Alex’s POV.

“Strauss was doused with a chemical cousin of doctor death, he altered it so that her torture was longer,” Morgan informed the team after getting off the phone with the medical examiner

“a bio-chemist, computer hacker and federal agent who the hell is this guy,” JJ asked.

“I can tell you one thing it defiantly isn’t Wailand, he isn’t smart enough,” I muttered, I was sitting at Jay’s desk listening into the conversation that I wasn’t quite a part of.

Garcia came into the bull pen. “I found video footage of him.” We all gathered into the conference room and Garcia pulled up the video surveillance from earlier. “only half of the camera’s are working, because the system is still rebooting itself, so the  security cards have to go old school, that means everyone has to sign in you can’t just take your id run your through, well you know what old school means,” she was explaining things with her hands as per usual, “so if you’ve got a badge you don’t get harassed, the man who signed into see Rossi went up to the sixth floor held the door for Kevin and Anderson,”

“I can’t believe he was right there,”

“walked through our BAU and into Rossi’s office, he signed in as Adam worth,”

“Adam worth?”

“isn’t that the alias he used when Maeve went missing,”

“that means its more than just a taunt it speaks directly to his sociology, Adam worth is a serial killer from the late 18 hundreds commonly referred to as the napoleon of all crimes,” Reid “the replicator obviously see’s himself the same way,”

“so this guy is a complete narcissist who wants to be known as the worst enemy we have ever had,”

“and look he is careful to hid his face from the camera’s,”

“cause he knows exactly where they are,”

We sat down at the table. Blake was writing things on her notepad and started tapping her pen against it thinking, “the replicator has directly taunted every member of this team except me,”

“you must be part of his end game,”

“and so was Strauss.”

“ he chose to use drugs as his final replication, that’s no accident,”

“is that any connection to you,”

“Strauss and I did have some issues during the anthrax case that started in New York with poison,”

“and it was delivered by envelopes,”

“why would anyone in the bureau hold resentment over that case?”

“Because that person suffered a professional set back just like Blake only they were patient and psychotic enough to get revenge,”

The others were talking and I barely noticed any of it. The words the replicator had said to me on the roof made my mind buzz with confusion. ‘One day your daughter will thank me, and your sister will soon be joining you.’ Why would he say that? How did he know about Anna and Josie?  He was completely tempted to leave me there to die alone. Some people believe that after you die you are reunited with the people who have died before you, if I died and my sister was reunited with me that would mean metaphorically that she was to die as well.

Almost as if I was acting in auto pilot I reached over to where Morgan’s phone sat on the table and dialed the number for Josie’s mobile, after two rings it reached voice mail. ‘hey you’ve reached Josie Montenegro, I probably let my phone die so to reach me call back tomorrow,’

“dam it,” I muttered hitting redial again it was sent straight through to voice mail like she was rejecting the call, I called the home number and still no answer I was about to give up hope when I dialed the number for Amy. David wouldn’t have left Josie at home alone I was almost 15 when he left me for the first time and he called me every hour to make sure we were alright.

“hello,”

“Amy its Alex is Josie with you,”

“no I dropped her at school this morning and I got a text from you about lunch time saying that you were home so I didn’t need to pick her up,” Amy’s voice was concerned, “Alex what is going on?”

“I got to go,”

The others stared at me in shock. “I think he has Josie,” I could feel the tears welling up behind my eyes.

“John Curtis, does he fit the profile,”

“he was quiet and a bit of a loner, but brilliant, he specialized in a lot of fields but his passion was biochemistry,”

We all rushed out of the room as Garcia found the details about John Curtis. He had inherited a family compound in Maryland and had a lot of privacy. Just as Hotch had suspected he was demoted in the FBI after the anthrax case in New York. Garcia was feeding us this information through the radios attached to our bullet proof vests. We were heading up to the roof to travel to the compound left to Curtis. Hotch, Blake and I were in one helicopter and Morgan, Reid and JJ in another. The two helicopters split up so that we would be approaching the house from different angles. We were looking over how much seclusion Curtis had when electronic snow covered the screen Garcia figured it was some kind of system override.

A moment later the helicopter started jolting out of control. “What the hell,” I shouted, “what’s happening,”

“autopilot has seized,” informed the pilot

“oh god,” Garcia’s voice came through the radio in a panic.

“I’ve got it back,” announced the pilot

“is everyone ok,” Garcia was still panicked

“we’ve stabilized,” Hotch told her a moment too soon because we started to jolt and shake and rattle all over again I had always been fine with flying but turbulence wasn’t something I was particularly fond of.

“Brace for impact,” ordered the pilot and we all braced. Moments later we were falling through the trees and thumped to the ground with a painstaking jolt. I was momentarily dazed I remembered a figure opening the door to the back section of the helicopter where Blake and I were sitting.

The next thing I remember is waking to a sharp jolt of pain in my shoulder blade as if my hands had been forced above my head too quickly. I blinked a couple times to take in my surroundings. I was on a cold wooden chair my hands were bound to the arm rest and chains crisscrossed across my chest and torso around my waist. Eight padlocks in total. There was somebody behind me I turned my head as far as the chains would allow. The familiar sheet of glossy brown hair and bullet proof vest that told me the person bound behind me was Doctor Alex Blake.

“HhHHello Alexandra,” the familiar tone of somebody greeting me as if I was a lover snapped my head back to where the voice was coming from. There leaning against the wall, was the man I loathed with every fiber of my body. There standing before me was Connor Wailand.

“Wailand,” I hissed trying to keep the fear out of my voice, “where is my sister you coward,”

“she is right here with us Alexandra safe and sound along with our daughter I looked around the room and gasped when I saw them. Bound and gagged against the wall was Josie who was cradling Anastasia into her chest keeping the little girl calm. I struggled against the chains trying to force my way over to them. Wailand strode carelessly over to the girls and brushed a lock of Josie’s hair out of her eyes. She flinched away from him.

“Don’t touch her,” I spat fighting the restraints even harder.

“now Connor don’t torment the poor girls there time will come soon enough,”

“what do you want,”

“you’re the profiler, you tell me,”

“you don’t want to know,”

“reverse physiology,” smirked the man I presume to be john Curtis, “I’m not going to beg for your analysis,”

“you don’t have to beg I already know how desperate you are for it,” Blake sighed before flinching back against the restraints

“I don’t remember you being so skittish,”

“what you’ve never seen me in chains before,”

“I’ve seen you with your hands tied so to speak,” he sneered, “Erin Strauss and the bureau discarded us we were the forgotten ones,”

“they forgot you, I did alright,”

“they’ll remember me now, you know I admired you back then, leading the charge on the day it all changed, on the day Erin Strauss ruined us, I sat next to you borrowed your pen to sign my transfer, they put me in Kansas, you know what kept me wondering, why did Strauss change her mind about you,”

“I kept my head down and I worked hard,”

“we all did, but you got my chance,”

“enough with the chit chat cant we just let the fun begin,”

“you’ve had your fun Connor, I’m surprised that poor little girl is still breathing,” he said calmly coming into my line of sight I was able to see him now he stood with his arms crossed inspecting the scene before him. “right about know the rest of you team will have realized you are missing there are eight locks on each of you, one to represent each member of your team, well those who are close enough to becoming agents themselves, Aaron Hotchner, David Rossi, Derek Morgan, Jennifer Jareau, Penelope Garcia, Spencer Reid and of cause both you Alex’s Alexandra Stedler and Alex Blake,”

“what did you do to my daughter and my sister, you arrogant bastard,”

“you mean our daughter, and its simple Alexandra, there’s nothing I didn’t do to you that I wouldn’t do to your sister,” Wailand sneered stroking Josie’s hair tentatively,

“Connor, that’s enough we need to go,” the men gagged us and as Wailand tied it behind my head he kissed me passionately up and down the crook of my neck.

I struggled against the chains but it was no use the locks were not budging and nor was I. Morgan, JJ, Hotch and Reid all entered the room accompanied by two swat agents Morgan removed the gag out of my mouth, “Josie Anna, get them out of here,” I croaked as soon as his hands were away from my mouth. He rushed over to them and quickly cut the rope that bound them, that was obviously part of Wailand's plan.

“Morgan JJ you two find Curtis and get the girls out of here, we’ll take care of it in here,” ordered Hotch

“he said he used 8 locks because there is 8 members of this team,”

“eight locks six keys that means two keys have to be used twice, there are letters on the keys that correspond to the numbers on the locks, 7 the seventh letter of the alphabet is G,”

“what are the other letters?”

“z, u, w, a,  zugzwang,” Reid said with recognition to his voice, “its too easy,”

“lets just get them out of these chains first,”  Hotch said and he and Reid started unlocking the padlocks, chain by chain came loose and clattered to the ground I was about to stand up when Morgan and JJ came back into the tiny seller

“he’s got the entire place lined with c4 we’ve only got three minutes,” explained Morgan

“this seems to easy, zugzwang also means a dilemma in chess when the best move is not to move at all,” Reid explained as Blake and I stood up, “wait don’t get up its a pressure sensor,”

 at that very moment the entire wall seemed to move boxing us in if this place blew we were going to go down with it Morgan attempted to pry open the door but it wouldn’t budge.

We all began to freak out, when David and Jay opened the door from the outside, “Garcia is blocking the signal but she can’t hold it for long, come on move,”

Jay grabbed me by the hand and lead me out of the house the others close behind me Hotch was in front of me. we reached the cars and I stood panting catching my breath Jay and I held each other closely until Reid's words broke us apart  “where’s Rossi?”

“he was right behind me,”

“Dave,”

“he just let us out why would he go back in,”

“for revenge, he killed the one woman he allowed himself to love after he lost Caroline,” Jay explained taking the words out of my mouth had I not been in shock

“he’s going to get himself blown up.”

“David!” I yelled trying to run back to the house but both Morgan and Jay were restraining me, “let go off me! I need to get to David!” he ran out of the house moments before the entire house exploded.  The world seemed to shake. The force of the explosion nearly knocked me over. Morgan’s grip loosed and I shook free of their grasps I ran to David and engulfed him in hug. “You complete asshole, don’t ever do that again, you could have gotten yourself killed,” I sobbed into his chest.

He rubbed my back and rested his chin on top of my head the others stared silently at the burning remains of the house.

“They’re gone,” he whispered into my hair, “both of them,”

 The house that was now burning around two of the worst criminals this team has ever had to face. But He was finally gone. Connor Wailand was dead. I never had to live with the fear of him trying to hurt me or my family again. 

Wisdom comes through suffering. Trouble, with its pain, drips in our hearts as we try to sleep, so men against their will learn to practice in moderation.

~Aeschylus