Chapter Nine: Rescue

A/N: Alright! A week later and here we are! You have the show being back to thank for such a quick update! Okay, so to answer a bit: TotalGeek17, it's not the same Mr. Harris but that will be noted later in the story! Thanks for the feedback! and guest(?) thanks for the input! I appreciate it! You'll definitely see more of Maddie's personality in this chapter.

Anyway, read and review! Maybe the next chapter shall indeed be interesting!

"God, stop crying!" a redhead shouted, shoving a little girl into the wall with some force.

The small child's wails got louder as her head and back hit the stone wall behind her. She held the back of her head, shielding her face with her forearms as she slid down the wall to the ground. Eight. She was only eight. Alone in a foreign country, she found herself at the mercy of those she was told to call her peers. Not all of them were attacking her, though. No, only a handful had begun doing that. The rest? Well, they were simply watching.

An slightly older girl with a hard face and wild, blonde hair sneered and kicked the child in the shin sharply. "All week, we've had to listen to your stupid crying -" She roughly grabbed the little girl's forearm. "- and whining." The preteen pried the arm from the girl's face to look her dead in the eye. "You're a slayer just like the rest of us. Don't act like you can just get special treatment by making everyone feel bad for you."

Another girl slapped the side of her head as the small child choked out a loud sob. "I…" she began as her voice quivered. "I just…I wanna go home!" Another sob racked her chest as tears continued to stream down her cheeks.

The blonde that still had a firm grip on her arm gave her a mocking pout. "Aw…you want to go home?" She drew out the question with a high pitched tone. When the child nodded, the grip got tighter and the older girl laughed – but it was a vicious, bitter laugh. "You're never going home. Never."

The older slayers continued to taunt the little girl, laughing as the she cried harder. That is, until a loud, authoritative voice boomed over theirs. "What the hell is going on here?!"

All of the girls but the smallest in the center froze, wide eyed – especially the one holding onto her. In a matter of seconds, two people had pushed through the crowd of girls. The child tried to look up but found everything was still too blurry from the tears still leaking from her eyes. She could only make out one person's shining blonde hair and the other's long brown hair. The first woman grabbed the girl in front of the young, sobbing slayer and yanked the preteen girl up to her feet. "Marie, what are you doing?"

Everyone in the room could feel the chill in the woman's voice. The child rubbed her now bruised forearm, trying her best to will her tears to stop.

"Miss Summers! I…Well, we were…" Now Marie's voice was quaking. "She…I…"

"Don't think you're gonna get much outta her, B," the other woman said.

The blonde woman let Marie go and folded her arms. "Drills. Until dinner. Before you eat, I expect full, coherent sentences on what happened." She spun around to the rest of the girls, those who had helped and those who had simply stood there. "That goes for all of you."

One of the girls in the back shouted, "But we didn't do anything!"

"Exactly," the blonde woman replied, her voice still cold.

There was a pause before the other woman spoke up. "C'mon, girlies! To the field! If ya have enough energy to attack kids, then ya have enough energy to run laps!"

As the crowd dispersed, the blonde woman - who had become much clearer up close – leaned down and gave the little girl a worried gaze. "Madeline...it's okay. It's just me."

Maddie wiped her eyes and looked up at the woman with big, brown eyes. She sniffled and flinched when the woman touched her arm. "M-miss…Miss Summers?"

"Buffy, remember? I told you that you could call me Buffy," she said with a warm smile that almost reached her green eyes. "…Are you okay?"

The question alone made Maddie fall apart all over again. Choking sobs heaved in her chest as she tried to speak. "They were…they said…a-and I…I wanna go home!" She breathed in a deep, strangled breath and new tears streaked her face. "I just wanna go home!"

Buffy's smile fell slightly, her stare guilt-ridden. Her mouth remained slightly agape, words unable to pass from it. She breathed in and closed her mouth, folding the little girl in a hug. Maddie continued to cry as Buffy held onto her. They stayed that way until the child fell asleep, hearing the words "I'm sorry" every so often as soft as a lullaby.

"Okay, from the top," Stiles began, pressing the 'speaker' button on his phone and dropping it on his desk. He sat down in the computer chair and clicked on the minimized browser window. "New girl ends up at the school at night, claiming she was on a walk and heard a noise."

"Okay, a little weird."

"Right. Then, new girl stays behind and faces ginormous, psychotic Alpha werewolf and lives to tell the tale," he continued, typing into the search bar.

"And you're sure you saw her stay behind…?"

Stiles sighed exasperatedly as he clicked 'search'. "Dude, I was scared, not blind. She definitely stopped and turned around. Alright…" His eyes skimmed over the links as he continued. "And she was hurt; like, you smelled the blood, right?"

"Right. And there was a lot of it. When she passed me on the way into the cafeteria, it was strong."

"But she was totally fine by school on Monday." Stiles clicked on a link and hesitated for a moment. "I mean, as far as we know."

"…I guess. I don't know, I was kind of distracted."

The scrawny teenager leaned back in his chair, his thoughts muddling through the unpleasant memories of Monday. "Okay, then she shows up out of nowhere during your full moon freak out while you're fighting Derek, complete with crossbow."

"And punches Derek."

"My favorite part," Stiles muttered.

"Stiles, focus!"

"I'm focused! Totally focused." He leaned forward again and read through the page. "And while she's busy finding out your secret identity, someone drops this girl's bag on my doorstep with only three things it."

"But we don't know who did it."

"Or if those things were planted in the bag - which is pretty unlikely seeing as she showed up with another weapon. But…" He clicked on another link. "That leads to the fact that someone knew something about her already and wanted us to know." He read through the first paragraph but stopped suddenly as a thought struck him. "Or…"

"Or?" There was a pause. "Or what?! Stiles!"

"…Or maybe wanted to distract us from the big picture." His mouth went dry as he spun around to look at the bag. "Someone who could get into the school and grab the bag without being noticed…who might have been attacked by this girl and wanted her out of the way…" He swallowed and got up, moving over to the bed and looking at the weapons as fear tightened in his chest. "Or, you know, something. Just off the top of my head, something maybe big and hairy and completely unhinged. Something that, ah… apparently knows where I live."

The silence in the room almost made it seem as if the line went dead. Suddenly, Scott spoke up again. "…Something that knows she's after it."

Madeline cracked her neck idly as she leaned against the lockers, beside Allison and Lydia. She was finally back in school that Friday after her insane Monday night and the following days that she spent recuperating. She'd been asked to report in to both headquarters and the Argents and had been avoiding both for some time. All Xander could get out of her was that she had a run in with the Betas that did not end well for her. She thought about telling them all about Scott and whoever he was with but her own curiosity had gotten the better of her. She didn't want to relay only half of the information until she had it all – until she knew who the wolf her attacked her was. Then there was Scott; she wasn't sure what she wanted to do about him. He'd broken up the fight and quite possibly saved her life for all she knew. It partially made her feel uncomfortable; she wasn't used to being saved by anyone. As a slayer, she had to be self-sufficient to some extent, after all.

It didn't matter though. Either way she looked at the situation, eventually she was going to have to confront him. He was one of the Betas and had information she needed, information that was crucial to her mission. The mission came first. The mission is what matters.

She stayed quiet, only giving short answered to make sure Allison thought she was listening. When she did so, she at least attempted to sound more like herself.

A few minutes later, she found herself sitting at a crowded table with the two and the addition of Jackson, who seemed to be distant and preoccupied. Of course, this was not of any surprise to her; he'd been that way since the first day she met him. It was strange nonetheless. When Maddie began wondering what had his attention, she followed his stare to find none other than Scott talking with Stiles. She'd seen them only a few times in classes that day but hadn't gotten a chance to approach Scott yet. She was about to excuse herself when her hearing picked up something – more specifically Jackson, who was whispering to himself.

"You can, can't you?"

Her eyebrows furrowed and she tilted her head to the side slightly, glancing between Jackson and Scott.

"Are you trying to pretend not to hear me?"

Jackson then got up from the table, which no one seemed to notice much less care. Maddie watched him walk off and then turned to Scott and Stiles who seemed to be thoroughly freaked out.

"Maddie!" Allison said again, snapping her fingers. Madeline turned to her with a blank expression, causing the youngest Argent to give her a concerned look. "You okay?"

Maddie nodded quickly and offered a tight smile. "Yeah! Just…thinking." She paused for a moment before her eyes widened. "Sorry, what were you saying before?"

"Lydia and I were going shopping before the game tonight," Allison replied, pointing to the girl next to her who was reapplying her lip gloss.

The Slayer raised her eyebrows in surprise as her interest piqued. "…There's a game tonight?"

Allison's smile faltered. "Yeah, but…I'm not actually going to the game."

"Which is ridiculous," Lydia added suddenly. "Scott's presence should not be affecting where you go or what you do. You're giving him the power."

The pale brunette looked over at her as if she were about to say something but instead she let out a heavy sigh and turned back to Madeline. "Anyway, I'm still joining in on the shopping. You should, too. It'll be fun!"

Maddie arched an eyebrow and felt the word 'no' on the tip of her tongue. She swallowed, forcing the answer back down. She'd been so preoccupied with the situation with Scott – and apparently now with Jackson from the looks of it – that she hadn't even thought about her 'bodyguard' duty all that much. Not to mention, shopping was a better excuse than getting caught in the bushes spying on people. She smiled again, only trying to keep it a bit more natural this time. "Sure, I don't see why not."

"And to be clear," Lydia interjected, "this is a test run. I don't typically invite people with little to no fashion sense, but lucky for you Allison wants you there."

Maddie looked down at her clothes, simple and comfortable as always. Her smile fell slightly and she nodded. "Right."

Allison gave an apologetic look before a loud crack sounded from the center of the room. Everyone turned and all eyes were on Scott, who seemed to have broken his lunch tray. His eyes were dark as they sent a dangerous glare to the far corner of the room. Maddie looked over to find a smirking Jackson staring back, eating his apple. Before she knew what was happening, Scott left his broken tray behind and stormed out of the cafeteria followed in suit by a worried looking Stiles.

In a flash, Maddie stood up and grabbed her bag. Hesitating, she looked over at bewildered faces of the rest of her table, including Allison and Lydia. Eyes wide as she took a second to think, she finally found her voice again. "I just remembered! Stiles is letting me borrow some notes." She was quiet for a moment and blinked. "I need to go get those. Right now."

Without waiting for a response, she roughly pushed in her chair and bolted out of the room. Allison turned her confused stare to her friend, whose only reply was, "You're the one who wanted her to sit here."

Maddie's heavy footfalls echoed in the scarcely populated hallway, her eyes searching for Scott and Stiles. Spotting them several yards ahead and heading in the direction of the nearest exit, she was about to follow when she heard something. There was a whimper and a slam. Her head snapped over in the direction of the sound, finding a few very large boys in sports sweatshirts huddled around something. From the sounds of it, someone, was the unpleasant thought that entered her head. She frowned and looked back over to her targets that were half way out the door. Her gaze shifted between the two places in indecision.

It was then she noted something; there were two people standing around idly chatting. Every few seconds, they would uncomfortably glance over to the boys and whoever they were attacking. She gritted her teeth and turned around, striding over to the unknown boys and their prey. She roughly grabbed one of their shoulders – the biggest of the three – and spun him around. The boy looked more irritated than anything else. Madeline arched an eyebrow. "What are you doing?"

"None of your business," he replied with a sneer.

The slayer's eyes narrowed on him before she glanced over to the vacant space he stood. In the ground against the lockers was a pale, blonde girl with wide, frightened eyes. She was shaking slightly as she looked at the slayer. Maddie's stare darkened as it returned to the boy. "You need to stop before you get yourselves hurt."

All three of them laughed and it was clear why. Maddie was no more than a hair above five foot two and rather average sized. There was nothing overtly muscular or at all threatening about her as far as they could tell. The one she was holding onto tried to regain his composure. "Wait, was that a threat?"

Another one of the smaller boys – the blond one – circled around her, his lean form resting against the lockers as he ran his eyes up and down her body. Maddie felt more than a bit disgusted and fought back the urge to take them all out right there. The boy smirked and folded his arms. "And what do we get if we do?"

Maddie's stomach lurched at the idea. She looked around at the boys now surrounding her, noting the maroon hooded sweatshirts with the team logo on the front. Her gaze met the smaller boy's again and she tilted her head with a smile, her grip leaving the larger one's shoulder finally. "You boys play lacrosse, am I right?" They didn't have time to answer before she went on. "Then I have a proposition for you." She pointed momentarily at each one of them. "You leave now and go to your game tonight unscathed or…" Her smile dropped instantly. "You can stay and I can break each of your arms in three different places rendering all of you, for lack of a more fitting term…" A ghost of a smirk appeared on her lips. "…impotent."

Their smiled fell completely and the largest of them, out of offense and quite possibly rage, moved forward and tried to grab Madeline. The slayer side stepped the large hand and grabbed his wrist and forearm tightly, yanking him down to knee him in the stomach. Out of her peripheral, she noticed the other two coming in quickly. As the largest of the three remained out of breath and in pain, Maddie used his already clenched fist, forcing it into the ribs of the blond boy and then forcing the elbow behind them and into the last boy's jaw. Finally, she twisted the arm, forcing the largest boy's to spin around to the lockers which she then slammed him into.

She kept a firm hold on the boy's arm, causing him to yelp in pain. His two friends were on their knees, gasping for breath and holding onto their respective bruised body parts. Maddie leaned in close, the tone in her voice almost dangerous. "If I see another bruise on this girl, it'll be my personal mission to make sure none of you ever play another sport again." She paused and took a deep, calming breath. "Am I making myself clear?"

The large high school student weakly nodded and Madeline instantly let go of him. He turned around, huffed a few times as if he would finally do something. Hit her, maybe. His fist was balled and shaking when he looked at her and then at his friends who were struggling to stand upright and walk away. His eyes shifted to the few people who witnessed the scene. Without another word, he stomped off with his friends in tow.

"Have a good game!" Maddie called after them, without a drop of sincerity. She spun around to the two onlookers, her stare still icy. "The same goes for you. Get out of here."

The two girls, looking almost scandalized, looked at each other then back to Madeline. The short, skittish looking one spoke up first. "What?! But we didn't do anything!"

Maddie stopped for a second, the words slicing through her. The look on her face was unreadable as she took a breath. "…Exactly."

The girls looked down at the helpless girl on the floor, perhaps ashamed of themselves. A bit frightened, they glanced back at Maddie once before rushing off.

As if snapping back to reality, she found herself eyeing the doors she saw Scott and Stiles went through minutes before. A tired, heavy sigh escaped her lips and she looked down at the girl, holding out a hand. The girl shook her head and struggled to stand on her own. "No, it's okay. I, um…I got it." She rolled up the sleeves of her oversized sweat shirt and tried to smooth down her frizzy, blonde hair. She looked over in the direction the boys had gone and frowned. "H-how do you know they won't tell a teacher or something?"

A short, bitter laugh left Maddie as she folded her arms and looked in the same direction. "Because they'd have to admit they were beat up by a girl." The petite slayer looked over at the girl again, this time much closer. There were bags under her light brown eyes, which were still a bit red. She was pale, thin and frail-looking, like she was about to break into a million pieces if someone touched her – both physically and emotionally. "Let me know if they hurt you again, alright?"

The girl shook her head again. "It's fine! You don't have to do that…"

"Let me know, okay?" Maddie repeated much more firmly this time. The blonde girl opened her mouth but nothing came out. Instead, she simply nodded. Maddie gave her a small, sympathetic smile before turning and heading toward the door she had intended to follow the Beta and his friend through.

"Hey," the girl called out weakly. Madeline stopped and turned to the blonde who continued. "…What's your name?"

The slayer hesitated for a second or two and finally answered. "Maddie."

The girl gave her own small, appreciative smile. "I'm Erica." There was a short pause, almost as if she had to will herself to speak again. "…thanks, Maddie."

Maddie nodded to Erica and pushed through the exit.