Chapter 17

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The team was on the jet to LA when Garcia called, "Darling, I must say, your mind never fails.", Olivia sighed, "I really wish it did. So, what have we got?", Penelope sighed, "All four victims had dating app profiles, and get this, were all part of the same chatroom. It was a true crime chatroom talking about cases, notorious and lesser known. Aside from that, none of them ran in the same circles. One was in finance, one was a waitress, one a teacher, and the other was an aspiring writer. I looked into their dating apps, none of them matched to the same person.", Liv frowned, "What about catfishing? Maybe the same person but with different online personas?", Penelope shook her head, "No dice, Solider.", Hotch noticed how Liv tensed at the nickname. "But, I dug deeper. Has much has I hated to. Turns out, all four victims were part of an online role play community. Now, there's hundreds of thousands people in this community but different servers. It has proximity chat. You don't know everyone on the server, you have to meet and friend everyone and get their online contact for them to show up. All four victims, in a server of 83 thousand people. Met six of the same people. I only have screen names right now. But one is Madd Maxie, a female artist on the server, Kole Jacks, a male police officer, Killian Harp, a male restaurant owner, Kaela Polar, a female EMT, and Frank G, an adult store owner in the game. It seems the group would randomly run around and do missions together as well as just hang out. I'm working on getting IP addresses and names but it could take some time as I have to try to get the developer to give me what I want.", Olivia sighed, "No you don't. Use my credentials. Hack the server, I'll have some backup sent over to help. It'll make it easier. We are landing in 3 hours. I want names by that time and an answer to if one of them is in LA right now.", and Penelope nodded, hanging up the call. The team sighing. "I truly hate the internet.", and Spencer laughed but looked at Olivia, "Why?", she glanced at him, "In a world filled with psychopaths and sociopaths where technology is ever evolving. You never really know who you're talking to on the other side of a screen. And humans are naturally naive and filled with a primal hope of companionship. Chatrooms and virtual worlds are any psychos playground. For any crime. Drugs, Sex rings, pedos, murders, rapists. People post every detail and share information about themselves with no qualms. I have a feeling, technology is going to evolve far faster than the criminal justice system will.", the team fell silent and picked up different tasks to partake in during the remainder of the flight. Spencer reading, Derek listening to music, JJ and Emily napped, Rossi wrote, and the two Hotchners went over all the evidence. Because there was no way Olivia was going to miss a single detail no matter how small.

When they landed, Penople and Devin having supplied everything the dark haired former assassin had asked for. Liv and Hotch were sitting together up front as Olivia read over the email. Spencer and JJ in the back seat. Olivia kept clenching her jaw as her eyebrows farrowed. She couldn't find any connections, and it was frustrating her. "Hey.", she looked at Hotch, "We will figure it out.", she nodded, "I know. But I want it figured out now.", he softly smiled at her, "I know, but. We need a bigger area, a bigger screen. So we can see the bigger picture,", she sighed, "I know.", and she closed the folder, her eyes going outside. Spencer raising an eyebrow, "I feel like I can actually hear the gears in your head spinning and see the steam coming out of your ears.", Jj chuckled, "Now you know how we all feel with you.", Spencer rolled his eyes and Olivia chuckled as she glanced at them, "Sorry, I don't mean to bring the aura of the room to my own feelings.", they nodded and Hotch glanced at her, "You need to focus your mind. Talk through it.", she nodded, "Why now? And why are these the first victims we are finding? There has to be more. Unsolved rapes and other violent acts against women the match our victim profile. Blue eyes, brown hair, petite. Doe eyes, round face. These women look innocent, and helpless. But something had to have changed because the first few victims were naturally brunette, then we have blonde and red headed women who are found with dyed hair. At some point, it came outside of the looks. Something about their actions or personality made them his choice of victim. And he started to escalate.", she took a deep breath. "We need to know more about these women. Before we can do anything else. We have to know why we changed victimology and began altering appearance.", Hotch nodded and JJ and Spencer stayed quiet. Liv was a team player, a leader, but she was also a lone wolf. Something she just had to work through things alone.

After getting to the police station and hitting a brick wall, Hotch decided the team needed a break. Morgan was teasing Spencer about his former movie star fling from a few years ago, Rossi wanted food, and Jj and Emily wanted drinks. The team separated and Hotch stood around the police station for a while as the team separated, Rossi and Spencer going to eat, Morgan, JJ, and Emily going for drinks, and Liv going to the hotel room to relax. It was only a few moments Hotch lingered.

Hotch snuck into the room Olivia had chosen and smiled as he saw her in the bath, her hair in a bun, and bubbles covering her. "You always leave the door unlocked?", Olivia hummed, "Most the time. Spencer and Morgan are too polite to even try to walk in, Emily and Jj don't care, and I've never roomed with Dave. And then there's you, my darling husband, who doesn't seem to care.", Hotch chuckled as he removed his clothes and she shifted to make room in the tub for him behind her. "Now, why would I deny myself the right to look at my beautiful wife?", she smiled and rested against him as he rubbed her sides. "You're stressing yourself out.", she hummed, "Of course I am. We are going to see an escalation in time line. Especially since he's changed to altering victims. Isn't normally the other way around? He find's supplements for his true victim, altering them to make their appearance match his chosen victim before moving on to the real thing?", Hotch sighed, "I know. It doesn't make sense, but we wouldn't always be able to understand the unsubs and their choices, Liv.", he kissed her shoulder, "I know. But, this has so much that doesn't make sense.", Aaron rolled his eyes before he moved and kissed her, making her take a breath and her brain stop. Which is what she needed. "You need to stop. We're taking a nice bath together and have alone time for the first time in a week.", she smiled, "Is someone feeling mistreated?", Aaron smiled, "Alittle.", she hummed and turned to her stomach before she sat up and rested her forehead against his. "You're playing a dangerous game, love.", Aaron shrugged, "I know.", but the pair kissed and things began far too passionate far too quickly but, they were in love and they were together. And, they were bonded. In more ways than one. Hotch decided she needed to relax and get her mind off the case, and so, get her mind off the case he did.

It was about 3 hours later when the team arrived at the hotel, going to the room Hotch had told them to go to. They all knocked and he opened the door. The team sighed as Olivia had case files and papers all over the floor and the table was acting as a cork board for images and sticky notes. "Has she eaten?", Hotch nodded, "I made her eat. She got takeout.", Olivia rolled her eyes, "She is right here. Jeez.", the team chuckled, "So, what have you figured out.", she glanced at them, "Well, of the chatrooms, I've discovered about 15 different generic users. New email accounts, new chatroom accounts, and catfish dating accounts BUT whoever ran them, had different IP addresses and proxies. Looks like they may have been using a VPN. I'm having Pen and Dev look into them now. Said it could take a few hours. May not hear from them until tomorrow. So, I'm just, trying to get ahead.", the team nodded, "JJ, Emily, here is your room key. Derek, Spencer, here is yours, and Rossi gets his own room because I'm in change of making sure this one sleeps.", she rolled her eyes, "Now you're being dramatic.", and the team sent her a look. "If you need help controlling her, you're on your own. She is a demon when she's stubborn.", Liv rolled her eyes and the group left, going to their respective rooms. Aaron sighing as he tried to figure out how he was actually going to force Olivia to stop and go to bed.

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