A/N: Welp, I didn't know how to tie up this story, but I hope this is good enough! A huge thank-you to everyone that has stood through both Guardian and Assailant; I'm glad you've enjoyed this, and I hope you know how much it means to me to see so many people reading this and actually liking it! I have a few announcements to make, but I'll put them in the bottom author's note, so read on!

Thank you to silverwyrm, who has been a great beta throughout this story!

Warnings: Not much; sad themes, OOC-ness.

Disclaimer: Don't own Criminal Minds, only this weird series.

Chapter 11: Home

"Ok, watch this." Reid closed his eyes and let the now familiar heat wash over him, flushing through his bones and racing over his skin. In less than three seconds, he opened his eyes to a grey-muted world, his vision dimmer but his smell and hearing increased. He cocked his head up to his team, taking in their slack-jawed expressions with a mixture of embarrassment and pride. The smirking form of Matthews watched as well, his eyes critical and amused. Reid blinked and shifted back, his clothes slightly rumpled from collapsing than re-fitting onto his human form, and he grinned sheepishly at his teammates.

"So you can control it now? You can be… Guardian whenever you want?" asked Morgan, looking both relieved and… oddly touched.

Reid nodded. "I have it under control now."

"Interesting," said Matthews, circling Reid and making him a bit uncomfortable; he had been treated like an experiment too many times to just ignore that glint in Matthew's eyes that saw him as more of an animal than a human. "It appears that rebelling against the instincts within is what was causing the rapid loss of control in the first place. Fascinating."

Reid cleared his throat and nodded, taking a step away from the man. He had never thought of Matthews as evil but he certainly didn't have to like the man. There was a part of him that created chaos and thrived on it. But… as much as the team wanted to arrest him and throw him in jail, they couldn't. Reid could see the conflict in their eyes over that, but Matthews knew too much to be turned over to the law. Maybe if Reid hadn't…

But he had. He'd killed the unsub – Jeremy Gurner was his name, Reid had learned – in a brutal, cold-blooded rage. Whenever he thought of it, it sent a shiver down his spine; although, the dog instincts felt no regret. Of course, most of the baser instincts were quite simple and didn't have room for complex feelings – they were very straight-forward. Reid felt another shiver go down his back and the instincts whispered from their corner, Matthews good or bad? The dog side was trying to figure out if Matthews posed a threat or not, just like Reid's human side. It unnerved him to hear those instincts mingling with his own when for so long they'd been nothing but a presence in the back of his mind. It was… killing Jeremy. Something had snapped the two sides together and back.

Reid wanted to push against the instincts, ignore them, do something, but he'd learned his lesson with suppressing his dog side once; who knew what would happen if he tried to block out the instincts again?

Reid wished he could talk to Clooney. The dog had always seemed almost human in his thoughts and actions. Sure, he was still a dog, but he was more complex than the base instincts of his kind, and Reid yearned to understand the differences between the primal instincts and the domesticated dog he'd known. Did Clooney have those instincts? Or had something awoken in Reid that had died out in other canines centuries ago?

But that brought them back to Matthews; he could easily reveal Reid's second identity – granted, some wouldn't believe him – but Reid needed his abilities to stay a secret. And Matthews had agreed to testify that his old friend Jeremy Gurner had been an animal fanatic with a vast array of wild animals. A wild animal that could have broken out and killed him on the same night Reid and Ashley had staged their escape.

"Well, I guess I'll be off then," Matthews said, a smug look on his face. The team had torn, angry faces at the fact that this man was slipping through their fingers once again but Reid just sighed. Was Matthews evil?

No, he decided, the man was just eccentric, with a terrible sadistic side.

"Don't worry Doctor Reid," Laura said, sliding up beside her brother and scowling at him. "Brian and I plan on keeping an eye on my brother." Matthews smug look collapsed into a scowl directed at her, but he didn't protest, obviously resigned to his sister. Now there was something Reid had never guessed; Matthews had a family.

The team watched Matthews, Laura, Brian, and Scott exit the station, finished giving their last statements to the case. Reid was relieved it was over, and slowly followed his team out to a van, ready for the jet-ride home. He'd just been released from a week recovering in the hospital, his shoulder swaddled in bandages and two broken ribs set straight. He'd almost died of blood loss, and he could feel the concerned gazes of the team as he slumped into a window seat, already weak and shaky from the brief exercise he'd done. He closed his eyelids to shut out the searching looks of his team and felt the heat rush through him comfortingly.

His skinny, stress-worn body was even more noticeable in dog form with the way his ribs stuck out of his fur, but he was able to curl his body inside his human clothes easily, not bothering to remove them when he felt so weary. He didn't want to talk to his team and hear them try to comfort him. It couldn't get rid of the image of Ashley's brother laying on a hospital bed, pale but alive, found malnourished and drugged in the bowels of Jeremy's basement maze. He'd looked young when Reid had sat next to him, still on pain-meds and wobbly with his blood loss, stuttering out that Ashley was dead. How his sister had died protecting him and Reid. Even though Reid hadn't known her well, he'd felt a lump a mile wide in his throat as he tried to explain, and by the end Josh Burns wasn't the only one with a bowed head, sobbing into his hands.

Reid must have slept, because hours later a burst of scarlet blood behind his eyelids made him jerk and sit up. The team was all standing, quietly unloading their luggage. Morgan was the first to notice him and he gave him a smile. "I was just about to wake you up, Pretty Boy. We're home." He hesitated and then slowly asked, "Are you going to… you know, change back?"

Reid shook his head, realizing he probably looked stupid as a dog wearing a shirt and tie, his bottom half caught up in dress pants, and his shoes discarded on the floor. If he changed back he'd have to talk and he didn't have the energy for that right now. Morgan shrugged and picked up Reid's shoes for him.

"Come on, Reid. I'm driving you home."

It was oddly reassuring to sit in the passenger seat of Morgan's van, the night air blowing in from the cracked window, Morgan's arm slung over the steering wheel and his eyes flickering from the road to his friend. It made Reid feel like Guardian again, like everything was normal. Too soon they pulled up to his building, and Morgan was blissfully silent when he carried Reid's bags up for him, patiently waiting for Reid to limp his way up the stairwell. Before Morgan left though, he let a hand come down and pat Reid on the head.

"I'm sorry, Reid," he said earnestly. "Just so you know, we're here for you, man. You'll get over this."

Reid treated him to a doggy grin and slurped his tongue across Morgan's hand, making him jerk it back and shake the drool away in distress, even as he laughed at Reid's actions. With a last wave, Morgan was gone.

A thick, suffocating silent bore down on him in his friend's absence. With a sniff, Reid searched the apartment and finally found Oscar, the tiny black-and-white kit curled up in a ball on the couch. Oscar opened his eyes when Reid hopped up next to him, seemingly unsurprised that he was in dog form. Then Reid told him everything; the case, being kidnapped, the other experiments, Ashley, murdering the unsub, and the instincts that were much more potent now. The cat didn't interrupt; he listened to Reid's rambling, broken All-speak and showed no reactions to any of it. When Reid was finally done, his heart aching and his throat worn out, the cat placed one small paw on Reid's forehead and only said, change back.

Reid obeyed and Oscar curled into his lap, his fur soft on Reid's bare legs. He was still wearing his shirt and tie – albeit lopsided – and the kitten batted at the fabric, producing a watery chuckle from Reid. Suddenly, Reid felt a whole lot better, but much more lonely. He got up, Oscar giving a squawk of protest as he slid to the floor, and he grabbed his cellphone and phoned the first member of his team he could think of.

"This is Garcia, goddess of tech," came the sleepy voice of Garcia, and Reid grinned.

"Hey," he said back, and she let out a small squeak at his voice.

"Reid! Are you ok? Do you need something, honey?"

He couldn't help it; he laughed. "Yeah Garcia, I'm ok. I was just wondering… do you think I could come over and watch a movie with you?"

There was a pause, than Garcia's enthused voice blasted his eardrums. "Yes, yes, absolutely! I got this new sci-fi show I think you'll like, and we can make popcorn and oh! I can call the rest of the team, we can make it a big BAU sleepover!" She let out a whoop and Reid laughed again, glancing at the glowing 12:01 a.m. on his cellphone screen. He hoped Garcia wouldn't wake up the others from sleep, but he also hoped they'd all show up. He wanted – needed – his team. He needed them to recover and deal with everything that had gone on, and to plan for the future.

"Ok, I'll be over in twenty," he told Garcia, hanging up with the echoes of her excited chatter warming him.

You going to be ok? Oscar asked, cocking his head at his human.

Of course, Reid replied, slinging on a jacket and slipping his phone into his pocket. Now come on! It's about time that the team met my cat.

Oscar scoffed. I can't wait to meet this Garcia character.

Believe me, she'd going to love you.

Before Oscar could react or reply, Reid shifted to a dog, grabbed the kitten by the scruff of the neck, and ran around the apartment, getting tangled in his shirt and pants and howling up a storm as Oscar screeched with indignity of them both, but not struggling too hard when he sensed the joy pouring out of Guardian.

Reid was glad he was home.

A/N: I have two announcements to make! One: Thanks to my friend TheChiaroscuro I have decided to write a third sequel! *horrified gasps* Haha, alright, I'll take pity on you (but most of all her, she was VERY distressed to hear my plans and some of my ideas) by telling you that it won't be a serious story; it will be pure crack, where I'll probably make fun of this series and myself. It will not be tied into the first two stories, it will simply be running off of them. Let's say it'll be like a sitcom spin-off.

Two: Finishing this series is very intimidating, especially considering that these two stories are the only stories I've ever completed. For that reason, I've decided I'll start up a one-shot series revolving around the events in both Guardian and Assailant. It will be a way for me to explore some deeper ideas, tie up plot holes, answer prompts, fill in missing scenes, and all that stuff I either forgot to add in or that I didn't have the patience or time to include.

I've drifted away from the CM fandom quite a bit (that explains how this story became a bit OOC, I apologize) so I have no clue when either of those stories will be written or published (if you want more of my work, though, you can check out my One-shot series; I promise it's good!). Right now, I'm working on two huge projects; two AUs for SPN and SU, featuring OCs. With this story done, I can now work on those full-time without any guilt, so those stories will come when the inspiration strikes me.

Anyways, again a huge thank-you to all of you! It has been a pleasure to write this for you, and if you're interested in any of the stories I've mentioned above, I look forward to you checking them out! And as always, remember to review! :D