❛ 𝑪𝑶𝑳𝑫 𝑨𝑺 𝑰𝑪𝑬 ❜
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•☽.⭒✻❙ 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐈𝐒𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 ❙✻⭒.☾•
𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒎 𝒊𝒔 𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒓𝒐𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒂 𝒑𝒔𝒚𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒄 𝒌𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒓'𝒔 𝒇𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒔𝒚 𝒈𝒂𝒎𝒆
❝ 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭? 𝐢 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬. ❞
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𝑳𝑶𝑶𝑲 𝑾𝑯𝑨𝑻 𝒀𝑶𝑼 𝑴𝑨𝑫𝑬 𝑴𝑬 𝑫𝑶
𝒕𝒂𝒚𝒍𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒘𝒊𝒇𝒕
❛ honey, i rose up from the dead, i do it all the time ❜
◅∘≼ 𝚙𝚝.𝟷 𝚘𝚏 𝟸 ≽∘▻
𝑉𝐴𝐶𝐴𝑇𝐼𝑂𝑁𝑆 𝐶𝐴𝑁 𝐵𝐸 𝐴 curse in disguise. While it would be nice for the BAU to not have to look monsters in the eye, see mutilated bodies, and the death of innocents, some had to go home to their family. Valentina is very grateful for the fortune her parents worked for, the generosity of her family, and her siblings sensitivity towards her mental health issues. They were all there when Valentina was taken and found as a child, they saw the worst of her effects.
Coincidentally, Spencer too was going back to Las Vegas to visit his mother, who as he confessed to Valentina, was a schizophrenic. He's always struggled with his mother's illness, it's always been a devastating chore, but Valentina could understand that better than anyone.
Spencer was driving Valentina to the airport since she had to head back to Maine, but currently, she was gathering the rest of her things that she needed at the BAU. Spencer was just waiting in the BAU parking lot since he had everything, but to keep herself sane, Valentina had some extra paperwork she needed to finish. She planned on using it as an excuse to escape her family.
The Barnes' are very kind, they're simply invasive and think little of Valentina. After when she went through as a child, her parents and brothers have been overly protective of her when Valentina has proven, by simply being a profiler, that she can easily take care of herself.
Valentina was just putting the files she needed in her bag when Elle and Derek had wandered over to her, Elle greeting her, "Hey, Valentina."
"Elle save me." Valentina immediately pleaded. They all knew where she was going since they had talked about it on the last plane ride. "Family's that bad? What are they like?"
"Well, I've got a moral philosophy professor for a dad who likes to break down every aspect of my job, a mother who I don't think has ever said she's proud of me, all of my older brothers are either very recognized and successful surgeons, biologists, or lawyers that all make more money than I do and live in beautiful, luxurious houses with their wives or husbands. What do you think they're like?"
"Well, I can get my man to swing you a hotel room for practically nothing." Derek offered since him and Elle were going on a vacation to Jamaica and his friend had managed a resort down there. Valentina sighed, "Don't tempt me, Derek."
Morgan let out a small laugh as Valentina swung her bag over her shoulder. "Pray for me guys."
Valentina had headed out to the parking lot so she and Spencer could get to the airport. This trip was going to be a little tedious for both of them, but there was something far more important that had been on both their minds. They had been dating for about two weeks and weren't quite sure what they were. Spencer and Valentina agreed to take their relationship slow since they work with each other and truthfully cared for one another. Neither wanted to mess this up.
Upon arriving at the airport, Spencer was getting Valentina's bags out of the trunk while she moved she and Spencer's out of the way or held them. "Thanks for driving me here, Spence."
"Yeah, of course. Anything for you." Valentina smiled as Spencer closed the trunk. She handed him his bags that she had been holding before as she wondered, "So, um, when I tell my family about you, am I referring to you as my boyfriend, friend...bone bro...?"
"What?" Spencer laughed, not expecting the last option. Valentina just sort of said it, so she was fairly embarrassed. She covered her face with her hands as she laughed at herself. Spencer moved her hands away from her face as she suggested, "It sounds like you're asking me to be your boyfriend."
Valentina tried to control her smile by biting the inside of her cheek, but it didn't work too well. Her cheeks were rosey due to her flustered state, but that only made Spencer smile. "I'd love to."
Valentina gave a small kiss to the corner of his lips. "Please remember to call me. I'll need saving from my brothers."
"Of course." Spencer agreed as Valentina picked up her bags. She began to walk away, but stopped and turned momentarily to announce to Spencer, "In the wise words of Winnie the Pooh, 'How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.' May we meet again, Spencer Reid."
Valentina did a little curtsy, which only made Spencer's smile wider. He loved her eccentricity. Spencer blew her a kiss, which she pretended to catch and put in her pocket. Spencer has always found Valentina's outgoing personality and sense of self inspiring. Valentina has been through too much to care what others thought. She was going to live her life in happiness, she deserved it after everything.
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The Barnes family is quite well known. They aren't famous in any sense for being actors, business geniuses, singers, they simply know a lot of powerful people. Melanie and Marshall Barnes both grew up with almost nothing and built their own fortune with Melanie's art and Marshall's studies, papers, and unique takes on moral philosophy. Many people call Melanie a revolutionary artist and Marshall a philosopher of is own.
These two wanted to give their four children the childhood they never had. They spent their summers either on the boat or in one of their houses around the world, their home was more of a manor, and Marshall and Melanie had befriended many high power people over the years.
However, they never spoiled their children. If any of the kids wanted something, they had to pay for it, Marshall and Melanie only paid for their education. Each child had a head-start in the world, they know that, but they all worked hard for the careers they had, each of which are not easy to get into; criminal defence lawyer, surgeon, wildlife biologist, and FBI profiler.
Valentina was in the living room with some wine as her favourite brother had walked over to her; Maxwell. They were the only two that gave immediate support when they both came out and everyday for four years, Max would leave the foyer light on in case Valentina came home. Maxwell smiled at his sister as he greeted, "Hey, Valentina."
"Hi, Max. How's the whole biology thing going?" Truthfully, Valentina didn't find any of her brother's jobs all that interesting. Marco constantly worked against her since he tried to get the people she arrested out of jail and Maverick has always been overly arrogant, so now she could care less about the world of surgery, Maverick boasts about it far too often. Maxwell's passion for what he does at least was inspiring. "It's good. I just got a grant for my newest studies towards otters."
"That's great, Max. I'm glad you're happy."
"Well, you must be too. You got your dream job." Valentina had been talking about profiling ever since Rossi had saved her. It's all she ever wanted to do since she was eleven. Valentina did want to bring up another important aspect of her life. "And I might have a boyfriend."
"Is he hot?"
"Of course"
"Nice job." Maxwell high fived his sister. Quite honestly, between the four Barnes children, Valentina and Maxwell got along the best. There was always a quiet rivalry between the four children since they all wanted to impress Melanie. She wanted her children to all do very well in life, so she put a lot of pressure on them. It's one of the reasons they all had such prominent careers.
Maxwell and Valentina, however, never tried to compete, only lift each other up. They got along the best and cared for each other the most. Valentina even introduced Maxwell to his husband, whom she had met at university.
Unfortunately, Maverick, the most obnoxious and disliked of them all, also the oldest, overheard the conversation and was shocked his sister found someone. He walked over to the two and questioned, "Boyfriend? What kind of lunatic would date you?"
"The same lunatic that's saved dozens of lives and has an IQ of a hundred and eighty-seven." Valentina defended, but Maverick only scoffed. "He just as pretentious as you?"
"You're literally wearing a Rolex and a three hundred dollar sweater, which you texted me a picture of three days ago to brag." Valentina pointed out what she had noticed before she took a sip of her wine. Maxwell laughed at his brother's obsession towards his lifestyle. "You're so weird, man."
"Says the hippie." Maverick retorted. Maxwell has been known to be very environmentally conscious in the fact that his job revolves around it and his entire home is filled with plants that it's a shock he can move around.
"I think Mav's mad that our jobs actually mean something." Valentina whispered to Maxwell, but Maverick heard it loud and clear. He crossed his arms and scoffed, "You know I'm a surgeon, right?"
"Who hasn't been working for a year on account of his anger problems. How's living off your wife's salary?" Maxwell pointed out. Maverick has always had anger issues, the entire Barnes family does, it's s strange genetic quirk they all have. For some, it takes more to set off their anger, but Maverick has always been a ticking time bomb; Marco's the same. Maxwell took after their father, who are incredibly mellow and barely lose their temper, but it's quite ugly when it happens.
Valentina would never want to admit it, but she's a lot like her mother. It's rare the women of the family ever cry, it's rare they get angry. There is just one small sliver of inconvenience in their lives that set them off. For Melanie, whenever someone were to poke at the fabric of her perfect family, question the Barnes image, she becomes so overly protective. For Valentina, it's anything in regards to her abduction.
"How'd you know about that?" Maverick panicked in regards to his unemployment. Maxwell was now the one to scoff. "Mav, our sister works for the FBI. They've got dirt on everyone."
"He's right, it wasn't hard to find." Valentina just had to ask Garcia.
"You better not say a word about this to mom and dad." Maverick warned, but his two younger siblings already had a devious plan. "Oh, of course not."
"We'd be horrible people to do that." Valentina and Maxwell spoke sarcastically. Valentina put her wine down on the mantle. Very suddenly, Maxwell was able to grab the back of their brother's sweater and pull it over his head to keep him from running after Valentina, who rushed out of the living room to call out to her parents, "Mom, dad, guess what?!"
Of course it isn't the kindest thing to rat out her brother to her parents, but both Maverick and Valentina saw this as equal revenge. Valentina didn't want to tell her parents immediately that she had become a profiler upon receiving the job, but she let her brothers know. Maverick had told their parents, who were immediately not okay with Valentina putting her life on the line when they already thought they lost her once, they didn't want the risk.
Not only was Valentina at risk in the field just because of the criminals she deals with, but Valentina could be a risk to herself. When Valentina had gotten out of that basement and was back at home, for the first three years, she had violent outbursts in the sense that she would lose her temper and punch a wall, or throw something, or break something. She never hurt anyone, but there was always the possibility.
Valentina has her anger under control now. Or, at least for the most part. There's no telling what a resurgence of her abductors could mean.
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Valentina had been hiding from her family for the past half an hour since a conversation regarding her job came up, which only snowballed into other topics of conversation that wasn't exactly easy for her to talk about. So, she was incredibly thankful when she got a call from her boyfriend. "Oh my god, Spence, you are my knight in shining sweater vests. You have no idea how happy I am that you called me. I was on the brink of insanity."
"You missed me that much?" Spencer asked with a small laugh, only earning an exclaim, "Yes! I'm losing my mind. I just want to be with you instead of in a crawlspace."
"What?"
"I'm hiding in a crawlspace because I'm scared of my family." Valentina explained. Spencer really only called Valentina because he wanted to hear her voice, talk to her. He was having a hard time with his mom and her illness, so he needed to find comfort in his favourite person. "Why are you scared of your family?"
"Well, my brother Marco's being an ass 'cause he's a lawyer and Maverick's been trying to cut off a piece of my hair with scissors since I told our parents he was unemployed." Valentina laid out, but Spencer is an only child, so those events sounded extremely concerning to him. "Why would you do that?"
"Because it's funny." Valentina spoke with an obvious tone. "I'm very glad I don't have siblings."
Valentina let out a small laugh, almost jealous at times that Spencer didn't have these unique interactions. "What else has been going on? Are your parents at least tolerable?"
"My mom keeps talking about the conspiracy theories around my Aunt Di's death, which still kind of hurts since it's my aunt, plus the fact it's so popular in the media. Like I see stuff about it all the time, I don't need to hear about it when I get home." Valentina explained as she twirled the key that hung around her neck. The name sounded quite familiar to Spencer, but he was a little confused by his own hypothesis. "Aunt Di?...Like...Princess Di?"
"Yeah, that's exactly it. Have I told you this before?"
"Your aunt is Princess Diana of Wales...?" Spencer questioned in complete awe and shock, but Valentina never saw it as a huge deal. "Yeah, Aunt Di. She's not my actual aunt, my mom and she were just really good friends, but I grew up calling her that."
Spencer was completely silent, frozen. He found Valentina intimidating because of her raw confidence, but this was even more intense. He didn't think Valentina's family was this wealthy. Valentina was confused by his silence, "Spencer?"
"Your aunt is Princess Diana of Wales...?" Spencer repeated, still in utter surprise, but this only amused Valentina. She let out a small laugh as she confirmed, "Yes, Spence."
"So you just casually know the Royal Family? Cool, so no pressure. Hey, I never want to meet your family. I don't think I'm worthy enough." Valentina laughed and covered her mouth, amused by his reaction to this. Valentina never tries to play down the wealth her family has, but she also doesn't talk about it often, she doesn't want to seem pretentious. "It's not that big of a deal, it's normal for us. My family knows a ton of famous people. Like my dad has lunch with George Clooney every first of the month."
"You are not making me feel better about this." Valentina was about to respond when very suddenly, the latch to the crawlspace opened and Marco was in front of it. He sent her a small wave with an envelope in his hand, but Valentina was surprised he could even find her. "W- How the hell did you know I was in here?!"
"You hid in here all the time when you got back. I just sort of left you alone when you were in here. This came for you, by the way." Marco handed her the envelope, just before he yelled at her phone, "Hi, my sister's boyfriend!"
"Goodbye, Marco!" Valentina wacked her brother with the envelope, to which he laughed and ran off. Valentina moved back to Spencer. "I'm sorry about that."
"It's okay. I actually just had something delivered to me too." Spencer pointed out.
"Is yours as weird as mine?" Valentina had opened the envelope while Spencer was talking. There was a note and a picture inside, but it was the back of it. She took out the note first that was written in messy handwriting. "I got a note that says 'she's just like you. save her as he saved you.' Whatever that means."
"Actually, I have one too. 'She will die unless you save her, Dr. Reid. Call Gideon. He knows.' You're right this is weird." Spencer acknowledged, but he got nothing from his girlfriend, nothing but silence. Valentina had taken the picture out of the envelope and it stunned her. It was a picture her abductors had forced her to take. It appeared like family portrait, the two abductors and ten year old Valentina. Whoever got a hold of this picture must have spoken to the one of the abductors that took Valentina. Either the one in prison, or the one that was never caught.
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Considering the very strange notes, they had received, both Valentina and Spencer got flights back out to Quantico as quickly as they could. Valentina had gotten out there much earlier and turns out, the rest of the team had received anonymous notes and gifts as, as one could call them, as well.
Excluding Spencer and Garcia, the BAU was in the conference room looking through everything they had received so far. "So clearly we have a psychopath intent on drawing us into this game, playing with us, so let's return the favour."
"He kept telling us repeatedly to save her. What 'her?'" Morgan wondered out loud before Gideon got onto the more practical part of this meeting, "The items he's sent must be some kind of clues. Let's get them up on the board. I got a Nellie Fox baseball card from 1963 and I got a head in a box."
JJ was writing down everything they had as she voiced what she had received, "I got a rare butterfly in a shadow box. And there have been repeated messages with everyone to save her."
"I got the decapitated body and a nice visit to the Jamaican Police Headquarters." Elle had been arrested while in Jamaica since someone was trying to frame her for murder, but luckily, Hotch and Morgan were able to get her out of that situation since she obviously hadn't hurt anyone.
"I know Spence is on his way here with a skeleton key and another note; same type of idea with saving 'her.'" Valentina spoke for her boyfriend before Hotch informed them of his, "The guy who called me said 'the youngest one holds the key.'"
"Isn't Valentina younger than Reid?" Elle wondered, but Gideon shrugged his shoulders, "Technically yes, but the two of them are significantly younger than the rest of us. Maybe whatever Valentina has is some sort of a key."
"Not too sure about that." Valentina pulled the picture she had received out of her inner blazer pocket and put it out on the table. Elle looked at it, she being one of the few people in the room who were unaware of Valentina's past, and asked, "Are these your parents?"
"No. Those are the people who kidnapped me." Everyone looked up at her, shocked she'd say it so openly and unemotionally. "Some of you know this already, but for anyone that doesn't, I was kidnapped when I was seven, found when I was eleven. This picture was taken on the day I stole this."
Valentina pulled the key out on her necklace from under her shirt to show everyone. "This is a key to the room I was kept in. I tried to use it to escape, didn't work that well, but I've kept it with me since that day. If 'youngest holds the key' means anything regarding me in any sense, it has to be this."
"How would this random guy know that detail about you?" JJ questioned, but Valentina only had a theory. "I told a friend of mine, David Rossi, about it last Sunday. All I can think is whoever this unsub is was at the restaurant we went to and heard it. And this picture was put in newspapers by the two people who took me and was in police files."
"Okay, wait a minute. All of this is extremely personal, I mean, Tina's is stuff only she would know. Unsubs don't contact us this way. I mean, they might taunt us, dare us to catch them, but they don't drag us into their fantasy." Morgan pointed out, but JJ, who's not a profiler, wasn't fully on board with his point, "Why not?"
"Because they're sexual fantasies. I mean, taunting us is a show of power, but making us the object is...I don't know what the hell that is." Morgan responded before Gideon reverted the attention back to himself, "There's something else about the baseball card. Nellie Fox was one of the stars of the 1959 White Sox. I went to almost every game with my father that year. Fox was my hero. So is it a coincidence that he sends this to me, or does he know how I feel about him?"
"I collected butterflies when I was a little girl. That's how I knew what butterfly was in the box. And Tina's is a reminder of something that defined her as a kid." JJ pointed out before Valentina added on very sarcastically, "So then this guy knows us? Great, terrific. This is going to be such a fun case."
"He knew exactly where we were though. Hotel in Jamaica, Gideon at the Cabin, Hotch at his home, Reid in Vegas, Tina in Maine." Morgan pointed out. Suddenly, Garcia had walked into the room with this horribly guilty look on her face. "He got that from the Bureau computers."
Everyone looked over to her and their hearts almost dropping at the expression on her face. "Your locations are always there so they can find you if they need you. And I checked the log, the hacker was definitely in the personnel folders. There were room numbers to the hotel in Jamaica, the address of Gideon's cabin, Tina's parent's house...There's a lot of information in those databases."
"Have you figured out how he was able to get into the Bureau's computers?" Hotch questioned. "I'm still working on that."
Every single person in that room, especially because they were profilers, could tell that Garcia was clearly hiding something. "Garcia, if you know something..."
"No, it's, um...It's just...I...I was playing a game yesterday. An online game. Not on the Bureau computers, on my own personal laptop." Valentina and Morgan both caught on. While he sighed and lowered his head, aware of how Garcia had royally messed up, Valentina started laughing. Everyone looked over to her as Valentina only kept laughing.
"Tina?" Garcia asked in a small voice, terrified that she was laughing at a time like this. Valentina got a hold of herself, but still had a smile. It looked more pained. "This guy knows everything about me and what happened when I was a kid. That's so great. He just has access to the entire FBI now, so he has access to pretty much my whole life."
"I'm so sorry, I really am, but I found him. I know who he is, the hacker. His name is Giles. Frank Giles. He lives in Arlington, Virginia, four miles from here. I have his address."
That's exactly where they headed. Elle, Valentina, Morgan, Hotch, and Gideon brought a SWAT team down with them to get Giles, but also to sweep his apartment. Upon arriving, it was clear that Valentina was angered. She hadn't looked at her kidnappers faces in years, so seeing them again triggered some pent up aggression.
Even at the entrance to Giles' apartment, Morgan moved out of the way just because of the look on her face. Normally, he's the one to break down the door, but Valentina proved that she could do it just fine since that's exactly what she did. Valentina kicked down the door, which allowed them all to filter in. Valentina and Morgan moved to the bedroom door, which was opened already. They went in quickly, prepared to take down Giles, but that would be impossible since he was laying dead on a mattress in the middle of the room with a sword impaled in his chest, and on the wall written in blood that Morgan read out loud, "Here thy quest doth truly begin."
Valentina called Hotch and Gideon in, which they brought Elle and one of the SWAT members with them. Elle had brought with her a wallet she had found, "Well, that's Frank Giles. His identification checks out."
"Guys, there's a big bag of money sitting on the dresser." Valentina pointed out as she took it down so they could examine it, putting it on the floor as the SWAT member began to rifle through it. Hotch took an educated guess, "So Giles took Harris to Jamaica to kill him and then the unsub killed Giles."
"Sorry, who's Harris?" Valentina asked, having not been here for the whole case, but Elle quickly explained, "The man who was decapitated."
"Alright, so the unsub paid Giles first then and just left the cash...I guess." Valentina estimated, to which Hotch added on, "Well, he's apparently well-funded. And he said these were 'unrepentant, bad men' so are we looking for some kind of vigilante?"
"No. The bodies are nothing but a way to get us interested. They're game pieces. The killings are secondary." Gideon contradicted, having already made some deductions about this unsub, Valentina having done the same thing, "There's got to be some significance to the blood on the wall. It's extremely cult-ish from the blood to the words. I mean, 'thy', 'doth', 'quest?' All the other messages were in modern English."
"Maybe this is the first one the unsub actually wrote." Morgan suggested, which was met with Elle's charm, "So we're looking for Shakespeare?"
"Everyone." Gideon called out from where he was kneeling on the ground next to the body. With everyone's attention, he informed, "There's something etched on the blade. 'To learn of what should next be done, leave the blade till the hour be none.'"
"The bed's in the middle of the room, which isn't by chance. Maybe the light from the window casts a shadow and points to something." Hotch suggested, which earned a scoff from Elle. "Come on, are we in the middle of an Indiana Jones movie?"
"We're not seriously going to wait until 'the hour is none'. What even is that? Midnight?" Valentina guessed, but luckily, her personal encyclopedia had just arrived at the scene. Spencer's plane had landed some time ago and Garcia let him know where to find the team. Once he walked into the room and joined his team, he corrected, "It's three p.m."
Everyone turned to Spencer, who continued, "It's medieval. The days used to be broken into hourly intervals, the canonical hours of the breviary. Prime, six a.m. Terce, nine a.m. Sext, twelve noon. None, three p.m. Vespers, six p.m."
"Spence, don't you and your perfect, brilliant mind ever leave again." Valentina complimented, which was the factor that really let Spencer know he was home. If Valentina was constantly flirting with him.
Gideon had pieced together more of the puzzle, "Medieval. That's why the language changed. 'Doth'. Everything this guy does is a clue."
"But it's four-thirty--five. What do we do? Leave the blade in till three p.m. tomorrow?" Morgan knew this was a bad idea and hoped there was another solution. Luckily, the two young doctors, who seem to work so incredibly well with each other were back, and were the ones coming up with all of the solutions. Valentina suggested, "Why don't we just block the window out?"
"And Morgan, you have a flashlight on your gun, just move the lights higher when we get it dark to see where it points." Spencer finished her thought. Hotch and Elle already started to use things they found around the house to block out the extra light from behind the curtains.
Once they were ready, Spencer directed Morgan on where to move the light so they could get this perfect. As it was set at the right time, the shadow of the sword was pointed at the wall. Spencer didn't even need to tell Valentina to do anything, they were on the same page.
Valentina walked over to the wall and started tapping above the shadow until she found a hollow spot. Upon hearing the difference, Hotch began to suggest, "Alright, let's get something to cut the wall op-"
Hotch was cut off when Valentina just punched a hole through the wall. It was a good way to get her frustration out, so she just ripped more of the wall off until she could reach in. Valentina pulled out a box from inside and set it down on the ground. She tried to open the lid, but seeing that it was locked, Morgan asked for her, "Should she break it open?"
"No, it could be dangerous. Besides, we need to process it first." Hotch warned, but Valentina wasn't going to try and break it in the first place. "No, if this was a bomb or something, the unsub would've killed us a while ago. And 'the youngest holds the key', Spence can probably open it."
Spencer quickly pulled the skeleton key he had gotten delivered to him from out of his pocket. He knelt down on the ground and used the key to unlock the box. Spencer slowly and cautiously lifted the lid, which contained a lock of blonde hair and a small tune that Valentin recognized immediately began to play. "That's Schubert. The Trout Quintet."
Many of the BAU looked over at her with shock as Elle said what they were all thinking, "Who are you? Reid?"
"My parents made me listen to classical music. What? I know things." Valentina defended herself before Spencer had read aloud the new note that was found inside the box, "Never would it be night, but always clear day to any man's sight."
"I hate this guy." Valentina muttered under her breath as she pinched the bridge of her nose, sick of all the riddles and games they were being forced to play. Gideon moved closer to the box, having noticed something. He moved a small tab under the lock and brought down the back of the lid, which revealed a CD with the written words, 'thy quest.'
And thus thy quest began.
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Once the BAU team was back in the FBI building, they had immediately gone into the conference room. They needed to see whatever was on that CD since it seemed to be the next part of the puzzle. Hotch was the one that put it on while the rest were seated at the desk. Immediately, they noticed that the man walking around, whose face was hidden by the shadows, was moving strangely. "He moves weirdly. It's like he's injured or something."
"I assure you, you will all understand in the end why it must be this way. You might even thank me." The unsub spoke in the video, but Elle muttered, "Don't hold your breath, scumbag."
"You know now you're on a quest. A young girl's life depends on the successful completion of it. As you can see, she is quite beautiful and in distress. Now, please listen closely, for there is one rule and this rule must be followed. The one rule is, only the members of your team may participate in the quest: Jason Gideon, Aaron Hotchner, Derek Morgan, Elle Greenaway, Spencer Reid, Jennifer Jareau, Penelope Garcia, and Mary Barnes."
Valentina's expression immediately dropped at the name. She hadn't heard it in twelve years. Everyone looked over to her momentarily since it had to mean something with her, no one else had the surname Barnes.
"A quest must be completed in the proper way or it isn't a quest, is it? That's it. One rule. Simple. Now, you will be receiving an item soon that will hold the final clue you will need to finish the quest. You will find you will also need a book which has inspired many an adventure like mine. Believe me when I tell you I truly hope to see you all soon. It will mean a successful end to this adventure for all of us."
There were different clips in the video. It would cut to the unsub with his face covered by a shadow, then to a blonde girl who was being held captive by the unsub, and pictures of everyone on the team. That was quite a disturbing aspect, but there was something a little more confusing.
They all turned to Valentina, who had her elbows on the table and her hands over her mouth. Tears were threatening to fall from her eyes, but she was somewhat fighting it off. Morgan was the one to ask the question everyone wanted to, "Tina, who's Mary Barnes?"
Valentina ran her hands through her hair and took a deep breath. "Every time my parents would say Ma-...that name, I would hear their voices, the people who took me. Valentina is my middle name, but when I turned sixteen, I changed it. I can't hear that name, it's like a trigger. He probably found it through the FBI files."
"So, you're Mary Barnes?" JJ wanted to confirm, which Valentina did by simply nodding. She was revealing a lot today that she desperately didn't want to, but it was necessary to the case, she had to tell everyone her past.
"So, this guy really knows a lot. He's even got pictures of us, what do we do now?" Elle asked, hoping someone had some sort of solution, which Hotch had a start at least, "Well, the lock of hair's being analysed for DNA. There might be something on file."
"I'll get video to enhance the shots of the girl." JJ spoke just before she stood up to go do just that. They needed this case solved and done, it meant that the BAU could actually be safe and well to protect others. They were no help to anyone if they were so focused on this game. "Let's get the clues up on the board. Maybe we can make some sense of something."
"Wait, we're going to play this guy's game?" Elle questioned just as Valentina too had stood up. She couldn't keep it together anymore, she couldn't fight off the tears. Valentina had walked right out of the room, which didn't catch much attention since everyone was brainstorming, but Hotch saw it. "I'll be right back, guys. You keep working."
Hotch followed Valentina out of the conference room and all the way into the outer hall where she had sat down on a bench. There was a tear falling down her face as she was leaning her elbows on her knees, staring at the ground. Hotch stood in front of her and tilted his head to look at her, "Valentina? What is it? What's wrong?"
Valentina looked up at Hotch and leaned her back against the wall. She shrugged her shoulders before she wiped the tear away from her cheek. "I'm so tired, Hotch."
"I'm tired too, we all are. It's been a stressful case."
"I mean mentally." Valentina corrected. She took a deep breath and ran a stressed hand through her hair before she admitted, "I...I'm not okay, Hotch. I still have nightmares, I still see their faces when I close my eyes, and hear their voices when it's silent. I can't do this, Hotch. I was just starting to forget things, let it fade away, but seeing their faces and hearing that name..."
Valentina put her head in her hands, simply thinking about this horrific past giving her a headache. Hotch moved to sit down next to her, putting a comforting hand on her back. Valentina had never really been this open, which Hotch knew. He had never seen her react this way, heard her speak like that. Valentina only ever showed anger, not vulnerability.
"I know you said if this ever affects me, that I could take time off. I'm not really sure if I want to, but...I don't know." Valentina breathed out, unsure of what she wanted and what was best for her. She needed someone else to take the first step. Hotch, however, knows her decently well. "Valentina, you and I both know that you're not going to take time off."
"Why's that?"
"Because you're a very stubborn woman with an anger problem." Valentina let out a small laugh at Hotch's bluntness. He too allowed a small smile to form, happy he was able to help Valentina, even if it was only momentarily.
"You've never let an unsub stop you before, so why start now?" Hotch hired Valentina because she is an expert in the field of anthropology. She knows the study of man, their behaviour, and their mind. Not only is Valentina an incredible asset to the team because of her mind, but even showing her sheer determination and will to do what's right was inspiring.
Valentina never let any unsub get in her head, even if it got personal. She would use her natural anger towards them to her advantage, which only made her a better profiler. Valentina is one of the best Hotch has seen in a long time and he didn't want to see just another unsub steal her spirit.
She needed some time to compose herself, but once she was ready, Valentina went back into the conference room. Hotch and Gideon had to speak separately, so it was only Elle, Morgan, and Spencer.
Once Valentina walked back into the room, Spencer had immediately shown his concern, "Val, are you okay?"
Valentina simply nodded, not wanting too much attention from her at once since it would only make her feel more vulnerable. So, she looked at the board which had a bunch of different numbers written on it. "What's this?"
"Hotch's wife, Haley, brought it to us while you guys were talking. We think it's a coded message of some sort, but we don't know what the hell what." Morgan explained to her briefly. It was helpful to have a new set of eyes who hadn't gotten a good look at this yet since the guess Valentina made put them on the right track, "Didn't the unsub say we needed a book? I mean, can't this be book code?"
"Wait, she's right." Spencer agreed. "Each one of these sets of numbers represents a particular word. For instance, page one hundred and eighteen, line thirty, word three. We need to figure out what the words are and fill in the blanks."
"Yeah, but from what book?" Elle questioned, bringing up their next problem which Spencer narrowed down, "I don't know. The trouble is, it has to be the exact same edition of the exact same book that he used."
"Just got a DNA hit on the lock of hair. Rebecca Bryant. She's been missing out of Boston for two years." JJ had spoken up as soon as she got back in the room. Valentina started fidgeting with the key on her necklace with a blank expression, having memories she liked keeping behind a wall that came flooding back to her.
"Guys, how are we supposed to figure out which book this code was copied out of?" Morgan complained, which was a very valid worry.
"I have no idea. But he said we have everything we needed to complete the quest, so the answer's got to be up there somewhere." Spencer pointed out. They all knew there was some part of the puzzle that they hadn't comprehended or caught on to yet, which was not helping their case in the slightest.
"JJ, get some reporters here as soon as possible. Just say we need help on a new case." Gideon ordered as he ducked his head into the conference room. The agents were all a little lost by this request considering the fact that the unsub specifically said to keep this within the team, no help from the public. But Gideon was telling them to do just the opposite.
Elle was sent home a bit later since she could barely stay awake. She had been up for thirty-six hours thanks to the fact that she was arrested in Jamaica, but they hoped she'd be refreshed in the morning. No one thought much of it, Elle needed sleep. It was just a hope that betraying the unsub's wishes wouldn't get anyone hurt.
❝ 𝐧𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬 𝐚 𝐯𝐚𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐨 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐧𝐞. ❞
- 𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒆𝒍𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒕 𝒉𝒖𝒃𝒃𝒂𝒓𝒅
❘ ❙ ❚ ❚ ❙ ❘
a/n
omg season 1 is done!!!! this book takes me a long time to write because the episodes are so long, but we got through it! my goal is to get to when rossi arrives at the BAU 'cause he's 100% my favourite character
i really do hope you guys have been liking this book <3