcia disconnects and calls Hotch. "Hotch! I have 4 more names for you based on the cars I can see in the yard."

"Give them to me, Garcia." She rattles them off. "Good work. I'll be sending patrol units to their homes to either lock them down as crime scenes or interview anyone there. Be ready to receive anything more they may find out."

"Will do. Oh, and...Jayje called me."

Hotch pinches the bridge of his nose and looks back towards Emily. He sees her on Morgan's phone. "She okay?"

"Mad as hell at me, worried about her wife and terrified for Reid. But other that she's peaches and cream on a hot summer day," Garcia states sarcastically.

Hotch can't help but smile a little. "I'll take the heat from her, Garcia. I assume she'll be calling you back when she gets off with Emily."

"Yes, sir. She'll want to know what I know when I know it."

"I'll make sure you're kept up to date."

"Thank you, sir. Garcia out."

Hotch pockets his phone, his eyes never leaving Emily. She turns and sees him staring at her. She gives him a thumbs up, letting him know she's talking her irate wife down. He gives her a confident nod then goes to get officers sent out to the homes of the newest suspects.


Morgan is working on an entry plan with Emily when his phone rings. "Morgan."

"Give her your phone," JJ orders without preamble.

Morgan eases it from his ear and stares at it a moment before extending his hand to Emily. "It's for you. Might want to consider donning Kevlar before taking it."

"Son of a bitch," Emily mutters as she takes it. She takes a deep breath. "Hey, sweetheart. How you doing?" she says with forced cheerfulness.

"Don't even start that shit. I spoke with Pen. I know what's going on. Are you okay?"

Emily starts to pace. "I've...been better. But I can deal with the fear and shit later. For now I just have to concentrate on saving Reid and the Curtis woman. I'm sorry I didn't call you but...to be honest...I was imagining all the possible 'what ifs' about this whole damn thing. Morgan helped me work past it and get my head on right. I promise you, Jennifer, I am okay to be out here on this op to save Reid."

JJ smiles slightly. "I believe you, Em. I can hear it in your voice. Promise me you will call as soon as it's over. I don't care the time."

"Promise me you won't stay on the phone with Garcia into the wee hours of the morning," Emily counters. There is a pronounced silence. Emily smiles. "Mommy Prentiss?"

JJ sighs. "I have to know you all are okay, Em. I can't make that promise."

"I knew you'd say that," Emily concedes. "Maybe nap if you can? Garcia can wake you when we plan to go in, okay?"

JJ sighs. "Okay, I can do that. Or at least try to."

"Good girl." Emily feels eyes on her and turns to see Hotch staring at her. "Uh, I think Hotch talked to Garcia. He looks worried and he's staring at me. He probably thinks you're trying to board a plane to fly down here." She gives him a thumbs up.

JJ chuckles. "Can't say the thought didn't cross my mind. But I don't really want to make the news as the woman who goes into labor at 20,000 feet."

Emily laughs. "That would make their birth memorable but I prefer Maddie and Luc come to us via hospital."

"Me, too." JJ takes a deep breath as she rubs her stomach. "I guess I should let you go."

"Yeah. I promise to call as soon as I can," Emily vows.

"I'll be waiting. Please be safe."

"I will be."

"I love you, Em."

"I love you, too, Jen. Talk to you soon."

"Right. Bye, baby."

"Bye."

JJ disconnects the call and stares at the phone in her hand. She would do as she promised. She'd call Garcia and make the analyst promise to call her when the raid starts. Until then, she would do her best to nap...and not have nightmares about what one of her best friends is going through at the hands of an insane cult leader and her followers.