A/N: Yes, I changed the rating to M. I felt that rape of a main character was… well… kind of M. Very M. So it's M now. I just don't want younger kids to overlook the T rating. It's M for a reason. I don't own Criminal Minds. I own Haley. Please review because you know just how much I love to hear what you think!

Four

"They're known around here as the Sons of the Earth," Garcia finished with Prentiss on her cell as she and Hotch pulled up to a small, bright yellow house with a pleasant front yard.

"And these are only the descendants of the mound builders around here, right?" Emily asked, stepping out of the car.

"Yeah. No other tribe; no other race. From what I've gathered, they're kind of like the unofficial law makers here," Penelope said warily. "Em, be careful please."

"Am I anything but?" Emily said as she hung up and began to walk down the pathway; Hotch was walking brusquely behind her. She noticed a nip to the air.

Hotch stood behind Emily as she briskly rapped her knuckles against the oak wood door of Joel Longfoot.

The sun had slipped past the horizon now, and the light was quickly escaping the agents. The coming night terrified them. Reid and Haley were rattling around now in Hotch's mind. He could let nothing happen to them. Morgan's words joined the mix. We were warned.

"Yes? Can I help you, ma'am?" asked a small guy as he answered the door, looking up at Emily. He had dark tan skin with, short, spiked, ink black hair.

"Yes, ah, are you Joel Longfoot?" she asked.

"Yes, ma'am," he nodded. "What seems to be the problem?"

She and Hotch held up their badges as if on cue. "I'm Agent Prentiss, this is Agent Hotchner. We're here to investigate the recent murders of three young women and one man. We think they may be linked to a recent kidnapping. Can we come in?"

"… Now's really not the best time."

"What could you possibly have going on right now, Joel?" Hotch asked reasonably.

The man opened and closed his mouth a few times, as if searching for an answer but coming up mute. "Go ahead," he said begrudgingly.

"Thank you, Mr. Longfoot. Now, do you know a Katrina Perkins?" Emily asked. "She was one of the murder victims."

"No," he said flatly.

"Really?" Emily stated rather than asked. "Would you allow us to follow you up on that?"

"I don't know any Katrina Perkins," Joel nearly shouted at her.

"Our sources tell us otherwise," Hotch said, glaring at him.

"Who!? Who told you that I know Katrina? I don't know her!" Joel slammed his hand on the table.

"You seem rather upset over a girl you don't even know," Hotch commented.

"Why are you even asking me about her? What would I know about these murders?" Joel asked exasperatedly.

"Are you a member of a group that call themselves the Sons of the Earth?" Emily asked.

"I'm a native of Natchez, yes," he said a little roughly. "I don't see where that concerns these killings."

"They were done in a ceremony that the archeologists at the dig site on the Emerald Mound say are directly related to the mound building people indigenous to this area. It wouldn't be too surprising if a 'secret society' like the Sons of the Earth, dedicated to their native past, had a hand in it," Hotch said, as though he were sitting an reasoning with this man. "Tell me, Joel. Do the Sons of the Earth have anything to do with these crimes?"

"I wouldn't call them crimes; I actually see them as a justice," Joel sneered.

"What do you mean? Those people were innocent. Katrina Perkins, your late girlfriend, committed no crime," Emily said harshly.

"I already told you I don't know a damn Katrina Perkins," a now annoyed Joel glared at Prentiss. "Nor would I want to. Now, if you're done, I'd like you to leave."

"Thank you for your time," Hotch stood up and led Emily out by the shoulder. Once the door was slammed and locked behind them, he turned her to face him. "What did you pick up?"

"Well, he obviously knows Katrina. He… she might be dead to him; she could have pissed him off in an argument and he snapped."

"Let's go question the next suspect, build a bond," Hotch reassured. "I have a feeling that this goes deeper than a lovers' quarrel."

--

Haley sat staring off at the window, as though seeing beyond the curtain there to prohibit curious outsiders from peeking into the cellar. She had been in that position for around three hours. Spencer thought she was thinking, compartmentalizing, sorting things out for what they were and what had happened.

Reid had heard none of it. He had waited for the soft touch of his sister on his hand before he stopped keeping himself away from it. He hated the look she gave him, the look of complete trust and understanding. How could she still trust him? Still respect him? Love him, even?

Still, she sat next to him in the dark, tracing circles into the dirt at their feet. "Spencer?" she asked at long, long last, her voice cracking from lack of use.

"Yeah, sweetie?" he asked, afraid of what she might say, might accuse him of.

"Why do people do this? Why do these ideas float into their heads and stick to the point that… well, you know. I would be so much better off if I knew why."

"Trust me, you wouldn't be," he said flatly. Hypocrite, fool, ass: tell her. "The way their minds work… it's like a normal person with an abnormal desire. This case is a group psychology."

"The use of we, every time he spoke?"

"It might be another person the next time someone comes in here," Spencer said, glaring at the door after looking at Haley's fresh bruises once again. This time they were all down her arms. In some places, one could distinctively count four finger marks with a thumb wrap-around. The sight made him want to maim that man.

Haley visibly shivered.

"Don't be scared."

"I'm cold," she said finally. He was okay and he looked at her some more. She was nearly purple all over. Only her face had been spared in a vague respect with two fading bruises from the fight in the parking lot. She had put up a fight, but not one big enough to save her from four massive men.

The sharp clicks sounded again as a different person entered the room. A woman of same decent as the man. She looked sharply at them. "We warned you," she said repeating the refrain of the week.

"Wh- what did we do?" Spencer spoke up before Haley. If anyone was going to be hurt this time, it was going to be him, not Haley. Never again.

"Got too close," she said as she picked up the iron pipe.

--

Emily and Hotch walked tiredly away from the last house. Renee Niabi hadn't been home, of course not. Emily looked at her comrade with a faint smile and a shrug of her shoulders. Hotch almost smiled back, even in the worst of times…

"We better call Rossi and Morgan," Hotch said, opening the door for Emily, indicating that he was going to drive.

"Yeah," she sighed, whipping out her phone and pressing speed dial 7.

"Morgan," Morgan said on the other line.

"It's Emily, did you and Rossi get anything?"

"Other than it's definitely this Sons of the Earth group that's behind the past killings? Yeah, tons, but Joshua Blueknife wasn't even home. We did, however, get Harrison Chepi, and damn is he bad under pressure."

"And?" Emily asked hopefully.

"This group doesn't allow dating or intercourse or any of that stuff outside of the race, the 'People'," Morgan growled. Emily could just hear his eyes rolling. "Guess what? None of our victims were Mississippian, nor were they Native American, period. These weren't ceremonies involving human sacrifice; these were punishments to the members of the SOE for breaking what looks like a pretty major rule."

"Joel Longfoot did say that he didn't even know Katrina Perkins over and over. Part of the punishment?"

"With the rate this is going? Definitely."

"They warned us to stay away because the case would lose the mystique to it and be easier to understand. They knew we'd figure it out," Emily said. "And they actually went through with taking two of our own…"

"Did you get any closer to figuring out where the Reids are?" Morgan asked almost desperately.

"No, not at all," Emily sighed and closed her eyes. "We'll find them, Morgan, we always do."

"Right," he said, not sounding convinced.

Emily caught sight of the police station and the other SUV coming their way. "I see you, catch you inside," she said and hung up, looking at Hotch hopelessly.