Title: The Clockwork Boy
Rating: R
Fandom: Criminal Minds
Universe: Creatures of the Night (Part 2)
Pairing: Reid/Austin, Morgan/Prentiss; JJ/Hotch
Genre: Supernatural/Drama
Summary: Reid is searching for answers. JJ, Hotch and Morgan are searching for Reid. Prentiss and Rossi investigate a series of deaths that are related to an old case. Things are much more twisted than they seem. AU.
Chapter Thirteen
They're standing in a semi-circle around Garcia's computer, their faces an expression of shock, and, JJ realizes, taking a closer look at Hotch and Morgan, hurt. The young profiler has been like a younger brother to all of them – even though it had been strange at first, she's never really thought of him as anything but human. He laughs, he cries. He feels anger, he feels pain.
To know that he's working against them now – that their betrayal had led him to this – it's hard to accept.
She doesn't know if there's any going back. They'd lied to Spencer Reid, and now they're paying the price.
'Did you find out where he is?' Hotch asks sharply, but there's an undercurrent of sadness to his voice. She wants to tell him that he did the right thing, but it really isn't the time, or the place.
'I narrowed it down, but it's still a twenty mile radius,' she answers. 'What would his captors want from his personnel file?'
'The same thing he wants,' says Morgan. 'Answers.'
Hotch opens his mouth to speak, but Morgan hasn't quite finished yet. 'It makes sense – that is the one thing that sets Spencer Reid apart, and it's the one thing that would make him turn on us. He needs to know the truth.'
Morgan's not ready to give up on him yet, apparently. She's not surprised – he is, by his own admission, relentless. He will walk to the ends of the Earth to bring Spencer Reid back, and then even further to try and make things right. It's an unlikely friendship, but it's – it had been – a strong one nonetheless.
She feels a twinge at her forehead, and dismisses it. It's been a tough week – even by BAU standards. She thinks that after they've found Reid, she'll go home and sleep for a week, call-ins be damned.
The pain starts to ripple and it's the kind of pain she usually associates with picking up particularly strong mental activity from another person, only it's multiplied by tenfold. She puts a hand to her head, and can't stop the moan that escapes her lift. It burns, as though someone has decided to stab a needle into the pin of her voodoo doll. That had happened once, the pain coming to an end only after Hotch had shot the Vodoun Priest in a splatter of crimson. She doesn't think that bullets are going to help now.
'JJ?' Hotch asks, concern creasing across his brow. She can barely hear him – it's as though his words are coming through some kind of barrier. The pain ripples again, sending a wave of fire through her frontal lobe, and this time, the noise she lets out is louder.
She falls to the ground, and everything goes dark.
And then…
And then it's not dark.
But it's not light, either.
It's…grey. As though she's not really using all of her senses. The color comes slowly – she sees green first. Lots of green. Bright flashes of green – dark and light. Trees. Grass.
Where is she?
Is this a dream?
It doesn't feel like a dream, but then, it rarely ever does. It feels like she's reaching inside someone's mind. Watching their thoughts. But this is far more advanced than she's capable of.
There's a flash of blue next, and she finds herself calling out, 'Rossi!' even though she's not really sure why. The experience is familiar – knowing without ever really seeing. Seeing is the next phase in telepathy. A transcendence.
She does see Rossi then – he's lying on the ground. On the grass. Dead?
No.
Unconscious.
He's bleeding from a head wound, and there are half a dozen people surrounding him. She doesn't know who these people are. She's never seen them in her life. They're wearing dark red robes, which isn't altogether uncommon. At the same time though, she feels the malevolence that emanates from them. Their motives are not noble.
She fears for her friend's life.
Only…he's not alone. Emily had been with him. And Jordan.
She's not sure who Jordan is; the name has been supplied to her, and she isn't entirely sure how. All she knows is that the next two flashes come in quick succession. Two limp, lifeless bodies. One of them is Emily, and the other one has dark hair, olive colored skin. Jordan?
Yes, her mind tells her. She doesn't argue.
Her friends are in trouble.
They need help.
They need…water?
Why do they need water?
Her body jerks upwards, and she's vaguely aware of the fact that she's spluttering, and that she's soaked from the shoulders up. The air conditioning hits her skin with an icy chill.
'Are you okay?' Hotch asks, his hand on her shoulder. He's radiating with concern, and something else. Something that she's not sure she can deal with right now. Love.
'Yeah, I'm…' she says, her words interrupted by a coughing fit that seems to last for ten minutes.
'Sorry,' says Morgan apologetically, and it's as though she's noticing his presence for the first time. 'Someone decided that the best course of action would be to tip a bucket of water over your head.' He shoots Kevin an ugly glance, and she vaguely wonders just how the fairy had managed to lug an entire bucket of water by himself.
'I'm fine,' she says, trying to pull herself upwards. She closes her eyes against the pain.
Green. Trees. Grass. Blue. Rossi.
'Rossi's in trouble,' she blurts out, and apparently, out of all the things she could have said, that's not what Hotch had been expecting.
'I had a vision,' she clarifies. 'One of the groups they're going after – they were ambushed.'
'They?' asks Morgan, and for a split second, she sees unadulterated fear in his eyes.
'Rossi, Emily. Jordan.'
Nobody asks who Jordan is, and she's not entirely sure that she can explain. Any extraneous knowledge she had felt in that grey void seems to have slipped away.
'You had a vision?' Hotch asks, and the fear that's in his eyes isn't just for Rossi and Emily. She gets that – if she's getting more powerful, then it's really not particularly good news, because the powerful telepaths are the first ones to go insane – but it is really, really not important right now.
'Please, Hotch…' she says, and that's apparently all she needs to say, because he nods.
'Garcia?'
She stands up, aware of Hotch's attempts at trying to help. She's grateful, but at the same time, she doesn't want to seem weak. The last thing she wants is for him to tell her to go home and take some rest. They're down three agents in two separate circumstances, and it's going to take some kind of Leprechaun miracle to get through this unscathed. Hell, it'll take a Leprechaun miracle just to get everyone out alive, and nobody knows anything about where the Leprechauns are right now.
'Rossi's staff sent out a back-up pulse,' Garcia announces. 'Two minutes ago.' There's a buzz and a blur of white, and the fairy zips around to land on JJ's shoulder. 'What now?'