Jordan laid on his couch flipping a playing card. It features the king of diamonds and the king looked a lot like Landon.

On the counter in his living room, there were coils of wire and what appeared to be a jar full of electrical switches. In short, his place may or may not have been a dump. But when his sight landed on the counter with a lighter his mind went to a memory about when he and Landon were exploring his supernatural nature/identity.

FLASHBACK

Landon and Jordan are meeting up talk more about his supernatural identity. Jordan notices that Landon has brought a deck of cards to their meet up, "You going to do a magic trick?"

Landon gives Jordan a small amused smile, "No, but you are."

This response gets Landon a curious look, but Jordan replies with, "I only know one trick and it's with a playing card." This doesn't seem to deter Landon at all as he produces a lighter from his pocket and Jordan can automatically tell what Landon is thinking, "This is starting to look less like a magic trick and more like assault."

"It's a little dangerous, yes." Landon admits, "But it's not as bad as being lit on fire in a deputy sheriff's car. Which by the way, you walked away from unscathed."

"Not entirely." He reminds him, "I had to pay for the uniform."

Landon doesn't allow him to procrastinate any farther, "Give me your hand."

As Landon is ready to start the trick Jordan talks to keep himself calm, "I think I've seen something like this in a movie."

"Lawrence of Arabia." Landon answers knowingly as he steadies Jordan's hand.

"Remind me what the trick was?"

"Not minding." Not giving Jordan another chance delay the inevitable, Landon flicks on the lighter, underneath Jordan's hand only to him move his hand away from the flame.

"Ow, son of a..."

Landon gives a disdain laugh, "You can last longer than that." Landon tells him knowingly, "This time... I want you to do something different." Landon readies the flame once more and sees that Jordan is force intensely on the flame, "Don't think about the flame." He instructs, "Don't think about the heat." He coaches in a soft tone, "Don't think about it hurting." But Jordan continues to watch the flame, "Don't even look at it."

This instruction leads to Jordan looking at Landon, "Okay." He agrees.

Landon holds onto Jordan's stare as well. A silence falls between them long enough to a point that flame eventually causes Landon some discomfort, causing him to switch off the lighter, this also enables Jordan to break off the staring the contest, "What happened?"

"Oh, it was too hot." Landon explains, putting down the lighter to inspect his hand, his thumb tingles from where the flame has touched it, "My thumb was too close to the flame."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Landon assures him, but looks down at Jordan's hand, "What about you?" During the course of the trick, Jordan's skin had blacked, but when he rubs away the soot his hand appears to be unharmed, "Did it hurt?"

Jordan shakes his head, "When you were looking at me..." Landon trails slightly, "Your eyes kind of drifted." Jordan suddenly seems slightly uncomfortable, "What were you thinking about?"

"A dream."

"What dream?"

It takes a moment before Jordan pieces his words together, "I've had it here and there for about six months." He shares, "I'm walking in the woods, carrying a body. But it's completely burned." Landon listens to him with interest, "I can't see who it is or who it was."

"Where are you taking it?"

"A clearing." He remembers easily, "There's a huge tree in the middle of it. You'd think it was 1,000 years old. But it's been cut down. It's just a stump."

Landon sees the uncertainty on Jordan's face, "It's a real tree." Landon shares with him, "In a real part of Beacon Hills." He explains when he receives a confused gaze, "It used to be the center of a grove of trees called a Nemeton."

"What's a Nemeton?"

'A sacred meeting place for Celtic Druids." Landon says in a low voice, leaning forward in his chair, "They were scientists and healers thousands of years ago."

"I've never seen this place."

"But that's why you're here." Landon explains, "It drew you here. That's what it does." Landon shares remembering some of the information that he has learned, "It's a beacon for supernatural creatures. It might even make them more powerful. What else happens?"

"I put the body down..." Jordan struggles to remember, "I... I lay it down on the rings of the trees and..." He suddenly stops.

"What?"

"Nothing." Jordan answers rather quickly, "That's it. That's the end of the dream."

END FLASHBACK

Back on his sofa, Jordan did the one trick he knows. He flipped the king of diamonds and a black burned smudge appeared on his face. He flips the card, once more and the smudge disappeared.

He slid the card to the side as another card appeared by its side. He held the two cards in his hand, one with the smudge one without.

He did remember the rest of the dream that day. He just didn't want to admit it because he and the Nemeton were on fire and there were burning bodies piled up all around the stump.


Donovan was still in his cell at the Beacon Hills Sheriff Station. He could hear the growls from the fight in the basement, "Hey! Can someone let me out of here?" But his question goes unanswered as no one came to his demand. The sound of the fight in the basement got louder and it caused him to freak out even more, "Hey! Come on, let me out, come on."

At his last sentence, the fighting sounds had stopped, but Donovan still wasn't at ease because he could hear sounds. The sounds of masked breathing and heavy boots clumping on the floor.

From around the corner, the Dread Doctors entered the room. One of them waved a hand in front of the electronic key card reader and the cell door unlocked and rolled back.

Reactively, Donovan backed away into the cell as he got surrounded by the doctors.


Scott, Stiles, Theo and Deaton arrived at the Sheriff's Office. Scott rushed to help Sheriff Stilinski. As Stiles spotted Landon with Kira applying pressure to his wound. Seeing Landon injured, Stiles stood in the doorway and completely frozen.

Landon tried calling out to her while in pain, "Stiles, come on." This seemed to work as Stiles senses come back in check as she could hear an ambulance siren wailing in the distance, "Tracy." Landon breathed.

Stiles shook her head, and moved from the doorway quickly to Landon's side with her hand right on the wound as she focused her energy into the palm of her hand.

Stiles could feel warmth run down her arm into her hand, it was same sensation the others would get when Stiles placed a force field around them, but for some reason the healing wasn't working.

Not seeing what Stiles had attempted to do, Theo suddenly appeared, "Just pressing on it with your bare hand, isn't going to stop the bleeding." He told Stiles as he moved to the floor with them, whipping off his belt and applying a tourniquet to Landon's wound.

This seemed to help with the wound, but not with the distraught appearance Stiles had on her face, "Stiles, I'm fine." Landon assured her, "Help Tracy. Find Tracy." He instructed, "Go."

Stiles shook her head in refusal, "It's okay." Theo tried, earning a distrusted look, "He's all right."

While Landon and Theo were trying to assure Stiles that Landon was okay, Deaton did a little investigating of his own. Close to one of the deputy's desk, Deaton found Tracy's tail, showing it to Scott as he started covering it up with his coat.

Natalie Martin came up from the basement, seeing Landon and freaked out, even more than she was earlier. She even made a point to move Theo and Stiles out the way.

Scott followed the blood trail out of the main office, "Stiles, come on."

From a moment, Stiles was resistant to the idea, but when Landon placed his hand on top of hers, "It's okay." He assured her.

This seemed to be enough as Stiles gave a small head nod and goes to help Scott with Deaton following them down the basement.


When they first get to the basement, the first thing they saw was Micah standing over Tracy's lifeless body.

Micah knew how it must've looked and went with his first instinct, "It wasn't me."

"What the hell happened to her?" Scott questioned, not sure if what Micah had just said was true or not.

"There were these people..." Micah explained, clearly not over from his attack with the Dread Doctors, pacing by the body, "They had masks. Um, there... There were... Three of them." He spewed rapidly, "I think there were three."

Stiles stopped him when she placed her hands on his shoulders, "What..." Stiles questioned him, confused as well. Cause none of what Micah was saying or trying to say was making any kind of sense, "What are you talking about?"

Seeing the skepticism from Stiles seemed to shaken Micah up as he shook himself from her hold and began stammering, "They were strong, Stiles." He tried explaining in a calmer manner, "They had a weapon." However, uncertainty from Stiles doesn't disappear, "Stiles, I didn't do this."

"Okay."

"She's not changing back." Deaton told as he was examining Tracy's body, "We're going to need to get her out of here."

It was almost as if the Sheriff had sensed that someone was about to do something without his knowledge, when he appeared down in the basement already seeing Scott and Micah holding onto Tracy's arms and legs, "Hey... Absolutely not." He told the two teens, who looked slightly uncertain, "This is a crime scene." He explained to them, but mainly directed his attention towards Deaton, "We call the coroner."

"I think the coroner might be very confused by this girl's severed reptilian tail."

The Sheriff gave an undeterred look, "I don't care..."

"You should." Deaton told him, indicating at Tracy, "Unless you're prepared to hold a press conference announcing the presence of supernatural creatures in Beacon Hills."

"Dad, he's right." Stiles told him, siding with Deaton, "Maybe at the clinic we can figure out how to change her back, then call the coroner?"

The Sheriff was still hesitant with idea. Because honestly, he wasn't sure just how much of the covering up of the supernatural before they end up doing something far worse, "A line..." He stammered, "There is a line that we have to draw."

"Dad, you've already crossed it." Stiles reminded him sadly, "More than once." It went unsaid that Stiles was talking about the time of the Nogitsune.

"Sheriff, please." Deaton urged, hearing the sirens getting closer, "Let me help. I've dealt with things like this before."

The Sheriff knew that Stiles and Deaton had a point, "Just do it fast." Clearly, still not on board.


In the lair of the Dread Doctors, Donovan was strapped down to an examine table. Surrounding him, were the Doctors, hissing through their masks, as they took turns examining his head and his mouth. Of course, Donovan was still freaking about what was happening to him, "What the hell are you doing?" He demanded, but just like they had been doing since they got their hands on him they ignored him completely.

"His condition looks promising." The Surgeon told the other two.

That sentence only caused Donovan to panic more, "Wait, what does that mean?"

His answer was the Geneticist pulling out his teeth, despite his cries of pain. His gums well up with blood. And the Geneticist, smears the blood across his face in a grotesque parody of clown makeup. Suddenly new, sharp, needle-like teeth began to grow double rows.


Landon was wheeled down the corridor of Beacon Hills Hospital with his mother right by his side.

"You're going to be okay, sweetheart." Natalie told him. Even though Landon was going in and out since the attack, he could tell that she was trying to not only assure him, but herself as well. But that wasn't something Landon could focus on at the moment. They needed to talk about what happened at the station.

"Mom, you can't say anything about what you saw." Landon told her tiredly, "You can't..."

"All I saw was some lunatic girl trying to kill everyone." Natalie told him, "You're going to be fine."

"You can't tell anyone." Landon repeated, not hearing his mother's words, "You just can't."

"You're gonna be fine." Natalie repeated. It seemed like none of the Martins were really listening to what the other was saying.


Down the hall, Liam and Scott entered the hospital while Liam downloaded him about the holes in the ground, "Tracy was buried? In a hole." Scott questioned, not sure how any of things that had been happening so far made sense.

"Buried alive." Liam emphasized, "Crawled out."

"Then we found another hole." Scott told him, before they reached the others, waiting to hear about Landon's condition, "Who was buried in that one?"

"I don't know, but I think we're gonna want to find out."

Scott couldn't agree more as they made it to the others by the nurse's station. Scott noticed how Stiles looked super worried, while still giving Theo an unsettling look.

His mother arrived just before he could ask if Stiles was alright. She was clearly on a mission when she focused on her attention on Stiles, "Stiles. How bad is it?"

"Could have been worse." Stiles admitted, not trying to think about how her healing power didn't exactly do what it should've done then again Tracy was able to pass the mountain ash line.

"Theo, nice going on that tourniquet." Melissa praised him, "You probably saved his life."

However, Theo looked over to Stiles, who just gave him a small approving head nod and refused to acknowledge his existence once again.

"He's about to go into surgery." Melissa continued to the rest of the group, "So it's going to be a while. Any other supernatural details that I need to know about or do we just stitch him up and hope for the best?"

"It was the tail." Kira remembered, "Yeah, Tracy cut him with the tail, if that makes a difference."

"Okay." Melissa nodded, before heading back to prep Landon for the surgery.

"But it wasn't just Tracy." Micah made a point to say, reminding Scott and Stiles of another problem that was yet to be solved, "There were the others. The guys in the masks." It was almost like he didn't believe that they really believed him about them.


In the operating room, Melissa appeared in Landon's line of vision, "Okay. Can you do a little countdown for us, Landon?" She placed a mask over his nose and mouth, "Starting with 10?"

"Ten…Nine…" Landon started counting backwards as the anesthesia began to take effect, "Eight…Seven…Six…Five…"

All the while Landon counted backwards, he could see the regular doctors and phase into the Dread Doctors and back again. He was almost out of it and stopped counting when he noticed the changes. But then The Surgeon appeared just over his head, "Keep counting." He instructed.

"Four..." Landon breathed as the Dread Doctors were now crowded around him.


Later at the Stilinski house, "Is he going to be okay?" Allison Argent asked worriedly over a video chat screen. On the screen beside her sat Isaac Lahey, who looked just as worried as Allison did.

"The better question is should we come back?" Isaac pushed in.

"First, Landon's fine." Stiles told them as she wrote the words "Masked" and "Tracy Stewart" on her Plexiglas murder board, "Between that creature attacking Scott and Tracy there's no connection."

"Haven't seen him since?"

"Well, Scott pretty much told him to get the hell out of dodge after breaking off those talons."

"Talons?!" Allison exclaimed, "He didn't mention anything about talons."

Stiles sucked between her teeth, "Probably wasn't supposed to tell you that." Allison gave an offended expression, "He probably didn't tell you because you have more pressing matters to worry about."

Micah had been working on homework silently during the video chat, but looked up when the sentence was spoke. He caught sight of "Who is the Desert Wolf?" written above and off to one side. Unprompted, he gets up and erased that part of the board, leaving the room without a word.

From their view of Stiles' room Allison and Isaac noticed the odd behavior, "Is he going to be okay?"

Stiles looked towards her doorframe unable to give them an answer.


Scott and Kira return to his house. Her hands were still red from where she applied pressure to Landon's wounds. Seeing that Kira was still staring at her hands in a shocked manner, Scott easily puts her in an embrace. The comforting gesture seemed to help as Kira broke out of her shocked state and leaned forward to Scott as they began to kiss, only to get cockblocked by Deaton, who somehow had gotten into the McCall house.

"Sorry to interrupt." The vet brought along some visual aids and the jar with the claw from the creature that attacked Scott. He led them to the dining room where he puts out a spread of the images that he found, "A werewolf with the talons of an eagle." He started, "Possibly a shape-shifter, known in eastern mythology as a Garuda."

He placed another jar out on the table, "Tracy's claws." He told them, noticing the confused expressions, "The unmistakable claws of a werewolf... But... A werewolf who also bears the venom and the scales of a Kanima."

"What do you even call that?" Scott asked him.

"Personally, I call it terrifying." Deaton admitted, "But at the moment, I'm more interested in how Tracy was able to get across the mountain ash."

"I thought nothing supernatural can do that." Kira voiced.

"As did I."

"So if Tracy was able to cross the mountain ash and no one supernatural can do that..." Scott pieced together, "Tracy's not a supernatural."

"Exactly." Deaton agreed, "If she wasn't born and she wasn't bitten, she had to have been made."

"Made?"

"Someone is trying to make supernatural creatures with non-supernatural means." Deaton told them, "And whoever they are, they're somehow managing to blur the lines between science and the supernatural."

"This explains why Stiles healing didn't work." Kira realized, "Her healing can only be done if the injury is supernaturally related." Deaton nodded his head in agreement, "But there's more. Liam said he found another hole out in the woods."

"Burying them could be part of their process, a kind of incubation." Deaton theorized.

"What are we supposed to do?" Kira asked in a quiet voice.

"Same thing you've always done." Deaton told the couple, "Protect your friends. Protect each other."

"So, what about someone like Tracy?"

"I wish I could tell you." Deaton told them in a defeated tone, "Hopefully, I'll have more answers soon." He packed up his findings, "I'll be gone a few days."

"You're leaving?" Scott asked, clearly wondering why Deaton was now deciding to leave them.

"Just a few days." Deaton assured him.

"How scared should we be?" Kira asked, dreading the answer.

"I've lived in the world of the supernatural a long time." Deaton told them, "But I'm still a doctor. Still a man of science." He reminded them, "Something like this happens, it rattles the foundation of everything you believe. Something like this shakes you to the core."

"Something like what?"

"The rules..." Deaton answered, "The rules have changed."


In his hospital room, Landon woke up to the sound martial arts fighting on television. He rolled over to find Jordan sitting at the end of his bed, "What are you doing here?" Landon asked noticing how he wasn't in his police uniform.

"Officially, I'm here to gather eyewitness testimony before I go to the station." Jordan shared, "Unofficially, I'm trying to find something to watch." He indicated at the television that hung in the corner of the room, "But the only thing that comes in is this kung fu movie."

"You like kung fu movies?" Landon asked without a judgmental tone. He watched the two fighters on the screen and this peaked his interest, "Do you know how to do that?"

"I know a little jiu-jitsu." Jordan shared, watching the television as well, "In the army they taught us CQC, close quarters combat."

"Can you teach me?"

This caught Jordan's attention as he switched his attention for the movie to Landon, "You want to learn jiu-jitsu? Hand-to-hand?"

"I want to learn how to fight." Landon said, sitting up from his bed, "Can you teach me?"

Seeing the determination in Landon's face, "Yeah. I can teach you."


That same morning at Beacon Hills High School, Mrs. Finch had drawn colorful representations of DNA Fragments on the chalk board in AP Biology, indicting at the green illustration, she turned towards the class, "If 99.9% of our DNA Sequence is the same as other humans, what could account for the missing .1% difference?"

She noticed that a few students had bothered to raise their hands. So she picked on one of the ones who did not, "Theo?"

Theo just took a wild guess at his answer, "Um, nucleotides."

"That's right." She told him, even though she was sure he had guessed the answer, before she could lecture as to why nucleotides was the right answer, another student of hers had a question, "Yes, Kira?"

"Can there be more than one species in the same DNA?" Kira asked, while beside her Scott wasn't paying attention. He had written out his own formula, starting with the blue glowing creature, Belasko, then "Talons" followed by "Tracy" "Kanima" and "Wolf."

"No, but there can be multiple sets of DNA in the same individual." Mrs. Finch answered, "We call that a chimera. Anyone know where that term comes from?" Only one student raised their hand, "Sydney?"

"Greek mythology." Sydney answered confidently, "It's a lion with a goat coming out of its back and a tail that ends in the head of a snake."

"That's right, Sydney." Mrs. Finch praised her, letting Sydney have a moment in giving the correct answer, "Do you want to read us the full Wikipedia entry off your phone?"

Sydney was instantly embarrassed as she pocketed away her phone.

"But that does get us into the next topic of mutation." She told the class, "As you know from the reading, DNA is a fragile molecule. Isn't it, Scott?"

The call out caught his attention as he looked away from his notebook up at his teacher who was waiting for his answer, "Or did you miss last night's assigned reading?" She inquired to know.

"Kind of." Scott admitted, thinking about the events that happened last night.

"Kind of no or yes?"

"Mostly yes."

This time Mrs. Finch appeared disappointed, "Well, then thank you for another helpful transition in topic." She walked up to her desk and held up a piece of paper, "Drop forms." She announced to the entire class, "All those now acutely aware that they do not belong in this class, you should fill one out." She suggested to the ones that were struggling, "The rest will be on my desk."

The bell rang signaling that the class has ended. As he was ready to leave the room, Scott hesitated at the desk that held drop forms, but after some second thought he took one. While unknown to him that Mrs. Finch looked fairly disappointed.


"Wait for it." Deputy Clark told the Sheriff, showing footage from the jail cell from the night of Tracy's attack. The video appeared to have gone grainy before cutting out for a second, only to resume back to normal function with Donovan no longer inside the cell.

"Well, that's a pretty convenient time for a camera malfunction." The Sheriff noted.

"Very." Clark agreed as she started back up the footage.

"By the way, isn't this your day off?"

Clark stopped messing the footage, focusing her attention on her boss, "I stood there listening to that kid threaten your life." She reminded him, "I'm not taking time off until he's caught."

The Sheriff seemed proud at the deputy's dedication, "Wherever Donovan is, I'm pretty sure that he's running as far away as possible, as fast as he can."


If only Donovan was that lucky. Because being on the run would be a better situation for him than he was in right now. He was still strapped to the table in the Dread Doctor's lair. They had been gone for some time now, but he knew that they were going to come back eventually.

He was right as the sound of footsteps echoed through the liar and Donovan started back up to screaming again. He would've kept it up too, if Theo hadn't appeared in his line of vison.

"You're lucky they're allowing me to talk to you." Theo informed with a snide attitude, "They don't usually do that." Donovan eyed him carefully, not sure if he should trust Theo or not, "They're not giving me much time either." Theo continued, seeing that he has Donovan's attention, "See, these guys, they... They believe in numbers. And their results. They'll weigh the pros and cons and they'll decide pretty quickly."

"Decide what?" Donovan asked.

"Whether or not you die." Theo held up a folder, "By the way, this is your psych evaluation for when you applied to be a sheriff's deputy." Theo opened up the folder and began silently reading the contents, "Multiphasic Personality Inventory." Theo spoke out aloud, finding exactly what he needed, "You know what that is? It's a test that assesses abnormal behavior."

Theo went onto to explaining everything that the test meant, even though Donovan already knew, "It's supposed to be able to tell when you're lying or being defensive or if you're a total psycho." Theo made a sympathetic headshake, "Your results were pretty disappointing, Donovan."

"You scored high on the Psychopathic Deviate scale." Theo reminded him, "And that... That's bad." He flipped over the sheet to another page and seemed slightly impressed on what was on the next page, "I'm not even going to get into your Anger Expression Inventory." Theo pointed at a sentence on the page, "Just this one quote here at the end. "Not suitable for law enforcement.""

Theo noticed that saddening expressing settling on Donovan's face, "It sucks, right? I mean, you never get to be a cop like your dad." This seemed to have hurt Donovan even more, "But it doesn't matter because... You've got something else now. Power." Theo raved, "Real power. Strength, speed, heightened senses. So what do you do with power like that?"

This seemed to have lifted Donovan's spirits, he knew exactly what he was going to do, "I know what you're thinking." Theo told him, "Go after Stilinski. Break his legs, cut off his ears... Pull out his teeth?" Theo laughed at the idea, "Problem is, though, sooner or later, physical pain, it's... It's manageable."

"See, real pain is emotional pain." Theo explained to him, "That is the kind of pain that lasts." This peaked Donovan's interest even more, "And if you want to cause Stilinski that devastating, soul-crushing emotional pain... You don't go after him."

Theo leaned into Donovan's space, "You go after someone he loves."