Elijah was laid in bed, looking up at the ceiling as he clutched Strauss' coin in his hand. Ten minutes.. Twenty minutes.. Twenty-three minutes late to his AA meeting. He had meant to keep going after Strauss passed away but.. He couldn't.

"Eli?" Reid walked into the room.

"Hm?" Elijah glanced over at him.

"I thought you left." Reid tilted his head.

"I did." Elijah nodded.

"To the AA meeting?"

"I started driving there."

"And.."

"..Reid, I haven't been going since Strauss died." Elijah told him,"I tried, honest."

Reid sighed and walked over, sitting on the bed next to him,"I.. I know it's difficult."

Elijah squeezed the coin in his hand,"I didn't start again- But I can't go back there anymore."

"That's fine." Reid assured him,"You don't need to go to an AA meeting to be sober. You've been doing great."

"We did it together, y'know? I got her help and she helped me.."

"She would want you to be happy."

Elijah looked away,"..I was happy."

Reid kissed his hand,"We can help each other now."

"In the last few months of getting to know her, she treated me more like a son than my own mother ever did." Elijah leaned against Reid.

"I know she did." He nodded.

"I miss her.."

"I know." Reid sighed,"But we did her justice."

"I wish I got to shoot him." Elijah muttered.

"Don't we all?" He chuckled, the phone ringing in the background,"And.. We never get a break."

"Can't you just stay here a bit longer?" Elijah asked him.

"Y'know what? Fine."

Elijah gasped,"Really?"

"Only if you're good."

"I will be. Scout's honor." Elijah winked.

"Okay then." Reid chuckled and leaned back.

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

"I don't see why you put yourself through two jobs." Fleur sighed to Morgan as he sat on the couch.

"I enjoy it, keeps things fresh." Morgan hummed.

"You're just away from home."

"Do you want me around more often?" Morgan asked.

"It would be nice." Fleur hummed.

"Then I can have that arranged." He wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"How?"

"I'll figure out it." Morgan shrugged,"I'd do anything for you."

Fleur smiled and kissed his cheek.

"I'm gonna spend some quality time with you tonight, I'll make us a nice meal and everything." Morgan told her.

"Really?"

"Really."

"Then..I would like that a lot." Fleur hummed.

"That's great-" Morgan was cut off by the phone ringing,"Of course."

"Just ignore it." Fleur shook her head.

"You know one of us needs to answer that, babe." Morgan pointed.

"Fine." Fleur rolled her eyes and picked it up.

"Flo, we've got another case." Garcia sighed,"I hope I wasn't interrupting."

"Nope..Nothing." Fleur assured her,"We'll pick you up on the way?"

"Yes please." She nodded.

"Kisses." Fleur hung up and sighed,"Case."

"Well, that just means we'll postpone our dinner for a later date." Morgan shook his head.

"Fine." She groaned.

"It will happen, as soon as this case is over." Morgan assured her.

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

"We were this close to going to Ocean City and I get the text." JJ sighed to Reid and Elijah as they walked out the lift.

"I was in the middle of calculating force times distance times the coefficient of friction to determine how fast I could make a hairpin turn in a Prius." Reid told her.

"You don't have a hybrid." JJ blinked.

"I know, but if I did, I'd want to know." Reid nodded.

"Y'know, you were doing a few things but I didn't realize calculations was one of them." Elijah nudged him.

"Shush." Reid cleared his throat.

Elijah winked before he turned to the elevator, waving as he saw Fleur, Morgan and Garcia, "Hey."

"Hey." Fleur sighed.

"Weren't we just here?" Morgan sighed.

"Did your date understand?" JJ asked him.

"Luckily we live in the same house." Morgan chuckled.

"Oh, you must be peeved." Garcia looked over to Blake as she walked over as well.

"I get to Dulles, make it through security, about to board the plane to Boston and bam, I get the call." Blake nodded.

"I say we all demand a vacation." Garcia pointed.

"From who, the guy that works three jobs?" Reid joked, "Good luck with that."

The team then headed the the Conference Room and were eventually joined by Hotch and Rossi.

"I'm sorry you guys had to come in again. Garcia?" Hotch looked over at her.

"Yeah. Two women, Sarah Beck and Jill Elks were found in a park in Glendale, Arizona within the last three days. Both of them were single, in their late twenties, following their normal, low risk routines when abducted." Garcia explained.

"Where were they taken from?" Blake asked.

"Sarah was on her way to a theater group rehearsal, and Jill was abducted from her apartment. The UnSub broke in through a window." Garcia nodded.

"Well, clearly, he's hunting a specific type." Reid pointed out.

"He left the jewelry untouched." Fleur added.

"Yeah, it's not about robbery." Hotch nodded.

"Both women were sexually assaulted, then shot in the heart and left in that prayer position." Garcia finished.

"That's odd." JJ sighed.

"Maybe it's religious. It looks like they're leaning on a cross." Elijah suggested.

"Their hands are tilted forwards." Morgan pointed.

"He could have made them supplicate and their hands clenched in rigour mortis." Reid told them.

"So they're possibly praying at atone for their sins." JJ nodded.

"I doubt that." Blake shook her head,"Both women have pretty clean background."

"Since the posing was done post-mortem, maybe it's a representation of how he made them bed for their lives." Reid mentioned

"We've definitely seen that before." Rossi agreed.

"He's getting off on the power. Let's head to Arizona. Wheels up in thirty." Hotch nodded.

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

"Alright, let's go over victimology." Hotch spoke as they sat on the jet,"Both of these women were professionals, young, single, blond, both in their late twenties and petite."

"Both of these women were left in parks. The dumpsites could be symbolic. I mean, a lot of religions are based in nature, celebrating the outdoors." Morgan added.

"Pilgrimages are often made to parks. Believers say they're closer to God in places like that." Elijah told them.

"Maybe he believes they're surrogates for a woman who cheated on or rejected him." Rossi sat down.

"Either way, the Unsub participates in a high-risk behavior. He abducts and controls the victims, takes them to secluded locations, rapes them and kills them all within twelve hours." Reid explained.

"His yet to be determined ritual leaves no outward indicators." JJ shook her head.

"Well, we know he has a gun, the ability to abduct his victims, take them to a lair and discard them in a park." Morgan pointed.

"So he probably has a van or a SUV." Fleur nodded.

"And he's planned things out. He abducted one victim on her way to a theatre, another one from her apartment." JJ contiued.

"So he stalks them." Blake looked up.

"The consistency of the abduction sites and the methodologies tells us that he has no known or identifiable connection between any of the victims and in fact wants them to be found in order to convey his posed prayer message." Reid explained.

"Well, the parks will give us behavioural clues to help us fill out our profile." Morgan agreed.

"Alright, we should split up when we hit the ground. He's probably already chosen his next victim." Hotch sighed.

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

"This type of detailed ritualistic behavior typically manifests itself in multiple kills over a short period of time." Reid told Sargeant Johnson as they walked into the station.

"I've increased the manpower on the street. I was even thinking of doing a press conference." Johnson stated.

"At this point, it would be better if we could conduct our analysis without media interference." Hotch shook his head,"We'll need a separate room to do interviews."

"There's one over there." Johnson pointed.

"Sargeant." An officer walked in,"Another vic, Emma Coleman, was found in Bonsall park."

"That's a mile from here." Fleur blinked.

"And two miles from another dumpsite, which tells us our Unsub's zone of comfort is within a three mile radius." Reid explained.

"I'll reroute Rossi, Morgan and Elijah to the scene." Hotch grabbed his phone.

"And we'll see if we can locate her next of kin." Johnson nodded.

"Good. We'll need to talk to them." JJ added.

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

"Alright, Rossi, talk to us. What's up?" Elijah asked him.

"Only the sun. I like the sun." Rossi hummed.

"Cute. That's real cute. Look, when I was at the gym, conversation around the free weights is Hotch is interviewing to be Strauss' permanant replacement." Morgan crossed his arms.

"I know nothing." Rossi shrugged.

"Come on, dad, are you sure about that?" Elijah raised a brow.

"Why do I get the feeling you're being a profiler?" Morgan hummed.

"If you have any questions about Hotch, maybe you should ask Hotch." Rossi suggested.

"Okay. Look, I get it. Doing double duty after the sequester, fine, but taking on a desk job full time?" Morgan sighed.

"You know what they say about desk jobs. That's how you get the ladies." Rossi hummed.

"No.. Sitting is the new smoking. That'll kill Hotch and you know that." He pointed.

"Well, it's the same as last time, except this woman has light brown hair." Rossi pointed as they approached the dead body.

"Looks like she threw up." Morgan added.

"Maybe it was nerves. She knew she was going to die." Elijah sighed, tilting his head as he looked at her hand,"She had a wedding ring on."

"It's right over there." Morgan pointed,"He must have tossed it."

"Strange." Rossi nodded.

"Yeah, all the other victims were single females. Jewelery was left untouched. So either this guy has a disdain for marriage or his fantasy is single women. So maybe he got rid of the ring cause it didn't fit his parameters."

"If that's the case, why not target a single woman in the first place? And why not take the ring off during the rape?" Elijah questioned.

"That is the question." Morgan nodded.

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

"The M.E's report came navy from the first two victims. They also had skull fragments and human remains in their systems." Blake told them.

"This woman looks nothing like the last three." Johnson shook her head.

"The victim pool's expanding." Hotch nodded.

"So I talked to Emma's best friend and she knew the lover's name. He was out of town for all the kills and his alibi checks out." JJ walked over.

"Guys, look. She choked on something." Reid knelt down and pulled.. A tongue out of her mouth.

"Oh, jeez, tell me that's hers." Fleur blinked.

"It's not." Reid stood up, shaking his head.

"Well, the tongue's still from the head region." Alex sighed.

"But who's the source?" Johnson asked.

"He either works with dead bodies, or it's from his first victim who we haven't found yet." JJ shook her head.

"If we stick with the religious theory, it could be some kind of communion." Hotch suggested.

"Body of Christ." Blake nodded.

"If we can identify thos victims, it'll help lead us to our Unsub." Reid stated.

"Bag it and run the DNA. We're ready to give the profile." Hotch crossed his arms.

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

"We believe that this unknown subject is a whole male in his early thirties." Hotch began the profile,"Initially, he targeted white, blond women in their twenties, but is expanding his victim pool."

"His MO is to rape his victims and them shoot them in the heart. At the disposal site, he poses them as if they were praying. He's trying to convey a message that only he understands." Rossi nodded.

"Before he kills his victims, he forces the women to consume human flesh. It's called projected cannibalism. Typically, cannibalism is a willing choice, but the act of forcing someone to engage in it is a form of torture. It tells us that the UnSub is sadistic and most likely delusional." Reid explained.

"The emergence of those delusions would have caused difficulties in his relationships and jobs in the past." JJ added,"He may have been institutionalised or locked up as a result."

"He sees himself as an enforcer and is punishing these women for their sins." Elijah continued,"He may have an overly developed sense of morality and feels the need to superimpose this on others."

"Our UnSub could have shot his victims anywhere, but he chose the heart, suggesting he's been hurt by somebody close to him who's clearly the center of his rage." Fleur sat on the desk.

"This is the comfort zone out Unsub is operating in." Reid pointed to the map,"We should increase police presence within this area. He's also devolving rapidly and could resort to even more extreme methods to punish his victims."

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

"You know what's odd? Usually in cannibalism, it's the visceral organs and fleshy parts being eaten. But this UnSub is making the victims eat exclusively from the head. Why?" Reid wondered.

"That may be symbolic. It's the only body part a person cannot survive losing." Blake suggested.

"Alright, so you three keep looking into that. And then we can devise a neighbourhood canvass questionnaire. Check for any attempted break ins in the area." Morgan added.

"Someone's practicing for his new role." JJ hummed,"Look, rumor has it Hotch is putting in for Strauss' job."

"See no evil, hear no gossip." Fleur hummed.

"Oh, come on. We see evil all day long." Elijah rolled his eyes.

"Rossi says if we want to know, we got to ask the big man himself." Morgan shrugged.

"I've asked Garcia to compile a list of break-ins in the area and also a missing persons report." Hotch told them as he walked in, looking around at everyone,"And yes, they did talk to me about the Section Chief job."

"Do you want it?" Reid asked.

"I know what I don't want is an outsider coming in and questioning every move this team makes." Hotch shook his head,"I told them that I'd think about it."

"So what happens if you accept?" JJ raised a brow.

"It means this would be my last case in the field, but nothing's been decided. As soon as I figure out what to do, you'll be the first to know." He assured them.

"We just got a lead on a parolee. Fits the profile, we'll pick him up." Johnson walked in.

"Alright, Rossi, you and Morgan go check it out. The rest of us will go over the victimology statements." Hotch instructed.

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

"Guys, I think I figured out why our UnSub is so obsessed with the human head. The DNA results are back in. All the human remains found in the victims stomachs are from the same person." Reid rushed into the room.

"So, what does that mean?" Blake asked.

"It's a long explanation, so bear with me." Reid sighed,"When Pheidippides ran a marathon, he had faith."

"He also died." Elijah blinked,"Go on."

"True." Reid shrugged,"If you take the fact that our UnSub preforms forced sexual acts with his victims, then add to that the force feeding of a human head and the posed prayer position, I know this sounds crazy, but I think our UnSub is obsessed with the praying mantis."

Hotch nodded slowly,"Why is that?"

"It also explains why he poses the victims hands like this, instead of like this." Reid showed the different poses,"The praying mantis can kill and eat a multitude of creatures but the most interesting fact is that oftentimes the female mantis engages in sexual cannibalism, meaning she'll bite off the head of her mate once copulation is complete, sometimes even during intercourse."

"So, that's what someone did to our Unsub." Blake realised.

"It also explains shooting the victims in the heart."

"But the centre of our Unsub's anger didn't but off his head." JJ pointed.

"No, but she hurt him so badly she got into his brain." Reid sighed.

"So, he's flipping the script." Fleur nodded.

"He's completely taken it over. He sees the victims as the praying mantis out to destroy him, so before they can get to him, he rapes them, forces them to engage in cannibalism, taking away their control of the situation. He's essentially walking them through the mating behaviour of a captive praying mantis, only entirely on his terms. He even mirrors the decapitation of the insect by forcing them to eat pieces of a human head, only it's not a male head, it's a female human head." Reid finished.

"The woman that's the core of his rage." Hotch sighed.

"Exactly. Now all women are his enemy. They're his predators and he believes they're out to get him." Reid crossed his arms.

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

"Heather's DNA sample matches the tooth found in our victim's stomach." Reid walked into the room, holding up a file.

Hotch took out his phone and rang Garcia,"Garcia, Heather Clarke is the victim that our Unsub's been feeding to the others."

"Yikes." Garcia sighed.

"See if she had any enemies." He nodded.

"No. She was her company's top regional manager. She looks loved." Garcia shook her head.

"Well, the Unsub's rage has probably been brewing for a long time." JJ told her.

"And he most likely expressed his distain for her long before he killed her." Fleur added.

"Babygirl, check middle and high school records." Morgan pointed.

"No, zero, zero. There's nothing there." Garcia typed.

"There's gotta be something." Rossi sighed,"See if her parents ever filed a restraining order."

"Oh, creepy bingo. When Heather was sixteen, she broke up with a guy named Wallace Hines. Wallace did not take the breaking up well. He went into an emo downward spiral."

"What happened to Wallace?" Elijah raised a brow.

"He was hospitalised." Garcia sighed,"In fact, he's been in and out of institutions for over a decade. He suffers from acute delusional disorder."

"Where is he now?" Hotch asked.

"He was living with his mom until recently. He moved two miles away from her, right smack in the middle of the hunting zone." She explained.

"So, Wallace killed Heather and when that didn't alleviate his rage, he began killing other women." Morgan shook his head.

"Send us both addresses, Blake, you, Howards and Reid notify Heather's parents." Hotch ordered.

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

The team quickly pulled up outside a restaurant that Wallace was threatening with a gun, and they ran in with their own weapons raised.

"Where is he?" Rossi asked one of the hostages.

"Through the kitchen." The man pointed.

The others quickly headed towards the kitchen, a door swinging, indicating he had went through there. Everyone split up, but after a while they never found him. They had lost him.

"We're at the east end of the garage. We don't have him." Hotch shook his head, speaking through the comm.

Then, after a while they heard the radio go off, with a local cop spotting Wallace. The nearest group were Morgan, Elijah and JJ.

"That's it. That's him." JJ pointed to the car Wallace was supposedly driving and spoke through her comm,"In pursuit of a black Ford Taurus going westbound on Washington, crossing state. Arizona license plate 52B7HN."

"Hold on." Morgan cursed and rammed into Wallace's car.

"Christ-" Elijah winced, looking to the left and noticing a lorry approaching,"Morgan!"

Morgan quickly put the car in reverse, allowing the lorry to drive by safely. After that, all three of them got out of the car with their guns raised.

"Get out of the car! Now!" JJ ordered.

"Slowly." Morgan warned.

Wallace nodded, getting out of the car with his hands raised.

"Turn around." Elijah instructed.

Morgan grabbed Wallace's wrists, cuffing them and he started to read him his rights,"You have the right to reamin silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you."

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

"So.. How do you think that went everyone?" Elijah asked as he drove with Reid, Morgan and Fleur.

"Wallace seemed so confused." Fleur shook her head.

"He suffers from a delusional disorder, right? Maybe he was in some sort of episode." Morgan suggested.

"I don't know." Fleur shrugged.

"All I know is that it's over now... And I'm going to bed." Elijah hummed.

"Straight away?"

"I don't do anything straight, you know that."

"Come on, kid." Morgan chuckled.

"What?"

"You're funny." He pointed.

"Oh, I've got so many talents." Elijah hummed,"I'm charismatic, I'm funny, I'm a better driver than you."

"You're not a better driver." Reid mentioned.

"He nearly got us hit by a fucking lorry today after making a rapid turn and ramming into Wallace." Elijah stated,"I think I'm at least a safer driver."

"Hey, we got Wallace in the end." Morgan hummed.

"You nearly killed us." Elijah pointed.

"Right, boys calm." Fleur pointed back.

"Alright, love." Morgan kissed her cheek.

"I don't need arguments." She chuckled.

"Fine." Elijah sighed.

"We'll see you tomorrow." Fleur looked at the couple.

"Of course." Reid nodded.

"Love you both." Fleur hummed as they got out of the car.

"You two have fun." Elijah called after her.

"You too." Morgan pointed.

"I'm sure we will." Elijah winked.