The Devil within

A Pretty Little Liars Fanfiction

Set after 4x24 "A is for Alive"

Title: The Devil within

Author: Myself

Co-Author: -

Fandom: ABC Family's Pretty Little Liars

Pairings: Spoby, Emison, Haleb, Ezria, Tranna

Spoilers: SE04 & SE05

Posting: Romance/Drama/Mystery

Rating: MA

A/N: All characters of Pretty Little Liars belong to Sara Shepard and ABC Family ©

Synopsis: Alison's return to Rosewood inflicts each of the liar's life in an individual way. Whilst Emily has to deal with her undying love, Aria will go down a dark path and she's taking a few people with her. Hanna has to wriggle herself out of a love triangle and Spencer must do anything in her power to keep her family together after she finds a couple of skeletons in their closets.

This is my official version of Season 5. There'll be a few elements of the series, but the main storyline will be my own. Feel free to leave your opinion

Since English is not my mother tongue, you'll probably find some mistakes, which, hopefully, you won't mind. You can point them out, ignore them, laugh about them, etc.

2 days after the finale …

EMILY

Emily Fields couldn't decide whether she was happy or not. Frankly, there were so many different kinds of emotions spiraling through her head right now that it seemed almost impossible to decide on only one prevalent feeling. She was scared for Alison. Having her back in Rosewood meant that A – whoever it may be – would have an easier access to her whereabouts. Leaving Ali alone for only the split of a second would put her into incredible danger. Alison DiLaurentis promised to return after a very long and intense discussion with her former best friends and only after they managed to put up a plan that would protect her from her anonymous enemy. Also, for now her existence must stay a secret. Emily could only imagine the mental stress Ali would have to go through if it was revealed that she was still alive. After all, the reckless blonde had an obvious majority of enemies rather than allies. One opponent at a time was already enough to cope with.

Emily had always felt protective of Alison, even more so now that she really was in danger. It was a completely different dimension of 'responsibility' having to take care of her presently. A undoubtedly knew that Alison was back in Rosewood and it wouldn't take long for him/her to figure out the exact coordinates of her habitat. Heck, that maniac is better equipped than the CIA. Hence certain measures had to be taken in order to keep him/her away from Alison.

But Emily wasn't only scared for Alison, but she was also scared of her, or rather of her feelings for her.

When Paige came around, Emily was finally able to put her relationship with Ali behind. It made her realize that even after losing something you've once cared so much about that the mere thought of it made your heart crack, you'll have the ability to love and feel loved again. Now with Paige gone, old feelings started to surface, even though Emily had been doing a good job on suppressing them so far. She hoped it'd go away after she would have gotten used to Ali's presence.

She just felt like the barricade that prevented her from even thinking about Alison that way, namely Paige, was now completely gone and gave her feelings access to overwhelm her again. However, Emily had become so much stronger over the past couple of months. Even though there might still be some hidden feelings for Alison in the back of her head, she wouldn't give in to them as easily as she once did. She …

"Ms. Fields, would you mind coming back to reality?" The voice of her teacher immediately snapped her out of her dreamy state.

"Uh… yeah … sure, sorry." C'mon, Emily, pull it together – she thought to herself. This can't throw you off again.

ARIA

Aria Montgomery went through a lot. She watched her family fall apart, dealt with the death of a friend, an anonymous psycho and concealed the relationship with her former English-teacher as long as possible. However, this was different. She had never ever felt so helpless and incapable in her life before. It was as if her whole body was paralyzed and her brain in a constant state of emotional suppression.

Might as well be due to her being awake for almost 24 hours and not having eaten something in more than a day.

A great spectrum of noises surrounded her … bleeping devices, doctors talking to nurses, patients coughing and sneezing and the rolling of hospital cots. She fixated the erratic movements of the ECG-line and watched as Ezra Fitz's chest rose with every breath of air.

He looked peaceful, she thought. She tilted her head a bit. It almost looked like he smiled. Maybe he was dreaming? Were people in a coma even able to dream? And if so, what did he dream about?

A gentle squeeze on her shoulder made Aria turn. It was Spencer.

"Any good news?" She sat down next to her friend and put a cup of coffee and a bag of pastries on a desk nearby. "You should eat something. Your blood sugar levels will drop."

Aria looked at her for a second then focused her eyes on Ezra again. "The doctors said there hasn't been a major change in brain activity so far."

"Well … That does not have to mean anything. There have been plenty of people who woke up from a coma, even after years. What have the doctors said about his probable prognosis?"

"They don't know!" Aria said almost angrily.

Spencer nodded, acknowledging the fact that Aria wasn't really keen on discussing Ezra's medical condition.

"What are you thinking right now?" she asked, trying to sound as comforting as possible.

Aria shook her head. "I don't know … I … I feel responsible for this. I mean, I know I am not, but I do feel like I could've prevented this if I had behaved differently. Taking this bullet was his way of proving his love for me, because I was too stubborn to believe him."

"Well, you had every reason to not believe him. After all, he did lie to you about his agenda and his relationship with Alison. Even though his motives have changed, when he first met you, his intentions were selfish and ruthless. He basically used you like a book … Sorry for that comparison."

"I know, I know. I am not defending him on that part. I had a right to be angry at him but then again he told me everything in the end, he wanted to make up for what he did, but I refused to let him. I wanted him to leave Rosewood,, forever. But I can't stop thinking that this all my fault. I know I am not being rational, but I think no one would be in this kind of situation."

"Yes… I think I wouldn't feel any different if it was Toby. But sooner or later, you will have to go on with your life, Aria. Ezra would want you to do that. It does not have to mean that he will die, you just … you know, prepare for the worst."

The mere thought of the possibility of Ezra being really gone for good made her heart ache.

"I always loved him", she silently said, tears welling up in her eyes. "I just wish I had the chance to tell him that one last time."

ALISON

Alison DiLaurentis couldn't enjoy being back in Rosewood. Constant fear accompanied her wherever she went. She wouldn't leave the house. She didn't even want to open her window. She spent most of her times sitting on Hanna's bed in silence, waiting for her friends to come home. She couldn't stay at her own house because she wasn't ready to tell her mother yet that she was back. She figured it would be better if she didn't know. Hence she stayed at Hanna's.

She doubted that she'd ever get her old life back and that thought made her hate herself so much. Because frankly, she had fooled people so often that it had only been a matter of time until someone would've stroke back. She wouldn't be surprised if she turned someone into a mentally disturbed murderer.

The question of why she'd come back kept reappearing in her head. It wasn't safe for her in Rosewood. She practically put herself on a silver plate. All A had to do was to pull the trigger.

She thought she had left her old life behind, thought she could move on somewhere else, far away from all of her problems, but wherever she went, A seemed to find her. It was like a grudge that followed her around no matter where she'd go.

So, somehow she had come to terms with the fact that she could either spend her whole live running away or trying to fight back. The old Alison would immediately have chosen the latter, but the old Alison was long gone. She had lost all of her power and dominance. She was just a little girl, scared of the monsters under her bed.

Sometimes Ali wished A should've just finished what he/she started. But if A really was some mentally disturbed person, they would have continued torturing her friends and Ali wouldn't have wanted to die knowing that.

She let her fingertips wander over the smooth silk of Hanna's bedding. There were no words that could describe the loyalty of her friends. Alison did think she deserved a second chance, but she couldn't understand how the girls would risk their own lives in order to save hers. Maybe they didn't know how much it endangered them to protect her. When it all started they were just tracking down an anonymous crazy person that liked playing little games, but now they were dealing with a downright criminal. She was almost impressed by their willingness to protect the prey against the hungry predator.

Maybe they'd succeed. Maybe together, they'd be able to bring down big A and they'd close this case once and for all. Maybe there was chance to be happy again … Maybe ...

HANNA

When Hanna walked through the streets of Rosewood, accompanied by Travis, she couldn't believe her eyes when they fell upon someone that had vanished long ago. She put down her sunglasses and let go of Travis hand. He just looked at her in confusion.

"Lucas?" Hanna grabbed the arm of a tall guy with black, curly hair.

"Wha … Hanna?" He almost dropped the parcel he held in his hands.

"What are you doing back in Rosewood?"

"A friend of mine … He wanted me to visit him for a while. He's … got problems."

Hanna raised an eyebrow. His behavior seemed somewhat strange. "Problems? What kind of problems?"

"Well, problems that I can't really talk about, because they are private." He answered, this time with more certainty.

"Uhm okay? Well, I hope your friend will resolve his … uhm, problems. Anyhow, since you're back in town, do you want to grab a coffee sometime? Catch up a little? Things have been crazy around here."

Lucas hesitated for a moment. "Uh, yeah sure. Just gimme a call whenever you are free." He managed a reasonably authentic smile.

He then hurried away, still clinging to the parcel in his hands and left back a quite confused Hanna and Travis.

"Okaaay, what exactly was that about?" Travis asked. "Who is he?"

"Oh, Lucas? He used to be a friend of mine. He had a hard time in high school and we met at uh …" Hanna wasn't very keen on telling Travis she once went to a support group that talked about their refusal to have sex before marriage, just to please her boyfriend at that time. She didn't want to talk about her relationship to Sean in general, so she decided to lie. "I've met him at the prom. He made photos for the yearbook."

Now it was Travis time to raise an eyebrow. "Uh, okay. So were you two guys … "

"No! ... no, ...He was just a friend and I felt sorry for him. He also helped me get through a hard time. So we were both kind of helping each other out. Haven't seen him or heard from him since he left Rosewood to be homeschooled. But he was always nice to me and Caleb. He helped him too."

Travis nodded then he smiled and took Hanna's hand. They both continued to stroll along the streets of Rosewood.

SPENCER

The only thing Spencer wanted to do when she got home was to fall into her bed and sleep till the sun would rise in the morning.

Alison revealing to hear that Spencer was indeed innocent and never hurt her friend, took a load off her mind, but having her back now also meant that there were tons of new problems to deal with, trying to protect her from A being on the top of that list. Spencer started her research right after the girls had managed to pursue Ali into staying in Rosewood and since then put all of her energy into that. The only time she took off was when she visited Aria at the hospital. Except for that none of the girls had seen her the last 2 days. She almost felt like a hypocrite trying to get Aria to not neglect important things such as eating and sleeping, since the only thing she consumed in those 2 days was a gallon of coffee.

She had made a list of people, including all Rosewood residents and former residents that were or could be somehow in connection to Alison

She ruled the ones out that, as she has been told, were at the police station that night, which would include her sister, her parents and CeCe Drake, who obviously got convicted for murdering Darren Wilden.

Then she crossed those from the list, who were with her that night, which would include herself, Alison, the girls and Ezra.

Then of course she put her attention on the males, since whoever shot Ezra seemed to be too strong and athletic to be a woman.

In the end she narrowed her list down to 3 possible suspects, who may not be "Upper A", but who definitely could have been the guy that shot Ezra on the rooftop:

The first was Jason DiLaurentis, who did not only have a motive to fight against his sister, but also didn't have a watertight alibi, since the rehab facility he should've been in closed 2 years ago, so yes, Jason DiLaurentis was definitely amongst her main suspects. Furthermore he was athletic and muscular, so he could've easily made that jump.

The second one was Noel. Even though he was believed to have helped Alison and was allegedly elsewhere when the girls were on the rooftop, Spencer still couldn't trust him. Besides Alison mentioned that he had secrets too, so he was everything but innocent.

The third one was Wren. The girls never got a real affirmation that he had anything to do with Alison when she was still knowingly alive. However the connection to Melissa and Mona was enough to put him onto this list. Even though the thought of him being A was somewhat far-fetched, Spencer couldn't lose the feeling that he was involved in everything in some sort, much like her sister.

Maybe he was on the good side and helped Alison? Spencer knew everything she noted down were wild speculations but they made sense in some way and that was reason enough to consider them to be potential answers to all those burning questions.

But then again, what if whoever was on that rooftop, wasn't A? What if Ezra or Alison were the ones they needed to be protected from?

Spencer would probably go crazy with this stuff, but there was nothing in the world she wanted more than to get this over with once and for all.

EMILY

When Emily noticed police cars at the DiLaurentis house her heart skipped several beats. Her immediate assumption was that they found Alison, or rather what would be left of her. Adrenaline poured into her veins and she ran as fast as her legs would carry her.

She almost tripped, when she stormed to the front door of the Marin's house. However, she didn't take the time to observe the object that almost made her hit the ground.

When she reached her room, she found a surprised Alison. "What happened? Why are you so out of breath?"

Without saying a word, Emily almost knocked both of them off her bed, when she hugged Alison as tightly as she could. "It's nothing, I am just glad you're here." Alison hesitated at first and gave her friend a frowning look, but then hugged her back.

Emily realized a minute later just how sudden and unexpected that emotional reaction was and almost felt ashamed of how she had behaved. Nevertheless she didn't want Alison to know that the police was parking in front of the DiLaurentis house. It would only agitate and stress her.

"So what exactly happened to you?" Alison was still confused.

"Nothing. I was just sprinting a little. You know, I have to stay fit and so on, since I haven't been swimming in a while." She couldn't even try to sound honest, especially because Alison always saw right through her.

"Okay … and now the true version, please?"

Emily bit her lips indecisively. "I was concerned about you."

"Yeah, I get that, but why?"

"I thought something had happened to you."

Alison rose from Emily's bad and walked towards the girl. She softly took her hands and looked her straight into the eyes. Her look hadn't changed over the years, even though she did. Those blue eyes still symbolized her sheer power and dominance over someone. "I can deal with the truth."

"Promise me you won't get upset, alright?" Emily led Alison to her bed and they both sat down slowly.

Alison nodded in response, still fixating her friend with those steel blue eyes.

"There's obviously an investigation going on in your house. The police is parked right in front of your porch."

Even though Alison tried to stay cool, it could be seen that the message scared the hell out of her.

"Maybe it hasn't even got to do with A", Emily went on, hopelessly.

"Oh please. Don't try to sugarcoat it. They obviously got a clue from A. I knew it wouldn't take them long to find me. I should've known it was a mistake to come here." Her voice suddenly sounded panicked and she made an attempt to stand up.

Emily pushed her down softly. "Alison! Calm down… We do not know for sure if they are here because of A."

"Why else would they be here?" Alison's voice became significantly louder, her eyes filling with tears.

Emily was almost shocked seeing the once so strong woman losing control of her emotions so easily.

"Maybe they found something, I dunno. Please Alison, calm down, I am here for you. Spencer, Hanna and Aria, we are all here for you."

"You don't know what it's like to run away all the time and never feel save. You can't begin to imagine what I did to stay away from Rosewood as long as possible."

"Alison!" Emily pulled her into a hug again trying to calm her overanxious friend. "It'll be good. I am here for you."

Alison sobbed into the fabric of Emily's pullover, but after some time passed she managed to regain control of her emotions.

"I will try to find something out, okay? You stay here, close the curtains and wait."

Alison nodded. Before Emily was out of the door, Alison hugged her tightly. "Thank you, Em. I wouldn't know what to do if I you weren't here." Emily caught herself enjoying Alison's affectionate behavior a little too much and let go before her brain would jump to any assumptions. "Anytime", she said and left.

When Emily approached the DiLaurentis mansion, she immediately recognized Detective Holebrook's voice. He seemed to be talking to someone, whom Emily couldn't see from her position. However, getting closer to the alleged crime scene would automatically make her a suspect again. Emily couldn't even count the times the girls had been questioned by the police when it came down to anything that had to do with the DiLaurentis family.

She tried to recognize the other person's voice. It was definitely another man, but who?

Emily risked another few steps closer and what she saw made her jaw drop.

ARIA

"Ms. Montgomery?" A young female doctor entered the patient room, accompanied by a slightly older man with an identification badge.

She went straight to Ezra's bed, checked his vital signs and wrote them on a chart. She glimpsed at Aria and wondered who that girl was. Was she his daughter? Sister? Girl cousin? She seemed to care an awful lot about him, so they had to be very close. He seemed to be too young to be her father, so she ruled that one out.

"May I ask you about your relationship to Mr. Fitz?" The officer asked.

"Why would it be in your interest to know that?"

"It is relevant to the investigations. Mr. Fitz has been the victim of a crime and we need to ask anyone present the day he was shot."

Aria noticed the doctor looking up from her chart and looking into her direction.

"He was my English teacher", she answered nonchalantly.

"I doubt that a student would spend an entire day in a hospital just for her teacher. Ms. Montgomery, you know that lying to a police offer is illegal, do you?"

Aria hesitated. After all, she hadn't got any other options than to tell them what they wanted to hear. Her relationship with Ezra must've been known to the local police department long before.

"We were in a relationship."

"Were? What happened?"

"We broke up." She tried to stay as cool as even possible.

"And why did you break up?"

"We thought it was time for a break."

"Uhu, okay." He put some notes down and frowned. "Just how long have you and Mr. Fitz dated, Ms. Montgomery?"

"I don't think that this is relevant to the case." Aria was starting to feel a little pressured.

"We do think so. According to confidential information we received from an anonymous person, your romantic involvement with Mr. Fitz used to be illegal."

"I don't have to listen to this." Aria knew she had no right to run away from the truth, but being questioned by the police concerning the attempted murder of Ezra Fitz was enough pressure to make her do so.

"Ms. Montgomery, if you wish to discuss this matter in private, we can reschedule this conversation."

Aria ignored his words and stormed out of the patient room. She knew she had to be deal with this sooner or later, but right now she preferred later.

After leaving the hospital she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. New text message.

"Now he is the one getting taught a lesson – A"

SPENCER

When Spencer woke up it was almost 7pm. She rubbed her eyes and yawned. It took her almost 5 minutes to notice a piece of paper on her desk, which she later identified as a letter – there was no name on it, just the address of a post office.

She was just about to rip it open, when she hesitated for a moment. She then opened the door of her room and shouted downstairs "Mum?! Did you put a letter on my desk?"

It took a while until her mother answered. "Yes, sweetie! It arrived about an hour ago."

At least A didn't personally deliver it. Spencer frowned. She closed the door again and proceeded with opening the letter. The address seemed to belong to a post office in London. It said:

"Only one kind of person has the ability to make a girl take someone else's identity."

There were neither 'Kisses' nor an ' –A' at the end of the letter. Nonetheless the letter must've been written by A. Or was this supposed to help the girls? Judging from the secretive and metaphoric way it was written in, Spencer was almost completely sure that no one else except A could've been the author of this letter.

With Ezra, who'd be the only one giving anonymous tips in order to help, in hospital, there weren't any other options left.

Spencer took the letter and pinned it to her wall, then she grabbed her mobile phone.

HANNA

Emily had seemed quite upset when she called Hanna. She was whispering, but the excitement was undeniably noticeable in her voice. Wondering what had led to this frantic phone call, Hanna apologized to Travis for ending their date so abruptly (again) and took off.

When she arrived at the DiLaurentis house, to which Emily had ordered her, her eyes widened, as the first thing she saw was a police car. She parked near the house and started looking for her agitated friend.

"Hanna!" Emily came from across the street and pulled her friend in a corner from where they had a good sight on the 'crime scene'.

"What on earth is going, Em? Why is there a police car parked outside the DiLaurentis house? Has Jason fallen off the wagon again or has anything happened to Ali… ?

"No … no. It's not about Alison. It's… Emily seemed to think about how to formulate what she wanted to say. "They obviously found another corpse."

"Say what?!"

"Yes… I don't know who it is. Their face is covered, but they obviously found them in the DiLaurentis house."

"Good god. Who do you think it could be?"

"I dunno. But I saw Detective Holbrooks talking to an older man who I think it might be Alison's father."

"Woah… Does Ali know about all of this?"

"No … well, she knows there's a police car, but I haven't told her yet why it's here. You should've seen her. She looked so anxious, I was afraid she'd hyperventilate."

"Okay… soo, what should we tell her? I mean, she is definitely going to ask."

"That's what I have been trying to figure out for the past 2 hours."

"Well, tell her … they just found some piece of evidence regarding CeCe or I dunno. She'll find out about this sooner or later anyway."

Emily nodded and glimpsed at the crime scene again. "I have an idea of who this could be. But I don't even want to say it out loud."

ALISON

The girls reunited late in the evening. With Hanna's mother on a business trip, they had the house to themselves and no one could possibly find out about Allison staying there with them.

Emily had managed to come up with a story to calm Alison. It took a while, because of Alison's crank ability to detect every lie Emily was telling, but in the end she succeeded. Probably because Ali stopped seeing a point in arguing with her, but as long as the blonde wouldn't freak out again, Emily was satisfied.

They made themselves comfortable on the couch in the living room in front of the TV.

"Any movies on your wish list?" Spencer asked.

The girls exchanged some looks, but no one really seemed to be in the mood for a movie.

"Okay guys, what is it?" Spencer had noticed that there was something in the air the second the all entered Hanna's house.

They all exchanged looks. No one seemed too keen on making the first step. The only one seemingly confused was Alison.

"I got a text from A", Aria admitted silently. "It was after I left the hospital. I got interviewed by an officer and I was so pissed off that I just left and …" She threw her hands in the air helplessly. "How can a person be so cruel and sick and make fun of this situation? I don't get it."

"I got a text too. Well, actually it was a letter." Spencer vanished for a second, only to come back with the letter she got a few hours ago. "Here." She put it on the desk in front of them.

"Wait … it isn't even signed by A, is it?" Hanna noticed.

"Yeah, he or she might've just forgotten, I figure". Spencer shrugged.

"Or someone else wrote it? Could it be possible?" Aria inquired.

"I dunno. I couldn't think of anyone", Spencer responded. "Anything else you guys might want to share?"

Emily and Hanna looked each other, then Emily shot a glance at Alison, who seemed tense.

Emily was just about to raise her voice, when Ali interrupted her. "There was a police car in front of my house today."

"What?!" Spencer and Aria exclaimed almost simultaneously.

"Yes. Emily has seen it, haven't you, Em?"

"We've both seen it", Hanna interjected. "We don't know the exact reason why they were here. We figured it'd be about some evidence regarding CeCe, since she had a connection to Alison and the DiLaurentis family."

"That is at least what they had told me", Alison added, nodding in Emily and Hanna's direction.

An unexpected voice interrupted them.

"Has anyone of you turned the TV on?" Spencer asked with a frown. "I can't seem to find the remote control.

The girls shook their head and stared at the screen,

"… when they eventually identified the body as Jessica DiLaurentis, the mother of Alison DiLaurentis whose body was found at the exact same spot two years ago. The police is still investigating. The only evidence the murderer left was a red piece of fabric."

None of the 5 dared to say a word.

A

A black hooded thin figure is seen in a dark room watching a recording from the news report of Jessica DiLaurentis' murder. The person keeps rewinding the part where they show the crime scene and stops at the moment were the only piece of evidence is shown, a piece of red fabric.