Disclaimer: Don't own TW. Only my OC: Zarina. Let's finish this season, shall we?

Too reluctant to stay near Peter's presence for longer than I had to, I forced Derek to drive me to Stiles' house. I thought that maybe since I couldn't prevent it, I could at least help them find him. The guilt was eating me alive. I had to do something, anything.

Before letting me leave the car, Isaac kissed my temple and promised he'd keep me safe. I had responded by rolling my eyes and saying that I recalled saving his ass not too long ago, but he didn't give me the sassy response I was expecting. Instead, he looked at me seriously and said, "Just let me protect you," and let me slide out of the car.

I was sitting on Stiles' bed, listening to the quiet murmur of the sheriff calling people to see if they'd seen him. I felt myself close my eyes, trying to block out the sudden wave of sadness I was feeling. I pulled my knees to my chest and scooted further onto the bed.

"Stiles, where are you?" I whispered to myself.

"Right here," my eyes shot open and I fell out of the bed, standing up when I saw Stiles himself leaning against his doorway.

"Oh my god, Stiles!" I ran up to him and threw myself onto his body, causing him to stumble back a few steps. "You're okay."

His arms wrapped around me and I felt a sigh of relief leave my mouth. He was really here. "Nice to see you too," he chuckled into my hair.

I pulled my head away from his neck to look up at him. I stifled a gasp as I observed his bruised cheek and swollen lip. I used one hand to gently touch his cheek, but kept the other one firmly around his neck, scared he was going to disappear again. Stiles flinched as I touched it, but otherwise, stayed still, his eyes locked on my face warmly.

"Gerard did this, didn't he?" I asked him softly and his arms tightened around me.

"How'd you know?" he inquired as my hand dropped from his face to his neck.

"I saw it happen," I bit my lip, looking away. "I was trying to warn you at the game, but I never got the chance."

"Stop," his voice was firm and I looked back up at him. "I know you're blaming yourself right now. Don't."

"I can't help it," my eyes were pleading. "I could've – I should have been there to stop him. But I wasn't."

"You can't be Batgirl all the time," he replied somewhat teasingly, reminding me of our nicknames for each other. "Even she can't save everyone."

"Not without Batman," I smiled. "And she really thought she lost him tonight."

"Well, she's not going to get rid of him that easily," he smirked. I laughed and buried my face into his neck again, taking in the familiar scent of laundry and cologne.

My phone vibrated and I pulled it out, breaking apart from our embrace. It was Scott, asking if Stiles was back. I replied, saying he was and put my phone back into my pocket. Stiles walked into his room and I followed him inside, sitting on his desk chair.

"Hey, read this," I showed him a text that Scott sent me that said that Jackson wasn't dead and he needed us to get Lydia to help us out with getting him back to normal.

"This is a nightmare," Stiles groaned, sitting back down on his bed. "Jackson's going to kill us all."

"I don't care, I'm going to help," I got up determinedly.

"See, that's the problem," Stiles got up, grabbing my arm harshly as I went to the door, pulling me so I faced him. "You-you don't care about getting hurt. But you know how I'll feel? I'll be devastated. And if you die, I'll go out of my freaking mind."

I stayed silent, half surprised about how strongly he felt about this and half infuriated that he was actually making me rethink my decision to help.

"You see, death doesn't happen to you, Zarina," he continued lividly, his hand leaving my arm. "It happens to everyone around you, okay? To all the people left standing at your funeral, trying to figure out how they're gonna live the rest of their lives now without you in it. Huh?"

Tears gathered in my eyes as he inched closer to me, eyes blazing with a new type of fire that I'd never seen in them before. My gut clenched and I felt ashamed to even look at him in the eye, but I also didn't dare look away.

"And look at my face!" he raised his voice. "Come on, you actually think this was meant to hurt me?!"

He was in my face at this point and I flinched away, tears escaping my eyelids and my heart stopping in my chest. I bit my trembling lip and backed away from him slowly. His face fell and he looked remorseful when he saw that I was crying.

"Z," he said softly, "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to"-

"It's okay," I wiped the tears from my face and turned away. "I'll help them myself."

"Hey, no. Wait," he called out, but I was already going down his steps hurriedly.

I shut the front door behind me with a soft slam and I started walking down the street, towards Lydia's house. It was probably 5 miles away and on foot, it'd take forever, but someone had to get her.

About half a mile into my walk, a familiar blue jeep pulled up beside me and I stopped, looking into the open window. Stiles was grinning at me sheepishly.

"So," he said slowly. "Lydia?"

I smiled and hopped into the front seat. "I was starting to wonder when you'd show up."

"Can't let you take all the credit for saving the day," he glanced at me as he drove to the Martin's. "We're a team, remember?"

I turned my head to him and nodded.

Lydia seemed to already know what we were going to do when we picked her up because she bounded out of her house, a key in hand.

"What's that?" I asked her as she settled in the back seat.

"It's something I've been meaning to give back to Jackson for a while now," she replied cryptically.

I glanced at Stiles, silently asking if he knew what she meant, but he shook his head, equally as confused as me. I gave him the address that Scott sent me in his text and when we got to the giant building, we sat in the car, wondering what to do.

"Do we just…go in?" I asked.

"The front door would be too obvious," Lydia reasoned. "We need to be more spontaneous. Take them by surprise."

"Good idea, but ho- OH MY GOD," I yelled as Stiles pushed down on the gas pedal, driving us straight through the brick wall. His eyes were tightly closed and I felt the seatbelt jerk me backwards as the car hit something hard.

"Did I get him?" Stiles asked, opening his eyes. "Whoa!"

Jackson got jumped onto the hood of the car and me and Stiles let out screams as we scrambled out of the jeep, Lydia close behind us. Stiles and I ran towards Scott, but she stood in front of Jackson bravely.

"Lydia! What are you doing?" I yelled, going to save her, but Stiles tugged me back, shaking his head at me. I spotted Isaac and Derek across from us.

"Jackson. Jackson!" Lydia yelled. The kanima was close to her face. "Here," she lifted the key and Jackson's features shifted and his claws wrapped around the key.

"Lydia?" he breathed her name out in horror and his face became distorted.

She nodded, tears flooding her eyes. Jackson engulfed her in a hug and stepped back after a second, sending a nod to Derek. The werewolf rolled to his feet and ran past my friend.

I watched in silent terror as he jabbed his claws into Jackson's stomach and Peter did the same into his back. The two men lifted him into the air and Lydia was full on crying as she watched. Jackson fell to his knees after they let him go and Lydia hurried to him cupping his face. The Hales stepped back.

"Do you-do you-" Jackson sputtered out.

"I do. I do still love you," Lydia responded, voice cracking as the tears fell down her usually unblemished cheeks. Jackson's eyes closed slowly and the kanima pattern on his body disappeared.

Lydia laid her torso across Jackson's lifeless body and sobbed. I felt tears spring to my eyes and I grasped Stiles' arm tightly. She turned to us and nodded slowly, telling us he was really dead.

Suddenly, a sound that was much like claws scraping at a chalkboard sounded and Lydia whirled around, hair flying. Jackson stood, completely naked, and his face was in a wolf form. He roared loudly and I gasped. Lydia ran over to him and they hugged each other like lifelines.

I looked up at Stiles, who looked back down at me with a smile, though his eyes were shiny with tears.

"You did good, Batman," I said quietly.

"All thanks to my Batgirl," he winked teasingly and I laughed, my head bowing as I did so.

I swiveled my head to Isaac, who was watching me and I smiled at him reassuringly. He smirked and tilted his head to the side. It was finally over. The killings, the giant lizards, everything.

When I finally got home that night, I found Isaac sitting on the edge of my bed. I sat next to him and took his hand in mine.

"Feels like déjà vu," I chuckled.

"Yeah," he agreed, smiling. "Except a lot less screaming."

I looked at him from the corner of my eye and found he was already staring down at me, eyes wistful.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there," I said, recalling what Scott had said about Allison stabbing him multiple times.

"You didn't know," he replied softly. "You were helping your best friend, you wouldn't have known that would happen."

"But still. You got hurt," I bit my lip.

"I heal easily, I thought we went over this," he reminded me and I laughed. "It's okay, Ari. I'm okay." His eyes were soft and I simply stared at him for a second.

"So is this- what is this…thing?" I asked, gesturing to the both of us. He grinned and shook our hands lightly.

"This kinda looks like a thing," he said. "Unless you don't want it to be."

"I do," I replied truthfully. "I meant it when I said I'm giving you a chance, but how do I know you won't just wake up one day and realize you don't want me?"

"I've slept about," he pretended to think, "a thousand times since I realized I've felt this way about you and I still haven't changed my mind."

I smiled and pressed a kiss on his lips, sighing as I did so. He returned it and we pulled away, him gathering me into his arms. We laid next to each other on the bed, talking about anything and everything, until finally, I fell asleep.

When I woke up the next morning, I was alone in bed and I figured that Isaac had left sometime in the night. I moved the sheets off of me and paused when I saw the charcoal that stained my hands. Weird, I didn't have a dream last night. Or at least not one that I remembered.

I sighed in frustration and got out of bed, walking to my canvas. On the paper was an insignia that I didn't recognize. It was a dark triangle, that had three lines protruding from it that angled at the ends. I was more confused than anything. I decided to ask Derek about it, so I took the paper and put it into my bag.

I checked the time and saw that I had an hour to get to school, so I got ready and grabbed the keys to my brother's car. When I got to Derek's house, I saw Peter, Isaac, and the man I was looking for standing in front of his door.

"When there's a new Alpha, people take notice," Peter was finishing saying.

I walked up to them and stood behind Isaac, who did a double take when he saw me, but smiled nonetheless. I still couldn't see what was on the door.

"People like who?" Isaac asked. "What is this? What does this mean?"

"It's their symbol. And it means they're coming," Derek said.

"Who?" I asked quietly.

"Alphas."

"More than one?" Isaac looked at his Alpha.

"A pack of them."

"An Alpha pack and they're not coming. They're already here," Peter threw in.

I looked over Isaac's shoulder at the door and paled at what I saw. I pushed past the taller beta and pulled out the paper from my bag hurriedly, staring down at it shakily.

"Zarina, what's wrong?" Isaac asked slowly.

I didn't answer as I held up my drawing next to the inscription on the door. It was the same. The werewolves behind me were silent as I compared my drawing to the one on the door. When it finally processed that they were exact replicas of each other, I dropped my arm heavily to my side and turned to the three behind me.

Isaac looked apprehensive, Derek looked brooding (as per usual), and Peter was grinning proudly, as if I was his daughter that'd accomplished something great.

"I don't even remember seeing this," I stuttered. "Or them, or whatever it is that this is. I just woke up and this was on my canvas." I showed them my drawing.

"You look like you could use some…professional help," Peter drawled and I turned to him, a long sigh escaping my lips.

"So you really think she's gonna come back to you?" Stiles was asking Scott as I walked up to my two best friends on the field. They were unloading lacrosse gear from the back of Stiles' jeep.

"Yeah, I know she is," Scott replied surely, and I caught on that they were talking about Allison breaking up with him.

"Hey, you okay?" Stiles asked when he saw my pallid face. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

I grimaced involuntarily, but nodded. "Fine. Just a little under the weather," I lied, remembering what Derek said to me before I left.

"Don't tell them. Not yet. We don't need to make any more trouble than we need to."

Stiles and Scott looked at each other, unconvinced, but let it go. We finally reached the center of the field and Stiles dropped the bag of balls on the ground. Scott moved over to the goal obediently, stick in hand.

"Right now, you need to help me make first line," Stiles said pointedly and I giggled, standing next to him as he scooped up a ball.

"You know something? I'm right back to where I started," Scott straightened in the goal and I raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

"You know, no girlfriend, no lacrosse, no popularity. I'm back to the way it was before all the werewolf stuff," Scott was grinning, despite the actual sadness of his situation.

"But you still have me!" Stiles argued.

"And me," I added, smiling.

"Okay? So life fulfilled," he finished, rocking back on his feet.

"Definitely. I feel so much better now," Scott replied sarcastically.

Ignoring his comment, Stiles threw the ball in the air, catching it in his stick again as it fell. "Now, remember, no wolf powers."

"Got it," Scott nodded.

"No, I mean it," he reiterated, pointing the stick at our friend. "No super fast reflexes, no super eyesight no hearing. None of that crap, okay?"

"Okay," he replied, crouching into position. Stiles would the stick back, but stopped suddenly halfway.

"You promise?" Stiles repeated.

"Just shoot the ball already," I told him, laughing.

Stiles readied himself once more and lobbed the ball towards the net. I saw the golden flash of Scott's eye as he caught the ball. Stiles' arms flew into the air incredulously.

"I said no wolf powers!" he complained. I bit back my laugh, but couldn't help but feel incredibly happy, in spite of the fact that an Alpha pack had arrived. I could feel my life slowly reverting back to normalcy. Just how I wanted it.

AN: Aaaand there's season 2, ladies and gents. It's been a ride. Quite so. Sorry that this chapter's short. Didn't realize how little I had left when I ended the last chapter lol.

SO HYPED UP FOR SEASON 3 YA'LL DONT EVEN KNOW. But before I start, I'll need to do some stuff about how Zarina's gonna spend her summer cause she's going to get stronger and more independent and OOH I'm too ready. Badass Zarina is coming your way.

Thank you very much for all the support so far. It's crazy how fast this story is moving and I'm super happy it's been pretty successful. Had my doubts, but you guys proved them wrong, so many thanks for that.

As always, please fave/review/follow if you enjoyed. Also, please tell me anything you'd like to see! Whether it be Oracle, Zarisaac, or Stirina related, or even just Zarina's character/relationships with others.

xx.