A/N: This is finally the long chapter I promised. It will explain everything and if some things don't add up please forgive, I was very enthusiastic in writing this, letting my mind have its own way. Now I had a specific song in my head (and in my ears due to my Ipod) that I think reflects the situation perfectly, so pretty pretty please find the song on youtube and play it!

Song: In the hall of the mountain king by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (I know its not the orginal version, but I liked this one better for it. The right version is 2.21 min long.

Enjoy!

Chapter 5b

Their trip led them to a carnival, a fact that obviously made Jane nervous.

"Why is Red John meeting him here? Was your list wrong? Is he actually someone from your carnie days?" Lisbon questioned.

Jane shook his head sternly. "No, I'm sure Red John is one of the man on my list."

"Then why here? Does he know we're following him?"

She recognized the tension that had formed in his jaw.

"It could be a trap." He admitted, rubbing his face in a weak attempt to regain some clarity. He seemed more tired than ever before.

Shifting her eyes between him and the suspect that was leaving his car she took his hand.

"I need to know now, Jane." The professor looked nervously around and then walked towards the house of mirrors. She waited for Jane to answer, but when none came she held the door until the man was inside and got out.

" Stay in the car." She quietly ordered Jane.

Lisbon summoned the rest of the team and ushered them to follow, pointing for Van Pelt and Rigsby to go around back.

Slowly she went up the cracking steps to the house, gun-raised, treating as softly as possible. Shaking off the uncomfortable feeling that the eerie atmosphere gave her. A shadowy figure moved in a mirror, she heard the pleading whisper of a man, the muffled sound of more footsteps. A horrific laughter suddenly filled her ears, she was unsure whether it belonged to the mirror palace.

In several places a man disappeared in the mirrors, Lisbon began moving a little quicker, sometimes startled by her own expression at some of the turns she made. Her heartbeat was increasing by the second, there was no room for mistakes, not even in the slightest.

A gunshot sounded, mirrors shattered everywhere and all hell broke loose.

She heard Rigsby yell for Van Pelt, Cho fired a shot from behind her. Around a corner she encountered a man, who took her gun and grabbed her. Cho knocked him down, but the masked man swept him off his feet, making him fall through a mirror leaving him motionless on the floor.

The suspect pointed a gun at Lisbon, who just stared terrified at the barrel of her own gun. The hole she was fixed on was suddenly gone as someone duck through the mirror behind the man and Jane landed on top of him, elbowing him unconscious.

On the other side of the house a struggle could still be heard, another gunshot was fired. Running feet, a loud noise. Van Pelt shouted something, but Lisbon was still focused on her disheveled consultant on top of what most likely was Red John.

The sudden silence was overwhelming, she crawled over to Jane, who was panting. His face was full of shards and all he was focused on was her.

"Are you hurt?" He asked, a little out of breath.

She shook her head to deny.

Both turned their focus to the mask, Jane pulled it off in one motion. Both gasped.

It turned out the man beneath the mask was Ray Haffner, who refused to say a word. The problem was, Van Pelt and Rigsby had found Brett Stiles beneath a clown's mask on the other side of the house. The professor was dead and before ballistics would verify who had shot the gun she would have to release the both of them, giving Red John a chance to run.

Bertram stood in front of her office as she entered the floor. She sent Rigsby and Cho to place the suspects in the interrogation rooms.

"Do you hate your job Agent Lisbon?" He enquired, sounding furious.

She was slightly taken aback. "Euh, no sir."

"Then explain to me why you're trying to commit career suicide and drag this agency down with you?!"

"I don't follow you sir…"

"Well, I do have you and your team followed and it has come to my awareness that you've just arrested Brett Stiles and Ray Haffner as Red John suspects!"

"Yes, sir. That's correct, we found…"

"I don't care what you found! Visualize is a major contributor to our budget and you've just apprehended their leader! I want you to release him right now."

That did it for Lisbon.

"No." She was fuming on the inside, but managed to speak the words very collected.

"Excuse me?!"

"I said no! For all I know he is Red John and you're in league with him, so either you back off and give me the 24 hours in which I can hold them or I'll go to press and tell them we weren't able to apprehend Red John, because our boss works for him!"

She spat at him, unable to hold back any longer.

"24 hours, if you haven't solved this case by then, you're fired! "

He loosened his tie. "And I will personally make sure you never work in law enforcement ever again."

She watched him leave in a hurry. Jane really needed to help her out of this one.

"Dammit Jane, which one of them is Red John?!" Jane stood paralyzed with an expression that could only indicate him feeling as lost as ever. "I…" He began. "I don't know."

Great, just when she needed him most, he didn't know.

"Fantastic, Cho you take Jane to talk with Stiles, Rigsby and I will take Haffner."

She shook her head, she had 24 hours to solve this mess before she had to release one or both men and it most likely would end her career.

Cho led Jane into the room, sat himself down after laying a file on the table.

Stiles had his hands folded in front of him on the table.

"Patrick."

Jane sat down next to Cho across from Stiles.

"I think it's time I told you a story."

"And why is that?" Jane replied feigning disinterest.

"Because there is more to this story than you've ever expected there to be."

Cho lifted his chin. "Go on."

"The story starts with a little boy named Patrick Jane, who lost his mother."

Jane attempted to stand up and leave, but Cho pushed him back into his seat.

"His mother left and his father refused to ever talk about her again. He felt lost for a while, but learned to deal with her abandonment. He just never knew her reasons for leaving. You see, your father was a cruel man, heartless and self absorbed. He abused your mother and she sought the comfort of another man's arms. When she found out that affair had rendered her with child she left for everyone's safety. You were five years old at the time. She had another child, another son, but she could never forget the little cherub boy she'd left behind.

She fell into great depression, that's when she came to me. We took her in, but within a week's time she committed suicide. Leaving behind a note, written in red ink. It was a letter to her youngest son apologizing for leaving him, and lacking in her love for him, that she couldn't help but love her eldest most, wishing she'd never done the things she did. At the end of the letter she'd drawn a sad smiley face.

The boy as you may assume was devastated and blaming the eldest boy for his loss and lack of love. He developed severe anger issues, first he took it out on animals, that's when I decided to send him to the Elridge farm in the hope of taming his temperament. It took a turn for the worse, when he returned his bitterness had grown and so had his hatred for the brother he never even met. I was still hopeful that one day he would see the errors of his ways and let go of his past, I kept seeing the potential in him. I send him to Europe as a last resort, I had one of my most trusted followers to help him change, and he did. He changed his appearance, everything on the outside changed, he knew how to influence people, he was taught how to hypnotize people and trick them into believing anything we told them. I wanted him to be my successor. "

Stiles paused, observed the shell shocked Jane and the frowning Cho.

"But the man fell in love, her name was Kaitlyn, she was the eldest of four, but she broke his heart, told him that she could never love him as much as she loved the man she was to marry. Before she could ever marry she was murdered, I believe she was his first victim. When they found him, he was completely covered in her blood, everything was red. They covered it up nicely, framed someone who died of an overdose the same evening. I should have known better than to ever let him return. He seemed calm and collected on the outside, but I knew that he was rotten from the inside. That it was too late for him.

When he returned I refused to see him or let him back into the congregation, but when the Red John murders started I knew."

He stared at a blank spot on the wall.

"He denied everything when I summoned him, but I was determined to keep him from killing, I got him a job, but he was too skilled and found it too easy to manipulate people, disguising his own personality and found people that would agree with him."

He sighed deeply.

"The killings didn't stop, and then you came and you challenged him. He found out everything there was to know about you and discovered that you were his long lost brother. But not only were you a successful man, you also married the exact copy of the woman he'd first fell in love with. He exploded and nearly killed me when I tried to stop him, because I knew exactly what he was going to do."

Jane was now crying without a sound unable to look at Stiles, wishing that he had Lisbon next to him instead of Cho.

"He killed your wife and child, making it his personal mission to make your life as miserable as he could, prolonging your agony for as long as he could. I've monitored your team for a long time, and when I noticed that you and agent Lisbon grew closer I feared for her life, I waited until he noticed the same thing, the problem was that he was already half in love with her himself. I guess her purity attracted him, he also wanted to redeem himself. He tried to lure you away from her after tempting you with Lorelei. Hoping to get her to leave you, but she didn't. She stood by you all the way. Today I realized what he was planning to finally reach his goal. Although I doubt he would have found peace, he wanted to expose you as Red John, killing you and then pick up the pieces of Teresa Lisbon if there were any left. Then he would have had the thing you've desired most and you would have lost the game. "

"Haffner." Jane whispered.

"Yes, I'm afraid so."

Cho took over. "Why tell us now, why didn't you come forward before?"

Jane led his head sink in his hands. "Because Haffner is his son."

The stoic man's eyes went wide."That true?"

Stiles simply nodded, bowing his head in silence.

"How do we know any of this is true?" He questioned.

"I'm in possession of a list of evidence he was fabricating to frame Jane, I know who his most loyal followers are and kept records of everything that helps you prove he is Red John. And of course the letter from his mother. God rest her soul."

Realization hit him.

"Lisbon!" He cried out, toppled the chair beneath him and ran out of Interrogation room 1 and into 2. The sight before him made him sick. Rigsby was shifting uncomfortable in his chair while Lisbon was leaning across the table and kissing Haffner.

Lisbon had heard him enter and broke off the kiss, staring horrified at Jane. Haffners lips formed a smug smile. Jane point out of the interrogation room.

"Out!" He commanded.

"Jane?! You can't just barge in here and demand us to leave." She was determined to get what she wanted and not let him interfere.

"I can and I will, now out!" He spoke harshly.

Rigsby shuffled out the door, feeling like his parents were fighting. It left Jane and Lisbon standing opposite of each other.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?! "

"What the hell am I doing? What the hell are you doing? Just minutes ago you looked like you were falling apart, having no clue which one of them is Red John! Ray promised me the truth in exchange for a kiss, and I was eager as well as desperate for answers!"

He realized what she'd done, exactly the same thing he'd done with Lorelei.

"There was no need, Stiles told us everything."

"He did?" Her angry look turned into surprise.

"Haffner is Red John."

"He is?" Her expression changing to disgust as she glanced at Haffner.

"He is also my half-brother and wanted to frame me for the Red John murders."

He saw her trying to make sense of what he was saying. She pushed him out of the interrogation room and into the watch room next to it, meanwhile yelling to Risgby to guard Haffner and to shoot him if he tried to leave.

She sat him down in a chair, choosing to place herself next to him on a table.

"Explain."

He repeated everything he'd just heard from Stiles, unable to keep the tears from escaping. Somewhere between talking about his mother and her committing suicide she took his hand, holding it while he talked. When he'd finished his story she helped him up and embraced him, letting him cry on her shoulder, he held onto her for dear life. Fearing that the tornado that had just passed would still come back and drag her away. They were far from okay.

A/N: How was that for an explanation to the Red John story?