The Shadow Queen *Criminal Minds FF*

Chapter 3

"Chaos. Panic. Fear. My work here is done." - Seraphina Flameheart.

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Soon after the call ends, Hotch stands at the head of the table to give everyone their assignments.

"Ok, let's move, people; we have work to do. Emily, you and Morgan go downstairs and find this present she's left us. Take a few officers with you; we don't know what we're walking into here." 

"You got it," Emily Prentiss says as she puts on a vest and walks out with Derek following behind her.

Hotch turns to Spencer. "Reid, go to the police chief and ask him again for all the information they have on Seraphina. Go through it and find anything and everything you can about her, her background and her history. We need to know all there is to know about this woman if we want to find her and find out what she wants."

Reid nods unsurely and goes out of the conference room to find the police chief. He has a feeling that not everything is as it seems. He's used to being the one that knows everything, especially the information most people don't know. This is new for him, the not knowing. He leaves confused but excited to start learning about this new person that no one seems to know anything about.

Hotch turns to the screen again and asks Garcia, "do you think you can hack into that link she sent you?" Garcia raises one eyebrow in response and sassily says, "what do you think I do here, sir? What do you think my job is? I can probably hack into it in my sleep." 

Hotch rolls his eyes and tells her to "Get the information and anything else you can find. Where was it sent from? Where is she calling from? Anything. We need as much information as we can get. We cannot go into this game of hers blind. Let me know what you find." 

"Be back in a jiffy, sir; Garcia out!" she says, then ends the call.

Finally, Hotch turns to Gideon and says, "Gideon, you're with me. We are going to go have another talk with the current unsub we have in custody and try to piece together what, if anything, he's done."

Hotch turns around and heads to the interrogation room with Gideon right behind him, reading the unsub's file again, trying to see if they've missed anything.

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Meanwhile, Sera giggles maniacally as she twists her rings around her fingers, excited for the next chapter of her life. She's always been alone, now only having her brother, not biologically, with her. 

So as any good sister would do, she gets up and puts on a mask instead of her veil and crown and goes to find the closest thing she's ever had to family to annoy him.

A few things about her brother first. 

They first met when she got dropped into this world after she was murdered in her previous life or 'learning experience'. She was a 17-year-old girl with no identity, no family, no nothing.

She quickly figured out that she was now a lot younger than when she died, it took her a while to come to terms with that one, and her body was not nearly as broken and scarred as it was the last time she checked. She died at 45. 

She was homeless for a while, and during that time, she saw one of her favourite characters in a coffee shop she was sitting in front of. 

One can imagine her surprise when she realised that this was not the actor who played the character but the character themselves. Spencer Reid, in all his awkward adorable glory, right there in front of her.