AN: First off I'm sorry that this is such a short chapter but I feel that this is one of those things that needs to stand alone. Don't worry the rest of the story will be coming out in short order. And yet again I don't own Bones but I do own the text. The squeamish reader might want to skip this chapter.

The first thing that you notice is that Bones seems extremely distressed as she stalks through the door.

Ok that was a lie; the first thing you noticed was her rather shapely and well-structured body but… yeah the distress is a close second.

"Hey Bones what happened? What was at the crime scene?" She'd left about an hour after she called in the tip to the FBI; a quick glance at the clock tells you that was almost 6 hours ago. It troubles you to work with the FBI since you have no idea how far the rot has spread but there really isn't much choice. You have to risk being betrayed in order to utilize the best investigative organization in the world.

Her wordless look at you chills your blood; her face is utterly stoic, her jaw set as if carved from granite. Only her eyes betray any semblance of emotion; an emotion that you'd never thought to see and hoped that you'd never see on her.

Terror. Despair.

She just hands you the file that she'd been holding and locks up; no emotion, completely compartmentalized and reserved. With an uneasy feeling you open the file and begin reading.

The file was uncharacteristically Spartan and terse even for Bones, her writing only truly blossomed when writing her novels but she's usually very blunt and scientific when summing up crime scenes. It was the pictures that made up the bulk of the file. The pictures filled in all the blanks that the terse summary could not.

The first thing you noticed was when you glanced at the first picture was the sudden lurch of your stomach as your pudding made a valiant attempt to extricate itself from the confines of your stomach.

It was an impaled body.

Not the kind of impaled body that you'd seen from your years working criminal cases where a sharp object was rammed through the torso from front to back oh no, that would be to banal. This was impalement from a time when it was considered to be a formal tool of execution and terror.

You remember from back when you were getting your degree of reading of Vlad III of Wallachia more commonly known as Vlad the Impaler or Dracula. His most famous act during his notorious reign was impaling 20,000 Turkish prisoners on pikes to terrify the Ottoman army as it invaded, it worked.

You notice that the pike that this corpse was impaled on was about 8 feet in length, with 2 feet poking out of the mouth, completely covered in blood. Unlike the more mundane killings you've seen this impalement involved the victim having the pike forced up the victim's ass while they were still alive. It was entirely possible for the victim to still be alive for the majority of the impalement especially if his killers were being careful so as to not impale the heart in the process or to cut any major arteries.

You glance at Bones' notes reading a rather cut and dry description of unimaginable pain and torture.

The first victim that was found was an African-American male as evidence by the cheek and brow ridge, other bone indicators mark the victim's age as being between 20-25 years. The victim was dismembered and the amputation sites were sealed up with some sort of liquid adhesive, probably hot tar. Evidence of penetrating and cutting wounds to the bone as well as significant cauterization and burning. No skin was found on the body. Victim was castrated; testicles found in the maxillary orbits, no sign of the victim's eyes. Cause of death was being impaled on a 2.5 meter spike through the rectum; exit wound is through the mandible as evidence by damage to the mandible and maxilla. No teeth were found in the remains. Evidence of severe mutilation to the body pre- and post mortem. Numerous organs are missing from the body.

You look up from the page with a look of utter disgust and disbelief on your face. You notice that Bones is staring through you, not at you but through you, with a thousand-yard stare; a slight twitch in her jaw.

You look through dozens of more pictures of the first body; cataloguing every detail and angle possible of a terrible and violent death. Your stomach lurches as once again you feel the bile rise up.

"The first set of remains was the easiest to deal with."

You glance up in surprise as Bones says, almost whispers, that warning. The look in her eyes says everything that the wavering tone in her voice hints at.

With an apprehensive nod you bring your attention back down to the file. After a minute of reading and looking at the pictures the meaning actually settles into your brain.

You notice her notes are almost scrawled across the page; you'd take into account the significance of that if you weren't too busy heaving your guts out into the wastebasket beside your bed.

Pelvic girdle indicates that the second set of remains belongs to a female of unknown race but bone indicators mark age as being between 18-23 years old. The body was found crucified on an inverted cross with hands and feet removed from the body with the amputation sites sealed up in the same manner as the male victim's. The female's feet and hands were found bound to four poles over a bloody mattress on the floor indicating a violent rape. As with the male victim the body was skinned and mutilated. The breasts were cut off and the victim was eviscerated. The head was removed and found smashed by a sledgehammer about 2 meters from the body. Almost the entire remaining flesh shows indicators of burns and cauterized tissue and all visible bone indicates blunt force trauma and cut marks. Victim was pregnant with twins. Cause of death was decapitation after a period of crucifixion due to blood indicators.

The only thing that pierces the cloud of your mind is the blood, all the blood that you saw in those pictures. The floor surrounding the body was positively soaked in blood, a pool extending over a foot in each direction from the body. You briefly wonder how Bones and the forensics team could determine that the woman was pregnant with twins until you keep reading and looking at the next stack of pictures.

Your heart turns cold at the sight of a bubbling cauldron set in a small fire pit in the floor.

Two sets of female fetal remains were found submerged in a cauldron approximately 7 months old. Indicators on the bone suggest blunt force trauma followed by complete dismemberment. All the flesh was boiled off the bones but there were only trace amounts of fetal flesh and organs found in the cauldron.

You numbly work your way through the rest of the photos showing the horror that took place in that room; your blood drains as you come to the last pile showing exactly where the missing teeth, organs, and skin went.

It was a message.

"Back off."

But that's not what caused your blood to drain. What caused that was Bones' address written out in blood, bone, and flesh underneath it.

"She was still alive when they cut her open."

You just stared at Bones as her stone-faced countenance started to crack.

"She was alive, they crucified her then cut her open and made her watch as they-they…" She chokes up as the horror begins to break down her defenses.

"He was the last to die; the amount of wet blood still on the pike tells us that. He had to watch helpless as they did that to his family." She's visibly shuddering now but then again so are you. How else can a person cope with this sort of thing?

"I'm scared Booth." The terror is practically coming off of her in waves.

"So am I Bones." That's nothing but the truth.

So what are you going to do now?
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AN: Review please