Criminal Minds 1. Prologue

**When the Eagles Cry **

Prologue

Darkness. That's all she could see as she slowly opened her eyes. Where was she? What happened?

The small girl slowly sat up, which took great effort. She thought hard for a moment. What did she remember happening last?

_I died._ She widened her eyes with realization. Her hands quickly went to her abdomen instinctually, where she had been stabbed. Wait, how did she know she had been stabbed? Last thing she remembered was being gagged and knocked out with some kind of drug.

Suddenly, something shiny caught her eye. She looked over and saw a crystal…No, not one, but _many. _And they were… Floating? _Damn, _she thought, _must have been some drug. _

She turned her head back to its original position and saw another girl there. Only… This girl _was _her! It was as if her reflection came to life and stood right in front of there.

She began to panic. Where the heck was she?! Who was the girl standing in front of her?

"Take a moment," her live reflection spoke in a monotone, mature voice that did not fit her age at all. "and remember who you are and why you're here."

The girl obeyed, seeing no other choice. "My name is… Emily Prentiss." She spoke for the first time as she concentrated.

"Yes." The other Emily said nodding in agreement. "What else?"

"I'm 12 years old… And I died… Because I was drugged and then stabbed." Emily continued. "And… I'm in search for the perfect world."

The other girl smirked. "Ding-ding, we have a winner!" she cheered in a dry tone. "And you're on your way to the next world."

Emily sighed. This journey was just never going to end, was it? Every time, she faced the same exact fate—arrive in new world, mess around with her best friends, suddenly get abducted in the middle of the night, then next thing she knew, she woke up in this purgatory state while Ashley's powers recharged and got them to the next place.

"Now then, let's take the time to go over what we have already seen happen, shall we?" The mirror image began. She picked up one of the many floating crystals, each of which flashed different images of her friends—the team, as they liked to call themselves—in the different scenarios.

"In this one," the reflection continued, "we saw Spencer Reid go mad with schizophrenia and kill Jennifer Jareau and Penelope Garcia when they tried to help him, then eventually kill himself. Poor Derek Morgan was heartbroken." She dragged out the last line while Emily glared at her.

"Oh, this one was different." The image said, grabbing another "world" and examining it. "Here, we got to see your best friend Jennifer—or as you call her, JJ, go mad and push Aaron Hotchner and Spencer Reid off a cliff when she thought they were responsible for your death—"

"Don't touch that one!" Emily quickly interrupted. "It wasn't JJ's fault… And only her_ friends_ can call her JJ."

The image just smirked, letting the crystal go and float back to the many others. "Really, Emily, we've seen the evil each of your precious friends are capable of doing. They may not be criminals, but they have the minds of them."

"Don't speak of my friends that way!" Emily snapped.

Their bickering was interrupted by a bright light. "Oh, looks like our time here is over, Emily. Time for you to start over and try to save yourself and your precious friends."

Emily said nothing, only turned to face the light and closed her eyes, preparing herself for the new challenge that would be thrown at her.

_Author's Note: Okay, still getting used to this website and how it all works! X)" I decided to update this part and change JJ's 'bad world's victims to Hotch and Reid, cuz looking at my outline of the various arcs, Morgan had a lot of action in more of them than Hotch... So big brother Hotch it is! :3 _

_Thank you for reading/following/reviewing/favoriting/all that nice stuff ^-^ _


	2. Team Building Arc, Chapter 1

**When the Eagles Cry**

Team Building Arc, Chapter 1.

"Emily, wake up! Ms. Blake is coming over to check our work!" Emily heard whispered in her ear.

She quickly lifted her head, turning to the source of the voice. She found herself face to face with 11 year old Jennifer Jareau, her best friend and roommate. They had lived together ever since JJ's (as Emily and their friends liked to call her) sister Rosaline had died. JJ had been devastated since then, and Emily always tried to help her feel better, though she knew JJ would never truly be perfectly fine again.

Emily then turned to see JJ's words ringing true, as Ms. Blake was walking over to their desks, which were pushed together, as usual.

"Emily, seriously, you need to get more sleep!" JJ laughed at her dazed friend.

"I'm fine, Jayje." Emily giggled in reply.

"Girls, how are you doing?" Alex Blake, their teacher, asked walking over.

"Oh, Emily was just helping me on my math, since Spence is in the bathroom!" JJ quickly covered for Emily, who shot her a grateful glance.

"I see. Thank you for helping JJ, Emily." Alex said, turning to the young dark haired girl.

"Oh, it was no problem. I like helping JJ out when I can." Emily replied happily.

Alex nodded, and then walked away to go help the other students. At that same moment, Spencer Reid, who was a few months younger than JJ, walked back in from the bathroom. He waved at Emily and JJ, who stuck her tongue out at him, as he walked back to his desk directly behind him.

"Hey, Spence!" JJ said, turning around in her seat to face the intelligent boy. "Can you help me on some of this math homework?"

"Sure, JJ." Spencer said, smiling shyly. Spencer had always been shy, even around his best friends, but at least he would occasionally open up more with them. He was also JJ's closest guy friend of their group, and the only person who called him "Spence." Penelope Garcia would often turn and swear to Emily that those two would get married someday. Emily would always laugh and then tease JJ over it later.

Speaking of Penelope, Emily saw Penelope sitting in the back with Derek Morgan and Aaron Hotchner, who they unanimously nicknamed "Hotch." Penelope was currently "oooh"ing and "aww"ing over JJ and Spencer working on math together. Derek just shook his head, shrugging, while Hotch continued to do his own work.

Emily turned back around and then looked out the window upon the small quiet town of Quantico. It could almost be called a village because it was so small and quaint. Alex Blake was the only teacher and this was the only schoolhouse in town. There were about 20 students in attendance there in their class, while all the other kids would go to schools in DC, about an hour away by bike but less than 30 minutes by car.

As the day continued to drag on, Emily waited. And waited. And eventually figured out the little blonde girl wouldn't come out until Emily called for her. She sighed, and after getting permission from Alex, took a trip to the bathroom, which was luckily empty.

"Alright, Ashley, come out already." Emily called out into the silence. "We need to talk."

Emily waited and watched as a transparent blonde girl appeared in front of her. The girl appeared to be no more than 10 years old, but Emily knew that was far from the truth. She took a deep breath as she continued the conversation.

"Ashley, what's the date today?" she asked.

"Um, I think it's about June 25th…" Ashley answered quietly. She was a very quiet girl who Emily knew suffered a lot during her life over a thousand years ago. Ashley Seaver has practically been Emily's guardian angel for her entire life. Throughout each world and each failure, Ashley was always a constant presence and it was thanks to her power that they were making the long journey of finding the perfect world.

"Are you serious?! The 4th of July festival is less than 2 weeks away, which also means you-know-what is less than 2 weeks away! How are we supposed to figure out the culprit in such a short time?" Emily panicked.

"I-I don't know!" Ashley replied, with even more panic in her voice. She then took a breath to steady her voice. "You know what this means, Emily… Each time I use my power to bring you back, the time between your arrival and death is getting shorter and shorter… This means my power won't be lasting for many more worlds."

"Of course I know that, Ashley. But that still doesn't take care of the current problem." Emily replied.

"Well, there's nothing we can do right now." Ashley spoke with ancient wisdom in her voice. Emily only sighed, knowing Ashley was right. She then turned and walked back to class.

_How many more times must my friends and I suffer like this? Who will reach madness first in this world? Will I finally find out who is after my life and why? _


	3. Team Building Arc, Chapter 2

**When the Eagles Cry**

Team Building Arc, Chapter 2.

JJ groaned in frustration as she watched the clock tick slowly. It was June, almost July, and here she was, in summer school. At least all her friends were also taking it, so she wasn't alone, but she'd rather be outside playing soccer or messing around with all of them. Fortunately, this summer school session would be over the following week but she was ready to pull her hair out in frustration.

She decided to make the best of it, and she grabbed a piece of paper and her pencil and started writing. When she was done, she passed it to Emily.

Emily smirked as she saw JJ pass a paper over to her. This was far from the first time she had seen JJ pull stunts like this during class. In fact, it was so normal that Emily knew it was meant to be a group note passing session. They had done it many times before. She opened the note and read it to herself:

_Hey, how much longer are you guys going to survive in here? I'm ready to jump out the window. –JJ_

Emily wrote her reply and passed it to Spencer, who then passed it back to the teens sitting behind him. Eventually, it made its way around the group several times and then back to Emily and she prepared herself to be entertained as she opened it to read it:

_Hey, how much longer are you guys going to survive in here? I'm ready to jump out the window. –JJ_

_If you're running, then I'm coming. –Emily_

_You guys do know that truancy is illegal… Right? –Spencer _

_Oh, hush, Pretty Boy, no one should be at school at this time of the year. Except I guess you, since you're a nerd! –Derek_

_Derek Morgan, be nice to my Boy Genius! –Penelope _

_Seriously, do you guys even know my real name?! –Spencer _

_Alright people, settle down and listen to Ms. Blake. –Hotch _

_Buuuuttttt Hooootttcchhhh, I wanna go hooommmeeeee! –JJ _

_JJ, you do realize how many grammatical errors you made in that sentence, right? –Spencer _

_Spence, no one asked about your opinion on my grammar! –JJ_

_Yeah, Spencer, you don't wanna have to tutor JJ in both math AND English, right? –Emily _

_Ohohohoho, shots fired! –Derek _

_Burn. –Hotch _

_Emily Prentiss, you are so getting it after school! –JJ_

_Kittens, play nice! –Penelope _

_Whatever you say, JJ. –Emily _

_Emily, that was also improper grammar because it was an incomplete sentence. Did you know that—_

_Nope, sorry Pretty Boy, but you aren't writing any statistics on here. –Derek _

_I second that. –Hotch _

_Me too. –Penelope _

_Me three. –Emily _

_Me infinity! –JJ _

_Hey! How did you know I was gonna write statistics? –Spencer_

_Lucky guess. –Hotch _

_You had that dangerous look in your eyes. –Penelope_

_It was written all over your face. –Derek _

_What's that supposed to mean?! –Spencer _

_It means that there are no statistics on here. Period. –JJ_

Before Emily could reply, she heard the school bell ring and their group all jumped up and all but ran out of the building as if it was on fire. When they got outside, they started walking through the town, taking their time in going home.

"What should we do today?" Penelope started excitedly.

"Let's bike to DC! It's only an hour away!" JJ suggested excitedly.

"Well, it's probably a little late in the day to bike there." Hotch replied, looking at his watch. "Any other ideas?"

As JJ, pouted, Spencer began, saying, "We could—"

"No." Everyone said at once.

Now it was Spencer's time to pout as Derek ruffled the younger boy's hair.

"Aw, Spencer Reid, there's no need to pout!" A man approaching them said amusingly.

As the group looked up, they recognized the face instantly and Emily and JJ tackled him. "Rossi!" they cheered.

David Rossi smiled as he hugged the two girls he financially supported. Technically, he was also their legal guardian, but he let them live alone since he knew that both of them had suffered greatly and would probably rather have each other than him to bug them.

"Hello, Dave." Hotch said with a smile. "What brings you here?"

"I was just walking through, enjoying the warm weather, and then I ran into you six." Rossi replied with a smile. "And Spencer, just why were you pouting?"

"No one let me suggest an idea for what we can do!" Spencer replied, pouting again.

"Aw, come on, Boy Wonder, you know we all love you and that you love us and our crazy ways!" Penelope replied with puppy dog eyes.

"Do I have a choice?" Spencer replied with a small smile as Penelope hugged him.

"Well, I'll leave you six to it. Just be careful. I don't want to be called in to calm some noisy kids down." Rossi warned with a smile. He was in charge of all the law enforcement in their small town, which barely had anything to do, since it was just a quaint town.

As the rest of her friends said their goodbyes to Rossi, Emily sensed Ashley appearing next to her. "Rossi is always so nice to you and JJ. I wish I could meet him someday. I wanna try those video games that he plays at home and beat his high score!" she said dreamingly.

"Yeah, well, we have other problems to deal with." Emily replied sternly with a sigh. Ashley, dejected, faded away. Emily did feel a little bad for snapping at Ashley like that, but she could apologize later. Right now, she had to take in the current setting of this world and her friends' mental states. She had to find out just what she would be facing.


	4. Team Building Arc, Chapter 3

**When the Eagles Cry **

Team Building Arc, Chapter 3

According to JJ, it was Emily's turn tonight to clean the dishes after dinner. Emily complied, as she wanted JJ to go to bed as soon as possible so she can start focusing on her mission without the distraction of her friends.

Though they made her journey hard to focus on, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing to Emily. In fact, it was one of the things that made it somewhat pleasant. Despite her friends being the same people in each world, she could never predict what crazy adventures they would go on. Each world had them doing different and unique things. It would actually give her something to look forward to in each world.

Emily finished putting away the last of the dishes and went upstairs to the master bedroom that she and JJ shared. Originally when Emily just lived alone, she would stay in her own room. But after Rosaline Jareau committed suicide, JJ had nowhere to go and Emily welcomed her into her own home with open arms. After JJ moved in, she was still dealing with nightmares from her sister's death and didn't want to be alone at night. They couldn't both fit on Emily's bed, so Emily opened the doors to her parents' bedroom that hadn't been used in so long and they slept in the Queen sized bed together. It made Emily a little uncomfortable since her parents were dead, so with the help of Rossi, they managed to move the huge bed out and move two twin sized beds in. That way, Emily and JJ shared the room but still managed to have their own space.

JJ was just finishing pulling her soccer pajama shirt over her head when Emily walked in. JJ turned to her with a smile on her face.

"Hey, Em! I'm so glad we're almost done with the summer school session." She said with great relief. "What awesome things do you think we'll be doing with everyone for the rest of the summer?"

"Oh, uh, I don't know. I'm sure they'll be super fun, knowing how crazy we all are." Emily replied, trying her best to look happy and as excited as JJ. None of their friends knew about Emily's struggle; Emily had refused to tell them, to protect them. She would feel horrible for them to get caught in the crossfire that was her fight. Every so often, Emily would enter a new world feeling anxious and hopeless-this was one of those worlds. She did not want to alert any of her friends, though, so she tried to hide it.

However, by the look on JJ's face, Emily wasn't doing a good job.

"Em, are you okay?" JJ asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

"I'm fine, Jayje. Just still tired, since you didn't let me finish my nap earlier today in class!" Emily replied, playfully throwing one of the pillows from her bed across the room and at JJ's face. It managed to land right on the target.

"Emily Prentiss, you are so dead!" JJ huffed for the second time that day, as she chucked a pillow back towards Emily in return. Pillow fights before bed had become somewhat of a daily thing as well. The girls even took anything that could be broken or knocked over by their war out of the room weeks before, just so they could continue their nightly tradition.

Eventually, the two girls were lying next to each other, giggling, in a heap of pillows in the middle of the room. They were exhausted now. JJ yawned loudly.

"I think it's JJ's bed time!" Emily whispered to her friend playfully. JJ swatted her away but was interrupted by another yawn.

"Haha, very funny, Emily-*yawn*-Prentiss…" JJ trailed off. The two girls sat up and took back their own pillows, placing them back on their beds.

As JJ got under the covers of her bed, Emily turned off the lights, leaving a nightlight on. Neither of them were very fond of the dark. "Goodnight, JJ." She said softly into the room. She was met by a snore in reply. She giggled, then walked out of the room and downstairs to the kitchen, where she poured herself a glass of water.

"Seriously, Emily, you are up way past your bedtime too!" Ashley scolded gently as she appeared next to the raven-haired girl.

"Be quiet, Ashley, you and Elle would have done the same thing." Emily replied with a smirk.

"Elle isn't here anymore." Ashley said quietly. "And besides… We both had parents who definitely wouldn't let us stay up this late!"

"Ashley, you and I both know that there is no saving my parents." Emily said sternly. "Back when your power was strong enough to get us into worlds before their deaths, they wouldn't listen to my warnings. It's not our fault and their fate was inevitable."

"I know that, Emily." Ashley replied.

Emily only sighed in reply, as she sipped her water. Her mother, Elizabeth Prentiss, had been a very forceful woman. She pushed Emily to do many things, as she was heavily involved in politics and was an ambassador for the United States. Though Emily had been born and raised in Quantico, her family would occasionally go away for long periods of time. After Emily turned 10, her mom was killed in a small terrorist attack in DC, when a suicide bomber blew up a small café. Elizabeth Prentiss had just happened to be in that café on that day at the unfortunate time of the bombing and died inside of it. After this happened in the first world, Emily had tried to stop her mom from going there that day in every world since then, but it always seemed to be no use.

As for her father, he had left their family long ago. Emily barely remembered him, and didn't even remember his name. Anytime Ashley would offer to tell her, Emily refused to know. After her mother's death, Emily had no local relatives to care for her, so all the legal rights went to David Rossi. Seeing how much she wanted space, Rossi let Emily choose how she wanted to go about living. Emily decided to live in the same house, but alone. Rossi allowed her to, and lived in the house across the street and paid for all her necessities.

When JJ needed a home, however, Emily was more than happy to take her in and have the company. JJ had been her best friend since Emily was 8 and she was 7, shortly after JJ lost her parents. Rosaline Jareau was 6 years older than JJ and tried hard to take care of her, but ended up taking her own life one night. JJ had been so confused and angry afterwards, and became very clingy of Emily a little later. Emily didn't mind, because JJ was her best friend, but now JJ seemed to be a bit more independent.

Emily placed the glass in the sink after she finished drinking her water. She then made her way back upstairs and under the covers of her own bed. JJ was still sleeping peacefully, so Emily decided to go over what she knew about this world so far. Nothing out of the ordinary… All her friends seemed to be as sane as they normally were. Spencer showed no signs of inheriting his mother's schizophrenia, Hotch didn't look like he would be running from town anytime soon because of his father, and JJ didn't seem to have that sibling relationship with Spencer and Derek like she did in previous worlds, which ultimately had led to her going insane. Emily shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts of her friends suffering. She wanted the past worlds to remain as lost files, and nothing more.


	5. Team Building Arc, Chapter 4

**When the Eagles Cry **

Team Building Arc, Chapter 4.

"Come _on_, Pretty Boy, swing it like you mean it!" Derek's voice rang out through the batting cage as he pitched the ball to Spencer for what seemed to be the millionth time that day.

"I'm _trying_!" Spencer only yelled in reply, swinging, and, once again, failing.

JJ cupper her hands around her mouth. "Come on, Spence, you can do it!" she yelled loudly.

"Go, Boy Wonder, go!" Penelope chimed in.

Emily smiled as she watched Spencer try to hit another pitch Derek fired, but only to fail. Again.

It was Saturday, the weekend, or as JJ would say, the weekend _finally_. Normally Emily would be more than thrilled they didn't have to get up early and go to school. However, she found herself biting her nails throughout the day, as she and Ashley weren't a step closer to figuring out the villain in their long story. This only meant they had less and less time before things went downhill fast, so they just _had_ to do something.

When Emily broke out of her thoughts, she looked up to see Derek and Spencer approaching them, heads hanging in defeat. Derek threw up his hands.

"I can't do this. This is just impossible." He sighed in defeat. "We are gonna lose the game tomorrow."

Tomorrow, their recreational baseball team would be representing the town in a baseball game against a similar team from DC. The two teams were no less than rivals, and for whatever reason, one of Quantico's members suddenly had to drop out. Hotch and Derek were already on the team, JJ was already on the town's soccer team, and neither Emily nor Penelope were into sports. This just left Spencer, because, well, he was a boy, so he should have this stuff in him. Deep down, somewhere.

"I'm sorry guys, but you all know I'm horrible at sports." Spencer sighed.

"Don't be sad, Boy Genius." Penelope said, patting him on the back reassuringly. "You of all people should know we can't have it all."

"So what should we do about tomorrow, then?" Hotch asked the group.

"I can still play… Just don't expect me to score or anything for us." Spencer replied before Derek could answer.

"I know you'll do your best, Spence." JJ said warmly.

"Just try to solve it using math or something!" Emily suggested, half-jokingly. The group giggled in reply.

"Thanks, guys." Spencer replied with a smile. "You guys always know how to cheer me up."

"It's our pleasure, Reid." Derek replied, ruffling his hair. He then grabbed Hotch's wrist to examine his watch, an action that pretty much happened every day. "The day is still young, so how about we bike to DC to grab lunch and mess around?"

The team quickly said they would, and agreed to meet up at the town's exit with their bikes in 20 minutes. Emily and JJ walked back home together, sharing jokes and talking about whatever came to their minds.

"Em!" JJ suddenly said, grabbing one of Emily's hands and closely examining it as their previous conversation had just come to a close.

"JJ, what's wrong?" Emily said, gently trying to pull her hand away. JJ, however, would not let her go.

"Your nails." JJ replied, turning Emily's hand so Emily herself could see it. "You've been biting them more lately, I can tell… What's got you so anxious lately? And don't try to tell me it's nothing, I know you're a compulsive nail-biter and that you've been acting more quiet and distant lately."

"JJ…" Emily pleaded, trying to get out of it. For a moment, she considered telling JJ everything. Just letting the cat out of the bag about everything, from Ashley Seaver's ghostly presence to her powers to their long journey for perfection. "JJ, I…" But then Emily remembered telling her meant risking JJ's safety, and that was one of the last things she wanted. "I… Can't tell you."

JJ cocked her head to the side. "But… I thought we were best friends, Emily?" she looked so crestfallen and heartbroken, Emily found her heart breaking too. She then reconsidered, and almost told her. Almost.

"We are." Emily replied firmly, finding her voice again. "It's not that I don't trust you, Jayje, it's just something that you or the others can't help me with. I have to do it alone." She then took a step ahead, with her back facing JJ.

"Emily…" JJ said, sounding so concerned and worried, Emily wanted to cry out and run into her friend's arms.

"Come on, JJ. We better get going so we can meet up with the team on time." Emily said, and continued walking without looking back. JJ stood there, looking confused for a moment, but soon followed her.

_The Next Day. _

Emily and JJ sat next to each other on the bleachers at the ball cage they had been at only a day before. The "big game" was underway, and their team was actually managing to do okay. Things weren't looking up as much with Emily and JJ, however.

Since their confrontation yesterday, there had been an awkward tension between the two. They had walked back home, grabbed their bikes, and biked to their friends in silence. The two were usually close enough that any silence between them while they were together was comfortable. This one, however, was not, as they had scarcely spoken a word to each other for 24 hours. JJ even went straight to bed, without telling Emily goodnight or engaging in their usual pillow fight. Even Ashley seemed speechless, as she and Emily hadn't really talked at all, or Emily would shoo her away when she came. This was definitely something different about the current world, as the two best friends were usually inseparable. JJ's sudden ability to read Emily so well was basically a wild card in the whole thing.

As Spencer struck out in front of them, JJ was too spaced out from thinking about the situation between herself and Emily to even acknowledge his presence as he walked over.

"Hey, JJ!" Spencer said, waving his hands in front of the blonde girl's face. JJ suddenly came to life and looked up at him with surprise and confusion.

"Sorry, Jayje… You just usually give me a high five or something on my way back to the bench and you didn't seem to be paying attention this time, which is weird for you." Spencer said, blushing with embarrassment.

"I'm sorry, Spence, I've just been kinda tired lately, I guess." JJ said, trying to shrug off his worries. Spencer seemed to accept it as an answer, as he continued his walk to the dugout.

The DC team seemed to be extra aggressive today, as they would say some snarky comments here or there, and sometimes be bullies towards the Quantico team's members, especially Spencer. Emily and JJ had originally been too involved in their own thought processes and tuning Penelope out, but it got really noticeable after a while. During the bottom of the 9th inning, the two teams were tied and Quantico just had to score one more run to win the game. However, the catcher tripped Spencer as he was walking away after striking out. When he fell to the ground, JJ was up out of her seat and by his side in record time.

"Spence! Are you okay?" she gasped, helping him sit up as Emily and Penelope quickly ran up behind her and Hotch and Derek came over from the dugout.

"Y-Yeah… Just, the catcher tripped me." Spencer replied with a sigh. His 5 friends soon found themselves all glaring at the other team.

The catcher met their gaze evenly. "He tripped over his own two feet, it's not my fault he's so bad at athletics that he can't even walk!" he said with a smirk as his teammates all laughed at them.

"How dare you jerks hurt my friend?" Penelope quickly yelled back in reply, boiling in rage.

"Aw, come on, even you have to admit that he's worse than a _girl_, just like yourself." The pitcher replied, using a feminine tone of voice for the word "girl." Penelope looked like she would explode while Emily's gaze shot daggers at them. Derek started yelling things back at them and Hotch finally helped Spencer stand up. JJ had tuned them all out, as she just turned back towards Spencer and stuck her hand out, palm up.

"Spence. Give me the bat." She suddenly demanded.

"JJ, what are you—"

"Spence." She simply said again. Spencer knew better than to argue with determined JJ; she was always a woman on a mission.

He gave her the bat and JJ walked over to home plate and turned her body towards the pitcher, getting ready to bat. She swung her head, flipping her long and beautiful blonde hair over her shoulder gracefully. She then leaned in, bat up, ready to hit.

The pitcher looked like he was gonna burst out laughing. "You've gotta be kidding me." He retorted.

"Try me." JJ growled in reply. The pitcher put his hands up in defense, and then threw the ball gently, as if JJ wouldn't be able to hit a full-on pitch. However, the ball was thrown so softly that all the momentum was off and JJ missed.

"Come on, JJ, you can do it! I know you can!" Spencer was the first to cheer out of their group, as they had watched the young girl with surprise initially.

"Yeah, JJ!" Derek joined in.

"You can do it, my sweet girl!" Penelope chimed in.

"Go get 'em, Jayje!" Hotch yelled.

Emily stayed silent, observing the scene carefully. This also hadn't happened in a world before. JJ's tomboy tendencies were no secret, but she had never gone this far before.

While Emily was deep in thought, JJ missed the second pitch. This snapped her out of her confusion and she momentarily forgot all the problems they had been having within the last day and she found the words coming out of her mouth before she could stop.

"JJ, kick their sorry butts back to DC like the fighter I know you are! YOU CAN DO IT, JAYJE!"

For whatever reason, this made JJ's abilities suddenly sharpen, as she swung and hit the third pitch, square-on. The ball went sailing, all the way out to the farthest point in the outfield. Upon seeing this, Emily and the others all quickly cheered and yelled for her to go home as she ran all around the plates and tagged home before the other team could even get the ball back to the pitcher.

Waiting for her at home plate were her friends as JJ made sure to hit the plate with her foot before launching herself into them, engaging them all in a huge group hug. She, too, momentarily forgot about hers and Emily's problems.

"You did it, Jayje!"

"Atta' girl!"

"That's my JJ!"

"I knew you could do it!"

JJ closed her eyes and let herself be serenaded by her friends' rewarding comments. They then all turned to see the shocked looks on the other team's faces as they retreated back to their dugout.

"We won!" Emily yelled victoriously, sounding more excited than she had in days. JJ's smile grew even wider at this.

"Hell yeah we did!" JJ yelled, high fiving her best friend.

"Hey, you're too young to curse!" Penelope scolded softly. JJ swatted her arm playfully in reply.

As spectators and members of both teams came by to congratulate them, the team continued to praise JJ. She was beaming with pride. They ended up going to one of the few shops in town to get ice cream together. And Emily and JJ seemed to have simultaneously put the last day and their problems behind them and they appeared closer than ever.

As the two girls walked home alone after the big celebration while the sun was setting, JJ made sure to not bring up her concerns while they were talking. She had just won Emily back and she didn't want to risk losing her to the silent treatment again.

"Hey, JJ?" Emily suddenly stopped and said, with a more serious tone of voice.

JJ turned back to face her friend, confusion on her face. "Yeah, Em? What's up?"

"I just wanted to say that, I bet Rosaline is really proud of you right now." Emily said, her voice quiet but still strong. JJ found herself tearing up for a moment, but ultimately, she was very happy, and she pulled Emily in for a bone crushing hug.

"Thank you, Em." She replied, sounding a bit choked up. Emily hugged her back happily.

"And, Jayje, I promise you, that if there's ever anything that I can't do alone, I will ask you to bear it with me, even if it means carrying the world on our shoulders together." Emily said, half-hoping this would reassure her friend and put her worries to rest, but also so JJ would know she could do the same and ask Emily for help.

JJ pulled away from the hug, but held Emily's hands out in front of her as she nodded. "I think I can live with that." She replied with a giggle. Emily smiled, and the two continued to walk back home. However, they each clung onto the other's hand; not in a romantic sense, but in the sense of friends who are willing to stand by each other always, even if it meant going through hell and back.


	6. Team Building Arc, Chapter 5

**When the Eagles Cry **

Team Building Arc, Chapter 5.

JJ was pacing. She usually didn't pace around, in all honesty. She was the type of person who wouldn't think things through, but tackle them and try to take them head on. This, however, was different.

Last night, she had woken up in the middle of the night to Emily talking. It sounded as if she was talking to someone else, but no one else was there, and JJ had been asleep for most of it. However, she caught the tail end of what Emily was saying.

"The festival is in less than a week, we're running out of time. You and I both know what that means. My death is quickly approaching."

At this, JJ immediately turned to see Emily, sitting in the moonlight coming through the window in their room. She looked exhausted, physically and mentally, and spoke with much more maturity than even Hotch ever had. And he could be downright intimidating.

Just like JJ thought, no one else was in the room. So she slowly sat up and called out to her friend in the darkness. "Em?"

Emily only blinked, not looking up from her gaze or acknowledging JJ's presence and questioning tone. JJ also saw Emily's nails on her hand were worse than she had seen them days before.

"Emily, what do you mean by your death?" JJ asked, worry creeping up slowly in her tone. _Is this what's been keeping Emily on edge lately? _

Emily blinked again. _To hell with the secrets, _she thought. _I'll tell JJ if I damn well please. Besides, she sounds half asleep, so she might not even remember. _

"After our 4th of July festival." Emily began slowly. "In a few days' time, I will be killed. I don't know by who, or why. But it is my inevitable fate for this world."

JJ gaped at her friend. "Em, why didn't you tell me or the team? You know we could have—"

"No." Emily simply said. She then stood up and walked over to her bed, sliding under the covers. She turned away from JJ, and drifted off to sleep.

JJ stared up at the ceiling in confusion. Her friend was going to die? How did she know already, when she didn't even know why? And better yet, how did she already know it would be a murder, yet she's not sure who the murderer is? JJ's mind was spinning and she could feel a headache coming on. With a sigh, she let herself fall back asleep, deciding she would deal with it in the morning.

And now it was morning. Well, actually, it was the afternoon. School had just got out. When Emily said she would be using the bathroom before they left and the rest of their friends were the only ones left in the room, JJ started pacing. She was trying to figure out how to phrase it or word it, but it didn't take long for one of her friends to notice her odd behavior.

"JJ, why are you pacing so much? You never pace." Spencer observed out loud. The other three all turned to observe the small blonde girl after hearing him, and they all realized this _was_ weird.

When JJ didn't answer, Hotch tried. "JJ, what's going on? Is something happening between you and Emily?" Unfortunately for him, the mention of her name suddenly made JJ stop and turn back to them in anger.

"Uh, yeah, the only problem between us is Emily is going to be killed in a few days!" JJ snapped, her voice growing in anger and volume with every word. "She's living in danger and we aren't doing anything to help her!"

The four friends all looked stunned and immediately worried. "Jayje, where the hell did you hear that from?" Derek replied in an interrogative tone.

"From Emily herself!" JJ answered sharply, still borderline yelling. "Last night, I woke up because Em was talking, and it sounded like she was talking to someone else, but it was only the two of us there. I listened in and caught the tail end of her one-sided conversation, and she said her death was quickly approaching! I said she should have told us so we could do something, but she just told me 'no' and went to bed!" The blonde girl looked to be on the verge of crying now as her voice was shaking and her eyes were starting to tear up.

"JJ, are you sure you didn't just imagine her saying that, or that it was a dream?" Hotch asked carefully, not wanting to set the girl off again like he did before.

"Of course I'm sure!" JJ yelled in frustration. "Do _any _of you believe me?!"

"It's not that we don't believe you, Gumdrop, it's just, the story is kinda far-fetched and has some holes in it." Penelope said slowly. "Like, per se, what did Emily say this morning when you brought it up?"

JJ bit her lip, her tears coming close to spilling out. "I didn't…"

Spencer stared at her, wide-eyed. "Jayje, why didn't you ask her about it?"

"Because! I didn't know how so I was gonna ask you guys when we got to school what to do and if you would help but then we were almost late and Emily was always with us and… And… I don't know!" JJ cried.

"Hey, it's gonna be alright now." Derek said, walking over to the blonde and pulling her in for a hug. "We can talk to Em when she gets back."

JJ sniffled, rubbing her wet eyes. "Okay…"

While JJ was not looking up at them, the four members of the team shot each other worried glances. There were definitely some holes in JJ's story, not to mention the separation anxiety she suffered when she and Emily weren't together after Rosaline's suicide left JJ with serious abandonment and trust issues.

A few minutes later, after JJ calmed down, Emily walked back into the room, with a tired expression on her face. She did look stressed, but they weren't sure if it looked as stressed as someone who was about to die.

Emily then looked up at her friends, surprised by the worried glances they all gave her and JJ's red eyes. _Crap. _She thought. _JJ probably did remember… But even if she told them everything, there's got to be some holes in her story, so if I just play it cool and look confused, maybe they'll just think it was a dream. _

"Emily." Hotch began speaking up for the group. "JJ told us that... Well, she said something about your death? Emily, what's up? Is that true?"

Emily glanced over at JJ, looking as surprised as she could. "Um… JJ, where did you get that idea from?" she asked, sounding genuinely and utterly confused. She noticed all her friends' shoulders relax a bit in silent sighs, showing they had all been really worried. Internally, Emily was smiling because of how sweet and caring her friends were. This was exactly why she could never tell them. She just couldn't risk their lives for her own sake like that, and she wouldn't. She thought it would be too selfish.

JJ looked like she was going to cry again, seeing Emily's look and hearing her words. "Em, please, please just tell them the truth, you said you would tell me if you couldn't handle something on your own, and surely your death falls under that category…"

Emily cocked her head to one side. "JJ, I'm perfectly fine… I'm not going to die anytime soon."

"Well, thank God then, Gumdrop, 'cause JJ had us going there for a second." Penelope said with a relieved sigh.

"You have been acting kinda weird lately, I'll give JJ that." Derek added. "Just maybe not 'Oh-crap-I'm-gonna-die' weird."

Hotch and Spencer still continued to observe Emily carefully. She made sure her compartments were up strongly. Spencer seemed to give up and soon Hotch did too, as he sighed. "So, it was just a dream, then, JJ."

JJ took a step away from everyone in the room, facing all her friends with a shocked expression. "I was right! You guys don't believe me!" she yelled, tears coming again. She internally cursed her crying tendencies. "It just… It couldn't have been a dream. Emily, I can't let you be taken away from me by someone else like that!" she immediately crushed her friend in a huge hug, holding on for dear life.

"JJ, I'm not going anywhere…" Emily tried to keep her voice strong, but it shook a little. Luckily, none of her friends noticed. But honestly, Emily just wanted to cry with JJ and hug her for the rest of her life—which might be only a few days at this point.

Spencer quietly cleared his throat, the sunlight reflecting off his glasses as he looked up. "You know, JJ, ah, it's normal for someone who's been through the kinds of things you've been through to have vivid dreams like that… In other words, it's only natural for you to always be worried for your loved ones and believe that they're in danger, when they actually aren't." he explained quietly.

JJ stepped away from Emily and turned to Spencer, a look of anger and sadness on her face. "To hell with the science of it!" she spat. "I know what I saw!" But, in all honesty, she also was beginning to doubt herself, as her grip from Emily's hands relaxed, as did the rest of her body. Everyone else noticed it too, and realized the situation was slowly coming to a resolution.

"JJ…." Emily began, but she heard Ashley whisper in her ear: "Don't make promises you can't keep, Emily. You'll only regret it for the rest of your life." This made Emily close her eyes, thinking of what she _could_ promise and actually hold up at this point, but soon came up with nothing as she opened her eyes. "I'm here for you." It wasn't exactly a promise, though it would soon be somewhat false. It was in the present tense, though, so it wasn't entirely false. Emily's mind battled internally with itself as she tried to come to a satisfactory conclusion, but, again, came up with nothing.

"I know." JJ simply said, as she wiped her eyes. "I'm sorry I yelled at all of you, but I'm still really worried." She said in a neutral tone to her friends. They all nodded and told her it was okay, and seeing the two best friends needed to come up with their own resolution, left the room and went home.

"JJ, thank you for caring so much about me." Emily said as she grabbed her bag, getting ready to leave. "I am so lucky to have friends like you."

JJ smiled in reply, but it was weak and still sad. "Yeah, well… I just hope I can help out when the situation comes to it." She then grabbed her bag and the two friends walked out of the room.


	7. Team Building Arc, Chapter 6

**When the Eagles Cry**

Team Building Arc, Chapter 6.

It was now the day of the 4th of July festival. Emily and Ashley still had nothing, and it was nothing less than unsettling. While she was on edge because of it, she was excited to spend the entire day running around with her best friends.

It also meant they had been out of school for the rest summer for a few days now. JJ was thankful summer school was over and she was looking forward to this day even more than the rest of her friends.

JJ had woken up, ecstatic, that morning, and started making breakfast. Things had once again been a bit touchy and sensitive between her and Emily for the past few days, but the pair seemed to almost be over it now.

Emily came downstairs with—in JJ's opinion—an awesome bedhead. As JJ continued to laugh and tease the raven haired girl for it, Emily smiled and nodded, and would offer at the appropriate times in the conversation as they ate their breakfast.

At about 11 AM, they headed out to meet the rest of their team of friends near the setup for the festival. Most of the booths and games were set up, but there were just a few more things Emily and the rest of them could help with.

As the friends all grouped up in the middle of the festival grounds, they greeted each other with hugs and excitement for the day. Even Hotch, who usually had a straight face, seemed to not be able to wait for the night to arrive.

"What games should we play this year?!" JJ asked them excitedly, glancing around at the game booths in their area.

"I bet I can beat you in any games involving aiming." Derek said confidently. "I do, in all truth, have the greatest aim in this town."

Emily smirked, knowing she could easily beat Derek in something involving shooting, as she had some experience with that thanks to her mother.

However, there was no doubt in her mind that JJ could surpass every single person in the country in sharpshooting. JJ had proved to have impressive aim in everything they did—Nerf gun wars, archery lessons the previous summer, arcade games in DC. Derek had never been around to witness her skill, but Emily was sure JJ could take him with her eyes closed.

"We shall see about that, Derek Morgan." JJ grinned evilly, also thinking of how Derek had no idea of her sharpshooting skills.

"Let's make this more interesting." Penelope spoke up with an equally evil grin on her face.

"How so, Penelope?" Spencer asked.

"We should bet on JJ and Derek, and the loser between them and the losing betters will have to suffer a 'punishment' of some kind." Penelope replied with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"I CALL BETTING ON JJ!" Emily immediately yelled, shooting her hand up in the sky.

"Okay, that's one bet. Also, we should split up, two people per shooter for the betting." Penelope added.

"I'll go with Derek, he needs all the support he can get." Hotch said next, with a chuckle. Derek proceeded to try and convince Hotch that he was fully capable of beating JJ anytime anywhere.

"Spence, you think I can do it, right?" JJ looked to Spencer with a pleading and determined look in her eyes. Spencer knew there was no way of getting out of this, so he complied with betting on her.

"Alright, then my Chocolate Adonis, you better win." Penelope said, turning to Derek.

"Baby Girl, you know I will." Derek said, flashing a Derek Morgan smile, causing JJ and Emily to roll their eyes.

As they spent the rest of the day planning out their night and doing favors for the people setting up the festival, Emily found herself distracted from her approaching demise. Ashley also steered clear of talking to her, for she believed Emily could use a pleasant day off with the team.

Ashley couldn't help but watch the group from a distance with a jealous feeling gnawing at her insides. She hadn't been so lucky to have a whole group of friends who would move the heavens and the earth for her during her life. However, she did have Elle, who had been the bestest friend she could ever have, as Ashley was the outcast in their small village all those years ago. Elle had broken rules to spend time with the young blonde girl.

The team's yelling and loud laughter pulled Ashley from her stroll down memory lane. She looked over and saw that they were all attacking each other, hands covered in paint, and getting it all over their clothes and faces. The team loved to compete, so Ashley wasn't the least bit surprised.

Afterwards, everyone decided to go home for a bit to change and clean themselves up and meet back at the festival grounds right before it starts. Ashley followed Emily and JJ home, amusing herself by listening in on their conversation.

"Dude, Derek is _so_ gonna be surprised when he finds out how good you are at aiming tonight!" Emily laughed. "He might just pee his pants and run home to his mom and sisters in tears!"

"I see the pressure's on then!" JJ laughed in reply, as Emily swatted her arm playfully.

"Anyway, did PG ever decide on the 'punishment' for the losers?" Emily asked.

JJ looked up, trying to think. "I think she was deciding between few things… I heard her mention dying the losers' hair pink for a day, or walking around town in embarrassing costumes… You know, Penelope-like stuff." She replied.

Emily chuckled. "I bet that whatever it is, she's gonna make sure that it's something she wouldn't die from embarrassment doing, 'cause she probably already knows she's on the losing team." She laughed confidently.

"Don't you go and jinx us now, Em." JJ warned playfully.

"Please, I bet Derek can't even aim with someone helping him." Emily snorted with a smirk.

JJ only rolled her eyes in reply, also with a smile etched on her face.

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It was now time for the festival, as the team all walked in together after meeting up beforehand just outside. They were all now paint-free and ready for the action.

"Alright, my babies." Penelope began. "Over there is where we shall begin the Jareau-Morgan showdown!" she declared, pointing at a booth containing the popular carnival game of shooting water at the target until the tube above it filled up and popped the balloon at the top.

The team cheered as they walked over there and JJ and Derek got set up. Derek had a determined look on his face while JJ looked a bit nervous from the pressure of Emily's expectations. Emily noticed this and stood next to her friend. "Jayje, even if you don't win, I know you'll do amazingly." She said, trying to help calm her friend's nerves. It seemed to help as JJ took a deep breath and nodded. "Thanks, Em."

"Alright, competitors!" The worker spoke up. "We will be starting in 3…2…1… GO!"

Immediately, JJ and Derek fired their water guns at the small circular hole that was the target and their tubes began filling up quickly.

"Go, JJ, go!" Emily cheered.

"Come on, Derek, don't let us lose!" Hotch cheered with a smirk and Derek scowled slightly as he continued firing.

"You can do it, JJ!" Spencer cheered, his voice quieter than the rest of the group.

"Smash the competition, Baby Boy!" Penelope cheered in a competitive tone. "I still love you, JJ!" she quickly added.

"I don't still love you, Derek!" Emily added playfully after Penelope's comment. Derek just made a "hmph!" in reply, as he was more focused on the task at hand.

The two were neck and neck for the first few seconds, but JJ managed to pass Derek ever so slightly and pop her balloon a millisecond or two before Derek.

"I WON!" JJ screamed in delight as the worker came over and handed her a small stuffed bear, holding an American flag. "Take THAT, Morgan!" she playfully cheered, showing him her bear.

"Oh, it is _on, _Princess." Derek scowled.

"I knew you could do it, Jayje!" Emily smiled happily as she hugged her best friend. Spencer smiled at the winner of the match, congratulating her.

"NEXT!" Penelope yelled, ready for her fighter to win now. She led the team over to a more technologically advanced booth: a shooting range.

JJ smiled as she saw the booth, as it reminded her of the movie _Despicable Me_, when the three girls went to the carnival and Gru won the stuffed unicorn from the shooting game. The booth standing before her and her friends looked like the exact same one.

As the worker explained the rules to shoot as many aliens as possible with the balls in their guns, JJ was ready to beat Derek again. She soon proved to be right as the same results came in after the match, with JJ having scored more points because she had hit more targets than Derek.

"Are we being hustled here?" Hotch couldn't help but ask with suspicion as Emily, once again, didn't look surprised at all.

"Oh, you guys didn't know that JJ was number one in her archery class last summer and always beats me in our Nerf gun wars?" Emily replied with a smirk on her face.

JJ also smiled evilly. "I thought I showed you guys my old target sheets from my archery class, where there's only one hole in each one, because my second arrow would make a clean shot _through my first one_." She replied with pride in her voice.

Derek gaped at her. "But you—how did—WHAT?!" he looked like he had missed the million dollar question.

"Is this true?!" Penelope asked in awe.

Emily and JJ both nodded, while Spencer admitted: "JJ showed them to me a while ago, she's not lying."

Derek groaned in frustration and Hotch looked devastated because he knew he would lose the bet.

"Oh, cheer up, you two. I won't show any pictures of you guys with your punishment appearances tomorrow." Emily replied with a villainous laugh. JJ high-fived her, giggling.

And with that, the competition continued, for the rest of the night. Derek had somehow managed to win a couple of times, but ultimately, he was no match for JJ. He mentally facepalmed himself for daring to challenge her. How could he have been so stupid?

"Alright, I have the final results!" Penelope declared, holding her score calculations on her homemade pink stationary. "The winner is JJ!"

Emily, JJ, and Spencer all cheered happily while Hotch's face paled and Derek looked down at his feet in shame.

"What's the punishment, Pen?" JJ asked excitedly.

Penelope smiled warmly at her friend. "Hotch and Derek will get to parade around town tomorrow in some of my brightest dresses!" she cheered. "Oh, and I will, too, but it isn't much of a punishment for me."

Hotch moaned and Derek asked, "Baby Girl, whose side are you even on?!"

"Oh, my sweet, I knew all along that my dove would win." Penelope cooed, patting JJ on the head.

Derek threw his hands up in frustration and Hotch sighed. Emily, Spencer, and JJ all giggled, as this was just pure entertainment for them.

For once, Emily couldn't wait for the following day. She had to remember to bring her camera, so she could snap pictures of the losers in their amazing outfits. It was going to be a sight she'd never forget, for sure.


	8. Team Building Arc, Chapter 7

**When the Eagles Cry**

Team Building Arc, Chapter 7.

It was the night after the town's infamous 4th of July Festival. JJ and Emily had been tired all day from playing with all their friends, and it was almost time for them to go to bed.

Hotch and Derek had held up their end of the bet and dressed in brightly colored outfits hand-picked by Penelope. Though she was also on the losing side, it wasn't much of a punishment for her, as she had always dressed brightly and adored cute things. The rest of the team managed to get great pictures of the two men as they paraded around the town all day, despite initially saying they would take only one lap around.

Emily glanced up at the clock nonchalantly as JJ went on and on about the soccer team's upcoming tournament the next weekend. Emily would give her opinions and smiles at appropriate times, but was more focused on her little to no time left until the strike. It was 10:00 PM.

JJ yawned. Emily laughed, but was cut off by her own yawn, causing JJ to laugh in return. "Alright, since we're both still exhausted from last night, how about we just skip the pillow fight tonight?" Emily yawned again.

"Fine, Em." JJ grumbled playfully as she shut off the lights and got into bed. Emily also did the latter and stared up at the ceiling, her heart in her throat and anxiety gnawing at her mind. _We failed again. I am so screwed. Crap. _She thought painfully, mentally facepalming herself, and getting ready for sleepless nights as she got up after a few minutes of hearing JJ's evened-out breathing.

She quickly checked on JJ, and then closed the window, and tied a little bell to it. She quietly ran downstairs and did the same with the other windows. She grabbed a table and pulled it in front of the front door, leaving a vase half-balancing off the edge. She then went to the safe which kept all her old private information and her mom's old handgun. Her mom seldom used it during her life, but had taught Emily how to operate it. Emily was confident in her ability to use it, as her mom had even let her practice with it, under close supervision. Now when she looked back on it, the thought of a child doing what she did was absurd. However, Elizabeth Prentiss would more often than not be off in her own world inside their home and not be paying attention, so if anything did ever happen, Emily had to be the one to take care of it. And a gun seemed to be the best solution for that at the time.

She loaded it and took the safety off, setting up a chair in between the entrance to upstairs and the front door. She shut all the lights off, and sat down, gun in hands and ready to be pulled up to fire at the door or anyone who enters through it.

"Ashley, you know the drill." Emily said softly into the darkness. "Watch JJ. If she wakes up, tell me, so I can know to clean up around our house." She then looked over at the digital clock sitting in the next room over, and read the time. It was about 10:30 PM now. JJ usually got up between 9 and 10 in the morning, so Emily would take everything down probably around 8.

"Okay, Emily. If you need anything, just call." Ashley said quietly, as she faded away and into the master bedroom.

Emily sighed. It was definitely going to be a long night.

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_The next night. _

Emily had actually lived through the night. She was happy and sad at the same time—happy, because she and JJ just hung out with the team again for the entire day, but sad, because that only meant her death was still quickly approaching.

JJ hadn't noticed anything, either. Since she was exhausted the previous night, she slept in until 10 the next morning, giving Emily plenty of time to clean up and have some time to actually go to sleep in her own bed before JJ got up.

However, Emily wasn't expecting the same results this night. Whoever the culprit was, they were bound to strike soon, and Emily wanted to be ready for them.

After she and JJ had gotten into their beds, Emily waited a while. She hadn't heard JJ's breaths even out yet, which would only make sneaking out of the room harder if she was awake. So Emily had to wait.

After what seemed to be an hour, it finally sounded like JJ was sound asleep. Emily quietly put the bell up on their window and exited the room. She checked the time: midnight. She didn't have long to do this.

Setting up everything and getting ready for an assault again, Emily sat down in her all-too usual spot. Ashley assumed her position by JJ's side upstairs.

Emily spent her free time thinking what could happen if she managed to somehow live through this world. Was it even possible? She doubted it. She had given up on hope long ago.

She then thought about the same question for what seemed to be the millionth time—who was her killer? She went over what she knew so far in her head.

She was sure it was a man. It just had to be. It also probably came from her past. Emily and her mom had done different things for the country in different places… Some of which resulted in negative opinions from the natives of wherever they were.

Emily also remembered she had heard an Irish accent on who she thinks is the culprit in one of the worlds. Unfortunately during her finals in each world, Ashley would have to temporarily disconnect herself from Emily to get her power charged up to transport them to the next one. Therefore, Ashley knew even less than Emily did. She sighed. She had been to Ireland a few times with her mother on business, but they had been assured upon leaving that they would be safe.

Suddenly, Emily was brought out of her thoughts as she heard something crash. She immediately got up and had the gun ready. Her breathing and heart rate quickened. God, she would probably have so many heart problems when—or if—she grew older.

"JJ's awake!" Emily soon heard Ashley's frantic voice, and, she immediately ran upstairs. She had to hide JJ away somewhere, and fast. She only caught a glance of the clock as she ran—2:30 AM. It was really late now. It was the perfect time for whoever it was to strike.

"Em, I heard a crash, what's going on?" JJ asked, all of a sudden wide awake as she noticed Emily's handgun. "Holy crap, why the hell do we own a gun!?" she exclaimed.

"Ssh, Jayje, you have to hide!" Emily whispered as she grabbed JJ's hand and led her to the hall closet.

"What do you mean by _I _have to hide? What about you?" JJ said, letting Emily push her into the closet. Emily then climbed up a ladder hidden behind all their clothes and opened a ceiling panel leading to the attic. She jumped down and led JJ to the ladder, making her climb up first. JJ got up into the attic and Emily handed her a cell phone. Then the dark haired girl climbed down the ladder and looked up at her blonde friend from the floor. "Em?" JJ asked in a much more concerned and anxious tone now.

"Sssh, JJ, it's gonna be okay." Emily tried to soothe her friend quickly. "Use the phone and call 911. They will send Rossi over." She quickly turned her head as she heard another crash. JJ looked like she was about to start crying. "Do it quietly, and I promise everything is gonna be okay, okay?" Emily called up. "You're my bestest friend in the whole world, Jayje, and I love you!" she said in an upbeat tone, and then covered the ladder in stuff again.

JJ was too shocked to speak and Emily closed the closet door. JJ quickly dialed the phone but listened as she heard a gunshot. "Emily!" she quietly called out, knowing she would be found if she screamed. After what seemed like a century, she heard, "911, what's your emergency?"

Emily had fired at the first moving shadow she'd seen. She missed. Dammit. She fired again at another, only yielding the same result. She knew she was screwed in this world.

JJ panicked at the sound of the second gunshot. "Please help me! There are bad guys in my house!" she cried into the phone. "And my best friend is out there with a gun!"

Emily then put her gun out in front of her and walked quickly and quietly down the stairs. The first thing she noticed was the front door being wide open. The men there were determined. The vase also lay in pieces on the ground. A family heirloom, though Emily could care less.

The 911 operator had heard the gunshot first after asking about the caller's situation. He panicked for a moment, but then was thankful when he heard the voice over the phone, though the girl might not have a lot of time left. "Ok, sweetheart, just stay on the line with me. What is your name and home address?" he asked softly and soothingly.

Emily proceeded into the living room, figuring there indeed had been a man who had just gone upstairs but after being shot at, came back down and were now laying in wait in the shadows for her.

"M-My name is Jennifer Jareau. And my best friend is Emily Prentiss." JJ began, but the 911 operator quickly cut her off. "I thought you sounded like Jennifer! It's okay, Jennifer, I know where you and Emily live and I have police being sent out there now." He reassured her. However, JJ was too focused on what Emily was doing to even acknowledge the fact that the man on the other line recognized her and knew where she and Emily lived.

Emily thought she saw another shadow move and quickly fired at it, but as she saw she missed, she felt herself be injected by something in her arm. She cried out in pain as she fell to the ground, losing consciousness. She was so screwed. She was so in over her head.

JJ cried out again as she heard the gunshot. From the phone, she heard the operator offering soothing words and saying the police would be there any second, but JJ wasn't calming down one bit.

"Hello, Lauren." Emily heard in the same Irish accent she had been thinking of before. But she wasn't sure if she heard the last part right or not—Lauren? Before she could think of it much more, she felt herself being consumed by darkness.


	9. Team Building Arc, Chapter 8

**When the Eagles Cry **

Team Building Arc, Chapter 8.

JJ was curled up in a ball on the couch in her and Emily's living room. When the cops arrived, she came out from her hiding place and ran around the house, calling out for her friend desperately, only to receive no reply. After being picked up and hugged tightly by Rossi, JJ just shut down. She was devastated.

The police examined their entire house and figured out that men had indeed broken in and taken Emily. They also found the three bullets, meaning that Emily had at least not died, if she were already dead, from a gunshot wound, nor had any of the men. They also figured about three men had broken in from different points all over the house.

Rossi frowned as he observed JJ on the couch. She was in a bad mental state, for sure. The traumatization she had suffered from her parents and older sister was already a disturbing amount, so the last thing she had ever needed was for Emily to be hurt.

He walked up to her and crouched down next to her. "Hey, Jayje." He began softly. "Why don't we call the rest of your friends over? They can help us look?" He knew how close their group was, so it was only natural they should all be notified immediately of Emily's disappearance.

JJ silently nodded, barely even acknowledging Rossi was standing there. Rossi gently patted her knee and went off to make some important phone calls.

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About an hour later the entire team, save for the missing Emily Prentiss, was gathered in the Prentiss home living room. Rossi had sent the rest of the officers out to try and find Emily.

JJ had still seldom spoken since Emily's disappearance. Each team member tried to get her to talk, but she was quiet and off in her own world.

Spencer sighed, as his attempts to get her to speak failed. He looked back at the rest of the group, except for Penelope, who was protectively sitting next to JJ and stroking her hand with her thumb.

Hotch then decided to speak up. "Rossi, what time did you all get the call from JJ?" he began.

"It was about 2:35 AM." Rossi replied, looking at the small blonde girl worriedly. "Our people got here about 2:45 AM, only to find JJ wandering around the house alone yelling Emily's name. There were no signs of anyone else in the house with her at the time."

"Hey, JJ." Spencer turned back to his friend, trying again. "Did you hide somewhere?"

"Upstairs hall closet." JJ said, her voice barely audible. After she said that, Derek and Hotch went upstairs to scope it out.

Derek stepped foot in the closet and examined the contents. He poked around a bit and found the ladder behind all the clutter and clothes. "Hey, Hotch, I found something." He called.

Hotch was by his side in an instant, looking up at the ladder as well. "It probably leads to the attic." He replied. Derek nodded and began climbing it. Upon reaching the top, he scoped out the empty room. "JJ easily could have hid in here undetected by the unsubs."

"Unsubs?" Hotch's voice reached Derek's ears in a questioning tone.

"Oh, yeah, unknown subjects. My dad used to refer to the dudes who committed the crimes as unsubs before they found their identities." Derek explained as he climbed back down and rejoined Hotch on the floor.

"Well, these guys are definitely unknown subjects." Hotch nodded in understanding. "Who could have had a grudge against Emily and JJ?"

"Well, maybe they weren't looking for JJ." Derek suggested. Then he groaned in frustration. "We need JJ to tell us everything that happened, for us to understand who these guys are and why they were here and took Emily."

Hotch nodded in agreement. "We need to find Emily as quickly as possible…"

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Emily groaned in pain. Her eyes fluttered open slowly and she tried to take in her surroundings. She first noticed she was gagged, so she couldn't speak, and her hands and feet were restrained, of course. After a few more moments, she figured out she was in a moving vehicle.

She glanced around for Ashley, but as she couldn't see the small deity, she assumed the blonde was powering up for their journey to the next world. She sighed internally. This meant another failure, another bad ending.

The car stopped and she quickly closed her eyes to pretend like she was still unconscious. The man who carried her out seemed to buy it, as she found herself laying on the cold ground next. After hearing him walk away, she slowly opened her eyes again, to take in her surroundings.

It appeared she was in some abandoned warehouse. Where it even was, she had no idea. Before she could think about it anymore, she felt the presence of someone else enter the room. She quickly shut her eyes again, trying to pretend, but the man had already seen her awake.

"Nice try, Lauren, but I know you're awake." The Irish man spoke slowly, crouching down next to her and taking in her appearance. However, Emily didn't open her eyes. "Stop trying to fool me!" he then growled, and kicked her in the side. Emily grunted in pain as her body rolled away from the man.

_Just hurry up and get on with the drugs_. Emily complained internally. That was the normal routine—they drugged her, and then killed her. Along the way, Ashley had been able to once spot Emily with a wooden stake sticking out of her stomach, figuring out her exact cause of death. Emily only shivered in uneasiness in reply, thanking God she was drugged and never felt the pain.

But that's what confused Emily about this world, as she saw the man approach her. He hid his face behind a mask, however, so she wasn't able to tell who it was. She still had no idea. Normally, he would be approaching her with the syringe of the drug that would knock her out, but now he approached her empty handed.

She only sat, shocked, as she felt the man untie the gag from her mouth. She coughed as the fresh air hit her lungs through her mouth. Her clear brown eyes met the masked man's face as she opened her mouth to speak.

"Who are you?" Her voice was scratchy, and as hard as she tried to stop it from shaking, it still shook with the same nervousness making her heart beat ten times faster than normal.

"It's great to see you, too Lauren." The man only replied. Before Emily could react to what he had called her, he aggressively grabbed her by her hair and pulled her into a different room. Emily clenched her teeth and desperately tried to not cry out in pain, but was failing. The change in routine in this world was legitimately freaking her out, and she just wanted the suffering to be over.

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The team continued to pace around the room in thought. It was now almost 5 AM, and time was running out.

"JJ, why don't we do a mental exercise?" Spencer suggested, as he remembered he learned some profiling tips from Jason Gideon, a neighbor of his and retired from the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit just outside of town. Including tips, Gideon had also taught the boy some mental exercises to do with victims and witnesses to help them remember certain details about crimes.

JJ only looked over at Spencer. "Spence, I don't remember anything…" she spoke earnestly. She indeed was having trouble recalling what had happened in the night, she was so traumatized.

"Just face me and close your eyes." Spencer pleaded. After a moment of hesitation, JJ complied, closing her eyes. "Now, Jayje… Take a deep breath and just concentrate on the sound of my voice." Spencer spoke softly as JJ obeyed him.

"Now, JJ, what did you and Emily do last night?"

"We ate dinner and cleaned up as usual. Then we watched TV for a few hours before heading to bed."

"What do you remember thinking and sensing when you two went to bed?"

"I was still nervous about Emily's safety. So I decided I wouldn't fall asleep until I heard her sleeping peacefully… But I think I fell asleep before she did."

"How do you know?"

"I never heard her breathing even out. Emily also usually snores, so I remember thinking it was weird I hadn't heard her snoring yet."

"Okay, Jayje, you're doing great. What do you remember about you waking up later on?"

JJ scrunched her face up in concentration, trying to remember everything. "I heard… I heard a crash."

"What kind of crash?"

JJ had reached enough concentration that she found herself in her bed, sitting up immediately after hearing the crash and waking up. The picture was painted perfectly in her mind, like some kind of interactive game. She then glanced around her dark room. "It sounded like a window." She finally answered Spencer, jumping out of bed. She walked around the room, examining every corner of it.

"Which window was it?" She heard Spencer's voice through her "vision." "It sounded like the one from Emily's old room." JJ replied. "But I never got to check, because Emily ran up the stairs and into our room and… She was holding a gun." JJ gasped, as she saw her friend again, with the gun in her hands in her mind.

"Since the stairs are in the middle of the hallway with JJ and Emily's room on one end and Emily's old room on the opposite, the man had plenty of time to go downstairs while Emily was with JJ." JJ heard Hotch think aloud. She didn't let it distract her, however, as she waited for the next question.

"What did Emily say?"

JJ focused on her friend standing in front of her in her mind. "I first asked her what was going on. Then I panicked and asked why the heck we owned a gun and since when." Then, her mental image of Emily began to speak. "Then… Em shushed me and told me I had to hide. I thought it was weird that she told me I had to hide and didn't say 'we,' so I asked why as I followed her into the hall closet and she pulled the clothes out of the way to get to the ladder leading up to the attic. She never replied and she had me climb the ladder and take our cell phone to call 911 and hide in the attic. I called out for her to hide with me, but she just promised everything would be okay…." Then, JJ remembered Emily's final words and started tearing up. As she did so, the mental reconstruction of the event started crumbling and so did Emily's smiling face in front of her. "No, Em, don't leave me!" JJ cried out and when she opened her eyes, she found herself back in the room with her friends.

"JJ, it's okay, you're okay." Spencer was holding onto her hand in front of her. "It was just in your mind from the exercise… But what happened next?"

JJ now remembered everything and tried to tell the description of the night's final events without crying, but ultimately failed. "Emily then smiled and told me to remember I'm her best friend and she covered up the ladder again and closed the closet door. I tried to call out for her quietly, because I knew if I screamed the men would find me. I called 911 and explained everything, but while I did so I heard the three gunshots… And then after hearing people leave the house I climbed down and ran around our house, calling out for Emily, but she wasn't there…" JJ was practically sobbing now, the events taking their emotional toll on the small girl.

Spencer pulled the blonde in for a tight hug and let her cry on his shoulder. "You did a good job, JJ, you were great." He spoke softly. The rest of the team was trying to figure out the motive of the attack.

"So, Emily knows how to operate a gun." Derek began in awe. "…Damn."

Hotch continued the group-brainstorming as if Derek had said nothing. "So, it sounds almost like Emily knew—" he then stopped midsentence, as he realized what this meant, and JJ's head shot up immediately.

"I was right! It wasn't just a dream!" JJ was pretty much yelling. "Em's life _has been _in danger this entire time, and she has been trying to hide it from us!"

"Why would she do that?" Penelope choked out, also crying.

"To protect us." Rossi replied, looking at all the kids in the room. "You guys are her best friends in the entire world, she probably felt like if she told you and got you involved, she would be putting your lives at risk as well."

All of them were tearing up now, aside from JJ and Penelope's already tear-streaked faces. Derek punched a wall. "Dammit! Why did we just blow off her warnings and weird behavior like that? She needed us more than ever!" he yelled.

Hotch ordered everyone to get up. "We need to join the search. These men probably took her for a reason, though Emily doesn't understand what it is yet, as JJ said she confessed last week. Dave, do you have any—"

"An abandoned warehouse, just outside of town." Rossi said, rubbing his face. "That has to be where they took her so we wouldn't find her. All my men are looking around the town, so this place has got to be our next best bet."

Everyone in the room nodded, now determined to find their friend. They all got up and joined Rossi in his SUV outside. Normally, he knew taking these kids to the location of a potential killer was against protocol and a safety hazard, but, damn it, he made the rules in this town, so he could answer to himself later.


	10. Team Building Arc, Conclusion

**When the Eagles Cry **

Team Building Arc, Conclusion.

Emily was now covered in bruises all over her body, and she looked back up to the face of her abuser. God, she just wanted it to end. She hadn't had to endure this much pain before. She considered the fact that maybe as Ashley's power to take them to new worlds is dying, the suffering Emily has to endure in each one is increasing. It was a pretty convincing argument in Emily's opinion.

She was barely conscious now as she moaned in pain. The man just laughed and grabbed some wooden stake he had found on the ground and struck her with it. The pain made her body feel like she was on fire, and she was sure she had a few broken ribs by now.

Her eyes opened in slits and she could feel sunlight starting to shine in the room through the small windows in the building.

"Ah, Lauren, it will all be over soon." The man laughed as he saw the sunlight filter into the room. It was just after 6 AM, so he wasn't surprised.

He swung up to strike again and watched as Emily flinched under him. However, he was interrupted mid-swing as he heard what sounded like a car outside. He waited a few more moments and heard a gunshot. Emily opened her eyes once again, confused as to what had happened to his strike. She then heard the second gunshot, and doing the math in her head, figured her attacker was now without his two guards. And someone was coming to rescue her, thank God.

"Dammit, who's there?!" The man yelled in her face. Emily smirked and stared up at him with an unwavering gaze. "My friends have come to save me, you coward." She spat in his face. The man slapped her in frustration, and upon hearing approaching footsteps, discarded the wooden stake.

How he discarded the wooden stake, however, was not what Emily had expected given this world's circumstances.

He had discarded it in her abdomen.

As usual in the worlds.

She grunted and cried out in pain, tears forming in her eyes. She indeed had been right in her words before, when she told Ashley oh-so-long ago how thankful she was to be knocked out when she was stabbed.

Damn, she thought, she really was right, as darkness started to cloud her vision and her sense barely detected the attacker flee and a certain Derek Morgan run up to her, grabbing one of her hands. She had forgotten the man had untied her, only to laugh at her futile attempts to fight him off. She then heard Derek yell something like, "Penelope, call a medic!"

"Emily, we found you!" Derek gasped, looking into her eyes with tears in his own. "We found you just in time—no, stay with me, Emily, stay with me!" He pleaded, breaking Emily's heart.

"Just… Just let me go…" she barely managed to choke out. That's exactly what she always wished for in every world; she wanted her friends to move on from her and succeed in their lives.

"No, Emily, we just found you, we won't let you go again." Derek tried pleading again. Emily just opened and closed her eyes and slightly shook her head from side to side. She was barely aware when a certain blonde came up on her other side, grabbing her other hand.

"Em, I'm here, I'm so sorry I let them take you…" JJ cried. Emily desperately wanted to lift her hand to her friend's face and wipe her tears away, but she had already pretty much lost control of her limbs. Her death was quickly approaching, for sure.

"My fault… Let me go… Now…" Emily's voice trailed off as she started drifting off into unconsciousness.

"EMILY!" JJ screamed, sobbing.

"Emily, if you can hear me, squeeze my hand." Derek begged. "Y-Yeah, just like that… WHERE IS THE MEDIC?!" He yelled back to the others as they were entering the room.

"They're almost here, just hang tight, Emily." Rossi pleaded as he walked up to the dying girl. Deep down, however, he was sure she wasn't going to make it.

Emily managed to open her eyes one last time and see all her friends looking down at her with tears in their eyes, or streaming down their faces in JJ and Penelope's cases. Even Ashley was there, sitting next to JJ, not meeting Emily's eyes. She was convinced she had failed Elle once again in keeping Emily safe.

The raven-haired girl then let herself drift off, knowing the Emily Prentiss in this world had been in great hands. Her best friends had been as great as ever, and she only hoped the next world would provide the same comfort. Knowing her friends, however, she was sure of it. The last thing Emily remembered hearing was to hang on one more second, the ambulance was here, and she'd make it, right before finally letting go of her 12 year old body and letting Ashley guide her spirit away from the group.

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"Ashley… That was probably the closest we've ever gotten." Emily spoke to her spiritual guardian as they stood in the unnamed land in between different worlds.

"Yes… But I don't think I can truly have hope and faith again." Ashley sighed in reply. "We've been let down too many times. If I get my hopes up again, I'll just find myself regretful again. And I don't want to be."

Emily only blinked in reply, knowing there was some truth to Ashley's words. The two of them used to be confident that each new world could mean an end to their long journey. But to this day, the pair had only been disappointed each time, and finally just gave up hoping altogether.

"I am in the same boat." Emily finally spoke. "My friends were lucky that my killer did not stay with me in my final moments, or they would have all been killed as well."

Ashley nodded in reply.

A distant light soon caught Emily's eye.

"There is the next world, the next chance. Who knows if we will be surprised, or see something be repeated again." Emily spoke as she walked towards it with Ashley right behind her.

"If we've learned anything… It's probably going to end up being the latter." Ashley said quietly, and Emily didn't reply. Ashley used to be the more positive of the duo when it came to their struggle, but that optimism had long faded as Emily got older—mentally, that is.

"We shall see." Emily finally said as she let the light consume her.


	11. Life Sacrifice, Chapter 1

**When the Eagles Cry**

Life Sacrifice, Chapter 1.

Emily grunted in pain as she fell to the ground. She scrunched her face up at the headache that was quickly approaching, and opened her eyes to the bright summer sun. She looked around and saw a ledge a few feet above her, where all her friends were looking down at her.

"Emily! Are you okay?" JJ called from the top.

Emily slowly sat up, rubbing the back of her head. She glanced back up at her friends, seeing the concerned look on their faces. "Y-Yeah, I'm okay…" she called back up, but her friends could detect the hesitation and pain in her voice.

"Don't move, we're coming down to you." Hotch called and she watched as her friends all retreated from the edge, looking for the path down.

Emily took this moment to gather herself. "Ashley."

Instantly at the sound of her name, Ashley's transparent form appeared next to Emily's sitting form. "Welcome to the next world, Emily." She greeted.

"Some welcome." Emily groaned as her head was pounding from her fall. "Date, please."

"Umm… June 27th." Ashley replied softly, however, her tone did not help ease Emily's nerves one bit.

"June 27th! What the hell?! Only a little over a week?!" Emily replied in a harsh tone. "Ashley, how much power do you even have _left_?!"

"Not much." Ashley replied with a sigh.

"That's an understatement." Emily hissed. Ashley faded away after her comment, as her friends were approaching. She quickly replaced the pissed look on her face with one of concern.

"I was starting to wonder if you guys got eaten by the trees or something!" Emily laughed as they walked up to her. JJ helped her stand up.

Derek laughed. "As if, I would've kicked all their leafy as—"

"_Language!_" Penelope scolded as she hit Derek's arm, cutting him off.

"Ow, Mama, calm down!"

"Then stop being a bad influence! I've already had to chase JJ around school with a bar of soap!"

The rest of the group laughed at the interaction between the best friends. It was like watching a TV show sometimes.

"Oh, and for the record, Pen wasn't kidding." JJ said, wide-eyed, as she remembered the terrifying look on Penelope's face while she scolded her and chased her around for twenty minutes.

"Well, I agree with Penelope, but consuming soap is quite dangerous. Did you know every year, the number of soap related deaths is—"

"Stop. I already have a headache, I don't need you to increase it." Emily spoke sternly, putting her hand out in front of Spencer before he could start boring them with statistics.

"We should probably get you home, then, Emily." Hotch chuckled. The team all looked over at the sun that was now heading westward and down into the horizon. "We _do_ have school tomorrow, after all."

JJ groaned. "I can't believe we have to sit through almost a week more of this hel—"

"Jennifer Jareau, you finish that sentence and I'll make sure you are gonna have soap in your mouth all day tomorrow." Penelope threatened.

JJ quickly covered her mouth and hid behind Spencer. "Hey! Don't use me as a shield!"

Emily laughed as she tried to walk forward with her friends, but found herself a bit dizzy. She managed to not fall over, but Hotch had noticed so he walked over to her and bent down in front of her, his back facing her.

"Piggyback ride?" he offered.

"Hotch—" Emily began.

"We don't have the rest of the night to walk home at your speed, Emily."

Emily decided not to argue with that and take him up on his offer, jumping on his back with a look of glee on her face. Hotch really was like the protector and older brother of the group, but managed to be just as playful and loving despite his usual serious demeanor.

The team chatted on and walked home together, stopping first at JJ and Emily's house because of her injury. As they all said goodbye, Emily drank a glass of water while taking a well-needed aspirin.

"Em, are you sure you okay? Rossi is just a phone call and a walk away." JJ doted over her friend.

"I'm fine, Jayje. I just could go for some food right now." Emily replied and as if on cue, her stomach growled loudly. "You see what I mean?"

"You need to tell Sergio to calm down." JJ teased as she headed into the kitchen to see what kind of food they had.

"Who the hell is Sergio?" Emily questioned her friend.

"Your stomach, duh." JJ replied, poking her head out of the kitchen to talk to her friend. "Your stomach is always so lively, it's like a separate person, so it needed a name."

"Sergio, though? _Really_, Jayje?"

"Would you rather have me call him 'Fabio'?!"

"Point taken."

"That's what I thought."

JJ continued to go through all their food, but she wasn't in the mood for any of it. "Em, all our stuff is boring. Wanna go leech a meal off of Rossi?"

"Oooh, you know I'm always up for that." Emily replied, grabbing her sandals.

The two friends then walked out of their house and across the street to Rossi's. They planned out their way of attack, though both of the them knew Rossi would cook for them if they asked.

As Rossi answered the door after their knocking, he looked down at the two girls. Both of them opened their mouths to speak, but Rossi put a hand up. "Yes, I will make you food. Just come in." he said, opening the door a little wider to let them in. As they walked in, JJ looked up at the police officer.

"How did you know we were coming for food?"

Rossi chuckled. "Because that's the only reason you two ever bother to walk over. Hell, when you guys are too lazy, that's the only reason you'll even _call_ me, just to get me to bring you food as if I'm a to-go restaurant!"

"If it helps, you're a good to-go restaurant with really good food." Emily replied.

"Yeah, your food manages to calm Sergio down!" JJ giggled.

"Who—"

"My stomach."

"I named Emily's stomach!"

"The hell?"

The rest of the night continued much like this, with the two girls entertaining Rossi to no end. He loved spending his evenings with "his girls." He treated them just like his own children.

After they finished dinner, the pair thanked Rossi for the meal and headed back into their own home. They cleaned up the house a bit and started getting ready for bed.

As usual, Emily walked into the bedroom and received a pillow to the face. She really wasn't surprised. She lunged forward and tackled her best friend playfully and they wrestled and launched pillows at each other while giggling like maniacs. Eventually, the "showdown" ended as JJ's mouth opened wide in a yawn, much like in the last world, Emily reflected.

"It's someone's bed time, isn't it Jayje?" Emily cooed, sitting up.

"Shut up, Em…" JJ yawned. "I'm a growing girl."

"Or you're a midget."

"Emily Prentiss, don't make me kick you with my star soccer player feet."

"I'm going, I'm going!"

"That's what I thought."

And with that, the room was fully cleaned up with each and every pillow back in its original place, as well as each girl in her bed.

"Goodnight, Em." JJ called out into the darkness sleepily.

Emily smiled. "Goodnight, JJ."

After hearing JJ's breathing even out, Emily got up and went downstairs.

"Ashley, what's everyone's mental state in this world? I didn't get a lot of time to judge today, but everyone seemed normal." She said to the transparent blonde girl next to her.

"As far as I know, almost everyone is fine." Ashley began.

"_Almost _everyone? Ashley, what the hell?"

Ashley sighed. "Derek is off in this world."

"He seemed normal to me today."

"I sensed it after you and JJ came home. He just… I think we might be in danger of a repeat."

Emily looked generally horrified. "Oh, God, is it...?"

Ashley silently nodded.

"Crap."


	12. Life Sacrifice, Chapter 2

**_Author's Note: Just thought I'd give a warning here... There is mention of Derek's past with Buford in here! And we all know that includes nasty abuse. I'm never going to write anything super graphic because writing stuff like that usually freaks _me _out than people who read it. xD" So this story should never get anything past the T rating. :O Okie dokie lokie, read on! _**

**When the Eagles Cry**

Life Sacrifice, Chapter 2.

Emily had been watching Derek very, _very_ closely over the past 48 hours during every team gathering in and out of school. She noticed some things, like him spacing out, or not always replying to Penelope with a borderline sexual comment every 5 seconds, and it seemed like the team was starting to sense something was wrong as well.

Then on Sunday, Emily and JJ opened the door to a hysterical Penelope. Before Emily could even say anything, JJ was already leading their friend to the couch and asked Emily to get water and tissues. Emily complied and ran off into the kitchen grabbing the supplies and running back into the room, setting them down on the table in front of the couch while JJ tried to calm her other best friend down.

"Breathe, Pen, breathe." JJ said softly and slowly. "And then you can tell us what happened, okay?"

Penelope evened her breathing as she met JJ's calm blue eyes and she managed to speak. "T-Thanks for letting me in, guys… Something terrible has happened."

"PG… Where's Derek?" Emily couldn't help but ask. JJ shot her a look but Penelope answered Emily all the same.

"That's just it." Penelope began. "L-Last night I asked him what was wrong, since, you know, he was acting all weird and awkward yesterday. He snapped at me and told me it was none of my business. I told him I knew something was wrong and that he could confide in me, but he just went on about how he's not obligated to and all this mean stuff… Then he stormed off to his room and I returned to mine. The next morning, I woke up to Sarah coming in my room and asking if I knew where he was. I said I had no idea. After getting up, I went in his room and found a note in there, apologizing for how he acted last night and how he was off to right his wrongs and become a better man… We also saw one of his duffle bags and a bunch of his clothes were gone… I immediately left the house and promised his mom and sisters I'd find him and bring him back home... But I have a bad feeling about this..." She resumed crying after her voice trailed off, and JJ gave her a hug, while Emily stood there with a thoughtful look on his face.

"I think I know where he went." Emily said to the two blondes after a moment of thinking.

Penelope sighed. "I do, too, which is kinda what made me freak out and go into hysterics like I was five minutes ago."

JJ looked back and forth between the two older girls. "What? Where did he go? Tell me!" she begged them.

"Carl Buford's house." Emily replied with a disgusted look on her face.

Penelope's frown deepened. "Wanting to right his wrongs… Carl gave Derek that feeling after his dad died." She said with pure hatred in her voice.

JJ look generally horrified. "You mean… That guy who used to hurt him? I thought Derek stopped visiting him!"

"He did, but look where we are now." Penelope sighed.

"What the hell does Derek think he's doing?" Emily murmured to herself as she felt a headache coming on.

JJ jumped up, all the used tissues previously covering her body scattering everywhere all over the floor. "We have to go tell Hotch and Spence!" she practically yelled. "And Rossi!"

"Let's get Hotch and Spencer first." Emily suggested. The only people who knew about Derek's struggles were the team. Not even his own mother and sisters knew the full truth of the abuse, let alone their friendly neighbor Rossi. From Emily's past experiences, the last time they got Rossi heavily involved, well, Buford was practically signing off the souls of their whole group to death itself. For some reason, Emily found herself much more determined to fight death in this world.

Penelope nodded in agreement. "We have to try to lay low… Derek is ashamed of his past with Buford, I don't understand why he would go back and try to relive it now."

"Then let's go! We have to save him!" JJ yelled, grabbing both Penelope and Emily's hands barely giving Emily time to grab her shoes on their way out the door.

They made it to Spencer's house in record time, and explained the situation to him. After he made sure any potential dangers to his mentally ill mother were secure, he quickly followed them to Hotch's house. They all but pounded on the door and JJ was practically trying to explain the situation via yelling through the door before Hotch answered it, balancing little Shaun on his hip. After hearing what was happening, Hotch quickly deposited his toddler-aged brother back inside with his mother and they made their way across town to the Christian church in record time. Buford's center was next door to the church, as the two were affiliated.

The team tried desperately to catch their breath as they ran inside. They got awkward stares by some of the other town residents, but none of the group cared. Their main priority right now was Derek Morgan, their best friend and brother.

"Excuse me," Hotch began politely, going up to the worker near the front. "Is Carl Buford here?"

The worker shook his head in reply. "Sorry man, he just went home with one of the boys about half an hour ago. Said they were gonna do some special one-on-one football training for a while."

Everyone on the team went pale in their faces immediately. While Derek's family knew Carl was indeed abusive, physically, Derek had only told his best friends about the molestation going on two years prior to the current day. JJ didn't really understand as she was only nine at the time, but Rosaline, who had also been involved, explained it in a way for her to understand as easily as possible.

"Could you tell us his address by any chance?" Emily asked, stepping forward. She figured she'd be the strongest out of the team, as she was the one who had seen this happen before.

The worker replied, "Sure thing" and wrote it down on a piece of paper for them. With the help of Penelope's smart phone's GPS, they managed to find it. While Derek had shared his problems with the team, they had never actually confronted Carl in person or seen his house. It was practically isolated in the woods, giving JJ some unease, but it was still light outside, so she was mostly fine and more determined to find her friend. Spencer knew about JJ's fears, though, so he held her hand for most of the way up.

What did scare them was how isolated it was, making it easy for the abusive man to hurt people and get away with it like he had.

Eventually they made their way up to the porch, and Hotch was the one who knocked on the door. Spencer and JJ were still holding hands, and they weren't about to let go of each other now. Emily stood next to Penelope, a little behind Hotch.

Luckily, just the person they were looking for answered the door, and, to their relief, was fully clothed. They all let out sighs of relief upon seeing him.

"…Hotch?" Derek's gaze had pure confusion in it as he saw his best friend and opened the door wider to see all of his best friends standing there. "Guys?"

"Thank _God_, Derek, I've been so worried." Penelope immediately said, practically jumping in front of Hotch to meet Derek's eyes. "I've been looking for you all morning! Your sisters and mom are also worried sick."

"Well, tell them that I'm off doing good deeds and becoming a man." Derek replied, with a serious look on his face—something he _never _did when talking to his Baby Girl.

"Derek, we are here to save you!" JJ spoke up, making her way to the front of the crowd with Spencer. "We are here to save you from—"

Emily and Derek both covered JJ's mouth with their hands at the same moment, as they heard heavy footsteps coming closer—Emily, because she knew what happened to everyone when Carl found out Derek had all confided in them in previous worlds, and Derek, because he just knew Carl would flip and probably hurt his friends if he found out they knew.

"Derek, who is at the door?" A man's voice echoed through the house and out the door, making the team flinch and shudder at the tone of it.

"They're just my friends from school, Carl. We are working on a group project together." Derek quickly lied, removing his hand from JJ's mouth. Emily shot the blonde girl a warning glance that screamed "Don't talk" before removing her hand as well.

"A group project, is that so?" Carl asked in reply, coming to the door and letting the team all see him full view. JJ had to try not to make a face in disgust while the rest of the team tried to look as neutral as possible. Noticing Derek flinch when Carl put his hand on his shoulder, Hotch decided to take over the conversation.

"Yes, Mr. Buford." Hotch began. "We just needed Derek's input on the layout of all our printed out information on the tri-fold board. Since it is a group project and Derek is in our group." He quickly added at the end, a bit of irritation in his voice.

"Well, Derek here is actually sick, so I think it's best if you kids head on home and do it how you want to. He might not be coming to school tomorrow, so you'll have to present it without him, anyway." Carl replied.

Emily bit her lip, deep in thought. She had witnessed this entire conversation before, and knew it ended with them retreating, Derek staying, and their later deaths. In that moment, however, she decided she was not going to accept it. "Emily, be careful!" She heard Ashley warn her. Ashley could feel what Emily felt and hear Emily's thoughts, so if there was ever anything Ashley saw as dangerous going on in the dark haired girl's brain, she would try to warn her before she could do it.

"Actually, Mr. Buford, I was wondering." Emily said, stepping forward, and using "I" to single herself out and give him the impression that what was coming next was about her and her alone. "I've heard you are a great man and have changed many people who have suffered greatly."

Derek looked horrified as he wondered where on earth Emily was going with this, and nearly fainted along with the rest of the team as he heard her continue.

"I lost my mom a few years ago and now I live all alone… It's really lonely but I also want to go out and do great things and I know I'm not a boy but…" Emily decided to play shy and nervous, seeing if that would help Carl fall for her trap. "I was wondering… Is there room for me under your wing?"


	13. Life Sacrifice, Chapter 3

_**Author's Note: OKAY PLEASE DON'T KILL ME FOR NOT UPDATING AS REGULARLY THESE PAST FEW DAYS... D: January 2nd I was returning home from my grandparents' house, and then on Friday my other grandma surprised me and I ended up spending the past two nights at her house and I got home this afternoon... So I've been away from my laptop and documents. :O I go back to school on Tuesday but hopefully it doesn't affect my pace too much... Probably not gonna be able to update daily like I kinda was for a while but I should have at least one update a week. I have a lot of things and arcs planned for this story, which will end up spanning out into 3 separate stories with different arcs. So hopefully all will be going well and I'll go through with it XD **_

_**Not sure how I feel about the direction I'm taking this arc right now... It'll only last for 1-2 more chapters, and then we'll get some more Emily and team stuff before the end of the arc. **_

_**Shoutouts to Farofa and Curry36645 for their kind words! I can be really shy and sensitive when it comes to critiques and stuff, so your comments were epic! You guys are both really encouraging, thankies! :3**_

_**I don't think there's anything too bad here with the Buford stuff. Nothing really happens, just one part faintly suggests Emily might be in danger with him... If that made sense? I don't know, but I think this chapter shouldn't be too hard on anyone. **_

_**Okay, with all that said, now onto the story! **_

**When the Eagles Cry**

Life Sacrifice, Chapter 3.

Penelope gasped silently.

Hotch looked stunned.

JJ wanted to throw up.

Spencer looked terrified.

Derek felt like he was about to faint.

Ashley called out for Emily desperately.

Emily kept her gaze steadfast and clear as she looked up at the African American man. But she also tried to look shy and genuinely interested in being "reformed" or whatever the hell Carl considered his "special talent" with boys.

"Well, this is interesting…" Carl finally replied, looking at Emily thoughtfully. "I've never had a girl approach me like this before."

Emily offered a shy smile. "Just last week, I got in a fight with some other people in my class… Mrs. Blake said I should be ashamed of myself… I want to be better, I do!"

"I suppose there is room for one more in my humble abode." Carl said with a laugh. "I don't believe I caught your name."

"My name is," Emily thought for a split second, because she considered the chances of her surname being known by most of the townspeople. Finally, she settled on the name she hadn't used since her past with her mother off in Europe. "Lauren Reynolds."

"Was your mother your only family member or relative?"

Emily nodded sadly. "Yeah, my dad left me when I was smaller, so my mom had to raise me all by herself, but then she died…"

Carl removed his hand from Derek and used it to lift Emily's face to face his by her chin. Emily quickly darted her eyes between Carl and Derek, hoping Derek got the message of, "I'm offering myself up to be your shovel, now start digging yourself out of this mess."

"You can stay with us, of course." Carl said with a reassuring smile. "Do you have any other clothes?"

Emily nodded. "Yes. But they're back at my house, which is all the way across town." She was practically pouting now.

"Well, I'm sure Derek can go and fetch them for you, with the help of one of these other gals, I'm sure?" Carl replied, eyeing Derek sternly. This look did not go unnoticed by the rest of the team.

"Are you sure?" Derek couldn't help but ask. He did _not_ trust Carl alone with _any_ of his best friends.

"Yes, Derek, now you go on, and I want to get to know Lauren over here." Carl replied as he roughly pulled Emily over to his side.

Emily now had the chance to give her friends any look she wanted, as she had her back to Carl. She shot them a look that said, "Get out of here, I'll be fine." JJ continued to look worriedly at her friend while squeezing Spencer's hand for comfort.

Derek finally nodded in reply. "Alright, come on guys." He said, trying to keep his voice steady. "Let's go get my new roomie some clothes."

Hotch glanced once more at Emily, just to see if she was really alright with doing this. She gave a slight nod, again undetected by Carl, and watched as each of her friends reluctantly turned their backs on her to head out. As they started walking, Carl called after Derek to remind him to be back "home"—Emily wanted to throw up at the word—by supper. Derek nodded back his reply, and Emily watched her best friends walk away, wondering if she'd ever see them again. Carl then led her inside quietly, with a strange look in his eyes for a moment. Emily couldn't help but wonder if it was lust.

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As the team reached the end of the woods trail and they were confident Carl couldn't hear them at all, JJ burst out crying. "What the hell just happened!? What's gonna happen to Emily?!"

"Jayje, it'll be okay, Emily was just being brave and trying to save Derek." Spencer explained, though he was also terrified for her safety. "Carl has only ever showed an interest in boys, so she should be safe." _I think. God, more like I hope._ He silently added. The team seemed to also be having the same internal battle about Carl and his MO.

"Dammit, I can't believe Emily did that." Derek growled. "How the hell are we gonna get her out?"

"Um, excuse me, Hot Stuff, but I think you missed the point of her doing this to break _you_ out." Penelope replied sharply, tears in her eyes.

"Penelope has a point." Hotch intervened before the infamous best friends could start arguing. "Emily did this to buy us time to get you out to see what's going on and how we're gonna end this—"

"I don't _need_ to get out, Hotch!" Derek yelled at him. "I went back to Carl by choice!"

"That's bull and you know it, Derek Morgan." JJ snapped at him between sobs. "You're either back because you have to be, or you feel like you have to be, or you're high on some kind of drug."

Derek couldn't bring himself to glare at JJ in that moment, as he realized JJ was suffering even more than him right now. Here JJ was, after her best friend sacrificed herself for him, and he sounded like he was ungrateful. By Emily putting herself in this mess, she was also making JJ suffer, and the rest of their friends were stuck, too.

Seeing Derek's revelation, Penelope walked in front of his face. "Focus on me alone, Derek, just for this second, and please answer me when I ask why you're back?" she tried to plead with him.

Derek sighed, his friends deserved an explanation more than ever now. "The other day, when I went out to the store while you and my mom and sisters were home, I ran into Carl… He said my father must be so disappointed in me, because I wasn't turning out how I should… He said I was a failure, and if I had just stayed with him a bit longer, I would have been so much more successful…" his voice trailed off as it cracked with grief.

"Derek Morgan, look at me." Penelope said, cupping her best friend's face in her hands. "You are _not _a failure. Your father is _not _disappointed in you one bit. You are a great person and Carl is a bastard. _You_ are the good and _Carl_ is the evil here. Remember what you told me when you took me in after my parents died? You said their legacy lived on in me, you said they were present in every good thing I did, you said they would always be proud of me, even when I stumble and wander off the path. And now, I am saying the same to you, Derek. Your father's legacy lives on in you, he is present in every good thing you do, he will always be proud of you, even when you stumble and wander off the path. He's watching over you and us, Derek, he's always here. You have family waiting for you at home. You have us waiting for you to come back. And Emily decided she was going to give you that chance and we _have_ to take it, Derek, that way we can save both you _and _her."

Derek now had tears streaming down his face as he pulled Penelope in for a tight hug. JJ was also crying into Spencer's shoulder. Hotch watched his friends with a frown on his face. They had gotten into real trouble this time. They had a long way to go to get back up.

"Alright guys." Hotch spoke up, getting the attention of his dear friends and team. "Let's get Emily's clothes and figure this all out."

JJ looked up from Spencer's shoulder. "We need to get Rossi." she choked out between sniffles.

"What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Derek declared, pulling away from Penelope.


	14. Life Sacrifice, Chapter 4

_**Author's Note: Wow! 3 reviews (all positive, thank you SO much! I have a REALLY hard time taking criticism on work... Like, I got a part of my term paper graded and handed back via my school's website like a month and a half ago, but I STILL haven't looked at it because I'm too nervous... Yikes!), 5 followers, and 1 favorite! GIVE YO'SELVES A PAT ON THE BACK AND EAT SOME CHOCOLATE TONIGHT, MY FRIENDS! Because I love you all! X) **_

_**Still not sure how I feel about this arc's direction... I don't like writing Buford because he's a big meanie D: and he hurts my Criminal Minds babies! ...Aiyah, I am starting to sound like Garcia XD But anyway, this is probably one of the most (if not the most) violent chapters, but compared to most of the other things on this website in our archive, it's not that graphic or violent... It's passive, perhaps? As usual, I don't know how to explain it without spoiling it XD **_

_**Buford is probably hecka OOC here but I don't care, I don't like him anyway XDDDD**_

_**I ALSO FIGURED OUT HOW TO DO THE DIVIDING LINE THINGY **_

_**Read on, fellow profiling people! :) **_

* * *

**When the Eagles Cry**

Life Sacrifice, Chapter 4.

Derek walked into the house isolated in the woods at about 4:30 PM. He had been sent off to fetch Emily's things around noon and had planned with the team; they were going to get Rossi involved and try to sort it out as quickly as possible and bring an end to Carl Buford's reign of terror over the youth of the town.

As he closed and locked the door behind him, he found Carl sitting on the couch, reading. "I'm back, Carl, where should I put Lauren's bag?" Derek spoke up, trying to control his fear of the man. He mentally patted himself on the back for not messing up Emily's name.

Carl glanced up at him. "You can put it in the room across the hall from yours; that's where our guest will be staying." He replied and returned to his reading. Derek didn't look back as he quickly walked out of the living room and down the hall, going over Carl's words. He had called Emily his and Derek's guest, which sounded weird to Derek… Normally, he would refer to people also under his guidance as something more intimate and familial.

Derek got a bad feeling as he thought more about it and quickened his pace. He burst into the room and found Emily Prentiss lying on the ground, looking like she had gone to hell and back. She was covered in bruises and some places around her face were bleeding. She barely had enough energy to look up towards Derek.

"Derek…" She coughed, her voice scratchy and barely audible.

Derek quickly closed the door behind him after making sure Carl wasn't coming to check on them. He threw the bag to the side and ran to Emily's suddenly small body. God, she looked so much smaller and more vulnerable right now than the confident and outspoken girl she usually was.

"Emily, what happened to you?!" Derek inquired quietly but with great anger in his voice.

Emily managed to look up at him with soft brown eyes. "He figured out that you told us about it two years ago... I'm sorry, Derek..." Her voice was barely audible and Derek hoped their friends were coming quickly.

"Emily… It's not your fault... I'm so sorry you had to suffer through this…" Derek spoke quietly. "I never meant for anyone else to suffer with me…"

"It's okay, Derek, I'd do it for you and the others in a heartbeat." Emily replied. "You guys mean everything to me."

Derek felt himself getting choked up and quickly grabbed the duffle bag he had packed for Emily with the girls. "You're in luck, Em, JJ and Penelope packed medical supplies in here. They figured one of us would need it." He chuckled softly.

"Well, they were definitely right." Emily wheezed as she tried to push herself up, only to collapse back on the ground with a grunt of pain.

"Allow me." Derek said in a soft voice as he picked up Emily's limp body and moved her on top of the bed. He then grabbed all the medical stuff they had packed and cleaned the blood off Emily's face gently. He then applied alcohol to the open wounds, before covering them in band-aids.

"Thank you, Derek." Emily said, already feeling better and stronger as he finished wrapping up the last one.

"My pleasure, Emily." Derek replied with a small smile. "It's the least I could do after what you did."

Emily also smiled. "I guess I wasn't really thinking back there." She admitted.

Derek chuckled. "No, you weren't." he replied, putting the stuff back in her bag. "I have some other clothes-more comfortable ones, according to JJ-here if you want to change."

"Sure." Emily said, sitting up. "Just turn away, or you might have to leave the room, 'cause it might take me a while." She sighed in reply as she wobbled a bit after getting off the bed and standing next to it.

Derek sighed, handing her some clothes. "If only I were a girl, so I could help you." He teased lightly as he turned away. Like hell was he leaving her alone.

Just as Emily finished changing, Carl burst into the room. Derek quickly stepped in front of Emily in a protective stance.

"You," he growled, pointing at Derek. "you told other people about our little secret."

Derek looked genuinely surprised. "Wh-What?" he stammered, not understanding what was happening.

"DON'T PLAY DUMB WITH ME!" Carl yelled at the top of his lungs, roughly grabbing Derek by the arm and dragging him out of the room, then locked Emily inside hers while she screamed for him to let him go as loud as she could. Derek soon stopped struggling, hoping it would help his case as he was dragged to the other side of the house.

As she heard the two men walk away, Emily burst into hysterics. "Ashley, ASHLEY! Stop him, _you have to stop him!"_ she cried out into the room as she collapsed onto her hands and knees in front of the locked door.

Ashley appeared next to her dearest friend in centuries. "Emily, I can't, I have no effect on the physical world—"

"YOU'RE A DEITY, AREN'T YOU?! I DON'T CARE IF IT MEANS CUTTING DOWN ON YOUR POWERS TRANSPORTING US TO THE NEXT WORLD, I DON'T CARE IF IT MAKES MY DEATH PERMANENT AND THIS WORLD THE LAST ONE! GO AND SAVE DEREK!" Emily screamed as she cried.

Ashley bit her lip. She thought of what she could do… But there just wasn't anything. The most effect she could have on this world was freezing time, and guessing Derek was suffering in the other end of the house, she figured time being frozen was one of the _last _things Derek would want, as he probably was not finding it pleasant.

Deep down, Emily knew there was really nothing Ashley could do. She had proven to be nothing but a powerless presence during her lives, only really using divine powers in between worlds.

"Derek…" Emily sobbed into her arms, which were holding her head up on the floor. Ashley, too, was starting to tear up, after witnessing the power of friendship the young girl shared with Derek.

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About an hour or two later, Emily sat in the living room of the Buford house, her wrist handcuffed to the arm of a chair. She looked across the room, seeing Derek in the same position. He, however, did not meet her gaze.

Carl sat on the couch in the middle of them, reading. But he also had a loaded handgun on him. This wasn't a surprise to Emily, though, as she had seen him use it on her and her friends many times before…

_No. _She thought. _I refuse to let this world end the same way_.

"Carl, how do you know I told people?" Derek spoke up after a few minutes, genuinely curious.

"I know you told this girl sitting in here, as she wouldn't have come for any other reason." Carl replied, looking up from his reading. "Same with your friends. They were able to figure out you were here because they knew exactly why you used to come here two years ago."

"Don't talk about me or our friends like you know us!" Emily snapped sharply, internally cringing in wait for him to slap her.

Carl looked over at Emily and set his book down on the table, keeping the gun in hand. He stood up and started making his way over to her, but was quickly interrupted as the phone rang loudly. Derek and Emily both jumped in surprise, but were also a bit relieved at the interruption. Carl then changed direction and made his way over to his landline phone and answered it. "Hello?"

Outside, Rossi stood with a phone to his ear right by a police car that had silently driven up to Carl's house, along with an SUV carrying other officers and the rest of Derek and Emily's friends. Rossi was once again breaking protocol, but, damn it, he was in charge.

"_Hello, Carl Buford, is it? I am deputy David Rossi and I am currently outside your house waiting for you to release the two children you have in captivity." _

Carl looked between the two children and walked over to the front window with the landline phone at his ear. Opening the blinds, he noticed the police car and SUV, and the kids from before.

He had known this was coming. The Lauren girl was just too suspicious. Immediately after her friends left earlier that day, he took her back in the guest room for a bit of an interrogation. Despite his threats, she gave up no information, so he gave up. But then he received a phone call from his center saying the town's deputy, David Rossi, had come by and questioned some people. Infuriated, Carl went back to Emily and demanded answers, only to receive no answers again. He pushed harder that time, using physical force and beating her, but she still gave no answers. He finally just left her alone in the room to wallow in pain on the floor.

"Hello, deputy. I knew you'd be coming." Carl finally replied.

* * *

_**Author's Note: Okay, I must admit I am quite excited for the rest of the arc beyond the Buford stuff... This time, you can have my assurance that they will survive the present obstacle. XD **_


	15. Life Sacrifice, Chapter 5

_**Author's Note: Hmm... I feel like I might have written this part to be too... rushed? I don't know, but I'm gonna be honest and the Buford idea came because I needed something to help with Emily's character development for this arc to make her believe she can fight fate, because that's what this arc is all about. It's the main theme of it. **_

_**In the anime/manga/VN of Higurashi, the arc equivalent to the one I'm writing is "Minganoroshi-Hen" (I probably butchered the spelling), aka "Massacre Arc." Satoko goes back to living with her abusive uncle and it's up to Rika and their friends to help her out of it, which is obviously the inspiration for this part of this arc with Morgan vs. Buford! **_

_**I also thought I'd explain how sometimes, Emily says stuff like, "we saw this scenario before and it ended horribly." I'm planning on writing out the stories of the other failed worlds, that were seen in the floating crystals in the prologue. It will be like a prequel to this whole story. I decided to do it like this, because when I first watched the anime, I watched the seasons out of order (I went 3rd, 2nd, 1st, and then 4th... yeah...) and ended up seeing Rika (basically the main character that Emily is based off of) defeat her fate before seeing any of the failed worlds XDDDD**_

_**Okay so I kinda explained all that for no reason but I thought I'd share some info on this story because I don't know. Therefore, read on and enjoy the story! This chapter shouldn't make anyone feel really bad or anything, pretty much zero violence, but if it does have any negative effects please take care :O **_

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**When the Eagles Cry**

Life Sacrifice, Chapter 5.

Rossi looked up at Carl Buford in the front window of his house. "Yes, well, we need you to release Emily Prentiss and Derek Morgan."

"_That won't be necessary, deputy, they both need me to become better people. You've seen the work I've done. I make people better, and these two also need to be taught discipline." _

Rossi scowled as he thought of how much Emily and Derek were suffering in there, while Carl labeled it as "discipline."

"Can you put Emily on the line?"

The African American man glanced over at the girl in question, who was currently struggling against her restrained wrist. He scowled at the request. "Why should I?"

"_I have men with their guns aimed right at you, and I am the only thing standing between your life and death right now." _

Carl brought his hand to his face in thought. Finally, he complied and handed the phone to Emily and places his heard on the other side of the phone to hear the entire conversation. He also positioned his gun ready to shoot either of the two children. Derek looked at Emily worriedly, but Emily gave him a reassuring smile before speaking into the phone.

"Hello?"

"_Hi sweetheart, it's Deputy Rossi." _Emily caught on to him trying to exclude their actual close relationship, knowing Carl would be listening.

"Hi, deputy." She replied neutrally.

"_How are you and Derek doing?" _

"We are fine, thank you for asking." Emily spoke to the man as if her were a stranger.

"_Carl, can I talk to Derek now?" _

Carl looked somewhat freaked out by the deputy's way of knowing he was listening, but took the phone back aggressively and walked towards Derek with it.

"Here." Carl said coldly, passing the phone to Derek's free hand and repeating the eavesdropping action he had done with Emily moments before.

"Hello?"

"_Hey buddy, my name is David Rossi, and I'm the deputy. I just wanted to see how you were doing in there." _

Seeing Emily's glance, Derek caught on to the act Rossi was trying to pull. "I'm doing better now that you are here. I like police officers; my dad used to be one." Derek replied, trying to act as innocent and small as possible.

"_Well, I'm glad to hear it, Derek. Carl, you can take the phone back now." _

Carl frowned as he grabbed the phone and put it to his own ear. "I already told you, I'm not letting them out."

"_Carl, you and I both know that is not an option." _

"I'm the only one who can save them, deputy."

"_I disagree. They seem like fantastic kids already—did you hear their manners while they were talking to me?" _

Carl bit his lip, knowing he was at a disadvantage here.

Suddenly, a noise from his backyard caught his attention and he stomped over towards his sliding glass door, looking for the source of the noise, but he found nothing.

"_Something wrong, Carl?" _

"It's nothing, I just heard something back there."

"_Oh, Carl, those are some of my men. I sent them—with a search warrant, mind you—to scope out the rest of your property. You see, Carl, we have a bit of a dilemma here—there are missing boys from the last couple of years from around the area that we just haven't found yet." _

Carl cut Rossi off, hanging up the phone and running outside to the backyard with his gun out. Emily took the opportunity to call out to her blonde friend. "Ashley, where are the keys?" she hissed under her breath.

"They are in the drawer, right next to you." Ashley replied.

Emily practically bent over backwards in her adventure to get to the keys, for the side the drawer was on was her cuffed side, and it was a bit farther than Ashley made it sound. She did manage to pull them out, and quickly unlocked herself, and ran over to Derek, who was looking out into the backyard after their attacker. She quickly unlocked his hands and pulled him over towards the front door.

"Come on, Derek, we're almost—"

They were both cut off by a gunshot and saw a bullet hole in the wooden frame of Carl's door, about a foot above their heads. They both turned back in fear.

_No, I can't give up yet. _Emily thought firmly. _I have to believe that we won't die here... Believe that we will live to see tomorrow!_

Rossi had heard the gunshot and launched himself towards the front door, running quickly. This did not go undetected by Ashley, as she quickly alerted Emily. "Emily, Rossi's coming! Move away from the door, _now_!" she yelled at her companion. Emily followed her directions, dragging Derek away with her as Rossi burst through the door with his gun up in front of him and pointing at Carl.

"It ends here, Carl. Put down the weapon."

Carl scowled, but seeing how much value his life had in his own eyes, he threw the gun to the side and Rossi quickly cuffed him. Derek and Emily both let out breaths they hadn't realized they had been holding. Afterwards, Rossi motioned for Emily and Derek to run out ahead of them.

Holding hands, the duo made their way down the path leading up to the hellhole that was the wicked man's house. As they approached the cars, they saw their friends all jump out of the SUV and run up to them.

"EMILY!" JJ launched herself at her friend, tears already falling down her face as she held onto her tightly.

"JJ, oh my God, I missed you so much." Emily cried into her best friend's shoulder.

"Baby Girl." Derek said, looking over at Penelope, not sure what her current mood would be.

She, however, was ecstatic to see him and so relieved he and Emily were okay. Penelope pulled Derek into a bone crushing hug, sobbing.

Emily was also relieved to see everyone else, so she quickly converted it into a group hug as she grabbed Spencer and Hotch, who were standing off to the side, and Penelope and Derek. They all stood together, forgetting the horrors they had just witnessed, and only remembering that they had each other safe and sound for now.

As they pulled out of the hug, they glanced over and saw Rossi escorting a cuffed Buford to a police car.

"He can't hurt any of us now." Emily breathed in relief. "We did it."

"Yeah..." Derek added. "He's gone for good."

"Thank God, because I can't handle my Chocolate Adonis playing hero like this _any more_! He needs to come home now!" Penelope pouted, then paused, looking at her best friend. "You _are_ coming home now, right?"

The friends all chuckled lightly, but everyone stared at Derek in wait for an answer. "Seriously, guys?!" Derek exclaimed, catching all their looks. "Of course I'm coming home! You people..."

* * *

"Come _on, _Pretty Boy, I know you can do better than that!" Derek called, as he watched the youngest member of the team play one of the many games at the 4th of July festival.

"I'm _trying_, Derek!" Spencer groaned as he threw another baseball at the stack of cups. He then threw his last ball, missing, once again.

"I don't think you tried at all." Emily laughed, shaking her head.

"Hey!" Spencer protested.

"Look, guys, I won a thing!" JJ said proudly, showing off the new stuffed animal she had just won from playing the exact same game as Spencer, but doing quite better than him.

"Congrats, Gumdrop!" Penelope beamed.

"Way to rub it in!" Spencer pouted, causing everyone else to laugh.

"What should we do next?" Hotch asked everyone.

"Eat! I'm starving!" Derek said, immediately throwing his hand up in the air.

"I second the notion!" JJ said, mimicking Derek, making the group laugh again. Emily giggled and smiled to herself as she watched the almost healed Derek Morgan.

It was Friday, and the whole Carl thing had happened on the Sunday prior. Both Derek and Emily spent the night in the town's clinic after getting their wounds tended to—both emotional and physical. Though, deep down, Emily knew part of what made her friends special was how each of them had a mental struggle that would never fully go away.

Emily followed her friends quietly for a moment. Now she knew what it felt like to be the one to sacrifice herself for a friend. And to be honest, she didn't regret it. However, the physical pain was still there, and she never wanted her friends to have to feel it for her.

Emily and Derek had both stayed home from school on Monday because they were at the clinic. They also ended up staying home on Tuesday, but both instantly regretted it 5 seconds after their roommates walked out of their houses. JJ and Penelope quickly returned home after leaving, because they didn't want to leave their friends alone, nor did the people in question want to be left alone. In the end, Penelope and Derek went over to JJ and Emily's house along with Hotch and Spencer, as they were all still a bit shaken up from the previous day's events. Alex gave the six the day off, knowing they needed some time to recover.

The worst thing Derek and Emily had been dealing with were the nightmares. For the first couple of nights, Emily ended up crawling into JJ's bed, while Penelope insisted from the beginning she wanted to stay with Derek during the night. It got better towards the end of the week, luckily.

Emily was glad to be recovering finally, but she knew any break she would have wouldn't be for long, as now it was July 4th and her death was days away.

"Em, you okay?" JJ asked her best friend, falling into the step with her quiet friend.

"Yeah." Emily said, looking up and forward, towards the future she wanted to win with these people she had called her best friends for many years. "I will be."

* * *

_**Author's Note: okay um is it bad I'm still really digging the fact I discovered how to do the line thingy or **_

_**Anyways, this is where the story starts to pick up and things start happening :3 I was so excited for the rest of this arc, I already have it finished and I proof read it everyday! Expect about another 5 chapters before we move onto the next arc, which is actually gonna be a throwback. **_

_**Originally I was just gonna start the next arc after finishing this one without saying any info about it. But now I realize that might be a bit random, because it isn't even one of the many failed worlds/scenarios. ...If you guessed Ashley's backstory, then ding ding ding, we have a winner!**_

_**But YES FINALLY we will all learn about Ashley's past, and how she became BFFLS with Elle, way way way way in the past. Please keep in mind this story is basically timeless, as in, when I say that Ashley and Elle lived 1000 years ago, they weren't exactly living like the people in America 1000 years ago. It's more fiction based and not meant to have an "exact date" if ya get what I mean. There won't be cell phones or cars, but they're still gonna have some more modern aspects, if that made sense? **_

_**Okay, TTFN my people! **_


	16. Life Sacrifice, Chapter 6

_**Author's Note: WOO! Now the story will pick up more. No more stupid Buford XD Now it's just the team against fate. LET'S DO THIS THANG. **_

* * *

**When the Eagles Cry**

Life Sacrifice, Chapter 6.

The following day, in the afternoon, the team had plans to spend the day together, as usual. This day, Saturday, they were actually going to school in a way; they promised to come help Alex clean the schoolhouse after the summer session was over.

Emily had been thinking long and hard how to tackle her death in this world, now that she knew she could bend fate like she had with Derek and Carl. That had _definitely _not been the normal ending to that scenario, and she, for the first time in a long time, felt like she had some power. And another concept that had become foreign returned—hope.

So she decided to do something to change the routine in her death.

"JJ, I don't think I'm up to helping out today." Emily said with a cough.

JJ immediately turned to her friend after finishing braiding her long blonde hair down her back. "Em, are you okay?" she asked worriedly.

"I'm fine, just sick." Emily replied in a hoarse voice.

"I can stay home with you if you want." JJ offered, still looking worried.

"No, Jayje, I'll be fine." Emily quietly tried to reassure her friend. "The team needs you to help out."

"Are you sure?" JJ asked, cocking her head to one side in curiosity.

"Yeah yeah, I'll take some medicine and call Rossi if I need anything." Emily replied firmly.

"Well…" JJ still looked unconvinced.

"Jayje, I'll be fine." Emily asserted.

JJ sighed. "Alright, Em, if you say so, but as soon as we're finished, I'm coming straight home." She warned.

"Okay, JJ, have fun." Emily said with a smile.

JJ only nodded and then proceeded to head straight out the door after getting the rest of her stuff together. After she figured out she was gone, Emily went into their living room and called out for Ashley.

"What was your little lie about?" Ashley questioned Emily.

"I think I may have an idea about the motive." Emily replied. "The only thing I remember about my death in each world is an Irish accent, and in the last world, my killer called me 'Lauren' and attacked me like he was getting revenge. Ash, it _has_ to be from that case in Ireland from when I was 9, the year before Mother was killed."

Ashley nodded her head, understanding the lead and how the case _could_ pose a threat to Emily now. The case had been nasty, and Emily was used as a pawn in the whole thing and it resulted in a huge international mess for both the good and bad guys.

Emily walked over to the landline and picked up the phone, dialing it.

"Emily, who are you going to call?" Ashley asked.

"The police." Emily replied. "I figure I may as well trust them, right?"

"I suppose so. Does that include Rossi?" Ashley asked.

Emily sighed. "I don't want to freak him out, but if he picks up the phone, it will have to…" she replied.

Ashley nodded, accepting the answer.

Emily then dialed the number for the police station. She wasn't sure who would pick up, but heard a familiar woman's voice on the end of the line.

"_Quantico Police Department, how may I help you?" _

"Ms. Strauss!" Emily exclaimed in surprise.

"_Who is this?" _

"This is Emily Prentiss."

"_Oh, I haven't spoken to you in quite a while, Emily. What can I do for you?" _

"Well, Ms. Strauss… I have reasons to believe that someone wants to kill me."

Erin Strauss sat at her desk on a normal work day. She had a headache, as usual, and was extremely tired. The blonde woman used to work for the FBI, but after an international case in Ireland went crazy and a certain raven haired girl caused problems for many, many people, she was fired. Now Strauss worked in the small town of Quantico's police department.

As she heard Emily report someone "wants to kill her", she bit her lip.

"How do you know this?"

Emily was caught off guard. _Crap. _She thought. _I should have thought this through more._

"I heard someone mention something about it during the festival." She lied. "Mother always told me what we did was dangerous and that bad people could be after me someday." Knowing Strauss was also on the case in Ireland, Emily decided to use that to her advantage. "I think I heard a person with an Irish accent say something about it… But basically, a lot of people didn't like that case or me for my part in it."

Strauss smirked to herself. _You're damn right about that. _She snapped internally. Her audible voice, however, told a different story.

"I'll send an officer over immediately. Don't leave your house." She promised the younger girl.

"_Thank you so much Ms. Strauss! I knew I could count on you." _Emily sounded genuinely relieved.

"Don't mention it, sweetheart. Now stay safe and lock all your doors."

"_I will. Thank you. Bye." _And with that, Emily hung up.

Emily examined her hand over her now hung up home phone. She then turned to Ashley. "Now the police know… Maybe things will turn out differently this time." She said.

Ashley was about to reply, but then she quickly faded away after sensing another presence in the house. "Ashley?" Emily called out in confusion.

"Emily, what do you mean by saying someone wants to kill you?"

Emily froze at the voice, slowly turning to see behind her. She saw the voice belonged to Hotch, but there were four other equally confused people staring back at her.

"Emily, why does someone want to kill you?" JJ asked nervously.

"Gumdrop, why didn't you tell us?" Penelope asked, concern spelled out on her face.

"I can see we were right in coming by to check on you." Derek replied darkly.

Spencer stayed quiet.

"G-Guys… I never meant…" Emily said, so shocked and feeling like she lost all the power she had recently gained.

"Emily." Hotch said, shutting her up, and telling her it was time to confess.

"I never told you… Because I didn't want to get you involved… I didn't want you to get hurt for me—"

"That is crap, Emily! Do you not remember what you did only _last weekend_ for _me_?!" Derek snapped and Emily flinched.

Emily then sighed and stared at her feet.

"Em, please tell us, what's wrong? Why is someone after you?" JJ begged for her friend to tell her.

Emily gave in. It was time to stop playing cat and mouse with her past and her friends. It was time to come clean.

"Guys, come sit down with me around this table over here, and I'll tell you everything." Emily sighed, walking over to the table.

* * *

_**Author's Note: ALAS. Short-ish chapter :( But don't worry, the next one will generally be longer because Emily's explanation will finally come out, and so will the team's reactions. SO UNTIL THEN, FAREWELL!**_


	17. Life Sacrifice, Chapter 7

_**Author's Note: Just wanted to have a disclaimer here... I will mention the concept of human trafficking, but will not go into detail about it. I really don't ever plan on actually writing out Emily's past in this story, because I don't want to... I think just her summary of it is good enough. Also, the things I wrote/she says would NEVER fly by with our government and they, nor the FBI, would put children in danger like Emily has been in this story. Please understand this, as it was just necessary for my story! **_

_**EEP! I love you followers and favoriters (is that word? too bad I just made it one!) and reviewers and people... GROUP HUG! *hugs you all* :3**_

_**Hope you guys are happy with this one-this chapter is a HUGE one. I just couldn't find a good way of splitting it up without it being totally uneven... I also wanted Emily's explanation and the team's reactions and all that jazz in the same chapter, as well as the scene in the end... So, have at it! XD**_

* * *

**When the Eagles Cry**

Life Sacrifice, Chapter 7.

Emily took a deep breath as her friends all looked at her for an explanation to her past. Ashley, though only visible to Emily, had taken a seat next to her, just in case she needed help with something or more moral support, though Ashley figured the team had it covered.

"As you all know," she began. "my mother, Elizabeth Prentiss, was an ambassador for our country. Because of it, she would take me along to different places to learn new things, or, in worst case scenarios, use me as a kind of 'pawn' in international cases, if I could be used as a link in someway. She forced me to learn several different languages before she died, so I became very useful for the latter use towards the end of her days.

"When I was nine, the year before she died, she got called away to Ireland for something involving some type of human trafficking case. Apparently it was getting out of hand and international, so the FBI got called in, along with some other people, including Mother. After some debate, she offered me up as an undercover person to get picked up by the trafficking ring because there were a lot of children in it. Mother presented me as a professional even though I was only nine years old. The good guys were desperate to get intel on the ring, so they bugged me up and sent me in."

Emily took a moment to breathe and see her friends' expressions. They all looked at her with concern and worry, but overall, curiosity, so she continued.

"Long story short, it was hell. I didn't actually get sold right away, but some of the other children I was with did. I watched them suffer and, in some cases, die. Like I said, I didn't get sold right away… That's because I got involved with some of the leaders of the ring, the guys who held all the money. The bureau set it up so I was picked up by the ring off the street. However, before that, they told me how to act and how to get up in the ranks. I won't go into detail about the slimy business I had to do to get there, but I got there, and it felt like I just made it from hell to heaven.

"I'll just use the word 'befriended' to explain the intimacy I gained with the leaders. And some of them had young children themselves, and that was why they were making business off of a trafficking ring in the first place. I sympathized with some of them, and became really close with some of their kids… But then I got a message from Mother and the good guys saying to hurry up and get the rest of the intel they needed. In the end, I did, but I felt bad for their families… So to shame the bureau and Mother, I purposely blew my cover."

Emily once again paused to see her friends' reactions. They all looked speechless and horrified, and she internally flinched.

"…You did _what_?!" JJ yelled in shock.

"Em, they could have killed you!" Derek said with equal shock.

"Yeah, well, they didn't, and that's what matters now." Emily said, brushing off their concerns. _I never wanted them to pity me for my past so I never told them… God, will our friendship be even remotely the same after this?_ "Anyway, basically everyone got pissed and in the process, the trafficking ring got wiped out, I got rescued, victims went home to their families, the bad guys got arrested, their kids got put into international custody, and a bunch of people got fired from the FBI. Mother also never used me as a pawn again, but she also scarcely spoke to me after that."

"Oh, Em..." Penelope said sadly.

Emily avoided making eye contact with anyone.

"So, how does this tie into someone wanting to kill you?" JJ asked bluntly.

"Well, she betrayed the trust of the ring leaders." Spencer replied.

"But that's where the story doesn't make sense." Penelope said. "They all got arrested, you said, right?"

"Yeah, they did." Emily said with a nod. "And they assured Mother and me that we would be safe at home afterwards."

"So, how did one of the bad guys escape prison?" JJ inquired.

"I think we have to take this a step back for a moment, first." Hotch said. "And that step back is at the festival. Emily, we were with you the whole night. I don't remember hearing any Irish people."

"Yeah, I didn't either." Derek added. Everyone else mumbled in agreement.

"So then… How _do_ you know?" Spencer asked Emily quietly.

"I…" Emily stammered. _Crap, crap, crap, what do I say?! Ashley, help me out!_

Ashley appeared next to Emily. She honestly had no clue. Explaining their whole journey for the perfect world would be too complicated. She thought for a moment.

"Um… An anonymous phone call threat?" she weakly suggested.

_Okay, give me _one _good reason why I _wouldn't _report that! _

"You were threatened in the same call that if you told law enforcement officials about it, they'd target the team too?"

_Holy crap, I really don't want to lie about something like that! But in a sense, they're all already targets now because they know… So I guess it isn't _that _far from the truth. _

"I got threatened over the phone last night while JJ was out of the house getting food from Rossi's house. They gave me a 'warning' that I would die soon, and I threatened to tell the police, but they said if I did…" her voice trailed off. Though this pause would help sell her lie, it was driven by real emotion.

"They'd do what, Emily?" Hotch asked calmly.

Emily found herself looking straight ahead at the opposite wall with a distant look on her face. Her eyes were filled with sadness as she knew she was practically making her friends targets for knowing. "They would kill all of you." Her voice was a barely audible whisper, and she found herself tearing up. Even when she wasn't telling the whole truth, she felt the emotion all the same.

All her friends were once again speechless. JJ scooted over next to Emily and wrapped her arms around her best friend. "Em, it's gonna be okay… We're all still here, we'll help you out of this…" she whispered, and Emily wrapped her own arms around the blonde, tightly and protectively.

Spencer scooted closer to Emily on her other side. "Thank you for putting our lives before yours… But, really, you didn't have to do that. We will help you out of this, just like JJ said."

"But it's fate… How do I break fate?" Emily cried softly, still hugging JJ.

"Not alone." Derek said, now scooting himself over to the three youngsters of the team.

"That's right, Sugar Plum, we're gonna be with you every step of the way now." Penelope added.

"I was so afraid… Afraid you would never believe me if I told you my story… Afraid you would leave me if I told you about it… But in a way… I'd be relieved if you just left me... So then you wouldn't have to suffer because of me…" Emily had no idea what was happening, but the words were just rolling off her tongue—the words she was never able to speak.

"Emily, best friends stay together 'til the very end!" JJ said enthusiastically, pulling out of the hug to face the raven haired girl. "Of course we believe you, and we want to help you."

"JJ's right." Hotch finally spoke, walking over. "We're all in this together, Emily."

Ashley was watching the interaction with tears in her own eyes. They were all so close, she couldn't believe it sometimes. It was only natural she would be jealous of their relationships with each other occasionally. But as for right now, she was proud of them and proud to be able to know them. Emily was in good hands in every single world, that was the most stable factor throughout their whole journey.

Emily wiped her eyes and took a deep breath to compose herself. She then looked at the faces of all the friends she loved so dearly. They were determined to fight for her, just as they had fought for each other many times.

"Thank you… All of you." She finally spoke. Suddenly, everyone jumped as the phone rang.

"I GOT IT!" JJ yelled victoriously as she quickly got up and started heading towards the phone. Everyone was chuckling as she answered it. "Hello, Prentiss and Jareau residence, this is JJ—I mean, Jennifer—speaking!"

"_Hello, Jennifer! It's Ms. Strauss, from the police station. Is Emily there?" _

"Yeah yeah, one second." JJ turned away from the phone and back to her friends. "Em, it's for you!" she yelled into the next room over.

Strauss flinched as she heard JJ's loud yelling over the phone. _I am so ready to be done with this job._ She groaned internally as she felt her headache get worse from the yelling. Luckily, it was all over as she heard Emily speak into the phone. _"Hello, JJ said it's Ms. Strauss?" _

"Yes, sweetheart, it's me. I just called to apologize about how long it's taking for an officer to come by."

Emily glanced at the clock. It had been about a half an hour since she called, and it didn't take that long to drive around town… _What the hell! Apparently death threats aren't priority?!_ She listened as Strauss continued.

"_Apparently they're still tying up some loose ends on the Buford case, and some are helping out in DC today. It was a slow day before you called, so everyone just occupied themselves. However, two officers have just walked in and I will be sending them over momentarily."_

Emily sighed with relief that it wasn't Rossi; she wasn't sure she was ready to deal with him yet. She replied, "Okay, thank you for your hard work Ms. Strauss!"

"_No problem. I'll also be sending Rossi over in a while to stay with you. Now I'm going to go talk to them, bye." _Emily internally groaned.

And with that, Strauss hung up. Emily put the phone back and walked back over to her friends.

"What was that about?" Derek asked as he saw her walk in.

"It was Strauss. She was calling back to let me know she was sending two officers over to stand guard. And then Rossi is gonna come stay with us in a while." Emily replied as she sat back down with them.

"And we aren't leaving you, either!" Penelope declared.

Emily picked at her nails. "You guys can just go home… JJ and I will be fine with them, I'm sure." She replied nervously.

"Well _we're_ not, so _we're_ staying! Right, guys?" Penelope asked, looking back and forth between the guys.

"Sure, let me just call my mom." Spencer replied, walking into the other room to use the phone.

"I'm using it after him." Hotch added.

"And I'll call Mrs. Blake afterward! I'll just tell her something else came up and that she has an IOU from us." JJ chimed in. "She'll be cool with it, 'cause we're her favorites!"

"I'm sure Mama won't mind, let me borrow your cell, Baby Girl." Derek replied, putting his hand out for her bright pink phone. Penelope complied and handed it over to him. He left the room as he dialed his mother's number.

"Thanks, guys." Emily found herself saying again.

* * *

"JJ, your hair is so fun to braid!" Penelope cooed as she braided her friend's long blonde hair. "You're like Rapunzel."

"Thanks, Pen." JJ giggled.

"Okay, seriously guys. The sun is setting. Where the hell is Rossi?" Derek asked the group as he glanced over at the window with the bright rays of the setting sun.

"Ummm, he's a good handful of hours late." JJ replied. "What the hell?"

"Language..." Penelope grumbled, and received a swat on the arm from JJ.

"At least the two officers are here." Spencer said. "Maybe he got other urgent calls?"

"I already tried calling him various times. He's not answering his cell." Emily replied walking into the room with the house phone in hand and a worried look on her face.

"Damn it, Dave." Hotch scowled.

"Do you think something happened?" Penelope asked, concerned.

"Let's hope not, Baby Girl…" Derek sighed in reply.

"I'm gonna go get some water, anyone else want anything?" Emily groaned, feeling a stress-induced headache coming on.

After receiving drink 'orders' from her friends, Emily went into the kitchen and sighed. "Ashley… Where is Rossi?" she called out.

"I'm not sure… Do you want me to go out and look? I don't really want to leave you and the others with the threat hanging over you all…" Ashley said in a worried tone.

"I think you should. Something has definitely happened. Something bad." Emily said, biting her nails and feeling her heart beat a bit faster. "Be as quick as possible."

Ashley nodded, and faded away. Emily finished getting their drinks together before walking back in the living room with them, catching the end of the sun setting.

* * *

Rossi woke up slowly. The first thing he noticed was it was dark, wherever he was. Weird, he thought, as he had left to go check up on Emily and JJ earlier in the afternoon…

Then he remembered, he had raced out of the office and to his car after hearing what Strauss said. Unfortunately, he never made it to his car, as he was approached by a burly man from behind and knocked out. Now that he thought about it, there had been no one else out when he was, except for himself and the kidnapper, so whoever it was had been able to pull it off.

The next thing he noticed was that his hands and feet were bound and he was gagged. Then he realized he was in the trunk of a moving vehicle. Suddenly, it came to a stop.

Two people exited the vehicle and went to the trunk, opening it. It was dark, and Rossi was still somewhat disoriented, as he was having a hard time making out the faces.

"I'll let you do the honors with this one, Agent." Rossi heard a man say in a dry tone with an Irish accent.

"Of course." The so-called female "agent" replied. Rossi's eyes widened as he recognized the voice.

The man and woman worked together and dragged Rossi out of the trunk and onto the side of the road. He tried fighting at first, but it ended up being for nothing.

Then the woman pulled out a revolved and put the barrel to Rossi's head. "Sorry, Rossi, but your precious Emily won't be safe for long." She said with amusement in her voice. Rossi felt sick.

She pulled the trigger and Rossi's life was over, then and there. The once so powerful Italian man was gone. He was the main obstacle in getting Emily just moments before, but now he was dead.

Ashley gasped in horror as she witnessed it. As she saw the killers, the victim… She wanted to scream. She faded away as quickly as possible, with the intention of getting back to Emily as quickly as possible.

* * *

_**Author's Note: dun dun DUNNN! CLIFFHANGERRRRR OOOHHHHH things have indeed escalated quickly here **_

_**The next chapter should be up tomorrow during the day; I'm going to a huge basketball game tomorrow between my school and our rival school, which will be fun, because basketball is my favorite sport! I played for 8 years :3 **_

_**Thanks for reading, TTFN! **_


	18. Life Sacrifice, Chapter 8

_**Author's Note: PLEASE DON'T KILL ME FOR BEING LATE IN MY UPDATE! I knowwww I said yesterday I'd have it up during the day today, but I ended up sleeping in until 1 in the afternoon and then being gone from 3 to 9! Eep! It's almost ironic. XD **_

_**Don't hate me for killing Rossi in the last chapter. :X It was painful to write! D'''': **_

_**Anyways, here it is, better late than never XDDD**_

* * *

**When the Eagles Cry**

Life Sacrifice, Chapter 8.

"The rest of you kids need to head on home." One of the officers, who had originally been posted outside of the Prentiss-Jareau home, said as he stood in the entryway. "It's getting late, surely all your families are worried?"

"We all called our families earlier, officer. They know we are here." Derek replied as he stood with the rest of his friends in front of the officer.

"If Ms. Prentiss' life really is in danger, we can't have all of you other kids here." The officer replied. "I'm sorry, but you all can come back first thing in the morning. We can't have too many other people in the house, it's too dangerous."

"But—" Penelope began.

"No 'buts.'" The officer swiftly replied. "You must leave the premises now."

Hotch sighed. "Let's go, guys, he's right. Emily and JJ should be okay for tonight, with him and the other officer here."

"Hotch!" Derek and Penelope protested at the same time. Spencer looked at Hotch like he was crazy for his suggestion.

"It's okay guys, we'll be fine." Emily tried reassuring her friends. However, they could tell she was still unnerved. Her nails had been bitten down much more throughout the day.

The team had asked the two officers if they had heard from Rossi a couple of times during their time at the house. Each time they shook their heads, and sent them all back inside. Emily knew something was _very_ wrong, as Ashley hadn't come back yet. The blonde spirit had either found a lead of some sort and was following it… Or whatever she found had definitely spooked her and she had retreated to her own world outside of Emily's to prepare for their journey to the next world.

"Emily's right, we have to go." Hotch said more firmly, pulling Emily out of her thoughts. Penelope sighed, Derek rolled his eyes, and Spencer blinked. After exchanging goodbyes and hugs with Emily and JJ, they followed Hotch outside in defeat. The remaining officer outside warned them to be careful walking home.

As they got out of earshot, Hotch led them across the street to Rossi's house. "Okay, I'm not serious about us leaving." He told them right away.

Penelope looked back at the house with worry on her face. "I felt like I was being watched when we were leaving, Hotch. Something's wrong." She said nervously.

"That's why I used the officer's order as a way to get us to rethink our plan. Something definitely happened to Rossi on his way over. My idea was, we split up, Spencer with me and you two together. Derek, you and Penelope go home and get something—anything to use as weapons and Spencer you come with me to mine and we'll see what I have. Everyone regroup here in the shadows in 20." Hotch offered.

"Good idea, Hotch." Derek said with a nod, and then grabbed Penelope's hand. "Let's go, Baby Girl."

Meanwhile, the other officer who had originally told them to leave resumed his position outside.

Out of nowhere, JJ grabbed Emily's hand. "Em, you're shaking like a leaf. Are you alright?" she asked worriedly.

"I don't know…" Emily admitted.

JJ offered her friend a smile. "Why don't we go upstairs and try to get some sleep? We can sleep in our normal clothes, just in case we have to escape in the middle of the night." She said softly.

Emily just nodded and followed JJ upstairs. JJ talked the raven haired girl through the escape plan she had come up with Derek and Spencer earlier, should someone enter the house while they are upstairs in their room.

At one point, Emily couldn't help but stop JJ in her explanation. "Wait, Jayje, our window is facing the woods, so we'd have to run through them… Are you sure you're alright with that?" she asked in surprise.

JJ looked uneasy for a second. "I will admit, I was pretty unnerved about the idea… But then I remembered that it's the best way for us to make it out alive. And even though I haven't always been fond of the woods surrounding our town, you and I know them pretty well from back in our old days of playing with the team, so it'd be our best shot." She explained.

Emily quickly pulled JJ in for a hug. "Thank you, JJ… You have no idea what this sacrifice means to me…" she said, feeling herself getting choked up.

JJ pulled out of the hug to see her friend's face. "No tears, Em, we are going to get you out of this safe and sound." She assured her. "Now then, let's get some sleep so we can be ready for anything!"

Emily nodded. "Goodnight, JJ." She said as she got into her bed while JJ shut off the light before getting in her own.

As she heard JJ's breathing even out, Emily sighed in relief as she didn't have to set up any noise traps that night. Her friends had helped her do so earlier. And then the two officers were standing guard outside. She felt safe for once.

The feeling remained for a while, though Emily still couldn't fall asleep. Then she remembered Rossi and Ashley. _Ashley… Where are you? _

Almost as if on command, Ashley came in all but yelling for Emily. "EMILY, WE HAVE AN EMERGENCY!" she yelled coming in, causing Emily to sit up in shock.

"Jesus Christ, Ashley, you almost gave me a heart attack—"

"There's no time for that, Emily! Get JJ up and get out of here, _now!_ The culprit… I couldn't get a look at his face… But Rossi is dead, and Strauss was the one who pulled the trigger!"

"Ashley, what are you—"

Just then, they heard a shuffling outside towards the front, and one of the officers call out to the darkness.

Emily's breathing quickened and she all but jumped on JJ. "JJ, wake up! _We have to go now, JJ!" _she hissed quietly, shaking her friend awake. JJ was up in an instant and her blue eyes met Emily's brown in the darkness. "Huh? Wha-? Oh! A-Alright, let's go then!" she replied hesitantly as she threw the rope ladder down the side of the house.

* * *

"Who's there?" one of the officers in front of the girls' house called out. No reply.

"Grab your weapon." The other officer ordered, as he placed a hand over his own.

Suddenly, both men felt electricity run through their veins as they were assaulted by two men with tasers. They each fell with grunts and a crash that did not go unnoticed by the four friends across the street.

"Let's move!" Hotch hissed to them under his breath as they stealthily made their way behind Rossi's house and farther down the street to where they could cross it without being seen and get to the woods behind Emily and JJ's house.

* * *

Emily and JJ were running as fast as they could without immediately losing their breath.

"I think I heard the officers go down right when we reached the ground!" Emily gasped as they ran.

"I didn't hear any gunshots or fighting, though!" JJ gasped in reply.

"They probably used tasers!" Emily replied. _This is the hardest I've ever fought to change my fate… _

"Okay, which way should we go when we get to the fork in the road up ahead?" JJ spoke up, not slowing down.

"Towards Derek and Pen's house. Remember the caves out towards the back, in the hillside? We still have supplies, like flashlights, stored in there from our explorations over the years. The caves go underground, under the river, and will dump us out back on the other side of town, where we can find shelter and call for help." Emily replied as she ran, making it harder to catch her breath.

"Alright, left it is!" JJ declared as they ran down the left route.

_Ashley, are you watching? I think we might actually win this time around! _Emily thought with a triumphant smile. Ashley didn't respond.

"Em, I can hear people behind us!" JJ gasped, nervousness in her voice.

Emily listened in and she could also hear people running through all the plants of the woods somewhere behind them. While doing this, however, she didn't see when a pebble was in front of her foot and she tripped and fell to the ground with a thud and a grunt.

"E-Emily!" JJ gasped, stopping in her tracks and turning back to help her friend.

"No, JJ, keep running! They'll catch you!" Emily cried out as one man was now in sight while he ran towards them.

JJ looked around desperately for a moment and then found something—a decently sized rock. Thanks to her top notch aim, she managed to chuck it at the man with enough force just when he came in her range and he fell back with a groan of pain. He wasn't unconscious, but disoriented for the moment.

Emily examined the man behind her. She recognized his clothing as one of the trafficking ring's men. _So it_ is_ those guys! How the hell did they escape?_

JJ bent down and offered her hand, helping Emily up. They then caught sight of two more men approaching from a distance, but now Emily was just confused. One man had the same outfit as the one JJ had just defeated, no surprise there. However, the other… She faintly recognized his face as one of the FBI agents that had been on the case. _One of… The good guys? So Strauss really is behind this? No, wait… I know my killer is male and Irish, so it can't be her… Right?_

Unfortunately, Emily's jumbled thoughts led to them sticking around too long as the man JJ had defeated was starting to get up and the two others caught up. She noticed their only weapons were tasers. _To avoid getting more blood than they needed to on their hands, perhaps?_ Emily wondered. Suddenly, JJ stepped in front of her, shielding Emily from the men with both arms out. She glared at them defiantly.

Emily gasped, "JJ, no!" as the men slowly approached JJ, ready to take her down. The blonde stood in place and stayed strong. "No, Em, you have to run… I won't let them take you!" she replied courageously.

Emily found herself biting her nails. _Damn it! What do I do?! I can't leave JJ here… She's my best friend!_ She looked over at the combination of Irish and American men that were after her. _However… Ashley's power is getting weaker, so is my memory between worlds… If I die here, I may not retain this information in the next world… But a world without JJ…! _

"…My mind is made up." Emily spoke with a sly smile and mature voice, walking out from behind JJ and in front of the men. "I will not let JJ die here." She said firmly.

The next event happened in slow motion for Emily. The men quickly approached, ready to pounce. Emily narrowed her eyes, hoping against hope. And suddenly, her hope was answered, as Aaron Hotchner and Derek Morgan swooped in, attacking the first man, letting Penelope Garcia unarm him and grab his taser. She then turned and used it on the American man while Spencer stuck his fingertips into a pressure point on the shoulder of the second Irish man quietly from behind, knocking him out instantly.

All three men collapsed to the ground, defeated by the four friends. Emily and JJ stood there, wide-eyed. "You guys… How did you…?" Emily stammered.

"We came after you." Spencer replied quietly.

"I felt like I was being watched as we left your house, Em. So we regrouped over by Rossi's place after running home to get stuff we could use as weapons." Penelope explained.

"Well, none of us could really find that great of stuff with our families sleeping. So that's why Penelope and I took that guy's firearm." Derek said with an apologetic smile.

"I managed to find a baseball bat, and Spencer learned how to do the pressure point thing on people a few weeks ago." Hotch chimed in. Spencer blushed shyly.

"That's my Spence!" JJ cheered happily.

"Oh, and Blondie… I was saving this for your birthday, but I think now's a better time to use it." Derek added, tossing a BB gun to JJ, which she caught with a smile on her face.

"My own BB Gun! Oh, thank you, Derek, thank you!" she replied happily, hugging him.

"Just so long as you don't come after me with it when we're home." Emily added sternly, causing everyone to laugh.

"Alright, people, we need to keep moving." Hotch said, getting everyone's attention. "Where were you guys headed?"

"To the caves near Derek and Pen's house. Em said we left some stuff there, like flashlights, so we were gonna run through and end up at the other end of town to get help." JJ explained.

"Sounds like a plan. Let's roll." Hotch said, and everyone nodded determinedly.

* * *

_**Author's Note: Funfact! I was actually not going to include the last bit in this chapter (everything after Emily's "my mind is made up line"). But I decided might as well, because the next chapter is already super long. Sharing is caring! :3**_


	19. Life Sacrifice, Chapter 9

_**Author's Note: AUGHHHH MY INTERNET WAS DOWN YESTERDAY, OF COURSE, THE DAY I WAS GOING TO PUBLISH MY FAVORITE CHAPTER! **_

_**If there are any Higurashi fans out there reading this that remember how the Massacre Arc ended in the anime, they should be able to figure out what's going to happen in this chapter. The arc ended a bit differently in the visual novel, as in, the outcome was the same, but the way they got there was different. I'm thinking about maybe writing an alternate version to this chapter, making it like the visual novel version. I dunno, we'll see what happens. **_

_**I'm pretty sure this is the longest one so yeah have at it. Be prepared to have lots of feels all at once, assuming I wrote this the right way ;)**_

* * *

**When the Eagles Cry**

Life Sacrifice, Chapter 9.

_"Sounds like a plan. Let's roll." Hotch said, and everyone nodded determinedly._

The group then continued running down their path, but also staying quiet to look out for other men.

After a while, they noticed a flashlight shining off to the side. They looked through the foliage, unnoticed by the men.

"I see six of them." Penelope whispered.

"Six of them? Six of us! We can take 'em." Derek replied confidently.

"And they have a van." Spencer added.

"Let's take them out and then grab their van. Hotch is the oldest, so I propose he drive." JJ whispered.

"I second that notion." Penelope added with a smile.

"As long as he isn't a crazy driver." Derek chuckled.

"But that's illegal! Did you know that you're more likely to die in an automobile accident when—" Spencer began.

"Not now, Spence!" JJ quietly snapped as they backed away from the plants.

"Alright, look, I'll drive, let's just worry about taking them out first, okay?" Hotch shushed them, but had an amused smile on his face.

After planning briefly, they split up, each with their motive of attack.

"You sure about this, Emily?" Ashley asked her dark haired friend while they were alone, waiting for the time to strike.

"Yes, Ashley… This adrenaline, this feeling… Confidence, hope… I like it. And I believe it will lead us to success." Emily replied.

Hotch and Derek stood behind trees across the path from each other, hidden from the first two men that walked in there. As they walked past them, Derek immediately tackled one while Hotch hit the other over the head with a baseball bat.

Penelope quickly ran over and tased the one Derek tackled and threw her arms up successfully. "Two down!" she cheered.

During her cheer, however, one came up behind her and she turned just in time to see him collapse after Spencer quietly and quickly approached, giving him a nice pressure point treatment. "We aren't done yet." Spencer informed her playfully.

Penelope smiled sweetly in reply. "Well, I know you have my back, Boy Genius! Thankies!" she replied.

JJ took the next two out with her BB gun from her sniper position in the tree, leaving only one man left.

And this man thought he would be the one hitting the jackpot, as he came across Emily standing alone, with her back to him. Emily barely had enough time to turn and smirk at him as Derek took him down from behind and held him down while Penelope tased him.

They looked at the six unconscious men laying around as JJ climbed down from the tree. Penelope went around, tasing all of them one more time, to make sure they were all out cold. "We did it!" Emily breathed, for what felt like the first time during their attack. Though she was confident and hopeful, she was still on edge and nervous for her friends the entire time.

"I knew we could." Hotch said with a smile, looking at their friend group.

"We do make a great team, if I do say so myself." Penelope said happily as she walked up to the group.

They then turned and saw the van about a hundred yards away for them, the door facing them closed and it seemed to be unguarded. They stood on a path that led straight to it.

"Woohoo, time for Hotch's first driving lesson!" JJ cheered.

"Alright, team… Move out!" Hotch commanded confidently and they all began running towards the van.

_Watch me now, Ashley, as I take fate into my own hands and crush it!_ Emily declared triumphantly in her head.

That was when they heard the gunshot.

They hadn't seen the familiar blonde woman step out from behind the van and aim at them.

Emily gasped, freezing in her tracks, as the baseball bat fell to the ground.

And following it, with a grunt of pain, its owner. The thud from his body echoed throughout the entire area.

The baseball bat fell still and silent in one place, and Emily finally looked down at her friend.

"H-Hotch!" she gasped, looking down. She then looked up to where the van and shooter were. A blonde woman stood there, staring back at them, with a malicious smile on her face. "S-Strauss!"

All Emily could hear next were her friends all falling to their knees around Hotch's body, calling his name and gasping in shock.

Hotch coughed, then groaned in pain. He brought his left hand slowly over to the wound, feeling it and taking it off to examine the blood now on his hand. He had taken a bullet right to the chest.

"Hotch, no! You can't die here!" JJ cried, grabbing Hotch's bloody hand.

"JJ's right, Bossman, please! Please, God…" Penelope was already sobbing.

"I'm sorry…" He barely managed to choke out. "You have to… Keep moving… Get Emily… Safe."

"No, no, _no!_" JJ shrieked, clutching onto Hotch's body with all she had.

"Hotch..." Derek bit his lip as he met the older boy's eyes, knowing what Hotch wanted them to do. He knew there was no way they could save Hotch now… As much as he wanted to believe otherwise, he shut his eyes closed, and then opened them.

"Guys, we gotta go."

Penelope looked at him like he was crazy and JJ only held Hotch harder.

"Please… Go." Hotch whispered to the 11 year old. He lifted his free hand, and brushed it through JJ's blonde hair affectionately and comfortingly, trying to calm the young girl. However, JJ continued yelling "No, no, no!" as Spencer got up to pull her off of their best friend while Derek did the same with Penelope.

They eventually managed to get themselves up and away from Hotch's dying body as more men, both American and Irish, came up from behind Strauss and they began following the group. JJ's BB gun had also been left, on accident, next to their dying friend's body. The blonde owner had been too busy grieving to notice she left it.

_Hotch, I'm so sorry it came to this… _Emily thought bitterly as she bit her lip and ran away with the rest of the team. There wasn't a dry eye among them.

_Live on, Emily, all of you… Stay safe and God speed._ Hotch thought as he let out one final breath.

"Keep following those kids. We are going to need water to clear the blood, and five body bags." Strauss reported into her earpiece.

* * *

Derek was holding Penelope's hand while Spencer was holding JJ's as they tried to run as fast as they could through the forest path. They were all heavily discouraged by Hotch's death, and definitely found little value in their own survival now. Emily was taking it the hardest, as she knew it was all her fault.

She ran with her friends, but then stopped as Derek stopped.

"We need a distraction."

_No… _

"Penelope, take care of Emily for me."

"Derek, _no!_" Penelope exclaimed in reply. Derek shook his head.

"Baby Girl."

Penelope realized they were running out of options as she heard the men coming quickly.

"Derek…"

"I love you, Baby Girl." Derek said, kissing Penelope on the temple and then motioned for them to move forward.

Penelope was already crying as she grabbed Emily's hand. Spencer took charge as the most calm person left in the group. Derek gave him a grateful look. "Come on, guys." The youngest member said quietly, leading JJ ahead and Penelope did the same with Emily.

"DEREK!" JJ cried loudly as Spencer pulled her away.

"Derek…" Emily let out a small sob as they ran ahead.

Derek gave them his charming smile one last time before turning his back.

* * *

The four remaining friends ran on and on, until they decided to take a breather by a tall tree. "Just for a short while…" Spencer had said between breaths.

"My Hot Stuff, my Chocolate Adonis, Derek… Why…?" Penelope cried. Emily looked at her sympathetically, but they all turned at the sound of a noise.

"Who's there?!" Spencer called out nervously, putting himself in front of JJ.

They saw Derek leaning up against a tree, head down.

"Derek!" Penelope cried out in relief, only to be crushed as they watched his body fall to the ground. The side and back of his T-shirt were covered in a crimson red.

"Derek…?" JJ stammered, at a loss for words.

Emily only watched through saddened eyes. Why was this happening? Why was each of her friends being hunted down like this, just for her?

They then heard a dry laughter and saw Strauss appear behind Derek's fallen body, along with her men in tow right behind her.

"Sorry, but Agent Morgan isn't available." Strauss scoffed. "You kids can keep running as much as you want, trying to act like the little FBI agents you aren't, but your deaths are inevitable."

"No." Spencer said, stepping forward, letting go of JJ's hand. "Penelope…" he turned to her slightly and she nodded sadly in understanding, feeling more tears make their way down her face as she knew what she had to do. She grabbed the hand Spencer had let go of.

JJ quickly caught on and then shook her head violently, pulling away from Penelope. "NO! NOT SPENCE! NO! NO! SPENCE! STOP! NO!" she shrieked as Penelope managed to grab her hand again and begin to pull her and Emily away, crying. "_SPENCE!_" the blonde continued screaming through sobs.

"I'm sorry, JJ, Emily, Penelope…" Spencer murmured as he watched the three girls disappear in the darkness of the woods, but JJ's voice echoed in him. She had reacted the same way with Hotch and Derek's deaths, but there was _definitely_ something different in her voice when she called out for Spencer. He realized that not only she was his closest friend of the three girls, but _he_ was also _her_ closest friend of the three guys. _I'm so sorry, JJ… _

Strauss sent the men after the girls with the flick of her wrist. "Well, that was quite the brave sacrifice, Spencer. Not your smartest move, though." She taunted him.

Spencer took a deep breath. There were no facts, no statistics for him now. It was just him, him against this wicked woman and practically the world. He knew he couldn't chicken out now. He needed to be brave.

"I'm not afraid of you." He scoffed.

"You should be." Strauss hissed back.

"Why? You're a coward. You hunt down a 12 year old girl and her best friends, hiding behind the barrel of a gun and a group of armed men."

"…"

"So stop hiding behind that gun of yours, and come and face me, you coward!"

* * *

The group stopped running right as they heard a gunshot in the distance, Penelope quickly looking back behind them in sorrow. "Spencer…" Emily cried softly.

"I don't want to do this anymore! I don't want to live! Hurry up and kill me… I want to die!" JJ fell to her knees, sobbing. "I want to be with Spence and Hotch and Derek again!"

Emily's heart broke at the sight.

"Don't talk like that, JJ!" Penelope suddenly snapped. JJ looked up at her. "They sacrificed themselves for us, for our survival… The least we can do is return the favor by living our lives to the fullest from here."

"Pen…" JJ sniffled.

They were interrupted as the uniformed men surrounded them in a circle. Emily knew it was all over.

* * *

"Now then, who should I kill first?" came Strauss as she walked towards them with a sing-song voice that made Emily sick. She, JJ, and Penelope all laid on the ground with their wrists and ankles bound. Death was their only escape now.

Penelope took up her role as the oldest as she glared at the ex-agent. "I bet you were the one who killed Rossi, right?" she spat.

"Maybe." Strauss laughed in reply. "A magician never shares her secrets!"

"Some magician!" Penelope spat back in reply.

Strauss crouched down right next to Penelope's head, putting the gun up against it.

"How about this as my next trick—make Penelope Garcia disappear?"

Penelope scoffed. "You wish you could actually have power like that. You're powerless."

Irritated, Strauss pulled the trigger. A dull blast was heard and JJ tried to blink away the tears. And with the blast, the bright and energetic Penelope was gone. Emily was devastated at what this world had come to.

Her tears already started spilling out as she saw Strauss approach her best friend. She wanted to beg her to spare JJ, she really did, but she knew that if JJ lived, she'd be alone—Rossi was dead, the law enforcement wouldn't come in time to save Emily. The rest of their friends were dead. JJ would be alone. And she deserved much more than that. Emily was stuck. And so, she cried.

"Now then, young Jennifer Jareau. You're up last." Strauss taunted.

"Leave Emily alone…" JJ tried to say between sniffles with as much courage as she could muster.

"Sorry, but I can't do that." Strauss hummed.

"JJ!" Emily called out, grabbing her best friend's attention. She saw the blonde's dull blue eyes that lacked all the energy and determination from earlier that night. Her eyes were red and puffy from all the crying. Emily tried to give her a smile, but failed. "Thank you for being my best friend… I love you so much… When you join our other friends… Tell them I love them too… And sorry for getting them in this mess, and thank you for trying to help me…" she said, her voice shaking from sorrow.

JJ only got time to nod and sadly smile back, just as Strauss pulled the trigger. And with that, JJ's life was another one snuffed out that night. Emily couldn't stop the tears that came. The tears she shed were for everyone. Rossi. Hotch. Derek. Spencer. Penelope. JJ. All of them were such unique, beautiful people that were flawed and broken. But that's what always brought them together in each world.

All her best friends, they were so lively. So energetic and bright. The small bullet of a gun had taken that energy, their joy, their liveliness from her… Emily couldn't understand how such a dull sound could take their energetic and powerful spirits from her.

As Strauss walked over with another man, he carried a bottle with some drug to knock her out. "You've caused a lot of trouble for Doyle… He has something even more painful planned, so he recommended us knocking you out while he does his thing." She said, still in the happy and sadistic tone that made Emily want to slap her.

Then Emily actually stopped to think. _Doyle… Ian Doyle?! _That's _who's behind this?! How the hell did I not figure this out sooner?! _Then she realized it could all be over in the next world. Once she arrived, she would have to get someone on it and…

She remembered Ashley's power, or lack, thereof. And how precious a piece of information this was. Then, how easily it could be lost in the transition between worlds. Especially if she didn't have a lot of time to dwell on it… And so, Emily had her mind made up.

"Wait, Strauss."

The woman in question raised her eyebrows in amusement. "Oh? Are you going to beg for your life?" she taunted the raven haired girl.

"No." Emily answered simply. "I only ask that you don't drug me."

Strauss genuinely looked caught off guard. "Are you sure? Doyle has some pretty nasty things waiting for you… Some of which even startled me. I don't think you want to be awake for him to implant a tattoo on you, do you?" she replied in a mocking tone.

"I want to be awake." Emily said firmly. "That way I will always remember. Remember this night, when you killed all of my friends in front of me. Remember the face of my murderer. Remember all of your faces, so in the next life, I will know who you really are."

Strauss just laughed and granted Emily's unexpected request. A man came and put a normal gag in Emily's mouth before throwing her in the back of a car. Being handled by these men made her remember her old days in the ring, and she shivered in discomfort.

* * *

As the car drove away from the woods and the bodies of her friends, Ashley appeared next to Emily. "Emily… Again you have gotten your hopes up only to be disappointed…" she started.

_No, Ashley. We _have _accomplished something. We've solved the mystery. We know for the next world and can finally defeat this damn fate! _

"And don't think you'll be doing it alone." A familiar voice spoke.

Emily looked up and saw all her friends standing around her, and realized it was Hotch who had spoken.

_You guys are all here! _

"Of course! We said we would be with you through it all, and even if we failed, we'll still keep our end of the deal, Gumdrop." Penelope said cheerily.

"It's a shame we couldn't win, though." Derek said with a sigh. "We were very close."

Emily realized they were actually in the same realm as Ashley, so they, too, could see, hear, and talk to the young blonde.

"You all were very close… This is the closest Emily and I have ever gotten." Ashley admitted.

"Em, I'm sorry we couldn't save you…" JJ started. Emily looked up at her best friend and noticed how close she was standing next to Spencer. She wasn't surprised, especially after the events of the night.

_No, JJ, you guys did save me. I don't want to live in a world without all of you. You all helped me find answers, so I, no, _we_ can tackle this head on in the next world, and live in peace after that._

The car stopped and Emily found herself in the old warehouse from the past world, when her friends had run in just as she was dying.

_Ashley, everyone… Please… Stay with me. _

"We're never leaving you." Spencer spoke softly, and she saw all her best friends nod in agreement.

"I'm here, Emily." Ashley said, kneeling down next to her longtime companion.

_Ashley, don't you dare look away. You have to watch the entire time as well, as I don't know what my memory will be like in the next world. _

Ashley nodded. "And even if you forget, I will remind you." She said firmly.

The conversation ended as they heard Doyle stomp into the room. As he began yelling at her, talking of the betrayal and how hurt his son had been when Emily turned them all in, she decided to just glare at him. And as the physical pain came, she focused her eyes on the full moon, through a hole in the warehouse roof. Emily watched as she began to lose physical feeling and the pain started numbing, the moon grew more and more red, much like the color of blood, she mused. And eventually, everything just went black, and the next time she opened her eyes, she was staring down at her own dead body.

* * *

_**Author's Note: I decided to just write Emily's death hecka broad/vague like that, so you reader dudes can just interpret it however you want. **_

_**And there's just one short chapter left in this arc-the conclusion! The fight is on now, with Emily having the team in on all the drama, she'll be ready to fight again-that is, if she remembers, muahahahaha!**_

_**As I've said before, though, there IS one arc in between this one and the final one where Emily and the team win. The next arc goes into Ashley's past with Elle and all that stuff. So yeah. **_

_**Updates after I post the conclusion for this one might be slower, 'cause I'm still not sure where I want to go with it. I'll just say I got really inspired by a song off the the Frozen soundtrack-don't hate me! Anyway, the song that inspired me is called "Life's Too Short (Reprise)" and is an outtake from the movie. So if you really want to know what'll happen between Ashley and Elle, try to imagine something while listening to that, I guess... XD **_

_**K BYE**_


	20. Life Sacrifice, Chapter 9 (Alternate)

**_Author's Note: ugh... Sorry for the lack of updates. Long story short, I've been sick for the past couple of days, and got caught up in school :T busy and sick me..._**

**_Well, anyway, I went back and watched a playthrough of the Higurashi visual novel of Minganoroshi-Hen and I wrote this to go along with it. So this chapter is basically an alternate version of the latest one I posted (Chapter 9). The end result is the same, but how they get there is different. Enjoy! _**

* * *

**When the Eagles Cry **

Life Sacrifice, Chapter 9 – Alternate Version.

First Person Point of View – Emily Prentiss

We all stop running as we see a van driving near us at a high speed. It slows to a stop on the road, a few feet and good handful of foliage away from us. As it stops, six guys in uniform—both Irish and American, I note—jump out, armed with stun guns. A van would be perfect; we could get away from here so easily.

The rest of the team has noticed as well, as I hear Derek confidently declare, "Six of them? Six of us! We can take them!"

"They have a van, too. I say we defeat them and then grab the vehicle." Hotch says. "That way, we can get away from all of them faster."

"But who will drive?!" Spencer exclaims in shock and worry.

"Hotch, of course, 'cause he's the oldest." JJ answers simply.

"I agree with my vanilla cupcake's suggestion." Penelope backs JJ up sweetly.

"But that's so dangerous, Hotch doesn't have his license or permit... Or hasn't even taken driver's education, for that matter!" Spencer protests.

"We can deal with legal issues later, Pretty Boy." Derek laughs.

"Alright, people." Hotch announces, getting everyone's attention. "Let's focus on taking them down first, and then I will figure out how to drive the van, okay?"

Everyone is smiling mischievously, save for Spencer, and I can't help but smile myself. Even in my darkest days the team comes in as rays of sunshine and guides me out of the darkness.

Suddenly, the group of men start approaching us, having probably heard us. We all stand around in wait. Everyone's looking at Derek to make a move, as he is usually the first to do something in these situations.

Our assumptions prove to be true as he runs up to the first man and punches him square in the face, knocking him out cold. Derek shakes his hand out afterward, having felt the pain of the blow on his own hand.

Hotch follows suit with his baseball bat, taking down the second one. Penelope uses the stun gun on both before realizing a moment too late there was a man behind her. Luckily, Spencer managed to slip in at the last second and sink his two fingers into a pressure point on the man's back.

"Hey, Penelope, watch your back!" Spencer teases playfully.

"Well, I don't have to, 'cause I know you and the rest of my babies will be watching it!" Penelope replies. "Thank you!"

JJ somehow managed to get up in one of the nearby trees during the initial attack and she shoots two of them down with her BB gun. Penelope once again follows up with a stun gun.

"Seriously, Baby Girl, that thing has _got _to be illegal." Derek laughs as he watches her crazy antics. "Once we get home, that thing is _gone._"

"Aw, but Derek, it's my new baby!" Penelope whines in reply, holding it close up to her face.

"Mama, I wouldn't put that thing so close to my face if I were you." Derek warns.

"Fight now, talk later!" Hotch yells as he looks for the last guy.

The last guy. Crap, I realize. I turn around and find him stalking toward me. He probably thinks he's won the jackpot, I'm sure—after all, _I'm _the one they're after in the first place. But I'm determined to fight, so I'm going to fight.

"Emily…" I hear Ashley warning me.

"You can be as pessimistic as you want, Ashley, but I'm fighting."

I run toward the guy and kick him in the crotch. I smirk as he bends over in pain, but am interrupted by my friends quickly approaching. I barely have time to get out of the way before I see Hotch hitting him in the abdomen with the bat, Derek punching him in the jaw, Spencer sinking his fingers into his shoulder, Penelope stunning him in the side, and, lastly, JJ dropping down from the trees above, yelling, "Look out below!"

As everyone backs away from the man on the ground, I can't help but look in awe. Damn, this guy will be lucky to survive after all that, I can't help but think.

There had been six of them, six of us. If even one of us had been missing, there would have been no way we could win. However, that wasn't the case, as all six of us now stood over the enemy victoriously. We had won.

"Darn, Emily beat us to it." Derek pouted. "I thought I was going to be the one to get him!"

"Excuse _me_, Hot Stuff, but in _volleyball_ we yell 'Mine!' to let our fellow team members know we've got it, and I believe _I _was the one who called 'Mine!' on this guy a few moments ago!" Penelope argues playfully.

"This isn't a competition—" Spencer begins.

"We all know _I _had the best method of attack here." JJ practically purrs.

"Falling out of the sky? Really, Jayje?" Derek laughs.

"Alright, enough." Hotch interrupts, but he's smiling amusingly, just like the rest of us. "We need to deal with the van."

"Oh yeah!" Penelope replies.

During our bickering, the men spread out on the ground all started to rise again.

"We need to go, now." I immediately warn everyone.

"Alright, then let's go." Hotch replies, and we all set out to attack again and fight our way to the van.

While we are moving, we hear a loud noise. Time seems to slow down, and, for the first time, I realize what I'm doing: trying to defeat my fate. My determination and current emotions all come flowing through me as the adrenaline begins to slow as well. However, time never stops slowing, and it manages to come to a stop.

What is this? What is happening? "Ashley… What are you doing?"

"The time has come." I hear Ashley's sad voice.

"Ashley, what do you mean? What's wrong?"

Ashley silently points towards Hotch, tears in her eyes.

It takes me a second to figure it out, and as soon as I do, I realize what's happening. I also notice some of my friends already have figured it out, as well. And by now, everyone had, except for Hotch himself.

"H-Hotch…" I hear Penelope nervously begin. "What is that floating in front of your chest?"

"What do you mean?" he replies in confusion, looking down. "Huh? This… This is…"

At first glance, I just saw a silver metal cone floating in front of his heart. Nothing more. But now, it means everything more. This changes everything.

"N-No… Hotch!" Derek immediately yells.

"What the hell is this?" Hotch asks us all sadly. "This is a bullet!"

It is indeed a bullet, floating about 15 centimeters away from Hotch's chest—right around where his heart is. I realize now time had stopped right as Hotch was about to attack one of the men. The loud noise we had all heard… It had been a gunshot.

That's right…

Once time starts moving again, it will enter his chest. It's too late. Hotch will die immediately.

It is the inevitable right now.

"W-Who shot it?!" Spencer protests fate through questions. "None of these guys were armed with guns!"

"Over there, by the van!" JJ chokes out, having been watching the bearer of the deadly weapon for almost the entire time now.

There had actually been a seventh person in the van. No, this can't be… There were only six of us… The seventh enemy had totally gone undetected by us… Ashley's news of Rossi's murder earlier had indeed been accurate, as we all saw Strauss, also frozen, but with a smile on her face. The same smile she had been wearing while aiming and shooting the gun. What the hell…?

"It's Strauss… B-But… Why?!" Penelope cried loudly, looking over at the blonde woman.

"I see… Strauss was the bad guy this entire time…" Hotch reflects.

"Hotch! Can't you try to twist your body or something, and dodge the bullet?" JJ called as tears were welling up in her eyes.

"Don't be ridiculous, Jayje, time's frozen; I can't move at all."

"Try to move a little when it starts again! That could make all the difference!" Derek calls next.

"Y-Yeah, you're more likely to survive if the bullet hits anywhere that isn't the heart...! According to statistics, anyway…" Spencer adds. Even Spencer, in all his intelligence and high IQ, is refusing to believe that Hotch must die right here, right now. Nobody's brain is working right anymore.

Hotch starts to chuckle at how desperate we are. He has accepted his fate now.

"Guys, you have to keep it together. Once time starts moving again, I will be hit. Even if I somehow don't die, I won't be able to help you anymore. So listen up… Give up on me. That's an order. Dave called us a team when we were younger, and he was right. You all are my team, my family. Just focus on getting the hell in that van and out of here. You all must protect each other. …Please, just do it for me."

"No… I don't want to lose you!" I yell out for the first time since Hotch's revelation. "Ashley, what are you trying to tell me…? That I can't defeat my fate?!"

"Don't worry, Emily… You won't remember any of this…" Ashley said slowly.

"No!" I protest.

"I refuse to accept this! We can't let Hotch die!"

"Stop it, Penelope." Derek suddenly snaps sadly. "We have to let him go. We can't help him."

"No… Hotch…" JJ cries softly.

"JJ, it's the only way…" Spencer tries to reason with her softly.

"Spencer and Derek are right." Hotch speaks up. "You guys have to get out of here, get to DC, get somewhere safe… I'm sure that they killed Rossi, that's the reason he never came… The law enforcement here won't help. You have to get the hell out of here and get outside help. Promise me you'll survive… Promise me!"

"Bossman…" Penelope sobs.

I then see Hotch turn his eyes toward me. The sadness I feel is like nothing before, and I'm sure it's showing in my own eyes and expression.

"I'm sorry, Emily. I'm sorry I couldn't be there with you through the whole thing…" he begins.

"Don't talk like that, Hotch, you're still here!" I snap as I feel tears starting to break the flood gates in my eyes.

"I'm sorry." Hotch continues, as if I didn't speak. "Please, live on, enjoy life… For me."

Suddenly laughter breaks out, coming from Strauss. It is by far the scariest laughter I've ever heard—period. We all turn, as much as we can in our frozen states, to face her.

"So, are you ready to let go of your life now?" I want to slap her for her tone of voice. How dare she shoot one of my best friends and try to make it funny. _How dare she. _

I have no time to react as time continues. As quickly as it had frozen, time unfroze itself. Motion and noise suddenly come to life, and we hear Hotch fall to the ground with a grunt of pain.

We all watch in horror as his blood goes everywhere and he coughs even more up. God, how much blood is even in a person? Is it really that much?

JJ immediately ran to Hotch's side after we all unfroze. She fell to the ground next to him, on her knees, begging for his life to be spared. He barely had time to give her a reassuring smile before he stopped moving altogether.

We were horrified, shell-shocked; Hotch was our older brother, our team leader, our best friend. He was the most level-headed and strong of us all. And yet, there he lay on the ground, dead, powerless against his own fate.

Or was it even _his own _fate? Isn't this the fate _I_ brought upon him? Realization hits me, as I figure no one is getting out of tonight alive. Despite all our efforts, we cannot beat the men who attack us. They only laugh as they push us down and pull our hair. We lost one of our own; we were totally out of sync with each other. I am horrified as I realize _this _is the fate _I _brought upon _all_ of them.

My fears are only confirmed as Strauss' damn laughter rings in my ears.

"This is Strauss. I've taken care of the obstacles surrounding Prentiss. We're going to need five body bags and some water to clean up the blood."

As I shudder in discomfort, a man manages to restrain me, holding my hands behind my back. No matter how hard I struggle, he continues to hold me strongly in place. I look over and notice each of my remaining friends is in the same position. I freeze up my body and cease struggling for momentarily, but time won't stop again.

I hear Strauss laugh again and she struts toward Derek, gun in hand. I hear Penelope crying "No!" over and over again. My heart had already been broken from Hotch's death, but now it's breaking all over again.

Derek looked up at Strauss as she put the gun to his head. "You've got to be kidding me..!" he stammers, still shocked about the outcome of the situation.

"Sorry, Derek, but we all know that should anything bad ever happen to your friend Aaron, you'd be the one to step up and be everyone's big brother, correct? Oh wait…" Strauss practically purrs. "Something _did_ happen…" I scowl in anger at her attempt at humor.

"Stop! Please! Don't shoot him!" Penelope screams through sobs. Tear are streaming down my own face.

"Please…" JJ adds after Penelope's plea.

Strauss only shakes her head. "I have to kill him first, he's your guys' team leader now. But no longer." She laughs, then looks down at Derek. "I guess you can say you're dying as a hero, like your father." she mocks him.

"More heroic than you'll ever be!" Derek scowls in reply.

Strauss' finger tightens on the trigger. I feel tears pricking my eyes.

"N-No… Please…" Penelope begs one last time.

_Pow!_

We all cry out Derek's name as we hear the dull sound of the bullet being shot from Strauss' gun. Derek's body falls to the ground limply. We all try to struggle and break free, but it's no use. Penelope continues to sob for her best friend who was just slaughtered brutally in front of her.

Strauss is enjoying our struggling and grieving. I can tell by the pleased look on her face. God, this world has gone down the drain in such a different way… I'm just ready for it to be over.

I'm pulled out of my thoughts as I notice JJ's head snap up in fear as Strauss begins approaching her with the gun. I can tell JJ is trying to put on a brave face, but she's struggling, and I can't blame her. _I'm _terrified for her.

Before Penelope or I can intercept, the quietest member of the group begins yelling at Strauss. Spencer has some new found courage as he calls her out for being a coward. …It's a bit different to not hear him spouting out a statistic to support his argument and opinion. Overall, it's truly courageous. He's showing his true, core self, by confronting the beast with no weapons or defensive mechanisms.

Strauss stops in her tracks and turns back to face the young boy. "Oh, you want to die first, then?" she taunts him.

JJ's struggling only increases as she hears the taunt. "NO! SPENCE! Don't agitate her… No, please, don't kill him! Spence…!" she yells, her crying growing hysterical by the end of her statement.

Spencer only glares at Strauss as she steps over Hotch's body and walks toward him. "Let me guess, _you're_ the one who _personally_ killed Rossi… Right?!" he challenged her. I was impressed; we all had been able to figure out something bad happened to Rossi, but as to who the exact culprit was, we weren't that far yet.

"I don't like giving out secrets." Strauss answered simply. "So I'm not telling you."

Before anyone can say anything else, we hear another gunshot and witness Spencer's body jerk from the bullet, before finally falling and never moving again. It was JJ's turn to scream in horror and sorrow of her closest friend among the guys of the team as she witnessed his death.

I was conflicted; on one hand, I want to go comfort JJ and be her best friend, like usual. On the other hand, I know that everything that was happening is all my fault, so JJ definitely deserved better than me as counsel. If only I hadn't told the team, I wouldn't have damned them all in this world...

But then, another hand comes to mind… And it is the voice of reason and logic, telling me this will all pay off in the next world, because we will know who the culprit is from the start. For the present moment, however, as my friends and I are trapped in this hell, it is _far _from reassuring.

"You think you can just get away with all this?!" The sheer hatred and venom in Penelope's voice quickly pulls me out of my thoughts as I realize she is taking her role as the oldest person alive right now; she doesn't want to see JJ and I die before her… "You monster!"

"Penelope, no!" JJ gasped in horror.

"Pen..." I say, my sadness softening my voice to barely a whisper.

"I was going to let you die last, it's a shame you don't seem to agree with my methods." Strauss said with a fake frown.

Penelope scoffed. "Please, I beg of you, to send my soul to the land of heavenly computers so I can back-hack your ass into the next millennium." She snapped in reply.

Another gunshot. Under any normal circumstances, I would have been laughing _my_ ass off at Penelope's comment. Her personality always seemed to brighten up my day, even in _these_ kind of endings. And for that, I was thankful.

JJ's crying had reduced a bit as her body was overall very tired. Now she was shaking and whimpering in fear. My poor, poor Jayje… She could never catch a break, could she? Is my friendship poison to her and the others? Look where it's gotten them now…

Strauss now paraded proudly over to JJ, and put the gun up to the young girl's head. "Sorry, Jennifer, but now it's your turn." She said in a fake apologetic tone.

JJ raises her head to look at Strauss. I decide to interfere.

"Wait!" I yell. "JJ, just… Please… Don't take your eyes off of me."

Strauss shoots me a puzzling look, as does Ashley. So I take a deep breath and decide to explain myself. "I don't want the last thing you see to be something dark and evil… I'm so sorry for getting you in this mess, Jayje… But—"

"But, you're the only light I have left to look at." JJ finishes my sentence, with renewed courage in her eyes. "Thank you, Emily… And I'm glad we could all do this for you… I'm only sorry you'll have to be alone after this…"

"I'm never alone… All of you are always with me." I assert gently. JJ accepts my answer with a nod, and continues to look at me. Her blue eyes pool into my brown as I hear the gunshot. And with the noise, the bright and playful Jennifer Jareau is gone. She's with the rest of my friends now.

As I hear Strauss laugh and walk away to make the preparations for my own death, I find comfort in the thought of my friends being with their loved ones in heaven. Derek with his dad, Penelope with both of her parents, JJ with her sister… And, of course, all my friends with each other.

Strauss approaches me again, but I decide to lead the conversation.

"I know you aren't going to be the one who kills me." I say coolly.

"Oh? Then who is?" she questions me.

I shrug. "One of the guys from the head of the ring. Why the hell are you working with them in this?"

"You caused a lot of problems for many people that day. You got a bunch of us Americans fired and all the Irish arrested."

"I'm pretty sure you were working for the latter to happen, too, in case you forgot."

"Sassy, sassy girl. I wouldn't talk to Doyle with that attitude, if I were you."

"He's the one behind all this?"

"I'm surprised you couldn't figure it out sooner, with you already knowing I wouldn't be the one to kill you and all."

I decide to end my side of the conversation here, and Strauss seems to get the message as she walks away. I blow my bangs out of my face in boredom and anxiety. My hands are still restrained, so I can't bite my nails.

"It's time to say goodnight, Agent Prentiss." Strauss says in her mocking tone as she walks over to me. I know she is going to drug me. But, what if this causes me to not remember? This piece of information all of my friends died for is so important. …My mind is made up.

"Wait, Strauss." I call out to the woman.

"Oh? Even when you're the last one alive, the sole survivor, you still will beg for your life?"

"No." I answer simply. "I want to be awake the entire time while I'm with Doyle."

Strauss looks generally surprised and blinks once at me before speaking again. "Are you sure? You've caused a lot of trouble again, he will undoubtedly be extra horrible to you."

"I want to be awake." I repeat. "That way, the image of you killing my friends and him killing me will be burned onto my soul, and the next time I see your faces, I will remember what you did to us."

Ashley had looked genuinely surprised by my request at first, but was now nodding her head in understanding.

Strauss laughs again and walks away. Soon, another van pulls up, and I know that this will be my final car ride.

I watch as men jump out and stuff the bodies of my friends into huge bags. I fight the tears as I watch them be pulled away from me. As I'm bound and gagged, other men use a hose to clean the blood off the ground. They then ask Strauss how many shots she fired, so they can find all the bullets. They're going to erase everything that happened tonight from existence.

My thoughts are interrupted as they put handcuffs and a regular gag on me before tossing me in the car. There's definitely no escape now. But in the back of my mind, I can feel a strange sense of satisfaction... Despite all the pain and sorrow of my friends' deaths tonight, I feel like I've actually accomplished something in this life.

Life is so precious, and so easily lost; this world was definitely teaching me just that. I was so used to just dying and resurrecting like it was nothing up until this point. Each of my friends has only one life, and here they each were losing it… I can't be the one to put their lives on one side of the balance and our new found knowledge on the other; I'm supposed to be human, like them, and living life to its fullest.

Everyone in this world is taking their life seriously. Everyone, except for me. My will to live has been at an all time low ever since I was killed in the first world. There used to be hope and determination, but it all faded quickly as my time in each world shortened. I have not been taking my precious life seriously, until now, through fighting for it. And I wasn't alone-my friends were there with me.

As the car is driving, I feel Ashley's presence near me... I notice she is crying, as usual. She always acts like the cold bystander, and yet here she is, crying the tears that I am fighting. In a strange way, her crying comforts me.

"Emily... Again we have failed... And yet this time, you were so close..." Ashley cries quietly.

"We may have failed in preserving our lives, but we succeeded in getting our information that we've never gotten before. We know who the culprits are, as well as how to break fate."

Ashley looks at me, puzzled by my last bit.

"I've learned that I need to rely on my friends and ask them for help when I need it... This feeling of fighting is so satisfying, even though, physically, we lost. I now know that if we can get everything straight immediately in the next world, we can defeat fate and live our lives out."

Ashley nods as I explain, and her crying decreases. I bite back the question of whether or not she's happy we failed again... She's always telling me to just live and let die, without fighting or a second thought... But now I've learned that even someone as "divine" as her can be wrong.

She always tries to act so indifferent about it, to protect herself from getting hurt when we fail. And yet, she is still the one grieving over the failure so much. She's so stupid.

The van stops and my body is dragged out into the abandoned warehouse. I shiver against the cold ground as they remove my clothing... I feel no shame in being exposed to Doyle. While it's not like I haven't been exposed like this to him or the others before, I have just stopped feeling ashamed. I need to remember the sheer pain of all of this, that way, I can know the truth in the next world.

"Ashley, you have to watch... You can't look away... I will be doing my best to remember."

"And even if you forget, I will be there to remind you." she replies with a nod, sitting next to my head on the ground. Her crying has become just sniffles now, but she is still so devastated.

Doyle comes into the room looking at me angrily. I meet his eyes calmly. I show no emotion on the positive or negative spectrum-just a neutral gaze. He addresses my "crimes" against both him and the bureau and begins his assault of various methods of torture.

While Ashley watches, I manage to glance up at the moon through a hole in the roof as I can feel darkness clouding my vision. How long have I been here? It's so painful... Cold begins to consume my body. How long has it been since my friends' deaths? My friends. They're watching me.

They're still with me, their spirits... They keep vigil with Ashley as I am put through this pain and suffering. Though the pain is unbearable and I couldn't contain screams of pain at some points, they are still there... And, in a way, their presence makes everything much better.

I start to lose feeling and control of my body. My limbs go numb and I cannot move them anymore. Though I will look at Doyle and the night sky above, I can't bring myself to look at my mangled body... The physical pain is enough.

Soon, the moon goes crimson red, like blood. I assume this is the end, and my assumption is confirmed as total darkness consumes my vision.

This world has been great to me. I've learned so much about fate, myself, and my friends... JJ evolved from the little girl who had been shattered after her sister's suicide and faced her fears of the woods. Hotch became a true leader and respectful figure, unlike his awful father. Penelope stayed optimistic and loving until the end, as she protected JJ and me as long as she could. Derek gained more self-confidence and figured out his own path to salvation, away from Buford. Spencer, though quiet, calm, and collected as always, showed true bravery despite the horrible things life has done to him through his father's abandonment and mother's mental illness.

All my friends are more beautiful and unique than the floating crystals in Ashley's world. I've seen every kind of thing that can go wrong with them. I've seen them turn on each other. And, yet, they always manage to stay loyal and caring to one another. I'm so spoiled.

As I let out a shaky breath, I realize it is my last. My dying wish? It's only to be reunited with my friends again, and to protect both them and myself from fate in the next world.

* * *

"Emily Prentiss is dead." Ian's voice rings through Strauss' earpiece. She nods approvingly, though the man cannot see her.

"Well, that was quite a while you spent with her... A few hours, wow." Strauss says as she looks at the clock on the wall. It's been nearly three hours since they dropped Emily off. The woman knew Doyle wouldn't waste even a millisecond of that time, meaning the raven haired girl's death had definitely been dragged out slowly and painfully.

"She needed to pay for what she's done." came Doyle's voice in Strauss' ear again. "And now, we'll be able to move on and take back what is ours."

* * *

_**Author's Note: Okay, I've been tryinngggg to release this chapter for days and I have to go to bed now as I am recovering from my sickness so hopefully you dudes all enjoyed this alternate version of chapter 9. **_


	21. Life Sacrifice, Conclusion

**When the Eagles Cry**

Life Sacrifice, Conclusion.

"Woohoo! Welcome to the Lonely Souls Club, my raven-haired Gumdrop!" Penelope cheered as Emily's spirit joined her friends.

The dark haired girl in question only blinked in reply, as she realized what had come to pass in the world they had just made it out of.

"I'm sorry you guys all had to... Well, die. I guess there's no way to put it nicely." Emily sighed sadly.

"Oh, come on, Em, we already know you'd do the same for each of us, so obviously each of us would do the same for you!" JJ replied, wrapping an arm around her best friend's shoulders.

"Yes, and remember, we're all in this together from now on." Derek said determinedly.

"Win together, lose together, teammates!" Penelope cheered enthusiastically.

The group all chuckled at Penelope's remark, including Ashley. Emily glanced at her blonde friend.

"So, I guess for now, you guys kinda get a glimpse at what my life is like, with Ashley here and all that." Emily observed.

"She's really nice." Spencer replied.

"Yeah, and you know I'll always say yes to another blonde in the group!" JJ cheered. Everyone laughed happily.

"Hey, so, why didn't the miracle work?" Derek spoke up as everyone's laughter subsided.

Everyone turned and looked over at him.

"Derek, what do you mean?" Hotch asked.

Derek shrugged. "Well, these two have been traveling and looking for a world with some sort of miraculous ending, right? And I was so sure we could make the miracle happen, because we all believed." He replied.

The friends all glanced at each other.

"Everyone _did_ believe, right?" JJ asked.

Everyone nodded, except for Ashley. Emily didn't seem to react while the rest of her friends all looked over at Ashley expectantly.

"Well, what about you, did you believe?" Penelope asked the young blonde.

"I-I'm just a powerless existence!" Ashley stammered shyly. "I have no effect on the physical world!"

"Nonsense." Hotch frowned. "I bet if you had believed, we would have succeeded."

"Plus, there were seven of them, in the end." Derek added. "Before Strauss came out of the van, there were only six, but then she made it seven. If you helped us, it would have been even."

Ashley blushed. "How could you be so sure? I spent so many years believing, only to be let down each time." She replied.

"That's because we didn't have all the horsepower from their belief, Ashley." Emily replied. "We've really learned a lot from this past world. Not only have we learned the truth in my murderer, but we've learned an important lesson in friendship, and... Oh, God, this turned really corny really fast!" she groaned.

All her friends nodded happily while laughing again. Ashley looked shy and embarrassed, as usual. Emily looked down and realized they had been standing around her dead body this whole time, laughing and enjoying each other's company like any normal day.

"Look!" JJ said, pointing towards the sun rising outside, through one of the broken windows in the building.

"The next world." Emily commented with a smile. "It's only fitting it comes with the break of dawn. A new beginning, a new chance." All her friends nodded their heads in a greeting.

"Alright, team. We are going to fight, and we are going to win. I know we can all do it." Hotch spoke up for the team, putting his hand out into the middle of the group.

"I second the notion!" JJ chimed in as usual, adding her hand.

"I third it." Spencer added, putting his hand in.

Soon, all six of the best friends had their hands in the middle, touching, ready to face their next trials together.

Ashley looked back and forth at the bright faces of the best friends nervously. After a few moments of hesitation, she finally put her hand out, on top of the other six.

Emily felt the familiar power surge through and around her body. She looked at all her friends confidently. "Next stop: the perfect world." She spoke with a smile, as the sun's rays came shining down upon them and consumed them.

* * *

_**Author's Note: And now I must figure out where to go in the next arc with Ashley and Elle... Until then, au revoir! **_


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Criminal Minds, Friendship, Mystery