A/N: Beta read and bunny enhanced by the Gublerific editor frog! Hope you like it, things are beginning to get both better and worse...

"It's Braille!" Garcia began typing her keys at an insane speed. "Give me five minutes and I will have this one worked out!"

Gideon nodded while pondering the quote preceding the passage in Braille. It was from the Bible. A blind man leading a blind man was doomed to fail. Who were the blind people? She sees us as the blind man. Who are we leading?

"Here we go! It's a line from the song Amazing Grace, it says 'I once was lost but now I'm found, was blind but now I see'. I'll type it in."

"No." Gideon's eyes had caught on the last symbol in the sentence. "It's not the answer."

"But that's what it says, and the riddle says 'Do you see what I mean?'. How can it not be the answer?"

"Because that's not what it says."

"What do you mean, I just looked it up, it's..."

"The last symbol... It's not a period."

"Yes it is, look here." Garcia pointed at the online Braille alphabet she had used to decipher the message. "Two vertical dots; it's a period."

"No. That's a 'K'."

"What?"

"Look at the alphabet. The symbol for a period is the exact same symbol as the one for a 'K'. It doesn't say 'see', it says 'seek'."

"Well, what is she seeking?" Garcia looked confused.

"Revenge."

Typing the single word in the textbox, the blonde computer technician hit ENTER and the two waited to find out whether it was the correct answer.

Correct.

Moments later, the screen shifted and once again and the two agents could see their colleague in his cell, this time wearing nothing but underwear and socks. He was pressed up against the wall, a look of fear in his eyes. Garcia closed her eyes and sighed. "Oh, Reid..."

Gideon wanted to reach out and touch the screen. He absolutely hated seeing his proverbial son being in so much pain and being so frightened. This is because of me, he thought. I must have made someone very angry for them to go through all this trouble to get revenge on me.

Just a few second after the camera had been switched on, the room went black. A moment later the picture returned to the screen, only this time it was shot in night vision, making the entire cell look a shadowy green. The two agents could see their young co-worker pressing harder up against the wall, fear in his eyes. His mouth was wide open and they could practically see him hyperventilating. Both Garcia and Gideon knew very well that Reid's greatest fear was the dark, and it was sheer torture to watch the poor boy struggle with his anxiety.

"What is this? We solved the clue; he's supposed to give Reid a reward." Garcia was confused.

"No..." Gideon moved closer to the screen. "This is our reward. We get to see him. Remember what the message said. The UnSub feels that Reid has misbehaved, and is going to punish him."

"Oh, God... And we have to watch."

"Come on, Reid..." Gideon whispered to the screen. "You can do this. Hang in there." He turned to Garcia. "You don't have to watch."

"Yes I do. He's my friend too."

Gideon nodded and turned back to the screen, where something seemed to have jolted the young agent, as he moved along the wall into a corner, turning his head back and forth.

Suddenly, they saw what had spooked Reid. A ladder fell down from the opening in the ceiling, and someone was making their way down.

--

Reid could hear the hatch open, and tried to move away as far as possible, but the pitch black darkness was just as terrifying as the fact that something was making its way into his cell. His eyes were wide open and he tried to see something; anything. But there was nothing but a thick veil of opaque blackness before his eyes.

Suddenly, he could hear the sound of footsteps on the concrete floor. Light, slow footsteps moving around somewhere in the cell. His heart was pounding straight out of his chest as he wrapped his arms around him and hunched over a bit, trying to shield himself from whatever was coming.

Regretting that he had backed into a corner, Reid tried to move away, but the instant he took a step he felt a hard punch in his stomach. Doubling over gasping for breath, he felt hands lift him up to a standing position, slamming him up against the wall.

Fear struck the young doctor even harder than the presumed fist in his stomach. There was someone in his cell, and he had "misbehaved". Was this going to be his punishment? Is he going to beat me to a pulp, or even worse...? Reid tried to cover his head with his arms, but whoever was holding him against the wall had such a firm grip on him that moving was not an option.

The young agent closed his eyes, which were filling up with tears, and whimpered a pathetic plea. "Please... please, don't hurt me." His voice cracked halfway through the sentence as his tears broke free and began streaming down his face.

But there was nothing more. Just two strong hands restraining him and pinning him against the wall. The room was completely silent, except the sobs and whimpers of the young doctor. He began wondering what was going on. What is this? Hit me already and get it over with! Oh God, no – don't hit me. Help me, please, someone!

Suddenly, Reid felt something being placed in his right hand. He let his fingers probe it carefully and came to the conclusion that it was not something he would want in his hand at the moment.

It was a pair of scissors.

Before he could get any funny ideas, he felt a third hand run through his hair. At that moment he realized there was no use in trying to make a run for it, or using the scissors for anything other than what the UnSub wanted. There are at least two people in here. If I try anything, I'm dead within a matter of seconds. But what do they want me to do? No matter how much of a genius he was, he was too scared to think straight.

A gentle tug at his hair gave him the answer.

Scissors... Hair... No!

He shook his head violently. "No, no I won't!" he balked; trying to protect the small piece of himself he still had left.

The young doctor felt himself being pulled away from the wall, and shoved back up against it with full force, nearly knocking the wind out of him. His head hit the concrete wall behind him and a sharp pain shot through his temples. Like on cue, Reid felt a hand in his hair, this time not tugging so gently, but yanking it rather roughly.

Balking once again, the young agent found himself slammed up against the wall a third time, then followed silence for a moment. Through the silence came a sound Reid had heard numerous times before, but never had feared so much as he did at this moment. The familiar sound of a gun being cocked.

He froze, realizing that he had absolutely nothing to defend himself against the people in his cell. He was outnumbered, and they had a weapon. On top of that, Reid was absolutely sure that they had night vision goggles, enabling them to see through the pitch black. Reid didn't have that luxury; he was as blind as a bat. The fear rushing through the young doctor's system was making him shiver uncontrollably.

Reid felt another violent tug at his hair followed by the sensation of cold metal pressing against his temple. Tears running down his face, he slowly lifted the scissors to his head. He felt the grip around his arms loosen as he reached up, only to be replaced by an even firmer grip around his throat.

Slowly, he took a lock of hair in his hand; gingerly letting the blades of the scissors cut through it. Letting go of the hair in his hand, it fell to the floor.

He repeated the movements until there was nearly nothing left on his head. Every time he dropped a lock on the concrete below him, he felt as if he was losing more and more of himself; as if his entire identity was about to be erased. The tears flowing from his eyes, seemed to come from a bottomless well, and all that could be heard in the cell was the young agent's sobbing and whimpers of utter humiliation.

As he ran his free hand over his head, he felt the short tests of hair sticking out from its smooth surface. There was almost nothing left. And apparently it was enough, as he felt the scissors being taken from his hand. Instead he felt something else being shoved there in its place. After a few moments of touching the object, Reid realized it was the all too familiar basket, and it was empty. Before he could ponder over its use, he felt himself being pushed down on the floor. A hand grabbed his and shoved into a pile of hair.

The young agent began to cry, feeling what was once his hair laying lifeless on the ground. They want me to clean it up... Sobs wracked the young man's frame as his hands blindly searched the floor for his shorn locks.

"Why... why are you doing this to me?" he cautiously asked his assailants, only to be rewarded with a slap straight over the face. Reid could taste blood. He was dead scared of these people, as he had no idea what might happen to him.

He felt so humiliated, crawling on the floor looking for his own hair to put in the basket. Suddenly he felt the basket being pulled from his hand. He had apparently picked up every piece of hair there was. Still sitting on the floor, crying, he heard the footsteps move further away.

He was relieved to hear them go, but something inside him screamed for them not to go. It was the first human contact he'd had in days.

"Please", he tried, his voice cracking. "Please, for the love of God, talk to me, tell me why I'm here! Tell me what's going on! What have I done!?" There was desperation in the young man's voice as he cried out to the people in his cell.

The footsteps changed direction, and rapidly returned to the young agent sitting on the floor.

Reid's eyes were wide with anticipation. Would he get an answer?

The only answer he got came in the form of a violent strike to his face, causing him to tumble over on the hard floor; knocking him unconscious.

The two persons who had visited Reid's cell made their way up the opening using a rope ladder, and then slammed the hatch shut, sealing it tight. The young agent was once again alone in the darkness, but at least this time he was blissfully unaware. Blood from the young man's mouth dripped slowly down onto the floor beneath his head.

--

Garcia and Gideon had been watching all through the assault, and became witnesses to the grave humiliation of young Dr. Reid. When one of the UnSubs had delivered the finishing blow to their young co-worker, Garcia had turned away and covered her face with her hands, crying violently.

Gideon watched the screen until it went black. He then let his head drop and his eyes fall shut. A single tear slowly made its way down the older agent's rugged cheek; it fell in silence.

--

The remaining part of the BAU sat at the police station in Saginaw, MI. For the last few hours they had been working with making up some form of profile for the UnSubs – who were within an arm's reach of being identified. All they needed was a shred of information as to where the women had taken Reid. Suddenly, Hotch's phone began chirping.

"Hotchner."

"It's Gideon. We got to see Reid again."

"How did he look?" Putting Gideon on speaker phone, he placed his cell on the table before him.

"It's bad, Hotch. They've taken his clothes; he's in nothing but his underwear. He called me. It was some sort of reward he got. He could hear me, but I couldn't hear him."

"Jesus Christ..." Morgan crossed his arms, a grim look on his face.

"We solved the clue, but when the camera came on he was being..."

"Being what?" Hotch's voice was less than patient.

"He was…being "punished". There were two UnSubs in the cell with them, one had a weapon. They abused him and... and they forced him to cut all his hair off with a pair of scissors."

Emily closed her eyes in a desperate attempt to keep from crying. This was not the time, they had work to do. Oh, Reid...

"When the camera shut down, he was alone in the basement, knocked unconscious by one of the UnSubs who hit him with the butt of a gun."

There was nothing but silence on Gideon's side of the line, except the constant typing on the keyboard by Garcia.

"Hotch?"

"Yes, Gideon?"

"Tell me what you have."

Hotch cleared his throat in a try to regain some composure before he began debriefing his colleagues. "We have three possible UnSubs, Angelica, Cate and now a girl named Tracy. Cate and the others were supposed to go on a trip to New York for a few weeks."

"But since both Cate and Angelica were on the plane to and from Fredericksburg, there's no way they're in New York." Emily.

"The rental car wasn't charged for any out-of-state driving, so Reid is definitely somewhere in Michigan, probably close to Saginaw, since that's where they got off the plane. They couldn't have gone far with a casket-sized trunk." Morgan.

"I've scanned a picture of the three suspects and I'm sending it over as we speak." JJ had borrowed a computer and was tapping away. "Cate's the one in the middle. Can you ask Garcia to run the girl on the right through the system? All we have on her is that her name is Tracy and that she's from overseas."

"I will. We're receiving the file now."

"Any luck with the numbers we gave you?" Emily

"Not yet", came Garcia's not so chipper voice. "It's gibberish. Just a bunch of numbers squished together, I can't make any sense of it at all."

"I know there's something there", said Emily. "Keep trying."

"Will do."

"Call us if anything comes up, okay Hotch?" Gideon's voice was hoarse and a little unstable. He had obviously been shaken badly by what he had seen on the screen.

"We will." Click.

Morgan shook his head. "What do we do now?"

"Well, there's an APB out for the rental, and the girls's pictures have been sent to every police station and field office in the state. If they so much as move, we'll get them." Emily leaned over the table, grabbing her coffee cup.

"And if they don't?" JJ couldn't take her eyes off the window. Outside, it was a beautiful day. The sun was shining and kids were playing on the playground across the street. There was a middle school there, and all the children were dressed in school uniforms. Laughter and yelling could be heard through the open window. A butterfly fluttered by the window. It was all so perfect. And still, all JJ wanted to do was cry.

--

"Alright, here comes the file. Let's see what we can find out about this Tracy girl." Garcia opened the picture of the three girls standing in the park. As she tapped her keyboard to emphasize the girl on the right, Gideon stopped her.

"Wait."

"What?" Garcia frowned as she looked at her superior.

"That girl." He pointed to Angelica. "Her name isn't Angelica."

"What are you talking about, Gideon?" There was confusion in the blonde computer wizard's voice.

"Sienna..." Without another word he bolted out through the door, heading up to his office, leaving a perplexed Garcia behind.

"Sienna?"

A/N again: Should I be running for cover for angry villagers with torches and pitch forks because of the hair-deal...?