"Easy there, tough guy. Have some coffee with your sugar." I heard Derek tell Spencer. I adjusted the bag around my good shoulder and leaned against the wall.

"I need something wake me up." Spencer poured more sugar and stirred the drink.

"Ooh. Late night?" Derek smirked.

"Very." Spencer answered unknowingly.

"My man." He chuckled.

"Not that kind of late night." Spencer clarified.

"So, what does keep young Dr. Reid awake at night?" Derek placed his hand on Spencer's shoulder as they came over to the main level of the BAU floor. "Wait, let me guess. Memorizing some obscure textbook. No, no, no, no. Working on cold fusion. No, I got it, I got it, I got it. Watching Star Trek...and laughing at the physics mistakes." Derek listed out stereotypical guesses.

"Actually, there aren't that many mistakes in Star Trek, especially considering how long ago it was made. There are certain improbabilities, but not that many outright errors." Spencer got distracted.

"Perhaps it's the thought of his best friend being stuck in a hospital bed with hospital food for two weeks." I stepped out from my hiding spot.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Derek rushed over to my side and hugged me gently, aware that my shoulder was still in the healing process.

"What do you mean what am I doing here? Today's my day back." I answered. "Derek Morgan, I thought you would have remembered the date of my return." I faked a gasp.

"I swear you're supposed to come back December 2nd. Today's November 30th." He thought about it for a bit.

"Okay, fine. You caught me." I rolled my eyes. "I was supposed to stay another two days, but I couldn't miss out on all the action." I whined.

"Who discharged you?" He furrowed his brows.

"Derek, I'm a big girl now. I can discharge myself." I placed the hand that wasn't in a sling on my hip. "Well, I've got to check in on everything else, so I'll let you two talk." I waved at them and headed over to my desk.

"Suparna? What are you doing back?" Elle came over to me after telling the boys we're meeting in the conference room right now.

"Can't anybody remember the day I come back? I mean, am I that unimportant?" I scoffed jokingly.

"McAllister. Western slope of Massanutten Mountain in Virginia." JJ, Gideon, and Aaron came through the other door. "Two bodies discovered in the woods, both with apparent blunt trauma to the head." JJ set down the open case file with the pictures.

"Skeletons?" Spencer furrowed his brow.

"One of them. The second victim was just killed this morning." JJ clarified.

"How do we know there's a connection?" Elle sat down in one of the chairs.

"Found about 75 feet apart nearly identical head wounds." Aaron responded.

"Where's the rest of the case file?" Derek held up the empty folder.

"There isn't one. The sheriffs are on the scene waiting for us." Aaron informed us.

"Their location is only half hour by plane." JJ mentioned.

"What's the rush?" Derek asked.

"Well, there was evidence on the scene that could cause a bit of public uproar." Aaron answered vaguely.

"Satanic cult." Gideon dropped a picture of a tree with a carving of a reversed pentagram along with the words 'Satan lives LOD' in deep red. In the plane, Spencer and I sat next to each other in a booth.

"JJ, we need to obviously keep this away from the press for as long as possible." Aaron stated.

"I'll do what I can." She sighed.

"Why is that so important?" Elle questioned.

"There was a nationwide scare in the 1980s involving satanic ritual killings and abuse. The Satanic Panic, it was called. It began after the publication of a book about repressed memories being recovered through hypnotherapy. Memories of growing up with devil worshippers who use children in their rituals and ceremonies." Spencer blurted out the fact.

"Most of the claims were later found to be false or just impossible." My brother continued.

"Still, numerous therapists accepted the assertions as true and began searching for similar signs in their own patients. After one year, thousands of people reported the exact same repressed memories." Spencer used air quotes for emphasis.

"But the Bureau conducted an investigation and concluded that most of the ritual killings or abuse were more urban legend than anything else." Aaron argued.

"You're saying that there's no such thing as devil worshipping?" Elle squinted her eye at him.

"Not at all." Gideon shook his head. "But most of the satanism we've seen is juveniles damaging property, desecrating churches, cemeteries." Derek came out from the back. "To my knowledge, there's never been a proven case of a satanic ritual killing in the United States." He scanned the room.

"Well, maybe there is now." Derek looked over the picture of the tree with the markings.

"Maybe." I sighed. Spencer, Gideon, and JJ went to look at the tree while Aaron, Derek, and I searched around the crime scene of the recent murder.

"Was he out here running today?" Derek questioned as we joined Aaron and the local sheriff.

"He was wearing sweats." The sheriff confirmed. I stood by Derek as the three men talked.

"I want you to go back into the SUV." Derek pulled me aside gently.

"What? Why?" I furrowed my brows.

"There's loose rocks, and it's super rocky. I don't want you falling and getting even more hurt than you already are." He gestured to my sling.

"Derek, just because I have to wear this stupid thing does not mean I'm helpless." I scoffed.

"It's an order." He repeated to me, clenching his jaw slightly.

"God, Derek." I rolled my eyes and climbed under the crime scene tape. Instead of actually going back to the car, I headed over to the other half of our team.

"What's up?" JJ greeted me.

"Morgan's being an ass." I huffed in frustration.

"Does 'LOD' mean anything to you?" Gideon questioned.

"Nope. I don't know of any significance of satanism, either." Spencer denied.

"John Bridges." The other sheriff turned to me as soon as he joined us.

"Suparna Hotchner." I shook his hand. "And I'll call Garcia to do some research on 'LOD'." I pulled out my phone and dialed the number, but it kept failing. "If only I could get a call out." I grumbled.

"Not much of a chance of that out here." Sheriff Bridges said to me as I moved around the trail.

"Where the hell is Suparna?" I heard Derek's face bellow. I rolled my eyes and climbed up the steep and hefty trail, still trying to get a signal.

"Calm your tits, Morgan. I'm trying to call G." I stuffed my phone into my pocket. Suddenly, the dirt beneath my right foot gave out, and I was about to fall.

"I've got you." Derek held onto my good hand that wasn't stuck in a sling.

"Very nice reflexes, Derek." I chuckled nervously since that would have been a rough fall. He pulled me back up onto the leveled ground.

"You okay?" My brother came over to me.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." I assured him. "Uh, thank you." I looked up at Derek, who just nodded his head. "How much did I miss?" I posed to the others and Derek wrapped his jacket around my shoulders.

"Cherish? Cherish!" A woman came running towards the crime scene, but a sheriff held her back. "Sheriff Bridges!" She called out to him.

"It's okay, Harris. Let her in." Bridges let him know.

"Was Adam Lloyd killed out here?" She questioned.

"Veronica, who told you that?" Clearly, the two know each other.

"Was he? My daughter was with him. They were out running together this morning." She informed us. "Oh my God. And I can't find her. Cherish is missing. Cherish is missing!" She sobbed out. "Help me, please." She pleaded. After talking to and taking care of her with the sheriffs, Gideon came back to us.

"We're looking for someone who can overpower our victim, abduct a girl from a traveled path without being seen." Gideon listed out.

"It certainly fits with the cult theory. More than on UnSub to control multiple victims." Spencer connected.

"But if the attack were ferocious enough, a single UnSub could, too. Kill Adam and grab the girl while she's in shock." Aaron pointed out.

"This is some rough country. We only went a quarter of a mile, and we almost got lost." Elle and Derek came back to our group.

"Whoever did this serious knows these trails and woods by the back of their hand." I placed my hand on my hip.

"You don't just stumble onto a place like this." Derek backed me up.

"JJ, where'd the sheriff go?" Gideon looked back at her.

"He's setting up a search party." She answered.

"Tell him I want him to use volunteers from the area. Locals." Gideon requested.

"Do you want him to know why?" She furrowed her brows in focus.

"No, not yet." Gideon shook his head.

"Is it wise to alienate him?" Aaron questioned.

"Well, he thinks we're looking for a monster. If we tell him we're looking for volunteers so we can profile who shows up, he might call the whole thing off." Gideon detailed the possibility. Spencer and JJ went back to town with Sheriff Bridges. The area was completely packed with locals.

"Ladies and gentlemen, can I have your attention, please?" Bridges called out to the crowd. "Now, you're all assigned grid squares to search. Each square has a deputy or an FBI agent. If you find anything, do not touch it. Just let your grid leader know. Now, are there any questions?" He instructed the people. "Alright. Everyone get in your group now." And we split up. Back at the sheriffs' department, Elle found a note most likely from the UnSub.

"Uh, they're ready." JJ and Sheriff Bridges came by to inform us.

"Okay." My brother nodded his head.

"Let's get this show on the road." I sighed. We situated ourselves in the room.

"Contrary to popular belief, there has never been a proven case of satanic ritual killing. Never a verified human sacrifice. Having said that, there have been isolated cases of animal sacrifice...and many, many cases of vandalism in the name of Satan." Aaron started us off.

"Now that doesn't mean that ritual satanism is impossible. More importantly, for our purposes, there have been cults that killed, just not in ritual fashion." Derek continued.

"The reverend Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple...his followers killed a US Congressman and three people before committing mass suicide, leaving over 900 people dead. And, perhaps, the most widely–known of the killer cults, the Manson family under the direction of Charles Manson who killed nine people in a four–day period in an attempt to initiate a race war." Spencer took over.

"Killer cults do exist, and they all have one thing in common...invariably, they're headed by charismatic megalomaniacs." Elle added.

"That leader is who we are looking for. He is who will stand out. He will be memorable to somebody, people who aren't in his group will see him as strange, weird, scary." I listed out the traits.

"Since we're dealing with professed satanists, which is often practiced by younger males, we may be looking for teenagers. Heavy metal music is often associated with satanism, and these kids and their leader may reflect that in their look." Aaron suggested.

"Most likely, there'll be sex, drugs, and alcohol. Now the leader, he'll be older. It's part of his charm. And he is from this area." Derek went on.

"He is definitely local." Aaron confirmed.

"These woods are too thick and confusing for a visitor to get around in." Elle shook her head.

"You think one of our own people is doing this?" Sheriff Bridges took offense.

"We're sure of it." Aaron replied.

"I would know if someone was capable of doing—" Sheriff Bridges tried to deny our profile.

"Dad." A young high schooler, the sheriff's son, cut him off. "I know somebody like that." He turned to us. Gideon, Aaron, Spencer, and Bridges took the young boy to his office to talk. The rest of us got ready to head out.

"I'm not going on the raid." Gideon shut the door.

"What's up?" Aaron looked over at him.

"I don't know yet." He answered, staring off at something. Or someone. We could hear the heavy metal music playing from over a mile away. The deputies and sheriffs surrounded the house along with the agents.

"FBI! Don't move!" Derek shouted over the music. We split up, looking for Zizzo. It took us five minutes to find our lead suspect. Aaron, Elle, and Bridges immediately took him into an interrogation room. Derek, Spencer, and I were left by the house.

"I gotta give the sheriff a report. I'll be back as soon as I can." The remaining deputy let us know. "You guys need anything?" He inquired.

"Coffee would be nice." Spencer replied.

"He takes about a quarter sugar in it." Derek teased.

"Two teaspoons is fine." Spencer said to the deputy.

"Black with two creams." I smiled politely before following the boys.

"You got it." The deputy backed up and drove off.

"Morgan, you knew I didn't want you to tell Hotch and Suparna about my nightmares." Spencer turned to Derek.

"Nightmares?" I furrowed my brows.

"Reid, that's something that they should know about you." Derek faced him.

"What do you mean, 'they'?" Spencer questioned.

"Hotch and Gideon." Derek clarified.

"You told Gideon, too?" Spencer exclaimed.

"Yeah. And it's okay, kid." Derek assured him.

"What if they think I can't do my job? What if they want to pull me off the team?" Spencer panicked.

"If they would do that, my own brother wouldn't have hired me in the first place." I shook my head, making the guys turn to me. "Spencer, it comes with the job." I tried to comfort him, but he didn't take it.

"How do you know that, huh?" He questioned me.

"We just do." Derek defended me.

"I–I confided in you. You had no right, man. This is, you know, this is exactly what I get when I trust someone. It gets thrown back in my face." He spat out.

"Mine started six months after I got into the BAU. Yeah. Mine." Derek disclosed to him before leaving. "We were working a strangler case in Montana. Four victims. Me, I was still pretty young at the time, so, you know, I was feeling myself. I was cocky. I was arrogant. The locals, they didn't have anything. So I stepped up. I said I can nail down a profile for you just as soon as I get what I need." He started.

"More victims." Spencer knew.

"Mm–hmm. She was found the next day. So I went down to the scene to do my own thing. And as I was looking over the body, that's when I saw them. Her eyes, Reid. They were wide open. And there was something different about them, it was like they were looking right at me. Like she knew. I asked for a victim. Well, here she was." He shrugged his shoulders. "That's when they started for me. Night after night, I would fall asleep, and I would see those eyes. They were dead eyes. Accusing eyes. And it got to the point where it was happening even when I wasn't asleep. Reid, everywhere I went, I saw those eyes." He blurted out.

"What did you do?" Spencer questioned.

"Gideon." Derek answered. "He knew. I didn't tell him. I was like you. I didn't want anybody to know. He just...he knew. And he sat me down, and he...he just kind of talked me through it. I still have the nightmares to this day, just not nearly as often." He sighed. "But when they come back...I know how to handle them better." He stated.

"What did he say?" Spencer furrowed his brows.  Then, a car engine roared. Derek and I instinctively reached for our guns, keeping the young doctor behind us. Derek pushed me back behind him protectively.

"Did you find her? Cherish?" The sheriff's son, Cory, stepped out.

"No." We answered.

"Did Zizzo say anything?" He sounded stressed and worried.

"We don't know. We've been here the whole time." I replied.

"Cory, calm down." Spencer looked over at him.

"How am I supposed to calm down? Cherish is missing. Did you check all over?" He reached for the doorknob.

"We searched all over the house." Spencer informed him.

"What about the outbuilding?" He questioned.

"Outbuilding?" I scrunched up my brows in confusion.

"Did you check the other area, back in the woods?" He pointed back in the general direction.

"I didn't know there was another area." Derek sounded just as confused.

"Yeah, it's like a–it's like a sluice structure or something." He described to us. "He took me there once. It's this way." He led us. Derek, Spencer, and I followed him. "It's up here. This is their secret place." Something just didn't feel right in my gut. Derek flashed his light across the area.

"Suparna, Reid." He pointed up at the inverted pentagram with the letters 'LOD'. Lords of Destruction.

"Stay right here." I pulled my arm out of my sling carefully.

"Uh, Suparna, I don't—" Spencer tried to stop me.

"It's fine. I'm just taking it off a week early." I held the flashlight with my bad arm with my gun ready in the good arm which happened to be my shooting hand. We ended up finding Cherish in three.

"She in there? Is she alright?" Cory asked us as Derek and I came out.

"Cory, she's in there." Derek walked past them.

"L–Leave him alone for a bit." I advised them shakily. Derek tried to get a cell signal, but we were literally in the middle of the woods.

"Reid, I want you to go to the house and see if the deputies have come back. We need the sheriff and the crime scene team here." Derek ordered him.

"But—" Spencer tried to argue.

"Do it, Reid. Suparna, go with him." Derek repeated. Spencer ran off, but I pulled Derek aside.

"Hey." I placed my hand on his cheek and made him look down at me. "Be careful. There's something strange going on, and I don't know what it is." I whispered to him, glancing at Cory.

"You, too." He nodded his head, and I headed in Spencer's direction. Five minutes later, I felt like something was happening, so I ran back to the building.

"Derek, no one's up there." I called out to him.

"Suparna! Suparna!" In the span of a second, Cory pulled a revolver out of his pocket. He wrapped his arm around my neck to keep me in place before pressing the muzzle against my temple.

"This got all messed up." Cory murmured.

"Don't be stupid." Derek trained his gun on Cory.

"She wasn't supposed to be with him. It was his run. He runs it every day. Not her!" He yelled.

"Cory, listen to me. We can fix this. But you gotta let Suparna go." Derek directed him.

"I never mean to hurt her. But make no mistake, I will shoot your girl right here." Cory threatened.

"No, you won't." Derek scoffed.

"Tempt not a desperate man." Cory cocked the gun. "Put the gun down!" He shouted at Derek.

"Okay, alright, you win." Derek held his hands in the air.

"Drop it. Drop the gun!" Cory roared in rage.

"Okay. Okay. You win. I'm putting the gun down." Derek dropped his gun onto a bed of leaves. "You're in control, Cory. Let her go." He reiterated.

"For the evil is man's best force. Man must become better and eviler." Spencer spoke up from behind.

"What?" Cory turned us halfway.

"That's what this is about, right? Zarathustra? The superman? There's no moral obligation for killing someone if you're superior to them?" Spencer posed to Cory. "But Nietzsche was speaking metaphorically about evolving as a species." He stated.

"You're just a horny kid who wanted to get rid of the cheerleader's boyfriend." Derek provoked him.

"Derek, are you trying to get him angry?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Shut up, bitch!" Cory yelled at me, loosening his grip a bit. I took this as an opportunity to grab his gun and rip myself out of his grasp. He didn't let go of the gun, so I pointed it up to the sky when he shot. Derek tackled him onto the ground and punched the kid.

"You alright?" He wrapped an arm around my shoulder.

"Glad you got my message." I smiled tiredly.

"Come on. Let's go, Cory." Derek pulled him up as sirens approached us. On the plane ride home, I couldn't sleep. I noticed Spencer staring at the ground and Derek looking up at the ceiling. I went to the back and made two cups of tea for the guys.

"Here." I set one down on the desk right next to Spencer's seat and the other in front of Derek.

"What is this?" Derek inquired.

"Tea. I, um...I made this when I first started having nightmares about two years ago. I did a ton of research, went to different therapists, but nothing worked. So...I developed a passion for tea. The nightmares come every once in a while, but they've diminished quite a bit." I explained to them.

"If you don't mind me asking, how did your nightmares start?" Spencer looked up at me.

"That's a story for another time. But I'll tell you guys. Someday." I smiled kindly before sitting across from them. I closed my eyes and fell asleep instantly.