Chapter One: Revenge Doesn't Taste Good Burnt

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." -Mahatma Gandhi

Compassion was Reid's true weakness, he had too much of it. Or maybe it was because he could 'pretend' to relate to the damaged unsubs. Hotch had once told him that it made him good at his job. But the more Spencer thought of it, it just ended up hurting him. Like when the unsub took his own life after being caught, even if that unsub was only a teenager who needed someone in his life to care. And the more Reid thought of it, he rarely ever pretended to relate. Most of the time… he just related. Wanted to save them. And it tore him apart when he couldn't.

Well, compassion or no compassion, it was a high school tormentor who led the BAU to the killer.

Teagan Clarkson, a sixteen-year-old high school student who had been bullied ever since she started going to a public school in middle school. For her short stature and quiet, but ingenious personality. She was bullied for being the smart one because in school you either had to hide your brilliance, or risk being alienated for it.

Teagan had killed eight people in less than a week after finally snapping. It was after the second attack, and sixth death, that the BAU had been called in. Discovering it was a kid of high school age was the easy part, for all the victims had been about a year or so apart in age.

She had used bombing as her way to kill, placing them in binders when nobody was looking. The school cameras should've caught the unsub, but the Nevadan school had been cheap to use them. Something the team regretted for them.

Nonetheless, the first bomb had gone off and killed a fifteen-year-old football player, two of his friends and his girlfriend. Five seconds and running was all they needed to save them, but they didn't even notice the bomb ticking away in the binder. Nestled between a few papers and placed there while they all bullied their classmate.

The second was put in an art student named Abigail's binder while she was cleaning up her supplies. It took out Abigail and her friend even quicker than the other three.

This was when the team was called in by a particularly panicked sheriff.

They had put together quite an accurate profile, but they had missed one major detail. The fact that the unsub was female. Reid had been quiet during this case, especially after they came to the conclusion that the unsub was a smart teenager who'd been bullied. Compassion making it difficult for him to think of the unsub as the true murderer. After all, weren't the bullies the murderers? They were the ones who ravaged lives.

The third attack happened the day after the BAU arrived. School hadn't been canceled, the principal dismissing the fact that it was dangerous and saying that 'only one attack had happened inside' because the first attack had been outside on the football field. It detonated near three students. Another two football students, and their bullying victim.

Teagan's girlfriend had been one of the victims, and the team quickly realized that she hadn't meant to be caught in the bombing. One football student had survived the bombing and identified Teagan before passing out. He now lay in the hospital with a few broken bones. Teagan's girlfriend Rose had died. For a few moments.

The ambulance workers had brought her back to life and she was now in surgery, holding on for dear life. Maybe if Teagan had known of Rose surviving, Reid wouldn't have found himself, JJ and Morgan driving way past the speed limit to the school the next morning.

As the car screeched to a stop, Reid leaped out of the car and raced inside. JJ and Morgan began quickly trying to get students out of the school. Thirty minutes before they had received a message from Teagan on Rose's phone, apologizing to her parents and saying she'd protect Rose. The meaning was clear.

She was going to end her life, and as many students as she could.

Reid found her in the middle of a crowd near the lockers. A group of about fifteen students had all fallen to the floor, covering their ears in horror as Teagan stood there, holding a bomb and screaming that if any of them moved a muscle she'd set it off. When she saw Reid, she glared at him, her hand shaking as she held the bomb.

"Stop right there!" she screamed at him. "Don't come any closer! I will set it off!"

"Teagan, my name is Spencer Reid," The doctor started slowly, raising his hands in the air to show her that he didn't pose any threat. "Rose is alive. She's in surgery at the hospital but she didn't die. You did not kill her."

The teenager's gaze softened in surprise, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. Then it hardened and she shook her head slowly. "No, you're lying…" Teagan moved her hands to her head, screaming, her finger hovered over the button to activate the bomb. "You're lying! You're a cop and that's what you do!" Her eyes were clenched shut as she screamed.

JJ had found her way to the group and was now ushering kids to follow her out. As a third kid was racing away, Teagan opened her eyes and looked right at JJ. She held out the bomb in a threat, everyone froze.

"They can't leave! They need to suffer, all of them!"

Reid looked at the cowering students, some were crying, others hugging each other and some praying. "You don't want to hurt everyone, isn't that right, Teagan?" he murmured, trying a different tactic. "Not all of them hurt you, or Rose…"

Teagan paused at that, finally getting a good look at all the students. Her lip quivered. Tears streaked her face and she gave a small nod. "Nicole, Isaac, Walt, if you want to leave, you can. But nobody else."

A girl stood up quickly, pulling at the one of the guy's shirt. "Come on, Walt! Let's go!" The boy hesitated, looking from Nicole to Teagan before whispering an apology and disappearing with JJ. Teagan kept her gaze on one kid in the crowd, a kid with shaggy black hair.

"Go, Isaac, go…" Teagan whispered.

"I won't leave you, Tea. You can't kill yourself."

Teagan let out a wail of horror and shook her head. "I can! I need to protect Rose! We can be together, with nobody to torture us!" she screamed that last part at a large, fit young man. "Leave Isaac, because there is no stopping me."

Reid helped the kid up, well, more like dragged him to his feet. "Get to safety," the agent breathed. Isaac hesitated, before running to Teagan. He wrapped her in a hug and she cried into him for a moment before tearing herself away.

"Leave, now,"

The male backed away and then knocked the bomb out of Teagan's hands. Somebody yelled, might've been Reid, and the bomb hit the ground. Less than a second later, everything seemed to stop for Spencer. The button had hit the ground and lit up in a fiery explosion.

Reid had launched himself in front of the kids he could reach, and the explosion threw him to a wall. He could hear the roof splinter at the explosion and then give loose. Showering everyone in brick and sparking lights that added onto the explosion.

Fighting for consciousness, Reid tried to crawl to the aid of some of the students, but couldn't move. He was pulling on something, and as he tried to weakly shift his position, he realized that he was trapped under a trophy case, explaining what he was cutting himself on whenever he trying to move.

Above him, a part of the roof blocked sunlight from reaching them, but… it was still bright… Spencer forced his eyes open again only to see that the place where the bomb had exploded was on fire. The golden-red flames slinked their way up the walls, up the roof, everywhere.

At last, Spencer couldn't keep his eyes open anymore. He could barely breathe, and he had only sucked in smoke when he gasped for air. The last thing he saw was the billowing flames.

Overpowering everything in its path.

Along with the crackling sound of something, Reid could hear somebody shout his name. Eyes remaining closed, he found that he couldn't respond.

"Reid!"

The young doctor's lip curled in misery, and he tried opening his eyes. They felt glued shut. It was as if he was trapped in his mind. Unable to feel, see, smell, taste but able to hear and think. Reid couldn't even recognize the name other than… it was a bit familiar?

"Spencer!" the voice howled again. Some more voices joined in, chanting names that he didn't recognize. Darrin, Ally, Ben, Teagan.

That last one made sense. Teagan… Teagan… Teagan! The case!

His mind ached at the revelation, but Reid forced his lips apart to try and reply. He only sucked in some air and broke into a coughing fit that rocked his entire body. He couldn't breathe! Choking in the thick smog, Spencer felt tears spill down his face. The smoke was filling his airway, and he was breathing it in through his mouth, through his nose, all while the heavy case pressed down on his stomach.

"You can't go in there, agent!" somebody he didn't know yelled.

"Watch me! I need to save who I can!" Morgan?

"That roof could give way any moment and everyone would die, especially if you went in moving stuff around. Wait for the firemen!" Spencer still didn't know that voice, but he did recognize Morgan's pissed-off growl.

A few moments had passed, as did Reid's inability to breathe when he could hear a fire truck's wailing. That was when it occurred to Reid that he should call his team… Pulling his hand from the area it had been trapped, he gasped in pain when some glass from the case cut open his skin. Blood gushed out of the wound as he patted around for his phone. He found nothing but rubble.

"Mor-" his attempt at yelling broke off in another fit.

Reid couldn't breathe again, and he closed his eyes, the smoke stealing his consciousness once again.

This time, it wasn't a voice that woke Reid, but instead a hand. Fingers pressed to his neck, checking his heartbeat. They were saying something, but words didn't make sense to Reid anymore. The person yelled something suddenly, and then he found that the weight pressed against his lower half was lessening.

Smoke still filled his lungs, but Reid gasped for air the moment he didn't feel the heavy wood crushing his stomach.

More words were spoken. Then he was lifted up, feeling as if he weighed like nothing. Which didn't seem too far off, actually. A lot of things felt nonexistent. His arm felt like it wasn't there, he couldn't feel past his hips, and… he drifted off, unable to assess himself anymore.

Less and less was making sense. After his pain faded, he couldn't remember how to breathe, then he didn't know his name, or his purpose, until at last, nothing made sense.

Not even his thoughts.

"Reid!"

That noise sounded sort of… not unknown? He felt he should know it but… he didn't. His lips moved as he tried to recreate a sound like it. It ended up with him murmuring incoherently.

"Morgan…" is what he murmured, but in all its… rightness?... it didn't make sense. It was almost like when you heard a baby cry. You recognized it, but what it meant made as much sense as a bird growing arms. The young man chuckled at that thought before breaking into yet another coughing fit that he most definitely remembered doing recently. The I-can't-breathe-because-I've-been-stuck-in-an-oven kind of cough. Yeah, that kind.

He faded away again.

"I've crossed some kind of invisible line. I feel as if I've come to a place I never thought I'd have to come to. And I don't know how I got here. It's a strange place." -Raymond Carver

A/N: There will be no main character death, so don't worry; Reid will live. I just wanted to write some Reid sadness so it may seem like he'll die for a bit, but he won't. This should be a shorter story, probably only 1-4 chapters but maybe more. Anyway, if you enjoyed this, leave a review!
I'm also starting a little something that is mini stories. Just leave a comment what Reid whump you would read about and I may just write a book on it! Hope you enjoyed and stay safe!