I just realized I have no idea where Rossi has been like majority of this story lmao. We'll just pretend cool guy Rossi is just taking a little break from work right now...
Rosemary knew this feeling all too well. She was stirring and it was from a sleep one did not naturally fall into. This time, however, she was almost too scared to open her eyes. Where would she be this time?
"She's waking up, thank God!" someone whispered with tones of relief, and Rosemary could feel her eyebrows twitch into a frown.
"Yeah, and how exactly does that help us?" a second voice hissed in return.
Rosemary willed herself to raise her eyelids. The lights were dim, but still strong enough to her to blink quickly in pain to clear her vision. She felt something brittle under her hands- she brought her hands up to her line of vision to look. Straw?
"What's your name, honey?" the first voice asked, and Rosemary looked over in slight panic, her heart hammering and straw falling from her palm.
"We're not going to hurt you. He has us here too."
Rosemary could now make out the person speaking to her- she was definitely older than Rosemary, perhaps her mid to late thirties, with a mature, distinctly kindly appearance. Her eyes were big and reassuring, and as she offered a smile, the edges of her eyes crinkled up. But what made Rosemary grow frightened all over again was the outfit this woman wore- she was dressed in a white chiton, the clothing of ancient Greek women.
Rosemary looked down at her own body, suddenly aware of the floaty material brushing against her skin. She too was dressed in a chiton, though of a bronze hue.
"Who put this on me?" she demanded, hands clenched in anger and fright around bunches of the material.
"He dropped you off in here already wearing it," said the owner of the second voice, now coming into Rosemary's eyeline. This woman had to be closer to Rosemary's age, though she carried features more elegant and beautiful, even a little haughty in comparison to the other woman. Another chiton, of red fabric, however, which contrasted beautifully against her long golden hair.
Rosemary could feel the bile rise in her chest at the thought of her kidnapper undressing her and touching her to put her in this gown...
"We have to get out of here," Rosemary pushed out, trying to get up from the floor where she sat. As she stood up, wobbly, she could tell they were in a new location, as the team had predicted the unsub's pattern to be. This time they appeared to be in some kind of barn, with straw scattered on the floor and abandoned farm tools hanging on a wall.
"You don't think we've tried?" the blonde shot back, crossing her arms. "We've been here for days. Then you show up out of nowhere..."
While she held a strong facade, Rosemary could see the fear in the young woman's eyes. The brunette glanced back at their other companion, who appeared to be grimacing at their predicament.
"Is there anyone else in this barn?"
The two nodded, pointing towards a stall in the corner.
"Erin," the blonde said. "She's been in there since she he dropped her off- she only spoke enough to give us her name."
Rosemary's mind was trying to click fifty different puzzle pieces together all at once, which was not working out so well. She needed a place to start from- she figured getting to know her fellow victims might help.
"I'm Rosemary," she told them, wincing as she gripped the cast around her wrist. He had been rough with her in the car- she might have misplaced it in the struggle, and she needed a doctor to fix that sooner rather than later.
"June," the other brunette responded.
"Vera," the blonde muttered.
Two puzzle pieces snapped together- every step brought her closer to solving this. Rosemary kept going.
"Listen.. as we speak, the BAU of the FBI are tracking me down," she told them softly, suddenly remembering to be aware of cameras that might be aimed right at them. Sure enough, as her eyes darted over their heads, she spotted the little camera bolted to a beam in the ceiling.
"Really?" June asked in sheer joy, her eyes lighting up. "Oh my god, I thought no one would be able to find us here-"
"Why in the hell is the FBI chasing after you?" Vera interrupted, and Rosemary quickly shushed her.
"I was already kidnapped once by this creep," she explained in hushed tones, ignoring their expressions of shock. "I got away and I was an important part of the FBI investigation to stop him, considering I'm the only one who survived. My dad became a suspect- and then he turned up dead. I became their next suspect and..."
She swallowed hard, able to remember the look on Spencer's face as he chased her down what could have been hours ago. Though she wished he would throw open that door any second to save them, she was scared to confront him after the mess that had put her back in the hands of a false god.
"I ran. I was scared. I tried to hitchhike away and he must have been waiting for me because I got into the car and then he injected me again. In case you haven't caught on by now, his aim is to recreate scenes of Greek mythology. We're about to be a part of another scene, but what scene that is... I don't know."
"You can do this babygirl, he can't have gotten far out of the sight of those cameras," Morgan remarked on speakerphone as the SUV zoomed down the road, following the blonde's instructions over the phone.
"I don't understand how he could have just disappeared from those cameras like that!" she replied in a frenzied tone. "I had him and then a second later the car was gone, I don't know-"
"Garcia, we can't lose his trail now or we'll be set back another few days, which is time we don't have," Hotch spoke out loud, keeping his eyes on the road though his jaw was clenched. "Could there have been a back road we missed? We're veering into scenic territory, there could be any place for him to get off the main road without us noticing."
"Right! I don't know why I didn't think of that, I'll look into that right... now..."
The ferocious clicking of computer keys filled the silence before a triumphant sound came over the speaker.
"He veered off the main road a little bit back, you need to turn around."
The SUV suddenly swerved and made a sharp U-turn to go back the way it had come.
Meanwhile, in Blake and J.J.'s vehicle, Spencer was locked into his own mind as they trailed the other SUV, his fingers intertwining and then unwinding as he fell into habit in the backseat.
"She's going to be okay, Spence," J.J. assured him from the passenger seat, glancing back at him. "She's gotten away once before, and she's been with us long enough to know what this unsub is like- she just might be able to talk her way out of anything or use the information against him."
It was true, Rosemary was clever enough to at least put off a bad situation long enough for the team to arrive- but Maeve had been able to do the same thing, and even showing up hadn't been enough. He had watched her die right in front of him. There was no guarantee this would not happen all over again.
Thus, the agent said nothing as J.J. offered consolation, only nodding at her and offering a slight, tight-lipped smile.
"What?" Vera said, her eyes flashing. "Greek mythology? What is this asshole's deal? Why us?"
Rosemary could not answer, for she was trying to answer that very question herself. She forced herself to delve deeper into her knowledge of mythology, staring into space as she thought. There were four girls in the room, and as far as she knew, this was the total of people the golden masked fiend had taken captive. But there could be more in another place for all she knew-
"My middle name is Minerva," she said aloud, staring in hyperfocus at the rusty tools on the wall.
"What does that mean?" June questioned, both of Rosemary's counterparts quizzical of her sudden shift in attitude.
"Bronze... white.. red," she continued to herself, trying to find a connection as her brows furrowed. "Is Erin wearing a chiton too?"
She faced the women, who looked a little confused by the question.
"A wha-"
"The dress," she prodded further, a little impatient but trying to remain under check for their sakes.
"Yeah," Vera confirmed, still unsure of Rosemary's intentions but clearly not about to question her last hope of escape.
"Colour?" Rosemary added.
"Black," June offered.
Rosemary was growing frustrated by her inability to put two and two together- for all she knew, he could be coming to finish this now that he knew Rosemary was awake.
"June, Vera, Erin, Rosemary," she repeated to herself, trying to pretend the pain in her wrist was nonexistent. "Black, bronze, red, white..."
A famous scene- white symbolized purity, while red sat on the opposite end of the spectrum in meaning. Bronze was not quite royal- it held an element of brightness while tying into the strength of metal. Black could either mean darkness in or trying to cloak oneself in the night. But what use was the meaning of colours? Maybe going back to the names...
"My middle name is Minerva," she recalled in a hushed whisper to herself. "Athena, in Greek."
Her face suddenly paled and she continued, in a shaky whisper, "June is Juno. Vera is Venus. Erin is Eris."
She now understood the plan. This was why he could not let Rosemary go after the first time. He needed her for the grand finale, because she had been his most important target from the beginning- and now he had her again, right where he wanted her. He was too self-obsessed to have ever strayed from his intentions, which was why she was back in his clutches.
"He's going to recreate the Judgement of Paris," she finally explained to the two other women, her limbs quaky as her brown eyes flicked in between them and the door with each passing second.
"How do you know that?" Vera inquired, shooting a glance at June.
"All of us bear names resembling the three goddesses who were thrown into discord in the tale," Rosemary detailed hastily. "My middle name is the Roman counterpart to Athena, who is almost always depicted with a shield and armor- the bronze. Red for Venus, or Aphrodite- June is dressed in pure white and meant to depict the motherly, femininity of Juno, or Hera. And Erin is Eris, goddess of discord who causes the disagreement between the three goddesses with her golden apple, cloaked under the colour of night... who happens to be her mother."
While there was no Paris to be the mediator in the barn, Rosemary could only guess their captor had decided to separate the men and women to lessen chances of escape.
Rosemary knew they only had so much time now- if he had been watching them this whole time, he knew Rosemary had decoded his inspiration.
"What do we do?" June begged, and both women gathered closer to Rosemary, desperate to survive.
"He's a narcissist," she told them, finding herself to be repeating the very words the agents had used. "Everything he's done has been to prove himself for some reason. He needs to show off. If we disrupt his routine and turn the tables on his perfect fantasy, he just may unravel."
"What if he tries to kill us?" Vera questioned, dubious.
"He won't touch you," Rosemary promised, though she could not possibly know just how he might react. Well, if he did try anything- she would not let any of them get hurt. She had already been lucky once- if this was the universe's way of saying she had been put in this position again to help others, then that was what she would do. That was something Spencer would do, she thought with a pang in the chest.
"I'm going to get Erin," the brunette told them, though before she rushed over to the stall to look inside, she grabbed a rusty hammer off the wall.
The raven-haired young woman lifted her chin from her knees as Rosemary stopped in the stall doorway and shot a slight glare in the brunette's direction.
"What do you want?" she demanded lowly.
"For you to work with me so we can all escape," Rosemary stated, utilizing all the strength she could muster.
The SUVs came to a halt as the agents beheld what appeared to be a rundown, abandoned farmhouse and an equally rugged barn further off into the fields.
"J.J., take the barn," Hotch ordered as the team got out of the vehicles, gathering for instructions. "Morgan and I have the house. Stay in contact- we don't know what to expect just yet."
The team split up to stick to the plan, the three agents making their way carefully towards the barn in the moonlight, J.J.'s flashlight the one thing keeping their path visible.
"Hey, whatever we see when we get in there, whatever happens- you cannot lose your cool," Blake murmured as she crept beside Spencer, glancing at him with soft brown hues.
The agent gazed at her in silence, not sure he could promise anything. But, then again, he could not put either of their lives at risk due to his own selfishness. The dirty-blonde haired agent nodded in response before returning his eyes to J.J.'s figure leading them forward, the hopeful side of his mind making promises of safety and happy endings that the logical side could not quite come to terms with just yet.
"We're going to play out this fantasy of his," Rosemary explained to the three women, one of whom had only recently and begrudgingly agreed to take part in this plan. "But he's going to get more than he bargained for. The portraits he creates give him power over his victims- he's silencing them by putting them in a permanent position in the fantasy of his choosing. He expects compliance and his fear tactics to work. When he shows up, there's a ninety-five percent chance he has the golden apple with him, to give to Erin- the second we see it-"
A loud, heavy sound alerted the four women and they all jolted, as if they ought to go somewhere else, though there was nowhere else to go to.
Rosemary swallowed and waited expectantly, the tiny voice inside of her urging her not to back down. Not when these women were trusting her, were placing all of their faith in the one survivor...
There was a rusty creaking and something heavy settled into place- the door latch, she expected. The barn doors then opened, and there he was, mask reflecting the pale hue of the moon. He stood for a moment, as if to bask in the fear he was able to rouse in them, before shutting the doors behind him. Rosemary glanced down at his hands- there was a cloth bag on his arm. The apple had to be in there. She raised her inquisitive gaze back to the mask that now faced them again, the frightening bull's features unmoving.
Their captor pointed a finger at Erin, whose face remained a facade though Rosemary could see her muscles tense. He curled his finger to gesture for her to come forward. She did as she was told, and he reached into his bag, gloved hand disappearing momentarily. The women were silent, waiting for the right moment to act. Rosemary's grip on the tool behind her back tightened.
His hand resurfaced and there it was, shining bright in all of it's golden glory- the apple.
"That apple is mine!" Rosemary accused, her voice a little shaky, though she stepped forward and held her ground.
"No, it's mine!" Vera snarled, playing into the role with the perfect amount of envious malice.
"Ladies, it's clear the apple is meant for me," June disagreed in a harsh voice, all three gathering closer to the apple as Erin held it in shaky hands.
Their captor did not move, though he lowered the arm the bag was hanging onto.
"I'm the smartest out of all of you, of course it's mine!" Rosemary shouted, pouring her anxieties into this angry scene.
"Absolutely not, it belongs to me-"
"How dare either of you presume it's yours?-"
The shouting match was a glorious frenzy and all the women made sure their masked enemy received the brunt of their shrillness. His mask was moving as he looked back and forth between them, and Rosemary felt the urge heighten- it was time for her to make the first move.
As she pulled the hammer out from behind her back, a banging on the door interrupted them... and that was when the real chaos hit.