Note: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF CRIMINAL MINDS CHARACTERS! Enjoy :)
After what seemed like forever, the smoke started to lift. The pilot said he was needed elsewhere, and offered to take Prentiss and Hotch to the paramedics. They both declined, as Prentiss insisted she was fine and Hotch couldn't be anywhere near a car engine, let alone a chopper.
They all went into the plaza, and as soon as they found a medic, they dropped off Hotch. Everyone was on edge, searching for Serena. The reporters however, were following them like puppy dogs.
"How do you plan to deal with this afterwards?!"
"Agents! Who did this?!"
"Will you catch him?!"
Reid got ready to retort, but Rossi held him back. "I'll deal with them." He said, sighing. And soon he was enveloped by the reporters.
"Alright, meet back here in 30 minutes!" Morgan yelled, as he took the Main Street.
Prentiss took off on his left, with JJ tagging along. Reid was left to go right alone.
JJ's POV
"Hey, Emily?" I asked, as we walked along the street, looking for Serena.
"Yeah?"
"I know this isn't the best time, but…"
"What, JJ?"
"...Nevermind. Now's not the time."
She gave me a weird look. Her dark eyes were full of concern. "JJ, if you need to talk-"
"We should focus on finding Serena." I said shortly, and proceeded to walk on.
Reid's POV
I was so busy looking around, I didn't notice the man in front of me.
"Sorry." I muttered as I bumped into him, and walked away.
"Hey, I know you!"
It was Bill, the nice man who gave us the key to Mark Roberts' drawer.
"You ok, agent?" He asked, looking at my burnt and ripped clothes. I nodded. Suddenly, I had the urge to tell Bill his friend Mark wasn't exactly the good man he thought he was. He was affiliated with the Sword X men.
"Mark, he-"
"Yes, I know. Tragic. You did catch who did it, didn't you?"
"N-no, not yet. But we will." I assured him.
"Where's your partner? The girl?" He asked.
"Serena? She's uh-missing." I replied.
"Oh dear. Do you want me to help find her?"
"No, it's fine." I replied, and left Bill to stare up at the flaming building.
I kept running up and down the streets, and couldn't find Serena anywhere. Where the fuck are you? After thirty minutes, I rejoined Morgan, Prentiss and JJ. they didn't have Serena either. I was really starting to worry.
We headed back to the station and began to focus on another thing: The Roberts' daughter Abigail was still missing. After coming up with no leads, Alayla burst into the station again. She was wearing a pink sweater with glittering heart earrings. She somewhat reminded me of Garcia.
"Alayla! You're alright!" JJ seemed relieved. She gave Alayla a warm cup of coffee.
"Yeah. I was gonna go find Merissa myself, but decided you guys had the better chance of finding her." She replied, accepting the cup gratefully.
"You did the right thing." I said.
"Are you any closer to finding Kylee?" She took a sip. Then, she looked around the conference room. "Where's Serena?" She asked naively.
No one answered her.
"NO!" She suddenly stood up, spilling the hot coffee all over her clothes.
"Alayla!" Prentiss hurried to help her, but she shoved her off.
"Where is she?!" She yelled.
"We don't know." I admitted.
At this, Alayla sat down, defeated. "She- she wouldn't have gone after Merissa, would she? She knows how dangerous Merissa can be."
"Hey, Alayla, can I ask you a question?" Morgan bent down in front of her.
"Sure."
"You, Merissa, and this Alastair person all knew Merissa's identity. Why didn't you report to the police?"
Alayla looked down. After a while, she spoke. For the first time, she spoke quietly. "Because we all saw first hand what Merissa could do. After Serena got away, Merissa tracked her. She tracked her enough to know I was her best friend. So she took me to get leverage on Serena."
"She kidnapped you?!" I said incredously. Alayla nodded.
"She took me to this place, I don't know. She hit me and beat me, but I wouldn't tell her where Serena was."
"That was very brave of you." I replied. She smiled a little.
"She held me for a week. And I wouldn't stop screaming, hoping someone would find me. And eventually, someone did."
"Who?" Rossi asked.
"Kylee." She smiled a bit more.
"Really? Wow." JJ said.
"One thing about Kylee, she likes to walk in places nobody else has walked before. Like deep in a valley, or in a junkyard. Or on a cliff. She's always taking walks in the most wild places. Merissa thought nobody would be there, but Kylee was. And she burst in, and stole Merissa's gun and shot her. She went unconcious, and we both got away."
"Is that how you started dating?" Morgan asked.
"Somewhat, yeah. Since the place we were in was deserted, we had to spend a lot of time together before she could get me to a hospital. I annoyed her a lot, but we became friends. Then, more than friends. As for Alastair, he found out she killed his parents."
"I-" Prentiss was speechless at this point.
"He thought it was a drunk driver or something. Nope, turns out she shot them. So he doesn't speak of her much."
I suddenly had an idea. "Alayla, do you know Alastair well?"
"Yeah. Want me to call him?"
"Yes, that'd be great. Maybe he can give us some intel on Merissa."
"Okay."
Third person POV (last POV change i swear hehe)
Alastair had a strong resemblance with his cousin. The two were often mistaken as siblings. They both had blonde hair, and bright blue eyes. After his parents had died, Alastair spent a lot of time with his cousin, and Serena. Merissa's psychopathic tendencies made him leave her, though. They may have not shared the serial killer genes, but they most certainly got the good looking ones. Alastair made many womenturn their heads.
As soon as Alastair walked in the police station, they knew he had arrived.
"You must be Alastair Langston. I'm Agent David Rossi-"
"Yeah, I know. Read your books. Pleasure to meet you, sir." The young man replied, smiling. Perfect white smile. Charming.
"Likewise." Rossi returned the smile.
As soon as Alastair had settled down, he sighed and said, "So, let me guess. You're here to ask me questions about Merissa. Unless you somehow profiled that I cheated in my last poker tournament." Another smile. It made Reid uneasy for some reason. He left the room.
Reid pulled out his phone and called Garcia.
"Office of all known and unknown, how may I help the genius doctor?"
"I need you to do a background search on Alastair Langston." He said.
"Ooh. And is this secret?"
"Yes, please keep it private."
"Are you jealous?"
"What?"
"I dunno, this Alastair guy is kinda hot."
"I-"
"Don't worry you're cuter. Ta!"
Back in the room, Morgan got serious. "We don't have time for jokes, kid. A girl is missing, and so is Serena." Morgan replied.
"Holy shit, what? Why didn't you tell me that?" Alastair whipped around to face Alayla.
"I didn't want you to worry." She said desperately.
"Psh." He crossed his arms.
"So, what was Merissa like growing up?" JJ asked.
"She was actually, really nice. Always got me what I wanted. Let me do stuff that my parents would never let me do. But after a while, she changed."
"How?" Reid was taking notes.
"Well, she met these...guys. It was like a gang, sort of. They called themselves 'Sir X's.'"
"Isn't her criminal name 'Lady X?'" Prentiss made the connection. Alastair nodded.
"They were all extremely sexist. Didn't allow women to join. But she dominated them. Made them let her join, and pretty soon, she had even more power than Adam."
"Adam as in Adam Gomez?" Reid inquired, still taking notes.
"Yeah. They call themselves partners but really, it's just her ordering him what to do. He was supposed to be the leader, but Merissa overpowered him. Oh they have a second in command. His name's Bill Walker."
"Bill?" Reid perked up.
"Yup. Real charming dude, if I do say so myself. But give him a knife, and things turn nasty."
"Reid, what are you thinking?" Rossi asked.
"I thought since, you know, Merissa was cold and manipulative, she'd like injecting herself into the investigation to make things a bit more fun. This whole thing is like a game for her. And if she doesn't want to inject herself, then she's probably gonna have someone else do it for her."
"Right but I don't follow. What's this Bill guys gotta do with it?"
Reid slammed Bill's business card on the table. "He was the one who gave me and Serena the key to Mark Roerts' drawer. He's been popping up everywhere. He was watching the bombing too! God, I didn't realize it!"
Alastair picked up the business card. "Don't tell me you don't know?"
"Know what?" JJ said.
"Schroeder Coporations. It's Merissa's company. Bill is the CEO, but Merissa made it. All of the Sir Ex's work there. Well, most of them do. If you can somehow hack into their database, hell, there's gonna be tons of info. But it's incredibly hard to do so."
"Well, we have a goddess named Penelope Garcia." Morgan replied, smiling.
Author's note: Hi! Another chapter woohoo. They're getting longer for some reason. I honestly have no idea how I'm gonna finish this. I have no plan ._.
Do you guys think they're gonna find Serena? Oooo suspense lol.
Anyways, please leave a review if you have time, and a follow and favorite would be really appreciated! And as always, thanks for reading!
~ Mel