The yawning team strolled lazily into the dark briefing room after hours, arguably pissed off for being called back into the office less than an hour after getting back from the jet.

"So what exactly is happening? Why are we all here?" Emily slumped down in her chair, Hotch simply responding by gesturing for them all to take a seat and checking his watch nervously; something a man like Hotch rarely did.

"Where's Athena?" Morgan asked, unsure why he was aware of her absence almost immediately, "how come she gets to get out of late night meetings? Unfair."

"And where's Garcia?" JJ asked before the team all spotted a familiar figure storming through the office.

"Athena? Are you okay-" Reid tried to askthey saw as she pushed past him carrying a tossed together box; eye makeup smudged down her cheeks, old dried blood laying under her nose and well deserved pissed off expression fixed on her face.

"Listen up fuckers-" she slammed the box on the table with trembling hands "-you idiots couldn't leave well enough alone and now I have to tell you everything so I can save Garcia's stupid pathetic life and die if I'm lucky."

"Wait what happened to Garcia? Is she okay-"

"Let me fucking finish!" She snapped at Morgan's concern, everyone exchanging glances at her outburst that seemed different to her usual ones.

"Athena, calm down" Hotch sighed.

"No! You don't get to tell me that after what you did" she snapped her head to him, "do not pretend like I am acting crazy when you have no idea what you've fucking done."

"Can someone tell us what is happening?" Rossi asked with a failed attempt to defuse the situation he knew nothing about.

"Thanks to your stupid leader, my father has taken Penelope and-"

"What the hell Hotch?!" Morgan yelled.

"He has Penelope?! What did you do Hotch?!" Emily exclaimed.

"We don't have time for you all to yell at him" Athena barked at their interruptions, "we have three days until he hurts her and I have to mentally prepare to give myself up to him again so shut the fuck up."

"What do you mean give yourself up?" 

She let out a frustrated sigh before pushing it down, focusing on the task at hand to stop herself spiralling, throwing open the box and chucking photos and files onto the table, "in short; I have to trade myself for her,  but before I go I might as well let you all in on parts of what will happen to me by showing you a tiny glimpse into my childhood so you can prepare to help me get her out of there  with as many limbs as possible."

"What the hell is this?" Morgan exclaimed in disgust at the gruesome pictures laid before them..

"Home sweet home" Athena cleared her throat, swallowing her tears and numbing herself the best she could, "you may have heard of my father's former name; William Jefferey Wells." 

Most of the team exchanged various confused glances at the name they didn't recall recognising, all bar Reid who looked up in shock "the cult leader?"

"Bingo."

"What?" Rossi verbalised the rest of the team's confusion.

"William Jefferey Wells; he was a huge cult leader in the 70's in Ireland, he ran the biggest cult Europe has ever seen, when the police finally raided it, it was-" Reid began to explain.

"Horrific" Athena spoke blankly with tears speckling her lash line.

"But if they raided it, how come you knew about it? You weren't born yet kid?" Rossi quizzed.

"Just because they raided it doesn't mean they stopped him" she began to explain, "he spent a few years in prison before he somehow managed to convince not only the other prisoners but the guards and prison leaders to join his 'new' cult and let him out- faking deaths apparently runs in the family."

Hotch watched as she fiddled with her nails once more, her face blank and unreadable as if she was recalling what she had for dinner the night before, but her hands shaking as she told the curse of her father.

"He started it up again but this time underground, bigger and badder than ever which is when I came into the picture... See my mother was one of those prison pen pals, unlucky for her she got him and... and well nine months after her in person visit to the prison there I was. Once he found out he had a child he tracked me down the moment he got out, killed her in front of me and took me back to his cult; I I grew up in that god forsaken place seeing horrific things and doing worse until I was 16."

Her eyes glazed over with an ash of memories from the night of her escape, the screams, the guilt, the begging in her heart to just give up...

"Oh my god" JJ's gasp brought her mind back to the present, covering her mouth as she looked at the pictures of the machines and torture devices that she had only read about in old FBI files of the most horrific unsubs like the toy box killer.

"Yeah, his cults whole thing was controlling women so that was his main kind of message" Athena pushed her hair behind her ears and shrugged with a forced casualness she didn't know how much longer she could fake when talking about her childhood, "the men ruled us, used us, we worked for them; that sorta thing, we were hired out to other sick dudes and were given 'lessons' by them if we acted out or if they just felt like it, you get the gist."

"Athena, I-I... I don't know what to say" JJ choked on her words.

"Being his daughter you'd think I would get off easy but nope- I got it the worst most of the time" she turned to reveal the deep white scars on her back before pulling her top back down, further explaining the horrors that plagued her each night, "he used to make us skin each other alive a lot of the time as a way to divide us and make us earn our way out of 'lesson' time. I refused to do it for years so I was used for the younger girls to practice on... until, I-I... uh..."

Screams

Guilt

Turn back

Give up

Screams 

Smoke

Screams

Turn bac-

"I finally snapped when I was 16" she shook her head, showing a moment of pure human emotion to the team before trying to cover it to no avail, "I couldn't take it anymore, I couldn't... I knew I should stay and try and save the other girls but I just... there was this room, the tumble room; there were huge, industrial type of tumble dryers. He would put us in the machines when we were bad or he was bored, he never needed a reason. It was awful, the shaking, the metal- all of it was just... awful. One night I cut one of the wires at the back of the machine and left it in a bucket of water. It started a fire and I... I dressed one of the girls who had died in her lesson the day before in my clothes, cut her hair like mine as best as I could with a nail file and left her down there for him to find once they put the fire out. I was gone, I was free."

The room fell silent as tears escaped her fixed face, a tremble to her voice, a rawness that felt so foreign for someone like her to experience, "I left all of them there to burn, I didn't even look up who survived; I found these papers a few years ago, they said it was an orphanage fire and all the girls died- all of them died because of me..."

"That... that wasn't your fault Athena" Morgan broke the silence to everyone's surprise, speaking with sincerity that she shrugged off.

"I told you I was a monster- I guess you were right about me more than you thought."

"That's not true" he shook his head, "you're not a monster, it wasn't your fault-"

"They are dead and I'm alive- tell me how that wasn't my fucking fault?" She snapped up at him before her voice deflated, trying to force herself to hide behind the explanation of the story to stop the pain in her chest, "I knew that even if they survived the fire that he would make them wish they didn't. The things he did Morgan... he started it back up again after that, I didn't even have to look to find it- I just know he did. Who knows how many more girls he's hurt because of that night... because of me."

"It wasn't your fault" Hotch spoke from the corner, more sure of his words than any he had ever said before, "you were just a child who was tortured, gaslighted and abused in a cult by your father; you were brought up by evil Athena, that does not make you evil."

"It doesn't matter" she shook her head, wiping her tears off and plastering her strong demeanour once again, "I have to go back and I'll pay for what I've done, I'll pay for their deaths like I should have, I should have burnt in that fire too. I'll make it right this time."

"How did he get all of these girls to join?" Emily glanced at the names in the fire file with tears in her own eyes, there were so, so many.

"By being a 'world class' actor; he would put on different acts and disguises, usually he acted as a preacher, promising parents that god would save their children if they let them go with him. He was a trained con-man so it was pretty convincing especially because-" she paused in pain of what she had done, "especially because he had his 'darling daughter' there to act as a testimony..."

"You didn't make those girls join, he did" Morgan quickly tried to assure her, oddly the most sure of this fact out of anyone in the group who were still processing what she was saying, what she was implying, and what that meant she did.

But for some reason, a reason even he didn't understand, Morgan knew that was a fact; it wasn't her fault.

"I sure as hell didn't stop them, did I?! Stop trying to tell me I'm a good person or what I did wasn't pure evil; I know I'm a bad person, you of all people remind me constantly that I am and I know that I deserve to die what I did but..." she couldn't help it, the tears were coming, she was humiliated, but she couldn't stop it, she couldn't stop the fear shaking her to the core. "-I was just so... so fucking scared."

Morgan's impulse took over before he knew what he was doing or why he was doing it; pulling her close to him in a desperate hug that she would say she tried to fight, but if she was honest she needed that embrace, she wasn't sure why seeded someone who hated her to her core to hold her like she hadn't been held before; but she did.

She pulled away eventually, avoiding eye contact with an equally as puzzled and warmed Morgan, turning to Hotch who had surprising tears in his eyes.

"Now you all know that I am the worst and can see some of the joys of my childhood- let's go return me to it" she couldn't help a pang of guilt in her chest for the blame she had thrown on him, she knew deep, deep, down that it wasn't his fault, it would have happened eventually; but it was the anger she had needed to cling onto to survive from a young age, and without it, what was left?

"Hey, it was fun while it lasted" she shrugged at him with defeat instead of clinging onto the spite she missed warming her chest.

"It's not over, we're not letting him take you" he stood up with determination, shaking his head, almost terrified of her acceptance.

"I may technically be your property Agent Hotchner, but you don't have a choice" she gave an attempted chuckle before shaking her head with a sigh, "if you try any tricks or plans- he'll kill her or go underground and take her with him and do a lot worse to her than that. You have to leave me but hey- I'm sure you're all so happy to get rid of me so luckily it won't be too hard for you guys."

"You don't really think that kid, do you?" Rossi asked softly as she stared with confusion at their faces.

"Athena, as much as you're a pain in the ass and are absolutely insane- you're a part of this team now and we all care about you" Emily wiped a tear, still in shock from the horrors in the files that Athena hadn't even mentioned.

"We've got your back whether you like it or not shorty" Morgan folded his arms with admitted defeat of their feud- for now of course.

Athena looked confused around the group who all nodded in agreement; she didn't know what it was like to have people care about her, or whatever this was.

She had been on her own for so long and convinced herself that she was so bad that no one could ever care about her, it felt almost 'wrong' for it to not feel like that.

"I...um... I don't know what to say" she admitted, Morgan letting out a small chuckle- one last mocking before helping her was fair of course.

"Thank god she finally ran out of things to say."

"There has to be some other way to get Garcia out of there" Emily theorised, "Reid? Come on use that big brain, how did they do the raid in the 70's?"

"We can't use that method..."

"Why not?" 

"Because when he saw the police coming he gassed all the members in chambers after letting the men do what they wanted one last time" Athena interrupted with an explanation Reid was more than happy to not have to recall, recounting the story that her father told her and the new girls the story of that day every night like it was a storybook.

"Oh my god" JJ clasped her hand over her mouth to stop herself being sick, "t-thats horrible."

"Yep, if you try to raid it he will kill everyone and do worse than that before they're dead" Athena spoke bluntly before turning to Hotch with a whisper of a smile he couldn't help but enjoy, "but I have a plan to get them all out and end his operation once and for all."

"What is it?" 

"You're just going to have to trust me, for once" she smiled teasingly at him "and as much as you don't want to- you're going to have to give me a gun."

He paused before returning a small smile, unholstering his own gun and passing it to her to everyone's surprise.

"It's sweet that you don't think I'd shoot you anymore- dumb as all hell, but sweet" she joked "look at our character development guys!"

Morgan couldn't help but laugh, letting himself let go of his grudge against her momentarily.

"Ha! I knew I'd break you, you're basically in love with me now- admit it" she mocked, earning an eye roll of course before turning to the whole group, "right, so let's go then. One last mission with your favourite psychopath."

"So where are we going?" 

She paused before turning to the map on the board with a pained smile, a flicker of tears in her eyes as she whispered words she thought she'd never say again;

"Home." 

The group sat on the jet set to Ireland in silence after Athena finished telling them the majority of  their part in her plan, of which none of them were happy with.

"But that means you'll be with your dad alone for that whole time" Morgan shook his head with surprising objection "I'm not letting that happen."

"Relax I promise I won't team up with him if that's what you're thinking, if I'm lucky he'll kill me early" she rolled her eyes before realising that wasn't very reassuring "for real dude- I'll be fine. I've dealt with him before."

"That doesn't mean you have to again."

"I thought you of all people would be happy to see me go, you hate my guts."

"I don't 'hate your guts'" Morgan chuckled "they just annoy the hell out of me."

"Well don't worry, I will find a way to haunt you and annoy you that way- I'm nothing if not a spiteful bitch; our hateful feud of being mortal enemies will continue until I win, even if I'm dead."

"You don't have to do this; you don't have to die Athena" he spoke with a somber seriousness to his voice that surprised her, a look in his eyes that almost begged her to run, to throw this 'plan' away and go back on the run just so she would survive.

"It's the only way to stop him forever Morgan" she sighed, her mind made up, "I'm okay with it, it's fine."

"It's not fine, for god sakes Athena you're not even in your mid-twenties" he shook his head, "as much as it pains my pride to say this to you of all people; you deserve to live."

She couldn't help her small smile at how frustrated he was to admit that, a small prize for her to keep from their endless feud that made her realise there would be no more of it; no more taunts, no more mocking, no more attempted murders- you know, the fun stuff in life.

She thought about that a lot, how it would all end, what she would miss out on; how her life would end.

She had thought every night in that cult how it would end, how she would end it, dreaming of the day she would be strong enough to end it or even strong enough to escape.

Now she was going to do more than run away, she was going to make it right, she was going to end it for all the children that had died, for the childhoods that had been stamped out;  for the hopeful 5 year old Athena who cried at night praying she would just be a bit stronger, begging the world to grant her any strength, to send someone to save her or just to kill her. 

She was going to do it all and it wasn't 'the world' or some kind of 'prince' who was going to save her this time; it was her, it had always been her.

"At least tell us what you are going to do so we can talk you out of it" Reid interrupted her thoughts quietly, nudging her arm when Morgan turned away with a frustration at her lack of fighting for her literal life.

"I am a stubborn woman- and I'm smarter than all of you; if there was another way, I would have figured it out bud."

He paused for a moment, studying her before smiling slightly, "you're lying."

Athena couldn't help her small smile back, patting his arm with praise, "you finally figured out my tell- kudos kid."

"Wait, wait, wait-" Emily interrupted after obviously listening in, "that means there is another way! Tell us!"

"God I hate profilers" she couldn't help her small laugh before shaking her head with a shrug, "it wouldn't anyway, and more people could die; just get Garcia and the girls out whilst I distract him and then run and don't look back."

"We're landing, seatbelts on everyone" the pilot spoke over the intercom, silencing the team's attempts to change her mind.

"We will find another way" Hotch spoke one finale demand that she of course rejected, leaning back in her chair, her eyes shutting as she enjoyed her last moments away from the prison she called home.

"It's okay, I'm okay with this way now."

The drive to the compound from the airport was rough, not just on the terrain.

The team, who had at one time or another prayed for Athena to be swooped away from them and the FBI, were all at a cross-roads of how to feel now she really was going to be.

It felt... wrong to feel such agony in their chests for a woman they were supposed to despise leaving, marching to her death, sacrificing herself in ways they didn't understand yet.

"How do you know it is here?" Morgan quietly spoke to Athena in the back seat after trying to force himself to ignore her, to make it easier, to make it more tolerable to ignore the fact he wasn't as thrilled as he thought he would be to see her leaving.

"This is where my mother used to live; he always said that it would make a great place to 'raise his girls'" she answered, trying not to think about her one good memory of Ireland, her mother's own home, being used for such pain, "when I burnt the other one down, I knew he would start it up again, and I knew it would be here."

"Do you know where he'll be on the plot of land? Maybe we can surround him?" 

She shook her head, ignoring the twisting of confusing pain in her stomach from a man who despised her clearly grasping at straws to make sure she was safe, "he tunnels out a huge basement tunnel system at every place so if it's raided then it's literally underground and can't be found; I drew you all a map, if you go in from the back the girls should be doing the laundry at this time, I'll make sure no one is in any 'lessons' and you just focus on getting them out and arresting the men- or killing them, I'd prefer that but I know how you narcs are. He will bring Garcia out once he has me, once he does that- you need to leave immediately."

"How do you remember the layout and schedule?" JJ asked as she studied the surprisingly well drawn map.

"Because I was the one who created them" Athena spoke quietly, choking back tears as they approached the large, metal gate in the fence that surrounded the huge farmhouse, shaking her head and nodding to Hotch in the front as she stepped out, "you know what to do."

"Athena listen to me-" he caught her hand before she could go, glancing back at their hands embraced like they had been long before, the sincerity in his eyes, the urgency to his grip, "-if there is any way that you can get out of there, you have to do it; don't think you have to die because of what he made you do- you don't. You deserve to live Athena."

Time didn't stand still this time, it didn't stretch, it didn't feel like those words could hold her there forever; instead it only stung.

"Goodbye Aaron Hotchner."

The tall bronze gates opened as Athena walked up to the farm truck driving down the path with four men in matching tan uniforms to escort her up the hill to the simple, rustic looking barn house that disguised the horrors held within with it's flower baskets and rocking chairs on the lawn.

"Do you think that she will survive?" Morgan broke the silence in the car, the thought begging for an answer, the thought begging for a lie.

"I think she has already made up her mind" Hotch spoke sombrely as he reversed the car to get into their positions, praying that she would change her mind, but knowing that it was useless;

Athena's stubbornness could defy even a holy miracle.