"Souls don't meet by accident"
-Unknown-

IN TEXAS

Wake up. Make coffee. Go for a run. Shower. Make breakfast. Look out on the balcony. Go back in the house and watch too much television. Repeat. That was Maya's daily routine, and she was just about to leave the apartment she was in because of witness protection and go out for her daily run until her bodyguard stopped her as she exited her apartment door. "What? I go for a run every day" Maya states before her bodyguard escorts her back into her room.

"There's been a couple murders recently and the director has contacted me and told me to keep you inside until it is handled with" James, Maya's morning bodyguard states and Maya sighs as she stressfully rubs her forehead. "But that's been my routine since I got here. You can't just change it on me now" Maya argues but James shakes his head, not budging.

"Come on, James. I do this everyday" Maya declares and James shakes his head yet again which makes Maya scoff in annoyance before turning on her heel and heading to her bedroom which is practically the only place she could get privacy.

AT THE BAU

"Hey!" Natalie calls out as the elevator door is about to shut and Reid quickly places his hand to stop it and lets Natalie enter. Natalie notices the couple bandages on his knuckles from when he punched Tony in the face. "How's the hand?" Natalie asks as the elevator dings and the door slowly shuts before it hums and starts to move up some floors.

"Oh, it's fine. Just bruised" Reid answers and Natalie nods her head slowly as she continues to look down at his hand, feeling guilty that he did that because for some reason Natalie felt as if he did it for her. Reid would never punch someone for no reason.

"Have you seen Olivia?" Reid asks and Natalie smiles at the sound of her name. "I went last weekend and we just hung out at her grandmas house. Did our nails and she did my hair then we just watched tv for the rest of the night before I had to go" Natalie states, her mood changing when she hears or talks about Olivia.

"Are you going to try and get custody of her?" Reid wonders and Natalie sighs as she shrugs her shoulders to Reid's questions right before the elevator dings and opens up to the right floor.

"I don't know. She's happy at her grandmas and she's already starting at a new school. I don't want to ruin what she's about to start" Natalie states before she waves off the statement, "Besides, who would want to date a woman with a child that's not even hers?" Natalie questions which make Reid look down at her as they exit the elevator.

"Plenty of people would" Reid states and hear rushes to Natalie's cheeks and looks up at Reid since he was slightly taller than her but looks away once he opens the door for her, allowing her to enter the office where the team talks at the desks.

"So, we get Henry to bed. And, you know, we're about to finally have some alone time with mommy and daddy and... you guys know the rest" JJ states as she rolls her eyes annoyingly since she didn't get to spend time with Will. "What about you Morgan. You getting any?" Alex asks jokingly and Derek sighs defeatedly.

"Ever since Maya left, he's lost his mojo" Garcia whispers but Derek heard her anyway. "What? I can get laid whenever I want" Derek scoffs and Garcia waves him off as she sips her tea.

"But he won't because he's waiting for Maya" Garcia states and JJ pushes her lips together and quietly clears her throat as she looks away from the team, resting her hands in her jacket pocket while Natalie snickers quietly, listening in on the gossip.

"Think Maya is getting some?" Rossi asks and Derek narrows his eyes towards him before everyone, but JJ, who puts on a fake smile and laughs sarcastically, burst out into laughter.

"Sorry, I'll stop" Rossi says as he raises his hands in surrender before Matt Cruz and Hotch exit Hotch's office together.

Move onto the new case, this unsub murdered two prostitutes by cutting strange symbols into their backs with a razor, then shooting them in the back of the head. Also, he killed a guy and dumped him outside of a spot where hookers are known to congregate.

The team continues to talk about the case and agrees that it was probably a 'forensic countermeasure' that the bodies were dumped in different counties.

_____

On the plane, the team discusses how little they know with the one interesting observation being that the killer put more razor slashes on each subsequent victim, and deep cuts at that. Is he becoming more sadistic, or do the number of slashes-5,8,12 have some mythic significance?

Hotch, JJ and Natalie head to the station and talk with the sheriff and one of the other officers. "Which serial killers that you guys caught was the scariest?" Valerie, one of the officers asks. "Valerie" The sheriff warns while Natalie chuckles softly at her question, not knowing how to answer it.

"Cases involving kids are the toughest" JJ answers and Valerie nods her head understandingly, leaving silence between the group, the only sound being Natalie clearing her throat awkwardly.

"Uh, where can we set up?" Hotch wonders, looking over to the sheriff after breaking the silence. The sheriff shows them to the area they can work at and reveals the board with all the information on its which JJ and Natalie widen their eyes at.

"That's... a lot of information already" Natalie notices as she walks closer to the board, reading all the information one at a time.

"Yeah, the whole force wanted to work on it We've had bad people down here, but we've never seen anything like this" Valerie declares and Natalie sighs as she turns her attention back towards the group. "But we'll be following your lead on this one" The sheriff declares before Hotch wonders if any family members have come in yet and the sheriff confirms that a sister of the victim, Abigail, has come in and has been waiting since the morning.

JJ agrees to go talk to her and Valerie rushes to join her, wanting to listen in. Natalie knits her eyebrows in confusion before turning her attention back towards the board that's not really organized. She starts to take down some of the work and put it in order or place it neatly on the board so it's easier to read.

"How's Olivia?" Hotch asks, making conversation as Natalie neatly placed the papers back on the board. "Oh, she's good. Starts school soon" Natalie smiles and Hotch nods enthusiastically, actually putting a smile on his face.

"That's good" Hotch agrees before he turns and speaks with the sheriff for a little while.

JJ interviews the latest victim's sister, who reports a strange phone call. Apparently Abigail wanted to apologize for everything she'd done wrong in her life. It was her last chance to do so, because 'they' were coming to get her.

So is there one killer, or is it a gang of murderers?

_____

"I've looked over the information on this board and nothing indicates that there would be a partner" Natalie states as she shrugs her shoulders, looking between Hotch and JJ after receiving the slightly shocking information. "I agree. The signature of the cutting is too specific" Hotch adds before a voice breaks them away from their conversation.

"There is a fear plaguing this community. Seeping into their souls, making them meek" A preacher states as he enters the station, Valerie by his side. Natalie quietly questions what a preacher could be doing here and swiftly steps in front of the desk where the files lay at while Hotch secretly closes each of them while Valerie and the unnamed preacher walk up to Natalie, Hotch and JJ.

"Uh, I'd like you to meet preacher Mills" Valerie introduces. "I run the town ministry. If you're in this town long, you should come hear his word" Preacher Mills declares as he hands them a flyer for his church. Natalie leans over slightly, reading it with JJ before she sets it down, not interested.

Natalie, JJ and Hotch speak with the preacher privately and the preacher drops some info. Apparently, the male victim was a sex worker, not a john. The DA just agreed to charge him that way to spare his family some small-town embarrassment. So that's a 'change in the target' set aside. Then the preacher asks the team to describe the guy's wounds-he'd heard that they were 'very deep' and wants that confirmed.

Natalie crosses her arms over her chest as she analyzes the preachers body language and sees he's eager to know how deep the wounds were. He's begging to hear about it. Hotch does confirm it, but of course that's a lie, since the first victim had tentative scratches, and not many of them.

The preacher leaves the room and Natalie lets out a sigh before she turns to look at JJ and Hotch, shaking her head knowingly and in disbelief.

_____

The next day, the team gets word that another sex worker has been found dead. This sex worker talked to Derek and had information but never called to give it. The night before she was shot in the head and lashed to a tree with slashes in her back.

The team gets out to where the sex worker's body has been lashed to a tree, just in time to keep the cops from cutting it down. "Whoa! Why are you taking her down?!" Natalie asks as her, Reid and the sheriff rush out of the SUV frantically.

"Do not disturb the crime scene" The sheriff orders before the officers start to back away from the body. "Well, we took a bunch of pictures just like you ordered us to" One of the officers states, "I ordered you not to touch a damn thing" The sheriff declares harshly before Reid and Natalie look to the body.

"Your sheriff is right. We need to look at this undisturbed" Natalie says, referring to the crime scene. "Yeah, so, could you not stand there? Thanks" Reid states as he harshly but nicely moves the officer out of the way so he can get a closer look. Natalie looks down at the women's back and shakes her head, letting out a desperate sigh.

"He's escalated his cuts" Natalie states, crossing her arms over her chest.

"And the cutting was done postmortem. It was the gunshot that killed her" Reid adds and Natalie nods in agreement. Natalie takes in a deep breath but the scent under her nose makes her question. She keeps sniffing in the scent until she bends down towards the body.

"Can- Can You smell that?" Natalie asks, looking to Reid as he sniffs in the scent as well.

"Lavender" Reid recognizes but the sheriff informs that lavender doesn't even grow around these parts of Texas. "It's around her legs" Natalie declares while the officers question why the unsub would do that. "Don't know but, we need to deliver the profile" Natalie concludes.

IN TEXAS

Maya opens the door to her room, revealing her quiet apartment. She's made it home since she's moved in and has a few paintings and stuff on the walls, so it doesn't feel so empty. She doesn't spot James in the house so; he must be outside in the hall guarding the door.

Maya lets out a tired sigh and looks out the window that leads to her balcony and sees cars drive past and people walking on the street, living a normal life. Maya walks to the couch and plops down on it and notices the remote in the arm rest of the couch. She reaches for it and presses the power button, the tv immediately showing the news.

Maya sits up in her seat and looks to her apartment door, no sign of James coming, but just in case she turns the volume down slightly and looks back to the TV seeing the news of a reporter in front of the sheriff station. Maya listens in the on the new case and hears about the slashing cuts on the victims back and hears how many victims have already been killed.

Maya covers her mouth in shock before she notices something in the background of the live footage. She sees Reid and Natalie in the background exiting a black SUV before entering the station. If Natalie and Reid are there, that means the rest of the team is too.

That means Derek is there.

AT THE STATION

Later, the team offers their profile. They think the killer is a white male in his early 30's, a sadist, and possibly also a wound collector the kind of guy who collects grievances and stews on them, then uses them as an excuse to act out violently. They also think he has a truck so that he can move the bodies easily, but this is Texas, everyone has a truck.

As the team gives the profile, Hotch gets a call from Garcia. Garcia comes up with some info - the latest victim, Tabitha, accepted credit cards for her sex work, and the last john she went to meet with was named 'Mack'.

Which means the 'the knife' thing couldn't possibly be literal, because why would she agree to go and see the same man who her friend was last seen with, and who was killed via shooting followed by a brutal slashing?

They find the supposed Mack and find out it is really short for Macintyre and he's a school principal. Turns out, the 'the knife' part of his nickname is because he liked to have the sex workers cut him during their sessions and he has the cuts on his body to prove it.

Mack then gives the team a list of the names of the sex workers he's been with. Some of them being recent victims.

Alex and Rossi inform the rest of the team and some of the officers, including the sheriff, that the unsub cannot be Mack. "What? He has S&M sessions with all the victims" The sheriff argues. "That is true but, we profile that the unsub would be submissive in public and dominant with the prostitutes. Letting someone cut you is not dominant in any way, Sheriff" Natalie informs, agreeing with her team.

"He does take a submissive role in the S&M play. Most likely because he's so dominant as a principal" Derek adds before Natalie notices Abigail's sister walking in aimlessly. Natalie looks to Hotch who nods his head and they both walk over to her, seeing what she could possibly want since she was already talked to by JJ and they got the information she needed.

She asks about the preacher and wonders if he's been by to talk to them but Natalie and Hotch inform her that he's hasn't been by since yesterday. The sister states that the preacher and a sex worker, Belinda, was supposed to be bringing to the police station. He didn't.

Natalie stammers over her words as she looks to Hotch who is much more disbelief as she is. Hotch and Natalie walk back to the team, and they immediately decide that Preacher Mills is the killer, and JJ, hilariously, tries to pretend that he fits their profile, claiming that he's morally rigorous and submissive in public.

Garcia finds that the preacher has been stashing away huge sums of money, which leads Alex to announce that it's 'sex trafficking. "I don't know. Preacher Mills is suspicious, but sex trafficking?" Natalie questions.

"Yeah, I thought you said our killer was a john" One of the officers' states. "Yes but, prostitutes would rat out a john or kill him themselves. But they would never go against their own pimp" Alex explains and Natalie sighs before Hotch asks Garcia to look deeper into Mills life and look at more charges, if he has any.

_____

Maya has shut off her tv after hearing the profile some officers given over the news about the new unsub. Maya tries to take her mind off of it before her door swings open, revealing James. "Jesus, what the hell is wrong with you?" Maya asks as she stands to her feet while James walks into the house, clearly under stress.

"The- Uh, director called me. We gotta move you" James states as he paces back and fourth. Maya knits her eyebrows in confusion before she analyzes his outfit, seeing that he's wearing something different.

"Nice clothes. You going to church?" Maya asks as she slowly walks towards her bedroom door. "Just- Gosh- Just go get your stuff!" James shouts demandingly but Maya isn't in any rush.

She analyzes his body language and can see he's on edge. She remembers the profile the officers gave on the news. 'This unsub is dominant in public'.

James works for witness protection so he's dominant in his daily life. Maya squeezes her fist together and looks down at his shoes. He's never worn those shoes.

"Grab. Your. Stuff" James orders, his voice sounding more demanding, but it doesn't affect Maya. She's not scared of him. "Who are you?" Maya asks as she takes a step towards James. James slowly turns his head to face Maya before he swallows nervously and lets out a nervous laugh, trying to seem innocent.

"We just have to get going" James states before he wipes the slight sweat beaming off of his forehead.

"I think I'll stay here" Maya states before she walks past James, him swiftly grabbing her arm and pulling her close. "We need to go" James states and Maya knees him in his nuts and bangs her forehead against his nose, causing him to land on the ground and groan in pain.

"Don't ever touch me again" Maya orders as she stands over James, looking down at him.

James notices a vase on the side table near the couch and he begins to slowly crawl away. "Ugh" James groans as he regains his strength. "You were supposed to make this easy" James declares and Maya scoffs as she starts to walk towards her room, unfazed by his words.

"Hey!" James shouts, his voice booming through the apartment. "What?" Maya asks as she turns around, her head met with a glass vase.

"Oh!" Maya shrieks as James hits her over the head with a glass vase and breathes heavily, looking down at her body. He bends down, feeling her pulse, upset she still has one. He looks around the apartment and tries to find something to hide her in before his eyes land on a trash bag.

James isn't James. James is Preacher Mills.

_____

At the station, Garcia finds out that in his original pimping days back in Alberta. The preacher used to cut women's backs up as a way of marking them. So, the killer is fixated on him, and not the principal. "You want to know what's weird? He sometimes works with witness protection cases" Garcia states before she sighs sadly.

"Sorry, I just miss Maya" Garcia whines before Hotch immediately decides Mills isn't the killer because he didn't try to kill any of his employees back when he was first pimping, because he's a businessman first.

Things get super-weird in the new mini profile, as Hotch announces that the reason that the sex workers all said 'they' are after them is not because it was a team of killers, but because it was a killer copying the work of a sadist.

_____

In a car, Maya starts to wake up from a long slumber. "Mm" Maya groans as she feels excruciating pain in her head. She wakes up and she's in the back seat of a car, but her vision is blurry, so she doesn't know who is driving but she does a hear a phone ring.

"What?" Someone shouts into the phone after answering it. The person continues to have a conversation on the phone, and it seems the person over the phone has exchanged a place to meet.

Maya tries to move her hands to her head, but she automatically feels her wrist tied together. "Ugh!" Maya grunts as she continues to try and pull her wrist apart, but it seems impossible.

"Shut up back there. We're making a stop" Mills states before he steps on the gas while Maya is in the backseat. "Why is it always me?" Maya asks herself as she shakes her head in disbelief.

The night hung heavy with darkness as Maya's sleep was shattered by a sudden door slam. Her eyes snapped open, scanning the dimly lit surroundings. James, also known as Mills, emerged from the shadows, his silhouette stark against the night. "Come on," he barked, his tone urgent as he fumbled for his phone.

With a groan, Maya pushed herself upright in the car, using the door for support as she struggled to her feet. James gripped her arm firmly, his expression grim as he steered her towards a nearby diner. "What are you planning? You can't just keep me like this," Maya protested, her voice edged with defiance as James ushered her inside.

The diner's interior was a chilling tableau of chaos and violence. Dead bodies littered the floor, a grim testament to the danger lurking in the shadows. Maya's gaze swept over the scene, her heart pounding in her chest as James pulled her down, concealing her from prying eyes.

"I can help you, if you let me," Maya insisted, her voice pitched with desperation as she showed James the rope binding her wrist. "Shut up," James snapped, dismissing her pleas with a wave of his hand.

Maya's mind raced, searching for a way out of this deadly predicament. "I have connections, people who can help us both," she urged, her eyes locking with James's in a silent plea for understanding.

James's demeanor shifted; his tone tinged with menace as he mentioned names that meant dearly to Maya's heart. "I've already met them," he declared, a hint of satisfaction creeping into his voice.

A call interrupted their tense exchange, the voice on the other end urging James to take drastic action. Maya watched as James's expression darkened, torn between loyalty and fear.

As the sound of approaching sirens filled the air, Maya's heart raced. "What have you done?" she demanded, her voice tinged with accusation as James grappled with the guns on the table.

"It's too late," James muttered, his hands shaking as he raised a weapon. Maya's instincts screamed at her to act, to prevent further bloodshed.

Before Maya could intervene, a shot rang out, shattering the fragile calm. Panic seized the diner as gunfire erupted from outside. Maya ducked instinctively, her mind racing as she braced for the chaos that had descended upon them.

_____

Outside, Natalie, Alex and Reid shoot towards the diner but shots are continued to be fired so they know Preacher Mills isn't down yet. "Shit!" Natalie shrieks as a shot is fired near her but she quickly moved out of the way before it could hit her. Alex rushes towards the sheriff and Reid has a worried look on his face.

"Blake!" Reid shouts as he makes a run for Alex. Natalie tries to cover him but suddenly a loud shot is rung out and Reid hits the floor.

"Reid! Reid!" Natalie cries out before she fires multiple shots towards the diner. She rushes towards Reid, not caring about the bullets firing at her. "No, no" Alex mumbles as she helps Natalie drag him towards cover.

JJ and Derek try to drag the sheriff to cover as well but to many shots are fired their way, making it impossible.

"Reid. Reid, come on. Reid!" Natalie shouts as she uses her hands to cover the gunshot wound in his neck.

_____

In the chaotic din of the diner, Maya's heart raced as she frantically searched for a means of escape. Spotting a gleaming knife in the nearby kitchen, she lunged for it, her hands trembling with adrenaline as she sawed through the rope binding her wrists. With a relieved groan, she massaged her aching wrists, the pain a stark reminder of the hours of captivity she had endured.

As the kitchen door swung open, the sudden rush of officers filled the diner, their shouts blending with the cacophony of gunfire. But James showed no signs of stopping, his determination fueling the chaos that threatened to consume them all.

Maya's gaze darted towards the commotion, her eyes widening with a mix of relief and fear as she spotted Derek in his FBI vest, a beacon of hope in the midst of the mayhem. A fleeting smile tugged at her lips, a brief moment of reassurance until horror struck like a thunderbolt.

"Derek!" Maya's cry echoed through the chaos, her voice raw with emotion as she watched helplessly, her world crumbling as Derek's body fell to the relentless barrage of gunfire. The weight of loss bore down on her, tears stinging her eyes as she grappled with the sudden, brutal reality of the situation.

In that moment, amid the turmoil and tragedy, Maya's heart shattered, the bond between teammates forged in the crucible of danger and camaraderie now torn apart by the merciless hand of fate.

TO BE CONTINUED...

"Turn the pain into power"
-Unknown-