Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“The Walcotts, a seemingly normal family of four in the city of Beacon Hills, were attacked by someone wielding an axe.” JJ announces to the team in the round table room. “All died immediately, except for one member. Sean Walcott, the oldest child, a teenage boy, survived the initial attack, and then at the hospital where he was being treated for shock he killed a deputy, started eating said deputy’s intestines, and then was killed. Preliminary examination says the attacker was likely the person who killed the rest of the family.”

“Why are we being called in for this?” Prentiss asks. “Not that this family’s death isn’t tragic, and the cannibalism is disturbing, but don’t we usually wait till there have been more bodies? What if this is just a singular incident?”

Garcia clicks through photos on the screen. “There have been more bodies. As if an axe murderer isn’t enough, a search of the Walcott’s home revealed a secret door leading to a basement holding a dozen bodies. A dozen bodies in various states of being eaten. I do not have a good feeling about this case guys. All your cases are disturbing, but this one takes it up a notch.”

Hotch speaks. “We’ve been called in for multiple reasons. One, there is a lot of panic stemming from the unsub’s brutality, and choice of weapon, so the authorities want this solved quickly, before the words ‘axe murderer’ stir up too much panic, and before the description of the unsub gets out to the public. Two, if this is a singular incident, then it means the unsub knows the family, and might know and be involved with the bodies in the basement, which would make him a serial killer under our purview. And three, the city of Beacon Hills has a history of violent crimes, suspicious deaths, and a reputation for not being able to solve the cases. This unsub may not be the only serial killer in the area.”

“Sounds like we got our work cut out for us.” Morgan speaks. “You said there is a description of the unsub?”

“A possible description. There is a witness to the murder at the hospital, a teenage boy who describes the unsub as male, tall, well built, and with no mouth.”

“No mouth?” Reid asks. “What exactly does that mean? Everyone has a mouth!”

“Apparently the unsub has only smooth skin where his mouth is supposed to be.”

“Is this witness trustworthy?” Rossi asks. “Teenage boys lie to law enforcement all the time.”

“The Sheriff believes the boy, but we can see for ourselves what we think when we interview him. Wheels up in twenty.”

On the plane the team discusses the case some more, but doesn’t make much headway. There isn’t enough information to make a profile, not even a preliminary one.

A few hours in, Garcia calls. “I found an interesting tidbit of information. This is the official statement from Scott McCall, and one from his mother. I’m not sure why it took so long for the sheriff to send, but do you see what I see?”

The team reads the statements that she sent to their tablets. Reid is the first to finish and speak. “Melissa McCall, a nurse who was treating Sean Walcott, interrupted him while he was eating the deputy. This resulted in him attacking her, which led Scott McCall, her son, to attack him. The two boys then fled to the roof where Scott claims that a man without a face killed Sean.”

“Are we thinking otherwise?” JJ asks.

“Scott may have killed Sean in defense of his mother and made up the man with no face to cover it up.” Prentiss says.

“It’s certainly a possibility we should explore, but we can’t jump to any conclusions yet.” Hotch speaks. “Garcia, has the ME made any progress identifying the bodies in the basement?”

“Yes sir, some have been identified as missing persons from out of state, looks like the Walcotts covered their tracks well, took people from far enough away that they wouldn’t be connected to them easily.” Garcia sends the list of names and information to them.

“Thank you Garcia, let us know as soon as you get any more information.”

“You got it boss man.”

Hotch and Reid arrive at the Sheriff’s Station and the Sheriff greets them. “Sheriff Stilinski. Welcome to Beacon Hills.”

“I’m Supervisory Special Agent Aaron Hotchner, you can call me Hotch, and this is Special Agent Dr. Reid. The rest of my agents are looking at the crime scenes and the bodies.”

“We have a conference room over here for you to use, and if you need anything, just ask. Myself and Deputy Parrish are working the case, but due to staffing issues, we will be pretty busy with other cases as well.”

“We understand, and we appreciate the help you are giving us. I’d like to speak with the witness, Scott McCall. Where can I find him?”

“He’s at school right now, can this wait?” Sheriff Stilinski says.

“This is a murder investigation. I’m afraid school has to wait.” Hotch says.

“Alright, I’ll call him.” Sheriff Stilinski says with the slightest hint of annoyance.

“If I may ask, why is he at school right now?” Reid asks.

The sheriff looks at him in confusion. “Why wouldn’t he be?”

“He witnessed a rather brutal murder just last night. Most people don’t want to go to school or work the next day.”

Sheriff Stilinski’s lips twitch up in a hint of a smile. “Scott isn’t most people. He is determined to get his grades up in preparation for college.”

“I take it you know him?” Hotch asks.

“I sure do. He’s my son’s best friend, and like a second son to me.”

“Do you believe he is telling the truth in his statement to the police?”

The sheriff looks offended that Hotch would ask such a thing, and then a look of understanding dawns on his face. “You don’t believe that the axe murder has no mouth, huh?”

“I’m sure you can agree that it doesn’t sound very likely.” Reid says diplomatically.

The sheriff chuckles. “You’re right. It does sound pretty crazy. But this town is full of crazy. A man without a mouth isn’t the craziest thing I've been told, and wouldn’t be the craziest thing I’ve seen, so I believe Scott. He wouldn’t make up something like that.”

Hotch hums, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. “We’ll take that into consideration.”

Hotch and Reid turn to head to the conference room but Sheriff Stilinski stops them with a hand on Hotch’s arm and a haunted look in his eyes that says he has seen more than most. “A word of advice. Be careful, the full moon is coming up. You just might be unlucky enough to get a taste of what makes this town unique.”

The sheriff leaves on that ominous note and Reid and Hotch enter the conference room. When the door is closed they both breathe sighs of relief.

“That was weird.” Reid can’t help but say.

Hotch nods in agreement. “Hopefully it’s just small town oddness and nothing more.”

“Yeah.” Reid replies as he and Hotch start organizing evidence on the table and evidence board. “Hey, did you know the origin of the word lunatic?”

“I assume it has something to do with the lunar cycle?”

“That’s right! It originally referred to a kind of insanity supposedly dependent on the phases of the moon. Now, a lot of people think there can’t possibly be a connection between the moon and people’s behavior, but if you ask anyone who works in the healthcare system, they will say that things are always the craziest on the night of the full moon.”

“Huh. So that advice about being careful tomorrow night isn’t all that out there.”

“Yeah.”

The two of them look at the evidence in silence until the sound of an engine interrupts them. A look out the window shows a dirt bike pulling into the parking lot. The rider takes off his helmet to reveal the face of Scott McCall.

Hotch and Reid enter the lobby at the same time as Scott.

“Agents.” Scott nods respectfully and holds out a hand to Hotch. Hotch shakes his hand and is surprised by his grip strength. “You wanted to talk to me?”

“Yes, we’d like to go over what happened last night.” Hotch speaks.

Scott sighs. “I already told the police everything.”

“Sometimes people can miss an important detail and not even notice.” Reid speaks. “And we may have some questions that the police didn’t think of.”

“Fine.” The profilers can see that Scott is annoyed, but doing his best to hide it. “Follow me, we can talk over here.”

Scott leads them to what appears to be the station’s break room and sits down at a table. “Have a seat.”

Hotch and Reid exchange a look. Scott has taken charge of the situation in a way that they rarely see a teen do, and it’s clear he knows what he is doing. This is his home and the agents are trespassing. Hotch has no doubt that Scott has spent enough time at the station, and watched enough interviews that he won’t easily be tricked or manipulated.

“Tell us what happened last night, please.” Hotch decides that a straightforward approach is the best way to start.

“I saw Sean, covered in blood, attacking my mother. So I shoved him off of her.”

“What were you doing at the hospital?”

“A member of my lacrosse team was injured during tryouts. As captain of the team I am responsible for him, so when we saw that the injury needed to be looked at by a professional, I brought him there. While he was being looked at by a doctor, I decided to say hello to my mom.”

Hotch nods. “Ok. You shoved him off of your mom, and then what?”

“He turned his attention to me, and tried to attack me. I ran, and he followed.”

“Why did you run to the roof?”

“I didn’t want him to injure anyone else, the roof is usually empty.”

“That’s some pretty clear thinking during an obviously stressful situation.” Reid says.

Scott smiles at that. “I get it from my mother.”

“What happened on the roof?” Hotch asks.

“We fought a little, ran around a lot, and then.” Scott takes a breath, showing vulnerability for the first time. “He suddenly collapsed. I looked at him and saw an axe sticking out of his back. This massive guy walked towards his body and ripped out the axe. He had no mouth.”

“You seem quite certain about the fact he had no mouth. Is it possible you didn’t see what you thought you saw? It was a pretty stressful situation.” Reid asks.

Scott shakes his head. “Before he left, the axe man held up a finger where his mouth should have been, like this.” Scott holds a finger in front of his lips in the universal ‘shhh’ expression. “I know what I saw. The skin was completely smooth, no lips, no teeth, no mouth.”

“Did you notice anything else about him?” Hotch asks. “Did he say anything?”

Scott looks at him incredulously. “How would he have said anything without a mouth?”

Hotch doesn’t have an answer for that, so instead he asks. “What happened next?”

“He left.” Scott says. “I didn’t think it would be a good idea to follow him, I waited a few minutes, found my mom and the sheriff and told them what happened. Then I went home.”

“Did anything else happen? Did you see or hear anything unusual?”

“No. May I go now?”

“You may go. If we have any more questions we’ll contact you.”

Scott leaves without a goodbye.

“What did you think?” Hotch asks Reid.

“He’s definitely hiding something. I don’t think he outright lied to us, but he didn’t tell us the full truth either. And he was too calm and collected for a kid who just saw death up close. And not the false bravado that teenagers often have. He is used to death.”

“I agree. Hopefully the rest of the team has more luck gathering information.”

A couple minutes after Scott leaves, a man wearing a suit enters the room and starts making himself a cup of coffee.

“Hello agents.” He holds his hand out to shake. “It’s an honor to meet you, I’ve heard only good things about you and your team.”

Hotch shakes his hand. “It’s a pleasure to you…”

“Special Agent McCall. I’m in town for personal reasons, but if you would like help with anything it would be an honor to assist you.”

“We’ll keep that in mind.” Hotch says. “McCall, any relation to Scott McCall?”

“He’s my son.” Agent McCall looks worried. “He’s not a suspect, is he?”

“Why do you ask?” Reid asks.

McCall looks slightly embarrassed. “I don’t know.”

“You wouldn’t have asked for no reason.” Hotch says.

“It’s nothing.” McCall says.

“Most parents don’t immediately jump to the conclusion that their child is a suspect.” Reid says. “You wouldn’t do that for no reason.”

McCall looks hesitant, so Hotch presses him. “You can tell us anything.”

McCall sighs. “To tell the truth, I really don’t know Scott well. We were estranged for a number of years and I am just starting to try to rebuild our relationship. But it’s been difficult, he disappears all hours of the day and night without any explanation, he and his friends lie to me, I don’t know exactly what about, but there is something off. I hope it’s just normal teenage stuff, maybe I’m just jaded after being in law enforcement so long, and I really don’t want to say this about my own son, but I think he is involved in something suspicious.”

“Can you give me any specific examples?”

McCall thinks for a moment, then touches his shoulder with a slight wince. “A few months ago I was trying to talk to Scott and his friend, Kira I think? We were at his mom’s house and he kept trying to get me to leave. I thought he just didn’t want to talk to me, but then we were attacked by people dressed like ninjas or samurai or something. They had swords, and one of them stabbed me in the shoulder. Melissa dragged me out of the main room to tend to my wound, and I could hear Scott and his friend fighting the intruders. I don’t know exactly what happened, but somehow Scott and all his friends, some more must have joined while I could see them, fought off the intruders, intruders I couldn’t fight off, and they all came out unharmed. There was lots of broken glass, and like I said earlier, the attackers had literal swords, but there was not a scratch on any of them. And when I tried to ask about it afterwards, Scott just brushed it off, as if getting attacked in his own home was nothing.”

“I see. Thank you for telling us, and if anything else happens, or you think of anything else we should know, please contact us immediately.” Hotch says.

McCall nods and accepts Hotch’s business card. “I will.”

McCall leaves the room and Reid speaks. “That was interesting.”

Hotch nods in agreement. “It was. It may not be related, but on the chance that it is, I’m glad we learned that.”

As Hotch and Reid walk back to the conference room, they see a dark haired man enter the sheriff’s office. The man himself isn’t very odd or attention catching, but the way everyone looks at him, with a mixture of fear, disgust, pity, and plain curiosity is. But before Hotch and Reid can think much about it, Rossi and Prentiss return from looking at the crime scenes at the Walcott’s house.

“They were definitely cannibals.” Prentiss speaks as soon as the door to the conference room closes behind the four of them. “They hid it well, they had lots of normal food stuffs in their fridge and cupboards, but they had none in their trash, and most of the normal food had obviously never been touched. I think they ate mostly, or possibly even only human flesh.”

The team takes a few minutes to process that horror.

“Did you learn anything else?” Hotch asks.

Rossi nods. “Get this, the bodies in the meat locker were not found by the police department. They were apparently found by a trespassing juvenile. Rumour around the locals is that she is psychic.” His voice shows some of his well known disdain for those who call themselves psychics.

“That somehow doesn’t surprise me.” Reid speaks. “From what we have seen of this town and its people so far, it makes sense, the sheriff is almost certainly superstitious, it would make sense that he would believe the word of a psychic.”

“Could this supposed psychic have been involved?” Hotch asks.

“Probably not.” Prentiss answers. “We are told she has an alibi.”

“An alibi for which murders?” Reid asks. “We don’t yet have the time of death for most of the bodies found in the meat locker.”

“I don’t know.” Rossi replies. “And we couldn’t get anyone to tell us her name either. Either everyone is protecting her, or someone important is.”

They discuss the new leads a little more, then JJ and Morgan return from the hospital.

“We didn’t find any new evidence on the roof.” Morgan says. “And all the evidence we did find, as well as the people we interviewed, seem to support Scott McCall’s statement.”

“Melissa McCall is quite a woman.” JJ says. “She wasn’t at all fazed by what happened. If I got attacked by a cannibal trying to eat me, I think I would take a few days off of work. But she is back at work like nothing happened.”

“Like mother, like son.” Hotch thinks out loud.

“Speaking of the son, Scott McCall could not have killed Sean. The ME says that the wound that killed him was caused by the same weapon as the weapon that killed the rest of his family, military grade tomahawk, and that it was wielded by someone at least a foot taller than Scott.”

The team catches each other up on everything and starts to build the profile. It’s definitely one of their more difficult cases, but they make progress and are so engrossed in their work that they barely even notice the sun go down.

They are in the middle of putting their profile together when there is a knock on the door. Hotch opens the door to reveal Deputy Parrish kitted out in bomb removal gear.

“Hello agents!” He smiles much brighter than someone obviously dealing with a potential bomb threat should. “I got some good news and some bad news.”

Chapter Text

“What’s going on?” Hotch asks.

“The axe murderer is dead.” Deputy Parrish speaks. “And he set a claymore in a highschool classroom before he died.”

“Hold on.” Rossi says. “Which part of that is the good news?”

Deputy Parrish is obviously a little thrown by the question, but answers the best he can. “Both parts are good news. The suspect is dead, so he won’t kill anyone else, and we found the explosives long before school starts. And if I successfully remove the claymore without causing any damage to the school, then everyone will be happy because no one will have to fight with their insurance company.”

“Wait, if it’s all good news, why did you say it was good and bad news?” JJ asks.

“Because now we have to put the number of days since someone died at the school back down to zero.” Parrish says tiredly.

“Why is that a thing? How often do people die at that school?” Reid asks.

“Pretty often.” Deputy Parrish replies. “I’m still pretty new here so I don’t know everything, but I do know that that place is a hotspot for murders and suspicious deaths and disappearances.”

The BAU team exchange glances, that might be something worth looking into.

“Do you have any more of that gear?” Morgan asks while motioning to Parrish’s bomb removal stuff. “I’m former bomb squad, and I’d be happy to help.”

“Sure thing, follow me!”

Morgan follows Parrish, Hotch orders Prentiss to come with him to the school, and the rest of the team to continue looking at the evidence.

At the school Hotch, Prentiss, and Morgan take in the scene.

The face and neck of the body the sheriff says belongs to their unsub are brutally ripped to shreds. There is no hope of identifying him by his face, but luckily his fingerprints are in the system as belonging to a professional assassin known only as The Mute.

“What happened here?” Hotch asks the sheriff, carefully burying his horror behind a professional facade. He’s seen a lot, but this is more brutal than most. Oddly enough, the locals seem almost used to this kind of violence.

“I was following a possible lead.” Sheriff Stilinski says.

“A lead on the case you called us for?” Prentiss asks in offended confusion.

Sheriff Stilinski has the gall to look a little bit ashamed at that. “It was a weak lead. I didn’t want to waste your time.”

“It must not have been very weak considering it led you to the unsub.” Hotch says dryly.

The sheriff shrugs. “Well I know that now.”

Hotch resists the urge to sigh. “Start at the beginning. What was this lead?”

Sheriff Stilinski thinks back. “A few hours ago a confidential informant came to me. He told me that someone he knows claims to have been attacked by a guy who supposedly had no mouth, and apparently the guy who was attacked managed to rip something off the arm of the mouthless guy.” The sheriff holds up something that looks like a keyboard.

“That sounds like a solid lead. What made you think it was weak?” Prentiss asks.

The sheriff sighs. “The guy who supposedly got attacked is extremely untrustworthy. No, scratch that, extremely untrustworthy is an understatement. He never tells the truth unless he has something to gain from it, and loves manipulating people. I didn’t want you guys to get caught up in his games.”

“Sounds like someone worth interviewing.” Hotch says.

The sheriff chuckles. “Good luck with that, you won’t find him unless he wants you to.”

“What happened next?” Hotch asks.

“I was looking at the item when Parrish walked into my office. He recognized it as a military computer, and helped me see where it was connected to wifi last. That’s what led me here.”

“Just you?” Prentiss asks and Sheriff Stilinski nods. “You went to investigate a possible location of an axe murderer by yourself?”

“When I said before that we are seriously understaffed, I was not exaggerating. I couldn’t pull anyone away from more important duties for such a weak lead.”

“You could have asked us.”

“You looked pretty busy. Building a profile, right?”

“That’s right. One we won’t need now that your weak lead resulted in the death of our unsub. How did that happen anyways? It looks like he was mauled by an animal.”

“Animal, human, it's hard to tell the difference some of these days.”

“What exactly happened, Sheriff?” Hotch asks.

“When I arrived at the school, I pulled out my gun and walked in.”

“Why did you pull out your gun?”

“Just a precaution. Bad things happen here after dark.” Sheriff Stilinski puts a hand on his hostler, reassuring himself that he still has his gun. “When I walked in, I saw blood leaking out from underneath a classroom door. I approached cautiously, and opened the door very slowly and carefully, as I did not like the bad vibes I was getting from it. It’s a good thing I did, I only got the door a few inches open when I saw a trip wire attached to the claymore mine. I slowly backed away, and that’s when I saw the mouthless man. He threw his axe at me and I barely managed to duck out of the way in time.”

Sheriff Stilinski motions to the wall that currently has an axe embedded in it. “When I looked up, I saw the mouthless man coming towards me, and I thought it was all over. When I ducked out of the way, I fell, and I hit my hand on the floor. My gun flew across the hallway, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to reach it in time. And then suddenly someone else attacked him.”

“Who?”

“I didn’t see his face, I think he was wearing a mask or makeup, and it was pretty dark. Looked like a male, unknown age, about 5’10”, maybe 175-200 pounds. He had dark clothing, and some kind of claw like weapons.”

“Claw like weapons?”

“Yeah. I didn’t get a good look, it all happened so fast, but he had something that caused that damage. Maybe some kind of gloves or knives attached to his fingers? Looked almost like Wolverine or something.”

“Like Wolverine?” The fact that Hotch maintains his professional facade is impressive.

Prentiss has a more difficult time. “First an axe murderer without a mouth, and now a man like Wolverine? That’s certainly unusual, isn’t it?”

“Not so unusual in this town.” The Sheriff smiles wanly.

“Why is that?” Hotch asks.

“My sources say it has something to do with a magical tree stump in the forest.” Sheriff Stilinski says completely deadpan and no one can tell if he is joking or not.

Prentiss laughs awkwardly. “So Wolverine attacked the mouthless man. What happened next?”

“He killed him. Brutally, as you can see, and then walked away.”

“And you just let him walk away?”

“I wasn’t about to go after him alone, not after witnessing him maul the other guy. So I found my gun back, and then called for backup.”

“That was probably smart.” Prentiss says begrudgingly. “Did anything else happen that we should know? Did either of them say anything?”

Sheriff Stilinski shakes his head. “The Mute really lived up to his name, didn’t say a word, and the other guy might have said something, but it wasn’t clear enough to understand. It might not have even been words, I could have sworn he growled.”

“Do you have any idea why The Mute was here?” Hotch asks.

“Not a clue.” Sheriff Stilinski replies.

“We know The Mute is a professional killer. If he set that bomb to kill someone, we have to find out who. The person who hired him may hire someone else now that The Mute died before he succeeded.”

“Great.” The Sheriff sighs. “I suppose it was too much to ask for that the case is over now that the murderer is dead.”

“Could he have been hired to kill someone at the school? A student or faculty member?” Prentiss asks.

“I doubt it.” Stilinski says. “A student or teacher would probably call us if they saw blood leaking out the door. While it is possible that someone would open the door before we arrived, there is no way to predict who.”

“So he was probably targeting a first responder.” Prentiss muses. “But that would run into the same problem, no way to tell who would be there first.”

“You were here first.” Hotch says to Stilinski. “Did anyone know you were coming?”

“You think I was the target?”

“You did say that The Mute threw an axe at you after you failed to set off the bomb.”

“I suppose it’s possible. As sheriff, I have lots of enemies.”

“Who all knew you were coming here?”

Stilinski thinks for a moment. “Parrish knew, but I trust him, and there wasn’t enough time for him to contact The Mute and for The Mute to get here and set this up.”

“What about the CI who gave you the computer and the person he got it from?”

“I trust that CI with my life, and the creep who gave it to him is not afraid to get his hands bloody, if he wanted me dead, he would have done it himself.”

“We should investigate them. We may notice something you don’t. What are their names?” Hotch asks in a way that suggests it’s not a suggestion.

Stilinski shakes his head. “If I rat him out to the feds, he won’t give me anymore information. And since what he gave me led me to finding an explosive device at the high school before a student could trigger it, I’d say his information is too valuable to risk by telling you his name.”

“He doesn’t have to know that it was you who told us.”

“Trust me, he would know.” Before anyone can say anything else, they are interrupted by Stilinski’s cell phone ringing. “Excuse me.”

He steps away for a minute, then returns. “That was Parrish. The Mute’s computer just got a money transfer from someone called The Benefactor.”

“We’ll look into it.” Hotch says. “Now-“

He is interrupted by Stilinski’s phone ringing again. The man leaves to answer it and returns with a grim look on his face. “We got a body. It’s possible it’s not related, but it looks like a professional hit at first glance and I assume you would like to investigate that.”

“What can you tell us about it?”

“The victim delivered alcohol to a party, and on his way back to his vehicle his head was removed from his body.”

“When you say removed?”

“The ME is not certain yet what caused the removal.”

“Who found the body?”

“Scott McCall.”

Chapter Text

“Scott McCall? He certainly seems to have a knack for turning up at crime scenes.” Prentiss says suspiciously.

Sheriff Stilinski chuckles. “You have no idea. And before you ask, no, he did not do it, he has an alibi. He was with his girlfriend and a friend at the time our victim was killed.”

Hotch and Prentiss exchange glances, but don’t say anything more about Scott in front of the Sheriff.

The three of them head to the scene where they meet up with Morgan and JJ.

“It appears the victim’s head was severed with a thermal-cut wire.” JJ informs the group.

“That’s not something that just anyone would have. I think this was a professional hit.” Morgan says. “Garcia said the FBI has a file on an assassin who is part of a group called The Orphans, and who uses that for a weapon.”

“But who would order a hit on our victim? From what we know about Demarco Montana, he’s not the kind of guy someone would pay to kill. He’s living paycheque to paycheque, as are all of his associates. No one around him could afford to hire a professional assassin.” Sheriff Stilinski says.

“There is a reason he was targeted, we just have to find it.” Prentiss declares. “Did he have any connection with the Walcotts or The Mute?”

“Not that we know of. But we will keep looking.” Sheriff Stilinski replies.

Stilinski walks away to talk with one of his deputies, and Hotch sees Scott McCall at the edge of the crime scene, along with several other teenagers. “Morgan, JJ, I want you to interview Scott. See if you notice anything that Reid and I may have missed.”

JJ and Morgan make their way towards the teenager in question. He and his friends are having an intense whispered conversation, so they don’t announce themselves as they approach, hoping to catch a few words. They don’t succeed as Scott turns around to face them just as they are about to step into earshot. “Agents. What can I do for you?”

All of his friends, save the young lady hanging on his arm, disappear. Most of them gracefully melt away into the shadows, but one of them manages to trip over air and face plant into the asphalt.

Scott doesn’t seem to mind his friends apparently abandoning him to the feds.

“I understand you are the one who found Demarco tonight?” Morgan says the name of the victim purposely, an attempt to get a reaction out of Scott.

Scott nods grimly. “It’s a shame. No one deserves to die like that.”

“You find a lot of dead bodies, don’t you?” JJ asks, slightly aggressively, also in the hope of getting more out of him.

Scott just shrugs. “I have bad luck I guess.”

“Just bad luck, nothing more?” JJ tries.

Scott nods in agreement. “Just bad luck.”

“Where were you at the time Demarco was killed?” Morgan asks.

“I was down at the boat shed with Kira-“ he slings his arm around the young lady. “-and another friend.”

Kira gives him a peak on the cheek. “I can confirm that.”

Morgan raises an eyebrow. “We never told you exactly when Demarco died, how can you say where you were at the time?”

Scott smiles easily. “One of the deputies told me.”

Morgan and JJ exchange a look, they’ll need to have a talk with the local LEOs about information sharing.

“Who is this other friend who was with you?” JJ asks.

“Liam Dunbar. He headed home already, tomorrow is a school day. We should head home as well. Unless you have any more questions?”

“I think that’s all for now. Don’t leave town.” JJ instructs.

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Scott and Kira leave with a wave goodbye.

“What did you think?” Hotch asks as he and Prentiss join them.

“He’s definitely hiding something.” JJ starts.

“But I think he was telling the truth tonight. Or at least most of the truth.” Morgan continues. “He’s overconfident while talking with us, sure, but I believe it is the overconfidence of a teenage boy, not of a killer staying at the scene of the crime in order to rub it in our faces.”

“I’m inclined to agree.” Prentiss speaks. “This kill doesn’t profile as that of one committed by a teenager, it’s too clean.”

The team stays at the crime scene for a little bit longer, but don’t learn anything more of use.

Just as they are about to head back to the station, Sheriff Stilinski approaches, face grim. “We have another body. At the high school.”

Chapter Text

“Someone killed or dumped a body at the school despite the police presence?” JJ asks incredulously.

Stilinski looks confused. “There wasn’t any police presence there. No one wants to be there after dark, so as soon as we removed the body, the blood, and the claymore, everyone left. I asked a cruiser to drive by every hour, that’s who found the body, but other than that, the place was empty.”

“Is it common practice to clean and abandon the scene of a murder so quickly?” Hotch asks.

Stilinski shrugs. “When the murder is at the school, yes. Those kids have missed enough school due to the place being a crime scene, no need for them to miss any more.”

“What can you tell us about the body?” Hotch asks.

“Unidentified female, late teens or early twenties. Cause of death appears to be several stab wounds to the chest, and her hand is missing, it appears to have been removed by the same weapon that removed Demarco’s head. We haven’t found the hand yet. Judging by the blood evidence, she was killed elsewhere and dumped at the school.”

“Beheading and stabbing are pretty different MOs.” Morgan says. “Are we thinking it’s the same killer?”

“Maybe Demarco’s killer removed her hand, but someone else stabbed her. We could be dealing with two unsubs working together.” JJ says.

“Wonderful.” Stilinski says sarcastically.

“JJ, call Reid and Rossi, send them to the school. Morgan, call Garcia, see if she has anything for us.” Hotch orders. He silently communicates to Prentiss that he wants a minute alone with the sheriff and she disappears.

“Sheriff, I need you to be honest with me. Can you do that?”

Stilinski nods. “Sure.”

“Is there anything you aren’t telling us?”

“No sir.”

“Anything at all, a weak lead perhaps?”

“If this is about my not telling you about The Mute’s computer, I apologize. I realize now that keeping it from you was a mistake, and I promise I’ll bring any new leads or information to you, regardless of whether I think they are useful or not.”

Hotch stares at the Sheriff until he starts to look uncomfortable. “I believe you. Don’t betray my trust.”

“I won’t.” The sheriff disappears with a nod and Hotch hopes he didn’t make a huge mistake. He had considered taking a different approach, but they need all the help they can get in this town, and alienating the sheriff, the man who presumably knows more than anyone about this town, is not a good plan, at least not this early in the case.

The team gathers back at the conference room in the sheriff’s station and goes over the latest information.

“It looks like the victim was chased through the school, killed somewhere else, possibly inside a vehicle as it would be easy to remove a vehicle from the scene, and then dumped there.” Reid says.

“The complete disregard for the latest two victim’s bodies points towards the professional killers theory, they don’t care at all about the victims, just about killing them.” Morgan says.

“The ME confirmed that the amputation of the head and the hand were done by the same thermal-cut wire, and that the cause of death for the second victim was the stab wounds to chest.” JJ says and puts some photos of the wounds on the table. “The ME can’t figure out what caused this unique marking around the wounds.”

“Let’s send that to Garcia, see if she has better luck.” Hotch orders then asks Morgan. “Did she find anything?”

Morgan shakes his head. “She found a little bit about The Mute, but nothing useful, and couldn’t trace the payment from The Benefactor, or find anything about them. Whoever it is is new to the scene. She also couldn’t find any connections between the victims, but will try again once Jane Doe is identified.”

“Ok. I don’t think there is much more we can do tonight. Let’s get some rest and come at this with fresh minds in the morning.”

The next morning they gather in the conference room and Hotch puts Garcia on speaker phone. “Get ready to worship your rightful Queen my subjects, I have identified your Jane Doe. Her name is Carrie Hudson. And, I found a connection between her and Demarco Montana.”

“We love you beautiful Queen. Please bestow your knowledge on us.” Morgan asks.

“Carrie and Demarco are both practicing Buddhists.”

“Buddhists? There can’t be very many of them in a city this size.” Reid says.

“You are correct, Boy Wonder. I found two small Buddhist groups, and one of them, the one that your victims belonged to, is missing.”

“The whole group is missing? Why haven’t we heard about that?” JJ asks.

“Because there have been no missing person reports filed. But I can’t find a single member of the group. All their cellphones have been turned off, and none of them have shown up to work or school. I asked around and the reason no missing person reports were filed is because the ones who go to work or school all called in family emergencies before they disappeared.”

“Could they have all been kidnapped?” Prentiss asks.

“I don’t think so.” Rossi says. “To take a group that size without anyone noticing is nearly impossible. I think it’s more likely that they heard that Carrie and Demarco were killed and went into hiding.”

“But why? If it was a hate crime or religious attack, both groups would have been targeted, right?”

“Garcia, what can you tell us about the differences between the two groups?”

“The missing group has a large mix of demographics, and the not missing group is comprised solely of elderly people of Asian descent. I can’t find much more information about either group.”

“Is it possible the group is just pretending to be Buddhists and meeting up for some other reason?”

“Anything is possible, we’ll look into it.” Hotch hangs up on Garcia and is about to speak when Sheriff Stilinski barges into the room and tosses a paper onto the table.

Reid is the first to read it. “Is this a hit list?”

Chapter Text

Sheriff Stilinski is fuming, like a man about to declare war, and it’s easy to see why.

In the middle of the list, with the highest number beside his name, is Scott McCall, the boy the sheriff has admitted is like a son to him.

JJ reads the list out loud. “Sean Walcott, 250k, David Walcott, 250k, Michael Walcott, 250k, Christina Walcott, 250k, Lydia Martin, 20m, Scott McCall, 25m, Demarco Montana, 250k, Derek Hale, 15m, Carrie Hudson, 500k, Kayleen Bettcher, 250k, Kira Yukimura, 6m, Elias Town, 250k.”

The room is silent for a moment as the team processes the new information.

“A hit list could explain why these particular people have been targeted.” Morgan says.

“It’s not a hit list.” The sheriff speaks, his anger and fear bubbling under the surface of his words. “It’s a dead pool.”

“A dead pool means that anyone can kill someone on the list and get paid rather than one person killing everyone. That explains the multiple hit men.” Reid says.

“So it’s basically free for all?” Morgan asks.

“Yep.” Stilinski replies.

“Where did you get this?” Hotch asks.

“A trusted source. And before you ask, no, you may not talk to this source. They are spending every available moment working to decrypt the rest of this list, we can’t waste time with useless interviews.”

“Sheriff-“

“No. There are people I care about on this list. There are teenagers! I will not let you waste your time, and my source’s time, talking with someone who I know for certain is not responsible for this, someone who is doing everything they can to help.” Stilinski’s at stubbornly and firmly.

“How do you know that for certain?” Hotch asks, just as stubbornly.

The sheriff keeps his mouth shut and Rossi speaks for him. “Your source is someone on the list, isn’t it?”

“I will neither confirm nor deny that statement.” Stilinski and Hotch have a staring contest. Hotch blinks first, although he and those watching would never admit it.

Prentiss speaks as she studies the paper. “These random characters after the names, what are they?”

The sheriff looks away from Hotch, obviously relieved by the change of subject. “It’s code that needs to be deciphered. The keyword ‘Allison’ decrypted the first third of the list, so there will be two more keywords to decipher the rest.”

“How do you know that?” Reid asks.

The Sheriff smiles. “My source is something of a genius.”

“How many more names are hidden in the code?” JJ asks with horror. “What if it’s hundreds?”

“It probably won’t be hundreds.” Sheriff Stilinski points to the printed numbers with the letters M or K messily scrawled beside them. “I’m told that the total amount to be paid for everyone will be 117 million dollars.”

“That’s a very specific amount. Why?”

“Rumour has it 117 million dollars worth of bearer bonds was stolen from a private vault hidden somewhere here in Beacon Hills.”

“Who’s vault?”

“No idea. No one has reported anything near that amount missing.”

“What do we do?” Morgan asks, and everyone looks at Hotch.

“We have to keep this quiet. If the list ends up in the hands of the public, there will be mass panic, especially as we don’t know yet who all is on it.” Hotch speaks then turns to Sheriff Stilinski. “Who all knows about this?”

“I asked Deputy Parrish to start quietly running the names we have.” Stilinski replies. “Obviously my source knows, as well as a few people close to them, but I can trust them to be quiet.”

“Make sure they stay quiet.” Hotch orders. “We have to put everyone on the list under protection, but quietly.”

“They won’t let you.” The sheriff chuckles. “The ones I know at least.”

“Their names are on a dead pool accessible to who knows how many professional killers, and you believe they won’t accept protection?” Reid asks incredulously.

“I know they won’t accept protection. These kids are determined not to let anything get in the way of school this year.” Stilinski says, a hint of fondness in his voice.

“What about their parents? If they are minors, their parents can accept our protection on their behalf.” JJ says.

“They will be on the same side as their kids.” Stilinski says.

“We can’t just let them go about their lives with zero protection. Didn’t you say you care about these kids, Sheriff?” JJ asks.

“True.” Sheriff Stilinski sighs and rubs a hand down his face. “Tell you what. I’ll figure out some kind of protection for Scott, Lydia, and Kira, and any others I know if their names end up on the list as well; you guys figure out how to protect everyone else, and we all try to find the identity of—and stop—The Benefactor.”

Hotch considers the proposition for a minute. “Alright. But we get to talk to those three.”

“Agreed. But don’t be surprised if they refuse to talk to you.”

“That’s always a possibility, we are used to it.” Hotch says. “Sheriff, do you have any idea why those three are on this list?”

The sheriff shakes his head. “I’ve been racking my brain since the moment I saw their names. I have no idea.”

“Do you have any idea why those three, plus Derek Hale are worth so much more than everyone else?”

Stilinski shakes his head again. “I can understand why Derek Hale is priced so high, he has quite a reputation, he was suspected for multiple murders and other crimes, all of which he has been cleared of, and frankly he is rather intimidating face to face, I have no doubt he knows how to fight and fight well. But while Scott and Kira can also hold themselves in a fight, they aren’t nearly as scary as Hale, and I’m pretty sure Lydia has no idea how to fight.”

“Does the name Allison mean anything to you?”

The Sheriff looks hesitant, so JJ presses. “Everything is important. Any little detail could be the key to cracking this case wide open.”

Stilinski sighs, long and mournful. “There was a girl named Allison Argent. She dated Scott for a while, and after they broke up they remained close friends. She was killed in a carjacking gone wrong some months ago while spending time with Scott and her new boyfriend Isaac Lahey, who was in Scott’s friend group. The person responsible has not yet been brought to justice.”

“Do you have any leads?” Hotch asks.

“None. Scott and Isaac said that carjackers wore masks.”

“We’ll investigate this, it’s too much of a coincidence not to be related. Perhaps someone blames Scott for Allison's death and this whole thing is to target him. The other names on the list could be to distract away from him.” Rossi says.

“I’m not so sure. If The Benefactor was trying to hide Scott among the other names, why does he have the highest price? And why isn’t Isaac on the list as well, if he was there too, wouldn’t it make sense to blame him for her death as well?” Stilinski asks.

“Maybe The Benefactor isn’t trying to hide their motivation, using Allison’s name as a keyword certainly isn’t hiding a connection to her.” Prentiss says.

“But then why all the other names? Sheriff, do any of them have a connection to Allison that you know of?” Reid asks.

“She was friends with Scott, Lydia, and Kira, and it’s possible she has met Derek Hale, but she has no connection to any of the others that I am aware of.”

“What about connections other than those you mentioned?” Morgan asks.

“She was a popular girl; listing all her friends would be difficult.”

“It’s possible she didn’t have a connection to the other named, but The Benefactor believes she did.” Morgan says.

“If that is true, it will make our investigation a lot more difficult.” Stilinski says.

“Do Scott, Lydia, and Kira have any enemies?” JJ asks.

“None that I am aware of.”

“How certain are you that they won’t speak with us?” Hotch asks.

“They might speak to you, but they will refuse to give you any useful information.”

“Will they tell you anything?” Hotch asks.

“They might.”

“Ok, go talk to them and arrange their protection. Tell us immediately if you learn anything.” Hotch orders. “We might talk to them as well, but we’ll look into the other names on the list first.”

“You got it.”

Stilinski leaves the room and Hotch speaks to the rest of the team. “Reid, work with Garcia to decrypt the rest of that list. JJ, talk to Parrish, makes sure he knows the importance of keeping this list quiet, and see if he has learned anything about the names on it. Rossi and Prentiss, look into Allison’s death, her life, her friends, find everything you can. Morgan and I will look into Scott McCall, Lydia Martin, and Kira Yukimura. It’s no coincidence that Scott is so entangled in this case.”

The team splits up to complete their tasks.

Chapter Text

A few hours later they gather in the conference room, with some burgers that Parrish picked up for them, and share their findings.

Reid starts. “Garcia and I didn’t make any progress decrypting the rest of the list. We tried every name we could find that was related to Allison, and every name related to those we know are on the list, but none of them worked. Garcia is putting it through various computer programs to try to break it that way somehow, but it’s a long shot. We don’t even know if the next key is a name, it could be anything, a number, a location, a book title.”

“Hopefully Sheriff Stilinski’s source has better luck.” JJ says.

“Yeah.” Reid says. “We did find something though, the list is easily accessible to anyone who knows what they are looking for on the darknet.”

“That might explain how Stilinski’s source got it. But that means that we have no way of knowing how many have seen it, and how many have decided to act on it. Is there any way to remove it?” Prentiss asks.

“Garcia tried, but it’s like a hydra, when she removed it, two more suddenly appeared, and when she removed them, four more appeared. She decided it’s best to stop trying.” Reid says.

JJ speaks next. “Parrish understands the importance of keeping the list quiet, I don’t think we have to worry about him telling anyone. But we should make a plan for what to do if it does become public, these things have a way of revealing themselves.”

Hotch nods in agreement then JJ continues to speak. “We found out a little bit about some of the names on the list. All of them appear to be residents of Beacon Hills, but we couldn’t contact any of them. One of them, Derek Hale, has quite a record, which includes a possible connection with Allison. He and Allison’s father were arrested on suspicion of murdering a member of the Yakuza together, but they were released due to lack of evidence. And as Stilinski said, that’s not the only time he has had run-ins with the law. He has a lot of enemies, any one of them could be responsible for his name being on that list. What Stilinski didn’t mention though is that there was evidence, significant evidence suggesting that Derek Hale and Chris Argent killed that man, but the evidence was stolen. The driver of the armored truck that was transporting the evidence was killed during the theft, and there have been no arrests made in connection to that.”

“We also found some connections between Derek Hale and the teenagers. A few years ago, Scott McCall, and-“ Morgan looks at his notes and frowns. “-I have no idea how to pronounce his legal name, but Stilinski’s son, whose preferred name is Stiles, found half of a body buried beside the remains of the Hale’s family home. The remains turned out to belong to Laura Hale, Derek’s sister, one of only three Hales who survived the fire that destroyed the house many years ago. Derek was arrested on suspicion of killing her, but was later released when an autopsy determined that Laura was killed by an animal attack.”

“What animal killed her?” Rossi asks.

Morgan ruffles through some papers. “The ME believes it was a wolf.”

“A wolf? But there have been no confirmed sightings of wolves in California in over 80 years.” Reid says.

“That’s what the report says. Morgan shrugs. “Anyways, that wasn’t the end of altercations between Derek Hale and Scott and Stiles. A few weeks later, Scott, Stiles, Allison, Lydia Martin and Jackson Whittemore were at the high school at night for unknown reasons. According to their statements, they were terrorized for hours but someone identified by Scott and Stiles as Derek Hale. That same night the janitor was murdered, and Scott and Stiles claimed Derek was responsible. Interestingly, none of the other teenagers saw who was responsible, and Scott and Stiles later recanted their statements, saying that it was not Derek that night.”

“Did you learn anything about Kira Yukimura?” Rossi asks after everyone takes a moment to soak in the new information.

“She moved here about a year ago, and has been involved with Scott and his friends since about then. Shortly after she moved here, she was kidnapped by William Barrow, a man who escaped from prison after being arrested for blowing up a school bus, killing four students. When police arrived on scene, Scott and Stiles were there, and Kira claims they saved her. William Barrow was dead, having apparently electrocuted himself.” Morgan says.

“William Barrow’s escape was witnessed by Melissa McCall. This could be just a coincidence, but it’s another interesting connection.” Hotch says.

“How did he escape?” Prentiss asks.

Hotch and Morgan exchange a look, then Morgan speaks. “He was moved from Eichen House to the hospital for surgery to remove shrapnel that was migrating dangerously close to his organs. According to the doctor and nurses participating in the surgery, when they opened him up, they didn’t find any shrapnel. Instead they found a growing tumor, which grew until it burst. When it burst, a swarm of flies came out of it and attacked. Barrow then woke up, and escaped during the chaos.”

The rest of the agents blink a few times, trying to understand what Morgan just said, and look towards Hotch, who’s stoic face confirms Morgan isn’t just pulling their legs.

“I may not be a medical doctor, but I’m pretty sure that isn’t possible.” Reid says. “It sounds like something out of an X-Files episode, not reality. Are you sure that is what happened?”

“That’s what the reports say.” Morgan says. “You can have a look for yourself if you want.”

“You can look later. We are getting off track.” Hotch says.

“Stiles has gone missing a few times.” Morgan says. “It could be nothing, but it’s odd.”

“Stiles isn’t on the list, so we’ll put that to the side for now.” Rossi says.

“Scott, Stiles, and Lydia have found an unusual amount of dead bodies. I won’t go into detail, we are on a time crunch here, but it is highly suspicious. It’s hard to say if they were involved or not, especially since several of the cases have been solved, but it’s something we should look more into. Reid and Morgan, continue looking at all the cases involving people on the list, and people connected to them. Actually, just look at all the cases in Beacon Hills from the past four years, starting with murders and suspicious deaths. Try to make some sense of the multitude of connections in those cases.” Hotch orders. “Prentiss, look into Jackson Whittemore. He filed a restraining order against Scott and Stiles, that gives him motive. And look into Isaac Lahey, he was there when Allison died, it’s possible he had something to do with it, or blames Scott for what happened.”

“Why the restraining order?” Prentiss asks.

“Apparently they stole a prisoner transport van, then kidnapped Jackson and kept him in it for nearly two days. They claimed it was just a highschool prank, but Jackson’s parents were not impressed. They are lucky they didn’t get charged. Sheriff Stilinski actually lost his job for a short while as a result of the incident.” Morgan says.

“How did he get his job back?” JJ asks.

“I’m not actually sure, there was an incident during which a highschool student attacked the sheriff’s station and killed multiple officers, and he got his badge back after that, but I didn’t read the whole report, but I did read enough to know that Scott and Stiles were there.” Morgan says.

“Rossi, look more into the Argents.” Hotch orders. “JJ and I will work on a plan for when the media finds out about this, and start on a preliminary profile for The Benefactor.”

The team splits up for their tasks.

Chapter Text

A few hours later, the sheriff enters the conference room in a hurry, holding a lacrosse stick.

“Look at this.” He takes the end off of the stick to reveal that the metal of the stick is the exact same shape as the odd bruising around the stab wounds on Carrie Hudson. “One of the assassins is a lacrosse player. And there is a game tonight.” He glances at his watch. “A game that is starting in half an hour. Scott and Kira will be on the field.”

“Do you really think that someone will try to kill one or both of them during the game? It’s not very subtle, anyone could see them.” Prentiss asks.

“True. But it wouldn’t be the first time someone was killed on the field, in front of dozens of witnesses, none of whom saw the killer. It’s a perfect cover, everything happens so fast, and lacrosse has loads of injuries, no one would know what happened till it was over.”

“Wait, what do you mean it’s not the first time someone has been murdered on the field?” Reid asks. “I’ve been looking at all your cases involving deaths, and while many take place at the high school, there were none on the field.”

The Sheriff blinks in surprise. “Huh? Oh. That case must have been removed from the cases involving death when the dead kid showed up alive the next day.”

“What?”

Sheriff Stilinski shrugs. “I can’t explain it, but everyone was glad to see him alive, and he wasn’t hurting or killing anyone, so I didn’t question it too much.”

“How? Was he not really dead?” Reid asks.

“He was definitely dead, at least three people with medical training, as well as the paramedics from the ambulance confirmed it. But now he is alive. It happens. Now can we get back to the important stuff?” The sheriff doesn’t seem at all fazed by the impossibility of that case. “Myself and Agent McCall will be attending the game and keeping an eye out for anything suspicious. I haven’t filled McCall in on the details of the case, just that there might be a threat at the game tonight. Would any of you like to join us?”

“You don’t want to cancel the game or pull out Scott and Kira?”

The sheriff chuckles. “They would never agree to that. And while that may help keep them safe for the moment, it won’t do anything in the long run. There will just be more attempts on their lives, attempts we may not get any warning of before, and we don’t even know if Scott and Kira will be the targets, anyone on either team could also be on the list, if we remove Scott and Kira, then someone else with no idea of the danger could be targeted. If we let the game go on as planned, we can use it as a trap. And if we can catch someone, we can interrogate them, and maybe get one step closer to The Benefactor.”

“Are you sure about this?” Hotch asks.

“I am. I wouldn’t do anything that would risk those kids. My son is playing tonight as well. I wouldn’t let him on the field unless I weighed the pros and the cons and was sure it was the right decision.”

“Alright. Take Morgan and JJ with you.” Hotch orders.

“Fine.” Stilinski leaves the room, and JJ and Morgan follow him.

Before they can walk five steps they are interrupted by deputy Parrish. “Sheriff, I know you are in a hurry, but I was out on patrol and I found someone walking from the coast to the high school.”

“That’s gotta be at least 15 miles.” The Sheriff says in shock.

“She was pretty determined.” Parrish says and looks over to a young woman.

“I’m looking for Lydia.” The young woman says timidly yet confidently. The deputy and sheriff exchange a look and the sheriff sighs in resignation.

“Come with me.” The sheriff leads the young woman into his office, then steps out and says to the agents. “I need to make a call, you can go on ahead without me.”

“It’s ok, we can wait.” Morgan says. “We don’t know how to get to the school anyways.”

The sheriff nods tightly and retreats back into his office.

“What do you think that was about?” JJ asks.

“No idea.” Morgan replies. “But it must be important. Stilinski’s son is playing in the game that may also have an assassin playing, he wouldn’t delay getting there without a good reason.”

A few minutes later two teenage girls enter the building and the sheriff ushers them into his office.

“That one was Lydia Martin.” JJ says.

“Do you think whatever is going on in there has something to do with the case?” Morgan asks.

“It must. But will Stilinski tell us anything?”

Morgan and JJ hang back as Stilinski leaves his office and Parrish approaches him.

“You called Lydia.” Parrish’s tone of voice is a tad more accusatory than is normally acceptable between a deputy and a sheriff.

“Yeah.” Stilinski replies in a slightly confused tone.

“Because Meredith asked for her or because of the other thing?”

“What other thing?” The sheriff looks like he is starting to question why he hired this guy.

Parrish looks around the room and JJ and Morgan pretend to be engrossed in their own conversation. He lowers his voice conspiringly. "The psychic thing.”

“You think Lydia is psychic?” Stilinski looks offended by Parrish’s apparent lack of brain cells.

“Do you?” Perrish shoots back.

“No, I do not. I think that she is, uh…” Stilinski avoids eye contact with Parrish. “Intuitive.” Stilinski nods his head as if trying to convince himself as well.

“That’s what they use to call psychics.” Perrish says earnestly. “Intuitionists.”

“Yeah, and I used to call myself a rational human being.” Stilinski lowers his voice as well. “Get in here and shut the door.”

The two of them disappear into the office.

“Well I guess we know who the supposed psychic is.” Morgan says. “Think we should confront the sheriff about it?”

“I’m not sure. Let’s tell Hotch first and see what he says.”

Before they can duck back into the conference room, Stilinski exits his office. “Let’s go.”

Chapter Text

“I had no idea lacrosse was so violent.” Morgan says to JJ who is wincing in sympathy every time there is a particularly violent collision. “How are we supposed to tell if anyone is actually trying to kill someone when everyone appears to be trying to kill each other?”

“I guess just look for a blade coming out of a stick, or blood coming out of a person?” JJ says uncertainly. “I’ll never let my kids play this game. Who decided it was good idea for high school students anyways?”

“I have no idea. But I agree with you, if I ever have kids, they will not be allowed to play this either.” Morgan and JJ both wince at another violent collision.

Agent McCall a few rows ahead of them looks as impassive as Hotch, but his tense body language betrays his discomfort.

“That guy looks ready to kill someone.” Morgan points out a kid who is removing his gloves and getting into a fighting stance.

“Yeah, but his teammates are holding him back, I don’t think a professional assassin would allow that, or be so obvious about his desire to kill.”

The coach yells for Kira to pass the ball, but she doesn’t, and makes an impressive goal. “Yukimura! Get over here. You are benched.”

“I guess we don’t have to worry as much about keeping an eye on her.”

There is another violent collision, and everyone winces as they hear what can only be the sound of a bone being broken. JJ and Morgan make a move to get up, but Sheriff Stilinski shakes his head at them. They sit back down and watch as the player, one wearing the other team’s colors, gets helped off the field by a medic and a referee, one of his legs dragging uselessly behind him.

“I hope he’ll be ok.” JJ says and Morgan agrees.

“I used to think football was one of, if not the most dangerous sport. Now I think lacrosse is much more dangerous.” Morgan says.

“Do you think the other guy is ok?” JJ asks worriedly. “He looked smaller than the injured one, wouldn’t he be hurt worse?”

The two of them look at the players milling about the field. “Which number was he?”

“I can’t remember. But I don’t see any one limping, or otherwise appearing to be in pain.”

“Yeah.” Morgan agrees. “Hey, where are Scott and Kira?”

“I don’t see them.” JJ and Morgan look around a bit more, but don’t find them.

Agent McCall answers his phone and starts running somewhere, Stilinski hot on his heels, worry visible on their faces. JJ and Morgan follow them.

The group arrives at the locker room, and in the doorway they see one of the medics—who carried out the injured player—lying unconscious on the floor.

A closer look and a check of his pulse reveals that the man is not merely unconscious, he’s dead.

The agents draw their guns as they enter the room.

Chapter Text

Back at the station, Prentiss, Reid, Rossi, and Hotch gather to go over the latest information.

Prentiss starts. “Jackson Whittemore moved to London England with his family and has been living a quiet life. He is excelling in his schooling, and hasn’t gotten into any trouble. There is nothing to suggest he is part of a multi million dollar scheme to kill Scott McCall and the others on the list.”

“Did you find anything more about his supposed death and resurrection?” Reid asks.

“I found no mention of it. If it weren’t for the numerous witness statements in the case file, I would suspect it never even happened. I also could not find any explanation as to why he didn’t have a single scratch on him despite apparently bleeding to death from some kind of wound to his abdomen.”

“Weird.” Reid says what they are all thinking.

“It gets weirder.” Prentiss says. “Jackson isn’t the only one in town with a miraculous recovery. Isaac Lahey was admitted to Beacon Hills Hospital with 75% of his body covered in burns after he stepped in a large puddle of electrified water. He fell into a coma, and doctors were not sure if he would survive. He was in a coma fighting for his life, and then suddenly one evening he got out of bed and walked out of the hospital as if nothing had happened.”

“But that’s impossible!” Reid says.

Prentiss shrugs. “I don’t know what to tell you. Either a lot of people are lying, or impossible things are happening here.”

“I learned something weird as well.” Rossi says. “The Argents have an interesting, tragic, and violent family history. Kate Argent, Allison’s aunt, is believed to be responsible for the fire which burned down the Hale family home and killed ten people, including children. She was later killed violently in the shell of that house. Her death was ruled an animal attack, but her injuries in her autopsy photos look suspiciously similar to those of The Mute. Victoria Argent, Allison’s mother, committed suicide after a history of depression. A look at their extended family shows an unusually large amount of Argents have died from suicide and animal attacks. A number of them have also been accused of, and a few even arrested for murder, like Chris Argent, Allison’s dad, for the death of a high ranking member of the Yukuza, which we already know.”

“Those are a bit odd, but not really weird.” Hotch says.

“I’m getting there.” Rossi says. “Gerard Argent is where it gets weird. After a lifetime as an arms dealer, after Kate’s death, he makes a career change and becomes the principal of Beacon Hills High School. I have no idea how he got hired, he has zero qualifications and zero experience in education, but he did.”

“Odd.” Prentiss says. “But maybe he just wanted to be closer to his granddaughter after the death of his daughter.”

“This is where it gets really strange.” Rossi continues. “The night that Jackson was presumed dead, Gerard was admitted to the hospital with a bizarre condition which still has not been diagnosed. Doctors have never seen anything like it. Apparently he is constantly leaking pitch black mucus out of his mouth, nose, eyes, and ears. He also bleeds black blood. Numerous tests have not revealed what the mucus actually is, just that it’s causing his organs to slowly fail.”

“That is weird.” Reid says. “I’ve never heard anything like it. But not really all that surprising. This town is full of weird and unexplained happenings. In the past four years, 80 people have died violently. Even excluding the supposed animal attacks, which don’t even get me started on those, this city has the highest murder per capita rate in the country! I don’t know why we didn’t know about this, or why we were not called sooner. It looks like there have been at least 5 different serial killers, only three of which were supposedly identified, Kate Argent, Matt Daehler, and Jennifer Blake, all of whom died violently before they could be brought to trial or even questioned, and none of their deaths are solved. Looking at their cases, I’m not completely confident that all of them even were the unsubs, and if they were, I doubt they worked alone.”

“That is concerning, and we should look into that. But those cases can wait until this case is over.” Hotch says. “Did you learn anything pertaining to this case?”

“There are so many connections everywhere, it’s difficult to tell which ones are important. The names Scott McCall, Lydia Martin, and Stiles Stilinski keep appearing, but as suspicious as that is, they appear to actually help investigations more than they hinder. I don’t know if they are obsessed with the local crime, or if they are just unnaturally good at showing up in the wrong place at the wrong time. The only other names that I came across in the case files are Derek Hale and Kira Yukimura, which we have already talked about. I didn’t see any mentions of any other names from the list, but we don’t have the whole list, so that makes things a lot more difficult. It is possible that some of these supposed animal attacks were actually by the unsub who killed The Mute, but that will be difficult to prove. I need more time to make sense of the mess that is Beacon Hills.”

“Did you and JJ make any progress?” Prentiss asks Hotch.

“We made a plan for dealing with the media if necessary, and a preliminary profile, but it needs some work, this case is unlike any we have ever worked before.”

“What do you have?”

“The unsub has strong morals, a black and white view of the world which says that the people on the list must die, punishment for real or perceived crimes. They have the skills, and knowledge needed to steal a large sum of money from someone they knew would not report it. Making the list and hiring these assassins shows that the unsub is a planner, and possibly someone who, while incredibly intelligent, lacks the confidence or the skills to kill themselves. By encrypting the list, the unsub shows that they like playing games, and possibly is taunting law enforcement with the fact that we can’t access the whole list. They might believe their own actions wrong but justified, and that is part of why they are distancing themselves from the act itself by employing assassins. The unsub possibly wishes to be caught and brought to justice via the clues in the keys, but is certain that will only happen once their plan is complete. Naming themselves shows a high perception of self, and the name itself, The Benefactor, shows that they believe they are doing this to benefit someone, possibly a victim or victims of someone or someones on the list.”

“This person might be frequently underestimated. Not everyone with that amount of intelligence flaunts it, and some geniuses have minds that work differently than the average person, which can result in people believing that person to have a low intelligence.” Reid adds. “They could be feeling invalidated in their daily life, and that may be part of why they are seeking a name for themselves as The Benefactor.”

“How do we find someone who fits this profile?” Rossi asks.

“How we always do. With hard work.” Hotch replies.

“I wonder how it is going at the lacrosse game.” Prentiss muses.

Chapter Text

The agents enter the locker room slowly and are met with the sight of Scott McCall standing over the unconscious body of a teenage girl. Another teenage boy is standing awkwardly to the side.

“She tried to kill me!” Scott exclaims an edge of panic in his voice and his hands shaking as the adrenaline leaves his system. “And they tried to kill Brett, Brett Talbot.”

“Where is Brett now?” Morgan asks.

“I don’t know, he ran.” Scott replies.

“Is he the one who got injured?” JJ asks.

“Yeah.”

“How did he run?” JJ asks, thinking back to how the boy had to be carried off the field due to his injury.

Scott shrugs and the other kid speaks. “Adrenaline. It’s crazy how powerful that stuff is.”

“He couldn’t have gotten far.” Scott says. “You have to search for Garrett as well, he’s with Violet.” He nods to the girl on the floor who is starting to stir.

Deputy Parrish enters the room as well, and handcuffs the girl after a nod from Stilinski.

“Everybody out!” Stilinski orders. “This is a crime scene.”

McCall leaves first with his son and the other boy, and everyone else follows.

As Parrish walks the girl out of the room and down the hall, the girl glances at his name tag, then does a double take. “Jordan Parrish?”

“Deputy Parrish.” He corrects her.

JJ and Morgan exchange a look, but don’t say anything.

Stilinski walks towards Agent McCall, and McCall asks him. “Sheriff, what is that? Is that the weapon?”

“Yeah. It’s a thermo-cut wire.”

McCall gets a look on his face like he just understood something and quickly turns to follow the Deputy and his prisoner. “Parrish, hold up.”

Parrish stops and McCall, Stilinski, JJ, and Morgan gather around the arrested girl. “Thermo-cut wire’s a very unusual weapon, Violet. Now, we’ve got a file at the Bureau on something similar. Used in over a dozen murders.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I just go to school here.” Violet says with a bit of a smirk.

“Maybe we should call your parents then. Oh, no… that’s right. You don’t have any parents.” The smile falls off her face. “That’s why they call you The Orphans.”

Parrish takes the girl away and McCall speaks to those remaining. “We need to find her boyfriend, Garrett.”

Stilinski nods and calls over a man from the other end of the hallway. “Coach, I’m gonna need both their locker numbers.” He turns to the members of law enforcement milling around. “And someone find me a set of bolt cutters.”

It doesn’t take long for the Sheriff to get a pair of bolt cutters in his hands, and the number to the assassins’ lockers in his head.

They don’t find anything suspicious or useful in the lockers, just what you would expect a couple of high schoolers to have in their lockers.

Morgan and JJ bring Scott and the other kid to a quieter part of the school to get their statements and they put them in separate empty classrooms.

They start with Scott. The other kid looks nervous, so hopefully letting him stew for a little bit will increase his truthfulness. Scott no doubt knows about that tactic, quite possibly has had it used on him before as the best friend of the sheriff’s son, so they don’t waste time with that.

“Can you tell us what happened Scott?” Morgan asks.

“Brett was injured on the field. Liam, the kid you put in the room across the hall, felt bad that Brett was injured, he thought it may have been partly his fault, so he wanted to check on him. I felt it was appropriate as team captain to go with as well, and to pass on hopes of a quick recovery from our team to him. When we walked into the hallway, we saw the medic on the ground. I checked his pulse, and when I saw there was nothing we could do for him, I continued on. That’s when we saw Brett laying on the floor and Violet on top of him with a glowing wire around his neck. I shoved her off of him, and when she tried to put the wire around my neck, I shoved her into the wall hard enough to knock her out. As soon as she was off Brett, he ran. I didn’t follow him as I was too busy fighting Violet, and I’m pretty sure Liam was in shock, so he didn’t follow either. Then I called my dad.”

“That must have been scary.” JJ says sympathetically.

Scott shrugs. “I just hope that Brett is ok. Can I go now? I’m sure my parents are worried about me.”

Knowing that he won’t give them any more information, they let him go, then take a moment to talk before they interview Liam. “I don’t think he was telling the whole truth.”

“Neither do I. Hopefully this Liam kid is more honest.”

The kid is tense as they enter the room.

“My name is JJ, and this is Morgan.” JJ introduces warmly. “What’s your name?”

“Liam. Liam Dunbar.” The kid looks like he wants to be anywhere but there.

“Can you tell us what happened tonight Liam?”

“Yeah uh. It was my first lacrosse game at this school, so I was a bit nervous. And then Brett ran into me. It looked like he was hurt pretty bad. I wanted to see how he was doing, so me and Scott went looking for him. Then we found the medic on the ground. Scott checked his pulse, and…” he makes eye contact with them for the first time. “Is he really dead? How could Violet and Garrett do that? How did I not notice anything off about them?”

“Did you know Violet and Garrett?” Morgan asks.

Liam nods tensely. “I was friends with them. Or at least I thought I was. Obviously they were just using me and Mason to appear normal. I should have noticed something was off! Mason did, he said that Garrett lied about where he lived, but I didn’t do anything when Mason told me that. I should have done something!” By the end of his little rant Liam has his fists clenched tight and is breathing heavily.

“Hey hey, it’s ok. Breathe Liam, breathe.” JJ speaks and Liam closes his eyes and takes a few steps away.

It takes a few minutes, but he calms down enough to look at JJ and Morgan again. Morgan takes the opportunity to continue. “What happened after Scott checked the medic’s pulse?”

“Scott went into the locker room, and I followed. Violet was attacking Brett, so Scott attacked her. Then she started attacking him, and he knocked her out. Brett ran at some point, I should have followed him.” Liam starts breathing heavily again, but gets himself under control faster this time. “Then Scott called his dad. Can I go now?” Liam all but pleads.

Seeing that it likely wouldn’t be beneficial to continue speaking with him, they let him go. “If we have any more questions, we’ll contact you.”

When Morgan opens the door out of the room, Scott is standing against the wall on the other side of the wall. Liam breathes a sigh of relief when he sees him, and heads towards him. Scott puts an arm around his shoulders, and the younger teen relaxes against him. As the two of them walk away, Liam’s hands relax from the fists they were in. As his hands open, JJ does a double take.

His palms are bloody.

Before she can say anything, the teenagers disappear around the corner.

“Did you see that?” JJ asks.

Morgan nods. “I don’t like it. I hope Scott isn’t using the kid in any way.”

“Yeah. Do you think he coached Liam on what to tell us? They had some time during the chaos earlier.”

“It’s possible. Their stories matched up well, almost too well. But I’m not entirely sure, it did really feel like Liam was telling the truth.”

“Yeah. Let’s head back to the precinct, see if they have made any progress.”

Back at the precinct, after everyone on the team has updated each other, Sheriff Stilinski walks into the room, a grimm look on his face, and closes the door behind him. He sets a paper down on the table.

The first names on the paper look familiar, but now there are new ones. “My source figured out the second key.”

Stilinski sighs and rubs a hand down his face. “I haven’t told Parrish yet.”

Chapter Text

Reid reads the newly unlocked names out loud. “Kate Argent, 12m, Noshiko Yukimura, 5m, Joanne McLaughlin, 1m, Steve Grace, 1m, Tom Hill, 1m, Brett Talbot, 1m, Reed Schall, 250k, Richard Benefield, 250k, Jack Marsland, 250k, Joy Waldrop, 250k, Cheryl Calix, 250k, Jordan Parrish, 5m.”

The room is heavy with silence for a moment, as if the agents are already mourning the deaths that have not happened yet.

“I’m going to go talk with Parrish now. He should know.” Stilinski sighs heavily.

“Wait.” Rossi stops him before he can leave. “Isn’t Kate Argent dead?”

Stilinski sighs. “That’s what I thought. But I guess not.”

“Maybe the unsub made a mistake.” Morgan says.

Stilinski shakes his head. “I doubt it. There has been a rumor going around for a few weeks now that Kate survived, or came back from the dead. I dismissed it before as just a rumor, but it’s Beacon Hills, I should have known she’s alive.”

“She can’t be.” Reid says. “I read the coroner's report, and looked at the autopsy photos, no one can survive a wound like that. It’s just not possible.”

“Maybe so. But unless I see evidence to the contrary, I’m going to believe she is alive.” Stilinski says.

“There is evidence, the crime scene photos, the ME’s report!” Reid starts to lose his patience. “What more do you want, to exhume her grave?”

The sheriff pauses at that. “That’s not a bad idea. If you would like, I can get permission from the family. But you guys have to supply the manpower, things are stretched thin enough here as it is.”

“We’ll let you know what we decide.” Hotch says diplomatically.

“Alright. Now I really must be going. I hope this portion of the list can help your investigation.” With that, Stilinski exits the room.

There is stunned and baffled silence until Reid breaks it. “Hotch I…” Reid shakes his head as he gathers his thoughts. “People often say this in a joking manner, but I am saying this in full seriousness. I think there is something in the water. There has to be. How else can we explain what’s going on here? Nothing makes sense!”

“I’m not sure there is anything in the water, but if you want to send any samples out for testing, it couldn’t hurt.” Hotch replies, his professional mask on tight, but not so tight that the other members of the team can’t see his bafflement hiding behind it.

“Are we really going to exhume Kate Ardent?” Morgan asks.

“It might be prudent.” Rossi says. “If she is dead, then we will know that our unsub made a mistake, a big mistake, and that could affect the profile. If she is alive, then that could also affect the profile, how did our unsub know she was alive when no one else did? Is there some kind of connection between the unsub and the Argents?”

“Speaking of the Argents, the first key was Allison, what was the second key?” Asks Prentiss.

JJ picks up the paper. “Looks like the key was Aiden. Is anyone with that name connected to this case?”

“Not in the case files I read.” Reid says. “Maybe elsewhere?”

Morgan dials Garcia and puts his phone on speaker. “Hello Beautiful, we are wondering if you could find some information for us?”

“Anything for my Chocolate Thunder. What do you need?”

“We got the second key for the list. It is Adien. Could you see if that name has any connections to anyone on the list, or to any of the other names we have asked you to look up? And see if you can find anything about the new names we unlocked?”

“It’s a tall order, but luckily for you, I am the best at what I do! Hey, that rhymed!” Garcia chuckles and the sound of her typing can be heard. “Oh, this is interesting. Aiden and Ethan Steiner enrolled in Beacon Hills High School last year. They were classic troublemakers, and had some kind of rivalry with Isaac Layhe, apparently he beat one of them up, then they beat him up, then he beat one of them up, and one of them apparently drove his motorcycle inside the school. They missed a lot of classes, at one point they missed a solid three weeks, and then near the end of the school year, they disappeared. It was assumed that they were just skipping classes, but they have not been seen since.”

“Maybe they skipped town?” JJ offers.

“Only if they went to live completely off the grid. I have no credit card bills, no renewed driver's licenses, nothing. And in this line of business, that usually doesn’t mean anything good.”

“What about their parents?” Hotch asks.

“Huh. It looks like they were using fake names. It’s well done fakes, they have likely spent years building them up, but I can’t actually find any records of the birth of Aiden and Ethan Steiner, or any records of their supposed parents.”

“What about their emergency contacts when they signed up for school?”

“They have Ennis Steiner listed as their uncle. That actually appears to be a real name, one with an interesting backstory. About ten years ago, a number of people close to him disappeared without a trace. It was assumed for a while that he was among them, until he was seen alive a few states away. There was an investigation, but without any bodies, they couldn’t charge him with anything. He mostly disappeared after that, apparently living a nomadic lifestyle, until he moved here with his supposed nephews. He fell off the map a few months before Adien and Ethan did and has not been seen since.”

“That’s suspicious.”

“Huh.” Garcia exclaims. “I widened my search for these names, because I am the best of the best, and I got a hit on Ethan. Guess where?”

“Don’t leave us guessing, Mama.”

“London England. The same city that one Jackson Whittemore moved to.”

“Did they know each other?”

“I doubt it, looks like Jackson moved there before Ethan and Aiden started at BHHS. It could just be a coincidence.” Garcia says.

“Wait, you found only Ethan in London, no Aiden?”

“That’s correct. And odd. By all accounts the twins were inseparable.” Garcia says.

“If the first key, Allison is dead, then it stands to reason that Aiden may be dead as well.” Reid says.

“How did the unsub know he is dead when there is no body and no other proof?” Prentiss asks.

“I don’t know, but I’d like to find out.” Hotch says. “Did you find anything about the newly unlocked names?”

“Give a few minutes, I’m Wonder Woman, not The Flash!” Garcia replies and everyone chuckles. “Ok, I found a few interesting tidbits. Kate Argent is already dead, has been for years apparently.”

“The sheriff doesn’t believe so. We will be investigating that.” Rossi says.

“Why doesn’t he?”

“Don’t even get me started.” Reid moans.

“Okay then. Next name, Noshiko Yukimura. The mother of Kira Yukimura. I wonder why their names aren’t together like the Walcotts are? Other than the Walcotts, the Yukimuras are the only other related people on the list. So far at least. Kira is apparently worth one million more than her mother, something else I do not know the reasoning of. The next name on the list that I have information about is Brett Talbot. According to you he went missing a few hours ago after being attacked and has not yet been found. I guess we know now why he was attacked. And last but not least, the only other name I was about to find information about, Jordan Parrish. An American citizen, he had a normal childhood, and then joined the military shortly after high school graduation. He served a two year tour as an EOD, Explosive Ordinance Disposal, technician in Afghanistan, and shortly after his tour ended, he moved to Beacon Hills where he got a job at the Sheriff’s Department, where he is now working as a deputy. Wow, he is hot.” Garcia says admiringly.

“Don’t go making me jealous now Baby Girl.” Morgan teases.

“I would never Sugar.”

“Can you find anything about Brett Talbot?” Hotch asks. “He was attacked, and is currently missing.”

“Brett Talbot information, coming right up!” Garcia says. “Oh, the poor kiddo. He and sister, Lorilee Rohr, lost their parents a few years ago in a fire. Investigators suspect arson, but never found a suspect. Huh, it bears some resemblance to the Hale fire.”

“What happened to the kids after the fire?” JJ asks.

“A family friend by the name of Satomi Ito took them in.”

“Satomi Ito as in the leader of the missing Buddhist group?” Reid asks.

“That’s correct.”

“Thank you for the information Garcia.” Hotch says. “Are those the only names you could find information on?”

“The only names with useful information. All the others seem to have disappeared, several of them are actually members of the Buddhist group as some of the earlier disappeared names.”

“Do we know anything about the other members' religious beliefs?” JJ asks.

“They are a mix, but mostly Atheist or Buddhist. Why do you ask?” Garcia asks.

“Something Parrish said earlier.” JJ says. “He was speaking with the Sheriff before we left for the game, and the conversation was odd. He asked if Lydia Martin is a psychic. The Sheriff denied the claim at first, but then he seemed to agree.”

“You think it might be related?” Prentiss asks.

“I’m sort of just grasping at straws, but we know that most of the people on the list are Buddhist, right? Do Buddhists believe in psychics? If they do, and Parrish does, maybe that is why they are on the list? And if Lydia Martin believes herself to be a psychic, or others believe her to be, maybe that’s why she’s on the list?” JJ speculates.

“But we didn’t find any evidence that the Walcotts are, or believe in psychics.” Morgan says.

“Right. I guess that’s not the reason then. But I still feel like it is important somehow.”

“Maybe the unsub believes themself to be psychic, or is working with a psychic? We haven’t figured out the reason for each person to be on the list, maybe the unsub, or their accomplice chose these names because they believe the universe told them too. Maybe they have a grudge against the Buddhist group, which influenced those people being chosen, and maybe Lydia Martin is a rival psychic, hence her on the list, and the other are just random, or maybe have a connection to Lydia or the Buddhists, like Parrish, he might be on the list because he believes in Lydia and the unsub in insulted by that.” Reid speaks.

“Scott Mcall, Kira Yukimura, and Derek Hale are connected to Lydia, if they believe in her like Parrish does, that could be why they are on the list.” Morgan continues Reid’s thought.

“Lydia is the first name after the Walcotts, she may have been meant to be on the top, but the unsub thought it might look suspicious and put the Walcotts first.” Prentiss says.

“Alison was Lydia’s best friend, and there are rumors she dated Aiden.” Garcia adds.

“I’m not so sure.” Rossi says. “If Lydia is so important, why is Scott McCall priced at 5m more than her?”

“Maybe the unsub hates Scott even more than Lydia? What if he is supposedly a psychic like her?” JJ asks.

“Everything keeps coming back to Scott McCall.” Hotch says. “I believe he is the key to this.”

There are rumors of agreement. “But it’s getting late. We aren’t making much progress, just speculating.”

“I hear you loud and clear boss man. I’ll take a much needed nap, then keep investigating, and I’ll let you know if I find anything more. Stay safe my lovelies!” Garcia hangs up and Morgan puts the phone away.

“Let’s all get some rest as well.” Hotch orders. “First thing in the morning we get back to work. Reid, Morgan, go to the high school. Find out everything you can about Scott McCall, Lydia Martin, Kira Yukimura, Brett Talbot, and Violet and Garrett. And gather some water samples to send in while you are at it, from the hotel, the school, and the station. Prentiss, help Agent McCall interrogate Violet, we need to know everything she knows about The Benefactor, and we need to find Garrett and Brett. JJ, organize the exhumation of Kate Argent’s grave and question Parrish. Rossi and I will question Noshiko Yukimura.”

Chapter Text

“Scott McCall?” Principal Thomas asks. “Of course I know him. He’s captain of the lacrosse team. Smart kid, but he and his friends have more absences than the rest of the students combined. I’m surprised none of them got held back. Why are you asking about him?”

“His name came up in an investigation. What can you tell us about his friends?” Morgan asks.

Principal Thomas shrugs. “He’s attached at the hip with that Stiles kid, as well as the new girls, Kira and Malia I think? and Lydia Martin. He used to date Allison, I heard her death hit him pretty hard. Other than that, I don’t know much. You might have better luck asking his teachers, Coach Finkstock probably knows the most.”

“Can you tell us anything about those names you just mentioned?” Reid asks.

“Not much. Although I can tell you what everyone knows about Malia, if you don’t already know.”

“Enlighten us please.” Morgan asks.

“Apparently she had been living out in the woods, with a pack of coyotes, for about six years after a car crash that killed her mom and sister. Scott and Stiles found her and brought her back to civilization. She’s a bit odd, I could swear she growled at me when her dad enrolled her here, but Stiles and Scott are doing a decent job assimilating her back into society.”

What do you know about Violet and Garrett?” Reid asks.

“Not much, they were pretty new. Shame they turned out to be killers, but it happens.” Principal Thomas shrugs, much less bothered than one would expect a principal to be after discovering two of his students were professional killers.

“Do you have any idea where Garrett is?” Morgan asks.

“Not a clue. But it might be worth asking Mason Hewitt or Liam Dunbar, I think they were friends.”

“We will. Can you tell us anything about Principle Argent?” Morgan asks.

Principal Thomas pales dramatically. “No sir. I don’t know anything about him. Nothing at all. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have very important things to be doing. Coach Finstock should be in his office.”

Principal Thomas practically pushes them out of his office.

JJ stands beside the grave as a backhoe operated by a FBI forensic scientist digs up Kate Argent’s grave. It wasn’t difficult to get the FBI to foot the bill and supply the manpower to exhume the grave, and the Sheriff was a big help, he had a signed permission form from Kate’s brother before the backhoe arrived on scene.

As she waits for the grave to be uncovered, she takes the opportunity to talk with Deputy Parrish.

He’s holding it together well, but a trained profiler can easily see that he is a bit shaken. Understandable considering the circumstances.

“I take it the Sheriff told you?” JJ asks.

“Yeah.” Parrish sighs. “It’s slightly terrifying to be honest. I don’t get it. Why am I on the list? I don’t have any enemies, no more than any average deputy, certainly less than Haigh, why isn’t he on the list?”

“We are trying to figure it out. Anything you can tell us, no matter how unimportant it may be, might help a lot.” JJ says. For the first time since they started the investigation she feels like the person she is talking to is not constantly lying, in fact she doesn’t think he is lying at all. “Do you know why the price for you is five million?”

“Not a clue, I only make $40,000 a year!”

“Do you know any of the other people on the list?”

Parrish shakes his head. “I know a few of them in passing, it’s a small town, but it’s not like I am any closer to any of them than I am to the cashier at the grocery store.”

JJ hesitates, but decides it is worth admitting to eavesdropping to get more information. “I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation the other day with the Sheriff. You seem to know Lydia Martin somewhat, enough to believe that she is a psychic.”

Parrish blushes. “That’s pretty much common knowledge around the station. Not everyone believes it, most think she just has terrible luck, or a suspicious attraction to dead bodies, but I believe it. I was with her when she found the bodies in the Walcott’s meat freezer, and there was something unearthly about the whole thing. She may or may not be a psychic, but she definitely is something.”

“What about the other people on the list, are they psychic? Or something?” JJ asks.

Parrish thinks for a moment. “I’m not sure. Those kids, Lydia, Scott, Stiles, Malia, and Kira are an odd group, everyone knows that. But if I had to guess who might be different and who is normal, I would have to say that Stiles and Malia are different. Stiles is always at the wrong place at the wrong time, frequently talks about the most bizarre things, particularly supernatural theories and things, and everyone has a story about Malia growling at them, or her eyes flashing blue, or her fingers turning into claws. Of course that could have something to do with the fact that everyone knows she lived with coyotes for years, but it’s still really odd.”

“Is there anything else you can think of that might be important to the case?”

Parrish shakes his head. “I’ve been racking my brains all night and I haven’t come up with anything. But if I do, I’ll be sure to let you know.”

“Thank you. And we’ll keep you in the loop.”

As the grave finishes being uncovered, JJ and Parrish step closer to watch as the CSI opens the lid of the coffin.

“Coach Finstock?” Reid asks after he opens the door. “Agents Reid and Morgan with the FBI. We’d like to ask you a few questions.”

“That’s me. Just call me Coach. Or Cupcake if that’s too formal.”

Morgan and Reid blink a few times. “Right uh. What can you tell us about Scott McCall?”

“McCall? Great athlete, great team captain. Don’t tell him that. He’s a bit weird, but what teenager isn’t?”

“Could you expand on what is weird about him?” Morgan asks.

“So get this. Freshman year, the kid joins the team. But I bench him every single game because he is a terrible player, and the kid has asthma, I don’t want him dying on my field. Then his sophomore year suddenly the kid is an amazing player. No sign that he ever had asthma, and he’s not even out of breath after running suicide runs. I make the team do a few random drug tests, and I search his locker a few times, but he’s clean! So I thank the sporting gods and make him co-captain with Jackson. And it wasn’t just him. A few months after I make McCall co-captain, suddenly Jackson is a better player than he ever was, and he was our best player! And then Lahey and Boyd join the team, and they are just as good as McCall! And now this new kid, Liam. It’s weird man, but it’s worth it, this team is finally making a name for itself!”

“Can you tell us about Scott’s friends?” Reid asks.

“Bilinski.” Coach makes a face. “Now that is one weird kid. If I could grade him on how much he disturbs me, he would be an A+ student!”

“What makes you say that?” Morgan presses.

“He was looking at crime scene photos in class the other day.” Coach starts counting his fingers as he speaks. “He turns in essays about the most absurd things, I do not need to know anything about anything related to male genitalia for economics, he had a massive chain in his locker. He is seriously out of shape, I don’t know why he isn’t on whatever his friends are on, it’s insulting to the team, he throws up after suicide runs! He’s always missing class, whatever he does during that time can’t be good. He hangs out with people from the local looney bin, he was admitted to the looney bin for a bit. He scored more goals than anyone else the night Jackson decided to become a member of the undead. And his face.”

“His face?”

“It’s not quite as disturbing as Greenburg’s, but it creeps me out. Especially the eyes, it’s like there is nothing behind them sometimes.”

“If he is so disturbing and such a terrible player, why do you keep him on the team?” Morgan asks.

“Are you kidding me! If I get rid of him, I’ll lose my best players!” Coach exclaims offendedly. He leans forward conspiratorially. “He may not look it, but that boy is an alpha. Most people think that McCall is in charge, he’s more intimidating and everyone listens to him, like this one time, Isaac was beating Ethan to a pulp, I couldn’t get him to stop, but one word from McCall and he stopped immediately. But what most people don’t realize is that Stilinski is the one truly in charge. McCall is his attack dog, and I do not want him sicced on me.”

“What can you tell us about Kira Yukimura?” Reid asks.

“That girl can throw! She whipped a ball at me so hard it knocked me right over! I am not ashamed to admit it hurt. Not nearly as bad as getting shot with an arrow mind you, but it was impressive! Which reminds me, I swear that Stilinski had something to do with that arrow. The way he looked at me as I was bleeding to death…” Coach shivers dramatically. “It was like he wanted to eat me or something. I still get nightmares.”

“Back to Kira. What else can you tell us about her?”

“She’s a good player. Nothing else is important.”

“What about Isaac Lahey?”

“A good player as well. Shame he and Boyd disappeared. ”

“Tell us more about Boyd.”

“Good player. Quiet. When he went missing I didn’t even notice until the principal made an announcement.”

“What can you tell us about the relationship between McCall and Jackson?”

“They didn’t love each other, but they got along well enough.”

“What about McCall and Ethan and Aiden.”

“Now that was weird. When those two started here, it was hate at first sight between them and McCall’s group. Why a few times I thought they would kill each other! And then they disappear for three weeks, and when they come back, it’s a complete 180. McCall and his friends still didn’t like them, but it wasn't hate anymore, more like annoyance, and I could swear it even looked like they pitied the twins sometimes. Or maybe I’m projecting, I definitely pitied them, it was embarrassing the way they groveled at the feet of McCall. They wanted to join his group, and they would do anything to do so. It was pathetic.”

“Do you know where they are now?”

“Not a clue. I swear this town eats people.”

“Is there anything else you can tell us about McCall and his friends?”

“If they are late for practice again, you just might have to arrest me for murder.” Coach chuckles.

“Thank you for your time.” Morgan hands him his card. “If you think of anything else, or see anything strange, please let us know, Cupcake.”

When they exit the room, Reid can barely hold in his laughter. “Cupcake? Really?”

Morgan chuckles as well. “If I didn’t, Garcia would never let me live it down.”

“She’ll never let you live it down now either.” Reid laughs. “I can’t wait to tell her! You know she’s gonna call you Cupcake now too, right?”

Morgan groans and Reid smiles.

Chapter Text

“Well, I’m not sure what I was expecting.” Parrish says as he looks down on the body. “But I don’t see a big sign saying that this is or isn’t Kate Argent. I guess you have to send it somewhere for some testing?”

“We will have to get some tests done, but look at this.” JJ crouches beside the body where the CSI put the coffin on the grass. “Kate died from her throat being ripped out. This person has some damage to the throat, but it’s not as severe as in the autopsy photos. Of course, that may have something to do with the decomposition, we will have to get a ME to look at the body, but I’m inclined to think this may not be the remains of Kate Argent. That doesn’t necessarily mean she is alive, but it raises a lot more questions.”

“Mason, right?” Morgan asks the teenager sitting nervously in front of him.

“That’s me.”

“My name is Morgan, and this is Reid. We’d like to ask you some questions. Is that alright with you?”

“Sure, anything to get out of class, right?” The teen tries for some humor and they all chuckle.

“I understand you were friends with Violet and Garrett?” Reid asks.

The boy lets out an annoyed sigh. “I thought they were my friends, but I guess not.”

“Can you tell us anything about them?” Morgan asks.

Mason shrugs and glances at his phone. “I could try, but I’m pretty sure everything they told me was a lie, so I doubt I can tell you anything of use. You know Garrett lied about where he lived? I should have known something was off then, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt.”

“It’s not your fault.” Morgan says.

“I know I know, but still.” Mason checks his phone again.

“Is there anything they might have told you that wasn’t a lie?” Reid asks.

Mason thinks for a minute. “Their relationship wasn’t a lie, they definitely loved each other. But I can’t think of anything else.”

The teen looks at his phone again and Morgan asks. “Is everything alright?”

Mason sighs. “It’s probably nothing.”

“It’s obviously not nothing if you are this worried.” Reid presses gently.

“It’s just Liam. He didn’t show up at school today.”

“Is skipping school usually for him?” Morgan asks.

“It isn’t, and he’s my best friend, the few times he has skipped school, he always told me. I saw him just this morning, and he didn’t say anything then.” Mason taps his fingers against his leg. “But maybe he just needs some space. If he’s mad at me, that might be why he isn’t answering my texts.”

“When’s the last time you saw him?” Reid asks.

“Early this morning. We went on a run together, and I started talking a little bit about how messed up it was that Violet and Garrett are professional assassins. I guess the subject matter made Liam angry, and the anger gave him an adrenaline boost because he started running much faster than me, he left me in the dust. I haven’t seen him since.”

“Has Liam exhibited any odd behavior lately?” Reid asks.

“A little bit I guess, but I thought that was just because of the whole transferring schools in the middle of the school year thing.”

“Can you give us any examples of this odd behavior?” Morgan asks.

Mason hesitates. “Why are you asking so much about Liam?”

Morgan and Reid exchange glances. “We just want to be sure he isn’t involved in anything.”

“You don’t really think he is, do you? That would be just my luck, huh, first Violet and Garrett, and then Liam.” Mason sighs.

“You are his best friend, do you think he is involved in anything he shouldn’t be?” Morgan asks.

Mason thinks for a long moment. “No. He isn’t.”

“Can you tell us when his odd behavior started?” Reid asks.

“About the time he injured his leg at practice I think. It was pretty weird, he told me was injured, that it might even be broken, and then the next day it was completely fine, not even a bruise. And he’s not the type to exaggerate injuries, if anything he tends to downplay them, his step-dad is a doctor and he doesn’t like worrying him when he gets hurt. I tried to ask him about his leg, and he just brushed it off. He’s been more secretive since then too.” Mason says.

“How so?” Morgan asks.

“The night of the party, the one where someone found a dead body, he disappeared for hours, wouldn’t tell me where he was.” Mason gets a pinched look on his face. “That sounds really suspicious, doesn’t it?”

“Has he done anything else strange?” Reid asks.

“Hmmm. Oh yeah, before the game yesterday, it was pretty weird. Brett and Liam have a bit of a rivalry, which honestly is probably Liam’s fault, he has some anger issues. But Brett isn’t completely innocent either. Anyways, Liam has been trying to work on his anger, and before the game, he met Brett as he and his team came off their bus. It started off civil, but escalated pretty quickly, and it was obvious Liam was about to explode. Scott and Stiles stepped in, Stiles distracted everyone while Scott dragged Liam away.” Mason leans forward conspiratorially. “Now this is the really weird part. Liam just let them. I would have expected him to blow up the second Scott laid a hand on him, but he just let himself be manhandled away without any protest! And this is after he told me that he thought Scott and Stiles are really weird, that they creep him out and that he hopes he doesn’t interact much with them!”

“Did he say why he thinks that?” Reid asks.

“Apparently they cornered him in the locker room after he tried out for the team and asked him really weird questions. He didn’t say exactly what they asked him, just that he thinks they may have been trying to ask if he was on steroids or anything, but he wasn’t entirely sure as they were too vague.”

“Has he told you anything else about Scott or his friends?” Morgan asks.

“Just that he apparently misjudged them and they aren’t as weird as he thought. When I try to ask anything more about them, he changes the subject.” Mason says.

“Have you noticed anything odd about Scott or his friends?” Morgan asks.

“Not really. I’ve heard some rumors, but I really don’t know them, or interact with them.”

“What do the rumors say?” Reid asks.

“Doesn’t the FBI work on facts? Why are you asking about rumors?” Mason asks.

Morgan chuckles. “Rumors sometimes have a little bit of truth in them.”

Mason nods in understanding. “Most of the rumors are speculation about what they do when they aren’t in class, which apparently is often. They say everything from ‘they are out committing crimes’, to ‘maybe they are secretly superheroes’. Which would make a lot more sense if there were any superheroes nearby. There are naturally some rumors about their parentage, some believe one or multiple of them are actually half alien. And of course there are the rumors that they are part of a cult.”

“Thank you for your time Mason.” Reid says as he hands him his card. “If you hear from Liam, or think of anything else, please let us know.”

“Liam isn’t in trouble, is he?”

“We just want to talk to him.” Morgan replies with a friendly, assuring smile.

As soon as Mason is out of sight, Morgan dials up Garcia. “Hey Dollface. Could you do a favor for me?”

“Of course Hot Stuff, anything for you.”

“Did Liam Dunbar make it to school today?”

“All of his teachers have him marked as absent.” Garcia answers.

“Has he used his cellphone?” Morgan asks.

“Huh, it has been turned off since early this morning, except for one call about two hours ago. The call lasted for 34 seconds and was placed to, you would never guess who. Our most popular teenager, Scott McCall. The phone was turned off immediately after, and has not been turned on since.”

Morgan sighs heavily. “Looks like we have another missing kid on our hands.”

Chapter Text

“Noshiko Yukimura?” Rossi asks the woman who opens the door.

“That’s correct. You must be agents…” She trails off.

“Hotch and Rossi.” Hotch introduces himself and they shake hands.

“Pleasure to meet you. Come in, I’ve been expecting you.”

Rossi and Hotch exchanged glances, they didn’t tell her in advance that they wanted to speak with her. They follow the woman into the house, their metaphorical guard up.

She invites them to sit down in the living room and serves them some tea. “I assume you are here because of the dead pool?”

“That’s correct Mrs. Yukimura. How do you know about that?” Rossi asks.

“I have my sources.” She replies.

“What sources?” Hotch asks.

Mrs. Yukimura smiles mysteriously. “I can’t be giving away all my secrets now can I?”

“Of course, I understand.” Rossi says. “If you don’t mind me saying, you appear remarkably well put together for someone who’s name is on a hit list. Are you not concerned?”

“I have lived a long and fulfilling life. If this is how it must end, then so be it.” Mrs. Yukimura replies.

“A long life?” Hotch can’t help but ask. “You don’t appear a day over thirty.”

“Looks can be deceiving.” She shrugs elegantly.

“I can understand why you might not be too concerned about yourself.” Rossi says as he looks at weapons hanging on the walls which may or may not just be decorative. “But your daughter is on the list as well. And she has not lived a long and fulfilling life. Are you not concerned about her?”

“Kira can take care of herself.” Mrs. Yukimura smiles proudly. “And she has people around her who would do anything to protect her. There is no reason to worry.”

“Are you referring to Scott McCall and his friends? The ones who saved Kira when William Barrow kidnapped her?” Hotch asks.

“Among others.”

“Others?” Rossi presses.

Mrs. Yukimura sips her tea instead of answering.

“Mrs. Yukimura, do you have any idea why you and your daughter are on this list?” Hotch asks.

“If I did, don’t you think I would tell the appropriate authorities?”

“I don’t know, would you?” Hotch asks curiously.

“I would.”

“Do you know anything that could help us figure out who is behind all this?” Rossi asks.

“Nothing useful I’m afraid.”

“Do you know anyone else who’s name is on the list?” Hotch asks.

“Just a couple of Kira’s friends, Scott and Lydia.”

“What can you tell us about them?” Rossi asks.

“They are good kids, I’m glad she is a part of their group.”

“You aren’t concerned about the amount of time they skip school?” Hotch asks.

“I have no reason to be.”

“Do you have any idea why the payment for the death of you and your daughter is considerably higher than the majority of others on the list?” Hotch asks.

“Do you not know?” She sets down her tea and stares them down. Hotch barely resists the urge to squirm under her gaze.

“Should we know?” Rossi replies.

“What is the usual reason for an assassin to be paid more money for one person than for another person?” She asks like a schoolteacher guiding a student to an answer.

“Because it’s more dangerous or difficult.” Hotch answers.

“There you have it.” She smiles, and the agents can see the danger in her eyes.

“But the highest prices are those of a teenage boy and a teenage girl, how can they be more dangerous than a cannibalistic family and a sheriff’s deputy?” Hotch protests.

“The cannibalistic family is dead now, and Scott and Lydia are alive, correct?” She asks.

“Yes, but…” Rossi trails off.

“But what? Just because it doesn’t make sense to you, doesn’t mean it isn’t true.” She picks up her cup of tea again and takes a sip, seemingly completely unbothered.

Hotch’s phone rings and he excuses himself from the conversation, secretly glad for the distraction.

“You really aren’t concerned, are you?” Rossi observes.

“There is a reason I am worth five million dollars.” Mrs. Yukimura smiles dangerously. “Just between you and me, I'm insulted I’m not worth more.”

Rossi unconsciously presses himself into the couch, as far away as he can get from Mrs. Yukimura’s threatening aura.

Hotch returns to Mrs. Yukimura innocently sipping tea with a barely perceptible pinched look on his face.

“Do you know anything about a boy named Liam Dunbar?” Hotch asks.

“I know he is on Scott and Kira’s lacrosse team. But I don’t know anything more than that.” She looks the slightest bit interested, as if she was not expecting the question.

“Thank you for your time. Please let us know if you think of anything, or if you need anything.” Hotch and Rossi give their standard farewells, not even bothering to give Mrs. Yukimura a business card, so certain are they that she won’t call.

“That was certainly quite something.” Rossi says as they walk out of the house, finally about to relax enough to take a deep breath of air. “I have never felt so threatened without a reason I can pinpoint.”

“She was definitely hiding something.” Hotch sighs. “But who isn’t in this case?”

“You got me there. What was the phone call about?”

“We might have a missing kid. Liam Dunbar didn’t show up to school this morning. And the last person to talk to him was Scott McCall. Morgan and Reid are trying to find him and bring him in for questioning.”

Chapter Text

Agent McCall sighs as he and Prentiss step out of the interrogation room. “We won’t get anything out of Violet, will we?”

Prentiss shakes her head. “I doubt it. Maybe we’ll have better luck after making her sweat for a few days.”

“Yeah. I think we should move her to a federal facility. That might shake her more than a cozy cell here.” McCall suggests.

“I agree.”

“Great. I’ll go arrange that.”

As McCall wanders away, Prentiss gets a call.

“I have it arranged, we just need to drive her down there. I volunteer, and the sheriff said he can come with us as well.” McCall says as he returns.

“Great. Hotch may want a couple of our agents to join as well.” Prentiss replies.

“Sounds good, the more the merrier. We should go now, the sooner we have her somewhere secure, the better, this station doesn’t exactly have the best track record.” McCall turns to leave.

“Hold on, before we go, do you know where your son is?” Prentiss asks, trying to be casual, but fails as there is no way for an agent to casually ask another agent that.

“He should be in school, why?” McCall tenses in concern.

“If you see him, please let one of us know right away.” Prentiss answers without answering.

“What’s going on?” McCall tries again.

“Dad!” The teenager in question suddenly approaches them and Prentiss discreetly backs away to call for backup.

“Scott? What’s going on?”

“You can’t take Violet to the federal holding facility.” Scott demands, concern coloring his voice.

“What? Why? Wait, how do you even know about that?” McCall asks.

“It’s too dangerous. I mean, Garrett’s still out there. Maybe we should let someone else do it.” Scott says.

“I appreciate the concern, but after what happened with Katashi and losing evidence off an armored truck, I’m not letting this out of my sight. And if you are still worried, you should know that I’ve got Beacon Hill’s finest coming with us.” The father and son turn to look at Sheriff Stilinski as he walks a handcuffed Violet towards the vehicle they will be using to transport her. Violet smirks when she makes eye contact with Scott and Scott clenches his fists. If looks could kill, she would be dead. Oblivious to his son’s reaction, McCall continues speaking. “And some of the BAU agents have volunteered to come as well. There is nothing to worry about.”

As if summoned, Hotch, Rossi, JJ, Morgan, and Reid all arrive.

“Morgan, JJ, go with McCall and Stilinski.” Hotch orders. “Scott, we’d like to speak to you. If you could follow me please?”

“Could we do this later? I’ve got things to do.” Scott tries.

“What things?” Hotch asks.

“Homework, study group, lacrosse practice.” Scott looks casual and unbothered at first glance, but the profilers can tell he is afraid.

“Those can wait.” Rossi says. “Now either you come quietly, or we put cuffs on you.”

“Fine. But make this quick, my friends are waiting for me.”

Hotch and Rossi lead him to an interview room, a much different view than the first time Hotch and Reid interviewed him. Scott is more nervous this time, but hiding it well.

“So, Scott.” Rossi starts. “How about you tell us about your friend Liam?”

A flash of panic quickly crosses Scott’s face before he shutters it away. “What would you like to know about him?”

“When’s the last time you saw him?” Hotch asks.

“Yesterday.” Scott replies and the agents can see no untruth in him.

“When’s the last time you talked to him?” Rossi asks.

“Also yesterday.” Scott replies evenly. Either this guy is a good liar, or something else is going on.

“We know that’s not true.” Hotch says as he dramatically puts a piece of paper on the table. “Cell phone records tell us that he called you today.”

Scott looks surprised. “Is that even legal?”

“When someone is reported missing and believed to be in danger, yes it is.” Hotch replies evenly. Scott doesn’t look surprised. “But you already knew that, didn’t you?”

“Of course I did, Liam is my friend. I’ve been looking for him for hours, as soon as Mason let me know he was missing.”

“But you didn’t tell us or the sheriff that he is missing.”

“I was hoping it was nothing serious, just a teenager ditching class, but I guess it isn’t, huh?” Scott asks with a sigh. “I’ve looked everywhere I can think of, all the usual spots teenagers go too, but there is no sign of him.”

“You received a phone call from him, what did you two talk about?” Hotch asks.

“Nothing. It must have been a butt dial or something because Liam did not say a single word. Can I go now? I really want to keep looking for him.”

“We’d like to ask you a few more questions.”

“I’m not under arrest, am I?”

“No, but-“

Scott stands up and walks to the door. “Then I’m going to find Liam. I’ll call the sheriff if I succeed.”

Hotch and Rossi don’t bother stopping him.

“Does that kid say anything that is completely truthful?” Rossi asks and Hotch shakes his head.

“He’s definitely hiding something, but I don’t think he is involved in Liam’s disappearance. He’s involved in something, absolutely, but he seemed honestly afraid for the kid.” Hotch says.

“You’re right.” Rossi says. “Do you think it could be a gang thing? If Scott is the leader, Lydia his second in command, Derek Hale his third, then that could explain them being the most expensive. Liam could be a new recruit, and a rival gang could have taken him and could be responsible for the list.”

Hotch shakes his head. “That doesn’t explain everyone else on the list. Most have no connection to Scott.”

“This is where Mason said he saw Liam last.” Prentiss says as she and Reid walk along the trail.

“There aren’t any people around, and Mason said there wasn’t anyone this morning either, I doubt we will be able to find any witnesses.” Reid says. “The ground is paved, no footprints or tire tracks will be visible.”

“Hey, look at this.” Prentiss crouches down to get a closer look. “That’s blood.”

Chapter Text

Hotch, Rossi, Prentiss, and Reid gather in the conference room.

“The blood we found on the trail has the same blood type as Liam.” Prentiss speaks. “We are still waiting on DNA testing, but the amount of time it has been on the ground roughly matches the time Mason said he last saw Liam.”

“Why would Liam and Mason go for a run that early in the morning?” Reid can’t help but ask. “School is early enough, why go before school?”

“I can’t quite tell if you are joking or not, but according to Liam’s parents, the kid is something of a fitness nut.” Rossi says. “He’s on the lacrosse team, and he wants to be the best on the team.”

“Liam is probably the one who chose to run there and at that time, not Mason.” Hotch says. “Did anyone else know Liam and Mason would be there?”

“According to Mason, just their parents. But running early in the morning on that trail is something that Liam has been doing for some time, so it’s possible others knew; it wasn’t a secret.” Reid says.

“Did Scott and his friends know?” Rossi asks.

“Possibly.” Reid answers. “And according to the teachers Morgan and I spoke to earlier, most of them missed most of their classes today.”

“Did you learn anything new about them?” Prentiss asks.

“Nothing concrete.” Reid answers. “But there are a lot of rumors about the group, particularly about Stiles Stilinski, the sheriff’s son. Apparently he has panic attacks and other symptoms that might be caused by PTSD, and there are loads of rumors about the time he spent in the local psychiatric facility. Everyone says that he and Scott are inseparable, but there is quite a bit of debate as to which of the two is the more dominant in the relationship. At first glance Scott is in charge, but some say that Stiles rules from behind the scenes with an iron fist. Yet some say that Stiles is injured at times, something he tries to hide, and Scott never is. What they and their friends do during the time they skip classes is also apparently a popular topic of conversation, and one of the most popular theories is that they are in a cult.”

“A cult?” Prentiss asks.

Reid nods. “But that is just high schoolers gossiping, not necessarily the truth.”

“But what if it is?” Rossi asks. “Maybe the unsub is from a rival cult, or maybe this is a really elaborate way of committing mass suicide. It could explain why Noshiko Yukimura was so at ease with possibly dying.”

“It doesn’t explain why some people on the list appear to be in hiding.” Hotch says.

“They might not be in complete agreement with the plan.” Rossi says.

“If that was true, then why would Scott stop Violet from killing Brett and himself?” Reid says.

“I don’t think we are getting anywhere just speculating.” Prentiss says.

“I agree. Let’s stick with theories backed up by evidence.” Hotch says. “Like the theory that Kate Argent is still alive. Preliminary testing came back on the body in her grave, it does not belong to her.”

“That doesn’t mean she is alive.” Reid says stubbornly.

“True. But it does mean that something suspicious is going on.” Hotch says. “We need to talk to Chris Argent. The sheriff should know where he is, he got the man to give us permission to exhume Kate’s grave.”

Hotch’s phone rings and he steps away to answer it.

He returns a moment later with a grim look on his face. “There’s been an accident. JJ, Morgan, McCall, and Stilinski are injured, Violet is missing, and Garrett is dead.”

Hotch doesn’t tell the others that Morgan sounded really shaken up on the phone, more shaken than he has ever heard him.

The team arrives at the scene of the accident and finds JJ and Morgan wrapped in shock blankets, with haunted looks in their eyes.

“Are you ok?” Hotch asks as Reid, Rossi, and Prentiss gather around in concern. Morgan shakes his head numbly and JJ stares out into the distance with unfocused eyes.

“Sir, we need to get them to the hospital to check for head trauma.” The paramedic informs him.

“Yeah.” Morgan says weakly. “Head trauma would explain it.”

“What happened?” Hotch asks, the worry in his voice only noticeable to those who know him.

“Hurry it up.” The paramedic says.

“Growing up in the middle of nowhere, I heard stories. People saw things, heard things, things that couldn’t be real.” JJ speaks, her voice sounding miles away. “I never believed them. It was just tall tales, figments of imagination amplified by solitude.”

“JJ?” Reid puts a hand on her arm.

“I saw something.” She says shakily. “Something that belongs in stories around the campfire.”

“What did you see?” Rossi presses, but JJ just shakes her head.

“Morgan?” Prentiss asks.

“Head trauma. It had to have been the head trauma.” Morgan says uncertainly.

“What happened Morgan?” Hotch asks firmly, but warmly.

“I’m not sure.” Morgan deflects.

“It’s ok.” Hotch puts a hand on his shoulder. “Just tell us what you think you saw.”

Morgan takes a deep breath. “I didn’t see what caused the crash. But then I saw. It couldn’t have been real. Maybe a costume? But it was so big.”

“What did you see?”

“Bones. Animal bones I think. And an animal skull. And claws. Claws bigger than my head. It pulled Violet out of the car.”

“You are doing good. Keep going.”

“I thought it was over, but then a vehicle pulled up behind us. Two people got out, and one of them started running towards Stilinski and McCall and he was yelling. He was yelling ‘Dad! Dad!’” Morgan takes another deep breath. “McCall was still unconscious and Stilinski yelled back to the kid. He said. He said ‘It’s still here!’ Or something like that. And then…”

Hotch squeezes his shoulder encouragingly and Morgan continues after a shuddering breath. “The thing, it just stood there. Loomed there. The kid who was driving the car pulled out a weapon and advanced towards it, and then another one came up behind him. It sunk its claws into him and lifted him in the air, high in the air, over his head. And then it attacked the other kid, punched him, then did the same thing. Lifted him ten feet into the air with its claws then threw him on the ground. There is no way someone could survive that. I tried shooting at it. So did Stilinski. But it wasn’t affected at all.”

Morgan starts shaking slightly. “I emptied a clip into its chest and it didn’t even stagger. It didn’t bleed. I don’t know why it didn’t kill all of us, but if it had wanted to, there was nothing we could do to stop it. It killed a kid.” Morgan looks to the ambulance just out of earshot which is treating Stilinski and McCall. “Which one did it kill? Was it Scott, or Stiles? I thought I heard Stilinski call out Scott’s name at one point, but I’m not certain, and I passed out before I could get a closer look at the bodies. When I woke up the paramedics wouldn’t let me see.”

Hotch swallows roughly, dead kids are always difficult. “I don’t know. The body we found when we arrived here was Garrett’s. But I’ll let you know as soon as we find out.”

With that, Morgan and JJ are bundled into the ambulance which drives away. Reid and Prentiss follow the ambulance, leaving Hotch and Rossi alone.

“What do you think?” Hotch asks the man beside him.

Rossi takes a long moment to think before he answers. “I’ve been around a long time. I’ve heard lots of stories around the campfire, and I’ve seen a few things I couldn’t explain. But that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. This case started with a man without a mouth. We have a BOLO out for a man cosplaying as Wolverine. This was probably just a very tall and strong man in a bulletproof costume. It’s dark out here, hard to see, and I wouldn’t be surprised if both JJ and Morgan have minor concussions. Don’t read too much into it, ok?”

“Ok.” Hotch takes a deep breath and plasters on his professional face. “Let’s see what Stilinski and McCall have to say. Morgan said Stilinski was conscious as well, so let’s see if he corroborates his story.”

Hotch and Rossi walk up to the two men being treated by another ambulance.

“How are you doing?” Hotch asks.

Stilinski gives him a half grin. “Could be worse. Pretty sure I just have some bruises. He might have a concussion though.” He gestures to McCall who grimaces.

“What happened?”

Stilinski shrugs. “Heck if I know. One minute we were driving along, the next we were upside down.”

“Did you see what happened?” Rossi asks McCall.

“Yeah.” The man winces at the memory. “Something attacked the vehicle, something big.”

“What did it look like?” Hotch asks.

“Like a giant wearing bones, hopefully from animals, and an animal skull. Never seen anything like it before.”

“I’ve never heard of anything like it.” Rossi says.

McCall shrugs. “I’m not entirely convinced it wasn’t somehow a hallucination, but after being stabbed by a bullet proof ninja, I’m willing to believe my mind wasn’t playing tricks on me.”

“What happened next?” Rossi asks.

“McCall and JJ were knocked out, but Morgan and I were not. We tried to fight it off, but it was invulnerable to bullets. It grabbed Violet, and killed Garrett. Then it left, just walked away.” Stilinski says.

“Did it bear any resemblance to the unsub dressed like Wolverine?” Rossi asks.

Stilinski chuckles. “No, these things were scarier.”

“Stilinski, can I talk to you alone for a moment?” Hotch asks, his tone making it clear it is an order, not a suggestion.

The two of them head off to the side just out of earshot. “Is there anything you aren’t telling me?”

Stilinski sighs and rubs a hand down his face. “I’m hoping that I didn’t actually see what I think I saw, you know as well as I do that eyewitness accounts aren’t always trustworthy.”

“But?”

“It’s possible Scott was there. I didn’t want to say anything in front of Rafael in case I am wrong, and I’d appreciate it if you don’t say anything either unless we find a body.”

“I understand.” Hotch says. “But there is a lot of blood, if that belongs to Scott, don’t you think we should start preparing him for the possibility?”

Stilinski shakes his head. “No, I don’t think it’s a good idea. We need more evidence, solid proof before we say anything.”

“I’ll trust your judgment, you know McCall better than me.” Hotch tries to make his voice comforting. “How are you holding up? I know Scott is important to you.”

“I know what you are thinking, I’m in denial about Scott.” Stilinski says. “That’s not the case. I know what it looks like, all that blood, but I know Scott, and I know this town. If anyone can survive what just happened, it’s Scott. The fact that Garrett’s body is here and not Scott’s is proof of that. A dead body can’t walk away, and if someone took him, they wouldn’t be interested in him if he was dead.”

“Did you see what happened to Scott?”

Stilinski shakes his head. “I must have passed out.”

“If you learn anything, you’ll let me know immediately, right?”

“I will, I will, don’t worry.”

Stilinski returns to McCall and the ambulance leaves with the two of them.

Hotch and Rossi drive back to the station in silence.

The entire team gathers around the table in the conference room in the early hours of the next morning, JJ and Morgan sporting some new bruises and bandages and the rest rubbing the dark circles under their eyes.

“What’s so important that we have to be here before the sun rises?” JJ asks.

“I told you that you and Morgan could stay at the hotel and rest, you don’t need to be here.” Hotch reminds her gently.

JJ shakes her head. “I can’t rest, not until this case is solved.”

“Same.” Morgan agrees.

“Stilinski said he’d be here soon to tell us why he called us in.” Hotch informs the team. “While we wait, does anyone have any new information?”

“I haven’t remembered anything more.” Morgan says.

“Me either.” JJ says.

“No new information, but no one has been able to locate Scott McCall. Stiles Stilinski is also unaccounted for, but no one is concerned about that, not even the sheriff.” Rossi informs the group.

“Why would Scott be with Garrett?” Reid asks. “I understand why Garrett was at the scene, he wanted Violet, but why Scott?”

“Maybe they were working together?” Prentiss says.

“I doubt it, not after Scott got Violet arrested.” Hotch says.

“And why would Garrett not kill Scott?” Morgan asks.

“Mason did say that the love between Garrett and Violet was genuine, if Garrett believed he needed Scott alive to get Violet back, then he might not have killed him, Violet may be worth more than 20 million dollars to him.” JJ muses.

“But that doesn’t explain why Scott would get in a car with a known killer, and help him free another known killer, the chances of Garrett turning on him once Violet was freed would be high.” Reid argues.

“Maybe there was something worth the risk.” Rossi says.

“Like what?” Reid asks.

“Liam.” Rossi speaks. “When we interviewed Scott, his fear and concern for Liam were real, but pretty much everything else was lies. What if that phone call was not a butt dial but was a ransom demand? Help me free Violet and I’ll tell you where Liam is. Garrett was friends with Liam, he would know that he likes going for runs in the morning.”

“That makes sense, but why Scott? He’s just a teenager, what made Garrett think that he would be willing to help him attack a vehicle with three feds, including his father, as well as the sheriff, and succeed?” Prentiss asks.

“I don’t know. But I’m more concerned about Liam right now. I doubt Garrett told Scott where Liam is before they rescued Violet, and now that he is dead, there might be no way to find Liam. Depending where he is, if he has any food or water and if he has any injuries, he might not last long.” Hotch says.

The somber silence that follows that statement is interrupted by Stilinski opening the door. He looks as exhausted as the rest of them feel. A teenage girl follows him into the room and he sighs when he sees her. “Can you wait outside please Malia?”

The girl stubbornly crosses her arms. “You brought me here to talk to the feds. I am here, the feds are here, why should I wait outside?”

Stilinski looks like he regrets all his life choices as he sighs again. “Fine.” He agrees, obviously too tired to argue. “Agents, this is Malia. She was out in the forest when she stumbled upon bodies. What can only be described as a massacre. We have 13 dead. Preliminary IDs suggest that at least some of the deceased belong to Satomi Ito’s group.”

“What’s the cause of death?” Hotch asks.

“Not sure yet.” Stilinski’s phone rings and he excuses himself.

Malia takes the opportunity to speak. “Whatever it was, it made all the victims leak black blood or something out of their mouths and eyes and nose. Had some black veins under the skin as well. Maybe some kind of poison. Not like anything I’ve ever seen before.”

“Have you seen a lot of dead bodies?” Rossi asks.

Malia shrugs. “This is Beacon Hills, everyone has seen dead bodies. I don’t know why anyone lives here, we should run. Run for our lives. Run as fast as we can.”

No one admits it, but her words send chills down their backs and make Morgan and JJ shift uncomfortably.

“What were you doing out in the woods at this hour?” Rossi asks Malia.

“Do I need a reason? This is a free country, is it not?” She shoots back.

“Was anyone else with you?” Hotch asks.

“Why do you want to know?” Malia replies suspiciously.

They ask a few more questions she similarly refuses to answer and then Stilinski returns with an announcement. “Violet is dead.”

“Who found her?” Hotch asks.

“Chris Argent.”

Chapter Text

“Chris Argent?” Rossi asks in surprise. “How did he find Violet?”

“Apparently he was looking for his sister Kate.” Sheriff Stilinski informs the agents. “He was searching places previously used in the family business, and that’s when he found them.”

“Them?” Reid asks.

“He found Violet. And Kate. And he is what he is calling The Berserkers, as good a name as any I suppose, they match the description of what attacked us earlier.” Stilinski says. “He also claims to have emptied a whole clip in them with no reaction from them. Apparently they nearly killed him, would have if Kate hadn’t called them off.”

“So these…” Hotch sighs and then decides he is too exhausted to enforce his no naming the unsubs rule. Too many unsubs anyways, they need a way to differentiate them. “Berserkers, are working for Kate, who somehow is alive?”

Stilinski shrugs. “That’s what I understood from the conversation.”

“Let’s say we believe that. Why did she kidnap and kill Violet?” Rossi asks.

“I’d assume it’s because Kate is on the list and Violet was killing people on the list, but you guys are the experts, right?” Stilinski says.

“Some experts we are, we have no idea what is going on here.” Morgan mumbles. Everyone politely pretends not to have heard him.

“Rossi, Reid, talk to Chris Argent and look at that scene. Prentiss and I will go to the scene of the bodies in the woods, JJ, Morgan, stay here, update Garcia and work on the profile.” Hotch orders and the agents start getting ready to leave.

“I’ll take you to the woods, and Parrish can take you to Argent.” Stilinski says.

“I’ll come along, it’s a pretty remote location. You’ll need me to find it.” Malia says.

Stilinski sighs and pats her shoulder parentally. “I can find it myself, you’ve already shown me and the first responders the way. The only place you are going is to bed, you have school in the morning and you’ve missed enough already.”

“But-“

“No buts young lady. And if you see my son, tell him that I don’t need another call from the principal about him missing school, alright?”

“Fine.” Malia pouts but obeys.

Rossi can’t help but chuckle at the adorable scene.

Reid frowns in confusion. “If she is going to bed, why would she see your son?”

Everyone chuckles at that and Morgan puts an arm around the younger man’s shoulders. “Young love, pretty boy. You’ll understand one day.”

Rossi and Reid ask Chris Argent lots of questions, and he answers each and every one of them as vaguely as possible. The man either isn’t surprised that his dead daughter’s name is a key to unlock part of a dead pool, or he is incredibly good at hiding his surprise, and he is much more relaxed about being attacked by his dead sister and invincible giants wearing animal bones than a person should be. Reid knows that if something like that happened to him, he would consider going to live with his mother.

After failing to learn anything useful from the man, Reid and Rossi look around at the scene.

Rossi lets out an impressed whistle at a hole in a support pillar. “One of the Berserkers did this? With a fist?”

“If what Chris told us is true, then yes.” Reid inspects the hole more closely. “But it’s impossible for a human to do that, the density and mass of this pillar-“

“What if he was on steroids?”

“Maybe.” Reid replies. “But he would have definitely broken an arm, or at least cut himself on some of these sharp edges, but there is no blood and Chris said the Berserkers had no injuries when they left.”

“Chris could be lying.”

“He could. And I don’t think he told us everything, but why?”

“That’s what this all comes down to: we figure out the why of these bizarre incidents, we just might solve this case.”

Off to the side Parrish answers his phone. He has a short, tense conversation with whoever is on the other side, then approaches the agents. “We got to go. The rest of the list has been unlocked, and I know where one of the people on it is. She might be in danger.”

Hotch and Prentiss reach the location of the massacre. “That was quite a hike.” Prentiss says as she gathers her breath. “This place is pretty remote, and hidden. How did Malia just stumble on this location?”

Stilinski shrugs. “This forest was her home for years. She knows it better than anyone, and is used to traveling great distances inside it, so it’s not very remote to her. And she probably communed with the birds and the grass or something, noticed something was off here, and decided to investigate.”

They go to look at the bodies, and see that they are just as Malia described them: no obvious cause of death, but signs point towards some kind of poison.

“Does a black mucus coming out of every orifice remind you of anything?” Prentiss asks Hotch as Stilinski wanders away to answer a phone call.

“That’s what Allison’s grandfather, Jerry or something, is suffering from, isn’t it?” Hotch replies as he leans down to look closer at a body.

“Gerard, and yeah. His doctors are baffled. Do you think this could be related?” Prentiss asks.

“We will have to wait and see what the ME says.” Hotch says as he straightens up and looks around. “This place really is in the middle of nowhere, isn’t it? And it looks like these people died here, not like they were just dumped here. What were these people doing here?”

“Maybe trying to escape death?” Prentiss says.

“Well, they didn’t do a very good job of it. Someone found them.” Hotch says.

“Maybe not.” Prentiss muses. “This could have been a mass suicide.”

“Or it could have been someone on the inside.” Hotch says as he looks at the faces of each of the bodies. “The leader, Satomi Ito, isn’t here.”

“They would have trusted her. And her name isn’t on the list, is it?” Prentiss asks.

“It’s not in the first two thirds.” Hotch says.

Stilinski returns with a smile on his face, something that looks out of place among all the death. “Liam is alive. And so is Scott.”

Hotch and Prentiss smile as well. “That’s good to hear. How are they?”

Stilinski grins wider. “Not a scratch on either of them! There is no way Scott was the one attacked by the Berserkers with us and Garrett.”

“But someone was.” Hotch says, the smile slipping off his face as quickly as it had come. “Someone is either dead or severely injured and we don’t know who. Sheriff, has your son been seen since the attack?”

“He’s fine.” Stilinski says quickly, a little too quickly. “Study group with a friend just went a little bit late.”

“That’s good to hear. But-“ Hotch is interrupted by Stilinski's cell phone ringing again. The sheriff gives him an apologetic smile and duck’s away to answer it.

“What is going on in this town?” Prentiss can’t help but ask. “Morgan was certain that Scott was seriously injured or killed.”

“I don’t know.” Hotch admits. “But Stilinski knows more than he is telling us. He wasn’t the least bit concerned about Scott after the attack, like he knew he would be ok. We need to keep a close eye on him.”

“Why don’t we remove him from the case?” Prentiss asks.

“If we did, he would have no reason to tell us anything, he could just disappear. By keeping him on the case, he has to tell us when things happen, and maybe he will slip up, tell us something he doesn’t mean too. And it’s a small town; we take the Sheriff off the case, every other member of law enforcement may refuse to help us.” Hotch explains.

Stilinski returns, the smile no longer on his face. “We got good news and bad. The good news, we unlocked the rest of the list. The bad news, one of the names was just found dead. Apparently suicide, Parrish, Reid and Rossi are looking into it.”

Chapter Text

“What are the new names?” Hotch asks.

Stilinski reads them off his phone. “Satomi Ito, 10m, Malia Hale, 4m, Liam Dunbar, 3m, Meredith Walker, 1m, Liz Moore, 1m, Patrick Clark, 1m, Bree Leverett, 250k, Kaitlyn Schaar, 250k, Genevive Carey, 250k, Angelique Fain, 250k, Lorilee Rohr, 250k, Brittani Kegley, 250k. I’ve sent the list to the station, someone will give it to your agents there.”

“I recognize some of those names.” Prentiss says. “This is Satomi Ito’s group, but she’s not here. Are Malia and Liam safe?”

“They are safe. I arranged protection for them as soon as I saw the list. If you want to talk to Liam, he and Scott are actually not far. Maybe ten minutes at a solid pace.” Stilinski says.

“Take us there.” Hotch orders.

The three of them start the trek, muscles already sore from the previous hike.

“Hang on.” Prentiss says, slightly out of breath from the exercise. “What’s Malia’s last name?”

“It’s Tate. Why do you ask?” Stilinski replies.

“That wasn’t the name you said when you were reading the list.” Prentiss says.

“What?” Stilinski stops and pulls out his phone. “Huh. Well I’ll be. It says Hale here.”

“So that name isn’t referring to Malia Tate, it’s someone else.” Hotch says.

“Maybe not.” Stilinski quickly texts someone. “Malia is adopted, closed adoption, but-“ he looks at a text he just received. “According to my sources, Peter Hale had a daughter who was put up for adoption. Same age as Malia, and look at this.” He shows them two photos on his phone, one of Peter and one of Malia. “There is some resemblance between them.”

“That’s hardly conclusive evidence.” Hotch says as they begin walking again.

“It isn’t.” Stilinski easily agrees. “But what’s that saying? ‘There is no such thing as coincidence.’ I’m inclined to believe that Malia Tate is Malia Hale.”

Hotch and Prentiss discreetly fall behind and lower their voices so Stilinski can’t hear them.

“Did you notice what I did?” Hotch asks.

Prentiss shakes her head.

“Scott McCall, Lydia Martin, Kira Yukimura, Malia Tate, and Liam Dunbar. Who is missing from that group?”

Prentiss thinks for a moment then replies. “Stiles Stilinski. Everyone says he and Scott are inseparable, and that he is close friends with the rest of that group, but his name is not on the list, and we haven’t managed to talk to him yet, or even see him yet.”

“It’s as if he is avoiding us.” Hotch says. “If he is involved in this, his father might know about it. That could explain what he is hiding.”

“But why would Stiles want to kill all his friends, and all these other people?”

“I don’t know, but we need to talk to him.” Hotch replies. “Let’s see if we can catch him before school first thing tomorrow.”

Prentiss nods in agreement and the two of them catch up to Stilinski.

A few minutes later they reach Scott and Liam. A paramedic is just finishing packing up her stuff and joins them. “Liam is exhausted, a little bit dehydrated, and probably very hungry, but other than that, he’s healthy. If he had been there any longer, or if it was any colder, he’d have hypothermia. He’s a lucky kid.”

Hotch and Prentiss make their way towards the boys while Stilinski exchanges pleasantries with the paramedic.

Scott is sitting on the ground, against the side of a well, holding Liam tightly against his chest. Liam is allowing himself to be held, leaning against Scott and shivering slightly despite the blanket around his shoulders.

“How are you doing?” Prentiss asks the boys. At the sound of her voice Scott pulls Liam closer to him. Liam whispers something to him, and Scott loosens his arms just enough that Liam can turn to face the agents.

“I’m ok.” Liam says despite obviously not being ok. “Scott saved me.”

“Can you tell me what happened?” Pretiss asks gently. Liam turns to Scott who gives him an encouraging nod and takes a deep breath.

As Parrish pulls up to Eichen house, Reid can’t help but feel unsettled. He knows better than to judge by appearances, but the place looks like every psychiatric facility in every horror movie, just with a tiny bit more life and color in it. Rossi is also uneasy, and he wouldn’t be able to say exactly why if asked. He makes sure to stay close to the youngest member of the team, a steady, comforting presence that he knows the doctor needs.

And if it makes him feel a little better to have a teammate nearby, well, no one needs to know.

Parrish doesn’t appear uncomfortable, but as he leads them to the orderly they apparently need to talk to, he doesn’t say a word.

The heavy silence is frequently broken by screams and cries, doors opening and closing, creaking floors, and other sounds.

None of the sounds seem to come from nearby, and all of them are impossible to locate the source of.

“Back so soon deputy?” A man in nurse's scrubs, with a number of keys on his belt, as well as a heavy duty taser, and a night stick which looks more like a club, speaks. “If you like it here so much, you should get a room!”

The man laughs at his own joke, uncaring that he is the only one who finds it funny.

The sound sends chills down the agents’ backs as it echoes unnaturally around.

“No thank you.” Parrish replies, not allowing the man to see any fear. “We need to see Meredith.”

“Visiting hours are over.” He replies uncaringly.

“Her life may be in danger.” Parrish argues.

“Visiting hours are over, permanently.” The man smiles again, and all are glad when he doesn’t start laughing. “Meredith killed herself just a few hours ago. Her body has already been cremated, and her room cleaned. There is nothing here for you.”

“Already?” Reid asks. “Has there been an investigation into her death?”

“Yeah. She’s dead, strangled herself with a bedsheet. The case is open and shut.” The man replies causally, as if her death is a minor thing.

“Is it usual to cremate so quickly?” Reid asks.

“Usually it takes a little longer, but with that mass killing out in the forest, we had to empty our morgue. We are used as overflow when there are too many bodies for the hospital morgue.”

“Did Meredith say or do anything unusual before her death?” Rossi asks.

The man doesn’t even bother to think before he answers. “Nope.”

“Did anything unusual happen before her death?” Rossi presses. “Any visitors, did she write a note, anything?”

“Well now that you say that, she did have a few visitors, ain’t that right Deputy?” The nurse asks with a cruel smile. “There were two kids, came in with the deputy here, practically strong armed me into letting them see her. She was quite distressed when they left.”

“Thank you for your time. If you see or hear anything suspicious, please let us know.” Rossi hands a card to the man and turns to leave, barely restraining the urge to run instead of walk casually. Reid and Parrish are equally uneasy.

“When you talk to Mr. Stilinski, remind him it’s time for his daddy to pay the bills!” The nurse shouts after them.

“What was that?” Rossi asks flatly once the three of them are in Parrish’s cruiser and have gotten their wits about them.

Parrish sighs heavily and rubs a hand down his face. “I can’t believe she’s gone.”

“What is your relationship with Meredith Walker?” Rossi asks, slightly more gently.

“We weren’t close or anything, I’ve only met her a couple times, but she was helping out with the case. She’s the one who gave us the second key.” Parrish replies.

“How did she know it?” Reid asks.

“I have no idea.” Parish stares out the window, deep in thought. “I was there earlier to try to get the third key. But she wouldn’t tell us. She kept saying ‘he’ wouldn’t let her.”

“Who is he?” Reid asks.

“I don’t know.” Parrish replies.

“Who was with you?” Rossi asks.

Parrish hesitates, but eventually answers with a sigh. “Stiles Stilinski and Lydia Martin.”

“Why on earth did you bring two teenagers with you?” Rossi asks in utter confusion.

“It was their idea. I know I shouldn’t have, but my name is on that list too. If there was any chance that taking them to talk to her would give a clue that might solve this case, then I had to do it.” Parrish explains.

“If Meredith didn’t give you the third key, then who did?” Reid asks.

“I don’t know. Maybe the same person who found the first key.”

“I was out on a run with Mason.” Liam speaks, exhaustion coloring his voice. “I ran ahead, and suddenly I was hit by a vehicle. I wasn’t badly injured, just a bloody nose, but that stunned me enough for Garrett to put a blade in my face, it was on the end of his lacrosse stick I think, and he made me get into the vehicle. Then he brought me out here and dumped me inside there.”

Liam shudders as he looks at the well and takes another deep breath. “I tried to escape, tried to climb up the walls, but I wasn’t strong enough. I was about to give up hope when Scott found me.”

Scott hugs Liam closer to him. “You’re ok, you’re ok.” He looks up at the agents. “Is it alright if I take Liam home now?”

“One more question, Scott. Where were you after you left the station this afternoon?” Prentiss says not unkindly.

“I was searching for Liam.” Scott stands up and pulls Liam to his feet as well and starts to walk away without expanding on his answer.

“Where did you search?” Hotch asks.

Scott shrugs. “Here and there. I can’t remember exactly.”

“How did you find him?” Prentiss asks.

“I heard him yelling.” Scott replies and without further comment disappears from sight with Liam.

Hotch turns to Sheriff Stilinski. “You said you arranged protection for Liam. I don’t see anyone protecting him.”

Stilinski grins. “The most dangerous threats are the ones you don’t know about, so I figured the best protection is invisible. If I put obvious bodyguards on Liam and the others, then if they got attacked again, the attackers would first take out the guards, then the kids. This way if they get attacked, the guards will take out the attackers before they see them.”

“That… that’s actually pretty smart.” Prentiss says.

“Thank you.” Stilinski grins proudly. “Now let’s go, I’d like to get at least some sleep tonight.”

“Of course.” Hotch agrees. “But could you drop us off at the station? I’d like to go over these new developments with my team before we turn in for the night.”

“Sure.” Stilinski says as they start walking away. “I’ll make sure to bring coffee in the morning. But try to get some sleep at some point, all right? Sleep deprivation is never beneficial to investigations.”

“We’ll try.” Prentiss says unconvincingly.

The team gathers around the table in the conference room, everyone looking like they would much rather be asleep.

“Let’s make this quick.” Hotch says and everyone agrees without hesitation.

He and Prentiss quickly fill in the others on what the bodies in the woods, as well as the alive status of Liam and Scott, and Reid and Rossi tell about Chris Argent and Meredith Walker.

“Did you learn anything about the new names on the list?” Hotch asks Morgan and JJ.

“We learned a few interesting things.” Morgan replies. “Satomi Ito is either well over one hundred years old, or is using an alias.”

“Some people live to be over one hundred.” Reid says.

“True.” Morgan agrees. “But those people normally live in nursing homes, not trapeze around the forests dodging professional assassins.”

“We couldn’t find anyone by the name Malia Hale.” JJ says.

“Stilinski thinks that Malia Tate is Malia Hale.” Prentiss says. “Apparently Peter Hale put a daughter up for adoption the same time Malia was adopted.”

“That’s pretty thin.” Reid says.

“I asked Garcia to look into it, it took quite a bit of digging, but she confirmed it.” Hotch says.

“How did the unsub know that?” Reid asks.

“And how did Stilinski know?” Prentiss asks.

“That’s two more questions to add to our long list.” Rossi says.

“We already know about Liam Dunbar, but Meredith Walker is interesting.” JJ says. “Apparently she was a participant in studies organized and funded by Lorraine Martin, Lydia Martin’s grandmother. Studies focusing on the paranormal, specifically on predicting death. Lorraine Martin was also admitted to Eichen house, where she died of suicide.”

“Suicide, just like Meredith.” Morgan says.

“That’s probably just a coincidence.” Rossi says unconvincingly.

“We didn’t learn much about the other names on the list, just that most of them are part of Satomi Ito’s group.” Morgan speaks. “One name is interesting though, Lorilee Rohr, sister of Brett Talbot and foster daughter of Satomi Ito.”

“Satomi Ito is a foster mother? Is that even legal at her age?” Hotch asks.

“Normally it wouldn’t be, but because Lorilee and Brett are both teenagers, an exception was made.” Morgan says.

“Brett still hasn’t been found, and Lorilee hasn’t been seen since he went missing.” JJ continues speaking. “Lorilee is only 13 years old.”

“We‘ll find her.” Hotch states, but everyone knows that it may not be possible. “What was the key for this part of the list?”

“The key is Derek.” Morgan says.

“As in Derek Hale?” Hotch asks.

“Possibly, he is obviously connected to the list.” Morgan says.

“But none of the other keys are actually on the list.” Reid says. “And the first key is dead, and the second probably is as well. Does that mean Derek is dead?”

“Probably not.” JJ says. “Derek Hale was spotted at the hospital not long ago bringing in an unidentified woman suffering from a gunshot wound.”

“Do you think that’s related to the case?” Hotch asks.

“Maybe, but Derek didn’t stick around to talk to the cops, and the woman is still in surgery, she won’t be able to talk with us for a few hours, so there is no way to know.” JJ says.

“We’ll talk to her first thing in the morning.” Hotch says. “But now, we all need some sleep.”

The team gratefully file out of the room, and when they get to the hotel, they collapse in their beds.

Early the next morning Hotch is woken by his phone ringing. “Hotch.”

“We got a situation.” Stilinski says through the phone, sounding stressed and afraid. “Meet me at the school ASAP.”

Stilinski hangs up and Hotch gets out of bed.

A moment later his phone dings with a text from Stilinski which reads. ‘You might want to bring Dr. Reid.’

Chapter Text

Hotch wakes up Rossi, Reid, and Prentiss, choosing to let JJ and Morgan keep sleeping.

“Stilinski just called, something is going on at the school, he asked for me and Reid to meet him there.”

“What’s going on?” Reid asks.

“I don’t know. But Stilinski sounded scared.” Hotch turns to Rossi and Prentiss. “Whatever is going on there is taking up all of his attention, so now is a perfect time to snoop around the station a little bit. See what you can find out, then locate and talk to Stiles Stilinski, and talk to the gunshot victim at the hospital, see if she is related to the case. And see if there is a cause of death for the victims found in the woods last night.”

The two agent’s eyes widen at the length of the list, but they don’t hesitate before agreeing.

Reid and Hotch arrive at the high school and see the place surrounded by police and the CDC.

They quickly find Stilinski in the chaos.

“What’s going on?” Hotch asks.

“I don’t know.” Stilinski sounds frustrated and scared. “They won’t tell me anything, my son is in there!”

“But it’s Saturday, what’s he doing at school?” Reid asks.

“He’s taking the PSAT, so is Scott and Kira and Malia. Whatever is going on in there is related to the dead pool, I know it is!”

“We’ll get to the bottom of this.” Hotch assures the frazzled man.

“Thank you.” Stilinski relaxes a little bit.

“You said Stiles, Scott, Kira, and Malia are in there, what about Lydia?” Reid asks.

“She took the PSAT previously.”

“Why did you specifically ask that I bring Reid along?” Hotch asks.

“Dr. Reid, right?” The sheriff asks with a sly look in his eyes.

“Yes, but my doctorates have nothing to do with medical science.” Reid replies.

“I know that, and you know that.” Stilinski says. “But they don’t know that.”

“Are you suggesting Reid lie to the CDC to get information?” Hotch asks in surprise.

“Lie, no. Let them make their own assumptions and use that to our advantage, yes. My son is in there, I need to know what is happening.” Stilinski explains. “Besides, I’d bet my hat that even though your doctorates are in other things, you know a lot more than myself and Agent Hotch know about medical stuff. You seem like the kind of guy who reads medical papers and journals for fun.”

“But you aren’t wearing a hat.” Reid says, unable to dispute anything else the sheriff said. Hotch and Stilinski can’t help but chuckle at him.

“Go see what you can find out Reid.” Hotch orders with a smile and the doctor heads towards the chaos.

“You have protection on Scott, Malia, and Kira, right?” Hotch asks and Stilinski nods. “Can they tell us what is going on?”

Stilinski shakes his head. “The CDC cut off all communication from inside the school. And if there actually is some kind of anthrax or something that the CDC is fighting, then I don’t know how much use the protection I have arranged is.”

Reid comes back a few minutes later. “There is definitely something going on, it isn’t a false alarm. They are still working on figuring out what exactly, but teachers and students are falling unconscious at an alarming rate and are covered in rashes they didn’t have before arriving at school.”

“How serious is it?” Stilinski asks in fear. “Has anyone died?”

“No one has died.” They all hear the unspoken ‘yet’. “But the CDC is doing everything they can. And I convinced them to let me go inside the school and bring a comm link to keep you updated.”

“Good job Reid. Stay safe.” Hotch puts a hand on the younger man’s shoulder.

“I will.”

The two men watch from a distance as Reid gets suited up and disappears inside the school.

“How’s it looking in there?” Hotch asks.

“It looks like the CDC is in charge.” Reid chuckles.

There are a few tense minutes or silence before Reid speaks again. “I have eyes on Kira, Scott, Stiles, and Malia. They appear fine so far, concerned, obviously, but holding up well. I’m going to take a look at some of the victims, get a better idea of what we are dealing with.”

It takes a few minutes, but Reid speaks again. “Victims are feverish, have a veiny, blistering rash, and one is unconscious, but it doesn’t appear life threatening.”

“What color is the rash?”

“Red and purple, why?”

Hotch takes a few steps away from Stilinski. “The bodies in the forest last night, they had black veiny rashes.”

Reid inhales sharply. “If those bodies were killed by whatever is making these people sick…”

“Then we have a major problem.”

Rossi and Prentiss arrive at a nearly deserted Sheriff’s station. “Where is everyone?”

A passing deputy answers. “Sheriff ordered most of the force to the school to enforce the quarantine.”

“Quarantine?”

“Yeah, it’s a whole thing, apparently the CDC has been called.”

The deputy hurries away to do something, leaving no one in sight. Rossi and Prentiss take the opportunity to slip into the Sheriff’s office.

They carefully search the office, but the most incriminating thing they find is some fast food wrappers shoved deep in a drawer. There are no secret plans for world domination, no list of suspects or evidence he didn’t share, and no information about his CI's, the ones he got the dead pool from and the computer from The Mute from. There are only normal case files.

“He’s probably too smart to leave anything suspicious here, he has been an officer of the law for years.” Prentiss says and Rossi agrees.

The two of them head to the conference room, and look at the evidence covering multiple evidence boards and every square inch of real estate.

“In all my years, I have never seen a case this complicated.” Rossi says. “There is too much evidence, too many victims, and too many unsubs. Too many connections, it’s impossible to tell which ones are important.”

“We will figure it out.” Prentiss says determinedly. “And when we do, you’ll write a best seller about it!”

They both chuckle halfheartedly at that and start to look over evidence they have already looked at again.

A few minutes later Rossi’s phone rings, he puts it on speaker.

“Hi Hotch. How’s it going at the school?” Rossi says.

“Not so good.” Hotch sighs. “The CDC has the school on lockdown. I’m afraid whatever is going on here may have something to do with what happened to the people we found in the woods. Get to the hospital and see if there are any preliminary results on the autopsies. And don’t bother trying to find Stiles Stilinski, he’s in the quarantine.”

“Prentiss and Rossi are headed to the hospital to look at the bodies from last night and see if there is a cause of death yet.” Hotch says to Reid. “Anything new there?”

“More people are showing symptoms, and Scott spent an unusually long time in the bathroom, he didn’t look so well, I think he is trying to hide the fact he is sick, which doesn’t make much sense considering the situation, but Scott never makes sense. Nothing else new. We are getting blood samples from everyone now.”

Suddenly there is a commotion as a doctor rushes out of the school, surrounded by other doctors. Stilinski runs over while Hotch stays puts.

“Reid, what's going on?”

JJ and Morgan wake up when the sun is already high in the sky. A quick call to Garcia informs them of the current situation, and they go to the sheriff station to look over the evidence, again.

JJ puts down the list of names she has read a dozen times with a sigh. “What happened last night?”

Morgan doesn’t answer immediately, his eyes glued to an autopsy report he isn’t actually reading.

“If what I saw was caused by a head injury, then why did I see what I saw before I hit my head?” JJ asks.

Morgan looks up from the report. “I once asked Reid if he believed in ghosts. Do you know what he said?”

JJ shakes her head no.

“He said some sciency stuff explaining how most supposed ghost sightings are just hallucinations. But then he said that science can’t explain everything. That not every sighting can be explained away. That there are things out that can’t be explained. At least not yet.”

“He once said something about magic and science.” JJ reminisces. “I think it was ‘sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic’, or something like that.”

“I’ve heard that one too.” Morgan says. “I honestly don’t know exactly what happened last night. I know what I saw. But what I saw didn’t make sense. But that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, or there is no explanation.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m not sure what I’m saying.”

The seconds before Reid answers feel like minutes. “It was the strangest thing, they were getting a blood sample from Kira, when the doctor taking it got a hole burned in her suit. But that’s not possible! Those suits are pretty strong, a little bit of static electricity wouldn’t break them, and Kira wasn’t holding a taser or anything like that!”

“Calm down Reid, I’m sure there is a logical explanation.” Hotch can see Agent McCall join Stilinski at the door of the school and the two of them start talking in low tones.

“You’re right, I’m sorry.”

“Do you still have eyes on the kids?”

“Yeah. Uhhh. They should be around here somewhere. I just saw them! Give me a few minutes.”

A few minutes pass as Reid searches the school.

“I haven’t found them yet, but I did find a map of the school on Mr. Yukimura’s desk. They didn’t leave any helpful notes though.”

“Are they trying to find a way out of the school?”

“I don’t know. But if they are, they won’t get far, the sheriff and CDC have the place locked down, and all the students are showing symptoms now. It won’t be long till they are too sick to get far.”

“Keep looking, if they get worse and the medics can’t find them…”

“I know.”

A teenage girl who Hotch recognizes as Lydia Martin comes up to the roadblocks keeping onlookers away. Stilinski waves her through then ducks awake to speak with her in hushed tones.

“Everything alright?” Hotch asks when Stilinski returns to him.

“No.” The sheriff replies honestly. “My son and his friends are in there and they might be dying.”

“I’m sorry, if it was my son…”

Hotch’s phone rings and steps away from Stilinski to answer it. “Hotch.”

He returns a few minutes later.

“Any news?” Stilinski asks.

“Yeah. Our gunshot victim has disappeared, and we have some preliminary results from the autopsies of the victims from the woods.”

“It's the same thing as what's going on here, isn’t it?”

“We don’t know that for sure yet. The CDC still has to do some tests.” Hotch says, knowing that his words are weak and unbelievable.

There is heavy silence between the two of them after that, neither knowing what to say.

“Hotch.” Reid speaks. “Someone just saw Stiles, said he wasn’t looking well. I’m not too far behind, I should be able to catch up to him. And we’ve noticed something strange, it could be nothing, but of the four adults in the school at the time of the outbreak, only one is sick, and all the students are sick, and the sick adult was the first one to fall ill.”

“That can’t be a coincidence.”

“This school has way too many rooms and halls, I have no idea where Stiles went from here.” Reid’s voice betrays his frustration.

“Keep looking.” Hotch orders needlessly.

Stilinski paces as they wait. Five, maybe ten minutes later there is a sharp, loud sound from inside the school and Stilinski freezes in place. “That was a gunshot.”

“Reid, what’s going on?” Hotch demands urgently.

Chapter Text

“Reid, what’s going on?” Hotch demands urgently.

“I don’t know Hotch, I’m checking it out now.”

A few tense minutes later Reid speaks again. “Everything is ok. According to Agent McCall, Simon, the proctor for the PSAT, had a gun against Stiles’s head and was about to shoot. McCall shot Simon, and Stiles ran.”

“What is McCall doing in there?” Hotch asks in surprise.

“He was afraid for his son, wanted to see for himself what was happening. I’m searching for Stiles now.”

“Is Stiles ok?” Stilinski demands fearfully.

“He doesn’t have a gunshot wound in him.” Reid says. “But McCall said he looked feverish, and he just witnessed the death of someone who was about to kill him, so ‘ok’ probably isn’t the best word to describe him.”

“I have to get in there, I have to find my son.” Stilinski says, practically vibrating in concern.

“It’s still quarantined, you can’t do that.” Hotch says and prepares himself to hold back Stilinski if needed.

“The quarantine might be lifted soon.” Reid says, his awe and relief in his voice. “I just passed the room where they are treating those affected, and all the patients are up and about!”

Rossi and Prentiss are on their way out of the hospital, having gotten all the information they could about the missing gunshot victim, and the results of autopsy tests.

“How does a lupine virus kill a human?” Rossi asks.

“I have no idea.” Prentiss replies. “But honestly I’m not surprised at this point.”

The sound of gunshots can suddenly be heard echoing through the hospital.

Rossi and Prentiss pull out their own guns and make their way towards the source.

They find a blonde woman lying dead on the ground in front of an elevator, a gun having fallen out of her hand, and a mortal wound on her neck.

Sure enough, the CDC takes down the quarantine not twenty minutes later.

Hotch makes a mental note to ask Reid if that makes any sense, he’s not a doctor, but twenty minutes seems awfully quick, aren’t people normally quarantined for days after something like this?

Hotch follows Stilinski as he and Lydia Martin press through the numerous people removing their bright yellow suits.

Lydia has a tearful reunion with her mother, apparently one of the teachers who was supervising the PSATs, as Stilinski and Hotch search for Stiles and Reid. They find Reid first, and leave him to discuss the finer points of viruses and biology with some of the CDC doctors.

It takes longer to find Stiles, but they eventually find him and Scott in the basement. Stiles’s face splattered with blood, and he is clinging tightly to Scott.

The sheriff envelopes the two of them in a fierce, protective hug.

It takes a few minutes before Stilinski loosens his hold on the boys, not completely letting go of them.

“How are you doing?” Hotch asks the teenagers.

“Fine.” Stiles sniffs and wipes his face, mixing tears with blood splatter.

“We are ok.” Scott forces a smile onto his pale face. “We survived, didn’t we?”

“I’m glad to hear that.” Hotch says. “Is it alright if I ask you a few questions?”

Scott looks to Stiles who gives him an exhausted shake of the head.

“Can we do that tomorrow?” Scott asks. “It has been quite a day, we’d really like to just go home.”

“I understand. But it’s important to do this while the memories are still fresh.” Hotch says kindly.

“Fine.” The sheriff answers for the boys. “But make it quick, understand?”

“I understand.” Hotch replies. “Can you tell us what happened today?”

“We arrived here for the PSATs, and the test started with no problems.” Scott speaks. “Then Sydney collapsed out of her chair. Mrs. Martin checked her over, and then left the room, and the next thing I know the CDC is here!”

“You and your friends disappeared while the CDC was getting blood tests from everyone. Can you tell me about that?” Hotch asks.

“We know that there have been threats to our lives. It wasn’t a coincidence that this happened while three of us were here. We were concerned that this might have something to do with that, so we decided the best course of action would be to hide. If someone wanted to kill us, all they would have to do is put on a CDC suit and put poison or something in an IV.” Scott says.

“You weren’t afraid that whatever was making everyone sick would kill you?” Hotch asks.

“Sure we were. But when we hid, we were more afraid of other threats.” Scott says.

“When you hid, where were you? No one could find you.”

Scott smiles at that. “It wouldn’t be a very good hiding place if we told you.”

“I suppose it wouldn’t.” Hotch replies. “But Stiles didn’t stay there, did you?”

Stiles shakes his head. “Scott and the others were getting worse. I had to do something.”

“Why you?”

“I’m not on the list, I figured that whoever wants to kill them doesn’t care about me.” Stiles answers.

“Do you know why that is?”

“Not a clue.” Stiles says casually, but Hotch gets the feeling he isn’t being honest.

“You said you went to get help, but several doctors and medics saw you, and you didn’t ask any of them for help.”

“I wasn’t sure anyone could be trusted, so I decided to do a little investigating.”

“Did you learn anything?”

“Mrs. Martin said that the only adult who got sick was Coach. So I went to his office to search for clues.” Stiles says. “I noticed he was stamping approval of permission slips, and he ran out of ink, halfway through the approval stamps were in black instead of red. Then I remembered that we all used black ink for our fingerprints before the test. I put two and two together, and that’s when Simon found me.” Stiles shudders and leans closer to Scott and his father.

“What happened next?” Hotch asks gently.

“He threatened me with a gun. He wanted to know where Scott, Malia, and Kira were. I refused to tell him. He said he would count to three and then shoot me, he pressed the gun right up against my head.” Scott and Stilinski tighten their holds on Stiles. “If Agent McCall hadn’t been there, I would be dead.”

“It’s a good thing he was there.” Hotch says. “What happened next?”

“I went to find Scott and the others. McCall told me that everyone was suddenly getting better, so I didn’t bother finding any help. And sure enough Scotty and the others were also getting better!” Stiles clings tightly to Scott, burying his face in his neck and Scott rubs his back comfortingly.

“Can we go now?” Scott asks.

“You may go.” Hotch says and the boys and Stilinski quickly leave.

Chapter Text

The team gathers around the conference table, completely exhausted yet again by the day’s events.

“I don’t understand it.” Reid says. “The virus that killed the people in the woods and the virus that infected the people at the school were the same thing, but those people died and these ones didn’t.”

“Maybe it’s because these were teenagers? They are stronger?” Morgan tries.

Reid shakes his head. “The adult who got infected at the school didn’t die, and a few of the victims in the woods were teenagers.”

“Those at the school received medical help, those in the woods didn’t.” Hotch tries.

“Minor medical help, just some fluids and painkillers, things that helped, but did not make the difference between life and death, they would have survived without those things, and in the case of Scott, Malia, Kira, and Stiles, they did.” Reid argues.

“Does the CDC have any theories?” Rossi asks.

“Not yet, but they are working on some.” Reid answers.

“Then don’t worry about it, just let them do their job.” Hotch says. “The man responsible is dead, Simon has been identified as a professional assassin known as The Chemist. It’s been confirmed that the inkpad was used to spread the virus, and agents and the CDC are searching everything he owns as we speak.”

“The Chemist, The Mute, The Orphans, what is with these names?” Morgan asks. “What’s next, The Killer?”

“Don’t forget The Benefactor.” Reid says with a light chuckle.

“The shooter from the hospital has been identified.” Rossi says. “She’s known as The Woman. Surprise surprise, also a professional killer.”

“Security camera footage doesn’t show exactly what happened, there is a frankly concerning amount of blind spots in that building, but it does show Derek Hale and someone who looks suspiciously like Satomi Ito in the vicinity just after the shooting, Derek Hale appears to have a gunshot wound to the abdomen, and he walked out of the hospital without getting it treated.” Prentiss says.

“Hold on, this guy gets shot, in the hospital, doesn’t get it checked out?” JJ asks. “What is wrong with him?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.” Rossi says. “He hasn’t been seen since, we have a BOLO out for him and the woman now.”

“The woman? Don’t you mean Satomi Ito?” Morgan asks.

“We aren’t certain she is Satomi Ito.” Prentiss says as she pulls out two photos. “This photo is the last known photo of her, it was taken over 40 years ago. This is a still from the security footage. Notice anything?”

“She hasn’t aged a day.” Reid says in awe. “But that's impossible!”

“This is Beacon Hills.” Rossi shrugs. “Impossible seems to be the norm.”

“Did you get any results back from the water tests?” Hotch asks Reid.

“Yeah, apparently there is nothing in the water.” Reid replies tiredly.

“Did you talk with Stiles?” Prentiss asks Hotch.

“I did.” Hotch replies. “Either he is an amazing liar, or he cares too much about his friends to kill them.”

“So we are back to square one.” Morgan says.

“Not quite, we still don’t know why Stiles isn’t on the list when his entire friend group is, that has got to be important.” Hotch says. “But for now, it’s getting late, we should get some rest.”

The next day dawns bright and beautiful.

And suspiciously quiet.

The team heads to the sheriff’s station, refreshed from sleeping in after not being awoken by a call about dead bodies.

They go to the conference and throw some theories around, try to look at all the evidence from new angles, try to see if there are any connections they missed, any connections that are more useful than other connections.

They come up with zilch.

Outside the room, the deputies are busy, but not overwhelmed.

The sheriff checks on their progress, then chats with his deputies, presumably about their current cases.

The background noise of papers being handled, phones ringing, and radios crackling is almost soothing. Outside the Sheriff Station the traffic is slow, a leisurely Sunday day.

“It’s too quiet.” Reid speaks.

“Why’d you have to do that!” Morgan exclaims. “Now we are done for, you’ve jinxed us!”

“Jinxes aren’t real.” Reid counters.

“In Beacon Hills they might be.” Prentiss says.

“Look at that.” Rossi motions out the window at the deputies, then out the other window at the citizens, a thoughtful expression on his face. “They are too calm.”

“What do you mean?” JJ asks.

“I’ve been to a lot of cities, and a lot of small towns.” Rossi says. “When we, the FBI, arrive to investigate multiple murders, when over a dozen bodies are found in the woods, when the local high school gets quarantined by the CDC, those sorts of things put people on edge. But everyone here is going on as if it’s just another day.”

Hotch sends them all out to look at crime screens again, and interview more people.

They don’t learn anything new or useful.

They congregate in the conference room again, and the unease they feel goes up as the sun goes down.

It’s almost completely dark outside when Parrish barges into the conference room and utters the words that just may break open their case.

“Scott McCall is dead.”

Chapter Text

“Dead? Are you sure?” Hotch can’t help but ask. He knows the boy’s life was in danger, has known since they first uncovered the list, but the Sheriff was so confident he could protect him, and Scott himself was so full of life, and had survived numerous attempts on his life.

But, despite how awful the death of a teenage boy is, maybe it will help the investigation.

Maybe it will inspire Scott’s friends and the sheriff to start telling the truth.

“How?” Morgan asks.

“We’ll have to wait for the ME to figure out the cause of death.” Parrish says, his grief for the boy trying to break through his professional facade. “He was found unresponsive on his bed, rushed to the hospital by ambulance, and he pronounced dead on arrival. The doctor who pronounced him says it looks like some kind of heart failure.”

“Some kind of heart failure?” Rossi asks in disbelief.

“I know, I know.” Parrish sighs. “The chances of a healthy teenage boy suddenly having a heart attack are incredibly slim, but that’s all we know right now.”

“Where is the Sheriff?” Hotch asks.

“He’s out investigating a separate case, I tried calling him, but the area he is in doesn’t always have good cell service.” Parrish says.

“Find him.” Hotch orders. “Rossi, Prentiss, talk to Scott’s friends and family. Morgan, Reid, go to the hospital, talk to the doctor about the cause of death. JJ and I will look at the crime scene.”

“How could weird flashes of light kill someone?” JJ asks after she and Hotch interview some neighbors and learn that shortly before the ambulance arrived, there were multiple bright flashes of light from Scott’s bedroom.

“Maybe he has, had epilepsy? Other than that, I have no idea.” Hotch replies, his frustration barely staying behind his professional facade. “Look around, what’s wrong here?”

JJ looks around the empty, quiet crime scene. “There is no one here.”

“Exactly. Scott is a popular guy, news of his death would have spread by now, why do we not have all his friends and neighbors trying to get into here and demand answers from us?” Hotch asks.

“It’s certainly odd.” JJ agrees.

At the hospital, grief is palatable in the air.

They find Dr. Geyer in a break room.

“Dr. Geyer?” Morgan asks. “You were the attending physician when Scott McCall was brought in?”

“Yeah.” He clears his throat and wipes his eyes. “That’s me. I’m so sorry I couldn’t save Scott, Melissa’s grief is felt by all of us.”

“I’m sure you did the best you could.” Reid says. “Can you tell us what happened? What was Scott’s cause of death?”

“He was brought in by ambulance, his heart wasn’t beating. We took over from the ambulance crew, continuing CPR, and I shocked him, twice. But it was no use. We couldn’t get his heart beating again and I had to call it.”

“Do you have any idea why his heart stopped beating?” Reid asks.

Dr. Geyer shakes his head. “No idea. For a healthy boy of his age, it doesn’t make sense. I didn’t see any contusions or needle marks, but maybe I missed something. We’ll have to wait for the autopsy.”

“Could we see his body?” Reid asks.

“Sure, follow me.” Dr. Geyer brings them to the morgue, but doesn’t step inside. “He saved my son’s life, did you know? He’s the one who found Liam in that well. It’s not right that he’s dead.”

“We’ll do everything we can to find out who is responsible and get justice, I can assure you.” Morgan tells him.

Dr. Geyer nods and leaves.

The two agents pull out the drawer Scott’s body is on and look at it.

“I know I shouldn’t be surprised, we’ve known for a while he was in danger, but it still seems unreal that he is actually dead.” Morgan says.

“I know.” Reid agrees as he starts to look the body over for clues. Scott’s flesh is cold to the touch, already chilled by the cold temperature of the morgue. His skin is pale and lifeless, a stark difference from the pale but full of life he was last night. “I don’t see any obvious signs of foul play, no bruises or needle marks.”

“Maybe some kind of poison that he breathed in or touched?” Morgan asks.

“Maybe.” Reid frowns. “What if it's some kind of delayed reaction from the virus yesterday?”

“Is that possible?” Morgan asks in concern, stepping away from the body.

“It shouldn’t be.” Reid stares off into the distance as he thinks. “But it also shouldn’t be possible to alter the Canine Distemper Virus to infect humans. I’m going to request that the ME send samples to the CDC for comparison, just in case.”

“Good idea.”

“I get people not wanting to talk to the FBI.” Prentiss says. “But disappearing into thin air like this, I don’t understand.”

“Garcia says that Stiles Stilinski’s cell phone is somewhere in the hospital, we just have to find him.” Rossi says.

“But we’ve searched the whole place from top to bottom, no one has seen Stiles, or Mrs. McCall, or any of Scott’s associates.” Prentiss says. “Something ain’t right.”

“I agree.” Rossi replies. “Garcia also said that Chris Argent called Stiles just a few minutes ago, what is the relationship between a weapons dealer and the teenage son of the sheriff?”

“Maybe we can ask him.” Prentiss discreetly motions to said weapon’s dealer as he enters the hallway a few dozen feet in front of them.

“Mr. Argent?” Rossi asks the man when they catch up to him.

“Yes?” At first glance Mr. Argent looks surprised to see them, but the profilers can tell his surprise is fake. It’s well done, but Mr. Argent knew they would be here. “Can I help you?”

“What are you doing here?” Prentiss asks.

“I heard about Scott.” Grief flashes over his face. “I wanted, no, I needed to see for myself that it was true.”

“Why?” Rossi asks. “Why do you care about Scott McCall?”

“I’m sure you are aware that Scott dated my daughter, and that he was there when she died.” Mr. Argent clears his throat and looks away for a moment to regain his composure. “I care about him because my daughter cared about him. Things didn’t work out romantically between them, but they remained friends. We bonded over our grief for her.”

“Allison was dating another boy at the time she died, Isaac Lahey, right?” Prentiss asks.

“Yeah.”

“Travel records indicate that you and him flew to France together after Allison’s funeral, why?” Prentiss asks.

Mr. Argent replies. “We wanted to get away. After Allison, this town holds too many memories.”

“It’s a bit unusual for a man and his daughter’s ex boyfriend to go on a trip together, don’t you think?” Rossi asks.

“It may not be the norm.” Mr. Argent concedes. “But I had no one, and Isaac had no one, we only had each other.”

“Where is Isaac now?” Prentiss asks.

“He’s still in France. The change of scenery really did him good and he’s making a life for himself there.”

“Why didn’t you? Why did you come back here?” Rossi asks.

Mr. Argent smiles wryly and puts a hand against his side where a firearm is almost certainly being concealed. “I heard that Kate was back.”

“Who told you?” Prentiss asks.

“Scott did.”

“How did he know about her?” Rossi asks.

“I’m not actually sure.”

“And you just believed him?” Prentiss asks. “You buried your sister, and then when Scott says she might be alive, you rush right back here? Isn’t the idea of your sister rising from the dead a little bit unbelievable?”

“I know how it sounds, people usually don’t just rise from the dead.” Mr. Argent chuckles. “But this is Beacon Hills. Kate is not the first, and will probably not be the last to rise from the dead. And if I’m being honest, I suspected that Kate was alive before Scott told me, he just confirmed it.”

“What do you mean Kate isn’t the first to rise from the dead?” Rossi asks. “What is this, a zombie film?”

“I wish, in most zombie films the undead aren’t as dangerous as they are here.” Mr. Argent says, humor coloring his voice.

“What do you plan to do if you find your sister?” Prentiss asks. “According to your statement the other day, she tried to kill you.”

“I’ll do what needs to be done.” Mr. Argent replies seriously.

“And that is?” Rossi asks.

“Whatever the situation demands.”

“Do you know where Scott’s friends are?” Prentiss asks.

“No idea.”

“Have you had any contact with any of them?” Prentiss asks.

“Yeah, I called Stiles, wanted to ask him a few questions, but he’s too overcome with grief to talk. The rest of them are probably the same.”

“What did you want to ask him?” Rossi asks.

Mr. Argent thinks for a long moment then sighs. “I know about the dead pool. I know my sister is on there, and I know that innocent teenagers are also on there. If there is anything I can do to stop it, to make sure that no one else dies like Scott, then I want to do so.”

“Do you have any idea why your sister and the others are on the list?” Prentiss asks.

“No.”

“Do you know why Stiles Stilinski is not on the list?” Prentiss asks.

“No.”

“The name Allison was the first key to decipher part of the list, do you think there is any connection to your daughter?” Rossi asks.

“It’s certainly possible, but what exactly the connection is, and why, I have no idea.”

“What about the names Aiden and Derek, do they mean anything to you?” Prentiss asks.

Mr. Argent sighs. “My sources say that Aiden is dead, and Derek is dying.”

“Who are your sources?” Rossi asks.

“I can’t tell you that.”

“How did Aiden die?” Rossi asks.

“Same way as Allison.”

“Who killed him?” Rossi asks.

“No idea, witnesses say they were wearing masks.”

“What makes you think Derek is dying?” Prentiss asks.

“Kate kidnapped him a couple weeks ago. I’m not entirely sure what she did to him, not even Derek knows, he was unconscious most of the time, and when he was rescued, he had some difficulties with his memory. But whatever it was that she did, his health has been declining ever since, he is steadily getting weaker. He’s dying.”

“Has he seen a doctor about this?” Rossi asks.

“Yes. The doctor has no idea what is happening to him.” Mr. Argent answers, clearly concerned for Derek.

“The doctors have no idea what is happening to your dad either, is it the same thing?” Prentiss asks.

“No.”

“Any idea what is making your dad sick?” Prentiss asks.

“No.”

“What about what killed these people in the woods and infected the school? Any idea what it was, or if there is any relation to your dad’s illness?” Prentiss asks.

“No.”

“Do you know anything could help the investigation, anything at all?” Rossi asks.

Mr. Argent thinks for a minute. “Nothing that could help you.”

Rossi opens his mouth to speak, but is interrupted by the lights flickering. “What was that?”

“I don’t know.” Mr. Argent frowns and puts a hand on his gun. “But whatever it was, it can’t mean anything good.”

“Something affected the power supply.” Prentiss muses. “Do you know where the source is?”

“What makes you think I know?” Mr. Argent asks.

“You seem to know a lot of things.” Rossi shrugs.

Mr. Argent hesitates, then sighs. “Fine. The generators and stuff should be in the basement. Follow me.”

They start walking, and the lights flicker some more, then turn off.

In the seconds before the emergency generators kick in, Mr. Argent disappears.

Chapter Text

“What was that?” Morgan asks Reid as the lights flicker. The two of them have not yet left the morgue, still waiting to speak to the ME when he arrives.

The lights flicker again, then turn off. “Someone might have done something to the power.” Reid says as the emergency lighting kicks in. “I read the blueprints for this building, the transformers and other power stuff is on the roof.”

“Let’s go.” Morgan takes his gun out of the holster and leads the way.

As the two of them climb the staircase, not wanting to risk the elevator in a time like this, they can hear faint roars echoing down to them.

As they get closer, they can hear crashes, yells, more roars, grunts and yells, the sounds of a fight.

As they open the door to the roof, guns at the ready, they hear someone calling out for Kira, telling her to get up.

They burst onto the roof and see Liam desperately helping a dazed Kira up from the ground. There is a sword on the ground near Kira, and a large human?

It has to be a human, Reid thinks, a human with a bizarre fashion sense, who is getting ready to attack the two teenagers.

The attacker is at least seven feet tall, and wearing only leather and animal bones, his face is obscured by a skull that Reid distantly realizes is that of a bear.

Beside Reid, Morgan tenses and his breathing quickens.

“It’s one of them.” Morgan whispers, the fear emanating from him an unnatural and unsettling difference from his normally fearless and confident agentness.

Reid lifts up his gun and shoots.

“He lied to us.” Prentiss tells Rossi as they finish looking through the basement and not find any power stuff.

“Yes he did.” Rossi says. “Now where is he?”

There is the sound of a loud crash, and the two agents rush towards it with their weapons at the ready.

When they reach the source of the noise, the morgue, they find Mr. Argent picking himself up off the floor, as a woman who is facing away from the agents stalks dangerously towards Mr. Argent.

No one in the room gives the agents standing in the doorway anymore attention than a mere glance.

Stiles Stilinski is there as well, and he puts himself between Mr. Argent and the woman.

“Get out of my way Stiles. I’m taking the body.” She orders.

“Why? Visual confirmation?” Stiles asks, concealing his fear well.

“Don’t worry, handsome. I’m not The Benefactor.” The woman says condescendingly as she continues stalking forward.

“Then what do you want with the body?” Mr. Argent asks, not bothering to conceal his anger.

“I wish I could tell you.” The woman answers causally, not at all afraid of the armed man and the teenager standing between her and the drawer holding Scott McCall’s body.

She gets closer, barely three feet away, and Mr. Argent attacks her.

He puts a gun under her chin and Rossi and Prentiss take that as their cue to enter the room and point their guns at him. Neither Mr. Argent, nor the woman pay them any mind. Stiles gives them a nod of acknowledgement.

“I always forget you carry two.” The woman says fondly.

“Back off!” Mr. Argent demands furiously as the woman continues trying to move forward, despite the gun against her.

“You sure you can pull that trigger fast enough?” She taunts him.

“I don’t want to.” He says, his anger subsiding a little.

“You’re not going to kill me.” She says confidently.

“I’m not going to let you take his body!” Mr. Argent exclaims, his previous anger completely returned.

As the two adults fight a battle of wills, Stiles speaks up. “Okay, well, obviously, you guys have a lot to talk about, so, maybe I saw some coffee, a vending machine, outside.” Stiles awkwardly waves his arms around in the air as he speaks.

The adults ignore him and Mr. Argent speaks, his anger level a little bit lower. “Listen to me, Kate. We have a plan.”

Rossi and Prentiss exchange a look, Kate as in Kate Argent?

“If killing Scott was part of it, you’re worse than me.” She, Kate, says haughtily.

“He’s telling the truth. We’re trying to get to The Benefactor.” Stiles says seriously.

“If you didn’t notice, you’re on that list too.” Mr. Argent says to Kate. “And you’re worth more than most.”

“That’s why I’m here.” She says, a little of her own anger bleeding through.

“Then back off and let us do what we planned!” Mr. Argent pleas.

Mr. Argent turns his wrist so that Kate can see his watch, Rossi and Prentiss can’t see it from the angle they are at.

“Take the Berserkers, and go.” Mr. Argent orders desperately. “Kate, please. We have a plan.”

“And maybe distract the feds while you are at it.” Stiles pipes up. And starts rambling as Kate glares at him. “Just a thought, obviously you don’t have to, you are your own boss and all that, but it would make this next step a lot easier.”

The bullets that exit Reid’s gun do not phase the Berserker.

The Berserker shakes them off as if they are styrofoam nerf bullets.

Morgan starts firing as well, but his bullets have the same effect, that is no effect.

The Berserker reaches the teens before the agents do, not that the agents even tried to reach them, having incorrectly assumed that their bullets would be enough.

It? He? Picks up Liam and throws him across the roof. Kira picks up her sword and bravely stands between the agents and the Berserker.

“Liam, run. Get out of here.” She orders.

Liam pries himself off the ground and-

Reid and Morgan take a couple steps back in shock.

That teenager just roared.

Like a.

Like an animal or something.

Liam stands all the way up and looks at the Berserker fighting Kira. Reid and Morgan freeze in place, their hearts skipping a beat.

Eyes are not supposed to look like that.

Human eyes are not supposed to glow like that.

Liam roars again, this time even louder and more powerful, a roar that shakes the agents to the core.

Liam throws himself at the Berserker as Kira yells his name. He opens his hand as he is about to make contact with the Berserker and his fingers look like they have claws attached to them.

But maybe not, it’s dark, stress is high, human fingers can’t turn into claws.

But human eyes also can’t glow.

“Hotch.” Rossi pants into the phone as he and Prentiss run away from a very large man wearing animal bones.

A very large man wearing animal bones who is chasing them with claws and knives also probably made from animals, and who is impervious to their gunshots. “Hotch, we got a situation.”

“Rossi? What’s wrong?” Hotch asks in concern, obviously hearing the terror in Rossi’s voice.

“Help.” Rossi doesn’t whimper, he doesn’t. “Help, we are in the hospital, it’s after us.”

He and Prentiss duck into a room and slam the door behind them. In the process Rossi loses his grip on the phone.

“We just have to hold out until Hotch arrives.” Prentiss pants as she starts barricading the door.

Rossi appreciates Prentiss’s optimism and her faith in their leader, he really does, but he can’t help but wonder if this will be the day he dies.

Liam crashes down onto the Berserker, with enough force that it should have at least made it stumble, but it doesn’t even make it flinch. The Berserker shakes Liam off as if he is a fly.

Liam crashes to the ground again, and the Berserker stalks towards him. It raises its claws, and while the agents can’t see Liam from this angle, they can hear him whimper.

It’s obvious the Berserker is about to deal a killing blow. Kira runs at it with her sword, slashing at desperately, but it just ignores her.

Reid and Morgan raise their guns, but they are out of bullets. They start to move forward, pushing past their stifling fear, but they know they won’t reach them in time.

Just as Liam’s death seems imminent, the whole hospital shakes with the sound of a roar coming from deep inside. The sound makes the Berserker harmlessly drop his hand, and turn towards the agents.

It stares them down for the longest few seconds of Reid’s life, its empty eyes sending chills down his spine, then it shoves past them and heads down the staircase behind them.

The force of its shove is enough to send both agents to the ground.

It takes a few moments for them to get back on their feet and look down the staircase, at which time the Berserker is no longer in sight.

They know they should follow it, it may be on its way to hurt more people, but their legs feel like jelly and they are breathing too fast. Their guns are out of ammo, and their hands are shaking too hard to accurately fire them.

They can hear sirens in the distance, coming closer.

Backup is on the way.

With just a glance to each other to confirm, they mutually decided to sink down to the ground.

As they look over the roof, at the damage caused by the fight, they notice something.

Liam and Kira have disappeared.

Hotch and JJ arrive at a scene of chaos when they reach the hospital. There are police cars everywhere, doctors and nurses running about, firefighters and ambulance personnel swarming.

The sheriff is in the center of it all, directing personnel as if the boy he considers a second son wasn’t pronounced dead just over an hour ago.

“Your agents are inside.” The sheriff informs them as a medevac helicopter lifts off. “None of them have any serious injuries, but they have some bruises and are all pretty shaken up.”

“What happened?” Hotch asks.

“Kate Argent and her Berserkers attacked.” Stilinski answers.

“Kate Argent as in previously dead Kate Argent?” Hotch asks.

“That’s the one.”

“Why?” JJ asks.

Stilinski shrugs. “She wanted chaos? She likes the hospital food? She wanted to hurt or kill people here? She wanted to burn the place to the ground? I have no idea, the inner workings of Kate’s brain have not been revealed to me.”

“Did anyone die?” Hotch asks.

“No, but there were a fair number of injuries, and Noshiko Yukimura had to be airlifted to a better trauma center. They expect her to live, but it’s pretty serious.”

“Thank you, sheriff.” Hotch says, then adds. “And my condolences?”

“Condolences?” Sheriff looks confused for a minute, then a look of understanding dawns on his face. “Right. I appreciate that, but you must be mistaken.”

“What do you mean?” Prentiss asks.

Stilinski smiles. “You better find your people, I’m sure they have a lot to tell you.”

Before they can ask anything more, Stilinski disappears into the crowd.

Hotch and JJ find their people not too long after. Prentiss’s usually perfect hair and clothes are ruffled, Rossi looks like he desperately needs a drink, or ten, and Morgan and Reid are clinging to each other, like their worlds have been shaken to the core.

The four of them are standing around an empty autopsy drawer.

Chapter Text

“-and his eyes were glowing yellow! Glowing! Eyes aren’t supposed to do that!” Reid is all in a titter as he tells the rest of the team what he and Morgan saw. No one can blame him, everything that just happened has everyone feeling out of sorts, just to the left of normal, so if letting Reid raise his voice and swing his arms around as he talks make him feel any better, then he can do so to his heart’s content. “There is something going on in this town, I am sure of it. If there is nothing in the water, maybe there is something in the air, I can take some samples and send them out for testing.”

“You do that.” Hotch says absently, the rest of his mind racing to understand the recent events, to put some logic to the insanity.

“There is nothing in the air.” A voice comes from the doorway and everyone turns to look, their faces going pale and their jaws going slack at the sight. “But the ground, that’s where some interesting things are. This place is sitting on some of the most powerful telluric currents in the world, and that power can do a lot of things.”

Reid is the first to recover from the sight of Scott McCall standing in the doorway. Mr. Argent is standing a few steps beside and behind him, flanking his left side like a bodyguard, and Stiles Stilinski is standing at his right hand.

“What the fuck.” Reid says flatly, obviously completely done with this town and everyone in it.

“What the fuck.” He repeats himself, just in case the rest of the agents were too deep in shock at the sight of the teenager who was a corpse not even an hour ago, who is now alive, standing up and talking, to hear him.

Scott smiles sheepishly at the agents. “I’m sorry for the trouble we caused. We really hoped that our plan would draw out The Benefactor.”

“But it didn’t?” Hotch asks, his professional mask doing a good job at covering up the fact his thoughts consist mostly of a loop of the words that Reid just spoke, just rearranged a little, and with some more, slightly more colorful ones mixed in.

“It didn’t. But we did learn a few things.” Scott replies.

“What did you learn?” Prentiss asks, her face as white as Scott’s has been not even an hour ago.

“Nothing that will help your investigation.” Scott says apologetically. “But if our investigation finds anything worthwhile, we’ll let you know.”

“How about you just tell us what you learned?” Rossi challenges, his fear turning to anger. “Just because you don’t think it’s useful information, doesn’t mean we can’t use it.”

“It really is useless to you.” Scott insists.

“What makes you the judge of that?” JJ asks.

“Just trust me.” Scott says.

“Trust you?” Morgan asks in disbelief. “Just trust you after whatever plan you executed injured nearly a dozen people, one of which nearly died? People could have died!”

“Mrs. Yukimura knew the risks, and agreed to the plan anyways.” Scott says evenly.

“What about everyone else in the hospital? Did they know the risks and agree?” Morgan asks.

Scott has the gall to look guilty at that. “We had no idea that Kate would attack, I really am sorry.”

“Who all knew about your plan?” Hotch asks. “Did the Sheriff know?”

“I can’t tell you who all was involved, although you probably have a good idea, but I can tell you the Sheriff was not involved. We told him that we had a plan, and that it would be best for everyone if he was out of communication range for an hour, but other than that, he had zero involvement. Dr. Geyer was not involved at all, he truly believed I was dead. And he is pretty upset that I am down here talking to you all instead of going through a bunch of tests to see what happened.”

“How did you do it?” Reid blurts out. “You were dead, I saw your body. How are you standing here in front of us?”

“I can’t tell you all my secrets, now can I?” Scott says with a hint of a smile.

“Yes you can.” Hotch says firmly. “I can charge you with obstruction of justice if you refuse to tell us everything you know related to this case.”

“You do that, and you’ll be making a big mistake.” Stiles speaks up. “Scott McCall is the most powerful, most well connected person in this town. You arrest him, and not only will you be making a lot of enemies, everyone from the Sheriff’s department to the hospital, but you will be taking the most promising investigator off the case.”

“Most promising investigator?” Rossi asks in disbelief. “We aren’t talking about a high ranking detective at the Sheriff’s department, we are talking about a teenager. A teenager!”

“A teenager who greatly assisted in solving the Hale fire, the killings committed by Matt Daehler, and the killings committed by Julia Baccari.” Stiles argues. “You don’t know this town. You don’t know the people here. You don’t know the politics, the power plays. Scott does. As do all his friends. If you make an enemy of him, you can kiss any chance of solving this case goodbye. In fact you can kiss this case goodbye. You came here to investigate the corpses in the Walcott’s meat freezer, not to investigate The Benefactor. The sheriff can, and will, kick you off this case if he believes it’s the best choice. Honestly I don’t even know why he is still allowing you to be here. Beacon Hills can take care of its own.”

“Beacon Hills isn’t doing a good job of taking care of its own.” Prentiss points out. “You have over three dozen dead, and at least a dozen missing. And we still have reason to investigate this case, we came to investigate the Walcotts, and the Walcotts are victims of The Benefactor.”

“That reasoning is thin and you know it.” Stiles argues stubbornly. “But since the sheriff is still allowing you to work the case, I say we work together.”

“And how do you propose we do that?” Hotch asks, a shred of irritation slipping out of his professional mask. “Scott, you, and who knows how many others, have been lying to us from the second we stepped into this town. And now refusing to share information.”

“Find a way to make it work.” Mr. Argent speaks up. “Or get out of this town.”

“Are you threatening us?” Rossi asks in disbelief.

“I’m warning you.” Mr. Argent replies evenly, but with an undercurrent of anger. “If you continue to pry, if you try to arrest Scott or anyone important to him, you won’t like the consequences.”

Mr. Argent then turns on his heel and exits the room, leaving the two teenagers alone with the agents.

“We want to work with you, we really do. And I understand how suspicious me and my friends must seem, believe me I do.” Scott says earnestly. “But this town, it’s not like anything you have ever experienced before. If you learn its secrets, you will get hurt. You might even die. And I can’t let that happen. I’m sorry.”

Scott leaves the room as well.

“I’ll be watching you.” Stiles tells them seriously. “We have been watching you since you arrived. And we will do whatever it takes to protect you. Scott is a good guy. He’ll never hurt you or any other innocents. But not all his friends agree with his morals, and with their help, we keep this town safe.”

“Is that what happened to Allison?” JJ challenges. “She learned something she shouldn’t have, or did or said something she shouldn’t have, and Scott’s ‘friends’ killed her?”

A look of intense pain and anger crosses Stiles's face. “No. She learned things, but they were things she had the right to know. And with that knowledge, she saw danger, danger that was hidden to those without her knowledge. She died because she chose to protect her friends. She died fighting a fight that shouldn’t have been hers to fight, but was because of circumstances beyond her control.”

Stiles takes a breath and looks at them all seriously. “I know your type, law enforcement. My dad is the sheriff, I know how much you want to protect. I know that if you learn of threats, of danger, that you’ll do everything you can to stop them. But you aren’t equipped, not like those currently dealing with these things. If you rush into a situation without the needed knowledge, experience, and weapons, you will get hurt. You could easily die. Easily. You do important work, I looked you up as soon as you arrived here, read all your case files. You save lives in a way that only you can, that only you are equipped and experienced to do, and I want you to continue doing that. So please, please do what you are equipped to do, and let us do what we are equipped to do.”

“Is that what happened to Aiden?” Reid makes a guess. “He got involved in something he wasn’t equipped to handle?”

Stiles nods sadly. “He was more equipped than most, certainly better equipped than you. He wanted to prove himself, to make up for his past mistakes. He died a hero. But he shouldn’t have died at all.”

“Allison and Aiden.” Morgan muses. “Both died a hero. Both are keys for the list. Is Derek a hero as well?”

Stiles looks taken aback at the comparison, but quickly recovers himself. “He’s certainly not your conventional hero. But he’s always there when we need him.”

“Mr. Argent said Derek is dying.” JJ says.

“He is.” Stiles says. “He’s dying, but he’s still fighting. He wants to go down fighting, make a difference before he dies.”

“The people on the list, what do they have in common?” Reid asks Stiles. “What do they have in common that you don’t?”

Stiles doesn’t answer immediately, clearly thinking about his reply. “They are dangerous. I am too, but not in the way they are. Some choose to be that way, but most didn’t.”

Stiles then nods goodbye to the agents, and leaves the room.

The team stays silent as his footsteps echo down the hall.

“Am I the only one who is more confused now than ever?” Prentiss asks.

“We certainly have a lot of information to unpack.” Hotch says. “But we should not do so here.”

Rossi looks around at the autopsy tables and mortuary drawers and nods in agreement. “Should we go back to the station? I get the feeling that the conference room isn’t as private as we thought.”

“We’ll regroup at the hotel, it’s late enough that that shouldn’t raise any questions. When we arrive, sweep your rooms for bugs, then gather in my and Rossi’s room. When we arrive at the station tomorrow, discreetly sweep the conference room for bugs as well.”

Everyone starts walking out, and Hotch’s phone rings. He waves them ahead as he answers.

Chapter Text

“What was that about?” Rossi asks when Hotch returns from his phone call, barely concealed fury and indignation on his face.

“That was Strauss.” Hotch says tightly. “Her boss has ordered her to order us to stay away from Scott McCall, Chris Argent, Derek Hale, and their associates.”

“What?” Morgan asks in disbelief. “She can’t do that!”

“Apparently she can.” Hotch replies evenly. “Someone here obviously has friends in high places.”

“What do we do?” JJ asks.

“We have to obey orders.” Hotch sighs. “We do everything we can with the limited information we have, and we don’t bother Scott McCall or his friends.”

“Seriously?” Reid protests. “Whatever they are hiding, might be the key to solving this case!”

Hotch allows a small smirk to grace his face. “We are a smart group. I’m sure we can find a way to get more information without breaking rules.” He allows his smirk to widen. “And if that doesn’t work, then we do what we have to do and we just don’t get caught.”

The team doesn’t find any bugs in their rooms, and soon are all gathered in Hotch and Rossi’s room. Everyone is yawning, but no one wants to go to sleep. Garcia is FaceTiming them on someone’s laptop, and they share the newest information with her.

As the tech goddess that she is, she finds a connection between Mr. Argent and Strauss’s boss. A flimsy connection, but one that may explain the order given to stay away from Scott.

“Stiles said that most of the people on the list are powerful, but didn’t choose the power. What if The Benefactor believes they are dangerous, and wants to benefit people by getting rid of them?” Reid muses.

“Maybe The Benefactor was hurt by someone with this mysterious power.” Morgan adds. “We know that Kate Argent has killed, and will kill again if she isn’t stopped. The unsub might believe that everyone with this power is or will be like Kate.”

“But what is this power?” JJ asks. “And how do these people get it? Are the people on the list the only ones with this power, or are they the only ones that The Benefactor knows about?”

The team continues to discuss the case long into the early hours of the morning, fruitlessly searching for answers to their questions.

Even when everyone knows that continuing their conversation is meaningless, when they are just talking in circles and making no progress, no one makes a move to end the conversation.

No one wants to end the comfort brought on by the team all in one room, all speaking.

No one wants to say goodnight, to go to their rooms, into their separate beds, turn off the lights and be alone with just their thoughts and darkness and silence and memories.

Everyone wants to stay in the brightly lit room, filled with the voices of their teammates.

The room with only two beds and one flimsy chair, something that forces them all to sit close together, close enough to be touching each other, to feel that they are not alone, to be comforted by the warmth and solidness of each other, of their team, of their family.

Eventually the conversation tapers, and while the lights stay on, eyelids droop, and before the sun rises, everyone has dozed off.

No one is alone.

But after not nearly enough sleep, everyone wakes up. As comforting as being so close to each other is, all it takes is one person having a nightmare to wake everyone up.

And while the closeness of each other chased away the terrifying thoughts while they were awake, with the amount of nightmare fuel in each of the agents' heads, it was only a matter of time until someone saw horror behind their closed eyes.

The team returns to the world of the waking feeling like they didn’t get nearly enough rest. A feeling they are unfortunately familiar with after many long cases.

But this time the exhaustion feels deeper, like the town and its secrets are sucking out their energy in a way that other cases never do.

They all arrive at the station weary and exhausted, but well practiced at hiding it.

When they arrive it is still early, the sun just barely starting to peak over the horizon.

The Sheriff is there, and they can’t tell if he went home during the night at all or not.

They discreetly sweep the conference room for bugs, and find none.

A fact they can’t decide is comforting or worrying.

Before they can begin to discuss the case or their plan of action for the day, the sound of a gun going off in the bullpen steals their attention.

They run out of the conference room, guns drawn, at the same time the sheriff exits his office, also with his gun drawn. Stiles and Lydia are behind the sheriff, peaking out of his office.

A man covered in black dust, and without a lick of clothing anywhere on his entire body is attacking a deputy. He has the deputy on the floor beneath him and is wrestling with him.

The sheriff yells out, and the man looks up. The deputy takes that opportunity to try to shoot the man on top of him, but misses wildly and hits the Sheriff in his shoulder instead. Some of the agents go to check on the sheriff, and some go towards the two men on the floor, guns raised.

“But you are supposed to be dead!” The deputy complains to the man, as if reminding him of what the deputy believes to be a fact will make the man drop dead.

As the agents approach, the attacking man knocks the gun out of the deputy’s hands and starts punching his face. He gets in a few good kicks before he allows the agents to pull him off.

Once the two men are separated, everyone gets a good look at the face of the man wearing only soot and ash and smelling like gasoline.

The face of Deputy Parrish.

On the desk of the deputy who was attacked, his computer screen is on.

On the screen is an open chat between the deputy and The Benefactor.

A chat in which the deputy admits to killing Deputy Parrish and asks for payment.

A demand to which the The Benefactor replies with a few words.

Kill not confirmed.

Chapter Text

Sheriff Stilinski is rushed to the hospital, thanks to his bullet wound. Paramedics say that he will survive, but that they can’t say anything about how functional his shoulder will be in the long run, only the doctors can.

As Stilinski is being loaded into the ambulance, Mr. Argent arrives, and Stilinski puts him in charge of the station until his return.

Is it legal to put a known arms dealer, a suspected murderer, in charge of the Sheriff’s department?

Absolutely not.

Does Hotch want to risk being kicked off the case because he made a big deal about it?

Absolutely not.

So that is how Hotch, Mr. Argent, and Deputy Parrish end up in the sheriff’s office together.

Parrish is now wearing pants, but has not taken a shower. He has wiped off his face a little, but his chest is still completely covered in soot and ash. Hotch is glad he isn’t the person who will be responsible for cleaning the chair Parrish is sitting on.

“What happened?” Hotch asks.

“I was knocked out somehow, and when I woke up, I was in my patrol car with my hands zip tied to the steering wheel. Someone was pouring gas on the car, so I tried to escape, and I tried to talk him down, said I was a sheriff’s deputy and all the things you are supposed to say, but nothing worked. All he did in response was look in the window at me and say ‘Damm, I was hoping you’d be out longer.’ That’s when I realized it was Deputy Haigh.”

“Are you certain it was him?” Mr. Argent asks.

“I am. I don’t understand why he would do this, he was my partner, he’s an officer of the law, we are supposed to have each other's backs!” Parrish is understandably upset.

“What happened after you saw it was him?” Hotch asks.

“I asked him what he was doing. He said that the list says I’m worth five million dollars. How did he know about the list? I tried talking him down, but he wouldn’t listen!” Mr. Argent reaches out and squeezes Parrish’s shoulder, giving some obviously much needed comfort. “I begged him to stop, to not do it, but he wouldn’t listen!”

Parrish has to take some deep breaths to calm down. “I asked him if he was just going to stand there, if he was going to listen to a fellow deputy burn to death. He said.” Parrish laughs humorlessly. “He said he wouldn’t listen, then he put in some earbuds and started listening to music. He opened a lighter and lit it, then threw it on me.”

Parrish shakes minutely as he recounts the story. “It hurt. It hurt so bad. I could feel my flesh melting away. I screamed and screamed until I passed out. I don’t know how long Haigh watched.”

“I don’t understand.” Hotch says. “If you were set on fire, wouldn’t you be injured? Have some burns? Be suffering from smoke inhalation?”

“I don’t understand either!” Parrish exclaims, throwing his hands up in the air. The action makes Hotch and Argent cough as it spreads ash in the air. “I was certain I was dead, no one can survive being burned alive like that! But then I woke up in the burned out shell of that car, alive and uninjured!”

“Hey, how about you go take a shower, get some clean clothes, and rest up, ok?” Mr. Argent orders. “We’ll let you know if we have any more questions.”

Parrish nods gratefully and exits the room before Hotch can say anything.

Hotch turns to Mr. Argent and fixes him with a stare that makes most unsubs eager to confess. “What is going on here?”

Mr. Argent shrugs casually. “I know about as much as you do about this, all I know is what Parrish just told us.”

“You know more than that. Was Parrish really burned alive and somehow uninjured, or did he fake this?”

“He didn’t fake this.” Mr. Argent sounds certain. “I know Stilinski trusts Parrish, and would say that he is a good deputy, not the type to make something like this up. We can trust him as well. Deputy Haigh however.” Mr. Argent sighs. “Stilinski has told me about him, nothing that would suggest he would him murder someone, especially not a fellow deputy, but I can’t honestly say I’m terribly surprised. There was an incident not too long ago that would have gotten him fired if this place wasn’t so understaffed.”

“What incident?” Hotch asks.

“Not too long ago he and Deputy Parrish were called out to a report of a teenager trespassing. The kid was confused, didn’t know where he was, thought he was at his family’s house. Deputy Parrish tried talking to him, tried to figure out what was going on, but Haigh decided that the best course of action was to manhandle the boy off the property. The boy resisted, and Haigh tased him. Repeatedly.”

“Is the boy alright?” Hotch asks.

A complicated look crosses Mr. Argent's face. “Haigh didn’t hurt him too bad.”

“Could we talk to him?”

“Why?”

“To get a better idea of who Haigh is.”

“Wouldn’t it make more sense to talk to the people at the station here, and people who knew him?”

“We will do that as well, but he didn’t show the people here his true colors the way he showed that boy.”

“I see.” Mr. Argent answers. “Unfortunately you can’t talk to the boy.”

“Why not?”

“He isn’t around anymore.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means you can’t talk to him.”

The two men face off in a battle of wills before Hotch relents. “Fine. Do you have any idea how Parrish survived supposedly being burned alive?”

“I don’t, this one has me baffled as well.”

“Are you sure?” Hotch presses. “First Scott, a boy you clearly care a lot about, dies and comes back to life, then Parrish does the same, and you have no idea how? I find that hard to believe.”

“I understand. But it’s the truth. I have people looking into it now, and if they find anything, I’ll let you know.” Mr. Argent sighs.

While Hotch talks to Parrish and Mr. Argent, Rossi and Morgan go to the scene of the crime.

“This car was certainly burned, there is no doubt about that. But there is no way Parrish could have survived this.” Morgan says as he inspects the burned out shell of the patrol car.

“Don’t be so sure.” Rossi says. “This is Beacon Hills after all. Don’t forget what happened yesterday.”

Morgan grumbles but can’t find a good argument against that.

“Look at this.” Rossi waves him over. “That plastic melted onto the steering wheel looks like it came from zip ties. See the way it is? It looks like it was melted, and then someone removed their arms from it. And look at the door handles. Someone opened it from the inside, while the handle was warm enough to be misshapen by the pressure of the hand.”

Morgan sighs. “And look at this, footprints leading away from scenes, but not to it. That could be fakes of course, but as much as I hate to say it, I’m starting to believe it may be possible that Parrish really was burned alive and survived.”

The team gathers in the conference room again, with Garcia on speaker phone. She was updated by those of the team who were not out investigating the scene or interviewing people.

“I found something interesting, my loves.” Garcia speaks, her usual brightness slightly dimmed by the constantly negative updates from the team. “When Deputy Parrish was in the army, he had a similar experience. The report was buried under some stuff, which is why I didn’t find it the first time I looked into him. According to this, an IED he was defusing exploded. No one saw exactly what happened, so when he showed up not long later, completely naked, but also completely unharmed, it was assumed that he was not in the range of the IED, and that he got heat stroke or hit his head or something causing his odd behavior. But considering what just happened today, I can’t help but wonder if he did survive that bomb.”

“What are you saying?” Prentiss asks. “That Parrish is Superman or something?”

“Or something.” Garcia says. “You guys say that the people on the list are powerful, dangerous. What if that means that they have superpowers?”

“We aren’t in a comic book.” Rossi says.

“But Garcia does have a point.” Reid says. “It would explain some things, like Liam’s eyes glowing yellow and his fingers turning into claws, like Scott coming back from the dead, like Satomi Ito not aging, like the Wolverine dressed unsub who killed The Mute, like the sheriff being so confident that Scott and his friends have some kind of protection, Noshiko Yukimura being so confident that she and her daughter could protect themselves, and it could explain Parrish surviving the impossible.”

“You’re not serious, are you?” Morgan asks.

Reid shrugs. “I know it sounds crazy, but do you have a better explanation? As the saying goes, ‘Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.’ It makes sense.”

“It could also explain the orders from Strauss’s boss. People with superpowers can’t stay a secret from the government for long. At least in the comic books.” JJ speaks.

“If what you are saying is true, and that’s a big if, it could also explain why Stiles said that most did not choose to be how they are, in most comic books, the characters get their powers by accident.” Prentiss says.

“Stiles Stilinski isn’t on the list. Does that make him Batman?” Hotch asks, his professional mask on so tightly that no one can tell if he is joking or not.

“If the people on the list do have superpowers, and I can’t believe I just said that, then what powers do they have?” Morgan asks.

“The ones who are worth more probably have more powerful powers.” Reid says. “Parrish might have some kind of invulnerability or fire resistance. Scott might have something that allows him to come back from the dead, Liam something to do with his eyes and claws, Kira burned a hole in a CDC doctor’s suit, right? And the doctor said she thought it was an electric shock, maybe she can manipulate electricity.”

“I really thought Scott died when those Berserkers attacked us.” Morgan muses. “If he is immortal, that could explain it.”

“Noshiko Yukimura was confident that she and her daughter could protect themselves, but Kate, who is also on the list, was able to severely injure her. Maybe that was because they both have powers. She wasn’t scared of any hitmen or assassins because she knew they couldn’t harm her, they didn’t have the power.” Rossi muses.

“Noshiko Yukimura said that the price had something to do with the power level.” Hotch speaks. “Kate is worth more than her, so that could be why she was able to hurt her. And maybe Kate’s power is the ability to control the Berserkers.”

“Scott McCall is worth the most, and Stiles said he is the most powerful person in this town.” JJ says.

“The people worth less are dying quicker than the people worth more, that makes sense if they are easier to kill.” Prentiss says.

Reid sits up straighter and speaks excitedly. “This could also explain the virus! If the people on the list have mutated DNA that causes the powers, they might be affected differently by the virus, it kills them but not humans!”

“This is crazy.” Garcia says with a slightly unhinged giggle. “It all makes perfect sense, but it’s so unbelievable. But. I want to believe.”

Morgan sighs deeply. “At this point, I have seen enough that I also want to believe. But I’m just not sure I can. I mean, assuming these people actually do have powers of some kind, how in the world did they get them? Did they fall into chemical vats or something?”

“That’s what happens to the Joker, and he doesn’t have powers.” Rossi says and everyone looks at him funny. “What? I read.”

“Maybe they are aliens.” JJ offers.

“Or got struck by lightning while handling chemicals.” Prentiss says.

“Or they found ancient, sentient scarabs somewhere and entered symbiotic relationships with them.” Garcia says.

“Maybe it has something to do with the telluric currents in this town.” Reid muses. “Scott did mention them, he said they have a lot of power.”

“Whatever it is, however these people got these powers, if they even have powers, it’s possible The Benefactor, and maybe even the people on the list themselves, believe that they have powers but don’t actually have them, these people are being targeted because of this.” Hotch says. “We need to figure out how, and why. Let’s try to compile a list of people who have been hurt, or who’s loved ones have been hurt or killed by someone who has, or is believed to have powers.”

“In order to do that, we have to figure out what makes the unsub believe someone has powers.” Prentiss says. “We have tried to find something in common with all the names on the list, have tried to make a victim profile that they all fit, but we haven’t been able to come up with anything.”

“Keep trying.” Hotch orders.

The team starts looking over the list and all the information they have on the victims yet again.

A few minutes later they are interrupted by the sound of the printer coming to life and spitting out paper.

And paper.

And more paper.

It doesn’t stop printing until it runs out of paper.

Hotch picks up a few papers.

Each one is exactly the same.

He silently compares them to a paper on the table, the single most looked at paper in this case.

The freshly printed pages, still warm from the printer, are almost exactly the same as the page on the table.

The minor differences however, are rather alarming.

Chapter Text

“Alrighty boss man.” Garcia greets Hotch when he answers her call and puts it on speaker. “I, as your the Oracle to your Batman, have been able to trace the source of the printer rebellion and can confirm that it is from the same source as the dead pool. I can’t trace it any further, but I can tell you that every single printer in this town that is connected to wifi was also sent instructions to print that page.”

“That means that everyone in this town knows about the dead pool.” JJ says.

“There will be chaos.” Morgan says just as Parrish enters the room, now completely clean and fully clothed in a deputy’s uniform.

“I doubt it.” He says, blushing lightly when everyone’s attention turns to him. “Most people believe it’s just a bizarre prank, or a weird cyber attack, they don’t realize it’s a dead pool. And those who do realize what it really is, they aren’t panicking since their names aren’t on the list. It takes a lot to make the people in this town panic. What we have to be concerned about is more people deciding to follow Haigh’s example to try to get a little extra cash. It’s impossible to tell how many people will see this and decide that it’s time for a career change.”

The day drags on slowly. The team tries and tries and tries to find connections between the victims, to figure out what makes The Benefactor believe these people deserve to be on the list, but they don’t make any progress.

They compare the new list with the old, and while it is disheartening that so many names are crossed out, presumably dead, it is a little bit encouraging that some who have been missing for days, such as Brett Talbot and Lorilee Rohr, are presumed to still be alive.

There is much discussion about the fact that Derek Hale’s name has completely disappeared from the list.

Does it mean he is dead? If so, why has the name disappeared rather than just get crossed out like the others?

Is he still alive and The Benefactor simply believes it is a fact that he will die? If so, where is he and is there anything they can do to stop his demise?

Does it mean he no longer has power? If so, how did that happen?

There is also talk about Liam’s price going up. Going from 3 million to 18 million is quite a jump.

Is it just because the money originally intended for Derek has to go somewhere else in order to keep everything at 117 million?

Or is it because Liam is significantly more dangerous now that he was when the deal pool was first released?

Either way, the boy is in more danger now than he has ever been.

It doesn’t help matters that their focus is split between that, and trying to figure out how to find new threats, and protect those on the list from them. Unsurprisingly, everyone on the list who isn’t missing or dead declines their offers of protection.

“Maybe they don’t want people around to protect them because the chance someone will see them using their powers increases.” Reid says after the fruitless attempt to convince them to accept help.

By the time it’s dark again, the team is more than exhausted. All they want to do is go to sleep, but it has been suspiciously quiet since Parrish was attacked, it’s only a matter of time until something else happens.

Still, agents who can’t keep their eyes open any longer aren’t much use to the case, so Hotch sends everyone except himself and Rossi back to the hotel.

While the others crawl into their comfy beds, Hotch and Rossi head to the high school, where the lacrosse team’s annual bonfire is being held. As members of the lacrosse team, Scott and Liam will be there, and as a massive party, the chances of the other teenagers on the list being there as well are high. It’s the perfect opportunity for someone to attack.

The two agents patrol the party, along with some teachers and security guards. It looks like any bonfire party, a massive fire, teenagers drinking alcohol in what they believe is a discreet manner and failing miserably, music so loud that it causes headaches.

Even the teenagers in danger, Scott, Liam, and Malia, look like normal kids tonight, angry at the world, and getting progressively drunker.

At least these teens are better than the others at hiding the alcohol they are drinking, Hotch and Rossi can’t see whatever they are drinking from.

The three teenagers don’t stay together, Liam is with his friend Mason, Malia is dancing away by herself, and Scott is nervously flitting around between his two friends who don’t appear to want to have anything to do with him, his teammates, and other people.

It’s difficult to keep track of all three, especially with all the other things fighting for attention, like the forty foot tall bonfire, is that even legal? Hotch and Rossi aren’t exactly young men anymore, and they are operating on practically no gas, so when they lose sight of the teenagers one by one, it’s not very surprising. They find them again, and lose them again, multiple times, something that doesn’t help their already strained nerves.

When the music stops, the cords pulled out of the generator by someone who may or may not be Mason, and the three teenagers are nowhere in sight, the Agent’s hearts drop.

It can only mean one thing, the teenagers are in trouble.

Come to think of it, they looked really drunk, dangerously so.

Could be because they were just acting as teenagers, but with the amount of danger they are in, getting drunk really isn’t very smart.

Could someone have drugged their drinks?

Hotch and Rossi search the area, and with the music off, the sounds of a fight can be heard. They follow the sounds, and aren’t nearly as surprised as they should be when they find Scott, Liam, and Maila sprawled on the floor, covered in gas, and Derek Hale, a very much alive and well Derek Hale, and a woman, fighting sheriff’s deputies.

One of whom is holding a lighter.

Upon closer inspection, the woman fits the description of the gunshot wound Jane Doe, who Derek brought to the hospital a few days ago; she has the exact same distinctive scars on her throat.

Derek and the woman quickly take down the deputies, handcuff them, exchange polite greetings with the agents, then leave before any questions can be asked.

It isn’t until the door closes behind them that Hotch realizes neither of them offered them the woman’s name.

“Are you ok?” Hotch asks the teenagers as they pick themselves up off the floor.

“We are ok.” Scott says as he worriedly checks over Liam and Malia.

“What happened?” Rossi asks.

Scott sighs. “Deputy Haigh apparently didn’t want Parrish to be his only victim. He recruited those guys to kill us.”

“How do you know about Haigh?” Rossi asks and Scott gives him a look. “Ok, that’s a silly question. You looked pretty drunk earlier, I guess nearly dying sobered you up, huh?”

Malia snorts. “We weren’t drunk.”

“Did someone drug you?” Hotch asks in concern, then answers his own question. “No, you wouldn’t sober up that quickly from drugs either.”

Scott exchanges looks with his friends, the three of them having a silent conversation, then turns back to the agents with a mischievous look on his face. “Do you really want to know?”

Rossi sighs, and hopes he won’t regret this. “Tell us.”

Scott smiles and Rossi regrets it immediately. “It was the music, we hear more frequencies than you and others, and the DJ played something at a frequency that messed us up, gave us the symptoms of being drunk.”

“The music, of course, why didn’t I think of that.” Rossi says sarcastically.

“Are you serious?” Hotch asks Scott.

Scott grins mischievously and doesn’t answer, instead he thanks the agents for the rescue, not that they actually did any rescuing, and starts walking away, his arms around the shoulders of each of his two friends.

Hotch considers going after them, but his phone rings and he decides that answering it is a much better use of his time. “Hotch.”

“Hotch!” A slightly panicked voice on the other end of the phone who Hotch recognizes as Parrish speaks. “You have to get to Eichen House, right now, I think Stiles and Lydia have stumbled onto a serial killer!”

Chapter Text

The hotel is closer to Eichen House than the school is, so Hotch orders Prentiss and Reid to meet Parrish there.

As they pull up to the place, Reid can’t help the shiver that goes down his back. Prentiss gives him a funny look, and he explains. “You’ll understand when you are inside.”

Parrish arrives at the same time as them, and the three of them make their way inside.

Barely two minutes inside the building, and Prentiss understands why it creeps Reid out so much.

They go through a few long, echoing hallways, and have to stop for directions more than once, but eventually they reach their destination. A storage room with Stiles and Lydia inside, restrained against a pillar.

“No. No. No.” Stiles is desperately straining against his restraints. “No!”

Parrish, Prentiss, and Reid raise their weapons at the man in nurse’s scrubs who is inserting a needle into Lydia’s neck.

Reid fights to keep his hands steady at the sight of the needle, and barely recognizes the man as the same one who told himself, Parrish, and Rossi that Meredith Walker was dead.

“Drop it!” Parrish orders as he walks closer to the man, his gun steady. “Take your thumb off that needle and slowly withdraw it from her neck.”

“Young Deputy. You’re just a kid. I bet you’ve never even fired a-“

He doesn’t get to finish what he is trying to say as Parrish fires his weapon.

Parrish quickly rushes forward and carefully removes the needle from Lydia’s neck. Reid starts giving the man first aid, and Prentiss and Parrish start untying the teens.

“He… He killed my grandmother.” Lydia gasps as she quickly makes her way to Stiles and clings to him. “He was controlling Meredith.”

“He used her to create the dead pool.” Stiles says.

“And he killed her when she tried to help us.” Lydia says.

The man starts laughing, the action causing blood to spray out of his mouth. It’s not the first time Reid and Prentiss have seen something like that, but somehow it is the most disturbing. “You…” His voice is weak, but condescending. “You think it was me? That I, I was controlling her?”

He laughs more, and the sound sends chills down the backs of everyone in the room. “Idiots. She was controlling me.”

He uses his dying breath to utter those words, and a moment after they leave his mouth, his head lulls to the side, his empty, dead eyes looking towards the doorway.

“Oh shit.” Lydia gasps, understanding dawning. “It’s not him. He’s not The Benefactor.”

“No.” A feminine voice comes from the hallway just outside the room and all heads turn to the source. “And… He wasn’t on my list.”

Gasps can be heard as the source of the voice walks into the room. “But he was a bad person.”

Chapter Text

Hotch couldn’t be happier. They have a suspect in custody, and despite his misgivings about Stilinski, he is glad that the man was out of the hospital and back in charge at the station. Having Mr. Argent in charge was absolutely absurd, and he couldn’t even really complain about it since the man actually did a good job.

Sure, there are a few problems, like the fact that their case against Meredith Walker has enough holes in it that it could be mistaken for a fishing net, and that the latest theory his team has concocted to explain everything includes zombies, but it feels like progress, like the case might actually be drawing to a close.

Reid, Prentiss and Parrish had no difficulty arresting Meredith and bringing her here, almost as if she wanted to come. Which doesn’t make much sense as they profiled that the unsub wouldn’t reveal themselves till everyone on the list was dead.

Did she give up?

Or is there a plan in motion to kill the remaining people on the list as they interview her?

There is, isn’t there? Hotch sighs and orders Morgan and Prentiss to find Scott and the others.

Stilinski comes out of the room that he was using to interview Meredith. Hotch wanted to be there, but Stilinski spun something about not wanting to frighten Meredith with unfamiliar faces and promised Hotch that he and his team could have a go at it after he tried.

“How did it go?” Lydia asks Stilinski eagerly. She was waiting for the sheriff right alongside the agents. Hotch is far too tired to protest, and figures that at least she should be safe in the station with them.

Probably.

He eyes the other occupants of the station suspiciously, they are pretty sure that they arrested everyone who Haigh convinced to change careers from officer of the law to killer for hire, but he can’t be completely sure.

“Hard to say.” Stilinski answers Lydia questions with a sigh. “There were words, but I’m not sure there were sentences.” He looks at Hotch. “It’s your turn now, hopefully you’ll have better luck with your psychology training. But if that doesn’t work, I’ll look into finding a medium.”

“Is she even competent enough to be charged with something? Lydia asks.

“If Meredith is The Benefactor, then that means she was competent enough to trick Kate into opening the Hale Vault, competent enough to blackmail Brunski into helping her, and competent enough to create a hit list, and pay out money for its completion.” Stilinski pauses for a breath and glances at the room holding the girl in question. “This girl’s practically a criminal mastermind.”

“The Hale Vault?” Hotch asks and Stilinski ignores him in favor of continuing his conversation with Lydia.

“There’s got to be a reason why she would do this.” Lydia asks softly as she shakes her head.

“I’m only interested in the why if it tells me the how.” Stilinski says.

“You mean how to stop it.” Lydia says.

“After what happened to Scott tonight, this thing’s still going. The payments could be automatic. And as long as the killers are getting paid, and paid very well, that list is going to keep getting smaller.”

“We don’t just need to stop the dead pool.” Lydia says.

“We need to stop the money.” Stilinski finishes.

There is a beat of silence after that serious declaration, and then Hotch speaks. “What happened to Scott tonight? And while we are at it, what was that about the Hale Vault?”

Stilinski sighs. “Don’t you want to interview Meredith?”

“I would like to have all the available information first.” Hotch says seriously, pinning Stilinski down with his stare. “What happened with Scott?”

Stilinski stares back at Hotch long enough for the silence in the room to become uncomfortable. “He got chased by some people with guns. With a lot of guns.”

“And you didn’t think that was important enough to tell us?” Rossi asks.

“Scott can handle himself, it’s not a big deal. He and those he is with are as safe as they can be right now, as safe as they ever will be until the list gets canceled, so let’s focus on figuring out how to do that, ok?” Stilinski says.

Hotch doesn’t press further, knowing he won’t get anything more out of the man. “Why did you mention the Hale Vault?”

“The Hale Vault? That’s where the 117 million dollars was stolen from, I told you that, didn’t I?”

“You did not tell us that.”

“Sorry.” Stilinski smiles sheepishly. “Must have slipped my mind, things have been pretty hectic, huh?”

Hotch stares at him unimpressed. “Tell us everything.”

Stilinski sighs. “All I know is that Kate manipulated Derek into revealing the location of the Hale Vault, and opening it, and then while it was open, someone threw in a few smoke bombs, and left with 117 million dollars worth of bearer bonds. The witnesses never saw the thief's face, and the Hales have been searching for the thief ever since.”

“The Hales, Derek and Malia?” Reid asks.

“Malia?” Stilinski scrunches up in confusion. “I keep forgetting she is Hale. No, I mean Derek and Peter.”

“Peter Hale as in dead Peter Hale?” JJ asks.

“Dead? No, last I heard he was pretty alive.” Stilinski says. “Why do you think he is dead?”

“He was in a coma for six years, then he disappeared at the same time that his nurse, who was later found dead did. His blood was found not far from where Kate’s body was found, the amount of blood more than anyone could survive losing.” Reid says. “Police reports signed by you theorize that he was killed by the same animal that killed Kate, and his body was dragged off.”

“Huh, now that you say that it does ring a bell.” Stilinski says. “But Kate is alive, so it’s not so surprising that Peter is alive as well.”

“How many people come back from the dead in this town?” Rossi asks in exasperation. “Kate, Peter, Scott, Meredith, Parrish. What is this, the start of a zombie apocalypse?”

“I’m pretty sure that Meredith and Parrish didn’t actually die.” Stilinski muses. “Not that that means that the others did die, they probably didn’t actually die either!” He chuckles awkwardly and claps his hands together. “How about you go interview Meredith now, and let me know if she says anything understandable, ok?”

Knowing a lost cause when he sees one, Hotch agrees. “Reid, JJ, talk to Meredith. You are the least threatening members of the team, maybe that will help her open up. Rossi and I will watch. And remember the profile, if she is The Benefactor, then she is a genius, play to that, make her relate to you Reid.”

Reid and JJ enter the interview room, and Hotch and Rossi watch.

“Would you like anything?” JJ asks kindly, but not condescendingly. “Water, a snack?”

Meredith doesn’t make eye contact as she shakes her head. “No, I’m ok.”

“The dead pool is pretty ingenious.” Reid says admiringly. “Planning that out, making that code, not just anyone could do that.”

“I, I didn’t make the code.” Meredith says quietly. “Or the plan. I just did what he wanted.”

“Who’s he?” JJ asks.

Meredith shakes her head violently. “No no, he wouldn’t want you to know, he doesn’t want you to know, I can’t tell you.”

“Why can’t you tell us?” Reid asks.

Meredith just shakes her head.

“Is he threatening you?”

Meredith doesn’t answer.

JJ and Reid continue asking questions, but they can’t make her talk again, she just curls up on her chair hugging her knees and shakes her head.

“What do you think?” Rossi asks Hotch.

“I don’t know.” Hotch answers. “That looked pretty real to me, I don’t think she was lying, but if she is a criminal mastermind, who’s to say she isn’t a good actor?”

“We have to be missing something.” Rossi says.

“We are missing a lot of things.” Hotch chuckles dryly.

“This is about power, right?” Rossi muses. “What if The Benefactor wants to benefit themself by gaining power?”

“That’s possible, but we already established that we have no idea how the people in the list gain the supposed power that they have.” Hotch says.

“True, but, the more people who are on the list who are killed, the more powerful the remaining people become.” Rossi says.

“What do you mean?” Hotch asks.

“Think of it this way, if everyone on the list has a gun, the ones worth more have more powerful guns, then despite some having more powerful guns, there is still a lot of power going around, but start removing people, until only one or a few remain, and no matter how powerful their gun was in comparison to the others, those remaining are the most powerful.” Rossi says.

“Are you saying that the unsub has power, and wants to kill everyone else who does?” Hotch asks. “Huh, that could make sense, Meredith is high on the list, which means she supposedly has much power, and we suspected others who were also on the list of being the unsub, like Scott. But if the unsub has their name on the list, that would be dangerous for them, what if they get killed?”

“Maybe the name isn’t on the list.” Rossi muses.

“Like Derek Hale.” Hotch says.

“If it is Derek Hale, then why would he protect others on the list?” Rossi asks.

“To make himself look good? To draw suspicion away from himself? So that they will put their guard down around him?” Hotch offers. “And he has reason to hate at least one person on the list, Kate Argent killed his family, and if Malia is his cousin, that might be how he knew to put her last name as Hale instead of Tate.”

“Why put his cousin on the list if he’s already lost his whole family?” Rossi asks.

“Maybe he figures he’ll lose her as well one day so he might as well get it over with?” Hotch offers.

“Or maybe to draw suspicion away from himself and her.” Rossi says. “He saved Scott, Liam, and Malia from those people at the bonfire, what if he only wanted to save Malia and had to save Scott and Liam as well so it wouldn’t be suspicious.”

“We haven’t seen him very much since we arrived, what if he is following Malia around to keep her safe?” Hotch asks.

“It was his money that was stolen, it could have been an inside job.” Rossi says.

“He told a bunch of people that he is dying, if he suddenly disappears, they’ll assume he is dead, we even assumed he was dead when his name disappeared off the list.” Hotch says.

“Yet when we saw him he looked perfectly healthy.” Rossi says.

Chapter Text

Hotch and Rossi tell the rest of the team and the Sheriff about the interview and their theory.

“Should have gone with the medium.” Stilinski says regarding how the interview went. And unsurprisingly he isn’t a fan of the theory. “Derek isn’t The Benefactor. And he isn’t faking his death, the guy really is dying.”

“What makes you think that?” Hotch asks.

Stilinski shrugs. “I just know. It’s not Derek.”

“Do you have some proof of that?” Rossi asks. “Or are you just going off of vibes?”

“I know him, alright?” Stilinski is obviously frustrated. “It’s not him, it’s gotta be someone else.”

“Like who?” Reid asks. “Do you know someone else who fits the profile?”

“Someone who has this supposed power, wants to kill others who also have this power, who was hurt, or had someone close to them hurt or killed by people with this power, and who is extremely smart, but frequently underestimated, who is seeking meaning and validation in their life?” JJ adds.

Stilinski’s brow furrows in thought. Then he gasps lightly. “What if the unsub’s family wasn’t killed by someone who had power, but because they had power?”

“That could be the trigger.” Prentiss says.

“Do you have someone in mind?”

Stilinski sighs. “Yeah. But it may be nothing, I’ll just look into it myself.”

Hotch stares him down with a glare that makes him squirm.

“Ok fine.” Stilinski throws his hands in the air. “I think it might be Peter Hale. But I have no idea how to find him, his relationship with Derek is tenuous at best, it’s my understanding that Peter is actually the one who killed Laura and he covered it up by making it look like an animal attack. So I’ll ask Derek if he knows where Peter is, but I doubt he’ll know, and I don’t know who else might know.”

“Morgan and I will come with you.” Hotch says.

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea.” Stilinski says.

“It wasn’t a suggestion.” Hotch says.

“Fine.” Stilinski sighs.

Parrish then knocks on the door and enters the conference room. “We finished going through all of Brunski’s things.”

At some of the confused looks he adds. “The creepy serial killer from Eichen house.”

Reid can’t help but shiver at the memory of that guy.

Parrish continues speaking. “We found cassette tapes that look the same as the cassette tape we found in The Chemist’s lab, the one with instructions on how to get paid after killing someone on the deadpool. We are working to determine if the tapes and his voice match that one, but I’m pretty sure they will. But we did not find the kind of technology that would be needed to put the dead pool on the dark web the way that it is, and to make all the printers print, and as evidenced by the fact that he still uses cassettes tapes, I don’t believe he had the technological capabilities to do so. Interviews with his coworkers, we couldn’t find any friends or family, revealed that he doesn’t fit the profile. He was an angel of death serial killer, not whatever The Benefactor is.”

“Thank you Parrish.” Hotch says and Parrish leaves the room. “Stilinski, Morgan, with me, let’s find Peter Hale. Reid and JJ, work with Garcia, see if you can find anything that will help us, and see if you can find anyone else who fits the profile. Prentiss and Rossi, look more into Derek Hale, see if you can find him.”

The team separates to do their tasks.

On the way out of the station, Hotch sees Lydia talking with Parrish. He can only hope that Parrish will keep her out of trouble.

Surprising absolutely no one, Stilinski manages to peel himself away from the agents and disappear. Hotch and Morgan make a token effort to find him, but it’s clear the man does not want to be found.

So they continue their search without him. They search everywhere they can think of where the man might be, they search the ruins of the old Hale house, they search the local no tell motel, and local abandoned buildings.

“How hard can he be to find?” Morgan asks as he looks at a photo of the man in question, a photo of a man with half his face covered in scars from healed burns. “Surely someone has seen him!”

They ask everyone they see, from store clerks to homeless people.

They find nothing.

Hours later they return to the station, and they find that the other agents haven’t made any progress either. Both Derek and Peter are ghosts, and no one else they can find fits the profile.

The team feels exhausted, and the atmosphere in the room as they all sit silently, lost in their own thoughts, is depressing.

The sound of a phone ringing cuts through the air. Hotch looks at the caller ID, then puts it on speaker.

“It’s gone!” Garcia exclaims. “The dead pool, it’s gone! It’s over!”

“What?” Not even Hotch can keep the surprise out of his voice.

“A message was sent from The Benefactor to everyone, it says, ‘All contracts terminated.’. The list of names is no longer accessible, and it’s no longer possible to send the information needed to get payment. It’s over, done, finished, ended, dead. The list is no more, the dead pool is no more, The Benefactor has disappeared from the internet.”

“But… How? Why?” JJ says.

“I have no idea, but those kids, and all the remaining names on the list are safe!” Garcia exclaims. “It’s a win, just take it!”

“What if The Benefactor decides that it isn’t done, and just turned off the dead pool to lull us into a feeling of false security and so they can attack?” Reid says.

“I… I did not consider that my dear doctor, thank you.” Garcia says dryly, her cheer disappearing.

Reid grimaces at Garcia’s flat voice. “Sorry. But it’s too easy, I don’t like it.”

“I agree.” Hotch says. “Something isn’t right.”

Stilinski then enters the room, looking exhausted, but with a smile on his face. “It’s over, the kids are safe.”

“Are you sure about that?” Rossi asks. “Why would The Benefactor just stop the deadpool?”

Stilinski shrugs, completely unbothered, the smile still on his face. “Peter must have gotten spooked that we got close, closed up shop and ran. He’s in the wind, we will search for him of course, but the kids are safe now, and that’s the most important thing. I just got a call, everyone on the list who is still alive is in an abandoned warehouse not far from here, no serious injuries.”

“What makes you so certain that Peter is The Benefactor?” Rossi asks.

“He fits your profile perfectly. Who else could it be?”

“It could be Derek, or Meredith, or someone we don’t know about.” Prentiss says.

“Nah, it’s Peter.” Stilinski says with certainty. “Anyone want to come with and see Scott and Brett and the others?”

Stilinski doesn’t even wait for a reply before he leaves, and the whole team decides to follow him.

Sure enough, when the team arrives at the warehouse, one which according to Garcia belongs to Mr. Argent, they find everyone from the list who they couldn’t find before, with the notable exceptions of Kate Argent and Derek Hale, Malia Hale, Lydia Martin, and Noshiko Yukimura.

Not a single one has a single scratch on them.

Stilinski informs them that Yukimura is still in the hospital, that Derek, Malia, and Lydia are all safe, and that he does not know where Kate is, but he wishes to find her.

Interviews reveal that these people went on the run as soon as they learned that their lives were in danger, and that Scott and Mr. Argent protected them.

They don’t get any more information than that, nothing about why these people were on the list, how they found out about it, and nothing about the supposed powers that are the reason for being put on the list. Many of them have heard about Peter Hale, and although they don’t know a lot about him, few are surprised that he might be behind this.

The team returns to the station, and then Hotch sends everyone to the hotel to get some rest.

They feel better after a good night’s sleep, but the rest does not make the case make any more sense in their heads.

Meredith is returned to Eichen House.

The agents spend the next few days milling about the station, looking at the evidence again and again, but don’t make any progress.

They learn that Peter Hale and Meredith Walker once shared a hospital room at one point, while they were both catatonic, but don’t learn anything else of note.

Stilinski allows them to stick around in good humor, but it’s obvious that in his eyes, the case is closed. He even thanks them for their help solving it.

“Peter Hale has been arrested.” Stilinski informs them a few days later. “He’s been admitted to Eichen House.”

“On what grounds?” Hotch asks. “And how did he get arrested?”

“An off duty US Marshal who was vacationing in Mexico recognized him and brought him in. And as for why he’s been admitted to Eichen house, well, it’s Peter Hale.” Stilinski says as if that explains everything.

“Can we speak to him?” Hotch asks.

“You can try.” Stilinski says. “But apparently he had some kind of breakdown, and isn’t really capable of answering your questions.”

Hotch and Rossi do try to speak with him, but Peter appears catatonic, he can’t, or won’t answer their questions.

They learn that a few people, Derek Hale, Stiles Stilinski, Liam Dunbar, Lydia Martin, and Malia Hale all went to Mexico just before Peter was brought back.

The team stays a few more days, but eventually they have to go home. They do so feeling like all the loose ends are slapping them in the face, they feel unsatisfied with the conclusion of the case.

“Maybe they were were-wolves.” Reid says one day out of the blue, and everyone instantly knows which case he is talking about. “There aren’t supposed to be any wolves in California, but some of those attacks looked like wolf attacks, and I’m sure I heard howling a few times.”

The room is quiet enough to hear a pin drop until Morgan awkwardly chuckles. “There is no such thing as werewolves.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t have watched that Doctor Who episode with the werewolf last night.” Garcia speaks, unnaturally dismal.

No one mentions, or even dares to think about the fact that there is no such thing as zombies either, and yet this case was full of them.

Time goes on.

They get more cases, and push this one to the back of their minds. They think about it sometimes, Reid does some research into telluric currents, Rossi finds himself browsing the supernatural section of the bookstore, and Hotch watches movies and shows involving characters with teeth and claws, things he would never admit to watching.

No one talks about that case.

When one considers it, they simply can’t get any further than opening their mouth.

Over time, they all do their best to push all memories and thoughts about that case out of their heads, until they have by and large forgotten it.

Until the day that another case crosses JJ’s desk.

She hesitates before she brings it to Hotch, but knows she can’t just ignore it.

“Multiple teenages dead, various unusual wounds. Unusual due to the fact that they bled more mercury than blood. And if that isn’t odd enough, all the bodies have been stolen. And the real kicker.”

JJ takes a deep breath. “It’s in Beacon Hills.”

Some years later:

Hotch blinks as he looks at the paper on his desk.

He rubs his eyes, and blinks a few more times, but the paper doesn’t disappear, and none of the words change.

Most of the paper isn’t that unusual, it’s an application to join the BAU, many of those cross his desk.

What catches Hotch’s attention is the name on the paper.

A name he had hoped to never see again.

But now that he sees the name, he can’t help but be curious.

Maybe having Stiles Stilinski on the team would be good. The boy, man now, certainly has experience with a lot, that may come in handy, he’ll have a unique perspective that might be what they need at times, and maybe, just maybe, he’ll finally shed some light on what exactly went down in Beacon Hills those years ago.

Then again, maybe it would be better for the team’s sanity and health to stay as far away from anyone and everyone who has anything to do with Beacon Hills as they possibly can.