SIX ; TRUTH.

SHE COULDN'T BREATHE.

Her heart beat in an unsteady rhythm, breath catching in her throat when she tried to exhale. She felt Spencer's eyes on her every minute, as he awaited some sort of break in her composure, ready to catch the pieces as they shattered.

Quinn was frozen. They knew that she was alive. How? Was there someone watching her? Was there a mole? Did the Horsemen know all along? Did they know where she was?

She stiffened, feeling Spencer's eyes on her once more. Had they known all of this time? That terrified her most. The idea of her living on her own and being watched, without the slightest idea of it occurring. Quinn didn't like being clueless. She despised not knowing.

When the two arrived to the Interpol conference room, all eyes landed on Quinn. She scanned the room, meeting the gazes of her former and present teammates. She was taken back by the presence of Jude Atlas, the head of the London Interpol branch, who stood beside Emily, eyes full of a sympathy that she knew well. Her stomach churned. He only assisted during emergencies.

Atlas made his way toward Quinn, stretching out his hand for her to shake. She broke herself out of her stoic state, breaking through the fear as she looked her boss. She shook his hand, nodding softly. "Quinn," he greeted, tone somber. Quinn couldn't bring herself to do the same. Atlas understood. "We just received-"

"How do they know?" she asked, voice breaking on her last word. Atlas sighed. "How did you find out?"

"Email," replied Atlas. "They sent me a message, telling me that they knew that you were alive." His eyes shifted to Spencer's. "It was written in Horsemen code, but fortunately enough, Reid here had broken the code down a little less than two years ago. We were able to translate it."

Quinn turned to Spencer, subtle look of surprise spreading across her face. She saw his cheeks tint pink, shrugging slightly. "I had a bit of free time," he admitted quietly, sounding almost shy. "I used the emails Lawrence sent from prison."

She shook her head incredulously, fighting a grin that threatened to appear. She turned back to Atlas. "How long have they known?"

"They didn't say," he answered, a frown pulling at his lips. "All we know is that they're aware of you. Penelope Garcia is working with our tech staff to see if they can track the location of where they sent the email from."

Quinn shook her head. "They're not going to find anything," she said. "If I know-" She suddenly shut her mouth, silencing the words that used to come natural to her. She didn't know him. He had tricked her. Everything he had said was a lie. He knew everything about her, and she knew nothing about him. "Masters wouldn't leave himself that vulnerable. He's always untraceable."

"It can't hurt to try," offered Emily. "We need any lead that we can get."

Quinn nodded, inhaling to keep herself calm. "Was there anything else in the email? Maybe something that you couldn't decipher?"

Luke Alvez met her gaze. "Yeah," he responded, looking up from a paper that Quinn assumed to be the email. "There's one word here that makes completely no sense to any of us." He bit the inside of his cheek. "Maybe it's a code word that you know?"

Of course, Quinn thought, a scowl appearing on her lips. Masters had to get through to her.

"He's talking to Quinn with this, isn't he?" asked JJ, voicing her thoughts exactly. "For us to recieve the full message he has to make sure that he's reaching his desired audience."

"That's his game," Rossi stated. "Unfortunately, Quinn's the only audience he truly cares about."

"Can I see the email?" Quinn asked, walking toward where Alvez was seated. He held the sheet of paper out to her, watching as her eyes scanned the print. Within the code, Masters had written:

Y O U S H O U L D K N O W A B O U T P L E O H.

"Are you familiar with someone named Pleoh?" Alvez questioned.

Quinn shut her eyes, racking her brain for the name. She had heard it before. She, Lawrence, Nelson and Masters had used it before. But what did it mean? Why had they used it?

"Spencer," she said, not turning to look at him. "Please tell me that you know what that name means."

The genius cleared his throat. "It's uh- it's an Anglo-Saxon derived name," he said, sounding slightly sheepish. Quinn tilted her head, searching for any memory that she could pull out of her mind. "I believe that it means-"

Spencer was cut off my the opening of a door. Penelope entered, looking nearly ecstatic. Hotch's eyes fell on her. "Sir," she said, sounding giddy. "We've found something."

"What, Garcia?" asked Emily, all attention suddenly falling on the techincal analyst.

"Well, after an immense amount of digging, like, going back to hacking back the Horsemen when they got into our cameras, we were able to find a location," she said. She turned to Atlas. "Your team is phenominal, by the way." Penelope glanced at Hotch once more. "But, we found when the mail was sent from."

"Where?" Baldwin inquired.

Penelope now looked reluctant. "Here. In London."

Quinn placed her hand over her mouth, her worst fears becoming a reality. They were here. They had most likely been watching her since they had recieved the news.

But, that wasn't what made Quinn uncomfortable. No. She may have not truly known Masters, but she knew his ethic. He wouldn't be lackadaisical about something as important as where he was. He would do everything in his power to make it as impossible to hack as he possibly could. This only meant one thing.

"Penelope," Quinn began, a shuttering breath escaping her lips, "was this hacking job easier than the one when you arrested me?"

Garcia met her eyes, brows drawn. "It wasn't easy," she began, "but it was more difficult last time."

Quinn shared an a look of discomfort with Hotch. He saw it too. He knew.

Pleoh.

She turned to Spencer. "Pleoh," she whispered, biting the inside of her bottom lip. "It means danger, doesn't it?" Spencer nodded regretfully. "You should know about the danger."

"Why would he be warning Quinn?" Atlas asked.

"It's a trap," Quinn said. "He needs me to be apart of his game. He's warning me to keep me safe for him."

-----

THEY SIMPLY COULD not leave the location alone. Masters had let them know of their location for a reason. It may have been a trap, yes, but there was an underlying feeling of a slight more depth to the message. The question of 'what if there was more' taunted them, and it was something that they simply couldn't ignore.

The team was hesitant to bring everyone along. Quinn however, protested, saying that this was her mess, insisting that she wanted to help clean it up. She had Spencer's eyes bored into the side of her head the entire car ride there.

There was an anxiousness that spread through the group as they drove, unsure of what to expect as they arrived at the coordinates Penelope and the London team had acquired. Hotch turned to the people he had in his car, holding his phone close to him as he spoke to the others on speakerphone.

"We don't know what we're going to face walking in there," he began, eyes seeming to meet all, "but we do need to be careful. It could be a trap, it could be harmless. But we have to prepare for anything and everything. Okay?"

Wordlessly, the four in the car nodded, Hotch, Rossi, Spencer and Quinn exiting the car following the speech. Prentiss, JJ, Alvez and Lewis were already out of their vehicle, loading their guns.

The location of The Horsemen's choosing was what looked like an abandoned warehouse. It was small, easily missed to someone who wasn't looking for it. It looked nearly eerie, but did not stand out from the buildings around it. This was Horsemen territory.

Quinn exhaled in an attempt to ease her nerves. Spencer's gaze rested on her leg, watching her fingers tap that repetitive beat. He sighed, shaking his head, pulling his gun out of it's holster.

"Prentiss, you, JJ and Alvez go around back. Look for any entrances that could possibly help," Hotch ordered. "Rossi and Lewis take left wing, Reid, Carson and I will take right wing."

"Stay safe, everyone," Emily said, nodding toward her teammates.

With that, everyone went in their separate directions, flashlights shining a small beam of light on the darkest of areas. Quinn stood in the middle of her two teammates, Spencer covering her front and Hotch to her back. With each corner they approached, Quinn felt Spencer's hand ghost the left side of her waist, the hand quickly dropping as the coast remained clear.

The three met Lewis and Rossi in a hall that connected the two wings. Before them, stood a staircase, leading them to the next floor. Rossi pointed to the stairs, nodding before they went up them. Quinn found herself in the middle once more, gun clutched right in her hands, finger ready to pull the trigger.

The staircase led to an even darker hallway, one that seemed to be straight and go on for miles. Their formation remained, lights reflecting onto the walls. All that was heard were their footsteps, and the sound of the warehouse creaking.

Suddenly, the hallway slowly grew brighter. Hidden in the darkness were lights that hung above them, each one flicking on as they continued down the hall. Quinn felt her chest clench. She didn't like this.

When the lights stopped turning on, they had arrived in a dark room. A door opened in front of them, the group of five raising their guns, alert.

"It's us," JJ said as she saw her teammates. "We didn't find anything. This place is clean."

As if on cue, a light above them illuminated. The room revealed a table that had four pictures lined up in a straight row. Each photo was in black and white, enclosed by a thick, white border. Names were written down below them, listing off Mara Chevalier, Elliot Higgins, Caleb Acker, and Kyle Masters.

"Guys," voiced Lewis, sounding slightly in awe. Everyone turned to see what she was looking at. Quinn stabled herself on the table beside her.

Along the wall of the warehouse were the words THE FOUR HORSEMEN written in red, a medium that Quinn suspected to be blood.

These suspicions were confirmed as another light flicked on to reveal the body of an identifiable man, laid on his side, a bullet in his brain, two in his leg and and four squares carved into the flesh of his back.

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chadwick boseman as jude atlas

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wow it's been forever !! apologies pals

the cm episode last night was called green light and my conceited ass kept thinking about this story so much that i literally had a dream about the horsemen and quinn being incorporated into the current storyline hahahahah i hate myself

hope you're enjoying the ride so far! i'm so excited to be back in depth into the world of the horsemen and ahhh i'm so excited to continue

anyways, as y'all know, i love you tons.
-mags