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gryfflepuffinthetardis · 2 months ago

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The Fisher King Part One

Summary: The BAU are supposed to have two weeks off but a psychotic killer has other plans and forces the team to play in his elaborate fantasy game to rescue a missing girl but what will he do when they break one of the rules?

Warnings: Killing, Blood, Decapitated heads, Isobel Noble and her daughters, Single mother of four with no mention of any fathers.

Cast: (Gifs/Pictures on Archive of Our Own and Wattpad Only)

Amelia Noble (Ten years old) — Caitlin Blackwood

Ophelia Noble (Eight years old) — Sadie Sink

Astrid Noble (Six years old) — Lexi Rabe

Effie Noble (Five years old) — Zoe Colletti

"There is no evil in sorcery, only in the hearts of men." — Merlin (Colin Morgan)

Zoe tossed and turned in her bed. Her heart was racing, she was sweating. In her dreams, she kept hearing her sister, she was crying and then suddenly Zoe shot up in bed, clutching her heart as it raced as if she had been attacked. She felt like the room was spinning, she stumbled out of bed, she moved through the room in the dark expertly, even in this state she was able to move around the dark as well as she could in the day as she had been trained. There was an intense pain in her chest, she made her way to the bathroom and stood in front of the sink, panting heavily.

——————————————————————————————————

Two weeks later, the whole BAU team was actually given two weeks off.

"Morgan, your friend's resort better be as nice as you say it is." Elle was telling Morgan.

"Hey, I never said it was his. He just manages the place, but trust me when I tell you it is off the hook." Morgan said, "Hot sunny days, cool breezes at night, never-ending tropical drinks with the little umbrellas and nothing but young, beautiful adults looking to make vacation memories."

"Male and female, right?"

"Elle, two weeks of pure heaven."

"I can't imagine what two weeks away from this place is going to feel like." Elle sighed as they came back to their desks.

"Well, you know, you better thank your man upstairs for making it the whole team. Otherwise, you know they'd find a reason to bring us back up in here." Morgan said, referring to Hotch,

"Why? They got other teams."

"Okay, you can go on believing that if you want to, but I am not answering my cell phone." Morgan said as Spencer came back to his desk.

"Okay." Elle chuckled and clinked her mug with his.

"Oh, there he is." Morgan said and walked over to Spencer, "Pretty boy. Last chance. I can get my man to swing you a hotel room for practically nothing. Even you might get a little loving out there."

"Thanks anyway." Spencer refused.

"Ah, come on, Reid. Live a little, huh?

I have to go. Uh- I'm going home." Spencer said.

“Zoe, pretty girl, you in?”

"No, my aunt, Dad's sister and her daughters are flying in from Scotland."

"I thought you were visiting your ex." Elle said and Spencer clenched his jaw.

"I'm doing that next week." Zoe said

“Have a good one, guys.” Spencer said, heading off.

"Bye." Elle said.

Morgan turned to Elle, "He look okay to you?"

"He looks about the way I would if I was gonna spend two weeks with my family." Elle said.

Hotch walked down the stairs from his office, saying, "Hey, don't knock family. I'm going to get nothing but for the next three hundred and thirty six hours.

"Good for you."

"Haley's got a list of chores a mile long and I can't wait." Hotch said, "The biggest decision I gotta make is what I'm gonna do first."

"I bet you she has a thought or two about that as well."

"Bring it on."

"I'll be lost in a cabin in the woods for the next two weeks." Gideon

"Sounds like somewhere you'd be murdered." Zoe deadpanned.

"Do not call me for anything. Have a great time. You all deserve a break." Gideon said and then backtracked, "Seriously, don't call."

"Don't worry." Elle chuckled.

Alexander walked down the stairs and said, "Isobel and the girls' plane should be landing in twenty minutes."

"Great. Did she have any more children since the last we saw her?" Zoe deadpanned.

"She only has four."

"That's too many!" Zoe said.

——————————————————————————————————————————————

Writer Elbert Hubbard said, "No man needs a vacation so much as the man who has just had one."

Isobel was a beautiful thirty-four-year-old woman. She was seven years younger than Alexander and they were close since ever. Their mother had died when Alexander was fourteen and Isobel was seven, leaving them with their abusive father until they ran away. Isobel worked in the National Crime Agency where she worked in a specialized team that focused on behavorial analysis, criminal profiling, and the investigation of serious crimes. Essentially it was the Scottish BAU.

Isobel had four daughters all with her red hair. The oldest was a ten-year-old named Amelia with red hair and blue eyes. The second oldest was a nine-year-old named Ophelia with curly flaming red hair and blue eyes. The second youngest was a six-year-old girl named Astrid with brown hair with a hint of red hair and brown eyes and the youngest was a five-year-old girl named Effie with red hair and blue eyes.

"Zo-Zo!" Effie ran to her cousin and hugged her.

Zoe picked Effie up and said, "You're getting heavy, you know."

"No, I'm not!" She laughed.

——————————————————————————————————————————————

After a four-hour flight, Spencer arrived at his home city of Las Vegas, he didn’t have many pleasant memories here except of those with his mother.

His mother, Diana Reid, had paranoid schizophrenia and for the past six years, she had been a patient at the Bennington Sanitarium since Spencer had admitted her when he turned eighteen as she couldn’t care for herself. Despite that she, like her son, had a high IQ, she used to be a professor of literature and she had shared that love of literature with her son whom she was immensely proud of. Spencer could do anything he wanted, but he chose to make the world a safer place.

When Spencer was ten, his father just left them, so Spencer had to care for his mother while she hadn’t exactly been easy to deal with, what with her episodes and him going to high school when he was twelve.

Spencer stood on the other side of the room as he watched his mother read.

A nurse who recognized him came up to him. “Heard a rumor you were here.”

“How’s she doing?” Spencer asked, without looking away from his mom.

“Schizophrenia’s a lifetime illness. The meds stabilize the worst of her symptoms, but she still has bad days.” The nurse told him as Spencer nodded slightly, “What makes her most happy are her journals and your daily letters. She is exceptionally proud of you.”

A small smile pulled at Spencer’s lips. “She is?”

“Talks about you all the time to anyone who will listen. Staff, other patients. Her journals are filled with the cases you write her about.” She told him, “Calls them your adventures.”

“Mom’s of the belief that you can find adventure all around you if you just look.” Spencer said, “That’s what happens when you’re a professor of fifteenth-century literature.”

“Well, she’s going to be so excited that you were finally able to get here in person.” The nurse beamed.

The twitch of a smile fell from Spencer’s cheeks as guilt rippled through his chest from his heart.

Schizophrenia was highly heritable, the exact percentage of how so was debatable going from as low as sixty percent to as high as ninety percent. Not one gene was considered to be responsible and there was no sure way to prevent it. It was a brain disorder classified as a psychosis meaning that it affects a person’s thinking, sense of self, and perceptions. Schizophrenia was widely perceived to be dangerous due to media and the few violent schizophrenics who become famous such as David Berkowitz also known as the “Son of Sam” and Ed Gein, just to name a few, but schizophrenics are rarely actually violent, arguably less than ten percent of violence is attributable to schizophrenia.

Spencer knew the statistics. When a parent has schizophrenia, the child’s chances go up ten percent and schizophrenia typically develops in male in their late teen to early twenties with a peak at twenty-one to twenty-five years old. Exactly Spencer’s age. And it very well could be triggered by trauma to those who are already vulnerable to it.

"Maybe it's better if I just let her rest today." Spencer said.

"Rest?" The nurse frowned.

"Yeah, I'll-I'll, uh, come back tomorrow." Spencer stammered.

"But, Doctor, she's..." She started.

Spencer held out the wrapped book in his hands to the nurse, "Can you give this to her? It's, uh, Margery Kempe, her favorite."

The nurse took the book from him and glanced down at it before looking back up at her patient's son and protested, "It would really be good for her if you could just...

Please?” Spencer interrupted her, politely, “Thank you so much. Thanks.” And he left, guilt and the constant fear he lived with continuously pounding in his chest.

He loved his mom dearly, she was all the family he had, but it didn’t get rid of the constant fear that one day he’d have to live with what he watched her go through.

When he was young, around six years old, Diana’s schizophrenia had worsened, he didn’t know why, it just did, and she started having these episodes that had terrified him. How was he supposed to know? He was only six. A six-year-old with a brain beyond most six-year-olds had but still just a kid. Diana had still explained her schizophrenia to him and he had understood enough, not to the extent that he did now or even what Diana had known at the time, but he understood enough. He remembered the words she said to him.

“I know sometimes I get confused, but I want you to remember because this is so, so important, I will never ever stop loving you. My love for you is bigger and stronger than a disease of the brain. Love is a world of its own that lives in the heart, not in the head.”

——————————————————————————————————————————————

Zoe had the girls staying over at her place, she had a guest room that she kept just in case… they ever found Zarah. Just the kind of room Zarah would want. A bay window that let in plenty of light, a big closet, plenty of room for her to move when she felt like dancing. Decorated how she wanted… Zoe wouldn’t have allowed pink furniture in her house by hand, so everything was on the line of Zoe’s slightly gothic grunge tomboy and Zarah’s girly-girl-ness. Not consisting of Zoe’s preference of dark colors but Zarah’s preference for light colors. Zoe told herself when they found Zarah, she could get what she wanted and maybe Garcia would want these.

A dark voice in her head always corrected, "if" but she always ignored it. She had to hold onto her faith.

There was a colorful plushy carpet that consisted of bright blue, yellow, and pink that Zoe had only bought because she knew Zarah would’ve loved it. There was a large bed with a blue-purple fluffy comforter, identical to the one at Alexander’s house that looked at though it had remained untouched in five years until you realized there wasn’t a spot of dust in the whole room. The bay window had colorful cushions and pillows around it including a folded pushy pastel blanket.

The girls slept in there, strewn through the room. Effy and Astrid would sleep on the bed while Ophelia would sleep in a sleeping bag on the soft clean carpet and Amelia sleep in the bay window.

Now, the girls were in the room watching TV until it was time to go to bed. Isobel would be staying at Alexander's since there wasn't anymore space in Zoe's place.

Zoe sat at her dining room table that she never actually ate food on, wasn’t that what couches in front of TVs were for? She had some case files in front of her but she was clearly distracted. Her heart kept racing and fluxing but she didn’t think it was related to her heart condition.

"You know your mum used to do that too when she was very stressed." Came Isobel's thick Scottish accent as she came and sat across from Zoe. Zoe looked up, she had braided her hair into four separate braids. Isobel had only been fourteen when the twins were born and Zelena died but she had known her well and she knew that her brother had loved her dearly. "What's wrong?"

Zoe hesitated before saying, "...Zarah. I feel like she's... but I can't do anything..."

"I'm sorry."

"I miss her." Zoe confessed.

"We all do." Isobel told her but she knew it wasn't the same. There wasn't a bond like the kind twins had and Zoe had a way of forming this intense bond with certain people and Zarah was one of them.

——————————————————————————————————————————————

Late that night, Garcia was still at the office, playing a game on her personal computer, Camelot, where she would meet up with someone she had met on the game.

He wrote: I have a surprise for you.

Garcia giggled and grinned until her laptop screen went black. The only thing on there were two words written in white: GAME OVER. Then the words vanished and one by one more words showed up with a beep for each one: All Work No Play.

It started disappearing and appearing in different spots on the screen as Garcia processed this, she frowned and repeated the words. "All work, no play?" She started to type but then suddenly the words appeared over and over on her screen as there was a rapid beeping and buzzing sound.

She looked up and saw one of the BAU computers were black with: GAME OVER. All Work No Play.

Garcia's eyes widened as the other computer screens started to do that same thing. The first one had the four words repeating. The same thing spread to the other computers.

"No, no, no, no." Garcia kept repeating as the shock wore off she tried to stop it but nothing was working, "No, no, no, no. Oh, my... No. No."

——————————————————————————————————————————————

Isobel had retired to Alexander's place and the girls had fallen asleep, Zoe still remained at the table when there was a knock on the door. Just a simple three-knock knock.

Zoe raised her eyebrows suspiciously. After being kidnapped at least four times, she was wary. She had four girls in the house that she would protect with her life. She grabbed her gun and crept to the door, silently. She looked through the doorhole but there was no one there, clutching her gun, she unlocked the door and opened it. Her eyes immediately went to a simple package. It was a simple box taped with duct tape.

She was no stranger to mysterious packages but the bloody lillies only appeared when she was in or near Boston and his packages were always meticulously packaged with clear tape.

What this box told her was that there was something in the box, they didn't want to be accidentally opened.

Zoe bent down and nudged the box with her gun, there was something somewhat heavy in it. She licked her lips, pocketed her gun and picked up the box, swiftly and brought it over to the table, kicking the door shut behind her which automatically locked.

She put her hand in her pocket and pulled her pocket knife with a clip out and she flicked it open with a soft click. She cut through the duct tape and opened the box.

The first thing she saw was the bloody hatchet with no handle. Things started going off in her head, then she noticed there were pictures underneath. She would deal with that later. She got out her phone and called Alexander.

"Dad, I just got a package. There was a bloody hatchet in it with no handle." There was a crash on the other end of the line as her father fell out of bed. "I'm waking up the girls and getting them out of here."

——————————————————————————————————————————————

Zoe had brought the girls to Alexander's to stay with Isobel and Zoe rode her motorcycle to the BAU before her father did by now it was around seven in the morning. There wasn't anyone in the BAU office except for Garcia.

Zoe walked into the part where Garcia mostly resided and stopped, it looked as though Garcia had taken apart the BAU’s computer case, the rectangle box on the floor that sat under the desk. Zoe had made the computer case when she was seventeen and it had been deemed to be more efficient than any one that the BAU could’ve bought. There were computer chips and ribbon cables all over the floor as Garcia furiously used needle-nose pliers to take the case apart as she grumbled, furiously to herself.

"All work and no play, huh? All work and no play? You just wait till I am through with you."

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! What happened here!?" Zoe exclaimed.

"I've been hacked, Zoe! They hacked me! I swear when I get my system up and running again, I am going to track him down!" Garcia shouted. Zoe had never seen her this upset.

"Okay, calm down, Garcia. Give me the tool before you break something and you can't get it back up. Deep breaths." She kneeled by Garcia and took the pliers from her.

"You're right. You're right." Garcia said and then she took some deep breaths that were louder than necessary but very Garcia-like.

Zoe looked down at Garcia's hands and all but shouted, "Why aren't you wearing gloves? What hacker are you, you don't wear gloves when furiously digging around in a computer case! You should be wearing anti-static gloves to protect sensitive electronic compnents from static electricty damage or are you under the impression the computers are only sensitive to coffee?"

"I... I..."

"And there are a bunch of sharp metal edges in there. I don't think your blood has the power that Hulk's does." Zoe scolded her.

"I don't have any anti-static gloves."

Zoe scoffed and got up to move the area and opened a cabinet where there was a safe with an old-school combination lock.

"That doesn't open." Garcia said.

Zoe looked at her and she turned the wheel to the right, then to the left, and then to the right again and it easily unlocked.

“I had your job before you did. This was my office when Dad was on local cases.” She said and she pulled out a toolbox and brought it over. “I made these computer cases.”

"You did?"

"Yeah, when I was seventeen." She said, opening the box. The tools were colorful, a variety of dark and bright colors. "You think the FBI would buy something so retro?"

She handed a pair of pink, green, and white zebra-striped gloves to her while Zoe picked a pair of striped purple gloves.

Zoe noticed Garcia looking at the gloves, oddly. These didn't match Zoe's style. "Those were Zarah's." Zoe explained and Garcia dropped them like they burned.

"Come on, put them on." Zoe said, putting hers on. Garcia put them on.

"Already, tell me what happened?"

"I... I... I was playing a game. Not on the BAU computer on my laptop..."

"Did this game happen to be online?"

"I... y-yes."

"Got it. He hacked your computer through the internet and jumped to the BAU computer." Zoe nodded in understanding.

"I... I thought he liked me..."

"Well, men suck." Zoe said. "And you know what I say, treat everyone you meet online like they're planning on killing you."

The the phone rang, Garcia's irritation came back and she huffed at this distraction from fixing the computer, she got back on the computer chair and slammed her hand on the answer button.

"What?"

"Garcia, I need a rundown on a guy." Morgan's voice said.

"No." Garcia said, bluntly.

"What?" Morgan asked.

"The information superhighway is closed." She told him.

"What are you talking about?"

"Someone had the nerve to run a black hat op into my computers, Morgan. They hacked me. Okay? But you can bet your sweet ass I will find them. I've got honeypot farms hidden behind UML kernel data packets and a first-generation honeynet I personally programmed. My Snort log lists every visitor, every server request, every keystroke on this entire network. If I have to back-hack his IP all the way to the freaking Stone Age, I will find this son of a bitch. Okay? So bye." Garcia raved and then she hung up.

"What's Morgan doin' up? Jamaica is an hour behind meaning it's six in the morning now, you'd think he want to sleep in."

"It's seven? What are you doing here?"

"Someone sent a box with a bloody hatchet with no handle and pictures. I had to

"Oh my God!" Garcia screeched.

Zoe nodded and looked down, "A handless hatchet was the only weapon they found when they found my mom."

The door opened and JJ entered, "Zoe, uh, Alexander said to tell you when Gideon got here. He's here, someone sent him a head."

Zoe got up and pulled the gloves off, dropping them back into the box and followed JJ as Gideon entered the BAU.

"Gideon, I've been trying to call you." JJ said.

"Why?" Gideon asked.

"Someone sent you a head?" Zoe asked him.

"From Jamaica." Gideon confirmed.

"Morgan and Elle are in Jamaica right now. There was a murder. The body was headless. Elle's been arrested for it." JJ said.

"What?"

"Hotch headed down there last night with some Bureau lawyers and a crime scene unit." JJ said, "He should be there by now."

"If you talk to him, have him call me right away." Gideon said.

Yes, sir.

"I was sent a bloody hatchet without a handle and pictures. I haven't looked at them yet. Dad has it."

Gideon's eyes narrowed and his face paled even more. He remembered the scene when they finally found Zelena. The place had been abandoned, she had been left for dead, only recently, meaning they had just missed him. Zelena's body had been coated in sweat and blood from the nineteen blows, in her chest just above her pregnancy bump was a hatchet with the handle broken off.

"I'll be right there." Gideon said.

Zoe nodded and she walked with Gideon and continued to walk when an agent stopped him with some information. Gideon joined Zoe and Alexander in

"Are the girls okay?"

"Yes, I drove them to Dad's, right after I opened the box." Zoe said.

Gideon put on the gloves and removed the hatchet. It was the same kind as the one they found in Zelena's chest.

The pictures below were of each person in the team. Gideon. Hotch. Morgan. Elle. JJ. Garcia. Spencer. Alexander. Zoe. They were clearly taken from a distance but there were two more. Zelena and Zarah.

——————————————————————————————————————————————

Spencer entered his mother's sanitarium, hoping to maybe build up the courage to actually face her when the secretary called after him.

"Oh, Doctor Reid?" He looked back at his name being called, "Someone delivered this to the desk last night for you."

Spencer frowned, his teammates didn't even know where he was. Just that he was in Las Vegas.

"What?" He asked and he took the large envelope and opened it to a smaller envelope the kind you would put a business card in, with Dr. Reid written on it, and he opened it and found an old-fashioned black key and a folded-up piece of paper in it.

"She will die unless you save her, Doctor Reid. Call Gideon. He knows." He read aloud.

———————————————————————————

Apparently along with the head was a Nellie Fox card, though Zoe had no idea who that was only that Gideon had mentioned it a few times throughout her life. JJ had been sent a pale clouded yellow butterfly which were indigenous to Europe but mainly Britain. Hotch had given proof that there was no way Elle could’ve killed that man and got her off on the charges.

They had a suspect named Frank Giles who had flown to Flordia and then to Virginia, Arlington and he had a long criminal record. The victim, Marty Harris had been a two-time convicted fetish burglar, and registered child sex offender.

Hotch had gotten a phone call last night before he had found out Elle had been arrested.

They regrouped into the conference room, "So, clearly we have a psychopath intent on drawing us into his game."

"Playing with us." Gideon added.

"Then let's return the favor." Elle said.

"He kept telling us repeatedly to save her. What 'her'?" Morgan asked.

"Maybe, the items he's sent must be some kind of clues." Zoe suggested.

"Let's get them up on the board." Hotch said.

"I got a Nellie Fox baseball card from 1963 and I got a head in a box." Gideon said.

"I got a rare butterfly in a shadow box." JJ said, uncapping the marker to write on the whiteboard.

"And repeated messages to 'save her'." Hotch added.

"I got the decapitated body and a nice visit to the Jamaican Police Headquarters." Elle said, still resentfully.

"Your, uh, tech girl told me something." A Scottish voice said as Isobel strode into the room, "Reid called from Nevada. He's on the way back here with a skeleton key and a note he got, too."

"Uh, who is this?" Morgan asked.

"Uh, Morgan, Elle, JJ, this is my kid sister, Isobel." Alexander introduced.

"Kid? I'm thirty-four years old." Isobel scoffed.

"Why are you here?"

"I'm helping you. My daughters were in your house when that package was sent." Isobel said, challenging Zoe to argue.

"The guy who called me said, 'The second youngest one holds the key'." Hotch interrupted.

"That's Reid." Elle said.

"I got bloody handleless hatchet and stalker pictures of all of us."

"Okay, but wait a minute. UnSubs, they don't contact us this way. I mean, they might taunt us, dare us to catch them, but they don't drag us into their fantasy." Morgan interrupted.

"Why not?" JJ asked.

"Because they're sexual fantasies. I mean, taunting us is a show of power, but making us the object is..." Morgan tried to search for the right word, "I don't know what the hell that is."

"There's something else about the baseball card. Nellie Fox was one of the stars of the 1959 White Sox." Gideon said, "I went to almost every game with my father that year. Fox was my hero. So is it a coincidence that he sends this to me, or does he know how I feel about him?"

JJ turned around, "I collected butterflies when I was a little girl. That's how I knew what butterfly was in the box.

"So then he knows us?" Morgan surmised.

Zoe's memory drifted to Garcia. Could their UnSub be the hacker?

"I got an anonymous message." Hotch said,

"I got a police raid."

"Why'd you get the hatchet?" Morgan asked.

"When we found Zelena, she had..." Alexander's voice broke, he hated to think about it, his sister put her hand on his shoulder so Zoe took over.

"When they found my mom, there was only one weapon to be found a hatchet with the handle broken off stuck in her chest after she was hit nineteen times." Zoe said. It was very quiet for a long time. "That information was never released. I've read every article about Mom's death, about that UnSub, they never mentioned the hatchet. Only the FBI and police involved knew."

"So how did he find out?" Isobel asked.

"And he knew exactly where we were." Morgan said, "Hotel in Jamaica, Gideon at the cabin, Reid in Vegas, you at your homes."

Garcia entered, her rage had by now subsided and had turned into guilt, disappointment and shame in herself. "He got that from the Bureau computers. "Your locations are always in there so they can find you if they need you. And I checked the log. The hacker was definitely in the personnel folders. There were room numbers to the hotel in Jamaica, the address of Gideon's cabin... There's a lot of information in those databases."

"What about my mom's murder?" Zoe asked.

"The digital file was untouched. I don't know how he got that information." Garcia said.

"Have you figured out how he was able to get into the Bureau's computers?" Hotch asked. Zoe looked at Garcia, pursing her lips.

"I'm-I'm still working on that." Garcia choked out, clearly guilt-ridden. Her poker face was useless against profilers.

"Garcia, if you know something...

-No, it's, um... It's just... I..." Garcia struggled to get out, she had never screwed up this badly before. "I was playing a game yesterday. An online game."

"A game?" Gideon asked, confusedly.

"Not on the Bureau computers, sir. On my own personal laptop." Garcia said.

"No, Garcia. No, no, no." Morgan sighed.

"I don't understand." Hotch said.

"Wireless Internet. By wirelessly hooking into the Net here to get online, the hacker could have gotten into her computer first and I doubt her laptop has as much protection as the BAU computers." Zoe explained.

"And he could have gotten into the entire Bureau computer system this way?" Hotch asked.

"Yeah, it's possible." Garcia said.

"J.D. used to do it all the time." Zoe added.

"Playing a game?" Gideon scoffed, "How could you be that stupid? Information, files. You have a responsibility."

"I know, sir. I'm so sorry." Garcia said, struggling not to cry.

"Gideon, she didn't know. She told me. She met this guy on the game. He tricked her." Zoe defended. "She's not a profiler like us."

"But I found him."

"You what?" Elle asked.

"I know who he is, the hacker. His name is Giles. Frank Giles. He lives in Arlington, Virginia, forty miles from here." Garcia said, her voice breaking, "I have his address."

"Garcia, you said Giles?"

When they walked down, "ZO-ZO!"

Effie attacked Zoe with a hug and Zoe saw all four of her cousins there.

"Uh, why is there an army of redheaded children here?" She asked in her usual snark.

"This UnSub knows where we live. The girls are safest here. Now anyone else have any problems with it!?" Isobel asked.

"I-I can watch them." Garcia offered.

"Mummy told us not to go with strangers." Effie said.

Zoe crouched down and smiled at her, "Effie, this is a coworker of mine. A friend. She is the most positive person you will ever meet. She has her own little Batcave and she has a table full of pink little knick-knacks and you four can have all of my sugar stash that you want, okay-okay?"

———————————————————————————

They arrived at Giles' place and as per usual they had Morgan do the door-kicking, apparently that was one of his specialties. But when they got there presumably Frank Giles had a sword in his chest and through the mattress below him and written on the wall with blood was: HERE THY QUEST DOTH TRULY BEGIN.

"He's definitely playing with us." Hotch said as they examined the body.

"His identification checks out." Elle said, "That's Frank Giles."

"There's a big old bag of money sitting right here on the dresser." Morgan noted.

"So Giles took Harris to Jamaica to kill him and then the UnSub killed Giles." Hotch recounted.

"Yeah, but he paid him first." Morgan said.

"And left the cash?" Elle asked.

"Well, he's apparently well-funded."

"He said these were 'unrepentant, bad men'."

"Are we looking for some kind of vigilante?" Isobel suggested.

"No." Gideon shook his head. The bodies are nothing but a way to get us interested. They're game pieces. The killings are secondary."

"It's a chess game to him, Giles and Harris were merely his pawns." Zoe said.

"Well, this guy likes to write things in blood on walls." Elle said as Zoe gave it a distasteful look.

"All kinds of cult and demonic significance to that." Morgan said.

"'Thy?' 'Doth'? 'Quest'? 'Thy quest doth truly begin'." Elle said, "Why start phrasing things like this now?"

"Yeah, all the other messages were in modern English." Hotch said.

"Maybe this is the first one the UnSub actually wrote." Morgan suggested.

"So we're looking for Shakespeare?" Isobel asked.

"What are you doing?" Morgan asked Zoe. "Why are you being weird?"

She was crouched down and looking intently at the blade with her head fully tilted to the side.

"There's something etched on the blade." Zoe said and she read it aloud, "To learn of what should next be done, leave the blade till the hour be none."

"'Hour be none'?" Morgan asked.

"'Leave the blade'." Hotch repeated.

Zoe got up and stepped backwards until she was in the doorway. She remembered when Maze taught her how to read a sundial. Tell the time by shadows.

"The bed's in the middle of the room." Zoe noted.

"Which isn't by chance."

"And maybe the light from here casts a shadow and points to something.

Come on. Are we in the middle of an Indiana Jones movie?" Elle scoffed.

"It's called a sundial." Zoe said, sharply.

"The hour be none."

"Well, midnight is zero-zero hours in twenty-four-hour time. Would that be none?" Morgan said.

"No, midnight wouldn't cast a shadow. There would be no sun. Sundials work by using shadows."

"Hour be none."

"Three PM." Spencer said from behind Zoe and she moved out of the way so he could awkwardly scoot on through, "Hey, guys. Garcia told me where to find you.

"Three PM?" Isobel asked.

"Um..."

"Reid, this is my aunt and my dad's sister, Isobel Noble, she's with the NCA in Scotland. Her dozen children are now living at the BAU." Zoe deadpanned.

"Oh, hi. Nice to meet you." He waved awkwardly as she smiled back, she had been told he didn't like to shake hands, "yeah, three PM. It's medieval. The days used to be broken into hourly intervals, the canonical hours of the breviary. Prime: six AM, terce: nine AM, sext: twelve noon, none: three PM, and vespers: six PM."

"Reid, do not ever go away again." Elle said and Spencer smiled.

"Medieval. That's why the language changed." Gideon said. "Doth."

"Everything this guy does is a clue." Zoe said.

"Okay, but, guys, it's four-thirty-five. What do we do? Leave the blade in till three PM tomorrow?"

"Uh, no." Zoe deadpanned.

"Not if we can block that window out." Spencer said and he turned to a police officer, "Do you have any spotlights in your car?"

"Sure." She said, getting up to go get them.

"Thanks."

When she returned, Zoe had blocked the window and the police officer came back and handed Spencer the light. He thanked her and went to a certain spot in the room and shined the light across the room so it cast a shadow from the sword.

"See, the sun is right here at five PM. Zoe, follow the shadow as I move the light higher." Spencer advised.

Zoe kicked a small table away from the wall and started to tap the wall, making hollow sounds.

"It's hollow." Morgan noted.

"Yeah, most walls are hollow." Zoe deadpanned.

"Definitely an Indiana Jones movie."

"Elle, shut up. I'm trying to listen." Zoe told her as she got lower and there was an almost indecipherable change in hollowness in the tap but she could sense it, "Now that's less hollow." She felt the wallpaper, "It's been replaced."

"Tear it up." Hotch said.

"Wait, what if there's like a trap..." Alexander started to protest.

There was a shout and thud and they found Zoe punched into the wall with her fist and she ripped the hollow wall with her bare hands.

"It's a box." She said.

"Take it out."

"Wait, are we sure that's safe?" Spencer asked.

"What, you think it's a bomb?" Hotch asked, "You think he'd be playing this game just to blow us up?"

"He'd have already done that as long as we've been standing here. We've been here for what feels like two hours which means it's probably been thirty minutes." Zoe said and she took the box out and she placed it on the table.

Morgan tried to open it.

"It's locked. You want me to break it?" Morgan asked Hotch.

"No, we should process it first."

"'The second youngest holds the key'." Gideon recalled.

They all looked at Spencer who emptied his pockets before remembering he had put it in the breast pocket of his shirt and pulled out the skeleton key. He crouched beside Zoe and opened the box. It started playing music. A music box.

"Schubert. The Trout Quintet." Gideon said.

"Five people fishing." Hotch said as Spencer took a card

"Never would it be night, but always clear day to any man's sight." Spencer read.

"Well, that was worth it.

"Did you forget what we said fifteen minutes ago or are too sleep-deprived?" Zoe asked, "Everything this guy does is a clue. There's a tab underneath the lock."

She reached out and pulled the tab and the roof of the box pulled down to reveal a lock of blonde hair held together with a ribbon and a DVD with "Thy quest" scrawled on it.

"Oh, God." Elle groaned.

———————————————————————————

When they got back to the BAU, they watched the video on the DVD.

It showed a desk with a bunch of knick-knacks on it, a number of them seemed to be of medieval things. The UnSub walked around the desk and went to get in the chair. He didn't in it swiftly like one normally would. His body was stiff and he moved to the side to shuffle sideways to get in the chair.

"He moves funny." Hotch noted.

"It's like he's injured or something." Morgan suggested.

Zoe leaned her head in with concentration. "It must be a full body injury, he walks stiffly as if in constant pain, not severe exactly but he's learned to walk in a way that causes him the least amount of pain."

"I assure you, you will all understand in the end why it must be this way. You might even thank me." The UnSub said on the video.

"Don't hold your breath, scumbag." Elle scoffed and Zoe shushed her.

"You know now you're on a quest." He said and the video showed what seemed to be an old-fashioned dungeon with a young blonde woman behind the bars. She was clearly very angry as she threw a book at the UnSub and banged and shook the bars. "A young girl's life depends on the successful completion of it. As you can see, she is quite beautiful and in distress. Now please listen closely, for there is one rule and this rule must be followed. The one rule is, only the members of your team may participate in the quest: Jason Gideon, Alexander Noble, Aaron Hotchner, Derek Morgan, Elle Greenaway, Spencer Reid, Xiomara Noble-Valdez, Jennifer Jareau, Penelope Garcia." With each name, a picture of said member showed up, different than the blood-splattered ones in the box, "A quest must be completed in the proper way or it isn't a quest, is it? That's it. One rule. Simple. Now, you will be receiving an item soon that will hold the final clue you will need to finish the quest. You will find you will also need a book which has inspired many an adventure like mine. Believe me when I tell you I truly hope to see you all soon. It will mean a successful end to this adventure for all of us."

"What do we do now?" Spencer asked.

"Well, the lock of hair's being analyzed for DNA. There might be something on file." Hotch said.

"I'll get Video to enhance the shots of the girl." JJ said.

"Let's get the clues up on the board. Maybe we can make some sense of something."

"Wait, we're going to play this guy's game?" Elle scoffed.

"Do we have a choice?

"She's a keeping a girl hostage. If we have to play his game to save her, then that's we'll do." Zoe said, sharply.

Gideon suddenly left, clearly shaken.

"Be right back. You guys keep working." Hotch said and went after him.

Zoe soon followed Hotch to tell him about an idea she had that she could look for, "Hey, uh... Hotch, I could analyze the UnSub in the footage and see if I could come up with a list of possible injuries he may suffer from."

"Are you sure it's an injury?" Hotch asked.

"It's most likely a traumatic injury of some sort from just what I've seen." Zoe said.

"Good idea. You do that." Hotch approved.

Zoe's head turned to the side and she turned back, "Also, Haley's here with Jack."

"Haley?" Hotch asked.

Zoe stepped to the side and let Hotch move past her and he walked down to his wife and son. Haley seemed urgent and distracted as she held a yellow envelope.

"I've been trying to call you, but you haven't been answering your cell." She said.

"Oh, no, my battery died. We just got back. What's wrong?" He asked.

"A man came to the door with something he said you would need right away. That a girl's life depended on it." She said.

"He came to the door?" Hotch said, he had agreed to let Isobel's daughters stay because she seemed determined and there was no one else in their family they'd be willing to watch them but maybe that wasn't such a bad idea.

"Yeah."

Hotch brought Haley and Jack to his office and he gently moved Jack's stroller back and forth to ease his son.

"What's going on, Aaron?"

"Honey, what did the guy look like who came to the door?" He asked.

"Look like? Um, I don't know. Young. Dark hair." Haley said as Gideon entered.

"Did he look injured?" Hotch asked, remembering what Zoe had said about it most likely being a truamatic injury.

"Injured?" Haley asked.

"Yeah. I mean, did he seem injured in any way?"

"No. He was just a guy. He told me what he was giving me, you needed right away, that a girl's life depended on it."

"Well, that's not a normal delivery." Gideon said.

"I know." Hotch agreed.

"What do you mean?" Haley asked.

"Well, they don't come with detailed messages like that." Gideon clarified. "Did he say all these things to you? Were they in a note?"

"No, he said them." She confirmed.

Gideon looked at Hotch, "If he isn't the UnSub, he probably talked to him."

"What's going on?" Haley asked.

"It's the case we're working on." Hotch explained.

"What did he deliver?" Gideon asked.

"Um, a piece of paper with numbers on it." Haley recalled.

"The team's got it. It's in the conference room." Hotch said.

———————————————————————————

The folded-up piece of paper was taped the to clear whiteboard

"My eyes are so heavy, I can barely see it." Elle complained.

"Go home. You haven't slept in over twenty-four hours and they were exhausting hours." Zoe said. She dauhad her various medical books from school on the table as she made a list of possible injuries.

"No way."

"Then drink some of the coffee you guys love so much." Zoe said.

"I think it's a coded message of some sort." Spencer said. "The UnSub said we needed a book, didn't he?"

"Yeah. 'A book that inspired many an adventure'." Morgan recalled.

"Maybe, it's a book code. Zarah and I used to do that with Mom's old books."

"You did?" Morgan asked, "Is that a twin thing? Like twin talk?"

“It’s a 'genius daughters of a paranoid FBI agent’ thing. Dad encouraged us to have a code that only we would understand and to challenge us. We both had high intelligence and found a lot of things understimulating.” Zoe said, she got up, walked to the board, and pointed, “Each one of these sets of numbers represents a particular word.”

"For instance, page one-eighteen, line thirty, word three." Spencer said as Zoe walked back to her chair and sat down. "We need to figure out what the words are and fill in the blanks.

"Yeah, but from what book?" Elle asked.

"I don't know." Spencer admitted.

"The trouble is, it has to be the exact same edition of the exact same book that he used." Zoe pointed out, writing on her list as she examined the video now on her laptop.

JJ entered, "Just got a DNA hit on the lock of hair. Rebecca Bryant. She's been missing out of Boston for two years." She handed Elle a picture of a young sixteen-year-old with blonde hair.

"Two years?,"

"I think she's sick." Zoe said, examining Rebecca on the video

"What?"

“She’s pale and sweaty. Plus, if he’s had for two years in that environment, that’s not good for you. Lack of sunshine increases the risk of Vitamin D deficiency which causes rickets and other bone diseases including osteoporosis. Also high blood pressure. Assuming she doesn’t get fresh air, that can contribute to a range of respiratory diseases including asthma, allergies, bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, or lung infections, also it can be linked to cardiovascular issues like stroke and heart disease."

"What does all that mean?" Morgan asked, having understood very little of this.

"Which part?" Zoe asked.

"I don't understand any of the medical talk you just said."

"Does it matter?" JJ asked, "none of it sounds good."

"I... the place I was in for those eight months and then those six months, were similar. Old. Stone. Prison bars. At least, she can see, in my eight months, I was... most of the time, my vision of obscured, making me rely on my other senses." She skirted around it. But Spencer knew. She told him. They had put a headbox on her head.

"Guys, how are we supposed to figure out which book this code was copied out of?" Morgan asked.

"I have no idea." Spencer said again. "How's the list of possible injuries coming along."

"There's a lot of traumatic injuries that can cause full body pain." Zoe said, showing her notebook.

Nerve damage from trauma (like a major accident; can cause chronic pain, paralysis, loss of sensation, difficulty with movement, and/or difficulty with coordination)

Complex regional pain syndrome

Fibromyalgia

Severe burns (it would most likely be full body burns; extensive burns can damage underlying nerves, leading to chronic burning pain even after the itial injury heals)

Severe motor vehicle accidents

Major falls

Crush injuries

Spinal cord injuries

"This is too much." Morgan said.

“Well, I’ve ruled out menstruation.” Zoe sassed and sighed, “I’m almost certain that it’s related to nerve damage. Neuropathic pain, or nerve pain for the Morgans in the room, can occur when the nervous system is damaged or malfunctions, causing nerve fibers to send the wrong signals to the body’s pain centers. This pain can feel like stabbing or throbbing, and can affect the entire body.”

An agent named Agent Grant Anderson entered, "Zoe, they did an analysis on the axe that was sent to your house." Anderson didn't really go in the feild, his duties seemed to be mostly grunt work but he was a good agent, nonetheless, and perfectly friendly.

"What?" Zoe asked

Anderson didn't seem to want to meet Zoe's eyes and he handed her the piece of paper, she looked at it and she sighed, dropping it on the table as Anderson made his escape.

"What?"

"That particular axe that was sent to me was made in the year 1985. Same year, Mom died. Same year, Zarah and I were born."

"Are you sure, it looks ancient?" Morgan asked and Zoe gave him a look.

Zoe typed on her computer and brought up the sealed case file for the UnSub who killed her mother.

"The UnSub who... we, or rather, they back then theorized he was obsessed with famous axe murders. Contrary to popular belief, the Borden murder was not done with an axe-axe, well, depending on who you ask. The only possible murder weapon they found a year later, it was the same kind that was used on my mom and she was struck nineteen times. Same as Andrew Borden." Zoe said with a loud tap on a key and it sent it back to the video.

"Is this common knowledge?"

"No. The hatchet wasn't mentioned to the public." Zoe said.

"So how did he get that information?" Morgan asked.

Zoe shrugged and pulled her medical textbook back towards her.

Spencer awkwardly cleared his throat and got back to the book code, "He said we have everything needed to complete the quest."

"The answer's got to be up there somewhere." Elle said, her voice was tired and slightly slurred.

Gideon entered, "JJ, get some reporters here as soon as possible."

"For what?" JJ asked.

"Just say we need help on a new case."

"Is it this? Because he said we had to keep it in the team. Some criminals are very strict about rules." Zoe said but Gideon ignored her.

"Press conference?" Morgan asked.

———————————————————————————

Zoe had finished with the traumatic injuries and was now writing down possible diagnoses for Rebecca along with all possible symptoms.

"A Pale Clouded Yellow butterfly indigenous to Great Britain?" Spencer questioned as Hotch entered the room.

"How's it going?" Hotch said.

"Here's the list of possible injuries the UnSub has," Zoe handed Hotch a few papers stapled together. "I'm now writing down possible diagnoses that Rebecca may have that we should prepare for."

"The answer to what book we need has to be in here." Spencer said.

"Yeah, but we sure as hell can't see it." Morgan said.

"Yet." Spencer said.

Elle was asleep on the couch, Zoe wasn't complaining, this way she'd be quiet.

Hotch walked over to her and shook her shoulder, gently, "Elle?"

"I'm awake." She awoke with a start.

"I'm sending you home." Hotch said.

"No." She slurred.

"You need to get some rest, and we won't do anything without you, I promise." Hotch reassured her.

"Elle, seriously, we're not any closer than we were." Morgan agreed, "Get out of here. Go home."

"But..."

"It's an order." Hotch told her

Elle sleepily picked up her bag and headed out with Hotch.

"Hotch, have someone drive her home." Zoe called.

"I'm fine." Elle protested.

"Impaired driving performances due to sleep loss is a major contributor to motor-vehicle crashes, fatalities, and serious injuries." Spencer said.

"It can affect driving as much and somethings more than alcohol." Zoe said.

"Ugh." Elle groaned, walking out of the room, bumping into the doorway on her way out.

Zoe held up a hand like, see?

"Good call." Hotch agreed and he followed Elle, making sure she didn't bump into anything else.

"Anderson, take Greenaway home." Hotch requested.

"Yes, sir." Anderson agreed.

Hotch looked at Elle who was rolling her eyes, "I'll have your car brought over later."

"All right, come on, Anderson." Elle sighed.

"Get some sleep." He said.

"Yeah." She sighed.

———————————————————————————

Elle arrived home and too tired to drag herself all the way to her bedroom, she crashed on a nearby couch under some windows, she was too tired to notice that they were both open and as she had last left her house, going on vacation, that should've raised some alarms.

She also didn't notice the man in her house with the gun, until he said in a hoarse voice, "I told you there was one rule."

Elle sat up, seeing him pointing the gun at her, and said, "No."

"One rule, Agent Greenaway."

"Stop."

"Do you not consider that holding a press conference is going outside the team for help?" He asked as Elle glanced at her holster with her gun on the table in front of her.

"Listen." Elle tried to protest.

"ONE RULE!"

"Listen to me!" Elle pleaded, "We can talk about this."

"I told you this was important!"

Elle lunged for her gun and...

BANG!

*I am now on Wattpad too. The profile is GryfflepuffinTardis (I couldn't fit in "the")

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