Chpt 41
"All gods who receive homage are cruel. All gods dispense suffering without reason. Otherwise they would not be worshipped. Through indiscriminate suffering men know fear and fear is the most divine emotion. It is the stones for altars and the beginning of wisdom. Half gods are worshipped in wine and flowers. Real gods require blood." (Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God)
"The Bible has noble poetry in it... and some good morals and a wealth of obscenity, and upwards of a thousand lies." (Mark Twain)
"After so many years even the fire of passion dies, and with it what was believed the light of the truth. Who of us is able to say now whether Hector or Achilles was right, Agamemnon or Priam, when they fought over the beauty of a woman who is now dust and ashes?" (Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose)
"Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent." (Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes)
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(Mysterious Ways, U2)
Johnny, take a walk with your sister the moon
Let her pale light in to fill up your room
You've been living underground, eating from a can
You've been running away from what you don't understand
She's slippy, you're sliding down
She'll be there when you hit the ground
It's all right, it's all right, it's all right
She moves in mysterious ways
It's all right, it's all right, it's all right
She moves in mysterious ways, oh
Johnny, take a dive with your sister in the rain
Let her talk about the things you can't explain
To touch is to heal, to hurt is to steal
If you want to kiss the sky, better learn how to kneel
On your knees, boy
She's the wave, she turns the tide
She sees the man inside the child
It's all right, it's all right, it's all right
She moves in mysterious ways, yeah
It's all right, it's all right, it's all right
She moves in mysterious ways, yeah, oh, ah
It's all right, it's all right, it's all right
Lift my days, light up my nights, oh
One day you'll look back, and you'll see
Where you were held now by this love
While you could stand there
You could move on this moment
Follow this feeling
It's all right, it's all right, it's all right
She moves in mysterious ways
It's all right, it's all right, it's all right
She moves in mysterious ways, oh
(It's all right, it's all right, it's all right)
(She moves in mysterious ways)
Move you, spirits move you (It's all right, it's all right, it's all right)
Move, spirits move you, oh, yeah (She moves in mysterious ways)
Does it move you, she moves with it (It's all right, it's all right, it's all right)
Lift my days, and light up my nights, oh
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"Please, sit, I have a story to tell. But do pay attention, it is long and the night grows shorter."
Hotch and the other team members, as well as both Rachels, and the three teenagers took their seats in various chairs and seats around the gallery.
Alecta turned around looking into the gallery, at all of the things collected over the centuries.
"Where do I start?" she shook her head in disbelief at how things had snowballed.
Rossi got up and walked over to her, 'Just start at the beginning doll face. That's all."
"You make it sound so easy, my friend. Do you know what you're saying?"
Alecta walked a little further into the gallery, taking her time looking at some of the artifacts as she passed by them. When she turned back around she had this strange look on her face. She seemed proud of her accomplishments and sad all at the same time.
"My first memory was of just being. I wasn't born, I was created. One minute there was an empty space, and then I was there. I can't explain it clearly enough I know. All I know is that suddenly there were people that were carving likenesses of me out of wood, and bronze, even stone." She lifted the glass on the stone figurine that Reid had seen earlier, walking over to him handing it over.
"I was suddenly this important being. When there were wars between tribes that broke out, they would say I had been up to my tricks again. Or when there were dark days ahead, they would make offerings to me trying to stop war from happening, thinking that if I was happy, that I could control things and let life continue to be peaceful.
Years passed. With the progression of mankind came the ability to interact with different cultures. I watched the birth of ideas like trade and commerce. I watched the cultures meeting for the first times; watched them swap ideas on whatever religious sort of beliefs they had.
I watched some of these beliefs tear them back apart.
With each new culture, there was a new religion….a new mythology created. There was the Mesopotamian world with theirs, then the Greeks, the Romans….The Hindi culture….and with most of them, I kept my same basic functions; I was a war Goddess. I decided if there would even be a war, then if there was, I was on the battle field.
Then, the Christians came. While I don't outright hate them, I've never liked them very much."
"Why?" JJ wanted to know.
"Well to begin with there was barely more than a handful of them. In the beginning they were persecuted as much as the Jews or any pagan religion had been. In the matter of just a couple hundred years, which is actually quite fast for these things….it became the dominant religion on the planet. This would have been alright. Except….they began to persecute the pagans and drive them out of countries that they had lived in for millennia. And they stripped me down to practically nothing.
According to the Christian beliefs, there is one Supreme Being in the universe…God, and that all the other 'characters' are angels and what not.
I was known by a new name, not Anat as I had been for centuries. I was suddenly not the war goddess that I had been for generations. Now, I was one of the angels…..and I was second sphere at that; relegated to being a Dominion. Whatever." Alecta rolled her eyes.
"But Dominions are supposed to have quite a bit of power as far as these things go." Rossi was heard to state.
"Yeah, I suppose you might say that if you weren't used to having ultimate power. Look at that painting." Alecta pointed to the painting that Rachel had admired earlier.
"That depicts me, at the last battle of Armageddon. I am covered in blood; I've got body parts hanging from my armor. I am one of the most feared sights on the battle field."
Then she walked back closer to the group.
"Now look at me. Who would be terrified of me now? Who would offer sacrifices to me now, whether it be human or animal? Before any of you got to know me you probably didn't know whether to welcome me on board or change my diaper."
"But the Dominions…they are basically the foremen of the hierarchy. It's said that they rarely come into our realm of being unless they deem it necessary." Will made the point.
"Or we are given orders. Before Christianity took over for good I was given orders by the Boss. I was sent down here to protect someone for him."
"Who might that be?" Will's accent drifted to her.
"Who else? His son." Alecta turned and walked to a case taking out a small wooden carving; it was rudimentary, like a child had made it. Tears sprang to her eyes.
"I had heard what the Boss was up to. He decided he needed some sort of living representative here in your world. One of us was sent to the girl to tell her she had been chosen. Then when the time came I was sent to work at an inn. The family stopped there for the night. She was very pregnant.
I helped her deliver the baby; a little boy with a headful of hair, and properly working lungs.' She chuckled just a bit, it seemed more bitter than sweet. 'I wrapped him in his little blanket and handed him to his mother.
And when that bastard Herod ordered the slaughter of innocents, I was tasked with leading the family to safety.
Over the years, I took it upon myself to check in on the boy to see how he grew up, if he grew up.
He carved this for me one day, his 'father' was a carpenter, so they say. He was maybe nine or 10 at the time. We had sat together and talked for hours. He told me of all the things he wanted to do.
I may not have believed 100% in the religion as a whole, but I understood what the boy was trying to achieve.
I know it sounds crazy. I'm a war goddess. But I desperately looked forward to the great peace that he spoke of wanting. I was tired of the wars. I was tired of looking around and seeing everything or everyone I ever loved just gone.
I couldn't take it anymore. After all those thousands of years, I was….." she held on to that wooden doll for dear life. Tears wouldn't stop streaming down her face.
"And then came the day that I heard about the upcoming crucifixion. That was when I finally snapped.
I had stood by, being stripped of all of my former glory, stepping aside for this new religion. I had been there the day that Satan was cast out…..I held him down while the Boss sent him packing…..we had been friends once, and now that was over.
I had been ordered to protect that boy at all cost. At first I was angry about the assignment….I am not a glorified baby sitter. But….that boy….was meant to do great things. And now I'm being told that he is going to be tortured and left to die in front of everybody.
And because of the orders, I could do nothing about it. The Boss made sure to add that little clause in there. He knew me. He knew that if he was not clear on this, that I would have never let that happen. I would have laid waste to anyone that came near that boy with anything that looked like a weapon.
So, metaphorically, my hands were tied. I was there. I will never forget, in all my days I will never forget….the sounds of his poor mother at his feet, wailing for the imminent loss of her son. And the wailing of his wife, who was rather pregnant at the time."
As Alecta spoke, everyone started looking around, seeing the specters of this long ago event appearing before their eyes; they could hear the wailing of Mary. They could smell the grass and the blood. They could hear Jesus speaking to his mother telling her not to cry, although it was said in his native language, and they couldn't understand the exact words.
"I keep thinking about his poor mother. I kept remembering all the talks I had with him as a boy; all those years. Every word he ever said to me kept playing over in my head. I've never forgotten them.
And after he was gone, to keep me out of trouble, I was sent on a mission to get Mary Magdalene out of the city and eventually out of the country. The urges that I had for revenge were so strong that I could barely see straight.
I did what I was ordered to do; I got the woman and her unborn baby to safety. It was no small feat I tell you. Those damned Romans were crawling everywhere. There were times I had to have Magdalene pretend to be a corpse in my wagon and that I was her mother and was taking her to burial.
But once that task was done, all bets were off."
"What did you do?" Hotch asked, sounding very Hotch-like.
"I love you,' Alecta said on a chuckle. "After I made sure that the woman and child were safe, I set my sights on the bastards responsible."
Reid pointed out, 'But you said you were given orders."
"Which I followed. But, after the work was done…..' she shrugged her shoulders. 'It was easy enough to find the Romans. You only had to follow the trail of dead prostitutes and the stench of beer.
I went to them as a slave that had been brought to them from one of the recently conquered cities….scantily clad, pretending to not know how to speak their language…..you know the usual.
I let them have their fun; a little dignity was a small price to pay. Besides, everything else had been taken from me, why not. Once they were starting to tire out, we had breakfast as the sun came up."
"What had you learned?"
"Number one: Traditional Romans taste a bit gamey and tough unless you use a pinch of garlic and a dash of curry. They were offensive to my pallet. I haven't done that since.
Number two: Before I slaughtered the last one, he gave me the whereabouts of Pontius Pilate."
Everyone wanted to look disturbed, Alecta must have sensed this.
"I know what you're thinking. 'Dear God what have we gotten ourselves into?' Am I close?" she saw Morgan nod quietly.
"You must remember that at the time I was still in 'goddess' mode, or angel, however you look at things.
I haven't done anything like that since that day, over 2,000 years ago. I have had no need to stoop to that level again.
But I will say I did hunt down that bastard Pilate. I poisoned his wine and laughed maniacally as I walked out the front door; his men being too late to save his life."
"What about the Jews that turned Jesus over to the Romans?" Will asked.
"I could do little about them. I could give them horrible nightmares that made them scratch out their own eyes. But they were holy men. I could not hunt them like I had the rest. I may have been a vicious war deity, but even I have principles. No matter what was going on, I would not harm a man of God, even if I felt that he or they deserved it. Nope, I let them take care of themselves." She winked at the group.
"How do you know the ships out in the sea were Ares' ships?"
"Oh Selim, you couldn't smell the stinch? It was a mix of washed up Greek God and death. I thought everyone could smell that."
"When did she sink the ships?" Reid asked, walking over to the window, looking out at the remains of the three ships still slipping beneath the water.
"The wine darling, it was when I was stirring the wine."
"But what did that have to do with anything?"
"Oh Reid….Give me that water in the glass, and watch."
Someone passed her a glass, and they all gathered at a window and waited.
"You see that ship just beyond the harbor? Watch what happens."
Again she sticks her finger into the liquid, and begins to swirl it around.
"Wait!" Mehmed stops her. "No, no more of this sinking of ships. Not just now. There are other things to attend to."
"He's right boys. I have to go see my Impatiev. Isn't that right, Lock-Nah?"
"Yes madam. They have arrived."
"Please excuse me. I will catch up with the rest of you later."
With that she swept from the room following the large man that had come to tell her of the arrival; her sari flowing around her as she turned, flowing behind her as she left. Once she was gone you could catch the faint hint of roses.
Everybody began looking around at one another.
"Well that's different." Rossi looked at his team members, 'She's worried about….."
"Agent Rossi…"
"….About that stranger following us around and she snacked on Roman soldiers 2,000 years ago. Hotch, my man, stay on her good side. That is the only word of wisdom I have for you."
The Sultan stepped forward and got everyone's attention.
"After everything she just told you and the only thing you take from that is the fact that she once ate some Roman soldiers. Seriously? Then you really didn't understand a thing she just said."
"What are you talking about?" Morgan was getting agitated.
"We are talking about the fact that the only reason she went to that level, cannibalizing the Romans was because of her attachment to the people in her care, her attachment to mankind." A different voice was heard to sound through the room.
The owner of the new voice stepped forward. Hotch recognized him from the café.
"I'm sorry if I scared you all."
"Who are you?" Morgan asked, moving in front of Garcia.
"I am Michael."
"Michael who?" Prentiss quizzed.
"Michael. That is my only name. Dr. Reid, a little help."
"Michael; the meaning of the name is equivalent to 'he who is like God', it is the name given to one of the Arc…."
"…..Archangels." Michael finished for Reid who seemed at a loss for words.
"So are you trying to tell us that you're that Michael?" Will was bordering on incredulous by this point, his accent getting thicker.
"Precisely."
Hotch being Hotch, couldn't possibly let him off that easy, 'Just how are we supposed to believe this?"
"Sir, regardless of what you've been taught about our kind, I don't really give a damn what you believe. But you just watched her sink three ships in the harbor by dipping her finger into some wine. More to the point, you've been surrounded by my kind for weeks."
"Now, just exactly what is that supposed to mean?" Rossi was getting perturbed, this wasn't good.
"Well, for instance….you've met three men named Sky, Ben, and Paul."
"Yes." Hotch answered flatly.
"Sky's true identity is as St. Joseph, who was the Earthly father of Christ. Paul was at one time known as Vaast of Arras, but you can call him Gaston, it's easier to remember….he was known as a patron saint of children, among other things. Big Ben, as Alecta always called him….he was St. Judas Thaddeus….you know him better as St. Jude, the patron saint of lost or forgotten causes. He was a cousin of Christ. Mac…he is St. Mamans who is the guardian of orphans and torture victims. St. Dismas was one of two thieves that were being crucified right along with Jesus….that would be Kong." Michael paused as the giant of a man took a moment to bow to the on lookers.
"And lest we forget, St. George, Selim, take your bow while we've got a moment."
Selim did so with a mischievous grin on his face, 'How do you do ladies and gentlemen?"
"Were there others?" Prentiss asked, just curious.
"Yes, your pilot Radar…..did you ever wonder how he could fly you from the United States to Istanbul, Turkey so quickly, with no crash or incidents from outside forces?"
Rossi had to admit that the man had a point, 'Now that you mention it…"
"Radar is more commonly known as St. Christopher."
Hotch just glared at the man, 'And Simon, who was he?"
"Ah, yes, Simon. Simon was Simon the Zealot, one of the Apostles of Christ. And there are many more of us here that you don't even know about yet. Sometimes it seems as if we're in the very walls. But for now, this will do.
I will have you know, that aside from her little adventure with the Romans, Alecta has been a perfect little angel. Most of us have been with her for nearly 2,000 years. If she was anything but what she claimed to be, we would have already split."
"How did you come to know her?" Mrs. King asked, looking Michael over suspiciously.
"That's a long story Madam."
"Well, make time."
"As you wish. Do sit, it could be a while."
Michael called for more refreshments and waited on everyone to take their seats.
"Alecta is so different from the rest of us, my kind and your kind, because she used to be one of you. She doesn't remember it all, and I've never had the heart to tell her.
Eight thousand years ago, she was an infant. Her tribe of people lived on an island, it was lovely. They were by far a peaceful people, only a few minor skirmishes over some territory ever cropped up. Until one day invaders came to the island. It was wholesale slaughter against her people. There was no real battle, just slaughter. Her father had left the home to aid in the defense of the people; he was quickly cut down.
Her mother wrapped Alecta in a bundle and carried her down to the shore. She put her in a small sort of raft or canoe; it had belonged to the invaders, they had used it to get from their ship to the shore. She placed the baby in it, placing the oars on either side.
She was going to leave the baby in the hands of the Gods; if they chose to spare her, then she would be saved. If she died out there in that craft, then that was the choice the Gods had made, but she would not let her baby die in that village. She waded into the water a bit and shoved the craft as hard as she could to set it adrift.
The poor woman never made it back to her home. She was caught before that. Her death was not quick. They wouldn't let her die until they were quite finished with her.
I was making my rounds, like we do. I heard a sound coming from the sea. I am used to a great many sounds coming from that place, but the wail of a baby was not one of them.
I found her in that raft, I gathered her up, holding her close, and took her back with me.
The boss didn't want her kept with us. She was one of your kind. Your kind wasn't allowed in our world without passing on first. She was still very much alive. And besides that, she was an infant, she was so small, there was nothing that she could contribute to our cause.
I was ordered to put her back where I found her.
I did not. I hid her among our kind. I took her to the hall of knowledge, I have close friends that oversee it, and they would care for her when I could not. She was raised among the stacks of scrolls and manuscripts; she learned several different languages, some of them even at that time were already dead, our kind being the only beings that still knew how to speak them.
She was always drawn to a few scraps of scroll and shards of tablet that had a certain style of cuneiform on them. When she was a little girl she was never happier than when she could freely peruse the hall seeing the writings that had been left there…..and the art. But that one language and artistic style drew her endlessly.
It was the last remnants of her people; it was all that was left of them. They had been wiped out down to the last man standing; women and children were not spared. She had no idea how to pronounce the words or even what the symbols meant but she was always drawn to it….."
Michael walked over to one painting of her holding a baby.
"This portrait was by an unknown artist. It's one of the best likenesses of her in all of history, prior to the invention of photography…which is itself a dying art. Do you have any idea of who the child is?"
Michael took a moment to look at each of them. When his eyes fell to Reid, and even the genius had no idea, Michael smiled.
"That child is the daughter that Mary Magdalene had months after the crucifixion. Alecta loved that child as if it was the Christ child all over again. She was all that was left of the boy; she had a twin brother that had died within weeks of birth, he hadn't been strong enough, he was sickly.
Alecta cried so hard when she heard the news; she flooded a small village nearby. She was even more distraught than Magdalene. But she made her mind up to watch out for the girl. If that child had ever found herself in danger, Alecta would have killed everything in her path and burn the world down twice to save her.
Can you imagine Alecta as your aunty? And the lions in the portrait, they were descended from a quartet of lions that were given to Alecta as gifts by Daniel….you know the chap that was tossed in the lion's den. Well after all was said and done, he was able to give her a few as gifts. There are still a few at the menagerie here, not the ones from this painting of course, but there have always been lions kept for her. And dogs….big ones."
Reid had been thinking hard for quite a few moments, something had been sticking in his mind.
Michael had turned and was looking at some of the other portraits and artifacts in the room, remembering; his back was to Reid. But Michael, being Michael, sensed the boys question brewing.
"Young Master Reid, I didn't follow orders given to me by the Boss (as Alecta calls him) because….I could not in good conscience ever go and put her back in that craft that I found her in. I was ordered to do it. But I could not. If I had been threatened with being cast out, I could not have followed the order; I would have just had to be cast out. I would take it with a smile.
In the end I did the right thing. When the time came that Satan challenged us, she was the one that held him down as the boss cast him out. That's how she became one of us. She was mortally wounded at that time."
"How did you…..?"
"I could smell the brain cells burning from over here, Master Reid." Michael looked at him and smiled.
Suddenly Alecta's voice could be heard coming from the other end of the gallery.
"Eight thousand years! Eight thousand years and you never told me."
"What did you want me to say?"
"The truth Michael, that's all. Would it have killed you?"
Her face had more sadness and pure upset than anyone could remember seeing etched on it.
"In the early years you were too young to understand. How was I supposed to tell you at age 4 that your entire race of people had been annihilated? And by the time you were old enough to understand, there was the battle and it all went wrong. And then you came back to us, after…..you were still you only better. For your valor he made you one of us. That doesn't happen every day you know."
"Why?"
"At first I was just saving a small baby. I'm not one of them so I was never able to have my own children. You were it for me. I saved a baby from certain death and in the following years I came to love her the way that I imagine a mortal father might love his child. If I could have brought your people back, I would have done. But I couldn't, it was not my choice. All I could do was keep you there with me, and make sure that nothing bad ever happened to you….again."
"What were they like?' Alecta was looking at the floor, no anger really left in her voice. "Since I don't remember anything about them; what were they like?"
"Your parents or your people?"
"Either."
"Come, I will show you."
There was a large portrait on one wall, was renaissance style, maybe even Tudor era. It had to be nearly 75ft long and nearly 20ft high; it was housed on a wall where the stair case that circled the room inclined.
"I commissioned this; I knew that one day you would want answers and that I would owe you so much more."
"Albrecht Dürer? You had Albrecht do this?"
"Yes. I knew you favored him above most. And I do like his style. Everything he created…you expect the figures to begin speaking to you. He had such an eye for detail. I paid him handsomely. Do, admire it….I must say it turned out to be a lovely work."
"How can you tell its Durer's work?" Prentiss asked.
"Emily! You scandalize me, a diplomat's daughter with the best education and access to art and museums and you don't know the difference between Durer and Holbein? I can't even…." Alecta acted as though she was shocked nearly into silence before she spun around back to the painting and began pointing out some of the key features that would tell you it was none other than Durer who had painted this.
"Now pay attention to the painting if you will. You just might learn something." Michael instructed the others.
Everyone stared at the painting, momentarily the figures in it began to move; it reminded JJ and Hotch of watching the Harry Potter movies with their children, only the movement was so much more realistic; it was like it was in 'real-time'. It was all so seamless as if they were watching the movement on a TV. The colors were crisp, the features on the people and the environment were so detailed. They watched as one group of people began grabbing whatever scant weaponry they owned, then they began filing out of their homes, going straight to their doom. All the while a second group of people began invading the space.
In the painting a man had his arm around a woman, kissing a baby wrapped in a blanket on the forehead. He placed an arrow head in the blanket. Then he helped the woman carrying the child scurry out of a doorway of sorts on the back of their little hovel.
"That was my father?" Alecta asked her voice slightly choked by tears as she walked up to the painting and touched a finger gently to the man's face. The man stopped his preparations for just a moment and looked up, as if looking at her, and nodded his head once to someone as if they were in the room with him.
"I have something for you." Michael rummaged in a bag he had brought with him. 'This was the blanket that you were wrapped in that day." He held it out to her. Alecta slowly unwrapped the blanket. There, in the folds of the blanket was the arrow head that the man had placed there so long ago.
"You see, no matter what has happened in all this time, he still wants you to go down fighting."
Alecta turned her attention back to the painting; the woman who could only be her mother was making her way carefully to the seaside, checking her surroundings to make sure she would be able to get the baby to safety. As she came back out of the water, having put the baby in the craft and shoved it off, she stopped to look back one last time at the small boat drifting away. With that one last look the woman turns back to make her way to what was left of her village. Before she turned back to the direction of the village though, Alecta reached out and touched the painting again as she had before with the man that was her father. The woman touched her own cheek as if she felt someone's finger on it and a single ran down as she turned her back to the sea.
As she made her way back to the interior of the island, back to the village, her scream could be heard.
"That's it! That's the sound!"
"What sound?" Rossi stepped close to Alecta.
"That damned sound!"
"What about it?"
Mrs. King stepped in, 'Ever since Alecta was a child she always said when she tried to sleep, she kept hearing screaming in her nightmares…or that it seemed as if the very house was screaming. You're sure that's the sound you heard?"
"Momma, I've heard it all my life. I'd never forget it. That was her….."
"That must have been one of the last sounds you heard before I came and took you away; the sound of her demise."
"I have to….I…" Alecta turned and ran from the room; she was distraught. Rachel followed her mother, as did Sasha, Eva, and Oleg. As they ran together with their mother they came to a room that had been set up as a gym of sorts. It had right much equipment in it, various bars used to do acrobatics, and faux weapons to train with, etc.
"Mama, you want to work it all out in here?" Rachel asked, knowing what the answer would be. Her mother wouldn't sleep for days if she didn't take out some of the pent up emotions or aggression she had on something soon.
"Yeah, we can try it." Alecta and all four children each grabbed the long wooden Kendo sticks that were on racks that were at various points around the room. As they turned quickly back around they swung on each other. It was a mock battle as if all five of them were opponents and had to battle each other. They could use any surface in the room; sometimes running up a wall and leaping over one another, etc.
As they battled it out in the gym, discussion was still going on in the gallery.
"The Hall of Knowledge?..."
"Ah yes, that question is usually one of the first Master Rossi. Although, to be quite honest I expected it from Master Reid. Is he sleeping?"
"What is the Hall of Knowledge?"
"It is what Master Morgan would refer to as Reid's Wet Dream. In other words….It's an enormous marble building; carved columns and reliefs that could rival ancient Rome or Greece on their best days. It gleams the marble is so smooth. Inside, there are shelves; rows and rows of shelves. They are so tall you could likely never see the tops of them, and so long they seem to go on with no end. On these shelves are every papyrus, scroll, folio, manuscript, and book….every written word that your kind or ours has ever created. Some of the works were saved from the collapse of the Library of Alexandria centuries ago. That event nearly broke Alecta's heart. She loved Egypt so, especially that library.
Master Reid, you would dearly love the Hall, I promise you."
Seeing everyone's look of concern about that statement….
"Don't worry, it's not his time. The only way he would be permitted to see it at all currently, would be in his dreams. He wouldn't be allowed to stay for very long. Alecta would kick you out eventually. She demands that you have a long life. And you have no idea what she's like when she doesn't get her way."
"We've seen the outcome." Morgan stated with a brief smile.
"No my child, you have only scratched the surface."
Penelope smiled a bit at that.
"Your dear Penelope gets it."
"What are you talking about?" Prentiss was getting so tired of the round-about.
"Cities buried in ash, floods the world over…..wholesale destruction on a scale that your kind has not seen in centuries. Don't worry. The care she takes isn't for Master Reid alone." Michael smiled an easy smile at them.
"But if she's living as one of us now, how can she….?"
"Miss JJ, that is what they call you is it not? Well, as you can see she has friends 'in the business'. We've been looking out for each of you for years."
Morgan became especially angry, turning to leave, but not without barking, 'That's a damn lie!"
"I'll go to him,' Penelope began to make a move to chase Morgan down.
"No, I'll go. I know a short cut." Michael exited the room, walking right through the wall, not like a ghost, but as if the wall had never been there in the first place. This left the team with Selim and the others.
"Michael really loves her?"
"Not in that way Master Aaron. He has always cared for her the way you do your son, Jack. And she adores Michael. It's just that right now, she's a bit angry that he's kept all this from her for so long. I tried to get him to tell her before. But the time was never right. And to be quite honest, how do you explain something like that to a person?"
"What happened to the country she lived in?" Will asked.
"Well it was an island."
"Ok, what happened to the island her people were from?" Will rephrased his question.
"Let's put it like this. To find the remains of their civilization now, you would need a submarine. Otherwise you'd be in the nosebleed seats."
"It's a sunken city?" Reid inquired.
"No."
Everyone looked at him oddly. "Then what is it man?"
"Master Aaron, she not from just any sunken city. Our dear girl is from THE sunken city."
"This just gets better and better." Rossi began shaking his head as he paced.
"You have no idea."
"So what is she doing now?"
Selim looked over at Hotch, 'Working out some frustration. She's angry at Michael. But she still loves him. She worships him. Can you imagine? A war goddess that worships a mere angel…..unheard of, but that's our darling girl."
Meanwhile, Michael has gone in search of Derek. Somehow or other Derek had found himself making his way to the gym, much as Alecta and the kids had done earlier. Michael had managed to cut him off, appearing right in his path.
"You need to get out of my way."
"I cannot."
Morgan arched a brow at Michael. Michael smiled at Morgan.
"Archangels are notoriously difficult for your kind to even injure. So it's not even worth the time spent thinking it over. I know you have an argument for what I said earlier, so out with it."
Without missing a beat, 'How can you possibly say that your kind has been looking out for us for so long? Did you miss my teen years altogether?"
"Oh, you mean that thing with Buford?"
"That thing with…..YES! that thing with Buford. Do you know how long I hated God for that? Or how long I blamed myself. Do you know how many years I walked around thinking I would never be good enough for anybody to ever love? YES! That damned thing with Buford."
"I'm well aware of how long you hated 'God'. You've only, in recent years, begun to lose some of the anger in you. We saw you suffering. Your guardian fought for your case every day wanting to do something, but their hands were tied…so to speak."
"What pray tell is that supposed to mean?"
"If you had not watched your father die, if you had not gone through the trials with Buford, would you have become the man you are today?"
Derek glared at Michael.
"Would you have become a police officer? Would you have joined the FBI? Or, would you have joined Rodney's gang? What kind of life do you think you would have had if any one of these things had happened differently?"
"I don't know. But at least I could have found out. At least I wouldn't have gone through more than half of my life believing that I was trash under everybody's feet."
"But look at where you are now. You make a difference in people's lives. Under the worst circumstances that human beings can visit upon each other you and your colleagues rush in and save the victim. Now, true, there are times that you don't make it in time and the person has perished. But the point is, you found them, you can return them to their families and friends and they can have their time to put the matter to rest. And on those days when you do make it in time, and the person is alive, they are able to know that there is still somebody in the world that cares to come for them."
"And it's not just me that seems to have been put through the ringer. Look at Hotch; alcoholic, abusive father, an ex-wife that never understood his commitment….and then he had to hear her murdered on the phone. He has rare moments with his son because of the job he does. Jack is growing up largely without Hotch in the picture. He tries so hard…..
Rossi…the one woman he ever really loved, dead. She took her own life rather than die in agony with ALS.
Reid….a schizophrenic mother, absent father, has been kidnapped, beaten…watched the one woman he ever cared about, other than his mother, murdered right in front of him.
Prentiss was very nearly killed herself and is the child of a diplomat that never had time to pay her any attention and for the best part of her life has been trying to find a family and approval from anyone that would listen.
JJ's sister was the golden child in the family and yet committed suicide. JJ was treated like she was somehow less than. She has worked hard for the last 15-20 years to get to where she is today; her relationship with her parents has never been close. They were at her wedding, and they were happy for her, but that's the most I have seen from them, or heard about them since knowing her.
And my Penelope; her parents died when she was still just a girl. Her brothers have never been there for her. She never talks about them, I don't know why. I've asked her once, and she begged me to let it go. So I did. I'm there for her for anything she ever needs; but she's never spoken about them."
"You love Penelope very much don't you?"
"You have no idea. I mean, I always liked my job, being able to do something to help people. But there are times that it becomes too much to bear, all the things we see during the course of any given case. And she sees all that, sometimes she sort of falls apart over it, but more often than not she is the one person in the world that keeps a happy face on if it kills her. She is always there for us. After having met Alecta and learning all the things we know now, Pen has been through some hell of her own and she still tries so hard to be the bubbly, happy one to try to make our lives that much easier. I love her more than anybody else on this planet, except my mom, and she was nearly taken from me.
I'm not worth the dirt on her shoes, but for some reason she loves me, and that's all I need to know. And your people nearly took her away from me."
"Yes, there was a great uproar over that. Your guardian and hers, brow beating the boss….once I had taken a look at the charts and saw what was to come as far as your connection to Alecta and all that, I had no choice but to side with them. That left the boss with no choice but to grant you both more time. But do stop wasting it. You and I both know she's pregnant, I can't tell you more about that than I already have…..Well, I can, but then it wouldn't be a surprise. And we do so love surprises. Marry the girl already! She loves you so much she can barely see straight most of the time. And she sees you for what you really are. She cares about what Buford did to you, but only as far as how it's made you feel. It doesn't change how she sees you.
You will always be her knight; there's nothing that any of us, your kind or mine, can do to change that.
Now, if you still need to go work off some steam, then by all means, do so. But do be careful. If they get their hands on the battle axes it could get messy."
With that Michael vanished as quickly as he had appeared and Derek continued to make his way to the gym.
By now Alecta and the kids had the music in the gym blaring and they were still going at it in a mock battle, Kendo sticks long since broken and shattered. Now they had resorted to hand-to-hand combat and various weapons they had grabbed off of the racks against the walls. When Morgan walked in he saw Alecta turning back flips away from the kids. The kids were turning back flips and cart-wheels away from her, and they each landed near a rack or a ledge that had weaponry on it. Alecta landed on a ledge that ran the length of one wall, similar to a mantle on a fireplace; it was nearly six feet off of the ground, it wasn't very wide, but it was enough space for her to light there momentarily and grab for the weapons that were within arm's reach. Before flipping back down she looked around to see where everyone else was and then leapt backwards off of the ledge, a spear with a faux tip in her hand.
Morgan watched them for a while, standing near the door, resting against it, arms crossed. When there was a break in some of the music Alecta and the kids stopped for a few minutes. Sweat was pouring off of each of them, and they were breathing heavily. Alecta had apparently been wearing a camisole top and track shorts under her Sari because that's all she had on currently, her Sari having been draped around one of the uneven bars to keep it from getting dirty.
Watching Alecta leaning against the spear she was holding for support, Derek couldn't help himself, 'Impressive."
"Thanks. I figured with not knowing what was going to happen down the road, I wanted to make sure my kids could defend themselves at least a little."
"How'd they do?"
"They'll pass."
"You don't think that I could get in on this do you?"
"Well you can give it a shot. I'll let you spar against Oleg. I know he's a little taller than you and all, but it might be more evenly matched. Oleg, get ready."
"Yes mama."
"Here, the two of you should use these Kendo sticks that way neither one of you gets really hurt."
While Morgan and the boy began sparing, Alecta and the girls hit some of the equipment to work on their agility. Alecta took a set of uneven bars, after getting a boost from Rachel. Derek was sparring with Oleg, but got so wrapped up watching Alecta going through some routine that was in her head going from bar to bar and then back again. Then he was watching Rachel and the girls at their routines. He could understand the girls having to practice or whatever. But he couldn't understand Alecta. If she was who everyone said she was, then why is she going through this?
Having taken his mind off his mash-up with Oleg, Morgan got taken to the floor by the boy.
Oleg had seen the question in Morgan's face, as he leaned over to help the older man up, he answered it for him.
"She is making sure she remembers the old ways, and trying to teach us what she can in the meantime. Now come on old man, we can sit and watch them for a little while. It won't be long until some of the others will want to join." Oleg let a little chuckle go at the idea of calling Morgan an old man; Morgan rolled his eyes at the boy.
"You do know that if I hadn't been distracted, you would never be able to take me down right?"
"Keep telling yourself that." Oleg took a seat on the floor, Morgan sitting next to him as they watched the girls do their thing.
There was a set-up; it resembled a jungle gym of sorts. The way it was laid out made you think of a portion of ruined building. It was a mock-up of perhaps three or four stories of an average sized building. Where it was made to look as though part of the wall was torn away, there were joists and things that could be used to maneuver around like any other jungle gym. Morgan assumed the object of that particular piece of equipment was to see how fast and accurately you could maneuver between the different levels; perhaps to test speed as well as agility.
He only had a moment to ponder this when he realized that the boy, Oleg, had been right. Selim and the others had come to give it a go.
Alecta had been ascending the mock-up building when she noticed them coming in; the rest of the team was there as well, mainly to watch. Michael had come as well.
Standing on a beam that was approximately 1 ½ feet wide by maybe 8 feet long Alecta turned to see the others coming in; she grinned mischievously.
"Step aside girls, shit is about to get real."
Rachel and her sisters went and sat with Morgan and Oleg. Alecta had staid perched on her rafter until the girls sat down, then she stood and turned her back to Selim and the others, flipping off of the beam backwards, making three full rotations before her feet hit the ground. Selim had run up behind her grabbing her around her torso, Alecta swung her legs backwards, wrapping them around his body, then with as much force as she could muster, she lunged forward, almost sling-shooting in a way in the general direction that she had been facing.
As they both got up after their landing, 'Come on old man, you're making this too easy."
With that said the remainder of her little saintly group rushed her. Another one grabbed her under her arms; she wrapped her arms around his neck. A second one was standing too close, and wrapped her legs around his neck. With everything secured, she snapped her body flipping them both over, planting them on their backs. Then, rolling onto her back, she planted her feet to either side of her, and placed her hands on either side of her head, snapping up into a standing position.
"Well, not bad for a little warm up. Who's next?"
Kong stepped up along with Mac. Kong stood to her left, Mac stood to her right; Kong was standing nearly 15ft away from Alecta, Mac was maybe five feet away.
"Twenty says she takes him down." Rossi whispered to Will.
"You're on old man,' Will whispered back.
"American dollars,' Rossi replied.
"You take I.O.U's?"
Rossi snickered.
Kong started rushing Alecta. She quickly turned and began running towards Mac. Mac stood as still as a statue. Alecta ran up the front of his body as if he had been a wall, flipping over just in time to sail over Kong's head, facing in the direction he had just come from, wrapping her legs around his head and using her momentum to flip him over, landing him on his back. As she stood up she acted as though she was dusting some dirt off of her right shoulder, shrugging.
"When we get home, you owe me $20,' Rossi whispered to Will who only nodded in agreement.
Michael stood up, walking towards her. "This has all been quite entertaining. Are you quite done playing? Ready for me?"
"Always. What have you got for me geezer?"
"Dear girl….tsk tsk tsk." Michael walked up, the others stepped aside. He came at her, extending his leg as if he meant to kick her in the face; Alecta did a back bend, Michael's foot sailing past the exact spot her nose would have been had she been standing. As she stood back upright, Michael's back was to her. Alecta fell forward, doing a handstand, at the same moment Michael was making his way back to her, and she wrapped her legs around his waist, sitting up with her back to his front, wrapping her hands around his neck from behind, and then she levered her legs up over his head, flipping over, taking him down to the ground on his back…landing on a mat.
Alecta crawled over to where Michael was lying on his back staring up at the ceiling, lowering her face almost to his, 'Do you yield old man?"
Michael winked at her and she jumped back as he did a move like she had earlier, snapping back up into a standing position.
"How do you do it stuck in these….bodies….they're so limited."
"Only by your imagination. Right Hotch?" Alecta glanced over to Hotch out of the corner of her eye. He was turning an insane color of beet red.
"Well, be that as it may, we might have a long day ahead of us tomorrow. You should all get some rest. This includes you Alecta."
"What are you talking about? I can go for days."
"Your mortal body will wear out if you're not careful. Let the rest of us do our research; we can catch you up on what we find.' Moving closer to Alecta to whisper something so that nobody else could hear it, 'Besides, you have some catching up of your own to do, if I'm not mistaken."
Alecta had the good sense to blush a deep shade of crimson, "Michael!" Alecta chided him in a harsh whisper.
"Am I wrong?"
"No, but I didn't think you had it in you to think that way."
"And we've been friends this long; it's like you don't even know me." With that Michael walked out leaving the group to make their own ways to their rooms.
"I guess you heard the….man. Everybody get to bed; especially you two." Rossi raised an eyebrow to Hotch and Alecta.
"Come, Master Hotchner.' Alecta grabbed his hand and began walking away, 'We must do it and save the world from certain apocalypse." Alecta rolled her eyes as she led Hotch out of the room, her voice fading as they made their way down the hall; Hotch didn't know whether to laugh at her flippancy or die from embarrassment.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~CM~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As all this took place within the hallowed walls of the fortress, along the battlements yet another ally was making his rounds, contemplating the waking of his legion; he had a counterpart that had control over the side of the fortress that faced the sea. There were others that would be coming in after dawn help get everyone relocated to Topkapi Palace; it was quite a bit larger and could house far more people and any aid that might make its way to them.
Luckily for them, Topkapi was one of the few places on earth that Alecta loved as much or more than the Rumelihisarı Fortress; that would make the transition a bit easier. There they would be joined by some forgotten friends…..some past Janissaries and others. There would be more training if time permitted. Some of the others that would arrive later would hold positions on Rumelihisarı and the Anatolian Fortress; that was the fortress on the opposite bank of the Bosphorus Strait….with those key positions they should be able to keep a tight leash on any offence coming by sea. Now all they had to do was pray for the land battle to be easy enough to hold back.
Post AN: OK, so that's chapter 41. I am on the fence about the ending myself…it didn't end quite the way I was wanting it to; but to be quite honest by this point I couldn't quite get it to come around the way I wanted it, and rather than ramble (even more) until I got to that point, I thought better to wrap it up that way…the best I can do is work on 42 and with any luck it will be a lot easier to get out than 41 was….this was the chapter that didn't want to be born apparently. As usual, lemme know what you think if you have the chance. Peace out.