Title: Curse of the Seven

Summary: When a curse is removed Martin Fitzgerald finds out he isn't who he thinks he is.

Warnings: This is an alternate universe of the Two Blood AU and a cross over with Without a Trace

Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Magnificent Seven or Without a Trace. Only the plot and the universe are mine

The men and women of the New York FBI Missing Persons Unit waited in the waiting room of the Magical Injuries Unit of the local hospital and fretted over the welfare of their youngest member, Martin Fitzgerald. He had been just fine, although a little run down for about a week, making jokes about the visit from his parents wearing him out. Until he collapsed in the bullpen no one had realized he was really sick. It was the doctors in the ER who had diagnosed Martin with a curse. Now they were waiting for one of the Witches on staff to come and tell them how he was.

Danny knew that curses were hard to detect, but there had been nothing that could have had this effect on his partner. This wasn't a regular curse, it had all the earmarks of a death curse and there was nothing in the last few weeks that could have someone that mad at his partner. They'd had several cases but all of them had been regular run of the mill stuff. They hadn't had anything really serious for about three weeks and death curses were very swift. The time frame was all wrong.

Jack looked at the members of his team sitting and pacing around the waiting room. He could tell that they all were trying to figure out how Martin had such a strong curse placed on him. Knowing Danny he was kicking himself and going back over their cases looking for a perp he had missed. Sam would be worried more about Martin's health and kicking herself over not getting him to the hospital sooner. Viv, well, she would be doing both. Jack knew however that it probably hadn't had anything to do with Martin at all. Unknown to the members of his team, Martin was the son of one of the FBI's Assistant Directors, and a highly placed one at that. It was only a matter of time before someone found out about his family and used Martin as a bargaining chip against his father. They would have no idea that Martin and his father didn't get along.

"Agent Malone?" Jack stood up and faced the Witch that was approaching him. She was fairly short, with long brown hair and brown eyes that looked very weary in her young face. If she was over thirty Jack would eat a crow. However, no one who served in this unit of the hospital was anything but the best.

"I'm Jack Malone. How is Martin?" He said.

"Well, the good news is we know exactly what is wrong with him. The bad news is there are some very strange complications." She sat down in a chair and gestured to all four of the FBI Agents to sit down as well. "First off my name is Witch Chloe and I've worked a lot with curses placed on children. Before you all tell me that Martin isn't a child, I'm well aware of that. But this curse was placed on him when he was a child, most likely an infant."

"Why on earth would someone put a curse on an infant?" Viv cried.

"I'm told that all of you work in Missing Persons?" Chloe asked.

"Yes we do." Jack said, waving his team down. It wouldn't do Martin any good for them to get upset at his Witch.

"This curse is often put on infants and small children who have been kidnapped and sold in illegal adoptions. The curse is placed on the child to suppress the child's memories and to make them compliant to their new parents. The parents get a wonderful, obedient child. The thing is, this curse kills the child years down the road but I have never seen anyone survive it beyond their fifteenth birthday. Ten years is the maximum and there is no way this was placed on him when he was sixteen. Somehow, he had a spell placed on him when he was an infant that is fighting off the curse. I don't know how it is doing that but it is finally starting to succumb to the curse. What I do know is that I have removed the curse and when he wakes up, any and all memories repressed by the curse are going to come flooding back. Right now he is going to need some friendly faces with him. Do you know who his best friends are and can you contact them? It is extremely important."

"That would be me." Danny said firmly. He had often told Martin he should get out and socialize more, but now he was grateful that Martin's closest relationships were always with his coworkers.

"We'll all go." Jack said just as firmly. Witch Chloe smiled and led them back to a room where Martin lay on a hospital bed. Martin was asleep, but already they could tell that he was doing better because his face had lost the pallor that had scared them so badly.

When Martin came awake it was very abruptly and immediately he grabbed for his tie and began choking. Within seconds he had ripped the tie off his neck and flung it as far away as he could. As he sat gasping on the bed both Danny and Jack reached for him, only to find themselves attacked by the man on the bed. Picking themselves up off the floor and gasping themselves, they turned towards the man who had backed himself into a corner and was visible prepared to fight to the death.

"It's all right; we're not going to hurt you. You're in a hospital. Can you tell us what the last thing you remember is?" Vivian asked softly as she stood in between Martin and the others.

"Who are y'all?" Came the quiet drawl.

"My name is Vivian. I work for the FBI. Please, tell me what the last thing you remember is?" Vivian pleaded.

"Hangin' I all'ays die by hangin'." Vin Tanner looked around at the people in the room. They were familiar. He just couldn't place them.

The Texan drawl surprised the team almost as much as the declaration of death by hanging seeming to be a common event. Was Martin talking about a nightmare? "Hanging you said?" Witch Chloe said with suspicion. She took a closer look at the spell that she could now see clearly, as well as the six off shoots from the spell. "You are under a reincarnation curse, aren't you?" She asked suddenly. Vin nodded. He knew she was a Witch, he wasn't sure how he knew, but he did. "Do you have access to the memories of your previous lives?"

"Yep. All three of 'em."

"Well, how about this life?" Witch Chloe asked. She had a feeling she knew who this man was, or rather who he was supposed to have been. There was one very famous reincarnation curse and it involved seven different men. It was held up to all young witches as an example of ingenuity under extreme circumstances. The curse of the seven. A widowed herbwitch with a young son had been blackmailed with her son's life into cursing the seven lawmen of her town. Knowing that the outlaws that had her weren't the smartest bunch in the barrel but able to feel her magic, she had done as they had demanded. They had then dragged the herbwitch and her son back into town with them to confront the lawmen and tell them what she had done. The men who had survived the confrontation had been arrested and then the lawmen had told her they hadn't blamed her for what she had done. They had only wanted to know what to expect from the curse. She smiled and told them that they would never enter heaven nor would they enter hell. They would be tied to this world and each other for all of time, death and birth would be a cycle for them and they would always remember the lives they had led before. The leader of the lawmen had grinned at her and said it sounds more like a blessing to me. Twice the seven men had been reborn and had gathered together to become lawmen once again. Chloe suspected she was about to witness the third.

Vin searched his memories, and as he looked for them he remembered. "AW HELL!" He sat down on the floor abruptly. "Sorry Jack, Danny you alright?"

Chapter 2

"We're fine, Fitz, the question is are you alright?" Danny said quickly.

"My name is Vin Tanner. I won't answer to anything else." Vin said firmly. It didn't matter to him that this time around he had been adopted. His name wasn't and never would be Martin Fitzgerald. He was ashamed enough to have forgotten his promise to his mother to never forget he was a Tanner. It was only the spell that he remembered someone putting on him that eased that shame at all. Spells were out of his control. If he let anyone call him Martin now, well that was in his control and it would be a slap to his mother's memory. That was something he couldn't bring himself to do.

"Ok, Vin. Are you alright?" Jack said. He didn't care what Martin was calling himself and for all he knew Vin Tanner really was his name, he just wanted to know if he was alright. The rest could wait for later.

"Yeah, I'm alright. Just don' make me put somethin' around ma neck like that." Vin shuddered. He hated how ties reminded him of the time that he had been lynched or the time he had died jumping out of that airplane. The cord from his chute had wrapped around his neck in a freak accident, and when the chute had opened it had snapped his neck instantly. He had been dead before he had hit the ground.

"No problem, but you still have to wear a suit. The tie you can get away with ditching. I'd say having been hung is a good enough reason for you not to have to wear it." Jack reassured Vin.

"Thanks." Vin said. "Think ya'll can get me into a sniper course?" He figured he might as well get started on getting his skills back up to snuff. Chris and the boys would find him soon enough. It wouldn't do to have the sharpshooter behind the times by about fifty years or so.

"A sniper course?" Danny asked.

"That stupid spell clamped me down hard. I'm runnin' behind. Gotta ketch up." Vin stated.

"Catch up to what?" Jack asked.

"I bin a sharpshooter for more'n a hundred years. I'm outa practice. An' the boys'll be lookin' fer me sooner or later."

"It's called the Curse of the Seven." Witch Chloe said. "Seven lawmen in New Mexico were cursed in a joined reincarnation curse soon after the civil war. So far, they've been reborn twice and this will be the third time."

"That's right. You know the old saying, 'Heaven doesn't want us and Hell's afraid we'll take over'? That pretty much describes us." Vin smirked. "Chris Larabee is our leader. You'll know him when you see him. He's blond, slight, wears all black, and," Vin's smirk grew wider, "He's danger personified. You can' miss 'im. Buck Wilmington is a big man, a lone Two-Blood, but we're his pack. He's always born a Two-Blood. The rest of us might change a might, but not that. Sam, Viv, Buck is a ladies' man but he's a real gentleman so no worries. Josiah Sanchez is the eldest, usually. He started out as a Preacher, but he's as much interested in people as he is in God. Don't get into discussion with him over it, no one's got the time. Then there is Ezra Standish. He's a mite shorter than me. Usually about my age too. He's a real southern gentleman, but he started out his lives as a con man and he never lost some of his habits. Never get into a poker game with 'im ifin ya wanna win. Nathan Jackson is the only black man among the seven, but that's never mattered to us, even if it mattered to others. He's pack. He's also our healer. He might have even gotten his MD this time around. I hope so 'cause we tend to keep him a mite busy. JD Dunne is our youngen. He was just sixteen when we got together in our first life. He's real short, hair's a bit long, Black Irish in colorin'. Has a bad habit a tellin' bad jokes." Vin shook his head in remembrance of some of the worst JD had ever told him. "Can I get outa here Miss? Not that I ain't grateful for what you done, but I really hate hospitals."

After the usual paperwork was taken care of, everyone headed back to the office. "I for one am just grateful this happened when we didn't have any hard cases on our backs." Sam said as she put her stuff down at her desk. "Cause it looks like we've got one now. Vin, do you know if you were adopted or not?"

Jack, Viv and Danny looked at each other in surprise, how could they have forgotten what sent Martin to the hospital in the first place? "Yeah, I was. Why?"

"Because the curse that put you in the hospital was one that is placed on children stolen for illegal adoptions. It makes them compliant and suppresses their memories if they have any. According to the Witch who took it off of you, no one survives more than ten years under the curse. You survived more than that because this reincarnation curse was keeping you alive." Sam explained.

"That's what doesn't make sense to me. You're always giving your old man fits. How does that work with this curse?" Danny wanted to know.

"I ain't even hardly started givin' that man fits, Danny." Vin promised. That was one thing this team didn't know. They knew he and his father didn't get along but thanks to the spell he had usually backed down in the end. That was over. Vin Tanner backed down to no man. Chris was the only man who could order him around and get away with it. Victor Fitzgerald just didn't know that yet. It was gonna be an interesting meeting.