Even though they acted as fast as possible, it took the BAU a good 3 hours to get a couple of snipers and a squad ready and to get to the location of the chapel. It was very silent, too quiet. There were no animal sounds, Hotch noticed, no wind rustling the branches of the trees.

Quietly, they approached the little chapel. The evening light was just descending on its copper roof and put everything in a beautiful orange light. Amber thought it striking. It almost looked like God Himself had reached out down from the heavens and touched this holy place. But then she reminded herself of why they were here. A serial killer was holding hostage 5 boys and the danger was imminent.

Aaron had wanted Amber to stay at the police station but stubborn as she was and as he knew her, she wouldn't listen to him. He didn't like the idea of her going into something that could turn into wild shooting. They had no clue whether the Unsub was armed or not, how he would react to the FBI agents storming into his refuge or what he might do to the boys. Apart from this, he didn't want his private life to mingle with his work, something he had always forbidden.

At least she had agreed to put on the Kevlar vest and stay behind with the rest of the sergeants close to the car. Morgan, Prentiss and Reid were on their way to the back entrance with 5 police officers, while Hotch, Rossi and Captain Hunter with 6 more men took the front entrance.

There was a high-pitched scream, full of anguish, a blend of voices. Aaron drew his Glock 17 and moved forward with care. He turned only for a moment and looked at Amber before closing in on the door, just to make sure that she was still there.

The screams died away, but only for a moment. Then another voice was heard, an agonizing cry of pain, which stopped abruptly for a second, before a variety of cries were heard.

From both sides the doors were kicked in at the same time and the scene stormed.

Morgan was the first to see what had been happening in the little chapel. With his gun held in front of him, he had only a moment to take it all in before he had to tear his attention back onto the Unsub, who – with a roar of anger and disgust – came charging against him with a long and bloody knife. Looking at him a little closer, the Agents could see that his whole body was drenched with blood.

There was no time or opportunity to talk to the Unsub, something Morgan preferred to do, now the only thing he could do was to shoot him in the leg to bring him down.

The shot was fired and the sound echoed in the chapel like a thunder, yet the Unsub didn't even stumble. He continued to move against the Agents and Morgan fired another round, this time hitting the Unsub into the chest. Again, this had only little effect. The Unsub staggered a little by the impact but regained his balance by throwing himself forward against Morgan.

Another shot was fired. The bullet hit the Unsub in the left temple and sent him flying to the ground, where he laid sprawled, convulsing a bit before he went quiet. It had been Hotchner who fired the last shot. He now was lowering slowly the gun, as if not trusting that the Unsub really was dead.

Then, he too took a better look at the inside of the chapel. In one corner, the Unsub had hung up five massive wood crosses in a circle and on each of the crosses hung one of the boys, nailed to it by hands and feet.

The floor was wet with blood. All of it had come from the gaping wound of the slashed throat of two of the boys, Felipe Perez and Jake Franks. Andy Gardiner was unconscious and bleeding heavily from a severed neck artery where the Unsub had started his work and couldn't finish because of the police and the team entering the chapel. Paul and Thomas had finally stopped screaming.

The policemen took the boys down, and once the ambulance and coroner arrived, two of them were put into the sad black body bags. The ambulance carrying Andy rushed off immediately, the boy was in a grave medical condition and had lost a lot of blood. The paramedics didn't have much hope. The other two were put into another ambulance car and also driven off to get medical attention.

Rossi and Morgan took a closer look at the crime scene. The air had a coppery smell to it because of all the blood that had been spilled.

"He really took the initiation process to a new level..."

"Yes, but after his own experience, he felt touched by God. Imagine a young and gullible boy in a car accident where both parents die instantaneously. The car is damaged extensively and on top there is a lot of water coming down on him. And he survived. It made him stronger, it made him develop such a strong disorder that he felt having been put into the position of God and made it his mission to experience the same thing again, by freeing other 16 year old boys."

"He baptized the boys in order to baptize himself!"

"He brought them revelation...He went through the first two stages of the typical rite of passage: the separation when his parents died, the transition when he tracked down the boys he could identify with and then finally he needed to experience the stage of reincorporation where he tried to return to the moment of the initial event."

Rossi paused for a moment. "I was wrong about the reincorporation part when we first created the profile. I thought that he would put his victims through the same experience as he had lived through, but killing the parents was only a part of his sick view. He needed them to initiate himself again – to get to a new level of reincorporation."

Morgan sighed. "Anyways, we came late..." There was a silent moment between them. They hadn't made it in time, two boys had been already dead and a third critically injured.

"And apart from that, those boys will never forget this..." he sighed again.

"No, they won't." Rossi said plainly. "But hopefully, this will make them stronger..."