SSA Scottley - A collection - S.R.

300

"All right, look, The Believers, they're just like Jonestown, Manson, Heaven's Gate, even Rajneeshpuram in Oregon." Tara continued. "There's always a charismatic leader and a strong right hand who appears as a devoted disciple. In this case, Meadows. Merva has killed 299 innocents for a reason. We just don't know why."'

"But now that he's taken Reid and Garcia, The Believers have declared war on the BAU." Emily said.

"So this has got to be working toward their end game, one that could make either Reid or Garcia their 300th victim, perhaps their last."

"Garcia wasn't a part of this." Luke said. "She was just racing to the elevator."

"So it's Spence." JJ said. "It's been him all along."

"He's a protector." Lily mumbled. "It fits the victimology."

"Reid has to know something we don't." Luke said. "Ben's Believers. Reid could have told us anything, but he chose that."

"I... Excuse me."

And without giving anyone much time to react, Lily spun around in her heels and walked out of the conference room, racing toward the bathroom with heavy breath as she cried quietly into a sink. She wasn't sure how long she had been there, but when she finally managed to stop her tears from falling and wash out her face, she jumped a little when she noticed JJ coming toward her through the mirror.

"You okay?" She asked gently, approaching her friend carefully. After all, she knew that having both Spencer and Penelope taken from her would affect her the most out of everyone in the team.

"I remember the first time the three of us hung out together." Lily smiled a little as she breathed in and out slowly, her voice cracking with each word she spoke. "We got together at Penelope's house. It was around three weeks after I was hired in the team and Penny and I were already forming a bond. Penelope figured Spence and I would get along, though, because we were close in age and geniuses or whatever, so she invited us over. You know Penelope, though... She made a fuzz out of it and decorated the whole house and bought so much food we could barely tackle half of it."

"Yeah?" JJ smiled fondly as Lily chuckled under her breath.

"Yeah." She nodded. "We spent the whole night watching reruns of Doctor Who like the huge nerds we are."

"It's a good thing Penelope decided to do that." JJ said. "The three of you have been inseparable ever since I can remember."

Lily nodded, the lump in her throat reappearing as she swallowed back her tears.

"I don't know how to do this without them." She choked out. "If, hum, we can't get them back I..."

"It's okay." JJ cooed, pulling Lily into her arms and letting the woman cry on her shoulder for a bit. "It's okay, we'll get them back."

***

After finding the connection between the Believers and the Liberty Ranch in Colorado, remembering that Meadows was actually part of that cult as well when Spencer and Lily had been held hostage by them ten years before, Tara, Luke and Matt were watching the news from that day to catch up with what had happened since they were the only ones from that team that weren't around when it went down.

"Liberty Ranch." Tara said, as the three agents watched together the footage of the news. "This case is still legendary for extreme survivalists."

"And when the local police invaded, they took it as proof that the prophecy had come true." Luke said.

"Polygamy was huge for them." Matt continued. "Meadows wasn't the only one married to Benjamin Cyrus. So they blamed the BAU for the death of their messiah way back then. And they've been planning their revenge for a very long time."