These Endless Days. 12/?
Title: These Endless Days
Rating: R
Fandom: Criminal Minds
Universe: Creatures of the Night (Part Three)
Characters/Pairing: JJ/Hotch; Morgan/Prentiss
Genre: Supernatural/Drama
Summary: There's a war coming.
Chapter Twelve
A grain of sand catches on the wind, surrounded by millions upon millions of others just like it. They seem endless. Immortal, even.
But in the end, everything dies.
Stars fade. Black holes swallow anything that gets in their path. Galaxies recede, burning into nothingness.
After trillions of years, there will be nothing left but the dark.
A dark robed figure waits patiently.
There are some he has met many times before, and there are some, he will only meet once, before he whisks them away. Sometimes, their souls return, but that is not his domain.
For some souls in particular, he has been waiting a long time. Perhaps they will cross his paths soon. Perhaps it will be another thousand years, but in the space of eternity, even that is but a drop in the ocean.
He will keep waiting.
After all, there are always other souls to reap.
...
Emily's stomach churns, as she feels the sun hit her skin. As old as she is, it would take at least a few hours for the sun to fully kill her. Half of that before she loses her mind. It's a long, painful, nauseating death, but Emily knows that today, death is not its purpose.
'You really think I'm gonna just roll over, and pretend like I love you again?' she spits, laughing. 'Go to hell.'
Elizabeth smiles, and too late, Emily realizes her mistake. Saying "again" almost implies that there was actually love there in the first place. It's been so long, she's not even sure if that's true anyway. Her childhood is a swirl of memories - some fresh in her mind, some blurred by time.
The magic in the air dulls her mind, and yet she keeps clutching to that anger, that hatred. Ever so slowly, it's slipping away. Apparently after two thousand years, you get pretty good at making people do what you want. After all, there's a reason why Emily has preferred evasion over direct confrontation. She wonders why it's different now.
Maybe she's growing up.
It had to happen sometime.
Unfortunately if this keeps going the way it's going, she won't have much longer to live anyway. If it comes down to it, well...she's not exactly all that interested in becoming one of her mother's pawns.
The door swings open, and the sweet, yet agonizing scent of blood fills the air. Emily's not entirely sure how long she can resist.
One way or another, it would all come to a head.
…
The atmosphere in the briefing room is one of morose silence. The world might be on the brink of devastation, and there's nothing they can do about it. At least, that's how it's starting to feel. They don't know the full details of how the disaster is going to unfold, but Derek Morgan doesn't need to be a psychic to know that darkness is coming. Things have been building up that way for a while, now.
'Morgan.' Hotch's voice is more than a little somber (which isn't exactly unusual), and he can sense that he won't like whatever is coming next. 'I want you and JJ to go to Babylon.'
'Hotch-'
'This isn't a negotiation, Morgan,' Hotch interrupts. 'We need to know where the werewolves stand on this issue, and for that, you need to go to Babylon.'
A pause. 'I'll need to talk to Andy about getting diplomatic passage. It might take a few hours.' Usually, he can get by without doing the paperwork. After all, he was born in Babylon, and most of his family still lives there. Going there to talk to the pack is a little more formal, though - he can't exactly just show up and demand an audience. If he was a member of a different pack, it might take days to get the paperwork through, but Andy has some pretty useful connections.
'No-one's heard from Amon in a long time,' Morgan says. 'You really think he's going to come out of the woodwork now?'
'Gwydion did.'
'Allegedly,' Morgan says, evenly. While he'd initially been somewhat accepting of the idea, the more he's heard, the more that his skepticism has decided to fight back. He still doesn't quite believe that Gwydion has returned. He knows that profiling is founded on making a lot of well-informed assumptions, but sometimes, that feels like too much of a stretch. Maybe the idea of going home for the first time in five years is clouding his judgment. There might be answers in Babylon, but if he's honest with himself, he doesn't really want there to be any.
'Even if the Wolf King decides to stay in hiding, we still need to know the mindset of all the other 'wolves,' Hotch tells him. 'If they take a side, things could get a lot worse before they get better.'
'Or it could end things before they begin,' Rossi points out. 'I don't think I need to say we all know whose side the werewolves would take if it came down to it. If they get the opportunity, I don't think they'd even hesitate to take out the vampires once and for all. But we should still remember that Anath's Circle is only one faction of sorcerers. Most people don't want power, or supremacy. They just want to live their lives.'
'Not to mention the fact that the vampires haven't really made any kind of overt plays yet, All out warfare isn't exactly their style.'
'Wait, I'm confused.' Garcia lands on Morgan's shoulder, her wings buzzing. 'Now we don't think bad things are going to happen?'
'I don't think we're denying that bad things are going to happen,' Hotch says evenly. 'But I still think we need to gather more information before I can recommend to the Bureau that anyone should start mobilizing their forces. Dave, is there someone you can talk to to get an idea of where the majority of sorcerers are at?'
'I'd probably have to ask a few people,' Rossi tells him. 'Different Orders have different views. We don't exactly have a single governing body like the werewolves do.'
Hotch nods. 'Garcia, I want you tracking any unusual activity that might be indicative of-'
'Shenanigans,' Garcia finishes. 'Got it.'
'Reid, you and I will be investigating the crime scenes of our most recent murders to see if there's anything that ties them to Anath's Circle.'
'I have a question that may or may not be controversial,' Garcia announces. She doesn't move from her position, but Morgan can hear her wings starting to buzz even faster. 'What about Emily?'
Hotch doesn't answer straight away, and for a brief moment, Morgan wonders if the other man even has an answer.
'At this stage, we don't have any evidence to suggest that she's in danger.'
'Aside from the fact that she wants to kill the crazy, psychopathic vampire woman?'
'Garcia's right,' Morgan interjects. 'I think the fact that she's there, and the reasons she's there for are cause enough for concern.'
'But what exactly are we supposed to do about it?' JJ asks. 'No sane SWAT team would go near the place, and you saw what happened when we went there. It's a suicide mission, no matter what she's done.'
Morgan hates to hear it, but he knows that JJ is right - at this stage, he has to hope that Emily has the strength of will to hold out just a little bit longer.