third person's pov

for the past two weeks, sydney has been acting weird. not her typical self. almost antsy. like someone was watching her every move, and to make it worse, is that someone was.

spencer walked towards maeve's apartment as he had a case that lasted the entire night, so sydney stayed there.

he knocked and stayed there for at leave five minutes, and still no one opened the door. he tried the doorknob, and then the door opened. he knew maeve would never leave her door unlocked like that.

he opened the door and looked around, and what he saw made him slightly freaked out. the table had been broken, along with glass from a vase, and there was a good amount of blood on the floor.

then his phone began to ring and picked it up, not looking who it was from. "hello?" he answered.

"hello, i have a call from...." then suddenly, a computerized voice popped up. "adam worth."

the operator came back up. "do you accept the charges?" the voice spooked spencer, but he didn't hesitate when he answered. "yes."

"go ahead with your call, please." there's a beep while spencer is slightly panicking. "hello. i'm still here." the computerized voice comes back and utters a single word: "zugzwang."

spencer took a pause and breathed out. "i'm sorry, can you please repeat that?"

"zugzwang." then before anything else is said the line disconnects.

panic rising in him, spencer urgently calls hotch and told him to meet him at the bau because he suspect something happened to sydney.

spencer had waited for hotch to arrive to the bau, and met him up in his office. "i got here as quickly as i could. what's wrong?" hotch told as be walks up the steps. "i think sydney is missing?" when spencer said that hotch's heart dropped as he pulled spencer into his office.

"what do you mean sydney's missing?" hotch questions.

"she stayed over at maeve's apartment and when i got there her apartment was trashed, a table broken, and there was blood." spencer says. "she's been acting antsy lately."

"has she told you anything? anything about someone following her? when was the last time you texted or called her?" hotch asked as spencer shook his head.

"the last time i talked to her was last night, they got back from dinner."

"how do you know she's missing? maybe maeve left her apartment a mess." hotch asked as spencer shook his head again. "she doesn't leave her apartment a mess, she has a spot for everything."

"before we told anyone we were together, we always addressed our letters to pseudonyms. as maeve had her history of getting kidnapped and things of that nature, she didn't want to take that chance. she did that in case the letters fell into the wrong hands." spencer revealed.

hotch looked at the paper in front of him. "your, dr. joseph bell?" he asked as spencer nods his head. "the real-life inspiration for sherlock holmes. and that codename is how i know she's in trouble. the voice on the phone identified himself as adam worth. that was the american criminal that arthur conan doyle based the character of moriarty on." spencer explains.

"and what did he say to you?" hotch asked.

"zugzwang." spencer responded. "its a chess term it describes the point in a game when a player realizes he'll inevitably be checkmated. he has to decide whether to resign or to play through to the bitter end." hotch looked at spencer.

"if you're right about this, then you're part of his victimology, too." hotch says as spencer nods his head and hotch then called the rest of the team in for thus new case rhag involved sydney.

"here is her stuff, for evidence." he says as it was left behind as sydney said that maeve was helping her with her homework, so she had brought her laptop, and her phone.

"thanks." penelope says as she grabbed the electronics.

spencer felt paralyzed with fear and couldn't even look at the team. "he thinks he'll get away with this, and he might. i have a wealth of knowledge i should be applying to this case. behavioral patterns of violent stalkers. tactical recovery strategies, victim survival odds. but right now i can't focus on anything more than four seconds at a time. all i can think of is syd and mae. which makes me the dumbest person in the room. so...please help me. help me find my girls." spencer says.

the team looked at one another. "we don't know if we have a case. so we'll be worming on personal time." hotch says. "this is sydney, we're talking about. we should be looking right now."

derek nods his head. "i agree." jj nods her head and so did the rest of the team.

after trying to figure out what sydney and maeve do in their free time, hotch send jj and derek to maeve's apartment while rossi and spencer were investigating sydney's room.

jj and derek walked into the apartment as a strong scent was pungent, which sparked confusion. derek investigated the smell and saw a body of a woman.

"we found a body, with no ID whoever did this took any form of identification." derek says as he searched the person's pockets around it and didn't find anything, he found out it was a female.

"maeve donovan." jj says as she found her wallet which had her driver's license. "spencer's girlfriend? if she's here where's syd?" jj asked as derek shrugged.

they got maeve transported to a hospital under a different name just to be on the safe side. especially with the current situation, her new name is nadia hart.

"she went to you for everything, did she tell you anything she wouldn't want spence, to know about?" jj asked as derek shakes his head.

"no she didn't. i'm more focused on the son of a bitch that took her."

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

sydney opened her eyes and saw that there was a bag wrapped around her head. she began to question what happened for it to lead up to here. she began to struggle and came to the conclusion that she was tied up in a chair.

suddenly, the bag was removed from her head and all she could see was the dark. "hello?" she called out. "get me the he'll out of this chair!" she yells out.

suddenly a light turned on and appeared a young boy, maybe a year younger or her age dark hair, blue eyes, dressed in black, looked semi built. "if i were you, i wouldn't struggle." he says.

"get me out of here!" sydney yells to the boy who was just standing there.

he looked sympathetic and was looking around like he didn't want to get caught.

"look, you could get out of this alive..." he looks around behind him as he whispers. "if you listen to him."

sydney furrowed her eyebrows. "who? listen to who?" the boy was beginning to leave. "hey! listen to who?! hello?!" she yells before giving up.

meanwhile as sydney tried to figure out who the boy was talking about, the team had figured out that sydney met up with annie and amelia at a restaurant with maeve.

they talked to annie to see if she knew anything, but nothing came up. though she did say to talk to her sister because she is friends with phoney people on her social media.

spencer was irritated with the situation to say the least he couldn't believe sydney lied to him. she hadn't done it recently, but then again she lied for so long about her self harming herself, so he took that into consideration. maybe that's why she's distant.

hotch, derek, rossi and spencer had gone to amelia just like annie had said. spencer was getting snippy to amelia so derek sent him out knowing that he wouldn't listen to hotch like that.

spencer paced back and forth, a boy who was sydney's age as he was in the bathroom when they got there. he walked behind spemcer.

"excuse me, doctor." spencer turned back to the voice. "agent hotchner said he was done with me upstairs. can you tell me what's going on?" he asked and before spencer could respond, derek had came downstairs.

"we'll be in touch, kid." derek says and the kid looked at derek. "thank you." with that, he walked away and derek noticed spencer's behavior. "all right, kid, talk to me. i can tell you're adding something up in your head. what is it?"

"seventeen years, six months, and ten days." spencer responded. "thats how many years that i've had her. derek i can't lose her. i-i-i-ll.." he says before derek cut him off. "what if that's all i get?" spencer asked with tears brimming his eyes at the thought of never seeing his daughter again. he would do insane, he can't lose her. he needs her, just like she needs him.

"well, it's not." derek says shaking his head as this wasn't the spencer reid he knew. no one knew.

"you can't say that." spencer says.

"yes, i can." derek says. "because when we find syd alive and you finally get to lay your eyes on her, what's the first thing you're gonna say to her?" derek says as spencer thought about it.

"that, i love her."

"yes you are. when me and jj were at maeve's apartment we found something." derek says going to the fact to tell spencer that they found maeve's body. when derek showed spencer the picture that he took of maeve he had a wave of relief that one of his girls weren't missing.

"where is she?" spencer asked derek.

"she's at the hospital, but she's under a different name for the time being. her name is nadia hart." derek says to spencer who nods his head.

"is she okay, and breathing?" he asked as derek nods his head.

"doc said she's in surgery so that will take a while."

"at least one of them is okay." spencer says as derek brought him into his arms knowing he needed it. which he did.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

sydney has dozed off and heard someone calling her name. she opened her eyes and saw annie tied up in front of her, her head covered in blood.

"syd." annie muttered.

"a-annie?" sydney asked her friend. "how'd you...?" sydney's head ached and she looked towards annie again. "what are you doing here?"

"i don't know." annie says as she looks around, glad that her mother taught her self-defense. "i'm sorry." annie says to her friend.

"look, your awake." a voice said echoing. sydney and annie both looked in the direction of the voice. they could tell it was a males voice.

"l-logan?" annie says stuttering out as sydney looked between annie and...logan apparently.

"who are you?" sydney asked the man who stopped walking and sydney saw that a woman was standing next to him.

"you don't know me, darling but you remember when you were fifteen, and i kidnapped you, and you escaped." logan says as it came back to sydney.

"y-yes." sydney says as she remembers everything now.

"then your daddy killed my brother, all because he i don't know raped brats like you and then killed them, leaving them for dead." logan says as the woman grabbed a bag, as sydney recognized it as a knife bag then logan was looking through the knives.

"well, hypothetically speaking i were to kidnap you again and continue where we left off. what will you do? leave? runaway?" logan says in a thick accent that she couldn't put her finger on. "tell the cops."

sydney shook her head as she knew the cards that logan was pulling off. then the woman pulls a gun out making sydney freak out a bit internally. then the woman aimed the gun at annie.

sydney wanted to get in front of annie and take a bullet but she couldn't move. she felt her heart racing at the next thing that could happen.

"then, after eight months we had to stop and say, 'what is so fucking special about her?' i couldn't see it."

annie began to beg for her life, sydney remained stiff and silent only muttering words under her breath, as the next thing that she heard was gunfire which echoed in sydney's ears as they rung. she avoided looking at annie then she looked at the woman who was the one who shot her best friend.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

sydney looked up at the man whose name is owen and sydney watched as he began cleaning up annie's blood. sydney felt numb, she didn't know if they drugged ber but there were definitely gaps in time. sydney watched as owen felt sorry for sydney as he could tell that they were close, almost like sisters.

"you know, you don't have to do this." sydney spoke as her eyes were red as she had bags under her eyes as she could tell that she was drugged but couldn't tell. "i can help you out of here." she says to him as he shook his head.

"she's alive, she's by a dumpster five blocks south. i took her out when they told me to dump her outside, because she's garbage. at least to them." owen says as sydney's drugged eyes looked at him as she probably had enough common sense to know who he was talking about.

"where did the woman shoot her at?" sydney couldn't help but ask as owen was scrubbing the blood.

"in the shoulder." owen says. "she's brave, after the gunshots she played dead so diane thought that she died."

"her mother taught her self-defense, when she was eleven." she says to owen who nods his head.

"the only reason why i haven't left is because that's my dad, and his crazy girlfriend. the only thing of family i have left." owen says to her as then the door opened and owen pretended like he wasn't talking to sydney. which he wasn't supposed to as he could possibly give her information about logan and diane.

sydney saw that diane had a knife and cut the binds off of sydney's chair and wrists and her, and sydney headed up to the roof of the building they were in. diane had a gun pkinted to sydney's back.

"get on the ledge." diane says as that's when sydney felt a chill, and realized that someone must've raped her but that was the least of her worries at the moment.

"so you could push me to my death? no, i'd rather you face me instead of not doing it like a coward." sydney tells her.

"diane." sydney heard logan's voice.

"give me the gun." diane looked at logan.

"what?" logan stared down diane. "give me the gun now."

it was obvious that logan was the master of the plan, as he was pulling the strings around here. diane was the puppet and owen was the pawn. speaking of where is he?

before logan could make a move, a gunshot is fired and logan lands on the ground as he dies immediately. but little do they no that owen is still alive. he is hiding behind a corner.

"get back on the ledge. now!" diane points the gun at sydney.n

"no. if you're gonna kill me, you kill me. but i am not jumping." sydney yells.

"don't you yell at me you fucking brat." diane yells back.

"because i wanna live long enough to see my dad's team arrest you." sydney says bravely.

she closed her eyes as the gun stayed aimed at her chest and diane glared at her. then a beeping noise was heard and diane checked her phone and looks back at sydney.

"looks like your daddy has a different idea." she holds her phone up and shows sydney a webcam footage of spencer holding a piece of paper up that says: "me for her."

they make their way back to the main building and diane ziplocks sydney in a chair when she was done she called spencer. then she shoved the phone by sydney. "hello?" sydney asked.

"baby, its me." sydney is relieved to hear her dad's voice. "are you okay?"

sydney tries to keep calm. "yeah, i've got a concussion and some bruising, but what's new." she says referring to her wounds as it's not the first time that she's gotten both of them.

"can i talk to her?" spencer asks, referring to diane.

"she's listening." sydney tells him.

"good. because i want to met her. i need to see her face to face." spencer says. "she has a nessage she wants me to tell you." sydney yells him.

"what is it?" he asked.

"the message is, she left you a present, and if you want to find it, it's easy as pie." sydney tells him.

"what does that mean? i don't understand what that means." spencer says.

"neither do i." sydney says. "dad, she's crazy, you've gotta get me out of here, she's gonna kill me-" before sydney could finish diane hangs up.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

diane had lured spencer in the building without his vest or his gun. sydney watched as they walked in and spencer had a blindfold over his eyes.

diane led spencer in his chair and he wasn't allowed to take the blindfold off. he was seated in front of sydney. "sydney?" spencer asked.

"hi." sydney spoke and spencer sighed in relief to hear his daughter's voice.

"i was hoping you'd figure out my riddle." diane tells as she put a hand down spencer's shirt. "i mean, i knew you would. the fun was just how fast you'd do it. but apparently you'd do anything for your brat daughter, which by the way she has a mouth."

sydney tried tuning out the situation as best as she could. she closed her eyes as she still hesrd her dad and diane talking.

spencer feels helpless that he can't save her right now. hold her, hug her, tell her its was gonna be okay, and that he loved her.

then sydney saw a very revolting sight of diane kissing her dad. she scrunched up her nose at seeing that. sydney tried distracting herself so that she doesn't have to see this. then she heard a gun shot and saw that her dad got shot.

"no!" sydney screamed. "shut up! shut up!" diane yells as she grabbed sydney and held a gun to her head.

sydney noticed that the team has made it up to the building from the directions from owen.

"put the gun down, diane. you don't want to do this." spencer managed to say.

"i offered you a deal and you can still take it. me for her. let me take her place." spencer says as sydney couldn't believe it that her own father would do that for her.

"you would do that?" diane asked him.

"yes." spencer says to her.

"you would kill yourself for her?" diane asked.

"yes." spencer says.

"why?" diane asked as there was a pause.

"because, i love her." sydney felt a small blush on her cheeks when he said that, but then she was quickly brought back to reality.

diane had come to the realization that what spencer and sydney was so much love and she could never compete with it. she put the gun to her head.

"no." diane says as she held the gun to her head.

"wait!" spencer shouts.

"no!" sydney suddenly moved quickly and moves the gun down and suddenly then three gunshots were fired two in sydney's two legs and the other one in her stomach.

sydney yells in pain as she lands on the ground and before diane could do anything else owen shoots her and she lands next to sydney dead.

"sydney!" spencer shouts and rushes towards his daughter.

"we need a medic." hotch says into his mic.

derek makes his way over to sydney. "you okay syd?" he asks as sydney tries to nod her head but it hurts. derek held onto her head so its not on the ground.

sydney's eyes fluttered and the pain was becoming unbearable to handle. "hey, hey, keep your eyes open." derek took notice of sydney's eyes. "just keep looking at me, okay?" spencer took her hand into his and sydney squeezed his hand.

then everything went black before anything was said.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

sydney's pov

i had stirred awake i a hospital bed and blinked a couple of times before i realized i was in one. i looked arojnd before my eyes landed on penny.

penny looks up and smiled when she saw that i was awake. "hey." penny says softly.

i looked around and noticed that dad wasn't here, and neither was anyone else. "where's dad?" i asked.

"i sent him to the cafeteria." penny answers. "everyone else is there to ease his mind. i promised i would stay."

i looked around and saw i had iv's and stats of my heart rate. "how long was i our for?" i asked her as it was then i felt a sharp pain in my stomach, then i realized that's one of the places i got shot at.

"two days." penny says truthfully.

i could feel i had something on my legs from where i got shot at.

"word to the wise, don't sit up." penny says to me as i nod my head as i look at the ceiling.

"what happened to owen?"

"who?"

"he was the one who um shot her."

"i did a search on him and he's safely at an orphanage because apparently logan his supposed 'guardian' wasn't actually his guardian but someone he kidnapped when he was nine." penny says as i shake my head.

"where's annie and maeve?" i ask her as just then the doors to my room opened and there was annie who had a bandage on her arm.

"you think you'd lose me that easily." annie says as she comes to the other side of my bed. i couldn't help but smile.

"maeve is in the room across from you." penny says to me as i smiled even thought it hurts. "she's okay, don't worry."

"that's good to hear." i says to penny. "what's the news on me?" i ask.

"they were sure that you wouldn't be able to walk again because of where you were shot. but the doctor says you'll be able to walk with lots of pt." penny says.

"can you go get dad?" i asked penny as she nods her head.

i waited with annie as penny headed down to the cafeteria. within a minute later dad came into my room. "hey, baby you okay?" he asked.

"it could be worse, and i'm not in pieces so i'm good." i joked as i heard annie snickering at my joke, and dad smiled. glad that i was alright.

he helped me sit up which felt good, and after he did that he hugged me and i did the same. "i was scared." he says to me as i had tears on my cheeks. "so was i." i say as my voice cracked, then as he pulled away, i felt him kissing my head.

"i am glad your okay."

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

hannah speaks!

hope you like this chapter!

<3