Just my imagination running wild, so wild that I had to write it down. Or am I just schizo? :S

Disclaimer : I do not own Darkest Powers.

No matter what.

Tori had gone to the shower, Simon was talking with Andrew and Derek went straight to his room after supper, or that's what he told us, to take a nap. Well I knew better. Last night he told me another one of his fevers was coming along, that he would probably Change in the next few days. But I've seen his feverish eyes during supper and something told me that his transformation will happen sooner than he expected.

So I went upstairs to my room, well me and Tori's room, to have a little rest of my own. I opened the door and it was practically pitch black. The lights were off so the only light came from the alarm clock that shone 8:27 P.M. in neon red and the faint glow from the set sun through the window.

I quickly searched for the light switch on the wall, flicked it on and ran to close the blinds on the window. From these past few weeks I couldn't blame myself for thinking that something was going to happen, that a ghostly voice would surface from nowhere, that something might pop up --

My knees buckled and I let out a little yelp before my hand covered it as two brisk raps knocked at my door. I went to open the door, but just as I was about to open it Derek let himself in and closed the door behind him.

He turned around and I immediately knew what was wrong. He looked as feverish as ever. He looked disoriented and fought to keep straight.

I took hold of him. "It's happening. Do you want me to go with you?"

"Yeah," he whispered gruffly. He was barely audible. "We have to..." he took a deep breath as if to concentrate. "Back door. No one can see us."

He really did look awful, but he managed to keep his ground so that we could successfully go out the back door without being seen by Simon or Andrew.

When we got outside the wind was abnormally cold, especially for this time of year. But the cold could come in favor for Derek's fever.

We cut across the tall grassed lawn that nobody bothered to mow in a while, and headed for the forest.

I hung onto him just in case he lost his balance, not like I could catch him or anything, but I also hung onto him for my own benefits. I could barely see anything and Derek as quiet as he can be could easily slip through my eye sight and hearing capacity.

But he was being very gentle, checking every now and then if I was okay. And I was okay. Nowadays I always felt safer when Derek was around. Though if you would have asked me that a week and a half ago, that idea would have never crossed my mind and I would never have believed it. Maybe even laughed at it. But the past two days Derek has changed. He wasn't the creepy bully who threw me across the laundry room and wanted to torment me for his sheer enjoyment anymore, he was actually nice and considerate (around me anyways). He has done everything to protect me, even if it meant to possibly take his life, only to spare mine. He certainly has changed, but he was still Derek.

Though he kept asking me, I should have been the one asking him. He was the one about to transform into a wolf, not me. As we got deeper into the forest, with me still clinging onto him, his breath became ragged like he was trying to control his pain.

"Derek, are you okay?" I whispered, not because I wanted to but because I couldn't find my voice. I knew he could still hear me. I've never seen him get this bad this fast. Maybe he was going to turn into full wolf tonight, though last night Derek seemed skeptical about that.

I caught him shaking his head, as a no.

I didn't want to say anything else just in case it would distract him, I didn't want him to talk for no reason. He had to concentrate on other more important things.

I stumbled on a broken branch as we came into a small clearing. The moon shone enough light for me to see a little pond, or just a really big puddle.

I let go of Derek, whose ragged breathing became painful panting. He kind of knew what he had to do so he stripped off everything but his shorts, not even bothering to go somewhere else to change. I'm pretty sure my cheeks went red, though he had no time to notice. I just stood there as he put himself on all fours next to the pond. He put his hands in the water and doused his face with it.

Why did I keep reacting like this? Like a little bubble of warmth was inside me. Was I trying to tell myself something?

Well...if I was seeing this in a movie I would have been "Duh! You're in love with him! How can you not see that?"

Did I really like Derek in that way? Sure Derek's attractive and really nice and protective nowadays, but that didn't mean I actually had feelings for him, right?

Then why was I speaking with such doubt in my voice?

It was not the time to think about that so I came to sit next to him and took some freezing cold water in my hands and rubbed it on his back. It was really hard to hear him in so much pain, I couldn't even bare to think of the physical pain he must be going through.

"Does that make it better? Do you want me to keep on doing it?" I whispered. I wanted to do anything that would make him feel better. There was enough moonlight to see him nod. He couldn't talk because of all that panting. It sounded raspy, dry and hollow. Not a nice sound at all.

I kept massaging the cold water on his back, his shoulders, his arms as he kept gasping and dry heaving and regurgitating until there was nothing left to regurgitate.

He took some deep dry breaths. He hiccoughed and then his breathing became ghastly alarming, like he was hyperventilating. He began choking on his breath, his head on the ground, his hands on his stomach while it kept heaving up the bile.

My hands had become numb from the cold water, but I still helped him go through it as alarmed as I was.

Under my hands I could feel the transformation coming. The hair was starting to sprout, but it never receded like the other times and the muscles started to tense and change.

At that time we were probably thinking the same thing : that he was going to fully transform into a wolf. But whatever the outcome may be I was still going to be there for him, and I told him that.

I've stopped with the water because I couldn't feel my hands anymore, but I still rubbed his back and encouraged him, letting him know that I'm here for him.

Suddenly with a grunt of pain, his back arched, to the point were I thought it was going to snap. It kept on rising and rising until at the very peak it released for a second and shot back up again, Derek letting out a howl of pain.

I continued soothing him, his hair now becoming fur. He always kept his face in his hands as far away from me as possible. Maybe he didn't want me to see him becoming a monster, as he would call it. But I really didn't care, he was still going to be Derek, just in wolf form.

How do you know that with all those genetic modifications? Genetic modifications...

I was right. I didn't know what was going to happen, but neither did Derek, so we had to go through this together. for his sake.

"It's okay Derek. You're doing fine. Almost--"

An earsplitting crack coming from Derek's body made me gasp and made Derek muffle a scream of pain in his hands and collapse to the ground.

He tried his best to get up but with everything changing he couldn't sustain his body. So I tried to help him up, using all the strength I had but the sweat matted on his hair made it very hard to lift.

His bones started crackling, changing their shape. The sound was horrendous, with his bones crackling and his multiple pants and dry heaves that sounded like he would cough up his insides, I had to close my eyes to help me from fainting. And fainting wouldn't be such a great idea right now.

I was sweating as much as Derek now, with my body in overdrive and the adrenaline rushing through my blood. With my eyes still closed, I wiped the sweat off my brow with my forearm. When I thought I could open my eyes Derek was only raggedly breathing. Somewhat of an improvement.

The transformation seemed to have had a set back, nothing was happening at the moment. I guessed he wasn't going to transform into a full wolf tonight. Now we just had to wait until he returned back to normal.

He started to awkwardly stand up, facing the other way so that I couldn't see him.

I stood up as well, not knowing what he was doing. "Derek, you have to stay down, you have to wait!... Derek?"

He took a hesitant look my way, his eyes full of utter terror and fear. As soon as I could properly see him in the moonlight, I put my hands to my mouth, mentally gasping in my head to not hurt his feelings.

He was caught half human half wolf.

Was he stuck like this? Was he supposed to change back? Is this what they modified in his genes?

To break my string of questions another convulsion hit him. He quickly turned away grabbing a nearby tree for support.

As I prepared myself for him to start the reversal of his transformation, his fur started to grow again, which was obviously not what I expected.

I opened my mouth to ask him to sit back down, but without a warning, he ran away.

Duh duh duh! Why on earth did he run away? Will he finally turn into a wolf this time ?

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Next chapter will come soon enough. Still writing it at the mo'. Patience, and you shall be granted another chapter! Hurray!

YoursTrulyUlysses