Here's for some brief author's notes:

Writer's block is hell.

So, you may ask me, "What possibly motivated you to continue this fic? It's been so long." The answer is really that I felt kinda bad leaving people at such a cliffhanger? Thus, I will finish this fic. I give absolutely no promises as to how quickly it will get done, but it will get done.

I've also been nominated for the 2016 Profiler's Choice Awards for Best Drama. So if you'd wish to vote for me visit this URL at fanfiction net :

fanfiction () net /topic/197180/159190602/1/Final-Ballot-and-Rules

And submit your ballot as a PM by Feb 28th. Winners will be announce no later than March 6th.

Exposé

It happened quickly, and yet so slowly.

"I'm not David, haven't I made that clear already? In fact, you're annoying me…I want you to get up, leave the room, and immediately shoot Agent Hotchner straight in the head, can you do that for me?"

Morgan sat straight up in his seat.

"Go do it, Agent Morgan."

Reid's heart rate quickened and acted quickly, he ran to the interview room door and locked it without hesitation, before looking at Hotchner. "I need you to leave the room, right now."

"Reid?" Hotchner knitted his eyebrows together in confusion. Everyone was fairly calm, unaware of the danger. Reid could understand, he understood that they couldn't possibly know what was going on but frustration rose in his throat and Hotchner's inaction made him angry. "Reid- Morgan won't do any-"

That's when Morgan began banging harshly on the door, the harsh boom made made Reid twitch. David's body had collapsed suddenly on the ground. Reid leaned on the door, his front facing the others.

BOOM

Reid could feel the force of Morgan's fists on the metal door and took in a sharp gasp, "You don't understand, Hotch. You need to leave!"

BOOM

The reverberation in the boom, Reid could hear the metal nearly bending as the door shoved him forward, "Leave now!"

Prentiss went towards Reid and tried to pull him off the door, "Reid! We need to get David help. I don't know what's wrong with Morgan, but he won't hurt Hotchner. Just open the door, Reid." Spencer plastered himself to the door and wouldn't let her get to him.

Rossi went to stop Prentiss, "I think Reid is right... Prentiss there's something seriously wrong with this situation and-" He looked at Reid, "You're not telling us everything. What's going on?"

BOOM

Spencer only yelled again, "Hotchner I need you to leave right now!"

"Reid I'm not leaving until you give us an explanation, and get off the door- I don't know what Morgan is doing, but we need to get him out there. Get off the door, Reid. Let Morgan out."

"NO!" Reid could feel Hotchner's logic touching him like a bad taste in his mouth. Too much logic. Not enough panic. Not enough urgency.

"That's an order, Doctor Reid!"

That's when Spencer made his decision, despite the fact he wished that he didn't have to- his inaction would only make things worse... and so he let his tendrils of power outstretch and reach far.

BOOM

He focused his attention to Hotchner.

BOOM

His words came out as powerful and clear. Firm and unrelenting.

BOOM

"You're leaving the room right now and not coming back in."

Hotchner's body moved like a robot. He left quickly and without a hint of emotion. Reid couldn't find it in himself to feel bad.

Reid now had to deal with Morgan, who stopped banging and stood outside the one-way window, he looked out with an eerie emptiness. His arms were becoming increasingly red as an indication of the massive force he used while banging himself against the metal door.

Prentiss was terrified, "Reid what's going on?!" Her cool exterior was broken, something rare to see from Prentiss. Logic was her rock, her driving force- but what was going on now defied logic...it defied her sense of self.

Reid could feel Rossi's fear as well, and he could nearly hear Rossi's thrumming heart through his increased senses...he was calmer than Prentiss, as if he still understood, "What did you do to Hotchner, Reid." It wasn't much of a question for Reid, as much as it was Rossi trying to find his own answer.

In the room, Morgan unclipped his holster...His actions were slow and decisive as he took out his gun and pointed it straight at the window. Reid couldn't act fast enough.

Then Morgan shot.

The shot was loud and resonated in Reid's ears. The glass shattered and everybody ducked down in order to avoid the splash of glass that showered over them. Reid saw as Rossi gripped Prentiss and ran out of the room, Reid felt the urge to follow but suddenly realized that he couldn't anymore. He couldn't run anymore. He was in control. He was in power, and he needed to save Hotchner. Never hold back. He thought to himself, a brief breeze in what was a hazy storm in his mind. Never hold back.

Morgan climbed out of the broken frame, unaware of the glass that stabbed him as he pressed his hands in the shards. Reid stared at Morgan's dripping hands, and took several deep breaths, hoping to calm himself.

Reid stood in front of him as Morgan raised the gun in his direction, "Stop!" He tried to work through the control that had been draped over Derek. It was like working through a solid wall- why hadn't he practiced? Why hadn't he used his powers more often? He could stop this now, but he was dreadfully weak in comparison to the other empath. The control over Morgan was thick. It smelt of blood and tar.

It was only when Morgan raised his gun to Reid that his blank face had suddenly shown emotion. Despite the fact his mouth was set in a straight line, and his body was still holding the gun forward...His eyes were now wide, strain stretched at the edges of Morgan's eyes. Calling out to Reid.

Help me.

"You can fight this, Morgan! I'm trying to help you but I need you to help me! You need to fight it." Reid tried to feel the other empath, he tried to find some hint that he could control whoever this was- find them and stop them from doing this. "What do you want? Why are you doing this? Stop this!" Reid screamed, hoping to somehow get through to the other empath. There must be some reason for this! It couldn't just be thrill, Reid knew that now, there had to be a reason.

Morgan put his gun back down, and took slow, precise steps toward Reid and shoved him out of the way. Reid stumbled back and twisted to see that now Morgan was met with several pairs of guns aimed straight at him outside of the room. All the cops were nervous, and unsure- They knew who Morgan was, they were confused, but ready to shoot when it was needed.

Hotchner, Rossi, and Prentiss weren't amongst the people that pointed the guns- they stood slightly in front of the police officers who had gotten wind of the situation- and they were even more confused. More unsure.

Reid managed somehow unstick himself from where he was frozen in place with fear. He ran in front of Morgan as a human shield, and put his arms out. "Don't shoot him!" He pleaded with more than his body language and eyes, but with his power, he wanted to get through to everyone in the room.

Rossi stepped up, and Reid could see Hotchner silent and hidden behind him. "Morgan, whatever is going on you can work through this." Rossi held his hand out towards the number of officers who were clearly trigger-happy, ready to aim and fire, "Don't shoot. I swear, if any of you shoot we'll have a much larger problem on our hands."

Morgan stood without moving. Reid supposed that was a good sign in that moment- if he was directly following the other empath's order (immediately) he would have already taken his shot. There was something in Morgan still fighting, and enough power in Reid to stop him. While Reid stood in front of Morgan he placed his arms out in protection, if they shot at Morgan then they'd have to get through him first.

"He doesn't know what he's doing, just don't shoot." Reid pleaded with them. The officers muttered amongst themselves and Rossi began to urge Morgan to put down his gun. Reid tuned them out. Reid ignored all the sounds and outward stimuli and instead focused inward. He needed to do something. He reached inside himself and looked around at the chaos around him, officer's guns twitching in their hands- Prentiss arguing with other officers, Rossi trying to speak to Morgan while he stood silently behind Reid.

Reid took a deep breath, he focused on the emotions in the room- every individual persona. There were so many. He found himself looking into the lives of so many people...depression, anger, happiness...there was so much. After his hold felt strong on everyone he finally reached towards Morgan, whose exterior was hard to surpass but he found himself just close enough to take control. The other empath was wavering. Just enough, he thought to himself. Just enough. He closed his eyes and spoke, "Sleep."

The smack of everybody hitting the ground so quickly startled Reid. He opened his eyes and touched his face, he brought his hand back up and looked at his hand expecting to see blood- but there was nothing. He felt fine, better even. His eyes scanned the room and just as he had hoped, everybody was asleep. At this point though he didn't know how far his powers could go. If the other empath could wipe people's emotions...did this mean he could make people forget?

He carefully stepped forward and turned back to look at Morgan. He could restrain him, but maybe in a few hours, if Morgan slept through the night the other empath's order would have wore off. It had been an extremely long day...The sun was already down and he took a look at the clock...10pm. That meant most of the officers were working the nightshift- if he could somehow replace their memories, make it seem like they just had a long day at work, then maybe he could pull this off.

So he began his work. First off he needed to find a way to get everybody into some kind of...working position? Whatever a working position meant, he was going to get them into it. First off his team, he didn't want to wipe their memories just yet- it felt, so wrong, he had to work his way up to it. He squatted down and whispered to Morgan, "Get up and sit in the conference room." Reid jerked backwards when Morgan stood up and silently made his way in adjacent conference room...Reid watched as Morgan walked into the room, sat down in a chair and laid his head back into his arms to sleep.

This was incredible...and horrifying all at the same time. Reid was capable of this much? He took another vague look at his hands and curled them into fists, before getting back to work.

He made his way to his other team members, echoing the same order- which they all followed, and soon enough they were all slumbering quietly in the conference room. Now what was he going to do with all these cops? Several of them had their guns out, which Reid hadn't considered...what if when they fell they went off? He didn't want to think about it. There was no need to consider the worst possibilities.

He looked around and laid his eyes on everyone on the ground before speaking, "I need you all to stand up, go back to wherever you were before this happened and if you have a gun, put it away. You're going to be sleeping for the next hour," He looked at the clock. It was 10:15. "When you wake up it will seem like you never slept at all...you've been..." Uh... "Working on whatever you were working on...Slacking off a bit because you've made no progress, but you can make up for it. No problem. You're calm."

He waited and everyone did as they were told. It was eerie. They moved like zombies. Some moved to different rooms, others sat at desks and laid their head to sleep. For the next hour presumably, if Reid's orders were strong enough to be followed. He had a feeling they definitely were.

He walked back to the interrogation room and looked at the shattered glass...he'd somehow have to solve this. He looked at David and sighed, he went to unlock the interrogation door and then spoke, "Make your way back to the jail cells and let yourself in."

David got up, his eyes slightly fluttered open and he mindlessly walked away. Reid followed him down to the jail cells to make sure he made his way back there, and was properly secure.

He had to fight down the fluttery panic that made it's way from his stomach up to his chest. He wasn't going to have a panic attack right now, he couldn't...but he acknowledged why he had felt the panic.

When he made his way back to the bullpen he shook out his hands, and took another look at the people huddled, all in their respective places. He turned his head and looked into the conference room. Could he really erase the memories of his team members? He shivered at the thought of it, of somebody going into his mind and erasing key memories. If he did this to his friends...how much better would he be than the other empath?

It was time to tell the truth, to tell the team what was happening. All of the people sleeping in the bull pen...Connor, David, Josh, Samantha- all the seemingly impossible things. This had to be enough for the team to trust him, it had to be enough for the team to believe him. But what if they were terrified of him? Of all that he could do? Spencer shook his head and quickly squashed down that line of thought. The team wouldn't be scared of him. They couldn't be.

Spencer continued to secure himself in his decision as he made his way to the conference room and stood at the head of the table. He briefly went over to Morgan and touched his hand, there was little to no thought- Morgan was having a dream about his dogs. He took his hand away and felt confident enough that the other empath was no longer here, and no longer influencing Morgan.

He went back to the head of the table, took one last settling breath, and spoke, "Wake up."

Everyone gasped awake, Morgan stood up quickly from the table and was breathing in a panic. Prentiss had a similar reaction, she was stunned out of the chair and began to look around in confusion. Rossi startled as well and held his hand out at Morgan. Hotchner appeared the calmest, his disposition didn't give much way to what he was feeling- but Reid knew it was fear and confusion.

"Guys..." Reid started slowly before Morgan turned to him.

"Reid, what the hell is going on? How did we get here? What was that- something was..." Morgan looked at Hotchner, "Hotch, I was going to shoot you. I truly believed I was- but I didn't want to. I swear Hotch."

Hotchner nodded and stood up to look at Morgan. "I believe you, Morgan."

Prentiss was now looking out at the bullpen through the window, "Why is everyone asleep?"

Rossi seemed to be the only one who was really just paying attention Reid. "I think that Spencer here, hasn't been telling us the entire truth."

"I will," Reid explained. "I'm ready to tell you everything, but I have to let you know it's going to sound crazy. You're not going to believe a word of anything I say- but just look at the evidence." Reid used his hands to speak, "I need you to keep your minds open to possibilities that might be beyond your imagination. Arthur C. Clarke said that magic is just science that we don't understand yet...I need you to keep this quote in mind, to throw out all your preconceived believes."

"Are you telling us this has to do with magic, Reid?" Hotch questioned.

"No, no I don't call it magic." Spencer itched to find a way to explain things. "First of all, you need to know that I have certain abilities that developed after what happened to me...what Connor, David, Josh, and Samantha did to me- there are certain things I can do that defy what we currently know about the human mind."

"What kind of things?" Prentiss was now staring at him intently, Reid knew she was doubtful- scared for him even.

"I'm an empath. I know exactly what people are feeling, all the time...If I touch them skin to skin I can hear their thoughts and sometimes, emotional imprints are left on objects, other times I can hear thoughts even if I'm not touching someone skin to skin. If the thought is strong enough," The words felt foreign and strange in his mouth. Explaining it out loud like this sounded absolutely ridiculous. He knew he had to tell them about his influence, but it was hard. He couldn't get the words out.

Hotchner walked closer to him. "That's impossible, Reid. Have you ever considered the possibility…" He trailed off and seemed to change his mind on his phrasing. "What they did to you was a very traumatic experience. What happened here, something obviously happened." He looked out to the sleeping cops, "It has to follow logic."

Reid followed Hotch's line of thought, he obviously thought Reid had formed some kind of delusion. A delusion caused by a traumatic stressor, like what happened to him when he was younger, "Hotchner I know this sounds crazy, but I can prove it."

Hotchner was about to speak again but Reid interrupted him, "You're feeling confused right now, obviously a bit of fear peaking up out of you. You're also anxious- probably about the cops about side, about Connor and Morgan."

Rossi finally spoke, "That's all circumstantial, Reid. That's very non-specific."

"Somebody touch me then!" Reid was losing his patience, "Touch my hand, I can tell you exactly what you're thinking, word for word." He held out his hands.

Rossi was the one to stand up and touch him. Reid braced himself for the thoughts, I don't know exactly what this is all about kid, but I've seen some crazy shit in my days and I think I believe you. Can you hear me? Is this really true?

Reid took a breath and looked at Rossi trying to ignore the rest of the thoughts, "You believe me. You're asking if I can hear you…I can. I can hear exactly what you're thinking right now."

Then tell me what I'm thinking, kid. "Then tell me what I'm thinking, kid." I trust you, I don't think you're crazy. My old Italian grandmother mentioned people like you, people who could read minds through touch and feel people's emotions, people who could control others actions with only thoughts. I thought it was all nonsense until now.

Spencer pulled away from Rossi and broke off the thoughts, "You trust me, and you don't think I'm crazy. You were thinking about your grandmother, she told you about people like me, but you thought it was all nonsense until now." Reid had never encountered any others like him until the other empath. Learning of what Rossi knew…he wondered whether there were more.

Morgan looked at Rossi, "Is that true, Rossi. Is that were you were thinking?"

"I was thinking exactly that." Rossi was amazed. "Can you only feel emotions and read thoughts?"

Reid knew it was a leading question, Rossi wanted to know whether he could control others, "No."

"W-What else can you do, Reid?" Prentiss's emotions were going at a mile at minute. Her mind was probably working through the possibilities.

"He can make people do what he wants them to do, by only telling them." Hotchner figured out. "That's what you did to me back near the interrogation room. You told me to leave, and I did it without a second thought…I wanted to do it, but something else in me told me I was being controlled."

Reid nodded and cringed, "I'm sorry, Hotch. I didn't want to do that to you- I was only protecting you."

"This is…" Hotchner took a long breath. "This is a lot to take in- but from what I've gathered. David and Josh both said they felt controlled- that wasn't you- was that someone like you? An empath?" Reid could tell this fought against Hotch's logic, but he was trying to think about things from a new angle.

Morgan nodded, "Somebody was controlling me. Somebody wanted me to shoot, Hotch. That was our unsub- they must be obsessed with Reid because they have the same abilities."

"That's why I'm telling you now, because we're in real danger and you need to understand the true threat." Reid explained. Reid glanced at the clock in the room. 10:30. "I managed to neutralize it, and everybody is safe, sleeping. They'll forget what happened and wake up in about 45 minutes."

"You erase their thoughts?" Prentiss said suddenly, "That's not- that's not good at all Reid, that's a horrible thing to do."

"It's my only choice, Prentiss!" Reid raised his voice, "Did you expect me to let them arrest, Morgan?" Reid pointed outside, "They would not believe us no matter how much I try to prove it! Even if I somehow to could make them believe me...They would only send me away for some damned testing! They'd treat me like a lab rat in some covert government facility!"

Prentiss backed down and nodded. Seemingly understanding.

"Where is David?" Rossi suddenly asked, "He collapsed after what happened...After the unsub," Rossi took a moment to compose his sentence. "After the unsub seemingly spoke through him."

"He's back in his jail cell, though we do need to find away to explain the shattered interrogation room window." Reid frowned, "Do you really all believe me? You're not afraid of me?"

Morgan shook his head, "You're a good person, Reid. And...well even if I think this all sounds insane, I can't seem to find any other explanation for it. I trust you, Reid. I'm not going to let you deal with this on your own."

"We still have an unsub to catch," Prentiss added.

"On one condition," Hotchner was serious. "You're to tell us everything. I'm not going to appreciate any amount of dishonesty, you tell us the whole truth and nothing but the truth."

Spencer nodded, a heavy weight suddenly off his chest. "I will. I promise."