Ken Whitehead is too out of it to notice anything is wrong. She made sure of that by making sure he had plenty to drink all night. He barely made it back to his house, and once he did he collapsed onto his couch. He's followed inside by another individual, who shuts and locks the front door before walking over to him.

"Bet you thought you were getting lucky tonight?" she says with disgust in her voice as she sets out her tools. He still isn't paying attention, but does notice when she ties a cloth tightly around his head to create a gag that she places in his mouth. Whitehead looks afraid and tries to fight but he's too drunk to put up much of a fight as he watches the woman grab a large knife.

"Not so fun when you're not in control huh?" she asks mockingly. Soon the house is filled with muffled screams and cries of pain, until eventually the sound of a muffled gunshot can be heard. Not long after, the woman quietly and carefully leaves the house and the surrounding area, unnoticed.

The team gathers at the round table as Garcia begins to present the case.

"So Seattle is requesting your help with a serial killer. Over the last week two men have been found murdered inside of their homes. Justin Pritchard, forty, was found dead in his home a week ago. Cause of death was a gunshot to the heart, but the killer also did this," she says, looking away as the images show up on the screen.

"He was gagged, and then castrated and stabbed multiple times," Rossi says. "Garcia, was this done antemortem or post mortem?"

"Ante mortem sir. And our second victim, Ken Whitehead, aged twenty-five, was found dead in his home yesterday morning, with the same cause of death and same everything. Neither home had signs of forced entry or a struggle," she tells them.

"Which means they must've let the unsub in, and probably not felt threatened by them," JJ says.

"So the unsub may be a woman then, and it's clear from the torture that she has something agaisnt these men," Morgan adds.

"It is also very likely she won't willingly stop, which means we have to stop her," Prentiss says.

"Then we need to get going, wheels up in thirty," Hotch says.

On the plane they go over the case and Garcia calls with more information. "Alright super sleuths, I did some digging into both of our victims and couldn't find any connections between the two. However, both men have been accused of sexual assault and rape in the past. Mr Pritchard, was accused by two former coworkers of sexually assaulating them during office parties, the first of which was about a year ago, and the second was a few weeks ago. Both cases were dropped due to a lack of evidence and character testimonies from other employees who apparently vouched for Pritchard."

"And what about Whitehead baby girl?" Morgan asks.

"Well Mr. Whitehead has been convicted of sexual assault as well as accused of rape. Apparently back in college he sexually assaulted a classmate during a party and one of her friends was a witness."

"I'm guessing he didn't face much punishment for this did he?" Rossi asks.

"Oh, your guess is right on the money sir. Apparently he comes from a very wealthy family, so his dad made some generous donations to the members of the trial in order to help his son avoid any jail time."

"And what about the accusation of rape?" Spencer asks.

"Apparently the lovely Mr. Whitehead may have slept with a woman he met at a bar, after getting her blackout drunk last month. But the charges were dropped, due to a lack of any evidence supporting the victim's claim and a very expensive lawyer courtesy of his father."

"Okay. Thank you Garcia," Hotch says before she ends the video call.

"So this unsub is punishing men accused and convicted of sex crimes that she believes weren't punished for what they did," Spencer says.

"The torture and up close interaction makes me think she must have known of these men and what they did prior to the night she killed them," Morgan says.

"Right, and maybe she was assaulted at some point, which is adding to her anger and hatred," Prentiss adds.

"Alright, when we land Morgan and Reid I want you to go to the latest crime scene and see if you can find anything. Prentiss and Rossi go to the coroner's office and examine the bodies. JJ, you and I will go get set up at the precinct," Hotch says and everyone nods.

Once they land the team heads off to each of the locations. Hotch and JJ walk into the precinct and are greeted by its captain, Captain Stevens who thanks them for coming and leads them to an office to get set up in. As he leaves he mentions that he sent Detective Greenaway to check out the latest crime scene as well.

"Greenaway? Could that be Elle?" JJ asks Hotch, a bit confused, and they both stand there in surprise for a few seconds.

"Possibly. But we can worry about that later," Hotch says and JJ nods before they turn their focus back onto getting set up.

Prentiss and Rossi talk to the coroner and then examine the bodies.

"There's a lot of rage in the cuts. Some of these are pretty deep," Prentiss says.

"Yeah, she definitely lost control at a few points, but never lost it entirely. She made sure none of the cuts and slashes were fatal in order to prolong their suffering, but instead of letting them suffer more and bleed out as they certainly would've, she shoots them once in the chest," Rossi states.

"She contradicts herself constantly. She's calm and in control, but then also frantic and losing control. She wants them to suffer and be punished, but then finishes them off quickly with a bullet," Prentiss says and Rossi nods in agreement as the two of them head to the precinct.

Morgan and Spencer are checking out the crime scene, and not finding much. There's unsurprisingly a large amount of blood, but other than that not much. The one thing they can tell, this unsub is very organized and intelligent, and left no evidence behind.

"Well look who it is," a familiar voice says behind them, pulling Morgan and Spencer's focus away from the crime scene.

"Elle?" Spencer asks, visibly confused, which is mirrored by Morgan. Quickly their confusion turns into wide smiles as they greet their friend. They hug her, as Spencer is willing to ignore his dislike of touching in order to hug her.

"I'd heard the captain called in the BAU for this one," she says with a laughThey talk and catch up a little as they look around the crime scene a bit more, before heading to the precinct.

Hotch and JJ greet Elle happily, although she is clearly not entirely happy in Hotch's presence, which isn't much of a surprise. Garcia calls at one point to help find any info about people close to the victims, and is overjoyed to see Elle again. The team goes over what they know so far, and Spencer can't shake the feeling that there's something off about Elle, but he has no idea what. He kind of assumes it's the fact that she seems much happier and less fractured than the last time he saw her.

Eventually the team heads to the hotel for the night and hopes that tomorrow will be more successful in finding their unsub. The next day brings bad news however, as another body is found, with the torture and cause of death as the others. This time the victim is eighteen year old college freshman Brent King. He was found inside his dorm room by a teammate on the football team after he missed morning practice. He had been accused of rape a few months prior when he was still seventeen, and his father (yet another rich dad to the rescue) got it swept under the rug and his file sealed.

"If his file was sealed, that means there's only a small amount of people who could know what had happened," Spencer says.

"Which means our unsub is either a friend of King's victim, or they're a member of the justice system," Hotch states, as the team looks out into the precinct, into the sea of potential unsubs. The day goes by slowly as the team brainstorms about the unsub, as well as delivers a short profile as well, and as expected the local cops are not all that happy about potentially being accused of being the killer. However, Spencer tries to watch throughout the day, and while he doesn't notice anything hinting that she may be the unsub, he still has a bad feeling.

The next day the team is working and Elle calls out sick so it's back to just the current team. Early in the afternoon Hotch tells everyone to go take lunch and then they'll get back to the case because they're still waiting on Garcia to get them the files for the cases against each of the men, but it's proving more difficult than they had expected. When they all try to decide where to go to lunch, Spencer makes up an excuse of needing to grab something he left at the hotel. Hotch gives him a look that implies he doesn't entirely believe him, but thankfully doesn't say anything. He climbs into an SUV and drives off, going right past the hotel. Hotch is going to kill him for this, but he hopes that if he's the only one that shows up, things might have a better chance of ending peacefully because he can't stomach the thought of what could possibly happen if things go south.

He knows what Elle is. What she has become. The joy of seeing her again, and even more importantly the fact she no longer seemed anywhere near as broken as before, blinded him and it took him too long to see the truth. He didn't want to see the truth. But then, all the pieces began to come together and he made the connection. He didn't want to, but he did and he knows what he has to do now.

The more he thinks about it, the less of a surprise it should be that Elle has begun killing people. People who she believes need to be punished for what they have done. That was what she had done to William Lee, which feels like it was a million years ago. His only surprise is that it took her five years to start killing others. Killing the guilty.

You're a sinner. You're guilty. Maybe she's the one who will finally finish you off like you deserve," he hears his own voice say, and tries to shake away the thought.

Spencer arrives at her apartment building and hurries inside. He knocks on the door of her apartment and waits. He doesn't have to wait long, as the door is quickly opened by the smiling face of Elle, and for a second he doubts that she is truly the unsub because it's Elle and she has always been kind to him without babying him. She was the big sister he never knew he needed until he met her.

"Hey Spencer. What are you doing here?" she asks, and he notes that his sudden arrival has seemingly put her on edge, but he's not sure as to why.

"We took a break for lunch and I just wanted to see how you were feeling?" he tells her, not entirely lying but not being entirely truthful either, and hopes she doesn't catch on.

"I feel much better now, thanks! I guess it was just something I ate," she replies.

"Oh okay. Well I'm glad you're feeling better. Do you wanna grab lunch with me then?" he asks. He still cares about her and that's never going to change but she needs to be stopped. And going out to a public place increases the chances of things ending well he hopes.

"Sure!" she says after a beat. "Let me just get ready really quick. I'll be ready in a few."

He nods and she heads into another room, leaving him standing there in her living room. He looks around and takes in her apartment. Mostly bare, no family pictures or anything to really make it a home. It can't be that she hasn't planned on being in Seattle for very long, because she's been here for a few years so more likely, it's so she can leave quickly without having to deal with packing too much. And so that there's nothing to help identify her or figure out where she could be going either. But then he notices two things, and his blood runs cold. Firstly, he can see visible spots on the walls where objects had clearly been hung up, which makes him wonder why she's taken everything down. Secondly, there's a large suitcase and another bag tucked in the corner, almost completely hidden from view. Spencer can't help himself and he goes to check them out and sees they're partially packed, and he recognizes a bit of the clothing from the day they arrived.

She knows.

Spencer stands up and starts to draw his gun when he feels a sudden prick in his neck, and before he can really react he passes out.

Spencer wakes up slowly and as he looks around his surroundings he's confused. He tries to move but his arms are tied to the chair he's sitting in and it takes every ounce of willpower he has not to have a panic attack right there. Because the last time he was tied to a chair, well he's trying not to think about that at the moment. He just barely staves off the panic attack as he begins to remember where he is and the probable reason for him being in his current situation.

Elle

He shakes his head to help clear the remaining fog from his mind and looks around the room. Elle is across the room, continuing to pack her bags. He tries to pull free from the restraints with no luck, and the noise from that alerts her that he has woken up.

"Well good morning sunshine," she says looking at him, and he quickly looks away, unable to look her in the eyes right now.

"What did you inject me with? " he says quietly, but she picks up on the worry and fear in his voice.

"Just a light sedative. Nothing else," she says. "There's something else you're not saying?"

Spencer just musters up the energy to glare at her, but she is unfazed by it. Elle shrugs at his refusal to answer the question.

"Does the team know you're here? And why are you here?"

Silence.

"Answer me Spencer," she orders, and he jumps a bit, well jumps as much as he can while tied to a chair of course, at her change in tone.

"No they don't. I thought this would be easier if it was just me. But they'll probably figure it out soon if they haven't already," he says sounding defeated

"Well then I better hurry up and get going," she replies before returning her focus back to packing.

"Are you going to kill me Elle?" he asks, unable to stop himself, and he can't hide the hurt and sadness seeping into his voice. She pauses her packing and looks at him surprised, and he sees the Elle who he worked with in the BAU, the one who wanted to help anyone she could and the one who cared about people. The one who cared about him.

"Of course not Spencer," she says, and after recent events he doesn't know if he believes her, and he knows she can clearly see his doubt. And normally he'd probably be able to tell she is being sincere, but at the moment there's too many thoughts and feelings inside him, and he can't focus enough to profile her.

"I'm going to find you then. Wherever you go, I'll eventually find you again," he tells her with a sudden fire in his eyes, which does surprise her.

"Why so that you can bring me to justice?" she scoffs. "Those men deserved what happened to them. That is justice Spencer. What isn't justice is them getting off scot free for what they did."

"And what about what you've done? Where's your punishment?"

"You and I both know what my punishment was," she says, sending an angry glare at him. She also does what he would expect and unconsciously touches the scar from Randall Garner. But she also does something else, seeming to wrap her arms around herself, as if to protect herself. He'll have to think about that more later when he's not tied to a chair.

"That doesn't give you the right to do what you've been doing."

"You can keep thinking that. I'll do what I want, because I don't give a damn about what you think. Sorry Doctor, but unlike you I'm not content to go and lock up the unsubs anymore because it doesn't matter. They'll get maybe a slap on the wrist if that and then they'll go back to doing the exact same things. They need to pay for what they've done and I'm the one who makes sure they do. I've experienced unimaginable pain, just like so many other people, at the hands of evil men. And you have no idea what that's like," she snaps at him and he winces, before his mind unwittingly thinks of the things he's gone through and he can't stop the tears from building up in his eyes.

She studies him for a few seconds and her expression softens as it becomes a mix of surprise and sadness. "Oh. You do know what it's like don't you?"

He can only nod, fighting off the tears that are threatening to fall from his eyes.

"What happened to you Spencer?"

He can't help the broken laugh that escapes him as a few warm tears make their way down his cheeks. "What hasn't happened to me?"

He can see that she does still seem to care about him, and her face shows many conflicted emotions. She clearly wants to know more and maybe he can get her to open more as well. Maybe he can determine what caused her to suddenly start killing five years after Lee. But then she glances at the time and sighs.

"How long did you guys get for lunch today?" she asks suddenly.

"An hour," he replies.

"Then I guess our time's up," she says with a sad smile. "If you can find me again I guess we'll have a lot to talk about."

"I guess so. I never answered your question though. You asked if I was going to find you in order to bring you to justice," Spencer says.

"And?"

"While it is one of the reasons I'm going to find you, it isn't the main one. Elle, the main reason is because you're my friend and I care about you. You need help and I'm going to make sure you get it. I miss you so much everyday. I failed you before, but this time I'm going to help whether you want it or not," he tells her with fiery determination.

"We'll see," she says as she walks over to him and feels another prick and begins fading out of consciousness.

The last thing he hears is a whisper. "I miss you too Spencer."

Not long after, the team finds Spencer in her apartment, unconscious and tied to a chair. There's no sign of Elle. Morgan and JJ undo his restraints as he begins to fade back into consciousness.

"Reid what happened?" He hears Hotch ask and he looks up to see Hotch standing in front of him as Morgan slowly helps him to his feet, keeping an arm wrapped around him to make sure he stays upright.

"She left," he says quietly, and JJ is saddened by the despair and hurt in his voice. They make it outside and into the SUV's.

"I'm sorry." Reid says after a short time.

"Why are you sorry Spence? It's not your fault," JJ tries to soothe because she knows he tends to blame himself when cases don't end the way they had hoped.

"I should've told you all that I figured it out and where I was going. I'm sorry Hotch," he says and he can feel the tears pricking at the corners of his eyes. JJ looks up in the mirror and sees a pained expression flash across Hotch's face.

"Reid, it's okay. I'm not mad at you. I'm just glad you're okay. But why did you decide to go see her by yourself," Hotch asks, making sure to make it clear in voice that he isn't upset.

"I thought if it was just me it would be less likely to become confrontational. That it would be more likely to end peacefully. I had to Hotch, I couldn't fail her again."

"I understand. But what do you mean again? You didn't fail her today and you never did before either."

"The night before she shot Lee, I went to talk to her. I could tell she wasn't doing well. I tried to help her get past it but I couldn't. And then she was gone," Spencer says sadly, his eyes are now watching out the window. Hotch can tell that he probably is done talking for now and he locks eyes with JJ in the mirror and gestures at Spencer, wanting her to keep an eye on him. She nods and they silently drive to the airport, ready to go home.

Spencer's mind is focusing on one thing at the moment.

I will find you Elle. I promise that I will find you and this time I won't let you slip away. Not again.