"God, I don't want to get rid of these toys." Fleur sighed as she sat in Adelaide's room.

She was going through some of her old stuff while she was away.

"Well, I highly doubt she's looked at some of this stuff in years." Morgan told her.

"I mean- She has so many cool toys, toys I never had." Fleur looked at them,"Most I had was a Cabbage Patch Doll named Greta."

"But now that she's older, you can give some of those toys to another kid that might not have much." He reminded her.

Fleur looked up at him,"This is too hard."

"I know, baby." Morgan rubbed her back.

"What toys did you have?"

"Typical boy stuff, y'know? Action figures, football." Morgan hummed.

"Of course, you're such a boy." Fleur rolled her eyes.

"You know you love it." Morgan nudged her.

"Sometimes." Fleur shrugged.

"Not all the time?" He raised a brow.

Fleur hummed and looked at him.

"Oh, you love me."

Fleur handed him an Etch A Sketch,"Did you have this?"

"I don't think I did, but I think Sarah might've." He nodded.

"I loved mine." Fleur hummed,"See? Us girls had the best things, you boys and your action figures."

"My action figures were great." Morgan pointed.

"Yeah, I'm sure."

"They were."

"Totally." Fleur hummed, placing some in a bag.

Morgan shook his head,"You can have a lot of fun with a couple action figures and some imagination."

"I assume so." Fleur shrugged.

*********************************

"So, how is she?" Elijah looked up from the bench before he stood up.

Reid had just walked out of the phone box after another call with Maeve.

"She actually went out to a cafe without her disguise." Reid hummed.

"Really?" Elijah raised a brow.

"Mhm."

"And was she okay?"

"She was great. Which I think is a improvement."

"Once this whole stalker situation is over with, I'd love to meet her." Elijah told him.

"Yeah..Same." Reid took Elijah's hand.

"You alright?" Elijah squeezed his hand.

"I am. Are you?" Reid looked at him.

"Of course. You just seemed.. Tense."

"Don't you.. Get the feeling we're being watched?"

"Like.. Right now?" Elijah lowered his voice.

"Now and..In general." Reid walked with him.

Elijah nodded slowly,"I mean, I didn't want to mention anything before."

"So you've noticed it?"

"I have."

"Thank God, it's not just me." Reid sighed.

"Can we walk faster?" Elijah looked over at him.

"Definitely." Reid nodded.

*********************************

"Let's get started." Hotch nodded.

"Sorry we're late guys, we had an appointment." Reid walked in with Elijah.

"Yeah, okay. Three days ago, Bruce Phillips was found dead with his blonde hair dyed black. He had been put in a box and left on a busy street." Garcia told them.

"A custom-made box." Rossi added.

"Maybe our Unsub was a carpenter." Blake suggested.

"He stuffed him in there practically folding him in half." Morgan blinked.

"He had also been hung and restrained and that's where the plot thickens like bad soup." Garcia continued,"Yesterday, Justin Marks and Connie Foster, who were dating, they went missing two miles away from the first abduction site."

"A couple? He's escalating." JJ sighed.

"Yes. This morning Justin's body was found. He had been hung. He had been stuffed inside a box and left in an alley." She shook her head,"Officers say his brown hair was dyed black. Connie is still missing."

"So he probably still has her." Fleur nodded.

"Why would he reject Justin overnight but keep the first male victim for two days?" Elijah crossed his arms.

"Something about him didn't work out. Look at his neck." Rossi pointed,"He was hung multiple times."

"The question is, what does he do with Connie?" Blake asked.

"He could make her watch him abuse the men or have asphyxiative sex with them." Reid suggested.

"Well, a brunette male and a female are crucial to this guy's fantasy." Morgan pointed.

"Well, he kept Connie. Maybe she's the object of his desire." Fleur shrugged.

"Well, our first order of business is finding her and then making sure he doesn't do this again. Wheels up in thirty." Hotch nodded.

*********************************

"Alright, let's go over victimology. Both male victims had their hair dyed black, and the woman is a brunette." Hotch began to speak on the plane.

'The guys are similar. Same ages, same builds." Blake nodded.

"They were also abducted outside their homes, which were all in the same area." Fleur mentioned.

"So they were probably being stalked." Morgan nodded.

"Was Connie with her boyfriend when she was abducted?" Reid asked.

"It looks that way. Her oruse was found on thre ground outside of his house." JJ nodded.

"So this invites some kind of ruse." Morgan nodded.

"It's difficult to lure most people from the security of their own homes." Elijah shook his head.

"Well, some people let their guard down." Fleur shrugged.

"Yeah, but stalking victims vary their routes home. They enter and exit through different doors, they wear disguises. They don't talk to anyone in their driveway. They hardly talk to anyone at all. They're.. Terrorized." Reid rambled.

"Okay, so maybe they were being followed, Reid. I mean, bottom line is the UnSub escalated. The first male was abducted alone, the second was with his girlfriend." Morgan pointed out.

"Well, what do we know about her?" JJ questioned.

"Connie was in her thirties, baked cakes for a living, she never had a run in with the law." Blake shrugged.

"Assuming he kept her, what's the reason?" Rossi asked.

"She's a necessity. Somehow she fits into his fantasy." Fleur nodded.

"And so far, that need could be what's keeping her alive." Elijah sighed.

"So what we know is that we have an UnSub with a fantasy or a deep desire that requires the man to look a certain way." Morgan leaned back.

"Since he rejected Justin so quickly, he's probably looking for a replacement as we speak." Reid told them.

*********************************

"Hotch, our latest abducted looks just like our last two victims." Morgan called Hotch.

"His house is in the hunting zone?" He raised a brow.

"Smack in the middle. Roommate came home and saw blood on the window. Wallet and keys are still here too." Morgan sighed.

"What about hair colour?"

"Naturally black."

"He might not be a surrogate. He might be the actual subject of our Unsub's focus." Hotch nodded.

"I think you might be right. Let me call you back, we might have something." Morgan hung up,"Elijah."

"Hm?" Elijah turned to him.

"It's a little light, isn't it?" Morgan pointed towards the blood on the window.

Elijah nodded slowly as the man doing forensics started taking a sample,"That's not blood."

*********************************

"I've been getting lame GSWs, a few bus crash victims, but hanging? This is fun. Think it was sexual?" The ΜΕ hummed.

"Not in the traditional sense." Rossi shook his head.

"Well, look. There are numerous ligature marks on the neck, indicating he was hung multiple times. The ones without abrasions were probably made by something soft, like fabric."

"Any idea how long it went on for?" Fleur asked.

"Based on the different varying colouration of the bruising, I'd say about twelve hours." She told them,"This ligature mark with the abrasion is the final one. There's an inverted 'V' in the back. He was hung with a leather strap or belt, which is what killed him. Oh, we also found ketamine in his system."

"Well, ketamine acts quickly." Rossi nodded,"So he must have used a ruse to get close to our victim."

"Yes, the bones were perfectly disjointed." Reid showed the X-ray pictures.

"Could have dislocated from the fall after the hanging or when he shoved him in the box." Rossi suggested.

"Well, actually, the bones were dislocated after mortem." The M.E interjected,"Oh. Goody. Overtime."

"Can you check to see if the bones were dislocated in the same way?" Reid asked.

The M.E lifted the cover off Justin to look at his arm,"Yep. Same way. This guy's sicker than my last girlfriend. "

"The question is, why is he doing this?" Rossi wondered.

*********************************

"Due to the sophisticated nature of the crimes, we belive we're looking for an Unsub who's at least thirty, who's torturing his victims." Hotch began the profile.

"We think that he's trying to perfect a delusion at which he's failed three times." Fleur nodded.

"As with most fantasy-based crimes, the reality never lives us to the perfection of what the Unsub envisions." Rossi shook his head.

"This fantasy involves the torture and stretching of his victims, including men that have had their hair dyed black by the UnSub." Alex sighed.

"But before he kills them, he fixes their hair and pains their nails." Elijah added.

"He's now escalated to crucifying his latestest victim, driving holes into his hands and feet." Morgan continued.

"Historically, crucifixion is a sentence reserved for serious crimes." Blake told them.

"Which makes us believe that somewhere in the Unsubs past, he feels his victims have wronged him, so now he's performing some sort of inquisition." Fleur shrugged.

"Whether he's getting his victims to repent or adhere to certain religious beliefs, he is hanging them as if they were victims of religious tribunals of the 1100s." Elijah crossed his arms.

"But something in his fantasy is not working, because he keeps discarding the men." Hotch nodded.

"He kills them and then ritualistically places them in a box with tissue paper." Morgan stated.

"Which is odd, as his initial behaviour dehuminazes them. That means he values those victims more when they're dead." Rossi sighed.

"So far we believe he has spared the one woman that he still has in captivity. She's either witnessing these horrors or being forced to participate in them." Reid informed them.

"Crucifiction is sadistic, and searching it is the ultimate torture." Blake sat on the desk

"Consequently, we believe that the killings will continue to escalate as the Unsub strives to achieve his perfection. Thank you." Hotch finished.

*********************************

"Right, I'll get a warrant over there as soon as possible." Hotch hung up,"The owner of the vintage shop bolted from the store."

"Well, I've got something strange too. The M.E just called. Not only were there ligature marks on victim three's arms, but his jaw was dislocated as well." Rossi told him.

"His jaw?" Reid asked.

"Why would you hang someone, dislocated their joints and their jaw and then crucify them?" Elijah questioned.

"I can see your wheels turning. Don't hold back." Rossi nudged Reid who was staring into space.

"What if he's dislocating their body parts so he can manipulate them himself." Reid suggested.

"For what purpose?" Fleur asked.

"Think about it for a second. If you add the dislocation, the holes in the hands, the strange clothing, and the odd makeup, I know this sounds crazy but what if our Unsub is turning his victims into human marionettes?" Reid looked around at them.

Elijah blinked,"..Excuse me, what?"

"The Greeks translated puppets as 'neurospasta', which literally means string pulling. Throughout time they've been used as a method to tell kings a story so the subjects didn't have to speak directly to him." Reid explained.

"It was a way to hear the truth." Rossi nodded.

"It seems like this Unsub's doing something similar, using his puppets to tell his story." Hotch crossed his arms.

"He can't be controlling them by hand." Blake shook her head.

"No, he probably built some sort of contraption." Hotch agreed.

"And he's trying to lift his victims." Reid nodded.

"That could explain why they discarded the men. They were too heavy." Rossi realised.

"What do you see?" Hotch asked him.

"Well, I'm checking the licenses of our victims, each one weighed less than the previous one."

"You know, if he's making human marionettes, that also explains why he's stuffing his victims into boxes. It's like a sick toy chest." Reid added.

"So he is dehumanising them, but he's just not killing them." Hotch looked at them,"He's turning them into his playthings."

"A father and son were just abducted from a parking lot at gunpoint." Detective Martin informed them as he walked in,"A witness saw a man force them into a car."

"Dave, you and Blake go check it out. I'll have Garcia start looking for theatre owners and puppeteers in the area." Hotch nodded.

*********************************

"We just came from the parking lot where the father and son were abducted from." Rossi walked back in,"It looked like the Unsub might be on the surveillance camera. Witness said there was a blue van."

Hotch grabbed his phone, calling Garcia,"Garcia."

"Yes, sir." She answered.

"Were there any incidents involving a father and son in the puppeteers histories that you found?" Hotch asked.

"Father and son. Okay.. No, I'm coming up empty." Garcia shook her head.

"What about twenty or thirty years ago?" Rossi wondered.

"Well, there was a pretty famous puppeteer in the late 50s named Alex Rain. He died in a robbery. His son witnessed it." Garcia told them.

"What was the son's name?" Alex asked.

"Adam Rain. Mom died ten years ago."

"Cross-check Adam's name with the names of the patrons in the clothing store." Fleur nodded.

"Oh, I got a big old hit. Okay, Mr Rain called Tucker, the owner, forty times in the last year. And check this, his father was most well-known for a pair of puppets named Mitch and Steph. The male one had black hair and the female was a redhead." Garcia informed them.

"Do you have an address?" Rossi questioned.

"Last known was a building on Pine Street, used to be his father's theatre." She sent the adress over.

"Come on, Dave." Hotch nodded.

"And guess what he drives." Garcia sighed.

"Blue van. Call us in the car." Hotch walked off.

*********************************

Hotch, Rossi, Elijah and Fleur burst into the theater during Adam's.. Performance.

"Adam Rain, this is the FBI!" Hotch shouted to him.

"I need to see your hands." Fleur looked around.

"What are you doing?" Adam questioned as he approached,"Somebody call security. You can't ruin this."

"Adam, put down the gun." Hotch ordered.

"We're in the middle of a performance." He pointed.

"This is not a performance." Elijah shook his head.

"Yes, it is a performance and this is not how it ends!" Adam shouted.

"We need to get these people to a hospital." Hotch told him.

"After they save my father from the robber." Adam scoffed.

"From what robber, Adam?" Hotch asked.

"From him!" Adam held up the puppet,"He did it, we have to stop him!"

"Mr Rain, that is just a puppet, there's no one there." Elijah told him,"When you were young, your father loved you so much, he never told you that the puppets weren't real."

"That's not true."

"It is. That's why Steph and Mitch couldn't save him that day. They only moved when he made then." Hotch nodded.

"You're.. You're lying." Adam shook his head.

"Adam, don't do to these people what the robber did to your father. You can save them." Elijah lowered his gun.

Adam placed down the puppet and gun as he began to cry. Fleur looked around while Rossi took Adam away as he thanked the 'audience'... Which consisted of loads of puppets and inanimate objects.

"Does this rival the lip one?" Elijah whispered to her.

"It rivals the lip... And the skeleton movie star." Fleur muttered.

*********************************

"Do I look official enough?" Elijah adjusted his blazer.

"You look normal." Reid chuckled.

"Is this a nice restaurant?" Elijah asked,"I don't want to be underdressed or overdressed, for that matter."

"Elijah, you look fine." Reid assured him.

"First impressions are important." Elijah pointed,"We're like, the first people she's going to meet after being in hiding."

"And I can only assume what she thinks we look like."

"Exactly, I need to live up to the expectations."

"If I like you just the way you are, then she will too." Reid kissed his cheek.

"You're too sweet." Elijah sighed, leaning against his shoulder.

"I love you." Reid hummed.

"I love you more, baby." Elijah smiled.

Reid smiled,"We better get going."

"Right, do you want me to drive?" He asked.

"Yes, please." Reid nodded.

"Alright." Elijah grabbed his keys.

*********************************

Elijah and Reid had sat down in the restaurant, they had been waiting a while, of course they had no idea what Meave looked like so it was a guessing game.

Elijah rubbed his arms,"I can feel it again."

Reid looked around, fixing his napkin,"..There."

Elijah tapped on the table, making eye contact with a man from another table.

"..I need to call Meave." Reid quickly called her.

"Tell her not to come." Elijah nodded.

"Meave? It's Spencer."

"Oh, hello." She answered.

"Meave, don't come into the restaurant."

"What are you talking about? I'm outside." Maeve told him.

"We think your stalker's here." Reid sighed.

"What?" Maeve blinked.

"You have to go, now."

"Okay.." Maeve hung up.

Reid stood up, looking at Elijah before he walked towards the presumed stalker.

"Hey, Dick." A man walked over from behind him, shaking hands with the other.

"..Sorry." Reid stepped back, going back over to Elijah.

"Hey, uh, that lady from the front came over. Said a woman left this for us." Elijah held out a bag.

"What?" Reid tilted his head and took the bag

Inside, was a book from Arthur Conan Doyle with a slightly edited Thomas Merton quote on the first page.

"Friendship and love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone. We find it with another." Reid read out.

Elijah smiled softly,"Let's go home, yeah?"

"Yeah." Reid sighed.