Chapter One: This is Only Just Beginning
1x02: Compulsion

*Trigger warning*

The thing about being in a new place was that everyone was curious and the thing about curiosity well it killed the cat right. Eden Hunters knew that this wasn't going to be easy, when she first decided to do this job she was worried she couldn't handle it.

But then she looked back at everything that happened in her life. At everything she had been through and she decided why the hell not. What's the worst that can happen right? The worst thing to come from this job was heartbreak if she actually let anyone see her heart. After everything that happened in Seattle she vowed never to do it again. Which is why she went by her adoptive mother's name instead of taking on Grey. It was too soon. Too much had come along with that name and she couldn't bare it.

Believe it when she says that she can handle just about anything, but reliving that life without her love would be the worst thing she could ever do. Mark Sloan was arrogant, stuck up and down right mean. But she loved him. He was bad for Eden but she didn't care. She loved him. Every bit and piece, Mark Sloan was one of a kind. A genuine soul deep down. Behind the bad boy interior. Eden fell in love with him like one falls asleep. Slowly and then all at once. He was truly the love of her life.

And it scared her

Mark is dead and nothing could bring him back. She hadn't brought herself to hang up any photos of him or her sister Lexi. She couldn't because the minute she did that. Well that was when she would have to explain it to herself that they were truly gone. Sure she knew they were dead but memorializing that, made it true, and she wasn't quite ready to do that.  And yes it had been two  whole years since they passed but she was still doing her best. She could still hear his laugh. Sometimes she would have a bad day and come home eager to tell him about it and realize that he was gone.

Or she would want to gossip with her sister and realize she was dead. She still had her voicemail and would play it a few times when she was drunk and in her feelings. The thing about Lexie was that she was relentless. She never gave up no matter how many times she wanted to. Or  how many times people told her she didn't. She wouldn't, but she also wouldn't let Eden give up either, she was stubborn, headstrong, Eager to learn and listen.  She was emotional, but cunning, smart and likable and everytime they fought she could never be mad at her. This life that she chose, she couldn't help but be worried that she might grow attached to these people. That she might actually have something to lose and that too...

Scared the hell of her

James Reese once said, "there are certain clues at a crime scene which, by their very nature, do not lend themselves to being collected or examined. How does one collect love, rage, hatred, fear?"

Eden had just entered the bullpen, she had her bags in hand and her coat thrown over her arm, she walked over to her desk which was across from Reid's. Spencer Reid was a prodigy, graduated highschool at age twelve. Finished his undergraduate degree at sixteen and his first doctorate in Mathematics the following year. He read twenty thousand words per minute, had an IQ OF 187 and Eidetic Memory.

He reminded Eden of Lexie, always telling her facts, she would always be interested to here them too. Relaying other facts back to him or forming hypotheses. Spencer was the only one Eden liked. They were practically almost best friends. If it wasn't for JJ and Penelope Eden would probably hate her job. The two blondes were always trying to get Eden out of her Stoic shell.

She was a lot more Stoic than Hotch. Their boss. It was only because of the loss she experienced, it wasn't anything personal, she was just stone cold and that didn't bother anyone well except Derek Morgan. He was always trying to pry into Eden's life. Trying to figure her out, get a read on her. She hated him, he was arrogant and smug and way too confident but deep down in a way he was similar to Mark Sloan and Eden would never admit that to anyone not even herself.

She places down her bags at her chair Seeing Gideon come by and Move a few pieces on the check board he and Reid were playing together.

"Check. Checkmate three moves." he walks away going to fill his mug with coffee.

Reid scratches his forehead looking at the board. " What..." he seems confused.

"Good Morning Spence."  Eden says putting away her things. She gives him time to process that she spoke to him.

"Morning Den."

" You know you'll beat him when you start learning."  She organizes all of her things on her desk.

" Learning what?"

"To think outside the box" Derek speaks up from his desk. He places his newspaper down with a sly smirk. "Good morning Red."

"Mhmm." Eden just purses her lips rolling her eyes at him. 

"Question for you." Elle comes walking down the stairs.

"Shoot."

" The footpath killer, why did he stutter?"

"Come on, Elle, we've all asked him, and he won't say. He wants us to figure it out." Derek replies Elle sits on the Edge of her desk which is across from Morgan's

" Okay. I'm up for a challenge." She smirks, twirling her Name plaque for her desk around in her fingers. Eden and Elle were cordial. She didn't hate her but they weren't braiding each other's hair and watching Supernatural together either. They were Switzerland and she was perfectly fine with that.

"Good, because these go to you. Special agent Jennifer Jareau, JJ if you like." JJ sits some files on Elle's desk. Extending her hand out for her to shake.

" Elle."

" - Greenway- highest number of solved cases in Seattle 3 years running, specialty in sex offender cases."

" Not bad."

"Morning J." Eden smiles at her.

"Morning Eden. " JJ begins walking towards Hotch's office. " Well, I'm the unit liaison. My specialty is untangling bureaucratic knots. You'll probably be talking to me a lot. My door's always open, mostly because I'm never in my office, so just call me on my cell, okay? We'll talk."

"Why is it that you say Good morning to everyone but me?" Derek asks as Elle laughs.

"I dont know why don't you use that big profiler brain of yours to figure it out."

"BAU team, can you meet me in the conference room, please? I need to show you something." Hotch says as everyone heads up the stairs to the conference room. Eden called it the round table room because that's what it was: a room with a round table and a few monitors and a couch in the back.

They take a seat at the table as JJ hands them each a file.

" This is from the Phoenix office, Bradshaw College in Tempe, six fires in seven months."

" Who recorded it?" Gideon asks.

" A student with a digital camcorder. He was watching a fire in the building across from their dorm. The other person you'll see is his roommate, 20-year-old Matthew Rowland." JJ plays the video and everyone watches.

The video shows the kid with the camcorder talking with his roommate. They hear fire alarms going off, the doorknob jiggles a few times and then there is gasoline spilling from under the door before Mathew is on fire. Screaming for his life. Eden just watches it, not even flinching once. She had seen a lot of stuff when it came to this job and this wasn't her first burn victim.

Einstein once said: "Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."

Everyone was on the Jet, Derek was typing away on the laptop, Reid was setting up the Chess Board.

"There are 2 common stressors for a serial arsonist." Reid continues setting up the Chess board.

" Loss of job, loss of love."

" When was the first fire set?" Derek turns to Hotch.

" March. Uh, the next one was in may, and the third one wasn't till september, then Two  weeks later there were three in one night."

" He's speeding up. Fire's are closer together." Gideon mumbles from the other side of Derek.

"Hey, Reid, you got a statistic on arsonists?" Eden speaks up from her spot next to Hotch.

" 82% are white males between 17 and 27. Female arsonists are far less likely, their motive typically being revenge." Reid babbles as Eden smiles at him. She gets up from her seat and moves to the chair next to him ruffling his hair.

" Sounds like our boy's a student"

" Don't be so sure. You rely too much on precedent, you never allow for the unexpected. If he went from setting one fire to three in two weeks' time..."  Gideon murmurs as he looks up from the file in his hand.

" Rapid escalation."

" He's gone from the power to damage a building to something far more satisfying. The power over life and death. Who are we talking to first?" He turns to Hotch who is sitting across from him.

" Dean of students, Ellen Turner." Hotch says as Eden nods.

They arrive at the college and pile out of the government issued SUVs,

" No badges. I don't want to satisfy the unsub's need for attention by letting him know he got the FBI here. Try not to look official." he turns to look at everyone who is mostly dressed in pant suits. "Try to look less official." Eden takes her blazer off and leaves her silk camisole top on; she untucks her shirt a bit and loosens her braid a bit. She puts her badge in her pocket and Gideon nods approvingly as they walk inside.

" Obviously, I'd rather be meeting you under different circumstances. This is fire inspector Zhang." The Dean was anxious. She leads them through several doors as  they talk.

"This morning the chemistry department reported several bottles of highly flammable chemicals missing. I'm prepared to evacuate this campus." they walk through another set of doors.

"That brings with it its own problems."  Hotch explains.

"You might evacuate the arsonist as well."

"Then the case goes unsolved, the campus is reopened, but the fires start up again." Eden says from behind Gideon.

"Hotch, Gideon, hold on a second. You said the chemicals were missing today. It says here that one of the previous fires was set with diesel fuel that disappeared from the grounds keeping facility. How long after it disappeared was the fire set?"

"One day." The dean explains as Hotch and Gideon walk away from the group they talk before assigning everyone to the places they needed to go. Reid and Hotch go to look at where the fire was set in the door room.

Zhang the fire inspector places a box on the table of the room they are going to be working in " The last Three were set with these. two devices, simultaneous ignition."

"There was no device used on Matthew Rowland.  Unsub set that one manually?" Gideon asks Zhang nods.

" He wanted to be there to enjoy the kid's death." Derek says.

" Not necessarily." Eden replies.as Derek just shakes her head at her.

" Well, if the target was Matthew Rowland, then why set the other two fires?"

"The motives for arson are relatively simple. There's vandalism, crime concealment, political statements... Profit and revenge."

" We interviewed Matthew Rowland's roommate. He said Matthew was very well-liked. No reason for revenge." Zhang explains.

" What about vandalism?" The Dean asks.

" No. The fires are too sophisticated, and if he's trying to make a political statement, he's not being too clear about it."

" There's an underlying strategy in this case." Gideon puts his glasse son. " Matthew, firefighters, injured victims. To the unsub, they're not people. They're... They're objects. More like, Uh..."

"Chess pieces." Reid finishes.

"Exactly." Gideon tosses the device back into the box.

//

Derek decides to do and walk through the dorms while Eden, Elle, and Reid are at the table going over theories as to what they think about the unsub and the device, Gideon is talking with the Dean and Hotch was on the phone. Before anyone can really get settled, the fire alarm is going off. Derek is running out of the building, followed by Eden, Elle and the gang. They see smoke coming from the building across the way. Derek runs inside to find Gideon while Eden is helping people leave the building she is coughing from the smoke, Hotch runs over telling Elle to take pictures of the crowd in case the unsub was watching.

The fire eventually gets put out and night time has fallen quickly over the campus. The BAU team was going over everything they had 

"We've been at this all night, and we've got nothin'. Look at these expressions. We got fear, a touch of horror, even a little bit of panic. Where's the guy gettin' off?" Derek asks him to toss one of the photos down on the table Hotch rubs his temples. Everyone was tired but not ready to call it a night just yet.

" When asked about his motives, Peter Dinsdale said, "I am devoted to fire. Fire is my master."

"Okay, so who was our boy's master? 10,000 plus students..." Derek flicks a lighter. " And one has a serious fascination with fire. "

"Fire starting is one third of the homicidal triad... An early predictor of adult disassociative criminal behavior. If we looked in his childhood, we'd probably find all three. Bedwetting..."

" and cruelty to animals." Eden continues.

" Absent or abusive father, trouble with the opposite sex, chronic low self-esteem- M. O. would be dynamic. Evolvings, fire setting escalates, they thrive on panic, fear. It's just the standard profile of a serial arsonist. Based on hundreds of interviews."

" Based on precedent." Reid finishes.

" Everything the unsub should be, according to research."

"We're off the mark." Hotch sighs.

" Because of the two missing elements."

"Sex and power- the two motives that drive a serial arsonist." Derek flicks the lighter again. He watches  the flame dance.

" And without 'em, we do not have a profile."

Reid and Hotch got word from the dean.That the chemistry club figured out how the latest fire was started and that they wanted to help so they went over to the lab to talk with them. After they come back Hotch officially calls it a night.

//

The next morning they listen to a voice message from the hotline. It's distorted and terrible, But they can make out a few words.

"Karen. I do this for Karen."

"Play it again." Gideon asks.

"The call came from the office right next to Wallace's 5 minutes before the fire was started."

" Play it again."

"Karen. I do this for Karen."

"Again, louder."

Derek turns up the volume "Karen. I do this for Karen."

"What is it?" Hotch asks.

" I'm not sure. Somethin' about it."

Hotch once again assigns everyone to a task, Eden is with Him they just got done talking with the dean before through the campus, and heading back to the room they were occupying. Eden yawns this was her third one in the span of ten minutes. Hotch keeps his eyes on the front of the grass.

"How have you been sleeping?"

"As anyone would be when working this case." She steps over a small incline before walking on the sidewalk. "With one eye open and my hand on my gun."

"I meant with everything going on, you know it's okay to open up to people. Not be so closed off."

Eden scoffs. "Me closed off, Since when?"

Hotch gives her his signature stare annoyed by her sarcasm when he is trying to be serious. "I say this as a friend, not as your boss. You need a life, outside of work and friends."

Eden just sighs she knew he was right but she didn't want to admit, she always had to be right even if she was wrong that's why she was stubborn. They enter the room as does Elle.

"Is the motive now religious?" Elle asks as Gideon wipes the white board clean. They weren't saying Karen on the tape they were a charown.

" Well, you know, in a lot of religions, god is related to fire."

" Well, Brahman is fire in Hinduism, and the jews see God as a pillar of fire, and christians worship God as a consuming fire." Hotch explains.

" Okay, so we're looking for a theology major. Maybe he's punishing the other students for their sins."

Elle places the bag down from the cafeteria and tosses Reid a salad " I don't want this" he places it on the table.

"What- what's the most sinful place on campus?"

" Come on, Elle. When I was in college, that was everywhere."

"And everyone." Eden comments as she takes the salad that Reid didnt want. 

" A fraternity?"

" A campus bar?"

" No, 'cause that's not consistent with the previous targets" Hotch says as Elle sighs.

"What about the idea of baptism by fire? Aren't we all supposed to be tested through fire in revelations?" Derek asks as Eden shakes her head no.

" Look, it's good, it's good, but let's please not jump to conclusions. Religion might be a part of it, but it's not necessarily the prime compulsion." Gideon speaks up as Eden is thinking she is quiet, trying to piece together the gears in her head.

" Gideon, rush to conclusions, jump to conclusions. Who cares?"

" We are running out of time." Elle yells as everyone sighs.

Reid and Eden were watching the footage over and over again, Reid was trying to think of a reason for any reason, he walked over to the white board. While Eden continues to look over the footage. He comes back over to the computer rewinding the camcorder video again. He looks to Eden who had fallen asleep in the corner, truth be told she wasn't sleeping well but being in a cold dimly lit room would make anyone sleepy. They had been looking over the footage for close to six hours. Reid just places his satchel under her head for neck support and continues to work, he checks out each fire scene having figured it out. Before long Eden is awake and going over paperwork with Hotch and Gideon when he bursts through the door.

"I know why the profiles never fit. You were right to tell Morgan not to rely on precedent. The fires thus far have been completely task oriented."

" So once they're set, the unsub is done?" Eden asks as Reid smirks.

" Exactly. The unsub is not a classical serial arsonist. He's someone who uses fire because of a completely different disorder."

"Which is?" Gideon asks.

" An extreme manifestation of OCD, obsessive compulsive disorder. He does everything in 3's, and if I'm right, he'll have to kill again."

Once again they are perched in front of the computer.

" There's a form of OCD called scrupulosity."

" Religious obsession and compulsion." Eden nods for Reid to continue.

" An obsessive fear of committing sin, which creates so much anxiety that he's compelled to do something to ease that anxiety."

" Like setting fires." Hotch says as Reid nods.

Gideon is rubbing his temples. " Where's the behavioral evidence?"

" Right here. All right. Remember the night of the 3 fires? We saw the doorknob turning against the lock. But he's not trying to get in. He's compelled to turn the doorknob 3 times." He plays the footage from the camcorder. Only it was zoomed in on the doorknob.

" Well, what about the fires?  The first ones were single fires. If the unsub was OCD, shouldn't they have all been in 3's?"

" They were in 3's. A trinity of 3's. The first fire occurred on March third."

" 3:00 P. M., third day, third month." Gideon says as Reid nods.

" It's that convergence of 3's that causes the overwhelming anxiety. Obsessive compulsives ease the anxiety by performing the compulsion."

" What about the other fires? Professor Wallace?" Hotch asks.

" Office number 3. I checked for more patterns of 3's. His class was on tuesdays."

" Third day of the week." Eden says as Reid nods again.

" Matthew Rowland was in that class. It was his third class of the day. If we looked into each of the fires we'd find a lot of patterns having to do with 3's because our minds are incredibly adept at seeking out patterns. But to the unsub, once that pattern hits, bam- he sets a fire."

" But if the target was always people, why did no one die in the first few fires?" Gideon asks as Hotch stands up from his chair he has a thoughtful look on his face,

" They were failures. Up until Matthew Rowland." Reid explains.

" What is it?" Gideon nods towards Hotch.

" I think I know who it might be. And it's not a he. It's a she."

Hotch calls the dean and explains everything. "Clara Hayes. A chemistry student. I'll get you her records now."

" First get campus security out and find her. She could set her next fire within hours." they send Derek and Elle over to Clara's apartment with security.

"How are you sure its her?" Eden asks.

"When I was talking to her and her classmates, I noticed something- a ring on her finger. And she kept turning it."

"At intervals?" Reid asks as Hotch nods

" Of 3. And she counted off the ingredients of a light bulb bomb.she listed off her fingers in three and the ingredients were three,And she kept repeating the word Sugar. Once she started, she couldn't stop."

" Yeah, it's palilalia. It's the involuntary repetition of words. Howard Hughes had it when his OCD worsened." Reid explains.

" Clara and her classmates were working on a project about gravitational pull."

" The 3 body problem." Gideon and Eden say at the same time Gideon looks at her strangely.

"What? I did go to medical school and we learned about more than just medicine there."

Reid's phone rings and he answers Derek asking  him questions about something called Moloch. "Moloch was the demon sun God of the Canaanites. In order to keep from incurring his wrath, the people would sacrifice their children to him by burning them alive."

Garcia was sending over an article on Clara it was printing out of the printer. Hotch takes it from the Printer reading it off.

"16-year-old survives inferno. The mother Ellen Hayes called it a miracle. "My daughter was tested by God. He tested my child and she came through, blessed." Look at the house number." He hands the paper to Gideon who puts his glasses on.

" 333." Gideon reads off with a sigh.

Before long the dean comes down to the room where the team was set up she brings most of campus security with her. She sends the other half to find Clara.

"Security's checking the science building." The dean explains

" Well, where else would she be?"

" We need to find the next pattern of 3's." Reid begins as he and Eden start going through everything.

Hotch is on the phone with Morgan off in the corner. "Morgan, seal the building, get everybody out of there and walk away."

" We need to send our people into every building and have them start pulling fire alarms. Please, go. Mead, a map of the campus." Gideon sends the dean and the officers out of the room. " We need to find anything and everything having to do with the number 3. Where's the blueprint?" Gideon gets the blueprint and starts to walk away.

"Jason, wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Clara Hayes is very likely a good person. Someone who never wanted to do anyone any harm, like any other rational person. But there's nothing rational about obsessive compulsive disorder."

"Research suggests OCD involves problems in communication between the frontal cortex and the orbital cortex."

" Plus deeper structures. The basal ganglia." Eden finishes as Reid nods.

" You can't reason with her because you can't reason with a physiological problem. She's not setting these fires because she wants to, but because she has to." Hotch continues,

" What are you trying to say?"

" Don't try to convince her to stop, because you won't be able to." Hotch says

Everyone splits up, taking different buildings.they were running around like mad men, while the alarm is going off.  Eden was on the phone with everyone when Reid says that the third floor of the science building is under construction. She was across from the science building and books it over running down the sidewalk in her boots. Which were not meant for running at all but she did it she made it time to See Hotch arrive too. He puts a finger to his lips telling Eden to stay back. She was supposed to take a shot when it was safe.

"Clara." He walked towards her slowly she had a lit flame in her hand.

" I have to do this."

" You know it's not rational, Clara. You were trying to tell me." Hotch has his arms out in defense. Eden has her gun aimed at Clara. It was one thing to have good hand eye coordination as a surgeon but as a federal agent. Let's just say she was lethal. And Hotch was thankful for her to have his back.

" God chose me to be tested, and now he's chosen them. If I don't do this, something terrible will happen." Clara says as Hotch keeps walking.

" What's gonna happen, Clara? A flood? An earthquake? You know this isn't rational."

Clara closes her eyes. " I know. I know. I know."

" Then resist."

" I can't." she lowers her hands and Eden's finger hoovers over the trigger. " They must be tested. God's wrath.."

". Clara, you told me it was a chemistry student. You left the message about Charon. You want to stop."

She starrts praying. " Father, son..."

" Clara..."

" Holy ghost."

" Clara, stop!"

" God chose them." Eden takes the shot shooting Clara in the thigh as the flare that she has lightrolls towards the elevator Hotch stomps on it with his foot. As Gideon runs over with Eden, her gun trained on Clara.

" I thought you said not to reason with her." Gideon looks at Hotch who walks away.

//

Why did the footpath Killer stutter? Does anyone actually know? Gideon knew, because well he was Gideon. As fair as Clara she was just someone who really believed she was doing the right thing. It's hard to shake someone from their ways when they truly feel that what they are doing is right.

Eden knew too much about stubbornness and right from wrong. She had her fair share of it.

The plane ride back was quiet. Elle, Hotch and Morgan were sleeping on end while Eden was curled up with a book, fingering through her hair, she was sitting next to Reid who was playing Gideon in Chess. Hotch was correct in the sense that she needed friends, but she had a select few right under her nose, if she chose to let them well that was entirely up to Eden.

But their jobs were only going to get scarier from this moment on and she was eventually going to have to lean on her fellow team members, even the ones she hated.

Faulkner once said, "don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself."

Hey I'm so excited about this Darkside rewrite
-Erika