Prentiss
Hours had passed; Savannah and Garcia slept for a short while. Morgan, Reid, Rossi, and Clyde tried to formulate plans to get us out of here, JJ and Hotch spoke quietly about me, and I continued to pace back and forth slowly. I knew that someone would be coming sooner or later, and I knew that we were being watched somehow, so I refused to let myself lose it again or become emotional or even let my guard down at all.
Eventually, I heard the heavy door unlock and open. Four men walked in, all with large guns. I heard a buzz and the cage door opened slightly as they aimed their guns in. "Emily, come out." I heard a voice speak over something almost like an intercom system. I hesitated before I walked forwards.
Hotch grabbed my arm and pulled me towards him and away from the cage door. I looked at him, "Aaron, you need to trust me." I said to him quietly. He didn't want to let go and I could see the fear in his eyes; the fear that they would just kill me right now in front of him. I gave him a small reassuring smile and pulled away when I felt his hand loosen. I stepped out of the cage and one of the armed men moved forwards quickly, but he walked past me. He closed the cage door and I heard the buzz again; I assumed to lock it again. All four men moved to stand in front of me as I stood with the cage to my right.
"Who knows? Who will know about your absence?" The man furthest to right side asked. I recognised the voice but I couldn't place a face or name to it. I looked at him more directly and my eyes narrowed as I thought. He uncocked his gun and slung it over his shoulder before taking a handgun from his ankle. He took out five of six bullets before turning the cylinder quickly. He held it close my head, aimed to the centre of my forehead. I took a silent deep breath to keep myself calm. "Who?" He asked again.
"I know you." I took the chance. He pulled the trigger and I was lucky for the chamber to be empty, but I didn't even flinch; I didn't even close my eyes. I could see Hotch panicking out the corner of my eye but I ignored it the best I could.
He held it again to point to the same place, "Who knows?"
I shook my head, "Irish, you have the tattoo, you clearly worked for Doyle…but when did we cross paths?"
He almost smirked, "Emily, you met me several times, particularly when the whole family was together." I realised immediately, then.
I closed my eyes, "Connor…"
"You killed my brother; I'm only here to return the favour…and maybe make your life a bit harder to live, maybe without a boyfriend or a best friend."
I shook my head, "He was a terrorist-turned-murderer. You're not like him, Connor. I know that you never wanted to be apart of anything that he was about, anything that he represented."
"I didn't, but then you killed him; It's only fair that I get revenge." He pulled the trigger again, and again I was lucky enough for that chamber to be empty too. But once again, I hadn't even blinked.
"Enough." The male voice over the speaker said. Connor lowered his gun and he and the other men walked out of the room quickly, closing the door behind him. "Emily, we're going to play a little game," I heard a loud clatter behind me and I turned to see a gun on the ground. "Take the gun." I didn't move. "Trust me, Emily; you're going to need it." I gave in and picked it up quickly. I released the cylinder from the revolver to ensure that it was loaded. It only had six chambers; a typical one. I walked back to the centre of the room and waited, the gun already cocked.
"Emily…" Clyde said quietly. I looked at him and waited for him to continue. "Be careful."
"Now you have two choices; you can risk using the gun now and having nothing later…or you can run." As he said run, something behind me moved and I turned around to see two small doors open in the wall. Inside of these holes were two dogs, teeth bared and growling aggressively. They looked majorly underfed and abused; there was no doubt that they would rip me to shreds. I took a few slow steps back and panicked.
"Run." JJ said quietly.
"The door is open." The man over the speaker told me. The dogs were barking and approaching me. I kept walking back slowly and I lifted my gun to aim at the closer one, but I couldn't do it. I lowered it as I cursed to myself and I kept walking back to the door. I found the handle behind me and pulled it open. I turned quickly and ran as fast as I could. I could hear them barrelling after me, barking and growling and ready to attack me.
The fear of the dogs grew when I heard another bark from another direction; how many did they have out in these dark halls that resembled a big, impossible maze. I turned corners, I had no time to stop and decide whether to continue straight, go left, or go right, and so I just guessed and prayed to god that no more dogs were coming from the direction that I ran. After a while I was getting too tired to keep running, but the dogs were determined. There were five behind me. I went to turn right at one intersection of paths but then I saw a sixth dog that way, so I went left instead and saw an open door with a dull light. I ran in and closed it behind me quickly, and I saw that I was back in with the team, where I had begun. I held the door closed as the dogs pushed on it and barked.
"Did you shoot any of them?" Garcia asked me once the barks began to die down. I slid down the door to sit against it and shook my head. "Are you okay?" I shook my head again and closed my eyes. I sat forwards and dropped my head to rest on my knees.
"Did they get you?" JJ asked. I shook my head again and took a few deep breaths, trying to both get my breath back and calm down. After a minute or so, I lifted my head and stood back up. I tucked the gun into my waistband and brushed my hair back.
"…What's it like out there?" Clyde asked quietly.
I shook my head, "A huge, impossible maze of halls."
"How'd you find your way back?"
"I got lucky."
About ten minutes had passed before I heard the quiet buzz and the cage door open again. "Agent Easter." The voice said over the speaker. The others didn't dare move as Clyde slowly walked towards the door and stepped out. It fell closed behind him and the buzz signalled the lock again.
After a few minutes of silence while we all waited to hear him speak to Clyde, I decided to break it. "Why did he let you out and not give you instructions at all?"
"I don't know." He shook his head.
"I swear to god, if you are at all involved in this and betrayed my trust, I will kill you."
"Relax, darling. If I wanted to kill you I would have done it when I first came into your parent's home to help out. I wouldn't have waited and I wouldn't make it such a big deal. I know you hate me right now and I know that you will probably never stop hating me, but right now you need to remember that I am on your side here. You need to remember everything we did before JTF and how we work together to achieve it."
"No."
"Emily—"
"I'm not doing it again."
"Why not?"
"Because."
"Not a valid reason."
"Because I was a monster!"
He nodded, "And you're afraid that if you do it all again then your brain will click back to autopilot and you won't come back out."
"I almost didn't last time."
"Last time you didn't have a family to come back to. Last time you thought that being emotionless and cruel was better than being nothing because you were so numb and alone compared to the state you're in now. It's different now; now you have your family," He motioned to the team, "You have meaning in your life. If worst comes to worst, I'll mention Jack and Henry, you'll come straight back for them."
"Turning into that means that I have to stop feeling, Clyde." To the team it would have sounded like I was some supernatural shapeshifter or something alike.
"Someone fill us in here?" JJ asked.
"Emily and I had also worked together previous to JTF-12. Much like the CIA, no one is supposed to know what we were, but this is even more dangerous compared to the knowledge you already have."
"Assassins. We were basically assassins," I said it quickly, not letting him ease into telling them like he did often when he wanted to tell a story or when he was revealing something he shouldn't. "Except it wasn't like the movies, it isn't like we wore all black and used nunchucks and moved around so stealthily that we were always unseen. We were just trained specifically to kill efficiently and professionally. In our defence, we were still working for London's government."
"So what do you mean by "turn into" someone else?" JJ asked quietly. She sounded almost afraid.
"In our extensive training in hand-to-hand combat and shooting, stabbing, whatever the method was, we were also trained to turn off anything inside of us that could prevent us from completing a hit. Almost like a switch, we'd just stop caring, stop feeling any sort of emotion that could put us off. We basically learnt to detach ourselves from our own personalities and morals." I looked at them, all silent and staring at me. I could see the anger and hurt burning in Hotch's eyes. "But once you detach yourself the way we're taught, it's really hard to come back and be who you were. It takes a part of you every time, and occasionally there will be a few "agents" that can't return to themselves. They usually disappear into thin air, never seen again."
"Those ones are executed before they build up any sort of reason to kill someone that they're not supposed to. We stayed strictly to the lists and we always required a valid reason. The people we hit were dangerous," He looked back at me, "Now that they know, can you do it?"
"No." I didn't even think twice about it; the last time I ever "switched", it was the last hit I did before leaving that organisation. "Emotions are what make people human, and what shape your morals. I am never doing that again."
"Are you at least able to use the other skills?"
"Yes."
"Guilt free?"
"No."
"Will you hesitate and risk our safety?"
"Maybe." I stared at him with stern eyes to show that I wasn't going to give in. He snickered and turned away as he shook his head. He wanted to yell at me, he was angry and frustrated and I could easily tell that; you didn't even need to be a profiler to see it.
"How much more of your life are we unaware of?" Hotch asked almost desperately.
I sighed and looked at him, "Honestly, there isn't much more." He looked away and turned his back to me as he walked to the back of the cell he was stuck in. He stood against the brick wall and looked down.
I heard the door unlock then; I didn't even know that had locked it again since I got back. Clyde and I looked at each other for a second before we both looked at the door as it opened. Four men came in, all with guns pointed at us. I didn't dare pull the one tucked into my waistband out. "You, get back in." One said as he motioned to the cage with his gun. The quiet buzz sounded once again, and I walked to the cage slowly before he pulled the door for me and I walked back into it. He closed it and the buzz sounded immediately. They told Clyde to go with them and he left the room with four guns trained on him. I sighed to myself as I calmed down slightly and I looked at JJ where she stood with Reid to my right.
"I'm sorry." I whispered to her.
She glanced towards Hotch across the cage, "I don't think it's me who's feeling the most upset about not knowing you right now."
I nodded and looked at him behind me to my left. I took a breath before I walked over to him slowly and stood in front of him. The team kind of turned away, trying to give as much privacy as possible in the limited space we had here. "…I'm not proud of it, okay? And I'm sorry that I didn't tell you, but I couldn't."
"How am I supposed to love you if I don't even know you?"
"You do know me; you know me better than anyone else, even better than I know myself. It just the little things that I can't speak about that—"
"Little things? You killed people, Emily!"
"I told you from the beginning that there were things about me that you couldn't know and wouldn't want to know, I told you that. But what I used to do doesn't define me now, Aaron. I'm still me, I'm just a bit experienced in more fields than you first anticipated."
"You killed people! You didn't even know why you were killing them. Did you ask questions or did you not care?"
"Of course I cared. We always had a valid reason before we went ahead, but none of it really matters once you turn it all off. I hate myself for it, but I was doing what I had to do to stay in the game, to survive. I can't just go back and change it now, no matter how much I want to."
"Remind me why we don't keep secrets." He said quieter.
"Because we fight and we question everything we have. We have a rule. If you want to call it quits, you can." I lowered my voice at the last sentence.
"I don't want to call it quits, I just want you to tell me things."
"I promise you that after all of this, if we happen to get out of here, I will tell you absolutely everything. I will recount my life from start to present and I won't leave a single thing out, even if it's something I'm not supposed to tell anyone. I promise."
"…Do I really know you? Honestly?"
I nodded without hesitating, "Yes. I'm still me." I stepped towards him and kissed him gently. He returned it and hung his arms to rest of my hips. "I love you."
"I love you too." He kissed me again and I went to speak before I heard Clyde's searing scream. I turned around instinctively and I began to panic inside. I was trapped in this cage and someone who was trying to help me out was being tortured, and I couldn't do anything about it. I ran my hands through my hair and Hotch pulled me back around to look at him. "Ignore it, block it out."
Tears stung my eyes and I tried to blink them away, "What have I done?" I asked quietly.
"You haven't done anything wrong, sweetheart," He pulled me into him and I relaxed slightly in the tightness and protectiveness of his arms around me. I retuned his hug and closed my eyes as I tried not to listen to Clyde's screams. He spoke to me quietly to either try and distract me or give me something else to listen to, but it wasn't much use.
After a while, I couldn't hear him screaming anymore. I moved to stand to Hotch's side, although I was still glued to him with my arms around his waist. He ran his fingers up and down my arm gently to try and calm me down. The door unlocked and I watched as two men dragged Clyde in and dropped him in the centre of the room before they walked back out. He looked very weak and he had a lot of blood over him.
"Em." He tried to speak but it didn't come out further than a pained whisper, but I still heard him. He pulled himself over towards the cage and I ran over and dropped to the ground to his level. "Here." He struggled to speak and move, but he managed to take a gun from his waistband and slid it to me. I manoeuvred my hand to fit between the bars and took the gun. I got it back through the cage and pushed the chamber out to check for ammunition. It was loaded.
"Where'd you get it?" I asked as I looked behind me and held it out to Morgan. He took it and tucked it into the back of his jeans.
"Took it from one of their ankles while they were kicking me," He pulled himself up to sit against the cage and let out the breath he had been holding in. He lifted his shirt and I could tell some of his ribs were broken, as was his nose. His face was already bruising bad and had drying blood across it.
"Why were you screaming?" I asked quietly. He turned slightly and lifted his shirt more; there were lots of small cuts and what looked like an electrical burn. "Oh my god! They electrocuted you?"
Savannah stood from where she had been sitting against the wall and kneeled at my side as she looked at Clyde's burn. "Looks pretty bad; if you don't get proper treatment very soon then it'll get infected and the results could be fatal. For now," She took her sweater off and handed it through the cage, "Wrap it the best you can; I can rewrap it properly when you're back in here."
He obeyed her silently and tried to tie the sweater around him to cover the burn. I stood up and brushed my hair back as I shook my head and tears filled my eyes. I went back to Hotch and leant into him, burying my head into his chest as he put his arms back around me tightly.
