Third Person's POV

The two Reid's walked with coffee in their hands as they walked into the office. He's a bit dishelved since he missed his alarm and ten other ones so Sydney had to wake him up. Especially when Hotch texted her, saying they had a case.

Garcia had started as soon as they got there. "Three days ago, Bruce Phillips was found dead with his blonde hair dyed black. He had been put in a box and left on a busy street." Penelope explained as Sydney shook her head.

"A custom-made box." Rossi tells.

"Maybe the unsub was a carpenter?" Derek adds.

"He stuffed him in there practically folding him in half. He had also been hung and restrained and that's where the plot thickens like bad soup." Sydney says as she looked over Derek's file that he had.

"Yesterday, Justin Marks and Connie Gistee, who were dating, they went missing two miles away from their first abduction site." Penelope says.

"A couple? He's escalating." JJ says.

"Yes. This morning Justin's body was found. He had been hung, he had been stuffed in a box left in an alley. Officers say his brown hair had been dyed black. But Connie is still missing." Penelope explained.

"So he probably still has her." Sydney points out. "Why would he reject Justin overnight but keep the first male victim for two days?" Sydney adds to what he just said.

"Something about him didn't work out. Look at his neck. He was hung multiple times." Rossi points out.

"The question is, what does he do with Connie?" Sydney couldn't help but ask.

"He could make her watch the abuse the men or have asphyxiative sex with them." Spencer says as Sydney nods her head.

"Well, a brunette male and a woman who crucial to this guy's fantasy." Derek says.

"Well, he's kept Connie. Maybe she's the object of his desire." Sydney says.

"Well, our first order of business is finding her and then making sure he doesn't do this again. Wheels up in 30." Hotch says as the team packs up and heads to the jet.

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The team headed onto the jet and they were now getting started on the victimology. Sydney had been seated over at the couch and she rested her legs on her Dad's knees.

It's a common position for them, but she didn't care. She was comfortable. Derek shook her head when she did that but smiled nonetheless.

"All right, let's go over their victimology. Both male vics had their hair ended black and the woman is a brunette." Sydney started as Hotch gave her permission to start so she was happy that she started.

She did not hesitate.

"The guys are similar, same ages, same builds." Rossi points out.

"They were abducted outside their homes, which were all in the same area." Hotch says.

"So they were probably being stalked." Derek assumes. "Was Connie with her boyfriend when she was abducted?"

"It looks that way her purse was found on the ground outside of his house." Sydney says as she looks at the file.

"So this involves some kind of ruse." Derek says.

"It's difficult to lure most people from the security of their own homes." Spencer says.

"Well, some people let their guard down." Rossi says as Sydney shakes her head.

"Yeah, but stalking victims vary their routes home. They enter and exit through different doors, they wear disguises. They don't talk to anyone in their driveway. They hardly talk to anyone at all. Theyre-they're terrorized." Sydney says as she read what her Dad was thinking through. She says that she has that power.

Derek looks towards the girl and thinks about what Spencer's thinking too. "Okay. So maybe they were followed, Syd. I mean, bottom line is the unsub escalated. The first male was abducted alone, the second one with his girlfriend." JJ looks towards Derek after he said that.

"Well. What do we know about her?" JJ asked.

Sydney was the first one to look down at the file to answer JJ's question and possibly everyone else's questions. "Connie was in her 30s, baked cakes for a living, she never had a run-in with the law. She seemed pretty normal from what we can gather." Sydney explained.

"Assuming he kept her, what's the reason?" Rossi asks.

"She's a necessity, somehow she fits into his fantasy." Sydney says to him. "And so far, that need may be what's keeping her alive." Sydney adds to what she just said as Hotch nods her head.

"So, what we know is that we have an unsub with a fantasy or a deep desire that requires the man to look a specific way." Derek says.

"Since he rejected Justin so quickly, he's probably looking for a replacement as we speak." Spencer finishes off.

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After arriving, they'd discovered another man went missing and fake blood had been smeared on the window. They'd given their thoughts to what this unsub was doing with medieval torture and such. The man was found the next day and he was dressed the same way the last victim was. They'd given the profile.

After that Sydney was on her paying respects to Annie's mom who died in a car accident which was caused by a drunk driver. Annie is in the hospital as they were coming home from the mall when they got hit. Sydney sighed as she scrolled through her phone reading the articles about the accident. The reason why the investment is popular is because Annie's mom is a judge at the courthouse.

She had been glum since she found out and someone from the team noticed it. It was Hotch. Sydney was sitting alone in a room trying to focus on thr case but it was growing difficult. As she was thing to find the geographical profile to which the bodies were found as she tried pushing the car accident to the back of her mind.

"There you are." Hotch spoke as Sydney looked up at him before looking back down, pretending that she wasn't on her phone for the past fifteen minutes. "How's the geographical profiling going? Also, why are you in here?" He asked.

"It's going good. Just having trouble concentrating out there and it's quiet in here. So yeah." Sydney says as Hotch nodded his head believing half of what she said.

"You know how easy it is to spot a liar as a profiler." Hotch says to her which made her stop looking at the file. She didn't look up when he said that but froze. "Sydney, I know your lying." He says to her which made her finally look up at him.

"What's wrong?" He asks her as he pulled up a chair and sat in front of her. He had a look that she wasn't used to seeing. She's used to a cold expression on his face, but that melted and it's like a dad trying to talk to their kid calm look. It almost took her by surprise.

"Annie's mom died." She says as it took him a second to realize who she was talking about.

"What was her mom's name?" He asked as Sydney had to think what it was. In her defense she never asked.

"I don't remember what her name was but she went by Beth." She says to him as he could tell it didn't just affect Annie and Amelia but it also affected Sydney. Bethany was more of a mother figure to the girl even if she didn't really see her a whole lot because she's a judge but sometimes when she wasn't working she'd hang out over the weekend. Or sometimes when they weren't in school. "Bethany or something."

"I'm sorry for her loss." He says to her which made Sydney nod her head at him. She was still surprised to see this side of Aaron. "Do you know when the funeral is?"

Sydney shakes her head no. "I don't know."

"Well when you figure out when the funeral is, we'll be there." He says which made her to scrunch her eyebrows.

"We?"

"The team, to pay our respects to Beth." He says as Sydney nods her head understanding what he's talking aabout.

"Thanks." She says before going back to what she was doing before she and Hotch started talking.

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They discovered that the person that owned the clothes shop for the clothes they found on the victims and had run off. Sydney had been seated near Derek and her Rossi. "The owner of the vintage shop bolted from the store." Hotch says.

"Well, I've got something strange, too. The ME just called, not only were there ligature marks on the victims 3 arms, but his use was dislocated as well."

"His jaw?" Spencer asked.

"Why would someone, dislocated their joints and their jaw, and then crucify them?" Sydney questioned as Sydney looked over at her Dad and she noticed that he was in deep thought.

Rossi noticed this too, because he said: "I can see your wheels turning. Don't hold back."

"Share with the rest of the weirdos in the room." Sydney says being joking since she told Hotch of Annie's moms death. He smiled at her knowing her tactics as Derek didn't get offended when she called him a 'weirdo'.

"Maybe he's dislocating their body parts so he can manipulate himself." Spencer tells them as Sydney's eyebrows scrunch up hearing that.

"For what purpose." Sydney asked.

"Think about it for a second, Syd. If you add the dislocation, the holes in the hands, the strange clothing, and the odd makeup, I know this sounds crazy, but what if our unsub is turning his victim's into human marionettes." Spencer explains as Sydney's eyes widened.

"You mean...human puppets?" She asked. "I don't get payed enough for this job."

"You don't get payed at all."

"Can that be arranged?" Sydney asked Hotch as he just smiled at her which made her give him a small glare.

"The Greeks translated 'puppet' as 'neurospasta', which literally means string-pulling. And throughout time they've been used as a method to tell kings a story so the subject didn't have to speak directly to him." Spencer explains as Sydney is giving him a look.

"It was a way to hear the truth." Rossi tells them.

"It seems like this unsub's doing something similar, using his puppets to tell his story." Hotch says.

"He can't be controlling them by hand." Sydney shakes her head.

"No, he probably built some sort of contraption." Derek says.

"And he's trying to lift his victims." Spencer says.

"That could explain why they discarded them. They were too heavy." Rossi states.

"What do you see?" Hotch asked.

"Well I'm checking the licenses of our victims, and each one weighed less than the previous one." Rossi explained.

"You know, if he's making human marionettes, that also explains why he's stuffing his victim's into boxes. It's like a sick toy chest." Spencer tells as this is the part of the day where Sydney wishes she was at school.

Avoiding this, but sadly it's Saturday. There is no school on Saturday.

"So he is dehumanizing them and torturing them, but he's just not killing them." Sydney states as she's playing with her rings.

"He's turning them into his playthings," Hotch adds and then Detective Martin walked in with the latest news.

"A father and son were just abducted from a parking lot at gunpoint. A witness saw a man force them into a car."

"Thanks." Sydney says to the Detective as he nods before leaving, when he's out of earshot she sarcastically says. "Today just keeps getting better."

"Dave, you and Morgan go check it out. I'll have Garcia start looking for theater owners and puppeteers in the area." Hotch says as Sydney frowns because that means that her best friend is leaving her.

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After Rossi and Morgan had checked the car and discovered that the unsub had driven off in a blue van - which caused Hotch had Sydney call Penelope with the new information he found out.

"Penny." Sydney started.

"Yes, my sweets."

"We're there any incidents involving a father and son in the puppeteers' histories that you found?" Sydney asked.

"Father and son. Okay. No, its, coming up empty." Penny says.

"What about 20-30 years ago?" Sydney asked.

"Well, there was a pretty famous puppeteer in the late fifties named Alexander or Alex Rain. He died in a robbery. His son witnessed it."

"What was the son's name?" Sydney asked.

"Adam Rain. Mom died ten years ago." Penny answered.

"Boss, wants you to cross-check Adams name with the names of the patrons in the clothing store." Sydney says as Hotch shook his head when she called him, 'boss'.

"Oh, I got a big old hit. Okay, Mr. Rain called Tucker, the owner, forty times in the last month. And check this, his father was most well-known for a pair of puppets named Mitch and Steph. The male one had dark black hair and the female was a redhead."

"You have an address?" Sydney asked.

"Last known was a building on Pine Street, used to be his father's theater." Penny tells her.

"Come on, Dave."

"And guess what he drives."

"A blue van."

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After getting this guy and locking him up the team headed back to the BAU and Sydney had been on her phone the entire time obviously talking to someone the entire time. Spencer heard parts of her conversation not knowing who she's talking to.

"I'm sorry for your loss, Annie." Sydney said to Annie over the phone.

"Thanks, Syd. I gotta go break the news to Nona and Papa." Annie says as Sydney had a sad smile on her face.

"Love you." Sydney says.

"Love you too." Annie says as she hung up the phone as Sydney went to her Dad's desk to grab her things.

"Hey, baby." Sydney heard a voice and she didn't flinch like she typically would when he sneaks up behind her. "What's wrong?"

"Annie's mom died from a car accident." Sydney says as she takes a breath as she's still trying to process everything.

"When did she die?" He asked her he got his stuff and put it in his satchel.

"Yesterday, her and Annie were going to the mall for dress shopping because prom is coming up and Annie doesn't have a dress, cause she isn't the dressy type. Which is fine because neither am I. But that's not the point." Sydney says as Spencer nods his head at her he knows what Bethany meant to Sydney. She was like the mother that she never had. He trusted Bethany with his daughter's life.

"What caused the accident?" He asked her as they walked in the direction of the elevator.

"Drunk driver." Sydney says as Spencer nods his head.

"When's the funeral?"

"I don't know, Annie is going to let me know when." She says not talking about what her and Hotch talked about earlier. She just prayed to God that he didn't tell Spencer but at this point if he did its no big deal. But she's not ready to tell him.

"How you feeling?" Spencer asked her as she takes a deep breath knowing what he's talking about.

"She was the only true 'mother', I had since I was seven. She was there for at all, outside of Derek I'd talk to Bethany for hours on end." She says to him as he nods his head as he knows how she feels.

"It's going to be okay, Syd. Okay." Spencer says to her as she nods her head.

"Yeah, I know." She says as he kissed her head.

"Come let's go, I told Maeve we'd join her for dinner." He says with a bright smile on his face at him mentioning her. Sydney smiled at seeing her Dad this happy at mentioning a girl.

"You like her right?" She asked even if it was the most obvious question as the elevator door closed as he pressed the button that leads to the parking garage.

He looks at her as she is leaning against the wall of the elevator. He couldn't help but not his head proving his answer before he even said it.

"I don't just like her, but I love her." He says to Sydney as he never thought he'd ever say that especially about a girl he likes.

In Sydney's head her dad is being a teenager when said teenager likes another teenager. It's cute to be honestly but she's not going to mention that.

I mean come on her Dad is all giddy about Maeve so it makes sense.

"Then, I like her too." She says as Spencer kissed his daughter's head.

"I've been wanting you to say that actually. Just didn't know when it would happen." He says as the elevator got to the parking garage and they walked to his car as he slowed a little bit down since Sydney has shorter legs than he does. He sometimes forgets that, especially when they're on cases or something.

"Isn't that ironic." Sydney says semi sarcastically which made him smile at her with a little chuckle.

"It is." He says to her. "Are you still mad that she woke you up from your nap?"

"Eh, a little." Sydney says to him as he looked amused by all of this.

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hannah speaks!

hope you like this chapter!

<3