Bluejay, 8/11
Title: Bluejay
Rating: R
Fandom: Criminal Minds
Characters/Pairing: JJ/Hotch
Genre: Supernatural/Drama
Summary: It’s been two years since Jennifer Jareau has seen her team. She’s been a little busy fighting demons.
Author’s Note: Written for floatingamoeba, who bid on my auction post for thepurpledove. Thanks to the kick-ass yellowsmurf6 and windycitydream for their assistance on this one, and overall. An R/P deleted scene for this story can be found here.
Part Eight
The dark sky twinkled with stars.
It had taken several hours at the fastest pace they could manage to get far enough away from the town that a pitchfork wielding mob wouldn’t start after them if they summoned a demon.
Things had been crazy for a while, but this was about the craziest thing yet, Morgan decided. Two years ago, if anyone had told him he’d be conducting rituals involving blood and chicken feathers, he would have thought that they were delusional.
They wouldn’t do the whole “demon-summoning” ritual tonight, though - they had the ingredients, but they needed to double check the procedure, just to make sure that something didn’t go horribly wrong.
They didn’t want to mistranslate something, and accidently summon Cthulu by mistake.
It might have sounded kinda funny, but those were the kind of fuck-ups that got other prospective demon-summoners killed every day.
Now, they were sitting around a campfire, with a couple of tarpaulins strung up for shelter. The horses were tied to a nearby tree, happily munching on the carrot sticks that Garcia had brought along.
‘So.’ JJ said. Morgan thought he could see a dark look in her eyes, but maybe that was just the result flickering shadows from the fire. ‘How do we do this?’
‘Track down Reid and outsmart the all-powerful demon,’ Rossi surmised. ‘Doesn’t sound too hard.’
Between them, they had half a dozen books on the various ways of killing, summoning, controlling and otherwise dealing with supernatural creatures. The things that worked were marked with post-it notes or highlighted or circled, depending on who had been the one reading it. There were more books, back in Denver, but the things were a little bulky, which meant that they’d had to prioritize.
In his pocket, he had the piece of paper covered in symbols that Emily had written out yesterday morning (was it only yesterday?).
‘How do we make her do what we ask, though?’
‘There’s a spell for binding them,’ Garcia said, flipping through the book on her lap. ‘It’s risky, but we might be able to exchange a favor in exchange for letting her free.’
‘Blackmail the all-powerful demon,’ Emily said, deadpan. ‘Sounds like we’re definitely not going to get ourselves slaughtered.’
‘If the alternative is refusing to fight back, then I’m willing to take that risk,’ Morgan said, with a hell of a lot more anger in his voice than he’d intended. He wasn’t angry at any of the group. He was angry at the fact that they’d been forced into this situation. He was angry at the fact that they were stuck in a world that was filled with demons, and werewolves and a whole bunch of other creatures that would tear his throat out for the mere crime of existing.
‘I don’t think anyone’s saying that we shouldn’t fight back,’ Hotch said evenly. ‘We’re all on edge right now, so I think that we should wait until tomorrow before we attempt any spells.’
Privately, Morgan was certain that waiting a day would make sure they were even more on edge, but questioning Hotch’s leadership wasn’t going to do anyone any favors, so he kept his mouth shut.
Maybe that was a lesson he was supposed to have learned ten years ago.
They spread their sleeping mats out just far enough apart to give them all a little space, but Morgan couldn’t help but notice that some people stayed closer together than others.
Not bothering to change into something a little more suited to sleep, he took off his jeans and belt, satisfied that boxers would provide adequate cover.
An ominous silence crept through the air, as, one by one, each of them fell to sleep.
…
When JJ woke, the sun was still low in the sky. According to her watch, it was a little past 7am.
Hotch, Garcia and Emily were awake already, sitting around the embers of last night’s fire. It looked as though they were sorting through what spell ingredients they had.
‘Morning, sunshine,’ Garcia said, dumping a bag of oregano onto the pile on the left.
‘You can use oregano to cast a spell?’ JJ asked, mildly surprised.
‘Nooo,’ Garcia said, with unnecessary emphasis. ‘The oregano is for breakfast. To go with the freeze-dried bacon and scrambled eggs.’
‘We should get everyone up,’ Hotch said. His expression was stoic, and yet JJ could tell he was steeling himself for the hours to come. ‘We can’t put it off forever.’
‘Shouldn’t we do it at night?’ Garcia asked, frowning slightly.
‘Does it matter?’ JJ raised an eyebrow.
‘I don’t know. It seems like the thing to do,’ Garcia offered, a little apologetically. ‘You know, the witching hour?’
‘Look at it this way, baby girl,’ Morgan said, stretching as he pulled himself out of his sleeping bag. ‘At least it won’t be as terrifying during the day.’
‘We’re summoning a demon,’ Garcia said. ‘I think it’s going to be terrifying regardless.’
‘All the more reason to do it when none of us will get a heart attack from our own shadow,’ Emily added, almost gloomily.
They roused Kevin and Rossi, and had what might probably be their last breakfast together. Like some kind of weird Last Supper thing.
‘Okay,’ Garcia announced, once they’d cleaned up their dirty plates. ‘We have a summoning spell, and a binding spell. I just wish we had a “time travel” spell, too.’
On Garcia’s instruction, JJ crushed what looked like dried eyeballs into a fine powder, before sprinkling it over the circle that had been drawn in the dirt. JJ had stuck with guns over magic, so she hoped like hell that Garcia knew what she was doing. Out of all of them, though, the technical analyst was probably the one she would have picked most likely to be able to pull off the “summoning a demon” act, save for maybe Reid.
‘Okay, Warrior Prentiss, you’re our perfectly provocative polyglot. You want to give chanting a shot?’ Garcia handed the book over to Emily, who raised an eyebrow.
‘Sekhmet vocamus, daemon aliarum terrarum bello et dea sanitatis.’ Her brow crinkled. ‘Who translated this Latin?’
‘I speak in computer code, not dead languages,’ Garcia said, feigning offence. ‘Besides, I’m pretty sure it works on intent, rather than the words themselves.’
‘Let’s hope so,’ Emily muttered, as she repeated the chant. Garcia tossed a handful of the second herb mixture into the embers of the fire. It flashed orange, and then shot a bright blue flame six feet into the air. If they’d been under the tarp, it would have burned a hole straight through it.
One of the horses neighed in fright, but JJ was a little too distracted by the appearance of a figure in the fire. Sekhmet’s eyes flared with something that might have been anger, but it was hard to tell. She stepped out of the circle.
Oh shit.
JJ’s hand went straight to her weapon. Without even looking around, she knew that everyone else was moving to draw as well, but they didn’t. Some overwhelming force kept her hand hovering at her thigh, and no amount of mental or physical exertion could move it.
‘You think me a fool?’ Sekhmet thundered. She scoffed. ‘Worse than that; you think me an unsympathetic fool. I see the thoughts in your mind. I know what you would do to me. The horrors of your imagination are nothing compared to what I could do to you. You would suffer the fires of infinite purgatories, the lashes of infinite whips…But I help you freely, because our cause is the same.’
Sekhmet released her hold on them, and JJ steadied herself before she could fall backwards.
‘So, what?’ Morgan asked, clearly skeptical about the whole situation. ‘You want to help us save the world, just like that? How exactly is that going to work?’
‘Your friend - Doctor Reid. He was taken to our home dimension.’
‘Why the hell would someone kidnap Reid and send him into an alternate dimension?’
‘Not just an alternate dimension,’ Garcia corrected. ‘Their home dimension. It kinda seems like there’s a little more to it than just wanting to make him tea and biscuits.’
‘We took your friend, because we were certain that he could close the portal.’
‘I’m sorry, you took Reid?’ Morgan demanded, overcome with a sudden onslaught of fury that JJ knew would be present in all of them. ‘What the fuck?’
‘It had become clear that we were mistaken. While he has the mental capability, his mind lacks focus.’
JJ bit her lip, trying not to let herself say something that would get them all blown to pieces. ‘You want to send us there to snap him out of it.’
‘That is our hope. With the portal closed, they will be unable to survive here. You call me the Goddess of Healing - let me heal your world.’
‘You really want us to trust you?’ Morgan asked. ‘Why can’t you just do it yourself?’
‘I don’t think we have a choice about this, Morgan,’ JJ said. She looked Sekhmet in the eye, trying not to flinch. ‘You can’t go back, can you?’
‘I - and any of my kind - will die, if I return. Our world cannot sustain us.’
‘So you come and destroy ours instead,’ Emily said, scornfully. ‘Nice.’
‘Do this, and your friend will be freed.’ Sekhmet wasn’t talking about Reid; she was talking about Seaver. That, more than anything else, was the argument that swayed them. After all, rescuing Seaver was half the reason they’d chosen to summon Sekhmet in the first place.
‘Fine,’ Hotch said, evenly. ‘You have a deal.’
Sekhmet ignored the malice that was directed towards her. With nothing more than a steely glance towards a particular spot on the ground, a rectangle of pure darkness appeared. An abyss that stared back into her soul.
‘Who wants to go first?’ Rossi said, jovially.
There was a beat of silence.
‘I will,’ Morgan said, resolute in his convictions. He might not have been happy about the situation, but he was sure as hell stubborn enough to take the lead. He grabbed his backpack and rearranged it on his shoulders before stepping through the portal.
There were no unearthly screams to suggest he might have been eaten by some prehistoric monster.
With a half shrug, Emily followed him.
As JJ stepped forward, and explosion shook the air. Smoke and dust filled the air, and she couldn’t breathe, let alone see.
‘What happened?’ she called out.
‘Go!’ Hotch’s voice yelled. He was right behind her. JJ tripped, and fell forward, only then she wasn’t falling.
She was flying. That’s what it felt like. The pathway between dimensions. Some impossibly small yet impossibly infinite gateway to what might well have been another universe.
When she landed, it was with a heavy thud. Pain shot through her body.
‘Ugh!’
There was grass.
Grass, and rocks, and dirt.
Not what she would have expected from an alternate dimension. She wondered if Hotch had seen this.
Hotch!
‘No!’ JJ stood, suddenly, hoping like hell that he’d followed her through. ‘Fuck.’
‘JJ.’ Morgan was at her side in half a second, his hand on her shoulder. ‘What happened?’
‘I don’t know. Something attacked us, I think. It…Ugh.’ Everything hurt. Her ears were ringing, and her head was throbbing, and they were trapped in an alternate dimension.
This was not how she’d envisioned spending her Friday nights.
‘You think Sekhmet double-crossed us?’ Emily asked. JJ could hear the frown in her voice.
‘I sure as hell hope not.’ She looked around desperately, hoping to find some impossible return portal, but already, she knew it was fruitless. For all intents and purposes, they were stuck until they found Reid.
The other two helped her to her feet, as she blinked away the blurriness. ‘We should have a look around to see what we’re dealing with,’ Morgan said decidedly, and neither JJ nor Emily argued.
They were in some kind of clearing, surrounded by overgrown trees. If she didn’t know better, JJ would have put her money on being somewhere in the North-eastern United States. Maybe upstate New York.
For over an hour, they slogged through the undergrowth of the forest, and every now and then, JJ caught a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye. Not particularly wanting to shoot anything, she kept her hand on the butt of her pistol just the same.
It would have really sucked if the atmosphere had more oxygen than normal, and they all died in a horrific explosion.
‘There’s still life here,’ Morgan said, after a six-legged, furry creature crossed their path. ‘Why would they still be alive if everything had to evacuate?’
‘Maybe they evolved to survive whatever was killing the demons.’
‘Or maybe that was just an excuse to go to war,’ Morgan said.
‘Just because they turned our world into an apocalyptic wasteland doesn’t mean they were specifically out to get us,’ Emily said drily.
‘Guys, I think the trees are thinning out up ahead,’ JJ interjected, trying to avoid the argument that kept popping up and had no clear answer.
A heavy silence hung in the air as they pushed through; as if whatever lay at the end of their path was due some kind of reverence.
When they finally stepped through, Morgan was the first person to speak.
‘Holy shit,’ he said, which, in JJ’s opinion, summed it up pretty damn well. They were on the edge of a cliff that stretched on for miles, but it was the canyon below that caught their attention.
An immense city, echoing with silence. Trees and vines and other forms of fauna had wended its way through. Nature’s skyscrapers.
‘If Reid’s anywhere, he’ll be in there,’ JJ said. ‘We brought rope, right?’
The journey down was not an easy one. A few Bureau team building sessions aside, none of them had much experience with climbing. They went down one at a time, not wanting to put more pressure on the rope than was necessary.
A grueling two hours later, they stood at the bottom of the cliff; scratched, bruised and exhausted, but alive.
‘Let me guess,’ Morgan said, digging into his pack for water. ‘Garcia, Hotch and Rossi have the food in their packs.’
‘Well there’s gotta be something edible around here,’ JJ commented, taking a swig from her own bottle. ‘We’ll have a look around.’
They wandered through the city, every so often calling out Reid’s name. JJ doubted they’d get a response.
‘Ghost city,’ Emily commented, as they walked through the streets. The mere fact that the place had streets was surprising to JJ.
‘Y’know, I was kind of expecting a little more fire and brimstone,’ Morgan said, staring upwards at the vine-covered building to their right. Beneath the thick plant-life, faded stone was barely visible. ‘Most houses these days aren’t built to last. People put cost above durability. These buildings…I’d say they’ve been here for a long time.’
‘Not even good construction can stop nature from taking over, though,’ JJ added. ‘What I want to know is how it deteriorated so quickly. They’ve only been in our world for what? Two years? This is centuries’ worth of attrition. Maybe more.’
‘It’s an alternate dimension. You think there could be some kind of time dilation as well?’ Morgan queried. JJ tried not to smirk. Those were certainly not words she would have expected Morgan to be saying.
‘Like Narnia,’ Emily said. ‘A few years goes by in a matter of hours. I can’t wait for the magical lion to show up.’ An expression of surprise crossed her face, followed by realization. ‘I’ve been here before,’ she murmured, running her hands along the stone wall. Without even bothering to elaborate, she ducked under the tendrils of vine that formed a canopy.
‘Wait,’ Morgan frowned. ‘Emily, wait.’ She stopped. ‘What do you mean, you’ve been here before?’
‘I’ve seen it before,’ she amended. ‘In a dream, or a nightmare, or a vision, or something. Do you have that piece of paper - from when…’ She paused. ‘From when I got possessed the second time.’
Morgan pulled it out of his pocket and handed it to her.
Emily shook her head. ‘Nothing,’ she sighed. ‘So what…now we have to find Reid? Well that shouldn’t be too hard.’
Privately, JJ agreed with the other woman’s sarcastic comment. For as far as the eye could see, there was a complex, chaotic world - probably about as complex and chaotic as their own.
They followed Emily underneath the canopy, and turned straight into what looked like some kind of park.
‘Fruit trees,’ Morgan pointed out. JJ was suddenly reminded of how hungry she was. They made their way to the park cautiously, disturbing a few congregated animals on the way.
‘If the local wildlife are eating it, then it’s probably not poisonous.’
‘If we end up dead, I’m blaming you,’ Emily deadpanned, picking one off the ground and examining it quizzically. ‘Teeth marks. Don’t they say that red is nature’s way of saying “back off”?’
‘Different dimension, different rules,’ Morgan shrugged. ‘Who wants first bite?’
‘I’ll do it,’ JJ said, taking the fruit from Emily’s hand. She broke off a small piece of the flesh, a sticky orange mess in her fingers. Hesitantly, she put a finger in her mouth, not quite willing to test more than she needed to.
‘Well?’ Morgan asked. He was looking at her as though he was afraid she’d drop dead at any second.
‘Tastes like an orange,’ she said. Tangy, and a little sweet, but the texture was probably more like a persimmon than an orange. It wasn’t the best comparison, but it was the closest she could think of. She took another bite.
‘Nothing…tingly?’ he asked. JJ raised an eyebrow. She wasn’t particularly inclined to talk about tingliness with Derek Morgan. After no discernable reaction, she ate the whole thing.
‘Well, it’s not caviar, but I think it’ll do for now.’
They made a short meal of the fruit, reasoning that they could always come back later if they could find the place.
It was another ten minutes before the nausea started. JJ dropped to her knees, suddenly hyperaware of how dizzy she felt. The trees and the buildings were melting. The sky was on fire.
‘Guys?’
‘I can’t feel my face,’ Morgan mumbled. JJ wasn’t entirely sure, but she got the feeling he was slowly turning into a banana. ‘I guess they were poisonous.’
‘It’s not poison,’ Emily said, with a laugh. JJ wasn’t sure why the hell she was laughing. ‘We’re tripping balls.’
JJ turned around, half certain she was going to vomit. Instead, she looked to the side, and blinked. The last thing she saw before her conscious mind gave out was the warped face of Spencer Reid.