Author's Note- So this is a birthday One-Shot that is actually going to be a Two-Shot- or whatever- for my dearest xSweetEternityx! I actually had something else finished for her, but I hated it. It wasn't my best work. I never put out something I don't put my all into, especially when you readers deserve my best. And Sweet definitely deserves something I put a lot of thought into. She's been a great friend over the last couple of years and I'm glad to have gotten to know her and read her work. Happy Birthday, hun! :D

Now, with these One-Shots, I usually just switch between Derek or Chloe narrating the story, but this time I wanted something a little different.

Last year, Sweet's One-Shot was Imperfections, where Chloe was five or so months pregnant and she and Derek had gotten in a huge fight about whether or not they should reply to a letter they had received from the Pack. This takes place a few years later. The idea has been in my head for a few months now and I finally got it on the screen. AND on top of that, I wanted an outsider's view, looking in on them. Someone who doesn't know them from a hole in the wall. At first, it was going to be really short and to the point… but the mess below sort of spilled out instead.

I guess all I can say is: Don't kill me, be patient… Oh, and enjoy!

Something to Envy

Part 1

I hadn't known either of them long. Basically just as long as I've been doing this whole 'running' business. That? Well, to make a really, really, long story short, I happen to be something called an Agito Half-demon. Basically someone who could move things around with their mind. Crazy, I know. I had only just found this out about myself barely a week ago. I had been pissed that my eleventh grade English teacher had accused me of plagiarism on my essay and had sentenced me to a month's detention of smacking erasers. In front of the entire class no less. All I could think about was wanting so desperately to smack the erasers against the back of her head.

And it happened.

I should have thought about the outcome of trying to tell someone that the crazy phenomenon of a middle-aged woman screaming down the school's halls as chalk board erasers chased her had been my doing. Or that I thought it had been me. I told my best friend Aimee. She had turned me into the school counselor, concerned for my health, naturally. My grandmother- my guardian since my dad was a no-name and my mom had walked out when I was young- took me to a 'special' hospital where the doctors specialized in these kinds of things. Originally, I had thought that I had gone to a clinic for crazies. Boy, had I been wrong.

I came to find out- through a lot of snooping considering I wasn't about to let these people convince me I had been hallucinating- that I was part of a revived experiment to subdue the bad side-effects of supernatural genetics that had taken place twelve years before. Genesis III. Whatever that meant. Based on what little information I was able to gather, funding had gone south when Genesis II failed. Or, really that the majority of their experiments had escaped and were staying out from under the radar. Genesis III was being conducted under the nose of something called a Cabal. I wasn't sure what that meant either.

All I knew at that point was that I was a part of something bad, and I needed to get out. My lucky break came two days later. Apparently whoever was in charge of the experiments wasn't very good about keeping it under wraps. Because people found out. Other supernaturals.

Those from Genesis II in fact.

Four had come to bust me out. A witch, a sorcerer, a werewolf and a necromancer. By the time they had told me what they were, I was no longer surprised by what was really out there in the world. I followed them without hesitation.

But none of that was really the point at the moment. Perhaps it was the fact that in little under a week, everything I had ever known, my whole life had been flipped upside down and I was looking for a distraction. With the werewolf and the necromancer of the four from Genesis II who had come to save me, I found that distraction.

We were standing in an alley. Only the three of us as we had gotten separated from Tori- the witch- and Simon- the sorcerer- while a team of Half-demons chased us from the motel we had been harboring in after my escape. We were catching our breath, while Derek- the werewolf- stood at the edge, his senses magnified to detect if we had been followed.

Derek was a large, steady young man in his mid to late-twenties. As far as his build, he was everything a teenage girl dreamed of when they read about werewolves in young adult novels. Broad shoulders, bulging biceps and tall enough that a professional basketball talent scout would hire him in a second. He had a shock of black hair cut short, wind swept across his forehead in a messy disarray and astonishingly vibrant jade eyes. Sharp and intelligent. Hard and guarded.

Unless they were looking at her.

The necromancer, Chloe, kept close to me and asked if I was okay. For the most part, physically, I was perfectly fine. Psychologically, well, that was what I needed the distraction for.

I asked Chloe if she was alright. I noticed out of the corner of my eye Derek glancing over his shoulder at us, as if also wondering the answer. Chloe surprised me with a laugh.

"Don't you worry about us. We've been at this 'running' business for years. Just focus on being on your guard and watching your back."

Chloe couldn't have been too much younger than Derek, considering they were both a part of Genesis II in their early teens; but she still didn't look that much older than myself. I think it was her height- being a good half a foot shorter than me- and her young face. She had large, brilliant blue eyes and eyelashes any girl would envy. Her hair was long and wavy, falling to her mid-back in glorious blonde tresses. She seemed really nice and kind, caring and compassionate. I found myself sticking close to her, using her calming aura as an anchor in the current situation.

And I wasn't the only one.

Derek left his post at the edge of the alley and walked up beside her, standing close enough that they were centimeters from touching.

"We need to move." He said, his nostrils flaring. "Once we're far enough away we'll call Jeremy and Clay and let them know that there was a change in plans."

When I gave Chloe a questioning look upon hearing new names, she informed me that they were both werewolves from the North American Pack. I branched.

"There's a whole pack out there waiting to meet us? Why not send the whole army from the beginning? We would have had a better chance of things going as planned."

Chloe shook her head.

"As great as it would have been to see Clayton and Nick pulverize some Edison Group wannabees, the Pack is the only thing guaranteeing our safety right now. No one knows they're harboring us old 'experiments.' If they show up for you and someone passes that information, then suspicions of the Pack's involvement arise. That not only endangers us, but them. We had to make your captors think that we were acting alone, as an old crusade. But Jeremy and Clayton are close, just in case."

"Well 'just in case' is happening right now," Derek rumbled, shifting uncomfortably next to Chloe as if urging her to realize that we needed to press on. It was clear that he didn't like standing in one spot too long while we were being followed. But it was more than that. He kept glancing at the alley's mouth, just waiting for our pursuers to run by and spot us, then his eyes were back on Chloe, as if he didn't like her being in one spot too long.

"Alright, well, you're the plan guy. What's the plan?" Chloe asked.

"You and Megara-"

"Meg." I corrected. He waved it off.

"You and Meg slip over the fence at the end of the alley and head south towards the wood just on the border of town. Keep heading that way until you hit the highway. Walk to the next mile marker then hide. Call Jeremy and tell him where to pick you up."

"And what about you?" Chloe asked, brows rising in a challenging manner as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"I'll throw off their trail. I'm sure they have a couple witches casting sensory spells. I'll trigger them and-"

"No." Chloe said.

"Chloe," Derek started, voice low. He looked like he was about to loom over her, show her that he was bigger and in charge. I was rendered speechless, however, when Chloe held her ground, meeting his eye straight on despite their significant height difference.

They faced off like that for a long minute, neither of them faltering. I was about to urge the fact that we were all kind of running for our lives here when Chloe finally sighed.

"You're so stubborn." She huffed, pushing past Derek and heading for the edge of the alley. "We'll figure something else out."

"I'm stubborn?" He argued. I would have laughed at the interaction if we were in a significantly less dire situation. "We don't have time to-"

Derek froze, his head tilting as if he heard something, then he cursed. He was across the alley lightning fast, reaching out and snatching the back of Chloe's jacket before yanking her back out of the opening of the alley. He clapped his hand over her mouth as she began her protests, but was rendered completely silent when we heard, "Let's check down this street!"

Chloe wriggled out of Derek's grasp and said, "Alright, new plan. We all hop the fence and we all head south. Nobody causes any diversions because it's a little late for those."

There was a distant clomp of quick footsteps and Derek didn't even try arguing.

We hopped the fence.

We found that patch of wood that Derek had mentioned and we ran straight for it. However, we were spotted by our pursuers that were inconveniently a little over a block away and they were instantly on our tail. Derek suggested we run ahead while he held them off. Chloe wasn't having it. They argued some more, then suddenly, Derek skidded to a halt.

"What're you-" Chloe started, but her voice was cut off by an earsplitting crack.

"Get down!" Derek shouted. I dropped. I didn't really remember deciding to do so. I just heard the fire and Derek's command and reacted. Not a second later, there was an audible whoosh over our heads then a thunk a few feet behind us, dirt spraying up from the forest floor as whatever it was hit.

I flipped onto my back, searching until my eyes landed on something bronze. My heart slammed against my ribcage.

"They're shooting at us?" I bellowed, wide eyes finding Chloe a yard away. She was still on the ground, head swiveling to find our attackers. I knew they had been far enough behind that they couldn't instantly take us down, but, then again, I didn't think they'd be shooting at us either.

About a hundred feet from where we came, I noticed two of the thugs I had seen chasing us from the hospital. They were bearing down on us, guns wielded, shouting orders for us to stay down. I looked from Chloe to Derek to see what they were going to do. Derek was looking around, frantically searching for an escape route. But that wasn't going to do us any good if they had guns on us and weren't afraid to use them.

But maybe there was something that I could do about that. The whole time, I'd been riding Chloe and Derek's train out of that hospital, not really helping them in return of the giant risk they took to come and save me other than carrying their supplies. They were in danger now because of me and I was not going to settle for that.

I focused on the goon closer to Derek, zeroing in on the semi-automatic 22 he held on him. I imagined it flying out of his hands and off in Chloe's direction. Even if I could retrieve it, I wouldn't know the first thing about using it. Suddenly, the man released a gasp as the gun ripped from his grasp. He stared as it fell to his feet, perplexed, his friend distracted by it as well. That was all Derek needed.

He was on his feet and on the man with the gun so fast I could have blinked and missed it. The man was caught off guard but not enough to recover and release a couple surprise shots. He seemed to have missed though as Derek grabbed the front of his shirt and whipped him at the other goon staggering forward for his gun. They both tumbled with grunts and snarls to the ground.

Chloe leapt up to her feet and picked up the first man's discarded gun. She held it on the two guards as they struggled to get up. They saw her and froze. Derek marched up to them, pried the other gun from the guard he threw then hit them both over the head with the butt, knocking them unconscious.

"What the hell were you thinking!" Chloe snapped, spinning on Derek. "You get on my case every time I do something reckless and then you pull that stunt? You could have gotten-"

Her words stopped short, blue eyes widening in disbelief. I followed her gaze and felt my heart plummet from my chest to the pit of my stomach.

Derek's gray shirt was soaked in two patches of crimson, the thick liquid percolating through the fibers of the fabric from its source of two holes; one in his chest, the other in his lower left abdomen. He released a strangled groan, the adrenaline from the moment dying out as quickly as blood was pouring from his wounds.

His knees hit the ground.

Aaaand, cliffhanger! I know you're going to hate me for this one Sweet. The second part is already started. I'll have it up sometime next week- I swear this time- because I can't leave you guys hanging on this.

Let me know what you think and go wish Sweet a happy birthday! :D