A/N
Hey guys! Thanks so much for reading. I'm sorry, I know it's been a while. This chapter was very, very hard to write, and I hope I did an ok job of it. Let me know if it works! It's actually my longest chapter yet, almost twenty pages and twice the length of some other ones. So for those of you requesting longer chapters, here you are! Anyway, unless I update in the next two days (unlikely) this will be the last update until the end of June. But after that, I should be updating more and starting some new stories, but once again I'm sorry. To all the people who have read the newly completed Poisoned Youth, welcome and thanks for reading. To my lovely reviewers: stay spectacular. As I've said before, I strongly appreciate constructive criticism! Let me know what you like, what could be better, et cetera. So, like I said earlier, this chapter was hard to write so let me know if it turned out okay. See you guys in a few weeks and as always review, check out my other stories, and enjoy!
Ch. 12
It's Good To Be Bad
Stiles put his Oni mask back on, and he and Kai were off, delving into the dark, screaming masses of Klaus' mansion.
"What did you do to Kol?" Stiles asked curiously as he heard the witch give yet another roar. "Or should I say Isaac?"
"It's Kol." Kai said. "And all I did was trap him like a fly. He did the rest. Of course, you helped."
"Did I?" Stiles asked, pleased. "I'm assuming it has to do with Allison?"
Kai nodded. "Something Kol said when we first met him intrigued me. 'I remember Allison.' I was thinking that was impossible. If he really was a witch on top of a werewolf's brain there's no way he could be able to control that much foreign emotion over a tragic event. Werewolf rage is something truly powerful to behold. It takes more than a few months for a human to master it. So I figured he was disjointed. Connected to the memory, not the emotion."
"You needed to reforge that connection." Stiles said, impressed. "Make Isaac a little less dormant enough for the emotion to bleed through."
"Yeah. You made it really easy, even if you didn't know it." Kai said in concentration. "The first step was to tap into the most primal emotion, fear. Isaac was afraid of you, probably from when he found out you were a hunter. When you attacked Kol that night, and wouldn't let up, for a little while he was afraid of you. I could see it. His and Isaac's fear of the same thing reforged the connection. Then you add the claustrophobic party, (you told me on the car ride Isaac was claustrophobic) with a lot of people and darkness, and you get panic. Kol sees his girl threatened by the shifter, and he gets angry. Kol sees you, who he associates with the nogitsune, and the Oni mask, and..."
"...he taps into that werewolf rage." Stiles finished, intrigued. "That's brilliant. I'm assuming something similar happened to me? Using my past experiences to trigger a similar mindset?"
"You bet!" Kai said. "I figured re-enacting the stabbing was best. I got all the gooey details from Bonnie and Damon about you and your evil twin. I'd thank that damn shifter if you hadn't just stabbed him to death."
"Where did that shifter come from, anyway?" Stiles asked with a humorless laugh.
"No idea." Kai said with a smile.
"Good lord!" Damon said, removing his hands from his ears. Beside him, Bonnie did the same. "What was that?"
Scott and Derek shared a panicked glance. "Lydia." they said simultaneously.
"Lydia the banshee?" Bonnie asked incredulously, and Scott was spooked by how much these people knew about him and his pack, when he barely knew their names.
"Yeah." he said, panic beginning to bleed through his disgruntled composure. "She's here." She's here, she screamed, she's on trouble. Oh god, is somebody dead?
Derek looked, if it was even possible, aggressively worried. "She screamed. Who died?"
"At this rate," Bonnie said, desensitized to unknown casualties at this point, "it could be anyone." She gestured to the thinning panic around them.
"I don't know." Damon murmured. "Ever since the lights went off, the only blood I've smelled has been small cuts from jostling and glass. If someone died, it wasn't from an injury and it wasn't from trying to get out."
The group of four were silent for a heartbeat.
"But Damon," Scott said. "Everyone's trying to get out."
Derek looked at Scott, Bonnie and Damon. "Not everybody." he said. "Not us."
What he didn't say hung between them. Not Stiles.
Bonnie asked the question nobody wanted to. "What if it's Stiles? What if Kai killed him?"
"Well then wouldn't there be blood?" Scott asked.
Bonnie shook her head. "There are spells that can stop hearts." Her frown grew grim as she remembered doing that very thing to Jeremy.
"It might not be Stiles." Derek all but whispered. "We're not trying to leave because we're looking for him. There could be others, too."
"Like who?" Damon asked impatiently.
"Kira?" Derek offered. "Malia? Liam? Liv? I don't know, Damon! Anyone could have followed us, anyone could be lurking in the dark, anyone could have been found by Kai, anyone could have triggered Lydia's scream!"
Damon reeled at Derek's sudden anger, which he recognized as fear. He understood. He, too, was afraid of his friends following in his wake, of Elena, Stefan, or even Matt, Tyler or Caroline following him and being in danger from the sociopathic witch. Bonnie was here with him and that was bad enough. Damon imagined it must be worse for Derek. His friends didn't know better, hadn't encountered Kai, and they all knew where Scott and Derek were heading. Any one of them could have followed. As Damon came to this fearful conclusion he realized that he hadn't checked his phone in almost three days because he had been too busy driving. Meaning if Stefan had been trying to reach him, to tell him if anything had happened, Damon would have been blissfully unaware.
Damon's train of thought was rudely interrupted by Scott. "Derek," he said, turning quickly towards the former alpha. "I heard something else under the scream. It was hard to make out."
Derek nodded. "I know what you mean. It sounded almost like a roar."
"I already told you guys that New Orleans is teeming with werewolves and vampires!" Damon snapped. "It's a full moon. This shouldn't be a big deal." Well, as a vampire susceptible to werewolf venom it was for Damon, but he was trying not to dwell on that.
Derek shook his head. "No," he said. "This didn't sound like any other wolf, it sounded almost-"
"-Familiar." Scott finished. Before either could elaborate or Bonnie or Damon could question, another roar sounded.
"Was that Lydia?" Liam asked, removing his hands from his ears like Kira, Malia, Mason, Matt, and Caroline.
"I think so." Kira replied quietly. Inside, she was thinking the same thing as her pack mates. Who died?
"Lydia?" Caroline snapped, rather aggressively. "You know what thing could have made that noise?"
"Caroline..." Matt warned.
Kira was beginning to get confused. Earlier, Caroline seemed nice, but now she seemed... strung out. She was emitting weird vibes and if Kira didn't know better, she would wonder if Caroline was a werewolf under the stress of a full moon. She did know better, however. Malia and Liam, however untrained, would have been able to sense another werewolf. Malia had said that Caroline 'smelled funny.' What had Kira gotten them into?
Malia wasn't as cautious as Kira. A couple hours in Caroline's car and she knew something was wrong. Caroline wasn't- couldn't possibly- be 100 percent human. So, it was with both audacity and trepidation that Malia marched squarely through Caroline's personal space, looked her squarely in the eyes and said. "Our friend, Lydia Martin. She isn't human. Like you."
Kira, Liam, and Mason gasped and stepped rapidly away from Caroline and Matt, Mason stumbling because he didn't have enhanced eyesight. Matt gasped too, also unable to truly see. Caroline, however, did not move from her standoff and merely offered Malia a cold, cruel smile.
"I was wondering when the werecoyote would figure it out."
Malia balked.
"What!" Matt shouted. "Caroline! You knew they weren't human?"
"You didn't?" Caroline taunted, not taking her doey eyes off of Malia's cold -and now glowing- blue ones. "You should know, sweetie," she said to Malia, "that vampires have excellent senses. I could just smell the wolves rolling on all of you." She nodded her head at Liam, who's eyes began to glow yellow. He, like Mason, Kira, and even Malia, looked terrified at meeting another vampire.
Caroline's gaze left Malia's and focused sharply on Kira. "You're a spirit." she muttered. "A fox. And you," she said to Mason, "are dinner." Lighting quick, Caroline's fangs extended from her mouth, red veins pooled under her eyes, and she dug her teeth sharply into Mason's neck. They remained there for about a millisecond before she drew back choking with parts of her cheeks sizzling. "Vervain." she hissed.
Internally, Matt scoffed. Of course Stiles would spike Beacon Hill's water supply with vervain.
It hadn't taken long for Matt to figure it out. While Caroline had been singing in the car, Matt had listened in on the four hitchhikers' conversation. Four teenagers heading to New Orleans had been a red flag already, and when they had thrown around names like 'Scott,' 'Allison,' 'Lydia,' 'Derek,' and even 'Stiles' casually, Matt figured out who they were and where they came from. He had realized that one of the last conversations he had had with Stiles the names 'Kira' and 'Malia' had been mentioned briefly, and Matt guessed that at least a semblance of the four teenagers in the car had to be supernatural. It was the only reason why he hadn't reacted more when Caroline told him she would feed off of them, and he knew it would only be a matter of time before she figured out they weren't human. And here, just now, when they had mentioned Lydia Martin the banshee, Matt knew for certain that these kids were, in fact, some of Stiles' new friends. Lydia's here. Matt thought with relief. It meant that Stiles was here too. Matt could only hope Caroline didn't care enough to make all of the connections.
Caroline was angry right now, and Matt decided to focus on that. While Mason clutched his neck in shock, Matt took advantage of Caroline's weakness and kicked her to the ground, judging her location by the noises of pain she was making. His efforts hit home, and Caroline fell to the floor. Grappling for her wrists, Matt tried to restrain her, but then a nearby sounding roar distracted him. He lifted his head up, trying to find the source of the sound, and Caroline took advantage of his loosening grip to speed away, leaving Matt alone and blind with 1/3 of the Beacon Hills pack.
Davina stopped wading through the crowd when she heard the second roar, knowing instantly who it was. "Kol." she whispered, a silent tear running down her cheek, before her face became steely and impassive. She needed to find Kai and take him down. She turned sharply on her heel, before running into something large and solid.
"Josh!" Davina exclaimed, throwing her arms around the middle of her vampire friend.
"Hey, Davina." Josh said soothingly. "I'm glad you're okay! Jackson and Hayley took all of the wolves and vampires out of the house for safety... I'm glad you're ok."
"I'm not normally one for taking orders," Stiles mused as he and Kai strolled through the dark chaos, "but surely you had plans beyond turning me evil and having Kol kill people in a frenzy?"
"Oh, Kol hasn't killed anyone!" Kai said with a laugh. "He's still stuck to the wall. Getting him to mass murder people would be too far. He'd be too deep, unreachable. We'll let him out once the full moon passes." Kai and Stiles simultaneously turned up towards the sky to look at the moon, large and suspended over the silver, black and gold.
"The plan, Kai?" Stiles pressed, rolling his eyes at Kai's theatrics.
"Well," Kai said quietly, "you'll notice it stopped screaming."
Stiles listened. Kai was right. All he could hear were five, maybe six loud conversations. "All the civilians are gone."
"Which means..." Kai said cheerfully, clapping his hands together twice, "showtime!"
The lights flipped back on.
Stiles was blinded for a moment, shielding his eyes, before the pain passed and he was able to take in his surroundings. Kai had led him to the edge of the plaza, where he was now watching everyone standing in a giant circle. His arm hurt sharply as Kai twisted it roughly around his back, and Stiles was glad the Oni mask hid his grin as he realized what Kai was up to.
Everyone else, Lydia, Jeremy, Rebekah, Davina, Josh, Damon, Bonnie, Scott, Derek, Matt, Caroline, Kira, Malia, Liam, and Mason, were blinded when the lights turned back on, the humans especially. Nevertheless, everyone went from shielded eyes to open mouths as they adjusted to the scene of them all standing in a circle. It was comical, Stiles realized, how none of them had been aware at how close the others had been while the lights were off. And Stiles realized a heartbeat later that each thought they were the only group other than Lydia present. Naturally, the squabbling ensued.
"Lydia, you're ok!" Kira shouted in relief. "But who are you?" she asked Jeremy, who was holding Lydia around the elbow.
"Gilbert, what the hell are you doing here?" Damon growled menacingly.
"Yeah, back at you, vampire!" Jeremy spat, "seeing as how you never gave a damn about Stiles before!" Damon bristled, but didn't comment. Rebekah, however, whirled on Lydia.
"Where's my brother?" she screamed at Lydia, harshly grabbing the banshee's wrist.
"Hey! Don't you touch her!" Kira yelled from across the circle, brandishing her sword threateningly. Derek growled at Rebekah.
"Kira!" Scott lectured. "You shouldn't have followed me!"
"The hell we weren't!" Malia said with a growl to rival Damon's. Damon stopped glaring at Jeremy and nodded at Malia in respect.
Lydia ignored Malia and Kira and turned slowly towards the Original witch. "I don't know." she said, ice seeping in, blocking her uncertainty. "Now let go of me, Rebekah." Her sharp gaze made it clear she wouldn't ask twice.
Rebekah dropped Lydia's wrist in surprise and despair.
"Rebekah?" Bonnie demanded, stepping towards the other witch in surprised anger. "As in Mikaelson?"
Jeremy, who was getting over the shock at suddenly seeing Bonnie there, nodded vigorously. Bonnie's eye flitted to him briefly in almost disinterest before someone near him made her gasp.
"Caroline!" Bonnie said, shocked, just noticing the blond vampire. She made a move to step forward, but Matt shouted.
"Bonnie, don't!"
Bonnie froze, and so did everyone, and it didn't take long to go from Caroline's snarl to Mason's bleeding neck.
"Oh, no, Caroline." Damon whispered.
Caroline rolled her eyes. "Oh please." She said with simpering disdain. "You, Damon Salvatore, do not get to play hero. Not for following me to New Orleans with these" she cast her eye scornfully over Malia, Liam, and Kira. "Freaks."
Damon took a step backwards in surprise. "Follow you? No, I don't..." Then he saw Matt's head inclining very, very slightly to the left and then to the right. Realization dawned on him and he hastily backtracked. "What, did you take Matt as a consolation prize?" he growled, hoping to get Caroline annoyed enough to ignore his slip up. Bonnie quickly caught on, but everyone else was a little too confused to say anything.
Carolines eyes glimmered devilishly. "Something like that."
Scott didn't like the warning tone her voice had, nor the little regard she seemed to have for the life of the blond boy next to her. "Everybody STOP!" he roared, his eyes flashing red.
Malia, Liam, and even Kira halted at the command, their eyes glowing in response to their alpha while the vampires, witches, hunter and banshee watched curiously. The silence that followed Scott's roar was deafening.
"Who are you?" Josh demanded, undeterred by the obvious werewolf. He cast his eyes around the circle accusingly. "Who are any of you?"
Damon took a step towards the center of the wary circle, instantly attracting Josh's gaze. He looked the other vampire squarely in the eyes and lifted up his hands in the air before saying "I'm Damon Salvatore. I'm a vampire. Me, Bonnie, Caroline, Jeremy and Matt," he pointed to each of them in turn, "we're from Mystic Falls."
Josh's eyes widened, recognizing the name of the town. It held the doppelganger, and it had been where Klaus had raided chaos before stepping foot once again in New Orleans. If Damon was telling the truth then he and the other four had been at some of the worst of Klaus' wrath. He gulped. "My condolences."
Scott, standing next to Damon, took another step forward so that the two were level, looking at Josh. "I'm Scott McCall." he said, somewhat lamely, but then his eyes glowed brilliant red. "That's Malia, Kira, Liam, Lydia and Mason. We're from Beacon Hills, California and we're looking for the rest of our pack." For some reason, he thought it best to withhold Stiles' name.
Josh recognized the name of the town from something Stiles said. He nodded in confirmation.
"So who are you?" Scott asked somewhat sharply at the girl next to Josh, slight in her gold dress but fierce-looking, even through her red eyes.
"I'm Davina." she said without the barest hint of a waiver. But then her eyes cast downwards, sadly. "And this is all my fault."
"You're damn right it is."
At the sound of Kai's voice, everyone turned, watching as the warlock himself made his way from around the corner into the eyeline of everyone, holding a struggling figure in a silver mask that caused everyone from Beacon Hills to flinch. For while Malia, Liam and Mason had never encountered the nogitsune, they had heard stories, horrible stories.
"Stiles." Scott breathed. At first he felt relief. Stiles was fine! But then he felt anger, anger that burned so much that his eyes glowed red again. Kai was tormenting him, tormenting all of them, with that mask, a constant reminder of those scary days when Stiles was no longer himself. The darkest days of Stiles' existence that still haunted him to this day... For Stiles, this must be torture, and Scott's heart cried out for him.
"Stiles?" Caroline snapped in surprise, and Matt didn't miss the worried look that crossed her face.
"What do you want with him?" Bonnie hissed at Kai, flinching when Kai's smile grew wider.
"Bonnie! It's been awhile!"
"Can it, Kai!" Damon snapped. "Answer the question!"
If Kai was deterred by the harsh glares of fifteen-odd supernatural creatures, he didn't show it. On the contrary, he looked like he was actually having a good time. Stiles, meanwhile, was struggling, and Lydia assumed he must have been gagged under the mask, for he wasn't speaking or shouting, just eerily quiet.
"What I want," Kai proclaimed, "Is what I've always wanted. My twin dead. My coven punished." A dark look crossed his eyes at the mention of his family. "I merged with Luke, so I'm willing to leave Jo and her twins- yes, twins," he said in response to Damon's shocked face "-alone. But my coven has to be punished. My father has to die. I'm going to raise an army, and Davina is quite right to say that it is all her fault."
"Where's Klaus?" Rebekah screeched. "What have you done to him?"
Kai's smile, once teasing with sick enjoyment, now grew cold, calculating, catlike, and infinitely more dangerous. "Once upon a time there was a warlock who made a dagger." he mused. "That dagger is now in his heart."
Rebekah paled and choked in disbelief, and Davina, instead of looking more despaired, grew determined.
"Where is Kol?" she demanded.
"Far far away where he can't hurt anyone." Kai said over his shoulder to her as he stepped inside the little circle. "Deep in the recesses of his own tortured mind."
Kai stood at the center of the circle now, gazing at everyone in bemusement, almost daring them to attack. If the 15 of them closed in on Kai simultaneously, it would be quick and easy.
But with the way Kai held Stiles in front of him like a shield, no one wanted to attack.
"Ah, let's see..." Kai said as he turned on his heel, getting a good look at his surroundings. "This is the rescue brigade, huh? I must say, I'm a little underwhelmed. I mean," he brought the hand that wasn't holding Stiles to his chest in mock affrontation. "You all call me crazy, but have you seen yourselves?" With a harsh turn his eyes lock with Jeremy's who slinks back uncomfortably.
"Jeremy Gilbert." he says with false glorification. "The boy who ran away from his family to hunt monsters, under the pretense of going to art school."
Jeremy glared fiercely, but couldn't seem to meet Kai's eyes. He was terrified of what he'd find there. Damon wasn't surprised at Kai's revelation, he had surmised as much when he had first seen Jeremy and Lydia. What Kai said next, however, surprised him.
"You killed ten vampires in Santa Fe." Kai said with appraisal. "It even made the news. I'm impressed. However," and Kai's voice turned to a much darker tone, "You didn't need to hack them to bis, beyond recognition as even humanoid. Sure, you can toss it off as being an excuse for when the bodies were found, but you never intended for the bodies to be found."
Jeremy looked aghast. How had Kai known? How had Kai known that when Jeremy had staked the ten vampires, something had screamed at him inside that it wasn't enough? That the vampires had killed his sister, Bonnie, and Caroline, that they had destroyed his life and razed his home and even put Elena to the brink of burning down their house, because really, Elena wasn't Elena anymore than Jeremy was still Jeremy. And he had taken out the machete that had reminded him so much of the noble Stiles, the Stiles who could see past fangs and wolves all the way to the once human soul... and he had hacked the vampires to pieces and it felt so good to get his revenge. Until his stomach dropped and he looked at what he had done, the monster he had inadvertently become. And so Jeremy had to save Stiles, the hunter who never let it taint him, because maybe then Stiles could help him save himself.
Lydia took a half-step away from Jeremy, surprised, but not horrified, at his supposed past display of ferocity. She had sensed the death on him, and the despair was palpable, yet she had let him into her car all those hours ago because he wasn't the shell of a human bent on destruction. He was still alive. So was Kai, too, Lydia surmised, even if she could feel the massacre of May 10th rolling off of him in waves. Stiles, however... Lydia spared him a glance. Something about Stiles wasn't right. Even if the buzzing had halted, even if she couldn't see his face she knew that he wasn't struggling nearly as hard as he could have been. Stiles had been tied, tricked, tossed away, but he always, always, got out, or at least put up a hell of a fight until the end. It wasn't like this, where Stiles was only attempting to pull his arm out of Kai's grasp, and a weak effort at that. In fact, Lydia could only think of one instance where Stiles was so beaten down that he could not get away. He had been tied to a chair then, in the basement of a place Kai surely belonged in, and in that basement all Stiles seemed to hear was the whirring of an electric drill and the threatening whispers of his own worst fear. Stiles hadn't been able to fight back then, he was too beaten down. And when he had slackened his grip on his ropes and reality, it had been the beginning of the end.
The mask.
Lydia gasped internally. The mask! How could she be so stupid? Being forced to wear that mask... Kai had been breaking Stiles down, the same way the nogitsune had, only this time he had simply walked through the already paved trail. Lydia couldn't imagine the pain Stiles was going through, but yet he wasn't struggling. So either Kai had some kind of spell on Stiles...
...or it wasn't Stiles at all.
Kai must have sensed a shift in Lydia, seen the spark of understanding in her eyes followed by fierce determination, because he let out a genuine laugh in her direction. Lydia's half-step away from Jeremy, however, seemed to have snapped the hunter out of his trance, and his eyes narrowed as he began thinking.
"You." he said, pointing an accusing finger at Davina. "You mentioned someone. Kol." He glanced at a worried Rebekah disdainfully. "One Mikaelson came back a witch, what are the chances of a second?"
Davina shrank back from Jeremy's accusation, and that was all he needed to confirm the truth, which hit the Mystic Falls gang like Kai's wide grin.
"Kol Mikaelson." Damon drawled. "Now there's someone I wouldn't mind skinning alive."
The sun was beginning to rise, if the lightening of a pink-streaked sky was any indication. The light glinted off of Stiles' silver mask.
"Funny." Kai said with a smirk. "I think he feels the same way about you." His eyes glinted as he snapped his fingers, the movement itself unassuming enough, but the air seemed to shimmer in the new morning in wake of whatever magic he had just performed. Around the corner, the corner Kai had rounded minutes earlier, a squeak and a loud thump could be heard, as if a rather loud picture frame had fallen off of the wall. A grunt could be heard, and then some swearing in a heavy british accent. Then stumbling, heavy footsteps made their way towards the frozen group. Rebekah and Davina instantly knew who it was, but no one else did.
It wasn't red light that washed over his form, haggard, within an inch of his lfie and permeated with exhaustion. It wasn't red, it was blue and pink, green and orange, and just about every color of the sunrise except red. They had come a long way from when Kai and Stiles found a warlock leaning against a red-lit wall, masking as Isaac Lahey. If only Isaac had come so far, for as he was gasping for breath and leaning against this wall, no one made a move to help him.
"Isaac." Lydia whispered. But no, something wasn't right. Though he looked like he was dying, Lydia had no urge to scream, but her throat felt scratchy,like she had already screamed, like he had already died.
Isaac grinned through his pain, his teeth stained in his own blood from biting down on his tongue. "Not quite." he whispered hoarsely.
"Kol?" Rebekah asked tentatively.
He pushed himself off of the wall with a great deal of struggling, standing shakily on his own two feet. "Closer." Slowly, he lifted up his hand and examined it in curiosity. "More of a mix of the two." He looked at his sister's and girlfriend's hopeful eyes and released a harsh laugh. "You know, I never realized until now, Davina, but you look a great deal like Allison."
Davina winced, and so did Scott, and Isaac's (Kol's?) eyes slid from Davina to Scott. "The alpha returns, does he?" Kol mumbled. Then his eyes fell on Damon, Bonnie, and the rest of the group. "With the cavalry." It intrigued Kol to think that he knew every person standing before him save two of McCall's new lackeys. But then he found who he was really looking for, hiding behind a mass of Kol's enemies and Isaac's friends, still under a silver mask that did nothing whatsoever to disguise the devil.
"Stiles Winchester." Kol grumbled. "You killed her, and I'm going to make you pay."
Stiles stopped struggling when he heard Kol's voice, and straightened up as much as he could under Kai's grasp, turning his faceless head towards the sound of Isaac's voice.
Scott was confused as to where Isaac had been, how he ended up in New Orleans, why he was suddenly British and why he was suddenly called Kol, but he pushed aside his confusion and focused on something he could understand: Stiles' heartbeat. Something wasn't right. It was painfully steady, like when he had pulled out an old gun and killed a demon named Alexander.
Scott hated a lot of things, but most of all he hated being right.
The motion was just as fluid. The light was from a sunrise but it was nearly the same. The pack was in a circle instead of a half circle, some mysteries of Stiles' life coming together and filling out the shape, but there was still a demon holding Stiles hostage. Everyone felt just as shocked, compelled to watch, just as helpless as last time. Davina had given Kai the dagger but she had forgotten about the gun he had stolen and smuggled. She had forgotten about the little gun that had caused Stiles so much anguish and had caused him to be searched by Klaus upon arriving at the spot he now stood. In the midst of the weapon she created she had forgotten about the one she knew nothing about.
Stiles hadn't.
It wasn't his waistband this time. It was his jacket pocket. Somehow he had freed one of his hands and had it slowly inclining towards his charcoal suit jacket. Once his hand had clasped around the trigger the movement shifted to lightning quick. Stiles twisted, hard, yanking his trapped arm from Kai in what must have been painful, pulling the gun from his jacket simultaneously. Once his arm was free, he turned, standing right in front of Kai with his right hand holding the Colt to Kai's head at point blank range.
There was a heartbeat of silence. Scott let out a breath. Lydia prayed she was wrong. Isaac just stopped, and everyone else waited with anticipation. Caroline found herself afraid for Stiles' life.
Malia, Liam, and Mason had not met Alexander. They watched in awe at something they only heard stories of. Scott and Derek had, and they watched the re-creation of the scene with horror, the moment of Stiles Stilinski's death.
Would Stiles Winchester die too?
Kai took a step back from Stiles, his hands in the air in what can only be described as a sarcastic surrender. He was still grinning, though, like the sight of the gun didn't scare him at all.
"What are you going to do, Stiles?" Kai goaded. "Shoot me?"
Scott hadn't heard Stiles speak since the day he left for New Orleans, and so he jumped when Stiles spoke sternly.
"If I have to. You did kidnap me."
Kidnap? Josh mouthed at Davina, curious as to why the guys he met the day before had turned out so dynamically different. Davina gestured that she would explain later.
"Stiles..." Scott said hesitantly. "Put the gun down."
Stiles turned towards Scott, and it was eerie to see that silver Oni mask float towards him. "Scott, I think I have to. He won't stop. He's planning on killing his entire family, a whole coven of witches!"
"So let's give him to the family, Stiles!" Scott pleaded. "Let them deal with him, okay? No more killing, no more death! It never ends well!"
Stiles hesitated, lowering the gun with a click. Scott let out another breath of relief and stepped into the circle slowly, towards Kai, with his hands still raised, and a masked Stiles.
Once Stiles had lowered the gun, everyone in the ring had unconsciously stepped tighter together, forming a prison around the pair.
Now that's odd. Damon thought, remembering how Kai had stepped into the circle. Why would Kai, mastermind Kai, do something quite so stupid as to literally surround himself with his enemies? As Scott took another step forward, Damon opened his mouth to voice his digressions, but someone else beat him to it.
"Scott." Lydia said. Her voice rang out among the silent supernaturals. "Stop. Something's not right."
Scott, whose eyes had solely been on his missing friend, looked at Lydia uncertainly. That split second was all Stiles needed to raise the gun again with another click- this time pointed at Scott.
Scott took a step back from Stiles, hands raised.
"She's right." Stiles said smugly.
Lydia crossed her arms in anger. "You're not Stiles."
Stiles, with the hand not holding the gun, ripped off his Oni mask and threw it at Lydia's feet with a dull twack. "Don't be so sure about that." Underneath the mask he wore a brilliant, leering smile.
"You sick son of a bitch." Damon said to a victorious Kai. "You manipulating bastard!"
"Stiles." Scott pleaded. "This isn't you! I know you! Please, whatever Kai screwed up in your head, we can fix it!"
Stiles took a lazy step towards Scott. "You know, I'd like to believe that, Scott." he drawled with amusement, "but I'm having a hard time." Another step. "Something's always broken, isn't it, in the sorry excuse you call a pack. Whether it's me, or Derek, or Liam" he trails off, the corner of his mouth twitching upwards, "or Allison..." Scott flinched, and Stiles smiled at the pain he caused. "It can never be perfect, can it, Scotty? This pristine little pack of yours where no one fights, or kills, or maims." He takes a step forward with each accusation. "You have two wolves in your pack with glowing blue eyes, and yet you still hold your head so high. Causing death, needing to kill, to you it's all an illness." Another step. "You say you can fix me." He takes one more step, right up to the point where Scott is reminded of the night that the nogitsune twisted a blade into Scott's stomach all while holding his shoulder and telling him it would be okay. It would never be okay again. "You say this isn't me, Scott, but personally? I like the disease."
Stiles pulled the trigger and a shot rang out from the old gun. Scott gasped, collapsing on the floor in pain as blood poured out of his wound.
"RUN!" Scott shrieked, and they did. Kira, Liam, Matt, Josh and Damon ran for the stairs to the balcony on the left. Lydia, Jeremy, Bonnie and Derek ran for the stairs on the right. Davina, Rebekah, Malia, Mason and Caroline raced across the plaza to the downstairs part of the house, leaving Stiles, Kai, and Kol standing over Scott, who whimpered as he clutched his leg.
Stiles had shot out his knee.
"What should we do with him?" Kol asked Kai with a wicked glint in his eyes.
"What should we do with them?" Stiles asked, gesturing to where the 14 people had rapidly disappeared.
Kai grinned. "What else is there to do but what we do best?" He nudged a bleeding Scott disdainfully with his toe before turning towards his companions, the former tricksters. "We're going to break the rules" he said with a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Today the foxes hunt the wolves."