Scott crouched silently, waiting. He thought back to the preparations they had hurriedly made and hoped it was enough...

"Sure, Buddy. Lets get your mind off that subject and focus on getting your dad back instead." Stiles looked relieved to be doing something, anything really.

"What are our assets, Scott?" Chris asked. Scott was thankful he was here. He certainly had plenty of experience and knew how to plan.

"Here's what I know. Ms. Blake is most likely bringing the Sheriff here. Derek hasn't alerted me to any deviations in her course so until we hear otherwise, this is the spot. I'm estimating that we have about 15 minutes before she arrives. We have this structure for cover and to block her escape routes, though I know she's very strong and could probably bust through some of the rustier spots. Isaac and Dr. Deaton are on their way here with a small sample of Kanima venom which I've told Isaac to get to you, Allison." Her face had been grim before, but now she looked pleasantly surprised, like she expected him to ignore what she could contribute. Scott knew what Allison was capable of and he knew that if he didn't include her, his plan would fail. He looked around, confused for a moment. "You do have your bow with you, right?"

She blushed and pulled the bow out from it's hiding place in a near by shrub. "I didn't know if you'd want my help, sometimes you don't, but I'm glad you do. I want to help." She smiled at him and then at Stiles.

"We'll need you on the roof then. Or in the rafters if we can get her inside. That will give you the best vantage point, I think. Be careful though; she can really jump." He turned back to Mr. Argent. "Ethan and Aidan are on their way here now to help us. That makes us four werewolves and four humans."

"Why would they help us?" Stiles interrupted. "They've made their loyalties pretty clear."

Scott frowned. If he couldn't convince Stiles to let go of the past for a little while, how was he going to convince anyone else? "I didn't ask for their loyalty, Stiles, I asked for their help. And I've gotta say, they've been pretty darn helpful so far. I know that when this is all over and you're dad's safe and sound they'll go back to their pack and have to do things I'm not comfortable with, but for now, I'm going to take them at their word and accept any help that we can get." He looked Stiles right in the eye. "Will you?"

"I get it man, and you're right. Hell, if they want to help me and my dad, that certainly gives them more than a few brownie points in my book." He smiled at Scott and clapped him on the shoulder.

"Dr. Deaton was researching ways to break whatever Darach sacrifice spell thing it is that's giving her power. I don't really know anything about it, but if you can think of anything in that regard, Mr. Argent, please do. Aside from that, if she continues to follow the lowlands as she has been she should be coming in on that side of the clearing. Her last sacrifice archetype is guardians, which could mean you Mr. Argent, so be alert for that." Allison's dad's normally inscrutable face looked taken aback.

"You think that she would see me as a guardian? I'm a Hunter. Most supernatural creatures see me as a Killer." He was looking at Scott very intently, now.

"Sure, Mr. Argent. You're job is to protect innocent people from dangerous supernaturals. It's not like you're Gerard." Scott's eyes widened and he shut his mouth quickly. 'Some thoughts are only for your head, Scott' he chided himself. He looked up at Mr. Argent expecting his glare of impending doom and uncomfortableness that always made him want to hide behind Allison, but instead all he saw was a thoughtful expression.

"Thank you, Scott. It means something, that you can see the difference." He saw something in Mr. Argent's gaze, that wasn't acceptance, and it certainly wasn't approval, but maybe it was a start. Scott let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding and glanced at Allison. She wasn't looking at him though; she was looking down at the new bow in her hands. He could see it was engraved with some French words he couldn't read. He had his hands full with English as it was.

"She's also allergic to peanuts" he said with a shrug. Mr. Argent just rolled his eyes. So much for progress.

He heard a rustling behind him and turned to see Ethan and Aidan enter the clearing They jogged over to stand on either side of Scott and Stiles. They looked nervous for a moment, but when the three smaller teens smiled at them they appeared to relax. Mr. Argent just frowned deeper, but everybody pretended not to notice.

"Lets get into places. Stiles, you're with me. You two, give Allison a boost will you?" She stepped lightly onto their cupped hands and they lifted her easily up to the lowest platform of the fire escape. "When she gets here, we need to try to get her away from Stiles' dad and keep her busy until Isaac and Dr. Deaton get here. Mr. Stilinski's safety is the priority."

With that, they all separated and found hiding spots in and around the old building.

That was ten minutes ago and Scott was getting nervous. What if he had miscalculated? It was what he spent most of his calculus classes doing, after all. What if Derek had lost the scent and Stiles' dad was taken to a different location. There were so many things that could go wrong and he was the one responsible for it all.

'Stiles isn't much better,' Scott thought. His friend was a bit restless at the best of times and now he could barely contain his nervous energy and keep quiet. Well, sort of quiet, anyway. He was whispering to himself over and over "keep going, just keep going." Scott didn't know what it meant, but if it were his mom in Stiles' dad's place, he knew he'd be saying worse stuff than that.

Just when he was about to burst, he heard some movement near the tree line and a cloaked figure came into view. He could see Mr. Stilinski draped over one shoulder and saw his back move with his breath.

"He's alive," he breathed out and Stiles stopped his new mantra and met Scott's gaze with so much emotion that he couldn't handle it.

Everyone stayed silent as the Darach moved closer. If they could trap her in the building that would be a good first step. When she was ten feet from the door, she stopped, and peered cautiously around her. 'She's not going in.' Scott thought with dread. He wondered if she could hear his heart beating. He wouldn't be surprised, it was almost deafening to him.

Just when he thought that she was going to turn away and bolt, a deep angry howl resounded through the hills and valleys and Ms. Blake made up her mind. She entered the building and shut the massive doors behind her. In trying to escape one wolf, she had unknowingly locked herself in with three werewolves, two angry Hunters and her intended sacrifice's overprotective son. Knowing Derek's moods, he might have made the same choice.

She made her way to the center of the room where the old equipment was still kept and slung Mr. Stilinski down onto the ground. As soon as she released him it was like the starting gun had gone off.

Scott exploded from his hiding spot and tackled the Darach around the waist, catching her off guard. They rolled to their feet and crouched in a fighting stance, his claws and fangs extended, standing between her and the Sheriff. She made a move forward, but he moved into her path preventing her from getting near the unconscious man. He could hear Stiles and Mr. Argent dragging him to relative safety behind a partial wall. Ethan and Aidan emerged to either side of her, surrounding her and the fight truly began. She went for Scott first and he dodged one blow before she kicked him under the ribs knocking the wind out of him and sending him crashing into some crates. Stiles rushed over and began digging him out. Ethan came in and slashed her shoulder and before she could retaliate, Aidan slashed down her back. Screeching in pain she crouched down and quickly leapt clear of the melee and onto the other side of Ethan. She kicked his feet out from under him and went to stomp on his neck when Aidan kicked her in the stomach and against the back wall. The whole building rumbled and Scott looked up searching for Allison, to make sure she wasn't going to fall.

He saw her, holding on with both hands to some cables, but once the vibrations died down she moved to get into a better position. She began firing her arrows into the Darach, giving the wolves time to recover. Even though the arrow wounds healed quickly once they were removed, Scott could tell that they were still painful and that it was distracting her. Scott's breathing returned and he was about to rejoin the fight, when he saw Isaac climbing through the roof hatch and dropping down next to Allison with a test tube in his hand.

When she stopped firing to prep her arrows, the Darach went on the attack. Scott could see that she had pulled a couple of long daggers out of her cloak and was using them in some type of whirlwind style attack, cutting and slashing at the twins before they ever realized it was coming. They fell back from her attack and she was about to advance when Isaac dropped from above like a sack of bricks, landing on her. Scott dashed forward and threw himself on the pile with Aidan and Ethan doing the same, gripping her wrists and prying away the knives. Scott could see Deaton enter from a side door and head over to check on the Sheriff. He dropped a bag of supplies near Stiles who began going through it looking for his medical kit.

The Darach was struggling beneath them and Scott's focus went back to keeping her in place. He could hear her chanting something lowly. 'Uh, oh' he thought. He didn't know what was coming, but he doubted he'd enjoy it. He was right. When last word of the chant was uttered Scott felt a rumbling in the ground below.

"Earthquake?" asked Isaac from under him. Then a blast of scalding, hot water burst from the ground and right into them. It knocked all four werewolves off of her and they crashed into the walls before the geyser subsided back into the earth. Scott felt his spine shatter on impact. They all collapsed, coughing or unconscious to the floor.

The Darach stood then and Chris fired his whole clip into her torso. She screamed and advanced on the the men huddled around the Sheriff's unconscious body. Scott glanced up at Allison, but she wasn't in position. It looked pretty difficult to even move up there on the swaying catwalk let alone do arts and crafts with a paralytic toxin.

Then to his horror, he saw Stiles standing between his father and the advancing Darach. He started to claw towards him, trying to put his body in front of his best friend, but he knew he wasn't going to make it in time. Stiles stood firm, his normally non stop mouth set in a determined line and his eyes showing every bit of the terror he was feeling. Suddenly Derek was there, flipping through the air an landing in front of Stiles, despite all his pain and guilt. He slashed out at the Darach, spinning her around in a circle until she was facing him again.

Except now, she looked like she had when she first walked into their English class: pretty, with smiling eyes and shiny hair. Derek made a sound like the wind was knocked out of him and in that moment, Scott could tell that this was more painful to him than any physical wound had been. He lowered his arms to his sides.

"Jennifer, what are you doing?" he asked. She slowly moved into his body, her eyes brimming with tears.

"Derek, I wouldn't... I didn't..." tears trailing down her cheeks as she pulled him in with her gaze. Scott growled, at her, but he still couldn't move while his back knit itself back together. Without warning she plunged another long knife into Derek's stomach and he roared in pain before toppling over staring at the men behind him and at nothing at all.

She advanced on Stiles again morphing back into her natural, hideous shape. She got up close like she had with Mr. Stilinski and screeched right in his face. Scott knew that the killing blow was coming and he managed to make it up onto all fours when he saw Stiles cough and spray something all over Ms. Blake open screaming face. At first he thought that it was blood and he hobbled closer to try to get to his friend but when the Darach backed up he could clearly see that Stiles wasn't hurt. Somehow the Darach was though. She retreated from him and crouched down, trying to keep herself steady. She was making some awful sounds, but it didn't look like that was going to stop her as she struggled closer with murder in her eyes.

Scott still wasn't fully healed, but he figured that didn't matter right now and moved to stand over Derek's body and in front of Stiles and the others. He growled lowly and let his anger show, in his eyes. He heard Derek's sharp intake of surprise when he looked up at him, but Scott couldn't focus on that now. This monstrous woman in front of him could not be allowed to hurt his pack, the people he had sworn to himself that he would protect. He thought about what Ms. Morrell had said to him about how killing would prevent him from becoming a True Alpha, but he couldn't care less about that now. If being a True Alpha meant not acting and allowing the people he cared about to suffer, then he didn't want it anyway.

He extended his claws and stepped forward as the Darach sprang towards him.