Third Person's POV

Sydney joined her Dad as they were currently at an FBI seminar in Illinois. Patricia Cornwell was just finishing up her part. "In the end, I just write about violent crime. The real heroes are the people here beside me. Now give a warm welcome to our next speaker, Dr. Spencer Reid from the BAU."

Sydney clapped for her Dad as he turned back at her and she gave him a rare bright smile, Spencer had a small smile as he stood up and took over for the panel.

"Thank you. Thanks, Patricia Cornwell, ladies and gentlemen. Ms. Cornwell will be signing books at the end of the session." The microphone was now recieving feedback. "Sorry. Um..hi. I am here today to talk to you about paraphilias and their relation to violent crime. Does anybody know what dendrophilia is?" No one but Sydney knew the answer but she didn't say anything. She mumbled the answer from under her breath. "Yes, a fet-ish for trees."

Sydney got bored during the rest of the seminar, so she had her headphones on her ears. She was of course listening to Taylor Swift. She was minding her business as she was writing in her journal, which she's been trying to do for a while now, but didn't really have any motivation to do so.

After the seminar was over Sydney was already on her sixth cup of coffee and she was starting to be bouncing off the walls. She was watching a murder documentary and it had some creepy random facts in it.

She's always intrigued by random facts, as it's her and her Dad's thing. It's weird, creepy and funny at the same time. Though Syd's random facts are most likely serial killers and or murder stuff.

"Guess what I was watching?"

"What?" He asked her as they walked out of the room, as Spencer raised his eyebrow slightly at how energetic his daughter is. He would glance at her every couple minutes and each time she was downing a cup of coffee. "How much coffee have you had?"

"We're not gonna talk about that, but anywho. Jeffrey Dahmer gave the people in his apartment building sandwiches that was made from his victim's flesh." Sydney said as a people who overheard the conversation gave her weird looks but she didn't care, and or noticed.

"Not creepy at all, but okay."

"Ted Bundy worked at a suicide hotline center, so the police didn't suspect that he was killing these people." Sydney said as Spencer shook his head a little with a small smile on his face.

"How do you know this?" He asked her as they walked out of the building and before Sydney could respond he had received a text message from Hotch saying they had a case in San Francisco, relating to the Zodiac Killer.

Sydney was confused as the Zodiac Killer was long gone. Hotch had ordered for Spencer to meet at the crime scene with Emily and JJ. He sorta said "please" in his own way. So that was a bonus for Sydney. He said please for Sydney but that was about it.

Soon enough, they had gotten there. The crime scene looked similar to one of the murders from the Zodiac Killer. Spencer walked up to the crime scene and flashed his badge. "Have any letters or ciphers been received?" Spencer questioned as he and Sydney met up with Hotch, Emily and JJ and also an agent in charge.

Sydney was a couple steps behind her Dad and the others to make it so that she's not walking exactly behind them. She put her hoodie and sunglasses on as it's sunny in San Francisco.

"How was the conference?" JJ asked her friend.

"Enlightening." Reid told her with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "Until Syd was talking about serial killer facts."

"I can't help it. Sheesh " Sydney commented as her dad had a slight shake of his head.

"Has the unsub made any contact?" Reid asked, changing the subject for the time being.

"The 'Chronicle's' website manager received two phone calls this morning. There was just heavy breathing on the other end. Like the phone calls Zodiac used to make." Agent Lin explained.

"Can I get a physical copy of the online version of today's paper?" Reid asked as Lin looked at him confusedly. "You want a printout of the online version?" Lin asked. "Yeah, with all the comments printed out as well, if possible, thanks." Lin looked over at JJ, as she shook her head. "Don't ask."

Agent Lin walked off as Sydney walked behind her Dad as JJ had to do a second look as she didn't almost recognize her, but when she saw the rings on her fingers that's when she realized who it was. "It's not the real Zodiac." Sydney mumbled as the others looked at the girl confusedly.

"How can you be sure, babes?" Emily asked. (Emily calls her babes sometimes even if that is Penelope's job 😀)

"I just know it." She says.

After investigating on the crime scene, the five of them and also Agent Lin arrived back at the police department where someone was being interviewed and claimed that their relative had been the new Zodiac Killer. "The dates match. When Zodiac stopped killing, my cousin was put in a mental hospital in Mexico. He was released 2 months ago." A man told the interviewer.

"Do you have anything more specific?" An interviewer asked. "He was working on a production of 'The Mikado' in 68. The Zodiac talked about 'The Mikado' in a letter." Sydney knew this guy was full of shit and thank god she wasn't the only one who thought so. She snorted as she motioned her gum to Emily smiled a little.

"What flavor is it this time?" Emily asked, Syd. As the girl gas a concerning amount of gum, as she is a chewer and a biter. So it makes sense.

"Cinnanom." Syd replied as Emily nods her head as she kissed the girls head. She looked at Hotch with a slightly raised eyebrow. "Hey, sourpuss want some gum?"

Hotch turned his head to Syd with a faint smile on his face. He shook his head at the girl and she smiles. "I'm good, but thanks."

"Excuse me." Spencer stepped up. "I'm Dr. Reid, with the Behavioral Analysis Unit. Was your cousin by chance a fan of Wagner? Because a CD of the 'Tragic Overture' was sent to the police this morning."

The man nodded as Sydney rolled her eyes at the man as she popped her bubble of her chewing gum. She knew that her father was using this tactic of tricking the guy into believing that it was the truth. When in reality it wasn't, the truth but a lie, and the idiot fell for it.

"He loved Wagner, especially the 'Tragic Overture' It's him." Reid nodded back and then stood next to the man and said. "Oh yeah, well for the record a CD was not sent to the police this morning, and the 'Tragic Overture' was written by Brahms, not Wagner, so luckily, I guess it's not your cousin." Sydney had a huge grin at the attitude her father had.

Spencer then looked directly at the camera and spoke. "The FBI would greatly appreciate it if people stop making false claims to get their 15 minutes of fame. Thank you. Thank you very much." He said and walked into the building where Sydney skipped into as she caught up.

"Way to go, genius. I wonder where you figured that out. Oh yeah, meeee." Sydney said as Spencer poked her head as she gave him a piece of gum and he immediately put it in his mouth.

"I don't say this enough, but I can honestly say, I didn't know that, until we started this case."

"Yeah, and who told you it?"

"You did."

"Yay, ten points for me."

"What about me?"

"You get four."

"That's not fair."

"Yes it is."

"No, it's not. It should be at least five."

"Hotch don't get into this!" Both Spencer and Sydney said to the man who held his arms in slight defense.

"Okay, okay, I surrender."

"Good."

✧༝┉˚*❋ ❋*˚┉༝✧

Spencer had his printed copies of the newspaper and was going over them as when her Dad was done looking at the pages she was looking at them. Trying to give some form of aid in this case. Hotch walked over to the two Reid's. "How is it going?"

"Computers slow me down, so I prefer paper, but I wasn't expecting all these comments. Where do people find the time?" Reid says as Sydney found something.

"I think I found the cipher from the unsub. The symbols buried in the spam are the same ones the Zodiac used in his first message back in 1969." Sydney explains as Hotch looked at her.

"What does it say?" Hotch asked.

"Killing is the most fun you can have 98 minutes below the horizon in Magic City with President Garfield Happy hunting." Sydney recited from the back of her hand. She didn't even have to look at it, as last month she did a essay of the Zodiac Killer ironically. So she's using her essay to sorta help with the case. Which she's happily gave over to Hotch and he was impressed by her work.

Sydney dialed Penelope's number and she immediately picked up. "Yeah babes, what's up?" Penelope asked. "Hey, what specific location does Magic City prefer?" Sydney asked.

"Birmingham, Alabama." Pen answered. "98 minutes below the horizon. What time is the sunset there, tonight?" Spencer asked. "6:22." Pen responded. "98 minutes there would be 8 pm. What's dedicated to President Garfield in San Francisco?"

"There's a statue of him in Golden Gate Park." Sydney says just as Penelope finished saying it.

"He's attacking there next." Spencer says as he put the pieces together. "Not too sure but just in case. We should head there tonight."

With that Hotch had undercover agents pose as couples in Golden Gate Park. Hotch had faith in Sydney when he handed her a gun and hope that she wouldn't kill anyone. "I am educated of a gun Aaron, thank you very much."

"Really never thought about that."

"You really should look into it."

"No one at the south entrance yet."
"Copy that."

There was a pause. "We've got a vehicle." Hotch said. "It's a lone driver." Sydney watched as a man figure dressed in all black began to move towards the couple. "Move in." Sydney steadied her gun as she moved in. The couple had just gotten their guns out as well as Hotch and JJ. "FBI. Show me your hands."

A man had held his hands up as he was holding a note in his hand. "Drop it." The man dropped the note. "I'm just the messenger. I'm supposed to deliver a letter." The man told as an officer put him in handcuffs. Sydney grabbed the letter off the ground. "It's for Dad." She says.

Spencer gave his daughter a confused look and wanted to see what was written to him. He read the letter after she handed it to him. "You're not as smart as you think you are."

"Who sent it?" Hotch asked. "I don't know." The man answered. "I just delivered it to the address when I'm supposed to."

"If the unsub's not here, where is he?" JJ questioned, and little did they know he was off killing in another nearby park and he did this just to throw them off. The team went to visit the murder site the next day.

Spencer, Sydney and Emily were exploring the area and to see if the unsub left any clues behind. "It's a high vantage point." Emily said as Sydney was blowing a bubble with her gum.

"The victims chose it for the view, the unsub chose it so he could see if anyone was coming." Sydney says as her Dad's phone began to ring.

Spencer answered it after figuring it was Penelope. "Hey, what's up? Alright, thanks Penelope." The three stopped as JJ and Hotch came walking up. "He used the same code that was broken years ago, in a riddle we cracked in seconds. He knew we'd solve it. It was a decoy."

"No, it's a taunt. He wants to prove that he's smarter than everyone." Hotch says. "And we fell for it." Sydney says with a tiny frown. "Well, if he's trying to compete with me, then it means he's most likely within five years of my age. The question is why?" Reid stated as Sydney had a faint smile when he said 'my age'.

"But the message might not have been meant for you, Reid." Hotch says. "A letter was hand-delivered to me last night." Reid pointed out. "The comment to the paper was written at 9:03 am. We weren't even in the city yet, so how would the unsub know you'd be involved in the case?" Sydney questioned.

"You did give your name to the press later that day, and you said yourself he knew we'd be in the park." JJ told him. "If he's doing his best to emulate the Zodiac, killing in such quick succession, would be a mistake." Emily thinks.

"The shortest time span for a Zodiac was two weeks?" Sydney asked. "Maybe the unsub doesn't have a choice. Maybe he's experiencing a time pressure that he has no control over." Emily tells.

Hotch had then decided. "We're ready to give the profile."

Everyone walked off and Sydney turned and saw that her Dad was still standing in the same spot as he didn't bother of moving. She knew that something was up, as this isn't like him. She was going to stay behind and talk to him, as the rest of the team was to give the profile to the police department.

"Hey you good?" She asks him as his head was turned the opposite way. "Dad?" She asks again trying to get him to talk.

"I'm fine." He says to her which takes Sydney by surprise, she knows that he doesn't wanna talk but this is starting to bother her.

"So you're just gonna let this bastard get to you, what is the matter with you. This isn't like you. Dad!" Sydney exclaims to her father finally making him look at her, but this time. "Just tell me what the hell is wrong with you, it's not that hard."

"Yes it is Sydney!"

"Fine, if you need me, you know where to find me." Sydney says as she brushed past her father as the others had overheard this, and they felt bad for the both of them. "Don't." She tells the others as they mutually agreed don't piss her off, moments after her father got in the vehicle they drove off. Sydney was avoiding looking at her father. She had tears in her eyes but refused to make them to fall.

"Syd, I'm sorry." Spencer says to her but she avoids looking at him. "Baby, please."

"Spencer give her some time, okay." Emily says to the man who sighs but listened.

✧༝┉˚*❋ ❋*˚┉༝✧

Now, Hotch has been working with the two down to the post office since Reid had found the code in a China Weekly Post page. "The spam had to be converted from matrix code to binary code, then switched to base 8 before being translated back into letters. I can go into more detail if you want." Reid explained.

"Uh, no. How smart would a person have to be to write code like that?" Hotch asked. "Beyond smart. Profoundly gifted. An IQ of at least 160." Reid says.

"That changes the profile, then." Sydney said from beside Hotch as they walked into the post office. "The unsub could still hold a menial or low-level job. Many believe that beyond an IQ of 120, success is determined by other factors. This is a bilingual paper. The English version should be somewhere." Reid says as he began to search for it. The message was: you could do so much better.

✧༝┉˚*❋ ❋*˚┉༝✧

Later after a cab driver was found murdered and now, Reid had dived deep into investigating codes off of the paper. Sydney couldn't help but feel worried, but it was like he wasn't getting any rest until he found out who was responsible. She tried to hide her occasionally glancing at her father throughout the day, but it seemed to be more difficult. She ended up staying with Derek for a couple of days, because her Dad was so wrapped up in the case to even notice her. It broke her heart that he was choosing the case over her. But she didn't want to admit it.

"Hey, we went through all the surveillance footage near the newspaper. There's nothing." Emily explained to the team.

"Spence, you okay?" JJ asked. "I've tried JJ, he won't even look at me. So why try." Sydney says being petty as even after that he didn't even look up at her even when she said that.

"Nothing is accidental. Nothing this unsub does is accidental. The message in the 'China Weekly Post' was on page F-4. Why F-4?" Spencer questioned. "That's where the classifieds were." Morgan says. "It's more than that." Reid tells him.

"Can you rotate that? See F-4 is a chess square." Reid says "He murdered people according to a chess game?" JJ asked.

"Tragic." Sydney butted into the conversation as she was glaring heavily at her father, Derek gave her a small glare but she didn't even look at him. He gave her a look that said 'Don't.

"Specifically, Game 6 of Fischer versus Spassky in 1972, one of the greatest chess matches ever played. The murder locations correspond with the final three moves of the game." Hotch says as he called up Penelope.

"Garcia's lair of knowledge and wisdom." Penelope says.

"Garcia, you have the list of Zodiac case experts?" Hotch asked.

"Yes. Standing by for you. I have everyone who's ever written or blogged about it. FYI, there are way too many people obsessed with this sicko." Penelope explains.

"Alright, cross-reference that with professional chess players." JJ says "Yeah. Okay. List is getting smaller and smaller....down to nothing."

"Alright, open it up to high-level amateurs as well." Hotch ordered as he hung up. Then moments later she called back as she found something.

"Get ready to love me more. I did a search of chess players rated 2,200 or higher, which would make them Masters but not necessarily professions. I cross-referenced that search with Zodiac experts and came up with two former chess prodigies and best friends who used to write about the Zodiac in their junior high school newspaper. And I get bonus points because they both have IQ's over 160." Penelope explained.

"Where are they?" Hotch asked.

"In San Francisco. Caleb Rossmore is a City Parks employee, and Harvey Morell is an engineer at a Chinese computer firm. He's about to get married, and, yes, I just emailed you all this information right now."

"The fiancée Marisa Devon looks like the two female victims. They were surrogates for her." JJ pointed out. "Caleb would be jealous of his friend." Morgan thinks. "Or what if he's afraid of losing Harvey?" Emily assumes.

"If he was a child prodigy, he may no longer feel special as an adult. He could be trying to hold on to him." Spencer thinks. "Harvey's engagement could have been a trigger." Rossi suggests. "Reid, I know Spassky conceded the match but what would the next move have been?" Hotch asked.

"Spassky would have been checkmated or he would have lost his Queen."

✧༝┉˚*❋ ❋*˚┉༝✧

The team was now on the road, ready to catch up with the unsub. Sydney was with her Dad, Morgan and Hotch. "Spassky's Queen was in square E-8, so that would land us in Richmond. Garcia, is there a connection between that location and the two men?" Spencer questioned.

"Checking now. Uh...bingo. Harvey's dad worked there as a chemistry teacher in the sixties. And...oh, uh Caleb lived there in 2008. He worked at the Powerlinks Gym on Second and Hill and the Dragon Temple Restaurant at 636 Mason."

"Alright, JJ you go to the gym. We'll check out the restaurant." Hotch tells them. "Copy that." JJ responded.

"Zablonsky's wife recognized the photo's of Caleb and Harvey. They interviewed the detective for an article they were writing about the Zodiac when they were kids." Rossi says.

"They wrote a Crime Beat column in the newspaper." Garcia says. "One of them stole the photo left at the first crime scene." JJ says. "It had to be Caleb. The message. 'You could do so much better' in the Chinese paper was meant for Harvey." Reid says.

"That means the original spam message was for him, too." Emily says. "But how did Caleb know that Harvey wouldn't turn him in?" Derek asked. "Caleb has something on him or he's holding the fiancée hostage."

"Shut the front door." Penelope says. "They were interviewed by police in 2000 about a crime in their hometown."

They had discovered that Harvey had murdered a child in their neighborhood and was never caught for it. The bones of the boy he murdered were in his backyard. Reid had talked Caleb down and got him to put down his gun and got Caleb to admit that Harvey killed the boy. Harvey and Caleb were both arrested in the process.

The team had arrived back to the BAU and the next day JJ and Emily had found out that they missed Spencer's birthday so they set something up for Reid to make it up to him. Spencer walked towards Sydney and where she was knowing that she was in her hideout. He went to type in the passcode and it denied him meaning that she changed it.

He decided to call her, and she luckily picked up, but she didn't say anything. "Hey." He says to her as he turned his back on the wall and was now leaning against it. "Can we talk?" He asks her, as once again he heard silence but then the door opened for him and he walked into the room and closed it.

He saw his daughter who just sat down who looked dead looking. Her hair was a mess and she had light dark circles around her eyes, which meant that when he wasn't sleeping because he was focused on the case that she must've not slept either or because she had nightmares of her mom. It breaks his heart just by looking at her like this.

"I'm sorry about everything, Syd. I just wanted to figure out the case, not ignore you. I never want to ignore you Syd, and I never will." He says as her sad red puffy eyes looked at his brown ones. He could almost see right through her sad and puffy eyes. "I'm so sorry okay."

He opened his arms to hug her and she hesitantly hugged her, after she hugged him he wrapped his arms around her. She sniffed her nose and he used the padding of his thumb to wipe her tears.

The two didn't realize that the door opened and it was Derek, who knew the new passcode. "Hey, we're ready for you." Sydney gave him a look as she looked at him.

"Ready for what?" Sydney asks as Derek has a smile on his face.

"Not you silly, your pop." Derek says.

"Why he has no life."

"I do to, I couldn't believe you'd say that." Spencer says to his daughter which made her have a tiny smile on her face.

"Happy Birthday!" JJ cheered once the two Reid's and Morgan got to the roundtable room.

Derek was brushing Sydney's hair as said Sydney smiled at seeing her father happy with a bright smile on his face. "You guys didn't have to do all this." Spencer says.

"Well, since Emily told us that we missed your birthday, thought we could arrange this in hopes of forgiveness." JJ says which made Spencer chuckle a little.

"Thank you, I appreciate it." He says as Derek was done brushing Sydney's they had their own conversation going on to where only them could hear.

"Now, open my present." JJ says, as she was the last one to pull away from the hug.

Not too long later

The party was wrapping up as it was dinner time and some people were leaving. It was just Sydney, Derek, Penelope and Spencer. Derek and Spencer were having their own conversation and Penelope was painting Sydney's nails.

Then Sydney saw someone standing by the door. She had brown hair and brown eyes. "Hey, is it too late?" The lady says as Spencer turns around to face the woman, he immediately went up to her and hugged her as Sydney was eyeing this.

"It's so good to see you." Spencer says to the woman as Sydney is giving the two weird looks.

Is this the mystery creepy person who had the audacity of waking me up from my nap? Was what Sydney thought.

The two broke from their little hug as Spencer introduced everyone, well the people that was still there. Then the last person was Sydney.

"You must be Sydney?" Maeve asks the teenager who nods her head without her brown eyes leaving Maeve.

"Yes. I am." She says with a small fake smile that was obvious as Spencer noticed it.

"It's good to meet you and not over a phone." Maeve says to Sydney as she has a tight-lipped smile.

"Likewise." Sydney says as Derek over heard the conversation and scrunched his eyebrows as this isn't like Sydney.

"I'm also sorry if I woke you up." Maeve says to Sydney who nods her head.

"It's fine." Sydney says as Spencer spoke quietly into Maeve's ear. Spencer excuses himself with Maeve, as Sydney stands in the same spot as she watches them leave the roundtable room.

Derek walks behind the teenage girl as she sighs. "You good Syd?" He asks her as it was obvious that she wasn't.

"I'm fine." She says before she leaves the room and goes off to her den. She just wants to be alone, and think over what just happened.

Why is Dad so happy to be around her?
What is so special about her?
Is she like mama?
Is she nice?
Why her?

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Hannah speaks!
So how did you all like this chapter?
I changed a couple things in it, and added things.
Do you like me adding Maeve, or is it too early to have her in here?
Comment below your thoughts!