❛ 𝑪𝑶𝑳𝑫 𝑨𝑺 𝑰𝑪𝑬 ❜
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•☽.⭒✻❙ 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐎𝐏𝐔𝐋𝐀𝐑 𝐊𝐈𝐃𝐒 ❙✻⭒.☾•
𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒂𝒖 𝒊𝒏𝒗𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒈𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒔 𝒂 𝒔𝒖𝒑𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒆𝒅 '𝒄𝒖𝒍𝒕' 𝒌𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈
❝ 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐠𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐚 𝐩𝐮𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐮𝐠𝐚𝐫? ❞
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𝑩𝑨𝑫 𝑯𝑨𝑩𝑰𝑻
𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒗𝒆 𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒚
❛ is it too late to pursue ❜
𝑉𝐴𝐿𝐸𝑁𝑇𝐼𝑁𝐴 𝐻𝐴𝐷 𝑆𝑃𝐸𝑁𝑇 𝑇𝐻𝐸 night with Lance, Morgan's friend in the FBI, and even after she had a date with him and didn't seem interested, she was back with him anyway. She wasn't sure if she wanted anything serious with this, but she wasn't opposed to seeing him.
Valentina had just gotten into the BAU and had dropped her stuff off at her desk before going over to the kitchen to get some coffee. When she walked over, she saw Spencer pouring quite a lot of sugar into his coffee with Morgan standing next to him. "Hey, guys."
"Hello, Tina. How'd your date go with Lance?" Morgan wondered with a smirk on his face, knowing what it actually was. As Valentina poured her coffee, she corrected, "Not a date, but he did keep asking me for one."
"What did you say?" Spencer asked, curious about her answer and if anything was getting serious or going far, but it wasn't. "I said no, and are you gonna put coffee in your sugar?"
Seeing as how Spencer was still pouring sugar into his coffee, Valentina was a little concerned. Morgan had walked off, leaving these two to talk and he had some paperwork he had to get done before their meeting. Spencer finally stopped pouring sugar in his coffee before informing, "I need something to wake me up."
"Oh, so we both had a late night. Good job, Spence." Valentina teased him and nudged his arm, but she was incredibly far off with her guess as to why he was being kept up late. Spencer shook his head and immediately denied it. "Not that kind of night."
"So, what kind of night was it? Memorising textbooks? Working on cold fusion? Watching Star Trek and laughing at science mistakes?" Valentina continued to tease, but that was constantly the norm with these two. Spencer did think it was annoying at first because he never had anyone to challenge him, but now with someone as charming, outgoing, and similar to Spencer, it was refreshing.
"Actually, there aren't many scientific errors in Star Trek. Especially considering how long ago it was made. There are certain improbabilities, but not that many outright errors-" Spencer corrected, but he was cut off when Valentine put her finger to his lips and shushed him. "Spence, I love you, but I'm too tired to hear your nerd rambling. Instead, can you tell me about yourself because you are so much more interesting than Star Trek."
"I was actually wondering about something." Spencer acknowledged, Valentina motioning for him to go ahead. She likes talking to Spencer, he's her friend, but when he goes on long tangents, she enjoys them, but sometimes Valentina just can't retain the information when she's too tired. "Do you ever have dreams?"
"Yeah, I once dreamt that Taylor Swift was my pharmacist. I don't know what it meant, but it was cool." Valentina answered with her usual level of unique charm. Spencer did see the slight confusion he made in this since his dreams weren't exactly positive in any sense. "Sorry, I think nightmares would be a more accurate description."
"I mean, I haven't had any about the job, but I have for other stuff." Valentina explained. He really didn't want to pry, but it was helping Spencer to know that he wasn't the only person experiencing this. "Could I ask what they're about?"
"I know you saw the scars on my arm when we were on the train. I don't want to explain how I got them 'cause it's going to put me in a box and I don't want that, but what they're from, still haunts me. I get nightmares about it a lot, it's not fun." Valentina hated explaining this situation to people, she never even really did. She didn't talk about her kidnapping with her family, not with any friends she's ever had, the only reason Hotch knew was because he was consulting on a case when Agent Rossi found her, or more stumbled upon her.
"Are you okay?" Spencer asked, not expecting something so deep from someone whose constantly joking around. Valentina sent him a small smile as she responded, "No. But I'm better than I was."
"I'm glad." Spencer smiled back at her. He didn't want to pry or make Valentina feel uncomfortable with everything, but he was glad that she was getting better.
"You know, I really wish you liked hugging people right now."
"You're not hugging me." Valentina scrunched her nose. She and Spencer were much alike, it was what made their rivalry so alive. But with their slight separations like Valentina being outgoing while Spencer is reserved let them get along really well, it was one of the main reasons why Hotch paired them up so much, they work fantastically together. They're also the only people that can keep up with each other.
"Are the nightmares what are keeping you up?" Valentina asked before taking a sip of her coffee. Spencer nodded his head. "I used to get them occasionally, but lately it's like I have then every night. They're always about the job, what we do."
"You should talk to Gideon about this." Valentina suggested. He had been on the force longer than anyone, so he would most likely have the most experience with Spencer's situation. Valentina has enough nightmares with her past that she honestly didn't have time with the job haunting her, but she knew that Gideon would actually be able to help her friend. Spencer did take this a little wrong. "Can I not talk to you about it?"
"Of course you can, Spence, I'm just saying that Gideon will probably be able to help more than I will. You can always talk to me about anything." Spencer was glad that she was genuinely helping him, he really did feel he could trust her. This was shockingly a step for Spencer when he put his hand on her shoulder as a small thank you. Valentina, of course, had to tease him. "Oh my god, Spencer Reid touched a woman. Miracles do happen."
"You're annoying." Spencer walked off.
"I don't know why you're not more happy about this? We just witnessed the impossible." Valentina teased with a smile on her face as she followed him out. They figured that they had to do a round table for the next case soon anyway, so the two of them had walked over to the room where, very conveniently, everyone else was going inside. They had a new case that JJ introduced, "McAllister. Western slope of the Massanutten Mountain in Virginia. Two bodies discovered in the woods, both with apparent blunt trauma to the head."
They all looked at the crime scene photos on the desk and Spencer was a little shocked that there weren't exactly bodies. "Skeletons?"
"One of them. The second victim was just killed this morning." JJ explained, but there was still more to be questioned here, which Elle did, "How do we know there's a connection?"
"Found about seventy-five feet apart with nearly identical head wounds." Hotch explained, already familiar with the case, but there wasn't as much to go off of here as there normally was, only a few crime scene photos. "Where's the rest of the case file?"
"There isn't one. The sheriffs are on the scene waiting for us." Hotch explained and JJ added on, "The location's only a half hour away by plane."
"What's the rush?"
"Well, there was evidence on the scene that could cause a bit of public uproar. A Satanic cult." Hotch pointed out, earning a couple of rough and scrunched looks from the rest of the team. They knew that Satanic cults or cults of any kind in crimes like this could be far from predictable and they never really knew how many people were actually involved.
"JJ, we need to obviously keep this out of the press for as long as possible." The whole team knows that Satanic cults, especially in small towns, can severely interfere with the crime scene since it causes distrust in the community. "I'll do what I can."
"Why is that so important?" Elle questioned. She, like Valentina, was a newer member of this team, but while Valentina had doctorates in the studies of human behavior, Elle only had FBI experience. She was still decently new to this profiling business. Luckily, there's a genius on the team named Spencer Reid that could explain this to her. "There was a nationwide scare in the 1980's involving Satanic ritual killings and abuse. The 'Satanic Panic,' it was called. It began after the publication of a book about repressed memories being recovered through hypnotherapy. Memories of growing up with devil worshippers who used children in their rituals and ceremonies."
"Most of the claims were found to be false or just impossible after the fact. Still though, numerous therapists accepted them as true and started looking for similar signs in their own patients. After a year, thousands of people reported the exact same repressed memories, but the Bureau conducted an investigation and concluded that most of the ritual kills or abuse were more urban legend than anything else." Valentina added on, she and Spencer always seeming to have the answer for everything. Elle had to clarify, "You're saying that there's no such thing as devil worshipping?"
"Not at all." Gideon corrected. "But most of the Satanism we've seen is juveniles damaging property, desecrating churches, cemeteries. To my knowledge, there's never been a proven case of a Satanic ritual killing in the United States."
"Well, maybe there is now."
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When they had landed, the BAU team immediately went over to the crime scene. They split up into two different groups, one to look at the found skeleton and the other to survey the area. Gideon, JJ, Valentina, and Spencer had gone to look at the skeleton. One of the sheriffs had greeted them, shaking all of their hands, expect Spencer, who never does. "Morning. John Bridges."
"Hi. Yeah, we spoke on the phone. I'm Agent Jareau, this is Agent Gideon, Dr. Barnes, and Dr. Reid with the FBI's Behavioral Analysis unit." JJ introduced them all and they were thanked for getting out there so quickly. They usually found that with small towns, they don't like calling in the big guns that are the FBI, so there could be passive aggression, but this man seemed decent.
"There was an in-service in Charlottesville last year. Said if we ran into any unusual homicides we were supposed to call you folks. Sooner rather than later." He explained, hoping that the experts were really going to be a help, which Gideon reassured, "Yeah, they were right."
"So, is this unusual enough?" He questioned, motioning to the crime scene. There was a skeleton laying at the base of a broken tree with the letters L-O-D carved into it. "It certainly is interesting."
"You guys must get a lot of this, huh? Satanic stuff?" He wondered, but Valentina responded to him by shaking her head. "No, we don't actually. Who found the body?"
"Hiker found the first one at the trail. My deputies located this one while searching for evidence. Don't even know if it's a man or a woman." The sheriff explained, but because Spencer was getting a good look at the skeleton, he had already figured that wonder out. "It's a man. Male pelvis is more narrow and the opening at the bottom is heart shaped as opposed to oval. There's also melted wax."
"Candle wax? Those are used in rituals." Valentina pointed out, but Gideon was still skeptical. He refused to believe that Satanic cults were actually real and practicing. "Also used on birthday cakes."
"Actually, they were originally used to protect the birthday celebrant from demons for the coming year. As a matter of fact, down to the fourth century, Christianity rejected the birthday celebration as a Pagan ritual." Spencer informed, smiling as he got to rant about random knowledge he had in his mind, but the sight of seeing someone smile and so knowledgeable while standing next to a skeleton was slightly disturbing.
"What kind of a doctor are you?" Spencer only looked down at the ground. He never blamed people for being weirded out by his unique personality, it can be a lot to get used to, which he knows. Valentina, however, quite likes his rambling, especially since most of the time it gets her mind going and helps her with cases. Valentina lightly patted his shoulder, earning a small smile from Spencer.
"Does L.O.D. mean anything to you?" Valentina asked, seeing as how this engraving could be an incredibly clue, and it was possible that Spencer's random knowledge may come in handy here. "No, it doesn't. I don't know of any significance of Satanism either."
"Well, I'd have Garcia research this L.O.D. thing if I could get a call out." JJ complained, seeing as how they were deep in a forest and there wasn't any service, which the sheriff felt bad for. "Not much of a chance of that out here."
"Are there any cults in the area that you know about? Secret groups? People you see you don't know much about? People who stay to themselves mostly?" Gideon questioned, hoping to get some sort of lead on literally anything, but this sheriff wasn't much help. "This is a very religious area. Church on Sundays, fellowship on Wednesday, Bible classes. If there was a secret group I'd probably know about it."
"You just contradicted yourself." Valentina pointed out, which honestly offended the sheriff. "Excuse me?"
"She means, if there was a secret group being secretive, you probably wouldn't know." Spencer clarified, and they were right. Although, being told that he doesn't actually know anything and that this tight knit town might not be as predictable as he thought, made the sheriff frustrated. "Look, people out here just want a quiet place to raise their kids. What I know is none of them are capable of doing this."
Gideon, JJ, Valentina, and Spencer all knew that this sheriff wasn't doing any them any favours by defending the people of the town and being so standoff-ish. This usually happened in smaller towns and none of them were really shocked, but they wished that people would cooperate and realize that the BAU are the experts, not small town officers.
The four of them had gone back up to the road where they could speak to Hotch, Elle, and Morgan. As they climbed up the small, but steep hill, Hotch wanted to combine their information. "Find anything interesting down there?"
"Yeah, it does look like some kind of ritual site." Gideon responded as they all circled around. There was the one acronym they found that they were hoping someone had heard of, so Spencer asked, "Have any of you ever heard the expression 'lod?' Or the acronym 'L.O.D.'?"
"Not me." Elle responded, but before anyone else could, they heard a woman yell from a little afar. They all looked over and saw a blonde woman crying and yelling about her daughter, Cherish. She had gone running with the person that was just recently killed, but now, Cherish was missing. Or at least her mother couldn't find her.
While the sheriffs took care of Cherish's mother and tried to calm her down, the BAU used this to try and start created somewhat of a profiler, which Gideon began, "We're looking for someone who can overpower a victim. Abduct a girl from a travelled path without being seen."
"It fits with the cult theory. There would be more than one unsub to control multiple victims." Valentina explained with Hotch adding on afterwards. "But if the attack were ferocious enough, a single unsub could too. Kill Adam and grab the girl while she's in shock."
"This is some rough country. We only went a quarter of a mile and we almost got lost." Elle explained. She and Morgan had surveyed the area to try and find another body or possibly some more clues to do with these murders, but the forest was so rough that they had trouble keeping track of where they were. Morgan explained from his own experience, "The unsub has to be from this area. You don't just stumble onto a place like this."
"We should use local volunteers for a search body to find Cherish. Locals will do much better than we ever would." Valentina suggested, Gideon agreeing. "That's a good idea. We shouldn't tell him why either. He thinks we're looking for a monster. If we tell him we're looking for volunteers so we can profile who shows up, he might call the whole thing off."
"I'll go let him know." JJ informed before walking off to go talk to the sheriff, but of course keeping the real reason for a search party under wraps. While she had walked off and the rest of the BAU broke off to go get some more ideas or get their minds going, Valentina had looked over at Spencer. "I'm gonna head back to the station just for a few minutes so I can call Garcia about this L.O.D. thing."
"Call me as soon as you figure it out." Valentina nodded her head before going to join JJ. She was going to head back to the station with her and the sheriff so she could call Garcia and get her to look at what L.O.D. could be.
When they arrived, Valentina had walked in and stepped next to an empty desk, just so she could avoid speaking to anyone and just get this over with. Although, before she could actually dial Garcia's number, she spotted a picture of the newest victim in a football jersey along with the rest of the team.
"Do you play ball?" Someone suddenly asked, having seen Valentina looking at the football pictures. She turned around and saw a teenager in a varsity jacket, but she shook her head. "No, but my brothers used to."
"Yeah, I probably wouldn't have either if not for my father. I'm Cory." The teenager introduced himself as held out his hand for her to shake. She did so and introduced herself, "Valentina Barnes."
She spotted the books that were in his hand and was quite intrigued by them. "Is that Nietzsche? Spake Zarathustra is a bit antagonistic of the Judeo-Christian world view for this town, isn't it?"
"I don't think too many people here would have bothered to read it. If they had, they wouldn't understand it. Might as well be a Hawking essay on quark theory." Valentina let out a small laugh, actually understanding that reference. Spencer told jokes and references like this all the time and she's the only one that ever understood them. "Nobody ever got that reference before. Hey, um, is my father around? The sheriff?"
"He's in his office with another agent." Valentina informed, but the certain wording shocked Cory. "Agent?"
"I'm with the FBI, the Behavioral Analysis Unit." Valentina explained, which was actually something that Cory found quite interesting. "Profilers? This is mad cool. I got like a hundred questions, I got...Wait, why would FBI profilers be here in McAllister?"
"There was a murder outside of town, on the mountain, and a girl's missing."
"It's Cherish Hanson." The sheriff suddenly spoke, his son turning to look at him. "We're putting together a search party. I need you to get the rest of the team together and meet us out at the trail about a half mile south of the Point."
Cory nodded his head and headed out, leaving the sheriff and Valentina. He let his eyes linger on her for a little longer than he should, almost like the sheriff was skeptical of her, but he was most likely threatened. It happened a lot to the women in the BAU. When smaller law enforcement officials see that there are women in the FBI and are practically in charge of them, the men usually get a little threatened by them. The women in the BAU were used to being underestimated.
It took some time to get all the locals in this town rounded up, but they were able to do it. The local police were helping everyone sign in so that they could keep track of who was there and crosscheck it with other information on their profile, they figured the unsub would try to insert themselves in the investigation.
The FBI agents were in pairs and up around the group, watching and observing the local people to see if there was anyone out of the ordinary or acting off in any way. Spencer and Valentina were a pair and were doing just as everyone else was doing, but this entire situation was a little out of the ordinary for Valentina. "This is so strange. I grew up in a rich part of Maine, you couldn't get this many people out for anything less than free money, as if they don't have enough already."
"Really? Your town was that shallow?" Spencer spoke with surprised, but she just nodded her head. "Yeah. All people did was talk behind each other's backs or when something bad happened, they'd buy each other fruit baskets and expect their problems to go away. I kinda wish I grew up in a small town."
"I wouldn't know what that's like, I grew up in Vegas." Spencer explained, he too unfamiliar with the quaint and joyous experience it is to grow up in a small town. "You don't look like you're from Vegas."
"Where do I look like I'm from?" Spencer questioned as he crossed his arms in front of his chest. Without skipping a beat, Valentina responded, "Jupiter."
Spencer's jaw clenched, but he was really trying not to smile. Valentina liked teasing him like this, she knew he just needed to let loose sometimes. Spencer is so incredibly wound tight because he's scared to not be taken seriously because of his age, and Valentina is too, but she lets her work speak for itself. Both Spencer and Valentina are incredible assets to this team, they're both incredibly smart, obviously experts in this field, and they still have a lot of potential. Valentina knew that he didn't always have to be so serious.
"Ladies and gentlemen, could I have your attention, please?" The sheriff called out to all the locals. "Now, you were all assigned grid squares to search. Each grid has a deputy or an FBI agent. If you find anything, do not touch it. Just let your grid leader know. Are there any questions?"
No one said anything. "Everyone get in your group now. Let's head out."
"I'll see you later, Spence." Valentina bid a farewell as she held out her hand for him to shake. Spencer never shakes hands, especially when it's newer people, but he had gotten used to Valentina's hugging, nudging, she's a very affectionate person. She respected his boundaries, but Spencer had gotten quite used to it. He went to shake her hand, but instead, she kissed his hand before hurrying off to lead her group.
Morgan had seen the little display and laughed to himself. He had worked with Spencer for a long time and got along instantly with Valentina. He was glad that Spencer had someone that was actually helping him be a little more regular. There isn't anything wrong with how he is, but it does benefit him to have someone like Valentina who's so similar to him.
They had all split up, each FBI agent leading a group that wandered throughout their designated section. Valentina was wandering the woods, not many people right near her, except one. She had to stop walking because her boot was untied, so she knelt down to tie it, but that meant that the one person behind her, Henry Dent had come up right behind her. "You alright, there?"
Valentina jumped, but when she turned to see that it was only one of the local people. "You scared me."
"I saw you bent over." He defended himself, but Valentina was still slightly sceptical of this random man that appeared behind her. "I was tying my boot."
"These almost never come untied." He spoke proudly as he showed his boots. Valentina continued walking, him following closely beside her, a little too close. "Congratulations."
"My name's Henry." He introduced himself, but Valentina still wasn't all too fond of this man, but she decided to be courteous. "Well, congratulations, Henry. I'm Valentina."
"Like the holiday?" Valentina furrowed her eyebrows, slightly confused because she isn't aware of Valentina day, but Henry clarified his odd thinking. "It's just that Valentina sounds like Valentine. You know, like Valentine's day?"
"My birthday is on Valentine's day, actually." Valentina observed. Valentina is almost never actually called by her name. Spencer calls her Val, Morgan calls her Tina, a few people at work do call her by her actual name, but Valentina's entire family calls her Valentine. And with the irony of her birthday being on Valentine's day, her family used to say that it was her day.
"You're with the FBI, right? That must be exciting." Valentina shrugged her shoulders, not too fond of learning about a new monster every single day, but she did like helping people. "It has its moments."
"It's dangerous too, right? I mean, you go after killers and things? Really bad guys. You ever have to shoot-" He cut himself off very suddenly. Valentina didn't like having this guy right next to her, especially when they found something. There was a bloody piece of paper taped to a tree, so Valentina took a rubber glove out of her pocket and used it to pick up the paper, reading the note out loud. "Satan commands the virgin be sacrificed at the next full moon."
"That's tonight, isn't it? What's that?" Henry had reached forward to touch the note and where there was blood on it, but Valentina moved her hand further. She didn't need extra fingerprints on this. "What part of 'don't touch the evidence' is so hard to comprehend?"
"Sorry." He apologized and backed away from her. There were far too many times where local police were too idiotic to comprehend that it's wrong to tamper and move a crime scene and with large groups of locals, they would unknowingly tamper with it too. It only made it more difficult for the BAU to do their job.
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The BAU was prepared to give the profile, they were just waiting for all the local cops to make their way back to the station. While Valentina was talking to JJ and Morgan, Hotch had noticed Spencer was decently fatigued due to all the yawning. "Tired?"
"I'm fine." Spencer pushed aside, but Hotch knew something Spencer didn't realize. "We all get them sometimes."
"Get what?"
"Nightmares." Spencer immediately looked over at Valentina, knowing that she was the only person he told that to. Valentine told Hotch about Spencer's nightmares because she thought it was necessary. Spencer shook his head, mad at Valentina, and not wanting any extra attention. "It's not that bad."
"If you want to talk about it, you know where I am." That was when Hotch left him. He gathered the rest of the BAU so that they could deliver the profile to the local police. The BAU all stood in front of the local officers and delivered the profile with Hotch starting, "Contrary to popular belief, there has never been a proven case of Satanic ritual killing. Never a verified human sacrifice. Having said that, there have been isolated cases of animal sacrifice and many, many cases of vandalism in the name of Satan."
"That doesn't mean ritual Satanism is impossible. And, more importantly for our purposes, there have been cults that killed, such as the Manson family, just not in ritual fashion." Valentina continued with Spencer adding on after her. "The Reverend Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple. His followers killed a U.S. Congressman and three other people before committing mass suicide, leaving over nine hundred people dead. And perhaps the most widely known of the killer cults, as mentioned, the Manson Family, under the direction of Charles Manson, killed nine people in a four day period in an attempt to initiate a race war."
"Killer cults do exist and they all have one thing in common. Invariably, they're headed by charismatic megalomaniacs." Elle explained, summing up the examples Spencer had given before the genius himself had continued on. "You're looking for that leader. He's who will stand out. He'll be memorable to somebody. People who aren't in this group will see him as strange, weird, scary."
"Since we're dealing with professed Satanists, which is often practised by younger males, we may be looking for teenagers. Heavy metal music is often associated with Satanism, and these kids and their leader may reflect that in their look." Hotch gave a more visible profile, Valentina adding onto that profile. "Sex, drugs, and alcohol will most likely be involved. The leader will be older, it's part of his charm, and he has to be from this area. He is definitely local. These woods are too thick and confusing for a visitor to get around in."
"You think one of our own people is doing this?" The sheriff scoffed, still dedicated to the fact that no one in this quaint town could be part of a cult, much less killing people. But Hotch confirmed it. "We're sure of it."
"I would know if someone was capable-" The sheriff began, but his son, Cory, the boy Valentina had talked to when she was at the station before, was still here. It was only because his father, but there was note taken of his presence. He had interrupted his father. "Dad, I know somebody like that."
"As you all were, but we'd like to speak with you and your father." Hotch spoke directly to Cory. The boy nodded his head and followed the BAU into the conference room. The sheriff was standing right by his son, who seemed slightly agitated. The sheriff still hated the idea of the BAU wanting to blame someone from his town, but Cory was actually willing to help.
"His name is Mike Zizzo. He graduated about five years ago. He's in his twenties, but he still hangs out with high school kids. Hes got a group of them. They follow him everywhere. They all get high and listen to heavy metal. He calls them The Lords of Destruction." The acronym made perfect sense now, which Spencer called out. "L.O.D."
"How do you know this, Cory?" Valentina questioned, but the boy immediately looked up at his father. He sent his son a small nod, indicating that it was alright for him to say since this had to do with a murder investigation. He shouldn't be worried about what his father thinks. "I've been there. Where they hang out. Drinking beers. He talks about Satan all the time. He says he's the one true god."
"Where is this place?" Gideon questioned, and thankfully, Cory knew exactly where. "On the other side of the mountain. The old Jenson house."
"It's out of my jurisdiction." The sheriff pointed out, but the BAU knew that they had much more freedom. "Not ours."
The BAU needed to get to Mike Zizzo, but because of the fact that he might be apart of a Satanic cult, they knew that he most likely had control over many followers that would quite literally do anything for him. They couldn't take any chances with talking him down.
The BAU planned a raid with the local police to infiltrate Zizzo's place. They weren't going to take any teenagers unless they tried anything, but they needed to bring in Zizzo to the police station.
Valentina and Spencer hadn't gone on the raid to get Zizzo, but once he was brought in, the two of them were sent out to the raid sight. All of the teenagers were gone and Morgan had stayed out there, he was just doing a few last checks with another sheriff to make sure everyone was out and they could actually take a proper look around.
Valentina was pacing back and forth just waiting for Morgan and the officer to come out of the house so that they could take a look around as well. In the meantime, Spencer had a burning curiosity that was itching his brain. "Valentina."
She immediately stopped pacing upon not being called by her nickname. Valentina immediately was worried that he was mad at her. "Yeah?"
"You knew I didn't want you to tell Hotch about my nightmares." That made much more sense to her. She felt about telling Hotch, but she knew she had to. "Spence, that's something they need to know about."
"What do you mean ,'they'?" Spencer questioned, under the impression that it was only Hotch that knew, but it wasn't the case, which Valentina clarified, "Hotch and Gideon."
"You told Gideon too?!" He spoke with disbelief, but Valentina didn't see the need for a huge reaction since she understood this situation better than he was aware of. "Yeah, and it's fine."
"What if they think I can't do my job? What if they want to pull me off the team?" Spencer worried, but Valentina knew that he was just overreacting. "They won't."
"Oh, yeah? How do you know that?" Valentina really didn't want to admit to anything because she didn't even like that Hotch knew about her situation. It's incredibly difficult for her to talk about her abduction considering she was held for four years and she didn't need Spencer knowing about it too. She never knew how people would react to her situation, usually it was pity, which she hated. Valentina sighed and shrugged her shoulders. "I just do."
"You had no right, Valentina. I confided in you. You know, this is exactly what I get when I trust someone. It gets thrown back in my face." Spencer threw his arms up in disbelief, still mad that she had violated his trust, but Valentina had a very good reason to do so. She still didn't want to dive into the details because that would mean admitting to her greatest trauma, but she could try to beat around the bush. "Spence, I had to tell Hotch about your nightmares because I was worried they would affect your job because mine affect my job."
"Yours?"
"Yeah, mine. Hotch knows something about me that I really wished he didn't, but he does. This thing he knows gives me nightmares, really bad ones, so bad that they affect my job. They make me paranoid and flighty, I've had breakdowns at work because of it. I mean, that one case we had where we were with the father and daughter and her sister got kidnapped, I had to leave the room like three times because it was too much for me. My nightmares affect my job and I don't want to accidentally mess up a case because I'm distracted or break down while I'm talking to a witness, and I don't want that to happen to you. Your nightmares are about our work, so I figured they might affect your work. I just wanted you to have the help you might need. I told Hotch because I care about you."
Spencer immediately felt bad for snapping at her. He still didn't know what this 'thing' was that Hotch knows about her and he doesn't, but he could very clearly tell that she didn't want to talk about it. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize."
"It's fine. Can you just call me Val again?" Valentina hated when he didn't call her by her nickname, she always felt like he was mad at her or something. Seeing as how he still felt pretty bad, Spencer figured he owed her a little and he knew exactly how to pay her back. "You know, maybe I can call you mine instead?"
Valentina immediate covered her mouth with her hands in shock. Spencer let out a breath, already regretting having said that because now she can hold it over his head. "I'm never doing that again, by the way."
"This is the happiest day of my life." Valentina was clearly teasing him, but she was really glad to see that he was actually letting loose. Spencer almost never jokes around and when he does, it's not too obvious, but being around Valentina was letting him get better at it.
Just then, Morgan and the other officer had emerged from the house. The officer had immediately left to get back to the station, but Morgan was supposed to stay with them. "Hey guys, there was nothing in there, but we can probably search the premises, see if Cherish is anywhere around here."
Morgan had seen the look on Valentina's face, her hands still over her hands in shock, which concerned him a little. "What's with Tina?"
"Spencer flirted with me." Valentina blurted out, which brought a huge smile to Morgan's lips and Spencer only glared at her. "You're going to tell everyone that, aren't you?"
"Yes, I am."
All of a sudden, they heard a few twigs snap, which made all of their attention focus on the sound, but they were thankful that when they looked over, they only found Cory, the sheriff's son, walking towards them through the forest. "Did you guys find her? Did you find Cherish?"
"No." Spencer responded, but Valentina found it a little odd that it seemed everywhere they went in this investigation, Cory was right there too. "Did Zizzo say anything?"
"We don't know. We've been here the whole time." Morgan responded, which was true. They hadn't gotten any information from Elle, Hotch, or Gideon, who was talking to someone other than Zizzo, but they were solely on patrol and searching for the missing girl rather than focusing on the dead body.
Cory's breathing sped up, clearly panicking, which wasn't good for anyone. "Cory, calm down."
"How am I supposed to calm down? Cherish is missing. Did you check all over?" He needed clarification again, but there wasn't much else they could do, which Morgan pointed out, "We searched the whole house."
"What about the outbuilding?" Cory questioned, which immediately made Valentina even more suspicious that he happened to know about this. "What outbuilding?"
"The other area back in the woods? It's like a sluice structure or something. He took me there once. It's this way." Cory explained as he began walking behind the building. Spencer, Morgan, and Valentina immediately followed after him, seeing that this extra area no one seemed to know about could have a very good chance of having Cherish in it. As soon as they got to that other building, Valentina was the one to walk in there. She had her gun in her hands just in case, but once she got in that building, she saw Cherish's dead body laying in a tub. Valentina sighed, feeling horrible that they didn't find her in time, but there wasn't anything they could do now.
Valentina had put her gun back in her holster and walked out of the building, where Cory had immediately perked up at the sight of her. "She in there? She alright?"
"She's in there, but...I'm sorry, Cory. She didn't make it." He immediately ran stressed hands through his hair as he shook his head. "No, no, no. She can't be dead."
Valentina was not buying this. Cory wasn't crying, his panic didn't even seem that genuine. She didn't like how this kid seemed to be everywhere the investigation was and it was profiling 101 that an unsub may want to insert himself into his crime as much as possible, and this kid was being incredibly obvious about it.
"Spence, Morgan, can you guys go back to the house and see if the deputies have come back. We need the sheriff and the crime scene team here." Spencer was about to protest since he knew it was a good idea that they all stick together, but Morgan had caught on to exactly what Valentina was implying. He too was seeing what she was seeing in Cory and she had a much better chance of talking him down or getting a confession if it were just the two of them. Valentina and Cory had already related before, Valentina had the best chance out of the three of them.
Morgan just nudged Spencer and nodded his head, signalling for Spencer to follow him. He just kept his mouth shut and followed Morgan away. Once they were far enough, Valentina had sat down on the steps to the building and leaned her arms against her knee. "I'm sorry about your friend, Cory."
"I saw her just the other day at the pep rally. I just can't believe she's..." Cory trailed off, still trying to seem like he was holding back tears, but Valentina was seeing right through this charade. This kid was far too inexperienced to trick any profiler, especially one who is incredibly gifted in human behavior.
"You told me you read all the profiling books." Valentina switched the conversation, hoping to get to the point of this fairly quickly and have Cory catch on at some point that she knows he's the unsub. "I'm actually kind of hoping to be one of you guys someday."
"Really? So you know what profilers do?" Cory nodded his head. "So, you know that we look at crime scenes differently than regular cops. We look for more than just the evidence. We try to pick up on the behavior of the killer. For example, the person in this crime would be classified as a disorganised killer."
"Sounds like Zizzo." Cory tried to move the attention away from himself, but there was no use. Valentina already knew it was him and so did Morgan. "It does. It does sound like Zizzo. But, you know, sometimes a disorganised killer only looks that way and he's actually very organised. He's usually pretty smart too. Somebody who can manipulate a crime scene to make it look like somebody else did it and because of that, we also have to look for someone who would try to put himself right in the middle of an investigation, so he can influence things. Especially if he knows exactly what it is we're looking for. I mean, he wants to control us and that would extend to discovery. Like wanting the body found when and especially where he wants that body found."
"You mean me? I know about the building, I was only trying to help." Cory was finally starting to catch on to what Valentina was implying, but his deflecting wasn't helping his case in any way. "Let me let you in on a little secret, Cory, nothing gets past me. I am by far the most technically aware of human behavior agent in the BAU and I have PHDs to prove it. Some kid isn't going to fool me. I know this was all more than just a lucky guess. You knew about the building, you knew about Zizzo, and the Satanism. I mean, we couldn't have found this place without you."
With very unfortunate timing, Spencer and Morgan had come back and made themselves known, which was going to set off Cory. "Hey, Val, no one's up there-"
Before Spencer could finish his sentence, Cory had wrapped his arm around Spencer's neck and held a gun to his head. Both Morgan and Valentina quickly readied their guns and had them pointed right at Cory as Morgan warned, "Don't be stupid, Cory."
"This got all messed up. She wasn't supposed to be with him. It was his run! He runs it every day! Not her!" Cory yelled, overly frustrated by how quickly disorganized his crime had become, but Valentina was still trying to get him calm. "Cory, we can fix this, but you have to let Spencer go."
"I never meant to hurt her, but make no mistake, I will shoot your boy right now." Cory cocked the gun, which did set off some alarms, so Valentina and Morgan knew they had to back off. They didn't have a clear enough shot to take down Cory, so both Morgan and Valentina slowly put their guns back in their holsters and held their hands up as Morgan mediated the situation. "Okay, okay. You win. We put the guns down. You're in control, Cory. Let him go."
"For the evil is man's best force. Man must become better and eviler." Valentina very suddenly quoted, which caught Cory's attention. She remembered his book on Nietzsche and was going to use it against him. "That's what this is about, right? Zarathustra? The superman? There's no moral obligation for killing someone if you're superior to them, but Nietzsche was speaking metaphorically about evolving as a species."
"You're just a horny kid who wanted to get rid of the cheerleader's boyfriend." Morgan added on, vastly simplifying it, but he did have the gist of it. This only enraged Cory, who stuttered through his words. Because he was in this nervous state, Morgan took that opportunity. He tackled Cory, but it took Spencer down with them and the gun went off, thankfully, not hitting anyone. Valentina had immediately grabbed her gun out of her holster and held it to Cory, but Morgan did punch him to knock him out cold. Valentina let out a breath and put her gun away as she looked over at Spencer. "You okay?"
"What happened?" Spencer questioned from his spot on the ground, and Morgan, who had caught on before, explained it to him. "Him bringing us down here was way too much of a coincidence."
"No, I got that. Did you have to tackle us both?" Valentina smiled and shook her head, not even shocked that that was what he was focusing on.
"You're welcome, Reid." Morgan got up to his feet on his own, but Valentina held out her hand for Spencer. She helped him stand up and he dusted himself off as Derek picked up the unconscious Cory. Spencer was curious about her impulsive rant. "How'd you know about that stuff about Nietzsche?"
"Once, on the plane, you talked about him for an hour and never took a breath. Despite what it looks like, I do listen." It was lucky that she did so. Spencer hadn't realized that people actually listen when he goes on rants like this, he usually assumes that they're just being polite, so he tries not to get to carried away, but with Valentina, he could. She listens to ever word of his tangents because she's genuinely interested in them and likes when Spencer doesn't stop talking. Today had proven that they're actually good for something. Without Valentina listening to Spencer's rant, she probably couldn't have gotten Cory's guard down, which may have resulted in Spencer getting shot.
❝ 𝐮𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲, 𝐚 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐛𝐲 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐬. ❞
- 𝒔𝒊𝒓. 𝒑𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒐𝒗
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