NULL: AS THE AXE FALLS

( set in march of 2012, mid season 7 )

✲*'。

GHOSTS HAUNTED AND HAD LINGERED around Ebony Song for as long as she could remember; grief had struck before she was ever born, cradled and hidden away in her mothers womb, her biological father walked out on his heavily pregnant wife, his then three young children crying for their father to stay. For her formative years, before her stepfather —— her father, first made his appearance, the ghost of Jian Song's ex-husband haunted the young family, a grain of sunshine finally ending the damning winter when Francis Strauss first met an inquisitive young Della Song.

When she was five years old the sun began to eternally shine in the young Ebony Song's life; after every long case, no matter the time, no matter the scolding she would receive she would sit at the bottom of the steps, right by the front door. When the door would open, her father cross the threshold a wide smile would split across her lips as Ebony would gleefully greet her father, dashing into his arms. A tradition that would continue to her thirteenth birthday, one by one her siblings would join in on her celebratory welcome home for their stepfather, their mother would watch on fondly, only greeting her husband when her children had their fill of basking in their fathers embrace.

The winter had ended, spring had come when Jian said her weddings vows in a courthouse with second husband, only surrounded by their children and two of his coworkers-- who had became honorary godparents to their now children. Summer had come and stayed for over ten years, winter had to come again and it did it came with a vengeance; in the year of 1995, to reel in the year, Jian Song was diagnosed with stage four ovarian cancer. Her prognosis? Eight months to live if she was lucky. Autumn had began and summer was no more. Autumn had only lasted a mere few weeks as in the early spring of 1995, on March 17th, only a month after her mothers diagnosis, the kidnapping of Celia and Della Song was reported; twin girls who had only just turned sixteen taken in the cover of darkness, both returning home from school.

Francis Strauss-Song had been immediately benched from the search by his sister, the case personally being taken by his coworkers at the BAU; David Rossi and Jason Gideon. For two long torturous days, nothing, nothing could be found, the trail had turned cold, the evidence not matching what had been reported until finally a breakthrough; the FBI's BAU headed the search and instead of two terrified girls to be found, a corpse and a fundamentally broken girl was all that was left behind.

Della Song, the sweetest of her siblings was dead and gone and with her went the remaining fighting spirit of Jian Song; where hope had one blossomed that summer could come again. She would survive her battle to live a longer life with her children and husband, would have fought until her very last breathe. Jian was broken and not even two months after burying her sweet daughter, Jian Song would be laid to rest alongside Della on the 3rd of May of that same very year.

Winter had struck once more with a vengeance, and for the first time in her life, Ebony Song knew tragedy, could feel the ghosts of her dead loved ones hovering, haunting the living. The sunshine had been stripped from her families life; she had unwittingly become the focal center to the remainder of who had been left behind, to her father she was the innocence remaining in his dark world, to her eldest brother she was the sibling he could protect, ensure he would not fail once more. To her only remaining sister, Ebony was Della come again, the same sweetness that had been the core of who her twin had been remained in her youngest sibling. Ebony would remain in the depths of winter, her father, siblings clawing out from the depths of their grief with her as the sun that shined from the gloominess of their every day lives.

Ebony would remain in the damning winter for another fifteen years, the promise of spring finally arriving from the last place she would have ever thought; the BAU were under a new role, the first of its kind, Ebony intended to thrive, succeed in a role she had earned herself, prove her worth and not remain coddled by her living relatives.

For two years, she blossomed under the promise of summer once more entering her life. New bonds and relationships developed as previous ones grew. Ebony was not foolish, she was now twenty-eight turned thirty, no longer the foolish thirteen year old she had been once. She had been prepared for the thundering showers of spring, the impenetrable wind of one Aaron Hotchner she refused to bow down against. The line of enemy to friend began to blur and by the time winter once again entered her life, Aaron Hotchner had become on of the few Ebony Song trusted with her life.

On the eve of Della's anniversary, winter struck once more, the killer who had been lurking in the shadows rose once more intent on finishing the job he had never succeeded in; killing Celia Song. Kidnapping gone wrong, Ebony song bled droplets onto the concrete ground of where she had been taken, her sight blurry, voice hoarse from all of her pleas before. Only now she did not plea, she did not beg, she did not cry. She screamed only one name, only one sound as a body hit the ground, the life beginning to seep from their body, just as it had Della, just as it had Jian.

"HOTCH...."