The Princess' Revenge

015

Love is can be hard to hold onto,

Too loosely and they can leave,

Too tightly and they can die,

But by holding Love gently can you hold them in your lifetime.

The SUV's wheels squealed in protest as Luke took a corner none too gently. Reid gripped the handle above the window. A symphony of blaring car horns followed in their wake, despite the lightning quick flash of the red and blue lights. Luke looked over at his passenger. "What are you scared, Reid?" Reid tensed as Luke took another corner narrowly missing a light post. "No. I am not scared. I am rationally concerned for my life." Reid bit, before giving a gasping shriek as Luke took a corner practically hard, he spoke breathless giving the next direction. "Left, left." He flapped his free hand towards Tommy's fleeing vehicle, Luke took the left and they arrived at an old run down warehouse. Tommy drove in and the door that was open closed behind his jeep. Luke threw on the brakes, again the wheels squealed. Reid panted in the passenger seat adrenaline coursing those his veins, he glared at Luke as he called Emily to their current predicament. Before Emily picked up Reid couldn't help add one pithy comment, "I thought you were supposed to be good at hunting fugitives." Luke made to argue but Emily had picked up so he settled for a mocking sulk. Luke and Reid waited in the SUV for the others to arrive. "Why do you think they chose those particular angels?" Reid looked up from his tablet that he rarely used, JJ had sent the most recent information of Daniel's case to them. "Well Gabriel, is an archangel and is considered a protector Angel of Israel along with the archangel Michael." Luke turned to Reid, "So, what they are protecting people by killing them or for some other reason?" Reid seemed to consider this before beginning to ramble about the information he knew about angels and archangels with Luke getting slightly confused at each jump to a different angel. When it appeared like Reid was running out of steam, Luke noted the upcoming arrival of the others and quipped, turning to him, "You know, sometimes I need subtitles talking with you." Reid pursed his lips and gave an unamused look before clapping back, "Probably with most people too." He exited the missing Luke affronted look, the slamming of the door told Reid that Luke had exited as well.

Red and blue began to flash around the perpetually brown warehouse, as the rest of the cops showed up, two SUV's leading the charge. Tara, Emily and JJ had wipes which they were now using to wipe the flour and blood from their skin. It had been a few minutes, since the rest of them arrived and Reid sighed as once again Natalia and Tommy ignored the ringing of their phones. The stakeout felt unnerving outside the once desolate warehouse. They had set up a command post, gazebos with computers outlining the murders committed and one held the stunning visage of Garcia. She was in the middle of a debate on supernatural lore with Reid when she noted the travelling looks on Luke's face. Pausing in her debate about vampires Garcia looks back at the two agents in front of her from the screen, giving a concerned look at Luke's stormy face and turns to the nearest cop. Her tone has a slightly annoyed nature to it, "I'm going to need you to put on a Kevlar vest Reid. Kevlar vest, please. Thanks." Luke gives a miffed look at the blonde analyst. "You don't know what my plan is." Reid nods sagely while pulling his bulletproof vest which reads FBI across his chest. While Reid adjusts the straps, Garcia's quick retort is emphasized by her annoyed look. "That is true, but I know you." Garcia paused and pointed her finger at Luke, although the effect was slightly ruined by her being in Quantico. "And I know that any plan you have is going to involve someone I care about in potential serious bodily harm." Luke scoffs, forehead scrunching in disbelief. "What are you talking about?" Mocking hurt laces his tone with an undercurrent of scepticism.

Garcia sighs lightly as the rest of the team joins them. "I'm talking about this." Garcia waves her hands about pointing out the cop cars and abundance of police, raising her voice a little. "Let's just say that over the years, our marriage has become predictable." Luke looks affronted at being at the receiving end of one of Garcia's jokes, at least from what he could tell it was a joke, he did consider that it could be her usual flirtatious manner. "Wait marriage?" Luke unwisely teased the blonde. Garcia rose up and corrected herself, "partnership. Whatever." Most of the team were watching this unfold with muffled laughter, and hidden grins. Emily appeared by Reid's side, he looked over at her, judging by her rather confused expression he erroneously assumed she only caught the tail end of the conversation. Emily's dark eyes dart around the rest of her team who are sniggering behind their hands or pressing their lips together in barely contained laughter. Matt's and Rossi's shoulders were shaking as they slowly gave up the innocent façade. JJ was clinging to Reid, failing to hide her own shaking laughter in his shoulder. Garcia seems to be fighting her own grin at this point watches as the rest of the group giggles at what is going on. Tara who was seated at the desk, by the computer Garcia was on, had her face buried in her hands, also failing to conceal her entertainment at the situation. "Why didn't you tell me you and Luke got married, huh, Penelope?" Emily's teasing tone implies she heard more than she's let on. "We. Are. Not. Married." Garcia tells her shocked and Luke manages to choke out a similar account between his own growing fights of laughter. Garcia gapes before pointing her fluffy tip pen at Luke, the bright feathers bouncing erratically as she practically snarls at the agent. "Don't hurt, my family." She pauses for her words to sink in and Luke sobers thinking that he, himself was absent from her family, before the vibrant analyst reassuringly adds with a tone noting her amusement of his obliviousness, "That includes you too, newbie." She clicked off leaving a slightly stunned Luke, staring back at himself on the darkened screen, surrounded by giggling teammates, who after a few more seconds sober themselves when the phone began to ring.

Emily picked up the phone and held to her ear, Garcia automatically patched in the rest of the team through their earpieces. "SSA Emily Prentiss." There was an almost uncanny resemblance in Natalia's laugh that reminded the agents listening in of her mother. "You always answer the phone like that, makes you sound kind of uptight." Natalia mocked Emily, "SSA Emily Prentiss." There was a ringing laugh in the background, Thomas. "Is there anything you need?" Natalia pretended to consider, "You dead, along with rest of your team, it's the least considering you killed my mother." Emily drew in a breath, "Three of my agents have children would it be fair to let their children suffer without their parent as you did?" Natalia again was silent in faux consideration, "No. No because I will not be responsible for their deaths, you will be." Natalia told her harshly, JJ's and Matt's faces both paled with sympathy for Emily, Rossi's face simply hardened. Reid scribbled something down on a piece of paper and pushed it towards Emily. She took it before formulating how to inform Natalia. "We...I had no hand your mother's death. She was poisoned..." Natalia interrupted with a shout, "To protect you!" Emily managed a disparaging noise, "We don't think so any more. We didn't know she had a daughter, she told us that she was protecting someone she cared about. At first we thought that was us, because of the year and half we spent protecting each other but we were clearly mistaken. We got the guy who killed her, he died in a shootout with my agents." Emily tried to reason with Natalia, her voice was calm and smooth, but the profilers were able to pick up on the hidden stress in her tone.

Natalia scoffed, "Is that supposed to make me feel better? That you got my mother's killer, that he's dead. You are still responsible for her death, you led the guy to her." Natalia's smoky voice cracked and strained with her pain coming through. "I am sorry Natalia." Emily tried to apologise, using it to buy time while Garcia checked the cameras inside the warehouse which with some stroke of luck were still working. "Your apology is noted. Acceptance is pending." There was a pause, before Natalia continued. "My mother named me Niviene after the sorceress who defeated Merlin, who was the most powerful wizard. I, Niviene Angel, have defeated you, supposedly the best minds in the FBI. My mother taught me everything she knew, everything." She stressed the final word and the BAU felt a shiver of fear run down their spines. She also gave a menacing laugh. Emily thought back to Morgana, she had been almost unparalleled in her profiling ability save for Gideon, and she had been a terrifying killer with her remorseless approach. Natalia/Niviene continued. "I am the sorceress, you should fear." Suddenly there was the ordinary dial tone sound beeping in their ears, but they stayed frozen for a second, thrown by the vicious speech juxtaposed by the standard dial tone.