A/N: Phew! The update day is finally here.

Before letting you get to the actual business, though… Huge thank yous for all those reviews and listings this story's received! It's super good to know that you're all out there. Lots of hugs to you all!

Awkay, because I'm fairly sure that you all want to know what happens next… Let's go! Hopefully you'll have a good ride.

About Face

With the suspiciously extensive knowledge Emily seemed to have on the horrible building that trapped Spencer it was almost scarily easy for the group to sneak in. Making Penelope their designed driver was a mutual decision. They managed to save her once and they didn't trust their luck enough to try a second time, especially when she was still recovering. Derek wasn't in a much better condition and they would've been more than happy to keep him out as well but he refused. They didn't see any point in pushing him when they knew that he'd just sneak after them on his own if they tried to force him.

Less than three minutes in they'd been forced to avoid five guards. They were still trying to catch their breaths in a safe corner when Emily's hushed, tense voice sounded. "I… There's something I need to ask you. It's dangerous and maybe stupid, but… I can't leave this place today without at least trying."

The rest of them tensed up, knowing to expect something far from pleasant. "Look, Prentiss…", Derek sighed exasperatedly. "We're here to save Reid. Alright? When we have him we leave and never look back."

"He isn't the only one of my kind trapped here." There was something quite close to fear in Emily's raging eyes. She went on before anyone could voice objections. "They… They've been hunting us for years. Decades. And… Some of the captured haven't been killed." She blinked quickly, twice. "They're here. Imprisoned. Experimented on. Tortured."

There was a long, shocked and loaded silence. "Prentiss… I understand that you want to help them. But… There's only four of us." There was a look of genuine sympathy in David's eyes. "Saving Reid… Even that's going to be a dangerous and far fetched shot. Trying to set free who knows how many others…"

"You don't understand." Emily sounded persistent, desperate even. "What… What's going to happen to this building… I can't leave them here. I refuse to sacrifice all those innocent ones that have been locked up here."

It took longer than it should've. But it sunk in, hard. Aaron swallowed, his throat feeling painfully dry, before he dared to speak. "Prentiss… Is this building the next target of the Others?"

Emily didn't speak. She didn't have to. Her eyes gave all the answers they needed. All of a sudden the air around them was unbearably cold. "Shit…!" David hissed.

So… They were trapped into a building that was about to explode? They, and hundrets of other people? Perhaps those people weren't the best of men and women, but to be wiped out like that…

And the awful trail of thought went further from there. All of a sudden Diana Reid's telepathy and Penelope's naïve attempts to help weren't the only possible ways how the Others managed to conduct a devastating attack against the bureau. They had help.

Derek blew up entirely. Rage flickered hard and heavy in the man's eyes while he hissed as loudly as he possibly could with all the guards possibly nearby. "What… What THE HELL do you think you're doing?! Prentiss, there are people in here! Actual living people…!"

Emily's eyes weren't those they knew, once. She lifted her chin a little, all the walls they managed to bring down somewhere in a previous life firmly back up. "Do you think that they care a lot about the lives of my kind?"

"You have no right to kill them!" Derek felt sick to his stomach and dizzy. Was this really the same woman he joked with once? The one he tried to flirt with, even if only for a moment? "You have no right to orchestrate a massacre…!"

Emily's eyes flashed. "I wasn't alone in making that decision. Ever. And it's far too late to stop it now, anyway. As it is all you can decide is whether you want to help me save as many lives as possible."

"I'll go with you." Aaron's voice was barely recognizeable. A sharp look was cast towards Derek and David. "Find Reid. We'll get out of here as fast as possible."

Derek didn't like the idea of letting the unit chief go alone with a woman that was once a member of their family, a comrade, equal. But there was no time for arguing. So he nodded stiffly and tried not to look back while hurrying on with David. Only one bitter thought echoed in his head.

This nightmare isn't going to end, is it?

Although he did his best to avoid going under Spencer must've passed out at some point. Because all of a sudden his eyes flew open and his body woke up to a fully alerted state. He was still in a great deal of pain, far from well, but his instincts were sharp and very much active.

He knew that he wasn't alone in the dark anymore.

It did his laboured breathing no favors but Spencer twisted his body, unable to fight back a wince at how much even the simple movement hurt. It took a mighty while before his vision cleared enough to truly distinguish the figure looming in the shadows. He frowned.

"Who are you?" It was barely audible. Didn't sound like his voice.

His companion didn't speak. Not that he would've particularly expected such. With alarming certainty Spencer could feel eyes on him before the stranger finally moved. Began to approach him with slow, taunting steps.

A not exactly quiet voice in Spencer's head was howling at him that he was in a very deep trouble. Struggling to control the emotional turmoil within he forced himself up although his feet barely carried him. He wasn't planning on facing this person so that he was already down.

"Who are you?" he demanded again, surprised that somehow his voice managed to sound even.

Well, he finally received a response. There was a rough, loud chuckle before a distinctly familiar voice spoke. "I… am the last resort of these pathetic creatures that think they run the universe. They still imagine that they're in control. Adorable, really." By then the other was unnervingly close yet still quite well hidden by shadows and a hood. "I am the chaos that they're so very afraid of yet can't do without."

They were only a breath away yet somehow the stranger's face remained hidden. His companion was so close that they felt each other's breaths. A large, very solid hand was pressed against Spencer's unevenly moving chest.

Spencer's eyes widened. In that very moment understanding began to dawn, with such force that it nearly swept him off his feet. "You're… one of the Others?"

He barely got that last syllable out before the pain began.

JJ would've wanted to join the rest of the team, desperately. Spencer was like a brother to her and there were so many things that she would've wanted to talk with him about. Such as his secret, Henry… But most of all she just wanted him safe and sound, back with his family. Yet she also understood that someone had to be there with Maeve. Spencer most definitely wanted them to look after the love of his life, especially when she was carrying his twins.

In the end she found herself watching the news with Maeve, fearing a word of a devastating attack directed at a government base. Nothing such came. JJ almost imagined that perhaps there was nothing to worry about, after all. But then she heard the steps approaching the apartment, followed by the door opening. The two of them exchanged sharp looks before Maeve braced herself and JJ pulled out her gun, beginning to move forward soundlessly.

She found the intruder stunningly quickly. She'd already aimed her gun before she recognized the man that'd dyed his hair black. Her eyes widened. "Will?"

/ "Daddy?" a four-year-old Erica Leonor asked her father, once. She tilted her head, watching with a great deal of curiosity how he mixed a green liquid with a red one. The final product looked beautiful. "What are you doing?"

Her father's eyes became dark, right then. She didn't like the look on his face. "I'm fighting monsters, sweetie. No shush, daddy's trying to work."

Erica was much too excited to obey. She frowned. "Monsters? What do they look like?"

A child of her age couldn't possibly understand what crossed his face. "Just like us. That's why they're so dangerous."

Erica's frown deepened with confusion. "But, if they look like us… Then how do you know when you've found one?" /

The second Erica heard that the base had been breached she knew exactly what was going on. Her eyes hardened while she shot a sharp look at five of her men. "Let's go. I know where this attack will be directed."

It was the cure, the one she and her father had spent years developing. All that hard work… She wasn't about to let that go to waste.

Almost out of the room, Erica was genuinely startled by the voice echoing in her head. 'The cure, Erica? Surely you don't really think that it's the only thing you have I consider valuable?'

Erica growled quietly as her eyes narrowed. Ignoring her companions' worried looks she sent a sharp thought in return, hoping that it hurt. 'Then where are you?'

'Don't worry, I'll see you soon.'

By then her group had reached the elevator. One of the men frowned as she pushed a different button from what she'd originally had in mind. "Basement floor? But… There isn't anything except…"

"Trust me", she barked in a voice that left no room for objections.

The ride seemed to take ages. Erica dashed out of the elevator as soon as the doors opened. Too late to realize that she was the only one moving. The men that'd been following her stood perfectly still, frozen like stone.

Erica shivered. It was one of those very few times in her life when she felt fear. "Shit…!"

"Hello, Erica." This time the voice came from directly at her right. "You can't even imagine how I've been looking forward to this."

Erica spun around to meet the unreadable face of Diana Reid.

Diana smiled sweetly. The woman's eyes were, however, those of a killer. "I heard that you've been looking for me. Well…" She spread her arms wide mockingly. "Here I am."

Aaron had always been very good at hiding his emotions. It was either a mighty asset or a character flaw, depending on who was asked. But there, while rushing towards the laboratories with Emily, he had hard time keeping his famous poker face in check.

'How can none of this get to you?' JJ asked her once.

Back then Aaron was, in the end, convinced that Emily was merely a exceptionally good agent. Now… Now he wasn't entirely sure what she was.

He found it hard to associate the word 'murderer' with her face.

His attention was barely there when Emily took the form of a soldier, managing to grant them an access to the laboratories with announcing him as a captured enemy. To his great stun the lie actually worked.

Once they were in the elevator Emily sighed. She cast a sideways look towards him. "Hotch…"

He shook his head firmly. Gritted his teeth before daring to speak. "Now's not the time."

"I know." She was still looking at him although he refused to meet her gaze. "I… just wanted to say thank you."

Aaron didn't speak. What was he supposed to say to that? A heavy silence fell.

It seemed to take ages before the elevator finally reached its destination. With a aura of confidence lingering on her Emily led the way to a door that'd been locked with a security code. She tapped in a series of numbers and the door slid open with a sigh. The sight inside made Aaron freeze dead on his tracks and lose his composure for a second. Beside him Emily stiffened, clearly using a lot of willpower to control herself.

Dead and dying Others… Children, pregnant women… All that crying and blood…

All of a sudden he found it just a little bit easier to understand.

They were both so worked up that they didn't hear the approaching steps. Didn't sense the presence, either. Not until a voice spoke. "May I help you two with that?"

The pain that came from several of his bones being squeezed, cracking and some of them breaking blinded Spencer. He knew that he screamed, long and hard enough for his throat to become sore, but the actual sound didn't register. In a flash the sheer agony pushed his body into a state of shock and he slumped down, which succeeded in worsening the torment.

His ribs, his sternum…

It was almost impossible to breathe and if he hadn't known that it was acutely necessary he would've deemed it not worth the effort. He groaned, attempted to move, but despite all his stubbornness didn't make it far.

His torturer chuckled. "Well how about that… They did say that you're a resilient little nuisance. But don't worry, I'm used to those."

The hand was pressed against Spencer's left leg before he could dodge it. He kicked furiously, even hit something, but it only stalled the inevitable by seconds. There was a low, furious growl.

"Now you're really pushing it…!"

The hand pressed harder and instantly there was pressure on the bone underneath it. Spencer groaned and tried to kick again but his body was in no condition to allow such. The searing agony grew worse and worse until there was a loud, sickening cracking sound when the leg broke. Once, twice. It didn't really hit him for a while. And when it did the sea of pain swallowed Spencer down entirely.

Spencer screamed like a wild animal, all of the torment his body and mind were going through somehow transforming into the kind of a sound that shouldn't have come from a human being. Producing something so intense tore him free from physical sensations for a fleeting moment of bliss. So he shrieked again and again, until there was barely any voice left.

"So… There." His captor sounded very pleased with himself. "You won't be running away, now. And your wings are still useless. It looks like we can finally have some proper quality time together."

Spencer gasped hard, trying to will himself out of his body. Trying to find something, anything, to anchor himself on instead of… "Why… Why do you work for them?" he gasped out. Like it would've actually mattered to him at the moment. Like he would've even cared. "Why… should they… trust you?"

His companion shrugged. "Simple, really. They don't trust me. Why should they?" The other leaned closer once more, which couldn't be a good sign. "As for me… I honestly don't care about either side enough to fight for them. I'll work for the one who pays me the best."

Spencer swallowed loudly. Attempted to push back the waves of nausea and dizziness. "Pay… you?"

His tormentor groaned, beginning to sound very impatient. "You're asking far too many questions, did you know that? Surely you wouldn't want me to do something about it." A knife shone brightly in the room's barely existent light.

Despite the agony and shock he was in Spencer understood his situation. He gritted his teeth, trying to come up with a way out. Desperately clinging to whatever hope he still had left.

The resolve was tested soon. Hands landed on his cheeks. "Now… Let me see that pretty face of yours."

It was then the hood shifted, not much but enough to reveal the stranger's face. Spencer's pained, hazy eyes widened when understanding flowed through like ice. And then, just as his mouth opened, the agony came once more.

Derek and David were already close, less than twenty steps away. They both frowned as their eyes scanned through the long, shadowy hallway and its seemingly plain stone walls. There were no doors or windows in sight.

Derek shifted with discomfort. A very, very dark feeling was swelling in the pit of his stomach. "What…?"

David interrupted him with a shake of head, bringing a finger to his lips.

For a second or two it was completely silent. Then, so unexpectedly that Derek had no time to prepare himself, they heard the scream. A nearly animalistic shriek of sheer agony. It took a while before they recognized the voice and it sunk in like a pile of bricks.

Derek gasped, his body feeling unbearably cold all over. And right there he forgot all healthy caution. "REID!"

David growled, casting a look of warning his way. "Quiet!" the older man hissed, his own face pale and full of sorrow. The warning came hopelessly too late.

They heard steps. Several set of them. Then the sounds of guns being prepared just as they grabbed their own.

In a few moments gunshots echoed in the hallway, resonating with another gruesome scream.

TBC

A/N: Soooo, we're closing in on the end of this story. How will everything turn out for our favorite team? Will everyone make it to safety alive?

Do leave a note before ya go. I'd love to hear from you.

Until next time, folks! I really hope that you'll all join in for that one.

Take care!